In the first few months after Taylor Lyles came onboard as the new executive vice president of the Homebuilders Association (HBA) of Greenville, things seemed to be looking pretty good for him and the organization.

“We had one of our best home shows ever,” Lyles said. “That was in early March of 2020. The very next weekend, COVID hit.”

It would’ve made for uncertain waters to navigate no matter who held the top full-time leadership position in the HBA, but for Lyles that was doubly so. After all, he’d only been at the HBA for about a year when the former executive vice president, Michael Dey, announced he would be stepping back from the role, which Dey had held for 13 years. Lyles said he decided to toss his name in the hat “as almost a joke,” seeing as he was so new to the organization.

But that fresh perspective turned out to be an asset for an organization that was looking for a rebrand.

“I said to Michael right off the bat that I really appreciate the opportunity, but unless we’re going to change some stuff, I might not be the perfect person,” Lyles said. “But he was very supportive. He told me, ‘You’ve got free rein.’”

Greenville HBA — like all HBAs — has traditionally functioned as an advocacy group for those in the building industry, offering legal consultation, a network of support, education programs and marketing opportunities. While “lobbying” has long been viewed as a dirty word, the term isn’t far off from what the HBA offers. 

Let’s say there’s a proposed law or change in code that negatively impacts homebuilders, or one that is ineffective or counterproductive. A single homebuilder might not have the time or resources to push back against the legislation, but the HBA can serve as a representative organization that can serve on their behalf.

But with a full year leading the HBA now under his belt, Lyles has overseen what he refers to as a “remodeling” (pun very much intended) of the organization’s traditional makeup. In the literal sense, that includes remodeled office space, updated technology, updated membership packs, new decals and signs, and a brand new website.

But more broadly speaking, that remodel has come in the form of a shift in the HBA’s strategy.

With former executive vice president Dey now serving as vice president of government affairs, thereby continuing to spearhead the advocacy work that has traditionally been HBA’s bread and butter, Lyles has been better equipped to focus on membership outreach efforts.

So far, those efforts seem to be paying off. In a little more than a year, the HBA has added an unprecedented 40 new members, bringing total membership numbers up to 603. That puts Greenville at a close third behind Charleston’s HBA and Columbia’s version of an HBA, the Building Industry Association of Central South Carolina.

Meanwhile, the Greenville HBA is also set on repositioning its relationship with the general public, which has been the main goal of 2021 Board President Ben Mosely. Of the many previous board presidents, each of whom serve a designated one-year term, Mosely is just the second “associate member” to earn the role, meaning he is not a homebuilder himself, but rather the operations manager of The Heirloom Companies, a wood and ironworks manufacture.

“Homebuilders can be very focused on the development aspect of things, which is extremely important, but I’m coming at it from the perspective of ‘How does this look to the general public?’” Moseley said. 

The goal is to make the HBA the go-to resource for anyone in the community who is working on or building a home, a kind of Yellow Page for the home-building industry.

“We really vet our builders and put them through a relatively rigorous test,” Lyles said. “So when we get phone calls from people saying, ‘Hey, I’m moving to Greenville and I need a great builder,’ this is the list we send out.”

Growing on that through community events and increased outreach efforts, both Lyles and Moseley hope to leave the next generation of builders with an even stronger platform for success. 

“We want to be a true resource for the community — a resource for builders, developers, engineers, contractors — anybody,” Moseley said. “Our industry is thriving, and I think there’s a huge opportunity for growth in the coming years, especially here in Greenville.”

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