Can you speak to a few builders in the area? Your best bet really is to make a few calls, and they'll tell you if they believe you are in range.

There usually is different grade of builders too. Some although custom to some degree, tend to have repetitive style homes they build and are very familiar with so if you happen to like one they offer, you may be able to get a really accurate picture of cost from them.

We are in NC, but right at the coast, so there is additional costs for increased structural wind support and windows etc.

I wouldn't say it's out of the ballpark completely, depending on the finishes you want, but all the little things add up. Maybe coming up with a list of must haves and then down the road items etc. could help.

Unfortunately right now lumber cost and demand of product is high, but there is hope it may lower again.

Good Luck!

Nia, I think you should budget about $175-190/sq ft. That's what my above-average custom build is costing me in Atlanta.

Thank you all for this advice! This is so helpful!

@Shola Akins The numbers help a bunch thank you! Is this cost per square foot just for the build? Or did this include your land too?

That is the price to cover the construction costs.

@Shola Akins likely just for the build. At least where I am in NC, and that's for a hardie board siding, not brick. Again there are so many variables when it comes to finishes etc.

Kitchens can drive your budget way up. Appliances alone could eat up 10K of your budget.

Getting plans designed first and then finding out that it won't fit into your budget will eat more into that budget, so it can be a good idea to find a builder who has recently built a plan you like, even if you need to change it some to make it your own. You may save yourself heartache and $$$ lost and you can also see an idea of what finishes you'd get in your price range.

Or you could send them a sample of one that's kind of similar you find online and see if they can look at it for pricing. Sometimes you can order study sets very cheaply. Then if it's a go you can design your own similar, but better suited to your personal needs version.

Some of your clearing costs should be built into the loan/ house budget. You're builder will normally cover the clearing for the immediate build site so that might help a bit. Like others said - your finishes and extras will impact cost. Siding materials and over sized decks/ porches come into play too. All builders have different ways they calculate their builds and most I talked to did not calculate simply by sqft. (Though most did have sqft calculations to est the average amount of deck and porch area included . . . like allowing for 20% of the total finished house sqft for porches/ decks Ex: 2000sqft house allows for 400sqft of porch/ deck).

Type of foundation will incur more/ less cost. Access to the build site. Meeting local code.

Talking with a few local builders and better yet friends/ acquaintances.

Cost/SF is a metric that gets a lot of folks into trouble--including prospective homeowners, builders, architects, and Realtors. The only folks who seem to get away unscathed when using such a dumbed-down metric are appraisers.

Custom homes aren't sold by the SF nor is their construction cost accurately estimated by a SF approach. The cost/SF is metric is affected by so many variables-- e.g., the size and architectural style of home; site-specific costs (clearing, utilities, connection fees, grading, excavation, etc.) the complexity of the framing (simple box or something that looks like a puzzle?); the size of porches, decks, garages, pergolas, car ports; the particular materials of construction; the appliances; the particular HVAC and other systems; the level of finish; the landscaping and hardscaping, etc. that's it's not very accurate nor useful. It's especially dangerous to use a cost/SF metric in a cost environment that's changing rapidly as might be the case, say, during a global pandemic. That said, lots of folks use cost/SF. I guess that's why they advise keeping a large amount of cash for "unanticipated" project overages.

The best way to infer construction costs is to tour homes similar to what you have in mind and get prices from those builders to replicate the homes on your specific lot. This will enable you to see the actual materials, systems, amenities, and level of fit and finish you can expect in your home from each of the candidate builders. Anything else is a guess. To paraphrase Dirty Harry, "Do you feel lucky?"

@Nia Lewis, that figure is for the actual construction and builder fees. I had to buy the property and tear down the old existing structure on it at a separate expense.

I understand that builders do not quote on a per square footage basis but I was just giving you the numbers that my build will cost me per square foot since we are almost done. If South Carlina prices are like Atlanta, then that's what you should expect.

My build includes an unfinished daylight basement, elevator, subzero appliances, quartz countertop and backsplash, solid core doors, foam insulated ceiling, 2 stage carrier HVAC, and 70% Brick cladding.

And still Shola your build tells us nothing about your house. Was it a custom build where you had it designed by an architect or was it an expensive tract home? Do you have 12' ceilings or 9'? Do you have engineered white oak flooring or site finished red oak #2? Do you have 10" crown molding or none? Do you have 8" baseboards or? Clamshell molding around the doors or built up molding? Are your windows factory mulled or were they separated like they used to do? Is your roof shingle? 5V crimp metal or standing seam? Any built in cabinets with specialty details or basic shelving? Did you pick knobs and handles from HD or did you do like my sister and pick $100/piece knobs for the kitchen? Is your faucets Delta or a gold Waterstone faucet? Are your doors solid core masonite or solid wood? Outdoors is your driveway old brick or concrete?

