Custom Home Builder Roman Beregovsky on Why Hard Projects Create Bigger Construction Profits

Roman Beregovsky (00:00)
Yeah, well, you for me, the more detail oriented it is, the like the more I enjoy doing it. I don’t like these cookie cutter things. I like it really detail oriented. lot of the times, you know, some people like to do from ground up a new construction. Well, I go backwards. I love the remodel. I like to tear it down and redo it. And we really focus on the higher end clients, ⁓ historical districts or

⁓ you know tearing off a roof and putting a second story on so those moments where most contractors and people will shy away from those are the areas i run into the fire.

Scott Bursey (02:11)
Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros Podcast powered by Investor Fuel. I’m your host, Scott Bursey. Today, we’re talking about the art and science of custom building, where every detail defines the value. Our guest, Roman Beregovsky, the visionary behind RB Custom Construction. Roman brings the fuel of impeccable execution and unyielding quality, turning architectural dreams into high performing, tangible assets.

Get ready to rev up the quality standards pros because Roman is in the studio. Welcome Roman.

Roman Beregovsky (02:49)
Thank you for having me.

Scott Bursey (02:51)
It is great to have you here. And for our listeners who may not be familiar with your journey, please give us a front row seat on how your career ignited and where you’re putting your fuel now.

Roman Beregovsky (03:05)
Well, where I started, think ⁓ my father, moved to Tennessee and when they were building their home, he’s like, I can’t afford to, you know, build, you know, hire contractor, tile contractors and so on, on so forth. And, and I’ve never laid tile in my life. You know, I grew up upstate New York and they moved out to Chattanooga. And I remember one day he gave me a closet.

and gave me a Home Depot book that said one, two, three tile. And he says, learn. So that’s kind how I started my journey in the construction field. And it went from there. Everything, worked in my father’s home. We built trim carpentry. And we want to do some detail things. ⁓ we hired a trim carpenter that I started working for in the summers. And it kind of climactic from there. I started doing some small jobs. ⁓

trim carpenter work, but every time I had a painter come behind me and did the work, I just wasn’t happy with the quality of work. So I eventually hired a painter who worked for me. And then as most painters know and, you know, builders know, you know, there ends up to be a blame game. The painter blames the drywall guy and the drywall guy blames the painter. You know, certain things are not looking correct. So I ended up hired drywall guys and slowly started building a team around me.

Even to this day, you know, we have about 25 to 30 guys who work with full time So we are full, you know come in turn around, know, something’s out. We do it all in house There’s nobody to blame we bring you know an ability to Produce our projects without you know faster lead times because everything’s in house No blame games. And so that’s kind of where we’re at today short story

Scott Bursey (05:48)
Roman, that is such a fascinating origin story. You know, what really caught my attention about you was the way you’ve been able to successfully scale a custom construction business while maintaining an uncompromising commitment to quality and execution, transforming complex designs into efficient, profitable projects.

You know, that ability to blend luxury design and practical on-time delivery is investor fuel. Let’s jump right into the lightning round. This segment is designed to give our pros a high level view of your market and your unique process. Roman, what is the biggest advantage of working on a design build model for custom homes compared to a traditional bid only approach?

Roman Beregovsky (06:40)
Yeah, well, you for me, the more detail oriented it is, the like the more I enjoy doing it. I don’t like these cookie cutter things. I like it really detail oriented. lot of the times, you know, some people like to do from ground up a new construction. Well, I go backwards. I love the remodel. I like to tear it down and redo it. And we really focus on the higher end clients, ⁓ historical districts or

⁓ you know tearing off a roof and putting a second story on so those moments where most contractors and people will shy away from those are the areas i run into the fire

i’m able to bring in expertise and in a design aspect when i start speaking to the customer and their eyes light up are you really able to do this i’m like of course we can and that kind of sets us apart where most people like i think this is an easy way out we can make money this way

We found a niche where, you know, we deal with customers where it’s difficult and it pays for itself.

Scott Bursey (07:47)
That right there is some high octane fuel for our listeners. And that really did ignite things. Let’s shift gears just a little bit. And we want to focus around material and labor costs right now. What is the biggest material or labor bottleneck you are currently seeing that puts the most pressure on the timeline aspect of things, you know, of ⁓ your high-end custom built?

Roman Beregovsky (07:56)
Yes.

