When looking to purchase and move into a new home, it can be tempting to want it fully customized, built to your exact specifications, and designed from scratch with your lifestyle and family in mind. This is a great way to create a home made just for you! You may be wondering, however, if it would end up being cheaper to have a custom-built home or to buy the same floor-plan prebuilt from your contractor.

Let’s take a look.

There are some important considerations to keep in mind when you’re considering whether to purchase a fully-customized home built from scratch or a premade home built to a floor plan you prefer. These considerations include:

Quality. Generally speaking, once you’ve chosen a contractor, the work should be the same in quality regardless of whether the home is built according to a premade floor plan or not. That’s why it’s so essential to research local contractors before you even decide on the particular floor plan you like — you’ll begin your decision-making process with one less weight on your shoulders.

Room for Negotiation. When building from a premade floor plan, you’ll have a standard price to negotiate from. “Spec homes”, or the model homes built to showcase developing neighborhoods, often include high-end finishes that don’t come with the usual high-end cost, since the developer will be looking to get the home to sell quickly. If you’re looking to have changes made on the inside, such as different countertops, a bathroom where the “office” currently is, or different flooring, it may work better for you to build totally custom. However, with a fully customized plan, the price will changes as your decisions change, and you may find yourself more prone to making costly last-minute switch ups than you would be if you were already looking at a finished product.

Experience and Local Relationships. The truth is, a quality contractor with lots of experience in the area is going to have one very important qualification for this process that you don’t — he or she will already have the professional connections needed to get good prices on electricians, plumbing contractors, flooring installation, painters, and all those necessities whose costs can really go sky-high. Licensed contractors are often able to better negotiate pricing for these jobs due to their long-standing local community relationships.

When all of these are taken into account, it becomes clear that nine times out of ten, working with a contractor on customizing an already-built home to fit your needs will likely end up costing you less.

Without total customization, you’ll be able to negotiate with a contractor who has already done the majority of the work and may be willing to negotiate in order to get the house off his or her hands and into yours. However, even a customized home that was mostly or wholly finished before you saw it may not ever feel truly customized for you. In that case, having a home built precisely to your specifications may be worth the added costs involved.

Whether you’re looking to purchase a premade home in Simpsonville, SC, or the surrounding area — or you’re set on starting from scratch using your own design, Five Star Construction is ready for the job! Our Design Center is happy to work with you on customizing either premade floor plans or starting something brand new! Even if you just drew your ideal home on a napkin, we’re ready to get started turning that drawing into the real thing! Give us a call at (864) 303-9143 or contact us online at any time to take your dream of a custom luxury home in Upstate South Carolina and make it a reality!