Adam Merrill shares homebuilding lessons learned during the pandemic

John Merrill Homes is a custom home builder that builds on land already owned by customers. The company typically builds about 10 homes a year, usually on the waterfront

Adam Merrill grew up working with houses, from doing handyman jobs for his father in property management as a teenager in Gainesville to owning his own Jacksonville-based custom home building business. 

He studied building construction at the University of Florida and worked for other home builders before launching John Merrill Homes, a company that builds on its customer’s land. At prices that range from about $800,000 to $2 million, the six-year-old business generally builds custom homes near the water, whether it’s a marsh or riverfront.

Unlike production builders that build in communities, custom home builders spend more time on each project and often work on fewer than 10 homes a year. 

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