Get Our Email Newsletter

What Custom Builders Want

Labram Homes: Niche Opportunities

LaBram Homes

In many ways, the biggest things St. Petersburg, Fla.-based custom builder LaBram Homes needs from its LBM dealers aren’t much different than others. But the company’s highend homes and clientele do lend themselves to some unique attributes. The family-owned, 30-year-old company builds about 10 $1 million to $2 million homes a year, primarily on infill properties in the sought-after communities of Snell Isle, Venetian Isles, and Treasure Island. As a true custom builder, no two LaBram homes are alike, and that keeps vice president Elisa LaBram Verch on her toes. As a designer, it’s vital that she bring clients the latest and greatest product and design ideas to ensure their homes are forward thinking, innovative, and one of a kind. Suppliers who can help her do that by alerting her to new materials and trends will score points.

“I want to find it before [my customers] find it,” LaBram Verch says. “Homebuyers are very savvy now, spending time online looking at everything for their homes. Our clients ask for a lot of prices and inquire about unique items to be priced.” As such, it’s important for dealers working with LaBram to be able to turn around quotes and pricing quickly. One of LaBram’s current suppliers responds to pricing requests the same day, if not the same hour, making it easier for the builder to juggle numerous inquiries and lengthy product lists, while getting a quote off her desk right away rather than having to go back to it a few days later.

LBM Resources

White Paper: The Human Element of Fleet Safety: Managing Safer Drivers

White Paper: The Human Element of Fleet Safety: Managing Safer Drivers In this White Paper, Michael Zdrojewski, Senior Loss Control Representative with Pennsylvania Lumbermens Mutual...

Competitive pricing is always a must to earn LaBram’s loyalty. But like many builders, excellent customer service is LaBram’s top need in a supplier, including responsiveness via phone or email along with the quick turnaround on quotes and pricing.

LaBram Verch also relies on LBM dealers for material takeoffs, an essential service as the builder continues to get busier. She’s also appreciative when her dealer reps immerse themselves in her projects. They make trips to the jobsites to do walk-throughs with site superintendents, ensuring they have a deep understanding of the home’s unique needs and challenges. “If they can take the time to walk the jobsite, you get a more accurate order, and you’re on the same page from the get-go,” LaBram Verch says.

Product knowledge is a must-have, of course, but her favorite reps often go even further, facilitating meetings and relationships with manufacturer representatives, some of whom will bring product samples directly to the jobsite to help LaBram Verch and her customers select materials and help crews understand special installation requirements. “Going above and beyond is noticed for sure,” she says. “That is what makes you want to use those suppliers.”

- Advertisement -

And if you really want to win over LaBram Verch? Solve her No. 1 product challenge: finding impact-rated doors that look nice, don’t cost more than $10,000, and don’t look like every other door in the state of Florida.

Teal Creek Homes: Traditional Values

Teal Creek Homes

While traditional homes and Craftsmans still dominate the Des Moines, Iowa, market, some homeowners are slowly moving toward transitional- style and even modern houses. But for Teal Creek Homes, the wants and needs from its LBM dealers remain firmly in the tried-and-true: reliability in supply and delivery, thorough product knowledge, and strong partnerships.

- Advertisement -

“I take most of my materials right as needed, so being able to rely on someone logistically is important,” says Jim Young, president of the custom builder, which completes about eight to 12 homes a year, including energy-efficient and green-built options, targeted in the $400s to $600s. But that doesn’t forego the need for honesty and realism: “Don’t tell me what I want to hear; tell me what I need to hear.”

Teal Creek’s dealers provide takeoffs for framing, interior millwork, and roof trusses. “What I like most about my reps is that they’re proactive,” Young adds. “When I call to let them know the foundation is going in and I need to start scheduling deliveries, they continually check in with me to verify the roof design, to double-check the timing for deliveries, and to ask questions to ensure I’m not missing anything. That’s huge for me.”

Young also appreciates when reps are up to date on the product categories they sell, providing technical comparisons on the performance differences between similar products, such as fiber cement versus composite siding, to help the builder make more informed decisions.

Dealers serving custom builders of Teal Creek’s size also should keep in mind that many smaller outlets rely largely on word of mouth and referrals to gain new customers. As a supplier, similar to a subcontractor, dealers are an extension of, and a reflection on, the builder’s brand.

Like other builders, Young seeks competitive pricing, but acknowledges the ebbs and flows and places more importance on service aspects most of the time. He does note, however, that because custom builders are putting up fewer houses, they need to get the best numbers possible to make their margins and compete with larger builders. “To build my business, I still need some of that attention just like the big builders,” Young says.

The payoff for the dealer, of course, is a growing customer with enduring loyalty.

Get our free newsletter

Join thousands of other lumber and building material industry leaders and keep up with the companies, people, products and issues shaping the industry.

What's New

Digital Partners

Become a digital partner ...

Sales Comp Study

Download this 55-page, in-depth study by LBM Journal of industry trends in sales force compensation and benefits. See how your organization stacks up.

Webinars

- Advertisement -

White Papers

View all ...

- Advertisement -

Partner Content

View all ...

- Advertisement -

Registration is now open for the LBM Strategies 2024 Conference