Blog Archives




 

  • Confidence up, foreclosures down. Believe it?
    By Rob Heselbarth - Friday April 17, 2009
    Two big news stories broke this week: 1) Home builder confidence is up. Read more. 2) Mortgage foreclosures are down. Read more. Are these two stories enough to convince you that things are looking better? A few weeks ago I posted a long list of news headlines from across the country, all with positive stories to tell about the housing market. I argued then, and again today, that good news breeds good news, and bad news breeds bad news. Americans tend to act with a mob mentality, which is bad when everyone tightened their wallets and stops spending. But it's good when Americans begin taking homes off the market, and giving home builders reasons for feeling so confident about the market. So I ask you, do you believe we can see the light...

  • Only the adaptable will survive
    By Rob Heselbarth - Wednesday April 8, 2009
    For roughly two months now, I have been meeting Chicago-area readers of Residential Design & Build magazine to shoot video clips that we're posting on our web site. We ask these architects and builders a few questions about their markets, government actions, green building, and plenty of other topics and record their responses on video (watch them here). They're under the "Readers speak up" tab. The visits with these readers have been education for me, and now they can be educational for you. I've learned that architects and builders are an adaptable bunch that will do what's necessary to survive. None of them is sitting still hoping for the best. They're all making things happen. One builder finished the basement of a model home with a...

  • RD&B Survey: Revenue, profits and home size are down, but ...
    By Rob Heselbarth - Friday April 3, 2009
    The results of our annual Market Trends Survey will appear in our April issue, and are online now for your perusal. Here are some teasers to consider: Financing troubles. There is evidence that the depth of the nation’s financial troubles reaches even wealthy clients who can afford the homes you design and build. Profit margins. Clearly, profits come second to revenue these days. Green building. The lure of green buildings is saving money, not the Earth. Survey results also indicate that despite the undeniable gains green design and construction have made in recent years, consumers are willing to forget about green when money becomes an issue. Similar threats. For the first time in the three years we’ve published our...

  • Want good news to talk about? Here you go
    By Rob Heselbarth - Friday March 20, 2009
    From Rob -- If you've been paying attention to the news the past few weeks, you might have noticed the increase in the number of positive news stories about the housing market and the economy in general. I certainly have. The stock market has closed up on more days than it has closed down. That hasn't happened in months. The fed made a move that dropped mortgage rates to lows not seen since the 1960s. The inventory of unsold homes is beginning to get eaten up as sales of foreclosed homes are on the rise. Here are a few headlines from around the country that should make you feel good. Talk about these stories at the next party you attend, or at your next association meeting, or to anyone that will listen. Enjoy. Santa Clara County home...

  • The good and bad of foreclosures
    By Rob Heselbarth - Friday March 13, 2009
    An article in the Wall Street Journal on March 11 with the headline, Foreclosed Houses Haunt Home Builders, highlights the troubles home builders are up against as a result of so many foreclosed houses sitting on the market. In areas such as Southern California the cost of a newly built home, with prices already reduced, are tens of thousands of dollars more than a one- or two-year-old home under foreclosure. Builders are not competing with each other, they’re competing with foreclosures. Hotel ballrooms and school buses across the country are packed with people hoping to snatch up deals on foreclosed homes through public auctions, which accounts for the increase in home sales seen in some regions, the WSJ article states. Good...

  • Loan modifications could put floor under house prices
    By Rob Heselbarth - Thursday March 5, 2009
    From Rob H -- The Obama Administration on March 4 announced new U.S. Department of the Treasury guidelines to enable loan servicers to begin modifications of eligible mortgages under the Administration's Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan – announced by President Barack Obama just two weeks ago. This "Making Home Affordable" program authorizes implementation of provisions that will help bring relief to responsible homeowners struggling to make their mortgage payments, while preventing neighborhoods and communities from suffering the negative spillover effects of foreclosure such as lower housing prices, increased crime and higher taxes. The program could help up to 9 million homeowners who are making good-faith efforts to...

  • Not your ordinary steel beam
    By Rob Heselbarth - Tuesday March 3, 2009
    From Rob H – This is not your standard product write-up you’d see in the pages of Residential Design & Build. I write this as someone who spent several hours in the facilities where people are producing a product that can improve the home design and construction processes. What LiteSteel Technologies is doing in its newly updated facilities in Virginia (pictured below) is exciting. The company is producing LiteSteel Beam (also pictured below), a product that truly saves time and money for those designing and building custom homes. The LiteSteel Beam, or LSB for short, is a cold-formed, lightweight steel structural beam that combines the strength of steel with the workability of wood. I’ve personally seen one of...

  • It's about your client, not you
    By Rob Heselbarth - Friday February 20, 2009
    From Rob H -- Are you sick of hearing this; "You can't do business the way you used to." For the past few months I wasn't sure exactly what that meant. I wondered, "OK, then how CAN you do business?" But now I'm beginning to think I've figured it out. One interpretation is that the hard sell doesn't work anymore. You can't keep pressuring people to give you money because they don't have it. Companies that continue to turn the screws on their clients succeed only at upsetting them for not understanding their situation. The more appropriate and successful way to go after business is to understand that your clients have limited funds, and to present them with solutions that make sense for THEM, not you. As I prepare an article for the...

  • Color expert packs 'em in
    By Rob Heselbarth - Thursday February 5, 2009
    If you have any doubt about homeowners' interest in the appearance of their homes, let go of that doubt and trust me when I tell you they're interested. About 100 people braved single-digit temperatures to cram themselves into a paint store in Barrington, Ill., on a Wednesday night, just to hear color expert Dee Schlotter, color marketing manager for Pittsburgh Paints, talk for 30 minutes about the hot colors for 2009. Among the handful of color combinations and other trends she discussed, Schlotter highlighted The Colors of Fallingwater, a line of paint colors inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright's classic Fallingwater home in southwestern Pennsylvania. Although the color scheme is not new, Schlotter called attention to the way Wright drew...

  • Green Building Standards
    - Monday February 2, 2009
    Big news! Green Building Standards are now available. The American National Standards Institute approved the standards last Thursday. This news is big for the custom build/design industry. These new standards give some clarity to trades as well as homeowners. Homeowners now have something to rely on when someone tells them "this is green." Below is a release from NAHB about the approval. It's definitely a great step forward for the industry.  -------------------------------- NAHB APPLAUDS ANSI APPROVAL OF NATIONAL GREEN BUILDING STANDARD WASHINGTON, Jan. 29 --The National Green Building Standard for all residential construction work including single-family homes, apartments and condos, land development and remodeling and renovation...

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