"The Virtue Homes Story" (Ft. CEO Mick Nicola) Ep. 8

In this episode, we sit down with the CEO of Virtue Homes to talk about what it really takes to bring high-quality homes to life.

From starting out in the industry to leading a growing construction company, we dive into the journey behind Virtue Homes and the values that drive every project. We discuss the building process from a builder’s perspective, the challenges facing the construction industry today, and what clients should look for when choosing the right team to build their dream home.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:25

Well, welcome back to Building Dreams with Virtue Homes. My name is Anais, and today we have Mick Nicola, the managing director of Virtue Homes, or maybe the brain behind Virtue, I shall I say. So how did it all start?

SPEAKER_01 0:39

I suppose I always wanted to be a builder ever since a young age. Always loved construction, loved the building industry, done all the woodwork classes and all those sort of things at school. So it's definitely a passion that I had. So I started off getting my apprenticeship when I was 16 and nine months.

SPEAKER_00 0:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:56

And um yeah, started off with Gippsland Group training. And so worked with a few different builders. Yeah, carpentry. Yep. So then um come from a family of four. So um I had to get my own way to work. So I had a BMX and I put my Bluey on and grabbed my backpack and fill it full of lunch and stuff. Oh that's true. It's uh like a waterproof jacket. Back in the day, sometimes it was raining and you're riding your bike to work. So then I go to work with my boss and yeah, and learn a lot from them. Yeah. So done me four years' apprenticeship in carpentry, then started to subcontract.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

So working for a custom builder back then, or some were custom, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:39

Some were just volume builders and that as well. We've done a lot of um extensions and a lot of travel.

SPEAKER_00 1:45

And then back then, so 16 is very young. When you're 16, you just think about tomorrow. You don't think about 20 years ahead. Did you already want to build your own business?

SPEAKER_01 1:54

Yeah, always knew I wanted to be a builder in the end. So I knew you had to pick a trade, get that sorted, do some subcontracting. So the end game was always to be the builder, and then that could build that home for the end client. So done subcontracting after that for a couple of years. Um, when I finished my apprenticeship, I got straight into uh the course that you had to do to become a registered builder.

SPEAKER_00 2:18

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 2:18

So after work, I was traveling to Warrigal during the week, and then every second weekend you had to go down and do the course. So I did that straight away. After a year and a half, passed the course, had my uh registration there sitting on the shelf ready to go, but you had to sum contract for two years. So I had to do it for the two years, then they gave me the registration, and then I was able to get straight into it from there.

SPEAKER_00 2:42

So they don't let you go out in the wild kind of by yourself, but you have to kind of have the knowledge first before you start on your own.

SPEAKER_01 2:49

Yeah, they definitely control it, which I think is a good thing. So even when I got registered, um, for the first year, I was only able to build one home. So yeah, you had to build the one home. Yeah, and they just ease you into it so you get to learn along the way. Um, and then the second year was only able to build three homes. So you do three homes, you do a bit of subcontracting to fill the gaps in between, and they just slowly set you off from there. So here we are now down the track.

SPEAKER_00 3:17

So that means that virtue didn't happen overnight, kind of thing. You started with one home, then three. But did you start with virtue straight away?

SPEAKER_01 3:27

Or yeah, I did. Yeah, so we went to come registered, had the business name virtue.

SPEAKER_00 3:31

So that's a very big statement calling your business virtue. Can you tell us a bit more about that?

SPEAKER_01 3:38

Yeah, I wanted to pick a name that represented the vision and what we were going to be about. So um, virtue means excellence. So we wanted to build excellent homes, like just be better, set the bar high. So the name was very fitting, but then name's just the name as well. You sort of got to build the reputation and the trust and everything around it. So it gave us a really good starting point and a really good name to work with and build off from there.

SPEAKER_00 4:03

Great, that's great. And that takes me to why did you want to go custom? You could go, like, you know, 20 houses exactly the same per year, much easier. Everyone knows what they're doing, less paperwork. Why did you decide to go custom?

SPEAKER_01 4:17

Um, I think customers, what we're about. It's that vision of being able to build someone a home that they visualize and they can see themselves living in. If we just had a book of homes that they had to pick a home and then couldn't change anything, it's not what we're about. So custom was the only way really for us for them to be able to customize the home to suit their lifestyle, to suit their needs, all those sort of things. So it's definitely harder building a custom home, but it's a lot more rewarding.

SPEAKER_00 4:46

And can you tell us why is it harder to build a custom home?

