Smith Douglas Homes Corp. (NYSE:SDHC) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

So that unfortunately it impacts closings this year. So we see a little bit of movement there. But on the other hand, we are looking for finished lots, seeing what we can do this year to kind of backfill some of that. So that’s again, hopefully that provides you a little bit of color, but we try to be transparent as we can on that stuff.

Operator: Your next question is from the line of Jay McCanless with Wedbush.

Jay McCanless: Would love to get an update on Houston, how the RT implementation’s going, and any kind of early learnings or changes to the RT that you guys see you might need to make to get it implemented out there?

Greg Bennett: Thanks, Jay. No, things have gone extremely well in Houston. We are just in the last few weeks converted all accounting that is all being handled here locally through Atlanta now and all homes are running on schedule. We did RT designations across communities and have all those in alignment and have started now all the homes over on schedule. So I think we’ve been very thoughtful. We’ve had a team there, transition team there every week. So it’s gone well and we look to be fully RT operational here probably by the end of Q2. So been good.

Jay McCanless: And just wanted to ask again on the land side. It sounds like cost there starting to move up. And how much would you estimate land costs are up now versus this time last year? And also as part of that, we’ve seen lumber prices starting to move up again recently. When, if at all, should we expect that to impact the gross margin on closings?

Greg Bennett: Yes, I think what we’re seeing more in land is it’s become somewhat of a bidding game, where it’s really hard to predict the cost because we are every deal out there, there’s a — it goes out to bid and then you just hope to get in there. The material side of things, we’re seeing enough demand that I think our pricing will trend with any of the costing issues, they’ve been minor. Our cost has stayed relatively predictable and pretty true to what we’ve seen historically there in a more normal market.

Russ Devendorf: Yes. As long as we don’t see when things start getting out of line is when markets move way too fast up or down. So as long as we don’t see what happened during the COVID times where you had those huge lumber spikes, I mean like Greg said, we should be able to typically you are able to move price in line with cost, but then again there is also the interest rate factor and affordability factor, so that could also put a cap on where you are able to move prices. But right now, it’s not something that we feel like will impact our 2024 numbers too much.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] Your next question is from the line of Sam Reid with Wells Fargo.

Sam Reid: Wanted to touch on the incentive backdrop in a little bit more detail. We’ve gotten some color from a few of your competitors on affordability and rate buy down dynamics and everything like that. Just curious kind of your broader take on the infinite backdrop and maybe what you’re seeing some of your competitors doing in some of your markets?

Greg Bennett: Yes. So our incentives are down noticeably. We still have in our model, which is a presale build order model. Our incentives tend to evolve around where we do have a cancellation, where we do have the need to start a spec unit that we focus those dollars and moving those spec units are, we’ve seen a trend downward on incentives and actually have seen the trend more toward taking some pricing opportunities.

Sam Reid: And I guess kind of continuing on with the pricing dynamic here, do you guys have any sense roughly as to what proportion of your communities you’ve taken up base pricing and kind of ahead of the spring selling season? Thanks.

Russ Devendorf: Yes. We don’t have an exact number, but and look, just so you know our process, it’s a community-by-community analysis. I mean there is Atlanta for us for instance is so widespread. We did over 1,000 closings, we’re the third largest builder last year. But there’s pockets of Atlanta that are better than others. So it really is, like I said, a community by community analysis. But I would say just as we see our trends for the last 13 weeks and like I mentioned earlier about where margins are going, I’d tell you it’s probably north of 50% where we’re seeing either actual price increases and base price, but more so it would be just a reduction in the incentive. So it’s, the trend is positive, but like I said the jury is still out. You know it feels pretty good. Market is good, demand is good, but let’s see what happens kind of as we get a little bit deeper towards the end of selling season, but you know so far so good.