All Forum Posts by: Juan Cristales

We sub-contract out all the trades. It's a function on someone on your team knowing and understanding the inspections and what needs to be done. 

What do you mean by slap-dash? Do you mean fast work that is done inexpensively? 

My question is always the same, who is "inspecting" the work?

If the work is being done quickly and inexpensively, but it is passing inspection... what's the issue.

If the work is being done quickly and inexpensively, but it is not passing inspection or there is no one to inspect it, then yes, that is definitely an issue. 

I'm in Willis. Come check out some of our projects!

Juan-

So... I have a cool friend. His name is Andy. 

Andy has 4 kids like I do. Andy does my taxes. Andy and I also ride bicycles for sport on the weekend. Andy is my Bro-FF.

Anyway. He knows what I do for a living, OBVIOUSLY and he asked me for some contacts when it came to a new roof for his house. 

I was clear: "Bro.. a new roof for your house, won't be JUST a new roof... there will be MORE stuff that will need to be done and I just want to warn you."

He was like... "Sure.. how bad can it be?"

Whelp... here goes:

That facia is rotted out, need to remove the gutters... can't save them.... OK.

Took off gutters and some fascia... the band on the cornice there is rotted out (water from the gutters)... Needs to be replaced BEFORE the roof gets done. Let's take that out... OK.

You have a CRAZY soft spot here so the DECKING also needs to be replaced there... and when we do it, some of those pieces of brick simply aren't going to stay on as they were already a little LOOSE... OK.

I'll get a masonry guy out there.. OK.

Masonry guy says, Juan, I don't know how they built this house when it was new but there is no wire mesh behind the brick. I'm sorry, I can't work on it because it will reflect on my reputation if I just "patch it back up" and put the brick back. 

So what needs to be done?

I'm going to do this ENTIRE area and the owner won't have to worry about the brick ever having to crack or break off like he has up to this point. Obviously doing the ENTIRE house is out of the question but at least this part will be done correctly. Ok... 

So... I tell my good friend Andy, who up to this point has been VERY gracious and patient... we still need to paint the siding that was replaced and we need gutters still... we still good? He's like yeah... All good bro.

Cool... 

This is why I don't like doing remodels any more... it's never just a simple roof replacement... it's always a TON more work. 

Build new.

It's so much better.

Build 2 Rent,

Juan-

NOT saying you should do this but I have seen some investors slightly (some not-so-slightly) "inflate" the construction cost to recoup some of their money.

The bigger challenge I think you face is getting with a General Contractor / Builder who has your same goals aligned with you. 

Fee Builders will agree to a "Cost Plus" model of offering their services. The challenge in some cases is that the Fee Builder isn't necessarily aligned with your goal of making a profit. The Fee Builder will simply find their most trusted contractors and their fee on top. There is nothing wrong with that. However, it can lead to potentially a misaligned interest as the Fee Builder is going to make money whether he finds you the best deal or gets you a retail deal. In both scenarios, the Fee Builder gets paid. In a retail scenario, they might get paid more. 

Juan- 

I totally get what you guys are saying about all of this here but my question is how are the Big Box Builders doing it nationwide? The top 2 new home builders built/sold over 160K+ houses in 2024. 

https://lbmjournal.com/top-ten-builder-share-rises-again/#:~:text=The%20top%20five%20highest%20producing,%25%20and%204.6%25%2C%20respectively.

How are they doing it at scale? In practically every state? Profitably. 

Sometimes I think I overthink some of these things. 

Just wondering. 

Definitely a framer function... 

Over time, the more projects we do, the team just gets smaller and tighter. Contractors get to know each other and make a good team. 

We are the owners take on the role of Head Coach - the coach is always looking for talent. I'm very happy with this guy. We've used him many times before. His walls are straight and for the most part, he rarely has to redo any work. This was once in about 3 year mess up so I'm not mad at him for it. 

Check it out BP Fam! 

Walking past this window on a new construction Duplex we're building in the greater Houston market. 

Looks normal:

- Window is set and level

- Window flashing is in

- Siding is installed

- SOMETHING IS OFF though... what is it? 

IT WAS INSTALLED UPSIDE DOWN!!!!

How do I know? The yellow circles are "weep holes" that allow for water to exit if it goes inside the window.

(Before we all start BLASTING CONTRACTORS, hear me out on a couple of things)

1. I've been building for several years and didn't see it right away. This is my responsibility.

2. It was HOTTER THAN HOT in Texas during the weeks when this was being put up. If you have never experienced strenuous physical labor in extreme heat, it's very easy to call out mistakes like this. Heck, I remember having a full-on fever while patrolling the streets of Iraq on foot... I was NOT at a 100%... not by a long-shot.

3. Maybe you don't have the life-experience I do but I will tell you that things like this, of course need to be corrected, but taking an easy approach... giving the contractor the benefit of the doubt because it was not intentional but absolutely SCORCHING OUTSIDE... will take you a longer ways than just blasting this dude.

What kind of challenges have you had in the past with new construction?

Build2Rent,

Juan-

 I had never thought of that... good option.

 We have the same issue in the Houston Greater market. Finding land at a reasonable cost has gotten tough. All real estate has gotten expensive which is why I'm such a big advocate for Build 2 Rent. 

I like it! Send them over for review. Saw a couple of them not too long ago (couple months probably) but the rehab on some of those are just going to be pretty heavy. I thought they might be tear downs and start over but who knows.

 Thanks man! Those were actually two completely different projects but yeah, I'm sticking to new construction of duplexes. It is MUCH more predictable than fix and flips with lots of surprises.