Plans, Lots, Financing | How to Build a House 2

Hey all! This is the second episode on our series of how to build your own house. In this episode we go over some important information about plans, lots, and financing.

Remember, with plans you need an architectural as well as a structural set of plans in order to start getting bids from different subcontractors! Usually when you buy a set they don't include the structurals, so make sure you find a good structural engineer! Before you give them to your structural engineer be sure to do as many of your redline changes as you can. If you decide to change something after your structurals are done that has a structural effect you'll need to pay the engineer to give you a stamped letter showing what the change needs to be (and those cost money my friends).

Knowing when to buy the plans can be tricky. Should you have a lot before you buy your plans? Or plans before you buy your lot? It really depends on your scenario, but if you know the area you want to build in and have access to the CCR's and any sort of HOA restrictions then you can start getting a good idea of what you need to be looking for in your plan.

Financing is a hard topic to cover here in such a short video. You pretty much have three options. Option 1 is doing everything in cold hard cash. Option 2 is financing it. And option 3 is having someone gift it to you (good luck with that). Most people will end up financing their home, so know that in order to get a construction loan you're more than likely going to need to have a cost breakdown for all the different things going into your home. In order to do that you're going to need a set of plans to give your trades to get bids from them.