Unlocking Outdoor Living: 5 Secrets from Designer Steve Griggs

Dylan Silver (00:01.356)
Hey folks, welcome back to the show. I’m your host Dylan Silver and today on my show we have an opportunity to talk with a designer of outdoor living spaces. If there’s artwork for walls and for museums, then your backyard can also be a canvas as well. Steve Griggs. Steve, welcome to the show.

Steve (00:23.754)
Glad to be here Dylan, looking forward to it.

Dylan Silver (00:26.306)
Before we hopped on here, we were talking a bit and I said, what is someone like you, how can I introduce you? And you said to me, look, if there’s art that you would hang up, you can have a canvas for your backyard. And I think that really puts it clearly in my mind because oftentimes when we think about where we’re living, we don’t think about the space around the home.

Steve (00:51.19)
That’s correct, most people are focused on the inside and not as much on the outside, right?

Dylan Silver (00:56.694)
Now you’ve been involved in this for 40 years. You mentioned you work with high end clientele. How did you get into this space 40 years ago?

Steve (01:08.552)
I went to college for landscape architecture, came out and basically, I started with the wheelbarrow and everybody keeps asking me, well, how do you get those big jobs? You have to have patience. It takes time for people to trust you. You have to have the confidence and you have to know what you’re doing and talking about, You can’t fake the funk, right? As they say, you’re not gonna fake somebody giving you a half a million bucks to go into their backyard if you don’t know what you’re doing.

Dylan Silver (01:36.258)
Now, when you were starting out, did you see the vision for what it is today or did that change over time?

Steve (01:40.916)
It just evolved. Yeah, it just evolved. mean, jobs just got bigger and bigger, right?

Dylan Silver (01:43.286)
It just evolved. You know, when I-

Dylan Silver (01:51.736)
When I think about, you know, as a real estate developer, as real estate investors, I’m a wholesaler and an agent. There’s not like one set trajectory or growth path, the way that people can scale. But I think about my journey. I was working for Nissan and was just seeing my rents go up and up. And I said, well, how can I, I can’t really beat them, but maybe I can join them. So I started Wholesale. Wholesale is, you know, selling contracts during an executory period.

And then I’m seeing people go from wholesale to fix and flip, from fix and flip to maybe they own a couple Airbnb’s, maybe some corporate housing long term, and then people sometimes graduate from that and go into commercial or they buy notes and so on and so forth. How did your business evolve over time? You mentioned it was kind of a natural growth. Was there certain pivot points that you can point to where it was like this really changed things in my business?

Steve (02:45.718)
Sure, it all started out with design, It started out with… Everything starts with a good design, right? So without a design, it means nothing. So when you design it, what was happening is you have this beautiful design, but the execution of the design was flawed, right? So trying to have another company interpret your design, too many areas for confusion, especially in a custom job where it’s really an art form, not just…

planting bushes on a commercial building.

Dylan Silver (03:17.058)
Right, so you know, in your line of work, I’m imagining there’s a lot of feedback that you’re getting from clients, right? Because if it’s a custom space, they probably have maybe an idea. Right now, of course, social media, everyone’s on social media, so they may be seeing different designs. What’s the feedback process like between clients and yourself to plan their dream space?

Steve (03:38.657)
So, you know, now with social media, the wives and the husbands are showing me their scrolls on Pinterest, right? They’re showing me these beautiful backyards. And I think some of the issue is they don’t really know what that takes to get there, right? Like the cost, the maintenance, right? So you really need to educate them on what it really takes to get that magazine-worthy backyard and to keep it that way, right? You could do a beautiful job if you don’t do the proper maintenance.

It goes to shit in like no time. Right? And really listening. Literally, you gotta really, I really get in bed with the clients and I really gotta, you gotta get in their head. You gotta get their vision because they don’t know what they really want. They don’t.

