Building new vs buying existing

[rc808]

Anybody have the pros and cons of building your home vs buying an existing home? It seems the obvious is build your it your way but it will cost more? How much more? Mahalos for your stories and advice on this.

[lquade]

boy thats a hard one. at this time i have seen some real bargins. if youre inclined to build, i would say at the least, look for a lot that has the bulldozing done, maybe the septic in, road graded etc. that can be a real expensive part, and i have seen lots with this done for same price as lots that are bare. right now there are no builder-impact fees such as the mainland has, but i believe those are on the way, so your time line is important. in the past things were pretty careless here, if you knew the inspectors, things passed, it was all fairly political. being dumb haeoles it took us 18 years to get our house passed!! we didnt know the "way". of course this doesnt apply now.... i would sure look around at the short sales and it also depends how handy you are... if you can do repair and how extensive... of course if termites..run!

[Kelena]

I was faced with this choice: 1) Beautiful lot, or 2) an existing home. I came to these realizations: 1) I couldn't do it from the mainland, 2) Even if I were on island, I wouldn't have the patience for the normal hitches that occur, not to mention the abnormal ones, 3) It is very hard to find good help on an island. If you find it, marry it!

For me the decision tree would go like this: Are you off island? Forget about it. Are you on island? Lucky you! When God was handing out patience, did you say "I can't wait around!!!!"? Then buy an existing home. Are you the kind of person who likes challenges, and who views stolen lumber, missing workers, poorly laid foundations, and torrential rain as an opportunity for personal growth? Build!

But seriously, many Punawebbers ave built successfully. I admire these people so much. They had a dream and they made it happen. I think that just has to make the resulting house very special. It is a real accomplishment. There are people who can guide you through the process here. It wasn't for me, but if you are on island, I think it is a viable choice.

[macuu222]

Buy an existing house. If your like the many that move here...landscaping is important. Most new lots will take a long time for your landscaping dream to become a reality. Maybe even more time than you have. Better to buy someone elses dream and then add or subtract from that.

[Kapohocat]

As foreclosures go up now, buying a house will make better sense than building.

But that said... as the houses go into foreclosure the last thing people will work on is their house when they have no money to make the payments so if you go this way you may get lucky or you make get a "fixer upper".

[StillHope]

It depends.If compare apples to apples...

In my case the the comparison is as close as possible :

I am building exactly the same house I couldn't afford to buy (the same subdivision )and it's cheaper,even with more improvements (like thermal barrier).
Note:the house was not overpriced.

And my lot is closer to the ocean,so the land is about 20 K more.

But if I didn't have certain plan in mind,buying house is still a very good idea now.

Though I'd buy a new one because even with the building inspection,you might get termite ridden dwelling.The search function on the forum is down,but some people might share their stories.

[Bullwinkle]

I did build rather than buy existing, the biggest plus was that I was able to site the house in relation to sun and weather.... a shady lanai and sunrise in the kitchen window over coffee at the kitchen table were my goals

I was also able to vault the ceilings for ventilation (read the section on mold) having been on a sail boat for 20 years I too learned about ventilation, mold and corrosion and did apply that to this project ... passive ventilation is critical in a high humidity environment for both comfort and mold control

I was also able to pre wire the place for tv, phone, stereo (16 ga speaker) alarm and internet.. all told over 2000 feet of low voltage wire in the walls before they were closed up

Bud Turpin did the construction, Trojan did the "package" and mods to the prints - vaulting etc, no hiccups, on budget on time (5 months) I rented a place nearby to be onsite as much as possible and do the pre wire etc

worked out pretty well for me

[Hotzcatz]

Aloha RC808,

There are pros and cons to each choice. Building new is a LOT easier than renovating, however when "rescuing" an older house or even a tear-down your annual property taxes will be a lot lower. That alone can save thousands a year. There is the option of finding a beauty lot and then relocating an old "cane house" onto it. You then get to do renovations but it will be to a building that will be old and have much lower property taxes.

Building new is fresh and clean and you get to make a bazillion choices which is good and bad. You will hopefully end up with something exactly suited to you, but there are a lot of compromises made during construction. Some projects go together seamlessly, painlessly and quickly - others never get finished. If you are the kind of person who can start and complete large intricate tasks then building a house might be an enjoyable thing for you. If you are the kind of person who doesn't do all that well with long involved projects then a pre-built house might be a better choice.

Personally, I like houses and house construction, I find it loads of fun to build things. I've built five houses (bash my finger with the hammer and cuss level of involvement) and am working on a major renovation (a rescue of a tear-down) and the renovation has been a lot longer and more difficult process. The renovation has been much less expensive, though.

If you are considering building, there is a book called "Basic Home Building" put out by Ortho Press. You can probably find it used on an online bookstore or borrow it from a library. Read that and see if it is anything you'd like to do. It pretty much goes through building a house step by step.

When you buy an existing house, then a lot of the choices are already made. You have to inspect it closely to see if it was built properly and what condition it is in. Basically, though, get what you like, you can fix everything else. I've found that houses which were built to be lived in by the person building them are much nicer than ones spec-built. We have a spec-built house in our neighborhood which was built in 2001 and has gone through four owners since then. The last fellow to buy it has done some heavy renovations and additions to make it a more livable house since the floor plan was not well thought out among other things. Well designed houses which were built by the folks who are planning to live in them are just much more comfortable houses.

A hui hou,
Catz

[StillHope]

Hotzcatz is always right (as usual).
Buying a "used" house (or anything else ) is better from a person who build it for himself with the plan to live there.
I would have bought Nancy's house if it was in my subdivision.With her husband in the construction building..
RC808,I don't know your situation,but Nancy Fryhover's house is a perfect buy.She put so much love and effort for every detail !

(And I am not her real estate agent and not in that business at all [])

[kani-lehua]

we have a beautiful lot up at mauna loa estates that we chose not to build on because of tax consequences regarding another property that we were going to sell. we would have either had to sell that property and pay the capital gains tax or do a "like kind exchange" that would not work in our favor. in today's market, we would not qualify for a construction loan that would be enough to build our dream home on this lot.

therefore, we are making an offer on a property that was built in 2004 by a retired contractor. he obviously took pride in the construction. there is no way one could build this same house for the amount he's asking in today's market. or i should say, for what we are willing to pay.

the inventory for new to newer homes or ones that are less than 5 years old, are bountiful for whatever reasons. we were watching 2 properties that dropped 19k dollars in less than 2 weeks and are still on the market--brand new homes.

i would say then, if you are able to build your dream home on your beautiful lot--go for it! if not, there are homes that with little to some improvement, that would work into your plans. the one we made an offer on has everything we want except an improved street.

"chaos reigns within.
reflect, repent and reboot.
order shall return."

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