Country Zest Holiday 2020 Edition

Golden Rule founder and owner Joel Barkman.

Building Based on The Golden Rule

By Leonard Shapiro

He grew up on a farm in southern Ohio,

one of eight siblings (seven boys in all). But Joel Barkman eventually chose not to join most of his brothers in working the land. Instead, he gravitated toward his father’s passion for carpentry and woodworking and eventually began his own home-building business in Northern Virginia.

Barkman is the founder/president/CEO of Golden Rule Builders based in Catlett and serving a wide area that includes Fauquier, Loudoun and Clarke counties. The path that Ohio farm boy took on his way to producing homes ranging from $350,000 to $2 million began with a year of church volunteer work in his early 20s.

“I came to Virginia in 1986,” he recalled. “I was in a program called the Choice Book Ministry. We had (religious) book racks set up in supermarkets, drug stores…and I just fell in love with the area. You’re close to D.C., the mountains, the beaches. It just seemed like an ideal place to live.” And build a business. One day, a friend told Barkman he wanted to start building and selling a house every year and wondered if he might be interested in joining him. They called their fledgling firm Golden Rule Builders, but after several homes were completed, his friend decided he’d rather do something else.

“He’s now a travel agent in Kansas,” Barkman said. “He asked me if he could use Golden Rule for his travel business and that was fine with me. That was a long way from Virginia.” Why Golden Rule? “It’s ‘do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” Barkman said. “I wanted to base the business on integrity and honesty. It’s a great way to treat people. The Golden Rule is our guiding principle.”

In the beginning, there were only a couple of employees and the business focused on building spec houses. It managed to survive an economic downturn in 1989-90 at a time when Barkman had three homes on the market and no buyers. And that eventually prompted a change in strategy.

Barkman described it as “design build. We design 95 percent of our homes now. We have a design team. If you want to build a home, you sign a design agreement with us. You’ll work on the selections you want for the home (carpet, cabinets, counters etc.). Then we go to a building contract.”

These days, Golden Rule produces between 13 to 16 homes a year, from 2,500 to 10,000 square feet. Recently, the company has added another division— Golden Rule Lifestyle—geared more toward younger buyers interested in smaller homes, from 1,000 to 3,500 square feet.

Married and with five children between ages 18 and 25, Barkman is a firm believer in being a steward of the land. He’s also embraced the growing green movement in the environment-friendly construction of his homes.

There are now 30 employees, including several of his children. Half the staff works out in the field, the other half in the office. Barkman spent his first ten years at home sites himself, but now mostly operates out of the Catlett facility that includes a showroom and design center.

“When I was out there, I did everything—roofing, framing, every aspect except the HVAC,” he said.”I almost made my slogan ‘you’ll find me in the field, not the office.’”

It’s the other way around now, but The Golden Rule will always be his company’s motivating mantra.

“That’s what we’re all about,” he said.