Road Head
VIP
Sadly, you are going to have to spend a chunk of money before you ever know if you can afford to build or not. The builder and architect can't bid anything before you have land, and you dont know if you can afford to build if you dont have a solid bid in-hand. You are in a tough spot.This builder has an arrangement with someone that does that work. He doesn't do design work himself. Only weighs in on cost/expense factors as part of the design.
I would ask the builder to show you a couple examples of homes he has built in the past year that are similar to what you envision, and get both his breakdown of the numbers as well as the current owners. Make sure you are getting the same story on both ends. Then see how those numbers work with your budget.