Epic Entrepreneurs

Mitch Roedel of Boxwood Homes: Crisis Response and Housing Solutions

• Bill Gilliland

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Mitch Roedel from Boxwood Homes shares how his construction company pivoted their "Our Plans Your Land" program to support hurricane victims while maintaining their core business of building pre-designed homes across Western North Carolina. He offers valuable insights on navigating the contracting business, managing customer expectations, and finding work-life balance in an industry known for demanding schedules.

• Boxwood Homes operates across Western NC
• Hurricane Helene response includes offering modified pre-designed homes at reduced costs for victims
• Mitch provides free consultation hours weekly to help homeowners understand rebuilding options and avoid wasting insurance money
• Key business lesson: "Stop worrying and just do it" – take chances instead of choosing the safe route
• Finding work-life balance came from realizing he could meet deadlines without working 80-hour weeks
• Advice for aspiring contractors: "It's okay not to know everything" and "Just build something"

Contact Mitch Roedel at Boxwood Homes: 828-508-8246 or visit their office in Mills River.


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Bill

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Bill

Speaker 1:

Hey everybody, welcome to this week's episode of Epic Entrepreneurs, and I'm super pumped to have Mitch Rodel from Boxwood Homes with us as sort of our focus for this week. So, hi, mitch, welcome to the show.

Speaker 2:

Bill thanks for having me and I want to thank Beth for inviting me. I got to meet her at networking events recently.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, Beth's awesome. She's a great member of our team and she does a fantastic job out there. Tell us a little bit about Boxwood Homes, sort of how you got into business and that sort of thing.

Speaker 2:

So Boxwood Homes is owned by Toby Logel. He's down in Greenville, north Carolina, and I'm over here in Waynesville, north Carolina, today and now we are covering the Asheville and Hendersonville markets. In between us, we have a office in Mills River on Old Haywood Road, and we're not in it very much because we're out there building your houses. So if you all need another spot to do a podcast someday, just let me know, I'll hand you the keys and you can pop in there. We are currently building Toby's working on a development small development in Greenville. I am working on a few projects in Hendersonville and Asheville and we're breaking our first ground. We're breaking ground on our first project in Canton, which I'm very excited about. Just a few blocks from the paper mill, which we're very excited to hear has been sold to a responsible developer that's going to be starting the cleanup process very soon.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's actually very exciting for Canton. I always thought that that was going to probably explode Canton, once they close the paper mill, although the paper mill was a central part of that economy for a long time. I feel like that opportunity is going to just explode because it's location between Waynesville and Asheville is just as prime for development I think. So it's going to be good. So tell me about you. Guys have been heavily involved in some of this hurricane assistance, hurricane cleanup. Tell me about what you've done there.

Speaker 2:

So, bill, throughout my life and then later career especially, I started noticing that sometimes timing just the universe just set things up. The hurricane was tragic, horrific, heartbreaking, as you know, for us I had some survivor's guilt because all of our projects were just barely unscathed, mudslide to the left, mudslide to the right. I had a project in Oakley that was literally I could stand in the front yard and look to the right and see the Swannanoa River and that horrific destruction. We had just started a program called Our Plans your Land, which is similar to the Build on your Home Lot products of other national builders. And we've pivoted. We still have that and we can do it the same way we were doing it, but we've pivoted. And so still have that and we can do it the same way we were doing it, but we've pivoted. And so now we can do even more scaled back version of that for people.

Speaker 2:

So for those in the non-construction world, when you go to build a house, a lot of people do a custom house. Custom house isn't just your big million dollar mansion. Custom house can be a little two room shed or converted shed, what have you. But what us and some other builders have done now is, we pre-designed some homes so that we can figure out exactly how much the material is going to be, how much to order, and we can get our subcontractors to bid that specific design. So we have our costs nailed down to bid that specific design. So we have our costs nailed down. So what we're doing now is we're modifying some of those so that people, if they've lost everything, if they're not getting as much as they thought, they can pick one of these plans and we can adjust the price even further for them so that we can build them something back.

