Costing your dream...

You never thought that a dream can cost you money, lots of money, well wake up. If you are going to build your dream house, that is the reality. If you don’t get this, that dream will turn into a nightmare quickly and that happens, often.

First thing when you do a building project is to determine the actual cost of the project, that means list and cost everything that is going to make up the cost, not only the nice things you can see and that makes sense, but also the funny things that eats the budget. Things like  site cleaning, site hut rental, crappy things like site toilet hire and  (did you get the “crappy” part) site rubbish removal and for those lucky few wealthy ones living in estates, labour, security and admin fees. In other words do a detailed QS.

What is a QS? It is a quantity survey which determine the quantities and costs for a project. (normally done by a professional, AKA  Quantity surveyor) but they are expensive and their costs are normally hugely inflated  BUT there  are alternatives and you really don’t need a professional for a standard house. Lucky you came across me. Unlucky for you  have to contact me to get the secrets. It might not even cost you anything.

When you know what you need you can actually determine what that is really going to cost you. AT ACTUAL COST PRICE. If you don’t know this, well it is a free for all for the contractor and other “professionals”  and sub contractors, because you will never find out what you really paid for labour , materials, fees etc. The material you pay for might even be used to build someone Else's house and you won’ t even get a thank you.

See how the contractors make money of you with that dark secret thing called “COST PER SQUARE METER” .

There goes your bricks to another site!

If you have a good accurate indication of what the actual cost of your project is, you can make informed decisions regarding if you can really afford it, if you can afford better finishes, where you want your money to go and a myriad of other things. The costing provides you with a benchmark where you can manage your financial commitment in the project and manage and understand the Cash flow (Cash flow on a building project is a serious mood killer and the source of real angst  for everyone.  I will write something about cash flow later).  In a building project knowledge is power.  I do get it that you don’t have the knowledge and are not a expert in building houses, but create a knowledge network or get someone that you can trust to ask.

 Remember the bottom line is,  it is your dream, your house and your money and it should be fun to build your dream.

* Note - If you find the Blog interesting, it makes more sense to read the Blog entries chronologically from the start.