Feed Me Your Construction Content

Innovations in Risk Management for Builders with Roger Langford

• Joshua & Carolyn McMahon • Season 3 • Episode 40

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Discover how to navigate the complexities of construction risk management with insights from Roger Langford, the Vice President of Sales at Professional Warranty Service Corporation. We promise you'll walk away with a deeper understanding of builder warranties and the innovation needed to handle an ever-evolving market, especially in times of increasing natural disasters. Roger shares his expert perspective on the burgeoning trend of building communities for rent and the critical role that builder risk insurance plays in safeguarding investments.

As the Virginia housing market undergoes significant shifts, we're uncovering the challenges faced by both buyers and builders. With median home prices soaring and starter homes now priced between $400,000 and $500,000, we tackle the implications for the industry. Our discussion highlights the necessity of effective risk management and clear communication in the construction process, ensuring expectations align with reality. Past supply shortages and the lingering effects of COVID-19 continue to impact the field, adding layers of complexity to home-building endeavors.

For those grappling with warranty management, we explore how outsourcing can transform risk management strategies. Third-party services not only mitigate litigation risks but also enhance customer satisfaction by setting clear expectations. Learn about the transformative potential of technology in this space, with future innovations like drone-assisted investigations on the horizon. Closing on a note of enthusiasm, we tease the potential of live broadcasts at the International Builders' Show, promising even more dynamic content in the years to come. Join us for a fascinating episode full of actionable strategies and expert insights.

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Carolyn can be found on LinkedIn at:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolyn-mcmahon-937b89158
Joshua can be found on LinkedIn at:
www.linkedin.com/in/joshuamcmahon15
Email for feedback, questions, complaints, etc:
mcmahonjoshua15@gmail.com

Daily Journal: https://amzn.to/41p9aKE

Speaker 2:

I love that. I love that.

Speaker 1:

Hey y'all, Welcome back to another episode of Feed Me your Construction Content. I'm Carolyn McMahon.

Speaker 2:

I'm Joshua McMahon.

Speaker 1:

Good to be back.

Speaker 2:

It's great. It's great to be back and at the last minute, we're able to pull out a guest.

Speaker 1:

That's right.

Speaker 2:

You secured a guest which is good, we had no idea what we were going to talk about this week, so we don't have to worry about it anymore.

Speaker 1:

We got roger langford with us to to fill in the blanks that's right, and I'm I already kind of have a crush on you. Well, oh, that's uh, that's.

Speaker 3:

Uh, that doesn't happen much. Very gullible this one. You're just lucky. I was sitting by the phone waiting for your call. That's right, that's right?

Speaker 1:

well, listen, roger. Tell us a little bit about yourself and what do you do.

Speaker 3:

My name is Roger Lankford. As you mentioned, I'm the vice president of sales for Professional Warranty Service Corporation. We as a company are a risk management company. His core competency has been in builder warranty space for the last 26 years. We're actually located in Virginia but we have a national scope. We work with many of the top builders in the United States. I think last I checked we're somewhere between 13% and 15% of all closings and over the last few years we've expanded our services to sort of answer the needs of the market. So as a risk management company we now work with builders on insurance services, like Builders Risk, and I'm sure you guys have heard the builder rent market is kind of a big market out there, and so we've started creating solutions for that market space. It's a different, dynamic market. Never would have thought that people were building houses to sell them, but I mean to rent them.

Speaker 1:

But that's uh well right and not just one and two entire communities of build to rent, which is just nuts, and I I originally feared that they would just saturate the market with stuff. But um, I'm really we. My knowledge of builder risk just was recent when we built our own house. I'm like what is this that we have to pay because we own the lot?

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

And for how long and how much is it? And I'm like, Ooh, so hats off to you.

