Interior Design Secrets for Real Estate Investors (Boost ROI!)

Cody Caswell (00:00)
We are focused on bringing the interior design industry into the real estate investing world. So I like to say that there’s been a big disconnect between those two industries for forever. I mean, if you’re flipping a single family home in Kentucky, there’s no possible way that you’ve ever thought you could justify hiring a designer for that property. Like it’s a three bedroom, two bath house that you’re selling for $275,000. Well, we have built a product and a service that you can justify bringing us on.

So for your average cost of $2,500, we can design your flip A to Z. It doesn’t matter if you’re in Southern California, if you’re in South Florida, you’re in the Northeast. We’re all priced based on square footage. So our goal is to make as many real estate investors across the U.S. know that they can actually afford to bring on a professional interior designer to not only get a beautiful home design that’s going to sell fast, but to get all of your time back that you’ve spent finding light fixtures, finding plumbing fixtures, finding paint colors like

our average home has about 200 design decisions that has to be made. And you don’t realize that as you’re doing it, but whenever you offload that to us, you realize that you get eight to 10 hours of your time back just because you’ve offloaded the decision making to us. So our goal is to fully design homes for you with about two hours of your invested time. We need about an hour of time for you to get us the information we need and then about an hour of your time to review it with us. That’s it.

So for two hours, we will make every single design decision that you have to make and you automatically get back eight to 10, 12 hours of your time to do what actually matters as an investor, which is finding more deals, talking to sellers, know, actually working on your marketing. That’s what keeps a real estate investor going.

Quentin (03:13)
everyone, welcome to the Investor Fuel Podcast. I am your host, Q Edmonds. And man, this guy that I’m talking to, man, this guy got me smiling. He has me excited, man. He’s, listen, his business is up to some amazing things. Man, he’s making some amazing strides in the design space, right? And so just gonna give you just a little bit. Like this guy is, he is creating spaces.

and doing things to help people houses sell at the top dollar that they can sell. Right? I mean, I cannot wait for y’all to hear about what this man is doing. So listen, help me. Well, not y’all can’t help me, but let me introduce you to my friend, Mr. Caswell. How you doing today,

Cody Caswell (03:59)
Fantastic. Thank you guys for having me. I’m excited to get on here and talk to other real estate investors in general. I’ve been a real estate investor my entire life. So this is my community. It’s my people.

Quentin (04:09)
See,

listen, I told y’all this man is ready, listen, he has a keen eye, he has a keen way of doing things, he has something that you absolutely need that some people put on a back burner and then have to come back around and find out that this was actually a need that I needed, right? And so I am excited for you to talk about what it is that you do. So listen, I’m just gonna dive right in, you’re the expert. So I just want you to, I just wanna know, of course people getting to know you for the first time, right? I got to know you a little bit, but they like.

They’re not familiar with you, familiar with your world. Just give us a short version of what’s your main focus these days. And if you want to, man, tell them what markets you’re operating in.

Cody Caswell (04:47)
Yeah, 100%. So my name is Cody Caswell. Based out of Austin, Texas, it’s the market that we operate in. We flip five to 10 homes per year in this market. We flipped about 60 homes throughout our career. But the main focus of what we’re really focusing on is our business, Ivory Home. We are the nation’s only real estate investor-specific design firm, meaning that we design only flips, short-term rentals. We’re trying to bust into the boutique hotel space.

and we do a lot of build to sell developments for real estate investors. So basically we are the design firm that builds your flip.

You come to us with a project anywhere in the US. We’ve designed almost 200 homes across 18 states. You come to us with a project, 123 Main Street. You give us the budget, you give us the ARV, and we will fully design that flip for you. So we pick your paint colors, your windows, your roofing, light fixtures, plumbing fixtures, floors, every single thing that has to be done to that house based on your scope of work, we will design for you based on the buyer profile, the ARV, help you get top dollar for the house and help it sell faster than everything else is selling in the market.

Quentin (06:38)
Man, I love it. I love it, man. So you said the nation only real estate specific design firm. Did I get that correct?

Cody Caswell (06:46)
Real estate investor specific, yep. So we only work with real estate investors, no homeowners, only work with real estate investors.

Quentin (06:48)
We have a little thing here.

Man, man, I love that man. Now of course, in this climate, that can’t always be easy. So what’s the key to keeping that machine running smooth?

