DIVERSIFICATION
&
THE SMALL
BUILDER
The ups & downs of having many irons in the
fire
by Chuck Moriarty
I'm a principal in a small welldiversified
building company in Seattle,
Wash. At the time my partner and I
established our business in 1976, our
sole purpose was to purchase, improve,
and resell or rent single family residences
within the city limits of Seattle. Our
goal was to simply acquire enough rental
property to provide ourselves with
sufficient income to enjoy our "golden
years" (you know-when we turned
40). We have since diversified into several
related fields including property
management, construction management,
custom home building, design/
build, marketing real estate partnerships,
home inspections, bookkeeping
for small companies in related fields,
and consulting for