| News2Use |
In a study of more than 400 consumers nationwide that are either owners of newly constructed homes or prospective buyers of the same, researchers found that 49% of the target consumers, presented with at least one home technology option, made a purchase.
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| Learn |
Financial Management - Part 1 (January 2005) discussed the importance of setting up a solid accounting system comprising four key elements: When set up correctly, these four elements ensure the information you look at on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly basis is as accurate as possible.
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| Perspective |
We media types tend to be news junkies. CNN, the New York Times, Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal, we devour them all, all the time. We become especially attentive when the breaking story is about the business of the news. The story of the last few weeks made all of us in business-to-business media and certainly the general news outlets stop and pay still closer attention.
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At first glance, it looks like a meticulously detailed 19th-century rehab. Upon closer inspection, Brian Pennings' home reveals a new custom home clad in vinyl, composites and seemingly every engineered building innovation. Only the beveled-glass mahogany front door and stone veneer of the exposed foundation is real.
Today's homebuyer is more aware of design elements than ever before. Even first-time buyers have definite thoughts and ideas regarding what they consider "good design." Because today's homebuyer is so keenly aware of design, it pays for builders to analyze their floor plans before beginning work on a project.
With water heating accounting for 17–25% of the average household's energy expenditures, it's no wonder new home buyers are looking for ways to save energy — and money — when it comes to their energy bills. While most homes in North America use a conventional storage tank water heater to provide hot water in the home, in recent years, manufacturers have begun offering tankless...
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| News2Use |
"Concrete Floors and Moisture," a new 164-page book from the Portland Cement Association, explores ways to present unwanted moisture in concrete floors. Problems from excessive moisture include deterioration and debonding of floor coverings, trip-and-fall hazards, microbial growth, staining and the breakdown of building finishes.
Notice one less label on gypsum products lately? You will if you haven't already. The task of specifying gypsum board products just became easier as a single ASTM International reference standard, ASTM C 1396, has replaced eight standards previously used to designate specific gypsum board products for residential and commercial construction.
The Council of Community Services and the Art Museum of Western Virginia hosted some of the world's top leaders in design, housing and sustainable development on January 14 for the Cradle to Cradle Housing Design and Construction Competition. A team of international jurors reviewed more than 625 submissions.
Clopay Building Products introduces its new Avante Collection of garage doors. "This door was exclusively available for commercial use, but we saw an opportunity for a residential application to meet the needs of design-conscious homeowners seeking urban accents for modern homes," says Pat Lohse, director of residential marketing for Clopay.
Medallion Cabinetry recently introduced several new one-piece wood hoods to enhance its current selection of wood range hoods. With the growing trend toward larger commercial cooktops, there is a corresponding need for greater ventilation and larger wood hoods. The range hoods of today are no longer just utilitarian mechanisms for venting the cooking area.
The California Association of Realtors (CAR) recently published its year-end housing affordability index, showing the percentage of households that have the ability to afford a median-priced home in that state. The index fell to 19 percent from 23 percent the previous year. The median price of a single-family home in California increased 18 percent in December over that month a year earlier, to...
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The builder is New Urban Communities, a niche specialist in both density and infill. Principals Kevin Rickard and Tim Hernandez are well acquainted with both profit and peril in their specialty. Dedicated New Urbanists, they loathe front-loading garages, but Old Palm Grove is half front-loaded because, they say, flexibility is the first prerequisite to high-density success.
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| PATH Report |
"Factory-built" usually conjures up images of industrial construction, but how does building a home that looks exactly like other homes, performs better, and can be finished in 20 days grab you? That is the vision of the PATH Concept Home, which proposes the use of factory-built components to expedite the construction process from the typical six months.
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| Bottom-Line Building |
Operating expenses, as a percentage of sales revenue, should be going down in the robust markets we see across the country today, but instead they seem to be moving in the opposite direction, and that's not the sign of a well-managed company. Our target for operating expenses is 18% of total sales revenue from home building operations.
