Self build kit homes?

Question

I'd love to hear any self builder's experiences particularly with kit homes. I'm looking at this as an option for myself, I keep coming across cheaper and cheaper kit homes and wouldn't mind some advice on the whole process including extra (perhaps unanticipated) costs, ease of finding land and gaining planning permission, and the overall benefits of it as opposed to getting a mortgage to buy something generic (which from my research to date is starting to seem more and more pointless!)

Is self building with kit homes really a brilliant, cheap(er) idea?

Answer 1

It can actually work out more expensive - I did look at this a while ago.

The main bulk of the cost is the purchase of the land - then you have to buy the kit house which can go (for a reasonable one) for about £150,000 - £200,000 +.

You are now looking at around £300,000+

Take into account the thousands of pounds it will cost to put supplies for water, gas and electric and it can soon approach £400,000 depending on how much work is involved.

A similar size generic house - approx £200,000.

Two companies lead the field - Ikea and Huff Houses (might be Hoff).

Ikea are using the N.E. of England as a testing ground and some have been assembled there.

Huff (Hoff) - are in Germany and you would need to get them over to measure up and get the requirements you need.

The process can take many many months.

Answer 2

Whilst I have not yet built my own home using a kit I have seen several and talked with the owners who are unanimous in their thumbs up verdicts. These were all people with no experience of building and they took differing levels of involvement from hands-on total management to employing a builder and manager.

I personally believe it is the best way for someone from outside the building industry to start, as there is so much support from the package providers and you get what you want rather than a chicken hutch one-size-fits-all from one of the big builders to a poor standard.

Homebuilding & Renovation mag, Build It and Self Build are three excellent publications if you haven't already seen them.

Answer 3

http://www.mapletimberframe.com/maple_in...

Answer 4

After extensive research into some of the panelized and kit homes available here in America I found that they truly weren't that cost effective.  Many of them leave a lot of components out such as plumbing, wiring, HVAC, foundation components, flooring, sheetrock, appliances, etc.  All though at first glance the price sounds great when everything else is considered such as equipment rental the price to construct your own panelized home rapidly approaches that of simply hiring someone for a semi-custom home.  As best as I could figure the price to build a panelized home would have been around $80us a SqFt if I did not hire out any work.  To hire a local contractor called Cretin homes to build something significantly nicer $70SqFt turnkey.  Many builders will also meet you half way taking care of the black out stage of the house and allowing you to complete the interior which can save big bucks.  My grandfather and I built a house from scratch (except for an existing subfloor)  and spent around 30 SqFt (this was over 10 years ago).  Last year I purchase a 1650 sqft home and had it moved to my land.  I then gutted and completely renovated and changed the floor plan to meet my needs.  It is now exactly the house I wanted and including the moving costs, new appliances and mechanical service, land preparations, sewage treatment plant, water and electrical service.  My final price was under $35 a SqFt and I could live in while I worked.