Janice Brewster

Building your own home is an exciting and exacting process that can be daunting, as well. Make your home-building experience easier by first having a firm grasp on your financial picture. You also need to find the right contractor, prioritize design elements between must-have and would-like-to-have. And, you need to keep track of all the people who are helping making your dream home a reality.

If you're building your own home, you need to keep track of myriad details and the related contacts (people). Make a physical list of contacts and make copies to keep on-site, in your car, at your office, and anywhere else you can think of. People to put on the list include: Architect Contractor Loan of

Making the decision to build your own home leads to a search for a contractor. To find the right person to oversee the building of your home, touch on the following topics with each contractor you interview. The contractor's responses can help you determine whether you'll work well together. References: Ask for the addresses of all the houses the contractor has built and ask several owners how satisfied they were with the contractor.

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.

Whether you're buying an existing home or building your own, you'll have design needs and design wants. Design needs include number of bedrooms, size of your home (roomy for guests or small to encourage teenagers to move out), while design wants cover items like whirlpool tub, gourmet kitchen, romantic master bedroom.