New Home Budget – Cutting Costs

Cutting costs can be hard in new construction. I can't tell you how many times I bid jobs and had to deliver bad news to potential customers. I would hand my proposal to people and their faces would turn white. What a miserable position to be in.

Often, the trouble begins in the planning stage. If the architect does not restrain the customer and draw an affordable job, then the homeowners fall in love with the plan. When the numbers come in and the project is 30 percent over budget, dreams become nightmares in an instant.

Maximum Cut

Without sacrificing floor area, the most you can save by cutting quality is just about six percent. Remember you rarely can save much in labor. It takes just about as much time to install a poor quality window as it does a high quality one.

The only place you can really cut money out of a budget is in materials. To complicate things, there are only a few materials you can really look at if you are not changing the size of the house. You can't change the amount of concrete in the foundation. You can't change the amount of framing lumber. You can't change the number of shingles on the roof.

But You Can Change...

But, you could change the style and quality of cabinets. You can go with the least expensive flooring. You can eliminate some or all built-in cabinetry. Consider eliminating any wallpaper. Paint is always cheaper than wallpaper. Want to save money? Then consider an asphalt drive instead of concrete. There are all sorts of places to save some money, but probably not enough to really make a difference.