Real Estate Explained

Home Building 101: How to Plan, Price, and Personalize Your Custom Build with Andrew Hall

• Nick Bush

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What does it really take to build a custom home from the ground up in Northern Virginia? In this episode of Real Estate Explained, Nick Bush and Glendon Grose sit down with Andrew Hall, Partner and Project Manager at Alair Homes, to unpack the full journey of designing, budgeting, and building an 8,000-square-foot dream home in Arlington.

Andrew shares insider insights on the realities of custom construction — from planning and pricing to project management and client communication. You’ll hear about the hidden costs, common mistakes, and smart design choices that make a home functional, timeless, and truly your own.

💡 In this episode:

• The real cost of building a custom home (and what drives it up)
• How to balance design dreams with your budget
• Managing change orders, allowances, and upgrades
• Why decisiveness is a builder’s best friend
• Home automation, big windows, and 2025 building trends
• How construction-to-perm financing actually works
 • The difference between custom, spec, and renovation projects
• What makes a great project manager (and how to work with one)

Whether you’re dreaming of your forever home or just curious about what goes into a ground-up build, this episode pulls back the curtain on the entire process — from blueprint to move-in day.

🎧 Listen now for real stories, real lessons, and real advice for anyone thinking about building custom.

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SPEAKER_02:

I'm Nick Bush, your co-host, but you saw like a nice little intro screen for me, so I don't need to introduce myself. Um I said I'm the co-host. I'm the host. Glendon is the co-host. Well, I'm trying to make Glendon the co-host. Since you are the co-host, tempor uh what is it?

SPEAKER_00:

What what should I interim interim co-host? Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, tell the people who you are. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Glennon Gross with Moving Mortgage. Um, here as the co-host with the most. Um no, we're trying this out, we're testing it out. Um, and uh this is episode three of this. Yeah. So so far so good. Bronson's figuring it out. We got this. I'm really enjoying enjoying this pillow. Uh it's nice and soft. I'm like furry wall guy. All right.

SPEAKER_02:

We're gonna get some like lendish. We got uh Andrew Hall with Alair Holmes on here. Thanks for thanks for joining us. Yeah, yeah, no problem. Appreciate you. I've I uh, you know, I kind of met Andrew from like a Messi and then Chad, and then I was just like in Andrew's DM because he's building like a monstrosity in Arlington that I'm stalking.

SPEAKER_01:

Um yeah, so introduce yourself to the people. Yeah, well, thanks for having me. Uh so my name is Andrew Hall. Uh I've been in the construction industry for about 11 years. I'm a partner and project manager at Alaire Homes. Uh, been with them for about four and a half years, and we are a full custom home builder and remodeler. Uh, so we help homeowners build their dream home.

SPEAKER_02:

That's great, man. Um, so this little monstrosity I'm talking about on that I was so grateful to see. I was like, I did everything except like, hey, can I come like swing by and walk through the house? Yeah. But you guys are doing some cool things in there, right? And so I know you're a custom home builder, so this is more of like a ground up project. Yes. Or like, was it a teardown and then you guys rebuild? Like, what's the Yeah?

SPEAKER_01:

So we we do a lot of work in the Northern Virginia, um, DC, Maryland area. Uh, so we're working in a lot of dense areas, so it's usually a lot of existing properties. Uh, this one was a teardown and rebuild. Uh it was like, I think like 1940s house that had been abandoned for 10 plus years. Uh so yeah, the homeowners who purchased it uh finally got in contact with us. Uh, we went through a process, they hired us as the builder, and now we tore it down and are building a new 7,900 square foot house.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, can you give us the full specs? How many bedrooms, bathrooms, like square footage do you know?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so the square footage is about 8,000 square feet. It's three levels. Yeah, I know, right? In Arlington, Arlington, yeah, North Arlington at that. Uh, yeah, so it is six bedrooms, five and a half bathrooms. Uh, it has a lot of cool features. The the basement, it has like a Pilates room, it has a meditation room, uh, it has a wine cellar. Uh has an elevator. Uh if that size, you have to have an elevator. Elevator for agent in place. Uh, the speaking about agent in place, we got the owner suites also on the first floor level. Uh, we also have a laundry room on the first floor level. Uh, we have an indoor and outdoor fireplace. The outdoor fireplace, you're gonna be able to uh grill on that outdoor fireplace. So it's pretty cool. Uh we got a lot of home automation technology that we can just really dive into if you guys want. But yeah, it's it's a lot of cool features in the house.

SPEAKER_00:

So when you say you guys want, when you say fully customizable, like all those things you said, how does that how does that go? Do you sit down with the the owner and say, what do you want? Or do you guys have kind of some specs that you start with and then from there, you know, they can kind of pivot left or right? Yeah. Is it fully customizable? Like just tell us what you dream and then we'll design it type of thing. Like how does that go?

