If you’re thinking of building a new custom home in Arizona, sorting through the details can be a bit overwhelming.

There are a lot of factors to check — both in your own preparations for building your custom home and in finding the right builders with whom to partner who can make the rest of the process as smooth and stress-free as possible.

At Fairway Homes West, we’ve built our fair share of custom homes in Arizona. So, we’ve learned a thing or two about the process and regulations required and want to share this information with those looking to build a custom home soon.

Here are our tips:

Do Your Homework on Custom Home Builders

Let’s start here.

Generally speaking, the construction industry is pretty competitive — which is definitely the case here in Arizona — so you’ll have lots of options to find a builder that works best for you. Don’t think you have to go with the first one you find if you have any reservations!

Whoever is your custom home builder, you’re going to be working with them for a while, so you might as well get comfortable. They’ll be involved every step of the way and will be the ones ultimately making your dream custom home a reality, not to mention guiding you through the entire custom home-building process.

Furthermore, we recommend doing some deep online dives to better learn about home builders in your area. Pay close attention to reviews, references, and others’ experiences. It might sound kind of silly, but Reddit can actually be a really helpful tool to get intel here, as can local Facebook groups or forums if one exists for your area.

Also worth keeping an eye on during the custom home building process: When considering a custom home builder, do they have experience building homes in the area you’re planning on?

This is true no matter where you are — even within a relatively small radius, attributes can vary which can affect the construction process, utilities, and more. In the case of Arizona, different parts of the state have different concerns; bedrock can vary, as can water infrastructure and other characteristics you’ll have to address.

Financing Your Custom Home

This is the biggie.

It hopefully doesn’t need to be said, but in case: You must identify your budget for your custom home. And it should include obstacles and opportunities that could pop up during the custom home-building process that can add to your costs.

This includes the cost of the land and developing it to be construction-ready — this won’t be the same for every area for the reasons we mentioned above regarding different geology and geography.

It also includes labor and material expenses. The materials alone will likely be about half your budget; depending on your chosen floor plan, this can escalate quickly.

All About Location

There are two things to consider when it comes to location for your custom home: 1) the location itself, and 2) the zoning and regulations therein.

The first is something everyone considers when purchasing a home or building your own, but it can be easy to overlook some important factors. You probably already have an idea of the area you want to live in or build your custom home in, and likely even the neighborhoods that appeal to you too. But what about some of the details that accompany them?

For example, are there local regulations and/or infrastructures that will have an effect on the building process for your custom home — either negatively or positively?

Similarly, have you considered all the environmental factors in your potential locations? This means potential climate considerations, terrain that could cause complications down the line, and more for your custom home.

This is particularly true as the climate changes — what you could expect of the weather, conditions, and frequency and magnitude of natural disasters 50 years ago isn’t the same as what you should expect now or 20 years from now. Is there an increased risk of flooding? What’s the wildfire risk? How will either of these affect your building plans and insurance?

Secondly, what are the zoning and permitting rules in your preferred location?

It’s easy to have a dream location for your dream custom home, but if you have a dream location and a dream home and the dream location’s zoning and regulations preclude the dream home, you have to make the call on which is more important to you.

Some of these you’re likely to encounter:

1. Setbacks and other restrictions on where your custom home can be built within the property
2. What utility hookups will you need, and how will permitting requirements affect that?
3. Covenants, conditions, and restrictions or HOA requirements that disallow certain roofs, windows, colors, and other things you might want as part of your custom home

In Arizona, each county and municipality has their own home building permitting process; it’s a good idea to research that and how the said process varies from county to county.

Choosing a Custom Home Floor Plan That Matches Your Lifestyle

It hopefully goes without saying, but it’s worth putting a lot of thought into your lifestyle, needs, and how your custom home can complement that.

This of course includes having the right amount of space — you’ll of course want enough space for your activities and items, but you can also definitely build a home that’s too big and becomes more work to maintain than the extra space is worth.

Also, related to the last section on permitting, zoning, and land, consider how your custom home’s footprint will affect what you’d like to do with your outdoor space. If you’d really like to design your outdoor areas a certain way but only have so much property space to do so, you might consider a smaller custom floor plan that allows you to make your dream garden, activities space, or patio area come to life.

Lastly, consider how your custom home will fit your lifestyle as you age; for example, while stairs can help improve the longevity of your mobility and strength, if you’re still living at your home well into old age, at a certain point they can negatively impact your ability to use all of your home fully.

Understanding Your Timeline and Custom Home-Building Process

We’ve already talked about some of the custom home-building factors that can affect your timeline, but here is a little more information.

In general, just like you want to give yourself a buffer for your budget, the same is true for your timeline. If you’re expecting your custom home to be ready in 16 months, detours and roadblocks can easily extend that timeline to 18 or even longer — plan for that.

Much of these hold-ups can come from permitting times but luckily, while they add on to your building time, these are relatively straightforward. On the other side, some interruptions can be trickier, like materials shortages or other issues that cause construction to either slow or completely shut down.

Many of these factors are out of your control and it really comes down to adapting to these complications; for this reason, communication with your builder and other key figures is paramount!

Not to put too obvious of a plug here, but this two-way communication is one of our priorities at Fairway Homes West. If you’re looking for a custom home builder around Arizona to realize your dream home, don’t hesitate to reach out to Fairway Homes West and see how we can help you!

Regardless of who you use, we hope this guide gave you some good starting points to make your home-building process as smooth and stress-free as possible.