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Show Summary
In this conversation, Christopher Malandrino shares his extensive experience in land development and custom home building in Las Vegas. He discusses the challenges faced in the construction industry, the importance of perseverance, and the value of mentorship. Christopher reflects on his transition from the restaurant business to construction, emphasizing the need for continuous learning and adaptation. He also expresses his emotional investment in his projects and his desire to guide aspiring builders through sharing his knowledge and resources.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Christopher Malandrino (00:00)
Well, my family came from Italy, Sicily actually, and my father had a sixth grade education. But then he wound up having four restaurants and four tailor shops. So the one thing he always taught me was, I don’t care if you’re a hot dog vendor, be the best hot dog vendor on the block. it’s really the short answer is perseverance. Everyone’s gonna try. Everyone’s gonna try a second time or a third time or a fifth time.But you’ve got to keep trying.
Quentin Edmonds (01:59)
Hello everyone. Welcome to the real estate pros podcast. I am your host, Q Edmonds. Excited to be with you today. I have someone that’s amazing that’s here. You know, we bring up amazing guests. This gentleman’s been doing it for 44 years. So he has a lot of experience and he want to share that experience. That’s one of the main reasons why he did today is to educate, help somebody that maybe he’s going through, will go through or maybe right now is in present.Going through something that he’s been through and so I’m so excited for him to be here He’s probably gonna talk about man, you know does very well in land development And so I’m sure he’s gonna talk to you about that, but I’m so excited to introduce you to you I know I respect people name, but he told me to call him Chris. So I’m gonna call him Chris. So Chris, how you doing today,
Christopher Malandrino (02:50)
Fine, Quen how are you?Quentin Edmonds (02:52)
man, I’m doing great. So glad to have you here. And I’ll be honest, I just want to dive in. I would love for you to tell us what your main focus is these days. And you want to give us a little bit of an origin story of how you got started, you got to where you are now. And then if you can tell us what part of the world you what part of the world you market. We would love to hear that too. So Christopher, is yours, sir.Christopher Malandrino (03:17)
Well, thank you, Quen Actually, we do land development and custom home construction here in the Las Vegas area. But to be honest, it wasn’t my original desire in life. I actually was raised in a restaurant business in New York. My father loved what he did, and I thought that was going to be my future until I found out that at one point I liked my evening’s home. So I decided to look foryou know that i’m more nine to five ish if that’s correct term and i was offered a job in construction when i got out of school very young i didn’t know anything but i’m almost fairly smart guy and i picked it up rather quickly our lead our lead carpenter at the time one of them in the car accident i got promoted six months later i was running the crew a year and a half later i started my own and this is where i am now
Quentin Edmonds (04:06)
I love it.Christopher Malandrino (04:07)
Love it.No, no, no. I love it here in Las Vegas. I actually retired here 19 years ago and I spent two years playing golf and hiking and becoming a Westerner. And then I saw some property. We actually hiked a piece of property that the view is just stunning of the Las Vegas strip and the mountains behind. And I want to putting a small investment group together. We bought it and we developed it.
Quentin Edmonds (04:37)
Hmm.I love it. thank you for walking us through the journey. I love a bit of a small investment group together. Y’all bought it off a hike in something that she was doing at your leisure. Right. So that lets me know that you’re a visionary, that you see vision, of course, years of experience. I’m sure you had to build up that muscle of just seeing a great opportunity and knowing when to jump on that opportunity.
Christopher Malandrino (05:04)
The funny thing is opportunity is never really doesn’t fall in your lap. You’ve got to be in the right place at the right time and you just have to recognize it when you do see it. And again, luckily for me, I was walking a mountain and happened to see another human being and he owned it. So we talked for a couple of months and then we put the group together and wanted to purchase again for him and now we’re building custom homes.Quentin Edmonds (06:17)
I love it. So listen, years of experience. So I’m going to talk about some strategies. I’m sure there are business strategies that you use, and I’m sure there are personal strategies that you use. And I would love to know a little bit about both, like strategies that you’ve used over the years that help you in business and actually help you personally.Christopher Malandrino (06:41)
Well, my family came from Italy, Sicily actually, and my father had a sixth grade education. But then he wound up having four restaurants and four tailor shops. So the one thing he always taught me was, I don’t care if you’re a hot dog vendor, be the best hot dog vendor on the block. it’s really the short answer is perseverance. Everyone’s gonna try. Everyone’s gonna try a second time or a third time or a fifth time.But you’ve got to keep trying. Now,
that being said, the best thing anybody can do whenever they’re in a meeting with people of higher stature than you is just listen. That’s how you learn the most. Usually the one doing the most talking is either really good at what he does or doesn’t know much and is just talking to hear himself talk. You have to decipher which, but my key has always been listening.
