builders

Building a House in Arizona: Expert Guidance From Local Builders | Redfin

October 1, 2024
By Tabitha Warren

Redfin is featuring Outhouse in an article, and we encourage you to check it out. Although we provide computer-aided design (CAD) and interactive marketing tools to builders nationwide, we are pleased to be included in an article about home building in our home state of Arizona.

Embarking on the journey of building your dream home in the Grand Canyon State of Arizona is an exciting adventure filled with unique considerations. From the vibrant energy of Phoenix’s city life to the tranquility of Flagstaff’s pine-scented forests, constructing a home here requires careful planning and consideration.

In this article, Redfin has gathered insights from seasoned Arizona builders to walk you through the essential steps, from understanding zoning laws to choosing the right materials for the Arizona climate. With practical advice and tips from start to finish, you’ll gain the confidence to manage your building project effectively and make informed decisions that bring your vision of an Arizona home to life.

Read the full article here: Building a House in Arizona: Expert Guidance From Local Builders | Redfin

Consider an Integrated Build/Market/Sell Process for Speed

Whether you live in Arizona or one of the other 49 states, when you are ready to design, build, and sell some new homes, it pays to consider a digital marketing provider like Outhouse, which offers in-house drafting services. Outhouse’s experienced CAD team works with some of the most successful production home builders across the nation on everything from master sets to redline revisions to plot plans. And, while your homes are being drawn, our production teams are simultaneously creating interactive floor plans, renderings, virtual tours, visualizers, print collateral, and more, helping you bring homes to market faster than the competition. Starting with Outhouse CAD as the foundation, integration is the key to streamlining the build/market/sell process.

As we head into the holiday season, Outhouse would like to thank all our clients and friends. We appreciate you and are grateful for the business you bring us throughout the year. Happy Thanksgiving!

New Home Sales Centers Take Center Stage

October 1, 2024
By Jim Sorgatz

Even Smaller Builders Can Have a Top-Notch Sales Office

With the slowdown in residential sales, home builders across the nation are investing in new home sales centers, or model home centers, to showcase their houses and communities. Sales centers are a great vehicle to draw homebuyers in and highlight all your homes offer. Large public builders may opt for elaborate buildouts with cabinets, multiple touch screens, and monitors, especially in larger communities. On the other hand, many small or mid-size builders may ask what it takes to install a sales center. With some creativity and an eye for design, even the smallest production builders can set up an effective sales center in the garage of a model home.

Come on in and explore. Simple furnishings, large framed panels, a touchscreen display, and an acrylic logo create an inviting, sophisticated room for the K. Hovnanian Looks sales center.

A great place to start is with signage experts like Outhouse. With experience in top-of-the-line installations for some of the most prominent builders and scaled-down designs for smaller companies, we can offer suggestions and advice on model home centers to fit any budget. Large framed panels that tell a story create emotional connections and are cost-effective. A large acrylic logo on the wall and smaller directional signs and nameplates give the room a polished look. A wrap covering an entire wall packs a punch and creates a memorable wow factor.

Large format print. A wrap with the image of motorcycle racers covering two walls in a garage. — *An inspirational wall wrap in a private garage. Imagine one like this in your sales center!*

The key to a thriving sales center is excellent storytelling and uniformity of the design elements. With this goal in mind, builders sometimes combine their sales center with a design center bringing in additional warmth and visual appeal.

A wall wrap with the image of a boy capturing a firefly in a jar. An acrylic panel with text overlays a portion of the wrap. — *Starlight Homes sales centers may have a new look these days, but this is still one of our favorite iterations. Storytelling at its finest.*

In today’s digital age, an interactive kiosk is a must. Essentially a mini-website, interactive kiosks integrate your digital marketing tools in a single app for easy use onsite at the sales center. Responsive, device-agnostic kiosks like those provided by Outhouse integrate point-of-interest maps, interactive site plans, interactive floor plans, interior and exterior visualizers, virtual tours, and animations for a seamless home-buying experience. They engage homebuyers and can be installed on any device. Even something as small as a tablet becomes a powerful sales tool. Imagine buyers customizing their home through an interactive floor plan while touring your models.

