At Sterling Homes, we understand the challenges of buying a home, and we’re constantly innovating our product to meet the needs of today’s home buyers. We want home buyers like you to be able to purchase a home that fits your needs at a price within your budget. This was the motivation, and what lead our team to create our Evolve Homes, a line of homes aimed to drive our mission of affordable homeownership, without compromise.
So, Why Evolve?
Our Evolve lineup started back in 2020 and at the time of its conception, we noticed that real estate values continued to grow at a much faster rate than household income. We have over 100 years of data showing two very consistent trend lines – that the gap between real estate values and income continued to widen over time. It’s only getting bigger.
Single-family home ownership, elusive for so many people today, is an aspiration we thought we ought to fight for. We want to keep that dream alive, and keep it within reach as best we can. That’s essentially what our mission statement became…We aim to provide the opportunity for affordable homeownership without compromise.
To achieve this, we leave no stone left unturned. How can we be more efficient? From a design perspective, purchasing perspective, and a construction perspective, how can we do that?
EVOLVE Homes: An in Depth Look
Check out this in-depth interview with Justin Nolette of Sterling Homes as he outlines all the benefits of EVOLVE and answers some of our most frequently asked questions!
At Sterling Homes, our mission is to provide the opportunity for affordable homeownership without compromise.
Evolve Construction Process
When designing the Evolve series, we looked at ways where we could create efficiencies and make homes more affordable for buyers. From a design perspective, that means creating more efficient layouts such as having hallways that lead to many places, not just one, so there’s no wasted space. We're trying to maximize as many features as possible on a per square footage basis wherever possible, including modern rooms such as an upstairs laundry, a fourth bedroom, a bonus room, linen closets, basement suites, and side entrances. We're a production builder so volume pricing on all of our materials is something we try to achieve for all of our buyers. We still offer great finishes such as quartz countertops, luxury vinyl plank flooring, and a high-end appliance package. We’re trying to create more affordability for buyers, but we're not simply giving base offerings on finishes either. We're also trying to achieve pricing based on building multiple-volume builds at a time. In the building process, for example, instead of building one home in the Southwest and another home in the Northeast we commit and invest in five homes in a row. This allows our construction teams to save on transportation costs and transport charges so they can move from one home to the next. That represents significant savings from, for example, an excavation perspective where we can pass those savings on to the buyer.
Evolve vs. Competitors
There’s an acronym we share with clients when they visit an Evolve show home - WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get.) Nothing is more frustrating as a buyer than being shown something which isn't included in the posted price. With an Evolve home, you can be confident that what you see is what you're going to receive as a buyer. Not only are we trying to provide the best bang for your buck and the best value compared to our competition, but we strive to be as transparent as possible and really demonstrate what you're going to receive as a buyer.
Research & Development
In addition to this, we also have a dedicated research and development team that surveys client preferences and we take that input and try to incorporate that into our floor plans. We have multiple floor plan variations and options which allow our customers to find a layout or variation which best suits their needs. That removes the need for custom changes and it also saves months in design time. This creates an overall more efficient process. In this industry, time essentially represents money, so if we can have these plans that save time, it definitely achieves that goal. We try to fit a niche of buyers who are looking for a quality built home at an affordable price point. Sometimes customers can wait upwards of 23-24 months on their contract to move into their house, which we think is just too long to wait for a home. By creating more efficiencies, it allows us to accelerate the time required for the build, accelerate the time processing, and make the home much more affordable. This also means home buyers can move into their house much quicker than what they would with a traditional custom builder.
Cons?
As we mentioned at the very beginning, we're not a perfect fit for everybody. From a price-per-square-foot comparison, we always try to provide buyers with the best value. We're not a custom builder in terms of making changes on the fly and making big alterations, that's not something that fits within our business model. It doesn't fit into the overall mission statement and so that’s definitely not the type of buyer that we try to capture. There are many other great home builders who do that very well.
Misconceptions?
When you introduce the word affordability, some people tend to associate that with the word cheap. With the Evolve line, we're talking about a home that we strive to have outlast every other home on the block. We want to be the last home standing and we also want to be able to offer that at the most affordable price point for our buyers; on top of providing great value in the finishes, including quartz countertops, luxury vinyl plank, and a great appliance package.
How Do Colour Boards And Other Personalization Options Work With The Evolve Series?
Depending on the stage of construction, that’s where you potentially have more flexibility to make some changes and personalize your home. The phrase ‘colour board’ essentially means the different types of finishing colours from your floor colours to your hardware. We have designer-curated packages that you can choose from based on which construction stage that home is at. The earlier you get in, the more personalization options you’ll have.
We also have a dedicated section on our website where we have a list of all the different types of products you can add.
Home Design
To go with our colourboards, we also have our DesignQ home design centre where you can choose from a wide selection of items such as drapes and blinds, feature walls, and other furniture to further personalize your Evolve home.
You can add a brick or wallpaper feature wall in the great room, for example. Or if you’ve fallen in love with a particular showhome look, you can rebuild that in your own home with DesignQ.
What’s Next For The Evolve Series?
Giving back to the community is an important part of who we are at Sterling Homes. We are proud to support a variety of local non-profit organizations, because when it comes to meeting the needs of our community, we stand united in making our communities a great place for all families.
The next mission that we’re excited about here at Sterling is to not only be the most affordable single-family option in Edmonton but for these homes to also have the lowest environmental impact of them all with built green homes. This will represent a more durable home for buyers, a cleaner home with reduced monthly operating costs, and last but not least, green built. If you’re certified through this program, it also provides buyers with the CMHC insurance premium rebate eligibility, and so that will ultimately leave more money in buyers’ pockets. At the end of the day, this will also leave our planet green for our kids and future generations to enjoy.
If you have any further questions about our Evolve series or any other Sterling Homes models, don’t hesitate to contact one of our Area Managers today. They’re happy to help!
EVOLVE Quick FAQs:
