Day 1 of Big Builder '07 In Pictures
Day 2 of Big Builder '07 In Pictures
Big Builder 2007 Education Program
Click the link below to view presentations of sessions that took place during the Big Builder Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Editor's Note from Big Builder '07: Attitude Adjustment
"Gloom and doom" has evolved. It's now: "It is what it is." A year ago, as Big Builder hosted its annual conference for management of the nation's leading home building companies in Las Vegas, there was a different feeling, a creepier feeling that something had gone horribly wrong ? but nobody could figure out what. A look that suggested shock and awe pervaded the hallways of the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino.
Pain Points and Success Stories in Supply-Chain Cost Cutting
Cutting the costs of building a house has more to do with building supplier partnerships to eliminate inefficiencies and develop synergies than it does with hammering suppliers for price reductions, top builder supply chiefs told a group of Big Builder '07 attendees Wednesday, Nov. 28, during the Operational Excellence panel "Through Thick and Thing: Smarter Sourcing."
Panelists Urge Builders to Get Out of the Land Game
Big Builder senior editor Les Shaver kicked off "The New 'A' Locations" on Wednesday, Nov. 28 with a joke about overhearing a builder refer to "'land' as a four-letter word." However, the subjects tackled during this timely session were anything but a laughing matter. "How did we wind up where we are, and where do we think we'll end up in the future?" asked Jeffrey M. Gault, CEO of LandCap Partners, a firm that provides capital for land transactions.
Combating the Burden of Affordability
Oftentimes, the worst scenarios bring out the most innovations. That's what happened to Frank Foster, CEO of Fieldstone, in the early '90s. "We learned some lessons the hard way," he said during "The 400-Lb. Gorilla: Affordability" session at the Big Builder '07 Conference, Wednesday, Nov. 28. "Out of California in the 1990s, we w're looking for a strategy." Eventually, that strategy positioned Fieldstone as a company that builds a simply designed, affordable home featuring only three types of windows and a few cabinet sizes–without the government subsidies to help.
Writing on the Wall: The Best in Home Building Blogs
To provide our readers with one-stop-shopping in the quest for breaking news, Big Builder scoured the Web for thought-provoking and engaging analysis of recent home building headlines. Check out what these industry experts have to say about the current state of the market.
The New Rules of Capital Access
If you looked at the pure numbers on the surface, you'd think Bird Anderson, senior vice president of Wachovia Real Estate Financial Services, wouldn't be too busy. After reaching a high of $7.1 billion in construction loan originations in 2005, the bank's new loans to home builders plummeted to $0.3 billion in 2007.
The Nitty-Gritty of Customer Care
Home buyers are satisfied when they're happy with the product they bought, the people they worked with, and the buy-to-build experience. And for most builders, the most painful side of the equation is managing the process. At least that was the consensus among panelists at the Big Builder ?07 "ROC: Return on Care" session, Wednesday, Nov. 28.
Boomers Redefine Active Adult
It's not your father's retirement community. In fact it's not a retirement community at all any more, with more than half the buyers reporting that they are still working when they move in, a panel of active adult community builders told an audience at the Big Builder '07 session, "Reinventing Active-Adult Communities," on Wednesday, Nov. 28.
Tactics to Retain Talent
Two years ago at the Big Builder '05 Conference, the conversation in a session dedicated to talent was all about how to grab enough warm bodies to fill the jobs spawned from our industry';s incredible growth. But at Big Builder '07, panelists and attendees tackled issues of the day in a workshop setting designed to share ideas.
What's Working: Sales & Marketing Strategies That Actually Result in Sales
Four sales and marketing executives at top home building firms shared top tips on what's working in even the most troubled markets during Big Builder '07, which took place at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. Check out some of the highlights.
Pain Points and Success Stories in Supply-Chain Cost Cutting
Cutting the costs of building a house has more to do with building supplier partnerships to eliminate inefficiencies and develop synergies than it does with hammering suppliers for price reductions, top builder supply chiefs told a group of Big Builder '07 attendees Wednesday, Nov. 28, during the Operational Excellence panel "Through Thick and Thing: Smarter Sourcing."
Boomers Redefine Active Adult
It's not your father's retirement community. In fact it's not a retirement community at all any more, with more than half the buyers reporting that they are still working when they move in, a panel of active adult community builders told an audience at the Big Builder '07 session, "Reinventing Active-Adult Communities," on Wednesday, Nov. 28.
