Foreign.

It's around the house.

On this episode of around the House, we talk about affordable housing and high quality construction with champion homes.

Yeah.

So that is a part of our national series called the altitude.

That model is called the Highland.

It's three beds, two baths, 1500 square feet.

It's 15, 25.

And that home, we decked it out for the show.

It looks really great.

Nine foot ceilings, the windows are ginormous.

We're really bringing that outdoor living inside side.

We are catering to the work from home atmosphere that we've seen.

So anytime we have an altitude model, we'll throw in a tech space as well.

So that's right.

When you walk in, it's a gorgeous window.

I would love to work from home there every single day, walk outside to the gorgeous kitchen, make a cup of coffee.

When it comes to remodeling or renovating your home, there is a lot to know and we have got you covered.

This is around the House.

Welcome to the round the house show, the next generation of home and improvement.

I'm Eric G.

Thanks for joining me today.

We are out here at design and Construction Week 2025 and this is an amazing show.

One, it's beautiful 80 degrees outside, which is a lot of fun.

And by the way, this hour is brought to you by our friends at Monty McGrills.

Check them out at monument grills.com we are in this beautiful duplex that is sitting out here in the parking lot.

And yeah, this sounds crazy.

You walk up and it looks like a brand new house built right in the middle of a parking lot.

And yes, that's the way Champion homes can do this and their family of companies, which I love.

We've got a great group here today.

We've got Carly Daniels, segment marketing manager here.

We've got Gil Brown, VP of product development and Phil Copeland, VP of engineering.

We are talking the answer to affordable housing today and how we can actually fix this stuff out there with our affordable housing problem.

Guys, welcome to around the House.

Oh, thanks for having us.

Thank you, Eric.

This is going to be a lot of fun and I really love what you guys are doing because I have one of the skyline plants in my backyard, one of the many brands you guys do.

But I love it here at the show because we get to really see what you guys are doing and we're sitting in a duplex right now.

This is amazing, guys.

You guys have really done something cool here.

As always, blow the socks off everybody.

And there's people lined out the door looking to come See what we're doing in here.

So let's talk about this as far as the builders and what people are doing now with these new developments, because this is one of the answers here in a duplex.

This is gorgeous.

Who wants to jump in on that one?

Yeah, no, thanks.

Appreciate you having us.

And yeah, we're really excited about the line of duplexes.

We've got several models designed and ready to build.

First debut at a show with the duplex here at ibs.

So we're really excited.

Want to create some visibility and awareness around our capabilities to build this type of product.

And we know there's just a really high demand for things like this for rental units and this size unit.

I think it's going to fit in really great into a lot of our markets.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

It's super cool.

And I had never thought of this.

And you don't think about it when we're trying to get more people into a certain space.

Now you can put two people in a beautiful home that quite frankly is built better than most of the spec builders that you see out there because it's gorgeous and it's set up in a parking lot right now.

It tells you how fast you can set this stuff up.

Because there's probably a trade show here last week already, right?

That's right.

Yeah.

So what's it take to get something like this to market when you guys come in and go, oh my gosh, we're actually going to build a duplex and of course debut it here at the show.

And then you guys have all that stuff.

That one, you have to build it as a regular model, which probably takes a lot of work to make sure that you can get that going the factories and of course getting out here to the show for people to see of the latest and greatest.

Sure.

Thanks, Bill.

Yeah, absolutely.

So the idea of a multifamily manufactured home just really came into light with recent code changes.

Yeah.

The federal government listened to the industry and they implemented some great changes last September that allowed us to go to the next level, get away from single family detached and apply our capabilities with multiple multifamily.

This is a result of that.

It's hot off the press and it is, it's exciting.

It follows the same federal approval process that single family detached homes do.

Yeah, it's just now we get to consider urban infill or, or other higher density applications for this, this type of code application.

Nice, nice.

And I think this is a really big deal because the speed of building of this, if Somebody wanted to come in and put in a bunch of homes really quickly.

And what I like about this is I'm in the Pacific Northwest, so one of the biggest problems we have in construction up there is on the healthier home side.

So what I see is, I see people coming in, building homes in January, February, March.

It's our rainy time of year over there.

And by the time they're putting the roof on it, the studs are black from everything's warped up.

The floor is trash because it's been sitting in water for two, three, four weeks because there's days they couldn't frame.

And then they wrap it up and keep going.

And I'm like, that's not the answer to a healthy home.

You guys get to build it indoors.

That's right.

A lot of advantages to building indoors.

You know, the speed check from the.

From the elements.

Everything is built very precisely, very measured down to the stud.

Right.

Really well.

So we know exactly what our scrap rates are.

And it's fun.

You can walk around one of our plants and look in the dumpsters.

You're going to find very little waste throughout our facilities.

And so it's just really good for the environment.

It's super fast.

And one of the things that I love about that, though.

You're right.

When I was.

When I've done the factory tours, I walk in and there's this little tiny dumpster, and a typical house of this size, there's dumpsters coming off the job site of wasted material.

And you guys just don't do that.

