Several questions about homes and home ownership

[OKCretro]

In oklahoma city area (because i think it might be different by city/state) how much does it cost to build like a 3,000 sq ft house? what about a 4,000 sq ft house? i have heard its about $100 per sq ft to build a new house in okc but was just wondering if that is actually true.



Also how much does it cost to fill in and take apart an existing pool? Like to get rid of all the cement and fill it in with dirt?



Last question, how much does it cost to tear down a house and haul it away?


Thanks in advance. Was at a dinner party last week and someone was claiming to know the answers but not sure how reliable his answers really were.
maybe this should go in "current events/open topic" but not really sure

[scottk]

For your first question, it really depends on what part of Oklahoma City you want to build in. You are correct, most new construction will begin around $100 sq ft with some of the better known builders. However, depending on quality of materials, lot sizes, school districts, and neighborhood amenities that cost can really go up to $130-$150 a square foot. For 3000 square feet, you will probably have to look towards a higher end builder. As you add square footage to a house, the costs per square foot will typically drop. If you do not care about living in a certain part of the metro, I've seen the same floor plan by the same builder with nearly the same materials shift in price up to 10% if you are moving into a lower demand, further from the inner core, neighborhood. Since OKC is so spread out, annual property taxes in your mortgage can shift too depending on if you are living within Oklahoma, Canadian, Cleveland, or Logan County. For example, addresses within a few miles of each other in far Northwest Oklahoma City all share OKC Utilities, but your costs to build can be determined by the demand based upon Edmond, Piedmont, Deer Creek, or Yukon schools.

[Lazio85]

Contact your home insurance company and they should provide detailed answers with information to reference. Yes, I have heard on multiple occasions that a typical build for a house with basic finishes and builders grade material win average $100/sqft.

[SoonerDave]

Let's make sure we understand the question.

Are you talking about cost through a contractor to build a house, or building one yourself (working as your own GC)? In that vein, material costs are going to be essentially flat regardless of where you build, but land expense will vary with location.

Building contractors have astonishing markups - as high as 30-40% in some cases (and I know this only because the GC whom I used to build two houses showed me his books in context of writing some project and cost management software for him). And it was a smart-apple who cooked up the UBuildIt concept that connects knowledgeable private individuals with contractors and subs to help owners serve as their own general contractors.

Don't assume only "higher end" builders build "larger" houses. And don't assume "higher end" builders are "better" builders. Some of the crappiest and cheapest building shortcuts I've ever seen were in some supposedly "higher-end" homes. And to *really* know if a contractor is any good, don't rely on a finished, staged model. Go through a house at every stage of construction, from foundation (excavated footings, slab-on-grade, pre/post-tensioned slabs), framing (quality of lumber, fit of corners), all the way to cabinet/woodwork subs, masons (quality of brick) and flooring, and to A/C and heating contractors (right-sizing units and flow, performing proper Manual J head/load calculations), the whole nine yards. Small houses can be built expensively, big houses can be built like crap.

Property taxes are kinda outside the shell of construction cost, but there are regions in OKC where roughly the same or similarly sized homes can have astronomical differences. Some homes in the south OKC area that are actually in Cleveland County (and thus in the Moore school district, which a lot of people don't realize goes into OKC as far as SW 82nd) have tax bills in the $3K+/year range for homes in the ~2,300 sq ft range.

[OKCretro]

I meant to pay a contractor to build a house for a person.

Thanks for the input and if anyone else has any knowledge on the subject I would love to hear answers and other ideas.

[SoonerDave]

Taking out a pool depends on the kind of construction. Steel-reinforced, concrete pools will cost a small fortune to truly remove, because it'll come down to labor-intensive jackhammering etc and hauling away. Removing a big fiberglass insert shouldn't be quite as bad, but I don't know that for a fact. Many folks who have realized the Ugly Realities of home pools finally opt to just get them filled in and turn them into a patio or garden area - but even that gets expensive because just *filling* the thing can cost a small fortune. I've seen some pools that would be good candidates for the conversion into a one-off deck - just install deck hangers along the walls, possibly add vertical center reinforcements, then planks across the top...

[Bellaboo]

My nephew is filling in his pool. It's gunnite and he is breaking up the top couple of feet and throwing it in the bottom of the pool. He said he would then advertise for free dirt. Get ready for some hard work or find you a crew that works for cash and they might tear part of the top off and dispose of it in the rest of the pool in less than a day. Kind of depends what you want to do with your yard you know ?

[SoonerDave]

My nephew is filling in his pool. It's gunnite and he is breaking up the top couple of feet and throwing it in the bottom of the pool. He said he would then advertise for free dirt. Get ready for some hard work or find you a crew that works for cash and they might tear part of the top off and dispose of it in the rest of the pool in less than a day. Kind of depends what you want to do with your yard you know ?

I think swimming pools have become the latter-day equivalent to boat ownership. You know the old saw that the happiest two days in a boat owner's life are 1) the day he buys a boat, and 2) the day he sells it.

I remember growing up back in the 70's and my folks put in a pool around 1977 or so. It was about $10-12K at the time IIRC, and my dad being a mechanical engineer overbuilt the thing by about 50%. It didn't take long to find out you *never* use the thing enough to really rationalize the expense, and that expense doesn't stop once it's built; it's water, maintenance, chemicals, repairs, equipment, all of which become really expensive really fast. I knew then that unless I made a ton of money that would let me call one of these maintenance companies and tell them "keep that pool ready" that I'd never want one. And I think a lot of people now are realizing that - and that's also reflected in the fact that most realtors will tell you that you get almost nothing in value for a pool at resale time...

[stick47]

New 2000+ sf homes in Yukon/Mustang are going for up to $135 sf. You won't find any new homes for less than $118 sf or if you do, they'll be in outlying areas or perhaps without high speed internet.

[corwin1968]

Our home, which was built in 2009, had a base price of $102/sq ft and with our upgrades, $113/sq ft thru a regular developer. This was in the Deer Creek district but an Edmond zip code.