The land developers who convert raw land into buildable residential lots have almost all gone bankrupt in the aftermath of the bursting of the housing bubble, but buyers now stand to benefit greatly from the pristine lots their efforts left behind.  This is the best time in history for buyers to not only get a great deal on developed lots in Milton, Alpharetta, and Atlanta, GA but also to capture the profits that the developers would have otherwise captured upon sale of the lots.  Many of the lots are now bank owned properties.

In Milton, GA specifically (also known as Crabapple), Artisan Custom Estates has access to 766 developed lots for our clients to choose from.  The lots range from 0.5 acres – 4+ acres and are listed for sale for as little as $60,000 – and could surely be had for less than that.  Clients contemplating custom home projects can get a significant head start on the already attractive value proposition of a new home by starting with a historic steal of amazingly good lots in Milton, Alpharetta, and well into Atlanta. 

Contact Artisan Custom Estates (404.630.1229) today to discuss available lot inventories and the relative values of over 20 different subdivisions in Milton alone.  Subdivisions include Lave Haven at Crabapple, Blue Valley, Vickery Crest, Milton Place, Bentwater Estates, Five Oaks Farm, Kingsley Estates, The Hampshires, The Hayfield, Echelon, The Oaks at Crabapple, among others.

Weeks 12 and 13 – Permitting

The septic permit with Cherokee County, GA and the construction permit have been submitted.  The permitting process is apparently an uncertain timeline and we really have just been waiting for the last several weeks.

Cherokee County Georgia has been very good to work with overall.  They have good systems and the staff are really professionals.  It makes us look forward to living in a new Cherokee County home.

Artisan Custom Estates has handled all of the submittal and direct advocacy for the Cherokee County permit process.

About Artisan Custom Estates

Artisan Custom Estates is a custom home builder in Alpharetta, Milton, and Crabapple, GA.  The North Atlanta metro area is one of the most beautiful places in America and is a great place to build a new home.  Artisan Custom Estates works directly with clients to design and build new homes in this idyllic community of great schools, open spaces, and easy living.

** Artisan Custom Estates requested that one of our custom home clients document their experiences in a journal to provide a roadmap of the process for future clients to better understand what to expect from the experience.  That project is now complete and their family is now enjoying the home that they designed and constructed with Artisan Custom Estates.  We will now begin publishing the clients’ journal as a blog with some omissions to protect their privacy.  We hope you find these blog entries informative.  Please contact Artisan Custom Estates (info@artisancustomestates.com) if you would like more detail on any particular portion of the journal or the custom home process in general. **

 Week 1 – A New Opportunity

Hello!  Our names are Bill and Louise and we are residents of Atlanta.  We have spent the last several months looking for our ideal home in the North Atlanta suburbs.  Specifically, we scoured Alpharetta and Milton looking for “the one”.  As a result of our diligence, we identified a particularly ideal swath of northwest Fulton County known as Crabapple.  Ours is a common story in that we both grew up in rural settings but our professional lives led us to the city after college.  Now that we have small children, we want them to be able to enjoy a childhood in the wide-open spaces and clean air of north Georgia rather than the congestion and traffic of the metro area.

After looking at a multitude of existing homes (both new specs and resales) in our target area of Milton / Alpharetta, we assembled a great many ideas as to the attributes that we would like (and not like) in our ideal luxury home.  However, we never felt compelled to buy anything that we toured.  There was always something substantive that we would have added or changed about the home, or the home was great but the property was lacking. 

We recently took an inventory of what we had learned after a couple of months.  First, we had firmly decided on a custom home in Alpharetta / Milton area and Crabapple specifically.  Second, we knew what we were looking for in a lot: good size for a yard (1+ acre), privacy, and the ability to add a pool as the kids get older.  Finally, we knew generally what we were looking for in a custom floor plan (openness, long sight lines) as well as the style of the elevation.  It was at this point that we decided to explore the option of building a custom home in Alpharetta into which we could incorporate all of our accumulated ideas.

We then set out to identify the right Alpharetta custom home builder to transform our loosely defined vision into a reality.  A few potential luxury home builders came immediately to mind based on the homes we had already seen.  A few weeks ago, we selected Artisan Custom Estates as our builder.  We fell in love with their style, had great chemistry with the Artisan Custom Estates team, and felt good that they would be the right business partners in what will be a very significant investment.

Artisan Custom Estates has asked that we document a journal of our experience as a roadmap for other folks who are interested in building a custom home that is uniquely theirs.  Artisan estimates that the entire process including land selection, custom architecture development, and the actual construction process will take approximately one year.  So, we will call our journal “52 Weeks of Building a Custom Home in Alpharetta”. 

We are so excited to be getting started! – Bill