How accurate are those "cost to build" estimators?
redheadeddaughter
11 years ago
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texas_cajun
11 years agovirgilcarter
11 years agoRelated Discussions
Newbie...cost to build
Comments (33)@ Posted by DickRNH - Great post! I often wonder why people get so focused on "cost per sq.ft." ... Cost per square foot is at best a terribly crude means of comparing estimates with each other or with expectation for an area. What you want to know (or estimate) is what the bottom line will be and what that includes. Coming up with a good estimate for you to go over takes time, not something done in a half hour of his time. Going over a detailed estimate lets you see what the different parts of the project cost, so you can decide where to trim to save money. " I was wondering how cost/sf could be used in the conversations with the builder we are negotiating with. Our situation All the custom houses in our development are going for about $170/sf-$180/sf. They are mostly larger in square footage than our planned home. But ours is coming in around $200/sf for about 2500 sf. But based on Dick's comments above, we are really going to have to focus on the components & areas that matter the most & prioritize. Since our home is being labeled energy efficient & getting certified as such (vs. the neighbor's which aren't), the high performance components such as hardiplank, foam insulation, tankless water heater, conditioned craw space, high SEER rated HVAC are going to add up. Where we can save of course is leaving out the Wolf range (gasp!) or glazed cabinets (eeek!) - LOL. Only in America can options cause so much headaches....See MoreCost to Build
Comments (15)We are acting as OBs. My bank required a bid from a GC, even though we were not using one. So you may need to check with your bank. We had to turn in his bid, as well as each of the bids from subs, for each part of the project. We didn't have him actually bid out each job to get a precise estimate. He was able to look over the plans and question us about finishes to try and come up with a pretty close estimate. We had already been getting all of our own bids from subs, which is a TON of work, so we were able to plug in a lot of the numbers for him. He was very helpful though. We were genuinely interested in a framing bid from him though, and he didn't mind plugging other numbers in for us to decide which route we wanted to go. It wasn't a turnkey bid though. It was a "consultant" bid. Basically we would pay all the subs, but he would have coordinated everything (using his subs or our own if we had wanted) and we would have paid him x amount for dealing with the headaches. We ultimately decided to go on our own. Your bank may not require that though so I wouldn't even mess with it unless you end up needing it. Getting the bids has been extremely time-consuming, but it hasn't been bad. My advice would be to get organized and create some spreadsheets. I was able to get many of our bids via e-mail, so having a pdf of our completed plans has proven to be invaluable....See MoreHow accurate are Plat lines on GIS maps?
Comments (40)If anyone is still interested in this issue from an old thread, I recently purchased some property and had to parse the survey description and I thought it was interesting. Here is the first sentance (specific references deleted for privacy): "Beginning at a found 3/4" iron rod in concrete 0.1' below grade located at the northwest corner of the herein described parcel and the southwest corner of (name of neighbors) as described in deed book xxx page yy, said iron rod being located on the easterly assumed road bounds of (multiple names of the road), said iron rod being also located S 20°-59'-01"W as referenced to New York State Grid North by 1983 Datum by GPS Observations a distance of 250.34 feet along said road bounds from a found capped iron rod located at the northwest corner of (name of neighbors again) and the southwest corner of (other neighbors names) as described in deed book zzz at page xx and shown on (name of county map) and running;" Then appears the distance and direction to the next survey point. Then there a sequence of similar descriptions , ending with "... to the point of beginning." Very legalese description, but you see that it depends on finding a specific iron rod, the location of which is referred to another iron rod. It also assumes that the referred deed books still exist (some court records have been lost in fires). When I noticed that the Zillow app on my iPhone shows what I guess are plat lines, I tried to locate some of the corners using that data. I could not find all of them, and some I found were off by up to 50 feet. I know that consumer-grade GPS coordinates could be off by that amount, but maybe the plat maps are also off....See MoreEstimated cost to build this plan?
Comments (22)3900 sf under roof. Because every bit of it has to be built, not just heated and cooled space. Average $200 SF for a moderately priced location with moderate specs. $780,000. +- 150K. More expensive specs, or more expensive locations, would be more. There’s places it would be double that. Easily. There’s places it would be 20% less. There’s no place it would be 50% less. It’s too wide, deep, fat hatted, and begabled, to ever be significantly less. Especially with a desire for “upgrades”. And it won’t fit on an average 50’ city lot. Those are too narrow for it. This requires a double city lot, or a larger wider suburban lot. And that is there are no set back requirements. A side load garage requires minimum very tight 30’ turn and back out, and then another 10’ to each side property lines? Plus the 71‘ width? This isn’t a buildable plan for your requirements as you have related your program....See Moreredheadeddaughter
11 years agoOaktown
11 years agoredheadeddaughter
11 years agoOaktown
11 years agoSteph Morris
11 years agoglueblob
11 years agotexas_cajun
11 years agoOaktown
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11 years agoShoe_Here
11 years agosanveann
11 years agoredheadeddaughter
11 years agoOaktown
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11 years agoauroraborelis
11 years agoOaktown
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11 years agoredheadeddaughter
11 years ago
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