Recommend me a Home Builder (Hill Country)

[Nueces River Rat 5796]

We spent a few days up in the Hill Country (mainly around New Braunfels, Bulverde, Boerne,  Canyon Lake and Blanco) looking at future home sites.   We looked at some of the planned communities and model homes such as Vintage Oaks on TX 46 and they all have their pros/cons.   My wife prefers to be closer to civilization and some of the amenities these communities have which I have to admit are pretty impressive, but I rather be out in the middle of nowhere with my own pool, etc.    I don't think I'll win this one, so I'll go with the planned community thing as long as gets me in the Hill Country and closer to Austin and SA.    Most of these planned developments have their own preferred builders you have to use, but  reading through the below list, they build all over the state in the larger metro areas too.  This is the list from Vintage Oaks and from driving around some of the other developments , many of them build in them as well.

Alair Homes

Broll Homes

Century Communities

Coventry Homes

G. Morris Homes

Grand Endeavor Homes

KC Custom Homes

Monticello Homes

Partners in Building

Paul Allen Custom Homes

Perry Homes

Scott Felder Homes

Summit Oak Homes

TA French Custom Builder

Tilson Homes

Vintage Estate Homes

Weston Dean

Whitestone Custom Homes

[LebongJames 1921]

From that list I would exclude

Perry

Scott Felder

Century

Coventry

I work for a manufacturing company that sells to SF builders. Nothing wrong with the 4 above in tract neighborhood but those guys build houses all the way down to the 200s. They will share a lot of the building materials with their cheaper builds.

Not every custom builder uses much better products but you can at least have those conversations. Like instead of telling you which appliance and plumbing fixtures you get. They will give you an allowance to go to a showroom and pick your fixtures. 

HVAC

Insulation

Windows 

Make a ton of difference and builders use a wide array of these.

Ask about solid core doors, the builders above will have those as an upgrade, most custom builders should have a very solid base product offering.

[Armybrat 41400]

What kind of budget are you considering?

[Nueces River Rat 5796]

2 hours ago, Armybrat said:

What kind of budget are you considering?

In the ball park of $400k, give or take.  Excluding the land cost.

Looking at the max 3000 sq ft.      Looking at quality because hopefully this will be our last home build for a long time as we will be empty nesters soon.

[Nueces River Rat 5796]

2 hours ago, LebongJames said:

From that list I would exclude

Perry

Scott Felder

Century

Coventry

I work for a manufacturing company that sells to SF builders. Nothing wrong with the 4 above in tract neighborhood but those guys build houses all the way down to the 200s. They will share a lot of the building materials with their cheaper builds.

Not every custom builder uses much better products but you can at least have those conversations. Like instead of telling you which appliance and plumbing fixtures you get. They will give you an allowance to go to a showroom and pick your fixtures. 

HVAC

Insulation

Windows 

Make a ton of difference and builders use a wide array of these.

Ask about solid core doors, the builders above will have those as an upgrade, most custom builders should have a very solid base product offering.

I agree with all what you noted.  I learned a lot from our first home build a couple of decades ago and swore to really do my homework for the next one. The good thing is with this one, I will not have to conform to coastal building standards like a garage door that is now impossible to lift up if the torsion spring pops.   

We did browse through a Scott Felder model home from the four you listed.  Looked great of course....