Real Estate Explained

Inside the World of Spec Builds, Hidden Cost of New Constructions & Custom Luxury Projects in the DMV with Maseeh Exeer

• Nick Bush

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In this episode of Real Estate Explained, host Nic Bush sits down with Maseeh Exeer—former top-producing agent turned custom builder—to unpack the real story behind building luxury homes.

Maseeh shares his journey from selling $17M+ in real estate by age 20 to walking away from sales and into construction, where he discovered what most buyers—and even agents—get wrong about the building process.

From shady spec homes to transparent budgeting, from finding the right GC to understanding how water runoff can delay your whole project, Maseeh breaks it all down. If you’ve ever thought about building, renovating, or investing in ground-up development—this is your blueprint.

🎧 Hit play to hear how smart strategy, not square footage, builds real value—and why it pays to know what happens behind the walls.

👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review, and share this with someone who’s thinking about building or remodeling.


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Speaker 1:

Rolling. We got my seat in the building. We start cold like Joe Rogan. Watch. One day this podcast is going to blow up and they're just going to see every intro. I'm like we start cold like Joe Rogan. I tell everyone. I tell everyone that this is how it goes.

Speaker 2:

You are a good podcaster, though, because I watch your videos, yeah, like I think you naturally have it. I don't think you practice, you probably just naturally have it, you know how to come up with the questions be engaging, you know, and actually listen, ask follow-up questions that are actually related, not like off-topic. So it's pretty good.

Speaker 1:

Thanks, bro. I appreciate that you know Masih's giving me the confidence to go into this episode with Before we get started. Man introduce yourself.

Speaker 2:

So my name is Masih. I have been in real estate for the last seven years. I got my license at 18, full-time real estate agent until 2022. End of 2022, then I transitioned into building and I still have my licenses. I still practice real estate, but not as much as I used to to, as I'm more focused on, like building and construction yeah, that's dope, bro.

Speaker 1:

I uh, you posted that picture of yourself. Um, I guess you were in kabul, were you?

Speaker 2:

in oh yeah, when I was so nine years ago yeah I was in kabul, afghanistan yeah and that's how, like um, I learned english. Um, I was 16 years old back then, so I was learning English to come to America for schooling. And that's how it all started.

Speaker 1:

That's crazy, right. And now you've had basically a real estate career as an agent and have transitioned into building, and not like a BS builder either. You're with one of the best in my opinion, one of the best companies um in the area, with like one of the best brands.

Speaker 2:

You guys build cool stuff and like less than a decade you know so way to hustle, bro and like the way I look at it is like I don't want to say that like sometimes people see us and like, oh my god, this might be so expensive. But I, my belief, is that luxury is not a price point. You can get a a luxury renovation for $50,000 or $100,000. You can get a luxury renovation for $2 million, $3 million. It's not that luxury is like always have to be expensive. It's just that a lot of times, like when people look at a big builder a builder does a lot of cool stuff automatically they just think that it's expensive. You know, it's not really the case. It's the quality you're actually paying. What's expensive is that if you built something cheap and you have to replace it two years from now, that's more expensive than if you actually do it right the first time and then that lasts there for 10 years for you to enjoy it, and when you sell it, the next person can enjoy it for another 10 years.

Speaker 1:

That makes a lot of sense. So let's talk about that right. So you were a real estate agent and you transitioned out, kind of out of real estate in a way, into the builder world, so like less to becoming a builder. So let's talk about how did that happen? Like why'd you get into real estate? Like were you crushing it? I know you were, but like tell the people how you were crushing it and why decide to transition out.

Speaker 2:

So my first year in real estate, I sold 6 million. Yeah, I was 19 years old. That's a lot of money.

Speaker 2:

For 19 years I was cold calling every day Literally 7.30,. I would get on the computer 8 am. I would start calling until 5 pm, dang Every single day. And that's how I got like those leads, which was expireds and open houses, for my first year. Second year I did 17 million in real estate Same thing, open houses, cold calling and circle prospecting. And third year I think I did like 11 million, 12 million, because it was like a COVID year. A lot of deals fell through, a lot of people were on the sideline, but still it was a pretty good year for me right.

Speaker 2:

So then I got some clients that wanted to buy land to build their home. So I started interviewing builders for them. And then that's how I realized I was like man, some of these builders are so bad they can't communicate. I'm sending them a client. They don't appreciate that they can't. They don't take the time to actually educate the client so they understand what product they're selling. Right, they were very unresponsive. So I was like this is like this is really terrible experience for my folks.

Speaker 2:

And then when that passed, I started selling lots to spec home builders because I was cold calling, I was trying to be more intentional. I would call in Falls Church, mclean, vienna, fairfax and I'll sell those lots to spec home builders. And then I realized like look, I made only $25,000, $30,000 on this commission. 12 months, 13 months from now my builders would call me like Masih, thank you so much for that lot. We just had a home run. I walked away with like 400K. I was like it just hit me because I was like wait a minute, I was so happy with the $25,000 finder's fee or commission, but they made 400K. What am I doing wrong? And that's where I was like okay, I need think this like differently because they had more control of their time. They travel all the time. They made more money. So if they did four or five of those deals, they made more money than a realtor that sold 100 homes.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, now imagine being a realtor selling 100 homes. It's a lot of work, a lot of work, right. Yeah. Even if you have an admin, you still have to work. And then that's where I was like I gotta get into this. So that's the light bulb just came on then and it was like, okay, I need to find a way to jump into this, because that's the vehicle that I want to be in yeah and I um, so you work for a layer homes.

