We're looking to build a custom floorplan home. We've talked to a few builders, but felt like Kolby Homes would be the best fit. Unfortunately, there's not much in reviews online. I was hoping to see if anyone here had experience with them, either good or bad!

Thanks!

I'll preface this by saying that Clay has been one of my best friends since we were in daycare together 40 years ago and I've known his wife since we were in 3rd grade.

Clay built what was going to be my "forever" home back in 2007. He showed us several plans based on what we described to him, then we worked together to tweak them to fit our personal wants/needs. The process was seamless, even though my wife and I had some "out of the ordinary" types of wants. For example, people at the time were doing stained concrete inside their homes, but no one was stamping it, too. He said "no problem" and worked with their material suppliers and concrete crew to figure it out and the finished product was flawless. There was never any doubt about the process, but, by chance, we lived next door to where we building and were able to watch the entire process daily from our kitchen window. We wound up having to sell the house in 2013 due to some personal issues, but I still miss that house. The next time I'm able to build from scratch, Clay will without a doubt get the job.

The bonus of using Clay is that his wife has an AMAZING eye for design and colors. While she has her own career, she's always around to provide input, tips, and ideas. My wife and I still consult with her on colors any time we repaint anything in our current home.

Along with several custom homes, Clay built quite a few spec homes in Castlegate and Pebble Creek when they were going/expanding, but has moved on to focus more on purely custom homes. He really never had a big web presence, instead relying on word of mouth, so there probably isn't a lot of online info/history.

The house featured on the Kolby Homes website is their current home near Anderson. Clay and Amberly designed the house and have done a lot of work themselves. He's not just someone with contacts in the industry - he knows the process of building a home intimately and could work right alongside the trades without being out of place. Clay did the concrete counter tops in their house and Amberly laid and grouted every brick on their front porch last Spring Break because she was bored and their brick guys were on another job. Clay is also an artist on a skidsteer.

I'll try and post some more pictures of the house Clay built for me, but here's an old listing I found online with photos, for now. https://www.navasotarealtyinc.com/listing/202-moore-st-navasota/ You can google image search the address, too, and there are more listing photos there from the sale by the owners that purchased from us.

This is one of my favorite houses of his. He bought a tear down on Pershing in College Station and built this home for his family maybe 10 years ago(?). https://www.har.com/homedetail/208-pershing-ave-college-station-tx-77840/10298621?sid=5376385

I myself am building a home (about to finalize a builder in the next few days) but I'm really curious as to how the surge in building/lumber costs are going to pair with the valuations of properties.

There is a weird dynamic right now in College Station that if you are breaking ground today, there is a very good chance that your build cost will come in higher than your likely appraisal after the build is complete. Not sure how this will play out for home builders, for the economy, and for home owners that might be starting at minus equity from the get go. Unless build prices come down (which there seems to be no indication they will), we could see a pretty major problem here.

(Didn't mean to hijack thread, just thought its kinda relevant to what OP is doing)

The Ghost of DUCK01 said:

---

I'll preface this by saying that Clay has been one of my best friends since we were in daycare together 40 years ago and I've known his wife since we were in 3rd grade.

Clay built what was going to be my "forever" home back in 2007. He showed us several plans based on what we described to him, then we worked together to tweak them to fit our personal wants/needs. The process was seamless, even though my wife and I had some "out of the ordinary" types of wants. For example, people at the time were doing stained concrete inside their homes, but no one was stamping it, too. He said "no problem" and worked with their material suppliers and concrete crew to figure it out and the finished product was flawless. There was never any doubt about the process, but, by chance, we lived next door to where we building and were able to watch the entire process daily from our kitchen window. We wound up having to sell the house in 2013 due to some personal issues, but I still miss that house. The next time I'm able to build from scratch, Clay will without a doubt get the job.

The bonus of using Clay is that his wife has an AMAZING eye for design and colors. While she has her own career, she's always around to provide input, tips, and ideas. My wife and I still consult with her on colors any time we repaint anything in our current home.

Along with several custom homes, Clay built quite a few spec homes in Castlegate and Pebble Creek when they were going/expanding, but has moved on to focus more on purely custom homes. He really never had a big web presence, instead relying on word of mouth, so there probably isn't a lot of online info/history.

The house featured on the Kolby Homes website is their current home near Anderson. Clay and Amberly designed the house and have done a lot of work themselves. He's not just someone with contacts in the industry - he knows the process of building a home intimately and could work right alongside the trades without being out of place. Clay did the concrete counter tops in their house and Amberly laid and grouted every brick on their front porch last Spring Break because she was bored and their brick guys were on another job. Clay is also an artist on a skidsteer.

I'll try and post some more pictures of the house Clay built for me, but here's an old listing I found online with photos, for now. https://www.navasotarealtyinc.com/listing/202-moore-st-navasota/ You can google image search the address, too, and there are more listing photos there from the sale by the owners that purchased from us.

This is one of my favorite houses of his. He bought a tear down on Pershing in College Station and built this home for his family maybe 10 years ago(?). https://www.har.com/homedetail/208-pershing-ave-college-station-tx-77840/10298621?sid=5376385

---

Thank you for the great feedback! Some of these builders don't have a strong online presence with a lot of reviews, so your real-world experience is exactly what I'm looking for.

Orlando Ayala Cant Read said:

---

I myself am building a home (about to finalize a builder in the next few days) but I'm really curious as to how the surge in building/lumber costs are going to pair with the valuations of properties.

