COPPER THIEVES COST YOU MONEY

Unless you build modular, thieves can cost you thousands of dollars on each house you build.

Here's the perfect scenario for theft. You dig up the dirt, put in a foundation and then have your lumber delivered. This is usually how it's been done since the first builder built the first house. And for the most part, nothing of major importance was usually missing from the jobsite. That was then and this is now.

Today thieves will steal anything that isn't nailed down and a lot of things that are. As a builder you have to make sure everything is secured at night even if it means taking it back to the shop and bringing it back the next morning. If your lumber and plywoods are left overnight, you may come back to missing piles of materials.

Copper is one of the most sought after materials by thieves. It doesn't matter to them that the house was wired when you left. They'll rip it right off the studs. Even drywall won't stop them. I've seen jobs where full boxes of nails, drywall screws, electric baseboard heaters. plumbing supplies, windows and even carpeting were left in unsecured houses and missing the next day.

If you were a modular builder, once the house is set and secured which usually only takes a day, you can rest assured that if a thief wants to get to your copper wiring and plumbing fixtures, he's going to have to break through a door or window to get in. So if you were a thief, which would you rather steal from, a house under construction where you can sneak around and make a quick getaway or a house that is locked and secure?

Just one more reason to go modular.

TOWNHOUSE PROJECTS GOING STRONG

Since the recession started I noticed a lot of townhouse projects starting. Some of them had been planned before the housing slump but in the past few months I'm noticing ground being turned for new units, ones that have been approved since the slump began.

I'm not sure what most of them will look like when completed but here are some from the past that I find interesting in that they are designed for city infills and historic neighborhoods. You may have seen them and not even realized they were modular. If you a modular builder, don't turn your back on townhouses and condos. They can be a source of great revenue for you.

This is a project from AvisAmerica showcasing townhouses that look like they've been part of the area for decades.

Here is a townhouse project in Philly from Signature Homes in Moosic, PA

Deluxe Homes built these townhouses a couple of years ago.

And finally these modular townhouses in Boston, MA won the 2000 Housing Design Award from the American Institute of Architects.

MIA AT THE HOME AND GARDEN SHOW

We have some local Home and Garden Shows in my part of the country about 3 times a year. Fall, Winter and Spring. I attended my first Fall show of the year this past weekend.

I was expecting to find home builders and landscapers in abundance but what I found this time were what I call "refrigerator magnet people". You know them. They set up their little tables filled with junk that they make while watching Jeopardy.

Not one home builder and only two landscapers! I found one of the organizers who told me that they contacted over 150 local builders and not one of them wanted to do the show this year. Booths for them were only $500 and the show lasts 3 days and draws about 25,000 people. Admission is only $3 and seniors and kids are free.

He said they recalled all the builders about two weeks before the show and offered them the booths for $250 and still no takers. They did get the two lawn care people.

The show consisted of half the booths filled with the magnet people and the rest were a mixture of Realtors, wooden furniture dealers and pet care businesses. The organizers designed the show to accommodate the same number of booths as last year, 224, but were only able to rent 166 this year.

I really don't know what conclusions to draw from this other than the builders figured "Why should I waste my money when nobody's buying anyway". Spending $250 to get in front of over 20,000 people that are coming to a HOME SHOW seems to me to be a good investment. The builders couldn't advertise in the newspaper for that amount!

If you want to rise head and shoulders above the crowd, maybe you should look into getting in the next Home Show in your area.

RUNNING ON EMPTY

A lot of builders are in situations they never thought they would be in. Since most small builders started their business in the last 10 to 15 years, they have never experienced a down housing market.

To make matters worse for modular home builders, too many of them have never stick built a home and have relied on subcontractors to do almost all the set and finish work. So what happens to these dealers when they all alone and nobody is calling?

A couple of weeks ago I got an email from a builder in Michigan that I haven't talked to in about 6 years. He asked how I was doing and then his email took a turn that caught me off guard. He said his wife has a job that just pays the bills but the modular side of the business hasn't had a customer in over 15 months. I called him and we talked about what is happening in his area of Michigan.

He told me at first he thought maybe the downturn would be a small blip on the radar of prosperity, but then his advertising stopped making the phones ring. He finished his last two homes and from that point on he has tried just about anything he could to get business.

Since he has never stick built any houses and has no remodeling skills, his business is shut down but the doors are still open. He is getting more depressed with each passing day and has started playing poker on the Internet all day while his wife is at work. He found my email address and decided to see if I was still in the modular business.

I told him that he either has to get back in the game or get out, NOW! He was in the insurance business when he started selling modulars but has let his license lapse. I suggested he go to the street dealers in his area and offer to sell modulars for them. If nothing else, he would get a paycheck, but more importantly it would keep him up to date on what's happening in the business. He seemed to think he could do that.

He emailed me on Tuesday and said that after talking with his wife, he went to four street dealers in his area and landed a job with a small salary and commission. There is enough time while working to start studying to get his insurance license back. His wife is happy that she isn't responsible for paying ALL the bills and he is getting his self esteem back.

The bottom line here is that he was not too proud to look for work and he says that he may never go back to building modulars, he just may stick with selling them for the street dealer. As they say in Australia; "No worries Mate!"

SUB PRIME BORROWERS IN MORE TROUBLE

From late last year to to early January of '08, subprime borrowers were getting lenders to restructure their loans to avoid foreclosure, but that trend has changed.

No longer are the "loan servicing units" of the lenders working as hard to restructure these loans. The Loan Servicing Units are the departments that negotiate with troubled borrowers seeking lower rates and lower monthly payments on their subprime mortgage loans.

Not only have these "units" been overworked and understaffed in trying to ebb the flow of red ink at the lenders and banks, they are faced with the high cost of renegotiating adjustable-rate loans and have hit a stalemate caused by bank failures and lawsuits. In some cases the borrowers don't even know which lender will call because their loan has been resold and in some instances the lender holding the loan has gone out of business.

The federal housing bill passed in late July isn't likely to change much for distressed borrowers. The FHA refinancing plan requires participating banks to reduce the principal amount of each subprime loan by at least 10% ----something most banks are unwilling to do!

The "catch 22" here for the borrowers is that when it's time for their loan to readjust, the "loan servicing units" will not even talk to them if they have not been late on their loan payment. When the readjustment takes place and they can't afford to make their payment, they are being told to "miss your payments" until it hits foreclosure and then they can be helped....maybe!

Only time will tell if the people with subprime mortgages will ever see the light at the end of the tunnel.

THE SKY IS FALLING! THE SKY IS FALLING

BY: Adrian Miller, Adrian Miller Sales Training

www.adrianmiller.com

You can’t pick up a newspaper or turn on your TV these days without being bombarded by the doom and gloom about the impending recession. It’s enough to make any salesperson want to hide under a rock until happier days return.

However, there is a silver lining in those dark clouds. Consider the warnings a call to action to prepare your business to ride the cycle. If you play your cards right during a downturn, you will not only keep sales up through the cycle, you’ll also find yourself in an even better place when the economy begins to pick up. So, turn down the drone of financial doomsayers and start working this prime opportunity to increase your sales.

Stay Close

Stay close to your customers and prospects in tough times. Dazzle them with customer service. Be one step ahead of their wants and needs and always, always be proactive and anticipate their needs BEFORE they have to ask or remind you. Give them something for nothing. This doesn’t necessarily mean a tangible item. Offer them valuable information, introductions, or some of your extra time.

Cross-Sell

Make certain that you are cross-selling all that you have to offer your customers. This is not the time to leave business on the table for your competitors to scoop up and perhaps even win your part of the business as well.

Focus on Competitive Advantages

Remember that your key competitive advantages are valuable ONLY if they equate to an improvement in situation for your customers and prospects. The bottom-line here – if you can’t offer them an improvement, why should they make a change.

