Building a home versus buying?

[BoFuller]

Logical sense says to buy, you can't build anywhere near as cheaply as houses for sale now. Having said that, we are building. We bought 40 acres off the grid and we're going to build a 2 story log home with energy efficient appliances, and everything where we want it. I'm 62 and this is my first complete build. I have done a room addition a couple times. Life's an adventure. Enjoy it! :thumbsup:

 

[20 20]

Case in point.....we have 62 acres in NE Ohio we were planning on building our retirement home in a few more years. Speaking with a wise older friend of ours, he asked why would we build when we can buy a place these days for much cheaper per sq ft than building, and I do think he has a point.
Whether it be a foreclosure, or a property that someone needs to sell, it's most definitely a buyers market.
The biggest advantages I can see with building is you get it designed the way you want, and it's new......buying used, you sacrifice these but spend quite a bit less on an existing home. (paid off sooner) The wife and I are currently discussing this, and trying to figure it out.....
I'd be interested to hear some opinions on this!

I would like to ask a couple of questions, curious.
1st one, when you say you're going to build does that mean you'll actually hold the hammer and saw or does it mean you'll hire out?
2nd one, You have 62 acres of land, is any of it useable timber? If so have you thought about milling your own lumber?

My wife children and I pretty much built our 2000sq 2 story by ourselves. I was lucky enough to mill most of my own lumber. I saved 10's of thousands over even purchasing a double wide. That included everything from electrical to plumbing to the washing machine. We did search our local baragin outlet store for windows door and such saved a bunch.

 

[Barnone]

I've built several houses and rebuilt several old wrecks that should have been torn down. It always took longer and cost more than I planned.

 

[Mousefield]

I'm considering building my first home here in a year or two. I've been considering both sides of the argument, but have heard from some fairly reliable sources I should be able to get a nice house built for about $75-80/sq ft. That's not bad...and it would be on 100 acres our family has.

I really don't want to be in a neighborhood, but if I did, it would be much closer to work and I'd still see my friends fairly regularly. If I build on the 100 acres, I have a feeling I'll have a 12" beard in no time

Edit to add: In the Charleston area, prices of existing homes are still somewhat high as Boeing, Google and others have come to town...as well as all the Yankees with money

We live in a different and very expensive part of the world. Just to build a cheap house is probably in the $150- $170 per sq ft range, with only a few bells and whistles you can easily get over $200 per sq ft fast.
Have given some thought to moving across the country, from the west coast to the east coast. In the province of Nova Scotia there are many homes under $100,00 vs the $650,000 or so we hope to get for ours. We built our present house on land the wife's family had since 1965 but when we move it really doesn't matter where we end up, as long as it's on the right side of the grass. :laughing:

 

[Western]

I think the choice is very personal, depending on your age, ability and financial resources. Our first home was about 15 years old; we lived there about 6 years and I spent a lot of time and money during that 6 years working on the place. Our next home we built; it was about 20 years before we had to remodel. We built exactly like we wanted, but within our limited financial resources. I hate messing with old run down houses (I used to paint houses when I was in college); I think the advantages of building are great, provided that you can afford it. Besides, you can build it on your 62 acres in the exactly where you want it.

In Red, would be one of the biggest assets for me since you have the land already. If it was a city or town lot you where only considering, I would lean towards buying pre-built, or at least give it hard consideration. Might be worth doing a "mock-up" budget for a house of your design, then look at the housing market that is available and compare them to see what would best suit you and the boss vs the financial bonus if any.

 

[300UGUY]

Might want to look at the financing. I've been told that it is very difficult to get a construction loan.

 

[Pilot]

We have built 2 houses and loved the process. When we built the second one customers at my wife's store said, "You'll be getting divorced soon!" Wrong, wrong, wrong, but it depends on how you settle differences.

I was told a year ago that a mid range 2,000 sq. ft. ranch style house would run about $150 per sq. ft., but the builder (who built our present house) was just guessing--there hadn't been any new homes built for awhile and before that he built mostly ego houses, 3,000-4,000 sq. ft.

Summer of 2010 we passed a mobile home lot with units that looked like real houses. Stopped in, chatted with the sales guy and went thru 8 or 10 units. They build and deliver without a roof and add the roof onsite, which lets you get any roofline and eave width you want. Quality looked pretty good. For a 2,000 sq. ft. unit, he said $40-80/ft, depending on what you wanted--quality of carpet, cabinets, etc. Garage, site development, etc. would be extra but that would apply to the stick built cost as well.

If we could find a nice couple acres at an affordable price in a location we want, we would go for a MH, but it would have to be one of those that look just like a site built house.

 

[s219]

We looked at both options. To get what we wanted -- in the country and water views, but affordable and down to earth -- it made more sense to buy a lot and build (we're starting later in the spring). Existing homes were either too rich for our blood, or had some downsides. The good stuff is gone before you hear about it.

