No mistaking it. Homebuilders are pulling back. They’re bracing for an iffy second half of 2025.

New data from Wolfe Research’s Private Builder Survey shows June orders down 5.9% month-over-month — a sharper decline than seasonal norms. Nearly 9 in 10 private builders reported deterioration in orders in June. Average selling prices dropped 170 basis points month-over-month. Gross margins fell again. Builders, the data shows, are cutting prices rather than sweetening incentives, and many are banking on resale price declines to help bring buyers back into play.

Recent field research has found little indication demand is improving,” the report notes. Builder optimism is scarce, cancellations are rising, and contingency contracts are falling apart as buyers struggle to sell existing homes.

Try telling Dwight Sandlin and his team at Birmingham, AL-based Signature Homes they should play defense right now. They’re doing just the opposite.

We’re having a record year,” says the founder and Chair of Signature Homes, a private, Birmingham-based builder with operations in Alabama and Nashville. “Sales are through the roof.”

It’s not luck. And it’s not just a product. Signature’s performance is the outgrowth of a culture—and a system—purpose-built for the kind of inflection point 2025 represents: a “both-and” moment when survival depends on short-term agility and long-term capability. Sandlin and his team have built that into the firm’s operating DNA.

We build cool stuff,” Sandlin says. “But what we’ve built is a company that knows who our customer is, how to take care of them, and how to execute consistently through our whole building cycle—land to warranty.”

Here’s how that’s translating into competitive advantage in 2025 — and what it tells us about how “outlier” builders win – and will continue to do so – when others are stuck or retreating.

Strategy + Tactics: A Binding Imperative

Signature’s telling move came not in response to the 2025 slowdown, but in anticipation of it. In spring 2024, after touring homes in the local Parade of Homes, Sandlin concluded:

We looked like everybody else.”

That sparked a complete product-line rethink.

We dismantled and rebuilt,” he says. Drawing on insights from longtime industry friend Steve Brooks at Grand Homes, Sandlin and his team pivoted to emotionally resonant, wide-open, two-story floor plans. “We stopped trying to sell logic and started selling emotion,” Sandlin explains. “If a buyer’s jumping from a 3.75% mortgage to 7%, it’s not going to be a rational move—it has to feel right.”

That bet is now paying off. Nearly 70% of Signature’s home sales this year are from those newly introduced plans.

Where other builders leaned heavily into specs or price concessions to chase entry-level volume, Sandlin went the other way. He leaned into built-to-order, discretionary move-up buyers and doubled down on differentiating product and customer experience.

The decision wasn’t just creative. It was hard-earned.

I’ve been through getting my ass kicked,” Sandlin says, referencing Signature’s 2009 effort to chase affordability by stripping down homes. “We built houses nobody wanted.”

This time, Signature decided: build what the customer wants—even if it costs 250 to 300 basis points in margin.

You can’t lose money on what doesn’t sell.”

2. Customer Trust → Referrals, Repeats, and the Next Generation

Signature doesn’t advertise much. It doesn’t have to. Forty percent of sales come from referrals. And 80% come via co-op agents who, as Sandlin puts it, get “fanny-kissed” on a regular basis.

Signature doesn’t aim just to close sales—it seeks to create evangelists. Over the past five years, more than 200 buyers have returned to make another purchase. That’s unheard of in homebuilding.

And now, those buyers are sending their adult children. Signature’s townhome product—about 20% of current sales—is designed for those adult Gen Z and Millennial buyers, with 75% of transactions involving down payment help from mom and dad.

That lines up with recent Redfin data showing that nearly one in four younger buyers are using family money for their down payments. But where other builders might see that as a financing tailwind, Sandlin sees it as validation of something more profound: earned trust.

These parents are existing customers,” he says. “They know what we do. They’ve been through it. That’s why they’re comfortable helping their kids buy from us.”

Capability Culture: Execution, Accountability, Empowerment

We’re not special,” Sandlin insists. “We just work hard at this.”

That modesty masks a high-performance system Signature has refined over decades, where culture isn’t talked about, it’s measured.

Signature’s frontline team—sales agents, lead builders, construction managers—are empowered to make real decisions.

If they screw something up, they don’t need to call anybody to fix it,” Sandlin says. “They can spend the $2,000. They’re accountable, but they’re trusted.”

That empowerment is rooted in ownership. Literally. Signature Homes is a full ESOP, with long-tenured team members now earning more from stock value appreciation than from salary.

This year,” Sandlin notes, “almost all our tenured employees will see that.”

Turnover is just 12%. And Sandlin can’t remember the last time they lost someone they wanted to keep.

Performance is closely tracked, especially regarding punctuality. A key metric: green plate to pre-delivery inspection (PDI). Two years ago, the average was 133 days.

Today? 100 days.

We post it for everyone to see,” he says. “That’s accountability.”

Surveys are another tool. Signature uses Net Promoter Score, RFI call ratings, and what Sandlin calls a “fan index,” with results published company-wide every Monday.

Reducing Complexity, Increasing Optionality

Signature’s operational flywheel is strong because its systems are integrated.

Builders don’t build houses—our trade partners do,” Sandlin says. And his team treats them as essential parts of the operation."

They’ve recently partnered with Hierarch to reduce plan complexity—cutting more than 600 plan versions down to 60. That’s not just a simplification. It’s a future-forward, strategic advantage.

If it works the way we expect, it’ll be a game changer,” Sandlin says. “We can offer variety, personalization, and standardization at once.”

That investment ties to a broader thesis: in a fragmented industry riddled with handoff errors and siloed data, competitive advantage flows from end-to-end integration. Signature is ahead of that curve.

Private, Purposeful, Proud—and Not Slowing Down

Sandlin is 72, but he’s not going anywhere.

I like what I do,” he says. “We travel two or three months a year, and the rest of the time, I want to build cool stuff.”

That pride matters. Signature isn’t chasing quarterly earnings or appeasing shareholders. It’s maximizing long-term value—on its own terms. And it shows.

Margins may be thinner. Incentives may be less effective. But Signature is still building what buyers want, trusting its people to execute, and maintaining velocity when many others have stalled.

You can't guess,” Sandlin says. “You’ve got to have systems, trust your teams, and listen to what the market is telling you.”

That’s not revolutionary. It’s just rare.

Why It Matters

Dwight Sandlin’s story isn’t about nostalgia. It’s about clarity. In a market defined by uncertainty, Signature’s success underscores what high-performance operators do differently:

• They control what they can.
• They invest in people, not perks.
• They obsess over customer experience.
• They standardize where possible—but never at the cost of trust.
• They operate lean—but with intent, not fear.

For every homebuilder trying to manage a tough second half of 2025, Sandlin’s example is a signal: This is not the time to shrink. It’s the time to reinforce what matters most.

Tactics and strategy are not mutually exclusive. This is a "both-and" moment. The outliers know that. And they're already building what comes next.