How we selected our homebuilder

Making the decision to build a new home was a big step for us. Joe and I have done a lot of research. We feel this is the best decision for our family. We'll have to make a lot of sacrifices, but it will all be worth it. The next few months are going to be very exciting!

One of the biggest decisions we've made so far has been which homebuilder to go with. To help us narrow down our choices, we did a lot of driving. We drove around all of the new developments in our area. We found a few that we really liked as well as a few that we didn't.

Some of the things that we looked for:

• community amenities
• available lots
• amount of traffic
• flow of traffic
• house sizes
• stage of development for the community as a whole

If you can find a big development with a section that's a few years old, you'll learn a lot! We were seriously considering one homebuilder until we saw some of their houses that were a few years old. The shutters were horribly faded, the wood around the windows was rotting, siding was bubbling out and driveways were cracked. We quickly crossed that homebuilder off of our list!

After we narrowed down our list of homebuilders, we visited a few model homes. This was my favorite part of the process! I LOVE walking around the model homes. They're all professionally decorated and look so pretty. They help you imagine what the home will look like painted and furnished.

Model homes are decorated to sell homes for the homebuilder. I made sure to keep that in mind after reading about some tricks that decorators use to stage the spaces to make them appear larger. 

Here are a few things I noticed in the model homes we walked through:

• Use of smaller apartment size furniture
• Use of mirrors
• All interior doors removed from their frames
• All lights turned on
• Upgraded recessed lighting throughout the homes

After narrowing down our decision to two homebuilders, we walked through recently finished (or almost finished) homes by each. This gave us all the information we needed! We saw the quality and level of craftsman ship that each were delivering. We quickly and easily made our decision......

Ryan Homes will be building our 'Castle'! 

Have you had a home built by Ryan Homes? Are you in the process of building one now? Leave a comment below with a link to your blog.. I'd love to connect and read your journey! 

-Bobbie