Landsea Homes - Earnings Call - Q1 2025

Executive Summary

• Q1 2025 revenue rose to $310.8M (+5.7% YoY) on 643 deliveries (+27% YoY), but diluted EPS was -$0.20 vs $0.01 a year ago as heavy incentives and mix shift compressed GAAP gross margins to 13.0% (adjusted gross margin 20.0%).
• Results vs prior quarter: deliveries fell from 937 (Q4) to 643 and revenue from $486.7M to $310.8M, while GAAP gross margin improved slightly vs Q4 (13.0% vs 12.5%) and adjusted gross margin rose to 20.0% from 18.4%.
• Mix shifted from higher-priced California toward Texas/Florida/Colorado, driving a 20% YoY ASP decline to $466K; incentives ran ~9.6% of home sales revenue and interest in cost of sales was ~4.6%, pressuring reported margins (inventory impairment $1.5M).
• Strategic actions: pivoting toward a 50/50 spec vs build‑to‑order mix to improve margins and reduce standing inventory; Q1 saw 67% of deliveries sold in-quarter as the team leaned toward pace to drive absorption (3.0/month).
• Corporate catalyst overshadowing earnings: on May 12, New Home Co. agreed to acquire Landsea for $11.30/share in cash (≈61% premium to the May 12 close); the Q1 earnings call had no Q&A due to the transaction.

What Went Well and What Went Wrong

• What Went Well

  • Volume and demand resilience: Deliveries +27% YoY to 643; net new orders +11% to 679 with 3.0/month absorption; cancellations improved to 9% (vs 10%).
  • Adjusted profitability resiliency: Adjusted home sales gross margin expanded 60 bps YoY to 20.0% despite mix and incentives; adjusted EBITDA was $13.5M (vs $17.0M) and adjusted net loss improved to -$1.7M from GAAP -$7.3M.
  • Execution in Texas/Florida: Texas delivered 126 homes ($48M revenue); Florida deliveries +52% and revenue +53% YoY, supporting portfolio diversification.
  • Management focus on pivot: “We continue to balance pace versus price… We also made the strategic decision to sell through some of our spec home inventory… Our goal is to return to a 50‑50 split between specs and build‑to‑order closings over time.” – CEO John Ho.

• What Went Wrong

  • Margin compression from incentives and financing costs: Incentives were ~9.6% of gross home sales revenue; interest capitalized in cost of sales was ~4.6%, and purchase accounting amortization impacted gross margin by ~1.9%.
  • ASP and mix: ASP fell 20% YoY to $466K on mix away from California; GAAP home sales gross margin fell to 13.0% vs 14.9% last year (ex-impairment 13.5%).
  • Backlog and earnings: Backlog declined to 426 homes (-32% YoY) and $231M (-39% YoY); EBITDA fell to $6.2M (from $12.6M), and GAAP net loss was -$7.3M.

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Good day, everyone, and welcome to today's Landsea Homes Corporation first quarter 2025 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Please note this call may be recorded, and I will be standing by if you should need any assistance. It is now my pleasure to turn the conference over to Drew McIntosh, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Drew McIntosh (Head of Investor Relations)

Good morning and welcome to Landsea Homes first quarter 2025 earnings call. Before the call begins, I would like to note that this call will include forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Landsea Homes cautions that forward-looking statements are subject to numerous assumptions, risks, and uncertainties, which change over time. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the risk factors described by Landsea Homes in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We do not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements. Additionally, reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures discussed on this call to the most comparable GAAP measures can be accessed through Landsea Homes' website and in its SEC filings. Hosting the call today are John Ho, Landsea's Chief Executive Officer, Mike Forsum, President and Chief Operating Officer, and Chris Porter, Chief Financial Officer.

With that, I'd like to turn the call over to John.

