From Engineer to Real Estate Leader: Vic Mariano’s Inspiring Journey

Dylan Silver (00:01.356)
Hey folks, welcome back to the show. Today’s guest is a leader in Arizona housing known for building custom homes, affordable developments and 55 plus communities. He’s the owner of and president of Mariano and co please welcome Vic Mariano. Vic, welcome to the show.

Vic Mariano (00:20.228)
Thank you, thank you Dylan.

Dylan Silver (00:22.4)
I always like to start off at the top by asking folks how they got into the real estate space.

Vic Mariano (00:28.922)
That’s a great question. So I spent the majority of my early life in the corporate world. 20 years to be exact, engineering and operations management and the semiconductor world of all places. But back in 2008, seven, eight, when the housing crisis hit, I had a friend that said, hey, you know what we should do? We should try this, our hand at doing these courthouse steps where we buy these foreclosures. And I’m like, hey,

Dylan Silver (00:58.541)
Yeah.

Vic Mariano (00:59.036)
I’m game let’s do it and so we ended up buying one and Turned it around very quickly and made really good money And then we turned around and we did another one and then another one and then we did two at a time and then we started getting some investors involved and then it was a great time for a little while and What happened to us two things one is that we couldn’t find? Agents they actually be able to give us the data quick enough to make Good buying decisions, so I ended up going out and getting a real

state license. And once I did that, being of an engineering mind, I was able to start analyzing our own projects and we were able to do things very, very quickly and get them turned around. But then we just decided to start selling our homes as well. And as we were selling them, it was a good thing that we actually were doing that because that’s about the time that the folks from New York came with their deep pockets and literally destroyed the courthouse steps from the standpoint of being able to get a good

Dylan Silver (01:58.114)
Yeah.

Vic Mariano (01:58.668)
deal. They started paying 50 grand more than the going rate that I was willing to pay just to turn them into the rental properties. know, hindsight being 2020, all the foreclosure folks needed a place to live. So it turned out to be a pretty good play for them, not so much for me. At that time, though, I developed a following for people that liked the remodeling that I was doing. And so I would have people come in on an open house and say, I really

Dylan Silver (02:15.98)
Yeah, the little guy,

Vic Mariano (02:28.571)
like this, what you’ve done to the house, but the house doesn’t work for me. If I was to buy another house, would you be willing to come and remodel that for me?” And it was like, well sure. And so that turned into one and then two and then three. And then now we’re 16 years later and I have a team, an internal team of 27 people and we do anywhere from 25 to 32 projects at a time.

Dylan Silver (02:52.972)
I think it’s an interesting story, right? Of course, it’s not unique to Arizona, but you had really this niche, the courthouse steps, and then big money comes in, of makes it difficult for the mom and pop investor. But interestingly, you talk about pivoting. That’s really the hallmark of a full cycle real estate investor, operator, going from being the person buying the properties at the courthouse steps to then building and doing custom work on

other people’s homes and being a contractor in that sense. It’s a transition, but of course it makes a world of sense because it’s where the business was scaling to. I want to talk about that a little bit here, Vic. Talk about going from courthouse steps to then working on deals as a contractor for other folks.

Vic Mariano (03:41.528)
Yeah, so back in the day when I first got into this contracting business, I was actually a poll because coming from the corporate world, I was used to very good communication. You send an email to your team, you get the emails back, you get phone calls that are answered, all of those things. And it was a shock to me that the contractors, frankly,

They’re terrible. They’re terrible at communication. Even the people now that tell me no, no, I’m really good at communicating I’m I you know, I get what you’re saying and they turn around and they don’t do it and so it’s really hard to be able to commit to a client and Then have somebody that just doesn’t show up doesn’t call and then you have egg on your face So I learned I learned a long time ago that this was not going to work This is not what I call customer service and I

Dylan Silver (04:27.747)
Yeah.

