Chris & Laken Turner with Southern Luxe Home Innovations talk Barndominiums

Are you gonna wait until you see what I say first?

They're hearing all of it. This is episode number 178 of The Homeowner Show. Whether you're DIY or looking to hire, we're here to help you find the best information and options for you and your home. My name is Kevin Hackett, and here with me is Craig Williams. Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to The Homeowner Show. We are so glad that you could join us for another live episode. Very, very live. Very live. Very live. Yeah, we're gonna hear all the things from all the people that don't know we weren't on mute anymore. That's all good. And we'll just put it up that way. It was, it was good. It was good. Yeah. Hey, you know, here we go. We gotta, we gotta just let things roll naturally. That's

right. Otherwise it's gonna be weird. But before we let them roll au naturel, you gotta pay the bills. So pay the bills, Kev. All right, well, first of all, um, This episode tonight brought to you by Sustained Growth Solutions, the number one best digital marketing agency in the world. Woo! Wow, that was— Confirmed by CNN. That's exactly right. Look, we understand small businesses, large businesses, all of you. You got more things to worry about than trying to figure out how to take care of all your digital media. Specifically, where are you gonna get your business from? Lead generation, those types of things. Work we work with one that you heard me one contractor in an area. That's it. And so all the leads from Sustained Growth Solutions,

they go straight to one contractor. I promise you, you're not going to find a better deal out there. Give them a call. Shoot them an email info@sustainedgrowthsolutions.com. Go to their website. It's gonna be awesome. Check 'em out. They're paying our bills right now. So.

Fantastic.

How about you? Episode is also brought to you by TermiSave. TermiSave is the only residential termite warranty company in the business, and they are operating right here in Texas. Every year, termites cause over $2 billion worth of damage on residential properties. So protect your property.

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With a warranty from TermiSave because you have to. 'Cause they're the only one. There's, you're not gonna find it anywhere else. So we're not gonna call it a monopoly. No, because it's not legally. Legally. That's right. They will warranty your property against termites, which means that your treatment is completely covered if you ever have termites on your property. Send them a message, info@termasave.com, to get your home protected today. Perfect. Kev, we have some serious adventures coming up this week. Oh my gosh. You have some adventures. I've, you know, much to the glee of our, of our guest, I've put on the calendar some adventure. Okay. Some adventure. An adventure. An adventure.

Yeah.

Which I am predicting is going to be a future episode. Oh, it will be. Yeah. Well, and mine will be too. I feel strong. So you're going through some home adventures. Yeah. I'm going through some— what's your home adventure? Well, so first of all, Our friendly neighborhood roofer, or your friendly neighborhood roofer, I should say. I'm calling him ours, uh, because yours right now.

Right now, yes.

Connor Mack's gonna be up on my roof tomorrow putting a new one on, which is super exciting, uh, because insurance is paying for it. There you go. That's, that's fantastic. That's fantastic. But, um, it's also going to be the newest roof on the MLS because coming on Thursday We're putting our house up for sale. That's right. So send your offers in now. That's it. Well, good luck because we're not going private. I promise you that. There's way too many people out there for us to go private party right now. So, uh, yeah, going up on Thursday and we're just gonna maybe leave for the weekend because it might get crazy. It's gonna get— there's gonna be fights in the front

yard. Oh my goodness. Although, so, so, uh, our friend who was on, uh, was it last week or the week before, Freddie? 2 weeks ago. 2 weeks ago. Um, he put up a post, I think it was yesterday or day before, and it said, you know, buying a house in 2022 is going to feel like a bargain compared to 2023. And I'm like, oh, let's find out. Let's, let's find out. So I'm gonna roll those dice. Yeah, I don't know, we'll see what happens.

Listed there, they have a house in our neighborhood and she listed her house last week and she's already got a couple over asking price. Yeah. Cape Cod.

Yeah, no, I, I, I, I don't want to jinx anything, but I mean, we've, we've only told just a couple of people. This is the weirdest thing ever. We've told like 2 people that aren't like family or friends, right, for specific reasons that we were selling our house, and both of them have made us an offer.

Wow.

I'm like, well, gosh, I was like, well, um, this could get weird. We'll throw it in the bucket. Yeah, so I don't know, we'll see what happens, but that's There's a lot going on this week for me. Plus, I mean, I gotta pay my own bills. I don't have a Sustained Growth Solutions just kinda paying my bills exactly. So I gotta figure all that out. And I got a job and kids and all those sorts of things. But you, on the other hand, you've got an adventure that you've been planning for well over a year. Which one are you talking about? I don't know. Let's find out what yours is. What's yours? I've only found out about this one last week. Tell us. The pool table. Oh gosh, I'm involved.

That's right. That's what I said. We have an adventure on the calendar. That's right. Kevin and I are gonna move a full-size pool table. But hey, look, without any dollies, just these buppies right there. That's right. Bam. Just those. Not me. I'm— well, now we're gonna use all the equipment we can use.

Are we talking like a billiard factory pool table or are we talking Academy job?

Oh no, no, this is like— this is Yeah, this slate.

Yeah, lift with your legs.

Lift with your legs, not with your back, Kevin. Remember that.

Hey, look, I will tell you, I'm accident-prone, Craig.

That's right.

I am accident-prone. I've torn my ACL. Yeah, we're not gonna be jumping out of the back of pickup trucks. Okay, well, that's good. So, and for those of you that haven't caught on yet, we have a couple guests in the studio. We got Laken and Chris from Southern Lux. Hey, hey.

Hey, guys.

Yeah, so that's who's been chiming in there. Yeah, so they're, they're here on their special Valentine's date. Man, this is, uh, we really appreciate you. We— I don't know where the roses are. I offered them beverages. You did? Yes.

We got water.

They declined. We got water. They declined. Lucky decline. Lucky decline. We don't—

we don't Valentine's.

Sorry, buds.

We're not Valentine's people.

Not Valentine's at all? You're not Valentine's people. Oh, yes, you are, Chris.

Apparently— apparently this year, now all of a sudden we're Valentine's people.

That expectation is always there.

It's good to know though. Now you know. You got a whole year to plan for the next one.

10 years in, we're Valentine's Day people.

Is this 10 years for you guys?

This is our 10th year.

Why don't you tell Craig and Kevin how many times that we've celebrated our anniversary?

Oh, this year was the first one.

Really?

I don't, I don't know. We just don't do like the mushy holiday.

Okay, so you, you decided to celebrate it once. What did you do? Where'd you go?

We didn't go anywhere.

They don't even remember.

We just acknowledged it.

Acknowledged it.

Acknowledged that it was anniversary.

Yeah.

Were there cards exchanged?

I gave her a—

He gave me a—

It's, I think, 10 years diamond, so I got her a bracelet with a little diamond in it.

Okay. A little diamond.

Nice.

Hey, you know what? Look, they're setting expectations low. You got a little diamond for 10. You get a little bit bigger diamond for 20.

But in my defense, it's like, what, 3, 4 days before Christmas?

Oh, so your anniversary is?

Yes.

Okay, so you like to combine them?

And then she got a ring for Christmas, a new ring, because the diamond fell out of her old one.

Nice.

Okay, more and more, you're gonna get upgraded every year. It's gonna be great.

I'm really looking out for it.

I don't know what you're gonna get, but yeah, we just don't—

we don't go to dinners and stuff.

What kind of bling would you get though, bro?

Me?

Yeah.

I don't know.

Earring.

I'd just get him like a little earring.

He's gonna get an earring.

Give me a gold grill, man.

Gold grill? You could have been in the halftime show last night.

Just like one. Just like one.

That was our thing too.

Hey, let's not discount the halftime show last night. I'm totally discounting the halftime show. Oh, you would. You would. Oh, I was all in. I discount the whole thing. Yeah, I know you do.

I didn't even watch the game.

See? Look, I'm that, I'm that guy that not only was all in during the halftime show, I've watched it 2 or 3 times since because it was that good in my opinion. Except that weird dude in the middle, Kendrick Lamar. Who knows him? He's some young dude who's, I don't know. They were all playing the same song, dude. Okay, let's keep moving because he's not gonna be productive.

He's one of the best rappers of his generation.

Yeah, that doesn't, who cares?

He's also signed to the same label as everybody else.

I know that counts. It does something, I guess.

I guess that's why he was there.

But yeah, it was— it was, man, there's, there's a lot of funny memes that came out of the whole thing.

I didn't watch it and I shared the memes today.

