Pinktoes, Most of the items you mentioned would be necessary to the construction of a spec home as well and would be built into the final cost. However, for arguments sake... if you include ALL those things you mentioned as 'extras' do you think they will come to $115k? Assuming that they will, we would still be breaking even- not paying more. On the other hand, even if you only back out the realtor fees we would be ahead by almost $50k. I do not know what part of the country you are in, if things are really 'hot' perhaps builders of custom homes are able to charge whatever they want and that is why it isn't working out for you to build for equal to or less than you could buy a similar house for. It may also be due to upgrades you have chosen. If that is the case then you are getting more as well as paying more. However it is obvious by the other posts that *some* people are building their homes for less than they could buy them for 'down the street'. I am in Oregon and our real estate and custom home market are doing well. The argument of custom vs spec in regard to volume pricing and sub availability does not hold for our situation. When you are asking a specific builder the price for a specific house those variables are taken out of the equation. In our area there are large and small custom builders to choose from. If you are choosing one builder over another and feel that volume pricing and sub availability will be better with a larger builder then go that route. You may not come out ahead cost wise though, a larger company may also have higher overhead which will be passed on to you. A smaller builder may get the same pricing and preferential treatment from suppliers and subs it just depends on the individual case. I have heard some subs say they prefer smaller builders because they get paid faster. Some suppliers offer volume discounts some are same price for everyone. The important thing is the quality of the job you get and that the price you pay is reasonable to you for what you are getting and the local market. If a builder does not like to work with homeowner's and indicates to you that it is more work and will charge you more, then leave that builder to his spec houses and find a builder who appreciates the fact that the owners provide a guaranteed sale. Homeowner's may cause delays but they are usually motivated by the fact that they are paying interest and want to move into their new home. On the other hand a spec house may be completed more quickly only to sit for months on the market on the builder's dime. I think we all must figure out what makes the most sense in *our* building market and find the best fit with a builder in our area. To do our research and know what our goals are. If it is important for Customdecorator (or any of us) to build for less than she can buy similar new construction for I would say she can probably do it if others in her area can. It won't just happen though, she will have to do her homework and make choices that keep her budget in line with her goal. Often when a consumer builds a custom home they buy the land and plan their dream home and build it. They are not thinking resale and the big picture at that time. They get caught up in the excitement and the 'while we're at it we might as well'... You think *maybe* some custom builders realize that and that prices are adjusted accordingly? :) A spec builder of course must look at the whole thing differently. They do not have the same emotional attachment. They look at lot cost, development cost, carrying cost, local sold comps, overhead & profit and what is left over is house budget. The more they save on the build the more $ they will make in the end. Perhaps the real 'trick' is thinking more like a spec builder and less like a homeowner. If that is not for you then you are not doing anything wrong you are just making different choices.

