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Show Summary
In this episode, Nazareth Abovian shares his extensive experience in construction and restoration, emphasizing proactive property inspections, trust-building with clients, and industry trends like AI. Discover practical tips for property maintenance, risk mitigation, and how to foster better contractor-client relationships.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Nazareth (00:00)
no, it’s almost, almost accurate, very to the T, very accurate. Almost 70 % of the old residents are not going back.Cody Crabb (00:06)
Wow.Wow, that’s wild.
Nazareth (00:09)
They can’tafford to rebuild. For example, I’ll give you a perfect example. If you think your house is worth a million dollars if you sell it today, right? If that house burns down, do you think you can rebuild it for a million dollars?
Cody Crabb (01:51)
Hello and welcome back to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m Cody Crabb, your host, and today we are joined by Nazareth Abovian. He’s the owner and operator of NTOE, which is a construction and renovation company based in greater Los Angeles. He’s got tons of experience running his company. He’s got some niche strategies that he’s found to be really helpful in what he does. We’re gonna talk about the kind ofrange in projects we’ve seen, he’s seen in kind of ways we can work with contractors in general in our advantage to get the best outcome for everybody. So Nazareth, thank you so much for joining us today.
Nazareth Abovian (02:24)
Thank you guys for having me. Sorry I’m sitting in the car and doing this. This is the only time I can find incredibly busy schedules. So thank you for having me. And I’ll…Cody Crabb (02:34)
No, we get it.If anyone gets it, it’s people in this industry. They definitely understand. So you’ve been in construction for, you said 25 years or so?
Nazareth Abovian (02:44)
45 plus, yes. When I was a young guy, Me and the family started flipping homes and then basically one thing led to another.Cody Crabb (02:47)
That’s a lot.Gotcha, okay, that was my first question is kinda how did you get started? So, started flipping homes and you’re like, hey, the actual work of this is kinda, I like this and let’s keep doing it.
Nazareth Abovian (02:59)
Yeah, so afterdoing that for a ⁓ while and it was very successful and then obviously I stumbled onto the restoration industry and obviously they go hand in hand and we merged basically those two. went after my certifications and then my licenses and stuff like that and then I started doing things professionally for others. So that’s how we got started.
Cody Crabb (03:17)
Kind of by accident, sounds like. That’s awesome. ⁓ Well, yeah, and then so what were some of the early projects that kind of started to define your business? Can you think of a project that was like, that’s when we really started getting off the ground?Nazareth Abovian (03:21)
cut them.Right, so basically projects got bigger and bigger and bigger. At one point we were building luxury condominium buildings. And ⁓ after that, obviously, like I said, when the virus stumbled onto the restoration world, that was approximately when the market crashed in 2008-2009. So when that happened, we kind of more, yeah, know, we lost a lot of money, trust me. And we kind of concentrated on the restoration side.
Cody Crabb (03:50)
wow.Nazareth Abovian (03:57)
where that thing was still hot and the insurance were still going. It’s not like it was today, it was much, much earlier. So we basically got deeper and deeper into that and that brought us to today where it expanded to all kinds of things but everything to do with property. Obviously we have become experts in our industry and in our field. We started doing educational.Cody Crabb (04:00)
huh.Nazareth Abovian (04:22)
things we have started giving away free free free information where a lot of ⁓ companies in our industry don’t they kind of hold on to that little god how you know my god god forbid anybody finds out but in our in my mindsetCody Crabb (04:36)
Yeah.Nazareth Abovian (04:36)
pioneer and you’re doing something out of the heart people will you will attract peopleCody Crabb (04:43)
Yeah,it’s funny that you say that, because investor fuel, that’s like our whole thing, basically. It’s like information is information. you’ve heard the rising tide lifts all ships.
Anyone that I know that has dealt with a contractor, they’re either really, really happy or really, really unhappy. There’s not really a whole lot of, it’s fine. So I think you’re right.
Nazareth (05:01)
I love my work. Trustme, I love my work. I wake up every morning and go to work happy. I don’t dread my career.
