Page 142 - South Mississippi Living - November, 2023

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Mike Foster.
Leroy Foster.
If you’ve lived anywhere along the Gulf Coast for any length of time, chances are someone from Foster’s Air Conditioning and Heating has been in your house a time or two.
“And we love our customers,” Foster said. “We like to think of them as family and we try to stay in touch with everyone. We do happy calls and frequently do check-in calls. We have dedicated office staff who touches bases with our customers to ensure they’re happy and satisfied. They’re our family and that’s how we treat family. Our philosophy is without the customer we’re nothing, so we try to go above and beyond to make them happy.”
That philosophy has turned Foster’s, also known as “Home of the Old Reliables,” into a coastal staple and was founded by Leroy Foster in 1967. He was committed to providing exceptionally skilled services and exemplary honesty for all their customers
and earned the nickname as a result.
“My grandfather started the company and
through a lot of hard work and dedication it’s grown to where it is today,” Foster said. “From beginning exclusively in Gautier, we now service the entire Gulf Coast, state line to state line. Through word of mouth, we’re even venturing into the Mobile area and north of the coastal area. My grandfather laid a strong foundation of reliable, quality, and affordable service and the rest, as they say, is history.”
And now, with more than 50 employees, a fleet of maintenance and installation trucks, and a dedicated sales force, Foster’s has cultivated a strong family culture throughout the company and beyond.
“We have long-term employees,” Foster said. “We have some that have been with us 20 plus years and they are all family. And we’re always looking to grow and adding good people who fit with our culture.”
The home building company has blended four generations of homebuilding knowledge with innovative technologies and made building a home informative and above all straightforward.
McMurphy Homes was created in 1955 by AJ McMurphy. Since that time, AJ McMurphy, Jr., AJ “Bo” McMurphy, III, AJ “Mac” McMurphy, IV, and AJ “Quinn” McMurphy, V, are all involved.
“In my career, I’ve probably built over 3000 homes,” Bo McMurphy said. “I’ve noticed one of the things that was always lacking was communication and transparency. It’s probably the number one complaint. We decided
we were going to be extremely open with our buyers and we were going to build homes with 100 percent transparency. If we make a mistake, we tell them and there’s nothing hidden.”
McMurphy Homes introduced and utilizes innovative and interactive technology for all of its projects. Their customer-centric approach allows every homeowner complete visibility and transparency throughout the build process. Homeowners can watch their homes being built on their computer or cell phone. They can also access online builder notes and photos to track the quality of their build.
McMurphy said we invested in the technology to emphasize our customer-centric transparent approach to the building cycle. The customer benefits are obvious but from the builder perspective it has allowed us to compress our build cycle and get customers in their homes quicker.
Like the Fosters and the Goldins, McMurphy Homes is multi- generational. The homebuilder receives regular input from Bo’s dad, AJ McMurphy, Jr. as well as Bo’s son, Mac, who is a full-time project supervisor and Bo’s grandson, Quinn, while too young to work, lent his nickname to the company’s most popular series model, “The Quinn.”
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Left to Right:
Theo (Baby), Quinn (Boy) Mac, Bo and AJ McMurphy.