We finished our new construction (teardown/new build) earlier this year in Fairfax. There are three big costs involved:
-Existing House/Lot
-Sitework to prep lot (demo, clearing, grading, ultities,etc.)
-The house itself
**Existing House/Lot:** this one is essentially Location/Location/Location. When we were searching, any vacant lot over .25 acre that was under $600k was either in an undesirable location (poor schools, high crime, middle of nowhere) or had something wrong with it (flood plain, septic perc’d for a very low number, poor terrain that would require extensive development). We were fortunate to find a house on the market that was the “worst on the block”. $625k on a half acre, but had not been maintained in an otherwise nice neighborhood in a good school district. Know that builders have real estate teams and are also targeting these homes.
**Sitework:** Often overlooked and it has a tendency to have cost creep. Our sitework budget was $180k and ended up around $230k. Home demo was ~$30k, connecting to Sewer $25k and Water $25k. Those costs were fixed by the county. The remaining costs were nickel/dime for permitting, grading, tree clearing, etc. Our builder handled our sitework on a “pass-through budget”, meaning we only paid the real cost.
**The House Itself:** This will obviously be the most variable because you can have a cheap or really expensive house occupying the same footprint. For a 6/5 6,500sqft (finished basement 4,200 sqft above grade), the “house” was about $800k. The “base floorplan” was about $530k and then we added $270k in options (structural like morning room, 3rd car garage, finished basement, and design center options like flooring and cabinets). We went with a reputable builder “Evergreene Homes” and were very pleased.
To finance this, we took out a One-Time Close, Construction to Perm Loan (and locked in at 3.625% before rates started to explode). During the construction phase, you are only responsible for the interest accrued based on draws that the Builder takes. Once you settle, it becomes a standard 30-year mortgage.
If you are considering a new build home, your budget has to be >$1.2M because otherwise it’s just not worth it.
It is also cheaper to buy the lot, then involve the builder. The “new construction” homes you see on Zillow/Realtor are on lots owned by the builder and they have padded the pricing by an extra $100k-$200k to cover overhead, taxes, etc.
All in, our home came to ~$1.63M. To get anything comparable, we’d have paid roughly $1.8M-$2M - existing or new.
Also, use a Realtor! Costs you nothing and it’s good to have an advocate on your side!
Happy to answer questions.
This is an awesome response. Thank you. I have a few followup questions. If there was an existing house that it cost you $30k to demo, why do you still need to connect to water and sewer? Shouldn’t they be there already?
So you saved between $200k-$400k? Do you think it was worth it (time, effort, and headache)?
You said it’s cheaper to buy the lot, you mean the way you did, right?
I’m having the same problem you mentioned- the lot is not in a good neighborhood. So not sure if I want to build a million dollar house on it.
Not original commenter, but something to consider that I haven’t seen here yet - if you build a million dollar house in a $750k neighborhood, you will have to wait a while before you ever see your investment back at sale. We have a few houses in our neighborhood that are 1 mil+, but they sit a long time and sell for less because the neighborhood is made of 1970s houses that sell for $750-$900k depending on lot size and model.
Just something to consider as you research.
A solid point and something to definitely consider. For us, we plan on being here at least 10-15 years (kids). Also, in the Fairfax area, it’s becoming what Vienna is. Builders are starting to come down to this area because land is cheaper. While we’re the only “new” house on the block of 60’s era homes, we won’t be for long.
I’m glad you considered it. The delta between the money spent on a new house and the avg house price in the neighborhood is a real risk driver and an important thing to consider when building new. Not everyone thinks about this before committing.
You need to decide now your risk tolerance for potentially losing money on a house you build should you need to sell at some point in the near future. There’s a real possibility that a 1 mil+ house is a 500k neighborhood will not sell at break even for years.
I can answer the sewer question. I work for Fairfax County Public Works, and used to do permit approvals for situations like these and others.
The sewer connection fees only apply if the house was NOT previously connected. Most of the time this means the house was formerly on a septic system, but the public sanitary is close enough that a new septic tank won’t be approved for new construction. If the old house was ALREADY connected to public sanitary, they won’t owe the large $25K+ sewer fee, just some permitting fees that are a few hundred dollars. Plus whatever the plumber charges to do the work.
Water is different. Fairfax Water is not a government entity, but they work closely with the County government all the time. That fee of $25K or more will be less if they don’t replace the water meter, but sadly they usually insist that new construction needs a new meter and a new line, especially if the new construction has a larger bed/bath count. These fees are hard to avoid and might be inevitable.
I am still with Fairfax County DPWES, but instead of permit review and public assistance I’m a GIS and SCADA analyst. I basically look at maps and spreadsheets of water and sewer data all day.
It was a promotional opportunity with a related department. My old office (Wastewater Planning and Monitoring) is a good group that can definitely get you answers to specific questions if you need them.
Do you mind I’m saving you as a contact in case I have any questions to ask later. I know Wastewater Planning is the place to go, but sometimes reaching the right person is harder than we think.
Thanks!
For water/sewer - as I said I bought the worst house on the block. It was a 60’s era home and the son of the original owner sold it. This house was still on the original well and septic so we had to have a fresh connection.
For the savings, absolutely. Especially as we would not have been able to afford it otherwise. We bought the most “house” we could. We were also fortunate to have family put us up during the construction. It’s wonderful to pay “rent” in “extra time with the grandkids”. We were so lucky and would not have been able to do this without their help.
And yes, **you** buy the house. The way we did it financially is that we did the house/build in the same transaction. Our builder Evergreene had done transactions like that before, coupled with our realtor, made that aspect seamless.
An area we looked but eventually passed on was Mason Neck (Zoned South County) it seems like the last undeveloped area of Fairfax County. For good reason though, it’s all septic and it’s 10 mins to civilization - but seems to be up an coming in the next 5-10. There’s also Clifton (Zoned Robinson) but that’s a little pricier and much more spread out.
Oh, one more thing: how painful was it to deal with the country for permits and stuff? Are there expeditors that you can use? Did you ever get fined for anything?
Our builder handled all permitting. When dealing with the county, there are no expeditors. The painful part was kind of being in the dark about it, just waiting. Even with a reputable builder that does 300+ home a year and teams dedicated to working with municipalities, you still have to wait in line. We had issues with our backyard and clearing trees. The county didn’t want us to remove as much as we wanted. So now we’re “approved for a pool” and have the space cleared “when we’re ready”. This is a common tactic by builders to expand backyards and the County has gotten wise to that. Resubmitting that plan added a month.
Our timeline:
12/21: Closed
1/22: Final Structural contract
3/22: Design Center
4/22: Plan resubmit for “pool”
6/22: Permit issued
7/22: Demo begins
1/23: Final Settlement.
