Is Yelp Mostly Irrelevant to Remodelers?

Remodelers might come out smelling like roses or stinking like rot when they're reviewed on Yelp -- as on Angie's List or Kudzu or Google + or so many other sites where consumers can post reviews of businesses. Over at GuildQuality, Geoff Graham makes a compelling case for why Yelp isn't terribly relevant to the building and remodeling industry. Which is not to say that remodelers shouldn't be aware  of what's being said about them.

"... Yelp works well for prospective customers seeking feedback about businesses with a large volume of customers. Restaurants (their biggest market) may serve hundreds of people in a day. With a very large volume of customers, over time a business will attract a meaningful number of reviews on Yelp. This is good for customers, and it's also good (in the long run) for elevating professionalism in the restaurant industry. It shines a spotlight on great restaurants, and makes it tougher for less-than-great ones to attract customers."

"...Yelp, Google, Angie's List, and others all face the same problem: the way they gather information and communicate quality is inherently biased in favor of businesses with large volumes of customers and against those with small volumes of customers." 

Read the rest of Geoff's post here.

In the meantime, we at d5R have covered online reviews a number of times, most recently tracking the story of a DC-area remodeler who sued a client for posting inflammatory reviews. (See that thread here.) And on Wednesday, we'll publish a big story about the potential hazards of online reviews: how to get good reviews, how to avoid negative reviews, and how to mitigate the damage of negative reviews when and if they happen.

If you'd like to share your experience in avoiding and mitigating damaging reviews, post a comment below, or email me: leah@daily5REMODEL.com.



Go to the main site of daily5REMODEL.

Go to the home page of this blog.

Rough Estimates, Screwed (but Sometimes Blessed) Contractors

Well, remodeler Diane Menke may think it's "contracting 101" to properly estimate a job, and perhaps among the high professional caliber of d5R readers it is. But we've all known of remodelers -- and plumbers, painters, electricians, masons, etc. -- to way underestimate how much a project will really cost, and to end up in a deep pile of mess weeks or months later, when the client refuses to pay far more than they had been told the job would cost.

As construction attorney Andrea Goldman shared in Wednesday's d5R Answers discussion (where Diane posted her comment):

"Failure to properly estimate jobs is probably the biggest mistake I have seen contractors make recently.... Within the last month, I have received calls from at least four contractors who misbid the job, built all of their profit into the last payment and are having trouble getting paid. They have to put their own money into the job to finish it."

Sometimes a single such misbid can bring a business down. More often, it drives the contractor to cut corners and do a job that is sloppy or worse.

On occasion, of course, one contractor's bad estimating can benefit another, such as when the client has to hire a new company to come in and do the job right. I just wrote (for another publication) about a remodeler who scored a $400,000 project in such a scenario. His company did such a wonderful job that the clients have since referred his business for another $1 million in business, he estimates.

How have botched estimates affected your business, remodelers? Please weigh in here.

 

Go to the main site of daily5REMODEL.

Go to the home page of this blog.

Remodelers: Houzz About a Question?

Put it out there -- to a massive audience of home-design enthusiasts

Houzz, that incredible source of home design and remodeling ideas (and many remodelers' number-one marketing tool these days), is launching its second annual survey of on Monday and welcomes suggested questions from d5R readers.

"Last year we had 30,000 responses," says Liza Hausman, a VP for the company. "We're expecting more than 75,000 this year."

You've got questions, remodelers. This massive community of homeowners, designers, architects, remodelers, etc. has answers. Share your questions by posting them below, or email them to leah@daily5REMODEL.com.

By the way, consider attending an "Open Houzz" event if you're in Texas. Three are scheduled for January, and you're all invited. I went to the DC event recently and it was funnn. And fascinating. Click below to RSVP.

Austin Jan. 22
Houston, Jan 23
Dallas, Jan 24




Also in today's d5R Update:

• Today's number 
• 10 questions on the new mortgage rules 
• Death of an architecture critic 
• These remodelers are resolved. 

