Today we’d like to introduce you to David Rice.
David, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
We got started in Elmhurst because I had been relocated here by a Fortune 500 company that wanted me in Chicagoland. My family loved Elmhurst – the neighborhood, schools, church, sports teams, food, etc.. But the job didn’t work out as promised. Less than a year after arriving in Chicago, I started New Home Star. We stayed in Elmhurst and today it’s the location of our corporate support center that serves our 300-plus employees across the whole country.
The company has this amazing culture that may only be possible in a town like Elmhurst, inside of a place like Greater Chicagoland. The culture is so good that New Home Star was just awarded Best Places to Work by Glassdoor.com. In fact, the company was the second highest ranking in the country, selected from hundreds of thousands of companies that are reviewed on the site.
We’re a tech-enabled service company that sells new homes for homebuilders. We give them the look and feel of a dedicated in-house sales team but with all of the benefits of outsourcing to a large national firm. From our very humble origins, we’ve become the largest privately owned seller of new homes in America. Speaking of humble roots, even today our corporate office is in an old garage that we reworked to become an office and our conference table was handmade by our founder.
We’re super involved in the community of Elmhurst and downtown Chicago is definitely part of our DNA too. We have operations in 28 markets across the US and often bring our management team to Chicago for training. They all love to visit.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It most definitely has not been a smooth road. I’d say we failed twice as many times as we succeeded in our early years. We started the business at our industry’s worst downturn ever. There were so many struggles along the way.
We were a company that did not trade any equity to external investors and could not get loans from banks. We only used our own cash flow to fuel our growth while growing +35% per year, and that meant we had a lot of lean times. Cashflow was a constant challenge for many years because of our high growth.
Chicago was struggling terribly with the real estate downturn and we needed to find other markets that weren’t hit quite as hard. While continuing to grow our base here, we experienced the challenges of scaling a service company that suddenly spanned from the state of Florida in the southeast to Washington in the northwest. That was tough and led to the invention of our industry-leading sales enablement platform.
New Home Star – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
We sell new homes for homebuilders. Specifically, we recruit, select, and train new home sales agents to manage new community sales efforts. We specialize in recruiting people from outside of the industry and training them to achieve higher-than-industry standards. We utilize robust people processes and proprietary technology. Our builder partners hire us because they trust us to help them sell more homes more profitably.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Personal success looks a lot different to me than professional success. I’m a son and a father, a husband, and a friend. I’m involved in many pursuits outside of work and have lots of things that would need to be measured to define “success”.
The ‘markers’ that I use may be common to most of us. I focus on feelings of happiness and contentment. I measure how much I am able to contribute. Even, how much of a bright of spot I can be in the lives around me. One of my favorite ideas comes from a Bible verse that says, “A good name is rather to be chosen than gold or silver.” Do I have a good name? That is essential for personal success.
A more quantifiable approach to measuring success comes from my annual goal setting and quarterly reviews. Every single year I spend a few days between Christmas and New Year’s Day setting a whole list of goals for the coming year and reviewing my goals from the last year. I keep those goals in front of me every day and measure my success on a monthly and quarterly basis. This approach helps me to ensure I’m accomplishing the things that are most important to me in my life.
Contact Info:
- Address: 145 W 2nd St, Elmhurst IL 60126
- Website: newhomestar.com
- Phone: 800.730.6170
- Email: info@newhomestar.com
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