On March 7th Larry Webb shared his lessons learned as a homebuilder with an Urban Land Institute Leadership group. For anyone who has never heard Larry speak you must know that he is “beyond” engaging. The New Home Company is going to target the 2nd Move-up homebuyer market and also build for the multi-generational family.
Here are his thoughts and tips for home-building (and business) success:
- Home-building is a local business.
- The home-building business is all about people; pick the best and brightest and get out of their way. In large corporations people are less important than systems; beware of large companies.
- Business success requires lots of information: if you create an environment of openness then your people will open up and tell you bad news; you need to know the bad news.
- Home-building is a Team Business: Make consultants part of your team. Learn how to create a Great Team.
- Run Lean: to be truly successful you must have little overhead. Shrink your G&A and watch your bank account grow. The CEO and VPs need to listen to their buyers, their customers and their team.
- Larry’s Book Picks: Killer Angels by Mike Scharow; Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen; The TED conference.
The Maintenance Manager 
So true about home-building being a local business. Even though they’ve got developments all over California, each one seems very specific to its location. Looking forward to seeing what comes next from housing industry veteran Larry Webb and from the new home company overall after their IPO!