Seek the assistance from a local architect.

A great book list here (I recommend most of these to my clients). Some are more "into" design than others but it's good reading for those interested:

http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/3281434/book-suggestions?n=10

And another good thread on what makes good house design:

http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/3285825/what-makes-a-house-have-good-design?n=39

Are there any similar-sized houses being built in the area, or that have been recently been built? That should give you very general idea of 'comps'. Location is a huge factor, as in some zip codes builders charge more simply because they can. What you build is the other biggie. You can build 1500 sq ft well under $100 per square foot for a tract home in a lower priced area. Other places you can't build an unfinished garage for that figure. Everyone has a different definition of 'modest'. To me, modest means a very basic shape, with generic builder-grade finishes inside and out. Upgrade the design, siding, roofing, windows, flooring, trim, etc., and suddenly you are in a very expensive custom home.

I tried an on-line building estimator that was zip-code specific, but for the life of me, I can't remember what it was called.

Excellent questions! For costs, one place to start is a real estate search to identify sales prices of homes of similar size and quality in your chosen area. Custom home design and construction is almost always more expensive than the costs of existing homes for sale. For that, one gets to "customize" how one lives.

Talking with a couple of local realtors will also be a good source of information on your desired area. Experienced realtors will be able to give you a sense of costs for existing homes, what sells and what doesn't, and should be able to identify real estate development trends in the area. They should also be familiar with some of the more well known builders who are respected in the area.

Be cautious and skeptical about online cost estimators. Square foot cost estimates can be very misleading, since the cost of a "square foot" in one location may vary significantly from that same "square foot" in another location. And then, there are all sorts of "square foots" when it comes to actual design and construction plans. For example, a "square foot" in a kitchen with plastic laminate counters, builder grade cabinets and plumbing fixtures is hardly the same as a "square foot" in a kitchen with granite counters, custom cabinets and top of the line plumbing fixtures. You get the point.

Besides all of the research on local regulations, restrictions, and costs you will need to reach agreement on what your truly need in a new house as contrasted with what you want. "Needs" versus "wants" is one place to begin when considering a new custom home. Making separate lists of needs and wants, discussing them at length and reaching mutual agreement is essential before seriously proceeding.

You should talk to your local banker about financing and have a good financial understanding and plan.

I also recommend a list describing what you truly want your house to do for you. It can be as simple as "keep the rain out" or as thoughtful as "inspire us and re-energize us after a day's or week's work effort.

With a baby on the way, I wonder if this is the right and best time for such a major undertaking and change in your life? Searching for the right new location and going through the design, construction and move-in for a new house of any kind can be an unpredictable and sometimes challenging endeavor. Be sure that this is the right time before seriously proceeding.

Another important analysis is whether you can live and be satisfied in a tract home, a builder's home (many custom builders have a half-dozen or so custom homes in their portfolio which they build on demand), or a custom designed home by an architect or designer. Each category has its pluses and minuses.

Stock plans from the various Internet plan factories often appear appealing, but one should remember that they do not take into consideration local land conditions and local ordinances and regulations. The majority of them do not have foundation or structural plans, nor systems plans (HVAC, electrical, lighting, signal, plumbing, etc.). Many of the plans do not even have spaces provided in the floor plans for these systems (furnaces, air handlers, electrical mains and subs, water heaters, etc., all take space and need access). So study and consider these plans carefully.

There are a number of good books to read, as ARG suggests above. Reading and collecting photos of architectural styles and features is always a fun effort.

Good luck with your project.

Thanks all for the responses so far.

We would not be planning to build or even necessarily buy this year, but need to start learning about the process to see if it's even feasible for us. What we want out of this is a home in a nicer location than our condo, we are not interested in building a luxury custom dream home (well we'd be interested if we had unlimited money).

We have significant savings that would allow us to buy a lot in cash and hold onto it until we are ready to build, probably after our baby is at least a year old. To make the move, we'd be looking at job changes as well to relocate, and that will also take time and have to wait until after we are settled with our baby.

In CA, land is generally a good investment and if we get a decent deal (which of course involves talking to realtors and assessing the market history and factors in the specific area) it would not be a bad use of some of our savings - so long as the lot is buildable, which we need to ensure so we don't get stuck with a dud. It's a hilly treed area and the slopes of some lots can present a challenge so we'd have to have soil stability tests and other assessments done for build-suitability and ensure utility access etc before we purchased any land.

