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Show Summary
In this conversation, John Harcar interviews Justice Opute, who shares his inspiring journey from a defense contractor to a successful real estate developer. Justice discusses his transition into the construction industry, the challenges he faced while building his first home, and the importance of networking in the real estate business. He also outlines his future goals, including expanding his business into Texas and working on custom builds for clients.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Justice Opute (00:00)
after the first one was done, I’ll tell you that part, without going through that process, then the appraisal came in. I was trying to refi to get the appraisal came in and I saw how much I paid for the land, how much it cost me to build and how much is actually worth it. like, say less. That was kind of one of those things like, yeah, I think I wanna do another one. And I… partner with a local GC because in Florida you need a GC license to be able to build. But you don’t need one if it’s your primary residence. So I couldn’t build a house and rent it or sell it. So I partnered with a local GC to help with that process. Then as time goes on, I went and got my own GC license and quit my job and became a developer.John Harcar (00:28)
All right, okay.All right. Hey guys, welcome back to our show. I’m your host, John Harcar. And I’m here today with Justice Opute. Hope I said that correctly. ⁓ Super excited to talk to him today about his journey and what he’s currently doing in new construction, mainly in the single family space. ⁓ Justice, man, welcome to our show.
Justice Opute (02:30)
Great.Thank you, thank you for having me. It’s good to meet you.
John Harcar (02:42)
Yeah,I appreciate you being on here. You know, I’m looking forward to learning about, your journey and talking more about the construction, the new construction space. Seems like we’re hearing a lot of people getting into that, you know, within our community. But before we talk about all that stuff, why don’t you fill our audience in a little bit about you, you know, where you came from, how you got into real estate, what brought you up into today.
Justice Opute (03:05)
That’s good. Well, thank you for having me. My name is Justice Opute. I’m originally from Nigeria and I moved to the United States in 2006. Went to school in Alabama for computer engineering and I my master’s in computer science. Prior to real estate, I worked as a defense contractor. I worked for Boeing, Lockheed, and Northrop Grumman doing military stuff. Things I can’t really say.John Harcar (03:29)
YeahJustice Opute (03:30)
And so what most people say, how did that transition from a computer engineering to into real estate? Right, right. Yeah, when I came down to Florida, I was actually looking for builders to to build my personal residence down there. And it was at the time of 2021, 2020 when I was looking forJohn Harcar (03:37)
You’re also a mind reader.Justice Opute (03:56)
process and for the life of me I couldn’t find one and I tried and tried and tried and you know something came across my mind what if I built my own house myself it’s not even a thing right so I started looking at through the process of being owner builder right and I have a friend in Texas who actually gave me some ideas as well so I started the process and built my own house myself andJohn Harcar (04:22)
Wow.Justice Opute (04:24)
That was the most interesting journey I’ve ever taken. It was sink or swim for me at that time. ⁓ So that was my learning process. Like some people say, I learned from the School of Hard Knocks. Yeah, yeah.John Harcar (04:38)
School of Hard Knocks. Yeah, and I want to talk. I want totalk a little bit more about that, but I always like to ask you know one question is like I know you were looking for your own house and that’s how you got it. You know, starting wanting to build your own stuff. But back in the day, growing up in your time in these other industries, was there ever anybody that had that that you had exposure to that that was in real estate? You know, a family, a family friend, a neighbor, a co-worker.
Justice Opute (04:46)
technically.Thanks for today.
Thank
John Harcar (05:07)
that had rental properties, just anything that planted that little seed. Okay.Justice Opute (05:10)
No, it’s nothing.No one, was just one of those things. I always knew I wanted to get into real estate even while I was in college, but it was the traditional buy short sale, buy foreclosure, fix it, rent it, you know, just what most people would think to do. But in 2016, I actually visited a friend, which I went to engineering school with in Huntsville, Alabama, and he was building at that time. And that kind of triggered something in me. was like, wow, so he…
John Harcar (06:04)
Okay.Right.
Justice Opute (06:27)
was really building. that is a thing, right? But I didn’t really take note of that until when I moved and I was looking for builders to build my own house and I couldn’t find one, like I said, then I just, maybe I should build mine. So that was the origin of my journey in real estate.John Harcar (06:30)
Mm-hmm.Wow.
Well, let’s talk about this school of hard knocks. So, you know, at what point, and there had to be some point when you’re thinking to yourself, like, what am I doing? Like, why am I doing this? I mean, there’s gotta be somebody else.
