Understanding the pricing process.
Most people start with one question: what will it cost. This is the honest answer to it. Why nobody can price your house from a plan or a square footage, what we do instead, and what our number actually includes.
The short version
Two identical houses can cost drastically different amounts.
A quote on a custom house based only on plans or square footage is a very open question that cannot be answered specifically, because so much of the price is decided by what you choose. We can build the same house twice and land in two different places, depending on what you want in it and on it.
- Siding
- Brick, vinyl, or cement fiber board, also known as Hardie plank.
- Roof
- Shingles or metal.
- Countertops
- Granite, quartz, laminate, cultured marble, and so on, throughout the house.
- Flooring
- True hardwood, LVP, laminate, carpet, or some combination of them.
- Cabinets
- How many are true custom, what material, and what hardware goes on them.
- Doors and windows
- Wood, fiberglass or metal. Hollow core or solid core. White or black windows, vinyl, clad or wood.
Before the details are settled
We can give you a range. It will be a wide one.
We can put a cost estimation range on a home using current industry pricing for materials and labour and comparable houses we have built recently. That range will be wide, because at that point we do not know what you as the customer want in your home.
It is a starting point for a conversation, not a bid. The number that you can build a loan and a life around comes later, once the house has been specified.
What we recommend
How we get from a rough idea to a real number.
This is what we prefer to do with new customers, in this order. None of it costs you anything until there is a contract.
An initial meeting, about an hour
Come in and sit down with Chad. We go through how we operate as a business, what you can expect from us, and how we price and build custom homes, and we answer whatever questions you arrive with. If you do not have plans yet, this is where we point you in the right direction to get them drawn and engineered to current building code.
Plans drawn and engineered
If you already have finished plans, you skip this. If you do not, we help you get them, or get the plan you found changed into the house you actually want.
The specification meeting, two to three hours
We sit down with you and your plans and cover every detail that pertains to the house. Any initial grading and clearing. Footings and foundation. Straight through to the final built product, including everything you need to be move-in ready: septic tank if one is needed, driveway, walkways, landscaping, bathroom mirrors and accessories, and everything in between. It is written down as we go.
Real quotes against that specification
The specification goes out to the subcontractors and suppliers who would actually do the work, and the price is built from their numbers for your house. Not a per square foot guess.
The budget meeting
We sit down again and go through the whole thing together before anybody signs a contract. You see the worst case, everything you asked for, priced. You also get an options sheet showing what can come out and what that saves, in case the number needs to move.
The number people ask for
About cost per square foot.
With all of that said: the average across the houses we have built over the last two years or so is about $200 per heated square foot.
Do not let that number make you think something has been left out, or that unheated space like the garage and the porches is not included. Cost per heated square foot is the industry standard way of putting a price on a whole house.
You do need to be careful when you hear a price per square foot, wherever it comes from, and ask what is in it. Some builders quote a figure that leaves out the septic system, the driveway or the landscaping, on the argument that those are not part of the house. That makes the number sound lower and better to start with.
Ours includes absolutely everything. Septic, driveway, landscaping, final cleaning, down to the toilet paper holders and the towel rings. Move-in ready.
Common questions
What people ask about price.
Why can two houses the same size cost very different amounts?
What is included in your cost per heated square foot?
What happens at the specification meeting?
Do I have to pay for a bid?
When can we meet?
Ready for that first meeting?
Call and we will find a time. If you write instead, tell us where you plan to build and what days and times suit you.