Vic Mariano (04:37.091)
found that it would be pretty easy for me to separate ourselves from the pack if we just actually concentrated on communication alone. So my belief is that every client deserves a five-star customer experience and because of my experiences with the way things were working, it enabled me to develop a concept of being people’s contractor for life and in fact it was so good and it worked so well that I

actually trademarked your contractor for life and the concept and the process around doing that. So that’s what my company is known for. So it’s a culture-based company that is driven by hiring the right people, making sure that they’re trained, and making sure that they understand the mission, vision, and values, right? So that we are not just delivering quality, it’s extraordinary quality.

just communicating extraordinary communication. For example, we actually send nightly emails to our client letting them know who’s going to be there the next day, what time they’re going to be there the next day, and what they’re going to be working on the next day. Every day, five days a week, Monday through Friday, they’re getting those emails. And it takes away all the guesswork. We even let them know if no one’s coming, right? Just so that they’re not wondering, are they going to be here today? Can I go to the grocery store? Can I leave to go pick up the kids? Any of those things.

Dylan Silver (05:51.724)
Wow. Yeah.

Vic Mariano (06:03.059)
So communication is paramount and that is one of the things that we do very well. So we focus on the extraordinary not just the average one-time client. We actually have in the 16 years that we’ve been doing business we have over 150 clients that have actually used us more than once and about half of them have used us more than twice. So that’s a testament a logo that goes along with our 350 plus five-star

reviews that all of them say communication, the quality of the work, the expertise, the team, which is key. And so I don’t hire subs, right? We actually have our own team because I can’t afford to have some sub that says, no, no, I get it. I’m to call you. I’ll be there. I don’t take any chances on that. So we have direct control of our team members. And that’s the thing that makes us different from others.

Dylan Silver (06:48.354)
Sure.

Dylan Silver (06:59.618)
I want to get a little bit granular here, and talk about the spaces that you’re involved in. So I know you’re involved in the high end, but I also, were talking before the podcast here, you’re also involved in something that I’m personally fascinated by. A lot of different, I guess, words for it, but offsite modular stick-built homes. And so two totally different worlds, but I guess the high end, we need that, of course, for folks that are coming to areas like the Scottsdale’s, Phoenix, I’m in Dallas, executives, so on and so forth.

but we also have a housing crisis and I think the offsite modular is fascinating to me.

Vic Mariano (07:36.047)
It is, yeah. And so our journey in getting granular would be, so we actually do.

four different types of business in Mariana Winko. One is we do our remodeling and additions, casitas, those types of jobs. And then we actually decided that we wanted to be a $50 million a year company moving on to a $100 million will be our next goal. In order to get there, it would be very tough to be able to do it all in remodeling. Phoenix or Arizona in general is like a $1.2 billion.

industry when it comes to remodeling in a yearly business. So 50,000 really doesn’t sound like all that much, but actually having the personnel to pull that all off, it can be pretty difficult. the things that we actually put in place to get the 50 million or one is that not only we do the remodeling, the high-end remodeling like you said, but we actually purchase smaller homes on bigger lots and then add square footage to them at high resale areas, like

Scottsdale where you can get over $500 a square foot for a quality product. Then we got into the 55 plus business with regards to doing a franchise opportunity with Epcom communities, the number 40 builder in the US. The key there is the land development. They develop their own land and they build their own community. So that’s what I was fascinated about. But then going back to what you were talking about, Dylan, is that the fascinating

Dylan Silver (08:42.99)
Hmm.

Vic Mariano (09:11.905)
thing that I got introduced to was the the manufactured housing and so I’m actually a dealer for Clayton Homes now not that I set out to do that I was just fascinated when the opportunity was brought to me and then I ended up going back to Knoxville Tennessee to see the home office and then went to a job site in Kansas City to vet this whole process out and was just blown away I mean these products are nine foot ceilings

Dylan Silver (09:38.413)
Yeah.

Vic Mariano (09:41.738)
by six construction, are zero energy ready, which is not a standard that is actually in effect right now. That doesn’t take place until 2026. But the amazing thing about this is that this is the fix to the affordability crisis. And I actually have the golden key, right, to be able to work with any and anyone that actually wants to learn more about this. Specifically, and Dylan, you and I were talking earlier that you’re into

looking for land deals. Well, I’m actually, I’m in the business of looking for people that have land deals so we can partner together because together we can actually go ahead and afford, we can actually, together we can actually fix this affordable housing crisis, right? So anyhow.

Dylan Silver (10:12.962)
Yeah.

Dylan Silver (10:25.602)
get some of these deals done. Yeah.

