Built on family values and framing finesse, Hazelwood Homes crafts custom builds with heart 

Founded in 1971, Hazelwood Homes is a family owned and operated custom home builder based in Geneseo, Illinois. Built on family values and a dedication to customer service, the company has grown steadily over the years. As Jason Pettit, Company President, begins: “My father, Bob Pettit Jr., founded Hazelwood Homes when he was very young, when he was still in college. My grandfather was a property developer and also loved building, and that helped foster the love of building homes in my dad. 

“We have always been a family company. Besides me, my sister Casey is in charge of design and customer services. She’s really the heart and soul of the customer experience. Now, two of my other sisters, Glenda & Joanna, have also joined the company recently, not to mention several aunts and uncles who have had key roles over the years. We build around 25-30 homes a year, all of which are custom designs. We have 45 team members, approximately 35 of which are carpenters and project managers on the job. That’s been the key to our success. I never have to lose sleep wondering how the customers are being treated or the quality of the product, because my people are always on the job and they really are incredible. They really care.  

“We handle the framing and siding, all site maintenance, and we do all our trim carpentry in-house. Customers begin the journey working with me on very rough designs and budget. And I help them through all of their questions about the process, timelines, financing the build, warranty, etc. It’s funny that sometimes people worry what happens when the home is started and I’m no longer involved in every little detail. But then they meet Damon and Casey and Ryan and all the guys on the job and they forget about me pretty quickly after that! I’m really blessed in that regard.” 

Collaborative process 

Hazelwood Homes specializes in custom home projects. “We’re exclusively a custom home builder,” Jason adds. “A lot of the time, people will hear of us through word of mouth, or they will see one of our homes start to go up around the area. Many of our homeowners are repeat clients – at least one or two per year – and we’ve even built several homes for people who were kids when we built for their parents! They grew up in a Hazelwood Home and now they want to build one of their own. That’s a lot of fun. 

“Our process is very simple. People just bring us their ideas, including pictures and sketches to give a sense of what they want and like, and we take it from there. We try our best to value their time, so we get back to them fairly quickly with some good, accurate budget numbers before we really start the full design and development process. It’s extremely important for the client to know where the budget is heading early in the process. Once that difficult part is out of the way and we’re on the same page, the planning process quickly becomes a collaboration where we are metaphorically ‘sitting on the same side of the table’ with the homeowner. That makes the process much more rewarding as we work closely together to iron out all the details of the project. The pre-planning stage is incredibly important; you have to do the hard planning work up front because nobody wants surprises later. We want to be sure we’re still great friends when I’m handing them the keys.” 

Meeting customer needs

In its 54 year tenure, as Jason discusses: “We’ve built hundreds of homes over the years, and each one has been special in its own way. Looking back, we’ve done some really cool and amazing custom things in different projects. It’s interesting though, I don’t really look back and think too much about the homes or the custom features, but it’s the relationships and the people we’ve served. It’s a pretty amazing thing to have a job and create a company where people cry and give you hugs when you’re done. My dad built a company like that and we’re all trying our best to keep it going and keep the joyful tears flowing. 

“To be a successful custom homebuilder, I learned pretty quickly, it doesn’t really matter what I think is important in a home. The only thing that matters is what the customer wants. Everyone has different priorities. Often people tend to want a lot of the same things, but we’ve built homes with water features, indoor basketball courts, a 3rd story weather monitoring station, and lately quite a few golf simulators (which I love!).  

“There are certainly trends. Often, people seem to gravitate to the same styles of plans and looks all at the same time. We never try to steer our customers to a certain design or style. We just work hard to give them feedback on what other clients have done and liked. Also, we take close note when a past client says, “I wish we hadn’t done ____,” and then we keep that piece of information to help future clients.”  

Service & transparency 

Thanks to its dedicated team of carpenters, managers and design pros, the company can offer an unmatched level of service and transparency. As Jason affirms: “Employing an in-house team helps us in lots of ways. Customers will often get designs drawn up externally and bring them to us only to find out that this ‘dream plan’ isn’t quite in line with their ‘dream budget’. In our industry, sometimes there’s not much cohesion between the design and planning side of things, which leads to lots of disappointment and wasted effort. So, we’re very happy that we can rework any plan at no cost in order to offer our clients a ‘short cut’ to avoid those problems and heartache.”  

www.hazelwoodhomes.com