What happens when you trade the tech industry for the hands-on world of homebuilding? Our guest, seasoned home builder Mr. Smith, shares his captivating journey from the corporate world to his father's home construction business in Northwest Indiana. Hear him discuss the peculiar complexities of the industry, the powerful influence of Chicago's activities on the local market, and the value of thorough preparation for success.
The episode takes a deep turn as Smith unravels the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the homebuilding industry. He speaks about the hurdles of managing the workforce, the soaring costs of subcontractors, and the drastic effect the pandemic had on material prices. Later, we navigate the world of spec homes versus custom homes, discussing the pros and cons of each, and the essential role of a 'concierge' for homebuilders. Listen as we consider how changes such as the South Shore Line can transform Northwest Indiana's dynamics, potentially making it an appealing choice for city dwellers looking to move to the suburbs.
We wrap up our conversation by talking about the implications of social media in marketing, with Smith sharing insights on how builders can effectively leverage these platforms to connect with potential buyers. He sheds light on his experience with property taxes, as well as how political decisions, crime rates and the city's response can significantly influence the housing market in Northwest Indiana. Tune in to gain an understanding of the realities of homebuilding, the importance of setting boundaries with clients, and the implications of an influx of people from more expensive regions like Chicago. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in real estate, homebuilding, or just an intriguing career pivot story.
What happens when you trade the tech industry for the hands-on world of homebuilding? Our guest, seasoned home builder Mr. Smith, shares his captivating journey from the corporate world to his father's home construction business in Northwest Indiana. Hear him discuss the peculiar complexities of the industry, the powerful influence of Chicago's activities on the local market, and the value of thorough preparation for success.
The episode takes a deep turn as Smith unravels the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the homebuilding industry. He speaks about the hurdles of managing the workforce, the soaring costs of subcontractors, and the drastic effect the pandemic had on material prices. Later, we navigate the world of spec homes versus custom homes, discussing the pros and cons of each, and the essential role of a 'concierge' for homebuilders. Listen as we consider how changes such as the South Shore Line can transform Northwest Indiana's dynamics, potentially making it an appealing choice for city dwellers looking to move to the suburbs.
We wrap up our conversation by talking about the implications of social media in marketing, with Smith sharing insights on how builders can effectively leverage these platforms to connect with potential buyers. He sheds light on his experience with property taxes, as well as how political decisions, crime rates and the city's response can significantly influence the housing market in Northwest Indiana. Tune in to gain an understanding of the realities of homebuilding, the importance of setting boundaries with clients, and the implications of an influx of people from more expensive regions like Chicago. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in real estate, homebuilding, or just an intriguing career pivot story.
I was actually. What was I doing yesterday? I think I know it was this morning. I was in the shower and I was like man, how much money would I donate to Johnson's campaign if I was a builder in Northwest Indiana? I would be like here's the money, man. I mean so like anytime. You said like so anytime you give a slowdown. All of a sudden, chicago does something stupid and it's got to be great for business.
Speaker 2:It is. It's a. You see a lot of people coming down here for that reason, for taxes, or if just crime, crime's a big one.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Um, that they come down there and it, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I guess, when Johnson's, if he gets elected or when he got elected, it helped a lot yeah.
Speaker 1:What's the five PAs? Do you remember it?
Speaker 2:Proper preparation prevents poor performance.
Speaker 1:There you go. It doesn't matter how much money we get, if we don't close it's no money right? So no clothes is no money on everything that I am because of my dad's death, and I wouldn't be as successful without his death. Hey, welcome to the Jason theory season two, episode 12. And I'm a super excited to be joined by Mr Smith, a long time friend. I went to college with his brother, matt Money Smith, I'll throw a shot out pseudo celeb in Southern California, I won't give him full celebrity. No, don't, please, don't. Yeah. And uh, I'm excited. We're going to talk about the Indiana market, uh, how Chicago has been so kind to Northwest Indiana builders and really putting some good money in your pocket, and where things are going. A couple of questions we're going to talk about it. People always talk about um, do I make that jump from Chicago to Northwest Indiana? So I'm excited. Uh, tell us um a little bit about yourself, your company, um how you got started, and then let's get right into it. Sure.
Speaker 2:Uh, my name is Brandon Smith. Um home builder. Northwest Indiana is actually my dad's company, the company's homes of distinction. Uh been building now for probably a little over 10 years. Um didn't start out in it.
Speaker 2:After college I went to IU, actually moved to LA to to live with my brother, thinking that I'd be in LA for, you know, six months to a year. Ended up staying out there for close to six, seven years. But I was in tech. So after college, uh got a tech job out there, jumped around, ended up at a really good job in LA, but then realized there's no way I'm going to get out of there. The only way I'm going to be able to afford LA if I want to stay out here.
Speaker 2:Um decided to move back, still worked in tech for a few years, um, but then uh, just kind of got tired of the corporate world and sitting behind a desk and so, um, you know my dad had a home building company. He wasn't doing it at the time but I thought you know what, I grew up with it, I kind of knew it. I had a business degree from IU. Might as well, you know, try it out. So I did and I started slow and from there it kind of grew and it grew into a um you know what I think is a pretty successful home building company today and, um you know, still going strong.
Speaker 1:Was your dad involved when you shifted from tech to home building? Was your dad involved in terms of like showing you the ropes this, that or this, or was it more of yourself?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I would say, on the business side of things, I kind of took my own approach. Um, you know, he's just uh, you know he didn't have much business experience. He kind of ran his company, ran it well, um, but yeah, he, I mean he um taught me some stuff along the road about building, about the construction. So I took that, he's helped me out and he's still around today. I mean he's still on the job site talking to the guys. I still use some of the same guys that he did. So it's kind of cool to see him around, you know, still having conversations with the guys.
Speaker 2:And so, yeah, I mean he's, he's always given me great advice, especially on like the the kind of the people side of things, not the business side. It's always like you know, make sure that you're treating people well. You're, you know that it's customer first, it's not money first. And so I took that to heart. Even in like the financing side of things, like with the bank, he's like always make sure you go into the bank. Like, if you have to make a deposit, go in the bank.
Speaker 2:Don't do it online, don't go to the tele, make sure they can see your face because you're going to need to ask them for money one day and if they know you know your face, know your name, you know they're going to be like hey, that's Brandon, I know him, he comes in, he's a great guy, that's great, yeah. And so, like, let's sit down, let's talk, because, it's true, I mean building homes, it costs a lot of money. You're going to need money. Very few builders can can, you know, do it on their own, their own cash, and so that did help out. So I formed a really good relationship with a lender that I still use today and you know, I kind of, you know, think back on that, and what my dad said is like, make sure that you know you're going in and you're showing face and you're talking to these people and it will help you out.