Dylan Silver (04:11.278)
I’ve seen some-

Dylan Silver (04:24.142)
I’ve seen some of these spaces, I mean, incredible, right? So of course you might have a big pool, but you’ll also have like cabanas, you’ll have like an outdoor grill area, you know, you’ll have lights. It almost like has a different vibe, you know, in the evening versus the day. And then that doesn’t even go into like the land itself and how that’s been developed. I’ve also seen some people really transform.

not necessarily sprawling backyards, but just areas in general, and some really super creative ways. it seems like you have to have some level of vision, but you also have to have some expectations, right? Because if it’s a larger space, you can do a little bit more than what you can do with a smaller space.

Steve (05:09.462)
That’s correct, but you want to create this vision so obviously it fits the space and to make this there’s lots of tricks that you can do to make the space appear bigger you know different you want to create different areas you know focal points so the space appears bigger we do we do sprawling estates and we also do rooftops in Manhattan where the spaces are small right I think you want to design a space where it fits the customers lifestyle because when you’re done and you’re gone you’re kind of gone right more or less but they’re living in it

every day so you want to make sure it’s functional and it fits their lifestyle. Enhances their lifestyle. It’s really what we do.

Dylan Silver (05:44.152)
I had someone.

I had someone tell me that…

I have the pool, I don’t use it every day, but I see it every day.

Steve (05:57.749)
Most people don’t really swim in it every day. So basically the pool, it’s like the kitchen in your home. Everybody gathers around, it’s the focal point. So the water feature is the focal point, for sure. That’s just like the icing on the cake is the pool and then everything else ties around it. So you can have a beautiful pool, but if the landscaping isn’t right, the lighting isn’t right, it doesn’t give it that same wow.

Dylan Silver (06:22.968)
That’s exactly right. you know, when I think about that, it’s like, it’s really about the artwork of it. It’s like knowing you have the pool. It’s going by and seeing it every day. It’s like you might not drive the car every day if it’s the high end car, but you see it in your garage every day. Similar type of concept, except it’s a space. You can walk through it. How many people, Steve, are going into purchasing a home with this idea in mind that they’re going to

develop the space versus they’ve maybe bought the home and then now they’re looking at I’m going to develop the space after I’ve purchased the home.

Steve (06:59.798)
Well, it comes down to cost, right? So if you’re gonna buy a home, budget’s a factor, right? So if they purchase home for a million bucks, maybe they’re out of money, maybe they wanna wait a couple years. When we do a new build, a lot of times I’ll tell the client, don’t build the backyard right away, live in this space for a while. Live in this space, see what you really need, get the feeling of the new home. And then we can come back next year.

replenish your funds. Do it once, do it right. Don’t try to shove it all in and be done with it. We’re in the world of Amazon now. Everybody wants to click it and be done, right? Listen, that’s the best job for a home builder or developer, turnkey, right? I don’t want to be dealing with contracts. I want to come in and I want to have the space fully done. That’s been a big turn too.

Dylan Silver (07:37.731)
media.

Dylan Silver (07:50.766)
So, you’re in New York, I’m from New Jersey, I’m Dallas by way of New Jersey, and it’s a different climate out there, it’s cold a lot of the year. So, how are people utilizing these spaces, half of the year, are they not able to utilize it, are some people doing it where they can utilize the space even when it’s cold?

Steve (08:12.15)
Sure, you have hot tubs, you have automatic pool covers that keep the pool clean in the fall when all the leaves are falling. Lately we’ve been in pavilions, fireplaces inside the pavilion, heaters in the pavilion, big screen TVs, basically outdoor offices, let’s say. People work from home now, they want to have a space where they can kind of plug into the laptop and do work.

work from home. So basically all we’re doing is we’re doing an expansion of the home. We’re in New York or wherever the properties are could be big could be small but the taxes are super high right taxes are high so I try to tell everybody maximize every square inch of your property right well why just limit it to the in four walls extend it outside put big sliding doors those nano doors where the whole wall opens up in its glass and the outside actually comes in

and the inside actually goes out, so it’s actually an expansion of the home.

Dylan Silver (09:11.726)
Wow, that’s a beautiful concept. You said something about having an outdoor office. I’ve actually thought it because I’m on a ranch here in Dallas, North Dallas, in a town called Denton. And I’ve thought about this quite a bit. thought, you know, wouldn’t it be nice if I could kind of host this podcast outdoors, if you will? We’ve got farm animals on the ranch. We’ve got some cattle. We’ve got some roosters, some goats. And it’s just nice looking at them. But I’m inside, you know? But I should be outside.

