Be an architector of your home or just buy a Stock Floor Plans?

Before you begin developing of a new house, there are many different nuances that need to be addressed including: where to build, what size house to build, what features to include, what items are the most important to have in the house, what costs should be included in the budget, what are the design/build timeframes, who will build the house, and a variety of other issues.

After these initial questions have been successfully answered, the next item that must be addressed is that of floor plans. There are two basic types of floor plans that can be purchased, "custom" or pre-drawn, with each having distinct advantages and disadvantages.

Custom floor plans:

Custom floor plans are just as the name implies. The floor plans are custom drawn to meet your specific needs. The plans are normally drawn by a local architectural design professional in a geographic location close to where the 1.) owners live, or 2.) house will be built. The process is, normally, much more involved and time-consuming since the owner's specific requirements will need to be integrated into the overall design of the house. Many times these type "special" requirements can present significant challenges to the designer of the house, which as a result, may take additional time to resolve.

Since the house is being custom designed, specifically to meet the needs of that one person, the costs associated with the development of the custom floor plans tend to be significantly larger than those for a similar set of stock floor plans. However, in some cases, the custom floor plans may be the only viable option based on the client's needs, house location, special building considerations, etc.

Pros:

- Home Owners can get exactly what they want in home plan

- Special needs can be addressed in the design (i.e. extra large garage for boat, larger than normal master bath, handicapped access, etc.)

Contras:

- Normally more costly than stock floor plans

- Normally involves longer, more arduous process to develop

- Normally more time-consuming to produce (i.e. many meetings necessary with designer over several month period)

Finally:

Don't even worry about all those complications. Just toss a coin (remember: heads = Custom Floor Plan) and thats that!