Builder’s Edge: The Construction Software Streamlining Luxury Real Estate Projects

John & Christian (00:00)
We developed an algorithm based on hundreds and hundreds of data points
major criteria our school district cost of living ⁓ distance to geographic regions, walkability basically tells us if we should buy it. And it should tell us what we should buy for and what we should offer on it. And then it also will tell us how much we’re going to be able to sell it.

How long it takes to build will actually run those comps again to look at current market we have to finish faster, maybe it’s going to tell us to slow down a little bit because the market’s going up and you want to go to market a little bit later, works amazing.

Erika (02:13)
Hey everyone, welcome to the Real Estate Pro Show. I’m your host, Erika, and today I’m thrilled to be joined by Christian Tirone and John Urchak of Builders Edge. I cannot wait to talk about what they’re doing. It’s so awesome to have both of you on the show today.

John & Christian (02:29)
Thank you so much, Erika. We appreciate you having us on. We’ve been waiting to be on for a while, so thank you.

Erika (02:35)
Yeah, yeah, so let’s not make people wait. Let’s dive on in. Tell us more. What made you decide to form Builders Edge?

John & Christian (02:44)
Thank you for the question. We actually saw that there was a little bit of a void in the…

building business as far as developing a property single-family and we thought that it was ⁓ much needed to have to bring a technical standpoint to processing on how to buy build and sell a home and You know, we were we had a successful residential construction business doing new construction and renovation projects and we were kind of

we were actually tapped out at maybe four or five projects. So we really decided to take a look at the processes that were out there and there was really nothing good that was on the market to encompass everything that has to go into building a home. From acquisition to procurement, architecture, permits.

scopes, bids, schedules and service. So we actually got into the lab.

and ⁓ we started developing a system. I have a computer science degree from Fordham University and we really just took a step back and wanted to take a look at why, number one, there was nothing on the market that we thought was going to be easy to use and number two, there wasn’t a lot of availability of ⁓ these types of technologies that integrated everything together. So that’s kind of how we started Builder’s Edge.

It was out of a need where we’re in such a technology driven society right now ⁓ like Uber, Amazon, DoorDash and we just thought that it would be a refreshing breath of air for us to bring to the real estate market which ⁓ is new and exciting for us.

Erika (04:38)
Yeah, yeah. tell us more, like break down how that tech specifically helps people get an edge with what they’re working on.

John & Christian (04:46)
Sure, yeah. So traditionally you’re working off of an Excel spreadsheet if you’re in our world of building and developing, for example. So you’re working off of Excel spreadsheets,

your communication is done through hundreds of emails a day. You’re working off of notebooks, you’re communicating with your entire team, whether that’s… ⁓

bookkeepers, procurement managers, subcontractors, realtors, mortgage professionals, you name it. Our proprietary software actually took the need of finding one centralized place.

for all that communication to flow. So not only communication, but all documentation, any type of ⁓ real time feedback or update that’s required. We have our team upload photos multiple times a day. So what it’s really doing is it’s putting each individual right on site of the project.

It’s tying in all the communication and all of the daily updates like in real time. And it’s just creating this streamlined flowing process that helps our process just fly through compared to when you’re doing it the antiquated way, which is just pretty much everybody weighing it and hoping that everybody’s going to communicate and respond back in a timely manner. We turn it into just real time efficiency and streamlined communication.

Erika (07:09)
Yeah, absolutely. And I’m sure it took a lot of time to pull all those pieces together to make such a streamlined system. What would you say was your biggest obstacle with building that?

John & Christian (07:21)
Well, I think the 25 years of collecting data and building, ⁓ you know, I think that was probably the biggest hurdle was having to go through the painful process of doing it the way everybody’s doing it right now. So I think that that data collection and those points are

you know exactly what was the most painful bringing it through. But now for example like one of the our technologies includes a QR code in each room that we’re in. So QR code sits in let’s say the master bathroom and when

plumber goes in there, he has a real time view once he scans the QR code of the plumbing, electrical, tile layouts that are in there, where we need the bathtubs, where the faucets go. And then the electrician can come right behind him and see where the scotch placements are, if there’s a heated towel rack, where it needs to go. So these are just some of the technology that we’re working.

say the biggest issue is just time over the last 25 years collecting all that data to make this system.

