I do not believe for one minute that a conventional framed house is less costly than the same house build with a timberframe. That is assuming that in both instances the building envelope is designed and put together correctly. No "money saving or skimping". Now since timberframing is a somewhat specialized way of building, yet it is not rocket science, some guys out there may take advantage of that fact and charge more than it is really worth, hence the phrase that: "You could make a lot of money that way". If run the right way and with enough customers and demand on hand one can " make a killing" , let me rephrase that " make a living" either way.
Though it is still unfortunate that a majority of people think this way. I believe that we timberframers have a lot of homework to do to change the way Timberframes are categorized.