Speaker 3:

Well, I mean builders approach that in a variety of ways. So, uh, you know, some builders will do a blanket policy that basically gives coverage for all of their work. Some builders have the homeowners get the insurance and it is a property insurance so it does protect from normal perils like fire and and whatnot, things like that. But the things like the storms over the last few, really few years, but I mean just what we've experienced in like North Carolina and Florida, that affects the property insurance market and so, as insurance carriers who want to protect that risk rates have a tendency to gone up because the risks and the law of large numbers has gone up. Lots of property carriers have had pretty large losses.

Speaker 1:

Yes, my mom has said that before the law of numbers. We own a townhouse in Wilmington and it is part of a master plan community and we have to pay the master policy.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and it's expensive because it's on the coast.

Speaker 1:

Right, right. And so, while we're not even really beach, we're not even really like beach adjacent, but at the same time, you know, the rates keep on going up and up. I'm like gosh, we haven't had any losses. And my mom's like it's the law of number, You're paying for everyone else's loss.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

And ouch.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, it's that those have big effects. And then the other part is is that home building isn't really wood frame construction, just in general, and so wood frame construction is flammable. So these are all sort of aspects that you know, certain markets, like in California and in some parts of the areas that are hitting wildfires.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

They, you know, they'll see where you, as a builder, right In an insurance policy, you'll have a deductible. They'll see, you know, either exclusions on wildfire or see what's considered higher deductibles, named windstorm or wildfire deductibles. These are all factors that you just don't necessarily think about. You know, you think about hey, I want to build a house. Uh, want to make good margins if possible, I'd like my home buyer to be lucky right and then there's the nuances, like you know.

Speaker 3:

Hey, I'd like to lose 15 pounds, but uh, I'm gonna starve in the process you know, it's all relative yeah, so yeah, that's a that that particular product line is something that we have really done in the last couple of years, really the last year or so. It's been very successful to us. Uh, we have the pen with a carrier and uh, they've given us special coverages that uh have been very favorable We've had good luck in in hard areas like Texas and Oklahoma. Very favorable We've had good luck in hard areas like Texas and Oklahoma. I think we've placed two top 100 builders in coverages like that, wow.

Speaker 1:

Well, what I'm really interested in is more of your solution. You're talking about the solutions for builders. Josh was talking to me about this warranty product and Josh just kind of lights up and he starts talking about this. And listen, as you get to know us, this is all we talk about. We talk about our business and each other's, and the lunacy of what we do and problem solving is a big deal for us, and so you know he comes home and talks about this and I was like, tell me more.

Speaker 3:

Well, I mean, it kind of backs up even to the insurance component of things, okay, and when you think of insurance, you just think of, hey, I'm paying for a policy and that policy could cover maybe a catastrophic loss or cover something. But insurance is just a component of risk management, and risk management is just what it sounds like managing your risk is is just what it sounds like managing your risk. And you build a house and that house has lots, of, lots of things around it. Right here, you've got the environment, you've got the conditions of the day, you have multiple subcontractors and then, really the hardest part, you have a homeowner and some cases, some cases a homeowner is spending massive amounts of money and that mass amount of money comes with a certain amount of expectations and, in many cases, heightened expectations, almost unrealistic expectations.

Speaker 1:

Were you listening to my phone conversation today with a client?

Speaker 3:

today with a client. So, from a risk management perspective, shoring up how you address warranty and how you manage that customer expectation really starts from the time you actually market to your builder, to your homeowner, or specifically signing a contract with your, with your, with your homeowner. Because you're going to sign that contract and you're going to have, uh, in your purchase and sale agreement, certain amounts of expectations and inside of that you're going to have an arbitration provisions in case it's a dispute over kind of contract issues. Um, but but what most a lot of people do, especially smaller builders, in some cases uh don't necessarily recognize that after the home is closed there are long-term tail liabilities outside of just even a one-year warranty.

