I haven’t built a house for myself, but I’ve done it for other people over 10 times. A big thing you got to think about depending on which state you are in is impact fees for new homes. I know around here even if you already have a house on the property and you want to knock it down and rebuild it, if you don’t use the same footprint it’s about a $30,000 impact fee. It’s supposed to cover the cost of impacts on the roads and school system. You also have to think about how far away the power lines are to where you wanna build. Here it’s about $50 a foot for them to run line. So if you want to build your house 1000 feet from the road, you’re talking about $50,000 just for the electric company to bring lines to the house. That does not include bringing them inside the home. An Electrician still has to do that Obviously water and sewage are another factor. Septic systems can cost about 10 grand to install, and it’s going to be a big cost getting water to the house or hooking up a sewage line. Ideally you find a plot of land where all the utilities are accessible. There is also the grading issue. If any of the Land runs at an angle back toward the house, it will all need to be graded away from the house so that you do not have water issues. Depending on the severity of the grade, one man with a skid loader or excavator can take care of this, but this is also not cheap a lot of the time. One more thing to consider is deed restrictions. Deed restrictions aren’t just about construction. They may allow you to build a house and live on it, but then they won’t allow you to have any kind of RV or trailer on the property. This is very common in rural areas. A farmer will sell the land but will try to keep it from looking very trashy. So if you are planning on living in a trailer while you build the house this could get you fined. Many regulations prohibit chickens or livestock. It’s very important to understand the contract and what you are permitted to do with the property