REGIONAL TRENDS IN REAL ESTATE AND HOME BUILDING
JULY-AUGUST 2023 EDITION
DAVID HUNIHAN CEO, LEE WETHERINGTON HOMES
ROBERT MILLIGAN FOUNDER/PRESIDENT, PREFERRED SHORE REAL ESTATE
Conversation
CEO DAVID HUNIHAN ON LEE WETHERINGTON HOMES: Lee Wetherington Homes has been building throughout Sarasota and Manatee Counties for over 40 years since the 1970s. Headquartered in Sarasota, near Lakewood Ranch—we were one of the first builders to move our headquarters into Lakewood Ranch over 20 years ago. We are a high-end luxury custom home builder. We haven’t been that our entire history—that’s who we’ve become and where we are now. Our founder, Lee Wetherington, was originally a drywall contractor who grew up in Jacksonville, Florida and used to vacation here. In the early-mid ‘70s, he moved here and started a home-building business with a partner. He eventually decided to open his doors around 1981 as Lee Wetherington Homes. When I first started with the company in 1995, they were doing about 32 homes a year—by 2005, he had built over 400 homes. At that time, we were the largest local home builder in Sarasota and Manatee Counties. The landscape has changed a lot since then. The Great Recession hit and that caused the market to collapse. A lot of builders went out of business. Lee Wetherington Homes came through it in 2010-2012 by going back to its roots as a custom builder. We now do about 36 to 50 homes a year on average with an average price of about $2.5 million including a home and home site package. While Lee has turned over the day-to-day operations to the management team, he is still involved in the visioning and direction of the company and the design in many cases for models, I always want him involved in that. There are five shareholders of the company—Lee has the most shares and then there are four of us who also own shares. Part of why I think Lee brought me back (I was with him from 1995 to 2000 and came back about two years ago) is to work on the company’s legacy. We’re working on setting the company up with the proper standard operating procedures, infrastructure and personnel so that the vision will continue well into the future as something that I like to refer to as the Wetherington way. We’ll be able to continue to benefit our customers long after we’re gone. BROKER AND PRESIDENT ROBERT MILLIGAN ON PREFERRED SHORE REAL ESTATE: Originally from Boynton Beach, I relocated to the Sarasota area in 1996 and have been a broker in Sarasota for 19 years. I’m passionate about the lifestyle that we get to enjoy here in Florida. I started Preferred Shore in 2014, and the idea was to become a fresh choice for customers who really appreciate the coastal lifestyle in all of the different market areas that we operate in. It’s my pleasure to share insight with customers to help shorten their learning curve for integrating in our community, gaining new social circles and learning how to participate in the different hobbies and activities that our coastal area offers. My associates have worked with me to close over 30,000 transactions that total over $8 billion in sales volume—so that vision has been working really well. We have created some different processes—one of which is to double down on doing a really nice job at digital media by housing that entire process in-house with staff. We’re uniquely positioned to get very creative with the marketing campaigns we offer customers. My associates have now earned nearly $250 million in commissions as a result of all of their hard work and the tools we’ve created to support them. There’s a great ripple effect in doing good work and helping people to accomplish their dreams through their career in real estate.
JULY/AUGUST 2023 | INTERVIEW BY WES ROBERTS – EDITED BY BARBIE HEIT
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