Builder Straight Talk Podcast

Michael Krisa
  • 5.0 (2)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Weekly

Real builders. Real stories. Real talk about what it takes to grow in this business. Builder Straight Talk is the go-to podcast for builders, remodelers, and tradespeople who want to scale their business, get projects funded, and learn from folks who've actually walked the job site and built something real. Hosted by Michael Krisa, each episode dives into honest conversations with builders who've figured out how to grow, fail forward, and keep things moving—through systems, smart money, and straight-up grit. If you're building more than just houses—if you're building a real business—this is the show for you. No suits. No filters. Just the stuff that works.

  1. 5d ago

    The Government Habit That’s Quietly Pricing Families Out of Their Homes, with Greg Ugalde

    I met Greg Ugalde in Detroit after we both missed the hotel bus to the NAHB conference. We ended up walking the riverfront together instead, and that conversation turned into this episode. Greg started as a real estate lawyer before building over 4,000 homes across Connecticut and New England with his longtime partner. He worked his way up through the Home Builders Association to become national chairman of the NAHB, and today sits on his state’s Housing Finance Authority, advises the governor’s Department of Housing, and stays hands-on with new multifamily projects. “My real focus has been building homes and developing land with a special focus on housing affordability.” We get into why 27% of the cost of a new home traces back to government red tape, how lot size and density quietly shape what a home costs, and why the trades are losing workers faster than they’re gaining them. “At nahb.org you can get these charts and you can see that these are real numbers... When we say 27%, if you take the average price of a home, it’s actually over $130,000 increase per home.” We also talk about the tug of war between neighbors who want nothing to change and buyers who need somewhere affordable to live, and how Greg finds common ground between the two. “They’ve already got theirs in many cases, so step one is to make sure everybody’s educated enough so that they realize that, yes, you may have yours, but how about your kids, your relatives, and the people that you want living in your community?” Then there’s the story from Wallingford, where Greg had 78 approved lots and a waiting list of buyers when the mayor tried to take the whole project back. “We had a waiting list. Everybody was interested. So the mayor calls us in and says, ‘We’re gonna just take it. You approved it. It’s approved. We’ve already spent that money.’” Greg also shares what he’s learned about testifying in front of a planning board, where every word can be picked apart and repeated back to you. We close out on what he’d tell a younger version of himself walking into homebuilding today, and the one thing his own family keeps asking him to slow down on. “Never get too married to one concept or one idea. Be open-minded and look for whatever life has to offer.” “My wife’s challenging me to calm down a little bit. You’re not supposed to be going 400 miles an hour every day for your entire life.” Greg has spent years in rooms most builders never get access to, and he brought all of that into this conversation. Gregory F. Ugalde is President and Chief Legal Officer of T&M Building Co., Inc., which has built over 4,000 homes in 45+ Connecticut and New England communities since 1962. He’s also founder of GFU Investments, LLC, focused on affordable and workforce housing. Ugalde was the NAHB’s 2019 Chairman and its only six-year Senior Officer, and currently serves on the Boards of the Home Builders Institute and the National Housing Endowment, which he chairs. He also sits on the CHFA Board and the Governor’s Workforce Council, and was recently appointed Senior Advisor to the CT Department of Housing. He was inducted into the National Housing Hall of Fame in 2025 and received the Foundation of Housing Award in 2026. Follow Builder Straight Talk: https://BuilderStraightTalk.com Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 02:31 Greg Ugalde 06:33 NAHB Leadership Journey 09:18 Inside Government Roles 11:32 Rates and Market Headwinds 13:12 Red Tape Costs 27% 20:12 Density and Land Prices 23:31 Workforce Pipeline Fix 28:45 Offsite and New Tech 31:33 NIMBY and Best Practices 36:12 Fees and Broken Promises 42:17 Wallingford Approval Fight 45:20 Still Building Daily 46:18 Five Tips For New Builders 49:52 Why Building Matters 51:54 State Land Housing Act 25-1 56:21 Affordable Tools Build for CT 59:04 YIMBY and Industry Resolve 01:02:53 Rapid Fire 01:07:33 Conclusion

    The Government Habit That’s Quietly Pricing Families Out of Their Homes, with Greg Ugalde

