Are you finding it impossible to break into the housing market?
This month on the Exit Strategies Radio Show, we’re dedicated to a single, powerful topic: attainable housing, including the game-changing world of modular housing.
In this episode, we’re cutting through the noise and tackling the housing affordability crisis head-on. Join us as Corwyn sits down with Brian Hurd, Senior Vice President at Cardinal Financial. Brian leads Cardinal’s national builder division, working with builders and developers across all 50 states to create lending solutions that make homeownership a reality for more families. From manufactured and modular homes to innovative lending programs, Brian explains why attainable housing is the missing link in closing America’s 3.2 million housing unit shortfall.
This is Part 1 of our conversation with Brian, where we unpack the opportunities, challenges, and myths around manufactured housing—and why it may just be the future of generational wealth building.
Key Takeaways:
- 0:00 Passion behind attainable housing – Why solving the housing crisis takes vision, commitment, and a willingness to change perceptions.
- 0:19 The 3.2 million unit shortfall – What the numbers really say about America’s housing needs.
- 4:47 Cardinal Financial’s big bet – How they plan to become the nation’s leading manufactured home lender.
- 5:12 Attainable vs. affordable housing – Why the language matters when talking about ownership and opportunity.
- 8:17 From stigma to solutions – How modern manufactured homes break the old “mobile home” stereotype.
- 14:00 Financing made possible – Breaking down construction loans, credit requirements, and programs that open doors for more families.
- 16:01 The developer’s advantage – Why manufactured communities can deliver homes in months instead of years.
Connect with Brian:
- Website: www.cardinalfinancial.com/
- Email: brian.hurd@cardinalfinancial.com
Connect with Corwyn:
- Contact Number: 843-619-3005
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cmelette/
Shoutout to our Sponsor: Country Boy Homes
Do you remember your grandma’s front porch? You know that spot where stories were told, kisses were stolen, and sweet tea was always being sipped. Now imagine giving your family a place to make those same memories, but in a brand new, energy-efficient, and home that was built just for you. At Country Boy Homes, we help folks just like you find that forever feeling.
Whether it’s your first home, your next home, or your, we’re done with rent forever, like, seriously home, we specialize in affordable, durable, manufactured, and modular homes, the kind that make room for muddy boots, big dreams, and second helpings. Come see what coming home really feels like. Call 843-574-8979 today.
Country Boy Homes, Built to Last, Priced for You.
Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/corwyn-j-melette/support
BRIAN:
I think you have to have passion for it first and foremost. We’re being very honest. Nobody looks at manufactured housing going, that is the sexiest part of the real estate market, period. Nobody does that. I mean, come on, you can’t tell me anybody does. So you have to have some passion to kind of dig in that place. And you want to truly help people have that sense of homeownership. But if we’re looking at attainable housing being a massive issue, we’re 3.2 million units short, depending on which economists you want to talk to. Units of housing. Yes, the market’s a little slow. Yes, builder inventories are up. But we’re still have a massive shortfall, especially in markets like yours.
