Posted on 03/26/2005 6:05:59 AM PST by krb
RALEIGH, N.C. -- A month-old company based in Rocky Mount hopes to find success in the very niche market of selling log homes to gays and lesbians.
Justin Porter, the founder of Log Homes for Us, said he noticed a market to sell the homes to gays and lesbians while working for a larger company, of which his firm is now a division.
At log home exhibitions, "I realized one out of every 10 to 15 couples was gay or lesbian couple," Porter said Friday. "And I realized there was no company catering to that demographic."
He guessed -- correctly, he says now -- that the sales people in the industry that he describes as a "a very good ole boy industry" lost interest when they learned they were dealing with a homosexual couple.
Porter, who is gay, describes the response to the limited advertising placed by Log Homes for Us as "unbelievable."
"We're just getting call after call," he said.
Log Homes for Us is a division of The Original Log Cabin Homes Ltd., which began in 1973 and moved its headquarters to Interstate 95 in Rocky Mount in 1987. President Tom Vesce says he envisions Log Homes for Us selling 300 to 400 homes in its first year and accounting for as much as one-sixth of overall sales.
"We've had over the years many, many gay and lesbian customers," Vesce said. "This is an opportunity to acknowledge them publicly and salute that segment in the marketplace."
Log Homes for Us has contracts for more than 75 homes, he said. And the company is working with the developers of Carefree Cove, a private community for homosexuals being built in Zionville. All the homes in the community, located north of Boone, must be log or cedar siding.
Developer Gina Razete said CJR, the company she owns with her partner, Cathy Groene, is building spec homes from Log Homes for Us kits. In addition, the developers will recommend Log Homes for Us to property owners. So far, CJR has sold 54 lots and plans to sell the last 30 or so lots this summer.
Razete and Groene also have formed Pride 5 with three men, a general contracting company that will put together the kits for landowners.
"It's exciting that three gay companies can come together and do business for the gay and lesbian community," Razete said from Fort Myers, Fla., where she and Groene also have developed a community for homosexuals.
It's not that gay and lesbian couples are more interested in log homes than heterosexual couples, but that Log Homes for Us is catering specifically to that market.
With a log home the buyers get "kits" with all the parts of the home that they, or a builder, put together on their own land. "It's a very hands-on project," Porter said. "You're involved in it from the foundation to the roof, from the door knobs to the type of shingles you're going to have."
Log Cabin for Us markets itself with ads that are sleeker and more contemporary than those that the parent company uses, said Porter, adding that homosexual couples tend to buy larger homes than heterosexual couples.
Its Web site makes oblique references to why log homes should appeal to gays and lesbians, saying the Americans who settled the West "owned their own land and were free, both politically and economically."
HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!
How far is the Ol' Log Inn?
you bit me.
what is up with homos and log cabins?
Only one out of every 10 to 15??? Where's this guy bee...
Oh. He said Raleigh. I thought this was about Asheville.
ah, man - that's not right - lol
LMAO!!! too funny.
LOL
Homosexual Agenda Ping.
I don't really feel like pinging this out, but I must do my duty.
Do it yourself comments.
"Carefree Cove" - private community for homosexuals.
Let DirtyHarryY2K and me know if you want on/off this pinglist.
That's funny. I don't care who you are, that's funny.
I happen to live in a custom log home and I ain't no rump ranger. My wife and I designed the floor plan and the logs were milled to that spec. Lots of stone. 28' stone fireplace in the great room with a 28' ceiling. Interior walls are 1" x 6" tongue in groove red western cedar. Lots of decks.
I was my own contractor and est. that I saved 20% on total costs. Home was complete 90 days from the day we poured the footers. I didn't physically build it myself but oversaw the craftsman.
It is very energy efficient. Like living in a thermos bottle and smells faintly like a cedar chest. And, probably unlike those fagcabiners, I didn't knock the knotholes out of the logs. Use your imagination. At 2,600 ft. it is NO CABIN.
... I always wondered why the gay group called themselves Log Cabin Republicans...
Ewwwww. I think it's close to the chocolate factory :(
I don't know ... the butt plug industry is pretty active.
Let's help this "Company" find new work in another field.
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