Your starter home is often your first step toward financial security because whether you stay in the home for many years and renovate it to meet your needs or roll over its equity into a larger home in the future. In either case, the floor plan of the home is a key factor in your comfort while living there and the architectural support services value and desirability of the home when it finally comes time to sell it.

Developing an ideal floor plan for a starter home is not a complicated process, but it does require identifying some basic needs that you cannot do without. The ideal floor plan for your family may be different than someone else's starter floor plan, and here are a few ways to judge what is right for your particular starter home.

Make sure that the home has the basics. For your ideal floor plan, know up front what your home is going to need, from number of bedrooms to a suitable number of bathrooms. Automatically eliminate any home that does not offer this basic floor plan and you will quickly begin to narrow down the selection to something much more manageable in your chosen area. Once you know that the home has the basics, you can begin to eliminate based on other criteria.

Choosing the number of bedrooms is not simply a matter of counting the people in your family. For instance, if your family consists of you and your husband, you may not need two bedrooms in your starter home. On the other hand, if you have a son and daughter, they will each need a room, bringing the total to a minimum of three. Sometimes children of the same gender can share a bedroom, as can roommates or housemates on occasion.

The same goes for the number of bathrooms that will be suitable for your home. Try to plan for at least two people to share each bathroom, and more can share if the bathroom is in an easily accessible part of the home. Reserve the master suite for the homeowner, and use the guest bathroom for other members of the family. Young children can easily share bathroom space, up to three or four children, without any serious issues developing until the teen years.

Know the terminology that applies to your starter home. Do you know the difference between an eat-in kitchen and formal dining room? This is the type of information that can keep you from wasting time and effort as you search for the ideal floor plan for a starter home. Learn the names for amenities that are important to your family and make sure that the home you choose meets those needs.

If developing an ideal floor plan for a starter home becomes too much of a challenge, consider having floor plans drafted and a home built. It can be a lot more costly, but it saves you the hassle of visiting home after home only to be disappointed when things are not what you were hoping for. This is a good option for those with very specific needs, and those who are very picky.