How a Custom Home Gets Built in the Hill Country: Fixed Price vs. Cost Plus with Steven Butcher

The first episode of Texas Hill Country Insider turns the microphone on one of its hosts. Realtor Ryan Rendon interviews Steven Butcher, co-owner of Butcher Behrens Signature Homes, about how he went from a small Texas town to building custom homes in Fredericksburg, Kerrville and Boot Ranch, and what clients should expect when they build with him.

From sprinkler fitter to superintendent

Steven was raised in Riesel, Texas, a farm town where he graduated with 33 kids. He knew college wasn’t for him and spent years changing jobs, which he now thinks is fine for anyone still figuring out what they care about. He landed a good union job installing sprinkler systems around Dallas and Fort Worth. One night shift, sitting on conduit about 50 feet in the air, he watched a man in his mid to upper 50s carrying pipe and asked himself whether that was what he wanted for the rest of his life.

Not long after, his uncle called about a plumbing job near Boerne. In the end Steven took a superintendent job with a luxury builder in San Antonio instead, even though it paid less. He says he got “thrown to the wolves,” and the subcontractors are the ones who saved him.

“If you have good subs, I think they can make or break you as a superintendent.”Steven Butcher, 11:22

He and Hunter Behrens, now his business partner, wanted to be so good at the job that they would work until two in the morning and sleep at the house rather than drive home.

What a custom home builder does

Ryan asked the question most people never think to ask. Steven’s answer starts with the first meeting, usually at the client’s lot, where both sides interview each other.

“The main factor in custom home building is trust. We want to trust you as a client and we want the client to trust us as the builder.”Steven Butcher, 17:31

From there the process goes roughly like this:

• Plans and design. Some clients bring their own plans. Steven prefers to work through the design with the architect, because that’s the best chance to keep the house inside the budget, whatever the number is.
• A high and low estimate. Once there’s a set of plans, the team prices it from past jobs and sits down with the client to talk budget.
• Hard bids and contract. If the range works, they collect real bids from subcontractors and go to contract.
• Construction. A superintendent runs the job. Steven now spends about 60 percent of his time in the office and 40 percent in the field.
• Selections. Picking every finish is the part he calls “brutal,” and it’s why he recommends an interior designer (more on that below).

How communication works

Every Monday afternoon, Steven, Hunter, Randy and Bodie meet and go through every active project. The updates go into Resio, the project software they switched to from Buildertrend, and each client gets an email with what happened that week and what’s planned for the next. Steven is also on group texts with most clients. The goal is one place for the conversation about the house so nothing gets missed.

His rule for problems is to say so and fix them. “Things happen,” he says. “Let’s just fix it and move on.” He’s also not a fan of padding change orders. If a client wants ten outlets moved, Butcher Behrens just passes along what the electrician charges. When the team misses something in a budget, he’d rather absorb a $10,000 line item than damage a client’s trust.

On scheduling, his advice to his own superintendents is old-fashioned: print a calendar, lay the job out two or three months ahead, and tell subcontractors when you expect them. “Poor planning is going to be poor execution 100% of the time.”

Fixed price vs. cost plus

This is the section most future clients will want. Steven says the choice depends partly on the client, since some people simply prefer one or the other. When it’s his call:

• Up to about $1.5 million, Butcher Behrens is comfortable with a fixed price contract. They include a contingency the client knows about and can see when it gets used.
• Around $2 to $3 million and up, they usually go cost plus, because high-end clients make so many choices along the way, like whether to plaster or wallpaper whole rooms, that a fixed number doesn’t hold.

Even on cost plus jobs, they still bid out the whole project, show the client every estimate and write a spec sheet of what’s included, so the budget has something behind it. On fixed price jobs they try to stay open book too. Steven admits he’s been the builder who hid numbers in a fixed price contract to protect himself, and he doesn’t want to work that way now.

“Once you see your builder’s fee, if you think that we make all that builder’s fee, you’re crazy. Unless it’s a cost plus job.”Steven Butcher, 28:27

Choosing your clients, and your builder

Steven is candid that Butcher Behrens has taken on clients it shouldn’t have, because there was a team and subcontractors to keep busy. His gut was right every time. The fit matters on both sides, and a bad one strains the relationship even when everyone is trying. Most of their clients, he says, end up calling him just to talk about life.

Building a forever home

Steven separates investment homes from forever homes. With an investment home, they watch every number because the goal is the best return when it sells. A forever home is where you raise kids or bring grandkids for Christmas and Thanksgiving, and if the budget allows, he encourages clients to spend on the things they’ll enjoy every day: better fixtures, countertops and tile, and the pool the grandkids will swim in.

Who designs the house depends on the client. Butcher Behrens works with an architect in La Vernia who produces 3D walkthroughs, Texas Home Plans in Kerrville, and, for Boot Ranch, an architecture firm out of Louisiana whose detailed plans make the job easier to bid accurately. Steven likes sitting in on design meetings and says he’s always loved watching a drawing turn into a house.

He strongly recommends an interior designer once the contract is signed. Selections are hard decisions, couples often disagree, and a third party can settle the choices and get answers back to the builder so the job keeps moving.

What they were building in spring 2026

At the time of recording, Butcher Behrens had two homes in the Frieden subdivision in Fredericksburg (one was a spec home that sold, and another spec was underway), one at Boot Ranch, one out toward Stonewall, two more planned in Fredericksburg and two in Kerrville.