More than 6.9 million homes were sold in America in 2021. Of those new homes sold, about 1.6 million were construction starts.
As time goes by and the building industry changes, new home design trends appear and others fade away. To increase the quality of the homes they build, many industry professionals have chosen to use custom home designer services.
On top of the changing housing market, the pandemic completely changed our lifestyle. Working from home is a permanent change for many, which means that homes have been outgrown.
Many people want more than to buy a home; they want to build their dream home, complete with lounging space, offices, and more.
If you’ve been considering building your own home, the benefits are tenfold. However, it is vital to have a custom home designer there to walk you through foreign territory. Learn why you should hire a custom home designer below!
What Is a Custom Home Designer?
A custom home designer is often confused with an interior designer, but they are not the same thing. A custom home designer provides a more holistic blueprint for constructing your house.
Although if you choose to work with an interior designer once your custom home is built, your custom home designer is well connected and can match you with an interior designer. They’ll suggest someone who meets your needs and budget at an additional cost.
So what does a custom home designer do? Pretty much everything that encompasses the interior and exterior designs of your custom home.
A custom home designer is your eyes and ears when your dream home is being built. They will meet with you several times throughout the process and not start building until they are positive your exact vision is executed in their paperwork.
Once the building starts, they work closely with your team of contractors and engineers to make sure the building stays on budget, on schedule, and ensures that everything runs smoothly. They will be there as a sounding board to relay any questions, concerns, or ideas from you or your contractor.
Designing custom homes is a long and tedious process, but it is worth it when your vision comes to life. A custom home designer will hold your hand through the steps below.
The Process of Working With a Custom Home Designer
- You will have an introductory meeting with the designers at MJS Designers Group where your home vision is discussed and documented
- Michael Sopoliga, designer and CEO will draw up an elevation plan (the home’s exterior) and floorplans based on your meeting
- We will connect you with a preferred builder, if you aren’t already working with a builder
- You, the design team, and the builder collaborate through various drawing sessions until the home design is finalized
- Our design team and your builder communicate to make sure the drawn plan remains on your home design budget
- A finalized architectural blueprint is created; this is the plan used to start building
- Our engineer inspects the plans for function, safety, and regulations to ensure there are no errors
- Building commences and your custom home designer at MJSDG sees the construction through until the end
- Your new home is ready for move-in!
- Our team can connect and recommend an interior designer to bring your space to life
From start to finish, the average timespan for designing a custom home is one to four months. This is just for finalizing the blueprint. On average building and completing construction takes seven months.
This means your custom home may be built in as little as eight to eleven months, all under a year!
The Benefits of Hiring a Custom Home Designer
Unless you’re a professional architect, you should never design a custom home without professional guidance. A custom home designer walks you through the not-so-fun nitty gritty like building compliance and structural safety. They also bring your dream home vision to life.
They create a seamless, stress-free home design experience.
Single Line of Communication
There are many players involved with custom designs for homes. There is the contractor, the builder, state authorities, designers, suppliers, and more. If you were to build on your own without the help of a custom home designer, you’d be responsible for communicating with all of these people individually. That’s essentially a full-time job!
Instead, your custom home designer serves as a single point of contact.
If you have a concern about the floor plan, there is no need to chase down the architect. Just let your home designer know and they will communicate any changes with the right people. They also speak the language, so if there is something you don’t understand, they can explain it to you and make sure your vision becomes a reality.
You are their client, so they do everything to ensure your custom home is completed following the quality, time, and cost expectations you set upfront.
Save You Money
Yes, hiring a custom home designer involves a cost upfront. Some designers charge a percentage of the total building fee, usually 8-15%. Others charge a fixed cost per project, which could be anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000.
While this might seem like a lot, fixing mistakes in a building is a much more significant cost. A home builder can help you manage your budget during construction by suggesting materials and features that save money.
They are also well-versed in all aspects of building a house. One mistake in plumbing and you can find yourself paying house repairs equivalent to $20,000 after moving into your home. This is not only a more significant future cost but will decrease the resale value of your home.
A custom home builder always makes sure all aspects of your home building project are inspected. They review plumbing, electrical and mechanical components that are often where contractors go wrong. Having a second set of eyes on the project makes sure no building mistakes are made, so you don’t have to spend thousands on remodeling or repairs down the line.
