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Pittsburgh-based Maronda Homes now runs desktop applications on its 550 PCs with OpenOffice, Linux shareware downloaded off the Web from www.openoffice.org. The move has saved Maronda in excess of $300,000 on annual licensing fees for Microsoft Office and server maintenance costs.
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The residential building industry is notorious for being a technology backwater, but a recent BUILDER survey on sales automation software indicates that the tide may be turning. Roughly 90 percent of those surveyed say their sales centers have PCs and Internet access, while another 73 percent...
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Builder Management Technology has released a version of its scheduling product that integrates with Timberline's accounts payable and job costing applications. The scheduling software is $2,000 for a license that covers one server and one Palm device.
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An increase in sales volume has made it possible for Home Automation Inc. to reduce the price of its Omni Console keypad by 15 percent to $141. The new console it introduced at the International Builders' Show last month features an updated look, with larger buttons, a cool blue backlight versus...
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Nemetschek North America, makers of CAD software VectorWorks, has released an upgraded 10.5.1 version of its entire VectorWorks product line. Existing VectorWorks users can download the software for free at www.nemetschek.net/downloads.
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Echelon Corp. is making some headway in the residential sector with its automated LonWorks platform. Until now, LonWorks has mostly been deployed in commercial buildings and some multifamily projects.
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Larry Abney, director of construction at Castle & Cooke Homes Hawaii, says a system that integrates Service Software's customer service program Punchlist Manager, onProject's scheduling software onSchedule, and the J.D. Edwards back-end accounting system helped his company more effectively manage a...
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Builders are not immune to the threats posed by the hacker community's bag of tricks, the top three of which IT security research group the Computer Security Institute (CSI) says are computer viruses, identity theft, and denial-of-service attacks. For starters, get religious about backups, don't...
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When a builder wants to emphasize its on-site amenities, the typical approach is to use images of people who look like the customer. Three ads featured golf, tennis, and the community's lake (all shot on site), with the models digitally removed.
Home buyers want it all--a great location, wonderful floor plans, a sense of neighborhood and belonging, and a full array of amenities and upgrades. Celebrating its 23rd year as the home building industry's premier sales and marketing award, The Nationals are sponsored by the NAHB's National Sales...
The Hearthstone BUILDER Awards, established in 1999 by Hearthstone Advisers, a national home building financier, and BUILDER, are intended to honor builders just like Hill and Glunt, people who have dedicated time and money to improving their communities through charitable work.
Is the age of the artist-craftsman coming to an end? Maybe not, judging by the skill and passion of these seven talented and successful artisans. They share many traits in common--their passion about their work, their insistence on perfection, their non-conformist view of the world. But, like the...
Here's a look at five custom homes--one each from Utah, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin, and two in Texas--that reflect the particular styles of their regions.
Gated community in fast-growing area north of Tampa, Fla., is attracting move-up buyers from across the county line to lower tax Pasco County.
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Low price point, multiple floor plans, and desert amenities are attracting first-time buyers.
Creative development in the heart of an older, high-status suburb promises "old-fashioned downtown living" in up-to-date new homes.
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The current economic recovery officially began in November 2001, and the recovery process has involved respectable growth in economic output (real GDP). Happily, the balance of pluses and minuses has been quite good for housing.
By Bobby Rayburn. But even though our nation has made great progress over the past five decades in attaining the goal adopted by Congress in 1949 of "a decent home and a suitable living environment for every American family," there are dangerous undercurrents in today's housing market. In 2004, the...
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- The nation's home builders expect to stay busy in 2004 as rock-solid market fundamentals bolster demand for new homes and apartments nationwide.
- Texas governor re-appoints former NAHB president Kent Conine to the Governing Board of the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs.
- The...
Despite recent price fluctuations, oriented strand board (OSB) is on a great run. Spokane, Wash.-based Potlatch Corp. dedicates a large portion of its efforts to specialty OSB products.
Of all the window materials available on the market, vinyl is the hottest. "The vinyl window market continues to grow, especially in the new-construction market, where new-housing starts have been at an all-time high," says Maria Macdonagh-Forde, marketing manager for the windows group at Valley...
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By Alison Rice. Did the December announcement from WaMu, as the Seattle-based lender is known, indicate trouble ahead? Not quite, says Paul Miller, managing director at investment bank Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group.
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This design guideline applies specifically to a 1,600-acre part of town called the Westfields. "We wanted to ensure a higher level of variation with the homes," says Carl Morgan, a Springville city planner.
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In a bid to shake their cyclical reputation, a handful of public builders have revived a nonprofit group initially established in 2000--the Public Home Building Council of America (PHBCA)--with a broader membership and message.
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The latest round of the industry's ongoing battle over development issues with the administration started in January when the state's Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) adopted new stormwater rules that require 300-foot buffers along more than 6,000 miles of rivers and streams statewide.
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The States are fascinated with 300-year-old, stone-clad homes found everywhere in industrialized Europe.
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The Builders for the Bay program, which will bring together environmental scientists, public officials, and builders for a series of 12 site-planning roundtables in Chesapeake Bay watershed communities, is making some headway. Two more are planned for this year in James City County, Va., and parts...
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Two former real estate developers have found a way to use satellite global positioning system (GPS) technology to take house hunting one step further. At about the end of the tech boom, brothers Brad and Eric Blumberg asked themselves what was next.
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The Schaumburg, Ill.-based AAMA says that some 80 percent of the vinyl window components in the United States are produced here and in Canada and are competitively priced and AAMA-certified for performance characteristics.
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Sheldon Baskin knew what he wanted to build on the site of an old convent. Such results caught the attention of Business and Professional People for the Public Interest (BPI), a Chicago nonprofit that lobbies for affordable housing and other issues.
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Timothy Eller, president and COO of Centex Corp., will take top spot at the Dallas-based construction giant this spring. Hirsch will continue as chairman of Centex Construction Products.
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The Naval Facilities Engineering Command was one of five winners of the EPA's 2003 National Smart Growth Achievement Awards.
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Atlanta-based Georgia-Pacific filed a patent infringement lawsuit on Sept. 25 of last year in Delaware, alleging that a British-owned company, BPB America, illegally "borrows" patented technology used in the company's "Dens" line of interior and exterior wall products.
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What will $22 million get you?
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GE Global Research says that its breakthrough in a new lighting technology has the potential to be more energy efficient and to revolutionize lighting design, while producing the same performance as traditional light sources. The latest development moves the new form of lighting closer to fruition.
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Builders kept their New Year's resolutions to grow with a handful of holiday acquisitions. KB Home now builds in South Carolina, thanks to the purchase of Palmetto Traditional Homes, which closed 570 homes for $90 million in 2003.
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A recent survey of 5,486 prospective buyers by American Home Guides found that more than 60 percent of the survey's respondents were women, 73 percent of whom were under 45 years old. This buyer is looking for a single-family home priced between $100,000 to $250,000 somewhere in the southern United...
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A recent report by the American Lands Alliance questions the environmental legitimacy of the American Forest & Paper Association's Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI). The report says SFI-certified practices include such things as the logging of old growth forests, wilderness areas, and...
Ten years ago, of course, most builder marketing campaigns featured product, front and center. The best sales and marketing campaigns today fully embrace that notion.