There are custom homes, semi-custom homes, and pre-built homes. In general, choices aren't limited when building a custom home. Choices are much more limited when purchasing a pre-built home. Semi-custom homes fall somewhere between the two, with a limited range of choices. That sounds like what your builder offers.

You are working on a tract home. It's just a little higher end than you are used to.

If you already own the lot, you might have better luck with another builder. If you are building a house on the builder's lot, it is almost never custom. In that case, you might consider just having all walls painted white and going with the cheapest light fixtures available. Then you won't mind hiring your own painter to paint the color you want, and purchasing replacement light fixtures. If there are some lgiht fixtures that the builder's choices are acceptable, you could go ahead and select those. That would probably work for closets, powder rooms, utility areas, maybe secondary bedrooms.

Henry Ford said, "Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black."

Sounds like a tract home which was repriced as a custom based on the recent market. But things are changing quickly. I'd find another builder.

Sounds like you think you’re building a custom home, but your builder doesn’t.

Obviously you have chosen the wrong builder.

Sounds like a semi-custom home to me.

Sadly as others have said this is not a custom home despite what you’ve been told. We built a custom home and we said every colour, item, design choice etc. We were the final call.

A tract home could be 1M too.

Sounds semi-custom to me. We are currently building a custom home. We already owned the plot of land, then we found a builder we liked. That builder recommended an architect who we employed. After the architect finished our plans, the builder gave us an estimate based on the plans. Those estimates have things based on products he’s used to working with; for instance, when picking out our doors and windows he was like “these choices are what I budgeted for,” and if we choose out of those then our budget is fine. (We did) But we are able to choose other items if we really want to, but it would affect our budget and we have to cover any additional expenses. He asked a lot of questions before he gave us an estimate too... he knew what kind of siding we said we wanted before we even went to an architect, so that kind of siding is what he budgeted for. One of the other reasons we chose this builder was because he was ok with us doing a lot of our own finish work. (And with our type of building loan, and the bank we are working with, we also have the approval to do a large portion of our own finishing work. It’s all been spelled out in our contract already, and we have a detailed list of the materials we have already purchased to complete these items.) When choosing our main exterior paint color, we knew what basic color we wanted, and which actual color it would be between some different major brands... (like if he was using Benjamin Moore we were going to go with Kendall Charcoal, but if his painters used Sherwin Williams then it was Grizzle Grey. We didn’t know upfront which brand it would be recently found out he uses sherwin williams, so grizzle grey it is!) But we are doing our own interior painting, and we will be using BM paints for that. Our bank required us to give estimates of the cost of all of the stuff we are doing ourselves, and we give them receipts of all of the stuff we’ve bought towards that, like our wood flooring, underlayment, and nails, etc... and they have also been helping us keep track of everything we’ve spent. For us, that also includes receipts for things like water and sewer hookups, which we’ve paid for out of pocket... ie, before the building loan kicked in. We’ve already bought most of our cabinetry, most of our sinks, some faucets, most of our appliances, even one of our toilets. We are still looking at door hardware, mirrors, and certain lighting for interior and exterior... and a whole bunch of other stuff. Next week we are going to pick out our tile. Our foundation walls aren’t even finished yet. It took us over a year and a half just to get to the point where excavation took place. Hope that helps explain how a fully custom home building process might look like.

It does sound like semi custom. That is what we just built. Honestly they had enough choices that we had plenty of choose from, and we weren’t extremely overwhelmed. If you are doing a completely custom home you’ll need a designer. I had a designer help me choose the options for my semi custom build, and we still got a couple of things “wrong”. It’s a lot to pick! 😵‍💫

When the production builder controls the choices, that is how he is able to provide somewhat accurate cost forecasting. When the homeowner controls the selections and subsequent costs, the ”we might as well get what we want“ comes into play. And restraint and budgetary control are out the window. Which is fine, if the cash funding is there to pay for the house overbuilt for the neighborhood. If the hime had to meet a bank appraisal, and there isn’t the cash, that is a problrm.

Your build is not custom. It is a production build, which means your choices are controlled by the builder.

https://www.newhomesource.com/learn/custom-or-production-builder-right-for-you/

As others have said, you're building a semi-custom tract house.

I built custom. It's my own design and I chose every single item inside and outside the house.

Unfortunately there's no defined terms here. And the level of customization can be quite variable even within the different "types" of building, and regionally as well!

If it's paint and lighting - those are easy to fix.

If you want truly 100% custom - then it's going to be a longr and costlier process. Only you can make that decision.

A custom home typically begins by employing an architect.

Unfortunately, there's nothing to prevent someone from calling himself a "custom builder" even if that's far from reality. What you described is not what a custom builder does, but you already know that.

If there are true custom builders in your area then you're likely to be happier taking a loss on the deposit you've paid and moving on with someone else. Just beware that even non-tract builders may not have experience with a real custom build.

The accolades, positive reviews, imaginative marketing, etc. hid the fact that our builder was mainly used to a limited type and style of house with a restricted number of vendors and subcontractors. Previous customers were likely used to spec built tract houses, even if they were priced at the top of this market, and thought that being told to choose their counters, as one example, from the very limited inventory of a particular fabricator was fine since they hadn't been offered any choice previously. We pushed back but realize that doing so cost us.

