Another large home builder in metro Atlanta has apparently shuts its doors as a result of the horrible residential real estate market. 

Atlanta-area Homebuilder Fires Sales Staff
By KEVIN DUFFY
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Sales agents for a large metro Atlanta homebuilder, Robert Harris Homes, were told Thursday to head home. … Woodstock-based Robert Harris Homes has built more than 2,500 houses, mostly in Georgia and a few in Manatee County, Fla., according to its Web site. It had recently expanded to North Frisco, Texas.

In metro Atlanta, the company built in Cherokee, Cobb, Forsyth, Fulton, Gwinnett and Jackson counties.

Management at Robert Harris Homes did not return phone calls Friday. A phone answering service in Texas said Robert Harris Homes employees there were suspended Thursday. The Florida office has a recording directing questions to Dustin Lough, a director with CRG Partners Group, a turnaround company with an office in Atlanta. Lough did not returns calls.

Robert Harris Homes was founded in 1994 and grew to be the nation’s 135th biggest residential builder last year, according to builderonline.com. Its closings in 2007 numbered 337, down 15 percent from the year before, builderonline says…

A Robert Harris Homes representative told the family Thursday that "the [sales] agents were all told to get their stuff and go home, that they were closing their doors," Hays said.