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If there's any builder on the list that personifies exponential growth, it's Kara Homes. "Every six months we double," says CEO Zudi Karagjozi, who projects 360 closings and $140 million in revenue this year.
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"We're in a self-induced recession in the middle of a housing boom," says Larry Keener, CEO of Palm Harbor Homes, an Addison, Texas-based manufactured home company that in July reported its first quarterly loss in 13 years. Shipments are sliding too, from last year's 193,000 to a projected 180,000...
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Housing belongs atop shopping, says architect Barry Berkus.
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Insurers blame bad weather and mold for sending insurance rates through the roof. At the end of July of this year, Gordon Stewart, president of the Insurance Information Institute, an industry-sponsored interface with the public, based in New York, laid out the bad news before a congressional...
If you're still using wood exterior trim boards on your houses, then you know the deal. While they may look like wood, these products will last until the cows come home. Composite trim may be wood/plastic, cellular PVC, vinyl, or polyurethane.
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Extensible Markup Language, or XML, may soon become the dominant way that building industry business partners send and receive electronic data.
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An expert offers 10 suggestions you may not have considered.That's because Gamse is a Santa Cruz, Calif.-based Web consultant and professional speaker (www.CyberSpeaker.com) who helps companies around the world create technology strategies and tune up their Web sites. So from the perspective of a...
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Over 150 builders and business partners attended the Builder Technology Conference in Washington in June to hear how to develop a technology plan. You need buy-in from top management, but you should also form a steering committee with members drawn from sales, IT, finance, and construction.
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Denver-based Homesphere has pursued an unrelenting expansion campaign over the last year. In October 2001, it bought BuildSoft and promptly doubled staff.
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The Internet continues to evolve as a useful communications tool for home builders. BuildLinks' software already lets buyers track construction, alerts them when it's time to choose options, and enables discussion between builders, subs, and homeowners.
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Sixty percent of homeowners aren't happy with their HVAC system, but ducts and filters can be a hard sell when compared to cabinets and counters. "During litigation about mold, ventilation issues come into play," says Joyce.
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The study, called "Networking With the Joneses," found that the demographics of those using home technology has changed to include more people who would not be called early adopters. The study concludes that more people would ask for networking equipment if they were educated about its benefits.
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The site was started by Cathy Chapman, a real estate agent in Frederick, Md. The cost for listing a home is $50 per month. The service is currently available in the Frederick area, but Chapman hopes eventually to market it nationwide.
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The technology vision we hear of most often is that of an industry-wide, e-commerce system in which orders and payments are automatically exchanged between builders, subs, and suppliers. "We had a paper monster that we needed to tame," recalls John Cann, the company's manager of information systems.
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The Treasure Island site now includes a Job Corps training program for 850 people, 908 housing units, nine barrack-style facilities, a public elementary school, a clinic, and 314 acres of submerged land. Proud says San Francisco has taken seriously its commitment to offer housing opportunities to...
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Model homes can be a builder's greatest sales tool. They're a tangible way to demonstrate the company's capabilities and can also serve as a showcase for product and finish upgrades as well as floor plan options. Theses tips are just a few ideas on how to make your models work for you.
Is there a way to tweak a new house design in order to deliver a good product, maybe even a better product than the competition, and still improve the bottom line? The answer is yes, though production builders take different routes to the destination.
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Now that the dot-com dust has settled, builders have refocused their technology priorities and gotten down to business.
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Despite the imperatives of a tight labor market and the constant drive for more profits, trade partnering has gotten a lot more lip service than serious effort."At best, 5 percent of the builders are doing this well, and another 10 percent are playing at it," says Scott Sedam, president of...
Well, at least we're not alone. Lest builders think this industry is the only one getting hammered in the liability insurance crisis (and it is officially a crisis now), premiums, retentions (or deductibles), and exclusions are up, and limits are down, regardless of the field.
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Was it their expertise, their gender, their ethnic background? Yes to all of the above, says CEO R. Chad Dreier, who has made a point of broadening the scope of Ryland's board.
