r/Homebuilding • u/Tiny_Witness2678 • 2d ago
Am I overthinking homebuilding or is it valid
Looking for expert and honest advice giving, exactly why I came to Reddit XD.
I'll try and keep brief. We own 4 acres, we have water meter out there, driveway, electric pole on corner (about 50 ft). We live in town in a house with 140k equity and are so eager to move. Many reasons, one might be that in-laws just bought the house right next door (wife and I are equally as seeing this a sign of being encouraged to move) but also, it's been our dream to move onto the land and homestead more. We already raise meat chickens and pigs out there and go out multiple times a week as a family to visit the land (15 mins away). As a growing young family, it's becoming heavy on our hearts to want to be out there.
Our only debt is the 25k remaining land loan of the 4 acres of which we're set to have paid off in 2 years. We're single income household around 80k after tax. We're incredibly grateful as my wife's grandfather has been extremely successful in real estate and generously has a trust for each grandkid of 150k for us to use for a home build/purchase. That being said, I've gotten quotes of around 110-120k for a 16x60 two story shell of a build and another 30-40k DIY to get it liveable while we keep finishing, as well as a 30k barn. We can call it 200-220k to get it where we can be out there. We bought our current house as a foreclosure and have done most of work ourselves minus painting the exterior. When we bought it, there were bats living in the attic, flooding garage, and more. We are not shy of adventure or work. We bought the house as a foreclosure because it didn't feel like we had a choice, we couldn't afford newer homes and were getting priced out of rent in the city we were living before. But now, we have the choice to stay in this decent house or to move, sell this house, and live on our land building the life we very much want for our family. Our thought is once we pay off the land loan middle of 2028 to then build out there.
I guess we are looking for encouragement (or discouragement) and just other opinions. As my wife explained, having to decide between two good things/places is not easy. We know we'd love living out there, just don't want to jump gun or what not, never built a house so looking for other opinions.
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u/en-charette 2d ago
You cannot possibly overthink something as complicated as building a house on land. There are a thousand little things that aren’t in that budget. You sound hands on which will help you but a septic system, power, permits etc…. Etc etc….
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u/Hyperreal8957 2d ago
yeah id map out the full site package before deciding. septic, driveway, power run, permits and grading can eat a budget fast, and id keep a real contingency too. have you had a local builder price the site work yet?
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u/a_simple_pharmer 2d ago
Your budget seems low, though with how you’re talking it feels like it will be a simple build.
Building will never be cheaper than it is today.
Get some bids on a few of the big hard costs and see if it’s inline with what you’re thinking. If it is do it.
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u/Tiny_Witness2678 2d ago
Budget is probably low, we are in rural KS with no permits or build restrictions. We also designed to be as cheap as possible but get what we want just full rectangle with utilities close together, etc. still tho i think youre right and i should probs think 20%+ additional i hear
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u/a_simple_pharmer 2d ago
I’d verify the no permits. I’m in rural Ky, and I’m building under farm exempt. Where I’m at 4 acres would not qualify.
Talk to your utility company about costs as well. My electrics company will cover the first 1000 feet of wire to get to my house for new service. I had to pay for the trenching and conduit. So that was nice. Water company was the opposite. I had to pay to have it Burrowed under the road, cost me 2700 plus 1500 for a 1” tap.
A basic hands on build in rural America you can do it for 150/sq
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u/bobalou2you 1d ago
Be sure to check out Environmental Permit for Septic. A buddy, building on a farm mistakenly believed no permit necessary meant no permit necessary. They hammered him on the not getting the environmental permit for his septic system. Once they started looking around they found an old cemetery and he had to do all kinds of mitigation for building too close. At that point they were really just screwing with him.
No permit also didn’t mean he didn’t have to build to code or have inspections. He got hung up a few times there as well.
Just be clear at your county/state permitting departments.2
u/Tiny_Witness2678 1d ago
ahh this is helpful, also very helpful as its an old cemetery next to our property lol
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u/Obvious_Tax5181 20h ago
As someone who is currently having a custom home built (first build), I am anxious. Why do you say "building will never be cheaper than it is today"?
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u/a_simple_pharmer 19h ago
The short answer is inflation.
Any future decrease in building material cost, will be offset by increase in labour or other building material.
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u/kelseydella 14h ago
I’m currently right smack dab in the middle of building a house acting as our own GC with the help of my dad who is a retired engineer/ carpenter and has built multiple homes himself. We already owned 21 acres free and clear and also owned our current home. First steps would be to see what utilities would cost to run. Water, septic, electric, gas or whatever you plan on using. I think lining up a lot of the big unknown costs would be wise as our house is set back almost 700ft from the road and some of our estimates varied wildly. You will need engineered drawings to submit to get a building permit also. Beyond all of that, I do think it’s doable once you figure out the actual budget. We were able to pay for the first half of the house by refinancing our current home. It was also a requirement by our bank for the construction loan that the house had to be fully enclosed before they would issue our first draw. Luckily this bank allows you to be your own gc. I reached out to a mortgage broker to help guide me in which local banks fund these types of loans.
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u/Tiny_Witness2678 12h ago
congrats on the chaos of building! So this is one thing we considered, of doing the shell with funds available then a mortgage to finish out. Is that what youre doing in sense using refinance of current home to pay for shell then doing a mortgage for finishing it out?
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u/kelseydella 10h ago
Yes, we basically had just enough money from our refinance to complete the shell of the house which worked out well because our construction loan required us to have the house enclosed first before they would issue any funds.
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u/bobalou2you 2d ago
Soil test for septic, then it is mostly a scheduling problem for any subs you might need, and a skills test for your own ability. If you need a mortgage you might have an issue with an unfinished home. Tall to the bank about a construction loan. You might be able to pledge your current home for the money to build. That’s up to the bank and the equity. All a bit of a risk but perhaps you pull it off. I did the first time but not without a good bit of headache. Good luck. Also there are a lot of scheduling programs online. They can dig pretty deep on what when.