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Lifetime Builder
By Frank O'Brien
David Wassmansdorf has dedicated his career to the pursuit of home building
excellence.
It came as no surprise
when David Wassmansdorf, the 41-year-old president of Passport Homes Limited
in Burlington, Ontario, accepted an EnerQuality Award this year for "Technical
Excellence" at the Ontario Building and Renovation Forum.
As a progressive home builder in Southern Ontario, a former member of the
OHBA Technical Committee for 13 years and the new president of the Canadian
Home Builders' Association, Wassmansdorf is a second-generation builder who
has dedicated his career to the pursuit of better homes.
He learned about commitment and quality building from an early age. His father
spent nearly two decades with some of Canada's leading home building companies
before forming B.M.W. Properties in 1983. In 1986, upon graduation from the
University of Western Ontario, David joined his parents, Bart and Jean, in
the company. Six years ago, David founded Passport Homes, an integrated building
land development company that specializes in in-fill and custom built homes.
Working from his base in Burlington, where he lives with his wife Liz and
12-year-old daughter Gillian, Wassmansdorf has led Passport to three consecutive
R-2000 Awards for technical and design excellence. In 2004, he was the recipient
of the CHBA's prestigious Award of Excellence in recognition of outstanding
service to Canada's home building industry.
It is a service commitment that extends to his community. Wassmansdorf is
a director of the Catholic Youth Organization for the Diocese of Hamilton
and in the past has volunteered in the liturgy program at his parish.
Challenges
This year Passport Homes will complete 15 new homes, many of them large custom
designs. However, like other home builders across Canada, Wassmansdorf is
well aware of the challenges facing the industry. As CHBA president, he is
looking forward to working with all levels and all members of the Association
to tackle the industry's issues head-on. He points out that the "CHBA
is a team and allows us to achieve collectively what we can't on our own."
When he became president during the 63rd annual Canadian Home Builders' Association
national conference in St. John's this March, Wassmansdorf began overseeing
a challenging new direction, a new Vision for the Future that CHBA is now
in the midst of implementing.
Key to this vision is building consumer confidence through much better customer
service, Wassmansdorf said. A national series of consumer focus groups, undertaken
by CHBA last summer, showed there is work to do, he said.
It is what home builders do with the information that is important now, he
added. He praised the action that CHBA has already taken in response, but
said ultimate success will be measured by the work of individual members.
"Most of us know that we should be doing a better job," he said.
"Now that we have the evidence, the question is how builders can service
customers better, in not only how we build, but in the service and care we
provide before, during and after the customer first walks in our model home
or sales office… Building trust and consumer confidence will be a priority
of my presidency."
Leadership
Wassmansdorf is no stranger to leadership. He is the former President of the
Guelph HBA andhe chaired the Ontario HBA Training and Education Committee.
He has served as a second vice-president at the OHBA and, nationally, on the
Executive Board as CHBA Secretary, second vice-president and, in 2004, the
first vice-president.
There are two traditional parts of what the CHBA does, Wassmansdorf explained.
One is working with the federal government and its agencies, particularly
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, "to advance a national housing
policy that will work for our industry and our consumers." The other,
which he said is becoming as important, is to create an environment for the
professionals in the industry to flourish.
"The CHBA is more than a lobby group," he said, adding that as president
he will be "talking a lot about the positive nature of our industry,
about building on the momentum we have and doing what we do even better than
in the past." This, he said, will require the cooperation of every link
in the industry, from suppliers and manufacturers to contractors and trades
people.
He urged all CHBA members to work toward cooperation with government and consumers
to "continue to build viable, beautiful communities that we can all be
proud of."
Hot
topics
At the same time, there are issues that require the Association to take a
strong stand. For example, he points to land moratoriums in Calgary, Halifax
and southern Ontario that are causing land shortages and forcing land prices
up and will undermine housing affordability and choice.
On the affordability front, Wassmansdorf is confident that the Federal government
will finally make adjustments to the Goods and Services Tax as it affects
both renovations and new homes. He notes that consistent efforts by the CHBA
should soon result in a more flexible definition of "substantial renovations"
eligible for a GST rebate, especially for secondary suites. This issue, along
with GST indexation for new homes, have anchored CHBA's recent presentations
to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance, he noted.
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R-2000
As a long time R-2000 builder, Wassmansdorf supports proposed changes to R-2000
that will encourage home builders to participate in the program and register
more new homes. "This can be done without weakening the R-2000 standard,"
he said. Building energy-saving, healthy homes presents an opportunity for
home builders to raise the bar and receive acknowledgement from a third party
for doing a good job.
Wassmansdorf also noted that new home builders and renovators have had to
change how they work in a new reality of continual volatility in material
prices and labour shortages. "At one time we would have price protection
on most materials for six months at least. Now, we are lucky if the price
doesn't change weekly."
Today, recruiting qualified trades people in a competitive construction environment
is a key challenge for new home builders. Wassmansdorf's own experience suggests
that builders must tighten scheduling, provide longer lead times and manage
projects better to assure they will have the materials and manpower to deliver
their product. Even so, he is concerned that new home and renovation project
prices will continue to rise, and there will be delays in delivery, as input
prices increase and labour shortages persist.
Pride
We put this question to the new CHBA president: "With restrictive land
legislation, restless consumers and rising prices across the board, why keep
building?"
"My mother used to ask me that," Wassmansdorf answered with a laugh,
"but I believe it is about being involved with positive people and the
pride that comes from building something as important as homes. For most of
us in this business, it is something that gets in your blood." Recently,
amidst a busy career, he took on the challenge of creating a custom R-2000
home in Mississauga for a disabled person, which involved installing wheelchair
access and leading-edge technology and materials, from high-efficiency solar
collectors to insulated concrete foundation forms. He was attracted to the
project, he said, because of "the challenge of taking fresh ideas, new
technology and products and bringing them all together in one home."
In many ways, the theme could also reflect Wassmansdorf's approach to the
CHBA presidency.HB
