The Guesstimator
Most people find out their budget doesn't work about $40,000 into it.
This takes ninety seconds, and it's free.
Guesstimator - a reality check!
You give it three things: what you can spend, how many square feet, and who's swinging the hammer.
Then four choices about the house itself — finish level, shape, energy package, structural quality.
The needle moves as you click. No submit button, no waiting.
Underneath it is Front Range cost data, applied honestly.
That means hard construction plus design and engineering plus permits plus a contingency reserve — because that's what it actually takes to get from a bare pad to a finished house.
Most square-foot calculators quote you the first number and let you discover the other three on your own.
Where you land:
Green — you have room. You can absorb a bad bid or a difficult soils report without redesigning.
Yellow — it works, if you're disciplined. Lock your selections early and mean it.
Red — something has to give. Size, finish level, or how it gets built.
Black — something has to give a lot. This isn't a management problem.
And when it comes back tight, it tells you exactly what would close the gap, in dollars. That part is usually more useful than the verdict.
It can't see your dirt.
Expansive clay runs through much of the Front Range, and a geotechnical report that comes back requiring drilled piers instead of standard footings can add tens of thousands that no square-foot average anticipates. This is the single biggest thing standing between this number and your real number.
It can't price your site.
Land, well, septic, driveway, power to the building site, grading, retaining walls. On a rural parcel that's commonly $50,000 to $150,000, and occasionally much more. None of it is in here.
It can't read your county.
Setbacks, height limits, WUI requirements and energy code vary sharply from one jurisdiction to the next along the Front Range, and they move.
It's a gut check.
call it plus or minus twenty percent. Published Colorado cost data disagrees with itself by a wide margin, and this splits the difference. Nobody should sign anything based on it.
Use it to find out whether you're in the neighborhood. Then go get real numbers.