  2. Oct 27

    Who's Going to Build Our Future? with Ed Brady

    Ed Brady has been building for 35 years, first homes, now people. “I grew up at the kitchen table talking about real estate and housing, homeownership, lumber, and housing finance.” After a stretch in Washington, D.C. politics, Ed returned to the family business and built a regional company that delivered 250 homes in a year. He chaired the National Association of Home Builders in 2016, then became President and CEO of the Home Builders Institute in 2018. Under his leadership, HBI has cut its reliance on a single government contract to under 55 percent of its funding, while doubling what it offers veterans, people returning from the justice system, and high schoolers exploring their futures. “Profit for a nonprofit is not a four-letter word.” We get into the gap between how many skilled tradespeople this country needs and how many are walking through the door, and what happens when someone shows up at HBI wanting to be an electrician. “Go to our nine-week academy program. It’s an electrical program, pre-apprenticeship. You’ll learn how to wire a three-way, and the basics.” We talk about why guidance counselors default to pushing a degree, and what that’s cost a generation now sitting on college debt without a marketable skill. “We’ve been fighting 30 years of everybody’s gotta go to college. 60% don’t graduate. They have college debt. They don’t have a marketable skill.” Ed talks about rebalancing how this country funds education, and brings up a story about unhoused veterans in Phoenix. He also mentions Renee Zentz, a friend of the show doing similar work with high schoolers. I bring up a funding model out of Texas that ties a school’s money to whether graduates land jobs, and Ed lays out why he sees the trades as a question of national security as much as housing. “Our trades are national security. You don’t have enough electricians or plumbers to work on submarines.” He talks about tradespeople who built real wealth owning their own businesses, what it felt like watching them treated as a fallback option, and why this country stopped honoring the people who build it. “I think we as a nation forgot to honor the builders of this country, the ones that built our bridges and our roads.” If you’ve got a kid weighing the trades against a degree, or run a crew short on workers, this one’s for you. Before being appointed President and CEO of HBI in 2018, Ed Brady led a large regional home building company in Illinois. Following the 2008 financial crisis, he served on the Bipartisan Policy Center Housing Commission to help advance the nation’s housing policy. He serves on the Advisory Committee of the BPC’s J. Ronald Terwilliger Center for Housing Policy, and has served on boards including Chicago Federal Home Loan Bank, Enterprise Community Partners, and Illinois Habitat for Humanity. Brady was the National Association of Home Builders 2016 Chairman. In 2018, he was inducted into the Illinois Home Builders Hall of Fame, and in 2023 into the National Housing Hall of Fame. He is a sought after thought leader in housing and workforce development, interviewed by Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, MarketWatch, Pro Builder, Offsite Builder, and Politico. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political business from Illinois Wesleyan University. Home Builders Institute: https://hbi.org Follow Builder Straight Talk: * Web: https://BuilderStraightTalk.com Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 03:49 Meet Ed Brady 04:42 Builder to HBI Leader 06:52 Early Influences 09:50 Joining HBI Mission 13:30 Vision and Culture Shift 16:45 Funding and Sustainability 21:43 From Intake to Job 24:49 Electrician Pathway 28:55 Changing Lives Stories 33:40 Trades vs College 35:06 Why the Skills Gap 36:41 Honoring Builders 37:54 Academia Versus Trades 40:07 Grassroots Pipeline 44:23 Labor Shortage Stakes 46:40 Funding Based Results 49:45 Pitch Parents Trades 52:51 Bring Back Shop Class 56:25 Three Construction Wishes

    Who's Going to Build Our Future? with Ed Brady

  3. Oct 20

    My Neighbor Got a Degree. I Learned a Trade. He Lives with His Parents. I Own Next Door.