John Ho (CEO)

Good morning, and thank you for joining us today as we go over our results for the first quarter of 2025 and provide an update on our operations. Landsea Homes recorded a net loss of $7.3 million in the first quarter for a net loss of $0.20 per diluted share. Home sales revenue increased 2% year-over-year on a 27% increase in deliveries, partially offset by a 20% decline in average closing prices. The decline in average prices was due in part to a mix shift from higher-priced California communities to a higher contribution of closings from our Florida and Texas operations. Elevated incentive activity during the quarter also contributed to the decrease in ASPs. Net new orders for the quarter increased 11% year over year on a sales pace of 3.0 homes per community per month.

Overall, we are encouraged by the demand elasticity we saw during the quarter as buyers responded to declines in mortgage rates and higher incentives. Order activity started off slowly to begin the year, then picked up as the quarter progressed. Affordability remains an important issue for most buyers, so financing incentives were a key driver of sales during the quarter. We continue to balance pace versus price at each of our communities, with a slight lean towards pace, all things being equal. As a production home builder, we feel it is important to price to market to maintain a base level of sales activity. We also made the strategic decision to sell through some of our spec home inventory in an effort to return to a more balanced approach between spec sales and build-to-order homes, with 67% of our first quarter deliveries also sold in the same quarter.

Our goal is to return to a 50-50 split between specs and build-to-order closings over time. There are several reasons for this strategic shift. First, build times have returned to pre-COVID levels, which has shortened the time frame between selling and closing on a pre-sold home. Second, the margin opportunities are much greater with a pre-sold home, as it gives us the ability to charge more for lock premiums and other new home amenities. It also allows the buyer to pick out high-margin options and upgrades for their home, as opposed to the standardized packages found in spec homes. Finally, reducing our spec levels lowers the cash tied up in standing inventory and gives us better visibility into our future closings with the build-up of a solid backlog.

More balanced strategies also align with our company's approach to home building, which emphasizes product differentiation as a way to attract customers and grow market share. We believe our core customer is a more discerning buyer who wants more out of a home than just a place to live. That is why we have developed and refined our high-performance home series to offer the latest in new home technology and innovation. While the pandemic has been over for some time, people continue to spend more time at home than ever before, whether it's a work-from-home situation, in-home entertainment, or just dining in. We feel that this stay-at-home dynamic plays into our strengths and believe buyers will pay a premium for a home that fits their lifestyle. Of course, there are other factors that play into the decision-making process when buying a home, the biggest of which is affordability.

That is why we continue to work with buyers to find a new home solution and monthly payment that suits their needs. Financing incentives remain a popular option for our customers looking to lower the monthly cost of home ownership and serve as a great selling tool with buyers looking at both new and resale homes. These incentives do, however, come at a cost to our company, representing 9% of the average closing price in the first quarter. We are optimistic that the combination of better pricing strategies and a higher mix of pre-sold homes will offset some of the negative effects that incentives have had on our margins. As we head into the latter half of the spring selling season, we continue to see opportunities to refine our operations and increase our size and scale in the markets we currently build in.

While there is some uncertainty surrounding the near-term macro environment, we believe the long-term outlook for our industry remains positive, given the need for additional housing supply and the desire for home ownership that is on display at our communities each week. Product differentiation is more important than ever when selling homes in uncertain times, and we feel that having communities in desirable locations and new home designs that stand out from the competition gives us a distinct advantage. As a result, I remain optimistic about Landsea Homes' ability to compete and grow our operations over time. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Mike, who will provide more details on our operations. Mike.

Mike Forsum (President and COO)

Thanks, John. Good morning to everyone. Landsea delivered 643 homes during the first quarter of 2025, which was near the midpoint of our guidance of 600-700 closings. Florida led the way in terms of delivery contribution, followed by Arizona and Texas. As John mentioned, the 20% decline in ASPs was a result of a mix shift away from higher-priced communities in California, combined with greater contributions from lower-priced regions. ASPs were actually up year over year in Florida and Texas, while ASPs in Arizona declined only slightly. The sales pace in the first quarter came at the lower end of our targeted range of three to four sales per community per month. Arizona posted the highest absorption pace at 3.8, followed by Colorado at 3.7, and Florida at 2.9.

