second home??

[2stepgal]

am thinking of having our future retirement home built soon and know i can't afford to have all the upgrades done immediately. besides the builder charges three times what i should be charged. what do you recommend i have to have put in immediately besides electrical work, etc. should i get granite countertops while home is built? can that wait till later on? what about a fireplace? can that be installed when we move in? we don't plan on living in it till three yrs from now. that is about our time frame till we can retire. however we're afraid if we don't purchase now we'll be priced right out of this market. the homes in this area in Fla are going up and up. i'd appreciate any advise. i do want sq footage added also i guess that has to be done immediately. what about french doors? what about an upgraded shower? wow i want so many upgrades i'm afraid this $175,000 home i want is going to turn into 275,000 in no time!!!
2stepgal

[SeekerMage]

I would only do the large expensive upgrades that would be to hard to do later....like the fireplace and added square footage. If you think about it do you want to be paying X amount of money for however many years your mortage is for counter tops that if put in later may only be a fraction of the cost and will work just as well as the others? The counters, fooring etc is only cosmetic work that can be done with out changing the integrity of the house as apposed to structural things like the fireplace or larger shower area or added square footage. (if you know what I mean)

The less expensive items will work just as well and look just a nice as the more expensive ones. I would concentrate on getting the house built with all the structural extras and worry about all the fun decorating and upgrading of the fun stuff later.

Just my two cents...good luck!