    This episode opens with a line from Sherlock Holmes about an east wind nobody else could feel, an odd way into a conversation about plumbers and electricians, but it fits. My guest is Mike Reeser, Chancellor and CEO of Texas State Technical College, the only statewide public two-year technical college in Texas. TSTC trains people who build homes, maintain the power grid, and keep water running, serving 12,000 to 16,000 students across 11 campuses a year. Texas alone needs 141,000 more skilled trades workers than it has. We trace that gap back to the disappearance of shop class and a generation told a four-year degree was the only route to a good life. Mike got that same advice in the 1970s, and explains why it stopped working. What sets TSTC apart isn’t just what they teach, it’s how they get paid for teaching it. Public funding only arrives once a graduate is working and earning in Texas, and if that graduate can’t land a job offer within six months, the college has to pay the tuition back. “Our public funding doesn’t trigger until one of our students goes to work in the Texas economy... the earnings they make for the first five years drive our public funding.” We get into the real cost of a TSTC education, how a Pell Grant can cover nearly all of it for lower income students, and why TSTC produces over 80 percent of Texas line workers and nearly a third of its construction trades graduates. There are stories in here too, about a former student named April, and about TSTC’s own board chairman, who built his career on a single technical credential. We also talk about why the old college advice stopped working, women in the trades, entrepreneurship as the natural next step after mastering a craft, and what guidance counselors could be telling students that they currently aren’t. If you’ve ever wondered whether there’s a better way to think about the choice between college and a trade, or you’ve got a kid, a niece, a nephew, or an employee facing that same choice, this episode gives you something real to work with. Michael L. Reeser is Chancellor and CEO of the Texas State Technical College System, leading the only statewide public two-year technical college system with 11 campuses across Texas. TSTC is the state’s leader in providing a skilled workforce to critical infrastructure industries like water, electrical power, construction, advanced manufacturing, and transportation. Under Reeser’s leadership, TSTC has become known for innovations including the Returned-Value Funding Formula, a state-funding method based solely on student employment outcomes rather than enrollment, and the Money-Back Employment Guarantee, which refunds tuition to students who can’t find a job after earning a TSTC degree. Prior to being appointed Chancellor in 2010, Reeser served TSTC in roles including chief financial officer, college president, and dean of instruction. Earlier in his career, he worked as a banker in Houston and Waco. Reeser is married with four children and four grandchildren. He holds a BS from Texas A&M University and an MBA from The University of Texas at Arlington. Follow Builder Straight Talk: https://BuilderStraightTalk.com Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 04:34 Meet Chancellor Mike Reeser 07:58 The 800 Million Endowment 10:59 Banking to Human Capital 12:56 Outcomes Based Funding 15:08 Tuition Refund Guarantee 22:12 No DEI and No Unions 25:33 Top Programs and Sectors 30:44 Trades vs Harvard Pitch 38:31 Cost and Student Debt 39:15 Free Tuition with Pell Grants 40:13 Graduating with Job Offers 41:02 Employers Shape Curriculum 42:43 No Hoop Jumping Philosophy 43:27 A Principal’s Lesson 45:25 Success Stories that Matter 50:18 Women and Trades Potential 51:32 The Bachelor Degree Myth 58:32 Guidance Toward Practitioner Paths 01:01:19 Trades Demand and Entrepreneurship 01:05:45 Rapid Fire Round 01:08:21 Three Wishes for the Trades

    My Neighbor Got a Degree. I Learned a Trade. He Lives with His Parents. I Own Next Door.