Become an Advisor

Be more than just a salesperson; develop meaningful solutions for your customers. Think out-of-the-box strategies, get creative. Put yourself in the mindset of being a valuable resource to those you sell to.

Work Harder

Most importantly, when times are tough – work harder and smarter, make more calls, utilize better touch-point management, and network, network, network!

DEAD MAN WALKING

$7,500 TAX CREDIT STALLS FOR FIRST TIME HOMEBUYERS

What was to be an economic stimulus is having little or no impact on new housing. Sales representatives surveyed indicated that for the most part that they were knowledgeable about the Tax Credit and many have tried to promote it.

In developments with sales offices, almost 75% said they have had no increase in sales or for some there was an actual decrease.

Pulte Homes and Beazer Homes are starting advertising campaigns saying that they will match the $7,500 with another $7,500.

In a side note, I've been watching a sign advertising homes for sale by a large regional builder for a development that is about 20% filled. When it first opened the sign stated that homes starting at $289,000 were available. When I drove past in January, I was surprised to see the sign repainted with homes now starting at $199,000.

This week the sign has been repainted again with the starting price lowered to $150,000. It tough to tell what the $150K houses will look like because there has been NO activity in the development for almost a year. And the temporary sales office is gone, replace by a sign with a phone number and a Realtor's sign.

What is it going to take to help people buy a new home in today's market? I have an idea, let's dust off subprime loans and try that again!

INTERESTING COMMENTS ABOUT MODULAR vs STICK BUILDING

I wrote a couple of articles a while back about modular homes being trucked into Saddlebrook Subdivision and how the neighbors and the builder are at odds about it. There is legal actions being taken by both sides. Click Here to go to the article.

Here are some comments to that article that everyone in the industry should read. It all goes back to my opinion that the modular home industry needs to step up and start a campaign to educate people about the benefits of system building. Maybe Ed McMahon could be the spokesman. He's available (out of work) and has a good track record with Publisher's Clearing House!

5 comments:

Mike Z said...

This is dumb. Having built both, I can say that modulars are built in climate and quality controlled factories as opposed to conventional built homes. You could bring the parts of your car to a mechanic to assemble and perhaps he could do it, but never as efficiently as a factory could.
Thanks for bringing this up

August 12, 2008 12:10 AM

Anonymous said...

MODCOACH:
You wrote, "They are trying to stop any future homes coming into their subdivision simply because they are modular and not stick built!"
As a homeowner in the neighborhood, holding what I believe to be the majority opinion (although I can't speak for everyone), you are WAY OFF POINT in this comment. This issue has NOTHING to do with the "Modular vs. Stick" issue. There are many examples of wonderful... EXCEPTIONAL modular homes being constructed in the marketplace. Of particular concern to residents is that construction on these homes began illegally with no approval from the Architectural review board as required by the CCR's... -As you know this case is pending and a ruling is expected by 8-31-08.
Additionally there are concerns with past business practices by the president of Sawtooth as evidenced by articles in Planet Jackson Hole. This articles illustrate many first hand accounts from former customers, an ex Vice President, and other employees in Jackson Hole, WY that interacted with Mr. Ochoa.
Again, this is not a "Modular vs. Stick" argument.
I think the greatest lesson to be learned from the Modular Home industry is the need to cooperate with exiting HOA's, follow CCR's, and allow for agreement among community members before starting construction. I am of the opinion that there could have been consensus and cooperation among all parties had this been done. Instead, there was no response by the landowner Mike Homan and Sawtooth Custom Homes prior to their construction.

August 22, 2008 7:26 PM

Modcoach said...

I sorta agree with you..almost. There seems to be a couple of problems with your theory.
First, I agree that the builder should have approached the HOA with his plans but I can almost guarantee that the second he mentioned that they would be modular, everyone would have jumped up and threw out his application along with his a**!.
Second, there are a lot more stick builders with lawsuits against them than there are modular builders. But again, if the applications were presented by a dishonest stick builder, the plans would have been approved and nobody would have checked his background.
Did I mention that prior to the trucks showing up that day, why didn't anyone notice the foundations going in and dirt being moved? You all thought they were going to be stick built homes and that was just fine with you.
What started this whole mess were protesters trying to stop trucks from delivering modular homes into the development. Here again, if these trucks had been delivering lumber, nobody would have tried to stop them. In fact people would have been excited to see new homes going in.
As far as I can see, this situation is absolutely about "stick vs modular". Everyone in the HOA found the modular home guilty of being crap and that's what is causing this situation to get out of hand.

August 22, 2008 10:10 PM

Anonymous said...

MODCOACH,
Thanks for posting the comment. I would agree, you certainly have a point generally speaking, that there are a number of people who don't believe in Modular homes.
From the research I've done, Modular homes are as comparable, if not of a better quality than "stick" built homes.
In this case when the dirt was being moved people assumed these were approved homes. For the vast majority of homeowners, the problem is that the homes being built were in the 150-180K range. It was expected that the homes on those lots were to be 400K+. It is the opinion of many that the lower priced homes (stick or modular) will negatively affect property values.
Additionally, this case is compounded by the history of the company's owner. Some fear that the same history will be repeated here in Star, Idaho. Sawtooth Custom Homes president (and I believe OWNER) is a person by the name of Dave Ochoa. Dave also was the owner of SMS contruction in Wyoming...
A MODULAR TODAY review writes the following regarding Dave Ochoa and SMS:
"CLOSED - Superior Modular Systems was an average modular home provider. Our mystery shopper reported several issues with the customer service of SMS and was very disappointed with their website. We were not comfortable with Superior Modular Systems after our mystery shopper had such difficulties with them. It seems that this company might be reincarnated under the name Sawtooth Custom Homes. Sawtooth Custom Homes claims that there is no relationship between them and Superior Modular Systems. However Sawtooth Custom Homes admits to using the SMS factory and both companies have been named as co-defendants in a RICO court complaint. Needless to say we are confused by all of this and are not sure what is going on. All of this confusion does not make us feel comfortable with SMS or Sawtooth Custom Homes. Hopefully we will be surprised with a great modular success story from all of this confusion."

I really like your website. And, I really appreciate you response. However, In my humble opinion, I think the "modular industry" is not at all well represented by Sawtooth Custom Homes, Dave Ochoa, and their actions against this neighborhood. I would encourage you, if possible, to make a first-hand review of these homes to offer your opinion. At the very least, I would recommend you review some statement made by former employees and customers of SMS Construction.
As for the statement that there are many more stick builders lawsuits than modular, I would argue that there are many more stick builders period.
Personally, I have NOTHING against modular construction. I believe over time, people will recognize the quality of modular construction often times surpasses stick... -Construction is done in controlled environments, controlled conditions, etc.

August 23, 2008 1:30 AM

modcoach said...

Here again you are only wanting to talk about the builder and not the homes. If the builder has lawsuits filed against him and as you imply he is less than an honorable man, WHY didn't somebody from the development check to see who was putting in the foundations? The reason keeps gong back to "stick vs Modular". You assumed that the homes were going to be stick built and nobody was going to even question it! They could have looked exactly like the modulars and everyone in the development would have said "aren't they nice little homes".

With the economy in the tank, why would you or anyone think that a builder would spec $450K homes in an older development that hasn't had actively in quite some time?
Nobody checked on the builder's background until they saw "trailers" coming in. Then and only then did the HOA start looking for anything they could to kill the project.

Maybe Mr. Ochoa is a bad person,I don't know, but lawsuits and charges are just that...charges. Not convictions. You are presuming him guilty because he is building in your neighborhood. If he was building in the next development, you could care less.