CORWYN:
Good morning. Good morning. Great morning, guys. Welcome to another fabulous episode of Exit Strategies Radio Show. Hey, I am your host, Corwyn J. Melette, broker and owner of Exit Realty Lowcountry Group in beautiful North Charleston, South Carolina. Hey, y’all know it. Let us say it together. Our mission here at this show is very simple. That is to empower our community through financial literacy and real estate education. Guys, we are legacy building. That is what we do. Got to give a quick shout out to those who listen from one end to the other. Y’all know my mom out there all the way back to Hollywood. What you know, no good. Those folks that listen to us, that tune in to catch us here. Thank you all so much. Got to give a shout out to the Lequeu family who tune in. Miss Carolyn, got to give a shout out to Pastor Vanderbilt and Senior. I’ll put that senior on that thing. That dude would back me up and his beautiful wife, Elder Evans. Guys, thank you all so much for tuning in and doing what you do. I am super excited about today’s show. Anytime I get to talk about something that is in my arena, that’s my jam. When you talk in my language and we are very, very, very blessed to have with us today. Someone who is going to help us as we define this episode, making home ownership attainable again. Now y’all know I like to talk to the money. We like to go to the source. We don’t like to go to hold on. We don’t want to ask nobody. There’s a song. I forgot the guy that sung it, but y’all all know it. Cause there’s been plenty of remakes over the years. And it is said, don’t Floyd originally sang that song. But yeah, there’s been a few other guys we have with us. None other than Brian Hurd. Now, Brian is he’s an SVP. Y’all know what that means. He’s a senior vice president guys with Cardinal Financial. He is the leader of the national home builder, the builder division for Cardinal Financial. So as we set the tone today, guys, this is a question for many families. The dream of home ownership feels out of reach, rising costs, scarce inventory and outdated systems have left too many people on the sidelines. But what if innovation in lending and building could bring that dream back? Turning home ownership into a real possibility, not just a wish. So today’s episode, guys, is about attainable housing, why it matters for building generational wealth. Our guest today, Brian Hurd, again, leads Cardinal Financial’s national builder division where he works with national home builders to design lending solutions. He’s a crafter, the creative of the loans that service people in this arena, in this space to meet the unique needs of new construction home buyers with over 15 years of experience and builder channels and mortgage leadership. Brian has become a trusted voice on affordable housing, on innovation and the trans shaping the future of home ownership. Brian, thank you so much for taking time out to be with us on the show today.
BRIAN:
Thank you for having me. Look, I’ve been looking forward to this for what, three, four weeks now, since we’ve been trying to get this thing going. Can’t say how pleased and excited I am to have this conversation, Corwyn. Thanks for having me.
CORWYN:
You’re quite welcome. Now, look, I am super excited, so I ain’t going to jump into questions. I want you to set that stage. Let’s build a stage that we’re going to perform on today, which is who you are and what it is that you do.
BRIAN:
Yeah, I appreciate that, Corwyn. So, yeah, as you mentioned, I run the national builder effort for Cardinal Financial. Traditionally, that means site built, the same stuff that we see, you walk down the street or drive down when you see a community full of two, 300 traditional site built homes. And that’s a big part of what we do, make no mistake. At Cardinal Financial, a huge, if not the biggest initiative we have as a lender is to be the largest manufactured home lender in the country. They say it again, the largest manufactured home lender in the country. And a lot of people say they want to play in that space, but we’ve decided to put, speaking of money, I want to sing that song every time you hear the word money. There you go. We do literally put the money where our mouth is. And that’s a big part of the focus. And let me say, I love that you said the word attainable because the buzzword around is affordable housing. That is really, really important. But what we’re talking about today specifically, because we’re talking about purchasing homes and giving the power of ownership to people that need it, that’s attainable. So really excited to be talking about that. And again, that could be Cardinal. We don’t just do manufactured. We do modular. We do tiny homes. We do one-offs. We do large-scale developments, which I’m really excited about. And then, of course, we do your regular site built as well. So yeah, and I get the privilege and fortune to be able to do that in all 50 beautiful states across this country.
CORWYN:
I tell them I’m very passionate about it. It’s about to get, look here, a real, really a holy field around here, man. I look at my hands and everything. I’m like, yeah, I see it. Let me set this so far. Our listeners, guys, we’ve had this conversation before. If you didn’t catch the episode where we talked about it, we’re going to get a little bit into it here as well because manufactured housing, I’m going to start there, is the original affordable housing. HUD came out with these rules and said, okay, well, look, the help with housing costs, this, if you meet this standard, then we’re going to secure this or back this loan with FHA financing. So again, the original HUD unit, if you will, as you operate within that space. So Brian, you guys, like you say, you focus on this or have a focus on the manufacture of modular home space. Why is it for you?
