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How to Avoid Costly Mistakes in Home Renovation | Investor Tips from New Look Remodeling

By September 24, 2025Real Estate Pros Show

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Show Summary

In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, host Erika speaks with Michelle and Saverio of New Look Remodeling about their journey in the renovation industry. They share insights on starting their business, the importance of networking, and how they maintain efficiency in their projects. The conversation also touches on common misconceptions in remodeling, lessons learned from challenges, and their future aspirations for growth in the industry.

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    Investor Fuel Show Transcript:

    Michelle & Saverio (00:00)
    anytime we look at any of the property, we pretty much work a budget within like few days ⁓ because a lot of the property, they’re on the market for a very short time and have to get sold. if you have to jump on in, sometimes you have to jump fairly quick. So once we have that budget together, we really stick to it. And that’s the key.

    making the money and you know we’re done this so many times now it’s like a chain so everybody falls in like one after the other ⁓ and it’s organized

    Erika (02:04)
    Hey everyone, welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m your host Erika and today I’m excited to be joined by Michelle and Saverio of New Look Remodeling. They’re making serious moves in the renovation space. Michelle and Saverio, it’s awesome to have you here today.

    Michelle & Saverio (02:22)
    Thank you for having us.

    Erika (02:24)
    So I think our listeners are gonna love what you’re doing here. So I wanna jump in right away. And first off, I would like to know what was the story ⁓ behind forming New Look Remodeling?

    Michelle & Saverio (02:37)
    So when I started, I started like with most of the people you start as an apprentice and you’re trying to learn the trade and then eventually, you know, your wings grow and try to fly away and get on your own. So I learned a few tricks and a few trades and started like that. And then eventually I learned a new trade and got a little bigger. So now I was doing a couple of things at once and then three things at once and eventually got to know all the local contractor and learn from them.

    and then start to get in with the investors and learn from them and what they do, what they don’t do, know, how to purchase a home and how to flip a home. So I had to learn, obviously, all the trades and then I learned all the inside and out of what it would be to be an investor, ⁓ learn from home builders. So my experience come from all kinds of backgrounds and trying to get as much knowledge as I can in every field. ⁓ And we started back

    So he came from Italy. Yeah. So he came from Italy and then we met and then from Italy, we met in Chicago. And so we were actually working with some real estate agents in Chicago. My sister actually got a ⁓ job opportunity in Dallas and was asking us if that would be something that would be interested in. And so she said, Hey, in the next several years, Dallas is going to be blowing up. And I think that you should.

    you know, consider, you know, moving out there, there’s great opportunities and challenging the challenges that we had in Chicago. We were like, okay, we’re going to see how it works. And so we actually came down here and started flipping right away. was actually walking around pregnant with like a buggy and pregnant and buggies and going into, I’m like looking at all the rich areas in Dallas and I’m just.

    knocking on everyone’s door and handing out like this how old we are we were passing out flyers and um when we actually met one of our you know investors that we know today was said west properties um that we still work with today and he called us and you know stayed from they job turned into like a 20 year 25 years relationship yeah

    Erika (04:50)
    my goodness,

    that is so awesome.

    What was that moment like when you took the leap and instead of being an apprentice in that, that you were like, I’m going to do this on my own. What was that like?

    Michelle & Saverio (05:54)
    Right. Scary. It’s clear for

    pregnant. You pretty much put all the bread in one basket at that point because you rely on you and yourself only to to provide for the family to provide and have all this work and be able to take care of all the work. So that’s when you started looking for help because by yourself, again, you can’t can’t do it by yourself. You need reliable people.

    and trustworthy people and it takes time to form those relationships. yeah, it’s scary at times. At times, you you find that one help that the day of doesn’t show up. So, you know, you got to scramble and you got to, you know, maybe go back and do yourself. But we never, you know, walked away from a job or anything like that. Well, it’s also also, you know, my father was a big

    ⁓ instrumental part of building of the business because again showing our age he did like a part-time job and worked as a printer so he was like getting all the material from Chicago and sending us here in Dallas and when I was passing everything out we had flyers and we were putting like ads in newspapers and so

    He really relied on my dad as I did for all the things because my dad was basically a great entrepreneur and communicator with our family. He helped us with a lot of that. Our first property was in, well, we had a couple of properties, but our first owned property was in Lewisville, Texas. He gave us a budget and we had to gut the entire house. You were the first investor. Yeah, he was our first investor, my dad.

