Frontier Homes, Rank 100 Timing is everything. When Jimmy Previti launched Victorville, Calif.–based Frontier Homes in November 2002, he had only $1.4 million in startup capital, some of which he raised by mortgaging his house. But shrewd land deals in markets that hadn’t been overrun by competition allowed Frontier to become a builder to be reckoned with in short order.
“I couldn’t have duplicated what happened even if I wanted to,” recalls Previti, 35. Frontier entered Southern California’s High Desert area, northeast of Los Angeles, “just ahead” of several other builders, and could purchase land at $5,000 to $10,000 per lot, a bargain at today’s prices. And with few big builders operating there at the time, local landowners were not as demanding as they might be today about the financial terms they required for Frontier to take possession of the lots.
Frontier Homes closed 202 homes in 2003, producing revenue of $41 million. Previti plowed his profit back into land and watched Frontier break out in 2004, when revenue grew to $203 million from 731 closings.
Previti and his division president Doug Stewart—both worked at Hovnanian Enterprises’ Forecast Homes, which Previti’s dad, Jim, co-founded—say they’ll spend 2005 upgrading Frontier’s operations and resume expansion into adjacent markets in 2006.
Hubble Homes, ranked 118, is among those who have transitioned to evenflow production. Last June 1, the company began starting three homes a day and intends to ramp up to four a day as of this June 1, says Don Hubble, company president. In addition to setting the company up for a jump in closings of as much as 33 percent this year, Hubble says his subcontractors have responded positively to the move, shaving their prices and cutting the cost to build a home by between 3 percent and 5 percent.