Epcon Franchising signed seven new Franchise Builders this year, including five in the last month during COVID-19, by emphasizing the law of supply and demand.
“When demand goes down, Franchise Builders can negotiate,” said Jad Buckman, Business Development Director at Epcon Franchising, on everything from land prices to loan terms.
“This is a time when a great percentage of folks are operating from a place of fear and uncertainty. We’ve taken the tack that we’re going to find opportunities that weren’t there a month ago on the land and development side,” he said, adding there’s an advantage “when you’re the only one looking to go.”
“There’s also a lot of people trying to get out of projects and free up liquidity. Maybe a deal wouldn’t pencil before, but now it will.”
Even municipalities are more accessible than before in some cases. “Maybe it’d be six weeks before getting a meeting,” he said. “But now you can get on the agenda next week,” via Zoom.
Epcon is a real estate development and production home building franchise founded in 1996 to build so-called active adult housing developments, also known as 55 plus. Investment cost ranges from $887,000 to $1.2 million for a 32-unit project.
Epcon has built more than 400 communities and 30,000 homes across 30 states.
One of Epcon’s recent builders is “a new type of Franchise Builder for us,” a multi-family developer who owns 600 apartment units in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Signing with Epcon was a way to diversify assets, he said.
One key move for Epcon is a full-time land consultant, added to the corporate team two years ago. “He’s got 25 years in the development business,” Buckman said. “He’s got a tremendous number of relationships in the broker world.”