pf_00145 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

political units. The requireanents and detailed specifications which the house and site must meet may vary a great deal among these political units. Primarily because the builder is the one vvho assembles this package, local governm�nt5 �ave found �he placing of requirements on the builder to be an effective way to aGhieve various goals in the public interest. This frequently means tha� the builder inust provide utilities, fini�hed streets, park sites, and somEtimes school 5ites. These re- quirements even further extend the builder's range of involvement and operations. Since the �onsumer as a group is quite diverse and responds to a whole host of national and local factors, and for the most part is inarticulate, the builder must perceive or infer the consumer's desi.res and demands for housing. Ideally, h.e must be a market analy5t of the highest quality since in a buyer's market he exerts little direct control over the con- sumer. The number and type of consumers will be altered by such key factors as interest rates, FHA �.nd VA program Policies, the amount of money available to the mortgage field, and the rate that savings are being accumulated by the population. The industry is characterized by a large and fragmented collection of graups and individuals whose diversity is greater than normal for an industry of this size. The typical builder in this Area con�tructs approx- imate�.y 20 houses per year. It is estimated that the number of home builders in the Area is between 500 and 700, although no one a.ctually knows. The ten largest builders account for about 40 per cent of all the houses produced in thi5 Area. There are, in g�neral, three types of builders. First, there is the tract builder who operates on a large volume basis and constructs over 100 homes a year. Th.rough xnass production, he typically offers the most house for the money. 5econd, there is the middle sized builder who constructs from 20 to 100 homes a year. Quite often he is a custom builder and gives more individual attenxion to the buyer and the house than the tract developer can. The third type of builder is the 5ma11 builder who constructs one to twenty homes a year. These builders may construct the widest price range of houses from the sub-standard to the luxurious. This lasi group is the largest in number but produces the fewest houses. In difficult construction years, some of these small builders work as carpenters or tradesmen for other builders. As might be expected, there is a tremendous ran.ge of compe�ence within the buil.ding industry from rank amateurs through semi-professional and on to very highly qualified businessmen. Competence must be evaluated in terms of the challenge of the business. Considering the great com- plexity of the building operation, it is littl� wonder that ther� are rela- tively few peopl�; who can span all phases vvith ease; or, being unable to personally span the operation, have the resources necessary to seek the competent advice and �elp that is neededo Only the larger builders and the builders of expen5ive h�omes can afford siz�:able staffs or the services of professional5o Z6 0