For the architects, I guess you'd be inclined to say we need one. Can you tell me why you say we'd need one for this situation? We'd be interested in a basic design from an existing plan with no alterations. For example simple rooflines, a basic type of house. We're not looking to build a custom dream home.

I'm less concerned with the design of a house right now and more concerned with whether it would be - as it appears from the initial research - actually cheaper to buy land now and build a house on it than to purchase an existing home (remember this is CA - everyone wants move-in ready and such houses even of basic design are generally not under $1M). The existing homes for sale in the area we are looking at are in the $800k-$1M range and for that price are not always move-in-ready - that's CA for you. The price of land was surprisingly low to me compared to the cost of the existing inventory homes (lots for under $100k, which we could purchase in cash).

Basically it comes down to the fact that we'd really rather raise our child in a small town in a single family home than in the somewhat less than ideal urban neighborhood we live in now. For the first couple years of her life, it won't matter so much but as she grows up, we are thinking about her environment. It also would mean we could purchase land in their near term and then build and move when we are ready, and land and housing costs are going up all the time especially in CA.

We are also DIY'ers and would definitely be able to do some of the work ourselves in the interior finishing - installing cabinets, flooring and paint for example. We have experience with both DIY and contractor renovations.

From what I read, CA is an expensive place to build between higher labor rates and regulations which add significantly to the cost. I remember someone on here years ago that paid $58K in permit costs to build in CA (Truckee, IIRC). Depending upon your seismic zone, engineering may be required on any design, off the shelf or custom. I've heard that CA will require homes, starting in 2020, to be 'net zero', meaning they don't use any more energy than they consume. That has to raise the price significantly, at least until the technology becomes mainstream. All that being said, land could certainly be a good investment, providing it is a buildable lot (and the rules keep changing), and there are no provisions requiring that you build within X amount of years (yes, those rules exist some places).

There's nothing wrong per se with building a stock plan, but you need to find one that somewhat matches your lot, and fits your needs. Easier said than done. Otherwise, you wind up with a house that looks good on paper, but doesn't 'live' very well. One quick example- Our house in FL had a porch facing west which was uninhabitable much of the year due to heat. Our neighbor across the street, with an east exposure had a very usable porch. Exact same house; different orientation. And as I said, there's a very good chance the house will require engineering, and possible not even meet stringent CA codes as designed.

Where in California are you looking?

CA is an expensive place altogether, but this is the center of the world for our careers, we would make less than half what we do elsewhere. The good part of that is that we bought our condo at the bottom of the market and it's appreciated very significantly, so we will make a nice profit on it when we sell it, and we are planning to move from an extremely expensive area to a somewhat less expensive area (despite still being expensive compared to other states) so we'll be able to move up to a single family home from our condo if we do this right.

"I've heard that CA will require homes, starting in 2020, to be 'net zero', meaning they don't use any more energy than they consume. "

I don't understand this statement - how is the "consumption" not equal to "use"? I'm sure you mean something about energy efficiency, which is a good thing for many reasons and doesn't trouble me. Solar panels for example are very common now and can be free-leased.

Good point about the permits - they are very expensive here, I would expect the permits to be between $10-50k, but factoring those in, we'd still be looking at a lower cost to build than to buy an existing comparable house.

I'm not asking anyone here to give me an estimate of the building cost, I'm asking where do I look for this information - do I find a builder and bug them for quotes?

Start going to builder open houses in the areas you want to build in and look at the quality of their homes. Read lots and lots about what a quality home would be.

Talk to architects and builders.

Yes for example net zero means the total amount of energy used by the building on an annual basis is roughly equal to the amount of renewable energy created on the site.

Learn what all these terms mean, and what it will mean for you.

You're obviously young. What do you want in a house? Do you even know? Do you know what makes a house flow well? If so great. If not, take the time to learn about good house design. No that doesn't mean you need to know how to design the house, but go to lots of open houses so you get a feel for what works and doesn't work for you. The more you explore, the more you'll understand your needs.

It doesn't pay to "find a builder and bug them for costs"! The good ones are busy, and even the not so good ones won't spend much time with you if they think you are just window shopping. "Estimates" from builders are worth about as much as you have paid them for the estimate.

Take a look at some of the suggestions above and give them a try. Forget Internet estimating services. As I've already said they aren't worth much, particularly in your expensive area.

cpartist, I'm not sure what you consider young or why you think it's "obvious" that we are... but DH and I are 43, which is generally considered middle aged. We are on our second owned home, we've just never thought of building one and have no experience with this scenario - like many people, but we are not naive.

