Keep Your Custom Home Budget on Track

We’ve all heard those horror stories from friends and acquaintances who found themselves paying much more than they bargained for when building their custom home. Maybe you’re so worried about your budget getting derailed that you’re afraid to leave the station. With more than two decades of custom home building experience in Western Washington, we’ve seen just about everything. While our industry doesn’t have the best reputation for sticking to a planned budget, Estes Builders does. In fact, we have a stack of industry awards and testimonials from satisfied homeowners to verify that we are committed to building custom homes on time while keeping homeowner budgets on track. In this post, we’ll share a few of our favorite tips for making sure your custom home budget doesn’t go off the rails.

Talk About Costs

You should absolutely interview prospective custom home builders and take a look at their building and design processes before making a decision. After all, building your dream home is an investment. Finding a builder who understands your vision and respects your budget is essential to a positive custom home building experience. Many custom home builders operate based on allowances, sometimes referred to as a “cost plus contract.” This may seem like an attractive option for your budget because the initial cost is typically lower. However, because you are agreeing to cover increases in costs after the contract is signed, your budget can quickly be derailed by fluctuations in materials, labor costs, and more. If you’re serious about sticking to your budget, have your builder price out your selections and guarantee that you won’t pay more than your final quoted price.

Ask the Expert

After selecting a builder you trust to build your custom home, you’ll want to meet to develop your ideas and get a realistic idea of costs. Your budget may be affected by logistics such as:

• • Supply and demand of materials

• • Updates to building codes

• • Your location

• • Building design

• Land costs (grading, clearing, drainage, utilities, etc.)

An experienced builder can walk the lot with you (even if you haven’t yet purchased the land) and offer suggestions for the location to help you minimize costs and maximize your space. With a thorough understanding of local codes, permit requirements, and other information unique to your area, your builder can save you thousands of dollars by offering important insights into the custom home building process.

Keep Yourself on Track

You’ve spent days dreaming about finishes and finalizing the details for your dream custom home. You’ve agreed to the final cost, the building process is underway…and you wake up at three in the morning sure that you should have chosen quartz countertops instead of granite. Fight the urge to make last minute changes! When you make changes after construction begins, it drives up costs, creates stress, and increases the likelihood of errors. Choosing finishes is one of the areas of designing your home that you have the most control over, but it’s important to turn it over to the experts once you’ve finalized your decisions. Your builder can offer suggestions about durability and less expensive alternatives for your favorite looks.

Stick to Your Budget—Stress Free!

Here at Estes Builders, we love designing and building custom homes. We want you to love the process as much as we do, which is why we work hard to provide a low stress building experience for you. Estes Builders is an award-winning design build firm that specializes in custom homes in Western Washington. We have earned more than 130 customer testimonials and a reputation as Western Washington’s most trusted custom home builder. We build custom homes in Sequim, Port Angeles, Port Townsend, Port Ludlow, Bainbridge Island, Kingston, Silverdale, Port Orchard and surrounding areas. Contact us for a FREE Project Analysis to discuss your project.]]>