From the sheetrock to the lumber that's coming into the job site, which is your factory, at the right length to start with, you're not throwing away that stuff, which means reduced cost, way better for the environment.

And that is what's cool about this.

And I'm sure there's a lot of planning in that.

Because you have to order materials the right size.

There's gotta be a lot of going through.

On the engineering side of, okay, we want to use every scrap that we can, but you guys get really clean lumber that comes in, and there's just not a big dumpster there.

That's.

And you're building a ton of homes at the same time.

Yeah, you're exactly right.

There's a lot of planning that goes into the efficient use of materials.

Call it value engineering.

And because we're building dimensional constraints associated with shipping, we can take advantage of that.

So the location of our doors and our windows optimize the use of panelized materials like OSB and drywall.

And if we can make small adjustments to those locations so they land on normal stud cavities and save some saw and lumber material.

So with clean effort into pre design, you can very surprising what can be saved.

You couple that with the fact that our OSB never sees a rainstorm or gets pelted by snow.

It stays dry, it stays at its moisture content right as it came out of the plant where it was manufactured.

It's leaky floors, no black lumber.

Like you mentioned.

It's a great.

My background as a designer, I was living in Seattle at the time and I'll never forget this because it was the craziest job site as far as safety and damage happening at the same time.

Now this was 15, 20 years ago and it was still a two and a half million dollar house.

I show up to see if the kitchen's ready to measure.

I walk in, it has a nice second story balcony.

It's just framed.

Framers are in there dumping rain outside.

There was a water feature in the living room because there was a three foot waterfall coming off the second floor down.

And they hadn't cut out any of the doorways out of the, out of the bottom plates on stuff.

So you had an inch and a half of water in this house.

And all the extension cords were underwater with the air hoses for the framers.

And there was a guy out at the post out there getting the reset button.

I hear power, everything come back on again and I'm like, I'm going to die standing in here.

This is not worker safety.

I walked out of there and, and then three weeks later I'm in there and they're finishing drywall and I'm like, this house was like it was under water, there was so much water in it.

And somebody bought that house.

And that's why I believe in factory built housing so much.

Because what's funny, and this is another one of those things that I just got to tell you, the personal experience so you people out there, listeners understand.

I was doing shooting for my TV show the around the House Northwest.

And we had just left the Parade of Homes and there was a multimillion dollar house.

We walked in and I walked in, walking around, I'm like, man, this drywall work is not awesome.

And we go over the Skyline plant, we're shooting over there and I mentioned to my team like let's not be judge here, but let's take a look at this drywall work in here.

And they're like, this is way better.

It Wasn't close.

And I'm like, yeah.

That attention to detail.

If you think this is your night, your grandma's 1977 double wide, you got a lot of catching up to do to where things are now.

I would much rather have one of these homes personally than one of these spec builder ones that are the name brands that we see all around the show right here.

And no shade to those guys.

It's a better built home.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

And we've got some incredible team members throughout our company.

9,000 strong.

Right.

And the guys in the plant, the folks in the plant building these houses, they're doing this process repetitively.

Right.

So they're experts in that.

In that process on.

On the line, whether it's doing drywall or doing the wiring or hanging the lights or whatever it may.

So they get really good at it.

Right?

Yeah.

And the repeatability allows them to really get that honed in and get that process dialed in and achieve that look that you're talking about.

Yeah, it's fantastic, man.

We got a great team that do a great job, and we built a beautiful house.

So we're really proud of it.

Yeah, you should be, because it's just amazing.

And I like the worker safety aspect.

Let's talk about your amazing employees that you guys have.

You guys have such a solid safety program.

I noticed that there's safety people walking around.

It is so dialed in compared to.

Sorry, guys.

Any other job site I've been at where some ladders being used.

Funky.

Somebody's standing up there without fall protection.

The normal stuff we see in a job site every day.

But it makes me look at it and go, hey, framers, why are you in there?

Why are you out there working in the 100 degree heat on the roof?

You should be overworking with somebody like you guys, where you guys are cranking it out and they're working indoors.

That's right.

It's a nice change of pace.

I'm sure a welcome change of pace for a lot of folks who have built site built homes.

And I've done it.

I've done it myself.

And it's brutal, man.

It can be brutal out there.

And you're right, it's.

It.

There's a lot of safety concerns, but it's really one of our number one priorities, if not the number one to keep everybody safe in the factory.

Because there's a lot of moving parts and it's.

It's organized chaos.

Right.

A lot of times everybody's moving fast and we're cranking them out.

And yeah, these guys do a great job and we've got a great team that's just keeping a watchful eye, doing audits, making sure we're wearing helmets, safety glasses, all the proper gear to build safely.

So yeah, you're not getting away with that in your guys shop.

I says it's nope.

This is a culture, this isn't a rule, you know what I mean?

And I can tell that.

And I think it's really something you guys should be really proud about because it's amazing how you do it.

And some of the safety, it's just intuitive to a production process just from a lift assist or a fall protection.

Getting access to a roof through a catwalk rather than just walking around on it.

Right.

It saves time and a lot of our facilities have.

Yeah, it makes a big difference with that because it's just, it's awesome to see and it keeps everybody moving, keeps everybody going home to their families and stuff at night and, and doing that.

