July 12, 2005
Custom Homes
Custom homes may be the pinnacle of luxury housing. Sure, you can get luxurious living in homes that someone else designed, but custom homes allow you to get exactly what you want. Or do they? Is the hassle worth it in the end? Here are a few articles I've found around the Internet that discuss benefits as well as troubles. They may be of use to you if you're considering a custom-built home:
About Custom Home Plans:
Buying House Plans Online: Good Or Bad Idea?
Getting Your Blueprints From a Catalog
Building Custom Homes:
Custom Home Troubles (Consumer Reports article on some of the potential pitfalls)
How to Build a Custom Home
Custom Home Building 101 (This whole site on home building is worth looking through)
Custom Home Costs:
Desire a Modern Design? Expect These Obstacles (From the Wall Street Journal's Real Estate Journal)
High Cost of Custom Homes vs. Production Homes
And if you're in a hurry (not interested in waiting the two years it can take for a custom built home to be completed, you might consider a modular home--you can get quite a bit of customization with them, yet they only take a few weeks to put up)...
Modular Home Articles:
A Panelized Home: Factory-built Homes With a Custom Flair (from the Bob Vila site)
Types of Modular Homes
And if you get tired of surfing the Internet, here are a couple books on the subject over at Amazon that have gotten good reviews:
Build Your Dream Home for Less
How to Plan, Subcontract and Build Your Dream House: Everything You Need to Know to Avoid the Pitfalls
Tips & Traps When Building Your Home
