Is building your own house cheaper?

Discussion in Mortgage & House Payments started by whnuien • May 4, 2014.

  1. whnuien

    whnuienActive Member

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    I have a small family and we are renting an apartment at the moment but we are planning to have our very own house in the future. I always believe that building our own house will cost much cheaper than actually buying a house, it's just that building your own would takes time and also have to spend quite a lot of money for contractors. My husband is an architect so we would not have any problem about plan and design.

    What do you guys think? Even if we would have to pay contractors to build The House, would it still costs cheaper than purchasing a house from somebody else? By the way we have our own little land which will deducts the extra cost of building.
     
  2. Denis Hard

    Denis HardWell-Known Member

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    It's always cheaper to build your own house because people who sell houses are only in it for the profit they'll make. Of course you'd need to have a lot of money to pay the contractors but all the money you'll spend will be less than what you'd have spent buying the house. There's no question that you'll save money [and a lot of it at that]. If I were you I'd go for it.
     
  3. LindaKay

    LindaKayActive Member

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    I don't necessarily think it's cheaper. It kind of depends, really. I mean, some sellers will go really low on their selling prices. The only difference is that you will only save by buying an older house; you will generally be better off building if you're interested in a new house. It all depends on what you want, plus it also depends on how you design your home, which contractor you hire, etc. Plus, you have to think about how it could take a year or more for your home to get built, so you have to worry about living arrangements during that long process.
     
  4. Lostvalleyguy

    LostvalleyguyActive Member

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    When I initially looked at this post, I thought you meant building it all by yourself in which case it would definitely be cheaper. By the time you hire contractors to do the work the price will be on par with other homes in the area. The advantage is that you will have a new home specifically designed for your needs for the price of a similar home that isn't a perfect fit. Building a home this way may not save you much money but it will give you better value for the dollars you spend.

    If you are able to do some of the tasks on your own, you can save a lot of the costs in building. If you can only handle building a deck, for example, you can still cut costs. Sometimes, however, it is better to hire someone as there is an implied guarantee in the quality of the work. I would never pour my own concrete slab, for example, but I would build up from there. This gives me a little comfort in knowing that if it cracks, I have some recourse.