Ground-up homes on your own lot · Tucson & Pima County
Custom home builder in Tucson.
Bare land to finished house. Site work, water and waste, power, county permitting and the build itself — priced so you can see what the land costs you and what the house costs you, separately.
- General Commercial · ROC #321107
- General Residential · ROC #312052
- Roofing · ROC #312053 / CR-42
- Electrical · ROC #332556
Tell us about the lot
Parcel number or cross streets, roughly what you want to build, and whether you have bought it yet.
Have the lot looked at before you buy it
Two parcels can be advertised at the same price and be tens of thousands of dollars apart once you know what it takes to build on them. Access, distance to power, whether there is a water utility or you are drilling a well, whether you are on sewer or putting in septic, how much caliche is under the pad, and where the water goes when it rains hard — all of that is knowable before you close, and none of it is on the listing.
We will walk a parcel with you before you own it and tell you what it would take. There is no charge for that and no expectation attached to it. It is a great deal cheaper for everyone than finding out afterwards.
Our published ground-up work
Being straight with you: the project below was permitted and inspected as a commercial build rather than as houses. We are showing it because it is the closest published example of this company taking bare ground through to finished, occupied dwellings — site work, utilities and foundations across a whole site — and because it is independently documented rather than being our own claim about ourselves.
I AM YOU 360
Tucson
Ground-up commercial project built from bare ground for a Tucson non-profit housing young adults transitioning out of foster care: nine 450-square-foot homes plus a community gathering centre with a meeting area, a kitchen and sleeping quarters for an on-site behavioural support specialist. Site work, utilities and foundations across the whole site, permitted and inspected as a commercial build rather than as houses.
“Blass, who owns Crest Contracting, worked with Cook on a pay-as-you-go basis to build the village.”
Tucson Spotlight, December 4, 2024
What building on raw land involves
On a serviced lot inside the city, most of this is short. On twenty acres outside Vail, the site can cost more than the framing. Either way you should be able to see the two apart.
Reading the lot before you buy it
The single most expensive mistake in custom building is buying land that costs more to make buildable than the house costs to build. Access, utilities, slope, drainage and soil all decide that, and they decide it before a single drawing exists. We will walk a lot with you before you close on it.
Site work, grading and drainage
Pads, cut and fill, retention and how water leaves the site in a monsoon. Caliche is common around Tucson and it is the difference between a straightforward excavation and a rock budget. Drainage is also where county review tends to push back hardest, so it gets settled early rather than argued later.
Water and waste
Whether the lot is on a water utility or needs a well, and whether it is on sewer or needs a septic system, changes both the budget and the timeline materially. On outlying Pima County land this is usually the first thing we check and the first thing that surprises people.
Power, and how far away it is
Distance to the nearest service point is a real line item. A long run, a transformer, or a decision to go off-grid all get priced honestly up front instead of appearing as a change order once the slab is down.
Permits and county review
Plan review, grading and drainage, septic approval where it applies, and the site-specific requirements that come with building in this county — outdoor lighting restrictions and native plant protection among them. Permitting sets the schedule more often than construction does, so it starts first.
The house itself
Foundations, framing or block, roof, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, insulation, and the full finish package through to final inspection. Frame, masonry block and rammed earth all get built here and each behaves differently in this climate.
Building for the heat
Orientation, glazing, overhangs, insulation and roof assembly matter more in southern Arizona than in most of the country. Decisions made at the design stage determine what the house costs to cool for the next thirty years, and they are effectively unfixable afterwards.
Working with your lender
Construction loans release money in draws against completed work, each one tied to an inspection. We build and invoice to that schedule so the draws clear when they are supposed to, which is the part that goes wrong most often on owner-financed builds.
How we run it
Walk the land
Before drawings, before budget. Access, utilities, slope, drainage, soil and what the county will allow on that specific parcel. If you have not bought it yet, this is the most useful hour you will spend. Free.
Budget against reality
A real number for site work, utilities and the house separately — because on rural lots the site can be a third of the job, and a price that hides that inside a per-square-foot figure is not a price.
Design and drawings
Produced or coordinated with your architect or designer, then value-engineered before they go to the county rather than after it comes back over budget.
Permits
Plan review, grading and drainage, septic where applicable. This is usually the longest stretch of the whole project and the least visible, so we run it in parallel with everything that can be started.
Build
Site work, foundation, shell, dry-in, rough-ins, inspections, finishes. One schedule, one contractor, one person to call.
Final inspection and handover
Carried to certificate of occupancy, with the warranty and the paperwork your lender and insurer will ask for.
Custom home questions
Do you build custom homes in Tucson?
Yes. Crest Contracting builds ground-up homes on your own lot across Tucson and Pima County, and holds Arizona ROC #312052, General Residential — the licence class required for residential construction of this kind. We also hold general commercial (ROC #321107), which is what larger and multi-dwelling ground-up work is permitted under.
Can I see a custom home you have built?
We would rather answer this straight than show you someone else's photographs. Our published ground-up work is the tiny home community we built for the Tucson non-profit I AM YOU 360 — nine 450-square-foot homes plus a community building, built from bare ground including site work, utilities and foundations across the whole site. It was permitted and inspected as a commercial project rather than as houses. It is real, it is independently documented, and it is the closest published example of us taking bare land through to finished dwellings. If you want to talk to a past client directly, ask and we will arrange it.
What does a custom home cost per square foot in Tucson?
Per-square-foot figures are the most misleading number in this business, because they usually exclude the land, the site work and the utilities — which on a rural Pima County lot can be a third of the total. A flat, serviced lot inside the city and a sloped parcel needing a well, a septic system and a long power run produce wildly different totals for the identical house. We price site and structure separately so you can see which is which.
How long does it take to build a custom home?
Permitting and plan review commonly take longer than people expect and often longer than the framing does, which is why we start that clock first. Once we have walked your lot and settled the scope you get a schedule against your actual project rather than an average.
Can you build on land I already own?
Yes — that is most of this work. Bring the parcel number and we will look at zoning, setbacks, access, utilities and drainage before you spend anything on design.
Should I have a builder look at land before I buy it?
Yes, and it is the cheapest insurance available in custom building. Two parcels at the same price can differ by a very large amount once you account for access, a well, a septic system, a power run and the grading needed to make a buildable pad. We walk lots for people who have not bought yet and we do not charge for it.
Do you work with my architect, or do you provide design?
Either. We build from your architect's drawings, or we can coordinate design and drawings as part of the project. Involving the builder during design rather than after it is the reliable way to avoid a set of plans that comes back from the county needing changes you cannot afford.
Do you build casitas and guest houses as well?
Yes. Detached casitas and accessory dwelling units are a large part of residential work here, and they carry their own setback, zoning and utility questions. They are on our home additions page.
What about septic, wells and off-grid?
All normal on outlying Pima County land and all priced into the project from the start. Septic requires its own approval process with its own timeline, and a well is a separate contractor and a separate unknown until it is drilled. Neither is a reason not to build; both are a reason not to trust a budget that ignores them.
Do you do the heating and cooling?
Crest Contracting is a general contractor and does not hold an HVAC licence. Mechanical work is carried out by our sister company Crest Air LLC and coordinated directly on the job, so you still deal with one contractor.
Got a lot, or thinking about one?
Send the parcel number or the cross streets. We will tell you what it takes to build on it, what the site work is likely to run, and whether it is the right piece of land for what you want — before you spend anything.