Now, 40 years in the industry now, I’m the one that’s usually doing most of the talking, but it’s it’s hopefully to try and get good at what I do. And again, I’ve been doing it for over 40 years. But if you don’t learn, you don’t move forward, even at my age. Now, I moved to Nevada, we had a different set of operational values here. I had never worked within
the state of Nevada. didn’t know their requirements and guidelines and certain cities and different development overlays that would happen when you’re involving the airport or how tall a building can be because of the airport or things of that nature. So it took me a while to learn how things are done here, even though I’ve been doing it for a very long time. And now I believe I’m pretty good at what I do here and I’m thoroughly enjoying it.
I really am. I go to work every day. I don’t have to go to the field. I enjoy it. And the people that work behind me, I think we have a good time. Construction is very fluid, but it’s also it’s rewarding because you’re really never doing the same thing every minute. You know, ⁓ I myself could never be bound to a desk. And it doesn’t mean that bad. I’m a mover. I enjoy being on site. I enjoy being in the field.
Quentin Edmonds (08:55)
I love it. I love what you said. If you’re not learning, you’re not growing. And so I’m sure there’s plenty that you learned over the years. That’s why you’ve grown to where you are. But I want you to tell me about the times that led up to that growth. Like I’m sure there was moments when things got real. Maybe when the deal went sideways, the time when you had the pivot fast. Like, can you tell me about a time where you had to face adversity and overcoming?Christopher Malandrino (09:59)
Well, I can guarantee you there were quite a few of those. In the early days in New York, now I love New York. I’m a native New Yorker, although I live in Nevada now, but in New York, they allow for five years arbitration, which means if a contractor doesn’t want to pay you, they can afford up to five years for you to go through arbitration for nothing. And a lot of that times it puts small people out of business.So that was the biggest problem for me. We would finish the job. I’d have some pride of ownership of my work. And then sometimes you wouldn’t get paid and it’s next job and it stifles Christmas bonuses. And that’s the worst part about being in the contracting business or the development business. You know, you do a job, you expect a client will be happy and the client’s very happy.
and then certain states will allow them not to pay you. And that happened more than a few times when I was a young contractor.
Quentin Edmonds (11:00)
No, I can only imagine how rough that is. I probably will be still mad to this day if something like that happened. So, definitely thank you for sharing.Thank you for your transparency. Thank you for sharing that story. Thank you for sharing that perspective. Let me ask you, what’s the next real goal? are you next? What are you focused on scaling or solving next?
Christopher Malandrino (11:24)
Well, I did move here and retire and I came out of retirement to do these developments. And right now we’re in the middle of six different developments, all with a fabulous Las Vegas strip view and custom home construction. And for me, it’s never really been about a job. I love getting up in the morning and going to work, even when I was running the cruise physically, it’s more a labor of love. I genuinely love it. I look atthe developments and then we have a few custom homes underway right now. They’re more like my children than a job. And it may sound corny, but that’s just the truth of it. I’m one of those people that prides themselves on finishing things. It doesn’t matter what it is, I have to finish it. It’s one of those OCD engineering types where we’re all driven by the product and the product has to be
to fruition and that’s basically what I am.
Quentin Edmonds (12:22)
⁓ So now you told this story about, you know, being in the mountain, seeing the property, and you said you put a team together to buy it. So that makes me know that you’re obviously good at building relationships. You’re good at partnering up. So I just want to talk about relationships for a little bit. How has relationships impacted you? Like, what has it made a big difference in what you do in your business growing your net?Christopher Malandrino (12:53)
Well, as I said, I’m a development partner right now and it’s one gentleman really in this particular point that owns the bulk of everything. I’m a small investment partner as well, but it’s hard not to become emotionally attached. mean, you’re trying to help improve his life. He’s obviously funding the job based on your experience or my experience in this case. And it becomes more of a brother relationship. At least it does to me.I’ve never had the corporate background where I can compartmentalize things. I look at that I’m creating a future for myself, my son’s work for me, and for my partner, would-be partner. But again, it’s more about
what’s happening. wanted to, when I decided, excuse me, when I decided to get involved in this, I wanted to make a name for myself in this town because Las Vegas is a very driven town when it comes to remembering people. And for that, it was again, a labor of love, but also a labor of longevity maybe. I want people to know that I did this.
