Any contractors on here?

Hunter44 said:
So is the better approach to just take the money we were going to use to pay cash for certain things and put it towards a bigger down payment?
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That would be a question for your builder really.

You MAY find a laid back country boy that has had mostly good experiences with decent people and has no issues with it.

Unfortunately, home builders get burned frequently by folks who don't pay, or try and back out of paying for "reasons"

Let's say you arrange to pay the concrete guy for a foundation. But there's something that you don't like about it or there's something the concrete guy has not done that's up to spec in your mind. And you're trying to get that concrete guy to come and fix the problem. But he refuses to come back out or he feels like he has done the right job and you're just not paying him, so he's not finished doing the entire slab in order to get framing on it. Now you've held up the framing process for the GC and everything gets backed up after that. If it's on the GC then he still has to meet his schedule for you, but now if it's your guy and your responsibility he no longer is obligated to meet your schedule.

There is no right or wrong answer to your question. I'm just throwing out examples that may or may not be beneficial
 
CasterTroy said:
That would be a question for your builder really.

You MAY find a laid back country boy that has had mostly good experiences with decent people and has no issues with it.

Unfortunately, home builders get burned frequently by folks who don't pay, or try and back out of paying for "reasons"

Let's say you arrange to pay the concrete guy for a foundation. But there's something that you don't like about it or there's something the concrete guy has not done that's up to spec in your mind. And you're trying to get that concrete guy to come and fix the problem. But he refuses to come back out or he feels like he has done the right job and you're just not paying him, so he's not finished doing the entire slab in order to get framing on it. Now you've held up the framing process for the GC and everything gets backed up after that. If it's on the GC then he still has to meet his schedule for you, but now if it's your guy and your responsibility he no longer is obligated to meet your schedule.

There is no right or wrong answer to your question. I'm just throwing out examples that may or may not be beneficial
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This.

I fired MY painter halfway through and went with the builders guy, through the builder. My guy was holding up the whole process.
 
Loganwayne said:
I agree with what @CasterTroy . Most wont want to deal with the liability later on. You can ask the contractor to use these subs though. And maybe negotiate the fee on those items separately.

The slab is going to have plumbing in it at a minimum so at least two different crews involved. Which means no matter what the GC Is going to have to do coordination between the two. Would you do your job for free?

Also contractors carry a one year warranty on everything. Most likely (I would) exclude both of those. That's also going to exclude any structural issues that might happen.
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All of this…I make 10-30% on my subs, but is generally the wiggle room I’ll use if someone wants to negotiate (will usually pass on a job that wants to negotiate) or if I miss somewhere on the quote, I’ll carve it out of that fluff. Someone suggests using their own, my GC will explain to them it’ll generally cost them more due to miscommunications/misunderstandings. If the customer still insists, it results in a thanks but no thanks, there’s probably someone out there that will be a better fit for them. I’d say we get a follow up call 90% of the time within 60 days. We’ve really identified the kinds of customers we like dealing with during the initial vetting process…I’m not saying i have to hear ‘I have an open checkbook’…but I generally like hearing ‘get it done, done right, quickly, and I know that’s not cheap’. That $600k job I mentioned will be done inside of 60 days from submitted permits/drawings to move in ready…
 
I've also found most lenders don't like you paying cash for stuff. They want it all tied into the loan. My coworker was in that situation and had to go through 10 different lenders before he found one that would let him pay cash for things.
 
ramjo said:
I think the realistic range is $200‐$250 as a start. The house below looks like a spec house in the Denton area @Hunter44. Says 2100-2600 sq ft. So roughly $180 sq ft with 3 acres. LVP,carpet,vinyl siding and very noticeable sheetrock joints in the ceiling throughout.



GONE are the $100 square foot days to build a house. I just finished a 488 sq ft tiny house and had $150 sq ft in it. (I think it was close to $100 sq ft in matrtials. It allready had the 12x24 section framed with vinyl siding, I added 12x16 to it and finished both sections out.
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ramjo said:
I think the realistic range is $200‐$250 as a start. The house below looks like a spec house in the Denton area @Hunter44. Says 2100-2600 sq ft. So roughly $180 sq ft with 3 acres. LVP,carpet,vinyl siding and very noticeable sheetrock joints in the ceiling throughout.



GONE are the $100 square foot days to build a house. I just finished a 488 sq ft tiny house and had $150 sq ft in it. (I think it was close to $100 sq ft in matrtials. It allready had the 12x24 section framed with vinyl siding, I added 12x16 to it and finished both sections out.


www.zillow.com

3076 Gallimore Dairy Rd, Denton, NC 27239 | Zillow

3076 Gallimore Dairy Rd, Denton NC, is a Single Family home that contains 2496 sq ft and was built in 2024.It contains 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.This home last sold for $459,900 in August 2024. The Zestimate for this Single Family is $467,400, which has increased by $3,000 in the last 30...
www.zillow.com www.zillow.com
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More like $350/sqft in the busier areas of the state. That is building on your own land.
 