Speaker 1:For people that are always thinking about transitioning. Everybody you know, I think people think it's so glorious becoming a developer and building homes. They don't realize what you're dealing with on a daily basis. But you said that you brought a different facet to the business. You know, with your degree and your education. What things did you bring and what did you change from like someone that didn't have your background?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean a lot of the builders. When I was starting out, and even today, they were like carpenters, they were framers, they worked in the trades and then you decide you know what, I'm sick of working for somebody else. I can do it better, so let me be a builder.
Speaker 1:I know those are all my developers right now. There you go, every single one.
Speaker 2:And they're terrible business. There you go. And so I brought more of the and I came from a tech background which, in the building industry, even today, I mean some of the stuff they put out there, it's just it's not what I was used to with tech and with business. So I kind of brought a lot of the tech into it. I brought a lot of just what I would feel that I felt like this is how I would run a business. Even though it was a construction business, I grew up with it. It was like this is how I run it, no matter what business it was, and so I think that was a little bit different, where I kind of came in looking at one thing that you did that you were like I can't believe, because it's the same thing in real estate.
Speaker 1:Like when I came into real estate I was like no one has websites. Yeah, I mean they're like well, what do you think that's going to be?
Speaker 2:Yeah, very little websites, very little, you know, email, communication, and so, like we kind of started with what can we do? Small, let's build a website, let's put our product out there up to this point today, where we're seeing it more. But, like we use a construction management software that I don't think a lot of builders do, and so when we bring people in to sell them our home, we show them that that's one of the biggest things we show them is like you're going to be part of this process, from day one all the way to closing. They have access to it, it's on your phone, it's an app.
Speaker 1:They can follow along the construction schedule, they can follow along with because that's a huge that people are always like when's this, when's this, and that's in that freeze time, up for you it does.
Speaker 2:It's huge. Yeah, so we have project managers on site taking pictures, upload to the app. Oh, it's awesome. We're building a house right now for a couple that live in Wisconsin, so they can't be down here all the time, and they came down a couple weeks ago just to do a walk through and they told me they're like the app is unbelievable. It's like I'm sitting there, I can see what's going on, I know exactly what the schedule is, so stuff like that helped out, and I kind of started to do that when I came in to see like what, what could I utilize with tech that would help me. Like you said, like you know, free up my time free your time.
Speaker 1:That's what technology should do.
Speaker 2:And it's nice to just, you know, be off of. Like you know, are you going to text me or are you going to email me, are you going to do this or are you going to do that? It's like it's one stop. It's like this is where you can communicate and it's great. So I brought a lot of that with. But yeah, I mean, I would think the tech is probably the biggest thing that I that I kind of brought with me.
Speaker 1:How hard is it, once you got involved with developing, to deal with the subcontractors? I know you had some dads, people, but from my from, from being an agent, being very close to my developers, you know, hand in hand, picking furnitures, doing this, doing this, I'm like I'm at construction sites way too much. It's like the truth. It's always well, this sub didn't come in, or this sub didn't come in, or this happened, or subs just walking out on a job. You know you owe me 20% more. Exactly, right, just picked up a job that's going to be fivefold of that 20%, yep, and then trying to find somebody to pick up that 20, buyers don't understand. Like, when there's delays, it's you're paying the juice. Exactly, Exactly. No one wants to hold on to a fucking loan. No, no, no. I want more interest payments. Everybody wants to get to the finish line. How do you like? Was that a shock?
Speaker 2:Like it was like and the amount of like babysitting. You know most of the subcontractors I mean.
Speaker 1:There's so many people that work in a home, it's not just you know, I would think that would be the biggest like where your dad understood that like you walk in and you're like, oh, okay, so everyone's a three year old, exactly.
Speaker 2:And the other thing that helped with my dad was doing it. He actually had guys working for him. It wasn't as expensive as it is today. So like he had a crew that would start with him and then almost finish the house that would do every single sort of like you know, framing to trim.
Speaker 1:So was he hourly? They were. Oh, so there was people that did multiple trades Exactly. So now, it's not that, it's impossible, like you couldn't afford it.
Speaker 2:I mean I couldn't afford to have a crew that did all that, with insurance, with everything like that. So I mean that's why a lot of developers now builders, they have to subcontract a lot of things out because you just can't afford to have that on staff. It'd be great because you could say you're just going to stay here and you're going to do this, you know, until the project's finished, but it just doesn't work out.
Speaker 1:You have to be a big time guy to have oh yeah, I mean there are bigger builders that there's a couple builders here that have crews, but I mean they're, you know they're pumping out 50, 60, 70, 100 million a year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the subcontract I mean it's luckily I've had some guys that stuck around and you know, if you keep them busy, they're happy. Yeah, they're going to show up, they're going to work, you pay them on time or whatever they're happy. But there's always guys are like, hey, this guy's going to give me a little bit more, I'm going to go over there. And then you're stuck. You're going to be like Now, what do I do? Like I got to find someone else. You don't know what the quality work they do, so that does make it hard. But overall I mean I've been pretty lucky with my subcontractors that you know they stuck around, they know that I'm going to keep them busy, they know they're going to get paid, so it's like why leave?
Speaker 1:How was it during COVID, talking about subcontractors and when, like you know, half the people are making more money just sitting at home and then all of a sudden, all this workforce just disappears? It was tough and there's five guys that triple their you know their take because there's no one else.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean COVID was tough, both on the subcontractor. I mean COVID was the worst for me with them. I mean most builders, developers with material, material prices killed us. But yeah, subcontractors were tough, they were. It was hard to find some. You know good luck getting them to show up. If they did, you know good luck getting them to finish. So yeah, it was tough on COVID with subcontractors, but I would say COVID the hardest part, at least for me, was the material increase. And that's what like? I mean we didn't know what these increases were going to be. We thought they'd be minimal and they turned out to be just insane.
Speaker 1:So how did you like, how did you deal with basically selling a house and knowing, okay, you know you're going to get one of? The first thing you're doing is point the foundation, then you start framing. So at least the wood which went like it was $1,400. It was crazy. It was crazy At least the wood. You got it a little bit early because you weren't getting caught. But, like man, that material, yeah, I mean the lumber was.
