June 5-6, 2025 | Wild Dunes Resort
Isle of Palms, SCPreliminary Agenda Topics
Provisional Start & End Times:
June 5: 8:00 AM – 5:30 PM
June 6: 8:00 AM – 12:30 PM
Preliminary Agenda Topics
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Macroeconomic factors impacting homebuilding
- Are you underwriting for lower rates or higher for longer?
- Mortgage rates and implications for home demand
- Tariff impact on supply chains in reality
- Update on labor availability and affordability
- Consumer and homebuilder confidence trends
- What changes implemented by the Trump administration have most meaningfully impacted your business so far?
- Are construction costs showing any sign of stabilizing?
- How is consolidation and foreign capital impacting the market?
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Homebuilding financing outlook
- How are debt and equity providers now viewing for-sale residential investment opportunities?
- How has lender activity changed since this time last year?
- Are any joint ventures in the pipeline or focusing more on land banking?
- Update on bank financing activity – what can be expected this year? How do you foresee this impacting the cost of capital?
- Completing the capital stack
- What is attracting foreign investment? Are they becoming a dependable source of capital again?
- What are the most frequent asks from borrowers? How are lenders responding?
- Which deal types/risk profiles are lenders happier to finance in the current market?
- ESG policies and their impacts on capital markets
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Private equity activity across the homebuilding sector
- Where are you looking to deploy capital? Where do you see the best risk-adjusted returns?
- What yields are you looking for when underwriting deals?
- How are you successfully closing deals and making them pencil?
- Are there attractive new development deals out there?
- What kind of leverage are you putting on your projects today? How do you think about ‘negative leverage’ in the short term?
- Are you using or seeing any creative financing structures?
- Any challenges completing the capital stack?
- Is an assumed recap/cheaper rate environment part of your underwriting?
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Land banking strategies: what’s new?
- What is the outlook for finished lots around the country? Are you seeing an impact on land banking activity?
- How are land banks typically being funded today? Does this differ by region?
- Considerations regarding financing and fee structuring
- Learning from past experiences – what has worked and what has been a bust?
- Do you have any risk management practices in place?
- Filling land banking arrangements with new vs. previously owned parcels
- What legal considerations have to be made?
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Private homebuilder strategic roundtable
- Current supply/demand dynamics in the areas in which you operate
- In which markets and products are you seeing pockets of opportunity?
- What is your biggest challenge as a business heading into 2025?
- Equity – are there good deals out there? Is there a flight to quality or are there still some bad deals being done?
- Financing challenges – are banks still hesitant? What is the current cost of capital?
- What land strategy are you employing? When will it make sense to buy and hold?
- What deals will you be looking to finance in the next year?
- How are you remaining competitive with larger players in your markets?
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Public builders C-suite roundtable
- What will be the biggest headwinds your business and the industry will face in 2025?
- Conversely, where do you see windows of opportunity?
- What does Wall Street want from the public builders?
- Land strategy – are you buying on or off balance sheet? With interest rates where they are, do land banks make as much sense for you today?
- Balancing pace vs. price & IRR vs. gross margin
- What do you expect to see from the banks and financing sources in 2025?
- How do you envisage AI impacting homebuilding? Will it level the playing field or widen the gap between the top builders and the smaller local builders?
- ESG initiatives – what do customers and shareholders demand? How is this changing the way you are building homes?
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M&A landscape: homebuilder & investment banker perspectives
- Region-specific builder considerations: how are they structured and does this fit within the operational structure of a larger builder?
- What sort of conversations are public and private builders having re M&A at the moment?
- Is now a good time to buy or sell?
- Are private equity investors actively looking at builders?
- Are larger builders looking to acquire construction companies, tech, supply etc. for vertical integration?
- What are Japanese buyers looking for when identifying acquisitions targets?
- Which part of the supply chain are they targeting? Specific regions?
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Beyond the deal: lessons learned by M&A technicians
- Dissecting the first 3-12 months after a homebuilder acquisition
- Which pitfalls do sellers stumble into most often?
- How can private builders make themselves an attractive acquisition prospect, if desired?
- Due diligence and its impact on deal success
- Navigating legal and regulatory hurdles
- Unique challenges and considerations in international deals
- Communicating with stakeholders throughout the process
- Analyzing past failures to extract valuable lessons
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What is the latest with A&D loans?
- What are we seeing in terms of A&D activity?
- Are lenders taking on new builder clients? Under what parameters?
- What main factors dictate funding availability and size?
- Completion guarantees, personal guarantees, interest accruals & LTC
- Do lenders require audited financials?
- Does the borrower need to have a board?
- How much collateral is needed?
- What does the overall governance structure look like today?
- Lending on the entire project from land, through development and construction then the takeout
- Exit strategy considerations
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Completing the capital stack: mezz, pref, bridge & other financing solutions
- What is the outlook for origination for this part of the capital stack? Bank and non-bank lender activity
- How much money are borrowers having to put in?
- Which deal types are most favorable for lenders? Location? Development type? Other key deal characteristics?
- What are the main questions you’re fielding from your borrowers?