Speaker 3:

So a builder like in Virginia, uh, the statute of repose is five years but it has a two-year discovery window, so theoretically it could be like a five-year exposure and backing up to the insurance component, as a builder you have to have the pie of insurance, you have to have your builder's risk, you have to have your general liability. If you own cars, you have to have auto, you have to have workers' comp. If you own cars, you have to have auto, you have to have workers comp. But completed operations is a major part of some of your liability exposure, and so general liability policies will have some completed operations with regards to bodily injury and property damage. But it does have some policies, have your work exclusions like foundation type stuff, and an insured warranty, which is a product that my company offers at Professional Warranty Service Corporation, fills a gap of the insurance pie, and so you as a builder in our program are insured for 10 years against major structural defects.

Speaker 3:

So the warranty from a risk management perspective of a home builder kind of does a couple of things really really well. It's a good sales tool because I mean, if you're a builder and you are competing with larger builders, you can say, hey, I've built a good house, I'm in a good area, but I also have guarantees that, in our case, protects against your biggest investment, which is in today's market. What's the average Virginia house cost now? $500,000 or $600,000? Every bit of that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

At least now, five or six hundred thousand dollars. Every bit of that, yeah, at least. Yeah. I mean I feel like our, our median sales price a couple years ago was in the sevens and now it's it's in the eights, mid eights.

Speaker 2:

Well, starter home now is probably four to five hundred thousand dollars in some cases unless you're building in what petersburg or hopewell or some of these other, you know smaller communities where you can still get landed a decent price Right.

Speaker 3:

That's drastically changed, even over the last five years. Absolutely has. I see town. We bought a very nice house in Chesterfield in 2019. And, uh Boy, townhomes cost as much as we paid for it in 2019. Right, Right.

Speaker 2:

Townhomes have taken off and when I first got into townhomes a similar builder to who you bought with margins were extremely tight so everybody thinks builders are crushing it on margins. Our margins were not good on townhomes so there was a lot of work to do to kind of grow our business in that arena. But townhomes have really done well.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And it makes sense because you think about a lot costing. Lots are expensive. Yeah, it's not cheap to get a lot, so you buy a lot and you build what? A $300,000 house on it, yeah, and you make $40,000?. No, you want to build a $700,000 house, but if you can build a five-unit townhome on that same parcel now, you've increased your potential to earn money. And it's not necessarily something that a buyer considers they don't understand necessarily those type of costs.

Speaker 3:

Well, we don't want to understand how the sausage is made, right.

Speaker 2:

I mean none of us want to take the time to do it. Whereas home building, though, it's full exposure, so you can see it, you can watch it on YouTube, and now you're an expert. You're, and so is a contractor. They know that's what makes home building difficult. So it's not like you don't go to germany and say you're building that bmw wrong, you don't go tell elon, that's not the way you do the tesla, they throw you out of the factory. But home building, you can do that stuff. So you talk about the risk management and the, the 10-year. That's a huge differentiator, especially smaller builders.

Speaker 3:

Especially yes, because, though their exposures are not the same as a large builder, neither is their pocketbooks no a really small mistake that may be $10,000, $20,000.

Speaker 2:

For a small builder it can hurt.

Speaker 3:

Yes.

Speaker 2:

That's how tight things can be, Whereas a big builder you can probably absorb that kind of hit and just keep on moving like nothing happened.

Speaker 3:

And it all circles back. I mean there's an insurance component that protects against those catastrophic losses, but there's also just the process itself. It's linear. What you should do in your purchase and sale contract, whether you're using a company like mine or you're doing your own warranty, is you need to make sure that the language of your warranty is aligned with your purchase and sale contract. That includes arbitration provisions, mediation provisions, on how you manage warranty issues not just contractual issues.

Speaker 1:

Right, Well, you think it's a warranty issue and I'm like, well, no, it's actually not so managing expectations.

Speaker 3:

Managing expectations is the most important key Reasonable, smart expectations is the most important key in managing warranty.

Speaker 2:

I'm going to tell you, roger, I know all this stuff, but it's like my brain exploding hearing you say it and I'm just jumping out of my chair because I just don't think we do a good enough job of setting expectations and then verifying what's in our contract and what are we holding to, holding ourselves and our clients to as we build the house and I think it's exposure yeah, what's our exposure?

