Where to start - buying land and building

[Rainbow_Mumma]

We really want to own especially after we can't get a water damaged ceiling, water logged electrics and a house that could burn down at any moment due to a huge hole in the flu which makes it so we can't light our fire which is the only heating source if we owned we wouldn't have these issues we would get them fixed!

To save hassles of finding the right house and renovating etc we are leaning towards buying land and building.
Out here a 10 acre block is going for $95,000 we only want 5 so we would sub divide and get some of our money back as 5 acre blocks are selling for a minimum of $60,000 so ideally we would only be paying $35,000 for our land.

But then it comes to building the perfect home, where do you start? Where do you go? I want all the figures before I do anything.
We would want a 4br plus study with 2 bathrooms (1 probably an en suite)
When you build what's included in the cost? You see great deals on TV build for only 200,000 etc but what do you get - your slab? House alone? Powerpoints? Carpet? Lighting? Kitchen? The list goes on.

So anyone who has built or researched it can you give me any advice, what should I look out for, who to go through, added extras you need to be aware of etc
TIA

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[kimmi]

Has the land been approved to subdivide? The thing is, to subdivide, it costs a FORTUNE. All of the local council, and state government fees can cost tens of thousands of dollars. If the current land owner has already gone though this process, you are ok, but if not, it could make it very expensive to subdivide.

Have a look into the town planning records for that particular block.

[LizLemon]

About to head out so will be quick but will pop back in.

Building is so much fun - stressful but fun. I cant wait to build again.

Have a look at builders that will build in your area. I know here in WA there are builders that specifically do rural areas - some of the bigger metro builders wont build in rural areas as it costs too much for them to get there IYKWIM. Go looking at display homes and see if there's anything you like. It is almost always cheaper to build one of the builder's pre-designed homes than to design your own.

In terms of what you get for your money - it really depends on the builder. With the one we went through, nothing was included beyond tiling in the bathrooms and laundry. We had to do all the carpets, hard floorings and window treatments ourselves. But some builders do include all these things, although be warned the quality of them may be a bit iffy. You will generally get a minimal number of power points and lights (we spent a fortune on getting extra points and changing the lights around) but you will get enough to be comfortable if that makes sense. You will get the kitchen (in most cases) including basic oven and stove, but not usually dishwasher etc. Some builders may have certain promotions that include extra things like air-con or extra appliances but be careful as you are usually paying for them in some other way.

Also be prepared that the builder may let you supply some things yourselves and get credits for them, but again not all builders will.

One good thing we did - although I'm not sure you can still do it - is build in say $10K extra into the contract price so the bank approves it but you get the cash to hlp with things like carpets etc.

Just keep an eye out for some of the builders targeting first home owners - they tend to be quite pushy and salesman-like - go with your gut and don't feel pressured into signing if you aren't happy. Until you sign you hae the upper hand so try and do all your negotiating before you sign. Oh, and just be aware that a lot of builders will charge you for any changes you make past a certain point (usually pre-start) so make sure you are sure.

Good luck!!

[LizLemon]

Has the land been approved to subdivide? The thing is, to subdivide, it costs a FORTUNE. All of the local council, and state government fees can cost tens of thousands of dollars. If the current land owner has already gone though this process, you are ok, but if not, it could make it very expensive to subdivide.

Have a look into the town planning records for that particular block.

Yeah that too - I wasn't sure if you had already covered off on that. In some cases the council may have already determined that all blocks in a certain area are to remain a certain size and they can't be subdivided further - they are generally covered by town planning schemes and should be available for you o check.

[Miss.September]

As far as building goes, try to get fixed site costs. Builders who do house and land packages I think are more willing to do this than if you buy your land separately. The costs for excavation can blow out massivly - as an example, as they dug into our block, they found rock and had to use a form of dynamite to blow it out. Would have been a massive hidden extra for us, but we had fixed costs so the builder had to wear it.

With our house, we did the minimum for electrical work (DH is an electrician, but they wouldn't let him wire up the entire house), because they hugely inflate the prices of additional lights and power points. Maybe get a local sparky to give you a quote for installing a light and a powerpoint so you can compare.

We got everything else done by the builder and in hindsight, we wouldn't do it again. I'm not sure what we would have saved, but we got sick of hearing, "well that's what it is you can't change it". We got them to do our fences (two sides are one style and the back is different ), the driveway (you slip when it's wet), the front garden (we got a yard full of orange crushed rock), carpets and flooring. Needless to say, four years on, our house looks VERY different to what they left us with

We are going to build again, with a builder, but we are going to do bits ourselves.

[Rainbow_Mumma]

I didn't realize so much went into sub division that's certainly something to think about


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[~Raven~]

Has the land been approved to subdivide? The thing is, to subdivide, it costs a FORTUNE. All of the local council, and state government fees can cost tens of thousands of dollars. If the current land owner has already gone though this process, you are ok, but if not, it could make it very expensive to subdivide.

Have a look into the town planning records for that particular block.

They may have it zoned that the area can't have blocks subdivided smaller so look into that and too if that's part of the plan

The costs for excavation can blow out massivly - as an example, as they dug into our block, they found rock and had to use a form of dynamite to blow it out. Would have been a massive hidden extra for us, but we had fixed costs so the builder had to wear it.

WOW seriously you lucked out with that builder They usually don't like to fix any site costs without a soil test which would have found that!

[Miss.September]

LOL Raven, they were are horrible builder from start to the end to us, and the dynamite blow must have really got up their nose cost wise. The stupid bit for them was the entire estate belonged to them, an exclusive *insert builder's name here* estate and they still had no idea how much rock is here - in the entire area. I think they were just wanting to sell the blocks, get it moving (even though when we bought the entire estate was still one big untouched paddock with cows on it), so every site in stage one had site costs included.

[deletedit]

We're building at the moment - normally you get land pre-subdivided, but we subdivided it ourselves (18 months for that).

Then we started building. Found a nice floorplan, too easy. List price of the house has ABSOLUTELY NO RELATION to what you pay for the final product, unless you're getting an it-comes-with-everything house and land package. Basically the price in the brochures is the house, with the most basic fittings and fixtures, built on the most stable soil known to mankind on a perfectly flat block. This kind of block doesn't actually exist.

So add $20k for the slab, $10k for carpets, $10-30k upgrading nonsense inside the house unless you really do want the most basic of basic stuff, then you've got extras for the 6 star energy rating in some states that also isn't in the price ($10k for solar hot water and a tank, for us), then driveway, landscaping, fencing and window dressings.

Our list price was $85k, final price for the house was $140k, if that's any indication. We upgraded the kitchen, ceiling height, skirtings, cornices, doors, door furniture, exterior window surrounds, some extra powerpoints and lights, awnings over the western windows and even added some extra doors where they just had 'openings' before. That's without any exterior landscaping. We already paid for the side/rear fencing as part of the subdivision and are expecting to add another few thousand in the first year for a carport and fence between the house and side fences to keep the kids in.

It has been exactly one year since we signed up with the builder and we still don't have a house, but then it took us 6 months of waving our $50k deposit and paid-off land at banks before one of them caved and deigned to give us a loan. And we're getting a transportable with an 8 week guaranteed build time, which puts 6 months of chasing for a loan to pay for the damn thing in perspective.

Edit: ooh, check their inclusions for electricity connection and sewer. Trenching can get expensive and they tend to allow for only like 2m of trenching or something when your house is 20m from the electricity or sewer line.