Lots of folks from Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Tucson have second homes in what Randy Sealover calls the “mountain oasis in the desert” of Flagstaff, a college town 7,000 feet above sea level. When they want to remodel or add on — or in one case, build a horse ranch — many of them turn to his company.
Mountain Country Builders is one of the few area remodelers to offer full design/build services, and perhaps the only one that is also a cabinet dealer. Sealover, his project developer, and his production manager can all write fixed-price estimates, and collectively they're achieving consistent profitability thanks to a revamping of the estimating process based on a laborious review of old job-costing data. One result: far less slippage of estimated to actual job costs.
Sealover belongs to a National Association of Home Builders 20 Club, considering it “by far the most beneficial thing I have done for my business.” That involvement has helped him to go open-book (all staff review full financials twice a year), which in turn has helped to develop a cohesive and committed team that sets and achieves goals together.
- Leah Thayer
