The true measure of any company is its people, and from the office staff to the construction teams, the people of Legend Homes have a giving heart — and several of them are even award-winning.

Armando Avila is the latest to be honored for his work at Legend Homes, having been named Construction Superintendent of the Year in the prestigious 2020 Best PRISM Awards hosted by the Greater Houston Builder’s Association. Armando oversaw construction of many new homes in 2019 and is known for his work ethic and positive demeanor, as well as going out of his way to meet with our customers.

Armando wasn’t the only Legend Homes staffer to hear their name called during the Houston’s Best PRISM Awards. Jeffrey Hymanson and Amy Fisher — both favorites with their many, many buyers — were named finalists in the Sales Professional of the Year category. Javier Saenz was also a finalist for Skilled Trade Professional of the Year. Finally, long-time Legend Homes employee Shannon Gaskamp was a finalist for Marketing Professional of the Year.

Legend Homes was a finalist in several other categories in this year’s Houston’s Best PRISM Awards. Our community of Marcello Lakes was a runner-up for Developed Community of the Year for a volume builder. Plus, the Marcello Lakes photography-rich brochure also was a finalist for Sales Brochure of the Year — Volume Builder. And our Shannon floor plan was the lone finalist in the Product Design Under $200,000 finalist.

These honors are gratifying, but what makes us happiest at Legend Homes is seeing the smiles on the faces of the many people who we have helped find their way into a new home.

When a real estate market turns sour—whether caused by market conditions or a pandemic—that’s not the time to panic, says CEO Blake Roberts of Legend Homes in Houston.

In fact, it’s what he’d call a business opportunity. It was in this very situation that the Texas-based residential development company found itself, not once, but twice. Now Roberts is happy to tell the tale. Strategies developed then and now have poised the business to make its largest numbers this year.

“Legend’s owners have always been fully invested in the business and when times are tough, they’re here to support us,” Roberts says. “That carries over culturally to the team. No matter what the crisis might be, I know we’ll come out better than when we went in.”

You can find the full article here: https://www.bpcmag.com/case-studies/blake-roberts-legend-homes/

(Houston, Texas – June 3, 2020)                Now ranked among the nation’s top 50 builders, Legend Homes, operating under their Legend Homes, Bella Vista Homes and Princeton Classic Homes brands, recorded a 49 percent year-over-year increase in home closings in 2019 and is on track for a 20 percent increase this year.

The builder closed on 1,417 homes throughout Texas in 2019, up from 949 home closings, landing it at No. 41 on the recently released Builder 100 list. The strong 2019 followed an almost equally robust 2018, which logged a 45 percent increase in the number of homes closed over the prior year.

Tanya Rizzo, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for the builders, said the leadership of Chief Executive Officer Blake Roberts in shifting the company focus toward first-time homebuyers is behind the explosive growth.

“As Legend Homes is approaching its 30^th anniversary next year, we decided to go back to basics and focus on building an affordable home,” Rizzo said.

The starting home price for most Legend Homes and Bella Vista Homes communities ranges from the $170,000s to the $250,000s with Princeton Classic Homes selling from the $240,000s to more than $500,000. Rizzo said the company has gotten creative on how to offer desirable homes while keeping pricing low by equally focusing on land, construction and sales.

Louie Trapolino, vice president of land acquisition and development, knows that "Land is the commodity now, which directly impacts the pricing of our homes,” said Louie Trapolino, Vice President of Land Acquisition. “That is at the forefront when I consider a potential land purchase.” 

Another tactic is giving buyers more choice when it comes to standard features, Rizzo said.

“What we have done is create choices that allow buyers to pick a package of features, so they decide what they want to spend money on based on what is most important to them,” she said.

Rizzo said elements of the packages can be combined, offering buyers more choices — including first-time home buyers, who typically aren’t presented with flexible designs.

Another strategy is to maintain a healthy supply of inventory homes.

“We want to showcase our homes and features in a finished home,” Rizzo said, “so we maintain a lot of inventory that is ready for a homeowner to move into.”

“Legend Homes typically has four to six months of supply in production,” said Vice President of Construction John Devens. “Approximately 80 percent of last year’s home sales were of inventory homes as a result of this effort.”

Home building and sales haven’t slowed much this year for Legend Homes and Princeton Classic Homes despite the pandemic.

“We started strong at the beginning of the year, but we did see a drop by the third week of March as people started to stay at home,” Rizzo said. “But by the third week of April, this had turned. I think there was a pent-up demand built over those four to five weeks and now people are coming out more than ever to take advantage of low interest rates and because their dissatisfaction with their current housing escalated as we all stayed at home.

“Our sales volume is still up year-over-year and we are exceeding our pre-pandemic business plan,” Rizzo said. “And while Houston is our foundation, we are seeing growth this year in both Dallas and College Station.”

Legend Homes builds in 10 communities in Houston, four in Dallas and two in College Station. Pricing is from the $170,000s. Bella Vista Homes offers designs priced from the $180,000s in 21 San Antonio-area communities. Princeton Classic Homes, which caters to both first-time and move-up buyers, builds in 11 Houston-area developments offering floor plans priced from the $240,000s. Learn more at www.legendhomeshouston.com and www.princetonclassichomes.com.