Who here bought vacent lot and built a new house. What costs? (how much, drain)

[Need_affordable_home]

I cant find this information on google. I search contractors and theres no mention of price! If theres a price, its for both house and lot. I need to know how much it would cost to have a house built on your own lot.
Your costs can help give me an estimate. The only estimates I have are for PSL, FL that I saw in a magazine and they wanted almost $100 a living square foot, a 2000 square foot house on your lot was like $197k. Vacent lot was $65k to over $100k. Using those figures, its a few percent cheaper to purchase a lot with an existing house(built recently) But in some areas, I feel I can get a much better deal buying vacent land and having a house built on the land, existing houses+lots cost quite a bit more!

For those of you that choose to buy vacent land and have a house built on it, what was the costs, how big lot and house(give square feet) and how much did you save? I have seen some very affordable land in desirable locations, even in California that I can afford. The only question is what costs would be incurred by having a contractor or house builder build me one? I dont need a big, fancy house or anything, lets say something simple like a 3/1 1200 living square feet or even a 2/1 1000 living square feet. Could I have a such house built for under $100k or better yet under $50k? Im assuming the same house in different cities and states would have different price quotes. I can learn by knowing what it cost you, for those of you that chose to "build on your own lot" thanks so much for reading this and responding.

[Mvn2nc]

Originally Posted by Need_affordable_home

I cant find this information on google. I search contractors and theres no mention of price! If theres a price, its for both house and lot. I need to know how much it would cost to have a house built on your own lot.
Your costs can help give me an estimate. The only estimates I have are for PSL, FL that I saw in a magazine and they wanted almost $100 a living square foot, a 2000 square foot house on your lot was like $197k. Vacent lot was $65k to over $100k. Using those figures, its a few percent cheaper to purchase a lot with an existing house(built recently) But in some areas, I feel I can get a much better deal buying vacent land and having a house built on the land, existing houses+lots cost quite a bit more!

For those of you that choose to buy vacent land and have a house built on it, what was the costs, how big lot and house(give square feet) and how much did you save? I have seen some very affordable land in desirable locations, even in California that I can afford. The only question is what costs would be incurred by having a contractor or house builder build me one? I dont need a big, fancy house or anything, lets say something simple like a 3/1 1200 living square feet or even a 2/1 1000 living square feet. Could I have a such house built for under $100k or better yet under $50k? Im assuming the same house in different cities and states would have different price quotes. I can learn by knowing what it cost you, for those of you that chose to "build on your own lot" thanks so much for reading this and responding.

Sorry but i think you are totally dreaming if you think you can have a contractor build you a house in Calif.for $50- $100k.( maby if you do it your self)
Have you ever lived in Calif? I have read your posts and know that you want to buy some land and build please, go there check it all out, interview contractors once you have purchaced the land etc.Building codes are very strict there.Wages are higher.Costs more to build, period.

[ontheroad]

Some friends just built a house in Northern NM. The 1 acre plot plus building cost just under $350,000. They did all the filing themselves, did much of the architectural rendering, and did about 1/16 or 1/8 of the actual building preparation without a contractor. They used contractors from 3 cities to keep costs down.

They built a 2500 square feet house in old fashioned adobe style--it is beautiful but not inexpensive to fabricate.

Even airship houses are about $150,000 here in Northern NM.

Building materials are very expensive.

[Sgoldie]

This is a hard question to answer. I've built a couple of new houses on land I owned. There are alot of variables that make the PPSFT different for different areas. For instance building codes, building materials, basement or slab, R50 or none, etc.

The range may go from a low $100 to $200. It's not something I would recommend to a first time homeowner, especially one who was inexperienced. You can act as a general contractor yourself (if you know what you're doing as far as all facets of building) or sign a contract with a builder specifying all details (which can be equally as complicated). Financing is different too, if you need it, and comes in 'draws' by stage of completion.

There are a lot of mistakes that can be made. I've seen people build only to find out they had no water (or bad water) on their site and the house became useless. You have to figure in water connections, sewer or septic, type of ground dirt (clay doesn't drain well), is potable water 30ft or 300 ft, utility pole charges, and all kinds of things.

My recommendation would be to buy a house that needed to be fixed up as you go, and ONLY after an inspector had given you a comprehensive list of what needed to be done, and when. (rewiring-roof-new plumbing). That way you can gain knowledge over time.

There are 'kit' houses, such as log homes, but they're expensive and you still need a builder. It's too big an investment to go into blind.

[Cosmic]

It is not a "One Size Fits All Situation". As mentioned it can be a disaster for the novice under some situations.

In general the better house construction is by the very big contractors. Guys that build 100's or even 1000's of houses per year. They have their suppliers very tightly wired for super good cost controls. They have the process down to almost factory type assembly, many will use large prefab modules. Material costs have totally gone bananas in so many of the required materials, especially things like plumbing and wiring or anything that has copper or most metals except steel. You just can't afford the typical retail type prices.

Trying to build a few houses a year can be very problematic today even for a good general contractor. I know all about it from experience. It is far more about getting and keeping good help / sub contractors and controlling costs. They may start a house with a particular quote but reserve the right to increase costs to the owner as construction goes on. In general you want a contractor that can put it up quick and has done it many, many times and has his materials suppliers as close to the initial producer as possible. Got to cut out all the middlemen.

