Rose Law Group Reporter
In this week’s continuing Q&A series we spoke with Reed Porter, CEO and owner, of New Village Homes, via email.
Your career path is really quite a journey of working hard and then crushing it – start up, homebuilder, national, now what? Can you walk us through that trajectory as I know it is not only an American dream story but one that provides a great deal of inspiration to so many working hard in our Az real estate market?
I was very fortunate to be raised by a father and mother who owned their own home building company along with my father’s brother and a long term family friend in Salt Lake City Utah. When I went off to college in the mid 1980’s, the Salt Lake real estate market declined to the point where they looked to move to Phoenix. Just as I graduated from College (Pomona College) they opened the first Trend Homes community in Mesa.
This was during the Resolution Trust Corporation period of Phoenix history. There were a lot of finished lots that had recently been taken back by the RTC. I moved from college to Phoenix and joined them at that first community. For the next few years, we built homes on RTC lots in Mesa and Chandler. I got my real estate license and sold homes from the models. We had a very austere presentation with no model home décor and a three page contract.
In 1993 I moved into the main office and my father retired in 1998, but continued to participate on the board. As a team, we worked to build Trend Homes into a large private home building company, delivering over 1,200 homes in 2006.
At the housing crash, our team joined with the Najafi Companies, building a strategy to survive the crash by working with Trend Homes’ lenders and build through the existing inventory. Unfortunately, within a few months of making this arrangement, the FDIC seized those banks and would not participate in the deal we’d made. We were faced with the very real possibility that we would need to close the business the very next day. After careful consideration, the Najafi Companies decided to work with us to stay open. We cobbled together a random group of custom lots and other scattered lots that were priced right for the time.
During this time, we began to focus on infill sites. This was necessary as the new home outlying areas of greater Phoenix had ground to a complete halt. We located a few unique sites in south Phoenix and Tempe and managed to keep the doors open while we regained a foothold in the market.
In 2012, Ryland Homes, which had closed their Phoenix operation at the housing crash, came back to Phoenix looking to acquire a home building team. Their offer made sense to the Najafi Companies and in December 2012, the surviving Trend Homes team became the Phoenix Division for Ryland Homes. Using new capital from Ryland, we located several infill sites and began to expand. By 2015, we were delivering more than 400 homes per year.
At the end of 2015, Ryland Homes merged with Standard Pacific Homes to create a new builder called CalAtlantic Homes. The Phoenix divisions for each builder joined operations at the end of 2015. Despite the numerous challenges posed by a national merger, the Phoenix division of CalAtlantic Homes delivered over 1,000 homes in both 2016 and 2017. It was exciting as well as challenging to get back to the pre-recession velocity of delivering over 100 homes per month.
In April 2017, I decided to leave CalAtlantic Homes to pursue creating a private home building company. In the summer of 2017, my wife and I started New Village Homes. Since then, we’ve been working around the clock to get it off the ground!
Tell us what you can about your latest venture – what is the niche you are serving and how did you think to start this up?
The new venture is called New Village Homes.
We are serving two niches exclusively on infill parcels. We have two communities of single level, detached, homes for-rent. The homes will look like small cottages from the 1940’s.
We are also entering the “for-sale” market, constructing 2 series of detached homes on very small lots. We currently have 5 communities in escrow and we’re working on entitlements and improvement plans.
Both my wife and I are excited about creating communities of distinctive homes on small infill parcels that have been left behind by the path of development.
So, the market right now is just happy happy happy. You have seen and lived through the not so happy happy happy. How did you handle the recessions from a business perspective and then equally as important from a psychological perspective – like how did you survive financially and mentally?
The housing crash was very difficult for everyone invested and engaged in real estate across the greater Phoenix area. I did two things to survive the not so happy times; first I got up every day, went to work and tried to accomplish something that felt like progress. Second, I spent time on the phone talking about opportunities with other people who were doing the same. Many of the successes we had during the downturn were the result of these conversations and ideas that were exchanged. I am grateful to everyone who spent time conversing with me about ideas to survive. As a side note, my father always looked for the bright side on the other side of tough times and I try to do the same. My wife and I had much to be grateful for with our family, so I also feel that having perspective about what is important helps too.
You seem like you work hard, play hard. What do you do to play? What is it outside of work that makes you the happiest?
I enjoy snow skiing and hiking with my wife and children. Outside of work, I am happiest spending time with my wife and children.
People all around town that have worked for you say great things about you as a boss. What is your management philosophy?
I have been fortunate to work with smart, productive and fun people. I respect their talents, experience and knowledge and just try to work cooperatively with them to get the job done
We know you have raised some really bright motivated kids. Give us one sentence of advice on child rearing…?
I married a super smart, loving, caring, generous woman who is committed to the well-being, health and education of each of our children. We worked as a unified team to create an environment where they felt safe, loved, supported and were free to develop their talents and passions.
