Picking out house plans in your budget

9 years ago

Hello, this is my first post! The question I realize sounds simple enough. My wife and I live in eastern North Carolina in a rural agriculture area are planning on building, we owned previously so we have a good idea of what we want in a home. We have an idea of what we want to spend, but looking at house plans it gets confusing trying wonder how much it would cost to build. I hate to spend 1500 on house plans for a house we can not afford. I have spoke with a builder or two but they are non descript on how much it would cost per foot etc. Is this something an architect in my area can assist with? Is this something I need to find a builder for? I realize there are many many parts to cost such as finishes and what not, roof designs etc. I'm getting fried trying to figure guess how much a house would cost to build.

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (5)

Liesl123
9 years ago
We custom built our first house and are now building our second. Most builders we have met with didn't discuss costs at more than a high level until they had the opportunity to review the plans and put together a formal estimate. Similar to your situation, we didn't want to spend money on a set of plans that wouldn't be within our budget. We also weren't interested in "working backwards" and taking things out to adjust the plans to meet our budget. So, we put together a list of things we wanted (ie, number of rooms, approximate square footage of home, finishes, etc), gave that to builders and then asked them to show us plans they had built in our price range. By doing that, we found a builder that already had a set of plans that were almost exactly what we were looking for and that met our budget. I think it saved us a lot of time and frustration.
pixie_lou
9 years ago
Start by looking at new construction in your area. Look at the price and size of the homes. For your budget - how big a home could you buy? Considering custom construction runs about 25% more expensive than tract development - Now look at homes at 75% of your budget. That's the ballpark square footage and level of finishes you will get.
Related Professionals
Cloverly Architects & Building Designers · Palos Verdes Estates Architects & Building Designers · Palos Verdes Estates Design-Build Firms · Big Bear City Home Builders · Broadlands Home Builders · Clayton Home Builders · Cibolo General Contractors · Corsicana General Contractors · Exeter General Contractors · Mountlake Terrace General Contractors · Port Washington General Contractors · Rancho Cordova General Contractors · Seguin General Contractors · West Mifflin General Contractors · Westerly General Contractors
gus321
Original Author
9 years ago
So.... that's easy enough. I like both approaches. Liesl123, I have kind of taken that approach with one builder I spoke too. He had some homes he showed me (via the internet) and the ballpark figure, but it wasn't really the design we were looking. However I think it is worth digging into somemore as well as speaking with more builders. pixie_lou I think thats a good idea as well and a great start. Thanks for the input.
gus321
Original Author
9 years ago
http://www.familyhomeplans.com/plan_details.cfm?PlanNumber=98267

here is the plan we have looked at hard, if anyone has built this or has any experiences with this home. Looked at the Walnut Creek by Don Gardner but would have to work on that plan alot for what we want
zippity1
9 years ago
i really love your plan but.....
because of the different roof lines and all the exterior "corners"
i think it would be pretty expensive to build
the finishes you choose can really impact the price also

love it though.....