Steve (09:37.654)
That would be cool. You should be outside, man. What are you doing inside?

Dylan Silver (09:41.326)
That’s what I’m saying, I need a Steve Griggs out here to design our…

Steve (09:44.095)
You need, I travel. You can get those misters, the air conditioner misses that mist cold air on you on those nice hot summer days with a ceiling fan. could be outside all, outside podcasts would be, outside podcasts would be so cool.

Dylan Silver (09:55.074)
This is what I’m saying.

That would be a game changer. The thing that we would have to figure out is wind is a factor. So there’d have to be some way, because even in here, if I have the AC pointed at the microphone, it makes things difficult. So I’d have to game plan for the wind. But I’ve thought about it a lot.

Steve (10:13.344)
Big plexiglass. Big sheets of plexiglass. Yeah.

Dylan Silver (10:16.984)
Yeah, have it hang down. Well, we’ve got the idea. Now I got to just build the studio out here. But I’m curious, know, a lot a lot of people, I’d say, after COVID specifically and during COVID specifically, we saw this kind of remote lifestyle become more and more common. And I don’t know if you maybe saw an uptick in your business, but I definitely saw an uptick online of these spaces becoming more, at least more popular.

Steve (10:21.514)
That’s it.

Dylan Silver (10:45.838)
I was seeing, we mentioned one of the designers that I saw in California before hopping on here, and I was thinking, you know, I saw, and I’ve been seeing a lot more of this on my feed, and I’m not really even in the space. Have you seen this, that because of COVID and because people are working more from home, that people are actually more inclined to really make these spaces their dream spaces, and they were maybe pastimes?

Steve (11:09.502)
I think people really, COVID has really helped my business tremendously, right? Because I think people really value outdoors. Because in New York City, I remember you were locked down, you couldn’t go anywhere. Now it’s like, so people really appreciate the outdoors now, nature, fragrant flowers, butterfly gardens. Like they just getting a sense of, and they’re coming back to the real root of everything where I need to take care of myself internally as well as externally, right?

Now it’s calm and people only work four days a week now. Right? They’re working from home, so-called home. They’re working, I was at a job site walk through one day and a girl, she was sitting by the pool, like on her laptop, and her mother’s like, oh, she’s working from home today. It’s like, I mean, you’re working, I mean, all right, I won’t say nothing if you won’t, but yeah, she’s on the laptop working from home, laying on the lounge chair. I mean, what a great place.

Dylan Silver (11:59.201)
to the floor.

Dylan Silver (12:06.178)
What a good life. We be so lucky. You I’ve thought about, as you mentioned, like gardens. I recently became a member of the Dallas Arboretum. And I was kind of just passing it. And I said, that looks nice. Let me hop in. And then I became a member because it was like to go a handful of times. It was the same price as just being a member. So I said, let me go be a member. Well, then I’m a member. So now I’m like, well, I got to go use it. I love going to the Arboretum. Who would have thought? I never really cared for anything related to.

you know, gardens or anything like this. I liked maybe going for hikes or being in nature, but it is so beautiful and so honestly nice to see that people have made curated spaces on lots of land where there’s, you know, you’ve got water gardens, you’ve got, you know, ponds, you’ve got fish in the ponds, and you’ve got a beautiful view of the lake, you know, in Dallas. And it’s just nice that we did this in the middle of the city. I think that

We need more spaces like that.

Steve (13:05.578)
by the way, it’s very good, it’s great exercise, man. Like you’re working in the garden all day, it’s great exercise. You will sleep good at night. It’s a good workout. But it’s nice to have the option though, right? Like my guys, do it every day, every day. It’s a lot every day. But you want to go out there on a Saturday and putz around for a couple hours. But to do it every day, hard work.

Dylan Silver (13:09.57)
Yeah.

Dylan Silver (13:14.094)
That’s for sure.

