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Building On: Lubbock-based homebuilder is adding sales site, testing new technology [Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, Texas]
(Lubbock Avalanche-Journal (TX) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Oct. 11--It seems like change is a constant in the business plan for Betenbough Homes.
The busy West Texas builder has, in the last month, moved into an expanded new home sales and design center, added two new floor plans to its inventory and is about to retire one of its most popular home designs.
And if that's not enough, co-founder Ron Betenbough's interest in leveraging technology is being tested in Midland, where the homebuilder wants to do away with the exchange of paper that accompanies financial relations between a builder and contractors.
Betenbough holds up his iPhone. Every inspector in the company has one, with access to plans and checklists for houses under construction.
"When the inspector approves the work, the money goes straight into our trade partner's bank account right then," Betenbough said, simulating a poke at an application icon on his iPhone to demonstrate.
It is a big change for a man who came back to Lubbock in 1992 to partner with his son, Rick, in a young homebuilding company.
"He built them, I sold them," Ron Betenbough reminisced about that first year.
They built and sold 11 houses that first year, another 52 in 1993, and they've grown steadily, with more than 3,200 homes built over 19 years in business.
Last week, Betenbough Homes had 154 houses in various stages of construction, scattered in a dozen company-planned communities -- nine in Lubbock, two in Odessa and one in Midland.
The company recently celebrated the opening of its new home sale and design center near 82nd Street and Milwaukee Avenue, which involves the use of its largest floor plan and a connected garage.
The garage has been turned into offices for Betenbough's three sales teams, allowing the rest of the house to be furnished normally for showing, said Jeanna Roach, Betenbough's marketing manager.
Before the change, she said, the company used bedrooms in another model home as sales offices.
That wasn't working because it cut down on privacy for conversations between the sales team members and customers, and made it difficult for customers to picture the rooms as bedrooms.
The one difference between the sales center and other model homes is one of the bedrooms has a working video game system and other toys to occupy children while their parents are looking.
Two other model homes can be toured. One is fully furnished; the other has furniture in most rooms, while the dining room is set up with swatches of carpet, flooring samples, and other options for buyers to select. The single sales center concept is a notable contrast from the way community builders operate in other markets, where the builder erects one or more models and a sales office for each community.
That's expensive, because each model home has to be furnished, and the sales office has to be staffed, which can be problematic.
"You have a sign on the door that says you're open 10-6, and someone comes up at 11, and there's nobody in the office because they're out on the property with another customer," Betenbough said.
Buyers come to the new home center and meet up with a two-person sales team, where discussions are held about floor plans, and a trip to one or more of the communities is arranged for the customer to select a home site.
The company offers nearly 30 home plans, but one of its most successful, the Carol, is being retired because Betenbough is freshening the lineup.
"We've probably built 200 or so of them," he said. "She's been a good plan."
Floor plans don't come off the drawing board with a name. Instead, they're known as "Floor Plan" and the square footage, and take their name from the woman in the first family to buy one.
Decisions -- changing floor plans, modifying existing plans -- involve plenty of research, including conversations with current owners.
That's how the company has decided to increase ceiling heights to 10 feet, eliminating "popcorn" textured ceilings and putting rounded corners on walls.
They've even outgrown the ownership.
The company has been employee owned since 1998, after "Ron and I paid a ton of taxes in 1998. Rick and I left the CPA's office after writing that big check and decided we had to do something."
That led to setting up the employee stock ownership plan, and later a second plan.
"We've closed the first one and opened a second because we couldn't sell any more shares," Betenbough explained. Vesting requires six years, and the company contributes between 2 percent and 12 percent of each employee's salary to the plan each year.
Some employees are approaching retirement age, he said, "and they will leave here as millionaires. I want to see them all retire as millionaires."
Achieving that kind of steady performance involves finding an identity in the market; Betenbough's is "value homebuilding," with houses in the $120,000-to-$200,000 range.
Several processes have combined to help the company manage its prices and keep a tight delivery schedule.
Among them is a kind of just-in-time arrangement with suppliers, especially Littlefield-based North Texas Truss, which set up a facility in Big Spring to make the framing and trusses for Betenbough's homes, rather than having raw materials shipped to home sites, where they need to be cut and assembled.
It's also meant knowing where to make a move and when, said Roach, citing the company's land investments in the Frenship and Lubbock-Cooper school districts, and deciding when to enter the Midland and Odessa markets.
Three of Betenbough's Lubbock communities are in the Frenship district, and four in Lubbock-Cooper.
"They knew people would want to live there for the schools," Roach said.
In Midland, Betenbough said, there were no new homes being built for less than $200,000. The company's first community there is close to being built out.
In Odessa, Roach said, one community moved so quickly toward build-out that the company wound up with a waiting list.
"We just took their names down in order. That's the only thing we could do to be fair," she said.
Betenbough's fame has spread to other areas, and Ron Betenbough said the company has received requests in other communities "to build a few houses."
That's not how the company works, he said, because the company's connection doesn't end when the buyer picks up the keys at the closing.
That initiates a connection that can last a decade, because of warranties -- full coverage the first year, electrical, plumbing, heating and cooling coverage for two years, and a 10-year structural warranty.
To comment on this story:
walt.nett@lubbockonline.com l 766-8744
shelly.gonzales@lubbockonline.com l 766-8747
BUSINESS/Lubbock-based homebuilder is adding sales site, testing new technology
Betenbough ministry support
Betenbough Homes' financial support of ministries is overseen by the company's major shareholders and their spouses. The company's mission statement is "To best use our resources to promote the kingdom of God." Betenbough supports the cities where it does business in a variety of ways, through volunteerism and sponsorships. The faith-based company organized a charitable foundation in 1998, and has donated some $2 million to various religious organizations.
The ministry council's general policy leans toward ministries that cover four categories:
--Ministries focused on the Great Commission: Primary goal is reaching out to those who have not been exposed to the Gospel.
--Unconventional ministries: Ministries seeking out lost souls and casting nets in uncharted waters.
--Ministries with a relational and discipling style: Ministerial groups developing one-on-one, long-term relationships, allowing them to share the gospel over time.
--Ministries with a strategic plan and clear vision: Ministry partners that understand the wants and needs of their target audience.
Source: Betenbough Homes Web site.
To see more of the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.lubbockonline.com/.
Copyright (c) 2009, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, Texas
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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