This whole mess started because some of the residents believed trailers were moving in and nothing will ever put this to rest, not even your lawsuit.

August 23, 2008 6:16 AM

BRAINSTORMING WITH HENRY

About two weeks ago, I met with Henry Walthery, President of Smart Start Building Systems. We discussed many issues concerning our industry and while we were talking he mentioned that when he gets together with other industry leaders at seminars and meetings, the conversation always turns to how to improve the system built housing industry.

As I listened to him talk about brainstorming with his friends in the industry, it suddenly struck me that this was something that is missing for builders. Oh, maybe a couple of you get together after a local builder's meeting, throw back a couple of beers and kinda talk about the industry in general but for the most part you don't to tip your plans for your business.

Modular home manufacturers could bring builders from all over together and brainstorm about improving business, marketing, introducing new ideas and maybe getting organized about how to present Green Building to the customer. I'm sure a couple of manufacturers have semi and annual meetings where they invite their builders to company trade shows, plant tours, dinners and general good natured back slapping. But for the most part, these efforts are aimed at promoting sales for the factory and they really should!

But what would happen if builders were invited to the factory and allowed to brainstorm BY THEMSELVES and then bring in management to see how many of these ideas could be incorporated into the total factory package. Now that could be awesome!

No idea would be too far out or too big. Ideas are just that...ideas. No one should be overly critical of an idea. It's just an idea. If the factory adds some things to it's lineup of options or procedures because of the builder's brainstorming sessions, that would be great and I will guarantee that the builders will be behind it 100%.

Maybe we all can't brainstorm with friends like Henry's but wouldn't it be great to do it with your fellow builders across the many states serviced by your factory.

HOW DO I PRICE MY HOMES?

By now you've guessed that I've talked with hundreds of modular home builders and dealers in the US and one in Canada and they almost all ask me the same question...."How do I price my home to the customer"

And for every one of them, my answer is "I have NO idea how to Price YOUR Homes!"

Does my answer mean I don't know how to price a home? Yes and NO.

If this were my business, there would be some basic things that I would need to know about it. Things like fixed and variable overhead costs for one.

If you are a builder working out of a model home and have two pickup trucks, a backhoe, a three man crew and a supervisor; you've got a lot of overhead! You better be building something every day. But what if you only have a rented office (a nice one of course) and showroom and subcontract all your labor and supervision; you guessed it, lower overhead costs. You could afford to go a few weeks or even maybe a couple of months without work.

Then there are your advertising and marketing efforts. If you have a model home and don't put up "Open House" signs and advertise it like crazy, you might as well have put it up in your backyard. That's a lot of expense. For most smaller builders and dealers, advertising is usually hit or miss at best.

So when a builder asks me how to price a home I try to give them some real basic info and then talk to them about margins and overhead and ROI and Pre-tax monies and much more. But all too often I am faced with blank stares and creased brows as they try to comprehend what I'm saying.

For a lot of them, if they have extra money in the bank, they think they made a profit.

Builders that only want to build the most basic cheap homes and then underprice their competition are running on thin ice and eventually their business will fail.

Are there modular builders that shouldn't be in the business of selling homes, sure. And this recession will weed them out...hopefully.

But most of the builders I've met just need to develop a business plan, find their REAL fixed costs, control the variable costs and they will be just fine at the end of this recession. One cost that eludes a lot of builders is their own personal expenses. If they worked for someone else and had a paycheck coming in every week, they could budget that money easily. What they forget is that money to pay their own personal expenses has to come out of the business too.

So the next time a builder asks me how he or she should price their homes, I might just shrug my shoulders and give you a blank stare! If they really want an answer, they've got to get real about expenses and overhead and then we've got a starting point.

ARE YOU GREEN CERTIFIED?

I was talking with a builder in Delaware yesterday and one of the first things he told me was that he was a Green Builder. After listening to him talk about green and really not telling me anything, I asked him what organization certified him.
He stopped and thought for a moment and said "the big one in Delaware, you know the Delaware Valley one." Then I asked if he built to LEEDS or Energy STAR or the new "Lean and Green" standards. He said the new Lean and Green one. That's strange since I just made it up when I asked him the question!
Obviously when a he gets a prospect in front of him, he spouts off about how he builds green and is certified. And what's his prospect supposed to think? Yep, this guy knows his stuff! I'll build with him.
A lot of builders are trying to cash in on Green Building without paying the dues needed to be truly certified. They are looking for that next great thing that will save their dying businesses.
I met a builder last week in Maryland, Harris Woodward, of Finishwerks, that I think knew more about green than most builders ever will. He is confident and knowledgeable and his customers, I'm sure, can tell he is a good guy to do business with.

And that brings me to Nic Stover of Rubicon Construction in Idaho, a featured national speaker and builder of green homes, who is probably the best I've read about since I started researching green. He is a contributor to Modular Home Builder but the most important thing -

HE BUILDS MODULAR HOMES!

Visit him in the "Interesting Links" on the left

DON'T TAKE GRANITE COUNTERTOPS FOR GRANTED

Your customers love them and you make a nice profit on them, but did you know they are not all they're cracked up to be.

If you're a Green Builder and use marble or granite countertops, are you aware that the demand for them has increased ten-fold in past decade and that the quarrying methods employed to extract them has caused a great deal of damage to the environment?

There are now many different types of stone being quarried and some of them are so porous that germs and bacteria are actually growing inside before they are even installed. Adding to that problem is that very few people really clean the countertops with anything but a wet towel and now the granite is simply polluted with germs. And let's be honest here, do you really think very many of your customers actually reseal their countertops on a regular schedule....NOT!

OH, and I almost forgot about radon and radiation leaking from the granite. In most cases it is negligible, but once in a while you hit a rock with lots of bad stuff in it such as the Lake George, NY home that had a granite countertop emitting 25 times the government allowance of radon!

If you want to be a green builder, switch to countertops made with recycled wood fiber or cast concrete that incorporates recycled glass and porcelain and rice hulls.

To see some countertop choices you may not have thought of, click here!

BEAUMONT, TX TV STATION CAN'T TAKE THE HEAT ON MODULARS

KFDM TV 6 apparently couldn't take the heat when they ran a follow up story about modular homes coming into "good" neighborhoods and ruining everything! I was just reviewing what is happening to an earlier story about modular homes coming into the Pine Island Bayou Estates in Beaumont, TX and discovered this gem at the bottom of the story.

Apparently they received a lot of anonymous comments about their previous story and instead of publishing them to show both sides of the story, they came up with a policy that should just about eliminate free and anonymous comments on their site.

Here is the TV station's response to anonymous comments and a comment from someone who used an alias (which must be OK with them because it supports the local government). Enjoy the read!

Reader Comments

From the editor: Many of you have expressed concerns about some of the harsh anonymous comments from readers. To remedy that, we are introducing new features. You can create your own blog, publish your news and share your photos with the community. Once you fill out a simple form and leave a verifiable e-mail address, you can set up your profile page. It will display all of your contributions and allow you to track issues and easily connect with others.

We want our site to be a place where people discuss and debate ideas that foster stronger communities. We built this for you. Please take care of it. Tolerate broad thinking, but take action against obscene or hateful material. Make it a credible and safe place worth preserving and sharing.

daisytex wrote:

It's good to see that they have come to a compromise that will hopefully avoid problems in the future. On the one hand, these type of modulars are technically up to code, and people shouldn't make assumptions about the type of people that will live in them. On the other hand, they are basically dressed up "manufactured homes", which are restricted in all cities, so it's not that insane that a neighborhood with restrictions (even if they did just expire) wasn't thrilled about them.
Some people choose certain neighborhoods b/c they like the idea that certain things are allowed, and certain things aren't. On the flip side, many people choose unrestricted types of areas on purpose, b/c they don't like the idea of being told in any way, how to manage their property. It wouldn't be right to build a big, fancy house in an unrestricted area, then expect the other owners in the neighborhood to start having restrictions. It's also not right to openly violate a neighborhood's established restrictions, simply b/c they happened to expire. It's basically, in both scenarios, forcing something that the majority of the neighborhood doesn't want.

