[00:00:00] Brent Jackson: (It's around the house), to have workers out there in that heat. It's just, it's a real, it's danger, I think. And so we just need to, as a industry, ought to find and explore ways to really minimize that. And then the second point, the, or the earlier point you mentioned, it ties into our second mission, which is designed, and we call it at Obtainability, but offering a higher design product at a lower price point.

[00:00:27] Brent Jackson: That's something that we are, we think break. On in, in the modular world, so much of modular to date has really been run by engineers and, and trying to focus purely on cost. We're thinking that the market really understands and appreciates simple design. As simple as Eric and I think as most of your listenership knows, that's hard to pull off when it comes to remodeling and renovating your home.

[00:00:50] Brent Jackson: There is a lot to know the, We got you covered. This is around the house. Welcome

[00:00:57] Eric Goranson: to The Round the House Show. This is where we talk home improvement [00:01:00] every single week. Thanks for joining us. I was on the interweb last week and I saw this cool project going out there, and I see a lot of projects, but when it's so different and shouldn't be so different, that's where it gets my attention.

[00:01:14] Eric Goranson: Brent Jackson, welcome to Around the House, brother.

[00:01:16] Brent Jackson: Eric, thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure to be.

[00:01:19] Eric Goranson: Man, you guys have something going on down there. You've got these new affordable homes that are healthy built. Stylish and somewhat modular. What's going on down

[00:01:31] Brent Jackson: there, man? Thank you. It's for recognizing all that cuz where we are today, we're exposing ourself to the, to a larger audience.

[00:01:39] Brent Jackson: And, but safe to say this has been years in the making and about four years or five years ago, We partnered up with some old colleagues of ours named Lake Flak. They're an outstanding architectural firm based here in Texas. I would wager they're one of the top five in the US and other periodicals and magazines tend to agree with that.

[00:01:58] Brent Jackson: It's just wonderful to find [00:02:00] somebody that you work with Well, and that's the case with us and Lake Plato. So when we got together, we said, Look, let's be intentional. Ultimately going into the modular space. But with my business background, we really wanted to test the revenue side. Sure. So in that regard, we did some case studies and some samples, if you will, in the Dallas area and uh, and was successful with that.

[00:02:21] Brent Jackson: And so about a year ago, we then decided to go ahead and pull the trigger and Gulf full board modular. There's a lot of technicalities that go along with that. But what the biggest issue and biggest barrier to entry, quite frankly for a small company like us, is that you have to go through a state regulated process and uh, it's very expensive and time consuming, but we believe so much in it that we pulled the ramp bandaid right off.

[00:02:44] Eric Goranson: Nice man. And yeah, that's the tough part. Sometimes you're sitting there trying to do something that's gonna be affordable for people out there. And man, the barriers just stack up sometimes and trying to get there.

[00:02:55] Brent Jackson: They really do. It's, uh, it's unfortunate that's the way that it is in, in a lot of the cities and in the [00:03:00] us.

[00:03:00] Brent Jackson: But I also understand that they've got some, the labor markets are really challenging for them as well, so I'm trying to be understanding there, but in the meantime, feel that we can at least take a little slug out of the crisis in order to get there. Eric, we have to be, We're for profit endeavor, so we have to be mindful of how to scale and to scale correctly and not in a hurry.

[00:03:21] Brent Jackson: And so what that looks like for us is really addressing the lower hanging. Fruit first. And so those are your DIY developers that may wanna buy these for Airbnb purposes. Hospitality sector seems to be of interest to our product and the retirement community. We'll go through those, we'll go through those markets initially, and then when we can scale appropriately in a timely manner, which is we think in about a three year to five year period, at that point will really be able to tackle the essential worker crisis that, that these guys and girls that are out there really slog, slogging it.

[00:03:53] Brent Jackson: For us in the front lines, the particularly during Covid, but I think really going forward, they'll continue to be on the front [00:04:00] line for us for some time. We wanna help solve that problem, and so we think we can do that. We just need a little.

[00:04:06] Eric Goranson: Man. No kidding. And that worker shortage out there in our trades here is such a hot button.

[00:04:12] Eric Goranson: I've had so many meetings with people in my area and I'm up here in Portland, Oregon, and electricians can't find electricians for the electrical contractors. The, there's every single company I know right now in my area is held back on. Just because they can't find somebody to fill that slot. And of course our high schools and stuff out there have in many places in the country have missed the boat and gotten rid of all those programs and put in computer labs and other things in that area.

