Rob Hefner has partnered with Mike Landry to bring you the Old Glory Podcast. You can access the whole podcast now on YouTube - https://youtu.be/6h6TErBtKCU
If you don't have time to watch the whole podcast, here is a quick summary:
Podcast Focus: The "Old Glory Renovations" podcast, hosted by Rob Hefner and Mike Landry, aims to inform listeners about home renovations, emphasizing enjoyable and fear-free experiences in choosing contractors and managing home renovation projects.
Customer-Centric Approach: Rob Hefner, the founder of Old Glory Construction, discusses his customer-focused approach, addressing common issues in the industry such as distrust due to upfront payments and inconsistent contractor reliability.
Transparent Pricing Strategy: The company provides detailed and transparent bids for renovation projects, breaking down costs for labor and materials, which eliminates the insecurity often associated with opaque pricing in the construction industry.
No Upfront Payments and Trust Building: Old Glory Construction's policy of not requiring large upfront payments is highlighted as a key aspect of building trust with clients. This approach ensures that customers only pay for what is actually done, reducing fear and uncertainty.
Commitment to Timely Completion and Quality: The podcast underscores the company's commitment to meeting deadlines and providing high-quality work, ensuring that clients get value for money and projects are completed as per agreed schedules.
FULL TRANSCRIPT:
(00:02) welcome to the Old Glory Renovations podcast the podcast about home renovations from the home renovations experts hosted by Rob Hefner and Mike Landry the Old Glory Renovations podcast wants to show you how to enjoy your home renovations Rob show taught me a lot choosing the right contractor for the job doesn't have to be scary and home renovations are built to enjoy and be fun I got so much more for my money now here are your host for the Old Glory renovation podcast Rob Hefner and Mike Landry hey guys welcome to Old Glory
(00:38) Renovations podcast show today I'm your host Mike Landry we've got Rob Hefner the king of Contracting in with us we're going to be talking about some things that represent a tremendous amount of value to you as buyers but it's also revolutionizing the remodeling industry to empower the customer to be in complete control Rob what's happening Brother it's a beautiful afternoon you know we uh we started this company out looking at exactly what we needed to do not from what we wanted but from what
(01:14) customers needed now I've been in the business for a long long time and I've seen people abused in a whole lot of different ways I've quit companies because they made that a habit and when I was thinking about becoming a general contractor I sat back and said okay what does the industry not do well why does it have such a bad reputation well there's one thing so much money up front when you put money up front you don't know if they're even going to show up the next day how many horror stories
(01:43) have we all had about I gave them 50% up front never heard from them again uh let me let me set this up okay so because when when you explain the way your system works it's it's going to shock people okay so this is what you're you're up against against you know you and I have been have been builders in this industry or moders for decades okay and and here's the problem and I agree with everything you're saying one you're going to have five contractors come in because you want to get multiple bids
(02:13) because you want to get the best deal you can get and you're going to negotiate so your project your little kitchen project is $50,000 that's your budget okay so by the time these guys get through and you spend all this time you're getting bids for 35,000 all the way to7 $ 5,000 now you're not only thoroughly confused you're shocked how is this even remotely possible it's just a kitchen right and you pretty much know what you want so to top that off you and your husband are sitting at the table or
(02:46) your family and you're trying to figure out which one of these guys you're going to try to do business with and then you're looking at 30% 40% 50% they want half your money up front to start so you are in total fear you don't know what to do how are you going to solve that problem well that's just the first problem now there's remember there's three big problems with Contracting that's the first one and you stated it very very clearly the other one is when they show up to work how do you know
(03:18) they're going to come back the next day how many times have you heard somebody saying ah well they worked for a week and then they disappeared and didn't come back it happens all the time that's that's always a concern in finding the cont contractor you can trust to be there when there's work to be done the last one of the three is whether it's at $ 35,000 $50,000 or $70,000 bid you never know how much of that went to what how do you know you're getting your money's worth if you don't know where
(03:47) they spent the money so with those three major problems those three things that are the pinch points so to speak the friction points between homeowners and the remodeling industry I started out building a company that was designed not based on what I want to do as a remodeler not based on how everybody else is doing it but designed to address those three pinch points more than anything else so at at the end of the day it's it's not simple getting here but it's not entirely complicated the way we do it
