StreamHome Construction Podcast

Unlocking Opportunities: Alex Kosley's Journey from Nonprofit Finance to ADU Innovator in Construction

• Alex Kosley • Episode 1

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Meet Alex Kosley With StreamHome Construction

Discover how a finance director's vision transformed into a groundbreaking construction venture with Alex Kosley, our licensed general contractor and co-host of the StreamHome Construction Podcast. Join us as we journey through Alex's captivating story, from living in a friend's basement to co-founding a company that empowers homeowners to capitalize on accessory dwelling units (ADUs). Uncover the secrets behind Alex's leap from the nonprofit sector to the bustling world of construction, and how a simple idea to improve rental opportunities evolved into a successful business model.

Our exploration doesn't stop at residential innovation. With commercial endeavors led by business partners Casey Copley and Lee Chapin, StreamHome Construction is more than ready to tackle diverse projects in the Colorado Springs area. This episode reveals how changing city codes have revitalized the potential for ADUs and why StreamHome Construction is perfectly positioned to ride this wave. Whether you're curious about passive income through ADUs or intrigued by the dynamic construction industry, this episode is packed with insights you won't want to miss.

To learn more about StreamHome Construction visit:
https://www.YourStreamHome.com
StreamHome Construction
719-644-6777

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Stream Home Construction Podcast, where we take your project from conception to completion. Hosted by Licensed General Contractor Alex Kozley, we cover everything from accessory dwelling units to commercial construction in the greater Colorado Springs area. Whether you're dreaming of a new ADU, planning an office upgrade or tackling a major renovation project, we've got the expertise to guide you through it. Let's get building.

Speaker 2:

Welcome everyone. I'm Tony Hill's co-host and producer here in the studio with Alex Cosley.

Speaker 3:

Alex, how's it going? I'm doing great today. How are you doing today, Tony?

Speaker 2:

Awesome. Hey, over the years you've grown a remarkable following. However, some listeners may not be familiar with your full journey. Let's take it from the top. Could you share a little background about your company and what you do? Absolutely.

Speaker 3:

Yes, our company is Stream Home Construction. We're a design build general contractor. We do commercial and residential projects. Our company started with a focus on residential projects, specifically accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, also known as granny flats, mother-in-law suites and several other names. Essentially, there's a second apartment unit that you can build on your property, a second apartment unit that you can build on your property, and currently in Colorado Springs, the city is in process of changing some of these codes right now and they changed the codes back in 2020, which was one of the reasons that we started the company to begin with, as we saw accessory dwelling units really taking off in other areas of the country, primarily in California, and we saw that a wave would cross the United States into other areas as well, like Colorado. So we're one of the first companies to see that coming and get involved.

Speaker 3:

The idea originally came to me, related to accessory dwelling units. It was probably about 15 years ago. I lived in a friend's basement and thought it'd be great if I could help other people rent out their basements, so people like me have a place to stay and people like my friends who are renting me the basement can make some extra money. And I thought. You know, there's probably some things we could do adding in a door at the top of the stairs, create a private entry, create a little kitchen downstairs where the units can function privately, independently, and so a property owner can generate passive income with minimal investment in some cases, but always typically some substantial return that can really offset that mortgage expense and just make owning a home easier, while also making it easier for people to rent by increasing the housing supply and providing some more options in areas that typically don't have a lot of rentals available, that are highly concentrated with single family homes. So our story goes back.

Speaker 3:

I worked at a local nonprofit for several years. I was the director of finance at this nonprofit. We completed a large renovation project there, adding about 2000 square feet of usable space for the facility. We hired a local general contractor, commercial contractor, to complete that job and that's where I met one of my two business partners. His name's Casey Copley. He was the superintendent for that commercial construction company and we met. You know, the project was six or eight months long. Casey and I got to know each other pretty well. It was during COVID times. Eventually I ended up sharing my vision for Stream Home Construction and the plan and Casey got really excited and was immediately asking how he could partner up with me and I said well, let's just do it. Then, from there, we launched a company, took a while to get some traction, get things going, building out our website, really figuring out the ADU codes, and eventually we got another business partner, lee Chapin. Lee has over 40 years of construction and architecture experience. He's a licensed architect, holds a lot of general contractor licenses which we now hold in El Paso County, park County, teller County and Douglas County, which allows us to basically build anything.