Cody Caswell (07:02)
The key to keeping that machine running smoothly is just, it’s really staying on top of the design trends of what’s happening in the US and also staying on top of different markets and what buyers are looking for. So it’s interesting, right? Like people tend to think that design is really specific in their market and that’s not true. We’ve worked in hundreds of cities at this point across 18 states and you’ll find that buyers typically want the same thing across all markets.

Which is like they want a really well-designed home based on that homes like architecture So we’d like to say that each every house across the US is like a book It’s telling a story the first few chapters are written when the home was built. So if this home was built in 1970s It’s going to have an architectural style. It’s gonna have a design that it already will flow and function with it The trick is finishing that book properly

So we have the first few chapters, we have to write the rest of the book and it has to flow properly.

Whenever you flip a house and a buyer is going through it, they’re swiping through Zillow. What they’re going to notice, like if you put a really, really modern interior on a ranch style home, it’s not going to fit. It’s going to be clunky. The buyer is not going to want it. Even if everything is really nice, it’s just not going to feel right. So buyers today, because Pinterest exists and because Instagram exists, now they all of sudden have a new bar, a new expectation bar of what is set for what they want in their homes. So

You know, it’s not 2018 anymore. Investors can’t slap agreeable gray and white cabinets and, you know, get their house to sell for top dollar. That doesn’t work anymore. The home has to be extremely well designed to be able to compete in market. And that’s we serve to do.

Quentin (08:39)
I him, man. I love him, man. I learned from another part that there’s a difference between an interior decorator and an interior designer, right? It’s a lot of people out here that can do a whole bunch of decorating. That don’t mean they’re going to be…

Cody Caswell (08:48)
100%. Absolutely.

Yeah, can do a lot of To do this, you have to understand

construction. That’s the thing is that like you, it’s not just about making things look good with paint colors and rugs or anything like you have to actually understand construction. So we have to understand cabinet types, we have to understand, you know, tile edging, grout colors, like all these things we have to actually piece together for the construction. It’s roughly about 200 decisions for a standard three bedroom, bath house. So

Because a lot goes into it to try to make it all blend together and function well, not only blend with the house itself, but make sure that all the elements within the house are blending together.

Quentin (09:25)
Absolutely, man. Absolutely. I love it, man. So listen, of course, you know, there’s moments when things get real. Maybe a deal goes sideways or a time when you had to pivot fast. Mr. Cody, you mind sharing one of those stories with us,

Cody Caswell (09:40)
Yeah, time that we had to pivot fast or when something went sideways. I would say a really good example of that is in Austin. Austin is like one of the markets that had the biggest drop in value over the past couple of years. So flips and Austin have had to really, really.

there’s been two types of properties that have worked. You either have to be the top of the line design.

So we’re talking, you need to be Italian tiles. You need to be, you know, it’s got to be all custom cabinetry with beautiful silestone courts. You have to be something completely unique. Or as an investor, you’ve had to completely pivot and do like 70, we call them 70 % flips. So.

The home has to look really, really good, but you can’t go in and completely renovate the house. So that’s been something that we’re able to design. For the fact that we flip homes ourselves, we flipped about 60 homes ourselves, we still flip them five to 10 a year. We understand what’s working in the market and that’s what’s important about like actually snooping in on specific markets. So Austin in particular, we understood that…

When interest rates went up so far, buyers got a lot less willing to spend an extra $100,000 on the house. Even though that might mean that everything is done, they would rather save the $100,000 and take it with the old tile floors still in there, or take it with the old cabinets in there just painted instead of actually changing the cabinets.

Quentin (11:37)
Mmm.

Cody Caswell (11:42)
So that was something interesting that we really have to pivot over the past couple of years in Austin in particular is that we’ve had to actually take a look at the buyer profile and understand, okay, well, if this is a first time home for somebody, they would rather save on the monthly payment than they would have have top of the line design. like, we still have to go in and actually make the house look good, but the trick becomes how do we save these floors and make everything look really good with it? How do we save these cabinets?

but just paint them a really good color that will actually match the house. So it’s like, it’s almost more challenging from a design perspective because we can’t just gut everything and start over. We have to work within the elements that are there to make it look really good. So that’s one of like the interesting pivots that we’ve learned in this business of designing so many homes is like.

It’s not just about what’s happening nationwide. Certain markets are really hot, certain markets aren’t. You have to actually zoom in on that market itself and understand, okay, who is the buyer profile? What do they expect? What do they want? And how can we invest the dollar smartly into this flip to be able to get the most return? Because it’s really fun making a beautiful house, but it’s way more fun making a pretty house than makes money. So it’s way more fun actually making money on the house.