Speaker 2:The biggest Lumber was nuts. It was like, just, for example, I mean, the lumber is the most boring thing to watch for, pricing for. Like futures forever, like it would just be a steady line. And then COVID hit and we're like, well, it's not going to go up too much, it can't, like it never has, you know in the future of it or the history of it. And so you'd bid a house, you'd say this is the cost of the house. And all of a sudden you start seeing lumber go up. You're like, okay, well, I'll take a little bit of a hit. And then it just went insane. Yeah, to a point where I took losses on a house, just because that's what I would think, yeah. And so like we didn't have any sort of escalation clause in our contracts or anything because you never had to really yeah.
Speaker 2:Material prices kind of stayed, you know, pretty much the same throughout. But once the lumber prices I mean I would have lumber for the same house year over year like one lumber bill would be 25,000 bucks. The next year was like 95,000. And you're like, how do you even you can't recoup, they can't go to the buyer and be like, hey, I need 70,000 bucks more just because the lumber went up. So I mean we took a hit pretty big on a few homes or basically just whatever, built them for nothing. But then we got, you know, smart, set down, said all right, let's update our contract, put escalation clauses in here, like a rebid process. Yeah, so if anything went above a certain percentage we'd be on the hook for some. But then you would be on the hook for some of the buyer.
Speaker 2:Most buyers, would you know, that's the one thing in the contract that they'd sit down and be like hey, explain this to me how this works you know what's going to happen, but they got it.
Speaker 2:They got it. Yeah, I mean, everyone was in the same boat. It was and it was. So the lumber really hit us hard. But you know, it took us a few houses to figure that out, and then we figured it out. And the other thing too with it is that it cost us so much, in that that, like that's why some of the home prices went up so high and stayed that high. That's what we're still selling them. Just, we're trying to, we're trying to recoup that cost that we lost.
Speaker 2:So that was an incredible demand in Northwest Indiana. Exactly, exactly. But yeah, covid, I would say the material was the biggest hit, subcontractors kind of, but yeah, material.
Speaker 1:What did you learn in that year and a half of chaos that you will take forward with you? I mean, obviously the contract changed, but is there anything else that you learned from COVID? You were like, okay, I never really even thought of that and now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, there was a lot, there was. I mean just watching pricing, like rebidding, getting out to the guys and saying like I never had to like go to the guys and be like, can you reprice this, can you do this, can you do that with their price? And now it's like it's almost quarterly realm, like, all right, guys, let's sit down, let's go through the houses, let's go through the prices, let's see where we're at. Has anything saved, anything going up? Just so that I can forecast better.
Speaker 2:Just because it was so, the prices just stayed the same for so long that you got so used to it Like there'd be times where I'd be like I wouldn't even throw a bid out there to people. I just be like, yeah, I know what's going to cost, this is what it's going to cost, here's the price. And I, you know I'd be pretty close to it. There's no way I would do that ever again. I mean, if people come in and they're like we want to build this house, here's the print, or even off my own print, I'd be like I have to. You know, let me bid it out again for you so that we know exactly where we're at before it even started.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean that's yeah, you don't want to make any mistakes like that and my developers that have had the hardest time or have just fallen away side. It's all the bidding process. It's all the bidding process. And you know, some electricians and some masons and some framers would throw a bid out and when that price increase happened, they just wouldn't do the job. They went out of the bed. No for sure. Like fuck, you come after me, yeah.
Speaker 2:For sure Like well, I can't yeah, and a lot of you're not going to sue a framer.
Speaker 2:No, exactly no. What are you going to do? And then the other thing too the customer never realized like this is all coming back to the builder, like all these subs are going it's more, it's more, it's more. Now I'm supposed to be like, all right, let me just start paying you guys more. And it's like no. So if you had to go after the subs a little bit to be like, listen guys, like we're all in this together, we're all trying to make money and, you know, trying to put a product out there. So it's a give and take.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because at some point it's not going to be like that and you're going to want a job Exactly. And I'm going to remember yeah, x, y, C, exactly.
Speaker 2:You know. So yeah, that was the another big thing too is like actually just the communication between the builder, the developer and the subs. It got much better because of COVID and it's just that open communication now of, like guys, you got to let me know ahead of time. If you're, probably, if you see any material going up, let me know, because we'll we have to adjust our schedule that way too Do you do.
Speaker 1:Have you ever gotten into spec? Or you do pretty much. So what do you like more? Do you like the spec more, where no one talks to you and you just yeah?
Speaker 2:Well, so yeah, and that's another.
Speaker 1:What's the delivery Hold on? What's the delivery spread between spec and custom? How many months?
Speaker 2:quicker can you go? Oh, it's. Yeah, I mean spec. I would say on the same house. If it was a customer and a spec, I'm probably fat. I've probably three months to four months faster on a spec.
Speaker 1:Just because.
Speaker 2:I'm making the decisions, that's so much nicer?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's, it's great. So do you do any spec where you list before you're done? So there's some customization, or is the demand so intense that you don't have to?
Speaker 2:do that A little bit of both. We'll put a spec out there like proposed construction, where we'll market it as come on in, pick your finishes. These are the finishes that you can pick. This is what you can do. I would say those don't sell as well just because people need to see something, but we'll have a model that they can walk through. But it's so hard to like walk someone through a model and say this is kind of what it'll look like, this is the same finishes. So the proposed constructions don't do as well as you'd like them to do. So what we do is, on a spec, start the construction, frame it up, probably get it to dry wall, and then start marketing it so people can actually like come through, feel the space you got to get it through drywall.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, they can't visualize it. No, and no one has any spatial recognition. So it's like, it's like if it's framed and they can see through the frame, they're like I just don't get it, which I forget all the time.
Speaker 2:I mean, I walk people through and I'm like what do you mean? You can't fit Like. This is the. This is the great room. This is the kid that I can't see it yeah.
Speaker 1:It's. I've noticed for my people that I work with that we get higher prices when it's done and staged and you could control your costs, cause no matter what you do, someone goes in this, pick finishes are like well, I don't like that, I want this, this, this. Can I go to this place and then all of a sudden, the tile that they pick is some that they pay for. But now you need a specialty machine. Your tile guy, who's used to doing X, y and Z I can't do this Chips the tile if the rebuy like it's just a fucking Pandora's box.
Speaker 2:It is Opening it up to that to the customer. It's, it's horrible and we try and like steer them away from I'm going to go to this place, I'm going to go to that place, like. No, just go to the place we use. We get the best prices, whatever you know like yeah for that reason.
Speaker 2:But then you give them option A, b and C and they go out and they're like oh no, I don't like any of those. I want that. It's always that, yeah, and no one ever picks A, b and C. Nope, never, never. And that's why I mean, if I could do specs all day long, I would, and nothing against my customers, but it's just, it's a pain dealing with them. It's a lot of hand holding and I mean it should be. It's the biggest purchase of their life. But it's like it's a relationship that you're with this person for a year and it's it's non-stop and no matter what they choose, you're going to put it in and a lot of times they're going to be like no, I don't like the way it looks.
