In this continuing series on Custom Home building in Denver, Adam Rossi, owner of Blue Sky Custom Homes, discusses the question, what does it cost to build a Custom Home?
The answer, as you might expect isn’t really clear cut, as Adam will cover some of the areas that will effect what the final cost is determined by several areas:
– Lot selection, not only the cost., but the slope and geographic elements can affect your cost significantly.
– Style of home you want to build. There is a big difference in building a ranch style 4000 square foot home and a two story home.
– Choice of features including extra decking or patio space, landscaping, or additional interior finishing options ( Wine cellars, basement finishing, extra garage space.)
Watch this 7 minute video to get many of the answers to, “how much does it cost to build a custom home”. Because Blue Sky Custom Homes is based in the Denverf Colorado area, these answers are relevant to this area of the country.
In this continuing series on Custom Home building in Denver, Adam Rossi, owner of Blue Sky Custom Homes, discusses the question, what does it cost to build a Custom Home?
The following is the text from the video, with time stamps.
Mia (00:07):
I’m going to start with the most basic of question is how much does it cost to build a custom home?
Adam Rossi (00:13):
Yeah, there’s a lot of different, I think tenants that goes into the cost of a house. I normally advise and consult with our new perspective homeowners or home buyers that are looking to build a house. To understand the major cost components, really are going to come down to three major, parts or elements. The first is the lot that we’re going to be building on. Whether it’s a very difficult sited lot, whether it’s steep or it’s far off of the main road, or it doesn’t have any local services. So the lot can have a lot to impact with the construction cost. Difficulty in just accessing the trucks and all the equipment that I’ve got to get up there during the build for about 11 months. Which of course can lead itself to weather. If we’ve got a difficult lot to access when inows and rains, that can also slow construction down.
Mia (01:05):
Can I ask you something real quick, because I’m going to act like that client again now. Is that something that you are involved in that process as well as of helping people pick out the lot then?
Adam Rossi (01:14):
Yeah, well, absolutely. I guess I could sort of take the project from where Julie mentioned about selections and kind of picking interior finishes. That’s kind of about the one third of the way in point, where the project really starts. And it kind of goes back to like your first process question. Is the process begins with me working with the client. They may or may not have an architect identified yet. They may or may not have a lot purchased or identified yet. So we can work with them from that very early on. That we can help them find a lot. We can find real estate agents and if they need, we do have a lot of great referrals in the whole Metro area. We can then work with getting them architectural referrals and then let’s just say, we’ve got the lot and we’ve got the architect fired up.
Adam Rossi (01:56):
Now we got to figure out where we’re going to put the lot or put the house onto the lot. How long the driveway’s going to be or the retaining walls and kind of come with an idea of what type of house are they looking to put on that lot? Is it a ranch with a walkout? Is it a two story or a single floor ranch? And there are so many different possibilities that the house can take on form wise, what’s going to be best or most appropriate for each lot. Sometimes is one of those initial conversations that we have. Once we figure out that the type of house we’re going to build, figure out about where it’s going to go on the site. And we do have a site meeting to figure that out with myself and the architect, the homeowner, oftentimes. Sometimes we’ll bring out the surveyors or the grading engineers if we need to.
Adam Rossi (02:37):
I’m the guy that kind of builds the whole team. So kind of consider me more of the program manager of a project. I kind of follow it from absolutely literally first appointments to the completion. And the certificate of occupancy of the house from a higher level. But those initial meetings are definitely all me to help them, kind of best site it. I have a little better intuitive look at the house compared to architects, just because I know from the aspect of having to build the house, what we’re going to be up against with weather and engineering and structural components, bringing trees in and all these things. So, that was kind of like answers a little bit of your first question. And then also it is one of those cost considerations for the house. Do you want me to go on with those other two kind of cost considerations or?
Mia (03:23):
Yes, please. I just wanted to add that in there too, of how important that is about the actual site itself, like you said, is it steep? I mean, and it sounds like what you do is help people pick out what would be a barrier or if they could deal with that or if it’s something that they can come up with a cost that it’s worth it to them. So I appreciate that too. So yes, talk about some other elements of the cost as well.
Adam Rossi (03:44):
Absolutely. So yeah, the land and the lot and the difficulties that go along with the lot would be like one of those main, what does a house cost. The second part really is the house itself. I kind of gave a little bit away, I guess, in the last sort of statement, which was, what does the house look like? Is it a tall stately, two story, Argentinian Estancia? Is it a farmhouse? Does it have a lot of very expensive materials on the outside? Is it very wide or very long? Does it have an enormous deep basement? So all these little details about the house itself. What I would really kind of quantify is like the scale of the construction project itself. How big is the house? Is it 4,000 feet? Is it five or six or 7,000 square feet finished? Does it have a lot of big garages attached to it?
Adam Rossi (04:28):
Does it have multiple decks and patios? Do we have a lot of landscaping that’s going to be required and look. So that would be kind of your second main point to consider as far as a house cost. And that’s just a scale of it. And then the third and that’s really where Julie and Melissa, and some of my other team members were going to come into, as well as the interior designers. And that is what are we going to put on the house and what are we going to put in the house? So the expense of everything from appliances and cabinets, to the type and amount of stone on the outside. The type of roof, a metal roof is much more expensive than in a tile roof, which is much more expensive than asphalt composite shingles. So some of those are required or driven by homeowners associations or design review committees.
Adam Rossi (05:10):
So as part of my program managing, I’m also going to be interfacing with the associated agencies, outside agencies, that we have to coordinate with design review committees and HOAs being probably our first two hurdles to get through, to build the type of building that’s expected or allowable in that general area. If there is no guiding designer review committee or HOA, happy day for me. It’s just a lot less phone calls and meetings I have to attend. In which case, then it kind of comes down to me, the architect, the homeowner all sitting down together and determining what the house is going to be and kind of starting also what their investment level, what would they like to spend on the home. Knowing the cost of the lot, the cost of the improvements, the lot, the house, and then finishes to help them kind of triangulate and get them to an ultimate budget as far as a preliminary idea, based on that scope.
Mia (06:00):
That makes a lot of sense too, of even talking about that. That’s a piece that people don’t think of as design review boards, HOAs, and so forth. Because as you see these certain neighborhoods, they can have a theme to them as well. So they may want that a more expensive tile, but that’s not something that’s within that design review allowance, correct?
Adam Rossi (06:18):
Yeah, exactly. And we help them with that line item transparency too. So they can quickly come to an understanding with our experience level. We kind of take everything we know in the gray matter. And we help them through a very itemized, very detailed Excel document, which just itemizes all the costs very early on, to tell, is this going to be a million dollar house or a million and a half or $3 million? So what are the cost components? And we usually do hit write out all the soft costs that are involved too. The architectural and the engineering, the surveys and the grading reports that come from the civil engineers, the permit costs, water, tap fees. So all those things that the homeowner may not really know, but they’re all going to be a hard cost thing. That’s eventually going to have to come out of a bank draw or from the homeowner’s cash to as part of the cost of the house.