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CHRISTMAS IN JULY
POKER RUN AND BIKE SHOW
Saturday July 19, 2008 * Registration 9am – 11am
BUMPUS HARLEY DAVIDSON of Murfreesboro
1st Bike out at 10 am - Last bike in at 2 pm
$ 25 for individual includes
T-shirt
(1st 100 people) - lunch - entertainment
$ 10 second hand (lunch – entertainment only)
Prizes Awarded – Best Hand
People’s Choice Award For Bike Show
Food and Entertainment 1 pm - 6 pm
Bring your lawn chair!
Freddie Snell and The White Bay Freddie Band
Food and Entertainment 1 pm - 6 pm
Wild Card Society
The Remedies
Sponsored by Rutherford County Home
Builders Association
Proceeds Benefit - Home Builders Care Charities
Toys for Tots and Education Call 890-8224 for more
information
Ole South
“Homes Today”
Entry Named “Best in Show”
Judge’s
Choice awards were announced at the June 5th “Homes Today”
Preview Party, and Ole South
Properties' entry, The Danbury, was
named “Best in Show” of the Puckett Station showcase
entries.
Other showcase awards included: “Best Exterior”, Ole South
Properties; “Best Landscaping”, Jensen Quality Homes; “Best
Outdoor Living Space”, Averwater Construction; “Best
Kitchen”, Skill Construction; “Best Master Suite”, Ole South
Properties; “Best Home Entertainment Room”, Mark Wood’s
Construction; “Best Floor plan”, Ole South Properties; and
“Best Techno-House”, Skill Construction.
Showcase decorator awards went to: Ole South Properties, for
“Best Overall Home Decor,” and to Skill Construction for
“Best Single Room Decor” for their well-appointed kitchen.
“Best in Show, Scattered Sites”
was awarded to Michael’s Homes’ Wynthrope Hall
entry #24.
Twenty-three scattered site entries competed in two
divisions, with Judge’s awards presented as follows:
Division I
(2,000-2,500 sq ft) –
Mark Wood’s Construction’s entry #16, “Best Exterior” and
“Best Master Suite”; Ole South Properties’ entry #8, “Best
Landscaping”; Parkside Homes’ entry #10, “Best Outdoor
Living Space” and “Best Single Room Decor” (Master Suite);
Ole South Properties’ entry #9, “Best Kitchen”, Best Floor
plan”, and “Best Overall Home Decor”; Michael’s Homes entry
#26, “Best Home Entertainment Room”; and Ole South
Properties’ entry #7, “Best Techno-House.”
Division II
(2,501+ sq ft) –
Michael’s Homes entry #25, “Best Exterior”; CB Home
Builder’s entry #13, “Best Landscaping”; Michael’s Homes
entry #24, “Best Outdoor Living Space”, “Best Home
Entertainment Room”, and “Best Floor plan”; Mark Wood’s
Construction’s entry #14, “Best Kitchen”, “Best Single Room
Decor” (Kitchen) and “Best Overall Home Decor”; Monarch
Homes entry #23, “Best Master Suite”; Signature Designs
Group’s entry #27, “Best Techno-House”.
Five fully furnished and decorated
Showcase homes – worth in excess of $2 million dollars – are
featured in the exclusive Preserve at Puckett Station
neighborhood, located off Fortress Blvd, just minutes from The
Avenues shopping center.
Builders in the Preserve at Puckett Station showcase are
Steve Arnold, CPB/R, Skill Construction; Jim Averwater, CPB,
Averwater Construction; John Floyd, Ole South Properties;
Steve Jensen, CPB, Jensen Quality Homes; and Mark Wood, of
Mark Wood’s Construction.
Located throughout Rutherford County are 23 additional entries, ranging
in size from 2,000 - 4,000 square feet. These scattered
site builders include: Ole South Properties; Parkside Homes;
CB Home Builder; Mark Wood’s Construction; Sunshine Homes;
Monarch Homes; Michael’s Homes; Signature Designs Group; and
Melvin Haynes Construction.
For
complete event information and recap, visit
www.HomesTodayExpo.com.
People’s Choice Award Winner, Skill Construction
"The people
have spoken, and they’ve chosen Skill Construction’s
 The
Kaylin II as the 2008 'Homes Today' People’s Choice award
winner at Puckett Station." This announcement was made today
at the Rutherford County Home Builders Association (RCHBA)
June board of directors meeting, by Parade Chairman J.R.
Eastman.
Garnering 42.6 percent of the vote, Steve Arnold’s showcase
entry beat the Judge’s Choice "Best in Show" entry, The
Danbury, a
John
Floyd Home, by a narrow 35 vote margin.
The annual "Homes Today" Tour of Homes concluded last
weekend, attracting hundreds of home owners -- or potential
homeowners -- looking to buy a new home, remodel an existing
home, or those seeking a glimpse of the latest in home décor
and furnishings.