Go to the main site of daily5REMODEL.

Go to the home page of this blog.

These Remodelers Are Resolved. What About You?

Come hell or high water, growing numbers of remodelers say they won't settle for just another post-recession year in 2013. It's great to see that enthusiasm is back. Check out the business resolutions they've shared in this week's d5R Answers discussion, and consider sharing your own. Here's one from Minnesota:

"It is not a stretch to say that the last 5 years have been tough. Going from a staff of 34 to 14 changes things.... It finally feels that we (I) can add the word 'growth' back into our vocabulary with some conviction that it means something. I have feelers out for sales staff and am encouraged by who is responding!"

That remodeler's resolutions for 2013?

• Grow volume by 20% and overhead by 12%
• Hire one salesperson in January and another in March/April.
• "Recast our company vision and share with the team."

Share your resolutions, remodelers. And read about these other resolutions (and suggested resolutions) also.



Also in today's d5R Update:

• Today's number 
• Houzz about a question? 
• 10 questions on the new mortgage rules 
• Death of an architecture critic 

Have a great weekend. 

Go to the main site of daily5REMODEL.

Go to the home page of this blog.

Today's Number: 1,684

First, a correction :

Yesterday's eletter provided a very bad link for a very, very good blog. Click here for Michael Stone's "Paying Yourself" commentary, on what should be in a proper P&L statement. Sorry about that.


Now, today's 5:

Today's Number: 1,684
Where the mortgages aren't (and the money to remodel is?)
In 1,684 counties around the U.S., there's a higher percentage of homeowners who own their homes free and clear -- no mo' mortgage -- than the rest of the country on average. In Louisiana, nearly half of homes are owned outright, and the numbers aren't far behind in parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Montana and Wyoming. Home values are lower in many of these areas, perhaps also reflecting lower disposalb eincome, but it's interesting to wonder how much home equity is just sitting around, waiting for the right reason to remodel.

The heat map below, from Zillow, shows the "free and clear homeownership rate" for each of 2,159 counties. Click on the link to zoom in.

Powered by Tableau

Also in today's d5R Update:

• Houzz about a question? 
• 10 questions on the new mortgage rules 
• Death of an architecture critic 
• These remodelers are resolved. 

Go to the main site of daily5REMODEL.

Go to the home page of this blog.

Housing Starts to Soar, "Improving" List Grows

From yesterday's housing news:

Housing starts projected to soar

For the past few years remodelers have had an easier sell in at least one capacity: Convincing homeowners to make the most of their existing homes instead of buying new homes. Not only did builders nearly halt construction after the housing bust, but the cost-benefit analysis of remodeling vs. moving shifted in favor of remodeling, as more and more buyers of new homes found themselves holding mortgages far exceeding their homes' plummeting values.

Well, new construction is coming back this year, according to Calculated Risk's Bill McBride:

"No one should expect an increase to 2005 levels, however demographics and household formation suggest [housing] starts will return to close to the 1.5 million per year average from 1959 through 2000. That means starts will come close to doubling over the next few years from the 2012 level." -- more at Calculated Risk

The chart below shows how housing starts plummeted after 2005, and have only recently begun creeping upward again.

On the bright side, if the next surge in new construction replicates some of the quality issues of recent building booms, remodelers will have plenty to do in terms of repairs and reconstruction.

Also in yesterday's housing news...

"Improving" housing markets rise for fifth consecutive month

Housing markets are on the mend in 242 metro areas around the U.S., according to yesterday's report from NAHB's "Improving Markets Index." Launched in September of 2011 to debunk perceptions that all housing was in the toilet, the index is at its highest point since then. From NAHB chairman Barry Rutenberg:

"The story is no longer about exceptions to the rule, but about the gorwing breadth of the housing recovery even as overly strict mortgage requirements hold back the pace of improvement."

New metros on the list are geographically diverse and include Los Angeles, Des Moines, Nashville, Richmond and Cleveland.

