Blog submitted by Landen Design Build in Calgary.
So you are about to venture into the lifestyle of Acreage living, and you’re thinking about buying an acreage property or have already bought your acreage land and now want to start designing your dream acreage home. However, you may have no idea where to start this process. Or you are still searching for the perfect location to be able to live closer to nature and its rhythms. Either way, before you begin your Acreage custom home design or building process, there are some things to consider first.
One builder that is an expert at acreage home design and acreage building is Landen Development Inc. is an expert at acreage home design and acreage building. The company also goes by their trade name, Landen Design Build; they are one of the top acreage home-building companies in Calgary and its surrounding areas.
Landen’s expert team truly understands what it takes to build a custom home on an acreage building site. You can get in touch with them to discuss their complementary, absolutely no-charge upfront planning process. It includes up to 30 man-hours of real CAD preliminary planning, drafting, and 3-D rendering services. All on their dime! If your project qualifies, this free design service will help you set a realistic design and building budget before you ever start to build.
In this article, Landen Design Build in Calgary shares a few factors that you should contemplate before starting on any acreage home design and or acreage building process.
Extra cost related to the municipality that you plan to build in
Every municipality has different rules that need to be followed when building on an acreage building site. Whereas some municipalities, like the MD of Rocky View, have very strict building guidelines. As a result, it will cost you more to build in that municipality than, say, building in the MD of Foot Hills, Wheatland County or some other municipalities.
Other extra costs to building on an acreage site
Some people are not aware of the cost differences from “city slicker” built homes to country living built homes! Much of this difference in cost is directly tied to the actual extra lot servicing cost. This cost depends on where you plan to build or the lot you plan to buy. Unlike city lots, many acreage building sites do NOT have any services brought to the site, such as water, sewer, electricity, and gas services. And even if they do have “some” of these services brought to the property line, they still need to be brought further into the acreage site to the home location on your building site.
With most acreage sites tend to have much longer servicing distances than ay a regular city building lot. And even if your acreage site has a water well, you will still need to allow for the extra cost of hooking up that well water to your home. Whereas well hook-up costs are not normally associated with city-built homes. This extra cost can really up, especially if there are no services close by to your acreage building site.
Acreage services you need to be aware of “before” you buy your land
Here is a quick checklist and their rough associated cost to building on an acreage site. Of course, you will need to fine-tune these extra costs once you have an actual acreage site nailed down, where you can then get your builder to give you more firm quoted pricing. The numbers set out below are just to help you set a preliminary rough budget for these extra acreage building costs. Some of these budget numbers may come in higher or may come in less for your particular building site or may not be needed at all:
– Water Well drilling (if there is no well to start with): $12,000 to $18,000
– Water hook-up and water pressure system depends on the well’s gallons per minute: $8,000 to $12,000
– Water treatment systems, depending on the quality of well water: $1,000 to $8,000
– Septic tank and field and possibly a treatment system: $38,000 to $80,000
– Electric line (underground) average 300 linear ft: $8,000 to $10,000
– Gas Line average 300 linear. ft: $4,000 to $6,000
– Site work, grading, and clearing: $5,000 to $10,000
– Road or driveway (no pavement) average 300 linear. ft: $10,000 to $20,000
– Pave driveway average for 300 linear. ft: $25,000 to $35,000
– Entry gate and pillars: $14,000 to $25,000
As you can see from the above numbers, things can really add up. A good rule of thumb is to have at least $80,000 to $100,000 set aside in your budget as a starting point for added “acreage development cost.” This should be over above that of your actual home building construction budget when you first start shopping around for an acreage building site.
Waste Removal and Septic System
Living the acreage lifestyle usually means your home won’t be attached to any main water or sewer lines. As a result, you’ll be forced to have some sort of septic system and or sewage pump-out removal services. These septic system costs can vary greatly depending on each building site. They are also based on several factors, such as which municipality you are building in, or that will even allow you to do. In addition, the type of soil conditions on your site, the size of your site, proximity to water wells around you, etc. There are three basic types of septic systems, each with varying options and costs:
– Standard septic tank and effluent field, least expensive way to go
– A mound-type septic tank and effluent field is a more expensive way to go
– The sewer treatment system, added to one of the above options, is the most expensive way to go!
– A pump-out tank with no effluent field, where you need to pump out and hall away the effluent on a regular basis. The upfront cost is lower, but the monthly cost is way up!
in most cases, you do not have a choice on the type of septic system you will need to install, as that is usually determined by the municipality that you are building in. So it’s a good idea to know this information upfront “before” you buy your acreage building site. This information is generally readily available from the planning authorities within the municipality you plan to build in.
If you are just in the land-buying stage, you should make your purchase offer subject to verifying the type of septic system that the approving authorities will most likely allow you to use.
It should also be noted that these sewer systems will require yearly maintenance. Such as yearly tank pump out of solids and pump repairs and replacement.
Electricity and Gas hook-up
Again, unlike homes built in the city, your acreage building site could be quite far away from any existing power lines or gas services. In some cases, you might have power running to the edge of your property at the road, or it might be miles away. Where this could mean you may need to drag in a totally new electrical or gas service connection being run to your property line in order to then have your builder hook on to that and newly run services through onto your home. This can cost many thousands of dollars to get done.
