Profiting from Home Parades
Thinking of participating in a home parade? You’ll get the best results by planning ahead. Here are some pointers from seasoned pros:

• Choose entries carefully. Pick neighborhoods where you want to work and homes the market will buy. If you can’t afford several entries at once, show off a starter home one year, a move-up home the next, etc.
  
  
• Budget for expenses. Besides entry fees (a couple hundred to a couple thousand dollars per home), parade costs may include cleaning, a decorator’s fee, merchandising, marketing materials, security devices, signage, and extra insurance. Check with your association about coverage requirements.
  
  
• Work with your association. Most associations’ parade committees offer training seminars for contractors. Attend them and bring your employees along, too.
  
  Stay on the schedule your association sets. Entry fees could double if you enter after a certain time. And they often include substantial deposits that associations keep if builders blow deadlines.
  
  
• Get homeowners on board. Ask homeowners how they feel about having the public troop through their homes. Doug Nelson, CEO of New Spaces, a Burnsville, MN, design/build remodeling company, recommends starting the conversation early — at least a year before the parade or tour.
  
  If they’re eager to participate, ask homeowners to talk up their project during the event. If they’re concerned about privacy, offer them a weekend getaway package at a nice hotel.
  
  
• Decorate unoccupied homes. Merchandizing helps people “see” themselves in your homes. For models, use a good merchandizing company that understands your market. Alternatively, see if a local furniture store or interior designer will let you borrow furnishings in exchange for some PR in your marketing materials.
  
  
• Protect homes. With so many people going through your homes, “assume you’re going to have some damage or theft,” says Barry Rutenberg, president of Rutenberg Homes in Gainesville, FL.
  
  You can reduce theft by providing safe deposit boxes for homeowners’ valuables, installing locks on passage doors to keep visitors out of private areas, and having employees circulate through rooms regularly.
  
  
• Provide information. Prepare an information sheet that lists product brands and colors and contact information for everyone who worked on the house. Hand the sheets out to prospects, and “you are perceived as being very detail-oriented,” says Nancy Mostad, co-owner of Mostad Construction in Missoula, MT.
  
  For a remodeled home tour, enlarge “before” photos and mount them on an easel where you did the work. “Otherwise, people don’t know what you’ve done with the house,” says Nelson.
  
  
• Connect with prospects. Some builders staff parade homes with Realtors to register prospects and answer questions, but you’ll connect with potential clients better if you’re on site to represent your company. That goes a long way toward converting leads to sales when salespeople or designers follow up with prospects after the event.
  
  
• Put a person in every room. Bring in your entire staff and involve the rest of your project team, too. For $100 donations, Nelson’s trades and suppliers get PR in his marketing materials, signage in tour homes, and get to describe their services or products to prospects. The partnership pays for the entry fee.

Read  Making the Sale — Getting Great Clients to Choose You for more tips on wowing  prospects. The book costs $39.95 for members and $49.95 for non-members. Call 800-223-2665 or go to BuilderBooks.com to order it online.

Storm Water Regs May Boost Housing Costs

New federal storm water rules went into effect on March 10 as the EPA implemented Phase 2 of its storm water management regulations. The new phase requires cities to secure National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits, which must address six minimum control measures, including runoff from construction sites, new development, and redevelopment.

Unless municipalities parcel out the expense of developing stormwater management programs among the public, builders and developers may be saddled with hefty costs they’ll have to pass along to consumers by raising home prices.

The consequences of noncompliance are steep. In addition to imposing fines, the EPA could possibly halt development in urban areas that don’t comply with NPDES Phase 2 regulations. More than a third of states don't have Phase 2 permits yet. And Phase 1 permits, which could serve as stand-ins until the new permits are available, have expired in some states.

For information on what you can do about the Phase 2 storm water regulations, contact either Amy Ericksen at x8662 or Marolyn Parson at x8157. [return to top]

Business Opportunities from NAHB’s Councils

CAPS Program

Not everybody wants to move when they get older. To address the needs of aging Americans and facilitate diversification in a specialized market, NAHB’s Remodelors Council has developed the Certified Aging-in-Place Specialist (CAPS) program in conjunction with the NAHB Research Center, NAHB Seniors Housing Council, and the AARP. The program teaches contractors technical, business management, and customer service skills to modify housing so people can remain in their homes longer. Professionals who participate in the three-day program receive the Certified Aging-in-Place designation.

For more information on CAPS, download the application brochure. To find courses in your area, search the University of Housing’s online course listings for CAPS. Click here for information on the Remodelors™ Council.

Multifamily Housing Video

Need to convince neighbors and public officials that building multifamily properties will add value to your community’s housing mix? A new video from NAHB’s Multifamily Housing Council can help. The seven-minute educational video addresses many of the issues that often swirl around proposed apartment development, including the impact of such development on an area’s property values, traffic, and schools.

“Healthy communities need a balanced housing stock,' says Nic Retsinas, director of the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Research, who is featured in the video. “Rental housing is part of that balance and helps address the concern that has been raised over sprawl.”

The video costs $20. To order it, contact NAHB Multifamily at multifamily@nahb.com or 800-368-5242 x8215. Click here for information on the Multifamily Council. [return to top]

Builder Bright Ideas

• When she needs a new trade contractor, a Texas custom builder asks her other trades to recommend someone good. Several things happen when you find a trade contractor this way. First, trades know you value their opinion and they appreciate that. Then, if you hire someone your trades recommended, they tend to take responsibility for each other. In fact, they often fix things up for each other and work together to produce a better job.
  
  
• A Nashville builder puts a picture of the family buying the home in the construction trailer so trade contractors can identify with the family whose home they are building.

You’ll find hundreds of terrific tips on accounting, personnel, customer service, sales and marketing, management, trades, production, and design in Management Ideas That Work and More! Management Ideas That Work from NAHB’s Business Management Department. Each book costs $25 for NAHB members and $31.25 for non-members. Both are available from BuilderBooks.com; call 800-223-2665 or visit the Business Management section of www.builderbooks.com to order online.

Have a great tip to share? Send your builder bright idea to jtunick@nahb.com. [return to top]

March Member Advantage: Save up to 30% at U.S. Hotels

Whether they’re traveling for business or pleasure, NAHB members can find the right hotel at the right price. Refer to identification No. 20090  when calling: