VIP is the Place to Be

When you become an Antares Community VIP member, access to the lowest pre-grand opening pricing is only the beginning. Antares VIP membership includes a wealth of benefits such as access to updates on the community while it’s still in construction, and a special invite to our pre-launch events.  We know that envisioning a neighborhood before it’s built can be hard to do. With multiple communities to preview and similar floorplans to explore, we’ll make sure the only thing hard to imagine will be leaving your dream home once it’s built!

At our VIP events, we make sure you feel special. We make sure each guest that presented with a personalized experience that has been thoughtfully put together by our #AntaresFamily!  Make sure you join our VIP list if you’re interested in one of our communities, so you can take advantage of all the Antares VIP benefits!

 

Until Next Time,

Rebekah R.

Feature Team Member- Becca Rogers

 

We sat down and had a chat with the fabulous Becca Rogers today.  She’s the newest member of our sales team and represents some exciting changes for us.  But we’ll get to that in a minute.

11892085_10204326523672809_245729406581719900_nThere are a few things you should know about Becca before we get to her position here.  She is an avid reader.  Any book will do, but cliché love stories and Harry Potter books are her niche.  When she’s not reading, you’ll likely find her coming to the rescue for some lucky pooch.  Like many in the office here, she has an open heart and loves her fur babies!  She’s a true DFW native who loves rooting for our Rangers, so Bark at the Park is basically the best thing ever for her (especially if she can swim there while reading the new Harry Potter book).  She shares these passions with her fiancé, Tyler, and stepson, Ryder.

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We love her for all of these things, but we chose her for a couple of other passions.  Specifically, her love for customer service and for home building.  At her last workplace, Becca got a taste of 24/7 customer service. She loved it. She really enjoyed being available to participate in the exciting process alongside clients. Her passion for home-building comes from her experience as a child.  Her father was a home-builder, and she loved to visit the model homes and find out how things were made.  These fit well into our needs for a New Home Specialist.  She’s the friendly voice on the phone when you call in asking about a new home. We are always striving to be better, and this position is one way we make sure you have the best home-buying experience with us.

Until Next Time,

-Rebekah

Let’s Take A Selfie

Take a selfieGreetings!  My name is Rebekah, and this is the blog post where you get introduced to the new blogger.  But first, let’s take a selfie.  How can you not?  There are too many pretty mirrors in our showroom, and two of them are right in front of my desk!  Now, there are a few things that you HAVE to know about me.  I am the oldest (read: bossiest) of four dramatically different children.  We grew up in Fort Worth, and I discovered my passion for Marketing in college at East Texas Baptist University.

The thing about marketing is that even the best marketers can’t change the product.  I’ve had the good fortune to work with some really exciting products in the past that made it easy to bring in customers. As a self-proclaimed home design expert (I’ve logged SO many hours of HGTV), I am happy to say that I am once again working with a product that I love.  As I am looking at pictures and samples, I already feel sorry for my poor boyfriend.  He’s going to have to deal with a long future of ‘Baaaaaabe!  Look at the pretty thing we’re building now!’

Getting to business, though, I am the newest member of the Antares Marketing team and I’m here to continue giving you inside looks into our crazy little family and my personal point of view on our lovely communities.  You’ll continue to see features on our teams and customers, along with highlights on what’s best to do in this great Metroplex!

Be sure to stop by our blog again next week.  I’ll be posting about the only thing I like more than houses: local food.

 

Until then,

Rebekah R

Dan Parrish, our Graduate Master Builder

Have you ever heard of a guy named, Dan Parrish? No, he’s not a celebrity or an athlete, but he is an unparalleled builder at Antares Homes, so this makes him pretty important! We used to have a saying that Antares Homes was really Dantares Homes!

Here at Antares we have a few diligent Master Builders who work around the clock to see our homes become a reality. Dan is one of two Graduate Master Builders currently building our homes and I want tell you a little bit more about him.

DanDan Parrish has been a part of the Antares family for 15 years, just a few short years after Antares was founded by Ron Formby in 1998.  He started his career in the warranty department and from there he moved to phase building which involved permitting, creating start memos, and pouring slabs.

After working behind the scenes, Dan became a builder for Antares.  After a few years of excellent perfomance he entered his training to become a Master Builder.  To receive his Graduate Master Builder certification, he had even more education from the NAHB.

Facts about Dan:

  • Dan is a fantastic Karaoke singer.
  • Dan loves to go on cruises.
  • Dan’s dog is named Murphy and he is the cutest mutt ever.
  • Dan loves to watch college baseball.

Today, Dan is currently building in our Meadow Creek Estates community in Glenn Heights, TX so feel free to stop by and say hello to him!

-Alexa Katchinska

 

Spring Tour

WooHoo!

