Nov. 17, 2006
Todd Wolff and Shane Pionkowski decide to enter the remodeling they had done on a town of West Bend home into Milwaukee Home & Fine Living magazine’s 2006 design competition because of a modest pride in their work.
“We saw last year’s issue and there were a lot of good homes in there,” Wolff said. “We thought we had a project of similar caliber.”
At the October awards luncheon at Delafield Inn in Oconomowoc, they had already won the gold for best kitchen design under $100,000 and best house remodeling over $100,000. The contest judges, all well-respected area architects, began describing the winner of a final category Wolff and Pionkowski had not entered — best in competition.
“They were describing the winning project without naming the project. We were kind of thinking, ‘I wonder what project that is,’” Wolff said. “Then after a while it was ‘Hmm, that kind of sounds like our project.’”
The other builders and architects, some of the best in southeastern Wisconsin, swarmed Wolff and Pionkowski with questions about their start-up homebuilding company, Highland Builders LLC.
“We got some cool initial response. I don’t think many people even knew who we were,” Pionkowski said. “That type of thing brings a young company credibility, pretty much instantly.”
They earn their credibility with homeowners by basically running their business well. Solid communication, meeting deadlines and staying on budget seem are simple practices the home-building industry has a developed a reputation for shrugging off.
“I had several builders that I met with that I liked, but you couldn’t even get a call back,” said Diane Sobotta, who hired Highland Builders to remodel her home. “Everyone always tells you have to go with a builder you can communicate with, that you hit it off with. These are guys that were never late for an appointment.”
Keeping communication strong and relationships unbroken helps business through word of mouth and name recognition, Pionkowski and Wolff said. Their type of value-added service also comes in handy in tighter markets, such as the recently slowed-down housing market. They said everything connected to homes slowed down for a while — they have three newly built in Jackson and West Bend still on the market — but now the market seems to be speeding back up.
Pionkowski and Wolff said their relationships with homeowners have extended well beyond project completion into long-term friendships. Wolff said they have kept in contact with their clients not only on building-related questions, but to congratulate milestones and offer prayer and encouragement during hard times.
“I could call them at any time of the day and they would take my call,” Sobotta said. “It’s not often that people could sit at a dinner with their builder and still be talking to them.”
Wolff said staying relatively small allows Highland Buidlers to give customers the individual attention they need. He might be picking out countertops with a client while Pionkowski is managing the construction of their home, Wolff said.
Their ultimate goal, they said, is to run a company which can support their growing families by building homes owners are “absolutely going to love.” Pionkowski had three children; Wolff has four, and they said they planned to stay in the community for the foreseeable future.
Wolff spent six years at the University of Minnesota earning degrees in architecture and construction management. An West Bend East High School graduate, he started a building and remodeling design company during summer breaks in West Bend.
Pionkowski is originally from the Stevens Point area and a Milwaukee School of Engineering graduate. He was working as a structural engineer, and Wolff as a construction manager, when their wives met at bible study.
Wolff designed a home for some friends, who then offered to hire Wolff and Pionkowski as builders.
“We had a nice solid job to start. Any time you start a business it’s a huge learning process the first couple of years,” Pionkowski said. “The problems that kind of got under your skin then aren’t a big deal anymore.”
Wolff said their previous architectural and engineering experiences prepared them for homebuilding. Designing and building a single home can be relaxing compared to the high-pressure construction of a multi-unit project for a large company.
“The level of intensity in those jobs has taught me anything we’re going to deal with is manageable,” Wolff said. “It helps to be able to ease any anxiousness the owners may have with our own calmness.”