Keystone Custom Homes, Willow Street, Pa.
272 Units
BUILDER JEFF RUTT, WHO spent 10 years working 100-hour weeks as a dairy farmer, is quick to point out the similarities between raising cows in the bucolic fields of Lancaster County, Pa., and raising subdivisions. “There are a lot of challenges in farming,” he says. “The weather, market changes, pricing—there are a lot of unknowns.”
Accepting the fact that you can't control everything, learning to be flexible, and looking for ways to make things work through every challenge are keys to success, Rutt says—in residential construction as well as in farming.
Seems to be working so far. This fall, Rutt's company, Keystone Custom Homes, was named a winner in the 2005 America's Best Builder competition, earning the 12-year-old company a record third win.
The accomplishment is even more impressive when, as Keystone's director of information systems Steve Holzer notes, the company's top managers had little to no industry experience during its first 10 years. He, like others at Keystone, points to Rutt as the driving force behind Keystone's success. “He does not take no for an answer,” says Mike Cahill, Keystone's director of production.
Jeff Rutt, founder and president
“He's always selling,” says his financial manager Doug Hostetler.
“He is almost continually saying, ‘Keep striving for excellence!'” says Keystone's director of estimating and options James W. Hostetter Jr.
Rutt has a simpler answer: “I write things down.”