Data & Research
Data & Research
How Can Custom Builders Respond to the Current Market?
How can custom builders capture clients today? The Farnsworth Group President Grant Farnsworth shares insights into what custom builders can do
Data & Research
Do Homeowners Really Use the Inflation Reduction Act?
The first IRA report by the Treasury Department reveals who and what has benefitted from energy efficient tax incentives
Business
November Data: Custom Architects Weigh In, New Construction Trends, Contractor Confidence, and Material Price Changes
We've collected highlights from a number of data reports published throughout the industry in November
Codes & Standards
OSHA's Preliminary List of 2023's Most Frequently Cited Standards in Violations
Fall-related violations continue to plague the construction industry despite ample free education and resources
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Financial
Detail Work
History credits the famous architect Le Corbusier with the phrase "God is in the details." He was offering a more positive affirmation of the old proverb, "The devil is in the details." While I generally have a positive attitude, I believe custom builders are going to find this year that the devil really is in the details.
Leadership
2005 Forecast Sunny, Not Record-breaking
Predicting the Future is tricky business. Last year, housing experts uniformly predicted that home building would come off its hot streak, but record results proved them wrong. Now they agree that decline will come this year. According to the NAHB, 2005 will show a modest decline in total housing starts from 1.
Leadership
Lingering Myths about Generation X
Generation X attracts more speculation, controversy and debate than one would care to master. The conversation began in 1991 with Douglas Coupland's book, Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, which profiles a group of "underemployed, overeducated, intensely private and unpredictable" twenty-somethings who have "nowhere to direct their anger, no one to assuage their fears and no cultu...
Leadership
A House Without Right Angles
Architect Matt Schlueb, principal of Schlueb Architecture, recently designed his own home in Pittsburgh, Pa., with virtually no right angles. Villa Vuoto features 2,600 square feet of living space, three levels, and simple and compounded curves, sloping walls and circular rooms. Designed to provide a stimulating environment for the architect's young son, the project was a prototype for explorin...
Leadership
Creating a Community Theme
A sense of place matters just as much to luxury home buyers as the details of the floorplan and the quality of the finishes. To deliver on this desire, custom builders can borrow a page from their production builder counterparts. Here Terry Smith of architecture firm Bloodgood Sharp Buster gives a quick tutorial in creating a community theme.
Leadership
Insurance Woes Top Concern List
The price of general liability insurance and the ongoing shortage of carriers willing to write such policies for builders pushed these issue to the top of NAHB's annual critical issues surveys. On a scale of one to five, where one equals not at all critical and five equals very critical, general liability insurance cost scored 4.
Economics
Revving Up for a New Year
The start of a new year is the perfect time for all company owners, including luxury home builders, to make adjustments to be implemented in the year to come.
Economics
Accountants Aren't Just for Taxes
Ask a builder for a definition of a good accountant, and tax savings probably will be a highlight of the response.
Economics
Borrowing Money: What You Should Tell Your Banker
Depending on others to fund business growth requires you to divulge information you probably would rather keep confidential. But disclosing too much information can harm your prospects of gaining loan approval.