Would you rather buy a house or build a house?

[Lucy68]

Would you rather buy a house and over time fix it up or would you rather buy some land and custom build the house of your dreams

[caring__1]

I bought my first home, but I designed and built my present home and farm. Unlike renting, having a home you can freely alter can be a great learning experience. Learning experience under your belt makes it easier to make sure you get what works best for you. That will reduce the likelihood of disappointment if you just build your first home.

Also, most people aren't prepared to deal with county inspectors and challenges to acquire the building materials you want to use. There will be a lot of frustration and delays. You may may be comfortable taking your time to build your home, but does your partner have the patience to live an extended period of time in a mobile home on the property? There's a lot of noise, clutter and dirt during construction. If your property is in the city, you may be limited as to what will be acceptable. If your property is in the country, be prepared for the extra challenges of country living (more frequent power, Internet and phone outages, delivery of water & propane, critters that steal your crops or are even deadly, dirt roads, lots of dirt, long drive to stores, etc.).

Also, getting a construction loan from a bank means the bank calls all the shots. I had no interest in being pushed by a bank. I got around this by using credit cards with 0% interest for extended periods of time. If the time ran out, I just transferred the balance to a new 0% interest credit card. After I got my certificate of occupancy, I took out a mortgage and paid off my credit cards.

If you are building the home yourself, it will take time, and you'll need help raising walls and such. If you hire contractors, never assume they know what they are doing, no matter how many years they've been working in the industry. I chose to hire a contractor to help install the windows, as I wanted to be able to secure the structure sooner. I spread his men out to install the windows and had him install the French doors. I figured his workers would need more supervision than him, so I went around checking up on them. When I got back to the contractor, I noticed he flushed the doors to the outside of the 2X6 frame. I asked him how doors can open inward if they're flushed to the outside? He realized his mistake and set about reinstalling the door. I came back later and noticed he flushed the doors to the inside of the 2X6 frame. I asked him "Haven't you ever heard of drywall?" He had to install it a 3rd time to clear the drywall... and I was paying him by the hour.

[Lucy68]

Oh wow, thank you so much for the info 😊

[caring__1]

If you have any questions about home building, feel free to ask. Beyond my own home, I also helped build over 100 homes for low income and military families.

[Lucy68]

May I pm you

[caring__1]

Sure

[TheSpaceGnome]

@caring__1 Do you know of any good software for designing a custom house?

[caring__1]

@TheSpaceGnome Sorry, I'm low tech. You can Google "best programs to design homes" and many recommendations will come up. I didn't get my first computer till nearly a decade after I built my home.

[TheSpaceGnome]

Damn, and I tried that, no luck on finding one that can do the job unfortunately.

[caring__1]

@TheSpaceGnome What exactly do you want the program to do? Do you want it to handle the creativity or engineering or drawing or what?

[TheSpaceGnome]

@caring__1 I want it to let me have full manual control over the design without needing to do any 3D modeling.

[caring__1]

@TheSpaceGnome Not many designers want to eliminate 3D rendering from the program, so it will be hard to find 2D programs at this point. What is your resistance to 3D rendering? My son taught himself how to do 3D rendering when he was 10 years old. Are you just looking for a program that allows you to do floor plans with no elevation images?

[caring__1]

Maybe this will offer some suggestions to research.
https://learn.g2.com/free-floor-plan-software

[TheSpaceGnome]

I don't want a 2D program, what I meant is instead of having to 3D model the parts, I want to put it together using building pieces in 3 dimensions. But all the ones with prefab parts that I can find are all basic normal home style, no creative freedom and no building style variation.

[caring__1]

@TheSpaceGnome For kits to be cost effective, the basics can't be customized. They have to be mass produced. You can customize the interior and exterior after you put it together.

[Cubus]

I have an inherited piece of land. I would like to build a house there

[Lucy68]

Smart move ☺️

[Cubus]

Thank you, lady

[Lucy68]

You're welcome

[Cubus]

Thank you for Most Helpful

[Lucy68]

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[SnowedIn]

Custom build. A cabin by the ocean.

[Lucy68]

Peaceful

[SnowedIn]

Very. I'm tired, I confess. I want to hide away in a cabin.

Sadly, life isn't there yet.

[Static_In_The_Attic]

As for me like buying a new car you know what you are getting vs buying a used car or used house in this case. As for me I prefer to buy a new house because I don’t have to worry about replacing stuff for a long time, knock on wood. On the flip side the house I currently live is was four months old when I bought at & it was all because a hurricane & the owners had the house built, a hurricane hit & it was their first hurricane & they were so scared they sold & moved back home after the hurricane. I got my house as a steal & I paid less than what they originally paid for it & now it’s worth twice as much.

[bowenw]

Although building a house can be a headache, a brand new custom home built home is worth it in my opinion, especially if you can find land in a nice location.

[Lucy68]

Smart answer

[bowenw]

😊😊

[Staximus]

There's a lot of really cool old houses with a lot of really uncool problems, like lead paint, asbestos, leaky roof, bad plumbing, etc. I can fix pretty much anything in a house so that's not too much if an issue. I like the really old houses the most, and they have the most problems and the most ghosts. I'm not trying to meet "the ghost with the most". So unless the old house is super cool with great land and no fucked up ghosts, I'd rather build it myself.

[jennifer_bloom]

I love the custom houses you see on tv but I don't know enough about house designs to choose something I would love and want more than a standard house by other professionals.

[exitseven]

Build the house. I had my current home built a long time ago. It is just the way we wanted it.

[MikeTheBartender]

Bought my house, hate fixing shit. Buy for me

[Fireguy17]

I've built 2 houses, both custom homes.
My lake house and the one that is my main residence.
I owned the lot for about 5 years before I got around to getting my main residence built.

[Mansearching]

Build. They way I want it. Would I love to redue house i live in now tho.

[motownplayer2000]

Build. That way I can approve the floor plan and build it the way I want too.

[Kinkyhubby]

Log cabin in the woods

[LiamJHayden]

If property taxes were not an issue, build.

[Jamie05rhs]

BUILD!!

[Lucy68]

Smart choice

[Jamie05rhs]

Thanks!

[Jamie05rhs]

by the way, when you build, you're helping everyone else, because you're increasing the total supply of housing and you're also decreasing demand and competition for the homes that are on the market. So it's a win-win.

[Lucy68]

Well that'll be good

[Jamie05rhs]

Yeah!

[Lookitsmadmax1994]

Build a house.

[Lucy68]

Same

[TheSpaceGnome]

Custom Build

[CubaPirate]

It's all all about the money obviously 🙄

[talka20]

build

[eagle1951]

build