A Conversation With ... Jason Bekebrede

When did you get into the home-building business?
I started building back in 2004, doing more (speculative) homes at that time. I worked my way into custom homes, and in the last few years, with the economy, I’ve been doing a lot more remodels than anything.

What’s an average price range for homes that you build, and how much of your business is remodeling now?
They’re usually between $300,000 and $500,000, though I have priced them at more than $1 million. Probably about 75 percent of (business) is remodeling now. I’ve typically always built in Springfield and the lake areas.

What types of remodeling do your customers want right now?
Bathrooms and kitchens are the big things, and what we have done more of than anything.

Updating is the big thing. A lot of the homes we’ve done are in the Southern Hills area, bringing them from the 1950s or ’60s pink tile to a more up-to-date, modern look.

Last year was the first year you were a vendor at the HBA Home Show. Why are you returning this year?
I think name recognition is the biggest (benefit) I see. I never went into it looking at it as, “I’m going to get six leads on new projects.”

I might get some good leads, but if nothing else, I get my name out there so that when people think of (building or remodeling), maybe they think of me, or if they see my name, it seems like they’ve seen it before.

Why did you decide to help with the “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” build in Joplin, and what did you do there?
After the Ash Grove (“Extreme” build) I kind of wished I had talked to (general contractor Sam Clifton) about getting involved in it. So when this one came about, and I heard right away that they were going to build seven homes, I e-mailed or called him right away, and told him I wanted to help.

I was one of the builders on the “bohemian” house. … The pickets on the porch are multicolored, and it has a lot of color to it. It was a lot of work, and different, but it was a lot of fun.

We had shifts of 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and 8 p.m. to 8 a.m., and I was on the night shift, but … I was probably there from about three in the afternoon to close to 8 in the morning or later, and then I’d go back to the hotel, sleep for a little bit and get going again. … The day of the reveal, we got to meet (the family receiving the home) and talk to them as we were going through the orchestration of the reveal, which took a lot longer than it shows on TV. It was probably two hours out there. Then the next day, at the press conference event, we talked to them a little more.

What is a key challenge facing your company and industry?
I think it’s foreclosures and the used-home market.

There are a lot of values still out there, and trying to compete with that. … There are some (deals) out there, but it’s not all that way.

What’s your outlook for 2012?
I think there will be more new home construction. I’ve been talking to four or five people about doing new homes throughout this year sometime.

I think people are starting to make that move … while the interest rates are low – and maybe they’ve been thinking about it for a while.
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