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Focus groups and questionnaires have been the standard tools of market research, but experts advise builders to look beyond words and mine the uncsonsious to reveal answers hidden in consumers' minds. The practice reaches deep into perception, using visual techniques that deliver what Zaltman...
In May of 2000, Pulte Corp. invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in USBuild, the Denver dot-com that promised to streamline the building supply chain.
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Delinquent industrial land on Lake Michigan's shore is transformed into HarborPark, a vibrant mixed-use community connected by streetcar to downtown Kenosha, Wis., and via Metra to Chicago. (The company was one of 10 builders who responded to Kenosha's request for proposal.) Project: HarborPark...
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Following is a brief description of significant state and federal agencies and legislation.Shoreline development in Florida has been regulated since 1971 under the Coastal Construction Control Line Program, the National Flood Insurance Program, and the Coastal Protection Act. They establish...
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Environmental concerns, natural hazards, and growth management are just a few reasons why housing development is so heavily regulated in coastal areas. Rick Laughead, of BDC Development in Pismo Beach, just south of San Luis Obispo, says getting a coastal project approved "would require a...
"People are willing to put money into [home theaters] because they realize that home is where they really want to be," says Bob Micho, TECHTouch division manager at Village Homes of Colorado, in Littleton, Colo. "The home is their castle, prices [for home theater components] are coming down, and...
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Why it worked: These good-looking townhomes are the lowest price point in a new master planned development in one of Washington's last suburban growth areas.Following on the heels of nearby pioneering TNDs like The Kentlands, Clarksburg Town Center will have a mix of commercial and retail in...
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Why it worked: Dilsheimer Communities revved up a sleepy market, where sales were averaging just three per month, with an attractive, affordable, no-nonsense, entry-level product."We will move an outlet or change a light, but we draw the line at structural changes," says company executive president...
The Jacksonville, Fla., division of D.R. Horton used $22,800 raised in its first annual Julington Creek Plantation Hometown Festival.We believe it's so important to take a leadership role in our communities and support the organizations and activities that make our communities a better place to...
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Smaller builders often have a six-months' or less supply of buildable lots. Now that the economic recovery is under way, maintaining an adequate supply of lots figures to be the biggest problem builders will face for some time.
Controversy over highway construction and clean air proves to be a red herring. It may not have generated extensive coverage on the nightly news, but a recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit was an important victory for the nation's home builders and for housing...
- The NAHB hails preliminary ruling by the World Trade Organization to rescind countervailing duties imposed by the U.S. Commerce Department on imports of Canadian softwood lumber.
- New NAHB focuses attention on the housing affordability crisis.
- Department of Labor awards the Home Builders...
A good roof, depending on the material, should last at least 20 years--and some have been known to last up to 50.Manufacturers offer products that extend the life of your roofs, keeping your home buyers dry.
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The economy may be sputtering, but you wouldn't know it by reviewing the public builders' recent quarterly reports, filled with double-digit order and earnings growth. At Centex, orders are up 20 percent, compared to 2001, with a corresponding 13 percent rise in quarterly earnings per share (EPS).
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Q: How can I create private outdoor space in the close confines of a Traditional Neighborhood Development (TND) design?There are some ways to carve out private outdoor space even on very small lots.
By Christina B. Farnsworth. From 1920 until about 1930, the Harlem Renaissance, a period of great creativity in literature, music, and dance, flourished. And with abandonment, the city of New York became the reluctant owner of the second largest stock of publicly owned housing in the nation.But the...
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Switchable windows, which use electricity to change from clear to shaded, have been on the horizon for years. Research Frontiers president Joe Harari is in discussions with other window makers as well, though he declines to name names.
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Much like the gold that investors considered a safe haven during the financially turbulent 1970s, 21st-century investors look to residential real estate.As the stock market and the U.S. economy continue to shudder, consumers are buying houses. Investment in Housing in Times of Uncertainty," a...
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As municipalities across the country implement design guidelines to ensure that their neighborhoods possess architectural character, builders have to find innovative ways to diversify their plans and streetscapes without breaking the bank. Creating attic living space within a high-pitched roof...
