Modular Steel vs Wood: Faster Permitting-to-Occupancy, Lower Waste, and Multi-Unit Scale

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Show Summary

In this episode of the Investor Fuel Podcast, host Michelle Kesil interviews Todd Johnson, a leader in the manufacturing and development of steel engineered homes. Todd discusses the advantages of steel construction over traditional methods, the operational dynamics of his business, and the future goals for scaling. He emphasizes the importance of building strong relationships and the challenges faced in the industry, while also highlighting the innovative solutions his company offers.

Resources and Links from this show:

• • • Investor Fuel Real Estate Mastermind
    • Investor Machine Real Estate Lead Generation
    • Mike on Facebook
    • Mike on Instagram
    • Mike on LinkedIn
    • Todd Johnson’s Website
    • Todd Johnson on LinkedIn
    • Todd Johnson’s Phone No: (561) 714-6848
    • Todd Johnson’s Email Address: [email protected]

  Listen to the Audio Version of this Episode

  Investor Fuel Show Transcript:

  Todd Johnson (00:00)
  Sure, sure. So give an example, if you were to build a wooden frame, although they do have some modular now, you know, you’ve got several different crews, several different subcontractors that go after and have to erect it over, you know, it might take them, let’s say an individual home, four or five months to build that. Whereas by the time you’re done with permitting, we’ve already printed your entire home and can put it on a flatbed, deliver it and within with three people.

  you know a telehandler ⁓ and You know someone to hold the wall in place and someone with a rivet gun We can put up a home in three days. So that speed is just unmatched

  Michelle Kesil (02:11)
  Hey everybody, welcome to the Investor Fuel Podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Kesil and today I’m joined by someone that I’m looking forward to chatting with, Todd Johnson, who does manufacturing and development of steel engineered homes. So, excited to have you here on the show today, Todd.

  Todd Johnson (02:31)
  Great, thank you for having me.

  Michelle Kesil (02:32)
  course, think our listeners are going to take something away from this new method of building. So, let’s dive in. First off, for those that are not familiar yet with you and your world, can you give the short version of what your main focus is?

  Todd Johnson (02:49)
  So we build custom engineered steel structures ranging from ⁓ small homes all the way up to multi-million dollar homes. We also work on commercial, retail, ⁓ multi-unit apartment condos, hotels up to 14 stories high with again light gauge steel.

  Michelle Kesil (03:07)
  Awesome. And what markets are you operating in?

  Todd Johnson (03:10)
  ⁓ the US and Canada.

  Michelle Kesil (03:12)
  And can you share more about what these, yeah, steel manufacturing, like what does it look like, what it’s for? Yeah, just expanding on who this could be suitable for.

  Todd Johnson (03:25)
  Sure, sure. you know, we’re developers by trade. We’ve been doing it for 15 or 20 years. ⁓ We’ve produced a lot of commercial ⁓ plazas, doing like grocery, anchored store plazas, fitness plazas. And along the way over the last three or four years, we came across like age steel and we turned from ⁓ just this past year offering

  more on a retail basis to real estate investors, builders, contractors, developers, ⁓ really anybody that’s in the real estate market looking to build new construction from again, ⁓ small homes up to multi units up to 14 stories high. And one of the things that we do is we kind of build it faster, stronger, ⁓ better we think in regards to a lot of it’s done prefabbed and into a network of about 60 locations that we have of steel plants.

  And one of things that we do is we come in everything from architectural and engineering and permitting all the way to certificate of occupancy. So we offer an individual investor or real estate developer, you know, really A to Z or a la carte. So if they already have their subs and trades in place, what we can do is offer to either build a structure up to dry it in the steel structure, or we can, ⁓

  plug in any piece along the way of what they need. We’ll even come out and train their teams to build the homes or the steel structures and then step aside and then they can use their own teams to build the rest.

  Michelle Kesil (04:54)
  Awesome. And how is this different from other types of developing strategies?

  Todd Johnson (05:48)
  Sure, so currently in the marketplace, although steel is coming ⁓ up quickly, ⁓ wood and cement is kind of ⁓ the ones that everyone’s using now. It’s traditional build. so, you know, line item by line item, steel ⁓ looks on paper to be quicker, but what they don’t usually factor in is the ability to prefab and build, you know, 70, 80 % of the structure in a manufactured enclosed plant.

  Um, where that saves a lot on time. saves a lot on, uh, everything from weather, insurance, carrying costs. You know, we can build a, uh, 117 pro we’re working on 117 condo hotel. went up against a, uh, a wood and a cement builder or developer, and, we ended up coming in about 35 % faster to build. the, the, the current bid was 28 months. We came in at 18 months.

  and our overall cost they were bidding at 41 we came at 32.8 so that gives us a lot of room and a lot of ⁓ you know reasons to look at steel as opposed to wooden cement.

  Michelle Kesil (06:53)
  Awesome. Are there any sort of disadvantages or cases where this wouldn’t work?

