Sometimes, the home search process can seem overwhelming. When you have a tight budget it can seem downright depressing. I’d like to offer a few bits of advice to those of you who have champagne dreams on a beer budget. Maybe by following a few of these it will make your process so much smoother…and a lot more fun in the end!
Most people are trying to find a new home that can give them the biggest bang for their buck. Sometimes, it’s the neighborhood that is the must-have item. Sometimes, it’s the lot and yet for others it’s the layout and square-footage. The hard part is, in order to get in a new home that meets one or all requirements it often means increasing your budget. Obviously that isn’t a choice for many of us. So…what to do?
First, step back and take a breath. You’ve found the right plan on the right lot in the right neighborhood, so that’s a good thing. The next step is to make a list of things that aren’t as high on the priority list. These are things that you can live with for a few years even though they aren’t as wonderful as what is in the model home. They are things that can be replaced relatively easily a few years down the road. You don’t have to be a handy person to do them but they shouldn’t require major remodeling to fix.
Maybe you can live with a lesser-grade flooring for a while since the kids are so young and “energetic” and might really put that gorgeous hardwood floor to the test. Granite countertops might be your non-negotiable item so maybe wait to do the tile backsplash? When my husband and I built our home with a builder 10 years ago, we bought the flush oak hollow-core doors. Although we hated them, we did a trade-off for some additional square footage added to the plan. Then, a few years later when we finished the basement, we actually took those doors and installed them in our basement rooms and bought solid, 3-panel craftsman doors for the main floor. Voila! Two birds with one stone. (Funny, once we were in and living in the home, the doors didn’t seem quite so bad so we lived with them far longer than we expected.)
Things like light fixtures, plumbing fixtures, mirrors, closet shelving, flooring and doors can be easily swapped out down the road when the kids are older and won’t damage the good stuff or when you have more money to spend to upgrade. Of course we would all love to just move into a home that is perfect from the get-go but it’s equally important to not be “house-poor” and stressed when you move in. I would much rather work with a client that is working within their means than work with one that is going broke adding all the available upgrades…it just makes the process that much more enjoyable when you know that the new owners will be able to enjoy their life in their new home instead of hoping to make their mortgage each month. Like the title of this post says…all in due time.
fromhollysperspective 