Reliable Custom Home Builders | Newman Homes
Choosing a custom home builder comes down to one question that nobody wants to ask directly: will the number hold?
- 25+ years in construction, building as Newman Homes since 2017
- Over 200 projects completed in Central Maine
- Affordable work, two-year written warranty
What it costs to have Newman Homes build a house in Central Maine on your own lot, and how the price is held once it is set.
Turnkey rates run $270 to $300 a square foot for a straightforward build, $300 to $350 for most, and $350 to $400 where the finishes or the site get demanding. Southern and coastal Maine run about 25% above that. On a 2,000 square foot house those bands are the difference between roughly $540,000 and $800,000, so which band you are in is the first thing to establish.
Brandon spent 25 years building luxury custom homes in Florida and Massachusetts before doing it here. The reason customers keep mentioning the fixed-price contract in their reviews is that change orders are where most builds quietly get expensive, and this is a shop that writes the number down and then holds it.
What a Custom Home Builder Should Show You
Maine has no state licensing standard for builders. There is no exam, no board, and no credential the state issues to anybody framing a house.
That is worth knowing before you interview anyone, including us. Here is what to ask for instead:
- A completion rate, with the date it was last measured. Almost nobody in this market will give you one.
- An itemized cost breakdown before contract, not a lump sum with a finish allowance buried in it.
- A fixed price written under Maine's home construction contract law, which caps the first payment at one third.
- The schedule in writing, with the milestones you care about named.
- A workmanship warranty on paper. Ours is 2 years, backed by an A+ BBB profile.
- Licensed electricians and licensed plumbers, named, with credentials you can verify. Those two trades carry a real state credential in Maine even though builders do not.
What homeowners say
Read more reviews- ★★★★★
Brandon was always very fair with any adjustments to our fixed price contract, and we were quite happy with the outcome.
David K. - ★★★★★
We contracted with Newman Homes to build our retirement home. Our schedule required that we needed to move in by a certain date so the planning and execution needed to be precise. All of the work, from excavation to final flooring and painting, was completed to our satisfaction by our move-in date.
William K. - ★★★★★
We needed to build a house for our son near Brunswick Maine. After finding the lot we turned to Brandon and Newman Homes to build the house. We gave him a house plan that worked for us and he returned after a few days with buildable plans.
Ann P. - ★★★★★
It has been near 5 years since moving into this Newman built home. And, I still absolutely love it. The construction took place during a difficult time in my life, and Brandon was always available to guide me.
David D.
What It Costs to Build
New construction on your lot, turnkey, per square foot of finished living space.
| Band | Per square foot |
|---|---|
| Entry | around $270 |
| Average | $300 to $350 |
| Higher-end | $350 to $400 |
Read those as qualifying ranges. Each averages hundreds of estimates, and a real house lands to one side depending on the lot and the finish schedule. A 1,800 square foot house at the average band is a useful anchor for a conversation, and it is not a quote. What decides where inside the range you land is mostly the site, not the cabinets. The five Maine site drivers, in the order they surprise people: ledge, frost depth, road access in mud season, well and septic versus a sewer stub, and the distance to a power drop. Ledge is the single biggest budget surprise in Kennebec County. It is also the one you can find out about before you buy the lot, which is why we would rather walk a property with you before you own it than after. Our full cost guide to building a house in Maine works all of it through in detail, and it is the right place to start if you are more than six months out.
Related Services
What It Is Like to Build With Us
Three separate customers describing a schedule that held, a plan that got solved, and a house that is still right five years in.
How a Build Runs
We walk your lot.
Before design, before price. Ledge, drainage, access, orientation, and where the well and the septic can go.
Design.
Bring your own plans or work through our design partner. Either way the plan gets priced before it gets built.
The itemized contract.
Every allowance named with a number, every trade on its own line, one fixed price at the bottom.
Permits and site work.
We file, the town's code officer decides, and site work starts when the ground allows rather than when the calendar says.
Build.
Progress photos twice a week, calls returned the same day, defined jobs for each of us so nothing stops because one person got sick.
Walkthrough, punch list, warranty.
A written list worked to zero, then 2 years of workmanship coverage.
Residential construction best practice, including contract structure, is published by the national association of home builders.
The Fixed-Price Contract
Every Newman Homes build runs on a fixed price with an itemized cost breakdown produced before anything starts.
Change orders happen on custom work, because homeowners change their minds and that is normal. What matters is how they are handled, and the best evidence of that is not our word.
That is a real customer volunteering, unprompted, that the adjustments to his contract were handled fairly. It is the single most useful sentence in our review corpus, because the fear on a new build is always the number moving.
Ours does 94% of the time, counted monthly, on 200+ projects since 2017. That is the whole positioning of this company and it is a figure rather than a promise.
Brandon Roberge built high-end custom homes in Florida and Massachusetts for 25+ years before starting Newman Homes here in 2017. Three building codes, three climates, three sets of expectations.
He answers his own phone. His son Elijah estimates the work and runs the sites.
Common Questions
No. Bring them if you have them, and if you do not, our design partner draws them. Note that Maine protects the title architect, and our design partner is a draftsman rather than one.
Site conditions and permit review drive it more than square footage does. We give you a written schedule with milestones before you sign, and we track against it.
That is the best time to call. Ledge, drainage, and access are cheaper to find out about before the closing than after.
Site work that a specific lot demands: ledge removal, long driveways, a deep well, a difficult septic design, or a distant power drop. Those get priced from your property.
Let's Walk Your Lot
Call (207) 480-7700. Answered around the clock, most often by Brandon.
You can also write info@newmanhomesme.com, or request a free estimate.