Modern Home Builders: Offering a Life of Luxury
An incredible roller coaster ride. That is how Sherwin Loudermilk - founder and owner of Loudermilk Homes - quite accurately describes the last year. Modern Home Builders is pleased to spotlight this recognized leader in custom luxury home building in metro Atlanta and share insights on how he navigated through a global pandemic and economic uncertainty in 2020 and is now plotting a course for expansion in 2021 and beyond.
“At the beginning of 2020, we were riding a strong wave of growth and moving forward with a number of new projects,” Sherwin details. “Then, as we all now know, in March of last year the Covid-19 pandemic really began to take hold and we found ourselves having to look at how we could weather that storm, salvage as many projects as we could, and progressively source new opportunities.
Fortunately, our company is one that is very strong fiscally, we have great people within our organization, and our collective values of integrity and honesty meant that we knew that we would all be able to support one another during the most challenging of times.”
In the early days of the shutdown, some nervous homebuyers decided not to buy luxury homes after all. Millions of dollars of sales evaporated.
“It is not about how large can we grow in size, rather it is about how we can continue to deliver the exceptional levels of customer service that we do today. There is a unique term that we use, which we call ‘referenceability,’ which means if a client feels that we have done such a good job that they can refer us to a family member or friend, then that is our true marker of success.” —Sherwin Loudermilk
Cutting-edge technology
Loudermilk Homes applied for and received funds from the U.S. government-backed Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) designed to help small businesses like his withstand the uncertainty and disruption of the global pandemic shutdown. It was a calculated decision that helped Sherwin meet his pledge to employees to avoid layoffs.
By the summer of 2020, another completely unexpected thing happened — sales began to pick up at an incredible pace.
“What we saw in those few weeks was like nothing I personally had experienced before. Loudermilk Homes signed three new high-end luxury home contracts in a day, which was previously unheard of, and secured close to $20 million worth of business in a matter of weeks,” Sherwin reveals.
“At the time, we were trying to understand where this sudden surge in growth was coming from. It soon became clear that with lockdowns and social restrictions resulting in people staying in their homes for longer periods of time, this was creating a desire among homeowners to move to new properties or areas,” Sherwin continues.
Many families decided they simply wanted more space to accommodate virtual school and remote work, and they wanted to create recreational areas to play games and watch movies.
“Recent statistics even show that, for the first time in a decade, U.S. homebuyers have switched from downsizing to upsizing their homes. We have experienced this ourselves, with an increased demand for features such as dual offices, break spaces, larger play areas for children and so forth. A byproduct of this has been the excellent growth that we as a business have experienced in recent months, putting Loudermilk Homes on course for its best year ever in terms of revenue, and that is even with what was a three-month stoppage in the middle of 2020.”
Sherwin is well aware that every builder in the industry is different in the way that they operate and in how they project themselves. As a full-service design and luxury residential builder, Loudermilk Homes is proud to invest in cutting-edge technology that improves comfort in the home as well as the experience of designing and building it.
“When it comes to utilizing technology to provide what I like to think of as a ‘concierge’ service to our clients, I truly consider us to be amongst the very best builders in the United States,” he enthuses. “We use all manner of tools and apps to give clients the ability to watch their project come to life in real-time.
The level of transparency that we offer allows them to see daily logs with updates and photography such as the 2,000-plus pictures we take on average of each project throughout its duration. They can track any scheduling moves or delays, and monitor any inspections carried out by ourselves or by third party engineers. This degree of transparency and constant communication is massively appreciated by our clients, and always leads to the forming of close relationships due to how intimately involved we become with them.”
New development
The level of attention to detail and care taken with every Loudermilk Homes project has helped the company win numerous industry awards and accolades. Most recently, in October 2020, it picked up two OBIE Awards from the Greater Atlanta Home Builders Association — a pair of Gold Winner awards for custom luxury homes in the $2-3 million category, and the $3-4 million category. Both properties were designed and built in The Manor Golf & Country Club in Milton, just north of Atlanta.
“This is our third straight year of being recognized for these prestigious awards, and having stepped up our game even further since we will strive for further recognition both locally and nationally in the years to come,” Sherwin adds.
As for the present, Loudermilk Homes is thrilled to have recently broken ground on a new development in Milton called Von Lake Estates. There are nine 1+ acre lots on which the company will design and build European Modern-inspired ranch style homes, each with private gated driveways, 12-foot ceilings on the main level, grand gourmet kitchens, and unfinished basements.
“We are now in the process of building the first three of these high-end luxury ranch style homes, the likes of which there is nothing currently available anywhere in the area,” Sherwin details. “Starting at around the $1.2 million price range, these are highly sought after properties, which are already garnering an incredible amount of interest!”
Exceptional service
With its pipeline of work and client interest stronger now than at any point in its history, it is perhaps natural that Loudermilk Homes is eyeing further growth for 2021. In fact, in addition to its efforts in and around the metropolitan Atlanta area, the company is excited to expand into the Highlands and Cashiers area of North Carolina in the coming months.
“Following around nine months of research and planning, we have acquired 91-acre and 33-acre tracts of land to start two high-end luxury home developments,” Sherwin declares. “These are communities in the mountains of North Carolina which attract people from a number of neighboring states. We will be building the types of luxury high end homes that we have come to be known for.”
The future looks very bright indeed for Loudermilk Homes. Nevertheless, Sherwin remains committed to his original vision for the business: delivering the best customer experience in luxury home design and construction.
“For me, it is not about how large can we grow in size, rather it is about how we can continue to deliver the exceptional levels of customer service that we do today. There is a unique term that we use, which we call ‘referenceability,’ which means if a client feels that we have done such a good job that they can refer us to a family member or friend, then that is our true marker of success.
I never want us to lose sight of that, or lose the types of close relationship we forge between our clients and our people. Ultimately our own success will come down to how we treat both of these groups!”
