Professional Builder (1993) articles from October 2006

Professional Builder (1993) archives from October 2006

As Seen on TV.(kitchen design trends)
October 1, 2006... By Rhonda Jackson, Staff Writer Today's home buyers are looking for a stylish kitchen that supports their modern lifestyle - and they're following pop culture's cues. Kitchens.com's editor Kimberly Sweet says homeowners are heavily...

Diamond in the Rough.(Botanica- residential building profile)
October 1, 2006... By Bill Lurz, Senior Editor In tough markets, look for infill gems like this one in Jupiter, Fla., to lead the recovery. Many markets across the country are in full retreat, especially where investors flipping houses drove annual...

Boost Your Resources.(home building market forecast)
October 1, 2006... By Paul Cardis, NRS Corp. With existing home sales down and a surplus of new housing in many parts of the country, home builders are heading back to the days of normal growth and profits. As many of you already know, the industry now has...

Fast Twitch, Knee Jerk.(home building industry forecast)
October 1, 2006... By Paul Deffenbaugh Last February, I posed this question to the CEO of one of the country's largest home builders: what would happen on Wall Street at the end of the first quarter when home builders report their earnings and revise...

The Great Talent Search.(human resource management strategies)
October 1, 2006... By Felicia Oliver, Senior Editor Hiring the right people takes thought, patience and skill. Are you holding the right auditions? Do you have great people working for you - people with great skills, a good work ethic, and great...

Remember the Basics.(employee hiring tips)
October 1, 2006... By Bob Piper, The Talon Group How are you operating today? Learn from your peers and better yourself at the same time. My partners and I are in a fascinating line of work. Every day we get to talk to interesting people from across the...

Omega Homes.(new building materials)
October 1, 2006... Avi Hornstein, Owner, Vice President, Allentown, Pa. Wirsbo Aquapex from Uponor Avi Hornstein www.uponor-usa.com Corrosion-resistant Wirsbo Aquapex from Uponor is made of cross-linked polyethylene (PEX), whose flexibility...

Open Invitation.(great room and living room trends and forecast)
October 1, 2006... By Ann Matesi, Contributing Editor A well-planned great room can handle everyday living or guests. Some builders still call it the family room, while others have adopted the contemporary term great room. Labels aside, industry...

The Lean-Building Machine.(home building trends and forecast)
October 1, 2006... By Scott Sedam, TrueNorth Development The market's getting tighter. How's your business? What began as a predicted 5 percent slowdown for 2006 has now passed 10 percent nationwide and may reach 15 percent, or more. Some of the...

Fire and ICE.(Letter to the editor)
October 1, 2006... Paul Deffenbaugh Fire Brigade I second the opinion of David Stone in his letter in the August issue of Professional Builder and want to add that home fire sprinklers benefit the community as well as the homeowners. Many fire...

Protecting Your Backlog.
October 1, 2006... By John Rymer, New Home Knowledge With rising interest rates and a softening market, many builders face high cancellation rates as customers reconsider and or walk away from their original purchase decision. Although no builder is immune...

Back to the Future.(Whittaker Homes)
October 1, 2006... By Mark Jarasek, Senior Editor Whittaker Homes refreshes New Urbanism in a Missouri development home buyers embrace. The way he sees it, the blueprint for success was simple. "We've gone back in time to the way people used to live,"...

Better Building Blocks for Better Homes.(autoclaved aerated concrete)
October 1, 2006... By Dustin Rosa and Susan Conbere, PATH Partners A look at Autoclaved Aerated Concrete What goes up as easily as a standard concrete masonry unit (CMU) structure but is just as strong, more energy-efficient and easier to work with...

Green Products.
October 1, 2006... By Nick Bajzek BonaKemi USA Nick Bajzek The Bona Traffic and Bona Mega waterborne finishes have VOC levels of 180 and 150 grams per liter respectively and is Greenguard-certified. It applies similarly to a solvent and has a...

Better, Faster, Cheaper.(Open Prototype Initiative)(Brief article)
October 1, 2006... Felicia Oliver, Senior Editor A four-home prototype project finds a way to incorporate green building with universal design - and help a rehabilitation center, too. The idea behind the Open Prototype Initiative - what will be a...

Live Via Podcast.(Taylor Woodrow Homes Inc.)
October 1, 2006... Rhonda Jackson, Staff Writer Taylor Woodrow learned first-hand the impact of implementing off-the-beaten-path marketing strategies when a home sold after the company ran an in-flight airline infomercial in which a passenger walks off the...

Well-Oiled Efficient Machines.(builders)(Brief article)
October 1, 2006... By Mark Jarasek, Senior Editor Study finds operating efficiently makes your business work Builders participating in the most recent Harvard Distribution Study significantly downplayed the contribution that improved operating...

Supersize It.(new homes)(Brief article)
October 1, 2006... By Rhonda Jackson, Staff Writer Americans don't just want their food super-sized - their homes are getting bigger as well. The sizes of newly constructed homes have grown significantly over the last 30 years. According to the U.S. Census...

Market Downturn Deepens.(housing markets )
October 1, 2006... By Bill Lurz, Senior Editor Investors played a big role in the housing industry's slump in the early '90s. Their effect on today's down market is even greater. The continuing collapse of housing markets across the country is not...

