The neighborhood we lived in was part of a wonderful school district (actually we are lucky that our school districts are all commendable). My reasoning was, if we purchased a lot in our school district then we wouldn’t have to worry about having the house completed by a deadline and our kids could start school and continue uninterrupted by our moving.
So we set out to look at lots. There were many new neighborhoods being developed near our current home, but they were mostly developed by one company. This meant we had a choice of a few plans and no options to choose anything other than the builder’s finishes. But that is why you can get some good quality stuff in those houses for much less than if you build your own. Those builders get some heavy discounts for such big orders. Imagine all the houses in the neighborhood have the same shower stall, that is a lot of shower stalls.
If I was going to take the trouble to build a house, I wanted more freedom to choose than that. So it meant I had to look at neighborhoods that offered custom built homes. That is, you could buy what is called a spec home – something a builder goes ahead and builds and finds customers who want higher end homes, but not the hassle of building them. Or you could buy a lot and build your own home. Usually the lot was sold by a builder who wanted you to look through their set of plans and with minor modifications made by their team build the house. The builders are always in a hurry to build once the lot was sold. But I am getting ahead of myself.
We looked at a neighborhood in our school district, it had been developed for some time and the only lots left were the difficult ones, for example, steep inclines or very close to a major road. So I dropped that idea and moved my search to other areas. One of the neighborhoods we looked at was developed around a golf course – a highly priced commodity (which I don’t understand). My agent and I went to see the developer’s agent and she was so snooty, she wouldn’t even show me the more expensive lots, saying they are beyond my budget. I said, so what, there is no harm in looking, but she wouldn’t show me. And I am not talking about driving around the neighborhood; I am talking about sitting in her office and looking at a map. The funny part is the more expensive lots are the ones that abut the golf course. Those are the very lots I had no interest in. Why? You ask. For one thing golf courses open early in the morning, so it means that the mowers and the fertilizers and whatnot have to get their job done earlier still. Not to mention stray golf balls and kids in the back yard is a bad combination. And if that isn’t bad enough, all those chemicals that they spray to keep the grass so weed free and green. Do you think that poison stops at your lot line?
But anyhow, I found a lot that was flat, right across the street from what would be developed as a little park. The lot faced south – which meant the sun would help us keep the driveway ice free in the winters. So we decided to buy it. I told the builder that I planned on hiring an architect and my guess was it would take about 6 months to get the plans finalized. The builder’s wife, their interior design consultant, offered to help with design ideas because she was “very good” at that kind of stuff as she was also a realtor. What did I need an architect for? It so happened, that we planned to be away for several weeks visiting India, so that was another delay in our building plans. The builder not only did not want to wait for an architect, but actually expected us to made decisions on our house plans in the month before we left for India. There is no way you can convince me, that I would get a “custom” home this way. What I would get was a spec home disguised as a custom home. So before the month was out, we resold the lot back to the builder.
So it was back to the hunting grounds again. This time I decided to find a lot that was not owned by a builder. I contacted a developer of yet another neighborhood and asked if he had any lots available that had not been sold to a builder. He sent me a list of 8 or 10 lots. I drove by and looked at them, asked our architect to swing by one day and offer his suggestions and that is how we came by a lot.
Now that we had a lot and we had to develop house plans for it. I set out to hire an architect…
Copyright Kalpana Kanwar August 2009
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thank you.
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