For many, home technology is seen as an added cost that can price their homes out of the market. But what if home technology could be a profit center?
Savvy builders have learned to structure the rewards in a way that fosters good will between builders and Realtors.
IT'S RISKY TO WAX NOSTALGIC ABOUT AMERICA'S good old days. Often, gazing at a Norman Rockwell soft-focus version of our past glosses over the battles fought for the liberties and lifestyle improvements we take for granted today. A century ago, women in the United States had no voting rights;...
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Every one of your employees plays a critical role. But perhaps the most challenging positions to manage and retain are your site superintendents.
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Kim Haegele, design gallery manager at St. Louis-based Taylor-Morley, is a testimonial to how technology can influence employees' attitude toward their job.
To find the best practices for employee retention, BUILDER looked at Baptist Health and insurance underwriter ACUITY, two companies that overcame high turnover, poor morale, and subpar performance to become leaders in employee and customer satisfaction.
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By far, the technology person who can have the most impact on your company is the product-specific consultant who manages a back-office deployment.
Any way you look at it, finding quality people to fill construction jobs is getting harder, and the problem is getting worse daily.
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These Trade Secrets will help your company find, keep, and manage the right people.
Could HomeAid pull together a team to demolish a house in South Central Los Angeles and put up a new, 4,700-square-foot replacement in just six days?
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The group is forecasting a 40 percent decline in single-family home construction by 2005.
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In areas where the gap between the 5 percent of earners at the highest incomes and middle-income earners is greatest, housing prices tend to spike higher for everybody.
GM hopes builders will be enthusiastic for first full-size hybrid pickups. -- and willing to spend an extra $2,500 for 10 percent to 15 percent fuel savings and for an on-demand AC generator
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If you've ever wondered if all Realtors have cell phones surgically attached to their ears, you may not be far off. According to the 2004 National Association of Realtors Technology Impact Survey report, 95 percent of Realtors use a mobile phone. A full 97 percent own and use a personal computer...
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After a great deal of wrangling with housing interests, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush finally reauthorized the state and local Affordable Housing Trust Funds. Reauthorization of the trust funds means the program will survive at least four more years. Gov. Bush authorized $193 million for affordable housing...
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One potential labor source for builders looking for good people is the Helmets to Hardhats program administered by the Center for Military Recruitment, Assessment, and Veterans Employment. The program seeks to supply former military personnel with information about the best opportunities in...
Habitat for Humanity International has built more than 150,000 homes in 3,000 communities worldwide since 1976. For Matthew and Carrie Reid in Boise, Idaho, however, their home, dedicated in May, is the only one that counts.
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The Home Depot is making plans to open stores in China. The Atlanta-based home-improvement chain recently named Bill E. Patterson to the new position of president of Home Depot Asia. Until now, The Home Depot's international expansion has been limited to stores in Mexico and Canada.
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When President Bush attended the G8 Summit on Sea Island, off the coast of Brunswick, Ga., in mid-June, a group of about 75 activists tried a new form of protest—helping to clean up and refurbish abandoned homes for young mothers and their children. The group, “Resistance Through Constructive...
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The 10 biggest U.S. metropolitan areas include undervalued communities that possess the desirable traits of a major city without the high price tag. Those communities included Scotch Plains, N.J., Silver Spring, Md., Havertown, Pa., Sharon, Mass., Mundelein, Ill., and Lathrup Village, Mich., in the...
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Builders who knowingly hire illegal aliens would have faced losing their state license and local permits under a bill presented in the Louisiana State Senate this session. SB 771 required contractors and trade builders to file an affidavit stating that immigrants they hired had been cleared by the...
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State and local governments will soon receive their share of the $161.5 million set aside for the federal American Dream Downpayment Initiative, which aims to help first-time buyers achieve homeownership. HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson believes the initiative will narrow the gap between minority...
A recent survey by the National Association of Realtors found that Americans now support more affordable housing in their communities.
Improved communications with customers is at the heart of Brookfield's new CRM system.
SBC Communications has been forging partnerships with home builders to ensure that the right networking and communications infrastructure is in place when homeowners move in.
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- Nextel expands its Direct Connect walkie-talkie feature to international markets.
- Honeywell's new VisionPRO touch-screen programmable thermostat offers convenience for home buyers.
- Hovnanian Enterprises to deploy PeopleSoft's full line of back-office and enterprise management software.
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Most industry analysts agree that autonomic computing is a vague concept that's been tough for large computer vendors to sell.
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SUDDENLY, IT SEEMS, URBAN RENEWAL is everywhere. Not the kind of mindless urban construction that took hold back in the 1960s, when whole neighborhoods were razed in favor of bland, boring apartments. This century's downtown dynamic is much savvier, with builders and developers working hard—and...
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Market study showed strong demand by middle-class Hispanic families who wanted to stay on the south side of town.
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Grant Park shows that the right product targeted to the right market can work despite what could have been overwhelming obstacles.
Interior architecture is what appealed to this project's target market of move-up families and empty-nesters.
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Recent Oak Ridge National Laboratory results show SIPs can help homeowners cut energy costs.