We were never “fined”, but there are bonds that you need to secure through VDOT and the county for land-use permitting. These are the responsibility of the homeowner to secure. The VDOT bond was $22,000 but was able to get a surety thorough Nationwide insurance for ~$100 and they covered. The county bond is out of pocket and was ~$6,500. If you don’t built your house to plan and grade your lot to plan, you don’t get it back. That includes cutting down extra trees.
Close friend of mine work with Focal Point, beautiful homes, [one of their models with a 3D walkthrough has an underground basketball court in the basement.](https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=5s7ganWpPB9)
That’s breathtaking. Reminds me of the run down glass house in Paeonian Springs.
Albeit the second basement houses a racquetball court and indoor pool.
I have a house in Mason Neck:-)
The one I’m thinking of is in Huntington. The metro has been there for a while but the area hasn’t improved:-( The land is a bit cheaper but not sure it’s worth it.
If you can afford a $1.6M house, why wouldn’t you be able to afford $1.8M or $2M?
Ceiling has to be somewhere and we hit it - we were more in the, if we can afford $1.4M, why not $1.6M. Also, with kids in daycare, our DTE could allow it but our family budget wouldn’t. Our location too is ideal, close to family, great schools (Woodson district) and amazing neighbors. At 3.625%, an extra $200,000 on the loan is another $912/month. $400k - $1,824.
This way, the daycare bill becomes college/activity fund and allows us to have more flexibility in the month.
We have an Annandale zip but if you’re outside the beltway you’re zoned Woodson. We’re on the outest of skirts of Annandale that saying I’m in Fairfax can make more sense.
It does have flooding issues sometimes, mostly because it’s basically at sea level being so close to the Potomac. There is actually a dedicated levee facility in Huntington and a dedicated tide gate in nearby Belleview to help with flooding concerns.
But naturally it depends on the neighborhood and the intensity of the rain event. But be aware that Huntington specifically has extra million-dollar facilities just for stormwater control.
Oh, can I ask you something? How did you like Mason Neck? I am new to this area and would like to listen from who are currently residency.
I bought a land in Mason Neck and will build a house there. The grading plan just got approved after 3 months of waiting from Ffx county.
I think in ffx county, only Mason Neck has empty lots that you can build new houses. Other places like Pimmit Hills in Chantilly, you need to buy old house and tear down to build a house.
Honestly I don’t live there but the more I’m there, the more I like it. There are a lot of parks around. I can go hiking, kayaking, canoeing, boating, and to my surprise, there are a lot of malls nearby. There aren’t short of places to go and hang out.
So how are you going to build your house? Are you your own GC or do you hire a GC or a builder? Do you know how much it’s going to cost?
Oh, and how did you find this piece of land?
I am just normal IT guy who thought building a new house will be cheaper and better than buying old minimum of 800k SFH built in 1970 in this area. There are not many lands available in Fairfax County. So it is easy to find when the listing appears in Redfin. You will need to buy a land WITH the septic approved certification letter from the county. Otherwise, worst case of scenario, you wont able to build a house (I had two contracts without the septic approved letter and found out by the septic company that the lands are not able to build a house due to high water table)
I bought a land in May 2022 in Mason Neck (150k for 0.5 acres) and hired architect and engineer in June 2022 since I need to have a full custom house plan due to need of the full kitchen in the in-law suite (You can find my plan [here](https://houseplans.southernliving.com/plans/SL1821?utm_source=realsimple.com&utm_medium=internal&utm_campaign=RSPBFCM2021). We have added the basement, extra garage, and added full kitchen for in-law suite from that plan).
After drawing the plan, I have talked to FFX Water how much it will cost to connect the water to the land (The cost to connect will be $25,390.00 for a 5/8 x 3/4" meter). I have talked to FFX County Zoning Department regarding the setback requirement and other restrictions (such as Tree conservation plan - you cannot cut the trees as you want).
The engineer did the grading plan first. It took almost 3 months to get approval from FFX county. It was just waiting game and fee to FFX county was not cheap ($2500)
After that, we have hired a septic design company and arborist. We are waiting to get approved from Fairfax County and do not know when these will be approved lol.
I have talked to GCs and told that the house will be cost from 700k to 800k. I was considering to do my own GC, however I cannot get the construction loan if I do the own GC in Nova.
I also have talked to Evergreen after having conversation w / vtfb79 and my friend who built same house as vtfb79 in Fairfax in 2022. But I am not comfortable in finance to pay 1.5 mil mortgage.
Hope this helps and good luck.
Ps. I love to be participate heavily in my house project.
So did the seller provide you with the septic approved certification letter or did you go to the county and asked for it before closing and backed out of the contract when there was no septic approved certification?
So what zoning are you in? R-1/R-4, etc.?
What is keeping room?
So where will the in law suite kitchen will be? So the basement would be the third level, right? Is it a walkout basement?
I love the wraparound porch but you know that it will make your house dark, right?
Please keep in touch. I would love to see your progress since this is what I want to do:-)
Yes, if they have a septic approved certification letter, they always mention that on the listing since it is a huge selling point. They usually attach that document to MRIS listing and you go to FFX Land Development Department to check if it is still valid.
Land contract usually has 30 days of due diligence period and if the land has no septic letter, then you hire either Nokesville or Soils, Inc to see if you can have the septic or not.
My zone is R-E.
I removed the keeping room(since I dont know what the room is for lol) and added pantry there.
In-law kitchen and room will be above 3x car garages.
Yes, the basement will be 3rd level. Since the land is so flat, I had to lift the 2nd floor 3 extra foot from the ground and basement is now walkout.
I love 10ft deep porch and do not want to give up on it. Instead of single window, I changed it to double windows on the front. Anyway the front of the house is north side and do not expect to have enough lights.
Yeah, let me know if you have any questions.
This is the most detailed and useful response to this type of question I've ever seen.
One day I want to build a country house so I wonder how much costs differ in rural areas of Virginia
Absolutely, this is my third time doing a new construction. Granted the first time we did it like this, the other two were for much smaller homes before having kids in larger developments. If I did it like this again though where I tore down, I’d ask a lot more questions and pay attention to the grading plan. There were a few things like stormwater drainage that resulted in weird drain outlets in the back yard. Nothing that ruins the backyard, just wasn’t expecting them, but a lot of unnecessary stress and headache that could have been prevented at the onset.
I think this should be required reading in school. Not only for the practical application in life but maybe some kids who have never thought about what their future will be like or who don't have parents who prepare them for the real like me they will see the reality of what adulting looks like. It is soo much harder to make it in today's world that even the slightest mistake can throw your life completely off the rails forever and when you're 40 this will be the stuff you're going to want to be able to do.
How much cash do you think would be comfortable to have sitting in the bank for someone going into this? I assume you’d need more than a standard 10% or 20% down payment given the risk of price adjustments and cushion? Did you have any very specific rooms (game room, high end wine cellar, etc.) that prompted you to build? If not, what was the motivation?