I want to talk about the Genesis home.

Let's talk about some of the stuff that's going on here because you guys again, that Genesis home next door.

Dear Lord, that thing is gorgeous.

Yeah, yeah.

So that is a part of our national series called the Altitude.

That model is called the Highland.

It's three beds, two baths, 1500 square feet.

It's 15, 25.

And that home, we decked it out for the show.

It looks really great.

Nine foot ceilings, the windows are ginormous.

For really bringing that outdoor living inside side, we are catering to the work from home atmosphere that we've seen.

So anytime we have an Altitude model, we'll throw in a tech space as well.

So that's right.

When you walk in, it's a gorgeous window.

I would love to work from home there every single day.

Walk outside to the gorgeous kitchen, make a cup of coffee and step outside that sliding glass door.

You can't get a better home than that.

And it's at an affordable price.

Which is huge.

Which is huge constructed.

And you're showing the garage off, which I like.

Yes, we are.

The attached garage.

And what I think is cool about that is if you were to build a development builders out there, why are you struggling to get through this?

Where you could team up with you guys on something like this, build a faster home, you're going to get in as a developer and you're going to get out.

You're laying foundations, you're getting utilities in there and then you guys do the heavy lifting from there on out.

You know, we like to say we work while you are prepping the site, we are literally building the home in the factory.

So we're working simultaneously to get you to even exceed sometimes what your timeline, what you thought it would be.

And that's time is money, as we all know.

Oh, my gosh, it is awesome.

And what I think is cool is.

And then somebody driving through the neighborhood is going to go, wow, this is a really beautiful neighborhood.

They're not going to sit there and go, oh, is that manufactured?

Because you think about that from a.

From years past.

Okay, I'm in this kind of development now.

It's going to look better than the other guys down the street that have been stick building it there because it's going to be more stylish, better built.

And then you guys just basically have to build the garage on site out there, which you're never going to move a garage that's impossible to get down the road.

But I think that's what's cool and brilliant about the process is you come in and in days the house is ready to rock.

And then you're framing a garage up, which is quick.

Yep.

And you're good to go.

Yeah.

This show is such a great platform, right.

For.

For people to come and see what we're capable.

We've been to some shows where people walk in and it's funny.

One example, I was at a League of Cities.

Lady walks in and she's looking around and she said, I see that you guys build houses, but don't you also build mobile homes?

That was her comment to me.

I thought it was hysterical.

It was just.

That just goes to show you.

But, yeah, the awareness we can create with the builders that are here at the show today.

They're walking through tons of great conversations going on, a lot of excitement around the capabilities.

And I think they're seeing the light, right.

They're like, okay, yeah, this is a.

This is someone I may want to partner up with and let's go develop some properties together.

So we're pumped.

And especially for the younger generation out there, that's okay.

We're going to start getting it developing.

Why not do a sure thing like that?

Why are you out there struggling, trying to find workers, trying to get that let you guys do the hard part of that.

And they've got a home that's got a warranty on it behind it.

So it's not like that.

They're the ones having to deal with a lot of that warranty stuff you guys have already fixed.

It's already shown up where it's already been qced.

And again, going back to that factory thing, I think that's what's wonderful is because, because we all see builders and stuff going on, doing stuff out there, but the level of your QC is so much better than any builder that I've seen in my 30 years of experience out there, because there's somebody that knows what they're doing, checking it off, making sure it looks good.

And building codes are great, but that's the minimum standard out there.

I can build a very horrible looking house that meets building codes.

It can have the worst drywall, it can have maybe not even texture and paint on it because that doesn't meet code.

It doesn't have to, but the quality of workmanship really shows.

And I think that's where the difference is.

And the other thing I think that's smart with this too is that again, the speed of development for people that are wanting to get in and out.

I mean, in a matter of weeks you've got a development put together versus months and months because like you said, they're working in that.

One of the things I wanted to talk about, which I think is going to be educational for everybody out there in the audience, that is homeowner, a regional leadership elected official, code enforcement people out there, I think we're starting to finally break the ice with zoning and codes.

But I tell you what, in my opinion at least, most areas are still way behind in trying to come in and fix affordable housing issues with your guys's product, for instance, because they still haven't figured that out yet.

Even though there's a lot of people out there trying to get people to listen, it's still a little bit of a battle from my point of view.

Yeah, absolutely.

Is Eric, historically manufactured housing has not been.

But we've seen to your point, some, some pretty good inroads into that with urban infill projects around the country that we've sponsored in and been a part of in.

In these code changes just facilitate that.

Yeah, they, they allow a developer more options so that when there is a housing need and there is perhaps land bank properties available or a larger tract development, things have changed a lot with manufactured housing in the last four years.

Yeah, it's a completely different animal.

And I hope that this new thing for ADUS and all of the other stuff, which you guys do very well, I don't see why anybody would stick building ADU in the backyard anymore.

It makes no sense when you guys can come in, have something built.

The cost of Putting in all those trades in a backyard with backyard excess where literally you guys can come into the crane and set it in and out.

