Across Florida, Custom Homes Are Taking Longer to Build. Here’s Everything You Need to Know.
New home construction remains sought-after across the Suncoast, known the past several years to be one of the best places to live in the U.S. However, this demand has been met with protracted construction timelines, caused by a long-standing generational challenge of finding skilled trades and ongoing supply chain issues. Completion of our custom homes is taking longer – months longer – and it’s an issue that not only Lee Wetherington Homes is currently facing, but the entire home building industry.
As a team, we’re diligently communicating with our home buyers about these circumstances because a tailored customer experience is always our focus. You, like many people across our region, probably have questions about how Lee Wetherington Homes is navigating this latest challenge. Our CEO, David Hunihan, is breaking down how we’re adapting to complete custom homes with the exceptional consistency our customers expect
Q: How have labor shortages affected not just Lee Wetherington Homes but home builders regionwide?
There are multiple layers to the “shortages” that the home building industry is seeing today. A critical labor shortage became noticeable roughly 20 years ago when many trade professionals, who are baby boomers, were aging out and had no one to take over their businesses. Then came the global financial crisis, the effects of COVID-19 both on businesses and the demand for housing, and now millennials entering the real estate market – all putting strain on an already-undersupplied labor pool.
Right now, despite a return to “normal demand,” there is are an abundance of builders vying for too few trades. However, our team is fortunate to have an over 40-year relationship with many of our trades. That loyalty, mutual respect and commitment helps us collaborate with high-quality laborers and trades when other builders may not get the chance. We pay well and pay weekly – and that helps. But even so, we find ourselves waiting for trades on many, if not all, of our jobs. We have decided that it is in our customer’s best interest to wait for the right trade partner and produce our best quality, rather than to just throw bodies at a problem so we can check a box and say it’s done. Our team is committed to providing an exceptional experience, which is why we communicate openly with our customers about these issues
There are multiple layers to the “shortages” that the home building industry is seeing today. Roughly 20 years ago, when we saw a nationwide real estate boom largely driven by baby boomers approaching retirement age, we began noticing a critical labor shortage in the trades. We had both a lack of skilled labor and manual labor. As the demand for housing grew, there were few – if any – increases in businesses or the labor force to meet this need.
There are many trade professionals, such as plumbers, electricians, concrete workers and framers, who were baby boomers themselves. In many cases, as they were aging out, they had no one to take over their businesses. Then came the global financial crisis, and many of these companies went out of business or were forced to drastically cut back in order to survive.
Fast-forward to 2020, and the lockdowns associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. The real estate market saw another boom, particularly in Florida, as people searched for homes in areas with more favorable policies, looked to move away from cities or find homes that could accommodate remote work or at-home schooling for kids.
The demographics of millennials now entering the real estate market further increased demand and strained an already-undersupplied labor market. Couple this with the businesses that suffered from lockdowns, people who contracted COVID-19 and couldn’t work, and the fact that more trades are aging out and closing their doors than what occurred 20 years ago, and you have a perfect storm of a labor shortage.
Right now, despite a return to “normal demand,” there are an abundance of builders vying for too few trades. The trades are reluctant to expand in the face of a slowing market, and don’t have available labor to hire even if they wanted to bring on laborers right now.
However, at Lee Wetherington Homes, our team is fortunate to have an over 40-year relationship with many of our trades. That loyalty, mutual respect and commitment helps us collaborate with high-quality laborers and trades when other builders may not get the chance. We pay well and pay weekly – and that helps. But even so, we find ourselves waiting for trades on many, if not all, of our jobs. We have decided that it is in our customer’s best interest to wait for the right trade partner and produce our best quality, rather than to just throw bodies at a problem so we can check a box and say it’s done. Our team is committed to providing an exceptional experience, which is why we communicate openly with our customers about these issues.
As an industry, we don’t have good solutions. It is a long-term problem that requires a long-term solution. We need to get younger people to start working in the trades, and right now that seems like an impossible task, despite good pay and an excellent future. That said, we will always find a way to deliver for our home buyers.
Q: With shipping delays and material shortages, how has the firm ensured custom homes are built with consistency?
The team has decided to move forward with our homes in any way possible, including receiving materials and elements of homes out of the normal sequence. We’re doing everything in our power not to stop construction, and ensure our customers remain satisfied. This strategy makes it more difficult on our construction managers – and may cost us more – but we believe it’s better to take what we can get, when we can get it, and figure out the best way to install it.
