Hi everyone,
First time poster, long time reader.
Let me say what a brilliant forum this is. Thanks to everyone for all their well thought out advice, it is fantastic!!
I am personally commencing on the road of a massive project (well massive to me), whereby I have gone out on a limb and purchased an old four-bedroom house in the perfect location in Newport, Victoria, some 10 minutes from the Melbounrne CBD.
The land itself overlooks Newport Lakes, is a corner block of about 620m2, and is completely surrounded by parkland, with lake and city views. Brilliant!
Well, I bought it at the first ever auction I have ever attended, which was an experience. Was bidding against two developers who wanted to put units in place of the old house. My plan was also to demolish the house and build my new castle which I hope myself and the family will live in for the next 20 years or so.
So now I am holding this land and am in a bind on how to proceed.
Currently I have been evaluating the pros and cons of;
a) Going through the architect route;
b) Utlising a draftsman to pen my ideas and taking a builder along the way for the journey;
c) Designing the house myself with an autocad style program and then taking it to a builder and going from there; or
d) Some combination of the above, which may or may not involve me owner/building.
Currently I am leaning towards doing the basic plans myself and then find a builder I can trust to take it from there and then manage him myself.
In the meantime, I will rent out the old 4 bedroom house and claim the interest as a deduction on my taxes. This will give me time to bed down exactly what I want to do. I can then sell my existing house and use the proceeds to fund the dream.
I would be interested in hearing people's thoughts on any of the above if you have the time.
Am also thinking of starting up a blog once I get into something meaningful, but will particpate in this (and other) threads up to and during this big step in my life.