Why Custom Home Pricing Isn't One-Size-Fits-All
Want a builder who makes the most of your budget?
Why Can't Builders Give You a Price Per Square Foot?
Think about car shopping. If someone asks, "How much do cars cost?" you'd probably laugh. A Honda Civic and a Tesla Model S are both cars, but they're in completely different price ranges. Nobody finds that surprising.
So why do people expect custom builders to quote a standard price per square foot over the phone?
Here's the thing: that metric comes from the real estate world. You'll see cost per square foot on every Zillow listing, and production builders use it to compete with each other. But this popular metric has created a false assumption that homes of similar size should cost about the same. That's just not how it works.
How Are Tract Homes Different from Custom Homes?
With tract homes, the cost-per-square-foot comparison makes some sense. These homes really are manufactured products. The big national builders run their operations like factories, focusing on production time and cutting costs. When you're building 20,000 homes a year, saving $1,000 per home adds up fast.
Don't get us wrong—being efficient matters. You should expect any company you work with to respect your time and money. But tract homes and custom homes are completely different.
A custom home is one of the last truly handcrafted products out there. Instead of being designed for a generic buyer, everything about it exists to fit your specific wants and needs.
What Makes Custom Homes Different?
The best part about building a custom home? You can choose any floor plan, architectural style, or products you want. Your choices largely determine the cost. That's why responsible custom builders won't quote a per-square-foot price without really talking through what you're looking for. Otherwise, we'd risk giving you misleading information.
Sure, some tract builders let you pick from limited options—maybe a few cabinet styles, some countertop choices, basic fixtures and carpets. But you have to select from their pre-approved list, and everything has to fit into one of their standard floor plans. Some have tried offering non-standard products but backed off when it messed up their ordering systems, accounting departments, and construction schedules.
How Do Custom Builders Approach Projects?
Custom builders aren't focused on saving pennies at every turn. Our main purpose is to help customers design and build a unique dream home. Unusual or complicated products and designs will affect the price, but we work with you to give you as much of what you want as possible within a budget and timeline that works for you.
That's because our entire business is built on exceptional customer service. Working together, we create a home that's exactly right for you—not for some imaginary "average buyer."
Building a custom home means getting what you actually want, not settling for what's already been decided for you. And that's worth having a real conversation about.