Speaker 1:

Right is that it's just a layer homes.

Speaker 2:

The layer homes. Uh, so our branch is a layer homesomes Arlington.

Speaker 1:

Okay, and I got familiar with Allaire because I used to live in South Arlington in the Penrose neighborhood and there are a bunch of houses. When I lived in this apartment there are a bunch of houses and I felt like Allaire was just picking off the neighborhood one by one right and I was like man, these houses look great, they're, they're luxurious. I thought, you know, I thought they were just a boutique builder, but they're actually not a boutique builder, right, they're a they're like kind of franchise business.

Speaker 2:

So Allaire is like a very unique model. It's the first of its kind in all of North America. It has never been done before. It's like a boutique model, but scalable. We have over a hundred offices in five provinces in 13 states across north america and also each office is like independently owned and operated and it gives the customer like a boutique experience, like a very customer customized experience, but while being backed by a bigger brand, which means more available discounts on products, luxury products Like, for example, if you're buying something for 100 offices, you can go to the manufacturer and negotiate better deals. Okay, right.

Speaker 2:

And you can pass those savings to your customers. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

The second thing is we are fully transparent. So very few builders in this area in all of North America is transparent. So for us, we are super transparent. So very few builders in this area in all of North America is transparent. So for us, we are super transparent. You will know exactly how much we are making. You will know exactly how much your project manager is making. You will know exactly how much a carpenter is making. You can go in your software like we have our own in-house software that our clients share. They can go and they can see every single invoice we pay to the cent and to the dollar, like exactly there's nothing for us to hide and that's why can go, and they can see every single invoice.

Speaker 2:

we pay to the cent and to the dollar, like exactly, there's nothing for us to hide.

Speaker 2:

And that's why we attract a lot of people that are like hey, I don't want to get screwed over, I would rather know how much you made. I'm okay with that, but I want to know what products you're putting into my house and I want to be involved in every single aspect of it. And that's why we attract a little bit of those people that are that want to be involved and they want to be educated throughout the process when they build their home.

Speaker 1:

And do you feel like people are more like do you think that's like a one-time thing hey, we're open book, you're going to be able to see everything and people are like over your shoulder wanting to see everything all the time. Or are people like yeah, I'm down to collaborate on the project overall, but I don't actually need to see the software. How many people actually want to be involved? Well, for us.

Speaker 2:

They have to have the software. It's up to them if they're going to check it every day or not, they have to have it to approve things, approve all the work. They have to approve it through the software, but it's up to them.

Speaker 2:

If they want to check it daily, once a month or at the end of the project, they can do whatever they want to do. They have access 24-7. They can audit us any day they want to. So if they feel like, okay, I'm not getting something, something doesn't make sense, why is these invoices not adding up? They can go on their computer at 2 am because they can just audit us and send me an email tomorrow with all of his questions.

Speaker 1:

And to be able to have that much control over your project is like unheard of, because the typical contractor and builder is like no, we don't want you to evolve, we got it, we're doing the work. You pay 30,. You know here, give us 30 up front, 50 up front, we'll do the project. Oh, it's not all beautiful. I guess we'll come back one time and fix it, but they're not really. You know, I always say, whenever someone does work in my house, whether that's like a contractor renovating a kitchen or like a plumber, electrician I'm always like hey, I'm a real estate agent, I need you in my network. So like, do a good job in my house and there will be referrals to follow. And there are just a lot of guys that don't follow through. You know Exactly. And so it is very interesting and it's it's cool that you guys have the model and so, um, are you guys doing renovations, all ground up projects like teardowns? What's the scope?

Speaker 2:

so I like to say the more, the more complex a project this, the more qualified we are okay so that means really heavy up renovations, meaning to the point where we take a 1,500 square feet home that is grandfathered in Arlington as an example, where if you had to tear it down and rebuild, you have to build it smaller, but if you fully renovate it you can actually use the old footprint and build a bigger home.

Speaker 2:

That's interesting Right, so sometimes in those projects we do underpinning. So let's say you've been to those Arlington homes where you go in at six feet and build a bigger home. That's interesting, right? So sometimes in those projects we do underpinning. So let's say you've been to those Arlington homes where you go in at six feet yeah. In the basement. It's only six feet. You barely can walk in there.

Speaker 1:

I'm like that's it.

Speaker 2:

But you can't really move the first floor because you have a height limit. You can't just raise the house up, right, because you have a height limit from the county, but what you can do is you can go down while keeping the first floor. So there's people living in the first floor while we are digging the basement underpinning, dropping the slab like almost a foot, yeah, or sometimes like 15 inches yeah making the basement.

Speaker 2:

That was like six foot to like seven foot, seven, four, eight feet um basement and people are still living upstairs. That's crazy bro so to do projects like that and also fully new builds, so we do a bunch of those as well that are custom homes ground up. But again, the more complex it is, the better we are qualified to take it on.