CasterTroy said:
Oh that wasn't meant to sound critical of you by any means. More so, I'm old AF and have been in construction for the better part of 40 years. Starting when I was 15 working in the summers with a spec house builder sanding floor seams and doing crown and chair mold for a GC. Hearing him bitch about all the stages of building, subs and customers 🤣
I'm not anywhere smart or brave enough to BE a GC but, Thru osmosis and years of exposure, I figured out how to make the process as painless as possible.
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We know a thing or two because we seen a thing or two.

Or we know how to make it painless because we have inadvertently added pain at every possible opportunity
 
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Hunter44 said:
So is the better approach to just take the money we were going to use to pay cash for certain things and put it towards a bigger down payment? We plan on going through AgSouth Farm Credit in Asheboro for the construction loan since NCSECU doesn’t offer one. If anyone has experience with them I’d like to know as well. Or if anyone has other recommendations.
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I used AgSouth when I bought my land back in ‘18 they were great. Then they merged with another AgLendr based out of GA…and they kinda regressed to the mean. Still good- just not great anymore
 
OnlyOneDR said:
More like $350/sqft in the busier areas of the state. That is building on your own land.
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It's crazy how much this varies. Spec homes around here are going for 180-200 with land. I realize a custom home won't be in that price range, but what is a realistic premium when comparing custom to spec? 15%? 30%? surely not 50-70% unless you just absolutely have to have the best of everything? I'm fine with some lower end finishes now that i can upgrade later, possibly when the kids move out.

I'm just starting to work with a trusted builder, hopefully to build next year but we haven't gotten to the $ part of the conversation yet. Waiting on plans to be finished at the moment. Kinda a bass-ackward process because i don't truly know what i can afford to build, so how do i reasonably get the house designed right the first time?
 
Spence said:
It's crazy how much this varies. Spec homes around here are going for 180-200 with land. I realize a custom home won't be in that price range, but what is a realistic premium when comparing custom to spec? 15%? 30%? surely not 50-70% unless you just absolutely have to have the best of everything? I'm fine with some lower end finishes now that i can upgrade later, possibly when the kids move out.

I'm just starting to work with a trusted builder, hopefully to build next year but we haven't gotten to the $ part of the conversation yet. Waiting on plans to be finished at the moment. Kinda a bass-ackward process because i don't truly know what i can afford to build, so how do i reasonably get the house designed right the first time?
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5yr old perspective. It's all about what you do in the bathrooms and kitchen.
 
Our "custom" home was $130/sqft on our property 18mo ago. We picked an existing floorplan from our builder and made a few changes then picked all the fixtures/finishes/etc. We did opt for some lower cost stuff, like most of our trim is just painted 1x4 or 1x6, but we also went a little more expensive in other areas. In the end we picked what we liked and had things done the way we wanted them done.

Duane
 
Spence said:
It's crazy how much this varies. Spec homes around here are going for 180-200 with land. I realize a custom home won't be in that price range, but what is a realistic premium when comparing custom to spec? 15%? 30%? surely not 50-70% unless you just absolutely have to have the best of everything? I'm fine with some lower end finishes now that i can upgrade later, possibly when the kids move out.

I'm just starting to work with a trusted builder, hopefully to build next year but we haven't gotten to the $ part of the conversation yet. Waiting on plans to be finished at the moment. Kinda a bass-ackward process because i don't truly know what i can afford to build, so how do i reasonably get the house designed right the first time?
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We’re in the same boat basically. We’re hoping 1800sqft doesn’t put us over “budget” per say. We know the max we want to spend on a mortgage payment each month. So we’ll either be good at what we have planned so far or we’ll have to lower the square footage and/or change some of the “fancy” interior/exterior aspects of the house. The only thing financed will be the house.
 
CLRracer said:
Our "custom" home was $130/sqft on our property 18mo ago. We picked an existing floorplan from our builder and made a few changes then picked all the fixtures/finishes/etc. We did opt for some lower cost stuff, like most of our trim is just painted 1x4 or 1x6, but we also went a little more expensive in other areas. In the end we picked what we liked and had things done the way we wanted them done.

Duane
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How so cheap if the going rate is $200-350+? If you don’t mind me asking. Besides the lower cost stuff.
 
Hunter44 said:
How so cheap if the going rate is $200-350+? If you don’t mind me asking. Besides the lower cost stuff.
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You'd have to ask my builder that. We gained some sqft by using some unused space on the second floor, but we just told the man what our budget kinda was and what our must haves were and he did the rest.

