Your Roadmap Begins Here: Your First Steps Towards Building Your Dream Home

Discover the secrets to hassle-free
home planning and craft your
dream home with confidence,
one step at a time.

Ahh, so you’re thinking about building a new home? Congratulations, let’s get this rollercoaster started!

Now, the term ‘rollercoaster’ might have been applicable to many people building new homes in the past however, if you’re reading this, you’ve likely decided to educate yourself just a bit, and perhaps this experience will actually be enjoyable.

We’re glad to say you’re on the right track. With our assistance, planning and building a new home can be an experience you’ll look back on in the years to come as a cherished memory.

In this article, we’ll discuss the initial steps you can take towards planning and building a new home, the resources available to you, and why we believe our process can produce the best outcome for you.

Let’s get started.

What are the first steps you should take when building a new home?

It’s time for you to meet the new game-changer in town.

With years of insider experience working for new home builders and witnessing the shortcomings that people like you have faced, we felt there had to be a better way to go about planning new homes.

Welcome to Foresight Home Planning, where that idea has become a reality.

If you’re unsure where to start, we invite you to experience home planning our way. Our approach is designed to make your journey not only enjoyable but also to help you craft a home that’s uniquely tailored to your individual wants and needs.

How do we achieve this? We offer a suite of tools and a step-by-step guide to help you build a comprehensive vision for your dream home.

For the moment, forget about builders. Right now, your task is to figure out and document what your new home should embody, how it should look, what features it must have and to learn about the journey you are considering taking so you can ensure it’s a smooth one.

To facilitate this, we provide a range of tools:

• Our IdeaDrop web app lets you easily document and save your new home ideas and inspirations. You can think of this as a digital mood board.
• Our New Home Planning program (HomeVision) is divided into two stages. Stage 1 offers you foundational knowledge on key considerations, educating you on the nuances of home planning an preparing you for the journey ahead. Stage 2 guides you in creating a summary of your specific requirements and desires, tailored to your unique needs.
• Through our BuilderConnect program, we match you with the most suitable builder based on the data you’ve generated in our programs.
• Lastly, we understand that many people who have a set of plans and a quote from a builder aren’t quite sure what questions to ask. That’s why we’ve created an exhaustive checklist to help you scrutinize your plans more deeply and guide you on the questions you should pose to your builder.

As Dwight D. Eisenhower aptly put it, “Plans are nothing; planning is everything”.

Who can you trust when looking to build a new home?

Let’s be frank here, it’s a dog-eat-cat world out there. In the construction industry builders are the dogs and you my friend are a helpless little cat about to nibble on a dog’s breakfast.

Sorry about the visuals there but it’s important to understand that builders aren’t your friend.

New home builders operate in a highly competitive landscape with large ongoing overheads (display home expenses, large teams of staff and fluctuating material and labour expenses amongst other things). Due to this, they have to be laser-focused on creating highly efficient processes that allow them to get you in and out of their workflows as quickly as possible and into your new home.

The primary issue builders face is clients who are not completely satisfied with the home for which they’ve signed a contract. This dissatisfaction often leads clients to request changes during the construction phase. Builders find this disruptive because such changes deviate from their standard procedures, hindering the pace of construction. To deter this, builders typically increase the costs of any alterations and may also charge additional administration fees, which can quickly add up to thousands of dollars.

My point here is that if you aren’t prepared and attempt to modify the new home contract that you have with your builder, you are likely to pay significantly more than if you had planned your new home as comprehensively as possible before signing a contract.

Therefore, you can really only trust yourself to get your home planned right, otherwise, you will pay the price. Don’t go into this thinking your builder will have all the answers, while they may have some or even most, it’s the remaining 20% that all builders lack that can lead to regret and missed opportunities to perfect your new home.

Take the time to get everything included in your initial quote and contract if you want to try to save yourself some dollars and on-site headaches.

Continue reading to find out how our proprietary Home Planning Program can help you reduce these costly changes during construction. Up next, we’ll dive into our seamless 8-step game plan that guides you through each phase of your home-planning journey.

Creating a game plan

Step 1 – Let’s discover IdeaDrop

Here’s a game plan we think is likely to produce significantly better homes than if you were to just go into a display home and have a chat with a salesman.

Alright first up there’s like a thousand display homes out there and they’re all pretty damn awesome. If you want, go for a wander through some, take photos of everything you like about these homes and then add the best of those photos along with some notes about each into your Foresight Home Planning IdeaDrop account. It’s free to use at your leisure, create an account here.

