A finished basement is the most affordable square footage you'll add to a Roanoke house, and also the easiest place to waste money. Our valley sits on clay and rock, so basements move water, and the slab you're standing on is rarely level. Everything that goes wrong later starts with skipping the boring steps at the beginning.
Start with water. Before framing, look at where the downspouts discharge, whether the grade slopes toward the foundation, and whether there's any staining or efflorescence on the block. Fix drainage outside first. Inside, a vapor barrier and a gap between the framing and the foundation wall keep the finished walls from wicking moisture.
Next, headroom and egress. Virginia code requires a way out of any basement bedroom, which usually means an egress window and well. Ductwork and beams often eat ceiling height, so plan the layout around them instead of fighting them. A slightly smaller room with a full-height ceiling always feels better than a big one you duck through.
Rough-ins go in while the walls are open: circuits for recessed lighting and outlets, a subpanel if the main is full, and the bathroom or wet-bar plumbing you'll regret not adding later. Doing this with one crew means the electrician and the plumber aren't scheduling around each other, and inspections happen once.
Only then does the drywall go up. Choose flooring that tolerates below-grade humidity, LVP or tile over a proper underlayment, and skip solid hardwood. Trim it out, paint it, and you have a room that stays dry through a Roanoke spring, which is the whole point.