There is a weird dynamic right now in College Station that if you are breaking ground today, there is a very good chance that your build cost will come in higher than your likely appraisal after the build is complete. Not sure how this will play out for home builders, for the economy, and for home owners that might be starting at minus equity from the get go. Unless build prices come down (which there seems to be no indication they will), we could see a pretty major problem here.

(Didn't mean to hijack thread, just thought its kinda relevant to what OP is doing)

---

I asked a couple of builders about that after seeing your question and both had said they haven't had that issue yet. I personally think lumber prices will come down, but it'll be a while and you're right, waiting would likely be the smarter choice. However, with interest rates the way they are, instead of increasing your budget because you can afford "more house", maybe the smarter thing to do is keep the budget down, but use those savings to pay extra toward the principal to get out of that "negative equity" faster.

My personal belief is that lumber suppliers are riding the wave of high demand and intentionally limiting supply to keep prices up. With high barriers to entry, that will work for a while. Some groups are starting to put pressure on the Biden administration to look into this and also remove tariffs on Canadian lumber. With any luck, this will happen soon. Otherwise, the decrease in lumber prices will be much more gradual. And it could be years, if ever, that we see January 2020 prices again.

Also, if you want to compare builder notes, email me. It's my screen name at Gmail. I can't PM without a subscription and I can't subscribe while trying to build a house with record-high lumber prices

Quote:

---

My personal belief is that lumber suppliers are riding the wave of high demand and intentionally limiting supply to keep prices up.

---

This is absolutely false. Demand is at historic levels and mills are doing their damndest to produce as much wood as possible in order to take advantage of the market. Limiting supply to drive up prices only works when markets have been monopolized, and lumber has plenty of competition.

Belton Ag said:

---

Quote:

---

My personal belief is that lumber suppliers are riding the wave of high demand and intentionally limiting supply to keep prices up.

---

This is absolutely false. Demand is at historic levels and mills are doing their damndest to produce as much wood as possible in order to take advantage of the market. Limiting supply to drive up prices only works when markets have been monopolized, and lumber has plenty of competition.

---

Then why is the NAHB asking the Biden administration to investigate "why lumber productionparticularly sawmill outputremains at such low levels during a period of prolonged high demand"?

https://lbmjournal.com/nahb-presses-lawmakers-to-question-biden-on-lumber-prices/

Limiting supply to keep prices high while doing less work is a great incentive not to increase output. Additionally, there are plenty of examples of markets having monopolistic characteristics when there are high barriers to entry and prices are likely to normalize.

The federal government investigating an entity for unscrupulous below board activity is pretty rich. They've been fixing markets for years.

I am sure there are factors affecting this at all levels (and some price fixing at the corporate level once they realized what the market will bear would not surprise me ), BUT if you talk to your average East Texas sawmill owner the problem is finding employees for current and added capacity. Right now the government "free" money is better than working a hard job. Not a political statement, just the words out of sawmill owners' mouths. This is going to be a big issue RE:price inflation in a lot of industries. Wages and prices will rise, but not in a good way due to demand. Right now our government is competing against business for workers and the govt is paying well.

exalted512 said:

---

Belton Ag said:

---

Quote:

---

My personal belief is that lumber suppliers are riding the wave of high demand and intentionally limiting supply to keep prices up.

---

This is absolutely false. Demand is at historic levels and mills are doing their damndest to produce as much wood as possible in order to take advantage of the market. Limiting supply to drive up prices only works when markets have been monopolized, and lumber has plenty of competition.

---

Then why is the NAHB asking the Biden administration to investigate "why lumber productionparticularly sawmill outputremains at such low levels during a period of prolonged high demand"?

https://lbmjournal.com/nahb-presses-lawmakers-to-question-biden-on-lumber-prices/

Limiting supply to keep prices high while doing less work is a great incentive not to increase output. Additionally, there are plenty of examples of markets having monopolistic characteristics when there are high barriers to entry and prices are likely to normalize.

---

It shouldn't be surprising at all that the NAHB is asking for help; I'm sure they're under a lot of pressure from their members regarding this issue and lobbying the government is exactly why the NAHB exists. It's a good organization looking out for its members.

Having said that, it's easy to see why lumber is doing what it's doing now, what with several consecutive years of devastating wildfires in the west, tariffs and a resulting shortage of Canadian softwoods (which comprises a very large percentage of all available lumber in the US), a few hurricanes in recent years striking directly into Southern Pine forests along the Gulf Coast, a massive resin shortage affecting OSB mills, Covid-related labor issues, and to top it all of historic demand due to cheap money and low interest rates fueling a housing boom. It's like a perfect storm.

The shortages and pricing issues don't stop with lumber. It's reaching into manufactured building products like fiber-cement, foam insulation, window and door manufacturers, etc. etc.

I realize that control of scarce natural resources like raw timber generally prohibits start-up lumber companies from jumping into the market and lowering prices, but here there is no cartel that controls the supply of lumber. Something that almost always exists in the markets you discuss in your post above.

Back to Clay.

Super high integrity and very easy going. His houses are great. At one point, and he still might, used Kirby Fleming for blueprints. Not sure, so don't sue me!

I know that he has been building since 2006. Set up a meeting with him. You will appreciate his honesty. Too many people are out for the big money grab. Clay ain't one of those guys.

I don't think he advertises because he doesn't have to.