Builder- March 2009 - (Page 70) AMERICA’S BEST BUILDERS 2009 ALL SYSTEMS GO A National Housing Quality Award winner finds success by always looking for ways to improve. BY PAT CURRY QUALITY COUNTS: Estes has built a brand on its quality awards. ESTES BUILDERS President and CEO: Kevin Estes CFO and Controller: Jo Anne Estes Quality Manager: Patricia Troxler Company Focus: Systems-driven K company that builds both production and custom homes, primarily for active adults drawn to the market, which is a retirement destination Employees: 9 Year Founded: 1990 Web site: www.estesbuilders.com Notable: Estes Builders has delivered 99 percent of its homes with zero known defects since 2002. The company is the first and only National Housing Quality Award–certified builder in the state of Washington. FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE REVENUE CLOSINGS 50 $12 40 $10 30 $8 20 $6 10 $4 2005 2006 2007 2008 evin Estes, a second-generation builder, started Estes Builders with his wife, Jo Anne, in 1990 in Sequim, Wash. Even then, with just the pair of them juggling all the roles, the focus was on systems and continuous improvement. “Being a system-driven company allows us to keep our promises,” says Jo Anne, who is the company’s controller. “When we tell a homeowner it will take six months to build their home, we want to make sure it takes six months. Our systems are checklists and touch points and forms, so we know when we have a walk-through with a homeowner [that] everything on their plans is there and in the right place, and we get paid on time. We do what we said we were going to do. … When we find something that is not working, we go to work on fi xing it.” Today, the company is a two-pronged operation, offering both production and custom homes, primarily to out-of-town, active adult buyers looking to retire to Washington state’s Olympic Peninsula. Even though Estes Builders is only a nineperson operation, systems help the company implement “many of the recognized best practices of large-volume builders,” it wrote in its America’s Best Builder entry. “We’re a really diligent, continuous improvement company,” Kevin says. “We’re not a whiz-bang company, but we tend to execute pretty well. Like the tortoise and the hare, we just get a little better every day.” It’s paid off handsomely for the company. The only National Housing Quality–certified builder in the state of Washington, Estes Builders also is a two-time winner of the National Housing Quality (NHQ) Award, taking silver in 2005 and gold in 2007. It legitimately boasts that it has delivered 99 percent of its homes since 2002 with zero known defects and markets itself as the Olympic Peninsula’s award-winning builder. THE POWER OF PARTICIPATION One of the powerful lessons Kevin has learned from the pursuit of continuous improvement is that a very small adjustment can yield tremendous results. At his regular meetings with trade partners, for example, Estes has them sit in the order in which they work on his houses. “It gets them talking,” he says. “It’s amazing what just doing that does.” Even though he knows that he’s going up against companies that dwarf him in revenues and resources, Estes says it’s well worth it to enter such competitions as America’s Best Builder and NHQ. They give the company an objective, external measurement tool. “It’s intimidating, for sure,” he says of the application process, which requires collecting hundreds of pages of documentation. “At first you feel like you’re going to get flayed, but you just buck up and do it. As a small builder, you don’t have a board of directors. You don’t know how well you’re doing until you send it to someone and see where we are. I use it for that.” He also takes full advantage of the benefits of winning such prestigious awards, including the contacts he’s made with other winners and judges. “If you have any kind of success, you start rubbing elbows with people who are passionate about building and they’re in some of the best companies,” he says. (in millions) Joan consani 70 ■ B U I LD E R m a rc h 2 0 0 9 W W W.BUILDERONLINE.COM http://www.estesbuilders.com http://WWW.BUILDERONLINE.COM
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