3rd Street Custom Homes prides itself on including innovative details that make its homes more livable for every inhabitant.

By Tim O’Connor

When designing a new home, Jeff Stegich, the owner of 3rd Street Custom Homes, likes to include small touches that few other builders would ever think of including. Stegich believes that simple elements such as a dedicated circuit for connected nightlights can make a huge quality-of-life difference to the people living inside.

“What I do in my homes has struck a chord with the general public,” Stegich says. “I took my and my wife’s experiences raising children and put that into the homes.” The nightlight circuit, for example, allows children to have a lit path at night run by an automatic timer. It improves safety and is less disruptive to mom and dad’s precious sleep.

More important than the convenience, those kinds of details show the level of thought Stegich puts into how every family will use a home. “I do several things that are very unique to my builds because having raised a family in an older home, you realize they weren’t thinking very far ahead in the ‘50s and ‘60s,” Stegich says.

“Families are building homes they can stay in for years,” he adds. “They’re not going to grow out of these homes.”

Custom Focus

3rd Street started in the early 1990s as a family venture. With the help of his wife and three children, Stegich was buying, remodeling and flipping homes back before the term was widespread. Over time, 3rd Street expanded into major guts and remodels and began hiring subcontractors to help with the work. The company continued to operate as an under-the-radar family business until the early 2000s when lenders began requiring remodelers to obtain a formal business license from the state of Texas.

By 2006, the company was doing complete teardowns and ground-up construction in the Dallas suburbs. “I started the company building spec [homes] to gain exposure,” Stegich says. “It was just me; I had no reputation so I had to build specs to put the name out there.” The plan worked and the 3rd Street name is now known in the market for building quality homes.

Now, customers come directly to Stegich. “In the last five years or so, we’ve gotten away from spec builds,” he continues. “Now, we’re mainly build-to-suit.”

3rd Street’s first homes were located in Richardson, Texas, an affluent suburb north of Dallas. The company has since done work in Dallas proper and has several projects in Grapevine, a northwest suburb. Projects range in price from $200,000 for a remodel up to $1.4 million for new construction in Dallas, where land prices are more expensive. The cost of a high-end, quality home can be scary, but there are a few ways 3rd Street can make it easier to absorb the cost by utilizing Stegich’s other business. Stegich also runs a real estate company, The Stegich Group, with his youngest son, Ethan, that can help clients list and sell their current homes as they work with 3rd Street to build their next home.

In a typical year, 3rd Street completes between three and five homes. That’s the ideal workload for Stegich because 3rd Street is a one-man operation that relies on subcontractors. Any more homes and Stegich would risk stretching himself thin.

Providing that level of service is important to Stegich because it allows him to be hands-on with his clients throughout the life of the project, and to maintain that connection long after the house is handed over. Past clients often grant Stegich permission to take new customers through their completed homes to help them formulate ideas for their own projects. From there, Stegich works with the client or their designer to develop the layout, look and materials for the home.

“I do a lot of hand holding,” he says. “I’m different than any other builder.” Beyond the design, Stegich accompanies clients to tile stores and furniture shops to help them determine the look of their home. Once construction begins, he’s on-site every day to oversee progress and ensure the work meets his quality standards. “I walk through the house, I see things I want to improve on and I just keep putting my eyes on it every day,” Stegich explains.

Quality issues are rare because most subcontractors have worked with 3rd Street for at least five years and have a full understanding of the company’s standards. The design and details of a home may change, but the work is consistent. Every home is polyfoam insulated and features new foundations. The wood framing itself is designed by an engineer to ensure maximum structural integrity. “The result of that is people are paying more for their homes but they’re getting a lot more,” Stegich says. 

That quality and consistency is why 3rd Street receives so many strong referrals. In some cases, the company ends up working with several generations of the same family. Soon after Stegich purchased a home on Fall Creek Drive in Richardson with the intention to remodel it into a spec home, he received a call from the next-door neighbor saying her daughter was interested in the home. Stegich ended up working with the neighbor’s son to design the house and the daughter moved in shortly after it was finished. “It was really a family affair,” Stegich says.

Smart Building

It’s not enough for new homes today to offer open spaces and nice finishes. Clients in every market are pushing for smarter homes that incorporate technology and reduce energy expenditures.

To meet that demand, 3rd Street uses third-party energy companies to conduct inspections and assess the home’s energy efficiency. Those firms also work with Stegich to help him stay ahead of changing energy codes. As a result, 3rd Street is one of the most energy-efficient builders in the region. The average cooling bill on a 4,000-square-foot home is under $200 a month, even in August when temperatures reach above 105F.

Efficiency is also important on the technology side. 3rd Street designs its homes and builds the infrastructure necessary for smart home features. However, it leaves the actual installation up to homeowner. “What I practice on every house is prepping the home as a smart home,” Stegich notes.

Even though the homes feature modern designs and technology, they’re . As someone who often lives in the same community where he builds, Stegich understands the importance of satisfying not only the client, but their neighbors. “I believe I’m held to a higher standard because I live in the neighborhood,” he says. “We’re building homes that a lot of people will drive by and not realize they are new homes because they fit the neighborhood.”