Business View Magazine - March 2016

42 Business View Magazine - April 2016 Business View Magazine - April 2016 43 New Homes in North & South Carolina H&H Homes focused on expanding reach, building volume When they founded the company in 1991, Ralph and Linda Huff never imagined that they would be build- ing more than 450 homes in 70 plus communities throughout North and South Carolina. What they dreamed might be possible back then was that if their team worked hard enough to build the very best qual- ity homes they could, met the needs of their buyer, and maximized value by building them as efficiently as pos- sible; they might reach their goal to one day build 100 homes in the Fayetteville area. However, for those who know Ralph and Linda and the H&H Homes em- ployees they hire and surround themselves with, the growth is not surprising. Today, Ralph and Linda Huff are recognized in North Carolina as business leaders, community leaders, and philanthropists, having built more than 4000 homes and many other commercial and multi-family develop- ments. It is impossible to turn around in the Fayette- ville area and not see the impact the Huffs have had on this community. Building and land development was not the original plan, Ralph simply wanted to help homeowners find a place they could call their own. As a young man, Ralph focused on real estate, sell- ing homes for decades in the Fayetteville area to many of the 55 thousand soldiers and families stationed at nearby Fort Bragg. To him, he saw it as his responsi- bility to find the perfect home for so many of our na- tion’s heroes, who have to spend a great deal of time away from their loved ones. While he knew he could not do anything about the time they spent away, he could help them find the perfect home in which they could enjoy the time they did have to spend together. Working so closely with military families for almost two decades led to an awareness that a massive cadre of U.S. Army soldiers from nearby Fort Bragg would be en- tering the housing market upon returning home from the Persian Gulf conflict in the early 1990s, and there would not be enough homes for them to buy. He de- cided he would start a company to build the perfect homes for them. The company grew at a modest pace in and around the Fayetteville area during its ten years of operation, reaching 113 homes in 2002 by focusing on tract, custom homes and commercial buildings. While the housing market faltered nationally for much of the company’s second decade, U.S. involvement in glob- al conflicts and the enhanced importance of the Fort Bragg installation allowed H&H to maintain an annual rate of as many as 100-200 new homes. “What happens around military installations when there’s that kind of repeated deployment and rede- ployment home is that you’ve got a lot of soldiers who have had tax-free income and expendable income built up from savings and they’re ready to spend it,” said Jack Rostetter, Chief Executive Officer. “Many single soldiers spend it on cars and other luxury items, and many soldiers with growing families spend