Today we’d like to introduce you to Sidd Kashyap.
Hi Sidd, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
My father built our family’s first home. I was there for every decision, every nail, every moment something came together that hadn’t existed the day before. That experience never left me — and eventually it became my life’s work.
I started McLean Custom Builders more than three decades ago with a simple conviction: that a home should be designed for the land it sits on, not imposed upon it. Every project begins with the site — its light, its slope, its orientation — and every decision follows from there. No two homes are alike. No shortcuts. One builder, present every day, accountable for every detail.
Over the years I expanded beyond building to offer Owner’s Representative services — working as an independent advocate for homeowners navigating the complexities of luxury construction and renovation. With an MBA in Real Estate and Finance from George Washington University and an active Class A Contractor’s License, I am able to sit on both sides of the table — understanding a project from the foundation to the financials, from the first drawing to the final key.
My work has been concentrated in McLean, Virginia and the broader DC metro area — one of the most demanding and discerning luxury residential markets in the country. That has made me a better builder, a more precise advisor, and a more honest partner to every client I serve.
1917 Kenbar Court in Franklin Park is the most recent expression of everything I have learned. It began, as all my homes do, with the land.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
The economy, the market. building spec homes is very risky. the house has to be perfect. it has to appeal to most people , not just one. so, it has been a hard road. disposing of a home and waiting for a sale is stressful.
Finding the right properties as well has been very difficult. i never wanted to just build any house and then hope it sells. i was always looking for properties that drew me to them.
Finding the best sub-contractors had been difficult also. The best ones are always busy, so scheduling and patience in finding the best subs for each task. For the best quality, you have to start with everything people don’t see
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
McLean Custom Builders is really just me — Sidd Kashyap — and that is intentional. I have never wanted to be a volume builder. What I do is build one home at a time, designed specifically for its site, its light, and the family who is going to live there. Every home is different because every piece of land is different. That philosophy has never changed in over three decades.
What I specialize in is luxury custom residential — but what I am probably best known for, at least among the people I have worked with, is showing up. I am on site every day. I know every subcontractor, every supplier, every inspector in this market by name. That kind of presence is unusual at this level and my clients feel the difference in the finished product.
Beyond building, I offer Owner’s Representative services — which is essentially being someone’s expert in their corner when they are building or renovating a luxury home. Most homeowners have never managed a construction project before. They sign contracts they don’t fully understand, they get hit with change orders they weren’t expecting, and by the time they realize something is wrong it’s already behind the walls. I prevent that. I have an MBA in Real Estate and Finance from George Washington and a Class A Contractor’s License — which means I can read the financial side of a project as fluently as the field side. Not many people in this market can say that.
What am I most proud of brand-wise? Honestly, the reputation for quality that nobody sees. The framing, the systems, the details behind the drywall — the things a buyer will never touch but will feel every day they live in the home. That is what I lose sleep over. And I think that comes through.
What I want people to know is that if you are building or thinking about building in the DC metro area — McLean, Great Falls, Potomac, Bethesda — there is a different way to do it. One where the person whose name is on the door is the same person who was on site every single day it was built.
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
Risk is interesting to me because in construction, you are managing it constantly whether you acknowledge it or not. Every project is a risk. You are committing years of your life and significant capital to something that doesn’t exist yet, in a market you can’t fully predict, with variables you can’t fully control. So you either get comfortable thinking about risk clearly, or you get hurt.
Every home I have built has been a spec home. No buyer, no contract, no guaranteed outcome — just a piece of land I believed in, a design I believed in, and the conviction that if I built it the way I knew it should be built, the right buyer would find it. That is not a small bet. You are all in on every single one. And you do it again and again, because that is the business you chose.
But here is how I think about risk — I don’t think about it in terms of fear. I think about it in terms of preparation. The reason I have been willing to take that risk, project after project for over three decades, is because I have spent that time learning this market, these trades, these sites. I know what things cost. I know how long they take. I know where projects go wrong and why. That knowledge doesn’t eliminate risk but it compresses it significantly. Most people who get hurt in construction get hurt because they didn’t know what they didn’t know. I have made it my business to know.
The MBA helped me think about risk differently as well. It gave me a financial framework to sit alongside the field instincts I had already developed. When you can model the downside clearly, the upside becomes a much cleaner decision.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.mcleancustombuilders.com