All the above and 100's of other decisions will all affect pricing on the house which is why no one can give you a price to build. And even if you find a builder you like, if all that builder does is his own "custom" homes where you go to his showroom and pick one from column A and two from column B, if you want something he doesn't have, his pricing will not match what he's already built. So as mentioned above, pricing per square foot means nothing.

@Shola Akins Your house sounds like it’s going to be amazing! I‘d love to see a photo when it’s finished. Thank you for sharing this info with us!

@Charles Ross Homes Thank you for sharing this insight. It seems all new construction homes in our area available to tour are in master plan communities. The model homes we’ve toured are nice, and some of these builders offer “build on your lot options.” Learning about the floorplans these builders offer helps us see how much what we want could realistically cost, however, the changes we would want to make to their floor plans make us feel like maybe we should get custom plans drawn. Which also means we’d have to find a builder that would build from custom plans? I guess we will either have to sacrifice some aspects of our wishlist and build a semi-custom home, or take the risk of getting custom plans drawn and potentially getting quotes from builders that are beyond our budget.

For the new home tours that you are doing, add 50%-75% to the cost of what they are selling for. That’s your needed uncertainty and contingency cushion. Custom costs more than a nice tract development. Prices of materials and labor both have risen and continue to rise. A home priced out last month won’t cost what the same one costs this month. Now is a good time to buy an existing home. Its not the best time to build.

A model home is a known commodity--what you see is what you get--and for a price you know up front. The more custom your home is, and the more unique your lot is--the farther you venture from a known commodity and price.

The larger model home in the development that my parents live in was just sold to the highest bidder. The builder had enough interest in that model that they were able to have several buyers bid against each other. That price per sq.ft. will only tells us what someone was willing to pay for a move-in-ready house in a weird pandemic RE market!

@cpartist, it's architect-designed and full custom. Site finished white oak, Kohler faucets, shingle roof. I have pictures up in the July and August progress thread. I haven't updated them lately. Anyway, I was just giving Kia an idea of what to expect if prices in her town are similar to mine and I'm sure that she knows what to ignore if it doesn't apply to her.

I didn't buy into the $50,000 architect fees that I have read about. My architect charged $3/sq ft and he did a great job listening to us and designing a home that we wanted.

I agree with Charles. S/F pricing needs to be thrown out the window once and for all!! It's complete #%&^*&%# By the way, I grew up in North Augusta.

My point Shola, was that you can’t price a home by square foot and your market and build price from when you built doesn’t reflect current pricing

Square foot is straight up a poor pricing metric. I have been in sales and estimating both commercially and residentially for over 25 years and the only time I have screwed up pricing is when attempting to use square foot as a basis for pricing metrics. It. Just. Does. Not. Work.

That may be a tight budget based on what you want with your new home. We built on Seabrook Island 2 years ago and our house (land was separate) was about $1 million. It is about 3400 sf. However, we are right on the marsh one street from the ocean. Lots of our budget went into “hurricane proof”windows and tiger wood flooring (due to the humidity) and our house is elevated about 10 feet off the ground. Appliances cost more than expected. And, because of the ARC wanting our house to look a certain way, we had to do 10 feet ceilings on the first and second floors (were hoping to get shorter ceilings on second floor to save with costs). We had a hurricane with flooding during our building which washed away lots of our dirt, so we spent lots on dirt. Cabinets costs a good portion, too. You are inland, so your window and flooring budget should be lower, and maybe you won’t have to elevate your home, so you may be able to do. I can give you the name of a great architect, but I wouldn’t recommend my contractor.

While I agree with others, that price/sf isn't always reliable, I think it gives you a starting point to decide whether it is worth moving forward paying for preliminary plans & bids. If the average price for new construction in your area is more than $150/SF, I wouldn't waste time or money having plans drawn up or getting bids if $470,000 is your max budget and you need 2800-3000 SF. A lot of builders charge for estimates because--if they do them right--it takes time and effort. I think it cost me $2500.

While I think touring models in master-planned communities is good, I think you'll get more realistic prices for build-on-your-own-lot-construction if you visit places like America's Home Place or Schemaucher Home's model home centers. (I don't know if they have locations in Charleston, but similar builders.) You can get prices on several of their 3000 SF homes and calculate your own average. That is what I would use as a MINIMUM price/SF average. If that doesn't fit within your budget, don't bother with custom. Even if the other builder tells you it will be cheaper, you will get hit with extras throughout construction and the final price will go up, up, up!

In my area, even though my builder said B&B siding was cheaper, I found brick to be cheaper once I factored in exterior paint for the siding. That is something my builder failed to mention when he was giving me $/SF of siding vs brick during the preliminary design phase.