Why We Chose Our Home Builder
Choosing a builder is difficult; you want to choose someone who will produce a great product and be easy to work with. When choosing a builder, the least expensive option is not always the best option; however cost is always something to be considered when deciding on building a home.
Custom Home Builder vs Production Home Builder
Two general categories of builders are custom builders and production builders. A custom builder will take any plan you give them and build a home from the plans. A production builder is a builder that has systems in place to build their specific plans.
The advantage of using a custom builder is that you can find any plan you like and have them build it, or if you have an idea of exactly what you want you can talk with an architect or drafter and have them draw plans for you. The downside is that usually the builder is more expensive and you have to pay to get the plans that you want.
On the flip side, you could also choose to use a production builder. With this option you have to choose one of their floor plans, so if you have something very specific you’re looking for you’re probably not going to be able to get it. Also, you’ll be limited in what you can change, as they have the prices figured out already for each floor plan that they build and any deviation from “standard” will cost you.
Researching Oregon New Home Builders
We had some specific thoughts on what we wanted – 3+ bedrooms, 3 baths, bonus room, all bedrooms upstairs (With three little children under four that like to get up in the middle of the night the thought of walking them back upstairs to their beds seemed less than ideal. Also, our current house has all of our bedrooms on one level and they are close to the common living areas, which is not great for naps, as the kids can hear anything in the kitchen/living room from their beds), open kitchen/eating/living area, laundry room near the master bedroom, soaking tub in the master bathroom, mud room….so as we looked at builders we wanted to find someone that could accommodate what we wanted.
With specific wants in mind, the easiest thing to do would have been to use a custom builder; but as I talked with builders the price per square foot was much more than I was hoping. A few years ago when we were looking at home building in Oregon the price per square foot to build was about $120, now it’s over $150! Of course, without exact floor plans no builder is able to give you an exact price to build, but I had talked with a few that quoted over $200 per square foot! We met with a builder that came highly recommended and he said the best he could do was $150 per square foot; and the most recent home he priced was $175 per square foot. He had also built his daughter a home last year, at cost, for $135 per square feet.
Researching Adair Homes as our Oregon New Home Builder
The best we could do if we went totally custom was going to be $150 per square foot (but realistically it would be more than that), so with that number in mind we looked into production builders. At first, we were hesitant, but figured we needed to do our due diligence in looking at our options. We ended up finding a floor plan that suited our needs and discussed the reputation of Adair Homes with several people who worked in the industry, as well as friends who built homes with Adair Homes. The general feedback we got was that we would be limited in what we could build (we knew that already) but that they build a solid home, and as I talked to other home builders and contractors, I found out that they use many of the same subcontractors as other custom home builders.
One way Adair Homes keeps the price down is that they leave some of the work up to the home owner, such as land excavation and preparation for the foundation, painting and site cleanup. You can choose to do some of these things yourself if you have the ability and time, or you can hire subcontractors to do the work for you. If you plan on hiring subcontractors for these other parts of the building process keep in mind the additional cost, not included in the Adair Homes quote.
We looked into some other production builders, but were told of issues that other people had with them or they didn’t have a floor plan that suited us; so we started the process of customizing the floor plan with Adair Homes.
One thing to keep in mind with production home builders like Adair Homes is the standards, and any time you make a change, they will charge you. Even though they say you can change the floor plans, and do things like move walls, it all comes with a price. My concern was that with the amount of changes and upgrades we wanted we would out-price ourselves and we would no longer benefit from a builder like Adair Homes.
The Final Decision on an Oregon New Home Builder
We decided to continue things with Adair Homes and move on to the next step of the process and chose our finishes. At this point we were not locked into using them, but in order to get a price on the total cost of building we needed to go through all these steps. We had most everything we wanted and had the home priced out, but I wanted to check with a custom builder to see if he would be able to do it for less. He looked everything over and told us that he was not able to beat the pricing that they were giving us, so we decided to move forward with Adair Homes.
It was a tough decision as I know for a fact they are overcharging for many of the options. The quartz counters are more than double of what we would pay if we did them ourselves; same with the flooring, back splash, cabinets, etc. However, on other parts of the build, they have the processes dialed-in, and are able to cut costs. So, even though we might be overpaying on some finishes, overall the project will be less than if we used another builder. Hopefully, the workmanship and service is similar to what other people we have talked to have had.
We are hoping to start demo and land preparation by the end of next month. Please follow along as we continue the process of making a house our home.