need help figuring out construction costs

[Vladislava Kobeleva]

Hi All,

Pretty excited here, as after about a week, I may be able to lock down a property to wholesale.  HOWEVER, I need some help figuring out the cost to repair it.

It is a lot that has a construction on it right now, but the building has to be COMPLETELY taken down, and a 2 family home to be rebuilt on it.  But, I am having some trouble figuring out the way to calculate the cost to build something new over it. I think I have the valuation for the lot of land, but in NJ, sussex county, how much would it cost to build, approx, by sqft? 

I stalled the seller a bit with some logistical questions as not to lose out on the contract, but, I would love to not lose out on this opportunity.

Thanks guys in advance!!! 

[Steve Wilcox]

@Vladislava Kobeleva

Building costs are rising incredibly rapidly. I am building a few new homes including two 2 family houses in urban areas of NJ, and can tell you that it's very hard to just assign a price per foot in any times because of different design, complexity of the project, materials specifications, fire rating, sprinkler systems, conditions on the lot, ECT.

Here is a current example I am dealing with. In some of the dense infill builds (a house I am building in Newark), there is no where to store fill dirt after digging foundation, so you need to cart it off site, there's no room for a dumpster so all trash gets packed in the center of the house then live loaded periodically. The cost for the all permits alone for a 2 family was about 12k. Lumber has skyrocketed, and production time on vinyl windows is way way behind leading to longer lead times, good subs are busy so they either want more money or can't get to you for a long time.

In your case I know that many towns out there do not have city sewers or water so you need to install septic and well, lots of areas have bedrock base which is difficult to excavate for new footings and foundation, and the complexity of the plan (corners, large open floor plans, big windows, ECT) can dramatically impact pricing.

I would say between $200-$300 a foot to build right now (mid range quality product) Is probably not an unreasonable forecast, plus the cost to clear the lot of the existing building, permits, carrying cost, and closing costs on both the buy and sell side should also be accounted for.