Explore Happe Homes’ unique approach to affordability and style
Putting a smile on its clients’ faces is the number one mission of custom home building company Happe Homes (Happe). Combining its love of construction and building with a commitment to delivering exceptional quality and customer service, the company creates the home of each client’s dreams. Throughout the home building process, Happe fosters excellent communication with homeowners, striving to make the process fun not only for its talented team members, but also for the clients. It has been quite a few years since we had the pleasure of featuring Happe in Modern Home Builders, and Jake Happe, owner, fills us in on the latest developments within the organization.
“Beyond experiencing continued growth focusing on what we do best, we opened up a subsidiary named Gladiator Homes (Gladiator) within which we offer more cost effective homes. It is still a part of the Happe company, but while Happe continues to build custom homes tailored to what homeowners want in the $450,000-to-$500,000+ price range, Gladiator takes a more streamlined approach by offering a few different packages and limited, if any, customization options. With that being said, our packages suit 90 percent of our clients’ preferences, and they help us from a buying perspective to get bulk materials ordered, thereby enabling us to deliver great value while keeping the price point affordable,” he says.
With it being the most significant development since our last interview, Jake sheds light on the reasons behind the creation of Gladiator. “A year or two into the pandemic, while the industry was still unstable, securing custom homes became tough due to material delays, shortages, and fluctuating prices. This was a particularly significant problem for us at Happe since we predominantly offer custom homes rather than spec homes. As a result, it was difficult to sell custom homes upfront without a guaranteed final price, time frame, or interest rate, as these kept increasing every few months.
“To overcome this hurdle, we decided to start building more affordable homes with locked-in prices. The trend seemed to be that homes began to sell once they reached a certain stage where the client could actually see what they were going to look like, and we were far enough through the process to set a closing date. Noticing this trend, we started offering a lot more affordable homes but after doing this for two or three years, many of the agents and homeowners out there began to view us as more of an entry-level builder, which is not what we are. Indeed, we have 21 years of experience building absolutely beautiful homes tailored exactly the way the homeowner wants, in line with our ‘their home, not ours’ mantra. Thus, to preserve our image, we began offering our affordable homes under the Gladiator brand,” he explains.
Design trends
Apart from the need for more affordable housing, Happe has faced evolving demands for different homebuilding styles. “A couple of years ago, Cape Cod style
homes featuring a lot of blues and whites were all the rage. While this style is still popular, there is a resurgence of tans, though not as prominent as ten years ago when tan walls, cherry stained trim, or espresso black trim were everywhere. Instead, we are seeing more lighter-colored walls with cabinets in shades of tan, white, or beige, and gray floors. However, I struggle to recognize any dominant color scheme these days, as some homes feature a mix of gold faucets, black light fixtures, and brushed nickel door hardware, for instance. In contrast, homes used to follow a pattern of sticking to all bronze faucets, door hardware, cabinet poles, and light fixtures, rather than a mix.
“At first, I thought we might have made a mistake by accidentally mixing gold light fixtures with oil-rubbed bronze faucets or black faucets and brushed nickel door hardware. But no, that is what everybody was going for and was intentional. This style has since grown on me, but the beauty of what we do at Happe is that we build homes in whatever style fits the client and their family, and we never confine anyone to a particular style or trend. Nonetheless, we may offer suggestions regarding the actual structure and layout of the house to improve functionality,” he goes on.
Happe’s versatility is combined with its talented workforce’s deep knowledge of homebuilding to produce some of the most stunning homes of the Midwest. “For next year’s Ames Home Builders Association (AHBA) Parade of Homes, we will showcase an absolutely beautiful home that truly demonstrates our level of expertise and capabilities here at Happe. One area where our teams (both across Happe and Gladiator) excel, is in designing well thought-out floor plans. I have seen too many home builders who seem to just throw together a house without much consideration for how the space will be used. Meanwhile, thanks to the expertise of our team members, we are able to take the time necessary to deliver a home that is cohesive, functional, and meets the needs of our clients,” Jake highlights.
Core values
As our conversation nears its end, Jake shares some exclusive insights into his own professional journey in the homebuilding industry. “I started working the summer before my 8th grade year, and I was quite young – only about 12 years old. My job was to clean up job sites, so I was essentially the grunt worker. However, I enjoyed it and continued to work in the industry every summer, winter break, snow day, or holiday I had off school. By the time I graduated high school, I knew I wanted to pursue a career in construction as I had found a passion for it and was good at it. Thus, I got a job with a large local homebuilder as a framer and was soon running multiple crews for them. Approximately one year after graduating, I established Happe, and here we are, 21 years later,” he recounts.
Looking to the future, Jake is positive that Happe will continue on its current trajectory and remain true to its core values. “As a homebuilder, I have always valued the personal relationships we have with our homeowners, subcontractors, and everyone else involved in the homebuilding process rather than aiming to build as many homes as possible. While we are currently building fewer homes than we have in the past, this slower pace has allowed us to focus on improving our processes. Our mission now and into the future is to put smiles on people’s faces and continue to do what we love, while sharing our passion for homebuilding with others,” he ends.