Business View Magazine | October 2019

43 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2019 EAST TEXAS HOMES we’ve built more homes than the previous year, but were less profitable, so that’s a very nuanced number. What we found is, the more integrated we are into every piece of the home construction process – the labor piece, the supply piece, the management piece, and the sales piece – the more control and influence we have over all of those components, the more successful we can be. So, we’ve been working hard, for example, on the sales piece. We’ve got connections with local realtors who are now bringing people to us for new construction, who would never have considered new construction – people in the semi-entry- level price points are now coming to us as if they were getting a custom home. That’s new for this market; people did not know this type of thing was available.” East Texas Homes is also interested in expanding the opportunities for all builders in the region. Alston elucidates: “We’re piloting a builder affiliation program. What that might look like is a builder who does not have the resources that we have could come through this affiliation program and we’d be able to support them through a number of services, including mentoring, leveraging some of our buying power, co-branding with us, and benefitting from the name recognition that we’ve got here. In doing so, we would be able to ensure some of the good building practices that need to happen, in general, because right now, there’s a big push, locally, at least, to centralize the development process. A lot of cities have already done that by development code and we’re going through that process now. It’s a thousand-page document, and to navigate that, as a new builder, is going to be overwhelming. And it’s going to be difficult to be successful if you don’t understand it. So, just seeing sustained, long-term growth in the community that we are invested in here, is super important to us. We’re community-centric, we’re customer-centric, and we are committed to sustaining positive growth in homebuilding.” In the end, Alston believes that it’s not about the number of houses that East Texas Homes