Cody Crabb (05:06)
That’s great.That’s awesome. See, and that’s good. think that’s really good. So we were chatting a little bit ⁓ before the podcast started and you said something that really kind of stuck out to me. You said a lot of the construction industry kind of operates reactive in a reactive way instead of proactive. So what exactly do you mean? Like what ways do you see the industry acting reactively instead of proactively?
Nazareth (06:08)
Yes.Well, just
think of the restoration business, think of the construction business. Actually, think of the emergency services that the restoration industry offers. some pipe breaks, you have a flood, you call a restoration company or your insurance, they come and handle it. Thousands and thousands of dollars and all that stuff. You have mold, again, thousands of thousands of dollars, and it’s all based on reactive situation. You find it, you call us, we come fix it.
Cody Crabb (06:33)
Yeah.Nazareth (06:40)
But, you know, obviously insurance, policies, claims, all kinds of stuff. At that moment, it’s a headache upon a headache. So what we figured is what can we do to help these situations, at least minimize these situations? So we came up with the proactive inspections. And obviously later on, if you want to, it goes into a little bit more detailed documentation, photos, attachments, reports, that kind of stuff as well. But in the beginning, we offer free initial inspections.Cody Crabb (06:40)
Yeah.Nazareth (07:07)
for you to have an understanding with your property conditions. Completely free. It does not cost you anything. You want to hire us? Listen, I’m not allergic to money. You don’t want to hire us? Don’t worry about it. The next person will. But I think overall it’s good business. And at the same time, we’re helping customers to understand exactly what they’re facing. Like one of the things, for example, give me your insurance policy. Let me take a look at it.Cody Crabb (07:26)
Yeah.Nazareth (07:30)
Most of these guys in Pacific Palisades and Altadena from the LA fires that are suffering right now as we speak is nobody knew what they’re covered for. Nobody knew what kind of policies they have. Nobody knew what their limits were. And 70 % of people are not going back to their houses because of this. So it’s travesty.Cody Crabb (07:46)
Is that like a, that’slike a real, were you just kind of estimating or like, is that like a
number? That’s crazy.
Nazareth (07:49)
No, no, no, no, no, no, no,no, it’s almost, almost accurate, very to the T, very accurate. Almost 70 % of the old residents are not going back.
Cody Crabb (07:57)
Wow.Wow, that’s wild.
Nazareth (07:59)
They can’tafford to rebuild. For example, I’ll give you a perfect example. If you think your house is worth a million dollars if you sell it today, right? If that house burns down, do you think you can rebuild it for a million dollars?
Cody Crabb (08:09)
good point. Especially out there. And especially the kinds of houses that were burning. Yeah, that’s, that’s, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.Nazareth (08:12)
Yep. Exactly. That’s impossible. It’s impossible.So people think they have a million dollar policy, a million dollar house. perfect. I’m covered. No, you’re not.
Cody Crabb (08:22)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I see what you mean. okay, that’s, this inspection angle’s pretty genius because I even, I said as much earlier too, because I was just like, that’s so smart. You end up in the house, you’re with someone walking around. Frankly, you might make your job easier because you just catch something before it’s like catastrophically bad. And so then if they, yeah, yeah.Nazareth (08:42)
It is free marketing at the same time helping the customer for free as well. So,you know, whatever.
Cody Crabb (08:47)
Yeah,and see this is the thing, this is what I, kind of, the one big thing I love in business is kind of doing that like without any pretext or anything you just help somebody. Like give somebody some help and that’s, people will come and it seems like you’re, like you said, it seems like you’re losing something but you really don’t at all if it comes back to you quite a bit. So.
Nazareth (09:01)
Yeah.I don’t see it that
way. I don’t see it losing anything actually. It’s just good business overall.
Cody Crabb (09:13)
Right.It is, really, really is. Okay, so during these inspections, how long have you been starting to do this inspection thing? How many years has that been going on?
