D.R. Horton: Building a New Model - [Business Breakdowns, EP.154]

This is Matt Reustle. Today, we are breaking down D.R. Horton, America’s largest homebuilder. Our guest is Ed Wachenheim, Founder of Greenhaven Associates. Ed takes us through an incredible discussion of D.R. Horton and homebuilders broadly, including how much has changed with this business model over the years. Ed shares countless entertaining stories with the management teams and backs it all up with the numbers behind this business. It's an excellent conversation and an excellent glimpse at how someone like Ed approaches investments. Please enjoy this breakdown of D.R. Horton. Ed’s Book: Common Stocks and Common Sense Interested in hiring from the Colossus Community? Click here. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here. ----- This episode is brought to you by Tegus, the go-to destination for bold investing. The investment research platform trusted by 95% of the top 20 global private equity firms just got even better. Building on their solid reputation for expert insights, Tegus has expanded to become the first true all-in-one research platform. The new Tegus makes diligence faster, easier, and more convenient than ever before. Your Tegus license gives you access to over 70,000 expert transcripts, more than 4,000 fully drivable financial models, and exclusive datasets like company management checks, industry KPIs, hard-to-find non-GAAP data, and more. Tegus is the fastest way to learn about a public or private company and the most cost-effective way to conduct investment research — now all under one roof. Learn more and get your free trial at tegus.com/patrick. ----- Business Breakdowns is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Business Breakdowns, visit joincolossus.com/episodes. Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @JoinColossus | @patrick_oshag | @zbfuss | @ReustleMatt | @domcooke Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com). Show Notes (00:00:00) Welcome to Business Breakdowns (00:04:33) First Question - Understanding the Home Building Business Model (00:06:56) Evolution of the Home Building Industry (00:09:41) The Impact of Land Ownership on Home Builders (00:14:29) A Transformation of the Home Building Business Model (00:17:35) Unique Characteristics of D.R. Horton (00:24:16) The Geographic Concentration of Home Builders (00:25:59) Current State and Future of the Home Building Industry (00:33:44) The Resilience of the Home Building Industry (00:34:56) Efficiencies and Margins in Home Building (00:37:02) Forecasting Revenue Growth in the Home Building Industry (00:40:04) Comparing D.R. Horton vs. NVR (00:41:23) The Valuation Gap in the Home Building Industry (00:57:05) The Shift Towards Institutional Ownership in Home Building (00:58:13) Impact of Interest Rates on Home Building (01:02:09) Lessons from Evaluating D.R. Horton