The Hidden Challenges of Building a Home — What Buyers Don’t See

Everyone loves a new home — but few realize what it actually takes to build one. Michael Bucci, founder of Bucci Construction, dives deep into the unseen complexities home builders face long before the first nail hits the wood.

From land acquisition and zoning headaches to navigating utilities, permits, and evolving regulations, this conversation reveals the real-world challenges of turning raw land into a dream home. Michael and Kamil break down how timing, financing, and compliance can make or break a project — and what buyers, investors, and real estate agents should understand about the process.

Whether you’re a realtor advising clients, an investor eyeing new construction, or a homeowner curious about what goes into building from the ground up, this episode gives you the inside look at how much work truly happens behind the scenes.

Whether you're a seasoned agent looking to stay ahead, a newcomer eager to learn, or a client seeking reliable real estate advice, "Just 2 Minutes" offers a wealth of information in a convenient and enjoyable format. Join us as we explore tips, tricks, and insights from industry leaders and professionals that can help you navigate the dynamic world of real estate.

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Chapters

• 1:27 Just 2 Minutes Questions
• 4:02 The Interview

Transcript

1:08

Welcome everybody, I am your host Kamil Sarji and this is Just Two Minutes. Today I have Mike. Mike, you want to tell us about yourself? Uh yeah, hello everyone. I'm uh, my name is Mike Bucci. I'm a builder, home builder, custom home builder. Have been basically my whole life, starting as a little kid working for my dad when I was 8, 9, 10 years old through into the current age right now, which I won't tell. I uh, you know I've been in this business. I'm born and raised in Rhode Island. I built in Rhode Island various areas with my dad and then my own, a few of my own things. And then I moved out to Scottsdale, Arizona and I built out in Scottsdale and Phoenix for a number of years. I moved back to Rhode Island a little over 5 years ago now to take care of my elderly parents and um, I've been building, you know, a house or two here or there since I've been back. Awesome. And you're here so we can talk about home building. I mean uh, I don't think I've talked about it much in my podcast but um, but before that, I have my timer here for the Just Two Minutes questions. Are you ready? I'm ready. Okay. I'm a really good storyteller. I've been since I was a kid. What was your favorite story when you were a kid? Story when I was a kid? A book or? Oh you mean like, oh boy. Interesting. My favorite story as a kid. I can't remember that far back. Um. Actually, you know what? Let's create a story right now. Alright. Okay? So you just complete the blanks, alright? An orange, apple, and pear look at each other and say, Uh, I don't know, where are we going? And then they started walking towards the gym. They open a door, walk in, and they pick up a banana. And then this happens. They make a fruit salad. Then they shake hands, wipe the sweat on their forehead, and walk towards the door and say, That was interesting. The gym owner runs out and says, Hold on, before you leave, I have to give you this. Oh boy. I have to give, uh, your pay. What? Pay, your money. I have to give you your money. And I also have a free membership. They all walked towards the sunrise, holding hands, and looking at the sun. Awesome. Oh my gosh, that was crazy. Yeah. That's interesting. I can't wait to hear what this is about. So what'd you think, uh, two minute questions? What'd I think of the two minute questions? Um, something different. I wasn't expecting something like this. Yeah, I know. Me neither. It's a wild. Okay. All right. So back to, back to planet earth. Um, I don't know if about the gym with these, um, with the fruit, with the fruits. Yeah. I'm hungry now though. Um, so I want to talk about, well, first thing you got inspired to do what you did because you did that with your dad. You built. Yeah. I was, I was born into it, raised into it. It wasn't even, it wasn't an option actually, as a child, you know, I was, I had to go to work. My dad got me up out of bed on Saturday mornings. All my friends went out and played. And I was, I went to work and did that until I was old enough to say, I don't want to do this anymore. Basically through high school, I worked high school, college, and, you know, in between semesters of school summers, I worked on the jobs. I mean, I'm grateful because I learned a business. Um, I learned the trades and I learned a business. It wasn't always what I wanted to do when I wanted to do it, but, um, I mean, it turned into being a career for me, you know, and something that I've enjoyed doing. And there's a lot of satisfaction when you're done with a home and the people move into it and you see something come out of the ground from nothing to being completed. And they, you know, people are moving their things in and how excited everybody is for a brand new home. You know, it's a lot of, um, there's a lot of reward in that. And I bet like in your early twenties, you had way more experience than someone else in their early twenties who was