Seattle to Phoenix? Framing contracting company wants to relocate... (Tucson: best neighborhoods, sales)

[peaseblossom]

SO....this is my first thread on a page like this. The reason for the post is my dh and I live in Renton Washington...near Bellevue an Seattle. We own and operate a small residential framing company. For those of you not privy to the home building process....we do the rough wood frame of the house. It has been a fairly good living for us here as I am able to now stay home with our 9 month old daughter. HOWEVER.....I lived in Phx for two years when I was a kid.....I LOVE the sun. I miss the sun....My husband works out in the rain every day (well it doesn't rain EVERY day) He has found that after 10 years of doing his trade...in the mud, snow,and dark(in the am winters) He seriously wouldn't mind working in the heat. I say it is like picking your poison...he thinks heat is a better one I guess. I think the culture in Seattle is fantastic. I lived downtown for two years, enjoyed being young and single and able to walk (when its not raining sideways up your umbrella) to most places you usually drive to in the burbs. However, I live in Renton now (the burbs) and if you don't live in downtown, you don't get to reap the rewards of Seattles great offerings on a regular basis. Your just another American going to work every day....driving in a awful I-405 commute.....in the dreary, depressing rain. It wears on most ppl here. Everyone talks up the summers...but this summer lasted...hmmm..maybe 3 months? November was the rainest month EVER....some ridic amount of rain!! Basically we moved to Florida in 2004...hated the humidity...came back for $$$$.



So....after all that my questions are:

Describe the construction industry in Phx....
Do small sub contracting companies make similar $$ as Seattle??
Do ppl laborer all year round?
DO "good ol white boys" make it here? Or is over run with Illegal alien laborer? (sry I know that is not PC.....but I need to know!!)



Thanks

[MotleyCrew]

I think that building here is still going strong. New home construction is chugging along, not sure about custom homes. My husband and I have learned after moving to new areas twice in our lives, that there is a certain amount of pain and suffering when starting a business over that you can not avoid. My husband is an architect and I have to say that the move here has been so much more plesant than the other big move we made. I don't know what framers make in Seatle so I can't comment. We have a huge number of mexican laborers, both licensed and unlicensed, but I dont see that as a deterent to you finding work. You will probably end up hiring a few if you need extra help. You might contact some of the medium/ small custom home builders and inquire if they might be interested in seeing some photos of your work. If you have a list of references all the better. It might be worth a trip over for a few weeks to see the different areas. Good luck to you.

Oh, yes we do build all year long. The work hours change in the summer months. Where we lived before, the seasons were winter and build!

[peaseblossom]

Thanks for the reply Jill...on that note, what part of Phx is good? I know good is subjective....so...you know,..the basics all families want. Safe, clean,good schools, good grocery shopping, no SCARY 7-11's er Circle K's, and a decent commute time. Just a good environment!!We are really in the beginning stages of looking so we are open to everywhere around middle to southern Arizona! We kinda want the whole sunny package!

[Afterburn]

My husband works for a semi-custom homebuilder here as a senior project manager, has been in construction almost 30 years (15 of them here), so I know a little bit about this. I'll see if I can address some of your questions:

When you say you want to relocate your husband's framing business, does that mean you will relocate his current employees as well? Or is he a one-man operation? If he's just one guy, and doesn't plan on hiring at least 3 or 4 framers full time, he won't get business here - not in production building, and not in custom. Maybe on small remodels though. At the building pace required here, you have to have a framing crew already in place or the builders won't contract with you. And there are large framing companies here (Pratte, Shuck, Younger Brothers, etc.) who get the bulk of the work - they have their own trucks they issue, and rarely sub out to guys like your husband - and only if they are busy, and only IF he has a reliable crew, trucks, tools, generators, etc. And he will need a license too as the owner of a company, as well as insurance. I think it's a B-1 license? Check with the Arizona Registrar of Contractors for framing contractors requirements. Their website is pretty informative. Don't know if they "reciprocate" on out-of-state licenses.

As far as "illegals" - the construction industry is notorious for this, but bottom line is - SOMEONE has to have the license, and they usually work for this person, who is ultimately responsible for the end product. If your husband wants to go this way, he MUST speak Spanish or there will be no communication between what he wants and what they want to do.

Could your husband even find framers here to hire? It would be hard unless he offers excellent pay and benefits like the big framing companies do. It's a slow job market right now in construction. I know that seems weird to say with all the building going on here, but it's nothing like it was a few years ago. Go on-line to read the Arizona Republic, our major newspaper here. The Sunday ads are the employment ads. Look under "Construction" and "Trades" categories - that will show you the types of jobs that are available in the construction industry. Know that up until last summer, for the past 4 or 5 years, the Trades category took up 2 or 3 full pages, now it's just a few columns. Also, the bulk of new-home construction is in the outlying areas, and the commutes are awful if you don't end up living out that way. Plus, builders will expect you to drive to wherever their subdivisions are, and the larger builders have them all over the outlying areas concurrently, so the commute could be 70+ miles, one way, depending on where you end up living.

