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Show Summary
In this conversation, Dylan Silver interviews William Wylie, a Florida-based investor and leader in modular home construction. They discuss the advantages of modular homes, particularly those built with cold form steel, which offer resilience against natural disasters. Wylie explains the growing consumer demand for durable housing solutions and how modular construction can address the housing crisis by providing affordable options. The conversation also touches on the differences between modular and kit homes, as well as insights into the Florida real estate market.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
William Wylie (00:00)
Great point, Dylan, you’re 100 % right. We are seeing about a 10 to 15 % discount from the insurance companies if the build is done with steel frame. So they realize it’s a superior structure. They realize it comes with a 50-year warranty. So they know that it’s been engineered and rated to meet or exceed, example, Miami-Dade Wind Code speeds or fireresistance out in California. ⁓ So that’s definitely, you’re right on track, 100%
Dylan Silver (02:09)
Hey folks, welcome back to the show. Today’s guest is a Florida based investor with many years of experience across multiple different asset classes. Now leading Ironbridge Modular and Well Done One Kit Homes. Please welcome William Wylie. William, welcome to the show.William Wylie (02:28)
Thank you, Dylan. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.Dylan Silver (02:31)
It’s great to have you on here, William, and it’s interesting because there’s a lot of overlap between what you’re doing and what I’m interested in, both based off of my regionality where I am right now in the Dominican Republic, but also where I’m licensed as a Texas realtor. So there’s a lot of synergy here on this show here today. how’d you get into modular? How’d you get into kind of these very, very durable homes?William Wylie (02:57)
Well, living in Florida for the last 25 years and virtually getting hit every year with a hurricane and seems like the last several years they’ve been more and more devastating. You we had a tremendous flood last year up and down the coast where I’m from in Tampa Bay. Many inland areas got flooded.Power goes out for weeks, sometimes longer. So years ago, I started getting interested in different methodologies of construction, getting away from the traditional cinder block and stick frame construction that has been used for, I don’t know, probably 50 or 60 years in Florida, realizing that there’s better building methods. I looked into SIPs panels. I’ve looked into prefab modules.
construction, what some people call manufactured housing, but that again was all stick and inexpensive materials. ⁓ So I started looking for something that’s going to be more durable, more sustainable, more environmentally friendly, fire retardant, ⁓ hurricane proof, termite mold, moisture proof, and the answer was cold form steel.
Dylan Silver (04:14)
Yeah.Another one,
William Wylie (04:22)
⁓ So I got introduced to that about five, six years ago. ⁓ Started playing around with it and mainly in the residential space, but it’s been used in the commercial space for many, many years. And then my my partner, ⁓ Johnny Lordy, ⁓ he’s from Australia and they’ve been building in Australia with coal form steel for many, years, probably 30 years on the residential side. So he was really instrumental in one of the keypeople to bring it to the US. And so we teamed up ⁓ about a year ago and
well, WellDoneOne was already existing, but formed IronBridge Modular about a month and a half ago.
Dylan Silver (05:54)
I want to ask you some general questions about these more resilient homes. think one of the no-brainers for me is like if you’re in Florida, if you’re in any of these areas that are prone to ⁓ disaster, or if you’re maybe in a different area that’s seen some disasters recently and are thinking about, what kind of home do I want and what’s the build quality and then also how long will it last?It almost seems like a no-brainer. What’s the reason why more people aren’t using these ⁓ materials and aren’t turning to these disaster resilient ⁓ builds?
William Wylie (06:32)
you know, the saying is you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.Dylan Silver (06:38)
Yeah.William Wylie (06:39)
You know, most of the people in the construction world have been at it many, many years. ⁓ It gets passed down from generation to generation that get into the trades. ⁓ And if something’s always been done a certain way ⁓ and it’s really not broken, meaning that the municipalities accept it, the materials like stick frame or brick or cinder block, ⁓ it’s inexpensive.inexpensive, we used to be able to throw a lot of labor force at it, ⁓ inexpensive labor, and I think just the fact that it really hasn’t been broken in terms of what’s been acceptable by the consumer as well as by the municipalities. And so ⁓ that’s been probably a little bit of the resistance, but now with codes increasing and in areas that are fire prone like California,
and the West Coast, more and more people are starting to look at alternative building methods and material technologies, especially for flood prone areas like Florida and the Carolinas, as well as California with the fires.
