Kevin Clayton on the floor Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting with Warren Buffett
This is different this year. It’s it’s got the really nice front porch that’s put out. It is Portico. Yeah. This is again what we call everything we do. We’re trying to innovate to be the best attainable housing company out there. So Warren always talks about how affordable our payments are and that’s why we do a mortgage with someone. They’re going to stay in it. So we were now payments have really gone up $650 a month pre pandemic. We’re now at 9:50. How much is that is higher rates, how much of those of that is it’s more expensive to build them it building costs, I would say in that 30% range. So that total is in the 45. So that drove us to certify all of our facilities across the country to build 0 energy ready. We talked about that briefly last year. So now every 50,000 manufacturing homes we’ll build this year will be 0 energy ready. That means we’re cutting their utility costs up to and half. So we’re the only with the by far the largest organization doing that and that’s the Department of Energy’s highest standard that’s offered out there both both my wife and my daughter and actually made myself but but it’s just too much be too many problems with the the neighbors and a few things they don’t like to be teared on my house that I have now and actually and you know be on one floor and you know I I I wouldn’t have they don’t like me going up and downstairs and and I would be very very very happy absolutely. Well the affordable housing crisis in the country this is a big part of that solution. So this house 18160 square feet at only $236,000, a $127.00 a foot and the utility costs are only $155 a month on average. So the zero energy ready saving them about $90.00 a month. Though it’s the zoning people and everybody are waking up that this is an important part of that solution. Yeah, yeah, there’s there’s opposition though every place obviously because they don’t like the fact that you should know build these houses. Yeah, it is really it’s it’s fascinating. Yeah. And with so now we call we call this luxury attainable. So this, this home has every high end feature you can imagine a traditional site built home tiles, backsplash showers, quartz countertops. So I can’t wait to show it to you and you’ll be amazed that you can get that. You know in Omaha the average site built homes 443,000. This, including land set up on your land would be less than 300,000. Oh wow, I’ve got the 300,000 I just haven’t got. I’m ready to buy but and and and I shouldn’t ready to buy but I’m not sure that the neighbours would be great if I would turn up my president. But just the transformation in the industry in the 21 years it’s been, it’s been a sound. Yeah. And that’s why we deserve the term now modern manufactured home because it doesn’t resemble, you know, 20 or 30 years ago. And this house is built like a tank. It can, it can handle anything thrown at it. And right through 2008 and 9, everybody else folded. Essentially. We kept financing people when you bought us. Our market cap was greater than the whole industry combined at that time and we’re certainly glad that you did. It’s. I’m glad that I did it every now and then I stumble with them. I’ve been great for affordable housing in the country. We’re proud of it. I think we’re 90 manufactured housing is now 90 plus percent of all new single family housing at 200,000 or below. That’s how important. It’s got like 23 billion or so people. He’s finesse and he’s the, yeah we’re 2525 billion. Did you buy that portfolio we talked about yesterday? We did, we did. So we’ve we’ve been able to acquire portfolios. So 400,000 customers pay us and again on average the they’re paying anywhere from $500 a month to about 900 a month and it’s super affordable. And now their home built to 0 energy ready, we’ve got 30 billion or so homeowners coverage. So please watch those Tortagos going to hit one of ours for sure. Warren really knew the insurance business when we got in and appreciated that is this 3 bedrooms, this one it is and this, this is a flex model. So this is the Today is the national launch of our Encore offering. So there’ll be 8 facilities across the country this year that build this and you can decide if you want 2 bedrooms and a flex room or whether you want that to be a third room. This comes with a porch option, all that built into the home on the side here. So it’s a very flexible, but we’ll to gain efficiency, we’ll build this across the country and be able to offer it at that kind of affordability. I’m ready. I bought a lot of the homes back into that with 21 years ago and I I just like one for myself. We know you’re good for. I’d like to get one for yeah yeah. It hasn’t been tested lately but it it is good. Well you sure made a lot possible for us so we’re we’re excited now to it’s just started. Yeah. So we love building the traditional site build housing as well as in addition to the modern manufactured home. And our goal there is to to be the affordable attainable entry level on the site built side too and then kind of blend the technology we have of building a lot of components indoors versus outdoor, right. He’s got 99 conventional builders and they’ve made a few bolt on acquisitions. So they’ll build, they’re on track to build 10,600 site built homes. That’ll put us at about the number 7th in the country as far as site builder. But we need more houses in terms of specific markets. Worth could usually be one or two. I mean that. Yes, that’s right. Yeah. When you look at the Carolinas and Florida and Tennessee, we ranked up there very high. Yeah, it was a good day that the students sent me down to claim. Yeah, the, the students. I think the University of Tennessee was the first class that you started bringing here for lunch. Yeah. Well, it could be. It certainly was the first one that that gave me a a business tip, you know, I mean, they always want stock tips for me and they gave me a business tip for when they’ve all written his book. And yeah, I hope I I gave that professor the sheriff a oh, did you? And I gave the. I gave the students. He’s some big stock guy. I hope they all held on to it. Oh yeah, I was at that meeting and also they all went crazy. Tell them to vote for me.