19 Feb 12 Jobs Market
Job Description:
We a large roofing contractor in Canada. We are looking for skilled SPF roofers for several locations across Canada. looking to hire for 6-8 month terms with compensation between 80-100K Must have clean criminal background check to work in Canada. clean drivers abstract a asset. Ability to run and repair Glass-craft proportioner’s and P2 guns a asset. Fall arrest an asset. Must be able to manage crew, equipment, Safety aspects, and protect jobs from overspray liabilities. Terms starting in Beginning of April and running till approx end of October. looking for Approx 6 qualified candidates. Good candidates will be rehired yearly.
Skills Required:
SPF roofing applicator, ability to manage people, Job site safety, Knowledge of glass-craft proportioner’s and P2 Guns with ability to repair. Must be able coordinate SPF roofing job from start to finish.
Knowledge of fast set polyurea an asset.
Compensation:80-100 K
16 Feb 12 Lubbock builders construct home for former Plainview veteran – MyPlainview.com: News
LUBBOCK – Former Plainview resident Louis Flores Jr., wife Olgaand son Gabriel hope to be moving into their new home in SouthwestLubbock this summer after it is featured in the West Texas HomeBuilders Association’s Parade of Homes.
For the past four months they have been watching their dreamcome true – a dream of a lifetime made possible through LubbockHomes for Heroes, the charity arm of the West Texas Home BuildersAssociation.
“We had no idea this was going to happen until they made theannouncement and called out my name” in November, the 2002Plainview High School graduate explained.
Flores was on the field Nov. 12 with other veterans during theTexas Tech Red Raiders’ 2011 Wounded Warrior “Believe in Heroes”football game. That was the Tech vs. Oklahoma State game when theRed Raiders were clad in jerseys accented with camouflage.
Until the surprise announcement, Flores thought it was probablyjust chance that he was standing at midfield next to AnthonyVillareal, another Army veteran who was last year’s Homes forHeroes recipient. and next to Villareal was Medal of Honorrecipient Staff Sgt. Salvatore Augustine. in fact, Flores thoughtthey were there just to witness the traditional pregame cointoss.
“It all started by chance when I went to a Wounded Warrior Summitand the West Texas Home Builders were there encouraging everyone tofill out an application,” Flores explained. ” We’re renting a houseon 36th Street and have been trying to save what we could towardbuying our own home, but not making much headway.”
He received a little encouragement after being called in for asecond interview, but still didn’t hold out much hope of beingselected. Flores felt there were other much more deservingveterans.
“That’s why it was such a complete surprise when they called myname,” he said. “I kept looking around for someone else to stepforward. and we’ve prayed a lot about it since then.”
Construction on the house paused briefly Feb. 1 for dedicationceremonies. During that ceremony, everyone attending was givenmarkers and urged to write Scripture passages, blessings and othermessages directly onto the wooden studs and framework.
Homebuilder Larry Driscoll, who led the Pledge of Allegiance at thestart of the dedication, explained that the comments andwell-wishes “will be there a very long time, because they’ll becovered by the drywall.”
The program featured a speech by retired Army Lt. Gene BernhardMittemeyer, who was Army surgeon general from 1981-85.
“Louis Flores represents all the veterans in our country,” saidMittemeyer, who is now chief of urologic surgery at Texas Tech’sHealth Sciences Center. “Most of what they’ve experienced in war,they don’t want to remember.”
Flores, 28, was inspired to enlist in the military by his father,Plainview resident Louis Flores Sr., and several uncles who alsoare veterans. he joined on April 1, 2003, and was deployed toMosul, Iraq. from August 2005 through July 2006. Flores served as amedic and said he was exposed to multiple improvised explosivedevices.
Moving on from Northern Iraq, his deployment was extended toinclude service in Baghdad before he was discharged in March2007.
Upon returning stateside, Flores was diagnosed as suffering frompost-traumatic stress disorder.
Both Flores and his wife are attending Texas Tech where he is ajunior majoring in exercise and sports science with a minor inelectronic media communications. his long-term plans include acareer in physical therapy or cardiac rehab.
“The house is in a cul-de-sac on 77th Street, just off ofMilwaukee,” Flores explained.
With several other houses under construction in the block, it caneasily be picked out by the large sign in front that reads:”Believe. this home is being built by members of the West TexasHome Builders Association and Texas Tech Athletic Department forSpecialist Louis Flores and Family.”
Once it’s completed and featured in this summer’s Parade of Homes,the four-bedroom, two-bath house will be turned over to Flores andhis family – fully-furnished and mortgage free.
“We went to a design meeting in mid-November to discuss thelayout,” Flores said. “And we’ve helped pick out the appliances.Somewhere down the line we’ll probably pick out the colors aswell.
“At this point we try to go over there pretty frequently to watchthe progress and thank the work crews since they are donating theirtime to build our new home.”
Gabriel, who is a student at Harmony Science Academy, will turn 8in July. That’s about the same time he and his parents will moveinto their new home. But when asked Friday morning if he has pickedout his own bedroom, Gabriel couldn’t answer since he couldn’tquite picture the finished project amid the jumble of bare studsand framework. He’s just happy that he soon will be able to sharethe new home with his parents.