  4. Oct 13

    You Did Your Job… Now You’re Fired, with Nick Arenson

    Nick Arenson never really decided to become a builder. He just always built things, and being good at math pointed him toward engineering. “I always built stuff... It wasn’t a matter of choice as much as I just sort of did it always, everywhere, of everything.” He went to Berkeley, then a Stanford research program, then a design firm that put him on site at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel, a job that changed how he approaches every project since. “At Disney, they would create a backstory for the project you were doing... how do I design this piece?” That guest-experience lens still shapes the communities he builds today. He then moved through D.R. Horton, Meritage Homes, and Century Communities. Then came 2008. For nearly 3 years he kept letting go of people he liked, rebuilding teams, watching it happen again. One thing stayed with him the longest. “Some of them went bankrupt or lost their houses... the people who were good and happy and had good positive outlooks, all of them recovered within a couple of years, and had this amazing resilience within them that I don’t think they knew was there.” That realization shaped a decision his wife talked him into, after he’d planned only a month long vacation. “How about a year instead of a month long vacation? I quit my job, we pulled the kids out of school, rented the house out... We traveled to 25 countries a year. Our kids were 9 and 11.” Nick now co-founded Rurka Homes and is managing director of Altamont Development, running Mountain House, a large master plan for tech buyers priced out of the closer-in Bay Area. Being family owned shapes his thinking on capital and land. “If you have a lot of money and you’re really patient, land development might be the perfect thing for you... If your money is less patient, home building’s fantastic for that.” He explains where small, private builders can beat the national chains. “The big national builders do a fine job... Do I have an opportunity to tailor my product to people who want specialty things and a better quality product? Absolutely.” Nick also untangles California’s entitlement process through 330 Land, and why a state that badly needs housing made it harder to build. This one covers construction, capital, a trick from Disney, and a decision that pulled a family out of its routine for a year. Nick Arenson has spent 25 years turning California land into finished neighborhoods. He’s Managing Director at Altamont Development and Mountain House Developers, overseeing entitlements and buildout of the 16,000-lot Mountain House master plan. He co-founded Rurka Homes, and as Principal at 330 Land Company takes on entitlement fights most developers won’t touch. He’s acquired more than $5 billion in residential land and built over 11,000 homes. He was Division President at Century Communities, VP at Meritage Homes and D.R. Horton, and earlier worked on guest experience driven projects like Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel and Downtown Disney. He holds undergraduate and master’s degrees in engineering from UC Berkeley and has been an invited mentor at Stanford’s Center for Integrated Facility Engineering since the mid-1990s. https://mountainhouseliving.com https://rurkahomes.com https://330land.com Follow Builder Straight Talk: https://BuilderStraightTalk.com Chapters: 00:00 Intro 03:39 Mountain House 05:16 Name and Heritage 06:39 Origin Story Builder 08:01 Engineering Mindset 09:56 Gender and Careers Debate 12:52 Women in Construction 16:13 College vs Trades 20:32 Workforce Development 23:41 Early Career 25:33 Disney Guest Experience 29:40 Placemaking and Illusion 32:16 Big vs Small Builders 37:27 Founding Rurka Homes 39:00 Post COVID Market Reset 39:44 Financing Land and Control 40:34 Where the Money Really Is 42:17 California Red Tape Reality 44:26 Entitlement Battles And New Laws 50:09 Mall Conversions and Homelessness 01:03:33 Family Ownership And M&A 01:06:58 Rapid Fire Favorites 01:08:38 Wrap Up

    You Did Your Job… Now You’re Fired, with Nick Arenson

  5. Oct 6

    He Hid the Depression BUT the Job Site Exposed It, with Jay Meacham

    It took three attempts to get Jay Meacham on the show, with technical trouble and a big storm getting in the way. The weather held this time, and I am glad it did, because this conversation has stayed with me. I opened the episode with a late night drive and the sound of gravel under the tires, the warning most of us ignore until we are already on the shoulder. Jay helps builders hear it sooner. Jay lives in Kansas City, Missouri, and spent years inside two Fortune 500 companies before moving into coaching executives and leaders. Today he works with home builders on the inner game of the person running the build: how they think under pressure and who they talk to when the weight gets heavy. "They're often isolated. They're at the top. Everybody thinks they have the answers, and they know everything that needs to be done, and they don't." Jay grew up on a farm in central Iowa, and when he was 13 the family home burned to the ground. That loss led him to lean into home building, where the work is putting roofs over families. We cover a lot of ground. Jay tells me about a builder in a funk who had not broken ground in 18 months, another whose job sites stayed messy despite signs in two languages and checklists, and one whose morning unraveled over a delayed countertop. "It was what was occurring for him internally that was messy, and it was showing up in the workplace, not being tidy." Jay has a tool he calls a date with your calendar. He sits down with a builder for 90 minutes, asks what matters most, and asks them to prove it with an ordinary week. We also talk about the warning signs worth noticing and what Jay calls the someday syndrome, that promise to exercise and spend more time with family at some point down the road. A Kansas City story stands out. New energy efficiency rules left an area that normally issued 500 to 600 building permits a year with 9, and Jay describes how Dennis Shriver, then president of the Kansas City Home Builders Association, stayed calm and present through some tough questioning. Along the way we touch on a handwritten letter you mail to yourself, scuba dive tables, and Jay's pick in our rapid-fire round for the one business book every builder should read. If any of this sounds familiar, Jay is easy to reach. His website has a dedicated page for builders https://coachjaymeacham.com/builders and an anonymous form that goes straight to his personal inbox. He also offers what he calls Vegas rules, meaning whatever you share stays between the two of you. Your local home builders association and mastermind groups also put you in a room with people who have walked the same road. Grab a coffee and join us. Jay grew up on a farm in Iowa. He holds a degree in accounting and an MBA and led teams at Fortune 500 companies across finance, customer service, operations, HR, and IT, with a long stretch in continuous improvement that included Lean and Six Sigma. He started his own business in 2014 and has focused fully on coaching since 2019, helping people find clarity, balance, and joy. He is also an ordained deacon in the Diocese of Kansas City/St. Joseph. Follow Builder Straight Talk: https://BuilderStraightTalk.com Chapters: 00:00 Intro 02:54 Meet Jay Meacham 04:31 Holistic Coaching for Builders 05:08 Fighter Pilots vs Builders 07:20 Jay’s Corporate Background 08:23 CEO Stress and Isolation 13:16 Builders Create Generational Wealth 16:54 From Trades to Business 18:41 Burnout and Letting Go 22:23 Slow Down Your Thinking 23:58 Scuba Tables For Builders 26:09 Builder in a Funk 28:54 Warning Signs, Asking for Help 31:00 Messy Jobsite Inner Chaos 34:09 Someday Syndrome 36:46 Sacred Time and Walks 37:21 Calendar Audit for Leaders 39:14 Busy Work and Delegation 42:41 Countertop Thought Spiral 46:15 Agreements and I Am Letter 50:38 Kansas City Code Chaos 54:17 Red Tape and Builder Stress 56:36 How to Reach Jay 58:37 Daily Intentions and Gratitude 01:01:33 Rapid Fire 01:04:33 Blessing and Farewell

