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Show Summary
In this episode of the Investor Fuel Podcast, host Michelle Kesil interviews Anthony Zarrilli, a builder and developer with extensive experience in custom home construction. Anthony shares insights into his journey in the building industry, focusing on the importance of customer relationships, the challenges faced in the construction market, and the evolving preferences of homebuyers. He discusses the impact of generational involvement in the business and highlights the ongoing home shortage crisis affecting affordability for younger buyers. The conversation concludes with Anthony providing contact information for those interested in learning more about his work.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Anthony Zarrilli (00:00)
Rates being up right now, relative to thehistory of the mortgage market they’re fairly low but when you start talking about because of the elevated numbers on in the economy for real estate put that on a $700,000 house and see what your payment is and then someone coming out of college that has you know they’re paying off their tuition and they get a job making let’s say $60,000 a year how do you pay a four or five thousand dollar a month mortgage payment and then you got utilities and taxes and all that so
So it’s challenging, it’s a big juggling act for everybody. I think it’s very challenging for the younger generation to get a house.
Michelle Kesil (02:15)
Hey everybody, welcome to the Investor Fuel Podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Kesil and today I’m joined by someone that I’m looking forward to chatting with, Anthony Zarrilli who’s been making serious moves as a builder and developer. So excited to have you on the show today, Anthony.Anthony Zarrilli (02:36)
Wow, it’s great to be here. Thank you, Michelle.Michelle Kesil (02:38)
Of course, think our listeners are really going to take something away from how you have grown your building business and yeah, allowed yourself to build throughout many different markets. So let’s dive in. First off, for those not familiar with you and your world yet, can you give us the short version of what your main focus is?Anthony Zarrilli (03:01)
Sure, so I was, ⁓ my father was a builder. I grew up in, ⁓ he did a lot of single family and commercial building and I literally was on job sites from a little boy with him, loved going to work with him, learned a lot, up through the ranks. I wound up going off to college and ⁓ came back and then dove right back into it and ⁓ basically our main focus is custom.single-family homes, but we also have a commercial building division.
Michelle Kesil (03:37)
Awesome. And can you share which markets you operate in?Anthony Zarrilli (03:40)
So right now, our bulk of our business is in New Jersey. We focus on the shore, whether it’s on the ocean, the bay, waterfront in some way, shape, or form. We do also build inland, but the bulk of our business in New Jersey is on the water. We also are doing a lot of building down in the lower Florida Keys, ⁓ pretty much from like Island Marotta South. And we…going to be getting involved in some other states with Eastern Tennessee, Western North Carolina, and there’s some other places we’re looking at where there’s a demand and there’s ⁓ really not a lot of people there to ⁓ offer the supply of what’s needed.
Michelle Kesil (04:27)
Yeah, absolutely. And are you building primarily for just regular homeowners, people that are looking to custom design ⁓ their own family home?Anthony Zarrilli (05:26)
So most of our building is for either the, most of it is not first time home buyers. Most of it is for either a second home. We do a lot of demolition because up in New Jersey on the shore there’s not a lot of land left. So we’re knocking down homes and putting up new larger ⁓ or more up to date.You have people that are having ⁓ kids and grandkids and they need more space and the homes that they have now are just not fitting their needs. ⁓
people are focusing on the options in the homes, ⁓ know, the tankless hot water heaters, know, nine 10 foot high ceilings, hardwood floors, ⁓ know, pot fillers, ⁓ setting it up, smart homes, very high efficiency. So we’re focusing on that and I can say we’ve built…
That has to be somewhere around 1200 homes and not one of them is the same. There’s a lot of similar because just the size of the properties, but we have not built the same house. Everybody has a different need on how they live and we customize each house for each one of our customers.
Michelle Kesil (06:35)
Amazing. That’s so cool that you get to do that for people. What have been, yeah, I’m sure the customization processes. What are some of the keys that have allowed your business to continue to run smoothly?Anthony Zarrilli (06:40)
It’s a lot of fun, it really is.⁓ So when I first started, you’re trying to find your way through building a business and getting clients. Now the bulk of our business comes from our past clients. We’ve built so many homes, you know, there’s constant referrals, which I take very close to the heart when people refer us. You know, it’s probably your biggest compliment. So from that standpoint, I’m building the custom homes.