Well, coming out of COVID, we were running into long lead times on supplies and ⁓ same with production costs, especially cabinet makers and so on. So they have longer lead times. Everything kind of came into a point where everything kind of ironed itself out. we’re doing fine. Price points are still continuing to rise.

So things that you might have bid last year or end of the year and you’re working through the process of design and so on and so forth. When you come into the building stage of it now, putting everything on the ground, everybody’s kind of like, I’m a little more, I’m a little more now. So you’re having to navigate those, nothing too terrible.

Scott Bursey (09:04)
Pleased to hear that, know, managing supply chain volatility is not the easiest thing to do.

Roman Beregovsky (09:14)
Yeah, definitely. Definitely it’s not. ⁓ But I’ve learned, you know, most of the stuff that needs to done in the office. If you run the office correct and you jump ahead of time, you know, and get all those things together in the long run, it pays off. You know, there’s been a few projects where, you know, we’d always get stuff off the shelf or are able to get stuff fairly quickly. Now it’s not the case doing your homework and preparing and doing the

Pre-construction, know, aspect of the work really saves time and lets the project go lot smoother.

Scott Bursey (09:53)
Absolutely. And you hit home on the long-term vision. Tell us more. How big is your team? What markets are you tackling? And what is some of your strategic ⁓ long-term planning for the higher end builds?

Roman Beregovsky (10:44)
Well, Marcus, in Huntsville, Alabama, but we’re, you know, we’re, you know, we go surrounding areas. You know, we’ve been going to Chattanooga and Nashville areas. We’ve been doing a lot of backyard build outs, really high custom pools and backyard, you know, cabanas and so on and so forth. So ⁓ it’s, know, the strategy is just, you know, producing the right ⁓

amount of work, mean the quality of work and I just see in the future we’re blowing up in that area right now.

Scott Bursey (11:22)
Sure. And before we hit record today for the podcast, we were talking about relationships. What’s been your key to success with building your network?

Roman Beregovsky (11:36)
⁓ Yeah, that, let’s say network of labors, you know, like we try to hire people that have, if they have integrity, they probably hang around people who have integrity, right? So those are the type of people we bring on our team. People who know people, and a lot of the times, you know, if they’re good, hardworking people, they hang around with good, hardworking people. And same thing in, ⁓

Out there, you know, get work. All our work is over the mouth.

Roman Beregovsky (12:09)
You know, our network is, you know, high end, ⁓ you know, contractors, because we work as subs as well, because we have all these guys that we were able to help out other contractors, other, ⁓ you know, builders on some of their projects, because we have everything in house.

Scott Bursey (12:28)
Yes, people do business with folks that they know, they like, and they trust. And we spoke about the trust factor before we hit record as well. Maybe you can elaborate just a little bit on how you go about that.

Roman Beregovsky (12:47)
Yeah, that’s ⁓ a big key in our business, especially in our industry. ⁓ When you start putting effort, start putting time and resources, you expect that person to perform what you’re expecting. the end of the day, lot of the people that I work with, we become friends. Not just in the work environment, but we build relationships. We know their families.

building that trust that you will produce ⁓ what you say. But again, we’re human, mistakes happen, things don’t come in. ⁓ It’s how you respond when you’re going through the fire, I guess. And that builds a lot more trust than when everything goes smooth.

Scott Bursey (13:36)
Absolutely, and thank you for that transparency. What is the most significant unexpected cost risk, I guess, when dealing with custom materials or specialized imported finishes?

Roman Beregovsky (13:53)
Well, you know, we’ve run into a situation where we’re doing a custom home, especially historical district, and the customer, we’re trying to, you know, find reclaimed doors that will match the style. I mean, it’s like, you know, go figure, you know, so we’re tracking this stuff, you know, halfway around the world, trying to get it imported. So there’s a lot of moving parts in that high end custom finishes where, you know,

It’s hard sometimes to find stuff and get what the customer is looking for.

Scott Bursey (14:30)
Absolutely, logistics plays such a huge role in this, doesn’t it?

Roman Beregovsky (14:37)
It does, it does, it does. Yeah, definitely logistics in all of it, know, bringing in time, know, sourcing it from the correct places. Well, even in our business, you know, we have just, you know, three project managers, all they do, they just sit in the trucks and I call them glorified truck drivers, you know, just getting everything ⁓ on the projects on time, you know, that there would be no bottleneck of waiting around.

but everybody has what they need to perform their work.

