When a crisis strikes, it can be hard to think straight, but some of the business decisions made at the start can be the difference between your business sinking or swimming. When states began shutting down in March, CFO of Meritage Homes Hilla Sferruzza halted future land and development spending and reached out to sellers with a near-term closing to negotiate a later date. Land acquisition costs were something she could control, so once those were squared away, it opened up the company to focus on meeting the buyer where they are at: online. Now, Sferruzza says Meritage Homes is well positioned to resume its aggressive growth again. Though it is off-track timewise to meet its goal of building 300 communities, she says they will still meet that goal eventually a few quarters later.
When states began ordering people to stay home in early March, Meritage Homes CFO Hilla Sferruzza called all the land owners her company had deals pending with and asked them to hold tight. Future land and development spend is the one cost the company had absolute control over, so it was the first lever she pulled when the economy turned downwards.
"I connected with every one of our sellers with a near-term expected closing, or a near-term development deadline, and said, hey, we're all in this together. You guys don't want this, and we don't want this. Let’s pull back," Sferruzza said last week in a CFO Thought Leader podcast.
Sferruzza, who joined Meritage in 2001 and has been CFO since 2014, said the majority of sellers agreed to put the deals on hold.
Advertisement
Related Stories
Forty Under 40
Hear From Our 2023 Class of Forty Under 40 in Their Own Words
We've created an exclusive YouTube playlist featuring videos from several of Pro Builder's Forty Under 40 class of 2023!
Business Management
2024 National Housing Quality Awards for Operational Excellence
Camelot Homes earns Gold and Stone Martin Builders earns Bronze in the 2024 NHQA, the highest recognition of operational excellence for home builders
Business Management
Young, Old, and Gold
The September/October issue of Pro Builder magazine is my favorite among the “kids” we’ve delivered so far this year