Buffum Homes breaks the mold in parade of homes showcase
Backed by over 35 years of experience and award-winning craftsmanship, Buffum Homes (Buffum) builds properties tailored to each client’s lifestyle, emphasizing value and true personalization. As a leading custom home builder in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the company excels at crafting high-quality, fully custom homes that prioritize the customer’s best interests by keeping expenses low and delivering exceptional value. Every inch of Buffum’s homes is thoughtfully designed to complement clients’ daily lives, featuring fully customizable floor plans and tailored design services.
“My father established Buffum Homes about 25 years ago,” begins Josh Buffum, Vice President and Partner. “He had been in the construction business most of his life, starting out as a window salesman before evolving into roofing work. Eventually, he took a leap of faith and decided to go out on his own to create a new home construction business. I’ve been actively involved in the business myself for over a decade now, and it’s been incredibly rewarding to help shape the next chapter of what he started. Today, Buffum serves as a single-family residential home builder constructing around 30 homes annually, depending on the year.”
After two decades of sustained progress, Buffum now undertakes diverse types of projects, catering to a wider range of clients. “When it comes to custom homes, we are highly flexible. We can design a home from the ground up, creating a floor plan from scratch rather than recycling pre-designed floor plans. This involves a lot of work on the front end, but it is also very enjoyable. A significant portion of clients who come to us to build their home are looking for semi-custom options. While we do not try to funnel people into our floor plans, they often select plans from our inventory, which we then customize further to better suit their lifestyles. Others bring in plans they’ve found online, sketched themselves, or developed with their own architect.
“Custom or semi-custom homes make up 50 percent of our business, with the remaining 50 percent being spec homes. In this case, we complete a home and market it to attract potential buyers. We have found great success with spec homes, which has allowed us to grow quicker than we otherwise could have,” says Josh.
The personal touch
Other than its flexibility, Buffum distinguishes itself in the home building sector through its emphasis on value and a personalized service.
“We offer incredible value for every dollar spent. While prices may vary among builders, our clients choose us because they prioritize lasting value over short-term savings. As a vertically integrated residential builder and developer, we manage land acquisition, development, and home design all in-house. This eliminates the need for clients to coordinate with separate architects, realtors, or lenders. We also offer our own construction financing, making the process easier and reducing the stress of working with banks.
“Many builders providing similar services tend to be larger, with more capital and a higher annual output. However, I believe that this often results in customers losing some of that personal touch, which is another of our key strengths. By building around 30 homes a year, we stay competitive on pricing with our vendors and trades while ensuring each client feels known and supported. Clients can call us for anything, whether it is a warranty claim or a question about how something works in their home. They know exactly who to contact, creating an environment that feels inviting rather than cold and corporate,” Josh elaborates.
Lasting relationships 
Two of Buffum’s homes will be showcased at this year’s Parade of Homes in Michigan, an event that Josh is particularly looking forward to. “At Buffum, we love the Parade of Homes, as it is the one time of year when we can really put our work in front of the public. While posting ads on social media and having past clients leave Google reviews can help us reach more people, nothing compares to having the public physically walk through our finished homes. In general, the Parade of Homes is an excellent opportunity for people to see showcase homes from local builders. We’ve leaned into that and made it one of our most effective marketing strategies. Instead of investing significant amounts on traditional advertising, we rely heavily on word of mouth and the exposure we get from the homes we showcase at the Parade of Homes. This year, we will showcase two homes at the Parade of Homes, with approximately 2000 visitors expected to walk through each home, depending on the year.
“Our first home is in our Granville development, which features 25 lots, and the second is in our Byron Center development, Planter’s Ridge, where we plan to build 150 Buffum homes. It is exciting not only to showcase our homes but also to have them within our developments as it makes it easier to then sell vacant land to people who appreciate our designs and the well-planned communities we’ve created. We genuinely enjoy connecting with visitors during the Parade of Homes. Those conversations often lead to lasting relationships and new opportunities,” Josh concludes.
As Buffum showcases two of its meticulously crafted homes at the Parade of Homes, the company solidifies its reputation as Grand Rapids’ go-to partner for creating truly bespoke living spaces that surpass every expectation.