Croatan Custom Homes

It’s your dream to build a home on the Outer Banks.

It’s ours to help make it happen.

No one will work harder. — Austin Kelly

About Croatan Custom Homes

My name is Austin Kelly and I grew up in New England on jobsites.
My father is an architect and engineer, just like his father before him. Building is literally in my DNA.

In high school, I worked as a manager trainee at McDonald’s at my father’s suggestion. “Management experience is critical,” he’d say. (He was right.) I put myself through the University of Connecticut by framing houses and graduated with a degree in Economics. After college, I was promoted to head residential foreman at the same construction company that hired me away from McDonalds in high school.

I’ll never forget the day it happened. I was sweeping the floor in McDonald’s when a man walked up to me and shook my hand. He said he’d noticed that I was a hard worker and offered me a summer job with his construction company. Leaving work that night, I could’ve turned right to go home or left to meet him at his jobsite. In what turned out to be a life-changing decision, I turned left.

A few years later, I moved to California, where I earned my real estate license and did a lot more construction work. I also earned my MBA with a specialization in Project Management, met my incredible wife and moved back to her home town on the Outer Banks – now my adopted home – to continue raising a family.

Over 25 years in the Home Building Industry.

Licensed general contractor specializing in both custom homes and speculative builds.

MBA with specialization in Project Management.

Member of the Outer Banks Home Builders Association.

Member of the OBHBA Board of Directors.

Multi-year Parade Of Homes Contributor.

Voted the 2024 Silver Winner for Best Home Builder in the Reader's Choice BEST of OBX Contest.

Take a moment to see the work for our family of clients throughout the Outer Banks.

REVIEWS

"Of the many decisions that came with building our dream home on the Outer Banks, choosing Austin Kelly as the builder was the best.”
– C. Lakis

"Just what I love, a contractor that will put on his tool belt and work along side his guys."
— J. Nash, Framer

"Attention to detail ... he loses sleep over it!"
— Michael O.

THANK YOU for Voting Us a Winner in the BEST OF OBX Contest!
2024 WINNER
Best Home Builder