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two_know_her

Builders original price cost worksheet vs current

two_know_her
14 years ago

We have become so frustrated, and thought we did all of the right things to prepare. We found a lot, have financing lined up, hired designer, have plan finalized. Prior to finalizing the plan, we searched around for a builder, interviewed a few and narrowed it down to 2. We provided a preliminary version of the plan to the builder we were leaning towards and he provided a cost estimate. Of course, we knew that the cost estimate was not firm but we expected the material cost and labor to remain the same but to our surprise without providing a new cost estimate the builder is now telling us that to have the complete house done in brick would be an additional 45K which does not match the price he provided in the original cost estimate, He has not provided the new cost estimate but tell us via e-mail that it will be 7K to finish each stairway (1 to unfinished, 1 to bonus) 12K for 2 dormers. He claims the original plan did not have finished stairs to bonus room and we do not want to argue the point but would rather see a current cost estimate and description of materials list based on the finalized plan. Can anyone provide some advice about how to handle? We are willing to pay the builder 13% but do not want to be taken to the cleaners. 45K for brick on a 3500 sq ft ranch home seem quite excessive. We are waiting for 3 estimates on brick to come back right now but what can we do about the stairs and dormer? Is there any way for us to find out the true cost and labor and if we find it to be different then what the builder provides, how do we approach it without making seem as if we are trying to "haggle" him? Is there a way to provide the estimates we find and have the builder use the suppliers we find and include it on the contract or must we move on to a different builder. BTW: The land we purchased is in an area that will only allow certain builders to build there...(we are in VA) I can attach the origianl cost worksheet if that will help anyone to better understand. Any insight or advice will be greatly appreciated.

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