SPEAKER_01 4:50

Um, there's just a lot more challenges around it. Um, some things you're trying new products, you're trying a new design that you haven't built before. So some things you've got to work out as you go, different materials and things like that. So they come with challenges because you haven't used them before.

SPEAKER_00 5:03

So I would imagine a lot of homeworks kind and research and so of that.

SPEAKER_01 5:09

Definitely, yeah. And you need a lot of trades with better skill sets to be able to execute that as well. So those things definitely play a part.

SPEAKER_00 5:18

And if we say customs, obviously it means drafting. In Advert, you were really lucky to have an in-house drafting.

SPEAKER_01 5:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:26

How how did it happen? Same, you didn't have like uh three draftees uh working overnight for you. Yeah. Can you tell us a bit about that?

SPEAKER_01 5:35

Yeah, we found when we're using external drafting, it was really hard to get all the vision and everything all together. So having the in-house drafting is like a one-stop shop. So you can come to us, we can lead you from start to finish. So our drafting team will work with you through the design, but then they can lean on our supervisors and our construction managers and work out how to build that home, and then also lean on the estimators to make sure they're on target with the budget and and the costs of the home and all that as well. So they're really putting it all together and it's all under the one.

SPEAKER_00 6:08

It seems that they're a key player at virtue through the team of like through the business, through the um design of the project. Yeah, they help everyone throughout the way.

SPEAKER_01 6:17

Yeah, they do. It's a really team environment. They all lean on each other for advice, and you've got so many experts in in the one place, so they all sort of work together really well. I think that's what it shows in the end. Product is a lot of the thought and design from the design team have all got the craftsmanship and that built in from the start.

SPEAKER_00 6:39

So custom home means also sometimes sadly we have to compromise on things, like you wanted five bedrooms, you can only have four, or things like that.

SPEAKER_01 6:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:47

Do you have advice to give to clients or potential clients or people that are building their house, what you need to really go for and things that maybe you need to compromise on?

SPEAKER_01 6:58

Yeah, I suppose everyone's got something in a home that they don't have now that they really want. Um, it might be a triple car garage or a kitchen layout or a theater room or something like that. So we always say to people, hold on to those things. And if it's not coming in with budget, remove the things that you can add later, but hold on to those items that you really want, that you really need in your home. But main thing is not to compromise on your builder. I think that's the number one choice. So some builders could do it a little bit cheaper, or some might be able to build a little bit quicker, but don't compromise on the builder. If you've got a builder, go with your gut. You want need one that you can trust, um, one that you know is gonna do the right thing, especially with like do the right thing when you're not looking. So I think a lot of people are busy these days, a lot of parents both are working, they've got kids, they've got multiple sports, everyone's busy. So you need a builder that's gonna look after it and and do a really good job for you.

SPEAKER_00 7:54

How do we find a good builder? Obviously, I would know how to, but so do people need to check, for example, if they have had like awards or things like that? What how would you recommend people to do homeworks?

SPEAKER_01 8:06

Do your research, um, spend some time like sitting with different builders, you know, get a good feeling about it through that way. Um, yeah, just ask around. Word of mouth is obviously a big one. So yeah, just look around and find the right builder.

SPEAKER_00 8:21

And um, we just mentioned awards. So Virtue has had a lot of awards throughout the years. Yeah, is there one that you're really proud of?

SPEAKER_01 8:30

Yeah, we love being a part of the awards. It's a good night for the team. We all get together, we all get dressed up, we can all have a drink and have a laugh and things like that.

SPEAKER_00 8:38

So yeah, we're talking about the Master Builders Awards and the HIE Awards, which are like big, uh, big key players in the industry.

SPEAKER_01 8:46

Yeah, big prestige awards that are held once a year. So we love going along to those anyway. When we win an award, it's definitely a bonus, but it's really good recognition for the team for their hard work and things like that. The judges can be very strict. Um, what's sort of special to me is winning awards year after year. I think holding that bar high of the quality that we expect, being able to win awards year after year really gives the consumer confidence that if they build with us, you're going to get that quality home because we deliver that year after year. So that's a big thing that means a lot to me. But one of the special awards, I think, for us is the Trobe City People's Choice Awards. Um, they're voted for by the community, by the people, yeah, and by the public. So we've entered that four times and won it four times. So that's very special for us. Uh we've got the yeah, the support of the community, they recognize what we can do. So, yeah, that's a very special one for us as well.

SPEAKER_00 9:43

That's really, really impressive, especially thinking that it's just people and not professionals that have voted for Virtue. Yeah, so that's uh local community. A good thing to cheer on.