(04:24) first off the first big question right so much money down and where does this bid come from I provide detailed bids you can check my pricing uh all the numbers are there everything's technically there it's all good for you and when you get a bid you know exactly what it's going to be takes away that insecurity at the end of the job but wait a minute this is okay so most bids right that the contractors are getting are for from subcontractors and their TurnKey so it'll say paint which is labor and materials right that's just
(05:01) one big number right just one total big number like $3,000 or $5,000 right and the the uh cabinets and the flooring it all comes in in one big number okay how is your system different than that for paint for example if I put a bid for paint $3,000 you threw out that number the bid sheet for the paint cuz it's line item bids you'll see each detail the bid [ __ ] for paintt will say this many manh hours to get the paint done this many gallons of paint at this price this much in extras things like tape and plastic and paper to keep
(05:44) everything connected and this much to throw away the trash and at the same time it shows exactly how much I'm making on the job as well but you're also um providing an hourly rate for the labor correct okay it's not some AR arbitrary number everything is specified in terms of exactly how long it's going to take at an hourly rate the specific material Dynamics and cost the actual markup for all of that and um the the the interesting thing about this is the way that it's actually invoiced so let's
(06:20) say for instance that you have a kitchen that you need to demo right that's the first thing we're going to have to do is we're going to have to rip out the kitchen right that's the fun part yeah yeah okay so there's no materials there's no you know uh there's there's no cost for other than the labor that's going into it what's your deposit when you sign that contract or remodel that kitchen how much do that money how much money does that customer put up for demolition nothing
(06:48) zero zero is pretty much nothing you mean you're not taking 30% 40 50% UPF front no because success in in this industry success in any industry depends on trust and confidence between me as a as a seller and my clients as buyers so I'm going to go in there and go to work when I need material depending on when in the process I need it I may have to have s some help carrying that forward but in a general job I go to work I bill every Thursday and I'll order the material on Wednesday and here's the invoice on
(07:28) Thursday if you want to copy the receip sheets I can give them to you okay now to be clear you're billing the client weekly for completed labor and material and nothing over and nothing more and nothing more that's based on progress of work on the job now in the event that there's some materials that need to be ordered on the beginning because they have timelines then you will collect that material cost to get that bought and get it ordered but other than that if it's just a demo and then moving forward literally no money
(08:04) down that's absolutely correct most of my jobs 90% of them are no no money down I'm building a deck that has $9,800 worth of material that $9,800 because of the lead time to get it I have to get that UPF front because I have pay for it now and get it in 3 weeks but if it weren't for that I wouldn't do it if I could get it in 3 days he'd pay for the week that I have when I order when you need it right so and here's the other thing his guys are always on the job and scheduled to start the work and
(08:41) get it completed there's no you know um they're gone for three weeks I got something else to do because he doesn't subcontract out 90% of the labor they work for him I'm starting a job hopefully next week where I'm having to subcontract out some of the flooring just because we're in a big hurry to get the job done I'm still going to have one of my guys I have 13 guys that work for me and I keep I pay them every Friday one of those guys will be on that job site even though I have a subcontractor there at
(09:14) the time so there will always be one of my guys there it's my job as the business owners the manager me and my team to make sure material shows up when it has to and the work gets done on time but there'll never be a pause because oh I can't get this part or that part or that piece of wood because those things that are hard to find I'm going to order them before I start because I want in and out of your house as quickly as possible I never want to have to go back okay let me ask you this question so of
(09:47) all the projects and all the variety of projects that you do because you will do home repairs and you will do major construction so absolutely the a lot of remodel contractors like when I was a remodeler I wouldn't touch anything for less than 50,000 bucks okay so what is the starting point at which you will look at something and go provide services budgetarily budgetarily I want to say that I'm in the 20,000 and up range uh at the same time I do a lot of work less than that when things get slow I got to find something to keep the guys