Lubbock Homes for Heroes is modeled on the concept started byHouston’s Bay Area Builders Association to build houses for woundedveterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, or their widowed spouses. LubbockHomes and Heroes board president Robert Wood said during thededication program that the Lubbock group draws on OperationFinally Home to screen project applicants.
Lubbock Homes for Heroes is seeking financial and other donationsfor current and future projects. for information aboutcontributions, check the group’s website,homesforheroeslubbock.com.
© 2012 MyPlainview.com. all rights reserved. this material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
14 Feb 12 Protesters Prevent Lewisham Homes Sell Off
Lewisham Council has withdrawn five homes from sale after protesters occupied them, saying they should be used to house families in need.
Lewisham People before Profit (PBP) walked into some of the houses during open viewings at the weekend (and ‘gained access’ to others) and began squatting. They say the houses, which were given guide prices of as little as £130,000, could be used to home one of the 1,000 families in the borough currently in temporary accommodation. Lewisham has 16,500 people on the waiting list for social housing.
Campaigners have made a video (below) and some of the houses in question look spectacularly grotty. The Council says work would cost £40,000 to renovate each home, but PBP say it costs that amount to house a family in a B&B for a year, so costs could be recouped quickly. They also say the work would provide much-needed jobs for the area – or, if the council won’t do it, PBP will consider training local unemployed people to do the necessary electrical, plumbing, plastering and carpentry work.
Lewisham Council told us it is
disappointed by the actions of the squatters. given its limited funds, these properties are uneconomic for the Council to repair. instead, the Council intends to sell these properties to speedily release much needed funds to bring other council properties, which are legally occupied and in better repair, up to decent homes standard. Regrettably the Council has been forced to withdraw the properties from sale due to the unlawful occupation by squatters. This will only delay the repair of other properties in its housing stock.
Given the perilous state of public funds at the moment this isn’t a black and white issue and we suspect there’s truth and good intentions on both sides. Housing is a tricky subject and we’re looking at it all week as part of our Mayoral Election coverage.
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13 Feb 12 Highlighting developer and builder perspectives – Williston Herald: Business
This is part three of a five-part series on housing in theWilliston area. Part two ran last Monday. Part four will run onnext Monday’s Business Page.
Last week we discussed the core infrastructure needed to buildhousing. this week we will focus on land development and homeconstruction. The information is by no means exhaustive but meantto give a general understanding and to highlight local conditionsand challenges we need to address. But first, let’s define ordescribe the Williston housing market.
The Williston Housing Market
The Williston housing market generally operates like any otherhousing market. Developers acquire raw land and create improvedlots. Builders buy lots and construct housing units that are thensold to buyers.
Studies have estimated there are at least 3,000 open positionsin this area and many left unfilled because of the lack of housing.in discussions with local businesses, many have at least one or twopositions they need to fill that are not even listed with JobService or any other source. Then consider the number of peopleliving in temporary situations that would be in the market forpermanent housing.
In talking with realtors and builders, they describe a hugeunmet market, especially anything under the $270,000 pricepoint.
One builder I visited with entered the market in 2009. Therewere quite a few lots available and realtors told him just to buildhomes because the demand was there. He wasn’t sure of the marketand tried to pre-sell homes, but it wasn’t working.
They had acquired the lots so they just started to build. Turnsout the realtors were right. The houses they built sold, oftentimesbefore they were completed. now they do nothing but spec homes. Hedescribed it as a field of dreams; “If you build it, they willcome, and buy.”
What the Market is Not
I have received calls from builders asking “How do I get one ofthose contracts from an oil company to build houses?” There havebeen a few unique situations where a private company contractedwith a developer and builder to directly purchase homes for theiremployees. this was an isolated event and not the norm. they do notwant to be in the business of building or buying homes and I don’tthink you will see this in the future.
In talking with realtors, developers and builders, they describehuge demand for all types of housing. so let’s talk about themarket from their perspective.
Land Development
The role of the land developer is to take raw land and developit into something useable by builders. The land developer typicallylocates a piece of raw land and brings it to the point of improvedlots with water, sewer, utilities and roads that they sell tobuilders who do the vertical construction of homes, apartments andcommercial buildings.
They work through the process components including surveys, platmaps, land use and zoning, water, sewer, underground utilities,roads, curb, gutter and stormwater drainage. The developmentprocess typically takes from 6 months to 2 years to complete.
Harvest Hills is a 280 acre development by Granite Peak with thePhase I infrastructure completed and sold. Phases 2 and 3 areplanned for development in early 2012 and could be sold and mostlybuilt out in 2012 as well. this development will bring severalhundred homes and more than 2,000 apartment units online.
While this is a large number, the demand goes beyond that. Theconstruction crews alone represent 300 to 600 people. That’s nearlyhalf of the apartment units in the development before you evenconsider the rest of the market demand. Generally speaking, youcould see the need for another 300 to 600 acres of developmentneeded in the short term.
