Answer simple questions
Work through one short step at a time. No email, phone number or account is required.
Free custom home planning tool
Plan your home before you talk to a builder.
Choose what you want, organize the decisions that matter and create a clear brief you can show to local builders.
Your saved plan is still here.
Continue your builder brief →
Continue your builder brief →
From idea to useful conversation
Know what to tell a custom home builder.
This is a planning checklist with a practical finish line—not a floor plan designer or construction cost estimate.
Leave with something useful
Your choices become a concise project brief that builders can quickly understand.
Ask consistently
Share the same scope with each builder so your first conversations start from the same place.
After builders respond
Know what to check in a builder quote.
Use a short, no-entry checklist while reading the quote you already have.
Before the plan, and after it
Questions people ask before they build
Each answer comes from a survey, a code or an agency page, listed at the end of the page. See all 22 on one page.
What it costs
- Can square footage times a cost per square foot tell you what a house will cost?
- Does a smaller house cost less per square foot to build?
- How much of the cost of building a house is materials, and how much is labor?
- Is it cheaper to build on your own land than to buy a newly built house?
- Should you price an attached garage at the same cost per square foot as the house?
- Is there a trustworthy cost per square foot for building a house in your state?
The lot, the plans and the permits
- What should you find out about a lot before you buy it to build on?
- Can you build a stock house plan on your lot exactly as drawn?
- What permits and inspections does a new house need before anyone can move in?
- Which steps in building a house have to happen in a fixed order?
- How long does it take to build a house?
- How can you tell whether a new house will actually be energy efficient?
Loans, contracts and paperwork
Who does the work
Other ways to build
- If both are built in a factory, what makes a modular home different from a manufactured home?
- Will an A-frame, a steel kit or a shipping container make your house cheaper to build?
- Does a barndominium kit price tell you what the finished house will cost?
- What changes when you build a tiny house yourself instead of buying one finished?