M/I Homes Inc (MHO) 2023 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the M/I Homes, Inc. Second Quarter Earnings Webcast Conference Call. (Operator Instructions). I would now like to turn the conference over to Phil Creek. Please go ahead, sir.

早上好，女士們、先生們，歡迎參加 M/I Homes, Inc. 第二季度收益網絡廣播電話會議。 （操作員說明）。我現在想把會議交給 Phil Creek。請繼續，先生。

Thank you for joining us today. On the call is Bob Schottenstein, our CEO and President; and Derek Klutch, President of our mortgage company.

感謝您今天加入我們。接聽電話的是我們的首席執行官兼總裁 Bob Schottenstein；還有德里克·克拉奇 (Derek Klutch)，我們的抵押貸款公司總裁。

First, to address regulation for disclosure, we encourage you to ask any questions regarding issues that you consider material during this call because we are prohibited from discussing significant non-public items with you directly. And as to forward-looking statements, I want to remind everyone that the cautionary language about forward-looking statements contained in today's press release also applies to any comments made during this call. Also be advised that the company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made during this call.

首先，為了解決披露法規問題，我們鼓勵您在本次電話會議中提出有關您認為重要的問題的任何問題，因為我們被禁止與您直接討論重要的非公開事項。至於前瞻性陳述，我想提醒大家，今天新聞稿中包含的有關前瞻性陳述的警告性語言也適用於本次電話會議期間發表的任何評論。另請注意，該公司不承擔更新本次電話會議期間所做的任何前瞻性陳述的義務。

I'll now turn the call over to Bob.

我現在將把電話轉給鮑勃。

Thanks, Phil. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. We had a very strong second quarter despite higher interest rates and uncertain economic conditions. Very pleased with our new contracts, homes delivered, margins and income. And we ended the quarter with our balance sheet in excellent shape.

謝謝，菲爾。大家早上好，感謝您今天加入我們。儘管利率上升且經濟狀況不確定，但我們的第二季度表現非常強勁。對我們的新合同、交付的房屋、利潤和收入非常滿意。本季度結束時，我們的資產負債表狀況良好。

In terms of our new contracts, we sold 2,197 homes during the quarter, 21% better, 1,820 homes that we sold during 2022 second quarter. Smart Series, which is our most affordable line of homes, continues to be an important contributor to our sales performance. During the quarter, our Smart Series sales comprised about 55% of total company sales, roughly the same percentage as a year ago. During the quarter, we were operating in 15% more communities on average than we were a year ago. Our sales pace equaled 3.7 homes sold per community per month.

就新合同而言，我們在本季度售出了 2,197 套房屋，比 2022 年第二季度售出 1,820 套房屋增加了 21%。智能係列是我們最實惠的住宅系列，它仍然是我們銷售業績的重要貢獻者。本季度，我們的智能係列銷售額約占公司總銷售額的 55%，與一年前的比例大致相同。本季度，我們的運營社區平均比一年前增加了 15%。我們的銷售速度相當於每個社區每月售出 3.7 套房屋。

We are on track to open a number of new communities this year. We expect to increase our community count for 2023 by approximately 15%, 196 communities that we had opened at the end of 2022. Closed 1,990 homes in the quarter and continued to improve our construction cycle time throughout all of our divisions. Gross margins for the quarter were very solid 26%, considerably better expected going into this year. Our pretax income for the quarter was $155 million, down from last year's record level, still very pleased to produce pretax results of 15.3% of revenue.

今年我們有望開設一些新社區。我們預計到 2023 年，我們的社區數量將增加約 15%，即我們在 2022 年底開設的 196 個社區。本季度關閉了 1,990 個住宅，並繼續縮短我們所有部門的施工週期。該季度的毛利率非常穩定，達到 26%，比今年的預期要好得多。我們本季度的稅前收入為 1.55 億美元，低於去年的創紀錄水平，但仍很高興能取得佔收入 15.3% 的稅前業績。

Now I will provide some additional comments on our markets. Our division income contributions in the second quarter were led by Dallas, Tampa, Columbus, Sarasota, Raleigh and Orlando. Two contracts for the second quarter in the Northern region increased by 31%, (inaudible) contracts in our Southern region increased by 14%. Our deliveries in the Southern region increased by 7% from last year. Our deliveries in the Northern region decreased by 22% from last year. 61% of our deliveries came out of the Southern region and the balance of our deliveries 39% out of the Northern region. Our owned and controlled lot position in the Southern region decreased by 18% compared to last year, (inaudible) by 4% from last year in the Northern region. 36% of our owned and controlled lots are in the Northern region or the other 64% are in our Southern region. We have a very strong land position. Company-wide, we own approximately 23,000 single-family lots, which is roughly a 3-year supply.

現在我將對我們的市場提供一些補充評論。我們第二季度的部門收入貢獻主要來自達拉斯、坦帕、哥倫布、薩拉索塔、羅利和奧蘭多。第二季度北部地區的兩份合同增加了 31%，（聽不清）南部地區的合同增加了 14%。我們在南方地區的交付量比去年增長了 7%。我們在北部地區的交付量比去年下降了 22%。我們 61% 的交付量來自南部地區，其餘 39% 來自北部地區。我們在南部地區擁有和控制的地塊倉位比去年減少了 18%，（聽不清）在北部地區比去年減少了 4%。我們擁有和控制的地塊 36% 位於北部地區，其餘 64% 位於南部地區。我們擁有非常強大的陸地地位。在整個公司範圍內，我們擁有大約 23,000 個單戶住宅地塊，大約可供 3 年使用。

Regards to our balance sheet, we ended the second quarter of 2023 with an all-time record $2.3 billion of equity, which equates to a book value per share of $83. We also ended the quarter with a cash balance of nearly $670 million and zero borrowings under our $650 million unsecured revolving credit facility. This resulted in a debt-to-capital ratio of 23%, down from 28% a year ago and a net debt-to-capital ratio of just 1%.

就我們的資產負債表而言，截至 2023 年第二季度末，我們的股本達到創紀錄的 23 億美元，相當於每股賬面價值 83 美元。本季度末，我們的現金餘額接近 6.7 億美元，6.5 億美元的無擔保循環信貸額度為零借款。這導致債務與資本比率降至 23%，低於一年前的 28%，淨債務與資本比率僅為 1%。

I conclude, let me just state that we are in the best financial condition in our company's history. Very good about our business and are well positioned to have another year of very strong results. With that, I'll turn it over to Phil.

