Custom Home Building with Gorilla Builders
Gorilla Builders would love to be your Custom Home Builder. But, when it comes to building custom homes in Arizona, some first time, future homeowners of a new custom built home often don’t realize what they are in for. When inexperienced potential homeowners have the desire for custom construction. they are shocked to discover there is so much to plan for and decide upon. 
It’s nothing like walking through a pre built model home and saying “just like this one”.
Prospective homeowners also often think, “All I need is to find a lot, get an architect to design my dream home, take the plan to numerous builders, and then pick the most affordable builder.” Sometimes they mean cheapest. But when it comes to custom home building this old saying holds true…. “you get what you pay for”.
Which Comes First: Purchase the Lot, or Design a Floor Plan?
With custom home building when you have an idea of your DREAM home, you will want the floor plan first. Your dream home may be a certain size with specific features. Having the floor plan first, makes it easier to know what size and shape of lot you will need. It makes a huge difference if you are thinking of a one story ranch home versus a multilevel hillside home.
Conversely, you may have found the perfect lot with amazing views or the desired privacy. Maybe the lot size is large enough to accommodate any home design. In this case getting the lot first, works well.
Some custom home builders work with an outstanding Realtor, if you need help finding the right lot.
How To Pick The Right Contractor
Building your custom home can be both exciting and draining at the same time. You’ll have lots of decisions to make, unexpected development, and numerous challenges. Finding the right contractor is vital to getting through the process easier. Finding the right contractor isn’t rocket science, but the tips below will help guide you.
1. Your Vision
What determines the contractor you hire is your vision. He or she must have experience with the custom design that you have in mind. Start with making a list of elements your custom home MUST have, along with the nice to haves. It could be including space for an RV garage, a detached mother-in-law quarters or a special home office with the best views of all the rooms. Understand what you want first, before hunting for a contractor.
2. Ask Around
One of the best ways to find the right contractor is to ask family and friends, or perhaps your colleagues at work. If they have personally worked with that contractor, and were pleased with the outcome then it’s a great place to start researching further.
3. Do Your Homework
Despite the numerous recommendations, you must do your homework to avoid mistakes. There are many platforms online where you will be able to find contractors based on ratings and reviews. Platforms like Yelp and Houzz are often great places to look into when researching a contractor. Don’t forget to look at the website of that General Contractor. There should be testimonials, pictures of their jobs, and potentially awards from their outstanding work and customer service. You can go even further and look at google reviews, the Registrar of Contractors, and the Better Business Bureau. In particular, if there are awards listed on the contractors website. Those awards should say WHO awarded them. Look at that site yourself to confirm the details of WHY the award was given.
4. Your Budget
When it comes to custom home building, you must pick the contractor that would be able to work with your budget. First, determine the maximum you can invest and work with that.
Tips to Estimate the Cost of Building a Custom Home
In custom home building, prospective homeowners often wonder how much a new home construction will cost. Well, that depends on many factors. The fact is, such a question is difficult to answer until after a contractor knows the size, number of stories, number of rooms, number of bathrooms, flooring, appliances, materials, fixtures and so much more. Then there are the special features; custom window shapes, fireplaces, a pool, garage bays, RV garage, unusual electrical or gas needs. It’s way too much to estimate without knowing all the details.
1. Your Lot
The first factor to consider is the price of a lot in Arizona. The costs vary depending on how many acres you want. To get a better idea, platforms like Zillow.com will help you discover plots of lands and the various prices. Your custom home builder can help here too. By referring a realtor and providing guidance on the size and grade of what is needed for your custom home.
2. Your Floor Plans
The cost of your custom home also lies in your custom design or plan. Start by hiring a reputable contractor or architect. The custom home builder would be able to make estimates as to how much it would cost once the details are known. A good builder is paramount for maintaining a timeline, proper execution, and budget.
3. Cost Per Square Foot
When your custom home builder gives you the exact cost for building your custom home, you want to do some homework and see if the price is reasonable or not. For instance, if your house is to be 3000 square feet. And the cost of the building is $400,000, according to your builder. Find out the cost per square foot and compare it with new similar custom homes nearby. Here is an example; $400,000 divided by 3000 would be $133 per square foot. A nearby Realtor can help find comparable custom built properties. But don’t be surprised, if you have several unique features, your cost will be higher than comparable homes that don’t have those features.