Nazareth (09:21)
So I bought a franchise about maybe six years ago. Restoration franchise. And we decided by the way on that note to step away from them, ⁓ up various reasons and to go back to independent again. But when I bought this restoration franchise, I can’t knock them on everything. They taught me a lot. I got to learn a lot.Cody Crabb (09:35)
Mm-hmm.Nazareth (09:43)
And as far as the inspections goes, in our franchise we have policies where the call comes in, we have to go to check regardless. To look at the property, to inspect the property, then give them a report to the insurance company back. And then we proceed with all kinds of restoration work. So that kind of elevated itself to doing this on our own, on independent and stuff like that. had nothing to with insurance anyway. So little by little by little by little, you will find like people really need this. They really want it.Cody Crabb (10:05)
Yeah.Yeah, I’m starting to think about like, I wonder what I got going on here. You know what mean? Yeah, so that’s even just someone even just talking about potential issues. You’re like, oh yeah, I should probably check on that.
Nazareth (10:47)
especially management companies.I will
Right, so
the other day, by the way, we’re very big on lunch and learns and presentations for companies. We take them delicious lunch, first of all, for everybody to enjoy. And on top of that, we give them a lot of information. Like for example, we did one for a big real estate company the other day, which is something a little different than our usual customers. So the real estate company was interested in our free inspections. So we helped the agent.
Cody Crabb (11:03)
awesome.Nazareth (11:25)
before they list the property for us to go and put eyes on it. And they’re inspected that does their inspection. All they do is get a report and then what? Now they have to scramble and hire a contractor, a subcontractor, this, that, all of those things until they actually on top of that understand what the cost of all of that is so they can either offer a discount to the buyer or fix it before the buyer comes in. All of those things, again, is good business. Now we’re there.We’re all in one company when we can handle everything. You want to hire us, hire us. You don’t want to hire us, we just created a beautiful relationship. Period.
Cody Crabb (12:01)
Yeah, yeah, and also I just, it’s that thing of having your card on the fridge, you know, like you might not need, they might not need you now, but they’re gonna be, you’re gonna be on their mind next time they need somebody too, so that’s great. ⁓ So just.Nazareth (12:03)
There you go.Listen, the beauty of our business,
the beauty of our business, I want to just mention this, you might not get a call from that customer for the entire year, but that one phone call could be a million dollar claim.
Cody Crabb (12:21)
Yeah, you never know. Yeah, that’s true. Yeah. All right, so during these inspections, what kinds of issues do you see the most? Like, what are the ones that you see that kind of people miss until it’s too late? Not too late, but like until it’s a really, really, yeah, that makes sense. Like what type of wear and tear?Nazareth (12:22)
Know what I mean? You’ll never know.wear and tear Right wear and tear wear and tear
Like for example number one plumbing obviously They don’t know what’s going on inside there. Yeah, they don’t know what’s going on inside their walls Especially in their showers toilets and stuff like that until they actually see some kind of either Bubbling up warping, you know deterioration or mold At that moment that point already. It’s already too late and it is going back to the reactive now
Cody Crabb (12:44)
Yeah, everyone’s nightmare.Yeah.
Yeah.
Nazareth (13:01)
where we can come in six months earlier, a year earlier, and it’ll be the fraction of the cost to fix that problem, then it’s already too late.Cody Crabb (13:10)
Yeah, you find a leak before it’s actually showing through the wall. I mean, that’ll… I can’t even imagine how much of a difference that would make.Nazareth (13:13)
Exactly. I mean we got very expensiveequipment that we use and obviously we can detect a lot of stuff. We can see a lot of stuff.
Cody Crabb (13:20)
Okay, we’re giving tips to people that are investing in real estate, right? So one of the things I would like to do, if you were gonna tell somebody, hey, here’s what you should look for. Give me the top couple of things. What should you be checking for in your own property that’s like, this will be, if you don’t do this right, it’s gonna be a huge problem. You said the plumbing was a big one. I absolutely agree with that.Nazareth (13:26)
Yes.I would encourage every investor, especially to do with expensive property that they’re going to jump into. The property inspectors, come and inspect what? Termites, the sewer line, some major leak or not. They take a look at the roof, and that’s about it. Nobody does a proper water test. Nobody really tells them, listen, you don’t have maybe a problem right now this second, but next second you might.
