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Recent news coverage of home builders has been generally negative. Reorganization, downsizing, and bankruptcies make headlines, and the debate over a possible recession wages on. It is easy to see why most people think housing is a mess, and in many areas the market is challenging, to say the least. But during market corrections it is easy to lose sight of the bigger picture. The fact of the matter is that in the coming years, the U.S. home building market will provide rich opportunities for growth and expansion to companies and individuals on the upside of this downturn.
 In talking to recently-named President of U.S. Operations for Mattamy Homes, Steve Parker, I found a breath of fresh air from the gloom and doom of mainstream news. And I believe that what he said is important because it accurately represents the position of a large number of smaller home builders across the nation, who reporters have passed over in decrying this historic correction.
Some smaller home builders like Mattamy are finding themselves better suited to survive the slowdown than some of the larger, public builders. To begin with, many do not have as many land assets on their books. “A lot of the national builders in the U.S. are basically bigger than Mattamy and have a lot more land assets,” explains Parker, “Because we’re small, we have the advantage of not having so many assets invested in the U.S., and we’re not struggling as much looking at our asset portfolio.” Mattamy is now in a position to find land deals across many markets over the next two years. Also, many smaller builders are private, which can take some pressure off of the management to cut overhead or reorganize. In fact, many smaller companies are aggressively competing for top industry talent that has become available due to market circumstances.
I asked Laura Bailey, another home building veteran now working at Mattamy, why she chose to join the small builder. “The opportunity for growth!” she said, “Many large builders are downsizing, but Mattamy is taking a different approach. We’re looking to grow the business, both organically and through opportunities for acquisitions.”
The situation has created unprecedented opportunities in the industry to for individuals to join and grow tomorrow’s leading home builders. Both Steve Parker and Laura Bailey remarked that their first responsibility at Mattamy is to “put the proper talent in place.” They are pursuing an aggressive growth strategy, and without the right people, “you just can’t execute.” In fact, Parker insisted that “the need of the right people” is the “most important consideration in Mattamy’s success.”
So, who are the “right people”? Jobseekers need to consider what smaller builders looking to expand on the upside of this cycle need. Parker summed up small builders’ calculations in this way: they need “growers,” not “maintainers.” They need people who have the ambition to be part of a growing company, who want and love the opportunity. They need individuals with a high sense of energy and drive, the kind who might wake up at 3 AM for their first day of work because they are too excited to sleep.
Appropriately, Parker is an archetype of the “grower” he describes. In 1996, he joined Morrison Homes when it was roughly the same size as Mattamy’s U.S. division is today. At Morrison, he was part of a management team that grew that business from less than 1,000 units to more than 5,000 units in five or six years. While in charge of Morrison’s Florida division, he grew it to 48% of Morrison’s business in the U.S. “I feed off the passion for growing a business,” he proclaims.
Knowing that some of the best jobs in home building right now are for “growers” in promising smaller companies, jobseekers who have these qualities need to focus on this in their search. They need to incorporate tangible examples of their passion for growing a business. For home building jobseekers who are “growers,” and skillfully present this on their resumes and in interviews, the home building industry offers tremendous opportunity right now. And for smaller, well-positioned home builders, the market will be ripe with chances for expansion and growth in the coming years.
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