Land Development
Challenges
One challenge facing developers is escalating land costs.Developers inherently want to pay less for land to keep their costsdown, but this was cited not just by developers but by everyonealong the value chain that I talked to.
Several people provided a sampling of land costs and they rangedfrom $7,000/acre to $28,000/acre for raw land. The zoning rangedfrom residential with access to city infrastructure to agriculturewith access to rural water. The agriculture land example wasactually on the higher end. Land cost is the first factordetermining our ability to provide affordable housing and with landcosts escalating, it puts that goal further out of reach fornow.
Infrastructure costs are also escalating. in a column lastJanuary, I cited a report presented by public works to the citycommission showing a comparison of bid opening prices betweenWilliston and other projects throughout the state. it showedWilliston costs higher by 9 percent for 6″ concrete driveway, 45percent for concrete curb and gutter, 74 percent for asphaltpavement, 114 percent for 8″ sewer main and 127 percent for amanhole. those same cost increases affect private developers and inmany cases have continued to increas since January 2011.
Crew lodging is another significant challenge. Let’s say ittakes a 100 person workforce to excavate the land, conduct the dirtwork, lay the underground infrastructure and utilities, install thegutters and pave the roads.
Where do they live while they are here? some contractors havetaken the unusual step of buying or renting apartments, hotels orother lodging to provide lodging for their workforce. BurkeConstruction Group specifically built a temporary lodging facilityto house their workers and subcontractors before they even startedworking on construction projects.
Home Builders
We don’t have room to go into all the details but for discussionhere let’s talk about three types of builders in general terms. Butfirst let’s cover two terms; pre-sold and spec homes.
A pre-sold home is when the buyer contracts to buy the housebefore it is built. a spec home is one the builder constructswithout a buyer and puts on the market for sale.
Production Builders
Production builders are typically large national builders likeCentex/Pulte, Lennar or DR Horton. they acquire raw land, developthe land, set up model homes and build out developments withhundreds of homes. they will construct spec homes as well aspre-sold homes.
One key for a production builder is to keep their large crewsmoving forward. The foundation crew will work on one foundationafter another while the framing crew comes behind them, themechanical crew behind them, and the drywall crew behind them andso on.
They mobilize a large amount of equipment and people resourcesand require large markets with long-term demand for thousands ofhomes. There have been production builders in the area looking atthe market and to date have not entered the market.
Custom Builders
The largest number of builders falls into this category. Theybuild anywhere from a few homes to fifty or so homes each year.some builders will focus mainly on pre-sold homes to avoid gettingcaught holding inventory. some builders will focus mainly on spechomes as the process may be faster and less costly than workingwith the buyer from design to finish. Others build a combination ofpre-sold and spec homes.
This type of builder will acquire one or more lots from adeveloper often referred to as taking down lots. they in turn willbuild a pre-sold home for their buyer or build one or more spechomes to put on the market.
This would be the best description of the builders in the areaand they have built homes in the Creekside Ridge, The Timbers andother subdivisions as well as the individual lots that wereavailable throughout the city.
Mid-Level Builders
There is a type of builder that fits somewhere in the middle butI have not found an industry name to describe them. they build alarger number of homes but are not considered production builders.in talking with people in the market, I expect we will begin to seebuilders in Williston that are capable of building 200 and 300homes in a year.
I realize this is an oversimplification of the builder marketbut it gives us a framework for a discussion applicable to thisarea and for some people, a better understanding of what they areseeing.
Builder Challenges
The challenges most often cited by builders include lot costsand availability, sub-contractors, materials access, lead times fortitle work and appraisals, appraisal gaps, and financingissues.
Lot Cost and Availability
In the last four years, lot costs have risen from $20k to $30kto $40 and now $50k to $70k as the typical lot cost. There arevirtually no lots available for purchase within the citylimits.
Sub-Contractors
There is a severe shortage of subs in the market. this includesframers, concrete finishers, drywallers, plumbers, electricians,painters and more. Subs are always a critical success factor forbuilders but even more so here. it often comes again back tohousing. Subs need housing to recruit and retain qualifiedworkers.
Materials Access
Williston does not have the number of building materialsuppliers or specialty suppliers that you have in larger markets.we also have logistics challenges getting trucks into this area dueto lack of back haul opportunities.
This is another issue that requires good planning. some buildersmay limit the finish options in a home including fixtures andflooring to reduce delays associated with materials sourcing.
Title and Appraisal Lead Times
The abstract companies and appraisers are under significantworkloads just like everyone else in Williston. The people I spokewith cited a lead time of two to four weeks for title work and twoto three months for appraisals. The key is to plan accordingly.
Financial Issues
I listed appraisal gaps and financial issues. These topics arebroader and require more detail which will be covered in the nextsection of the series.
Next in the Series
Part 4: Capital, Financing and Consumer Credit.
Part 5: 5,000 Homes in 24 Months: a Bold Initiative.
If you would like to submit a business to be profiled ora topic to be addressed, send it to Jeff Zarling atjzarling@BusinessBitz.com.
© 2012 Williston Herald. All rights reserved. this material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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