At the last Oklahoma State Homebuilders Convention, we had a guy give a program on how to deal with clients....pretty interesting. Two ideas were ingrained completely: One was that you will have customers who you will remember as literally the Anti-Christ, and that you will be the Anti-Christ to some as well...and they will be on and the same.
My client that was my Anti-Christ was talking with me about building a new home, and the numbers at that time I used were roughly $70 a sq/ft. Now before you guys start yacking it up, I quote for everything under roof....and every added floor space. If the footprint is 5000 sq/ft and has 1000 feet of bonus space, that is 6000 feet and will probably hit 420k.
The client brought me a house plan that had 4260 sq/ft and about 3/4 of the way through the build, (cost plus contract, no total numbers listed), she was hostile and said I was dishonest. She said we were over budget.....I said no, we are actually under quite a bit....she said 2100 sq/ft should cost 147k....I said no, we would be actually under by maybe 25k and finish at 275k.....she was astounded....where did I get that idea...EVERYONE knows you price a home on living square feet....and my replay was priceless....."do you think God gives you a 3 car garage and 1000 feet of outdoor living spaces at no cost when you build a new home?"
So she gives me a bad rap every time.....but I have yet to lose a job based on her referrals...matter of fact, I tell each and every potential client that I do not call myself a home builder, I am a contractor, and every square foot of a home has a cost attached to it. In the long run, telling that tale and integrating expected total numbers into cost plus contracts has kept me out of contention since, and made people realize the idea of true cost of construction.