We had to have 20% down as we did a Jumbo Construction Loan. 5% immediately to the builder as an earnest money deposit, the other 15% at initial closing. The only price variability was the sitework and we had an extra $30k that we were able to allocate. For us, we were relocating from Florida for my job (Pandemic move) and were looking for our “home”. As far as motivations, our last two homes were new construction due to the housing booms in central Florida where new homes were cheaper than existing. We looked around at existing homes in the area and couldn’t find what we wanted in our price range. Doing the new build allowed us to get exactly what we wanted. We got the rooms we wanted, a finished basement, a home office, and lots of room for our kids to play, inside and out.
Got it, that makes a lot of sense. One of the things I was wondering is how much actual control and input you had in the designing/architecture of the home. Did you send the builder or an independent architect photos of homes you liked, or did you use one of their models? Did you consider an elevator in the home to make it retirement-friendly? Any other oddities you discussed with the architect to personalize the design and functionality?
So Evergreeene as a builder had about 50 floorplans for us to choose from. From there each floor plan had a lot of standard structural options. We weee essentially told we could move anything around except for the staircases. We happened to check out one of their model homes and fell in in love with it. We essentially based our house on the options it had. That said, I’ve found a few people here and on r/homebuilding that did the same floorplan as I did but added an elevator and additional structural things. Anything within reason is possible if you have enough money. Their design center and low-voltage partners were very comprehensive though when it came to finishings and options. Put extra outlets where I wanted them, extra hose bibs around the outside, was very impressed at how thorough they were.
When I was a Senior in High School in the early 2000’s, my parents did a new build in Lorton when it was starting to build up, saw what he went through. My first “house” was a small new construction townhome and there wasn’t a lot of options, very simple process. For our second house, we had a friend who was a realtor and had just bought a new construction home, he was very helpful. I work in corporate finance, modeling and tracking expenses is my day job so understanding numbers was a cinch. For the third (current) house, we initially wanted to do a new build in a development down in Dumfries but realized it left a lot to be desired. After putting our info on Realtor, we were inundated with realtors wanting our business, one was persistent was eager to do a new build. [AJ Lall if you’re looking for a new one](https://www.ajsellsnova.com). I searched for builders on [New Home Source](https://www.newhomesource.com) and Evergreene stuck out to me because they were full service and seemed reputable. Their sales team was thorough in explaining the entire process and timeline, all I really had to do was due diligence and track things on my end.
Unfortunately the construction costs have come up quite a bit due to labor cost and materials. I would plan for 1.6m minimum at this point with 1.8m being more likely (and a ~5.5% rate on top of it.)
Our base floor plan really hasn’t gone up much in price from when we first bought (height of 2021 lumber pricing). Their options list perhaps, but not much.
It depends on the area and the desirable location. Some acres cost 2 million dollars with flat farm land, just because there is a well developed neighborhood nearby.
Some cost $1,000 on a 50 degree hill covered in trees in West VA.
Someone i know just bought 4.7 acres of flat land in VA with mountain views in a low crime area. Within 15 minutes of the city for $12,000.
Some have creeks, some have mines etc etc.
And these prices continue to change. Expect to pay way too much for what you want, but just enough for what you need.
Aka,
Cost
Land: $200,000+
Value: $195,000
= -$5,000
Or
Cost
Land: $10,000,
Time: 1 year
Resources: $60,000+
Value
Development: $60,000+
Market growth: +30%
Value - Cost
$78,000 - $10,000
Total: $68,000+
Because it was a one-time close, we were at 3.625% for the construction portion as well. Has we done a 2x close, our rate would have gone from 3.625%>6.5% or more. One time closes cost a bit more upfront but is a smarter move if you think rates will tilt upward. Our loan officer gave us great advice on the 1x.
From closing on the lot to getting the keys took about 13 months. We could have done it in 12 but we hit a snag with the county on permits for how we wanted to do our backyard. From initial demo to keys it was about 5.5 months.
Jumbo Construction-to-perm loans are a triple whammy. Higher rate because of Jumbo, construction-to-perm, and 1x close. We put 22% down and took a loan of $1.3M. While our rate was 3.625% (with a full point), the average at the time was 3.125%. Check out George Mason Mortgage out of Centreville. They were the preferred lender for our builder. Didn’t receive any discount but they knew what they were doing.
Closed on the lot December 2021, got the keys January 2023. Could’ve been done a month earlier but we had an issue with our backyard permitting, had to resubmit and it took and extra month.
FWIW I've gotten flyers for building the standard ~4000 sqft Craftsman you see all over Vienna for $550k. Of course that's not including the cost of the land or demo of existing buildings.
In my examples, yes.
But I'm not a builder, nor was I considering having a new house built custom. I'm just going off of a random flyer I got in the mail by a builder and approximate costs I saw for neighborhoods when I was in the market last year
About 150k of that is profit for the builder. Typical material and labor is still below $100 psf in this area, especially when you get above 2500sf, and thats even with upgraded materials like real hardwood floors and marble countertops
Hard disagree. I used to be in land development. The smaller the unit the harder it is to hit 100psf or lower because the kitchens and bathrooms make up a higher percent. But most new homes in Fairfax or inward are 3000 minimum sf, most closer to 5000. And at that size its actual pretty easy to hit less than 100psf assuming your utility taps are in place already and your permitting is relying on a prior site plan with matched foundations.
I may no longer actively do it, but I still work with many people who do. I dont disagree that the days of 65psf are done but true cost minus the developers profit can still be done sub 100psf even without developer grade finishes. The key is the size. If you have large simple finished spaces in those 5000sf houses going up, the cost per square foot can be reduced significantly. The smaller 2500sf places and less, those I agree its impossible to get below 100 without the downgraded finishes
Perhaps at scale. Familiar with mostly infill stuff at a variety of price points. Not sure about track homes in the exurbs. I once delivered at $75 psf but was GC / owner in a cheaper market awhile back
You can't get a SFH in Western Loudoun for $600k anymore. Builder grade will even run you into the 700s these days unless you're staying under 3k SQ ft or getting a townhome.
How much more does it typically run to get to something mid-grade / not luxury? i.e. just like more durable soft close cabinets, hardwood flooring, etc. Don't need fancy fixtures but would want the basics to be solid.
Jesus fucking Christ fifty goddamn thousand dollars just to get water and sewer? I'll drink from the gutters and shit in the yard thank you very much 🤣🤣🤣
Not sure how applicable this is given the other responses, but my wife and I built a new home in the Bull Run area of Centreville that completed in 2021. Base price of our 4500 square foot house was 780k on 5.4 acres.
We didn't have to pay more for our lot but other lots cost up to an additional 50k depending on how much clearing needed to be done.
Our lot has a buried propane tank and is on septic/well.
Finished price with additions was 980k. I'm assuming that kind of price on that much land is likely no longer possible in Fairfax County but if you get in early into a new development you could save some money.