8/19/2008 6:11:05 AM

MODULAR HOME BUILDER Editor. - If you can understand daisytex's viewpoint, you're a better person than me because it sounds like she is a politician and we all know they take clear and definable stands!

NEW HOUSING STARTS LOWEST SINCE 1991

The US Department of Commerce just released the latest forecast based on July's home and apartment starts. They figure the annualized starts at 965,000, down from June's forecast of 1.08 million.

This may seem low but economists had been predicting only 950,000 starts so I guess that's some sort of good news.

MAYOR OF SLIDELL, LA NEEDS EDUCATED

Leith Danou, a modular home dealer and builder, from Slidell, LA is ready to pull his hair out because of another city not knowing the difference between a modular home and a manufactured home.

Danou's company, New Gulf Coast Homes, was given permission to put up modular model homes near his office in a commercially zoned area of the city. That permission was given by a zoning official that has since left his post and in his absence, the mayor of the city has decided that these are really manufactured homes, also known as mobile homes and trailers.

The mayor, Ben Morris, has said that he doesn't want substandard homes in his city turning it into a kind of junkyard.

One of the problems appears to have been caused by Danou also selling manufactured homes. This apparently is what is causing the confusion in the mayor's mind. He can't tell the difference between a double wide trailer and a two story modular home.

Let's help him understand the difference. Here is his picture and his email address. Write to him and maybe a light bulb will go off in that dark area of his brain that controls common sense.

bmorris@cityofslidell.org

And click here to visit New Gulf Coast Homes

All AMERICAN HOMES TEAMS WITH SOLAR VILLAGE HOMES

In April of this year, All American Homes, one of the leading modular home manufacturers and a division of Coachmen Industries announced an agreement with Solar Village Homes of Boulder, CO to license and build a line up of eco-friendly homes.

Solar Village will design an exclusive line of homes for All American featuring many of the most forward looking products and procedures being used in sustainable living. These homes feature a super-insulated, passive solar heat and power. The interior features tile or slate floors, bamboo or cork flooring and natural fiber wool carpeting.

All American’s goal is to bring these “green” homes in at a price point for the average consumer who will have several choices of ranch and two story homes. The company’s goal is to be the “big name” in green building in the modular industry.

Click here to download their Solar Village brochure.

BERACAH HOMES KICKS WEBSITE INTO HIGH GEAR

Last week, Roger Collison, Vice President of Beracah Homes in Greenwood, DE, wrote and asked me to take a look at their new site. Since I had reviewed their site a couple of month's ago and found it very nice for the consumer, I thought maybe he had missed my review of it.

But to be on the safe side, I visited it again. Am I glad I did. It doesn't look like any modular home manufacturer's site I have ever been to.

Roger can be proud of this site. When you get there, the first thing that hits you are 3 big circles each presenting a different part of building a home. Click any and the adventure begins.

Clicking the first one sends you to a page with videos, plant tours, their TV commercials, pictures of completed homes and much, much more. Clicking the other circles is just as interesting.

All I can say is that Roger and Beracah Homes hit one out of the park with this new site.

Visit it at www.berachhomes.com

BEING GREEN IS EASY FOR A FROG

Ok, you've decided to go Green in your business. That's easy if you're a frog, but very confusing if you're building a house.

My friends were asking me the other day what is involved with building a Green home. I started with the basics of using water and energy more efficiently, how to protect the occupant's health and reduce the overall impact on the environment. Then I told them that there are several different accreditations that a home builder could use in building a home, such as LEEDs, Energy Star, etc.

Finally as I was getting into the advantages of building a modular home, I happened to notice that I had lost my audience. Deer caught in headlights.

What they wanted to know was what it meant to them personally and could they brag about what they were doing to help the environment?

I visited a builder yesterday that has a real handle on this Green thing. He told me that it would be great if the industry could have a simple statement showing the effects of a particular home on the environment and the the occupant's health. He said they have such a statement for hybrid cars and appliances so why not homes.

Do customers really care how you do something? Maybe, but for the most part if you say your home is Energy Star approved, that's all they really want to know. You see, they and their neighbors have heard of Energy Star. They've seen it on their TVs, appliances and many other electronic gadgets. They have been conditioned to know that is a good thing to have.

How it got there is irrelevant!

Now we introduce them to LEEDS and they go "HUH?". If you want to have your customers fall asleep, have them read any of the LEEDS guidelines! That will do it.

Again, your customers, for the most part, don't care how you physically do it to earn the certification, they really only want to know that there house has one and that they are helping Al Gore save the planet.

Your job is to come up with an easy way to explain to your prospect why building a home with you is Green and environmentally friendly. Too bad your customers aren't frogs...they'd already be green!

SINGLE WIDES ARE NOT MODULAR HOMES!

WHEN IS THE MODULAR home INDUSTRY GOING TO ENLIGHTEN THE COUNTRY'S MISINFORMED REPORTERS?

here is the article that has me fighting mad!

Modular homes heading to Davistown for road reconstruction

By Jennifer Hewlett

jhewlett@herald-leader.com

PLEASE EMAIL THIS GIRL AND TELL HER THESE ARE NOT MODULAR HOMES!

Charles Bertram Staff

"THIS IS NOT A MODULAR HOME!" EDITOR, MODULAR HOME BUILDER

Bill Shanks guided driver Chris Staub as the first modular home arrived off De Roode Street in Lexington Tuesday. The homes in Southend Park will house residents who are being moved to make way for the Newtown Pike extension. Photo by Charles Bertram Staff

Before there is a Newtown Pike extension, there will be a Whitmer Way.

Members of 16 — maybe more — lower Davistown households will be living along the new, temporary street in new, temporary modular homes beginning in September, if all goes according to plan.

A half-dozen or so identical modular homes were placed in the neighborhood's Southend Park, through which Whitmer Way will run, on Tuesday. Plans are for 10 more to be put in the park by the end of the week — Monday at the latest.

The residents will live rent- and utility-free in the modular housing for at least two years while their old homes are torn down and new, permanent housing is built for them as part of the Newtown Pike extension project.

Nearly half of the money for the Newtown Pike extension project, most recently estimated to cost $87 million, will be used to purchase land in lower Davistown, rebuild the area's infrastructure, and pay for a portion of the new, permanent housing that will be built.

There is still some work to be done, such as the installation of porches and utility connections, said Andrew Grunwald, extension project engineer/manager for the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government.

Each of the approximately 1,000-square-foot modular homes, which have three bedrooms and two bathrooms, cost $30,215. An additional $10,500 will be spent on each of them for items including decks at front and back entrances, installation of air conditioning equipment, and connecting them to utilities.

“A lot of that money is in the electric lines themselves,” Grunwald said.

Each modular home also will have a storage building costing about $1,400 and fencing expected to cost $750, he said.

When the homes are no longer needed, they will become government surplus property and be auctioned.

Grunwald said the proceeds might be put into the community land trust, which will manage the redeveloped neighborhood.

An honorable name

Whitmer Way, named for the late Rev. Deborah Whitmer, could accommodate more temporary housing if necessary, Grunwald said.

“If we need to, we'll construct more,” he said. “We'd have to extend the street on down.”

Discussing the street name, Grunwald said Deborah Whitmer was “a very big help” when the Newtown Pike extension project started. She was a former head of the Nathaniel Mission, which works to meet the spiritual, medical and other needs of the people in the area.