[00:04:39] Eric Goranson: I applaud you guys for helping to do that as well because that is part of the mix of trying to get affordable housing out there is to get affordable workforce out there as well. And to make it smart for everybody.

[00:04:49] Brent Jackson: Absolutely. And uh, you're hitting on one of our three mission points, which is workability.

[00:04:54] Brent Jackson: And so when we designed our factory, Lake Plato, AC actually also helped us design the factory. [00:05:00] We designed it with a concept called biophilic design and mine where. It's really a simple concept. You just, you just put a lot of greenery around you and you have visibility to that greenery and the mental state that, that causes in a positive way for your workforce is amazing.

[00:05:13] Brent Jackson: Then we offer benefits and full benefits for and labor so that they really can feel a part of the team and uh, and that labor stickiness or that labor, low turnover helps us. Keep corporate knowledge of how to build these things in a good quality manner, deliver them in a timely manner, but also really keeps us profitable in offering things that these that are at fairly lower cost at our competitors.

[00:05:36] Eric Goranson: And what's cool about you guys doing this as modular and for you people out there, we'll give some websites and stuff so you can take a look at this stuff, but this is not what I would say what you would typically see as modular. This stuff is stunningly beautiful. If you have any kind of a preconceived notion of what modular is.

[00:05:53] Eric Goranson: Please throw it out before you look at these pictures, cuz this stuff's amazing. But one of the things about modular that I love is that [00:06:00] you now have people working inside in a much safer and healthier work environment versus outside in the rain at 40 degrees or outside in the heat at 120. And it's not that hot, but it feels like it's that hot.

[00:06:12] Eric Goranson: But you could actually have something that's a lot more stable environment for people to

[00:06:16] Brent Jackson: work in. Absolutely. And here in Texas, which is where we're initially focused, the heat is during summer months is, is sweltering. And I'm afraid, given where we are in climate change, it's not gonna go anywhere but up.

[00:06:28] Brent Jackson: And to have workers out there in that heat, it's just, it's a real, it's danger I think. And so we just need to, as an industry, ought to find and explore ways to really minimize. And then the second point there, or the earlier point you mentioned, it ties into our second emission, which is design and we call it at Obtainability, but offering a higher design product at a lower price point.

[00:06:49] Brent Jackson: That's something that we are, we think breaking the mold on in, in a modular world. So much of modular to date has really been run by engineers and. Focused purely on [00:07:00] cost. We're thinking that the market really understands and appreciates simple design. As simple as Eric, and I think as most of your listenership knows, that's hard to pull off.

[00:07:09] Brent Jackson: And that's why, again, it really helps for us to be partnered with a firm like Lake Plato.

[00:07:14] Eric Goranson: Yeah, you guys have all the details right from really durable exterior materials that'll hold up in your weather to finally finished interiors, which I love. This isn't where you came in and blew a bunch of orange peel on the walls.

[00:07:26] Eric Goranson: The textures are correct. The flooring is right. This is not one of those things where you walk in and go, Wow, those are $12 worth of cabinets in here. This is quality stuff, and I can just see that looking through. With my third years in design, it's stunningly beautiful, and that's rare and it shouldn't be.

[00:07:43] Eric Goranson: Thank

[00:07:43] Brent Jackson: you for pointing that out and appreciating that. Yeah, we used level five and a half museum finish. That's a cost to us, but we think at the end of the day, that's really something that's appreciated. Again, with a simple design, it's easy to really embellish or. To fo and highlight the items that, [00:08:00] that, that makes living enjoyable in your space.

[00:08:03] Brent Jackson: And one of the, one of those is the actual finish on the walls. Believe it or not, most people just, they do blow on the orange peel and we just, we think that's not our aesthetic. The other thing that we do is, is you mentioned earlier on, is we focus on health. And so our paint, for example, is no voc paint, so that those folks that are expecting kiddos and or pregnant at the time, you can rest assured that you're living in a healthy environment in that room.

[00:08:25] Brent Jackson: So we're really mindful of that. And then of course, the third element of our mission is sustainability, which we're touching on a bit here as well, and health. Is part of sustainability in our definition. So we've mentioned the voc paint, no voc paint, but we also really look at how it is our waste line up with the industry standard of onsite construction and modular.

