How BINS APP Is Disrupting Construction Logistics | John Zaloum

John Zaloum (00:00)
Well, for investors, this is actually ideal for investors. Whether you’re flipping a home, whether you’re doing what I do, ground up new construction. Your time is valuable. You don’t have time to be calling ten different places and then being redirected to a voicemail and we’ll call you back and then you haven’t played like time is money these days.

Get on the app, you’re flipping home, you’re tearing off a roof. Get on the app, two seconds, click a button, order your dumpster size, what you’re dumping, the length of the period that you did it for. Within 30 seconds is booked and done. Delivered and move on to the next task.

Scott Bursey (02:09)
Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros Podcast powered by Investor Fuel. I’m your host, Scott Bursey. Glad you’re with us. And today we’re delighted to have John Zaloum in the house. John is a Florida-based pro in real estate development and construction. Through Cenzo R.E. Developments Corp. He’s navigated the trenches of renovation and new builds, spotting the exact fit.

Friction points that kills margins. Now, as the founder and CEO of BINS APP, he’s leveraging that deep industry experience to modernize the infrastructure of site services. Listeners, expect a master class on optimizing your project workflows and bridging the gap between old school construction and tech enabled efficiency. John, welcome to the show.

John Zaloum (02:58)
Thank you. Thank you for having us.

Scott Bursey (02:59)
It is awesome having you here and to help our listeners get up to speed. Please give us the ninety second highlight reel of how your career ignited and where you’re pouring your fuel now.

John Zaloum (03:11)
Ninety seconds feel. We started flipping homes. We started buying distressed properties, flipping homes. We actually started in the COVID era, so it was kind of it was kind of a little difficult. We had problems with permitting and delays with permitting and we had investors not being happy. I guess they didn’t understand COVID was happening and it wasn’t our fault. But

We got through the trenches. You all of our investors were paid. We turned around several successful flips. But then we decided there’s gotta be an easier way since we have the crews, we have the expertise. So we started actually building homes from the ground up and helping large builders with our crews in reference to their logistics and their timelines. Some of these builders

the scarcity with crews and well since our flipping era days, I’m saying we have a long Rolodex of crews and their and their availability. So we actually started using that avenue and producing some income for I’m saying for ourselves and for our families and everybody else’s families, So that’s

and then from there, that’s where BINS APP grew from the pains of ordering dumpsters and calling several different companies and like waiting for response times or whether it’s tree roo whether it’s tree removal services, like the outdated system is okay, I’ll be there on Tuesday. Is that good for you? Let’s we’ll submit a quote on the app. It’s a photo generated quote.

It’s an immediate quote. You don’t have to wait, you don’t have to schedule any times. You have an immediate bid. You accept the bid and it’s booked and ready to go. Same as site cleaning, site cleanups, junk removal, dumpster rentals, tree removals, and porta potties. So from our construction sites and our development opportunities, we’ve actually grown to BINS APP.

Scott Bursey (05:01)
That’s a powerful origin story, John. Thanks for sharing that insight. And you know, what really caught my attention about you was the way you’ve been able to take the gritty, tangible pain points of daily job site management and translate them into a sleek, scalable tech solution. Most people just complain about the waste removal. You’ve built the infrastructure to fix it. Taking that a step further, curious to know.

What do you consider the biggest competitive strength when you pitch your vision to investors today?

John Zaloum (05:34)
My best competitive strength is that we’ve been in the trenches. We understand the problems, we understand the pains of timelines. Timelines are specific, you know what I’m saying? The more time I mean the longer it takes to say get a job done, the irritated the builders get, the i irritated the owners get, the less money people make, the less traction you make,

this facilitates you in reference to timeline, it facilitates to it facilitates your construction sites, your logistics timing. You don’t have to sit around and wait for others like we know waiting for others is crazy. Like so sometimes you don’t get a call back, sometimes they don’t even show up. On our app, everything is built strategically. Every service provider that signed up on our platform.

has reviews so they don’t want to mess up the reviews. Whatever job they accept, they have to be there on time. They have to be professional. Everything is set up accordingly. Pictures are taken exactly where the dumpster is being located or whether what site cleanup needs to be cleaned up and an algorithm a picture algorithm is automatically generated that way. The client doesn’t waste their time

on the outdated way of doing things, of calling different places, waiting for different quotes, waiting for different appointments. And then after you get the quotes, now you have to decide who you’re gonna go with. We actually chop it at the trunk, as they say. Chop it at the root.

