Stick a fork in 2018, it’s done!

The purpose of this blog is to help anyone in Contra Costa County, or similar counties in California, know what it takes to put the simplest home on a large plot of undeveloped land.

Reflecting on 2018, here is a short list of what happened and in what order. It seems obvious, but it is less so.

Steps to building a home on Un-Developed land

1.Planning Phase:

a. How much money do you have on hand.

Hard to tell until we sold our home. It was about $70k

b. If getting a loan, how large of a loan can you get

Originally, we thought it was too large, now it was just enough

c.Find a good lender

This was by far the most painful experience I had. The first lender ran out on me, went through a series of others…

my advice: find a lender that is experienced, they do not need to be your friend, but someone that can teach you, and get the job done.

d. Decide on what kind of home to build

i. Stick-built

6 months-2 years @ $200/sq ft and up

ii. Modular

6 months – 1 year @ variable price

iii. Manufactured

6 months @ $75ish/ sq ft

e. Find a home Contractor

Experience > Friendly (both are preferred)

We were lucky and found both through All American Modular

f. Choose a home

i. The contractor can give you a price

ii. There are countless customization options if you have the $$$

g. Figure out land budget

i.Total budget – cost of home

ii.Impact fees can be expensive

$40,000+

Permits/school fees

$10,000+

  1. Buy the land:

a.Keep an eye on the market

b. Don’t offer asking price on land

Land is a much slower sale. You can (likely) build a relationship with the land-owner. Then you can understand the true asking price

c. Read any disclosures about (they will cost money later on):

i. Geotechnical reports

$3000

ii. Engineered septic systems

$21000

Anything that is required

$7000 and increasing

  1. Get the loan funded (hopefully you got a good lender)
  2. Start permitting process with municipality

Start this as soon as possible! It’s their job to tell you what you need to get your permit. Permits do expire, but there are extensions. Municipalities are not quick to do anything

That’s it… That’s a year and half of my life condensed into a list of 4 things… I’ve added any advice underneath