Empress Homes Building Process
How do you build your own home? What is the Empress Homes custom home building process?
Building a home is a wonderful and rewarding process. It can also be overwhelming. As a your homebuilder, I want to help conquer the chaos and soothe your anxiety – I’m with you from start to finish.
Below you’ll find an overview of our process and general timelines for building amazing homes while satisfying our homeowners’ expectations. We build every home as if it was our own. We want to be proud of the finished product, because we want to run into you again at the local grocery store with a smile of approval.
STEP 1: ANALYSIS
2-3 Months: Consideration and Interview Phase
This phase helps you determine if building a home is really something you are able and want to undertake. At the end of this phase, you have a pre-qualification letter from your lender, a budget, and a realistic understanding of what you want in a home, including size, location and amenities. You’ll also have done your homework and met with several home builders. Here’s some things to be thinking about:
Type of home desired– Google different styles and builder plans online to see what you like, and what you don’t like.
How it will get used– Is this a full-time residence or a vacation home? Do you need lots of storage? An office? A media room? A garage? Will you be entertaining guests often? Do you want outside living spaces?
When you’d like to move in– plan for +/- 2 years out, then select the month you’d like to be moving in. Consider family plans, employer plans, schooling, travel requirements, and weather.
Possible location(s) to build– review lots currently available, prices, HOA requirements, and community amenities.
Size desired– how many bedrooms, bathrooms desired. How big of living areas do you want? Kitchen size? What additional amenities– like media rooms, office, laundry, workout spaces, and storage do you want? Don’t forget outdoor spaces like decks and garages.
Talk to multiple lenders. Determine financing options. Local lenders can provide insight into builders and their history of finishing projects on time and on budget.
If you don’t have cash, get a pre-qualification on your loan. Based on your income and credit, you’ll get an idea on what kind of budget you have to work with. You’ll also want to consider what you are comfortable spending on a home. What a bank is willing to lend you and what you’re willing to spend can be two different numbers.
Evaluate your budget and determine if this is a key driving factor on whether you want to proceed with building or not. Remember, you are ultimately the one responsible for paying for the loan in the end.
Remember that homes can be designed to meet just about any budget. The key to not blowing your budget is builder assistance in the planning process!
Interview multiple builders. How can they help with the analysis, planning and building processes. They may have resources for financing, as well. You’ll want to hire your builder early in the planning process so they can help monitor and control the cost of the project. Determine which builder would best benefit you with their services, but make sure you’re a good fit for the builder, too.
STEP 2: PLAN
5-7 Months: Pre-construction and Design Phase
During this phase, we help you navigate through the architectural and structural design phase. We are your cost consultant and help you stay on budget. When complete, you will have a full working set of drawings ready for permit. You will also have the total budget for the construction of your home, based on initial selections. If applicable, your loan will be ready to go for building.
Stage 1: 1 month
Discuss architects and home designers with your builder and how they differ
Walk through the design process
Sign pre-construction agreement with deposit
Select an architect or designer that can meet your needs
Get your construction loan, if applicable.
Stage 2, 3-4 months
Preliminary design and review: meet with architect and builder to design your dream home
Preliminary estimate and review: builder estimates main design of home and interior bid allowances
Stage 3, 2-4 weeks
Final drawings: design finalized and sent to engineer
Engineering: engineer prepares and marks up design for building
Stage 4, 2-4 weeks
Preliminary selections process: go to vendors and get hard bids on materials (rock siding, floor types, etc)
Fixed bid process: review and finalize budget, and understand the benefits of fixed bid vs. cost plus
Stage 5, 2-3 days
Final Bid Price: review fixed bid contract
Construction Agreement: If you are happy with your design, specs, budget, and our services, then we sign a construction agreement and get a deposit. This is an agreement that commits to building your home as planned out in the design phase for a fixed price.
STEP 3: BUILD
10-14 Months: Construction Phase
During this phase, the rubber hits the road. When complete, you will have your home built, inspected, and ready to move in! Time frames will vary based on size and location. There will be a few variables outside of the fixed price– like final interior designer choices and unpredictable variables like subsurface soil conditions, etc.
Permits: Depending on your city/county/HOA, plan 1-3 months
Start construction on your beautiful home
Work with our in-house designer finalizing all selections
Final Inspections: Depending on your electric, water, sewer providers, and city/county/HOA, plan 1-3 months
Final cleaning
Move-in day!
Our Promise To You
Building a home is a process that, when broken down into bite-sized pieces, is manageable and exciting! Here is what you can expect from us while we work through the process of building your home:
No Rushing. The design is the most critical part of the home building process. We like to be involved on the front end when we can help you make educated decisions. Before the shovel hits dirt, your home will be designed in the most efficient way possible. This allows us to give you a fixed bid price and peace of mind that yo will have your dream home come in on time and at budget!
Straightforward Answers. No unicorn and puppies here. We are pretty frank about what we can provide for you within your budget. We let you know when things are outside of your price range and let you decide if the feature is more important than the budget.
Meticulously Detailed. We will work with you to identify potential challenges before construction and address them ahead of time. Hey, we’ve been building homes in the south Salt Lake Valley for years – and we know a thing or two about building!
AND, just so you know, there are things we just don’t do. We take pride in quality craftsmanship. So if it’s too cheap, we might not be a good fit for you.
Builder Partner for Life. It’s very important to us that you are completely happy with your home when it’s time to move in. We want to build a home that we’d be proud of. After all, we know eventually we’ll run into you at the grocery store, and we want you to be all smiles when we do.
Wherever you are in the process of building a custom home, we can help.
Call or text Danielle today for a free home building consultation – 801.556.1588
