1) Whom did you choose for your home builder and why?
Belinski Builders... simply because we liked the land in their neighborhood, they were affordable, and we liked the house
2) Did you finance using your home builders mortgage company? Any pros/cons to using theirs instead of your own?
Went with acunet mortgage. MUCH better rate
3) What do you know now (that the building is finished), that you wished you knew then (before starting the building process)?
What we'd really want in a house! It was a first house for both of us, and we missed somethings along the way!
4) What didn't you expect in the process? (or, what "surprises" did you have in the process- both good and/or bad)
The cost of upgrades! And how many we'd need to do!
5) What advice would you give to someone starting the process?
Be patiant!
6) What would you have done differently if you did it all over again?
We would have double checked the location going into our basement. Where our stairs are located we can't get any furniture down there!
7) What did your builder consider "standard" options? And what did you choose for "upgrades"?
Ha, yeah... we had to upgrade everything. We upgraded to maple trim/solid doors/cabinets, hard wood flooring, carpeting that didn't feel like sand paper on the tootsies, better flooring in the 3rd bath, tile in master bath, we had to add A LOT of outlets and cable jacks, ceiling fans, upgraded light fixtures, stainless steel appliances... the list goes on... and on... and on...
What percentage of your final price was due to upgrades? (example: if the home was $200,000 and you spent $25K on upgrades...)
we spent around 20% on upgrades
9) What kind of timeframe did you have for this---- from starting to research, making a decision, then actually building and finally moving in?
We "bought" the house in September and moved in March 24th... so less than a year
10) What was the easiest decisions you had to make? What were the hardest things to decide on?
Easiest decision was the lot. Hardest decision was the upgrades. There are just SO many options and they were all thrown at us at once, with out prices!!! it was really hard to choose!