What we want in a home design will completely depend on where we build it - views, grade, lot shape and size, etc. As I've said a few times in response to one of the first questions, we are primarily concerned with finding out the ballpark costs, rather than the exact type of home and design. We simply want a modest home ie a decent functional shelter in a neighborhood we prefer, and we are hoping to come up with the best plan for us financially.

There are no current new build projects in the area we are looking - so there's nothing to compare to, even if we wanted to drive around and ask people how much they are spending on their build. It's a small town with mostly established homes, all inventory is selling for 8-12 times the cost of the open lots available. There are only a couple lots available right now, about 10 minutes outside town. Nearby towns and cities vary a *lot* in their median home prices, and therefore presumably in their building costs - but it's a catch 22... we need to know roughly how much it would cost - $200k, $400k, $600k? before we can even consider this worth checking into.

I'm not relying on internet estimates, I asked here for recommendations on getting a more reliable ballpark cost, as well as information about the zoning etc. I guess I will check with the local city office.

Since there are no construction projects going on in that area right now, it seems my only choice is to try contacting some contractors in the area. Maybe they will be far too busy to give me any info, but there don't seem to be any other viable options.

This is a funny thread.

I'm sorry I made an assumption based on your talking about your baby. I have to learn not to make assumptions. But honestly? Yes you're young in my eyes. :)

cpartist, youth is a relative thing, for sure. But I don't think our age factors in to our situation.

Oaktown thanks - we don't really have set plans, this is more in the stages of "is this a feasible idea" for us. Buying land soon and building on it in a year or 2-3 is one possibility. A 20% +/- ballpark number would be extremely helpful.

Ichabod Crane I'm not sure what is amusing to you, it seems I should not have dared to stray into this forum and ask some questions.

tmnca, one other thing to consider is if prices are rising or stable in your area and also if building prices are rising or are stable.

For example, 3 years ago we could have built the house we're about to build for considerably less than it will cost us now as the price of labor and materials in our area have been jumping something like 10%+ a year.

My husband and I are also in California with a condo we bought shortly after the market crashed. Our condo has also appreciated greatly (nearly doubled in value), we don't want to live in it forever, we would prefer a single-family home long-term, and we are looking (somewhat in dismay) at the options in California. I really feel you -- it just seems bonkers to buy a house right now here.

I've been advocating for moving to the PNW (I have family up there) where we could live mortgage-free for the profit we'd make on our condo. I'm willing to trade the weather for walkability and living way below our means. My husband's been alternately advocating for Southern California or just buying a better condo here. Doesn't want to trade the weather.

Your approach -- buying land and then building -- is a somewhat novel one to me for people in this area. It makes me wonder if it would indeed be cheaper. Surely if it were as simple as that, with so many of us unable to afford houses outright, you'd hear a lot about people buying land and building instead. Instead, people seem more often to be buying small, old houses and expanding them. I hear about that so often that I actually know off the top of my head what that costs -- adding a second story in the Bay Area right now seems to be in the $400,000-$600,000 realm. (Labor is clearly astronomical.)

My guess would be that building new on a $100,000 piece of land would cost you approximately the same as just buying a house that already exists. You might just ask builders in your target neighborhood what the last few houses they built cost the owners. They could probably ball park that for you off the top of their heads without going to the trouble of a whole estimate.

Sorry about the confusion on net zero. Cpartist explained it properly. I should proof-read better!

It's hard for me to wrap my head around building costs in places like CA. We are in a very inexpensive area in SC, and many of your 'routine' costs would have torpedoed our project before it ever got started. For example, our permits were $400, and took about 15 minutes to get approved. But then, pay rates here are also very low, so it's all relative. Buying land and then building is NOT cost effective here, but we couldn't get what we wanted in an existing home, and we paid for it gradually over the course of building it (and a ton of sweat equity).

tmnca - you asked about "any particular pitfalls to look for if we buy the lot in cash but choose to finance the building?" and I just wanted to share our experience. I'm not sure how big lots are there, or if there is any significant acreage you're planning on looking at, but one pitfall you may watch for is the 5-10 acre limit that most conventional or fha mortgages limit to. If you're purchasing over this amount, you may be required to divide the parcel into 2 lots. Definitely talk to the bank that will be handling your financing ahead of time! You don't want to pay for the surveyor to come back out again, trust me. This scenario can cause some panic when it's time to go to secondary market after construction. Ask me how I know! ;)

I find it fascinating that finished houses there sell for 8-12x the cost of the lot. I would intuitively think that in a place like coastal California the land would be much more valuable (i.e. a lower ratio). I am in NYC suburbs, and in our town I'd say the ratio is around 2-5x. I get that seismic considerations would make construction more expensive, but I can't imagine it influences the cost by 3x (and it's not as if labor here is cheap).

