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Scott Truberg, financial manager of Creative Design Construction and Remodeling, Northvale, N.J., realized that poor communication between field and office staff was eating into company profits.
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It can be easy to run into difficulties if your sales are being structured in an improper manner — or in a manner that appears to be improper — even if you are advertising truthfully!
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About a year ago Agape Construction in Kirkwood, Mo., a suburb of St. Louis, began recognizing the hard work of its subcontractors and staff through its Super Employee of the Month program.
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When more and more clients started asking Home Equity Builders, in Great Falls, Va., if employees could do jobs as small as hanging curtains, owner Jeff Rainey saw an opportunity to put some of his employees to work during downtimes.
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Situations like this are not uncommon among remodelers. Options for resolving such misunderstandings include mediation, arbitration, small claims court, or litigation. No one — except, perhaps, lawyers — likes the last choice.
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Most remodelers suffer from call reluctance, according to Jack Hauber, a sales coach with the Sandler Sales Institute (www.dc.sandler.com).
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In the quest for positive media coverage and word-of-mouth buzz, few tactics match the return on investment of design competitions. Every year, remodelers around the country enter dozens of local, regional, and national competitions, including this magazine's own REMODELING Design Awards (RDA).
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Every month, about 1,700 clients, and associates of Tri-Lite Builders receive a short, friendly e-letter from the Chandler, Ariz., company.
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Print newsletters remain popular marketing tools, but a growing number of remodelers are spreading their news via e-mail newsletters.
"Extending the second story above the existing garage was the key to capturing the beautiful ocean views previously blocked by neighboring homes,” says Keitha Giannella, designer and builder of this La Jolla, Calif., spec project.
The jury described this renovation as an inviting transformation that is welcoming to visitors. The homeowners purchased this nondescript 1970s Colonial and began planning the remodel before they even moved into the house.
The owners of this humble farmhouse wanted to remodel to add space, but only if the renovation maintained the original 1789 structure and 1975 addition. Architect Anne Decker chose to drop the roofline from the original structure to the addition to defer to the old house.
This modern adaptation of a bare-boned condominium in a 1930s department store building pleased the judges for its “sculptural” built-ins, “high sense of style,” and “great lightness of being.”
There's no way to sugarcoat it: The original house was, in the judges' words, “heinous.” But the design and remodel are “light-handed” and “subtle,” but “with a lot of impact.” Now, it's “the nicest house.” And it satisfies the needs of an active family of four.
Buffeted by brisk ocean winds and reached only by boat or plane, tiny Block Island slows to a crawl in winter, most of its homes and inns shuttered until summer. Not this home.
