What is Turnkey?

We all dream of that ideal timber frame home that is perfectly suited to our needs and wants. But, does that dream align with our wallets? Like everything else in life, cost is a crucial consideration on the road to your custom timber home. The best way to ensure that your design, lifestyle, and budget are in-sync throughout the process? Establish a realistic turnkey budget before you begin.

Defining Turnkey

The term ‘turnkey’ originates from the act of a homeowner “turning the key” in the front door and walking into their finished home. Turnkey cost typically refers to the total cost of building a timber frame home. (It does not include buying land or site improvements.)  In the building world, if a builder claims they provide turnkey construction, it means they will build the entire home.

How Does Design Affect Turnkey?

The most important factors that influence a turnkey budget are a home’s square footage, its complexity, the level of finishes, and its location.

• Square Footage—the bigger the house becomes, the more affect it has on other aspects of the design; which, in turn, increases turnkey cost because of the need for additional building materials.
• Design Complexity—complex aspects of a design, like multiple corners, roof ridges, and valleys, (in contrast to footprints that feature only four corners and one roof pitch), cause a design to be more expensive to build.
• Level of Finishes—while granite countertops and wide plank flooring are luxury finishes that look beautiful within the home, they are more costly than Formica counters and carpet.
• Geographical Location—what many people forget when they go to build their timber frame home, is that where they choose to build also affects turnkey costs. Lake Tahoe, for instance, is a resort area where materials and labor are more expensive than a non-resort build location.

How Riverbend Determines Turnkey

Riverbend leverages more than 40 years of design experience, along with attention to detail, ensuring our homes fit within their turnkey budgets. While many companies provide clients general kit prices, we pay attention to your entire turnkey budget. Further, our team contemplates that same budget throughout the entire design process. As you suggest or make changes to the layout, size or style of your plan, we relay the impacts to the overall cost to build. By doing this, we design your home to better stay in line with the turnkey budget you had in mind.

Turnkey is a tool that gives the client not just an accurate estimate of their costs throughout the conceptual design phase, but also the confidence to move forward with financial security to create the home they’ve been dreaming of. Visit Riverbend’s whole-home cost page to learn more.