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Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2008

Tight times in the midstate: Robins builder says 'I Need Work'

WARNER ROBINS -- Editor's note: This is part of a series of stories about how the economic downturn is affecting Middle Georgians.

Late last week when builder Richard Tritt shelled out $40 for an "I Need Work" sign and stood waving it at a busy corner on Watson Boulevard, he said it wasn't a publicity stunt.

Of course, it pretty much was. (He wound up on the local TV news that evening and in the newspaper now.)

Tritt, in his mid-60s, has been in business going on 40 years. He isn't broke - or headed there. He owns a real estate company and investment properties.

The bogged-down local housing market, though, has him worried. Tritt said a lot of laborers and subcontractors are feeling the pinch.

That, he said, is what led him and his sign - complete with his company's name and phone number - to the roadside near Centerville to catch the morning commute.

"I don't need a handout. ... I'm not desperate," Tritt said. "All I'm doing is asking for work. I'm a builder. I want to build houses. I have some houses for sale. I want people to know that."

Tritt recently read foreclosure listings and saw where builders he knows are losing houses they've built.

"Then it hit me," he said. "I come off the interstate sometimes and I see the homeless people with the signs. I thought maybe I could start something. ... I'm kind of a different person. What I do doesn't surprise people."

Some years Tritt builds more than 25 houses. So far this year he's built four.

"I'm noted for making something happen. I'm a survivor," he said. "But sometimes the survivors don't survive."

Half a dozen of Tritt's houses have sat empty for the past 12 months.

"We had too many builders and too many houses," he said of the area's once-robust construction climate. "And now we're paying the price for it."

One retirement-age builder Tritt knows lost his business and has turned to small-scale remodeling work to get by.

"I haven't made any money (building houses) in two years," Tritt said. "I've lost money the last two years. ... I don't want to have to give my houses back to the bank."

Tritt has shut off electricity to the houses he can't sell. Instead of hiring someone to clean them, he tidies them himself.

"I've got a little vacuum cleaner. I go vacuum the cobwebs out," he said.

He even mows the grass.

"I'm just gonna dig in and work harder," Tritt said.