Construction Costs- what does it cost you to build

[Derek T.]

I'm here in the SF Bay Area and I've done around 60 projects these past 4 years, flips and holds.  Wondering what it costs you guys to build where you are at.  We usually do our construction without a general contractor and just GC it ourselves.   Here are some costs for labor that we've developed.  

Labor only:

Retrofit a window- $80

Install new window- $100

Framing- $11/sqft

Concrete slab- $6/sqft (include material)

[Ori Skloot]

@Derek T. I appreciate the question because it's such an unknown for most early investors.  Plus, the prices can vary wildly, even in the same location. For example, your concrete price is dirt cheap, or should I say "rock bittom", ;).    I would love to meet your concrete sub.  Or is that the price of your own crew doing the work?

Here are a few of mine off the top of my head. I work in the East Bay (Berkeley, Oakland, etc). These are subcontractor prices, cheaper if I have my own guys do it. 

New shingle roof - $6-8 per sq ft 

New high efficiency furnace and all new duct work with 8 reagiters - $5000-7000

New high efficiency tankless water heater with new 1" gas line. $3500-5000

New hardwood flooring with stain - $10 per sq ft. 

Solar system - $3 per KW

I've got a long list of pricing in an excel doc where I can input rough info on a house and get my rehab costs in about 5 min.  I'm around 95% accurate these days, but when I first started I usually went 10-20% over budget when working on my own properties.  (Yup, contractors go over budget even on their own houses).  For newbies I recommend adding 20% on top of estimated  budget whenever penciling out repair costs.