最後，我想說的是，我們正處於公司歷史上最好的財務狀況。我們的業務非常好，並且有能力在新的一年取得非常強勁的業績。有了這個，我會把它交給菲爾。

Thanks, Bob. Our new contracts were up 6% in April, up 21% in May and up 46% in June, and our cancellation rate for the second quarter was 10%. 58% of our second quarter sales were the first time buyers and 55% were inventory homes. Our community count was 195 at the end of the second quarter compared to 168 a year ago, and the breakdown by region is 100 in the Northern region and 95 in the Southern region. During the quarter, we opened 15 new communities while closing 20. We currently estimate ending 2023 with about 225 communities. We delivered 1,990 homes in the second quarter, delivering 60% of our backlog. We ended June 30, we had 4,500 homes in the field versus 6,300 homes in the field a year ago. We started 2,400 homes in the second quarter and 1,600 homes in the first quarter.

謝謝，鮑勃。我們的新合同 4 月份增長了 6%，5 月份增長了 21%，6 月份增長了 46%，第二季度的取消率為 10%。我們第二季度銷售的 58% 是首次購房者，55% 是庫存房屋。截至第二季度末，我們的社區數量為 195 個，而去年同期為 168 個，按地區劃分，北部地區為 100 個，南部地區為 95 個。本季度，我們開設了 15 個新社區，同時關閉了 20 個。我們目前估計，到 2023 年年底，社區數量約為 225 個。我們在第二季度交付了 1,990 套房屋，交付了積壓訂單的 60%。截至 6 月 30 日，我們有 4,500 個房屋在建，而一年前有 6,300 個房屋在建。我們在第二季度啟動了 2,400 套住房，在第一季度啟動了 1,600 套住房。

Revenue decreased 3% in the second quarter, and our average closing price for the second quarter was a second quarter record $493,000 which was a 3% increase compared to last year's closing price of $477,000. Backlog average sale price is $507,000, down from $519,000 a year ago. Our second quarter gross margin was 25.5%, down a 180 basis points year-over-year and up 200 basis points from our first quarter. Our construction costs were flat in the second quarter compared to the first quarter, and we are starting to get some improvement in our building cycle time.

第二季度收入下降了 3%，第二季度的平均收盤價為創第二季度紀錄的 493,000 美元，比去年的收盤價 477,000 美元增長了 3%。積壓訂單平均售價為 507,000 美元，低於一年前的 519,000 美元。第二季度毛利率為 25.5%，同比下降 180 個基點，較第一季度上升 200 個基點。與第一季度相比，我們第二季度的建築成本持平，並且我們的建築週期時間開始有所改善。

Our second quarter SG&A expenses were 10.6 of revenue compared to 9.7 a year ago. Our second quarter SG&A expenses increased 6% versus a year ago, due primarily to higher third-party broker costs and expenses related to our higher community count. Interest income for the quarter was $4.7 million, and our interest incurred was $9.4 million. We are pleased with our returns for the second quarter. Our pretax income was 15%, and our return on equity was 23%. During the quarter, we generated $164 million of EBITDA compared to $195 million last year, and our effective tax rate was 24% in the second quarter compared to 25% a year ago. Our earnings per diluted share for the quarter decreased to $4.12 per share from $4.79 last year, and our book value per share is now $83, a $17 per share increase from a year ago. Now Derek Klutch will address our mortgage company results.

我們第二季度的 SG&A 費用佔收入的 10.6，而去年同期為 9.7。我們第二季度的 SG&A 費用與去年同期相比增加了 6%，這主要是由於第三方經紀商成本以及與社區數量增加相關的費用增加。本季度利息收入為 470 萬美元，產生的利息為 940 萬美元。我們對第二季度的回報感到滿意。我們的稅前收入為 15%，股本回報率為 23%。本季度，我們產生了 1.64 億美元的 EBITDA，而去年為 1.95 億美元；第二季度的有效稅率為 24%，而去年同期為 25%。本季度我們的每股攤薄收益從去年的 4.79 美元下降至每股 4.12 美元，每股賬面價值目前為 83 美元，比去年同期增加 17 美元。現在德里克·克拉奇將討論我們的抵押貸款公司的業績。

Thanks, Phil. Our mortgage and title operations achieved pretax income of $11.2 million, a 29% increase from $8.7 million in 2022 second quarter. Revenue increased 30% from last year to $25.3 million due to higher margins on loans sold and an increase in the average loan amount. The average loan-to-value on our first mortgages for the second quarter was 84%, which was slightly higher than last year. 71% of the loans closed in the quarter were conventional and 29% FHA or VA compared to 80% and 20%, respectively, for 2022's second quarter.

謝謝，菲爾。我們的抵押貸款和產權業務實現稅前收入 1,120 萬美元，比 2022 年第二季度的 870 萬美元增長 29%。由於銷售貸款利潤率提高以及平均貸款金額增加，收入較去年增長 30% 至 2530 萬美元。第二季度我們第一筆抵押貸款的平均貸款價值比為 84%，略高於去年。本季度完成的貸款中有 71% 是傳統貸款，29% 是 FHA 或 VA，而 2022 年第二季度分別為 80% 和 20%。

Our average mortgage amount increased to $402,000 in 2023 second quarter compared to $384,000 last year. Loans originated decreased to 1,281, which was down 5% from last year, while the volume of loans sold increased by 4%. Our borrower profile remains solid with an average down payment of over 16% and an average credit score of 743 compared to 748 in 2022's second quarter. Our mortgage operation captured 81% of our business in the second quarter compared to 77% last year. Also, we maintained warehouse facilities that provide us with funding for our mortgage originations. At June 30th, we had $186 million outstanding under these facilities.

2023 年第二季度，我們的平均抵押貸款金額從去年的 384,000 美元增至 402,000 美元。發放的貸款減少至1,281筆，較去年下降5%，而銷售的貸款數量則增加4%。我們的借款人狀況依然穩健，平均首付超過 16%，平均信用評分為 743，而 2022 年第二季度為 748。我們的抵押貸款業務佔第二季度業務的 81%，而去年為 77%。此外，我們還維護倉庫設施，為我們的抵押貸款發放提供資金。截至 6 月 30 日，我們在這些貸款下尚未償還 1.86 億美元。

Now I'll turn the call back over to Phil.

