To Build or to Buy Existing home (Shawnee, Ardmore: tornadoes, budget)

[okie1954]

Hi all,

I am looking into finding some land a few acre and to possibly build in Ardmore.

Here are the things I would need to do first.

1. find land where utilities are close to or already on the land.
2. find a reputable builder
3. find a plan the reputable builder has, hopefully.

I am very ignorant to what I would need to find these things.

Does anyone here know of a good parcel of land for sale and any of the other things on the short list?

Does Ardmore have tornadoes, windstorms, or icestorms more?

We have a 13 yr old that will need a good middle school maybe highschool by the time we have built.

I need good internet access too.

Thank you

[Goodpasture]

The biggest factor is going to be what can you afford. I am not that familiar with Ardmore, but there are going to be good builders and mediocre builders in every community. Use due diligence regardless of where you go......find out what houses the guy has built and go talk to the people that live in them. For land, call a Realtor in the area or drive around and talk to people with signs on the fence. for house plans, find one you like and have it built. If you don't have any idea of how to decide if you like it from a set of sketches, buy a ready built house. If you are looking at building plans, multiply the square footage listed in the plans by $100.00. That will give you the amount you need to budget before you start building.

Oklahoma has tornado's, windstorms, and ice storms. get used to it.

[peggydavis]

I would buy a ready built house. I did the building a house from scratch on raw land before and there are so many extra costs involved: the well, the septic tank, the fences, the driveway, and on and on.

One problem I had near Ardmore was with the phone company. We were in the Chickasaw phone company area. It was a long distance phone call to Ardmore and Marietta. My daughter had a slight problem in kindergarten, and I asked the teacher why she didn't call me. She said it was because it was long distance! Maybe they have done something about the problem since then.

[okie1954]

i need to remember these little problems. I may just look for some land with well water and move back to Shawnee. I have to have better water.

[peggydavis]

I miss my well water near Ardmore. It had a mineral taste probably from calcium. When I made pickles with my well water there they turned out great.