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Author Topic: Building a new home  (Read 2473 times)

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vl

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Building a new home
« on: February 18, 2014, 02:24:30 PM »
For individuals who built their own home?  How to find a builder?  Any tips on where to build?  Did you buy your own land?

My budget is $350k for the home itself and I'm looking to build a ramble or 2 story.  Please share any advice on this.



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zena

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Re: Building a new home
« Reply #1 on: February 20, 2014, 01:53:06 PM »
Why do you want to build?

Our home was built 4 years ago.  We picked the neighborhood we're in because of the safety, good schools, and the outdoor aesthetics.  We had looked at this neighborhood a few years before we built but we weren't big into this neighborhood at that time, plus, we were set on a different builder (who has btw, filed for bankruptcy) who didn't build in this area but further down south from where we currently live.  There was a private builder along with the mass producing home builder companies in this area.  The private homes went for $500K and up and we were in no place to buy such a home (and really don't ever want to even if we could afford to), so we went with the mass builder, Meritage.  They actually did a good job.  The construction manager was helpful and explained a lot of stuff we didn't know so I was pretty impressed with that.  Of course, when the homes were done being built, he was transferred to a different location.  Then, Meritage purchased the land from the private builder because they had a difficult time selling their homes and Meritage began building again.  This time they brought in a new construction manager who really didn't do a good job with answering questions and stuff so we just left it at that.  All that was a couple of years ago.  We haven't needed anything else from the builder sense.

My FIL owns land and had wanted to build on it.  He contacted a few private builders but they were always trying to sell stuff and it made him uncomfortable.  He's got $$$ and he's afraid to reveal to them how much he's worth because he thinks they will trick him into giving all his money away...LOL!  Anyway, he gave up on building about a year ago.  Now, he's not doing so well (old age) so he's just staying put in the house husband grew up in.



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Offline thePoster

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Re: Building a new home
« Reply #2 on: February 22, 2014, 10:56:05 PM »
Ummmm....

Alot of hmongs build houses by themselves...

Literally.....

Sure they contract for some stuff...

But I remember helping uncles nail up and put up fondations.... .

Those houses were nice too.




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I went through all 15k posts and those 2 quotes I found were the only ones so I guess that would make it "everytime".  Feel free to go through all 15k posts and verify by quoting them all.  You need to quote them all to verifying prove "everytime".   Please verify that Im wrong.

vl

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Re: Building a new home
« Reply #3 on: February 25, 2014, 11:10:06 AM »
Why do you want to build?


I would really like to design my own home.  I've been browsing the market for a couple years now but the layout of the homes I'm looking is not what I'm looking for.  Basically I'm looking for a huge living room, large kitchen and a few other things about the layout that I have not found in the homes I looked at.  Also location is a factor as well; don't want anything close to the neighbors. 



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zena

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Re: Building a new home
« Reply #4 on: February 25, 2014, 12:02:42 PM »
I would really like to design my own home.  I've been browsing the market for a couple years now but the layout of the homes I'm looking is not what I'm looking for.  Basically I'm looking for a huge living room, large kitchen and a few other things about the layout that I have not found in the homes I looked at.  Also location is a factor as well; don't want anything close to the neighbors. 

I C.  Do you already have land that you want to build on?  Here's something I found online if you hadn't seen it yet. It's a step-by-step process to building your own home. http://www.wikihow.com/Build-a-House

I would be too nervous to build my own home so I'd likely go with a private builder (if I could afford it, but as mentioned, nothing expensive), or what my husband and I did, build through a mass home builder, and live within the confines of the suburbia cookie-cutter homes.  Luckily, our home isn't so cookie cutter but it's weird to drive down the road and see a house that looks exactly like ours but with different paint color.

Good luck in your process!  I'm excited for you.  I hope that when you do build that you take lots of photos and share some.  I'm always fascinated with the looks of a house or building going up.  :)






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TheNewGuy

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Re: Building a new home
« Reply #5 on: March 02, 2014, 12:09:27 AM »
I thought about building my own home.  The only reason I wanted to build a home was because I wanted something out in the countryside with a couple of acres and a custom home.  It was going to cost the same as buying one that was 10 years old with the same amount of land.

When I was looking into building one, the cost was $90-100 per sq ft for the lower end homes and the higher end homes were $100-140 per sq ft.  I wanted something in the 3000 sq ft so say 3000 sq ft (X) $100 would be $300k.  Land, power line, water well, sewage, and road will be extra.  The only down side is it'll take 6-12 months for them to finalize and build your home. 

The negatives:

- The bad things was I had to pay the mortgage when they start building my home.
- Drilling for water well can be very expensive.  If they drill and can't find water and keep drilling then it can go to $100k and still find no water.
- Electricity can be expensive depending where the nearest power pole is.  If there's power right by the street where you are building then it's cheap.  If the power is a block away then they'll charge you by each pole they install.
- Propane versus natural gas.  Because I wanted to live in the countryside I'll have to go with a propane tank and it can get expensive.  In the winter propane will cost $4+ per gallon.  In the summer it'll go down to sub $1's.  I just got my 250 gallon tank filled and cost me $600.  The only thing I'm running on propane is two water heaters because my house is 3,000 sq ft and I have two water heaters on each end of the house.  The other is my propane stove.  Depending on how much you use propane, it usually last me 6 months.
- You'll have to pay for someone to come pump and take your sewage away

In the end I bought a custom home that was 20 years old instead.  It's been over a year and the price of the house has gone up over $100k already so it was a good gamble.  I got it cheaper than building a custom brand new one.  The bad thing was it wasn't new and I had to replace both water heaters already.  Overall I think it was a good purchase.  I bought it when the housing market wasn't as good.  This house went up to 3/4 million during the crazy housing price hike! 


« Last Edit: March 02, 2014, 12:16:39 AM by TheNewGuy »

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Sifu

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Re: Building a new home
« Reply #6 on: April 22, 2014, 09:48:09 AM »
Depending on your location $350k total will not get you a very large 'custom' house.  $350k is good for a modular home but then you didn't mention the land.  Then there's the price for contractors and never in my lifetime have I ever seen a contractor finish on time and within budget.  This isn't to say they are shady but things happen.  You just learn to have extra money for when this does happen (and it does happen).
As stated by others there's still the cost of land, laying foundation, piping, electrical, hvac, and codes codes permits and zoning and codes.  Custom houses require someone to double-triple check housing codes.  This costs money and a lot of time.  You could hire a contractor to do this but its easy money for them. 
"oh that room doesn't fit the zoning or code laws, it'll have to go down so you have to pay for us to remove it, re-supply and re-pay for us to put it up right."
Not to persuade you from looking into it but first find your ideal location and get the zoning, housing rules.  See if your layout is acceptable (room sizes, ceiling clearances, stairs, exits, doors, windows, hvac, piping, electrical) and then ask the city about putting up your house there.  Not every city is keen to just add a new road, piping or electrical infrastructure s to areas that have little return to them.  I'm sure money fixes this though (every county is different).
Good luck!



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