現在我將把電話轉回給菲爾。

Thanks, Derek. For the balance sheet, we ended the second quarter with a cash balance of $668 million and no borrowings under our unsecured revolving credit facility. We have one of the lowest debt levels of the public homebuilders and are positioned well with our maturities, our bankline matures in late 2026 and our public debt matures in 2028 and 2030 and as interest rates below 5%, our unsold land investment at June 30th is $1.3 billion compared to $1.1 billion a year ago. And at June 30th, we had $673 million of raw land and land under development and $587 million of finished unsold lots.

謝謝，德里克。就資產負債表而言，第二季度末我們的現金餘額為 6.68 億美元，無擔保循環信貸額度下沒有借款。我們是公共住宅建築商中債務水平最低的企業之一，並且我們的到期日定位良好，我們的銀行貸款將於2026 年末到期，我們的公共債務將於2028 年和2030 年到期，並且由於利率低於5%，我們截至6 月30 日的未售土地投資與一年前的 11 億美元相比，這一數字為 13 億美元。截至 6 月 30 日，我們擁有價值 6.73 億美元的未開發土地和正在開發的土地，以及價值 5.87 億美元的已完工未售土地。

During the second quarter, we spent $96 million on land purchases and $109 million on land development for a total of $205 million. And at June 30th, we own 23,000 lots and controlled 41,000 lots. At the end of the quarter, we had 303 completed inventory homes and 1,737 total inventory homes. And of the total inventory homes, 827 are in the Northern region and 910 are in the Southern region. And at June 30th last year, we had 91 completed inventory homes and 1,732 total inventory homes. We spent $15 million in the second quarter repurchasing our stock and have $78 million remaining under our current board authorization. And since the start of 2022, we have repurchased 8% of our outstanding shares. This completes our presentation. We will now open the call for any questions or comments.

第二季度，我們在土地購買上花費了 9600 萬美元，在土地開發上花費了 1.09 億美元，總計 2.05 億美元。截至 6 月 30 日，我們擁有 23,000 手並控制 41,000 手。截至本季度末，我們擁有 303 套已竣工庫存房屋和 1,737 套庫存房屋。在庫存房屋總數中，827 套位於北部地區，910 套位於南部地區。截至去年 6 月 30 日，我們有 91 套已竣工庫存房屋，總計 1,732 套庫存房屋。我們在第二季度花費了 1500 萬美元回購股票，目前董事會授權還剩 7800 萬美元。自 2022 年初以來，我們已經回購了 8% 的流通股。我們的演示到此結束。我們現在將開放電話詢問任何問題或意見。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員說明）

Your first question will come from Alex Barron.

你的第一個問題將來自亞歷克斯·巴倫。

Yes. Thank you. And great job on the quarter, guys.

是的。謝謝。伙計們，本季度的工作非常出色。

Thank you, Alex.

謝謝你，亞歷克斯。

That to see the market is starting to reward you finally. Yes, I was hoping you could walk us through the improvement sequentially in the gross margin. Anything that drove that? Was it just start -- you started to raise prices or lumber cost or lower anything that explains the big jump sequentially?

看到市場終於開始給你回報了。是的，我希望您能引導我們了解毛利率的連續改善情況。有什麼推動的嗎？是不是才剛剛開始——你們開始提高價格或木材成本，或者降低任何可以解釋連續大幅上漲的因素？

Yes. I'll start that, and maybe Phil will have some comments he'd like to add to it. Look, at the beginning of the year, I think the entire industry was quite concerned with rapidly rising rates and how much pricing leverage we might have. And we had frankly expected our margins to be somewhat lower than they obviously have turned out to be. Despite the higher rates and it has been quite solid and remains so today throughout almost all of our markets act throughout all of our communities currently limiting sales and about 15% of our communities, which is an indication of the demand in various places.

是的。我將開始，也許菲爾會添加一些評論。看，在今年年初，我認為整個行業都非常擔心快速上漲的利率以及我們可能擁有多少定價槓桿。坦率地說，我們預計我們的利潤率會比實際結果要低一些。儘管利率較高，但它一直相當穩定，並且今天仍然如此，在我們所有的社區中，幾乎所有的市場都在限制銷售，大約有 15% 的社區，這表明了各地的需求。

I think our communities are exceptionally well located, very strong product offering. Smart Series is exceptional in terms of it's appeal to first-time buyers, really good about our move up product as well as our Tech Town homes. And the combination of all those things, including the level of demand, strength of our buyer profile, given us ability, margins were appropriate, and as we've said over the years, we managed the company on a subdivision basis, have a number of communities throughout our company where our margins are considerably higher than the 26%, also have some that are lower, subdivision-by-subdivision basis. And no one knows what the future will bring and continues to stay about where it is today, a fair amount of confidence that we'll continue to have margins that are at a very acceptable level. Phil, do you want to add anything to that?

我認為我們的社區地理位置優越，產品供應非常強大。智能係列在對首次購房者的吸引力方面非常出色，我們的升級產品以及我們的科技城住宅都非常出色。所有這些因素的結合，包括需求水平、我們買家的實力、我們的能力、利潤率是適當的，正如我們多年來所說，我們在細分的基礎上管理公司，擁有一些在我們公司的一些社區中，我們的利潤率遠高於26%，但也有一些社區的利潤率較低（逐個細分）。沒有人知道未來會發生什麼，並繼續保持在今天的水平，我們有相當大的信心，認為我們將繼續將利潤率保持在非常可接受的水平。菲爾，你想補充什麼嗎？

The only thing I would add, Bob, is we talked about opening 15 stores in the second quarter, and we had opened 19 in the first. So the 34 new stores we've opened this year are performing very well, even a little better than we thought they would. We also talked about cost being flat and so forth. And again, just a lot of time, as you said, on product, every subdivision is a little different, trying to open these new stores to the right way, really trying to emphasize sales pace. So we just continue to be focused on that.

鮑勃，我唯一要補充的是，我們談到在第二季度開設 15 家商店，而我們在第一季度就開設了 19 家。所以我們今年新開的34家店表現非常好，甚至比我們想像的還要好一點。我們還討論了成本持平等等。再說一次，正如你所說，在產品上，每個細分領域都有點不同，試圖以正確的方式開設這些新商店，真正試圖強調銷售節奏。所以我們只是繼續關注這一點。

Okay. Great. And then obviously, your cash balance is pretty significant compared to any time in your history. I was curious what you guys have that invested in? Because it looks like you generated almost $5 million of interest, and I'm assuming that, that's going to go higher unless you put the money to work. And if you are going to put the money to work, what's the most likely use? Is it buy more land? Is it just pay down debt at some point? Is it to buyback your stock? Like how are you guys thinking about uses of that cash?

