Merry Christmas everyone,

     It is Christmas and I am in the Christmas spirit once again. I would encourage anyone who has not yet seen our spectacular(I could say “amazing”, but that seems to be THE word of 2010) Hybrid Wonderhome in Reflections Village/Richfield to not miss seeing the  special Christmas decorations trimming the exterior. The front display window even has Mickey Mouse and his gang celebrating the season.  A must-see!

     First, as my blog headline insinuates, I have a few bits of Big and Small news. Here is the BIG news item.  As many of you may either know or perhaps expect, we , like many home builders, have been members of  Milwaukee’s home building organization, (namely) the Milwaukee Metropolitan Builder’s Association.For short, in this article, I will call them by  their short name, the MBA.  I do not remember the exact date we joined this “club” but it was probably around the 1997 or 1998 timing.

     The chief reason we originally joined was nothing more or less than the fact that I wanted to be in the Milwaukee Parade Of  Homes. The only builders who could be in the Parade were builders who had been members for at least 1 year and were in “good standing”. I had been building homes since we created Miracle Homes  back  in 1993,( If you don’t count me and Jacquie having built our own home around 1990).  Jacquie and I were largely building homes in the Washington County area and saw no real reason to join the Milwaukee  association. While my younger days pass time had been to build “things” and do carpentry, and design things(amongst many other pastimes) , another one of my passions was in the field of marketing. I had spent some of my artist college education also dabbling   into marketing and advertising. This all leads to some big news, so I hope you will indulge me a moment or two longer on my little history tutorial here.

      Back to my advertising/marketing experience, I knew when the timehad come that Jacquie and I had gained  enough solid home building experience, we would launch ourselves heavily into the Milwaukee market and I knew the Parade was to be a part of that launch. Therefore, a year before our Milwaukee launch, right on schedule,I joined the MBA. I did not really investigate any other potential reasons for being a member as I had only one need for them at that time.

     That first Parade went smoothly and  that Menomonee Falls Stockton Bay model was one of 7 homes in that 1997 Parade. We won several major awards including the People’s Choice which was the biggie as I saw it. We had an elevator, a suspended plastic deck built around large trees which we had planted. The deck had a garden (dirt and all) incorporated into the elevated deck. I had designed a small front walk-way patio with a pond that took water from the pond and diverted it into the short-walled patio to cool your feet. I had a 4 car garage with a car washing bay. I even had an 80 inch rear projection television built flat into the wall of the great room. The skylights electronically opened their shades and the look -out basement on this 2,200 square foot ranch had incorporated a unique masonry window well on the front of the home to let daylight (and egress) into that unexposed bedroom.

     I had cherry custom cabinets which had fronts that disguised the drawers into the craftsman motif., creating the appearance of drawers even where there were cabinet doors!  I had invented a central vacuum system where the cumbersome hose would retract “automatically into a central cabinetso the vacuum was always ready to use and easy to put away. I used an unusual amenity of iron welded spindles and wood top hand railings. Now that I read this, some 12 years later, much of what I was doing then, is now in vogue!  Remember, the average size of a big screen television at that time was a whopping 25 inches, and everyone was using wood spindles. Our involvement in the Parade and our launch into the Milwaukee market worked very well!

      Flash-forward a few years and a few Parades later, and we had also became a big player in the MBA wintertime Home Builders Expo in downtown Milwaukee.  We also had joined a third MBA -only event known as the Spring Tour Of Homes. Life seemed “good” as we became one of the largest volume home builders in the Milwaukee metro market and arguably the most prominent as our slew of seemingly, non-stopping radio ads hit the airwaves. We were building a brand for ourselves and building a list of (mostly) happy clients too.

      At that point something changed that I had not expected. It seemed as we grew to own more of the area housing market share, we started to hear our clients confiding in us and telling us many negative things our competitors were telling them about us.  My Dad had told me that the same folks who would cheer you when you are going from nothing to the top are sometimes the same folks who want to topple you from the toponce you get there.  As I tried to separate ourdesigns and products  from the other builders by using (for example) 2 by 12 lumber, when they all were using 2 by 10 lumber, or when I was including surround sound systems and appliances when they were not,  I would naturally explain this to the public in our various ads.  This seemed to feed the fire in my competition’s bellys  to the point that when I appeared in a Parade or Expo-type MBA event,  I became less and less popular with my competition, the MBA members.

