Before anybody spends their valuable time replying, probably would be helpful to read this to see if it's already been said. Same post from two weeks ago How much will it cost to build this 84 lumber kit home? (houzz.com)

You can’t even find an existing fixer upper in that price range.

If only there were a way to search new homes in Maryland. Maybe someone could invent a site where you could set the year the home was built, then maybe one might be able to set a price range (say between $300,000 and $400,000), and select the type of house as home rather than condo, townhouse, etc... It could then tell you that there are plenty of new builder grade homes available in Maryland in that price range and that someone is talking out of their southern hole.

Too bad no one has thought of that.

My old post isn't visible to me so I had to make a new one. I couldn't remember exactly how I worded it the first time so I made a new one saying pretty much the same thing. I go to my posts and only see this. Sorry I offended anyone. I'm just trying to get as much information as I can and I lost all from the last post. As for my name I don't know how to change it.

I'm not coming on here to be disrespectful by any means. My apologies if it was taken that way.

Today we talked to another contractor and he told us it can be done for $360,000. He does smaller homes like the one I posted.

He told us many contractors are so busy building luxury homes that they tag on a high price because their not worried about taking on a chump change project.

Aren't you glad you asked someone local?

I'd say you can't rely on a contractor to guarantee your price. You could begin to get prices and bids for the different components and labor not included in the kit. You can post questions in the different forums to help you get familiar with each segment. A lot of diy learning even if you will be hiring someone to do a specific job. Then you can add up those numbers to see where you are. Lucky for you, construction has dropped off because of higher interest rates. And things are going to drop off more next year.

While I don't know if that number is realistic or not, in any endeavor it's best to be leery of a low bidder or a low number.

John Ruskin, an economist and a bunch of other stuff a hundred years ago probably summed it up the best with what he called "The Common Law of Business Balance".....

"There is hardly anything in the world that someone cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price alone are that persons lawful prey. It's unwise to pay too much, but it's worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money, that is all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot, it can't be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better."

But the best of luck with your build. Exciting times ahead!

I talked to another contractor in my area. He said the house I'm looking at is in the ball park of $400,000. He said at a minimum .

He's possibly just ballparking it. He can prey on you by upping your budget of 350k a bit. His goal is always to produce the most income from a project. He can push you and see your response. Law of the jungle. If you put in the learning effort, you can save money by cutting him out. Another benefit is to get a higher quality input for the same price as you'll pay to have him involved. He's also adding in his 20%+ on the kit price.

One point is that by you providing a ”kit”, you are assuming the responsibility for any problems for missing and damaged components that occur. You are the interface with the supplier for that. That type of extra layer for issues means the materials are NOT the builder’s responsibility. Except they are.

Problems with your supplied products will impact his ability to move forward and achieve progress. Builders do not like the element of chance that will bring to the table. Additional risks from the owner supplied components will inevitably incur additional costs for those risks. And associated delays.

You likely can achieve a lower cost result with a semi-custom production builder being responsible for the entire whole, including materials sourcing. Price one of his compact plans that he has built again and again. Repetition of a product build yields efficiencies in production, as does the repeated sourcing from established supplier relationships. Plus, with all under his control, there is only one responsible party to have, with you outside those pressures of supply chain substitution decisions and emergency replacement sourcing.

The opposite of a pro GC approach of you DIY general contracting your own build can save some money, if you are knowledgeable enough in local materials sourcing and have good relationships with local subs already. It is a FULL TIME job, not a part time one. You or your spouse need extreme schedule flexibility to be on site a good deal. Which is why it is usually retired individuals, or flex schedule firemen, or homemakers that choose this route. You also need some general construction knowledge of order of operations, quality control, and conflict management for competing priorities. You would need to extend your timeline to go that route, so check permitting extensions, and bank loan extension options.

You'll be getting your kit from a local 84 Lumber. Ask them for sub recommendations. Skip the GC.

@Linda@icookinmykitchen.com said, "One point is that by you providing a ”kit”, you are assuming the responsibility for any problems for missing and damaged components that occur. You are the interface with the supplier for that. That type of extra layer for issues means the materials are NOT the builder’s responsibility."

None of this is true. These are nothing more than standard takeoffs from standard plans. When an architect, builder, your mother, etc. provides plans to the builder, s/he will take those plans to a preferred lumber yard for takeoffs. This is when the people at the lumber yard build the materials list from the plans and create a bid for contractor approval. These plans are not at all different from that process only someone has already done the takeoffs and the plan has already been built and therefore problems with the takeoffs have already been found and eliminated. That is the only difference.

When the lumber yard is bidding a lumber package from takeoffs they will always build in a bit of margin for mistakes in the takeoffs. The advantage of these plans is that those takeoffs have been tested many times before and the lumberyard doesn't need the extra margin. The disadvantages are that you have to use them and you have to build that house, there really are no other disadvantages.

The responsibility for missing components is 100% on the lumberyard and not the homeowner even if there were no contractor. Even if you were DIYing this build the lumberyard is responsible for delivering the products on the takeoff. Mistakes are always the responsibility of the party that made the mistake regardless of whether or not there is a contractor. If your framer messes up, you are not responsible for replacing the materials he messed up.

Additional risks from the owner supplied components will inevitably incur additional costs for those risks. And associated delays. [...] You likely can achieve a lower cost result with a semi-custom production builder being responsible for the entire whole, including materials sourcing.

Again, these are not owner supplied materials, this just a slight variation on the standard materials sourcing that most builders use. That variation being the lumber yard supplies the plans AND the takeoffs rather than the takeoffs from the builder supplied plans.