Builder Todd Usher explains how adopting a green building standard gave his company a quality system grounded in building science, and argues the industry must educate buyers, appraisers and lenders to sell value instead of cost per square foot.
00:00:00:03 - 00:00:45:20
Todd Usher: Embracing quality processes and quality systems to bring that value to our clients. It wasn't a race to the bottom. It was a race to maximize quality and value. And that was a firm belief. When I came into homebuilding and directly and then grew in the homebuilding, I had learned in my corporate life that what you did to maximize quality was your benchmark, and you went out and looked at the best in class and the industry, and you emulated that, and you tried to improve on.
00:00:45:22 - 00:00:52:17
Todd Usher: And what did I find when I looked around the home?
00:00:52:19 - 00:00:55:19
Todd Usher: Quality system.
00:00:55:21 - 00:01:23:07
Todd Usher: I'm getting some nods. And this can be interactive. All of these systems know a race to the bottom in many ways, a race to the bottom. Not because that was so intentional, but because that's what we as an industry felt like we needed to do. And I was fortunate enough to find a green building standard and sit through a home Builder Association training on this standard.
00:01:23:07 - 00:01:56:06
Todd Usher: Back in 2002, and it was my moment. It was, oh my gosh, here is the quality system for how to build value into homes. And it's grounded in building science. It's vetted in data. It spoke to my corporate training and background. This is it. This is what makes sense for us to do and to build a company around.
00:01:56:08 - 00:02:24:00
Todd Usher: And as I considered whether this would be an option for my business, I thought, well, how hard is it going to be to tell a trade partner of this house's code? So don't worry about all the fancy stuff. The better stuff we do in this house is a. So let's do it better. Let's pull out the manufacturer's instructions and let's forward it.
00:02:24:02 - 00:02:52:25
Todd Usher: It really, to me, was logical that we need to do it the right way, and that needs to be the way we always do it. And as I learned in industry, if we do it that way, we can become efficient. Doing it that way and drive our costs down and deliver maximum value to our customers. And through visionaries in the industry, many of whom were here.
00:02:53:01 - 00:03:45:18
Todd Usher: Sam Raskin, who kept driving this home value, value, value I truly believe that the homes we build deliver the maximum value to our customers for every dollar they invest. And with that, I can sleep well. I and my callbacks are lower, and the product that we have delivered for our client gives them impressive and surprising benefits. Some of the things we hear most frequently when I go in on a 30 or 45 day visit after someone's moved in, is, wow, this house is quite.
00:03:45:21 - 00:04:16:01
Todd Usher: I had to turn on a sound machine to sleep and blow hot water. So that's and those little things that you can't really explain to someone until they experience. But once they experience, how hard is it for them to go back and not have that? So I would argue to you that we in our industry have no choice.
00:04:16:03 - 00:04:53:21
Todd Usher: We need to emulate the rest of modern industry that has focused on continuous improvements and maximization of value in the products that we provide our clients. And if we educate our consumers and go back to the days before cost per square foot was driving us to the race on, then they will pay for what we do. And that might mean we have to build a slightly smaller house to hit their budget.
00:04:53:23 - 00:05:24:28
Todd Usher: But if we continue this trend and focus on educating our customers and educating the other players in the industry like appraisers, like lenders, we can deliver maximum value to the market. I feel like I'm a living example of that. It's not that this business is easy. That's definitely not the case. But we can do better and efficiently. We can show customers that they have a choice.