How much does it cost to build a home, really

What does it cost to build a home ?

Uh People ask that question all day long .

How much does it really cost to build a home ?

Well , there are a few things you need to do before you , you , you can even get to that level .

You have to find a piece of land and you have to know exactly where the costs are involved in that land .

A lot of owner builders and a lot of newbies in the area of building their own home , uh buy land in the dark , they buy it completely blind , they don't know what's underneath the soil .

They don't know how uh what the costs of excavation are going to be .

They just buy it because it's cheap .

There's some danger with regard to that .

I've got a free home site selection checklist that allows you to go through checklist items to make sure that you're seeing what you need to see .

One of those happens to be a soils test if you are purchasing a home site and you haven't , you're in the negotiation process , make sure you ask for a soils test as part of the purchase price because it's part of your due diligence .

Well , you can't go and invest $1500 or even $2500 on a soils test prior to , uh , purchasing it because you're now investing value in that , in that property .

That should really be something that the seller should offer you something .

Otherwise you're too , you're in the dark , too much .

Unless you really , really know the soil .

Unless you really , really know what that area is .

Don't buy a piece of land in the dark .

Know what's under that soil .

That's a big , big , big , big issue .

You could buy some land that's gonna require a six ft over excavation with one ft compaction tests and a test at every foot level .

That , that's huge .

That could be , you know , 2030 $40,000 in excavation costs based upon the market in , in what you're you're building .

Don't buy land in the dark , negotiate your soils test as part of the purchase price if you can or ask for it .

A lot of the times the seller has those soil tests ask for those .

That's a key key factor .

The next one is , is once you've got your land purchased , make sure all your fees are taken care of .

A lot of uh owner builders buy land in the dark and they don't know that the water meter hasn't been paid or the water fee hasn't been paid or the irrigation fee hasn't been paid or that there really isn't power or gas or , or , or any even low voltage access to that parcel .

Know what these things are , know where they are .

And that will really tell you and uh some costs in bringing those utilities to the home .

I could really talk forever on that , but I just wanted to keep you in mind that your land cost shouldn't be purchased in the dark .

If it is , you really will never know what the cost of the home is going to be .

Know those costs up front .

Second of all , is your architectural plans ?

I see a lot of owner builders making the mistake of just downloading uh uh a floor plan and sending it out to people and saying , hey , what would it cost to build this , this home ?

Your , your lumber package can't be taken off of that .

Your framer can't deal with that .

There really is no electrical plan with regard to that everyone's in the dark and anyone who bids on something that's based upon a floor plan only , they're telling you a lie because they can't accurately predict what the cost is off of that uh , printout that you gave them there , there's nothing to scale and they're just going to give you a wild number and they're gonna see if you're gonna like it and see if it sticks like uh a piece of gum that's half chewed , just , just gonna throw it and see if it will stick very , very dangerous .

Don't do that .

Make sure you have your plans properly designed by a good , um , drafts person or an architect go that distance .

Have your plot plan and on your plot plan , make sure you know your power , your gas , your water where the septics is gonna be uh big , big issues .

If you're gonna have a septic tank that requires a whole another perk test and a whole another , uh I can do some leg work finding out what these costs are .

Uh , the last thing is , is to have your engineered , your plans engineered both architecturally and drafted with your electrical plan and everything plotted on the plot plan , knowing exactly where it's gonna sit your driveway , et cetera to scale .

So people can properly bid and estimate off of that .

Then your engineer plans actually help two people .

Very , very importantly , your concrete and your framers , they can't , they don't build off your architectural , they build off your engineer plans .

Do not assume that your , your framer is an engineer , a lot of uh jurisdictions , especially county jurisdictions do not require engineered plants .

Very dangerous , very dangerous .

And I'm seeing people build all the time without engineered plans .

And then you think your framer is gonna know what to do and you're gonna think that your um , uh concrete person or your foundation person is gonna build it properly , uh , per the soils , per everything else that's there locally .

You have to go through that process once you have your engineer plans , your architectural plans and your soils and everything lined out and you know what those costs to get those things are .

Now , you can bid out your home .

A lot of people don't like that because we're talking an investment , that's a few $1000 several $1000 for some uh around 10,000 .

It could be as low as 6000 if you know what to , how to shop and you have some good people to have a good price locally go that distance .

Don't assume you can get a good price per square foot without having gone that distance .

This is so important on knowing what a proper uh bid process is going to be .

And if a builder tells you what they can build for without that stuff , that person is lying to you , that person's using bait and switch to pull you into a system , get you locked into a contract and then you're stuck .

Don't do that .

This is Keith Kels on how to build your own home .

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Thank you .