Getting the most out of your house construction project is achieved when you know the types of builders to do it. Three major types of home builders dominate the industry when it comes to residential construction projects.

While the specialisation of these new home builders is not entirely exclusive, knowing their particular category allows you to choose the kind of builder you need for your home project.

Custom Builders

Custom builders are the perfect choice if you want a home that has everything you want to be constructed in it. Practically everything that needs to be constructed in a home can be built by custom builders. The only limitations they probably have are neighbourhood or local regulations, budget, and your imagination.

A custom builder will only start working when there’s a buyer. This means that you can’t view any of their previous work unless a buyer backs out of the project. Once in a while, they can be made to build other types of home projects that are usually handled by other kinds of builders.

Hiring a custom builder is expensive as they don’t provide flexible pricing. Up-front fees ranging between 5-10% deposit plus other fees such as architect and lot fees are one of their requirements before they undertake a project.

Purchasing your lot is also one of the requirements set by custom builders to their clients. At most, custom builders build a total of 10 homes or less per year.

Production or Tract Builders

Big national companies are popularly known as production or tract builders. These builders have usually built hundreds or dozens of homes in neighbourhoods around a city.

Not too much flexibility is offered by production builders with their set number of home features and floor plans to choose from. Tract builders also build and build even without buyers, making them construct homes that are up for sale and ready to be occupied at any time.

The fully staged model homes found in neighbourhoods where they have sales associations are done by tract builders. Often, tract builders and local real estate agents work together to sell newly-constructed model homes.

A majority of homes are constructed by tract builders. The different home models constructed by production builders range from semi-custom, high-end, and different upgrades and tiers.

Building economical and efficient homes are the top benefits gained from tract builders. If budget is an issue, opting for homes built by production builders is the way to go.

Speculative builders

Speculating is the name of the game for speculative builders. This means that this type of builder invests in both lot and materials to build a home that they “speculate” could sell for a profit once done.

The work of speculative builders is similar to production builders wherein they construct homes even when there’s no buyer. However, this is where the similarity ends as speculative builders do not invest in large tracts of land to build houses on.

Generally, spec builders invest in land one at a time before starting construction. This means that every constructed home by a spec builder has different features and floor plans.

The flexibility offered by spec builders makes them the best option when it comes to flexible pricing and home design.

Understanding the different kinds of home builders helps to set expectations during the building of your home.