We've only recently begun to move in, months after the builder said the house would be completed. Unless you have a pressing need to build right now, then you may be better off waiting a while as you investigate your options. There are still lengthy delays in many materials, labor shortages, etc. that can slow down your new build. A custom builder who does a limited number of houses per year may not be able to get crews when needed since larger production builders can offer constant employment and may be given priority by local vendors. If you choose to build now, be prepared for a frustrating wait.

I disagree with this statement:

"A custom builder who does a limited number of houses per year may not be able to get crews when needed since larger production builders can offer constant employment and may be given priority by local vendors."

If that custom builder is targeting the mid/high cost builds then they will be charging more for a premium product and the subs will make more money on those jobs. Large production builders are ruthless and don't care so much about the quality of the subs, but rather how little they can pay them. The subs that are accepting jobs from large production builders aren't the ones you want working on your custom home.

I'm glad @chispa took issue with the statement. It's simply not true.

Large production builders purchase the majority of their materials on national contracts and they are trucked in from afar. What they buy locally are from suppliers on par with the big-box stores. As a consequence, they don't engender any type of loyalty or priority from the better local suppliers. They will hire some local trades, but they beat them down on price so much that the only trades who will work for them aren't ones that would never be considered to work on a custom home based on the quality of their work.

I'm in the process of building a custom home, and I can choose whatever I want to, as long as I pay for it. I'm on a cost-plus contract, which means than the builder passes on actual costs to me and also charges a fee on top of that. If your project is fixed price then that has some assumptions about finishes baked into the price, so it can never be fully custom. I'm sure the builder won't mind if you pay more for selections that you want, but most likely you'd have a change order fee on top of everything.

The "large" production builders to which I referred are not the big national companies, so I should have chosen a different adjective. In our area there are no national or large regional home builders. There are several local tract home companies that do the vast majority of the building in this area which includes the largest city in the state. They have cornered the market on labor as our builder and others like him have been told repeatedly over the past couple of years. I realize now that this may be unusual for other places.

In addition to getting quicker response times from trades, these few production builders are favored by the local/regional suppliers for materials. Whether it's concrete for the typical slab foundations here, lumber for framing, roofing shingles or bricks, those builders are prioritized.

This is a LCOL area, and only a small percentage of houses exceed $600K. Our builder's stated price range is $500K - $3MM, and our house was at the upper end of that range. We haven't been in our new home very long. I've already found problems, including some egregious ones, with cabinetry, electrical, plumbing, the installation of windows and doors, etc.

Over the years we bought three houses from the largest production builder in this area, the most recent as a temporary/part time home while our new house was being built. Those three houses combined cost less than half of our new custom home, yet the finish quality (as in trim carpentry, installation of cabinets and counters, etc.) was better than the work done on this house, albeit the materials weren't the same quality.

I realize there's a lot of antipathy toward production builders on this site and some of it is likely justified. However, not every market is the same and not everyone has access to the same quality of architects and builders. Three years ago, I thought we'd lucked out and found a builder who could build our last and best home. At this point, the only things I'm truly pleased with are the lot (>1.25 acres in an area where .25 - .50 acre lots are the norm) on which we tore down the original house, the proximity to grandchildren, and the pool.

Sorry for writing a book here. If we'd been able to find an existing house on a lot that worked for us, I think we may have been better off GC-ing a remodel there while living in the temporary house.

"I think we may have been better off GC-ing a remodel there while living in the temporary house."

You think that's a good idea when local builders "have cornered the market on labor" and "are favored by the local/regional suppliers for materials."?

You'd be a onesie to those subs and suppliers.

The "large" production builders I was referring to in my area, for the most part, are also not the national ones. Just big enough to secure rights to build in a new large development, where the developer will give the rights to 3 - 5 "large" builders. They mostly do spec homes or semi custom with buyers choosing finishes from a design center from a limited selection of floor plans.

My builder has a small business, only does custom and has no issues keeping subs and getting support from local vendors. He has been working in the area for about 15 years and has close and long term relationships with subs and vendors. If you are a good ethical business, you don't have problems attracting similar people to work with. It isn't all unicorns and fluffy puppies ... covid, supply chain issues and labor shortages have certainly made things harder for all involved.

A custom begins by owning the land.

We do own the land.

Get out of this contract.

I know down south demand is still high and supply is low. The builders here pretty much across the board have gone away from the "design studio" experience and instead are selling spec homes with preselected materials. For them it's easier to manage materials, reduces lead times and consolidates the process. They usually pick netural designs. A few builders will let you do the design experience but with a comittment for a minimum spend. Our builder told us the lead times were becoming problematic and there's also the people who will buy the walls and put zero upgrades in it which angers the existing neighors because it pulls down resale value for comps with zero upgrades. Like anything, the builders will keep doing it this way as long as demand permits it. Less time, fewer materials to manage, quicker sales. A lot of home builders ay custom but they really arent.