Some of the listings presented on this site include prices for floor plans being built in a specific community. These prices are subject to change without notice. These prices may or may not include upgrades that have been added to a specific project above the base price of that floor plan in the community/subdivision but such prices will typically include the standard amenities identified for building in that community. You will see that other listings and floor plans do not have prices stated in the details. These prices are intentionally omitted because actual prices for a floor plan may differ if a plan is built in different communities. The base pricing of a floor plan is dependent on the location where a house will be built. For example, one subdivision may have houses with living areas of about 1900 square feet with houses selling for $175 per square foot, while another subdivision may have houses with living areas of about 1900 square feet with houses selling for $190 per square foot. (This would include the price of the lot in both examples.) For a 1900 LSF house, these examples show that the price may vary from $332,500 up to $361,000. Now, to explain why there is such a price range is not so simple in all cases. Some of the factors which might help explain the price difference might include different prices for the lot, different characteristics of the lot, different amenities in one subdivision compared to the other, the age of the other houses in the respective areas, or it may be because the amenities in one 1900 LSF house may be considerably different than what you get with the other 1900 LSF house.
To further explain the impact of amenities, the cost and value of a house with brick or stucco on all exterior walls is higher than a house with siding on all exterior walls. The same is true for stained custom-made cabinets versus factory built cabinets, for granite counter-tops versus tile counter-tops, for custom-built showers versus fiberglass showers, for wood flooring versus carpet, for houses with decorative crown molding versus houses that have no crown molding, for houses that have sod and landscaping included in the price versus houses that have no landscaping, and this list goes on and on. As you might imagine, there are countless ways to increase the costs of a house by adding specialty items or to modify the final price of a house by altering the quality of the materials used in construction. A few other considerations which also affect the price that can be given for any specific project would include such factors as whether flood insurance is needed, the size and length of the driveway needed to service the house, whether sidewalks are required, whether a public or community sewer connection is available, whether the building pad needs to be built to a certain elevation, the permitting office that is involved and the permitting fees that are required, whether special engineering certifications need to be obtained relative to the building site, whether culverts and/or catch basins must be installed for drainage, how far the house is located relative to the nearest existing electric, gas, and water services which will be needed, and the travel time to a specific project relative to other projects in progress for the builder and for the subcontractors. Appraisers assign premiums to some of these amenity differences, but may not assign any significance to others and two different appraisers may view the exact same amenity differently. So, it is not possible to accurately determine exactly how amenities will impact the appraised value of a house although the costs for upgrades to amenities are certain. For this reason, upgrades to the standard list of amenities that Hometown assigns for a house in a community are required to be paid in advance unless Hometown has reason to agree otherwise.
The pricing for houses listed in the communities on this site already have the factors for cost differences described above considered in the pricing, but the same floor plan may cost more or less if a buyer wants to build the floor plan in another location. Since lenders condition their loans on appraised value, an “As-Built” appraisal may be necessary to determine if a floor plan could be built in another location for the estimated price. If the estimated price you are provided is equal to or lower than the “As-Built” appraisal, then a custom build project could proceed. If the estimated price you are provided is higher than the “As-Built” appraisal, then a custom build project might not be feasible without modifying the amenities to lower the price or a buyer would likely be required to pay additional cash above the down payment percentage that is required by the lender
Make sure you are comparing apples to apples. Although you may see advertisements by builders which might suggest that a builder can build a house for a specific dollar amount per square foot, that amount can only be available in very restricted circumstances. These low per-square-foot advertisement prices usually do not include the lot which is one very significant difference to the prices you may see on the listings on this site. If such advertised amount is very low, then you should expect the quality of the materials and the amenities to be the same- very low. Do not be discouraged by this warning from seeking an affordable price. Quality houses can certainly be built at affordable prices and special amenities can be included in a house at reasonable prices- we are doing this every day. Just make sure to ask questions related to the amenities and construction materials used in a house and carefully review the house plans when you get a price, because the living area square footage does not tell you everything you need to know about the price.
If you are submitting a request for a price of any of the floor plans on this site for a location other than a community on this site, please include as much information as possible about the location where you would like to build and the amenities that you would like to include in your house. The initial response you will receive from such requests will likely include more questions to get the information needed to provide such a price. After this information is provided, we will be able to start preparing a price estimate.