Clark County homebuilders regroup

The departure from the old ways is beginning to pay off, said Jon Girod, a Vancouver builder who reached deep to pay off his debt early in the downturn and changed his entire business model to appeal to today’s more discriminating buyers.

Girod has recently hired three more employees for his Vancouver-based company, Quail Homes, which has gone from a staff of three to a staff of eight. He said the company is on track to build more than 30 houses this year, up from less than 20 homes per year at the depth of the downturn.

“I think next year we’ll be producing enough income to see a profit,” Girod said. “It’s finally coming together.”

He isn’t the only local builder slowly seeing hard work and perseverance pay off. Home sales are up and single-family housing starts have risen by 63.8 percent this year in unincorporated parts of Clark County. Builders in the sector pulled 380 permits to build houses from January through August, up from 232 permits during the same period last year.

But builders say interest in these new products, coupled with a tight supply of new homes and general improvement in home sales, are feeding hopes they’ve survived the worst of the painful and drawn-out slump.

Here are a few of their stories:

Soaring Eagle Homes

As a small builder, Soaring Eagle Homes has barely gotten its head above water, said Matthew Clarkson, co-owner of the Camas-based company he helped found in 1994.

Having just finished building a custom home in Ridgefield this year, Clarkson, 49, said his company has come a long way in digging itself out of the deep hole of the speculative housing market. In late 2007, home sales plunged just after the small company sold its highest priced house for $750,000, Clarkson said.

By 2008, he was “doing anything and everything” to survive, he said. His company’s work went from building high-end houses to performing odd remodeling jobs, such as installing windows, refinishing basements and installing covered patios.

“I repositioned my company to be a resource for Realtors,” Clarkson said. The tactic helped bring in word-of-mouth business from real estate agents who were busy trying to sell off foreclosed houses in need of repair and finish work.

Today, Clarkson counts himself among a small group of surviving builders who are cautiously optimistic.

“We’ve just been hunkering down in the trenches,” he said, adding that Soaring Eagle Homes has just recently begun to reinvest in marketing its custom homebuilding services.

“We said, ‘hey, it’s time to brush up the website,'” Clarkson said. “We feel like we’re coming out of it, but it doesn’t quite feel like a new beginning just yet.”

Kingston Homes

Vancouver-based builder Aaron Helmes, 35, went from homebuilding to home-remodeling during the downturn. Helmes, who was a co-owner of the now-defunct Rockford Homes, said it was sheer determination and experience that helped him survive.

He and a business partner, Jeff Wriston, are now building single-family homes once again under their newly formed company, Kingston Homes, said Helmes, a third-generation homebuilder.

“You learn from working summers and spring vacations,” said Helmes, who launched his first home construction business in 1999.

His business climbed steadily through the housing boom, then hit rock bottom in 2008.

“I don’t think anyone expected things to fall off the cliff like it did,” said Helmes, who turned to remodeling and managed to scrape enough capital together to purchase housing lots that by then were selling for about one-third of the price they had fetched at the height of the market.

His new company is now marketing homes priced between $180,000 and $400,000 in subdivisions in Vancouver, Hazel Dell and Washougal.

Helmes, who earned his real estate license during the downturn in order to sell his own products, said he is more optimistic than ever about signs the market is improving.

“We’re definitely in a better position than we’ve been in the last three years,” he said.

Quail Homes

A trip to the gas station in 2008 sparked the idea for a remake of Vancouver-based Quail Homes, said its owner, Jon Girod, who decided the new buyers’ market called for a fresh product to appeal to now cost-conscious consumers.

“People want to be engaged and involved,” said Girod, who estimates he is working 11-hour days, six-and-a-half days a week.

He tries to treat every potential buyer like royalty, said Girod, who still has fresh memories of the housing downturn.

“I was building 80 homes a year and then, the lights were turned off,” he said. “Now I think of this business as a startup because we’re starting all over again.”