Building a custom home is a luxury that most people will never be able to afford, but it’s also the case that it’s not only the very wealthy that take on custom home builds. There are plenty of people who choose to build custom homes who are doing so on strict budgets. If you are one of those people, you need to look for custom home builders in Temecula who can commit to working within your budget. They are out there. You just might need to do a little extra legwork to find them.
Brining in a General Contractor During the Home Design Phase
One of the keys to staying within your budget is to bring in a general contractor early on in the home design process. Before you sign off on a final design with your architect, get some input from the general contractor who will serve as your custom home builder. Architects aren’t always the best resource for estimating building costs. They don’t tend to stay on top of price fluctuations on labor and materials like general contractors do. They also may not have a good handle on how much work will need to go into a certain design decision from the builder’s perspective.
Avoiding Cost Increases Once the Building Process Has Begun
One thing that those new to the custom home building process fear is that the price of the project will increase once they are already in the middle of the build. The client is then put between a rock and a hard place. Do they fire their general contractor and try to find a new custom home builder who is willing to take on someone else’s work? Or do they pony up the additional money and hope there are no more surprise price increases? Neither is a great option.
To avoid this, you need to hire the right custom home builder from the get-go. First of all, you need to find a general contractor who is experienced with custom home builds. A new contractor, or one who has only done smaller projects in the past, may struggle to put together an estimate that encompasses all of the costs associated with the project. Then, once they get into the project and realize that they underbid it, they come to you asking for more money. Some contractors might even underbid a project on purpose to secure the job, with every intention of increasing the price once things are underway. This is why you shouldn’t automatically go with the contractor who supplies you with the lowest bid.
Another way to avoid unexpected price increases from a custom home builder is to work with one who provides you with a very detailed bid. This means you will have to work with the contractor on the details of your project before he or she submits the final bid.
Josh Marquard, owner of Cal-Pacific Contracting, had this to say about how his company approaches providing estimates on custom home builds: “We typically like to capture 100% of the scope of the project in the original estimate. We work with the homeowner upfront to go through all of the options available, so they are included in the base price, and not added during the middle of the project.”
An estimate that leaves out a lot of details is one that will set you up for price increases later. If a contractor provides you with a bid that only provides you with a general description of the scope of the project and the work that will be provided, move on to a general contractor who will take the time to put more detail into their bid.