Our team adapts when we learn of shortages and discontinued items, but in many cases, we won’t know or can’t know until an order is placed. Custom homes have taken longer to complete than any of us want. However, we refuse to sacrifice on the craftmanship, durability and “consistency” that truly creates a home built to last and achieves a buyer’s incomparable vision. In holding true to our values of building homes for a greater purpose, our team has decided to allow move-ins earlier than normal for customers who have nowhere else to go, sold their existing home or had a lease expiring.
This is particularly frustrating for us, as there seems to be no rhyme or reason to these shortages. We have seen shortages in trades, lumber, trusses, concrete, HVAC equipment, tile, paint, appliances and more. The latest one is screen cages for pools.
Some of the issues started with supply chain disruptions caused by COVID-19, creating stoppages in the sourcing of raw materials. This, in turn, hurt the manufacturing process and reduced already-low inventories, which became exacerbated by increased demand and made even worse by the Hurricane Ian’s impact across Southwest Florida. But Lee Wetherington Homes will never compromise on quality because that’s the baseline standard we expect with every custom home we design and build – and this will always be our promise.
The team has decided to move forward with our homes in any way possible, including receiving materials and elements of homes out of the normal sequence. We’re doing everything in our power not to stop construction, and ensure our customers remain satisfied. This strategy makes it more difficult on our construction managers – and may cost us more – but we believe it’s better to take what we can get, when we can get it, and figure out the best way to install it. Naturally, this has resulted in longer cycle times. Everything is taking longer.
Many people ask our team why we can’t order materials and products earlier or plan ahead for these circumstances, but they don’t realize there are some orders with which we aren’t equipped for accepting early delivery. For instance, a shipment could get lost, stolen, damaged or may not be readily available at the time we check on it. There seems to be a rolling list of items we can’t get, and others that are indefinitely on backorder. Our team adapts when we learn of shortages and discontinued items, but in many cases, we won’t know or can’t know until an order is placed. In some cases, we don’t discover those items aren’t available or on backorder until they haven’t shown up.
Custom homes have taken longer to complete than any of us want – and, of course, that includes our customers. However, we refuse to sacrifice on the craftmanship, durability and “consistency” that truly creates a home built to last and achieves a buyer’s incomparable vision.
In holding true to our values of building homes for a greater purpose, our team has decided to allow move-ins earlier than normal for customers who have nowhere else to go, sold their existing home or had a lease impending expiration. Lee Wetherington Homes typically completes a punch list prior to closing or, if there are items compiled by the buyer, we work to complete them in 30 days. Now people are moving in with longer punch lists and we may take over 90 days to ensure these needs are met.
Q: How important is communication and customer satisfaction, especially during these times?
Communication is always important since we take pride in a singular custom home building experience. But it’s critical now. Our team is as busy as we’ve ever been, so we are working on being proactive and reaching out regularly to each of our customers. However, we are not perfect – and we are always trying to be better. To compensate for this, our team has multiple supervisors in the field working with our construction managers to help facilitate communication and expedite the construction process. As CEO, I also have my cell phone number on my business card and regularly meet and speak with customers to address issues and assure them we’re continuing to work to finish their custom homes.
We will stay with every home until they are completed to our standards and will continue to warrant them as we have locally for over 40 years.
Q: What are the biggest concerns you’ve heard from customers and how do you address these issues?
The biggest concern our customers have is how long the process is taking and trying to plan when they will move into their homes. In the past, we were able to build a home in about 10 to 12 months (three months to start from contract, and seven to nine months in construction). Now, with the strain on our truss engineers, energy calculation engineers, and structural engineers, and the increased demand load on our team internally – plus the added permitting time due to the labor shortage in local municipalities – it could take up to six months to start a custom home. And then once the home is started, we could potentially be in construction for a year or more, with the labor and material shortages.
It’s very frustrating for all of us who take pride in creating an experience our home buyers will look back on for a lifetime. But we’ll always do everything in our power to keep customers informed, confident and comfortable throughout the design and building process.
Q: How vital is each member of your team during these times to ensure deadlines are met and customers receive the best experience?
We have had to work more than ever as a team. It is everyone’s job to help the customer have the best experience possible, so I don’t want to ever hear someone say, “it’s not my job,” to do something to move a home or the process forward. Fortunately, we don’t have anyone like that on our team. In fact, I call our team my “brain trust,” and when problems arise, they are the first place I turn for solutions. They’re smart, creative, have many years of experience, and often have great ideas on how to resolve a problem and improve the customer experience.
It takes all of us, together, to design and build someone’s dream into reality – a custom home they will take pride in knowing was built with care.
