Recently moved back into town in my house that I built 10 years ago for 350k (3 bed 2 bath + study 2300 sq ft plus unfinished walkout basement). Came back to town with 3 kids and finished the basement adding 3 more bedrooms/2 baths (to include a master suite) large living room and a wet bar for ~$100k. Adding ~1700 sq ft.
Anyhow call USAA to update my policy and they send out a contractor to walk around and take pictures. Just got the message telling me they value the rebuild cost at $950 which just seems insanely stupid. Am I wrong, does this make sense to y'all?

Cost to build here with basement finish is ~$300-350/sqft (main floor area). I'm in BFE so valuation is likely lower in my area. They're probably not far off. Maybe a little high but not astronomical.

(Just finishing our custom build right now)

I will say check out the HUD guidelines for below grade square footage. It's very possible not dollar for dollar the same as upstairs'. (It could be though)

Double check everything I'm saying, I was offshore fishing all day

Sorry should've mentioned for reference I'm in the Colorado Springs area.

They'll drop it to 80% of that if you ask.

USAA lost my business years ago over this. They just wanted to jack up the deductibles higher, so they overvalued my home. So I left.

Aggie71013 said:

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4000k total square feet in Colorado? 950K doesn't sound that out of touch.

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This is for rebuild, not purchase. Land value/ location (to an extent) doesn't affect rebuild cost.

I'm at 2800/1200 basement, my rebuild is like $600k, through USAA.

Jock, what is the market value of nearby houses that are 4ksf?

Because the rebuild cost should be lower than that.

I am assuming walk out basement, $237.50/ foot is not crazy

True to an extent as like you said land value shouldn't be taken into consideration, but the cost to custom build a single home is higher than your average suburban neighborhood build from a mass builder on a PSF basis. Custom builds in Texas are easily exceeding $200 PSF so I assume the same is true in Colorado.

You can't just take your total value subtract the land value and assume you can rebuild for that cost.

Correct walk out basement on the golf course but the golf course part shouldn't matter though as far as I know. This was a spec home, not custom in a planned community (Meridian Ranch). I'd say comps in the area are probably in the $600-700 range.

Sounds like a steal. Our entire 1,800sq ft house was 1.7 so I'd take it. We purchased the land and built for $450,000 in 2017.