And I see that with so many cities, metropolitan areas, I'm in Portland, which is fairly edu friendly, but still there's a lot of places out there that are really getting there and they're starting to get this stuff figured out.

And I think the more we look at that stuff, the more it opens up out there for, for it to get even better.

I think that we're halfway there on the zoning issue for you guys.

And I think that, I think that with more education out there for people that they can go, oh, wait a minute, this is a better built house.

Because I think, to be honest, and again, I'm just going to give my personal opinion here, I think that code enforcement stuff and the zoning stuff and that was just that, oh, I don't want a mobile home in my backyard.

We're going to make sure that we can't put them in this community where now it's a better built house and probably what most of the people are living in.

And so that point with ADUs, the state of California offered, I believe it was statewide approval on the use of manufactured homes as ADUs.

Yeah.

So any jurisdiction that's allowing ADUs, state HCD came in and said manufactured housing is an option, does not have to be an IRC or a stick built version.

Yeah, that was a huge regulatory recognition.

Absolutely.

And I know you guys do a lot of work out there with education.

I showed up one time with the, our local regional group down there where they literally set up in front of Salem, Oregon out there.

And I was out there helping talk and really trying to get the whole association together to sit there and do something.

And they literally set up homes across the street and invited all the elected officials over to go, hey dummy, come take a look.

And that's my saying, hey dummy, come over and take a look.

And it was so fun for me to watch these elected officials come over and walk in and do what you guys see every day of holy smokes, this is beautiful.

And it really changed a lot of minds in one event.

Yeah, the ADUs are fun too, right?

Because you can get creative with the designs and those small spaces.

And probably the thing my friends from outside the industry ask me the most about is our ADUs.

They have these ideas, they want to plop one in their backyard and we happen to be in an area where they're not permitted yet, but very exciting opportunity, especially out west in Places like California and Colorado and they make nice little Airbnbs or a mother in law suite.

They're just a lot of uses for ADUs.

We have a lot of fun designing them.

So we've got a great team of design architects and I'm in the product development side, so bringing in new exciting materials.

And so they're just a ton of fun.

So we hope that business continues to pick up and we love to build a lot more.

And I saw ones that.

And again, I'm going to probably say this wrong, but like when I was over at the Skyline plant down there and you guys have a lot of brands, we can talk about that later.

They're the local one next to my hood.

And what was cool with that is, is they had the one that was more of the RV based Code 1 where you could plug it in and they had the one that you would put on a foundation depending on what the codes were in your area.

And it was really cool to see how that could work for both instances depending on what codes and regulations were in your area.

So you had kind of things that you could do both where all right, if your neighborhood allows this, we can do this.

But you could see and they were right side by side.

So it was really awesome to see how they could be built either way to fit whatever those needs were.

That's right.

So the one you're speaking of that plugs in is built to the RV coach.

Yeah.

And then, then the other version, of course.

But to Gil's point, they're a lot of fun because you have to cool roof lines.

And the architects are always trying to say can we do this and find a way to do it.

And it's a lot of fun.

As long as you can get under an underpass, you're probably solid, right?

Yeah.

And I think the biggest thing too is we attend these shows, various shows, and where we get the ADUs, we get a manufactured home in front of people who are planning for that city in that county.

And so they walk into the ADU and they're amazed.

They may say this is half a home.

And I'm like, could be someone's full time home if you let us.

And so when they walk inside, I think that's the biggest thing is educating people.

When they walk inside, they feel the countertops, they open the soft close cabinets and drawers, they see the stainless steel whirlpool appliances.

I think that's the biggest thing is their minds start turning once they see and walk through one.

And to know also that they have options for what they said.

Different roof lines, different decor options.

Yeah, I mean, you guys do tile showers.

I've seen everything out there.

Beautiful mirrors.

Beautiful.

It's the level of quality depending on the brand, depending on what your specifications are.

And there's you guys.

I think that's what's cool, is you're so regional as well, and I think that really fits to the style of neighborhoods, because, you know, if I take a builder here in Las Vegas and throw them in Florida, that's a different look.

Or vice versa.

Or somebody down in the south that's building up north.

We all have our regional styles, and there's things that are hot, that are globally hot.

But at the same point, we've got these different styles.

One leans more contemporary, one's more traditional.

And so I think that's what's great with all the brands that you have under the champion umbrella, that you can really personalize it to fit that region so it doesn't look like you're an outsider coming in going, they're not from around here, are they?

You know?

Yeah, yeah.

The key there, there's this balance we're trying to figure out on how do we get the repeatability that we're looking for so we can be more efficient, more cost effective, for sure, for our customers.

But at the same time, achieving those different looks and feels right, depending on what region of the country you're in.

We've got a phenomenal team of supply partners that we work with who have distribution centers in close proximity.

They built their business up around this industry.

Right.

So they're in close proximity to our plants, and they're really great to work with on designing and developing, innovating new and exciting products, whether it's for a market or for the masses.

So it just makes it easy for us to go out and find the things that we need in the areas that we need them.

Big shout out to all of our supply partners.

They're just awesome.

Great to work with.

Yeah.

And that's, again, it's one of those things that's your success as well.

