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The very nature of custom design is such that it is impossible to predict costs exactly until you have a design. Lacking a design, the traditional method is to simply figure a price-per-square-foot. Say you want to build a 2000 square foot home. You run this calculation:
the number of square feet
X a price per square foot
= the total cost of your new home
Presto! You have an cost estimate, right? Well, not necessarily. This figure could be way off the mark. This standard price-per-square-foot method, unfortunately, is often so inaccurate that it has set initial conditions for custom home projects that appear to go ridiculously out of budget. You've heard the stories! In many cases, they haven't "gone out of budget". The estimates were simply inaccurate from the beginning.
The worksheet identifies several design decisions and building situations independent of the heated square footage that increase the cost of the home. Calculating an estimate without taking these hidden costs into account results in inaccurate numbers and grief later on.
An Example
• A 2000 square foot home built on a flat piece of land will cost less than the exact same home built on a slope because of the extra excavation and foundation work needed on such a lot.
• A 2000 square foot home with a small cover over the entry will cost less than the same home with a wrap around porch, because of the extra labor and materials needed for the porch.
Our worksheet will pinpoint the things in your design ideas and building site that will cost more and gives a "factor" to those items. We will then calculate an "adjusted square footage" that, when multiplied times a basic custom home dollar amount will result in a much more accurate estimate.
Ultimately, the final cost of your home depends on the cost of all labor, materials and fees that you pay to get it built. These costs will depend on the location of your home, the time of year you are building, who builds it, how accurate the plans are, how busy the building climate is, the specifics of your building site, the complexity of your design and more. It's a complex problem, but the cost worksheet goes a long way to getting your costs more accurate.
The challenge is to be realistic about your budget from the beginning and then throughout the design process. If you're successful here, your project will stay on your budget track.
If we run a cost worksheet for you and the number is more than your budget, now is the time to find this out! There are many ways to reduce costs, if necessary. We will discuss your options until we either get the cost of your new home to fit your budget or determine that you need to go a different route. All this happens early in the process.
We have been working with our Cost Estimate Worksheet for several years, refining and updating it along the way. We base our contract amount on the number that comes from this worksheet, and we guarantee from the beginning that your Component Package will not exceed that number, based on a written set of criteria about your design.
We regularly rework the Cost Worksheet for our clients during the design process when we do our budget checks so there is always a current cost estimate as a design develops. We have found this to be the best strategy for keeping budgets in line.
We offer our Cost Estimate Worksheet as a free service to people seriously considering a Sunlight home. The worksheets take some time and gathering of numbers on your end and some human analysis and calculation on our end. Since the worksheets are each calculated individually and take time for us to complete, we ask that you fit the following criteria before you request the worksheet form:
1. You plan to break ground on your project within a year. (Any longer than that and the numbers will not be accurate enough.)
2. Your budget fits the ballpark price guidelines on the Sunlight Pricing page.
3. You have completed the information form by clicking on the Contact Us! button
4. You have read enough of our Web site to understand the product and services we provide and think that a Sunlight home is a viable option for your building project.
Once you fit our criteria, please email and request the link to our Cost Estimate Worksheet! |
