Custom home definition? (Raleigh, Cary: neighborhood, buying, contractors)

[shoes4birds]

What, exactly, defines a custom home? Is it a builder who can cater to the buyer's needs, regardless of whether or not that plan is used again? What is the price range for a custon built home w/in the Triangle?

I see a lot of people on this board refer to homes as looking cookie-cutter. To me, cookie cutter is when I see the same house in a neighborhood every few houses...is this wrong?

[Return of the Jedi]

I do not think people here use the term correctly. It seems that as long as the builder is not a national builder, people will call them a custom builder. I think they are confusing a local builder, with a custom builder. Prior to moving here, I understood a custom builder to be one that builds a house to my design. It is customized. Here there are plenty of homes already built, waiting to be sold and they are called custom homes. Not quite. I think there is a mentality that all national builders do not build a great home, so the local builder is called a custom builder. The thinking is custom is better than spec, even though they are both spec if pre-built.

[frogandtoad]

I agree. I think people think that if they choose the tile and the wood in the their kitchen, and maybe decide which floor plan, then it's "custom." To me, to be custom it is a home which I have sat with the architect to discuss my tastes, what sorts of things I want in a home, etc and they come up with a plan just for me. I then decide on a builder who builds from that one plan. Not for anyone else and not to be used again. That is my idea of "custom."

[inniskillin]

We "built" a new home here but for me it never felt like I was "building". It felt like I was buying a new home in a new subdivision and they let me pick some items.
Where I come from people say they're building a home when is a custom home, the way the two previous posters described.

[VickiR]

Centex (using them as an example) will allow you to pick your carpet and your tile but not move any walls. They have a list of options that you may choose to "customize" your home but that doesn't make it a custom built home.

A custom builder like "L and L of Raleigh" (builds in The Park At West Lake and am using them as an example of a custom builder) will take your plan or a plan that he has and will allow you to move walls, add walls, take walls away, etc., etc., plus allow you to choose your carpet, tile, etc. so that is a custom built house.

That is the simple version!

Vicki

[CarolinaCowboy]

In my opinion a custom builder is one who will sit down with his or her client, start from scratch and build the house the owner wants. Any builder who already has blue prints and simply makes a few changes is not building a custom home. The term is VERY over used by today's agents. My home in Seatte, where I lived for 22 years was custom built. I added to it over the years too. Every aspect of the home was my thoughts brought to life by mutiple contractors and my own sweat.

Now I live in a cookie cutter here in Cary. But I'm still lovin it!

[Return of the Jedi]

Originally Posted by CarolinaCowboy

In my opinion a custom builder is one who will sit down with his or her client, start from scratch and build the house the owner wants. Any builder who already has blue prints and simply makes a few changes is not building a custom home. The term is VERY over used by today's agents. My home in Seatte, where I lived for 22 years was custom built. I added to it over the years too. Every aspect of the home was my thoughts brought to life by mutiple contractors and my own sweat.

This is exactly the way I see it. How can a house be custom if it is already built before the buyer sees it. The Park At West Lake has several homes already completed by so-called 'custom' builders, yet the eventual buyer has not even seen it yet. The 'custom' builder I always knew took whatever plans you and the architect dreamed up and built it to your specifications.

I think the term 'custom builder' is used extremely loosely here.

[VickiR]

Production builders also use parts of the house that are pre fab (built at the factory) and a custom builder builds onsite.

Vicki

[frogandtoad]

Originally Posted by VickiR

Centex (using them as an example) will allow you to pick your carpet and your tile but not move any walls. They have a list of options that you may choose to "customize" your home but that doesn't make it a custom built home.

A custom builder like "L and L of Raleigh" (builds in The Park At West Lake and am using them as an example of a custom builder) will take your plan or a plan that he has and will allow you to move walls, add walls, take walls away, etc., etc., plus allow you to choose your carpet, tile, etc. so that is a custom built house.

That is the simple version!

Vicki

To me that is not a custom home. If you are "moving" or "adding" walls that means there is already a plan. If there is already a plan, it's not custom in my book.

True custom homes are VERY expensive (many thousands just on the architect alone b/c you are starting totally from scratch). Everything, down to the faucets in the bathroom are things you have gone and picked out. Not something you can say "put in the standard or upgrade" or whatever. You decide what size every room will be, where it will be located, what windows are on it, EVERYTHING. There is NOTHING to start other than a blank piece of paper so you have to do ALL of it with the architect. It's very time consuming to pick out every single thing that goes in the home but that's all part of having a custom home. There is not another one like it.

[VickiR]

Since I picked out my plan from a book of plans that a particular builder in this area uses and then I hired my own builder and I picked out everything, including my doorknobs, made the upstairs hallway larger, and made changes that I wanted, are you saying this isn't a custom house? I didn't pay any more dollar per sq. foot than was the going rate in my neighborhood.

I disagree that simply because you meet with an architect and draw up your own plans that that is what makes the house custom.

I know a custom built house from a production builder house the minute I walk in!

Vicki