Business View - May 2015 45
“[It was] a stressful time, but we had to get creative
and find ways to get out of it,” Joshua Freed, president
of the company, explains.
Instead of simply declaring defeat and folding the
company, Element Residential started building homes
on the lots themselves. This would prove to be an ex-
cellent move on their part, as the act of cutting out the
middleman and going directly to the home buyers was
incredibly successful and allowed them to pay off their
bank loans.
Plus, as a result of the downturn, many properties
were going into foreclosure. Element Residential and
its investors were now able to purchase properties
through these channels, then move forward and build
the new homes.
“So we were able to build out of the downturn basi-
cally and grow a business through a difficult time when
three-quarters of the other builders were completely
out of business and bankrupt or whatever else may
have happened,” Freed says.
That is not to say that they faced zero challenges dur-
ing the downturn, but the full Element Residential
team—including both the company employees and the
trade partners—proved to be a rock solid partnership
through this period, which allowed the company to
grow and prosper.
One reason for this consistently sound partnership is
the simple fact that Element Residential and the trade
partners with whom they collaborate have always been
working towards the same vision. In fact, every year
they have a trade meeting, bringing the workers all to-
gether to ensure that everyone is on the same page.
What does this mean? People purchasing these prop-
erties can rest assured knowing that everyone working
on their homes are working as a part of a unified team
for the benefit of the buyer.
Plus, the company is specifically set up to be incredibly
collaborative, which means the loss of a member of
the team doesn’t mean the project is in danger. This
was a purposeful decision, as, as Freed explains, “If
I relied on one person too much for purchasing and
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