Am I dreaming? (Can you build a dream home for sub $500k)

Been looking for a new PPOR for a while now, nothing we've seen has got the excitement going sufficiently.

We didn't really want to build, done it before (albeit volume builder on new estate), and didn't think that we'd find the land we want and if we did, have the budget to then build what we want.

Out of left field yesterday a 1.5 acre parcel of flat land, with all services connected, in a fantastic established street with big block homes all along it has cropped up. It's currently off market and we're meeting the agent in the next day or so.

We had a look at it last night when we found out about it, it's the first thing we've seen in months that actually got us a little excited as soon as we saw it. It's also in the suburb we currently live in which is somewhere we didn't think we'd be able to stay given the price of the established acreage homes bordering the regular homes within the suburb plus they NEVER come up for sale.

Haven't got a price expectation from the agent yet but based on what I think it would sell for it would leave us around $500k to build with to stay in our preferred budget.

The site looks very flat and has easy road access straight to it for builder/trades.

All services already connected.

So, given that, how far would $500k stretch these days? (Its 10 years since we last built and we built with a volumn builder, granted, we completely over capitalized that house but we spent about $385k building that one and that was without any landscaping or driveway.

We'd want something sizeable, single story, ideally U or L shaped and would be nice to have a high vaulted ceiling over a large open family/dining/kitchen area. A modern take on a ranch style home I guess.

Eco friendly would be good (in terms of insulation, solar, rain tanks etc).

A seperate American Barn style shed and a pool wouldn't go amiss.

Be nice to have a really nice outdoor area with pool and pool house off the main house like a 'resort' style outdoor area off the house but doubtful as to whether that's remotely an option given the budget.

Landscaping the rest of the block can come later, we'd be looking ta low maintenance anywya, lots of easy to mow grass and plant a hep of fruit trees etc.

Lastly anyone built anything similar recently and doenslt mind sharing a few photo's and general costs?

Can anyone recommend any builders to check out?

Thanks.

 

I'm just about to build with GJ Gardner in Batemans Bay. Big double storey with big balcony from the upstairs lounge. Downstairs has separate entrance and can be used as a granny flat for extra income or visitors. $450k all up. Money left over for a pool

 

Came across them Googling this morning, They have some ranch style homes that we like.

Was yours "off the shelf" or a good degree of bespoke fiddling from your end? @ellejay

 

They've been amazing in letting us make changes to the layout of rooms to make it just how we want it. We changed the layout quite a bit and we made the whole downstairs self containable, which is awesome and gives us the option to rent half of it out whilst still being able to travel and leave our stuff there as well as covering some of the mortgage.

 

Thanks @ellejay we'll look into them a bit further and arrange a meeting I think.

We built with Burbank years ago, we could change minor things only back then.

I'm guessing a volume builder that allows a good degree of modification may get us more for our money than going architect/bespoke build.

Lots to think about!

 

Yes they seem to be great value for money considering you can pretty much design it yourself. Means you have money left over for the finishing touches. Enjoy

 

Construction is expensive at the moment due to all the units being built. Once this reduces you should find constructions costs fall as tradies compete more aggressively for work

 

Just heard from the agent again anyway, seems the "bust" (or slow down even) hasn't hit down here yet. Based on where it is and the nearest similar blocks available I pegged t at around $650-$700k max. They're expecting well north of $800k so we're out.

Prices down here have gone nuts in the last 12 months and so far we're seeing no signs of a slow down. Saw one on Saturday that we really liked, guide price $1.3-$1.4m. We were at the second opening, big group there, I asked the agent how long it hand bee on the market, he said first viewing was last week, 7 offers so they went to sealed envelope best and final offer by last Friday. It's essentially sold, the open we attended was just a formality as it was already penciled in.

Anything on 1-2 acres with a nice house on is getting snapped up it seems. There's a few sitting stale but they've started out too high and gone stagnant and there's a few that are just sheds on flat boring parcels that seem to sit for a while, but anything of interest is getting snapped up.

We've been really excited the last few weeks as we're ready to move and we have quite a unique home for our area ourselves, (on a regular size 680m2 house block though). Some friends of friends want to buy ours and have put in writing an amazing offer, but now we're looking for what we would want to move to everything has gone up way more than we thought over the last 12 months.

Seems the $1.2-$1.4m bracket 12 months ago is now the $1.5-$2m bracket just now.

 

YES $500k is a healthy budget to get something nice on a flat site in Melbourne Metro area. It is at the lower end but quite doable.
We suggest you look around at the volume builders for something you love.
IF YOU FIND IT go for it with them as they will be much cheaper. Not as cheap as they initially advertise but still the best value for money.
IF NOTHING EXCITES YOU then we suggest you either find a Builder you like or a Building Designer you are comfortable with.

 

We ended up buying up the road instead, established. There's NO WAY we could have built and landscaped remotely close to what we got in the end for the same budget.

E.G. The land we looked at was just over 1 acre, we thought maybe $650k for it, agent said we re way off. I believe it sold for over $850k.

An established property came up about 3k up the road, on just under 3 acres with an 8 year old Porter Davis house on it, all the bells and whistles. 5 bedroom plus study, 10m x 4m in-ground heated pool, paved patio, massive clay pizza oven, outdoor shower, huge deck, all fully landscaped, 10x raised veggie beds, hepas of established fruit trees, nice big landscaped lawn, massive chicken pen, car port, huge American Barn style shed with two further rooms inside, poly tunnel, irrigation system, established dam, fully planted out grounds, the works. Paid $1.44m

We could not have got anything close to what we bought had we gone land and built, and would have taken years to get the landscaping anywhere near complete.

 

Gee, that sounds great. I especially like the sound of the chook shed, barn etc. How big is the barn?

 

What a fantastic result!

Congratulations and all the best.

Enjoy the fresh eggs and plant lots of olive trees

 

Like a typical 3 bay boat shed style one, from the front 3x single roller doors with the middle door being a tall one to get a boat in, I'd guess it'd be 3-4 cars deep inside with a kind of mezz floor over the two little inner rooms.

Here's a snapshot of it with the car port next to it and choock pens beyond.

Not a "Barn" like a nice old timber barn, a colour bond shed but American barn style if you know what I mean?

 

Ah, the things I could do in a shed that size. I'm a bit envious.

 

I have to admit, as sad as it might sound, it's probably my favorite part of the property.... especially now I've sealed and painted the whole floor slab, got all my tools racked, the work areas shelved and benches built and just waiting for a call back from a mob to move the pool table the owners left us in the house out to the shed ;-)

One of the rooms in there we've just had shelved out and plumbed and a used top loading washing machine put in for Emma's horse stuff (it already had a sink but no plumbing) and the other room will be racked out and equipped for my cycling gear and bikes so it's all neat and in one place.

 

@Propagate - As an alternative, if you find a viable site, mobs like prebuilt do some very innovative stuff with prefabricated structures (multiple sectioned).

We looked at a couple of these but site access put a halt to it.

 

So where did you end up buying, photos will be good