Building Your Own Home
Building a brand new, custom home where you currently live is often the most cost-effective option to get what you really need.
Cost Factors to Consider
The total cost to build a home on your lot will be determined by the following equation:
Land Price + Site Work Costs + New Home Construction = Total Cost
Depending on where you’d like to live, the price for land can vary significantly. In scenic Darnestown for example, you may find building lots from the $600,000s, while a teardown in urban Bethesda could easily cost over $1,000,000.
The cost of fees, services and materials are also factors to consider. County impact fees can reach over $60,000. The cost of various materials and services has also increased in recent years. In all, your site work costs can total as much as $350,000 or more.
Here’s a sample breakdown of a total custom build of a Classic Homes Willow model in Bethesda:
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- $850,000 (lot price)
- $165,000 (site work costs)
- $679,900 (new home construction/Willow model)
$1,649,900
Contact one of our Preferred Lenders for help determining your project budget.
Price Per Square Foot
While commonly used, price per square foot is an unreliable indicator of a home’s value. Factors such as size, design, finishes, and location significantly influence pricing, which can vary widely from $250 to $600, even exceeding $1,000 per square foot for luxury properties.
Site Work & Land
The price of homes in new communities includes a high mark-up on the land acquisition and the site work done to prepare the lots for construction. By removing your existing home and building on your lot, you avoid these mark-ups.
At Classic Homes of Maryland, we also save on these costs by managing your site improvements using qualified, established subcontractors and overseeing the entire process. That means you won’t pay an engineer or land manager cost-plus on all the individual costs for engineering, clearing, permits and stormwater management.
Impact Fees
In some areas (such as Montgomery and Howard Counties), impact fees can cost over $60,000. In new home communities, this cost—plus the developer’s profit margin—have been factored into the price of new homes. Building a new home on your existing home site allows you to avoid the developer’s mark-up and potentially avoid associated impact taxes.
Customizing Your Own Home
Many builders offer semi-custom homes, where you can “customize” from a limited list of pre-selected options. With Classic Homes, your choices are limitless. Once you’ve selected a floor plan from our extensive library, your imagination and budget are the only limits to how that floor plan can be modified. And, if the plans in our portfolio don’t match your vision, our Design Build process will allow you to create a unique home that matches your every need.
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