The home page of an interactive kiosk produced by Outhouse. Buttons along the side link to a Welcome page, Point of Interest map, interactive site plan, and interactive floor plans. — The Outhouse Interactive Kiosk with links to a welcome page, point of interest map, interactive site plan, and interactive floor plans. Buttons can be customized to include virtual tours, interior and exterior visualizers, or whatever else you’d like.

With a more significant budget, consider installing large touchscreen monitors to elevate the impact. Visitors to your sales center will feel like they are in a sci-fi movie as they whiz around maps, floor and site plans, house renderings, virtual tours, and more, all on a grand scale. Hang a monitor on the wall or install it in a custom cabinet or table for a more sophisticated look. Creative License International and the Temeka Group are a couple of companies that build custom furniture for sales and design centers.

Cachet Homes Arizona sales center. The complete package in a compact space. Wall mounted acrylic panels, touchscreen monitors featuring an interactive kiosk, and print collateral engage the senses.

The final element of a thriving sales center is print marketing. Although some digital marketing agencies may lead you to believe that print is no longer a viable marketing tool, statistics show otherwise:

Infographic with images representing print marketing statistics which are listed below the graphic.

95% of people under 25 years old read magazines (Top Media Advertising).
82% of consumers trust print ads the most when making a purchase decision (Burstein).
Combining print and digital ads makes online campaigns 400% more effective (Top Media Advertising).
Print drives higher levels of brand recall vs. digital (77% vs. 46%) (Newsworks).

Think about it. We go to trade shows and expos like the International Builders Show, Pacific Coast Builders Conference, Southwest Builders Show, Southeast Building Conference, and more for human connection. We meet with business associates, physically test new products, and pick up many samples, catalogs, and marketing brochures along the way. When we get home, we review those brochures in detail as part of our decision-making process. Print still plays an integral role in marketing.

A print brochure for Capital West Homes in Arizona featuring a cover with photos of a family, community landscape, and house renderings and floor plans inside. — *Print brochure with house renderings and floorplans for Capital West Homes in Arizona. The perfect takeaway for model home center visitors.*

Outhouse installs sales centers/model home centers and provides print marketing for home builders across the nation. If you’re ready to install your sales center and would like a quote on signage, interactive kiosks, touchscreen monitors, and print collateral, contact us at info@outhouse.net. If you are unsure where to start, call the Outhouse experts at (602) 371-4394. We are here to help and can guide you in the right direction based on your design requirements and budget.

How A Professional Builder Prices A Building Contract

October 2, 2024
By Guest Author

If you are adding a margin to the cost of materials and labour in order to calculate a contract price…then stop right now.

Your building company is in serious danger of losing money, especially if you plan on growing.

The traditional method of pricing jobs is to apply a margin to the cost of sales.

The problem with this method is that you are hoping you will make enough profit to cover your overheads and wages.

Building companies with revenues of less than $6m DO NOT enjoy the same economies of scale as traditional businesses like manufacturing or retailing.

This results in builders making little, or no net profit at the end of the year, despite taking on more work and increasing their revenue.

When a building company grows, their net profit margin decreases…

Even when they don’t reduce their margin, they can still end up losing money…

How is that possible?

The problem lies in the method they are using to price their jobs.

Most builders add a nominal markup of say 20% to their cost of sale which gives them a contract price to charge the client.

The problem with this strategy is that it doesn’t always cover the running costs for the business.

Where Most Builders Go Wrong

In fact, when it comes to quoting a larger project, most builders actually reduce their profit in order to win the job when in fact they really need to be increasing the margin to cover the additional running costs.

It’s the reason why you hear so many builders say they were earning more money when they were doing less jobs.

It’s also the reason why so many building companies run into cash flow problems.

And it’s why so many builders end up with nothing to show for decades of hard work.

The good news is that there is an easy solution to the problem.

Building companies need to price their jobs using a net margin instead of gross margin.

When you apply a net margin to project you are guaranteed to make a profit.