(10:19) busy because they depend on me for a paycheck every week correct so I have to get them get them working but I want to be up in that 20,000 range uh that's kind of a a sweet spot uh with the way I do business uh it doesn't it doesn't drag on too long and I can get in and get out and go on to the next one and leave my customers happy with the job done right and a clear understanding of what they spent and what they got for it okay so the other thing that I want to talk about is most people feel like
(10:55) they're just way overspending how much with this level of detail and specificity I mean accountants love doing business with you because of that because you can see every penny where it's going exactly how much time it took because you're billing hourly the customer only paying weekly so you don't have half of their half of their annual or life savings in your pocket praying you're going to show up and finish half the job before you ask for more money so this is literally build once a week based on job progress
(11:27) correct with complete specificity that's that that is you're going to you're going to give a ton of remodelers a heart attack when they when they have to compete against this I'm just telling you now how much value in terms of buying buying power do you think that your customers are gaining by this particular open disclosure process if you think of it in terms of confidence knowing what you're getting uh because that fear of the unknown keep in mind I'm a contractor a remodeler I sell
(12:02) stuff that people don't know how it's done they know what they want it to look like they don't know what it cost or how to put it together but damn it I want it done now it it's it's an awkward Dynamic so developing that sense of confidence between me and my homeowners so that they can look at the detail that I provide they can meet my job leads and know that that guy's going to be on their house until the end uh there's a great deal of value in knowing that you're not getting shafted in knowing
(12:33) that you're not being mistreated or abused or anything like that well one thing that you do is you have a rigid schedule those the your your guys are going to be on that job site every week to get that that job done and to provide you with satisfaction and basically one of the things that your your one of your slogans I would think uh are empow empowering our customers with control and predictability it it you get to sleep at night you get to enjoy the process of improving your home with great confidence you have complete disclosure
(13:14) and I'll tell you the one thing that you guys have that uh I'd say 90 plus maybe 96% of the contractors in in Houston that are doing remodeling do not carry general liability insurance and they tell you they do but if you don't get a copy from the insurance company via email with your address on it you are not covered until they can prove you're covered now you guys tell me how cheap that is I I I would rather not talk about how much I pay for insurance every year it's insane that's why they don't
(13:50) carry it I yeah I I pay a lot you mentioned the homeowners retaining control all right that's kind of a big deal to me because budgets can get kind of tight and you may want a b c and d done but you're not sure your budget's going to get there and I go take a look at it and I'm like uh it's going to be kind of snug so I can do the contract for items a b c and d and they're listed a b c and d and with a separate worksheet for each one and we complete a first and we complete B second and if
(14:25) you don't have enough money left in your budget to go to the C because was I had client we were working and working and working and her AC in the house she was living in went out cost her $113,000 and all of a sudden her budget for what she was doing with me was gone and we had to say oh you know the last two items we were going to do can't do it let's uh let's move forward but she had control of what we were working on and she had control of her budget now the key with that is you're getting you're not getting a paint bid
(14:59) for $3,000 and if the painter if my painter my old company uh thought that you were going to be tedious to work with or picky he'd change his bid from 3,000 to 5,000 because of the pain in the ass budget okay and and I'm telling you this eliminates all of that capability because I'm going to put down we've got uh 40 hours in paint and we have 40 hours in paint period that's what you pay for that's what you got it is a Open Secret I've talked about it with other contractors the nicer the house the higher the price
(15:39) there is a a rich tax inside of 610 uh you go into some places it's going to cost twice as much I bid on a ceiling job side unseen and uh my painter was going to go do it for me he's a great guy I don't use him for everything most of the paint we do ourselves but like a whole house I bring in subcontractor for uh this was a ceiling I couldn't get to it he gave me a price of $1,200 okay cool good to go it's kind of a big ceiling and uh I said okay I'll send you the address I got the address and send
(16:14) it to him he said no 3500 yeah exactly exactly that's why you having your own guys on staff that do a lot of the labor and a lot of the you know you've got all the trades but inhouse and that's what's revolutionized the ability for you to actually execute this type of plan you know most contractors are not going to put guys on payroll they they're just not going to do it but it's the only way to maintain control predictable quality and get it done as fast as possible it's the only