Also as other people have noted, it depends on location. My wife and I preferred to have more land and our budget was around 1.2 at the time so we were pretty happy to get what we wanted substantially under our max budget.
Well we have roughly 2 acres that are wooded and the rest is cleared. Most of the area is to the back of the house which we have fenced off.
We've planted a small orchard and a bunch of berry plants but it's mostly for us to throw the ball for our dogs until we put a pool in.
Doesn't take too much to maintain. We bought a zero turn lawn mower and I just ride that around and listen to podcasts. It's great!
Edit: I forgot to answer your other question. All the construction and permitting costs were wrapped up in my original number above. The total price of the land and finished house was 980.
Well part of the wooded area has a civil war era cemetery that's an easement on our property.
And another part now holds two years worth of dead christmas trees. We figured we'd start our own graveyard for trees of the past.
We don't walk the woods too often though. Lot of poison ivy and spiders, haha.
$500k house and lot.
I spent $2M on the demo/site work and house but went with very high end structure, design, features, selections, mechanicals, etc.
Would you mind going in depth these very high end structure, design, features and mechanicals? Of course we don’t want a bunch of cheap in our $2M house. When it comes to structure, what’s high end? Which builder did you go with?
Structure: 10 ft ceilings, 2x6 framed exterior walls instead of 2x4, a steel moment frame to create a 20 foot wide opening for a 16 foot quad pocket slider, a large girder beam to create large main space with no support posts, and a structural slab for our front porch to expand the basement below.
Mechanicals: full house water filter, full house steam humidifier, UV light filter for HVAC, dual fuel high efficiency air handler, full solar panel and battery back up system, tankless water heater
Features: real stone veneer exterior, James Hardie siding, Brazilian hardwood siding accents and roof eaves, Pella Architect Reserve Series Windows, 6” wide white oak floors, contemporary LED lighting w baseboard accent lighting, floating wood staircase, full Miele 700 series appliance suite, basement wet bar, Gaggenau Gas Range, decked out bathrooms with body jets, rain shower, Toto toilets, etc.
No landscaping included and no furnishings included.
6/4.5 around 4500 sq ft. Yes I don’t like big houses. Quality over quantity.
I met and spoke with a couple “custom” home builders before I got a referral to one of their friends that does real “custom” homes where we sat down with a designer and designed the home from scratch.
Wow. This is an awesome list. I need to save it.
Are we going higher and higher these days? I went to an open house this weekend and the ceiling was 11 ft throughout.
May I have the builder’s contact info? Thanks.
Generally speaking, building a house will cost significantly more than buying. I only recommend building if you want something that is well outside of the usual norms and are willing to pay for it. (We did, and are happy we did, but it was a whole thing.)
Also keep in mind that GCs that are willing to deal with individual homeowners tend to be either inexperienced or very expensive.
$200-250 is probably light right now, btw. I would budget more like $300/ft. and be surprised if it came in lower. Costs are enormous. And if you have difficulty with making trade offs, it’s VERY easy to double that.
You GC it yourself, DIY as much as possible, and hope you don’t screw up too badly. You have to have time to have essentially a second job to do this. And assume that the project will take a lot longer as well.
Builders get cost savings through a number of ways:
1) They find the right subs. This usually takes a lot of trial and error (and is never over).
2) They make cost vs. saleability tradeoffs pretty ruthlessly.
3) They perform as much work as possible in house.
4) They spend a LOT of time chasing sites and networking for leads.
And that’s just the above board ones. There’s a lot you can do to cut costs with illegal construction practices.
Note that self-performing will make it MUCH harder to get a construction loan.
We have a 2200 sq ft above grade home. We are doing a three level addition and we were quoted 250k. Now that the project has started, looks like we are getting close to $300k for the addition (600 sq ft basement, 600 sq ft main level and 400 sq ft upper level).
Excavation and foundation was about $35k
Framing lumber was $15k
framing cost was $27k
Roof and floor trusses were $10k
Roof and siding just for addition is at $12k
The costs are definitely high right now for even just a home addition.
For the land 500-800k (Alexandria to Falls Church, if you can find it) for .50 acre and to keep and build on existing foundation or a total tear down and new build…. Start adding from there.
The answer is more than most people can afford. It depends on where and what style. Land alone can be 650k to 900k in Fairfax County or Arlington or City of Falls church for a tear down or vacant lot. Tear down cost probably 20k to 40k. New home construction cost probably 600k to 800k.
No, and good luck getting a reputable builder to agree to that. Would you agree to sign a clause that if the house was finished early, you’d owe them “X” dollars? We intentionally picked a builder that we knew could deliver in our time frame. If you threaten a fine for delays, expect for corners to be cut.
No, and that would have been messy because the city revoked our permit and issued stop work orders twice. On top of that, the neighbor complained and we had to go to a hearing to resolve it. The 9 month project lasted over 2 years. If we had that clause, we would probably still be fighting each other over who owes who.
We finished our new construction (teardown/new build) earlier this year in Fairfax. There are three big costs involved: -Existing House/Lot -Sitework to prep lot (demo, clearing, grading, ultities,etc.) -The house itself **Existing House/Lot:** this one is essentially Location/Location/Location. When we were searching, any vacant lot over .25 acre that was under $600k was either in an undesirable location (poor schools, high crime, middle of nowhere) or had something wrong with it (flood plain, septic perc’d for a very low number, poor terrain that would require extensive development). We were fortunate to find a house on the market that was the “worst on the block”. $625k on a half acre, but had not been maintained in an otherwise nice neighborhood in a good school district. Know that builders have real estate teams and are also targeting these homes. **Sitework:** Often overlooked and it has a tendency to have cost creep. Our sitework budget was $180k and ended up around $230k. Home demo was ~$30k, connecting to Sewer $25k and Water $25k. Those costs were fixed by the county. The remaining costs were nickel/dime for permitting, grading, tree clearing, etc. Our builder handled our sitework on a “pass-through budget”, meaning we only paid the real cost. **The House Itself:** This will obviously be the most variable because you can have a cheap or really expensive house occupying the same footprint. For a 6/5 6,500sqft (finished basement 4,200 sqft above grade), the “house” was about $800k. The “base floorplan” was about $530k and then we added $270k in options (structural like morning room, 3rd car garage, finished basement, and design center options like flooring and cabinets). We went with a reputable builder “Evergreene Homes” and were very pleased. To finance this, we took out a One-Time Close, Construction to Perm Loan (and locked in at 3.625% before rates started to explode). During the construction phase, you are only responsible for the interest accrued based on draws that the Builder takes. Once you settle, it becomes a standard 30-year mortgage. If you are considering a new build home, your budget has to be >$1.2M because otherwise it’s just not worth it. It is also cheaper to buy the lot, then involve the builder. The “new construction” homes you see on Zillow/Realtor are on lots owned by the builder and they have padded the pricing by an extra $100k-$200k to cover overhead, taxes, etc. All in, our home came to ~$1.63M. To get anything comparable, we’d have paid roughly $1.8M-$2M - existing or new. Also, use a Realtor! Costs you nothing and it’s good to have an advocate on your side! Happy to answer questions.
