[DETRoadster]

Originally Posted by XutvJet

Yeah, me too. My wife and I have been looking for a more rural property and/or land to build on for the past 1.5 years. I think it's ultimately easier and cheaper to buy something with a home that might "kinda work" and you just gut it and make it your own rather than just building new.

We've researched building a home and most builders/design-build companies are only interested in building larger, more extravagant homes. We want a simple, yet very modern 2,000-2,200 sq ft ranch with lots of outside living space. It's damn near impossible to find firms willing to build that and when you do, they're booked and you might get what you want built in a few years. It's also way easier to build in a non-incorporated area.

As the OP mentioned, utilities for a new property are a huge obstacle and cost. Costs to get utilities to the site and/or make the site self-sufficient (solar, septic, well) require as sorts of permits, designs, and costs.

The biggest frustration for me through this process is my wife. She has a very simplistic view of the process and is very much "a dive in and see what happens" type. I simply can't do that because I need some level of confirmation that what we want to do/build is feasible. She thinks I'm dragging my feet and intentionally delaying things.

Also, it is an utter sh!t time to be buying a home, at least in my area (Kansas City). A few weeks back we put in an offer on a sweet log cabin style home on 3.5 acres. It was listed at $430K. The county appraised value was $299k. Because the inventory is so slim, we reluctantly put in an offer for $440K which gave me serious heartburn given the appraised value, especially since I knew I'd be spending another $70K to update it and build a shop building for me. Our realtor asked if we could do better because 8 other parties had put in offers. We offered another $10K and she flat out said that it won't work. She didn't know the "number" but knew it was more than $450K. That house sold the next day for $500K. REDICULOUS. At that point, my wife and I said F-it, we'll wait until later in the year to start looking again when inventory frees up.

We are in the same boat. Want a very modern but modest size house. You end up with bank problems if you aren't careful as you can "Over build." IOW your cost per sqft is too high. As our builder explained to us the cost to make a 100 sqft bedroom with small closet is virtually the same as a 200sqft with walk in closet. Maybe 20% cost increase for double the sqft. Same with a bathroom. They all get a toilet, sink, vanity, shower. Going bigger is just added floor space which is comparatively cheap.

We had been thinking 1800sqft but are probably going to push it to 2200 while keeping it 3 bed 2 bath. Need to pump up the sqft so that the cost per sqft actually goes down. It's all a game.