I Bought My Dream Lot to Build On. Here’s Why I’m Selling It

This post may contain affiliate links which may compensate us based on your interaction. Please read the disclosures for more information.

Life doesn’t always turn out as planned — especially in real estate.  

A few years ago, my husband and I spent months tracking down a perfect lot. Our plan was to get a mortgage and build a new home on the lot for our family. We found one with a private lake, near Disney World, on 15 acres, and we were super excited to go forward with the process.

Last week, we listed the lot for sale — even though we’d spent quite a lot of time getting permits and doing a custom design with an architect. Rather than building, we’re going to buy an existing home instead. Here’s why we made that choice.

Building can come with unexpected complications

The biggest reason why we’ve opted to sell our lot is that the permit process reminded us just how many unexpected complications can arise during the process of constructing a home.

With an existing house, you know what you’re dealing with when you move in because the house is already there. That’s not the case when you’re building. When we built a home in the past, we ran into a host of issues, such as difficulty getting water flow in our well so we had to drill much deeper than planned.

We had already gone through a long challenge with getting the initial permits to build our property, and we talked to others in the neighborhood who had trouble with various aspects of the construction process, ranging from getting high-speed internet hooked up to getting permission from the electric company to turn on service.

With two young kids and busy jobs, we decided we just aren’t up for dealing with the possible complications that could arise from jumping into a building project with so much uncertainty.

A custom build will take more time than we want it to

Another big issue is that we found out it would take quite a long time for a custom builder to actually construct our home. There’s a few reasons for that, including permitting backlogs, continued supply chain issues, and the complexities involved with our large lot and its location.

We don’t want to put our life on hold and have to wait to live in our perfect house for years while it is constructed. We’d rather just be able to buy a house that we will be happy in and move in much more quickly.

Our life circumstances have changed since we bought the land

Finally, our life has changed since we bought the land and we no longer have the same priorities. One of our dogs — the one whose bark necessitated acreage — passed away unexpectedly from cancer last year and so we no longer need as much buffer space as we did. We added an extra child to our family as well. So, now we’re looking for different things in a home.

For all of these reasons, we’ve decided that we will pass up the new build and just buy instead. The entire process just shows why it can be hard to anticipate what your future needs will be when it comes to purchasing a home — so be sure to look at the big picture, and don’t buy any type of property that it would be impossible for you to break even on if you have to sell it sooner than planned.

Our picks for the best credit cards

Our experts vetted the most popular offers to land on the select picks that are worthy of a spot in your wallet. These best-in-class cards pack in rich perks, such as big sign-up bonuses, long 0% intro APR offers, and robust rewards. Get started today with our recommended credit cards.

We’re firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers.
The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.Christy Bieber has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

 Read More