How Much Does It Cost to Build a Custom House in Colorado?

Many Northern Colorado residents are choosing to build a custom home rather than fight for the limited real estate. If you’ve been considering building a custom home, Fort Collins construction company Jacques Family Construction can help you turn your ideas into reality, offering transparent and competitive custom home pricing that aligns with your vision and budget. As a home builder, our dedication to craftsmanship and client satisfaction sets us apart in the market, as we tailor every project to the unique desires and lifestyles of our clients.

Pre-Construction Planning 

The path to your custom home begins with detailed pre-construction planning. This phase is critical for setting a realistic budget and understanding all associated costs. At Jacques Family Construction, we help our clients understand the overall cost of the project from the beginning by discussing six key cost areas:

• Design and Architecture fees
• Permits and Building fees 
• Materials
• Labor costs
• Customization
• Outdoor features

While discussing these costs, we also educate our clients on financing options and timeline planning. By offering thorough pre-construction pricing and planning services, we lay the foundation for a successful build that meets your expectations and budget. 

Below, we outline how our Jacques Family Construction team addresses each of these costs while helping you build your overall budget for your custom home. 

Design and Architecture Fees

The beauty and functionality of your new home begins to take shape in the design phase. We partner with some of the most talented architects in Northern Colorado, ensuring that your vision is translated into a design that’s both practical and inspiring. 

We work with you to understand your design preferences and requirements, ensuring these are reflected in the project’s planning and execution stages without exceeding your budget. 

Permits and Legal Fees in Colorado

Managing permits and legal requirements is a key part of our process. We provide expert assistance to ensure our clients are informed and can budget for necessary permits and legal fees. Our deep understanding of local regulations streamlines this often complex phase, ensuring projects proceed smoothly.

We navigate the various local and environmental regulations to secure all the require permits for your build. Our experienced team has been through this process many times and always ensures your project is totally compliant before any construction begins. 

Materials 

Material selection is a significant factor in home prices, although it can be one of the more opaque costs at the outset. We help our clients choose the right materials for each phase and room, whether it’s for more energy-efficient walls and foundations, extra natural light, or weather and durability concerns. 

Our extensive experience and industry connections allow us to source high-quality materials at competitive prices, ensuring that your Northern Colorado home is built with the finest (and local, when possible) resources without breaking the bank.

When selecting a material, we often tell our clients to consider the following metrics:

• Durability 
• Maintenance
• Energy efficiency
• Aesthetics
• Colorado-weather friendly
• Availability 
• Resale value

After we’ve finished discussing these criteria, you should have a complete and accurate picture of your materials cost and you can move forward with confidence that you’re getting what you want at the price point you need.

Labor Costs 

Skilled labor is essential for quality home building in Colorado, which is why we pride ourselves on employing some of the most experienced craftsmen in the industry. By fostering a culture of excellence and precision, we ensure that every aspect of your home is constructed with care and expertise.

However, you of course need to keep your project within budget. Our success with reasonable labor costs comes from a deep understanding of efficient project management. In addition to choosing qualified contractors that we trust to make the best use of time, we meticulously plan and execute each phase of construction to ensure that labor is used effectively, avoiding extended time and other labor costs that can inflate the overall project cost. 

Customization

We believe that custom features truly transform a house into your home. However, while adding elements like gourmet kitchens, luxury bathrooms, or smart home technology may enhance your living experience, they also affect the overall cost. 

Popular customization choices among our clients include custom outdoor living spaces and high-tech automation systems, which can vary in cost based on specifications. Our priority is to provide you with a clear understanding of the value and use you could get from these customizations, and also their impact on pricing. 

Outdoor Features 

Landscaping, decks, patios, and other exterior features are far from an afterthought in custom home budgeting and planning. These are often some of the more expensive and high-maintenance features of a custom home, so it’s wise to carefully plan them ahead of time.

Here are some common outdoor options that are important to keep in mind when considering your overall budget:

• Landscaping—what kind, how much, and will you need irrigation or other infrastructure?
• Hardscaping—what type of patios or decks are you including, and where?
• Exterior lighting—you’ll need different types for security, entertainment, and safety
• Outdoor kitchens and entertainment areas—we can help you plan and contract these out
• Swimming pools and spas—water features add thousands to initial construction costs
• Fencing and privacy features
• Driveway—do you need additional parking space for residents, guests, RVs, boats?
• Sustainable features—-these may include heat pumps, solar panels, or rainwater collection systems
• Technology integrations—outdoor sound systems, security cameras, smart home features
• Seasonal maintenance—snow removal and landscaping

We know there’s a lot to keep in mind when you’re building a custom home. That’s why the experienced team at JFC has your back the whole way. We’re familiar with the kinds of things most homeowners forget, so we’ll be there to remind you if we don’t have all the information we need or if there’s an additional cost factor you haven’t considered. Our family-owned company is here to make this process as easy on you as we can.

Save on Building a Home Without Sacrificing Quality

Building the house you’ve always wanted doesn’t have to break the bank. Through our value engineering approach, we explore every avenue of your property to save costs without compromising the integrity and quality of your new home. 

Building your perfect new house begins with choosing the right partner. Jacques Family Construction is dedicated to making your dream home a reality, offering straightforward pricing, exceptional value, and a commitment to quality. Contact us today to start planning your project and you’ll be stepping through a beautiful new front door in no time.