You really need to call builders. There's so much variance in build costs from even county to county, and every house is different. Most people here are experienced in a few (or one) project, and even fewer locations.

Builders should be happy to talk to you and give you ball parks, and tell you about their processes. X$/sq' in your area with common finishes, and the types of things that bring that up. If they aren't willing to answer a few preliminary questions, you don't want to even entertain them for a bid.

You already have the land and have narrowed it down to A floor plan. Call a few builders, email them the plan, give them the finishes you know, brick, granite, wood floor, etc. start with the ballpark. If they all come back at double your budget, then look for a new plan. If they come in the range of your budget, then make sure the floor plan is exactly what you want, and get as specific as you can for a closer estimate. Good luck!

Just keep in mind, that a builder's time is money to her/him. Thus, an "estimate" is worth about what you pay for it.

The only costs that really matter are the ones in a signed construction contract. And those matter little, if you change your mind frequently once construction begins.

It's worth pointing out that the more that you allow a builder to put into an "allowance" category, the more likely it is that you will exceed your construction cost, since allowances are a famous technique to low-ball a construction contract.

All of this said, the more you talk, look and compare before starting to build the more of an educated consumer you will become.

Good luck on your project.

Go to realtors.com and see what new houses are selling for in your area and subtract(as best you can) the land cost.

I tried to edit but it wouldn't let me. SC is my home state, what part of the state are you building in?

I'm in SC as well and going through the same thing. I'm looking to build 3100 heated SF with about 2000 on the main level and 1100 in the walkout basement. I have gotten "estimates" from $335K-$400K($108-$129/sf). Two were very close around the $110/sf with similar allowances. They estimated that the basement is adding $15-20K versus building up from the main level.
Hope this helps.

I'm in upstate SC as well, we OB'd almost 6 years ago now.

The curved railing on the second floor balcony adds cost, squaring it off would by less expensive.

I'd increase garage dimension to 25x25, allows cabinets and shelves on the wall opposite the garage door... and gives extra room for steps from garage to the house, water heater and lawn mower.

Cathedral ceilings and angled ceiling on the bonus means no easy way to put crown upstairs... just a comment.

I'm not sure of the dimensions in the master, but the vanity looks a little small. Don't know what to do about it though.

I don't see a pantry? Maybe the "storage" in the garage should be folded into the laundry and make it a pantry and laundry combo?

Brian

I used Building-Cost-Net which I found online to get a estimate for the house we are building. The program is fairly detailed and takes some thought and time to get through the questions. For example, it will ask you want type of exterior siding you plan to use and where your home will be located. Because the location, rural, city, etc. can make a difference to the overall cost to build. Another idea is to google price per square foot in your area. That also gave me a very good idea of what we would be paying to build our house. Having these estimates in hand did help us when we started meeting with builders.

The builder we chose brought in an architect who worked with us to modify the plans to include our 'must have's and to improve the layout of a few areas; we needed to add two bedrooms to the main floor. We met with both the builder and the architect for a couple of hours the first time. During the first meeting the architect asked us a lot of questions about our likes, dislikes, family and lifestyle. During the second meeting he came with his changes. I'm not sure that anyone who doesn't have this information could help make changes to a floor plan.
In my opinion hiring the architect was very important step and worth the extra time and expense. We originally felt the plan didn't need much tweaking, other than the addition of the bedrooms, but the architect came up with a layout that fit our lifestyle and family much better.

We have a big family, by modifying the layout slightly, he was able to make the pantry, mudroom and laundry room bigger. And he did all this without taking away from the things we loved about the plan; open living area which flow well into the outdoor areas.

He was also able to eliminate things that weren't important to us, such as a large built-in bathtub and a second, large closet in the master, which will save us money.

The original designer may offer this as a service or may allow you to take the plans to a local architect. I personally liked using the local architect better. He went out to our land and was able to suggest how he thought the house should sit to take advantage of the best views and get the most sun in the winter. This was different than the original way we or the builder thought the house should sit.

Not sure where in SC you are, but I too am in the Upstate. We are currently building (almost done framing). We owned the land to start with as well... We drew our own house plan....my husband is a designer so we were able to do a basic computer rendering...we then took that with us to meet with builders...they were very kind and gave us ballparks and also their suggestions to things we could alter to save some money without sacrificing design. We didn't go with the cheapest bid, but the builder we felt we could work well with...I'm sure we'll go over our allotted allowances in several areas, but I knew going into the build WHAT was being allowed...I asked more than what the total amount was, but also what materials could be purchased for that price. I'd be happy to talk to you more about our process, who we talked to, etc...if you're in the upstate (we're between Anderson & Greenville) We're building 5200 sq feet including an inlaw apt for roughly 450K

What don Gardner home are you building. Name.