Speaker 1:

Do you have a favorite project? Would you prefer to do a brand new build or would you prefer to do an addition project?

Speaker 2:

I think they both have its own benefits. A full new build, less surprises because you can follow everything. You're building it brand new. I'm working on a project right now in South Arlington. It's a full house renovation and once a week I'm getting a call that there's something that doesn't add up because something is not in the plans and something that came up that didn't work as planned.

Speaker 2:

You know like you're involved in those situations, which is more challenging, yeah, but at the same time very rewarding, because you can look at a house that's built from 1950s, 1940s. Once it's transformed it's still that house from the 1950s, but when you go inside you're like amazed by the quality of the work and how much it transformed from what it was and what it is. And that's why it's a lot more rewarding, because you're like, hey, this project I had to actually think a lot. You know I've had to get the structural engineers out on this project so many times, because it's not just like, oh, you can just put this stud over there. It's like past that You've got to get a structural engineer out to look at it again, redesign the plans, for us to implement it on site.

Speaker 2:

But once it's done, it's a lot more rewarding because from the outside it just looks like an old home but when you go inside it just like amazes you're like the attention to detail and the creativity that went into it. It just amazes you more than a new construction so where does it?

Speaker 1:

if somebody wants they're like, okay, I want to build or do a major renovation, like where does that start? Like does that, do you find a builder? Because I always feel like architect is the most important person in the of. Like you know, one of them I love, like architecture, so I'm biased to like I want an architect to come in and tell me the highest and best use of the space and draw it out. Like that's where I nerd out, but where what? Who like at the beginning of a project? Like who is a client you know reaching out to to get everything started, and who all the parties involved?

Speaker 2:

I think they need two things they need a really good realtor and they need a good builder or a general contractor.

Speaker 2:

Like in this case. Let's say, if somebody wants to build a home and they're working with you as a realtor and I get involved as a builder or we get involved, those are the two things. You need to be able to do your due diligence to buy the right property or the right lot. Let's say you own it and you're not buying it and you're thinking about doing an renovation. The biggest thing to decide is to find a good GC first. You can go to an architect first. That's fine too. Where with us we don't have an in-house architect?

Speaker 2:

We don't work like that, because sometimes the architect that we like a lot of builders that have in-house architect their information is very limited, their designs are very limited. You might want to do something that that architect has never done. Yeah, you're kind of stuck with them, right. But if you, if you're, if it's an open table and you can bring in anybody you want, or we bring in suggestions, depending on what type of home you want to build you make some suggestions for architects that meet your needs, then you can kind of work at the same time with your builder and architect, draw something that is within your budget and not just go get plans together and then, when you bring it to a GC or a builder, the builder is like hey, this is going to be a $3 million build and your budget was only one and a half.

Speaker 2:

It's too late at that point, because then you have to pay your architect again to redesign the whole thing make the windows smaller, make the ceilings shorter, change a bunch of things to make it within your budget right. So that's why it's very important. If I were to build my own house and I wasn't in construction, then I would go find a builder first, then go with everybody else, because I know that that person is going to be more involved than everybody else.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Are you guys, when you start to see kind of a neighborhood getting taken over right, and I say take over because in a neighborhood that's 80 houses, 100 homes when you start to see one builder three, four times, you're like, wait, they're taking over. That's actually a lot of work for a builder. Are, like are people reaching out to you guys more? Are you guys marketing to neighborhoods? Like, how are you finding the clients?

Speaker 2:

So the company before it was a layer has been there for like almost 20 years. Okay, you know Chad. Yeah, he has been working there for a long time. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

So a lot of times, like with any business right like, if you do a good job, people are going to refer you to other people. If you go on Google, look us up, we have over 50 plus reviews that are like from a lot of homeowners that we have worked on, right, A lot of homes that we have worked on, and everybody has its own, their own story of like how their process went. It's very rare for a general contractor to have a lot of good reviews, right as I just said right, like yeah.

Speaker 2:

It's so complex complex, like a lot of people underestimate how complex construction is, because we have had clients that have built multi-million dollar businesses that they have sold, that now they're building their dream home. They have told us that building the house was a lot more complex than them building multi-million dollar business that they sold complex.

Speaker 1:

In what way?

Speaker 2:

because, like, there's a lot of like, a lot of parts that go into it right, a lot of parts that go into it right, a lot of parts that you cannot control. Think of it this way you build a house, indirectly and directly. You're hiring over 500 to 700 people to build that home right. Think of it like this you order lumber. The lumber goes to the person that you order it. It goes to the lumber yard, somebody puts it together, somebody puts it in a truck, somebody delivers it and then it's dropped off. You have the framer that installs it right. You have inspectors, you have other people that come in and going.

Speaker 2:

So, even if one percent of that group make a mistake, it creates problems everywhere, and our job as a GC is to minimize that. No GC will ever tell you that, hey, your project will be so smooth that nothing will go wrong. That is nonsense. It would never happen like this. Right, run away from that GC. Exactly A good GC will tell you that look, when things go wrong, I am here. Then that's why you hired me.

