Finding House Plans

You have decided to build your dream home.  But, where do you find the house plans to get you started?  Finding house plans has never been easier, thanks to the Internet.

Where to start
If you are looking for house plans, perhaps the easiest way to start is to type “house plans” into your favorite internet search engine.  Pages of companies selling house plans will be at your fingertips.  Within minutes, you can compare various house plans from several different companies to find the style that you want.

The different websites for house plans allow you to search in many ways.  You can type in the square footage, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, and number of floors that you want.  Click search and dozens of house plans pop up on your screen.  Or, you can search by style of house that interests you – European, Craftsman, Tudor – the possibilities are almost endless.

What to remember
Although it is easy to get swept up in the excitement of looking for house plans, you need to take some first steps so that you are not faced with disappointment later.  Try to find your lot before you begin a serious search for house plans.  All plans cannot necessarily be built on all lots.  You can have your heart broken if you fall in love with a specific house plan but then find that it cannot be built on the lot that you buy.  Find out the requirements of your lot first.

Also, it helps to have some knowledge of the building codes in your area.  Especially if you are building in an area prone to hurricanes or earthquakes, your local building codes may limit your choices in house plans.

Once you have your lot and have some basic knowledge of building code requirements, you can begin a serious search for house plans online.  Visit several different sites and compare.  Many sites allow you to compare different house plans within their site.  Most house plans average about $1,000 to purchase although this varies with the size of the home.  Therefore, you want to be sure before actually ordering any house plans.  Some sites even allow you to purchase a set that cannot be used to build.  These sets can run around $50.  If you have a hard time deciding between a couple of different plans, find a site that lets you buy a set for a low price so you can do a hands-on comparison of the house plans.