Who do you think are the best custom home builders? (San Antonio: rental, how much)

[texasdreamin]

It's going to be really scary knowing who to place all that confidence in building a new home and doing it correctly. Any idea from those of you who live there? Great companies you have heard of in passing?

[Catgirl]

I was going to ask the same question after falling in love with some pictures of Newmark Homes.

[RIVERRAT]

There are so many here it would be hard to say.Ive seen a few jaw dropping homes from "wilshire home" and "weekly homes". GUess it all depends on how much cash you got.Also if your looking for something a littel more personal rather than a "trac" custom builder.Mcgrath custom homes is the way to go.Patric Mcgrath is the owner, ive know him for about 10 years.He used to work for Pulte homes and went out on his own several years ago, he's a great guy and builds extraordinary homes. Link removed

[texasdreamin]

Thanks RiverRat. I took a look at the site. He does build very nice homes. I'm not too keen on tin roofs though. The first time I saw a tin roof was when I was dispatched to Louisiana as part of a disaster assessment team, after Katrina. A lot of roofs had damage. I thought it was so wierd to have tin roofs. I do understand that they last a long, long time, though...sans the storms.

[210]

David Anderson Homes is a really good SA custom builder.

[texasdreamin]

Thanks for the info. I now have some choices.

[Sampaguita]

We just went & looked at David Weekley homes today. I don't know what your price point is but they were quite nice even starting at $220k. They will build on your lot. They also have some homes built in a community in Comal County. The house was nice but I wasn't wowed by the setting.

If you want more info, you can PM me. We are looking to move to SA from San Diego and drove to at least a dozen home sites past 1604.

[Latinocowboy]

Originally Posted by texasdreamin

It's going to be really scary knowing who to place all that confidence in building a new home and doing it correctly. Any idea from those of you who live there? Great companies you have heard of in passing?

Fact is that you cannot put your full trust in any one builder. Though some may seem better than others, you can get stuck with a really incompetent superintendant from a more "reputable" builder. Or vice-versa.

The best thing you can do is hire your own inspector DURING construction, and stay on top of your builder as much as possible during the process.

[jp5]

This is repeat of a prior post.

I can recommend NOT to go with Wilshire. Horrific service through the entire process. We were actually aware of the poor reputation before we bought, but because their houses aren't selling, we got an outstanding deal.

We are pretty easy-going folks. We kept a list of build problems through the house, which we regularly conveyed to the builder and were summarily ignored through the building process. At closing, we still had a long list which we asked them to put in writing that they would be fixed after closing (horrible idea right? Getting pushed out of our rental because build time was 6 months longer than promised, so we had to move). Builder starts screaming at us at the top of his lungs like a maniac that his word is good and we are calling him a liar by asking him to put anything in writing and we should should just walk away and let them keep the deposit. Crazy! Anyway, just one short example of a horrible building process.

[wCat]

You mentioned CUSTOM homes.....some of those mentioned are "custom track" developers. They have the basic formula down and can "alter" their floorplans to give that "custom" look.....but they are not true "custom" builders.

David Weekley has consistantly built quality for a custom tract builder.

I have first hand experience with Radiance Homes....a truly independent custom builder. They have done a great job with homes throughout SA, but they are not in the "developemet" business. You get a smaller firm and you will have hands on communication with THE builder. That's nice to have instead of a customer service project/sales manager that knows how to talk up the good things and downplay the negatives.

Also check out the San Antonio Builders Association for more information.