IN OUR Home Improvement Pro section, we
are proud to be working with the team at Dave
Yoho Associates. Tese folks go deep on all
aspects of the business of home improvement.
For example, they know, from years of experi-
ence and efort, how important each word of a
sales script can be in increasing closing ratios.
Te right words can mean the equivalent of
going from a .250 hitter in baseball to a .300
hitter. A seemingly small incremental step up
can mean millions of dollars over the life of
a company.
Another example within the pages of this
issue is found in the study of the remodeling
industry at the macro level. Te folks at John
Burns Real Estate Consulting have broken new
ground in creating a forecast for the industry.
In doing so, the project leader, Todd Tomalak,
discovered something brand new about the
impact of existing-home sales on remodeling.
Conventional wisdom is that existing-home
sales drive remodeling activity. Tomalak con-
tends, quite convincingly, that existing-home
sales is not a driver of remodeling. Instead it is
a slight drag on remodeling. Higher incomes,
higher home equity and lower unemployment,
among other factors, are remodeling's drivers.
Tey also happen to drive existing-home sales.
GREAT REMODELERS make this business
look easy, but, as many of you know, it is any-
thing but easy. Slippage in proft confronts
you daily, seemingly from around every corner.
Tose of you who make remodeling look easy,
are very likely always on the lookout for ways
to improve your businesses. You never settle.
Excellence is a never-ending journey. Mies
struggled with it. So do you. But the rewards,
like the benefts of the simple, but intricately
designed kitchen on the cover of this issue, are
certainly worth the efort.
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am a fan of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.
I have certainly said as much previously
in this space. He is the German-born,
Bauhaus-trained, expatriate architect
who settled in Chicago before World War
II and went on to become a leader in the
International Style of architecture.
Mies' buildings are found throughout the
world. Te Seagram Building in New York City
is a celebrated example of his work. Another is
the original glass house, the Farnsworth House
in Plano, Ill.
Mies is one of those geniuses whose work is
deceptively simple. He is credited with coining
the phrase "less is more." Newcomers to his
work can be forgiven for looking at his build-
ings and thinking, "Wow, that doesn't look
so hard." But when you peel back the layers
of problems he solved in order to achieve his
completely unadorned, stripped-down build-
ings, only then do you see the hours of detail
that allowed his buildings to be so functional
and beautiful.
THIS MONTH we feature a 2015 Master
Design Award winner in the whole-house cate-
gory — a condominium re-built within a land-
mark Mies building. Fittingly, the remodeler/
designer embraced the master's aesthetic. Tey
stripped the condo to its bones and built back
only what was needed to create the required
living spaces. In fact, the condo reads very
much like Mies' 1946 glass house. Again, the
detail work required makes the complicated
look easy.
In a larger sense, the deceptive complexity of
the remodeling business is perhaps what I enjoy
most about covering it. Remodeling is a great
business. It is thought to be straightforward.
But there are layers of nuance that separate the
wannabes from the professionals.
Focus, Rigor
Make Job
Look Easy
I
EDITORIAL DIRECTOR'S NOTE
6 October 2015 QR QualifiedRemodeler.com
Patrick L. O'Toole
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