Posted: October 9, 2024 | Categories:
Home Buying 101
By Highland Homes
Updated on October 9, 2024: This story was originally published on January 8, 2021, and has been updated with new information.
The i’s are dotted, t’s are crossed, and your Highland Homes construction team is ready to lay the foundation and build your new construction home in Florida. Exciting, right? Now, how long do you have to wait before you can move in and love life in your new home?
Contrary to what some home-renovation TV shows lead us to believe, building a new construction home is not a two-week process crammed into 30 minutes of entertainment. In a recent conversation with our Vice President of Production, David Adams, a home-building professional with over 20 years of experience, we got an overview of the factors that affect the time it takes to build a new construction home in Florida.
Permitting and Projected Build Time
The building permit must be obtained before construction can begin on your new Florida home. From city to city and county to county, permit processing can vary and it generally takes 30 to 45 days to receive the building permit.
Once the permit is ready and your home is released for construction, it takes an average of 3.5 to 5 months to build your new home, although the process and timeframe to build a single-family home in Tampa Bay are not the same as that to build a new home in Ocala. Factors such as the jurisdiction where the home is being constructed, weather, and material supply and demand can affect how long it takes to build a new home in Florida.
To optimize construction timelines, our builders and construction support team work on what we can control: Our scheduling, the building forecast, and communication.
Supply and Demand
With the permits approved, your home building team works to ensure tradespeople are scheduled and all supplies are ready and available, even when building materials are scarce. For example, during the 2004 Atlantic Hurricane season, shingles were hard to come by and pushed the construction time for many homes to 8 months while the construction teams waited to receive shingles.
During the recent pandemic, we again saw a shortage of some building materials due to high demand for home building and renovations, as well as public health circumstances beyond everyone’s control. This extended the construction timeline for some homes as we waited to receive materials on backorder. In order to get homes completed, for some materials, we were able to work with our vendors to obtain substitutions of equal or greater quality and appearance rather than delay construction.
Currently, we are not experiencing any material shortages and our average construction time is sitting at a cool 111 days.
Positive, Proactive Communication
Your Highland Homes builder prides himself or herself on being proactive. While processing permits, closings, and the weather are out of our control, our building team and internal processes work diligently to stay on target.
“Homebuilding is not a one-size-fits-all process,” says David. "Highland Homes is prepared for that; each construction manager is in regular contact with our sales managers who, in turn, make sure our sales team is informed about build statuses, to keep everyone updated and on the same page. There are daily communication and connection meetings internally as well as with our suppliers and trade partners, which have allowed Highland Homes to fare well in managing volatile market conditions and continue to serve you as one of the top home builders in Florida."
The stages of building a new Highland Home are concrete when it comes to the structural build; the overall timeline, not so much. At the end of the home building process though, David wants to ensure you that our homeowners are the beneficiaries of Highland Homes’ mission statement, “To deliver the American Dream through the excitement and empowerment of our dedicated team members and create the most satisfying home buying experience on earth.” We know you have a choice as to which builder you choose to build your dream home and while all builders will experience market-related issues, Highland Homes’ goal is to provide peace of mind during the home building process and deliver a quality home you will enjoy for many years.
David encourages future homeowners to look at our model homes, as our quality is on display to see in every Florida new home community in which we build.
Your Florida Home Builder
Highland Homes is dedicated to making your homeownership dream a reality and has built more than 15,000 homes in Florida since our inception in 1996. If you are already in the process of building your new construction home in Florida with Highland Homes, congratulations!! And, if you are still considering which Florida home builder is the right builder for you, we invite you to learn a little bit more about building with Highland Homes by previewing our Path to Ownership, getting inspired to design and decorate your new home with our online Inspiration Gallery, and seeing what current homeowners have to say about the Experience of Building with Highland Homes.
Ready to start building your new home in Tampa Bay, Metro Orlando, Ocala, Bradenton-Sarasota, or Lakeland-Winter Haven? Our New Home Specialists are excited to connect, answer any questions you have, and make your new home dream come true! Call us or email us anytime.
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Bradenton-Sarasota
Metro Orlando
Ocala
Polk County
Tampa Bay
Single-Family Homes
Construction Process
First Time Homebuyer Info