好的。偉大的。顯然，與歷史上任何時期相比，您的現金餘額都相當可觀。我很好奇你們都投資了什麼？因為看起來你產生了近 500 萬美元的利息，而且我假設，除非你把錢投入到工作中，否則利息會更高。如果你打算把錢投入到工作中，最有可能的用途是什麼？是不是要買更多的土地？它只是在某個時候償還債務嗎？是為了回購你的股票嗎？你們如何考慮這些現金的用途？

I'll take the first part of that. Job 1 for us is to continue to grow our business. We think we have gained market share in nearly all of our markets over the last number of years, and we expect to continue to growing market share. So job 1 for us would be to invest in our divisions. And that's how we'll likely be deploying most of the cash. Phil, do you want to comment on the rest of that?

我將採取第一部分。我們的首要任務是繼續發展我們的業務。我們認為，過去幾年我們幾乎在所有市場都獲得了市場份額，並且預計市場份額將繼續增長。因此，我們的首要任務是投資於我們的部門。這就是我們可能部署大部分現金的方式。菲爾，你想對其餘部分發表評論嗎？

Yes, I agree with that, Bob. We do expect to spend more money on land in the second half than we have the first half. We did push back a number of land transactions in the second half of last year when the business slowed down. So we do expect land spend to accelerate. We feel very, very strong about our land position. As far as stock repurchase, we continue to look at that, what is the best use of our capital. As I mentioned, we did buyback $15 million of stock in the quarter. And in the last few quarters, we bought back 8% of the outstanding shares. So we will continue to balance all those things. We do not have any debt due as far as the public debt until 2028, and it's below 5%. So we'll still have some cash, and we'll continue to put that to the best use we can, Alex.

是的，我同意這一點，鮑勃。我們確實預計下半年在土地上的支出將比上半年更多。去年下半年，當業務放緩時，我們確實推遲了一些土地交易。因此，我們確實預計土地支出將會加速。我們對我們的土地地位感到非常非常堅定。就股票回購而言，我們繼續關注如何最好地利用我們的資金。正如我提到的，我們在本季度回購了 1500 萬美元的股票。在過去的幾個季度中，我們回購了 8% 的流通股。因此，我們將繼續平衡所有這些事情。就公共債務而言，我們在 2028 年之前沒有任何到期債務，而且低於 5%。所以我們仍然會有一些現金，我們將繼續盡可能地利用它，亞歷克斯。

Your next question comes from Jesse Lederman at Zelman & Associates.

您的下一個問題來自 Zelman & Associates 的 Jesse Lederman。

Congrats on a great quarter.

恭喜您度過了一個出色的季度。

Thanks, Jesse.

謝謝，傑西。

I remember last quarter, you talked about your expectations for closing through the year, not to necessarily follow the typical sequential increase through the year, and your second quarter closings were roughly flat from the first quarter. Can you talk a little bit more about like how you see that cadence trending through the balance of the year given the deviation or at least the stronger results in 2Q than at least we were expecting and maybe you were even expecting as well?

我記得上個季度，您談到了對全年收盤的預期，不一定遵循全年典型的連續增長，並且您第二季度的收盤與第一季度大致持平。您能否多談談您如何看待今年餘下時間的節奏趨勢，因為存在偏差，或者至少第二季度的結果比我們預期的要強，也許您甚至也預期？

Well, one thing I'd say that has, I think, helped our closings, and I suspect we'll continue to as we noted improvement in cycle time, and that varies by division. We have a number of divisions where we've improved our cycle time by more than 30 days year-over-year. Some have improved by 15 to 20 days. And we expect to continue to improve cycle time and hopefully get it back to those pre-COVID levels that we were seeing in the year 2019 and before, and that will certainly contribute to getting the homes in the field closed at a more rapid pace. Phil, do you want to add anything to that?

好吧，我想說的一件事有助於我們的關閉，而且我懷疑我們會繼續這樣做，因為我們注意到週期時間有所改善，而且這因部門而異。我們的許多部門的周期時間同比縮短了 30 天以上。有些已經改善了 15 至 20 天。我們預計將繼續縮短週期時間，並希望將其恢復到 2019 年及之前新冠疫情爆發前的水平，這肯定有助於以更快的速度關閉現場房屋。菲爾，你想補充什麼嗎？

Yes. As we disclosed, Jesse, we do have less houses in the field that may due than a year ago. We did start a lot of houses in the second quarter, and we're pleased with that. Also, about 50% of our business is specs and some of those houses do sell and close in the quarter. We were a little surprised, pleasantly. We closed more houses in the first quarter than we thought we would, and we had a similar good experience in the second quarter, closing more houses than we thought.

是的。正如我們所披露的，傑西，與一年前相比，我們在該領域可能到期的房屋確實減少了。我們確實在第二季度開工了很多房子，我們對此感到滿意。此外，我們約 50% 的業務是規格房，其中一些房屋確實在本季度出售並關閉。我們有點驚訝，也有點欣喜。我們在第一季度關閉的房屋比我們想像的要多，我們在第二季度也有類似的良好經歷，關閉的房屋比我們想像的要多。

But again, we're trying to get all the good quality, fully completed homes closed we can every quarter. But it is going to be a challenge for us to close these many houses in the second half as we did in the first half, but we're doing all we can.

但我們再次努力，每個季度盡可能關閉所有優質、完工的房屋。但要像上半年那樣在下半年關閉這麼多房子對我們來說將是一個挑戰，但我們正在盡我們所能。

That's helpful. And as you mentioned, was likely on last quarter's call, your land spend nearly doubled sequentially, but it's still a little bit below the run rate over the last couple of years and the percentage of communities that you're limiting sales that inched a little higher to 15% of communities from 10% last quarter. What do you need to see for that percentage to trend lower here? And is there a risk that, that moves meaningfully higher over the near term, at least until some of these recent deals end up being community openings?

