How much am I going to pay a builder to construct my new home?

The cost of a new home is divided into three primary parts. (1) The costs to prepare the property for building. (2) The costs of the materials used for building. (3) The labor costs paid to the tradesmen to build your home. Additional costs are for architecture, permits, utility connections, survey fees, and, in the State of New Jersey, an assessment based on the value of your home made to COAH — a tax used for building low and moderate income housing.

The methodology used by most builders when determining the cost for your new home is to request bids from the people who will be supplying the materials and labor to construct your new home. Once the estimates are received from suppliers and sub-contractors (mason, framer, sider, roofer, plumber, electrician, surveyor, etc.) the contractor typically ‘marks-up’ the estimates from 20% to 30%.

This is where Imagineered Homes differs dramatically from other contractors. We obtain the bids, showing you the actual costs as obtained from the suppliers and contractors on their letterhead — before we total the costs. We mark absolutely nothing up on the bids — we are totally transparent. We actually prefer that you pay the sub-contractors directly, and in phases following pre-determined completion benchmarks. We collect no bulk payments for redistribution to sub-contractors — this is meant to ensure that you have complete control of the cash flow to both suppliers and contractors and that you receive a finished product that you are entirely happy with. We will negotiate a flat fee to construct your home, that will take into consideration complexity, details, and the location of the home, relative to the ocean.

We do not maintain a fancy office or have a fleet of trucks. Our passion is simply to design and build beautiful homes. We like to see the extra markup that you would pay other contractors go into your home.

Imagineered Homes is a company comprised of myself and an extraordinary group of subcontractors. I am an extremely experienced homebuilder and designer with over 45 years of industry experience — and you simply won’t find a more seasoned, transparent, or professional team than Imagineered Homes.