More at NAHB.

Go to the main site of daily5REMODEL.

Go to the home page of this blog.

"We Can't Be Bullied Around," Cont'd

The saga of remodeling contractor Chris Dietz vs. one very displeased former client took a negative turn against the remodeler last week when the Virginia Supreme Court overturned a preliminary injunction against that client, whom Dietz had sued for defamation.

image from www.helloari.com

In that preliminary injunction, the client, Jane Perez, had been ordered to remove some claims on popular consumer-ratings sites Yelp and Angie's List about Dietz and his work. Under the latest legal decision, Perez may now keep her reviews online in their unaltered original state.

As I wrote in December, after talking with Dietz:

"The problem is, the homeowner's allegations weren't true.... Not only did the woman never pay him for the work he did do -- for a project that totaled a whopped $9,340 -- but her words scared away other homeowners who were ready to sign projects worth several hundred thousand dollars, he said."

That post generated dozens of comments on d5R, along with several calls to support Dietz by contributing to a legal defense fund or getting NARI or another association to provide him with legal support. Check out those comments here, including a response from NARI President Dean Herriges and from a few lawyers who work closely with remodeling contractors.

Add your thoughts to the discussion, if you like. Or share your thoughts below on the perils of online reviews, and steps you have taken to avoid or mitigate them.


Go to the main site of daily5REMODEL.

Go to the home page of this blog.

Remodeling Icecapades: Marvin vs. Loewen

Just in time for the resumption of professional hockey, here's a development from two top manufacturers of windows used in residential remodeling and new construction:

This Saturday afternoon, an "international hockey border battle" will pit employees from Marvin Windows and Doors, based in Warroad, Minn., against those from neighboring Loewen, based in Steinbach, Manitoba. A fundraiser for the newly remodeled Olympic Arena in Warroad (used by youth hockey teams), the game will be refereed by Dave Christian, a Warroad native, NHL All-Star and member of the 1980 gold medal-winning "Miracle on Ice" team.

From Marvin's director of materials, Paul Marvin:

"We're happy to invite our friends from Loewen to Warroad, to show them how we play hockey in Minnesota. All kidding aside, these are two great companies that share a northern heritage and a love of winter sports that crosses national borders."

"We're just old-fashioned rivals!" said John Kirchner, Marvin's public relations manager, in an email yesterday. There are already plans for a rematch in March on Loewen's turf.

And speaking of the hockey lockout, you might have missed this video from Nike:



How do you play out healthy old-fashioned rivalries, remodelers? Please comment below.

Go to the main site of daily5REMODEL.

Go to the home page of this blog.

The Small Business Skinny on the Big Tax Deal

Too busy remodeling to read every analysis of the "American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012," the end-of-year political soap opera that had everyone worried the nation would go over the fiscal cliff? Here's the gist of at least some of what matters.

An overview of how the housing market might have been impacted, from NAHB:

"Had Congress failed to extend the expiring 2001 and 2003 tax rates, the economy may have fallen back into recession, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The resulting job losses would have reduced demand for both renter and owner-occupied housing, thereby halting the expansion of residential construction that contributed significantly to economic growth in 2012."

More at "Housing Avoids the Fiscal Cliff -- for Now"

 The mortgage-interest deduction, from the Wall Street Journal:

"Another move that should benefit some homeowners is the restoration of a tax deduction for mortgage-interest premiums, including premiums paid to the Federal Housing Administration and private mortgage insurers alike. That deduction had been absent for a year after expiring at the end of 2011. In 2009, 3.6 million taxpayers claimed this deduction, according to the National Association of Home Builders." 

More at "Housing Industry Skates Through Cliff Deal"

Impact on different tax brackets, from the New York Times:

"Only about 0.7 percent of households will be subject to an income tax increase this year .... But lawmakers' decision not to reverse a scheduled increase in the payroll tax that finances Social Security, while widely expected, still means that about 77 percent of households will pay a larger share of income to the federal government this year...."

