A LUXURY HOMEBUILDER WHOSE MISSION IS TO NOT ONLY BUILD IMPECCABLE homes but to take the client experience to the next level will go above and beyond the norms of the industry to accomplish it. The work of CroweBuilt Homes reflects those principles and practices with an approach that has garnered the company industry-wide recognition and membership in the prestigious Southern Living Custom Builder Network (SLCBN). Builders are handpicked by the iconic lifestyle publication for their dedication to exceptional craftsmanship.
The SLCBN identifies builders who are leaders in their markets, vetting them based on their reputation for exceptional craftsmanship within the building trade and among clients. Member benefits include ensuring consumer confidence based on the company’s alignment with the Southern Living brand.
“Candidates have to be invited to become members,” says CroweBuilt Homes founder and president Evan Crowe. The Carterville, Georgia, resident holds a Bachelor of Science in environmental science and geology/geography from Georgia College & State University. “I’m now on the board for SLCBN,” he says. “The program gives us access to a variety of top vendors—brands like Pella, GE, TimberTech, James Hardie—that sponsor the program. We’re given direct contacts within these brands to get access to additional information and on-site training on many different products. I also participate in the Builder 10 group that meets monthly on Zoom and in person twice a year with other builders across the Southeast to discuss the industry and trade ideas. In March, we gathered for our annual home summit in Savannah—it’s a three-day conference for builders, architects and designers. It’s an amazing SLCBN initiative.”
Crowe founded his company after a management stint with a development company, where he had the opportunity to work on a spec home and realized that building—being creative, detail-oriented and focusing on quality craftsmanship—was his passion. He launched CroweBuilt Homes in 2016, quickly establishing the luxury construction company in the Atlanta market with a reputation for his client-focused approach. His wife, Ellany Crowe, was recruited to handle marketing, and he eventually expanded the company, bringing in custom building professionals Wes Riffe and Leon Payne to manage the growing portfolio of residential projects.
“Evan will typically get a project off the ground, and then we take over,” explains Riffe. “Leon and I are on-site daily; we’re not an absentee builder. We each manage two projects at a time, not 30 like other companies. And we hold our subcontractors to a higher standard and demand excellence.”
CroweBuilt maintains a fleet of trusted subcontractors, using around 80% on a continuing basis. For that additional 20%, vetting is essential to secure professionals who meet the company’s expectations because so many in the market have gained their experience working for high-volume production builders.
“We really care about the end product that we deliver to the customer,” adds Payne. He says while he and Riffe share a myriad of on-site responsibilities, he especially enjoys problem-solving with clients.
“The team’s main goal is to prioritize the wishes of the people who have hired us,” Crowe explains. “We’re operating similar to an owner’s representative, serving them in the best way we know how, whether it’s through the trade base we subcontract or the materials that we use. We’re also careful to accept projects that align with our values—building a high-quality custom home with trust and integrity.”
Crowe’s partnership with SLCBN and the connections it provides to member vendors plays an important role in the company’s ability to source high-end products for a project at a savings to the client. He’s also a member of CBUSA, an organization that enables custom builders to join together to use their buying power as a group to get better pricing and better services from both local trade partners and national brands.
“We use high-end name brands such as Pella and Andersen for windows,” says Riffe. “They have reputations for using quality materials and manufacturing products that have a better warranty and a much longer survival rate.”
CroweBuilt’s business is 100% referral based, whether coming from a previous client or an architect or designer. Crowe says 30% to 50% of those referrals are made by the professionals he’s worked with on projects. It’s word-of-mouth affirmation based on the quality of the company’s workmanship that’s highly valued.
“We understand that their referral reflects on their own reputation, and we respect that. They’re trusting us to execute at a high level,” Crowe says. “I’m also very big on teamwork on a project. The architect, designer, landscape architect and the builder all have to work well together, to trust each other, to communicate well and ensure that everybody’s goal is to serve the client—that nobody is coming in with a design plan that’s great for their own portfolio but doesn’t serve what the client wants.”
A recent project landed Crowe and Payne in the middle of a 300-acre property along the Etowah River in Kingston. Designer Beth Meyer brought in CroweBuilt and architect Frances Zook to collaborate with her on repurposing a former private airplane hangar into a luxury hunting lodge her clients could retreat to with their family and friends.
“It was a very bold design by Frances,” observes Crowe, who enlisted a trusted engineer to ensure the building could physically support the renovations. “It’s always challenging to take a structure that wasn’t originally intended to be lived in and create a comfortable and quality home. It takes a lot of communication, and you need a team that understands each other and keeps the client first.”
The final result—a stunning contemporary home that incorporated the original sloped roofline, natural materials, like cypress, and a design that brought the outside in—won the team a spotlight in Atlanta magazine.
With communication an essential pillar of its approach, CroweBuilt enhances its level of client interaction during a project with Buildertrend, a highly rated residential builder software system. The team takes photos of daily on-site progress and uploads them along with detailed explanations to the system. The content is then delivered to the client’s phone. At week’s end, they produce a summary and a plan for the coming week for the client’s review.
“It’s humbling to think of where you started, and where you’ve gotten to,” muses Crowe. “When I founded CroweBuilt, I didn’t know we’d be working at this level. But our values have always been the same: based around communication, integrity, a policy of respect. That’s the trajectory that has led us to producing homes of this high caliber.” *
Wendy Swat Snyder is a Charleston-based freelance writer (sweetgrassandgrits.com).
