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Buying new construction (1 Viewer)

Sinrman

Footballguy
Wife and I are likely selling our house in the next 1-2 months.  Really would like new construction.  Thoughts/warnings?

 
Building new can be very strenuous on a marriage. It is not in any way a fun process. Just be ready for it. I know picking out options and everything SOUNDS fun, especially to the wives. But it isn't. Not even a little bit. It's one huge PITA.

 
IDK, we built and enjoyed it. the feeling that you are the very 1st person to crap in that toilet is an amazing feeling. 

my biggest suggestion is to realize that it WILL be more expensive then you thought with upgrades and extras, plus, in most cases you have NOTHING—no landscaping, no deck , no fence, no sprinklers, etc. (some places do give you these, but in our case we did not) So you need to keep money on the side, apart from the construction costs for things like this. 

I would indeed do it again.

Be sure to solicit tips and life hacks from people who did it as well as take a good look at what is annoy gin you in your current house. 

some things I did and/or which i did:

• Have them lay a wide piece of PVC pipe across your driveway in a few places (depending on how lingo it is) so that you can snake wires and irrigation lines though it. 
• Extra outlets outside. Bonus: Add covered oulets under your soffits that are on a switch for your christmas lights. 
• Add outlets in the garage ceiling for garage door openers
 

trying to thing of others, will update    

 
Sorry for not responding sooner.  Too busy de-cluttering this mess of a house before we sell it.

By "new construction" I mean we would purchase a lot and have them build one on it that isn't already built.  We spoke with someone at a subdivision we liked, and very interested.  There weren't any built of the floor plan we really wanted, so they told us it takes 3-6 months to build, pending weather naturally.

 
Building new can be very strenuous on a marriage. It is not in any way a fun process. Just be ready for it. I know picking out options and everything SOUNDS fun, especially to the wives. But it isn't. Not even a little bit. It's one huge PITA.
Surprisingly, everything we looked at, the wife and I are very much on the same page.

Now de-cluttering and selling our existing home... THAT will be a big test of our marriage.  I'm already about to strangle a certain someone.

 
IDK, we built and enjoyed it. the feeling that you are the very 1st person to crap in that toilet is an amazing feeling. 

my biggest suggestion is to realize that it WILL be more expensive then you thought with upgrades and extras, plus, in most cases you have NOTHING—no landscaping, no deck , no fence, no sprinklers, etc. (some places do give you these, but in our case we did not) So you need to keep money on the side, apart from the construction costs for things like this. 

I would indeed do it again.

Be sure to solicit tips and life hacks from people who did it as well as take a good look at what is annoy gin you in your current house. 

some things I did and/or which i did:

• Have them lay a wide piece of PVC pipe across your driveway in a few places (depending on how lingo it is) so that you can snake wires and irrigation lines though it. 
• Extra outlets outside. Bonus: Add covered oulets under your soffits that are on a switch for your christmas lights. 
• Add outlets in the garage ceiling for garage door openers
 

trying to thing of others, will update    
Good suggestions.  We see the base price and like anyone, our eyes light up at the customization options.  So we will have to temper things or go waaaaay out of our planned budget.

I think little things like the outlets and such are especially what I'm looking for... things I wouldn't normally think of until it's too late.  Stuff like hardwood floors and such are easy to think of.

Keep the suggestions coming!

 
We just finished our new construction and would definitely go this route again.  We were lucky that we found a good builder and the process was actually surprisingly easy thanks to him.  We were lucky in that we didn't have to move right away so we were able to be patient and find a location we liked that fit our needs.

Feel free to PM for any specific questions and I'm happy to give details about what we did along the way, specific do's and don'ts, and info about pricing.  Upon completion, our house had almost a 15-20% equity increase and we saved considerably more than if we had purchased an already built house with what we ended up with.

Good luck!

 
Building new can be very strenuous on a marriage. It is not in any way a fun process. Just be ready for it. I know picking out options and everything SOUNDS fun, especially to the wives. But it isn't. Not even a little bit. It's one huge PITA.
My wife and I loved every second of it. Not a moment of stess.

My advice would be to go see lots of other houses first, especially houses that are out of your price range.  They're expensive for a reason--they have lots of features.  You'll know you can't afford them and you can't afford all the features.  BUT you may see a few that you hadn't thought of that you can afford.  Addng those to your house can be the difference between being "satisfied" and bing "happy".