Dylan Silver (07:40)
Yeah.I think it’s again a no brainer, also there’s all these other issues ⁓ financially other than the disaster itself and having to kind of regroup after one of these incidents happens, whether it’s a flood, a fire, ⁓ hurricane, right? Winds. I lived in Dallas, North Dallas, before moving out to Santa Domingo where I’m currently at and there’s tornadoes out there. So
One of the things that I think about is insurance costs, right? So your insurance seems to go up and up and up and up and in some of these areas, Houston, Texas, I imagine many parts of Florida, insurance is sometimes harder to get. It is a huge portion of your payment on your home. And I’m imagining that if you moved and if people en masse adopted these more resilient structures, that insurance companies would like to see that. I off in that?
William Wylie (08:53)
No, you’re… ⁓Great point, Dylan, you’re 100 % right. We are seeing about a 10 to 15 % discount from the insurance companies if the build is done with steel frame. So they realize it’s a superior structure. They realize it comes with a 50-year warranty. So they know that it’s been engineered and rated to meet or exceed, example, Miami-Dade Wind Code speeds or fire
resistance out in California. ⁓ So that’s definitely, you’re right on track
Dylan Silver (09:32)
With the fires in particular, mean, when you see a whole area, a very nice area go up in flames, it really makes you think, well, what else can we do differently? Does it feel like as someone in this space that there is going to be maybe a mass adoption of these type of build materials and these type of ⁓ modular homes as well in those type of areas? Or is there still a lot of resistance from kind of the old guard?William Wylie (10:34)
⁓ There’s a bit of resistance, but now the consumer is demanding it. So once the consumer demands a better built structure, ⁓ then they have to change. So we do get most of our traction is in Southern California. ⁓ People are looking for different alternative building materials, something that’s going to be more sustainable, more durable, more climate proof. ⁓You know, we do have a lot of traction in Texas, near the Houston, Galveston area with steel frame or modular construction and then in Florida as well. So we are seeing kind of more of a consumer demand, which is going to drive the market. And then on the modular side, ⁓ you know, we are able to control the labor cost because labor in Southern California, materials are a constant, right? ⁓
Dylan Silver (11:28)
Yeah.William Wylie (11:29)
in Home Depot in Florida versus…Boston versus California are about the same price ⁓ So that’s a constant but labor is the variable and so labor in Florida versus labor in Southern California versus labor up in New York is going to be different and so what by building in Texas what that allows us to do is control the labor cost and build in a factory and then ship directly to the site and then Just make the connections at the site. So I’m very bullish on modular built homes. They’re engineered to
local state and city municipal codes. ⁓ It’s different than a manufactured house, so a lot of people still have that stigmatization that it’s, that’s manufactured housing, it’s mass produced, it’s cheap, it’s inexpensive, hard to ensure, not very durable or sustainable. That’s not the case with these modular builds.
Dylan Silver (12:24)
they’re effectively off-site built homes. Just like you might build a home on-site, these are off-site and then transported in. And in my understanding, they’re even higher build quality, because you’re not dealing with the elements, and it’s also a controlled setting that they’re built in, and in many cases, a repeatable process. So it’s not just the conditions, it’s also they’re held to a higher standard. The standards for these are higher.William Wylie (12:51)
⁓ Absolutely. As I said, they’re all designed and engineered to meet state and local building codes. So snow loads in Colorado, ⁓ fire rated in California, seismic rated, hurricane and wind rated in Florida. ⁓ So it meets and exceeds all of the state and local building codes. We’re even working on a project in the Bahamas where they have 200 mile an hour wind code speeds. So those kind of things, it can be engineered.to
be site specific and permitted as such, but you’re right, the speed of construction is really where we start to see some tremendous value of modular build because the process can be long and daunting as we know, so anything we can do to shorten that build cycle is valuable, especially at time is money on the job site, especially if you’re a development, a small or a large development, time is money.
for sure.
