Meet the Ellis County Custom Home Builder With a Higher Calling

The custom home industry is becoming more competitive, costly, and complex every day. In the last several years, a myriad of factors have made it especially tough to turn a profit. With increases in lumber prices, labor scarcities, and market fluctuations, this business requires more resilience than ever.

In an industry as challenging as this one, it isn’t uncommon to see builders looking to reduce costs and even cut corners. However, when a developer is able to deliver solid construction while sticking to its values, you wonder if some kind of cosmic karma is at play.

Meet Augusta Custom Homes

Augusta Custom Homes came on the scene in 2015. With a mission of serving the Lord, serving their clients, and serving their community, Augusta approaches development a bit differently. An unlikely player in the real estate world, the business was started by civil engineer, Chase Bentley, and his wife, Ashley Bentley, a speech pathologist.

Chase Bentley’s story is anything but ordinary. A child of the foster care system, he understands the instability, uncertainties, and challenges facing the less fortunate.

“I was put in foster care as a child,” said Bentley. “I was adopted by a couple. Then, they divorced a few years later. Then, there was another divorce. Eventually, I ended up in a trailer park. That’s where I spent my childhood until graduating high school.

“Thankfully, I went on to engineering school, and with that education, doors started opening up,” Bentley said.

Though he would still suffer setbacks, namely the passing of his adoptive mother in September 2014, Bentley was determined to succeed. At the time, he was working for a larger company but decided it was time to take a risk.

“I was talking to my wife and had this idea to start developing homes,” said Chase. “Things were going well in our lives financially, so I said to her. ‘Let’s start doing two homes per year. We’ll silo each project. We’ll account for the top line revenue and expenditures for each, but whatever shakes out at the end, we’ll take a cut of that profitability and give back to the buyers to put towards a charity of their choice.’”

Local Builder. Lasting Impacts.

Cut to nearly ten years and over 150 projects later and this custom home builder has raised thousands of dollars for charities across the globe. In the process, Augusta Custom Homes has elevated Ellis County with a diverse inventory of architecture. Creating everything from modern Mediterraneans to contemporary Tudors, the Bentleys and Augusta Custom Homes have seen incredible success.

“When someone decides to develop homes for a living,” said Bentley, “what might that tell you? Maybe they didn’t really have a home growing up. That was me. I lived most of my life in a trailer. I felt very fortunate to have been able to move up and into a home with bricks and no wheels on the side of it. Since I was so fortunate, I want to pay it forward, and this is why we’re so dedicated to giving back.”

As for the future, Bentley isn’t setting any expectations, perimeters, or limits.

“As far as the future is concerned,” said Bentley. “I think it would be frivolous to try to predict it. I just want to be a good person and instill that in my kids. It’s what I say all the time — just be a good person and great things will come. Be gracious. I don’t know what the future holds, but I know it will involve helping people, taking care of people, and being the best people we can be.”