Dylan Silver (13:28.544)
Now, I guess one of the interesting things is with these jobs, right, it’s not like you can just snap your fingers and the space is revitalized overnight. Are you seeing that a lot of people start thinking about this when it’s, you know, maybe warmer months and then it’s, well, they can use it, but maybe not immediately. Or are you seeing a lot of people, they’ll start thinking about it during winter months for in preparation for the summer.

Steve (13:50.559)
Now, that’s, they should think about it a while in advance because like we talked about before, it takes time to get permitting and to build a space, to schedule it. You can’t wake up in April 1 and say, wow, want a half a million dollar backyard. I want to be swimming by Memorial Day. People don’t understand the amount of effort that goes into a project like that. The best jobs to do is start it in the fall, get the concrete in, get the pool in and then clink.

planted in the spring so you can have it in time.

Dylan Silver (14:22.486)
Now your business is based out of there in New York. Are you just in New York right now? Or I shouldn’t say just, but is your business focused out there in New York? Have you done deals outside of the state as well?

Steve (14:31.604)
Yeah, Massachusetts, California, Atlanta, we’re able to, you know, by the way we have the model built up is we’ll design it and then we bring in our trade partners that can handle, know, everybody’s not great at everything, right? Like the stonemasons that are good at stone, there’s lighting guys that are good at lighting guys. Every guy, one guy can’t do it all or one crew can’t do it all. They have to be specialized, especially when you’re doing the higher end work. The quality has to be there.

Dylan Silver (15:00.61)
Now, you mentioned multiple different areas, I mean, multiple different coasts, but also even New York to Massachusetts. How do you scale a business that can be effective across vast areas and state lines?

Steve (15:13.108)
Well, because they’re calling me and they’re calling me, they call me in to think, they don’t call me in to dig, right? They want me for my vision, not to dig a hole. I can call out, but I will execute the job like a conductor in a orchestra, right? I make the music, right? I’m able to move all the pieces. Because coordination of a project is crucial, the sequencing of a project. So it comes in on time and on budget, right? You have to know what you’re doing.

Dylan Silver (15:39.074)
Now, when you’re finding these highly skilled, I mean, one of the things you mentioned, I was thinking about it, is stonemasons, right? This is probably a skill, I hope it’s not a skill that we’re losing, but it’s definitely a very tricky skill. I like to say, semi-jokingly, but semi-seriously, I say, don’t know what happened. We had these beautiful statues during the Renaissance period, where you got a statue of David, right? And then,

today I’ll see these statues of these people and it looks nothing like them. I said, what happened? So, know, stone masons are definitely important. How is it that you’re able to have, I would say, continuity or is that really not in your purview? It’s not your job to find these contractors.

Steve (16:25.114)
No, no, it’s always my job to find the contractors. I mean, if we’re in the New York area, I have the same teams for 20 years, right? So I know the team, but if I’m going remotely at all, I’ll go out there, you know, a few different times and I’ll interview different contractors. I’ll go look at their work. I’ll vet them. And you can tell, like I can tell good work from bad work.

Dylan Silver (16:45.358)
Sure. You know, I think a lot of people on this subject of being able to scale their business, I’ll give you an example. There was a developer that I was talking to from Wisconsin who ended up saying, I’m moving to Florida. And he moved to Florida. And I said, how are you doing your business in Wisconsin in Florida? And he said, well, it’s really warm in Florida. I like living in Florida. I still have my office out there in Wisconsin. I’m from Wisconsin. I’m familiar with the area. And so that’s how he was able to scale.

his business was because he really built a strong base out there in Wisconsin and he just was tired of the winners effectively. As someone who’s from New York, how were you able to scale your business beyond New York? it as simple as you, or I shouldn’t say simple, but was it you had people and clients from other areas of the country and you had to adapt to that or was it a concerted effort that you made to expand your business to these other areas?

Steve (17:39.767)
A lot of people have summer homes, second homes, third homes, stuff like that. So they have it in other places, right? Colorado, wherever it may be. Yeah, yeah, yeah, can you go to Massachusetts and take care of my summer home? But sure, so they already know you like you and trust you, so that’s that. Being online has helped with that. A guy from Sacramento found me online, and that’s how that became.

Dylan Silver (17:51.022)
So they’re coming back to you and saying, hey, I’ve got this home wherever this might be.