Overall, I would characterize current new home demand conditions as uneven, with consistent traffic levels being offset by hesitancy to move forward on behalf of buyers. In most instances, however, we can find a way to keep conversion levels steady with the right combination of incentives and pricing adjustments. Build conditions continue to be favorable, with good trade labor availability and steady flow of materials to our job sites. The lessons learned during the pandemic and the best practices put in place have resulted in a more streamlined home building operation for our company, leading to much faster backlog conversions and build times. We have not seen any impact from the announced tariffs or the increased scrutiny on migrant labor so far.

Lot cost inflation will continue to be a margin headwind for our company in the near term, though we have had success renegotiating the terms of our lot takedowns. We remain disciplined in our approach to new land deals and have seen similar discipline from our competitors, giving us optimism that future land prices will reflect the realities of today's new home economics. We believe the home building ecosystem self-corrects over time, and the industry's move, a more land-light operating model, may accelerate the timing of that self-correction. Overall, my sense is that we are outselling our competition based on our first quarter absorption pace relative to our publicly traded peers.

While we have experienced some margin compression as a result of our use of incentives, we feel it is the appropriate strategy given the current market conditions and the opportunities to reinvest our capital on the other side of this. Our increased focus on pre-sales versus spec should alleviate some of that margin pressure and give us better visibility through the build-up of sold backlog. Now, I'd like to turn the call over to Chris, who will provide more detail on our financial results for the first quarter and give an update on our outlook. Chris.

Chris Porter (CFO)

Thanks, Mike. As Mike and John mentioned, our top-line growth of 11% on orders, 27% on deliveries, and 2% on home sales revenue were bright spots in the quarter. Florida delivered a strong 52% delivery growth and a 53% revenue growth in the quarter. Texas also pulled its weight with 126 deliveries and $48 million in home sales revenue. Texas, as a percentage of our portfolio, was 20% of our home deliveries and 16% of our revenue. Discounts and incentives for the quarter continued to weigh on gross margins, though, representing 9.6% of our gross home sales revenue. Mortgage incentives, which followed the 10-year Treasury, were volatile through the quarter, starting out at elevated levels, lowered some in the end of January through mid-February, and then peaked again in March. This drove our home sales gross margin before inventory impairments of $1.5 million to 13.5%, the midpoint of our guidance.

Adjusted gross margin was reported at a consistent 20%. The $1.5 million inventory impairment was on a DFW asset where we were closing out homes and represented about 50% of our gross margin impact. Interest capitalized through cost of goods sold represented 4.6% of gross margin, and the amortization of $5.6 million in purchase price accounting in the quarter represented another 1.9% impact. Our SG&A as a percentage of home sales revenue was 17%, a 180 basis point increase, primarily related to higher sales and marketing costs. Despite not having DFW operations in our comparable numbers from last year, our G&A expenses were up only $731,000, or 2.8% over first quarter of last year, but remained flat as a percentage of home sales revenue. All of these factored into our reported net loss for the quarter of $7.25 million, or $0.20 per share.

On an adjusted basis, our net loss reduced to $1.73 million, or $0.05 per share. We expect incentive levels to remain elevated through 2025, with the actual costs fluctuating with the overall mortgage rate environment. Although after the first of the year consistently saw rate downs in the 4.99%-5.2% range for quick move-in homes, towards late February and throughout March, these moved to 3.99% in many of our markets as we competed for closings. As we look into the second quarter, we would anticipate incentive levels to be in the 7%-9% range. Turning to our balance sheet, we ended the quarter with $256 million in liquidity, $52.3 million in cash and cash equivalents, and $204 million in availability under our revolver. This was a roughly $15 million improvement from fourth quarter.

Our debt-to-total capital ratio was 52.1% at the end of the quarter, a 30 basis point increase from year-end, and our net debt-to-total capital ratio finished the quarter at 48.3%.

Operator (participant)

At this time, I would like to turn the call back to Drew McIntosh for closing remarks.

Drew McIntosh (Head of Investor Relations)

Thanks, Raza. In light of the transaction announcement last night, we will not be opening the call for questions. Thank you for your participation.

Operator (participant)

This concludes today's program. Thank you for your participation, and you may disconnect at any time.