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If there's any builder on the list that personifies exponential growth, it's Kara Homes. "Every six months we double," says CEO Zudi Karagjozi, who projects 360 closings and $140 million in revenue this year.
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Insurers blame bad weather and mold for sending insurance rates through the roof. At the end of July of this year, Gordon Stewart, president of the Insurance Information Institute, an industry-sponsored interface with the public, based in New York, laid out the bad news before a congressional...
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Housing belongs atop shopping, says architect Barry Berkus.
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"We're in a self-induced recession in the middle of a housing boom," says Larry Keener, CEO of Palm Harbor Homes, an Addison, Texas-based manufactured home company that in July reported its first quarterly loss in 13 years. Shipments are sliding too, from last year's 193,000 to a projected 180,000...
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If you're still using wood exterior trim boards on your houses, then you know the deal. While they may look like wood, these products will last until the cows come home. Composite trim may be wood/plastic, cellular PVC, vinyl, or polyurethane.
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Extensible Markup Language, or XML, may soon become the dominant way that building industry business partners send and receive electronic data.
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An expert offers 10 suggestions you may not have considered.That's because Gamse is a Santa Cruz, Calif.-based Web consultant and professional speaker (www.CyberSpeaker.com) who helps companies around the world create technology strategies and tune up their Web sites. So from the perspective of a...
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Over 150 builders and business partners attended the Builder Technology Conference in Washington in June to hear how to develop a technology plan. You need buy-in from top management, but you should also form a steering committee with members drawn from sales, IT, finance, and construction.
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Denver-based Homesphere has pursued an unrelenting expansion campaign over the last year. In October 2001, it bought BuildSoft and promptly doubled staff.
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The Internet continues to evolve as a useful communications tool for home builders. BuildLinks' software already lets buyers track construction, alerts them when it's time to choose options, and enables discussion between builders, subs, and homeowners.
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Sixty percent of homeowners aren't happy with their HVAC system, but ducts and filters can be a hard sell when compared to cabinets and counters. "During litigation about mold, ventilation issues come into play," says Joyce.
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The study, called "Networking With the Joneses," found that the demographics of those using home technology has changed to include more people who would not be called early adopters. The study concludes that more people would ask for networking equipment if they were educated about its benefits.
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The site was started by Cathy Chapman, a real estate agent in Frederick, Md. The cost for listing a home is $50 per month. The service is currently available in the Frederick area, but Chapman hopes eventually to market it nationwide.
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The technology vision we hear of most often is that of an industry-wide, e-commerce system in which orders and payments are automatically exchanged between builders, subs, and suppliers. "We had a paper monster that we needed to tame," recalls John Cann, the company's manager of information systems.
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The Treasure Island site now includes a Job Corps training program for 850 people, 908 housing units, nine barrack-style facilities, a public elementary school, a clinic, and 314 acres of submerged land. Proud says San Francisco has taken seriously its commitment to offer housing opportunities to...
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Model homes can be a builder's greatest sales tool. They're a tangible way to demonstrate the company's capabilities and can also serve as a showcase for product and finish upgrades as well as floor plan options. Theses tips are just a few ideas on how to make your models work for you.
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Is there a way to tweak a new house design in order to deliver a good product, maybe even a better product than the competition, and still improve the bottom line? The answer is yes, though production builders take different routes to the destination.
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Now that the dot-com dust has settled, builders have refocused their technology priorities and gotten down to business.
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Despite the imperatives of a tight labor market and the constant drive for more profits, trade partnering has gotten a lot more lip service than serious effort."At best, 5 percent of the builders are doing this well, and another 10 percent are playing at it," says Scott Sedam, president of...
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Well, at least we're not alone. Lest builders think this industry is the only one getting hammered in the liability insurance crisis (and it is officially a crisis now), premiums, retentions (or deductibles), and exclusions are up, and limits are down, regardless of the field.