Speaker 2:

I'm starting next week our first project in Hendersonville. They had a tree take out their main house, they had a tree take out their guest cottage and they had another tree take out their RV. I got to go tour that house with them and see where the roof had pierced through the ceiling over their bed and they had made it to the hallway just in time, so to be able to give them something. I don't like to use the word affordable, because a lot of our audience thinks of affordable housing as boring, concrete, bland structures built for our impoverished. So let's call it value engineered, let's call it higher efficiency construction, but we can build them a beautiful house now and they are up on a mountain looking out over Hendersonville and so we're doing that. And then the other thing feel free to give my info to anybody out there. We've set aside a couple hours each week and I can go to people's homes.

Speaker 2:

A lot of people are trying to rebuild. For people not in Nashville, you might think, oh, that was months and months and months ago. They should be back on their feet. Many of us are. But some people are just getting that insurance check now. Some people are still fighting for that insurance check. Or some people have gotten that money and then all of a sudden turned around and started the process of getting a contractor and they're booked out right now.

Speaker 2:

So long story short, I can take that couple hours of every week, visit different sites, tour your home and help you figure out what you do and don't need to do to get it rebuilt. And the big thing I want to stress for a lot of people you want to fix or rebuild your home correctly and to code, but in North Carolina, for example, you don't need to be a licensed roofer to install a roof. If you've got some roof damage, reach out to me. I'll just let you borrow my handyman for the day. You don't need to go out and hire a full general contractor and pay his overhead insurance just so that one of his guys can hire another guy to come out and do your roof. That may be confusing to some people. Please stop me if I get into my builder. Speak, but please reach out. We can help people not spend the little bit of money that they got back in the wrong way.

Speaker 1:

Hey, the message here is you know, contact Mitch and we'll put his contact information. We'll get that later in the podcast, we'll put it in the show notes. But you know, contact Mitch or really any reputable contractor, and you know, let them point you in the right direction. Because if it's minor damage, a lot of things can be and a lot of people say, well, the hurricane happened a long time ago. Well, there's still an awful lot of blue tarps over houses right now.

Speaker 1:

I know of several people that have gotten money. But then they went and got a contractor and figured out that, hey, it was going to cost them a lot more than the insurance allowed. So now they're fighting with insurance to actually get what's actually due to them. So there's a lot of that going on. So it's going to be months and years. Get some professional help out there and let Mitch point you in the right direction. So the our plans, your land that's, that's that was. You had planned to do that, but the hurricane hit and then, boom, now people got, they might have to tear down their whole situation and start over. So it seems like very providential.

Speaker 2:

Yes, and let's say the hurricane didn't exist at all. And let's say the hurricane didn't exist at all. Um, we are also still in our housing crisis, especially here in western north carolina. People want to live here and there's not enough homes. So for a full custom house, you're looking in ashville to spend between four and six hundred dollars a square foot. Yeah, to build one, that's right. We can do the pre-designed ones closer to $250, $300 a square foot with some customizations in it. So that's great for people that are trying to do something smaller on a tiny budget. But it's also great for people that can afford the $1 million to $2 million home but want a little more bang for their buck and speed. Because everything's pre-designed, pre-ordered, we can build it a lot quicker and, as anybody who's dealt with building a home or a remodel knows, it's always late. If you watch HGTV, everybody wants to be in by Christmas and they think they're going to stay on their budget. It's always late and over budget.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, all right, cool. Well, let's shift gears a little bit and talk about some of the things you've learned over your years as a contractor and in business. If you had to start over in business, what would you do differently?

Speaker 2:

Great question. I would tell myself to just try it. I'd, I'd, I'd, I'd make the smiley face poster post-it note on the dashboard inside of my glasses. Stop worrying and just do it. Make the mess and then clean it up. Um, it's so funny. In my twenties and early thirties I thought I was cocky and foolish, but I really now looking back and see so many areas where I was afraid to take the leap and chose the safer route and then regretted it.

Speaker 1:

Take it, try it. I love it, I love it. Take a chance. What are some of the learnings that you've had? I mean, a lot of people don't get like a contractor. They think, well, a lot of them don't have a lot of employees. They use a lot of subs, but subs are employees. So, when it comes down to it, so what have been some of your biggest learnings in working with subs?

