Jim Lambie, President
Using Lambie correctly in a sentence: “Hey, I like your house! Who built it? Lambie.”
Jim Lambie is an active powerhouse of a local custom home builder in Johnson County, Kansas (JoCo KS) and the Metro Kansas City (KC) area. Company names and partnerships change over time. The important thing to remember is if the name contains Lambie, you know its quality. Lambie Homes, Lambie Custom Homes, Lambie Grand, Lambie-Geer, etc. Lambie-Geer was a long-running partnership with Jim Lambie and John Geer.
When I was selling new homes at Lionsgate, and the last phase, Lionsgate by the Green was getting ready, the developer team of Ashner/Ellis/Sailors chose Lambie-Geer as one of the 6 model home builders to anchor the final section. That is a big deal. Big. Huge.
As a side note, my very first transaction as a Designated Buyer Agent was finding and securing a Lambie-Geer home in Whitehorse in Leawood.
Jim has been building in the Kansas City area since the late 1970s and is President of Lambie Homes. Over more than four decades he has been involved in thousands of homes, multiple subdivisions, and some commercial projects around the metro, which is why his name still carries a lot of weight with both buyers and the real estate community. A Kansas State University graduate, he continues to be presented as the longtime builder and public face of the company.
Lambie Homes
Lambie Homes is one of those builder names that a lot of Kansas City buyers recognize, even if the company structure is a bit different. Jim Lambie is the brand, the company has a long history in this market, and there was an ownership change in late 2021 that brought Grand Oak Builders in behind the scenes.
Grand Oak Purchase
The ownership change came more recently. In December 2021, Atlanta-based Grand Oak Builders acquired Lambie Custom Homes as part of its strategy to buy and grow smaller regional builders. The deal was publicly announced in January 2022, and Grand Oak said the business would operate as Lambie Grand, LLC doing business as Lambie Homes. At that time, both Grand Oak and trade coverage said Jim Lambie would continue to manage the company, and Grand Oak quoted him saying the partnership allowed him to stay involved in daily management. Grand Oak also noted that the acquisition gave it a Kansas City platform with a multi-year lot supply and exposure to both residential development and homebuilding activity.
What Buyers Should Know
For buyers, the name used most often today is simply Lambie. Lambie Homes, Lambie Grand, Lambie Custom Homes. The Lambie name still carries the history and reputation built under all of the various iterations of names. That is part of why Jim Lambie remains such an important part of the brand story. The result is a company that looks like a longtime local builder from the outside, while also operating with the structure and resources of a larger ownership group.
Lambie is Actively Building In
- Bristol Highlands, Lenexa
- Mize Hill, Lenexa — Lambie Homes is the sole builder in a Rodrock development
- Regents Park, Leawood