The Collier Way

What does it actually feel like to build a custom home — from the client's seat? Collier sits down with Katherine Trimble inside the finished Collier Custom Homes project she built in Terrell Hills. No sales pitch, no glossy version of events — just an honest conversation about the lot search, the tear-down, the selections process, the delays, and what it is like to finally live in a home tha...

Most people think a GE appliance is a GE appliance. It is not. In Episode 9, Collier heads to Ferguson’s original San Antonio showroom and sits down with Sarah Prazak, GE Monogram’s South Texas sales manager. Nearly 20 years with GE, all of it on the luxury end. She knows this line the way a builder knows a jobsite. What follows is one of the most useful conversations this show has had — because a...

There are things you can fix in a house. The foundation is not one of them. In this episode, Collier Bashara breaks down the step that happens before anything else on a custom home build — the geotechnical soils report — and explains exactly why it drives every foundation decision he makes. In this episode: What a soils report is and how it works. Fat clay versus lean clay explained simply. The Pl...

What does it actually look like when a great designer and a great builder work together on a Southern Living Showcase Home? In this episode of The Collier Way, Collier Bashara sits down with Mariana Loya — the designer behind the Olmos Park Southern Living Showcase Home — for one of the most genuine and entertaining conversations in the series so far. Mariana founded LED Design three years ago aft...

Most people think a decorator and a designer are the same thing. They are not — and confusing the two is one of the most expensive mistakes you can make when building a custom home. In this episode of The Collier Way, Collier Bashara breaks down exactly what a designer does, why it is different from what an architect does, and why an interior decorator — as talented as they may be — cannot replace...

What does it actually mean to build a Southern Living Showcase Home — and what does it take to deliver on that standard? In this special episode of The Collier Way, Collier Bashara sits down in Tampa, Florida with Brook and Josh of Devonshire Custom Homes — siblings who built one of the most extraordinary Southern Living Showcase Homes in the country — for an honest conversation about building lux...

In Episode 3 of The Collier Way, Collier Bashara sits down with architect Elizabeth Haynes — the architect behind the Olmos Park Southern Living Showcase Home and one of San Antonio's most respected residential architects — for an honest conversation about what great design actually requires. Elizabeth and Collier have been collaborating for years — from a complicated renovation in Oakwell Fa...

There are hundreds of thousands of licensed builders in America. Southern Living looked at all of them and has only selected 85.   This is the podcast of one of them. In the first episode of The Collier Way, Collier Bashara — Southern Living Builder of the Year and founder of Collier Custom Homes — shares the story behind the company, the philosophy that drives every project, and what it really me...

Before you talk to an architect, before you talk to a designer, before you talk to a builder — you have to find the right piece of land. And most people have no idea what they are actually looking at when they walk a lot for the first time. In Episode 2 of The Collier Way, Collier Bashara breaks down exactly what to look for before you make an offer — whether you are buying an infill lot in San An...