I think it’s such an interesting thing, Vic. mean, when I learned about this from a guest in the podcast, and I think probably similar to a lot of people with the modular, you know, offsite stick built homes, I was thinking, well, what is that? Is that a mobile home? Because that’s what my brain automatically goes to. Then I started getting the difference between mobile and manufactured. And then I learned that there’s these offsite stick built homes, which are like indistinguishable. You could not tell that they’re not built on site. You could not tell. I could not tell.

and they have garages and so on and so forth. I believe, and I’m not, still getting at the speed. In many cases, immediately when you set them on foundation, they appraise for pretty much far over the cost of what it costs to get it there. And then the build is, it’s tremendous. It’s an amazing investment.

Vic Mariano (11:18.009)
You’re absolutely right. I actually have helped a couple that were in the process of doing it right now, but they just went through the appraisal process and the interesting thing about is Freddie and Fannie have actually have special programs to be able to appraise these homes and if there are no other cross mods because that’s the term it’s a trademark term cross over modern is what it stands for and it is what you said it’s factory built

70 % and then we as the the contractor we build the permanent foundation It gets set on the permanent foundation We build a garage and the front and back porches and we’re done the cycle for this the cycle time to to market is 60 days or less They literally build these homes in four days in a factory four days So you have time to go off and get your land, you know get your permits do your foundation the house comes out of the factory you set

Dylan Silver (12:05.325)
Yeah.

Vic Mariano (12:17.919)
it then you hook up your utilities take care of the marriage line you do your front and back torch and your garage and boom you’re done you’re done everything else the cabinets are here the appliances are there the bathrooms are there most of the flooring is there except for the marriage line it’s an amazing product and speed the market is the thing that we need at this point in time so you’re cutting your time in half and the other thing that people don’t talk about is that they’re built inside so you don’t have

Dylan Silver (12:26.87)
Incredible.

Vic Mariano (12:47.739)
snow days. You don’t have rain or they have nothing that’s going to stop this machine from putting out homes on a daily basis. Right? So it’s a win-win for everybody. You know the factory workers that are actually building these homes they’re not out in the in the Sun especially here in Phoenix when it’s going to be like 118 today. You know they’re not out there.

Dylan Silver (12:47.862)
Yeah, no weather.

Dylan Silver (12:55.906)
That’s right.

Dylan Silver (13:06.446)
Okay?

They might be in the air conditioner, right?

Vic Mariano (13:11.917)
Yeah, well, maybe not air conditioning, but certainly cool, cool environment. So, but yeah, no, it’s a fantastic product and I’m so excited about it. I know you can’t tell, but there is so many things that are happening around the country. I’ve actually been introduced to a national nonprofit. They are in the, in the space of educating people and helping people that actually are making less money than the median household income in their areas.

Dylan Silver (13:24.493)
Me too.

Vic Mariano (13:41.941)
and they’ve asked me to joint venture with them and said, hey, would you be willing to work in other states? Well, I actually through the networking, similar to what you’re doing is I actually met a FEMA contractor that actually has a license in all 50 states. So he literally can do everything that I need to have happen and hand me the keys. So it’s literally working with people like yourself that have land evaluating, making sure that when we do this, that everything works out.

Dylan Silver (13:58.221)
Well.

Vic Mariano (14:11.771)
Because it doesn’t always. Sometimes you get people like here in Phoenix that land is so expensive that you really got to evaluate it well before you make the purchase. And then you got the horizontal land development as well. But if those numbers are within 20 % of what the selling price of the home is, that’s your go time. And if you can pull this off, there’s a lot of opportunity and lot of money to be made.

Dylan Silver (14:36.628)
No question there is a ton of opportunity in this space and really solving a major issue you know housing and so on and so forth. I’m passionate about it I can tell you’re passionate about it and you’re involved in so many different verticals within the real estate space it’s great to see that other people are seeing this and saying hey this might not be exactly what I’m doing right now but this is a huge opportunity for everybody honestly. Vic we are coming up on time here where can folks go if they’d like to learn more about.

your business or if they’d like to reach out to you, get in contact with you.

Vic Mariano (15:08.183)
Yeah, a couple of ways you can do that. So I’m not shy, I’ll give you my cell phone number, it’s 480-4100-773 and my email is vic, v-i-c at teammariano.com. So that’s T-E-A-M and then my last name, M-A-R-I-A-N-O.com.

Dylan Silver (15:29.816)
Vic, thank you so much for coming on the show here today.

Vic Mariano (15:34.18)
Thank you Dylan, I really appreciate your time.