A few weeks ago we saw a new construction home listing show up on REColorado that was being represented by Claire. I  gave her a call to ask about it because the full selling price seemed really low compared to what just our construction costs were going to be. Claire mentioned that another builder was going to construct the house and he was confident that he could do it for the price listed. We figured this was worth exploring a little further, so we set up a meeting with the builder after an introduction from Claire. We met with him at his office and discussed our plan. He was confident that he could build it for significantly less that what we were previously quoted. We told him we’d like to have him quote our project. We had our doubts, after all, this builder was used to working on the flat plains of Denver, not on the side of a mountain at nearly 10,000 feet, but if Claire was willing to give him a shot on her listing property, we’d give him a shot too.

We received the quote today and it was even higher than our original quote from Best Custom Homes. Almost every line item was more expensive! It was clear they didn’t have the experience or the connections to build the same caliber home that Derek was offering without padding their quote significantly to cover unexpected expenses. On one hand, it was disappointing to see the quote come in so high, but on  the other hand, it reaffirmed why we needed to stick with an experienced mountain builder.

We reached out to some other builders too, local to the area where we would be building to see if they were interested in our project. We met with a couple of them. The first one seemed excited about the project, but mentioned that he was winding down the new construction part of his business. He said he’d give us a quote, but it could take a while. The other builder seemed less enthused. He thought the quote we already had from Derek was in line with what we could expect from him, so we didn’t bother having him take the time to bid the project too.

After all that, we’re right back where we started, with the team that’s been with us the whole time. Derek and Dan always felt like the right team to build our house and we knew that it would be hard to find another general contractor that we felt as comfortable with. We were struggling with accepting the construction costs, but it turns out that’s just how much it’s going to cost to build our home. It’s more than  we wanted to spend, but we haven’t seen anything else that can compare – so we’re moving forward!