People often ask me what I get out of coming to industry trade shows like the International Builders' Show. Is it the show floor? Is it the educational programming? Is it the awards events like Nationals or Hearthstone? As much as those elements are wonderful parts of a show--and most often the reasons why other people come to these big industry events--it's not what brings me here. I'm here because of the people.

Shows like IBS offer me an opportunity to both meet new people and reconnect with familiar faces. Six days in Vegas means not only can I spend a lot of time with local industry sources, drilling down into the dynamics of the local market, seeing what's selling, and identifying new trends, but I also can hear from people from all over the country to get a sense of what overarching opportunities and issues the Big Builder audience sees. In my business, that's priceless.

One of the things that always strikes me as I'm spending pretty much every waking hour listening to both public and private builders talk about what's good and bad in their local markets is just how diverse the private builder universe is.

There's always the temptation to look at the industry as a dichotomy with public builders on one side and private builders on the other. And yes, there are some industry fundamentals that make it easy to lump private builders together vis-à-vis the publics. Access to capital is a common problem for private builders. It's just plain harder to get secure funding for private builders. And what capital to be had has real costs for private builders. Balance sheets are more highly leveraged, and personal guarantees are pretty much standard issue.

But for as widespread capital concerns are among the privates, how they are playing out for the group of them is extremely varied.

Take for example a young, fast-growing Texas-based private builder. This company's leadership has been desperately scouring the market for funding to grow. They've tapped hard into a strong stream of demand for their product but find their capacity hobbled by the caps on their credit lines.

Compare that to the new Phoenix start-up that's backed by private equity--and I'm not talking small friends and family funds pieced together to take down one parcel at a time. I'm talking some significant dollars, dollars that will allow this little company--its leadership isn't even working out of a corporate office yet--to be catapulted into the big builder ranks in record time.

That story sounds nothing like the one I heard from a Vegas builder who's spent the last year battling through bankruptcy. The balance sheet has been recapitalized, but there's question of whether in working through the reorganization process if the company missed its window to reload its land supply, something that could make rebuilding its brand all the more difficult during the recovery.

Still different is the Kentucky-based builder who needs to figure out how he can shave another 12 to 14 days off his cycle time; if he can get under 58 days, he says he won't even need to borrow any money to fund his operations.

For all these builders, the topic du jour is capital, but the issues are very distinct.

And so this is what I take away from IBS as I pack up my bags and head to the airport. I walk away with a lot of perspective. For all the focus on the big trends, each builder is dealing with its own individual set of issues. And each distinct challenge requires a builder-specific solution. And for me, that realization is reassurance that there are always a million great stories to tell. Now, it's getting to them all.