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Show Summary
In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, host Michelle Kesil interviews Asad Almanassra, founder of Let’s Build Cleveland, a construction and remodeling company serving both residential and commercial clients. Asad shares how his company stands out in a highly competitive market through transparency, integrity, and strong customer service. He discusses current market trends, including the shift toward remodeling over new construction, and explains the importance of standard operating procedures for scaling a business. Asad also highlights how marketing, documentation, and financing options help build trust, strengthen relationships, and support continued business growth.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Asad A – Let’s Build Cleveland (00:00)
Yeah, so to answer your question, what separates us from our competitors and how we’ve been able to scale and grow so quickly, I think it’s a few things. One is we’re…We’re honest. We don’t just come in and give a price and then at the end of the job, sell you a sob story of all these things were different than we thought and we need more money. No, we come in and we say, okay, here’s the scope, exactly what we’re going to do and here’s the price. And then we execute. We take our deposit, we get the materials there on time, we show up on time, we get the job done on schedule, we do it safely and we do it with quality. And so you get a really good value.
Michelle Kesil (02:11)
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, Asad Al-Manassra, who is founder of Let’s Build Cleveland, focusing on remodels and construction. So, excited to have you here today, Asad.Asad Almanassra – Let’s Build Cleveland (02:32)
I’m excited to be here. Thank you for having me on the show.Michelle Kesil (02:34)
Yeah, let’s dive in. So first off, those not yet familiar with you and your work, can you share what your main focus is?Asad Almanassra – Let’s Build Cleveland (02:43)
Yeah, of course. So we’re a construction company, construction and remodeling for homes and for commercial projects. ⁓ So we do projects as small as a bathroom remodel or an update ⁓ and as large as a full commercial build out or a full residential development. So if somebody’s got a plot of land and they want to build on it, we’ll build the entire house to spec. Or if there’s a business owner and they want toerect a new commercial property. We’ve done those as well. So really anything in between a bathroom remodel and a whole building we can take care of pretty well.
What are we focused on now? Right now a bit of marketing and just getting branding out. So we’ve been doing work forever.
for a long time, ⁓ but we don’t really have much exposure. So we’re getting on Google and Yelp and Facebook and just getting portfolios and pictures of our work out there, making sure people know who we are and how to contact us and.
You know, going past the word of mouth, you know, doing work for people in my network and referrals, trying to scale past that to take care of a larger section of the Northeast Ohio marketplace. So we’re tried and true and now we’re marketing.
Michelle Kesil (04:04)
And are you operating specifically in Cleveland or are there other markets you work in as well?Asad Almanassra – Let’s Build Cleveland (04:12)
Yeah, we’re mainly Cleveland. So anything from downtown Cleveland as far west as Avon Avon Lake, we’ve done projects further east and further west, but we like to stay closer to that market Avon to downtown Cleveland and as far south as say Independence or Strongsville or Columbia Station, which is about a 15 to 20 mile radius of our office in Rocky River, Ohio.So that’s our target market right now. When we get bigger, we’ll take care of a bigger section. But there are so many people with older homes, and there’s so many businesses in that radius. I mean, there’s, I think, well over a million people, a million homeowners in that section of Northeast Ohio. And if we can just do a great job of taking care of a percentage of them, we’ll be happy.
Michelle Kesil (05:51)
Great. What are some of the main types of projects and opportunities that you’re currently working with?Asad Almanassra – Let’s Build Cleveland (06:02)
Yeah, of course. So we’ve done quite a few bathrooms recently. So in our area, like Rocky River, Bay Village, Lakewood, surrounding suburbs, we’ve got these big, beautiful homes that were built in like the 1950s. And so things are very outdated. ⁓You know, for a lot of contractors it’s tricky because they’re tearing apart an old home with a concrete backer behind plaster, behind mesh, and it’s just a real headache. And it’s too big of a project for a lot of DIY people to do themselves. So we’re doing a lot of renovations. We’re doing structural work in garages. So garages that are, you know.
