Another thing to keep in mind is that there will be 'cash' outlays, possibly during but definitely after the build. Depending on your contracts, you may pay separately for site clearing, tree/stump removal, driveway finishing (such as concrete/brick/aggregate to smooth out the ruts), retaining walls, overage on earthmoving (such as digging the foundation or shoving dirt for the driveway), wells/septic fields, fencing, insurances, handling fees [bank], landscaping, exterior finishes, drapes and blinds, and... more. Applying 33% of the expected cost towards the loan is good, but many times you will need another 25+% to cover all the stuff that isn't/won't be in the mortgage contract. Go on-line and learn the definitions and usages of terms such as ARM, discount, points, and amortization... all the jargonese to do with loans. You don't want to have a blank stare when the lender starts using those words. After you are comfortable with those terms, then do as dixiedoodle says, sit down and go over the figures - in detail -- with several different banks/loan institutions. This doesn't waste their time because you are showing responsibility in wanting to understand all the possibilities. BTW, get their figures in writing -- a mathematician or a loan officer might remember who quoted how much for what for how long after listening to a half-dozen different presentations, but the rest of us need to have hardcopy to study later. Be very aware that rates they quote for today may change tomorrow, but you will gain a feeling for the institution's attitude when it does its business, and how good its rates are when compared to others. As also said, a mortgage is an option to borrow [up to a certain amount], it's not cash into your hand. However, you will be expected to pay -with interest- all the monies that are disbursed to the various contractors and suppliers. The interest paid plus the assorted fees are how the bank makes its money... study carefully to see what is to be paid, and when, and how the interest is computed and on what and when. And keep in mind that interest compounds... every dollar you borrow is going cost you from three to twenty times as much to pay back.

You can use Dirtex to clean your walls. Sanding with a power sander is fine, but you will find that it gets dusty doing it that way. I may use a pole sander for bulk sanding and then use my orbital sander on stubborn drips or areas that hand sanding just isn't cutting it. If you do power sand all the walls, then cleaning them is probably overkill. The sander is going to remove any contaminants that may affect adhesion of the new paint. Be sure to remove any sanding dust before painting.

Hi, Your question relates to budget. The best way to answer it is for you to tour homes in your area that are similar to what you have in mind and ask the builder(s) what the cost would be to replicate the home on whatever lot and in whatever community you have in mind. Then add the cost of the land. Once you've confirmed that your budget is realistic for what you have in mind, you can decide whether to replicate a builder's model home or purchase a stock plan from a plan service or to hire a home designer/architect/design-build firm to design a home for you. To hire anyone to design a home without answering the basic "is my budget realistic?" question risks spending money on a design that won't get built. Order of operations! Best wishes for a successful project.

We didn’t get pre-approved for the exact reason you pointed out - I wanted to avoid an unnecessary hard credit check. We did; however, initiate discussions with a recommended mortgage broker to vet our plans (i.e. expected sale price, amount of earnest money payment, combined income, assets) and to make sure we understood what the process would look like at closing. Then we entered into a purchase agreement and put down our earnest money. This helped the seller obtain a better loan rate since the house was pre-sold, and will ultimately convert to our mortgage down payment. Generally speaking, if you know your financial history, income, and what the anticipated mortgage will be (I’d include a 30% contingency over base price), you should know whether you might face approval issues. We kept our max possible sale price well below what we should quality for, so the only concern now is whether the house will appraise! (Not really concerned, we’ve vetted and planned for this to the extent possible). I’m a fan of credit monitoring apps if you aren’t on them already. I would also recommend having an attorney review the purchase agreement as others have said. I would have hired one if I weren’t an attorney myself, or otherwise well versed in the custom build process (the terms “allowances” and “changes orders” might as well have been Greek to me before this adventure!).