At last, you’ve found the home plan that best meets your family’s needs. But there are a few changes you’d like to make to ensure the plan truly becomes your dream home. Would the kitchen better accommodate your love for baking or entertaining if it were just a bit bigger, or would the addition of a door between the master suite and the adjacent bedroom make it easier to use that bedroom as a nursery down the road? Perhaps your geographic location necessitates minor changes to conform to local codes. Upward of 75 percent of stock-plan buyers modify their plans in some way, estimates Jim Verhaest, director of sales of St. Paul-based Homeplans Design Services, a national modification company. “Mail-order plan services are intended as a very costeffective way for consumers to find their dream homes,” Verhaest explains. “But like snowflakes, no two dream homes are exactly alike.” Perhaps you’ve already created a list of changes you’d like made to your home plan. Hiring a designer to personalize your pre-designed plan allows you to capitalize on affordability with specialization, realizing the dream of a perfect new home in the process. For a smaller price than a custom-drawn home, modifications can tailor your stock home plan into a design that’s as good as a custom home. Verhaest says that modifications fall into one of three categories—regionalization, personalization and customization. Regionalization brings a plan up to local codes. For example, the roof of a home designed in Florida might need to be made steeper if it’s to be built in a state that receives significant snowfall.
Special Thanks To: New home Building in Austin Texas