We’re hoping to build a retirement home in Oregon. We’d like to move in around late 2018, but we want to minimize the time where we are carrying costs for 2 homes (i.e. the new house plus our current house in California).
How long should we budget to select a lot, get plans, permits, etc.?
It all depends on the type of home you want, i.e. contractor grade versus designer quality, the site, and the town process for review.
In New York City the department of buildings can take up to 12 months to review and approve a project. Obviously, NYC is it’s own beast, but as a design/build contractor with an architecture and design company, my recommendation would be to plan for about 3 months of Design & Construction Drawings. This would give you the chance to sit down and review the plans with your architect, review finishes, specifications, and everything and make sure the home that is drawn on paper is the home you want. The biggest issue I come across is sloppy drawing sets and lack of detail. This leaves too much up in the air. Once, the design is finalized, it usually takes about 3 to 4 weeks to bid a project out. Your architect should help you with that process, as they would be more familiar with the nomenclature and everything you’ll find in a bid.
Permits are varying from town to town. In New Jersey, it can be as easy as dropping the plans off and waiting a few days for them to be reviewed. I’m not sure the process in Oregon, but I would ask local architects as they’ll know the typical town turnarounds.
Hope that helps!
“10 months total for the entire process”
It depends on your team and the project manager. There is a lot of running around; permits to acquire, scheduling, etc. Once you received the approved blue prints and permits / “green light” it can take 6 - 8 months to build a single family home. The initial process, mentioned above, can take from 1 - 2 months depending on the code enforcement and zoning work load, building the actual house can take 6 months, all and all 7-8 Months.
For plans and permit, budget 2 months. The architect can take up to a month depending on his or her work load, plan approval and prints can take a month. Purchasing the land can take two to three weeks, title search and all. Therefore, to be on the safe side, budget 3 months for the lot, plans and permits. Budget 7 months for the actual completion of the house, so overall to be on the safe side budget 10 months total for the entire process. Wish you success on your project and new home.
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