Tilson Homes . . . .

[Hafernick]

they are not a true custom builder. if i was to have a house built i would use a custom builder, do to the fact you get treated like you a person instead of just a number.

I have never been led to believe (by Tilson or anyone else) that they call themselves a custom home builder. So I don't know where you are getting this information from. The only thing I have seen them advertise, it is on my sign, is "built on your lot since 1932". Nor have I been treated like a number the last 3 months while they have been building my house...

[ccolley68]

The house would be built in Wood County. Do they contract locally or do it themselves? Can you order one built without shelving, flooring, etc. and get your own contractors? Just curious . . . .

This is totally dependent on where you are building the home (city limits, or unincorporated county) and what each individual municipality and builder will allow. When I built homes, it was for a tract home builder, but at the higher end, and mostly people who were right on the fence of whether they wanted us to build them the tract home or pay for the custom job. Many times the question came up if we could leave our cheaper flooring out and allow them to bring in their own people to floor the home after the fact. The city (League City south of Houston) and the builder both would not allow this because in order for you to take posession and move into the home, it has to be finished. The city did not consider bare concrete or wood subfloor upstairs to be finished, and would not sign off the home as complete. The builder would not allow you to go in and do the work yourself unless the home had been signed off complete by the city. Catch 22.

Most people just bit the bullet and had us put in our flooring that they usually didnt like. I did have a few people tell us to just put the cheapest, crappiest carpet we had wall to wall throughout the house so they could get it signed off, and then they would tear the carpet out themselves and pay someone to put in the floors they wanted. If you go this route, know that you may be potentially causing warranty voidable issues, and many of the larger builders look for stuff like that they can blame when you have issues to get themselves off the hook for fixing your warranty issues.

And if you truly want a home to be unique and be your own, get a true custom builder and have it done the way you want it. Cost in the grand scheme of things for a custom home isnt that much more. The main difference will be construction time. The tract home builder can charge so much less than everyone because they are essentially a production line. Its the same house, same floorplan, and most importantly same material take off they have done thousands of times. They have this stuff down to a science and make them very efficiently because of this reason. When you want to start doing customizations, they have to jack up the price because it throws a wrench into their well oiled machine.

I have explained to many a friend or family that the tract home isnt neccessarily built porly compared to other homes. They use the same materials. There are building codes and standards for that. They cant build your home out of an inferior stud. Granted some builders can use more superior lumber grades, but usually dont, unless you are talking $1Mil+. The main difference is time, and attention to detail, and finishes. To complete your home in the time frame they allow, there has to be some things that go a little overlooked, like paint cut ins, sheetrock finish, wood trim work, and other little things that most people never notice, which is why they can get away with it.

When it comes to 'customizing' a tract home builders product, I like to use the car analogy. Their model home area is just like the car dealership. Ford will let you 'customize' your car as well. You can pick paint color, interior color, leather or cloth, tires, rims, etc, but Ford wont put the steering on the other side. The home builder is very similar. They will let you pick the exterior color, interior paint, flooring, cabinets, door hardware, etc, but they wont move the kitchen to the other side (unless that is one of their predetermined upgrades).

A lot of this has to do with permitting as well. They have the drawings for the houses they build already at the city approved for construction. Once you select the floor plan you want, the construction manage ror project manager or whoever goes down to the city and say such and such wants to build a 281 plan at lot X, block X, blah blah. Then they get the permit pulled much quicker because the plans are done and approved as is. If you want the kitchen on the left side of the house as opposed to the right side, they have to have the plans redrawn, and resubmitted to the city for approval before they can even get the permit. If you build it custom, the drawings are all new and have to be submitted as such regardless, so to the custom builder, they could care less where you want the kitchen.

Sorry I was a little long winded, I just see threads about this stuff every now and then on several different forums I frequent, and since I have a decent knowledge of the subject, I try to provide my $0.02.

[txfireguy2003]

Only experience I have had with them was with a home built for "Extreme Makeover Home Edition" here in Bell County. That home was truly built in one week, and used a lot of volunteers, myself included, so the quality of that one home may not be in line with their normal product. That said, one of my friends who helped some with he framing and finish carpentry told me that when he arrived, they asked him to work on a hip roof on one end of the house. He climbed up there and said that he had to rip out all the work that was there and rebuild the entire thing because is was so far out of square that he couldn't work with it. He only worked on that one corner of the house, so there's no telling what the rest of the house was like. You can watch the show I think Feb 16, it's the one about the soldier who was shot on Ft. Hood last year. Turned out to be a nice home, or looked that way anyway, but I'm not sure of the real quality, but again, this home was thrown up in one week, from concrete to steel roof, including landscaping.

