IBS: Class is in session
Education is at the forefront of this year’s National Association of Home Builders, or NAHB, International Builders’ Show in Orlando, Fla.
The event features more than 190 educational breakout sessions, offering a wave of information on green building, sustainability, sales and marketing, architectural design, community planning, business management, and innovation and technology.
“The show itself is really designed to help builders weather the downturn in the housing market and prepare for a market rebound,” said Michael Cobb, SVP education for the NAHB. “I’d also say that, frankly we want to enhance the level of professionalism within the industry.”
Cobb said of the approximately 65,000 show attendees, about 20,000 attend the educational sessions. And while green building sessions tend to draw the biggest numbers, sales and marketing sessions are second in popularity.
Cobb said that it’s common knowledge that the square footage of homes is dropping and that consumers want more for their money, and builders want to know how to best market those ideals to potential buyers.
“They’re looking for an understanding of what the preferences of the various consumer demographic levels would be,” he said.
According to Cobb, attendees have an average of 10 years in the industry, and much of the educational series is geared toward helping them improve certain aspects or shore up particular weaknesses in their companies. However, the show also features about 28 programs designated as core content (what the International Builders’ Show considers fundamental knowledge and skill sets for the building industry) aimed toward new builders.
One feature that tends to draw a crowd is The New American Home, or TNAH. Around 5,000 attendees walk the halls of the home each year.
The show is set to unveil the 28th installment of TNAH, which translates to more than just a model home for the latest and greatest in materials and building practices — it also serves as a good omen for the home-building industry overall.
For starters, they actually built one this year. Financial uncertainty in 2010 caused the backers to bow out, and the project wasn’t finished. This year the NAHB took a different approach, securing a buyer for the home and building to their specifications.
“It’s been a tough year for building in general and getting speculative loans and appraisals. We had an owner for the home, and it was a presale of the home,” said Alex Hannigan, chairman of the 2011 task force responsible for TNAH. “It made everybody’s life a little bit easier.”
The result was a much larger home than the NAHB would have normally built — just shy of 8,000 sq. ft. of air-conditioned space.
“It is sort of an innovative expression of all the latest and greatest products, and it is almost kind of a laboratory of new ideas and creativity in the residential field,” he said.
In keeping with increasing demand for energy- and resource-efficiency, TNAH 2011 was built to attain “Emerald” status of the National Green Building Standard (NGBS, ICC 700). The development of the standard was a collaborative effort of NAHB and the International Code Council. “Emerald” is the highest of the four levels of resource efficiency that the council recognizes.
“This is one place to go and see it all. It’s a composite of everything we do in the industry, and it’s all in a one-stop shop,” Hannigan said. “I hope that they take home from that home something that they have not been exposed to in the past, be that the architecture or the green-build aspect of it.”
According to Hannigan, the tour ends in the garage, where all of the products used to put the house together are displayed with information regarding the product and installation.
One of the biggest draws to the education series is the green building sessions. Kevin Morrow, the NAHB’s senior program manager for green building, said one of the biggest focuses this year will be the sessions devoted to the new National Green Building Standard.
“I think that’s something that every builder in this country should be aware of,” he said. “Just because it’s the first and it’s the only ANSI (American National Standard Institute) residential green building standard.”
Morrow said the standard allows for a myriad of options to be included, is applicable to every climate zone and applies to affordable houses all the way up to the highest-end custom home.
The sessions will also tackle some of the issues builders face in marketing green homes to buyers, who seem excited about the idea of green but lose momentum when they see the overall building price increasing.
“So whether or not it’s showing the way that sustainability is built in at a higher cost than they think, or what the down-the-road benefits are in terms of saving money on power and water use, how to communicate with and even find those consumers is an issue,” he said.
Another issue being addressed is the fact that green buildings are being built to a higher standard than the local codes require but aren’t necessarily being valued higher by lenders or appraisers. One breakout session called “Builders as Educators” hopes to aid builders in educating lenders and appraisers to the added value homes built to a higher green standard bring.
“When it comes time to finance a house, if it costs a little bit more, does that house have a higher inherent value? Our association believes that it does,” he said.
And while he was reluctant to place his finger on one specific new building practice or green product that he’s most excited about, Morrow said he’s happy to see the innovation of green building practices and innovation of green products year over year.
“There are many different ways to skin a building, as it were, so [it’s important to learn] about the various ways that walls can be constructed and ways that insulation can be inserted into those walls so that you have a home that’s both well insulated [and] well protected from the elements coming in, yet still allows the house the ability to breathe,” he said. e