Despite the difficult housing market, one builder is erecting a model home on a cul-de-sac in Redmond.

It’s HiLine Homes, a Northwest builder whose customers choose one of 17 different models, which the company then builds on property the customer owns.

The process is different than that used by production builders, for example, who build on land they own, typically as part of a subdivision.

With “on-your-site” builders, as they’re called, the customer prepares the site and buys the building permit, then stands back as the builder’s crews nail together a traditional, stick-built home. When the crews are finished, the customer is left to paint the house and install its appliances.

This no-frills approach to housing works well for Puyallup, Wash.-based HiLine, said Tom Layton, a home consultant who went to work for HiLine when it opened a Redmond office in May.

“Where we are positioned to prosper, it’s all our price point,” Layton said. “It’s a product just about any family can afford, and for buyers who are concerned about purchasing a home only to see it depreciate in value, they don’t have to worry with this product because they are walking in with substantial equity.”

According to Layton, on-your-site homeowners earn what he called “instant equity” when they move in due to the difference in construction costs compared with other, more traditional homes in the same neighborhood.

Despite the battered real estate market, HiLine also has opened branches this year in Salem and Burlington, Wash., and is on track to build more than 900 homes by year’s end, Layton said. It offers 17 models that range in size from 900 square feet to 2,800 square feet. Prices range from $50,000 to $123,000 and, for some models, if the garage is excluded, the price per square foot is as low as $38.

By contrast, the median sales price per square foot in Bend in June was $166, according to the Bratton Report.

Layton said on-your-site customers usually pay less than $17,000 for their development costs, which include paint, appliances and preparing their property for construction. These costs are usually rolled into the customer’s loan, Layton said.

Vancouver, Wash.-based Adair Homes, which has an office in Bend, operates in a similar fashion. It doesn’t buy land and build spec homes, and all of its houses are traditional stick-built homes.

So far this year, business is not great, but it’s not bad, either, said the company’s director of operations, Matt Wetzel.

“As anyone can expect, housing is a little more difficult than it used to be,” Wetzel said. “Fortunately, we have a business model that allows us quite a bit of flexibility, so we’ve actually, surprisingly, seen the number of people coming through our doors increase in the last eight months.”

Adair has nine different models that range in size from 1,100 square feet to 2,100 square feet and cost between $70,000 and $100,000, Wetzel said.

They cost less than traditional homes, but Adair also helps its customers get into their homes with loans that can be up to 100 percent financed by the company’s own lending arm, Wetzel said. Customers still have to have good credit, however.

“We’re not just a homebuilder; we’re more concerned with helping people build lives,” Wetzel said. “We want to help people build a financial future, and have been committed to it since day one. Many people have found this is the only way to find some additional financial security and build wealth through home ownership.”

Mike Jensen, director of communications with the Central Oregon Builders Association, was unable to say what percentage of the local homebuilding market is comprised of on-your-site builders such as HiLine and Adair, but he’s not surprised they’re doing well.

“For people that have land and all they are looking to do is get a structure on there, their approach is very attractive,” Jensen said.