Well, that’s a real broad question. Are you talking about in the United States?

Depends if you're building a tract home or a custom home.

Not likely with production builders, but they don't spend much.

Custom builders vary. The client supplies fixtures with the option of using my vendors and accounts. That comes with a lot of added services. The chances of working directly with one of 3 owners with over 30 years experience & training is about 90%. More likely on time, correctly set up. Has the correct bulbs in the box plus a kit of parts to hang the fixture. They warehouse my order until needed in a few months instead of your personal garage as the job site is not for storage. Sometimes it seems to cost more until I value my time or yours.

My custom builder let me supply the lights other than the basic recessed cans. I suppose I could have supplied those too, but I did not. But if you supply the lights, be prepared to deal with it if some are broken, or are missing parts. Keep your receipts and invoices in case you need to return something. And try not to buy too far in advance, because if something is defective you want to discover that before the return period is over.

While I had a good deal of problems with the GC, one thing I could do without any sort of penalty, was find my own lights and lighting sources. I did get a benefit when I purchased things from HD, but I was happy with regards to lighting to find my own sources that I ended up loving. I bought lights from Wayfair, HD and Lowes, and from two local shops, as needed, NO extra fee. I simply didn't ask for GC to buy them, but purchased them myself.

How much control do you really have over the process and desicion making if your custom builder "allows" you to change specs/do something differently?

I've witnessed two major truly custom builds my dad did for our family - primary residence and a weekend house. He was essentially the producer while the trusted GC was the day to day director. My dad called all the shots and made all the decisions, major and tiny. He and my mom picked out the light fixtures and the electrician installed them. My dad even told the electrician precisely where to put the can lights. That kind of stuff. That level of custom construction is not for the faint of heart or the inexperienced. It's highly difficult, exhausting, expensive, and long.

Hiring the type of builder that has a selection of house templates with configurable specifications is a perfectly valid route to take to get a nice new house built if you're not a giant control freak who works in the construction industry. I just wouldn't call it a "custom" builder. But still, I couldn't imagine this type of builder dictating where you need to get the light fixtures from in a house you hired them to build for you.

And then there's the customization of a new-build house in a planned development that's going to be built regardless of whether or not you buy it, but since it's not yet completed and you're the buyer, builder might as well let you choose the finishes (from a list of preselected options).

Custom builder was overjoyed that he didn't have to pick out lighting fixtures or hardware. Yes, I paid direct for them (with one or two exceptions), but I was happy to have my own say on those items.

I'm off in a rural area, so there's no "planned development" possible around here... which may have indeed helped me. Nothing "pre-selected" needed to be considered.

The people here that were allowed to pick out their own lighting. We're you given an allowance or credit on what you picked out?

@robin0919 - This depends on how custom your build is and your loan/financial situation. I'm finishing a complete custom build and I had free reign to pick out whatever I wanted.

Robin, my situation is a little different as I personally know the builder. I have nothing in writing and it has been great!

Ours did - our build would be considered semi-custom, and we had the option of going thru the builder’s lighting vendor or buying all our own and getting a credit back for the lighting allowance, which is what we chose to do. We are in the midwest.

Robin... The people here that were allowed to pick out their own lighting. We're you given an allowance or credit on what you picked out?

I didn't worry about allowances or credit... I just picked it out and in most cases bought it myself. Unless it was trickier to install - no penalties.

Apparently this is not really "usual". It may be my rural route of building.

The people here that were allowed to pick out their own lighting. We're you given an allowance or credit on what you picked out?

I had a lighting allowance, which was really unrealistic, and I asked for that back when the builder did not have to buy any lights for me, except the ceiling cans.

Expect production builders to have a very small fixture allowance as many now set up homes with 100% recessed LED lighting, and mounted fixtures become optional, more ornamental than functional at all price ranges.

Most of the time unused allowances are a credit.

For customs, I usually build this allowance room by room on a spreadsheet, so a careful client can budget. Most aren't careful as I've seen expenditures in Dining rooms range from under $1k to well over $10K, usually depending on the resale value of the home, not the size.

Chris Davenforth is a serial Necrospammer. Please flag spam when you see it. ETA: Spam removed.

Kristen we have built 4 houses, the first being a tract builder and could only choose from a few options. The others were totally custom where we provided plans to the builder who then gave us a estimate. Included in his estimate was a allowance for lighting, plumbing, appliances etc. We could choose from stores that he had accounts at which we would pay the “contractors” price. Or we could get them from anywhere we chose. When comparing, we found that the contractor’s price was not significantly higher than the big box stores.
See Jeffrey Grenz’s comment above.... it was well worth it to go with our builders accounts.

@sushipup1 how do you flag for spam?

See the little flag to the far right? On some threads (for reasons I do not understand) it's at the top of the post and some it's at the bottom. But on the far right. Click on it and then click spam and then submit. Sometimes it's pre-set for spam, be sure to click submit.

PS, note that the spammer brought back to life an old thread , last response in June 2019. That's what a necrospammer does, bring 'em back from the dead! Chance are that the original poster has resolved issues and will never check back in.