Hot take: I chose a local builder over a big national firm and saved 15%

We were picking between a well-known national custom home company and a smaller local builder here in Boise. The national guys had a fancy book of plans, but their quote was $850,000 with a 14-month timeline. Our local guy, who we found through a neighbor, quoted $725,000 and said he could do it in 11 months if we made choices fast. We went local, and honestly, the personal attention was huge (he'd answer texts at 7 PM). We moved in last week, right on schedule and under budget. Anyone else find the big brand names just aren't worth the extra cost and slower pace?

3 comments

3 Comments

black.amy1mo ago

Did you have to deal with much pushback from the national company when you told them no? We had one of those big firms call us twice after we picked our local guy, trying to talk us into switching back. It was kind of annoying, but we just ignored them.

alicelopez2mo ago

Absolutely. We did the same thing in Austin. The big company wanted a 12% project management fee on top of everything. Our local guy just had a flat rate, saved us over a hundred grand, and his crew actually cared about the details.

angela_king392mo ago

Saw an article about this in a real estate newsletter last year. It said the big national firms have huge overhead costs from their fancy offices and ad budgets. That gets passed straight to the customer. The local guys just have their trucks and their crews. Makes total sense why their bids are lower.