Over his years as one of Ontario’s premier home builders, Scott Jeffery has learned many things, particularly respect for customers and for the trades who work to ensure the Jeffery Homes brand maintains its sterling reputation. Jeffery and his team strive for better than the best—something the company has maintained for almost 60 years.
Jeffery Homes was founded by Scott’s parents, Wayne and Muriel, back in 1964 and maintains the same commitment to quality, value, and service to this day. Coming to Ontario from Nova Scotia at the age of 19, Scott’s father worked at General Motors in Oshawa as a millwright. With help from his older brother, he started out making a few homes—1,050 square foot bungalows—and eventually left GM to pursue his dream, leaving his pension and benefits behind. The decision was not an easy one for the Jeffery family, but it was one that had to be made.
“To go out on your own, you’ve got to have a lot of confidence that you’re going to make it work,” says owner Scott Jeffery. “It was a big decision on his part, and he made it work.”
After all these years, Jeffery Homes remains a proud, family-owned builder. Along with his sons Eric, 31, and Lucas, 29, Scott has assembled a team of industry pros.
Carrying on the commitment to quality set in place by his father, Scott works with trusted subcontractors and suppliers. Some have been working alongside Jeffery Homes since the 1980s. Others, including framers, are themselves in their second generation, with sons taking over from their fathers.
To work for award-winning Jeffery Homes, construction trades must not only be experienced, but respectful to each other and to the buyers who visit the site of their dream home as it’s being built. Standards for carpenters, bricklayers, electricians, and other trades are high because that’s what the company and its customers expect. “I’ve worked hard to build a team, and once you get the person that fits how we want to do business, you keep them,” says Scott. “At Jeffery Homes, we build each home to the same standards we would want in our own home.” Quality and attention to detail start long before shovels are in the ground.
Taking a bespoke approach to projects, Scott and the team look for a few choice locations that are unique and highly desirable. Preferring quality over quantity, Jeffery Homes creates between 50 and 100 residences annually. Earning new and repeat business alike, the company frequently has clients who prefer to hold on for a Jeffery Home instead of going with other properties.
Many of the company’s developments are so sought-after that they sell out quickly, such as the luxury townhomes of West Scugog Village in Port Perry, and Orchard East and Orchard West in Bowmanville.
Both Orchard East and Orchard West feature detached homes on premium 36 by 120 foot lots in Orchard East, and 40 by 120 foot lots in Orchard West. Jeffery’s completed projects include 51 homes at Courtice Woods in Courtice, Ontario; Brookhill in Bowmanville West; and Kedron Park, in Oshawa.
Continuing its tradition of creating entire communities of high-quality homes, the company’s latest projects include the 1919 Estates of Bobcaygeon—featuring modern, farmhouse-style estate homes on large lots of one to two acres—and VIEWS, in North Oshawa. Located in a growing area, VIEWS is situated close to schools, shopping, entertainment venues, and other key amenities, and the company is in the process of building 700 homes for the community.
From meticulous design/build services to planning, budgeting, and construction, Jeffery Homes handles all aspects of the building process under one roof. Refining its processes over the years, the company is accountable and efficient, ensuring everything goes as planned.
With its industry-wide reputation for excellence, a surprising proportion of Jeffery Homes’ sales are to repeat and ‘move up’ buyers who are now building their dream homes. “We’ve carved out a reputation in Durham Region as a premium, better-than-the-rest builder, not so much geared toward first-time buyers, although we’ve done some townhomes in the past,” says Scott.
While he respects most big companies, he feels that some are merchandisers more than builders. “They could have chosen to manufacture pants or something else, and they’re very good and smart at business, but technically, they don’t know anything about building a house,” he says. “They hire people who have the technical knowledge to build the house. So, are they really builders, or are they merchandisers?”
In contrast, the Jeffery Homes team is ahead of the curve in terms of client needs in this ever-evolving housing market. Committed to an outstanding level of workmanship and finishes, the company is also a leader in environmental initiatives, including Smart technology and Energy Star® building practices.
While many of us are familiar with the distinctive Energy Star blue logo on appliances, not everyone is aware that the independent rating system also applies to houses. According to Jeffery Homes, “It comprises a number of prescribed practices of home building whereby the house often surpasses minimum building code requirements by 25 percent or more. The house is tested at completion, and the system is simply ‘pass or fail.’”
Not only is Jeffery Homes an Energy Award Winner for 2021 and 2022, but it’s one of the first in Canada to build an Energy Star home. It was Scott’s father who set in place the parameters that made the transition to Energy Star so much more efficient.
“The way we were framing and putting houses together was on par with the Energy Star specs of that time,” Scott explains. “Once you start on that path, you can’t go backward. We’re building at that Energy Star level, Version 5.0, right now. We’ve continued to evolve with it and build our houses to that specification. It’s been ingrained in our company for a long time, and that’s the way we do it.”
The company is building several model homes at the moment, one of them through the Net Zero Ready program. According to the Canadian Home Builders’ Association (CHBA), Net Zero Homes are up to 80 percent more energy-efficient than conventional new homes and produce as much clean energy as they consume. Superbly well-constructed, Net Zero Homes are known for their high-performance windows, extra insulation, advanced lighting and mechanical systems, and more.
Built to the same efficiency standards as Net Zero Homes, ‘Net Zero Ready’ Homes already have everything in place to accept renewable energy systems such as solar panels, but they’re not yet installed.
“Think of a Net Zero Ready Home as wired for its future renewable energy system, so that when the homeowners are able to invest in installing solar panels, it’s ready to go,” says the CHBA. “This is called ‘PV Ready.’”
Before working on the model Net Zero Ready home, Scott created one for his son and another for his sister, completely off the grid with solar energy and a backup generator.
With the future of the family-owned company in very good hands, Scott Jeffery is pondering stepping back from the company in the coming years, entrusting it to his sons and the excellent team in place.
“Whether you ever truly get away from it…” he ponders. “Well, I don’t think I ever will, but I’d like to have the flexibility that if you called me to go golfing, I could,” he laughs. “I’m not in the daily grind, as I put it. So that’s my goal in the next few years, but I don’t think I’ll ever disappear. I enjoy the interaction with the trades and working with my boys, and being here as a mentor,” he says. “Pick up the phone and call me. I might be in Florida or up at the cottage, but I’ll always be accessible to have someone to lean on.”
