Cost to Build a Kit Home or Package Home

Summary: Building with a Kit Home or package home is an excellent way to both save money on a new home and have a more accurate cost to build your own house.

Hi Carl, Great website! I hope you can help with my question. I saw a Kit House on the Menards website. I realized their price is just for the material, but I was wondering how much it would cost to build a 1500 square foot kit home?

Thanks, Joe

Hi Joe, kit homes or package homes are an excellent way to both save money and achieve piece of mind. I say piece of mind because being fairly sure of the total cost of the home building materials that will be going into your new home gives you piece of mind

Kit homes have been around for a really long time.

Here’s a 1923 ad for a Sears Kit House.

Courtesy of AntiqueHomeStyle.com

You will notice that the price or cost of home building materials for this Sears 1,008 sq ft new home kit is $2,349 and the estimated finished value of the house is $6,500 (excluding land).

Those are about the same ratios of home building material costs to finished value that you will find today.

Here’s a 1,456 square foot Menard's Kit Home that costs $53,964 that would probably have a finished value of at least $160, 000 to $170,000 (excluding land).

Plan: G20164 Courtesy of Menard's

Total Living Area: 1456 sq. ft. Bedrooms: 3 Baths: 2
Material List Includes: Framing Materials, Flooring, Windows, Plumbing & Fixtures, Trim & Cabinets, Lights & Electrical, Doors, Roofing & Siding.

So what will the total cost of construction be?

Using the construction estimating software found on my Getting Started page for a 1,456 sq ft single story new home in Biloxi MS 39530. I came up with the following approximate construction cost estimate:

Materials: $73,735.00

Labor: $69,413.00

Other: $20,364 (Permits, plans, etc. plus a General Contractor’s Markup)

Total $174,702.

Since Menard's doesn't supply foundation materials, I subtracted those costs ($4,089) from the calculator's total cost of materials of $73,735, leaving $69,646 as the calculator's total cost of materials.

Calculator’s total cost of materials = $69,646.

Menard's total cost of materials = $53,964

Savings = $15,682...reducing the total approximate cost of construction to $159,020.

It appears that Menard's gives you almost a 23% savings on your home building materials! Sweet!

Good luck, Carl Heldmann