Speaker 1:So, as as as the builder on a, on a custom house. Do you not use a third? Do you not use an agent like as a buffer? Or is it you Most of the time it's me? You got to change that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you got to change that. I mean we it's not. We have people in the office that that kind of that help that out. And actually it's funny we were talking about this. There's a reading somewhere. There's like a new position out there called the concierge for a home builder and so like they're basically that's a real estate agent.
Speaker 1:I am less though.
Speaker 2:So it's like you sit there and you're the. You're the person that the customer calls and you know that kind of?
Speaker 1:I mean, even if you put that person on salary, I mean, but did you don't want to be on site with those people?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean a lot of times I mean we've done both ways, so they're always going to be like I want this.
Speaker 1:and then look at you and you're going to be like, oh, let's see if it works.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean. A lot of times I've found, though, that the questions that, unless you get like a, you know, a seasoned real estate agent that knows new construction which they're out there there's a lot of those questions come back to us anyway. So it's kind of like God, just deal with it.
Speaker 1:Man I have. I'll have like a like when I met the guy that I'm actually going to meet at 130 today for to look at a project and we just put a couple of things on the market the first time he started working together, he would come and he'd come and I'd be like hey, what are you doing here? And he's like I'm here to ask questions. I'm like get the fuck out of here, I go, because you're going to lose $20,000 to $30,000. No, it happens, because unless you have that like no, which is really hard to do it's really tough to do because these people are spending that much money.
Speaker 1:I'm like dude, you can't be here, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, it is true that no is tough, especially when you're face to face. It's tough, it is hard.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's hard to do, like I'm. Like I'm like I'll tell my guys, come at the end, when everything's done, like negotiations and this and this, then you come and you can explain we're going to do this, this, this is what we're doing here. But until that time comes, man, don't get involved, because I can't like, if I'm there and you're there and the buyer looks at you, I mean how, and I've done it. I literally, before it opens his mouth, I'm like this, this, this, this, this, this, but I can also build a house. Yeah, so he doesn't have to be there Like I. So it's different, it is, but man, that's tough to be there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean we try to. Yeah, I try and stay on.
Speaker 1:It's great, yeah, but I mean it's tough.
Speaker 2:You get it both ways. You get. You do get people that appreciate the fact that the builders there that they're like you know, oh, it's nice that you're here. All the questions that I ask you can answer it. But, yeah, no, I mean having that buffer is important and we I mean we do. Sometimes we do have people that you know in the office that'll deal with the sales and the or not the sales, but, like the you know, meeting them up for walkthroughs and stuff like that, just so that it keeps me away from it.
Speaker 1:Now, we talked before the started and we were talking about just how crazy your market has gotten. He's example my brother in law, tony, went from Glenview to Dyer. I mean he's happier than a pig and shit. I mean he loves it there, loves it there. Cost of living, the people, authentic, non pretentious, you know, walking to your car and not worrying about getting pistol whipped I think that was the number one thing I could see, that, yeah, and, and he's just amazed about it. And and you know, the one thing he said was just like it's an absolute game changer in terms of affordability. Yeah, it is. And you know, same Rosebud, same dealership, same Starbucks, just everything is just more. It just just there's more value from top to bottom.
Speaker 2:No, there is Um, and I think once the people realize that there is that in Indiana Northwest Indiana, you know then they'll realize, ok, that this is a place I can live, because so many times that we would go out, like my wife and I, and people like, oh, where do you live? Like she grew up in Palatine, we live in the city. We decided to move to Indiana from the city. I grew up in Northwest Indiana and people are like shocked. They're like what do you mean? You moved to Indiana, like, do you live on a farm? Do you, do you have running water? Like is there an outhouse? Like no dude. Like I can get to my house faster than you get to Neighborville from the city.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, it's right there. Like everything, you know, everything's good. Um, now, I mean, we don't have all the restaurants, all the you know, uh, you know retail and stuff like that. But it's coming and and, really, if there's anything that we're missing, we're 30 minutes from the city, you know we're, we're, whatever, 45 minutes from anywhere that we need to be, that we're missing out there and um, and it's getting better, I mean with more people moving in and and and asking for that kind of you know commercial, retail or retail and restaurants and stuff like that. It's getting better and things are like rosebudges came into monster, or I think it's like.
Speaker 1:I think it's like like Bucktown. It's like if you move to Bucktown now, it's a lot different in price than it was before. The retail, the re when the retail comes, you've missed the discount. Right, cause that's the last. All right, here we come, exactly. But it's so interesting you say that like when you went out and people said, oh, you're in Indiana how the conversation is so changed. When I'm sitting at a table and someone says I live in Northwest Indiana, I will tell you. If I'm at a table with 10 people, eight people are jealous. I'm not lying.
Speaker 2:Like the, like the, the whole conversation has changed.
Speaker 1:That's good, and it's more of like I don't have the balls to do it. Yeah, like that's the guy like I want to. We're talking about it, but we, we just can't uproot and do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I could see that. I mean it is a big change, it's a culture change. But I mean, once you're there, you realize we have, I mean everything's. I don't think it's a culture change.
Speaker 1:It's a culture change, just like you're getting out of your new friends, this and this I mean. You're 50 years old, you have two friends.
Speaker 2:It's all you need right.
Speaker 1:You don't need anymore, you need more. There's no time for anymore. For now, there isn't.
Speaker 2:No, but yeah, I mean it's a great place. I mean we, the biggest thing to you right now is the South Shore line, so that's, our Metro runs east west right now, so you can go from Chicago to South Bend, and what they're doing now is they're extending itself and so now you'll be able to go, um, from Chicago to Hammon and then Hammon south to Munster basically. So that's huge, I mean, for people that still want to come to the city, still work in the city. Um, you're going to be able to hop on the train, get here in no time. What do you? What is that? How long is that commute? Um, I want to say it's under an hour. It's like 45 to 15 minutes. So it's like going to like Forks, exactly. So it's going to be quick. Um, I know they're doing it. Or Naperville, exactly.
Speaker 1:So that's. That's going to change a lot, it is.
Speaker 2:And I think it's going to create Northwest India. It's it's going to make it that true suburb of like, where people would say I got to move from the city to a certain Western suburb because it's close to the metro, um to get to the city. It's like that. So I think it will help out in that regard, where people really look at it going okay, that's a good option. Now I can live down there, I could get back to the city, I can go to a bears game, I can go downtown for dinner or whatever on the train, go to the museums and you know, and be back home, Don't have to drive.