AD:
Let’s take a short break. Do you remember your grandma’s front porch? You know, that spot where stories were told, kisses were stolen, and sweet tea was always being sipped. Now imagine giving your family a place to make those same memories, but in a brand new, energy efficient, and home that was built just for you. At Country Boy Homes, we help folks just like you find that forever feeling. Whether it’s your first home, your next home, or you’re, we’re done with rent forever, like seriously home. We specialize in affordable and durable manufactured and modular homes, the kind that make room for muddy boots, big dreams, and second helpings. Come see what coming home really feels like. Call 843-574-8979 today. Country Boy Homes, built to last, priced for you.
BRIAN:
Yeah, I mean, I think that’s a really good question. And I’ll give a little personal story if I may digress a moment. I’ve been in the industry since about 2003. I’m the son of a custom home builder. I’ve been around the site built world all my life. And we’re talking three, four, 5,000 square foot homes. And I swept up a lot of houses, carried a lot of lumber back in the day when I was a kid growing up. I wasn’t really exposed to manufactured housing in the slightest. And I thought it was like everybody else. Hey, it’s a mobile home. It hasn’t even been called a mobile home since really the seventies, but that’s what everybody thinks. It’s a trailer home sitting there out in the sticks somewhere. It wasn’t until 2020, I still tell this story often, but my CFO at the time took me out to an event out in Louisville. They do a big manufactured show out there. Cora, that changed everything really for me because I started to look and go, look, this is not your grandmother’s manufactured home or mobile home, or whatever the heck you want to call it. These are first and foremost, they’re homes, but they’re beautifully built. And a lot of the same things you’ll see in regular homes, granite countertops, stainless steel appliances, all that kind of stuff. But you have to, it was my first real experience, touching, feeling, walking through all of that kind of stuff. And then I got to spend some time with the big guys, the Clayton’s and the champions and the Capco’s and Fannie and Freddie. And before COVID hit, housing affordability was the biggest issue facing housing, period. COVID just made it substantially worse. It just really opened my eyes. And I said, look, it’s not that I didn’t want to focus on the site built world anymore, but I started to really realize the true importance of it. And then again, spending time with Fannie and Freddie, how they were putting a lot of investment in it. Fast forward to about a year and a half ago when I started talking to Cardinal, it was really cool because it was something I was incredibly passionate about. And then Cardinal saw a real vision. And I think back to your original question, why? I think there’s two reasons. I think you have to have passion for it first and foremost. We’re being very honest. Nobody looks at manufactured housing going, that is the sexiest part of the real estate market, period. Nobody does that. I mean, come on, you can’t tell me anybody does. So you have to have some passion to kind of dig in that place. And you want to truly help people have that sense of homeownership. But if you look at it, I know you also like to talk about legacy and the financial aspect of it. If we’re looking at attainable housing being a massive issue, we’re 3.2 million units short, depending on which economists you want to talk to, units of housing. Yes, the market’s a little slow. Yes, builder inventories are up, but we’re still have a massive shortfall, especially in markets like yours. I mean, I think South Carolina and North Carolina respectively have been, I think 2000, was it 20 there or 24? You guys were the fastest growing state country. You guys need housing. We all do. So that is opportunity. And we know it’s not going anywhere anytime soon. Add in the fact that there’s trade shortages and supply shortages and all that. When you’re dealing with a product that is built in a factory, sometimes climate controlled, I’d rather swing a hammer and build a house at a climate controlled factory than a hot 110 degree Texas roof. So I think it’s kind of the perfect marriage of being socially conscious and being fiscally conscious, I guess is the best way to put it. It’s real opportunity. We look at it as, hey, that’s the space that we absolutely want to dominate at Cardinal.
CORWYN:
Brian, this is something for you, but it’s also something for our listeners. And for our listeners, this is probably mold about all of them. This is probably the first time they’ve ever heard this. So I’m not going to cue it up with a drum roll, but short version is, short answer or response is, Brian, I’m a licensed manufactured housing dealer in South Carolina. Are you really? I am. Wow. Yeah. So got the license for it. I’m a hit this, but I’m coming around on what we’re just talking about. But I did it. Like I told you earlier, man, affordable housing is my jam. Yeah. So I’m looking for options, trying to create spaces where people can attain housing. Yes. There’s so many people, man, that we service that we can’t find housing. It’s that missing middle. Yeah, exactly. And for those people, we’re like, oh my God, what are the options? So it finally drove me to, okay, this is a space that we need to be in. And as much as I tried to work with some others to say, hey, let’s do this. Everybody shut the door on.
