Housing Giants: Rutenberg Homes

Arthur Rutenberg is one of the most savvy businesspeople in new home sales.  Read below how focused he is on important metrics.  Note the special importance he puts on quality first visits by customers.

Arthur Rutenberg Homes, Clearwater, Fla.
(Housing Giants rank: 77) — Arthur Rutenberg, Chairman

Our sales are directly proportional to the number of model homes and sales teams we have in the field. Metrics have always been important to me, so we pay close attention to the ratio of visitor registrations to first proposal or quote, and then sale. We work hard to recruit and select top-quality sales teams for each model, and because value is the key to sales success in today’s market, we make sure we give our franchise owners leading-edge tools to reduce their direct costs, and hence their ability to offer lower sales prices. Every item that goes into building one of our homes is being bought at the right cost by one of our 31 franchisees. Our best tool is software that lets each franchisee see the costs being obtained by the other 30.

(Adapted from Bob Schultz’s column in Housing Zone/Professional Builder)