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Hello,
I was thinking of building the house from scratch in Charlotte, NC. Would buy a land in a good neighborhood, and then build the house. I do see some land available in South Charlotte in established communities. Seems like the cost will be lower with this approach.
I used a website (buildingJournal) to estimate. Not sure if its close to reality.
1) Did anyone build house from scratch?
2) Do buyers (resale)hesitate to buy the houses that are built by Local contractor?
If you could please share your experience/tips that would be great.
I would never assume you will save money by building new vs buying an existing home.
Most knowledgeable buyers would prefer a home built by a local custom builder than by a large-scale tract builder, if that's what you were asking. If you're saying you would use a licensed GC for their general oversight, but you'd be subbing out all the work ... then that's different.
Hello,
I was thinking of building the house from scratch in Charlotte, NC. Would buy a land in a good neighborhood, and then build the house. I do see some land available in South Charlotte in established communities. Seems like the cost will be lower with this approach.
I used a website (buildingJournal) to estimate. Not sure if its close to reality.
1) Did anyone build house from scratch?
2) Do buyers (resale)hesitate to buy the houses that are built by Local contractor?
If you could please share your experience/tips that would be great.
Thanks in advance.
Most of those estimates are way off for independent contractors. A lot of things aren't taken in to consideration until AFTER the build has started...smh And you may deal with just one contractor, but they will contract many of the smaller jobs out which will drive the cost up. And be careful because in those "established communities", there are still going to be certain standards/rules to apply to be aesthetically equal to the other houses on the street. It would be different if you were building out in the country somewhere.
Hello,
I was thinking of building the house from scratch in Charlotte, NC. Would buy a land in a good neighborhood, and then build the house. I do see some land available in South Charlotte in established communities. Seems like the cost will be lower with this approach.
I used a website (buildingJournal) to estimate. Not sure if its close to reality.
1) Did anyone build house from scratch?
2) Do buyers (resale)hesitate to buy the houses that are built by Local contractor?
If you could please share your experience/tips that would be great.
Thanks in advance.
We had one house built from scratch, using a highly-regarded local builder with a 30-year track record. He was excellent in pretty much every way, although there were a few unexpected obstacles and a couple of minor misunderstandings. All of them were resolved quickly without conflict. We did not save money by building from scratch; what we got instead was an energy-efficient, fully code-compliant house built to accommodate our lifestyle, with some unavoidable compromises driven by the site and local restrictions.
In our case, that local builder was viewed as a big PLUS, not something to hesitate over. That town has a LOT of houses that do not meet various building codes or local ordinances, so just knowing he did the build assures people the house is up to standards, and it is very well-constructed.
The first tip is this: Realize you will not save money building from scratch vs buying an existing home in decent condition. Our way of limiting expenditures was to defer buying some of the window coverings, not get the fancy stone countertops, and do most of the landscape work ourselves.
The second tip is this: Get ready to think through details you always took for granted.
The third tip is this: Get as much in writing as you can. We didn't have any problems with this on our build, but we are having to be more nitpicky about this in planning our next house.
We had one house built from scratch, using a highly-regarded local builder with a 30-year track record. He was excellent in pretty much every way, although there were a few unexpected obstacles and a couple of minor misunderstandings. All of them were resolved quickly without conflict. We did not save money by building from scratch; what we got instead was an energy-efficient, fully code-compliant house built to accommodate our lifestyle, with some unavoidable compromises driven by the site and local restrictions.
In our case, that local builder was viewed as a big PLUS, not something to hesitate over. That town has a LOT of houses that do not meet various building codes or local ordinances, so just knowing he did the build assures people the house is up to standards, and it is very well-constructed.
The first tip is this: Realize you will not save money building from scratch vs buying an existing home in decent condition. Our way of limiting expenditures was to defer buying some of the window coverings, not get the fancy stone countertops, and do most of the landscape work ourselves.
The second tip is this: Get ready to think through details you always took for granted.
The third tip is this: Get as much in writing as you can. We didn't have any problems with this on our build, but we are having to be more nitpicky about this in planning our next house.
This is an outstanding summary of some of the things you will deal with in building your own home.
There are a number of contract options; choose wisely.
Get everything in writing from the initial plans/blueprints to the porta potty for the workers to the nails/screws/fasteners to the final finishings. Do Not leave anything to chance.
Building is more costly than buying. Add 10% to your budget for "changes" and other things which "happen" during a build. Buy the best you can afford. YOU make all choices; not the builder.
