A Manhattan-based homebuilder has devised a business model that”™s a departure from a classic method of operation in the homebuilding industry. Instead of buying a large tract of land, subdividing it, installing infrastructure and then building model houses and other units on speculation, Welcome Homes lets the homeowner buy the lot in a subdivision from a third party then offers a customized product built around existing house plans accompanied by a variety of possible custom design elements. Further, the company encourages buyers to use the internet.
Welcome Homes was established by five co-founders: Alec Hartman; Ben Uretsky; Mitch Wainer; Marc Hartman and Jesse Mauro.
The company has jumped into the Westchester market by planning the build-out of a 13-lot subdivision on 3.2 acres in Northern Westchester. Welcome Homes doesn”™t own the land. Rather, the subdivision was created from the former Fieldstone Manor-Mohegan Mansion property on Strawberry Road in Mohegan Lake by owner Bill Catucci. The Fieldstone property comprises approximately 23 acres and a cluster development was approved for a portion of the property.
The company launched in October 2020 with $5.35 million in seed financing led by Global Founders Capital. It billed itself as the first fully-online home building, customization and purchasing experience, cutting by 50% to six months the time it takes to build and move into a dream home.
“People are desperately seeking new homes, but there hasn’t been a solution in the market that puts this within reach, so they’re settling for existing inventory on the market,” Alec Hartman said at the time.
Hartman explained that he was frustrated with the process of buying a house when he and his wife wanted to move with their infant from Manhattan to Long Island. He said while a real estate broker was telling him that every buyer needs to make compromises, he was wondering why he couldn”™t just go online and click a few buttons and have a house built that would give him what he really wanted.
A marketing partnership has been created between Welcome Homes, Catucci and real estate broker Cathy Duff-Poritzky of the Compass real estate brokerage offices in Yorktown Heights and Chappaqua. Buyers would work with Duff-Poritzky to purchase lots from Catucci on which they can have Welcome Homes build their new houses. The Welcome Homes website has a section describing the available lots at the subdivision in Mohegan Lake along with numerous other available lots in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. In addition, Welcome Homes offers to build on any suitable lot a would-be homeowner happens to own. The website also has pages that deal with subjects such as financing and home designs.
Benjie Burford, vice president of sales for Welcome Homes, told the Business Journal, “New construction is really out of the reach of most first-time buyers and a lot of repeat buyers because not only is it a higher cost in some cases but it”™s also a larger cost in time; you”™re spending a lot more time if you”™re doing the construction. By not carrying land inventory we”™re able to focus on the value composition of our homes and really focus on the buyer.”
Burford said that he knew Duff-Poritzky from having at one time worked at Compass.
“Cathy has actually represented some of our buyers that are actually buying our home model and are building in the Westchester County area,” Burford said.
“I”™ve been doing this for 34 years and have represented many other builders in Westchester,” Duff-Poritzky said. “We only started marketing this a week or two before Christmas. It”™s very difficult to find new construction anywhere, let alone Westchester, under $1 million and we are offering that so I think we”™re very competitive. We”™re starting at around the $900,000 range. It comes with such a complete package that you don”™t really have to get caught up in too many upgrades.”
On its website, Welcome Homes shows the Oasis 4 design home at $550,000 excluding land costs. The 2,970-square-foot home has four bedrooms and three baths.
Burford pointed out that many people are used to tract homes in new construction where what he termed “builder-grade” materials are used.
“Often in a spec home builders can”™t carry the inventory or spend all the money they need to spend to make it out of high-grade materials,” Burford said. “We have hardwood floors, solid-core doors throughout the home, custom-made cabinetry. In one model we start with Bosch appliances. In another model we start with GE Profile so we”™re always at the higher end that you normally wouldn”™t get in this type of house or this type of price.”
Burford said that Welcome Homes has built standalone houses in Hudson Valley communities including Cold Springs, Woodstock and Pleasantville and that would-be buyers have been looking for lots in Beacon, Greenwich, Rye and New Rochelle.
“We can go and do single homes but we”™ve always wanted to do a subdivision approach like this and this was the perfect one because we know people are looking in the area,” Burford said. “This was a natural evolution for us.”
Duff-Poritzky said that new construction is a comparatively small portion of her sales business because it”™s a comparatively small portion of the overall housing stock.
“I”™m excited about the entire subdivision here and I think while this is a fairly new concept it”™s catching on pretty quickly,” Duff-Poritzky said. “I have somebody right now who has reached out to us through the Fieldstone Manor project and they”™re looking at a property in Armonk because that property is a little better suited for their needs for commuting purposes but they still want Welcome Homes to build over there.”
Duff-Poritzky said her understanding is that for Westchester it will take about six years before housing supply catches up with housing demand.
“When we put on a home, we”™re still seeing multiple offers,” Duff-Ppritzky said. “January used to be a very quiet month in our business; it”™s been consistently busy. A home comes on the market, there”™s huge demand.”
Burford characterizes the market as being on fire.
“A lot of our demand is in Westchester,” Burford said. “I”™m impressed as a startup company to see the demand that we”™ve gotten.”
