Does anyone know ballpark how much a teardown/rebuild would cost?

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Submitted by LAAFTERHOURS on June 30, 2008 - 9:20am

So this may not be an easy answer but trying to get a ballpark (low to high depend on a lot of variables like materials) but we are starting to see nice lots with small shacks in nice areas of point loma and other locales so the thought jumped into my head of how much a tear down would cost to rebuild? Either a total tear down vs leave one wall intact (doesnt that help you elude certain tax implications?). Some friends of mine live in Arlington VA and about 3 years did a total remodel of their small 2 bed home, transitioned it into a two story 4 bed. It ran them about 200K on top of their existing mortgage.

Sorry I dont know much about this but just wondering what the cost implications are. Im a renter so just looking to do some research.

Any insight would be appreciated.

PS this is not for flipping a house purposes.

‹ Condition of REDC and other foreclosures? doing a FSBO or getting a realtor ›
There are big property tax
Submitted by EconProf on June 30, 2008 - 9:54am.

There are big property tax benefits to tearing down 99% of the old house and building the new house incorporating that 1% or so left over versus scraping all of the old and building new.
The former is classified as a "remodel" and the latter as a whole new house. The property tax differential, which goes essentially forever, is HUGE.
Furthermore if you are near the coast, I believe the Coastal Commission will not interfere with a remodel as compared with a new house. The Coastal Commission is a sleeping dog you don't want to kick.

BobS wrote:There are big
Submitted by LAAFTERHOURS on June 30, 2008 - 10:21am.

BobS wrote:
There are big property tax benefits to tearing down 99% of the old house and building the new house incorporating that 1% or so left over versus scraping all of the old and building new.
The former is classified as a "remodel" and the latter as a whole new house. The property tax differential, which goes essentially forever, is HUGE.
Furthermore if you are near the coast, I believe the Coastal Commission will not interfere with a remodel as compared with a new house. The Coastal Commission is a sleeping dog you don't want to kick.

Thanks for the tax clarification Bob. I thought it was something like that but wasnt clear on the details. Now onto scoping how much PPSF cost is for remodel (which includes material, labor etc). Thanks in advance to all the piggs for info.

i was wondering the same
Submitted by drunkle on June 30, 2008 - 12:29pm.

i was wondering the same thing the other night and ran into an online calculator that produced estimates based on a quick questionaire. unfortunately, i can't find it again. it did however, produce somewhat inflated numbers... possibly still using bubble numbers for labor/materials costs...

just found this though:

http://blogs.wsj.com/developments/2007/1...

Construction is more
Submitted by UCGal on July 8, 2008 - 1:54pm.

Construction is more expensive than you'd think - depending on finishes...

We are finishing building a detached companion unit. The first contractor did most of the grading before abandoning the job. (That was a nightmare!) The second contractor came in to a site that already had the slab poured and the bulk of the expensive grading done - so it's comparable to a semi-tear down. We shopped contractors (trust me - I've talked to or gotten bids from over 30 contractors.)

The square footage price with the 2nd contractor was high - $275-300/sf. And, as I said, we shopped contractors!!!

It might be *slightly* lower for the scenario you describe since, theoretically, you would not have any utility trenching, or sewer/water connections. But that's such a small part of a project.

A friend recently did what you describe - bought a lot that had already demolished the house, then built a custom home. They paid close to $300/sf.

I naively thought we'd get bids for $200/sf when we started this project. Our first round of bids (5 contractors) were closer to $400-450/sf. These were big name folks that you hear on the radio.

Doesn't a tear down go up
Submitted by anxvariety on July 8, 2008 - 1:57pm.

Doesn't a tear down go up substantially if there are harmful chemicals in the building? Say an old structure with absestos or something else. I know someone that bought a place and had to spend 60k to have a crew come in and clean out the toxic stuff.

figure 30K to do a tear down,
Submitted by patb on July 20, 2008 - 7:00pm.

figure 30K to do a tear down, it's pretty cheap, a dozer, some morons
and a loader and a couple dump trucks.

a patial tear down is more because you need to stabilize what remains

figure new construction at 150-240/SF

but now isnt'a good time to invest in real estate