Your architect should have some contacts for you. If you have a realistic budget for your wants, you should at least have a few people who move forward with a conversation and a ballpark. If you're not even getting that, then there is some red flag that you are raising about something. Where are you located? What do your plans look like? Do you own land? What is your budget?

He did have one builder that came in at 165 per sq ft. That is the high end of things from talking to people. I am located on a lake, my plans are a 2 story 900 on bottom and 300 up top with a basement. I do own land and already been perc tested and approved. My budget is 300-320k

Under $200 a square for a custom build is screaming cheap in some parts of the country. In others, it's spot on. I would be high for a cookie cutter house in a neighborhood of cookie cutters, but a one off build on a lake doesn't exactly get the volume discount. It gets the difficult site and expensive environmental assessment and permitting premium charge. If you are comparing costs to a non lake build, you aren't comparing anything useful.