    He Hid the Depression BUT the Job Site Exposed It, with Jay Meacham

  6. Sep 29

    $50 Million in Sales... But Only $10,000 in Profit? with Roger Glover

    Roger Glover grew up on a cattle farm in southwest Virginia, then found his way through a law degree, an MBA, and a stint at Trammell Crow before settling into real estate for good. After years building shopping centers around new Walmart sites, he made a deliberate bet on one buyer, the 55 plus crowd, and that bet became Cornerstone Homes. "My father was a doctor, a small town doctor, and we had a large cattle farm, and I had the pleasure and enjoyment of growing up working on the farm with the cattle and the horses." The difference at Cornerstone comes down to sequence. Most builders start with a house. Roger starts with a clubhouse. "One of my principles is the first building permit is the clubhouse. And you immediately start bringing people together. You create activities to start. You create a social committee." That approach also put him through the hardest stretch of his career. When the recession hit in 2008 and 2009, Roger had two North Carolina communities right at the point of maximum investment, and the buyers simply stopped showing up. "So when the great recession hit, I had two communities in North Carolina that we had just gotten that point. I had all this investment and capital in the infrastructure, in the clubhouse, in the first buildings, and the light switch just dropped." We get into what that stretch actually cost him and how his capital stack looks different today. Roger also walks me through his favorite project, an agrihood in Virginia built around a working farm, and explains why age qualified zoning gives him room a standard developer never gets. Stick around for the books, the movie line that's stuck with him for years, and a rapid fire round worth the listen on its own. About Roger Glover Roger Glover is the founder and owner of Cornerstone Homes, a Richmond, Virginia based active adult developer and builder founded in 2001. Cornerstone's flagship community, Chickahominy Falls, has delivered more than 600 active adult homesites in greater Richmond. Before founding Cornerstone, Roger spent roughly 10 years in commercial real estate, starting at Trammell Crow, and later founded Villa Development Co., building active adult condominium communities in Hampton Roads. He holds a law degree and an MBA from the University of Richmond, grew up on a cattle farm in southwest Virginia, and played football at Hampden-Sydney College. Cornerstone Homes: https://www.cornerstonehomes.net Roger on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roger-glover-40784627 Follow Builder Straight Talk: * Web: https://BuilderStraightTalk.com * LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelkrisa * Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BuilderStraightTalk * Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/builderstraighttalk Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 02:55 Welcome Roger 04:06 Cornerstone Homes 05:25 Farm Life Roots 07:14 Football to Construction 07:53 MBA Law and Real Estate Pivot 09:36 Trammell Crow Apprenticeship 13:43 Walmart Sites and Shopping Centers 16:54 Choosing the 55 Plus Niche 18:04 Franchise Growth and Departure 24:37 Nationals Catching Up 28:11 Designing Community First 30:02 Clubs Lifestyle Directors and HOA 35:01 Personal Why 38:55 Wizard of Oz Mentors and Obstacles 39:33 Partners and Archetypes 42:09 Recession Abyss 45:19 Permitting and Age Qualified 50:54 Building Golden Years 52:15 Capital Stack Basics 55:04 Bank Relationships Today 56:48 Private Equity Shoutout 58:22 Books And Better Systems 59:11 Rapid Fire

