Building in Puna

Why do some people prefer building in Puna to buying an already existing Puna home?

Building in Puna is preferred for those people who want to:

1. Create a personalized or custom home: Even when you consider buying a packaged or prefab home, there is still a lot you can do to personalize it and to create a one-of-a-kind home. If a packaged home offers everything you would like to have, then building one can save you some time.
2. Make the most out of their money: As the price of homes in Puna increases, home building becomes an affordable alternative. You can pace your project according to your financial situation, especially as an owner builder. If you go with a builder, expect to pay $130 per square ft. and up. That means that a house with 1,500 square ft. would cost just under $200,000. This includes everything, (clearing, driveway, septic system, water catchment system), except appliances.

What’s the downside of building in Puna?

1. It will probably take one year to finish your house: Especially with the increased number of building projects in Puna, time plays an important role for many buyers in Puna than ever before. Many contractors have so many job offers that they can pick and choose, which makes it sometimes hard to get someone to come out to your property to do even small jobs.
2. You have to deal with a lot of people: Draftsmen, architects, contractors, subcontractors, materials, etc., can all be more of a challenge when you are building in Puna. This is attributed to the high demand for these services and that there are not great numbers of these professionals living there as there would be in more developed areas of the country.

   There is also the unique situation that workers in the area are notorious for being unreliable. Sometimes they just won’t show up at all or they work for a while and then disappear without a word. Two weeks later that same guy might show up for work like it is nothing out of the ordinary. And crazy as it may sound to you now – you might just take him back because hey – at least somebody is working today! All these factors come into play and can affect the schedule of your building project. This underscores the need to find the best people to work with – people you may have to wait a little while for until they become available to take you on.

Choosing to build in Puna over buying an existing home leads to another question:

1. Do you want to build your house yourself?
   1. Advantages:
      1. You are in control of the project.
      2. You can save money by doing things yourself (if you have skills) or helping a subcontractor with his work.
   2. Disadvantages
      1. You carry full responsibility for the project.
      2. You need to do a lot of research.
      3. You probably don’t have as much experience as a licensed contractor, which might be necessary in terms of problem management.
2. Do you want an experienced contractor to run the building project for you?
   1. Advantages
      1. The contractor has a lot of experience.
      2. Since the contractor has probably been through the building process many times they likely already have good connections to subcontractors.
      3. The contractor knows the area, which materials work, what to consider in terms of landscape and climate. There are unique problems that can arise in Puna that a contractor would know how to solve.
   2. Disadvantages
      1. If the contractor is not reputable you could end up wasting time and money, (this can be avoided with good research and references).
      2. The contractor possibly works according to his schedule and not according to yours.

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