Writing on the Wall: The Best in Home Building Blogs
To provide our readers with one-stop-shopping in the quest for breaking news, Big Builder scoured the Web for thought-provoking and engaging analysis of recent home building headlines. Check out what these industry experts have to say about the current state of the market.
Editor's Note from Big Builder '07: Back to Doing Things Different
The appeal of the familiar is understandable, but too risky. "Back to basics" is a phrase that suggests, "We've been through times as hard as these before, and if we go back to doing all the things we know how to do well, we'll get through this one." On the ground here at Big Builder's 5th annual conference, I've heard more than one person say, "If I hear that phrase, 'back to basics,' one more time, I'll [supply unpleasant thought here]." The risk of actually going back to basics is that it would be going backward in a time that requires forward-looking.
Division Presidents Dish on Success in the Downturn
On Tuesday, Nov. 27, four leading home builder executives spoke to attendees of the Big Builder '07 Conference at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas regarding the steps they took to outperform their peers and exceed expectations, even in a tough market. One such strategy involves fostering a positive customer experience. Chuck Fuhr, president of Ryland Homes' Atlanta division, said a series of company-hosted pizza parties when sales had droped from 1,200 to 600 "really generated leads and traffic."
KB, Meritage, and Holiday CEOs Talk Tactics for 2008
The story of how people camped out for the chance to buy within one of Meritage Home's communities in 2004 will transform into the story of how big builders survived in 2006 and 2007, said company CEO and Big Builder '07 chairman Steve Hilton at the conference's general power session entitled "Rally Time: Breakthrough Leadership," which took place Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2007.
Selling Sales Staffs Short
A panel of experts on sales at the Big Builder '07 Conference in Las Vegas on Nov. 27 had a simple if radical recommendation for builders besieged by the downturn in the housing market: Fire the laggards on their sales staffs. Martin Freedland, CEO of the Berke Group, a sales consulting firm, said that research conducted by the company indicates that 50% to 70% of sales people in the new home business can not sell in a competitive environment.
Cycle Time: Closing Sales, Bottom-Line Savings, and Improved Cash Flow
The executives at C.P. Morgan wanted to see just how much change orders added to cycle time, so they started to write down the time costs of each one on a giant whiteboard. Before long, the whiteboard was filled with 300 instances where change orders cut into time and costs. "We were scandalized," said the Indianapolis, Ind.-based builder's CEO Tom Eggleston. "The new guru in town was efficiency."
Top Builder Execs Discuss Impending Consolidation
Larry Webb asked a simple, yet relevant question at the Big Builder '07 Conference in Las Vegas Nov. 27: How many people think 2008 will be a better year than 2007? The room was silent. Then one solitary hand went up. That was it. Although the question from Webb, the affable CEO and president of John Laing Homes, didn't directly address the issue his panel "Pair Dancing: Consolidation Ahead" faced, it did show the pressures that could force many long-time builders to cash in their chips and get out of the business in the next 12 months.
Editor's Note from Big Builder '07: Power Surge
For Florida-centric Holiday Builders, the difference in the marketplace today versus two years ago sheds light on essentially who the company is and what it does. "We've got to be convinced we were a transactions business, but we're not," said CEO Kim Shelpman. "We're a relationships business." That changes the equation everywhere in the business – with home buyers, with subcontractors and materials suppliers, and among employed associates – from a simple exchange of goods for currency, to creating trust and value over a sustained period of time. Change is what Meritage Homes' chairman and CEO Steve Hilton is talking about throughout his top 15-ranked multi-regional home building organization as well. "To have hope is my message, but at the same time that means digging down deeper, especially competitively," said Hilton. "That means doing what it takes to find the market. I can't manufacture demand, but I can compete and get my share of the market, and that's what I'm emphasizing with my folks – they have to compete to win," Hilton said.
Pre-Big Builder '07 Conference Architects Session Preview
When the housing market first faltered, many builders' first line of defense was to drop prices and incentivize like crazy. And it worked for awhile. Housing prices had climbed so high that a dip in the sale prices came almost as a relief to buyers priced out of the market. But more than 24 months later, builders need another way other than price to differentiate themselves from the competition–and fast. Many are figuring out that this market is as much about product as it is about price; a stellar home design can make buyers out of browsers.
Learn more about markets featured in this article: Las Vegas, NV.
