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Garbett Homes on Cover of Builder Magazine

Great Projects Move Buyers Off the Fence

September 1st, 2008 Builder Magazine

Family Friendly: Townhomes and stacked courtyard flats with garages hidden from the street have appealed to young couples, young families, single women, and single moms.

A Utah builder's success boils down to a simple maxim: Stick with what you know.

Every week, thousands of moviegoers flock to the Megaplex 20 theater in South Jordan, Utah. When the lights dim, one of the first things they see, along with the previews, is an ad for Garbett Homes—a local builder that just happens to be releasing some nifty little homes across the street in the mixed-use neighborhood of Summerlane at The District.

Garbett's unorthodox direct-to-consumer strategy—one that marketing director Rene Oehlerking says is not so different from "selling an iPod or a shoe"—is a little quirky and has generated model traffic. But the builder's business strategy is conservative, and that's what's kept Garbett on solid ground, even in a downturn.

In a nutshell, owner Bryson Garbett specialized in small affordable when small affordable wasn't cool. During the boom, when other builders were gobbling up land to build starter castles, Garbett stuck with what he knew best—small, urban-style homes in the 'burbs—and focused on fine-tuning his pro forma. "The two areas where you can make buildings affordable is in the size of the home and the density," he says. The average density of a Garbett community is eight to 15 units per acre.

In The District, 64 units (about a quarter of phase one) were presold before the first homes were even framed. "We don't ever start a building until it is 50 percent sold. Usually, by the time a building is completed, it's sold out," says Garbett. "Right now we've sold about 75 percent of what we've started building."

—Jenny Sullivan