 
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Ok...I'll be a wet blanket. Worst decision I made, especially financially. I can't recommend enough when I hear people contemplating going through this to give it a second thought. 

Start with this...find out if they will be charging you a sewer management fee. This is a new "hidden" cost that bumps the price of your home up between $30-40k that is positioned as an interest free note to pay for the water pipes in the neighborhood. All of the new neighborhoods in my area started doing this around the crash of 2007 and it's become standard. The builder usually mentions this after you've started picking your lot, home and options so you are emotionally invested when they hit you with this cost  

Now add the cost of a deck/patio, window treatments, probably appliances, garage door openers, mailbox, landscaping, any updates to light fixtures, paint, a fence, upgraded padding/carpet etc etc etc. and you can increase the price another $25k. Oh yeah, closing costs are more since the builder will be ####### you. 

Take my advice as you'd like, but please continue to ask around. I get the emotional attachment and excitement of building. It just isn't worth it. I was lucky to be able to get out of my old hood, but I have friends who are still stuck there and everyone regrets going through it. 

Not sure where you're from but my builder was Ryan. I'd be happy to answer any specific questions you might have. 

 
I don't know the housing market in your area, but when we were looking to move we looked into buying a lot and building. After talking to several builders we found out it just wasn't worth it. 

Just as an example, in our area if you wanted to build a house that was worth 200k dollars it would probably cost between 240k and 260k to get the lot and build the house. So you are already in the hole on equity. 

 
I'm not sure the advantage of getting to pick your own countertops outweighs the other headaches.  If I build it would be custom, not some stock builder plan.  But then I'm an architect.

 
LOOK AT ME!  I CAN DESIGN MY OWN HOUSE!!!!
I could design your house too.

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I'm in the middle of a build.

First off, make sure you look at the site building plans and can see where posts and beams will go.   

The building of the house itself isn't that expensive, it's all the other work after. It gets more expensive if you want a bunch of custom finish work and expensive interior design and materials.

It's a fun, stressful, process. 

 
I don't know the housing market in your area, but when we were looking to move we looked into buying a lot and building. After talking to several builders we found out it just wasn't worth it. 

Just as an example, in our area if you wanted to build a house that was worth 200k dollars it would probably cost between 240k and 260k to get the lot and build the house. So you are already in the hole on equity. 
This doesn't make any sense. The value of the lot is included as a component when determining the value of a home built on the lot. If a lot costs $60K, and it costs $200K to build a home on it, the home should be worth $260K or so when finished.

 
This doesn't make any sense. The value of the lot is included as a component when determining the value of a home built on the lot. If a lot costs $60K, and it costs $200K to build a home on it, the home should be worth $260K or so when finished.
It actually makes sense. New construction prices are typically 20 to 30% higher than a similar existing home.  

For the OP, please, please,  please make sure the builder is extremely reputable. It can be a total nightmare if they are not.  

 
I'm not sure the advantage of getting to pick your own countertops outweighs the other headaches.  If I build it would be custom, not some stock builder plan.  But then I'm an architect.
so obviously not smart enough to get a real job, thus not really worth listening to, IMO.

 
Have owned 6 homes. 3 were new and 3 were previously owned. All 3 of the new homes were begun as spec builds, but we got involved in time to make design choices; the plans were already determined. We have had good experiences with all of our purchases.

Making design and upgrade choices with my wife was enjoyable. I'd characterize it as a positive, not a negative. Naturally, I let her make most of the decisions. You have to pick your battles.

Best advice I can give is to make sure you are going with a quality custom builder. Our first home was a new home built by a volume builder. They did a fine job, but it was our least favorite home. The other two new homes were built by custom builders with great reputations, and they were our two favorite homes. Those two homes also sold for considerably more than we paid for them, within 3-4 years.

I like the suggestion of visiting other more expensive homes to pick up features you might want to incorporate in your home.

 
This doesn't make any sense. The value of the lot is included as a component when determining the value of a home built on the lot. If a lot costs $60K, and it costs $200K to build a home on it, the home should be worth $260K or so when finished.
I can only speak about our experience and it wasn't. We found lots for sale and talked to builders. 

We wanted to stay around 200k total whether we bought a house or bought a lot and built on it. 

