Building your new construction dream home is exciting! It is wonderful to see your new home come to life right before your eyes. However, building your new construction home can also be a super aggravating! Before we started building our custom dream home, several people gave us good advice. They warned us that things would not always go as planned. They also told us to expect delays that are a normal part of the building process.
We knew that there might be some materials and labor shortages. Based on economic conditions, we also knew there would be lingering supply chain issues that might impact the availability of goods and services. We are only a few months into the building process, and boy oh boy! There are a few things about this new construction home process that have gotten on our last nerve! Building a new construction home is exciting, and yet, building a new construction home is aggravating at the same time! Read this and prepare yourself! Unfortunately, the list is way longer than 5, but here are the 5 that we have experienced so far. Ugh! You can also watch our YouTube video to hear it straight from us!
In this article, I’ll share 5 reasons why building a new construction home can be aggravating!
1. Nobody talks specifically about the ways new construction home building can be aggravating!
Before we started building our custom new construction home, several people gave us advice about what to expect. We spoke with our realtor, family, friends, and coworkers. We also read blogs like this and watched many YouTube videos. Everyone said things like “pack your patience” or “expect delays” and “things won’t always go as planned.” We nodded our heads in agreement and happily skipped right past these statements without asking for specifics. Even if someone did offer specifics, I’m sure in our new home-building bliss, we waved them off and proceeded with our custom home-building plans. Yes, I knew delays are normal, and I knew that things would not go perfectly according to plan. So, it didn’t occur to me that I needed to probe that issue any deeper.
In hindsight, I should have asked for a few specific examples of the kinds of things that “could go wrong.” I should have asked how those things “going wrong” might impact our home-building process. I recommend that you ask. Now, I’m not saying that you should ask for a detailed list of things that could happen during building a new construction home (I’m sure that list would be longer than a CVS receipt). I’m just saying that when you “pack your patience” you will need to unpack it and repack it and repeat this loop because you will be aggravated more than one time while you are building your new construction home.
2. The Builder May Make Process Changes That Could Impact Your New Construction Home Building Project
Your builder, just like any other business, may undertake a process improvement project. Many businesses are usually in one phase or another of improving one or more business processes to find efficiencies, save money, or increase productivity. However, whenever a business process change occurs, there is usually an accompanying stage of flux, while the old is phased out, and the new is phased in. These business process changes may result in misplaced paperwork related to your building process such as your contract, addendums, change orders, drawings, or documents that you signed along the way.
You can spare yourself some aggravation by keeping copies of everything. Yes, you will be making copies of a lot of documents that are probably in your builder or lender’s electronic files. If you are doing electronic transactions, be sure to print out a copy, or at least take a screenshot for your records. Don’t assume that because your builder uses technology that it will always work!
3. The Builder May Make Personnel Changes That Could Impact Your New Construction Home Building Project
Similar to process changes, businesses also make personnel changes. One or more members of your project team may get promoted, switch departments, leave for another job, move, or get fired (we hope not). When someone leaves a job, the person coming behind them needs time to get up to speed. Also, new people don’t always have the same sense of organization or personal procedures as their predecessors. Sometimes people leaving jobs develop “short-timer syndrome” and may start to slack off on their duties. Depending on the role of the team member, a personnel change may be a minor issue or could be a major source of aggravation.
Our builder hired some new personnel to keep up with their business needs, which is a good thing. However, this was bad timing for us. A few weeks after we attended a 2-hour construction meeting with our project team, we got a new Project Manager assigned to our project. Don’t get me wrong, he is a highly qualified person who has been communicative and congenial. However, because he joined the team later in the game, he had a steep learning curve! In addition, some “start of build” activities fell through the cracks during the transition time between these two Project Managers because there was no oversight.
4. You Are Not Just A Customer, You Are A Member Of The Project Team
If you thought that after you signed your contract you could sit back and relax, think again! Although people say that your level of involvement is up to you, in many ways it is not up to you. When building a custom home, you are responsible for the construction loan. That means that before the builder is allowed to withdraw money, you have to approve the expenditure, and you need to know what you are approving. To do this you need to read, and re-read your contract.
It is also best to re-read any addendums and Change Orders that you signed. During the course of building your home, you will make selections, and you may ask for changes. Sometimes you might request something that becomes discontinued, or plans may need altering as the build progresses. You need to keep track of these things and make sure everything is in writing. Also, before signing off on upgrades, double check to be sure that the upgrades you asked for are the upgrades you receive. My husband and I are diligent about checking our contract, addendum and change orders to reconcile them against the builder’s paperwork. My husband and I caught a few errors such as changes missing from floor plans, transposed numbers and upgrade mistakes.
Because people are at the front and back end of every transaction, mistakes happen. In addition, there will be language that might be unfamiliar to you, or processes that need additional explanation. If you are an involved member of the project team, you can save yourself some aggravation by catching mistakes and asking questions to ensure you know what you are approving.
5. Trash Everywhere!
Ok, maybe not everywhere, but is sure looked like it to us! There was so much trash that I expected to see Oscar the Grouch pop up at any moment! A few people told me that trash at home building sites is a common occurrence, but that did not prepare me for what I saw. If you visit the build site regularly during the pre-foundation pour, foundation pour and framing stages, brace yourself! You may see an abundance of trash on the ground. I mean bottles, cans, food wrappers, straws, paper, unfinished food, aluminum foil – you name it! Clearly, nobody had bothered to put anything in the trash receptacle at all! We complained to our builder about this, and it did look cleaner the next time we visited. However, in just a few short days – the trash was back. Ewwwwww! Trash everywhere during new construction home building is aggravating and nasty!
I have heard horror stories of trash being closed up in the walls of new construction houses, and trash causing plumbing backups for new homeowners. Raise this issue to your builder in advance of your build. The accumulation of trash was one of the areas that did not get attention when we were in-between Project Managers. Either you, or your realtor should visit your build site often and take a look around. We are keeping a close eye on this one (actually all that trash is hard to miss) and we will continue to bring this to our builder’s attention.
Check out our FREE New Home Construction Checklist to help take some of the aggravation out of keeping track of details when choosing a builder!
There you have it! 5 Reasons Why Building a New Construction Home Can Be Aggravating! I hope you use one or more of these tips to save yourself some aggravation, and have a more enjoyable build experience.
Best Wishes on Your New Construction Home Building Journey!