(16:47) way to control the customer experience because growing this business is not flashy flyers and that kind of stuff it's clients talking to Future clients past clients talking to Future clients that that's how I want to grow the business and if I don't leave every one of my clients absolutely thrilled with the job we did I want any one of my past clients when they're sitting at the bar and they're and guy sitting next to them and saying man remodeler coming I got to do this and he's like hey you need to
(17:15) call Rob all right take all the worry about it away take all the pain away about it you're in control of the situation you just call him talk to him see what he can do for you okay so how many on in this system how many of your clients or your projects come in at or below budget at well all right none of my projects at or below budget because a lot of them creep okay well well projects can creep but uh my projects will never go more than 10% over my estimate the 80% or are at or below budget and 15 to 20% are below budget
(18:02) because remember I invoice based on the number of hours we're in the house and the material we purchase so and you have the material invoice with the detailed cost I had 10 of this two of that five of this at this price from the from the supplier correct they're seeing that detail and then the labor separated out that says we estimated you know 30 hours for labor and we've got 20 six so it ends up being less than it I originally bid the you're not keeping the extra if you didn't earn it no no that's my point
(18:39) no because I the business model is not based on maximizing income with every transaction that's the thing about traditional contractors because there's so much risk in this industry they have to make money every time and make as much as possible every time because they know they're going to lose on one out of 10 one out of seven it's just the laws of the game I'm sharing the risk with the homeowner I'm also sharing the benefits of it with the homeowner well and here's the other thing you're since
(19:08) you have guys on staff future needs that are nuisance needs that can't command an entire team go out and fix a door or make some simple trim or put some Hardware in you provide that future support to those clients when they need it because they entrusted you with their remodel so now you have a team that will provide some handyman services as needed for pay but the fact that they're available and you have predictable quality with a trusted company you're building a long-term relationship and future that lasts a
(19:46) lifetime well that's the idea I I want to be my client's first recommendation to their friends and their first choice moving forward and I have to prove myself on every single job I have to prove how how good we are technically in the work that we do and I have to constantly demonstrate the Integrity that this company relies on trust confidence and integrity we're going to do the right thing Old Glory Renovations trust confidence and honesty Rob you're a retired army vet that is correct thank
(20:25) you for your service I appreciate it I'm Air Force though uh yeah well uh you can find them at uh Old Glory Texas that's Old Glory tx.com or you can call them at 28154 68836 28546 8836 we're talking with Rob Hefner he is the contractor and I'm going to tell you this is an incredible company they are doing something that the consumers are going to absolutely love and drive all the competitors uh uh to insane asylums we're going to run out to a break stay tuned we've got some more stuff coming
(21:03) up right away we'll be right back with more of the Old Glory Renovations podcast Old Glory Renovations revolutionize the industry to put the customer in total control there's little to no deposit to Begin work weekly invoicing only on completed work weekly itemized labor and material cost for invoicing eliminating wasting your money with overpriced turnkey estimates their trade labor are on staff and not subcontractors they don't leave project sitting dormant for days or weeks or waiting on a subcontractor they have
(21:39) proper general liability insurance coverage call Old Glory Renovations now and take control while maximizing your buying power Old Glory trust honesty confidence taking the fear out of Home Improvement 28154 68836 or online at Old Glory tx.com the Old Glory Renovations podcast helping you enjoy your Renovations now let's get back to Rob and Mike guys thanks for sticking with us I appreciate it we're having a good time I'm talking with uh Rob Hefner he's the owner and creator of Old Glory uh construction
(22:20) renovation uh I'm your host Mike Landry and what we're going to talk about now we're going to dig into some of the projects because I think you guys are going to be surprised not only at the diversity of projects that they do and offer services for but the geography is really amazing you know I want to start this Rob I want I want to start this off talking about Susan and and the mahogany doors yeah and the mahogany doors well Susan has been a lot of fun to work with uh we went out there we took the sighting off
(22:52) painted the exterior of the house did refinish the front door a,1 little things but as we were doing it she said one day well these doors haven't worked in years they're sliding mahogany doors four of them across the back of the home so we got looking at it and said you know what we can fix that if you want we took the we had to go downtown to BU buy mahogany uh yeah raw materials I mean you're Milling the your Tri your your trim guy is is recreating a door frame okay out of mahogany because this is I