Duane
 
Spence said:
It's crazy how much this varies. Spec homes around here are going for 180-200 with land. I realize a custom home won't be in that price range, but what is a realistic premium when comparing custom to spec? 15%? 30%? surely not 50-70% unless you just absolutely have to have the best of everything? I'm fine with some lower end finishes now that i can upgrade later, possibly when the kids move out.

I'm just starting to work with a trusted builder, hopefully to build next year but we haven't gotten to the $ part of the conversation yet. Waiting on plans to be finished at the moment. Kinda a bass-ackward process because i don't truly know what i can afford to build, so how do i reasonably get the house designed right the first time?
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Kitchens, bathrooms, stone/brick.
Appliances can be 5-40,000k
Countertops. 50lf upwards of 300 lf.
Cabinets can be 100lf to.over a grand for full custom.built a lf.
Tile can be 2sf installed 150sf plus
Flooring is the same lvt can be 2 handscrapped wood floors can be 65sf.
Rock and brick is expensive 25sf up to around 80sf.
Electrical. Dimmers add up in cost quick. And fixtures can be expensive.

Take all this with a grain of salt because...
1. I'm in wnc probably one of the most expensive places to built along with the coast.
2. I was building semi custom homes and town house specs. That all were selling for 750+.
3. I'm now building 3-7 mil specs.


More square footage, does not equal more cost "equal cost" per square foot. A nice 1200 sf house and a 2400sf house is all going to have the same "finish expenses" but it's going to be spread over a larger square footage of house. A 1200 sf house could be 350 and the 2400 sf house could be 250-275 sf
 
Hunter44 said:
So is the better approach to just take the money we were going to use to pay cash for certain things and put it towards a bigger down payment? We plan on going through AgSouth Farm Credit in Asheboro for the construction loan since NCSECU doesn’t offer one. If anyone has experience with them I’d like to know as well. Or if anyone has other recommendations.
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I cant comment on all the GC knowledge here. But on this finance question, I can say that more often than not (pending your loan terms) it is **much more beneficial to make a lump sum principal payment than it is to increase the size of your down payment. Deep dive some youtubes on "down payment vs principle payment"
 
Hunter44 said:
Can you PM me his info?
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To add to the conversation, I had a talk with my builder this morning. He said to build my house today would be another 10-15%, so around $145/sqft, and they are quoting most of their new stuff around $170 with their most expensive project in the $230s. So I guess my wife and I have more simple taste than most people lol.

Duane
 
"On Your Own Land" is a trick in itself. I just sat down with another builder today, previously sent over my survey, previous owner's expired septic permit, soils testing results and plot plan, etc. The rep said in all her years of doing home builds (and it sounded like 25+ years) she never had anyone bring this much information to the table at the start of the conversation. Even admitted that the majority of these clients do not own land when they start the conversations with the builder. There are so many costs going into lot prep that drive up that finished cost per square foot. Once you factor in clearing, grading, excavation, well, and septic you are already in for many tens of thousands of dollars and not a single piece of building material has been brought to the site yet. For many folks their entire down payment and then some is eaten up with just the lot prep.
 
OnlyOneDR said:
"On Your Own Land" is a trick in itself. I just sat down with another builder today, previously sent over my survey, previous owner's expired septic permit, soils testing results and plot plan, etc. The rep said in all her years of doing home builds (and it sounded like 25+ years) she never had anyone bring this much information to the table at the start of the conversation. Even admitted that the majority of these clients do not own land when they start the conversations with the builder. There are so many costs going into lot prep that drive up that finished cost per square foot. Once you factor in clearing, grading, excavation, well, and septic you are already in for many tens of thousands of dollars and not a single piece of building material has been brought to the site yet. For many folks their entire down payment and then some is eaten up with just the lot prep.
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Is soils testing something that is required? I’ve got my application submitted to Randolph county for a perk test but that’s it as of now. My only concern is that about 1/4 of our property at the southernmost portion has a >40ppm concentration of naturally occurring arsenic. Assuming this is from the gold mining/drilling that they done decades ago. There is still 2 years left on that contract where they can come dig anytime. But if they strike gold they have to pay us 1.5x property/house value and a royalty on the gold. Think the arsenic could pose an issue?
 
OnlyOneDR said:
There are so many costs going into lot prep that drive up that finished cost per square foot.
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$/sf is a lie, at least as far as the cost of the structure is concerned.
 
I'm hoping to build next year also, we purchased 5 Acres outside Roseboro that was heavily wooded. I did decide to have some of the lot cleared before negotiating with the builder on lot prep. I thought I could save some money that way but I probably didn't. Either way I got to rent a mini-X and burn shit for a whole week :D
 

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