I know there was someone on board who had a thread of their house being built but search didn’t come up.
We are looking to do a new build and i just want to pick someone brain who had gone through the process, learning the cost, is it worth it, etc.
Just buy a foreclosure, remodel it to how you want.
my parents had their current house built when I was just going into highschool…I still remember the complaints…the “base price” was $159,900…but EVERYTHING was low grade…
Oh, you want the 20yr padding under your carpet rather than the 5yr? UPGRADE CHARGE
Oh, you want berber carpet in the living room? UPGRADE CHARGE
Oh, you want (anything other than plain white vinyl) cabinetry? UPGRADE CHARGE
some of the dumbest crap nets you huge upgrade charges… I think my parents had gotten the price closer to $239,900 by the time they got the house where they thought they wanted it…after about 5yrs they started going one room at a time and re-doing them to change things up and upgrade stuff they couldn’t afford to upgrade during the build.
one word of advice: even if you dont want air conditioning, have it installed… that’s my parent’s biggest regret, especially since they chose baseboard/hot-water-heat due to mine and my stepdad’s allergies.
this^ i dont really think its worth it.
a customer bought a home for 35k underforclosure (it was a dump) but basement was solid, and thats all that matters. we gutted it, new walls, new roof, siding new kitchen, new wiring, new floors, put in a fireplace did all this shit. prob put 70k into it, but you will not touch a house on that street, or anywhere for that matter for 110k as nice as this. i wish i had more pictures of the progress.
you can’t even get a piece of property and have the basement done for that cheap. plus this had the outside framework done. mind you this was only a 900sq ft house but still
^ Yes.
Most people that build their own home for under $250k (Modest <2k sq-ft, 3 bdr, 2 full bath, 2 car garage) say it is not worth it and a big pain. If you have the $$$ then that’s different.
I bought mine for <$120K and I am turning it into a much more liveable, for me, home. It takes time…but it is so much better.
My suggestion is find a house you like; for the guts, plumbing, electric, outside drainage, poured foundation, settling cracks (over 20 years old should have settled plenty), etc… then build off of that. Plus, you will get WAY more value into a decent remodel than building from scratch on a budget.
Good luck!
So you’re comparing a new 250k house vs a <$120K that you did some upgrades to?
Are you planning on staying in this area for a long time?
Have you had a house before to understand what you want/need out of the design?
I would be careful listening to what others say about spending huge sums of money upgrading a house…Look at the value of houses in the rest of the area and make sure your not pricing it out of the neighborhood.
Most people who build tend to stay somewhere for a while so consider other possible life events…School district? Room for kids? etc
If getting a lot for your money, buy a 5-10 Year old home, let someone else take the hit.
If that doesn’t bother you, there are still 2 different ways to go. One is a house that is a specific plan that a builder has to offer, and lets you make some changes. The other would be a full custom home.
Builders plans are usually pretty decent, have a fairly good working layout, and like others have said allow for “upgrades”. There will be some decisions to make, but in the end they are not too overwhelming.
Fully custom home, prepare for some fights with your wife. You are making thousands of decisions throughout the process from designing the intial home, to the floor plan, to kitchen cabinets to tile, etc. etc. Take a look at where you live now and start thinking about everything in sight. The wall in front of you, why is it the color that it is, why is the baseboard the shape that it is, and the color. What about the outlet on that wall, why not 2? why not one in each corner. Why is ceiling 8’ tall, why not 9’? why is the door where it is, why not 6" to the left? does it swing left of right, what kind of panel design on the door, is it hollow, solid wood, stained, painted… I could go on for days, but you get the point.
Part of me building my own garage was to get a better sense of what it will be like to build a home. Even a small structure like my garage I have a ton of hours into just designing it, thinking about the details. I am so lucky that my wife let me do my own thing and just had a few requirements (had to match the house in style and couldn’t be any bigger than our house). Don’t get me wrong, I loved building my own garage, but it really makes you aware.
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I think the big question here is… what is you’re budget for the new place? The 250k point in the buffalo area is where building exactly what you want from scratch is where it starts to become worth it VS finding a solid foundation and gutting/remodeling a place.
Also, are you talking a cookie-cutter Ryan home, or a custom builder? The Ryan homes are the ones like Focus was talking about; they have a base plan where they buy the materials in bulk, and anything other than that is an upcharge. The Custom builder is the route to go to get an exactly how I want it house.
The people that I know that have done their own house essentially did the following:
- Purchased the land
- Hired an architect, did the site survey, and got a set of detailed plans drawn up
- Contacted the custom builders and got pricing
- Worked with the main contractor as a supervising primary contractor to supervise everything
- STILL had a lot of BS to deal with during the process.
Above is where the 250k cross-over point comes from.
^ that’s essentially what I’m doing…kinda. Bought a house <100k with a New roof, new electric service, water tank, furnace, sewer lines, driveway. Just needs some remodeling, and updating.
My brother-in-law had their house built and he seems to always be doing something to it. It’s a gorgeous house, but I think using contractors that were friends of the family was probably a big annoyance. Some of the contractors were really good, but would only show up when they felt like it.
Seems like the best plan
A friend at work just built new and it confirmed one thing for me… that I would NEVER buy a Ryan home, new, used or otherwise. The stories he came over and told me about during the build just made me cringe.
I would also never build my first home. When my daughter is out of school the wife and I are considering building somewhere (probably out of NY) but I wouldn’t want to tackle the design stage it without the knowledge we’ve learned owning a home all these years.
whats most commonly overlooked when considering building new homes is how much the taxes will be. new builds tend to have much heavier taxes then existing.
Average joe blow will have to deal with all the issues stated above.
My brother built his house but its a totally different story. Spent under 180k and house was appraised for almost 300k. He did 90% of the work, we cleared the land, dig foundation, HVAC, plumbing, flooring…Only parts he sub’d out were pouring foundation, framing, and drywall.
There really is no point in building a home for under $400,000 in WNY because there is plenty of inventory. If you are talking about a “dream home” then you should build your own so it is exactly what you want. I had specific needs/wants such as: secluded oversized timber frame on 15 wooded acres near the south edge of Aurora, etc, etc. Strangely none were available for under a million dollars. 
My 2 cents.
i highly recommend the 5-10 yr old home idea…thats exactly what my wife and I did…we were looking at building with a couple different builders namely Forbes-Capretto, Rosal and David…to build was going to be 250k ish plus…we ended up finding a house for sale built by one of the builders mentioned and about 60k less with almost everything we had picked out to build…upgrades we want to do in the future will be a fraction of the cost of what we would have paid if building form scrtach, especially since this is our first home…we will save the build for our long term home which we dont expect out current house to be…
you should listen to him. he knows what hes talking about
I am using these guys for plans. If you are skilled go ahead and build. The only way that it is reasonable in this area is if you are building a large custom home that you know you can do a bunch of work in and keep it under value. If you are just building to build go find one of the thousands that are for sale in the suburbs.
If you are considering Ryan or the like just stop now and save your self a fortune on a cheaply built throwaway house.
my uncle bought a ryan home in the mid 90’s. within 1 year -
he had shingles blowing off of his roof
the roof leaked
he had vinyl siding falling off
i still look at walls and notice theyre wavy… the railing is rickety. the only good looking drywall is in the basement, but my dad did that lol
if its a ryan, you’ll be cryin’
^ But but but… Ryan gave me the most square feet and a fake stone front that looks impressive to my neighbors!
Truth. I go into so many 10 year old Ryan homes that need new everything because it was meant to last only 10 years. Most of the time the people I am giving the “bad news” to are not the original owners, those guys saw the writing on the wall and sold it to some other tight wads.
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