SPEAKER_01:

It's it's fully customizable. And it really depends. Uh, we let the the clients that come to us, we put them on the driver's seat, or they are in the driver's seat uh from the start. Uh so sometimes they come to us already with a set of plans uh and they've already been working with a with an architect uh that has already uh designed all the custom features. Uh and usually some homeowners decide to go the custom route because they've decided that they have, they uh they couldn't find something that's in the uh existing market that's gonna fit their lifestyle. Uh so some clients decide to go the custom route uh to customize their house like entirely to their lifestyle. Uh so yeah, this particular owner, they already had a set of plans. We were, we've worked with this architect over the years. Uh so they brought us on with initial discussions, the clients liked what we were about, and that's how they ended up choosing us. Uh, and we broke down those set of plans by budget categories, gave them a preliminary estimate, and then over the course of some months, as the plants were going through the permitting process, we started just fine-tuning that budget um to where they were comfortable with.

SPEAKER_02:

So I know a little bit about this house and how it was, you know, started as one project, and you know, and then it there was a lot of add-ons and it's gotten more expensive over time. Um, but how often does someone come with the plans or you guys create the plans um and start building? And then there's like, oh, we gotta add extra, you know, there's a ton of chain or change orders, right? So what's what would be someone's kind of like like like um oh crap fun? Like we have to have you know more money to take care of, you know, something that we didn't know existed in the project.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I mean, there's so a couple of ways of of viewing that. It it really depends on the client. It's always easier if we start with a fully designed set of plans from the onset, if we are able to quote that entirely. It makes everyone's life easier because we know way ahead of the game, like what we're getting ourselves into. Uh, we are flexible with clients, so some clients don't know what plumbing fixtures they exactly want. Uh so we're okay working that way, uh, but we let them know, okay, we're gonna put this allowance for plumbing fixtures for now. Okay. Uh, but you are going to need to make a decision by a certain point and give them a deadline.

SPEAKER_02:

So you like to pretty much have the, you know, all the dollars figured out before you even start the project.

SPEAKER_01:

As much as possible. Obviously, you can put an allowance for the foundation system, like because that needs to be uh that's one of the first things we do right after demo, if demo is needed. Uh, we need to have that hard cost uh for the foundation system. That needs to be fully designed. But plumbing fixtures, since you're not really thinking about that until like the plumber really starts their work, there is a little bit of time uh for them to finalize that. Uh we do we prefer having the plumbing fixtures already ahead of uh the game? Yes. But uh we we give that flexibility to homeowners because some sometimes it could be very overwhelming. I mean, if you guys had that 8,000 square foot house to design, like I and you only had like let's say two months, that's that's overwhelming. Like you got to be thinking about that job every single day, that house every single day to make all your selections from flooring, plumbing fixtures, roofing shingles, it could be overwhelming for some clients. So we give them that flexibility. Okay, you don't you don't have to decide this now, uh, but in the near future you will, and we can go back to that. And once we uh have that allowance, sometimes they end up exceeding that allowance. Uh and some, yeah, some clients then prefer going that route. Or sometimes uh some clients can uh be frustrated that uh that allowance was succeeded, but we've we've given them some warning. So if they don't like that, then we can scale back some of the point fix fixture selections.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay. Are you seeing in um, I guess like what are the trends in building? Because what you guys do, and you can break this down a little bit, is a lot different from what a standard builder does, you know, Ryan Holmes, Kimbaini, and some of those guys, right? Where they're kind of building, um, you know, let's call them cookie cutter for lack of a better term, like a standard townhouse, standard single family house. And you guys are doing kind of gut projects, and this one is, I know, going to be a mid-century modern. So when you're building a custom home from some from for someone, is there still a trend on like style of home or style of build?

SPEAKER_01:

Um, and are people mostly grabbing from like the finishes that are in the market or are people like you know, all over, like kind of like yeah, they could be all over the place, but uh some patterns is yeah, there are some trends. Um, and I think Messi, who works with Alert Homes too, he mentioned that big windows is a big thing. We're seeing more commercial style windows and residential homes. Uh, and the suppliers for for those windows, they're beginning to procure those uh style of windows for for these homes. Uh, but home automation is is also like a big thing in at least our custom space. Uh, we've done a lot of new technology that that we're putting into these homes. And you can really go down the rabbit hole as simple as like just putting direct wires to all your TV locations. So to have a stronger internet connection instead of a Wi-Fi connection. Uh you could really go uh dive deep into like lighting controls and audio visual, uh, and that that can be really complicated uh to get into and install into the houses.

