Details: Summer 2003

June 01, 2003 (Reston, Virginia)

FROM THE PRESIDENT

Welcome to our second edition of details, Gulick Group’s semi-annual newsletter. This issue highlights our most recent community news, takes a look at who’s who at Gulick Group, and offers an outlook on the Washington region’s dynamic real estate market.

We have big plans for the future. Each department in our company is growing and so are the geographic locales under consideration for future Gulick communities. We have hired a land manager with impressive credentials and a chief operating officer with twenty-five years experience in the national real estate arena, and we are investigating other product niches, including upscale townhomes.I think the most remarkable aspect of our growth, however, is that unlike most companies, we are taking the time and making the investment to grow the organization first, and then to increase our sales volume. Only in this way can we guarantee consistent quality in both our process and our product.

Gulick Group will make its first move into Maryland this Fall where we will continue to offer distinctive designs, quality construction, and the superior service that our buyers have come to trust. We expect this will open the door to spectacular Gulick Group communities throughout the Washington region in the future. But for now, just kick back and enjoy this latest issue of details, a growing part of the Gulick tradition.

COMMUNITY UPDATE

Here is a preview of what’s happening with our newest communities, as well as a glimpse at what’s to come later this year as Gulick Group moves across the Potomac into Maryland.

Wild Meadow: With the arrival of this upscale community – homes start in the high $600s – residents of enormously popular Ashburn, Virginia finally have a place to move up to. In contrast to diminutive lots, subdivision homes and driveways that run straight into the house, Gulick’s Wild Meadow homes are remarkably different. To begin with, they are brick homes (all four sides) and most of the 22 lots are a half-acre; the rest are even more accommodating. The next thing you will notice is the distinctive way each home is sited to give the lot a sense of individuality. All with side load garages; the team at Gulick starts the driveway entrances on the opposite side of the lot and sweep the driveways, in a curve like, graceful fashion, across the front yard. Further elegance is added with inviting flagstone walkways, stone piers and burnished light fixtures at the entrance to each driveway. Located off Hay Road, all the convenient shops, restaurants, schools, churches and amenities (community center, swimming pools and tennis courts) of Ashburn Farm are just a five-minute drive from Wild Meadow. For further Wild Meadow information, please call 703.723.2714.

Riverbend South: A quiet cul-de-sac off Georgetown Pike in toney Great Falls, this is a community of six truly exceptional, two acre, wooded lots hand-picked by Gulick planners to showcase the award-winning Woodley and two new designs, The Wentworth and Strathmore. The site was so incomparable that Gulick planners commissioned a tree study to preserve existing specimen trees and integrate them into the overall masterplan. Ranging in size from 5,500 square feet to over 7,000 on two floors, the new super model will open in August. Custom yardscapes, yard lighting, irrigation systems, stone walls, patios and dramatic driveway entrances have already made these exceptional homes irresistible to buyers. Open for sales this past May, Riverbend South is already 80% sold out. One of the homes will be retained by Gulick Group as a showcase for future communities.

Mill Creek in Potomac, Maryland: This summer, through letters, e-mail messages and also on our website www.gulickinmontgomerycounty.com, we will begin to send you announcements and renderings of our very first community in Maryland. You will find out all about it in the fall issue of details. Located off Stoney Creek Road on a gorgeous piece of rolling property in Potomac, Mill Creek will showcase the latest in distinctive Gulick home designs, exquisite site planning, and custom landscaping for each one of the superb 34, two acre lots.To get the latest news and updates for our existing communities, including Riverbend, Riverbend South, Riverbend North, The Reserve in McLean, Brambleton and Wild Meadow, please visit our Web site at www.GulickGroup.com.

WHO’S WHO

Jaime Beal: Customer Relations Coordinator

Customer Relations Coordinator Jaime Beal is passionate about details. Gulick homeowners will find her a perfectionist, a standard bearer for Gulick quality, impatient to find a better way to do things, and a dedicated believer in building trust. “We want our homeowner’s experience to be the very best,” she says.To make this happen, Jaime is preparing a helpful “A to Z” maintenance manual that will make the Gulick homeowner’s experience as harmonious, effortless and supportive as possible. A perfect example of Gulick’s “pursuit of wisdom and the discipline arising from a core logic,” the maintenance manual idea grew from a Gulick team desire to discover a better way to do things.In her two and a half years with Gulick Group, Jaime has helped computerize, customize and systematize the Gulick process. All past procedures and methods have been downloaded into easy to access programs that guide and control every step of the enormously complex process called building a luxury home. Nothing is left to chance. When a homeowner has an appointment with a contractor for warranty work, this highly effective control system guarantees that appointments are kept and that work is complete and documented.

Jaime’s initiative is the essence of what the Gulick process is all about: that is, not just the discipline that goes into the design and construction before the homeowner arrives, it’s all about the thorough follow-through that happens in the months after the initial walk-through. If you are not currently a Gulick homeowner, you have a lot to look forward to in the days after your move-in, and one of these things is your inevitable encounter with Jaime Beal.She’ll take care of you, understanding that Gulick homeowners all have great expectations. “The beautiful thing is that, from day one, you’ll have the sincere support of everyone in this organization,” Jaime says. “Strong people behind you – that’s what I love about my job. It gives one the courage to change things, make them better, and that’s most exciting.”

MARKET INSIDER

As this newsletter was being written, the National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB) – known as “the voice of the housing industry” – released the following information. As another Gulick value-added detail, we thought you should know about the upbeat climate of the times in which you are considering buying a home. “Builder and buyer confidence in the market for new single-family homes expanded in May as a further downshift in mortgage interest rates and improving consumer confidence considerably brightened the outlook for future sales activity, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) reported today. NAHB’s Housing Market Index (HMI), a monthly gauge of builder sentiment, rose four points to 56 in May, regaining much of the ground it lost earlier this year due to poor weather, war and economic jitters.”The spring home buying season is under way, and builders are encouraged by the strong demand they are seeing,” said Kent Conine, NAHB president and a homebuilder from Dallas. “The continuing appeal of the lowest mortgage rates in decades and strong home price appreciation, on top of the successful outcome in Iraq, has prompted many people to go forward with a home purchase who may have postponed that decision in previous months.”Builders are on track for a very healthy year in 2003 as the market for new single-family homes continues to exhibit stability and strength. We are now forecasting that new-home sales and starts in this category will be essentially on par with last year’s solid numbers,” Conine said.

DETAILS: THE NAME

As with all things Gulick, there is a specific purpose and reason for all we do to provide you with a superior living product. This newsletter is no exception. Details is like a prism: it is an exact reflection of the many precise components that go into making your home different from all the rest. That’s why we chose this name.

In this newsletter, and on our website www.gulickgroup.com, you will discover the infinite colors of this Gulick prism. On our website, click on ‘News’ to view the online version of this newsletter. You can email the online version to a friend, and you can also find the latest Detail – a fascinating Gulick fact – which will explain why each Gulick home is distinct and unlike any other.

Much like the surprise we loved as kids in opening a new box of Cracker Jacks, you will look forward to the discovery of the next Gulick Detail, a piece of the exacting process that goes into the form and function of each Gulick home. Here’s the first one…

Each Gulick home is an “original.” It’s reason for being lies deep in what we call the “Gulick Philosophy.” Borrowing from Webster, it is “the pursuit of wisdom and the discipline arising from a core logic.” Gulick’s “core logic” is all about the disciplined process that goes into the design and construction of each new home. We are very tough on ourselves making sure that every detail in your home is exactly the way we’d like it for our very own family.2003