Click here for a legible version of this chart!

More at "Bigger Tax Bite for Most Under Fiscal Pact" 

Impact on energy-efficient improvements, from Energy Circle:

"The residential energy energy efficiency tax credit covers 10% of the cost of energy efficient home improvements [such as insulation and air sealing], up to a cap of $500. (Note: this is a 'lifetime' credit, so if you've taken advantage of it any time between 2005 and 2011, you can't take advantage of it again.)" 

More at "Energy Efficiency Tax Credits Extended as Part of Fiscal Cliff Deal"

Go to the main site of daily5REMODEL.
Go to the home page of this blog.

reset at d5R -- it's a good thing!

Just sent this letter to the entire d5R readership this morning. Already, the feedback has been tremendously affirming and even exciting. Can't thank my remodeling friends enough. 





Dear d5R Community --

Yesterday’s issue of daily5REMODEL was the last you’ll receive for a while. The site isn’t going away, but after more than 17 months, 290 issues, 1,500 articles, thousands of news links and all the joys and tribulations of running a small business -- whew -- I’m ready to press the reset button and explore new options.

d5R has been the most gratifying accomplishment of my career, and for that I thank you, the readers. Whether you were with me from the beginning or just came aboard recently, your feedback, encouragement and on-site engagement have been vital to the site’s success.

Also vital has been your generosity in sharing strategies, challenges and triumphs from within your own businesses. Collectively, you have posted nearly 2,400 comments -- hundreds of them provocative and worthy of articles in themselves. There’s great value in your comments, and I'll be contemplating how to direct that value to the benefit of the remodeling community.

What else will I be contemplating? Well, stay with me and you’ll continue to receive the occasional d5R in your email bright and early some mornings. (Several people have already suggested I rebrand it as w5R -- what do you think?) In either case, heaven knows there are infinite other remodeling business stories that haven’t been told or even experienced yet.

Many of you have approached me about working directly with your businesses, and I now welcome the opportunity to explore those and other possibilities as well.

Those of you who upgraded to d5R Premium will hear from me in a separate correspondence. Remodelers have taught me the importance of treating your best customers right, and I’ll be happy to offer a refund to anyone who requests one. In the meantime and for the foreseeable future, all content in the d5R Premium Library remains accessible to you, as do most other Premium benefits.

I still believe that the remodeling industry is far more dynamic and sophisticated than any existing media recognize. I’m proud of the audience-driven dialog we have created together, and proud to have had you out here on this limb with me. Progress is happening, and I, for one, have enjoyed being a part of it.

Thanks for your support, and please keep in touch!



Leah Thayer
daily5REMODEL
leah@daily5REMODEL.com

p.s. Don’t want to receive any more emails from me? Click here to unsubscribe from this list.

Protect Your Time, Qualify Your Prospects

what you might have missed in the January 13 d5R:

Protecting Your Time, Qualifying Your Prospects
Serious remodelers don't have time to chase after unserious and/or unqualified leads. What information helps you assess whether a prospect is worth pursuing?


Industry Snapshots: the d5R Dish
High-end homeowner seminars (with fancy koozies), thwarting no-shows, promoting awards, outdoor living breakthroughs, life before the EPA.

Millions and Millions of Homeowners
... are on Facebook. As social media giant careens toward its billionth user, remodelers are still playing catch up. All the better for those that have a presence.

Under Contract: the Short Form Proposal
When this remodeler started a new business, he brainstormed how to do everything better. One result is a one-page iPad proposal, rich with hyperlinks and sparing of ink and paper.

Smarter Homes, Closer to Reality
Web-enabled heating and cooling, gesture-controlled appliances ... Consumer Electronics Show serves up a feast of new home-automation products backed by big names.

Plus all the relevant business, economic and housing-related news! Click through for the full news roundup.

