Building a home has a lot of advantages over buying one on the open market. For one, you’ll be able to build the house to your own specifications. You could create your own personal dream home. However, there are significant downsides to building as well. There are a lot of mistakes that can be made. Avoiding these mistakes requires being educated on what to do right. Below are some of the things you need to do to get your ducks in a row.

Find the Right Lot to Build On

Perhaps the hardest part of the process is finding the right lot of land to build your house on. This is much more complicated than you may expect. The soil, for example, may not have the adequate strength to support your home. The land may not actually be zoned for building a house by the local government. There may not be adequate access to the electrical power grid in that location. There is a lot to consider. Do your research.

Collaborate to Create a New Home Design

You shouldn’t expect that the home you want will be created by simply having a discussion with the builder. Instead, you must collaborate with the builder to create a new home design you can look at with your own two eyes and can make adjustments to. In fact, this should go beyond just a simple blueprint. You may want a computer generated 3D model to give you the best idea of what your home will look like. You’ll be paying a lot of money, you should expect this kind of service.

Obtain the Right Permits

Third, you should get the right permits to build. If you don’t, construction could be halted by the government and never continued. Instead, investigate what permits you will need in your state and county to build the house you want. You may need a permit for building, one for adding plumbing, one for adding electricity and one for adding heating and air conditioning. In fact, you may need different permits depending on the size and style of your home.

Research the Builder

You need to make sure that the builder you hire will do a good job. With the normal home buying process, you can perform a third party inspection to discover issues with shoddy workmanship. That is impossible when building a home. All you can do is research the builder and construction company to see if there are previous complaints about their work.

Overall, if you don’t perform steps like researching the land, permits required, the builder and more, you will run into serious problems. Don’t rush into building a house. You only have one shot to do it right. Take your time.

About the author:

Anita is a freelance writer from Denver, CO. She studied at Colorado State University, and now writes articles about health, business, family and finance. A mother of two, she enjoys traveling with her family whenever she isn’t writing. You can follow her on Twitter @anitaginsburg.