Forums > Specific Focus > Home, Garden & Construction in Mexico

johncash

Feb 27, 2004, 2:20 PM

Post #1 of 5 (5790 views)

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Building Your Own Home??

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Does anyone have any experience buying a lot and building your own home? I get the very distinct feeling that a lot of people are making money in the real estate business. Too many for an area this small. That tells me that perhaps there is too much mark-up in the houses being sold, especially if I'm going to be the buyer.

I am a licensed Landscape Contractor, and while I realize that is not a building contractor, I do have lots of experience running work crews. And my father was a building contractor and with him I built several homes in my younger years. Add that to the fact that I'm fairly fluent in Spanish and I can't see where there would be a problem.

I would consider buying a lot and just building my own home if there is not too much red tape involved. From what I can see, the houses are built mostly of the locally available, cheap building materials and I might get a much nicer home for my money by doing it myself.

I'd like to hear your thoughts.

John

Rolly / Moderator

Feb 27, 2004, 6:21 PM

Post #2 of 5 (5755 views)

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Re: [johncash] Building Your Own Home??

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Hi John,

Sure you can build you own house. For starters look here to see what I have done: http://rollybrook.com/building_directory.htm

Also read the rest of this Construcion forum -- lots of interesting insights here and there.

Rolly Pirate

(This post was edited by Rolly on Feb 27, 2004, 6:23 PM)

Esteban

Feb 28, 2004, 3:35 PM

Post #3 of 5 (5709 views)

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Re: [johncash] Building Your Own Home??

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You have to crunch the numbers to see whether it's worth it or not. Where do you want to live and what infrastructure do you expect to be available. There are expensive lots and not so expensive lots. If you are in an area of nice homes, the lots will be priced accordingly. Most larger city new construction requires "red tape". You must get plans submitted and stamped by a licensed architect. You have to pay for fees associated with plan acceptance, water connection, sewer connection and electrical connection. You have to pay your workers according to Mexican law which includes many fees on top of the wage rate. You need to name a specific area to get a more accurate cost account concerning all of the aforementioned costs.

nwpack

Mar 6, 2004, 6:58 PM

Post #4 of 5 (5629 views)

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Re: [johncash] Building Your Own Home??

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Moved to Ajijic 2 years ago. Bought a run down house and remodeled it into a rather nice B&B (Casafloresmexico.com). Bought a piece of land directly behind it and built a house of about 1900 sq. ft. for right around $70,000 USD. Never built anything in my life and didn't speak any Spanish when we got here. Some plans came with the land and the maestro and his crew studied them for about 2 hours and suggested some changes. Since he and his crew of 21 men had done a good job on the remodel, we said go ahead and paid them by the week and for the materials as they arrived. Every time I asked the maestro where the plans were, he asked me what I needed them for. He finally told me the plans were in his head, he had built close to 100 homes in his life, and that my job was to simply observe and let him know if there was anything I didn't like so he could change it! About 4 1/2 months later we moved into our new home and with a couple of exceptions, the work is great and we are very happy. Having 2 local men on our payroll for Casa Flores, I now know I could have built for even less but that is something you learn from experience, not anything you can learn on the internet. Most of these people don't even have phones so you have to dig a little but now I know where to look. Be glad to help in any way I might be able to.

Walt Smith

sandykayak

Mar 17, 2004, 8:33 AM

Post #5 of 5 (5541 views)

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Re: [nwpack] Building Your Own Home??

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Gosh, Walt, have you read "God and Mr. Gomez" by Jack Smith? 1977.

A delightful tale of am american couple wanting to build their dream cottage in baja. He sometimes thinks that he is building Mr. Gomez' home, especially since the land was to be leased for 10 years.
Sandy Kramer
Miami, Fla & El Parque