Weeell OP, it really depends. First on what you want and second on who you're hiring.
This is our experience, as we are embarking on this ourselves over the next two years.
I wouldn't say building is necessarily more costly than buying. In our case we are doing the GC work, my husband is drafting up the plans (he is a licensed civil/structural engineer and consulting with architects in his own firm), and much of the work outside of fabrication is being done by us. Cutting labor costs in some areas is a big saver. For a higher end residence with structural engineering and architectural plan approval, handpicked subs and select installation, we are looking at about 15-20% cost savings overall. But this is not for a builder basic home. Grabbing a bulk plan in a subdivision that is done just barely to code is indeed cheaper than having a builder replicate the same thing on a single home basis. Bulk discount for quantity of homes plays in here. But a nicer, more complex home that is beyond code minimum, ADA compliant, and completely custom in terms of systems and layout? Doing it oneself, however much you can skillfully manage and not botch up*, will save money.
The trade off is time. It will take us twice as long to do what a crew could manage. We acknowledge this. But to buy a residence like we are building involves a custom home builder and a spare million or so. Our budget is coming in at around 400k, and would be closer to 600k if we included the lot.
* not botching it up is key. If you have experience and skilll you can do a ton. From laying tile to running conduits to hanging drywall to building cabinet boxes. Especially if the home is trued up and square, like with steel studs and careful setting of the foundation and stem walls, it doesn't take a genius or even a master craftsman to do a great job. What is does take is attention to detail, time and more time, and knowing what to sub out. You can't do EVERYTHING yourself, generally, and do a fab job. But you can do quite a lot if you have practice and work ethic.
And no, when you can present permitted, complete as-builts and have quality work done and inspected by the city, to code or beyond? It is a huge selling point if the house is well designed.
If it has funkiness that doesn't appeal outside a narrow buying pool it's not a plus, but doing things to code prevents a fair bit of that when it comes to counter depth, step height, door clearances, clean electrical, etc etc. In the areas I've lived a well done custom home with a quality local builder is generally worth a little more than the spec home neighbors in the same neighborhood unless the custom home is significantly older or in poor condition.
Saving money is not one of the top reasons one elects to build a house rather than purchasing existing. It's almost always pricier unless like a poster above one is planning to act as the general contractor. Even as a GC, there are many issues that will raise the price. Subs won't prioritize your build versus the builds of a regular GC. You will be last on the list. Subs won't think there are as accountable to you and will try to cut corners. You better know what you are doing. There are a 1001 things that can go wrong.
I looked at the link you provided. I suspect it's very far from accurate as it doesn't really account for the 100's of variations that can go into building. There are other calculators out there that are better. None is 100% accurate. building-cost.net is a bit better. I suggest you use 4 or 5 different calculators and see what the averages/variations are from each.
Hello,
I was thinking of building the house from scratch in Charlotte, NC. Would buy a land in a good neighborhood, and then build the house. I do see some land available in South Charlotte in established communities. Seems like the cost will be lower with this approach.
I used a website (buildingJournal) to estimate. Not sure if its close to reality.
1) Did anyone build house from scratch?
2) Do buyers (resale)hesitate to buy the houses that are built by Local contractor?
If you could please share your experience/tips that would be great.
Thanks in advance.
I'll summarize some thoughts provided here in my viewpoint. If you do not know anything, or very little, about residential construction then do not attempt to be your own General Contractor. No matter if it is a 900 Sq. Ft. home to a 5000 Sq. Ft. home there will always be an aspect that does not end with good results. I've seen more of these than I care to.
If you act as the GC you will ultimately be responsible for all of the issues that will result, scheduling of sub-contractors, errors between the sub-contractors (errors tend to compound themselves as you build), errors that result in failed municipality inspections, errors that can delay construction and cause issues with interim construction loans to build, and in the end errors that cause issues with the finished home that you may not see until something very negative occurs. There are many ways you can put yourself into trouble if you are not familiar at all with building from the contractor cutting costs on materials (and still charging you a premium) to poor or no contracts with sub-contractors leaving what you asked for open and way up in the air for interpretation.
Having said that can you do this even without experience? Yes and I have seen it once. However the owner hired a very good GC on an intermittent basis as an advisor. The GC did get the owner started on all the necessary ground work to start the project and was available, for a fee, as needed for regular reviews and guidance. The owner did not save any real money on the build but they did get exactly what they wanted in the home.
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