Steve (18:08.886)
You know, being online and that whole thing does help a lot. You have to do it, but you can’t fake it, right? It’s work. You just can’t post an Instagram story and say, hire me, but it just takes time, right, to get this. So that’s how they found me on there.

Dylan Silver (18:27.116)
I do want to pivot a bit, Steve, and ask about scaling a business in general in the real estate space. know, one of the difficult things that people deal with is you want to, of course, find new people to work with, but you also want to be able to complete projects. And on my level, on the micro level that I’m on, looking at, you know, I want to find infill lots that I can purchase, but I also want to find investors who can partner with me we can open up LLCs so we can build on these properties. And it’s not all

my own money. can’t do one without the other. can’t just buy up these info lots. And I can’t just look for investors because I got to have both things. And one of the things I struggle with, I think a lot of people struggle with is how do you balance that? How do you make sure that, you know, you’re meeting both ends? You’re both finding the clients but also finding the bandwidth to operate.

Steve (19:16.534)
That’s what I do now, right? So I’m running the jobs, I’m doing the social media, so there’s two different hats to the business, right? There’s the design, the execution of the design, and then there’s the marketing of the business, right? So your question is how do you scale that? You need people, right? You need people. So you have to build a good culture and you have to bring the people in. And you have to trust your people to make mistakes, right?

and don’t hold her hand.

Dylan Silver (19:45.474)
Now, on culture, and we talked about this briefly before hopping on here, culture is of course important. helps limit turnover and helps keep people happy about working and loyal. If someone was starting a business, whether in your space or maybe a related space within real estate, any advice that you would give them on establishing a culture?

Steve (20:12.49)
Yeah, never ask anybody to do something that you wouldn’t do if you haven’t done yourself. Right? The guy in Wisconsin, I’m sure he’s a great guy, but you need to keep your finger on the pulse as well, right? You have to, you can’t be an absentee owner, right? Especially in the home building business. You know, you have to, you know, I think you need to be there and, you know, cheer the team on. They want to see the owner.

You’re the face of the business, right? So you need to be the face of the business. You’re the brand. Like if you’re the infill guy, you gotta be the, not an infill guy, the infill guy, right? You need to be an expert in your space. You have to be the guy. You have to be the guy. So you have to be the guy for the infill. Like, hey, I got a few bucks, wanna, what do you got? And you have infill lots, And then so you’ll find the lot.

Dylan Silver (20:54.274)
Yeah, it’s highly regional.

Dylan Silver (20:58.838)
I completely agree.

Steve (21:10.398)
You find the lot, you put together the money, correct? You bring the partners in. So it’s kind of like me, I design it, I bring it. So once you have the lot and you bring the investor in, then what do you do with the property? You flip it or you build it?

Dylan Silver (21:23.458)
So right now we’re looking at, hopefully, fingers crossed, I’d like to put some modular homes on these properties. Now granted, we’re looking at how we’re gonna get this done exactly. This is my first time delving into modular homes, but it’s a really an interesting space. I actually had a guest on this show who introduced me to this idea, which is you can have homes that look, in they are, identical to, in many ways, even higher quality than stick-built homes, because there’s

more stringent inspections. They’ll have garages and all this. And if you look at them, they look identical to stick built homes, but they’re like 50 to 75 % of the cost because they’re built off site. huge, huge. She was telling me too that I didn’t know this. I said, where are the modular homes in New Jersey? She said, they’re out there. I said, really? Where are they? So I, I, I said, we probably need more of that because I just know home pricing out there is certainly

Steve (22:05.962)
Yeah, Marshall is huge.

Steve (22:22.55)
It’s not even the home prices, So it can only be a certain dimension, right? Because they’ve got to bring it on a trail, right? So it’s got to be, I forget, what it, 16 feet by whatever it is and they piece it together. What I like about the modular is, especially in the Northeast, like the cold, you know, they’re building it in a factory. They’re not hanging off a scaffold in 8 degree weather. And it can go up quicker, right? And you don’t have to really manage

Dylan Silver (22:22.638)
When was the last time hair?

Dylan Silver (22:31.149)
Right.

Dylan Silver (22:47.693)
reason.

