building a house

[wyndhy]

we're going with a builder that already has floor plans, you know the kind--this is standard, this is an upgrade, they give the models names like 'the winchester' and 'the farmhouse' lol.
we have the site chosen, and the house style picked. now we have to choose all the stuff--flooring, colors, exterior, etc, etc, etc. it's nervewracking and scary as hell but we're really excited.

anyone ever built new? bought or built one of these types of homes?

tell me about your experiences. give us some advice, please.

[IAKaraokeGirl]

I've built a house--pretty much literally. My dad built my parents' house, and anything we couldn't do when we built mine we sub-contracted out.

In your situation, just make sure that you choose a builder you can work with, first of all, and maybe ask for some references. Talk to some people that builder's done work for before and ask their opinion on a variety of topics. Is the builder easily reachable? Does he/she return phone calls quickly, answer questions? How much of a cost overrun did you have when building your home compared to what the builder quoted you? Stuff like that.

Of course, WI probably has some words of wisdom much more insightful than mine. :)

[Lilith]

If you think a floorplan might have a detail left out or something that may bother you....fix it now. Girlfriend didn't make them change a bathroom/mudroom issue and 5 years later it has just driven her nuts. Now she has to spend tons more $$ having it fixed. Go with your instinct about that sort of thing.

Do what you can yourself. Why pay them to do a crap painting job when you can do a much better job?

[Trogdor]

I have built new 2 times now. Built the first one about 3 years ago and are selling it to move into another house that I've had built.

I found it helpful to go through a showhome of the same floorplan that I'd chosen so that I could better envision things that we liked, things we'd like changed, etc.

Some things to think about are locations of lights and location of wall plugs, including telephone and cable outlets. They may seem like minor things now, but they are pretty hard to change later on. If you haven't gone for wireless LAN connections in your house, think about adding in your own LAN connections. All of this can be done through the builder, but if you have a friend that can do wiring, it's much cheaper.

The choices are pretty much endless in terms of what you can change. I spent a lot of time looking through design magazines looking for ideas that could be incorporated.

Be sure to go to the site as often as possible to check the progress of the house. There are constant errors and if you don't stay on top of them, they could just get ignored and covered over.

More importantly though, have fun with the process! Grats on the house!

[sama1005]

I have never built, but will be in the next few years. I have looked at new houses for about 10 years dreaming about the day we could afford one so have walked through a lot. I have seen $750,000 houses that I would not buy due to design and construction flaws.

If you can, take a look at finished houses from the builder. If you can have an engineer who does housing inspections walk through a couple before you commit. They can help you spot significant issues. This is good advice for any house you buy. They can cost several hundred dollars, but kept us from buying a house that had significant water damage that could not have been detected without him.

I agree whole heartedly with Lil about fixing design problems in the design stage. Also, budget for at least 10% cost over runs. That way if you decied you are going to go with granite counter tops instead of the formica, you can afford it or you decide you don't like the plain light fixtures you can upgrade to nice ones.

Something that alot of people don't think about but I have found can be helpful is to have the Heating/AC, water heater, water softener etc, moved to a corner. It is easier and cheaper to have the HVAC in the center of the house, but you can end up with unusable space.

Even if you plan on using wireless, I would always recommend having a copper LAN installed. You may not use it, but it never hurts to have it in place.

[wyndhy]

the builder is already chosen, price and location pretty much determined who we're using. they've got a good reputation, though and the realtor seems to be on top of everything. and as far as changes go...omg! we def have to be ontop of that shit! they want the options chosen in less than 3 weeks and anything not decided on now will cost the price of the change/upgrade PLUS 250$ just for dragging our heels. we are actually trying to cut some stuff out and "downgrade" some things to save $$$. we already plan on doing some of the painting and stuff ourselves.

thanks for the feedback. and the 'grats" trogdor...like i said we are sooooooooo excited but that doesn't even describe it. we just can't wait. i'm all jumpy with it :jump:

[GingerV]

Oh Wyndhy, how exciting!! I've never built a house, but I'm jumping right along with you. I've always wanted to do that sort of thing.

I'm just gonna watch, demand periodic updates, and dream ;).

[WildIrish]

Congrats on the project, wyndhy! It's an exciting and terrifying time. Don't let the stress keep you from enjoying what you can.

I've never had a house built for me, but am on #2 for Habitat. That's different though. We have a little flexibility, but all in all...we provide affordable housing with not a lot of frills. One thing I'd suggest is to have every room wired for computers, cable tv & telephones. It's cheaper to never use them than to wire one afterwards.


Oh yeah, don't forget the hidden cameras. :hot:

[wyndhy]

thanks you guys :x:

hidden cameras huh?
is there a way to hide this thread from bigbad...i' don't want him getting any kinky ideas

nevermind, it's too late for that. :D

[maddy]

electrical outlets... you can never have enough of them in the kitchen... bathroom... living room... that was one of my favorite things about my house, every wall in the house had at least one electrical outlet... it sucked when I got the brainy idea to change all the outlets, switches and covers from beige to white though.

kitchen cabinets... again can never have enough well organized space.

storage... do you ever really have enough closets?

