Home Feature: Turner & Son

Some families have unique circumstances or lifestyle needs that the typical neighborhood or subdivision can’t accommodate. Looking tobuild a custom home on their own land can be daunting. Home builder Tim Turner shares his expertise in guiding these homeowners through the process to achieve their dream home. You specialize in building custom homes on the owner’s land.

How did that come about?

We saw that there are quite a few people who are under-served by the homebuilding community, and I felt personally compelled to figure out a way to serve those people. Specifically, people who have a more independent mindset, who don’t want the usual house built in the usual neighborhood. There are a lot of people in our community who want to live on their own land and don’t want to be told what their home should look like, what should be included in it, etc. Not too many homebuilders take on these projects because it’s difficult work, and not much gets repeated – you’re building a unique design every time. For a builder, it’s easier to find a subdivision, pick a few plans, and start cranking them out. That’s not what our client is looking for.

Are there any common traits you find with your type of customers?

The biggest common trait is the independent mindset – the mindset that says, “I want to raise my family away from negative influences,” or “I don’t want the neighbors telling me what my house should look like,” or “I want to design my forever home without a builder telling me what’s ‘standard,’ or building whatever he’s used to building,” or “I might want to ride my 4-wheeler in the backyard or keep my horses where I live.” This shows up in various ways, like people who home-school their kids, or people who have unique family situations that need an extremely unique house design that you’re not going to find in your typical neighborhood.

Any advice for someone thinking about building on their own land?

My biggest advice is to find the home builder you can trust to coordinate all the pieces for you. It seems simple, but there are four things you need to builda forever home on your own land: land, house plans, money, and a builder. The problem is, there’s no built-in system to coordinate all the pieces. You can easily buy the wrong piece of land, fall in love with a house plan you can’t afford to build or get a construction loan from a banker who doesn’t know what he’s doing. The only entity with intimate knowledge of the whole process is the builder who builds on land.

What do you enjoy most about your work?

What I enjoy most is seeing the look on the faces of a wife and husband when they realize that the dream they’ve been visualizing for so long is becoming real.

Are there any trends you see in the custom homes you design and build?

Anything Chip and Joanna do seems to become a trend. Think Urban Farmhouse. Distressed beams, barn wood, shiplap, you name it.

What’s the largest home you have built? The smallest?

The largest home we’ve built was around 6,500 square feet, and the smallest around 1,000 square feet, but the biggest lesson I’ve learned is that it isn’t about the most or least expensive, or about the biggest or smallest. It’s about the people we’re serving – no matter how big or small the budget. To the family whose hard-won money, time, and energy is being invested, it’s the biggest, most important thing in their lives at that moment, and it’s up to us to honor that commitment no matter how many digits are in the price tag.