Oh, you shared the memes even though you didn't see it? That's good. Yeah, it looks good. Do I get, do I get any street cred for I used to record the guys at Cash Money? Um, yeah. You just discounted the whole thing, so no. I just discounted the whole thing? You did earlier. You said I discount the whole thing. I wasn't asking for— I was asking for street cred. Oh, street cred. Um, I— okay, maybe a little bit. A little bit. Yeah, just a little bit. A little bit. I could name drop some more. No, it's fine. I know. We know. We know. I know who they are. They probably don't know. It's fine.

But we're not here to talk about that.

We could talk about it for a long time, y'all. I'm not gonna lie. You're discounting me. Well, I— well, you discounted yourself. Isn't— is that where the word diss comes from?

No. Disrespect, man. You're disrespecting them.

Chris, you're the closest. Could you just give him a little backhand? Are you— are you— are you giving him street cred because he's got a hoodie on? Uh, well, yeah. Okay.

And it's Chris and he does have street cred.

Okay.

I do have street cred.

Okay. I want to look at his CV later. Well, let's just end this episode. Let's just end it here. All right, fellas. Thank you for being here. The final 4! That's good. That's good. Yeah, that's good. So what do y'all do? Why are y'all even here?

For real.

Street cred. Yeah, street cred. If you came to the Homeowners Show Show for some street cred, I promise you, you're gonna be very disappointed. This is gonna be a different type of episode for you.

Right.

But you do, you do cool things.

We are, we, we own a general contracting company. We build barndominiums, really custom houses, remodels. I've been on the show before with my previous company, but we've grown in leaps and bounds since then.

Nice. So what— okay, so at this point, um, so you've got a new business. What is your absolute favorite thing to work on? I mean, as a contractor, if, if I could tell you you could have this job, this type of job for the rest of your career, what would it be?

New construction.

New construction.

Anything new construction at this point.

Okay.

So much easier. Yeah. It's a lot less headache.

Yeah.

A lot less, uh, uh-ohs and whoopsies and mess-ups and—

Mm-hmm.

What, what, what makes it less variables? What makes it have less headaches? I mean, is it, is it because the customer can look at it and go, I want this, this, and that, and you can actually like deliver that because you're building it from the ground up? Or they, because like on an existing construction, they might have some expectations that you might not be able to do.

It makes it easier. Just the, the, the calendar.

Calendar.

It really does. It, it's, it's, if you plan it right, you can basically plan the entire job out week to week with pretty much no hitches other than, you know, weather, things like that that you can't really control. But, you know, you, you just don't have as many variables. I mean, there's not very many things that can go wrong. There's a lot more things that can go wrong in a remodel than on a—

Uh-huh.

new construction.

Because there's things there that you just don't know until you open the wall up.

For example, oh, okay, okay. For example, this is a very small example, but just something that just recently happened. We are working on someone's house and they have a fully painted brick fireplace. They wanted to strip the fireplace. Well, guess what? That fireplace is not stripping. So what are we doing, Chris?

Oh, now we're painting it.

Painting it again?

No, but it's like on this one particular house, I mean, this home was built in the late 1960s, '60s, '70s, and we're pretty much gutting it and starting from scratch.

The house has been sitting empty since Harvey.

Oh my gosh.

Yeah, it flooded. It's in River Plantation.

Oh, I think I know the house. Yeah, I think I know that. Has it— it's been for sale for a while?

No, no, it hasn't.

Oh, the same people still own it?

Yeah. Okay, then I transferred through throughout the family. Okay, the son got it from the—

from— I got you.

So, uh, but yeah, it's been sitting empty for Like I said, what, 4 years? 4 or 5. Yeah, it's been sitting empty.

How do you typically try and get paint off of brick?

Stripper.

Stripper? Just— you wouldn't like sandblast it or something?

I mean, you could. Yeah, it's definitely an option if, if you want it off that bad. Do you want it? I mean, if you— I can do anything you want to do if you want to spend the money, you know. I mean, anything's possible with the right budget.

And there's your golden ticket.

You know, but how, how much money do you really want to spend on a 40-year-old fireplace, right? Or should we just paint it black and call it a day?

Or take it all down and start from scratch.

I mean, yeah, we've done that as well. We took a whole, uh, hold the entire fireplace out, just taking all the brick out. And we— yep, floor to ceiling.

But this one, you just decided to paint it a different color?

Yeah, uh, we— like I say, I was hoping faux brick. No, I was hoping going into it Well, first of all, I had been working on this lead for like 2 years.

Oh my gosh.

Solid, solid 2 years going back and forth working on this lead. But when I originally looked at it, I figured it was like anything else. Somebody, homeowner, did it and they didn't do it right. So I was thinking that's probably just latex paint on top of the brick, put a little stripper on it and get it right off. Whoever painted it did it right. They used block sealer. So they put their block sealer down first and then they put their paint on top. So when I went to strip it, It's not hardly stripping any. It strips off the paint. It is not stripping off the block sealer whatsoever.

Yeah.

I mean, like you say, you could take a wire wheel to it or sandblast it or whatever, but it's going to take forever. Exactly. And the expense just isn't worth it. Why not do something cool with it? Like, how many times have you seen a matte black fireplace in a house? It's going to look sweet.

So then you can put chalk all over it. No, not the chalk paint. They don't mind the kids.

No chalk paint. We're going matte black with a cedar. raw cedar mantel.

Oh, nice. Yeah, that'll look cool. Yeah.

Well, and then we have black countertops in the kitchen with a smoky glass backsplash and then a black walnut island. So, wow, it's all going to tie together.

So, uh, are the cabinets white or—

So the wall cabinets are white. The island is actually going to be an espresso, like a real— the espresso is almost black, you know, just a little dark. Um, and then we've got like a breakfast nook that's going to be in like a modern gray, a coffee station that's going to be the same white as the kitchen wall cabinets. So, oh yeah, we have a lot going on in that house. Cool. It's going to be really cool. We're excited about it.

Yeah.

So we've been working on it for a while. So design was like 4 months ago.

Yeah. I did the design for them last year.

Okay.

Actually, I think it's been longer than that since I did the design. It was like 2 or 3 months before they even came in. I already knew the lead was closed at that point, so I just went ahead and did the, did the design months ago. It's probably been a solid year since we did the design and everything.

Wow. I saw something today I wanted to ask you guys about because I'd never seen it before. I was in, I was in a master bath and it had kind of like an off-white and brown swirled granite countertops, but as I walked in, I was like, it looks like the countertops are glowing. And I'm like, really? And so like I started turning off all the light switches, and sure enough, I could turn the lights— like the countertops themselves were glowing, like they had a light switch on them. And so like I turned on the lights on the bathroom, you could literally see the countertops glowing.

Is it like that product? Was it epoxy where they put— they did lighting underneath the countertops?

Is that epoxy though, in order to make that happen?

I haven't dived that deep yet.

Because I've actually seen a really, really cool video of a guy who made a marble-type look on a— I mean, it was, it was a countertop that has no granite, no marble, nothing in it. But he, he just poured layer after layer of epoxy on it, and he did it in such a way that you could light it from the underside if you wanted to. In fact, he did.

Mm-hmm.

Um, but it was all just done with epoxy. But the way he did it, the way he swirled things, it looks like some of it's like a marble. It's It's really, really cool, but who knows how much something like that would wind up costing, right? I mean, completely custom.

Yeah, the amount of time it takes.

The amount of time that the epoxy itself is not, you know, super cheap.

So yeah, it was glowing.

Yeah, it was, it was. I mean, like, it was, it was literally like a light that— but like, it, it was weird. I mean, it looked cool, right? Um, and I would also say, like, I would be just This is a client of mine, and like, I'd be very surprised if it was epoxy. Like, they would probably think like, how dare you try to put epoxy in my house?

What we were looking at was actual countertop that was lit underneath. Yeah. So I'm sure that's astronomical.

A certain color, certain granite from a certain yard probably has enough transparency to it to be able to backlight it.

Light's bright enough it can come through. It would seem like that would make like the countertop like hot almost. The light's bright enough. LEDs that are bright enough, I guess, could do it. But it was, I mean, it was cool, but I was like, I've never seen that before.

I have to ask my countertop guy.

Yeah.

Let's see if he knows anything about it.

Well, that's like the countertops that we were looking at where the cooktops are built into the countertops. They've got like the heating elements inside of the countertop. Oh yeah.

I've seen those. That's really cool. Those are cool. Yes. Because you can do like induction, you can do gas, you can do— yeah, I've seen those.

Well, no, no, no, no, no. This is an induction top. Like, you don't see anything. It looks like a great— like just a slab of granite, and you just set your pot right on it, right on top of the granite, and it's got an induction element underneath it.

So how do you know where to put the pot? That's what I'm saying. That could be super dangerous.

