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Member Profile: Providing Details, Adding Value
The latest in a series that profiles members of local NAHB Remodelers who are strengthening their local councils through networking and recruiting new members. The grassroots champions who are being highlighted in this series have collectively recruited more than 400 new members for the NAHB Remodelers to date.
 Monarcha Marcet
Owner, Adventure in Building
Orlando
Monarcha Marcet, the owner of Adventure in Building in Orlando, has a rare combination of skills that serves her well when providing preconstruction management services to builders and remodelers on an outsourced basis. She can visualize architectural plans in three dimensions and she’s very thorough at estimating the specific trades required on a given project.
Marcet notes that some of the best fits for her services are smaller companies in central Florida that don’t have the volume of work to support an in-house preconstruction management staff.
“By hiring someone like me, they can avoid insurance and other overhead costs for their own company, and they can hire me on a one-time basis or for an ongoing relationship,” she says.
Typical client projects include everything from remodeling condominiums to building new single-family homes as large as 10,000 square feet.
Adapting to the Market
Running a business that provides estimating and consulting services for builders is not what Marcet originally thought she’d be doing. “I started out thinking I’d be an interior decorator, because that’s what women did,” she says.
Toward that end Marcet studied architecture, but after earning an undergraduate degree, she decided that she would be a better designer if she also learned how buildings were put together. So she went back to college and earned a masters degree in building construction.
With that as her foundation, Marcet began working with a partner on remodeling projects. After gaining enough experience, she started her own company and focused on building and remodeling single-family homes.
When she moved to Orlando, however, she repositioned her company to provide estimating services for small-volume builders and remodelers.
Making Connections
Once in Orlando, Marcet joined and got involved in the Home Builders Association of Metro Orlando and its remodelers council.
“Word of mouth in remodeling is so important, so for me, it’s essential to meet remodelers, learn what they do and how they operate and also to let them know what I do,” Marcet says. “Most of my main builder clients have come from my involvement with the council, where I met our area’s most reputable remodelers.”
Last year, she served as the remodelers council chair and initiated incentives programs to encourage attendance. In particular, she started the Builder and Builder Buddy Buckets door-prize drawing program to encourage members to bring guests. Since the program began, council meeting attendance has doubled.
Helping Others to Be Successful
What Marcet likes most about her business is helpin other builders and remodelers to be successful. That’s part of the value she brings to her clients.
“I’m very detail oriented and try to see all aspects of what is going to be involved in taking a project ― from what’s on paper to how it’s going to be built in the field,” she says.
With that information in hand, it is easier for her clients to justify their value to their clients.
 Increase Your Professional Credibility
The Certified Graduate Remodeler (CGR) designation emphasizes business management skills as the key to a professional remodeling operation.
Remodelers who earn the CGR become members of an exclusive national program and gain recognition as industry leaders.
To learn more about the CGR designation, visit www.nahb.org/CGRinfo, or call The Professional Designation Help Line at 800-368-5242 x8154.
 Earn Your Professional Designation at The Remodeling Show
Earning the Certified Aging-in-Place Specialist (CAPS), Certified Graduate Remodeler (CGR) or Graduate Master Remodeler (GMR) designation demonstrates a commitment to excellence and keeps remodelers on top of industry innovation.
A number of pre-show courses at The Remodeling Show in Baltimore, Sept. 9-12, qualify for these professional designations, or for continuing education needed for other NAHB designations.
For more information, visit www.nahb.org/RemodelingShow.
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