How the iPad Was Won: an Old House Story

In our most competitive contest ever on daily5REMODEL, the prize in July was an iPad 2. The subject? Old Home Renovations. The winner, after a seven-day voting marathon that brought 2,952 votes and ended only this afternoon, was this remodel and small addition in Wilmette, Ill., by Blank & Baker Construction Management.

Thanks to the sponsor, Crown Point Cabinetry, and to the dozens of remodelers who shared the stories of some of the old homes they've helped to restore. 

I asked Chad Blankenbaker how he rallied his supporters behind his project. His answer is below.  -- Leah Thayer, editor

Very exciting. I can't believe we won, I was just happy you chose our project to be one of the featured projects.
 

I don't think I did anything revolutionary, it just seemed to gather momentum on its own.

So I started off by posting it on both my personal and business facebook pages as well as RemodelCrazy.

Then I sent out an email to all my friends and family. Next thing I know I started to get emails back from everyone saying they voted and that they forwarded the email to their friends and coworkers. I never asked them to do that but it was flattering.

So then I started sending it out to all my vendors and subcontractors and I got the same response. People were excited for us and wanted to help.

Then after much contemplating, I decided to send it out to all my past clients, past prospects that didn't materialize, to current clients, to prospective clients, to architects that I've worked with and the response was overwhelming. 

Even all these people were passing it on to their friends and coworkers and some of them cc'd me on the comments they were posting along with my email something along the lines of this is the contractor that did the work to our (enter project here) and he is the greatest blah blah blah. To my surprise those emails resulted in two leads for projects I need to go and look at so that was a huge bonus.

Then to wrap it up, I then posted it on LinkedIn and Twitter as well.

So it was nothing that required much work. I think the reason the email campaign worked so well was because for one I was asking for help. I think generally people like to help people if you ask for it and it doesn't take much effort. I've been asked many times before to vote for things online and I usually will but once in a while you get the request for a vote that requires you to sign up on a website and give out personal information and I hate voting for those things so I think you voting system that makes it so easy for people to vote helps a lot. 

I spelled that out in my email how easy it was to vote, just 2 clicks of the mouse! is what I said. People like that. I also had many people email to tell me they voted using their computers, cell phones, ipads, etc...so for these people to be able to easily get onto the website using their mobile devices helped a lot I'm sure.

Anyway, I think that's about it. Thank you so much for letting me be a part of it. It forced me to reach out to a lot of past contacts and ask for help, something I've never been comfortable doing before and it felt good to get such a supportive response in return.

Celebrate Independence, Celebrate the Month

This year's 4th of July card from Wentworth Inc.

Happy Independence Day!

We've got a fun month planned at daily5REMODEL, so be sure to take advantage of these and other opportunities. All are free, fun, and good for you and your business:

1. Free webinar July 19: How to Use Energy Audits to Reduce a Home's Cost of Ownership and Make the Sale, presented by Scott Pusey of Everyday Green. Guaranteed to be one of the most info-packed hours of the summer. Click here to learn more and reserve your spot (space is limited).
2. Free iPad 2 for one lucky winner of the July Snapshots contest, sponsored by the fine folks at Crown Point Cabinetry and starring old home renovations. Guaranteed to be one of the free-est and most easy-going design awards contests of the year. Click here to see the first entry and learn how to enter one of your own projects.
3. Free logo redesign for one remodeling company from the creative geniuses at Blue Ocean Ideas. And really, who wouldn't benefit from a little freshening up? (You know who you are.) Click here to learn about the company's design process and eligibility.

Enjoy!

End a Home-Performance Horror, Save $550

We just finished remodeling our basement, and one of the top priorities involved insulating the exterior walls. Between the existing pine paneling -- apparently installed circa 1960, when home heating costs were negligible -- and the home's block foundation was ... nothing! Hence the wickedly cold winters in that basement, and our wickedly high gas bills.

With luck, our home will be much more comfortable next winter.

In June on daily5Remodel, we're teaming up with the Building Performance Institute to celebrate home-performance happy endings in other North American homes. Our June contest is called "Home Performance Horrors, and the winner will receive one BPI certification written and field exam, valued at $550, administered by one of BPI's affiliate organizations. Cost of training is not included.

