CHRISTMAS AT HOME #1 | From Mapping Wishes to Purchasing Land

HOME FOR CHRISTMAS #1 | From Mapping Wishes to Purchasing a Plot

Many of us dream deep down of having a real home of our own – more specifically, our own house. Best wishes to those whose dream has come true – enjoy it – but many of our readers (still) haven't achieved it. That's why Kaanon Real Estate is bringing you a series where we introduce one family's home-building story step by step, working through the entire process in detail. The opening part connects two topics: moving from the thinking stage to action, and from searching for plots to purchasing one.

Erkki is a Tartu-based businessman who deals in building materials sales and decided to build his own home together with his wife. The family's goal is to welcome future Christmas in their new home. Kaanon Real Estate came up with the idea to document the process from start to finish to offer readers inspiration and ideas on the topics of acquiring and/or building their own home.

Motivation, initial budget, project management

From thought to action

The idea of having my own house germinated in my head years ago. Gradually we've moved closer to taking action, and at one point it seemed like the right time to actually start doing something.

A house of one's own is connected to the desire for privacy and the wish to get a larger living space than an apartment.

The desire has always been there, but in the early years we didn't take the search so seriously – like, "this year for sure we'll start looking." Years ago, there also weren't as many options to buy a house or start building one.

From a rental apartment to a house

We didn't want to go from a rental apartment to owning an apartment, because for example a larger apartment in Tartu costs roughly the same as a house. Apartment prices are still very high today!

Also, the living environment, comfort, and connection to our hobbies are important (for example, we need more storage space, a garage, etc., which an apartment building doesn't offer). So basically, a house aligned much better with our wishes than an apartment would.

Financial possibilities

Initially, we wanted to do as much as possible with our own resources: purchasing the plot, designing, starting construction. A large own contribution is also positive in the bank's eyes when they consider lending to us. When applying from scratch, it's hard to get funds from the bank.

Setting the budget

The budget isn't completely finalized even now. It's very difficult to do, especially these days.

Of course, the bank asked what our specific budget was. We made a detailed budget for the bank covering materials, work, processes, and then we actually got quite a precise picture ourselves of what sums we'd be working within (more details on financial matters and communication with financial institutions in the next post – ed.). But as mentioned, the budget is somewhat constantly changing.

Project management

I've been dealing with building materials sales for 23 years, have been in the sector for a long time, and understand the field and building materials better than the average person. Additionally, I have quite a large client base, many of whom could do subcontracting work – construction work – for me quite well and appropriately. I also have some price advantage both with materials and labor. Putting the arguments together, self-building without a main contractor is the logical path.

We do the lighter work ourselves: clearing the plot of vegetation, various cleaning projects, etc. In the future, we plan to do simpler construction work ourselves (like foundation insulation, installing trim and flooring, etc.) and landscaping together. Usually, though, we still need to involve specialists in their respective fields. We definitely won't do facade, roof, and specialized work ourselves, but we can help there too.

Deciding in favor of a plot, criteria, location, purchase

Why build yourself?

Based on our wishes and being inside the construction field, I saw that a large portion of the offered houses didn't meet the requirements (insulation, construction solutions, etc.). With many of them, it seems okay on the surface, but in the end you'd have to start renovating anyway. And in my opinion, that doesn't make sense.

Then there were options with houses where you'd have to completely demolish the old building first and only then start building. But doing things that way would make the entire construction process considerably more expensive. It's smarter to build from scratch yourself and do it properly, keeping in mind energy efficiency and spatial layout preferences.

In other words: there wasn't a finished house on the market that I wanted to buy.

Actually, there was even an older house in Tammelinn that we went to see. The idea was that only the shell would remain standing and we'd build based on that. But renovating an old house comes with so many restrictions – you can't do what you want, you have to see what's actually possible. And then the price would end up being equivalent to a new house anyway.

I think that if you purchase a plot, manage the project yourself, and build from scratch, you can in theory get a house matching your wishes for a reasonable apartment price.

Plot criteria

We wanted the plot in town or as close to town as possible – we didn't want to go far out into the countryside. Ultimately, we searched for a plot in a specific area (Ülenurme).

Initially, we looked at other areas too, but we fairly quickly abandoned those ideas. The selection elsewhere was small, and the plots were considerably more expensive. For example, we looked at Kvissental once. The plot there was more expensive and the location didn't really suit us either.

Ülenurme, for instance, is close to my workplace so I don't have to drive through town every day. Also, Ülenurme is a well-developing area (there are kindergartens, schools, food shops).

One argument in favor of deciding on Ülenurme was also that, for example, the children could walk to school themselves in Ülenurme. There are areas where you'd have to play taxi driver for your kids every day.

Regarding plot size. Our plot is small (1,003 square meters). We wanted a bigger one – at least 1,400 square meters – but there weren't larger ones available. Well, there were, but they were twice as expensive as what we paid.

Finding a suitable plot

One of my clients was currently building several houses in Ülenurme, which is why I was quite involved with the construction process there and aware of the conditions (including what the soil types are, etc.). When I started occasionally going to Ülenurme in connection with sales work, I saw that nice houses were coming to a great spot.

The original idea was maybe to buy one of the houses I mentioned. But then we thought that for the same price we could get an even bigger house.

After that, we contacted the developer about wanting a plot. It turned out that there were only a few plots left to choose from – about half had already been sold before reaching the kv.ee portal.

We had a choice between several plots there, so it wasn't a situation where it was one of the last plots and we had no choice – this particular plot really suited us and we liked it. When we went to see the plot, it immediately became clear that it was in the right and good area with new houses all around – exactly as we wished.

Cost and negotiation

The plot's list price was 39,900 €. Since we know the developer, we managed to negotiate the price down by a few thousand euros due to our relationship.

Cost was certainly important, but we didn't have a strict budget in mind when searching for plots. The fact is that there are very few good plots on the market, which is why sometimes you have to turn a blind eye to the price.

Plot brief analysis

The plot pleased us and suited us primarily for two reasons: the relationship with the cardinal directions and the location more generally. Some of the plots we considered were in deep shade from a large house – kind of in a hole where the sun doesn't shine. Or the plot had a strange shape, making it difficult to think of a suitable solution.

Regarding location, we also liked that our plot isn't right on the road – it's more inside the neighborhood. Also, the surroundings match our taste and wishes (what and how things are being built around us).

Of course, it's important that the plot's utilities were included in the price: electrical box at the plot's edge, water, gas, and sewage are all nicely in place. Also important are the plot's building conditions more generally (what you can actually build).

On the negative side, 1,000-square-meter plots are built closely together, the space between houses is small, privacy is limited. You need serious hedging.