We could get a bigger house with more land if we just bought the house as opposed to buying a 40k lot and used 160k to have a builder duild the house for us. It was that way with every builder, every time. We were also told that we would have to put a larger down payment on building a house because there was negative equity buying a lot and building as opposed to buying a regular house. This happened with every lender too. 

 
This doesn't make any sense. The value of the lot is included as a component when determining the value of a home built on the lot. If a lot costs $60K, and it costs $200K to build a home on it, the home should be worth $260K or so when finished.
Yeah, that's how I view it.  I don't see why it wouldn't be otherwise...

 
It actually makes sense. New construction prices are typically 20 to 30% higher than a similar existing home.  

For the OP, please, please,  please make sure the builder is extremely reputable. It can be a total nightmare if they are not.  
A similar existing home would be new construction... not some similar house built 4+ years ago.  So I don't get the argument.

 
The fact is, you can buy more house for your dollar with existing inventory. It's more expensive to build the same house today. Just be prepared for the possibility of your appraisal not coming in at the amount of all your costs. It sucks but there are still benefits to building new. 

 
The fact is, you can buy more house for your dollar with existing inventory. It's more expensive to build the same house today. Just be prepared for the possibility of your appraisal not coming in at the amount of all your costs. It sucks but there are still benefits to building new. 
Well true, the costs are more expensive today.  That's almost always been the case.  Houses built 5, 10, 20+ years were cheaper than today as costs continue to go up.  Not much you can do about that.  Heck the cost of EVERYTHING continues to go up and up (cost of food, etc.)

 
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A similar existing home would be new construction... not some similar house built 4+ years ago.  So I don't get the argument.
The mortgage company cares about how much they could sell the house for, not how much it cost to build.  If they have to foreclose and resell, it's no longer new construction.

 
Building a house today costs about 75% more than it did 15-20 years ago (at least where I live) when you figure the cost of materials and land. About the only thing that has remained constant is the price of labor. I am in the construction business and have friends who would do work for me in virtually every trade for a substantial discount. On top of that  both myself and my crew could do all the framing, drywall, painting, interior and exterior finish work. Even with those savings it would be really tough for me to build a home that would be better or worth more than buying one        already built. I might save a few thousand but I would have a lot of personal labor and sweat into it.This is why you don't see many spec houses being built as the profit just isn't there any more.

 
We built a house a little over 2 years ago. Really wasn't a bad process. The house took around 100 days to complete once they broke ground. Picking out all the options and stuff is very time consuming. We spent about 5-6 hours at the builder's design center to pick out everything we wanted.

I'd definitely say it was worth it. It was nice to be able to pick out everything we wanted in a house and not just settle for something someone else wanted at the time. And the builder has been very good about coming back and fixing little minor things that went wrong.

 
If you must do options, offer 50% of what they are charging for the upgrade.  They will negotiate.

avoid undercoating.

 
We built a house a little over 2 years ago. Really wasn't a bad process. The house took around 100 days to complete once they broke ground. Picking out all the options and stuff is very time consuming. We spent about 5-6 hours at the builder's design center to pick out everything we wanted.

I'd definitely say it was worth it. It was nice to be able to pick out everything we wanted in a house and not just settle for something someone else wanted at the time. And the builder has been very good about coming back and fixing little minor things that went wrong.
100 days from soup to nuts? wow- that's amazingly fast IME.

and lol at the "very time consuming" equaling 5-6 hours.

 
100 days from soup to nuts? wow- that's amazingly fast IME.

and lol at the "very time consuming" equaling 5-6 hours.
Yeah they're pretty quick. Huge crews. In our neighborhood, they're currently building like 4 or 5 houses at a time.

Lol, look when you spend all day with your wife picking out what color and style you want for your faucets, 5-6 hours seems like an eternity.

 
Ok...I'll be a wet blanket. Worst decision I made, especially financially. I can't recommend enough when I hear people contemplating going through this to give it a second thought. 

Start with this...find out if they will be charging you a sewer management fee. This is a new "hidden" cost that bumps the price of your home up between $30-40k that is positioned as an interest free note to pay for the water pipes in the neighborhood. All of the new neighborhoods in my area started doing this around the crash of 2007 and it's become standard. The builder usually mentions this after you've started picking your lot, home and options so you are emotionally invested when they hit you with this cost  

Now add the cost of a deck/patio, window treatments, probably appliances, garage door openers, mailbox, landscaping, any updates to light fixtures, paint, a fence, upgraded padding/carpet etc etc etc. and you can increase the price another $25k. Oh yeah, closing costs are more since the builder will be ####### you. 

