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Why are Rausch Coleman houses so cheap? Is it because they don't have gas?
In northwest Arkansas, most of the houses this company offers do cost about 90 - 110 dollars per square foot.  The exceptions use the Whitney plan, which has the following design features (and/or problems) which happen to save the builder a lot of money: One very nice feature is the U-shaped stairway in the center of the house.  It is easy to find, and has an angled landing.  It might be a bit narrow, though. Does the builder bother to put rebar in the brickwork?  Arkansas is in earthquake country. What are the floors like?  Is the first floor a slab concrete floor with vinyl flooring (and/or carpet on thin pad) immediately above the concrete?  Is the second floor bouncy, due to using long-span joists of code-minimum size? Does the builder bother to make the rear windows look as nice as the front windows?  As mentioned earlier, the builder only bothers to have one side window. Where to learn more: Fernando Pagés Ruiz is a Nebraska homebuilder who wrote a book on Building the Affordable House: Trade Secrets for High-Value, Low-Cost Construction (The Taunton Press, 2005).  He has also written many articles in Fine Homebuilding, including "Building Affordable Houses". True North Consulting specializes in helping builders eliminate waste and "value-engineer" their designs.  True North often works with Tim Garrison, the self-proclaimed "builder's engineer".