Steve (22:52.406)
you know, different subcontractors. So your role should be just the execution of this project. You should be… Oh my God, you should find the land, get the money, put the house up, get a piece of the… Either keep it or get a piece of it.

Dylan Silver (23:08.822)
Yeah, that’s the game plan. Ideally, we’ll see exactly what happens. was talking actually funny enough with an attorney on this show telling me, well, you really can’t. The safer way for you to do it is to have LLCs with them and everyone gets an enormous vote. That way it’s not securitized. So I was thinking about that. And then I’m also realizing, you know, there’s other ways to where people were in. I’m in Texas, so it’s kind of a different situation, but lots of vacant land, lots of vacant land.

So I think there’s also a rule right now where you’re allowed to have multiple dwellings on the same property. So potentially we could have people with all this vacant land, they might have their home on the property, they’re not doing anything with the land. I come in and say, look, let me lease the land from you and in exchange, let me put a modular home on this property. I’ll give you a percentage of the rents. And now you get to cashflow from the property and I get a place to put the modular home. So, know, a creative way to get a deal done.

Steve (24:05.622)
Sure, would we do like a 99 year lease or something like that?

Dylan Silver (24:08.472)
That’s exactly, yeah, I was thinking about it from Home Depot. I was thinking like, how does these places get their leases? And then one of the people was telling me, well yeah, but you’re not, you know, you’re not Home Depot. I said, they thought of it from somewhere, so I’m gonna see if I can do something similar.

Steve (24:26.23)
Same thing, right? But vacant land, it’s gotta be, I guess it’s got a cash flow, it’s gotta, you know, the NOI has to work out, like you can’t just put it in the middle of a tumbleweed field either, right?

Dylan Silver (24:27.8)
Yeah, that’s

Dylan Silver (24:39.618)
Yeah, can. mean, one of the interesting things is, so I’m in DFW, Dallas, and I moved from San Antonio. Dallas specifically is huge. You’ve got, DFW is Dallas, but you’ve got Fort Worth. I live in a town called Denton, which is closer to Oklahoma than it is to Dallas, driving and distance-wise. But it’s still considered DFW. So I’m one exit away from a town called Sanger, which is, you know, now you’re really on the outskirts of DFW, but still, I’m close enough to

Steve (24:47.669)
Huge.

Dylan Silver (25:08.994)
Dallas that I’m going in all the time. I it’s definite. I mean I grew up in New Jersey 27 miles from Manhattan I felt way further away from Manhattan than I do from Dallas, and it’s probably a similar

Steve (25:23.286)
How far of a drive, how far of it, if somebody lives out where you’re thinking about building these homes, how far of a drive is it?

Dylan Silver (25:29.486)
It’s about 40 to 50 minutes in the morning and then at 5pm it’d be about 90 minutes. So it’s not exactly…

Steve (25:37.11)
Well listen, it’s the same thing. If I wanted to live in Midtown Manhattan, I can pay 10 grand a month, 20 grand a month in rent. If I wanted to live out by dent, I could pay three grand a month. You know what saying? So it’s all… You gotta travel.

Dylan Silver (25:46.84)
That’s exactly right. And that’s really the opportunity. So I was never thinking about vacant land or infill lots or anything like this, but I had a bunch of RV people talk to me, really kind of hyping me up on land. And then I’m also realizing, well, where’s my experience? I don’t really have the experience with RV, but I have the experience with fix and flips. I have the experience with dealing with distress sellers. I have the experience with

dealing with investors who do fix and flip. So that’s a closer pivot to new bills than it is to RV. So now we’re seeing like, well, who’s got the vacant land? Of course, you’ve got, you know, infill lots that for whatever reason may be fire damage. Who knows why there’s an infill out wherever it is, but what can we do with it? So I’m definitely, you know, interested about it. And I think land in general, land in general is going to be hot for real estate investors and for real estate entrepreneurs. And I think that

Steve (26:20.214)
Sure.

Dylan Silver (26:45.742)
We’re gonna start seeing more of that, that’s kinda gonna be in vogue as land.

Steve (26:49.718)
How is the permit, like, you know, New Jersey, I mean, how is it down there? Is it easy? Seems like it’s easier.

