Pacesetter Homes Texas Climbs the Ranks in Builder Magazine's Top 100 List

Austin and Dallas-Fort Worth, TX – For the fourth year in a row, Pacesetter Homes Texas has claimed a spot on Builder Magazine’s Top 100, a list that recognizes US homebuilders with the highest number of closings each year.

Pacesetter Homes Texas jumped eight spots in 2020 to #90, from #98 in 2019, highlighting it once again as one of the largest 100 homebuilders in the US industry. Interestingly, if public builders and Habitat for Humanity were to be excluded from this year’s list, Pacesetter Homes Texas would be ranked #69.

The business unit closed out 2019 with 490 closings and $149 million in gross revenue, and Dennis Ciani, Marketing Manager, Pacesetter Homes Austin, said the same major factors that contributed to Pacesetter Homes Texas’ success the first year it made the list still stand true today.

The first factor is staying affordable, and Pacesetter Homes Texas currently has two key focuses in this area. One is making changes to floorplans to reduce cost.

“As prices and competition started to increase in our market over the past couple of years, we reviewed each of our homes by series to see where we could reduce our costs,” said Dennis. “With input from both sales and construction, we found several cost-savings to help us stay competitive and remain affordable within the market.”

The next focus is beefing up the purchasing and estimating department. Seeing increased growth over the past few years, the business unit knew that adding new trades to its pool of vendors was a priority. By hiring “masters of their crafts”, Pacesetter Homes Texas is providing the best trades in quality, pricing and performance.

The second factor is product diversity, and the business unit offers a range of product, including traditional homes, courtyard homes, detached and attached garage homes, a variety of lot sizes, and a new twinhome condo (attached multi-family product).

“With Austin and Dallas being such competitive markets, we stayed focused on offering multiple product types in both lot size and home styles,” said Dennis. “In several master-planned communities, we were able to secure several lot sizes, giving us the ability to offer up to three different product designs in the same location. This allowed us to target multiple buyer types and increased our sales velocity within the same neighbourhood.”

The third factor – product appeal – involves creating product that appeals to buyers at all stages of life, including first-time buyers, growing families, mature families, and active adults, which has allowed Pacesetter Homes Texas to adjust its product offering within the markets as needed.

Sales training, the fourth factor, has continued to a be a focus for Pacesetter Homes Texas when it comes to both new hires and seasoned professionals.

“We believe a well-trained sales force will be better prepared to handle any situation,” said Dennis. “Our long-term relationship with Jeff Shores Training continues today and keeps our sales professionals energized and armed with new techniques and improved skills to compete in either highly competitive or depressed markets.”

Pacesetter Homes Texas’ fifth factor, the Online Sales Concierge (OSC) program, is still going strong, according to Dennis. An increase in neighbourhoods in both Austin and Dallas required the business unit to add a second OSC to keep up with the demand and focus on responding to customers within minutes of their call or email. Pacesetter Homes Texas’ 2020 year-to-date monthly capture rate of sales from appointments made is currently at 23% and the OSC contribution to overall company sales is at 47% year-to-date.

Finally, the sixth factor involves continued growth management and a focus on improving several positions with new hires, without losing Pacesetter Homes Texas’ culture.

“As mentioned back in 2017 when we made the Builder 100 list for the first time, there are strong cultural differences between companies,” said Dennis. “It has remained important to keep our ‘employee-centric’ culture as we bring on new employees. We continue to believe our culture is one of our strongest reasons for our success.”

Congratulations to Pacesetter Homes Texas on its fourth time ranking as one of America’s top 100 largest builders!