Five upscale homes, ranging in price from $408,000 to over
$500,000, were on display for two weekends; each lavishly
decorated and furnished by the area’s top interior
designers.
Beyond their striking exteriors and curb appeal, each
showcase home offers one-of-a-kind outdoor living spaces --
from an oversized back deck, to the most opulent in outdoor
entertaining, featuring motorized screen walls, outdoor fire
places, fire pits, and flat screen televisions!
Inside, each home boasts unique appeal -- from exquisite
faux painting and murals, to dark and dramatic home theater
rooms and the latest in whole house technology.
Eastman remarks, "Murfreesboro is the best
kept secret in Middle Tennessee. Any one of these showcase
homes if built in
Franklin or Brentwood, would run an additional $200,000 or more."
Adding, "The cost per square foot for new home construction
is simply much more affordable in Rutherford County."
Skill Construction’s award winning entry was the first of
these five homes to sell. Located with easy access to
Interstate 24 and just minutes from the Avenues and the
growing Gateway business and medical district, the remaining
four showcase homes are not expected to remain on the market
long.
2008 Parade builders included: Steve Arnold, CPB/R, Skill
Construction; Jim Averwater, CPB, Averwater Construction;
John Floyd, Ole South Properties; Steve Jensen, CPB, Jensen
Quality Homes; Mark Wood, of Mark Wood’s Construction;
Parkside Homes; CB Home Builder; Sunshine Homes;
Monarch Homes; Michael’s Homes; Signature Designs Group; and
Melvin Haynes Construction.
Sponsors of the 2008 "Homes Today" Tour of Homes include
event sponsor, the RCHBA; Media Sponsors NewsChannel 5 and
the Murfreesboro Post; and Friend of Industry Sponsor,
MidSouth Bank. They congratulate the builders for their
excellence in residential home construction.
Photo: Left to Right, J.R. Eastman, ’08 “Homes Today”
Chairman and Steve Arnold, Skill Construction.
 Member
Spotlight:
Remodeling Services Unlimited
Wins Big50 Award
Remodeling Services
Unlimited,
Inc. has been selected by
REMODELING magazine as a winner of the 2008 Big50 Award. The
Big50 awards were presented at a gala dinner at the
Remodeling Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C. on May
5, 2008. Winning companies are featured in the May
issue of REMODELING magazine or Remodeling Online at
http://www.remodeling.hw.net.
Each year, REMODELING magazine inducts 50 companies who have
set the standard for professionalism and integrity through
smart marketing, exemplary business practices, unique
design, and extraordinary impact in their community or the
industry at large.
Big50 remodelers run successful, often growing, companies of
various sizes that have taken the lead in raising industry
standards.
“We are very honored to receive this distinction,” says Mark
Williams, President of Remodeling Services Unlimited. “The
award recognizes excellence and leadership, and we are
privileged to be named to this select group of remodelers.”
REMODELING editors, columnists, industry leaders, and the
companies themselves make the nominations each year.
Following a lengthy evaluation process — which includes
interviewing people at the nominated companies, and often
interviewing their competitors, suppliers, and
subcontractors — REMODELING’S editors select the 50
remodelers who exemplify the very best of the industry that
year, and who have something to offer other remodelers in
proven practices. Winners are selected in these categories:
business savvy, fine design, industry impact, market wise,
movers & shakers, niches, sales & marketing, and teamwork.
Remodeling Services Unlimited was recognized in the Teamwork
category of the Big 50, and was the only remodeling company
from the state of Tennessee this year to achieve this
national award.
“We have a team of professionals dedicated to delivering a
quality job to our customers, and have been doing so since
1981,” says Patric Bouton, Vice-President of Remodeling
Services Unlimited.
Remodeling Services Unlimited is a full-service remodeling
company specializing in both residential and commercial
projects; whole house remodels; kitchen & bath remodels;
bonus rooms; basement, garage & attic conversions; interior
& exterior painting; carpentry repairs (including wood rot
repair); window & door installations; design/build projects
with full-time designer on staff; and more. For all your
remodeling and home maintenance needs, “Our Best Job Is
Yours.”
From the Executive Officer
Karyn Beaty
Professionalism can make
you, or the lack could break you –
now, more than ever! Here are a few ideas about becoming the
consummate professional!
In a buyer’s market, it’s imperative that companies do all they
can to tighten up processes, excel in customer service, find a
profitable niche, yet strive to diversify.
Today, you need to be lean and mean.
Tighten up processes: bidding, job
costing, purchasing, and accounting practices.
Differentiate your customer service.
Don’t just offer good service – how about offering OUTRAGEOUSLY
good customer service? What would it take to accomplish that?
What price would you put on the kind of word-of-mouth
advertising and referrals that would generate?