⁓ You know and and when we build these homes we sit with our customer we go through the whole process with them We let them know where we can run into whether it’s a delay from municipalities or materials we try to be fully transparent we have a ⁓ a Software program that they log into they can see what’s going on 24 hours a day Scheduling and things like that. I think communication doing what you say you’re gonna do
⁓ And following through is the heart of ⁓ why we’ve been successful and we continue to grow and build for building here and other places in the country.
Michelle Kesil (07:59)
Yeah, absolutely. Those simple things are often overlooked, but they make the biggest difference.Anthony Zarrilli (08:07)
Yes, they do. I think there’s a lot of people need to remind themselves, you know, when customer comes in and you’re building for them, ⁓ you know, what’s the most personal thing in your life is your home, where you live. And we just don’t take it lightly. And, you know, we have staff meetings weekly. We go over each customer. We go over, you know, the thing, you know, maybe we’re running into some snags or a delay and what can we do to make it better? And we’re constantly updating the customer when there’sWhen there’s not that, well, what’s going on today or what’s going to happen next week, take the guesswork out of it, they just are much happier. And I just think a lot more people out there need to do that. I think if you speak with anyone that does that, they have some level of success and a good relationship with their customers.
Michelle Kesil (09:00)
Definitely, that’s so important. Awesome. So what are you most focused on solving or scaling next in your business?Anthony Zarrilli (09:43)
I’m looking at scaling. you know, I’ve done pretty well throughout the years. ⁓ And recently my son, he’s always done some stuff with me. He’s shown a lot of interest in getting involved. And for about the last…probably two years he’s ⁓ and my son’s nineteen so you know at nineteen year old you you you you want to have let them have a little bit of freedom and have some fun but also find a little bit of direction so he’s worked with me but now he’s showing a much more serious interest in you know dad hey i want to get involved in he comes in every day ⁓ he is going for college his college degree i want to get that but ⁓ he’s taking class he actually which ⁓
made
me very proud. He designed his classes late afternoon so he can work from early in the morning until he goes to class. And because of him, now ⁓ I’m looking at scaling the business. We want to make it grow. And he’s coming in with some good ideas and telling me some things that kids, I shouldn’t even say kids, he’s 19, friends of his in their 20s are looking for in homes and giving me a good direction to start focusing on.
And so we’re looking at growing the business that way.
Michelle Kesil (11:06)
That’s so cool. And I love that your son is so involved and excited and…Anthony Zarrilli (11:12)
Ilove having him come in every day. It couldn’t put a bigger smile on my face working alongside my son like I did with my dad ⁓ for many, many, years. really, a lot of good memories and I learned a tremendous amount from my father.
Michelle Kesil (11:28)
I’m sure that’s beautiful to have that strong business in your family.Anthony Zarrilli (11:32)
Yes, it is, it really is.Michelle Kesil (11:34)
What are some of those suggestions if you don’t mind sharing that younger people are wanting in their homes?Anthony Zarrilli (11:41)
So I’m finding, ⁓ I know when I was buying a house and starting out, you we were going through, you know, some of these McMansion phases. I never was into that, but I knew a lot of people that were. They were buying square footage and weren’t buying quality. You can go, they would buy a 5,000 square foot house. There’d be no furniture and they would have linoleum floors. It was crazy. I don’t know why they were doing it, but that’s what went on. ⁓ Now it’s more,⁓ The size of the house doesn’t matter. It’s more open floor plans and the amenities. And some of the amenities are the type of flooring, the type of heat and air, high efficiency. ⁓ The high efficiency of the homes with the windows, the doors, solar. ⁓
you know, maybe radiant heat, tankless hot water heater, high efficiency appliances. You know, I see some of the colors and styles are starting to change again. You know, when I was growing up, it was like brass and it went, you know, it changed to brushed nickel and then it went to matte black and now we’re actually kind of funny going back to some of the brass again or gold. It’s funny. So they’re dictating what we
building like we don’t go out and build and say come and buy it they’re actually ⁓ telling us and they’re setting the trends.