SPEAKER_02:

You know what I saw the other day in a house? I was in this neighborhood of DC, um, and there was like a I was I was there for a listing appointment, and this house was probably gonna be a teardown. And so I was, you know, I'm I was approaching it as that, but there was another house that was uh you know under construction at the time. And so I tried to walk in and I was like, yo, like who's here? And uh so I started talking to the contractor a little, a little bit. He didn't let me like go in in the house, but then I noticed the floors, and I'm a big I like I don't love LVP except for in the basement. Um I'm like you have to go at least engineer hardwood. But I was like, hey, what are these floors? He goes, these are white oak floors, and I was like, you mean engineered, like like engineered hardwood? He goes, no, this is actual white oak. And I mean it looked beautiful, and I just didn't know people, first of all, I didn't know you could just put white oak floors, like real white oak floors in your house. And I didn't know people were actually thinking on that level. And so I know when you're building, is it, you know, is it all of the clients', you know, wishes and dreams, or is there, are there other people involved in that process?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so think of it this way. Um we are a custom home builder and like other like flippers or spec homes, they're a different business model. Not that they're wrong, but they're sometimes thinking about the bottom line, they're thinking about like quick appreciation the next like five to seven years and just flipping that for a profit. Uh, with our clients, they're really thinking about their forever home uh when we're building their homes. So you just got to think about it differently. They're not concerned about the property, the asset appreciating the next like five to seven years if they're gonna be staying there like 15, 20, 20 plus years. Uh, so we do a lot of custom stuff that seems like it's a lot today, uh, but it's a huge return on their investment, on like how they feel like I don't know if you saw uh how if Jason uh Cheney, he's one of the partners at Alaire Homes, uh, how he was bringing up the cast iron stacks that we installed at that house at Ohio Street. Uh we do that because like it it blocks the sound of rushing water. So you're not gonna hear the toilet on the second floor or the shower on the second floor if you're like prepping a meal in the kitchen.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh so that's a huge return on your investment for like every day how you're feeling in your own home. Uh so we make all those like little small micro um investments into the home that basically gets a huge return on on their investment for the longevity of the house that they're staying there.

SPEAKER_00:

Interesting. Now, you guys only do custom homes, you don't spec anything out, you don't pre-uh purchase lots or anything like that?

SPEAKER_01:

No, no, we we don't do any of that. Yeah, just just fully custom. We we work with homeowners who already own a property uh and they decide to either fully gut and renovate or uh tear down and rebuild.

SPEAKER_00:

Gotcha. So if I was uh on the mortgage side, I came with someone that wanted to do construction of perm financing, you would suggest that they find the lot first, get plans, then come to you.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and I mean we're we're venturing into those areas too. So uh Messi, he's a real estate agent, but uh he has like a lot of expertise and uh we're trying like different business models to see if that will work where uh we can have a property or help the homeowner or uh if they're looking for a property, help them find find a property and build their home. Uh so we are looking at different ways to strategize that. Another thing too, uh looking into the in the near future is like getting into the commercial space too and helping out like renovations and construction in in that way. Uh but our bread and butter really is working with existing homeowners.

SPEAKER_02:

So then let me ask a question like how the uh the the lender and the the builder kind of work together, right? I would love, I would love to build it. Lauren and I talk about building our home all the time. I want to ask you about costs on that. But as far as I know, uh Glendon, the construction apparent process works like I find a lot, find a lot, find a builder, um, they put the entire project together. Let's just say it's a million dollars, right? And then I close on that that um million dollars once, and then you're just getting draws from and I'm paying interest only. And then anytime there's a next stage in a project, like I get more funds get released to the builder to do the work. Is that essentially the process? Or how do you guys talk to each other? Because I'm the homeowner, I'm just like hanging out. Like I'm like probably like walking in to talk to the project manager sometimes. I'm sure you're like talking to me for some reason during the process, but how do you guys talk? Because you're you're doing work.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh I mean, honestly, and you probably see this a lot. I think that most people don't start for the process with, I want to buy a new, I want to build my own home. They start by looking and they find, like you said, they they can't find what they're looking for, or they want things that are too unique, or they can't find the right lot, they can't find the right lot with the right house. So then it turns into, well, what other options do I have? Right. And then the construction of perm question pops up. And for us, it qualifies very similarly where you apply, we see what your debt to income ratios are, we base it off of the acquisition of the property, construction costs, and then what we call after repair or after construction value. Okay. So the value, let's say the lot is 250,000, 300,000, million, whatever, and then the construction costs are four or five, six hundred thousand, and then the aftervalue is 1.8, 2 million or whatever. They lend, we lend based off of the 2 million, right? So you'd have to have 20% of the two million uh down. Most of the time, if that's the case, people will buy the lot cash and then probably won't need to put any more in because the value of the lot itself will cover the equity position. Um, and then from there, we send them over to someone like the lair. Now, my question is, because I always thought we send it to you and then you guys fix it and come back to us. You're saying that it may be better for them to have talked to an architect, or do you guys like to connect them with an architect or or a survey or whoever that you guys prefer?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, we're uh so one thing about us that I already mentioned is that we're very flexible. Uh there are a lot of times that clients do show up to us already, uh, the where they've been working with an architect, they have a set of plans. Uh, but we do get clients as well that come in that have like nothing, that are starting from zero, that don't even know where to start. Uh so we can help them through that process. We call it a planning process uh where we recommend several architects. Well, we first get to understand like what their goal is and like where their budget is, uh where they think their budget is at. Uh and then from there we can down start breaking that down. Uh, we can introduce them to several architects to start working with. And then as the design process is going, we're also helping them like fine-tune that budget. Uh, then once the plans are finalized, they get submitted. We're still coordinating if there's any like lingering items that still need to get closed out to finalize the budget. So as soon as the permitting has been approved, we can just roll right into construction. Uh, a lot of times our clients already own the property. Uh, so they have owned it five, 10 plus years. Uh, so they've had like enough equity built up on that property where they borrow against it or they're already working to get a construction loan uh with some lenders. And then we work with like a lot of lenders in the local area, so we can also recommend uh lenders to them too. Um and then we always negotiate like a draw schedule, and that's how we get started uh with that process.

