Cost to Build a House in 2020

We just finished up building a new home so we thought we would share the cost to build a house in 2020. If you are thinking of building a new home as an owner builder, or through a general contractor, this video should give you a good starting point for planning and budgeting. The prices shown are for those wanting to build their own home while taking on the general contractor role and hiring professional subcontractors to do the work. Be sure to watch through to the end to learn how to get a free cost adjustment for your area. Stop by openbookbuild.com for more details on how to build this home. https://openbookbuild.com/home

The final cost of $100 per square foot includes finishing the basement as a DIY project in the future. We spent a bunch of money on building out the basement to allow for an easier finish: 2 bedroom egress windows($3k), waterproofing ($2k), insulated basement floor ($1k), 9′ tall basement wall where standard is 8′ tall ($2k), radon mitigation, careful mechanical planning to prevent duct work from lowering ceiling, above grade foundation wall insulation, mechanical room placed as to not affect future living space, included future finished basement layout on house plan to make things easier for future finish, careful basement beam placement to line up with future finished basement walls…etc. Our whole objective with this home was to make it as affordable as possible while still including some nice finishes. We could have added a second floor to lower the per square foot price drastically, keep this in mind if you are trying to lower your new home cost. Instead, we chose to create the basement to allow for future expansion. This allows the owner to finish the basement at their own pace when ready. Once finished, the house will be a four bedroom, 3 bath home.

We named our company Open Book Build to share our resources and experience with those that want to build. How many builders would share their actual costs from a build? Most builders wouldn’t do this…but we aren’t like most builders. The cost to design this architectural house plan was over ten times what we are selling it for at openbookbuild.com. Thanks for watching and good luck to you. If you want to build your own custom home and want to learn how, check out our Owner Builder Online Class at https://ownerbuilderclass.com/