What Is a Custom Home

Shopping for a new home comes with its share of questions. “What can I afford?” “How much square footage do I need?” “What are the best areas?” “Will I ever find the perfect home?” If you’ve already started researching homes for sale and you’re having a hard time finding a house that meets all your needs, you might want to consider looking into building a custom home. Custom homes are brand new homes that are built and designed to a homeowner’s unique specifications.

Custom Home, Semi-Custom Home, or Spec House? What Does a Custom Built Home Mean? What to Expect With Schumacher Homes.

Buying a new build home breaks down into three options:

• Custom home — The most hands-on option involves you in every phase.
• Semi-custom home — The streamlined option, customize in select phases.
• Spec home — The least custom option, but easiest to buy.

At Schumacher Homes, we believe everyone deserves an exceptional custom home. But after building 19,000 custom homes, we recognize everyone takes a unique journey toward their dream home. Some people have to build a custom home in a short amount of time; others have to search for months to find land that’s right.

That’s why we developed Schumacher Homes’ award-winning process, to make buying, designing, and building a custom home as simple as possible. No matter if you want a completely custom home or a semi-custom design from one of our house plans, we can help you make it happen in the budget and timeframe you need.

What is a custom home?

A custom home is one built to your exact design. That means big things like the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, and small things like the hardware on your kitchen cabinets. There are plenty of reasons to build a custom home, such as choosing the exact location you want to live and designing a space that flows with your lifestyle.

To manage a project of that scope, you’ll need to partner with a good builder. Ideally, your builder should:

• Work with you to finalize decisions, including the floorplan layout and all interior and exterior design selections.
• Handle or assist you on anything related to the build, such as lot preparation.
• Keep you updated with timely communication sharing all the exciting progress about the build or if something doesn’t go as expected, and how it will be resolved.

Some custom homebuilders require customers to hire their own architect and contractors, which can be very expensive and complicated. Homeowners are also responsible for ensuring that their construction site has met all of the necessary requirements before building can even begin. The process can often run into issues with permits and unforeseen obstacles, and it can take years to complete.

The other option is to go through a custom homebuilding company like us that offers homeowners a variety of floor plans and architectural styles to choose from. We have design experts on staff who help homeowners select specific interior and exterior features to customize their homes. We offer a variety of home sizes and layouts and give homeowners the opportunity to customize both the interior and exterior of their home. We have an in-house team of designers who can make your desired changes to designs.

Indeed, choosing the right builder is one of the most important parts of building a custom home.

What it’s like to build a custom home with Schumacher Homes

Your custom home should be unique to you. The process, however, should be exacting and transparent. At Schumacher Homes, we partner with you through a six-step process where we walk through everything at your pace, from the homesite inspection to financing. We can kick off the process whether you already have a lot or need help finding land, too.

It starts with a visit to one of our Design Studios where our model homes are open seven days a week. There, you’ll meet a New Home Consultant (NHC) who can start with any floor plan desires you may already have or pull up one of Schumacher Homes’ nearly 100 house plans. From there, it’s not just selecting finishes.  Your NHC can move walls, add rooms, and even add a garage with a few clicks to give you the house that says home to you.

Once you finalize your design, you’ll receive a free no-obligation price quote from our award-winning FrontDoor pricing system. The 100% itemized quote lists every cost beside pictures and descriptions. From there, continue working with your NHC until you find the design that meets your needs for the way you and your family live.

What is a semi-custom home?

A semi-custom home is a house where the owner has a say on some of the design choices, and the builder decides the rest. This simplifies the complexity and shortens the time frame involved with building a fully custom home.

There’s a great deal of variability here, too. On one end of the spectrum, you might buy a lot in a community that allows only pre-approved floor plans, but offers extensive add-ons such as a garage, deck, or even basement. On the other, you might buy into a neighborhood where customizations are limited to choices like paint colors and cabinet facings.

What it’s like to build a semi-custom home with Schumacher Homes

For homeowners wanting to make minimal floorplan changes or fewer decisions, our goal is to simplify the custom homebuilding process.  Yet we make what might be called your semi-custom home feel like a fully custom home. That’s a big reason we offer nearly 100 house plans to choose from. What’s more, we break these plans down into design styles such as American Tradition, Craftsman, and Modern Farmhouse to help you narrow your focus.

So it doesn’t matter if your needs are minor (just an extra garage space) or highly specific (turn the basement into a mother-in-law suite). With Schumacher Homes, your home gets the exact level of customization it needs where you change as much or as little you’d like.

What is a spec house?

A spec home is a move-in-ready new home, often built as a display house for a new community. The builder selects the finishes, typically current trends so the spec home appeals to a broad segment of buyers. Consequently, a spec home isn’t an option for those who want a custom build. However, spec homes do have their advantages, especially for homeowners who have to buy in a short timeframe.

Does Schumacher Homes build spec houses?

We do! They’re not for sale though. Our more than 50 model homes are open for tours everyday of the week at our 21 Design Studios. It’s common to see repeat visitors, too, as customers do their research and make their choices.

“We went to the Schumacher model home site in Cygnet at least 10 times,” said Nick, who with his wife Sarah built a custom Modern Farmhouse home.

Custom Homes: The Right Choice For Today & Tomorrow

No matter what phase of life you are in, upgrading to fit a growing family or downsizing after retirement, chances are, there’s a custom home that we can tailor just for you. Some home plans are designed specifically for seniors, such as smaller, single-story homes while others are more geared towards families. And, households with family members from different generations living under one roof is rapidly growing. We offer many options from customizing an extra bedroom to adding a second owners retreat, which is great for in-laws, live-in nannies or visiting relatives.