Scott Bursey (06:53)
How has that logistics strength changed now that you’re balancing the app and the development side?

John Zaloum (07:00)
Well, to tell you the truth, drastically, once you download the app and once you register the app and once you have your account set up, your account set up is probably takes about two minutes the first time. But once that’s set up, twenty seconds to place an order. So you tell me it’s a game changer.

Scott Bursey (07:17)
And wondering, John, when you look at the construction industry’s reliance on legacy systems, what is the biggest hidden weakness developers are ignoring in their daily operations?

John Zaloum (08:17)
Wow. Well, like I mentioned, most developers and most builders, they’re actually stuck in the old ways. Everything is everything is like submitting bids, wasting time, waiting on bids, going through different bids, response, to those bids, response time, delays in projects.

Unreliable crews. This kind of cuts everything to the chase. Every one of our service providers has already been vetted. Everyone wants to everyone wants to keep their five star rating. So in order to be able to receive more job opportunities and be able to be on the top tiers of production with BINS APP. So nobody wants to ruin their reviews. Hence

That creates proficiency, it creates timely responses and it creates top notch work or delivery.

Scott Bursey (09:06)
You spoke of old school ways. Is that something that can be fixed with a simple polic policy change or does it require a tech shift?

John Zaloum (09:16)
Well it requires some something innovative, which I believe that that’s what we’re working on at the moment. As you well know, or as pretty much the entire world knows that we’re moving into AI, we’re moving into technology, we’re moving into new systems. Sure, you’re gonna have your laggards. I have several of our partners where they’re like, No man, I don’t wanna I don’t wanna order my stuff from the app. I’m like

yeah. That’s why I kind of devised like the desktop version as well. Some people like people like to just sit back at old dispatch ways of doing things, which that’s why we incorporated a desktop system as well. You can from your desktop as well. But this is dispatching from a beach. With your phone. And then

If you’re on vacation, if you back in the day you couldn’t leave for like two to three days at a time because you’re running a business. Now you can leave for months at a time, as long as your drivers are your drivers and your crew is back in town or in their service area. You can assign jobs straight from the app. You can assign drivers, you can assign cleanup crews, you can assign everything straight from the app. So the technology is definitely moving forward whether we want it or not.

Adapting it it’s something different. Most of our most of our builders, most of our developers, they’re a little old school, they’re a little reluctant to move forward. But everything seems to work out. You just gotta keep pushing forward, Keep showing them, show them the demos, show them how the system works, show how easy it is to do. But yeah, that’s I guess that’s one of our

one of our challenges we have to show them show them the ease and the simplicity of using the app

Scott Bursey (10:53)
Thanks for shedding light on that gap. John, digging into your tech background, where do you see the biggest untapped opportunity for investors to streamline their own job site overhead currently?

John Zaloum (11:07)
Well, for investors, this is actually ideal for investors. Whether you’re flipping a home, whether you’re doing what I do, ground up new construction. Your time is valuable. You don’t have time to be calling ten different places and then being redirected to a voicemail and we’ll call you back and then you haven’t played like time is money these days.

Get on the app, you’re flipping home, you’re tearing off a roof. Get on the app, two seconds, click a button, order your dumpster size, what you’re dumping, the length of the period that you did it for. Within 30 seconds is booked and done. Delivered and move on to the next task. So

Scott Bursey (11:45)
If an investor is starting a new project, let’s say tomorrow, John, what’s the first thing they should look to digitize?

John Zaloum (11:52)
Well if you if you’re starting a new project, let’s say tomorrow, I would well, I would probably get a little bit informed on the different

on the different platforms that that’s out there and what it is that you specific what it is that you specialize in whether it’s just I’m saying roofing or framing or whether you’re building a ground up construction it all depends on what you’re doing but for example like if we just go simple roofers need a dumpster every single roof that they do so

Having the app would be ideal for them, Like sometimes we can even do like same day, same day deliveries, on the spot deliveries. That would be ideal for them. Even with big builder opportunities, we have the commercial portal for builder opportunities as well, where they have it’s a totally different platform because they’re builders, they get better pricing as well. And also

They get to manage several, different development sites, not just one. They can develop and they have a blank trade because typically builders rent over a thousand dumpsters a month. So with that said, that would be beneficial for them as well. Also with site cleanup, a lot of builders need site cleanup. We also do residential as well, junk removal or site cleanup.

So depending whether it’s commercial or residential, It benefits all.