just, you know, getting into this or something. Yeah. I mean, yeah, because I started as a child. I mean, I, you know, eight, nine, 10 years old, I'm on a job site, sweeping up, cleaning up. One of the first jobs I had, this was, you know, before they had nail guns and things like that. Um, you know, there were my father who was an old school Italian builder who, you know, saves every penny. One of my first jobs was sweeping everything, all the sawdust and pieces of scrap wood and nails that the carpenters would bend. And I had to sort out the nails. And then I, I'm nine, 10 years old. And I had to straighten out the nails and put them back in the box so they could be reused in the house. We didn't throw them out. Yeah. You know, things like that, pieces of wood, anything that was larger than, you know, you know, 10 to 12 inches went into a pile and everything was, the scrap was, was recycled. My father was recycling before we even knew what recycling was. He just did it on the job. So I learned it. That's what I learned. And that's what I started doing when I was a kid. Yeah. So I started with that onto ending up being the general contractor and contracting and building eight, 10,000 square foot multi-million dollar houses. Wow. Some on the sides of mountains in Scottsdale, Phoenix, Arizona. Wow. So. So all that, like, is that what got you, I'm assuming already, is that what got you to be organized in like how you're, how you do things with the home or you did your own thing? No, I mean, I learned a lot from my dad. And then I, you know, working with my dad, it was his way. There were no other ways. It was his way. You did it his way. And then when I went into my own operation, I took a lot of what made sense and worked. And I also put my own, you know, self into the projects and the way, way to do business, how I interacted with the subcontractors, the clients, the customers, you know, the suppliers. So, yeah, I mean, it's just, you know, it just came naturally, I guess. Yeah. I think we do that as parents. We take what we learned from our parents on how to be a parent and we do it in another spin. Like we, we still use some of those parenting skills, but we modify it to make it ours. So it's kind of like the same thing. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the building, you know, the building, the industry has changed a lot. I mean, at its core, it's the same, but it's changed. Like I said, like I was saying, now everyone's nail guns. I mean, they're still hammering nails, but back then it was all hammering nails. When you put a deck down the floor of a house, you had to, you know, you put all the plywood down and then you would nail it one nail at a time. Now you just shoot the nails and, you know, like, so it's a lot faster now. It's a lot different. It's more, you know, technology has automated a lot of things and sped things up and... A lot, right? A lot of things. A lot. Yeah. Because I mean, nailing, framing up a room is way faster with the nail gun than with a hammer. Absolutely. 100%. So that, you know, helped builders increase... Speed....the amount of homes that they can be done with. Wow. Yeah. And now today, the big production builders that we don't really have them here in Rhode Island, but the big production builders across the United States, these, you know, multi, you know, publicly traded companies that build massive subdivisions, all these homes are being fabricated in factories and the wall, everything's just being assembled on the job. It's getting into you know, there's manufactured homes, which we all kind of know as trailer homes and that kind of thing. Those are called manufactured homes. But almost, you know, all the production track homes are all being built now in buildings and assembled on the jobs. And when my father started, like cabinets now, everybody goes and buys cabinets. They're built and made. They used to build it. My dad, when he started, they used to build all the cabinets on the job. That was part of building the house. The doors come already pre-hung. You just nail them in. They used to have to, you know, rabbit out the hinges and they had to make the door work on the job. Wow. So, you know, technology brings... And then now, like, you know, if you had it built versus buying, that's... Yeah. From that perspective, things are cheap. Of course, the cost of the materials keeps going up and the labor goes up. But, yeah, you know, the processes are a lot more advanced and, you know, you can do more, more quickly. Yeah. So in Phoenix, do they, like their way of building versus here, do they use lumber there? Oh, yeah. Of course, all the homes are framed. Lumber. I mean, there are some homes that are some homes are steel constructed with steel studs. Those are usually some really big... I mean, I did one home that was a super contemporary home, all glass. And that was all commercial grade steel studs. You know, that was a different home. But almost all of them are still residential, are, you know, stick built wood. We were watching a video on these 3D printed homes. Have you seen the video on how they make it? It's like a toothpaste. The cement is like a toothpaste. It just goes in. That's a whole other world that's coming in and AI is getting involved and this technology