by Scott on September 26, 2011
Before the housing market began to collapse, preconstruction termite prevention was having its heyday, as hundreds of homes went up on a regular basis and owners demanded termite pretreatments as added insurance against termites. Many termite control firms in various states, including Arizona, were making most of their income on such pretreatments as recently as six or five years ago. But in the last six years, the housing market has undergone a massive change. For example, the number of homes going up six years ago was about two million. Now, six years later, that number has been reduced to a quarter of the original figure.
The collapse began when it finally became clear that the wrong decisions were being made by homeowners, who often ended up using their homes as leverage for other loans. The years prior to the collapse saw so many homes being built because that was traditionally the American dream: to manage to make at least one big investment that would permit a person or persons to retire safely and happily later on. Since most Americans feared or were intimidated by the tough investment worlds of stocks and business, they ended up investing in their homes, waiting for the structures to appreciate. In the excitement to make good investments, however, too many people paid too much and prices went overboard, with people still buying. When the loans started catching up on homeowners, the first signs of collapse began to show, leading to the heavy foreclosures we see today and the severe decline in the price of housing. The impact of these changes has been significant on the preconstruction termite control industry.
The termite control firms exclusively focused on pretreatments have nearly all gone extinct. Those who focused on it (albeit not exclusively) have since branched out into other forms of termite and pest control in a bid to stay alive in this market. Even so, experts caution that the demand is still weak for post-construction treatments as well. It only stands to reason that if homeowners are so pressed for money that they can no longer afford pretreatments, it would be more likely for them to try and resolve their current termite issues or infestations by themselves using DIY methods, as opposed to hiring skilled and trained technicians to handle their termite problems for them.
What all of this makes clear is that termite prevention companies now have to focus on diversifying their offerings if they want to stay afloat, and that hard times shall still be here for quite a while. The goal now is to help homeowners see that their homes are still investments in a sense—they are the places where families live, where households are held together—and require protection from termites in order for their prices not to drop even lower.
by Scott on September 26, 2011
Windshield repair provider, Guardian Auto Glass just opened a new location last month in Arvada, Colorado. The event was celebrated with a ribbon-cutting ceremony that played host to several members of the Arvada Chamber of Commerce, and saw at least 60 persons attending, to the delight of Guardian officials. Guardian is one of the most widely distributed auto glass repair companies in the United States, but thus far, most of its stores have been located in a thick cluster around the Pennsylvania-Indiana areas of North America. Prior to the opening of the Colorado, Denver outlet this year, there were only two more locations for the auto glass repair brand leaning to the West Coast area. One of these was California-based, the other located in Arizona. The opening of the Colorado branch may thus be considered significant for the brand, as it expands their services to a region in which Guardian Auto Glass has had little exposure thus far.
Guardian Auto Glass LLC is actually a fairly recent brand on the whole, at least if one considers that it was created only last year when Guardian Industries Corp.’s Guardian Glass Company partnered with LRST LLC. As such, members of the industry and business community describe the brand as one that is still growing, and which shall likely still be in the aggressive stages of expansion for quite a while. Indeed, Guardian Auto Glass LLC is currently seeking more partners and professionals to join its ranks and help it in promoting the Guardian windshield repair brand. Guardian uses an interesting model of local ownership and management for its stores, which it hopes to prove successful as well as tempting for local entrepreneurs.
Guardian’s auto glass repair provider handles both repair and replacement services for automobile glass, and it is known for the Guardian repair warranty that is applied to its windshield repairs. According to Guardian personnel, a windshield repair from their technicians guarantees that the achieved repair is not only permanent (meaning it shall last for as long as you have your car) but also free of the common problems of misting resins and yellowing repair lines later on. The guarantee is a lifetime one, so car owners are generally grateful to have it: with this guarantee, you no longer have to worry about subpar resins being used and fouling up your windshield later on. According to the terms of the guarantee, Guardian shall take the cost of the fouled up repair and apply it to the cost of getting a replacement windshield—which you shall likely have to do in such an event as this—as long as you purchase the replacement windshield from them and have it installed by a Guardian technician.
For more auto glass repair information.
Before the housing market began to collapse, preconstruction termite prevention was having its heyday, as hundreds of homes went up on a regular basis and owners demanded termite pretreatments as added insurance against termites. Many termite control firms in various states, including Arizona, were making most of their income on such pretreatments as recently as six or five years ago. But in the last six years, the housing market has undergone a massive change. For example, the number of homes going up six years ago was about two million. Now, six years later, that number has been reduced to a quarter of the original figure.
