Building Legacies

Working together as a family can have its difficulties. After all, it’s easier to let the emotions fly when your boss or your partner is a parent or sibling. But as these second- and third-generation homebuilders attest, the rewards can be unbeatable. No one cares more about upholding the name on the company sign than family. “You couldn’t ask for a more dedicated person than a family member,” says Jim McNulty, who co-owns McNulty Construction in Minneapolis with his brother Timothy. “If you’re going to turn some of your work over to someone else when you’re out of town, you know it’s in good hands because they tend to care about it the same way you do.”

Boyer Building Corporation
You might say that building homes is in the Boyer family blood: Joe Sr. constructed buildings on his Minnesota farm in the 1930s, then worked as a shipbuilder in Seattle; Joe Jr. served in the construction battalion in the Navy during World War II, then worked as a carpenter after the war and started his own company, Joe Boyer Builder Contractor. Each of Joe’s five sons are in the home-building business.

“(Joe Jr.) always felt that you needed a trade to fall back on, no matter what your professional career,” says John Boyer, the fourth-oldest child and the third of the Boyer sons. So, while not all the boys intended to work in the family business, they all became experienced carpenters. Pete Boyer, the oldest son, started his own company, Peter Boyer Construction, and the other four sons worked for Joe Jr. until after his retirement and are now partners in the business, which they renamed Boyer Building Corporation.

While Joe Sr. and Joe Jr. weren’t big on talk, the boys witnessed their strong work ethics, like getting the job done right the first time, and being honest and upfront with customers. These are the values they’ve incorporated into their own company. 

The key to running a successful family business, John says, is for each member to have his own area of expertise. “That way, we’re not looking over each other’s shoulders,” says John. Finding the right balance is the key to making a family business work, especially when everyone is pulling for an identical outcome—a successful business. “You’ve always got someone you can rely on who isn’t just motivated by getting a paycheck,” John says.

L. Cramer Designers & Builders
At L. Cramer Designers & Builders in Edina, the survival instincts that helped owner Larry Cramer succeed in a tough business twenty-seven years ago translate into building high-quality upper-end homes that are as unique as each of his clients. “It’s a process of developing the relationship, getting to know the client and what they’re looking for,” says Jennifer Cramer-Miller, Larry’s daughter and vice president of sales and marketing at L. Cramer Designers & Builders. The company builds an average of ten custom homes a year in the western suburbs. About 25 percent of their business is in high-end remodeling.

Since the beginning of his building career, Larry has applied his motto of “Apart from the ordinary” both in his home design and his relationship with his clients. L. Cramer Designers & Builders pride themselves on being trendsetters, offering what’s new and exciting and departing from what’s become common. It’s a philosophy that Jennifer shares and works into her design work with the clients.

Jennifer also attributes the success of the business to Larry’s high standards of customer service. As a testament to this, many of Larry’s clients have built multiple homes through L. Cramer Designers & Builders. In fact, Larry has even built the homes of some of his clients’ children. “He’s always focusing more on what’s fair to the client, even though it gets our accountants’ attention sometimes. He’s more interested in the perspective of the client than a nickel or a dime,” Jennifer says. 

Gorham Builders, Inc.
Gary and Chris Gorham retired from building homes in 2002, but they live in one of the Gorham Builders, Inc., neighborhoods developed by their children and frequently stroll through the newly constructed projects—not to critique the work, but rather out of curiosity and enjoyment. Stepping back and letting the next generation do their work is essential to making a family business successful, Gary says. “When you adhere to that rule and they know you’re not second-guessing them, then it’s got to make their life easier,” he says.

Lisa DuFault, Gary and Chris’s daughter, says each family member brings a different strength to the business that complements one another. Mike Gorham, who is more hands-on and construction-knowledgeable, works with the subcontractors, while Lisa enjoys the business details, tasks she took over from Chris. Gary still consults on land development and construction. “The second generation needs to be a part of the business long before the succession takes place, and that way they can see firsthand what to expect. They see the good and the rewarding times, but they also can see all the hard decisions that need to be made and the long hours that go into running any type of family business,” Gary says.

Growing up, Lisa and Mike helped do odd jobs, and both knew joining the family business after college was an option they could choose. “They trusted us in what we did and we learned from our own mistakes,” Mike says. “There was a lot more freedom to do it our own way and learn it our way.”

Better Living Homes By Harstad
Forrest Harstad contends that it’s more politically correct to say his parents started their company together, but it was his mother’s drive that was behind their first single-family home development project forty-six years ago.

Diane Harstad, who passed away in 2004 at seventy-six years old, was a writer, interior designer, realtor, and, ultimately, general contractor. She received her real estate license and sold the first house she ever showed while her husband, Keith, was in law school. “At that point, it was a whirlwind,” Forrest says. Keith soon joined the business, which they called Harstad-Todd Construction.

