Beware of one thing when dealing with a bank and doing a teardown - unless you make it very clear to the bank that you intend to tear the house down, they will end up being very concerned when it starts to come down. We recently had a situation where we bought a house and took out a mortgage for only about 50% of the bank-appraised value. We bought the house because it was a fixer-upper and we wanted to tear it down and rebuild. It was in very bad condition, and everyone else looking at it during the time we were making an offer on it felt the same way...there's no way someone could have lived in the house for long without fixing it up. We even told our mortgage contact at the bank that we were planning to tear it down and rebuild (with our own cash not a construction loan). He seemed supportive and commented many times on what a great lot it was and how nice it would be when the house was "done." So, it was clear to everyone involved that it was planned to be a teardown. Long story short(er!) - we bought the house in Sept, and in January, when we had our completed architectural drawings, structural drawings, had received building permits and were ready to start demolition, one of the final items on my list was to obtain "course of construction" insurance, which takes the place of homeowner's insurance when you are dealing with a construction/teardown project. In the process of signing the insurance documents, I noticed that the insurance company wanted to know if the bank should be listed as an additional payee in the case of a claim. I called the bank to ask if they're typically listed on a course of construction insurance, and after speaking with a few different representatives (none of who knew anything!), I was transferred to the office of the VP of Risk Management (or something like that)...anyway, someone on her staff almost had a fit when they heard that we were about to tear the house down. She kept saying that our house is the "bank's collateral" and not ours to do what we wanted with and that we could not proceed until we had the appropriate bank approvals, etc, etc. Keep in mind that we were not asking for the bank to pay for the construction, we are paying for the construction in cash, and we had an appraisal (done by the bank's OWN appraiser!) that was completed in September which showed the value of the entire property to be $1,100,000; they even broke this down between the lot value (approx $950,000) and the house value (approx $150,000). We have a mortgage for $500,000 so obviously, even in a worst case scenario, if the house was torn down and never rebuilt, the bank has FAR more collateral in the land than they ever had in the rickety old decrepit scary house!! Still, this person INSISTED that she had to go to some sort of approval committee and get approvals before we had a demo truck even enter the property. My husband and I were furious (although also somewhat bemused by this bizarre lack of logic and ridiculousness) and we spoke with several others at the bank who listened to our story and believed us when we told them that we had been very clear with the mortgage person during our loan approval process, telling him all the time that we were buying a "teardown"!! Our point was that, if there were further approvals necessary, he should have told us about them up front. Finally, we had a senior VP reluctantly agree with us but we are still being hounded by this VP of Risk Mgmt who is still insisting that we need to forward her a copy of our contract with our builder, our approved architectural/structural plans and all kinds of other info! At this point, we're ignoring her (because we have the approval of the senior VP), and construction has started, but this has been a big pain and total surprise. I'm telling you this long story because it just illustrates how crazy and upside-down the banks are these days and how their underwriting/loan approval processes have gone wildly from one end of the spectrum (super wide open) to the other (absurdly tight). My husband and I are the perfect clients for them - we have stellar FICO scores, have a longstanding history of repaying all our prior mortgages (two of which were with them), and MOST importantly, the bank has MORE than enough collateral in our current property to cover it all even if we never paid another dime!! So, I'm sorry to say it, but like others have basically said, I would be surprised if you get a construction loan with your current situation, and IF you decided to and could somehow do it on a line of credit or home equity situation, BEWARE that the bank will have a fit if/when they find out that you're tearing your house (otherwise known as the bank's collateral) down. Sorry, I don't mean to be a bummer about all this but it's best to go into it with eyes wide open and know the current lending/housing environment. Whatever you do, best of luck!!

weed30, this is exactly what we did! We still had an existing mortgage on the old property, but even torn down, the land our old house was on was worth more than our outstanding mortgage. Our bank was AWESOME working with us on our construction mortgage and we are only a couple weeks out from being done. Basically, what was involved was opening a line of credit and getting an initial appraisal (the bank does this). Then we got pre-approved for the new mortgage, and the old mortgage is rolled over into the new one. We used our line of credit to pay sub-trades (my DH was GC) and the appraiser comes out at 4 separate stages during your build. He assesses your completion rate and the bank forwards however much money that represents from your total approved mortgage to your Trustee. You then pay off the line of credit, usually with some left over, and you start over again until the next appraisal period. It's been a very easy process, so I hope you go for it! Lora

It will all depend on builder. Because builder could make it expansive or cheap. Do not pay $100/sq ft! Is your foundation good, does it need waterproofing, drainage tile, sump? We are in the similar situation our house got severely damaged by tornado, policy has code upgrades, etc. However nasty insurance company determined to cheat us on every corner. They know with severe damage most would not want flooded house, so they would write bad checks that does not include estimate, causing bank to withhold payment; they refusing to pay for flooded fireplace, refused to pay for 3" moldings, stain grade, stain doors, baseboards, damaged sheathing, 12" wavy cedar siding, flooded water heater, furnace, etc etc etc. And this is one of the largest insurer on the deluxe policy. What I learned cost of structure removal is 2,3,4 rule: 2 * sq ft first floor + 3 * sq ft second floor + 4 * third floor. Permitting in my area $800. Staking lot is $600, excavation is $1.10 * sq ft ( for 8' or 9' basement ). Dumpster 2 x xxx. To be honest cost of renovation seems much higher to me than new construction, and idea of avoiding led + asbestos + mold sound pretty good to me. However custom builders in my area suck. Right now prices of plywood and drywall doubled, drywall already came down, however plywood still pricy. It will fall in the next few month. DO your math and research. Call building department, call utilities. See what those costs are. Is your house well flows, in addition I can offer you an advice. If you renovate cost of the house stays nearly the same, if you build ... If your house gets damaged by hurricane: insurance will depreciate nearly everything to the year house was built. Believe me. And it could be 50% - 66% - 77% of actual cash value. Brian

Other important considerations: (1) How much of the $1.1 million value is equity, and how much is mortgaged? (2) How would you be paying for the new construction -- loan or out of pocket? (If by loan, I would seriously reconsider doing anything so drastic right now.) (3) Is your home charming? Does it have character or just blech? Charm can go a long way to making a home saleable (4)What will doing a tear down and new construction home do to your property taxes? In my part of California, a complete tear down (as opposed to remodel of an existing structure) will result in a supplemental tax and then a permanently higher tax assessment based on "new home" value, but a remodel will not. (5) Would a new home look out of place in your older neighborhood? (6) Would you be expanding up or out? (If expanding would cause you to lose too much of your yard, it won't necessarily help your resale -- people who buy those older homes on big lots are often young families looking for a house with a yard for kids to play in.) (7) If expanding up, what are the single-family residential height restrictions in your area? Will your new house interfere with views that have been long enjoyed by your neighbors/friends (will rebuilding cause a rift in your neighborhood circle -- this can be devastating and really ruin the enjoyment). Just a few things to ponder.