The Greater Fort Worth Spring Tour of New Homes is coming up in May and I am very excited!  We love the Spring Tour because it introduces us to lots of people who have never heard of Antares Homes before.  We really loved it last year because we won a lot of awards.  Those awards made us feel really special. 

What was so exciting about those awards last year is that our Model Home at 6836 Waterhill Lane was the Grand Award Runner Up!  Now, I know a lot of folks who would say Runner Up is just second place, but it is second place over 51 other homes, many of which are in a much higher price range!  That gives me warm fuzzies!  The Grand Award winner was Sean Knight Custom Homes’ 4709 Santa Cova Court, valued at over $2 million!  I’ll play second fiddle to that! 😉

This year the Tour has been completely re-vamped and there will be a lot of visitor interaction on the Tour website.  It’s not complete yet; we builders have to enter all of our information on our entries!  But, you will get to vote on your favorite homes and you will have access to customize your tour by choosing which homes you want to visit and printing out a map and route.  There are a few more surprises in store for tour visitors that I am not at liberty to speak of, but I can say that I can’t hardly wait until it’s all completed!!!

Tour Dates:

May  7 & 8

May 14 & 15

May 21 & 22

Built So Well, Our Employees Agree!

Monique's Kitchen

Our buyers are people who want to live in a neighborhood with other Home Owners who are invested in creating a community.  They are drawn to us because of our Quality, our Energy Guarantee and the fact that we don’t sell any of our homes to Investors.  All of our buyers live in their homes!  Also, we have a high percentage of our employees living in an Antares Home.  We believe in what we build, and Quality is our number one priority.

This is what one of our Salespeople told me about her experience buying an Antares Home:

“I have been selling new homes for 11 years. I was working for a different builder at the time we decided to start our new home search in the Burleson area.  We visited every home builder in the Burleson area and even viewed our options with a pre-owned home. I had never considered a pre-owned home before, as I have built 5 new homes in the last 11 years. 

We had to have a 5 bedroom home and of course needed it on a family of 6 budget….Needless to say, pre owned was ruled out pretty fast and onto the new home builders we went ! We visited so many builders and just could not find what we were looking for with both price and features. Believe it or not, Antares Homes was not even on my list!

We stumbled across the community of Hidden Creek in Burleson, right across form the golf course and in a perfect location off 35 addressing the rest of our needs for proximity to shopping, restaurants, etc… Into the sales office we went…here we go again…

“Hi my name is Monique and this is my husband Teddy”.  

There was Sharon White! She greeted us with a smile and total knowledge of her product. It was like Sharon and I had been friends for years! We spoke with ease and she really listened to what I was looking for. What I learned about Antares Homes that day, I only wished I had gone there first and did not waste my whole day on builders that did not meet my needs and budget.

If I was going to buy a home in Burleson, It was going to be an Antares Home. The perfect 5 bedroom home and a payment we could afford!! Well, if I am going to buy a home from this company, then who better to represent this company, but me! I believed so strongly in what they had to offer their customers, that this was a company that I wanted to represent!  Out went the resume the next day….

I have been working for Antares for almost 2 years now. I have a fantastic home and the kids and family are all happy…sometimes I have a hard time believing that anyone would want to buy a home anywhere else but Antares. We love our community and have made lots of friends. If you choose an Antares Home…no doubt about it…you will love your home too!

The Antares sales team is the best…I have worked for many builders in the last 11 years and I can say without hesitation, that they all believe in their product so strongly, are knowledgeable in every facet of the building industry and greet each customer with the anticipation of showing everyone what makes this company so unique in today’s market.”

          -Monique Tinsley

High Praise indeed!  Stephanie Gatica, one of our Sales Assistants told me this:

“I did not work for Antares when I bought my home, but I can tell you why I bought an Antares Home…it was the best house we looked at!!! 

My husband and I visited several area builders and did not get very excited.  Floor plans were bad, prices seemed high, and ran into a few “used car salesmen” types in the process.  These are not things you want to use to describe your home buying experience. 

Then we pulled into Matador Ranch!!!  We did not look any further…in fact we picked our home that day from the inventory on the ground!!!  Not only that, but Jaimie (our sales person) was fantastic!!!  She really cared about our needs and happiness and worked tirelessly to get us exactly what we wanted. 

With that being said…I tell this to every person I run into who says “I’m looking to buy a house”.  I tell them they will never have a better experience all the way around, as they will be buying an Antares Home!” 

Three of our Certified Graduate Builders and another Salesperson also live in Antares Homes.    Remember my quest to find out what makes an Antares Home Owner tick?  We just found out about two more.  So six of my Celebrities are co-workers of mine.  I think that’s pretty great, don’t you?