Forrest, one of four Harstad children—all of whom had some involvement in the family company—now runs Better Living Homes by Harstad. His parents’ vision, one that Forrest has adopted, was building the value-engineered single-family home. In other words, build the most home for the money without compromising lasting resale value or the design of the floor plan. Forrest builds about forty attached and detached townhomes a year in St. Michael using the same cost-effective craftsmanship. “I build cost-efficient floor plans of excellent design and high quality, but such that we aren’t paying for over-priced design or for over-engineering,” says Forrest.

Identifying and matching their client’s needs with what they can promise is a philosophy of his parents’ that he’s incorporated into his own business values. “What I learned is that although the primary policy is to deliver what we promised, the real name of the game is to make sure that you’re making clear what’s being promised,” Forrest says. “And the only way to do that is to carefully make sure that you clearly understand what the buyer needs and wants.”

Loscheider Custom Homes, Inc.
Richard Loscheider learned his craft as a carpenter and his drive for perfection from his father, Nick Loscheider, who often came out with quips such as “If you’re just average, you’re as close to the bottom as you are to the top.”

“He always wanted me to excel and be the best I could,” Richards recalls. “He was very particular on what he wanted. It was all about quality. That’s how I am still, too, though I’ve probably carried it a step further. He says I’m actually fussier than he was.”

Richard is a hands-on general contractor who learned carpentry at his father’s company, Nick M. Loscheider Construction, Inc. when he was seventeen years old. In the mid-1970s, at age twenty-three, Richard started up his own general contracting business, Loscheider Custom Homes, Inc. “Once I started building on my own, I was excited about it. Up until then, I wasn’t even sure I wanted to be a carpenter.”

Now, more than twenty years later, he still hammers the nails and hangs the kitchen cabinets right alongside his carpenters whenever possible in the west suburban custom houses his company builds. His wife, Chicky, does the clerical work and runs errands for the company, tasks that his mother, Bernice, did before they retired.

Even after he started his own business, Richard often sought advice from his father, who was always very supportive. “Honesty, that’s one thing that he instilled in me. Be fair and honest. If you’re good at what you do, you’ll always have work,” Richard says.

McNulty Construction Co.
Real estate development has been in Jim McNulty’s family for four generations: his great-grandfather built homes in Minneapolis in the 1920s and 1930s; his grandfather was involved in real estate; and his father began building homes in St. Louis Park in the 1940s under the name of McNulty Construction Co.

While Jim and his brother, Timothy, worked with their father, Robert, as carpenters during their high school and college summers, neither planned to become general contractors. Jim practiced law and Timothy was an archaeologist when Robert asked them in 1980 to help run the growing company. Robert designed and built stadiums across the country and needed help running his homebuilding business in Minnesota.

Robert passed away in 1996, and while the company is still involved in commercial building, McNulty Construction Co. builds ten to twelve custom homes a year in Deephaven, Shorewood, and White Bear Lake.

Running a family business, Jim says, is unique in that the relationship is quite different from working with a non-relative. “Having a chance to work with my father for almost seventeen years before he died was quite a gift in that I probably got to know him in a much better way than I might have otherwise. He was a very good mentor,” Jim says. “The lesson of integrity and honor, truthfulness and the nice values that people hold dear are imparted through the generations, and we seem to see them rising to the top when faced with tough problems.”

Parent Custom Homes
When Brook Parent and his brothers were youngsters sweeping the floors of their father’s newly built homes, Al Parent would teach his sons that getting things right the first time, no matter how minute the task, was important to good customer service. “Customer satisfaction would be the biggest thing. Just make every client happy. That’s always been my dad’s business plan,” says Brook. “And that’s what we’ve been doing.”

Twenty-eight years ago, discouraged with the mundane cookie-cutter homes available in the market, Al went into the business determined to create a quality product in the northern suburbs. Dianne, his wife, handled all the interior decorating and selections. Today, Brook says, the Parent name is still hugely respected in those areas.

Each of the three Parent sons went into the business of home construction. Brian, the oldest, started his own framing company, Parent Builders, after attending college. Brook and Brent intended to work for their father’s company, Al Parent Construction, and both earned degrees in business management. Now, the tables have turned and Al is working for the two partners as a consultant in their own business, Parent Custom Homes. The three often work together, using their accumulative experience to solve problems and create new ideas.

“The thing that really does make a difference being in the same family is the pride that we take in the Parent name,” says Brook, adding what he and his brother learned by working with their father: “It’s the quality of work, to do things right, don’t cut corners, treat every customer fairly.”