New owner for McGuyer Homebuilders

Dream Finders’ deal to acquire firm’s assets will elevate it into top 20 across the nation

Dream Finders Homes has reached a deal to acquire Houston-based McGuyer Homebuilders in a transaction that would establish a presence in Houston and elevate Dream Finders into the top 20 nationally.

Dream Finders, a publicly traded company based in Jacksonville, Fla., said this week that it reached an agreement to acquire the homebuilding, mortgage banking and title insurance assets of McGuyer, known as MHI, which builds in Texas under the Coventry Homes brand.

“The MHI transaction will significantly increase our geographic operations in the Austin region and will allow us to expand into Houston, Dallas and San Antonio,” Dream Finders CEO Patrick Zalupski said in an announcement.

Dream Finders began building homes in 2009 and went public in January.

MHI, founded in 1988, closed over 2,000 homes across Houston, Dallas, Austin and San Antonio in 2020 with an average sale price of $441,779, according to Dream Finders. Since its inception, MHI has sold more than 55,000 homes across Texas.

MHI, which posted more than $900 million in sales in 2020, built under the additional brands of Plantation Homes and Wilshire Homes until last year.

The acquisition, which is expected to close in the fourth quarter, gives Dream Finder a position in some of the nation’s largest and fastest-growing markets for homebuilding, with a combined 120,000 permits filed annually.

MHI was the 13th-largest builder in the Houston market by home sales in 2020, with 911 sales, according to Zonda, a housing consulting company. A combination of Dream Finders and MHI would rank Dream Finders as the nation’s 18th-largest builder, according to Zonda’s Builder 100 ranking.

MHI was No. 37 on the Builder

100, with 2,082 annual closings for 2020, while Dream Finders was No. 24, with 3,154 closings.

“Combined, this new company achieved 5,236 annual closings for 2020, which positions them with the likes of industry stalwarts David Weekley Homes (also Houston based), Beazer Homes and TriPointe (formerly Trendmaker in Houston),” said Lawrence Dean, Houston regional director for Zonda.

Dream Finders expects to acquire about 1,850 homes in backlog, with 600 in Houston, 560 in Dallas, 490 in Austin and 200 in San Antonio. Dream Finder said the consolidated company would own and control over 40,000 lots.

Frank McGuyer, founder of MHI, said the merger positions the company for continued growth.

“My strategic priority in identifying a merger partner was to ensure that our people and the Coventry brand would have the opportunity to continue to grow post-merger,” McGuyer said. “DFH has a proven track record of growth and will be looking to the leadership of the Coventry team to build the combined company into one of the largest homebuilders in Texas.”