Speaker 2:

If everything were to go perfect, you don't need me. You can just go to vendors yourself and build your home. You don't need a GC. You hire a GC because you want that person to be there when things go wrong, to step in and fix things right. And that's why, when you're building a home in that complex of an environment, it's a lot of things that have to go right for you to actually get your house the way you want to, within your deadline, within your budget, and that takes a lot of time, effort, planning, strategy. That's why it's a lot. A lot of people say it's a lot challenging than they actually look at it from the outside so what's you?

Speaker 1:

what's usually like the, the process to kind of start to build, right, because you know we all see the house go up right and completed, but we don't get to know, like you know, the permitting situation, like what happens on a rainy day, right, I always think about that. I'm like, when it's raining, like are they working, can they not work? Oh, there's people in there, like what is the? You know? Okay, so we got our GC, we got our builder. Then what are the next steps before you can start to build?

Speaker 2:

So let's say you get your plans that you like, you have your GC, you submit it to the county for approval. Depending on where you're building that house, you might have two plans.

Speaker 1:

You might have a construction plan for the house and you might have a grading plan. So what are the two? What are those?

Speaker 2:

meanings. So a construction plan will give you all the details of how your house is going to be, the framing and all that A grading is going to be. How is the water, storm water management done? Because now, let's say, you turn a house that is 1200 square feet, you tear it down and you build a new home, or right now it's just dirt, and you get the dirt out and you build a 5,000 square feet home. Now you have 500 square feet. Like, let's say, 2,500 square feet is your footprint. You have 2,500 square feet of roof. That is not observing water anymore. And where is that water going?

Speaker 2:

Right, that water used to go in the dirt before. Now it's not. It's not observing in the ground, okay. Dirt before, now it's not. It's not observing in the ground, okay. So that's why, with a grading plan, you have to actually have a several engineer look at it and design either planter boxes, detention tanks, dry wells to manage that water. Otherwise that water is going to be on the street and then you have flooding yeah and with arlington it's very, very common, because if you lived in south arlington before, yeah, it used to flood a lot.

Speaker 2:

Okay, now they made the rules a lot more tightened, right like they're super strict so when you build a new home, you have to do planter boxes, you have to do the tension tanks. It's because they want to slow down the amount of water it's coming into the sewer system because it's overflowing it and then the water is going to go on the street. That's why you will get a construction plan, you will get a grading plan, and both of those combined it can take up to like six to twelve months to get an approval. Oh wow, specifically grading plans, because it's they're super strict. Yeah, so it goes into a lot of calculation. It's literally, it's like a calculus class with a lot of calculation. It's literally, it's like a calculus class with a lot of calculation. They want to know exactly how much water is going to come in, how much water is going to go on the street, and that can take up to nine to 12 months alone to get an approval.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I feel like and maybe you told me this when we had lunch there was a flooding in Lion Village and it was like somebody was like it flooded the great, like I don't know, maybe there's a lot of water underlying village or something, but I heard, I heard that in that area that it floods, that it floods a lot so because there's a lot of new construction happening over there exactly, and also like the city was built back in like a long time of the 1920s.

Speaker 2:

That infrastructure is so old yeah, they don't, they can't. And we're right above, we're right over the Potomac River, exactly. Think of it this way those houses that were built in the First World War or Second World War, right around that time. They were like 1,200 to 1,500 square feet. They were tiny. They had more yard than there was house. Now there's more house than there's yard. Where is the water going? You're disturbing more land that was supposed to observe water. Now it can't observe it anymore. Where is that water going?

Speaker 2:

yeah and it was going on the street and that's why they came in with all of these rules that made it very, very hard to build a house without storm water management so you got six to twelve months before you can even do anything.

Speaker 2:

Nine to twelve, six to twelve, 12, it sounds like, and then you start building Exactly, and if you're working with people that are savvy. If you buy a house that you want to tear down, my suggestion is, if it's a little bit in good condition, rent it out for 12 months. Okay, that makes sense. Minimize your carrying costs.

Speaker 2:

Rent it out for 12 months, get your permit and then, when your tenants leave, you can start construction. A lot of you know like you can't rush those things, because you're only building a home maybe once twice in your life. You want to take your time and actually do it right and that's why, if it is in livable condition, just rent it out. If it's not, and if it's just raw land, then just wait that makes a lot of sense.

Speaker 1:

I um, you know, I see from you guys that you're building a lot of kind of more modern style houses, right? I don't know if someone came to you and was like you know, I want a traditional colonial, would you guys build something like that? But is that where the trend is going, just like all moderns? Or are people kind of like I guess you're doing a lot of renovations, but I guess what style are you seeing people roll with? Are you?

Speaker 2:

guys working in the design process in that regard at all. So like I mean we are kind of fully custom, we don't really have our own say into things. Okay, right, like if it was a spec home we would kind of do our research, see what works. But when you're actually working fully custom to to your clients needs, we make some suggestions. But most of the time what I see with the trend is that a lot of times people do like that modern look yeah and one of the reason being is that everybody loves bigger windows now okay, the old

Speaker 1:

colonials have the small windows, yeah.

