I Have Searched Thousands Of Floor Plans On The Internet But I Can’t Find My Dream House Plan

I cannot afford the time to find my house plans anymore-help-What do I do? This is a question many people have asked me in my over 32 years in the business of custom home design and architecture. Well don’t frustrate yourself anymore-there is help!

By: Architect Boye Akinola, AIA, www.boyehomeplans.com

As we are living our lives in a modern 21st century lifestyle that is entrenched in the internet age, the way for homeowners to have their dream homes designed has changed. Also, each minute we spend every day seems to be every precious and valuable. We are always managing our time efficiently during the day on our personal and public lives. Our goal here is to use wisdom or re-think every thing we do so we can better manage our time and be more successful in everything we do. Think of the house plan buying process on the web like you are at a retailer’s shop, a car dealer or at the mall buying a product. Of course you want to know exactly all the specifications of the product before you buy it so you are sure the product meets your needs!

Before and about 28 years ago, looking and searching the web was not the norm. Back then people simply searched the local yellow pages and called an architect under the architect’s listing or where referred to an architect by their friends, family or neighborhoods. For the past 27 years till now, the trend of people is to buy their house plans on the internet or have it custom designed exclusively by an architect they found off the internet search engines.

As a result, the internet has been the starting point for most homeowners to find their house plans of their dreams by visiting the thousands and thousands of home plan sites that sell house plans. In the effect, there are two kinds of companies that sell home plans on the internet. One group is the architects/designers that created their designs and sell them on the web (like our company, a registered architectural firm here in Atlanta, GA and our website http://www.boyehomeplans.com and other architects around the USA). The other group of companies is simply brokers of these architect’s house plans. Both processes of searching for house plans continue to serve homeowners and builders very well and has supplied the needs of homeowners/builders in the single-family real estate marketplace.

So we have it! Hundreds of thousands of house plans to choose from in cyberspace and usually it takes on the average months and months to find home plans with the front elevations of your dreams. People have to re-think how they search and buy house plans.

How can people that are starting or have been burned out looking for house plans be helped?

The following are our tips you need to know before or during your searching for your house plans. These tips would enable you to connect your vision/image of your dream home in your mind/heart with finding the perfect house plan of your dreams you love quickly and efficiently without wasting your time. Also, in-decisions can extend your search time.

1.   Know how much you want to spend on your house plan.
2.   Know the exact size & square footage of house you can afford.
3.   Know how many bedrooms, number of baths you need.
4.   Know how width and depth of the house that will fit on your lot.
5.   Know the style of architecture (is it Modern, Micro-Small Home, tiny Home, French country, European or Contemporary or Traditional style) you want and exterior finishes (is it siding, brick or stucco with stone accents).
6.   Know whether you want your master bed room on the main floor or upstairs.
7.   Know whether your lot will allow a basement foundation, crawl space or slab.
8.   Know whether you need to incorporate an energy saving measures like solar energy panels, etc.
9.   Once you have all these above listed program information about your house, you need to know how to navigate these home plan sites efficiently and effectively.
10.   Make sure you email or call the home plan company or architect immediately after you have found about 3 to 5 house plan options that match the requirements of your dream home. We recommend you call the architect within a month while the vision of your lovely dream home is still hot in your mind!
11.   Give the architect or home plan company all your home design criteria listed above. “I typically engage my client’s vision by asking them series of questions from our firm’s “CUSTOM HOME DESIGN-CLIENT QUESTIONNAIRE” (to get a copy of this form,  email us at customerservice@boyehomeplans.com ) to get them thinking about what kind of house they dreamed off, the style, the budget, how and what kind of spaces they wished they had or required” says Architect Boye Akinola, AIA of http://www.boyehomeplans.com.
12.   Ask the architect or home plan company as many questions as you can because you are actually in a shop (on the web) buying house plans! If you can’t find the exact plan, ask if they can do plan modifications or elevation modifications to fit your style, plan needs, site needs or budget needs. Also, ask how much it will cost to customize one of your plan choices or all of your options. In addition, feel free to ask for the option to modify your plans combining all the plans you found or mx and matching plans and elevations from different architect.

13. Of course ask about how much the construction plans will cost (without any changes), as well as the fees for modification or if you elect on custom home, find out what the Architect’s fees are. Architects typically charge $2.5/sf to over $3/sf depending on the complexity of the design.

14.   Think of the house plan buying process on the web like you are at a retailer’s shop, a car dealer or at the mall buying a product. Of course you want to know exactly all the specifications of the product before you buy it so you are sure the product meets your needs!
15.    At this point, you have now ready to make an informed decision on the house plan of your dreams. You are now ready to choose. Good luck!


For more information and additional Home Design Tips to Know before You Build, Contact Your Luxury Home Design Expert, Award wining Architect Boye Akinola, AIA at boye@boyearchitect.com