Erika (08:32)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And your software, how do you see that working with investors and all the projects that they have going on?

John & Christian (08:42)
Yeah, that’s a really good question. mean, transparency is the name of the game for us. We live in a very transparent world. You could jump on the

at any time and find anything out about anybody, any situation in real time. So for our investors, it’s refreshing to know if you invested in one of our projects, you could see real time data, pictures, emails. ⁓

data transfer profitability right on our database. Our investors would get a proprietary, well, ⁓ kind of a VIP access and they will be able to see the numbers on what was projected, what we spent and what we still have to spend on the project at any given time. And it’s real time data at the end of the day.

Erika (09:33)
That’s really cool. And I’m sure that with your software being around now that you’ve had some success stories with companies. there, do you have any that you’d like to share how this has revolutionized the game for people?

John & Christian (09:48)
Sure, so I would say it’s most impactful to our team of highly qualified subcontractors. So in the past, you know, people in the trades

would have to…

perform the work and then submit their invoicing for payment. They would have to wait sometimes a few weeks. Maybe they couldn’t get in touch with somebody in the back office. Now, most of them, if not all of them, are directly linked to our system with like ACH payments. So in real time, if they were to go there and finish a task,

they actually get paid like within 24 hours. Everything is automated. besides the fact that everybody on the team has full transparency to follow along on a daily basis, it also just, it’s ease of use for everybody involved. So I would say they’re the ones who benefit the most. And with happy subcontractors, ⁓

you develop a really strong team, we have so many resources where people really knock on our door. So we feel like we have the best people in the industry working for us. And they know because we make the process so simple for them that they want to continuously work for us. And that’s how we’re able to manage anywhere between, I would say 10 and 20 projects at a time in terms of how we operate and how many projects we develop.

Erika (11:54)
Yeah, that’s really exciting. And you talked about building a team. I feel like that’s something we talk about so much on this show, but building a good team isn’t essential. It can make or break what you’re doing. So do either one of you have advice for our listeners when it comes to scaling in that way?

John & Christian (12:13)
Yeah, definitely. I transparency again, I go back to that, right? You know, everyone wants to know where they stand and communication and those are two really big. ⁓

things that we could deliver to our investors as communication and transparency and our subcontractors, our project managers and anyone who’s involved in that process. We feel like that’s a really good thing. And then listen, we’re North Jersey guys. So if we say we’re gonna do something and we shake your hand, it happens. So that’s the other thing. We do what we say we’re going to do. ⁓

do it in a timely manner and we expect that the same from our partners but I would say those are some keys to the success of our business.

Erika (12:59)
Yeah, absolutely. And for Builders Edge, are there any networking groups or business relations that you feel like have been a game changer? And is there any advice on that that you can impart on our listeners?

John & Christian (13:15)
So I think that’s always an evolving ⁓ sector of any business, how to kind of find the perfect balance of networking.

Groups networking events then you know the paid advertisement piece where you’re actually you know investing to bring in leads and opportunity for us we really look at everything as a Multi-dimensional we don’t really have to streamlined our focused of a process when it comes to our network growth We will invest in you know kind of the paid networking groups where we’ll travel over the country and meet other builders investors ⁓

capital raisers and network that way. We’ll also do, we feel pretty good about our social media presence. We’re starting to ramp that up. That’s a goal for the end of this year where we’re going to continuously post our podcast content and just kind of post our daily interactions to create more content and drive more traffic. So I mean, what’s worked for us, would say is having an open mind and knowing that there is going to be some times where you have to make

that investment, whether it’s at a convention where you’re paying for a table to sit there and see a couple thousand people over a weekend or for just getting out there and signing up for these countless opportunities and networking groups that are pretty much plastered all over social media. Yeah, and I could add a little bit to that. mean, we really invested a lot in

fund that we started and we are working with a third party administrator that handles all the regulatory compliance

and the vetting process for us. So we never even touch the money when it comes in. Everyone has to get vetted by this third party. And that has really helped our investors because it’s not just them giving us money before we touch it, before we take it, before we could deploy it. It has to go through

through

our vetting process. ⁓ So that has been something that ⁓ we’ve been working on as of late and I think is an advantage to the investors that want to invest in our company.

