The Leading Contractor in the Area
Celebrating Over 20 Years of Service
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Phone: 920.748.3996 |
rab@charterinternet.com |
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FAX: 920-748-3062 |
426 E Fond du Lac St., Ripon, WI 54971 |
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Consider why you need a new home How will you pay for your home? Design, budget and specifications Consider why you need a new home A million families every year purchase a newly built home. Many have outgrown their old home or have moved to a new city. Make sure you ask yourself the following questions as you consider a new home: What do I expect to have in a new home that I don't have now? What features do I want to duplicate or avoid? How will you pay for your home? Make sure you consider the finances from the beginning. Information, planning and self-discipline offer your best assurance of keeping costs under control. When you choose Ripon Area Builders to build your new home, you have chosen a builder who specializes in creating a unique home from a blank sheet of paper, computer screen, or plans that you have found in your own research. If you bring in plans, but would like changes made to these plans, we will work with you to create your dream home from these plans. Ripon Area Builders is fully insured and bonded - a very important item to consider when selecting your builder. Ripon Area Builders has been in business in the Ripon area since 1986 and continues to satisfy hundreds of customers yearly. Check with us for a list of referrals. Purchase agreement contracts vary in form, length, content, and print size. Expect standard elements such as the names of the parties, dates, and signatures as well as property identification, price and specifications to show up in every contract. Avoid complacency with standard paragraphs. Read and understand everything you sign. Contracts contain clauses that address company experiences and regional items. If you don't understand something, ask questions. Your contract is a legally binding agreement and being too excited or tired to pay attention is not a valid excuse. When you find a site you are interested in, don't rely on the lot's appearance. First think of cost, not just the lot price, but property taxes, utility hookups and impact fees. Also when examining the site, make sure you look at how adjacent sites affect drainage and your view. If you have children, you should make sure you are happy with schools and neighbors and even the existence of sidewalks and the street's speed limit. Finally, as you look at different sites, take pictures of each site so that you can compare them later. Design, budget, and specifications Lifestyle is a very important thing to consider when envisioning the design of your new home. Analyze the needs of your family as a group and as individuals. If you are a gourmet cook, a large kitchen may be a must. If you have teenagers, you may want to consider such things as phone outlets and the number of sinks in a bathroom. Make sure you look at the future as well as the present. Before you begin building, you will probably be asking when the house will be finished. Be patient. These first steps include inspections, getting a permit, possible plan changes, and final approval of blueprints. The builder will then prepare your site (remove trees, etc.) and stake out the house. Depending on whom you talk to, you may dread a frustrating, stressful, expensive nightmare, or you may look forward to a utopian experience with no glitches. Neither scenario is realistic. Delays, surprises, questions, dirt, noise and more meetings and phone calls than you imagined possible make up the building process. But expect fun and satisfaction, too. In the end, your impression of this experience as good or bad will depend on the expectations you started with. Start with accurate and complete information, and you'll have more realistic exceptions for the construction process and schedule, jobsite protocol, your site visits, changes and quality. A homeowner orientation goes beyond the traditional walk-through. In the past, this meeting was mainly an inspection of the home. Now, it is also a thorough demonstration of your new home. Besides the demonstration, the orientation provides you the opportunity to thoroughly inspect the house. Before your orientation, do your homework and come prepared with contract, selection sheets and change orders and confirm what was completed. Closing, also called settlement or close of escrow, involves a lot of paper and a lot of money. Before closing, become familiar with the types of documents you will be signing. When moving in, make sure rails are covered with moving pads or blankets. Remove doors where furniture is potentially a tight fit. Protect carpet with ribbed, plastic runners. Remember that professional movers have insurance for any damage they cause, but friends and relatives don't. The smallest, simplest home contains thousands of parts. Your home requires care from day one. Establish a schedule according to the seasons for maintenance of your home. By planning maintenance from the beginning, you will maximize the enjoyment of your home and the value of your investment. Builders, trade contractors, and manufacturers strive to produce homes that are defect-free and easy to maintain. They also realize that installation errors occur and materials do not always perform as expected. Consequently, when you purchase a new home, it comes with an assortment of warranties. To maximize your protection from warranties, read and retain all warranty documents, provide recommended maintenance for all parts of the property, follow claim procedures carefully, and maintain an accurate history of all work performed on your home. |
