How Much Does It Cost to Build a House as an Owner Builder?

Show Notes:

Thinking about building your own home and wondering what it will really cost? This episode shows you how to get an accurate owner‑builder budget without relying on unreliable “cost per square foot” charts, books, or AI guesses. Steve explains why the only numbers that matter come from real plans priced by real local contractors, and how a detailed, permit‑ready plan set lets subs give serious bids instead of guesses. You’ll learn the difference between hard costs (foundation, windows, roof, materials, labor) and soft costs (plans, engineering, permits), how Landmark’s one‑stop design and engineering package actually reduces change orders and surprises later, and where DIY work truly saves money versus where you’re better off hiring pros (especially for HVAC and other critical systems). Steve also breaks down how owner‑builders can realistically use their own skills plus Landmark’s detailed plans and support to manage subs, control costs, and avoid underestimating key items like windows, foundations, and code‑driven requirements such as egress and tempered glass — turning a vague “I want to build a house” into a confident, funded, line‑item budget.

Transcript:

Steve Tuma: You know, we’ve been doing this 32 years — almost 33 years. We’ve seen an amazing amount of things. But every once in a while, you get a curveball. The thing is, we have the resources to get you the answer of how it applies to your particular project on your building site.

Interviewer: Hello everyone, and welcome to Episode 76 of the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show.

With me today, as he normally is, is the President and Founder of Landmark Home and Land Company, a company which has been helping people build their new homes where they want, exactly as they want, nationwide and around the globe since 1993 — Mr. Steve Tuma.

Steve, how’s it going, pal?

Steve Tuma: It’s going great again — another day of helping people figure out how to build houses. We’re getting more and more customers that are coming back and doing some duplexes or investment properties.

Interviewer: Well that’s good.

Steve Tuma: Yeah, which is cool. Some new customers, some that built with us years ago that are like, “Hey, it’s time to do an investment property.” It’s kind of cool. It’s similar in process, and then other times it’s a little different, depending on codes or where they’re building or site conditions.

Interviewer: Return customers can never be bad.

Steve Tuma: It’s always fun. It’s just kind of cool when you get a call out of nowhere and they say, “Hey Steve, remember me?” I’m like, “Yeah,” reminisce for a while on the houses, and move on to help them with their new projects.

Interviewer: Better than you saying, “No, I have no idea who you are.”

Steve Tuma: Yeah, no!

Interviewer: I thought we’d talk today about a subject that’s on the minds of potential homeowner‑builders — and just about anybody these days, actually — and that’s the question of cost. The cost of living in general is so high these days, but for our purposes I thought we’d talk about the cost of building a home.

Can we do that?

Steve Tuma: Yeah. Well, it’s kind of interesting because a lot of people want to be an owner‑builder because of the savings. They can do some work so they don’t have to pay for someone else to do it. And then also, that savings — if they have a mortgage — saves considerably on their mortgage and the interest they pay over the life of the loan.

But yeah, costs are varied. It’s a unique economy. There’s a lot of things going on. But there is still a great opportunity, because houses in general are appreciating and doing pretty well.

So a lot of people will call up and say, “Hey, how much does it cost to build a house?” or, “How much does it cost to build this?” And there’s a lot of variety — or variables — in the elements of the cost:

The land
The improvements
Water supply
Sewage supply
Any permitting fees
Driveway, sidewalks
The foundation
And the actual home part as well

So what we always suggest is that people work with us to get a real set of plans and go get estimates from local contractors and find out what the details are.

I use the word real set of plans — complete, that we’ve drawn up — because sometimes people just want to sketch something on a napkin and bring it to a contractor and say, “Hey, how much is it for this?”

And it’s kind of like garbage in, garbage out. If the guy’s got to guess for you, he’s probably going to guess high — or most likely just not take you seriously.

Subcontractors don’t make money off of providing bids, especially when they sense that people are just pricing around to keep themselves busy and feel it out. Quality contractors are in limited supply. So you want to make sure when you go to a contractor you have:

A real project
A real set of plans
Real details of what you intend to build

Then you’ll actually get a number that’s more realistic — and probably more accurate — to help.

So that cost — we tell people, get a set of plans and go get it quoted. We can always do rough targeting based on general square footage or details, but it’s always good to get a cost.

One thing I want to caution people about is, some people go online and think that ChatGPT and all these other AI programs have every single answer in the world. They might have some answers, but the accuracy of it is not there.

So I would not suggest using general books, some internet site that has general guidelines of costs. Things can vary significantly in:

Location
The actual building site
The design of the home

So it’s best to work with a contractor to get the actual costs.

I’ve never seen a book be accurate in quoting costs. I’ve never seen an internet site that’s accurate. So we always suggest people get a real set of plans, get into it, be committed to the project, and let the subcontractors know that, “Hey, I’m doing this. I’ve got this project that’s going on at this specific address, and we intend to start and finish in a certain timeline,” and let them know that you’re financed or funded and move forward. You’ll find that the contractors are more responsive.

So it starts with a set of plans. At that point you also know what you want, and it leads our customers to think it through. When you’re drawing the plans up it’s like:

“How big of a window do you want here?”
“How do you want your kitchen laid out?”
“How big is your garage?”
“What are you doing in the basement or bonus room area?”

So you can actually give the subcontractors the information that they need to provide an accurate quote.

I know that’s not the easy answer. Sometimes people want to have the easy button or the magic button on a computer to do that. But it is one of those things that it’s best to:

Understand what you want in a home
Have us draw it up on the plans
Include the details in the plan so it’s accurate and clear

And then you work on getting the estimates back — probably more accurate estimates and quicker response when they see that you’re actually doing something and not just asking for a bid out of curiosity.

So you want to show that you’re organized, you know what you’re building, you have a timeline, you’re funded to do it, so that they can move forward. And that’s the best thing.

I understand sometimes people say, “Hey, I have no place to start.” Well, that’s when they give us a call. We can work through things and kind of mold a little bit of a plan together so that a potential customer understands how to move forward.

Interviewer: How early in that process can you actually put together an owner‑builder cost breakdown? Is it an itemized list, or how do you do that?

Steve Tuma: Well, what we do is we work with the customer to get general ideas. So if someone said, “Hey, I want to build a house in Orlando. How much does it cost? What’s go...