The credit may be applied to any BPI certification, including:

• Building Analyst
• Envelope
• Heating
• Air Conditioning and Heat Pump
• Multifamily
• Residential Building Envelope Whole House Air Leakage Control Installer
• Residential Building Envelope Whole House Air Leakage Control Crew Chief

Here's how to enter:

Email one or more "before" photos or infrared images illustrating a home's desperate need for energy-retrofit work. The "before" pix might show moldy insulation, for instance, or a horribly dysfunctional HVAC system, or clear signs of water infiltration.

Also email one or more "after" photos illustrating how you completed the work properly.

Send your images, along with the location of the project and a brief narrative explaining how you solved the problem, to snapshots@daily5Remodel.com.

We'll feature different projects throughout June on d5R -- a great opportunity to show off your great work before a fast-growing audience of remodeling professionals and homeowners.

Here's a little more about the contest, along with some sample images to get you thinking.

Good luck!

My 15 Minutes with Integrity Windows

The good folks at Integrity Windows (a Marvin product) interviewed me a couple of weeks ago for their BuildChat blog. It was fun -- refreshing -- to be on the other end of the interviewing line, so I'm republishing our chat here, in the viral tradition. 

Last year, you launched your site daily5remodel.com, which provides daily industry insights and a social platform for building professionals. What have you learned in the first year of operation?

We just passed six months of publishing, and I’ve learned that I love being able to communicate directly with my audience and finesse changes without having to go through a bunch of priority queues or levels of approval. Time moves too quickly -- windows open and close like lightning -- to wait for the perfect moment, at least when you’re a startup. Customers won’t wait for you!

I’ve also learned that it’s absolutely essential to have a nimble web strategy and a robust web platform. We publish at 6 a.m. just about every weekday, and I feel that my focus needs to be on developing excellent content, understanding how I can help my audience, and responding by tweaking the site and the content mix accordingly. That means I can’t be bogged down by last-minute technology breakdowns or inefficiencies, much less anything as drawn-out and vulnerable to the economy as the print process.

I’ve also learned that some of my instincts in starting this business were better than others!

I was right in sensing that remodelers want to be part of a virtual community of peers (even if they’re just ‘lurkers’ and not active commenters) and appreciate having their very own “daily” sent to them first thing in the morning, before their days get insane. We just had a brief publishing break at d5R, and one reader lamented that he “missed seeing his remodeling ‘paper’ on his virtual porch” each morning.

On the other hand, I’ve learned to it takes more time and patience than I anticipated to gain major traction within the huge but dispersed and somewhat tradition-bound remodeling industry. And that sometimes remodelers appreciate less information in their “morning paper,” not more! And that just because I enjoy talking to remodelers doesn’t mean I enjoy, or am particularly good at, selling to them.


On your site, you write, “I believe that sustainable small businesses are critical to healthy communities and national economic vitality.” What can smaller home construction and remodeling operations sustain in this unfavorable climate?

Most remodeling companies are small businesses by definition, and most remodelers, it seems, are optimistic by nature -- especially when it comes to their own companies. I actually think the climate is much more favorable to businesses that are nimble, close to their markets and not heavily burdened by debt or overhead than by those that may be much larger and deeper-pocketed but are hobbled by inventory, legacy systems and bureaucratic holdups.

As far as what they can sustain, one clear winner is the enduring fascination that people have with their homes and the desire, I think, to be closer to home in these somewhat shaky times. Remodeling can’t be outsourced, and our housing stock is aging and in need of constant attention.

The housing bubble has only reinforced the fact that it makes more sense for most people to make the most of their current home than to upsize to a fancy new community. We’re having a fascinating discussion on d5R this week about people who need more from their current homes but can’t think of moving without taking a huge loss. Plus, there’s no mistaking the McMansion backlash as people embrace their not-so-big-house existing homes and seek to reduce their own carbon footprints by walking more (re: older urban homes) and generally wasting less.

