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I am trying to get an idea of the cost to have a home built.
I can estimate the foundation/septic, well, electric and plumbing, it's the framing I have no idea of.
If anyone has a good estimate of price per square foot to make it weather tight I would appreciate it.
Having a house built now(hence the two counties in my location). I'm a proud owner of a roughed in 200' driveway with a base layer and an electrical box. Eversource even gave me my very own borrowed telephone pole for free. Woohoo.
Currently at $31.2K
I bought land and contacted my builder in April 21. In 22 we'll have all the dirtwork well and septic done. In 23 will be the build. Every builder worth their salt is backed up similar.
I don't think you can get a reliable estimate on the build. A builder should be able to ballpark what he has been seeing recently, but availability and prices are all over the map and changing weekly. I honestly don't see how construction to perm loans are getting accurate estimates nowadays.
When I met my builder in April, he told me that the cost of building had just about doubled to hit $300 per square foot. Lumber has come down since then, but who knows what it will be late this year when I likely have to send a check for the lumber. I look at this just like every time i had to move across country and the gas prices jumped sky high-"YOLO".
As an aside, and you probably know this already, your new build is likely going to cost more than a buy existing and renovate.
Having a house built now(hence the two counties in my location). I'm a proud owner of a roughed in 200' driveway with a base layer and an electrical box. Eversource even gave me my very own borrowed telephone pole for free. Woohoo.
Currently at $31.2K
I bought land and contacted my builder in April 21. In 22 we'll have all the dirtwork well and septic done. In 23 will be the build. Every builder worth their salt is backed up similar.
I don't think you can get a reliable estimate on the build. A builder should be able to ballpark what he has been seeing recently, but availability and prices are all over the map and changing weekly. I honestly don't see how construction to perm loans are getting accurate estimates nowadays.
When I met my builder in April, he told me that the cost of building had just about doubled to hit $300 per square foot. Lumber has come down since then, but who knows what it will be late this year when I likely have to send a check for the lumber. I look at this just like every time i had to move across country and the gas prices jumped sky high-"YOLO".
As an aside, and you probably know this already, your new build is likely going to cost more than a buy existing and renovate.
Ouch! You will save money and get a house with more historical character, more hominess, if you renovate an older home, but unless you do some costly and painful upgrades to the building envelope on the older place, you'll get a tighter, more comfortable and energy efficient house, with lower maintenance, in a well-built new home. That latter option is still subject to feasible cost though.
I think you have a realistic view of the build vs buy market.
The $300/ft2 is the high end of what I have been hearing. You still have to budget for it in case lumber costs spike again. Overall, I would prefer to build and am willing to spend more if I have to. Finding a framing contractor to at least get a home weather tight might be the toughest part of getting something built.
If I decide to start I will update as I go along to give an idea of the costs to build.
The $300/ft2 is the high end of what I have been hearing. You still have to budget for it in case lumber costs spike again. Overall, I would prefer to build and am willing to spend more if I have to. Finding a framing contractor to at least get a home weather tight might be the toughest part of getting something built.
I'm thinking it has gone down now, but we'll see. I'm happy to be building with all its cost disadvantages and extra work.
"Finding a framing contractor" by this, it makes me think you are acting as your own GC. True or no? I don't have the smarts or the patience to do any of that, so i just handed it off to my builder.
There are a number of modular and pre-fab options that will make the house weather tight more quickly. Expect to pay a convenience premium on top of the lumber. My builder works with Hamilton Building Services for their panelized products. It will go up quicker, be weather tight quicker, be much more convenient for my builder's small crew, and in the end be more convenient for me-especially if it stops me from paying $2100 a month for this rental.
That said I have put complete trust in my builder. Hindsight being 20/20 and doing even more post "let's do this" research, my research paid off and I picked one of the best and well known guys in the area.
The budget is always a tough thing. I blame my Mom for making me invest money, so that is where a majority of mine is coming from with a decent amount of flexibility if we start getting crazy on costs. I did take a loan out to buy the land though.
Having a house built now(hence the two counties in my location). I'm a proud owner of a roughed in 200' driveway with a base layer and an electrical box. Eversource even gave me my very own borrowed telephone pole for free. Woohoo.
Drove by yesterday and now I have a transformer and a meter with power on. So now I'm going to be paying a meter fee to Eversource for the next couple of years. Oh well. It had to be turned on eventually.
*This build will have all the boxes near the street so no boxes are on the house. It's an underground to the house. Eversource told me not to, but this will eventually be shielded with some sort of evergreen shrubbery.
OP, why not interview different builders and have them provide their estimates for building the house?
If you don't know even how much it is to build a house, what makes you think you could do it cheaper than the builder? Those people make, as far as I know, maybe 5-10% on the cost of the house. I suspect you'd pay much more by trying to find the subs yourself. At this time that's not easy.
Also, who is going to design the house? You? The builder using stock plans? Why not also interview a few architects? They could give you an idea of the prices per s.f. in your area.
No generator transfer switch placed on board in picture.
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Oh well. It had to be turned on eventually. 
