Problems at Dream Finders Homes (DFH)

Based on Hunterbrook Media’s reporting, at the time of publication Hunterbrook Capital is short $MRP, short $LEN, and long a basket of comparable securities. Positions may change at any time. This article is not investment advice or any recommendation. See full disclosures below.

There is a reason one of the best finance movies in history is named Margin Call:

Margin calls are fascinating.

And many of The Bear Cave’s favorite stories start with a CEO borrowing against their own stock. Because that can kick off a vicious cycle.

If the stock price falls, the lender can ask for more collateral or cash to secure the loan. If the CEO has to sell shares to meet that demand, the selling can push the stock price lower and bring another demand for collateral. A personal loan can become the company’s problem.

Perhaps the most famous example is when Hindenburg Research flagged the margin loans underneath Carl Icahn’s empire. Within about three months of that investigation, Icahn Enterprises had lost about half its market value and halved its payout, and Icahn had renegotiated his personal loans so they no longer hinged on the stock price.

The next year, Hunterbrook Media, which owns The Bear Cave, reported on how Mat Ishbia borrowed against his United Wholesale Mortgage ($UWMC) shares to help buy the Phoenix Suns. This summer, after big losses on interest-rate derivatives, UWM suspended its dividend and took a rescue deal from Oaktree.

Now meet Patrick Zalupski.

Zalupski is the founder, CEO, and controlling shareholder of Dream Finders Homes ($DFH), a homebuilder based in Jacksonville, Florida. Founded in December 2008, amid the housing crisis, it went public in 2021.

Four years later, in September 2025, a group led by Zalupski closed on its purchase of the Tampa Bay Rays, at a reported valuation of $1.7 billion. Zalupski is the team’s control person and co-chair.

Then he went shopping again. In August 2026, Dream Finders agreed to buy Beazer Homes ($BZH), an Atlanta-based rival, for $33.50 a share in cash, or about $2.2 billion including debt. The deal appeared to be an attempt to capitalize on the housing downturn.

Just hours ago, at 8:00am ET, Beazer shareholders voted to approve the transaction.

Both purchases run on borrowed money.

Personally, Zalupski has pledged 35.5 million of his roughly 59 million Dream Finders shares as collateral for margin loans, and another 4 million to secure prepaid forward sale contracts (which provide cash up front against a future sale of shares), according to company filings. Across margin loans and forward sale contracts, about two-thirds of Zalupski’s stake is spoken for.

The number of shares pledged for margin loans has doubled since just before the Rays purchase.

At the stock price the week the Rays deal closed, those 35.5 million shares would have been worth about $940 million. At Wednesday’s close of $7.42, they were worth about $263 million. The number of shares pledged as collateral does not reveal how much was actually borrowed.

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The company has levered up, too. To fund the Beazer acquisition, Dream Finders lined up a $900 million bridge loan commitment from Bank of America and Goldman Sachs, and is selling preferred stock, equity that sits ahead of common stock, that pays 12% a year.

For now, the two piles of debt (Zalupski’s personal debt and the Dream Finders corporate debt) seem to be independent — but they may not stay that way.

Under the terms of the new preferred shares, if Zalupski’s stake in Dream Finders falls below 50%, by votes or by ownership, the preferred stock holders can demand to be paid out in cash.

In other words, a significant sale of Dream Finders stock by Zalupski (whether voluntary or forced) could create a large cash demand for the company.

And Dream Finders isn’t the only one borrowing to get the Beazer deal done.

Earlier this month, Millrose Properties ($MRP) — the subject of recent Hunterbrook reporting — priced $1 billion of bonds and said it would draw another $500 million on a term loan. It said the money may go toward buying homesites from the combined Dream Finders and Beazer, and toward paying down its own credit line.

Meanwhile, Kennedy Lewis, the investment firm whose affiliate manages Millrose, committed to buy $450 million of Dream Finders’ new preferred stock. Once again, the firm paid to manage Millrose is on both sides of a deal. To protect its Dream Finders preferred stock, Kennedy Lewis could push Millrose to buy additional land, extend deadlines, or accept lower payments in ways that benefit Dream Finders.

Asked for comment, Millrose did not reply.

Whether that’s a smart bet for Millrose depends on financing details that have not yet been made public.

That’s because, until now, Dream Finders and Beazer had reported as two separate companies.

That is about to change. The deal is set to close as soon as Tuesday, October 20. Then Dream Finders and Beazer become one company with one pile of debt. Filings tied to the closing should show how Dream Finders paid.

What’s already public isn’t comforting.

At the end of June, the two builders owed about $3.2 billion between them. Both were burning cash. In August, Dream Finders said it might replace its short-term bridge loan with permanent financing, such as bonds, before closing. But it hasn’t announced a bond sale yet. Instead, last Friday, it got its banks to add $220 million to its credit line.

And much of that debt comes due soon. About $300 million of Dream Finders’ credit line expires in June 2027. In August 2028, $300 million of its bonds and the bulk of the credit lines come due.

The Bear Cave believes the combined company could struggle to meet those deadlines.

If it struggles to repay or refinance that debt, the pressure could land on Millrose. A builder short on cash can walk away from land it has optioned, leaving the land bank holding it. If Dream Finders is forced to walk, Millrose could be left holding the bag.

In the meantime, Zalupski is in a pickle. While his team battles for the American League pennant, his personal finances are tied to a homebuilder preparing to take on more debt.

And The Bear Cave’s reporting can exclusively reveal who appears to be on the other side of Zalupski’s margin loan.

The answer isn’t a bank! It’s an individual with a household name and the power to do more, as it were, than one might think.

Also for paid readers: The homes, plane, and other forms of collateral Zalupski could post. The problem, of course, being that he appears to have taken out new mortgages on old properties as recently as this year.

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Authors

Sam Koppelman is a New York Times best-selling author who has written books with former United States Attorney General Eric Holder and former United States Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal. Sam has published in the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Time Magazine, and other outlets. He has a BA in Government from Harvard, where he was named a John Harvard Scholar and wrote op-eds like “Shut Down Harvard Football,” which he tells us were great for his social life. Sam is based in New York City.

Matthew Termine is a former corporate lawyer with significant experience advising companies operating within regulated industries. Matt led Hunterbrook’s investigation and reporting on United Wholesale Mortgage. In 2017, Matt was credited by the Wall Street Journal, among others, for identifying suspicious mortgage loan transactions that led to several successful criminal prosecutions, including that of a prominent political operative and the chief executive officer of a federally chartered bank. He is a graduate of Trinity College and Fordham University School of Law.

Blake Spendley joined Hunterbrook from the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA), where he led investigations as a Research Specialist for the Marine Corps and US Navy. He built and owns the leading open-source intelligence (OSINT) account on X/Twitter, called @OSINTTechnical (over 1 million followers), which also distributes Hunterbrook Media reporting. His OSINT research has been published in Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal, and The Economist, among other top business outlets. He has a B.A. in Political Science from USC.

Editors

Vikas Kumar joined Hunterbrook from The Capitol Forum, where he led the corporate investigations team for a decade as a senior editor. He was previously an attorney at Gordon Feinblatt, a trial attorney for the Department of Justice, and a law clerk for a federal judge. He has a J.D. from University of Virginia School of Law and a bachelor's from Emory University. Vikas is based in Maryland.