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To those who believe that homeownership represents a ticket to a better life, the statistics are worrisome. "The down-payment part sounds practical," says Alex von Hoffman, a senior fellow at Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies in Cambridge, Mass. "Sometimes the simplest thing to...
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A new piece of software may help designers prevent moisture-related woes such as mold and mildew. One hard-hit area is Seattle.
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If the NAHB compiled a "frequently asked questions" list, queries about compensation would qualify in a second.
The economic aftershocks of this summer's corporate meltdown have weakened a few markets, but on the whole buyers seem intent on ignoring the bad news. Last year at this time, you could type in a search for single-family homes in Ashburn, Va., and you might come up with a dozen," notes Barb Northam...
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When Builder Homesite and eBay Real Estate recently announced they would hold a series of online home auctions, the Concord, Calif., iBidCo, which specializes in online and live new-home sales events, was conspicuously absent, even though iBidCo had business relationships with the two parties...
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Palm Harbor Homes, a manufactured-home builder in Addison, Texas, is entering the modular market. That helps Palm as the financing environment for HUD-code homes worsens.
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Denver's Amber Homes and radio station Alice 106 have partnered with the Salvation Army to raise money for the victims of Colorado's wildfires. Amber Homes sparked the effort with a $10,000 contribution to The Wildfire Relief Fund presented at a morning news conference at the Salvation Army's...
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The court found Gunnell liable for damages because he did not find the true owner of the pipe before proceeding. He got nothing--and had to pay the utility's legal fees.
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Most buyers still consider "smart" homes a dumb idea, according to a Harris Poll survey of U.S. consumers in May. The survey defined a smart, connected home as one where electronics, appliances, and other home technologies work together, are centrally controlled, fix themselves, and allow fast...
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National news focus has been on fires in the Southwestern and Western United States, but Quebec is burning too. A milky haze fanned by northern winds delayed some airline traffic as it spread across New England, New York state, and even as far south as Washington.
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The two deals, expected at press time to close in August and October, respectively, give the Miami-based builder a significant foothold in the Windy City, with more than 6,500 lots owned or controlled.
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The Meyers Group's Vision 2002 survey compiled data from more than 75,000 new-home buyers who purchased within the past 30 months, as well as sales patterns of 4,468 new-home developments in the West and Southwest.
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Leading the nation as always, California home appreciation far outstripped the rest of the country in May.
By Boyce Thompson. All too often, builders are in the business of creating a good job for themselves and the people who work for them.That's not enough if you want to perpetuate your company. Unless you develop an exit strategy early on and work toward building value in your company, it probably...
Elected officials, led around by people who don smart-growth hats, claim that in order to manage growth properly, we must regulate how many homes we allow to be built.
Every so often, I spend a day touring new-home communities, gazing at the merchandising and the homes' designs and pondering each project's unique qualities. What I find most interesting, though, are the salespeople.
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The launch of its new division in San Diego gives this builder, based in Newport Beach, Calif., its fourth in the state, and comes on the heels of the formation of WL's luxury division in May. San Diego Building Permits: In 2002, a lack of available land, coupled with costly land prices, has...
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After months of pressure and criticism, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have agreed to change the way they report on their common stock.
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Lennar's spate of mergers this year suggests that industry consolidation hasn't lost steam.
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After initially strongly opposing the U.S. Supreme Court's 6-3 April 24 ruling concerning moratoria in Nevada, the NAHB has reversed its position.
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States have been busy passing legislation to ward off construction-defect litigation.
A Washington, D.C., coalition called the Smart Growth Alliance (SGA) wants to put its stamp of approval on project proposals in Maryland, Virginia, and the District that exemplify smart-growth principles.
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Denver-based M.D.C. Holdings' San Diego operation has reached a critical mass worthy of a full-time management team, says Robert Shiota, M.D.C.'s regional president for Southern California. San Diego's operations had existed in tandem with those at the SoCal division, headquartered in Irvine, since...
But, then, most of the sales centers I visited didn't send one either, which brings me to my next point.(As for this letter's effectiveness as a personal communication tool -- with its fill-in-the-blank format -- you be the judge.)