Business View Magazine | February 2018

62 63 $2.5million.That versatilitygives themawide custom- er base. Leveraging volume to get preferred pricing from tradesmen and vendors is beneficial for all concerned –the company,the vendors,and especially the home- owners,who ultimatelybenefit from lower home prices and better service.“Due to the fact that we’re the larger custombuilder in theAustin area,we can guarantee thema certain amount of work-and they can provide us with a little better price point on their products and services,”saysTilghman.“We prefer to partner with the vendors,rather than switchingACor plumbing companies on everyhome and trying to get the best bid but lose quality. “One of the reasons we have a great reputation in town is becausewe understand that homes are thou- sands of pieces put together.We’ve never built a home that doesn’t have some sort of small warranty itemwe need to take care of–having long-term relationships with vested partners helps us warranty those items easily.We keep an open and continuing relationship with our clients after theymove in.We take care of them.” andDriftwood.Alongwith theNalle brothers,10 full- time employees,including talented LeadArchitect,Carl Trominski,Head of Purchasing,Jason Ross,andHead Designer,MattWidmer,make up the in-house team. TheNalle brothers each have their own strengths and divvyup the company’s operations accordingly. Owen andTilghman take care of initial meetings,es- timating,and site evaluations on the front end.Owen also oversees the office and finances.Tilghman’s focus is newclients,bids,and plan design.Lee and Jesse focus onmanaging the construction andworkforce, andmaking sure projects go according to plan.Lee is head of construction and has four superintendents to helpmanage construction activities,while Jesse has an instinctive feel for the speculative side.About 80 per- cent of thework is customcontract,but the company still builds sixor seven speculative higher-end projects a year,usuallyon prime real estate the brothers find themselves. Nalle CustomHomes has great regard for local architectural firms.Tilghman says,“Often,a newclient has workedwith one of themon a set of plans,and we have the opportunity to build from those.That’s the traditional way to custombuild.Then,there is the design/build process where clients have purchased a piece of land and like the idea of architecture,inte- rior design and construction all in one firm.If a client comes inwithout a plan andwants us to be truly hands-on,theycanworkwith our interior designers in the selection phase,all theway through the architec- ture and construction team.” In theAustinmarket,manycompanies build either $1million or $500,000 homes,whereas,Nalle Custom Homes have price points from$500,000,right up to NALLE CUSTOM HOMES