Speaker 1:I mean it was an hour. They went to the fire game on Wednesday and it was an hour drive from Bucktown to to, uh, the stadium. Yeah, so it'd be the same thing from there, yep, and this is like four miles.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly yeah. So I think that's big. That's probably one of the biggest things.
Speaker 1:I think for people that have second homes in Michigan. How nice would that be. You're like you're halfway there so you can go to work in the morning at the city and everyone. I mean what? What do people do three days now in the office? Three days in the office three days in the office, so like you're doing your three days there and then, okay, let's just take to our our house up in whatever it is in Michigan Exactly, I don't know, I'm not a Michigan house person. Yeah, everyone seems to be there every weekend.
Speaker 2:So you're right there. Yeah, no, it's, it's a great option. So it's uh, I mean, you know, it's like anything. Some people are worried that it's going to bring crime or you know something like that, but most people are happy about it. They they like to see the fact that the trains come in, because it will make it a great option for people.
Speaker 1:Everybody has guns by you Exactly. There's going to be no crying.
Speaker 2:It's called peace by arms, exactly. And the other, like I always said too, is like criminals aren't on a schedule, like they're like the train's going to bring crime, so like there's no one hopping on like the 715, going south of like, let's go rob these people's like a make it back in the 930. Yeah, you know when's the express robbery? It doesn't happen. Like criminals are not crimes going to have whatever. But yeah, and it's Indiana, so I think a lot of people in here coming no one's going to Indiana to rob people.
Speaker 2:No, they know. Yeah, they're going to come here Exactly.
Speaker 1:That's why they're here. That's why they're here.
Speaker 2:They're not stupid people. Exactly.
Speaker 1:Car robbers do not go to Amish towns. No, they don't. No, that's not, that's not, that's not.
Speaker 2:That's not going to do well, that's a losing proposition.
Speaker 1:Oh my Lord. So housing prices in Northwest Indiana, just I mean, we talked about that. It's like basically pick a number.
Speaker 2:Exactly. Throw a number out there and you'll probably get it. And then you've realized, man, that's a low number, low numbers. Throw something higher. Yeah, it's crazy, you can't price, I don't know, I don't know how to properly price it, just that the amount of people coming down, the popularity of it. It's been good and it's tough.
Speaker 1:So when you say the amount of people coming down, what would you say is Chicago, suburb, Chicago, that area like this, you know, let's say this, 30 mile radius that are coming down? When you meet these people, how many are from Chicago and do they open up to you and say, hey, listen, this is why I'm moving.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a lot of them If you're with them in this process.
Speaker 1:You guys become basically many friends.
Speaker 2:Exactly. I would say it all depends on where. In Northwest Indiana, like Monster, where I live, is literally the first stop off, you know, from Illinois. So a lot of people from Chicago came down to Monster, built quite a few homes in Monster for people from Chicago. As you go south, it's more people that are like I want to move south away from these people that are moving from Illinois. So it's just, you know, it's kind of it's kind of nice because you get the people from Illinois moving closer to me so I could build for them. And then the people that want to move south from the Illinois people you know then I get to build for them. So it's it's a win-win for me.
Speaker 1:And I'm that map that goes from Monster Dyer and then what's the the other one? That's really nice. It's after Dyer like 10 if you go south.
Speaker 2:So if it's Monster Dyer, st John's really nice, and then Crown Point, crown Point, crown Point's really popular.
Speaker 1:They one thing about Brother Law wouldn't go there because he's like it's just too far from the highway. It's like it's like it's an extra 20 minutes. He's like he's like it's kind of in the middle. Yeah, he didn't want to go that far, he liked it. It's not, it's super nice.
Speaker 2:It's got like that. That downtown Square, you know it has like the square with all the restaurants around the downtown, the old courthouse which you find a lot in, like the Western verbs. Yeah, that's the one thing North West Indiana still needs some planning help with is like creating a true downtown for each town. But Crown Point did that and it's very. We go there for dinner all the time. It's a great community. You know, ton of housing there, ton of stuff to do, monster's getting there. They're building a lot of commercial now with retail and restaurants. But yeah, st John's growing, dyer's growing, crown Point's popular If you go further south, like Cedar Lake and stuff like that is where people are moving to to get away from this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Overpopulation, like, ok, I want more land, exactly, and people are going to get priced out, you know? Yeah, no, they will. So you find the next, the next the next exit on the highway here. This is where we want to be, yeah.
Speaker 2:And I mean, even if people weren't really familiar with Northwest Indiana, they ended up in Munster quite a bit. Our schools are great, yeah, I mean I think Munster is top five, now that we just have to get to the top five that we just got rated at for state of Indiana, which is amazing so, and it's so close to Chicago that they're like this is the first stop. I'm not too far away. If I have family in Illinois or friends in Illinois, I can still go and visit them and it's not too far.
Speaker 1:So Munster is a hotspot for people that one don't know much about Northwest Indiana and they're just kind of I mean, I know Naperville has like a really nice downtown, but I don't, I just don't get why people go to St Charles, naperville or some other place where Jesus lost his shoes up in the boonies and don't go to Indiana.
Speaker 2:I don't know. It doesn't make sense to me. I don't really know the taxes.
Speaker 1:get away from the stupidity of the government here and and you're closer I don't get it.
Speaker 2:I don't know. I mean, I do see, I think it's that, I think it is that feel of like you're if you lived in the city. You go to Naperville, you go to you know any of these other like Western verbs that have these really nice downtowns. You still get that feel. I think you can walk around.
Speaker 2:It's nice, but it's nice, but you're going to pay for it. Yeah, I mean, it's nuts, like our taxes are, you know, compared to where my wife grew up, in Palatine. Her parents still live in Palatine, I mean they're, they're half, you know, and it's just so, like on a million, like when you build the house, what's the normal price point?
Speaker 1:at 700 to a million to five.
Speaker 2:I mean we're all over the place. We have developments that are entry level, that you know go from three to four hundred thousand. I go all the way up to a million. What's the tax?
Speaker 1:on a million dollar house.
Speaker 2:So Indiana, what's nice about Indiana? It is a cap state. So one percent property tax cap and then so from that you have different. You know each town will have different kind of rough rentums or something like that. They will increase that. Oh, they'll add a little juice. So one percent goes to the state, exactly so one percent cap. But yeah, I would say on a million dollar house With exemptions, you're probably around like seven or eight grand for property taxes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like 15 16,000 here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's about half compared to like most. Yeah, Illinois.
