Stick To Your Construction Budget
I seriously can't remember ever building a home, when I
was working for another contractor, where the construction budget was
actually balanced. Whenever they were my projects, I made sure that we
finish the job on budget, unless the homeowner really wanted something
extra and understood the consequences.
I can't stress this enough, to anyone who is interested in building a
new home, renovating an old one or simply remodeling your bathroom. If
the contractor gives you a price of $25,000 to remodel your kitchen and
your budget is $26,000, this should send a clear signal that you only
have an extra thousand dollars to mess around with.
I was working on a whole house remodel one time and the budget was
around $400,000. The contractor that I was working with at the time
wanted to please the homeowners and really didn't think twice about
going over, as and on the construction budget.
When the job was completed, the homeowner had spent over $625,000 and
that's $225,000 over budget and I'm sure that it put this family into
some strong financial burdens. This isn't the first time something like
this happened to someone that I was working with or working for.
If you're building a home and the contractor doesn't give you a fixed
price, you need to find another contractor. You must know what the home
is actually going to cost when finally completed. In case you didn't
hear what I just said, make sure that you have a fixed price contract
from your general contractor and that everything is included in the
contract.
The worst thing that can happen to anyone building a home or remodeling
one is to start with a construction budget that is already more than you
can afford, only to find out later on that the cost overruns are going
to force you into financial devastation.