Q. The Doyle family has a long construction history across the state of Ohio. Tell us about that.
Growing up, Justin worked with his father in the family business building homes in Lima, Ohio. He went to school for engineering at Ohio State. Once out of school, he got a job as an engineer with Northrop Grumman, then at PING serving as an engineer tasked with building the PING putter lab. While working for Northrop Grumman and PING, Justin, still tethered to his homebuilding passion, continued to design homes for the family business in Lima.
Eventually, he moved back to Lima to work with his dad full-time. Justin’s brother, Josh, is also a builder, and they both worked with their dad for a short time. Justin was trying to expand the business and decided he should move closer to the Cincinnati market. His dad does more production-style homes, but when Justin came to Cincinnati, he saw there was a big need for custom home building. Initially, Justin wanted his dad’s company to come here and do that, but he decided to start his own business instead, and it took off. His business has grown since. His dad is still building in Lima, and Josh went north into Michigan and northern Ohio.
Justin has a passion for homebuilding, and he made a name for himself in Cincinnati, continuing the family name in the industry.
Q. You have a lot of Justin Doyle Homes communities. Will you build on individual land sites, too?
Yes. If someone comes to us with a raw piece of land and wants to build a custom home, we can facilitate that. We also partner with local developers where we are a preferred builder in their developments. We also have our own JDH exclusive developments. With Justin Doyle Homes, if you want to build, we can figure it out.
Q. Do most customers come to you with plans in-hand or do you walk them through each step of the custom home building process?
We tailor the experience to our clients’ schedules, aesthetics and desired level of involvement. You might say we customize the custom-building process for them! People come to us with plans drawn by an architect, and you can buy plans online now, so people often bring those to us. We have an incredible architecture team with over 100 years of combined experience. They have designed everything from small production builds to luxury resort communities in the Bahamas. Our team’s job is to listen and then produce what each homeowner is looking for. We maximize our clients’ budgets while respecting those boundaries and educating them on the choices they make throughout the build. We also have our
Signature Series plans, which save customers cost and time.
Q. Do you have in-house designers and a design center?
We have two full-time dedicated designers for each project. They do a great job guiding our homeowners. We have an impressive showroom and a fantastic array of options for people to choose from. If people are looking for something specific that we don’t have, we help them with that, too. The selection process can be stressful; there are so many questions that it can be overwhelming. We think it helps customers to have that guiding hand to either confirm their selections or avoid potential mistakes.
Q. Are all selections buttoned down by the time you break ground, or is there a schedule customers have to follow?
Our goal is to have all selections completed before we break ground on the house. We don’t always meet that goal, but more often than not, we do. At the very minimum, we need all exterior selections completed, such as bricks, shingles, windows, and any long-lead time items.
When we are building a custom home and customers are spending a lot of money, there is a hierarchy we follow. First, we want what is best for the house, then for the customer, and then for the builder behind it. We want to make sure our homes and customers are set up for success.
Q. What’s your favorite part of the process?
I love everything about it. The high-quality service we provide our homeowners is exciting. People have sacrificed time, put off family vacations and have gone without to be able to build their dream home. They have a dream, and we help them realize it. Every project is an opportunity to improve the quality of people’s lives in one way or the other. It’s an exciting journey.