HistoryMaker Homes Prioritized the Customer Before Chasing AI

Facing off against industry giants in the Texas market, 77-year-old private homebuilding firm HistoryMaker Homes realized that a low-cost provider strategy could no longer sustain its growth. According to HousingWire and The Builder’s Daily reporting by John McManus and Tyler Williams, the Fort Worth-based company pivoted away from a direct cost fight with massive public builders like D.R. Horton and Lennar, choosing instead to focus on customer obsession and a measured technology rollout.

What led to the technology pivot?

HistoryMaker Homes leadership recognized that past successes would not carry the business through its next quarter-century. As CEO Nelson Mitchell, President Zac Thompson, and Chief Digital Officer Ty Brewer guided the company past its 75th anniversary in 2023, leadership evaluated how the firm operated in a changing market.

Zac Thompson noted in HousingWire's reporting: “We realized if we wanted to make it to 100, what got us to 75 probably wouldn't get us to 100.”

Historically, HistoryMaker relied on affordable first-time-buyer housing. However, scale advantages increasingly favored large public competitors in Texas. Furthermore, the company was still closing homes using floor plans originally designed in the late 1990s as late as 2024. Zac Thompson explained the competitive reality to The Builder’s Daily: “There was no way that a regional private, family-owned home builder was going to duke it out with D.R. Horton and Lennar in the Texas market as a low-cost provider, so we pivoted.”

How did HistoryMaker build its tech stack?

Before jumping into artificial intelligence, HistoryMaker overhauled its foundational technology systems to move away from siloed assumptions toward a shared truth, as described by Ty Brewer. Previously, Zac Thompson joked that the company's entire technology footprint consisted of Microsoft and an ERP system used strictly for purchase orders and construction scheduling.

To modernize, the firm partnered with Higharc to roll out roughly 60 new floor plans over an 18-month period. Rather than attempting to build proprietary software from scratch, Zac Thompson emphasized a deliberate external partnership model. At a HousingWire AI Summit covered by The Builder’s Daily, Zac Thompson noted: “I can't go raise the capital to spend 2 million bucks this year on AI building my own proprietary tool. One of the strategic things that we identified is, we need to partner with technology firms that have raised the capital to do this really well.”

What is the current adoption stage for AI?

HistoryMaker is utilizing a crawl-walk-run strategy, reaching its walk phase by mid-2026. Zac Thompson described the gradual approach, stating they are in a learning and prototype mode rather than rushing into unproven tools.

Area of Focus	Technology Application	Strategic Objective
Design & Planning	Higharc partnership	Rolled out roughly 60 new floor plans over an 18-month period
Customer Experience	Website and community interactions, communication portals	Reduce buyer uncertainty to improve conversion rates
Future Operations	Land acquisition	Noted as a likely next area of focus for technology integration

Zac Thompson emphasized that navigating these changes during a housing market headwind requires continuous adaptation. “When you add a market headwind, like a — I think we're at a housing recession — it's one thing to do all of this when you have a 2021-2022 tailwind,” Zac Thompson told HousingWire. “Plane's off the ground. We can't jump out.”

What happens next for the builder?

Zac Thompson is scheduled to speak at the upcoming HousingWire Homebuilder Summit in Dallas, running from October 19–21, as part of the event's "Built for This" series. Company operations moving forward will continue to balance core homebuilding, commercial land development, build-to-rent, and financial services while expanding technology applications into new operational pillars.