Last week I nagged you about elevation renderings, this week the focus is on floor plan renderings. Floor plan renderings are an easy way to stand out from the crowd. The vast majority of builders present a simple black-and-white CAD blackline drawing of their floor plan selections. Some builders will add a little color to the background of the plan and fewer still show landscaping or furniture.
A great way to be noticed by the web surfers is to present great-looking floor plans. Help...
If asked, I would be hard-pressed to pick a favorite author, but if forced to choose just one I would go with Antoine St. Exupery.
St. Ex, as he is often called, was a pilot, a writer, Renaissance man, freedom fighter (against the Nazis), and philosopher, among other things. He wrote beautifully and insightfully about life, often told through first person accounts of usually dangerous flights in locales around the world. Then there was his all-time children’s classic, "The Little...
The idea of running a 100 mile race ten years ago was as inconceivable and foreign to me as the possibility of a 6 year real estate crash. As it turned out, last month I got to experience both of these.
One benefit of running a 100 mile mountain trail marathon is a lot of thinking time – and I mean a lot. During this bucket list adventure, I thought of the many parallels between today’s home building business and ultra marathons. Six years ago, when I was a...
Traveling around the country I see a lot of renderings - most of them leave a whole lot to be desired. The worst are the black and white CAD drawings with a computer generated tree or two to add some flavor. I also see a lot of 3D computer renderings that are cold and uninviting. Often 3D renderings leave very little to the imagination. Computer renderings can be effective if they are soft and inviting and the sketchy hand drawn look seems to be the most popular with buyers. Selling a vision...
One of the greatest misconceptions about Lean process and methods is that they cheapen the product. Lean is first and always about value, and the customer perception of value at each price point is a critical component. It may surprise you that on a fairly regular basis I have to advise a client to put something back in a house rather than take it out.
Most often this occurs when the model has met every aspect of the building code, but has not met what I call the “customer code.” That...
November is World Quality Month and November 10th is World Quality Day ! This can be a great opportunity to leverage local and regional events. Perhaps a chance to tour a manufacturing facility, attend a presentation on quality improvement and get to see how other industries are using quality. A great chance to pick up on new ideas right on your doorstep!
ASQ and other quality organizations around the world are celebrating this event.
With national, regional and local...
Our lives are busy and getting busier. Some of the most popular new design trends focus on making life a bit easier. Simplifying access and flow to perform every day tasks is a hot topic in today's market.
The photos below illustrate two trends that are rapidly becoming very popular:
1. Laundry Room —...
The accompanying picture was used recently with what was an otherwise good article on how to create profitable design. That article is much bigger in scope than simply the design of the house itself but still, the irony is palpable. What’s your first impression? Give it a good examination before you go on, in fact, gather some of your people around the monitor or print it out and ask if this is an intelligent, cost-effective design? Looks pretty good? Not if you have spent the past 5 years...
In this economy these builders are growing sales, expanding into new markets and achieving 100% customer satisfaction! They are building production and custom homes, within communities and build on your lot. The homes range in price from $100k to over $1million and the market ranges from a focus on a single state to covering 14 states. Whatever market, climate or home type your business focuses on there are lessons to be learnt here about improving your bottom-line.
This years...
The vast majority of what is written about management and business is about excellence, those people and organizations that excel. Little is written about the dysfunctional side, which frankly we see so much of in our daily work lives. A great reflection of this is the reason why Dilbert, the cult classic Office Space, The Office and the latest in the genre Horrible Bosses are so popular.
Two books written by Professor of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University, Bob...
