Building a custom home

Where are you building?

 

Excluding land, you should expect to spend anywhere from $75/ft for decent quality house to $150 for a very high end. Its a big range, but that should give you an idea somewhat. Some builders have plans ready to go that they can tell you how much it would cost. This can give you additional guidance as to what various types of houses cost.

 

I built through the Owner Builder Network. I ended up at $95 a sq. ft. and that was doing A TON of work myself.

After going through all the contracting, I don't think you can build a true custom home for under $85 a sq. ft.

Jackfruit feel free to email me off the board. I have a ton of info I can share with you (just way too much to type out here).

 

www.DeltecHomes.com

We were looking at doing an addition with them until a home came on the market that we purchased.

We've been to the factory and toured the model home. They sell homes all over the country-- very impressive.

You have to have the right location for it, though.

 

It all completely depends on what you want to put into it. My father has been a custom home builder in the Houston area for about 30 years.

He doesn't really go build on your lot, he's more exclusive to specific neighborhoods.

Building a custom home is tricky and requires strict discipline on the part of the buyer. Most buyers will write out a contract for a certan cost for a certain house. They will then have "allowances" for various parts of the house (flooring, trim, appliances, lighting, etc.) Most builders will let you move the dollars to one thing or another (if you want to save on flooring to get better appliances, etc.). The thing that's very hard for people is staying on budget. They always want to upgrade this and that. It doesn't look like much when you put $1,000 here on flooring, or $2,000 there on appliances over what you were budgeted, but most folks go to closing owing much more than they expect. Many times tens of thousands, so you have to work closely with your builder as well as keep accurate records as to your allowances and overages.

Another way to do it is cash plus, where you finance yourself, and just pay everything while the builder receives a fee.

I'd shop around in the custom sections, ask the realtors who they respect, and look for someone that's been in the business more than just a couple of years. You'll probably want to use a local builder since they have the relationships with the subs and suppliers in the area already built up and can get the right people in at the right cost.

Remember...most custom builders make approx. 3-7% profit on a house when its all said and done, so you usually don't save much, if anything if you use one of those build it yourself scams. (if you try to build it yourself, you will be overcharged on everything due to non repeat business to subs, no contractor pricing on suppliers, etc.) Anything you would have paid to the builder to do all the work for you will go to the suppliers and subs anyways AND you'll have to do all the work.

All that being said, there is a huge range. If you build a simple Georgian box with nice, but not elaborate trim, decent, but not overpriced decorating, etc. you can save a lot of money.

Just BE CAREFUL to not get carried away when you make selections for a custom house. The fact that you can select ANYTHING in the world to put in your house and not just select from a list of "options" lets a lot of people get out of control on their spending.

 

I agree with everything you said, except this. It's all about how savy you are and how much you know about how things are priced out so you aren't being taken advantage of. Alot of my bids came in under what they charges major builders like David Weekly, Lennar, etc. because I offered cash incentives and instead of taking bids, I just put out #s to my contractors regarding how much I was willing to pay and shopped around until someone was willing to work with my budget.

Do it yourself builders have advantages and disadvantages, but I wouldn't call it a scam. The main disadvantage is, like you said, its easy to go over budget and the owner builder companies are entirely honest when they put together your budget. The other thing is, alot of owner builder folks aren't willing to put in any type of sweat equity (i.e. doing some things yourself to save money to put towards upgrades). The advantage of it is, the home will truly be built how you want it and in the end, the only person to blame when anything goes wrong is yourself.

 

How how you coming up with $200,000 for a home? What sq. footage?

 

Do they have building requirements?

The Deltec homes are awesome on lakeside, beachside or mountain vistas...

 

Well, a lot of people would consider this a disadvantage. You have to warranty the home yourself out of your own pocket.

I guess why I think a lot of those owner builder things are scams is they make outrageous claims that you will save 50% or something like that on a home price. If my Dad made 50% profit, he'd long be retired.

 

I paid about $1,800 for a 10 year home warranty from the same company that most builders use.

If I intended to keep this home for the rest of my life, i wouldn't have worried about it, because besides the foundation, there is nothing I can't fix myself. I got the warranty purely for resale purposes.

Mine claimed about 10% savings, which is about right. The problem is, they budget you for a basic home. No landscaping. No gutters. No springer system. No driveway. Really just your average house, with formica countertops, laminated cabinets, vinyl flooring, cheap fixtures, white appliances, etc. All those things are fine if you want to stay under $70/sq. ft.

We ended up about $30,000 over budget. $10,000 was for a custom circle drive I insisted on putting in and almost all the rest ($15K) was for dirt work I had to have done because I had a bad slope on my lot.

People don't realize, but dirt/fill is expensive.

 

I would check the deed restrictions for Bentwater. They are going to have minimum sq. foot requirements for a 1 story and a 2 story. Most custom neighbors start at 2,400 sq. ft. minimum.

 

2000 sqft is kind of small these days. Right? This is an investment?