and, yeah, yeah, this, yeah. Pretty amazing. So I think, I mean, that's the next step. Modular homes before it was like, I mean, is a fast way to build homes, but goodness, it's 3D printing. Well, they work around the clock. Yeah. The machine works 24 hours a day if you want it to. It's amazing. And they're, you know, it's in its elementary stages. I am paying attention to it. It's not something I would wind up doing in my career at this stage of my life. But if I'm 20 years old, 24 years old or whatever, I'm looking at this and saying, I need to understand this. If I'm going to be in this business, I need to learn this because this is where it's going. Where do you think we are as far as being able to implement that? Like how many years from now do you think? You know, Kamal, I really, I have no idea. I mean, it's crazy though. Like we're getting close to being able to build homes quickly, like quicker and quicker. Yeah, yeah. And more cost efficiently. That's the idea is to build it. The idea is to try to keep costs down. As we all know, the price of housing is so, I mean, it's incredible what homes are selling for. And, you know, for people, for kids that are starting, like all my kids are in their 20s, late 20s, it's daunting to think that you're going to somehow be able to own a home. You know, even in Rhode Island, the median price range home is like 525,000. I mean, that was a retirement home 30 years ago. You sold your $100,000 house to move into a $250,000 house to move into your mansion, which was 500,000, say, you know, maybe 25, 30 years ago. Now, you know, it's just a regular house and they're hard to find, as you know. Because the cost of building is so prohibitive and the regulations are making it worse and everything is going, it's frustrating. You know, like I'm about to pull a permit right now and there's a whole new energy program that's been implemented. It's being implemented all over the United States, green energy. And Rhode Island is the first state to actually implement it into its building code where it's required. It just started in February. It's only adding another 20, 30, 25. I mean, I don't know the full end result of it yet, but I'm going to guess it's going to add another 15 to$20,000 to the price of the house. Just so we can say the house is more energy efficient. So that's another 20,000 on the price of things that people are struggling to afford. It's challenging. Wow. So they're making less requirements or? No, they're making us wrap the houses in these different, you have to have certain energy ratings. You have to hit a 10 star energy rating. But that's becoming the code? It is the code. It's not becoming, it is. And it took effect in February. Oh goodness. It's a national code too. And Rhode Island and most states from what I'm understanding are not really implementing it yet. But Rhode Island is the first state to say it's required and now the builders are all adjusting to it. Oh wow. Okay. Myself included. So what is it all about? Wrapping the home? Yeah. It's about insulating the home to keep, the idea is to make the house more, it's supposed to make it less expensive to heat and air conditioning, air conditioned. So I, it's a frustrating subject for me because it just doesn't make sense in the long run to me, but it's the code and it's all about energy efficiency. Yeah. Wow. I get a lot of people who they see land for sale, 80,000 and they're like, okay, I saved up 80,000. I want to buy that and I want to build a house on it. How difficult is it to buy land and then go through all, okay. So let's say I bought land. What do I do? Do I work with a builder? Like, do I call you and say, all right, it's about this land. Cause there's a lot of things involved in it. Like it's not just building. It's well, it starts with buying the land itself. So it's not just buying a piece of land. Okay. Oh, I got a heck of a deal. I bought this lot for $50,000 and all the other lots are selling for $200,000 as example. Well, it's not the cost. I mean, of course it's how big the land is, the lot, how many square feet the lot is. Is it good views? Is it, you know, but it's also about how much it costs to get it to the point of foundation. So one lot could sell for a hundred thousand dollars and one lot can sell for$50,000. The cost to get this lot ready to put a house on it, maybe 20,000. So now you're in total for the, to bring the foundation up, you know, do excavation. You're in it's $120,000. If this other lot where they say 50,000 and it costs a hundred thousand to get it to that point, what the hundred, the $50,000 lot turned out to be more expensive than the hundred thousand dollar lot to get to a point to be able to put your house up with the excavation. And maybe you've got to deal with, you know, department environmental management, coastal resource. I mean, there's all these different regulations. Requirements, ISDS, wetlands, all of that. So the knowledge there is, you know, and most people don't have it rightly because why would anybody know all that stuff? You know, a builder will come in and then sometimes people get, I've had this happen to me in the past where I try to tell them, no, this lot is like, well, I got a great deal. And I'm like, no, this isn't a great deal. You're gonna, it's, this