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Thanks Check123 for the lessons in Victorian architecture, I really found that interesting. You are a wealth of knowledge on the subject.
Shame on Kitts Creek for building Victorian styled homes for in the $300K range. That is absurd! Just ask Check123. Everyone knows a "true" Victorian would be elaborately decorated on all four sides - not to mention have an overly ornate interior. I bet those tacky Kitts Creek homes have more than one bathroom, too!
You're right about the auto end of it.
Hyundai is so busy trying to look like Mercedes it would be silly to try to call one a Rolls.
Exactly, what the heck happened to builders building custom homes? whats with all this clear cutting and plopping down 5 or 6 pre planned homes? it kind of reminds me of one of those old cartoons they made about how things were going to be done in the future lol.
Exactly, what the heck happened to builders building custom homes? whats with all this clear cutting and plopping down 5 or 6 pre planned homes? it kind of reminds me of one of those old cartoons they made about how things were going to be done in the future lol.
Hi, prius.
It's about consumer economics.
No problem getting a truly unique, custom, one of a kind, designed for the lot, home. Starting money is serious, and the value of the piece of land will help that go up.
Today in the industry, since Buyers get to pick colors and appointments, it is now a "custom" home.
It works because most folks want to be much the same as everyone else with just a little personalization, but not enough to affect value at resale.
I have to respectfully disagree Mike. A custom home is always a custom built home, not a "personalized" home. Custom built is from the ground up, whether it is your own lot, the builder's lot, your purchased design plan or one you choose from the builder and modify the floorplan with the builder on a one on one basis and there is not another one like it.
If someone picks out colors, carpeting etc., it is merely personalized. I would never represent to a buyer that they are getting a "custom built home". They are merely choosing options.
The sad fact is that developers go in, buy up a big tract of land for the least amount of dollars they can, that has sewers and water, and develop it to get their most bang for the buck. This equals crowded subdivisions where you may have 8 or 10 floorplans to choose from. The personalization part is an attempt to differentiate one from the other on the interior and maybe have a choice of 3 or 4 color choices/combinations on the exterior.
Builders buy all of their components in quantity, and that includes paint. They are not going to vary much on what is available to the purchaser, and will charge them for upgrades. I suppose you could also call it an "upgraded" home, but in the end when it comes time to sell it, the owner is not going to get much more for the upgrades in a vanilla development.
After reading this thread, I visited the web site.. I loved the homes and even considered giving up my " Beach Cottage" I am attempting to find in Wilmington.. I called the property and a very rude sales-men gave me " NO" information about the area, as I am from NY ( so was he) and just about refused to send me an info packet.. He told me to just look at the web site.. ( Next week he said ) What is up with that? he said he HAD to go, because people are POURING in.. ..
What a bad taste he left me with on this project.... Is this the only game in town like this? We are talking about spending 350K and get treated so poorly..
shame on him!! I still like the houses, but the excitment has left..
???? Looks like that wass a tough hair to split.
Are you saying you disagree with my perception of market conditions and marketing practices; that Sellers or Buyers never use the term "custom," but in the way you defined it?
I think "custom" is so extremely subjectively used by both Buyers and Sellers to the point that the term is almost meaningless.
A personalized home is not a "custom" home in any market in any area. A custom home is a custom built home. The homes at Kitts Creek are about as far from custom, custom built, customized or whatever else you want to call them. They are personalized and upgraded, that's about it. Any other terms are exaggerations.
Your words:
Today in the industry, since Buyers get to pick colors and appointments, it is now a "custom" home. It works because most folks want to be much the same as everyone else with just a little personalization, but not enough to affect value at resale.
You were replying to the question by Prius 109 who asked: "....what the heck happened to builders building custom homes?" Your response Mike is giving the impression that in today's market, there are no more custom or custom builder built homes per se. That may be true in your localized area and in other "big box builder" developments. I don't believe it answered Prius 109's question, and I disagreed with your explanation.
If Prius 109 is around, maybe he can weigh in on which explanation he was looking for and which one he agrees with.
I certainly did answer the question, "No problem getting a truly unique, custom, one of a kind, designed for the lot, home." I do believe that choices by all parties tend to be driven by consumer economics. Some people blame Sellers for providing what mass markets buy. I don't.
Following that, my thought was not precisely conveyed by my words. My bad. I am concerned by the watering down of the value of the term "custom" by both builders and customers.
I would add the text in bold, to attempt to clarify what I had wished to convey:
"Today in the industry, it seems that since Buyers get to pick colors and appointments, it is now often considered by many to be a "custom" home.
It works for marketing purposes because most folks want to be much the same as everyone else with just a little personalization, but not enough to affect value at resale."
But perhaps we should ask Prius what he means by "custom homes," to be sure we are talking along the same lines.
It's not everyday you see a picture of your home on a newsgroup.
You do on occasion hear airplanes, but nothing major. Occasionally, you also hear the train but I'm sure the folks
at the front notice it more.
As to the colors. I'm not a color person, so I left the choices up to my wife. She picked from a set the builder had
put together. They looked good on the samples, but 1 color just looks too durn purple for my taste. I think the
builder agrees and he's offering to repaint it for free. We just need to go over there and choose the new color.
That's one of the main things I like about living here. The builders/owners have shown us they are interested in keeping
the residents happy even after the sale. That and my commute is 10 mins.
dean
Last edited by dmwest; 04-11-2007 at 07:18 PM..
Reason: added more after reading all posts.
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