Finding a Custom Home Builder

My husband is a carpenter so all we bought was the material and the labor was free.

A parent who goes to my children's school is a builder. He built his home and it is gorgeous and I believe he does custom builds. ADTIM Builders, ____@____.com are on Facebook as well. Tell him Tech Committee Nicole sent you.

I would google chicago custom home builders and look at a couple of websites of the homes they have built and then call on the phone and get additional information. We went to a tour of custom homes and picked up cards on builders that we liked their designs. Some of these houses were "over the top" but we found that the builders had a wide range of projects. We found one that we basically liked and then had them adjust the plan to get us the space we wanted (extra bedroom, larger patio, more built-ins) Then I would carefully check all of their references and see if they had any liens placed against them. It is hard to stay on budget because there are so many things you will think of along the way - pick an amount and then plan for 15-20% overruns. Good luck! It is a lot of work, but you will be getting what you want.

My husband is an architect and builder with over 20 years building in the Chicagoland area. Design/Build saves a client time and money. My husband is a fantastic space planner and believes in building for functionality. His web site is www.brianfryzeldesignbuild.com. Good luck!

Hey -
I recently built a home (in Texas) and I talked to a lot of different people and got a lot of different recommendations on builders. I went and talked to all of them, went through my plans, and had them all quote a house. So, here were my issues:
1. Even when they quoted, they forgot things. One builder completely forgot to put in AC equipment.
2. Another builder put together a generic quote (even though I very specifically told him I wanted stained cabinets, he quoted painted cabinets. I thought maybe this wasn't a big deal until I talked to someone who used him and she also told him upfront she wanted stained cabinets and he quoted painted cabinets - then gave her a several thousand $ cost adder for staining.
3. ALL of the custom builders were about $100,000 more that what I thought the house should cost (based on square footage and cost per square footage).
4. FINALLY, someone talked me into going and talking to a cookie cutter home maker. I ended up going with them, but I really upgraded the house. They let me do things that they don't normally offer - like 8" crown molding. And, I seriously upgraded the kitchen from their standard kitchen. The best thing about using them is that they printed up a contract with EVERY part/piece in the quote. The house contract was signed before they started and it was going to cost X dollars - there was no overage or anything. THIS is what the house was going to cost. If I wanted to change anything, we would have to do a work request and add an amendment to the contract. I LOVED this. All of the custom builders were adding $10,000 to $50,000 for "contingencies" of which I had no control. I reallly needed to know my absolute budget, so contingencies just weren't going to work for me. The cookie cutter company did their homework and gave me a realistic quote (meaning they came out and studied my land first and had the guy that poured concrete out there looking at it well before we signed the contract). Everything went easy peasy and turned out AWESOME. So, I'm very happy that I went with the cookie cutter guys. I just could not justify the expense of the "custom guys".
5. Another issue with the custom builders - two expressed great interest in my house, sat down with me and went over the plans, took my plans and pictures of things I was interested in (finishes) and then NEVER contacted me again. Never quoted. Never returned calls.
6. Also, don't forget to get warranties. Get a warranty which means they will fix anything and everything the first year and then get a 10 year structural warranty.

Good luck,
L.