I mean, like, I'm sure once you get used to it, you kind of know where it's at. Like, it's not like the whole countertop is one big field.

And I'm sure there's safety on it too.

Yeah, yeah.

Burn your hand off.

I'll have to send you the link. It's pretty neat.

I want to see that.

It's really neat, and it's, it's really not that expensive either in the grand scheme of things. If you're doing something custom, I want to say one of the units is— they're like $2,500, $3,000. Now what it would take for on the fabrication side, I haven't gotten that far yet. But as far as the unit itself, they have a 4-burner and a 2-burner.

Okay.

And they look, they look really cool.

The ones I've seen are like little metal risers that you install on granite.

Yeah.

That you can do as induction or gas. I guess you could do electric. I don't know why you'd want to at that point, but like, it's intended to like make the countertop cleaner, easier to clean. And it just kind of gives it like a cool look, like one solid countertop.

Right.

And there's your cooking area. So those are the ones, but I haven't seen that. I wanna check that out.

Yeah.

I think—

Hidden burner.

Yeah, that would be my biggest concern is like—

I'm about to Google it.

Just trying to figure out like, Like, where do I put the pot? And what if my kids are trying to figure this out?

You know, that's the thing is it doesn't get hot.

Yeah, induction doesn't get hot.

Induction doesn't get hot.

The pot does.

The pot obviously gets hot. I mean, if the kid grabs the pot, then you probably shouldn't watch your kids.

Sure, be a better parent.

But as soon as you take the pot off, it's cool to the touch. Yeah, so it's, it's pretty neat stuff.

Don't they use that at the, um, Melting Pot restaurants. Isn't that what they use? They use induction on the tables? Yeah, I think you're right.

The fondue?

Mmhmm.

I think I'm— It's been a— it's been a long— No one's fighting me on it, so I'm gonna say I'm right. It's been a minute since I've been to Melting Pot. Are those even around anymore?

I've never been to this Melting Pot that you speak of, so.

Yeah, it's like a fondue paradise. There was one at Vintage Park for a while. Is it still there? I do not know. I've not been to one in Houston. For those of you not in The Woodlands area, you don't care. Nobody knows where that is. So all those, all those fans that we have in Taiwan now. Yeah, actually it's a decent number, dude. Like, so they're listening. We're like in the top 100 in Taiwan.

Yeah, really?

Well, I mean, I'm not real surprised.

A big house.

Because I mean, look, yes, I don't know. I mean, look, we're— look at us. I mean, look at us. That's all I'm saying. That's all I'm saying. How could we not be? I don't know. I mean, seriously.

Do you think that's actual people in Taiwan, or is that somebody using a?

You think like we have like two fans living there or something?

I don't know.

I think you have a way bigger.

Somebody using some IP blocker.

You have this way bigger inflation of the crowd that listens to us.

Eight million people in Taiwan.

I'm going to use this VPN to listen to the homeowner show in Taiwan so my wife doesn't know. And my it's a huge conspiracy. Right, that's what we need is we need a VPN sponsor so that we can just take— completely own the market in Taiwan. He's like, look, just redirect everything over here. All of our fans, right over there.

We've only digressed a little bit here.

Yeah, stick to barndominiums, man.

My bad, man. My bad.

All right, I'll bring it around. Okay, do it. Okay, so I know that you guys do a lot of barndominiums, right? So what What do you, in y'all's estimation, what is it that your clients underestimate the most when it comes to these projects? Is there like a single thing or like?

I honestly think it's the expectation of them wanting that big vault.

Oh.

Of coming in and not realizing that, you know, the cost that's associated with having a full vaulted ceiling with the exposed, you know, HVAC and all of that versus, you know, if you're gonna live in it, you know, you're actually gonna live in that house, you know, what's, Actually, you know, really going to work.

Yeah. And we were talking a little bit about that before the show because Kevin wants that. What— so what's the difference? Because Chris was saying like there's a big difference between like a 10-foot ceiling and then an actual vault, right? What is that?

The cost of the HVAC system, depending on how you're going to engineer it and run your ducts and things like that, you may have to go with multiple systems. Obviously at that point, you know, you're— when you go to multiple systems, it's going to cost you more money. The Again, the ductwork, if you're gonna do the, the nice spirally hard duct, that stuff is not cheap.

It's not cheap.

You know, I know, you know, it's not cheap. And especially, you know, the bigger it gets, obviously the more expensive it is and the nicer that you want it to be. And then we gotta paint it and then we gotta do this and we gotta do that. But the, I think the, the most underestimated thing is the utilities.

Utilities.

People don't think about the utilities.

Talking about like gas, water, electricity.

Yeah. Getting them, getting, we were talking about before the show, them being available and them being on the site is 2 totally different things.

Right.

If I have to come in and you're asking me, you know, to give you a, I, I can't even give you a bid until I know what it's gonna cost to get the power from the road to where the house is gonna go.

Mm-hmm.

The water from Either the well that we have to drill or from the street to where it's got to go. So that, that's one of the biggest things that I think people don't really think about going in, especially people who have never built a home before. Yeah, they don't think about those things, and those things are not cheap. You know, you're looking $20,000, $30,000, $40,000 sometimes.

Especially if it's on land that's never had—

Exactly.

That on there.

Exactly. If you're out in the middle of nowhere and you don't have a neighbor close by that has power to their place, good luck. It gets even even, even more costly.

And most barndominiums are not being built up in residential areas.

Exactly. Right.

Even we are dealing with those clients.

Yeah.

You know, I would think also that like, just, I mean, you mentioned heating and air and those sorts of things. I would think that a lot of people don't realize that in those types of buildings, spray foam is going to be your best option.

Exactly.

And spray foam is what, like 5 times more expensive than any other type of insulation?

Right.

Whether it's batt or blown-in, it's also a lot more more efficient as well. It is, and it's gonna last longer, right? I mean, it's gonna last virtually forever, really, right? Um, so depending on how long you're gonna be in there, it's probably worth it, right? I know that's a big deal.

Yeah, we don't do anything else other than that.

That's like—

that's— yeah, that's just factored into what— yeah, when we're building.

Yeah, I think some people don't think about the, the, uh, the, the engineering that goes into the, the HVAC system. Like, we've got one that we're about to build now and it's a flat roof, so there's nowhere to put any duct. So we're going ductless. We're doing 9 mini splits.

Oh, wow.

Jay, who's doing them for us?

Oh, is he really?

Yeah. We're doing 9 Mitsubishi mini splits.

Okay.

In one property. And they're all gonna be on a hub to where you can control them individually and all that. It's gonna be pretty cool. And it's not an inexpensive HVAC system.

Yeah. But honestly, it should be efficient.

Yeah.

As you say, it should be more efficient.

Right.

For the whole house. Cuz you're not gonna be able to have, you're not gonna have to heat the whole thing or Cool the whole thing at all times.

That's one of the common misconceptions I get when I hand over the keys and I tell people, this is barndominium. Don't turn your air conditioner off. You need to leave it running because the envelope is— it's not like a regular house. In a regular house, you've got ridge vents, you've got soffit vents. So your house is constantly breathing. Think of an igloo or a Yeti cooler, right? Your regular house is your run-of-the-mill What's the Igloo?

Igloo, yeah.

Your run-of-the-mill Igloo cooler. It's got insulation, you know, it works, gets you fine, it's efficient, keeps your beer cold. But a barndominium, it's, it's holding everything in. It's sealed up tight. There's no air going in, air going out. You have to design your HVAC system to bring that air in, fresh air in from the outside, and circulate that, that through. And one of the, one of the big things that I get when I hand the keys over and I tell them you got to keep this thing on, like they're their eyes get big like, oh, this is gonna cost me a fortune to run this thing. And I'm like, no, you're, you're— the one we just built in Bay City, I believe it's like

26 SEER.

26 what?

SEER.

Okay.

Which is highly, highly, highly, highly double, about double what you have in a, in a standard home.

Right.

So the, the cost of running that thing 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, I mean, you're talking about like $50 a month to run that thing. Whereas if you had to do that in your conventional home while you were away, running it all day and night while you're gone, you're looking at a pretty steep electric bill.

Yeah, but the other thing is, is that's going to be better for your home in general. Like, all of the— your entire home is temperature controlled at that point. It's like anything, if you get it above a certain, you know, heat, your paint's going to do weird things, your flooring is going to do weird things, your countertops are going to do weird things. It's like all that, you know, the material changes with heat and with air, you know, differently. So I would imagine that that's probably— yes, it's different, but again, it's more efficient, right? Everything involved, I would think. Everything.