     Each time I came up with some new home building innovation or new marketing item,(and announed them to the public)  life just got worse at in the MBA ranks, even though sales and(most importantly)the  smiles of our clients continued to rise to new heights. Along the line, I had decided to create our own Miracle Parade Of Homes-styled event. I would build 5 or 6 new models, introduce new inventions,  and open them a week or two before the MBA Parade to try to sell everyone a home before the MBA event would even open.  In our Version of the Parade however, we had free admission, free entertainment, wild home building ideas, seminars by yours truly, and a grand all-free cook out with everything from burgers to cookies.  We discounted and created specials and always sold a lot of homes during the event. Our Miracle Tour Of Homes was a resounding success selling as many as a record 55 new home contracts during a single event one year!

     By and by, the MBA members  created new rules to compensate for the “Mirracle factor” as I heard one MBA member put it.One new rule was  not to  allow any member advertise for a few weeks before AND after their Parade. We used to advertise that we would give a special discount to anyone who showed a ticket stub from the Parade and soon thereafter, the MBA told us not to advertise using the name Parade since they claim they own rights to the phrase “Parade of Homes” .  It got so difficult  that one year, when our Parade overlapped their Parade by 1 day with-in those few weeks MBA  advertising moratoriumthey had created, a member filed a comlaint against us to the MBA. For this infraction (they wanted us to close on a Saturday instead of a Sunday, as I recall, but the major newspaper flyer had already gone to press stating the dates weeks before they requested this of us) one MBA member filed an “ethics complaint” against us. The members of the ethics commitee  seemed ecstatic during the hearing  and while  handing  down their suspension of our membership for a  period of time. 

     I decided the best aproach would be to try to make this a win-win for everyone and doubled my efforts to try to play nice in the sandbox. After all, life really is too short to have anyone upset with you, even if they are your competitors. The MBA was encouraging builders to present higher calibre home show displays.  We built a fantasy-land-type home show booth to be unveiled at the MBA downtown January  Expo. This booth had our mascot ,an automated  Miracle Mouse, come out of the roof-top window shutters every 15 minutes and put on a cute family presentation for the crowds. We had a train that ran around the gutters,  and our intricate museum-quality miniature home models flipped over to our custom sound track music. We introduced large flat panel televisions(back then they were pricey and still a tad unusual ) to tell our Miracle story. Folks came from the entire show floor to see where the delicious smell was coming from?  The fake smoke coming from our fake chiminey suggested we were baking fresh cookies in our booth kitchen . Bank experts would sit in our cozy doll house-like closing booths to help answer any finance questions and even pre-qualify home shoppers right on the spot!       

     It wasn’t long before the MBA created a new rule which stopped any finance folks from working in any Expo  booth. This year, they created a rule to not allow us to continue our long tradition of   giving thousands of fresh baked cookies to Expo visitors.  Last year, we were stopped from giving Parade Of Homes young visitors, a free T-shirt that could be colored and erased. 

     This past Expo the MBA seemed to differentiate us from other builders. Two other home builders ran their own home show events with-in the  time frame of the MBA advertising moratorium. No apparent action was taken from the MBA.   In this year’s Parade event, we built an unprecedented 3 homes.   Our attempt to try to “get along” by using our radio ads and special 8 page Journal Sentinel tabloid section to help advertise not only our homes but also the MBA Parade Event seems to have only created more ethics questions from our MBA  member competitors.

     Some relationships , apparently , are not meant to be. As a person who tries to bring my religious background into each decision,  many times over the past many years, I have pondered if the simpler path would be to just separate from the MBA and go our separate ways? I have always tried to resist this easy temptation as I wanted to find a way for us all to co-exist and (funny as it sounds)for me to  help the MBA in whatever way possible.  I began to apply  myself into working on various committees and attending more MBA meetings.  Last week, following further intense times with MBA members, then a week of clear thought,  I was finally compelled to resign our membership withthe MBA . I do wish them the best as we try going our mutual ways in 2011.When two parties can’t find common goround, sometimes neither party is wrong in their position.Their thoughts and ideas just don’t agree.

