I usually pay someone but allow them to retain the rights and resell to bring the hourly rate down. 

I use to as well, a looooong time ago, I wish I had one now. Would be awesome but sadly they never tie themselves to one site.

I'm currently trying to convince a friend to have a play with XenForo and get to grips with it, in the hope that he'll perhaps consider developing one or two of my ideas, which he could then sell on.

Yes, I was blessed and able to meet someone who is able to code very well and does so as a professional career. I pay them from time to time, however, not nearly what they're worth! I'm very lucky.

We used to on our old vBulletin forum. That was around from 2002-2016. But... the problem was that over the years, people had coded their own bits and pieces, it was no longer the same vBulletin. Obviously there were different people working with the code, so too many cooks and all that. Haha! When we'd try to make updates, it would break other things.

Can be good to have a nice custom site in one hand, but then... the hassle when a new guy has to take over. XD.

Posted by: Shannon

We used to on our old vBulletin forum. That was around from 2002-2016. But... the problem was that over the years, people had coded their own bits and pieces, it was no longer the same vBulletin. Obviously there were different people working with the code, so too many cooks and all that. Haha! When we'd try to make updates, it would break other things.

Can be good to have a nice custom site in one hand, but then... the hassle when a new guy has to take over. XD.

pretty much the whole point of having coders, so that when it breaks it gets fixed right away.

I get add-ons that are pre-made rather than custom, as they could cost a lot. This one time I had a custom one made and it cost me an arm and a leg but don't even use it anymore and the developer done a runner.