To by existing farm or land and build from scratch?

[Calamber]

[QUOTE=Equitational;8391805]
Our goal is to buy land and build a home and have room for my horses (barn, arena, pastures). I’m a realtor and my Dad is a general contractor (who has already offered to build a home for my SO and I when we’re ready and have the $$$). Since I’m a realtor, I see whats for sale and how much. Here in CA, prices are inflated. Having my Dad as a contractor, we can build for cheaper than current market values ($1mill for a NICE house with second home on 5 acre ranchette). I always go to properties or into homes and think “I would have done this differently”. Ideally, if we found something with a tear down that would be great. But some homes (we have a lot of stucco homes in CA) are just hard to remodel or add on too. Sometimes it is easier to start from scratch.

I can’t wait to build our own custom home and make our ranchette just how I want![/QUOTE]

Where are you in California Equitational? We may be moving to San Diego and the prices! If you have any insight, (or maybe we can use you)? That would be a great help.

[MoonWitch]

Thank you for all of the suggestions!! Yes, I am lucky to live in a “horsey” area where there are a lot of pre-existing properties, so I think that is the way we will go. You have all given me a wealth of information and I so appreciate your insights!!

[Bluey]

Spam bumping this old thread up reported.

[DinkyDonk]

We bought existing because it had the acreage we wanted in the area we wanted. Property had a decent sized run in, fenced and cross fenced, house was workable although in need of serious updating (work in progress). Place had been on the market for a year, we low balled and got it,–we were able to purchase outright with no mortgage, so the past 16 years have been all about renovating and improving. Worked out great for us.

[Janet]

I realize this is old.

I think it all depends on where you are in the housing/construction cycle.

We bought land about 2002 and built house, barn and fencing. Land was already being used for crop farming, so no clearing was needed, but we did need to grow a lot of grass.

The housing market was at a low, and the construction market had more supply than demand, so we were able to get it done economically. Our old house literally doubled in value between the time we bough the land, and the time we sold the old house and moved into the new one (2004).

Yes, it took a long time.

Yes, there were al sorts of complications.

Yes, there are things I would have done differently.

But I ended up with the setup I wanted.