Yup - had the ability (and even tried last downturn) to buy but was consistantly outbid by overseas (and domestic) cash, after 10+ years of trying I finally decided to buy land and go through all the red-tape and expense of buiding something new. Turning houses into financial instruments was a real mistake.
Was building new worth it?
I’m interested in this but I have no idea what all is required.
I’ll let you know when it’s all done lol - it’s a long and expensive process!
Also interested in updates on your saga, as I am also on the wrong side of 35 and in similar straits 🥲
You mean the better side brother, ohhh yeaahh!
Building something myself is something I’ve thought a bit about. Most things I read try to talk me out of it but when there’s no decent home inventory there’s no decent home inventory. There are also advantages of being able to customize stuff.
Do you have an expectation of how much it will cost relative to existing homes in the area you’re building in? Of course one of the things you’re supposed to plan for is cost overruns lol but I’m still curious how expensive you expect it to end up being.
Some of the gotchas I’ve encountered:
- Land is very hard to finance, I ended up saving until I could buy cash
- Building ‘on-grid’ would have saved a lot in permitting and setup (luckily I had electric service at the road). If you are going off-grid, I would check the permitting requirements for sewage/water and the average depth of wells near your spot, this can get expensive quick if you have to drill deep.
- I’m working with an architect atm but we’ve pivoted to using ICF blocks for wall construction as they are made in the USA and tariffs would have killed me otherwise.
I would expect the cost of the building, using the highest quality materials (not luxury) to still beat (by like 100k) the cost of buying an equivalant old home in the area I purchased; however, if we are talking pre-housing-price-explosion of the last few years, I would say building would be more expensive.
Wow that’s pretty great savings, a lot of what I saw basically said to expect to pay over a normal listing. Seems like a pretty good deal considering the amount of customization I assume you get, you just need somewhere to live while it’s building.
Do you have any resources for what you used to plan your build? Or did you mostly hire professionals to figure it out?
Yup in a ‘normal’ housing market I would totally expect to pay more to do a custom build. House builders are like walmart, they get volume deals that you don’t have access to building a single unit. I used 'Sweet Home 3d" (basically sketchup light just for buildings) to plan the house/site over several months before using online estimators for material as a ballpark, now finally working with a professional. For site planning I hired the geotechnical engineers and the waste water engineers to submit their findings/blessings to the county.