[00:08:45] Brent Jackson: And this is not us being special compared to other modulars. This is really all modular. You can have up to 90% reduction in waste. And what a what? What a meaningful impact that can have if that's adopted. But nationwide, we understand that the folks are a little bit ahead [00:09:00] of this on the sustainability curve in Germany and places like that around the world.

[00:09:03] Brent Jackson: They're adopting modular decades ago, and we're a little slow to to, to it, but as a nation. But I think, I think more and more we're starting to see the, even the big boys starting to play in this space, whether they're buying companies that have been in the modular space or they're simply buying, buying from them to.

[00:09:20] Eric Goranson: Absolutely. Great example. There's a house, that's what six doors up for me right now that I'm watching be built. I've counted. They're on their second dumpster of excess materials that's being framed, hauling off the job site from lumber cuts to everything else, and it's ready to get picked up again. Cuz I walk my dogs past it every day and I keep continent.

[00:09:39] Eric Goranson: It's. That is so much waste out of one home. And the nice thing is that when you're building modular on a somewhat standardized block system that you guys seem to be doing, you can order a lumber that's the correct length, so you're not throwing all this stuff away.

[00:09:55] Brent Jackson: Absolutely. What we try to do a strike of balance so that the customer, they can [00:10:00] choose from four different stucco colors.

[00:10:01] Brent Jackson: They can choose from two different panels on the exterior. They can choose from six different layout. And so as a result there is a high degree of customization, but. Our side, the assembly and systems process really falls very much like a Ford assembly line or the old Henry Ford Days. And we haven't really, we haven't really needed to move that much off of that concept as a, as an industry because it's so dang efficient.

[00:10:24] Brent Jackson: And as, as we've said, it's just, it, you're limiting so much waste, which is so good for, I got ki I got four kids and they'll have kids, I'm sure. And it just gotta be mindful, I wanna be mindful of, of how that impacts them and so on and so forth.

[00:10:37] Eric Goranson: And let's be honest, that material that's getting haul off, the customer's paying twice for that.

[00:10:42] Eric Goranson: Absolutely. They turn around, they're paying for that expensive material to show up in the job site, and then they get on the second time because those dumpsters aren't free going out of there. And so you're paying twice for material that you didn't even use. So jet on the cost effectiveness outside of the.

[00:10:57] Eric Goranson: Impact on the environment. It's just [00:11:00] smart when it comes to affordable housing. Absolutely. Now, one thing I do like with you guys doing that smooth finish on the inside and the. Simplicity of your homes. It gives that homeowner a chance to do their own custom stuff without having to do a remodel. You've got this really cool space, but because you've got the right texture on the walls, you've got all the right pieces With that, it lends to somebody be able to put a piece of art up, where many times the lower quality homes out there, they've just hogged on the texture, like we said, and you can see the waves even with that.

[00:11:34] Eric Goranson: But a high quality finish on the inside still lends to somebody being able to do something super custom and make it their

[00:11:42] Brent Jackson: own home. That's a great point, Eric. My background actually at my undergraduate degree was a BFA for the focus on painting and sculpting at the University of Texas at Austin. And my, my hope and goal and dream at.

[00:11:53] Brent Jackson: Is for all of our home buyers to, to find that space that, that excites them to put their artwork, whether it's their own or, [00:12:00] but to really focus on that component of this living experience and having art. And again, the accessibility, visibility to, to nature around them with both the placement of the finish, the windows.

[00:12:11] Brent Jackson: It's just a, it makes my heart sing. To hear you pick up on that and, and that people really have the benefit of placing and making it their own custom, custom walls.

[00:12:21] Eric Goranson: Yeah, let's talk about the healthy side of this as well. I wanna talk about some of the outside your stuff doing here in a minute, and we'll wait to go to that, but man, you guys look like you have the right system inside.

[00:12:32] Eric Goranson: We all got really educated with Covid as much as we hate to be on what our indoor air quality is because all of a sudden, The kids in school might have had that air purifier over here and it was in the doctor or was at the, wherever you're popping into and now you're, you've got this knowledge of, Okay, I need to have the air inside my home healthy.

[00:12:56] Eric Goranson: Looks like you guys are tackling that right off the bat. Yeah.

[00:12:59] Brent Jackson: We've been [00:13:00] fortunate to be paired up with a gentleman named Jesse Arter out of Austin. He's our health and sustainability consultant, and he's, I, I. I would wager that he's one of the top in the country of materials knowledge and really, he actually lived in your fine state for some time, but he, he has the ability to not only find the immediate impact of, of a material, so we call it the low hanging fruit that we, you don't have to go out and blow your budget on that eventually would.

