Jim_in_Delaware
Jetboaters Captain
- Messages
- 1,849
- Reaction score
- 2,879
- Points
- 227
- Location
- Southeastern DE
- Boat Make
- Boatless
- Year
- NA
- Boat Model
- Other
- Boat Length
- Other
For us, it was definitely more complicated (and time consuming) building a new home, especially versus buying a new home in a contractor built community.
We had decided about 18 months ago that we wanted to retire in southern Delaware, near the beach, but far enough away to be both less expensive and to have no concerns about flooding. The housing inventory was relatively small so we decided to build our own home. We looked at several new "communities" and decided we wanted something a little less busy and with a larger yard. We ended up buying a lot (slightly less than one acre) in a small community of only 55 homes, about 10 minutes from the river/bay and 35 minutes from the beach.
We hired a custom builder to build a home on this lot we had purchased. The trade off on being more remote is that we knew we would need to install both a well and septic system. The builder acts as a general contractor and our experience is that they usually have a 20% markup on stuff. We hired an engineer to design our septic system (2K with the survey). As the septic install was 25K, we contracted that ourselves as the builder price was 32K. Had the builder install the well (5K) and the driveway.
Our timeline was lot purchased November 2020. Builder and model selected January 2021. House under contract beginning of March 2021. Foundation footers poured August 2021. Keys to the house mid-March 2022. Our home probably took 3 - 4 months longer than normal due to the building boom.
Other unique things in building on one's lot is the purchase of the lot (we paid cash, but we could have financed the lot), construction loan (loan interest paid on money that is dispersed from the loan - as we used our money first, our first loan payment was October 2021), and a regular mortgage loan used to pay off the construction loan.
It definitely was a time-consuming process, picking the builder, picking the model, all the selections for the home, and customizing the build plans. Not sure I want to do it again but we are very pleased with the outcome.
Jim