How Much Does It Cost To Build A House Series: Part 1, The Land

I thought it would be helpful and insightful to start a series where I share our build journey with you including the cost to build a house, ways to save, and how choices impact the budget. Our first step in our house building journey was to purchase land.

At the beginning, I feel I need to state the obvious. Locations, floorplans, finishes, and a million other variables affect the cost to build a house. Yet, I hope that this series will be a beneficial resource for those who want to build a house of their own and enlightening information for everyone else. If nothing else, it will be a great journal for me!

The Start of our Cost To Build Series

Typically, when you shop for real estate, you talk to an agent or browse Zillow. That didn’t happen for my husband and myself. The year was 2017. We had moved to Wyoming a couple years prior for work. While renting our 100-year-old farmhouse, we were working diligently to pay off student loans. We weren’t seriously looking for land. Just an occasional search now and then to complain about the price of housing.

However, I had always known I would build my own home. Perhaps because my parents did the same, when I was a young girl. They recorded videos of us kids playing on the large dirt piles, picking up nails, and climbing around the newly framed house. Then the wonderful years I had growing up in that home, only added to my desire to one day build from the ground up.

Finding Our Land

It wasn’t unusual for me to drive around and pick out ideal locations for me to dream up my house. I found a particular spot one day, with fields surrounding what looked to be a small plot of land enclosed by an old barbwire fence. I mentioned to my husband that we should contact the owner, but that was as far as it went.

Months later, I was browsing the local buy and sell page on Facebook. I saw someone had posted land for sale on this same road. Unsure if it was the land I had looked at months ago, we contacted the seller. Sure enough this guy was selling a portion of his land.

The land used to have a trailer house, which the owner had rented out, but had since been removed. However, because of this, there had been a well dug, a septic system placed, and electric was already on the lot.

Process of Buying Land to Build a House

As unconventional as it was, the owner hadn’t specified a price, and he didn’t go through a realtor. He was in the process of getting a surveyor to divide up the land from the rest of his fields officially so he could sell it. The process took months which gave us lots of time to research the well, septic tank, easements, and more.

At one time, just before the surveyor came out to the land, he asked us if we wanted to purchase 10 acres. I wish we had said yes! But at that time, still in debt with student loans, we didn’t seriously consider it. We thought about 1.5 acres would be more feasible so that’s what the surveyor divided up. And even that choice we questioned since it would be a while before we were out of debt.

How much does land cost in Wyoming?

At this point it was our responsibility to come up with a reasonable price he would accept. Unsure of how to go about purchasing land, we contacted a realtor to help us with a contract. We wanted to offer $49,000 but she advised us, based on the real estate market, to offer $54,000.

After more thought, we decided to offer $52,000. So, at the beginning of 2018 we took our offer to the seller. After a quick scan of the paperwork, he said, “You know I won’t accept less than $50,000!” He had apparently been looking at the amount we had to loan from the bank, which was $41,000, and had mistaken that number for our offer. At that point, we were kicking ourselves for not offering the $49,000 like we had wanted to. Still, we thought $52,000 was a good price, and we went forward with the purchase.

Reflection of Cost of Land

This turned out to be an incredible price and investment. In 2020 COVID hit and prices of everything increased dramatically. Land in this area more than doubled in price, as people from other states moved to our area, looking for a better lifestyle and now with the ability to work online. I am so grateful we purchased our land when we did, even though it felt like such a stretch at the time to make it work.

The Next Step in the Cost to Build a House Series

With this first step in building a house accomplished, we focused on paying off our student loans, then switching our focus to our land loan. Finally, in 2022 we paid off our land and started saving to build a house.

The next purchase came in drawing up our house plans.

Follow along for the next step in my How Much Does It Cost To Build A House Series. Comment if you are interested in reading more from this series!

Summary

In Summary, at this point we have spent:

• $52,000 for our land

• $3762 for interest on our land loan

• $500 for our realtor fee

TOTAL: $ 56,262

Tell me, did you purchase land and how much did it cost?

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Learn more about Amber from The Fairview Farmhouse HERE.