[00:13:28] Brent Jackson: Onto the consumer, but something that has a meaningful impact as the no voc paint or as cabinetry that doesn't have off gassing or at the flooring that we have. It's really simple. With a concrete floor, people look at it and the first question they have is, This is beautiful. Why do more people do it?

[00:13:44] Brent Jackson: And the fact of the matter is that people think that if you just lay over tile and things of that sort, it's what the customer wants. But when we come back to simplicity, it. Ended up being a fortuitous element of sustainability and health is that you don't have the MAs or any type of glue to put [00:14:00] down anything on top of the concrete.

[00:14:02] Brent Jackson: So it all worked out and I wish I could say that. Yeah, that there was, that I was this orchestrator completely. There were a lot of things where you just, you find in the process that you say, Oh, that was a happy accident. I, There's a benefit to this. We're gonna keep it in. It's ironic.

[00:14:15] Eric Goranson: Frank Lloyd Wright figured out concrete floors a hundred years ago.

[00:14:20] Eric Goranson: were super cool. And somehow we got way away from that and it just a hundred years later, it seems it's getting absorbed now. But you ever walked into one of his homes out there? He had that trademark red concrete floor that was stunning and you didn't see tile covering it up or anything else. And you're right.

[00:14:38] Eric Goranson: Why have all these adhesives in your house that quite frankly, Don't need to be there. If you can use an existing material that's under there anyway.

[00:14:46] Brent Jackson: Absolutely.

[00:14:47] Eric Goranson: And beautiful. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. It's funny with all the air handling and stuff out there too, it looks like you guys have some UV filters and stuff in there.

[00:14:58] Eric Goranson: It's funny, I've been testing [00:15:00] stuff at my house cuz my house is one big test house with the radio show and podcast of new stuff. My, I put in a healthy home system kind of air conditioning system here with an air scrubber. My air scrubber is too good. My wife can't bake bread cuz it kills the yeast inside the house.

[00:15:16] Eric Goranson: So she has to take it out in our outdoor kitchen to set it because it will actually kill the yeast of the bread if she tries to raise bread inside the house. So I went a little too far on it. I have to dial it back off 11, but you guys seem to have a great balance with that.

[00:15:29] Brent Jackson: We, that was pre covid when we made those decisions to use the UV filter.

[00:15:34] Brent Jackson: And of course we, we hate to have been in the position. Of all that happened during Covid, but, but that was definitely something that, that the market was very happy that we had. It was one of those things where we did it for the right reason before Covid hit, and it just, there was, uh, an impact during Covid and, but we firmly believed that even after Covid, it's just the right thing to do to provide that.

[00:15:59] Brent Jackson: It's a little bit of an [00:16:00] extra cost, but again, it's, we're very transparent with our client. Of why we do what we do. We pick and choose where it makes sense to, to spend the money and, and that was definitely one that we felt very strongly about.

[00:16:13] Eric Goranson: Yeah, that's great. I noticed on the outside too, that you guys have this kinda, in some of the pictures I saw this kind of Japanese courthouse feel court, that courtyard area back there, it seemed to be really cool of how you guys are taking.

[00:16:27] Eric Goranson: Those nice textures of the home and wrapping 'em into kind of an outdoor living space as well.

[00:16:33] Brent Jackson: That's we, uh, again, around the concept of biophilic design. We really feel strongly that the mental health of our homeowners, Resides around this notion of being able to see outside and have this interaction with nature.

[00:16:51] Brent Jackson: And you can be in the middle of near downtown Dallas and still have that experience, is what we were after. And so these, these, [00:17:00] this particular product line, the haciendas fallen nicely into that urban setting. And does provide for that, again, line of sight, very open feel. What's interesting when we have clients, customers walk through our model, we don't turn on the lights on purpose so that when you walk in, there's so much natural light.

[00:17:20] Brent Jackson: You really don't even need the actual lights themselves. In some cases. Yeah, that that mental health component is something that we really drive towards, I think. I think it's something that is important for our country. And for our kiddos and for us, and I don't think it's anything that's to gloss over.

[00:17:41] Brent Jackson: I think it's a real thing and really impactful on everybody's general happiness during the day.

[00:17:48] Eric Goranson: Yeah. It's such a huge thing that we haven't taken into accountant building in the past. And I think people, like I said earlier, I think a hundred years ago we did a better job of, of architecture back then [00:18:00] than, and we've gotten away from it over the last 50 years.

