Custom Home vs. Production Home

What are your options when deciding between a custom home and a production home?

Let’s say you’ve made the decision to build your own home, which is a big one. You don’t have time to look through endless real estate listings, and you aren’t interested in a renovation project. You know you want to build your dream house. The next big decision you have to make is choosing a builder.

However, it is important to consider your options when it comes to building a custom home vs. production home. Custom builders and production builders may seem similar, but they actually offer two very different products.

So what’s the difference between a production home and a custom home? Since I get this question from a lot of prospective clients, I want to break it down for you here, and outline the pros and cons of each, so you can make a more informed decision.

What is a Production Home?

If you’ve ever heard the term “cookie-cutter” home, this is what that phrase refers to. Production builders reuse a catalog of plans, building the same house over and over again. They can quickly and efficiently build hundreds of homes a year, creating entire developments at once.

Your home won’t be one-of-a-kind, and there may be several others in your development, or even on your street, with the same exact layout. There are a number of large, national production homebuilders with very good reputations though, as well as local builders that belong to this category.

The Pros:

• You can find production homes at a variety of price points, but generally a production home offers great value and cost savings for the homeowner.
• There is a hassle-free aspect to building a production home since there are typically just a few options to choose from.
• The production home-building process is generally very efficient, and allows a new homeowner to move in relatively quickly.

The Cons:

• You’ll be restricted to existing floor plans, and may not get exactly what you want.
• Your customizations will be limited. You probably won’t be able to change things like the size of the home, windows, ceiling height, and wall placement.
• Your fixture choices are also limited. Things like carpet, tile, counter tops and hardware will come as a set of pre-selected options that the builder allows. While these limited choices make the selection process a bit easier and help keeps costs more predictable, you could end up feeling stuck with something you don’t really love.

What is a Custom Home?

A custom home is unique and one-of-a-kind, involving collaboration between the homeowner, homebuilder, architect, and designer. Custom homebuilders tend to be associated with a higher quality workmanship, and are focused on a smaller, more local real estate market.

Custom homes offer two major benefits to the homeowner — choice and flexibility. From the foundation to the roof, you’ll have a say in everything that goes into your home. A good custom home builder will be flexible and mix plans to construct a home that is perfectly tailored to the owner’s lifestyle and needs. The price of this flexibility: time and cost.

The Pros:

• Custom builders start each home from scratch, which mean you end up with a completely unique product designed perfectly to your specifications.
• A custom builder might have a preferred architect or designer, but you can also bring your own. You aren’t limited to any set of plans.
• You also aren’t restricted to any pre-selected finishings, so you end up with exactly what you want.
• You’ll have more input along the way, and the flexibility to make changes even once construction has begun.

Read more about the benefits of building a custom home here.

The Cons:

• Custom homes can take more time to build, since there are more decisions to make. But the timeline depends on your builder. Our projects are completed on timelines similar to production homes.
• While production builders negotiate bulk pricing from the same contractors, it can be more difficult for a custom home builder to predict cost—but this is not always the case.
• Making all of your own selections might seem overwhelming at times, especially if you’re unsure of what you want. We have project management systems in place to keep the process streamlined.

Of course, when you build a custom home with us, you can count on faster turnaround times due to our constant presence and attention to detail on the job site. Our web-based software helps you make selections and keep your project on track. And because we’re incredibly precise with our custom home prices there will be no surprises at the end.

We care about your house like it’s our own. Just ask our clients.

Have questions about building a custom home with us, or how to start the process? Give Jerry a call at 201-370-3274. He’ll be more than happy to speak with you.