Any opinions on building a home on the Eastside?

[johnsgonefishin]

I think you have to think about whats best for you. If it is your dream to build your own house from scratch specifically for your family it may be a good time. I would not do it simply for finiancial reasons as costs are always more than they initially seem. Good luck.

[SeattleMoose]

Yes, wait.....prices, labor, and materials will be MUCH cheaper in a year to two. In the meantime buy one of those "home builder" software packages and get all your plans solidified. Then hire an architect to review your plans, make mods that involve codes, structural loads, etc, and then move forward.

Best of luck!!!

[Ben]

And please post the results here. I have often dabbled in the thought of building my own place. The stress sounds horrible, but the idea of having everything the way I want it is awesome.

[Locust]

We are building a custom home right now on the Eastside near Redmond. I would expect $250/sf and up for a custom home builder. It really doesnt make any financial sense as a way to save money, because the production home builders are so much more efficient at what they do. The reason to do it is that you want something different from what the production builders are doing, and you have the budget to make it fly. But cheap it ain't.

[Kate]

We have just built our own home East of Market. The whole process of finding the right architect and builder took years because so many architects laughed in our faces when we told them our budget. However, we are thrilled with the final result. To make sure we stayed in budget we left out finishes that we can upgrade later ie. instead of slab counters we have Italian tile etc. But we have all the indoor and out door space we need for our family and we will not need to move unless we chose to.

The build was incredibly stressful, my DH was practically the superintendent because our contractor was cutting back on supervising to save money (he has about 7 unsold homes). We built our house for about $150 a square foot - maybe less I haven't done the math as we have partially finished rooms in the basement. This means it is not as high quality as many custom homes but it is equal to or better in quality to a home built by a spec builder on the Eastside. Except we chose all the windows, doors, finishes etc. so design wise it is much more attractive. We also used an architect who did a fabulous job and the design could not be better for our lot. However, we bought our lot in 2001 so it was half the price of current lots.

If you do a search on Coldwellbankerbain under neighborhoods/Kirkland/East of Market you will see tons of homes for sale. The majority incredibly overpriced IMHO. I think in the current market you would be much better off saving money for a hefty downpayment and waiting a couple of years. Cash will be King and you should be able to find a great home cheaper than you could build.

Personally I do not think the prices of many building products will come down dramatically, other than timber because the dollar keeps diving lower.

[Ubersalad]

Did you hire an architect to draw the plan from scratch or to modify an existing plan?

[Kate]

After meeting with us the architect found a plan he had used for a home in Seattle and we modified that. We made some major changes to the plan but it saved us time, we also paid more than we expected but less than if he had started from scratch. I would say it was money very well spent as we are delighted with the design.

We had been in the process for some time by the time we chose him - we had met with I think 4-5 other architects and so we had a very clear idea about what we wanted. The architect interpreted our desires very sucessfully for our lot and budget.

[Ubersalad]

That's what I was going to say. You can actually purchase floor plans from the web and then have it modified by an architect at substantial savings.

[Kate]

We have an unusual lot with certain "issues" that made it almost impossible to find a pre drawn good plan to suit. Architects NW are the place that most local builders go to for their plans. We like the Bungalow Company who sell plans online.

To make the most of our lot an investment in a good architect was a sound move.