Nobody will test windows for water leakages. And at the same time, if the wall is not wet, that’s it, we’re good. But that’s not the case. There’s so many other things that are going on inside your walls that you don’t know about. The windows, I mean, we all know, let’s not be around the bush. When you’re buying a house, the seller manicures the whole thing beautifully and then you walk in, look, everything is nice, clean, painted. Come on, we all know that’s not the real situation.
Cody Crabb (14:23)
Yeah.Yeah, I just saw a post online
about a guy putting a fake vent over a hole in his ceiling. So yeah, know, that’s a big thing. Yeah.
Nazareth (14:41)
Yeah, nobody checks ducts. Yeah, nobody checks ducts.Nobody checks expiration dates. Nobody looks at, by the way, one of the biggest things, when was the last time you had a home inspector test for asbestos or lead? Nobody does that. But God forbid you have any remodel, you can’t disturb that anymore. And your cost just went up triple because now you got to hire an abatement company to come. And this is not a regular demo that you can call your buddy.
Cody Crabb (14:56)
That’s true, yeah that’s true.Yeah.
Nazareth (15:08)
or a handyman to come and do. That’s it. Now it’s a licensees, certificates gotta get involved, the city’s gotta get involved. It’s a headache. Nobody tells you this before you basically jump into the property.Cody Crabb (15:09)
Yeah.So okay, if someone owns a property, how often should somebody get their property inspected if they’re being careful, like they’re being cautious? How often would you say it would be good to get it inspected?
Nazareth (16:12)
So we have programs that we roll out either monthly, quarterly or yearly or one-offs if for that matter. Obviously everything goes from expensive to cheaper. If you hire me on monthly basis, I’m there on monthly basis and most of the time monthly based companies that hire us are the multi-unit buildings. imagine how much problems there is in an HOA. So the HOA hires us or the management company hires us. We inspect all the common areas fromCody Crabb (16:23)
Yeah.Nazareth (16:39)
out of the highest point on your roof, which is the HVAC system, and then down to the gutters, the windows, the stucco, the decks, parking, plumbing, drainage, all of that stuff. And you have us there for every month, once a month. We give you a comprehensive report, detailed with attachment, beautiful photos, and then basically you take that information and do whatever you want.Cody Crabb (17:00)
That’s great. See, yeah, I think that’s key.I think that looking at it that way is really, I think that’s a great way to do it.
I think the inspection angle is really smart. Why do you think more people in your industry are not doing this?
Nazareth (17:14)
Again, we go back to the trust issue. People might think it’s a double-edged sword. I’m a salesman. I’m coming and telling them something that hasn’t happened yet, and I’m creating a business for myself. It’s a trust issue. And all I can say about that is your track record means a lot. Your social media also means a lot. They need to see who you are, your expertise, where you’ve been, references, referrals, ratings, all of that matters.And of course personal relationships is key, number one. But obviously you gotta go beyond that. You gotta go to somebody’s house you’ve never seen before.
Cody Crabb (17:41)
Yeah.Yeah, well, and I think you’re starting to,
yeah, well, and you’re starting the relationship off on this foot of like, I’m not gonna say you have to hire me. before anything happens, you’re like, I’ll let you know what’s wrong and then I can walk away if you want me to. That already is like a really big trust builder, I think.
Nazareth (17:59)
Yeah, I mean listen, you gotTony and you been working with Tony for so many years and you love Tony, hire Tony. But at least you got to know what to tell Tony to do.