SPEAKER_01 9:53

Sure is.

SPEAKER_00 9:54

At Virtue, there is like when the client enters the enters the display home or enters the room here at uh at uh the office, they will always meet fantastic individuals and then also our subcontractors or suppliers, they are all really great people. How did you manage to surround yourself with such a great team?

SPEAKER_01 10:14

Yeah, we have a really, really good team. Um, I think it's sort of building a good reputation, um, good trustworthy brand, things like that attracts the right people. Um, and we hold each other accountable in that as well. So I think that's what I mean a lot to some people as well. Some people are thriving for that extra 1%, which is what we're all about, and just to it um it's more than a job, you know, it's something that's really rewarding and something that's really that we love to achieve that high quality home for our clients.

SPEAKER_00 10:46

And do would you say that it matches virtues values kind of thing?

SPEAKER_01 10:50

Yeah, definitely. Yeah, that's what we're all about. So that attracts the right people and the right subcontractors and things like that. So when you hold that bar high and you hold people accountable and you have that level of quality, you're looking for those trades and things that are passionate about what they do and that love to leave the home and walk away proud, and then that sets it up for the next trade and the next trade, and that's what really builds a good quality home.

SPEAKER_00 11:14

It's a bit of a snowball effect. Yeah. Great trade or great people attract great people.

SPEAKER_01 11:18

Yep, yep. And when you get a group of those people together and a team of those people together, it's unstoppable, really.

SPEAKER_00 11:24

Well, it builds dreams, apparently.

SPEAKER_01 11:26

It sure does, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:27

Yeah, um, I've moved to the valley only a year ago, a bit over a year ago, and everywhere I go when I say I work for virtue, everyone knows Virtue Homes. It's just it's kind of crazy. And I think it's because virtue is always involved in like local sports, obviously building people's house. But there is yeah, a big thing was like it's a big part of the community. So, why is it so important for you to give back to the community?

SPEAKER_01 11:52

Yeah, we have a really good community program that we that we have. Um, I suppose, like when I was younger, I played junior football for West End, and it was a big part of my life back then. I love me footy. So now to be able to give back and sponsor teams like that. So we like sponsor all the age groups of West End and have for many years, being able to support the community that supported me when I grew up and supports our team is very important to us. So we do sponsor a lot of sports, a lot of football, netball, uh, all age groups, male, female, things like that. I think it's a big part of our culture and our values and and just giving back to the community.

SPEAKER_00 12:29

Speaking of I've noticed as well as like as an employer, but also as a community member, you're really um involved with mental health and then you want to really help in that uh in that aspect. So at work we have like uh someone that is here once a week to chat with people if they need to, or if we have the uh breakfast IU AK day as well. Yeah, like can you tell me more about that?

SPEAKER_01 12:51

Yeah, so we've got Joel, which is like our health coach, so he gets around and and supports people and just gives them that platform for them to be able to chat to about things like that, not only in their work life, but in personal life as well. But the IUAK day is a big uh it's a big thing for us, it's huge. So we have a hold an event here in the in the car park, and we have guest speakers, we have prizes, giveaways, um, coffees, egg and bacons, things like that. And we get all our subcontractors and all our trades together, and they bring all their team, and everyone can just get around and and support each other and make sure everything everyone's okay, and it's just a morning for us to recognize you know how hard everyone works, and it's a big thing for us to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_00 13:32

It's not just building dreams, it's also helping people like maybe build their own personal dreams or like go on with their life, but in a great way. Yeah, definitely. That's fantastic. Going back to build houses, so obviously at Virtue we build different kinds of houses because there is different kinds of people, different budgets. So, and I know that you're quite a savvy investor as well. So, we have some like people that build like uh stepping stone houses or investments, and we also have people that build a forever home. Like, can you tell us a bit more about those kinds of different profiles we have of houses that people can build?

SPEAKER_01 14:10

Yeah, I suppose with our experience and the team that we've got, we've got all bases covered. Building out of town, we can do that, you're building investments or developments, we can do that, your forever home. Because we're a customer, we've got the skill set and the team we can build anything that people sort of can dream of, really, which is which is the whole goal, which is what we're all about. So we can guide people through all different avenues, we've got experts we can lean on through real estates and loan loans and things like help people in lots of different areas rather than just the build as well.

SPEAKER_00 14:42

So it's help giving them access to an entire network, pretty much.

SPEAKER_01 14:45

Yeah, yep, perform the whole network of people that can support you and so that's all the everyone's exposed as well.