(23:25) mean everything including the expensive doors today are all prehung on fabricated materials right absolutely and we bought a 2 in by 6 in pieces of mahogany milled them down cut the channel in them for the G glass rebuilt the doors completely now when we took the doors out from components from components we you built the door uh completely we kept the glass we kept because they're full glass doors we kept the glass but we took it down to just the glass rebuilt everything around around it and put the doors back
(23:59) together now but the frames were built out of mahogany theing right the frame the the frames and the runners were all mahogany as well so we had to take out the bottom Runner because the structure underneath it had gotten some water damage and we had to fix that and then redo that that Runner across the bottom and some of them on the sides but it was really a lot of fun getting into that kind of technical detailed work to make something come back together and look better than it did when it was brand well that's Furniture building level
(24:35) trim okay that that's that that doesn't happen very much these days and the fact that you've got that Talent on your on your staff is amazing now this is an $80,000 project and it's in Alvin okay right and so you you rebuilt her entire deck and everything on that thing well the deck had it was showing where you know decks don't last forever out here uh so we had came out and showed her some composite material that I'm really proud of that's a different show but we resurface the deck fix it where it was
(25:07) put it all back together it's absolutely beautiful now walking through those newly sliding mahogany doors looking out across the brand new deck down over the pool with pasture land in the background it is just a beautiful beautiful place that's awesome okay let's move to Cypress Texas you're going from Alvin to Cypress Texas I want to emphasize that we're going to talk about Tom okay well I've known Tom for a while and he called me up and said hey Rob them in a bind I have a rent house up in Cypress and they
(25:40) moved out left it in really bad shape how quickly can we get it back together uh it needs new floors it needs new paint on the walls we got to paint the cabinets and and the other miscellaneous stuff replacing light fixtures and some stuff like that so we went up there and looked at it and said sure when do you need it he said bye the 10th of next month and now how many weeks did that give you to do this it gave us right at uh just under four weeks to do it right but he said he had to have it by the 10th or was going to cost him a fortune
(26:16) budgets matter and my client's budgets matter he needed to get that home back on the market to get it rent it out before we get in the middle of the holiday season when it's hard to do that so he had a timeline he had to meet he had budgets he had to maintain so it's a rental property yeah Rob it's his business and it's not earning money if I'm working in it it's costing money so okay now this was a $37,000 budget with a hard dead date right that you had to make which in you know it without you
(26:49) actually employing these guys that would actually be an impossible task but since you have all these people on staff and you control their time you made it happen did you get on time or was it early uh we finished on the 7th it we were 3 days ahead of schedule with it it was I had to spend extra send some extra people up there there were two guys that were up there for the entire time and we' get a little bit behind and I'd have to shift somebody else to get up there but we had a deadline we're going to
(27:19) meet the deadline you're a rare duck brother um but again having control of your resources instead of sub contractors that you're begging to come I I got to get this done that would not work in that context but in your in your situation one you were able to meet his budget restrictions for a rental property so he's getting a lot more for his money he's getting high quality results and labor and he's you're meeting his deadlines I mean that's amazing so now I would not be willing to
(27:51) do this job in a fully subcontracted environment that adds a layer of chaos to it that just I'm just not willing to do with I like having my guys there it gives us control as a company control of the customer experience and that's what we want is to create a positive customer experience through something that let's be honest nobody really likes to think about well you're not paying double overhead and profit too because you've got your overhead and profit and then the subcontractor's got his overhead and
(28:21) profit so you are providing uh the ability to streamline this stuff and be able to provide hard cash value without sacrificing quality but it also gives you more control over the end product that's what the whole business is built around that's the way we're structured we want to be able to address those issues maintain control of the customer customer experience maintain the quality standards that we want and get things done on time okay so we were in Alvin we were in Alvin now we were in Cypress
