It’s unfortunate, but this happens occasionally. It may be you discover that building a home from the plans ordered exceeds your budget. Or the home is too wide for the building lot you’ve fallen in love with. Or perhaps that the home doesn’t meet the restrictive covenants for the neighborhood…

Care should be exercised when ordering online home plans. Most people establish a budget that works for their new home investment and can use a general “rule of thumb” cost-per-square-foot calculation to know if the plan they are interested in likely would fit their budget. A quick online examination of new construction homes offered in your area should provide a ballpark number. Simply divide the home’s cost by its square footage. Assuming you find new homes in your area are averaging roughly $200 per finished square foot and you have a $400,000 budget, you should probably look at home designs 2,000 square feet and less. Understand, garages and outdoor living spaces generally aren’t included in square footage, but a 4-car garage and huge rear patio or deck certainly would affect your home’s cost, another reason to be wary of the cost-per-square-foot.

If you already own your building lot or have identified the lot you want, you need to know the required front, rear, and side yard “setbacks” to ensure your home would fit on that lot. That’s fairly straightforward with rectangular home sites, but more difficult with irregular- and pie-shaped lots. You may want to have a plot plan done before ordering your home plan to ensure that plan fits on that lot. And if you’re building in a subdivision, there may be square footage minimums and architectural guidelines which must be met for your home to be approved for construction in that neighborhood.

Plans from Design Basics can initially be ordered as “Study Sets” at a discounted price. While essentially the full set of construction drawings, Study sets are stamped “For Estimating Only” and illegal to build from. With Study Sets, you can get all of your bids for labor and materials and have confidence that a home built from that plan works with your budget. You can also easily verify the home meets the architectural requirements for your neighborhood. And the amount you pay for your Study Set is applied to ordering that home plan for construction. We can also prepare a plot plan if you can provide the digital files for your lot.

Design Basics BudgetWise Bundle or Builder-Centric program offers Study Sets for just $100 each, minimizing your risk.

Finally, Design Basics offers a one-time exchange of a home plan you order directly from Design Basics for another plan, within 6 months of ordering that plan. If the plan you subsequently select is higher-priced, you will be asked to pay the difference. Note: the exchange policy applies to Design Basics, Carmichael & Dame Designs, Plan Pros, and Scholz Design home plans only.

The bottom line: Taking the time to investigate upfront any lot-specific issues which could affect your home’s design minimizes the risk of ordering a home plan that won’t work. And using cost-per-square- foot is albeit a crude ballpark price estimate, it can help you narrow down your home design considerations to plans which reasonably would work with your budget. Similarly, ordering a Study Set minimizes your plan investment risk.

Again, good design, immediate delivery, and low price are the bases for the popularity of online home plans. Knowing what to look for and what your building department requires means you’re making an informed decision because when you find a home plan and design firm design that works for you, ordering readily available home plans can be an excellent choice!

For more resources on thoughtful design and products:

• View other articles on our blog
• Browse our Her Home™ Magazine
• Thoughtful Design Concepts

Help! The internet has made it relatively easy for almost anyone – from novice drafters to top designers and architects – to offer their home plans online. Things that should matter to you include the designer/design firm’s experience (years in business, number of homes designed, number of houses built from their designs,) professional associations, knowledgeable and efficient customer support, technical plan support, and the level of services offered.

Your new home will be such a large investment, you want to know its designer and drafter(s) understand home construction – not just home design. Some home designs look beautiful, but unfortunately, they’re just not buildable as designed. Architects who are members of the AIA (American Institute of Architects) and designers who are members of the AIBD (American Institute of Building Designers) show their commitment to their craft and professionalism. Those who specialize in designing new homes may also belong to the NAHB (National Association of Home Builders.)

We all appreciate getting our questions answered accurately and quickly. Reputable design firms can provide the information you need to make wise decisions on a timely basis. Finally, some design firms have specialized knowledge that may benefit you, such as value engineering of homes to reduce construction costs, designing with advanced building systems, and designing for aging-in-place.

Design Basics was founded in 1983 and since that time has designed several thousand home plans, with hundreds of thousands of homes built from those plans. A member of the AIBD, as well as NAHB, Design Basics is the only major home designer to be recognized for 25+ years of support of the NAHB International Builders Show. With an exhaustive database, most plan-specific customer questions are answered at the time of inquiry. Technical support for plans from Design Basics is available throughout construction, so if anything on the home plans is unclear, customers can contact us to ensure their complete understanding. Experienced with Log Home, Panelized, Structural Insulated Panel (SIP), Insulated Concrete Form (ICF), and Modular construction, Design Basics can create or modify our home plans to be built using these advanced building systems. Finally, Design Basics publishes a wealth of practical information to help home builders and home buyers make informed decisions regarding their new home’s design and construction.

The bottom line: You have questions and your home’s designer should have the answers. You want to work with a design company with a proven track record that will be there for you if questions arise, and one which stands behind its work.

In our next post, we examine problem #5 - Online home plans are non-returnable. What if I order plans and then find out they won’t work for me?

For more resources on thoughtful design and products:

• View other articles on our blog
• Browse our Her Home™ Magazine
• Thoughtful Design Concepts

You’ve found a home design online that could work – with some alterations. How can you best accomplish that? Most designers offering their home plans online will modify their plans based on your direction. They will usually provide you an estimate at no charge for the time frame and fees for the modifications. The plan’s original designer best understands the plan and the ramifications of your desired changes. Your desired changes may be so extensive that the designer may suggest that it would be a better idea to select a different plan or design a new custom home plan just for you.

A few design firms do not allow others to modify their plans, but most designers do allow changes to be made to their plans by other skilled professionals. If you are interested in having changes done locally, verify that the designer of the online plan you are interested in allows this.

The cost of changing a home plan will likely depend on the extent of the modifications you want to be made. The price you are quoted for plan alterations is based on the changes discussed. During the alterations process, should you identify further changes, expect that to add to the cost and time frame for modifying the plan. Additionally, if you will be having modifications done locally, your designer or drafting service will probably want the (more expensive) CAD file to make the changes to rather than starting with the non-editable PDF and having to completely redraw the home plan.

Plan Customization Designer Tricia Baker discusses modifying home plans in this video

The bottom line: Customizing an online home plan is like having a suit tailored.  It can be a much better “fit.” 

In our next post, we examine problem #4 – How do I know I’m dealing with a reputable firm?

For more resources on thoughtful design and products:

• View other articles on our blog
• Browse our Her Home™ Magazine
• Thoughtful Design Concepts