Cody Crabb (18:10)
Yeah, definitely, definitely. So okay, when you’re working with a property manager or a property owner, property investor, what makes them a good client? So let’s say our listeners are about to hire somebody to do some restoration stuff or otherwise. What makes them like you love working withNazareth (18:11)
You get it?Cody Crabb (18:28)
What qualities do they have?Nazareth (18:29)
Great question, great, great question.On my social media, I always say this by the way, the fastest way for any job or claim to fall through is when the customer and the contractor don’t trust each other. When the customer thinks they know better than the contractor. And obviously that contractor has to be reputable to begin with. But if you hire that contractor, give him the steering wheel. Let him do what he does.
Why is he a professional? Why does he hold that license? There’s a reason for it, right? Let him do it. You didn’t just hire a handyman. Exactly, let him do what he does. If you guys are together, understanding together, trust each other, everything will go so much smoother. But if you don’t trust him and you think you know more than him, everything falls apart.
Cody Crabb (19:01)
There’s a reason you’re calling somebody instead of trying it yourself. Yeah.Yeah, I definitely can see that.
Nazareth (19:20)
So I love the customer that says,Nazareth, you know what? Just do what you do. I love that. I love that. And I will go above and beyond and then some.
Cody Crabb (19:26)
Yeah.Let you be the expert and do your thing and yeah, just get after it. I think that’s a good point, like pretty much anyone that you hire. If you’re hiring them, that’s, I think you’re right, it comes down to trust. So your strategy of kind of starting off on a foot of like, hey, well, it’s up to you what you do, then that’s a great way to kind of start from there.
Nazareth (19:38)
All right.Nobody’s saying, yeah,
nobody’s saying be dumb and just like, just give the keys to the contractor and just like, so walk away. But if you have a relationship, you trust your guy, let him do what he does. Like, ⁓ for example, it will cost you more money if you don’t. Because the guy, if he’s a professional, of course, he already schedules everything. He’ll go, operates this company for a long time. He knows what he’s doing.
Cody Crabb (20:04)
Yeah, that’s great.Nazareth (20:18)
He’s organizing everything already before he even starts it. Once you get in and you start taking that steering wheel away from him, that’s it. Everything falls apart. For your benefit, let him do what he does.Cody Crabb (20:30)
Yeah, man, yeah, that’s such a good point. And I think a lot of people, I think it’s good for real estate investors to hear this side because it’s inevitable, some of them will end up working with people in your situation too. So like, they need to keep this in mind when they’re finding somebody and keeping somebody on deck and stuff. So let’s move on to kind of the market in general. Like have you seen any trends lately? This is one of the things I like to do onon episodes. From your perspective, have you seen any sort of trends starting or happening lately in the industry, or in the market mostly?
Nazareth (21:05)
Obviously, obviously AI is a big thing. It hasn’t touched our industry yet, but it’s coming. It’s definitely, definitely coming. The first thing that it’s touching, obviously the labor in the field is gonna be incredibly difficult for AI to take over. So I’m guessing we’re safe for about 10 years or so after I got those. We might have Tesla coming into a drive, I don’t know, I have no idea. But at least now we’re safe.Cody Crabb (21:08)
Definitely, yeah.You
Yeah, those robots.
Nazareth (21:29)
as far as the field goes but the administrative obviously it’s penetrating already. All these softwares that we have, the administrative side of it is being taken over already little by little where it does the marketing on its own, does the calls on its own, answers, scheduling, all of that stuff, it’s doing all its already on its own. ⁓ I’m not there yet, I’m not there yet. I’m still old fashioned when it comes to stuff like that. I still love my employees.Cody Crabb (21:48)
Wow.Nazareth (21:55)
I think the human element, the customer service, think won’t be replaced for quite some time yet.Cody Crabb (22:00)
Yeah, well and like you said, even if it is replaced, the trust angle is so important with what you do that like that almost is worth not switching over even if you’re really wanting to just because that builds so much already to be like instead of talking to your AI, we’re talking to Christina at the office or talking to Josh that answered the phone. Like that’s so much easier to to get, you know, connection with.Nazareth (22:00)
But it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s over.Yeah.
Right. Right.
