Building a house vs buying

[Frankie the Fink]

I've built 3 houses,one in Tidewater, VA, another right outside of Wash DC in Alexandra, VA and my current home near Orlando, FL. Even with a great builder, it can be stressful, with many hassles and changes along the way. One quick example, my current lakefront FL home required a "stem wall" for support in adding a swimming pool and a raised lanai. Turns out it would be the first one on the lake, so we spent weeks going round and round with permits, engineering reports, inspections, etc. Now EVERYbody on the lake has one.
And I had an incredible asset because the wife is a construction contracting officer with the US Army and oversaw most of the details.

A move-in ready home, if it meets your needs may be the ticket.... You just came off one stressful, life changing event (divorce) it may pay not to jump into another.

[snide]

Originally Posted by LATB

On top of 30+ years of building for others (spec and pre sold) we built plenty for ourselves. I think the current build is #11 or 12. Along with probably 15 or more moves.

My wife is a saint. I call her SuperWife.

Pics?

Originally Posted by SuperWipe

What a coincidence, my wifey has been known to call me SuperWipe.

That is going to stick.

[LATB]

Originally Posted by snide

Pics?

[donuts]

Originally Posted by NoOne

Pros/Cons?

We will be ready to move in 6mo, post divorce, blah blah blah.

Dollar for dollar how much more is building? Figure 2 acres from what I can see about 8 miles north of the area we frequent with easy access is about 100K.

This house came up and it is exactly what we are looking for but not ready to move yet:

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1...83451787_zpid/


We would like to build something similar, out of 18 months of getting listings this was the first we thought we would be interested in. Came out of a custom home that we completely redid.

If we were to build we'd start soon, at least buy the land but trying to figure out what is worth the hassle and what is not.

We like the idea of custom but we also don't want to invest 18-24 months. We know exactly what we like and want.

Here in Oklahoma you can buy nice existing home for $150/ft or build new for $200/ft.. and it’s nothing special , just new . We attempted to build several times and always bought existing because it just wasn’t worth the hassle .

[Don Rickles]

Either way, you make the money.....on THE BUY! PERIOD!

[LATB]

Originally Posted by Don Rickles

Either way, you make the money.....on THE BUY! PERIOD!

Not always true. I have built value that would not have been there without my efforts. I’ve also built my way out of a lot that was overvalued.

[Don Rickles]

Originally Posted by LATB

Not always true. I have built value that would not have been there without my efforts. I’ve also built my way out of a lot that was overvalued.

But still, my point will be found to be true in 99% of the times. You and I can't include ourselves, we can cut costs that others can't. Even then, the profits are built in from the land purchase.

Anyone can scrimp and save while building a home. The real money comes from the original buy. My properties have doubled my costs every build. THat's right, the day the homes finish they sell for twice what it costs me! I buy only from motivated sellers and what I call trouble lots.

If the OP can do some labor helping to bring down some numbers, but sweat equity ain't free....

And I like a brand new building to live in!

[NoOne]

I'd have no problem with time commitment in the short term. Being on site and all that but 18 months would be the outside of what we want.

Large scale project management isn't a problem for either of us, nor is expecting what we want from suppliers.

Never built a house but did build our last office(ground up), and refurbs on others. Been involved in 70K+sq ft ground up projects.

Entertaining space is big for us, we saw a model that we loved too far away from us that had 14' ceilings in the basement, it was a stunning look with a walk in wine storage. Storage is another thing, deeper than normal space between walls for hidden storage, deeper cabinets, large pantries.

99 percent of subdivision's in Michigan do not allow fences unless you have a pool so we've only been looking at homes with pools.

Outside of subs your either looking at very old homes or building which was another consideration so we could do fencing for the dogs.

The labor we could do, or I could get my employees to do, is just low voltage which I would have a ton of but not traditionally something that is included in the cost of a home.

[LATB]

Originally Posted by Don Rickles

But still, my point will be found to be true in 99% of the times. You and I can't include ourselves, we can cut costs that others can't. Even then, the profits are built in from the land purchase.

Anyone can scrimp and save while building a home. The real money comes from the original buy. My properties have doubled my costs every build. THat's right, the day the homes finish they sell for twice what it costs me! I buy only from motivated sellers and what I call trouble lots.

If the OP can do some labor helping to bring down some numbers, but sweat equity ain't free....

And I like a brand new building to live in!

You are correct. I have built homes only to realize that I could have flipped the lot and made about the same amount of money.

Matter of fact I started doing exactly that. Buying lots and flipping them for profit.

[Bill]

Originally Posted by NoOne

I'd have no problem with time commitment in the short term. Being on site and all that but 18 months would be the outside of what we want.

Large scale project management isn't a problem for either of us, nor is expecting what we want from suppliers.

Never built a house but did build our last office(ground up), and refurbs on others. Been involved in 70K+sq ft ground up projects.

Entertaining space is big for us, we saw a model that we loved too far away from us that had 14' ceilings in the basement, it was a stunning look with a walk in wine storage. Storage is another thing, deeper than normal space between walls for hidden storage, deeper cabinets, large pantries.

99 percent of subdivision's in Michigan do not allow fences unless you have a pool so we've only been looking at homes with pools.

Outside of subs your either looking at very old homes or building which was another consideration so we could do fencing for the dogs.

The labor we could do, or I could get my employees to do, is just low voltage which I would have a ton of but not traditionally something that is included in the cost of a home.

Buy used above ground pool, or maybe find one in disrepair for free. Set it up, take pictures, get fence approval, put up fence, remove pool after fence is complete.

How does anyone have dogs with no fenced back yards?

[MidLifeinMI]

Originally Posted by bill_daniels

Buy used above ground pool, or maybe find one in disrepair for free. Set it up, take pictures, get fence approval, put up fence, remove pool after fence is complete.

How does anyone have dogs with no fenced back yards?

Our next-door and across-the-street neighbors, both with 2+ acre lots, both have large dogs and invisible fences. They seem to work well.

[NoOne]

Originally Posted by bill_daniels

Buy used above ground pool, or maybe find one in disrepair for free. Set it up, take pictures, get fence approval, put up fence, remove pool after fence is complete.

How does anyone have dogs with no fenced back yards?

Originally Posted by MidLifeinMI

Our next-door and across-the-street neighbors, both with 2+ acre lots, both have large dogs and invisible fences. They seem to work well.

Bully breed and no physical fence is just asking for problems even if it's not your dog that is the problem.

[LATB]

Even in a rural setting, pet owners are legally required to have their pets under control. And that usually means..fence or leash.

[MidLifeinMI]

Originally Posted by NoOne

Bully breed and no physical fence is just asking for problems even if it's not your dog that is the problem.

I get that; invisible fence doesn't keep OUT any other animals. Our neighbors' 2 dogs (malamute & boxer) seem to be very content within their boundaries, and because our street only has 13 houses and just a handful of dogs (always leashed when out walking), there haven't been any "incursion incidents" that I'm aware of.