I have found a piece of land I would like to buy in RI. Hopefully buy the time I'm ready to afford it, it will still be there. But we want to build a home. The Real Estate is double what is is in other parts of the country, so whats the point of buying a $200,000 that you are just gonna remodel anyway or build a home with what you exactly want and is family ready for the future. Any comments about that? The second part is, if we build our own house should we just go out on everything, like graniite countertops and medium to high priced appliances knowing we are gonna spend our rest of our lives there?

Such a hard choice!! I think you'll get both sides of this. I would go with location... I tend to like locations of current houses since back when they were built, it was prime location, and that does seem to last a long time. I also know that I would completely blow away any budget I set for myself building a house, because I would want the best (and I, unfortunately, have exotic taste) I could afford. So - I would determine if that land you found is in the perfect location (or are you settling) - and if it is, then go for it. If it's not - then take a fresh look at the existing homes. You know what the neighborhood will look like, and renovating an existing home is lots of fun - in a really sick, twisted way....

If it were me - and this is just me - and I made the decision to build a home, I would not go all-out on the luxuries immediately. What would be important to me is getting the features I wanted - a fireplace here? Built-ins here? Bedrooms here, here and here?

The layout and structural amenities would be the most important thing to me. As for -materials,- with counters and cupboards and such, I would go basic enough to afford, durable enough to last, and then over time upgrade to what I -really- wanted.

I would do this because, when building a home, no budget is really set in stone. Little things can come up during building that can cost a lot, quickly. Your finances might be a little bit unstable, so why add on to that by going top-of-the-line inside?

This way you get your dream home when it comes to things that are expensive to change (such as layout and number of rooms) and can focus on fixtures when your finances start to stable out after the house is completed. And hey, if you're one of the lucky ones whose building goes smoothly, so much the better! You can get to work on the pretty stuff a little faster! But if you're going to be spending the rest of your lives there anyway, there's really no rush in having the fancy kitchen right away.

Good luck!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Mrs Stogs,

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graniite countertops and medium to high priced appliances

These are things that are relatively easy to change after the house is build. Spend you money on things that are harder to add later like electric, plumbing, heating system , etc.

Besides it is likely your taste will change. And remember that your 'dream home' of today will probably not be your ideal home later. Things change, including us.

After living in my "home" for pretty much my whole life, and having a small camp in the mountains, we decided to build a new "camp" for our retirement.
There was no doubt where we wanted to build...in the same neighborhood. We hired a contractor to build the shell, and other than the electrical work, the drywall finishing, and hiring out the pouring of the garage floor, we did all of the work ourselves.
I was amazed at the price of things, I mean literally shocked, at totally silly things like pipe that would be buried, insulation that you wouldn't see, and such. When it came time to the "finishing". I splurged on the cabinets, but just couldn't justify the counter tops, we splurged on a "laminate" floor in the main rooms, we splurged on good vanities, a good furnace, good ac, good water filter. But I'm telling you, the money just "flew" out the windows. I would estimate that we saved at least 50K in labor, and we still spent way too much money for the house. We will never recoup our returns, but we will never sell it, so I say do what "you" want.