How complete are the design documents?

That seems too long. Have they checked in at all during that time? Where are you building in Texas? We're about halfway through our build in Fayette County.

Mighty:

We gave the builder a pretty complete picture of what we want: a 1/4 scale set of blueprints including elevation. Plus I emailed them a list of specifics like: flooring, photos of kitchen cabinets, desired exterior materials, and many idea photos which indicated the "look" I am going for.

My husband (always the realist/pessimist) mentioned in our meeting that we were possibly still two years away from breaking ground. Could they be taking their time due to this information? (IMO, we could build much sooner than that...however, DH holds the pocketbook, so what he says goes.)

scw75: we are in Central Texas, and no they have not checked in at all (nor have we contacted them. I don't want to seem pushy!)

We're in North Central TX, and have had our house bid twice. Both times took about 6-8 weeks. The big hang up, and we didn't know this at the time, was that we only gave the builder one set of plans for the bid.

This has to get passed around with the various trades, so that they can each submit their bids. Our builder had to coordinate this sharing of the plans. Had I known this, I would have simply got more copies, and it would have cut the time required by a fair amount.

Our builder took 1 week to get us our cost plus bid. We have completed the build and he was extremely close. We were responsible for any overage.

I have to say, as owners of an electrical contracting company we would not even consider bidding on something 2 years down the road. Who can possibly know what prices will be 2 years from now. Electrical can change from month to month nevermind 24 months down the road. How accurate could a bid be unless you are just getting a ball park figure. Our builder also had the provision that if he did a bid and we did not use him there would be a cost for the time he put in preparing a bid. If we used him however then he would not charge us for the time taken to prepare the bid.

As far as sounding pushy........a month is a long time...I don't think the builder would consider you pushy at all. Give him a call and ask him how he is progressing.

I agree with 'mel bc'; I don't see how you could use a cost-plus estimate to build in 2 years. We did a cost-plus and our builder did the 'estimates' in April of last year. We didn't start building until August and several of the bids had changed; roofing was more, framing pkg. was less, etc. All your builder would be able to do would be rough estimates......especially during these uncertain times. But by all means call him!!!

2-3 weeks here.

We have our plans out for bid right now. It was six weeks before we received the first proposal. It is nearing eight weeks and we still have not heard from one contractor. All of them said six to eight weeks.

We gave each contractor one set of plans and the specification package. We informed all of them that we intended to start the build ASAP.

Most builders and contractors would not put any time at all in putting together a bid for someone who is more of a looky lou than a serious business prospect. At a time line of 2 years, you have no business wasting yours or a builder's time getting bids. You should be getting ballpark estimates only and refining your specs and coming up with more money than you think you need. Even your specs will be out of date by the time you end up breaking ground.

It is not our intent to waste our builder's time. We were very forthcoming with him, letting him know exactly where we stand in this process.

Our situation is a little unique in that we intend to pay cash for approximately half of the house (we are Dave Ramsey followers). We have quite a nest egg saved up, but until we were able to get a ballpark figure for what the house would cost.....we had no idea when we could start. Does this make sense?

If our bid came back within our budget, we could be looking at starting to build within the next 6 months. If we are way over budget, we would either need to tweak our plans and cut out some things, or continue saving until we have the money for it.

We were also at the point in our house plans where changes were more aesthetic than functional....and we needed the help of a builder to tackle the never-ending question of "How much will this cost if I make this change?"

I know two years is a long time, but with today's economy....I would hope that a builder would want to earn our business whether it was an immediate build or a future one.

Hope this helps!

Were those 1/4 scale blueprints even readable? Is there some reason you did not give them full sized copies?

muddy:

I'm sorry....I'm probably not calling the plans the right name. They were drawn to scale and printed on large paper (rolled up, like blue prints). I thought the designer called it a 1/4 scale set of prints, but obviously I am not using the correct name.

In any case, they were very large and very readable!!

He probably meant 1/4 inch scale, where one quarter of an inch equals one foot.

If the project will start in 2 years I doubt most contractors would even unroll the drawings or call you back for a year. Or they might give you a high guess. The most likely project bids have to come first unless they have no work at all.

No need for speculation. Call the contractor and ask him the status of the bid.

I gave my plans and specs to six contractors and two responded with bids within two weeks, one called and said he couldn't meet my budget and wouldn't bid and two others simply never responded at all.

You might need to reiterate your intentions that you could be ready to build sooner but it all depends on the cost.

Dave Ramsey rocks.

we paid cash for 100% of our house.. of course now I'm about to build a pool on credit, he wouldn't like that too much.

"I know two years is a long time, but with today's economy....I would hope that a builder would want to earn our business whether it was an immediate build or a future one. "

The problem with that view aggie9597 is that it does not put food on the table for the builder now.....unless you are paying him for his time in prepping you a bid. Mind you he must have agreed to it or he would not have taken the plans? At least one would hope that was his intention, maybe he did not know what to say after your husband said it may be 2 years in the future. You definitly need to give him a call.

Where I live builders will not prepare a bid for free, at least any I know. They have to be paid for their time otherwise how would they pay for their expenses. It sounds like you would be better off getting a ball park figure for now and then at least you know if you have enough saved and then once that is determined you can go ahead with the bid process, and will be able to reassure the contractor he is not wasting his time. When we requested a ball park figure, again the builder came pretty close. Most builders should be able to come up with some kind of a figure of what it would cost by just taking a quick look at the plans if they are experienced.

I know I would be pretty upset with my husband if he spent a week away from the family working on something that he was not being compensated for. Especially as you say in this economy. I would prefer it if he was going to spend time working that he do something that paid the bills...lol.

This might be a stupid question but i am going to ask anyway. What is a cost-plus bid?

Cost-Plus is shorthand for Cost of the Work plus a Fixed Fee. The owner pays the builder the actual cost of the project plus a predetermined Fee which is usually a % of the cost of the work.

There really is no such thing as a Cost-Plus bid. A contractor might bid his fixed fee, or bid a Guaranteed Maximum Price, or provide a non-binding Budget but if he bid a fixed price for the work it would not be a cost-plus contract.