Yeah, literally everything is more efficient in a barndominium than a conventional, conventional style home. Now there is, don't get me wrong, there's some builders that build high-end houses that are built great. 90% of your neighborhoods out here I wouldn't buy a house though. I wouldn't.

Not to name any names. Except, except the one that I live in specifically on Thursday when some—

I'm speaking more for like the track home neighborhoods, you know, the big conglomerates, they come in and they're building 5,000 homes. You know, those, they're built with, you know, cardboard sheathing.

Standard builder's grade.

Well, yeah.

And it's, you know, I don't wanna build anything like that.

Yeah. You know, so are you telling me that, building a barndominium, for example, is, unless you go and buy, you know, some really, really high-end, you know, builder, doing something on traditional conventional home, that it is a, it is a long-term more efficient type of home to live in.

Yes.

The other thing is, you— I mean, Craig, and you remember whenever we had Mueller on, um, early, early on, um, we, we found out, and, and this is just something I didn't know because I was stupid then, kind of stupid now, but, um—

Less stupid.

Yeah, maybe. Um, is that whenever you buy a metal building, you get a wind rating on it.

Right.

And you're not gonna get that on any other type of home.

No.

Brick or traditional siding or whatever it is. But on metal building, you're gonna get a wind rating, which in this area where we have hurricanes and in areas that have tornadoes and things such as that, that's a big deal.

It's important.

You know that your structure is going to be sound whenever you have crazy things happening.

Right.

Right? That's pretty important. There's some distinct advantages whenever it comes to that.

Absolutely, absolutely.

But it also, I think that a lot of people think that building a barndominium is a more cost-effective—

I was just gonna say cheaper.

Okay, it's cheaper.

They think it's cheaper. Yeah, and that's the expectation when they come in. It's not.

No, it is not. But, okay, let me ask you.

It's comparable.

Okay, yes.

It's comparable, but it's not cheaper. It's not anymore. Now, back when, I don't know, when did this barndominium phenomenon start?

7, 8 years ago.

Exactly. Then it was a little bit more cheaper.

Economical.

Economical, cost-effective, however you want to say it. But now with recent increases—

Steel's expensive.

Steel and everything else. And if you're building it properly, it's not going to be cheaper anyway. You can— there's some corners that you can cut if you're building a barndominium in your framing and your walls to make it more cost effective. However, we don't do it.

Sure.

It's also still a custom home. So anything custom is going to be more expensive. You know, we're not just slapping together barndominiums and throwing them out there. You know, it's 100% to client spec, you know.

Yeah. Well, I would also think that You know, a huge expense of any home, no matter what, is a slab.

Oh yeah.

The slab is really, really expensive.

Very.

And so whenever you go in, especially if you do— a lot of people will go a couple inches extra just to make sure that you don't have any, you know, issues down the road, right?

Depending on who your engineer is.

Yeah, depending on who your engineer is. You know, hopefully you get really good specs on all of that, and maybe you spend a little bit more, but it's worth it.

Right.

Probably down the road. And it doesn't matter if you're building, um, a barndominium or a regular home, or, you know, I was talking to someone, said, well, what if you built like, like 2 different, you know, 2 different kinds or whatever, versus, uh, what if you built like a barn, for example, that had a barndominium home on it? And I, I, person I was talking to was saying, well, it wouldn't really be that much less expensive to do it that way than to build them separate from each other because the slab is the same size. I mean, then that's a huge part of, of the build itself is the amount of concrete that goes into that thing. Yeah, you're gonna share one wall, you know, but at the end of the day,

the slab is stupid expensive.

Yeah, you know, I think normally people think when they think slab and they think concrete, they think, oh yeah, patio, you know, 4-inch thick, you know, it should be $5 a square foot? No.

Yeah.

No. Especially with a, with bigger buildings, the bigger building you go, and then what we put inside of them, that's gonna determine how much the concrete is gonna cost. We're gonna, we send, send off what we're doing to an engineer, and then the engineer's gonna tell me I need, you know, 18-inch grade beams every 12 foot. And then I need one for this load wall going this way and that way. And, you know, before you know it, for a, you know, 50 by 100 building, you've spent $40,000 in concrete. Right.

Yeah. Do, do they typically use the same kind of slab for every, every building or are they using different kinds?

What do you mean?

So like, like a floating slab or like a footered, you know what I mean? There's, there's different kinds.

It, it just geographics.

Okay. Geographics. That changes things.

Is gonna determine, and, and whoever you send your drawings to, whatever engineer, soil, there's soil reports. Right. What does the soil report say has to happen? There's, there's a lot of factors.

Around here, they typically use the same kind of slab.

Yeah.

Every time. What are they? What kind of slab is it?

Just your standard rebar slab.

Okay.

We don't do anything crazy unless the— again, unless the engineer calls for it.

Right.

I do what the engineer tells me to do. So basically what— where our expertise comes in is the design and that kind of thing.

Right.

I leave the—

Everything else to the engineers.

I leave that up to the, to the engineer.

For sure.

To tell me, you know, hey, this is, this is what we need. You could go without using an engineer, but why exactly? I mean, honestly, it's pay the money.

Yeah, it's like one of those deals where people are like, I don't want to pay for an architect. And like, do you realize an architect for most homes can cost about $1,500?

Yeah.

And you're telling me that you don't want to spend $1,500 when you're about to spend $450,000 on a home?

To make sure that everything is the way that it needs to be.

Like, that's it. That's a, that's a drop in the bucket, right? To make sure that—

Cut a corner, cut a corner on the tile that you buy. Don't cut a corner on your architect or your engineer.

Yeah. And I don't know, maybe, and I don't know how much engineers cost, but they're, again, it's not going to be—

You're not far off.

It's not terrible. It's a couple bucks a square foot.

Okay.

About $2 a square foot.

I mean, seriously, that's, that's not bad at all.

Yeah.

No, because at the end of the day, you know, what you're getting is if you're using the right engineer, yeah, you're getting something that's really high quality.

And as the builder, that's the only safety net that I have. If I go and I build and I don't have an engineer stamp on it and something happens, I'm on the hook for it, right? You know, my, my business is on— I mean, we're an LLC, but right, but still, our, our business is on the hook for it. We will go out of business. And to not have that, that engineer there is backing is just dumb.

Right. That makes sense. Yeah. Well, and that, that might be, I mean, that, that might be something good for people to hear because, I mean, like, correct me if I'm wrong, here in Texas, I mean, we don't have to have a license in order to be a contractor, right? No.

Yeah.

I mean, so like, it's a double-edged sword. Yeah. Well, like, I know that that's one of our, our, our buddy Eric G. I mean, he's always like just floored that like, that's not the case here. And he's like, you, it's like roofers and contractors don't have to be anything here. You mean like, But, like, that's how you know that you're working with somebody good is that somebody that goes and gets, like, an engineer stamp and says, like, look, here's the plans. I've got it approved by this guy. And, you know, they've done their homework. Exactly. But, like, whereas, like, some, you know, Tommy shows up and he's got drawings with crayons, you know, it's like, it's probably not a good sign. Right. Even though the price is better.

Exactly. So you get what you pay for.

But you have to—

at the end of the day.

Every time. I mean, every time.

You're gonna get what you pay for.

Yeah. And that's honestly, okay. Let me ask that question. Um, I, I would assume that a lot of people think that metal siding is metal siding, right?

Right.

Is that true?

No.

Okay, let's talk about that for a second because I know it's not true, right? So I mean, there's a reason that Mueller is more expensive than, you know, whoever else. I mean, what, what is the difference and what do you use and what do you recommend? All that kind of stuff. It—

that's really just I wouldn't say that Mueller's any better than anybody else. The warranty is. Different suppliers are going to carry a different gauge. So like your mom and pop on the corner with the carports and things like that, they're usually carrying like a 29-gauge, which is thinner. With Mueller, their standard, I would think, is like a 26-gauge. Thicker material. So it's it's, you know, apples to oranges sort of, but at the same time, you know, you, you can get the same quality. Obviously that, you know, I don't know much about Mueller to be perfectly honest. I did listen. I listened to the episode.

I think the warranty was 35 years.

Oh, really?

Yeah. If I remember correctly, I think you're right. 35 years. And it's not prorated from my understanding. So I may be wrong on that. Go listen to the episode.

But you also have, I mean, you have your regular R-panel, then you've got standing seam and, you know, When you go to standing seam roof, obviously the price goes way up. You have all your hidden fasteners and there's different seals and all that jazz. So it can get— the cost difference can be great.

Sure.

Just going from your, like I say, your regular R-panel roof to a standing seam can be 40% more.

Yeah.

