scross
join:2002-09-13
Cordova, TN | reply to herdfan
Re: Looking at maybe building a house, what should I know or ask said by herdfan:Oh I would. I loved it, but then again I didn'tt do turn key. I hired a PM and let him go find the subs, but I got to approve them and what they were putting in. Put 70% of materials on my AMEX card and when I was done, took a very nice trip off the points.
Plus, I l got to go in a do some work myself. Add the touches a turn key builder won't.
Well, the last discussion I remember having about this (before the big real estate collapse) centered around finding the "perfect" location and clearing the land, only to unexpectedly discover the need to spend an extra $10,000 or $20,000 or something like that upfront for foundation prep - driving piles, pouring deep concrete piers, and so on. They were downsizing anyway, but in the end I think they ended up building an even smaller house than they'd originally intended. "Never again!", they said.
On the flip side, if you could do a considerable portion of the work yourself - even if it was just the cosmetic pieces - then pride of craftsmanship and ownership might play a big role. Maybe the secret to quality construction here is to do that very thing - let the contractor handle the infrastructure and the hidden stuff, and make sure that he does that right, and then you handle much of the visible stuff yourself. |
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| Thanks for the info so far everyone. |
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 ToadmanHypnotoad
join:2001-11-28
Ohio
kudos:1 | I fully agree with the other comments that there is a gut-load of quality homes on the market right now, and you can get them for much less than what you can build. If you really can't find what you are looking for either you are not looking hard enough or you need to wait a few weeks and something will come on the market.
I purchased my home about a year and a half ago and it depreciated almost 50% from when it was originally purchased back in 2005. The people who used to own it took a major hit. We also (wife and I) looked at 30 homes prior to purchasing the one I was in. I must say it was an irritant because my wife became very picky since there was so much on the market.
I purchased my new home from an existing owner, it wasn't a shortsale and it wasn't in foreclosure, the house was very well maintained, and I put very, very little money in it, just to move in.
What I am saying is the right homes do exist out there, you don't have to dump ten's of thousands of dollars to make it right. You can also buy for much less than build, get higher quality and save that money to do the small upgrades that you would like, such as better landscaping, expanding the deck, or well, having a lower mortgage~~~
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This post is made with meat biproducts. |
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Reviews:
 ·AT&T Southwest
 ·Charter
| reply to rbnice1
There are some really good local contractors who will charge you a really good price. I almost vomited when I was looking for a new house and, when I told one agent where we lived, she told me how wonderful the builder was. Having built the home and lived there for 20 something years, I know the builder was NOT "wonderful".
We bought a small home owned by a lady going to a nursing home. It was clean but not maintained or updated in many, many years. The original plan was to take our time and do what we could on our own and contract out what we couldn't. But my wife and her brother conived against me and updated everything in "4 to 6 weeks" going on 14 weeks.
If you can put up with that hassle, it's really a great way to find a place where you want to live and turn it into what you want if you can imagine that in what you've got.
We bought this house in west St. Louis county for 2/3 what the surrounding homes are listed at. We were surprised when we sold our St. Charles home in eight weeks and got our price last year. Since then, the value has dropped significantly out there. |
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| reply to rbnice1
It is cheaper to buy now than build a house. For the money you will put in a new house you will buy bigger one I mean not new but 5 - 10 years old but still... Area? Prices for houses went down everywhere - somewhere more somewhere less and before making a decision find out the real price someone bought or sell the house in the place you like now - not 4 - 5 years ago and ask the builder how much it will cost to build the same. If the money to an issue at all than yes - build the house of your dream. |
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 nunyaWho is John Galt?Premium,MVM
join:2000-12-23
O Fallon, MO
kudos:5
·Charter
 ·voip.ms
| reply to rbnice1
One really nice thing about Fenton / Valley Park - from about 1985 to 1995, there were select groves of quality new homes built. Since Chrysler closed, a plethora of these homes are now bank owned and cheap.
These houses are new enough to be well insulated and have newer systems compared to the houses built in the 50's and 60's.
In the mid 90's, the "cookie cutters" took over.
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...because I care. |
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| said by nunya:One really nice thing about Fenton / Valley Park - from about 1985 to 1995, there were select groves of quality new homes built. Since Chrysler closed, a plethora of these homes are now bank owned and cheap.
These houses are new enough to be well insulated and have newer systems compared to the houses built in the 50's and 60's.
In the mid 90's, the "cookie cutters" took over.
Yes and Fenton is one of the area's we are looking in. The one problem point is 1 of our must haves is a 3 car garage and most of what was built in Fenton was all 2 car garages or is in Northwest shcool district. All the new stuff in Fenton is 50% 3 car garages but way out of our price range. We did look at a 2 story in Fenton but the basements on all the newer 2 storys are incredibly small as are the 2nd and 3rd bed rooms. We have actually looked at 10-12 houses in the Fenton area all together. |
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nunyaWho is John Galt?Premium,MVM
join:2000-12-23
O Fallon, MO
kudos:5 Reviews:
·Charter
·voip.ms
| I've always been particularly fond of the Kirkwood / Des Peres area (not sure if that's on your list). I was perusing the the MLS and say a lot of bargains in the area. I saw one or two houses that I know were in the 400's a few years ago going in the 225-250 range.
