Buying custom built home from investor rather than builder?
bizzle 86
6 years ago
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weedyacres
6 years agobizzle 86
6 years agoRelated Discussions
Hiring a full time builder to build a custom home
Comments (22)Munzer1, I can explain to you very simply why what you are asking for is not widely accepted on this website or in the construction industry. If you go to a grocery store, do you tell them how much you will pay for a tube of toothpaste? Of course not. They set the cost. It's all about market value. If you go to a lawyer for legal services, do you tell them how much they are going to charge you? Of course not. Thy set the cost. It's all about market value. If you go to a hospital for treatment, do you tell them how much they are going to charge you for treatment? Of course not. They set the cost. It's all about market value. If you go to a professional assassin to have someone killed, do you tell them how much you'll pay them to off someone for you? Of course not. They set the cost. It's all about market value. Last one, a perfect explain, initially asked by you, if you go through a toll booth, do you tell them how much you will pay them to let you through? Of course not. THEY TELL YOU HOW MUCH YOU WILL PAY FOR THEIR SERVICES. Need I say more? Now, you are free to solicit anyone for any cost and that will be your biggest mistake in building homes. Not paying a qualified individual what they're worth to make sure you get what you want. You can hire a cheap dentist, doctor, or lawyer, buy cheap toothpaste, or take the long way around the river to avoid the toll fee, but in the end you will only waste time and money because YOU were too CHEAP, and you were the rip off....See MoreCost more than a pre-built house?
Comments (8)The self-cost to build a spec house ( no land, no profit) could be as low as $45/sq. ft. - large construction company somewhere in mid west or bible belt. Average is around $65/sq. ft. Again - no land, no profit, everything is the cheapest - to meet minimal code requirements. A single GC can probably build you a cheap house for a minimum of $80-$110 /sq.ft including profit depending on where he builds it. Too many variables... But the mentioned above is just to get you started....See MoreHas Anyone Built or Seen a Custom Home by an Architect?
Comments (47)Sure, and they all have memories and stories. Many years ago, I worked on one of Christopher Alexander's houses in the Berkeley hills. He used a lot of graduate student grunt labor. His team would take months to make even the most trivial decisions, with endless discussions. IIRC that house took five years to finish, and the couple who commissioned it got divorced before it was done. I once lived down the street from a pair of Thomas Gordon Smith post-modern numbers (the Tuscan and Laurentian), kind of a snarky send up of the typical suburban snout house. They were painted in a sort of Pompeii meets Miami Vice color scheme, with a neoclassical column in the middle of their wide garage doors, to break up the span. Sadly, one house was eventually repainted in boring colors, and some quirky exterior details removed. I never saw the insides, which were painted in huge classical style murals. When I first got married we went to England and saw the Colefax and Fowler building, the one with the Wyatt/Wyattville yellow drawing room. It's up on the second floor, via a dark, narrow, twisty flight of stairs papered with what look to be bad baroque paintings, but may be theatrical backdrops. The room itself isn't as wide or tall as it looks in pictures, and the arc of the ceiling is quite shallow. When I saw it, all the Nancy Lancaster furniture was gone, it was full of lamps. The paint work was a little obscured by nicotine and wood smoke, but you could still see the complicated oil glazing-- there are tiny pin point flecks of many colors in the glaze, which give an almost pearly effect. I think Fowler deliberately allowed the painters to use dirty brushes!...See MoreTips for Buying Land, Designing and Building A Custom Home Part 1
Comments (7)The one thing I would add is don't let anyone (realtor, builder, brother-in-law) tell you that a lot is 'OK'. It's very important to do as much of your own due diligence as you can when considering your future home. We were once showed a home across the street from a sewage treatment plant. It was an ideal location for us, being very close to our son's school. We were assured by the realtor that there was 'no odor problem'. Over the next 11 years, we had the opportunity to drive by that neighborhood every day as we brought our son to school. It reeked! Outdoor activities would have been impossible many days. The realtor either didn't know, or outright lied to us. There are many tools available to check out the neighborhood. Many areas have a GIS site (Geographic Information System) to check things like flood zones, topography, crime stats, even soil types. You can zoom out to find out what else is in the area, such as a hog farm you didn't know existed. It's not a bad idea to check with the local city/county to see what kind of future plans they have for the area. You don't want to find out about the new Interstate or airport after you've built your dream home. Maybe I'm paranoid, but I never consider a parcel unless it has a current 'perk' (percolation) test for a septic system. There are work-arounds, but they are expensive, and sometimes downright ugly. Who wants a mound system in the front yard (because there wasn't room in the back)? If the lot is on city sewer, then it's not a consideration....See MoreUser
6 years agobizzle 86
6 years agokathyg_in_mi
6 years agoC Marlin
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