Speaker 2:

So back then those houses were very inefficient. They didn't have insulation, they were plaster walls. And then when you had big windows, those were like wood windows. They had air leaks. So if you made them bigger you couldn't heat or cool that house. Right Nowadays, because there's so much more technology, you can get a massive window that's very efficient and still keep the really nice look of your house, because everybody likes the big windows, big openings, and that's why when you do all of those things it's so hard to stay old school.

Speaker 1:

You just go into the, go to the modern look, yeah, modern look you know.

Speaker 1:

That's interesting that you mentioned that about the um, I have plaster. In my house in dc we had plaster and drywall. It was miserable. We knocked down a closet, it was dust everywhere. It was terrible and uh. But I always say like my house was built in 1942, the one in DC, and I'm like they built this house not to fall. Like this house is sturdy and you know certain builders out there, I'll name, drop them later, Right, but like for you, cause I want to name, but like there's a, there's a perception that you know, maybe the newer materials are cheaper materials and they're not as high quality. Like what do you? What do you think about that?

Speaker 2:

So you know, like that is just like a public perception. Okay, the only thing that's good about old houses is that they are built with brick and block. Yeah. It can't get any better than that. It's so much better than lumber, right, but nothing else is good about it.

Speaker 1:

Literally nothing else, because it's so inefficient.

Speaker 2:

It's so inefficient. It doesn't have insulation. How many times have you, if you go to your dc house right now, you open up your plaster wall? There's no insulation. No, it's plaster, yeah, and then you have block, and then you have brick yeah and that's how it was done back then. There was no money or technology back then to produce that much insulation. It was back at wartime. I have worked in these houses where they use military weapon boxes as framing lumber. It literally has us army. No, so and so.

Speaker 2:

1937, 1927 yeah and they use that material to actually frame the house to build your house because it was so hard to find materials to build homes back then. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

So, besides the brick and block, anything else that are using those houses because I work in them, I have seen some crazy things that, no matter what you tell me about old houses, I can't take it because I know what I've seen right. But besides the brick and block, a lot of things that they have used is completely dated and there was not that many codes back then to comply with. So, they could get away with anything.

Speaker 1:

So what do you think and you've said it a bunch of times on here, right, but just to make it clear, what do you think makes a good builder? What are the qualities of a good builder and a good product?

Speaker 2:

I think I look at it as, like you want somebody that is transparent, telling you the things that are hard for you. Like a lot of people will hide those things from you because they're like, if I tell you that it will create a conflict, right, because they're not playing at the same theme as you. They're playing as like I just want to get this done, get paid and move on when for us, it's like if I see something that will benefit your house over time and it will add some value to it, I'm going to bring it up to you and it's your choice if you want to do it or not. Give you an example how many times have you been in a house that you're sleeping? Somebody in the other bathroom is taking a shower and wakes you up in the morning.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I can hear that sometimes, right yeah.

Speaker 2:

It's a very, very, very, very small fix, like it's a very easy fix when you're building a home or you're renovating. It's very easy to insulate all of your interior walls, specifically in the bathrooms where showers are. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Specifically in your primary bedroom, where the person that's paying the mortgage is living there, sleeping there. You know, if you ever lived in a house that's fully insulated with interior walls and exterior walls, you will never be able to go to a regular house, because when you go inside your house and you sleep at night, no matter how many times your kids scream or yell at each other in the other room, you're not hearing nothing. You're just going to sleep through it. Because that's how much like a good builder will actually come to you with all of those suggestions and talk to you if you want to do it or not, because a lot of the times the consumer doesn't know those things.

Speaker 1:

They just think that insulation is just on the exterior walls.

Speaker 2:

They don't understand that like, hey, I can actually do this on the interior walls and then when I sell my house, that's a selling point.

Speaker 1:

Imagine this you'd be walking through with your home inspector. The home inspector would just be geeking out right, like they would you know to know that, um, that's something that you mentioned, it's like luxury, but it's not. It's not expensive, exactly, you know, it's just something you should do. And so what do you think I mean? So do you think, like those are the type of things that like satellite, like who are you, I guess? Like who are you guys competing with and in in the area of builder? Like who are the other builders that are doing? Because you know, so we know, ryan holmes, covanian holmes, like these big box builders, right, they're doing something different than you guys are doing. So who's like kind of the the realm of what you're doing?

Speaker 2:

so I mean, of course I can't just like name drop specific, you know, but what I will tell you is that ryan holmes and pa and paulty homes and um, these big builders, commercial builders, is not our competition, right, like we are looking for that one percent of population yeah that want to fully customize home so yeah, so let me ask you quick renovation.

Speaker 1:

So actually I guess that's really what I'm asking like, what makes you so? Like somebody might think, like ryan homes is the builder right, like they're everywhere, they market, right, they're building 500 homes, you guys are building the custom home. So like, why can't ryan holmes do it? Like do what you guys do. And like why aren't you guys in that lane? Like what's the big difference?

Speaker 2:

like it's a business model, right, like with ryan holmes, they're more focused on like big numbers instead of they're more of like a quantity than quality. Okay, if you go like nothing against Ryan Homes I mean they have been building homes forever right, but we both know that if you're going to go to a Ryan Homes as a first time home buyer, it's amazing, it's great. But if you have owned houses, four or five homes before, you're not going and buying a Ryan Homes for $2 million or a million dollars, a million and a half, most likely.