  Todd Johnson (06:59)
  ⁓ Once we start to get over 14 stories, you start to need either red steel or a different type of steel for structural purposes, building podiums. ⁓ So that’s kind of not our wheelhouse, although as a development company, we can bring in providers or ⁓ contractors that can do that. But we’re really focused on, you know, 14 stories and under multi units is kind of our wheelhouse, ⁓ student housing, workforce housing.

  We’re working with several states, treasurers, they’re looking to do student housing, they’re looking for low income housing. Some of the large technology companies that are building these gigafactories that need 10,000 homes, I don’t wanna say overnight, but they need it very rapidly. And I think that’s really one of our strengths that we can come in and kind of outperform what currently exists in the market today.

  Michelle Kesil (07:46)
  Yeah, amazing. And are you like working with investors or mostly just with ⁓ these more commercial practices like you mentioned?

  Todd Johnson (07:57)
  Yeah, I think it’s, it’s fairly equal, probably a little bit more on the builders and developers side. We are working with real estate investors, ⁓ folks that, you know, the example I just gave you was a real estate investor that was building the condo hotel. So in that case, they needed a developer to do everything from the architecture and engineering all the way through some of the sales of the, the, condo hotels, ⁓ individual units. And so, you know,

  That’s one example, but we are working with a number of different developers and builders that, ⁓ again, need certain pieces of the puzzle. So if we can go in and build it, just the frame, ⁓ we can do that. And again, or we can do all the way. It depends on what they need.

  Michelle Kesil (08:42)
  Awesome. What have been some of the main keys that have allowed your business to run smoothly?

  Todd Johnson (08:49)
  Sure, I think some of the keys that have allowed us to run smoothly is we put together a strong team from the beginning. So we have ⁓ Chief Construction Officer, 35 years in the business, developer, 25 years in the business, ⁓ myself. I’ve been ⁓ scaling and building businesses, ⁓ Inc. 500 alumni. I know how to do that. So when he brought the team together, it’s really putting a lot of… ⁓

  veterans that have a lot of ⁓ strengths in the business and different industries as well as what we’re building in. it’s really one of the things that I think is made us what we are today.

  Michelle Kesil (09:25)
  awesome and what are some of the goals that you have for where your business is heading?

  Todd Johnson (10:06)
  Sure, so, you know, even though we’ve been in the business, the development business for 15 or more years, you know, this year we kind of had, you know, 10, 20 million in revenue, some of our goals. But after we got into it, the conversations that we’ve had, this is well over a 500 million to a billion dollar pipeline that we built in the last nine months. And so we kind of had to change course and get ready to scale much larger than what we originally expected.

  But we are run lean and mean. brought in different partners and outside ⁓ contractors in order to fulfill some of the larger ⁓ opportunities that we’re chasing. So, you know, we’re just now expanding into Canada ⁓ because of our manufacturing plants around the country. We have the ability to now go overseas. But for right now, we’re concentrated in the U.S. and Canada. And, you know, kind of the sky’s the limit.

  We’re talking to some of biggest developers in the country as well as states. So it’s a pretty big high growth business that we’re going after and we’re doing really well.

  Michelle Kesil (11:12)
  Awesome. What are some of the main features of this type of building that really differentiate you and set you apart from the others?

  Todd Johnson (11:24)
  Sure, sure. So give an example, if you were to build a wooden frame, although they do have some modular now, you know, you’ve got several different crews, several different subcontractors that go after and have to erect it over, you know, it might take them, let’s say an individual home, four or five months to build that. Whereas by the time you’re done with permitting, we’ve already printed your entire home and can put it on a flatbed, deliver it and within with three people.

  you know a telehandler ⁓ and You know someone to hold the wall in place and someone with a rivet gun We can put up a home in three days. So that speed is just unmatched

  and Because it’s all steel and it’s done precision off a machine. There is no waste there is no ⁓ cutting at the location it all fits together like an IKEA dresser, so

  When it comes in off the truck, it gets lifted and right into place. We can put the floor casing in in 45 minutes. It’s just unbelievable the speed that we’ve done and have come through on using this method.

  Michelle Kesil (12:28)
  Awesome. And does this work for like residential as well or it’s mostly for commercial purposes?

  Todd Johnson (12:35)
  Yeah, no, it does work for residential. I think our wheelhouse is in multi unit residential, so that we can do custom homes. I think the big savings that we bring to the table is, you know, let’s say 10 units or more. If somebody’s doing, you know, zero lot lines or I mean, we can really go up to multimillion dollar homes. It’s not the problem, but that’s kind of our wheelhouse and where we bring the most value.

  Michelle Kesil (12:58)
  Awesome. What are you most focused on when it comes to solving or scaling the next thing in your business?

  Todd Johnson (13:08)
  Sure. So, ⁓ you know, we’re focused on going after large scale projects ⁓ that we really, really show value. ⁓ You know, there’s a shortage of low income housing, student housing. And again, I mentioned, you know, large scale projects that have a need for thousands of homes. That’s something where, you know, we could work with multiple developers in a certain area and really bring value to it. So.

