| Customer Satisfaction |
Stories of unhappy new home buyers seem all too common today. Whether it be problems with the building experience altogether, part of the process in building their home, or in the final product, too often it seems nothing can transform - or quiet — an angry home owner back to the excited home buyer he or she once was.
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| Learn |
Quick, what's your average gross margin? When will your business break even? How much money did you spend on sales and marketing this year? How much money should you spend on sales and marketing next year? What's your debt ratio? When will you need to hire your next employee? When do you need to increase your credit line? Did you have an answer for every question? Outstanding busin...
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| Special Report |
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| News2Use |
Health-care costs rank as the most critical issue concerning small business owners, according to a recent survey conducted by the National Federation of Independent Businesses and Wells Fargo. Nearly two-thirds of respondents to the 2004 survey listed health-care costs as "critical"—up 18 percent from a similar survey conducted in 2000, the NFIB says.
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| PATH Report |
Some builders view the electronic gadgetry associated with home automation systems as part of a distant, hi-tech future. But for many others, the future is now. This third article on the PATH Concept Home (see sidebar) focuses on modern home automation systems. With its "disentangled" utilities, the Concept Home provides fewer impediments than traditional homes to installing and upgrading a hom...
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| Perspective |
New year's resolutions, made with determination before 12/31, rarely survive. Resolutions typically involve improving our personal lives: eat less, exercise more, etc. The list goes on, but changing behavior because of a change on the calendar rarely proves motivation enough to make what we resolve reality.
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| Plans and Projects |
For many high-end custom builders, selling spec houses is an alluring alternative to the hassles of dealing with well-heeled clients: Build what you want and sell it later...Of course, there's that catch. You have to carry the spec until it sells. Here's a Texas builder with some great ideas on how to market highly visible specs, and use the notoriety that brings to drive more custom clients to...
Betting that this delightfully detailed 6,200-square-foot luxury home designed to resemble a classic New England carriage house, would place first in the hearts of affluent empty-nester buyers in his upstate New York market, custom builder John Witt created this one-of-a-kind spec-built model to launch Saratoga Farm, the first equestrian-oriented development to be built in Saratoga County.
Urban redevelopment provides numerous opportunities to builders, particularly smaller ones, for whom a small lot can present a world of opportunity. Villa Carabelli Townhomes in Cleveland, for example, turned an underutilized 1.4-acre parking lot into 20 upscale, four-story townhouses. This was a unique lot and a unique development, because Alta House, a pillar of Cleveland's Little Italy neigh...
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| Publisher's Note |
It is the time of the year where many of us look back and review what was accomplished — what improvements were made and evaluate top priorities for the current year. At Professional Builder this is a most pleasing experience. The look back over the past year brings memories of many positive improvements and achievements by a staff of which I am quite proud.
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| Plans and Projects |
In Bothell, Wash., located near Seattle, builder CamWest Development created a Craftsman-style neighborhood set within nature — the North Creek Project. This eight-acre site consists of a collection of small homes on small lots at a density of 14.5 units per developed acre, for 33 units in all.
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| Neighborhood Ensembles |
The buildings in an architectural ensemble are like the instruments in a musical ensemble, sounding together to create a compelling whole. The harmonious outcome is more important than any individual part. The conscientious arrangement of buildings in concert with cars and landscape elements creates more than a place: it creates a world unto itself.
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| Build |
Never has a homeowner walked a model home and asked the salesperson about building science. New home shoppers expect that their new home automatically includes a living environment as comfortable as it is beautiful. Delivering on this expectation is building science. So what is building science? In this series we will answer that question in detail, but first let's begin with a definition: buil...
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| Bottom-Line Building |
High gross profit is the first critical step to reaching high net profit. Our most recent study of 94 client builders' financial results for 2003 proves the strong correlation between gross and net (as shown in the chart below). Builders of varying sizes, from all parts of the country, participated in this Builder Financial Study.
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| Special Report |
The end of World War II marked a watershed, not only in global geopolitical relationships, but in the development of the American community as well. For over a decade and a half this nation had struggled with an unprecedented economic melt-down followed by a battle for survival of the free world as we knew it.
Each of the case studies in this article tells us something we can build upon in creating future master-planned communities, particularly in what we have learned in the last 10 years since Celebration. The four cornerstones of planning must be: Let's look at each point. Too few developers consider the long-range effect development has on the local area, whereas the local public officials and po...
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| The H.R. Dept. |
Several e-mails lately have sought suggestions on ways to retain employees. Perhaps the best way to address this is to first determine what motivates people to make changes in the first place. After 20+ years in the search business, we have seen or heard most of them. While our findings are not scientific, they are time tested.
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| Build |
Brick remains a favorite building material for many home builders and home buyers. Surveys from the National Association of Home Builders show that 60 percent of American home buyers prefer brick homes. When asked, buyers also say they prefer variety in their neighborhoods. Yet the larger the development, the harder a builder must work to differentiate one home from another — not to menti...