這很有幫助。正如您提到的，在上個季度的電話會議上，您的土地支出可能連續增加近一倍，但仍略低於過去幾年的運行率，並且您限制銷售的社區百分比略有下降社區的比例從上季度的10% 上升至15%。您需要看到什麼才能使該百分比趨於下降？是否存在短期內大幅走高的風險，至少在最近的一些交易最終成為社區開放之前？

Jessie, could you sort of reclarify the question? I'm not sure I completely understood it.

傑西，你能重新澄清一下這個問題嗎？我不確定我是否完全理解了它。

Yes. Just recognizing that the percentage of communities that you had to limit sales and increase a little bit sequentially here, what are you -- is there any risk to that percentage of communities that you're limiting sales and increasing in the near term as you wait for these more recent land deals to filter through to community openings?

是的。只要認識到您必須限制銷售並按順序增加一點的社區百分比，您是什麼 - 在您等待時，您在短期內限制銷售和增加的社區百分比是否存在任何風險讓這些最近的土地交易滲透到社區空缺中？

Well, first of all, the reason that we're limiting sales where we are is simply to control the deliveries in a way that we think we can best manage. We don't want to get too far out over our skis so to speak. And in those communities where we are limiting sales, we're also getting very strong margins. And we just think that's the smartest way to run the business. The decision to limit sales has little, if anything, to do with new communities coming on. Phil, I don't know if you want to add anything to that. And I don't know if that answered...

好吧，首先，我們限制銷售的原因只是為了以我們認為可以最好管理的方式控制交付。可以這麼說，我們不想滑雪太遠。在我們限制銷售的那些社區中，我們也獲得了非常強勁的利潤。我們認為這是經營業務的最明智的方式。限制銷售的決定與新社區的出現幾乎沒有關係。菲爾，我不知道你是否想補充什麼。我不知道這是否能回答...

So every community is different, and it's a combination of the number of finished lots we have, the amount of times to get the houses built. When you like a price in to a customer today, you got to make sure you can get the houses built on a timely basis at the cost you have kind of locked up. So it's kind of good news when we are having to limit sales, that number kind of moves around every quarter based on what's going on in the local subdivisions, but that would be a really hard number to project. But again, I will say that the new stores we're opening which are a big part of our business last year and this year, we're very pleased with the way they are performing.

所以每個社區都是不同的，這是我們擁有的成品地塊數量和建造房屋的次數的組合。今天，當您想向客戶提供價格時，您必須確保能夠以鎖定的成本及時建造房屋。因此，當我們不得不限制銷售時，這是一個好消息，這個數字每個季度都會根據當地細分市場的情況而變化，但這將是一個非常難以預測的數字。但我要再說一遍，我們新開的商店是我們去年和今年業務的重要組成部分，我們對它們的表現非常滿意。

Great. I appreciate it. And just one last one. On the cost side of the business, you've mentioned costs are stabilizing. They've been relatively flat the last few quarters here, and you are seeing some cycle time improvements. But your ramp starts pretty significantly and the industry broadly is also trying to increase their share of speculative starts. What are your expectations for costs and even labor and material availability over the next couple of quarters? Do you expect to see any hiccups as it pertains to the supply chain just with the industry broadly ramping their starts base? Or have you been relatively insulated from that just because of your relatively larger size?

偉大的。我很感激。還有最後一張。在業務成本方面，您提到成本正在穩定。過去幾個季度的情況相對平穩，您會看到週期時間有所改善。但你的增長開始相當顯著，整個行業也在努力增加投機開始的份額。您對未來幾個季度的成本、甚至勞動力和材料可用性的預期是什麼？隨著該行業廣泛擴大其起步基礎，您是否預計會看到與供應鏈相關的任何問題？或者您是否因為體型相對較大而相對不受此影響？

Well, first of all, to know what's going to happen on the cost side is always a topic, but I feel really good about the supply chain issues throughout nearly every one of our markets and with regard to almost every part of our business. The one issue that continues to be concern, I think, for all the builders is on the land development side and the time it takes to get all of the approvals and the entitlements to bring deals to market. And even it's well documented, the issues that a lot of the builders, including us, have had in certain markets with getting all the utilities in place, particularly transformers. That continues to be somewhat of an issue. I think it's getting a little bit better. But I feel pretty good about the supply side of the business. And I think that we'll continue to see improvement in cycle time across all the parts of our business. And I think that the cost side, I don't see a lot of risk in big cost increases right now. Phil, do you have anything you want to add to that?

嗯，首先，了解成本方面會發生什麼始終是一個話題，但我對幾乎每個市場以及我們業務的幾乎每個部分的供應鏈問題感到非常滿意。我認為，所有建築商仍然關心的一個問題是土地開發方面，以及獲得所有批准和將交易推向市場的權利所需的時間。即使有詳細記錄，包括我們在內的許多建築商在某些市場上遇到的所有公用設施（尤其是變壓器）安裝問題。這仍然是一個問題。我認為情況正在好轉一些。但我對業務的供應方面感覺很好。我認為我們將繼續看到我們業務所有部分的周期時間得到改善。我認為，在成本方面，我目前認為成本大幅增加不會帶來太大風險。菲爾，你還有什麼要補充的嗎？

The only thing I will add is we do when we build houses and develop land, build in a certain contingency for cost. That could be 2%, that could be 5%. But we are hopeful, like Bob said, of not having anything significant rest of the year, but we'll continue to keep those contingency amounts in our cost.

我唯一要補充的是，當我們建造房屋和開發土地時，我們會在一定的成本條件下進行建造。可能是2%，也可能是5%。但正如鮑勃所說，我們希望今年剩餘時間不會發生任何重大事件，但我們將繼續將這些應急費用保留在我們的成本中。

Your next question comes from Jay McCanless at Wedbush.

您的下一個問題來自 Wedbush 的 Jay McCanless。

The first one I had, just wanted to get your take on this issue. We've heard from a couple of your competitors that they think gross margins at least in the back half of the '23 maybe a little bit softer just because they're finishing out the last of the closings for homes that they sold back in the fourth quarter '22 when there's a lot of price competition. Just wondering how you're feeling about gross margins for the back half of the year? And any commentary you could give around that?