“Whenever you have a street in Lexington, you've got to give it a name,” he said. “We didn't think she would mind.”

Lower Davistown is one of Lexington's most economically depressed areas, but it has a tight-knit core group of long-time residents and a rich history. Davistown was home to freed slaves who moved there just after the Civil War.

The neighborhood is being redeveloped to comply with a 1994 executive order issued by President Bill Clinton. That order requires federal agencies to address the effects their projects — in this case the Newtown Pike extension — have on minority and low-income populations.

I STOPPED THE ARTICLE HERE----I JUST COULDN'T PRINT ANY MORE OF IT!

Read the full article: http://www.kentucky.com/211/story/488184.html

MODULAR HOME DEALER CHARGED WITH THEFT, FORGERY

Wayne County Businessman Charged with Theft, Forgery

By Trish Hartman; WNEP-TV August 12, 2008

A businessman accused of ripping off one of his customers answered to those charges in court Tuesday.

The president of a local modular home company has turned himself in for allegedly ripping off a customer in Wayne County.

David Valenti, president of Wyoming Homes, Inc. was charged Tuesday with theft and forgery.

David Valenti is the president of Wyoming Homes, Incorporated. Tuesday he was formally charged with felony theft and forgery.

Valenti had little to say as he made his way into central court in Honesdale to surrender to police but one of his customers, Mike Agolia of Pleasant Mount, had plenty to say.

"Mr. Valenti should wake up and take care of everybody and let families get back together and put back together," Agolia said.

According to court papers, Agolia paid almost $60,000 Wyoming Homes, Incorporated for a modular home in January.

Agolia said he is still living in a camper on his property, waiting for the home he paid for.

He has been picketing outside Wyoming Homes on Route 6 for 81 days. He hopes now justice will be done.

"I keep hoping because if I do nothing, I get nothing," Agolia added.

Valenti was also charged with forgery and stealing funds from an excavating company contracted to do work for them.

Wyoming Homes, Incorporated also has three other offices, in Exeter, Bloomsburg and Hazleton.

While Agolia said nearly 30 other families have also been ripped off by the company. The Wayne County district attorney would not say whether more charges are on the way.

"At this point we're confining our attention to the two incidents that have been reported to us. We're dealing with those matters at this point in time," said District Attorney Michael Lehutsky. "In terms of anything else that might be floating out there, we'll see if anything comes up and we'll proceed accordingly with respect to those."

Valenti is free after posting $50,000 bail. He was reached by telephone Tuesday evening and said he does have the money and intends on paying Agolia back.

As for other customers allegedly being ripped off, Valenti said Agolia is the only one and he intends to make things right with him.

STICK BUILDERS LOWERING PRICES

For a lot of stick builders, it's better to be active than just sit around waiting for the recession to end. There are reports from every state and a ton of modular home builders and dealers that stick builders are offering to build homes at discounts of up to 40%!

If you were going to build a new home right now, you have to ask yourself some very basic questions about a stick builder that would sell you a home 40% less than last year.

Has he cut his specs?

Does he hire illegals?

Is he building your home and not paying suppliers and subs?

Is he building to code?

Where is he getting his materials?

Has he eliminated the warranty?

Let's take these questions one at a time. When I say "Can't happen with a mod", I mean the factory supplied portion of the house.

1. Has he cut his specs? Comparing his old specs with his new specs could be very enlightening. I haven't found one Modular home manufacturer that has lowered their specs and quite the contrary, most are improving their specs to meet Green Building methods and Energy Star requirements.

2. Does he hire illegals? Labor is cheap if you're not paying the going rate. And what happens if one of these illegal workers falls and gets injured or killed on your jobsite? Can you say LAWSUIT? Can't happen with a mod.

3. Is he building your home and not paying suppliers and subs? Not paying the suppliers or subcontractors is a BIG problem for YOU! Suppliers and subs can hit you with mechanic's liens and contrary to what you think, you can't close on your finished home with these in place. They are taken very seriously if filed before the final mortgage is made. Can't happen with a mod.

4. Is he building to code? Is the stick builder just doing enough to get through the inspections? Or is he ordering the draw without getting inspections? Either way, that's bad. Can't happen with a mod.

5. Where is he getting his materials? There are more and more small stick builders buying building materials stolen from other builder's jobsites. In some areas of the country there are organized gangs midnight shopping at one site and then selling the material to builders hundreds of miles away. How would you like the cops to show up at your house looking for stolen materials? Can't happen with a mod.

6. Has he eliminated the warranty? Does your builder offer a warranty? Maybe he used to but now it's just a piece of paper. I've heard of small stick builders making photocopies of real warranties and passing them off to the new homeowners. Can't happen with a mod.

So the next time you hear a stick builder offering huge discounts, you have to ask yourself, "What is he not putting in my house"

STORIES FROM THE FORECLOSURE FRONT LINES

We've all been reading about foreclosures lately. You can't pick up a newspaper or listen to the radio or watch TV without it being one of the lead stories. But here are a few you might not have heard about.

Quote of the day -

"My 14-year-old son could buy a block of Detroit property." - Ann Laciura, senior servicing specialist for the Bearing Group, referring to Detroit homes selling for $1. Banks are so desperate to unload them, that they’ll often pay fees of $10,000 just to convince buyers to take them.

What a dollar buys in Detroit -

One dollar can get you a large soda at McDonald's, a used VHS movie at 7-Eleven or a house in Detroit.

The fact that a home on the city's east side was listed for $1 recently shows how depressed the real estate market has become in one of America's poorest big cities.

And it still took 19 days to find a buyer.

The sale price of the home may be an anomaly, but illustrates both the depths of the foreclosure crisis in Detroit and the rapid scuttling of vacant homes in some of the city's impoverished neighborhoods.

The home, at 8111 Traverse Street, a few blocks from Detroit City Airport, was the nicest house on the block when it sold for $65,000 in November 2006, said neighbor Carl Upshaw. But the home was foreclosed last summer, and it wasn't long until "the vultures closed in," Upshaw said. "The siding was the first to go. Then they took the fence. Then they broke in and took everything else."

The company hired to manage the home and sell it, the Bearing Group, boarded up the home only to find the boards stolen and used to board up another abandoned home nearby. Scrappers tore out the copper plumbing, the furnace and the light fixtures, taking everything of value, including the kitchen sink.

"It about doesn't make sense to put the family out," Upshaw said. "Once people are gone, you're gonna lose the house in this neighborhood."

Pinal County Arizona home sales -

Pinal County, home to over 300,000 people saw 47% of it's home sales go as foreclosures in the 1st quarter of 2008. Things have gotten better in the 2nd quarter....only 40% of the homes were foreclosures! Does that mean that normal resale and new home sales are coming back or are they just running low on foreclosed homes?

From the Motley Fool -

Housing's Worst May Lie Ahead. “Mortgage foreclosures have thus far been far more common with subprime borrowers than among those with Alt-A or prime loans… Because banks hold lots more prime and Alt-A loans than they do subprime mortgages, a jump in prime delinquencies could really roil the economy. Delinquencies among prime borrowers -- who make up most of the $12 trillion mortgage market -- have doubled from a year ago, while Alt-A delinquencies have quadrupled.”

CHELSEA HOMES STOPS PRODUCTION AMID MERGER TALKS

MARLBORO, NY – Chelsea Homes, the modular home manufacturer in Marlboro, has suspended production and laid off between 20 and 30 employees as talks continue about a possible merger with Excel Homes of Liverpool, PA, the largest manufacturer of modular homes in the United States.

Seven sales and processing employees in the Marlboro office have been hired by Excel.Officials of both companies told MidHudsonNews.com Monday that they are in the throes of negotiations to merge the companies.

