What Sets Custom Builders and Volume Builders Apart?

Choices, restrictions, quality, cost, and building experience are the five differentiating factors for custom versus volume builders. The focus of each type of builder varies significantly, so before you build, find out which focus aligns with yours.

Choices

As a Winnipeg custom home builder, the biggest challenge we see is the number of choices a person faces when building. When it comes to custom builds, the choices are literally endless. You have the opportunity to inject your personality into every little aspect of your build. This gives you the chance to really match your build to your lifestyle and end up with a design that’s truly unique to you.

Volume builders narrow down the options substantially. That’s not to say that there are no options. Often there’s a small handful of choices and each of those choices may have an A, B, or C option.

Restrictions

With volume builders, there are often several restrictions and guidelines that go along with the build. For example, you may be restricted to a certain number of designs that you will work with when creating your plan. You may also be restricted by the guidelines of the sub developments that volume builders most often build in, as well as being restricted to only building in the developments where they currently build.

Most truly custom builders will build anywhere, within a reasonable travel distance (for Pine Creek Homes that’s anything within 2.5-3 hours), that allows them to properly manage your build. A custom build also allows you to create that perfect plan from scratch, regardless of how unique or different some of your ideas may be. As most custom builders love building unique projects, unique ideas are welcomed in the custom build process. It’s part of what makes our job exciting!

Building Experience

This is a big one. Building a new home can be extremely daunting. The building process, from the starting stages of design, to the move in date, can be over a year long. That’s a long time to be working with someone, especially when the stakes are this high.

In a custom build, the experience is just as custom as the finished product. You’re not just another 1 of 100 or more people that need to get dealt with this week. Custom build companies are often smaller with less staff, and as a result you get more direct communication with the team of people who are actually in control of your build.

At Pine Creek Homes for example, our customers deal almost exclusively with the owners and a major focus is that your entire experience, from start to finish, is as enjoyable as possible.

We personally know what’s going on with each build at all times. This direct contact starts before ground is ever broken. In fact, it’s already started, I’m one of the owners and if you read our blogs you hear from me all the time. For those of you signed up for our email series, you also have my personal email address, so you can reach out at any time with questions about your upcoming build. This direct communication continues until long after you’re settled into your new home or cottage.

Quality

Custom builders compete with each other on quality. Volume builders compete with each other on price.

This is not to say that volume builders don’t try to build quality, or that custom builders don’t try to build cost effectively, it’s just important to know the order of priorities.

Cost

This has a lot to do with everything we’ve already talked about. It’s impossible to compete for the best quality and for the most economical price, and mass production of any item is always less expensive than one off custom pieces.

That being said, what’s the real cost difference?

This is a question that’s impossible to put an exact number to, but I can give you some insight into the contributing factors. Often custom builds are seen as far more expensive than volume builds. While that’s definitely possible, it’s often the selections that are being made by the customer that impact cost the most.

The fact is, many people who build a custom home often choose upgrades that are more costly than they would have otherwise. If you compared a volume build to a custom build of similar size and location, and both builds had the same types of finishes (flooring, countertops, siding etc.) I think you’d be surprised at how comparable the cost can actually be.

One thing that’s extremely important to note when doing customizations and changes with a volume builder, is that the extra cost can far exceed that of a custom build, as those builders aren’t set-up to make customizations as cost effective as possible. When you want to stray from set designs or pre-selected choices, the result can be quite expensive.

Something that’s often overlooked with custom builds, is when you design a home exactly the way you want it, you eliminate the parts that don’t suit your lifestyle. Meaning, you also eliminate wasted space and increase the efficiency of your design. Keeping more coins in your pockets!

Surely you have more questions about the cost of building a custom home, the important thing to know is that designing and building a custom home or cottage can be done within a wide range of budgets. Combining your needs and budget in a custom home is a challenge we’re very good at solving. With over 300 custom homes built we understand how to get the most out of your budget.

If you're ready to take the next step toward building your dream home or cottage, click the link below to set up a time to speak with us.

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And, if you haven’t yet signed up for our email series, make sure to do so below. These emails will take you through a step-by-step guide of the building process, so you can be fully informed and prepared for your upcoming build.