We get a lot of inquiries from clients about building custom homes. Many factors come into play when determining a price for a custom floor plan, but some of the main ones are outlined below.
Soft costs
Soft costs are the costs associated with the specific lot location. They include things like fill, clearing permit and impact fees. Different lots have different fill dirt costs which are determined by the finished floor elevation requirements vs the current lot elevation. Also any clearing required will also add to the costs as well. Keep in mind the removal of trees will require additional dirt to be brought in to fill in the holes left by removal of the stumps. The tree debris will also need to be hauled away as well. Permit costs and impact fees are determined by the local governing municipality and have a direct relationship to the house size and the “impact” it will have on the neighborhood.
We perform a lot inspection in order to better assess the costs associated with your lot.
FLOOR PLAN & structural engineering associated
The floor plan layout and engineering design have a direct effect on the costs associated to construct. The more complex the floor plan is, the more it will cost to construct. More complex plans require additional engineering and additional engineering usually requires a more highly skilled subcontractor to execute. Plan engineering will determine a lot of things, including the number of concrete pour cells and size of structural beams required to span across different openings. Concrete costs typically makes up 15-20% of any housing budget and therefore has a major impact on build cost. The number of courses of concrete required for your stem wall foundation or the height of your tie beam are major contributors to concrete costs.
We use our 65 years of combined construction experience to value engineer your custom plans to ensure you get a quality product without breaking the budget.
Selections and Finishes
Finishes have to do with flooring and cabinets selections as well as electrical and plumbing fixtures. As you can imagine there are an array of different options and all of which have major differences in costs. Flooring costs have the greatest swing in prices with Carpet being the most affordable and the cost of popular plank tiles being a lot more. Cabinets costs vary based on the composition of the cabinet boxes, the door styles and the cabinet options. Plumbing and light fixtures also have big swings, designer fixtures always garner a premium.
We like to have our clients either pick from one of our pre-selected finish options or sit with one of our designers to pick all their custom finishes prior to finalizing their custom home budget.
Final Thoughts
Once we have a complete understanding of the above information we can accurately price out a set of plans within a week or so. The final timeline has a lot to do with how quickly we can get your selections figured out. If you have a custom home plan you need priced out or are interested in having a set of plans created, please reach out to us and we will help you to understand the next steps.