Tim Lowndes
Introducing the High Performance New Home As a homebuilder, you understand the challenging nature of our marketplace: builders are plentiful, the housing bust has depressed prices and sales, and everyone’s looking for a competitive edge. So how do you set yourself apart from the competition and gain the market share your homebuilding business needs to thrive? The answer lies not in looking back on what traditionally has and hasn’t worked, and it certainly isn’t competing solely by offering the lowest prices. Instead, look ahead to how all homes will be built in the future: highly energy efficient and environmentally friendly with unsurpassed air quality that helps keep homeowners and their families healthy. Plus, these homes will be backed by an extended warranty to give homeowners peace of mind. In short, homeowners want and need what I call the High Performance New Home.™ Building homes that meet and exceed these standards is the inevitable future of homebuilding. It’s also the surest way for your home construction business to succeed for many years to come.
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In this book, you’ll learn: •
The standards required to build a High Performance New Home™
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Why a High Performance New Home™ is great for both the homebuilder and homeowner
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How to market and sell the value of High Performance New Homes™ to clients
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Ways to control building costs
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Great tips for obtaining financing to build High Performance New Homes™
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And much more!
You may be asking: How did I come up with the idea for the High Performance New Home™ standard as the future of homebuilding? Let’s start with my story – a story that has led my homebuilding company, Charles Thomas Homes, to thrive by building only High Performance New Homes™ in and around Omaha, Nebraska. Before I was a homebuilder, I was a certified public accountant for one of the top firms in Omaha. I gained experience in conducting financial audits for companies ranging from mom-and-pop stores to multibillion-dollar corporations. I learned to give my accounting customers additional value by helping them improve their processes and procedures, allowing them to save money and become more
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Tim Lowndes
efficient. These skills became useful when I began building homes. After that, I worked as a controller for a company that produced insulated concrete forms, which are used in some types of home building construction. This helped me cut my teeth in the housing industry. I then worked as a chief financial officer in two different industries before joining an Omaha homebuilding company as a CFO in 2002. That’s when I began building homes. After becoming CFO, I soon became company president. Between 2002 and 2009, we built about 60 homes. We built all of our homes just to meet the local building code, and we always seemed to have problems – the same problems with freezing pipes, cold rooms and difficulties with certain floor plans. We thought we were good homebuilders. Although we certainly tried our best, we simply didn’t know any better. We didn’t have the experience and the right partners to succeed. Then in January 2009, I took advantage of a new opportunity to create my own company: Charles Thomas Homes. That year, I also became a Realtor for Prudential Ambassador Real Estate in Omaha in addition to my ongoing ownership of a local lawn and landscaping company. I knew this would be my chance to build homes the right way. With no partners, I had the freedom to build to superior standards and to work with people of my choosing to accomplish my goals for
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my business. That first year, I decided the homes I built would meet the ENERGY STAR速 standard, the well-known government-backed certification for energy-efficient homes and appliances set forth by the U.S. Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection These pictures are taken with a thermal-imaging camera during my Energy Star速 testing. This camera helps us determine where a home may be leaky and drafty. Being able to find them means that we can fix these areas and make a comfortable and energy-efficient home for you and your family.
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Tim Lowndes
Agency. ENERGY STAR® is a crucial component in building a High Performance New Home™. As my first ENERGY STAR®-compliant home neared completion, I thought I had everything in order. It was a ton of work, but the home already had passed our city inspections, and we were ready to hand off the keys to the homeowner. The last step was passing our ENERGY STAR® third-party inspection conducted by an EPA rater. My confidence was sky high. When the rater finished his job, we were met with a shock. We hadn’t even come close. I felt like giving up on ENERGY STAR®. My workers and I hustled until 2 in the morning that next day to meet the rater’s laundry list of items to improve: a lot more caulk and foam, sealing gaps, and crawling around in the attic to make sure everything met the standard. The rater returned the next day for a second inspection. We were much closer, but we still hadn’t met the ENERGY STAR® standard. Performance tests helped us determine where the home was lacking. We sealed up the gaps one by one. On the third try, we finally had our first ENERGY STAR®-compliant home. Despite all of the hassle and extra work, I had a real lightbulb moment. “These homes are awesome!” I thought to myself and told anyone who would listen. When you build a home that meets exacting energy-efficiency standards, it provides you with powerful confidence when talking to homebuyers. That’s because you know that
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