Speaker 1:That's nuts. Yeah, do they do reassessments or how do, or is it only changed, like Cali does on trades?
Speaker 2:So yeah, so only on trades, they'll do a reassessment. If, for some reason, you pull a permit and you, like you know You're doing an addition or you're doing to finish the basement, you pull permit, because that's what they look at.
Speaker 1:Then no one pulls permits. No, try not to Just addition. I don't know Just showed up, to show it up.
Speaker 2:Some guys showed up, built an addition. He walked away.
Speaker 1:We love it, though. So that's that's and that's like. So let's just say you have a million dollar house and that's an extra $8,000 pending rates. I'm talking about you're living two or three months for free.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's not even property taxes that you gave me, like we talked earlier. You know we had a, we were living in Bucktown and we sold our place, decided to go over to Indiana and we are a daycare here in Bucktown and it was a mortgage payment every month and so we went to Indiana and it was nothing you know we go to. So it's little things like that that you know you cross that state line and you're getting a raise now it's easier for you to move to Indiana because you were from there.
Speaker 1:How did your wife like what was the conversation? Or was she like let's do.
Speaker 2:No, she wasn't it and we did what everybody does like. We were like we want to kind of move the city. Yeah, we had our your first child and we're like, oh, we just need a yard, we need, you know, we want to get out of our townhouse, that kind of thing. And so we looked everywhere, we looked at all the burbs, we looked, you know, close to her parents, close to mine, and it was a tough sell because I, it's coming from the city Palatine's, got everything you know. And then North West Indiana was kind of, you know, it's it's a nice community, it's got a little, you know, here and there kind of stuff. But even their ten years yeah, close to ten years now, and so I think it was just when we sat down we found a lot that we absolutely loved in an older subdivision, with mature trees and stuff like. So that helped. It wasn't like a new development where you know it's gonna be 30 years and you could sell, you could sell to your wife, we could have exactly exactly.
Speaker 2:So that's the old. We didn't buy, you know. Obviously we built and so once you saw the Lot, the subdivision, a lot of the people in our subdivision moved from the city. So it was a lot. It was easy to, like, you know, meet friends and stuff like that. And then when we just sat down and did the budget and the financing and it made sense, you're like going, you know, here's Indiana, here's Illinois, I mean, this is the way to go.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, and the thing too is like we're like if we hate it, sell the house and move like, alright, then go back to Illinois.
Speaker 1:That's always tell people like it's like you're drop chain to the place.
Speaker 2:No, and it's so close it's not like we're moving six hours away.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, literally 45, Georgia exactly talky.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So it's like you know, hey, if we hate it here we move, or like we can't stand. North was Indiana Like let's get out of here and we'll go somewhere else.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you're building the house, you're gonna make money on the house, I mean, and that's kind of why I bought the lot too.
Speaker 2:I was like, if I, if we're not gonna move here, I'll still build a house on it and I'll still sell it. You know, I know they'll do well. So it's like it's kind of a win-win for me.
Speaker 1:How are you seeing? Most of your leads come in word of mouth Internet.
Speaker 2:Yeah, most of ours are either referral Word of mouth. We're just seeing, like you know, in a development that we're in, you know, seeing our science team, where a product goes up and they call and I know after this we're gonna talk, we're gonna have lunch and talk about marketing and Instagram and social media.
Speaker 1:Like, you're seeing that social media start to really take its hold, for sure, and it's getting out and like. So what do you see in terms of how Builders are using social media to get, I mean obviously videos and stuff like that. But have you talked to other builders and say, hey, listen, it works. Are you getting feedback from those people?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean not so necessarily to other builders, but you can just see it now on Instagram, like builders that you'd follow or they've never even had a presence on social media All of a sudden have a presence on social media, and I think a lot of it is not the actual builder doing it, it's probably, you know, finding someone that has the ability to do it. I mean, this is like a, you know, kind of a degree that never even existed before.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and like all of a sudden. Now it's like social. You know you could use social media degree whatever and so I think Builders again smart, that that's next generation that are gonna be their customer are gonna buy a house on their phone. You know, it's not like they're not gonna come to an open house. They're not gonna go out and like drive around like we used to do and and try and find that perfect location there. They want to find something that's on their phone that looks cool, that they can, you know. You know, look at right away.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's also very nice. I mean, I know you have the website, but I will tell you it's a great resume. Yeah, I could see that it's like them. For me, the biggest feedback I always get is that when I have clients that want to refer me out, they're like I just give them your insta. He's like oh nice, here's his insta. He's talking on a 24 7. I'm like this is everything they does. You'll see what he sells, you see what he buys and this and that. So I think that's something that you're gonna really enjoy is when you're At your place or you're at your house and say this is how we do kitchens. Hey, I build this way. Most builders build this way. This is why I build this way and this is what's great about it. You know, I'm this person. I'm a second generation. This was my father's. I mean, I think that's gonna be a huge benefit for you in terms of getting yourself out to those people and as a referral yeah for sure. Referral source.
Speaker 2:Yeah, cuz I mean a lot of stuff it doesn't really come in from the website. You know they'd like to see the website, like see your product, but I couldn't even. I don't even know if we've ever really. Maybe a handful of houses came from like, oh it was on your website, it's, our house already liked it, let's, you know, let's yeah, and so it's a lot of its word of mouth. But yeah, I mean, now I think a lot of it comes from the social media. It's crazy Instagram, facebook, tiktok, whatever. Are you gonna be doing dances?
Speaker 1:Oh no maybe I don't know. Let's get out there and dance. What things do you see now that People want in that luxury Market in Northwest Indiana in terms of features that are newer, features that you guys never would have thought about doing Three, four years ago? Like, where have you seen you're pushing luxury boundaries?
Speaker 2:So the and that's also social media. So, like people are, our customers are like hey, check this out, check this page. Yeah, this is what I like, covid. One thing from Covid was like the office space. Obviously we always try to put an office. There's like a flex room. We called it that someone could work from home. Now people are asking for two. Yeah, both need an office.
Speaker 1:I know sales on that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, exactly, I have to like if they're like work from home.
Speaker 1:I'm like, well, somebody fucking work from the kitchen.
Speaker 2:Yeah right, exactly working a bedroom work, I gotta sell this yeah, so that was big people. You know they want the two bedroom, I mean sorry, the two offices. Do you put them?
Speaker 1:on the first floor or you put them on the top. Most time it's first floor. Okay, we try, and the way we buy the kitchen is one up front.
Speaker 2:It's like if you walk in the house that.
Speaker 1:So, like the rise, yeah, that's the suburb, yeah the flex. But like.
