In Atlanta, there's a certain allure to buying a new home as opposed to what's called in the industry a "resale" home. There are several different ways to buy new. You can buy new construction in a planned community, choose a pre-built home, buy a new, finished home or choose a custom home builder and start with your own blueprints. Your choice of how to buy a new home will depend on a great many factors including your pocketbook and your style. If you've decided that you want to buy new, you've got many options among the builders who specialize in custom homes in Atlanta.

Build on Your Own Land

If you're building on a budget, one money-saving option is to build on land that you own. You'll still have multiple options for new home styles, including pre-built and custom built homes and other custom home options that are in between the two. Modular home construction is an option that has come a long way in the past decade. Many builders will work with you to customize and personalize pre-built and modular homes and make them reflect your own personal style.

Buy preconstruction homes.

Planned communities are among the most popular of new custom homes in Atlanta. Most of us think of "planned communities" in terms of cookie cutter houses, but that doesn't reflect today's realities at all. Most communities are built on several basic styles with lots of room for customization. When you buy new custom homes in the pre-construction stage, you get the most out of the opportunities to customize the look and style of your new home. The earlier in the construction phase that you buy into the community, the more options you have for input into the design process.

What are preconstruction homes?

Development of planned communities happens in several stages with options to buy at different places. Developers need to raise money at various stages in the construction process, and the earlier that you choose to buy a "unit" in the development, the more say you have over design choices. Buying in the preconstruction phase will also give you considerable financial advantage. Often, if you buy your home in the pre-construction phase, you can get it for 70-80% of the price you'll pay for the exact same home once it's finished.

Buy during an early construction phase.

Although it won't save you quite as much, buying a new home during an early construction phase of a new community development is a good way to get a bargain on custom homes in Atlanta or anywhere else. Developments are built in several phases, with the homes that sell during each phase of building priced accordingly.

Generally, phase one is the preconstruction phase, starting before ground is broken. You'll be buying based on an artist's rendering of your new home. Each successive phase will be timed according to a landmark in building or selling of homes in the community. As each phase is completed, the cost of each unit will increase. You can save 15-20% of the final purchase price of your new home by buying in an early phase of construction.

Consider a "systems built" home.

The wave of the future in custom home building appears to be building systems, where a new home is constructed of pre-built systems that are put together at the home site. The most familiar of these for most people are "modular homes" which are completely finished offsite, with only the foundation built on site.

Those are just the furthest extension of the idea of system building, though. Panelized home building systems may include just the basic structural elements of a home - the framing of the walls and roof, for instance - or they may be fully finished with doors, windows and even appliances. Each component is completed off site, shipped to the home site and assembled on site by an experienced builder.

Because much of the work is completed in a climate controlled factory setting, using building system components eliminates many of the most common reasons for construction delays and cuts costs considerably. The degree of customization possible varies from package to package. Working with an experienced builder of custom homes in Atlanta will give you the highest degree of flexibility with the minimum of delays and frustrations.

If you're looking at custom homes in Atlanta, discuss the above options with your builder and/or realtor. You may find that it's far less expensive to own a beautiful, brand new, custom built home than you ever imagined.