Anybody done it locally? how was the price differance vs say buying one. Problem is me and the misses are pretty picky and i think buying a house that we like we are either going to buy somebody’s flip house (throwing out a bunch of $$ in the proccess) or buying a crappier house and putting $ in to fix it up, which i dont want to do. as i dont have a big savings to do that on my own
So i think building a house may be a better option. so anybody have any tips?
My uncle does it for a living, saved a ton of money contracting it himself. Def the way to go.
Did my cousins home for a tad under 300k, sold it last month for 650k. Only problem with contracting it yourself is that you have to devote alot of time to deal with issues that arise, and that a contractor usually would deal with.
not a big deal… i can handle that, im a project mgr here, and my father has a bunch of general contractors as friends… and i could always live @ my parents house to save $$ during the proccess
what are your thoughts about buying a prefab house?
any resources/books to pickup so i can make an educated decision?
Then you probably shouldn’t be thinking about building new. My neighbors just built a very nice house and we went over for dinner to listen to how the whole process went. You need a decent savings because there are so many little things that come up during the building process.
Henceforth why i am trying to find resources like this to guide my decision.
Being ths son of a custom home builder in OP for 25 yrs., I would advise against contracting it yourself. The number of hidden costs and headaches that will arise is so not worth it.
In Buffalo, I would seriously consider buying something needs TLC and attention at a good price. If you are willing to contract a new house yourself, you can contract a renovation.
being a proj mgr associated with I.T. is NOTHING like a proj manager for contract construction jobs with several subcontractors…not to mention this line of work is not your forte, so can be easily taken advantage of. Are you familar with Performance and Payment Bonds?
Building new is my preference, in the long run it will be cheaper for me to build new getting exactly what i want versus trying to make something exactly what i want. IMHO, a VERY detailed plan needs to be set in place before anything is even done. To reduce your costs…you should know EXACTLY what you want down to the smallest details before any construction begins.
Be carefull with prefabs, make sure it is built with local building codes in mind verses the local codes of the area the house was actually built. Otherwise you spend a small fortune making changes to accomidate the local building codes.
im not really assciated with IT, that my be the field i work in, but i deal with vendors and sales reps etc. I always over research things like this (hence me asking people for books etc on the subject) before i dive into it.
first and foremost, it depends on how much savings you have. right now, the secondary mortgage market is in the shitter, so it is a tough time for buyers with less money to put down to obtain favorable financing.
so, if by “i don’t have big savings” you mean “i have 10k or less”, it will be difficult for you to get into any home, let alone build your own. if this is your first property purchase, there are many 1st time homebuyer programs that will give you up to 5k in free grant money (doesnt need to be paid back unless you sell the place before a specified timeframe) for closing costs and downpayment. however, many of these programs require you to fall below income ceilings and also get into the program months before purchasing a home (close to a year in some cases).
previously, it was easier to get into a home because you could roll more closing costs and downpayment into the mortgage through sellers concessions. however, with the secondary mortgage market in the shitter, banks are not nearly as liberal as they were.
building a house requires either a special mortgage product, a lot of cash for deposits, or a combination of both. it doesnt sound like you are in a position to do either.
again, it all depends on how much you have saved.
I see people “try” to do this all the time. In the long run, unless you know how to build a house from top to bottom on your own, trying to GC it yourself is not a good idea. All the subs will see you and your wallet coming from a mile away. 
Think of the money you save by wrenching on your own car, building a house is kinda the same. If you don’t know what you are doing, don’t try building a car from scratch.
X…
i have ~ 10k saved, and could snag more if i needed to , my dads best firend is the head of some mortgage broker thing out in rochester and he and my gf talked and he said he would help us out etc with all that part of it pro bono, so ill see how much comes to the table when i go at him…
anybody seen any books on the subject?
from everything in this post… bad idea.
many people have already elaborated as to why.
i personally woudlnt do it unless i had 50K solid cash to spend of my own and that is not including a lot thats already paid for.
yeah dont forget the land price, not cheap!!
All of my dads friends build their own houses; I am usually working on them on weekends.
I know they save a lot by doing this but they have connections in the industry.
They Usually get the foundation and the house framed and do everything else themselves i.e. electrical, window, drywall, flooring, roofing…
Bingo, thats a good way to do it. Have enough $$$ to get the core of the house built, then take it from there yourself assuming you have the knowledge and help available to do so. My dad used to have a construction business back in the day, and weve got connections and willing and cheap help for every major aspect of finishing a build. But most people dont have that, and that makes it tough to keep costs down no matter what you do.
Still, designing and build a house exactly to your specs ftmfw 
Where do i find more info on this? Im going to buy a house in about 20 months i already have the cash i just need to wait untill i can relocate first. PM me if you dont want to thread hijack.
Also My dad has his house built and saved a good chuck of money and got it exactley how he wanted it. Im not going to do this for my first house but i plan to on my second. Good luck on your quest and please share information you find.