“We are working toward a partnership that would benefit the employees and the customers,” said Steve Scharnhorst, president and CEO of Excel. Chelsea Homes’ owner Tim Hourihan said it is his hope the laid off workers would be brought back once a deal has been struck by the two companies. They would become Excel employees, he said. When that would happen and when a merger would be complete is unknown at this time, Hourihan said.

If the deal is consummated, Scharnhorst said the Marlboro plant would resume production because it is “a fantastic location that would benefit us in the long run.”

SADDLEBROOK/SAWTOOTH MODULAR HOME FIGHT GETS UGLIER

Just when you thought the fight over allowing modular homes into the Saddlebrook Subdivision in Star, Idaho was winding down, the sparks are flying again.

This time company President David Ochoa and Sawtooth Custom Homes are suing 10 residents of the Saddlebrook subdivision for making disparaging remarks about him and his company through Web sites.

Ochoa’s lawsuit says at least one resident replaced sales fliers in front of several modular homes in the Saddlebrook subdivision with homemade fliers intended to deter potential buyers.

Kevin Nielsen, president of the Saddlebrook Homeowners Association, did offer one comment via e-mailto the IdahoStatesman.com:

“I feel for anyone trying to sell homes in the current market, including Sawtooth,” he said, “but for them to ask the court to pin Sawtooth’s inability to sell their modular homes on a couple of bloggers and regular homeowners is incredulous.”

Ochoa’s complaint alleges the residents have said he is being charged or investigated for federal criminal charges, that he has or intends to defraud customers, and that he is a crook. They are trying to stop any future homes coming into their subdivision simply because they are modular and not stick built!

Here is a comment posted to the IdahoStateman.com about the lawsuit.

Reverse KARMA is more like it...

Submitted by boisestfan on Thu, 08/07/2008 - 11:31pm.

People have this stupid antiquated belief of what a modular home is. They use 2x6 construction, steel beams and etc. Prefab homes use the same. The only difference is where it is assembled. These aren't granpa's mobile homes people. But, odds are they didn't even bother to check into it.
If you engage in propaganda tactics they can and hopefully will bite you in the wallet.
Here's to Ochoa teaching these stupid covenant communities a lesson.

SAWTOOTH CUSTOM HOMES 1 HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATION 0

13 ATTITUDE CHANGES TO INCREASE MODULAR HOME SALES

When a prospect is sitting across from you and asking about your homes, don't think for a minute that they aren't sizing you up too! Today's buyer is more skeptical than ever before and just because you think you're a nice guy, that isn't enough to get the sale.

In the good old days, before 9/11, people were more trusting and the Internet wasn't as much of their daily life as it is now. Information about anyone can be found there and if you've been sued by a customer, even if the outcome was in your favor, people tend to shy away from you.

So here are 13 attitude changes to help you be prepared for that first meeting with the prospects. These are not your typical suggestions.

1. Keep your negative attitudes to yourself. Be positive about the housing market and what your business is doing. It doesn't matter to your prospect that your mother-in-law just dropped in for her annual 3 week visit, or your tenant called and said the water pipe leaked in the bathroom and the kitchen ceiling is falling. All they want to see is a positive person showing them what he can do for them.
2. Eliminate negative persons from you circle. If your best friend just lost his job, be empathetic; if a business acquaintances lost a big client, be sympathetic, but if they talk about these problems to the point of dragging you down with them, cut them loose for awhile until they bounce back, and they will. Surround yourself with positively motivated people.
3. Read something new about the modular business or general home building business every day. You can be sure your prospect is online and looking for anything they can find about our business. You may even enjoy hearing and reading what others in the business are doing.
4. Read books by and for successful people. What you put in your mind eventually comes out of your mouth. Reading books that inspire you will help you to inspire others to think of you in a positive light.
5. Be very grateful that they took the time to visit with you. You are NOT entitled to their time but you could be a big waste of it if they feel you are.
6. Treat your prospect with respect. If you are rude or condescending to them, they will shut down and leave. And remember, they won't just tell 11 people how rude you were, they will tell everyone! And maybe one of them is someone you're working with to sell a home.
7. Find something in everything you read that could relate to your business. Ask yourself how the article your reading about chicken poop could effect your business. Soon you will finding something in everything you read.....pretty neat!
8. Nobody's perfect. So look past your prospects appearance and if you focus on how you can help them, you could be the one building their new home.
9. Under-promise and over-deliver. This conveys a sense of greater value to the customer, and they will want to do more business with you.
10. Be willing to walk away! If your gut tells you that you cannot fulfill your prospects needs, let them know as soon as you can, even if it's at the first meeting. There is nothing worse than telling someone you can do something and knowing all along that you can't. But don't confuse this with not knowing how to build a custom ranch home when all you've done up to now has been "off the shelf" ones. Expanding your reach is OK, but overreaching will get you in trouble, both professionally and legally.
11. Avoid stretching the truth even a little. A small lie creates skepticism because, from that point on, people will never feel sure that you are telling them the truth.
12. Keep all your personal and professional conversations private. If people find out that you've talked about their personal lives or revealed confidential information about their business to other people, they will decide you can't be trusted, and they'll slam the door on you forever.
13. Keep your word. This simple rule is practiced so infrequently that those who stand behind what they say really stand out from their competitors.

SECOND HOME FORECLOSURES HIT RENTERS HARD

This sign is causing a double headache for thousands of families across the US.

One of the lesser told stories of the sub-prime lending problem is what to do with the people that have lost their home to foreclosure. We hear about the problems the banks have in maintaining selling these homes and you've seen empty homes in your neighborhood, but have you ever wondered what happened to the families that were forced to relocate?

I didn't give it much thought either, thinking they got what they deserved by taking out a questionable loan. Then it started to hit closer to home when my wife and I learned that several families in our church have been kicked out of the homes they've been renting for over two years. Yes, they made their rent payments on time to the landlord, but the landlord wasn't making his payment to the bank forcing the bank to foreclose!

Two of these families had their homes foreclosed about two years ago and started renting homes from house speculators that couldn't sell their property. Both of these homes had waterfront lots, boat docks, great views and rents over $2,000 a month, which these people were paying every month on time.

Now they have been forced to move again. Uprooting their families and having their children change schools. The people they rented the houses from were higher income people that were speculating on townhouses and condos in my area. Nobody suspected for a minute that they were behind on the mortgages, especially since they owned another house and maybe more.

Here's another example of people losing their home even before it's built. In my town, a developer started building a high rise condos and took deposits of $5,000 to $50,000 on 50% of the units. He filed for bankruptcy, leaving the general contractor with all the subcontractors to pay and not returning any deposits. This just keeps getting worse.

MAPPING OUT YOUR FUTURE

I've always said "you can't get lost if you're not going anywhere!"

Builder after builder this year is doing just that. Going nowhere quickly and not knowing they're lost!

This "recession" in the housing business is hurting everyone from the smallest stick builder to the modular builder and their factory to the companies that supply windows, doors and shingles. Big companies are scrambling to catch and maintain any business they can.

They are spending lots of money on market research, holding strategy meetings, implementing new ideas and cutting costs. And has it helped? Maybe and that's a shaky Maybe.

Is this "recession" having an effect on the small builder, dealer or developer? Sure does...and right in your wallet.

So what can you do? Well, if your business has been following a road map that you've used for years, then the answer is obvious...get a new road map. So where do you find one of these "magic" road maps?

Well, first there is no "magic" map. What you must do to map out your business's future is to start with what you are good at and what talents you possess. You've got to find your own personal business niche. Here is a good example of looking at your own talents to find business opportunities.

Yesterday I met with a modular builder that hasn't built a home this year. He was discouraged and was looking at everything he could to get that first house. I told him about a big builder in another part of the state that usually builds about 10-15 homes a year, but this year he has only built one! I told him that he was only one house away from doing as much business as the big guy!