is expensive to build on. And, you know, it's challenging. And then from a real estate perspective, I mean, there are certain, I actually, you know, I do a little real estate and had my real estate broker's license stuff from years back and I got certified in land sales. So I was able to, when I was in Arizona, not only help people find, not only help them build a house, but also as the realtor find them the right lot to build on to achieve what they're looking to achieve at the end in terms of costs and what they're looking to build. So, you know, I would suggest to any realtor that wants to focus on land to take some of those, you know, the classes that NAR has to understand the land game of it, land piece of it, because there's a lot to that, you know, and then, yeah, you design the house. I mean, rightly, you design the house to the lot. Somebody might want to build a colonial on a lot that really a raised ranch is the perfect lot for it. It slips into the lot. If not, it costs a lot more money to get the lot, you know, excavated to the point to build a house. So there's all these dynamics that are involved in trying to cost efficiently build the home that you want. So, you know, now, you know, I built some homes out in Arizona with a multi-million dollars and some of these clients, like, you know, they got, they don't care. Okay, that's going to cost $150,000. I built one house on the side of the mountain. It took us 10 months. We had to cut the excavate the mountain out. It's got these incredible views of Phoenix and everything. It took us 10 months just to be able to pour the foundation. Wow. Just to get the lot ready. It's on the side of the mountain, the driveway. It's, you know, but the house is a multi-million dollar house. When you, the views are breathtaking. Wow. You know, they have the money to do it. They spend the money and, you know. How do you attach it to the mountain? Well, you cut the mountain out. You have to cut. So, the mountain's on an angle. You have to cut the mountain out to slip the house. Well, this particular one, they're all different, but this particular one, you know, that's how it had to be done. We had to cut. So, the back of the, the back of the house, there is a cut in the mountain 28 feet high. Wow. So, you go out back straight up 28 feet is the mountain that we excavated out to be able to build the house so they could capture the views. Wow. And the only, we had a, we had a crane in and almost had a helicopter in the drywall and stuff like that. Wow. Because it was so high on the mountain. There are homes in areas like that where you need helicopters to bring the materials in. Wow. So. That's insane. Yeah. Because how, how the heck would you bring, yeah. Because you can't get trucks up those hills with that amount of material on it. Yeah. So, you gotta, if you can get a crane in, you crane it. If the crane can't make it work. Yeah. You have to airdrop it. That's crazy. Yeah. And there are, you know, that's this again, this is, I lived out in Scottsdale and Phoenix and anyone that's been out there would, they know what I'm talking, you see the houses on, you know, on the mountain sides and. So how do you feel about, I mean, each city is different. Everybody's different perspective as far as like the town inspectors, building, electrical, plumbing inspectors. They're all different. They all have their different like personalities. They have their, you know, some are like willing to help you work things out. Others are always like against what you want to do and try to fight you and they take it out. Like their mission in life seems like I'm going to stop this from happening. Like whatever ego, whatever. So how, how has it been in your experience with. All inspectors are great. All inspectors, if you're an inspector, they're all great. All great. Okay. Boom. We just, we turned off the recording. Now it's just us. Let's talk about, no, I mean, listen, they're doing their jobs. Yeah. They all have a different approach to doing the job. They have a code and that's, you know, as long as you're achieving what the code is and we're, you know, builders, we want to meet the code. We're all there, you know, and some can be more of a stickler than others. Rightly so in some cases, there are some that may be a little lax in some ways, but you know, our job is to appease them, give them what they need and want and, and, you know, move on to finish the house and get a certificate of occupancy. Because like you said, like the code, there's, there's a code you follow. Like, okay. It's like, yes, it has to be this high and, and whatever the, you can't argue that, but some are like lenient and say that, and you know, they, they look past that. I don't, I'm not going to say anything. Okay. No, no, it's all right. Because, you know, we work with inspectors where they are and they're great guys. Most of them are, I mean, all of them are, they're all people doing their jobs. They have a different way of doing it. Cause they're, they're out there too. They're, they have a business too. They're doing some are, the electrical inspector is also an electrician. Some are hired by the towns, they're subcontracted as inspectors, some, you know, city or town employees. So, um, which that's another topic. I don't