My lease runs through May. I’m already beginning to watch the real estate market here in Saratoga Springs. My plan is to buy a house in the very early spring. I have a number of options – I can buy right in Saratoga Springs and walk to work, but I’ll be in a very crappy house in a very suburban ‘jammed up against the neighbors’ setting. I could live with this – the ability to walk to work and to dinner in town is really compelling, I was very envious of my peers at Bowdoin who could do this. I could also buy in the surrounding region and, as with Bowdoin, commute for 20 minutes or so to work. This could possibly get me a waterfront home on the Hudson, but it would put me far away from the conveniences like shopping and dining, and while I lived with a 20 minute commute for at least 7-8 years (4+ heading north to Bowdoin and 3-4 heading south to Portland), I would love to be rid of it. Or there’s one other option – I could build my own house after buying some land in Saratoga Springs or right near it. If I chose this latter route I could choose to do something really interesting and build a really unique home, say something like this (that site is great btw, they post all kinds of interesting and novel stuff). I’d definitely go for the double unit if I went with that model.
I’ve ordered the book I linked to, and over the next couple of months I’ll need to decide how I want to do this. The wrinkle with buying the land is that I probably can’t get that done and the house built by May when my lease runs out. My landlords are pretty cool and might let me stay a bit longer if I need to but I’d rather not have to go through that if I can avoid it.
So. More as things develop. I have to say right now I’m leaning towards the $150k house inside the city limits, with the walk to work, and use it as an investment, it’s bound to increase in value and I can move in a few years into a house I build, or onto the water up north somewhere.
Dave's Place/Metamusing 
well, you listened to a lot of my griping during the building process, so you know it can be challenging. Here’s some advice, but we can talk more about it …
– build when you have time to be around. Don’t let someone else gloss over decisions that you need to really think through.
– don’t skimp to save a buck and regret it. We did that on some things like a breezeway between house and garage (mistake!) Saving 6-7k on a 250k house is kinda silly and it can damage the overall value of the house.
– leave some rooms unfinished … don’t pay to have sheetrock hung when you can do it yourself over time.
– lumber and materials are very expensive right now. not sure about land, you could buy land first and secure it then save up to build.
– don’t build on a big ass hill 😉
– think carefully about what direction to face your house. solar heat can be great if you do it right and fuel costs are very high.
– plan a backup heating source like a woodstove (remember the ice storm, that would have been nice! oh wait, I was in California! LOL)
I could go on and on, I’ll spam you later instead of your blog 😉 At the end of all the hassles, we made a lot of equity in the house. But that was a bit of an anomoly. Try to find out what people are paying to build and what the values of the homes in those areas are. A good realtor can help you with that and set you up with a build package too.
8 months isn’t much time, especially if you have no plans or anything yet.
k, I’m done. 🙂
oh wait .. one last thing .. DON’T save money by doing the painting yourself. Painting sucks. Pay someone else to do it, you’ve earned at least that much!
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well, you listened to a lot of my griping during the building process, so you know it can be challenging. Here’s some advice, but we can talk more about it …
– build when you have time to be around. Don’t let someone else gloss over decisions that you need to really think through.
– don’t skimp to save a buck and regret it. We did that on some things like a breezeway between house and garage (mistake!) Saving 6-7k on a 250k house is kinda silly and it can damage the overall value of the house.
– leave some rooms unfinished … don’t pay to have sheetrock hung when you can do it yourself over time.
– lumber and materials are very expensive right now. not sure about land, you could buy land first and secure it then save up to build.
– don’t build on a big ass hill 😉
– think carefully about what direction to face your house. solar heat can be great if you do it right and fuel costs are very high.
– plan a backup heating source like a woodstove (remember the ice storm, that would have been nice! oh wait, I was in California! LOL)
I could go on and on, I’ll spam you later instead of your blog 😉 At the end of all the hassles, we made a lot of equity in the house. But that was a bit of an anomoly. Try to find out what people are paying to build and what the values of the homes in those areas are. A good realtor can help you with that and set you up with a build package too.
8 months isn’t much time, especially if you have no plans or anything yet.
k, I’m done. 🙂
oh wait .. one last thing .. DON’T save money by doing the painting yourself. Painting sucks. Pay someone else to do it, you’ve earned at least that much!
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I would say start with getting the closer in house, then rent it later when you are ready to build the other one.
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