Reddit reviews Designing Your Dream Home

I don't have enough knowledge to give advice on your loan approach so I won't comment on that. It would be interesting if you're allowed to separate loans and finances considering you're married.

Our original build time was for 8 months, and it's extended to close to a year, but we have the snow and ice to contend with. Our construction loan is for a year so I might need to inquire about extending it if any other delays arise.

We're not going to put our house on the market until we're close to move in date. The hassle of temporary housing is a measure we don't want to approach and our current mortgage is low enough to give us that option. If you have troubles selling, you could consider renting, either on your own or through a property management company since it doesn't appear you'll need the sell money to finance your new build.

We looked at plans online too, but found various attributes we liked and crammed them together for an architect to smooth out. That took about 8 months, but only because he was old school and hand drew everything (caused troubles later) and had some poor health and workload issues.

We have this book, which is very exhaustive on all topics of planning and organizing the build. OCD exhaustive.

Be aware of the land pre-purchase costs (soil survey, perk test if septic, land survey, etc) because those will come out of pocket before the loan approval. Look out for wetlands, setbacks, easements, and other regulations that will affect where you put your house.

Find a good realtor. They'll get paid by the seller as a percentage of the commission cost.