Speaker 2:

So, bill, I'm going to rat you out here before we started recording. You asked me to to not get too negative, um and call people out, which I love, because that is one of the biggest lessons. The construction industry in particular tends to attract this macho yell louder than the next guy kind of thing. So true, and like other arenas in the world, we think we need to match that in order to compete or to get our fair share. I shouldn't speak for everybody.

Speaker 2:

I used to think that I needed to match that in order to compete, used to think that I needed to match that in order to compete, and what I found is when I'm at city hall trying to clear up a permit that's got some funk on it and the guy next to me is screaming at the poor state employee behind the desk, and then I come up and ask them how they're doing and listen for a minute and then explain to them what I need, even though I might be furious that it just made me look bad, disappointed. A customer keeps them from moving their kids on on time. Listening sounds so cheesy, but just listening and go to the other side of the job site, kick the dumpster, smash something with the sledgehammer but then come back and speak to people like the real people, and that works for most of us. But where it's really surprising is when you can disarm the big angry guy that was just yelling at the person next to you.

Speaker 1:

Yeah 100%.

Speaker 2:

And then of course customers love that. But it's yeah that mindset. I don't have to match that to play with the other guys.

Speaker 1:

What do you think? Some of the misconceptions are about working with a contractor, are about working with a contractor.

Speaker 2:

So for non-construction people, the big misconception is that the price is going to be the price, yeah, and that construction is supposed to go on schedule per plan. But it's like a podcast or a Zoom meeting or a TV. It's the real world. You're dragging everything out into the middle of nowhere. You can't just make your iPhone or tablet in the factory with all the parts. You have to get it from a million different places and somehow get it to all show up on one site and then expect the weather to go well and everybody to show up.

Speaker 2:

The other misconception is the subcontractors, as you said earlier, are like my employees, but they are not my employee. I am not their boss, I am the project manager, I have the contract, but they don't meet me in the morning, they don't punch my clock, um, they don't come to my HR department. They're they're their own person. That you know. Of course, anybody can quit and move to another job, but, um, people will show up too early and start with a leaf blower. And somebody is calling me and asking me why I sent that man there early to wake them up. And, mrs smith, I I didn't do that on purpose. I didn't call him and ask him to show up early. He's. He's got his own little company. He's the best leaf blower right in western carolina, but he shows up when he shows up, yeah yeah, I, yeah, I get it, it's a, it's an, it's an interesting one.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and managing other companies essentially to to get there all the time, it's a, it's a big thing. But yeah, I mean, most people build one, two, maybe three houses in a lifetime and you know contractors do it every day. So there's usually a misconception there. That's why I asked the question how do you balance sort of business and personal life?

Speaker 2:

Oh, that's a great question. So I didn't for a long time and, and I remember very clearly, actually it was my wedding day in Lake Chinaliska over here in Waynesville.

Speaker 2:

I had not moved here full time yet and I had been working for a huge corporate builder. I was learning a lot. I was very excited. It was my first time having a 401k and I had worked my butt off 80 hours a week, got the bonus to pay for the wedding, my chunk of the wedding. Don't let me pretend that my wife's amazing parents didn't do most of the legwork there. But in my head it was like okay, I made it. I impressed everybody. I got to the wedding, I didn't drop the ring and then we're sitting there on this beautiful front porch the next day and I realized that I made it.

Speaker 2:

I didn't have to keep trying to prove to myself and everybody else that I could build. I could build a house, I can do this. And I was looking at the hours I was putting in and, for whatever reason, something just clicked and I went back to work after our honeymoon and I stopped overdoing it and actually nobody noticed or complained. I was still meeting all my deadlines, my customers were happy. And then when we moved out here, I went and was looking for another corporate builder with a 401k. My wife started a business, misfit Improv and then a good friend connected me with Toby and I could not be happier, because it's up to me and Toby how we set our workflow and work day. It's not a big meeting with our shareholders and the HR department, and so now I can do this with you.