You can also find some really cool new home inspiration and ideas in the vast image library that is Google Image Search (tap this link to see what I’m talking about).

Alternatively, check out some of these Pinterest boards I created to help you narrow down your taste.

What you need to do is find inspiration for each aspect of your new home and then document it all in your own personal IdeaDrop account. We’ve created this tool so that it’s easy to save your inspiration into the relevant categories e.g. Kitchens, Bathrooms, Facades, Floor plans etc, making it readily accessible down the track when you’re ready to start sharing your ideas with a builder.

There’s no need to rush any of this, IdeaDrop is free to use so take your time with it.

If you find you’re getting too much inspiration saved in the app and your vision for your home is getting cluttered, it’s time to begin culling your inspiration. Let’s say for example you’ve found 6 different images with really nice kitchen cabinetry, you now need to cull that back in an attempt to keep only your favourite ideas saved within the IdeaDrop app. This way when the time comes that you are ready to sit with a builder and run them through what you want, you’ll have a clear and concise vision that can be easily interpreted by the builder and incorporated into your new home.

Step 2 – HomeVision Stage 1: Preliminary Education

You’ve successfully set up your IdeaDrop account and filled it with plenty of inspiration. You’re beginning to visualize your dream home. Now it’s time to proceed to our ‘Get Builder-Ready‘ Educational resources, where we share our construction industry expertise directly with you.

During this stage, our goal is to ease any initial anxieties you might have. We introduce you to the world of builders, explaining their processes, contracts, and common terminology. This information aims to bolster your confidence and empower you to make informed decisions throughout your home-building journey.

We know that not everyone is familiar with the construction industry, so we’ve designed this stage to be easy to understand. By the end of Stage 1, you should have a distinct advantage and, if we’ve done our job correctly, feel much more confident about the road ahead.

Step 3 – HomeVision Stage 2: Vision Crafting

Snap crackle pop!

You’ve just nailed the preliminary lessons and are now ready to begin digging deep into the Vision Crafting stage of HomeVision. Pay the cover charge and let’s get started.

As you progress through stage 2 of the program we’ll be creating a ‘HomeVision’ summary that clearly identifies what you require from your new home. This will detail all the essential features your new home must have to meet your needs and fit your budget. Additionally, we’ll guide you through various options you can consider including in your new home.

We don’t want to spoil all our hard work by telling you everything about our New Home Planning Program but what we can tell you is this. Once you’ve completed the program and you have your HomeVision summary handy, you’ll have a much better idea of:

• Common construction terminology and processes;
• What your absolute must-have requirements are for your home;
• What to expect from your builder and some insight on how to manage the journey of building a home;
• What costs go into building a new home and how to think about these variables;
• Common issues that other people have experienced and how to prevent them;
• A variety of functionality considerations available for you to consider in relation to your home.

After you finish your HomeVision summary, you’ll be able to submit it to our BuilderConnect program. If you meet the necessary requirements, we’ll match you with one of our partner builders. They will then create a custom New Home Proposal based on your IdeaDrop and HomeVision summary content. More information on the BuilderConnect program is available later in this article.

We’re excited to let you know that all stages of our HomeVision program, including the IdeaDrop tool and Vision Crafting stage, are free of charge.

Builders may still require a fee to begin working on your New Home Proposal, if applicable, and this fee is paid directly to the builder.

We hope this makes it easier for you to plan and build your dream home. Dive in and start exploring today!

Step 4 – Review and finalise your vision

The beauty of our services is that you have no time restrictions while progressing through stages 1 & 2 of HomeVision and building your vision with our IdeaDrop tool.

Once you feel confident that you’ve progressed through Stage 2 of HomeVision and think you are ready to lodge everything to our BuilderConnect program, we recommend you complete one final sweep of Stage 2 to ensure everything is just the way you want it. This ensures your builder won’t include anything in your initial quote that you’ve changed your mind on.

Also, take a couple minutes to ensure each image within your IdeaDrop is a must have for your new home and ensure you have notes against each image to provide context as to what part of the image is important to be included within your quote for your new home.

Step 5 – Joining BuilderConnect & experiencing the full perks of a tailor-made new home proposal

Boom you killed it!