But when you apply a gross margin to a project, you are simply hoping to make a profit…

And that’s fine when your turnover is at a consistent level…

But when workflow increases and additional resources are taken on, the amount of fixed costs, as a proportion of the contract price also increase.

When that happens you have 3 problems.

First, you don’t know what your break-even point is.

Second, although you are increasing your cash reserves, if you are not making a profit then you’re creating a hidden liability that will get bigger and bigger, a bit like giant Ponzi scheme.

And third, you’ll probably end up cutting margins in order to win more work, which only compounds the problem and increases the hidden liability in your building company.

It’s a bit like the Federal Reserve Bank in the US, only no one will be bailing you out…

But you may get prosecuted for trading insolvently…

The reason it is so important to grow a building company profitably is because the retained net profit provides the foundations to support a growing business.

Without retained net profit you are effectively building a house of cards that will fall over in the next market downturn.

To learn more, download the Professional Builders’ Secrets To Increasing Margins.

Click on the link below to download for free now.

Submitted by:

Russ Stephens
Business Strategy Specialist & Cofounder of the Association of Professional Builders

Since 2014, Russ has been helping builders double the size of their businesses through profitable growth. He is a data analysis expert that has introduced data-driven decision-making to the residential construction industry. Russ calls on 38 years of experience in business as well as the lessons that had been learned from working closely with some of the most successful custom home builders in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States.

Mentoring & Nurturing

October 2, 2024
By Jim Sorgatz

How mentoring kids enhances a career in nurturing client success

My "Little" and I on top of South Mountain at cancer hike in 2014 — On cancer hike with my Little in 2014

One of the accomplishments I am most proud of in life is mentoring two boys through the Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) program. With no kids of my own, I felt a calling to volunteer with this tremendous organization as I realized how growing up in a relatively stable family helped prepare my brothers and me for adulthood. There are so many kids whose lives are in constant flux or would simply benefit from a little extra adult encouragement and support. BBBS is comprised of Bigs (adult volunteers) and Littles (the kids) who are matched one on one, based on common interests. Although most activities are on your own, each match is supervised by a BBBS specialist. The minimum time commitment for a Big is 2-4 outings a month for one year, but there are many matches that evolve into lifelong friendships.

My "Little", who is no as tall as me, and I on top of South Mountain at cancer hike in 2018. — My “Little” (2nd from right) and I on cancer hike in 2018

The need for volunteers is great, especially for men as the organization seems to have an easier time recruiting Big Sisters. If you are looking to help others in a role that is both challenging and rewarding, this is the perfect opportunity. Does everything go smoothly – NO! Things can and do go wrong. My current Little is now 19 and comes with all the drama and emotions most 19-year-olds experience. Although no longer in the program we still see each other regularly. As I write this, he is staying at my home due to challenges getting along with his roommate and his mom at the same time. So, lucky me, I get the brooding young man! The bottom line is, we have grown very close during our 10+ years together and I want to do everything I can to help him find his way in the world as an adult. Bigs are also not immune to the challenges parents face. Like the title of that famous song “Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll” (or in today’s world – Rap!), Bigs often have to address these issues as Littles navigate their teenage years. There was a point earlier this year where things had gone so awry, I was questioning whether my efforts made a difference at all.

And that is when, out of the blue, my first Little (now 26) sent me a chat via Messenger. Together in the program for 5 or 6 years, our match was terminated by BBBS due to a change in circumstances at his home; and this meant no further contact. Remembering a painfully shy and quiet teenager, I was not prepared for the chatterbox I encountered when we met for dinner. Confident, self-sufficient, incredibly happy, and overly-talkative, he was working as an assistant manager at Fry’s but decided to take a detour as an Uber/Lyft driver as he wanted more freedom. That evening made me realize, without a doubt, the time and energy dedicated to mentoring these young men was worth it.

What I learned while volunteering with BBBS is I am passionate about mentoring, nurturing, and helping people solve problems and overcome challenges. These interests have played an integral role in my career as well.

As former VP of member services at the Home Builders Association of Central Arizona, I helped builders and trades connect with one another through business development events and programming.

