Subscribe via:
Show Summary
In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, host Michelle Kesil interviews Juan Cuevas, founder of Uncontained Living. Juan shares how his vertically integrated real estate development company is creating affordable, high-quality modular housing solutions across the U.S. He explains how modular and container-based construction can significantly reduce costs and build times, helping more people achieve homeownership and upward mobility. Juan also discusses innovative self-storage concepts using shipping containers, strategies for faster real estate development through adaptive reuse (such as RV parks and car lots), and why speed to market is crucial in today’s volatile environment. His mission centers on restoring affordable homeownership while maintaining strong build quality and principled business practices.
Resources and Links from this show:
-
Listen to the Audio Version of this Episode
Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Juan Cuevas (00:00)
instead of…know, half a million dollars down or, you know, something with six or seven figure down payment to buy one of those. It’s one month’s rent, one month’s security. You can buy the containers with equipment financing. ⁓ And then it’s just a matter of finding the correct amount and unit mix where it makes you cashflow positive.And at that point, you never have to put any more money into that because then that cash flow pays for the next container.
That cash flow pays for that one and then it just grows logarithmically.
People say cash is king. I disagree. think cash is queen. Cash flow is king. And this gets you there quickly.
Michelle Kesil (00:00)
Hey everybody, welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Kesil Today I’m joined by someone I’m looking forward to chatting with, Juan Cuevas, who is working on modular building solutions for affordable housing. So excited to have you here today, Juan.Juan Cuevas (00:18)
I’m honored to be here. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Been looking forward to this.Michelle Kesil (00:22)
Definitely. Yeah, I think our listeners are really going to take something away from how you’re creating a vertically integrated solution for more affordable housing. So let’s dive in. First off, for those who are not yet familiar with you and your work, can you share what your main focus is?Juan Cuevas (00:41)
Sure,⁓ so yeah, I own a company called Uncontained Living and ⁓ we are a fully vertically integrated real estate development company. So there’s no deal too small or too big. ⁓ We can do tiny homes, but we don’t necessarily just do tiny homes.
So the mission of my company is to bring affordable housing back to America.
I think I’m very principled in what I do. Single family home ownership, in my opinion, is one of the single most ⁓ important things to have upward mobility in our society. When you own your home, instead of 20 years down the road, you have a child and you want to go to college, you can pull money out of your house and send your kid to college because you’ve owned it for 20 something years. And now your kid doesn’t have to…
be a debt slave with a of student debt. ⁓ Single family ownership is very important. And I think that ⁓ because of shifts in Wall Street, it’s become very, very difficult for young people. And in fact, the… ⁓
from year over year, the home ownership, like people who think they can or cannot buy a home, it went up like almost 15 % year over year of how many people think they cannot buy a home. It was in the 50s, I think it was in the low 60s now. And…
The homes that we sell are very affordable. They’re very well built. They’re beautiful. They’re not huge, but modular housing, I think is the answer because these homes can be built quickly. can save such a significant amount building in a factory. ⁓ And there are limits to that, obviously because of shipping, but…
The way that our houses are built, kind of mitigate that. Each module is no more than 10 feet wide ⁓ because of Department of Transportation rules.
They might not be the sophisticated investors that we work with and that kind of thing. So like we actually have two companies. So Uncontained Living started with container homes. And then when I bought the first two for one of these huge outfits, it basically just created another opportunity because I was able to secure basically like a wholesale distribution agreement.
And now we, Port Direct Containers is our sister company and we are a national retailer of shipping containers. And those are very profitable in the self storage space. And what I really like about them, I’m not talking about like a rusty box of like a 40 foot or you know, something like that container. I’m talking about specialized containers like side doors, double doors, like
It’s a 40 foot container, it’s a pretty specialized container, so it’s a 40 foot high cube side door. So that is a container with the doors on the end and then it has four doors running down the side.
So, we’re four sets of doors running down the side. So, you can just erect three walls in the interior, and now you have ⁓ four eight by 10 self storage spaces. Now, if you climatize that unit, you kind of have a unicorn in that drive up.
climate controlled self storage is very difficult to do because roll-up doors have a horrible R value. So with this, this is a sealed box. So having climate controlled drive up storage, is something that is very unique and something you’d be able to get a premium for. Furthermore, when you’re buying a self storage facility, those kind of start in the, for the most part,
around a half a million bucks, you know, if not, it’s all gonna be two commas in it. Hopefully the number starts with a one, you know, if you’re buying it. Well, this compartmentalizes that to where you actually don’t even have to buy the property.