    $50 Million in Sales... But Only $10,000 in Profit? with Roger Glover

  7. Sep 22

    We Fired Him on Day 3 - And the Entire Company Thanked Us, with Clint Johnston

    Clint Johnston runs a home building company in Birmingham, Alabama that's been putting up houses for 34 years, and it does something many builders don’t: it keeps some of what it builds and rents it out instead of selling. I caught up with Clint after his family's trip to Montana, and we landed on an idea that runs through his company. He doesn't walk into the office chasing the home run. He shows up looking for the single. "We come in the office, and every day we want to hit a single. We don't walk in the office thinking, where's my home run today. We walk in the office and, where's my single?" That mindset carried the company through 2008, when a lot of builders around him didn't make it, and eventually pushed them into a different side of real estate. "Then 2008 happened. Stock market crash, real estate crash... We decided we never wanted to go through 2008 again... so we decided we were going to diversify." Years later, an appraiser came back with numbers that caught the whole team off guard. "We were blown away at what the market was paying in 2022 for BTR properties. We swore we'd never sell anything, we're the tortoise, not the hare. We took it to market and sold it. It was our first BTR transaction ever." From there we get into culture, and a hire that went sideways fast. "On day one, they came in like a wrecking ball, Michael. It was impressively bad... We made the decision that although it was just day three, we were gonna terminate this employee... But I got more positive feedback and more thank yous from our team because we were willing to protect our culture." Money comes up too, including a line from his CEO that's stuck with him. "I'm playing for the green jacket on Sunday at Augusta. I'm not playing to win on Thursday, and I'm not playing to win on Friday, and I'm not even playing to win on Saturday. I'm playing because I want to be wearing the green jacket." He also opens up about the mistake that still bothers him most. "We did not have the right leader in that business unit... I don't think anybody that was around that time doesn't still to this day drive by that old location and think, hmm, we missed it there." Along the way you'll hear about Builder 20 peer groups, EOS, and a countdown Clint keeps for Sundays left with his son before college. "I've got a tracker on my calendar every Sunday that reminds me how much time I've got left with each of them before they leave the house..." This conversation moves through land development, culture, and capital, and what Clint has learned about protecting a business for the long haul. Give it a listen and see if hitting singles changes how you think about your next deal. Clint Johnston is President and EOS Integrator at Tower Development, Inc. and Fairin Realty, LLC in Birmingham, Alabama. He joined the company in 2007 and has worked through nearly every operational role, becoming President in 2023, a stretch that's seen revenue and net income double. He's helped oversee more than 2,000 homes and a build-for-rent portfolio worth well over $100 million. He's an active NAHB Builder 20 Group member and lives in Birmingham with his wife, Shannon, and their four children. Tower Homes: https://www.towerhomes.com Follow Builder Straight Talk: * Web: https://BuilderStraightTalk.com * LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelkrisa Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 04:23 Cab Ride Elevator Pitch 06:39 Why Built to Rent 07:26 Post 2008 Diversification 09:03 Pivot From Commercial 10:37 Launching BTR Strategy 12:11 Financing and First Sale 13:42 Targeting Premium Renters 17:12 Underdog Advantage Mindset 20:55 Culture Standards and Accountability 26:11 Protecting Culture Fast 30:50 Leadership Conversations Align Teams 32:56 Parenting as Leadership 35:45 Hard Talks with Love 36:23 Operations and EOS Roles 37:53 Personality Mix Matters 40:03 Biggest Business Missteps 45:25 Singles, Not Home Runs 47:30 Capital Strategy and Banks 59:41 Rapid Fire 01:01:59 Closing

