MR Custom Homes

[Anonymous]

Has anyone built with them? How is the quality?

I have seen them put up a bunch of homes in my Arlington neighborhood. They looked nice from the open houses. I am thinking about building on my lot and wanted to get feedback on MR. Any feedback is appreciated.

[Anonymous]

We interviewed with MR a few years ago and really liked them (they were too expensive for us...) A friend built with them and loves his home. He seems to be taking on a lot more projects at once than he used to, so I'm not sure if that's impacting the quality, but since he only builds a handful of models, it's probably easy to handle.

[Anonymous]

We looked at building and I would say MR, Cherry Hill and Spring Street are all comparable and good quality. With MR I think you have limited customization options - as they get bigger they prefer you choose standard options and if you are buying a house that already has plans developed, it’s difficult to change anything structural.

[Anonymous]

He’s a machine. Very nice and easy to work with. If you build on your own lot, I think it’s worth it. It’s probably costing him about $600k to build a house I would not buy one for $2.1-$2.2.

[Anonymous]

He also stays on schedule. He knows the exact timelines and is on time. I watched him build a house from tear down to move in faster than a generic remodel took on the same street.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He’s a machine. Very nice and easy to work with. If you build on your own lot, I think it’s worth it. It’s probably costing him about $600k to build a house I would not buy one for $2.1-$2.2.

OP here. We got a few quotes from the builders above. They all seemed to be around 900k+ to build on our lot. That did include OH and management fee. They are also going to charge for their carrying costs. It seems like all the new properties by good builders are going for over 2M.

I have been shocked that tear downs are going for over 900k for good lots. It seems the only ones below are for properties on busy roads or tiny unusable lots.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He’s a machine. Very nice and easy to work with. If you build on your own lot, I think it’s worth it. It’s probably costing him about $600k to build a house I would not buy one for $2.1-$2.2.

OP here. We got a few quotes from the builders above. They all seemed to be around 900k+ to build on our lot. That did include OH and management fee. They are also going to charge for their carrying costs. It seems like all the new properties by good builders are going for over 2M.

I have been shocked that tear downs are going for over 900k for good lots. It seems the only ones below are for properties on busy roads or tiny unusable lots.

If you own the land already, what carrying costs do the builders have?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He’s a machine. Very nice and easy to work with. If you build on your own lot, I think it’s worth it. It’s probably costing him about $600k to build a house I would not buy one for $2.1-$2.2.

OP here. We got a few quotes from the builders above. They all seemed to be around 900k+ to build on our lot. That did include OH and management fee. They are also going to charge for their carrying costs. It seems like all the new properties by good builders are going for over 2M.

I have been shocked that tear downs are going for over 900k for good lots. It seems the only ones below are for properties on busy roads or tiny unusable lots.

I got a quote for them and it was $850 if we take on the carrying costs. He’s still making a lot of money on that deal. Don’t kid yourself.

[Anonymous]

Agree - we looked into building and all of the above basically told us $1M for the standard 3 level, 4-5bdrm, 5 bath house w attached garage. I do prefer their model to NV or Stanley Martin, where the base price is super cheap but to get a decent house you have to upgrade everything. I think with MR and the like, you get a nicely finished home with appliances/finishes standard for the price level. I preferred them to classic cottages, etc. We also looked at a resale house that MR had built maybe 8-10 years earlier (?) and I thought it was nicely done. We didn’t like the lot or location, but otherwise would have purchased, which seemed like a good sign

[Anonymous]

We built with MR and moved in this year. It was a great experience and we are very happy. We had no trouble customizing in the design phase, although we definitely tweaked an existing plan. Matt and his team were great to work with and they finished on time. I’d highly recommend them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We built with MR and moved in this year. It was a great experience and we are very happy. We had no trouble customizing in the design phase, although we definitely tweaked an existing plan. Matt and his team were great to work with and they finished on time. I’d highly recommend them.

This mirrors our experience with MR as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We looked at building and I would say MR, Cherry Hill and Spring Street are all comparable and good quality. With MR I think you have limited customization options - as they get bigger they prefer you choose standard options and if you are buying a house that already has plans developed, it’s difficult to change anything structural.

We are building with them now (delivery in summer '21) and definitely changed the design they had in mind for the lot (detached vs. attached garage, added a screened in porch, etc.) . As long as they haven't submitted the permits to build they're pretty open to customizing. I've found working with them to be pretty great. They're responsive but not pushy and really on top of things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We looked at building and I would say MR, Cherry Hill and Spring Street are all comparable and good quality. With MR I think you have limited customization options - as they get bigger they prefer you choose standard options and if you are buying a house that already has plans developed, it’s difficult to change anything structural.

We are building with them now (delivery in summer '21) and definitely changed the design they had in mind for the lot (detached vs. attached garage, added a screened in porch, etc.) . As long as they haven't submitted the permits to build they're pretty open to customizing. I've found working with them to be pretty great. They're responsive but not pushy and really on top of things.

We did a gut renovation with them a few years ago and were (and still are) very happy. This was before he got quite a bit bigger, but he was just a pleasure to work with. Totally professional, all work was done exactly on deadline, and the quality was great. Our house is holding up well four years on. We worked with an architect he recommended and that was great as well - both he and the architect are VERY familiar with Arlington county building regs and helped us get through the permit process. That was a godsend.

[Anonymous]

Any recent experiences building with MR?

[Anonymous]

I met with him once and exchanged emails several times over the course of a few months while we looked for a new build/lot. He was responsive by email (seems to respond to all emails early each AM) and was nice enough in person. I was generally impressed with M-R but the price point was high and the houses were much bigger than we wanted. If the perfect lot in our desired area came up with him, I think we would have gone for it. But it didn’t, so it was a moot point.

We ended up building with another, lower level builder. The price is much cheaper, but you get what you pay for and the owner is just generally not a nice or professional person. It has been difficult with this builder, and they really cut corners in the quality of products they put in and in the amount of design and thought they put into the house.

Anyhow, from my limited experience I would recommend them if you can swallow the price tag. Check sales data to see if his houses have been selling for substantially less than asking, that should be the case in the past 6 months.

For what it’s worth, I also generally liked C-E Rivers. He mostly builds off existing houses leaving one wall up or something like that to take advantage of old zoning, rather than completely new builds. But he seemed like a good guy and seemed to do good work.