Speaker 2:

At that price point you're going to consider building your own house. Right, and that's what we are targeting. We are not targeting the again, if somebody is well-educated and know the product and this is their first time they're buying a house and they're building their home, absolutely we can help them. But our target audience is generally people that want fully custom home or somebody that have had houses before, that want somebody like us who's fully transparent, and they appreciate that. A lot of times people don't appreciate that. People are like give me a set price, how much do you charge per square foot? I'm like I barely know you, I barely know what you like.

Speaker 2:

I barely know what you don't like. I don't know what type of tile you want. I don't know what type of tile you want. I don't know what type of floor you want. How can I give you a price per square foot? Yeah Right, like, price per square foot is depending on what you want. What do you want?

Speaker 1:

Because it's like what are we putting in the house? You?

Speaker 2:

made a video. One time you said people that put LVP all over their house was not a good idea, right. Imagine like, if you're a builder and you're like I will build it for 150 per square foot. But I'm like, you don't know, but when I build the house I just put the lvp. And then you're like, hey, why did you put that?

Speaker 2:

and I was like, hey, I told you I'm cheap that's a good point square feet right like that's why it's very dangerous when you actually start negotiating with the builder with price per square foot and, instead of actually look, thinking about it logically, sitting down going over the finishes yeah and then making an informed decision instead of like over the fence, you're, you're too expensive. Price per square foot was like this much okay. Like that's not.

Speaker 1:

That's not gonna get you anywhere but that's actually a good point, right, and something that will, that separates you from builders and gives you a higher level of services. Because you could just say, well, we're, you know, x price per square foot. And then, when the build process happens, you're like, hey, that's going to put, hey, I want an engineer, hardwood floor. Like, hey, that's going to put you over in this. Like, uh, this bracket you can't come out of. But it's like, hey, well, you know, that's not how we're gonna look at this, right, exactly, let's, let's really figure out what you're trying to build, what the material costs are, and then we have a real number, um, as, like, what we're building, that, that's what do you think about?

Speaker 2:

my, my lvp, uh, I mean you just said it yourself like right, like if you go to engineered hardwood floors specifically, specifically white oak, right, I mean it can't get any better than that, right? We see that in a $10, $20 million house, like in here in Florida, all over the place. The only thing with the wider planks are that they are going to have a little bit of gaps over time, but that's pretty common. Everybody that lives in those luxury homes they understand that that's going to happen yeah but if it's engineered it's actually a lot better than actually real.

Speaker 1:

Yeah why is that? Because I told somebody the opposite. I was like, oh, these two and a quarter hardwood floors, they're like the best ever. Like you can refinish them forever. Um, and I was like engineered hardwood is the second best option, but that you just said that that's not actually.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, like the engineered is like the first best option then the actual engineered hardwood is the second best option, but you just said that that's not actually the case. Yeah, like the engineered is like the first best option, then the actual hardwood, then the real hardwood, because engineered is actually like engineered, almost like in a lab.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

They have tested everything. They came up with the best product. Yeah. That actually looks good, feels good. You can refinish it, you can stain it and it will not have gaps. Okay, you can refinish it, you can stay in it and it will not have gaps as much as a real hardwood floor. Real hardwood is like real wood. Yeah, it's going to expand. When there's humidity, yeah, that's true, it's going to expand. Yeah. And then, when the weather gets cold, you're going to see some little gaps here and there in your living room.

Speaker 1:

But you can't refinish engineered hardwood floor, right? No, you can, oh, you can refinish it. You can refinish it too.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, oh, okay you can refinish it two to three times, just like regular hardwood floors.

Speaker 1:

Oh, okay, I didn't know that I didn't realize that. Yeah, my hardwood floors in my house look terrible, you know yeah.

Speaker 2:

But now it's a rental, so you can absolutely refinish it.

Speaker 1:

Now it's a rental and stain it were taking over and uh, I just like how long does it take to like build a house like? So if I'm waiting up to 12 months to get the plans in place, how long does it take then for me to like get the keys to my house?

Speaker 2:

so that's also a good question. Right depends how detailed your construction plans are yeah and how much involvement you're gonna have.

Speaker 2:

if your construction plans are detailed a to z and you let your builder work and all you're doing is you're just going there to check on them, that can take nine months, okay, seven and a half month, eight months, because you can run with full speed, everything is ordered, everything is planned for, because you have all the details. But when you're working with limited information meaning that I have a construction plan for the layout but I don't know what tile you want, I don't know where you want your lights to be, I don't know where you want your cabinets to go right, like a lot of those things I need to work with you throughout the process to actually make those customized to you. And that can take sometimes 12 months, 14 months, depending on, like, how much back and forth we go to make those selections, because sometimes people are that involved. Yeah, people will tell you like, hey, install this tile for this two portion of the wall. I will check it tomorrow and if I don't like it, let's rip it and install the other tile.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and they're okay with the cost of all of that, exactly Because it's like I have worked all of my life to save money, work really hard. This is my forever home. I want to die in this home and I'm going to do whatever.