Quentin (12:50)
Yeah. Yeah.

Cody Caswell (12:53)
We have to actually zoom in on these markets and understand what that buyer profile wants and what’s the smartest way to decide it, not necessarily what is the way to make it look as good as possible, right? Like it’s two different skill sets.

Quentin (13:05)
No, man, I actually love it. That’s the kind of stuff people kind of not talking about. And I love it. I love everything you’re saying because listen, if you continue to go to track record of designing a home that continue to sell at top dollar, people are going to look at you and look at what you do. Like, yeah, this is people that we want to go with because you are showing a consistent track record of making sure that people get the best out of what you’re putting into the house. And so.

Cody Caswell (13:32)
Exactly. And

that’s how clients come back to us, right? Like if we design a home in the Midwest that we do a lot of properties across the Midwest with really low budget. So somebody might come to us with a two bedroom house that has a $35,000 budget. Well, I mean, we can still, you can still design it thoughtfully, right? It’s still just about picking good paint colors, a good tone on the floor, a nice countertop and good light fixtures and planning fixtures that work well with the design.

those investors will oftentimes, their houses will sell in less than a week for over asking price. And sure, like it might be a $220,000 house that’s not an expensive home, but because we knew how to design it based on the buyer profile, that investor got a big return. So that guarantees that they will come back to us for the next one and the next one, the next one. for us, it’s less about like,

making the most Instagram worthy houses. Some of our homes are those Instagram worthy homes. I mean, we do some flips to sell for 2.5 million, $3 million in Southern California. They’re just incredible. But we do a lot of homes in the Midwest that sell for 220, 230 that are homes that, yeah, I mean, they’re not like the most Instagram worthy homes, but these investors are making crazy returns on them. So it’s about making the beautiful home, but it’s really about making the home make money. That’s what it’s about.

Quentin (14:43)
I love it, man. I love it, man. Well, listen, let me ask you this. What are you most focused on solving or scaling next? Like, what’s the next real goal?

Cody Caswell (15:33)
We are focused on bringing the interior design industry into the real estate investing world. So I like to say that there’s been a big disconnect between those two industries for forever. I mean, if you’re flipping a single family home in Kentucky, there’s no possible way that you’ve ever thought you could justify hiring a designer for that property. Like it’s a three bedroom, two bath house that you’re selling for $275,000. Well, we have built a product and a service that you can justify bringing us on.

So for your average cost of $2,500, we can design your flip A to Z. It doesn’t matter if you’re in Southern California, if you’re in South Florida, you’re in the Northeast. We’re all priced based on square footage. So our goal is to make as many real estate investors across the U.S. know that they can actually afford to bring on a professional interior designer to not only get a beautiful home design that’s going to sell fast, but to get all of your time back that you’ve spent finding light fixtures, finding plumbing fixtures, finding paint colors like

our average home has about 200 design decisions that has to be made. And you don’t realize that as you’re doing it, but whenever you offload that to us, you realize that you get eight to 10 hours of your time back just because you’ve offloaded the decision making to us. So our goal is to fully design homes for you with about two hours of your invested time. We need about an hour of time for you to get us the information we need and then about an hour of your time to review it with us. That’s it.

So for two hours, we will make every single design decision that you have to make and you automatically get back eight to 10, 12 hours of your time to do what actually matters as an investor, which is finding more deals, talking to sellers, know, actually working on your marketing. That’s what keeps a real estate investor going.

It’s not going to Home Depot picking light fixtures. So we take all of that burden off you so you can spend more time finding more deals.

Quentin (17:22)
Man, I absolutely love it, man. Bringing the interior design into the real estate investment world. Like, let them know, listen, bring us on. Bring us on. Have us an intricate part of this. I love it. You get all that. I mean, you said like nine to 10 hours back. I had no idea, like 200 decisions go into the design. Man.

Cody Caswell (17:41)
Think

about it, if you were just to go to Home Depot to pick light fixtures for your house, let’s say you’re flipping a house and your electrician says, hey, I need light fixtures. Okay, well, I’m gonna go to Home Depot and pick them. First of all, you’re gonna be totally subject to what they have on the shelf, which is a nightmare. Secondly, just one trip to Home Depot is a minimum of three hours of your time, which is about 30 minutes driving there, about an hour and a half there, 30 minutes driving to the project to go drop everything off, and about an hour at the project.