SPEAKER_02:

So do you feel like you prefer, do you prefer clients who are, hey Andrew, this is we want to build, right? Or do you prefer someone who is like, you know, we want to build, we have some ideas, but we need the team, we need the architect, we need the designer. Which personality type or which client do you prefer to work with? That's a hard one.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh yeah, I don't I don't think I've really thought about that, but I think what the most important one, whichever uh thought process is like if they're decisive, it makes everyone's life easier. Like if they're decisive, like, hey, there's these different options, and we try to explain as much of the options as as possible. Uh, but as long as they're decisive and to move to like the next steps, yeah, it makes it easier. If we call it like analysis paralysis, like, oh, I don't know if I want to go this route, like I don't know if I if I want that toilet, I don't know about this life fixture. It's man, we just need to manage through that process, but it can make it difficult, especially if they're not making those decisions when we need them to be made. Uh, so if they decide that they want to uh add um ceiling fans after we drywalled, it's gonna be a lot tougher right now. It's possible, everything's possible, uh, but we just need to explain to them what the implications are to like the schedule, cost impact versus uh if they're very decisive from like theyon say, like, oh, I'm gonna want these uh ceiling fans, or if they tell us before we even drywall, okay, like these are the things that that I want, uh, it makes everyone's life easier.

SPEAKER_02:

I'd be like sharing a Pinterest board.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, and he was he was super nice and didn't bring up the fact that 99% of the time it's the wife that changes her mind a million times.

SPEAKER_02:

That's interesting. I feel like it would be opposite for me. I, you know, I've I've asked my wife many times, like, yo, if we build the house, what would you want it to look like? And she's like, I don't know. And I'm like, you've never dreamed about this. And we there's one house in particular that we walked in that um, because we were talking about, you know, financing the other day. I was like, we build that, right? Yeah. But for me, it's more of like a layout thing. Like, I always say, you know, I can't draw, but I know what I want the picture to look like, right? And so I would be utilizing the architect. I'd be like, hey, this is kind of what I want, you know, and this is like our lifestyle. Um, what what can we, you know, how can we, what can the layout look like? And then I'd almost be utilizing the designer. I'd be like, here are the 300 Pinterest kitchens that I saved, right? Let's like narrow this down. And then I would kind of get out of the way and let Andrew do his thing because I mean he's he's like on Instagram, like, here we're pouring the foundation today. And the reason we're pouring it this way is to avoid so you're the you're the project manager on the job. Um, so what is what is your role in the project? What does that mean?

SPEAKER_01:

Um yeah, yeah. Uh it's it's everything. I mean, from cradle to grave for that project. That's intense. Fine, from cradle to turnover, uh to where we're handing over the keys. It really starts from like when the clients reach out to us, helping them find the architect, uh, helping them get through the permitting process, helping them understand what that process is like, helping them select uh finishes if if they need assistance uh with finishes, if they don't have an interior designer. And then during construction is really assembling all the resources, getting the trade partners, subcontractors under contract, getting them on schedule, um, ordering materials that need to be uh at the job site at their appropriate amount of time, uh, thinking ahead of really working with all the personalities that are involved in a project, because I think that's the hardest aspect of being a project manager. Uh, because you're working with the personalities of like uh potentially the husband or wife or partner and partner, but then all the different personalities from the subcontractors, because they each all have their strengths and weaknesses. Uh, so you you really got to manage those relationships and and really just bring the uh property to the finish line uh for turnover. Uh so it's it's very dynamic and it's a it's a tough job.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Here's a funny story for you, real quick. Um I was doing financing for uh construction of perm down in Hilton Head, and the guy uh did really well, didn't need the financing, but it was a two and a half million dollar build. I was financing the build, and it was gonna be like a five, six million dollar house when it was done. And working through the whole thing with him and get to the end, and this was like two years ago when interest rates were like the highest they've been in you know decades. And I asked the guy, I'm like, why are you you could pay cash for this? Like, why are you financing it? And he was like, that way you guys make sure that they finish on time. Yeah, he was like, he was like, I don't care about the money. I want you guys to manage the project for me and manage the project manager because and not to say that builders don't always close on time, but he was like, that way I know this project's done in 18 months. Like it will be done no matter what because they're not gonna get paid otherwise.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, it's interesting.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it was like an interesting perspective where I was like, man, this guy is just like paying 11% or like 9.5% or something on 2. He's got the cash in his in his account right now. Like, why would he just not? He's like, I don't want to have to manage the project.