Scott Bursey (13:06)
Thinking about the current market volatility, what do you see as the greatest threat to a developer’s timeline right now?

John Zaloum (13:12)
Can you repeat that question? I’m sorry.

Scott Bursey (13:14)
Yes, absolutely. As far as the market, it has its share of ups and downs. What do you see as the greatest threat to a developer’s timeline right now and how would that affect their bottom line?

John Zaloum (13:27)
Well, I think right now the right now the threat I don’t see a threat right now. I see I see the development and the new built construction booming. There’s work everywhere. I’m constantly busy. Right now we have a contract for a hundred homes in St. Augustine. We had a request for two hundred homes in Tampa just last week. So I really don’t see a threat right now. The threat that I do see is

In reference to like the development and the and the new home construction, I see the lack of crews. There’s a there’s a large lack of crews and I’m thinking I’m thinking a lot of the immigrant framers and stuff has a lot to do with it just because ICE has been like taking away a lot of the workers and a lot of the framers and concrete guys. So that’s why there’s a very

there’s a high demand for construction workers right now. So th that’s what I would see as in a threat is builders and builders and developers, their lack of a lack, I’m trying to find a word for it. There yeah, I guess their lack of contractors and subcontractors in order to fulfill their

jobs, I think that’s the biggest threat right now. There isn’t enough supply for the demand.

Scott Bursey (15:19)
And John, fascinated by your pivot to tech, what is the one internal hurdle you had to overcome to get BINS APP off the ground while still running your real estate projects?

John Zaloum (15:31)
Internal hurdle. I guess the more difficult part of building company from this from the start. I mean from scratch. Possibly be yeah, because I’ve had to maneuver both of I had to manage the builder side and which that’s what brought up the idea for BINS APP, but

I think the biggest hurdle has been just doing this a hundred percent bootstrapped. Just like doing this all on my own. And I was raised I was raised in New York, in Brooklyn. I was raised by a single mom. We re we really never ever had anything. I pretty much had to grow up at a young age. I fell on my face a million times.

single mom, the dad. So you what I’m saying? It was kinda hard. But nothing I guess those hurdles prepared me to, be able to manage and try to come up on top. So that’s why I’m very adamant and very, like passionate about the things I set forth to accomplishing. So although it’s been difficult, but

I’ve been very enthusiastic in building this opportunity because it doesn’t just fix a problem, it creates a solution. It there’s a lot of service providers like site cleanup crews, junk removal crews, dumpster owners that don’t know how to do SEO or don’t know how to market their products, don’t know how to make money, don’t know how to grow. So we take all of that out the way. We do all the SEO, we do all the commercials, we do all the marketing,

We create the jobs and the more jobs they accept through the platform, we help them grow. So if you’re accepting like let’s say several jobs a week during the platform, I help you grow. Like for example, I may offer you another three to four dumpsters or three to four bins to help with the demand, which make us more money, but it’ll make you more money as well. It’ll help you grow. So I like to see it as we’re helping, we’re helping create general wealth.

generation wealth as well for others.

Scott Bursey (17:20)
What would you tell someone who is currently trying to build their own side hustle while active in development?

John Zaloum (17:27)
I don’t know if this will work for everybody. They say focus on one thing and make it work. Focus 100% on one thing. With me, sure, building and investing and sure, that’s great, man. It’s a great accomplishment. I feel very happy and accomplished by the work that we’ve done. But I just I’ve always seen more. I’ve always seen more. I’ve always I’ve always wanted more, so.

I don’t wanna just stay there and just although that’s a commendable com commendable opportunity building and investing and building homes and stuff like that. But I wanted to build something greater. I wanted to help the community as well. I wanted to help other people grow while creating something new, innovative, something incredible. So I just didn’t quite feel fulfilled. Yes, I guess you can say that.

greater things and helping the communities and helping them grow. Plus I have a lot of friends of they’re just sitting around. They don’t know how to how to put to work. So guess who had to come to the rescue? So yeah. I guess that’s that explains it.

Scott Bursey (18:25)
John, curious to know, are you a part of any investment groups, peer groups, networking groups, anything of that variety?

