• sinceasdf@lemmy.world
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    23 hours ago

    Building something myself is something I’ve thought a bit about. Most things I read try to talk me out of it but when there’s no decent home inventory there’s no decent home inventory. There are also advantages of being able to customize stuff.

    Do you have an expectation of how much it will cost relative to existing homes in the area you’re building in? Of course one of the things you’re supposed to plan for is cost overruns lol but I’m still curious how expensive you expect it to end up being.

    • lowspeedchase@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      23 hours ago

      Some of the gotchas I’ve encountered:

      • Land is very hard to finance, I ended up saving until I could buy cash
      • Building ‘on-grid’ would have saved a lot in permitting and setup (luckily I had electric service at the road). If you are going off-grid, I would check the permitting requirements for sewage/water and the average depth of wells near your spot, this can get expensive quick if you have to drill deep.
      • I’m working with an architect atm but we’ve pivoted to using ICF blocks for wall construction as they are made in the USA and tariffs would have killed me otherwise.

      I would expect the cost of the building, using the highest quality materials (not luxury) to still beat (by like 100k) the cost of buying an equivalant old home in the area I purchased; however, if we are talking pre-housing-price-explosion of the last few years, I would say building would be more expensive.