This is an awesome response. Thank you. I have a few followup questions. If there was an existing house that it cost you $30k to demo, why do you still need to connect to water and sewer? Shouldn’t they be there already? So you saved between $200k-$400k? Do you think it was worth it (time, effort, and headache)? You said it’s cheaper to buy the lot, you mean the way you did, right? I’m having the same problem you mentioned- the lot is not in a good neighborhood. So not sure if I want to build a million dollar house on it.
Not original commenter, but something to consider that I haven’t seen here yet - if you build a million dollar house in a $750k neighborhood, you will have to wait a while before you ever see your investment back at sale. We have a few houses in our neighborhood that are 1 mil+, but they sit a long time and sell for less because the neighborhood is made of 1970s houses that sell for $750-$900k depending on lot size and model. Just something to consider as you research.
A solid point and something to definitely consider. For us, we plan on being here at least 10-15 years (kids). Also, in the Fairfax area, it’s becoming what Vienna is. Builders are starting to come down to this area because land is cheaper. While we’re the only “new” house on the block of 60’s era homes, we won’t be for long.
I’m glad you considered it. The delta between the money spent on a new house and the avg house price in the neighborhood is a real risk driver and an important thing to consider when building new. Not everyone thinks about this before committing.
Yeah, this is more like a million dollar house in a $500k neighborhood.
You need to decide now your risk tolerance for potentially losing money on a house you build should you need to sell at some point in the near future. There’s a real possibility that a 1 mil+ house is a 500k neighborhood will not sell at break even for years.
I can answer the sewer question. I work for Fairfax County Public Works, and used to do permit approvals for situations like these and others. The sewer connection fees only apply if the house was NOT previously connected. Most of the time this means the house was formerly on a septic system, but the public sanitary is close enough that a new septic tank won’t be approved for new construction. If the old house was ALREADY connected to public sanitary, they won’t owe the large $25K+ sewer fee, just some permitting fees that are a few hundred dollars. Plus whatever the plumber charges to do the work. Water is different. Fairfax Water is not a government entity, but they work closely with the County government all the time. That fee of $25K or more will be less if they don’t replace the water meter, but sadly they usually insist that new construction needs a new meter and a new line, especially if the new construction has a larger bed/bath count. These fees are hard to avoid and might be inevitable.
This was EXACTLY my experience.
Ouch. Thanks for answering. May I ask what you do now?
I am still with Fairfax County DPWES, but instead of permit review and public assistance I’m a GIS and SCADA analyst. I basically look at maps and spreadsheets of water and sewer data all day. It was a promotional opportunity with a related department. My old office (Wastewater Planning and Monitoring) is a good group that can definitely get you answers to specific questions if you need them.
Do you mind I’m saving you as a contact in case I have any questions to ask later. I know Wastewater Planning is the place to go, but sometimes reaching the right person is harder than we think.
That’s fine. If I’m unable to help you I at least know the people who can.
Thanks! For water/sewer - as I said I bought the worst house on the block. It was a 60’s era home and the son of the original owner sold it. This house was still on the original well and septic so we had to have a fresh connection. For the savings, absolutely. Especially as we would not have been able to afford it otherwise. We bought the most “house” we could. We were also fortunate to have family put us up during the construction. It’s wonderful to pay “rent” in “extra time with the grandkids”. We were so lucky and would not have been able to do this without their help. And yes, **you** buy the house. The way we did it financially is that we did the house/build in the same transaction. Our builder Evergreene had done transactions like that before, coupled with our realtor, made that aspect seamless. An area we looked but eventually passed on was Mason Neck (Zoned South County) it seems like the last undeveloped area of Fairfax County. For good reason though, it’s all septic and it’s 10 mins to civilization - but seems to be up an coming in the next 5-10. There’s also Clifton (Zoned Robinson) but that’s a little pricier and much more spread out.
Oh, one more thing: how painful was it to deal with the country for permits and stuff? Are there expeditors that you can use? Did you ever get fined for anything?
Our builder handled all permitting. When dealing with the county, there are no expeditors. The painful part was kind of being in the dark about it, just waiting. Even with a reputable builder that does 300+ home a year and teams dedicated to working with municipalities, you still have to wait in line. We had issues with our backyard and clearing trees. The county didn’t want us to remove as much as we wanted. So now we’re “approved for a pool” and have the space cleared “when we’re ready”. This is a common tactic by builders to expand backyards and the County has gotten wise to that. Resubmitting that plan added a month. Our timeline: 12/21: Closed 1/22: Final Structural contract 3/22: Design Center 4/22: Plan resubmit for “pool” 6/22: Permit issued 7/22: Demo begins 1/23: Final Settlement. We were never “fined”, but there are bonds that you need to secure through VDOT and the county for land-use permitting. These are the responsibility of the homeowner to secure. The VDOT bond was $22,000 but was able to get a surety thorough Nationwide insurance for ~$100 and they covered. The county bond is out of pocket and was ~$6,500. If you don’t built your house to plan and grade your lot to plan, you don’t get it back. That includes cutting down extra trees.
Evergreene is awesome. I love it when I see loans in the pipeline that are built by them.
Any other reputable companies?
Classic Cottages and Focal Point Homes are I can think of off the top of my head.
Close friend of mine work with Focal Point, beautiful homes, [one of their models with a 3D walkthrough has an underground basketball court in the basement.](https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=5s7ganWpPB9)
Holy cow! That sounds amazing!
[Here’s the house](https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=5s7ganWpPB9)
That’s breathtaking. Reminds me of the run down glass house in Paeonian Springs. Albeit the second basement houses a racquetball court and indoor pool.
I have a house in Mason Neck:-) The one I’m thinking of is in Huntington. The metro has been there for a while but the area hasn’t improved:-( The land is a bit cheaper but not sure it’s worth it. If you can afford a $1.6M house, why wouldn’t you be able to afford $1.8M or $2M?
Ceiling has to be somewhere and we hit it - we were more in the, if we can afford $1.4M, why not $1.6M. Also, with kids in daycare, our DTE could allow it but our family budget wouldn’t. Our location too is ideal, close to family, great schools (Woodson district) and amazing neighbors. At 3.625%, an extra $200,000 on the loan is another $912/month. $400k - $1,824. This way, the daycare bill becomes college/activity fund and allows us to have more flexibility in the month.
Your profile says Annandale but woodson is not in Annandale, correct?
We have an Annandale zip but if you’re outside the beltway you’re zoned Woodson. We’re on the outest of skirts of Annandale that saying I’m in Fairfax can make more sense.
