4 Musts When Building Your First Home

4 min readJul 10, 2021

Many people plan to build their own homes instead of buying an existing property. This gives the option of customization. Building a house is an exciting and daunting task. It involves making numerous perplexing decisions. The main reason for this confusion is a lack of knowledge.

Building a home involves the understanding, planning, and monitoring of the project. It may involve unexpected hiccups and delays which further affect the budget. Here are 4 things that must be considered when building your first home.

Calculate Your Budget:

Before you take the plunge into building your brand new home, evaluate your affordability. A careful financial analysis is essential not only for your current situation but also for your future circumstances. Know how much deposit you have and how much loan you can afford to borrow comparing the monthly payment and your monthly income. Calculate in the government incentives and hidden costs like conveyancing, bank fees, soil testing, insurance, etc.

List elements in your house and divide them into essentials and nice-to-haves. For example, Is a walk-in pantry essential or nice to have? Size of family rooms and future requirements of the family. You may have kids in the future then you must plan accordingly. You may not be able to add rooms down the time. Remember the better the planning, the better your chances of completing the project.

Consider Location And Block Of Land:

Land or block of land is mainly affected by the location of the land. The cost of land is much higher near the city center or beach as compared to suburbs(Melton, Werribee, Wyndhamvale, etc.) away from the city center. Similarly, the proximity of other amenities such as Transportation, Shopping centers, Medical Center, Schools, recreational centers also pushes up the prices.

Access your requirement to avoid paying for useless facilities. For example, if you have school-going kids, you need a location near the school where an old couple can choose a avoid that premium.

Other factors that affect the price of land are soil type and surface type. There different types of soil classified from (Type A to Class P). Whereas the cost of building on soil type A is minimum, the cost of building on soil type P is highest.

Similarly, the surface of the land influences the cost of building. You cannot expect your land to be perfectly plain but building on the sloped surface is much higher as compared to the plain surface.

Choose Builder:

This part of the process is time-consuming and frustrating in nature. Do your research, check out the display homes, google the builders online, ask for recommendations from the known ones and visit the past works. When choosing the builder for your dream home, consider the following parameters:

Credentials: The builder must have a valid license and adequate insurance cover. The local association membership gives you a great idea about the qualification of the builder as these associations check the credential.
References: Visiting the old work of the builder and talking to the customers give you an idea of the professionalism of the builder. The complaint in the relative department helps you understand the dispute created.
Past work: The past work of the builder give you an idea about the quality of the work delivered. The quality of the work affects the resale value of the house.
Style: Consider the type of houses, the builder is expertise in. If your design is different from that type, then consider someone different.
Price: Evaluate the price range of the builder. If the builder is providing the fixed price contract or not. What parts of the quote are fixed and what parts are not.
Essential: What is included in the standard contract and what is not. Do you know that driveway and flooring may not be part of the standard quote and you will end up paying a considerable extra cost for your dream home?

Add-on: Most of the builders offer add-ons at an extra price. Consider the additions that give you maximum value for your money while staying within budget.

Accept Sustainability:

Consider the energy efficiency of your future home and make coveted efforts to maximize it. With the rise of electricity prices and focus on the carbon footprint, it makes sense to have an energy-efficient house.

There are many ways you can enhance the energy efficiency of your house. For example, 30% of your energy bill is contributed by heating and cooling, A small investment in insulation can cut the cost of heating and cooling your home. Research local grants and incentives to improve home sustainability. In Australia, there is a huge federal rebate on solar panels in form of RECs and an $1800 rebate from the Victorian state government. These investments pay themselves off and many households have made their bill zero by installing the solar systems.

Make sure you have an independent building inspector on your side. This building inspector will help and guide you at every stage of the construction. Building Inspection Council is a not-for-profit community service and can help you to connect with the expert building inspectors in your area.