Finally, look at the rise of things like the buy-local movement. Due mostly to bad behavior from a handful of actors, “big business” hasn’t warmed many hearts lately. It just feels good know who you’re doing business with. An example from my own family: we can do our food shopping at Whole Foods or Giant, but when we want really great seafood or meat even my 10-year-old son knows we need to see Pam, the butcher at our local market.

Very recently, you published a survey revealing many in the building industry were involved in social media for business purposes (branding, lead generation, community engagement, etc.). Should builders be considering a digital marketing strategy?

Absolutely. I don’t know of many builders or remodelers who don’t at least have a static website and use email. Even if your clients still prefer doing business via mail and phone and newspaper ads, your future clients will not.

Having said that, I think the notion of “a digital marketing strategy” might be intimidating to some small companies. But the great thing about digital media is that it invites experimentation, is soooo much easier than conventional marketing (zap out eletter vs. print, pay postage and mail newsletter? no contest)  and costs little or nothing to get started.

It’s sort of ironic that social media is proving to be a wonderful thing for many remodelers and builders. At first many remodelers resisted Twitter and Facebook; they told me “my customers are in my town, so why would I want to do something that anyone in the world can see?” Now many of them tell me they love being able to have almost real-time conversations with their clientele on these platforms. You saw this article, I gather; one respondent was fairly typical in saying s/he uses Twitter “to connect with & understand our ideal clients, to connect with peer designers, to partner with designers whose talents dovetail with ours.”

Where in the past, new home builders would pass on remodeling projects, now, many are taking on the work to sustain revenue streams. Is that a viable long-term solution?

I can’t speak for any former new-home builders but my sense is that remodeling is a viable long-term solution for them only if they adjust their margins, training and expectations accordingly. Repeatedly I hear from remodelers that their “competitors” now include builders whose prices are way lower than their own. Sometimes remodelers are called in to finish or fix projects where these lower prices got the builders into trouble -- they ran out of money, or cut corners, because their prices didn’t account for “the unexpecteds” that happen in older and/or occupied homes.

Alternatively, it may be that new home builders will figure out a way to apply the efficiencies they sharpened in their previous lives to remodeling projects. I’ve seen an uptick of MBA-types leave their corporate jobs to become remodelers, and there’s definitely room for more business savvy within the remodeling world. But building new homes and remodeling existing homes are two fundamentally different beasts, or so I’m told.

How has the game changed for seasoned remodelers as more builders are now competing for business?

Seasoned remodelers made the switch from being “order takers” to active marketers a few years ago. Many of them are still struggling to articulate how they are different from the competition in any form, let alone how to project that message to enough of the right people. In general, though, I’ve known of remodelers to make a ton of small and large adjustments -- from reducing overhead, accepting smaller jobs and taking sales training, to becoming fanatical about job-costing and networking -- to reposition for the long slog ahead.

Many of them say they’re having their best years in several years.

But it’s a really good question. Why don’t I ask my readers to answer on d5R next week?

Great Remodeling Snapshots: Pick Your Favorite!

News flash: the winner is Pine Street Carpenters! 

From Michael Dolan, marketing director: 

"These materials will be a great resource for Pine Street, 

and a valuable part of our library. We'll be sure to put them to good and frequent use!"

Every day, we at daily5Remodel invite remodeling professionals to submit a photo, video, PDF or other image and brief caption demonstrating a best business practice. At Thanksgiving, we launched our first Snapshots contest, and here is your chance to select your favorite Snapshot published in December. The winner will receive more than $200 worth of remodeling-specific books and DVDs generously provided by Remodelers Advantage, Construction Programs & Results, and Train2Rebuild.

Poll closes January 10!

(Here's an image from December 17, submitted by Pine Street Carpenters)

Click here to see these and other d5R Snapshots.
Click here to get daily5Remodel every day for free!

poll by twiigs.com