Looking for a good cheap custom home builder (Houston, The Woodlands: flat fee, how much)

[ssgmun5000]

Hello people..new to the forum and wondering if anyone had any suggestions for a custom home builder?

[Mom2Feebs]

"cheap" and "custom" usually do not go together.

[desertsun41]

No such animal. All custom builders will only build for you using their plans. They will not look at the plan you picked from one of those plan books we all seen on the book store shelves.

You see, a builder will stick to a plan he has built several times. They become familiar with it. This way they have their take-offs that will be the same each time allowing them to estimate the cost pretty much to the dollar.

If you hand them a plan they have no idea how much it will cost them to build and if they give you an estimate they will eat the overruns. And we know how hard it is to estimate the building of a home. If this is really what you want then one way to do this would be to request a cost-plus arrangement. This way their profit is fixed and any overruns are your problem. No risk to the builder. Nothing wrong with this at all. Still, few custom builders will do this.

Cheap? Try Jim Walter Homes. They have a 4 or 5 model village near me on 59s in Cleveland. They also have one some place in the center of Houston. These guys will build (from their plans) a home for you to any degree of completeness if you wish to do some of the work yourself. Its a pretty good concept.

Good luck

[ssgmun5000]

Thanks desertsun41.

[Bike4Life]

Isn't a custom home builder a luxury? I mean, it can be built into your bad taste similar to an unacceptable matchbox house.

[ssgmun5000]

Originally Posted by Bike4Life

Isn't a custom home builder a luxury? I mean, it can be built into your bad taste similar to an unacceptable matchbox house.

???? Translation please.

[ShelbyGirl1]

I can highly recommend MasterPiece Homes...but cheap really isn't their style. Like stated, above cheap and good...sort of an oxymoron!

[EasilyAmused]

I know in and around the Beltway Custom Homes are 140 a square foot and up to build. Not exactly Cheap.

Partners In Building, a exurbain builder, call themselves "custom" but they're building the same 50 floor plans all over the Houston Metro. The end result looks CustomTuscanResinCandlestickReady, but they aren't true custom. David Weekly will build on your lot and I think they're probably the cheapest route.

I've seen the same "custom" floor plan in Bridgeland for 350-400 that they try to move in The Woodlands for 750. <shrug> So I guess the ppsf has wiggle room.

[Supermac34]

With the custom builder we used, we met with a designer and we drew a plan from scratch. They do exist still. I think the difference in price you are seeing has a lot to do with the lot price. Custom section lot prices in the Woodlands are 250 plus now.

[desertsun41]

Originally Posted by Supermac34

With the custom builder we used, we met with a designer and we drew a plan from scratch. They do exist still. I think the difference in price you are seeing has a lot to do with the lot price. Custom section lot prices in the Woodlands are 250 plus now.

Thats pretty true. The final price on the same exact home will vary from a lot in an old section to the most prestigious area.

Your designer, I hope you meant Architect will draw up any plan you wish. In most cases they charge anywhere from a flat fee to 10% of the final cost of the home. They aint cheap. Which is another reason why I said what I said in my last post why builders will only use their portfolio of homes they are used to and have built before.

Pulte for example who I am most familiar with have their portfolio plans too. In Kingwood you can find the same identical home in different neighborhoods and they are called something different. What they do is build plan 4522 in X tract which sells for $150K and they might build the same exact plan 4522 in Y tract 2 miles up the road which is selling for $400K. The only difference is they took the same house plan and expanded it from say 2000 SF to 3800 SF. Same home but all larger rooms. An Architect will redo these plans for minimal fees so the builder loves it.

Those of you who ever spend lots of time house hunting in many different tracts might have notice this. Identical plans, just larger dimentions.