Speaker 2:

and I think risk management is a lot of what we need to be thinking of when we're building a home. I tell project managers or superintendents, I say what's the risk associated with doing that activity now versus later? And what's the reward? Do we do it now or do we wait?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, perfect example Large builders. Back seven or eight years ago there was a drywall shortage and we got drywall in China.

Speaker 2:

It's a lot more than seven or eight years ago, but it felt like it.

Speaker 1:

That was not good.

Speaker 2:

It's a lot more than seven or eight years ago, but it felt like that was not good.

Speaker 1:

It's probably, you know, it lasted that long to kind of you know weed through all that stuff. Gosh Chinese drywall yeah.

Speaker 2:

I remember driving through neighborhoods where I had the sheets hanging out of the window Beware Chinese drywall in this community. I mean, it was bad stuff Wow.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and it's uh, it was from a risk management perspective, that's a part of a supply shortage, and so we just came out of COVID. Uh, covid, there were supply shortages, just a few, um, and so there's. You know, the law of large numbers is based off of also a time standpoint, and so we don't necessarily know what the risks were from two or three years ago when there were supply shortages. I've heard that like some manufacturers have had trouble with appliances and stuff from that time.

Speaker 1:

Oh, wow, okay, gotcha. So you buy something during the shortage and you know what.

Speaker 3:

Most of the manufacturers I know are very good, but I've heard things you know.

Speaker 2:

You know well you you have to consider or they were outsourcing something, oh, but people were limited, resources were limited so maybe you were getting the product still done, but maybe you didn't have the quality control to double check things. Windows were in shortage and you start getting screamed at enough from consumers and builders. You might start cutting some corners and people like I want my product now I met.

Speaker 3:

I met a builder in ohio who had to wait like seven months for a ten thousand dollar door. He was building high-end custom. He's like he couldn't deliver the house, couldn't put the co in the house.

Speaker 1:

He's got like a three million dollar house like can I put up a ten thousand dollar door?

Speaker 3:

I mean they were bored. I mean sometimes they were boarding up houses that had carpet in it back in certain markets. I don't think it's obviously not like that now, but that's I heard.

Speaker 1:

Everybody hears the horror stories well, right, right, when windows were delayed and you know you're begging inspectors like look, if I just do this, if I board this up, can I keep construction moving? What was it?

Speaker 2:

I had that in Mosaic where I think we probably lost four months and the customer was there every single day Windows here, yet, windows here, yet. And then he started cussing at my people and I'm like, look, I know you're frustrated, we're frustrated too. And the county allowed us to go through all of the rough ends, insulate it, and then said we're not letting you move forward. I said why'd you let me insulate and install this if you're not going to, let me move forward Like I've got everything boarded on the outside?

Speaker 1:

I was protected yeah.

Speaker 2:

Nope, not letting you move forward.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

We got roasted for it.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, to circle back on that though. So it's that the contract's the first step and then, you know, start demonstrating in your marketing what your warranty provisions are. You know, we've now actually, we create customized marketing materials for our customers that are outside of, like our warranty document that is provided to the home buyers after closing. Um, but we do. On our website. We have an interactive house that, uh, is a good educational tool for our builders to use. Just to say here's, you know, here's your home. Here are the things that are covered.

Speaker 3:

Um, you know, the warranty document does manage and mediate customer expectations. It's also the rule book and the referee. In the case of a dispute and in most disputes, the ideal outcome is a reasonable resolution. You don't want to ever be in a situation where you're in small claims court or you're in a courtroom. You just want to provide the rule book and the referee and clear expectations on how those things are resolved. And that's sort of the advantage of a third party a third party that can be the voice of the warranty, the, the arbiter of the, the rules and how those are established.

