Rising Stars
Cities with the biggest jump up from last year’s list.
Despite making it into the list of 20 top remodeling markets for the first time, Atlanta hasn’t seen its fortunes soar just yet, at least not according to Judy Mozen, president of Roswell, Ga.–based Handcrafted Homes. “We’re sending out a lot of bids, but people are just sitting on them,” she says, adding that several of her colleagues are experiencing the same thing. Handcrafted Homes caters to a more affluent audience that has its fair share of discretionary income, yet Mozen says prospects aren’t pulling the trigger on major projects just yet: “Clients where money is no object and redoing a kitchen won’t hurt their portfolio are still nervous. There’s just such an insecure feeling about the future and that’s giving everyone the jitters,” she says.
For Mozen, the upside has been that the tepid economy has allowed her to improve her own skills, which she feels will set her apart from her competition when the market hits its stride. “It has given us time to improve our practices and our business models,” she says. “The [remodelers] who are still around are really having to jump through hoops to continue in their business, and I hope that has made us a better group overall.”
With the Cleveland Clinic at the center of it all, Cleveland has long been a hub for top-notch medical services. Now, a $465 million project is under way to build the city’s Medical Mart & Convention Center. Between that and $350 million invested in a new casino opening this year, there’s a lot of commercial development, says Mike Crossman, president of New View Construction, in Brunswick, Ohio, “[and] all the ancillary things — restaurants, hotels, shopping — spur consumer confidence.”
Crossman says clients are pleased to see a positive outlook after years of watching home values drop. “Now that we know we’re basically at the bottom, people are ready to climb back up,” he says. Like this city itself, Patrick Hurst, vice president at Hurst Design-Build-Remodeling, in Middleburg Heights, has focused on investing money to help grow business. “Early on in the downturn, we really invested in marketing,” he says. “Where a lot of companies were cutting back, we worked hard to grab more market share, at one point spending about 5% on marketing where we normally hover around 3%.”
Hurst and Crossman agree that being versatile and maintaining a mix of projects will help remodelers as growth opportunities arise. “Right now we’re seeing a lot of need for in-law suites, additions, bonus rooms, and other conversions [for] changing families,” Crossman says. “There’s also a population of homeowners that … feel there’s no way to sell their homes, so they’re remodeling to make their homes more comfortable for the long term.” Hurst recommends identifying neighborhoods ripe for remodeling, agreeing with Hanley Wood’s RRI ( Residential Remodeling Index) suggestions that the inner-ring suburbs that have big populations and went through building booms in the ’80s and ’90s are now in need of remodeling. “It’s about looking back in time to when all the construction was going on and seeing what kind of shape those homes are in now,” he says.
This is a longer version of an article that appeared in the January 2012 issue of REMODELING.