Think of the phrase “fully customizable”. What’s the first feeling you have in relation to this phrase? Freedom? Stress? Skepticism?
Well for me, it’s the all too familiar memory of betrayal. I remember having “fully customizable” dolls when I was a kid that came with maybe three outfit options, or “fully customizable” jackets whose only options were hood or no hood. Now of course, this might sound like a Veruca Salt complaint (“Only three clothing options??? This is unnacceptable!!!”). And in terms of the small investment that is a jacket or doll, then yes; we’re talking about a handful of dollar bills.
However, when it comes to designing custom homes in Newport Beach, it is not a nickel-and-dime investment.
So when you hear the phrase “fully customizable,” you want to be fully confident in the meaning of that word. After all, you and your real estate developer should be on the exact same page when it comes to building homes from scratch. Becomes sometimes, “fully customizable” means around 20% customizable.
Real estate developers will often use the phrase in their marketing, yet they are choosing from the same handful of templates that they’ve always used. They can assume that “customizable” dictates whether they’re using the 2 bed 1 bath template, 3 bed 2 bath template, etc.
But let’s say you want a home literally unlike any other. You want an architect who builds those white cubism-inspired houses for Microsoft executives. You want an architect who would understand how tall your entryway needs to be to fit a to-scale model T-Rex. You want the freedom to say “Look, I don’t even know if this possible. But I’d really like my house to be shaped like a figure eight but somehow fit a junior Olympic pool” and the architect would respond, “Say no more. Your vision is my vision.”
But full customization does not only apply to full-scale remodel; it can also apply to a smaller part of your home that you’d like to redesign. Want your kitchen to have a modern spruce up without making it look too different from the rest of your home’s aesthetic? Or what if you’d like your backyard to be the preferred hangout area for guests, but you have no idea how to make it feel more welcoming.
Full customization real estate developers know that these kind of projects need a lot of right brain energy; it can’t be all analytics and logic. There is no formula for what makes a backyard have that “let’s hang out here instead of inside” energy. There is no equation for making a dining room where people actually eat dinner, rather than just the “Thanksgiving and/or serious conversation” table. At the end of the day, it’s just an art form. And these developers are masters of it.
So whether or not you are ready to take the leap, it’s a good thing to think about. The next time you meet with a developer who claims to build fully customizable homes, feel free to ask them about a crazy house design. If you earnestly ask for a house shaped like a Zebra and they stare at you like you’re nutty, they might not be the one. But if they chuckle and say something along the lines of, “It would definitely be a first for us but yes, that is the kind of project our team is capable of”, then you have your guy.
If you’re local, you can check out:
Sailhouse Custom Homes
170 Newport Center Dr Suite 220, Newport Beach, CA 92660
(949) 281-6044
