How’s Your Business Doing? A Houzz Survey Shows a Positive Outlook

A recent Houzz survey of more than 6,500 home professionals found that 90 percent expect their business’ revenue to grow in 2014. In addition, 70 percent of the home builders, architects, remodelers, interior designers and landscape professionals surveyed said revenues grew for them in 2013 compared to the previous year.

“Certainly we think 2013 was a turning point, and 2014 is definitely a growth year,” says Clay Baker, a business developer and marketer at CJW Architecture in Portola Valley, California. He expects to see growth continue for the next two years, particularly in the San Francisco Bay Area, where his firm handles many high-end projects.


“A strong stock market drives homes; it’s that simple,” says Baker. He says a lot of residents in his area (near Facebook’s and Google’s headquarters) rely on investments in companies they’re backing or are employed at to purchase properties and buy homes, and that’s what’s now driving the uptick. Meanwhile, in places like Tahoe, California, where many Bay Area residents go on vacation, he expects to see a strong market over the next couple of years as people increasingly buy second homes.


In Woodside, California, where Baker’s company does work, a nearly nonexistent housing inventory is helping too. “There are only eight or nine homes for sale in Portola Valley,” he says. “There’s no inventory. No rentals. Combine that with great schools, a strong stock market and a strong Bay Area economy, and you get a perfect storm for a good construction and architecture market.”





Chad Boomgaarden, principal at Boomgaarden Architects, is seeing a similar environment in Chicago. Last year was record breaking for his 16-year-old firm. He attributes part of that growth to the fallout in 2007 and 2008, when a lot of local architects that hadn’t been established yet left the market. “After that the same amount of work fell to fewer architects. So year over year, we started taking on more projects,” he says.





While larger firms reported more growth — 80 percent of firms with more than six employees reported revenue growth for 2013 in the survey — sole proprietors fared well, too. About 64 percent said their revenue grew last year, while about 88 percent expect revenue to pick up this year.

Architect Eric Reinholdt owns a sole proprietorship in Maine and says that while his practice is located in a prime vacation home market — where he can sometimes be insulated from some of the broader market fluctuations — “the past few years have been slow for sure, even here.” He adds, “For my own practice, I would agree with the consensus and expect that 2014 will be an even better year than 2013. I’ve already seen an increase in inquiries and people evaluating properties locally, and this is while there’s still snow on the ground. That’s definitely encouraging.”


Landscape professionals reported experiencing one of the largest revenue increases — a 74 percent increase between 2012 and 2013. The American Society of Landscape Architects (different from landscape designers and contractors) echoes the Houzz survey in its fourth-quarter survey for 2013, which found that business conditions “remained stalled … but may be entering a turnaround.” While billable hours and inquiries for new work dipped during the fourth quarter, “about half of all firms indicated plans to hire in early 2014 — a sign they are expecting more work,” the society’s survey says.


“We’re staying cautiously optimistic,” says interior designer Heather Van Luchene, the founding principal at 13-year-old HVL Interiors in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

She says that because the economic downturn hit her region a little later than others, she’s had to stay flexible. Though her firm did see growth in 2013, and 2014 is looking to be strong, she says her company is more open to tackling hotel and small educational-institution projects in addition to high-end residential work.


Little Rock, Arkansas, home builder Rodney Chandler, owner of Icon Homes, remains cautious as well. “My crystal ball is not that big,” he says. “The reality is, it’s not a bad economy, but it’s not a great economy.”

Chandler prefers to stay focused on building good-quality homes and earning reasonable returns. “We’ve been consistent, but it’s not like the heydays of eight or 10 years ago,” he says. “We are very thankful of where we are today, but it’s hard to be overly zealous.”


Chandler says he’s changed his business model to take on more custom home projects and fewer speculative projects, because of what he sees as an inconsistent economic recovery. (In the Houzz survey, 69 percent of home professionals said they have taken on more diverse projects over the past two years.)

He tries not to get caught up in looking too far ahead, preferring to take a “rifle approach” and stay focused on his core business strategy. “You can pay attention to surveys, but you still have to be true to your core business,” he says. “If what you’re doing is working and giving reasonable return on capital, that’s success to me. We’d all like to get rich, but the reality is that it probably isn’t going to happen. Being able to afford to keep people working so they can take care of their families and still get a return on investment, that’s what fuels a strong economy.”


See the complete survey

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