Buildt my own..16 months..Hated mudding and taping..lol..When people say i love your house i can take pride in saying thank you i buildt it myself..
To mbhunt: Currently it's a quarter section of cattle pasture. We plan on having cattle at some point in the remaining 140 acres, but I don't want them in the front yard. The fence will help separate the native cattle pasture from the fescue I've got growing where the yard is to be. The fence will also keep the cattle out of my food plots on the north side of the acreage once I open that gate to make a pinch point for deer movement.
Alright, bumping this back to the top for more thoughts. We've been through the ringer the last few months searching for property, talking to a few builders, doing more research, touring a few homes with some land, put an offer in on a sizable chunk of ground, got outbid by over $100K, etc., etc. I'm starting to come back to the realization that, A. Land is so hard to come by, and that which does come by, fetches a premium that would make building almost impossible when it's all said and done. B. Homes WITH land (10 acres and less) are rare, but not as rare as raw land here. Option B was NEVER an option for me, but we're starting to consider it partially due to A, and partially because you can buy MORE home for your money than build. So, for those new members here with experience buying and/or building, let's hear your thoughts.
Well Im 40 and since I was married at 28 the wife and I have only lived in two homes. Both of which I built myself. I am licensed GC but no longer work in the industry at all. However, I still keep my license active. I could not imagine buying a pre-owned home unless it was some type of speciality project like a condo, second home or impeccably maintained. I have seen so many god awful shortcuts taken on houses built over the last 60 years it could fill up a book. As for the "they don't make em like they used too crowd", its a good thing they don't. Older homes don't hold a candle to a well built modern, engineered,efficient home. I have built my house to be serviceable, efficient and cheap to own. That meant spending more up front, but honestly its all I've known. Just about every time I look in a more urban setting, I resolve myself that a potential project would almost have to be a tear down. So many of our friends bought older homes in close-in neighborhoods and have sunk countless fortunes on the most basic of things. Failing footings, rotted wood, buried oil tanks, lumber too small for modern loads, bad elcetrical, poor insulation etc. I really see it when we visit friends in "Rust Belt" cities. Its sad to say, however, when house shopping and the price of homes are so cheap, most owners neglect even basic maintenance since the cost of material and goods have skyrocketed. So when a house in WV is only 75,000, its painful and not even affordable to put in a $10,000 HVAC system. So the house keeps getting more and more run down. Kind of like a car at some point the sum of the parts is worth more then whole. On the other end of the spectrum you have modern production builders who are cranking out homes that can't be worked on at all. A giant 3000 sq ft slab house would be a nightmare at some point when the drains and piping buried underneath need to be replaced. Find a good quality custom builder and compromise on size and take a well built designed home any day. If renovating, just gut the whole thing and lay it bare.
When my son graduates high school we are going to move. I own 60 acres my wife would like to build there. I would prefer to buy a home if one of the neighbors sells. Matt will graduate in 2016. I would like to move by 2018 but need our economy to rebound. Our house is worth $60,000.00 less than it was in 2005. Really hope economy turns and one of the neighbors wants to sell, doubt it will happen but I can dream. Our next house if we build will be way smaller than what we have now.
I would've loved to build a house so that it would be exactly what I want. But, my wife and I bought her great grandmothers house and completely remodeled everything. The whole main level inside is completely done and the outside should be finished by the middle of next week. We bought the house for 20k, and initially invested around 75k for a complete gut job and remodel on the inside. The outside is going to cost roughly 40k. We will have an awesome home once the outside is complete, but I still wish that we couldve just had the land and built new. We could've had something the same size and have the layout exactly as we wanted instead of making due. It's still gonna be pretty sweet though, especially for something built in 1917.
If it was going to be my dream house or on my property then it would be a build. If its just a temp house then I would buy one already built.
I was always on the side of building new ensures everything is the way you want it, and it is to an extent. However, when you look at it from a $/sq.foot especially when you start talking a mid-upper custom with lots of upgrades, it's a huge savings to buy. I don't realistically think even at an average of ~$130-$150/sq.ft in our area not including land price (which really will drive the cost up in our area), driveway, site excavation, septic, well, permitting, etc., we would be able to build a home that we want. We have one really excellent builder who does great, non-cookie cutter homes (he did this one ), but he comes in at over $200/sq.ft.