[00:18:04] Eric Goranson: And I think embracing what's outside a little better goes a long ways.

[00:18:09] Brent Jackson: Absolutely. I couldn't agree more with that, Eric. That's cool. So

[00:18:12] Eric Goranson: what I like too, that you guys are doing is you're battling that affordable home. Battle out there as well. These are not 1.5 million homes when you look at what's going into it as far as quality, but they're very affordable homes, it seems.

[00:18:28] Eric Goranson: Yeah. And

[00:18:29] Brent Jackson: it, it's, we would, we want to continue to push down cost and you know that that's our mission and that's my personal covenant is to solve that or be a part of the. We're not there, We're not where I want to be, uh, where I hope to be. We are making a difference, but that's, I think that's just how, as a founder and CEO of a company, you can have to be wired is, is you really just want to keep improving.

[00:18:58] Brent Jackson: And [00:19:00] yes, today we're solving to, to a large degree, we will continue to improve that, particularly as we scale and grow as a company. We are squarely focused on how do we solve at a minimum for the essential worker. And we define that by, by the following, you know, police officers, firefighters, nurses, educators, the folks that, again, that are out there on the front lines and are really doing such yomen, they're doing all the work that, that, that keeps our country, they're the, in my opinion, the, the backbone of our country.

[00:19:34] Eric Goranson: Amen, Man. Couldn't agree more. And you know, it's interesting outside of the land cost, you know that house is the other next biggest thing that goes into a property like that. And you guys of course really can't control the land cost thing. But I could see you guys taking this while outside of Dallas if you.

[00:19:54] Eric Goranson: This is something that, uh, could get as big as you wanted it to get. So

[00:19:58] you're,

[00:19:59] Brent Jackson: you're hitting [00:20:00] on a, again, a button that, that as a ceo we just wanna be mindful of our growth, but yes, we've gained a considerable amount of interest outside of the state of Texas. We would love to be able to help in those scenarios.

[00:20:13] Brent Jackson: We just also need to be mindful of growing smart in a smart manner. And our intention is that in the next three to five years, we will start to to grow outside of the state.

[00:20:25] Eric Goranson: Yeah, that's awesome because you guys have your own housing issues, but it is not just in Texas, it is everywhere. And it's ironic.

[00:20:34] Eric Goranson: Great example here in Portland, Oregon metro area where I live, The city of Portland here last year was building affordable housing. And I'll use my air quotes with it, but their costs for the building were $400,000 on up. Wow. And I'm like, there's gotta be better options than that guys. And they. Quality built like [00:21:00] what you guys are doing.

[00:21:01] Eric Goranson: This was more of what you would call that entry level. It was almost like RV quality going inside of it, and I just think. There's a huge demand for that across the United States with with stuff that's module and we have great example here is in many places in the country, six months of the year we have rain.

[00:21:22] Eric Goranson: So talk about an unhealthy home. And I've talked about this and I know my listeners are rolling their eyes a little bit cuz they've heard this story for me. But I can walk by multi-family unit projects here and because that plywood or OSB has been sitting out for two months in the rain, it's black and they're putting house wrap around it.

[00:21:39] Eric Goranson: And they've got windows going on it and siding going over the top fit, and that's all trapped on the inside. Those things don't happen with modular construction.

[00:21:47] Brent Jackson: Yeah, that's hard to hear, but I know that it happens and not just in your fair bird. It happens across the country and it is a shame. It doesn't have to be that way.

[00:21:59] Brent Jackson: And I [00:22:00] think that we are at the point where it's what I call the tipping point where people are really starting to understand the benefit of modular construction. And that is a huge benefit that the controllability of the environment is just, is. It's almost invaluable.

[00:22:16] Eric Goranson: Yeah. And it's just so much safer for the worker as well.

[00:22:19] Eric Goranson: If you're sitting there putting wall systems together. And it's 80 degrees inside a building versus 105 and 90% humidity, you get a better quality product because those guys aren't rushing through construction to, man, I gotta get this done so I can get home in the Cool. And you have such a better quality control because good enough in a factory setting.

[00:22:44] Eric Goranson: It doesn't happen because you've got too many eyes setting on something. We're out on a job site. That last guy framing might have got it good enough, but it's not the quality that, for instance, you guys would let out the door with that extra set of eyes checking everything.