SPEAKER_01:

I want I want you to do it. I was like, honestly, I'd probably do the same if it was my house too. Yeah. But I mean, with us, like I or we really care about these homes. Um, and because we understand that like a lot of these homeowners is basically like the largest investment they're gonna make in their lives. So whenever I go into these projects, I'm thinking about it as if it were my house. Like, okay, how would I want my house to be treated? Um, and it's it honestly is very emotional for a lot of these clients. Like, I can't tell you how many times it's been emotional when we're like handing over the keys. So I I we know that it means a lot to them. Uh, so what makes us different too is that like, yeah, we we care. We understand where where these clients are coming from.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I was, you know, just to speak on your last point. When I walked into that uh house on Ohio Street, I saw there were so many people in the house. Maybe there were like 20 people in the house. And then Andrew's just like, you know, this guy's like six, five. He's just like in there chilling, and uh he's definitely not chilling, but he's in there. And there's like 20 people in the house, they're all working in different sections of the house. And your job is you're responsible for making sure everyone's doing the right thing on time, kind of working together because it's one house, so it all has to, you know, flow together. And it was like the most exciting thing I've ever seen. I'm sure for you, you you have days where you're like, this is so frustrating, things are not happening. But for me, I was like, this is so exciting because I sell houses, right? So it's like, okay, I sell houses, I've managed flips, I know some, you know, some uh general basic kind of construction knowledge, right? You're just picking up things as you go, and then we're managing the client. Um, you know, our biggest thing when it comes to like construction is like home inspection, yeah, right? But I'm like to be able to see a house go up, go like from the ground up, and then to finish when you're handing the clients the keys, but you got to be a part of that process completely, it's like so much cooler than just like selling houses. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

It's definitely thrilling. The the best way I think my job was described to me was uh by a homeowner. So when I first I think it was like around 2021, 2022, uh the homeowner, the client described it as like being a director, director of an orchestra.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

You know, the one that's like orchestrating like everyone to be like on point. Um, but sometimes sometimes uh some of the performers show up without an instrument. Uh sometimes they show up like with the wrong instrument. Uh sometimes they start playing off beat, off rhythm. And your job as a director is still to get them through the finish line because the audience like paid for a performance and you need to get them through the finish line. So that's the way like you got to think about like being a project manager for these homes.

SPEAKER_02:

That makes a lot of sense. I want I want to just understand cost really quick because when I was in that house in DC, um that was a tear down. I was like, well, how much does it cost to tear this down and build another house? And uh I actually reached out to Chad and he was like, oh, it's like$300 to$350 per square foot. Um and I was like breaking down this concept to my wife because now I know it, right? Yeah, um, so I mean, is that is that kind of what it costs, like$300 to$350 to build a house? And then a lot of people um hit me up and they're like, we want to buy land, like 14 acres, we want to build a house. And I'm like, well, do you have another like$150,000 to like develop the land? Like, that's a cool story. You just want to buy some acres. Can you even build on that land? So um kind of what are the costs of like like what's all involved in like land development, and then what's like a general cost to like build a house, like a kind of average that you could safely throw out?

SPEAKER_01:

And I yeah, I would think if you are a flipper or a spec home builder, uh those apply, like the per scot per cost per square foot. But as a custom home builder, it's it's much different. I mean, as a custom home builder, there's a wide range, and again, we're basically working for the client. So they can go somewhat custom and they'll get like a smaller per square foot basis, or it can be again like that Ohio Street job, it can be ultra custom and the cost per square foot can be like really high, like over 350, over 400, uh about 500 per square foot. So it really depends on the client. And then the other factors too is are you doing a new build? Because if you're doing a new build, you're tearing down the house, you're excavating dirt, uh, you're loading away the dirt, you're building a new foundation system, or are you working with the existing structure and just like tearing down all the guts from the inside and just working with the existing shell? Maybe you add on to it um to the side, to the back of the house, front of the house, or just go one level above. Uh so the cost per square foot is really gonna differentiate between like those two types of um rebuilds.

