Group Service
Builder Sourcing touts itself as the "Next New National Home Builder." For a business that is not strictly a home builder and is confined primarily to the Front Range of Colorado, that boast may seem broad. Builder Sourcing is a buyers group of 16 small to mid-sized builders closing approximately 2,000 homes a year.
Selling with Extended Deliveries
In today's market, some customers are being asked to wait a year or even longer before they can even move into their home. This weakens the emotional appeal of the sale and allows additional time for cancellations. Do you change your presentation for extended deliveries? How do you keep a happy customer and minimize cancellations?
How They Think
Builders need to know how buyers think, but there's another set of people — government officials — who hold just as much clout in a project's life. Increasingly, those in the public sector are thinking of ways to fund major projects without raising taxes. And at any given moment, hundreds of them are in some stage of a public/private partnership.
The Next Big Boom
Move over, metropolitan markets, the megapolitans are coming. Estimating housing needs for 83 million more U.S. residents by 2040, researchers at the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech are predicting a $25-trillion housing boom. To account for this growth and development, they have created 10 super-sized market areas they call megapolitan areas, or simply megapolitans.
Reading the Tides
Whoever said a rising tide lifts all boats didn't know boats. All boats, like all building companies, fare very differently in the same conditions. No two voyages are exactly the same. Even with the best captain and an experienced crew, navigating rough seas and storms takes a blend of technical know-how and sheer brass.
Inflating Material Prices
According to Associated General Contractors of America (AGC), in the past two years, construction costs appear to be rising faster than the general rate of inflation. Heavy construction in the U.S. and rapid growth in Asia have created a strong demand for a number of construction materials.
EPA Raises the Bar, Lowers Utility Bills
Builders will have to significantly increase the energy efficiency of their homes to meet new Energy Star requirements scheduled to take effect July 1, 2006. The NAHB has expressed concern that the July date will not give builders sufficient time to transition to the new standards. They prefer a timetable specified in an earlier draft that gave new communities until July 1, 2006 to state their intention to go Energy Star, and until January 1, 2007 to qualify under the old Energy Star standards.
