Buildling a House

[dbeth]

My wife and I are both high school teachers and have an opportunity this year to have the building trades at our high school build us a home for their class this upcoming year. We're strongly looking at a prairie-styled home about 1880 sq. ft and then the class instructor would help us finish off the basement during the summer following the school year.

The thing my wife and I are a bit scared about is making sure our house sells that we're currently in. The sucky thing is that home prices are where they were in 2004 when we bought it, so we're not going to be making all that much on it, but hopefully enough to put towards the 10% down payment. The good thing is that since its a house built by the school & kids, it takes a while (the school year) and we know when it'll be finished (early June). Our biggest fear, however, is making sure our house is sold by the time our new house is finished.

Do any of you have any experience building houses and especially how you handled the transition from selling & moving out of the old house into the new one? We're not concerned about the build quality of the new house as while the students are building it, they have to go through interviews to get in the class and the instructors are on top of them 24/7. They're just free labor, essentially.

Also, anything else we should beware of?

Thanks a bunch everyone!

[deaduck]

Re: Buildling a House

If you know for sure you're making the move, Rent one of those long term storage containers they drop off in your driveway...begin decluttering the house by packing and putting most of it into the container. This with help sell the house and give you a major leg up on the move.

[Gotmadskillzson]

Re: Buildling a House

So basically you got a year before you move, that is plenty of time to sell. Just de-clutter your house for potential buyers can see how big the rooms are. Not saying empty it out, but take most the stuff out.

Ya know for it can have the even open flow feel to it. Make sure your carpet is shampooed, floors are waxed. If your kitchen cabines look old, replace the door itself, instead of the actual whole cabinet. Or it could just be as simple as putting new handles on the cabinet doors.

The biggest deal breaker on house sales is how your yard look. If your yard is jacked up, people going to be turned off before they even step inside your house. Because the 1st thing that is going to be going through their minds is how much money it is going to cost them to fix your crappy looking yard.

So make your yard, front and back looks good.

[dbeth]

Re: Buildling a House

Thanks for the tips guys! My wife has been painting the entryway and the upstairs bathroom while I run Daddy Day Care (which is ALWAYS fun!), and the yard is in pretty good shape. We really try to take great care of it; my wife has several flower beds that look wonderful and the lawn is in really good shape (minimal weeds...yay!).

Our biggest issue is going to be the declutter. Between this week and next, we hope to get 2 toilets replaced, a couple ceiling spots patched, and then be ready to put it up on the market in the next 2 weeks.

Still just scared that it won't sell be this time next year (south-central Wisconsin....near Wisconsin Dells) and we'll be paying for TWO houses......*crosses fingers*

[Gotmadskillzson]

Re: Buildling a House

If you close to wisconsin dells, that in a way would make it sale even faster. People love living near something to do, the under 40 crowd with kids anyway. People over 40 and kids grown & gone, wouldn't want to though, the 1st thing would pop into their head is traffic jams.

[mjb2124]

Re: Buildling a House

My wife and I sold our old house in one week last year (mind you that the market in this area was/is booming...it's a fast growing suburb north of Pittsburgh). Before putting it on the market we de-cluttered, had the carpets cleaned, new mulch/flowers outside to make the outside look even more inviting, trimmed hedges and painted most of the rooms. None of the paint was in bad condition, but our agent said a fresh coat is always good. I think the market and things we did made the house sell quickly...plus our agent was a friend of the family with 35+ years experience in this area.

Our timing wasn't close with the new house we were building as I never expected to sell the old house in a week. So we rented a townhouse until our new house was finished. Moving twice sucked, but well worth it once the new house was finished. One good thing to remember is that you always want to make sure you concentrate more on the new house than the old as that's the house you'll be living in. So while selling the old house is important, the new one is more important.

The only tips I have on new house construction is to stay on top of it. It's a lot of work...more than most people realize (more than I realized despite being told that time and time again). I went over our current house with a fine tooth comb in our final walk through and still to this date have found minor issues I've had to have the builder fix. After moving in it's even more work - more than most houses that are already built, but it's fun. I just want some rain right now so my water bill isn't through the roof from watering the grass!

[Gotmadskillzson]

Re: Buildling a House

It is so many damn rivers, creeks and lakes in Vermont, I don't ever have to worry about watering the grass. Water is EVERYWHERE LOL, I never lived somewhere that has as many trees everywhere like Vermont has. So many damn trees you go down the highway, any highway and it will be lined with trees on both sides of the road. Heck even the regular roads are lined with trees.

This state is literally untouched since it was 1st discovered hundreds of years ago.

[mjb2124]

Re: Buildling a House

It is so many damn rivers, creeks and lakes in Vermont, I don't ever have to worry about watering the grass. Water is EVERYWHERE LOL, I never lived somewhere that has as many trees everywhere like Vermont has. So many damn trees you go down the highway, any highway and it will be lined with trees on both sides of the road. Heck even the regular roads are lined with trees.

This state is literally untouched since it was 1st discovered hundreds of years ago.

We have a lot tree's around our property and a natural wetlands behind the property with streams, but the problem has been the hot/humid conditions the past few weeks with no rain. It's been low to mid 90's which has turned the ground into a rock. I've watered every day this week (on vacation) for 4-5 hours and the next day, it's still hard as a rock. My grass is turning brown so I'm not very happy....of course, I'm not the only one as the entire neighborhood has brown grass. LOL....