Jun 29 2009 1:18PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |

By Glenn Singer

There is no doubt that the current downturn in the home building industry has changed quite a few things such as lending practices, the price of new homes, the size of new homes, what is considered standard items and what is considered upgrades, etc. But one of the biggest changes is that many of the people in the industry have changed. As you know, many of the builders, manufacturers, trade contractors and suppliers have been forced to lay off people to survive in this economy.

As the market turns around many of the old relationships that we all had will not exist anymore and we will have to forge new relationships based on honest and open communications and trust. It won’t be business as usual! We will have to work hard to build these relationships and this is a good thing as there will be no room for complacency in this new market.

So go forth and but your best foot forward.

Jun 2 2009 10:12AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |

By Glenn Singer

Last week I attended the National Association of Home Builders' spring board of directors' meeting in Washington, DC. What I heard and experienced left me with mixed emotions in that I heard "the good, the bad and the ugly."

Let’s get "the bad and the ugly" out of the way because there is some "good" to talk about. So here is the bad news. 

• Housing starts at an all-time low with less than 400,000 single family homes being constructed this year. 
• Commercial construction is declining. 
• Booth space rentals for the 2010 IBS are way, way down. 
• NAHB staff has taken a 5 percent salary reduction and will take a 10-day furlough later this year. 
• Membership levels are dropping as well. 
• Attendance at the meeting was

...Read More

May 11 2009 8:32AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |

By Glenn Singer

Recently we have seen some positive signs in the economy, the stock market and in the home building industry; however, I am not saying that the recession is over and that the home building industry has recovered. We still have a long way to go before that can be declared. One thing is for certain and that is that there will be a recovery and we need to prepare for it.

Now is the time to reflect on the past few years to identify the mistakes that we made as well as the things we did right. We also need to face the fact that it will be a long, long time before we will see 2,000,000 housing starts. In talking with many of our manufacturer associates, I have learned that they have been working hard to balance their builder-customer portfolios. They don’t want to be dependent on the top public builders and they want to sell privately-held local and regional builders as w...Read More

Apr 27 2009 11:51AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |

By Glenn Singer

Now I realize that we are a long way from an economic recovery and new home inventories still need to get smaller, but I have been hearing and seeing some good news which we all need.

The stock market has performed better over the past month with some steady but small growth. I am reading that sales traffic has increased in both the new and existing home market. Even at last week’s NAHB’s semi-annual Construction Forecast Conference we were told that the industry has bottomed out and will lead the economy out of the recession. Even my local newspaper, the Philadelphia Inquirer has published some encouraging news about the new and existing home markets in the Philadelphia region.

When I go into a store or a shop I conduct my own “survey” as I ask the clerk or owner “How is business?” and, recently, I ha...Read More

Apr 14 2009 2:53PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (1) |

By Glenn Singer

Last week we were all rocked by Pulte Homes’ acquisition of Centex Homes. Pulte will now be by far the largest home builder in the United States. Many industry experts are telling us that this is just the start and that we can look for other industry giants to merge and acquire each other. Nothing stays the same!

I will be observing how this new industry trend will affect the building material manufacturers since prior to the housing downturn most manufacturers focused on the industry giants. When the market dried up the manufacturers found that they needed to sell the smaller local, privately-held builders but they didn’t really know them since they focused on the giants and left it up to their distributors to service the smaller builder.

...Read More

Apr 2 2009 1:33PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |

By Glenn Singer

During this current economic downturn that has crippled our industry we certainly have heard our fair share of bad news. Many home builders have declared Chapter 11 and some have closed their doors permanently. Many in our industry have been laid off including builders, manufacturers, trade contractors and distributors. And then, of course there is the A.I.G. fiasco, the Bernie Madoff affair, the General Motors crisis and the list goes on and on.

However, this current downturn has had some positive results as well. Many builders have been forced to streamline their operations and processes, manufacturers have also had to become more efficient since they, too, have reduced manpower. I know of one builder in the Philadelphia market that was forced to reduce the price of their homes from the mid- $300,000 range to $199,999!! And guess what? This builder has received over 30...Read More

Mar 24 2009 1:14PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |

By Glenn Singer

A few blog articles ago I wrote about this unusual experience that my wife and I had with two automobile dealers as we went about trying to buy a car. The bottom line was that the dealer we bought the car from was hungry and really wanted to sell the car and the other dealer only sent me emails and never called to set up an appointment. I related this situation to what could be going on in the home building business.

Well, I have another true story that based on my involvement with a local hardware store and it exemplifies how a retail business should be run. One of the clothing bars in our closet broke as the bracket bent from too much weight. So I went to my local neighborhood independent hardware store and started the search. The owner of the store was with me as we looked at all possibilities to solve the problem but none materialized so the owner huddled with one of...Read More

Mar 11 2009 7:45AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |

By Glenn Singer

I just returned from a breakfast meeting with the general manager of one of the industry’s largest building material manufacturers and, of course, we discussed the state of the home building industry and how everyone in the supply chain is trying to survive during these bleak times.

