The Master Selection Sheet, Options, and Cost Estimate

The Master Selection Sheet is another portion of the Purchase Agreement.  I saved it for separate post because this is the fun part!  The Master Selection Sheet, Options, and Cost Estimate are a big part of your Purchase Agreement.  It's your soon to be home on about 30 sheets of paper, written out piece by piece.

Basically the MSS (I shortened it for the sake of my fingers!) is the combined list of the base features of the home, the included options that are given as part of the area, community, etc., and the selectable options.

The features include some of the following items and as you will see, the features are pretty standard and something that should be included in every home. 
# of phone/catv lines
driveway
laundry room
shingles
mailboxes
kitchen sink

The included options are other options that are provided because of our area, community, or standard for the type of home and include some of the following items.  Again, these options are standard in most homes but go a little above and beyond the basic features.
kitchen applicances
faucet fixtures
fiberglass bathtubs
carpet/flooring
sliding glass door
siding
two car garage

The best part, the super best wonderful part are the selectable options. 
These are the thing we have to pay extra for enjoying.  We're lucky in the sense that we're purchasing the HOM (Home of the Month) and we will get some of these selectable options for free.  The selectable options, from what I've researched and have been told, vary from location, community, floor plan, and material availability.  This list is 12 pages long and has the option and price of each.  I could copy the whole list out there but it would be a waste of time and some of it is duplicate options for different portions of the home.

I love how building a home is very customizable.  But on the same page, it's difficult.  Staying on budget is, in my option, tougher than if you were buying a home with the options already installed.  It's one thing to say oh I wish this house had this or that but a whole other thing to say oh, I can put this and that in here.

So, now that things are scheduled to move along it's time to start thinking about what we want in our new home.  If I had any piece of advice right now to someone just beginning to consider building a home is that it is NEVER to early to start thinking about what you want in your home or how you would like to customize it.  I wouldn't even see the harm of visiting your future builder for a peek into the option list.  Maybe they could provide one without the costs listed, but it's better than starting with nothing and feeling rushed to make decisions on a home you plan to spend at least the next 30 years in.