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Advice on building new house
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Another thing is the bathroom.
Do you want a Japanese style washlet? A new build is by far the easiest to do so, with the plumbing and electrical connections where they would be needed to put one in.
Toto are the largest maker of them. [link]https://www.toto.com/en/washlet/[/link]
Also do you want the hose attachments to be able to use a pressure washer in your bathroom? Again easier to install in a new build.
Another thing -how much do you use electrical tools outside?
Many things work well cordless but some things don’t eg pressure washers.
If you do then it would be worthwhile planning where you want outdoor electrical outlets for that as well as the switches to control the power to those outlets indoors (so that you can turn the outdoor outlets off when not in use so they don’t become a potential source for thieves to hook up power tools to break in or power theft).-
Big +1 on the switchable power outlets on the patio, pool deck and driveway. If you host guests for events, having a place for the caterer or entertainment to plug in is golden. Now if you really don’t like people all that much, this may not be an issue….
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Agree on outdoor outlets. That is like another room in itself.
Although there are good wireless video options, I prefer to hardwire cameras so then you think about how to run lines to more remote areas along the drive, any other property access points, etc and if you want them up a tree or a fence. Also including plenty of drop points around the exterior of a building is important especially if the exterior is concrete, steel or glass. We had some good (?) advice to wire in more camera drops than we think we’ll need, and even if a camera is not in every single drop point it will still appear as if it is, so if 15 out of 20 camera domes contain a camera, no one will know which 5 do not.
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Japanese toilet is a must if you like flashy big ticket items and a really clean arse
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Fancy toilet for sure I have a brondell attachment now
Mrs_dergon is going a Japanese style full wet room too 🙂
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Would you guys build a house now or wait if you haven’t already started? Are costs going to go down as materials get cheaper and interest rates gets higher? Or are builders going to hold onto current pricing as long as they can, hoping to ride out the downturn?
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Building a house now costs more than buying an equivalent sized house. In many cases it would be better economically to buy and remodel than build new. I dont think it will get cheaper to build even if materials go down somewhat. With labor shortage workers will be making more next year not less which would balance out any materials price decrease. And no builders arent going to reduce prices if there is still a housing shortage. They may slow down if buyers arent there but doubt they reduce pricess
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we had a lot of discussion about perhaps just holding on to the land and waiting
but for us 1) it felt a bit like trying to timethe market.. what if we wait 2 years and prices aren’t down at all? then all we’ve done is lost time in the new house and picked up two more years of double taxes.
2) our city tax abatement program is sunsetting … we didn’t know the exact date when we bought, but we knew it was on the chopping block. (turned out we ended up having until 12/23 … but we didn’t want to risk missing the deadline because it’s hundreds of thousands of dollars over the next 15 years)-
Sounds like price of building is not going down. Is it usually cheaper to build or buy?
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In our area, which may not reflect your region, it is usually cheaper to buy than build new, but of course one could argue building allows the homeowner to have exactly what they want, whereas buying usually entails some level of remodeling and compromise.
Our local builders say they have seen a 20-30% drop in materials costs from their peak, but several of the subcontractors are having to pay more for manpower so overall they say the consumers’ cost to build with them is down around 10% from the recent peak.-
Will the builders adjust the cost down to the buyer or charge the same and pocket the extra 10%? I wonder how they operate.
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Quote from ChuckI
Will the builders adjust the cost down to the buyer or charge the same and pocket the extra 10%? I wonder how they operate.
Depends on the contract.
Many builders, especially in the custom home market, are “cost plus” with open books. They’re guaranteed their margin and the homeowner sees more cost/savings depending on what happens to input costs like materials and labor.
Then on the other hand is fixed-price/ lump sum. Builder agrees to complete the entire project at a fixed cost.
Our builder is the latter and gave us a preliminary estimate of expense based on renderings and eary architectural plans (allowed us to compare and contrast with others)
Final estimate comes with the plans submitted to the city and all of our choices for materials. (We’re crossing our fingers that some of our value engineering might get that down around 10% from the prelim)-
– solid core commercial interior doors
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Id lock in your rates yesterday. Rates gonna go up 1% tomorrow. Call your broker!!!