    He believed in new look remodeling. he said, well, he got us our first van. ⁓ He got us all our material. He helped us. He got us our first house to flip. So ⁓ it was a blessing. And he just believed in Sam so much. Some people call him Sam. Saverio. over here, call him Sam. But believe in Saverio so much. that’s what really took off is the confidence that he had. And his family also, they’re still in Italy. So they still have that.

    you know, cannot believe that he’s done so well here in the last 25 years.

    Erika (08:15)
    Yeah, yeah, that’s awesome. I want to go back to what you were saying that you were knocking on doors and you ended up meeting an investor that you’re still working with today. What kind of networking advice would you give to people who are looking to get started now? Would it be different than what you’ve done with things have changed?

    Michelle & Saverio (08:26)
    Yeah.

    I was like,

    I would say so just because it’s just so different right now. Like it is the Instagram and the TikToks of the world. I mean, we’re where we are today because of our clients that we’ve had back since 1999 again. And they’ve stayed with us because we’ve been so consistent and he honors his work. If anything ends up ever happening at the project, even if it’s a year, he goes…

    and follows up with his clients and he makes sure that everyone’s happy. And social media has been really, ⁓ like I said, amazing for us just because it’s been consistent. I would definitely say staying consistent, don’t give up, just keep reaching out for, keep pursuing it, go to network events. of doors that will close on you, but you get the few that will open and they’re great.

    I never burn bridges. ⁓ That’s one thing you don’t want to do. But starting, you don’t want to do a step longer than you can. Just do what you feel comfortable doing. Under promise and over command. that you can handle. Because if it gets unhandled, then there’s panicking. And again, you’re playing with people money. we all work hard for our money. So I don’t waste people time. I don’t waste people money. But again, if there’s something that I cannot handle,

    That’s the first thing you want to be honest and you know what? We need to find somebody else that can take care of this. But in the meantime, I can take care of those items, you know, on your plate. So you start a relationship like that. And then like, again, like I did, I learned every trader that is out there. So I know the hands and out and I know if somebody is trying to give you the run around or not, or give it straight to you. So, you know, again, it goes back to wasting time, wasting money.

    But you also have to have that trust too with those clients. Like that’s what’s really important. And he’s saying with all the shadiness that’s in the business, cause it is there, you just have to have that trust. And like the people that we’ve worked with again, since all these years have trust us and he’s proven himself to those clients.

    Erika (11:13)
    Yeah, you know, one of the things that I was pretty impressed with when we were talking earlier is that you guys have a good turnaround time. You know, that is, you know, that is such a big concern with investors, especially those that are flipping. You know, what’s the secret to that?

    Michelle & Saverio (11:23)
    Yes.

    It is

    their very key component.

    Erika (11:33)
    Yeah.

    Michelle & Saverio (11:33)
    anytime we look at any of the property, we pretty much work a budget within like few days ⁓ because a lot of the property, they’re on the market for a very short time and have to get sold. if you have to jump on in, sometimes you have to jump fairly quick. So once we have that budget together, we really stick to it. And that’s the key.

    making the money and you know we’re done this so many times now it’s like a chain so everybody falls in like one after the other ⁓ and it’s organized but

    at beginning wasn’t like that you know and we’re still learning we’re still trying to figure it out so have the ducks in a row it’s what saves you time

    Erika (12:16)
    Yeah,

    absolutely. And with you guys being in business for a while since 1999, I’m sure you guys have seen a thing or two, maybe a project has gone sideways or you had the pivot, whether it was something with the home or just a change in vision. Can you share one of those moments on your journey and what you learned from it?

    Michelle & Saverio (12:22)
    Mm-hmm. 99.99.

    Ha!

    There’s been like little things like, ⁓ hey, let’s paint the kitchen this color and then the customer, once everything is dry, looks at it. That’s not the color we wanted and we have to show, you we actually, you pick this color. This is the color it’s on there. So depending on the lighting, it can play tricks on you and that it’s a cost-effective mistake, you know, not on our part. It can be, you know, on the customer part, but ⁓ it’s sad that that will happen, but it’s…

    Very few times that that happens and that’s the smallest thing that could happen. ⁓ There’s been occasion when they hire another contractor, you know, they take a few bids and then they thank you for coming and whatnot. And then they go ahead and use a different contractor that was cheaper, didn’t have the knowledge, didn’t have the manpower. And now they’re in the pickle because they’re already wasted for the budget. The house is not going anywhere.

    there’s no improvements. You wasted their money. Now you gotta pay again a full amount to somebody else. And that’s when they call us and say, Hey, we lost this money. Can you help us out? ⁓ I’m type of person never pulls back, but I let them know what we can do for that budget. But yeah, there’s a very common mistake that people try to get the shortcut and cut corners. And then, you know, they get the worst end of the stick.

