Kriser History

As a 16-year-old boy I, Matt Kriser, was asked by a mentor "Matt what you want to be when you grow up?" A quick reply "I don't really know I'm only 16 years old". I thought my reply would satisfy the question. The next time I saw my mentor he said" well did you figure it out?" I said "figure what out". Well, after about the fifth time of him asking if I figured out what I was going to be when I grew up, I said to myself "better think of something to tell my mentor, because he's not dropping this." I asked myself "what would I like to be when I grow up?" My thoughts at this point were "the only thing my dad ever did that made substantial income was that he bought 240 acre ranch paid it off in about seven years and sold it on time for $500 a month. And in the 60s and 70s that was enough to retire on. Of course I liked that idea. I also had already noticed at the age of 16 that some Real Estate Developers did a good job by creating attractive entrances into their neighborhood/subdivisions. These communities seem to sell very well. While developers who did not put a nice entrance into their communities had developments that struggled to sell. And then I had the thought, "I don't know if I would ever build any of those high-rise buildings, but that intrigues me. So the next time I saw my mentor I was glad to inform him that I had decided what I wanted to be when I grew up. I said I want to be a real estate developer. I'm not sure how big or small, but a real estate developer. From that day forward I started to pay attention to real estate, developers, and home construction. I concluded after a short while that the more successful developers were also homebuilders. I also learned, somehow, that banks didn't really like to give loans to real estate developers unless they were also homebuilders. So I went to five years of college with an emphasis in construction management and any real estate developing classes I could possibly find. I did not actually receive a degree, as that was not my intent. I had always planned on working for myself. One thing in my real estate developing classes that that has stuck with me probably more than anything else, is that construction and real estate goes in cycles and we must predict the future, so as to direct the company. I learned After my five years at college, I went to real estate school because I felt that I needed to know how to market the homes I would build. Today, I am amazed that I was that wise or that I was somehow lead to that decision. It was a very wise and useful step in my progression, and has been so useful to this very day. After selling real estate for about a year, (mostly pre-selling new construction) I felt ready to start building homes for myself. (1990)

In 1994 they found a piece of land I wanted to develop. I put $5,000 down started talking to banks. I needed to put about $200,000 of equity into the deal. I didn't have that much cash, so I started looking for some private money. I talked to two of my brother's who had more equity than I did. I had worked with these two brothers in the past, and we had a great working relationship. We come from a great family that has 13 children and two amazing parents. We all get along great and love to get together often. Anyway I talked to my brother's Tim and Drew, and we decided that together we could do a larger development and construction company. We decided that it would be best if we were each one-third equal partners. Things went exceptionally well until 9/11, 2001. At the point of 9/11 we had 16 "spec homes" and several pre-sold homes. After two months of no buyers walking to our model homes, we did start to get concerned. We dropped the prices of those 16 spec homes from $10-$15, 000 each. We sold all of them in the next two months. The market was sluggish, and cash flow was slow. So we went and got a $500,000 line of equity against real estate we owned free and clear. But with that experience Tim and Drew both wanted to liquidate our entire inventory and get out of the business. I too considered what I should do. Observing that even in a sluggish market, we were still selling homes, and making money, and that the world did not come to an end, I was actually encouraged that we were making it just fine in a down market. I had wanted to be a real estate developer/builder for a long time, so I talked to my two brothers and we decided to liquidate a lot of the inventory so I could buy them out. In other words they got the cash and I got the company. We completed the buyout in January 2004. I also actually kept inventory and cash value of about $600,000. My brother Drew also decided to keep 15% of the company and left some of his equity in the company at a 10% interest rate. Drew also only wanted to work about 30 hours a week. Drew is an incredible family man. He likes to make sure that his family comes first. In 2002 and 2003, Drew took his family to the family farm in Florida, (5 miles from Alabama) for a two year farm experience. He and his wife Tamra have recently decided to move back to Florida for good.

After the buyout of my two brothers I gave 7% ownership of Kriser Homes to a key employee Nicole Ramirez, with a 10 year vesting Commitment. I did not want to run Kriser Homes without Nicole. She orchestrated the day to day duties, scheduling construction, managing the office, bookkeeping, and much more. I also hired a new key employee, Karl Hansen, as vice president of construction and development. To get this employee I gave up 4% of the company with a 10 year vesting commitment.

To facilitate the buyout of my two brothers we liquidated most of our inventory, and only built 25 homes in 2004. In 2005 we built 66 homes, and 108 homes in 2006. So that the investors do not misinterpret this rapid growth as you're responsible, prior to 2001 Kriser homes had been building about 50 to 60 homes per year, and would develop and sell building lots of about 50 to 100 lots of each year. Our goal for 2007 was 112 homes and approximately 70 lots. And the goal for net profit in 2007 was about $1.8 million. Net profits for 2006 was approximately $1.4 million. Our growth strategy plan is to have steady growth year after year till we reach about 180 homes a year. Then we looked at our company and reevaluate.