Save Time
The average home buyer spends three months looking for a new home before closing a deal. Building a custom home usually requires about five more months. Considering this is an investment in a home that will last forever, five months is a relatively small amount of time.
You can eliminate the stressful bidding stage. You’ll go from conception to design to finalization in no time. Your custom home builder is then responsible for ensuring work schedules line up with desired competition dates.
This means you can rest easy and plan your life accordingly instead of guessing about a move-in date. Instead of having too many hands in the pot, your custom home builder oversees the entire project. Having just one point of contact as a project lead prevents miscommunications that typically slow down building projects.
A Custom Home Designer Comes With a Network
The design business is close-knit. Everybody knows everybody. To an outsider, it’s hard to find the right people.
A custom home designer comes with access to other professionals involved in home building and design. They will source the best painters, contractors, and other team members within your budget.
They’ve also tried and tested employees over the years, so they know who is worth hiring. Being close to these colleagues also means they can negotiate on your behalf.
If you need your house finished faster or want to negotiate a budget, it can be done for you due to longstanding relationships.
Building a home also comes with land regulations. These must be passed through the local authorities before the building can commence. Home designers have existing relationships with these regulators and are familiar with the paperwork you need for compliance.
They can make sure your house is built to code in a reasonably short time frame without the slowdown of legislation.
Designing Your Home for You
Unlike a traditional builder who is considering quantity over quality, a custom home designer always puts quality first. You are their priority and they build to satisfy your needs, not an urban agenda.
As their priority, a custom home designer goes out of their way to ensure you have the perfect location and team for your home design. Custom home designers can help you find the right neighborhood.
They also consider factors such as multi-generational living, climate, and quality of life to make a home easy to upkeep and maintain.
Instead of focusing on mass production of homes that meet conventional needs, they are truly at your service. Hiring a custom home designer means having someone dedicated to building your perfect home with no ulterior motives.
They’ve Seen Just About Everything
Unlike a contracted home builder that generally builds communities, custom home designers build unique masterpieces. For these reasons, they get exposed to very individual home designs. That means they have a greater library of materials, floorplans, and geographic locations to pick from than a communal home designer.
With that, comes a greater chance that they know how to create something that satisfies your wildest imagination. They are also involved in every detail of the home design process, which means they have greater exposure to the minute details of a house.
Do you want an elevator in your home? They’ve done it. Do you want an indoor pool that becomes an outdoor pool in the summer? The answer is yes!
They Help You Build a Home Designed Around Your Lifestyle
The job of a custom home builder is to please their clients and build their dream home. But sometimes as a client, your imagination is limited by your knowledge.
Because of a custom home builder’s exposure to so many unique homes, they can also be an important player in the design process. They can reveal ideas you didn’t even know were possible.
Your custom home designer can make suggestions based on your current lifestyle. They can recommend designs or materials that meet the functional, acoustic, and capacity needs of your future home.
Stay on Budget With Innovation
Custom home builders are always exposed to industry trends. They attend material tradeshows and architectural conferences. This informs them of global brands defining new ways of living.
Brands are consistently working to create more efficiency, comfort, health benefits, and entertainment opportunities in their products. This ranges in everything from lightbulbs to foundation pipes.
There are over one million home product brands in the U.S. alone. If you’re going through the work of building a home, you might as well have every detail exactly how you envision it.
With their fresh knowledge of industry design trends, custom home designers introduce you to new brands and materials to incorporate into your home. They can also help with energy efficiency.
If having a greener home is important to you, they come with recommended swaps. They can incorporate solar panels and water-saving techniques.
The Sky Is the Limit When You Hire a Custom Home Designer
A custom home designer is an essential part of designing and building your dream home. At MJS Designers Group, we walk every client through the entire process and see the project through until the end. We save you the headache of figuring this all out on your own. In the end, you save you time and money, too.
We will work tirelessly to ensure every detail of your home is exactly how you’d like it. MJS Designers Group is there for you every step of the way. They see through your home design from inception to completion and can even help you find the perfect decorator to complete the finishing design touch.
To get started building your dream home today, get in touch with MJS Designers Group.