Speaker 3:

Um, and you know, when you use a third party warranty company like ours, I mean, we have a document that's written and purged. It's been in place for 26 years. Some of the larger builders do all of those things Right and don't actually have the insurance component where there is a risk transfer, but still utilize all the same sort of principles of occupying a third party warranty, utilizing arbitration and mediation provisions, using standards that, in those cases, can be truly customized around specific needs and provide litigation avoidance tools. So those are the things that we, you know the real highlights of why a builder should consider it. Uh, I would look at it, not necessarily as a. I've heard the word in my 25 year, 22 year career of uh, what's the right word? I? It escaped me. Uh, an extended warranty. Yeah, it's really more of your insurance tool or your risk management tool and if I were to, if I were to advise someone, I would consider it as a line item as my insurance costs, risk management costs.

Speaker 2:

I agree, you. You put it in your, you put it in your budget the price of building the house. So does PWSC act as that referee.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so PWSC, uh, we are a managing general underwriter, so really it's the only place that you can get those. Our partner is Zurich insurance. Okay, so Zurich has multiple companies that they they have under their Zurich umbrella. We use a company called steadfast Zurich, which is the same partner we've had for the entire 22, 26 years that we've been in business, and so they are the program insurer and so if there's a financial loss, then the insurance company steps in and fulfills uh that responsibility up to the original sales price. So if you know your house is $500,000 and something awful happened, um catastrophic, then you have up to $5 million in that scenario, $500,000 in that scenario of coverage. So we've had losses in our lifetime. But then there's that mediation piece, which I would say is probably more important. So if any look at any first year item that you might have, there's at times, uh, standard of performances that are outlined um in the document I think I've heard you talk about this before, but the residential performance guidelines are put out.

Speaker 2:

I got it open on my desktop right now. It's always a good reference tool.

Speaker 3:

Um, but yeah.

Speaker 3:

And that creates the standard for which you perform right, yeah, this is out of so-and-so and it's like standard for which you perform right, yeah, this is out of someone that's like well, you know they're good reference tools and so if you have a dispute with you and your home buyer and your home buyer and you can't make a reason to come to a reasonable resolution, our team can step in and mediate that issue. We've taken a different approach, uh, than maybe even we did 15 years ago. With regards to claims, we decided over the last five to six years is to bring home experts into the fold, so our claims team are home building professionals. Wow, that's great.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, my head of claims, uh, my head of claims is a civil engineer. He was the VP of construction for a large uh insurance company, I mean a large building company out in the West coast, a national company. So, um, when we take the approach of resolve, helping our builders and their homeowners resolve issues, we come from it, not only from a here's an insurance piece, but we we really want to make sure that that we, that we understand the actual problem at hand, which generally is construction yeah, that's really good to have the experts who are building the houses inside the team, because I think oftentimes you'll get insurance professionals who are really good at insurance and they try to help understand how builders can do something better.

Speaker 2:

But if you don't have somebody on the team that understands, it's really difficult for you to bridge the gap.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, we're an antiquated bunch right.

Speaker 2:

I mean, uh, like backwoods hillbillies when it comes to home building for the most part, like we just not come to the 21st century yet. I mean I.

Speaker 3:

I mean that you know half jokingly present company excluded but I don't know the way I mean, look, I'm just forward thinking, not necessarily anything that we're doing yet, but the way things are going. With the technology, you you probably will be able to investigate a claim with a drone and a laser. The digital imaging of homes is coming, I think you're going to find at one point, everyone's going to get their home and everything is going to already be digitally there pictures and all Sure. I've already seen a couple of models, but it looks pretty impressive, and so I think technology is going to be such that I think there's a lot of that coming that will help to improve our business, but we are very stuck in our ways.

Speaker 2:

So we've had technology 20 plus years in the industry with scheduling systems and other things and everybody's like. This is what we live and die by, but we're still not getting it right. We're still struggling.

Speaker 1:

Still doing it, pencil and paper.

Speaker 2:

You've still got a generation that's still pencil and paper and not getting completely on board with the computer systems. And then you've got the next generation. That's all in on the computer system, but they don't know how to build a house.

Speaker 3:

Well, it's such a personal business.

