Introduction to Product Selection

The 6 reasons step 2 is so vital to the success of the home building process. To get accurate bids from your competing builders. Minimize surprises about how much the final house will cost. Avoid rushed decisions about what products go into your home. Your choices not the builders in matters of design and quality. Save you thousands of dollars by shopping wisely. Many of these choices are permanent and cannot be changed easily. You are a very unique person. You want to be in control of the location, size, quality, design and features of your new home, if you didn't care about these matters you would have bought a home that was already built. To get to this step you have secured financing, have land, and have your house plan. You are what the Home Building Club is all about. Building your home your way. Let’s keep the ball rolling with this most important step 2 "Before You Build". Let me explain why this step is so important and give you the tools to make it easier. Your plans at this point are really just the basics; step 2 fills in the details that turn your house plans into the home of your dreams. We must handle these details as much as possible before hand to save you money, avoid unpleasant surprises and put your fingerprints on the home design. If you were to give your plans to three builders now for bids without giving them some specifics your bids would vary by tens of thousands of dollars. By using one worksheet you can solve this of problem. Print out the Before You Build worksheet "Product Allowance Summary". Part one (Page 1) is the absolute minimum supplemental information the builder needs to give you an accurate bid. Part two (Page 2) is optional information that will give you more control of the final product, it is not absolutely necessary, but your involvement in these details will give you a choice in the level of quality you want to invest in this home. The home building club allows you to educate yourself about products before you select them. We have given you articles on dozens of subjects (and will be adding more) to teach you the language, materials and units of measure that products are sold. Roofing is sold by the square and air conditioning by the ton. What are the latest design trends, which materials cost the most, which ones last and which require less care. We will see you through the process, step by step. When telling you about these products we will introduce you to some quality manufacturers. These introductions are for your education, and believe that their products that are worthy of your consideration. Learning more about your choices in products and materials before you shop will give you more confidence when you venture out to actually make your final selections. We have provided checklist for each category to help you arrive at the dollar figures to put on your Product Allowance Summary. As an example the "Product Allowance Summary" sheet has a place for a hardware allowance, the "Interior Product Checklist" tell you what the hardware allowance includes. So just select each item in the checklist under hardware, add up the total you want to spend and use that figure for your "Hardware Allowance" on the summary sheet. The more accurate the figures on your summary list the closer you will get to knowing the exact cost of your new home. You can carefully go through these selections now (and know how much you will spend) or you can select as you build and find out on closing day how much you spent. This step will really pay you back in peace of mind. To not sleep at night because you don’t know how much your house will cost is not any fun, and we want this to be fun. You can decide what goes into your home or the builder can decide. Now is better for at least the 6 reasons listed above. The more accurate you can get those allowances the more accurate your bid will reflect the final cost. The Home Building Club was created to help you enjoy your new home and make it a pleasant and memorable life experience. If you ever have any questions contact us and we will be glad to help.