Hey All,

I am wanting to get out of the city & move into something more "natural"-something that has a slower pace and much fewer people.

I currently - and for the foreseeable future, be working in the foothill industrial park in Calgary. I was wanting to buy a piece of land in the Priddis/Millarville area and build a house.

I wanted to know-from you out there that have done it- what are the costs of doing business out of the city.

Based on the land piece, will depend on how big of a house I want to build, but I am not expecting to have any mansion or anything as such-but I don't want a mobile home either.

In Calgary, I have had houses built for approx $150/sq foot-not including land.
what will a custom house builder charge for something comparable?
What 'extra' costs am I going to see-for Septic, Power, Gas road ( Water well is already drilled )

I have heard that septic could cost around 30K, but the others I don't know about.

Your input is greatly appreciated.

 

Septic for 30 means your paying 15 to 20 to much..

The biggest expense is the added travel time for all the trades you will be paying for.. They will expect you to grab your own ankles.. You need to call the power company for the area your looking and ask them the costs.. same for gas.. find a couple dozer guys and get a quote for a driveway.. Its not going to be cheap unless you can do it yourself..

 

Friends of mine built on a piece of bare land near Crossfield a few years back. The things they had to pay out of pocket that you don't usually get hit with in the city:
Run your utilities onto your property at your own expense:
Natural gas (or be prepared to use a big propane tank that will freeze during the winter)
Electricity
Telephone
Some other big ticket items are:
Well
Driveway
Septic
Be prepared to pay call out and extra mileage fees for every trade you call
Also be prepared for the fact that you likely can't run utilities when the ground is frozen. My friends' house was ready for utilities in December. Power was on poles that they put in during summer but gas was an issue and their phone line ran along their fence posts for the winter.
Don't get me wrong, I live SE of Calgary on a rural area and I wouldn't trade it for anything but I had to come to peace with the fact that I get charged more for everything. Luckily I am fairly handy with the tools. I have had to climb down into the septic tank a few times to fix problems. My city friends all make faces and say they wouldn't do that. The septic guys know that and typcially charge about $300 to come to your hosue and climb down into the tank. Any work they do after that is extra. For $300, I can handle a little smell and then go have a good hot shower.

 

You could go with a modular home. I saw on TV last week a company in Calgary that builds high end homes in sections the puts them together on site in about a week ready to move in. Work shop???, I'd go with a pole shed, 32 feet wide and as deep as you want, cheap to build and quick.

 

We toured modular home in Billings Montana and let me tell you - they are very impressive.

http://www.piercehome.com/

 

The reason for the 30k for the septic is the new cost of the fields- As far as I have been informed, they are basically forcing you to put in a sand system-because of the overcrowding of rural acreages.

Does anyone got a price/sqfoot that they had a house built in a rural area-it would atleast give me a starting point for laying out my finances.

 

3 years ago we moved out of Cochrane and onto a 5 acre chunk of land just North of Sundre.

We looked at every aspect we could think of with regards to bare land, build new, buying existing, and so on and so on.

Factoring everything we needed and wanted, it ended up being cheaper and better for us to buy an existing place and build up on it. Found a great piece of property with an older existing house, an artesian well flowing 60 gallons a minute and a very good size shop. We also had to take into consideration the commute back and forth to Calgary.

In the end, we figured that we spent half of what it would of cost to buy land and build new buildings (house and shop) as well as bring in the utilities. After cleaning up the property, we have been assessed double the purchase price by our bank and I haven't renovated the house or shop yet, just cleaned the property and built a 40 x 40 barn.

We are not saddled into a huge mortgage. The existing septic has tons of life left in it and free flowing water means not having to punch a well.

The daily commute in my case ranges anywhere from 300 to 500 kms a day round trip. Yes it sounds extreme but now that I have done it for so long, I don't even notice the travel. Fuel costs are roughly $1000 a month give or take. But with the lower mortgage payments and such, it's not even noticed. Living in Cochrane, it would take me over half an hour to get to Olympic Park in traffic!

I know friends that live in the Priddis/Millarville area and it is not a cheap place to buy land let alone an existing property. It might be a bit more of a commute but I would suggest looking North of Calgary.

We bought our 5.5 acre property for $350,000 3 years ago. When we were looking at the time, a comparable property around the Cochrane area was pushing $700,000 plus with a real short step to go over a million. To build from scratch was going to push past $800,000 for something close to comparable to what we have now. For the difference in price, I will drive a little further.

And the drive really isn't a big deal. From my front door, I can be in Crowfoot in 60 minutes, Calgary airport in just over an hour going out through Olds and down #2 highway, I can be at Costco in Red Deer in 45 minutes.

As for the buildings we have right now, sure they are 40 years old but they are in great shape and they are solid, more so than anything being built today. I'm a carpenter, so renovating isn't a big deal and I can do it on my time when I can afford it or want to do it.

I will say that you will never look back after leaving the rat race of the city. I don't regret it and highly recommend that everyone do it. Nothing is more enjoyable than pulling into your driveway and hearing nothing. It's dark at night, no sounds, no sirens, no noise except for what you make. Neighbors that actually wave to you, talk to you and a lot of times offer assistance when you don't even ask for it.

The costs of doing this is strictly up to you and how you do it but I hope you go for it, it will be a move you won't regret.

