Building A Home: Making the Decision to Build

My wife and I had been looking for a home near Lafayette Park for nearly six months, but nothing appealing had come to market in that time. As hope dwindled, we considered changing our plans to live in another part of the city. Then someone asked, “Why don’t you just build?”.

We’d never considered building. For one, we like the charm and history of older homes. The more pressing reason was that there were very few vacant lots still available in that part of the city we wanted to live. Nevertheless, we trained our sights on finding a suitable lot to build on while continuing to look for an existing home that suited our needs.

Time came and went. No lots available. As luck would have it, we were out visiting open houses one day and the attending Realtor of a new build asked if we were considering building. “Yes”. Then she asked where. “Lafayette Park”. She asked if we had seen the lot that was for sale by owner. “Huh?”. We lit out for the FSBO lot. It was a great location and the price was reasonable.

Using estimates on cost per square foot to build from a couple contractors, we figured our cost to build. Based on the sales price of the lot and the size of the home we were going to build, we figured a new home was within our means. We wrote an offer for the lot, negotiated over a couple days, and finally got a signed contract.