Pinktoes, Most of the items you mentioned would be necessary to the construction of a spec home as well and would be built into the final cost. However, for arguments sake... if you include ALL those things you mentioned as 'extras' do you think they will come to $115k? Assuming that they will, we would still be breaking even- not paying more. On the other hand, even if you only back out the realtor fees we would be ahead by almost $50k. I do not know what part of the country you are in, if things are really 'hot' perhaps builders of custom homes are able to charge whatever they want and that is why it isn't working out for you to build for equal to or less than you could buy a similar house for. It may also be due to upgrades you have chosen. If that is the case then you are getting more as well as paying more. However it is obvious by the other posts that *some* people are building their homes for less than they could buy them for 'down the street'. I am in Oregon and our real estate and custom home market are doing well. The argument of custom vs spec in regard to volume pricing and sub availability does not hold for our situation. When you are asking a specific builder the price for a specific house those variables are taken out of the equation. In our area there are large and small custom builders to choose from. If you are choosing one builder over another and feel that volume pricing and sub availability will be better with a larger builder then go that route. You may not come out ahead cost wise though, a larger company may also have higher overhead which will be passed on to you. A smaller builder may get the same pricing and preferential treatment from suppliers and subs it just depends on the individual case. I have heard some subs say they prefer smaller builders because they get paid faster. Some suppliers offer volume discounts some are same price for everyone. The important thing is the quality of the job you get and that the price you pay is reasonable to you for what you are getting and the local market. If a builder does not like to work with homeowner's and indicates to you that it is more work and will charge you more, then leave that builder to his spec houses and find a builder who appreciates the fact that the owners provide a guaranteed sale. Homeowner's may cause delays but they are usually motivated by the fact that they are paying interest and want to move into their new home. On the other hand a spec house may be completed more quickly only to sit for months on the market on the builder's dime. I think we all must figure out what makes the most sense in *our* building market and find the best fit with a builder in our area. To do our research and know what our goals are. If it is important for Customdecorator (or any of us) to build for less than she can buy similar new construction for I would say she can probably do it if others in her area can. It won't just happen though, she will have to do her homework and make choices that keep her budget in line with her goal. Often when a consumer builds a custom home they buy the land and plan their dream home and build it. They are not thinking resale and the big picture at that time. They get caught up in the excitement and the 'while we're at it we might as well'... You think *maybe* some custom builders realize that and that prices are adjusted accordingly? :) A spec builder of course must look at the whole thing differently. They do not have the same emotional attachment. They look at lot cost, development cost, carrying cost, local sold comps, overhead & profit and what is left over is house budget. The more they save on the build the more $ they will make in the end. Perhaps the real 'trick' is thinking more like a spec builder and less like a homeowner. If that is not for you then you are not doing anything wrong you are just making different choices.

you can view exactly who is logging onto your system through the event viewer, start, control panel, administrative tools event viewer. Look under security you can double click on any item and view the info on it, if you see log-ons that are not you then you have a problem. If you do think you have someone with access to your pc you definitely want to get that stopped immediately. You probably have a trojan on your pc that has given them access. Tell me why you think that is a probability in your case? I can help you try to clean up the pc if you need to. Never ever let anyone(nefarious) have access to your pc. They can use your pc to send out porn or other stuff and it all traces back to your IP address so you would be the one found guilty! also go to start control panel, users/accounts and see if you have any new accounts there other than the ones you set up.

The caution is for any use of manure products from animals that eat hay--not just mushroom compost. The specific chemicals that kills broad leaf weeds that are a problem are piccloram, clopyralid and aminopyralid. They are sometimes added to the most widly and commonly used broad leaf weed killer 2,4-D which by itself is no problem. There IS more communication about this problem within the Ag community than even 2 years ago when the article was written. It happens, but I really don't think it is that high of a risk. I love using horse manure compost in my garden and am fortunate enough to get it from my own horses--who's diets I have micro-managed! The beneifts for me have been so great that if I was stuck using someone else's I'd do a simple bioassay on it if I couldn't chat with a stable manager and rule it out. (They might know, and if they feed their horses alfalfa, clover or hay mixes with these you are ok since a farmer wouldn't use a broad leaf weed killer on those types of hay crops.) That said, I have no advice on bagged manure other than to say I wouldn't use commercial manure in the first place. Manure from stockyards has too high of an ick factor for me.

There are a lot of things that make doing what you are talking about less than optimal. Having had partners, even in real estate, a few times before I can tell you that it never quite works out the way you expect it to. First, I find that my partners never seem to live up to my expectations, nor me to theirs. There is no faster way to spoil a good relationship with someone than giving them some of your stuff to take care of. Or try making a decision or repairing versus replacing components, or try writing a big check for a big ticket item for a house you aren't living in or getting money from. Next, there is the problem of someone needing their money out. Assume one of the families invested in this home needs money, what mechanism are you going to have to get them out? You are going to have fun with the liability issue on the property. Multiple owners will give you joint and several liability which means if anyone gets hurt they can sue whoever they want. Not only that, if one of the other owners gets hurt because of any known maintenance issue, then that person could sue the other two to pony up their share of his/her damages. Then we have insurance, which insurance alone is going to make you pay attention. A communal property with no full time resident and a pool. You will not be eligible for homeowner's insurance as the house isn't anyone's home, so you are going to have to get some kind of commercial insurance that will probably cost you close to what the actual house payment is. Next, you have house and pool maintenance. A huge number of pools end up as nothing more than mosquito pools because no one expects that pool maintenance is that much work. Pool maintenance is neither cheap nor easy. House maintenance isn't going to be a walk in the park either. There are ways to make it work, however, I think you are looking at all the upsides and none of the downsides.