SPEAKER_02:

That's dope. I want to build a house so bad.

SPEAKER_00:

It's not cheap. I feel like it's not cheap. That's what you said. He didn't say it, but he said it's not cheap.

SPEAKER_02:

No, no, he's not it's not cheap to do that. That's really cool. Do you um would you like do you would you build your house? Like I would yeah, I would build a lot of. What do you think is better? Like so I say it's all the time with clients where I'm just like, yeah, like you want a house that's built in 2010. Cool story, it's newer, but the material is not gonna be amazing. My house in DC, it's built in 1942, it's all brick, it's never fallen, you know? And so what do you think about that? Like, is it better to build if you can afford it, or is it kind of like, oh, let me buy this structure and then like enhance the vibes, you know?

SPEAKER_01:

I I I think it depends on the the lifestyle you're going for. I mean, is it do you already like own your home and you thought it was gonna be a starter home, but now you're looking at it as like, hey, maybe it's our forever home. We've built enough equity on it. Can we work with the existing structure? What would it cost for us to like tear it down? So I I I like both. Uh I I love new builds because uh at times it can be easier. Uh, but I love working with existing structure because like they do have a lot of character, and I like the component of like reusing the old and then like attaching like a new piece to it. Uh yeah, I I I like both.

SPEAKER_00:

I agree with you. I I think I like the idea of of enhancing existing and making it revived, you know, make it make it something that can go another hundred years, you know. Um you get some of the too old and then it gets to be it's just problematic and it's just not good. Um but I'm also like like some of the new stuff, I don't know, man, it's just it looks too new. It's like the Cybertruck. Like you don't like the modern, yeah, yeah. It's just too new, where it's like I'm not ready for that yet. I like I like like you said, like mid-century modern, I like something that's got a little classic look, so maybe some exposed brick or something like that that's got character, like you were saying.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, the issue, so this is the issue we're running into in Fredericksburg, is like so we we own a house in DC and that's rented out now. We live in Fredericksburg, and we've started to look at houses because I have the bug we're gonna buy something next year. And being a real estate agent and not a first-time home buyer and not living in the house that you own, um, and we did a renovation in our first house, and we it wasn't like a it was like a good renovation, but the contractors were not great. Um, so we have that experience. And we kind of know, like, all right, you're gonna update your kitchen, you're gonna update the bathrooms. For me, I'm probably changing the floors in white oak, engineer hardwood, um, unless I get ball and I can do the real white oak. Um, and so it's like, well, we're gonna do a renovation anyway, it's probably gonna be a hundred thousand dollar renovation, right? In most cases, if you if you go like renovate your entire house, like kitchens, bathrooms, floors, like you're probably around a hundred thousand dollars just on those things, right? And we've been walking into houses and we've been running into the problem where we're just like, we don't love this. Yeah. And unlike, you know, years ago, it's not necessarily cheaper to buy a house right now than it is to rent a house. Specifically in the neighborhoods we're looking in in like Fredericksburg, um, you know, let's say. Six, seven hundred thousand dollar house, like four thousand dollar mortgage, right? More or less. We can rent the house in that neighborhood for$3,200, right? So I'm like, do we want to spend$4,000 on something that we don't really love that we would have to um renovate anyway? We don't know.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

And my wife and I hate traditional colonials. I don't want to walk in a sheet of steps, and then the living room is to the living room that no one sits in is to the left, and the dining room is adjacent to that. And I walk in, there's a kitchen. We hate it. You're from here. You're from this area, right? I'm from this area, right? I love it.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm from Texas, so I love that style.

SPEAKER_02:

And we like the West Coast um houses. So we love mid-century minors, and I think mid-century minors are the best houses. Now, the livability of mid-century minors can be a little weird, but I also like the Spanish style houses, which will never be around here, right? And so, and and I live in dreamland a lot of times. Can I also live in like I want to do what I want to do land too? And I just feel like it would be way better to build a house. The hurdle is like, what if I don't build a dope house? Like, what if I like, what if I like build something and I'm like, oh, I didn't think about this, or I don't really like this layout, or like, you know, then I have it and I'm like not gonna change it, right? So I think the biggest thing for me was would be like working with the architect to like nail down like exactly what we want to build layout wise, kind of for like our lifestyle, yeah, you know, like how we want to live in the house, um, and then and then and then um you know build something like that. I don't know if this is real, but we don't we don't like basements. Like we're just I'm like interesting.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I'm just like again, it depends where you grow up, right? Like I down in Virginia Beach, there's no basements because it's marshland and it floods, and so like there's not a lot of basements down there at all, depending on where you live. So you got I love basements, but it's because everywhere I grew up, coastal didn't have basements.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, for me, it's like bro, like when am I going to my base? Like my wife, what we watch sports and games together, like she's watching sports and games, like we watch TV and sports together. Like, I don't need a man cave, right? I don't need a man cave. We can do an office on the main level, rec room or it's like what am I chilling about? You can put a podcast studio in the basement. So I'm just like, yo, like the basement is kind of like wasted space storage, man. How much storage do we have? It's kind of like wasted space. So we'd rather build like a two-level house, but that's wider, right? And maybe like add that second living room on the main level somewhere, you know, that architect would figure out, and then have like big bedrooms. And I think we'd save costs by not building the basement and just like build like a bigger two-level house.

