Evolutionary Vision

It’s common to hear people in southwestern Florida say there’s just something about a Frey & Son home that lets you know it’s built with quality. Most clients and potential customers who walk through a Frey & Son home can’t quite put their fingers on exactly what makes the homes stand out from the crowd, but there are those who know exactly what it is.

“We incorporate details that distinguish our homes from other builders,” says George Shaffer, executive vice president, Frey & Son Homes in Bonita Springs, Fla. “For instance, the soffit detail. We use crown molding and freize board that no one else does. It’s also subtle things like paying attention to the living area in the back of the house.

“We concentrate on the arches on back of the house and do the detailing with the same level of care as on the front of the house. On the interiors our angular design distinguishes us. We have 45-degree rooms, on diagonals, and include interesting niches, ceiling treatments and columns,” Shaffer adds.

This attention to detail has developed since Frey & Son Homes was founded in 1970 by Bill Frey. The building company began with about 10 to 15 sets of plans and the customization evolved over the years. Today, by the time the builder gets a model out of the ground, it’s already on to the next one, says Ric Bonasera, general manager. “The critical component is to reproduce those homes but add on to them one at a time.We excel at the trial and error involved.”

Roughly 30 percent of Frey & Son Homes are designed from scratch, Bonasera explains. Sometimes clients bring drawings to build, but mostly they work with Frey’s architect who designs roughly 90 percent of Frey’s homes.

“We came across a talented designer years ago who did a model for us. It was so successful, we made a deal that in any of our subdivisions he was our exclusive designer,” Shaffer says. The architect is Henry Gonzalez, owner, The Design Standard, thedesignstandard.com. “He has been a large part of our success. Customers like him. He’s the best I’ve come across in 33 years.”

Shaffer oversees the technical aspects of any drawings to make sure that when the plans get to the field, they work. “The third member of the drawing team is our structural engineer. Everything we build has to be signed and sealed by him. He has been here as long as I have. He redlines the plan to the architect, and I review them several times. That’s one of the reasons we have good relationships with our subs. They know they’ll be getting good plans.

Counting Costs

Frey & Son Homes’ subcontractors know exactly what they’ll be building, and customers know exactly what they’ll be paying. Frey sells from models to get customers in the door, and then develops preliminary plans given at no charge. The plan could be a variation of a model, or created completely from scratch.

“We develop a plan and I price it. That’s where we start and work through finishes and so forth, and cover those numbers adequately, giving them addendums as needed,” Shaffer says. Frey & Son Homes operates with an open-book policy when it comes to costs.

“We guarantee our price except for any items they change, or items that are determined by the lot’s site considerations, etc.,” he explains. “We communicate closely with the customer, and have an open-door policy. They can call us at any time, and have access to the website for the current status and photos of their home. They can go on there and see that their desires were communicated to our office. And right in the contract we explain how any change orders will be priced, including the mark-up.”

Not only are costs important for change orders, but paying attention to costs during the design phase is critical, and not something every designer does, Bonasera notes. He recalls situations when designers weren’t always worrying about the numbers. “They would produce homes that included a lot of things a homeowner might not have expected or wanted to pay for. These are things that we have to work out. We make compromises to fit a design into a budget. Usually it works out well.”