Home buying thread

Had a big meeting with Builder today and reviewed our entire project budget. First time we've seen a full total and reviewed all numbers. We went through probably ~80 line items and the allowance and cost quotation. I'll summarize most of the stuff below.

Keep in mind, please, I'm mostly posting this as an outlet for the stress involved during the process. This thread is pretty slow these days with the current home pricing situation, economy, and so forth. I thought it may be interesting to some people or a useful resource if anyone looks back and wants to go through a custom build process. It won't (can't) be apples-to-apples given regional variations in material and labor and individual wants and needs.

All of these categories have multiple sub-items so I'm just representing the total. Most of the categories also had quotes from suppliers / providers representing the actual quoted cost. And most categories included some type of an allowance for us to find what we want (doors, windows, appliances, lighting, door knobs, etc).

We're over budget already. I wanted to be at $850,000 but we also allowed our designer to go over our square footage. We started at 3,800 sqft and eventually settled at 4,200 and change. So, that almost single handedly explain the budget overages.

Framing, I specified 2x6 instead of 2x4s. Looking at the lumber quote the cost of a 10' 2x6 spruce stud is $7.65/ea and we need around 700 of them for framing downstairs and 500 of the 9' 2x6 at $6.56 for upstairs. So, 1200 2x6s. Again, that was my decision. A 2x4 is something like $5 per, is that $2,400 difference in framing material really breaking our budget? No, I don't think so. Plus, we have a bigger cavity for insulation.

We have 4 different heat pump Lennox HVAC quotes, we'll probably go in the middle with that. I am going to ask to see the Manual J/D/S because right now they're sized as a 5T downstairs and 4T upstairs. 9T sounds ridiculously out of line given our wall and attic insulation as well as our higher end windows. I do have concerns that is grossly overquoted, but it is a 4,200 sqft two story house.

I mentioned in the Home Networking thread that part of our Electrical quote includes $10k for "security and networking" and that includes: $800 security system, $1,700 (4) cameras, $3,000 for 12 data drops, (3) Sonos Amp for $3,000 (includes labor, wut?), (3) speaker pairs $1,350, network rack $800, for a total of approximately $10,547. I may just have him take everything out but the data drops. 12 is very low for my requirements of like 2 CAT6 drops per room.

Cabinets are $51,525 which is a first pass estimate. We have to sit down with the cabinet makers (custom local shop). I haven't had a chance to pour through that. We aren't doing anything crazy custom here. Standard shaker, paint grade, all drawer lowers. Includes bath, mudroom, pantry, kitchen.

Ask away and make me justify stuff. I'm pouring through the quotes. Also spoke to the bank and current rates are around 6.75% for construction and 7% for a jumbo permanent or 6.375% for a normal. If we can buy down on the 2nd close below conforming rate (it'd be approx $57k) we'd save quite a bit on interest. And then we could buy down to 6% pretty cheap. But, that won't be for 12 months when construction is complete. Maybe Iran stuff will settle and rates will drop.

Lanx said:

so, this faggot ass design takes away "YOUR" backyard and now you have the "PEOPLES" backyard

fuck that

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Would be interesting if you buy an entire set with your family and friends. But it definitely suck if you have stranger neighbors.

Sludig said:

I thought they made that lawsuit where realtors supposed to take less commission?

Any possibility ai can make decent offer letters? Parents not full time looking into houses in my neighborhood from out of state but 25 acres went up for sale a few houses down.

Is it feasible to diy order or work with selling agent directly? They'd just have their own agent if they were actively shopping on the area.

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ChatGPT can for sure, when we bought our land it was direct from seller and really there was no need for any type of agent to be involved.

They may need to be prepared to pay for a survey defining the legal boundary of the parcel, may also want any type of topographic data, geotechnical data, and perc if they’ll want to build eventually. Our offer wasn’t contingent on all that, except boundary survey, so we assumed risk of being able to build on it. But ChatGPT can help identify those items and others you may want to include as contingencies.

Since everyone got a good laugh at my expense in the Gun thread about Doors and Doorknobs, I thought it'd be best to restart the conversation here for additional criticism.

