Ground-up residential development, often called spec building, means constructing a new home on vacant land with the intention of selling it, on speculation that a buyer will materialize at a profitable price.
Log in to followTwice this year I've been asked to frame for builders doing one-off spec houses, and my crew is small. Both times I said no because my guys were booked, and both times the builder…
I've been pricing a couple of vacant lots and every builder I talk to quotes a different cost per square foot for what sounds like the same house. One said 145, one said 190, and…
There's a cleared lot two streets over from a subdivision that finished last year. Asking 78k, flat, water and sewer in the street per the listing. I've never built anything. I've…
Same plan set, same builder, same submarket, three houses in fourteen months. 1,850 square feet each. House one: 158 a foot hard cost. House two: 166. House three, quoted last wee…
I've got a list of four lots I'm watching and I've been reading about the owner-builder permit. The way I understood it, if I own the land I can pull the permit myself and hire su…
Numbers first because otherwise this is just complaining. House A: 2,100 sf, framed and dried in as of three weeks ago. Lot cost 95k, hard cost budget 312k, spent 218k to date. Co…
Small builder, four to six houses a year, I've watched him work for two years without doing anything about it. He's got a finished 1,700 foot three bedroom sitting since August, l…
I've swung hammers for eleven years and I've run other people's jobsites, so the framing and the sequencing don't scare me. What I've never done is carry the money side of a house…