And when you're talking about a 5,000 square foot building, that's a lot of money.

That's a lot of money. And, and also, whenever it comes to roofs specifically, you go to a metal roof versus a traditional shingle roof, those are gonna last a lot longer.

Oh yeah.

I mean, so again, it's, it's one of those deals where you really get what you pay for.

Yeah.

And if you wanna spend the money on, on something like that, it's gonna last longer. It's gonna look different, obviously.

But, you know, if you, if you plan your— and this is in my opinion, If you plan your maintenance the way that you're supposed to with a metal building, unless you just like the aesthetics of the standing seam, it's not necessary. It's just like—

What is the standing seam? I don't know what that is.

Standing seam is, I'd have to show you a picture of it, but it all your, there's no fasteners that show. Like whenever you look at an R panel, you see all the fasteners across the roof. They're all hidden. Underneath a seam.

Okay.

And it's like a, it's a raised ribs, I guess, is the easiest way to describe it.

Okay.

But it's just hidden fasteners.

This is only for roofs though? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. But I mean, it's just an aesthetic. It doesn't change the—

well, I say it's just an aesthetic.

I mean, I would assume—

let me elaborate a little bit more. With an R-panel roof, you're gonna have to replace your screws. So those screws, they have little rubber seals on them. And just like your shingle roof, every 10 years or so, you need to have somebody come out and just replace all of those screws.

Sure.

Every single one of them, just replace them. People think that it's, it's a big deal, but to me, it's like, you know, it's just maintenance.

Sure. You know what I mean?

If you, if, if you know going into it, you know, hey, 10 years from now, 7 years from now, whatever it is, I, I need to go ahead and have have that in my budget and weigh the difference of the, do I wanna pay the extra 40% for the standing seam now?

Mm-hmm.

Or would I rather keep that money in my pocket and use it for something else? And then, you know, a couple years down the road, I'll spend $2,500 to have Jim Bob come out and replace all my screws for me. Right.

Mm-hmm. No, I mean, I, I think it's, uh, it is an aesthetic, but it, but at the end of the day, if you don't do that, you're gonna have water issues. Yeah. I mean, it's a hole. Anywhere you get a hole, water comes in. It rains a lot around here. So let me ask you this, if I'm hearing you right. On the hidden seam one, either way you're gonna have to replace those screws in 10 years. No.

No? No, not with the standing seam.

Not with the standing seam.

'Cause they're not exposed to the elements, they're all under—

So how long should those last?

That'd be a question for Connor. Connor knows more about the standing seams and that kind of thing than I do.

But they should last longer.

Yes, yes. Like I say, you're— it's really just the hidden fastener is really the only difference, the selling difference. The, the major difference that makes it better is the fasteners not being exposed to the elements.

Clearly this one's going to last longer because it's not getting the beating that this one's getting, you know, on a regular basis.

Yeah, and so the question you have to ask is, what I'm paying worth that much longer of an amount of time than what I'm going to get with— Yeah. Okay.

I mean, at the end of the day, if you have the budget to spend it, absolutely go with standing seam every single time.

Okay.

I would say go with it every single time. If you can afford the extra expense, standing seam all day long. It looks better and it's going to last longer.

Yeah.

But if you're, if you're on the fence on, do I keep some money in my pocket? I would say keep a little bit of money in your pocket and just put on replacing those screws down the road.

Yes.

You'll be fine.

Yeah. So let me ask you this question. So let's say that you had, um, you, you came into a pot of money, right? You build whatever you want to. You had the opportunity for your own home, your family, to build a conventional traditional home or to build a barndominium. Which would you go with?

Barndo all day.

Okay. All day long. Okay. So let me ask you this. Is it the same for you?

Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. Okay.

There's so much.

The possibilities are endless.

Yeah.

I mean, not to start a fight, but that could be interesting.

No, we actually really agree on— we both kind of have a modern taste. I mean, that's more of our element. You know, I like—

I like the flat roof look.

Okay. And that's just what we gravitate towards. So I like drama. You know, I like a lot of drama.

Okay.

Yeah.

So because I think, I think that there could very easily be said that more men probably gravitate toward a barndominium style, probably just because it's that rough. It's got a utility to it. Yeah, it does. And more women are probably gonna, you know, gravitate toward, I don't know, something different. The Tuscan Riviera. Exactly. And so, you know, the Victorian home, whatever. Um, and so I think that that's probably true on a lot of cases. So, so it is— there is an aesthetic there to it. But I think from what I'm hearing you say, like, and you as well, is that it's more efficient, it's going to last longer, um, your maintenance overall is going to be lower.

Minimal. Minimal.

I mean, you're not replacing insulation, you're not replacing your roof as often, you're not replacing, you know, the siding that rotted, or you're not gonna You know, all these things are, are things you're not gonna have to worry about. Your HVAC is gonna work less, right? Even though it's working all the time, as you said, it's not gonna work as hard, right, to keep things cool. All those sorts of things. But I guess my next question is, let's say you, you want a little bit of both. What can you do to a barndominium to dress it up a little bit, to not make it look just like an industrial building? Like a shop.

A shop. You know, stone, stonework is one of the easiest, most cost-effective ways. And there's also the option to, instead of putting your— instead of— I lost my train of thought, completely lost my train of thought.

We're on stonework, cost-effective. Help him out, Laken.

I was there with you. I mean, it doesn't just have to be a rectangular building.

Oh, okay.

You know what I mean? you can design that home with money. With money, you can design that house however you want it, with whatever features that you would like to add. I feel like personally, it's something I've— because I do all the interior design stuff and, you know, help with the exterior. You know, I tell everyone, like, it's a matter of personal choice. You know, I personally feel like the possibilities are endless. The way you dress it up interior and exterior is there's just so much that you can do. I mean, of course you can do that with a standard traditional home as well, but we like a modern feel and there's just so much that a barndominium offers with that feel.

Stone and elevation changes are the most common. Taking a 12 by 12 building essentially and just shoving it on this corner or taking one and turning it opposite ways and just kind of linking everything together.

Sure.

And like I said, you could do, you know, 20-foot sides in your living room section and then your bedroom sides where all your rooms and stuff are going to be, you might do a 16-foot side there. That way you have the elevation changes in the roof that make it look more like a house and not so much like a Yeah, well, and I would, I, I would assume that remodeling is a lot easier on a—

oh yeah, on a barndominium, because everything's hanging, right?

Right.

Everything's hanging. And I know that probably sounds weird to some people, but ever— you're not building from the ground up, you're building from the ceiling down, correct?

Right, pretty much.

Yeah. Yeah. And so, you know, you're— let's say you want to come in someday and just demolish all the inside and start over. You don't—

theoretically you could.

Yeah, you could without— I mean, you can knock everything down on the inside because the structures are in the steel beams on the outside.

Exactly.

Instead of, you know, you don't have to walk in and go, hey, I want to open this up. Is that a load-bearing wall? Right.

No, nothing is load-bearing whatsoever. So it makes it easier unless you do vaulted ceilings, and then obviously your whatever side's holding your vault is holding your weight, but Yeah, it's wide open. I mean, it's wide open. There's no limitations on, you know, we could— the engineer says we can only go this wide because our— we have this much shingle on this side and the weight is too much. So, you know, we have to upgrade this beam and that kind of thing. It's, it's wide open. It's a big open box and you can take your boxes and place them wherever you want.

Yeah.

Yeah, and typically within a pretty standard square foot price. I mean, you can do a lot, a lot within a, I'd say, a $15-ish range of change. It's not that much. You know, it's not a big jump with us anyway. I don't— I've never worked for another home builder. I've never gotten bids from another home builder.

This is—

our systems are completely our systems that we have created on our own. So I don't know how other people work, but with us, we've got— if you come into our office, we've got— I've got racks of tile, I've got racks of luxury vinyl plank, I've got cabinet samples, I've got countertop samples. And we have—

He's looking at me when he says cabinet. He's a little side-eye. Should I mention this? Yes, you should.

We have people all the time that we'll send them over a square foot price. We'll say, okay, well, you know, you're looking at $140 a square foot. They're like, well, I need you to break that down. Like, well, what do you want me to break down? Like, it's a, it's $140 a square foot to do the job, $0 not to do it.

Right, right. What do you want?

What do you want me to break down? And I usually tell them, you know, I can show you better than I can tell you. Come into my office and I'm going to show you I've got 15 flooring samples for you to choose from. I've got 40 tile samples for you to choose from. All of this stuff is within your budget. I'm giving you your budget and everything that I've got in my showroom, you can have any of it. Whereas with other builders, you might get 2 or 3 options. Yeah.