      There is always much more to any significant  story such as this but after 1650 words, the time has come to give you my smaller tidbit of news.  For the first ime in many years, we will not be baking our cookies at the MBA Home Builder’s Expo event this January in Downtown Milwaukee.  I still hope everyone will brave the cold. parking, and traffic to attend this worthwhile event. It opens Thursday the 6thof January and goes for 4 days through that Sunday. It is in the back third of the main hall this year.  Smaller than in the past, for sure, but still well worth the $7(parking extra)  admission price. This year they will again be having a few notable speakers from the cooking and television circuit on select days. For full details, please visit the MBA website at MBAonline.org

      Before, or after, you have paid your visit to this event, we are having special House Party Event hours at both Richfield and Milwaukee. We are part of 9 fabulous actual new homes and we have some special longer night time hours to accompany our many super specials. Oh, if you are looking for some of those delicious cookies, we will be serving them hot and fresh in our basement Club Wonder virtual reality night club, the only one of it’s kind in the World!

     Stay tuned and …Merry Christmas!  Until we blog again in 2011,

     Blessings,

     Tom Hignite

This blog entry has been linked directly to our homepage as a special way to ease into the biggest announcement we have had in recent memory.

First, the over-all “big Picture” then some details to follow. We have been trying to find new and compelling reasons to continue to further separate Miracle from the myriad of other builders. To do this, regular blog readers know that  we try to push the creative design area and do things that no one else has thought of doing. We want to do the same creative innovating  in the area of giving home buyers the biggest “bang” for their dollar as well.  Here it is.

1.) We will continue to offer our hit “Live In Our Home For Free, Until Yours Is Sold” program. If you are unfamiliar with the details on this aspect, we have an area on our site which explains this OR you could just go to back two or three blog entries for a pretty good explanation of this. In short, this is pretty much as good as it gets if you have a home to sell before you want to build.

2.)We continue to offer our PHENOMINAL Rent Buster homes. Again, our site has more details on this but the short version is that you could buy a 4 bedroom 2-story home (we have ranches too, of course) for a fairly complete $199,000. There are lots of good things about this offering not least of which is the aspect of the lot(building site) for the home. You can choose ANY lot, ANYWHERE in Southeastern Wisconsin from Kenosha north  to Appleton, west to Lake Mills. We do travel up or over  beyond that for a little more. The home is ,very well built, using the same contractors and materials found in our million dollar custom homes. We do allow as much  customization as you like. The package is a baseline package which comes with good quality carpet and vinyl flooring, dishwasher, all lighting, mirrors/towel bars.  The package includes a $50,000 allowance to go towards the lot  of your choice. Lots today are going for less than that in many areas.  That means if you find a $40,000 lot, for example, the package is now $189,000. We also have about $25,000 in the $199,000 package for lot improvements, permits, and such. Ask us for a list of lots in your preferred area.

3.) One of our most popular promotions we have run before is our $1,995 finished basement. This is one that makes many a competitor shudder as I have heard so many clients tell me that the “other guys” have expressed that our finished basement is little more than a small space with cheap finishes. One step into our finished basement model and you instantly see that is not true by any stretch of the imagination. This is a large(about) 600 finished square feet of space with fancy corners, solid woodwork package, all set for a future bathroom(door installed too) and even a set up for a home theatre wall and place for wet bar(a little more buys  the wet bar too). We include good lighting, a designed area to fit a pool table, and even the cat5 wiring to the theatre area. My favorite area is the drywall build-out surround wall which has effect hidden lighting behind it! Other builders would charge easily $50 to as much as $100 per square foot. That could be a $30,000 to $60,000 value for just $1,995! Remember, this can be added to our $199,000 Rent Busters, or any Miracle Home.

