ACQUIRING A HOME T CHAPTER I THE CHOICE OF THE HOME HE average American is a lover of home. He is determined sooner or later to acquire, if he can possibly do so, a permanent resting place for his family gods. To some, home will mean a great estate; to others, a modest cottage. All are actuated by the same urge and desire to own their homes and to develop them in accordance with their respective tasks and needs. The acquiring of a home is a capital investment. The investment may be large or small, but it must be made in one of two ways. The owner must purchase land and build, or he must purchase a home already built. Whichever of these methods is adopted and followed, the prospective home builder will be faced with various problems upon the proper and intelligent solution of which must depend, in very large measure, the success of his venture. If, in acquiring his land and erecting his house, he ignores the precautions which experience has shown should be taken, he will run a grave risk of finding himself enmeshed in difficulties and faced with the prospect of substantial monetary losses. If he acts in ignorance of the many fundamental rules governing the acquisition and improvement of real property, he may shortly become convinced that he would much better have remained the occupant of a rented house than to have attempted to become an owner, without proper preparation for this new rôle and proper consideration of the best methods of solving the problems which it necessarily involves. The purpose of the following pages is to outline as simply as possible the problems which will confront the home builder or purchaser; to sketch the pitfalls which will await him, and to show how they may best be avoided; to give to him an understanding of the danger spots in his proposed venture, and to suggest ways and means by which he may proceed with a minimum of difficulties and entanglements and with safety and satisfaction. In pursuance of this general purpose, I shall discuss the steps which should be taken by a prudent purchaser of land; the factors which are important in determining the location of the land, and those which are important in connection with the process of acquiring title. I shall treat of the advantages and disadvantages involved in the purchase of unimproved land, and those which characterize the purchase of land upon which a building has been already erected. I shall try to make clear the relationship of the owner to his architect, and his relationship to the latter's subcontractors. No one can afford to purchase land without a due regard for the formalities necessary to insure his securing a good and marketable title. No one can safely spend his money in improving the land acquired unless and until he is assured that the chain of title, which is at once the corner stone and the foundation of the whole enterprise and structure, is sound and complete. No one can afford to enter into a contract of sale without an adequate understanding of its terms and of the mutual obligations which it involves. No one can safely ignore the simple but vastly important matters of title insurance, blanket mortgages, rights of way and easements, and the many other considerations upon which the proper enjoyment of the property depends. No one can intelligently enter into his contract with his architect without a knowledge of what their relations in law really are-of the obligations which he owes to the architect, and of the obligations which the latter owes to him. No one, especially, can safely enter into a contract for the erection of his home unless he knows the advantages and dangers which lurk, for instance, in the cost plus contract, and has a general and sound conception of the relations between himself and the general contractor, and the points which, for his adequate protection, must be safeguarded and properly taken care of in planning the building contract. Many a man proceeds in blissful ignorance of all or many of these fundamental considerations; without regard to flaws in title, to charges incurred as extras, to liens and the claims of subcontractors, or to any of the comparatively few and simple-but mightily important-rules of contracts, real property, and agency, which are involved at every step of the building operation. It will be my purpose to treat these various points in as nontechnical a way as possible-to present them not so much from the legal point of view as from the point of view of the average layman. I shall hope to give to the latter a sufficient understanding of the basic principles involved so that he may know when and on what |