Part of your problem, with an existing place, could be whether that individual house lends itself structurally to what you want to do, and only a structural engineer could answer that, whereas with a new place, you call all the shots (within what your architect says is feasible). Plus who knows what problems you may run into with basic systems in an old house to begin with, never mind trying to retrofit who knows what.

I have to chime in here, we just sold a home we built from the ground up, had to install PGE, well, grading plan and septic design etc. With all we had to do its so worth it. You get a new home, and if you are able to do some work, you can really be surprised how much you save. Recently we purchased our 5th renovator, it is so much easier to build, well its so clean, and everything is new and square etc. Renovating is so dirty and takes longer in my opinion, correcting other work which could be more extensive then you thought originally, it often expands when you start tearing into walls you may see new projects needed etc. Im fortunate that the surprises on renos havent hurt us because my DH is a GC and can do anything himself and has tools and equipment, but if I had to pay someone for those surprises Id be unhappy to pay for basic structural repairs at the rate some contractors charge. If you can Id try building, you get what you want and it can be cost effective if you shop around for bids and are able to do any work. Its fun to tweek designs when building, and make it fit for you and so much easier in that respect to getting what you want, where as a reno might not give you the options you want.

Are you sure you want to remain in this VT location for a long time? You might want to buy cheaply while you try it out before committing a lot of money to renovate or to build. At $750K will you be top of the market? (Never a good idea.) How many years will it take for a Green Build to pay off?

Either renovating or building will cost a lot more than you imagine at the start; it's just the nature of the beast!

Sorry if I've gone off track. In general I'm the Teardown Queen, opting for all new over the quagmire of renovating. All new results in a known quantity and value. A renovation is 'iffy' in both respects.

Thank you everyone for your responses...everything you've said makes sense.

Chisue - the plan is for us to remain in VT for the long haul, but of course, nothing is ever guaranteed. And we will definitely not be at the top of the market - we'll be in a resort area, where the real estate hits more than $2-3 million. $750K will put us on the low end of the mid-to-higher end homes.

Regarding paying off the green build...well, it depends on what we actually end up doing. Some of the solar components might only take 5-7 years to pay off, whereas the geothermal will probably be closer to 15-20. Until we get down to the serious budgeting phase, we won't really know how much of the green stuff we can do right now anyway...

I guess I've known all along the answer is to build, unless we find the perfect home in our price range...darn those interest rates! :-)

Buy an existing home. You are saying if you build, that you won't be doing all the green stuff immediately anyway.

These interest rates are great. Take advantage, plus the home prices are historically low now. Take advantage.

Also note - there are some new tax credits and often local rebates, etc for solar and other green energy conversions for existing homes. You can take advantage of these for a re-do. Also, I fully expect the Obama Administration to add many new green rebates, tax credits, discounts, etc.

Also - over time, more new green technologies are being added to the market. If you get an existing home, you can add a couple proven green technologies over time. And then wait for some items that are undergoing transformations in the market.

And THANK YOU for being green. It helps the planet greatly.

correcting other work which could be more extensive then you thought originally, it often expands when you start tearing into walls you may see new projects needed etc. Im fortunate that the surprises on renos havent hurt us because my DH is a GC and can do anything himself and has tools and equipment, but if I had to pay someone for those surprises Id be unhappy to pay for basic structural repairs at the rate some contractors charge.

This is the biggie.. every time you do a project it's like opening a can of worms. You always have to prepare for the worst.

I guess I've known all along the answer is to build, unless we find the perfect home in our price range...darn those interest rates! :-)

I typed out a post the other day, guess I forgot to hit submit.. lol

My opinion would be to purchase at least the land right now if you find a piece you like. Land is hard to find and if that's out of the way, then that's one of the big hurdles. We were wanting to do just that, find land then put probably a modular on it. Hubby wanted geothermal, few other things but it all came back to the land and we could not find any.

Our next house will not be like the one we just purchased, the main living will be on one floor as it will be our last house. The house we were going to buy that fell through actually had a great floor plan for us, basement (with bathroom), 2 car garage, 3 bedrooms - 2 full baths on main floor, nice sized master. The attic was raised so that you could stand, it could be finished with another bathroom and bedroom/office.

There are plenty of homes in the $400-500k (and less) range which we could renovate, though I'm not entirely sure how far we could get with our goals...the upper end of our budget is around $750K, somewhat dependent on what we get for our home here in NY.

fixing up a home built in the 1880s and bringing it up to current standards..

Honestly I doubt you'll get all you want for what you have left $$. Depending on what the house looks like to begin with, you could be dumping a lot of money on things like electric, plumbing, then central AC, sheet rock, wood.. it adds up.

If you haven't lived there full time for a year, I'd hesitate to build, or to buy and renovate extensively right off the bat.

Now is a buyer's market for existing real estate in most parts of the country, and mortgage rates are quite low. Personally, I'd try to find an existing small house on a great lot; live in it for a year; teardown; build the green home. Or buy just any small house while you decide if this is your forever location or not, then buy up or build when the economy improves.

Are you sure you want to live in Tourist-Town? I think I would have a hard time living full time where the Tide of Tourism flows in and out, gawking, yammering and complaining, slowing traffic to a crawl. (We spend a month in our Maui condo, which is my frame of reference. Your spot in VT *may* be different!)

I'm all for 'green', too. We're just a little too old for it to make financial sense for us -- even if I could persuade our suburb to let me put up solar panels.

I'm also all for one-floor living at any age. People 'break' at any age, long before they start the Big Breakdown!

Sorry, but I don't believe that building a new home, when there are existing homes(even if they are "inefficient") is green. Consider all the resources and energy needed to build a home. Consider the trees that will be cut down and natural land and wildlife disturbed if it is undeveloped property. If you are really concerned about your carbon footprint, buy an existing home that meets your needs, and make energy efficient changes as you have the budget and they become economical to do. And if your primary concern is your fuel bills, you need to add up cost differential in your green home vs standard, look at $$ in energy savings and calculate how long it will take to repay yourself the difference. With inflation, cost of borrowing, potential loss of return on investment if you invested the $$ instead, it may not make finanical sense.

Talk to lenders before assuming anything about rates. They may not work the way you think they do. For example, our credit union rolls building loans over into 20 - 30 year fixed rate mortgages. The mortgage rate is locked at the current rate plus 0.5% before you build. The lock is good for a year, so you must complete your build in that time frame. The paper work for both loans is done at the same time and all fees are known up front. The building loan is prime plus one percent. You only pay interest on that portion that the builder has drawn on.

If rates decline substantially after your build is done, you can always refinance. It they go up, you are locked at the lower rate. It's win/win for 1/2% more than you would pay if you were buying an existing house.

I do have it on my list to speak to some lenders...I did speak to one bank in town several months ago and they offer a construction loan that acts as a HELOC, and then after construction is done, the loan turns into a standard fixed rate, but I believe the rates are fixed at that time, and not when construction begins. I'll have to re-confirm though.

Tilenut, I do agree with what you are saying...the problem is that for the green things we want to do (most notably the geothermal) a lot of things are required for conversion which most older homes don't have...out of all the homes that are on the market, I've only seen a handful that could accommodate the geothermal conversion. That, for us, is the #1 priority.

Chisue - I hear you on the tourist stuff! We do have a small condo up there now, so we do spend quite a bit of time there and know what to expect...but we are also investigating the surrounding towns where the tourist impact isn't as high, but we still get the same amenities.

In the end, I think we'll end up renting a home (our condo is too small for us to stay in for longer than a month, especially since I'll be working from home) until the right situation comes up, whatever that might be...