Jeremy Burns reflects on career in homebuilding

Jeremy Burns has been in home construction since he was 18 years old, starting as soon as he graduated high school working for a local homebuilder.

“I worked for him for about eight and a half years and then worked through TVA through their energy efficiency programs for about another seven half years, then for another builder for about another two and a half years, and about two years ago decided to go out on my own and start my own business,” he explained.

He went on to say, “when I was little there was a guy that I went to church with that was a homebuilder and I just always thought that was a really cool thing, and I always knew I wanted to grow up and, honestly, work on homes and build homes and so I’ve wanted to do this since I was a child.”

Burns does everything across the board with his company DTE Homes, from home renovation to home construction.

“Really anything to help the homeowners out to kind of improve their home or possibly build their dream home,” he said. “I’ve done so many different things that I feel comfortable working on anything, you know, as long as it’s residential.”

While DTE Homes completes a lot of additions and remodels throughout the year, they only build two to four new constructions a year.

“Sometimes you’re getting to build somebody’s dream home or you have an opportunity to kind of work with somebody to take their dream home and make it what what they really want it to be,” he said.

While Burns loves what he does, for him the hardest part is never having a day off.

“Even when you do take time off with family, you still need to answer phone calls and texts and emails and stuff like that,” he said.

Burns’ hope for the next five years is that everything stays on track as is.

“I’ve been really blessed ever since I started my business,” he said. “I’ve had a lot of wonderful clients and customers I’ve got to work for, and I hope it really just kind of stays on track where it is where I can continue to build three or four custom homes a year and continue to do additions and remodels for people.”