From first call to breaking ground: a home buyer’s timeline

Most people who are thinking about building a home have a rough sense of how the finished product gets built — foundation, framing, roofing, finishes. What they have less visibility into is everything that happens before the first shovel breaks ground. That pre-construction phase is where a lot of the important decisions get made, and understanding it makes the whole experience considerably less stressful.

Here’s a realistic walk through every stage from that first conversation to the moment construction begins — what happens at each step, how long it typically takes, and what your role is along the way.

Week 1–2: The initial conversation

It starts with a phone call or an email. In the first conversation, we’re trying to understand what you’re looking for — what kind of home, what general budget range, what your timeline looks like, and where you’re at in the process. Are you just starting to research? Do you have a lot already? Have you been building on this idea for two years?

We’re also giving you a picture of who we are and how we work, so you can start to evaluate whether we’re the right fit. This isn’t a sales call. It’s a mutual assessment, and the best outcome is that both sides come out of it with a clear sense of whether there’s something worth pursuing.

If the initial conversation goes well, we schedule a follow-up to go deeper — floor plans, lot situations, and the specifics of what a build would actually look like for you.

Week 2–4: Floor plan selection and site evaluation

The floor plan conversation is one of the most important ones in the whole process. We walk through our library of plans with you, talk about what’s working and what isn’t in your current home, and help you identify which plans are genuinely worth considering versus which ones look good on paper but wouldn’t fit how you live.

If you have a lot, we do a site evaluation during this window — a physical visit to assess soil conditions, drainage, setbacks, flood zone designation, utility availability, and how the floor plan options interact with the specific parcel. If you’re still looking for land, we can have parallel conversations about that as well.

By the end of this stage, you typically have one or two floor plans you’re seriously considering and a clear sense of what the structural options available to you are. You don’t need to have made final decisions yet — but you need to be close.

Week 4–6: Structural decisions and pricing

Once a floor plan is identified, we work through the structural options: covered lanai extension, garage configuration, room modifications, anything that changes the footprint or scope of the home. These decisions need to happen before pricing is finalized because they’re part of what the contract covers.

With the structural scope defined, we put together a fixed-price contract that reflects the actual home — the floor plan, the structural options, and the site conditions. You also get a clear picture of what the finish selections process will look like and what range of choices you’ll be making.

This is the stage where most buyers take a few days to review the contract, ask questions, and make sure everything is right before they sign. That time is well spent. We’d rather you sign with full confidence than rush through it.

Week 6–8: Contract, deposit, and engineering

Once the contract is signed and the deposit is collected, two things happen simultaneously. We engage the engineer to produce the structural plan set — the detailed drawings that the building department will review as part of the permit application. And we start working with you on your finish selections so they’re ready when construction begins.

The engineering process typically takes two to four weeks depending on the complexity of the plan and the engineer’s current workload. During that time, we’re also confirming the site conditions documentation, the survey, and any other materials needed for a complete permit application.

Week 8–14: Permit application and review

The permit application goes in once the engineering is complete and the application package is assembled. From submission to approval, the review process runs one to three months depending on the municipality. Palm Bay, Melbourne, West Melbourne, unincorporated Brevard County, and Indian River County all have their own timelines and their own current workloads.

We manage the permitting process entirely — we submit, we track, we respond to comment letters, and we keep you updated throughout. Your role during this window is primarily to finalize your selections, which we work through with you in a formal selections meeting. By the time the permit clears, every material decision should already be locked in.

This phase feels like waiting, and in some ways it is. But it’s also the most productive planning window of the entire build, and the clients who use it well — who get their selections locked in, get their financing fully in order, and start thinking through the sequencing of their current home sale — move into construction in the best possible position.

Permit approval: breaking ground

The permit clears. We schedule the site prep and foundation work. Ground breaks.

From that moment, construction moves faster than most people expect. A foundation goes in within the first week or two. Framing follows shortly after. Within a matter of weeks, the home starts to look like a home. The months of planning and paperwork compress into visible, tangible progress — and the timeline that felt abstract suddenly feels very real.

The total elapsed time from first conversation to breaking ground is typically three to five months, depending on how quickly decisions get made and how the permitting timeline falls. Clients who move deliberately through the early stages and come to decisions ready tend to land at the shorter end of that range. Those who need more time to feel comfortable with major decisions tend toward the longer end — and that’s completely fine. The process is designed to accommodate both.

Ready to start that first conversation?

We’re taking on new projects and we’d love to talk through what building with Price Family Homes would look like for you. Get in touch and we’ll get it started.