Chosen by Asker

Advantages> 1) visit >HUD.org 2) many companies are in crisis mode & will give away large freebies right now if you will sign with them & build your own. There are articles all over the net, particularly news magazines. 3) You get to make the choices. Diadvantages> 1) financing can be difficult to obtain because of current mortgage crisis. 2) unforseen costs that can send you over budget 3) longer wait to take possession of home. Time to buy vs. just move in. You should qualify for 1st time homebuyer incentives. There are many options for you. Our area has 1 for county, 1 for state, then HUD has help. These are based on the home purchase price on existing homes. If you build you could lose a lot of potential free start up money. Make use the online free mortgage calculators to guestimate your payments & it will be affordable. Hope this helps.

by Shannon R

2 years ago

Asker's Rating: 

Advatntages: you can customize it your own way, value will go up faster. Choose your own location. Disadvantges: Cost of materials, and all right cost in general.

by BizKid- 2 years ago

Advantages: -You get to choose everything Disadvantages: -You have to choose everything (from what I hear, this can get very tedious) -It’s easy to go over budget & deadlines -Tough to find reliable contractors -Problems will crop up only after you live in house

by Stacy- 2 years ago

What do you know about construction? Do you know about foundations, framing, wiring, plumbing, insulation, drywall, finish work? Do you want to learn about that, read and go to building sites to understand it? 60 to 70 years ago many people literally did build their own homes, but now homes are more complex and the building process is inspected through out construction. In some areas you may not even be allowed to construct your own home. I would not suggest even being a general contractor without knowledge of this process. You need to know the people you contract know what they are doing. You also need a design that isn't so complex that it takes years to complete and once selected you can't make changes, those add huge costs. A better alternative may be modular home construction where sections are assembled in a plant and then put together at a site. It's faster and costs are better controlled. That said it can be done, but you need to study, read and understand the process even if you don't want to touch an air nailer.

by montana_tom- 2 years ago

I've not done it, but I have two brothers who are contractors, and my two sisters also had their houses built for them. In addition to stuff posted above, here are a couple things: 1. You're not saving any money at all (from what a used house costs) unless YOU are doing a lot of the actual physical work. In other words, the only savings, is because you're not paying a construction for what you yourself are doing. Of course, this assumes your labor is worth $0, and also, if you only know one trade, this isn't much of a saving. Not to mention you have to have all that time to be there to do the work, and if you're working a full time job, you're going to hold up the entire process with delays because you aren't doing this 40 hours a week like a regular worker would do. This delay will cost you more in interest on your construction loan. 2. Land hasn't gone down in price like houses have, because people aren't as hard up who own land as those owning houses. Most people don't HAVE to sell their land, so it's still very expensive. 3. All the taxes, fees and permits the government gouges you for are a gigantic additional cost when building a home.

by mande95747- 2 years ago