know if there's a conflict of interest, like, well, hire me to do this, then I'll pass it. Yeah. I mean, I'm sure they can't do that. They can't approve their own work with that town or maybe they can't do any work in that town. I don't know. I have no idea how that works. Yeah. Um, so with that said, um, what if I'm a builder and I'm building, like I built a home and I'm having an issue with the, uh, town inspector, like we're arguing about the code. Um, what does someone do? Like, do they, is there another level? Did you have an incident like this somewhere in the past? Maybe in the future. Um, do they go to the mayor? Like who, who, or do you go, is there a state inspector that you can go to and say, Hey, listen, I'm having this issue. There's a register of contractors. There is, yeah, there is a process, but look, there's a code book. And if it's in the code, it has, it's supposed to be done. So, um, if it's not in the code, you can argue. I've never ever gone. I don't know, to be honest, cause I've never ended up in that place. I've always figured it out. Whatever. If there was a challenge, we got it figured out, we got it figured and done and we moved on. We just kept going. Yeah. So I've never, you know, taken an inspector to, to task or issue beyond him being the inspector on the job, you know, cause there's so many different inspectors and so many different, you know, you just have to just apply the code and, you know, adhere to the code. And that's where the debate is, you know, can be. Um, but then there's a state level, um, inspector that you can, cause that inspector, the town inspector can't be the judge and jury and be like, Nope. Again, I don't really know because I've never gone. I mean, I'm, I know there are, there are, there are, of course, levels you go up. I've never, I've never had to do that. I've never even said, Oh my gosh, how do I handle this guy or gal? Um, I don't, I just, we just figure it out, you know, whatever the, you know, that's been my, I can only speak from my own experience. I don't know what other guys do or what other issues, you know? Yeah. Um, okay. We can move to the, um, what's your thoughts about basements in terms of having one, not having one? Well, here in Rhode Island. Well, you know, so in the Northeast, in the upper Midwest, you know, the basements serve different purposes across the country. Um, again, I keep referring back to Arizona cause I was out there for so long and spent so much time building out there. And it's not only out there, but there's other areas, Florida and the South. And most, most of the homes are built on slab. They're called slab on grade. There's no basement at all. So the reason basements, um, basically exist is in these cold weather climates, you have to put your footings, you're, you have to get below the frost line to establish a solid ground for your home to sit on so that it doesn't move when we have changes from freezing to non-freezing. So you've got to, we get to go down four and a half feet typically. You might have to go down a little bit more, but it's usually about four and a half feet. Yeah. So when you dig down that far, four and a half feet, you dig another three feet or three and a half feet, you've got a full serviceable space that you can utilize. There's no sense of going down that far and spending that money when you can add a little bit more. And that's what I believe way back generated the, the let's go down a few more feet and have space, right? So now when you go into Florida, which is on, you know, basically water, the whole state is sitting on a pond of water or the gulf or whatever. Um, you can't go down because it's water Arizona, the, the, the hard pan, the dig is so hard. It's so expensive. It's not cost-efficient. So, um, you know, I mean, the problem with basements here is you get water in them. And if, you know, you got to be careful about all of that and you got to know how, what you're doing to manage that. And every single lot is different, you know? So if there's a water, high water table, issues of potential groundwater from the water table or surface water coming in because of the grade of the lot, or the, you know, there's maybe a mountainous area and all this water's coming down and settling into your lot. Um, you're going to know how to fix it in the beginning and build it right. So that the issue, you know, is mitigated to almost not being there at all. You know, ideally you fixed it. So it's never, you never have a water issue, you know, but you can, you know, you get a hundred year storm and look what happened in Texas, right? I mean, those floodings, those homes aren't built to stand. I'm leaving the people and all that aside. I'm talking about the houses, they're not built for that. Nobody's built anything for that. Yeah, you know, so I mean they may make some adjustments going forward now, but You know there are you know, mother nature still rules So, so I don't know if I'm answering your question about basements or not Yeah, I get it like, you know having if you're gonna, you know, you might as well build I mean dig a little bit more and have a space to put something Store stuff heating system is ugly. The water heater is ugly. Let's get that out of the way utilities down there You have a storage cellar