Take my advice as you'd like, but please continue to ask around. I get the emotional attachment and excitement of building. It just isn't worth it. I was lucky to be able to get out of my old hood, but I have friends who are still stuck there and everyone regrets going through it. 

Not sure where you're from but my builder was Ryan. I'd be happy to answer any specific questions you might have. 
RYAN homes suck

 
Also to add. A lot of stuff is cheaper to upgrade after the fact.   But it's wheter you want to go through that process after everything is built

 
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Also to add.  Some of the stuff get the basic options.   It's cheaper to upgrade after the fact.   I'm talking about cabinet hardware, some light fixtures etc.
Definitely this. When we went through the process, our main thought was to upgrade things that 1) We couldn't do later ourselves or 2) Were pretty cheap to upgrade.

 
Definitely this. When we went through the process, our main thought was to upgrade things that 1) We couldn't do later ourselves or 2) Were pretty cheap to upgrade.
Here's one example, but everything was like this.

It cost $5500 extra to go from Formica to granite, but I could have gotten granite on my own after market for about half of that. Carpet, lights, fixtures, smooth ceilings, etc were all add ons. Everything was an extra charge. 

 
We put a down on a sub-division model new build. Picked the lot out and the style house. I did a lot of research and asked a lot of people from those who had built (both custom and model), people in construction, architects and suppliers (HVAC guys etc). Also even started a thread here.

What I came away with was that we want to one day do a new build home but that we absolutely will do it as a custom build and that I can serve as the project manager.

From my perspective, the model homes are basically just ways to get buyers pre-construction and then try to make tons of money off of options/upgrades. Now, I am certain some model builders will vary but the one we were looking at told me over and over again that they could do anything I wanted other than move load bearing walls. I came with a long list of possible upgrades to see cost on them- half of them they came back and said they could not do without providing reason. As I pushed back on that- it basically came out that they would not use anyone that they don't already have contracts with. So, they have already price negotiated most common requests with their various contractors. Anything out of the mold they did not want to consider. The other half of stuff was outrageously priced. Huge mark ups without factoring in the difference in cost of what I did not want. They were very restrictive on who could be on the property and when- they allowed only the buyer (no spouse, lawyer, contractor, inspector, etc) after framing, first walk through and final walk through.

I decided, if I am going to do it then I will do it the right way and build a custom house spending the time to basically act as the project manager being on site daily (or almost daily) and be the boss. So, if something came up that I wanted to change or have done or whatever- I say it and it is done. That may mean more headaches for me in the process but I figure if I am going to invest that money into building something then I am going to spend the time and energy in it as well to make it all mine.

 
We put a down on a sub-division model new build. Picked the lot out and the style house. I did a lot of research and asked a lot of people from those who had built (both custom and model), people in construction, architects and suppliers (HVAC guys etc). Also even started a thread here.

What I came away with was that we want to one day do a new build home but that we absolutely will do it as a custom build and that I can serve as the project manager.

From my perspective, the model homes are basically just ways to get buyers pre-construction and then try to make tons of money off of options/upgrades. Now, I am certain some model builders will vary but the one we were looking at told me over and over again that they could do anything I wanted other than move load bearing walls. I came with a long list of possible upgrades to see cost on them- half of them they came back and said they could not do without providing reason. As I pushed back on that- it basically came out that they would not use anyone that they don't already have contracts with. So, they have already price negotiated most common requests with their various contractors. Anything out of the mold they did not want to consider. The other half of stuff was outrageously priced. Huge mark ups without factoring in the difference in cost of what I did not want. They were very restrictive on who could be on the property and when- they allowed only the buyer (no spouse, lawyer, contractor, inspector, etc) after framing, first walk through and final walk through.

