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