Speaker 1:

It's got to be perfect yeah exactly. And they're willing to pay for it and I mean we can't blame it. Yeah, I think I would be that person that's like in the house every day, like trying to like see what the vibe is, um, and be particular about about everything. It's really hard to build, because I would think like, because you don't want to do it wrong, you know you don't want to build a custom home, you're like, oh, like I should have thought about this you know, and so that would be tough.

Speaker 1:

You did a project in um. You did an edition in arlington that was all over social media, right. I think it was a colonial. You did a like they kind of they did an addition in the back.

Speaker 2:

Can you explain like the process of that, because it was it was fire bro so when we do an addition, the goal is to make the addition look like part of the old house okay so, when you walk in, if I don't tell you that this is an addition, yeah, you would never know okay right, like that's how we try to match it from the outside and the inside, to the point where sometimes we take the bricks, like we pick bricks to get out, to take out, we put new bricks, so we match the bricks.

Speaker 2:

So when you paint the house, you would never know where the seams are.

Speaker 1:

Oh, that's dope.

Speaker 2:

Everything just disappears.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

In that case where, like when you do a renovation like that, you have a portion of construction, a time in construction where the back half of the house is completely naked right, like sometimes, we plan for that, we plan with the weather, we have a lot of material on site, our framer shows up with like 10 plus guys yeah, like let's get this down right away yeah, sometimes there have been times where, like, you start construction and it starts raining and we have to have temporary tarps, we cover up the house, we come back tomorrow to finish it Right.

Speaker 2:

Like a lot of times, it's a lot more complicated in those situations, but again, with that, the permits can take three to six months Wow that's a long time, you just get the renovation permit and then you can just go and start the work.

Speaker 1:

For the consumer. How does the builder get paid? Does the builder get paid at the completely end of the project? Do they get paid during the project? How does the consumer pay the builder?

Speaker 2:

So there's draws, so you can have construction draws. You can have a deposit Before we start anything. You pay a deposit. Once the framing is complete or the foundation is complete, you pay another deposit. Once framing is complete or the foundation is complete, you pay another deposit. Okay, Once framing is complete, another one. Once all the mechanical rough-ins are done, electrical plumbing is done, you pay another one.

Speaker 1:

And then, once the final inspection is done, you pay the last one, that's the blue tape inspection.

Speaker 2:

Exactly, yeah, exactly. Have you ever got?

Speaker 1:

somebody with the blue tape. That's just ridiculous.

Speaker 2:

Not really. I mean, we haven't had it, but I have. I've heard that before where for us again, like the way I like I run my projects or the way like we build these houses, are that if I see something that doesn't look good, right on it, I'm just like, hey, let's rip it out, let's do it again yeah because the way I look at it is that tomorrow, if I want to walk you into that project and walk somebody else, I want to be able to walk them proudly and show them like, hey, this is what I built, right, even if those clients didn't say anything.

Speaker 2:

I want to make sure that the next person that comes in and sees that house they're as impressed as those clients that are living in there. And if something like I've had times where the drywall guys finished the wall and the drywall wasn't like really straight If you looked at it from one angle it wasn't straight. And you came in and you just mudded that whole wall, sanded the whole wall to make it even, and the clients were like, oh, we didn't even notice that, but we knew that. Like, let's say, they move into the house and they notice that six months from now they're going to call you back and be like hey look at this this is not the strength, and at that point it's a lot harder to do that work.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Because there's people living in the house. You're going to make a mess. You have to pay for cleaners. It's a lot of more work. Yeah. I would rather fix it when I see it than try to ignore it, for you to notice it and then call me back.

Speaker 1:

That's solid bro. That's high quality. You really care about the product that you're building. You haven't been a builder for that long. Like, how quickly did you learn all of these things?

Speaker 2:

Because you're talking about a lot of nuance right now. Honestly, I have, like I've been so busy, right, like the good thing for me that has been in construction is that a lot of times people say I've been in construction for 20 years but they've only done five good projects. I have been in construction for like two and a half years but I've done over a dozen complex projects. Yeah, right, which means that at the times I've managed five, six projects at once, so you're seeing everything.

Speaker 2:

And every single thing is like super complex to the point where, like some of our trades, they just like they're, like they just freeze it, like I, they rely on us, and then I collaborate with the structural engineer, with my team, to basically come up with solutions and then we go implement it on site and those are things that are specifically done in that house. Maybe that contractor or that subcontractor has never done it anywhere else. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Right and that's why, like for me, it was like a completely learning curve as soon as I got in a lot of information coming at you at once. All you have to do is, like I definitely use the internet to educate myself, learn about different products, and also just talk to the trades, talk to other people in the industry. Like we actually travel to conferences to learn about best building practices, to learn about best building practices. So there's a lot of information that we actually try to get every single day and educate ourselves, because if you're not educating yourself, no matter what industry you're in, you can't compete. It's just so hard.

Speaker 1:

So what do you think? I usually ask this question right before I get people out of here. What do you think every home buyer and home seller needs to know about the real estate market right now? But we, you know. I think a better question for you is like what does what do people who want to build need to know about the process?

Speaker 2:

I will say this bigger is not always better, right? Build a smaller home or maybe a medium-sized home with higher quality than a bigger, massive home with low quality. You will. You will enjoy your life a lot more in a smaller, medium-sized home that's built with the higher quality and attention to detail than a massive home that's falling apart everywhere fair enough.