Erika (16:18)
Yeah, that’s really exciting. What do you guys see going on in the future besides that fun? Like what’s your plan over the next few years?

John & Christian (16:28)
So right now our target.

in terms of what we focus our daily operation on is single-family luxury residential. So our average house is roughly ⁓ between I would say three and fifteen million dollars at exit. So what I think we see ourselves progressing into is the much larger scale projects. We have some in the works and we come across amazing opportunities every day whether it’s from just our established

network of people that refer us business because we’ve built that rapport ⁓ or from our algorithm that we could talk a little bit about that actually goes out and captures endless data points and presents us with really viable opportunities. We just see ourselves going from the residential luxury market to maybe more of the multifamily commercial ⁓ say two to five hundred unit apartment complexes and

that could be really anywhere nationally. So that’s something we’re actually setting our 20, our 2026 goal is it’s going to be to really scale that side of our business.

Erika (17:44)
is exciting. Tell us more about the algorithm. Is that a builder’s edge algorithm that’s built in?

John & Christian (17:53)
Yeah, so it’s actually separate than Builder’s Edge, but we use it for Builder’s Edge. ⁓ They do play in the same sandbox. yeah, so the other important vital…

⁓ piece of this business is you we can have this amazing proprietary software for builders edge that takes you from beginning to end seamlessly ⁓ with transparency and communication but if we can’t find the deals and good deals then what use is it? So

developed an algorithm based on hundreds and hundreds of data points that goes out to the internet and picks up our data points in our matrix.

and actually comes back to us with properties we should buy and they have to meet our criteria. So we took about 10 years developing this algorithm. Right now we’re just using it locally and regionally but it could be rolled out across the country and basically what it does is once we put in a zip code it will go out pull the information that we need some major criteria our school district cost of living ⁓

distance to geographic regions, walkability amongst many, many more. And it pulls that data in and basically tells us if we should buy it. And it should tell us what we should buy for and what we should offer on it. And then it also will tell us how much we’re going to be able to sell it for. It’ll pull comps that are similar to what we’re going to build. And it built in, we built in our building process into that. How long it takes to build.

how much per square foot it takes to build and it will spit out a percentage, okay? In nine months you’ll be able to sell it for X amount and then the probabilities on if we sell a little bit higher or lower. And the other thing that we just developed for our algorithm is it will actually run those comps again to look at current market conditions three months and six months later to make sure that we’re on mark. Sometimes we may have to change a little bit the home because

the

market change or shifted. Maybe we have to finish faster, maybe it’s going to tell us to slow down a little bit because the market’s going up and you want to go to market a little bit later. So it’s really exciting to be working on that. We’re still tinkering with it, but for the acquisition part, it works amazing.

Erika (20:21)
Yeah, wow. That’s really exciting. Well, before I let you guys go, if someone wants to connect with you, learn more about Builder’s Edge, maybe they want to partner up with a project and collaborate. What’s the best way for them to reach you?

John & Christian (20:36)
Sure, so our website is builders-edge.com and on our website it’s always evolving and there’s always room for improvement but we feel really good where it is right now. It really gives you a deep dive of a comprehensive view of all the different sectors of our business. So on there if somebody wants to do some additional research on our business I would suggest they start there.

and they can put their information in and our team of ⁓ back end support will contact them and we’ll get in touch, Christian and I personally, with anybody who has an interest to invest or to utilize our algorithm or software or to partner up on a development project.

Erika (21:23)
Awesome. Well, was so great having both of you on the show. Your technology is inspiring and innovative. I know our listeners are going to get so much out of this.

John & Christian (21:33)
Erika, we really, really appreciate your time. Thank you so much.

Erika (21:38)
And for our listeners, if you got value from this episode, make sure that you’re subscribed to the Real Estate Pro Show. We’ve got more conversations coming up with heavy hitters like Christian and John who are out there innovating and transforming the real estate world. We’ll see you on the next episode.