Privacy Policy

Effective date: [CONFIRM]

CostToBuildAHouse.com is operated by StartBuild LLC, a California limited liability company. Questions? Email support@startbuild.com or call (760) 230-6633.

What we collect

• Contact details— your name, email address, and phone number when you order a report, create an account, or contact us. Your email address also serves as your customer ID. Occasionally a plan publisher orders a report on a customer's behalf — if yours does, we receive your details from them.
• Project details — the build ZIP code, square footage, foundation and finish selections, and your house plan (a plan URL, an uploaded PDF, or details you enter manually).
• Billing information — payments are processed by PayPal Merchant Services. We never store your credit card or banking information — it goes to PayPal, not to us.
• Site usage — basic analytics and cookies that help us understand how the site is used [CONFIRM: analytics tools in use].

How we use your information

We use it to prepare your Cost To Build report, support your post-purchase edit window (60 days, or 12 months with BudgetBuilder), send your receipt and report delivery emails, answer support requests, and improve the service. If you opt in, we may also send occasional emails about your project or our services — you can unsubscribe anytime.

When your plan comes from one of our partners

Some house plans our customers price are published by home-plan companies we partner with. Our major plan partners include Architectural Designs, America's Best House Plans, The Plan Collection, Coastal House Plans, Mountain House Plans, House Plans and More, Alan Mascord Design Associates, Truoba, Barndominium Plans, House Plan Zone, House Plan Company, and Associated Designs — see the complete current list of publishers we share reports with.

If you order a report for a plan published by one of our partners, we share your contact information and order details — including the report — with that plan's publisher. This happens automatically at the time of sale, so the publisher can help you take the next step while your project is fresh: answering questions about the plan, quoting modifications, or completing a plan purchase.

We also send each partner a monthly reconciliation summary of the orders for their plans. It contains only the order date, order number and ID, plan number, and the email address on the order — your email serves as your customer ID, so it's how orders are matched up. It is shared for reconciliation, not as a marketing list, and it includes no report contents and nothing else about you. [CONFIRM: that partner agreements restrict reconciliation data to reconciliation use — the policy should only promise this if the contracts back it up]

If you ask us or your plan's publisher for help with your project, we may exchange the information needed to assist you — for example, your report, plan details, or bids you've shared — between StartBuild and that publisher to answer your question and provide customer service.

Three things to know:

• Each partner receives only the orders for its own plans. Many customers compare plans from more than one publisher — no partner ever sees your activity with another publisher.
• Reports for non-partner plans — a PDF from your architect, a manually entered plan, or a plan from a non-partner website — are not shared with anyone. [CONFIRM]
• You'll always see a notice at checkout when this applies.

What we don't do

We don't sell your personal information to data brokers or advertisers. [CONFIRM]

Your choices

You can ask us to show you, correct, or delete the personal information we hold about you by emailing support@startbuild.com. [CONFIRM: request-handling process and any state-specific rights language — CCPA/CPRA, Virginia, Colorado, etc. — legal review required]

Data retention and security

We keep your report and account data for as long as your access period runs and as required for tax and business records. [CONFIRM: retention periods]Your password is stored in encrypted form — even we can't see it, which is why we send you a reset link instead of your password if you forget it. Payments are handled entirely by PayPal; card and banking details never touch our servers.

Children

Our services are for adults planning construction projects and are not directed to children under 16.

Changes to this policy

If we make material changes, we'll update the effective date above and note the change on this page.