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Having a new home built (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter STEADYMOBBIN 22
- Start date
STEADYMOBBIN 22
Footballguy
River hill high school is where they would go. I think I remember you saying that before, absolutely 100% love Highland, but there arent very many houses under $1 million that aren’t located on the main roads. We are moving off of a busy road and will never do that again. ( it wasn’t a very busy road when we moved in 18 years ago)
I can’t even imagine how great it must to have grown up there when you did. I wish I could magically transport my entire family back to that area in the late 70s.
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STEADYMOBBIN 22
Footballguy
Pipes
Footballguy
They owned the lot that we ended up going with. There were 3 lots we were interested in 2 of which were owned by a mass builder that your referring too. So we went with the other one based on references and checking out some off the other houses they built.
Johnny Rock
Footballguy
You said this—
You explained your intentions better. If you’re going to wait years to renovate and improve over builders grade, I can see doing it that way. But if you’re changing to quartz countertops soon after moving in, just negotiate the upgrade upfront.
bucksoh
Footballguy
We did only the stuff we couldn't like 9 ft ceilings and in basement too, steel beam so you don't need as many supports, bump outs, third car garage, ceiling fan boxes. We didn't do any upgrades cause the builders almost all get the same materials from the same place. Your just upgrading and spending a lot of money on inferior products. We didn't go with any upgrades deciding to upgrade the things we could over the years. So far to date i personally have changed out the door, electrical fixtures, base boards, also luxury vinyl 1st floor, put in fireplace with columns by the front door, poured the patio, and did my bbq area by myself,finished off the basement myself. Hate to see what i would have been charged for the upgrades. The only thing i regret is not going 2x6 outsidd walls but they wanted way to much for. Goodluck enjoy the process. My wife loves to build and is already getting an itch to build again after nine years.
bucksoh
Footballguy
We had ours installed after and they wanted 7 grand more than our installed price. So might wanna shop around.
STEADYMOBBIN 22
Footballguy
I can get better quality materials and installs than a builder offers at far less than what they would attempt to charge me for the upgrade alone.Johnny Rock said:
STEADYMOBBIN 22
Footballguy
Yeah, I really want to find some land and have someone get me out of the ground and I can handle the rest.bucksoh said:
Tonight I had a few beers with my friend now, but old boss. Hes head and shoulders the best leader, framer and probably about the best person I’ve ever met. He also charges a premium for his work so I never even considered using him. When I told home about it he offered to offset a substantial portion of the cost if I run the job with his help. He’s gonna stop by to talk some things over with the wife and I. This weekend I’m going to show her a house he’s finishing up so she sees first hand how immaculate his work is.
The wife will need convincing and she can be a tough cookie to crack. She’s petrified of the entire aspect of moving and is somehow worried we’re going to be homeless. The prospect of me being in charge of building our home probably isn’t going to go over well.
Its funny, the majority of my life I’ve been giving orders to grown men under sometimes dangerous and intense circumstances and they followed my instructions without hesitation because they trusted and had (mutual) respect. At my house I’m currently 4th on the depth chart, behind 4 girls, one of them being the dog!
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STEADYMOBBIN 22
Footballguy
Yupbucksoh said:
ChainsawU
Footballguy
Run the project like you'd run a business. Have a plan. Have a backup plan. Have a backup plan to the backup plans. Recruit men that are willing to be on the same page with mindset, attitude, strategy and goals - top to bottom. Have clearly defined roles for everyone. Consider all the stakeholders involved - wife, independent contractors, suppliers, neighbors, everyone you can think who's gonna be affected should be accounted for & be part of the plan somehow (weighted with some stakeholders being more important than others). Write down all your strengths and weaknesses. Write down all your opportunities and threats. Write a structured timeline. Manage it just like a business. That's what I'd do. Also, it's good that you have experience in the industry. Pretty perfect, actually. Treat your wife like the investor. Once she sees that you not only have plans but plans A,B,C and D as well - with a role for her as one of the stakeholders - she should appreciate that and calm down a little bit, too. Have you ever flipped houses?
El Floppo
Footballguy
how would this work? you'd be hiring this guy to build a different house for you than the builder-spec houses you're looking at? does he design it for you?
but re the other stuff- moving sucks. building new is even worse. once you're done, moved in and/or built new- it's a fast receding blip in your rear-view mirror... but during is a nightmare, even for the projects that go well.
STEADYMOBBIN 22
Footballguy
That’s great idea. I planned on doing all that but you’re right, if I do all that ahead of time and present it to the wife in a tiny, neat package (
) she will be more receptive. Good advice, thanks.I havent flipped houses but I’ve been in charge of rebuilding numerous properties that have been burnt to the ground. I’m comfortable with everything above ground.
STEADYMOBBIN 22
Footballguy
My friend is a savant when it comes to framing. All I need to do is show him what I want and he can build it. He has the experience and foresight to catch any problems ahead of time and offer advice.
We’ve always been great at moving and we’ve already started packing. We’re actually not brining to much with us other than my two kids bedroom sets, a dinning room table, a few TVs and our clothes.
