Day in the Life: Ahead Of The Curve

After the morning managers' meeting, the pair goes to Paul's office, and talk turns to those shared values.

“That's our religion,” says Paul of the company's value statement. “The mission is about how you conduct yourself. We would have the same mission if we were in the paper cup business.”

Indeed, agrees Susan Matlick, executive vice president of the Maryland National Capital Building Industry Association, one of the associations that bestows the Monument Awards, “They are very detail-oriented, very driven. But if people meet their high standards, they treat them with great respect.”

The company's trade partners are a testament to its loyalty. Dorsey, the field production manager, notes during the morning meeting that the company will need to find a new plumber—because the one whose company they worked with for years has died. Ninety percent of the subcontractors who worked with the firm in 2003 are still on Mid-Atlantic jobs today.

Likewise, most Mid-Atlantic managers have been with the builders long enough to work their way into top positions. And their jobs don't stop at 5 p.m. An “unwritten policy” at the firm compels managers to get involved in their local communities as mentors, coaches, and fundraisers. Lebbin, a past president of the local building industry association, helped the association raise $100,000 for the 2005 Fannie Mae Foundation Help the Homeless walkathon.

The builders are similarly involved with their customers, splitting the chore of home walk-throughs between the managers—including Paul, who does two a month —rather than leaving them all to customer service reps. The effort, says Nicole Matthyssen, customer service manager, has paid off. On average, the managers discover 12 flaws per walk-through. A year ago, as the manager walk-throughs began, they were finding 40.

“The house sizes are getting bigger, but the problems are declining,” she points out.

In fact, after a lunch of deli sandwiches on this sunny Thursday, Paul and Lebbin head to Bowie for an afternoon of what Paul calls “management by walking around” in communities of models with names such as Venezia, whose standard floor plan is 5,098 square feet, and Tara, named by an employee who compared the 4,642-square-foot unit to Scarlett O'Hara's plantation home in Gone with the Wind. Once there, they shake hands with a locksmith working in a model home, chat with some sales reps, and note that a square bathtub had been specified for an oval surround, which has created a problem with the ceramic tile installation.

Lebbin says the company builds the kind of homes that he would like to live in, with touches that allow buyers to “feel, see, and touch the difference, even if they don't always know why,” such as tiny step lights in the optional home theater, arched columns between the living and dining rooms, and a cascading view of the whole first floor from almost any room on it. Sales reps have even been taught where to stand in each room during a tour of the model so they give the potential buyer the best view.

“Whether they're spending $200,000 or $500,000, we want them to feel like a million bucks,” says Paul. In fact, Mid-Atlantic, which broke a price barrier in 1994 when it sold Prince George's County's first $400,000 production home, starts today's models in the $575,000 range.

Behind the scenes, adds Paul, he and his staff pay just as much attention to detail as they convert their traditionally paper-laden business to one they can keep track of via the Internet.

MONEY MAKERS: The price of Mid-Atlantic's homes has risen thanks to the high-end architecture and details included and the general price appreciation in the greater Washington market. The result: $30 million more earned in 2005 than in 2002, though the company built six fewer homes.

The builder's model homes are devoid of colorful brochures and stacks of floor plans. Instead, a Design Your Own Home Online program lets potential buyers call up standard floor plans on a Web site and add optional rooms with a mouse click. Brand-new, custom-made business management software has replaced the spreadsheets and sample books sales reps once used to show and keep track of options and estimate prices for buyers. The Web-based program keeps prices up-to-date, eliminates duplication, and generates prices for the home with and without options.

“This is our sheet of music,” Paul says. “We're all on the same page.”

The next movement in what Paul refers to as the “Mid-Atlantic symphony” will involve semi-detached, villa-style homes along a Prince George's County golf course. And the company, which builds only pre-sold homes for prequalified buyers who plunk down a 10 percent deposit, is considering diversifying into West Virginia and Delaware as plots become increasingly sparse in Prince George's County and regulations tighten.

Beyond that, says Lebbin, “If you have to get in a plane [to get there from Maryland], we're not going there.”

Though a faraway community isn't in the plans, Paul says the owners of a private company like Mid-Atlantic have a lot of leeway in bringing their ideas to market. “We don't report to a board of directors,” he notes. “At the end of the day, Roger and I have to report to ourselves. ... At the end of the day, if we haven't operated with integrity, if we so much as disrespected one of our trade partners, that's my personal reputation.”

Sharon O'Malley is a freelance writer based in College Park, Md.

President: Roger M. Lebbin

Executive vice president: Stephen H. Paul

Company focus: Second and third move-up single-family homes in Prince George's County, Md.

Employees: 52

Year founded: 1979 (Mid-Atlantic Builders founded 1990)

Web site:www.midatlanticbuilders.com

Notable: European-inspired architectural details; curved interior and exterior walls; thousands of options for each model; first production builder to sell $400,000 homes in Prince George's County.