Every custom home starts as a picture in someone’s head. A kitchen where the whole family ends up. A lower level built for game nights. A great room that opens to the view. Somewhere between that picture and Dig Day, one question shows up at the table, and it shapes everything that follows: how will this home be priced?
In custom building there are two common answers, fixed price and cost-plus. They sound like accounting. They aren’t. They decide who carries the risk, when you learn the real number and how it feels to live through the build. Here is how each one works, and why we build every Showtime home for one fixed price.
What is a cost-plus contract?
In a cost-plus contract, you pay what the home actually costs to build, the labor and the materials, plus a fee for the builder. That fee is often a percentage of the cost, sometimes a set amount. You may start with an estimate, but the estimate isn’t the price. The price is whatever the receipts add up to when the work is done.
Cost-plus has real fans. It’s open: in many cost-plus contracts you can see each invoice. It lets work begin before every decision is made. For some projects, that flexibility matters.
But look at where the risk sits. If lumber climbs, a trade’s bid comes in high or a schedule slips, the cost goes up, and in a cost-plus contract the owner pays it. When the fee is a percentage, the builder’s fee rises with it. Nobody has to act in bad faith for the number to grow. The structure simply allows it, and you find out as the build goes on.
What is a fixed-price contract?
In a fixed-price contract, the builder prices the whole home before construction starts, and that price is the agreement. The builder carries the job of getting the home built for that number. The owner knows the number before the first shovel goes in.
A fixed price only means something if it’s built on finished plans and real bids. A number guessed from a sketch is still a guess. That’s why, at Showtime, the price comes at the end of design, not the start.
We don’t do cost-plus, because we believe clients shouldn’t have to worry about surprise cost overruns.
Why does Showtime Homes build for one fixed price?
Because building your home should feel like starring in your own movie, not reading the invoices to see how the story ends.
Every Showtime home is built for one fixed price, not cost-plus, covering design, permits, site work, the house, finishes, landscaping and pools. One number, set before the build, for the whole picture you designed with us.
A fixed price also changes the conversation. Your attention stays on the home, the light in the kitchen, the flow from the mudroom to the drop zone, the room where the kids will grow up, and not on whether the latest invoices ran long.
When is the price of a Showtime home set?
Once your design is final. That order matters.
Our own design team draws every home in-house, and we refine the design with you through each revision: the floor plans first, then the exterior, then renderings of the outside and your key rooms, so you can see the home before it’s built. Moving a wall on paper costs less than moving it on site, so this is the time to get it right.
When the plans are final, every trade bids your final plans. We bring all of those bids together into one price, with allowances for the finishes still to come. We walk through the specifications with you, and you’re welcome to have your attorney read the agreement before you sign. Because the price is set once your design is final, it reflects the changes you made along the way.
Before any of that, site costs get a hard look. Soil, sewer, utilities or septic, grading, trees and setbacks can all move the number, especially on acreage, so we estimate them early, and we suggest a due-diligence window before you buy a lot.
What are allowances, and how do they work?
Some choices can’t be made the day you sign. You may not pick the tile for the primary bath or the light over the island until the house is framed and you can stand in the room. Allowances hold a place in the price for those finishes.
Allowances aren’t limits; they’re starting points for your choices. Our team guides you through selections in four scenes, timed to the build, and handles the showrooms, the samples and the renderings. Interior design time is included. If you choose a finish above its allowance, the difference is an allowance overage, and it’s your call to make.
What happens if we change something after signing?
Homes evolve, and sometimes you’ll want to change something after the agreement is signed. With us, any change after that is yours to approve in our online client portal.
The same portal follows the whole build. You see the live schedule and photo updates, you review selections and approve updates, and you approve each draw. Along the way, we walk the home with you on site.
Which is right for you: fixed price or cost-plus?
Both contracts build homes. The question is which risks you want to carry, and when you want to know the number.
Cost-plus can make sense when a project starts before its design is finished, or when an owner wants to manage every invoice personally and is comfortable with a final cost that isn’t known until the end.
A fixed price makes sense when you want the number settled before the build, with design, site work, the house, finishes, landscaping and pools in one agreement, and a builder who carries the job of building to it.
Whichever way you lean, ask any builder these questions before you sign:
- Is this a fixed price or cost-plus? Get the answer in writing.
- When is the price set? On a rough sketch, or on final plans the trades have bid?
- What’s included? Ask about design, permits, site work, finishes, landscaping and pools by name.
- How do allowances work? Who helps you choose, and what happens if you go above one?
- How are changes approved? Ask where you’ll see them and who signs off.
- How will you follow the build? Ask about the schedule, photos, selections and draws.
How do we start pricing a home with Showtime?
It starts with a conversation, not a number. We talk through your goals, your lot or where you’d like to build, your budget and your timeline, and whether we’re the right fit. From there, design begins, and the price follows the design.
A fixed price puts the number on the table before the first shovel, so the build can be about the home.
We’re in the business of over-delivering on promises we never made.
Thinking about building? Tell us about the home you have in mind.