[Mayhem]

I have never been led to believe (by Tilson or anyone else) that they call themselves a custom home builder. So I don't know where you are getting this information from. The only thing I have seen them advertise, it is on my sign, is "built on your lot since 1932". Nor have I been treated like a number the last 3 months while they have been building my house...

no trying step on any toes, that is just how i feel about builders who build on a very large scale. heck my wife works for a builder in the houston area and i wouldnt let them build a house for me after her telling me some of the stuff the cm's have done wrong when it comes to building a house.

[Hafernick]

no trying step on any toes, that is just how i feel about builders who build on a very large scale. heck my wife works for a builder in the houston area and i wouldnt let them build a house for me after her telling me some of the stuff the cm's have done wrong when it comes to building a house.

No matter what kind of construction you deal with you will always have managers/superintendents who will always try to cut corners. You have to be on top of everything when you are the owner of a construction project. This goes for custom home builders too...

[JohnS]

I'm a remodeling contractor, and ive worked on some of thier homes and i was not impressed in the least, they cut to many corners from my prespective. but thats just my opinion.

[SabreKiller]

I used Tilson to bild here n the Hill Country...

All of the contractors were out of Boerne. I could not have gotten a custom home for what I paid here. A contractor friend down the road watched as the house was built and told me they did good job. We had a great foreman. If I found any issues when i visited the site he corrected them quickly. He also informed me about an upgrade in cabinets that had just come out. They are real wood and no particle board. They are going to use what is called contractor grade goods. Basically what you can get at Lowe's or Home Depot. I added extra square feet to the home and added several upgrades. I had the entrie home done in stained concrete. They wont do it anymore so I hired my own contractor. Anything you use in your plan that is not their standard grade you will pay an upcharge for. All in all, I'm pretty happy with the process. The only thing I would have done different is have the slab in the garage the same level as the house. As it is, I have to step up from the garage to get in the house.

You will have to watch the contracotrs though. I lived 250 miles from where I built and could only come every other weekend. The sheet rockers had completely covered up a set of light switches. As I always say, when the cats away, the mice will play. I have some construction experience and don't recall any corners being cut.

[rubydog]

I have never been led to believe (by Tilson or anyone else) that they call themselves a custom home builder. So I don't know where you are getting this information from. The only thing I have seen them advertise, it is on my sign, is "built on your lot since 1932". Nor have I been treated like a number the last 3 months while they have been building my house...

I think you need to read the first line in their own adds from their website.
A true custom builder will build any house, any shape any list of ammenities any time. Tillson builds their house plans thats it.

Here is the link.. http://www.tilsonhome.com/main.cfm?pagename=homepage

[Howard]

My sister and her husband were going to use them till he got the contract from them to sign- has his lawyer relative look it over and said stay away. He said the contract is the craziest he had ever seen and you give up all your rights,etc.. to your own land even during them build, etc...

I have plenty of clients that have used them and its 50/50 They ended up using custom builder and got 3000 sq ft for like 240.... Tilson wanted more for far less.

[bklem]

All of the contractors were out of Boerne. I could not have gotten a custom home for what I paid here. A contractor friend down the road watched as the house was built and told me they did good job. We had a great foreman. If I found any issues when i visited the site he corrected them quickly. He also informed me about an upgrade in cabinets that had just come out. They are real wood and no particle board. They are going to use what is called contractor grade goods. Basically what you can get at Lowe's or Home Depot. I added extra square feet to the home and added several upgrades. I had the entrie home done in stained concrete. They wont do it anymore so I hired my own contractor. Anything you use in your plan that is not their standard grade you will pay an upcharge for. All in all, I'm pretty happy with the process. The only thing I would have done different is have the slab in the garage the same level as the house. As it is, I have to step up from the garage to get in the house.

You will have to watch the contracotrs though. I lived 250 miles from where I built and could only come every other weekend. The sheet rockers had completely covered up a set of light switches. As I always say, when the cats away, the mice will play. I have some construction experience and don't recall any corners being cut.

I also used the Boerne office and my Supt. was from Wimberley. We couldn't have been happier. Were there mistakes mad-you bet. Were the mistakes corrected at Tilson's expense-you bet. I know of at least 3 other Tilson homes built around here-Comfort-and all tenants are happy. My BIL is a Construction Supt. in Austin and he kept a pretty good eye on it and he said they were above specs on everything. Currently, a very good friend is building one in Kerrville and I am even more impressed with their product today! I really liked the fact that they were very flexible in the floorplans. We made several changes and some cost us and others actually saved us money!

