Hi Friends! Super excited to bring you a house update today! As of today, September 15, we are fully framed, the windows are in and installed, the rough plumbing, the rough electricity, and the HVAC are pretty much in place. They also just finished insulating the house and the sheetrock was delivered this weekend! We have also just started wrapping the house with siding. We’re doing lots of detail on the exterior, a combo of board and batten with cedar shingles. During the next couple weeks, the project will be flying and we’ll be sure to keep you in the loop on instagram!
5 Financial Tips To Consider When Building a Home
We thought it might be helpful to talk to you about some of the backend work including how we financed this big endeavor. It is the largest financial commitment we have ever made, super scary to be frank, and one that took lots and lots of consideration and planning. Brian Sr. nailed it on the execution and he is excited to share some of the process with you today.
There were lots of moving parts involved, we had to purchase the home in its current state, plan for the cost of construction, and sell our home. I wrote more about why we decided to make this move and the timeline here, but to summarize quickly for the sake of context:
We found this home in December. The location was perfect and it was just the kind of fixer-upper we were looking for. The house had just been raised in compliance with FEMA regulations (beach houses in our area have to be a certain height off the ground for flooding precautions) and we could essentially build from the foundation up. So although the house wasn’t in the state we wanted, we were on the perfect lot that we wanted to raise our family in.
Once we found the house, we were able to get our pre-qualification letter and make an offer on the house. We worked fast and did this in just a couple of days. Our offer was accepted and then the real work started. We sold our house privately, found the perfect rental home, and closed on our new home and construction loan in about 3 months.
It was an intense process, but Brian handled it all so I could focus on our growing family and our work. I was pregnant at the time and Covid was *just* beginning. Citizens Bank was a huge help in making this all happen. Citizens Bank offers a number of resources for people looking to build a home, buy a home and/or explore financing options to help tackle some home improvement projects – in our case, all three 🙂 The Citizens representatives were amazing, they are extremely knowledgeable and helped us to find the perfect lending solution based on our families needs.
I asked Brian to share some thoughts on the process and he came up with five tips:
- Plan ahead and get your financials in order: This is a huge part of the process. I created a Google share drive and allowed private access to our mortgage broker and bank. This is your personal hub for all of your financials, architectural drawings, building estimates, survey certificates, etc. Also helps stay organized!
- Create a checklist: For the loan, you are going to have a construction or loan processing checklist, plus your Prior to Approval (PTA) items in your underwriting conditions. Just know there will likely be more items than you anticipate, but checking the box when you accomplish something will make you feel better as you inch towards your ultimate goal.
- Set a budget and try to stick to it: Easier said than done, right? Oh and always have a safety fund as things will come up. It is so critical to stay in step with your architect and builder during planning. We have a great team and were able to value engineer our plans together which allowed us to focus on delivering detailed plans, specs and cost breakdowns to the bank.
- Surround yourself with a trusted team: This is our support system and the team that you will rely on for guidance and to help get the job done. Everyone from your lawyer, realtor, mortgage broker, architect, builder and team of specialists at the bank. Make sure you have constant communication with all of these parties to create as seamless a process as possible. Also pick up the phone if you have questions. The human connection is so important and just know that everyone is working towards the same goal. Our team consists of our amazing builders, DeRosa Builders, Gaelle Dudley of GLD, Christian Rae Studio, Jenny Walsh, our attorney Dennis Bujdud, and so many others!
- Be patient & have fun: Celebrate every victory, remember to stay positive and that you are doing this for your end goal of building your dream home or finishing that home improvement project you have always wanted. Envision yourself and family in that space and it will all be worth it. Make sure you keep your pregnant wife happy, you can do it…Bring it home!
Your home is such a huge milestone, from achieving home ownership, to renovations and having cash for the unexpected. There are so many great lending solutions available to help on your journey. When you’re ready to make your dream home a reality, Citizens Bank is ready to bring it home!
*this post was sponsored by Citizens Bank*