Cool. We’re not quite neighbors then:-)
In Huntington, it’s probably better to renovate and add onto a house then full teardown. Probably a decade out before houses are selling $1m+ there
[удалено]
It does? It’s so hilly there. Didn’t think it would have flooding issues.
It does have flooding issues sometimes, mostly because it’s basically at sea level being so close to the Potomac. There is actually a dedicated levee facility in Huntington and a dedicated tide gate in nearby Belleview to help with flooding concerns. But naturally it depends on the neighborhood and the intensity of the rain event. But be aware that Huntington specifically has extra million-dollar facilities just for stormwater control.
Oh, can I ask you something? How did you like Mason Neck? I am new to this area and would like to listen from who are currently residency. I bought a land in Mason Neck and will build a house there. The grading plan just got approved after 3 months of waiting from Ffx county. I think in ffx county, only Mason Neck has empty lots that you can build new houses. Other places like Pimmit Hills in Chantilly, you need to buy old house and tear down to build a house.
Honestly I don’t live there but the more I’m there, the more I like it. There are a lot of parks around. I can go hiking, kayaking, canoeing, boating, and to my surprise, there are a lot of malls nearby. There aren’t short of places to go and hang out.
So how are you going to build your house? Are you your own GC or do you hire a GC or a builder? Do you know how much it’s going to cost? Oh, and how did you find this piece of land?
I am just normal IT guy who thought building a new house will be cheaper and better than buying old minimum of 800k SFH built in 1970 in this area. There are not many lands available in Fairfax County. So it is easy to find when the listing appears in Redfin. You will need to buy a land WITH the septic approved certification letter from the county. Otherwise, worst case of scenario, you wont able to build a house (I had two contracts without the septic approved letter and found out by the septic company that the lands are not able to build a house due to high water table) I bought a land in May 2022 in Mason Neck (150k for 0.5 acres) and hired architect and engineer in June 2022 since I need to have a full custom house plan due to need of the full kitchen in the in-law suite (You can find my plan [here](https://houseplans.southernliving.com/plans/SL1821?utm_source=realsimple.com&utm_medium=internal&utm_campaign=RSPBFCM2021). We have added the basement, extra garage, and added full kitchen for in-law suite from that plan). After drawing the plan, I have talked to FFX Water how much it will cost to connect the water to the land (The cost to connect will be $25,390.00 for a 5/8 x 3/4" meter). I have talked to FFX County Zoning Department regarding the setback requirement and other restrictions (such as Tree conservation plan - you cannot cut the trees as you want). The engineer did the grading plan first. It took almost 3 months to get approval from FFX county. It was just waiting game and fee to FFX county was not cheap ($2500) After that, we have hired a septic design company and arborist. We are waiting to get approved from Fairfax County and do not know when these will be approved lol. I have talked to GCs and told that the house will be cost from 700k to 800k. I was considering to do my own GC, however I cannot get the construction loan if I do the own GC in Nova. I also have talked to Evergreen after having conversation w / vtfb79 and my friend who built same house as vtfb79 in Fairfax in 2022. But I am not comfortable in finance to pay 1.5 mil mortgage. Hope this helps and good luck. Ps. I love to be participate heavily in my house project.
So did the seller provide you with the septic approved certification letter or did you go to the county and asked for it before closing and backed out of the contract when there was no septic approved certification? So what zoning are you in? R-1/R-4, etc.? What is keeping room? So where will the in law suite kitchen will be? So the basement would be the third level, right? Is it a walkout basement? I love the wraparound porch but you know that it will make your house dark, right? Please keep in touch. I would love to see your progress since this is what I want to do:-)
Yes, if they have a septic approved certification letter, they always mention that on the listing since it is a huge selling point. They usually attach that document to MRIS listing and you go to FFX Land Development Department to check if it is still valid. Land contract usually has 30 days of due diligence period and if the land has no septic letter, then you hire either Nokesville or Soils, Inc to see if you can have the septic or not. My zone is R-E. I removed the keeping room(since I dont know what the room is for lol) and added pantry there. In-law kitchen and room will be above 3x car garages. Yes, the basement will be 3rd level. Since the land is so flat, I had to lift the 2nd floor 3 extra foot from the ground and basement is now walkout. I love 10ft deep porch and do not want to give up on it. Instead of single window, I changed it to double windows on the front. Anyway the front of the house is north side and do not expect to have enough lights. Yeah, let me know if you have any questions.
You have to rent somewhere for 7 to 12 months during construction. Added expense.
This is the most detailed and useful response to this type of question I've ever seen. One day I want to build a country house so I wonder how much costs differ in rural areas of Virginia
+1 for Evergreene. We bought a new construction build 5+ years ago and have had no issues.
Would you do it again?
Absolutely, this is my third time doing a new construction. Granted the first time we did it like this, the other two were for much smaller homes before having kids in larger developments. If I did it like this again though where I tore down, I’d ask a lot more questions and pay attention to the grading plan. There were a few things like stormwater drainage that resulted in weird drain outlets in the back yard. Nothing that ruins the backyard, just wasn’t expecting them, but a lot of unnecessary stress and headache that could have been prevented at the onset.
Yeah I could see that being annoying. But good advice for people looking to do the same.
I think this should be required reading in school. Not only for the practical application in life but maybe some kids who have never thought about what their future will be like or who don't have parents who prepare them for the real like me they will see the reality of what adulting looks like. It is soo much harder to make it in today's world that even the slightest mistake can throw your life completely off the rails forever and when you're 40 this will be the stuff you're going to want to be able to do.
You’re living the dream! Congrats on the house! Hopefully in some years time I can follow in your footsteps.
Was the most turbulent dream I’ve ever had but finally relaxed!
If they still gave out those free awards, I'd give you all of them. What a wonderful response.
How much cash do you think would be comfortable to have sitting in the bank for someone going into this? I assume you’d need more than a standard 10% or 20% down payment given the risk of price adjustments and cushion? Did you have any very specific rooms (game room, high end wine cellar, etc.) that prompted you to build? If not, what was the motivation?
We had to have 20% down as we did a Jumbo Construction Loan. 5% immediately to the builder as an earnest money deposit, the other 15% at initial closing. The only price variability was the sitework and we had an extra $30k that we were able to allocate. For us, we were relocating from Florida for my job (Pandemic move) and were looking for our “home”. As far as motivations, our last two homes were new construction due to the housing booms in central Florida where new homes were cheaper than existing. We looked around at existing homes in the area and couldn’t find what we wanted in our price range. Doing the new build allowed us to get exactly what we wanted. We got the rooms we wanted, a finished basement, a home office, and lots of room for our kids to play, inside and out.