That’s like three to four hours every time for one trip. That’s one trip. know, imagine light fixtures, plumbing fixtures, flooring, paint colors, cabinets, countertops, all of that multiplied out. I mean, it’s hours and hours of time.

Quentin (18:21)
Absolutely, man, absolutely. So listen, man, of course, you know, different people, they listening to this, had different parts of their journey. You know, some of them trying to, you know, level up, you know, that, you know, they’re just doing it different ways, right? They’re building. And I think it would benefit them hearing from you. Like when it comes to building relationships and growing your next work, what has made the biggest difference for you?

Cody Caswell (18:48)
For me, real estate is a relationship business and it always has been and always will be. So relationships are incredibly important in real estate. And for me, at least for growing my network, for our business, it’s still important for us to just, people just know we exist. So for us, it’s getting in root with other investors, letting them know what we do. And I’m a big believer that like, no matter what you do in real estate, the goal to getting more deals, whether you’re a service provider, whether you are a flipper,

Quentin (18:49)
me, real estate is a relationship illness.

Relationships are incredibly important to build today. And for me, at least for growing my network, for our business, it’s still important for us to just, people just know we exist. But for us, it’s getting in root with other investors, letting them know what we do. And I don’t think we’ll even, no matter what we do in real estate, the goal to getting more deals, whether you’re a service provider, whether you are

in the slumber, whether you’re doing multifamily, it doesn’t matter. The goal is to let as many people as possible know what you do. That’s it.

Cody Caswell (19:17)
whether you’re doing multifamily, it doesn’t matter. The goal is to let as many humans possible know what you do. That’s it. So get

really specific on what it is that you do and let every single person know. Masterminds have been incredible for me. Just being around mentorship and honestly, like every time that you’re, ⁓ you know, like the biggest hack to be where you want is to be in rooms with people who are where you want to be. That is the biggest hack. So just get inside of rooms where people are doing what you want to do.

Quentin (19:25)
So get really specific on what it is that you do and let every single person know. Matt’s reminds me of incredible for me, being around mentorship and honestly, every time that you are, the biggest hack to do where you want is to be in rooms with people who are where you want to be. That is the biggest hack. So just get inside a room where people are doing

Cody Caswell (19:46)
people are so giving of their knowledge.

Quentin (19:47)
People are so giving of their

Cody Caswell (19:49)
I find that people are extremely willing to pass down the rope, pass down the ladder and really give you all the knowledge that they have to get for like how to build your network and how important has that been, in real estate in particular, it is everything. Your network is literally everything. It’s a small community out there.

Quentin (19:50)
I find that people are extremely willing to pass down the road, pass down the ladder and really give you all the knowledge that as far as like how to fill your network and how important that has been in real estate and particular energy applications. Your network is literally everything. It’s a small community

Cody Caswell (20:05)
So it’s really, really important to get yourself involved in the community. Get involved in the real estate community, the real estate investment community nationwide and you’re just gonna have a flood of opportunities for people to know who you are and know what you do.

Quentin (20:06)
So it’s really, really important to get yourself involved in the community, get involved in the real estate community, the real estate investment community, make it wide. And you’re just going to have a flood of opportunities to know who you are and

Man, I absolutely love it. You took my tagline, man. Relationships are everything in this space. And so you are right on it, man. I appreciate you sharing that perspective. So listen, man, Cody, listen, before we wrap, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, maybe collaborate with you.

Cody Caswell (20:23)
they are.

Quentin (20:35)
What’s the best way for them to reach out to you?

Cody Caswell (20:37)
Best way to reach out to us and go to our website is www.ivoryhome.co. So IVORY, HOM. That is the best way to get involved with. Submit a contact form on there and it goes straight to me. You know, whether you want to, you if you go check us out on Instagram, like that’s name handle at ivoryhome.co, you’ll find our Instagram. put up a lot of things about design and our flips and stuff like that. But check out our website. We have a great portfolio on there. We have a lot of case studies, things like that. You can go check us out on our.

Quentin (20:54)
I love it

Cody Caswell (21:05)
Actual personal for us at ivoryhome.co.

Quentin (21:09)
man. love it man. Well listen, I appreciate your time. I appreciate your perspective. I appreciate your story.

So again, Mr. Cody, thank you so much. And to everyone else, we’ll see you on the next time.