When Joe Lemel started Lemel Homes, Inc. in 1983, he had a telephone, a car and some space in the office of a friend. But more importantly, Joe Lemel had a vision of how he wanted to create the kind of homes people really wanted. It is all he really needed.

"I wanted to individualize the process of building a home," Lemel Said. "There were very few people doing customized homes at the time, and those that were charged a lot of premiums. I wanted to build customized homes without the high premiums, so the homes would be more affordable. And I never wanted to be so big that I couldn't offer a high level of individual service to every customer."

Nearly a thousand homes later, Lemel Homes, Inc. is still meeting or exceeding the needs of its customers and building homes that suit their individual needs and tastes.

"We service people to death and do anything it takes to do the right thing for the people we deal with," Lemel says. "My philosophy is very uncomplicated. It is a matter of ultimate honesty and ultimate commitment to ensuring the expectations of our customers."

Growing up in the Milwaukee area, Lemel became interested in construction because many of his mother's friends were in the business. "I was fascinated with what they had to do during the course of the day. I thought it was something I could do, that would have a impact on people's lives. I loved this business from the very start because it is very creative, very rewarding," he said.

Lemel graduated from the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee with a major in Business and Real Estate and in 1976, while already working for a builder who specialized in single family homes and developments.

In 1983 Lemel decided to start his own company, because he wanted to individualize homes instead of building the same models over and over again. Although the firm has several models that customers can work from, he says with pride, "We have yet to put up the same house twice."

He also has his own ideas on how he wants to treat his customers. Lemel Homes builds about 40 - 50 homes a year, which Lemel feels is "the perfect volume to allow us to offer our customer the level of service, supervision, and expertise this process deserves."

Lemel Homes can offer high quality to all of its customers because Lemel has surrounded himself with people who share his goals.

"They are just a hard working group of people. We are all willing to do whatever it takes to do the job right. In fact, our goal is to always exceed our customers expectations," said Lemel.