I decided, if I am going to do it then I will do it the right way and build a custom house spending the time to basically act as the project manager being on site daily (or almost daily) and be the boss. So, if something came up that I wanted to change or have done or whatever- I say it and it is done. That may mean more headaches for me in the process but I figure if I am going to invest that money into building something then I am going to spend the time and energy in it as well to make it all mine.
Definitely a contractor to avoid, but that doesn't mean you need to avoid them all. I would agree that "model homes" are not the way to go.  We found a house plan on the internet that was about 90% what we wanted and presented that to our builder along with the changes we wanted for cost estimate. From there, we narrowed down the details and had no problems.  Access to the property was never an issue; since our old house was only about a mile away, we found ourselves stopping at the jobsite nearly every day, just to see what changes there were.  That actually came in handy on several occasions when we noticed that changes we had agreed upon with the builder hadn't been picked up by the construction crew.  We were able to let everyone know before it became a major problem. It also was financially beneficial--when we noticed that the crew wasn't upgrading the master bath as we had discussed with the builder, we were able to stop things before a lot of the installation.  Turned out that the builder forgot to include those upgrades in the plans and in his price calculation.  Because he was honest enough to admit that he had indeed agreed to them and that they were part of our agreement, we got the upgrades even though they weren't included in the quoted price and we hadn't paid for them.

 
We put a down on a sub-division model new build. Picked the lot out and the style house. I did a lot of research and asked a lot of people from those who had built (both custom and model), people in construction, architects and suppliers (HVAC guys etc). Also even started a thread here.

What I came away with was that we want to one day do a new build home but that we absolutely will do it as a custom build and that I can serve as the project manager.

From my perspective, the model homes are basically just ways to get buyers pre-construction and then try to make tons of money off of options/upgrades. Now, I am certain some model builders will vary but the one we were looking at told me over and over again that they could do anything I wanted other than move load bearing walls. I came with a long list of possible upgrades to see cost on them- half of them they came back and said they could not do without providing reason. As I pushed back on that- it basically came out that they would not use anyone that they don't already have contracts with. So, they have already price negotiated most common requests with their various contractors. Anything out of the mold they did not want to consider. The other half of stuff was outrageously priced. Huge mark ups without factoring in the difference in cost of what I did not want. They were very restrictive on who could be on the property and when- they allowed only the buyer (no spouse, lawyer, contractor, inspector, etc) after framing, first walk through and final walk through.

I decided, if I am going to do it then I will do it the right way and build a custom house spending the time to basically act as the project manager being on site daily (or almost daily) and be the boss. So, if something came up that I wanted to change or have done or whatever- I say it and it is done. That may mean more headaches for me in the process but I figure if I am going to invest that money into building something then I am going to spend the time and energy in it as well to make it all mine.
Interesting stuff.

Are you talking about acting as the GC? or just being more involved... because, as the client of a custom home, whatever you say goes whether you PM/GC or just sit on your keester and let other people do it. I ask because the coordination and responsibility of handling the day to day of a construction site is a decent size undertaking... one that's helped or killed by the amount of particular expertise of having done that kind of thing before. Unless you've got nothing else to do and/or need to cut costs, IME it's better to just pay somebody with the expertise to do that kind of work.

 
Interesting stuff.

Are you talking about acting as the GC? or just being more involved... because, as the client of a custom home, whatever you say goes whether you PM/GC or just sit on your keester and let other people do it. I ask because the coordination and responsibility of handling the day to day of a construction site is a decent size undertaking... one that's helped or killed by the amount of particular expertise of having done that kind of thing before. Unless you've got nothing else to do and/or need to cut costs, IME it's better to just pay somebody with the expertise to do that kind of work.
I should have expanded what I meant by that.

I would hire a general contractor/builder to do the professional stuff and act on more of the oversight and macro level. Essentially making sure the quality is there and more importantly that what is intended is actually being done. Pretty much everyone I spoke with that has had a house built- whether model or custom, had stories about something not being done right during construction. From pouring a half basement instead of full basement to a closet not being added in to the wrong toilets installed. If you think about it- there is a lot of moving parts in building a new home with numerous areas for something not to be done right. I think that that possibility increases when doing a model home build because they are use to doing House A one way and if you opt for some alterations, they may forget about it on this house because all the others are done the other way.

Now, not to say that having a model home built is a bad thing or that everyone had bad experiences. Obviously there are going to be better builders and not so good builders out there (If you do a model home builder- do a lot of research on them and try to talk to people who have already bought through that builder before.) It seems to me that you can have more control, get exactly what you want rather than compromise, not getting raped on doing alternations/options, etc when you do a custom build vs where you do a model build.