4.) OUR NEWEST  PHENOMINOM. We have partnered with American T.V., Appliance, and Furniture to be the first and only (to our knowledge) home builder to offer the whole house to be completely filled with a whole lot of furniture, appliances, and even the large Samsung 50 inch 1080 DPI High definition television. We now have  changed out our two story Richfield “Rent Buster” to display this incredible package. Highlights include 2 couches, recliner, coffee tables(one even rises to act as a snack table for a couch), 5 table and floor lamps, a dinette set(which has a nifty double bench seating for two and other chairs too), 4 very nice kitchen stool/chairs(they match the dinette/dining chairs), and a dining low-hutch/bureau. For the Master suite, we have a very nice master bedroom set which includes dovetail constructed drawers throughout. This package includes a long dresser with mirror, tall dresser, two night stands, and a queen bed complete with (not the lowest end offering) Sealy Mattress and box spring too!

     Now for a few of those details. Due to the nature of our partner arrangement on this, we are only able to offer this on homes signed from Thursday January 6 through Monday January 31st OR 10 deals, whichever comes first. If you don’t intend to build until later down the road, don’t dismay. You can delay your build until later so long as you confirm and(modest) deposit your paperwork in that time frame.

      As I mentioned, we now have this package of “goodies” set up in our Richfield Reflections Village 2 story home. If you are not shopping for a 2-story home, we have 2 other non-2-story homes at Reflections Village as well. As a side enticement, this developemnt site at Refelctions Village ,is  now called the WONDERLAND OF HOMES and  has 6 other fine home builders models to visit as well, so you can really make a day of fun home shopping our of your visit. We are open at our models Monday and Wednesday nights from 6 to 8 and Weekends from 1 until 4. We are Christmas decorated right now too. If you would like to see our Northwest Milwaukee area(off Good Hope/91st street area) homes, you can see our 2-story 4 bedroom rent buster and another Miracle model at that location.That location is open weekends from 1 to 4 only. During our official kick-off January 6 through 9, we will offer longer open hours and other c’mon-down incentives.

      As for other details, I suggest you take a few moments to call one of our sales folks at (262)628-9091 to get your other questions answered. 

     Creativity goes beyond decor and layout of homes. This could very well be our finest creative “value” moment yet!

    Until we blog again,

    Blessings,

     Tom Hignite

     Sometimes at night when I am in my creative mode, I am thinking of  so many ideas I find it difficult to  concentrate on WHICH creative thing to think about. I hope you all realize that when I write these blogs, I generally am a pretty “open book” on what is on my mind and , even though this could easily sound like a c’mon from some salesperson hawking their product, I hope you will see beyond the fact that I own a home building company and have an interest in selling homes. If I was not in the business, right now, I would surely wish I was in the business of homes. Here is where my creative juices are flowing presently.

     I see the prices of land and homes right now so low, and interest rates so attractive, that I know the bottom of the market is here or perhaps was already here with-in a few months time. As you probably know, the secret to making money at anything is to buy the item for a low price and sell it for a higher price. The difference is the profit. The lower you buy the product you are selling, the higher the potential profits will/should be. (Sorry for the grade school economics refresher)

     Right now I am feeling anxious inside, and I know that I should never feel anxious in anything, as a general philosophy of my life. The reason is that I have not really taken full advantage of this market being so “right” to build. I myself should be really thinking of building. Not to sell the homes, but to rent them out. I am thinking that many folks in this rough economy are really struggling to hold onto a home or need to get the cash out of their existing home. If they could sell their own home and rent another new home, not a multi-family, that would have to be an attractive option!

     Normally, this would be a potential loser since renting income might not even  pay for the mortgage which I would have to have to build the new rental property.  I think however, since I am a builder and have attractive , near wholesale prices available to me, AND since I can buy an $80,000 lot(of just a few years ago) today for under $30,000(if you know where to look), the math works now. It may not work when the economy improves, but it does right now, with these current interest rates!

     Another wild idea I had a few eeks ago was to re-define the way that folks may be buying or building a new home. I intend to re-package the way we market homes and , instead of selling empty boxes, on empty lots, we will introduce Wisconsin’s first Fully Furnished New homes! By golly, that has a certain ring, and appeal to my ear. I know our Rent Buster series is a great launch into new homes for many. I also know that when first time home buyers are looking for a new home, the idea of having just enough money to buy the home is usually their reality. With this new scenario, the new home buyer would have the furniture, mattresses, television, appliances, lamps, the whole thing, all in one attractive package.