Now, when people start straying outside of what you guys have in like your showroom to kind of guide people through the building process, that's probably when the prices start changing a little bit. I don't warranty it. What do you mean you don't warranty it?

I won't warranty anything that I don't provide.

Okay.

That, that's the way that I deter people from going outside of what we have.

So if they're like, listen, I want this little bitty bead tile on the wall in the shower or something. Right.

Like, I will find them something comparable.

Gotcha.

Okay.

Within our stuff. But we, we typically tell people that if, if I don't supply it, I don't want to warranty it just because I don't know where it came from. Right? Like, I've never worked with whatever, you know, Ceramic Tile of America or whatever. Like, I've never worked with this company. I don't know what their warranties are.

This also isn't our first year in business. So I mean, people don't understand the hoops that we've jumped through before that we no longer can jump through before. I can't send Chris to 3 different Home Depots to try to go find your tile.

Right?

Right. I mean, because they don't— didn't have enough in stock. stock here and there. And we've done all of that.

Yeah, it's not worth it.

Yeah, no, it's not worth it.

At the end of the day, it's not worth it.

And I had a very interesting, a couple of interesting discussions with the people. Everybody loves Floor Decor. You know, they've got those products that say they have warranties, but if you actually go in and talk to the people at Floor Decor, they will flat out tell you, well, we don't even know if they're going to make any more of that. So this warrantied product that you have is probably going to be nonexistent. So guess what? If something happens to your floor or tile or whatever, you're probably going to have to go in and pick something else altogether.

just replace that section.

Why not, why not save yourself some hassle, get it from my supplier, and then if something happens, then I'm the one that's going to be your liaison.

You're on the hook.

Well, I'm not necessarily on the hook.

No, but, but you're going to be an advocate though.

Right, right. If we have a manufacturer's defect that happens, I mean, that's not something that we obviously should even have to cover, but I'm going to go to bat for you. I'm going to put you in contact with the right people and whatnot. Now, if you want me to use the stuff from Home Depot, then I mean, you go deal with Home Depot.

Sure. You know, when it goes—

I'm not going to bat with you for you. You know what I mean? If you go through my suppliers that I've developed a relationship with over the years, it's different. Then you have somebody to go to bat for you.

So what about, since we're talking about warranties, I know that if I go out to, you know, David Weekley or whoever, right? And I go buy a new build home. from them, I'm gonna get a 1-year warranty, whatever that they choose to warranty, right?

Yeah.

Um, does that change for you on, on anything that you do? Is it a 1-year warranty or, and is that changed with a barndominium versus a traditional home? What, what do you, what does that look like for you?

We do a year as well. Um, and then plus manufacturer's warranties, all of our suppliers offer their warranties, like our cabinet supplier, they give them 5 years. So basically, if it breaks within a year, call me, I'll come out, fix it for free, no big deal. If it breaks after that year, I'll put you in the right channel with the manufacturer. The manufacturer will contact me, I'll get the parts from them, and then we'll charge you a trip fee to come out and fix it or whatever.

But if you do it right the first time—

Yeah, if you do it right the first time, you don't have to worry about it.

That's huge.

We, we have, you know, We get calls, but it's never for anything major. It's never— we've never had anybody call and say, hey, I got 3 foot of water in my house, get here now.

Right.

It's usually minor stuff. Hey, the knob fell off the shower, it was loose. The hinge on the cabinet's loose, things like that. Warranties are subjective.

Yes, they are.

They're subjective.

Yeah, well, they have to be. I mean, I mean, you're talking about, you're talking about 2,400 square foot maybe of a home, right, that has countless pieces in it. Yeah, right. At some point, something may fail, right? Right. And it just does over time. Everything does.

One of, one of my biggest negatives to the business but positive to the customers is my ability to say, redo it. Rip it out, redo it. That doesn't look good. I don't care what it costs. Rip it out, redo it. I don't—

I might have seen Chris walk into a remodel unhappy with a shower and just go ahead and knock off a piece of it himself. And then we're gonna have somebody come back out and fix it that day.

Wow.

I've literally taken a hammer to an entire shower.

Yeah.

Walked in to inspect it. It's not gonna work. Looks like crap. Redo it.

Wow. So, hey, did you guys see that crazy contractor video this last week? Yeah.

Oh, which one?

The one where the guy, like, literally wore himself out beating the outside of the house. He had, like, a mental breakdown on the lawn.

I seen the snippet. I didn't click on it. I didn't see the whole thing.

I was thinking about the one that went in and took it all back.

She's talking about the tile guy.

That's different. Yeah.

So from months ago.

No. Our— so, like, we mentioned Eric G actually had the lady that that happened to on His show.

Oh, really?

Yes. Wow. Like, that was a whole messed up situation. Yeah. A lot of people were cheering for the contractor. No, no, no, no, no, no.

The work.

Did you see the pictures of the work?

Oh, that's about what that shower looked like when I walked in.

Well, later on, he was sending us other photos like that you couldn't even see in the video, that like stuff he had done. Like, yeah. Oh, it was the worst.

It was terrible.

And it's like he had people in there filming him doing it. Like, why would you want—

I assume that was his wife.

Who knows?

You know, I think this is— I'm just thinking here out loud, but you know, that's one of the benefits to having— I mean, yes, we're a home builder, but even like a general contractor in general, like, if you're a good one, you're always looking out for your client. You know, I have this lengthy contract that is to cover you. It's not just covering me, you know, it's making sure that you're getting what you're paid for. We've got you on a schedule, you're getting the product that you're paying for, and it's been well looked out for, you know, and taken care of like a baby before we hand it off to you, you know.

Did he ask her if she had contracts with that guy?

I don't remember. I don't either.

That's the biggest thing, Homeowner Show listeners. Contracts, contracts, contracts. Do not do anything with anybody without a contract.

Got a clear contract.

Exactly. Yeah. A clear, detailed contract of exactly what your expectations should be.

Yeah.

Uh, I, we get calls all the, not as much anymore now that we're doing a lot of the larger scale stuff.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, but we, we used, I hear it, I see it all the time. You don't get a contract, they screw up the work, then you're out tens of thousands of dollars and there's nothing you can do about it cuz you didn't have a contract with the guy.

Yeah.

I mean, how many COVID stories did we hear about people just getting absolutely by people doing work in people's houses and things like that. And Harvey as well. After Harvey, I mean, people are coming in from other states, right?

They're doing all kinds of stuff. Gypsy contractors.

Yep.

Yep, the old gypsy contractors. Just like the guy that knocks on the door and happens to have some extra mulch.

Yeah. Yeah, good mulch. I have some free termites for you. That's what I was gonna say. It's got some termites in it. I was trying to get rid of this. No, what was funny about the one that came— like, that video dropped like the day after we did the episode last week.

Yeah.

And the whole spiel was the lady had hired the guy off of HomeAdvisor.

Oh, yes, yes. I remember reading the caption there.

It was like, this company claims to background check and criminal check and all this kind of stuff. And it's like, this guy just flips out in someone's yard.

Yeah, I can elaborate on that if y'all want to go into that.

Well, we— you guys have used HomeAdvisor.

Yes.

We railed on them last week.

I listened. I was listening. I was listening. I wish y'all had a phone-in so I could have phoned in and talked about my experience.

Well, you feel free to share if you want to. I mean—

I honestly, I had a positive experience in the beginning. In the beginning, I will say that it's not worth it for somebody who has developed somewhat of a business. It works for people that are new in the business and are hungry and just need to—

they need a job.

Yeah. You know, they, they haven't dialed in their marketing, they haven't dialed in their, their pitches and everything else. It's, it's great for somebody like that that's just starting out and doesn't know where to get leads, doesn't have any inclination on how to work Facebook ads and Google ads and call Kevin and get him to do some work for them. Yeah.

You know, One of the first jobs that really like set Turner Home Improvement before we were Southern Lux on the map came from. It wasn't Home Advisor.

It was.

It was Angelite.

No, no.

It was Sumtech. Porch. House. Okay.

Porch. It was porch.

There's like three fathers. I know a few of them.

From my understanding, I was writing lots of checks. I didn't know what they were doing. From my understanding, porch is owned by. Lowe's, or used to be, or were in cahoots with Lowe's at some point. But I started out, you know, when I didn't have any leads coming in through Facebook, and we've always kind of had Facebook dialed in and, you know, had that lead funnel figured out with Facebook.

Right.

If you have any sort of inclination on how to work a computer, Facebook's pretty easy to get your name out on. But I mean, I'd spend $100 a month or so, you know, and this is when— I don't know how it is now. It was, it was like a prepaid phone, you know, you, you put so much money on it and then they, they sent you so many leads. And at that point, at some point in the game, they started not giving you as much control over the leads that you could choose and stuff. At some point they pulled the old switcheroo on you.