And I think that's what makes you guys stand out from some of these other builders, too, because as a stick frame builder, all right, they were out of that.

So we're running this today.

And it's whatever that new material is, where you guys are using one material on the project.

You don't have 10 different tile mastics going down.

You don't have whatever the home center had or whatever out.

You guys have the supply chain that comes in, that gives you that consistency.

And everybody is trained to use it where.

Not always that way with the builders.

That's right.

Yeah.

And we work really closely.

We give them the best projections that we can give them.

And because we're.

We've got an outlook in terms of what we're going to build next week, next month, in a lot of cases, it helps them to just have what we need on the shelf and deliver it on time, in full when we need it.

Because that line roll, keeping that.

That assembly line moving is key to our success.

Right.

Yeah.

Got a lot of people that we can't just have standing around waiting for the exterior door to show up because we can't ship the house without it.

Yeah.

So it's a critical relationship.

Relationship that we manage very well.

So very important to the business.

And I think one of the things too, that you guys do well in that and talking about just inside is the great use of open spaces.

You guys have this system that if you want that large house with a big great room with the kitchen to be a part of it, the way you guys do that seamlessly and make it look amazing is so many, so much different than many of the other companies out there is.

Well, because so many times you can walk into some of the other brands out there and I'm not going to say names, but you walk in and go, all right, that's where that splits right there.

And unless you're a builder and you are getting the tape measure out and you understand how these are built, you really don't see where that is.

This isn't weird.

Transition strips across the floor and stuff nailed across the top to hide it.

This is.

I'm looking here and I know where it is because I've seen how these are built.

But I could sit there and give people money to walk in and they'd go, it's here.

And you're like, nope, not.

There's a lot of thought that goes into that to make sure that they look as they flow well and they look as seamless as possible.

Yeah.

Into your earlier point about the site built side of the more complicated projects, which.

There's plenty of that, especially out east and in some direction restrictions here, west.

But vaulted ceilings and dormers, Cape Cods and all of those things that there's a partnership with the site team.

Yeah.

So that materials that are needed on site can be the same dye lot.

Yeah.

Those are 20 years ago.

That's right.

Those are 20 years ago, which is cool.

One of the things I want to talk about too.

And again, let's go back to this duplex here.

And again, it just shows the just how wide of range you guys have from multifamily to somebody wanting a large home to replace the one that they've got now.

Or maybe someone was taking over Grandma's place.

They're like, it's not worth remodeling this.

I'm gonna take this down and put something in.

It's really great.

And as well as for people in natural disaster zones right now, I think it's really a big thing.

You're looking down in the south with what they're doing down there with the herd.

Hurricane damage, they got to.

To Southern California where there was a lot of ranch home, single family in places that just got unfortunately taken out.

But you guys really got some quick answers for people like that because they can come in and.

And be the first house back in the neighborhood if they do.

If they play the game right.

Yeah, no, that's exactly right.

I think it comes back to the COS and giving that level education that we build faster product.

We build a durable product.

It's quality and it's something where a homeowner could call that home for life.

And we want to be there.

We want to support them any way that we can.

We work with builders and our partners to help supply the housing shortage, which we know it's there.

Yeah, we know we want to be there.

We want to move the needle any way that we can.

That's why we're showing these new products.

That's why we're so thankful that there's new regulations for allow us to get more multifamily opportunities.

Anytime that there is Champion's going to be at the forefront of that.

Yeah.

And we're going to help spearhead this to not only help the offsite industry, but help housing shortage across the country.

Yeah.

And that's super smart because again, there's just so much opportunity out there because we've got the perfect storm coming out there.

And I've talked about this on the show before.

We've got housing shortage.

We've got interest rates that are still way higher than they've been in a long time.

And then we've got a labor shortage out there.

So even the contractor that's out there wanting to build that house right now might not have the right people showing up at the job site.

And I think that's what's cool about what you guys do as well is that someone that starts as an employee with you guys might start off just sweeping floors and cleaning up, but then you have the ability to train people and really show them the right way to do things.

And quite frankly, they're not coming in with a bunch of bad habits.

You can start them out fresh and work through that.

And I think that's another thing that's great for the trades out there, that you guys are really on the forefront of training people to get in there and working and safely.

Yeah, it's a great point.

There's a lot of opportunities once you get your foot in the door at Champion.

Whether you're on the line or an accounting department or marketing, whatever it is, there's all kinds of opportunities and paths that you can take to advance your career if that's what you want.

But yeah, it's all about getting the right people in the right positions.

And we've got some great leaders in the company that see that and recognize that.

We want Champion to be a great place to work.

We want people to want to be part of this team.

And we're just, we've got some exciting things going on right now that are helping to people to see Champion for what it is.

Carly's team does a great job on the marketing side.

Just launched a brand new website.

Lots of great videos that are being pumped out on a daily social media.

The printed products that we see in front of us here today, all of that is just helping to tell the story of who we are and it gets people excited.

They want to be a part of it.

I wanted to be a part of this.

I moved here four years ago because I saw what Champion was doing and I wanted to be a part of it.

And I'm so glad I did.