Jeff

 

Better to buy a place already built within a desired commuting distance as to what Homestead says---my folks packed up and left Calgary and moved out of the rat race/city life---they are retired.Not applicable to what you would like to do but they went 1000Km north west to Peace River area but they love the farm/acerage/country life.Nothing beat sitting on a front porch looking out over your land without person/traffic or noise to be heard---good hunting too.I am looking to buy in the "North"--- Crossfield/Carstairs area one day as i have a vacation place at Gull lake and would like to be close to Calgary for work but equal distance to spend summer at the second place.Driving mean nothing for me as it is part of my living(250Km a day)kinda actually prefer driving to flying, its not to uncommon for me to want to drive 1000+km a day(see the scenery) if i have to go visit family.Wife is the opposite and 3 hours is her limit.Good luck in you decision-----------PS my best friends brother is building a place in "Bearspaw" right now----nice home from the sound of it but it comes at a very big premium-$1,000,000+,then again i was out in Cochrane looking at walkout lots ---nice ones(52x140) will set you back 280K for a walkout then add the house----no thanks.DW

 

The further east that you go the cheaper the land gets. Out by Standard, the land is approximatly half what it costs in the Cochrane area.

 

As has been mentioned, east is definitely cheaper than southwest. There is a 17 acre piece of bare land across the street from me that has been on the market for a couple of years. It has some plusses and minuses. Plus - very near to existing utilities so adding phone, power and gas won't be expensive. Something that is a huge plus for some people, it has access to the Western Irrigation District canal, so if you buy a permit you get access to irrigation water. The only real negative, the southern boundary of the land is the main CP Rail line. I have the exact same thing, my property is bordered by the train line. We get about 25 trains a day along that line. Hoinestly, I don't notice the train noise any more. I heard the trains for the first couple of days we lived here and then it just becamse background.
I don't own the land so I am not trying to sell it here, just give some perspective about what is out there for acreage people.
I think the owner is asking about $500k.

 

Do not be afraid of a modular home.... they are exactly what you will get stick built, just built indoors out of the elements. I presently live in a modular home it is beautiful, 2149 sq ft. And very well built too IMHO, for an acerage it is very cost effective means of housing.

As for the septic, there are a few dependers,, how big is your acerage? What does the local county require for that size of acerage? If it is a minesota mound, (which is what I am thinking by the talk about the sand etc. You should be able to do that for alot less than 30k,, wells (again depending on how deep) about 10 to 20k. Power is about 5 to 10k per pole lenght to bring in. Look at probably another 20 to 30k to tie everything in (trenching, electrician, plumbert etc)

As for the modulars, the last time I was looking was in 2007 and we were looking at a 2000 sqft modular from empire just outside of edmonton, and it was around 150k (I think,, kinda a little hazy on that one)

 

My in-laws live on a farm and their house was a modular built one. The drywall is double 3/8 inch with staggered joints to cut down on cracking when the house is moved. If you didn't know you would think it was stick built. It may pay you to buy a loader to have on the acreage with an auger and a trencher for all the little landscaping jobs and snow clearing you will want to do. The auger will come in for fence/gate posts and if you build a pole shed you can drill your own holes and put your own 6X6 posts up. The trencher? well electrical needs to be run here and there. You can really reduce your costs by having a piece of equipment that you will eventually end up buying sooner or later. The loader will become your extra set of hands...Good luck

 

Wow, thanks for all the long responses. It certainly made me think twice about building vs buying.-

But the banks thinks otherwise for me-

So the mortgage broker told me the bad news-that i am not qualified to be able to build an acreage-even though I am qualified to buy a house in calgary for the same amount.

They broke it down to me and said that basically, I need to own the land outright BEFOE they will really consider giving me a mortgage. If I don't own it, they don't really want to lend the money.

There was lots of talk on their end about the cost over runs ect of building a new house-somewhere in the 20% range of the overall investment. It sounds crazy to think that there could be that much overrun, but they are the ones with the cards, not me.

In order for them to lend the money out, they really need an asset to lean on, which a new undeveloped piece of pie doesn't have. I understand their point, but it kinda sucks for me.

I don't know too many people that can afford to purchase a piece of land ( especially priddis area land ) for cash.

Based on that, I am not quite sure what my next step will be. I need to spend some more time saving/investing-so I was kinda thinking about building a new house in the city....somewhere on the south end of town-closer to where I want to be.

Oh well, Thanks again for all your insight & help. It was great reading all of your stories.
Cheers,
Matt

 

Ahh yes, I totally forgot about the banks not being willing to underwrite bare land. That can be a problem. We got caught at the last minute when we bought our place. It was already developed and the house was 4 years old but we needed CMHC to underwrite our mortage. CMHC is for home-owners. Home-owners can only own 4 acres of land, anything more than that is a farm. At the last minue, we had to come up with the cash to pay for all of the land that was more than 4 acres. That was a bit of a yikes!!!

 

Very difficult to buy bare land without cash----I had to pull the equity out of my home to buy my "fully titled" RV lot up at Gull Lake according to the bank.The equity was there but a few others did not qualify even though the land is fully serviced(52x110 size--water/sewer/power/phone/internet).Bro law tried but o no-go for him as he did not own a home for collateral.For us it was either an acreage or a vacation property---can't afford both at the same time but the acreage will happen one day,as city life is getting old.DW---PS glad i bought when i did cause prices are over double now within 5 years,shoulda/coulda/woulda/20/20 hind-sight bought two lots.The saying is true----"Don't wait to buy land---buy land and then wait".