Don Neff
Founder & President
La Jolla Pacific, Ltd.

What inspired you to leave your profession as a homebuilder and move into consulting for quality control and risk management?

The homebuilding industry throughout Southern California in 1993 was in a significant state of retrenchment. This was due significantly to the aerospace and defense budget cutbacks, which devastated the economy. [In this regard I can recommend to you a good book, "Economics in Perspective" by John Kenneth Galbraith from Harvard University.]

The industry saw its peak housing production in 1989 decline into the trough of 1992-1994, from which the recovery gained traction in 1995. Many of the medium and larger sized private builders went out of business and were replaced by a new crop of public builders, including Beazer, Centex, Lennar and others. The industry was also racked with growing construction defect litigation. This stemmed from water intrusion related claims due to poor workmanship from the late 80's, which was exposed by back-to-back "El Nino" years of record rainfall. It was also carried on the backs of an untrained work force. The industry and its cycle presented a ripe opportunity for innovation. I was lucky to have a broad range of project management experience from Woodcrest Development, which produced about 1500 homes per year in three divisions.

In your opinion are homes built better today than they were twenty years ago, or in the 1920's for that matter?

Homes built today offer the latest in technology, materials, and were built according to more stringent building codes than those twenty years ago. In order to take advantage of these features, my preference is to always buy or recommend a new home over existing housing stock.

How can your company assist a builder in building better homes?

The range of services La Jolla Pacific provides its clients is organized around three key elements: pre-construction services; during construction services and post construction services. The first of these include detailed peer reviews of architectural plans, specifications, and trade scopes of work. The during construction elements include field observations and documentation of the quality before that work gets covered up. The post construction documentation consists of maintenance manuals for the HOAs and individual homeowners and turnover walks for conveying the project's common areas to the HOA Boards of Directors. Furthermore, La Jolla Pacific's product experience ranges from horizontal wood-framed, Type V non-rated homes to four-story, podium style wood-framed, Type V 1 hour condominiums to high-rise, concrete and steel, Type I and II towers. The same systematic analysis is provided for all. Our skilled Construction Consultants pride themselves on providing support and functioning as a resource for our clients throughout the entire construction process.

What is your perception of James Hardie fiber cement siding products?

A number of homebuilding projects from California to Colorado in which we have provided services have utilized the James Hardie fiber cement siding. I have found the product to be both a good alternative and complement to other cladding systems. In fact, I own a town home which uses this siding product.

What is the #1 slip-up for homebuilders today?

Responsibly managing homebuyer expectations is probably one of the most significant opportunities for improvement. One should strive not to over promise, but instead over deliver. This is a valid concern throughout the construction, sales, and warranty service processes. We also foresee this to be a critical risk management tool for those building projects that will utilize any of the voluntary green building programs.

You market a product called "The Shark Repellent" package. Can you elaborate, and whom do you define as the Shark?

Shark Repellent is a tongue-in-cheek expression to briefly describe and capture the essence of what we do. The sharks are those plaintiff attorneys who trump up big money claims through the "extrapolation theory" to arrive at unrealistic financial demands from which they can settle out with a significant contingency fee, occasionally leaving the homeowners with inadequate resources to repair the alleged construction defects. We have seen our share of these claims, which were actually caused by lack of homeowner and homeowner association maintenance.

Is there a particular "Cinderella story" that comes to mind where you helped a builder stop being attacked by those sharks?

There are numerous examples in which our package of services and systematic documentation program has proven to be a valuable asset for the builder. By clarifying weatherproofing and acoustical details in the architectural plans, for example, we have saved numerous builders the aggravation of potential construction claims. Similarly, we routinely discover misapplication of window flashing assemblies and roofing related weather barriers, which need to be properly installed and sealed. These misapplications are corrected in the field and documented before the work is covered up, thereby alleviating an incorrect assembly from failing and resulting in a potential construction defect claim.

Do you feel there is really a competitive advantage for a builder who builds green, or is it overblown?

In today's marketplace, competition is fierce among builders for the shrinking pool of qualified buyers. Any opportunity to further differentiate one's product presents an open door to a possible home sale. The key is to identify those affordable "green building" assemblies and practices which enhance the five key elements of a sustainable home: water efficiency, energy efficiency, indoor air quality, use of rapidly renewable resources and materials, and site selection and development strategies. Many builders use "green or sustainable" practices but either misrepresent the combined performance of these assemblies and construction methods or simply do not market them effectively. Construction budgets are very tight and tradeoffs between assemblies and processes are always on the table for discussion within home building companies. Incremental budget adjustments have been the centerpiece of the homebuilders' evolutionary process for years. As Chairman of the Construction Quality and Sustainable Building Committee for the Building Industry Association of Orange County, CA, we are routinely providing our builder and associate members with technical training workshops to further help them refine their purchasing and field practices, green up their specifications and further enhance the quality of their construction overall.

Your company now also helps builders make sense of all the various green building programs springing up. Which ones do you feel are the best, and what sort of "green advice" can you offer homebuilders reading this?

This is an important question which many of our clients are grappling with. Our preference is to offer our home building clients technical information about all the key programs, identifying the costs and benefits along the way. This includes LEED-H, GreenPoint Rated, California Green Builder, Energy Star, etc. This way, we do not advocate one program over another. Each building company has its own unique history, culture and internal capabilities which allow it to capitalize on one particular program over another. There are many shades of green.

Explain the term "green washing":

This is the descriptive label for that activity which essentially misrepresents just how green or sustainable a project is. A lower quality or perhaps a less-expensive product might have been substituted for a more costly "green item" and the performance standards are either not verifiable or do not achieve the same results. This could be particularly important if the homes do not achieve the performance efficiencies as marketed, desired, or even alluded to potential homebuyers.

At this year's International Builders' Show, what were some of the most prevalent questions and concerns you were hearing from attendees?

The topic of conversation at this year's IBS Show was green and sustainable building practices, followed closely by current market conditions. Many builders are trying to make sense of the numerous voluntary green building programs available. With the release of NAHB's Green Building Program, there seemed to be more questions and confusion as to each of the different green building programs and whether homebuyers are willing to, in fact, pay more for a green home.

In which states do you currently operate?

La Jolla Pacific is headquartered in Irvine, CA, with eight additional offices in San Diego, Sacramento, Seattle, Las Vegas, Scottsdale, Denver, Houston, and Dallas. These offices service 13 states in the Western United States, including Hawaii.

Do you have plans to expand into additional states?

Over the past 15 years, we have been in the fortunate position to have grown organically in response to client demand. We have had numerous requests to provide our consulting services to builders on the East Coast, and plan to move forward with offices there in the future.

For more information on La Jolla Pacific, Ltd. visit: http://www.lajollapacificltd.com/

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