Most all builders can be grouped into one of two categories; a custom builder or a production builder. Given today’s rapidly expanding housing market and with influx of new homebuilding companies, we feel an explanation of “custom homes” and “production homes” is necessary. “Custom homes” is one of the more overused phrases in homebuilding. Because many builders use the phrase “custom built homes” whether they actually are or not, the home buying public has become unsure of what the term custom actually means.

Until more recently the overwhelming majority of the housing industry was comprised of hundreds of thousands of mostly small volume builders, carpenters, sub-contractors, and real estate persons. Large production builders didn’t account for much of the total production of houses prior to the population boom of the 1950’s. Following the population growth of the 1940’s and 1950’s the nature of homebuilding began to change. The traditional method of homebuilding was to build one house at a time, on one lot at a time, for one customer at a time. As the country grew, and more and more people began migrating out of the city into the suburbs, the larger homebuilders began focusing their resources on large-scale production. The result was the creation and growth of regional, national, or multinational home building corporations. These corporations were able to drop their prices below those of the smaller builders due to the volume of homes they built, using less expensive means of production, and greatly reducing flexibility or customization. The large corporations began focusing more on how many homes they could build and sell rather than focusing on serving the individual needs of each buyer.

Those builders that retained some of the characteristics of early homebuilders could be considered custom builders. Custom builders emphasize flexibility, customization, and customer service. With custom builders the customer is usually more involved in the homebuilding process. Custom builders are usually a little more expensive than production builder, but with a custom builder, the customer is buying more than a home. They are buying the ability to build their home to fit their individual needs and lifestyle.

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