COLUMN: Pardee earns loyalty

Pardee Homes is celebrating its 50th year of doing business in Las Vegas. Las Vegans have grown up in Pardee homes, have visited their grandparents in Pardee homes, have bought their own Pardee homes and have seen their kids buy Pardee homes.

There must be a reason for such loyalty. First, Pardee builds a good product. Second, the company emphasizes customer service.

Recently I met Doug Cazin, director of customer service for Pardee Homes of Nevada. Cazin is a longtime Las Vegan who worked on the Strip, where the motto is the customer is always right and give the customer whatever he wants to keep him happy.

Well, when buying a home, the only good customer is a happy customer. So Cazin put his experience to work to ensure the happiness of his home-buying customers.

Just before a new home goes into escrow, most builders conduct a walk-through with the buyers, taking note of little glitches so they can be repaired quickly. That's the typical modus operandi of a home-building firm. Usually right after the walk-through, money changes hands, the sale is filed and the homeowner is given the keys.

Pardee has taken a pro- active attitude to service. Instead of waiting until the buyer walk-through to chart problems, the company sends its own people from every aspect of construction to go through the home with a fine-toothed comb.

"This is a teamwork concept," Cazin said. "We involve all areas of the home building process and give it inspections in different phases of construction, usually three inspections."

He emphasized that the company's goal was not only to make the house pass inspection for warranty purposes, but to make it as consumer-perfect as possible.

"The construction department builds the home according to plans and blueprints, then they look at it from a quality standpoint as the walk-throughs are conducted," Cazin said. "The customer service department brings in the view of a homeowner, prior to the actual homeowner seeing it. They bring that experience to a home before it's walked."

Teamwork is an important concept at Pardee Homes, and has been for a long time. Sales honchos Ray Landry and Rob Tuvell have made it their goal to reinvent the teamwork concept in the sales staff constantly. Apparently they're doing something right, because some sales associates have been with the company nearly as long as the company has been with Nevada.

Landry and Tuvell regaled me with stories about a Super Bowl sales contest that challenged one sales team to outdo the other. Landry credited Tuvell for the idea, and Tuvell said it wouldn't have worked without Landry's help. I love that kind of teamwork and camaraderie.

There's a reason why Pardee has lasted so long as a home builder: the company appreciates its people and makes it a good place in which to work and, the product is constantly being upgraded.

What a novel concept.

Carmel Hopkins, real estate product manager for the Las Vegas Review-Journal and Las Vegas Sun, can be reached at 380-4574. Her e-mail address is Carmel_Hopkins@ lasvegasnewspapers.com. Snail mail is P.O. Box 70, Las Vegas, NV 89125.

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