The biggest and most often question I get asked is, “How do I start?”.

The answer is really quiet simple. Do you know ‘where’ you want o live? Do you know ‘what size of a home’ you want? Do you know your budget for the monthly payments? Do you know how much payment you can afford, going by mortgage company guidelines?

Where you start really depends on how much you have actually thought about it already and if you have taken any actions at all.

The first thing you really need to know is where do you want to live? I know some of you may be thinking “I want to live in a million dollar home in a gated community’. While other of you may be thinking, you want a little place in the country as far away from the big city as possible.

Both are the correct answer, depending on what “YOU” want. Remember you are building the home for you and your family. Not for anyone else.

Yes even then you need to keep certain things in mind. For example, you do not want to build a two bedroom home. You do not want to build a six bedroom home with only one bathroom. You may also be thinking I will never move out of this house as long as you live!

That is OK as well. But what happens to the home then? Someone will have to sell the home. Will a two bedroom home sell? Will a six bedroom home with one bath sell? Maybe, but it might take a very long time.

I discuss this very topic in my book Build Your Own Home.

So the first thing you need to do to get started is to figure out where you want to live. That is always first.

Steve