Custom home design versus stock home design
We currently have 3 custom homes under contract. Two are design-build contracts where we design a custom home and then build the home, and one is a “stock plan” where we are building from a designer’s stock home plan.
Stock plans are “ready to go” home plans purchased from a designer or architect. Typically these plans started as a custom home plan and the designer subsequently adds the plans to their portfolio for future clients to purchase. Stock plans can be modified, and there are many companies offering many home plans.
Pictured is a home currently under construction that is a stock plan with only a few changes. The changes were minor enough to be able to be made in the field without re-drawing the plans.
The advantages of finding a stock plan that fits your needs are savings in both money and time. Typically however a stock plan will need a local designer and/or an engineer to modify the stock plans to conform to local building codes. A plot plan and other supporting documents will also be needed to submit for a building permit, however these documents are needed with a custom home plan as well.
A custom home design will take anywhere from a couple of weeks to a couple of months and the timeline is dependent on the owners prompt response and decision making. The most typical time frame to complete is 4 weeks. Typically custom home plans cost twice as much as stock home plans if there are no changes to stock home plans. If there are significant changes to a stock home plan, the timeframe and cost of a stock home plan becomes close to that of a custom home plan.
If you have a stock home plan you are interested in building please give us a call before you purchase the plans and we can see if the plans will work for your property and your needs.