Guest rooms, like guests who overstay their welcome, have their limits. But when a builder includes a separate apartment with its own bath, kitchen and entrance in a new-home design, the result is an innovative amenity, albeit not an entirely new one. Today, homeowners and builders alike find profit in modern versions of the so-called "granny flat" — more properly described as the "access...
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| Design |
Accessory units, or living spaces that are secondary to the main home, are enjoying a resurgence in popularity. Also called "granny flats," especially when located above a detached garage, these units have unique advantages for the builder and the buyer. (See Taking Granny (Flats) To Market, p. 179.) From a design point of view, builders should consider two main aspects: the site and the floor ...
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| Lessons Learned |
This is a sad story about how a builder goes to the trouble to find a great piece of land, build a good house, do all of the hard stuff well, then blows it over 4 or 5 details.
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| News2Use |
The pressure of raising impact fees remains the same today as 2001 when a superior court judge ruled California's Orange County violated state law by over-billing home buyers and builders for plan check and inspection fees. The judge ruled that Orange County had no legal right to keep the $18.5 million surplus it created from these over-charges.
Researchers at the University of Southern California's Lusk Center for Real Estate find different housing patterns — and lower home ownership rates — among immigrants in 14 cities are emerging as "gateway" centers — attracting migrant populations directly from outside this country. The leader of the study warns builders in these markets to be ready for an inevitable spike in o...
Moser Builders, a custom home builder in Berwyn, Penn., is an up and coming star to watch in the national marketing sky. With its beginnings almost 20 years ago, the regional builder of homes in the Pennsylvania counties of Chester and Delaware is making a name for itself, not only regionally, but nationally now as well.
At Standard-Pacific Homes, managers from each department in the Dallas division are busy improving their overall customer service process. Since September, a newly created Customer Service Management Council meets monthly. At the initial meeting, about 15 department heads, representing purchasing, accounting, options, closing, warranty, upper management and in-house title and mortgage companies...
The opening of Petco Park, San Diego's new downtown baseball park, was more accessible to San Diego's North County residents, thanks in part to five home builder/developers. From April 5 through October 1, Bosa Development, Barratt American, Brookfield Homes, D.R. Horton-Continental Series, and Shea Homes were part of a public-private partnership called The Coaster Home Run.
In 2005, downtown infill housing is hot while cul-de-sacs are not, as traffic congestion has clogged suburbs nationwide, according to Emerging Trends In Real Estate 2005, a report jointly published by PriceWaterhouseCoopers and the Urban Land Institute (www.uli.org). New York City, Southern California, Southern Florida and Washington D.
Cross this off the list of things that can't be done: Two detached single-family homes on one small, city lot. Cobblestone Homes made it happen in its Sonoma County, Calif., hometown of Santa Rosa. At the Village at Hickory Place, Cobblestone built 24 homes on 13 lots. Two lots housed a detached single-family home.
Smaller builders voice justifiable concerns that GIANTS will buy higher and drive up land costs in an effort to churn ever-more product and keep the cash flowing. Here are a few tips to stay in the game:
Today's home builders now seek to include some advanced technology in their homes, according to a new survey of 400 U.S. builders conducted by Parks Associates. Programmable thermostats, security systems, and zoned HVAC systems top the list of most frequently offered products, and over two-thirds of the builders surveyed offer computer networking, structured wiring and central vacuum systems wi...
High costs and on-site labor requirements top the list of reasons builders cite for the slow progress of steel framing in the new construction industry. Now FrameMax has introduced a turn-key system designed to eliminate the cost gap between wood and steel in residential construction. The process works like this: Step 1: Import architectural and structural CAD project plans into the company's d...
Freestanding, floating floors improves the sound quality in home theaters, however installation of these floors has been time consuming and expensive. U-Boat Floor Floaters from Auralex Acoustics can help shorten the build cycle and reduce the cost of your next floating floor. Made of a specially-formulated rubber compound, U-Boats are designed to support framing members and isolate and decoupl...
www.energycodes.gov: The U.S. Dept. of Energy has launched the Building Energy Codes Resource Center to link users to energy codes and beyond-code construction techniques and technologies. The site offers detailed information on topics ranging from how to frame window headers for additional insulation to the latest research on mold and moisture.
As seasons change, the national mood changes from time to time too. With the mood shifts come changes within the home and a shift in the color palette buyers respond to. In order to keep up with the times, paint maker Kelly-Moore constantly changes existing color palettes by staying in close contact with the design community.
Tile has long been the selected material of designers, architects and home owners to provide a rich, luxurious look. How about adding personalized images or photos to create custom tiles? Imagine adding a family portrait to the tiles located in the foyer. What about adding the beautiful sunset captured on film while on vacation to a tiled bathroom wall? Coastal Murals, LLC specializes in transf...
Appearing to be recycled from a building long exposed to the elements, Stone Mountain Brick Co. introduces four new veneer styles for its brick and stone. "Used textures" have a slightly worn face with a few random indentations in each brick surface. In sharp contrast, the fresh-looking wirecut style has blunt, uneven grooves that stretch vertically across the surface of each piece.
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