by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
Building big homes has become a big remodeling business
“The market today is so crazy,” said Lauren Smith, the president of J.L. Smith Construction. “It used to be we were building homes $500,000 and up, but now we are doing a lot of remodels. The new houses we have seen recently were over $1 million, but we don’t put a price restriction. If you had 1,800 square feet and you wanted it built on your own lot, we don’t really put a restriction on the numbers. It just works out that our market usually starts around $500,000 and goes up.”
Lauren said the market is moving toward a lot more renovations.
“We do a lot more renovations than we did, so we are looking to pick up repair/maintenance jobs as well,” he said. “So, on the Realtor side, if there is someone who has a house with wood damage, termite damage or other damage, we are now able to look at that where in the past we wouldn’t have been able to be competitive.”
It’s no secret everyone is remodeling right now.
“We are doing major remodeling,” he said. “We are doing $300,000-500,000 remodels instead of $300,000-500,000 homes. We are also doing $7,000 bathroom renovations because they are available. There are a lot of smaller jobs available that people would not have done in 2005; they would have moved. Today, they can’t move, so they remodel.”
The business has many more Smiths than Lauren - it’s a true family gathering.
Diane, his wife, works on the interior décor side of the company, while daughter Vicki Schneller has been the office manager/interior finish scheduler for five years. Maria Smith, his sister-in-law, is the office administrator.
“I oversee the field, estimating, handle the money and supervise in the field if needed,” Lauren said. “I also deal with the customers and handle the marketing of the company. We get customers from referrals, advertising and our signs. We also have a lot of Realtors who send work our way.”
Why work with family?
“I feel blessed with my family,” he said. “One, there is a trust factor there. Two, they are working for me, but it’s still their business. It makes a stronger employee relationship down the line. It’s a family business.”
Vicki came to work with him because she just got tired of corporate America. She has a bachelor’s degree in marketing from the University of Florida. She also has interior design experience and her general contractor’s license, so she was a great asset to the company.
“She tried it, liked it and is very good at it,” he said. “She is good with the customers and she has the talent required to pull it off.”
Schneller said she enjoys working for her father.
“Ever since I was little I’ve always known I wanted to do things with houses, design and decorating,” she said. “When he decided to start a construction company I thought ‘Hey, you can’t have a better boss than your dad. It’s nice to be able to give everyone a hug every morning and trust that they are going to have your best interest at heart. I like working and it’s nice to know everything we do every day makes a difference for us.”
The company builds in Duval, St. Johns, Clay and sometimes Nassau. Communities they have built in include Marsh Landing Country Club, Rivertown, Jacksonville Golf and Country Club and Glen Kernan.
They build between five and eight homes a year.
“We are truly a custom homebuilder,” said Lauren. “Whatever you want, that’s what we do.”
He earned a degree in building construction from the University of Florida and a master’s degree in business from Jacksonville University.
After college he went to work for Meisner Marine, a heavy marine industrial contractor, for eight years. Then he went to work for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida and he did interior commercial construction for five years before moving on to First Union where he built banks for two years.
“That was fun,” he said. “It was a very good education.”
After banks, he went back to Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida for a while before starting his own company in 1996.
“It just seemed like there would be a market for someone who wanted to do it right,” he said. “We started doing custom homes and commercial, fully intending to do more commercial than custom homes. But, the custom homes kept paying the bills and the commercial did not. We hit the market right as it started to go up and big houses were very much in demand.”
Laurel said the company uses several different architects and subcontractors to get the job done, and is doing well despite the economy.
“Our dollar volume per year hasn’t changed that much, but we are building one or two big houses as opposed to four or five small houses,” he said. “The rich people are rich for a reason and they know now is the time to build a big house because prices are down. The other part of our market that we’ve had a big increase in, but has been smaller in dollar value, but larger in quality has been the remodels.”