I'll preface it by saying we have no passion about doorknobs or any idea that they should be some "statement" piece on the home. To a very certain extent neither of us care. We just want it to be of decent quality, not break, maybe our front door can have a cool knob. With that in mind I tried to approach selecting doorknobs for the house and had no idea these things were so expensive. I mean, relatively cheap, but in totality still add up to a lot.

We looked at Kwikset also and could maybe get away with $16/per instead of $19 (although there is this line for $11 - $15 / knob). But this was a 1st pass at this bucket of allowance.

I did step up on 4 of them, so I admit my culpability in paying $74 for a doorknob. And actually, even looking now I'm pretty sure one of those can be removed. Pocket Door hardware is crazy. We are looking at a mid-tier Eclisse system for our Pantry pocket door and then a step down for the kids' bathroom. I may just throw the pantry door out altogether and make it a cased opening. We'll be in and out of there so much will it ever be closed? That saves almost $800.

Going through and doing cabinet pulls for kitchen and bathrooms now. Those prices are ridiculous also. Kids are getting $3 knobs or cheaper if I can find it. This is also list cost from Ferguson's site, so no builder discount or anything else.


Doors are just plain Jane Jeld-Wen engineered solid core downstairs and hollow core upstairs. We could probably save some costs here with a cheaper door? The solid core is x2 hollow core but I did want the 1st floor to be a little higher grade.

Khane said:

For actual entry doors do not get anything from lowes/home depot. Call a locksmith and have them install commercial/industrial grade sets from a company like Arrow.

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Yeah, I don't think we would unless it came to real cruch time hah. Didn't paste our Exterior Doors. We currently have 3 from Weather shield and the front door the builder liked this Southwood Doors product. There's only so much brain power I can devote to every single decision. We're okay with that one, but there was a craftsman 3 lite on another site that was similar price.



We may remove the $2,200 patio door along with 4 windows in the living room and do a 16' quad slider along that wall. It would actually end up saving $1k or so.

Siliconemelons said:

I got these to replace all my internal doors to match my new front door.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CCNCCXFP?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_4&th=1

they were surprisingly sturdy, heavy and the mechanical motion and everything is very nice and feels "expensive" - no slop or poor feel etc. was very surprised and pleased actually.

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That's cool to know, and the kind of feedback I was hoping for. I wish I could convince my wife to like levers instead of knobs (rimshot), but she is really not going for it. One place I have convinced her is the entry from the garage because sometimes turning that door knob with your hands full is annoying and the lever you can lean against.

For anyone interested in current interest rates I'm being quoted, here's a brief summary of my conversation with the bank today regarding our construction loan approval:



That is for the construction portion. This is a two close product but when we close on the permanent loan the rate is currently set to be the same 6.875%. The main reason is because at $889,600 it is over the conforming limit of $832,750 which makes it a jumbo loan. If we bring the difference to the 2nd close it'll drop below that level and she thinks, currently, we'd be looking at 6.25%. That could all change in 12 months when the time comes.

There's a maximum amount of points we can buy down both a jumbo and a conventional, so the question would be whether the additional $50k is worth it to bring it down to conforming, buy down the jumbo to 6.5% (which was the max I think she said we could) for less than $50k, or just do nothing and pump the rest back into improvements or retirement. I think it'll all depend on rates when we get to final permanent close.

Gotta go find my 4K pre-school report card, a dna test, and an invoice for my subscription to Woodworking Magazine so they can continue the application process.

Cad said:

Assuming you plan to keep this house for some years, you will almost invariably refi when interest rates drop. Run some calculations on the payback time for buying points or investing more to get a conforming loan and how many years you'd have to stay in this loan to make it worth it. Then it's a judgment call on whether you think interest rates will drop enough before that time and you'll refi out of this loan.

If the payback is 3-5 years might be a no-brainer but above that it gets sketchy.

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Yeah, I've done various ChatGPT-fu and the opportunity cost vs. what the interest rate may be at time of closing, let's say June 2027? It'll take 20-30 days to get through this loan process which puts us in the start of May. We could conceivably break ground then.

My biggest anxiety, even knowing this was really a speculative play given when we started the process rates were in the 8% range, is the variability of construction costs given cost of concrete, diesel, and other goods that are all over the place. But there's cost involved in waiting a year to see if things stabilize and what they stabilize to.

Lots more to come!