Jeff,
Just found this site, looking for some modern entry doors, strange how one search can lead to an hour or more of reading. anywhay, I like how you've framed up the project issues and started on your home.
- I am now living through a neighborhood transformation, Texas Anderson has purchased at least 10 homes, two on my street alone,and is hard at work at turning the tree lined one story 'hood into zero lot 40ft tall Mc'disasters.
Here's my dilema, we've outgrown our two bedroom home, and remodeling /adding on is not cost effective, I would like to tear down and build a semi custom modern, but concerned with creating something I would never be able to sell, ie a one-off design.
How did you rationalize taking the leap of faith?

Eric, you must live in my neighborhood! Either that, or Texas Anderson is busier than I thought.

The short answer to your question is: "Life is short, you gotta take some risks or you'll have regrets." Someone famous once said, "I'd rather regret doing something than regret not having done something." But that is only part of it, or we wouldn't have taken the plunge.

Look at davidgriffin.com. Modern houses are selling for a premium and I think good design always will. True enough, during the 1990s, modern houses in Dallas sold at a small discount, but it is the neighborhood trend that will mostly determine appreciation, not the house. Look at mansions in South Dallas, modern or not, they aren't worth much at all. Then look at 1200 SF ranches in the Park Cities along Lovers or Mochingbird, they are worth $500k. If you need to get out of the house in two years, the design of the house will matter. Over 30 years, who knows what 2007 vintage styles will carry the day. I have a feeling poorly rendered "old world" style houses will do relatively poorly compared to honest and authentic turn of the century design.

Even if you do need to sell in just a few years, I think the modernism trend is just beginning. But, IMHO, there is a balance that must be found. Lots of the great modern houses in Dallas (e.g. O'Neil Ford) use really expensive techniques or finishes. That may create a great house, but at too high a cost for our area. So using traditional building techniques is important to keep form breaking the bank. But the house has to read as modern and different from the typical McMansion. For example, a typical McMansion with a flat roof won't work well either. So you are left with creative form and use of natural light. But if the house uses typical materials and techniques and is seen as just wierd, then you are in trouble too. The trick is to find a big idea that is modern and cool, but not weird and can be pulled off with common building techniques. I think the cost of such a house can be kept to within 10% of the typical custom home and this will be off-set by the higher design quality. Just by considering the lot's size and orientation, you can make a house that works better than TX Anderson who uses the same couple of floorplans on any street or orientation (huge windows with a great view of the setting summer sun in Texas is my favorite).

Anyone out there agree/disagree or have  additional comments?

I am going to have to agree with Jeff (and yes I live in the same neighborhood, if you drive thru you have probably seen my shack)

There is a balance that you must strike between function, design, and unfortunately sometimes mass appeal. If your building techniques are those which are common to the region you will get a better per sqft price. Don't be scared that modern is too expensive, you can do some really great stuff with common construction and materials, just have to get creative.

If you plan to live in the house more than 3-5 years then I say go for it, keep it sane and I am sure you will recoupe your money if you decide to sell. On the otherhand, if you plan to move in a year or two, construction of any type modern or not will not be worth the hassle.

If you are ever interested, and since you are in the same location, shoot Jeff or I a PM and we could get togther to discuss all things modern. As you can see from the above posts we are both fairly free with our thoughts and ideas.

Previously Jeffrey Rous wrote:

Also, the builder Texas Andersen Homes has now built about 12 (typical North Dallas style) houses in our neighborhood in two years. I have found out that he is buying any house that hits the market for less than $160k. So far, his houses seem to follow about 3-4 floor plans and range from 3200-3500 SF. Given the asking prices, I am guessing he is getting about $100-$110 per SF for everything above the lot price for these houses ($150-$160/SF total). Rumor has it he wanted to build even bigger houses that matched the 3-1 rule of thumb (construction/design cost to land value), but the bank wouldn't sign off on such expensive houses. 

Texas Anderson estimates the houses they are building west of Marsh cost anywhere from $65 to $77 a foot (as of Feb 2005 and June 2007, respectively). They are also building quite a few south of Walnut Hill and just east of Midway (Dunhaven, Lively, and South Better, etc..). These range anywhere from $77 to $99 a sq foot (assuming they are truthful and accurate in reporting “the job value” to the city of Dallas). Check out the link. Just change the month and year to see more.

(http://www.dallascityhall.com/building_inspection/co_permits/PermitsJun2007.html)

Very interesting Anon. I am coming up with my estimates from likely lot values and prices either from flyers in the front yard (the fisrt couple he did were 3500 SF and he asked $530k for them -- they sold pretty quickly so I figured a price of $500k) or at Zillow (which I assume is getting either listing or sales prices). Just this weekend I heard that these are more build to suit than spec homes, so I am not sure exactly what the prices at Zillow mean. This does make sense as families move in as soon as the houses are complete and they never have signs up. The one TA house on the June list is a whopping 5000 SF and they claim the construction cost is $385,000. But I wonder if that includes the builder's profit ($17%-20%) and demo cost ($10k) and I wonder how accurate the number is (since permit fees are tied to reported construction cost? Still, with 5000 SF, I bet the cost of the marginal SF is low, helping the average. Still, the quality is only good (mostly HD level, but the exteriors are mostly brick or stone) and I would rate the quality of design as fair. The bigger question is, if the 5000 SF house sells for $700,000 and the lot cost $200k, did the house cost $100/sf to build or $77/sf? If the $385k cost does not include builder costs and profit, then these two numbers are pretty similar.