Remodelers and Custom Builders Ought to Get Together - 7/19/2004 - Home Remodeling Interior Decorating Design

Remodelers and Custom Builders Ought to Get Together
By Finley Perry

• Both sell a service as opposed to a product.
• Both typically use the client’s money — not the bank’s money — to build the work.
• Both tend to be more craft-oriented than market-oriented.
• Business owners in each category often come out of the trades.
• Financial accounting is similar in each case — WIP (work-in-progress) analysis is key to knowing the numbers.
• Insurance needs — workers comp, liability — are similar.
• Gross profit margins may be a point of departure, but nets are similar.
• Custom builders and remodelers share a common interest in business development strategies, management techniques, building science, code issues, architecture and design and client relationship management.

Interestingly, the separation comes in what we like to call ourselves — custom builder or remodeler. I suppose self-image and pride have something to do with it, but the

NAHB furthers and promotes this compartmentalization by having a council for the remodelers and a committee for the custom builders. The trade press fosters it by having separate magazines for each. And the trade shows further divide us with the Remodeling Show and the Custom Builder Symposium.

It’s just a thought, but I’d like to see more togetherness in the residential contracting industry, more looking for commonalities and less differentiation.

We all have a lot to teach each other. Why not leverage our knowledge to build a better industry? Why not combine the notion of remodeler and custom builder into an umbrella council — maybe something like Residential General Contracting?

We’ll better serve the big players in both categories, and we’ll better nurture the smaller and newer members in each at the same time. Any takers?

Finley Perry, a remodeler with more than 30 years experience, is president of F.H. Perry Builder, Inc., in Hopkinton, MA. Perry has been very active in both national and local Remodelors™ Council leadership. He currently sits on the Remodelors™ Council Board of Directors, is the vice chairman of the Remodelors™ Council Public Affairs Committee and immediate past chairman of the Remodelors™ Council Membership Committee. For more information, e-mail Perry.