SPEAKER_00 14:52

It's a daunting journey, so knowing that they can be like confidently like you know, put them in touch with the broker or with uh other trades or what that's really, really good. It's very helpful. That's it. Fantastic. Speaking of uh building uh dream home and forever home, we've heard that you just built your house. So is it it's not your first house you've built?

SPEAKER_01 15:21

No, it's our eighth house now. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 15:24

So Mick lives in boxes all year long, apparently, and he packs every every six months to move into a new house.

SPEAKER_01 15:30

Yeah, this one was the forever one, though. Definitely put all of our ideas into this one and put a lot of effort in, which is really good. But um, it was a really good journey to be on the other side of the fence as well. And I'm pretty busy as well, so I couldn't be there all the time.

SPEAKER_00 15:45

So like our clients, they had their lives to run through, so yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:49

Exactly. Yeah, so it wasn't stressful because I could just I know what we're capable of, I could just trust the team and they execute it and build a beautiful home. I wouldn't even go there during the week, it'd sort of just pop up there on the weekend. Me and the wife would get a coffee and we'd wander up and have a look around. But we knew the team could do it, so we definitely challenged them. There's definitely some things in there that we did that we hadn't done before, things like that. But that's what made it a lot more rewarding than that as well. And they're all very proud. And all of our subbies and trades were so good at coming up with different ideas, or if I said, Hey, I want this, and they were so supportive in just coming up with ideas, and I think that's a big thing of having the right trade that guides people through that vision. So they do that for anyone, so yeah, that was a really good experience.

SPEAKER_00 16:34

Would you say you have been your toughest client?

SPEAKER_01 16:37

Well, I wouldn't hope not. I think I was pretty relaxed, but the team might say something different. So we might have to do it technically. You can ask them, but yeah, I think I think I was fine because I knew what we could do and what we're capable of. I was yeah, I think I was pretty relaxed and just let them do their thing.

SPEAKER_00 16:52

It's interesting how you said that you trusted the process and it makes that journey not relaxing, but not as stressful as we could imagine. Yeah, so maybe that's the you know message that people need to keep in mind to trust the process.

SPEAKER_01 17:05

Yeah, definitely. Yeah, because back when I was sort of starting out and you're and you got a small team and things like that. In the morning, you're supervising, and then during the day you're selling, and then in the afternoon you're doing project management at night, you're doing estimating and things like that. And it sort of didn't quite work because you're trying to be jack of all trades. But now we build a team that's a team of experts. So you've got the estimators just estimate, they're the best at estimating. Like our supervisors just supervise, like they've got really good systems and procedures, and they're the best at doing that. So when you build with us, you've got an army of experts that all at your disposal that can execute that really well. So you can sleep well at night, so knowing that you've got that next person, you're worrying about colours, uh and to your design team is fantastic. So they've got that cover and they'll support you and go and pick things with you. So you've got that confidence knowing that you're guided right through. So for me, it was it was simple.

SPEAKER_00 17:59

So we have a team now of experts, which is amazing, but still it's a bit scary to build your own house. So, what do you tell to people that that uh are scared? But um how can we help them?

SPEAKER_01 18:12

Yeah, um, I suppose to just start conversations, get around chatting to the few builders and things like that, find one that knows what they're doing, that's reputable, got a good system, that's well trusted, and just start that process and chat with them. Like for us, we've got a like a stage one system, so we can start sketching up a design for people, we can do a bit of an estimate, get them a bit of a ballpark, and just get that ball rolling.

SPEAKER_00 18:37

Okay, so it's starting slowly straight away. They don't have to kind of be like, I want this house to build it. We help them in the process.

SPEAKER_01 18:44

Yeah, that's right. There's no pressure to sign up that day and things like that. You have to build this home. It's like it just starts that ball rolling, and you can just do that if you wanted to just do that stage one and just get a feel for it and say, Okay, well, what we want and what it costs might be a bit different. So we'll now we know where we're at, we can build on that, come back later. Or so just having a builder that really listens to what you need and can meet you on your site, we go meet people on their blocks and just do lots of things like that. So really guides them in that first process.

SPEAKER_00 19:13

So, if one of our listeners wants to start this like stage one you mentioned with the sketch, how does that work? Where do they go?

SPEAKER_01 19:20

Yeah, well, they can come into the office here. We've always got someone that can help them, got the display room here that they can have a look around at. Um, we've got the display homes down on Broadway Boulevard, so you can go see the guys down there. They can definitely take the time and sit with people and guide them through it and show them how that stage one works and start those chats about what their dream is and what their vision is. And no idea is a dumb idea, like we can do anything, build anything. So, yeah, just come and get the ball rolling.