Also the situation will vary widely depending on the location. Today in SE Ohio most new construction homes built in the last 5 years or so, probably have resulted in the owner being locked into a losing situation. They have more in the house than it will presently sell for on the open market. Probably will be true with just about any new construction for a lot of the more rural Ohio counties today. Same with major remodeling projects, is so very, very easy to get the cost structure out of whack with what the market will support. Many people have used the "Kit Type" houses in the past and today are sitting in bad situations where they may never get their initial investments back.

So you typically need a situation where a house is appreciating in value to make new construction pay off today. Most of those areas will tend to be higher cost areas.

So no easy approach or free lunch out there in today's market. I may build my own home in the next few years but it will be a very tough process where I must get a lot of the materials either free or super low cost by some method. Have done it in remodeling the present house I have. It is not quick and in some regards not much fun. You are super restricted in hiring paid labor in many cases or the price structure will run off the road big time.

Also you must understand what is the permit / fees / admin cost for a particular area to build a new house. For example in the Boston area, you can be looking at ~$25K on average for your typical shack just for the paperwork. Add on the materials, labor, profit and all the other payments to all the "Others" that have learned to run around with their hands out. Ain't the fun it used to was.

Few good choices these dazes to easy cheap houses for fun and large profits.

If I fell into the amateur category today, no way would I be looking to undertake a new construction house where I did not have total control over all aspects of the project. I doubt many builders will give you a total fixed air tight price contract on a new house. To get a house built today, you got to know a lot even if you are not involved directly.

[Mvn2nc]

Just thought i'd throw my 2 cents in again!
In my situation very recently,our general contractor sold us a song and dance. Good talker and we had that gut instint about this personality, but we liked the area,lot and he owned the lot and was building the house period. My husband is a carpenter by trade and knows his stuff and Calif. building codes which are more stringent than here in N.C
From the begining we had our share of problems with him but without going into all the gory details of this mess, and how late he was on finishing etc.We finally moved in Nov.and 5 days later committed suicide the day before Thanksgiving.( dont think it was us that drove him to it!!!)
Now i know this is unusual,but anything is possible when you are building.You need to really delve into enough about the contractor, his subs, does he pay his subs on time etc.
We have now recieved 6 liens, and have a mess to deal with but the good news is thats why you have Title Insurance!!!

[fbcobrn]

[quote=Need_affordable_home;288070]I cant find this information on google. I search contractors and theres no mention of price! If theres a price, its for both house and lot. I need to know how much it would cost to have a house built on your own lot. [quote]

We are, at this time, in the building stage for our future home in MT. We bought the bare land (5.25 acres) 2 years ago. $28.00 /foot for well-digging (65 ft), $3500. for septic. Plus permits.

We interviewed 5 contractors (appointments set up by our local friend there). declined 3 off the git go, and seriously considered the final two based on their formal bids, allowances, personality, projects we toured, and general gut feeling and picked the one we felt we could work long-distance with, the best.

Our cost is about $120.00/sq.ft for the 3000 sq.ft, 2 story house with a finished basement room, and another $50.00 sq. ft. for the 1200 sq.ft. additional garage shop.

And yes, your prices for building in my home state, California, I believe to be very unreasonable. Good luck.

[Cattknap]

I know little of this subject, but this I do know. We have had many friends that have had their homes built every single one of them ran way over on expenses - 20-50% more. You really need to have extra money set aside beyond what you think the house is going to cost you. We have several homes in our neighborhood where the landscaping and finishing of the outside of the houses didn't happen for 1 or 2 years after the inside was done - they simply ran out of money.

[sunsprit]

There's two ways you can "beat" the high costs of conventional construction techniques ... which seem to be running about $100 psf and up in "low cost" areas (low permit fees, low utility hook-up, low taxes, low inspection fees, etc.).

The first is to find a good quality factory built home manufacturer. They build the home inside a controlled building, and are able to keep a lot of labor costs down, so can deliver a house for much less money than a one-off site built home. This may work for the small house you're seeking. I've seen ads for 1,500 sq ft basic homes running about $70,000 in the Colorado Front Range (that's FOB, factory ... no permits, no engineering drawings to the county or permits, no transportation, no site prep ... strictly the base cost of a house).

The second way is to look at alternative construction techniques, which will be limited in the areas that will accept them for residential housing/zoning. Check out "rammed earth" or similar techniques which have been developed for low cost construction in third world economies. They make the best use of local and inexpensive materials. You can also save a lot of money by purchasing items like doors, windows, plumbing, and electrical as salvage or distress items. I've seen several "off the grid" homes built this way and they've been very livable, although quite ecclectic in appearance. Of course, you're the GC and going at your own pace. You may have to live in a temporary housing (trailer, tent, etc) until the "new house" is completed to a usable structure level. It helps to have a bunch of friends for cheap volunteer labor at times, too.

Two huge drawbacks to this ultimate "low cost" approach: (1) it may take quite awhile (years!) for you to be able to complete the house as you locate materials and are able to install completed systems; (2) it won't have much (if any) re-sale value beyond the value of the land.

Check out the folks living "on the cheap" close to the land type magazines like "Backwoods Home" for a lot of ideas on how to do this. They've got ongoing articles about folks going through the process of inexpensive housing on a "pay-as-you-go" basis.

Otherwise, the only very inexpensive housing in the USA is in economically depressed areas. You can still buy a small house for under $30,000 in the mid-west in some towns ...

[Cattknap]

Be careful about alternative housing choices - many insurance companies won't insure them.