Week 2

A few months back we had decided to use the UBuildIt System to build our house. It essentially allows you to be your own General Contractor. Although it costs around $30K, it's half the cost of a typical GC. And since you have to spend a lot of time at the building site and meeting with subs anyway, you might as well be your own GC. To use UBuildIt you choose one of its national franchises - we chose UBuildIt-Issaquah.

Our Project Manager (to be referred to as alpha1) met with us on June 26th at our lot - before we knew it was our lot - and walked the land with us. He was taking notes to be used in a project review, if we decided to buy it. Within a couple days we had decided to make an offer. The land was raw, meaning no documentation or permits on it, so making an offer means not only deciding on price but also on contingencies such as it being buildable (to our requirements) and things like septic and water permits can be acquired. So our real estate agent - and personal friend - Stuart Heath of Elliott Bay Real Estate wrote up an excellent Offer (he's also an attorney). The offer made sure that we were protected in case the land was not fully buildable to our requirements, which basically means the house can be placed in an area that provides great mountain views. This will be determined as part of the county's CAD review, as I mentioned last week.

It took the sellers from June 28th until August 8th to come to agreement with us on the terms. We were able to get the 5.11 acres for $320K - $10K under asking, and only with $1K earnest money. Since it's raw land we're responsible for paying for all the applications and inspections to determine its buildability. This can amount to, maybe, $6K - money we'd loose if we decide not to go through with the purchase. We're a couple weeks into it now. I called the county on Monday to make sure they received our CAD Application, and that it was in the system - it was, and has been assigned reference number L07SA450.

So, we met with alpha1 on Wednesday and he gave us the Site Review Report that he wrote. It describes the property, and discusses the steps that need to be accomplished in the months ahead to determine the feasibility of building the land. It also contains a rough breakdown of what he thinks the costs will be to develop the land. The range he came up with is $105K - $195K! This is at least $50K more than I expected. One of the big shockers is what permits cost - upto $35K. The county really screws the taxpayer!

Here's a google map showing the property location:













Here's an image from King County's iMap site showing the property boundaries:















If you want to see the actual google map, click here - the map is to the property directly north of ours; ours doesn't have an address yet. Be sure to switch to Satellite image and zoom out so you can see the proximity to Mt. Si and the Cascades.

If you want to see the property in iMap, click here then click "Start iMap" on the page that comes up and then click the "Property Search" button and enter the property's parcel number (1623089136).

I found out from Bill Lasby, King County Drinking Water Program, that since we have over five acres we do have the option of drilling our own well or, if the moratorium is lifted we could connect to North Bend City Water. We haven't decided which way to go yet - it will depend on cost. If there's enough water pressure from the city we might go that route; could be cheaper. We do know that we'll be required to have a fire sprinkler system - they're becoming common around here for residential - thanks insurance companies - and cost around $8K.

Next week I'll talk about the house we have decided to build.