Updated 11.21.25
And as inexpensive plans.
Are more like this.
Right. It’s square or rectangle. It’s hip roofs. It’s low roof pitches. It’s smaller outdoor living spaces integral to the roof layout. It’s a lower number of linear feet. It’s code electrical, and it’s 400 and 600 square foot garages.
So sometimes when you’re being compared to your competition, it’s not an apples to apples comparison.
And you know, having been doing, you know, being a home builder coach for a long time, I keep running into this scenario over and over again with the different builders that I deal with. And it’s like I’ve got, you know, they’re comparing some other builders plan to our plan, and we’re trying to do the apples to apples comparison.
These are the very common differences that expensive plans have to inexpensive plans. But many of these things are like, would I like more of that stuff? Yes, but it’s going to be more expensive. The answer to do I want that stuff is usually yes. The question is, what you have to help them understand is the wish list versus the needs list, which is often referred to as the willing to pay for list.
Do I want, 20ft by 18ft deck off of the back? Yeah, but does it cost more? Yeah. Does home builder coach want to pay for it? Just going back to. Let’s go to the this Flint Rock plan. Right. I’ve got. Is this covered or not covered? Brady. Natalia. Not covered. Not covered. Is it more expensive to have a cover over the top or to not have a cover over the top, but $2,835 more expensive?
Yeah, it’s a lot more expensive to have a cover. So when comparing apples to apples, you’ve got to be careful. Are they comparing the same to the same when they’re looking at some other builders house?
Right. How many linear feet of cabinetry do I have in this kitchen? Not a whole lot. So very small number, but that’s what makes it cost effective.
Right. So when I’m trying to do these comparisons, home builder coach has to be careful. I have to be careful about that. Does that make sense? Yes. So that’s how you kind of go through making that apples to apples comparison. Right. And when the customer is saying, yeah, but their house is a better price. Or they’re, you know, whatever, it’s like, okay, well let’s go through why that’s the case.
These are the things that make a difference.
And then it’s like, okay, what about,
You know, what makes up the cost of a home? Like, we had a customer asking us to reduce the price of our home.
If somebody says, hey, will you lower your price? How do we respond to that? No. Prices are firm and fair, and they appraise over value. Are you wanting a lower quality? Home? Our prices are firm and fair.
And our homes appraise for over value. It’s a great answer. Natalia, I like your answer. Here’s how home builder coach phrased that.
Is this way.
Appraise it like this. The cost of our homes are determined by four things. They are the cost of the land, the cost of the materials, the cost of the labor, and a profit margin. We build volume so we have a low margin and we make it up by being volume less. And we’re not going to get rid of a profit margin because we’ll be out of business.
You don’t want us to go out of business while we’re building your home, do you? The cost of the land is fixed and everybody pays the same price for the land. The cost of the materials is. Do you want me to use. Lower quality materials for your home.
It’s like, what areas would you like me to use? Low quality materials? And do you want me to do it in the framing of the structure of your home? Is that where you’d like me to use low quality materials? How about the foundation? Do you want me to use the lowest quality materials I can? And your foundation is that.
