Cha-ching!  Cha-ching! Cha-ching!  That is the sound of your custom home budget exploding.  

Building a custom home is a one of-if not the-biggest purchases you will make in your lifetime and often times our customers are shocked to find out that their custom home will cost much more than they had originally planned.  

Here are a few reasons why your custom home can cost more thank you think.   

1. Footprint. The two of the most expensive items in any home build are the foundation and the roof--the labor, material and time needed for these extremely important parts of the building process result in a good chunk of a custom home budget going towards these two areas.  

To reduce these costs we suggest you consider stacking your square footage. A 2000 sq. ft. ranch-style, one level home, for example, means you need 2000 sq. ft. of foundation and 2000 sq. ft. of roof. If you change this home to a two-story structure you would have two floors of 1000 sq. ft. each—this is turn mean you would reduce your foundation and roof line by 1000 sq. ft.!

Complexity of build. The logic here is a simple one-the more square your house is, the faster and more efficiently it can be built. Homes with complex architecture-zigs and zags-take longer to build and with that increased time comes increased labor and material costs.

Simply put, the more square your home, the cheaper it is.

International & State Building Codes. In October 2016 theInternational Code Council (followed by NY's supplement to the code) released its updated code book for residential construction and with it mandated many new stipulations for new home construction. These new mandates have significantly increased the work that needs to be done by all tradespeople (builders, plumbers, electricians, etc.) for residential construction and along with this increased work comes increased costs.

Unfortunately, there is very little that tradespeople and interested home buyers can do to reduce these costs. We continue to explore all avenues to reduce the impact and costs of these mandates on our customers.

Finishes and Fixtures.  Flooring, cabinets, coutnertops, trim, etc. represent 30-40 percent of the cost of a custom home and because so many items fall into this category it is easy to lose track of your budget when picking out how your interior will look.  

While granite counter tops and brushed nickel fixtures have become standard on home improvement shows, these both examples of higher priced items that can very quickly add thousands to your budget.  

We suggest you explore all possible options as many less expensive alternatives exist to help contain costs while not sacrificing aesthetic appeal.  

 Would you like to learn more about the building process?  Download our free guide by clicking the picture below: