Lennar posted a gain for seven quarters. DR Horton, KB Home – doing fine. How many local builders do you know who are “doing fine?”

But let’s say you refuse to be weeded out. Fair enough. After all, you’ve worked too hard to give up. The local community knows and trusts you. You’ve earned your reputation with excellent service. You have a right to exist.

You’re a builder. So build. Maybe not homes or communities – at least not right now. Build PARTS of homes, a.k.a. rehabbing.

The people who trusted you to build great homes will also trust you to turn old interiors and floor plans into brand new ones, build additions and give tired kitchens, baths and basements a new lease on life.

There are no national rehab companies. Rehab is a local game. As a seasoned local builder, rehabbing is well within your ability. You just need to rehab you business model a little, so you can weather the storm.

When the market recovers, your name will have endured because you never stopped building lifestyles. You’ll go back to homebuilding but with an increased sphere of local influence.

Consider that 90% of the NAHB is made up of homebuilders who build only ten homes or less, annually. Small, local builders are in the vast majority. Let’s keep it that way. Weather the storm any way you can.

Rehabbing is merely one option for local and regional builders intent on keeping their name alive no matter what. For more options, contact us.

– Garrison Insider

Many of the sound bites involve the accurate (but not-so-original) notion that the economy is bad…and it will be slow to recover.

I have respect for the experts quoted – their perspectives are valuable to all of us. But somehow the tenor of Rodkin’s compilation reminded me of how much my team and I bristle at the constant repackaging of negative information.

Exchanging factoids about just how “bad,” things are has become a guilty pleasure for many in real estate, and possibly an unproductive one.

Here’s one (I can’t resist):

There were fewer permits to build new homes in the eight-county metropolitan area this year than permits issued for Will County alone in 2005.

Wow. Another way to meditate on how “bad” things are – by way of comparing everything to Will County in ‘05. I could give you hundreds more like that – but I don’t see the point.

There’s nothing better than awareness. Knowledge is power. But when we obsessively gaze at things through the most disturbing lenses possible, we’re doing it to build a case for inaction, or to paint ourselves as victims. We’re venting when we should be invented. Here’s another:

In 2009…

…foreclosures, short sales, and bank-owned sales made up 40 percent of sales of single-family homes and 24 percent of condos…

Yikes! What do you DO with that information? (Aside from saying “yikes.”)

Here’s what you do: keep it productive. Let it guide your business decisions. Let it direct the relationships you forge with lenders. Let it lead you to new opportunities.

Don’t fall into the trap of using statistics to build a case for you to feel powerless. That’s the enemy of progress in real estate.

I saw a brilliant billboard on the Kennedy Expressway this week. It said: “Recession 101: Bill Gates started Microsoft during a recession.”

Amen to that. Try to see the tremendous opportunity between the lines. If you don’t, someone else sitting next to you at the forecast panel will.

There are opportunities, there are answers, there is hope. That’s the attitude that made ‘09 a fantastic year for Garrison Partners and our clients. It can work for you, too.

For concrete techniques to improve your outcome in 2010, read the new Garrison Insider entry slated for this Monday: “Top Five Ways To Make Your Lender Your Partner.”

GB