I want to touch up on something we just discussed with the customers. For example, you need to have the education, the proper education is not there. That’s why a lot of the trust is not there. So I encourage all the contractors that are taking the contract to first educate your customer on what you’re doing, how you’re doing it, and why you’re doing it. So it’s very, very important for the customer to understand if you did this, why are you doing that?
A lot of them don’t understand that that’s where the problem starts from. And I love, I love, I love walking into jobs where another contractor has been. You know what that tells me? That contractor messed up. They either lied, cheated, or they didn’t know what they’re doing. Now they’re calling a professional. So when I step in at that moment, they surrender. Nazareth, it’s your show. I’m like, all right, thank you. I love those, I love those jobs. Where because you are the savior now.
Cody Crabb (23:14)
Yeah, yeah, you’re gonna do it right. Yeah, you’re gonna swoop in and fix it for real, yeah. We’re just about winding down to the end here, ⁓ so I just have a couple more questions for you. One of them is, so what what preventative maintenance can someone do to get the absolute biggest return down theNazareth (23:15)
You know what I mean? You’re the hero.Yeah, yeah, that’s it.
Nazareth (23:34)
So, I wanna go back to again our subscription-based inspections that we have, but if it’s a one-off, you really wanna check your bathrooms, you wanna check your ⁓ windows, those are in the roof, of course. Those three things are probably the most important things that you have, that you wanna maintain maintenance. You never know you have a problem until it actually starts.the flood or the water intrusion and stuff like that. At that moment, it’s already too late. With the bathrooms, of course, the warping deterioration and the mold, of course, let’s not forget the mold. Mold remediation is incredibly expensive. The smallest job that we take on on mold is minimum $2,000. So imagine it just goes up from that point on.
Cody Crabb (23:59)
It’s an emergency,Cheers.
Yeah, I can imagine.
Nazareth (24:16)
That’s what I would encourage everybody to check is the roofs, all the plumbing and the windows. Those are the main three things that need to be checked. Here and there you also have like slab leaks where you have a broken pipe and stuff like that, but those are almost impossible to detect. But there’s a lot more you could do to…Cody Crabb (24:31)
Yeah, so.Yeah, see that just right there was great advice, because I feel like someone could just be like, okay, now I know what to keep an eye on if they’re looking at a property or they already own a property. That’s a good way to kind of, if they have some anxiety here and you talk about who knows what’s going on in your walls, they actually have something they can check on.
Nazareth (24:49)
I have another advice.I have another advice for somebody that either is experiencing some emergency.
Nazareth (24:55)
Check the laws and regulations and the age of your property because the asbestos and lead is a big thing. And I don’t, I’m not quite sure in every state nationwide, but I think I can attest to this. Prior to 1978, every building needs to be checked for lead and asbestos. And these things are deadly. So by all means, please don’t let these plumbers come in and rip.walls apart all over the place, cross contaminate the house and your lungs for that matter. Check, find out exactly what’s what, have it tested by a hygienist before you start ripping through walls or floors or anything for that matter.
Cody Crabb (25:33)
Yeah, I think that’s fantastic advice. Well, Nazareth, thank you so much for sharing all this. If people want to work with you, first of all, where do they have to be located? What’s your kind of range? ⁓ And then also, how can they find you online?Nazareth (25:43)
So NTOE.ca, obviously the name tells you that we’re in California, only ⁓ for the time being because we are going to be expanding. But NTOE stands for Nazareth’s Team of Experts. So NTOE.ca and that will basically connect you with our YouTube, all the social media and the website of course. And check us out, we have great, great videos.Cody Crabb (25:54)
great.That’s great.
Nazareth (26:08)
lot of educational stuff you actually will learn a lot just by looking at our Instagram posts and social media stuff.Cody Crabb (26:15)
Yeah, sounds like a good follow for anyone in our listeners, because that’s information you’re going to need, for sure.once again, thanks for joining us today. Nazareth. thanks to all you listeners for joining us today on the real estate pros podcast. Go ahead and subscribe if you haven’t already and we’ll see you next time.
