The Greater Rosedale area is a wonderful place to build a dream home. People considering a custom home in this region often face a choice of a custom built home or a production home that they can then personalize in some ways. There are advantages and disadvantages to both approaches. Let’s consider those pros and cons as well as a compromise that may help you minimize the downsides.
A Custom Home Is About Complete Freedom of Choice
Hiring a custom home builder gives you complete freedom of choice. You can even hire an architect so that the floor plan is one-hundred percent unique to your home. You can choose the exact square footage, the number of rooms, the kinds of rooms, the layout, the style, the piece of land and so much more. The limits imposed on custom home building often relate more to your budget than anything else, and even in those cases, an experienced general contractor can often make cost effective recommendations to help you get the overall look you want at a lower price point.
Time and Investment in Custom Home Building
Freedom of choice is also a huge responsibility and may not actually feel like freedom all of the time. The process of making every choice down to the finest details is complex and requires a lot of additional time. It takes time to create custom floor plans, and hiring an architect, for instance, can be a significant additional cost.
This is a primary reason why most individuals choose to hire a professional home builder when they embark upon this journey. Having a skilled project manager on your side simplifies the process of navigating your choices and attending to the day-to-day scheduling and management of your build. It also helps to streamline communication practices so that you stay involved without having to stay on top of every minute detail.
Maximizing Your Home Buying Power
The advantage of a production home over a custom built home is that the home is based on a proven floor plan. There are certain efficiencies that come with building a floor plan that has been built before, and the production home builder often has the advantage of being able to negotiate bulk purchases with suppliers, and thus, lower costs for the client.
It is, however, important to keep in mind that this buying power will likely only apply to a certain number of features, finishings and materials. So your choices are often limited as compared to a custom built home.
Personalized Production Homes
If you do decide to go with a production home, it’s important to plan to make your choices early in the process and stick with them. The costs associated with change orders are often high, adding to the final cost of your home. Selections are often quite limited too. For instance, you may only have three or four flooring, cabinetry and paint colour choices. Larger decisions such as floorplan are often limited to only what’s offered with the base model – which might mean only the simplest of options such as choosing between a loft and a bonus room. So, if you find the perfect production floor plan for your family’s needs, this can be a good choice. But otherwise, it might be necessary to plan for some costs down the road to accommodate for home renovations to make your home more your own.
Compromise Between Custom and Production
Deciding on a custom built home or a production home does not have to be an either-or choice. Knowledgeable custom home builder like Alair Homes Rosedale Toronto can help you understand ways to build a custom home while keeping your costs much more in line with a production home. This often involves finding a few areas to personalize while using more stock materials in other rooms in the home. Many families find this to be a great option for maximizing their budget and getting the features they want most in a home.
If you’re in the market for a new home, contact us before you buy to learn more about your choices and the clear advantages your family might find by building a custom home.