     In a short time, we will be unrolling this and right now, we are getting ready to furnish our first such model for this 4 bedroom $199,000″ Rent Buster Complete” package.  We have gotten to the point at my business that we are building these 4 bedroom Rent Buster homes just so darn efficiently, and we are buying our materials at such excellent price levels, that we can do what other builders  must feel is some kind of  voo-doo or come-on advertising. I am here to tell you that it is all for real . The value and quality we are now offering just could not be here if it was not for this remarkable housing market.

      The only problem with finding creative solutions to the problems of the housing market is that many good, honest, smart shoppers just don’t trust that offers this good are real. We are trained as consumers to find the flaws of any offer.  Every offer must have it’s weak side, but in the same vein, every offer must have its upside as well. If the upside outweighs the downside, the offer will work.  If I was to be the first banker offering to loan money to buy a home(for example) and I announced to the public that I would loan money for homes, everyone would be looking for the “catch“. The catch is that I want to be paid back and get back more money than I originally borrowed to you for the home. The other catch is that if you can’t pay the money back, I would get the home back from you and your family could be out on the streets! WOW, that downside sounds pretty frightening when you think about it. If you only looked at the downside, no one would ever borrow money to build a home.  But…. the upside is you get a beautiful home, a great quality of life, and all the pride of home ownership that goes with it. It is usually (some would still argue) a faily safe long term investment.

     In a likewise way, over a year ago, we introduced a program we call “Live In Our Home For Free, Until Your Is Sold”. The upside is HUGE!  Abosolutly HUGE!  First, you don’t have to wait to sell your home first before you buy another. Next, you don’t have to sell your home, move into temporary housing, then move into your new home. Then, you can get a higher dollar(usually) for your existing home because you don’t have to sell your existing home with all sorts of personal effects in the closets and all sorts of clutter. You don’t have to interrupt your family life with suddenly having to show your home to prospective buyers.  You can stage your existing home and sell it at your leisure . You don’t have to be “trapped” anymore in the needing to sell before you can buy. As I said, HUGE upside!

     Just like the first guy who decided to loan money to buy homes, I believe I am the first entity to offer this program. One night, in my creative mode, I just decied to try to tackle the common problem of everyone being stuck  doing nothing , not being able to build or move-on with their lives until their home was sold. We have now done so many deals with this new invention of ours and, here’s the great news, not a single deal I can remember was stuck with 2 homes for more than a month or two past the time they moved into their new home! Here;s the other kicker, most EVERY buyer who utilized this method was apprehensive about taking this route. Now every one I have met who took it, seem to think this was a great idea.

     Just like the home loans scenario, there ARE potential down sides to this program. THERE HAS TO BE.  I would however say that the VAST majority of the folks who sold their homes got what they wanted for their homes in terms of dollars. As for the details and downsides, I will leave that to your inquiries to our staff(sorry, but we don’t want to make this too easy on our competitors). The long and short is that we will continue to make your house payments on “one” of your two homes, until the home is sold. Our risk is we could be making payments for years. The reality however is that this has not happened, and is most unlikely to happen.

     Now that I am thinking of it, I still have one home left to sell in our recently closed Monterey model center. Tomorrow, maybe  I will see if it doesn’t make more sense to just rent that property out rather than sell it!  You see, creative ideas  can come at any time!

     Blessings,

     Tom Hignite

There are two things  I want to share in this Holiday related blog entry.

     We have just had our first big snowy weekend. Even though we only got an inch or two of the white stuff, the first snow always seems to feel like a blizzard. Maybe that is why our model home attendance was so far below the norm(even for Christmas time).  I do hope you will consider coming out to see the cool, yet modest Christmas decorations we have done in our 3 model homes in Richfield.  When you see our Hybrid  Wonderhome, don’t forget to look into our front(garage) window. I have set up a large display which evokes the feel of a grand old department store window. The motif  is Disney (gee, what a surprise) and specifically, Mickey Mouse motorized spinning on top of a small piano. Then there are stacks of colorful wrapped git boxes with Mickey’s dog Pluto on top of the stack looking down at Mickey. Donald Duck’s nephews are wrapping gifts and are a bit tangled in the ribbons. Lastly Pongo(the father Dalmatian from 101 Dalmatians) is eagerly standing up with his paws on the top of a freshly opened gift box. A few of Pongo’s pups are playing near-by. A Cheshire Cat stuffed toy is protruding from this open box as are other open boxes featuring Minnie Mouse and Dumbo. 

