Building a new house from the ground up is a different project than a remodel, and it starts months before any dirt gets moved. Most of the work that determines whether a new-home build goes well is done before the foundation is poured. Here’s how the early phase actually unfolds.
1. Lot first, plan second
You can’t draw a house in a vacuum. The lot drives everything: setbacks, allowed footprint, height limits, solar orientation, drainage, soil conditions, utility access, and any view or tree considerations that pull the design in one direction or another.
If you already own the lot, the design starts with site analysis. If you don’t, the lot search is the first project decision. The neighborhoods you can build in, the lot sizes available, and the price per buildable square foot in the Portland metro all vary significantly between, say, West Linn, Beaverton, Lake Oswego, Sherwood, and the further-out areas of Multnomah, Washington, and Clackamas counties. The right lot for the house you want may not be in the neighborhood you started looking in.
2. Understand the zoning, before the architect
Every lot comes with a zoning designation that determines maximum square footage, height limits, lot coverage, required setbacks, minimum landscaping, and increasingly in Portland, accessory dwelling allowances. Some lots are also subject to overlay zones: flood, slope, environmental, historic, design review, tree preservation.
Pulling the zoning report from the local jurisdiction before commissioning architectural work means the design starts inside the box of what’s actually allowed. It also surfaces fees that will land later: System Development Charges (SDC fees), which on a new dwelling can run several thousand to over twenty thousand dollars depending on the jurisdiction and the size of the house. Knowing those numbers up front avoids painful surprises at permit submittal.
3. Architect, designer, or design-build?
There are three common paths for a new-home build:
- Architect-led. You hire an architect, they design the house, then you put it out for bid to general contractors. Highest design control. Typically the longest timeline and the highest soft cost.
- Designer-led. A residential designer (not an architect) draws plans within their scope of practice. Lower cost than an architect for straightforward designs. Limited on complex structural or design-review-heavy projects.
- Design-build. The builder coordinates design and construction together, either with in-house designers or a partner architect. Tighter integration between design and budget. The project stays with one team from start to finish.
None of the three is universally right. The decision depends on how custom your house is, how much you want to manage the process yourself, and how strict your budget is. We’ve worked all three ways and we’ll tell you honestly which fits your project.
4. Budget, but with the right precision
Early in a new-home project, the budget is a target, not a number. Mid-2020s Portland-area new construction at a quality finish level typically runs $300 to $500 per square foot for the house itself, plus site work, plus soft costs (architect, engineering, permits, SDCs, surveys), plus landscaping and driveway, plus connections to utilities if they don’t already serve the lot.
For a 2,800 square foot house, that’s roughly:
- House construction: $900K to $1.4M
- Site work and excavation: $40K to $150K (highly site-dependent, slope and soil conditions drive this)
- Soft costs (design, engineering, permits, SDCs): $80K to $200K
- Landscaping and exterior: $30K to $100K
- Contingency: 10 to 15%
Lots in steep, treed, or otherwise difficult sites push the site work line significantly. Lots already served by public utilities save tens of thousands compared to ones that need a septic system, well, or new utility runs.
5. Soil, survey, and feasibility
Before final design, the lot needs a few inputs the architect can’t supply:
- A current boundary and topographic survey
- A geotechnical (soils) report if the lot is sloped, in a high-water-table area, or has a history of fill
- A site evaluation for stormwater management, which most Portland-area jurisdictions now require
- Utility availability confirmation (sewer or septic, water, gas, electric, internet)
- Tree assessment if there are protected or significant trees on the lot
Skipping any of these saves money on the front end and costs more on the back end, often dramatically more if the lot turns out to have a constraint the design didn’t account for.
6. Plan for the permit and review timeline
New residential construction permits in the Portland area typically take 3 to 6 months from submittal to approval, longer if the lot is in a design-review district, has overlay zoning, or requires variances. Build that window into your overall schedule. The clients who run into trouble are the ones who treat permit review as a quick formality. It isn’t.
7. Pick the builder early, not late
The traditional design-bid-build sequence (finish the plans, then put them out for competitive bid) often produces sticker shock and design rework after bids come back. A common alternative is to engage the builder during the design phase as a budget partner: the builder reviews the design at concept, schematic, and design-development stages and gives ongoing pricing feedback so the design lands in the right number rather than overshoots it.
That’s how design-build projects naturally run. It’s also doable on architect-led projects through a preconstruction services agreement. Either way, having the builder at the table early is usually cheaper than finding out at bid that the house is 30% over budget.
What we do in preconstruction
On a typical new-home project we engage with, we walk the lot, pull zoning, review the design at each stage with our cost-estimator’s eye, coordinate with the architect and engineers on constructability, and produce a real budget the client can plan around. By the time we get to permits, the team is aligned, the price is realistic, and the schedule is built on real lead times for the materials we’re actually going to use.
Keyser Construction is licensed in Oregon (CCB #121142), EPA Lead-Safe Renovator Certified, and BBB A+ accredited since 2007. If you’re starting to think about a new build, get in touch and we’ll walk through where you are and what the next step looks like.