Ok guys we are currently building a custom home, the square footage is 2,515 nothing extravagant as far as upgrades. Your typical well built house, 3 beds 2 full baths and 2 half baths. I can add the plans if necessary to help but the total cost is 300,000 if we include the upgrades it would come out to 352,000.

I guess my question is.....is this price negotiable? This is our first house together. Is it typical to negotiate the price with the home builder.


Thanks,
Our family!

what city are you in? that makes a difference.

We live in San Marcos, TX

In BCS, it's running $175/SF.

It's 100% on the finish out and costs. If you're having problems with that level you'll need to get deep into the weeds standard insulation instead of spray foam, standard shingles instead of architectural etc. etc. But $120/sf isn't abnormal. Also depends on if the cost is under roof or living area.

Additionally what else is included? (Septic, driveway, utility connections, fencing, etc.)

No not in the weeds just yet! We planned on the cost.

Well she did...it's still a shock to me. Lol

Like buying a car are you able to negotiate the price of the house?

We are having a custom home built right now in Rockwall. Not including the cost of the land it comes out to $140/AC sq ft. It is a 3130 sq ft home. If you have an itemized price list I can give you some comparisons.

Septic Installation - $5500
Propane Tank Installation - $2500
Pad Soil Chemical Injections - $15500
Plumbing Materials & Labor - $20500
Slab Material and Labor (not driveway) - $36500
Framing Material & Labor - $62000
Roofing - $16500
Cabinets (we have a lot of cabinets) - $28500

We just built a custom home in Denton/Argyle area. Came out to $150/sq ft at 2300 sq ft. Builders price wasn't really negotiable in this market. It's all about the upgrades you're putting in. Some of those contractors you can negotiate with. We negotiated with our appliance installer and lighting installer. Never hurts to ask, all they can say is "no."

Ok so the price isn't bad, just wasn't sure if it was good.

Septic Installation - built into the price of the house
Propane Tank Installation - haven't gotten yet
Pad Soil Chemical Injections - don't know what this is?
Plumbing Materials & Labor - built into the price of the house
Slab Material and Labor (not driveway) - built into the price of the house
Framing Material & Labor - built into the price of the house
Roofing - built into the price of the house (we want metal)
Cabinets (we have a lot of cabinets) - $11,500
Driveway - $8,000
Electric to the house - $10,000
Well - $25,000

The itemized list I gave were all items built into the price of the house. My builder just gave an itemized quote because it makes it much easier to do the draw requests from the construction loan bank. At each stage, he requests a draw, we make sure the work was done, the bank sends an "inspector" to verify, then the builder gets a check from the bank. This process would be almost impossible without an itemized summary.

The pad soil chemical injections is to permanently change the structure of the extremely high clay content soil so that it loses its shrink swell characteristics. This is not required for all sites.

i think $120 for San Marcos is actually pretty decent.

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Ok so the price isn't bad, just wasn't sure if it was good.

Septic Installation - built into the price of the house
Propane Tank Installation - haven't gotten yet
Pad Soil Chemical Injections - don't know what this is?
Plumbing Materials & Labor - built into the price of the house
Slab Material and Labor (not driveway) - built into the price of the house
Framing Material & Labor - built into the price of the house
Roofing - built into the price of the house (we want metal)
Cabinets (we have a lot of cabinets) - $11,500
Driveway - $8,000
Electric to the house - $10,000
Well - $25,000

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Pad Soil Chemical Injections are generally soil stabilization treatments designed to limit problems with a slab foundation with the crappy soils.

Whose your architect? What did they est the cost per sq ft to be?

quote:

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We are having a custom home built right now in Rockwall. Not including the cost of the land it comes out to $140/AC sq ft. It is a 3130 sq ft home. If you have an itemized price list I can give you some comparisons.

Septic Installation - $5500
Propane Tank Installation - $2500
Pad Soil Chemical Injections - $15500
Plumbing Materials & Labor - $20500
Slab Material and Labor (not driveway) - $36500
Framing Material & Labor - $62000
Roofing - $16500
Cabinets (we have a lot of cabinets) - $28500

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So for that kind of cost, couldn't they have just sunk piers to bedrock before the foundation was poured to mitigate foundation issues in the future? I may be wrong, but I would think it would be a bit cheaper to go that route! Putting in piers beforehand would be a lot less costly versus doing it later down the road...just my thoughts!

Piers mitigate shrinkage but uplift can still be a problem. In any case, chemical injections was what my slab engineer recommended for my soil.

Got it! Luckily after about 6 in of top soil it's basically solid rock underneath.

The architect comes with the home builder and so does the designer. This is one of the main reasons why we went the this builder, it was a $2500 fee for the drawings but it's reimburse if they get the job. Had we just gone with any architect it would've been $5,000+ so if we decided to go with someone else we still would have the plans ready to go.

They didn't give a price per square foot, they gave us the base price of $301,000 and for the update grades it would be $356,000

Can you share the name of the builder? I'm looking at building in that area in the near future

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Like buying a car are you able to negotiate the price of the house?

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Production builder like D.R. Horton, Pulte, etc? Somewhat.

On a custom home, not really. You might be able to discuss the builder's fee, or see about allowances, or potentially sourcing your own lighting fixtures, things like that.

Can you PM me? We haven't finalized everything yet. They've been awesome to work with though.

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Like buying a car are you able to negotiate the price of the house?

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Production builder like D.R. Horton, Pulte, etc? Somewhat.

On a custom home, not really. You might be able to discuss the builder's fee, or see about allowances, or potentially sourcing your own lighting fixtures, things like that.

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Thanks going back and looking at the plans the architect removed 100 Sq ft and saved us $9,000.

We are making a few of the rooms small and waiting on that price cut.

chaca5151 said:

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Can you PM me? We haven't finalized everything yet. They've been awesome to work with though.

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I'm also looking to build in the same area sometime in the near future... I can't PM you, but could you please email me the company you're using? philip rush (One) (Two) at gmail . com


Thanks!

prush said:

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chaca5151 said:

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Can you PM me? We haven't finalized everything yet. They've been awesome to work with though.

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I'm also looking to build in the same area sometime in the near future... I can't PM you, but could you please email me the company you're using? philip rush (One) (Two) at gmail . com


Thanks!

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Sure thing email on the way!

prush said:

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chaca5151 said:

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Can you PM me? We haven't finalized everything yet. They've been awesome to work with though.

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I'm also looking to build in the same area sometime in the near future... I can't PM you, but could you please email me the company you're using? philip rush (One) (Two) at gmail . com


Thanks!

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Look at River Hills Custom Homes

I can't PM either. Username @ hotmail

thanks

You should also check into Novella Homes. They do fantastic work. You get the architect and the designer on staff at no additional cost.

mtony77 said:

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I can't PM either. Username @ hotmail

thanks

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I'm will send it your way tomorrow!

volleygirl80 said:

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You should also check into Novella Homes. They do fantastic work. You get the architect and the designer on staff at no additional cost.

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Dang it! We are almost done with final design of the house. We are really happy with these builders though. If we were still at the beginning stages I would consider talking with them. Thanks

Well good luck! If you do need design help I have someone that it amazing! Extremely talented, easy to work with and affordable. Let me know and I'll send her info.

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