down there and you have extra space if you have enough to have a walkout where you can have Open space, you know now you can have a half open and then you can convert it into a family room You know a man cave right whatever, you know a sewing room or if anybody sews anymore Yeah, it's wild in the sewing rooms. It gets crazy. Sometimes people sewing Yeah, I mean, you know people need space to do that. Some people, you know, they have I think you know I'm into music heavily. You put a nice little music studio down there and that's where your band practices down in under the ground Yeah, so I think the basement so, you know, there's value in them But as far as like, yeah, I get you yeah, so it could go either either way But you know, you're spending more you're spending that money might as well just have a space. That's the thing I mean, you know unless you've got Challenging ground conditions that may lead to a water issue if you've got like there's a lot of hot pan or ledge underneath Where you're building then it may make sense to build just slab on grade because if you're gonna go down seven and a half feet Eight feet you're gonna get water because you're building it into the water table So if you're building in the water table, you're gonna get water Eventually, it's kind of water. You can't stop water. Yeah, you can hold it up a little bit You know what it does spit it out It may take a hundred years for it to find its way in but it will yeah, you know So as a builder, what's the number one? Issue you run into when working with the homeowner If it's a custom home, I would say the biggest challenge Provided, you know, the money is there and there's not there's there's a type of money and something happened, but It's making decisions on what they want You know when you build a home with a husband and a wife You know one wants this one wants that they don't want this they want, you know It's picking their colors picking their fixtures picking their flooring It it can be challenging in that respect, you know because Some people know exactly what they want. Yeah, some people think they know what they want until they have to make their decisions and That can be a challenge It ultimately gets done but it can it can cause delay And you know, I had one homeowner. I Have two funny stories one homeowner When we're coming to painting the house we had literally 20 different shades of white off whites. The painter was ready. He goes I'm out of here I can't do this. He was trying to please her. Oh, well, that's not the right one You know and then we put samples up on the wall so you can see in the light and all that before you go ahead and get the sign 20 different shades of white, you know anyone white has different variances. Every color has variances. Yeah It was like and then I was finally like and this is a very wealthy woman Like you got to pick a color or I'm gonna paint the house the color I like And she goes Whatever color you want paint it and we went with the white that I liked and she loved it That's one story now the funny story that my father tells and this is just talking about people trying to understand They don't really know what they want my father was building a house when he was in his early 20s and One of my aunts who he was building a house for his brother's wife, he was building a custom home and They brought the toilets in and she goes that's not the toilet. I ordered that's not the color. That's not the right color So the plumber happened to be an uncle So it was like all these family members, but my father was the general contractor My uncle was the plumber and we're building it. They were building. I wasn't even born They were building it For another family, but my other uncle my dad's brother and his wife So the toilet she picks up this toilet and she comes in and she says That's not the right toilet. So my uncle Lou's name is his past now. He's gone. He says no, that's the toilet you picked and she says I'm telling you That's not the right toilet. So he said alright toilets, you know a couple of all right. I'll take him back And I'll go get I'll see what the story is. He put him in his truck. He drove home Left him in the truck the next morning. He comes back. He said I went and got the different toilets Is this this is better? She was that's the toilet. I was I'm telling you it was the same toilet. Oh my god oh my gosh, so my father and No, cuz he knew where my father still laughs about 90 almost 94 years old He still laughs telling the story Wow, but To the point of the people don't really know what they want and think they want and my aunt, you know at the time Thought the toilet was the wrong color and it was the same exact toilet. She was that's the one I was looking at That's the one I was talking about. It's the same one that she said wasn't right. When was this? Eventually, I really don't know. My father shared his story with me recently My father's 93 and still, you know buildings got so many stories and he shared that story and I laugh and we just a laughed Now my aunt my uncle who was the plumber He's you know, he's passed my aunt and uncle have passed everybody's passed my father's 93 He's the last one of them all left basically But we're talking about different things and you know homeowners. He let