I am working on a project of acquiring a vacant lot and developing a single family home in the Philadelphia area. I am comfortable with projecting sales price as well as all costs associated besides hard costs for construction.
I have met with many general contractors and builders, but there is so much variation in the information I am gathering. Many G.C's are saying they cannot even give a rough estimate until they see plans. In my underwriting and proformas how should I go about pricing hard costs for construction, should I use a total hard cost per sqft number? How drastically does that number change based upon finishes? Does that per sqft number get you a turn key property or do you have to add costs for: excavation of lot, rooftop etc.
Example: say you get a price from a builder of 140-160 psf based upon finishes. If you use150$ psf for 1800sqft = 270,000. Does 270,000 include all costs such as excavation of the lot, all the way to appliances and fixtures? Is the G.C's markup included in that price?
If anybody has any input or could connect me with somebody who may, I would greatly appreciate it. Thankyou so much!
