Leading home builder Inland Homes boasted a strong finish to 2011 with the closing of 13 new homes in December in The Cascades, World Golf Village’s active adult retirement community. The company’s total closings for the year came in at 45. “Inland Homes has a high-quality and well-priced product and that was reflected in their strong numbers for the year,” said Mirtha Barzaga, Realtor with Davidson Realty. “Buyers especially love that Inland Homes come standard with an impressive list of upgrades,” added Barzaga. (more…)
Journal
January 20, 2012
5 Tips on Finding a Builder you can Trust
Mark Downing with CornerStone Homes and I sat down recently to discuss new home construction. We agreed we are both seeing a lot more people finding a great buy on lots and needing to find a builder. I thought it might be helpful to share some tips for finding a great builder you can trust.
1- Ask family, friends, coworkers or your real estate agent for a recommendation.
2- Make sure the builder has a permanent business location and a good reputation with local banks and suppliers.
3- Ask to speak with previous customers.
4- Make sure you will enjoy working with the builder. You will be in close contact with them throughout the construction process.
5- Be cautious of unusually low-priced bids. (more…)
December 28, 2011
Mark Downing with CornerStone Homes Talks Changes in the New Home Construction Industry
I had an opportunity to visit with Mark Downing from CornerStone Homes recently and thought you might enjoy his comments on the video above. We talked about the changes we are seeing in the new home industry.
When the real estate industry was booming, it was not easy to find a desirable lot in a great community at an affordable price. Today there are many lots available and the prices are amazingly affordable. Right now in the King & Bear we have 10 bank owned lots available that include a membership to the King & Bear and Slammer & Squire golf courses. We also have Developer lots available with memberships and a few lots owned by builders that could be purchased. (more…)
December 22, 2011
Standard Pacific Homes to Break Ground on New Homes in GroveWood
In November, national homebuilder Standard Pacific Homes closed on 16 homesites in the neighborhood of GroveWood in our St. Augustine golf course community. Standard Pacific Homes will soon break ground on four spec homes on the GroveWood lots, ranging from about 2,500 to 3,500 square feet. Pricing will start in high $200,000s. The featured floor plans include the Kingfisher (2,469 square feet), Cambridge (3,051 square feet), Belmont (3,536 square feet), Carisbrooke (3,226 square feet) and the Palladium (2,912 square feet). An extensive list of upgrades come standard on all the homes. Davidson Realty’s Mirtha Barzaga was the Realtor for the transaction.
Founded in 1965, Standard Pacific Homes has built 113,000 houses nationwide over nearly five decades. As they have grown, Standard Pacific Homes has remained faithful to our original vision: to build thoughtfully designed homes, well-crafted to provide quality of life for the families who live in them and complement the neighborhoods they share. (more…)
November 15, 2011
Two Custom Homes by CornerStone Homes Underway in World Golf Village
Last week Mark Downing with CornerStone Homes, who is one of our favorite builders to work with, took us on a tour of some of the new construction sites in our St. Augustine golf course community. CornerStone Homes has built many homes in St. Johns County communities like Nocatee, Murabella, and World Golf Village. They are currently building two custom homes on beautiful lots in GroveWood and Waterbury by the Links. Mark talked about a few of the things that sets CornerStone Homes apart and also told us a little bit about our new World Golf Village neighbors.
The gorgeous home that backs up to the preserve in GroveWood will be occupied by a physician retiring from the northeast. The homebuyer has a friend in The Village and loves to play golf so the King & Bear and Slammer & Squire were huge selling points for his decision to relocate to the Neighborhoods of World Golf Village. CornerStone’s other new construction project is a custom home in Waterbury by the Links. The buyer is relocating to our gated community from Miami. The spectacular home is situated on the King & Bear golf course. (more…)
October 12, 2011
Would Your Home get the Energy Star Stamp of Approval?
To conclude our three part Energy Star series, we had Frank Cirillo from Providence Homes and Michael O’Donoughue with Jacksonville Building Science give us a behind the scenes look at the testing of Energy Star Homes. Frank explains that Providence Homes uses Michael to verify that their designs meet the Energy Star criteria before a homeowner moves in. The three tests they conduct are very interesting and important if you want to save money!
Michael tells us in the video above that these energy tests are required to insure that the homeowner has a tight house, their ducts don’t leak, and they have even distribution of air. He then demonstrates the blower door test, the duct blaster test, and the room by room load calculation with a flow hood. The blower door test detects how much air is being drawn out of the house and measures how tight the house is and the duct blaster test determines how much air is coming through the ducts in each room. The flow hood shows the air flow coming out of all the supply grills and back into the return grills, which is a unique test to Providence Homes. So, not only does Providence Homes take the time to teach us all about Energy Star they also go above and beyond with more testing for their customers! (more…)
September 20, 2011
You Need to Know What Your Windows Are Made Of!
For the second part of our Energy Star video blog, we asked Frank Cirillo and Robert Goettlicher at Providence Homes to help us explain the importance of window efficiency. To be honest, I had no idea how important window quality is to your home, but I quickly learned that Frank hit the nail on the head when he said, “Not all windows are created equally!”
Frank describes how vinyl frame windows have three main components that make them more efficient in your home than the aluminum windows that were used in the past. First, less heat is transferred through vinyl frames, which also means less condensation. Vinyl has a higher tolerance than aluminum windows. They are smoother operating windows, so less air flow gets through it. And, lastly and most importantly, the glass is the highest quality of low e glass on the market. It doesn’t allow harmful UV rays into your home, so you don’t have to worry about fading carpets and furniture. Not to mention, with aluminum windows, your couch is holding all that heat that seeps in and then transferring it into your home. (more…)
August 31, 2011
What in the World is Energy Star?
When I kept hearing the term Energy Star, I called my friends Frank Cirillo and Robert Goettlicher at Providence Homes to understand what all the fuss was about. I was amazed at what I found out! There’s a lot more to an Energy Star home than you may think. What I found most interesting is along with many energy saving features in each home, the homes must be independently tested to verify that it qualifies to hold the title of an Energy Star home.
It all starts with the home being designed properly – including window placement, heating and cooling duct design, planning for the air handler to be placed in conditioned space, and even truss design to allow for proper insulation all contribute to energy efficiency.
Check out the video above where Frank demonstrates the truss design. I didn’t have a clue what he was talking about until he went and got a normal truss and compared it to the truss that goes in a more energy efficient home. A picture is worth a thousand words!
Of course, high performance low- E windows, insulated doors, programmable thermostats, energy efficient appliances, and water heaters all add to the energy savings.
Providence Homes guarantees that all Energy Star homes will score 77 or lower on the E scale which measures energy performance; however, they have recently been averaging 69. This matters to you because a home achieving 69 will use only 69 percent as much energy as a typical new home which is 100 on the scale. (more…)
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