Building Your Own Home For Dummies
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Building your own home means you keep a close eye on the money flow. Determine finances before you start the process of building your home and review them periodically. Fill in the blanks in the following list, and keep this important info nearby for quick recall when you meet with your loan officer:

  • Total cash available: __________

  • Amount of cash I'm willing to put toward the project: __________

  • Maximum monthly payment I'm comfortable making: __________

  • My payment can be increased by __________percent from income tax savings.

  • This payment is __________ percent of my gross monthly income as reflected in my tax returns.

  • Monthly credit card and installment loan payments: __________

  • Credit history or credit score: __________

  • Type of home I want to build (owner occupied versus secondary residence): __________

  • I intend to have this property or loan for __________ years.

  • I plan to use a contractor, yes or no: __________

  • My home will be __________ compared to other homes in the neighborhood (similar, much larger, much smaller).

  • It will take __________ months to build my home.

About This Article

This article is from the book:

About the book authors:

Kevin Daum has 22 years of experience in the real estate and mortgage industry. He is founder and CEO of Stratford Financial Services, and is the leading expert in custom home financing. Daum has financed more than 800 custom homes and has published numerous articles on construction financing,mortgage education, and entrepreneurship.

Janice Brewster served as editor of Log Home Living magazine for five years.  Brewster has been involved in the custom home industry for more than 10 years.

Peter Economy is Associate Editor for the Drucker Foundation's award-winning magazine Leader to Leader and a featured expert for AllBusiness.com. He's the coauthor of the books Leadership Ensemble: Lessons in Collaborative Management from the World's Only Conductorless Orchestra, Strategic Tools for Social Entrepreneurs: Enhancing the Performance of Your Enterprising Nonprofit, and many others, including Consulting For Dummies, Home-Based Business For Dummies, and Raising Capital For Dummies.

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