Speaker 2:What we try and do is not stick it somewhere where they don't have any sort of natural light or they're looking out their backyard. So a lot of times we'll do one on the front and one in the back corner, and we kind of we've done floor plans where it's even has like an outdoor covered area and the people like, oh, this is great, and go out there with a cup of coffee yeah, you know, and they still feel like you know they're working, but they're kind of so multiple office space this is huge. That's huge For a while. Like two stories are still real big for us.
Speaker 2:You know, I got the four bedroom, five bedroom, a lot of space upstairs, I would say. The biggest thing, though, is like the finishes changed within a few years, and so now I would say what everyone's kind of going after is that I don't know if there's probably a term for it I kind of call it like a I don't know what you want to call it Ikea or Nordic farmhouse or something where it's just like you know it's. It's very light, like neutral tones, you know it's great about that it's cheap to build.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is. There's no, there's no moldings. No, no, there's no heavy Carpentry work, yeah, yeah it's just, it's clean, it's clean.
Speaker 2:I mean, I don't know how many times people have come in now and they're just like I want, like they're like let's pick pink colors, like I just want white walls. Yeah, all right, easy enough, do you guys?
Speaker 1:We're getting into it really big now, like the steps and the ceiling versus moldings, like do you have, oh yeah, yeah, the step moldings? Yeah, is that that's almost like a throwback to like the 1800.
Speaker 2:We're seeing a lot of stuff that's coming back. I mean, that's how it is though.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's, it's a close, so I mean you know, whatever, that's why I don't change my clothes. There you go. I'm gonna be in style at some point at one point, but yeah, so we're seeing a lot.
Speaker 2:I mean, what's huge is just like the kind of Complementary or contrasting tones where it's like we have white cabinets and then the islands of different colors. Yeah the wood. You know you got white cabinets and then you got some beams going through. Yeah, you know fireplaces took off again, where they just want these like decorative, you know, surrounds and stuff like that. So we're seeing a lot more people asking for Kind of more detail. But easy, like you said, like easy, yeah, not this. Like, oh, my gosh, we got to do all this.
Speaker 1:I need a three-piece mold, exactly no it's just basic, easy stuff and it looks cool. Do you guys do a lot of radiant heat in the basement, or is that not big?
Speaker 2:You know we've we've gotten asked for it a lot and then, once they see the price, they're like no, we don't need it, it's not that bad, it's it's price. I mean it is kind of pricey.
Speaker 1:What are they? What are they charged for? Like the system, I'd just like to put it in 10 to 15.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but it feels good, it is nice.
Speaker 2:We do it a lot in like bathrooms but, it's almost like the electric underneath, like the mat. Oh man, it is nice.
Speaker 1:My basement feels like Mexico, because it's not that heat that hits you. It's just oh, it's like you walk down and like I love it. Oh, it's great, I love rating here. It's it's almost a standard here.
Speaker 1:Okay, like if you don't have it, people are like it's weird, yeah, we don't have it we get a standard of the steam, the rating, and we've done steam a lot and all the finishes that you're talking about like it's not contemporary. It's contemporary but it has some warmth to it, like that's what people want. They don't want that stark, like like Ikea sometimes get or that Nordic gets, like that blonde wood, and it's like really stark. We did a house with a nine by 12 green island and the green people I mean greens, blues do they get out?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, we've done blue. We've done like turquoise islands and like with a tile in the back. Well, as you've done. We did want purple, you know, so it's like whatever they want Purple island, purple cabinets. Was it lavender or something?
Speaker 1:No, lavender's cool.
Speaker 2:Lavender's cool, but yeah, I mean it's great, not grimace purple, it was what the customer wanted. Yeah, well, would you do it in a speck?
Speaker 1:Oh well, no, we did that in specks. Yeah, no that's Chicago. Yeah, it's a little.
Speaker 2:It's an Indiana, come on, that's gonna scare people, can't put rollers out there. Yeah, camo, camo's huge Camo wallpaper.
Speaker 1:Is it? No, oh, my God, where do you see things going in the next three or four years out by you, I mean, obviously retail's coming in exploding. The South Shore line is gonna be fantastic for you guys. I mean, do you see these turning into neighborhood areas?
Speaker 2:I do. The one thing that has not come through my area at least, but I guarantee it will is the buy and knock down and build. So that's like, not popular, that's not good.
Speaker 1:There's just enough land, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, there's not, though that's where we're getting, like Munster's, like there's very few lots left in Munster, very few lots left. Well then it's coming, that's what's coming. It's just not there yet. But I do see that, like, if the people still keep coming from Illinois to Indiana, that's gonna be your only option, like if you wanna be in Munster, there's probably 20 lots left, that's it, and then after that it's gonna have to be the. You're gonna have to move somebody out, exactly. So I see that happening a lot, cause I just don't see people from the city or from Illinois moving so far south that they're so removed from this.
Speaker 1:Do you ever think about buying? Like if I like a neighborhood, like I love this neighborhood up by Kilbourne Park and I bought just a teeny little home as a land bank and I have two girls that rent from me and they cover the mortgage a little bit of money here, but it just I want dirt Do you think people will start buying these homes to hold them? I do, that's a good business. Yeah, and I see it happening once. Like just knocking on people's door and saying like hey, I'll give you People have been there for 60 years, like I helped you.
Speaker 2:There's 50 grand over land, exactly, yeah, but I just don't, like it'd have to be someone that sees that vision in the future. Cause, like the the val, like you could buy the home but they're sale price of that. Like if you bought a $200,000 house or $150,000 house, knock it down and then try and build like an $800, $900,000 house in that area. It's not, it's not there yet Because the rest of the houses aren't there, yeah, so it just takes that first. You know a couple of people to do it. What's the average lot size? So in India, like most like 50 by 200. No, 90 is probably the 90.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 90 by 150 is standard.
Speaker 2:In Munster we're on building that we build a lot. It's 100 by 150. So bigger lots, ton of land.
Speaker 1:What's that? What's that dirt run 100 by 150.
Speaker 2:That's in a nice, in a nice area, so starting like 150 and goes up from there. So there's a couple that are like 220 for the land. That's not bad at all. It's expensive for Indiana.
Speaker 1:Is that? Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:You go to St John and you can get a lot for 70 grand, oh my God, yeah and you get a massive home for under a million bucks easily 7,800 thousand dollars. You're talking 4,000, 5,000 square feet.
Speaker 1:What 4,000 dollar taxes?
Speaker 2:Yeah, why not?
Speaker 1:Jesus, what are we?
Speaker 2:doing wrong up here what?