About 2 months.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You're like, wait a minute, what just happened?

But I mean, long story short, I had a, a lead that I think I paid like $27 for this lead, and it was for a, a kitchen or a, a bathroom, a shower that needed remodeled. And I went in, gave them the bid. They hired me right there on the spot. Well, as soon as I left, she tells her husband, that's our guy, which is— this is the story that they told me later on. We're fixing to build a barndominium for these people too.

Okay. Yeah.

Um, but anyway, long story short, that, that $27 lead turned into like $55 grand worth of work for these people. So I mean, that it really paid off.

Yeah.

Especially in, in being a new business, not having any sort of marketing budgets, anything like that. Like I'm just, just winging it. You know, I just pulling up my bootstraps and trying to figure it out. You know, that, you know, $27 lead turned into, you know, $55,000 worth of work. Um, I would say probably 90% of the leads that I got were junk.

Sure. Yeah.

Were 100% junk.

Yeah.

I got my, I got my ROI. I definitely got my ROI out of it. But like I said, once I got to a certain point, it's like, man, I wouldn't use this now that they've changed it the ways that they changed it now. And like I said, this was years ago. This was 6 years ago.

You know, that $27 lead is no longer $27 either. Exactly.

Exactly. Yeah, and I didn't, I didn't really like how they picked and chose the price of the lead. Like, I don't know what they're—

Arbitrary.

Exactly. I don't know if it's based on zip code or where you're going or what it is, but some leads it would be like, you know, a kitchen in Conroe would be $17, but a kitchen in Katy was $65.

Yeah, so I think it was It had a lot to do with probably—

Geographics, neighborhoods, zip codes.

And also like what they say they need. Yeah, like sometimes they'll say, oh, I need, I need like some new cabinet doors. Yeah, versus like full gut job, right? They're gonna charge more for one, but then probably the one that says a full gut job just needs the cabinet doors, right? The cabinet door guy actually needs a gut job. So it's kind of like, you know, so accurate.

Yeah, and 3 out of 5 are Gertrude going, I don't know how you got my phone number.

That's right. Yeah, I didn't click on that. I had 14 contractors call me and guess what? 14 people paid for her.

Exactly.

14 people did. You know, she was online looking for canary food.

But hey, that's how we got rolling. Chris started going out to the jobs and doing the bids and I started returning the calls and doing the things that we, you know, I mean, it worked when we were slow.

You do what you got to do when you get started. I mean, like, you really do.

Exactly.

And I totally get that. But like, man, those people are shady.

It doesn't make it any better that neither one of us are from Montgomery County either. Like, I don't know nobody around here. I mean, even I've been here, what, 15 years? And I can count on my hands and toes how many people I actually associate with.

How many toes do you have? I think we just figured out where he's from. We learned a lot in that little comment. Whatever it is, it's more than all my cousins. We just learned a lot from Craig too. We're gonna start talking about overalls here in a minute, I think. No, we're not. No, we're not.

There's only one person here from the Banjo State.

Okay. Alabama.

Alabama. Hey, there is nothing wrong with that.

I hope you don't have any listeners in Alabama.

Not as many as we did 5 minutes ago. Well, I think that, to be honest, it's such a movement. The barndominium thing is a movement right now.

Absolutely.

And I think that's also, you know, one of those deals. It's kind of a fad. It's probably gonna go away. But at the end of the day, like, I think what's interesting is the people that have— that do get a barndominium, they love them. Yeah. And, and they know that what they paid for was, was worth it.

Right.

And, you know, they're, they're happy.

Yeah, I don't, I don't know of anybody that's out there building cookie-cutter barndominiums, you know. Yeah, every— everyone's custom. Yeah, I mean, there are, there are people out there that offer floor plans, you know, they have a set set of floor plans. We don't do that. We've talked about it, but—

Is that because it's just easier to say like, here's a model, we can build this one for this much and move on with our— Yeah.

I think we all enjoy the, you know, the element of the design, putting it together ourselves. You know, we're not limiting people as they come in. When we started this business, we actually have partners, Jared and Jessica Beal. And when we partnered with them, we all came in saying like, we're never going to be that tract home company. Like, I don't, you know, not that you can't have custom homes and build, you know, a set of custom homes specific that you've already put together, but that's just not what we wanted to do.

Right.

You know, so.

Would it— I mean, would it change the price for you guys at all if somebody came in and said like, look, I need to build 3 of these on 1 property?

No.

No?

We just had that last week.

Did you really?

Yes.

So.

Family, 3 of them. Uh, mother, mother, daughter, and son all wanting, uh, it. No, it doesn't.

I mean, the build is the same, but that's why I'm asking.

No, no, no, nobody gets any discounts.

I wasn't, I wasn't necessarily asking for like a discount as much as I was like, here's, here's, I mean, like you're having the same set of materials all coming to the same place, you know.

Each one's gonna have their own challenges, you know what I mean? They're all gonna be different, you know. The mom's not gonna want—

Yeah, they're all gonna want different things.

Yeah, it's all gonna be different.

I'm sitting there thinking, I'm like Maybe if you all wanted the same granite, but even then, like, how many slabs of that stuff do I need? So then do you even limit yourself to the granite? Because you probably need so many that it doesn't matter at that point, you know?

Yeah, yeah. I'm asking the question because I know that there's people out there going, oh, I wonder if, you know, right, right, right.

I mean, it would make it easier theoretically on the builder, but at the same time, From a builder's perspective, I think it might make it a little more difficult.

Yeah.

Especially if you're trying to do all 3 of them at once.

Sure.

And then having 3 different personalities to deal with every time you go to that property.

Yeah.

It would probably make it—

I would absolutely not do a design meeting for all 3 people at the same time. Yeah.

So you're gonna have to have 3 separate meetings. You're gonna— yeah.

Yeah.

6.

That makes sense.

Really? We're really having 6 different meetings.

No doubt.

Yeah.

And again, we don't know exactly what everyone else's process is. But you know, whenever you're coming in, whether it's remodel or, you know, building a barndominium, I mean, let's say it's barndominium. That's pretty much what we're here to talk about. So if you're coming in for a barndominium, you're either bringing me some plans, or you're coming in to sit down with Jared, and y'all are going to talk about floor plans and what it is that you're wanting. And then we're going to start comprising something. And you'll kind of get an idea out of that initial meeting on what you want to do. And then We'll take that and we'll submit it over to an engineer, and then you're going to come back, and then we're going to play with that price based off of what you

want. Then you're going to end up coming, you're going to sign an LOI, which is our letter of intent, just saying, hey, we're going to get started. You're going to put down, you know, $1,500 for us to do our very beginning stage planning portion, like, you know, those beginning elements. And then after you do that, we finalize that price, get the contract ready, put together a design, and where you're coming in and you're making all those big selections.

The doors.

The doors, the trim, the cabinets, the countertops, the faucets, all of that is being selected really within one meeting, sometimes 2, but with new builds it normally goes pretty quick. From there, then we're putting a schedule together. We actually use an app called CoConstruct, so all of our clients get their own private login where we're uploading all of the information. So after you've done that design meeting, you're coming in and you're getting to see all of your elements that you've selected are going straight in. You have access to our jobs, our proposed job schedule. Of course, Chris and I always say like, this is absolute best-case scenario. We try really hard to work to this.

It's very subjective.

Yeah, not really. But before we were on the show, we were talking about that. You know, if you are planning for success, you're running a well-oiled machine. machine. And that's what makes— well, that's what we're always going to say makes us different than a lot of other contractors on the corner. It's the element of what are you doing to set your clients and your project up for success? And that's what we really focus on.

So realizing that everyone is different, but just to set expectations for some people, because I think a lot of people think they're gonna come in and they're gonna have a house in like 2 months, you know? You know what I mean? I mean, like, so like—

We're gonna spend 2 months planning.

Okay. So yeah, so from, from initial meeting with you guys to you handing them the keys, what, what should people have in their brains as like a, a general set amount of time that we should expect to be done with this project?

Are you paying cash or you financing?

I, I would assume most people are financing.

Okay. If you're financing—

Has that been y'all's experience? Most people are financing?

We're, we're— I mean, some, and then we're sending you to our lender to see what you can get approved for, you know.

Right.

I would say we're 60/40.

Mm-hmm.

60/40. Okay.

60 on the finance side, 40 on the cash side.

Okay, so let's start with the finance. How long, how long should we expect? And then make it long. I mean, because—

From phone, very first phone call to the time that we're scratching the ground, if you have your—

What do you mean by scratching the ground?