You’ve now tapped into the vast knowledge base and suite of tools that Foresight Home Planning has available and your vision for your future home has never been stronger. Best of all you’ve got it all locked down on your IdeaDrop and HomeVision summary ensuring you won’t forget anything.

The next service we’ve created to help make your life easier is our BuilderConnect program. This program allows you to take everything you’ve documented on your IdeaDrop and HomeVision summary and submit it for a tailor-made New Home Proposal.

We achieve this by reviewing your requirements, determining the type of home you want to build and then sourcing the most suitable builder we can find. Relieving you of the stress that comes with deciding who you’d like to build your home. The builders we partner with must meet our 10-point criteria, this gives us peace of mind that we’ve reviewed the builders available in your area and chosen one that stands out to us as the best fit.

When a builder has been allocated and reviewed your documents, their team will initially reach out to introduce themselves and explain their processes and quoting fee structure before getting to work to produce for you a tailor-made New Home Proposal that suits your personal needs and budget.

Gotta say, we’re super excited to see what great homes come of this.

Step 6 – Tracking down your builder & preparing your New Home Proposal

Take it easy and let us do the heavy lifting. Utilizing our in-depth industry knowledge, we’ll delve into the local construction landscape to find a builder who’s the right fit for your specific project.

We go beyond just checking off a list of requirements; we look for specialists who excel in crafting homes that resonate with your unique style and aspirations. Our meticulous matchmaking process ensures that the construction of your dream home will be executed precisely as you’ve envisioned it within your budget.

This process can take time however, we will keep you informed of our progress.

Be aware that some builders may require a fee or deposit for preparing a detailed quote. This is a common industry practice and something you should be prepared for.*

Step 7 – Review the proposal & quote

Ding dong!

Your New Home Proposal has arrived.

You flick through a couple pages and realise it’s so comprehensive and you’re in too deep, we got you.

We’ve created a detailed ‘Builders Quote Checklist’ to help you break down and thoroughly understand your quote and new home contract. This checklist includes various factors to consider, ensuring that you fully grasp all the details and don’t miss anything important.

It’s the cherry on top of our already comprehensive HomeVision program that aims to ensure no oversights are had.

Run through the document and create a list of things that you’d like the builder to either modify or confirm for you.

Arrange a time to sit with your builder and nut out all those minor details you’ve got on your notes. Your builder will likely come back with a modified quote and plans. You can keep going back and forth with the builder until you’re satisfied everything is to your liking.

Note that your builder will be looking to get some level of commitment from you through this period, builders use this deposit to complete a soil test and site survey on your block of land which their team of experts require to be able to determine what site costs are applicable to your home and to complete their preliminary checks to ensure they’ve captured everything they need to know about your building site.

Step 8 – Lock in pricing and sign a contract

If you’re happy with everything the builder has put forward, feel like you’ve asked all the questions you need and are confident your builder and their team can bring your home to life, it’s time to pull the trigger and sign a contract.

By this point, your builder will have educated you on their processes and what you can expect from them throughout the course of your build. You’ve put in the necessary work to ensure you build a home you’ll love and now you’ve just gotta let your builder do what they do best and put that home on your block of land.

How exciting! 🎉

A modern way to plan homes for humans just like you

It’s that simple. We’ve taken what we’ve learnt over the years and created a new way of planning homes that aims to eliminate stress and provide you with the answers you need before you need them.

Have some fun with the planning process of your new home, toy with different inspirational images, and mull them over until you find the perfect fit. It’s a process that shouldn’t be rushed if you want the best outcome.

We hope the tools we’ve spoken about here today will help many Australians plan better homes. If after using our tools you have some cool ideas for other ways we can improve our service please reach out through our contact page with your recommendations.

From the team at Foresight Home Planning, we can’t wait to see what you create.

All the best.

**Disclaimer: The information provided in this article is based on publicly available information. While we strive to ensure the accuracy of this content, Foresight Home Planning Pty Ltd does not guarantee the completeness or reliability of the information. This article is intended for entertainment purposes only and does not constitute professional advice. Foresight Home Planning does not accept liability for any loss, expenses or damage incurred as a result of reliance on the information contained herein. Readers are advised to conduct their own research and seek professional advice before making any decisions related to property purchases, contracts with builders or investments.

*¹: Terms and conditions apply. Registered users of our service must complete our HomeVision program and subsequently join our BuilderConnect program to be eligible for Foresight Home Planning to find you a builder in your local area. Please read our FAQ page for further details.