Catchy, yes, but the “power of the red pen” is not a light-hearted ploy to sway undecided home shoppers and make a mark on the local building scene, but a mantra always at the heart of the 22-year-old builder’s business approach. 

“Our unique market niche is our freedom message, that being translated in many different ways, but one of those is the freedom of customizing, which is where the ‘red pen program’ comes in,” says Glenn Fedoroshyn, president of Baywest Homes. “In this very busy market where a lot of builders have gotten away from customizing, we have stood true to what’s always been a Baywest trademark that we will, within parameters, allow customers to customize.”

Ryan Hall, vice-president of marketing at Baywest Homes, says the red pen concept was inked to best hit home with buyers specifically drawn to Baywest, a company that began as a custom builder. “We find the customers we have are a little more picky and have unique needs that another builder can’t always accommodate, so we provide (an option for) those that really, truly want something different that’s unique to them.”

Moving walls or making garages bigger are examples of changes the builder will allow, says Fedoroshyn. “Whatever they want. We don’t send them off to another division or just totally say no, or you are limited to these preset options to make those changes.”

Because a new home means something different to everyone, another approach unique to the builder aligned with Bordeaux Developments is its three main systems, says Hall.

“It’s a one-two-three system. The first one is a ‘ready-to-go home,’ we call it.  That’s basically you can choose from one of our many standard plans, if it suits your needs. Number two is our most popular, it’s called the ‘tailored fit’ — it’s where you take a basic plan that we have and make a few modifications. You might move a wall here or there or extend the bedroom out a bit more. It’s what 80 per cent of our customers go with. The third one is full custom, where we start from the ground up.

Fedoroshyn says Baywest was created more than two decades ago as a word-of-mouth builder, with founder Harry Denger and his family, and while referrals still account for much of the builder’s business, the “red pen” really opened things up of late.

“The red pen ads, and our enhanced marketing over the last year, has really added to the name recognition of Baywest Homes,” says Fedoroshyn. “Baywest has grown very dramatically over the past three or so years from a company that built 75 houses a year to a company that will build in excess of 200 homes this year,” says Fedoroshyn.

What got its roots as a family company, with the Denger children also taking on a role (son Steve Denger is still the VP of construction, and Harry sits on the Baywest board of directors after selling the majority of his shares to Bordeaux CEO Bill Pringle five years ago, notes Hall), has evolved to be one of the top 20 builders in Calgary.

Land development has been a small part of what partner Bordeaux Developments does, but it’s getting bigger, says Fedoroshyn. New on the agenda for the development arm of the company in 2008 is Harmony, a massive, 1800-acre development (3500 homes) bordering the Springbank airport to the north and west. Baywest and sister company Vintage Fine Homes, created to “cover off that part of the market building the big custom homes,” will each have a stake in the area, along with a slew of others, says Fedoroshyn.

In 2008 homebuyers can look to bring their red pens to even more neighbourhoods Baywest will be in — including Carma-developed Spring Bluffs on Springbank Hill, where Baywest and Vintage have the exclusive rights to the 80 homes.

Cochrane is also on the builder’s radar, as are a couple of other “significant projects” Baywest aspires to be a part of in 2008, says Hall. This adds to a building presence in United’s Crystal Green in Okotoks; now-sold-out Baywest duplexes in Silverado; Lott Creek Grove; Ranchers Rise (formerly Air Ranch in Okotoks); Cranston and Cranston on the Ridge; Tuscany; and Auburn Bay, the biggest volume producer for the builder.

Hall says perhaps the greatest gauge the company is doing something right is the scores of employees who also live in Baywest addresses. "I think that’s one of the greatest testaments. We have a couple of residential designers, one who works in our client care … a number of Baywest employees are Baywest homeowners.”

Though the market does dictate some degree of change, which Baywest welcomes and moves with and ahead of, the more things change the more they stay the same — namely giving people what they want in a home, says Fedoroshyn.

And of course, the builder has no intention of putting away the red pen any time soon.

“Now we get recognized by people who don’t necessarily know someone who lives in a Baywest home. They have heard the name, and we are more recognizable,” says Fedoroshyn. NL