Thomas Reaves

Residential construction operations leader with 20+ years across custom and production homebuilding, field leadership, purchasing, estimating, land development, general contracting, and real estate. Proven record directing 6-8 concurrent high-value custom homes, producing 25-50 homes annually, managing purchasing for approximately 150 homes per year, and leading development of roughly 120 residential lots. Known for bridging ownership, office, field, clients, vendors, and trade partners; building reliable controls; and using practical technology to improve visibility, handoffs, and execution.

President of Construction at Canaan Builders (2026-02 – 2026-07)

Joined an established residential builder during a period of significant operational disruption to support completion of active homes and preserve field continuity.

• Supported completion of in-progress homes by resolving field obstacles and coordinating immediate construction priorities.
• Maintained critical subcontractor and vendor relationships during a compressed and difficult transition period.
• Stepped into field execution when needed to protect schedules, commitments, and quality.

Director of Operations at Firm Foundation Custom Homes (2025-05 – 2026-02)

Directed operations across 6-8 concurrent fully custom homes, typically 3,500-4,500 square feet, $1.2M-$1.7M in construction cost, and five- to seven-month build cycles.

• Assigned projects and led three to four superintendents, providing field coaching, schedule accountability, trade-partner support, performance evaluations, and input on staffing decisions.
• Held weekly production meetings to identify schedule, subcontractor, vendor, and material risks early and secure solutions before they affected the jobsite.
• Translated client selections and design changes into complete trade scopes, obtained pricing, and maintained signed change orders with cumulative cost summaries.
• Converted generic subcontractor agreements into trade-specific scopes defining responsibilities, completion standards, and change-order boundaries.
• Used AutoCAD, project budgets, and AI-assisted visualizations to improve constructability coordination, purchasing decisions, and client understanding.

Real Estate Professional / Broker at Tennessee Real Estate Brokerage (2019-01 – Present)

Licensed as a Tennessee real estate agent in 2019 and as a broker in 2022; advise residential buyers, sellers, investors, and builders on property condition, renovation feasibility, and new-construction decisions.

• Co-owned and served as Principal Broker for Impact Realty's Columbia office, overseeing agent supervision, recruiting, contracts, compliance, continuing education, internal training, and issue resolution.
• Advised investors on property selection, after-repair value, renovation scope, construction budgets, trade-partner resources, resale, and lease-up.

Managing Member / Co-Owner at RS&S Properties (2015-03 – 2021-03)

Co-owned and operated a residential investment portfolio that grew from approximately 40 to 93 rental units through acquisitions, renovations, and ground-up construction.

• Directed acquisition, renovation, lease-up, maintenance, turnovers, collections, accounting, banking, insurance, taxes, and day-to-day operations.
• Expanded primarily through value-add acquisitions and added approximately 10 ground-up build-to-rent homes.
• Managed four full-time employees and coordinated vendors and subcontractors across the portfolio.

Owner / General Contractor at Reaves Homes (2015-01 – 2019-05)

Owned and operated a residential construction company producing 25-50 homes annually, including speculative, presold, custom, and build-to-rent homes.

• Managed the full homebuilding operation: land acquisition, financing, investor reporting, estimating, budgeting, purchasing, scheduling, trade management, sales coordination, inspections, closing, and warranty.
• Led three approximately 40-lot single-family developments - roughly 120 lots total - from acquisition, engineering, entitlement, and financing through horizontal construction.
• Built out two communities with a mix of speculative and presold homes and sold the third to another builder as a fully pad-ready development.
• Used internal sales results and local market data to guide plans, square footage, price points, product mix, and timing of new starts.
• Managed construction financing through budgets, loan starts, draw requests, lender documentation, title-company coordination, interest payments, and payoff at closing.

Purchasing Manager / AutoCAD Plan Designer at Celebration Homes (2013-01 – 2013-12)

Managed purchasing and trade-partner coordination supporting approximately 150 homes annually.

• Negotiated pricing, scopes, and terms across approximately 90 vendors and 60 subcontractors while maintaining primary and secondary sources for capacity and continuity.
• Built a centralized Excel- and Dropbox-based purchase-order and cost-control system that aligned scope, pricing, revisions, invoice verification, and change-order approval.
• Led the company-wide rollout of Buildertrend, training nine superintendents and coordinating adoption with vendors and subcontractors.
• Designed repeatable bid-request workflows for nonstandard selections and established an annual competitive-review process for each trade.

Field Project Manager / Estimating & Purchasing at E. Miles Custom Homes (2014-01 – 2014-12)

Assumed full field, client, schedule, purchasing, budget, inspection, change-order, and draw responsibility for one to two high-detail custom homes during an unexpected leadership and staffing disruption.

Construction Estimator at Chancel HRT (2012-01 – 2012-12)

Prepared whole-house estimates, budgets, local trade pricing, and scheduling support for the Tennessee division of a regional homebuilder.

Operations Manager / Plant Manager at Job Site Recycling of TN (2009-01 – 2011-12)

Managed plant workflow, container dispatch, driver scheduling, equipment maintenance, receivables, customer service, material sales, and business development; maintained LEED diversion documentation for the Music City Center project.

Structural Estimator / Engineered Wood Products Designer at Stewart Lumber (2005-01 – 2007-12)

Estimated and designed residential roof trusses, floor systems, engineered lumber, beams, headers, and framing packages; evaluated spans, bearing points, loads, cantilevers, constructability, and field conditions.