Stock plans are less expensive, but are of the same quality as a set of custom home designs. This is the primary reason why the selling of stock house plans is here to stay. These plans are generally home plan designs the were created for the mass public. The designs are based on current trends in the housing market. Building designers obtain a great deal of knowledge through feedback from home builder clients. A designer also use the general public to stay in tune with the market demands. By creating house floor plans that have the essentials of what is required by the public, designers can continue to make buying house plans online affordable to the average working American.

Advantages of buying house plans online
The biggest advantage of buying house plans online is that they are reasonably priced for most people to afford. In addition, you can modify stock house plans to your exact specifications and do it at a minimal cost when compared to starting a new design from scratch. Unlike custom home designs, stock house plans are a product and not a service. In other words, they are ready for immediate delivery upon ordering.
Prices will vary among building designers, but the cost could go from several hundred to several thousands of dollars for a set of plans. On average, the cost is dictated based on the size of the home and the amount of detail presented in the plan set. Most importantly, the price of a stock plans will generally be a fraction of what home plan design fees would be for using the professional design services of a residential architect or building designer.
Custom home design fees can range from several thousand on the low end. However, the fees can quickly go up from there to tens of thousands on larger homes. Building designers and residential architects can charge anywhere from $1.50 per square foot, or even 10 to 20 percent of the construction cost for custom design work. This ultimately depends on the type of services you are asking for and how the building designer or architect structure their fees.
Should you buy house plans through a broker or designer website
There are hundreds, perhaps thousands of websites that make buying house plans online a breeze. The choices can be a little overbearing. You have many broker websites offering thousands of plans by many designers. In addition, you have the many designer owned websites with several hundred home designs. Most designers offer modification services because someone will require some changes to the house plans. The cost involved will vary depending on the amount of changes and the method by which the building designer charge for the service. A typical modification request can vary in price and can be as little as a few hundred dollars to several thousands of dollars. However, this depends entirely on the extent of the modifications involved.
For those who do not offer modification services, you usually are able to purchase a reproducible set (for minor changes) or the cad electronic files (for more extensive changes). Your local building designer can use those plans to make design changes for you. Consequently, you will have a stock home plan customized to your lifestyle without paying the custom design price. With so many options to maximize buying power, it seems that stock house plans are here to stay!
Prepare a house plans shopping list
Before your home plan purchase, you may consider preparing a list of things you want in your house plans before searching. Examples of the list will include architectural style, square footage, amount of bedrooms, baths, garage stalls, etc. You may also consider adding the building designer in that list if you like the designer’s style. Narrow your search to two or three sites. You will tend to see the same plans across several websites. Do a price comparison for the lowest price. You will usually see lower prices directly from the designers website in most cases. You are now ready to find your dream home plan. Happy house hunting!