[Gekko]

Where do you live? If you live in an area where they are building houses by the hundreds (Indianapolis and many other metro areas) I strongly advise you to not build one of those homes, unless

1. You are putting AT LEAST 20% of your own money down, no "Nehimiah Programs" & the like (in case it's called something different in your area, basically, you get "gifted" your down payment, and you only have to repay it if you sell with in a certain number of years you're also only eligible for it once)

2. The builder doesn't have say, more than 5 of these "communities" with in 50 miles of each other.

3. There aren't more than 2 builders in your area.

4. You KNOW your family size wont increase, and you're cool with buying a house that WILL NOT appreciate the way existing real estate does. (You may be thinking, but why wouldn't it?!?!?! It's brand new!!!! If any of the above are true, your house wont "appreciate" appreciatevly for around 10-15 years, and even then, it will be modest at best)


The reason I say this is because I used to work in the mortgage industry, and ppl with great credit, plenty of income, upwardly mobile in all categories were stuck with houses they couldn't get rid of, because the builder could build SOMEONE ELSE *your house* for exactly the same money, but maybe they want different carpeting than what you chose, or different shower heads, etc ad nauseum and BLAM! They have it, they dont have to buy yours, shit, they'll have their own built! It will be just the way THEY want it it! It will be great!!! Until they wake up one day and realize that their dream home has now become the only thing holding them back.

I really hope you consider this info, before you've gone past the 3 day recision right that you may or may not have.

Look around, find a real estate agent that you LIKE, use a Mortgage Broker ( I know that you might have heard that they are a scam, but they can get you the best deal, period. Many times mortgage brokers can get a better interest rate for you than the actual LENDER that they assign your loan to would EVER give you, the consumer. It's simply because they deal in such a large volume of loans with those lenders (ie Well Fargo, Washington Mutual etc etc) that they can talk their Account Reps into cutting them some slack. And dont freak out if you have to pay a little bit higher than normal "origination fee/processing fee/closing costs" if you're getting an excellent interest rate, do some math and figure out your "break even point" if your broker says you need to bring 3000 to closing for a "buy down" on the rate, and in say, 3 years, the interest savings "break even" with what you put down, it's a good deal. Yes, alot of that 3000 is going to go towards the brokers commission, he's still saving you money in the long run, dont "cut off your nose, to spite your face"

Also, if you're at all financially stressed right now and you're "buying" because "renting" sucks, and it wont even cost you "that much more" to own, everything I've said so far, especially about buying existing 25+ year old real estate (that you can find for a decent price especially) goes double.

Hope this helps! If you decide to build anyway, make sure you bring a marriage counselor!!!! Making all the decisions about all the countertops and floors, outlet placement, appliances, fireplace placement, linoleum choices, etc etc etc will strain even the best of relationships. Dont think you're gonna pick it all out at one time, you need to go SEVERAL times, over several weeks, I would say that you should visit 3x minimum, and best case, 7x. Good Luck!!!


P.S.

DO NOT USE INTEREST ONLY LOANS, THEY ARE GARBAGE AND THE SUICIDE RATE IS GOING TO SKYROCKET BECAUSE OF THEM

[wyndhy]

great advice gekko...ty!


we have a mortgage broker already and a realtor (they are both excellent--our realtor is even hanging around through the duration even though this seems to have gotten the builder's and selling realtor's panties all bunchie :D) and we live in a highly populated, fast growing area so there are lots of builders--way more than 2, but i don't think that is unusual in an area this dense. one advantage we see in this house is that is in an existing, older, established community--not at all those mcmansion communities you see popping up all over. as far as appreciation, it has already appreciated by several thousand ,the builder increased his prices a few days before we put down the money on the lot (but he was kind enough to give us the earlier price). we own our home right now and are just looking for more space and a yard so the equity we have here will be rolled into the down payment on the new place. our realtor and mortgage broker have advised us to do a fixed, interest only loan because we are planning on selling this one within the next several years and since equity will go up, why pay off the principal now when we will be building equity without doing that.

thoughts?

[Gekko]

Only this one, I see interest only loans as the devil, and I also see them as a way of ppl "counting their chickens, before the eggs have hatched" Wyndhy said..."planning on selling this one within the next several years"

Ok, I know that it seems like you prolly will do that, but what happens if the economy goes down the drain? Then, the time comes that you're going to have to start paying the "real" payment, which will be much much more, and so you want to unload it, you may be able to do that, but I've seen ppl do that more than once to "get out from under it" at a loss, why? Thats nuts, and since you're rolling existing equity over, wtf do you need an interest only loan for? Interest only was created as a way of getting ppl into something that they think they'll be able to afford in a few years, same thing with an ARM, they were in my opinion created for Doctors that haven't finished their residency yet, and so therefore aren't making much more than a first year nurse, but once they finish their residency, will make their income grow exponentially. I say they are a bad deal. Beat up your broker, and tell him that YOU will pay the closing costs out of your pocket, tell him to lose any "Points in the back" for those of you who doint know, many times lenders will advertise a rate that isn't really prime, and say it is (they just run a disclaimer saying that market conditions change daily, even though they haven't changed for close to 3 or 4 years) so then you think, well hell, I can get that rate, no closing costs out of my pocket and save 20-200 dollars a month! Well, chances are, you're paying the broker to not give you the best rate available, if they give you a good rate, but say it's 1 percent over actual Prime and your loan is for 200,000 their commission will be 2000. (1% x Loan Value) Brokers often pay the closing costs out of their commission to get "no closing costs" but thats bogus, their are ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS closing costs, just because you dont see the bill doesn't mean that someone isn't paying it. I say get a fixed rate, or a product called a 2-1 buydown, or ask if they have even better terms than that.

Also, I highly suggest asking about FHA/VA financing, everyone is eligible, and once you have a FHA loan, there truly AREN'T any closing costs :P and, you dont have to get a new appraisal. If you want to, you could refi every 3 months, no cost to you :P

[wyndhy]

thanks for the food for thought gekko, i appreciate it and we'll give it some serious consideration.

[Trogdor]

Hmmm...I don't know what the housing market is like in your area, but in my area, I built my first house for about $150 000.00 (Canadian of course....) and sold it for $191 000.00 just under 3 years later. It was a standard "cookie-cutter" type house...didn't even have an attached garage and was under 1500 sq ft.