Not all luxury homebuilding companies are truly custom and even fewer will hold your hand and make the experience seamless, from first consultation meeting to the day you get your keys.
One of the reasons I love Bella Custom Homes is that their design and build process is completely custom. It is created to give homeowners a step-by-step, logical course of decisions and actions that is informative — and actually fun!
And why wouldn’t it be with the two people leading the company. Owner and president Tony Visconti has over 40 years in the industry and knows the luxury market inside and out — he understands what works and why. Vice president and lead interior designer Stacy Brotemarkle has over 20 years of experience and brings her project management and aesthetic skills to every project, leading a team to get it done on time and in budget. Together, they create the Bella Custom Homes experience.
“What we offer is unlike any other builder in North Texas,” said Visconti.
Let’s talk first about one of the biggest things that sets Bella Custom Homes apart: they are a fixed-price builder, as opposed to a “cost plus” builder.
“Fixed price is a far better situation for the homeowner because it locks the builder into a total cost to build and the liability becomes on the builder’s side,” said Visconti. “Cost plus works on price assumptions and not fixed numbers, so a lot of people find themselves spending more than they intended to because those assumptions could be inaccurate.”
That’s a big deal. So how can they do it? By rigorously following self-set guidelines.
“After a first consultation meetings, we go through exactly how we design and the precise scope of work,” said Brotemarkle. “We come to understand exactly what they’re looking for, what style they like, how many square feet they want, and more.”
Tony is at every meeting with the clients and the architect, so clients are never alone.
“We’re helping them design their floorplan, to lay out the house in the most efficient way possible that fits their lifestyle,” Brotemarkle said. “We’re also keeping them informed if they’re going out of their budget, so there are no surprises.”
Proportion and function are major considerations during the design-build process, too.
“Someone might want five balconies, but in Texas, you just won’t use them much and they add a lot to a budget,” Visconti said. “We’re there to guide and calibrate them through the whole process.”
Another thing that sets Bella Custom Homes apart is their extreme attention to detail during the planning phases.
“When we do specifications, or specs as we call them, they are 60-plus pages of what’s going in the home, from the floors in each room, to walls, ceilings, appliances, lighting…it’s a blueprint for every detail,” said Brotemarkle. “If homeowners have a hard time with the 2D plans, we also offer three-dimensional room renderings to help.”
Once the specs are complete and construction starts, things get even more exciting as a licensed interior designer takes the homeowners around to different showrooms and they start selecting things like tile, lighting, plumbing, countertops, hardware, all the decorative elements that really personalize their new spaces.”
“We also work with the landscaping architect to design hardscaping and landscaping, which is all included,” said Visconti. “One of our specialties is topography and lots with steep embankments — no job is too difficult for us.”
Tony and Stacy are there throughout the whole design-build process, to guide and calibrate the homeowner’s wants and wishes. Having that support makes the process more enjoyable and less stressful.
Finally, I want to make an important note: Bella Custom Home has absolutely no affiliation to Bella Vita Homes. Bella Custom Homes has been in business for 26 years. Bella Vita came into town in 2011 and they filed for bankruptcy in 2017. So no worries there!