But how does one niche market AND diversify? These two are not
necessarily mutually exclusive ideas.
Have you analyzed the Rutherford
County market? Do you know who your BEST customers are?
Take steps to target that “best” segment.
Once you know your target market(s), identify the top three or
four and develop strategies to market to each.
When you diversify, you
avoid putting all your eggs in one basket.
Finally, the consummate profession is active in their
professional association – the RCHBA, for the home building
industry.
I’ll see YOU at the next meeting or event!
Do We Want To Pay The
Price of Not Growing?
Guest column: Mike Baldwin, Home Builders Buying Alliance
In 1951 my parents,
like thousands of others, moved
from Murfreesboro to Chicago. Good jobs were simply not
available, Chicago promised a better life. My grandmother was
very upset she just knew that she would never see her daughter
again. Chicago was a million miles away!
My childhood was like an old country music song, every holiday
and a lot of weekends were spent on highway 41 coming back to
Murfreesboro. A popular joke at the time was that the
first astronauts on the moon discovered two hillbillies looking
for 41 south. In 1971 we moved back to Murfreesboro to start a
business. This wouldn’t have been possible except for the growth
that had happened in twenty years. Murfreesboro was a great
little town, but it wasn’t perfect. There wasn’t a nice
restaurant for that anniversary dinner. I was told repeatedly
“you have to get that in Nashville”. Jackson Heights was “the”
shopping center. If you were seriously ill you always went to
Nashville. I think you get the picture.
Nissan opened in the early eighties and Rutherford County was
never going to be the same. Some people were very much against
Nissan. But those 7,000 jobs brought more jobs, shopping
centers, restaurants, medical facilities and houses. The houses
provided a much larger tax base to improve schools, roads and
other government services.
It would be next to impossible to stop growth in Rutherford
County now. I-24 divides it, 840 connects us to I-65 and I-40 in
both directions. An international airport is twenty minutes
north of Murfreesboro. MTSU is one of the largest
universities in the state. Our local schools are envied by the
counties around us. Why wouldn’t someone want to live here? I
find it humorous that people that moved here in the seventies
complain about newcomers in the eighties. The eighties complain
about the nineties, the nineties about this decade. It’s like
someone getting upset that someone else discovered their secret
fishing hole.
It’s important to remember that the majority of our growth is
our own children and grandchildren. Without continued growth we
will be waving goodbye to them as they leave for their Chicago.
I have read that a few people want to put more special taxes on
only new homes. They don’t want to have their taxes increased,
they just want “the other guy” to pay more. It’s amusing that
they never complain about their house increasing in value
because of the demand in a growing community. My mother
complains about taxes but she likes her house being worth seven
times what she paid for it. Maybe the solution is an agreement
where taxes are frozen on a given date for a specific value on
the house. When the house is eventually sold the appreciation
from that date would be given to the county to compensate for
the taxes remaining frozen. I don’t think the complainers will
go for this plan.
The next thing the complainers like to say is that “growth
doesn’t pay for itself, we’re going broke paying for new
schools”. A new school costs
$12,000,000 from what I’ve seen and should be used for more than
fifty years. A new school, financed over fifty years at 5%,
would have an annual payment of $657,320.83. 499 new homes at a
price of $225,000 would generate just over $657,000 in real
estate taxes annually. Over 2,000 homes per year are being built
here, why would it be a problem to build one school per year?
The streets, curbs, water lines and sewer are paid for by the
developer and given to the city or county when the subdivision
is completed. Each of these 499 homes pays over $10,000 the year
they are built for development tax, water tap, sewer tap and
sales tax. That’s over $5,000,000 in addition to real estate
taxes! But wait a minute, those 499 new homes will probably send
748 children to a school built for 1,200. That means that the
school has room for 452 children from existing homes that
haven’t paid a dime to attend a new school. If this isn’t a good
deal for the county I don’t know what is.
“All of the farmland is turning into subdivisions!” some say. My
grandfather used to say that “his farm was so poor a rabbit
packed his lunch to cross it”. Folks, most “farmland” in
the county isn’t any better than my grandfather’s. The number of
real farms keeps dropping each year for a lot of reasons. Any
man that can make farming profitable in 2008 certainly has my
respect!
My mother has lived in her house for 37 years. Two years ago the
cow pasture right next door was replaced with a subdivision.
She was not happy! I asked her how many of those young couples
would she like to see saying goodbye to their mothers and moving
up north like she did? She looked up and smiled “ I guess you’ve
got me there”.
Folks, we all need to remember that houses are where jobs go
home to at night. If jobs aren’t being created new homes won’t
be needed. No homebuilder will continue building if there are no
buyers. Homebuilders don’t create growth, they respond to it.
We have some people that want to turn the clock back to 1951. I
hope to see my grandchildren working and living in Rutherford
County!
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