BRIAN:
Everybody shut the door. So why is that? It’s a stigma thing. It’s an impression thing. And people look at it, they turn their nose up at it. They shrug their shoulders at it. But why?
CORWYN:
Exactly. So that led me to, okay, well look, we need to establish that division. So we have a division, Country Boy Homes, which is our manufactured modular home dealer piece. And we’re coming around in that space. So I’m loving this conversation because what you’re talking about is it defines, let me phrase that, it gives an option for those people that the market has been missing. So where do you see, like you niche products in manufactured housing and modular housing, you got a few extra steps in the process. So let’s talk about that because average consumer has no idea. They don’t think about it. What extra steps, what things do you run into or what things should people be mindful of in that process of taking, okay, I want to buy a manufactured or modular house. What do I need to know?
BRIAN:
That’s a really good question. There’s really two main aspects of it. If you look at what majority of the interest or the majority of the market is, and look, I think there’s probably what, about 103, 104,000 manufactured homes that were sold last year. So there’s quite a bit. Most of that is done at the retail dealer level, kind of like what you’re talking about. You might see it on the side of the freeway. You might see it in a showroom somewhere. You might see it in a lot somewhere. So the challenge is, you may have a piece of land already. You may still need your land, but it’s not as simple as just simply walking into your KBs and your Pultis and all that kind of stuff and saying, hey, I want that house and I want to close on my loan and I get my keys and move in. There is an extra step, but usually what that involves is, okay, if you own your land, then great. Then what we do is, you have to finance the actual vertical piece, which we call it the vertical, but it’s the construction piece. So we’re financing the purchase of the lot if you don’t have it, the purchase of the home from manufactured dealers like yourself, and then we finance the delivery, installation, anything from flat work, landscape, septic, all of that kind of stuff. And at the end of that, then you move in. So yes, it’s a little bit more involved. The problem is, is most people think construction loan and they freak out and they go, wait a minute, construction loan, it’s only for the affluent. Got to have perfect credit, have to have a ton of money put down. And this applies to site build as well, make no mistake, not just manufactured. That’s not the case. I mean, you mentioned FHA and whatnot. So at Cardinal, as low as 5% down on conventional, 3.5% FHA, 0% VA. That I love, because if you can tell a veteran, hey, you can build the house you want, put it on your piece of land, and you can use your entitlement for as little as zero down. And you don’t have to have perfect credit. I’m talking credit scores as low as 580 potentially. So that’s one method. That’s the traditional method. Now, where this stuff gets really exciting is, look, if we’re going to solve a $3.2 million housing deficit, especially with what you and I both, I love that you call it attainable housing. We need to do it at scale. How do we do that? That’s when we start building developments and communities. And that might be 20 units. That might be 50. See, I knew I was excited about this for a reason. You know, it might be 150. It might be, but whatever size it is, that’s where it gets cool because developer comes in or even traditional builders we’re seeing getting over into this space and saying, hey, manufactured house or my regular site built takes seven, eight, nine, 10 months. And y’all have some crazy permitting processes in the Carolina. So it’s probably a little bit more than that in some cases, but it takes a long time. If I’m a developer and I got a hundred lots, who’s going to get me through that quicker? The guy that’s building seven, eight, nine, 10 month homes or guy like you and your, one of your companies where you can come in and you can deliver a product. Let me ask me, I answer a question of the question. If a client comes into your dealership and says, hey, I want to sign a contract today. How long does it typically take to have that home delivered and installed?
CORWYN:
Well, it depends obviously inventory. I mean, that could be delivered in 30 days or less potentially if it’s inventory, but outside of that three months, roughly not three months.
