Home Building budget spread sheet

The primary purpose of preparing a home building budget spread sheet is to understand and control costs. Beginning with the estimates, you are able to better guess the total cost amount for the style and size of a home on a particular plot.

At the very least a  site owner should be able to consider if the project is feasible once estimates are made. The total cost amount can be broken into two categories: hard costs and soft costs. Hard costs include labour and material to build the house. Soft costs include everything else. The home building budget spread sheet format outlines products and services which one utilizes during the Design/Build process.

The budget estimate for material and labour is associated with the scope of Drawings and Specifications. These budgetary considerations BEGIN early in the planning phase of the Design/Build process.

Consider the initial study of costs as an exercise in project feasibility. Based on your projection of costs for material and labour, the Owner should be able to weigh and consider the Design and Build options.

With estimates prepared from the home building budget spread sheet, attention can be given to the Budget review process: 1-identify priorities, 2-recognize trade-offs, 3-do cost/benefit analysis, 4-revise cost estimate.

The percentage estimate of hard costs is a ball park guess. It simply is a beginning point for determining if the amount you have to spend is even close to the house you want to build. One should realise that this is a very VOLATILE home building budget estimate.

There is a cost range from economy, to modest, to custom, to luxury which CORRELATES with the products and materials you choose to install in your home. Match material/product choices with the price category in which you can afford to build.

NOTE - These are general discussion articles only.