Pulte Homes

Infobox Company
company_name = Pulte Homes, Inc
company_
company_type = Public (NYSE|PHM)
foundation = 1950
location = Bloomfield Hills, MI, USA
key_people = William J. Pulte, Founder
Richard J. Dugas Jr, CEO
James R. Ellinghausen Sr. VP of HR
industry = Residential Construction
products =
revenue = profit$14.694 billion USD (2006)
loss$9.263 billion USD (2007)
operating_income = profit$2.201 billion USD (2006)
loss-$2.307 billion USD (2007)
net_income = profit$1.491 billion USD (2006)
loss -$2,256 billion USD (2007)
num_employees = 13,400 (2006)
homepage = [http://www.pulte.com/ www.pulte.com]

Pulte Homes, Inc (nyse|PHM) is a Bloomfield Hills, MI based company founded by Bill Pulte. Pulte is the third largest (by units) builder of homes and residential community developers in the United States according to Builder Magazine's [http://www.builderonline.com//content/builder100/builder100.asp?year=2006&sectionID=228 "Builder 100"] , and is the nation's largest builder of active adult communities for people 55 years of age and older. Pulte Mortgage LLC is the lending division of Pulte Homes.

Pulte's company motto is "Homeowner for Life." Signifying that their business goals are to provide first time homeowners with their first homes and work them up through their signature communities up to an estate size home and even to their retirement homes. Because of their hard working customer service managers, their customer devotion ranks high and records show that compared to other public homebuilders, their repeat buyer business is the highest.

On the building side of the company the company typically hires a Construction Management major, often starting in the Customer Service department. The Customer Service representative then has an option of staying in Customer service or moving into the construction division as a back end superintendent, supervising construction of a home or condo from drywall to completion, then onto front end superintendent, working from beginning of the process until drywall, then onto a project manager, who is in charge of the entire process.

Operations

Pulte Homes operates through two segments, Homebuilding and Financial Services.

:Homebuilding
::The Homebuilding segment engages in the acquisition and development of land principally for residential purposes within the continental United States, as well as the construction of housing on such land targeted for the first-time, first and second move-up, and active adult home buyers. Pulte has subsidiaries that include Del Webb, which builds retirement communities, and Palm Beach Gardens-based Divosta Homes, a pioneer in the mass-market construction of cast concrete houses.

:Financial Services ::Financial Services segment provides mortgage banking and title operations services. The company serves its customers through its sales team and brokers.

Key Statistics

*Pulte operates in 51 markets and 26 states.
*Pulte has built nearly 500,000 homes during its 57-year history.
*In 2006, the company delivered 41,487 homes in the U.S.
*Pulte's product mix includes single family detached and attached homes, condominiums and townhomes with an average sales price of $337,000 in 2006.
*Pulte Mortgage Corporation provides lending services.
*Founder William Pulte owns about 16% of the company
*Alexander Jacob has been with the company for almost 4 full years.

Criticism

Pulte Homes shares, like many in the industry, reached yearly lows in 2007 following a depression in the housing market.

In late 2006, early 2007 and still ongoing, Pulte Homes was criticized for building houses that had larger-than-normal cracks in the foundation, inadequate plumbing and poor electrical wiring and overall rather poor to fair build quality. Beginning in May 2007, The Building Justice campaign, supported by the AFL-CIO, targeted Pulte Homes for providing inadequate health care, no overtime pay and no vacation days or sick days for its workers. [Citation | title = Building Justice Campaign website | url=http://www.buildingjustice.org/ | accessdate = 2007-06-22] . During a subsequent protest at a Pulte Homes construction site, an employee used a water truck owned by the company to repeatedly assault a group of workers picketing outside a home with a high pressure water hose. [Citation | last = Callner | first = Amy | title = Workers Get Soaked By Pulte Homes! | url=http://www.buildingjustice.org/ht/display/ViewBloggerThread/i/49493 | accessdate = 2007-06-22] . On June 20, 2007, a video of the incident was posted on Youtube. [cite video | people = AFL-CIO | title = Workers Get Soaked by Pulte Homes! | medium = YouTube video | publisher = AFLCIONow | location = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ml00gVWhSGY | date = June 20, 2007] .
* [http://home.att.net/~pulte/]
* [http://www.ripoffreport.com/results.asp?q1=ALL&q4=&q6=&q3=&q2=&q7=&searchtype=0&submit2=Search!&q5=Pulte&Search=Search]

On January 25, 2008, Building Justice, a partnership organizing campaign comprised of the International Union of Painters and the Sheet Metal Workers International Association, with support from the AFL-CIO, launched a new website: http://www.poorlybuiltbypulte.info

The website hosts a report entitled: "Poorly Built by Pulte: A Report on Customer Dissatisfaction". Visitors may download a .pdf version of the report.

The site enables owners of Pulte, Del Webb or DiVosta homes to participate in an online survey about their experience as an owner of a Pulte brand home.

References

External links

* [http://www.pulte.com/ Corporate Site]
* [http://investor.pulte.com/ Investor Relations]