Montileone fills starter home market

Owner Robert Montileone, who started building homes in 1989, stocked up on building permits, receiving 20 on April 4 and 29 on April 14, all for Mulberry Ridge subdivision. The permits were for homes in the subdivision’s second phase, with values ranging from $115,000 to $165,000.

“I did it before the impact fee went into effect,” Montileone said. “The lots were there. I was going to have to take out building permits anyway. I just took them out a little earlier than I would have.”

The homes are now at various stages of construction. “We’ve got 10 or 15 that we’re putting in foundations, we’ve got several more that we’re digging out for foundations, and we’re starting to frame them now,” Montileone said, adding that a few will be finished in early September.

At Mulberry Ridge – of which Montileone is developer – a $115,000 home is all brick on one level with three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a two-car garage. For $165,000, home buyers can expect a finished basement as well. Single level homes in Mulberry Ridge are 1,400 to 1,450 square feet and finished basement homes are 2,800 to 2,900 square feet.

Montileone skips swimming pools and basketball courts in most of his subdivisions. “In most subdivisions, because of the price range that I’m in, we don’t put in those types of amenities. We try to keep the price of the home as low as possible so more people can try to get into that price home,” he said.

He has tried to carve out a niche in the building industry by offering what he feels most people are looking for – three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a two-car garage – while keeping the price affordable. It seems he has filled that niche for many home buyers. Realtor Lisa Hester, part of Drexel Swanson’s team at Murney Associates, has sold homes built by Montileone for about four years. “I would say 95 percent of them are sold before they’re finished,” she said, adding that what the buyer gets for the price is the main selling point.

It’s hard to find a new starter home in this price range with three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a two-car garage, she said.

“They get a lot for what the price is,” Hester said. “For this price range, you don’t get all the fancy stuff like the cathedral ceilings and little plant ledges, but most people don’t want to pay $15,000 extra for that stuff.”

Mulberry Ridge is not the only subdivision Montileone is working on. Barrington Park is another.

Barrington Park’s eighth addition is under construction southwest of Springfield in Greene County. There will be about 300 houses at build-out, 200 are finished, and the eighth phase will have 40 houses. The homes range from $95,000 to $139,000.

Montileone purchased 40 lots in Walnut Creek subdivision in Nixa. He’s getting ready to start an 80-lot subdivision, Highland Meadows, in Republic, where homes will cost from $99,900 to $139,900. In Rogersville, Deerfield Park just received approval from the city. The subdivision will have 120 lots, and homes will cost $95,000 to $139,000. And Montileone is in the planning stages of a 400-home subdivision on West Sunshine. Montileone said that he usually builds 120 to 125 homes a year. “This year we look to surpass that,” he said, but he wasn’t sure of the total number of homes his company would complete in 2005.

Already this year, Montileone Development Co. has taken out 46 residential building permits in the city of Springfield, at least 17 in Nixa, and at least 49 were issued in Ozark in two days.

“My philosophy’s always been I don’t have to make as much per house, but I want to sell more than anybody else,” Montileone said. “The money’s from the volume rather than trying to make so much off anybody on one particular home.”

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