I also would intuit that building from scratch (and up to today's more stringent codes) would be less expensive (per sq ft) than adding a second story where you still have to bring the existing structure up to the newer codes. But of course I have no idea.

If I were in your shoes I would find a knowledgeable realtor and tell him/her what you are thinking about doing and ask for advice, ideas and resources. I would think a good realtor could tell you what it would cost to build new in their area and suggest other resources for you to evaluate.

Having said that ... I have one piece of unsolicited advice that I give to people who are having their first child. That advice is "dont make any decisions pre-kid that you can't easily undo post kid." My wife and I made this mistake by buying a house in a distant exurb before we had kids. It was new construction, a nice house with a big yard and in a great school district. And before we had kids we thought it was perfect. Once our first kid came along ... we realized that it was not even close to perfect. The commute to work and day care was too far. The family members who helped us with child care were too far. The mortgage and taxes required that my wife go back to work ASAP - something that she was surprised to learn that she desperately did not want to do. We were not compatible with our neighbors so play opportunities for the kids were a challenge. We sold that house at a big loss after living there for about 4 years and had to move in with my inlaws for several months to get back on our feet.

You may make none of the mistakes that we made but I am just saying that the things that you think are important/not important pre-kid tend to change post-kid. My "kids" are 20 and 18 now. Good luck!

cpartist, the housing market is on the rise in our area in general and has been other than a leveling-off period in the "crash" between 2007-2012, and all signs indicate that it will continue to rise. In some neighborhoods like our current one, with less than desirable school districts, values fell during that period (when we bought our condo) but have recovered now.

We spoke with our realtor who was able to give us a lot more information than I realized she'd have, and it sounds like it will be pretty expensive to build especially if the lot is sloped like most are in that region. I guess that's why the lots are so relatively inexpensive compared to the existing homes. The very low inventory of homes for sale makes it a problem, though.

We've considered prefab homes but the manufacturers in CA seem to be more expensive than stick built, mostly catering to a luxury market - and may not be as adaptable to the hillside lots.

Years ago I had a dream of building ourselves a straw bale house, but that was before I got pregnant!

schreibdave, yes very good point, it's difficult to anticipate future needs. Obviously we are trying to figure how can we move to a place that has decent schools (I'm not over-reacting, our district elementary school has a 2 out of 10 rating on greatschools.org and is known for gang activity) while preserving our work opportunities and keeping our commute to a minimum. However with housing prices continuing to rise and rise in desirable areas, it has occurred to us that if we were able to purchase land now, we could either build on it for ourselves, build a home and sell as an investment, or sell the land. But we certainly don't want to get stuck with an albatross.

Can you find an architect and/or builder who can look over any possible lots to see what it might cost to build? A good architect might know how to keep costs down on a sloped lot and make the most of it?

Local zoning and other requirements might be very important in this case. California is earthquake country; there also are concerns and regulations that might apply about erosion and stormwater management. For example, one area nearby generally does not allow certain types of grading/excavation work in the winter months. In certain areas there are rules relating to fire safety -- not just in terms of building materials and fire department access but also sprinkler systems (which might require infrastructure upgrades in terms of pipe diameter and water pressure). Etc., etc. Such costs may be largely unavoidable regardless of house design.

You are entering uncharted waters. Couples without children can live prett much anywhere; a child changes everything.

We moved from the Midwest to LA in 1981. It was a financial disaster for us. Interest rates at that time were in the high teens (house in Midwest was 5 1/4 when we assumed the loan). Our children were 9 and 11. My husband was teaching at a private girls school on the West side of LA. Due to this, we did get free tuition at a private pre-K - 6 school in Bel Aire. Of course, we couldn't afford to buy within 20 miles of there!

We ended up renting a house and do ending nearly all we made on the sale of our house, on rent. We stayed in LA 2 1/2 yrs and had to get out of there. Fortunately, we had a piece of and in the NE that had been given to my husband by his parents. We sold that and returned to the Midwest were we were able to buy a house that in an equivalent LA neighborhood (think Brentwood) would have been 6 times the cost. Yes, my husband took about a 20% cut in pay, but the low cost of housing made up for that and far more. No regrets...