I will say this -- builders are hungry for work right now, even the good ones. We hooked up with a builder who would have been out of our reach 4-5 years ago.

I do like the idea of customizing a house specifically for us, from the ground up. It's led us to make some interesting choices that just wouldn't have been possible or feasible with an existing house. For instance, we know the mudroom is important for our lifestyle, so we punted on a traditional front door and foyer and designed a super mudroom with benches, coat racks, shoe cubbies, etc. There is no formal dining room, and no formal sitting room. I am getting a nice conditioned workshop space. The laundry room will be upstairs near the bedrooms. And if we get too old for stairs but want to stay in that house, up/down closet space is setup to convert into a lift or elevator (or a chain hoist hooked to a lawn chair if money is a problem ).

As long as we're going to go to the trouble of moving and changing our lifestyles, I'd just as soon build the place of our dreams. If money was a factor between building custom and buying an existing house, I'd probably be of the mind to punt on both those options and stay put where we are. We're certainly happy and lucky to have a good house now. The new place is more about pursuing our dreams. Come to think if it, that's really the first time we have done that in a serious way.

 

[eagleeyetv]

My wife and I just went through this. We had a 3 1/2 acre piece of land for 7 years. We were trying to design the house to retire in. 2500 Sq. Ft. ranch style with 3/0 doors. 4 designs later, we landed on the right plan. After the 3rd, we gave up on the dream and decided to buy an existing home just down the road. Give up on the dream and punt. Within 5 days of making the decision to buy instead of build, we found out about some structural issues . We went from balls to the wall ready to move, to full stop in about an hour. We moved into our new house that we had built, supervised by me one year exactly from the near catastrophy. If we hadn't had a good inspection, we could have been in the "Money Pit" with all of the nightmares. Now we know everything about every inch of this house and I have my new tractor!:thumbsup:. Sure we could have saved about $100K, but I have an incredible sense of accomplishment. It was about $110 a Sq. Ft. to build and I'm very satisfied.

 

[Obed]

Frank, great question. As you know, we recently built on 30 acres and moved into our new house about a year ago. We wanted to buy instead of build. However, after seriously house and land shopping for about 2 years, we could not find something we liked that we were willing to pay the asking price. We were looking for 2 things that made shopping difficult. 1) Ranch/single storey. 2) Acreage. Looking for a ranch house made our shopping extremely tough. Builders don't build ranch houses much anymore. Even most houses in the country around here are 2 storeys.

We started shopping about a year after prices hit the peak. We thought the prices were inflated and were not willing to pay what people were asking. We were right but that didn't make buyers want to sell to us. Sellers hadn't yet realized the real (lower) value of their properies. Finally we got tired of shopping and bought vacant land and built our house. By the time we started building, the bubble burst in the financial and housing markets. If we had waited a little longer, we might have found an existing house on land we wanted.

Yes we are enjoying our new house. We were able to spec out things the way we wanted. However, there's a high cost in doing so, a very high cost. Very few people can build a custom home that would sell for as much as what it cost to build. I doubt we could sell our house and property for what we have in it. Heck, $12K for the well, $5K for the underground electric, $30K for the gravel driveway, clearing the lot, septic system, and the excavation work, $2K for the survey, $750 for the building permit. There's almost $50K gone without even starting the foundation. That money is gone, I mean gone. I'll never see it again. Now add in the high end windows, all hardwood floors, high end fireplace, claw foot tub, tile shower, 3 porches, extra large garage, all the living space on one floor, and all the other nice things you'll want to do because you have the opportunity. Before you know it, you will have paid a heavy price, one that you'll never get back if you ever need to or want to sell.

Now let's talk about the quality of life while building the house. I have heard it said again and again, "Building will put a strain on your marriage." I can attest to the truth of that statement. As we dealt with the low quality standards of most of the laborers and subs,, it caused stress between me as the Mrs. One of us would want to fire a sub and the other wouldn't because of not wanting to start over finding another sub. Or you have disagreements about the design. Plus there's stress over the schedule. And if you have a construction loan (which we didn't), multiply the stress level because you can't do some things the way they need to be done because of the bank's schedule or rules. Plan on devoting almost every waking minute of your life for two years while planning for and building the house. If you enjoy that sort of thing, you'll have fun. If you don't, you'll be miserable.

With that all said, the key words are PATIENCE and COMPROMISE. If you can be patient and not real picky, I would buy not build. Then you can wait until the right place comes along, even if it takes 5 or 10 years. If you can't be patient or are picky, then building may be the route to take.

We had to leave where we were living so we needed to do something. So we weren't PATIENT. Also, we were picky. Single storey house on acreage without mold, mildew, or foundation issues, and in a nice area. We weren't willing to COMPROMISE. Thus we built our house instead of buying an existing house. But we paid dearly, both in dollars and in stress.

Good luck with your decision.

Obed