Have you considered buying a place where you could build a detached garage or possible add on to an existing garage?
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...because I care. |
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| said by nunya:I've always been particularly fond of the Kirkwood / Des Peres area (not sure if that's on your list). I was perusing the the MLS and say a lot of bargains in the area. I saw one or two houses that I know were in the 400's a few years ago going in the 225-250 range.
Have you considered buying a place where you could build a detached garage or possible add on to an existing garage?
We actually looked at a small 1.5 story in kirkwood that we loved, but it only had a small 2 car garage and no room to add on. Des Peres is also on our list as well as Valley Park, Sunset Hills, Afton, Mehlville, Oakville, Arnold, Imperial, Lindberg, Twin Oaks, and a few others farther east.
As far as getting something and adding on, is also a possibility, however most houses don't have enough room. But we are keeping that as a option. |
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 HallPremium,MVM
join:2000-04-28
Dayton, OH
kudos:1 | reply to rbnice1
said by rbnice1: The problem with existing is if we find one we like, they my not allow a contract with contingency. And I wont buy a house till ours is sold. That makes building more preferable. we can get exactly what we want(Maybe.... depends total costs.) and they will start building as soon as our house is sold. Where will you live in the meantime ? The people we bought our house from were having a home built and wanted us to give them 90 days before occupancy (their house was planned to be finished by then). We told them, "no, no, no 30 days" knowing they would lose the sale and also knowing they had 2-3 previous "offers" fall through. |
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| said by Hall: Where will you live in the meantime ? The people we bought our house from were having a home built and wanted us to give them 90 days before occupancy (their house was planned to be finished by then). We told them, "no, no, no 30 days" knowing they would lose the sale and also knowing they had 2-3 previous "offers" fall through.
Well depends on when ours sells. We have kids in school so we will want to stay in our current area till after school is over then most likely an apartment close to where we build so we can keep a eye on things. |
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nunyaWho is John Galt?Premium,MVM
join:2000-12-23
O Fallon, MO
kudos:5 Reviews:
·Charter
·voip.ms
| reply to rbnice1
One thing people often forget in the excitement of buying a new home: Is broadband available? Or more precisely, is reliable low cost BB available? You can get BB just about anywhere, but it may be less than desirable (ISDN, slow DSL, Satellite, 3G or 4G wireless).
While there aren't too many black holes in this area, they do still exist. If you jog through the Telco / Cableco forums here, every few days you'll see a post by some disgruntled S.O.B. posting about how unfair life is, or that he's going to sue the world - all because they bought a new house in a "black hole".
If BB access is important, I would go so far as to make it a contingency in your offer.
Ex: BB service faster than XX Mbps downlaod and X Mbps upload at price not to exceed $XX.00 / month must be readily available at this location. The installation cost shall not exceed $XXX.00
Not long ago in the Charter forum, some poor SOB bought a house after Charter told him BB was available. They sent a tech out, and there isn't cable service anywhere around. Charter wants $12,000.00 to bring the cable into the subdivision. BB was apparently very important to this guy, but he didn't put anything in writing, so he's SOL. He'll be stuck paying for a more expensive, and probably much slower, broadband solution.
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| said by nunya:One thing people often forget in the excitement of buying a new home: Is broadband available? Or more precisely, is reliable low cost BB available? You can get BB just about anywhere, but it may be less than desirable (ISDN, slow DSL, Satellite, 3G or 4G wireless).
While there aren't too many black holes in this area, they do still exist. If you jog through the Telco / Cableco forums here, every few days you'll see a post by some disgruntled S.O.B. posting about how unfair life is, or that he's going to sue the world - all because they bought a new house in a "black hole".
If BB access is important, I would go so far as to make it a contingency in your offer.
Ex: BB service faster than XX Mbps downlaod and X Mbps upload at price not to exceed $XX.00 / month must be readily available at this location. The installation cost shall not exceed $XXX.00
Not long ago in the Charter forum, some poor SOB bought a house after Charter told him BB was available. They sent a tech out, and there isn't cable service anywhere around. Charter wants $12,000.00 to bring the cable into the subdivision. BB was apparently very important to this guy, but he didn't put anything in writing, so he's SOL. He'll be stuck paying for a more expensive, and probably much slower, broadband solution.
Broadband would be a primary concern to me. I am on my computer almost always if I am at home. Whether I am playing video games with friends or just chatting in teamspeak while we watch TV.
All the places I am looking at have good broadband options.
But thanks for bringing that up. If I hadn't remembered and ended up somewhere with no broad band I would have been very very very unhappy. |
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 DrexBeer...The other white meat.Premium
join:2000-02-24
La Place, LA
kudos:1
 ·AT&T U-Verse
| reply to nunya
said by nunya:Cookie Cutter GC's do a fantastic job of making a house look nice from outward appearances. They are very adept at "sugar-coating". That's how they make money. They cut corners on the things most people don't care about - all the systems and construction that you don't see in a finished product. Out of sight, out of mind.
Couldn't agree more with this statement. Our first (and current) home was of the "Cookie Cutter" variety. I curse that builder every day.
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Not only does Jesus save, but he makes nightly off-site backups. |
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