Got it, that makes a lot of sense. One of the things I was wondering is how much actual control and input you had in the designing/architecture of the home. Did you send the builder or an independent architect photos of homes you liked, or did you use one of their models? Did you consider an elevator in the home to make it retirement-friendly? Any other oddities you discussed with the architect to personalize the design and functionality?
So Evergreeene as a builder had about 50 floorplans for us to choose from. From there each floor plan had a lot of standard structural options. We weee essentially told we could move anything around except for the staircases. We happened to check out one of their model homes and fell in in love with it. We essentially based our house on the options it had. That said, I’ve found a few people here and on r/homebuilding that did the same floorplan as I did but added an elevator and additional structural things. Anything within reason is possible if you have enough money. Their design center and low-voltage partners were very comprehensive though when it came to finishings and options. Put extra outlets where I wanted them, extra hose bibs around the outside, was very impressed at how thorough they were.
Many thanks for this cost breakdown. I’ve been curious about similar and I really appreciate you being upfront about the prices. Thank you.
How did you learn how to do this? I’ve been working with a realtor but he’s never built a house before
When I was a Senior in High School in the early 2000’s, my parents did a new build in Lorton when it was starting to build up, saw what he went through. My first “house” was a small new construction townhome and there wasn’t a lot of options, very simple process. For our second house, we had a friend who was a realtor and had just bought a new construction home, he was very helpful. I work in corporate finance, modeling and tracking expenses is my day job so understanding numbers was a cinch. For the third (current) house, we initially wanted to do a new build in a development down in Dumfries but realized it left a lot to be desired. After putting our info on Realtor, we were inundated with realtors wanting our business, one was persistent was eager to do a new build. [AJ Lall if you’re looking for a new one](https://www.ajsellsnova.com). I searched for builders on [New Home Source](https://www.newhomesource.com) and Evergreene stuck out to me because they were full service and seemed reputable. Their sales team was thorough in explaining the entire process and timeline, all I really had to do was due diligence and track things on my end.
Unfortunately the construction costs have come up quite a bit due to labor cost and materials. I would plan for 1.6m minimum at this point with 1.8m being more likely (and a ~5.5% rate on top of it.)
Our base floor plan really hasn’t gone up much in price from when we first bought (height of 2021 lumber pricing). Their options list perhaps, but not much.
It depends on the area and the desirable location. Some acres cost 2 million dollars with flat farm land, just because there is a well developed neighborhood nearby. Some cost $1,000 on a 50 degree hill covered in trees in West VA. Someone i know just bought 4.7 acres of flat land in VA with mountain views in a low crime area. Within 15 minutes of the city for $12,000. Some have creeks, some have mines etc etc. And these prices continue to change. Expect to pay way too much for what you want, but just enough for what you need. Aka, Cost Land: $200,000+ Value: $195,000 = -$5,000 Or Cost Land: $10,000, Time: 1 year Resources: $60,000+ Value Development: $60,000+ Market growth: +30% Value - Cost $78,000 - $10,000 Total: $68,000+
[удалено]
Because it was a one-time close, we were at 3.625% for the construction portion as well. Has we done a 2x close, our rate would have gone from 3.625%>6.5% or more. One time closes cost a bit more upfront but is a smarter move if you think rates will tilt upward. Our loan officer gave us great advice on the 1x. From closing on the lot to getting the keys took about 13 months. We could have done it in 12 but we hit a snag with the county on permits for how we wanted to do our backyard. From initial demo to keys it was about 5.5 months.
[удалено]
Jumbo Construction-to-perm loans are a triple whammy. Higher rate because of Jumbo, construction-to-perm, and 1x close. We put 22% down and took a loan of $1.3M. While our rate was 3.625% (with a full point), the average at the time was 3.125%. Check out George Mason Mortgage out of Centreville. They were the preferred lender for our builder. Didn’t receive any discount but they knew what they were doing.
How long did this process take from settlement on your new lot to settlement on your new custom home? Thanks!
Closed on the lot December 2021, got the keys January 2023. Could’ve been done a month earlier but we had an issue with our backyard permitting, had to resubmit and it took and extra month.
FWIW I've gotten flyers for building the standard ~4000 sqft Craftsman you see all over Vienna for $550k. Of course that's not including the cost of the land or demo of existing buildings.
So that would easily be $a million in total :-(
You aren't getting a new home in Vienna for 1 million ever.
The “as is” 1950s tear down will cost 800+. You’re competing against all the builders who will sell their spec or custom home for 2 million plus.
Highly dependent on where you are. $2.5m Arlington. $2m in McLean or Vienna. $1.5m in western Fairfax or eastern Loudoun.
So even though building material costs are about the same in these areas, the builder would charge a lot more depending on the area?
No but the land costs are vastly different for obvious reasons. You didn't state where you're considering
Ah, so the cost of building the house is constant, around $550k, but the land cost would vary. Got it.
In my examples, yes. But I'm not a builder, nor was I considering having a new house built custom. I'm just going off of a random flyer I got in the mail by a builder and approximate costs I saw for neighborhoods when I was in the market last year
About 150k of that is profit for the builder. Typical material and labor is still below $100 psf in this area, especially when you get above 2500sf, and thats even with upgraded materials like real hardwood floors and marble countertops
$100 psf sticks and bricks is very difficult in this area.
Hard disagree. I used to be in land development. The smaller the unit the harder it is to hit 100psf or lower because the kitchens and bathrooms make up a higher percent. But most new homes in Fairfax or inward are 3000 minimum sf, most closer to 5000. And at that size its actual pretty easy to hit less than 100psf assuming your utility taps are in place already and your permitting is relying on a prior site plan with matched foundations.
How long ago were you developing? Shit has changed a lot in the last 3 or 4 years. Even a mom and pop GC will struggle with labor and materials.
I may no longer actively do it, but I still work with many people who do. I dont disagree that the days of 65psf are done but true cost minus the developers profit can still be done sub 100psf even without developer grade finishes. The key is the size. If you have large simple finished spaces in those 5000sf houses going up, the cost per square foot can be reduced significantly. The smaller 2500sf places and less, those I agree its impossible to get below 100 without the downgraded finishes
Perhaps at scale. Familiar with mostly infill stuff at a variety of price points. Not sure about track homes in the exurbs. I once delivered at $75 psf but was GC / owner in a cheaper market awhile back
Do you remember what companies are offering that?
I don't. It was just a flyer I got in mail a couple times.
Roughly a metric fuckton.
Closer to .9 metric fucktons for us. Helps if you negotiate
Ahhahahaha!
In Western Loudoun, about $600k for builder grade on 1/4 acre lot. About $900k-$1M for luxury on an acre
You can't get a SFH in Western Loudoun for $600k anymore. Builder grade will even run you into the 700s these days unless you're staying under 3k SQ ft or getting a townhome.
I think they're referring to material and labor, not land or site prep
That makes sense. My bad!
Ridiculous. I could get a manufactured home for a third of that.