(28:55) Texas let's go to Galveston let's go to galvaston all right so this is actually uh a veteran uh that is being subsidized by a veteran organization called surf that actually paid for these repairs correct to the home right so that her name is Patty Patty is just a sweetheart now she'd lived in that house for a long time and the she was afraid to use the bathroom there because the floor in the bathroom was just just wobbly it bounc it's spongy it feels like they're going to fall through right like walking across a
(29:33) trampoline she just was afraid to use it she knew there'd been a water leak and she was worried that the whole area was rotted out uh she'd been living like that for a while because she couldn't find funding well she came across serve uh it's etex heroes.com a great organization that helps our veterans in the area and I went down there and take a look at it it we managed to remove all the flooring found out what the real problem was it wasn't near as bad as we thought get it all put back together and gave
(30:06) her a bathroom that she's such a sweetheart she sent us a postcard with everybody that worked on it mentioned by name thank you so much you have changed my life okay so the original estimate that you had provided serve and to Patty was 5300 right now this is interesting they approved the 5300 correct okay which they are paying for this project for her because of the veteran status right um and she didn't have the financial wherewithal to do it herself which is why this organization exists your invoice your final invoice was
(30:42) $4,700 remember I invoice time and material it's not a fixed rate contract so I invoice time in material if I spend 5 days that's what you pay for if I spend $500 in material that's what you pay for so it it's I'm going to tell you right now if there's another contractor that I've seen in 22 years around here that's going to give money back I ain't met him but your process it's not you doing it it's the process that you set up and that way the consumers are getting full disclosure weekly of
(31:21) exactly what the material costs were that were actually used the amount of Labor that it took to facilitate the installation of that and then you're agreed overhead and profit and they they pay weekly and that that so you this contractor this other contractor doesn't have 50% of your money you know on a project like that I guarantee it'd be 50% of the money up front right and you're just building on work progress every week it seems to me like that's a a smart and safe way to do it it protects
(31:53) my cash flow neither one of us are assuming risk the this kind of work is all about risk so we managed to eliminate that risk through a non-standard process through a system instead of just trust in nice words it's a system that we adhere to that that mitigates that risk and it ensures our customers are always fully informed on what's going on one thing I've noticed Peru in your customer list is you have a lot of CPA and accountants as clients and they absolutely Ely love this process because they've got control and
(32:32) visibility on every penny well Susan the the first customer we talked about this afternoon or in this segment anyway uh she is a forensic accountant so I was worried when I started showing it to her and that system the way we put the bid together is why she chose us because she could see exactly what was going to happen and how much it was all going to cost well I can tell you right now it's unbelievable now we're going to close this segment with uh we're going to go to from we're going to go from galvaston to Nassau Bay
(33:07) okay one of your customers named Jeff um rebuilding uh his exterior uh deck after storm damage was a $133,000 project tell me about that we're kind of taking a tour of the area this afternoon aren't we from Alvin up to Cypress down to Galveston now back up to Nassau Bay hey brother it's your operating range okay that that's pretty impressive if you ask me it's a a lot of windshield time some days Jeff had a deck that had been washed away and it had been a while and he just hadn't made a decision on
(33:43) exactly what he wanted to go back with so went over and took a look at it it was just dirt down next to the bulkhead right next to the water and he wanted a deck down by the water a deck overhead with the the lower deck extending beneath it and obviously stairs yeah uh we managed to put that in we came in within a $100 of budget uh on that one and we were I think one day over on time if I remember correctly dude most contractors are weeks overdone I mean it's the these these things are literal fantasies for
(34:23) homeowners okay fantasies you know cost control full visibility on every penny for every piece of material and unit cost uh controlled uh onsite management all the time and they don't leave the job until it's done that that that is a total fantasy for a customer well I spent so many years in the operations part of the US Army if you say it's going to be done on time you get it done on time and I better know what you need to make it happen to get there there it's part of who I am I can't do it a different way
(35:00) anymore well thanks for you guys hanging out with uh Mike and Rob uh Old Glory Renovations is the company give them a call today if you have a project or a need 28154 68836 28546 8836 or you can find them online at Old Glory tx.com we're going to wrap it up for today we'll see you next week guys that's all for this week's Old Glory Renovations podcast tune in next week when Mike and Rob help you enjoy your Renovations find out more at Old Glory tx.com