John Zaloum (18:33)
In re in reference to like investment groups, we have our own investment group on Facebook. It’s called Cenzo Real Estate R.E. Developments, where we s we have several properties development opportunities available. We’re also part of several investment groups on social media. Nothing like masterminds or anything like that, but I would

I would definitely like to look into it maybe sometime in the near future. I’m just too busy right now with both of the endeavors that I’m associated with. But we are also part of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. So that’s pretty huge. Yeah, I actually participate a lot with them. There’s a lot of investors’ groups there. There’s a lot of there’s a lot of community, services there as well. There’s some incubators, there’s

Like I mentioned, community help, there’s investment meetings. So yeah, I could say yeah, I’m part of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Yes, sir.

Scott Bursey (19:24)
Has your network changed significantly since you became a founder?

John Zaloum (19:29)
My network has definitely changed. Yes. It has. We’ve joined several we’ve participated in several e expos. We’ve done the Texas Dumpster Expo, we’ve done the Hurricane Expo. A lot of people have contacted us, they want to be a part of what we’re doing as well. So yeah.

Scott Bursey (19:46)
Thank you for opening up about your network, John. And we love to hear your take on if you could give one money making piece of advice to a developer struggling to keep their margins intact. What would that one piece of advice be?

John Zaloum (20:01)
When it comes to me, the easiest way I get things done and I get at budget is just be open and clear about it. Like if you’re looking for f for crews or like the best bid on projects, man, that’s overrated. Everybody already knows what to bid on a project. They’re gonna all bid similarly. The way I cut to the chase is hey look, this is my budget. If you can do it, you can do it. Let’s go, let’s move forward.

It cuts days out of the time. Most of the times they’ll do it. Like a lot of developers are old school. They wanna they wanna take all these bids. Little do they know all those bids I could beat them by at least five to six grand. So I guess I guess you have to be in the business in the trenches to learn that those bids are actually not real bids. Those are everybody uses ChatGPT these days. They already or a

construction system or a logistics system or a what is it or a takeoff system everybody bids the same a thousand or two thousand dollars less or around the same range listen man you’re just jump on the phone call I’m saying contact some of your crew members whatever budget you have in mind tell them you need it under that budget pretty easy they want the job promise them more work if they can fulfill

promising job, professional work, and they’ll be more than happy to give you I mean, to do the work at under that budget that you need to do it as long as you promise them, more work. That’s what I would say.

Scott Bursey (21:20)
Thanks for sharing that, John. And John, you have really shared a lot of great info today. But is there any additional words of wisdom, golden nugget or two that you could leave with our listeners?

John Zaloum (21:33)
All I can say is

You have to be passionate and don’t ever let anybody tell you can’t do something. That’s just like the movie. I think it was the Will Smith movie. They just tell you can’t do something because they can’t do it. If man, if I give you a if I give you a dime for every time somebody’s told me that I couldn’t do this or I couldn’t do that, man, it it’s crazy, man. Especially in the world nowadays, that’s crazy. Everybody’s gonna tell you can’t do something, everybody’s gonna

hate on you or you I’m saying say it’s impossible to do. Man, just brush all that noise away. Like you mentioned, find a new network. Move forward, put your boots on, Get to work and just do what you believe in. And if and if you put God first always can’t nothing be against you.

Scott Bursey (22:14)
Filter out the noise.

John Zaloum (22:16)
Hey.

Scott Bursey (22:17)
Pretty much powerful. Very powerful. And align yourself with the right group of people. John, for those of our listeners that want to keep this conversation moving, stay in your lane or collaborate with you on future deals, what’s the best way for them to reach you?

John Zaloum (22:32)
You can reach me at [email protected]. I-N-F-O, bins app dot A-I. You can reach me there directly. I check my emails every day. I’m still I’m still a hundred percent involved in my emails and in and in everything we do. So you can you can reach me there at any time if you wanna collaborate with us, if you wanna if you wanna demo for your builder site on BINS APP and everything that we do. If you wanna download the app, we’re on Google Play and we’re also on iOS. If you wanna invest and you wanna make billions, let me know. Our the industry is I think twenty three billion dollars and we’re only attacking three percent of that industry, so it’s definitely an opportunity for someone to look into if you’re interested in investing as well.

Scott Bursey (23:23)
John, thank you so much for joining us on the Real Estate Pros Podcast today.

John Zaloum (23:27)
Yeah, you’re welcome. Thank you for having me.

Scott Bursey (23:29)
And to our listeners, we appreciate you. If you receive value from today’s episode, please subscribe. We’ll be filling your tanks with a lineup of elite guests, just like John, who are accelerating and setting the pace for the rest of the industry. Until next time, keep your standards high and your vision clear. We’ll see you on the next episode, everyone.