Where vision, precision, and design converge: The evolution of Murray Homes
When MHB last visited Murray Homes in June 2025, President Steve Murray explained how the company constructed its reputation for engineering accuracy, refined detailing, and its deep understanding of the Sarasota real estate landscape.
He rejoined us in 2026 to reveal how the company is maintaining forward momentum with a new focus. “I describe it as a repurposing of the company,” Steve explains. “We’re much more heavily biased towards quality remodeling, as opposed to concentrating on new construction. Our remodeling division is going from strength to strength.”
The popularity of Murray’s remodeling offering reflects the demand by consumers for high end remodeling service providers currently lacking in the market. “Post-Covid I realized buyers were purchasing existing properties – not looking to tear them down but wanting a new high-quality kitchen or bathroom. They needed an experienced partner they could trust, with the scale, processes, and in-house design skills that smaller owner-driven businesses just didn’t have, but Murray does.”
Focus on technology
Now incorporating its own cabinetry company, Magnolia Cabinet Co, and Bespoke interior design services, Murray’s integrated approach means that clients benefit from its ability to control timelines much more tightly, reach decisions faster, and manage costs more precisely. “Everyone in the process is in-house, and we sit down as a collective on behalf of the client,” Steve says. “As a result, we can get from opportunity to signature to permit a lot faster. We are much more practically focused in terms of time, money and pro-cess, rather than simple aesthetics.”
Technology plays a major role in this approach. “Most clients can’t visualize from a 2D plan, so we move very quickly to 3D renderings, where they can see their house and walk through it. We use a 3D LiDAR camera to capture a visual representation of their existing home and take precise measurements from it. This data is imported into SketchUp, which provides a ‘fly through’ of the house and allows us to spin the view, add or remove walls, and include new textures and colors. We can put the client in their house and demonstrate how changes will look.”
This visualization is the perfect way to present the sheer volume of remodel options that Murray can de-liver to clients. “A lot of our customers want us to show them what is possible,” says Steve. “It was one of the reasons that I set up our own cabinetry shop. We can show them everything from kitchens, bathrooms, and wine rooms to entertainment centers, garage storage, and outdoor spaces – it can all be represented on screen from day one. Additionally, if someone comes to us purely for cabinetry, we can then introduce what else we can offer.”
“When we present the possibilities to clients, they are often well beyond what they had originally envisioned,” adds Jane Bennett, Director of Marketing at Murray Homes. “We have had clients massively expand their project scopes once they see a 3D vision of what their dream home could be.”
Early client engagement with the software also accelerates decision making. “Once I get a fully document-ed product, I can price it properly, and cost transparency is very important,” Steve notes. “I am always working to maintain consistency of price, and I want to know on day one exactly what the full brief is.
“Ultimately, it’s about ownership of the process – by managing every element in-house, we control time and money more successfully. I can walk upstairs to my interior design division or my cabinetry division, tell them what the priority is, and align everyone immediately.”
Finding a way
When it comes to remodels, removing a wall or changing a kitchen can transform the feel of a home. However, at the luxury end of the market where Murray operates, thinking bigger is often the order of the day. Jane details a current complete remodel project on Siesta Key, which was tragically flooded in the storms of 2024. “We are not just remodeling it but also lifting the whole house 12 feet in the air,” she says. “There’s a discussion underway around how the end-result is going to look,” adds Steve. “Raising the house is creating a big space underneath, so it isn’t just the engineering feat of lifting it, but also how to beautify the result. This was never designed to be a three-story home, so we must ensure that it proportionally blends into the environment without looking like it’s a massive house in the air.”
Projects like Siesta Key illustrate how the coastal region where Murray works adds another layer of complexity beyond the remodel itself. “We are in an ever-evolving situation here, where the municipalities are working to stay ahead of new protective measures, which means more stringent building codes. That in-creases cost because we must get more steel, more concrete, and more weather-resistant products into the houses to meet code requirements.”
Another consideration when remodeling older houses is whether the original structure can be adapted to what the client envisions. “We navigate and negotiate our way through all these requirements on behalf of clients, working out how we can get a structure that was designed in a different time to conform to today’s standards.”
That experience is what Murray brings to its projects. “One of our core competencies and values is ‘find a way’,” says Steve. “Our entire staff knows if they hit a wall, metaphorically, they must find a way round it. They can dig under, vault over or go around – but our business is very much about overcoming challenges.”
Problem-solving culture
Navigating these regulatory demands requires exactly the problem-solving culture Murray has built – be-cause custom waterfront construction is, in Steve’s words, ‘fraught with problems.’ “Not only is Florida a very expensive place to live for our subcontractor base, but also our workforce has been significantly reduced by current political policies, making the right skilled labor very hard to find.
“We try to forecast accurate timelines, but it is impossible to foresee these quick changes in tariffs, oil prices, and the effects of emerging global conflicts. There are so many geopolitical influences that can affect our outcomes. We are often fighting an uphill battle, and our clients are looking to us to manage that well.”
Even the customer demographic is asking more of the team, as wealthy buyers from the East Coast move down to Florida. “They have bigger budgets and higher expectations,” says Steve. “The business has evolved in direct response to changing conditions and client requirements.”
“We specialize in guiding our homeowners, so in terms of our offering we’re not just here to sell a service,” adds Jane. “We understand the motivation driving the changes, so whether they’re buying for themselves or it’s a rental property, we look at what the project needs to deliver the outcome that the client wants. We’re very honest about what’s going to make it or break it, and we bring a strong sense of integrity and calmness under pressure to a project.”
“We are geared to take care of our customers and ultimately create something that looks stunning, per-forms to code, and provides the satisfaction our clients deserve,” concludes Steve.