Wow, I can’t believe it’s been FOUR years since my last blog post.  That’s embarrassing.  I think I need to have a word with my Marketing Director.  Oh wait, that’s me.   Well, in my defense,  we’ve been so busy building that I haven’t spent much money or time on marketing these past several years.  Thankfully, our continued growing area, word of mouth, and the good Lord’s provision has kept us busy. 

Recently,  I attended a fantastic marketing class.  I left there inspired to ramp up my marketing efforts this year and created an immediate list of “To Do’s”.  Top of the list was to start blogging again.  Fast forward four weeks and it’s currently snowing outside so our jobsites are pretty much shut down this week.  So I thought I would use this opportunity to sit down and put some thoughts together.

A lot has been happening over the last year or so.  About 18 months ago, we finished building on our last lot in Portofino.  That was a little scary because Portofino has contributed to half our closings for over 13 years.  But as one door closed another opened and we are currently building in a new Custom Home  subdivision in Wendell called Laurer Ridge.   It’s always a little scary starting a new subdivision, but quickly our fears subsided when all four of our lots in Phase 1 sold within a few months time.  Just last week we closed on four more lots in Phase 2 and expect to get cranking on those soon.

Neil also developed some land in Kenly this year and we are currently building those homes.  I’m excited to announce one of those is going to be our upcoming Parade Entry.  Yes, you heard me correctly, Johnston County is having their first Parade of Homes since 2019.  Woohoo!  So mark your calendars for April 29-30 & May 5-6. 

The catch, we have to actually finish the home in time.  Caleb made me a construction schedule and boy are we going to be cutting it close.  He has the home getting a final clean on April 12^th and Judging is April 17^th.  

It seems people are betting on everything these days, I wonder what the spread would be on us actually being ready by judging day??? I am hoping we beat the odds and come up winning big. 

Time out! Did you read Caleb’s name and say, who is this Caleb fella?  Well, if you haven’t heard by now, Caleb, our middle son who graduated college last May, ended up joining our team.  Believe me, he wasn’t overjoyed with the idea at first, working with his parents mostly, but I think some days he is actually liking it (the job, not necessarily working with his parent, lol).  We are super glad to have him and he’s doing a good job. He’s already watched two homes from start to closing and has four more under construction.   Just having him overseeing our jobsites has really freed Neil up to do other  things including something he’s been wanting to do for years but never had the extra time—Developing.  We recently purchased 100 acres in the Wendell/Middlesex area and he is deep into planning and working through all that is involved with developing a new subdivision. 

One more big change this past year is we built our new personal home and office in Wendell .  And we love it.  We love having a dedicated office again and absolutely love the Farm life.  You can get a look at our new digs in this video.

Well, that pretty much get us caught up.  Up next, I plan to start a new Series on our Parade of Homes entry.  Join me as I take a closer look at the Design decisions and the never-a- dull -moment construction process.  You can follow along with us and see if we actually make our deadline.   If I were a betting (wo)man I would double down on us making it.

Next time:  Find out why our Parade of Homes entry is our #1 Selling plan.