PB August 2003

Builders who develop land need to carry this model further to determine what they can pay for raw land.

Jim Candelaria helps protect the mountains of southwest Colorado from the forest fires that sometimes sweep through the area during dry summers.

Richard Van Schaardenburg coaxed two firms into the top five in Chicago. Now he builds custom homes high in the Colorado Rockies with his son.

Given the close link between job creation and housing demand, it can't hurt builders in these 10 markets that Forbes magazine's Web site ranks their towns as the best places for business and careers.

Dallas/Fort Worth builders coax discretionary buyers by putting a home theater in almost every model home. Will the 'man cave' work for you?

The legal structures underpinning land-control deals can be confusing. We turned to a residential transaction expert, attorney Mathew A. Wyman, a partner with Cox, Castle & Nicholson LLP in Los Angeles, to sort it out.

Third-party monitoring of sales performance is not new. First came paper-and-pen reports, then audio and, in recent years, secret shoppers equipped with tiny cameras and camcorders.

Picture this: an apparatus that squirts building material (such as adobe or concrete) in a thin layer while automated trowels near the nozzle smooth and shape it almost simultaneously.

Ben Anderson contacted the landowner and offered assistance in overcoming five hurdles that stood in the way of development on the site.

Old school: Leave a box of leaflets outside for interested buyers who drive by when your models or spec homes are closed. New school: Broadcast messages to car radios.