out the secret They waited this long and he was laughing to this day. He was laughing spot-off Something that happened 70 years ago, so, you know, that's the challenge sometimes is people not really knowing what they want you know, I Would say that's the biggest challenge and it's not it's this it's them going through their own Stresses of it nowadays you can and then the husband and the wife and they start fighting. They thought I've had issues Yeah, yeah, you see some, you know, it's stressful for a lot of people. It's like I'm gonna take a step away I'll let you guys talk it through and I'll come back When you guys make a decision because I don't want to see this I read somewhere and I don't remember the exact number I think this I've read somewhere. There's 220 something thousand decisions to make to build one house Wow, I believe it So I don't Calculate that and I forgot where I read it wasn't long ago. It was maybe six months ago I read it and I laughed because There's so many little decisions that go into build this one home, yeah, you know So that's a lot on homeowners sometimes, you know, yeah So that's as far as the customer what's the most challenging part of building a home besides the people From a builder's standpoint it's Getting all the trades To work together They they you know, it's a challenge sometimes where the plumber is complaining about the Electrician and he's complaining about the and it's just it's just people It's just dealing with managing people is the most challenging part, you know the materials the materials you get them they show up You know what needs to be done, but it's just I would just say it's managing people. Yeah, that's always a tough one, right? any business and every business it's when you own a business and I Have a friend of mine who has a big HVAC company employs over a hundred people and we get together regularly And you know, we'll have a beer and you know bite the stuff and he goes I'm a full-time psychiatrist All I do is here is everybody's so I got a hundred people working for me every day Somebody's got some psychological issue and he goes I own this HVAC company, but I think I'm really a psychiatrist or a psychologist Yeah, because he has to deal with people Yeah, it's just dealing with people this boy in his case employees plus his customers on the outside. You got that many employees That's another challenge. Yeah, so So you worked as an agent What how can an agent Work with a builder like what to appease the builder and like, you know, I would just say one of the challenges that I've had with agents as A builder besides the Commission. No. No, I'm talking about. Yeah the working part of it. Yeah. No builders don't like to pay commission That's a big challenge But I Would say that I don't know I mean Some agents in my opinion and I'm an agent as well. So I'm not I can speak I think some agents get a little ahead of their skis in terms of what they they're trying to show their customers what they Do for their customers and sometimes they push themselves in this areas that they're really way out ahead of themselves that they don't belong in and And From a builder standpoint You know You could be trying to tell somebody something in the agent can get in the middle of it to stay out of it When it comes to the building piece of it stay out of it Yeah, you know even if you know how to build your own house as an agent stay out because you're not getting paid to build it Yeah, so You're getting paid to sell it. Yeah, stay in the selling lane and stay out of You know throwing your two cents into the building piece of it, you know now unless the bill is a complete You know mess and it's an issue. Then you've got a bigger problem all the way around but And then last question is how? does a real estate agent find a Reliable like a builder they can trust You just got to ask around you got it's all based on someone's reputation Ask around if you you know, you get the name of you should always get if you're gonna start You know, you should always start with unless you know somebody that you're it's all about trust Like it's like anything else. It's relationship and trust if you have a builder that you know and trust You're way ahead of the game, you know if you got to go out and start and find An unknown builder You got to ask around and learn about reputation and hear what they have people say about them not only what other customers of course is important, but also, you know what the Suck the tradesman say what is a plumber an electrician or a framer say about that contractor? Oh Interesting, you know what they like to do business with yeah, that can be helpful too. Okay, you know Who do you use anyways for the electrician or the plum or your plumber and They say and then you reach out to them. Like what's it like working with this builder? Well, it's is that what you're saying? No, I'm saying like if you're out looking to find builders if you know an electrician Say hey, do you know a good contractor? Do you work do anybody you work for? Do you know of somebody? Yeah, or I was just referred to this guy. Do you know anything about him? Oh that guy's great He's a great builder. Okay, he's there. He pays his bills. He's there on the job. He's acting. He's me. He's right, right? That's