Were gonna get a pod for most of the stuff except the bare necessities. Everything we’re not keeping will go into a dumpster. Paint the house white throughout, new carpet and fix a couple of doors and we’re ready to put it on the market.
We’re excited.
El Floppo
Footballguy
I'm unclear on what's going on here if you're hiring a different rough carpenter and how he'd fit into this if it's staying as part of the builder-spec house community. and if it's not, where are the plans coming from- does he design it too?
STEADYMOBBIN 22
Footballguy
This plan would not be in the mass builder neighborhood.
I buy the land
I show him what we want and he can build it. I can show him the floor plans of the new house we liked or I can find something online.
To keep the price as low to cost as possible and avoid his normal mark up, I would be the working supervisor, meeting with the subs and checking on the job daily.
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El Floppo
Footballguy
bucksoh
Footballguy
Also forgot to mention when they were working on our house the head supervisor said if i needed any changes just go threw him so I wouldn't get charged their builder fees. It was too late in the process but starting new I would have replaced all the doors, baseboards, casing, and insulation and he was ok with it as long as i gave the crew a couple cases of beer and him a couple hundred bucks. Which would have been well worth it. Next house definately will ask the head supervisor and I'll have everything lined up from the get go. Never hurts to ask.
IvanKaramazov
Footballguy
We just moved into a new construction about a month ago. My wife and I bought about half the house we could have afforded when we first moved to town, but that was 20 years ago, and we are now at the point where we wanted to get out of the "starter home" into something nice. After looking around at local options, we went with a new construction in a development that is barely underway. We live in a small town of ~20K people, so it was extremely easy to check out our builder, get references, see some of his previous work, etc. We checked in approximately weekly, but there was no reason for us to stop by more often than that.
Our builder gave us a heavily curated set of options. We had just a couple of floorplans to choose from with only minor changes allowed, like a basement wall we moved a couple of feet to balance out the square footage in a couple of rooms. We were offered about half a dozen flooring options, about half a dozen granite options, a handful of cabinet style, an assortment of interior paints, etc. But ultimately the guy would put in whatever we wanted if we were willing to eat any additional cost. My wife got very particular about cabinet pulls (whatever) so we special ordered some at no extra cost. We also went custom on some of the master bath fixtures (rainfall showerhead), office flooring (hardwood instead of carpet), and the stone around the fireplace. We shelled out for most available upgrades like an outdoor gas firepit on the grounds that it would be a pain to come back and do them later. We also paid quite a bit extra for a lot that allows for a walkout, faces a shared green area, and sits high enough to avoid drainage problems (my town has a very high water table and some folks' sump pumps run year-round multiple times a day).
The only place where I felt like we should have been more vigilant was with appliances. We were given what turned out to be a bare-bones allotment for appliances, and we ended up going $2500 over without splurging on anything fancy. Had we stuck to our allowance, we would have had to buy trashy appliances below the quality of the kitchen. No big deal, but I didn't ask enough questions on that particular point when we signed the purchase agreement.
We're extremely pleased with what we got. The overall build quality is great. Like others said, there is a world of difference when you move into a home with 9' ceilings, a three stall garage, nice wide hallways, etc. I am not handy at all, so I am very happy that there figures to be little M&R for quite a few years. It's also pretty cool to have things exactly as you chose them as opposed to settling for somebody else's choice in shower tile. I would definitely go the "build new" route again.
Our builder gave us a heavily curated set of options. We had just a couple of floorplans to choose from with only minor changes allowed, like a basement wall we moved a couple of feet to balance out the square footage in a couple of rooms. We were offered about half a dozen flooring options, about half a dozen granite options, a handful of cabinet style, an assortment of interior paints, etc. But ultimately the guy would put in whatever we wanted if we were willing to eat any additional cost. My wife got very particular about cabinet pulls (whatever) so we special ordered some at no extra cost. We also went custom on some of the master bath fixtures (rainfall showerhead), office flooring (hardwood instead of carpet), and the stone around the fireplace. We shelled out for most available upgrades like an outdoor gas firepit on the grounds that it would be a pain to come back and do them later. We also paid quite a bit extra for a lot that allows for a walkout, faces a shared green area, and sits high enough to avoid drainage problems (my town has a very high water table and some folks' sump pumps run year-round multiple times a day).
The only place where I felt like we should have been more vigilant was with appliances. We were given what turned out to be a bare-bones allotment for appliances, and we ended up going $2500 over without splurging on anything fancy. Had we stuck to our allowance, we would have had to buy trashy appliances below the quality of the kitchen. No big deal, but I didn't ask enough questions on that particular point when we signed the purchase agreement.
We're extremely pleased with what we got. The overall build quality is great. Like others said, there is a world of difference when you move into a home with 9' ceilings, a three stall garage, nice wide hallways, etc. I am not handy at all, so I am very happy that there figures to be little M&R for quite a few years. It's also pretty cool to have things exactly as you chose them as opposed to settling for somebody else's choice in shower tile. I would definitely go the "build new" route again.
