I'm sure it depends on where in California you live but in the SF Bay Area $200/sqft would be all but impossible for a high end build. It may be technically possible to achieve by doing bargain basement finishes but I doubt it. I averaged about that several years ago on a remodel during the depths of the crunch when no one had any work. If you're reading sites like this or Houzz and seeing people's fabulous interiors, you will blow past $400/sqft before you know it. A lot of it is driven by finishes. Things to watch for: - Allowances. The builder's idea of $5000 worth of faucets may differ from yours. They may be figuring Home Depot Moen and you may be figuring Newport Brass. You can (and should) drill down on this stuff yourself ahead of time. It's time consuming but worth it. e.g. go online and pick out all your plumbing hardware. How much does that cost? Did you remember to get all the supply lines, valves etc? If you're not super technical you may want to talk to a local plumbing store. They will charge you more but will make sure you're not missing anything. Same thing for appliances etc. Now you're starting to fill out allowance budgets. - Did I mention that finishes can drive cost through the roof? e.g. tile and slab materials and install costs. Go to one of those giant tile/slab warehouses and talk to the staff there and get a sense for the cost. Same thing for masonry. Even fake stone is expensive. Don't get me started on trim work (crown molding, paneling etc). Cost for these various finish items can exceed 50% of your budget. - Did you think about landscaping? It can run up to 30% of your budget depending on the site work required. Do you need engineered retaining walls? - Builders and architects that don't include soft costs in their estimation. Soft costs are everything other than the cost to build the house. This includes design fees, permits, etc. In my area permiting alone can run $30-40k before you even dig a hole. You should go to your town hall and find out everything you need to know about building a house. What's the planning process? What are all of the fees? I've heard you should figure ~15% of project cost for soft costs. - What about site work and engineering? This stuff is invisible but highly necessary in certain areas where there are hills, fault zones, etc. Don't trust line item numbers that have too many zeros. They are just estimates. I don't want to sound discouraging but I want you to know people will stretch the truth to get your business and figure they can ease you into more later. A huge part of it is about self control yes, it just depends on your tastes.

We've been on the market since March and have had 10 showings. That's not a lot for most areas, but it is for where we are. I'm pretty sure we've had more than anyone else in our neighborhood which I attribute to the pro-like pictures I took for the listing. A cheaper house in our neighborhood just went off the market after being on for several months and I don't know that they had any showings. Our neighbor's house is $30-40k overpriced and they had almost no showings for the first 9 months or so. Then a couple months after we listed, they went out and had a pro photographer take pictures of their house. Now they are getting multiple showings despite their price. Several of our showings were people who came out to this neighborhood and only looked at our house even though there were 1-2 others within $10-20k, so we know the pictures have made a difference. Granted, we still haven't sold, but the more people in the door, the better. I just looked at what has sold since we've been on the market and only 3 houses under 50 years old have sold on this side of town (we're on the far side, away from the 'big city'). Whether you have a realtor or not, take a look at your listing pictures and make sure they showcase your house in the best way possible (no dark rooms that are hard to see or pictures of furniture instead of the house, etc). If not, make your realtor take new ones or do it yourself. Use or borrow a camera with the widest lens possible (I rented an ultra wide angle lens for my DSLR). Regarding Realtors, we had one for the first 3 months at the usual 6%. Our current realtor is a local 'flat fee' agent. We paid $499 for the listing plus $99 for the lockbox. At closing, we will pay her .5% plus the 3% to the buyer's agent. So, 3.5% plus $598. We did this so we could lower the price as much as possible, but still have it in the MLS. Turns out, she's been more helpful than the full commission agent was. I've also been doing a lot of the work on my own - the pictures, I made fancy flyers and a website and have been posting it as many places as I can. If you are doing FSBO, go to Postlets.com and make an account. It's a syndication website that will post your house on several websites including several that the realtors use (Front Door, Zillow, etc). It will also give you html code you can use to post fancy looking ads on Craigslist and other websites. It's very simple to use - just enter your house info and upload some pictures. I have been using it even though we have an agent. HTH. Here is a link that might be useful: Postlets

When we interviewed our builder, we asked if we could provide our own material and/or labor. He said no problem as long is labor was done timely and material was on site when needed. We have since found out that he indeed runs a very tight ship. The only labor I contributed was installing a lot of RG6, Cat5e and speaker cable. Material wise, we purchased our own wood floor (3000 sf of Muskoka 3/4" Engineered Hickory). I couldn't touch anything close to that quality through my builder's discounted flooring source. Saved about $10,000 on that purchase alone. We found 450 sf of very nice 12x24 tile for use in one of the bathrooms. We paid about .75 sf. We found all scratch and dent thermador appliances for the kitchen. Our only local choice for plumbing was Ferguson's. Although we got a pretty good builder's discount, we are purchasing all of our plumbing supplies from Homeclick or eFaucets at much better prices. Our builder's lighting, tile and granite contacts were priced well and customer service was exemplary so we are using their services and not looking elsewhere.

Thanks everyone for their insight. Our house finally closed yesterday. Of course you go through a lot of emotions, at least we did, (Couldn't wait for it to sell, then became sad at the thought of really leaving it...etc) but now that we've settled into a rental, we're happy to be done with the whole selling side of things. We also feel grateful to have had a sucessful sale in this market. Now that we are in the buyer's seat we still doubt WE would be able to make an intellegent decision based on one visit. Our needs/wants are a bit more unique than the average buyer though. If it were just my husband and I, I could see falling in love with something perfect for the two of us when I walked in the front door...in fact I did: We made an offer the other day on a home that I DID fall in love with on the first visit. I loved it when we pulled up and throughout the whole house. Had it not been an evening visit and we couldn't see most of the yard, I'm sure I would have talked my Husband into offering then and there. Come to find out, it was a short sale and in reality it was perfect for US, but not for our son. We convinced ourselves that we could make the modifications needed to make it work for everyone. Our Agent explained it could take months to hear back so we could offer and continue to look and pull the offer at anytime so we decided to go for it. We have since rescinded the offer when we realized no matter how much I wanted it, and modifications included it wasn't the right house for ALL the family members. I would have always felt it was a selfish decision. Since then we've gone back to another house we've been watching for a 3rd visit..... and now plan to offer on because it's a good compromise house for everyone. I guess it took 3 visits to convince me that I was doing the right thing by choosing this one. It's not that I didn't like it, it was just not what I had envisioned we would buy which was a forever dream home. I've realized it might not be possible to mesh what is perfect for me with the needs of my son. So, after that really sank in and I became ok with it, I feel good about this offer. It's a low offer (I think it's overpriced and part of the reason it's been on the market 10 months) so if we get it, we will be able to make the changes I want that would make me happier with it, and it is an AWESOME place for my son's needs. Wish us luck!