    We Fired Him on Day 3 - And the Entire Company Thanked Us, with Clint Johnston

  8. Sep 15

    The Bank Wanted Its Money - I Said, “I’ll Send You the Keys!” with Justin Wood

    Justin Wood has spent 25 years building homes in Portland, Oregon, alongside his father-in-law, who's been at it since the early 1970s. It's a family operation, and together they've built a niche most national builders skip: infill housing, one lot at a time. "We've always focused on first-time entry-level, first-time home buyers. That's kind of been our niche." Oregon's middle housing laws opened the door to duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes on land that used to hold a single aging house, and Justin's crew shifted right along with it. Justin didn't set out to become a policy guy. The 2010 recession pulled him into government affairs work for Portland's home builders association, and it stuck. He's since helped shape legislation protecting Portland's narrow lots and a newer rule letting fourplexes be sold as four separate, individually owned homes. "They required you to be able to build on them." He's candid about why he stays involved in association work beyond the policy wins, and the informal network of builders he leans on when things get hard. Money comes up too. Justin walks through how his company finances its projects, and a moment during the 2008 downturn that still stands out, a call at a Trail Blazers game that put one project on the line. "I got a text from my loan guy... they said, 'We need you to bring us a check tomorrow to pay off the construction loan.' My father-in-law told him, 'You tell me the address to mail the keys, because we're not sending you a check.'" There's also a closer call more recently, when permitting delays stacked several projects on top of each other right as interest rates climbed. Outside the numbers, Justin digs into why good kids with strong job offers still walk away from construction work, and what he thinks it would take to change that. "The only way we get people into the trades is by making the wages so high it brings people in, and that hurts the housing affordability issue." He also shares what it means to build in someone else's neighborhood, and why he expects Portland hasn't seen real pushback yet, but will. "You're gonna see guys go into a really nice area of Portland, tear down an $800,000 house, slap up a fourplex, and neighborhoods are gonna lose their mind." This one moves through regulation, capital, community, and the people who actually swing the hammers. Justin Wood has spent more than 25 years in residential homebuilding, focused on attainable homeownership for first-time buyers. His work centers on entry-level and middle housing, using tools like property tax abatement and SDC waiver programs to help working families get into a home of their own. He's held leadership roles in housing advocacy for years, including two terms as President of the Oregon Home Builders Association, and was appointed by Governor Tina Kotek to the Governor's Housing Production Advisory Council to help address Oregon's housing shortage. Outside the industry, Justin has coached youth soccer for eight years and volunteered with Walk & Knock, Clark County's community food drive, for more than 15 years, including six as the organization's President. Follow Builder Straight Talk: * Web: https://BuilderStraightTalk.com Chapters 00:00 Introduction 03:24 Meet Justin 03:52 Portland Infill Niche 06:47 Getting Started 08:30 First Builds Lessons 09:37 Government Affairs Pivot 12:42 Advocacy Wins Skinny Homes 15:03 Why Join Associations 20:38 Culture Paying Subs Fair 22:13 Competition and Scaling 24:26 Capital Stack Lending 27:19 Margins Fees Red Tape 29:48 Workforce Trades Pipeline 34:32 Schools Immigration Fixes 39:23 Border Identity Debate 41:16 Builder Advice Find Niche 43:35 If Not Building Teaching 44:21 Five Year Goals 46:00 Overexposure Market Scare 49:43 Surviving the 2008 Crash 54:26 Middle Housing Land Division 57:12 Designing for Neighbors 01:01:22 Rapid Fire 01:03:42 Final Thoughts

    The Bank Wanted Its Money - I Said, “I’ll Send You the Keys!” with Justin Wood
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

Real builders. Real stories. Real talk about what it takes to grow in this business. Builder Straight Talk is the go-to podcast for builders, remodelers, and tradespeople who want to scale their business, get projects funded, and learn from folks who've actually walked the job site and built something real. Hosted by Michael Krisa, each episode dives into honest conversations with builders who've figured out how to grow, fail forward, and keep things moving—through systems, smart money, and straight-up grit. If you're building more than just houses—if you're building a real business—this is the show for you. No suits. No filters. Just the stuff that works.

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