Budget -- It generally costs between $50 and $75 a square foot to get you to a dry-in stage. Construction Costs for completed homes typically range between $110 and $125 a square foot. We will work with you to hold down your costs. However, you need to know up front how much you have to spend and how much that will buy you. A surprize here is not good for anybody.
you need to remember the cost of site prep in your thinking.
Site Selection -- Visiting your site is one of the first things we do in the build process. Water and Electric access needs to be taken into consideration. The further away from the road you are, the more expensive.
Other things to think about include:
Drainage
Slope
Neighbors
Easements
Sewer/Septic -- If you have sewer connection -- congratulations. If not ... Read on
Septic systems cost around $4,500 given they aren't in solid rock. A PERK test needs to done at the site to verify that there won't be a problem.
Site Prep -- We do everything from the culvert at the road to building your site pad. This includes road construction and clearing.
This is also a time which you might want to consider doing a "big" landscaping project -- bulldosers move rocks/boulders around real well.
Plan Selection -- Things to remember:
The price per square foot tends to go down the larger the home -- so ... a smaller home may cost more per square foot than a larger one.
Slab foundations are less expensive than pier and beam.
The more regularly shaped a house is, generally, the less expensive it is to build.
Don't just settle for something close to what you want. Given your budget, we can either start from scratch with you to get exactly what you want or we can modify one of our many plans.
As a builder, we are more than happy to help you select a plan that best fits your definition of “bang for buck”. In other words, your personal preferences will define how you want to handle the trade-off between needed/desired items and cost.
Builder Selection -- Obviously we are biased. However, it is important that you select a builder which you feel you will be able to easily communicate with during the building process
Ar Homes, Inc. will provide and/or oversee all aspects of your project. You, the homeowner, must however, make a whole bunch of decisions. The more input from you the better. It’s our job to present you options to decide on. And then, of course, make it happen in a timely fashion.
Estimate -- once you picked your plan and your site, we will sit with you and detail an estimate of what your new home will cost.
We have an excel sheet that we are happy to share with our clients that we use to estimate a home. If you'd like a copy, give us a call.
Financing -- There are lots of financing options. If you already have a relationship with a lending company, we suggest that you contact them first. If not, please contact us and we will be happy to refer you to several good companies.
Builder's Risk Insurance -- You will want to acquire builder's risk insurance. Please feel free to contact our insurance agent, Debra Young w/ Nationwide Insurance at 479-521-0000. This is typically pretty quick.
Work Starts -- Once your site has been prepped and you have acquired your financing we can begin construction of your home. This process, depending on size and just how much of your new home you want us to do typically takes from 3 weeks to 4 to 6 months. We will want you to be available as much as possible while we are working on your home. We like having you around.
final Inspection -- Once we have finished your home we will bring in an inspector to verify that the house is completed to code.
