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As the Atlanta home building market changes, the successful builder will be the one who notices a need and seeks to fill that gap. On today’s All About Real Estate segment of Atlanta Real Estate Forum Radio, Mike Shina with Solstice Housing Group talks with co-hosts Carol Morgan and Todd Schnick about his vision for new houses in Atlanta.
Shina starting flipping houses in 1994, then worked with commercial contractors, eventually moving into new residential construction in 2007. He started Solstice Housing Group to bring his vision for home building to Atlanta. He says he’s always been invested in “quality, efficiency and affordability,” but that recently, those ideals seem further out of reach for average Americans. He wants to make “well-designed, well-made homes available to more people.”
If that sounds like a pipe dream, Shina explains his method. “Design is how to get there.” By designing homes with a smaller footprint and subtracting rooms or concepts that simply aren’t relevant to today’s buyers, Shina can build more “manageable sized homes,” for around $250,000. His firm will build on buyers’ sites and is centering their efforts in northwest Atlanta, like Cobb, Cherokee and North Fulton counties.
Shina makes an interesting observation about two of the most discussed demographics, supported by his experience building in active adult communities. “Millennials and active adult builders want the same thing,” Shina says. People buying today want lower maintenance lifestyles, and they don’t need formal dining rooms or living rooms. Instead, they want flex space and open plans.
His interest in efficiency and green building is not diminished in his new venture, although he does suggest that when he began as an EarthCraft project manager, adding energy efficiency was optional, whereas now, many of those previously optional items are standard aspects of building codes. In this way, it’s become easier to build efficient homes.
Listen to today’s segment to learn more about Shina and visit him online.
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Atlanta Real Estate Forum Radio’s “All About Real Estate” segment airs on Fridays and highlights the movers and shakers in the Atlanta real estate industry – the home builders, developers, Realtors and suppliers working to provide the American dream for Atlantans. For more information on how you can be featured as a guest, contact us via the contact form on this site.
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