我的第一個想法只是想了解您對這個問題的看法。我們從你們的幾個競爭對手那裡聽說，他們認為至少在 23 世紀後半段，毛利率可能會稍微疲軟一些，因為他們正在完成 20 世紀 20 年代售回的房屋的最後交房工作。 22 年第四季度，價格競爭非常激烈。只是想知道您對今年下半年的毛利率有何看法？您對此有何評論？

Jay, that's a hard estimate to give. As Bob said, our margins have been better the first 2 quarters than we thought. When you look at what's in our backlog, our backlog margins are relatively flat. Again, we're selling about 50% specs. We plan on opening more stores in the second half than we did the first. So that's kind of a hard number to come at. But I would answer it the same way Bob did, that we still think our margins will be good and respectable. It's just hard to pin down a number. We have a lot of emphasis and focus on margins because it's so important to us. So we'll continue to do all we can to keep those margins as strong as we can. It's just really hard to estimate what they'll be.

傑伊，這是一個很難給出的估計。正如鮑勃所說，我們前兩個季度的利潤率比我們想像的要好。當你查看我們的積壓訂單時，會發現我們的積壓利潤率相對持平。同樣，我們銷售的規格約為 50%。我們計劃下半年開設比上半年更多的商店。所以這是一個很難得到的數字。但我會像鮑勃一樣回答這個問題，我們仍然認為我們的利潤率將是良好且可觀的。很難確定一個數字。我們非常重視利潤率，因為它對我們來說非常重要。因此，我們將繼續盡一切努力保持盡可能高的利潤率。很難估計它們會是什麼。

And then could you talk about pricing power or maybe how many communities on a percentage basis where you were able to raise price or cut back on incentives this quarter?

然後您能否談談定價能力，或者按百分比計算，本季度有多少社區能夠提高價格或削減激勵措施？

That's -- it's hard, Jay, to have that exact number. No. What we tend to do more than anything and every subvision is a little different is help people with an interest rate again, even though we have strong down payments, we are still in the payment business and buying the rate down a little bit is very effective to get those people's payment down. And even though rates have been a little bit sticky, it's still not that expensive to buy down rates, 30, 45, 60 days prior to closing. In general, the incentives have less than some. But again, every community is a little bit different. But I would say, in general, incentives have come off a little bit.

傑伊，很難得到這個確切的數字。不。我們最傾向於做的事情是再次幫助人們獲得利率，而且每個補貼都略有不同，即使我們有大量的首付，我們仍然從事支付業務，並且將利率稍微降低一點是可以的。非常有效地降低這些人的付款。儘管利率有點粘性，但在成交前 30 天、45 天、60 天購買降價仍然不那麼昂貴。總的來說，激勵措施還比較少一些。但同樣，每個社區都略有不同。但我想說，總的來說，激勵措施有所減弱。

And the only thing I'd add to that is obviously, we're in the time of the year where seasonally and typically falls off a little, we really haven't seen much of that. And while we're no longer in the spring selling season, the demand for the summer months has held up quite well, and there's nothing happening right now suggest that incentives are going to increase.

我唯一要補充的是，顯然，我們正處於一年中的季節性和典型下降的時期，我們真的沒有看到太多這樣的情況。雖然我們不再處於春季銷售季節，但夏季的需求保持得很好，而且目前沒有任何跡象表明激勵措施將會增加。

You actually stole my next question, Bob, I was going to ask if there's any commentary you could offer or offer up around July which I'll see month to date.

你實際上偷了我的下一個問題，鮑勃，我想問你是否可以提供任何評論或在七月左右提供，我將在本月至今看到。

I mean things are holding steady. Jay, you know as well as anyone, the inventory levels are at or near record lows somewhere between 50% and I don't know, maybe 75% of all the homeowners in this country are living in a home where their mortgage is maybe (inaudible) or lower, probably even lower than, 4 and likelihood that those homes are going to come to market anytime soon is not great. And as a result and that's out there, is largely buying new. And I think that's going to continue for quite some time. And I think that's very strong win for our industry, which is why I think others, in general, are producing much stronger results than anyone would have thought 8 months ago.

我的意思是事情保持穩定。 Jay，你和其他人一樣知道，庫存水平處於或接近歷史低點，大約在 50% 之間，我不知道，也許這個國家 75% 的房主都住在抵押貸款可能存在的房屋中（聽不清）或更低，甚至可能低於4，而且這些房屋很快上市的可能性並不大。結果就是，大部分都是購買新的。我認為這種情況將持續相當長一段時間。我認為這對我們的行業來說是一個非常強勁的勝利，這就是為什麼我認為其他人總體上正在產生比任何人 8 個月前想像的都要強得多的結果。

Jay, we're really excited about the opportunity we have with all the stores that we are opening. We're obviously focusing on sales pace that really matters. Of course, if you look at comparables last year in the second quarter, we sold 1,800; third quarter last year, we sold 1,300; in the fourth quarter last year, we sold 1,000. So our sales decreased significantly last year. We are trying to catch up as far as houses in the field. We did start a lot of houses in the second quarter. Bob talked about cycle time. Cycle time is improving. Our spec level is about the same it was a year ago. We do have a couple of hundred more finished specs than we did a year ago. We're obviously hoping to get the majority of those -- the big majority of those sold and closed the third quarter, that's the big swing item on our closing, how many of those finished specs and specs that are almost finished today that we can get closed? Can we get through the third quarter. And those are all the things that we're focused on.

傑伊，我們對我們正在開設的所有商店所擁有的機會感到非常興奮。顯然，我們關注的是真正重要的銷售速度。當然，如果你看看去年第二季度的可比情況，我們售出了 1,800 輛；去年第三季度，我們賣出了1,300輛；去年第四季度，我們賣出了1000台。所以去年我們的銷售額大幅下降。我們正努力追趕到田野裡的房子。我們確實在第二季度開工了很多房子。鮑勃談到了周期時間。週期時間正在改善。我們的規格水平與一年前大致相同。我們確實比一年前多了幾百個成品規格。我們顯然希望獲得其中的大部分——其中大部分已售出並在第三季度關閉，這是我們關閉時的重大搖擺項目，我們可以在今天完成的規格和即將完成的規格中找到多少關門了？能否熬過第三季度？這些都是我們關注的事情。

Great. And then the last one is kind of a 2-part question, I guess. Number one, maybe for people who are newer to the story, could you walk through the Smart Series and some of the pace and gross margin advantages Smart Series has versus your traditional product? And then also, as you think about the community openings you talked about, is there a path to getting Smart Series above 55% or getting to a bigger percentage with the openings you're going to do through the rest of this year and then through '24?