My suggestion is this - come out here for a week, and he can visit jobsites and see what's going on, talk to project superintendents at various subdivisions. This will also give him/you an idea of what new homes are going for here as you can also stop into the sales office for a price list. In construction, you can work here year-round because of the weather, but his first few summers here, framing, will be killers. He will have to acclimate to the heat. In sumer, the framers here start at sunrise, and work til about 1 or 2 p.m.

Hope this helps.

[peaseblossom]

Thank you...that helps VERY much. No it will be "just " us moving, so we would have to def. hire out....hard thou b/c we are small and can't offer benifits or many BIG perks quite yet. It sounds like, from your post, there isn't really room for "the little guys" there. Is that true? In Washington, most framing goes up by little family owned businesses. I never though about the spanish angle, and that could be a HUGE conflict....hmmm...I wonder if dh could learn spanish in 6 months...hehe.

He actually doesn't want to be framing his whole life away. It is hard work, and he really wants to get into the managment or super. side of construction. However,it seems it is a lot of who you know kinda thing. He has been in his field for over 10 years and obviously knows how to run his show, but were not really sure how to get our foot in the door to another profession. How do you get started in project managemnt and is there a need for that in AZ???

We are also liking the Tucson area...any thoughts on that? Is there building going on there? It is less populated, but obviously with that comes problems for ppl in contruction.

[Dave05]

I have been recruiting people from all over the country and Tucson has a much smaller market than PHX. We build in the $500-$1200 SF ultra luxury home market and it has been very, very difficult to find truly skilled supers and foreman here, I initially recruited supers from the big boys and the high turn over rates and low skill standards hurt us badly.
As for framers we hired a 9 year framing superintendent away from Younger Bros and he was well below the "normal" experience level we would expect.
Skilled framers and crews are in very short supply here and for skilled persons the true custom home market is stronger currently than in any other area of the country.

Spanish is an absolute for a foreman, super, or PM. The licensing requirements here are basic/silly-simple and anyone with a basic understanding and minimal experience can obtain a contractors license as their are no education or long-term experience requirements.

The best neighborhoods/areas to look for are N. Scottsdale, Cave Creek, Paradise Valley, Fountain Hills, and to a lesser extent Anthem. Steady work for good framers is a given currently, we work in Desert Mountain, Mirabel, Silver Leaf, Estancia, PV, and Fountain Hills. There is far more true custom home work than trades who really have the skill to do the work and we like our competitors have to wait and share good subs.

[peaseblossom]

Thanks for the reply Dave. My dh would definately need to learn spanish, but he prides himself in being one of the best tradesman/managers in his field. What do you think the best way to connect with ppl that are in need of someone with my dh's experience would be ?
We are very open to any proffitable/safe areas in the az area. We have looked into websites like Monster.com and other similar sites for employment opps, but my dh's usual route of obtaining jobs is word of mouth. If you do a good job, builders want to keep you around, and that is how we find our work.

[MotleyCrew]

My daughters ended up going to work for a big builder here after graduating. One is a construction manager. She did not speak any spanish when they hired her, but it only took her a few months to learn how to communicate what she needed. The framers taught her most of what she has learned. There is usually someone that speaks enough english on site to translate if needed. Come and check out AZ!

[Afterburn]

I agree with Dave05. If your husband can get in, framing the customs is the way to go, and if he builds a reputation, he will have work for quite a long time. I can only suggest that your husband contact the various custom builders here, and see what they require, or what they are looking for. There are also various builders organizations throughout the state. Maybe he can research those?

I can't address your husband's ultimate intent of going into construction management - each company requires different years of experience, knowledge levels, some require degress in construction managerment, whatever. I do know that alot of companies now require not only their management, but also the field personnel to have good computer abilities (that's big here now).

But I reiterate this - you guys need to make a trip here, he needs to have some pre-set appointments with various builders, and after that, he can make the determination if this job market will support his talents. It may be that he may have to go to work for one of the framing companies here just for a little while, to see how his profession operates here. Or he may luck out and connect with a homebuilder who recognizes his talents and motivation, and will offer accordingly.

I also suggest your husband review the licensing requirements here via the Arizona Registrar of Contractors website. I personally don't know if the test is easy or hard, but I do know the fee is over a $1000 - least that's what we paid 15 years ago for a general contractors license.

Don't know anything about the Tucson job market you asked about. I think there's a Tucson section on the AZ menu on this site.

Good luck!

[Trishizzle1014]

hey if u are making it there and are happy dont jeoperdize that i moved from iowa recently same trade and the mexicans are working for less money therfore that is who is getting the work