BRIAN:
How attractive now, you know, and that is kind of sexy. You know, if you look at it and you go, hey, if I’m a developer three months versus nine to 12. So, you know, if we’re creating communities with manufactured modular product, that’s when it gets really exciting because then it is very similar. Then a client walks in and the way most of the developments are anyway, client walks in, the house is already installed. You might even have model centers and spec homes, just like your regular site built guys come in. And then that’s when even more financing options come up like down payment assistance. And we had a program called Cardinal Elite that does a really good job kind of like, you know, it allows clients as little zero down, even if it’s not USDA eligible. But the point is, yeah, there’s and that’s growing. That represents a very small portion of how manufactured homes are being sold right now. It’s growing. We’ve got a lot of projects that Cardinal is working on all across the country. I mean, you and I need to talk about that because we don’t have any in South Carolina yet. We need to.
CORWYN:
So, yeah. That’s definitely a conversation to carry forward. So, Brian, I’m going to sprinkle this one in here too because I’m a solutions based person. When I see a problem, I seek out a solution. And if I can’t find a solution that works, then I work to create one, right? So, I participated earlier this year in a real estate development cohort to kind of accompany everything, right? So, that piece. So, what you’re talking about right now is my animal because there’s a tremendous opportunity to, again, affect impact that, if you will, that missing middle by establishing subdivisions or developments that are manufactured modular. I’ll take you back early in my career. Matter of fact, very beginning of my career, shout out to Brian Whitsitt, but my mentor at the time was representing a gentleman who built a small development here in North Charleston area. And it’s really a cul-de-sac. And you go in there and, you know, it’s houses, but it’s all modular. And I mean, he completed this entire development. I think they put maybe about 20 homes in or so, literally in a cul-de-sac. And I mean, this neatly put together quality product. And it was an entry-level, some slightly above entry-level product for the area when he did it all those years ago. But you go by there and, I mean, if you didn’t know they were modular, you wouldn’t know they were modular. Look, feel, everything just like a site-built home. But people have this spin on. So you guys with what you’re doing, you’re really reshaping, you’re impacting attainability by reshaping affordability. Does that sound about right?
BRIAN:
Yeah, it does. And I actually like that. And, you know, and I think that comes with creating really powerful coalitions of like-minded individuals in different aspects of the real estate industry that are passionate about it. That means your Clayton’s and your Champion Homes have been really good partners with us. Companies like Next Steps out of Kentucky that you need to meet. They’d be a great guest to have on your show. But they talk about financial literacy and they’re kind of the conduit between developers and manufacturers and lenders. They really preach home ownership and all of that kind of stuff. And then really starting to bring in developers. And how do we bring product that we know is already substantially less per square foot on average than site-built, but how do we bring it to the market at scale? We know that majority of that 104, whatever thousand homes it is, is going to be sold at the retail level. But you get companies like Clayton, they want that number. They might be doing less than 10% of these community developments now. They want that number to be close to 50%. Probably shouldn’t quote numbers for them, but that’s a huge focal point of a lot of the big guys. Now the cool thing is we’re getting a lot of developers coming to us and saying, hey, we see what you guys are doing in California. Or Colorado or Utah, whatever. How do we do that? And I think that having the ability to bring these people together and say, hey, you know what? We can put 150 unit community on there. We can do it with manufactured module. And look, like you said it beautifully the first time, it’s a home. Can’t tell the difference. Modularly, especially, but even manufactured like the cross mods that a lot of these, the big guys are building now, you can’t tell. I mean, front porches, garages, dormers, there’s community centers and hike and bike trails. And I mean, you can’t tell.
CORWYN:
It’s a home. No. And again, it serves the purpose and the need, which is quality, attainable housing. It meets that need for people that otherwise can’t get there. I mean, in our market, if our listeners are listening to Charleston market, entry-level house in the Charleston market at 12 to 14, 1500 square feet, depending upon part of town. But your entry level, if you were to encompass the entire area, you’re typically looking at about mid 300s for a 12 to 1300 square foot home. Now you flip this up to modular manufactured of manufacture. Let’s start there. That same price point in our market, you’re getting a home almost twice as large. So if you have a larger family, you’re going to gain more options. And on the modular component, you’re going to be kind of somewhere in the middle. But nonetheless, you still can get more value, if you will, by pursuing these options. And they have to meet COLE.
