Options and Upgrades

  • Online Alterations

    AIRSTON HOMES CREATED A simple way for online home shoppers to customize its floor plans online. After selecting a community, prospective buyers can link to the site's “Build Your Own Home” section at www.airstonhomes.com, which displays the floor plans from that project. Each plan offers several...

     
  • Lexus Living

    Las Vegas builder R. Wayne Wermuth has made corian countertops, ceiling fans, and two-tone custom paint standard in the five, single-story floor plans at Solera at Anthem, a 385-acre, age-restricted, master planned community in Henderson, Nev. Making such luxury options standard has increased his...

     
  • Good, Better, Best

    There are some very high-quality home theater packages available for under $10,000 that can generate high gross margins for builders.

     
  • Keep Your Options Open

    Smaller companies are finding creative ways to give customers the personalization they crave, while minimizing the organizational burdens that can drain staff and siphon profits.

     
  • Year-Round Retreat

    AT FIRST GLANCE, IT'S HARD TO SEE HOW THE Carneros Inn in Napa, Calif., could have any connection to the tenets of new urbanism. The 27-acre, $57 million resort property boasts the first of two dozen for-sale homes, 96 guest cottages, a spa, and a first-class restaurant. Instead of the usual...

     
  • The Measure Of A Window

    IN TODAY'S COMPETITIVE AND energy-conscious marketplace, efficient windows aren't an option; they're a necessity.

     
  • Change is Good

    Handling customer changes above the standard allowances set in the initial contract is the lifeblood of the custom home business.

     
  • Option Plan

    Van Metre's purchasing software is part of a company-wide “operational” system. Here are some things the software designers kept in mind when it came to putting together their very own system.

     
  • Easy Upgrades

    Van Metre's software system has been designed to save time for the homeowner, and time and money for the builder.

     
  • Supply Chain Initiatives: Growth Options

    11.2 percent: The proportion of new home sales price that came from options and upgrades in 2003.

     
  • Solar Giants?

    Pardee, like Beazer, Shea, and many other big builders, has recently given the residential PV industry an enormous boost. Each has begun to offer PV packages standard options in many of its communi ties. As a result, the solar people are over whelmed (not to mention overjoyed) with new residential...

     
  • BOXES & TOPS

     
  • Cabinets and Counters Pull Kitchens Together

    Kitchens have long since become the center of gravity for most homeowners. And for most new home buyers, the two ingredients that have the greatest power in pulling the room together, say design center veterans, continue to be cabinets and countertops. Not surprisingly, those two categories also...

     
  • Hot Sellers: Did You Say Options?

    The Dunwallis floor plan at Downing Forge by the Brandywine is creating hefty profits for Southdown Homes in Chester County, Pa. One of five plans offered, it also serves as the project's sales center. Ad agency: Rhoads Creative, Exton, Pa.

     
  • Hot Sellers: Highland Ranch

    Beating competitors' prices by $10,000 to $15,000 and including standard amenities other builders tack on as extras, California's Highland Ranch has become a sales success.

     
  • Profits Underfoot

    U.S. Home's design center in Phoenix is doubling its flooring display space to accommodate more sales consultants and Photo: Courtesy Alloc InteriorsBuilders are profiting from flooring upgrades popular with home buyers.

     
  • Appliance Amenities

    "We've seen building costs increase from 17 [percent] to 24 percent," says Jeff Galindo, senior sales manager at Sun City Anthem, in Henderson, Nev., where home prices range from the mid-$200,000s to the mid-$400,000s.

     
  • Hot Sellers: Midwestern Value

    The community boasts 144 acres of open space and wetlands, parks, playgrounds, soccer fields, walking trails, a bridle path, and a community pavilion.

     
  • Garage Options

    How can I achieve a neotraditional look without utilizing alleys?

     
  • Garage Options

    Q. How can I achieve a neotraditional look without utilizing alleys?