     If you visit this home at any hour, night or day, we are playing Christmas music on the exterior speakers and the big front porch has the fireplace burning(gas) as the indoor/outdoor television plays Christmas television specials such as The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. In the front yard, there was a 10 foot diameter round concrete fountain. My creative juices saw a lot of possibilities for decorating this area. I thought of trying a large snow-man about 20 feet tall, all made of wire and lights. I thought of a tall stack of foil covered presents, maybe with our mascot Miracle Mouse sitting atop the upper box. Then I got an idea which just seemed so suitable to this big round concrete structure. With a little help from our warranty person Mark and our lumber supplier(also named)Mark, I procured two plywood sheets which were ten feet long instead of the common 8 feet.

      Cutting these plywood boards to fit neatly onto the top of this fountain, was the first step. Next, we took a 14 foot long square four by four timber and cutting a square hole into the middle of the plywood, we put the tall post into the center of the fountain base, standing up 14 feet into the air. Several cables were used to attach to the top of the tall center post and angle to the base of the plywood circle. If you can imagine it, the twelve cables and wires which held up the center post, now looked like the framework of a Christmas tree, with a 10 foot diameter bottom.

     Now with the structure of a tree built, I had a few options to consider. The obvious first choice was to run verticle strings of lights up each of the twelve guide wires. This however seemed just a little too typical and not terribly original. I then thought of another idea. I bought fairly economical nine foot strands of faux evergreen garlands. Starting on the tipy top(where I had fastened a lighted snowflake design) I started to circle the tree structure essentially swirling the garlands in a candy cane-style swirl with the strands about a foot apart.  I then attached similar swirling strands of white lights attached to the garlands. I placed huge white sparkly snow flake flat “ornaments” onto the tree. Since you could still see through the swirls of evergreen and lights into the interior of this hollow tree structure, I placed 3 flood lights into the middle of the tree interior. The effect is to see a unique tree which is instantly familiar as a large tree, yet, just like all of our design efforts, something no one has ever really quite seen before. In other words, uniquely standing as it’s own creative take on the common Christmas tree. I like to think it’s similar to the fact that our homes are instantly recognizable as homes, but each is uniquely Miracle in design.

     Inside the home, we added  a few creative touches of Christmas here and there. The funny thing about most home builders, they don’t usually take the effort to decorate their homes for any Holiday. I always think that just doing a very little touch of each holiday shows the public the additude of detail that we take the time to do that others do not take the time to do.

     Homes are all about evoking feelings and moods. What an opportunity to do a little something to bring the warmth of Christmas into our visitor’s experience. We have scented candles burning, stockings hung,and  videos changed to the  Christmas variety. To top off the Hybrid Wonderhome’s minor Christmas decor change-over, the new owners(they are likely not moving in until the early months of 2011, so hurry on over)were generous enough to bring over one of the largest red Christmas poinsettias I have ever seen! You can’t miss it , right by the stairs.

     We are open Monday and Wednesday nights from 6 to 8pm, so I hope you will come over and see the Christmas  ”magic“.  We are also open weekends from 1 to 4.

     Now just a little teaser item to leave you with. We have been working on a new major promotional incentive package to be a part of our homes. If you listen to the radio this Wednesday on WISN and B93(Wklh and WTMJ start next week), you will hear a hint of the BIG NEWS. I have been building and selling homes for a very long time now(over 2,000 homes by my calculations)  and I have never heard of a promotion like we are about to launch. If you want to get a head-start on the basis of this one, you will have to call us on the phone or stop by the models. These  incentives are truly incredible(even though that sounds a lot like over-the-top ad lingo, it surely applies to this one).

    Thanks for bloggin with me. Until we blog again…

     Blessings,

     Tom Hignite