How to build your home with budget clarity
While building a new home can be a huge reason to celebrate, we understand budget can still be a concern for many homebuyers.
There’s no surprise with cost-of-living pressures front of mind, but having a clear idea of the process and what buyers can afford goes a long way to helping the building journey feel more attainable. We sat down with one of our New Home Consultant’s, Brooke Greenfield, to help break this down.
Understanding your budget is key
We asked Brooke what she thought was most important to help keep within budget for a new home. And her answer was simple, making sure you know what is and isn’t included in your new home, that’s key.
“It allows our buyers to have full transparency from the very beginning of their home building journey,” she says.
“It enables them to make changes at the start to their inclusions, to plan financially from the start.”
For someone building their first home, one of the biggest challenges is translating the industry jargon, because then you have a much better idea of what actually comes with your new home. For Celebration Homes, communication is key, and our focus is on helping you understand your inclusions from the start.
“We break down the whole process for our clients end to end and give them a lot of opportunities to ask questions and seek clarification,” says says Brooke.
“All our New Home Consultants aim to make the process easy for our clients, we’re transparent and we share everything in a way that helps them best understand it.”
We also help our clients understand what we call any ‘trade-offs’ involved in their decisions, so they can prioritise what matters most to their lifestyle and needs. This could mean explaining where investing a little more upfront could possibly reduce certain costs later on, or how a standard inclusion or floorplan could deliver stronger value without having to splurge on certain upgrades.
Sharing these tips and tricks early on helps give our clients the confidence that their home has been designed not just to suit their lifestyle now and into the future.
Choose the right home for your lifestyle
From floorplans to finishes, there are a lot of choices homebuyers need to make when building their new home. These are important, not only because they influence what a home will be like to live in, but also because they impact how much the home will cost in the long run.
Brooke shared two key things you should check with your builder, when deciding how to stay within your budget:
- Ask what the base price of your home includes, as well what brands and products are used in the home and their warranty periods.
- See the types of finishes and floorplans available in person, this is important because it’ll help you picture whether your choices are a practical match for your lifestyle (ie; limiting carpet if you have a excessively fluffy pet!)
All of our Celebration Homes customers can access to Home Collective, our Leederville showroom where you can walk through complete kitchens and bathrooms, and touch, test and explore everything that will make your home a little more you.
“What I love about Celebration Homes, is we have Home Collective for all our clients to see every single standard inclusion right from the beginning,” says Brooke.
“From there, we can take our clients through their options and how they fit into their unique budget.”
From deciding between a compact floorplan or spending more for a larger-sized home, she highlights that every homebuyer’s situation is different and requires a personalised approach.
“It’s really about understanding their individual scenarios and providing the best solution,”
Avoiding surprises during your build
While buyers can choose inclusions and finishes that match their budget beforehand, there is the possibility of additional building costs that could arise unexpectedly throughout the build process. Getting a site construction-ready, securing approvals for the design, and any variations can all impact the final cost of a build.
If they’re not clarified upfront, they can make a home more costly than it first seemed, putting pressure on a buyer’s predetermined budget. Having early conversations with a builder about these kinds of additional costs is crucial.
“It gives our clients a better understanding of the whole end to end process, so they know what to expect along their journey, clear communication is key.”
“This is what will make or break your home building journey, If you don’t have clear communication and transparency from the get-go, you are going to be frustrated and disappointed with your home building journey, which isn’t what you want with the biggest purchase of your life!
Want to find out how we can help create a home that’s a little more you (and within your budget!) get in today.