Dylan Silver (26:53.345)
Harmonic, yeah.

So I will say that I guess I don’t know if I should say, but it seems like any time that people are doing fix and flips in general, they’re kind of rolling the dice and not pulling permits, at least out here for putting for putting a modular home on the property. You’re going to need permits for that, of course. Now, the difficult thing that I’ve seen is people and maybe it’s because it’s so new, people aren’t

sure what a modular home is. So when I say modular, they think mobile home, they think manufactured home. So

Steve (27:30.806)
It’s like a swimming pool. say vinyl pool, they think cheap. You say modular, it sounds cheap. Sjatchpt, what another name you can use for modular? Something a little more sexier than modular.

Dylan Silver (27:34.05)
Right. Right.

Dylan Silver (27:41.364)
Exactly. You know. And so one of the things that I’ve been thinking about is like offsite constructions and but the one of the interesting things, too, is there’s actually limited financial instruments to get these deals financed. So if I if I don’t myself own the land, then it will only qualify for auto loan. I have to get a mobile home loan, which is effectively an auto loan on these these properties. So.

I’m looking at maybe I gotta do private money, maybe I gotta bring other capital partners in and make LLCs or who knows.

Steve (28:17.626)
Have you tried, so you’ll say you’ll have a homeowner that has a 10 acre lot, let’s say, right? And is it zoned? Do you have separate zoning out there? I’m, because where we are, like it can only zone like a zone for our 40, I need 40,000 square feet to build a 3000 square foot home. it that stringent down there?

Dylan Silver (28:24.418)
Yeah.

Dylan Silver (28:28.598)
Yeah

Dylan Silver (28:36.846)
I do have to look more into that. I suspect that a lot of these areas that will be an issue as far as the zoning rules and regulations, that is going to come into play. The people that I’ve been speaking with specifically will have like multiple acres and maybe they’re going to look at dividing it into three different plots so that we could put in multiple different modulars. But

To your point, I don’t know. I’m not.

Steve (29:06.514)
So I’ve done some developing too. So yeah, we had to get the approval. So if you took a track of land, chopped it up, sell what’s known as an approved lot, right? It’s approved. Meaning you don’t have to worry about contracts. don’t have to build the monitors. You’re just putting in the infrastructure, road, sewer, water, and electric, or whatever you have, septic or well, and then you’re basically just selling the lots. You can do that too. That’s a cleaner.

Dylan Silver (29:29.794)
We may do that. We may do that. Now, one of the things…

Steve (29:35.2)
That’s a cleaner thing. then when you build a home, the problem with building a home is the modular home. Now you’re tied to this home for 10 years, whatever the warranty is. But if you’re selling the lots, yeah, you won’t make as much, but you can move quickly.

Dylan Silver (29:48.694)
One of the interesting things, this is funny because this is how regional real estate is, I actually live in an area of Denton where there has been this big subdivision where it looks like they are trying to break ground and it’s been like this for months and months and months and I’m like, what’s going on here? And I’ve heard maybe they’re gonna default, but the issue is they don’t have utilities out there yet. So something is holding it up from getting utilities out there.

As I saw that, kind of made me scared of it. But these are kind of risks within within real estate, right? So if I was going to go and do this, ideally, it’d be someplace where already there is some type of connection out there and it’s just been undeveloped. And, know, that’s that’s at least my play, what I’m looking at. But Steve, we actually are coming up on time here. Where can folks go to get a hold of you, to learn more about your business and to reach out to you?

Steve (30:44.022)
SteveGriggsDesign.com, the website, bunch of pictures on there. If you want, I’ll send you link to the digital version of our best-selling book called Straight Dirt. It’s got a lot of pictures in there of jobs we’ve done, some tips and tricks. And as everybody knows now, Instagram is the hot item, so at SteveGriggsDesign is the Instagram. Or they call it IG, huh?

Dylan Silver (31:10.092)
Yeah, you’re right. You’re on IG. Steve Griggs on IG. Steve, thank you so much for coming on the show here today.

Steve (31:17.527)
Thank you, Dylan. It was a lot of fun.