How to determine pricing for your new home

Probably the question we hear the most is ‘how much will it cost to build one of your homes ?’. This is a very loaded question and there are so many different factors at play to determine this.

Our simple answer to this question is to call up 3 or 4 Home Builders near you and ask them what the high and low finished price is per square foot on new builds. Then take the square footage for the home model you’re looking at and multiply it by that amount. 

For example: $250/SF x 1,483 = $370,750

This should give you a very rough idea on price. But it is very rough and probably not very helpful, because there are still a lot of variables that will ultimately affect the final price.

How do you find Builders near you? 

There are a few ways to do this. We will explain them below.

  1. Google Maps
  2. Mobile Apps
  3. Local Chapter of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)

 

Google Maps

Go to Google Maps and type in ‘Home Builder’ or ‘General Contractor’ into the search. This should show you results of local Builders closest to you. You can click on them to get more information including their website to review past work, and their phone number to give them a call.

Call up 3-4 Builders and ask them what the average high and low cost per square foot is to build homes in your area. Once you’ve done this with a few Builders, you will have a very good, but general estimation for the price of your new home. Will this be totally accurate? Definitely not! We will explain more below about how your land and engineering will play a huge role into the final estimation.

 

Mobile Apps

We’ve had luck with the app Thumbtack.

Here are the steps in finding a Builder through Thumbtack:

  1. Find the app download links here: https://www.thumbtack.com
  2. Open the app and tap on ‘Projects’
  3. Enter ‘New Home Construction’ and your zip code
  4. Select a Contractor to submit your project to
  5. Submit your project to all Contractors in the area
  6. Wait for a notification from interested Contractors
  7. Connect with the Contractor

 

National Association of Home Builders

https://www.nahb.org

In their own words “The National Association of Home Builders of the United States strives to protect the American Dream of housing opportunities for all, while working to achieve professional success for its members who build communities, create jobs and strengthen our economy.”

There are local chapters of the NAHB and you can find them on the website. You can call or email the leadership members in your area to have discussions around pricing and get more insight on the average price per square foot in the region just to use as a starting point.

What else determines pricing?

You’re really not going to get accurate pricing until you have land, you understand the topography of the land and the utilities associated with it. Also, structural engineering will need to be performed to determine the calculations for the strength of the framing for the home along with the foundation type that will be used.

So here are the other main details to consider when determining final pricing:

  1. The slope of your parcel
  2. The utilities available
  3. The accessibility
  4. The foundation type
  5. The structural engineering