Builder's success not measured by excess

By Dan DeWitt, Times Columnist
In print: Thursday, April 24, 2008

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Ernie Ramirez looks good for 73: tan and clear-eyed, with close-cropped white hair and a comfortable smile.

It's the look of a home builder who doesn't have to worry he'll run into an angry customer every time he goes to the supermarket.

It's the look that comes from having no liens against his houses in Circuit Court files, no lawsuits, no active complaints against his license with the county or state. He's not hounded by creditors or the prospect that debts will crush his 33-year-old company, Zerimar Enterprises.

It's the look of a builder, in other words, totally unlike Steven Bartlett, the former Coral Bay Construction owner sentenced to 20 years in prison last week for stealing more than $1-million from his customers.

Ramirez isn't perfect. Search county records and you'll find a couple of since-resolved disputes with clients; nearly every contractor has them, said county development director Grant Tolbert.

No, he's more representative than role model — one of the handful of home builders in the county who have survived at least two decades of crests and troughs in the market with their reputations intact.

His story not only points out the obvious, that not all builders are as crooked as Bartlett, but also holds a lesson that applies beyond their industry.

If you concentrate more on business and less on ego gratification, you can easily avoid the trap that ensnared Bartlett and, to some degree, at least a half-dozen other contractors over the years.

Ramirez, a Tampa native, lives with his wife, Carol, in Wedgewood Estates, the small subdivision he created near the entrance of Lake in the Woods.

He's always built mostly high-end houses, but never more than a half-dozen a year, which allowed him to keep track of the construction and financial details of every job.

Like most builders, he's short of work these days. But even in a down market, his life seems far more relaxed — better in every way, actually — than Bartlett's life during the boom.

From all I've read, that was a stomach-churning high-wire act, a scramble to find new customers to repay the money Bartlett stole from previous ones, and to build up a ridiculous stockpile of motor homes, motorcycles and Ford F-150s, F-250s and even an F-350.

Ramirez's house has a spacious living room that looks out over a pool. His garage holds a 14-foot johnboat he planned to take out the next day in search of sea trout. It also holds the kind of humble vehicle you seldom see in the hands of a home builder: a gray Ford Ranger.

"I don't want a $75,000 pickup truck and, more importantly, I don't need a $75,000 pickup truck,'' Ramirez said.

"It's called moderation. That's a good word, isn't it?"

Sure is.