Brandon Elliott didn’t set out to sell his thriving homebuilding company. In fact, he had a long-term vision — to transform the enterprise into a billion-dollar technology-driven platform by 2030.

But when he realized the real bottleneck in housing affordability wasn’t the builder, but the trade base, he pivoted.

Now, with Elliott Homes in the capable hands of Meritage Homes — one of the nation's top public builders — Brandon is back in boot-straps build mode. This time, his startup, TradeWise, is taking aim at, arguably, the most stubborn choke point in residential construction: skilled trade efficiency.

We’ve got it backwards,” Elliott told The Builder’s Daily in an exclusive interview. “The affordability crisis isn’t a homebuilder problem—it’s a subcontractor problem. And if we don’t improve trade efficiency and quality, no amount of automation or design streamlining will solve the issue.”

A Vision That Started With a Failure

Elliott’s tech journey began the way many builder-led ventures do — with a pilot logistics system that fell flat.

Like a lot of builders, we tried to solve homebuilding with tech and failed miserably,” he admits. But the lessons were foundational. “We were focused on the wrong user—the builder—when the real inefficiencies lived with the trades.”

During the COVID-era boom, Elliott doubled down on simplification. He trimmed thousands of SKUs from his options list, standardized platforms, and abandoned over-engineered automation tools. Instead, he leaned into digitized processes that were scalable, predictable, and responsive.

I've never seen a builder with a strategy as aggressively pro-realtor, pro buyer agent as the Elliott Homes team,” comments Dave Rice, CEO of New Home Star, which works with the Elliott Homes sales juggernaut.

That clarity of focus helped Elliott Homes weather the storm, tighten margins, and grow. It also gave Brandon the space to rebuild his tech vision — from the contractor trade base up.

From Builder to Super-Trade

Enter TradeWise — Elliott’s new venture that combines boots-on-the-ground experience with logistics software and AI to optimize labor and material movement for residential construction jobs. The platform’s first focus: siding.

We’re going to be the siding trade—turnkey. And we’re going to use our tech to figure out the fastest, cheapest, most efficient way to get that siding installed, with minimal waste and zero backtracking,” Elliott says. “Think Uber—but for trades.”

Unlike other construction-tech players selling software to builders or GCs, Elliott is flipping the model. He’s building a vertically integrated trade company powered by its own proprietary tech stack.

We’re not building software for others to license—at least not now. The tech is our operating system. It runs our jobs, manages our labor, and constantly improves through real-world feedback.”

Rolling Out Like a Startup, Thinking Like Toyota

True to startup form, TradeWise is starting small — with a single trade, siding —and refining its system over 50 to 60 jobs before scaling. That rollout starts the coming weeks in April.

Drawing inspiration from Toyota’s “stop the line” philosophy, Elliott is embedding real-time issue resolution into the field process.

If there’s a hiccup on the job, we don’t wait for next week’s meeting. We pull everyone in, fix the issue, and make sure it never happens again,” he says. “The goal is not to just get the job done—it’s to make the system smarter with every job.”

Builder-Friendly, Worker-Focused

While TradeWise is laser-focused on serving production builders exclusively, its heart is with the workers.

Our mission is to give life-changing opportunity to hard-working construction workers through our proprietary technology,” Elliott says.

The TradeWise app will allow workers to choose their jobs, locations, and even plug in their household budgets to help guide income planning.

It’s autonomy and opportunity. If we can give them the tools to thrive, everyone wins—especially the builder and the buyer.”

The Meritage Match

Elliott describes the decision to sell Elliott Homes to Meritage not as an exit, but as a launchpad — for his team, his community, and his next act.

I wasn’t looking to sell,” he says. “But when you find a company that values culture, runs flexibly, and speaks your language, it’s the right move. Meritage was that company. They didn’t just take our land — they took on our team. And they’ve been incredible.”

Now a few months into the transition, Elliott is still helping out behind the scenes to make sure the handoff is smooth.

There’s too much potential in the land positions and the people to walk away. And I believe Meritage will grow this market in a big way.”

A Rising Tide for a Strained Industry

What makes Brandon Elliott’s story stand out is its grounded urgency. He’s not chasing buzzwords or building vaporware.

Brandon got to a point where he was running a home building company and spending most of his time with his tech team developing software that would enable and power his operation,” says New Home Star’s David Rice. “In time, he can come back out with this operating platform that's tech-enabled and drive efficiencies that you don’t find anywhere else."

He’s lived the pain points of residential construction — from sourcing trades to managing backorders to balancing margin with mission. And he’s betting the future of affordability on a simple premise: if you can make the trades more efficient, you can rebuild housing from the ground up.

My vision is to build the highest valued skilled trade network in the world,” he says. “And to start that, you need one job done right — again and again.”