PB April 2004

Most companies we encounter overlook relationship value, the measurable things a company does to create 'likability' between employees and customers

Factory-built housing predicted to grow 1.2% annually through 2005

When a landowner’s plan to develop a New Rochelle, N.Y., estate fell through, Ginsburg Development Corp. bought the 17-acre site and revised the plan to bring Kensington Woods to reality. The result: an empty-nester enclave of 52 luxury homes.

The best way to grow a home building company is to focus on these three objectives: maintaining competitive strength, creating value for the customer and, most important, maximizing profit.

Mack Bissette, CEO of Atlanta-based Springdale Homes, sister company of SRG Homes and Neighborhoods in Jacksonville, Fla., specializes in New Urbanist designs that blend with existing housing.

With NAHB economist Michael Carliner forecasting an annual net inflow of up to 1.7 million immigrants during the next decade, builders should keep an eye on anything that imperils those newcomers' ability to buy houses.

For help in scheduling, protecting materials and ensuring that work gets done in a safe environment, builders increasingly are using software programs that deliver the specifics on job-site weather conditions.

Upper Albany, a TND project featuring an eye-opening 'carriage home' product line, garnered 318 sales in less than 16 months — only 10 months with model homes open.

High Desert, a community in Albuquerque, N.M., maintains design and building guidelines - and a mechanism for inspection and enforcement of them to reduce conflicts between developer, builder and home buyer.

Some of the industry’s highest profit margins are recorded here.