Scott Bursey (15:52)
Now on that note, what is the fastest way Roman to manage design changes from a client without entirely derailing the project timeline?

Roman Beregovsky (16:06)
Well, what we do is when we perform our estimates or bids, ⁓ we will sit down and we call this a working estimate, right? So we try to break it down, get as detailed as possible and ⁓ work through with them and say, hey, how does this look? How does this design look? What if, you know, and I try to, you jog their thoughts, challenge their designs, challenge their ideas.

which will help us to narrow, well, what if we did it this way or that way? Well, we already talked that through, which really helps us when we’re actually moving, everything streamlines. Of course, when we get into the project and there’s change and so on and so forth, we jump on it right away. We’re able to navigate it fairly quickly with the team and setup that we have because we do a lot of stuff in-house. It kind of happens on the fly.

Scott Bursey (17:04)
It sounds like clear communication is the key. Finding that common ground through thoughtful design management elevates the entire asset class.

Roman Beregovsky (17:18)
Yeah, it definitely does. Communication is the key, is the key throughout the project. Having multiple meetings with customers, weekly basis at least, ⁓ to give them clear understanding direction, what you’re thinking, where you’re going, and that helps the project move.

Scott Bursey (17:41)
How big is your team currently, Roman?

Roman Beregovsky (17:45)
We have about 30 people who work for me.

Scott Bursey (17:50)
Okay, all right and three project managers.

Roman Beregovsky (17:55)
Yes.

Scott Bursey (17:56)
Awesome. Awesome. Okay, Roman, it’s time for the money question where you supply the high octane fuel. You you’ve built countless custom assets. If you could give our listeners the best advice on, I guess the strategy or insight you wish every pro knew about how unseen structural or perhaps mechanical decisions directly influence the long-term cost.

of ownership and the final resale value of a custom home, what would that be?

Roman Beregovsky (18:32)
I look at it as a multiple facet question. It depends which sphere you’re looking. I like slow and steady. Sitting down and building a relationship with customers. Put things down on paper. Follow it through. ⁓

you know, build relationships with the people that you work with really helps taking time to do that, you know, not just rushing to things, chasing that dollar, but knowing that once you work on your name later, your name will work for you. I really found that to be like my golden rule. know, customer service is number one. Yes, you’re kind of grinding right now, but there’ll be a time where, you know,

the projects that you want, will come to you.

Scott Bursey (19:35)
Taking care of your customers. So critical. And thank you for sharing those words of wisdom. Roman, you’ve given us a lot of really valuable knowledge thus far today. Is there any other advice that you’d like to leave with our listeners?

Roman Beregovsky (19:56)
Well, for me, my driving point is, you in many listeners out there, builders and construction, you wake up in the morning and a lot of times work is already racing through your, through your head. ⁓ you know, my phone starts ringing the times at, you know, 7am. And for me to have alone time is so vital. get up at, you know, 5 30, five o’clock in the morning and have my time.

with God that kind of really grounds me. And I think that was probably the my grace anchor. Well, situations when I know today I’m be facing some situations, unexpected problems, but that keeps me grounded, helps remove stress, anxiety and all the things that we kind of go through. So my I believe God played a huge role in my life and, and where I’m at today.

Scott Bursey (20:52)
Setting aside that time with, you know, for your spiritual outlook on things, you know, like quiet time in the morning, that defines the long-term performance of your organization. Thank you so much for those insights. Yes. And Roman, before we let you go, if our listeners would like to follow your journey or collaborate with you, what’s the best way that they can reach you?

Roman Beregovsky (21:22)
They can email us. ⁓ Probably the biggest, easiest way to reach us at [email protected]. They can find us there, connect with us, and definitely what insight I can share and help. I’m willing to do that.

Scott Bursey (21:43)
Roman, this has been just an outstanding conversation. Thank you for joining us today. Thank you. And much continued success to you. And for those of our listeners, we appreciate each and every one of you. If you got value from today’s episode, please subscribe. We’ve got a lineup of exceptional guests, just like Roman, who are making huge moves in the market.

and in the world. Until next time, keep your standards high and your vision clear. We’ll see you in the next episode, everyone.