How would I go about buying some property and having a house built on it?

So my husband and I have been pre-approved for a $150,000 for a home. We would have about $35,000 cash to put forth towards any expense. We have been trying to find some property with a house already on it and have had no luck. What would we need to do in order to buy some land, and have a house built on it? Including the water, electricty and drainage to be added on? Would that be to expensive for us? We would like between 10-15 acres, with a house around 1500 sq ft.
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Be very, very careful about buying land with the intention of building a house on it.

Utilities can be very pricey to bring in. If you don't have municipal water and sewer it can be a disaster. Wells can be very, very expensive to drill, depending upon how far down they have to go. Septic systems require percolation tests (called percs). If the land hasn't had one done, DO NOT BUY IT.

Lot grading, access roads/driveways, etc., could easily eat up the rest of your budget with NO STRUCTURE AT ALL. You could easily spend the rest of the $150,000 getting the lot to be build ready.

All of these issues are resolved for houses that already exist. All of these issues are resolved in lots in residential neighborhoods which is why those lots tend to cost a lot more.

I'm not saying not do to it, I'm just saying to make sure that you know about all of the hidden costs before you buy the land and then can't afford to build on it. Or worse yet, find out it's unbuildable and worthless.

good luck!

PS - I didn't even mention zoning! You have to be sure that the land is zoned residential and that you are even allowed to build a house there!
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you need to see a general contractor in your area for this. Sorry but land values vary widely across this great land.
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My guess is that would be a little over your budget.
If the property does not have the infrastructure for water and sewer, then you would have to invest about $20,000 to $35,000 to have a well and septic system put in. You may even have to pay to have the electricity brought to your property.
By the time you purchased the land, and went through design and permitting process, you will not have much of the $150,000 left to build the structure. I will also say that building is a huge amount of work, unless you hire a contractor to do it all - and then the price goes up considerably.
As the previous person stated, different areas of the country can vary a great deal regards to cost of construction and land.
I would keep looking for that location you mentioned. You may have to go down to 4 or 5 acres - however, nothing is permanent. You can still work toward the vision you have for a home.
Good luck.
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Right now, for the most part, it will cost more to build than it will appraise for. I am not trying to discourage you just warning you. Just because you get somebody to build a home for a certain amount doesn't mean it will appraise for that.

My advice is get an all in one loan, construction and the follow on loan. This way they will hopefully use the same appraisal for the follow on loan as they used when they approved the plans for the initial construction. If you get the loan and latter the follow on loan and the market gets worse you may be up side down with a new appraisal. You never know, by the time you finished house prices may of gone up and you may have more equity than you could imagine. The bank doing the construction loan will require you to have a pre-approval for another bank that will take the loan over but that is just approving you. That bank may want it own appraisal upon completion of construction. If the value has gone down you could be in trouble.

Keep as much cash on hand as possible. You can use it for unexpected expenses or thing you can handle yourself.

One thing people often forget to consider is the price of getting utilities and landscaping. That can quickly get into the 10 of thousands esp if you don't have utilities close.