Mod Moves Up.(housing)
October 1, 2006... By Bill Lurz, Senior Editor Modular manufacturers are courting home builders with products - and quality - light years beyond the double-wide. Keep an eye on the Gulf of Mexico - not because another hurricane is headed our way, but...

Mr. Optimism.(spotlight on Bob Toll, CEO of Toll Brothers Inc)(Editorial)(Biography)
October 1, 2006... By Bill Lurz, Senior Editor CEO Spotlight: Bob Toll If you're down in the dumps as you read this, it's easy to understand. Most housing markets are the pits, and knowing this malaise is unrelated to the general state of the overall...

Sell Tough.(SUPPLEMENT: GIANTS)(improvement of marketing techniques by real estate industries)
October 1, 2006... Bill Lurz Hindsight is 20/20, but we should have seen the current housing market implosion coming, especially when prices (and profits) began skipping off the stratosphere more than two years ago. If we'd foreseen it, we could have...

Myths and Facts of Valuations.(SUPPLEMENT: GIANTS)
October 1, 2006... By David Rosen, Michael P. Kahn and Associates Second in a two-part series In August we addressed some myths about valuation and how the softening home building market affects valuations. In this article, we outline the methodologies...

The Right Training.(SUPPLEMENT: GIANTS)(Brief article)
October 1, 2006... Staff I read [Rick Heaston's] online article in Housingzone.com today. Your observation of the skill sets of today's on-site sales personnel is more than astute -- it's dead on! In further agreement, it is my responsibility to see that my...

Growing Economies Affect Big Markets.(current market conditions of real estate industry)
October 1, 2006... By John Burns and Nikki Baumgartner, John Burns Real Estate Consulting Watch the Twin Cities and Lakeland, Fla., amid the down market Most of the housing markets in the country are slowing because interest rate increases have affected...

High-Performance Education.(2002 Energy & Environmental Building Association Conference)
October 1, 2006... By Michael Dickens, BuildIQ How builders can connect with buyers over homes that work better With energy prices on the rise, buyers are becoming increasingly attracted to the notion of high-performance homes. High-performance homes...

It's Time to Differentiate.(ways to improve customer relationship)(Editorial)
October 1, 2006... By Rick Heaston, Contributing Editor Gerhard Gschwandtner has a theory, and he believes he knows what influences financial decisions. It's called the "Zeitgeist," which he says is a wonderful German word that has no English equivalent but...

The Next Best Thing.(downturn in real estate market forces innovative solutions from production builders)
October 1, 2006... By Matthew Power, Senior Contributing Editor New research tears away the stereotypes about why, when and how production builders innovate. Large volume production builders make no secret of their aversion to risk. They approach any new...

Markets Surge at Quarter's End.(SUPPLEMENT: GIANTS)
October 1, 2006... By Margot Crabtree, Trade Trends Although housing construction was down in August, sales of new homes were up, and Wall Street surged at the end of the fall quarter and took housing stocks along for the ride. The Dow Industrials flirted...

Fantasy Island.
October 15, 2006... By Erin Hallstrom-Erickson As members of the home-building industry, we are privy to the mountains of information, techniques and products available that will help us build bigger, better, more efficient homes. Who hasn't walked the aisles...

The Boss' Boss.(builder John Eilermann and his wife Lisa works together on a residential construction project)
October 15, 2006... By Martha Russis, Contributing Editor St. Louis-based builder John Eilermann tapped his wife as project manager on their home -- and learned a few lessons. It was the sixth home for John Eilermann and his family, and by this time, he...

Natural State.(Loel Fenwick Tree house)
October 15, 2006... By Martha Russis, Contributing Editor The plans for Loel Fenwick's home stumped some contractors. In the end, he and his crew crafted an intricate tribute to nature. Loel Fenwick's home is in perfect sync with nature; it almost mirrors...

Emotional Investment.(Stephen Gillis property)
October 15, 2006... By Martha Russis, Contributing Editor He was his 'own worst customer,' but in the end, Stephen Gillis crafted his favorite home. It was a property Stephen Gillis had passed hundreds of times in Georgetown, Mass. When a "For Sale" sign...

No Place Like Home.(Steve Kendrick residence)
October 15, 2006... By Martha Russis, Contributing Editor Steve Kendrick built his home to maintain privacy in a tight-knit community his family had grown to love. Steve Kendrick faced a predicament. He and his wife, Anne, were growing out of their home...

What They Learned.(Professional Builder opinion)
October 15, 2006... Compiled by Martha Russis, Contributing Editor Professional Builder asked the builders what they learned from building their own homes. "Being incredibly organized probably cut the construction time in half. The vendors did not have to...

Fit for a Celebrity.(Bruce Olson own house)
October 15, 2006... By Cheryl Dangel Cullen, Contributing Editor with Additional Reporting by Sara Zailskas, Staff Writer A star scooped up Bruce Olson's island retreat, but not before he tailored it to his personal goals and idyllic locale. When builder...

What the builders used.(Brief article)
October 15, 2006... By Nick Bajzek, Products Editor For John Eilermann, Loel Fenwick, Bruce Olson, Stephen Gillis and Steve Kendrick, building their own homes was a fantasy come to life. Using their projects as learning laboratories, each built his own...