- Are you seeing new business from people needing to complete the capital stack that would historically do that elsewhere?
- Have you adjusted your lending strategy in the past year?
- Any changes to intercreditor and mezz debt agreements?
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Land acquisition & development trends
- Update on land availability in Eastern markets
- How do you see finished and raw lot prices trending in the next 6-12 months?
- Assessing the impact of land development costs on pricing
- Infrastructure challenges and impact on land
- How are you underwriting land deals today?
- Does your strategy vary by market? Are you targeting raw, entitled or finished lots?
- Which financing options are most attractive in this environment? For unfinished lots?
- How has your risk assessment model changed since the beginning of the pandemic?
- What are the main operational challenges you are facing?
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Navigating the complexities of land entitlement
- Breaking down regulations and timelines by locale
- Latest developments in housing law
- What is the current risk appetite of land developers, homebuilders and investors regarding the entitlement of projects?
- How can these groups best manage the risk associated with entitlement?
- What are the most common obstacles in the entitlement process and how are processes being adapted to improve the likelihood of success?
- Which major potential legal issues should be taken into consideration?
- How best to work with councils and governing bodies to fast-track approvals and ensure that projects are right for the community and the investor
- Similarly, what is the best approach with groups who oppose a development project?
- Greenfields vs urban developments – how does the entitlement process differ?
- What kind of capital, if any, is there during entitlements?
- Developments for sale vs. for rent – what are the key differences?
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Repositioning existing properties where land is scarce
- Which markets have serious land availability issues? Any outside of the ‘usual suspects’?
- What strategies are you employing to utilize brownfield sites and existing properties?
- Major considerations for property repositioning
- Which property types/characteristics make a good candidate for repositioning?
- Cost of capital and timelines
- Working with local government to bring these projects to fruition
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Homebuilding supply chain leaders roundtable
- What is your outlook on the current supply chain for homebuilding?
- Which macroeconomic factors are most impacting your business today?
- How do you see that changing now under the current administration?
- How has your strategy evolved over the past few years? Are you increasing capacity or focusing on efficiency?
- What is your view on the current labor market? How are you approaching recruitment at the moment?
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Special district financing & tax strategies
- Overview of District tools in key western states (TX, CA, CO, UT, AZ) such as tax increment reinvestment zones (TIRZs), municipal utility districts (MUDs) and public improvement districts (PIDs)
- Innovations in district finance to accelerate funding and lower cost of utilities and key infrastructure
- Underwriting best practices
- Selling tax-exempt municipal bonds
- Best practices in working with local governments and municipalities
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Future home trends: product design, location & price
- Home prices (new and existing) and mortgage rate trends across geos
- First time home buyers, active adults, move-ups – who is buying and what do they want?
- Which markets are set to overperform/underperform?
- Which micropolitan markets are you most bullish on? Why?
- Return to office impact on suburban and commuter communities
- How are taxes, insurance and climate change risk impacting the movement of people and the types of home they want to live in?
- How are builders making changes to their product offerings to meet consumer demands?
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Evolution of homebuilder BTR/SFR strategies
- What makes for a good BTR opportunity for an investor? What makes for a good BTR sales opportunity for a homebuilder?
- Methods of accessing capital through investment partners
- What strategies do you have as a homebuilder to bridge the current pricing gap between retail and BTR pricing?
- As an investor, has underwriting changed with the lack of rate cuts this year but possibility that they begin in the next 3-6 months?
- What is the preferred investment structure for investors – C/O sales, progress funding, hybrid debt equity etc? How do each of these structures effect your underwriting?
- What are the preferred sales structures for homebuilders?
- What are the best strategies for identifying investor pools of capital?
- Forward purchase agreements
- What is the best way to engage homebuilders if you are interested in BTR opportunities?
- What characteristics make for a good equity partner as well as homebuilder partners?
- What type of BTR deals and markets are penciling in today’s market environment?
- Given more and more builders are creating BTR strategies, what is your prediction for how the relationship between homebuilders and investment partners will develop over time?
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The future of home construction
- Home building is often described as a process that hasn’t changed in 100 years: how can the market as a whole change this? Is it just a lazy perception or reality?
- What are today’s typical ground-up build times?
- How much time and money are builders investing in construction R&D?
- What are their main requirements and biggest pain points?
- Materials innovation, availability and supply chain challenges
- What are the cost benefits of new construction technology methods for the builder? How are these savings passed on to the consumer?
- How do these innovations lead to better quality and value for the customer?
- Cost management, procurement, budget best practices and vendor management
- Climate technology and building sustainably – what do consumers, investors and shareholders demand?
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Attracting and retaining talent
- What challenges are you facing?
- How is the hiring process changing?
- How do the needs of large publics differ from those of smaller private builders and developers?
- Managing prospective employee expectations with regards to work location, flexibility and other benefits
- Staff training and professional development: what are your companies doing to encourage and provide the future of the industry with the tools they need to succeed?
- Training younger team members for a diverse range of functions or specialization?
- Are there any core competencies that perhaps weren’t necessary 10 years ago that are desirable or essential today?
- Training younger employees to be leaders and mentors