Speaker 2:

Very personal. That's exactly right.

Speaker 3:

There's certain things you just can't take that personal touch to.

Speaker 2:

I mean and I think that's where, the more we get away from the personal touch is why surveys start to suffer, why customers are not happy with us, expectations aren't met, we, we can't do this anymore, right? We can't just have a conversation about something, and heaven forbid if we disagree on something, because then it's all hell breaks loose.

Speaker 3:

Yeah but from a risk management perspective, the personal touch is something you never should walk away from, but you really need to document everything you do.

Speaker 1:

Well, I'm interested with this third party, though. It's like, okay, so I'm the builder, I introduce you as kind of my warranty liaison, or you know, your third party. It's like, if you say no to a buyer, it's like we're kind of distancing ourselves from you, so it's not like the builder, the bad builder is you that say no. I mean, do you find that that helps a buyer kind of separate themselves from the? You know what I mean the? No, we're not going to fix this, this is not under warranty, and so it's like there's that.

Speaker 2:

It's a third layer.

Speaker 1:

It's another layer of insulation. So it's like you know, that's how we sell it.

Speaker 3:

So the answer to that is yes and no Sure. The warranty document is the builder's warranty. It is administered through a third party that basically manages disputes. Companies like mine, including us, now have components where we take more of an active role in the first year. These are sort of ancillary products that we offer. We call our service first link and with first link we take more of an active role in that first year. That could even involve taking the warranty call, processing it, educating the homeowner on the warranty and then in some scenarios we can work with your subs because you have subcontractor agreements as a builder that the sub is going to have certain amounts of duties to do in the first year. We talk drywall Drywall is mentioned in the warranty document about going back one time.

Speaker 3:

Oh to do Nail pops, but then we can take the service on as actually helping builders manage their warranty issues in a professional manner. That's something that we're doing now. We've had partnerships with for years, but we're doing more of that.

Speaker 2:

What do you prefer on that? Do you prefer larger builders, smaller builders when it comes to that type of service?

Speaker 3:

If you were to ask my personal opinion, I would say a large, large. We have a couple of large builders that do it in the country. When I say large, like 200 or 300 homes, Okay.

Speaker 3:

But I think probably the perfect prospect for that is someone in the 20 to 100 range, that there's a lot of builders in this country doing 20 or 30 homes a year and they're just working under two or three people and managing subcontractors. That's not a lot and they probably have the ability to grow. But with growing is adding staff and people, and then if you're going to spend, you know, a resource like a salary, maybe it would be better to have a superintendent than necessary or some a construction professional than someone who basically manages the warranty issues. So there are, there are ways to be smart and use a company like ours, for example, that understands that world and can potentially keep you out of the what you just said earlier, that you know the bad guy role in some cases, because in some cases you're going to be the bad guy and sometimes it would be better if the warranty company Someone else delivered that news and not the filter.

Speaker 2:

Well you're going to put me out of business, Roger, because I've held the bad guy role for many years jokingly. But in a leadership role, typically things don't get to me until it's bad. But in a leadership role, typically things don't get to me until it's bad. And when it's bad you're coming in, you're getting the information and you might be giving information or answers that the customer doesn't want to hear and then you turn into the bad guy and it's not fun.

Speaker 3:

But as a smaller builder or any size, but especially a smaller builder who can't out-market bad reviews yes, who can't out market bad reviews yes. So you, as a smaller builder, your reputation is your marketing. Everything. Most of your business is probably going to come from some sort of referral, or you did a parade of homes or something like that. You just can't out market it. You can't compete with search engines, which does happen, right and so every, every little step that you take has to be the right step. You you don't have, as your margin of error is more complicated.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, one misstep takes a year to recover from. How do you I know you can't give me, quote me prices now, but how do you base your pricing? Is it based on the price of the home? Yeah, the volume.