We began discussing how manufacturers who have been successful in the home building industry have been so because they have made a commitment to invest their resources and programs in the industry. These manufacturers have realized that to be successful they needed to make a long term investment in the industry as it takes years to become established as a leader in the home building industry.

...Read More

Mar 3 2009 9:44AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |

By Glenn Singer

If you turn on the TV, read a newspaper or turn on the radio all you hear about is the bad news about the economy, homebuilding and the automobile industry. So you would think that businesses would be busting their humps trying to get new business. Well, I’ve got news for you, it isn’t so!! Check out this true story that happened to me.

My wife needed a new car so we went online to check out the various models and dealers. I emailed their respective sales departments asking for information and lease vs. buy options, etc. I got the immediate and automatic email responses from the two dealers that we decided to shop.

Since my wife has always driven Jeeps, we visited the Jeep dealer and were treated with respect and the sales person had a sense of urgency. He wasn’t pushy but you knew he wanted the sale. He focused on listening to my wife&r...Read More

Feb 19 2009 7:52AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |

By Glenn Singer

We are all struggling during this downturn to find new and unique ways to survive and even grow. But it is not easy and we are constantly looking for success stories that others have utilized to be successful.

Well, yesterday I read an article in The New York Times that told of a Japanese concept called “omotenashi”. A Japanese company called Shiseido manufacturers and sells women’s cosmetics and it utilizes the “omotenashi” approach to sales. The concept is pretty basic but it really is effective. Here is the concept of “omotenashi”. It is a refrain in the service industry in Japan, especially with luxury hotels. The word means hospitality, but to Japanese people it means something more akin to an elevated politeness that makes customers feel ...Read More

Feb 9 2009 12:54PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |

By Glenn Singer

At the recently held IBS in Las Vegas I had a lot of opportunity to talk with many building material manufacturers to better understand how they are coping with downturn in the market. As you might guess, I found a “mixed bag” of reactions and strategies. Obviously all manufacturers are cutting expenses and travel; some have had some severe layoffs and capacity reductions while others are just not replacing people when they leave.

Some of the manufacturers are “keeping their heads down” and trying to ride out the storm. I have a problem with this approach because while they are safe and sound in their foxholes, the world around them is changing and they may wake up when the market begins to turn around and find that they have lost a lot of market share.

...Read More

Jan 26 2009 2:50PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (2) |

By Glenn Singer

Having just returned from the International Builders’ Show in Las Vegas I am filled with new insight as well as confirmation for my old views of the market. Well, as you might guess the show’s attendance was way down. Some “experts” say that attendance was down about 40% and, from my vantage point; I would say that this was about right.

Needless to say, the senior officers and staff of the NAHB were concerned about how the manufacturer exhibitors would react to this decline in builder attendees. Will the manufacturers drop out next year or reduce there exhibit space? This remains to be seen, however, some of the manufacturers told me that although the number of builders was down, those builders that did attend will be the survivors and that they had good meetings with them.

Most of the pundits agree that the market is probably hit...Read More

Jan 9 2009 9:16AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |

By Glenn Singer

As I am preparing my itinerary for the upcoming International Builders’ Show, I have had the opportunity to talk with many builders and manufacturers to confirm meetings in Las Vegas. For the most part, most of my conversations have been “upbeat” in that there was no talk about the glum and doom on the economy or the state of the new residential housing market. Instead, there has been a sense of optimism in my conversations. People are looking forward to 2009 and all that it will bring. They sense that 2009 will bring a change in the housing market and that later this year we will begin to see an upswing in activity.

This week I talked with builders in Vermont, Philadelphia and Seattle and was told that they had the most traffic last weekend that they have had in 12 months. My wife and I were vacationing in Seattle and last Saturday we went to several ...Read More

Dec 29 2008 8:22AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |

By Glenn Singer

Earlier this week I had a conversation with a business colleague and friend, Rod MacKenzie, a former BlueLinx executive who is currently an industry consultant. Rod was discussing that what the building material wholesalers have to offer is just what the home building industry needs to get through this current economic downturn. Rod says that the wholesalers offer a great value proposition because they offer the following to homebuilders and trade contractors:

• They accept and store large quantities of a variety of building products
• They provide break-bulk services as needed
• They offer prompt delivery to construction supply firms or job sites
• They cover the cost of carrying inventory
• They assume the price and market risk for products they purchase.

Rod claims that the building material whol...Read More

Dec 4 2008 8:14AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (1) |

By Glenn Singer

I have been talking to a lot of manufacturers over the past month and it seems that many are on their second or third round of layoffs which reflects the state of our industry. It has been my experience that layoffs tend to cast a dark environment among the companies that have invoked the downsizing. The attitude of the remaining employees is usually gloom and sometimes even negative. People just want to keep their heads down and weather the storm and all of this can lead to a negative “vibe” that is reflected to the market place and customers.

It is my belief that now is the time for manufacturers to begin planning and implementing a recovery strategy. The experts are beginning to tell us that the market is or has bottomed out and recovery will start slowly later next year and for sure in 2010. In fact, there are markets today that are not d...Read More