Grayson County
Custom home builder in Grayson County
Grayson County has grown more than 13% since 2020, with net in-migration averaging around 3,600 people a year. Texas Instruments started production at its Sherman fab in December 2025 and GlobalWafers opened the same year, which is most of the reason the county is growing at all. Randy O’Brien has been building here since 1998, through the boom and through the 2008 crash before it.
- County population
- ~154,000
- Growth since 2020
- 13%+
- Net in-migration
- ~3,600 a year
- Building here since
- 1998
Building here specifically
What building anywhere in this county has in common
Almost all of Grayson County sits on Blackland Prairie soil. It is a heavy dark clay with a plasticity index in the 40 to 60 range, which swells when it rains and shrinks hard when it does not. That movement is what cracks slabs, and it is why engineered foundations, post-tension slabs and drilled piers are the norm here rather than an upgrade.
Outside the city limits you are on county permitting rather than city, and on septic rather than sewer. Conventional drain fields fail on this clay, so aerobic systems with spray or drip irrigation are effectively standard. Across this part of Texas they commonly run in the region of $10,000 to $20,000 depending on your lot and bedroom count.
Why people build here rather than buy
- Land inside twenty minutes of a town is still reachable here, which is the whole reason people move up from further south
- You are roughly an hour north of DFW without paying metroplex prices for an acre
- The semiconductor build-out has brought jobs that were not here five years ago
Randy will walk your lot before he prices anything, because on this ground the lot decides more than the plan does.
Nearest finished house
The Wester House
Dark board-and-batten, cedar posts, 8-foot interior doors and custom casings throughout.
See the full galleryFrom his clients
Watch the interviewsWe never had to chase him. If we called, he answered — and if he said he’d be there Tuesday, he was there Tuesday.
Hamid & Lisa S.O’Brien homeowner
Also worth reading
- Foundations on Blackland clayWhy the soil here decides your foundation.
- Aerobic septic systemsThe line item that surprises people outside the city.
- Building on land you already ownMost of what Randy does.
- Building in DenisonRandy is based: Denison
- Building in Van AlstynePopulation: ~8,700