 
Definitely a contractor to avoid, but that doesn't mean you need to avoid them all. I would agree that "model homes" are not the way to go.  We found a house plan on the internet that was about 90% what we wanted and presented that to our builder along with the changes we wanted for cost estimate. From there, we narrowed down the details and had no problems.  Access to the property was never an issue; since our old house was only about a mile away, we found ourselves stopping at the jobsite nearly every day, just to see what changes there were.  That actually came in handy on several occasions when we noticed that changes we had agreed upon with the builder hadn't been picked up by the construction crew.  We were able to let everyone know before it became a major problem. It also was financially beneficial--when we noticed that the crew wasn't upgrading the master bath as we had discussed with the builder, we were able to stop things before a lot of the installation.  Turned out that the builder forgot to include those upgrades in the plans and in his price calculation.  Because he was honest enough to admit that he had indeed agreed to them and that they were part of our agreement, we got the upgrades even though they weren't included in the quoted price and we hadn't paid for them.
Yea, what you did is roughly the route I would/will go. I prob overstated what I meant by being the project manager but my overall point was more about avoiding the model home build and go custom.

 
Definitely a contractor to avoid, but that doesn't mean you need to avoid them all. I would agree that "model homes" are not the way to go.  We found a house plan on the internet that was about 90% what we wanted and presented that to our builder along with the changes we wanted for cost estimate. From there, we narrowed down the details and had no problems.  Access to the property was never an issue; since our old house was only about a mile away, we found ourselves stopping at the jobsite nearly every day, just to see what changes there were.  That actually came in handy on several occasions when we noticed that changes we had agreed upon with the builder hadn't been picked up by the construction crew.  We were able to let everyone know before it became a major problem. It also was financially beneficial--when we noticed that the crew wasn't upgrading the master bath as we had discussed with the builder, we were able to stop things before a lot of the installation.  Turned out that the builder forgot to include those upgrades in the plans and in his price calculation.  Because he was honest enough to admit that he had indeed agreed to them and that they were part of our agreement, we got the upgrades even though they weren't included in the quoted price and we hadn't paid for them.
A lot of this crap has happened with every buyer I have represented.

 
After a run of living in new construction homes and then building one from scratch, I went the opposite way and came to find that was my happiest spot. 

Getting caught up in the emotional high of selecting every little thing just as you like it can be great or can be torture. As many have said, a lot of it will rely on the builders and contractors, etc. I could tell you happy stories. I could tell you nightmare experiences.

In the end, though, when it comes down to dollars in your pocket, I think if you are of the type of mindset that is willing to build one from scratch and put that kind of work and effort into it, you should consider looking at taking an older home and making it what you want. In my case, I went to a REALLY older home (almost 90 years old) and while, yes, it has had it's share of "oh buy! What have I've gotten into?" moments, it has been completely trumped by "This is why you do it this way" moments because the quality of construction (and character) of older homes is simply something you can't get a lot these days if you are living in a cookie-cutter world.  Sure, you can get one of these planned "custom builder" subdivisions where technically the houses aren't all the same, but when it's built, they will all have their own version of looking at a "vinyl valley" of homes. 

Now I admit, I'm the type where I'm looking at the entire gambit of things.  There's a certain appreciation I have for sitting on my porch and having a truly nice sized yard and watching kids riding bicycles past massive trees that took 80 years to grow, but the way I see it, this is your home and the place where a massive chunk of your memories are going to reside with you. 

So, for me, I'll take the days where I have to go buy a lead testing kit and then deal with those results (as I go through the same process that others do that are changing something and making it "their own"...end result is the same for us both) because there are also those days when you have a guy come in and tell you something like "these 80 year old floors you have are irreplaceable.  Look how sturdy and mature the wood they used was.  Look how they built the floor joists in the correct pattern. This house is built to stand the test of time." 

For me, there is something awesome about that.  

 
I should have expayournded what I meant by that.

I woudld hire a general contractor/builder to do the professional stuff and act on more of the oversight and macro level. Essentially making sure the quality is there and more importantly that what is intended is actually being done. Pretty much everyone I spoke with that has had a house built- whether model or custom, had stories about something not being done right during construction. From pouring a half basement instead of full basement to a closet not being added in to the wrong toilets installed. If you think about it- there is a lot of moving parts in building a new home with numerous areas for something not to be done right. I think that that possibility increases when doing a model home build because they are use to doing House A one way and if you opt for some alterations, they may forget about it on this house because all the others are done the other way.

