When flipping around in trading ranges in the $300s, planning for the coming year had some sort of definable “worst case scenario” contingency plan. I’m just curious. How do you plan for next year, staring down the barrel of all-time high lumber prices and short supply? That...

If we have learned anything from 2020, we must understand that change is the only thing we can rely upon, and by using yesterday’s logic to deal with tomorrow’s challenges, we will hit a proverbial wall. History teaches us that the future success of a business directly relates to its...

In business today, we are told to believe that the customer is always right. So surely it makes sense to ask their opinion, listen to them, and actively respond to their advice with new products, adjustments, and enhancements. This makes sense, broadly, for incremental changes. Changes...

Shortly after COVID-19 became the most debilitating thing that has happened to the US economy in recent history, modular construction stepped up to fill the demand for temporary medical facilities. Many modules were built to meet that need, but here we are just 5 months later and that market...

Are you feeling like we are in a great big room, pitch dark and no one can find the light switch? Well, let’s try to find one. First off, everyone knows how we got here, right? You know it’s not COVID, or the economy, or housing starts, or DIY, or interest rates, or the stock market....

A little over 30 years ago along Rt 15 in Selinsgrove, PA, a modular home builder had two model homes on his lot. They were both ranch style homes, 2 or 3 bedrooms, 1 bath models. One was 28’ x 44’ and the other was 28’ x 48’ if memory serves me. The sign said he would...

Just like the lumber market, housing has benefitted from the unfortunate situation of the COVID-19 pandemic. One must wonder why? The answer is simple if we just listen to the narrative provided by builders and the usually lopsided media. Folks are fleeing to the suburbs. The pandemic has...

I’ve been in the lumber and building materials industry for most of my career and have always had an interest in technology. It seems not too long ago when I was running seminars to display this “new thing” called the internet to dealers; at the time, nobody knew what was going...

Over the last couple of years, a lot of new modular home factories have either opened their doors and are taking orders or are in the process of opening. It’s inevitable that many businesses fail in the first 3–5 years for a myriad of reasons, mostly from being under-financed...

Without exception, in every conversation I have had regarding the pandemic’s positive impact on the lumber market, not a single person thought this outcome was possible. On my part, I see that as a failure. My job is to detect the unexpected. When I do not, that creates the 1.4 out of...