“We didn’t have a feel for where the market was going,” Maurice Hornblass says. “Now everyone is looking to buy notes. And we have a pulse on the market at this point – we can buy land and real estate at the right price.”

Another advantage is that HornRock is so new that it hadn’t had time or the opportunity to acquire property that’s depreciated to 40% of its prerecession value.

“That’s a major added bonus we have that our competition doesn’t – a clean balance sheet,” David Hornblass says. “Everything we buy is in today’s dollars. We’re old-school in our underwriting, but new-school in how we go about our business.”

Construction has commenced on the Central Valley sites, which will feature single-family homes in a new residential neighborhood named HighPointe at Woodbury Junction. But the brothers are not limiting themselves to residential projects.

“From multifamily rentals to townhomes for sale to retail, we run the gamut,” Maurice Hornblass says. “And because we’re the decisionmakers, there’s no red tape.”

Presently, HornRock is negotiating a number of transactions that are expected to be completed in 2012. However, they are limiting themselves to the Northeast.

“We have to be able to touch it,” David Hornblass adds.

What both stress is that the business is something for the long-term, a legacy the 30-something brothers plan to leave to their now-young children someday.

“We’re not forced to do anything,” Maurice Hornblass says. “We’re content in that we want to be here for the next 100 years.”