Speaker 1:

If you build, what would you build Like? How big would your house be? What would it look like?

Speaker 2:

I think like 3,500, 4,000 is enough, because you can go 6,000, you can go 7,000. I will say, though, like sometimes it is kind of dependent on the neighborhoods too. Let's say, if you're in a neighborhood where your comps say that you have to build at least 5,000 plus to be able to compete, then sometimes that's also something to consider. But if your comps are 5,000, but you can go up to 8,000, you don't need the 8,000 square feet home. Right, build a 5,000 within your budget, but spec it out. It's like you drive a nice car.

Speaker 2:

You can go to the Range Rover dealership right now, buy a Range Rover that is base for MSRP, with no competition. Maybe they might give you a couple of thousand dollars off, because the pool of buyers for those Range Rovers is very small, right. But you can go in and get a Range Rover that's like maybe a year old, but spec it out all the way to the top. Pay the same price you would pay for a new Range Rover that's a little bit old, but which one out all the way to the top? Pay the same price you would pay for a new Range Rover that's a little bit old, but which one will give you more value. They both have low mileage, but the other one that's fully specced out, will have higher value long-term, whenever you sell it back too. And that's the same thing in real estate If a house is specced out, even long-term, when you sell it, that quality is going to shine over a house that's bigger but doesn't have anything else.

Speaker 1:

I think a 4,000 square foot home is like perfect size. Lauren and I my wife and I we're always like 3,500, 4,000 square feet is five too big. But for us what we're mostly concerned about is the layout, like the overall floor plan, because I never want a room in my house that I don't use right like you know how colonials you have that you have, like the living room that no one actually sits in I'm like I don't want that space, yeah, in the house, and but the last question before I get you out of here is um?

Speaker 1:

you mentioned spec homes a couple times. Right, and I say it all the time and people are like what's that? Um, and you gave a really good explanation when we had lunch. So, like for the cause, what is a spec home? So?

Speaker 2:

a spec home. Specs stands for a speculation. Yeah, you speculate, right Like. It's like if I spend my money on this house and I buy this land for this much, I put this type of design on it, I speculate it's going to sell for 2 million, and then I will. I'm all in at $1.5 or $1.7. I just made $300K. So that's how spec home builders work. They buy a lot, they look at the comps and if they build that house, then they sell it. They make their money. Some of them are really really good. They actually built really good products and they're selling it for top dollar. Some of them still sell it for a little bit top dollar. It's not like they're selling it at a discount, but they're so shitty.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, excuse my language but they are so shitty. And then the problem is that a lot of times consumer don't look at it like that. They just look at a house that's already built, but five years from now it starts to have so many issues that they regret not doing their due diligence on that builder. You can't just go buy a spec home from a builder that just opened up an LLC yesterday. You can't do that.

Speaker 1:

Fair enough have an experienced builder.

Speaker 2:

Do your research, find somebody that's actually good, yeah, and ask them questions. If they're the builder, they should know. They should know what type of installation that house has. They should know what type of electrical system does it have, like what type of AC system. What brand is it? Is it some brand off of Amazon, alibaba? That people import nowadays from Turkey and all of the places.

Speaker 2:

Or is it actually Carrier or is it like Amana? What's the brand? Right, and you can ask those questions so you know what type of builder it is? Yeah, and you can ask those questions so you know what type of builder it is. And one last thing before I go is like, as you always see, like a lot of times people go and like, oh, this is imported from overseas. That doesn't normally mean that's a good quality. That's true. Just because it comes from overseas doesn't mean it's good. Yeah, there's a lot of things that are made here that are so bad that I will never put it in my house, right, but there's a lot of things that are built overseas. That's the same. I will never touch them. But then there's local stuff that are amazing quality, and the same thing with overseas. But amazing quality local and amazing quality overseas will never be able to compete. Local amazing is always going to be cheaper than amazing overseas.

Speaker 2:

That's why when you have things from overseas that people try to upsell you on. That's normally the lower end, because that's the only way it makes sense financially to bring it in here and sell it and still be profitable. You can buy good stuff there. Bring it in here and still be profitable.

Speaker 1:

That sucks, because I paid way too much when I renovated my kitchen and my cabinets from Italy and I got sold on like, like oh, the italian cabinets gonna be better and uh, I mean my cabinets are great, but like I probably could have found them for like 60 percent of the price you know. So yeah, I think I got finessed the same way.

Speaker 2:

I didn't like my guys that people sometimes get sold to, that, that uh, that think, that thinking of like okay, it's just like overseas. Right, we're like, hey, like overseas. What do you mean? There's always bad quality stuff everywhere americans, bro.

Speaker 1:

All right, where can the people find you, bro, and how can they contact you?

Speaker 2:

social media at masi, and masi builds um like on google. Just look us up aair Homes Arlington. We work in all of Northern Virginia. We have several offices in Alexandria, percival, which is Loudoun County area, and then Falls Church and soon Alair Woodbridge in Fredericksburg you know, one day, alright, bro.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for joining me. My guy awesome man, thanks for having me. Yes, sir.

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Nick Bush

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