SPECIAL FEATURE [ by jill doczi ]
State of the Much has changed in the industries of development, real estate, renovation and landscaping. We talked to some local industry experts to see how they have noticed and adapted to recent changes.
Development and Building “In the last 24 months the ability to accurately schedule home construction and forecast costs have become the biggest challenges our building company has faced. Changes in material deliveries and costs with little or no notice is now commonplace, which is a stark contrast to the market in 2019,” said Robert Prodan, II, president, Home Associates of Virginia, Inc. The same issues and trends have occurred in both multi-unit and single-family development and
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according to local, regional and national sources, the challenges over the past two years exist nationwide. Some builders haven’t seen circumstances like this in their entire careers. For instance, in the past suppliers and subcontractors would provide notice of price increases and would hold pricing on some, if not all, sold homes. In today’s environment builders and developers must accept the sudden increases or risk having a subcontractor leave the project. In the past, delivery schedules
rarely changed once products were ordered; in the current environment, delivery schedules sometimes change by several months with little notice. Some developers and builders have reacted by stopping the sale of pre-construction homes and listing homes only after reaching the stage of drywall installation and cabinetry delivery. As far as the future of the development and building industry, in the short term (12–36 months)