    Well, and then there’s also those customers too that like I always try to explain to him. So with the floor, we had just had a flooring project where the customer picked out the flooring. was beautiful. ⁓ everything was perfect. have all pictures, text messages, we do contracts, we do all the things and they were just like, yeah, this is what we not, this is not what we wanted. They picked out the flooring from a, like a Pinterest and

    You know, my husband was like, you have to understand this is a natural wood. It’s going to look different. And so they just were not happy. And like, that’s another thing that they have to be aware of is like a contractor’s like, we always get a bad name, you know, for all the things that go wrong in projects. But it’s like a lot of people are now talking about how the clients just are refusing to pay and it’s their fault. So it’s like, yeah, there’s those shady contractors out there because they’re the ones that are kind of common, give you the cheaper price.

    They’re not gonna follow up, they’re not gonna do the communication, they’re gonna take your money and leave or destroy your project and roll out where then they want Sam to come in and fix everything and he’s like, well, wait a minute, there’s a lot of damage here, I can’t come in and fix that because you guys trusted this guy and didn’t pick me and now you have this mess that you want me to clean up. So it’s like we have to be, us contractors, we have to stick together as well and roll with the good ones just because.

    You we get, we lose a lot of money, a lot of money and it’s hard. I mean, he’s come home totally stressed out, like why does it go and just like not understanding, you know, cause he is a good person. And I always tell him, I’m like, got, I’m from Chicago. I’m like, we got to take care of some business, but you know, he won’t, he, he’s really laid back and he’s really calm. when he, you know, Karma take care of stuff. Yeah, he does. And I mean, yeah, again, we’ve, we’ve missed out on a lot of money and a lot.

    people being unfair to us. Thank God though we haven’t really, you we haven’t had like that name or it’s out there where it’s like, well they did this because they’re wrong. You always just got to keep moving forward. No matter what happened, you just take that as a learning experience and, and trying not to have that repeat in during your pet, you know, to up. Yeah. Cause in the first several years of our business, I mean, we really didn’t make any money. mean, we takes time. We were in rut. ⁓

    Yeah, but then after it started coming and people started trusting us and calling us and recognizing us, ⁓ that’s what was really great. That’s going to happen overnight. You want to do really your due diligence on whatever the investors or the homeowner or whatever the case is. ⁓ Always know what the budget is and what you can offer for that budget. Don’t try to close one eye and say, OK, you know what, we can do it. And then at the end.

    You’re not making any money. You’re losing money. You won’t be able to finish the project because you’re not going to sponsor your investors project, you know, to try to come up with a difference that you didn’t figure that in. it’s very key important. have all the cards on the table.

    Erika (17:52)
    Michelle and Saverio, for our listeners who are investing and they need to have remodeling done, what do you want them to know? What are some common misconceptions that you have when you work

    Michelle & Saverio (18:05)
    A lot of people are infatuated with like a lot of DUI shows and stuff like that on TV They’ve seen things happening so quick. They actually don’t know how much it really takes to get a project done Timing like I said, it’s one of the key components of that the budget is the other one so if you have a certain budget, you know, you got to really stick to it and ⁓ Investing now, I mean do your

    Again, diligence on the contractor. Make sure you get references. ⁓ Because we heard that all the time, you know, I didn’t check on it and now they’re going with my money. You know, ⁓ those are like the main the main key thing. ⁓ Know what like the property is, do your comps and see what the property can go for. If it’s, you know, best case scenario, worst case scenario, you always want to prepare for the worst case scenario. And then, you know, if it.

    Better than that, it’s great. But always wanna brace yourself and again, like do diligence, I’m the contractor, I’m the property and trying to know as much as you can, because the more you know, the less you’ll be surprised with. Yeah, you have to have all the knowledge together and have a good team. So even with us, like we have contractors, we have the subcontractors, we have ⁓ interior designers, we have HVAC guys.

