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NAHB economists rank housing markets for hotness by comparing residential building permit data with population numbers.
Randy Banks has been building in Mountain Air Country Club in Burns-ville, N.C., since its inception in 1990, but only in the past two or three years has he enlisted outside help to survey customer satisfaction.
Superintendent, construction manager or simply builder: By any name, these construction professionals sit squarely at the intersection of cost, quality, customer satisfaction and ultimately a builder’s good name.
Big, tall and in control, John Matthews dominates his job site in Cloverdale, Calif., where he builds three- and four-bedroom detached homes 90 minutes north of the Golden Gate Bridge.
High-end home building has been Don Lytton's specialty for most of his 25 years running job sites.
In the first quarter this year, Ed Pettigrew earned the highest bonus Royce Homes has ever paid to a construction superintendent for meeting key objectives.
John Sias' home building knowledge goes back to 1980, when he built his first home under the tutelage of a general contractor friend.
On his way to delivering 80 single-family homes this year in Talega, the desirable south Orange County, Calif., master plan, Dave Goudie and his four assistants focus on processes, quality and communication.
As the number and types of home technologies grow and consumer demand for the same increases, it becomes harder and harder to ensure that your new homes are futureproof.
Just like their parents, kids these days are savvy. The old rules of model home merchandising for girls -- ballet dancers and cheerleaders -- no longer apply.
Is housing a form of retailing?
Subscribers to the new eCodes Online service from the International Code Council can download information from more than 13 building codes to their computer.
Home building is one of the few industries not singing the blues lately. So what’s up with Albert Cummings?
New homes today must do more per square foot than they ever have before.
The return of the butler's pantry is making modern entertaining easier than ever.
A soaring cost of living is making schoolteachers an endangered species in Northern California.
To understand what kind of superintendent Rusty Wolf is (he recently accepted a promotion to companywide construction manager), it is important to know he was a military man, and not just an ordinary military man.
At the end of the day, way too many of you are sneaking out the construction entrance with your lights off when you should be cruising slowly down the street you built, waving at everyone and asking that recent close on lot 137 how her youngest daughte...
The Millennial Housing Commission recently issued a landmark report that recommends creating a homeownership tax credit and establishing a mixed-income multifamily rental production program.
English/Spanish for Painters & Contractors could make jobs easier for construction superintendents who manage Spanish-speaking trade crews -- especially painters.
Owensboro, Ky.-based Thompson Homes is committed to aligning its customer’s expectations with what really happens in home building.
From three of the authors of 1977’s influential A Pattern Language comes Patterns of Home: The Ten Essentials of Enduring Design.
With only 75 employees (including a full sales force) handling more than 500 closings a year, Engle Homes’ Arizona division seems the opposite of Ginsburg Development Corp.
Orestes Hernandez has a deep well of construction knowledge, business savvy and people skills.
In Bill Davis' voice, there is no mistaking the energy, enthusiasm and passion he has for home building.
When Del Webb brought its desert homes to the Midwest four years ago to open 6,000-unit Sun City Huntley, it was superintendents such as Tim King who pushed for additional plan adaptations to make them perform better in the Midwestern climate.
Building 3,000- to 4,000-square-foot homes at a $500,000 price point, Bob Cartledge succeeds by making the most of an ethos and a system that have served his company well through the years.
Think about the last time your company debuted a new product line -- bigger homes at a higher price point, attached homes for entry-level buyers, a maintenance-free community for empty nesters.
It would be hard to find another builder in America with a stronger sense of mission than McStain Neighborhoods in Boulder, Colo.
Like many of his peers, Ross Friedman began his career as a carpenter.
Please excuse Denver-area builder John Osborn if he doesn’t see the unbridled pursuit of customer satisfaction as something new.
Southern California Giant Fieldstone Communities has found a new way to maintain strong relationships with past customers and make a buck doing so.
