Housing Giants - December 10, 2008 - (Page 22) f e at u r e GeTTING BUyerS INTO HOUSeS The Lancaster Housing Market has been less affected by foreclosures than other parts of the country. Despite a decline in housing permits, the local job market remains stable. Armstrong World Industries has its world headquarters in Lancaster; other large employers include Tyson Poultry, R.R. Donnelley & Sons and the federal government. “We have some significant opportunities here,” says Jeff Rutt, CEO of Keystone Custom Homes in Lancaster, Pa. “In Lancaster County, for example, we’ve increased our market share dramatically. We expanded into Maryland this past spring and just opened five new communities in Pennsylvania.” In September 2007, the Central Pennsylvania Business Journal described how local builders were coping with a sluggish market. Keystone solicited ideas from employees for cutting construction costs without sacrificing quality, developed a marketing program called “Live Free for a Year,” and offered buyers assistance in securing a mortgage. The strategy worked: from the beginning of June to the end of July 2007, the company sold 102 homes. By midJuly, sales were up 16 percent from the same period a year ago, and Keystone did not have to lay off employees or drop suppliers. “Live Free for a Year” is actually a menu of options, Rutt explains. Buyers can elect to have Keystone pay a portion of their closing costs or buy down the interest rate, or have the builder make all of their principal and interest payments for a year. In the latest incarnation, “Drive Free for a Year,” buyers who refer a friend who later settles on a Keystone home are given a $2,000 gas card. “We’ve really focused on brand marketing in the last two years,” Rutt says. “Larry (Wisdom, Keystone’s president), is big on billboards. Each week we put up 1,400 directional signs that have our brand on them.” SOwING SeedS Of HOpe For home builder Jeff Rutt, helping people is a calling. In 1997, he started Hope International, a Christian faithbased, nonprofit organization. In the beginning, Hope shipped containers of food and medical supplies to needy families. “Eventually we came to the conclusion that there was a better way to help people become self-sufficient,” says Rutt. “What we arrived at was microfinancing: giving people very small loans and helping them develop their tiny businesses and pay the loans back with interest.” The new approach started with 12 loans in the Ukraine, all of which were paid back in a timely manner. “Then we started to capitalize it and grow it,” he says. “We expanded into two other countries, got our nonprofit status and started to raise more money.” One of Keystone’s early fundraising efforts was a charity home built in partnership with its trade contractors and suppliers. Net proceeds from the sale of the home were donated to Hope. 22 HOUSING GIANTS.12.10.08 www.HOUSINGGIANTS.cOm http://articles.lancasteronline.com/local/4/224394 http://www.keystonecustomhome.com/news http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa5295/is_200709/ai_n21257216 http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa5295/is_200709/ai_n21257216 http://www.hopeinternational.org http://www.housinggiants.com
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