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Billionaire Brad Jacobs is rapidly forming a building materials juggernaut

ResiDay 2026 is on Friday, November 6th, in New York City. Our keynote speaker: billionaire Brad Jacobs, chairman and CEO of QXO. Few executives have a track record like Jacobs. Before founding QXO, he had already founded seven companies that all became billion- or multi-billion-dollar companies, including United Rentals, XPO, and GXO Logistics.

In the fall of 2023, right as I launched ResiClub, I heard Jacobs had picked his next target: the building products distribution industry. Given his record, I reached out right away to ask why he was coming into the building materials space, and how he planned to win it.

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“I’m going to build a large building products distributor… I’ve started seven companies that all became billion or multi-billion dollar companies… I want the advantage of size, economies of scale. I want to be able to lower costs.”

“There are $20 and $30 billion dollar players already. Builders FirstSource, you got Ferguson. Great companies, real fine companies. But I’m planning to do something larger than that.”

“Primarily through acquisitions [is how I plan to build it]. If you look at my background, the teams I’ve led have done 500 acquisitions. M&A [mergers and acquisitions] is a tool in my toolkit I’ve used quite a bit. I think there’s a lot of room for creative M&A in the building products distribution space. The market is highly fragmented. You have 7,000 distributors here in North America, and almost twice that 13,000 in Europe. Most of them are private.”

Jacobs believed that repair and remodeling would drive durable demand for building products, even with ups and downs in the housing cycle. He also wanted a business AI couldn't easily disrupt. “I think residential construction is not going to be replaced by a hologram,” Jacobs told ResiClub.

Three big deals, roughly $30 billion

Jacobs has since done exactly what he told ResiClub he would do. QXO has made three major acquisitions, totaling roughly $30 billion.

—> Beacon Roofing Supply (roofing). QXO agreed to buy Beacon Roofing Supply in March 2025 in an $11 billion deal, which closed in April 2025. Beacon, renamed QXO Building Products, gave QXO a major position in roofing and waterproofing distribution overnight.

—> Kodiak Building Partners (lumber). In February 2026, QXO agreed to acquire Kodiak, a distributor of lumber, trusses, and other building materials, for about $2.25 billion. That deal closed in April 2026.

—> TopBuild (insulation). In April 2026, QXO agreed to acquire TopBuild, the largest distributor and installer of insulation in North America, for approximately $17 billion. The deal closed in July 2026.

With TopBuild in hand, QXO says it is now No. 1 in insulation, No. 2 in roofing, No. 1 in waterproofing, and No. 1 or No. 2 in lumber and building materials in key geographies it serves.

Why Jacobs’ bet matters for homebuilding

For homebuilders, QXO is quickly becoming a supplier that's hard to ignore. Roofing, insulation, lumber, and trusses go into nearly every new single-family home, and QXO now sits near the top in each of those categories. That cuts both ways. Jacobs' pitch is that scale lowers costs through better purchasing power and efficiency. But as distribution consolidates, builders are negotiating with fewer, larger suppliers. How that plays out for pricing, service, and margins matters to every builder, big or small, at a time when many are already seeing margin compression. The TopBuild deal also added something new: installation. QXO no longer just sells insulation to builders and contractors; it also installs it. That moves QXO closer to the job site and deeper into the homebuilding process.

Home Depot and Lowe's scramble

Jacobs' entrance hasn't gone unnoticed by the biggest names in home improvement. Home Depot and Lowe's have each spent billions buying pro-focused distributors, going after the same contractors and builders QXO serves.

Home Depot bought SRS Distribution for about $18.25 billion in 2024. In 2025, it then went head-to-head with QXO for GMS, a drywall and interior products distributor. After QXO made an unsolicited $5 billion bid for GMS, Home Depot swooped in through SRS with a deal valued at about $5.5 billion including debt, and won. Wall Street credited QXO with exercising price discipline, as the company concentrated on other targets.