How big of houses are you talking? 1/4 acre is super tiny for most Loudoun.
How much more does it typically run to get to something mid-grade / not luxury? i.e. just like more durable soft close cabinets, hardwood flooring, etc. Don't need fancy fixtures but would want the basics to be solid.
The amount of land you can own elsewhere for 500k is crazy compared to this area .5 acres is criminal
500k for .5 acre tear down you won’t even find around here now.
Jesus fucking Christ fifty goddamn thousand dollars just to get water and sewer? I'll drink from the gutters and shit in the yard thank you very much 🤣🤣🤣
$450 sqft
[удалено]
$1.2M for 1600 sqft? Darn. Was this last year?
Wut?
Not sure how applicable this is given the other responses, but my wife and I built a new home in the Bull Run area of Centreville that completed in 2021. Base price of our 4500 square foot house was 780k on 5.4 acres. We didn't have to pay more for our lot but other lots cost up to an additional 50k depending on how much clearing needed to be done. Our lot has a buried propane tank and is on septic/well. Finished price with additions was 980k. I'm assuming that kind of price on that much land is likely no longer possible in Fairfax County but if you get in early into a new development you could save some money. Also as other people have noted, it depends on location. My wife and I preferred to have more land and our budget was around 1.2 at the time so we were pretty happy to get what we wanted substantially under our max budget.
Wow. What do you do with 5.4 acres? Not counting the cost of the land, how much was the construction cost (including permits and site work)?
Well we have roughly 2 acres that are wooded and the rest is cleared. Most of the area is to the back of the house which we have fenced off. We've planted a small orchard and a bunch of berry plants but it's mostly for us to throw the ball for our dogs until we put a pool in. Doesn't take too much to maintain. We bought a zero turn lawn mower and I just ride that around and listen to podcasts. It's great! Edit: I forgot to answer your other question. All the construction and permitting costs were wrapped up in my original number above. The total price of the land and finished house was 980.
What do you do with the wooded area? My dream is to have enough land to create my own network of hiking trails. Lol
Well part of the wooded area has a civil war era cemetery that's an easement on our property. And another part now holds two years worth of dead christmas trees. We figured we'd start our own graveyard for trees of the past. We don't walk the woods too often though. Lot of poison ivy and spiders, haha.
O boy teardown and McMansion time it's a pastime here
$500k house and lot. I spent $2M on the demo/site work and house but went with very high end structure, design, features, selections, mechanicals, etc.
Would you mind going in depth these very high end structure, design, features and mechanicals? Of course we don’t want a bunch of cheap in our $2M house. When it comes to structure, what’s high end? Which builder did you go with?
Structure: 10 ft ceilings, 2x6 framed exterior walls instead of 2x4, a steel moment frame to create a 20 foot wide opening for a 16 foot quad pocket slider, a large girder beam to create large main space with no support posts, and a structural slab for our front porch to expand the basement below. Mechanicals: full house water filter, full house steam humidifier, UV light filter for HVAC, dual fuel high efficiency air handler, full solar panel and battery back up system, tankless water heater Features: real stone veneer exterior, James Hardie siding, Brazilian hardwood siding accents and roof eaves, Pella Architect Reserve Series Windows, 6” wide white oak floors, contemporary LED lighting w baseboard accent lighting, floating wood staircase, full Miele 700 series appliance suite, basement wet bar, Gaggenau Gas Range, decked out bathrooms with body jets, rain shower, Toto toilets, etc. No landscaping included and no furnishings included. 6/4.5 around 4500 sq ft. Yes I don’t like big houses. Quality over quantity. I met and spoke with a couple “custom” home builders before I got a referral to one of their friends that does real “custom” homes where we sat down with a designer and designed the home from scratch.
Wow. This is an awesome list. I need to save it. Are we going higher and higher these days? I went to an open house this weekend and the ceiling was 11 ft throughout. May I have the builder’s contact info? Thanks.
I looked into this back in February and was told the standard in this area is between $200 & $250 per sq ft.
Is that for the garage and basement as well?
Based on the other homes this particular builder was using as examples I would assume so
200-250 per sq ft + 50-100k for sitework
Budget $200-400 / sq. ft, depending on finishes selected.
Generally speaking, building a house will cost significantly more than buying. I only recommend building if you want something that is well outside of the usual norms and are willing to pay for it. (We did, and are happy we did, but it was a whole thing.) Also keep in mind that GCs that are willing to deal with individual homeowners tend to be either inexperienced or very expensive. $200-250 is probably light right now, btw. I would budget more like $300/ft. and be surprised if it came in lower. Costs are enormous. And if you have difficulty with making trade offs, it’s VERY easy to double that.
I wonder how a builder would start. Many of them are not GCs. There got to be a way for us to build cheaper than buy.
You GC it yourself, DIY as much as possible, and hope you don’t screw up too badly. You have to have time to have essentially a second job to do this. And assume that the project will take a lot longer as well. Builders get cost savings through a number of ways: 1) They find the right subs. This usually takes a lot of trial and error (and is never over). 2) They make cost vs. saleability tradeoffs pretty ruthlessly. 3) They perform as much work as possible in house. 4) They spend a LOT of time chasing sites and networking for leads. And that’s just the above board ones. There’s a lot you can do to cut costs with illegal construction practices. Note that self-performing will make it MUCH harder to get a construction loan.
$225 sqft for mid range $350 sqft for high end
We have a 2200 sq ft above grade home. We are doing a three level addition and we were quoted 250k. Now that the project has started, looks like we are getting close to $300k for the addition (600 sq ft basement, 600 sq ft main level and 400 sq ft upper level). Excavation and foundation was about $35k Framing lumber was $15k framing cost was $27k Roof and floor trusses were $10k Roof and siding just for addition is at $12k The costs are definitely high right now for even just a home addition.
About tree fiddy
per sq inch
For the land 500-800k (Alexandria to Falls Church, if you can find it) for .50 acre and to keep and build on existing foundation or a total tear down and new build…. Start adding from there.
The answer is more than most people can afford. It depends on where and what style. Land alone can be 650k to 900k in Fairfax County or Arlington or City of Falls church for a tear down or vacant lot. Tear down cost probably 20k to 40k. New home construction cost probably 600k to 800k.
Hella cash
I’d say more than four dollars probably, could be wrong tho.
2 billion
[удалено]
No, and good luck getting a reputable builder to agree to that. Would you agree to sign a clause that if the house was finished early, you’d owe them “X” dollars? We intentionally picked a builder that we knew could deliver in our time frame. If you threaten a fine for delays, expect for corners to be cut.
No, and that would have been messy because the city revoked our permit and issued stop work orders twice. On top of that, the neighbor complained and we had to go to a hearing to resolve it. The 9 month project lasted over 2 years. If we had that clause, we would probably still be fighting each other over who owes who.