Voyage ATL: Hidden Gems - Meet Sherwin Loudermilk of Loudermilk Homes
Today we’d like to introduce you to Sherwin Loudermilk.
Hi Sherwin, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I spent the first chapter of my career working in web development at IBM, which was a great learning experience and gave me a deep appreciation for business strategy, financials, analytics, execution, and critical thinking.
I always had an entrepreneurial itch, so in 2009 I founded Loudermilk Homes with my wife and business partner, Roane Loudermilk. We had a vision for making the custom luxury home design and construction process easy and fun by offering complete transparency along the way — and we’re doing exactly that.
We created a 9-Step “Process to Perfection” that guides our clients through every step of the process and helps them understand what’s going to happen next and when their home will be finished. And we offer each client access to Loudermilk Connect, which is a cloud-based platform we use to run our entire business, with real-time schedule and budget updates, a live video feed of the home site, daily work logs, photos and videos, and a complete archive of their architecture and design choices.
Over the years, the homes we design and build have gotten larger and more customized. We’ve literally never built the same home twice. I love how each project challenges our team to be creative and design the perfect home that meets the family’s exact needs. For example, a family with several children may want extra storage space for sports equipment. A couple with several pets may want a dog washing station. A family that entertains frequently may want a second prep kitchen or a built-in climate-controlled wine cellar. We enjoy finding these ways to delight our clients so we can truly create the home of their dreams.
In 2023, I was honored and humbled to be chosen as one of the top builders in the country by the National Association of Home Builders as a finalist for the Custom Home Builder of the Year award. It was a great testament to the work our team does each day to advance the art and science of custom home design and construction.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Owning and running your own business often means encountering unexpected obstacles along the way, and as the leader you have to be relentless in solving challenges and keeping the business healthy. We started Loudermilk Homes in 2009 while the Great Recession was still happening, which was something that we did thoughtfully and with intention because we felt strongly that buyers of custom luxury homes would still have the liquidity and access to capital to build their dream homes regardless of what the economy was doing.
There have been times when we have strategically raised capital for business expansion, like several years ago when we bought out the remaining lots with golf course views at The Manor Golf & Country Club just north of Atlanta in the Milton community.
A couple of years ago, we decided to expand into the Cashiers and Highlands area of North Carolina, where many people from Atlanta, Florida and other southeast states have second homes. Standing up a completely new division of our company was a bold move that brought lots of challenges like finding local subcontractors and creating a whole new infrastructure in another state, but it has also been a terrific expansion for our business.
The covid pandemic shutdown threw all sorts of curveballs our way. Things we could have never imagined, like a global supply chain disruption that meant we couldn’t get appliances or even exterior paint for months at a time. Windows were on backorder for six months. The price of lumber quadrupled. Quotes for concrete were only good for a couple of days. It was incredibly hard to manage the business through that, but we got creative and innovative and did the best we could. Our team had the brilliant idea of ordering a couple of shipping containers for extra storage so we could pre-order frequently used items to overcome the supply chain problems. One of our builders used an extra laundry sink, hoses, and soap dispensers to create a handwashing station. The old adage is true: Necessity is the mother of invention.
Most recently, we adopted EOS, the entrepreneurial operating system, and it has completely transformed the way we run the business. EOS Traction helps us bring focus, discipline, and accountability to everything we do. Meetings are shorter and more productive. Action items happen more quickly. We measure success differently. I wish I could go back in time and tell myself about EOS when I first started Loudermilk Homes — we would have been hitting on all cylinders a lot sooner.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Loudermilk Homes?
Loudermilk Homes is one of the leading design + build firms in the Southeastern United States, and we specialize in custom luxury homes. We are a high-end builder, and most of our clients are executives, business owners, professional athletes, move and entertainment professionals, and other high net worth individuals. Many of our clients are loyal to luxury brands like Bentley, Porsche, Patek Philippe watches, Louis Vuitton, and Chanel. We hope that Loudermilk Homes is recognized as a leader alongside those sorts of brands.
We work hard to ensure that every home we design and build is perfect in every way and is exactly as the client wants it to be. When you walk into a Loudermilk Home, you can notice the difference and quality of our custom craftsmanship. From the trim and finishes to the overall sense of grandeur from our 12-foot ceilings and open floor plans, each home we build makes an immediate impression when you walk in the door.
Each time we meet with a new client to start talking through their inspiration and design preferences, we start with the kitchen and work our way outward from there. The kitchen is the center of the home, and we want to make sure the kitchen supports the family’s lifestyle and needs. We install outlets with charging ports in the kitchen island, for example. We put pot fillers on the wall behind the stove. We might add a built-in espresso machine or wine refrigerator. We want each home to be uniquely perfect for that family.
Are there any books, apps, podcasts or blogs that help you do your best?
One of my absolute favorite things to do is sit down and get lost in a good book. I loved reading “Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win” by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin. They talk about real-life experiences of Navy SEALs deployments and relate it to running a business. I couldn’t put it down and rolled right into a great sequel they wrote called “The Dichotomy of Leadership,” which focuses on the importance of having balance in your life while you also lead.
I enjoy shaking things up between business books, so I recently picked up “The Great Divorce” by C.S. Lewis, which someone recommended to me. It’s not actually about divorce! It’s an allegory about evil, grace, and judgment and takes the reader on a fictitious bus ride from hell, where the gates are locked from the inside to heaven.
Sometimes I do audiobooks while I’m driving back and forth between our Atlanta and Cashiers locations, and I enjoyed “The 6 Habits of Growth” by Brendon Burchard, which is about getting unstuck and creating the life you want. I listened at 1.65X speed so it sounded a little bit like Mickey Mouse, but it was a good reminder to see growth from another perspective.
Pricing:
Custom luxury homes from $2.5M to $10M+
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