In these lean times for the property market, how can building your own house be sensible? Well, Construction Loan Center thinks otherwise. In fact, their Advisors Column suggest that the timing couldn’t be better: lumber prices are down, labor is available due to rising unemployment, and contractors are returning phone calls now that work is scarce!

But, for an InvestorBlogger, is building your own home a wise decision? That depends on how you see yourself, your family and your time management. For some, building a house will always be an expression of their own personality; for others, it will be about keeping costs low enough to make owning their own house viable.

For others, it’s an investment that they hope they will recoup in a few years (when property recovers). Still for others, it’s a way to have a house that is suitable for their personal or family needs, not a cookie cutter design.

However, if you are willing to embark on such a course, it’s wise to research and plan carefully your dream house, you may not wish to follow the stone-age approach of these people. One aspect that these self-builders were acutely aware of was the financing. They scoped out the entire process, decided on the amount of money they could spend, and stuck to their goals.

Such a focus on the expenditure would be essential as self-building can easily exceed initial estimates of the costs. Indeed, with rising interest rates, it would be wise to figure out the building costs and the costs related to any loans you might take out. After all, it would be a terrible shame to build your dream house, then lose it because you couldn’t make the mortgage payments!

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