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Building a Home

Purchasing a land and building a home

16 years ago

Hi guys just wanted to say hello and introduce myself to the forum. I live in Vancouver Canada. I am in the process of purchasing a land and building my home. I would like to get some information as what is going to be involved in the process of building a home from scratch. I would appreciate if someone could help with the steps it will take to build a home. Thanks in advance. :)

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Comments (3)

ajpl
16 years ago
Someone else will be better able to hlep you than me but I wanted to say hi to another Canadian. I'm on the other coast.
sierraeast
16 years ago
I think your first step would be to find out all the requirements concerning both the land as well as the build from your local jurisdiction of building. Get to know codes that are used. This would entail a trip to your local building dept. Here in the states codes vary from state to state and in states county to county to city, etc, but most states are starting to recognize the international building codes as their guidelines.

ownerbuilder.com might educate you on the steps as well as many other sites. Research and get educated, but generalizations from this forum will only give you an idea, you need to dig for all the info you can get before you even think of a floorplan as there are many variables right from the start, long before breaking ground.

There are many talents here that can help you w/ floorplan layuot, technical advise, dealing w/ subs and suppliers, etc., but you need to get the skinny on what is required in your neck of the woods as it varies in different areas. Educate yourself on the building process buy searching the web and obtaining books. Tauton books and amazon.com are good sources for literature.
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The one thing I would add is don't let anyone (realtor, builder, brother-in-law) tell you that a lot is 'OK'. It's very important to do as much of your own due diligence as you can when considering your future home. We were once showed a home across the street from a sewage treatment plant. It was an ideal location for us, being very close to our son's school. We were assured by the realtor that there was 'no odor problem'. Over the next 11 years, we had the opportunity to drive by that neighborhood every day as we brought our son to school. It reeked! Outdoor activities would have been impossible many days. The realtor either didn't know, or outright lied to us. There are many tools available to check out the neighborhood. Many areas have a GIS site (Geographic Information System) to check things like flood zones, topography, crime stats, even soil types. You can zoom out to find out what else is in the area, such as a hog farm you didn't know existed. It's not a bad idea to check with the local city/county to see what kind of future plans they have for the area. You don't want to find out about the new Interstate or airport after you've built your dream home. Maybe I'm paranoid, but I never consider a parcel unless it has a current 'perk' (percolation) test for a septic system. There are work-arounds, but they are expensive, and sometimes downright ugly. Who wants a mound system in the front yard (because there wasn't room in the back)? If the lot is on city sewer, then it's not a consideration.
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It’s not the appraised value of each individual piece. It’s the appraised value of the project as a whole. It does not matter at all what the lot costs, or the constructions costs are. Costs are irrelevant to how much the bank could sell the house for if you defaulted. That is all anyone giving you a loan cares about: the value of the collateral. If you want to build a 1M house on a lot that you paid 1M for, but the surrounding area is trailer park central, and the lender thinks the whole project would sell for 500K, if you were lucky, then you are gonna need to bring 1.6M to the table to make it happen. Buying two lots only makes the end value worse. Larger lots do not appraise gor very much more over smaller lots.
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If you are still wondering "where is the money that I spent on the land factored in?" then lets pretend you didn't own the land already. Total cost to build is the construction cost plus the land cost. So the total cost is $785,000 + $112,000 = $897,000 Appraisal after the fact is still $875,000 so the bank will loan you $700,000. You need to come up with the difference between $700k and $897k which is $197k. The basic concept to grasp is that the cost to build is not necessarily equal to the value after it's built. Someone could design a really stupidly designed house that cost 2 million dollars to build, but the resale value after it's done is only $500k because nobody else would want the house. The bank isn't going to lend you anywhere near the 2 million to build that house because that would be a horrible investment. You'd like to think that the cost to build and the value after is similar, but a lot of variables play into it. One factor that is playing against you is that you took two buildable lots and made them into one. That lowered the value right there.
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radeon888
16 years ago
Hey, ctctct

Im in Burnaby, I have done the same, in the planning and design stages, have learnt a lot about building in our locak market, there is a lot to learn about and a lot of variance regarding building. Send me an email: radeon888@gmail.com and
maybe we can exchange information. Its been up and down so far and I havent even applied for a permit yet. Lots of BS builders out to be weary of.

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