We recently purchased a 2-acre lot between Weatherford and Granbury.

Wife and I are about to be empty nesters, and we have lived in 3 homes over the last 20 years but never built. Few questions...

1. Is it better to pay a House Designer/Architect to have a set of plans that we can have a few builders bid - or to select a builder who will provide custom home design services as part of their offering? On the surface, it seems owning plans and being able to negotiate with several builders would be good...but average cost to get plans is $2.50/$3.00 per square foot under roof. For us that's going to be $10-12K for plans.

Noteworthy that I believe what we are seeking is not a unique floorplan nor do we have anything difficult about the build site to contend with.

I'm a negotiator at heart - so it's difficult for me to give up the option to work with multiple builders - but I fear I could be paying for plans that I would otherwise get for no charge and maybe there isn't enough savings potential to mess with negotiating hassles.

Thoughts?

2. Is there a benefit to having a realtor represent me to meet with builders? I can't imagine the builders don't just increase every line item by 3% to pay the realtor commission. What value should I expect to receive from that? Maybe it's worth it, but I need someone to explain to me why and how.

3. Referrals to great builders that operate in Parker and Hood counties would be appreciated


Thanks very much.

I financed hundreds of custom builds over the years and don't ever remember a Realtor being involved. I'm a firm believer in the value of a good Realtor in residential transactions including production builders but don't see the value with custom.

Your money will be better spent on a home inspector than a realtor. I'm talking about an active inspection process each phase of the construction. You can't inspect electrical or plumbing if the sheet rock is up.

There is an Aggie builder (Cross) in Parker County - not sure what his exact area is, but he is a stand up guy. I recall from a prior conversation that it is fairly normal for people to use an architect.

Thanks to everyone for their replies so far. I appreciate the insights and suggestions.

Recommend Sam Anderson for a home builder. Hers a solid guy and does great great.work

He is a tsip but worth overlooking that

Thanks warrington74 - do you have a website or facebook page for him?

I went thru this about 12 years ago when we built on a 1.5 acre lot outside of College Station. We bought the lot first after a year-plus search to find the right location. Then we hired a local architect to help us design the house. I agreed to an hourly rate with him, and I'm glad we did because we kept changing our mind as the plans took shape. That arrangement allowed him to keep tweaking it to our satisfaction while also treating him fairly. You have to trust the person to do that, but he was very trustworthy. We probably spent about $10k in architect fees at the time

He was also connected to the builder community, and we interviewed and got proposals from several. We hired the one that we thought was the best fit overall. Again, I'll emphasize flexibility because as the house took shape there were a few things where we learned we wanted something a bit different, or that we just didn't think about it to begin with. He was very accommodating as long as we paid for the incremental cost plus his time to manage it. We ended up very happy with the final product.

With a custom home, I would be concerned about thinking you've got everything 100% defined on a fixed cost contract and then hiring a builder who rigidly interprets everything to the point of being inflexible. I don't believe in taking advantage of vendors. That's not a winning formula. But you need somebody who will work with you as long as you treat them right. That's my two cents.

Edit to add that we didn't use a realtor at all. We bought the lot directly from the developer and dealt directly with the architect, builder, and bank.