CHICAGO, June 10, 2002 -- In 1924, Skil Power Tools created a unique power tool that changed the construction and home improvement industries forever. Rooted in an idea for a motorized machete to cut sugarcane, modern day circular saw technology came to life with the development of the Skilsaw...
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To be included in our special directory of financial services in October 2002, please take a moment to complete this form and return it to the contact below by August 1st. Please e-mail your information to Iris Richmond, at irichmond@hanley-wood.com or fax the form to BIG BUILDER at 202-785-1974...
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Fatal Flaw: Monogamy
To Jim Pugash, few home-building financing horror stories can compare with the reality of the early 1990s.
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What technological oversight will cause you the most grief? You may be surprised."Systems don't run the business. If you can't do something manually first, you have no business automating it."
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Although most builder vulnerabilities still lie in weak administrative skills, other threats, including consolidation and insurance problems, are coming on strong. The paper trail of failed building companies has much to teach us about why builders go under.
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"Builders need to support their associations and go after tort reforms. If they get behind it financially, they may be successful. Otherwise, even if they improve quality, they won't stop litigation. And insurers won't assess lower rates."
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With the Internet coming on strong, newspapers are eroding as the once-primary source of real estate advertising.
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Watch your pennies on the job, or your company will lose millions of dollars throughout the year.Determine the market price for the home, the desired profit, the cost of land, and the amount for direct construction.
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If you focus only on superstars, hiring and retaining key personnel can drive you out of business in a hurry."The opposite approach," he explains, "is to develop systems for project management--what needs to be done, how we do it here, systems for scheduling, ordering, etc. Then you don't need the...
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Financing is simply too critical to trust to just one banker, even when times are good. To Jim Pugash, few home-building financing horror stories can compare with the reality of the early 1990s.
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Land. You gotta have it--but not at any price. Done badly, land development can damage one's reputation as a builder.
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Outdated architectural designs lead to serious declines in sales and reputation and to extinction."One of the ironies of design," says architect Bill Kreager, "is that details considered old-fashioned sometimes return. The architect's basic responsibility to the builder," he says, "is to thoroughly...
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Poor accounting practices will cost you and your company more than you can afford.
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Put all your business in a single crop, such as one region, product, or market, and any negative change may put you out of business--for good.We thought builders would diversify, especially into remodeling," says NAHB vice president and economist Gopal Ahluwalia, "but the new-construction market...
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Building companies fail with disturbing frequency. Too often, the end comes swiftly and tragically. Can you spot the seeds of destruction in your organization before your business card becomes a toe tag on a Chapter 7 application?
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Builders catering to high-income clientele are always on the lookout for the next hot luxury product. That is how they catch the eye of discerning buyers, and that's partly how they "differentiate themselves from their competition," says Wally Schwartz, director of national builder accounts at...
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Builders will agree that the right hand and power tools are necessary to build houses efficiently. Having the right equipment is a must to run a successful business," says Marty Robbins, national sales manager for Tongue Twister in Mascotte, Fla. "It is convenient, and it saves a lot of time.
Are you trying to choose a structured wiring system for your homes? It seemed reasonable: After all, most products look alike, with a central wiring hub serving home runs of coaxial cable for video and Category-5 wiring for phone and data. Even then, the final decision will be partly a wager.Here...
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A history of rare payouts and narrow policy language has builders looking more closely at their options for long-term warranty coverage. Hypersensitive homeowners with unrealistic (and un-checked) expectations, defect litigation, rising callback costs, and a shrinking pool of skilled construction...
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A Colorado developer's risk pays off as he creates a new model for affordability and design. But developer Gene Myers, president of New Town Development, thinks that the building industry should be accountable for changing the face of affordable, and he's started with a creative, attractive, and...
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For an industry that closely watches its hard costs, the current quarterly building product price forecasts by economic consulting firm DRI-WEFA have a certain appeal. Economist Michael Carliner expects lumber prices to start creeping upward in the next three months, with more pressure to come if...
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To get the word out on local HBA's Home Builders Care projects, the NAHB is offering a brochure, new for 2002, that not only explains the national Home Builders Care program but also has space for local associations to customize their own brochures.
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Recession temporarily reduced labor shortages, but builders still need to look for quality crews and labor-saving techniques.But a cyclically soft labor market may also have reduced incentives to search out more labor-saving techniques in home building, despite long-term or "structural" problems...
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With National Membership Day (July 22) just around the corner, there couldn't be a better time to reflect on what it means to be a member of America's home building industry and of the NAHB.
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- The IRS prosecutes 384 construction companies for tax evasion.
- BuilderBooks.com releases new International Code Check for Home Builders.