SPEAKER_01:

Um, yeah, I would prefer so the ranch style homes, we we do some of those renovations. It's it's harder to find, obviously, in northern Virginia. Uh out of McLean, you you do have the room over there. So I am working on a house right now. It's ranch style, everything's one level, and those are fun to work with. They're sometimes can be easier to work with, too. Yeah. Yeah. But if I had my preference for for my own own house, yeah, I would want a ranch style home.

SPEAKER_02:

Ranch style? Swag. You're from Texas what part of Texas are you from?

SPEAKER_01:

Oh man. Uh many people don't know Laredo, Texas. Okay. I've heard south of San Antonio.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. So I moved out here in 2016. Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, oh, you're from look, he's look 2016, working with like one of the best builders in the uh in the area. That's impressive, man.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, why not immediately? So I I did commercial construction when I started off my career in Texas. Uh, then when I moved over here, I accepted a job uh doing government construction.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

Felt a little complacent, then moved over with a company that invested in multifamily properties. So we did uh re-renovated apartments. Uh, and then after that, I I found an opportunity with Alair Holmes. I I always knew I wanted to be in the residential space. I was just always slowly like making my transition over there until I finally ended up with Alair Holmes.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, that's dope, bro. I um what's like your I guess like your niche in construction? What do you do the best from like like from like are you like a carpenter? You like better plumber electric?

SPEAKER_01:

Like what's your like if or if I if I'm doing like work myself? Yeah. Well, uh not uh sanding and refinishing hardwood floors. Yeah, because I I recently just tried that and it's it's a lot more work than I thought. Even even managing the the people um at my job sites, like I always see them like sanding the floors and refinishing the floors. Uh, but actually doing the labor yourself is much harder. If like building some built-ins is much easier. Uh so I've done that at my current house. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean painting is also a little bit not easy, but it's easier than some of the other traits.

SPEAKER_00:

So when you brought up the basements, it it it was a question I wanted to ask earlier, I forgot to ask. I think it's really interesting. Not that you're gonna take this question the wrong way. It's not a jig at you. It's just reminding me. But when it comes to people designing their homes, right? Yeah. And and you have to kind of talk people off the ledge a little bit, I think, sometimes, because resale value, like if you want anything too crazy, you know, like the the thought in my mind is if if you I live down in the the sticks, but down off Route 15, yeah, in like uh Haymarket area, there's a house that's built like a castle. Like it's got like the castle look and like the the cone-shaped, you know, uh pillars in the corners. And there's nobody else that wants to buy that house, right? No one's want to buy that shit. Like that's not do you have what's the weirdest thing that you've like either had to do or had to tell someone you're not gonna do?

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, that's a tricky one. Uh I'm not I'm not sure. I feel like not nothing too entirely crazy. The architectural style of the area is like a lot of craftsmen.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh so there's Which is like the new colonial.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

So it's a blend of like craftsman, colonial, doing something contemporary. Uh as I'm saying this, I'm trying to think of anything crazy.

SPEAKER_00:

But we do no one try to put like a dungeon in there or some crazy shit, you know, like uh uh panic room or like panic room's cool.

SPEAKER_02:

A lot of billionaires are doing, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, no, we we did uh we did a new foundation system, it's called um ICF um insulated concrete forms, and just think of it as like Tetris blocks and it's like made of styrofoam. Uh, and you put them together as blocks, and then you fill the cavity in with concrete, and that styrofoam on each end access insulation. Huh. Oh wow. Yeah, so we it's a much more expensive form of doing that over in this area. Um, they do it in like Canada for uh some weather reasons that I'm not entirely sure. So we were talking with the client early on that look, it was it's not necessary to do this. Uh it is more of a premium price to do this. Uh, there's not a lot of uh contractors that do this in in the area, they're gonna have to travel uh from like other cities and from out of state. Oh wow. Uh so the the client still really wanted it. Uh we tried talking to the client that it's not necessary if you want to change now. Uh they still wanted it, so we went through with it. Uh so I actually had a contractor uh on schedule. Um, and then I probably say like three weeks before I needed them on schedule, they they pulled out, they said they can't do the job. Oh shit. So I spun my head trying to find uh different contractors. I think I found someone from uh South South Virginia uh that was willing to do it. They they typically don't work with builders, uh, but I explained to them the situation and uh how much of a pinch I was in. Uh so then they came through. Um took a month to to get them on site.