Speaker 2:

It's, it's nine 30. My last job I would have been on site an hour ago, two hours ago, and there is no way I might have tried to do this in my truck with you. Right, we will take our calls and help people over the weekends, but I I'm I'm fostering a rescue dog right now. He rides in the truck with me. We stop at the dog park oh, that's cool. We take twice as long and lows because he's got to stop and say hello to everybody. Nice, he peed on the office floor but I cleaned it up.

Speaker 1:

Don't tell anybody. Well, if you have a dog, that's going to happen sooner or later. You're going to have an accident. It happens. Let me ask you some quick fire questions. The name of our podcast is Epic Entrepreneurs and it's about being epic in business and epic is an acronym. So I just want to get just quick, like a word or a sentence. Maybe I'll give you a paragraph if you want it, if you've got to do that for each one. So the E is education. Give me some thoughts on. Education is education. Give me some thoughts on education.

Speaker 2:

Education is great and in many things, especially building experience, is the best of education.

Speaker 1:

Right, actually doing it, I love that?

Speaker 2:

How about planning? P is planning. Planning is paramount, but being able to change the plans on the fly as conditions change is essential Love that I is for inspiration. Inspiration again in the planning stage. But the house, the crew, the customer, the mountain will talk to you while you're building and let you know how to adjust.

Speaker 1:

I love that and C is commitment.

Speaker 2:

That's big for us. We try to finish in 12 months. Sometimes big custom projects take longer and it's going back every day, even when the crew or the customer or the HOA are furious with me.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, I get that. Yeah, I get that. Well, thanks for that. That's always good. It's always good to get that. What do you wish somebody had told you you had known before you got into contracting?

Speaker 2:

That it's okay not to know everything.

Speaker 1:

That's so good.

Speaker 2:

tell me more about that I believe in fake it till you make it. Um, except that I twist that and think that I have to pretend I know everything. And, um, my boss, my boss, the owner toby logo, he is. He's a great example of that. I he's never laughed at me or gotten mad at me for asking a dumb question. Um, I've had great mentors through through the years, but I I can point, most of my mistakes are because I didn't just say I don't know, give me a minute. Most of the commitments I've failed on with customers is because I didn't say let me get back to you in a few minutes. I don't know the answer to that. I try to impress people. I say something and now I've got to deliver on unrealistic expectations.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, much better to give them something they don't want to hear rather than something that's never going to happen. Yeah, I love that. I love that. Well, what would you offer? Advice would you offer maybe to other contractors or other young people thinking about getting into contracting or business in general? What advice, other advice would you have? Just build it.

Speaker 2:

Just try it. It's really hard to lose with small construction projects. Right now and this goes to I put this out to everybody. We have a housing shortage. Build something. Build a little guest cottage in your backyard. Don't use me, use anybody, use yourself. Steal one of my plans off the website, just build it. It's really hard to lose right now. If you want to build a $3 million marble and gold mansion, yeah, you might lose on that, but build the code. Talk to your inspector and just build something. We need the housing. It's probably going to go up in value or at least hold its value.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I don't see housing here going down anytime soon, all right, well, anything else you'd like to add?

Speaker 2:

It's, it's uh, it's exciting, it's. It's still a sad time in ashville when you go into some of our neighborhoods, um, but it's also exciting because we get a chance to rebuild together and do some things better than we did before. So if you're scared of this and if you feel like you're not getting enough money, don't just give up and sell and move away. Reach out and see what your other options are.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, there's always a way forward. I mean there just is. It might not be the ideal way, but there's always a way forward. I mean there just is. It might not be the ideal way, but there's always a way forward. I love that. How do people get in touch with Mitch from?

Speaker 2:

Boxwood, Mitch Riddell, Boxwood Homes, 828-508-8246. That's my personal cell. It's on the signs. You can pop by our office in Mills River anytime, but we're almost never there. And stop by any of our projects too. You'll see me in my white truck. Just grab me and say howdy I love this.

Speaker 1:

Well, thanks for being on. This has been awesome. There's a lot of good kind of nuggets there. Appreciate it.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, bill, and thanks to Beth again.