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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We used Great Falls Construction for a custom build in Great Falls and had a great experience with them.  I know they build houses in McLean as well.  We also interviewed Sugar Oak and looked at several of their houses.  We felt good about them as well and have gotten good feedback from others on both builders.

Gulick Group built quite a few of the houses in the reserve and is also doing custom builds in McLean / Great Falls now, although I would think of them as more semi-custom than true custom.  They have a couple of house models that they will try to customize to suit your needs/preferences.  The house models are nice, but they have built a ton of them all over Great Falls + McLean, so they aren't really that unique.

To the PP who is looking for 5000-6000 sq ft with a $900K construction budget, I think that will be difficult.  We interviewed 6-7 builders before starting our project and the [b]cost range was from $200-$325/sq ft for construction costs only (excluding lot, site prep, landscaping, architecture, A/V, etc.)[/b].  Semi-custom was closer to $200/sq ft, high-end custom was $300-$325/sq ft. If you are looking for high-end custom, I think $1.5M would be a good budget for 5,000 sq ft.  You want to be sure you have some cushion in the construction budget and aren't just barely making it work or you will have far too many tradeoffs in construction and the process will be very stressful.[/quote]
NP. Let me see if I got the math right... for 5000 sq ft, using lower amount, it will cost $1M just for the construction cost? Then add $800K for lot cost and maybe $200K site prep & misc. That's $2M all in. If we held the house for 10 years, I wonder how much it would appreciate. Or most of $2M a sunk cost for living in McLean in a new build?[/quote]

I think those numbers look about right if you are going the semi-custom route (e.g., Gulick).  The site prep figure could be a little lower depending on the complexity of the site and whether you need a well, septic, retaining walls, etc.  Note that this only includes basic landscaping.  If you are going to plant a lot of trees, do a lot of hardscaping, or put a pool in, the landscaping budget can get big very fast.  Depending on the lot size, you could easily spend $200-300K or more in landscaping.  This also doesn't include architecture fees.  If you go the semi-custom route, you can modify their plans, so architecture costs won't be bad.  If you want to start from scratch and go full custom, expect $50-100K in architecture costs.

I really enjoyed the custom build process and would do it again if I had the opportunity.  However, I think it is difficult to think of it as a good investment.  If you are looking for appreciation / ROI, you would be much better off trying to find a deal on an existing home that suits your needs.  If you are thinking about going the semi-custom route anyway, there are likely many homes with a similar floor plan available for sale in Great Falls and McLean.  The upside of a custom home is that you get everything the way you want it.  The downside is that you are at a significant cost disadvantage relative to existing construction, particularly houses in luxury spec communities like Gulick's that are built using economies of scale.  [/quote]

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