We drive older cars and do not go as far away as we otherwise would or for as long as we could in order to do our house the way we wanted so it would work for our family. When we went to Disney 2 years ago, we used Priceline and stayed in a fabulous almost new hotel about a half hour out for $42 a night. That included a very nice breakfast for the 4 of us. We rented a car from Rent-a-Wreck and saved over $450 for doing so. It was an ugly Taurus, years out of date, but it got us where we needed to go. We spent time together but were frugal. My point is, that we could have stayed in a resort on the property and blown a lot more money. Instead we economized and were able to go for 8 days in a row to Disney and really had a blast. We all have choices throughout the year where we could spend more or less. We choose to spend more on our house and less on other frills. A $1 dvd rental from the grocery store works just fine for us rather than hitting the movie theater for a family of 4. Sometimes we borrow a dvd from the library. Most of the time, we have shows saved on our tivos, which were bought 10+ and 8 years ago with lifetime service (total service for both of $450 or so). My dh's car is a 99 Acura bought used 7 years ago. Mine is a 2003 Honda SUV bought used 5 years ago. They are not chic by any means, but they work reliably and we have no payments. Other people I know lease cars for a couple of hundred $s a month and yet think we are odd for paying that same amount more on our mortgage for having remodeled. We made our house bigger when we renovated and those aspects are not going away or getting dated. Our house will be worth more for having done that. It is not oversized for our area and yet, we have all we need and want. Just last night, I spent several hours baking with my son in our kitchen. There was room for both of us and we had a really good time. We have to delay any big vacations for a while, but our day to day lives have gotten better with having a better layout and more room. Our new oven has 3 rows of racks and convection, so we needed to spread out to bake the many batches we needed (we are hosting dh's baseball draft tonight and I have an open house tomorrow, so we made a ton of cookies). Even though our reno went horribly wrong on many fronts, I enjoy the new space much more than the old cramped bad layout. We are pursuing the gc for compensation, so hopefully, it will be finished within the year. In concept, one should not count on their house for their investment, then again, I know many people who would not properly save money any other ways. If it is in their pockets or bank accounts, they view it as spending money. We have faith that economy will improve over time. By staying put, we will save on closing costs and hassles later on. Our house was designed so that we can age in place when we are older. We will never need any larger and it was designed for energy efficiency. We hope to add solar for the electric in the next few years. We have retirement accounts and will get social security and dh's pension, but if something ever went wrong, we could borrow against the house, or if we were seniors, could get a reverse mortgage. If you rent, you don't have that option. The people I know our age who do not own a house, do not seem to have loads stashed away. Money has a way of being spent if you don't have something specific for it. Those lattes, designer pocketbooks and expensive restaurant meals really add up. We eat out with a coupon most of the time and rarely pay full price. We enjoy eating at home with the room to cook and eat comfortably. Since having more space to entertain, our social lives don't have to revolve around eating out or going to bars because we don't have space to fit everyone. Dh's draft today will involve 14 men and we will be able to feed them dinner and refreshments easily. In our old setup, we'd have had to clear out the living room to get that many in and it would have been tight. In our new layout, they can fill the dining room, den and kitchen table within view of each other and be able to proceed with their drafting comfortably. When the kids have playdates, there is plenty of room for each kid to have friends and not be in each others' way (or mine!). I get a kick out of seeing people's faces when they come over and see the new layout. It has transformed the house from needing an apology about the condition to accepting compliments. It is not even completed and people can enjoy how far it has come. I walk in the house from work and enjoy seeing my dh and sons doing their thing in the new spaces. When I empty the dw or do laundry, it is not such a task any more. I really enjoy cooking more and that is with only 1 portable burner because we are not hooked up to propane. The extra space and new oven compensate for that. I guess I am going on too long, but the short answer would be, we enjoy the renovated/extended outcome and know it has improved the value of our house. We would not get back the money put in, but we also made our choices wisely and have a better return than if we "invested" in cars, fancier clothes, mani/pedis, etc...

Since you owe no money on your existing home, you'll get a much better rate and terms by doing a construction loan, then rolling it into a normal mortgage when the job is finished. I would HIGHLY suggest you apply for $100k. The work you're doing needs to include cost over run figures (and in one year...tell us what it cost...I bet it is at LEAST $100K). I'm doing a similar project...I'm pushing three times that figure. Yes I'm using some expensive products, but the basic GC fee was over $80K, and the plumbing and electric will total over $30K together. When your home is finished you'll have a final inspection and they'll wrap the deal into a full mortgage. They can use tax assessed value most likely (if the $100K is less than 80% of that figure) so costs will be quite low. I'm not sure which states still allow pre payment penalties (I thought most of those were gone by now) but do make sure there isn't one. Also, don't use an internet loan service. Go down to your local "big bank" (ie BofA) and a credit union if you must (I don't like them because they don't have to follow CRA) and then a local bank (state or community wide only). Compare apples to apples (same terms for the final loan, and ask what they can do with the construction portion) and compare the APR to the other APR's (not just the rate..which does not include the fees and other hidden or not hidden costs) and you'll know who has the best deal. DO NOT borrow more than 80% of the value of your home please. If you do, you'll be dealing with predatory lenders most likely. Please don't! (20 year banker begging you here).

Hi, over here on this side of the lake too. We are working with a contractor and sub, and got our tiles and soapstone slab from Pental-- zillions of types of granite slabs, and approximately 30 soapstones. (I don't envy the task of choosing a granite--there are so many beautiful stones!) We also looked at DalTile, Meta, and also Lakeview Stone. All about 2 miles apart, down in the South Seattle area. My understanding was that none of those places would give you price, only a range as larry noted--except Lakeview. I've heard good things about Michael Homchick in the Bothell/Kenmore area. (I believe he's a fabricator) Best of luck to you Here is a link that might be useful: homchick