Maybe 60 years ago, somebody put two by four ceiling joists that have been failing for the last 20 or 30 years. You know, we’re fixing structural work in garages and sun rooms and in houses. And after getting the structures sound, then we come and remodel them, make them pretty and update windows and doors, rotting trim, just trying to take old style, old homes and…
make them more modern and more unique and structurally sound and pretty to look at and make them feel more like a new home.
So to answer your question more specifically, bathrooms and kitchens, whole house remodels, some commercial work. Right now ⁓ it’s interesting with the market because a lot of people don’t want to come off of their 2 or 3 % interest rates on their home mortgages. they’re slowing down on buying and selling houses. And instead, they’re just updating what they have. So instead of new builds, they’re doing a lot more remodeling work.
Michelle Kesil (07:58)
Yeah, amazing, that makes sense. What do you feel are some of the main keys that have allowed your business to be able to grow and to continue to run smoothly?Asad Almanassra – Let’s Build Cleveland (08:12)
Yeah, you know, there’s a few things. It’s a very, it’s a saturated market to be a builder, but the good news is it’s a low bar. You know, a lot of people, they either bite off more than they can chew or, you know, they’re trying to make a million bucks off a hundred thousand dollar project or there’s all kinds of just goofy stuff that happens. So we’ve been able to succeed because we’re honest. We’re upfront. We’ll give a quote and that quote’s going to be, here’s what it’s going to cost, you know, and if you want to change things, there’s a change order, butHere’s the scope, here’s exactly what’s going to happen, what we’re going to do, and here’s exactly what you’re going to pay for it. And a lot of times it sounds higher when they’re getting quotes from other people, but…
Because of our transparency, people go with us because it ends up costing them more later when they take the guy who gives them a quote for 75 % of what I quoted for, and then at the end of it, they’re asking for another 30 or 40 or 50%. And they knew they were going to do that the whole time. They knew they’d just get in with a cheap price, and then on the back end, they’d sell a sob story and gouge the customer for more than the job was worth. So our honesty and our transparency has built a lot of trust in our community.
Another thing that helps a lot is having SOPs in place. every part of our business from intake of a lead, qualifying that lead, prepping the job site, getting the job done, payment terms, everything has a standard process.
Asad A – Let’s Build Cleveland
what separates us from our competitors and how we’ve been able to scale and grow so quickly, I think it’s a few things. One is we’re…We’re honest. We don’t just come in and give a price and then at the end of the job, sell you a sob story of all these things were different than we thought and we need more money. No, we come in and we say, okay, here’s the scope, exactly what we’re going to do and here’s the price. And then we execute. We take our deposit, we get the materials there on time, we show up on time, we get the job done on schedule, we do it safely and we do it with quality. And so you get a really good value. ⁓
On top of that, there’s all these things that I used to complain about if I hired people out to sub under me or to do some work when I was busy. And we make sure we just don’t repeat those mistakes that we don’t like. Like somebody not showing up on time or not communicating well or…
making a slap job and then making sure the finishes look good so that you don’t know they did a slap job. No, we do things properly. We make sure the structure is sound. We make sure that the finishes are beautiful. We make sure that you get what you paid for. And we make sure that we communicate with you and keep the job site clean. We also, you know, we offer financing, which helps a lot of people. Our company offers… ⁓
three, six, 12, and 18 months, zero percent financing on bigger projects. Projects up to $100,000 for residential projects, we can actually get financed for you at zero percent interest. And that helps a lot of people out too, because right now, you know…
with the economy the way it is and with uncertainty the way it is and tariffs and all this stuff, material cost and the cost of living rising. People are having a hard time coming up with 50 or 80 grand to do home renovations. So we offer financing and that way you pay no interest and for 12 months you pay seven grand a month instead of having to come up with 80 on the spot. ⁓ So we really try to…
We try to think of the customer first in everything we do. How can I make this as smooth as possible for you and make sure that you’re happy and you’re first to people because we’re in this for the long haul. We want to make sure that we build a good reputation. And so far we have in the last few years. ⁓ I’ve had no bad encounters with the customers. I had one lady try to not pay me in the last five years. ⁓
And that was the only bad encounter, and it had nothing to do with us. ⁓ So that’s how we separate ourselves. We try to take care of people and do things the right way.
