Packaged Houses

[Adam79]

Wow, lots of great info here. I'm a long-time lurker, first-time poster. My wife and I are currently looking at buying/building in Puna. Currently we are wasting $1100 a month on rent for a one bedroom apt in Hilo. We initially looked at buying land and building. The prices on package homes looks very good. One problem is that neither one of us have any clue when it comes to carpentry or the like, so going owner-builder seems to be out of the question (am I wrong?). It's not that we are lazy or unwilling to learn but we don't want to mess things up then have to pay somebody to fix our mistakes anyways. We are open to hiring somebody to do all the work but it is very unclear how much $$ we would be looking at from start to finish. I have seen some turnkey packages that would take care of nearly everything but when you add it all up including the land and the extras to finish the house it seems to come out to more than you could buy a completed home for. Does anybody here share this realization with me? The original appeal of building for us was the possibility of saving some $$ over buying. We aren't looking for much, maybe 2br/1ba 800-1000 sq ft and are flexible on the subdivision (we have a short list). We are looking to spend under $200k. Obviously the further south we get from that amount the better. Also, everything would have to be accomplished via a construction loan since we don't have a lot of cash at our disposal currently. I really like what I've seen from Castleblock and Multi-Facetted Homes but aren't sure how much it would cost to have them built. The HPM packages seem to carry an outstanding value and reputation. Sorry for the long post. We have gotten some great answers to many initial questions on these forums. Lately we have began leaning towards buying something $200-$220 in Hawaiian Shores/Beaches. I would love to hear from somebody who was in a same quandry as us who thought there was no way they could owner-build but succeeded anyways. Is there one type of kit out there that is really dum-dum friendly? Also, are our ideas of being able to build from start to finish w/ a contractor for less than $200k unrealistic? If so, it appears buying would be the way to go with the current market.

Thanks to all of you in advance, and for the answers you have all provided thus far in previous posts.