Here at Outhouse, rolling out new products (did someone say Visualizer?!) and educating clients on the full range of benefits offered by our interactive tools are two key roles. There is often much more than meets the eye. While builders actively use front-facing tools like the furniture planner, structural options selector, and pricing calculator on our Interactive Floor Plans, they sometimes forget about the lead generation, and analytics available through the back end. Outhouse may not be the largest provider of online marketing tools, but we have always taken pride in being the best. Working with clients to be sure they effectively use these tools to guide successful marketing strategies and close sales is part of that mission.

Nurturing and mentoring play an integral role in both business and our personal lives. There is so much we can learn from one another, and a great deal we can share to help others realize dreams and achieve goals. To learn more about Outhouse, or being a Big, give me a jingle at jims@outhouse.net. There is a great need for volunteers to help guide kids and teens in the right direction. It’s not easy, but I believe you will find the experience rewarding.

Musings from Home Builder, Author & NAHB Speaker Alan Trellis

October 2, 2024
By Outhouse Partner

“The future cannot be predicted, but futures can be invented.”
— Dennis Gabor

Randomness and circumstance combine to create the daily environment in which we must live, and hopefully thrive. But to believe that these alone determine our destiny is to incorrectly account for our own decisions and actions. Our future is as much about what we do with the hand we are dealt as the hand itself. It is up to each of us to be the best that we can be – to do the most that we can do. Poor circumstances can make this harder, and at any given instant guarantee that our best will be unacceptable, and the most we can do be insufficient. But if we consistently address both the good times and the bad with courage, determination, and thoughtful creativity, we can always impact the outcome of our lives and our decisions. We can always, to some degree, invent our own futures.

“If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.”
— Reid Hoffman

This quote relates directly to an article I wrote entitled “When Truisms Collide”. In that article, I discussed how two conflicting quotes, generally considered as truisms, could be in direct conflict and yet both be true. The answer to this inconsistency is relatively simple – which truism is correct depends entirely on the circumstances and environment of any given situation. Mr Hoffman is entirely accurate in his assessment if there is huge pressure to get to market and grab market share before a competitor beats you to it. This would be particularly true in the case of new technology-driven products, where obtaining a foothold is the highest priority.

For a homebuilder, particularly one with an excellent reputation, I would argue that it is equally important that while our new product need not be perfect, it should not be embarrassing. The cost of reputational damage must always be weighed against the advantages of being first to market. History is filled with unsuccessful product pioneers, whose market share was stolen by the second round of better designed, better performing, and better priced alternatives.

“Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened”.
— Dr. Suess

Many great quotes are similar in that they are variations on a core theme. The fundamental message contained here is “Be Positive”. “Every cloud has a silver lining” and ”Pessimism leads to weakness, optimism leads to strength” are just 2 other examples of this pro-positive theme. Yet here, Dr. Suess has expanded the base message of positive versus negative to one of appreciation versus lament, with the added message that everyone get’s to decide the outcome of this contest through their individual perspective. To quote another quote, we each get to determine if, in our mind, the glass is half full or half empty. The amount of water in the glass doesn’t change- how we chose to see it is what changes.

“If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way”
— Napolean Hill

Most of us dream, at some time, of doing great things. Yet true satisfaction and long term success come from hard work, commitment, and attention to detail. Big things consist of myriad small things, and getting these right is the foundation on which big ideas, big plans, and big business success are built. As builders, we should understand, better than most, the importance of a solid foundation, and strive to do the nagging, every day small things we must deal with in a great way. Only then, will you be capable of accomplishing great things

Submitted by

Alan Trellis, Author, NAHB Speaker, and co-founder of Home Builders Network.

With 40 years of experience as a custom home builder and consultant for the home building industry, Al is co-founder of Home Builders Network, which provides management consulting, marketing, residential design, and land planning for home builders throughout North America. Collectively, their clients build 3,000 homes per year, for a sales value of $1.2 billion. Al is the author of many books on residential construction; has served as chairman of the NAHB Custom Builder, Education, and Business Management committees; and is a leading speaker at the NAHB International Builders Show (IBS).