[Hafernick]

I think you need to read the first line in their own adds from their website.
A true custom builder will build any house, any shape any list of ammenities any time. Tillson builds their house plans thats it.

Here is the link.. http://www.tilsonhome.com/main.cfm?pagename=homepage

I am very familiar with their advertising but if you keep reading, you will find their is a section for a "truly custom home". They do custom work but they are not strictly custom, and they spell it out for you on their front page. All you have to do is read...If someone chooses one of Tilson's floor plans and expects that to be custom, I don't believe that is logical thinking.

I agree with some of the negative things said here. If the home owner watches close enough they can catch almost everything. I see my house everyday. I crawl around in the attic, inspect it from top to bottom everyday. If I don't like something I tell my builder, if it isn't fixed like I want I take a picture and come time to do a punch list they will hear an earfull from me and fix it like I want it.

There is already one issue, that everyday that passes and it isn't fixed they will probably be peeling bricks off the house to do it right...

[Extremebowman]

Going back to the original question - I have heard they do acceptable work when you stay within their product line. When you start making changes, especially ones they are not used to doing, they charge accordingly. Even a simple change such as extending a bedroom 2 feet can require plans to go back to architecture, engineer, subs for new bids etc. It's like that with everything, you make substitutions to the "menu" you get charged extra. I can't speak to whether they are out of line though, but change fees are normal.

A few posts above made comments to the very most important part of building a house regardless of builder or how they label themselves, the Superintendent or Project Manager. THEY are the most important piece of the homebuilding process, it doesn't matter if the builder is Choice, Hawkins or a 7 figure custom builder, the guy on the project everyday is what makes the difference. He is the one who sets the level of quality for the project. Everytime a friend asks " are ____________ homes any good?", my typical response is "who is the super? He is what makes the house, not the builder".

Quality should not differ from a $120K house to A $2M house. The level of ammenities will obviously, but true "sticks and bricks" shouldn't. I typically build large homes, but every now and then I get a smaller one, I hold my trades to the same level no matter the size or price point. Agreed one may have hand scraped hickory floors and Bentwood cabinets and the other tile and pre-man cabinets, but the workmanship is the same.

Quality for the single most expensive and long lasting purchase most of us ever make should never be a compromise.

I really tried not to jump on a soap box ... really, I tried

[rubydog]

I have never been led to believe (by Tilson or anyone else) that they call themselves a custom home builder. So I don't know where you are getting this information from. The only thing I have seen them advertise, it is on my sign, is "built on your lot since 1932". Nor have I been treated like a number the last 3 months while they have been building my house...

I am very familiar with their advertising but if you keep reading, you will find their is a section for a "truly custom home". They do custom work but they are not strictly custom, and they spell it out for you on their front page. All you have to do is read...If someone chooses one of Tilson's floor plans and expects that to be custom, I don't believe that is logical thinking.

I agree with some of the negative things said here. If the home owner watches close enough they can catch almost everything. I see my house everyday. I crawl around in the attic, inspect it from top to bottom everyday. If I don't like something I tell my builder, if it isn't fixed like I want I take a picture and come time to do a punch list they will hear an earfull from me and fix it like I want it.

There is already one issue, that everyday that passes and it isn't fixed they will probably be peeling bricks off the house to do it right...

Contradictory statements don't you think? One post says they aren't a custom builder however their add says other wise. In your second post you say "If you read" which I did, they do custom work. Which is it?
I merely gave my findings in the area that I live in and what happened on the two houses I watched built in the same neighborhood. I realize they try and use local subs when possible. In my case, I found that I could take the same floor plan to an architect have him draw the plans, engineer them and have a custom builder build the same house with high end upgrades inside and out for 20-25 bucks a square foot cheaper. Maybe it's just the area I live in but the housing market here is still strong and values keep going up.

[fishmansa]

Hi,

This is an old thread that I found...My wife and I went to Tilson and thought they put out a good product, but once you made any changes outside the original floor plan the price dramatically increased. Just adding a standard 2 car garage was over 20k for my area.

Rubydog can you pm me or email me, I would like your input on homebuilding for the area I'm based in NE San Antonio, Tx.

Thanks,
Ray

[Curtis32]

They built our home that we currently live in. It was built four years ago. I posted up my problems on another thread somewhere here on TBH. I wish I would have choosen a builder in my area. I would not choose them again. Feel free to give me a call if you have any questions or want to see their work. 830-263-1139.