    You know, we have our plumbing, electrical, we have all those guys all wrapped up. to accommodate anybody’s budget. know, you can have like, hey, I got beer money or I got today I’m gonna have champagne. So we adjust what can be done with that. And then, know, again, it depends on the area and depend on the property value and depends on a lot of things. And he goes with the client to show them because he has status, you know, at like Florian Decor and whatnot. So he’ll go there and he’ll pick out.

    Again, what’s trendy, what’s good, what’s gonna sell, what’s baseline price. So he has that knowledge of like, is coming up, what’s happening now, what sells and what doesn’t. that’s what’s, I think that’s why people trust him so much. Not only the fact that, you know, he’s dependable, he’s reliable, he’s affordable, but he knows what’s gonna sell and what’s gonna make everybody money. Like that’s what he wants. He wants everyone, you know, to make money. I mean, a lot of the times too, like,

    They say you get called back. Yeah. mean, he’s got good guys that he like if he if if he knows that he can’t he doesn’t really want to make it or can’t make any money. Not one to, but he can’t make any money. Yeah, he helps out his guys and he’ll be like, all right, you just take the contract and just go with them and then, you know, we’ll work it out later. But I think that’s what’s important, too, is make sure and make sure that you have your your ⁓ core team. You very communicative. mean, he answers the phone and is on text message all.

    pretty much all day and all night.

    Erika (20:55)
    Well, ⁓ with that team,

    you guys have grown a lot, which is awesome. And that also leads me to ask, what’s next on the horizon for New Look remodeling?

    Michelle & Saverio (21:06)
    So we’re trying to ⁓ expand, ⁓ trying to get hired up more people to help out with. ⁓ Like we said here, there is a high demand. So we’re going to go through little growing pains again, but ⁓ nothing that we haven’t done before. So we’re just trying to, ⁓ again, reach more homeowners. ⁓

    your profit for what we do is a little larger than investors ⁓ and still deal with our investors. They helped us grow and we’re not going to abandon shit. We’re always there to serve. And brand, brand, brand and marketing, marketing, marketing. That’s me. I can’t brand or market enough. So I’m really…

    Our next phase is definitely everything like Instagram, Facebook, all those platforms that do help grow the business. Yeah, we’ve got a social media manager. Like I said, we have a social media manager that’s going to be helping us with connecting all of our platforms. So we’re going to get a steady base of, you know, posting at certain times on all platforms and just making sure that the brand is out there because.

    My goal is for him to be like a Home Depot guy and to be teaching, having his own paint line and his own tools and all the cool things that he uses. So with our Nate with a new looks name on it. Hey.

    Erika (22:28)
    Well, you guys already have a solid foundation with ⁓ what

    you’ve built. that is just so exciting to hear for our listeners who want to reach out, connect, or maybe they have a home that needs remodeling. What’s the best way for them to reach you?

    Michelle & Saverio (22:44)
    Sure.

    ⁓ Well, email is this one ⁓ at sales at nlremodeling.com. They can go to the website at www.nlremodeling.com. They can reach us through there and see some of our work. Or call us. Or call us, yeah, 469-688-3498. And we serve the whole DFW Metroplex and behind. We’re done jobs, you know, three, four hours away.

    No problem. Austin, San Antonio, all that kind of jazz over there. We’ll go. We’ll go. Yeah, like I said, no challenges. We take on any kind of challenge. No job is too small. No job is too big.

    Erika (23:31)
    it.

    And you know, we need more people in this space who are doing things the right way. We’ve, you know, we’ve heard so many bad stories from other people in real estate on the show when it comes to remodeling. So it is just so refreshing to hear your approach and, you know, just, just your growth with having that right approach.

    Michelle & Saverio (23:46)
    Yes.

    Yes, ma’am. And we learn from, you know, even those customers that experience and we’re here and we analyze. I’m like, how could this happen? And how can they get away with it? we get most like I say, I treat everybody like a family and we get involved in it and I feel bad for them. You know, I get mad. So but yeah, I mean, it’s just everything. It’s a teaching moment. You you take it, you learn and and store it and move on, you know.

    Erika (24:22)
    Yeah, well, we’ve, you know, I would say I’ve learned a lot just from having you on the show today. Thanks so much for being on today.

    Michelle & Saverio (24:28)
    Awesome. Thank you. Yeah,

    thank you so much. We appreciate it.

    Erika (24:33)
    Yeah. And for our listeners here, if you got value from this episode, make sure that you’re subscribed to the Real Estate Pros podcast. We’ve got more conversations coming up with operators like Michelle and Saverio who are out there building fantastic businesses. We’ll see you on the next episode.

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