And whenever my friends come to town or other family members, which they just did this past weekend, and I would drive them up on the hill and oversee all the projects, they were speechless. And most people are. And that in and of itself is enough for me. It’s just, it’s great to be the head of your family and appreciate it.
Quentin Edmonds (15:06)
Chris so well said, you said to be the head of your family and appreciate it. Me being a father, me still navigating those waters of, we got this saying in my house, over presence, presence over presence. Like your presence is, you know what I mean? And so to hear you say that,for you to have built legacy, for you to stand as a head of your family and for them to be able to literally trace back your hard work, be able to go back to these buildings that are beautiful, that’s erected, that’s gonna be here. And this is no disrespect, but you know what I’m about to say is the truth, that’s gonna be here even after you’re gone. But I’m gonna be able to take their kids and their kids’ kids and like, this is what grandpa built, this is what great grandpa built.
I know that’s just an amazing feeling. And so thank you for bringing that out because I can only imagine, man. I’m, I’m striving to get to that point, sir.
Christopher Malandrino (16:07)
Honestly, hard work is part of it, but I’m really blessed. I really, I really feel that.Quentin Edmonds (16:13)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, no thought in my mind. Listen, Mr. Chris Mr. Chris, you have a ton of experience, a ton of knowledge. You like to educate people. And so just want to take a moment. Is there anything else you want to say that will encourage people, educate people, inspire people? Is there anything that you want to leave the audience that you think would be of even more value than what you already given? I would love to hear that, sir, if you have anything.Christopher Malandrino (16:42)
Well, Quentin part of the reason, and I thank you for inviting me, by the way, biggest reason that I agreed to come on the podcast was I have developed a 70 page prospectus on basically how to teach yourself to be a developer or home builder. And I would like to offer that to anyone who wants it. I’ll be happy to email it to anyone who has the desire.to think about getting in construction or land development. And all you have to do is email, ⁓ which my initials are [email protected]. And I will send it to you. It was something that I had approved by certain builders associations once here in Nevada and once in New York. And at this stage of my life, I’d love to give it out to anyone that really might think about it.
I might get a Christmas card someday, you never know.
Quentin Edmonds (17:39)
There you go. But as you all got it, any other information you want to give? know you just said you’ll give that away. Do want people to get in contact with you any other way? Website, email, social media, any other thing that you want to give before we wrap up?Christopher Malandrino (17:53)
Well, our website is exactly the name of the company. It’s www.heritagehomesofnevada.com. You can always reach me through there. The simplistic is my pronunciation of my name is Christopher Malandrino and I have my ⁓ own Facebook, excuse me, and it’s linked to the website. So if anybody wanted to shoot me a DM, I’ll be happy to respond.And I love it. I really wish I could help one, two, five, 10, 50, 100, 500 young people get into the business because we’re always going to need things built.
Quentin Edmonds (18:30)
Yeah. Yeah. Well, listen, sir, I know you said to call you Chris, but you just got to allow me just to put just some respect on you. Mr. Malandrino. Thank you so much for being here, man. This was great. Thank you for your time. Thank you for your story. Thank you for your perspective. I really appreciate you being on today.Christopher Malandrino (18:51)
Well, thank you, Quen, for inviting me. I do appreciate it.Quentin Edmonds (18:55)
Well, listen, y’all got the value. He’s giving you, will send you something for free. All you have to do is get in contact with him. So please, remind us if you need to get his information. I’m sure we’ll have it when you can see it as well. But get in contact with Mr. Chris and also make sure you are subscribed. You do not want to miss out on the incredible people that we can bring up. And so subscribe that way when the alert goes off, you can just come and get the value. So Chris.Thank you again, sir. So appreciate you. And listen, you have a great day and everyone else. We will see you on the next time.
Christopher Malandrino (19:34)
Thank