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Quote from sartoriusBIG
Id lock in your rates yesterday. Rates gonna go up 1% tomorrow. Call your broker!!!
Can’t 🙁
Can’t get a mortgage until there’s actually a house. (Need an occupancy permit)
So I’m stuck until it’s built.
(Looking forward to that 2026 re-fi I guess)
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I wonder at what point people who can will just put 50% or more down in this market. Then do cashout refi when rates are reasonable again.
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People who canhave been doing this already. The only way to get the contract for a desirable property in our area is to come in with an all cash offer. This is what has set the market.
I have to believe we will see a stabilization and then drop in prices as the cost for the average buyer goes up along with interest rates.
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I bet we only see a drop in cyclical markets. Other linear markets will see a plateau with average price remaining the same for a period of time. The unaffordable cyclical markets will be first to drop. I wouldnt be looking to buy on east coast, west coast or florida right now for example. I would wait a year or two and save up for larger down payment. Other markets probably ok to buy if youre ready to settle down and stay in one spot for 5 plus years. East/west cooast and florida probably only worth it if its your 10+ year abode or forever home. Some markets are just now getting back to peak 2006/2007 prices.
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Quote from Thread Killer
People who canhave been doing this already. The only way to get the contract for a desirable property in our area is to come in with an all cash offer. This is what has set the market.
I can tell you that the fact that mrs_dergon and I are paying for the house off of a line of credit (cash payment) as opposed to a construction loan, made a few builders available who would have otherwise taken a pass.
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Quote from dergon
Quote from Thread Killer
People who canhave been doing this already. The only way to get the contract for a desirable property in our area is to come in with an all cash offer. This is what has set the market.
I can tell you that the fact that mrs_dergon and I are paying for the house off of a line of credit (cash payment) as opposed to a construction loan, made a few builders available who would have otherwise taken a pass.
Can you expound? You mean LOC off equity in existing house or LOC from stock equities? Or something else?
Thanks -
Both.
I have a “pledged asset line” that provides a line of credit off of my post-tax brokerage accounts and I also took a HELOC on my current condo (fully paid for)
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putting in a dog bath? I wish I had one in my utility room. My 1980 Ryan Homes utility room sink is about 5 times to small for a 70lb German Shorthair.
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Thanks for that piece of information. It helps me understand what a friend said to me a few days ago when I talked about how all cash offers not being affected by the rising interest rates. He said I should realize that most of the cash in those offers was backed my debt of some sort.
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We’re building a house with a construction to permanent / one time close loan. Allowed me to lock a 3.25% 30 year rate last November….just about to start digging now and won’t move in until next spring.
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+1 on the small tiles. That was one thing I did right when we re-did my current bathroom.
Also leaning strongly to porcelain so that I can be aggressive with cleaning and not worry.-
Anyway… sailed through Architectural Review Board today.
Was a bit nervous about some of the modern design and flat roof raising eyebrows … but all positive from the committee 🙂-
Quote from dergon
Anyway… sailed through Architectural Review Board today.
Was a bit nervous about some of the modern design and flat roof raising eyebrows … but all positive from the committee 🙂
Was this an HOA or a municipal thing ?
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Municipal .
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After-action discussion with our architect says that it is actually quite rare for the city to approve new build build without any single modification.
So … that’s good. Puts the break-ground date on schedule and maybe a bit earlier since no changes required 🙂
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Quote from dergon
+1 on the small tiles. That was one thing I did right when we re-did my current bathroom.
Also leaning strongly to porcelain so that I can be aggressive with cleaning and not worry.
When I re-did my bathroom I put in Daltile non-slip porcelain. I have a nice Dewalt hammer drill. I ate through a pack of masonry bits trying to get my shower door hung. and even with those it was not easy to drill through. It’s tough stuff.