One note to keep in mind, if you are dragging in a long electrical or gas service, there may be a bit of recapture of these sunk costs later on when other landowners want to tap into the line you just paid for! Make sure you have this set out in your electrical or gas line service agreement with your services provider.
One option is to go off-grid. At first, that sounds good, but this is not a cheap option. This can cost you anywhere from $100,000 to well over $300,000, depending on just how off-grid you will need or want to be. One positive to being off-grid is that you can somewhat guarantee a more energy-efficient home because you’ll be building your own power system. However, one thing to consider with off-grid systems is the capability of selling power back to the grid!
So, whether you use the traditional above-ground on power poles electrical servicing, below-ground services, or even solar power, be sure to speak with a builder that knows what they are doing. They must have the knowledge and experience to deal with these extra energy requirements so that they can review all the options available to you, as well as the cost consequences of each option.
At Landen Design Build, they not only help you custom design your dream acreage home, but they also help you with your waste removal/septic system, water pressure system, electrical, and other acreage servicing system design requirements. In addition, they let you know upfront any associated budget costs long before the building process begins. This way, you’ll have a solid idea of not only what the base home will cost to build. In addition, you’ll know the added cost of any acreage servicing and other system cost that tend to go with acreage home building.
Hire an experienced, trustworthy Design Build contractor/builder.
When you choose a contractor or builder to build your acreage home, they become your partners. Therefore, you want to work with a company that can deliver a one-stop design-build stress-free process. In addition, having a builder with a long track record of custom home design and building experience. Having experience in designing and building acreage homes will most likely save you time, money, and hassle in the long run. This way, you’ll know they are prepared for any acreage-building issues that might arise and be able to answer all your questions.
Rural-built acreage homes are Landen Design Build’s specialty! The company’s founder, Greg Genereux, has been designing and building award-winning custom homes for over 40 years. They have designed and built well over 1,000 custom and acreage-built homes and have also lived the acreage lifestyle for over 20 years. As a result, Greg and his team understand rural living and the challenges that can arise with acreage development.
Furthermore, Landen Design Build is also a Renovation Find Certified company! Reach out to Landen Design Build today to discuss your custom home acreage planning needs! They offer a full range of architectural design, 3-D rendering and virtual tour design services, starting from a blank page on through to full concept plans, then on to full building permit-ready drawings, all done in-house, with some of the industry’s most advanced 3-D rendering and CAD software and estimating systems.
Engaging a separate Designer from your builder selection
You can either engage Landen Design Build just for architectural design services just to do your custom home design work. Then, shop around for a builder. Or you can additionally have Landen build your home using their 40+ years’ of experience in custom home building. In addition, they have in-house building services such as their in-house cabinet-making and millwork shop. This allows them to cut out the middleman cost that is normally charged by other builders that don’t have their own millwork shop, cabinet shop, or in-house architectural design and drafting services.
One sure way to avoid the “old finger-pointing issue” that pops up when problems arise from engaging a separate design firm, along with a separate builder, is to use a one-stop shopping experience builder like Landen. In that case, the custom home designer is also the custom builder, which eliminates the old “pass the buck” problem.
The same thing goes for cabinets and millwork. If using a builder that subs out this work, issues can arise where the builder and cabinet shop argue over who caused some problem that comes up! With Landen, you eliminate much of this frustration! Plus will most likely save money using a one-stop shopping experience like Landen offers. No matter who’s at fault it is when using totally separate design /builder entities, the buck usually stops with you, the owner paying for the “problem”. With Landen’s process, this finger-pointing won’t cost you extra!
Furthermore, Landen Design Build offers one of the industry’s best at no charge to you. Their preliminary planning services, with up to 30 man-hours of real CAD and 3-D rendering design. This is all done at no charge to you, with no strings attached! They are one of the only design firms or builders that offers this extensive level of design and the ability to test drive a design firm without costing you a single dime! There are a few conditions, which they fully layout on their website (Also see the explainer video on their website), or book a meeting with Landen, where they would be happy to get on a call or meet up with you to fully answer any of your design or home building questions.
If your project qualifies for Landen’s no-charge preliminary planning service, their free service would then include the following all being totally complimentary services:
– An initial no-charge site visit and building site review
– A preliminary floor plan is drawn to scale with basic dimension measurements,
– Preliminary elevations (Note these elevations and subsequent 3-D views will NOT be totally detailed elevations but do give you a good feel for what the general feel of the home would be like.
– Preliminary 3-D exterior views
– Preliminary 3-D interior views, same thing. At this point, this 3-D view would NOT be fully detailed. However, the next stage of planning would show fully detailed 3-D modelling. It can even show you a video virtual tour walkthrough of your home “before” anything is ever built!
– A preliminary rough budget for construction costs. This is a rough budget based on the CAD files to this point of free design that would need to be further flushed out after final permit-ready drawings are done.
– A detailed architectural design drafting a budget to get final building plans done.