Living Below Your Means

small house, BIG HOUSE

Before the recession hit the nation, home buying trends were toward buying the biggest and most expensive home you can buy with the goal of short term appreciation leading to a huge windfall on the re-sale of your home.  Well, we all know what happened to that trend.  Nevertheless Antares Homes was pretty quick to begin downsizing our plans to meet the market where it currently is.  People are still buying larger homes, but instead of just a few people living in them, multigenerational families are living together.  Another trend we are seeing is our customers buying a lot less home than they are qualified for.  I hear my customers tell me over and over again that they want to live life and not be strapped and chained by their home.  Now, I’ll tell you, lending is tight.  No bank is going to lend more money than they think they will be able to re-coup and so when someone is qualified for our largest floor plan in a neighborhood and they want to buy one of the smaller ones, I have to ask: Why?  I mean, there is a difference between living in the smallest floor plan and living in the largest floor plan.  When you can buy a $160,000 home and you are telling me you want a $115,000 home, I do worry that I’ll have an unhappy homeowner on my hands at some point.  Surprisingly, that has not been the case.  What our homeowners are looking for is a little freedom and a lot of peace of mind.  They seem to be content to live in a little smaller home, enjoy the benefits of our energy efficiency and bank on a steady appreciation rate.  They are spending their money on vacations, hobbies and improving their properties.  They are prepared in case a spouse loses a job or a child gets sick or a family member needs their help.  These are all very current concerns for everyone today and the person who decides to have a smaller mortgage has choices in life that others don’t.  I’ll be interviewing a lovely couple named April and Terrence and we’ll get a closer look at living below your means.

Recipes for Bryan and Nikole

Bandit wants to know why he didn't get any leftovers.

Appetizer:

French bread, pre-sliced

Brie

Honey

Walnuts

Non-stick cooking spray

Coat a cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray and place French bread slices on the cookie sheet.  Lightly coat bread slices with non-stick spray and put into an oven pre-heated to 350.  At the same time place Brie in a shallow baking dish and put into the oven at the same time as the bread.  Remove bread when it starts to brown.  Remove Brie as it gets melty and starts to pour out of the rind.  Scoop some Brie onto the toasted bread, top with a few walnuts and drizzle honey over the top and eat.  MMMMmmmmmm.

Salad:

Hearts of Romaine

Matchstick Carrots

Roma Tomatoes

Cucumber

White Onion

Mushrooms

Crumbled Goat Cheese

Avocado

Chop, slice and dice into a pleasing arrangement and serve with your favorite dressing.

Pasta Sauce:

3 Italian Sausages

1 Can tomato paste

1 *oz can garlic tomato sauce

1 *oz can Roasted Tomato and Garlic tomato sauce

1/2 tablespoon sucralose

Italian Seasoning to taste

Onion powder to taste

Couple of tablespoons of white wine

A little water or chicken broth to adjust thickness to taste

Brown sausages and then slice.  Add sausages to the remaining ingredients and let bubble for an hour or so.  Serve over pasta.  We had whole wheat Rotini.

Dessert:  Thaw and Eat Key Lime Pie.  Bryan says he will eat a whole one while he participates in an online gaming binge on his X-Box.  I would love to be able to stomach a whole Key Lime Pie, but I just can’t.  I had trouble serving myself in the first place and dropped it on the table both times.  Yes, I ate two slices.  Can you blame me?  It was Marie Callender’s.

Dinner with Bryan and Nikole

So yesterday was my husband’s birthday, but he went fishing for the week with his Grandpa and Dad and Brother, so the huge dinner I made last night was for Bryan and Nikole!  I’ll post the recipes later (‘cause it was so yummy), but we had a wonderful appetizer of toasted French bread with baked brie and walnuts finished with a honey drizzle, pasta with a homemade red sauce that included Italian Sausage (my FAVORITE) and a beautiful salad.  YUM.  Oh yeah, and Key Lime Pie for dessert which was a fortunate impulse buy because it happened to be Bryan’s favorite.  We talked about dog training and being home owners, since we all have dogs under a year old and own homes.  I asked Nikole if people were often surprised to find out that she is a homeowner, she said absolutely.  She just started a new job and since she just turned 20 this summer her co-workers were a little shocked.  I wanted to find out why they had decided to purchase a home so young.  We all agreed on the benefits of such a choice, but how did the conversation come up?  As it turns out, Nikole’s mom was the one who suggested to Nikole that it might be a good idea to buy a home.  Nikole agreed since she was tired of being restricted by the rules in a rental property and she wanted a place of her own to make into her space.    It wasn’t necessarily a new home that her mom had in mind, but as Nikole and Bryan talked to friends and family they found a lot of good advice about buying new over re-sale.  Since the payments were about the same as their rent, buying a new home made a lot of sense.  Also, Bryan’s sister had just purchased an Antares Home and loved the energy efficiency.  Bryan and Nikole both view owning a home as a hobby and another full time job.  They have projects planned for their back yard and have even hosted a wedding!  Congratulations Bryan and Nikole on your new home at Ashford Park!