Home SOLD! - looking to buy or build....
 

so we sold our home of 7yrs ... just closed out last night and now i'm just deliberating on either buying another home OR building a custom one.

Reason for the custom one is that the wife has some 'nice to haves' in a home but everywhere we look we can't seem to find a house that has everything we want.... its either a nice house but crap area...or crap house in nice area...or nice house/shitty bathroom/closet space etc.

just want to get some feedback on building...i hear there are alot of scamming contractors out there....what are the steps I should take?

why not this and reno? less unknowns and hidden expenses.

^^ because the prices for these older homes are still too high.

compared to:

empty LOT: approx $525000
custom built house: approx $350000

So your moving to Abbostford -Chilliwack area and planing on a small 2000sqft home?
:rukidding:

no. 3500sq ft. around panorama ridge. abby/wack is way way way too far.

already found a few lots at the above price point in that area. just gotta do the planning/budgeting on building.

Well I wish you good luck in your endevour, But i think you will be shocked at the expense. Even building flat on Grade with a average of $200-$250 a sqft finished decently is going to cost 800k plus. Land not included.

Now if your building to sell you can cheap out on materials , finishing and appliances and maybe a spend little less per Sq ft.

Good Luck

I agree I did the research in this area for a $250 per sq. ft. gets you the bare basics nothing that i would say would make a custom home or nice to haves. by the time i looked at doing some upgrades in the master bedroom and in the kitchen it was over $350 per sq. ft. and most homes in the panorama area are in the upper 2000 sq. ft to lower 3000 sq. ft. which would put you in the $900,000 just for the home not including the land. i work in the construction industry and i included the deals that i would get from knowing ppl in the industry

if you cant be your own contractor, 200-250/sq ft is getting you the type of finishings you'd find in a 400k townhouse.

I think there is a big price difference between white and brown builders. Manly white builders charging a lot more for similar stuff.

You're $/sqft is out to lunch man... sorry to say. Call some reputable builders and get some quotes.

:facepalm:

You're right. There is a big difference and you get what you pay for... quality builds without cutting corners is much more expensive.

Or it could be just over charging. 900k for 3000 sqft house seems overpriced to me from what I have seen.

I am a commercial banker with a client who is a developer and is building 2 side by side houses at about 3500/sf each. I can tell you his budget is $225/sf for mid level finishings and he figures he is saving $25/sf by building two at once. Genuinely believe the market is paying $275-300/sf to have a reputable builder do a custom for you.

Mark

You think you can build a place for $100 a sq ft?!? :fullofwin:

Take into account the time it takes too..roughly 2 years from purchase to final inspection for me in Vancouver
Ugh so glad this shit is done

As someone who did major renos(over 200k) on their house after they bought it you'd be surprised how much everything can add up, especially if you or your partner have expensive taste.

A rough idea of what i spent on the stuff i can remember
19k on appliances
15k on custom cabinetry(kitchen/2 bathrooms)
1k kitchen backsplash
700 mirror and shower glass
5-6k vinyl flooring
2.3k tile
7k lighting
2k faucets/showers
1.5k door handles
1.7k toilets
600 bath tub
2.6k interior glass railing
3k ikea cabinetry

Nearly 60k of items using a designers discount(25% off most stuff), that doesn't include the costs to have them installed. There were also items like doors, furniture, window upgrades, baseboard trim, paint, and closet organizers that probably put it over 75k. I couldn't imagine 275k buying you the rest(excavation, foundation, wood, drywall, insulation, roof, electrical, heating, plumbing, siding, landscaping, permits, labour). I paid slightly over 1m for my house and the final cost was around 1.3m, got exactly what I wanted and didn't need to pay the 2m+ that new houses are going for in my area. Watch lots of reno shows and it might give you a better idea of what you can do. Also remember that it should be faster than building from scratch, so less time paying your mortgage and rent.

good feedback all.... most likely will go ahead and buy NEW or less than 5yrs old house. budgeting around 1.2mil. ugh.

I often work with people doing custom built house.
Not a single one of them didn't go over budget + months of delay.

<$200/sqft is perfectly do able if you are doing everything basic.
But to be honest, who would just do the most basic stuffs when you are building a custom house...

Most people i know are spending $30K-$100K on just the kitchen, $20K+ on the master ensuite.
A standard pre-fab stairs runs $3-5K, where else a custom ones with glass, metal stringer..etc could be 5-10x that amount

I am just saying, if you are budgeting for $200/sf, don't expect to get your "dream house" with all the styles and finish you like. ($300~ is usually a more realistic figure if you want to built everything to you liking)

Is it overcharging or paying a livable wage to employees which means having to charge more? No but seriously I do estimating and price construction projects for a living working for a what you would consider "white" contractor. I see where the numbers come in when the projects are complete and the margins we work are quite skinny, we typically do pay a lot more for labour and we offer things like benefits which does make it harder to be competitive in certain markets. I'm not saying there aren't brown builders out there that do good work because there are but there a lot more that as said above cut all kinds of corners. Typically speaking our quality of work is better but it does come at a premium.

travelers home warrantee, which is by far he best warrantee provider in the province only has about 1/5th of the EI builders under their coverage. It's not a race thing, it's a matter of claims and quality

As a related question, what additional steps are required before/during the building process so that the finished house includes a legal and self-contained basement suite that can be rented out?

Depends on which jurisdiction you're building entirely.

Vancouver now requires seperate central air, sprinklers, etc.

This is RS where people are cheap as fuk.

For Vancouver, I had to fill in a few extra forms, apply for extra permits, pay fees, etc. Pretty confusing, but my general contractor and his architect managed that aspect for me. The architect was familiar with all the requirements and bylaws.

As for what the basement suite requires, there should be a document on the CoV website that outlines the major requirements (many of them fire-protection related).