Tylka and Armstrong think trailer parks could be fertile targets for HardShell’s houses, especially if the state ever follows through on the threat to ban mobile homes, a threat that grows louder with each successive hurricane season.
DOING IT ALL
Recessionary storms that crippled Ohio’s housing market didn’t deter Josh Doyle from quitting Owens Corning’s financial leadership program in August 2008 to start his own business, Homes by Josh Doyle. Since then, his Toledo-based company has built five houses, including his own.
This turn of events wouldn’t surprise anyone who knows the 27-year-old Doyle. His father Steve is a veteran home builder in Lima, Ohio, and Doyle was designing homes for his dad’s business when he was 15 and working on construction crews.
Doyle’s startup’s costs were virtually nil because he’s a one-man show, handling sales, design, and construction management. (He’s drawn house plans on the back of a paper towel in a prospect’s kitchen.) His customers secure construction loans, and he has no land costs because he only builds on owners’ or developers’ lots.
The opportunity Doyle sees for his company is to build quality, affordable homes quickly. He recently completed one house in 59 days (his normal cycle time is about 90). Most of his product has been in the 2,600-square-foot range priced under $200,000 (excluding the land cost). Those homes include 3/4-inch floors, engineered wood panels on the outside walls, engineered trusses, and ample insulation.
Doyle says what’s critical to his business right now is maintaining “my rapport with customers.” He recently started a house for his first referral, which he got, he thinks, because “when you do what I do, you become friends with the people you work for.” All of his customers recently attended his wife Amy’s baby shower.
While he never wants to lose that buyer connection, Doyle can’t go it alone forever if he wants to reach his goal of building two homes per month. He’s been putting in 80-plus hour weeks preparing one of his homes for the local Parade of Homes this fall. So when he’s asked when he’ll hire his first employee, Doyle takes a deep breath and replies, “It’s not too far off.”