4. Home Features
Another factor that effects the overall cost of building a home is the features you want. A detached RV garage often range from $11,000 to $150,000. It depends greatly on the size, materials, and location. Other features could be curved staircases, unusual roof pitches, vaulted ceilings, etc. These special home features have a major effect to the price for your custom home.
5. Avoid Cost Overruns
New custom homeowners often run into this issue. They come across a higher-end flooring material; which they fall in love with — immediately. Change orders do happen when prospective homeowners choose something outside of the initial plan. Depending on the nature of the change, it very well could mean changes to the building permit and could result in time waiting for City approvals. If you’re working with a great builder, he or she will quantify these changes, which will help you make a better decision.
What’s Next After Hiring A Contractor?
It helps to understand the job description of a home contractor. It will give you an idea of what to expect.
In simple terms, a building contractor is the individual who, oversees the planning, coordinating, and development of a building project from start to finish. Through the services of a contractor, the day to day activities are handled for you by overseeing the following.
1. Plan Implementation
The work of a contractor is to bring your plan or custom design to life. To make that happen, he or she develops a step by step timeline to achieve that from start to finish. In other words, you both meet to discuss and discover your vision for your new home, take some notes, and draft out ways to make that happen.
2. Hiring and Supervising
After careful observation of your custom design, your contractor oversees the hiring and supervision of workers (sub contractors) to handle a specific task of the project. He is also in charge of payroll for each of the workers.
3. Procuring Materials
Since you aren’t a building contractor, you probably won’t have any idea about the quality or pricing of the needed materials. But with a reputable and reliable contractor, those materials will be procured as needed and at the best possible price.
4. Construction Permits
Before the construction of your custom home can begin, the plans need to be submitted to the city. It involves getting building licenses or zoning permits, and other essential documents needed before building can start. Your contractor will take care of all this before proceeding to the next step, which is to start building.
How Financing Works With A Custom Home Builder
When you’re looking to build your new home, you may not have all the cash on hand to pay for it out right. So you’ll need to obtain financing through a bank or loan broker. You will need to prove you can pay the loan back. Lenders will look at:
- Your employment
- Your income
- Your credit history and credit score
Obtain Your Credit Information
You are able to check in and get your own credit report, even before you meet with a Lender. Simply go online to one of the 3 major credit bureaus like Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Many offer a free credit report every year. But these DON’T include the FICO score. You WILL want to know your score, as the interest rate for loans is based on your FICO score.
How Much You Can afford?
Lenders can help you with this. But there is no reason you can’t do it yourself first. There are numerous tools you can use to determine your affordability capacity. Most lender websites have a calculator on it.
Types of Loans
There are many kinds of loans, and they come in different shapes and sizes. Below are some loans and their solving characteristics.
- FHA Loans
Go for this option if you have minimal cash as down payment, with few blemishes on your credit history.
- VA Loans
This type of loan doesn’t require a down payment; however, you will need to be a veteran to qualify.
- Conventional Loans
If you have about 10 to 20 percent to make a down payment, this loan option might be the best for you.
- New-Construction Loan Financing
Since you’re building a new custom home, this is the ideal option that will make the most difference. They provide short-term funds which you can use to kick off immediately.
Wrapping Up!
Building a custom home in Arizona can be exciting. Especially when it’s your DREAM home.
Obviously we think we, Gorilla Builders, is the best choice to build your next custom home. Or maybe to extend your home, with an updated master bedroom, an RV garage for all the toys, or another specialty building for a home office or mother’s-in-law quarters. We build anywhere in Maricopa County.
Be sure to check us out online. Look at our happy client testimonials. Some are on our home page. If you want to speak personally with some of our past clients, we would be happy to provide a list of references.
We have a couple projects in the works right now. We would be happy to give you a walk through, if you would like. We love to show the quality of our work.
When you are ready for that initial talk, feel free to call or email us.