Michelle Kesil
Yeah, amazing. think integrity is the biggest key to do that.What are you most focused on solving or scaling to next in your business?
Asad A – Let’s Build Cleveland
Thank you. I think I touched on it a bit earlier. Right now, the biggest thing I’m focused on outside of the field and doing the work is the marketing. Just getting people to know that we exist and we do a great job and we’re available and here’s how to contact us. And here’s portfolios of our work. Here’s where we did a bathroom. It was an old crappy bathroom from the 70s. And we came in, we beautified it, and we made sure that it was long lasting and it was done.right and so just documenting that making sure people can see here’s what this thing looked like at first you know here’s the demolition process here’s what the customer was ⁓
was left with after the job was done properly. Here’s how long it took, here’s about how much it cost. That way, somebody who’s sitting there doesn’t know anything about construction, but just wants a nice bathroom or a nice kitchen or a beautifully remodeled house can trust that we can get it done for them because they’ve seen that we’ve done it before. So marketing and building trust on a broader scale with more people so we can scale past where we are now is where we’re…
where we’re focused at. So we’re on Yelp. We got a Yelp page up about three weeks ago and it’s been great. I think we’ve gotten about 5,000 people who’ve seen it in last three weeks, which is really cool. I didn’t expect it to do that well, ⁓ but we’re happy that it did. Next, we’re gonna get a Google page up and a Facebook page and just do all the traditional means of marketing. We’ve joined the Rocky River Chamber of Commerce. ⁓
And we’re just getting more plugged in with the community so that we can spread the word and grow past where we are.
Michelle Kesil
Yeah, that’s awesome. What are you, like what kind of clients are you mostly serving?Asad A – Let’s Build Cleveland (00:00)
So mostly we’re serving residential homeowners. That’s like our number one bread and butter, our favorite customer to work with. ⁓ People who live in like a western suburb of Cleveland, maybe Lakewood or Bay Village or Avon, and who want to take on a larger project like…Maybe they just bought their house and they don’t like the kitchen and the garage needs some structural repairs and some finishing. And they’ve got two bathrooms and they want to update both of them. And they’ve got four bedrooms, but there’s two next to each other. And they want to take a wall down and make one big master bedroom or something. Now we’re looking for residential homeowners that want to take on a mid-sized to larger project. We enjoy transforming houses. ⁓
And then the second runner up would be commercial businesses. in that category of commercial businesses is also property managers. So we’ve been talking with a few of the big key players here in Cleveland and we’re maybe two steps away from signing a deal with the largest property management company over here to come help them ⁓ with service calls and unit turns.
But we like to think residential first and commercial to fill the gap.
Michelle Kesil
Awesome. So before we wrap up here, if somebody wants to reach out, connect, learn more about what you’re up to, where can people find you and connect with you?Asad A – Let’s Build Cleveland
Of course, so you could go ahead and just Google, let’s build Cleveland. And you’ll see our Yelp page. On that page, you could send me a message or you could call our office, reach out to me. ⁓ Or you could email [email protected] and we will get in touch with you as soon as possible, probably within a day or two at most.Michelle Kesil
Perfect. Well, appreciate your time, your story, your perspective. Thank you for being here.Asad A – Let’s Build Cleveland
Yeah, of course. Thank you for having us. We appreciate the ⁓ podcast. Very cool.Michelle Kesil
Definitely. And for the listeners that are tuning in, if you got value, make sure you have subscribed. We’ve got more conversations with operators like Assad who are building real businesses and we’ll see you on our next episode.
