Cost to build your own home?

[flusher]

Is that a modular home like Palm Harbor homes, built on site?

Double wide, factory built, Golden West Homes (Chico, CA) now a division of Clayton Homes.

The two halves delivered from Portland, OR to Red Bluff, CA on I5.

Front half weighed nearly 40,000 lbs and needed 8 axles under the frame.

Rear half about 35,000 lbs on 7 axles.

4:12 roof pitch. So the trusses had to be shortened to accommodate the overpasses on I5. Trusses were completed on site as was the roof.

Front porch delivered with the roof hanging vertically on the side of the house. Installers had to raise the roof, build the support pillars, pour concrete foundation for the redwood deck, install steps and railings. All on-site work.

The 3 fake dormers were stick built on site.

Delivered in Sept 2005. Took nearly 5 months to complete the installation. Housing market was booming at that time. Hard to get installer crew working my job more than 2 or 3 days per week. Very frustrating.

 

[woodlandfarms]

One note on a basement, kinda a side track. We are big into modern architecture, and were touring a home last year where the basement felt different.. We could not figure out what it was, but it was light and airy but really no windows to speak of. Asked the owner, he asked us to look up and showed us the 10ft walls. It was really a game changer in our book, I know it is hard to believe but it really changed how we perceived having a basement would effect us. Now it is on the probability list.

 

[MossRoad]

One note on a basement, kinda a side track. We are big into modern architecture, and were touring a home last year where the basement felt different.. We could not figure out what it was, but it was light and airy but really no windows to speak of. Asked the owner, he asked us to look up and showed us the 10ft walls. It was really a game changer in our book, I know it is hard to believe but it really changed how we perceived having a basement would effect us. Now it is on the probability list.

Those friends of ours that just built have 10' basement. That way there's room for utilities below the 1st floor joists and still room for a 9' finished ceiling if they ever decide to finish it.

My dad built a house for his parents back in the 70's and did the same thing. :thumbsup:

 

[Tinstafl]

I am building now and I am building a custom home with a builder as it is 130 miles away. We own he land already but built a barn and that is about 70K pole barn and the concrete was the biggest expense and then building the house. Will end up about 125 to 130 a foot. We did put hardwood floors in the first floor but it is a 2 bedroom house with a basement and a three car garage.

 

[isaaccarlson]

I built a house for a friend and it came out to ~$30/ft. It is petty basic, but is all wood, no drywall anywhere. the walls are covered in car siding and plywood.
The roof is steel. We used a lot of engineered joists. No basement, 2 floors. 2x6 walls inside and out with thick insulation. in floor heat. It is a good house and is very cozy. it feels like summer inside when it is -30 outside. He has a magazine and keeps his stock upstairs, which weighs many tons. No worry about the floor giving out on that house. We built it solid.

 

[shibaura_4043]

Thank you to all who have replied with their experience. I am hopeful I will finish my house close to $50-55 psf. Isaaccarlson I'd like to see pics of the house you built for $30psf, it sounds very encouraging. If and when I get started building I'll be sure to report my progress.

 

[isaaccarlson]

Thank you to all who have replied with their experience. I am hopeful I will finish my house close to $50-55 psf. Isaaccarlson I'd like to see pics of the house you built for $30psf, it sounds very encouraging. If and when I get started building I'll be sure to report my progress.

I will try to get pics soon. I will be going over there this week and will try to remember to get pics. It was built inside an old county shop that was not in good shape. We framed in the house inside of the brick walls that were there and then put a steel roof on it. It is essentially a house inside of a brick shell. The tax guy has no idea what is inside it and is not supposed to know. The year I built it the taxes were less than $100. Not sure if they have gone up yet.

 

[CurlyDave]

One note on a basement, kinda a side track. We are big into modern architecture, and were touring a home last year where the basement felt different.. We could not figure out what it was, but it was light and airy but really no windows to speak of. Asked the owner, he asked us to look up and showed us the 10ft walls. It was really a game changer in our book, I know it is hard to believe but it really changed how we perceived having a basement would effect us. Now it is on the probability list.

