By Clifford Davis, Contributing Writer
A discussion over a fence meant to separate homes from a bustling road eventually forged a homebuilding company that is coming of age in the Northeast Florida real estate market.
Rick and Susie Wood were the developers behind the Silver Thorn Community. Matt Roberts was the vice president of operations for Richmond American Homes.
“At the end of that meeting, we started talking about personal stuff,” Roberts said. “They asked about my history, and if I’d ever thought about building on my own.
“That had always been my dream,” he said.
The elder Woods introduced Roberts to their son, Chris, and Riverside Homes was born.
Matt Roberts and Chris Wood started the semi-custom homebuilding company in 2012, with a solid first location and a firm foundation of experience.
“When we started with our first homes in Durbin Crossing, it was me, Matt and our sales agent working out of our model home’s garage,” Wood said.
However, the modest working conditions were far outweighed by the feverish demand in the area.
“We had the traffic and the demand,” Roberts said. “We weren’t in some hole-in-the-wall community on the outskirts of town.”
In addition to a prime location, the team also had the benefit of experience from the Wood family’s expertise in local real estate development.
“Something that Chris won’t tell you is that his family is one of the most giving and honest families around,” Roberts said. “They’re smart in everything they do, but they’re thoughtful – and he has that.
“He also has their business acumen.”
With Wood handling the business and sales side of the house, and Roberts overseeing construction, the pair closed on 17 homes in their first year of sales in 2013. Though the number of homes was relatively low, the quality was there. And that’s exactly the way they said they wanted it.
“We started in the high $200,000s, but I think our average sales price was always $350 to $400,000,” Roberts said. “We kind of found our niche in that stepped-up, higher-priced home that offered a little more amenities and customization.”
Publicly traded, national homebuilders must meet quotas of hundreds and thousands of homes. The pair said they believe their approach works best for them.
“When we looked at who we wanted to be, we wanted to prioritize people and product over profit,” Roberts said.
According to Wood, that allows them the agility that mass-production homebuilders can lack.
“Part of our competitive advantage is that we are a little smaller and, therefore, a little more nimble,” Wood said. “We have a customer right now whose mother is in a 36-inch-wide wheelchair, and we’re able to accommodate for that.
“Some of the larger builders have too many processes in place that keep them from being that nimble.”
Wood and Roberts are looking to keep Riverside Homes agile into the future. Though their goal is to sell nearly 100 homes this year, their faith and focus on family and customers dictates a prudent approach, they said.
After an ambitious, original business plan to build 500 homes in five years, a meeting with a prominent local builder changed their point of view.
The pair, both shy of 40 years old, asked him about his numbers. Though the man had built 400 homes in a year, he found a lower number created a better work-life balance for him and his employees.
“We really came out of that meeting with a different perspective,” Wood said. “We want to get to 200 homes, and if we want to keep going, we can.”
Instead, a different objective now guides them.
“We focus on family, charity and work-life balance,” Roberts said. “We believe that if your workers are happy and the homeowners are happy, the business is going to be successful. The profit and the money will come.”