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The latest Builders Daily webinar, presented by Higharc, tackled a pressing question for today’s market: How do certain builders continue to grow while others stall out?
Moderated by John McManus, founder of The Builders Daily, the session featured Tyler Belcher (EVP, Signature Homes), Kyle Bear (VP of Research & Development, Signature Homes), and Marc Minor (CEO, Higharc). Together, they explored how Signature Homes is navigating high mortgage rates, buyer hesitancy, and pricing pressures and winning anyway.
The Market Challenge
McManus set the stage by pointing out the stark reality:
“Households are on the fence, mortgage rates remain near cycle highs, prices are sticky, and buyers are second-guessing. Do you cut prices? Do you load up on incentives? None of these answers feels particularly satisfying.”
While many builders are pulling back, Signature Homes is on pace for one of its best years ever. The reason? A deliberate focus on systems design, customer-first execution, and operational agility.
Building “Cool Stuff” That Buyers Can’t Ignore
Signature’s leadership made a conscious decision to go on the offensive rather than play defense. As EVP Tyler Belcher explained:
“We recognized rates are higher for longer. So what are we going to do about it? We went and redesigned our core plans to create more wow and less about efficiency, and more about compelling the buyer to act.”
Signature doubled down on what matters most to buyers:
- Compelling plans – redesigning core floor plans to inspire action rather than blend in with the competition.
- Customer referrals – leveraging 25 years of strong relationships and a high referral rate.
- Community experience – investing in amenities and a sense of place.
- Innovation at scale – bringing custom-home elements into production building.
Belcher summed up Signature’s philosophy simply:
“We’ve got great communities, we build cool stuff, and we take care of our customers so they’ll come back to us.”
Bold Moves in Product Development
VP of R&D Kyle Bear highlighted just how quickly the team pivoted when the market shifted:
“We basically scrapped an entire community worth of plans that were about to launch and revamped them in a month to meet the market need. It was an aggressive, bold move, but all the signs were pointing to that.”
That willingness to make hard calls, sacrificing eight months of work to deliver what the market actually wanted, underscores why Signature is considered an “outlier” builder.
How Higharc Enables Agility
This level of reinvention would be nearly impossible without operational support. That’s where Higharc comes in.
As Higharc CEO, Marc Minor explained:
“Changing product can be difficult in a production homebuilding environment because you have to keep your turns up. The problem with changing product is that you have to pass drawings around to everyone in the business. Higharc eliminates that by replacing drawings with software. When you change them, all the other things (marketing, estimating, purchasing) change automatically.”
With a single source of truth, builders can:
- Update plans once and automatically push changes across marketing, estimating, and purchasing.
- Streamline collaboration across teams and reduce costly errors.
- Offer personalization without overwhelming buyers or breaking operations.
- Generate 3D visualizations and renderings directly from their models, eliminating third-party delays.
For Signature, the payoff is dramatic. Belcher noted:
“If we change a plan, it’s changing the marketing automatically, it’s updating the takeoff automatically. Once you build your templates, you can draw very fast and eliminate clerical errors. We’ve seen it drastically improve our times and leveraged that time into a better product.”
This has enabled Signature to launch its Signature Series homes, plans that bring luxury-style “wow” into the production market.
Scaling Personalization Without Breaking Operations
Bear described the shift from cumbersome design workflows to a new, flexible model:
“With Revit, every plan version multiplied exponentially; three versions, three elevations, three communities, suddenly you’re managing 27 plans. Now, with Higharc, I can update one core file, and it fixes every community’s plans in one click. That operational efficiency is massive.”
Even more importantly, the platform enables personalization on a large scale. Buyers can explore options in 3D showroom views without being overwhelmed, while Signature can manage complexity behind the scenes.
Belcher put it this way:
“The paradox of choice is real. How much choice you show the buyer is something we’re always wrestling with. Higharc helps us keep that balance, showing enough to compel without confusing.”
Data-Driven Decisions
Signature doesn’t just rely on instinct; they closely track buyer behavior and backlog. Belcher explained:
“We measure backlog constantly. We’re primarily a pre-sale builder, so 80 to 90% of our starts are pre-sold. Once that backlog gets strained, we know we’ve got to do something.”
On the product side, the team constantly monitors option take-rates and adapts. Bear added:
“We’ll be able to know exactly what’s perceived as valuable to the home buyer. That’s a big key for making future decisions.”
The Secret Ingredient: Culture
Underlying Signature’s success is a culture of resilience and adaptability. Their team embraces challenges, moves fast, and stays focused on the long-term vision.
As Kyle Bear put it, adopting new technology like Higharc requires “real brain work” up front, but the payoff in efficiency and flexibility is worth it.
Key Lessons for Builders
- Differentiate with product, not just price. Buyers need a compelling reason to give up their low-rate mortgages.
- Be bold in tough cycles. Don’t be afraid to scrap work if it doesn’t meet today’s buyer expectations.
- Invest in systems that make agility possible. A connected platform like Higharc reduces friction and errors.
- Use data to guide pivots. Backlog strength, take-rates, and customer feedback are leading indicators.
- Culture drives execution. A resilient, adaptable team makes all the difference.
Watch the Full Webinar
This recap only scratches the surface of an hour packed with insights and visuals. To hear directly from Signature Homes and Higharc, watch the full webinar replay on YouTube.
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