Then I asked a bunch of questions about what else he did. It turns out that he has another business that gives him personal information on about 350 local families. They consider him a friend and a personal financial advisor. I asked how many of them were in a position to buy a home this year. He told me about 10%...that's 35 families. Then I asked how many of them were in a position to build a home this year? He answered about 15!

VIOLA! His magic road map appeared! He and I discussed what those families could afford in a new home. Armed with that information, his homework is to put together a selection of home plans that fit this criteria. That's what he is doing right now.

Will he be able to sell any homes to these people? I really don't know the answer to that, but he has a great shot of doing it. Much better than doing what he was previously doing.

So what are you waiting for? Somebody to hit you upside the head with the answer to your prayers. The only people getting hit today are people not creating a map to the future.

The first step to creating this map is looking at your talents and skills. If you belong to a volunteer fire dept, prepare a marketing plan aimed at getting a couple of them to buy a new home. I've seen these buddies chip in and help with everything from putting in foundations to drywall finishing and painting to landscaping. That would save your buyer a ton of money. I always say, give your friends pizza and beer and they will help you from dawn to dusk. Just make sure they get the beer after the work is done!

If you and your family are faithful church goers, work up a plan to offer some money back to the church for every house sold to a fellow parishioner.

Here's one that might have slipped through...are your parents old enough to be retired? Ask them if any of their friends are looking to sell their homes and build something new.

The days of using a shotgun marketing approach is over!!! You must look to individual marketing today. Get down to the groups of people that you can really talk with on a one to one basis.

If you only sell one more house because of the new map you've created....well, that's one more than you had before!

YOU ARE MORE THAN JUST A HOME BUILDER

You think you are a home builder, but there's more to it than just building houses. You are also in the marketing business and the people pleasing business. IF you don't think you are, you're going to be out of business very quickly.

I once knew a new home builder that was the meanest, most rotten scoundrel you ever met. But he consistently built 3 -5 huge custom homes a year with a waiting list of about two years. I couldn't stand being in the same room with him at first, but his clients thought he walked on water.

He knew the secret of the "Three Rings of Success". I'll use him to explain how the 3R's can work for you.

The first RING is your primary business, in his case, building great homes. He started working at 16 shingling roofs and hauling water for the cement mixer. By the time he was in his late twenties, after being a Marine in Vietnam, he was ready to build his first home when he returned to the states. He had acquired the skills of the older craftsmen he had worked for and understood every aspect of building homes. He knew his primary business...First RING.

The second RING took him a little longer to master, about two years. He told me that he built a great first house and then stood back and waited for the next customer. That didn't work, even though his house was very nice and the customer loved it. He soon turned to marketing himself to everyone he met. He told the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker what he did. He became a fanatic about it. He was proud of his work and wanted people to know that he could build their dream house too! Marketing....Second RING.

The third and final RING was his hardest. The Marines and Vietnam hardened him and made him a real SOB sometimes. In the beginning if a customer gave him attitude, he shot right back and won the argument but lost the customer. He was married and his wife started running interference for him with the customers. I remember her telling me one time that I needed to "chill out" and talk with her, not her husband, because he carried a big knife and if I made him angry...who knows what could happen! To this day, I'm not sure she was serious and whenever I ask her about it, she just smiles! Over the years, they made a great team and people liked them so much that they were invited back for parties to just about every customer's home. Be a people person...RING number three.

He was one of my best customers when I ran a large lumber yard in the 80's. We still keep in touch, even though he retired and is living in Montana.

How can you use the Three Rings in your business? First, know your primary business. Be honest and build with quality and integrity. Be on top of things at the jobsite and in the office.

Next, use marketing to retain and acquire business. If you have a website, keep it updated. Don't run the same ads on radio, TV and in print. Make sure you stay enthusiastic about what you do, it will show!

And lastly, put your customer first. They are your best salespeople. They will give your referrals. Talk with your customers on a regular basis. Answer their questions calmly and honestly. And above all, treat them as you would want to be treated.

The people around you, such as your employees, salespeople, and distributors must sense your enthusiasm, share your vision, and get onto your wavelength. People must be aware of why they should purchase a home from you. If you lack crucial people skills, all the best marketing in world won’t help you because it is real people who will end up buying or not buying your homes. If you don’t know what turns them on, you won’t be successful.

If you’re good at marketing but don’t know people, you’re in for a lot of trouble. People buy homes. No matter what you do, eventually it all comes down to people. If you don’t know that you’re in the people business, you will not succeed.

Successful home builders will be the ones that master juggling all three RINGS at once. Know your primary business, market to the individual and be a people person.

THINGS THAT TOOK ME FIFTY YEARS TO LEARN

These are lessons from a card carrying AARP member!

• Never under any circumstances take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.
•  
• If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be "meetings."
• 
  There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."
• 
  People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them.
• 
  And when God, who created the entire universe with all of its glories, decides to deliver a message to humanity, He WILL NOT use, as His messenger, a person on cable TV with a bad hairstyle...
• 
  You should not confuse your career with your life.
• 
  No matter what happens, somebody will find a way to take it too seriously.
• 
  When trouble arises and things look bad, there is always one individual who perceives a solution and is willing to take command...Very often, that individual is crazy.
• 
  Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.
• 
  Never lick a steak knife.
• 
  Take out the fortune before you eat the cookie.
• 
  The most powerful force in the universe is gossip.
• 
  You will never find anybody giving a clear and compelling reason why we observe daylight savings time.
• 
  You should never say anything to a woman that even remotely suggests that you think she's pregnant unless you can see an actual baby emerging from her at that moment. (my personal blunder, more than once)
• 
  There comes a time when you should stop expecting other people to make a big deal about your birthday. That time is age eleven.
• 
  "The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside, we ALL believe that we are above average drivers.
• The main accomplishment of almost all organized protests is to annoy people who are not in them.
• 
  A person who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter, is not a nice person.

YOUR BUSINESS IS UNIQUE -- PROVE IT!

Your door is open, the lights are on and you're ready to do business.  BIG DEAL!  So are all of your competitors!

You may think you are a great home builder and want the chance to prove it but with so many competitors out there hungry for any scrape of business, why should a new home customer come to you?

Before we try to figure out how to make your business stand out from the competition, let's take a look at who they are.  This is in no particular order, but if only one of them lands a hook in your potential customer, you've lost the game.

• Realtors selling used houses
• Realtors selling new houses
• Foreclosures
• Rentals
• New home developments
• National home builders
• Do it yourself home builders
• FSBO (For sale by owner)
• and finally all the other small builders in your territory.

I recently got a business card from a contractor that showed just how ridiculous things have gotten out there.  His card stated that he specialized in:

• decks
• emergency repairs
• remodeling
• plumbing
• HVAC
• siding
• landscaping
• and new home construction

Yep, he's the guy I'm going to sit down and have design and build my new $350,000 home.  That is until he gets an emergency siding repair job or a leaking pipe.

Unless you have absolutely no competitors, you need to find a way to stand above the crowd, be unique.  For you to succeed, you have to identify and understand what your business does or can start doing for your prospects that provides them with a result that is superior to the competition's.

What should be an easy task is probably one of the hardest you will take on in your business life.  Finding what makes you unique is tough.  Oh, you might think that building green makes you unique.  Nope, everyone is jumping on that bandwagon.  How about low price?  Not this either!  If you go that route, be prepared to deal with a ton of competitors that have nothing going for them except low price.

There are many things that can set you apart.  They can be quality, service, speed, convenience, experience, low prices, selection, or any other attribute you want your company to be known for.  All these are good things, but how do you get this message across so that when someone is ready to build a new home, they think of you?

