VISALIA, Calif. – As San Joaquin Valley Homes (SJV Homes) celebrates its third anniversary in business this month, the busiest homebuilder in Tulare County is pleased to announce it has sold its 500^th home.

“At San Joaquin Valley Homes, we’re proud to be providing quality homes for local residents and work for local contractors,” said Joe Leal, co-founder for Visalia-based SJV Homes. “Selling our 500^th home is an important milestone and a major achievement for a smaller local builder that competes against large national builders. We look forward to getting another 500 families into our homes in the next few years.”

Jose Sanchez is the new owner of the 500^th home sold by SJV Homes. His contract closed this week on a 1,574 sq. ft., four-bedroom home in Savannah in Tulare. To recognize this special moment in the company’s history, SJV Homes presented Sanchez with a check for $500 and a $500 gift card to Lowes to buy those extra things families need when they move into their new home. Lowes also donated a barbeque grill.

“I was expecting to walk in and pick up my keys, then I find out I’m the 500^th buyer and they want to do something special for me,” Sanchez said. “I was excited. I’ve never won anything before. I’m thinking, this must be my lucky day!”

This is Sanchez’s first house; he’s been looking for months for a place to move with Claudia Ochoa and their sons Rafael (9) and Jacob (5).

“Savannah is close to my old place and my son’s school,” he said. “I used to drive by here and see all the houses, thinking this looked like a really nice, peaceful neighborhood. It just seemed like a perfect place to live.”

SJV Homes has seven neighborhoods open for sale in the Central Valley region and two new properties scheduled to open soon in Tulare County: Pine River Estates in Visalia and Viscaya in Dinuba.

“In just three years, San Joaquin Valley Homes has contributed valuable stock to the Central Valley housing market, which has seen very strong new home construction and sales,” said co-founder Jim Robinson. “Most of our team members grew up in the Central Valley, and we look forward to many more years of working in a region that we love and call home ourselves.”

SJV Homes was founded in 2013 by Leal, Robinson and Randy Merrill, who quickly grew the company into a successful homebuilding operation with a team of about 40 local staff members and its own Design Center located in the company’s main office in Visalia.

According to the National Association of Home Builders’ formula to determine the local impact of single-family housing in typical metro areas, adding 500 single-family homes can generate as much as $143.5 million in local income, $18 million in taxes and other revenue for local governments and 2,000 local jobs.

The following is a breakdown of SJV Homes’ current projects:

Tulare County

Sedona at Palo Verde, 106 units, Tulare, Calif.

Chelsea Place, 155 units, Visalia, Calif.

San Marino, 95 units, Visalia, Calif.

Savannah, 162 units, Tulare, Calif.

Pine River Estates, 144 units, Visalia, Calif. (coming soon)

Viscaya, 87 units, Dinuba, Calif. (coming soon)

Kings County

Hartley Grove, 182 units, Hanford, Calif.

Pheasant Ridge, 76 units, Corcoran, Calif. 

Kern County.

Tuscany Village, 116 units, Bakersfield, Calif.

About SJV Homes 

Deeply rooted in residential construction, the founders of Visalia, California-based San Joaquin Valley Homes have built thousands of quality homes and attractive neighborhoods for Central Valley residents. Founders Joe Leal, Jim Robinson and Randy Merrill share a vision of delivering excellence through every level of building, delivering wonderful homes in great neighborhoods. In 2013, SJV Homes combined forces with Presidio Residential Capital, a real estate investment company based in San Diego.