Speaker 3:

But, as I mentioned before, we're primarily focusing on accessory dwelling units, but we've also gotten into quite a bit of commercial renovation projects. Just with our team's background, it made a lot of sense. As we're waiting for the ADU wave to sweep our city, we've been keeping busy with lots of commercial work. We've built several ADUs to date, but I've also branched into commercial and are happy to talk with people about those kinds of projects and serve our commercial and residential clients in a similar way, where we're just trying to get all of our clients just to maximize the value of their property, get the most out of it, have it function for them the way that best suits them and really with a focus on income generation potential, adding additional rental units and making the most of the spaces that they have.

Speaker 3:

So yeah, generally speaking, that's kind of our history in a nutshell. We're really starting to see a huge uptick in people's awareness of accessory dwelling units. In 2020, there was very minimal awareness in the community. I probably one out of every 30 people I talked to might have heard of ADU or accessory dwelling unit. Since then, the city passed new ADU codes in 2020. And now is it going to pass new ADU codes in 2025? And the level of awareness has grown substantially at this point and we're expecting to see a substantial increase in demand as we're moving forward. So that's kind of our general history. You know what we do, where we came from, in a nutshell, tony.

Speaker 2:

Wow, when you're not busy running your business, what do you do for fun?

Speaker 3:

Well, I like to play disc golf as one of my favorite recreational activities. Some of the guys on our team come with me pretty regularly. My wife and I like to travel. We like to spend time in our local church where we're members and just sharing life with other people, and I have a passion for entrepreneurship as well as fostering younger entrepreneurs, as I'm getting some years under my belt that I can provide some valuable guidance to others who are in this journey as well.

Speaker 2:

Okay, we know marketing is key to any business's success. How do you market your business?

Speaker 3:

Our business is marketed primarily right now organically. We rely on word of mouth, referrals and we have social media accounts that we've started to tap into and build a little bit of a following. We've recently also hired an SEO marketing company to help us really optimize our website, add several new web pages to increase our reach and we're looking at some other campaigns, some ad campaigns specific to these new ADU changes, as well as tracking some changes in Woodland Park related to short-term rental laws that are looking to be changing in the near future and looking to target some of those specific events really to build, specifically in regards of building more accessory dwelling units or ADUs.

Speaker 2:

Alex, you're a very busy person, In your own words. Why are you doing this?

Speaker 3:

Well, yeah, it's a great question, tony. I've always had an entrepreneurial heart. I just kind of always knew I'd have a business. I shared some of my story about living in a friend's basement and really seeing the potential for a business that could help people connect the unused space that they might have in their house or property with someone who is in need of a rental unit, which can be a win-win for both of those parties.

Speaker 3:

We really have a heart of service at the core of what we do. Customer satisfaction is our number one priority. We value building customer relationships. It really comes down to just people at the end of the day and building up our team and learning to serve our customers well, together, building better systems. My entrepreneurial drive just has me always working to improve and optimize our systems and grow our team and learn how to best serve our clients. Ultimately, it just comes down to serving people and really serving God. From our perspective At least, our ownership team is where our heart really comes from, and just being humble servants and finding a need in the community and meeting it was in my mind from living in my friend's house with this entrepreneurial career, and then you know my wife's openness as well, which took, you know, a little bit of time to get her to a place where she was ready to take the leap with me. All those came together and now we're able to serve people in the way that we're doing now.

Speaker 2:

Love it, love it. Alex, we'll catch you on our next episode, where we'll dive into some frequently asked questions. Have a fantastic rest of your day All right, you too.

Speaker 3:

Thanks, tony. See you then.

Speaker 1:

That's a wrap for this episode of the stream home construction podcast. Ready to bring your vision to life? Snag a free on-site consultation by visiting our website at wwwyourstreamhomecom, or call or text us at 719-644-6777. Until next time, let's keep building your residential and commercial dream in the greater Colorado Springs area.