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| The H.R. Dept. |
The vast majority of candidates change jobs for the right reasons. Rarely is it a knee-jerk decision. The first installment of Change Agents (January, 2005 PB), talked about several factors that motivate an employee to make a change. Money is one of element, but rarely is it the deciding factor. Money shouldn't be the factor, whether you are on the employer or the employee.
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| Lessons Learned |
In five years, no one has ever offered to write this column for me. On seldom occasions, the deadlines have been so onerous that I could have been tempted to turn over the reins for a month. This month, however, the column was written before I ever sat down to write it. I received an e-mail from Gary Grant who, after 40 years in the industry, just retired from Pulte's Minneapolis Division.
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| Online Sales |
Technology has become a prevalent force in our everyday lives. With more than 85% of households owning at least one computer and 70% with high-speed connections, it should be no surprise that home-buying transactions are starting to take place on the Internet. According to the National Association of Home Builders' HomeBuilder.
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Because of its tight housing market, finding available land in Ventura County is a rarity. However, builder/developer Vintage Communities purchased 290 acres of land as an improved tentative tract map in 1999, now known as Hidden Valley Estates. Vintage swept up this available land because it's close to Thousand Oaks, CA, yet rural in its feel.
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| News2Use |
Las Vegas may soon look like Manhattan, with condo skyscrapers rising up out of the flat desert. The question is, can traditional single-family home builders make a living in a town like this? That's not an idle inquiry — because Las Vegas may not be so different from other housing markets across the country, perhaps just a few years ahead.
When you're walking a land parcel before acquisition, don't forget to look up...and remember the story of one land owner who moved a little too fast for his own good in an attempt to capitalize on Southwest Florida's red-hot land market. Last year, Mark A. Borinsky, 39, of North Port, Fla., sold a parcel for two and a half times his original investment of $59,000.
Construction superintendent is arguably the most important management position in a home building company. After all, this front-line manager has responsibility for the quality of the delivered product and controls direct construction costs that represent 50 percent of the selling price. Yet many builders struggle to keep supers from job-hopping around the local market.
Fifty members of Connecticut's home building industry attended a pilot event in November to learn how to sell homes with the ENERGY STAR® rating, how to approach customers about building an energy-efficient home and how building energy efficient homes can increase their sales. Sponsored by United Illuminating Company, a Connecticut utility company, lighting retailers and manufacturers who'...
At this year's International Builders' Show in Orlando, national sales trainer Bonnie Alfriend, MIRM, president of Alfriend Sales and Marketing Solutions, Pebble Beach, Calif., presented advice for putting sizzle back into selling in 2005. Titled "105 Ideas for the Year 2005," her seminar included the following tips: When relying on technology to communicate, don't forget the personal touch.
At a recent groundbreaking ceremony, Paramount Homes, Asbury Park, N. J., gave press members something they could really work with — clipboards emblazoned with the builder/developer's new community logo and phone number. This take-home gift not only served as a handy way to take notes and quotes during the event, but also reminded reporters of the community and contact number long afterwa...
It pays to protect the environment. The Warwick Grove master plan in Warwick, N.Y., boasts a diversity of wildlife, including federally protected bog turtles that roam the marshy outskirts. When the state of New York requested developer-builder LeylandAlliance protect the slow-moving but wide-ranging amphibians, the company called upon Michael Klemens, Ph.
Builders have yet to be selected for the 2,043-acre Canyons South golf and residential community south of Denver in Douglas County. Lots for the 400-home first phase won't be offered until the second half of 2006, but John Waggoner, president of developer Lowe Enterprises' Central division, was in contact with builders months before the January 25 land closing.
In Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y., Discovery Cove at Half Moon Bay sits on 12 acres of highly desirable riverfront, just steps from a boat marina and near the commuter rail into New York. But the site sat dormant for roughly 20 years before WCI Northeast U.S. stepped in to build 154 attached homes there. Why? "For years, complications made this land not worth developing," says Gabe Pasquale, vice presi...
Predicting the Future is tricky business. Last year, housing experts uniformly predicted that home building would come off its hot streak, but record results proved them wrong. Now they agree that decline will come this year. According to the NAHB, 2005 will show a modest decline in total housing starts from 1.
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