Buying land and building or buying house and remodel

quote:

---

I always thought the rule of thumb was that the lot should be less than 20% of the total value of the lot/house. Maybe that's just in this area, but I don't think I would build a $150K house on a $100K lot.

---

Where did you get this nonsense?

For the OP, I would choose to build new. I've been through a huge renovations when we purchased our house from a family member. Damn near gutted it. It ended up costing quite a bit more than we budgeted and took much longer.

With going with the new build, you get exactly what you want.

quote:

---

Where did you get this nonsense?

---

Its pretty standard that whatever you spend on lot you spend no less than 3x that on dwelling, you risk devaluing the land if no one wants your chicken shack on prime real estate

You're not going to build much of a house with that kind of budget. You're looking at $85-$90 per sq ft to build, and that's on the low end.

All depends on the property. We will not meet your limit but our lot is 5 acres on an island. We are about to pour the slab on our new home, but there have been a few times I wish we just bought something "off the rack." Although I plan to raise a few chickens out near the garden, few will call our home a "chicken shack."

quote:

---

All depends on the property. We will not meet your limit but our lot is 5 acres on an island. We are about to pour the slab on our new home, but there have been a few times I wish we just bought something "off the rack." Although I plan to raise a few chickens out near the garden, few will call our home a "chicken shack."

---

My comment was not directed to you, but if you are truly spending 150k on a 100k land that is "prime real estate", thats a bad decision. You're actually devaluing the land and the surrounding land by doing so.

Now if its nice property and you're paying 20k an acre and putting a nice home to raise the fam for 150k, sure, more power to you.

There is no island on earth im aware of that prime real estate can be had at 20k an acre, which was the OP's question.

quote:

---

I was just giving an example of why the land value:house value ratio is really meaningless unless your only consideration is resale value. Land is what matters to me and I would be happy with a $100,000 cabin on a $1 million piece of property. My wife does not exactly share my view so our land:house ratio will not be so unbalanced.

---

Obviously the ratio doesn't apply in large tracts of land. I guess I should have been more specific to include only residential neighborhood lots.

Understood. If I could find 1000 acres near BB for a $1 million, I would buy it tomorrow!