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Custom Luxury Homes - What's In a Name?
Article by Brandon Cornett
Are you planning to buy a custom luxury home in the near future? Great! There are many benefits to buying such a home. Here's my next question. Are you truly going to buy a luxury custom home, or just a luxury property based on a preset floor plan?
Did that second question throw you? If so, you're not alone. A lot of home buyers in this market get confused by the non-standard terminology used by home builders.
But if you are going to spend such a large chunk of change on a custom luxury home, you need to know if it truly measures up to that definition. There's nothing worse than being uncertain about a major purchase. So let's clear things up, shall we?
Calling It Custom is Not Enough
In most states, just about any home builder can call themselves a custom builder. There's no special designation or certification needed to use that label. It usually comes down to the builder, and how they categorize their product. So when a company refers to itself as a custom luxury home builder, it could mean several different things. This is why it's so important to research the builder and ask plenty of questions.
Despite all the variance in usage, there's an easy way to keep yourself straight. Here is the legitimate difference between these labels:
A luxury home is a really nice home. I know that's a subjective way to describe it, but that's the best definition I can offer. There is no specific definition or criteria that distinguishes a luxury home from any other — aside from the fact that it's a lot more expensive, and marketed to a certain demographic.
A custom home is a little easier to define. Here we have a structure that is built from a unique floor plan, usually with input from the home buyer. Some custom builders have designers and architects on staff for this very reason, to help you create a house like no other. Some can work with plans drawn up by the designer of your choosing.
So when you put these things together, you have a custom luxury home (i.e., a high-end property based on a unique floor plan). One word is subjective, and the other is a bit more concrete and definable.
I won't even get into the whole "semi-custom" thing, because we would just be splitting hairs. This is a label used by a builder who's trying to play the middle. But in my opinion, the "semi" prefix is misleading. It's either a custom home based on a truly unique floor plan ... or it's not.
This is one of many questions you should ask when choosing your builder. You need to cut through the marketing language they use on their website and find out what they are really building. Remember, they can call it just about anything they want in their marketing materials. So you need to find out if the house is going to be built from a totally unique floor plan, or from a preset floor plan that is merely "tweaked" to suit your needs.