I think also too, we are promoting a product that people can be so passionate about.

You can easily sell any type of energy drink and market that and engineer that product development that.

But the fact that we get to be a part of someone's homeowner journey, I think that strikes a lot of passion in people and in the workers and they show that in their work ethic.

And I think that's something so cool.

And that's why I love being a part of Champion too.

Yeah, it's great.

And I'm not just saying this because I'm sitting in a Champion home, but I've worked on higher end homes my entire life of doing a lot of those remodels and building and stuff like that.

And again, that's why I love this is because you guys have taken that high quality and made it affordable, which so many people don't get that opportunity out there.

And I just again, want to make sure that people understand that there's just such a great way to build a home now.

It's a little unconventional compared to maybe what they'd see and they need to take another look at it.

One thing I want to bring up, what do you guys see moving forward here?

You guys have a lot going on right now.

New websites, you got stuff, gorgeous pictures, development stuff here going on.

Where do we see moving forward?

This industry is really getting to that point of blowing up, I think, and it's really getting accepted.

And people are like, oh, I've got a bad misconception which I think opens a lot of doors moving forward.

Indeed.

You want to kick us off on that one?

Yeah, sure.

Yeah, yeah.

You touched on it.

You touched on it, Eric, with the affordability piece and just the.

On the regulation side from Washington D.C.

we've just seen, we've seen a lot of cooperation that's opened doors and changed our code.

Modernized our code.

Yeah.

And offered more flexibility in the code.

And quite frankly, the industry's still digesting.

We wouldn't be having this conversation in this house last year.

Yeah, we're still trying to play with all these new toys we just got, but we're seeing a tremendous amount of opportunity.

And as Carly said, it is exciting.

Yeah, it's super exciting.

And I think as more of the regulators see the potential in this industry to solve the housing shortage, it's just going to snowball.

We're going to see more opportunity for factory built housing to really excel and quite frankly bring about a customer base that would otherwise be stuck as renters or living in apartments or whatever it is that they do.

Living with parents, this opens a door to get them started we haven't seen in the past.

Yeah, and that's a big issue out there.

People out there that are renting and I've rented at times, I think we all have at some point.

But you don't get that value and return on your investment when you write that rent check, it's spent.

It's like dinner you spent last night.

All right, that was cool.

But you don't have that opportunity to see that really, you know, grow and create something because we don't see housing prices going down out there.

And it's just, it's such a smart investment for people and for people to be able to get out of that apartment and get into, you know, a house that's theirs on a piece of property that's theirs and to be able to go wow, in 20 or 30 years this is paid for.

And then when I want to sell it, I've got such a great return on the investment, that value has come up and they've really been able to put something together for themselves.

I think it's just a whole new opportunity for people that five, 10 years ago that really didn't exist for because they couldn't get to that.

But now if you can find some land and it doesn't take much these days, especially with some of the codes that we're changing and that stuff and you guys build such an energy efficient home as well.

So to me I look at it and go, okay, nothing against the apartments, but those are not the energy efficient pieces of work right there.

You can get into a home that's much bigger and your utility rates will probably be lower than what you're paying in there because those, a lot of those apartments have the electric, radiant heat or whatever, no ac and you've got a whole different system here.

And I believe Energy Star rated on some of these as well.

I think that's a great investment for people.

So now you get to own something, maybe pay a little less, which I think is great for people.

That really gives that hope of that American dream of owning your own place.

Yeah, there's a very robust Energy Star program in this industry that actually that show that these homes are very energy efficient.

And just recently over the last couple of years they've actually developed the next step of that.

And Net Zero is basically Energy Star on steroids.

It does and that's in its own interesting thing when you start throwing in some solar and some other stuff on there, talking about that Net Zero and for people that understand what it is to overly simplify it, we're trying to get that consumption balanced out at a zero rate across the board out there.

It's really a cool program.

And to think of that in this industry is pretty amazing because it was only a handful of years ago you'd see places and in great shows like this old house, trying to do it on a regular stick build house.

And now getting into that next level is pretty cool to be able to do something like that.

That's right.

Yeah, we've.

We built a couple homes.

There's one sitting in outside Detroit, Michigan right now that's in Corktown, Detroit.

And it's a really great home.

We built it, it's affordable.

It's actually a cross mod and we built that as a zero energy Ready House.

Wow.

And it's a beautiful home.

We, it's an affordable home and it gave someone the opportunity to turn the knob and walk into a place that they can call home and also have that energy efficient balance on their side as well.

Yeah.

That's cool.

And again, these are homes that have.

Look at this range right here.

And we're in a duplex.

You guys went all out on this place.

I mean, I see whirlpool.

This has some high end Bosch in it right now, which is nicer than most people's home.

And the other thing I want to talk about too is just the quality.

And I'm a cabinet guy by trade.

Your cabinets are gorgeous.

This is not the plastic picture of wood that you see here.

This is gorgeous.

Well done cabinetry that is better than most builders put in their million dollar homes.

And it's nice to go in and see it and go, okay, this is beautiful stuff.

You've got drawers, you got things like that which people don't usually see in a more entry level price point.

