Today we met with Builder B as a follow-up to our first meeting.  We met Builder B at his home which he recently finished building in the fall.  It’s a very nice home and the floorplan reminded us a little of our layout.  It is a one story with a walkout basement.  The master was on the main with the other bedrooms were downstairs with an extra bonus room downstairs as well.  It was great to get to see the details of his work up close – we really got a true feeling for how he builds homes and how he would build ours.  That said, the style of the house was completely different than what we want ours to be – his was northwest craftsman and we want ours to feel more bright & white.

We spoke more about the pricing of the home to get some more details about what was and wasn’t included in the original price per square foot that he gave us.  He also told us that some of the utilities and major exterior items like a full driveway also wasn’t included in the price per square foot that he initially told us about ($115).  Builder B informed us that the $115 per square foot pricing does includes a 5% supervisory fee.  On top of that, he adds an additional 12% for overhead & profit and then tax on top of that (8.6% where our house will be built).  Tax is added afterwards because he will purchase all of the materials without tax using his reseller’s permit.  That way we’re not paying for tax twice, and that way we can use the lower tax rate of 8.6% instead of the 9.5% tax elsewhere in the Seattle area.  Washington State’s Department of Revenue has broken down all of the tax laws for custom building a house in Washington.  They give some great examples like:

Example of a Contractor’s Estimate (including tax)

We discussed our house and some of the selections with Builder B at his house and over the next week or so he’s going to spend some time reviewing the plans in more detail and giving us a better idea of the cost to build our house (not just a cost per square foot estimate).  As it stands now, with some really rough numbers for utilities and exterior hardscaping, plus the $115 per square foot + 12% overhead & profit + tax the total cost per square foot is really $165 per square foot.  We’ll see what it is truly when he looks at our plans in more detail.  We’re looking forward to getting a really accurate bid before we sign a contract with any builder.