Response, Page 4

Yet another of Daniel’s opinions comes when he writes that my responses to an on-line animation forum put me in the position of “playing the jackass”. Of all the words that could be used, Daniel chose this dramatic expression.

On page 81 Daniel draws the conclusion that “Tom Hignite had always been free with money: it was part of the corporate strategy…” This is unusual since I don’t believe this to be true on a personal level and cannot imagine how this could possibly be any part of a “corporate strategy”. Apparently this broad conclusion for this seems based on one former employee who was quoted to say “Hignite once spent $30,000 for custom drapery in one of the model homes and $27,000 for a grand piano in another.” Anyone who has ever attended a Parade Of Homes type of model home knows very well that $30,000 for drapes is not unusual, but might be considered on the low side of average, especially for a 6,000 square foot (with finished basement) home. Normally we budget from $10,000 to $15,000 and our drapery provider will attest that we often re-design or eliminate drapes to fit our budget. We do own a baby grand player piano, which is part of our extensive furnishings collection. We have owned it for about four years. It was purchased during a year of record profits, and was not a casual purchase.

Near the end of page 81 Daniel links a downturn in the 2006 house market to me being apparently “oblivious” to the downturn. Daniel writes I was bubbly over how great the plans were for the office (Miracle Village) project, insinuating my disregard for this financially challenging time. Consider the time frames involved. When I explained the proposed office project, it was early spring. In the matter of the housing downturn, this was late summer. The way Daniel puts these two subjects back-to-back leaves the read with the clear impression that in a tough market, I am bubbly about big expenditures. This is a grossly inaccurate conclusion.

In his description of our Miracle Village plans, Daniel reports we were to include a barbershop, and other amenities, which are not a part of our plans.

Then there is the large section where Daniel writes about our annual home show. He takes another swipe in saying “For Hignite, it was a chance to show off his toys to the gaping mouths and wide eyes of weekend home shoppers…” While I do like to see happy home shoppers, this statement may lead the reader to believe gaping mouths were my main motivation over doing business. I have an equal mix of both as my goal for shows. The bigger question to ask is how would Daniel know how I was feeling unless he was there or asked me about it. He was not there and he never asked me. Daniel goes on to write “The previous January the company had sold 60 homes…” This is incorrect as we sold 26 homes in that January’s home show. He continues to call our home show booth “gaudy”. Daniel’s gaudy description was wholly his choice of words and no one else. This booth display has won the top first place award in the show the past two years and is enthusiastically acclaimed by show visitors.

Daniel’s description of our big July home show was also inaccurate in both big and small ways. He says we wore long sleeve blue denim shirts; however, we wore short sleeve polos. He says we had bibles in every bedroom, in fact many (not all) of our master bedrooms have Bibles, all others do not have Bibles. We do have some Daily Devotional pamphlets in small supply, usually in a non-prominent area. Our background music is primarily comprised of our own original music, not Disney music. He explains the home show process of our Grand Bay as though we act as tour guides taking guests from one room to another. Our guests are always allowed to roam at their own pace. He continues explaining about the downstairs “gallery boasting replica paintings of well-known Disney scenes” that were less expensive than at Disney parks. These items are in fact authorized for resale by a Disney art distributor and some maybe more or less expensive than in the park stores.

Daniel reports that this model home had an artist doing sketches for $35 each. This again is false. We did have a caricature artist on hand to draw portraits of our guests and just like the cookout in the garage, it was all free with donations going to different non-Miracle causes.

Daniel sums up the July show calling it a “dud”. If you were to just ask any homebuilder if selling 30 homes at a July home show in a down market was a dud, they would likely disagree. The salesperson interviewed by Daniel for this paragraph was layed-off, but reveals, “we were working 60 plus hours…we had over 1,200 people going through the models.” What the salesperson didn’t say was the sales staff has off a week prior to rest and ready themselves and our actual attendance hovered around 10,000 to 12,000 visitors.

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