Justice Opute (06:50)
like.Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, it’s yeah, it was it was and I was very meticulous about it. You know, I read some books a couple of books online. You can read about building your own house. And so I spent about six, seven months just going through the process of learning how to build. I was actually on lunch break. I’ll drive around construction sites just to go look at lumber and know.
John Harcar (07:23)
OkayJustice Opute (07:24)
Cause I was fascinated about it. That’s the difference was there’s a difference between, I want to learn this just because it’s cool and just have a fascination about being able to do something. And at that time I just thought it would be cool to like, look, I built my own house. It wasn’t really for the money part of it. It wasn’t really for the finances. It was for that brag, you know, bragging, right? Like, Hey, look, I know every stud in that wall. I knew everything about this house cause I built it. And that was kind of where the journey is.John Harcar (07:39)
Right.So at what point did you, you know, click and say, let’s make this a business?
Justice Opute (07:58)
Soafter the first one was done, I’ll tell you that part, without going through that process, then the appraisal came in. I was trying to refi to get the appraisal came in and I saw how much I paid for the land, how much it cost me to build and how much is actually worth it. like, say less. That was kind of one of those things like, yeah, I think I wanna do another one. And I…
partner with a local GC because in Florida you need a GC license to be able to build. But you don’t need one if it’s your primary residence. So I couldn’t build a house and rent it or sell it. So I partnered with a local GC to help with that process. Then as time goes on, I went and got my own GC license and quit my job and became a developer.
John Harcar (08:29)
All right, okay.Got it.
Okay, so you were still, when you were building your first house, you were
still working at ⁓ one of the defense companies? Okay. wow. So you were just doing everything after hours, weekends. How long did it take to build that house?
Justice Opute (08:52)
Correct. Yeah, I was still at Northrop Grumman at that time. I was a people with no experience.Thank
I took seven months. Yeah, it took about seven months. just, you know, about the timeframe to build one. But now it would take me four and a half months to build. But at that time, it took it right about seven, seven and a half months to build.
John Harcar (09:14)
what were some of the biggest takeaways or biggest learning experiences from that first, that house? So if there’s anybody listening that maybe has interest in building a house, mean, what were some of those things that you’re like, man, I’m glad I learned that.Justice Opute (09:29)
Yeah, it’s understanding a little bit of the trade would help because I remember spending too much on dirt just to bring in dirt and how much dirt I need on there. I mean, that’s part of the school of hard notes, right? Cause you don’t know. I always have this saying, you cannot cheat experience. It’s either you pay for it with money or time, right? So that’s…John Harcar (09:40)
Mm.Yep. Yep.
Justice Opute (09:55)
kind of one of those things. didn’t have the experience. And one thing, what if someone is listening, I would say just, you know, spend some more time really looking into it. Don’t be afraid to go into it, but you know, be diligent about how to study the process before really doing it. That’s one thing that I would say.But my takeaways was I was going around, like I said, looking at new construction.
asking a lot of questions, getting trades. That’s how I got most of the trades. Some of them were willing to work with me, some of them weren’t. So, and I also use the trades to get other trade. So that’s how I was able to pull it off.
John Harcar (10:58)
Mm-hmm.Got it.
How did you, ⁓ well, two
part question, I guess. How did you go out there and grow your network? And the second part of that is why is it so valuable for you to have built and grown that network and have a network?
Justice Opute (11:24)
Well, the network was it was easier for me to be able to get other ⁓ aspect of the business, right? So when it comes to real estate, a lot of things involved. There’s the local municipality that controls the building process. There’s the finances that, you know, crush it to build. And there’s also market factors. Right. So you can build 10 houses and if they’re not selling, you’re stuck with carrying the mortgage and things like that. So the network that I’ve builtThroughout the process was able to help me navigate all of those difficulties as a new karma. But over time I just kind of gained the experience to know what to do and what not to do and weed out the bad from the good from building a lot of houses. Now I think I’ve done maybe 40 houses in the span of four years. So yeah, it’s a…
John Harcar (12:16)
Wow.Justice Opute (12:19)
things really took off for me at the time. yeah, there’s a lot of them. There’s, know, AXE, engineering. I had a plan that I used a universal engineering for. Maybe I should not set that name, but they just…John Harcar (12:23)
Any good stories that you have from any one of your builds or any maybe oopsie moments that you might have had? Things that you look back and go, wow.Share one.
