I would like to offer my experience working along side General Contractors ( GC ) in building luxury homes in the Lafayette, Alamo, Diablo, Orinda, Danville Area ( San Francisco Bay Area ). Ask me anything besides how bad can my grammar be. š
The unique part about building in the Bay Area is the neighborhoods where I currently build the home value will keep going up. Obviously, the market will soften but as long as Silicon Valley is here to stay. Everyone will try to keep up with the Jones. I got into this line of work due to my family especially my father. He started a small company back in 00ās and now, has scaled it to a whooping 40+ guys. In our line of work ( residential ), have just 10 guys your a huge company. Can you imagine? I know some of you guys manage teams/divisions that easily defeat those numbers. Personally, I would wait for the market to soften up because with the money you save in waiting you can use that to pay your labor. A general rule of thumb that I saw in 2008 was due to nobody building & labor was ridiculously, but currently in the contractor world thereās a saying right now, āeven the bad contractors are filled to the brim with work.ā
Honestly, I have no idea. No one does. I standby this statement because Iāve seen distinguished real estate agents tell me it was going to happen 4 years ago, I had other telling me 2 months ago. No one knows. Most people think oh you guys do 300+ projects a year you should know, when the market is softening which means less projects. But when your a quality contractor, youāll ALWAYS HAVE WORK.
What's the $ per sq ft for the construction
Depends in the area, name a city please
Why does it depends (in Bay Area)? Say I am going to buy land upfront and take care of the county taxes, what is the variable given that all material is going to come from low cost area
Is it worth buying land to build in future? Is it easy to get value in constructing over remodelled older homes.
Great question. If you have the means to do so, go ahead. Personally, I would wait for the market to soften because both land & labor is cheap in a softer market. From my experience Iāve dealt with a group of clients that buy the older homes in the neighborhoods mentioned up above. Demolish, Build, Sell and make a decent profit of between $250-$750k net profit. ( If you do so, please get a general contractor ) I also, had a family friend actually make between 1.6-2.2 million ( donāt remember correctly ) on a unfinished home he bought for $800k in 2008. Sold it in 2015.
how much money do you save compared to buying a builder built home, if any?
I'm genuinely curious, tc and yoe?
Even though, I would like to post this. I replied enough information to be track down, so Iāll keep it matter private. Iām actually not even suppose to say Klay Thompson was my client due to a NDA
What industry are the majority of your clients? Anything surprising you've noticed?
Nothing really surprising. I would primarily say 80% of our clients are split between Tech & Finance. A lot of VCās, New York hedge fund guyās, employee #1-100, executives. 5% are celebrities such as basket ball players & coaches ( shout out to klay), baseball players & coaches and donāt forget football. All of the people who live in these neighborhoods are moving out and leaving to other states. I got surprising stories about my clients spending habits on building homes
How much does it cost for the design and architecture
It really depends on the complexity of the home & plans, for example a potential who was both an engineer and architect had 120+ plus pages on how they were going to build a modern home.($10,000+ plans )But thereās other much expensive projects that only have less than 6 pages.($1500-$2000 plans) What I would recommend is hiring architects from Stockton that are familiar within the county/city codes and theyāll be obviously way cheaper from a design & architecture firm in San Francisco.
What counts as a luxury building in the bay area? A large bedroom to myself would be so decadent....
As in buildings, I have no clue. Weāre primarily residential, weāll do a couple favors for certain long time associates even a favor from a billionaire in Nevada but beside that no clue. Hey, look at the bright side at least we donāt live in Hong Kong or NYC.
Whatās the usual range of 4 bed 3 bath (ballpark works)? take Burlingame for example.
Great question btw. Personally, I donāt like answering ballpark questions because we canāt really ballpark with the information youāve given me. Is it going to be a 1 story or 2 story? How many square feet ? Iāll give you a figure as if it was for simple, modernist home. I got the location, which is perfect for the estimate
1 story ~1600-1800 sq ft simple 1 story ~1600-1800 sq ft modern 2 story ~1600-1800 sq ft simple 2 story ~1600-1800 sq ft simple Iām not expert on sq ft. Iām only counting in house sq ft. backyard etc excluded. I assume 2 story would be on higher end
Is this your side job?
Yes & No, my family own a construction company here in the Bay Area with clients in those general areas. Weāre quiet known, with a lot of client in tech, sports & finance. I wouldnāt be surprise if I run into clients on this topic