It baffles me sometimes when I counsel people who plan to build a quality home and come to me for advice with the sincere notion that they don’t want to pay for house plans. Do you see the folly in that? After all, home plans stand between you and the fulfillment of your home dreams.
But, to be sure, there are inexpensive house plans that might just do the trick for you. This leads to today’s question:
Question: What should we pay for house plans?
Answer: This is a wide open question. You can pay under $100 in some cases and you can pay tens of thousands of dollars if you want to get really custom and detailed plans for a fine home.
The questioner might be looking for guidelines or perhaps ratios of what to spend on plans vs. the cost of the eventual home or remodeling project.
Custom vs. Stock Home Plans
As you would expect, custom plans are going to cost more than stock plans. Highly detailed and engineered home plans with explicitly designed structural components are going to cost more. And, if you really want uniqueness and design that fits your lifestyle, you’re going to have to pay for it.
On the other hand, if these things are not important to you, there are “stock” plans that are already drawn (and tested) that you can purchase for a few hundred dollars that have good design and can serve you well.
Be aware of certain cautions before you decide on purchasing plans:
* Check with your Home Owners’ Associations … you may find that they must approve your plan preparers
* Check first with the building authorities as they may have restrictions on using stock plans or plans created out of your state, province or jurisdiction
* Make sure that whoever is preparing your plans has a copy of your Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions (CC&Rs) if your development has them.
Finally, to the question of ratio of costs between what you spend on house plans and the cost of the home to be built, I have found an average amount to be around two to five percent.
Frankly, it’s up to you and your desires as to what’s reasonable to pay for house plans.