We've cleared the land, did any concrete before we touch your property.

Okay.

Before we— from the very first phone call to the first time we actually lay foot and start doing work on the property. If you're financing, 90 days, something like that.

Okay.

If you're paying cash, that can go a lot quicker because we don't have the middleman of the bank in the way.

Right, having to approve everything.

All the paperwork that we have to go through with that. If you're paying cash, you have a set of plans, a floor plan that you're going for already, we could usually get started, I'd say 45 days, just something, something like that. And it all also depends on what we as a company have going on at that time.

Sure. Yeah.

You know, if we've got, if we got 10 other jobs going on, then hey, it's gonna be a while. It's gonna be a little bit, you're gonna have to wait. Just logistically and financially, Um, it's difficult to do for a builder. Uh, I, I don't know if most people realize it, but like, if you're, if you're financing a house, I've got to pay for that.

Right.

I've got to pay for your concrete. I've got to pay for your land clear. I've got to pay for all of those, that stuff out of my pocket. And then the bank reimburses me after they send an inspector out to make sure that the work has been completed and satisfactory.

Yeah.

Then you got to sign off on it. And any— the loan officer's got to sign off on it, I've got to sign off on it. So, you know, that turnaround time, there's a whole lot that goes into it.

Not every portion of home building operates on net 30s, especially for custom residential stuff.

And not everybody knows what that means either, net 30.

You're not getting the product and paying later.

Right.

Yeah.

Right. Like, we are not—

You guys are not doing it. You have to pay for it when it happens. Right.

We are expensing out this portion of your project before I ever get any cash for it.

Yeah. Right.

Especially as a, as a young business as we are, I don't have that option of D.R. Horton that I've got a, a million-dollar charge account over at, at Builders First Choice. You know, I've got 30 days and I've got 10 builds going on. I gotta pay these bills quick.

Right. Well, and a lot of people don't realize some of these, some of these bigger companies, I mean, they're, they're operating Net 90.

Yes. Yes.

I mean, like, that's insane.

Exactly. Exactly.

Yeah, I can get a lot done when I don't have to pay for it until 90 days.

Yeah. Yeah. I've had many offers in the early stages of my business to work for bigger home builders and stuff, and I never would do it for that reason. I can't—

can't operate that way.

Can't wait 90 days for my money.

And we don't make our teams do that either. Yeah, we have in-house crews and you know, they always are in-house, but not technically on my pay— direct payroll. But we don't make them work that way either. Now we do lien releases with all of our subs, which is another big important part of our business. Jessica and Jared, they came from a big commercial background. So we adapted a lot of the processes that they used working for their commercial company, such as lien release progress payments to, you know, our subcontracted workers where, okay, well, you're signing this contract, you're signing my warranty for this project. Every project gets this. And then once we've written you a check, you're getting a

payment of a lien release where you can't come and say, well, I wasn't paid, right? And then you're getting a final lien release payment. Well, it's not technically a lien release. There's 2 different types. But essentially, you know, we're covered and covered and covered.

Right.

But we're not putting them on— it's not a matter of a 90-day or 30-day. It's, you know, you're getting X amount of dollars that's agreed upon before the work starts, and then at the end of that, your final payment. So, which, you know, as a young company, like Chris said, you know, it's not necessarily a bad thing for the client because we're trying to keep moving.

Yeah.

We're trying to make sure we get, you know, recouped quickly. We have to stay on schedules and, you know, bank schedules and all of that to keep the project moving. Fluidly, right?

So yeah. That makes sense. So, so then, you know, let's say financing, 90 days, you know, standard. I don't know, I don't know what standard is. Say 2,000 square foot barndominium, what type of time frame you think you're looking at?

Again, about 90 days.

Oh, okay, it's not bad at all.

That's, that's cash money. Yeah, cash money, I can get it done in 90 days, no problem. Sure. If you're financing, It's probably going to be a little longer than that. And again, it really depends on the fine details of how— if we're talking cookie cutter, 2,000 square foot basic stuff that I have in my office, no, I ain't got to, you know, get somebody to do these fancy beams and things like that. Yeah, 90 to 120 days is usually what I tell my customers.

So you're talking like for financing gig here, you're talking 7, 8 months max.

Yeah.

6 months if everything goes without a hitch. Right. It's going to, it's gonna rain one day. It's gonna—

When our prospective clients walk in, I tell them 6 to 8 months.

Okay.

That's, that's, that's our, that is, that is our guidelines. Yeah.

So you guys just finished one. Is it Bay City? How long did that one take?

That one, We pulled permit on that in, I want to say, September-ish.

Okay, that's not bad.

And we wrapped it up. Now ask me how fast I could have got it done. Yeah, I could have got it done. We had, we had delays from the electric company. There was 2 other builders that were building right next to us. They started about the same time that we did, and I guess he got to the office The day before I did. So I had to— with, with the, uh, the power company, it's like they don't give you a window. They— when your name comes up, your name comes up. You can call them every day and say, hey, when am I gonna get my tent pole over here? Hey man, you're, you're third on

the list. You know, when we get to it, we get to it. They, they typically don't give you a time frame.

Um, it's pretty rural out there.

Yeah, there's not a whole A lot in Bay City. I mean, I think it's like 35,000 people, something like that. You know, there's no Lowe's or Home Depot, or— I mean, they've got a True Value and a McCoy's. They just got a McCoy's like last year.

Hey!

But we, we had some delays. Like I say, the power company took forever to get the power turned on. Rain delays. Hurricane blew through there a week after we got the building up.

Oh gosh. Yeah.

Yeah, we had a door blow out. Literally, we got the building up. I, I don't remember the name of the hurricane. It was that small Category 1 that blew through last year.

I remember.

Uh, that towards the end of the year. Uh, but yeah, blew, blew one of the doors off the building. And it was— we had some, some hiccups that we, we definitely could have got that one done easily in, in 90 days if we didn't have the delays from the power company and the weather.

That's still not bad though. I mean, You know, I, I don't know. It seems to me like a lot of builders are longer than that whenever they're doing certain builds, but yeah, I feel like that's, that's reasonable.

I mean, it's not bad at all. No, I don't— I think it's pretty quick.

I'm not into whatever he's saying.

I don't know how long it takes anybody else. All I know is what we're doing.

Yeah, I mean, I think it's— I think it's not unreasonable for things. I mean, and here, one of the things that you said is you said, you know, a lot of those finishes are done in that second meeting. Look, I think that there's a lot of builders out there that's like, you know, they drag that process out. And it's like, now you get to come back in, now you come back in, come back in. And it's like, well, can't come this week. Sorry, I'm a little bit busy. Right? I'll get there next week to pick out my door handles.

So part of my process doing the design meetings is that I Yes, we have. I was sitting in on those meetings where Jared was doing the layouts for a while, you know, just seeing, kind of getting a feel for what they wanted. And then I figured out, you know what, I'm just gonna call and have a conversation with him after that meeting, let him do his thing. So I will have already talked to someone to have an idea of what they're wanting. And to make everyone's lives easier, I normally put together like 3 homescapes.

Okay.

So I'm putting, I'm pulling 3 designs Before you walk in to kind of say, well, this is what you're kind of telling me, this is what I think would go well, and this is just some additional options.

And you're making phone calls before that meeting too.

Correct.

So it's, you know, I'm not— I also have design questionnaires that I send over that's just like a click, click, click, you know, of things that you like. And then it just says conversations. That way you're not coming in because it's overwhelming. I mean, people—

It is.

It's the age of Pinterest, which is like Everything's available. It's pros and cons. And, you know, we were talking about, you know, like, would you want to build a traditional home or would you want to build a barndominium? It's the same thing with your interior when you're just designing that interior. I like all kinds of things. Sure, I love a million things. But at the end of the day, we do have to narrow down that final product. We can't put everything you love in this house, right?

You know, yeah, every room, a lot of it, everywhere.

We can't pull everything.

If you have an unlimited budget, we can.

Yeah. Show me the money.

I'm talking more in terms of like trying to, you know, the traditional and just, you know, you have to guide, we have to guide the client somewhere before they get lost.

Yeah.

And that has to be done beforehand, in my opinion, because if you start letting it roll, I'm not going to say that that hasn't happened before too. I had a baby this past year.

Yeah.

So I'll say that we had a project that got started and a lot of those elements, I didn't know that they weren't done yet. And so then that happened, you know, a month end of the project. Did that make for a smooth flow? No, not calendar girl over here. Like, I can't handle that. I was like sweating bullets. Like, I can't take this.