If you are searching for a custom home builder in Farmington Hills, MI, you are probably weighing a bigger question first: build new, buy an existing home, or renovate the one you have. Evergreen Homes helps families think it through, then builds award-winning new homes nearby at The Reserve at Crystal Lake - backed by 25 years' experience building across Southeast Michigan.
Some Farmington Hills homeowners who reach out to us are not sure they want to build yet. They are stuck between three paths, and each one looks reasonable on a good day. Rather than sell you on one answer, it helps to lay the choices side by side and see how they actually compare on the things that matter.
| What Matters | Build New | Buy Existing | Renovate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost approach | A published starting price with luxury finishes already included, then options quoted individually. | Market price set by the seller, plus the cost of any updates the home still needs after you move in. | Hard to pin down early; hidden conditions behind walls can change the number once work begins. |
| Timeline | Planned schedule of about 10 to 12 months, or sooner with a quick move-in home. | Fastest path in; you can close and move once financing and inspection clear. | Weeks to many months of living through the work, often longer than first estimated. |
| Personalization | You shape a proven plan with structural options and finish selections that fit your household. | You inherit someone else's layout and taste, then adjust within what the house already allows. | Real change is possible but limited by the existing structure, footprint, and budget. |
| Financing | Construction loan guidance and preferred lender relationships built for new builds. | A standard mortgage most buyers already understand. | Home equity, a renovation loan, or cash, depending on scope. |
There is no wrong answer here. Buying existing is the quickest way in, and a light renovation can be the right call when the bones of a home are strong. Building new tends to win when the changes you want are structural, or when you would rather start with a plan built around how your family lives today.
Renovation makes sense until it does not. A good remodeler can refresh a kitchen or open a wall, but some problems are baked into the house itself. If several of these describe your situation, building new is usually the more honest fix:
When two or three of these stack up, the renovation math often quietly passes the cost of a new, better-fitting home. That is usually the moment building starts to make sense.
It is worth being clear about the word before you go further. Evergreen Homes is a semi-custom builder, not a blank architectural sheet. You are not designing a home from nothing on graph paper, and for most families that is a relief, not a limitation.
Instead, you start with one of our proven, award-winning plans and make it yours through structural options and finish selections. Because we build these plans repeatedly, we know them cold, so quality stays consistent, and pricing stays predictable. If you want to see how far the personalization options reach, they cover layout adjustments, room additions like lofts and in-law suites, expanded kitchens, and a full menu of interior choices. What you avoid is the open-ended cost creep and long design timeline of a fully bespoke project.
Here is the honest part. Evergreen Homes does not currently build within Farmington Hills city limits. Our new homes for Farmington Hills buyers are built at The Reserve at Crystal Lake, a community in Commerce Township about 20 minutes northwest. Buyers who choose to build with us are relocating a short drive to join the community, trading an in-town lot for a private lakefront setting.
For most families, that is a roughly 20-minute drive up toward Commerce, an easy trip most already make on weekends. The homes here fall within Huron Valley Schools, served by Country Oaks Elementary, Oak Valley Middle, and Lakeland High, which is worth comparing against your current Farmington Hills district as you weigh the move.
What makes the drive worth it is what surrounds the home. The Reserve at Crystal Lake is built around a private 40-acre lake, with a private beach house and 203 home sites, and it was named 2025 Development of the Year by the Home Builders Association of Southeastern Michigan. It is the kind of setting an existing Farmington Hills lot simply cannot recreate.
The lake is made for quiet water. A boat dock welcomes electric boats, kayaks, canoes, and paddle boards, so evenings are for the view rather than engine noise. The Reserve sits just beyond the community line from Proud Lake Recreation Area, roughly 3,000 acres on the Huron River with an extensive trail system for hiking, paddling, and time outdoors close to home. You can also read what our buyers say in homeowner testimonials.
The Reserve offers four distinct plans in Craftsman, Farmhouse, and New England Seaboard architectural styles, ranging from 2,570 to 3,250+ square feet. They are not four versions of the same house; each is unique and appealing in its own way.
| Floor Plan | Who it fits | What sets it apart |
|---|---|---|
| Avalon | Empty nesters or buyers who want to stay put for years. | Winner of the 2025 Blue Ribbon Award, with a first-floor owner's suite and a standard 2.5-car garage. |
| Madison | Growing families who want defined zones for gathering and quiet. | Winner of the 2024 Blue Ribbon Award, a well-balanced two-story plan with generous shared space. |
| Newport | Multi-generational households or families who need room to flex. | Offers the flexibility to add a third full bathroom upstairs, creating an en suite bedroom, an optional first-floor in-law's suite, or a spacious second-floor loft. |
| Chelsea | Buyers who want to shape bedroom count and living space to their household. | A flexible layout with room to tailor how the plan lives from the start. |
A fair question when you see "from $609,900" is simple: what am I actually getting for that number? Plenty of builders quote a low figure, then add on the finishes you assumed were part of the deal. We do the opposite. The standard features below are part of the base price rather than upgrades:
Because these come standard, the starting price reflects a genuinely finished home, not a stripped shell. The structural options and finish selections you add to personalize your plan are quoted individually, so your final number reflects the choices you actually make with no surprises.
There is no pressure to decide anything on your first visit. The early steps are about seeing the homes, meeting the people, and getting real answers so you can weigh building against buying or renovating with clear eyes:
From signing, most homes take about 10 to 12 months to build. If your timeline is tighter, our quick move-in homes are already under construction or near completion, so you can move sooner without designing from scratch. You can also meet the builder before you commit to anything.