Speaker 3:

So it's usually on the warranty side, the insured warranty side, it's a dollar amount per thousand and there are factors building experience, volume of building, where you're building those are types of things that factor in sort of the rating structure. Not much different than an insurance piece would be. If you look at stuff like what we talked about earlier with the first link more flat rate costs, it's a flat rate per home kind of sort of based on the same things, but probably not all these other things delivering bad news to clients, not getting warranty done in a timely manner.

Speaker 2:

I see a lot of advantages to this because in my career, typically the warranty department is not your strongest department, and this doesn't matter if it's a small builder or a large builder. The warranty department is not your strongest candidates, not your people who are moving up the company. They're going to take charge and run the business one day, so things don't happen as quick as they need to. It's kind of an afterthought. So it's really not. It's not really a great thing. So I think if you can outsource that, I'm all for it.

Speaker 3:

And you want to position your team members to make the best decision, and so sometimes by purely establishing the rules, establishing the regulations, standing the processes, one of the things that our national account representatives do is they spend times with our clients educating about the warranty, continuously providing sort of the resources that they need. You know.

Speaker 2:

I think that is so huge because you know, the hardest thing to do in our industry is tell somebody no is to disappoint somebody. And when you've got the book, you've got everything you need, but I still have to deliver. I'm sorry. The book says this these are the standards, this is not under warranty, and then the customer pushes back. It's hard for your internal staff to have to do that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, or to not cave.

Speaker 3:

Well, oftentimes we do Like I do to my wife Cave.

Speaker 2:

Yes exactly.

Speaker 1:

You're going to get another cat or dog. You better watch out.

Speaker 2:

Probably getting one soon.

Speaker 1:

Especially if this runs much longer. You're late. Pick something up.

Speaker 2:

Well, I think this has been great. I'm really excited about the warranty thing. I mean, when you first pitched it to me a year ago, I was like I think there's something there.

Speaker 1:

But I wasn't in a position.

Speaker 2:

You know, in my role, it's like, okay, what's my biggest priority, where do I need to focus my attention? And that's where I go. So then I put you on the back burner, that's okay. And you kept on pestering me and you'd see me in Vegas. You're like Josh, hey.

Speaker 3:

He was hiding on the other side of the bar. He doesn, no, it's like wait a minute.

Speaker 1:

I know you don't even drink. I'm going to give you a break.

Speaker 3:

I'm so disappointed this isn't on camera. I'm dressed like stepbrothers are. You are In my tux and everything.

Speaker 2:

You are, I know.

Speaker 1:

Am I overdressed?

Speaker 2:

We set you up, we told you to be professional.

Speaker 1:

That just means you're wearing pants. I think in our house.

Speaker 2:

For you, josh, that just means you're wearing pants. I think in our house that is all that it means.

Speaker 2:

You're wearing pants, you're a little more than Zoom ready. Yeah, exactly. But I think, as I've circled back, the warranty thing is a big hot topic for me in my role at Bermonte and I see a ton of value in this. I mean differentiating yourself from your competition, creating a source for your clients to handle warranty, taking that burden off of my people. I need my people focused on buying out projects, getting the details right on the projects. You're building custom homes. It is not just checking a box. There's a lot of stuff that goes into it and, unfortunately, all departments aren't checking or doing everything they need to do, so things will fall through the cracks and as you're building it, you don't have the opportunity to fall through the cracks. So I need them focused on that, not on warranty. So tomorrow let's get together and talk about pricing and how fast we can get something in motion.

Speaker 1:

I love it. It was great having you on.

Speaker 2:

I have such a great pleasure. Thank you all. I know you're great, roger.

Speaker 3:

Next time we're going to bust out the cameras, so dress up again, go live in IBS, we can do that too.

Speaker 2:

Let's do it. I'm up for the challenge. If this show is still being aired by February of 2025, we're going live at IBS.

Speaker 1:

All right, y'all, you've been warned.

Speaker 3:

Till next week.

Speaker 1:

See ya.

Speaker 3:

Thank you yeah.

People on this episode

Contributor

Carolyn McMahon

Co-host
Contributor

Joshua McMahon

Co-host