BRIAN:
Especially cross mods. And I saw you shaking your head. You know what those look like. I mean, those are beautiful. I mean, they’re beautiful homes. And a lot of people, again, they just think they’ve got flat roofs and all that. And that’s a big part of what Fannie and Freddie did as they came out with their guidelines. These have a roof pitch that’s very similar to site build. And it’s cool how they do it. I mean, it’s kind of like a transform, but they deliver it. And then they bring it on site and then fold up the roof. And it’s amazing how good this product looks. I know you had a woman on that does, I think, rental properties exclusively for manufactured. Cardinal Financial, we focus on land, home, 100%. And predominantly purchase transactions or construction loans. So permanently affixed on foundations. Again, it kind of, people have that stigma. It’s sitting on cinder blocks out in the weeds somewhere. That’s not what this is. I mean, it’s just not. But I’ve sat in enough city council meetings to know that to change the hearts and minds, you’re not going to be able to see it on a showroom floor. You’re not going to be able to see it in a parking lot sitting on cinder block. You got to go out there into the field and see these things. And I know Champion did a really cool community and I think it was Asheville. It’s your neighborhood north. This stuff is really, really cool. It’s just about changing the perceptions. And then from the client perspective, kind of going back to what you said, how do we make this easier? How do we make financing a purchase of land, manufactured home, and then everything else easy? You know, and again, it’s a marriage of different things. I mean, we have a proprietary LOS that we have that automates the entire process. I mean, it’s really fascinating how much of the loan process is done by AI and technology. I mean, that’s really cool. You know, to the point where you’re talking stuff that took hours, days, and months is being done in seconds and minutes. And to the point where, how do we get to the point where throw a loan in the system on a Friday morning? By the afternoon, you got to clear to close pending appraisal. And I’m not saying we’re there yet. It’s getting very, very, very close. I think Nick Flores, our CEO is probably like, yeah, you probably shouldn’t have said that yet. But it’s so exciting, I can’t help it. And that stuff’s really cool. But what does that do? I mean, that helps reduce the amount of people. I mean, you know how inefficient the mortgage process can be. How many different people have to touch a file? And again, and again, and again. So we can eliminate the amount of unique, different touches on a file. What does that do? That helps us make the process way quicker, way more efficient, less expensive. That transfers to a much more aggressive rate for buyers. And it helps those people get into homes. If the median price is what? Like 440, 450,000, something like that. 75% of the population can’t afford that. That’s nuts. Okay, so how do we all work together to change that? We can’t change rates. They are what they are. We don’t have a crystal ball. But what we can do is make that process as quick and simple as possible. Educate the buyer that look, yes, rates are a little bit higher, but you’ve got a product that per square foot is less. It absolutely, and again, I know you talk a lot about generational wealth. I’ve been watching your shows. The other thing I see is that people go, oh, well, manufactured. It’s not the same value. Well, it is. I mean, if you’re talking the appreciation values, and look this up this morning, I can’t remember now, but it was, I mean, we’re talking within a less than 1% difference in appreciation between manufactured and site built. You know, we’re talking, you know, what permanently affixed, lower cost. You know, at Cardinal, we’ve done our best to make that process as quick and simple in a very flexible credit box. And you’ve got a house that will appreciate whether it’s something you want to be in five years or 10 years or 20 years and 30 years.
SPEAKER 3:
That’s a wrap on the first half of Corwyn’s conversation with Brian Hurd. What a phenomenal discussion about the future of housing. In part two, Brian and Corwyn will dive even deeper into the trends shaping the industry, including his take on the future of tiny homes and the surprising financing options available to homeowners and investors alike. Don’t miss it. Be sure to tune in for our next episode of Exit Strategies Radio Show.
