Reflecting on IBS 2012, Lessons Learned.
Tuesday, March 20th, 2012A certain sense of optimism could be felt at this year’s IBS show, with more than 51,000 builders, remodelers and other members of the home building industry in attendance of the four-day event. While nobody claims the economy is recovering at the rate we would all like, there are signs of improvement over last year’s show. This economy has forced us all to be more creative in finding ways to increase our growth, while keeping an eye on the bottom line. The fine line between wanting to do more while not overextending ourselves has never been more difficult to decipher.
This sentiment was most apparent during Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s speech, one of the event’s keynote speakers. He stated that 1 ¾ million homes are currently unoccupied and for sale, and one in five mortgaged homes in the US is currently ‘under water,’ meaning it’s worth less than what the homeowners owe on it. The Federal Reserve predicts a further one million homes per year for the next three years will fall into foreclosure. Obviously not the kind of news 2,500 people in attendance wanted to hear. Bernanke did offer a few options on how to help the housing market stay on its delicate road to recovery. The foreclosure to rental initiative aims to shift some of the burden of managing foreclosed and vacant homes to private investors. By mandating that the properties be used as rentals, the program seeks to lower rent where foreclosures have hiked up demand and to stabilize communities in the hardest-hit areas. Bernanke also discussed the option to reduce foreclosed inventory by land banks. It was evident that it will take different options in different parts of the country for the housing market to stabilize itself. Not one solution would fix all.
During the show, builders of various sizes, business type, needs and wants visited our booth, requiring software to accomplish a multitude of different tasks. Some of them were looking to grow their business and wanted to leverage technology to do so; they foresee growth this year and wanted to ensure their company is technologically prepared to handle it. Others were start-ups, some former executives from national builders starting their own company or independent builders capitalizing on new opportunities in their communities. It became very clear that all builders were looking for ways to streamline their business operations, maximize their profits while decreasing their costs, basically to do more with less.
At Constellation HomeBuilder Systems, we are in the unique position to offer a variety of different software solutions specifically designed for the homebuilding industry. HomeDev Pro and BuildSoft continue to have a solid base of custom and small production builders. For builders building at the 100 home mark and looking to maintain that level, Builder360 and BuildTopia offer end-to-end functionality to address their needs. Our flagship products, NEWSTAR and FAST are the only fully integrated single database solutions to handle every aspect of a large, multi-state production builder. Much like the Federal Reserve will continue to work diligently for different solutions across the country, Constellation will continue to develop, support, and enhance its product suite for all types of builders. From website to warranty we have the right product for every builder.