Speaker 1:are you doing wrong? I'm. I'm already in India, so we'll leave you on this. How happy were you? We talked about this, so we can just slam the mayor a little bit. How happy were you with John's? I was like I was actually. What was I doing yesterday? I think I was. No, it was this morning. I was in the shower and I was like man, how much money would I donate to Johnson's campaign if I was a builder in Northwest Indiana? I would be like here's the money, man Cause I mean so like anytime you say like so, anytime you give a slowdown. All of a sudden, chicago does something stupid and it's gotta be great for business.
Speaker 2:It is. It's a. You see a lot of people coming down here for that reason, for taxes or if there's crime, crime's a big one. Yeah, that they come down there and it. Yeah, you know, I guess when Johnson's, if he gets elected, or when he got elected, it helped a lot. Yeah, people are just like I'm tired of it. I think two people, they don't know where the property taxes are gonna go here. It's just like it could be. Today is gonna be this and then tomorrow is gonna be massive.
Speaker 1:I liked that it's. I liked that it's linked to that trade Cause. Then you get actual value. I have a building and they doubled my taxes extremely bad. And I had bought the property that year that they doubled my taxes. They said a building was worth $2.2 million. I bought the building for 1.2. I hired an attorney, showed them the closing statement, showed them everything and they should adjust it. And they literally said we are clients of real estate agents, we didn't pay fair market value. And I'm like dude, it was on the market for like 200 days and they have like. They have like a 1.4 didn't get bought, a 1.3 didn't get bought and 1.2 is where I purchased it and a 1.2 property took my taxes to $40,000. 40 grand. Now people don't understand. Is that that's great? It's $40,000. You know what's gonna pay that? My tenants. Yeah, exactly. Price go up, yeah, and move somewhere else because there's nowhere else.
Speaker 2:No, yeah, no, it's crazy, and I don't see it ever fixing itself here.
Speaker 1:No, according to him, we have a $538 million deficit.
Speaker 2:Just so, stuff like that. It's like all right, open the doors, we're gonna get more people. That's what I'm saying but that's the thing too. It's funny and I don't wanna get too political, but like these people that are coming now from Illinois, we try and like I don't know how to explain or politely tell them is like you moved from Illinois for a reason to Indiana. Like, let's just remember, don't turn it. That's the stuff.
Speaker 1:But the people I know that are moving, they don't wanna be here because of the politics. So you're getting from the people that I moved. You're getting the people you want.
Speaker 2:Good, yeah, so that's what we just don't want.
Speaker 1:We don't want to have to turn into this. Well, people got nervous in Texas. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:It's like, dude, you're moving here for a reason, For a reason like that's like we were all fine, we were good. Go back. Yes, go back, oh my God. But yeah, it's helped. I mean, I know a lot of people talk about the crime and with not living here anymore, you just do whatever the news says. Yeah, I mean, sure it's not as bad. Obviously it's not good. No, it's four times as bad.
Speaker 1:There you go. So there, you only catch him when something's on video. That's it. Everyone's like oh, did you see that video? I'm like dude, that's like. I'm like, did you see that video? I'm like, first off, it was behind my office and I go, and second off, that's like yeah.
Speaker 2:Weekly. Oh, it's crazy seeing it. I mean even like where we lived in Bucktown. It's just crazy seeing some of the stuff that's going on, man.
Speaker 1:But we'll limit. Yeah, exactly, I just can't. It's just great for business, it is Shitty for me. There you go. Yeah, All right, great man, I really appreciate the time. Can you just give us someone that's looking for a fantastic builder in Northwest Indiana and wants more information, basically, even just a little bit of handholding the process and a little bit about where you live in Munster? Do you just build Munster? You do die, or two, yeah.
Speaker 2:So Northwest Indiana is kind of split up between two counties, lake County and Porter County. Ok, porter County is like Velcro, rezo, chesterton, that area, oh, that's four. Yeah, so we stick to.
Speaker 1:I would call that. I'm sure it's not, but that to me that's central.
Speaker 2:Not quite yet. Yeah, it's still Northwest Indiana, but yeah, so we're Lake County, so we're the Munster, dyer, st John, crown Point, cedar Lake, areas like that and you service all those areas, yeah, yeah. So I kind of switched up our approach a few years ago, where I would just build anywhere If someone came into me and was like I want to build the house in St John, munster, bottle, bottle, and it just didn't work out. It was like we're everywhere. Yeah, it's too much, just too much.
Speaker 1:So now what we do when you get successful, you become hyperlocal. Yeah, exactly, when you get hyperlocal, you get even more successful.
Speaker 2:So now that's what we do. So we just concentrate on certain areas that have available land, available lots, promote those, build them. When we're done, we move on and go from there. So yeah, right now we're in Munster, cedar Lake. We actually have a new development kind of up in Hammond.
Speaker 2:So yeah, we kind of do it as a I kind of consider myself like semi-custom, so we don't do a lot of the from start to finish, working with an architect and bringing people in. Well, you don't want to work with an architect, and so we kind of say here's our plans. If you like any of them, great, we can make a few tweaks here and there. If not, yeah, we will sit down with some of them and you've got like four or five different types of Exactly so and then. But they can all pick their finishes and pick stuff like that.
Speaker 2:But yeah, it all depends on the way that we do. It Depends on the development. We have certain developments that are more entry level or more like move down. So we just give them certain amount of finishes to make it a process easier for them and they kind of that works well, because it's a huge process to go through the whole customization of a home, but if you can give them a few options that they still feel like, hey, this is going to be my home. You made it easy. The selections that I'm getting are like what's in trend right now or whatever you want to say. They do enjoy that. So that's kind of how we felt that we've been more successful over the past couple of years. But I mean, obviously if you're building a million dollar home, they're going to expect a lot more. So we're kind of on both sides.
Speaker 1:So where can they reach out to you? Website, whatever you want, how people can get a hold of you. Fire away right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so homes of distinction websites, hodbuilderscom. Easiest way is probably either email sales at hodbuilderscom, we're on Insta homes of distinction. So yeah, any of those will work. You can, even if you own a phone, do 219-865-2307. Who doesn't own a phone? I guess the landline is what I meant. Everyone has a cell phone, but they'll be on Insta. They don't even know how to dial a phone. They don't talk to people anymore, that's true. They text me.
Speaker 1:All right. Thanks so much, brandon. I appreciate your time. Everyone, this will be dropped in a couple of weeks. Make sure to subscribe to Spotify, Buzzsprout, I mean anywhere you find we're on and we'll talk to you then Be good and have a great fall and we'll see you guys in a couple of weeks. Thanks so much.