There’s a great correlation in demographic necessities between a car lot and a self-storage center. They kind of both need the same things. You need rooftops, you need high median household incomes, and you need visibility. So going and renting a former medium-sized car lot, well, everything’s there.
the fence, the lighting, the office, the ADA bathrooms, all of that stuff is gonna already be there. And most importantly, one, maybe two acres of flat concrete. And then you just bring the containers in, but that’s instead of a huge down payment and all of the…
know, permitting, stuff planning and permitting, and then all of the stuff that goes with developing a new anything, whether it’s, you know, you can skip all of that. And in the card business, it’s customary to have 30, 50, even 99 year leases.
So instead of…know, half a million dollars down or, you know, something with six or seven figure down payment to buy one of those. It’s one month’s rent, one month’s security. You can buy the containers with equipment financing. ⁓ And then it’s just a matter of finding the correct amount and unit mix where it makes you cashflow positive.
And at that point, you never have to put any more money into that because then that cash flow pays for the next container. We’re not talking a lot of money here. It’s like maybe a non-climate. You’re probably looking around eight to ten thousand, depending on where you are to climate. It might be like fifteen. Well.
That cash flow pays for that one and then it just grows logarithmically. And then down the road you’re adding three or four at a time. And what’s the exit? Well, ⁓ if you have a lease, you can sell the business as a business or you just go to the bank with your EBITDA, whatever multiplier they’re gonna give you based on your debt coverage. And there’s your exit of your capital there, but you still own it.
You own the business, you don’t own the land. But at the end of the day, real estate is about cash flow. People say cash is king. I disagree. think cash is queen. Cash flow is king. And this gets you there quickly.
So this makes us palatable for people who are coming up. It also works for people who already own self-storage facilities, want to add to them or just develop new ones.
We’re probably somewhere between around $30-ish a foot. And to build self-storage, traditional self-storage, you’re anywhere from $50 to $70. So it’s a huge cost savings. ⁓ Not to mention it’s nimble. You can do it very quickly. Going with that same premise with ⁓ housing. ⁓ I’ve been intricately involved in institutional class assets. ⁓
beautiful dealing Grand Fountain. ⁓ I curated the unit mix on that property. I was able to see that entire process and what that experience taught me is real estate development, particularly residential, is extraordinarily profitable, but the risk is the time. It takes too long.
Anybody who went through COVID will tell you, know, you can have proformas and tenure cash flow analysis is all you want. Tomorrow is promised to no one. And if you are in the middle of your deal and the music stops, you’re in trouble, you know. ⁓
So you want to get in and out as fast as possible. So going into things like the self storage ⁓ thing I was talking about, whether either renting or buying a ⁓ former car lot or something like that, the infrastructure is already there. On the housing side, what makes a lot of sense with that is purchasing an RV park and converting it to ⁓ what I call like a tiny home village.
you would need to just make little improvements. Like you’d have to make the septic systems a little bit more robust because the… ⁓
the capacity for homes are a little bit more than our fees, but everything is there. The roads are there, the paths are there, everything’s there. So, and then you can even condo that out and, or replat it and sell those homes ⁓ or Airbnb type of, you know, short-term rental applications. But the key to that strategy is you’re dirt to done in under a year.
your pro forma income is in the same calendar year as your start date. With any other kind of real estate development, you’re usually at least year two before you earn the money. And that in the volatile world we live in now is scary. So I think that
you know, the appeal of our homes themselves, those are beautiful. They’re affordable. And I think it’s something that people want. And opposed to like we had talked about starting, know, most of the homes that you can buy in that 175 to 225 range is not something.
that people want to buy. And even if it may look like it when they’re buying it, when you go back and you see some of the homes that were purchased in that price two or three years ago, and you go back and you see them now, the quality is just not there. These homes are falling apart pretty quickly. ⁓ In not all cases, there are some good builders out there, but ⁓ for the most part, a big part of this is I think that
when everything is 100 % profit driven. And I’m not mad at that, but I think that that can lead to quality issues. I would much rather make less per house and sell the entire subdivision out quickly than try to maximize profit on each house.