- NAHB holds symposium to discuss the future of housing for aging boomers.
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Some call it Manhattan envy--the term for cities that want urban centers modeled after New York's legendary city life and mixed-use vibrancy. To import that Gotham mood to San Diego's waterfront, Douglas Wilson Cos. launched Parkloft.
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The chance to stroll through the woods and snap photos lured 800 buyers to a sneak preview day at an unbuilt community.The Pinehills generated 400 sales within 12 months of the preview--long before the golf course was completed. Photo: Charlie BrownThe Pinehills targeted 2,500 qualified buyers and...
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Targeting move-up and move-down buyers near Atlanta's venerable Emory University, McRae and Stolz found that small could be huge. The Clifton targets nearby medical employees and physicians at Emory University's hospital and campus.
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Outdoor lighting has come of age. "People want to create outdoor rooms for entertaining at night," notes Randall Whitehead, author of The Art of Outdoor Lighting. $6 to $18 per string These party lights feature "Nomex" shades, a type of flameproof paper cone, but there are myriad styles available...
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Third-party decorative fireplace shrouds often violate building codes. Derek Lidstrom, of Gurnee, Ill., just north of Chicago, has big problems with those fancy architectural shrouds you see perched on wooden chimney surrounds. As Lidstrom (whose company, Chimney King, makes UL listed shrouds) sees...
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A buyer closes on a new home only to discover that the property has two mortgages: his and the builder's. That's the situation in Cincinnati, where The Erpenbeck Co., an Edgewood, Ky.-based builder, is under investigation for allegedly depositing closing checks intended to pay off construction...
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Pulte told investors and two newspaper reporters in February about its new Detroit manufacturing facility, but mum is the official word until the second factory opens later this year. In an era when large areas of land are becoming more difficult to find and process, and every site-built technique...
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For residential applications, steel flooring systems require new tools, attention to fastening, and a detailed plan for mechanicals. Steel floors are covered in the new International Residential Code (IRC) and currently cost about 3 percent or 4 percent less than dimensional wood floors. Screws...
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One of the best we've seen is Fireplace Design Solutions (FDS), an interactive 3-D program from Napa, Calif.-based Cultured Stone (www.culturedstone.com).
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Some big builders have been putting Web cams on site so that customers can log onto the Internet to see their homes being built.
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Punchlist software usually runs on a hand-held PDA. But, the new Punchlister differs in that it requires a tablet PC running Windows 2000.
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M & S Systems' (www.mssystems.com) MC2000 is a new, whole-house audio system that allows music from different media--audio tapes, CDs, or MP3 files--as well as radio stations to play on the same network. Prices range from $9,299 for a four-room pack to $14,999 for an eight-room pack.
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Builders First Source is spearheading an effort by the Pro Dealer Exchange and Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing to develop XML-based electronic documents--invoices, requests for quotes, etc.--for use by anyone in the supply chain.
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How much is a Web site worth? We asked Village Homes in Littleton, Colo. The company spent $1.2 million redesigning its site, which it launched two years ago. One feature is an online version of Village's Tech Touch Showroom, a physical showroom where customers can choose electrical and electronic...
So far, the door separating your homes from a flood of new technologies has been only slightly ajar. By BUILDER Magazine Staff"In at least 40 million households the home has become an arm of work," says Tricia Parks, president of Dallas-based Parks Associates, the company that sponsored the...
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Buyers may find their new homes just a click away at Ebay Real Estate (http://pages.ebay.com/realestate). Ebay Real Estate will include an online library of "how-to" articles, especially geared to first-time home buyers.
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Back in 1975 the suburbs were booming, and no one would even consider dining out in dilapidated downtown San Diego, much less living there. But thanks to the Centre City Development Corp. (CCDC), an initiative started by then-mayor Pete Wilson, and $2.9 billion of private investment and $445...
Five years ago, Colony Homes of Woodstock, Ga., used more than 30 different windows to build its houses. Today, it buys seven main windows, using them in multiple ways to achieve variety and efficiencies.
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Seattle contractors and suppliers put their time, money, and heart into a much-needed multifamily shelter for homeless women and children. If you're one of those builders whose definition of community service begins and ends with donating to the Boy Scouts, the recent activities of Seattle's Master...
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Standard Pacific is buying Tampa, Fla.-based Westfield Homes for $109 million in cash, stock, and debt.
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The Manufactured Housing Institute will hold its annual "Developing with Manufactured Homes" seminar on Oct. 21-23 at the Hyatt Regency in Cincinnati.
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It's a fairly common practice for women to have their friends over for all sorts of in-home shopping parties, selling things like Tupperware and Mary Kay, but tools?
