09-28-2008, 05:13 AM
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
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
Kurt Wilson