Lowe's bought Artisan Design Group for about $1.33 billion in 2025, then acquired Foundation Building Materials for roughly $8.8 billion.

All told, Home Depot and Lowe's spent roughly $27 billion on these deals, putting the big-box retailers in direct competition with specialty distributors. Much of that dealmaking happened after Jacobs showed up, and the Home Depot/GMS deal showed the retailers are willing to pay up to keep QXO from grabbing key assets.

What we'll ask Jacobs at ResiDay 2026

Nearly three years after our first conversation, Jacobs has moved from a plan to a building products giant. At ResiDay 2026, we'll pick up where we left off. Among the questions we plan to ask on stage:

—> What's next for QXO? After three big deals, is QXO now focused on integrating and paying down debt, or is another major acquisition on the table? Which product categories are still missing?

—> How does Jacobs view the housing market today? In 2023, Jacobs made a long-term bet on the need for more housing and an aging housing stock. With affordability still stretched and new construction under pressure, and decelerated immigration/household formation, has his view changed?

What’s his outlook for the remodeling space?

—> What does a bigger QXO mean for homebuilders? Will builders see lower or higher costs as QXO gains scale, and how does he think about pricing power in a consolidating industry? How does he see the competition? What's his read on Home Depot and Lowe's push into pro distribution, and who wins the battle for the contractor and builder customer?

—> Why installation? What did the TopBuild deal teach him about owning more of the job site, and could QXO push further into installation services?

—> Leadership advice for those building companies in the resi space?

Why this session matters: For anyone in residential homebuilding, building materials, or housing at large, this is a rare chance to hear directly from the person reshaping how building products get from manufacturers to job sites. The decisions Jacobs makes over the next few years could affect what builders pay for materials, which suppliers they work with, and how the entire building products supply chain is organized. Jacobs has built billion-dollar companies in equipment rental, logistics, and trucking by consolidating fragmented industries. He's now running that same playbook in housing, and we'll hear firsthand where he plans to take it.

Join us at ResiDay 2026

ResiDay 2026 is on Friday, November 6th, in New York City. It's our third year hosting ResiDay, and we'll bring together hundreds of homebuilders, developers, lenders, investors, and brokers shaping the future of residential real estate.

Early Bird II tickets ($299) last through the end of today before jumping up to $399 tomorrow. However, we’ve decided to go ahead and extend that deal until the end of day on Friday.

ResiClub PRO members should go here to find details on their discounted tickets.

If you have questions about ResiDay 2026, email: [email protected]

Lennar just posted its weakest third-quarter gross margin since 2009

Lennar—America's second-largest homebuilder—has been the most aggressive homebuilder this cycle in terms of making net effective price cuts to move product. Indeed, Lennar's average sales price is down 24.2% from its 2022 peak. ResiClub calculates that while mix shift (i.e. smaller builds plus a greater concentration in lower-priced markets) accounts for one-third of the decline in Lennar’s average sales price since 2022, affordability adjustments and net effective price cuts account for the other two-thirds. In addition to prioritizing pace over margin and having a large lot supply to move, Lennar also has a heavy presence in entry-level Sun Belt markets—a segment that has been particularly weak during the post–Pandemic Housing Boom cooling window. Lennar's gross margin came in at 15.8% in Q3 2026. While that's up slightly quarter-over-quarter again (it was 15.6% in Q2 2026 and 15.2% in Q1 2026), it's down year-over-year (17.5% in Q3 2025). However, Lennar CEO Stuart Miller says, "if anything, [housing has] gotten more difficult since we last spoke in June." Lennar's incentive rate is down to 12.0%, from its cycle high of 14.3% in Q3 2025, but the recent jump in long-term yields/mortgage rates could push its incentives rate back up.

While Lennar has seen its margins fall into the "historically weak" range, some higher-end homebuilders still have margins in the "historically normal" range, although even those builders have seen margin compression too.

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