[00:22:56] Brent Jackson: Absolutely. And amen to that.

[00:22:58] Brent Jackson: That's a solve that we are very, [00:23:00] very focused on.

[00:23:03] Eric Goranson: That is great. So what do you see, I mean, you guys are doing well it seems with this development that you've got going on with, with the Dallas Haciendas. Do you guys have more plans for more developments just in that local area? So we're

[00:23:16] Brent Jackson: really pulling back from the development space and squarely focused on the manufacturing.

[00:23:22] Brent Jackson: So we're selling to Nice, you know, developers. And folks that you know that are buying several at a time. And, uh, so we're, yeah, we're that the pause button's on there. I think we're also, quite frankly, a little discouraged by just dealing with the min municipalities ourselves. So,

[00:23:43] Eric Goranson: so I could see that man.

[00:23:45] Eric Goranson: If I no blame you on that, if I was in the same boat going, Oh, you mean somebody could be dealing with the city, the county, or whoever else, dealing with all the permits and the hoops and everything else, and you guys are just doing what you do, banging out houses and let somebody else deal with it.

[00:23:59] Brent Jackson: [00:24:00] Smart.

[00:24:00] Brent Jackson: The other thing that it does add as far as a value, value proposition to a developer is that we take out their builder's risk. So we're essentially handling all of that. Locking in their costs, locking in their price and locking in their design and all, and, and their, and delivery dates. And so really it does de-risk their, their side of the equation.

[00:24:21] Brent Jackson: And so there's a little bit of what we would call a bifurcation of risk there, where we take on the builders risk, which is part of our platform anyways, and it really allows developer to breathe a little bit easier.

[00:24:32] Eric Goranson: So what's cool is if you guys had somebody in your local area there that had a few acres that wanted to put on five to seven homes or something like that, even that small, it'd be something that you guys might be able to have a conversation with versus somebody that wants to put in

[00:24:44] Brent Jackson: 200.

[00:24:45] Brent Jackson: Absolutely. In fact, we, I would say we're having to think about a wait list at this point. Just in the last two weeks we've been in doted. Those conversations that you've just outlined is exactly the set of conversations we're having. We, we [00:25:00] have the benefit of being judicious of who we sell to be. Be mindful of not just cramming in a bunch.

[00:25:10] Brent Jackson: In a more problematic way.

[00:25:13] Eric Goranson: Smart. Yeah. And I can't tell you as much as all the different companies in the building industry that I've owned, that smart growth is the key. Because just because you're bigger doesn't mean it's better sometimes. Absolutely. I've had my butt handed to me on that one a few times.

[00:25:29] Eric Goranson: So style wise, it seems you guys have done a decent job too, of style and a box. So you have sensible options, but you haven't turned into like what you do with, if you were gonna order a brand new car, you have these options you can go through. But everything coming out the door isn't custom either, where you're, it's you're, To put it into the car world.

[00:25:50] Eric Goranson: You're a custom coach builder versus here's our colors of the exterior, here's our colors of the interior, and a little bit more of the check the box. You could have more of an assembly line feel [00:26:00] in the production

[00:26:00] Brent Jackson: side. You're peeling the curtain back a little bit here, Eric, and so I'll go with it. Yeah.

[00:26:06] Brent Jackson: We actually modeled our website to be just that very much following the car industry. The site that's currently available was really just a microsite, what we call microsite, to make sure that people knew who we were, make sure people saw the product type. That's our first product line in, in the Hacienda with more products to follow and then they could get their orders in and contact somebody.

[00:26:32] Brent Jackson: And that was really just the genesis and basis of that microsite. But our full launch is gonna be pretty, pretty slick. And that will be a website that'll go out probably in December or January, and you'll be able to go on and click the colors, as I said, the panel, the color of stucco called the panels.

[00:26:49] Brent Jackson: And as you click on them, they'll actually be a Bim BIM popup that will cut change the color real time as you click on those buttons. And so they'll really be an [00:27:00] experience of the buyer that kind of, they get that, that they're customizing to a certain extent. But you're right on the backside and on in the factory.

[00:27:09] Brent Jackson: All we're simply doing from an efficiency standpoint is changing out the dye and the stucco and changing out the rolling from one panel color to another. So it's the best of both worlds. The buyers get the, get a, a true sense. Uh, several. When you've, when you amalgamate all of the different options they have it, it comes out to several hundred different styles that they could choose from in effect.

