History of Landmark Home and Land Company

What this episode covers

Show Notes: History of Landmark Home and Land Company.  The desire to design a custom home specifically for each customer’s needs and building site. Custom plans for lifestyle and building sites.  Review of Landmark Home and Land Company’s reputation for exceptional customer service. Transcript: Interviewer: Hey everyone, and welcome to Episode 36 of the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show. With me in our studio is the President and Founder of Landmark Home and Land Company, a company which has been helping people build their new homes where they want exactly as they want across the nation and worldwide since 1993, Steve Tuma. Steve, how are you doing? Steve Landmark: Hey, it’s always good. We are having a great day and again, a busy day working at some cool projects. Interviewer: Good. Well today, I thought we do something special and talk about the history of Landmark Home and Land Company, the early days of the company way back in 1993 and before and how things went from the ground floor to the success you’ve seen over the years with panelized home building and all the way to where Landmark is now and where you plan on taking it. So let’s start with the early days. The company is actually a family venture I believe, is it not? Steve Tuma: Right. My brother and I, Mike, started the company in I believe October 13, 1993. It was an idea that we developed as we realized that people were renting homes for a long time and not moving out of them or they’re always planning on getting a home, doing something, but for some reason they didn’t. So we are trying to figure out why. Sometimes they thought they were going to move, a lot of it was they couldn’t find what they wanted and some of these older communities or rural communities or even in metropolitan areas are – there just weren’t houses that they wanted. So the motivation wasn’t always there to move. So what we did is we started helping the people develop the process so that they could go get a house using modular systems. And what we eventually found is at that time the quality wasn’t there. Much less you couldn’t really get the person the house they wanted. So a price might be OK. The quality wasn’t where it should be, but they couldn’t get the house that they wanted. It’s kind of like a car, just pick a car. Which one do you want? You can’t really do any changes to it. Interviewer: Right. Steve Tuma: So what we evolved into was let’s sort out a way where these people could build a house that they wanted. So we figured a system out with the panelization system and working with owner/builders, we determined that this gives the people the flexibility if they want to be involved with the building, know the quality of the home, make it the way they want, put finishes in the way they want, and then also take advantage of the labor that they can provide themselves or friends and family or opportunities that they can develop by getting materials in different ways. They were able to control the cost. And what we noticed from that is there was a higher level of satisfaction. It’s basically they were getting what they wanted. Interviewer: Right. Steve Tuma: So Mike and I just worked regionally in the Midwest and it has spread around and then a customer called and said, “Hey, can you help my brother in California?” Someone else said, “Can you help a friend in Florida?” So we grew to a nationwide opportunity so we were then able to help people design their homes. Now obviously, you get in different areas, Florida, California, Colorado, New York, there are different concerns, different snow loads, different wind speeds with hurricanes, earthquakes, different soil conditions. So that’s when we started providing a higher level of architectural services and structural engineering so that we can then go through and make sure that the people are able to get permits where they want to build because there’s a lot of...