Article Cites Design Program Reason for Success

‘Builder of the Year’ credits design program for success

BY ASHLEIGH WHALEY
HIGHLAND LAKES NEWSPAPERS

January 5, 2010

Shan Jenkins, owner of Jenkins Custom Homes,who was recently named 2009 Custom Home Builder of the Year by the Texas Association of Builders, said his company’s in-house design program has been the secret to success.

At the Building Industry Association of the Highland Lakes’ 2009 Parade Home Tour, Jenkins Custom Homes swept all the People’s Choice Awards, including “Best of Parade” for a home in Skywater Over Horseshoe Bay. Jenkins Custom Homes received similar sweeping honors six months later, winning eight Star Awards at the Texas Association of Builders’ 2009 banquet, held in November at the Gaylord Texan Hotel & Convention Center in Grapevine.

“I guess the secret to our success is our design program,” said Jenkins, of Lakeway. “When you can provide both design and construction all in-house, clients know what the end product will cost from the very beginning, which I think is appealing to most people.”

The TAB also awarded Jenkins with Best Custom Home and Best Architectural Design for his home design in Skywater, which offers panoramic views of the golf course and Texas Hill Country. According to a September Skywater Management LLC press release, the Skywater community will feature 1,200 sites for single-family homes, villas and condominiums and maintain “stringent architectural standards,” restricting homes to five styles—Mission-Santa Fe, Mission-Spanish Hacienda, Mediterranean, Hill Country-Contemporary or Hill Country-Germanic. “I think it’s just the uniqueness of the design, how it functions on the lot and meets the lifestyle requirements of the home owners,” Jenkins said of the award-winning Skywater home. “ Utilizing the Lifestyle Analysis© program was key to his company’s success in 2009, he said.

“We guarantee our cost, plus or minus 5 percent, from the conceptual stage,” he said. “We have an interactive questionnaire we go through with clients that we call the Lifestyle Analysis©, trademarked to us, that works really well.”  For a small fee, Jenkins spends two to three hours with clients to complete the Lifestyle Analysis©, and the clients leave with a conceptual design and cost estimate, he said.

“The (Custom Builder of the Year) award goes to the Texas homebuilder who best displays excellence in areas such as design, construction, industry leadership and community altruism,” according to a statement released by the TAB. “Jenkins demonstrates all the qualities the Texas Association of Builders seeks in industry and community involvement.”

Jenkins, who has been a custom home builder since 1992, said he accepted his Star Awards in person. Jenkins serves as president of the Lakeway chapter of the Home Builders Association of Austin and as host to the national Custom Home Builder’s Symposium tour. Jenkins said he has built five or six homes in the Horseshoe Bay/Marble Falls area and is planning to build more.

“We’re building one in Applehead Island in Horseshoe Bay, which is under construction, and have one we will start in February in the Trails of Horseshoe Bay on Lake LBJ.”