A Conversation With ... Ryan Cantrell

You started Trendsetter Homes in 2019 after a 15-year stint operating Cantrell’s Patriot Homes. What’s the genesis story for the new company, and how is it different?
I started homebuilding in 2002 until 2017. I thought I wanted to go do something else for a living. I kind of wound down the business and closed it in 2018, and I was going to get into politics, run for state rep. That same year, my son was 16 and moved in with me full time in December, so I decided I didn’t need to be in Jeff City while being a full-time dad, so I stepped out of that race and supported John Black, who is our state rep now in that district. I decided to get back into homebuilding, but I wanted to do it different than I had in the past. I hired some consultants that helped me have more of a national model for homebuilding in Springfield, bigger than just myself and a couple other people in the office. In May 2019, there was seven of us in the company and we had a brainstorming session and came up with the name Trendsetter Homes in July 2019.

In January, you started selling Trendsetter Homes franchises. What markets are you targeting, and what’s the response been?
I started working with what I consider the top franchising consulting firm in the U.S. They’ve been working with us the last year and a half to put together all the pieces to have a business that’s duplicatable. It’s iFranchise Group, based in Chicago. In June, we started our marketing campaign. What we look for is a builder in a small town, like Springfield, that has several years of experience and a good reputation, but maybe they’re only building 35-50 homes a year and they have a desire to scale their business. In September, we should have the final touches on the operating system the franchisees will use, then we will have a more focused effort targeting specific builders in the cities we plan to go to first. The first four months has been brand awareness in those cities. We’ve been focused on Kansas City, Omaha, [Nebraska] and Des Moines [Iowa].

What are the home development trends you’re seeing, the hot spots?
Republic is an area that is booming – we just opened a new community there called Wilson’s Valley. It’s going to be 167 homesites over a two-and-a-half to three-year period. Those price points are going to be from $290,000s to $410,000s. That community has three brand-new plans, the 2024 collection, that we’re unveiling in this neighborhood. The other community we’re really excited about is Willard. There’s not a lot of construction going on. We’ve got a community there that’s going to have a swimming pool, walking trails, playgrounds in an excellent location. It’s going to have 220 homesites. We’ve got 12 homesites under construction, and that first phase has 37 homesites. We expect to move into the second phase in seven to eight months. Those homes start in the $240s and go up to $400,000 for walk-out basements. It’s called Hoffman Hills.

What outside factors, economic or otherwise, are impacting business right now and in the foreseeable future?
What I’ve seen is that the market in general has slowed down (by) 20-30% in the number of closings last year versus this year. Our numbers have stayed steady, and we’ve been able to increase our market share. This time last year, we were at a 12% market share, and the last three months we’ve been holding steady at about 25% market share in Christian, Greene and Webster counties, in the price range we build – from $250,000-$500,000 compared to other new construction. I get all of my numbers from the Multilist Service. For example, in the month of August, there were 41 new homes in that criteria that went under contract, and 11 of those were ours. We laid out a business plan with about a 15% increase in the number of closings. To date this year, we’re hitting that. In closings last year, we had 128 closings, and this year we’ve budgeted for 146, and as of (Sept. 5) we have 104 either closed or under contract. In sales, we had 112 sales, contracts written, and this year our goal is 170. We’re building up our pipeline so we have closings for next year. We’re at 104 sales, houses under contract, this year. With the new communities coming open, our monthly goal is around 20.

I understand homebuilding is in your blood. Can you talk about your upbringing and learning the business?
My grandfather was in development and built homes starting in the ’60s, all the way to 1978. He retired and went into local county politics. I was only 4 years old but remember going to job sites, vaguely. It skipped a generation – my dad was a pastor. But it still was in my blood. We grew up on 40 acres east of Springfield, (and) my grandfather decided he was going to develop that piece of ground and he wanted to teach me how. I was given the opportunity to build three homes in that neighborhood – with my mom on one project and with my dad on two projects in that [Cherry Ridge] community. That’s where I found my love for it.