Plenty of builders will toss out a free number. We’ll give you a free consultation and a planning estimate built from our real costs, too. But the moment you want an actual price for an actual house on an actual lot, someone has to do real work: drawings, a site visit, subcontractor pricing. Our preconstruction proposal is how we pay for that work honestly — and how you get a number you can take to a lender.
The fee
- $5,000 for homes under $500,000
- $7,500 for $500,000 to $1 million
- $12,500 for $1 million to $2 million
- $17,500 above $2 million
The full amount is credited toward your contract when you sign with Highline. If you decide not to build with us, you keep the blueprints and the estimate — they’re yours, and you can take them to another builder.
What’s included
- Design. Floor plan and elevations developed with you until they’re right, then finalized for pricing.
- Selections. Finish decisions — flooring, cabinets, counters, plumbing and lighting fixtures, siding, windows — made with photos and 3D renderings so you can see the home before it exists.
- Site visit. We walk your lot and price the site work for it specifically: grading, clearing, driveway, utilities, well and septic where needed.
- A fixed cost estimate. Line by line, in the eight stages of work we build in, with the account codes we use in construction. Turnaround is typically two to three weeks from the site visit and receipt of drawings, depending on how quickly subcontractor pricing comes back.
- Your build timeline. The five-stage path from consultation to keys, with your dates filled in.
What’s not included
Engineering, survey, soils testing and permit fees are paid separately, because they’re paid to third parties and vary by township and lot. We’ll tell you what to expect for yours.
Why charge at all?
Because a free estimate is a guess, and a guess is how custom homes go over budget. When the estimate is built from your drawings, your selections and your lot, the number holds — and selections above your allowance become change orders you approve in writing, not surprises at closing. That’s what the fee buys: a number you can trust. Read more on how we price a home.
Thinking about building? Call 616-297-0151 or schedule a consultation. Bring your lot, your ideas, or both — the first conversation is free and you leave with a realistic range.