  That’s kind of our main focus. However, we are in canned service. No home’s too small, ⁓ but we want to be able to bring the most value for that project.

  Michelle Kesil (13:47)
  Awesome. When it comes to growing your business, ⁓ what are some of the ways that you’ve seen your business be able to grow, whether that comes through your network or relationship building or other modalities that have helped make that difference for you?

  Todd Johnson (14:47)
  Sure, so we took kind of a independent ⁓ referral agent type approach. So we’ve looked for folks throughout the country and we have probably a dozen or so that find and feed us deals on a daily basis. ⁓ You know, we’re doing all the typical marketing with LinkedIn and other things to generate business, but reaching out kind of the one to many is doing well for us as well as people that bring those relationships.

  from either current or their past. We’re also attending like IBS show in Orlando, which is coming up in February ⁓ and other home shows to get directly to real estate investors into builders and developers. so we went out to ⁓ one of the states, I don’t wanna mention, but went out to one of the states, went to a symposium. There was 50 or 60 builders there.

  And ⁓ after I got done with my presentation, the state treasurer ran over to me and said, you’re exactly what we have, what we want, what we need. If everything you guys can do, you say you do, ⁓ we want to chat. And so we have a great opportunity there with them that could be ⁓ tens of thousands of ⁓ student and low income housing. So we’re pretty excited about that.

  Michelle Kesil (16:06)
  That’s amazing. What are some examples of the projects that you have worked with so far?

  Todd Johnson (16:12)
  Yeah, so we’ve done everything from, and again, we also have steel partners to the manufacturing plants across the country. So ⁓ the, the kind of hotel that I mentioned in Florida that we’re working on, ⁓ that’s 117 units mixed use. Again, we came in 25 % cheaper than they are. We’re working on everything from schools, ⁓ school. One of the things that we found in schools is ⁓

  some of the competitors out there were almost 50 % less with a tenth of the build time. So from classrooms, temporary classrooms, portables to, we’re building indoor batting cages for one of the largest districts out in the country out west. so again, it really, we’re kind of agnostic to the type of building. It’s more of just if it’s under 14 stories, we can pretty much build it in steel.

  quicker, faster, and stronger than the other competitors.

  Michelle Kesil (17:08)
  Yeah, amazing. How did you guys discover this solution? Has there been any like setbacks through that journey?

  Todd Johnson (17:16)
  ⁓ Yes, and so this was right before I got involved, but the developer, the CEO of the company, you know, he helped actually fund a friend of his that was doing tiny homes. And so they were shipping him over from China. And oddly enough, you know, they would, they would get the product that’d be, it’d be a decent product, but you know, it was color coded and they’d send the drawings in black and white. So, so there was like a lot of trial and error of working with different companies over in China.

  And with the current administration and kind of the writing on the wall with tariffs, we decided to bring everything in house. So everything from the steel to the plants to everyone that works with us, it’s all US based. And so we’re pretty proud of that.

  Michelle Kesil (17:58)
  Yeah, that’s amazing. I know that’s not an easy task to operate everything from in-house, but awesome that you guys are able to do that.

  Todd Johnson (18:04)
  Yeah, yeah,

  absolutely.

  Michelle Kesil (18:08)
  So where can people learn more about your houses or educate themselves on this offering?

  Todd Johnson (18:18)
  So on our website, GlobalHavenVentures.com, that also has links to our other divisions. So we have a school division, we have a development division, and we have a homes division for individual ⁓ models that are on there. So if you go to any one of those, you can link to each other, but that’s where you can reach us. Our social media is up and coming. We need to work on that a little bit, but we’re on there as well.

  Michelle Kesil (18:44)
  Awesome. Yeah, so before we wrap up, someone wants to reach out to you and connect, would they just go to the same websites that you just mentioned for your services or are there other ways to connect with you and learn more from you?

  Todd Johnson (18:59)
  Sure, sure. So they can reach me directly. Todd Johnson, I’m the chief revenue officer with the company. You can reach me at 561-714-6848. I’m also on LinkedIn with the name TODDEO. So that’s typically where we connect a lot is LinkedIn or giving us a call. There’s also, I don’t know if you want my email, I can throw that on there too if you want. No. Yeah, no.

  Michelle Kesil (19:20)
  It’s up

  to you, however you want to share.

  Todd Johnson (19:23)
  Sure, any of the above. So people are different. So ToddJ at GHVmail.com is my email.

  Michelle Kesil (19:30)
  Perfect. Well, listen, I appreciate your time, your story, and your perspective. Thank you for being here.

  Todd Johnson (19:36)
  Thank you, Michelle, have a great day.

  Michelle Kesil (19:38)
  Yeah, of course. And for those listeners tuning in, you got value, make sure you’ve subscribed. We have more conversations with operators just like Todd that are running real businesses, and we’ll see you on our next episode.