Is it cheaper to buy undeveloped land and build a house on it, or to just buy an existing house...

Is it cheaper to buy undeveloped land and build a house on it, or to just buy an existing house? Talking about more rural areas where land is cheap and plentiful.

check trend of growing urban development. buy property there cheap, hold on and sell when development reaches your property

I'm actually asking about buying a house to live in, not for investment.

your house is an investment.

Are you planning to build the house yourself or hire someone to custom build it for you?

Hire a builder to do it.

As you would expect, having a house built is going to be more expensive than buying a preexisting home assuming they are otherwise identical. If you do have a home built though, you can be sure you'll get exactly what you want. If you have very specific needs that are uncommon, maybe you're better off having something custom built since you'd need to do extensive renovations to an existing home. You can also have a home built with high energy efficiency in mind, which can lead to savings over the years.

>needs that are uncommon
>hmm
>custom floors with built in knee pads

Perfect

You can always buy an ugly fixer-upper. Old houses are actually built very well.

Depends on where you live and more specifically the permitting requirements.

This is not always true. The 70s were awful for craftsmanship and pre 50s had some downright dangerous building codes. Wiring pre 80s is also suspect

depends.

here in rural ontario where you can get maybe 20-50ac for around 1k/ac, but it's possible to get to 100 grand in development cost before you even start building.

where I looked into buying land, you need a driveway with culvert, electrical hookup, drilled well, and a septic tank before you even think about building. All of those have their own inspectors and permits at cost to you. permit fees are through the roof, and have fun with property tax if your land is bigger than a couple acres with a house on it. (ontario)

I'm gravitating more towards buying a cottage so at least I can rent it out for the summer.

Where I live you can buy a house for less than a third the cost of building.

Lot and house for $80,000 versus lot for $30,000 and pay builder $160,000 for the structure

>There are people that don't already have a blowjob room
Smh

Word.

Depends. If you buy a modular home, you can probably get a 10% discount, but it'll take longer and you'll have to pay for permits.

Mobile homes are pretty cheap, but they'll be hard to sell in the long run.

Cheaper to buy an already built house. The costs to run new water and electric to the property can be fucking insane.

Existing house.

Used is cheaper than new.

no, it's a liability

How?

literally

literally

depends

>Built in knee pads
Are you referring to carpets?

It could explode at any second!

Existing house, guarantee it.

I see places around me that are move in ready for $30-40/sq. ft. One is recently remodeled at that price range, all good to go.

$40,000, 3,300 sq ft 5/3 house. Not a typo. Very small town (500ish), about 45 minutes from the nearest city.

At the very low end, it'll always be cheaper to buy than build. In a hot market, it might be the other way around.. but generally only if the finishes are equivalent or you go shitty on a new place vs. a high-end older place.

kek

No, your house is a house. "Your house is an investment" is what led us to the housing bubble. It's a building that you buy, and you live in it. Is your car an investment? No, so why is your house one?

Depends on where. In most markets, existing homes tend to be cheaper than open land and a builder. Additionally, how far out do you mean for "rural?" Are you willing to sacrifice utilities like municipal water/sewer, reliable internet, etc? I ask because most areas where you could get land for cheap (unimproved woodlands, convertible farmland, things of that nature) tend to be outside the footprints of most utility services. The extra cost in getting even basic items run to you will be huge. If you're building in a 'rural' area that's close enough to exist in that plant, the land is probably going to cost too much to be worth it.