So, you’ve decided to build a new home. You have two options: a custom home or a production home. What’s the difference, and which one is right for you? A custom home is fully customized with the size, floor plan, and all other features are built however you want – within the bounds of architectural controls and construction practices. A production home is what you would see when you go to a show home. There is a set blueprint, with some opportunities for customization.
A Custom Home: the Details
A custom home is a lot more work. You’ll need to invest more of your time to properly plan out your home. You’ll have to pay for custom blueprints and an architect to help you through the process. You may also need to pay for certain permits that will enable you to go through the process of building your custom home. However, this is contingent on which builder you build with; some will require you to purchase permits yourself and others will take care of the associated permit costs. Since it is a custom home that hasn’t been built before, problems may arise in the building process that requires extra money to resolve the issue. This could be found when digging up the land or finding that certain design features won’t work given certain features of the lot or design of the house. So, the estimated cost to build may change throughout the process, but this also means it could potentially be less than initially quoted.
Additionally, it’s important to note that you can’t have a walkthrough like you can with the show home of a production home. This is relevant because it’s hard to get a true feel for a home unless you’ve been in it and experienced it. It is possible to pay extra to create a 3D rendering of your home to give you a better idea of how it’s going to look.
These were some of the negatives associated with a custom-built home. Disregarding extra upfront and potential costs, as well as the extra work, it is nice to have everything in the layout reflect your personal taste, this may not be the case with your standard production home
However, given the wide range of production homes available, you may find one that comes close to fulfilling all your demands, while saving you some money in the process.
A Production Home: the Details
Some constraints with a production home include having to choose your lot from the builder’s inventory of land. Some production builders will have more lot options than others. Also, production homes are almost always built-in new communities, so if you’re looking for an older character neighbourhood this could be a shortcoming. A couple pluses, however, include the short duration of time needed to build a production home. Builders get into a rhythm with these production homes, and have all the materials already at their disposal, which means they will be built quicker, and typically with a larger construction team. Since everything has already been calculated, and most likely built before, estimated costs can be expected to match the actual final costs, which can’t be guaranteed with custom homes. And while a custom home is fully customized, some production builders have the experience to make considerable customizations to their floorplans and may even have pre-planned options for them.
When deciding whether to build a custom home or a production home it depends on what your needs and wants are, what your budget is, and how much time you have. When building with Pacesetter Homes, we provide more locations, floor plans, personalization, and convenience which allows you to create your new home to suit your lifestyle and budget.