Innovation Award Judge – Richard Lanning

Clients not only invest money but emotions into building their new dream homes. Richard Lanning, a native of Haywood County, NC is a person who fully understands the home building and home buying process.

Richard founded Richard Lanning Builders in 1994 and served as president of the company. While in that role, he oversaw the daily operations. Since he is was born and raised in North Carolina he has a unique understanding of the codes, environment, and wants of the people and has turned that knowledge into a history of building magnificent custom homes and buildings. Richard Lanning Builders established a tradition of specializing in building fine custom homes but also engaged in commercial building and speculative projects while servicing NC and Upstate SC region – always thinking ‘outside of the box’. One aspect of the process that was important to Richard was building every house uniquely to suit its environment – making each one unique and environmentally sensitive. Key projects included builds in the Balsam Mountain Preserve located in Jackson Co., N.C., and Springdale Country Club in Haywood Co., N.C., as well as other notable places.

Despite his extensive history of building luxury homes, Richard is also highly knowledgeable and a strong advocate for creating affordable housing for local communities.

Richard currently resides in Canton, NC and six years ago, joined ERA Sunburst Realty as a Realtor^®.