DIVERSIFICATION KEEPS MERIDIAN HOMES ON A SOLID GROWTH PATH

Ryan Courech, principal and co-founder of Meridian Homes, entered the Central Florida homebuilding arena when the entire real estate market was getting crushed during the great recession.

Right after he completed his MBA at the Roy E. Crummer Graduate School of Business at Rollins College, he was downsized from his management job at a Fortune 50 telecommunications company. So, what next?

“I thought, man, home prices are unbelievably cheap. This is a huge opportunity,” recalls Courech, whose undergraduate degree from FSU is in finance and economics.

Homes were cheap for a reason. Many developers had halted their projects and foreclosure filings had spiked by more than 81 percent.

Together with Howard Axner, a family-friend-turned-business-partner, Courech bought a home for $30,000, fixed it up and flipped it for a nice profit. From there they moved on to buying real estate-owned properties (REOs) from banks and other lenders. The partners managed to flip about 50 homes before flipping began to fizzle.

Things changed when Courech purchased a property in Lake Mary that was essentially destroyed by fire, with only the slab remaining. It turned out to be a pivotal purchase that launched Meridian Homes into ground-up new construction.

That was about seven years ago when no one was building, says Courech, “We sold that house before the framing was even done, and we had a line of people wanting to buy it.”

In the meantime, Courech had become a licensed Certified Building Contractor, a Certified Distressed Property Expert and a Realtor — all of which were necessary to become a successful new-home builder. By any objective measure, it worked out well.

Today, Meridian Homes is a multifaceted company, building everything from high-end custom homes to more modest homes aimed at first-time buyers. The company also builds rental properties and homes for institutional investors.

Because the real estate market can be volatile, Courech believes it’s important to be diversified with many different options.

When it comes to design, Meridian Homes is best known for its contemporary/modern styles with square footage ranging from 3,220 to 4,200 under air. Prices in the last year or so have ranged from $489,000 to $1.4 million.

Courech admits that the less expensive homes, usually those sized at around 2,100 square feet, are now more difficult for builders to build. But they’re fun, he says, because they’re simple and the owners are so happy when they snap one up.

Although today’s builders are more environmentally conscious than ever before, new energy-efficient technology can easily escalate costs. Courech points out that Meridian Homes works closely with their vendors and tradespeople to find solutions that fit their clients’ budgets, lifestyles and needs.

“We have all options for our homebuyers if they want a really tight house with a low ACH (air changes per hour) or code minimum,” he says.

Over the years, the company has racked up multiple industry accolades, including a first-place award for Best Custom Home Priced from $499,000 to $574,000 from the Parade of Homes, sponsored by the Greater Orlando Builders Association in 2018.

More recently, in 2022, Meridian Homes won an Aurora Award from the Florida Home Builders Association and Southeast Building Conference for Best Custom Home Under 4,000

Square Feet. Both recent award-winners were built in Winter Park, where he lives with his wife, Sarah, and his son, Mac.

Courech has always been a hands-on kind of guy, working both the construction and business sides as the company grew. Recently the company hired two supervisors of construction to manage the day-to-day construction, which allows Courech more time to focus on developing new business.

Meridian Homes just opened a division in Palm Bay, where the company plans to build a slew of homes for a large institutional investor. It also has an exclusive opportunity to build in Vero Beach’s Grand Harbor. n

—Patricia Letakis