integrity Right. Well as a con as if you hire a builder and he's not paying as you're paying him and he's not paying his bills You're responsible. Yeah You know because the lien is on the homeowner not on the builder. It's on the property So that's piece of it. Also, of course workmanship quality So Everybody's got reputations out there. So, you know try to find the right somebody that that's another that's you know That's not easy either if you're starting from you don't know anyone Interesting what you said about the lien So If I'm a contractor and I bring in like these electrician plumber and I don't pay them They can put a lien. So let's say you're on my client now you hired me to build a house Okay, and you wrote me a check and I'm getting paid from the bank or from you or whatever Yeah to do this and that and I'm paying and I don't pay those trades. Yeah, you're liable if I just liable and those Individual they'll put a lien on the property because their own ultimately the person responsible for the payment. I mean for the person responsible Yes for the payments to it for all the materials and labor is the person that owns the building the piece of real estate Wow, so What lien releases you get lien releases on payments and It's it gets into a legal process, but there's you know, so you gotta be careful I think the contractor should be responsible. They're not well, they are should be well They are they should be of course Should be and they I'm just saying at the end of the day if the contractor leaves town if he's in the middle of you and he took your you gave him a hundred thousand dollars to do something and he and and Then I'm your plumber and I went in did some work and I'm electrician I did some work and I can't find that contractor. I'm coming after you It's I did the work in your house on your property. It's yours So even though you paid him that hundred thousand you might have to pay another hundred thousand for that same amount of work So it's important that you find that's why I said it's important to fight the contractors that have reputations that are good Good Yeah, yeah, I learned a lot today that was awesome, you know, so how do people find you That I you know I'm not really looking for any new projects. You have one coming up though. I do I'm putting up a house I build it on Speculation I build it. It's in Warwick. It's off of Diamond Hill Road area Warwick I don't really put it up for sale until it's Almost finished when it's you know near after all Plastering is done the walls and then around that time. I stopped putting it up for sale So I'm kind of semi retired now haven't done this my whole life You know, I mentioned I mess around in the music business for fun But as far as building goes, I'm really not looking for any more any new projects, you know I mean if a family member of my son wanted a house built Of course, I've built a house for him or with them, you know Yeah, my kids or but and then I'll put this house up sell it You know, I build a house every few years now because I'm kind of you know, I started when I was nine years old So Wow ten years old in the business How about a plug for your music? Oh, so yeah, that's um So I have a music company called Saraceno music and entertainment or a music booking agency we book I bought into the company and Pretty much the majority owner of it now The partner that started it's been in business for since the early 1990s and We book music all over Rhode Island Country clubs hotels bars weddings Bob mitzvahs whatever you need music for We're available with Saraceno music and entertainment. So at this point in my life music has always been my passion. That's my my fun Business. Yeah, I mean it's full-time business is where I'm working at it Yeah, but I really am having a good time with it because the building part of it Well, I love the building while I did it It served me well in my life I was able to raise my family nicely and all It's this is my I guess my next phase of Its passion, yeah, but um, but we're full-on busy, I Have I think I've got this coming week. We we book all the bands at the st. Mary's Feast. I Think I've got this week 20-something bands and musicians playing all over Wow this week weekend Wow Every week's like we got yeah a lot of stuff going. Yeah, that's cool. Yeah, we have some prime. We have big hotels That hire us to do whenever they need music for themselves or their clients their customer their corporate Clients and stuff beach clubs the well-known beach clubs here in Rhode Island. We book a lot of the music there That's great that you're able to follow your you know, your your passion and be able to yeah I mean, I've worked hard my whole life and I'm in a position where I'm okay Financially, you know, I'm in a good place and I can do now what I really love to do and that's be with and around musicians in music And help people find the right music for what they're looking for, you know And get the right Artist into the right when we say the music business the right gig, you know we're the right music is being played for The work for a corporate event or for a wedding, you know, so yeah, so Anybody needs music? I'm here. It's iris. You know music and entertainment Awesome. Well, thanks for stopping by and Really appreciate you