August 20, 2026
Walk into the sales office at Broadmoor at Marvin and the sign says $1,875,000. That's the number in the builder's marketing, the number a buyer repeats to their spouse on the drive home, the number that anchors every mental budget from that point forward. Then comes the design center appointment, and the number moves. By the time cabinetry, flooring upgrades, and lot selection are finalized, that same buyer is often signing a contract closer to $2.2 million or $2.3 million than the figure on the sign.
This isn't a Marvin-specific scam or a builder trick. It's how new construction pricing works everywhere, and it's especially worth understanding here because Marvin's new-build market is small, active right now, and priced at a tier where the gap between base price and real price can run into six figures. If you're comparing communities off a builder website, the base price is the least useful number on the page.
As of mid-2026, there are four active or coming-soon new construction communities carrying a Marvin address, and total inventory across them typically sits at 15 to 25 homes in various stages of build at any given time. That's a small enough pool that knowing each community by name matters more than it would in a larger market.
| Community | Builder | Base Price | Build Type | Typical Timeline |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heritage at Marvin | Jones Homes USA | From $1.2M | Semi-custom | 12–18 months |
| Broadmoor at Marvin | Beechwood Carolinas | $1.875M–$1.89M | Semi-custom / build-to-suit | 12–18 months |
| Sage at Marvin | Peters Custom Homes | From $2M+ | Fully custom | 18–24 months |
| Marvin Commons | Jones Homes USA | Coming soon | To be announced | To be announced |
Heritage at Marvin sits at the accessible end of this range, and buyers who go through the full design center often land in the $1.5 million to $1.7 million range once selections are finalized. Sage at Marvin is the benchmark for buyers who want a fully custom home and are prepared for the longest build cycle in the corridor. Broadmoor, sitting at the corner of Waxhaw-Marvin Road and Stacy Howie Road, is the community most buyers are actively touring right now. It's a 62-home plan built by Beechwood Carolinas across three signature plans, the Poplar, the Magnolia, and the River Birch, and ownership there includes a social membership at Firethorne Country Club next door, the private club with golf, tennis, and dining that anchors much of the surrounding area's social life.
Here's where the math actually happens. At the $1.875 million to $2 million price point, design center selections can add $300,000 to $500,000 on top of the base price. That's not a worst-case outlier. It's the typical spread once a buyer walks through flooring, cabinetry, appliance packages, and structural changes.
Broadmoor is a useful case study because Beechwood Carolinas builds with a slightly more design-forward baseline than a typical production builder. Ten-foot ceilings, full-overlay cabinetry, and hardwood throughout the main level come standard rather than as line-item upgrades. That changes the shape of the design center conversation. A buyer isn't paying to add those features. They're paying to go beyond them, which means the overage tends to concentrate in finishes, structural add-ons, and outdoor living rather than in bringing the base house up to a baseline other builders charge extra for.
The practical takeaway: ask for a design center allowance figure before you're sitting at the selections desk. A builder who can tell you the average overage on their last ten closings is giving you a real number to plan around. A builder who can't, or won't, is asking you to find out at the worst possible moment, after you've already signed.
Lot placement carries its own price tag, separate from the design center. A homesite backing to a tree buffer or a pond can carry a $50,000 to $200,000 premium over a standard interior lot, and unlike design center selections, lot premiums are sometimes negotiable, particularly late in a community's sales cycle when a builder is motivated to close out remaining inventory.
As of late July 2026, Broadmoor's builder listing showed two quick move-in homes available and four remaining estate lots. That's a specific, time-sensitive detail worth acting on rather than filing away. A community with four lots left is either about to sell out, in which case remaining premiums may hold firm, or it's approaching the point where a builder starts making moves on the harder-to-sell sites to finish the project. Either way, the negotiating position for a buyer looking at Broadmoor today is different than it was a year ago, and it will be different again in six months.
Semi-custom builds in the Marvin and Weddington corridor typically run 12 to 18 months from contract to closing. Fully custom builds, like those at Sage at Marvin, run 18 to 24 months. That range isn't just a scheduling detail. It's a financing decision. A buyer signing at Sage today should have a construction loan or bridge financing structure in place before breaking ground, not after the first draw request arrives. For a relocating executive with a firm start date, or an investor modeling a hold period, the build timeline determines whether the project pencils out at all.
Put the three numbers together and the gap between the sign and the signature becomes concrete.
Base price at Broadmoor: $1,875,000 Lot premium, mid-range estimate: $125,000 Design center selections, mid-range estimate: $400,000 Total: approximately $2,400,000
That's roughly 28 percent above the number on the sign, and it's a mid-range estimate, not a worst case. A buyer who budgets only to the base price is planning for a home that, in practice, doesn't exist at that price.
Worth folding into that budget: the Village of Marvin's combined property tax rate for fiscal year 2026-2027 is $0.4905 per $100 of assessed value, among the lower combined rates in Union County. It won't offset a six-figure design center overage, but it's a real, ongoing cost difference worth knowing before you compare a Marvin build to a similarly priced home elsewhere in the county.
Buyers cross-shopping Marvin often widen their search to the Weddington-adjacent corridor without realizing how close the options sit. Luna Estates, built by Toll Brothers, starts from $1.5 million. The Crossing at Weddington, built by Jones Homes, also starts from $1.5 million. Both carry the same base-price-versus-real-price dynamic described above. If you're weighing Heritage at Marvin against either of these, the comparison that matters isn't the number on the website. It's the design center allowance and lot premium structure at each community, which can vary meaningfully even among builders in the same price tier.
A builder's sales team will answer some of these more openly than others. An agent who works this corridor regularly can push for the answers a buyer might not know to ask for.
Is the base price on a builder's website ever the price buyers actually pay? Rarely at this tier. Base price reflects the unadorned floor plan on a standard lot. Most buyers add lot premiums, design center selections, or both.
How much should I actually budget above the base price? At the $1.875 million to $2 million tier in Marvin, plan for $300,000 to $500,000 in design center selections and $50,000 to $200,000 in lot premium, depending on the site.
Does a longer build timeline mean a better price? Not necessarily. Fully custom builds like Sage at Marvin take longer because the scope is broader, not because the underlying value is higher. The timeline should be evaluated against your financing structure and moving timeline, not treated as a proxy for quality.
If you're weighing a new construction contract in Marvin against a resale estate, or trying to model what a specific lot and design package will actually cost by closing, that's exactly the kind of pricing math Sally Awad works through with clients before a single selection is made. Request a Private Luxury Consultation to get the real number before you sit down at the design center desk.
Ten years into her real estate career, Sally remains just as committed to her clients as she did when she first earned her license. She thoroughly enjoys partnering with clients to realize their dream of homeownership, genuinely striving to have each and every client feel valued, heard, and understood throughout their home-buying journey.