Before you specify or install your next wood floor, a few minutes on the National Wood Flooring Association’s Web site might be a good idea.
If the adage 'the best time to ask for money is when you don’t need it' is true, then this is the perfect time for builders to fortify their credit lines.
Personal accountability for results. Without it, there can be great strategies, great people and great operations but no reliable means of execution.
The Rohm and Haas Paint Quality Institute promotes quality paint as a proven, profitable new home upgrade.
Satisfaction at any point in a customer’s experience is the sum of perceptions minus expectations, says Paul Cardis, president and CEO of NRS Corp.
D.R. Stembers has put his experience and trade contractor relationships to work at Paul Taylor Homes, which will close more than 200 homes this year.
With the help of an assistant and a punchlist person, Kevin Treloar delivers 12 homes a month on average.
Walking up to an on-site sales trailer can be both overwhelming and underwhelming to potential buyers — overwhelmingly intimidating given the trailer’s sheer size, underwhelming in its lack of appeal and polish (after all, it is a trailer).
A new Web site, www.smartsites.org, assesses the 'smartness' of a property.
Richard Sewell, director of marketing for KB Home’s Phoenix division, knows it pays to watch how companies outside the industry do things.
The Family Studio concept from Whirlpool Corp. elevates the laundry room to a spacious, multipurpose, family-friendly place.
No one on earth knows more about how to make money in the home building business than Lee Evans.
Barbara Allen, a housing analyst with Arnhold & Breichroeder Inc., is convinced housing price reversals will take the entire economy into a deeper recession as soon as 2003.
The most effective builders I’ve known in my more than 20 years working in the home building industry not only invest in research, but also have an in-depth understanding of how to apply that research in each of their markets and submarkets.
Builders on Long Island, N.Y., are market-testing communities before models are built.
The Pew Internet and American Life initiative found that 40 million Americans, one-third of all Internet users in the United States, have looked for housing information online, an increase of 66% since March 2000.
Looking to save money and keep your home buyers happier longer on your next new home project?
So what was wrong with the guaranteed low-price strategy?
Recessed lighting is tops and track lighting barely registers on the popularity meter, according to a National Kitchen & Bath Association survey of its members on customers’ preferences.
As the topic of suburban sprawl and anti-growth legislation heats up with the upcoming federal elections, the Sierra Club recently released its second annual report on sprawl.
The lack of close-in, developable land in San Diego has spawned a downtown infill building boom that has slowly gained momentum the past few years.
Seeking to restore 'scenic equilibrium' to the shores of Lake Tahoe, the same regional agency that re-cently won a long-running property rights case is flexing its muscle again.
Paul Douglas, weatherman at WCCO-TV in Minneapolis, is marketing a new application for cell phones that provides weather conditions and forecasts, along with Doppler radar images, for any specific site, including job sites.
Make hay when the sun is shining. That’s how builders are responding to strong demand and low mortgage rates.
The National Tour of Solar Homes was held October 16, 1999 in 36 states from Alabama to Wisconsin.
Seven years ago, Hawthorne, N.Y., builder Martin Ginsburg made it his mission to improve customer satisfaction by multiplying contact points throughout his company with buyers.
Oversize Jumbo Royal Sovereign shingles from GAF Corp. install faster, save material and reduce labor time by up to 40%, the company says.
A free educational program developed by the NAHB is helping elementary school students learn about the home building process, construction jobs and the environment.
Asking customers if they have actually recommended their builder is an important innovation in the NRS research.
Using a professional search firm is analogous to identifying and properly managing your personal financial planner. It is that serious.
With its new KnowledgeWorkx Resource Program (www.alcoatraining.com), Alcoa Building Products seeks to remedy an industrywide problem.
Enormous fences, hedges, man-made earthen berms and the unadorned backs of new homes form the dull view along arterial roadways in much of suburbia today.
One of the most valuable benefits of the NHS competition is the insight into the best practices of builders that scored high in customer satisfaction.
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