4X4BOB

Also planning to self build next year (subject to finding land)

There's different ways of doing it, a lot of its down to cost as the more you do yourself the more you can save.
My sister and bro' inlaw have done 3 selfbuilds and its not so difficult as long as your finances are sorted.
The house my sis and bro' inlaws live in now was built entirely by one small builder that specialised in selfbuilds 'cos they couldn't spare their own time to manage the project. It cost a bit more but they still got a VERY large 5 bed detached house for the price of a decent 3 bed!

As I have loads of contacts in the building trade I plan to manage my own project employing trades peeps direct.

The hardest problem is finding the land, I've been looking for 6 months and I'm still no nearer to finding what I want.

Bob

PS. A good book to buy would be "The House Builders Bible" by Mark Brinkley, Publisher: Ovolo Publishing Ltd; ISBN: 0952485249 5th edition
Edited to add this link:
The House Builders Bible

[Edited by 4X4BOB - 12/1/2003 6:47:43 PM]

PeteD

Basically me and the missus are going to buy our own place next year. What we have been considering is buying a plot of land and designing/building our own house (not literally). Has anyone on SN done this, or thinking alone the same lines????

LG John

First things first.....You MUST talk to your local planning authority about the area you want to build in and whether they would support a one-off new build house at that locality.

Goochie

Thought about it long and hard - my father is a property developer turning over about £15m a year and I still decided not to do it.

Speaking to people who have done it before, you cant realistically expect to do it and hold down a full time job.

EvoBarry

All I will say is this, work out your budget, then expect to spend 50% more than that, cos it will.

Builders are workshy, slack arsed bastids that need a kick up the **** constantly in order to get any job done.

Make sure you get someone else to manage the project if you value your marriage[]


My parents did a self build and its still not finished....nightmare if your not prepared for the stress involved.


Series Two of "These Four Walls" on Discovery is our house fwiw.

Scott W

My wife and I have been thinking about this for the last year or so, and we've been to all the shows, been out driving around looking for that piece of land that a developer or similar hasn't found already, etc.....

Basically in this neck of the woods (South East), if you can find some land with out Outline Planning Permission on it then get it quick, but as Saxo Boy says, speak to your local planning office first, as the land might be green belt, or have no chance of ever getting planning permission on it. However, if you come across some that either has Outline Planning or Detailed Planning Permission then you will be paying a premium (circa 200k for about a tenth or an eighth of an acre in this neck of the woods).

There are a few websites that allow you to search for land (Plotfinder is one), but your best bet is to try and approach local farmers, etc....

You will also need to speak to mortgage brokers who offer self build accelerator mortgages, to see what value they will loan you. This will ultimately help you to decide on how much money you can spend on the land and the house build. If you speak to some of the specialist self build companies (Custom Homes, etc...) they say plan for about £75 or so a sq ft (this might be a bit high, but always remember that you could have problems that you have not accounted for).

To date, how have we got on, well everytime we think we've found the ideal piece of land there is always something wrong with it (Green Belt, developer gets in there first, etc...). We are now thinking of alternative things to do instead (buy a bungalow and smack it down, renovate, etc...)

Lots of people think/dream about doing a self build, but that's until they realise just how much work is involved, and then that thought passes by very quickly.

Yes, the initial thought of building a house for potentially two thirds of it's final value is appealing, but you will have lots of highs, but possibly more lows that will need to be overcome during the whole process.

PeteD

Seems that the con's outweigh the pro's

unclebuck

Plotfinder is a waste of £30 in my experience.

The bubble for all this has burst some time ago. Land is as overpriced as property now the speculators have moved in. *If* you ever find a plot, by the time you have built expect to break even only, compared to buying ready built. It's just not worth the effort any more.

UB

LG John

This isn't about a bubble it would seem! The poster seems to want to do this to make his ideal home not to make a fast buck - that persepective changes things considerably

RON

I did it,
Although I had the hardest part sewn up for me, my dad bought a plot 30 years ago, and when he became terminally ill, we decided to build new, well, by the time we had got permission, he had sadly died, but, I then spent nearly two years building, literallY!! I had brickies, chippies and roofers in, then did the rest myself, bar the plastering! and gas work. I did all the interior fixing, plumbing, underfloor heating, wiring, and everything else that most people don't even consider, we budgeted on spending 120k, and did, including carpet!!

BUT, I did not do much paid work whilst I was doing the house, I basically worked at least 6 days every week on it, so, if you're not the practical type, I would say don't do it, but then again, IF you have a really good builder that you trust, then you might feel confident enough to do it, but you need to be fully committed, and believe me, that's hard! especially when you see it for so long, some days you just seem to get anywhere!

Any questions, mail me!

Ron.

ps, plot valued at 120k when we started, cost 120k, value now 350k, but, like I said, take off twoyears good salary, and other costs, and it's not the boon that it used to be!!

PeteD

Yep, am deffo talking long term here.

Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

I'm slowly looking into this concerning the land I have in S.Ireland. Again its £65-£75 per sq ft & I'm not there to oversee. We're sorting out PP but the site seems to be getting pushed down the hill at the mo which means less of the view I want

As an update to a year ago, things are just moving very very slowly... Lucky I'm not in a rush