Your Unique Sales Approach (USA) should begin with something you are known for and can do naturally.  Here are some examples of USA:

• Broad selection of home plans
• Low Price
• Better Service
• Custom Design
• Superior Quality
• Faster Building Cycle
• Service above and beyond the basics
• Better warranty
• Anything else that can set you apart

It is important they you find that one thing that sets you apart, whether it's a need or niche that only you can can fill, now is time to start concentrating on it, developing a strategy for promoting and then implementing it.  It's best, however, to adopt a USA that dynamically addresses an obvious void in the marketplace that you can fill.  Above all, never adopt a USA that you can't live up to.  People can smell that rat a mile away!  Don't offer custom designed homes if you've only built standard small ranch homes. If building these smaller, affordable homes is your USA, then get focused on that.

When developing your USA, the important thing is to focus on the one niche or gap in your market that only you can fill.  There are three things to keep in mind when choosing your USA, your competition, your target market and your ability to do what you say you can. It's important that your USA fits all three of these.

Now that you've chosen a USA, how do you get potential customers to know about it.  You've got to communicate it with everything you do. Start with you business card.  Does it scream the one thing you want people to know about you?  Your letterhead, envelopes, labels, mailers, hats, T shirts, pictures in your office, your website, radio ads, TV ads, My Space, UTube, your trucks and everything else that has business name on it should scream your USA.  Then and only then will people start associating your company and your USA.

Then it's up to you to deliver on what your USA says it will.  And only you can do that!

If you don't offer a clear and meaningful unique selling approach, you're business will stand for nothing.

It has been proven that if a small business invests the time to find it's USA, it will have a larger market share.  Developing your USA will give your a huge advantage over your competition.

AVIS AMERICA DISPELS MODULAR MISCONCEPTIONS

I published an article about a builder that wanted me to "QUIT SENDING ME E-MAILS I AM A CUSTOM HOMEBUILDER NOT A MODULAR LOVER THANKS".

The article hit a nerve with the management Avis America and one of their sales people.  I received photos of a house completed by them for an architect in Connecticut.  The architect is also a custom modular home builder.  The homes he designs and builds are fantastic and Avis America constructs them in a factory in PA!

Here are some pictures of one of his a recent  home sent to me by Sean Haines, the Account Executive that worked with the architect to build this gem.

HYBRID HOME A FIRST FOR MARYLAND, BUT AT WHAT COST?

What is a hybrid home?  After learning of Barry Antonelli's home in Phoenix, MD, I'm still not sure.

He is building what is being called the first of it's kind and in my humble opinion, it should be the last. 

Am I against going green and having a smaller carbon footprint than houses in the past have had?  NO!

But listen to this.  He has just received permission to erect a 120 feet high windmill to provide up to 25% of the homes energy.  Assuming that this luxury house will have an electric bill of of $600 a month, that's a savings of $150 a month or $1,800 a year.  That sounds good until you find out that the windmill could cost him $120,000!!!!  That should only take him about 60 years to recoup the cost.

Then there is the geothermal heating and cooling system for this house, which I agree is the way to go, if you can afford it.

But the statement that just blows me away is from the contractor that's stick building it, Ed Wheeler, saying that he is using recycled wood and lumber from local dealers, not from out of state.  Have you ever tried to get 2x4's from a local sawmill.  First, lots of luck finding one that produces them and second, the cost is out of sight!  I buy local produce and meats when I can, but organic lumber, give me a break.

So let's get this in proper perspective....Mr. Antonelli is building a hybrid house that will have a low impact on the environment but is costing him a lot more money than if he had built the same design using standard building techniques.  The cost of all the extra contractors, subcontractors, workers and delivery trucks to his site to build this home is going to use more gasoline than will burn away any savings to the house's carbon footprint.  He's going to have to plant thousands of trees in the Amazon to earn his carbon credits.

If he had have designed his house using modular engineering as the design criteria, he could had had a smaller carbon footprint and a more economically and better built home.  Architects are falling in love with modular and here is a link to one the best in the business and she is pro modular all the way.  Michelle Kaufmann

And to think this house got headlines on the local TV station.  Ridiculous.

OBAMA VISITS FLEETWOOD DEALER

In an brief stop at a St. Petersburg Mobile home sales center, Obama   had a private visit at PJ's Dream Home Center that features Fleetwood manufactured homes.

He was in St. Petersburg to pitch his $1,000 energy rebates when he decided to visit the sales center.  He toured some of the homes at the center before talking with reporters about the availability of mortgages.  I wonder if this was his first time inside a mobile home.

I wonder if his energy package or mortgage programs will apply to HUD manufactured housing.  And aren't these the types of homes he wants replaced in New Orleans that are now considered unlivable because of mold and formaldehyde?

Maybe Obama should consider moving one of these onto the White House grounds next to the Rose Garden if he's elected!

MA FIRE COULD BE START OF CODE CHANGES FOR MODULAR HOMES

On June 20th, I reported on a house fire in MA that might have far reaching effects on the modular housing industry.

Here is the original story I reported:

ADHESIVES USED IN MODULAR HOME MAY HAVE CONTRIBUTED TO HOME FIRE 

Now the report submitted by Chief Kevin A. Gallagher of the Acushnet Fire / Rescue Department is available for review.  At the end of this article is a link to the full report.  Here is the conclusions he arrived at concerning modular construction.

CONCLUSIONS: Based upon all the information we have gathered and given our new understanding of modular construction, we have revised our initial scenario of the fire on Archers Way as follows:

As stated earlier, the fire was initially contained under the farmer’s porch roof where it burned the structural members and vinyl covering.  We believe that the fire communicated into the void space between levels via a weakness in the point of connection between the first and second stories.  It is important to state that it is in this location that the holes, used to run the lifting cables, were found.  Once inside the void space the fire consumed the flammable glue which resulted in the collapse of the first floor ceiling.  Similarly, once the fire extended into the empty attic it burned away the glue resulting in the collapse of the second floor ceiling.  This revised scenario has been shared with fire officers, fire investigators and fire researchers.  All viewed the sequence of events, given the presence of the glue and the void space, as highly plausible.

I view this fire incident as a systematic failure of several of the systems that made up this structure.  The domino effect caused by the burning of the vinyl siding, vinyl soffit covering and polyurethane adhesive resulted in the attack by fire of the unprotected side of the fire protection systems designed to stop or slow the destruction of the structural members.  The survivability of a structure is improved by slowing the spread of the fire.  The presence of flammable glue on each wall and ceiling joist as well as the presence of a large concealed space of considerable volume, simply adds to the speed with which fire can spread and increases the possibility of structural collapse.

Several of the officials I spoke with regarding this fire share my concern regarding the presence of flammable glue in wall joist in close proximity to electrical heat sources.  In light of our experience, the flammable glue must now be viewed as a readily identified hazard that can burn quickly when exposed to heat energy.  Would an arcing wire act as a possible source of heat in terms of energy and duration, possible of igniting a fire in a wall space?

I believe that our experiences raise serious doubts as to the overall safety – to both occupants and firefighters – with respect to the present methods of certain modular construction techniques.  Further testing and research may be appropriate.  Can draftstopping or fireblocking be used to minimize the size of the concealed space?  Most importantly, are there alternative methods of attaching sheetrock to structural members without using polyurethane foam glue?  In my opinion, and from what I witnessed in the early hours of January 13^th, the use of polyurethane foam structural adhesives in modular construction should be prohibited immediately.

These pictures show the house fully engulfed by fire and pictures of another modular in the same town showing the dead air cavity the Fire Chief is mentioning in his report.  Notice the adhesive between the ceiling joists and the drywall in the picture on the left.

Here is what the cavity looked like after the fire!

Here is a link to the full report:  MA MODULAR FIRE REPORT