How to Cut Costs When Building a Custom House

Stay one step ahead of the game; find the best deals for your custom home.

A house is likely the biggest purchase you will make in your lifetime, but you don't have to break the bank to build it. Save thousands of dollars by taking into account the style and finishing options, and utilize a couple of tricks of the trade.

Instructions

Maximize Square Footage for Less

1. Think about whether or not you need two full stories. One story plus a basement will lower the need for exterior finishing, saving you a bundle, while keeping the same square footage.

2. Incorporate the attic space as living space. Attics account for a lot of wasted space. Special trusses are available and allow for an entire room within the confines of an attic -- simply add a plywood subfloor.

3. Add a basement and a garage, but if money is tight, work on finishing these spaces over time. It's much more important to have a completed kitchen, bathroom and living room than a pretty place to park the car.

4. Find customer-canceled orders for large-expense items, such as windows and doors or kitchen cabinets and countertops. Change your design slightly to fit the slashed-price items. With this trick, sometimes you'll get lucky, and get high quality, custom items for a fraction of the price. Check with your builder; typically, an experienced contractor will be able to work in a few minor changes.

Exterior Design Cost Cutting

1. Choose a house design with a standard, or gable, roof. A carousel, hip or any other extravagant roof design can triple or quadruple the cost of your trusses. These types of roofs also substantially bump up the contractors' completion time because of the complex work involved in constructing them. If a job takes your contractor longer to complete, it's going to cost you more money. However, if you live in an area that experiences extreme weather conditions, choose the hip roof for its superior durability; after all, protecting your investment is also a way of saving money.

2. Add inexpensive flair to your home with a beautiful exterior entrance or a visually-pleasing front porch to make up for the simpler gable roof-lines.

3. Clad your home's lower quarter with faux stone in place of the real thing. This decision cuts the cost by about half. Good-quality faux stone runs around $11 to $15 per square foot, while the real deal could set you back by $15 to $30 per square foot, as determined by The Home Improvement Helper (prices as of 2011).

Save on Interior Finishing

1. Skimp where you can, and make up for it where it counts.Think ahead to resale; kitchens sell. You may want to cut back with a modest fireplace and choose, at least, mid-grade kitchen cabinets and countertops.

2. Pick a slab of granite, for example, which may not be the most sought-after color, but still gives you that rich feel. This choice saves on the cost on a flawless slab. An alternative way to save on granite for a custom home, is to purchase it in tiles rather than by the slab. Tiles are almost always less expensive than slab stone.

3. Look for customer-canceled orders for interior fixtures, such as kitchen or bathroom cabinets and fireplace mantels. These finds are usually sitting on skids near the door with a "sale" tag. If it's something you like, and it could save you a lot of cash, work with the design and complete the rest of the finishing around it.

Bargain Shopping

1. 

   Shop around online for the best deal. Often, you can pay less in one store than in another for the exact same thing.

2. Ask for a better price. When purchasing large ticket items, from the furnace or heat pump to the trusses and convection stove, you may be surprised to save 10 percent, 15 percent, or even more, simply by saying, "We're building a new house and we've just started shopping around. Is that your best price?"

3. Make sure to get the discount. When a salesperson offers you a deal, ask for her business card and have her write the item details and price on the back.

References

• Home Improvement Helper: Estimated Siding Material Costs
• Builder Bill: Roof Basics
• Ask the Builder: Roof Trusses Create Bonus Space; Tim Carter
• Above All House Plans: Cost of Building a New Home?