Now, not to say that having a model home built is a bad thing or that everyone had bad experiences. Obviously there are going to be better builders and not so good builders out there (If you do a model home builder- do a lot of research on them and try to talk to people who have already bought through that builder before.) It seems to me that you can have more control, get exactly what you want rather than compromise, not getting raped on doing alternations/options, etc when you do a custom build vs where you do a model build.
Fwiw, an architect Is supposed to do all of the site project oversight youre describing. Are you planning on not using an architect for your custom house?

 
I decided, if I am going to do it then I will do it the right way and build a custom house spending the time to basically act as the project manager being on site daily (or almost daily) and be the boss. So, if something came up that I wanted to change or have done or whatever- I say it and it is done. That may mean more headaches for me in the process but I figure if I am going to invest that money into building something then I am going to spend the time and energy in it as well to make it all mine.
I have a friend who did this. It consumed his life for several months. He would go to work at his normal job, then go to the home site and work for hours each night, and all day every weekend day. He had no pre-existing relationships with all of the various contractors needed to build a house, and that was a problem. Some were unreliable, some took advantage of him. He ended up having to take one of them to court.

IIRC he built a home for probably $300K and sold it two years later for $350K. Hard to say how much of that profit was due to his role and how much was due to a good housing market. Regardless, having observed his experience, I would never consider doing that. 

ETA: My friend operated as the GC.

 
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Fwiw, an architect Is supposed to do all of the site project oversight youre describing. Are you planning on not using an architect for your custom house?
Not sure. I did all of the research for our previous purchase back in 2012- once I knew I was not going to move forward with the model build I did not go further in figuring out exactly how I want to do things. I am a few years off from that point. I am not sure if I would go the route apalmer did and get an existing plan and modify it or go to the architect to build.

It really comes down to that I want to be part of the whole process and retain control. It seems in the model builds you lose a lot of both. Because of all the feedback I got when I did look into it- that was the big part of it for me. I am not a GC and don't want to play one either- but I want to work with the architect, GC, subs, etc as things progress and for them all to know that I am the boss.

 
After a run of living in new construction homes and then building one from scratch, I went the opposite way and came to find that was my happiest spot. 

Getting caught up in the emotional high of selecting every little thing just as you like it can be great or can be torture. As many have said, a lot of it will rely on the builders and contractors, etc. I could tell you happy stories. I could tell you nightmare experiences.

In the end, though, when it comes down to dollars in your pocket, I think if you are of the type of mindset that is willing to build one from scratch and put that kind of work and effort into it, you should consider looking at taking an older home and making it what you want. In my case, I went to a REALLY older home (almost 90 years old) and while, yes, it has had it's share of "oh buy! What have I've gotten into?" moments, it has been completely trumped by "This is why you do it this way" moments because the quality of construction (and character) of older homes is simply something you can't get a lot these days if you are living in a cookie-cutter world.  Sure, you can get one of these planned "custom builder" subdivisions where technically the houses aren't all the same, but when it's built, they will all have their own version of looking at a "vinyl valley" of homes. 

Now I admit, I'm the type where I'm looking at the entire gambit of things.  There's a certain appreciation I have for sitting on my porch and having a truly nice sized yard and watching kids riding bicycles past massive trees that took 80 years to grow, but the way I see it, this is your home and the place where a massive chunk of your memories are going to reside with you. 

So, for me, I'll take the days where I have to go buy a lead testing kit and then deal with those results (as I go through the same process that others do that are changing something and making it "their own"...end result is the same for us both) because there are also those days when you have a guy come in and tell you something like "these 80 year old floors you have are irreplaceable.  Look how sturdy and mature the wood they used was.  Look how they built the floor joists in the correct pattern. This house is built to stand the test of time." 

For me, there is something awesome about that.  
I'm here too.  While I live in a models 1950 rancher, just knowing how solidly it's built vs what'd done today gives me real satisfaction.  The joists in my basement are so thick and hard it's extremely difficult to get a nail in them.  Not to mention the roof.  I always smile when I drive by new construction and see the roof joist being hauled in pre-assembled by flatbed.  I compare that to my house's roof and it's intricate pattern of huge pieces of lumber that are holding up my roof.

Old may not always be fancy but it's usually extremely well built.

 

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