We became what is known as infill-builders. We would travel the areas around Arlington, Irving and Grand Prairie, Texas and look for lots that were vacant and available for sale. During this time, I got an in-depth understanding of home construction and design. Within a couple of months, I began designing our own homes and offered them for purchase. I developed all of our marketing materials and yard sales signage, created a website for Dove Homes and did all of our sales calls.
We had some credible success for several years. We even bought a 14-acre piece of land and had streets, gas and electricity put in and eventually built and sold around 15 homes in the small community that I called “Dove Meadows.”
In the first six months of our business, Jose had to finish a job under contract in Lajitas, Texas — a town on the Mexican border. So I asked Sheila if we could take out a loan and buy a small plane that would allow us, Jose and our dear friend, John, who had a commercial pilot’s license to speed up the company’s progress. So we got a loan for about $100,000 and sent John on a hunt for a used Piper Cherokee airplane that would be a good, quality purchase.