[00:27:32] Brent Jackson: And so there is a high degree of customization from their experience, but on our side, it really is just making sure you attach one color to. To one

[00:27:42] Eric Goranson: order. Yeah, that makes sense because it could drive you guys nuts. Just on the product acquisition side, if you had, quote unquote, too many options out there, because every custom home builder in the United States battles at right now with Mrs.

[00:27:58] Eric Goranson: Smith going, But I want this [00:28:00] faucet. I've never seen that faucet. I don't know how that even fits into this whole thing where you guys could put in combinations that are tested and true that you work versus having to make Guinea pigs outta every.

[00:28:11] Brent Jackson: Yeah, we are unashamedly not a custom home builder. We, we offer customization through our website and that's really, and so we're, we very much are open that this is a technology component to the system and a systems component.

[00:28:29] Brent Jackson: So for us, one of the, one example of that is that when we launch the full site, once the purchaser hits order of how say they order six, six homes. That will go straight through the site to the supplier and the vendor on our supply chain, and then there'll be a QR code attached to each one of them, and so that at the end of each day, our floor manager will be scanning the QR code of each module so you can real time see where your module sits on the factory floor.[00:29:00]

[00:29:00] Eric Goranson: That is insanity that I absolutely love. That is cool. So you can, It's like Amazon, Where's my Amazon delivery? Oh, it's down the street. It's literally that kind of technology to, Oh, cool. It's coming off the finish line there and.

[00:29:14] Brent Jackson: The interesting thing about it, Eric, is the technology's not complicated. I'm not a techn file.

[00:29:19] Brent Jackson: I, you saw how the hard it was to get on this call. For me, it's a very simple technology. The issue is that construction, I think by design, stayed out of the technology world because it didn't, it enjoyed operating in that gray area and, and so we're pulling the lid off that. Doing it from the ground up.

[00:29:39] Brent Jackson: We're not doing it from the top down. We know that there are other companies out there that tried it from the top down, put a lot of money towards it and didn't succeed, but we think our way will be quite successful.

[00:29:49] Eric Goranson: It's funny that you bring up technology and I've got a lot of friends up in the Northeast and I've been up there as a technology speaker for different groups and I [00:30:00] decided, they actually had me come up to the Northeastern Retail Lumber Association and talk.

[00:30:04] Eric Goranson: Interior design with all these lumber yards and virtual reality, and it didn't go as well for them because I'm talking to a bunch of lumber yards that use pens and papers to do orders and didn't have any kind of online system before Covid. And I was talking to them about using virtual reality to do stuff.

[00:30:22] Eric Goranson: Our industry is very behind on, like you talked about, marketing and communicating with homeowners or potential homeowners or even other builders that are putting these things in. How to do this and what it's gonna look like. And I think that you guys are gonna really bla some trails and that's exciting.

[00:30:41] Brent Jackson: Thank you. Thank you so much.

[00:30:45] Eric Goranson: So in a nutshell, how do people track you down? Because if they're looking to do this, and I guess you guys are getting a waiting list going, but if we're gonna sit there and talk about this, we gotta let people know how to find you in the Dallas area, at least [00:31:00] for, uh, for this

[00:31:01] Brent Jackson: phase of it.

[00:31:01] Brent Jackson: I would be remiss if I didn't shine the light on the city. We are in, and who embraced us with open arms, and that's Grand Prairie, Texas. It's a smaller but very progressive city that sits between Dallas and Fort Worth. For us, strategically it makes sense to be Central, Central located, but to be in Grand, Grand Prairie is just a wonderful thing.

[00:31:24] Brent Jackson: They're very mindful of all the things that we're about that I've just mentioned to. And it's just been a joy working with them as a municipality. Um, that said, the easiest way to find us really is just to go toward our current website@highfab.co. Okay. And or another place a lot of folks are starting to find us is on Instagram, which is the handle is@highfab.co as well.

[00:31:51] Eric Goranson: Perfect, man. Thanks for coming on today and let's keep in touch because. I'm excited for what you guys are doing out there and I'd love to see this [00:32:00] as you guys dip your toes into other areas and see how it goes in the future. Cuz I think you guys got a pretty good future

[00:32:05] Brent Jackson: ahead of you for this. Thank you for the kind words, Eric.

[00:32:07] Brent Jackson: Thank you so much for having me on.

[00:32:10] Eric Goranson: Thanks again man. And you've been listening to Around the House,