Which what that’s kind of what I that’s what I have seen in the market right now because I’m a builder I can look at these houses and tell you I mean some of these houses I see they got 70 grand in these homes and they’re selling for 250 to 225 it’s you know little shotgun houses that there’s not much to them and I think that the homes that we build are something anybody can be proud of is it gonna be if you have a family of five okay well
Our house is probably not gonna be for you. But starter homes, letting people get, start building equity early, the way it’s supposed to be. Because a $400,000 house for somebody just coming out of college, a student loan debt, that’s pretty unobtainable.
We’re seeing it, I think this is part of the reason on a very macro level we’re seeing increases in depression and people are just dejected. They think like their American dream has been stolen from them. And as crazy as it sounds, I mean, we’re not gonna take on Wall Street, I don’t know. But I think that we just offer something that others don’t. And I think we have a really good niche and we’re really excited about it.
Michelle Kesil (16:51)
Yeah, that’s incredible. I think that this is something that’s very unique. What would you say it differentiates you from other people who have similar type of solutions?Juan Cuevas (17:04)
⁓ I think it’s quality is really what it comes down to. mean, our modular home line, mean, we when these homes were so it comes down to VivaBox. We are the exclusive distributor for them and they’re made in Mexico. They’ve been operating in Mexico, Central and South America for over a decade. And when I talk with them about because basically I’ve been tasked with bringingthose homes to the US market and ⁓ starting here in Texas. ⁓ But because each municipality is gonna have different code requirements, we just went with the toughest ones. So these homes are built to Miami-Dade spec because those are the toughest building codes in the country. The one of.
Rightfully so, you know, not if they’re getting hit by a hurricane so many times, you know this year are they gonna get a hurricane so ⁓ They’re only as good as the windows and doors you put in them in that regard, but the structure itself. mean they’re they’re bulletproof. I mean not literally But ⁓ yeah, they’re just very high quality I mean things like you know, these are 10-foot ceilings the glass shower surrounds ⁓ the
marble in the bathroom showers, surround goes all the way to the ceiling, ⁓ solid wood doors, custom cabinets. I mean the interior of these feel ⁓ like that of a high-end boat like like a
like a nice catamaran, like a 50 foot catamaran type of boat. That’s what the interior feels like. the cut, it’s quality and again, I think we’re very principled in what we do. I don’t wanna be all sanctimonious about it, but I found out recently that Benjamin Franklin is my seventh grade grand uncle.
I think he’s rolling in his grave, unfortunately, with what’s going on with the country right now. And I feel like I am called to give affordable housing back to the American people as obtuse as that might sound. ⁓ But ⁓ that’s what I’m here to do. So it’s not just quality, it’s the principle behind it. ⁓ And we’re very excited about the future. We have some very
big deals in the pipeline. So I think 2026 is going to be a great year.
Michelle Kesil (19:39)
Yeah, amazing, what an exciting creation to bring to the people. So before we wrap up here, if someone wants to reach out, connect, learn more, where can people find you and connect with you?Juan Cuevas (19:53)
Best places uncontained living net. ⁓ Everything ⁓ is on our website. You see what we build. If you go to what we build, you can look at our view box line of homes. ⁓ Right now they’re still coming out of Mexico, but the factory we’re working on that ⁓ in Dallas area. Like I said, that’s my next call. Really excited about that. ⁓ Yeah, so uncontained living net and then. ⁓on for the container business that’s portdirectcontainers.com and then social media everything is cuevanomics so last name is Cuevas so C-U-E-V-A-N-O-M-I-C-S but also that’s personal so if you want to see my dogs and me sailing and hanging out with my daughters as well so I don’t really put a lot of business stuff on my social media I probably should but I don’t and yeah
That’s how to reach me.
Michelle Kesil (20:53)
Perfect. Well, appreciate your time and your story. Thank you for being here.Juan Cuevas (20:57)
Yeah, thank you, Michelle. This has been great. I was looking forward to it and it was everything I thought and more.Michelle Kesil (21:03)
Amazing.Awesome. Appreciate that. Well, for those that are tuning into the show, if you got value, make sure you have subscribed. We’ve got more conversations with operators like Juan, who are building real businesses and we’ll see you on our next episode.
