Move in Ready Home

Make sure you choose your floor plan based upon your activities and lifestyle rather than things like finishes and furnishings. Items such as counter tops and appliances can always be changed later on down the road, but your floor plan is permanent. Don’t be wowed by custom flooring or carpeting when you are making your decision. Instead, be wowed by the flow of the rooms and how you and your family is going to utilize them.

Also keep in mind that it is ok to seek assistance and ask peoples opinions.

There are professionals who have a lot of experience in building homes that can go over various features with you. Start with your home-builder or other real estate professionals who can answer your questions based on experience. There is a lot of knowledge out there to be had, don’t be afraid to seek it out and use it. What might seem like a difficult question to you is probably something that your home-builder has dealt with many times in the past.

Once you know your floor plan, now is the time to take your furniture into account.

Will you be using your old furniture or buying all new? Furniture is a major investment with tons of options that can be overwhelming, so take this into account and start planning the furniture to match your desired floor plan. You may end up finding out that the floor plan is not as ideal as you thought it might be when you find out what new furniture will cost to furnish it.

With choosing the floor plan and furniture, will also come budget considerations. All of us obviously wan the biggest and best that we can get when it comes to building a home, but most of us are also limited by budget. Before you get your hear set on something, make sure you find out the costs associated with building your new home.

You should be able to work with your contractor to lay out the costs in great detail so that there will be no surprises once you make your decision to move forward. Nothing is worse than finding out that you can’t afford what you thought was your perfect home.

Keep in mind you can also modify floor plans at times to help fit your budget. Your floor plan does not always have to be etched in stone.

Another very small detail that many people overlook is power outlets. Have you ever noticed that many of the houses that you have lived in over the years either don’t have a sufficient amount of power outlets or have them in all the wrong places? Most people don’t even consider power outlets when it comes to designing the electrical aspects of a home, but have accessible power outlets for everything from your cell phone to your vacuum cleaner is something that can make life a lot easier. The kitchen is another place where having more, instead of less, power outlets will always come in handy.

Take the time to plan out where you can place additional outlets during the early stages of designing your custom home and you will be happier with the result later on.

Flooring is another feature that sometimes gets overlooked in custom home design. These days, many people are going to hardwood floors in most of their home rather than carpet. Making sure you select the right style for you and your family is crucial and can take a lot of planning and research. Of course you want your floors to look good, but you also want them to be functional, as well as easy to clean. Your flooring should last a long time and be able to withstand a lot of wear and tear.

Think about the high traffic areas and consider using different flooring in those areas than the more decorative flooring you might use elsewhere. Flooring doesn’t seem like a big deal, but it can make or break your new custom home and it also needs to last you for as many years as possible.

Custom lighting is another is another aspect that doesn’t immediately come to mind, but can make a huge impact on your custom built home. In decades past, it was more about just making sure you had adequate lighting in each room, but with all the advances in technology, it is easy to create some incredible ambient lighting in your house. You should also think about accent lighting in certain places and also making allowances for smart lighting that can pair with things like Alexa and other smart devices are features that you can really utilize. There are so many more things to consider when it comes to lighting that in the past seemed like they might be more part of a science fiction novel than your actual home. Don’t skimp in this area and you will create some very unique features.

Speaking of smart lighting, keyless entry is another newer feature that many people are adding with a custom home build. Nobody disputes the fact that life can be a lot easier without having to worry about where you left your keys, and there are many keyless entry systems available. Keyless entry is also useful when adding a security system to your house and it also makes it easier for people such as house keepers, pet caretakers and other service providers to access your home.

There are many more details and features that can be added to your new, custom built home. Working with a professional builder is the first step in the right direction, because builders have the experience of knowing what features are the most important and which ones work the best in certain settings.

Don’t be afraid to get the opinion of the professionals when it comes to designing your home and adding features to it.

There is a reason why you have partnered with a builder and you should take advantage of all their experience and knowledge.

To help with this, we have compiled some guidelines and definitions that will help you navigate what is really being said when you are searching for your next ‘move in ready’ home.

You should start by always taking ‘move in ready’ at face value. Just because a kitchen has been remodeled and the walls painted, does not mean that the home couldn’t possibly have structural damages for example.

Move in ready will generally take on a more cosmetic meaning than if will structural meaning so keep in mind that you will need to inspect aspects of the house other than what you can see with the naked eye.

Don’t forgo a home inspection just because you have been told that the home is move in ready and you can see the remodeling that has been done.

Be prepared to describe to your real estate agent what ‘move in ready’ means to you. Because definitions vary, be prepared to discuss what you expect in your new home. If you are looking at houses in an area where most of them are 20-30 years old, you can expect that they will need updating, and maybe some serious updating. Once appliances, particularly things like hot water heaters get to be of a certain age, they may need to be replaced at a drop of a hat.

The same goes for color schemes, particularly when it comes to carpet. Carpet that was laid in the mid 90’s is probably going to be sorely outdated when it comes to color. If those types of issues are important to you, you need to be sure and relay this fact to the agent that you are working with.

Different strokes for different folks, and this is especially true when it comes to houses and how up to date they are.

If you are really selective when it comes to finding a move in ready home in pristine condition, you may want to alter your search from looking at older, pre-owned homes, to new construction. This way you can either add your own preferences or simply have the house built to your tastes in the first place.

Many builders will offer homes, particularly in newer subdivisions, that are almost finished. This allows the potential buyer to finish off the home to suit their tastes instead of being stuck with whatever the builder decided on.

Timelines can be a concern in cases like this if you are under pressure to move by a certain date, but most builders in these cases want to make the sale and will work hard to accommodate you and your needs.

If you are in love with an area but yet having a hard time finding a home that you view as move in ready, you might have to consider lowering your expectations a bit and living with a little ‘ugly’ for a while. Sure, it is nice to move into a home with all new carpeting and freshly painted walls, but this is also stuff that can be done over time while you are living there, especially the painting.

It’s not the end of the world if the bathrooms are not all painted to suit your tastes, and it can be fun to work on some of these aspects yourself after you have purchased your home. It may be worth it to live in an area that is, for example, closer to your work, or close to your children’s school.

There are trade offs to everything (unless you have an unlimited supply of money) and you may need to decide what is more important to you and your family.

Overall, finding a place that is move in ready can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. You may have to remain somewhat flexible in what you are looking for and your definition of the term, and it may make financial sense to do so.

Remember, finding a perfect home is tough. Finding a home that you can live with that you and your family will be happy in is the main thing, and whether it is a move in ready home or not, you need to take all the factors into consideration before jumping in and making the purchase.