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Quote from dergon
+1 on the small tiles. That was one thing I did right when we re-did my current bathroom.
Also leaning strongly to porcelain so that I can be aggressive with cleaning and not worry.
Had the small tiles in a prior house. Turned out to be a pain to keep clean. Current house bathroom remodel I went with a Kohler 60x32in cast iron pan. Not as grippy but really easy to keep clean.
You can go with bigger tiles, they just need to have the right high-grip finish. I have a pool bath and that is what I went with, not only the bath itself but the walkout to the pool as well. So far so good.
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Well… at least this makes me feel good from the “at least I didn’t buy at the tippy tippy top of the market”
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our realtor called this morning. Someone wants to buy our now vacant lot for 20% more than we paid for it (with a house on it) 9 months ago.-
Quote from dergon
Well… at least this makes me feel good from the “at least I didn’t buy at the tippy tippy top of the market”
…
our realtor called this morning. Someone wants to buy our now vacant lot for 20% more than we paid for it (with a house on it) 9 months ago.
I’m not sure where your lot is but this seems to be the latest rage along Lake Shore Blvd out east. Anything that is old and sometimes dilapidated gets bulldozed. Someone puts up a nice new lake house.
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Quote from DICOM_Dan
Quote from dergon
Well… at least this makes me feel good from the “at least I didn’t buy at the tippy tippy top of the market”
…
our realtor called this morning. Someone wants to buy our now vacant lot for 20% more than we paid for it (with a house on it) 9 months ago.
I’m not sure where your lot is but this seems to be the latest rage along Lake Shore Blvd out east. Anything that is old and sometimes dilapidated gets bulldozed. Someone puts up a nice new lake house.
same vibe, but West
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Need a variance on our garage (same one the neighbors on both sides have … so should be easy)
An “open house” on the lot next weeks for slope contractors to work on the cliff grading.
We’re off!
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Cliff grading. Oof. That one sounds expensive.
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Soil samples yesterday. Very positive. Hard clay for the first 18ft then shale from there. Good for building and dry basements say the engineers.
Three companies showed up to scout the bid for the cliff work. Also a positive development since we were worried nobody might want the job.
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Our variances made it through Boarding of Zoning today …. permits finally coming! 🙂
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Awesomeness
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Dergon – Place sounds very cool. Care to share a rendering or are you waiting to show off the real deal?
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They civil engineers and their team are finally working on our slope and shoreline as well as the drainage from the future house. It’s just pushing dirt around, but at least it’s something.
We’re going to our architects x-mas party tonight. They just won an Ohio design award with the property they did for one of my partners a few years ago.
Hoping ours comes out just a good.-
I didn’t build a house but I did redo my floors, powder room, patched all holes in the wall from decorating, and painted to whole first floor Sherwin Williams Jogging Path…last week while I was on vacation. Little sweat equity or a hope a lot of sweat equity. Be prepared for the unexpected. I didn’t expect my toilet flange would’ve been rusted beyond use. So I had to get a plumber last minute which I was lucky enough to get. So now I have stainless steel as a flange.
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Quote from DICOM_Dan
I didn’t build a house but I did redo my floors, powder room, patched all holes in the wall from decorating, and painted to whole first floor Sherwin Williams Jogging Path…last week while I was on vacation. Little sweat equity or a hope a lot of sweat equity. Be prepared for the unexpected. I didn’t expect my toilet flange would’ve been rusted beyond use. So I had to get a plumber last minute which I was lucky enough to get. So now I have stainless steel as a flange.
well done, Dan!
(btw, my best friend’s wife does all the naming of the Sherwin-Williams colors. There’s one named for my father 🙂 )-
Contract finally signed today with the builder.
Ground break in March … 18 months after parcel purchase.
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from what I’ve used I would prefer to have gas. MY place was built all electric. Gas seems to be easier to cook with and control temp. I see a lot of people cook on induction in videos. When I got my last range I though about it but the main thing seemed to be just boiling water faster.
