I will PerryChase. We built a home in NY about 12 years ago by taking a 2,200 foot house on 2 1/2 acres and adding 5K feet to it. (The original house was just to the left of the low black roof on the right). We had architects but I took their drawings and computerized them (found some flaws, etc) and our builder built the whole thing for about 380K). It was the most fun I had, only problem was that it definitely interferes with your actual day job!
For some reason whenever we remodel a home, we end up selling. I’m not the typical home buyer – I have some gypsy in me which makes owning a home an even bigger problem as the selling costs are dramatic.
As good a job as I can do, I probably will buy something that someone else has over upgraded as it is hard to justify giving up a year of your life to build a house. We also had to move out and rent for a period both times and that is a hassle. If I do build a custom house (and when I say me I mean the guys that actually can use power tools) I probably will keep renting and then do just what you suggest.
I hope the market comes to some level of normalcy, not to get a deal (although that would be nice) but to make me feel good about the long term economics. Again – if I was going to be there for 20-30 years it would be irrelevant, but I unusually don’t so I have to be a bit more economically prudent.
Hey this blogging stuff is fun!!! Even though I am a computer guy this is my first real experience actually commenting and not just reading!
[img_assist|nid=3552|title=House we built|desc=House|link=node|align=left|width=466|height=462]