Why can Landen offer these no-charge services? (Some conditions apply)
You may ask, “Why does Landen offer this free design service“? The simple answer is they have a very high closing rate. Most clients that engage in Landen’s no-charge design service tend to become their fully engaged clients.
Unlike most other design firms, architects or builders want a hefty upfront design fee deposit before they do anything for you. At Landen, they think you should be able to “test drive” your custom home designer without costing you a penny. With Landen’s design concept, they put their time and money where their mouth is first! To be clear, this complimentary design offer is worth at least $2,000 in real design value if using any other design firm. This is simply based on what many other design firms’ normal hourly design rates tend to be, which average $65 to $85+, or architects that charge north of $200 per hour.
With Landen, you will get a very good idea of what this builder is capable of designing and doing for you “before” you spend any of your own money. Furthermore, if after they go through the first round of no strings attached designs for you. If you do decide to fully engage Landen for your full custom home design, they do not ask you for any upfront design deposit. They only need you to sign an engagement agreement to start designing your custom home, where you then only pay Landen for plans when they are 100% complete.
In addition, once you go through Landen’s preliminary planning process and you sign off on the preliminary plans, they then mutually agree with you on an “all-in” fixed design fee and lock in their design fee before you need to sign off on the design engagement agreement. That means no added design cost surprises later on.
Best of all, if you also engage Landen as your builder of choice, they then fully credit back to you all design costs. Effectively, your custom home plans become free of charge if you also build with Landen! Note: this is normally an $8,000 to $10.000 or more credited value compared with any other design firm or builder.
Regarding Landen’s design fees or its builders’ fees, they are very competitive with most other qualified design firms or custom home builders. If building with them under a project management formula, Landen works off of a 15% markup over a mutually agreed-to-building budget. Landen also fixes their builders’ management fee to a mutually agreed fixed fee, no matter where the hard construction cost comes in at. Most other builders that work off of a “cost plus” arrangement tend to be very motivated to run your job cost up higher. As more the job costs to build, the more those “other builders” makes.
Save money using a project management arrangement!
Using the Landen project management formula, with a fixed project management fee, generally saves you money. This is because don’t need to add in the old “what-if factor” that most other builders are adding in when working off of a quoted fixed price contract. Whereas builders tend to budget a 20-35% “what-if” contingency factor added to their fixed price. Also, if using Landen’s project management formula, they pass on to you all of their direct contractor discounted rates which tend to average a 10% discount over retail prices. Effectively you get Landen’s 40+ years of building experience at 5% over retail pricing. Note: many realtors charge close to that same fee just to sell your home!
If using Landen’s project management formula, they effectively have “0” motivation to try and run your job cost higher. This is because no matter what the cost comes in at, Landen’s project management fee stays fixed. This formula also eliminates the need for the multitude of change orders that are normally associated with a fixed-price contract. On a side note, this is where most fixed-price builders make their real money, tap-dancing on change order cost, where many builders tend to mark up change orders by 30-40%! With Landen’s formula, changes to the scope of work do not have any extra markup added by Landen.
One other benefit to using Landen is they also include the first four hours of their registered professional interior decorator at no extra charge to you. That is, if they are also your builder of choice after the first 4 hours of interior design are used up, you can then engage directly with their interior designer at their reduced builder rate with no additional markup added to the designer’s rate!
Verify your builder is a fully registered New Home Warranty builder
Most important is to verify that your selected builder is a fully registered New Home Warranty builder! Landen Development Inc. (Landen Design Build) is a fully registered New Home Warranty builder. They have many hundreds of client references that they can offer you for you to fully verify that Landen Design Build is truly one of the “good guys” out there. Furthermore, they also offer you upfront their trade and supplier references for you to follow up with. You should note that happy trades that are paid on time generally do a much better job for you than, say, some other builders that tend not to pay their bills on time.
Checking Trade & supplier references
Note: Checking on a builder’s trade references is one sure way of knowing you are engaging with a quality builder. Any builder not willing to give you their contact list of trades or suppliers for you to follow up with might be a builder that you may need to think twice about. In Landen’s case, they put their trades and suppliers list along with their direct contact info right on their website!
Landen is also a BBB member in good standing. In addition, they are a RenovationFind Certified company and a fully vetted Trusted pros member with a 5-star rating. They also have great 5-star Google reviews.
Top Home Builders in Calgary
Landen Design Build is one of the top, one-stop design-build solutions for your custom or acreage-built homes. This is a company with over 40 years of building experience building luxury and custom homes. They also work on home renovations, large or small, including home extensions and bump-outs, along with full second-story additions and kitchen and bathroom renovations.
One factor that sets Landen Design Build apart from all other builders or design firms is that Landen offers up to 30 man-hours of no-charge preliminary CAD and 3-D rendering design and consultation services. Clients that book early and met the company’s project qualifying factors and are within Landen’s 60-kilometre home base working vicinity of Calgary may eligible for this complimentary service. (Call or email Landen Design Build at 403-619-4734 or info@landendevelopment.com for more details.)
Also important is how Landen Design Build is very transparent about how they work and their pricing policies, as evidenced by the many 5 Star Google reviews. These are just a few reasons to hire Landen Design Build.