Michelle Kesil (13:06)
Yeah, that’s super cool that people are able to do that and yeah create the foundation for the home that they want. Are there any like common roadblocks or obstacles that you face?Anthony Zarrilli (13:11)
Yes. Yeah.⁓ Well, I find the different locations and I’ll just use for example, New Jersey and Florida You know, I was born and raised in New Jersey. I love living here ⁓ it’s not as a Business-friendly state as I find Florida is for the building industry. So like down in Florida, everything’s electronic So when you submit for a permit or you call in for an inspection It happens quicker. It gets things done
In New Jersey, things are a little slow. We’re still dealing with paper. ⁓ the, like inspections down in Florida, you can hire a private inspector and they come on demand. In New Jersey, it’s just harder to get them to come out. You could have two weeks just to get an inspection and holds up, you know, jobs from moving to the next phase. ⁓ So, you know, that’s part of it. ⁓ I think ⁓ for some customers,
⁓
Bank financing sometimes runs into play with them trying to get their ⁓ money together. After some of the things that happened, like in 08 with the mortgage crisis and all, things got a lot tighter. if you have good credit and you rate up front, you tell them the proper information, I don’t think you’ll have a problem.
So we run into some stuff like that. obviously in New Jersey it’s a little colder. So the winters, it’s a little hard to build, but we still get it done. And down in Florida, it’s warmer and it’s crazy. One of the things I found going down there, you think, it’s so hot. Everybody’s gonna be in t-shirts and shorts, and they’re wearing long sleeves and hats and masks. So ⁓ learning to adapt to that kind of work down there was ⁓ at first a little challenging.
But now we’re all used to it. We got good crews so and then you also have you know some of other things we’re running into is you know you have labor shortages. There’s not a lot of ⁓ people coming into the construction industry ⁓ I know a couple couple very good friends of my son they went to Votech school they came out they’re either an electrician and iron worker a carpenter and they’re doing phenomenal and they don’t have all the big bills from you know, they’re
college tuition. mean literally you know making six figures and they’re in their early 20s. So I think the more people see that that you don’t have to go to college to be successful. You can go either work with your hands and then maybe go to building a business. That’s what I did. I I started out you know doing decks and porches and pouring foundations and doing flat work and roofing and now I built a business that I have a lot of people that do that for me. So with the right mentality I
I think drive work ethic, you can overcome any of these roadblocks, but persistence, not getting knocked down and getting back up, I would recommend it to any of the younger generation out there and they could do very well in this business.
Michelle Kesil (17:05)
Absolutely, I think that’s really good advice, especially when people have more of that limited perception of that, you have to take a specific path.Anthony Zarrilli (17:15)
yes hundred percent you know was it used to be talked i was a talk down about but not reallyThey didn’t prop people up that were working with their hands. Like I said, whether it’s a carpenter, a plumber, a roofer. ⁓ And it really is a, but you know what, when you have a roof leak, who do you want? You want a good roofer to come to your house. Or you have a plumbing issue or a frozen pipe. You want a good plumber to come. And they are very important. Like I said, your house is probably for most people in the country, their biggest investment of their life. And they take it most personal. And you want to have good people coming and working on your
home or building you a home and by ⁓ having better quality people and better trained ⁓ in this industry will just make the industry, prop the industry up and be much more successful overall.
Michelle Kesil (18:07)
Yeah, 100 % I agree. I know you mentioned you also work on commercial properties. What does that side of your business look like?Anthony Zarrilli (18:16)
⁓ So the commercial side we’ve built some banks and hotels and restaurants and ⁓ gas stations. ⁓ Most of that side of it is the masonry side. We’re building them out of different types of materials than we would on the residential side. Not that we never did both on each side, but we do most of it from that. I’ve also built like, ⁓⁓ some clubs and organizations in New Jersey. There’s a place called the Shalali Club. We built that up in Belmar, New Jersey. ⁓
So things of that nature. I find right now the commercial side of the business isn’t as busy. We’re always working on something but isn’t as busy as the residential side. I think we’re in ⁓ a pretty big ⁓ home shortage in the country and it’s only going to get worse for many reasons. You have more of the younger generation coming up and they want to have home ownership and the homes that are being built aren’t able to keep up with the demand. ⁓
all that together and it does affect the commercial side because you need some of these companies to be opening and developing in order to accommodate the demand that’s out there throughout all sides of the industry.