SPEAKER_00 19:46

That's great. That's great. So, virtue has been around for how many years now?

SPEAKER_01 19:51

25. So 25 years.

SPEAKER_00 19:54

No offense would have seen photos of you before and after COVID. We can see we can see because there's been a lot of things happening in the last 25 years. There's been the GFC, there's been COVID, there is another crisis happening somewhere in the world, yet it still affects us. How do you sleep at night?

SPEAKER_01 20:11

Yeah, no, I sleep pretty well. I think because of the systems and stuff we've got in place. You can't build a 10-story building off two-story foundations. The wind will pick up and blow it over. So a business is no different. You've got to have a really good foundation, so you've got to have a really good core business. We've got that. So that's with procedures, checklists, business plans, financial safety nets, cash flow, lots of other little ingredients is in there that probably keep to myself. Got to keep some secrets. But once you've got that good foundation, that core business, then you can build up from that. And that's what we've got. So we've got a really good business and a really good core team. So we can weather any storm. So all those things we got through them. I think through COVID, there's like 3,000 builders Australia wide. That went back to the city.

SPEAKER_00 20:57

COVID was scary for the building industry very much.

SPEAKER_01 21:00

It was huge, and then now other stuff now. But we've lasted 25 years, we'll last the next 25 years and the next 25 years after that. I think we've got a really good team that's able to adapt and pivot and um that to do that. It's like when you watch the AFL, you see that if the team's not doing too good, they might put the whole team in the back line to defend that part of the game, turn the game around. It's like that's the team that we've got as well. If it's if an area is struggling a little bit, we'll get in, we'll help them out, we'll get that back on track, get back to our job. So got to have a team that can adapt to change, and we've got that. So it's business as usual for us. We've got through these ones, we'll get through any other one. So we've got a job to do.

SPEAKER_00 21:41

So confidence is really refreshing in the current climate and everything. So it's really good to hear.

SPEAKER_01 21:47

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 21:47

While driving around Gibson, we've seen a kind of a second virtue happening. It's virtue development. So it's the same, same, but different. The logo is a bit different, but it looks like the same colours. Can you tell us a bit? More about that?

SPEAKER_01 22:01

Yeah, we've always done a bit of commercial building as well along the way. Um sort of just done it under the one banner. But now we've separated that off as a separate arm. We've got a whole different business plan there, a whole team that we've um got together and and got a really good team with lots of experience in that area. So it was a lot easier building a second sort of business when you've built this one for 20 years and and got good understanding.

SPEAKER_00 22:25

If I am an investor and I want to build um like a commercial building, do I come here to virtue homes or how does that work?

SPEAKER_01 22:33

Yeah, you can come here to virtue homes, so we're all under the one roof. So you can come here. We've also got websites and phone numbers and that online as well. But yeah, we can definitely help. It's a it's the same concept, but just in the commercial and industrial type industry. So we've got all that covered as well.

SPEAKER_00 22:48

So yeah, it's on a great escape.

SPEAKER_01 22:50

Yeah, that's brilliant. That's exciting as well, and it's going very, very well. So we're very happy with that. That's good.

SPEAKER_00 22:56

Yes, we've seen them around. That's great.

SPEAKER_01 22:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:59

And everyone is wondering, Virtue Second Generation, is there something on the cards?

SPEAKER_01 23:04

Yeah, well, I've got a son and a daughter that are early teenagers, so the door's always open for them. Um, so we'll we'll see what happens. Um, it'd be really nice if they come on board, but you've got to be passionate about it, like I am, and that as well. So for it to be so successful, you've got to be passionate about it.

SPEAKER_00 23:23

You need to have the passion, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_01 23:25

You have to, yeah, definitely. And I definitely am. Um, so we'll see what happens with them. If they are, then definitely. But if they're interested in a different line of path, then then that's up to them as well. So it's not to be forced upon them because the only way it works is to be passionate and then surround yourself with the passionate people. So we'll see how that goes. But I've got plenty of years left in the tank yet. So be around for a long time and then virtual live on no matter what. So yeah. That's good.

SPEAKER_00 23:50

That's really good to hear.

unknown 23:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:52

Well, thank you for your time, Mick, today. No worries. And then we can't wait to see the next few how the next houses coming up and then all the things happening.

SPEAKER_01 24:00

Thanks very much. Thank you.