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Think your company does a great job? Let us know: Enter the 2003 America's Best Builders contest.
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The U.S. Supreme Court will decide who's liable for discrimination under the Fair Housing Act next term, when it hears Meyer vs. Holley, a California case pitting an interracial couple against the executive of a realty firm, whose agent allegedly refused to sell them a new home.
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In China, public bathrooms are undergoing lavish renovation, and consumers who want a modern flush at home can find "bathroom appliances" featured prominently in home improvement and interior design stores.
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Record profits, record closings, record backlogs: Everyone knows that 2001 was very good to builders.
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While many builders return to entry-level buyers, WL Homes is bucking that trend by establishing a new division in Southern California: the John Laing Luxury Group.
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Ten months after acquiring Del Webb, Pulte has dissolved the active adult builder as a separate division and integrated it into the Michigan builder's overall operations.
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Ambitious growth plans. Pricing tug-of-wars. The challenges of managing divisions (and the essentially local business of home building) from afar. The country's top builders discussed these issues and more at the annual BUILDER 100 conference in Scottsdale, Ariz., in May.
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Because the trust created in the contracting and construction stages quickly evaporates when a builder fails to meet the specified closing date. When a builder develops a thorough understanding of the processes involved from sale to closing, he can prevent negative customer sentiment by...
Fourteen percent of the construction companies with payrolls doing business today will be out of business at this time next year, according to figures from the Small Business Administration, analyzed by the NAHB.
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In their first partnership together, the EPA and Habitat for Humanity will address two key issues for builders and owners of affordable homes: brownfields sites and energy efficiency.
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Some builders, such as Paul Barnes, director of land acquisition for Shea Homes, have come to accept that negotiations on land-trust issues are an inevitable part of the cost of development.
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Getting mainstream recognition from the national business community used to be rare for building companies. In recent years, though, it's become a habit. What's caused the change?
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Compared to homeowners, renters often are treated as second-class citizens. According to the conventional wisdom, they're not as stable. They don't make as much money. They don't care as much about their neighborhoods. But to a handful of builders, renters -- and their apartments -- are revenue.
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While electronic communications with trade partners inches ahead, there's an urgent push for e-commerce standards -- particularly online home listings and building materials.
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With the biggest builders bulking up, and mergers on the rise, more and more investment banks want a piece of the action.
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How many opportunities does a builder have to amaze and delight a customer? Put another way, how many chances are there to mess up a relationship and doom the chances for a referral? Anywhere between 20 and 200, Carol Smith calculates.
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Customer service ... is your last, longest, and best opportunity to leave an impression with your customers. It's when you can make up for any mistakes in the past -- or blow successes ... ."
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The night the industry's first $1 billion deal was made, Bob Strudler, Stuart Miller, and others, negotiated until well after midnight. Two years of talks came to a close that evening, talks that languished then revived a half-dozen times whenever Lennar's CEO made another appeal to U.S. Home's...
With the worsening of the insurance crisis, builder differentiation has taken on a new, and darker, importance.
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Some builders are frustrated that the supply chain hasn't kept pace with the changes, but trying to move it forward has brought aggravations, too.
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Standard Pacific entered into a letter of intent to buy Westfield Homes USA for a proposed price of $109 million; David Weekley Homes entered the coastal city of Fort Myers; Lennar unveiled intentions to buy lots from Pacific Century Homes, and more.
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Stepping up its commitment to Habitat for Humanity, WCI Communities plans to build seven Habitat homes throughout Florida this year.
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Congratulations to Stuart Miller, CEO of Lennar Corp., who was named by Builder and Big Builder as the recipient of the first Executive of the Year award.
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Remember the partnership between KB Home and American CityVista (ACV) headed by former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros, the one formed to pursue affordable housing ventures? Rumors circulated about a riff between the partners after KB Home passed on an infill project, Monticello Village in San Antonio.
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Pulte Homes is nearly finished restructuring its field operations to help achieve its ambitious goal of $10 billion in annual revenue by 2004.
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New stormwater regulations proposed by the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board could add $3,000 to $6,000 per unit in a community, say Southern California builders, who have lined up to oppose them.
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Filling a void in the Southern California market left by the departure of several luxury builders, WL Homes recently formed a new division to compete in the upper price segments.
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An interesting coalition of companies, including Weyerhaeuser Co., Centex Homes, Pulte Homes, The Home Depot, and other forest products companies, has joined forces to actively oppose the International Trade Commission's (ITC) recent upholding of the countervailing duties and anti-dumping penalties...
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Todd Stevens saw the cars drive by and knew something was wrong. To make people drive across the street, they realized they needed a broader message than "We have extra lumber, we have extra concrete," Stevens says.