Michelle Kesil (19:38)
Yeah, absolutely. Do you think the home shortage is like there’s not enough homes or there’s not enough homes that people can afford?Anthony Zarrilli (19:45)
I think you just hit on both of it. I don’t think there’s enough homes and I don’t think there’s enough homes that the people can afford. ⁓ You know, I know what I spent on my first house and I bought it, I pretty much gutted it, I added on to it and I did it at night. You know, I would work during the day and I’d come home at night. You know, when I say night, three in the afternoon to like eight at night working on it, it was…I don’t want say easy, it was easier for a first time home buyer to get some funds, but the prices were so much lower. And if you look at relative wise, it’s not like if you go, well, 1992 dollars compared to now.
how much it’s spiked to buy a new home. I really feel ⁓ concerned for the younger generation trying to get into their first house, at least in New Jersey, ⁓ or the markets I’m building in, because the numbers, I couldn’t imagine my first home going out and spending six, seven, $800,000. And then rates are up now, so that’s another, you mentioned earlier, some obstacles or things that are getting away.
Rates being up right now, relative to the
history of the mortgage market they’re fairly low but when you start talking about because of the elevated numbers on in the economy for real estate put that on a $700,000 house and see what your payment is and then someone coming out of college that has you know they’re paying off their tuition and they get a job making let’s say $60,000 a year how do you pay a four or five thousand dollar a month mortgage payment and then you got utilities and taxes and all that so
So it’s challenging, it’s a big juggling act for everybody. I think it’s very challenging for the younger generation to get a house.
Michelle Kesil (21:38)
Yeah, absolutely. I’m from California and there’s a million doesn’t get you really anything.Anthony Zarrilli (21:44)
Easy, right? What part of California are you from?Michelle Kesil (21:47)
I’m the Bay Area.Anthony Zarrilli (21:48)
okay. All right. I was out in San Juan Capistrano for a while and I know exactly what you mean. It’s very expensive.Michelle Kesil (21:53)
Yeah.Yeah. ⁓ no, a million dollars doesn’t get you anything. Like, you’ll have a shock.
Anthony Zarrilli (21:57)
Yeah, I could see it in your face. Yeah. Yep. It’s crazy if you’re saying a million dollars, right? And a million, if you would have said to me, yeah.Yeah, I think about what you’re saying. when I was, you know, when I graduated high school, if you told me a million dollars, like, oh my God, that’s all the money in the world. Now you can’t get a starter home like in your area. That’s, know, how to how is how’s the younger generation doing that? It’s crazy.
Michelle Kesil (22:24)
Yeah, let’s stop.Anthony Zarrilli (22:25)
I really feel bad like, you know, and Itry to help my kids as much as can, you know, with, you know, I got two kids to actually all three are in college right now. And when they get out, you know, they’re going to be looking for places. Obviously I’m going to help them. it, you know, I, and I feel blessed that I’m able to, but a lot of people can’t and you know, a lot of people are struggling, you know, and I do, you know, one of the trends is, you know, we’re talking about some things back and forth is a lot of kids are either graduating college or
Maybe they don’t go to college or working and they’re living with their parents to save some money because the biggest obstacle, the really biggest obstacle for a first time home buyer is the down payment. Maybe they can afford a payment on a house, the down payment to be able to save up, depending on where you’re at, saying a million dollars, you got to come up with at least, I would think 100,000, 10%. Where’s the average 22, 23, 24 year old going to have $100,000 to go put down on a house or $50,000 to put down on a house?
It’s very hard.
Michelle Kesil (23:26)
Yeah, absolutely. It’s a challenge we’re all working through. Awesome. So before we wrap up here, if someone wants to reach out, connect, learn more from you. Where can people find you?Anthony Zarrilli (23:30)
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.If they go on our website, which is www.zarellihomes.com, they can call the office. They could speak with me directly. They could speak with Amanda or Patrick or I don’t want to go through all the names, but a bunch of other people that could help them. But I would have no problem talking with them directly. And it could be a call at 732-262-4848. We’re here every day. If you shoot us an email, all that
contact information is on our website. We usually respond within an hour with an answer or when we’re going to get back to you with whatever information or information you need. We’ll get, we’ll let you know when we’re going to get back to you with the proper answer.
Michelle Kesil (24:22)
Perfect. Well, listen, I appreciate your time, your story and perspective. Thank you for being here.Anthony Zarrilli (24:27)
Thank you very much. Have a great day.Michelle Kesil (24:29)
Of course. And for those listeners tuning in, you got value, make sure you’ve subscribed. We’ve got more conversations with operators just like Anthony, who are building real businesses, and we’ll see you on our next episode.
