Build-To-Rent: Overlooked Obvious Not to be sacrilegious, but things in the lumber market are feeling apocalyptic. My primary concerns about the lumber and OSB market right now are two-fold. One, blatant disregard and unnatural comfort with prices. One of our members asked if he should...

One of the words most often heard when talking about the modular construction industry is “capacity.” Webster defines it as “the amount that something can produce.” Somehow that just doesn’t seem like the right definition for modular construction. One of the...

Panels are the quandary, rather resins and glue. Widespread announcements of further supply disruptions and declarations of Force Majeure are crippling OSB flooring, siding, and roofing panels. I must step in right here to call B.S. Force majeure is a common clause in contracts which...

Today’s environment has created supply chain disruptions throughout the world. Nearly every customer and supplier I have spoken with over the last few months has indicated production delays are prevalent or imminent. Of course, the pandemic has caused much of the recent impact, while the...

Looking Around the Corner LEST WE NOT FORGET... the current lumber market condition is the by-product of a major disruption, not a lasting trend. The disruption consists of the following. Accelerated millennial transition from urban to suburban areas. This has created another...

As more builders, developers, and customers begin using modular construction instead of just thinking about it, the existing modular housing industry is being pushed, pulled, and thrown into a new reality. Too Much Demand! How can that be a bad thing? It can if there are very few new...

Traffic jams at America’s ports, railroad terminals, and trucking centers all indicate that the supply headaches you suffered last year are likely to continue until deep into spring. Products from China that you sell are most at risk, but goods produced in North America also are having...

            Last month’s article, Change Impact, talks about what impact changes at your company will have this year. Well, after 2020 and the challenges we faced, especially for the operations-intensive companies in our industry, it...

After the 2020 recruiting season just about came to a stop in March, I saw a ray of hope early in November. While I hoped to see the usual limited activity before the holidays, I wasn’t holding my breath. Instead, it came in the form of a tsunami. The first week of November was refreshing,...

COVID’s 2021 Reverse Impact Let’s see if we can get this one right. A member recently requested that I forecast when the misses were going to happen. Sounds difficult, but not impossible. COVID 2020 was a once in a lifetime paradigm shift in our learning curve. To date, I have...