Which is great.

Yeah.

Cabinets are a big focus for us.

Right.

It's, it's in one of the most important rooms in the home.

Right.

Kitchen.

And we're looking at some automation opportunities to continue to improve the look and feel of our cabinets.

All of the materials that we use are the same materials you're going to find in any site built construction.

Yeah.

Sometimes I feel like we're even innovating beyond that and finding new innovative solutions, whether it's from an esthetic perspective or to help our plants build a little bit faster.

Might have a better insulation method.

Yeah.

But it's a huge focus for us and we've got a whole team just dedicated to that sort of thing.

But yeah, cabinets are huge.

We're really proud of the way that we, we build them today.

But I think that there's a future here in the short term where we're going to step that up even more.

And we're really excited for our customers to start to see that walking around the show today, the IBS show and the kitchen and bath show.

And we're seeing a lot of what's trending in really high end construction.

And a lot of what I'm seeing out there is reflected in what we're building today.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

And so full overlay cabinetry, which is not in this house today, but sure is really what we're moving toward.

Yeah.

Across the business.

And it just really enhances the look and feel of a kitchen and gives it that High end, coupled with those appliances that you mentioned and some of the other products.

So it's super exciting.

Yeah, I want to talk about that too, because you guys have different levels depending on the factories and things that you're doing out there.

You've got stuff that can be that.

Okay, we need to keep money's tight, let's do this.

But then you can go into some of your factories down in California where you're building luxury buildings, which is really cool that you guys have that ability to cover a really big part of the market out there and do that, which is exciting.

Yeah.

There's a series or a spec level for every customer base space.

Yeah.

As Gil and Carly can attest, some of our products, 5, 6, 7,000 square foot homes with vaulted ceilings and some of them are obviously cost sensitive and starter homes and everything in between.

Yeah, we can dial that up and down really easily, right?

Yeah.

The same floor plan and apply a different spec level to it very quickly and easily.

And.

And make it a tier 3, tier 4, tier 5 product, whatever it needs to be.

Yeah.

All of the materials are right there readily available for us because of the supply partners I mentioned.

So it's really easy to dial up and down.

And the other thing I like too is let's talk from the consumer side.

I know this is the builder show, so there's a lot of that here.

But for all the homeowners out there listening, or even renters out there listening right now, they get to personalize it as part of the buying process.

So they come into one of your wonderful dealers out there, into the dealer network, and they get to go in and say, do I want a quartz countertop?

Do I want a laminate countertop?

What do I want?

Do I want to save some money in the shower?

Do I want to put in a nice tile or something like that, or a composite or something in there?

And it's really cool because many times when a developer has their model home in that stick built thing, it's like, all right, here's this.

And they make all their money on the upsells on the options because others, those are much higher.

Oh, you want.

Oh, you don't want carpet in there?

Okay, we're going to charge you X.

You guys have got that so well dialed in that it's not that way, that it's, it's part of that process.

And many times with builders out there, it's an A or B.

Oh, you can have these two.

Where you guys have so many different.

I mean, I can Just walk through a factory and go, wow, look at the difference between this one and this one here, which I think is really cool.

To that now my custom part of that.

Really.

Yeah.

And there's also the flip side of it too, where if you are building a custom home from the ground up with an on site builder, my in laws went through this process.

They had a million options to choose from.

It's an overwhelming process where our design team has carefully curated selections that are modern but that fit the styles of every need.

So if you don't want brown cabinets, you can have white cabinets, you can have gray cabinets, you can personalize the floors, the, the backsplash, the countertops.

But this election is not overwhelming to the buyer, but it still feels like they are designing their dream home.

Great point.

That's a big focus for us on standardization, right?

Yeah.

Consolidation of SKUs, and it's really easy to let that get out of control.

It's about finding the balance.

Right.

We don't want to put ourselves in a corner and we want all of our plants to have an opportunity to differentiate in the marketplace, not only with our competitors and site builders, but also we have plants that are right on top of each other.

Right.

They need to look and feel.

So we have to have a good balance of selection for them to choose from, but not an overwhelming selection from a consumer perspective, to Carly's point.

So it's an important part of our business moving forward because we want to continue to be more efficient.

Because when things really do turn on and let loose and I think this industry is going to really blow up.

Yeah.

We want to be ready.

Right.

We've got the capacity.

We need to make sure that we have the efficiencies built into our processes and our material selections and all of the things that are.

That could potentially hold us back from moving faster than we could otherwise.

We're hyper focused right now on trying to figure out that balance of standardization of components and floor plans.

Sure.

Yeah, that makes sense.

And the other thing, I think it's cool is most consumers out there are not visual people.

It's not like they've built a house.

And so what's it look like with the white cabinets versus the wood?

Now you can trope at a dealer and go, oh, let's go over and look at this one.

This has got this in it.

So then they can get the feel of what those look like versus when you're building that custom house.

It's just one of those things where it's.

Yeah, but what's that going to look like?

I don't know.

Let me draw it up and I'll show you a picture.

Okay.

But you can't go touch and feel it many times without driving all over town to try to find a showroom that has that, which is tough.

