There is an excellent presentation on www.ontariocontractors.com titled “Build a home and stay married”
There’s a simple calculator on this site that will be useful in comparing pricing for various styles and sizes of home you may be considering.
The actual numbers will differ for current prices and also for your specific location, but the ratios are about right.
You can also download and print an excellent budget document from the same site, which is useful because there’s a lot of work involved in creating a budget for a home project.
Many builders don’t take the time to develop a proper budget going into a project, simply due to lack of time. This is always a mistake — sometimes it hurts the builder, but more often it hurts the client. If you do your research properly before you start negotiations, your knowledge should translate into savings for you.
So it all comes back to research. If you are spending $200,000 or more on a new home, why not research it thoroughly and maintain financial control of the process?
It can be daunting to even think about finding the subcontractors and suppliers to supply prices and fill in the blanks on the budget, so here are some tips: Sometimes local lumber-supply companies will recommend trades. Your local homebuilders’ association is also a good source of names, and of course there is always the Yellow Pages. Just get multiple prices for each major component, and we’ll discuss how to compare the prices and companies in a later post.
There is a ton of work involved in this phase so if you need help, just ask. “You can do it, we can help” as the Home Hardware slogan states.
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