My husband and I built our first home with a building company who were flexible and worked with us fairly well. Building will always be a headache no matter what even with the best contractor. We built a rambler with 4 bedrooms and 2 baths, but it has a huge unfinished basement where we will add an additional 3 bedrooms, a bathroom, storage room, living room, and kitchen. The total square footage was 3,700 including the basement. The home was built out in Utah in a rural area and we were able to get it all for $200,000. We still own that home (renting it out), but have moved out to Harrisburg area in PA and homes out in our area are much more expensive! We bought a small little future rental property that we are living in, but plan on buying/building another nicer place out here if we plan on staying for a long time. After having built once I would definitely consider building again. But I do love having landscape already in place. I would look in lots of areas at homes for sale while looking at contracting companies and plots of land. It is going to be a big headache no matter what. Instead of deciding, try just seeing which one happens first. If you find something prebuilt before signing with a contractor or finding that perfect plot then go with that. Or vice versa. Good luck to you! Just try to see the fun and joy in the process.