A construction project can be a very intimidating and a confusing process.
Having the right team in place at the right stages of your project will ensure you stay on the right path towards your ultimate goal: a beautiful home for your family to enjoy that you can afford to complete.
The design portion alone can be very costly and time consuming so ensuring you are working with a firm that can efficiently manage this process is important however the most critical factor is that after all this time and money has been outlaid, you are actually that much closer to achieving your goal and have therefore obtained maximum value from this portion of your project. You don’t want to end up spending a large portion of your overall project budget on a pile of paper that you can’t move forward with and build. There are multiple reasons why this could happen but the most common reason is your design is well over your budget.
Waiting until you are almost ready to build to find this out is the worst-case scenario as all of your approvals are locked in and the costs of changing the design are at their highest. Working with a design and construct builder or ultimately having accurate cost consulting included in your design phase is fundamental. You need to be certain before you submit your plans to council that this is something you can afford to build.
This also allows you to start developing a relationship with a building company during design so you are not picking from the scraps just before your intended start date. More reputable builders are going to have larger lead times so reaching out at the beginning of your design phase allows you to still have the full selection of grade A builders in your area. Putting your design out for tender once it is fully complete to multiple builders is the best strategy to seek out the cheapest, most desperate builder in your area. You do not want to trust making one of the largest single investments of your life on your largest asset with this strategy.