And I think that's what's great about this.

It's hard to visualize all that just from a color palette.

Absolutely.

And that's where expensive mistakes happen in the home building process as well, because they pick out the colors, they walk in the home and go, that's not what I was thinking when I looked at that little swatch versus going to see what's in there.

What have we missed on.

Guys, We've gone through almost an hour radio here already, but what have we not talked about?

What else should we hit?

I think I just wanted to add on just kind of what's next.

And we talked about trying to become more efficient in the consolidation of.

But we're also looking at trying to be more innovative.

So we're.

We're exploring new products like technology.

Right.

We're really exploring how important is technology in the home to our consumers.

Yeah, right.

I.

I think we see it everywhere.

I think we could all raise our hand and say we have at least a couple of devices in our home that.

That add some sort of smart feature, connected feature.

So we're really exploring that heavily right now and trying to understand what's important.

What do we need to focus on first?

And so things like video doorbells and smart thermostats, and we're finding from some focus group studies and there's some great information here at the show.

Right.

Speakers that are talking about the importance of that.

So that's one piece that we're not heavy in today, but we're really taking a hard look at and make that a big part of what we do in the future.

And I want to stay connected with our customers after the sale, too, and make sure that they know that they have our support and we're there, whether it's a service issue or just to say, hey, thanks.

Just want to make sure that we're creating customers for life, and that's our focus moving forward.

Yeah, it's nice.

And that smart home stuff, it's crazy.

I.

I have been a test bed at my house, and my wife's over here probably just going, oh, no, because we have way too many smart home things in the house, because I want to see how they work.

And that's the one thing you have to be careful with smart home stuff.

Because I've seen some builders out there because again, I used to teach on the, I used to run the smart home stage for NHB.

So I was the guy up there given 10 classes a day doing that stuff.

But the problem that you would see is so many builders out there didn't know how to do it.

I knew one of the largest builders, they would sell the smart home package and the homeowner would walk in after they signed the papers, they got their keys, they walk in and every, they open up the hall closet and all the smart home stuff sitting in the top shelf ready for them to self install.

And I'm like, you could have went to Best Buy and just ordered it and had it delivered.

Probably because there was that all it was.

And then there's great products out there.

There's stuff that doesn't work.

I've taken a lot of things out of my house and I went, that doesn't work.

I think it is.

It was cool for a little bit, but then I'm like, that doesn't do what it does.

It says it does.

And so we've come a long way.

And again, like what you guys see out there, that interoperability stuff where now all of a sudden you're starting to see with like matter and some of those things.

We just talked about it a couple weeks ago on the show that things are now communicating where you could have the stove of one brand talking to the tv.

And we're getting that age where for like you guys, it makes sense to start exploring into that.

But you have to take it carefully because the last thing you want to do is have that consumer go, that didn't work.

That's right.

You know, and keep the phone calls going.

But yeah, there's a nice balance out there.

There's a nice balance.

So guys, what's the best way for people that are listening right now to the show, either on the radio or the podcast or wherever out there?

What's the best way for somebody to get educated on what Champion as a brand is doing and all of your family of companies.

Yeah, I would say go to our website, championhomes.com we have thousands of floor plans, photos, virtual tours you can walk in.

We have a great blog that we, we showcase and then also our social media.

We're posting every single day.

Facebook, Instagram, I will give home walkthroughs on TikTok and Instagram Reels.

So those are really great ways just to see some product and actually feature benefit.

What's going on.

So I would definitely say head to our website, championhomes.com.

Yeah.

Then you can find where they've got stuff near them, whatever brand it is, because again, there's so many brands.

And you'll jump on that champion homes.com and go, oh, I know who those guys are.

They're just down the street.

I have no idea.

Right.

And that's what's cool, is.

And then you can go talk to the friendly neighbors down the street and talk about your project and what you got going on.

As for the builders out there, same kind of thing.

If they're looking at the Genesis brand of stuff where they're like, hey, I got to dive into a development for all of our builder contractors out there, same kind of thing.

Jump on there and reach out.

Yeah, you can go to championhomes.com or genesishomes.com Genesis Homes is the builder developer brand for Champion Homes.

And we will have a lot more builder content on this website.

And so you can fill out a connect form.

We have three great regional reps that can connect with you wherever you're building.

But we have a whole team of great contacts.

If you need education, if you need help with a city official meeting where you want to present a HUD product and you need that support supporting material.

That's also what Champion Homes is here for.

All right.

For all you builders out there, just that red easy button.

Just punch it and get a Genesis home.

And it with a builder partnership, it goes a lot farther than just the website.

Yeah, I said, right.

Like, we can support foundation needs.

We support that local education of the building inspector or the zoning jurisdiction, and just make sure that the builders have all the tools at their disposal to get their jobs done.

Guys, thanks for having me out today.

This has been an amazing show.

Great to see what you guys are doing.

I love how you're changing the building industry one house at a time out there and giving people something that's beautiful, stunning, and affordable at the same time.

Thanks for having us.

Absolutely.

Thanks for having me.

All right, guys, thanks again.

I'm Eric G.

You've been listening to around the House.