Cari Clark as a Homebuilder
I was a homebuilder in Austin from 1989 to 2012.
I owned and operated Capital Homes in a partnership, from 1989 – 2004. We built over 250 homes, mostly “in fill” homes in central Austin. This was challenging and rewarding work. I loved old homes but realized that here was a need and a desire for newer homes in older neighborhoods. Building these types of homes became our niche for almost 15 years. Our first lot purchase was a home that had burned down at the corner of Hopi Trail and Enfield Road in Tarrytown. In 2004 I started building larger custom and spec homes and Mike went on to build multi-family projects. I built just one home at a time and I was a one-woman shop, doing everything from the accounting and financing, to the on-site superintending myself.
I feel that my years as a homebuilder give me a unique advantage as a Realtor, both for my buyers and my sellers. For my sellers, I can help them make repairs, and low-cost-high impact updates to maximize their profits. I can also stage homes so that they show the best for a quick sale. I have a great track record of fewer days on the market. For my buyers, I can help them assess the quality of a home and help them with updates after they buy.
I owned and operated Capital Homes in a partnership, from 1989 – 2004. We built over 250 homes, mostly “in fill” homes in central Austin. This was challenging and rewarding work. I loved old homes but realized that here was a need and a desire for newer homes in older neighborhoods. Building these types of homes became our niche for almost 15 years. Our first lot purchase was a home that had burned down at the corner of Hopi Trail and Enfield Road in Tarrytown. In 2004 I started building larger custom and spec homes and Mike went on to build multi-family projects. I built just one home at a time and I was a one-woman shop, doing everything from the accounting and financing, to the on-site superintending myself.
I feel that my years as a homebuilder give me a unique advantage as a Realtor, both for my buyers and my sellers. For my sellers, I can help them make repairs, and low-cost-high impact updates to maximize their profits. I can also stage homes so that they show the best for a quick sale. I have a great track record of fewer days on the market. For my buyers, I can help them assess the quality of a home and help them with updates after they buy.
In 1995, I was featured in the nationally published magazine "Professional Homebuilder."
This is a home that I built for me and my family in 2009. I purchased the home next door, which we had built in the 1990’s, and this vacant lot had been their yard and pool area. I had to buy the property as as a package (the house and extra lot). I then resold the home and kept the lot. The new home needed to fit between the front set back line, and existing pool. I also wanted the back of the house to be level with the pool, so that there were no steps going out of the back doors. We cut the lot about three feet on the left front corner and added a lovely wall that adds dimension and interest. Since the lot had a small “footprint” we went up instead of out. There is a third floor game room and full bath. This lot also had potential for an amazing view, which at the time was covered up by overgrown landscaping. But I knew the view was there! And as an extra plus, the previous owners had built a path down to the water where we could keep our kayaks for paddling on Lake Austin.
I built this custom home in 2011 for a family with deep Rollingwood ties. The lot had been vacant since Rollingwood was incorporated, and we had to work with an engineer to re-plat the property. We also had to do a drainage study before we could get a building permit. The slope of the lot was challenging and it had to be cut about six feet on the right side. We added a hefty double French drain to the right side of the home to deal with drainage. I worked with the owners on every step of the process - locating the home on the lot, hiring and working with the architect, estimating and job cost accounting, collaborating on interior and exterior selections, purchasing, and finally, providing the ongoing supervision necessary throughout such a complex project.
This was a speculative home that I designed and built in 2006. I tore down an old rundown home to get the lot, which is quite near Tarrytown Park. I remember that this was the first house where I used glass tile for the backsplash. I worked hard to save as many of the beautiful old Elm trees as possible; I also worked hard to get a perfect color of yellow to go with the rock. I particularly like the bungalow feel of this house with the soffit brackets and tapered columns. This was built back before we started seeing McMansions in Tarrytown.
This was a very large and complicated custom home that required nearly a year to design and almost another year to build, and was completed in 2007. The owners did not want to work with an interior designer, so the three of us collaborated to design all of the aspects of this home. We had an excellent trim carpenter who was very creative and you can get a good look at his work in the photo of the custom stairs and paneling. Some other notable unique features included custom milled baseboards, custom aluminum celling tile in both the kitchen and breakfast area, gas porch lamps, and a front porch set over a slab base, to give it that old-time front porch feeling.
