Featured Builder: Arthur Rutenberg Homes

August 31, 2018

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For Northeast Florida home buyers seeking nothing less than refined luxury and exceptional craftsmanship, Arthur Rutenberg Homes (ARH) is widely considered to be the builder of choice.

 

 

Local ARH franchisee Mark Refosco has cultivated this reputation, having grown the company to become one of the area’s largest luxury home builders with a presence in more than 20 First Coast neighborhoods (and more coming soon). In fact, the franchise, Marcus Allen Homes, was distinguished by ARH as Builder of the Year in 2010, and again in 2014.

 

Mark boasts a solid background in architecture and engineering as well as a refreshing passion for delivering unwavering quality in custom design to each home buyer. His company reflects this passion in each of its 100+ luxury home plans. Seamless indoor-outdoor spaces and attention to every detail are hallmarks of ARH design.

 

We recently caught up with Mark to learn about his franchise and some exciting new projects in the works.

 

How long have you been an Arthur Rutenberg franchisee? I started my franchise in January of 2001.  My first model was built in The King & Bear.  We have been building in Duval, Clay and St. Johns Counties, and last year expanded our operational footprint to include Flagler County.

 

What initially drew you to the Arthur Rutenberg brand?  Arthur Rutenberg Homes is an architecturally driven company. We are regarded in the industry as continuing with our cutting edge home designs.  We’re often imitated but the knockoffs miss many of the details that separate the real deal from the look-a-like.

 

What sets Arthur Rutenberg apart from other builders?  As a member of a franchise group, we have greater buying power, better and more diverse architectural offerings, better processes and benefit from the sharing of best practices among our ARH colleagues. More than sixty percent of products people buy today are from franchised businesses. Typically, a franchised product is more cost effective due to a broad sharing of resources and refinement.

 

What is your favorite Arthur Rutenberg home plan? My personal home.  Like all of the homes we build for our buyers, we started with a standard ARH plan and modified it to our individual tastes and requirements.  We’ve lived in it for just over three years and love it more every day.  Big open spaces, lots of glass, great for entertaining friends and family and energy efficient.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What does Arthur Rutenberg have coming in the pipeline?  We continue to sell Palencia from our exciting, new and hugely popular Bermuda model.  There are still over 70 lots available in Palencia and it is becoming an even better location with the opening of the new Publix in a couple of months. 

 

If you haven’t seen Markland lately, you should. The second phase is developed and we are the exclusive builder of the lake to preserve lots at the southern (and much more private) section of Markland, which is called Wolfe Pointe at Markland. We continue to sell from our first model, but our new model will open to great fanfare in November. 

 

EvenTide on Ponte Vedra Boulevard in Ponte Vedra Beach is our newest community.  It features 23 home sites with deeded beach access.  Our model is currently in frame stage and will be just over 4,700 square feet with the typical outdoor living package including a pool, spa, fire pit and outdoor kitchen.  This model will be in the $1.8M range but lot home packages will start around $1.3M. 

 

Coming soon is a yet to be named community in Ponte Vedra Beach located on Solana Road just east of the entrance to Marsh Landing. This community will feature 20 home sites and pricing will range from the $900K’s to $1.5M. 

 

In Palm Coast, we have a new model opening in October in a community called Seaside Landings.  Seaside Landings offers canal to intracoastal lots with lot house packages starting in the high $400K range.  We will start a second model in Palm Coast located directly on the scenic portion of A1A, which we will use to market to the many developed lots in various Palm Coast communities. 

 

Of course, we always enjoy building on lots outside of our communities, which is typically more than fifty percent of our business.  Come see us!  If you have a lot let’s build on it!  If you need a lot, let’s find one together!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Check out ARH’s stunning home plans, and contact Mark and his team, by visiting ArthurRutenbergHomes.com/builders/MarcusAllenHomes.

Jacksonville Real Estate Trends in July continue to show positive trends!

August 29, 2018

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The Northeast Florida Association of Realtors market stats for July continue to show positive trends. Year to date new listings are up, pending sales are up, closed sales are on track with last year, days on market are down, and prices continue to rise.

 

We have been talking about the small amount of homes available for sale for months, so it is nice to see new listings up 18% over last July and 9% year to date. There were 9,088 homes for sale in July which is down less than 1% from last July.

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Davidson partners with Habitat for Humanity on new St. Augustine neighborhood

August 28, 2018

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We are pleased to announce Davidson’s partnership with Habitat for Humanity of St. Augustine / St. Johns County on the housing nonprofit’s newest West St. Augustine neighborhood called Canopy Oaks.

 

The neighborhood is being developed on the former Dancy Tract off of Broach Street, between Volusia Street and St. Johns Street in the West Augustine Economic Development and Community Redevelopment Area, a few blocks north of W. King Street.

 

Davidson signed on in February 2015 to provide site planning, site design and project programming on a pro-bono basis. We worked in close concert to represent the project before the County Commission and the County’s Development Review Committee. Our development team incorporated the civil engineering efforts of Matthews Design and together, secured the necessary preliminary zoning and site plan approvals.

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Michelle Sapp joins Davidson Realty’s sales team

August 27, 2018

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We recently welcomed Michelle Sapp to our fantastic team of real estate agents! Michelle is a long-time Jacksonvillian with a diverse professional background.

 

“Michelle has lived on the First Coast for many years and has a solid understanding of the local market. She is also focused on creating a stellar customer experience,” said Sherry Davidson, President of Davidson Realty.

 

Michelle originates from South Carolina where she earned degree in business administration from the University of South Carolina at Aiken. She relocated to Jacksonville 23 years ago. Michelle’s career has included accounting, finance and retail. She is also an active volunteer with Ronald McDonald House and Wolfson Children’s Hospital.

 

In her free time, Michelle enjoys the beach, boating and spending time with family and friends. She and her husband have two grown children.

 

Michelle works out of Davidson’s headquarters in World Golf Village.

 

Welcome to Davidson, Michelle!

Flood Insurance – A Changing Landscape

August 22, 2018

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Posted by in News

The National Flood Insurance Program operated by FEMA, currently owes

the U.S. Treasury over $25B and the debt is growing. Here in Northeast

Florida we are seeing the threat of flood increase from the density of

population near the shore, a rising river and storms moving closer to us.

The NFIP continues to receive legislative extensions with rates and

surcharges routinely tacked on. Sooner or later we can expect this program

to hit the wall and incur a major renovation in order to survive. Fortunately,

private insurance carriers have taken notice of these events and they are

beginning to take action.

 

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