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Best Builder

Tradition Homes

It’s an Arlington paradox: great location, tiny lot. But you don’t have to cram a colossus onto a postage-stamp-sized property to live well, contends Steve DeFalco. Midsize homes can live large with good design.

DeFalco, a real estate developer, founded Tradition Homes with his brother, George, an architect, in 2006. Since then, the design-build firm has built or renovated nearly 50 houses (average size: about 4,000 square feet) in Arlington, McLean and Falls Church.

Their niche? Creating houses that respect the character of existing neighborhoods, while providing honest service at a fair price, DeFalco says. “We decided, let’s always tell everyone up front what we’re doing, and then go and do what we said.”

Put into practice, that philosophy earned the firm a ranking of 31 in the Washington Business Journal’s 2012 list of “50 Fastest Growing Companies.”

1497 Chain Bridge Road, Suite 100, McLean, 703-987-3444, www.builtbytradition.com

Other top vote-getters:

BCN Homes
Merrill Contracting & Remodeling
Natelli Homes
Paradigm Building Group