Dylan Silver (13:52)
want to ask you, pivot a bit here William, and ask you about the other aspect of modular that I think is equally as important but less talked about, which is the housing crisis issue which this solves. I think a lot of people are unaware that there’s an alternative to stick-built homes and that they can have an off-site modular home, whether it’s stick-built or whether it’s⁓ Iron bridge modular right and maybe something that’s more durable This isn’t in the forefront of people’s minds when they’re thinking about maybe getting their their first home and they’re looking at affordability and they’re looking at areas Modular you can go in and you can buy land you can put the home on the land and I’m not a hundred percent familiar with this entire process But to me it seems like a way to also meet the demands of the housing crisis as well
William Wylie (14:45)
Absolutely, I mean, as I said, know, speed of construction is what’s preventing ⁓ people from jumping on, you know, doing new construction. ⁓ And there is such a demand for housingthroughout the United States, especially in a lot of the inner cities. So we’re working with ⁓ several of the bigger cities throughout the U.S. ⁓
that have been blighted over the years. ⁓ The lots are sitting in a land bank ⁓ that are owned by the city and we as developers and through a public private partnership can come in, ⁓ pick up those lots relatively inexpensively and ⁓ put a modular unit on the property and offer that as a very affordable, I call it attainable ⁓ option for the homeowner or somebody that cannot
quite go out and get a mortgage at this point, maybe they’re self-employed or maybe their credit is dinged, working out a lease option structure to ultimately lead them to a path of home ownership.
Dylan Silver (16:35)
I want to ask you about the overlap of the kit homes, the well done one kit homes and then the modular and then also the differences between the two. Both are resilient and very, very durable. ⁓ Is there a use case for one versus the other?William Wylie (16:53)
There is, that’s a great question. ⁓ A lot of the modular, ⁓ it’s limited by the size. Yes, you can put the mods together and create any size structure you want, but cost becomes prohibitive by doing something like that. The other issue is usually if there’s already an existing home, we have a lot of people doing what’s called ADU’s accessory dwelling units, especially in California because all of the laws are in favor.of ADU housing. So to be able to crane a large unit over someone’s house or in a neighborhood where you can’t get up into the little hills in the cul-de-sac there, get a big truck back there, it makes it more sense to do a site built home with our kit.
Dylan Silver (17:43)
wanna ask you selfishly William about Tampa in general. I love Florida, I’m a big Florida guy. probably there five times a year in the Fort Lauderdale, Miami area. Honestly, if I could probably afford to live there, that would be the number one place. I love Fort Lauderdale in particular. There’s so much to love about that area. But I’ve also heard incredible things about every other city in Florida. I’ve had real estate entrepreneurs on this show from all around the country telling me I gotta go out to Tampa, telling me I gotta go out to Orlando.tell me that I’m missing out on Jacksonville. And so I’m curious to get your perspective of Tampa versus maybe some of the other markets in Florida.
William Wylie (18:20)
Well, I’ve been living in Tampa for over 25 years. ⁓ I came down, I was living in Chicago at the time. I was in the mortgage business. ⁓ I was thinking about relocating. We always came to Florida as kids living in Chicago for vacation. So it just was always in my heart. Love something about the palm trees. I just fell in love with the beaches, of course. And I came to visit a buddy and he was living on the beach in Clearwater and walked out there and walking along the beach.Dylan Silver (18:43)
That’s right.William Wylie (18:50)
And I’m like, wait a minute, they have mortgages in Florida. So I was single at the time. And I said, you know, why don’t I just move down to Florida, try it for a year and see how I like it. And, know, 25 years later, just kind of fell in love, hit the market right at the right time, was buying old little beat up homes in the Tampa area and in St. Pete and was, you know, started getting into the fix and flip business. just kind of got the bug ⁓ for Tampa Bay.and I’m a sports fan, so it was great to be able to have the Lightning win the Stanley Cup and the Bucks. A couple years after I moved here, won the Super Bowl with John Gruden. So it was one of those things that just kind of kept building and building and building. And the Clearwater, St. Pete Clearwater beaches are probably some of the best beaches, in my opinion, in all of the world. ⁓
Dylan Silver (19:26)
Right.William Wylie (19:42)
you know, it’s calmer, smoother ⁓ waves, but right now I’m over here in Cocoa Beach, Cape Canaveral for the next three months and another great, great part. I’m really liking Melbourne and Cape Canaveral and Cocoa Beach a lot so far.Dylan Silver (19:59)
William, we are coming up on time here. Where can folks go if maybe they’re interested in looking at Ironbridge Modular or if they’d like to learn more about Well Done One Kid Homes?William Wylie (20:09)
Yeah, I mean they can go to our website, WellDone1, the number one, kithomes.com or ironbridgemodular.com. And ⁓ yeah, I really appreciate you ⁓ taking the time to ⁓ do this podcast and you had some, you asked some great, great questions. So I really appreciate your time, Dylan.Dylan Silver (20:30)
Thanks, William.