In our house, that I designed, the basement floor is 14' lower than the upper (living) floor. We have a drop ceiling at 10' height in the downstairs, and overhead lights like in an office building. The floor joists are 12", so we have 3' above the ceiling, which works out very well for running HVAC, wiring, plumbing, etc. Whenever I need a new wire, just move the drop ceiling panels and put it in.

* * * * *

Recommendation:

Even if you don't want a mortgage on the final house, jump through the hoops to get a construction loan which turns into a mortgage when you are finished. You pay some fees up front, but you pay no interest on the construction loan until you actually draw money against it. This is the cheapest insurance you are ever going to get.

Think about what will happen if you get the house 3/4 built and discover that it really was more expensive than you thought it was going to be. You will be financially depleted and it is very hard to get a loan on a partially built house, whereas it is easier to get a loan on plans even if you are acting as an owner-builder. If you have to sell a 3/4 built house, you are going to take a financial beating like you will not believe. No one will want to buy this from an owner-builder, and you will be lucky to get 1/3 of its cost back after years of trying to sell.

If for some reason you can not convince a bank that you are a good risk as an owner-builder, think long and hard about the whole project. I know they are very conservative, but it may just be that the idea is unrealistic. I suspect that if you have strong enough finances, you will be able to get a loan like I describe. If you end up with a small mortgage on your dream house, that may be disappointing, but it is a lot better than having to sell a partially built house.

* * * * * * *

Second recommendation:

Definitely build and finish the shop/small living quarters first. Working alone will be much slower than a contractor with a crew, and a dry, secure place to store materials, tools, equipment, etc. on the site will be very valuable. Plus you will get a better idea of costs and time involved. Estimate the cost of this building before hand in exactly the same way you estimate the main house. Then keep careful track of the costs, and you will be able to make a much better estimate at completion than when everything is just ideas own paper.

I know this paperwork sounds a lot less exciting than the physical labor of building the main house, but it is more important by far if you are working on a tight budget.

 

[shibaura_4043]

That's very good advice curlydave. I appreciate your input. I pretty much have already decided the shop with living quarters will be priority number one. I will definitely be tracking my expenses closely. I'm pretty **** retentive about budget vs actual costs, I put all of my projects on a spreadsheet( even small projects). Sometimes I wish I didn't care about the numbers as much as I do, I'd probably have a lot less stress.

 

[jk96]

Recommendation:

Even if you don't want a mortgage on the final house, jump through the hoops to get a construction loan which turns into a mortgage when you are finished. You pay some fees up front, but you pay no interest on the construction loan until you actually draw money against it. This is the cheapest insurance you are ever going to get.

Think about what will happen if you get the house 3/4 built and discover that it really was more expensive than you thought it was going to be. You will be financially depleted and it is very hard to get a loan on a partially built house, whereas it is easier to get a loan on plans even if you are acting as an owner-builder. If you have to sell a 3/4 built house, you are going to take a financial beating like you will not believe. No one will want to buy this from an owner-builder, and you will be lucky to get 1/3 of its cost back after years of trying to sell.

If for some reason you can not convince a bank that you are a good risk as an owner-builder, think long and hard about the whole project. I know they are very conservative, but it may just be that the idea is unrealistic. I suspect that if you have strong enough finances, you will be able to get a loan like I describe. If you end up with a small mortgage on your dream house, that may be disappointing, but it is a lot better than having to sell a partially built house.

* * * * * * *

Curly Dave I have a neighbor in a similar situation you described. He started on his home late last fall before getting the financing in place with the idea that he would dry the home in and finish once his construction loan was finalized. Walls went up and no roof all winter long. This last month the roof and windows were installed but everything stopped again before siding. I ran into him last week and asked about the progress. He was finally able to get pre-approved for the construction loan/mortgage however when the bank came out and saw that construction was already well underway they pulled the plug. They would not finance on a property where existing construction was already underway. Now he's trying to at least get the outer shell finished and sealed from the weather.