The things people ask before they call.

• What does it cost to build a custom home? −

  Most builders will answer this with a cost per square foot. Call one and he says he can build your house for $300 a square foot. Call another and he says $500. The next says $1,000. They are all right and all wrong at the same time, because none of them knows your land, the plan you want, how complex it is, or the quality you want to finish it to.

  The finishes are the big one. Do you want $20,000 cabinets or $150,000 cabinets, or something in between? Then make that same choice roughly two hundred more times. That is where a house price actually comes from.

  So the honest answer to what a house costs is: largely wherever you want it to land. The useful conversation is not a number over the phone, it is working out what your land, your plan and your finishes add up to.

• How does your pricing work? +
• Will I be able to see where my money is going? +
• What do I need to have ready before I call you? +
• How do I tell a good builder from a bad one? +
• What usually goes wrong during a build? +
• Where do you build, and what kind of homes? +
• Is there anything I should know about building in East Tennessee specifically? +
• How many builders should I talk to? +
• How often will I actually hear from you during the build? +
• What happens after I move in? +
• Can you take over a build another builder started? +
• Do you offer anything other than building the house? +
• Can I build now and finish parts of it later? +
• Do you handle landscaping and the yard? +

Not the question you had? Ask Matt directly. There is no obligation attached to it.