What are the advantages of working with a small home builder?

17-05-2022

When building a house, the advantages for the big builders are well documented. The great builders have “deep pockets.” They can exploit economies of scale, leveraging this to influence the supply chain and, as a result, gain discounts on materials (ideally passing these savings on to the buyer).

But to acknowledge these facts without pointing out the advantages of working with small builders, also known as custom home builders, is to understate them. There are several very good reasons to have your home built by a custom builder rather than a volume builder. Five of the largest are described below.

1. Custom home builders can build your new home wherever you want

Custom builders generally work on only one project at a time. As a result, they aren’t afraid to look at options like infill lots, allowing you more choice about where you want to build.

By contrast, great builders think big. This means that they are not thinking in terms of houses, but in terms of developments. To build a housing development, large builders must locate and acquire large tracts of land. Your home location is restricted to these. These flyers are rarely available near urban centers, meaning if you don’t want a long drive, a big builder may not be your best option.

2. You are an individual and you would like your house to be too

As a general rule, you can expect almost complete customization from a small builder. For starters, a custom builder is working with a greater variety of design options, often built in a single batch. This allows you to select most of the details of your new home. Also, by definition, a small builder will have fewer employees, meaning they will almost always be on site. You will have ample opportunities to change the things you don’t like. Your builder is also likely to accommodate you in such areas because he likely lives in the area where he works and your professional reputation depends, in large part, on his satisfaction.

Volume builders build houses, usually many at a time, based on a more limited library of house plans. They will have purchased most of the materials and predetermined most of the design elements of their home well in advance. You can “customize” your home with your selections of appliances, countertops, etc., but builders are on a very strict schedule and aren’t necessarily willing to make all the little changes you’d like to see. If you’re building in a niche location, perhaps on a hill or narrow lot, larger developers may not share your vision.

You may have purchased that property on a hill specifically for the purpose of putting your house on top of it, but your volume builder may disagree, preferring to dig into the hill and create a flat block on which to build one of your pre-designed designs. -created.

3. Smaller builders may be more knowledgeable

It is more likely that a smaller local builder has built on similar land. Having built in your area, a custom builder will be able to confidently tell you that, for example, there are rocks near the ground surface in your area, making digging impossible. This kind of prior knowledge can end up saving you money on site costs.

In some cases, volume builders will move around the state or even the country between projects, never learning the subtleties of the local landscape.

4. Custom builds are often higher quality

One way that the big builders keep their prices so low is by having parts of the houses built in a factory and then brought to the site, which negatively affects both the quality and the materials themselves.

Custom home builders are much less likely (or able) to engage in this practice, often resulting in a better built home.

5. The smallest builders know how much house you need

A bulk builder can probably build you a “McMansion” for a comparatively low price, but future heating, cooling, and furnishing costs (not to mention the burden of cleaning it) are left up to you. A builder who lives in your area will be more familiar with local energy costs and the like and, again, will have a professional interest in your satisfaction.

To conclude, the largest builders have the advantage of working quickly. They may offer larger homes for lower prices, but this comes at the cost of individualization that likely led you to build, rather than buy, a home in the first place.

A custom builder may be the best way to ensure you are buying the home of your dreams, and not the developer’s.

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