Builder Partnerships Newsletter

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May 2011 Volume VI, Issue 5

Success Stories

Signature Homes is bucking the industry trend. The Birmingham, Ala.-based builder is selling homes, and it does it while not serving the first-time buyer market-the bedrock of the industry the last two years. Dwight Sandlin, CEO, says the company will close on 350 homes this year and has been in business since 1999. It offers detached and multifamily products for move-up and move-down buyers. With a minor exception, all those closes are in a Birmingham market that saw starts plummet from a peak of 6,000 homes to 1,300 last year.

How does Signature Homes stay ahead of this market? How does it defy the trend toward entry-level housing? And how does it capture more and more market share? Sandlin points to 5 organizational successes that allow the company to outperform its competition.

Don't Rush to Construction Without

a Complete Start Package

by Charles C. Shinn, Jr., PhD

Did you know that most of the waste and excess cost in the home building process occur, because builders rush to construction without a complete plan for production and sales? As we travel the country, we see this all the time. Builders rush to construction without having a complete set of working drawings and a full set of standard specs. They go forward without a master schedule showing the sequence of events for the trades that cuts down idle time, dry runs and inefficiencies.

Counselling Dollars and Sense

By Tom Richey, Richey Resources Co.

Selling new homes has changed from a telling business - "Let me tell you about all the wonderful things in my homes," to a smelling business - "Share with me what's important to you and we'll build your dream home together." The process is driven by questions.

Nowhere is this process more successful than in objections handling. Objections are modified, codified, or simply eliminated by the process of:
1. Cushion it.
2. Question it three or more times.
3. Answer it.

Product Features

Corrugated Stainless Steel Tubing: The Safest Pipe for Gas Distribution in Commercial and Residential Buildings

By Steve Treichel, Senior Vice President of Corporate Development, Omega Flex®, Exton, PA

Corrugated Stainless Steel Tubing (CSST) is a flexible gas pipe introduced in Japan in the 1980's due to catastrophic failure of black-iron pipe experienced during earthquakes and other natural disasters. CSST has been made in America for over two decades and installed in over five million homes in North America according to the Air Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI).

Product Features

Save time and money without sacrificing aesthetics Progress Lighting's new introductions are stylish, easy to assemble and affordable

Builders today want decorative lighting packages that add value to their offering, while also ensuring a profit. Progress Lighting has developed two new collections that are ideal for a wide variety of home interiors, satisfying both homebuilders and homeowners in today's market.

Joy and Bravo will be introduced at Dallas Market this June. These stylish decorative families feature affordable pricing and are easy to assemble, saving homebuilders time AND money - without sacrificing aesthetics.

Market Report

Finding Capital For Tomorrow's Growth

John Burns Real Estate Consulting

There is plenty of capital out there to do deals. We just moderated a very diverse panel who has invested more than $1.5 billion in home building and land in the last year. We also discussed these topics:

Construction Debt: Recourse and non-recourse debt is available, and priced according to risk. Bank of America has been very active and is looking at funding a large number of construction loans right now, in a wide variety of formats, and Presidio Residential committed $125 million last year and plans to commit another $45 million this month. Pricing varies on the situation, but is generally from:

A 1% fee and below 5.5% interest rates for the most conservative recourse loans to companies with a minimum net worth of $10 million, to

A 3% fee, 12.5% interest rate and 3% of the home sale for the riskiest loans (75% loan-to-cost on a non-recourse loan to someone with little net worth in a tough market).

In This Issue

Success Stories...Signature Homes

Don't Rush to Construction

Coun...sell...ing Dollars and Sense

Corrugated Stainless Steel Tubing

Progress Lighting

Market Report

Upcoming Events

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Upcoming Events

Builder Partnerships Webinars

Improve Your Sales Techniques and Close the Deal with the Sales Power
of P.R.O.B.E.$

May 27 at 11 AM EDT

Brought to you by CounterStrike by TracPipe

P.R.O.B.E.$ is the essential counseling process that converts lookers to buyers. In this webinar, Tom Richey will introduce the tools you need to be successful in todays housing market. No fluff, no bluff, just bare bone facts on how to bring new home buyers to contract. Tom will share little known secrets and techniques you can use to seek out and sell more prospects. Anyone selling new homes should attend and study this information to maximize the power of peak performance.

To register click here.

Vinyl Siding Institute Webinar

Insulated Siding as Home Insulation

June 9 at 12 PM EDT

June 10 at 12 PM EDT

Presented by Newport Ventures, Insulated Siding as Home Insulation will explain how insulated siding complies with code and building-energy efficiency programs, proper R-value testing, and the fundamentals of installation. Use the links below to register for this free 60-minute webinar.

To register for June 9, click here.

To register for June 10, click here.

Builder Partnerships Seminars at the Southeast Builders Conference, Orlando, Fla.

Negotiating to Win

Thursday, July 21, 2011

9 am - 10:30 am

Focuses on critical negotiating skills to help in the purchasing process; understanding the importance of negotiating win-win deals; learning what support systems you need to have to be able to enhance your negotiating skills; and learning the steps in negotiation and how to become a better negotiator.

Speaker: Charles C. Shinn, Jr., Ph.D, Builder Partnerships, Littleton, CO

What Should Be on Your Control Panel

11 am - 12:30 pm

Teaches about the key pieces of information builders need to achieve their goals and objectives and control their business. The program explains how to track and calculate each metric and how to use the metrics to make timely and accurate

decisions.

Speaker: Emma S. Shinn, CPA, MBA, Builder Partnerships, Littleton, CO

The Shinn Group has over 500 builder clients, located across the U.S. and Canada, including top performers among regional homebuilders. For more information, visit www.theshinngroup.com.

Builder Partnerships represents nearly 500 builders in the US and Canada who build an average of over 25,000 units annually. To be added to our distribution list or contribute an article to the newsletter, please contact us at info@builderpartnerships.com.