Be very careful with this company and get everything in writing! If you get a price quote on paper…read moremake sure it includes design and construction if that is the intent of the project. BCRA came in extremely over-budget and had hidden fees that were never disclosed to us when we accepted their bid vs. other builders.
Construction pricing came in at $739,540.20 when the budget was $450,000.00. This put them 64.34% over budget. They had us stuck between two enormous fees. If we stayed with them we had to pay a $38,400 management fee, which did not exist with other builders, and if we left them for another builder they were charging extra (or removing a discount) for the design fee, putting us at $18,800 for a basic single-family residence! The details are below.
My wife and I met with BCRA, and two other builders, for home construction price quotes and they all came in at "Cost Plus 14%." BCRA told us they could provide the same "Cost Plus 14%" as the other contractors, but they offered the advantage of Design AND Build. This sounded great and we signed our design contract with BCRA with the verbal agreement that they would Design and Build. What we didn't know at the time was that BCRA was not disclosing their "full" pricing to win the construction contract. BCRA had two separate contracts (design and construction) and they had management fees that were undisclosed to us and were not made apparent until we received construction pricing months later. Unfortunately, this wasn't fair to us or the other builders that had bid for our project and did not have a management fee. We quickly discovered that they had locked us into their services at a much higher rate than the other builders because of management fees and on top of that they charged a large fee, or in their view remove a discount, for taking the design business elsewhere. This "undisclosed construction management fee" ($38,400) was never disclosed to us when we were comparing builders. Plus, BCRA was charging the agreed upon "Cost Plus 14%" on top of this. They locked us in by having us sign the design paperwork with the intention of having us sign the construction paperwork down the road.
Our lender even said these fees were incredibly high and abnormal. We went back to one of the other original bidders and they said, "In 20+ years of building homes in they had never seen such a management fee for a single family residence." This is where the unconscionable contract occurred. We were forced to either pay this "construction management fee" or pay a huge fee to obtain the plans ($9,200+$9,600) and take our business elsewhere. This would bring the total cost of design services to $18,800.00 for a single-family home!
All of the pricing aside, the actual designs that were done were not very good for the price we paid. We have since visited with other architects that provide more comprehensive artwork and models to help visualize your new home.
We made several attempts to meet with management and their President to resolve our issues and they both refused to meet unless the architect that we had issues with was present. In what business does the President or manager refuse to meet with an upset customer unless the person they have a complaint against is present? BCRA's President was hotheaded, irate, rude, and condescending when discussing our situation. BCRA is not a company that I trust or would ever do business with again.