When Purchasing Land To Build A Custom Home What Precautionary Steps Should Be TakenHow Do You Find Builders

Posted In: Custom Home Builders

Kina Pereida says...

I haven't read through all the details of all the answers so far, but certainly choice of the LOT/Parcel of land is very important. You should need to know the conditions on that piece of land in EVERY season. I'm not certain what you mean by in the gta?



The land should be dry, if not high. If you're unable to connect with city/county utility services, you should know about wells, and where water might be found on your property.



You should know of any possible easements, or any future construction possibilities in the area, and impact fees. You should know if any new road construction is projected, even 5 to 10 years out. Before any construction happens you should learn what codes and zoning regs. are specific to that area. You should try to get a copy of an abstract. You might want to check Tax figures past and projections.



Certainly you can hire an architect, but Dream House, is a relative term. Not many share exactly the same dream. You should have some general notion of what you want, even scanning dozens, hundreds of other homes, designs, features, etc. I don't see the real benefit to engaging an architect, (just a personal opinion). A custom builder is as capable of building to any specs. you come up with.



I built my first home at 1200 sq. ft. Modest I know, but easy to construct. I chose SUBS to do code work, primariliy for the liability. Elect, and Plumbing can comprise anywhere from 20 to 30 Percent of the cost to build.



Custom contractors are all over, and probably could use the work now. The issue certainly will be that if one does not build in volume, backed by a large corp., it's likely you'll pay more per sq. ft. Obvioulsy that depends on many other factors, such as size, design, materials used, features, etc.



The differences in materials costs is negligible at the moment, so your decision probably won't be made on cost as much as type. If you can get to a turnkey stage in a house for $100 per sq. ft. you're probably getting a good deal.



Costs to prep a lot vary as well, in the basis of the land, and the type of BASE construction dictated in your area. I live in So. Central FL. Not many basements can be found here. Cost to prep might include soil sampling, surveying,grading, lumber cutting, digging for a basement, well drilling, septic tank prep.



Costs of ANYTHING also depend on access to and from the location. Avaliability of materials, even seasonally affected, might weigh on the costs. Hauling heavy equipment beyond what might be normal miles for a contractor, might add to the bill. In building my first house, the land was nearly 1/3 the total end cost.

Steven Wolf

Posted on June 14, 2011