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Anthony, you worked in the trade.
You KNOW, that whatever your estimated/quoted materials and labor cost is………..you will need to bump it by 15-20% at the end of the day.
Aaaaand add at least 30 days to the estimated completion date.

The only possible way around this is for YOU to be HEAVILY involved in almost aspects of the project.

Trust but verify, right?

Multiple that by spades when dealing family, or deciding not to.

So after the initial shock wore off I did a little digging. It seems the $210 per foot plus lot a specific subdivision he mentioned is a bit off. I found a house for sale in that neighborhood. Sale price for a 2,003 sqft home which includes the lot works out to $203 a sqft. When you back out say $60k for the lot it works out to $173 and change per sqft for the house alone. If find it hard to believe anyone who has the wherewithal to finance a $475,000 home is gonna sign papers to be $75,000 upside down the day he closes on his mortgage. He’d have to put $175,000 down just to avoid a $400 a month PMI charge to escrow.

Now it seems the $165 per sqft I originally budgeted to build the house is only about $8 off the mark. I had figured $75k for the lot but in a different neighborhood so my original estimate was pretty close. Cost per sqft to build will be the same in either neighborhood since the houses or substantially the same style.

I’ve got a call into a realtor I’ve been best friends with since we were 13 yoa. I want her to do a little sleuthing so I can find out the sale price of the lot. Then I’ll have a better idea of actual building costs. Once I’m able to figure that out I’ll see if I need to rethink my choice of contractor.

Yeah, pretty sure I would not want to build a spec house from the ground up these days.
I’d rather find an existing home where I wanted to live, and then do remodeling to suit my needs.

Neither would I. I’m looking at building a 2,800+ sqft custom designed 3 or 4 BR 2 BA home with a huge master suite and family areas in a neighborhood that’s above the flood plain that invited in 4 feet of water during 10/2016.

Like I said earlier I’ve been involved in residential home construction since I was about 14 years old. I’m just starting to do my homework. I knew I was pretty close. At the end of the day houses won’t sale if they are significantly higher than similar older houses on the same road. The appraisals will be too low so lenders require larger down payments. When they do buyers start asking difficult questions.

Totally get it.

The only reason I’m considering this is because home prices where I live have been on a steady upward trend for as long as I can remember. Even when the bubble burst it was but a tiny blip in the radar there. At the pace it been going a $600k home will be worth $1M in 10 years.