May 17, 2017

Meet Mark McKinney of Dallas Sunrise Properties in McKinney

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Mark McKinney.

Mark, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
My father was a master carpenter and I grew up working in his wood shop which instilled the desires to work with wood. He passed away when I was 17. I played around with small projects off and on until I was 30 when I inherited an old, rundown home. It was tear it down or gut and remodel. Over the next two years I worked to completely renovate and add on to this home. Upon completion, everyone who came to see it made similar statements “you should be doing this as a living” or words to that effect. At that point, I started my business as Home Projects Co. back in Ohio.

As I became a HS teacher in 1999, I took on larger projects during the summer months. Building decks, renovating kitchens and bathrooms then finishing out basements. After a short while, I would be booked for the entire summer by April each year. In 2002, I remarried to my current spouse and we purchased a 5 year old home in Delaware, OH which had an amazing wooded lot. There we added multi-level decks, hot tub, finished the basement with a lower walk-out, etc… Later we renovated the kitchen and all three bathrooms together.

We moved to McKinney, Texas in June 2015. Since my last name is McKinney, I had to live in a town with my namesake 🙂 Both of my wife’s adult children had married native Texans and settled here. I had been coming off and on over the years to various parts of Texas and always loved being here. So we made the decision and off we went.

Our intention was to continue as educators (Emily is a HS Counselor). We both completed all the requirements to obtain our Texas Teaching Licenses prior to leaving Ohio. However, thanks primarily to Obama Care, neither of us have found employment in the Texas education arena. Therefore, I decided to follow my first love by opening my business here.

As I knew it would be a challenge to start over here, as I had no contacts for supplies, labor, etc… I decided to add Home Inspection to my business as I had done in Ohio some years back. However, the road to Home Inspection here in Texas is quite challenging as it is all regulated through the Texas Real Estate Commission (TREC) an organization of which is very difficult to do business with from the little guy perspective. After jumping through all the hoops, I received my home inspection license.

When we decided to open our business, we wanted to have a name that reflected both our love for Texas and one that could encompass the multi-faceted parts we intended to market. Therefore we call it Dallas Sunrise Properties.

The primary difference our business offers opposed to other home renovation companies is our true, one-on-one approach. I do almost all the work myself and we only do one job at a time. If we take on a kitchen renovation, that is the only renovation job I work on until it is completed, then I move on. However, during that job, I will do Home Inspections on other properties, small handyman repairs and small furniture / cabinetry jobs, but they do not interfere with each other as a conflict. I believe this keeps the customer’s happy and allows me to personally interact with the customer on an as needed basis during their project.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The primary difficulties have been;

1. Making contact with needed suppliers for multiple items. With so much construction going on in and around the DFW area, it seems most suppliers have little interest in working with a small contractor. This continues to be a struggle that I have to fight through on each job.

2. The term “Customer Service” seems to be an oxymoron here in north Texas. Again, I attribute most of that to the fact there is so much boom going on that generally, people (businesses) don’t have to care or go the extra step to satisfy the customer. This has been probably the most shocking revelation we have come to since moving here. (Example; I get a price quote for a door or counter top, they take days to get it than I have to call multiple times to see if it is ready, etc… Few answer emails or return phone calls)

3. Finding the right advertising venue for our business. With a small advertising budget, it’s hard to find that good combination. When you don’t really know the who, what and where’s, it has been very hit-or miss.

Please tell us about Dallas Sunrise Properties.
Dallas Sunrise Properties has two areas we want to focus on. Small to medium home renovation projects and Home Inspections.

I believe we are unique because of our aforementioned one-on-one approach to renovation jobs. As an example, if a customer hires us to remodel their bathroom that is the only renovation job I will take on until it is completed. I do not start multiple jobs, then have to delay work due to over booking.

What I am most proud of as a company is my work ethics. I have never had a customer complaint about my finished product. I work with the customer one-on-one until their project meets their expectations.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
Wow, that’s a difficult question to answer. Charge more for some of my previous work??? Just kidding, I am not sure that I would change anything except take on a serious partner to spread the work load out.

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