偉大的。我想最後一個問題是由兩部分組成的問題。第一，也許對於剛接觸這個故事的人來說，您能否介紹一下 Smart 系列以及 Smart 系列與傳統產品相比的一些速度和毛利率優勢？然後，當您考慮您談到的社區空缺時，是否有辦法使 Smart Series 超過 55%，或者在今年剩餘時間裡進行的空缺中獲得更大的比例，然後通過'24？

Well, the Smart Series has been a grand slam home run for our company. Just opened it in Tampa in 2016, grown to over half of our business. I think that the 55% or so of our business that it represents today, it may go up a little, but I think it will hover between 50% and 60% here for quite some time. It primarily caters to a first-time buyer. It's a very well-designed lineup of homes. It's a tight lineup. It's not a lot of opportunity for, I'd call nonstandard changes, the selection process is very efficient.

嗯，智能係列賽對我們公司來說是一個大滿貫本壘打。 2016 年剛剛在坦帕開業，現已發展到我們業務的一半以上。我認為它今天所代表的我們業務的 55% 左右可能會上升一點，但我認為它將在相當長一段時間內徘徊在 50% 到 60% 之間。它主要迎合首次購房者。這是一個精心設計的住宅陣容。這是一個很緊張的陣容。我稱之為非標準變更的機會並不多，選擇過程非常高效。

Smart Series buyers do not go through a design studio per se. They select their options off a predesigned menu, which gets homes from sale to start much quicker. And then once the home start because average square footage on a Smart Series home is probably around 2,000 square feet versus maybe 2,400 or 2,500 for the rest of our product line. We're able to build these homes quicker, this contributes to returns. And frankly, while we didn't expect that when we first designed it to sell for better margins in many, many of our Smart Series communities, our margins are better. And I think it's just because of the appeal and the quality of the product. And the other thing is we're getting better pace. So cycle time better, sale to start quicker, better pace, streamlined offerings, efficient way of running that part of our business. All of that has contributed to our top line and our bottom line.

智能係列買家本身並不經過設計工作室。他們從預先設計的菜單中選擇選項，這使得房屋的銷售和啟動速度更快。然後一旦房屋啟動，因為智能係列房屋的平均面積可能約為 2,000 平方英尺，而我們其他產品線的平均面積可能為 2,400 或 2,500 平方英尺。我們能夠更快地建造這些房屋，這有助於回報。坦率地說，雖然我們最初設計它時並沒有期望在許多智能係列社區中獲得更高的利潤，但我們的利潤卻更高。我認為這只是因為產品的吸引力和質量。另一件事是我們的步伐越來越快。因此，週期時間更短，銷售啟動更快，節奏更快，產品更精簡，我們這部分業務的運營方式更高效。所有這些都為我們的營收和利潤做出了貢獻。

Your next question comes from Carl Reichardt at BTIG.

您的下一個問題來自 BTIG 的 Carl Reichardt。

Nice to talk to you. Jay just stole the one I was going to ask on Smart Series. So I want to ask another sort of one bigger picture one. So no maturities until 2028. And -- but we're reasonably concentrated in some markets. As you look at the opportunity set over the next 5 years to grow the business, would we expect you to try to deepen share in existing markets? Or is new expansion to new markets on the table for you? And then how are you thinking about the acquisition environment right now of private is really what I'm focused on, but even in public. I'm just curious of your thoughts there.

很高興和你聊天。傑伊剛剛偷了我要在 Smart Series 上問的一個。所以我想問另一種更大的圖景。因此，直到 2028 年才到期。而且——但我們相當集中在一些市場。當您審視未來 5 年發展業務的機會時，我們是否希望您嘗試加深現有市場的份額？或者您是否正在考慮向新市場進行新的擴張？然後，您如何看待目前私人企業的收購環境，這確實是我關注的重點，但即使是在公共場合也是如此。我只是好奇你的想法。

Yes. No, good questions. First of all, we're just getting started in Nashville. We have a number of homes under construction, and we will be generating our first sales in that market this year. We're in Nashville to grow over the next several years to 300 to 500 homes a year. Nashville is going to be a big contributor to growth as we move on down the line here over the next couple of years. Likewise, in Fort Myers and Naples, we just got opened there within the last year. We've got several communities, and we expect to have a significant operation in Fort Myers, Naples as well. We're very bullish about that particular part of Florida and think it will be just as strong a contributor to M/I Homes as Tampa, Orlando and Sarasota have been.

是的。不，好問題。首先，我們在納什維爾才剛剛開始。我們有許多房屋正在建設中，今年我們將在該市場實現首次銷售。我們在納什維爾的住宅數量將在未來幾年內每年增加 300 至 500 套。隨著我們在未來幾年繼續前進，納什維爾將成為增長的重要貢獻者。同樣，在邁爾斯堡和那不勒斯，我們去年才剛剛在那裡開業。我們有幾個社區，我們預計在那不勒斯邁爾斯堡也有重要的業務。我們非常看好佛羅里達州的這一特定地區，並認為它將像坦帕、奧蘭多和薩拉索塔一樣為 M/I Homes 做出強有力的貢獻。

So in terms of expansion, we have a lot of work to do to get scale, and we're confident we'll be able to do so. A lot of work to get scale, both Nashville and Fort Myers, Naples. As far as additional expansion beyond that, no real plans at this point, but in 5 years, if we are in 17 markets today, I should say, in 5 years might we be in perhaps another one, 18 or maybe 19. I think it's possible. But I also think that we have the ability, and we've said this before, our current run rate is around 8,000 homes. Within the markets we're in, we think we can get to 12,000, 13,000, 14,000 homes and are poised to do so. And that is a very strong goal of our company.

因此，在擴張方面，我們還有很多工作要做才能擴大規模，而且我們有信心能夠做到這一點。無論是納什維爾還是那不勒斯的邁爾斯堡，為了擴大規模都需要做大量的工作。至於除此之外的額外擴張，目前還沒有真正的計劃，但在5 年內，如果我們今天進入17 個市場，我應該說，5 年後我們可能會進入另一個市場，18 個或可能19 個。我認為這是可能的。但我也認為我們有能力，我們之前也說過，我們目前的運行率是8000戶左右。在我們所處的市場中，我們認為我們可以覆蓋 12,000、13,000、14,000 套房屋，並且已經準備好這樣做。這是我們公司的一個非常堅定的目標。

As far as the acquisition side, small privates or what have you. It's possible, it's not something that we're laser-focused on. If an opportunity presented itself in a market that we're in or perhaps even a market that we're not, we always would look at it. But I think that in general, organic growth rather than acquisition, we've done both, had more success with organic very candidly. And we're really excited about the teams that we have on the field in both -- well, first of all, all of our markets, but in particular, in Nashville and Fort Myers and Naples. And that's very exciting for the company as we go forward.