SPEAKER_02:

Wow.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh but yeah, that that's just one example of how a client just really wanted something uh that wasn't really necessary.

SPEAKER_02:

I think it's almost appropriate to ask about like horror stories, also, like anything that just like went left, like went sideways, or or like you know, things that happen at a project, they're just like, oh like that was miserable. Like what do you have any of those kind of uh Yeah, probably.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, there's like small ones. Some there's contractors that are always making mistakes. Uh either they they hit a a water line, um, so then now the things are are leaking and you you just need to fix it, address it right away. But I'm I'm really not surprised. Uh so when I you really need to be patient when you're a project manager in in these homes. And early on in my career when I was doing commercial construction, uh, there was a a guy that I was coordinating um and like in the office, and we were talking, it was a painter, and we're talking about I forgot what which wall, and I forgot which color, and like we looked at each other and it's like, hey, this the the pink color of this wall is gonna be green, right? And it's like, yeah, we looked at each other, yes, green. A couple hours pass by, I go look at the wall and it's blue. And and I was like, I was like shocked. I was like, hey, like we talked about it. We we said that the pink color was gonna be blue, uh green. It's like, no, you said blue. I was like, we looked at each other. So it's it's like something as simple as that that I learned early on that you really can't be shocked. Like there's there's so many silly little things that end up happening that you as much as you try to plan for, uh, there's always gonna be a mistake that someone makes. You just really learn need to learn how to how to manage to do that.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Do you ever have to? I mean, I imagine that you also work with interior designers.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes. Yes, yes. It it helps out a lot. Again, there are clients that are are not visual or they need to visualize the space. Like it's hard for them to understand a 2D layout of what the kitchen and dining room are gonna look like, or even just like the 2D elevations that that you see. It's hard for them to picture that. Uh so we always recommend getting like 3D renderings, working with an interior designer, because again, it it helps them visualize the space a lot better, especially if they don't understand like what they're seeing in a 2D space.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I remember Joe Jason, I was like, yo, like I can understand like the blueprints better than I could nine years ago, but like there's so much detail in those blueprints that you have to really learn. Um, what do we not what do we not what have we not asked you about like a lair and what you guys do? Like that's probably like obvious or or nuanced, um, even that like we that we're like missing talking about.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, we talk uh you've talked about transparency with with Messi. I mean, we've been pretty transparent. Uh we are very accountable. So I've talked about how we uh really care about like the emotional aspect, what this means to like clients, but we really make ourselves accountable. So that job at Ohio Street, like that's like that's my job. So I gotta like sink or swim. So if things go wrong, it's not gonna be because there was like five hands in a pot of managing, like Jason wasn't managing alongside with me and Messi. It's like I'm totally responsible uh for that job. So if things go wrong or if uh we look stupid because there's like mistakes that were made, like that's that falls back on me. Uh so that really incentivizes us to just really be on top of our game, like stay, stay on our toes and uh deliver a quality product. That's great, man.

SPEAKER_02:

I appreciate you for joining us today, man. It's it's great to have you in here, and it's great to kind of know the Alair guys because I used to live in South Arlington. I lived in Penrose Square, that apartment building above the giant. And um, maybe I was there when I bought my house 2021, so I was there like 2018 to like 2021, and I just remember seeing like all the Alair signs, and I was like, man, like these houses are fire, and you just kind of see Alair take down that neighborhood back there. Um, and I thought of you guys were like a boutique custom builder, and you kind of you operate that way, it's really cool. But I'm just like, oh no, they're like big dogs out here, just like crushing. And it's cool to like meet all you guys and like understand um the inner workings of that.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, we're all part of the community too. I mean, you've you've met Chad Hackman, he's been living here uh 20 plus years. Uh so he's been a builder like early on in his career. Uh so we all live locally, uh, from Chad to Jason to me, Messi. Uh so we all again just care about the community. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. That's dope, man. Well, where can the people find you in Hilaire and get in contact if they want to do a major innovation or or build a custom um ground up?

SPEAKER_01:

Uh well, Hilaire Holmes is spelled A-L-A-I-R Holmes. Uh, but you also can find me on Instagram, Andrew underscore hall92. So that's the best way to find me. Uh, but yeah, appreciate you guys having me. It's uh really insightful that you guys bring a lot of different perspectives and voices on here.

SPEAKER_02:

Thanks, bro.

SPEAKER_01:

Let's build some houses, man.

SPEAKER_02:

We out.

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Nick Bush

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