Looking to upgrade home space. Buy or build?

I think it depends on where exactly you want to be and if you like renovation work.

We live in Prairieville and our place is about 3800 living. Still have things to do but we made it ours.

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having to make it fit for me.

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You sound like a woman. You need a bedroom, a bathroom, and a closet for the gun safe. Figure it out.

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2800-3000ft house (not top end, but not bottom end) for 500-550k

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I’m building a 2400 living/3800 under roof home now and it will be a little over 500. It will not me anything over the top.

I suggest you talk with some builders to see what the house you want actually cost.

I agree that the thought of building sounds miserable. Major renovations can be the same and requires a lot more planning on your part than you would think (flooring transitions, existing openings, matching old with new, etc). The amount of work and closeness to the project to make sure everything goes right might not ever make it feel “new” and you will notice all the depreciation.

That said, we went through this after Ida, and basically got priced out while fighting with insurance (costs went up 10-20% that year), but Cretin homes was very friendly, helpful and transparent with pricing and what you get. They seemed to be pretty solid mid level, we talked to some ppl in the neighborhood that had them build (old neighborhood) and had good things to say. But at the very least, you can see one of their models and they will give you a base price, which at the time was around your range. So I think a visit will give you that baseline you can work off of. Just be mindful of other land improvements like driveways and landscaping as their price is just the main structure.