至於收購方面，小私家或者什麼都有。這是有可能的，但這不是我們重點關注的事情。如果我們所在的市場甚至不在我們所在的市場中出現機會，我們總是會關注它。但我認為，總的來說，有機增長而不是收購，我們兩者都做到了，非常坦率地在有機增長方面取得了更多成功。我們對我們在這兩個市場上的團隊感到非常興奮——首先是我們所有的市場，但特別是納什維爾、邁爾斯堡和那不勒斯。隨著我們的前進，這對公司來說非常令人興奮。

Your next question comes from Alex Barron at HRC. Mr. Barron, your line is open. Did you have a question?

您的下一個問題來自 HRC 的 Alex Barron。巴倫先生，您的線路已接通。你有問題嗎？

Yes. Can you hear me?

是的。你能聽到我嗎？

Yes, we can.

我們可以。

Okay. Sorry about that. Another call was trying to intercept my question. Yes, I wanted to focus on the outside broker commissions. I think you mentioned they went up this quarter, and I guess as a percentage of revenues, it seems they were 5.3% versus 4.5% a year ago. Do you see this as just a temporary thing due to the slowdown that happened in the last -- at the end of 2022. In other words, is this percentage likely to trend back down? Or is this kind of a new normal for some reason?

好的。對於那個很抱歉。另一個電話試圖攔截我的問題。是的，我想關注外部經紀人佣金。我想你提到他們這個季度有所上升，我猜想佔收入的百分比是 5.3%，而一年前是 4.5%。您是否認為這只是暫時的事情，因為 2022 年底發生了經濟放緩？換句話說，這個百分比是否有可能回落？或者由於某種原因這種新常態？

Phil, you want to take that?

菲爾，你想接受這個嗎？

Alex, that's something we've worked very hard on the last few years. And we had some divisions that got outside broker rates down to 2%, 2.5%, especially with sales toughening the last -- half of last year and the first of this year being a little slow also. So some of those rates have gone back up in certain markets where we're kind of getting started up, like Bob mentioned, some of those realtor rates have moved up a little bit as far as percent of business. Very hard to predict what that's going to be. It is something we obviously focus on, it's a big item to us. But now we try to manage that just like we do all of our other expenses. We think we're doing a pretty good job on SG&A. Today, we have about 9% less people than we did a year ago. So we focus always on our cost structure, including all those items. Another thing, of course, is having 15% more stores that's driving the nonvariable selling up. So we'll continue to focus on all those things.

亞歷克斯，這是我們過去幾年非常努力的事情。我們的一些部門將外部經紀人費率降至 2%、2.5%，尤其是去年下半年和今年上半年的銷售形勢嚴峻。因此，在我們剛剛起步的某些市場，其中一些利率已經回升，就像鮑勃提到的那樣，其中一些房地產經紀人利率在業務百分比方面有所上升。很難預測那會是什麼。這顯然是我們關注的事情，對我們來說是一件大事。但現在我們嘗試像管理所有其他費用一樣管理這一點。我們認為我們在SG&A 方面做得非常好。今天，我們的人數比一年前減少了約 9%。因此，我們始終關注我們的成本結構，包括所有這些項目。當然，另一件事是商店數量增加了 15%，這推動了非變量銷售的增長。因此，我們將繼續關注所有這些事情。

Okay. Great. I guess on that same front, just wondering what percentage of your sales generally come from brokers? And also, what are you guys doing in terms of digital marketing efforts? Can you talk about that?

好的。偉大的。我想在同一方面，只是想知道您的銷售額通常來自經紀人的百分比是多少？另外，你們在數字營銷方面做了什麼？你能談談嗎？

Well, as far as the broker -- If you look at the broker commission the last few years, every market is a little different, but we've been in the 65% to 75% range.

好吧，就經紀人而言——如果你看看過去幾年的經紀人佣金，每個市場都有點不同，但我們一直在 65% 到 75% 的範圍內。

On the digital side, biggest part of our marketing, nothing even comes close (inaudible) area of emphasis for close to 4 years, 5 years now since that part of our business has changed so much. Everything that we can possibly do, maximize (inaudible) online (inaudible) search engine optimization and all the things associated with that, giant area focus in every one of our divisions. There are people exclusively dedicated to that. Significant percentage of all of our leads are all start online, very densely manage that online part of our business. It's as much a part of the blocking and tackling of our business as constructing a home is. Net marketing, online marketing, dual side of our business. That's a critical key part of our business. I can't emphasize it enough.

在數字方面，我們營銷的最大部分，自從我們業務的這一部分發生瞭如此大的變化以來，近 4 年、5 年來，沒有什麼可以接近（聽不清）的重點領域。我們所能做的一切，最大限度地（聽不清）在線（聽不清）搜索引擎優化以及與之相關的所有事情，都是我們每個部門的巨大關注點。有人專門致力於此。我們所有的銷售線索中有很大一部分都是從網上開始的，我們對在線業務進行了非常密集的管理。就像建造房屋一樣，它也是我們業務中的障礙和解決方案的一部分。網絡營銷，在線營銷，我們業務的雙面。這是我們業務的關鍵部分。我怎麼強調都不為過。

Yes. And I'm sure it's only getting more competitive. All right. Well, thanks again, and great job.

是的。我確信它只會變得更具競爭力。好的。嗯，再次感謝，幹得好。

Thanks.

謝謝。

There are no further questions on the phone line. So I will turn the conference back to Phil Creek for any closing remarks.

電話線上沒有進一步的問題。因此，我將把會議轉回菲爾·克里克（Phil Creek）發表閉幕詞。

Thank you very much for joining us. Look forward to talking to you next quarter.

非常感謝您加入我們。期待下個季度與您交談。

Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude your conference call for this morning. We would like to thank you all for participating, and ask you to please disconnect your lines.

女士們先生們，今天早上的電話會議到此結束。我們感謝大家的參與，並請您斷開線路。