A New Financial Foundation

We are nearing the end of another outstanding year! We built strong relationships with many more customers this year and our staff continues to impress our clients and trade partners. This post is about industry financial trends and I am very glad we do not judge our success on profit alone. If we did we would miss the value of the relationships we are building since appraisals continue to come in lower than most contract prices.

We have spent the last few weeks updating and preparing a new description of materials to simplify selections for our customers. We are doing exhaustive research to make the best material recommendations that create beautiful homes and solid budgets. I can see the industry transitions clearly over the past decade. I believe we are entering into a more sustainable period between lenders, borrowers, and builders. Blame can be shared among many parties for the destruction our industry caused to the National economy. Credit can also be shared if we can learn from mistakes and benefit the National economy.

Our track record is still spotless. None of our many customers have fallen victim to foreclosure. This is not an attempt to give ourselves glory but to point out there is a different approach that is mutually beneficial to customers, builders, lenders, the National economy, et al. We continue to believe the core value of a home is in the shelter it provides. From my experience lenders and many builders were out to maximize the purchase price of all homes. It is obvious why builders took this approach. It is less obvious with lenders. The reason is the lender did not intend to "hold" the mortgage on their books. They sold many mortgages to other "investors" and maximized their revenues by maximizing the amount of the mortgage.

This attempt to maximize the amount of a mortgage led to many unsustainable impacts on our industry. I will spare the details but this year brought us several customers that purchased homes from us at a value below what they "qualified" for. We believe this practice leads to sustainability. We do not believe customers can make payments with front end ratios approaching 40%. Even if they can this concept destroys disposable income and negatively effects our National economy that is led by the consumer. Furthermore we believe it will benefit our company if first time buyers can build a solid financial foundation and in turn can possibly purchase multiple homes from us as they build equity on each purchase.

Part of our approach is to advise customers to select functional materials over excess in an attempt to out-do the neighbors. This is not sustainable. Contact us now to get a full picture of our advice on materials, budgets, and ways to make your purchase a true investment that will build equity and financial strength for your family!

Finally I would like to personally thank Lee Verhine, Laura Wright, Craig Lilly, and Ruthi McNerlin for putting our customers first. Our staff is outstanding and you will enjoy every step of the home building process including the equity you can build in the coming years.