Justice Opute (12:47)
over engineered it and me not knowing I said okay this is an engineer and he did it and we spent maybe almost $40,000 more than we would in the foundation just some of those over engineering like I said lack of experience another one I would say is I bought a lot and there’s a drain right next to the next to the lot and before the city would let me build I have to build a pipe in thereJohn Harcar (13:01)
Yeah.Justice Opute (13:14)
And that’s not part of the cost. that cost me another 45 to $50,000 just put in pipe. This was a lot that I actually overpaid for. I should have thought like this lot has been sitting for two years and it’s priced at market price. Why is everybody not buying it? So I was like, well, I’ll buy it and build on it. And I bought it closed on in while I was working on the plans and it’s like, yeah, you have to do the drainage. And yeah, so that’s aJohn Harcar (13:18)
Jeez.Hahaha
Justice Opute (13:43)
I think that’s my biggest oopsie. And I learned a lot from that one. I didn’t lose, but it’s just my profit margin wasn’t as what I expect to be.John Harcar (13:49)
Nice.Right. ⁓ I mean, it looks like you’re running a good business and we know that’s not easy in this climate. know, what’s been the key over the last, you know, XYZ amount of years, you know, the key to keeping your machine running smoothly.
Justice Opute (14:08)
I’ll say that I was lucky. There’s a little bit of element of luck in anything you’re doing. all the billionaires are telling you. And one thing that I did was I have a couple of houses that I did and I used them as model homes. And that was the biggest change in terms of the business. Cause I had people coming in, clients tripping into the bottle.and at some point I was selling one, two houses a month because they were impressed with what they saw and it’s the same price, it’s the same market price for what the other big builders are building. So I did a little bit better, not a little bit better, a lot better than what the D.R. Horton’s and the Lunar would do in that area. So my…
John Harcar (14:59)
Got it.Justice Opute (15:00)
my houses were selling. If I buy five lots in two months, they’re all sold out. And I’m also building on owners’ lots. So that’s the biggest thing I would say is having the model home and building it better than standard.John Harcar (15:15)
That’s awesome.So where were you looking to take your business? Like what’s the goal? How many houses do you want to have it, you know, have built? How much, you know, where does that all look like?
Justice Opute (16:06)
Well, I guess at this point it’s just now I’m in Texas. I’m trying to, I’m actually trying to do a subdivision here in Texas. That’s my goal. Yes, that’s what I’m looking to do. I’ve been looking for lots around the ⁓ Promise area, Denton, Keller, those areas looking for large parcels of land.John Harcar (16:15)
Wow, okay.Justice Opute (16:32)
to able to subdivide and build. That’s my next big thing. I also have a multi-family, a 14 unit ⁓ coming, I’m doing in Palm Bay, Florida, ⁓ that should kick off in the next two or three weeks. So it’s just, I don’t know where the ceiling is, but it’s just constant growth. if I’m able to, I can foresee it and see I can do it. So I don’t wanna do scattered lots here and now.taxes the margins aren’t really as good as as it is in Florida. So I guess I’ve seen how much the houses are selling and how much the land is selling. It’s know for the wants if the lot is selling for 100,000 and the value of the decent house on there is 390 then how much does it really cost you to build and where’s the margin for one house. So you know doing it in volume would make it.
John Harcar (17:03)
Okay, why do you think that is?Justice Opute (17:28)
better business sense than just one at a time, which in Florida, just doing one or two at a time, it makes sense. Because the lot to comp ratios is better. You’re buying the land for 35, 40,000 building and selling it for 480, 490 to 550. yeah, the land to comp ratio is typically what I look for in any market.John Harcar (17:48)
Okay, that’s awesome. Yeah.What made you choose Texas specifically?
Justice Opute (17:56)
Well, thankI have a lot of friends and family down here and everything is bigger here. So, yeah, that’s the truth.
John Harcar (18:00)
Okay, right. It’s all bigger paychecks as well, man. ⁓ That’s awesome. So if someonehas a piece of land and they want you to build a property, ⁓ what’s that look like as far as getting you to work with you?
Justice Opute (18:14)
ThankI do two things. ⁓ I’ll check what they have a couple of models that I build. I’m speaking in terms of Florida now, not Texas. So I have a couple of models that they can choose from and also do custom as well. So they come to me and they already have the land and the plan would fit on the land and I’ll work with them based on that come up price points and things like that. So.
Some walks into my door and say, hey, I have a piece of property I want you to build for me. The question would be, what do you want to build? Do you want to use my floor plans, which I have about 10 of them, or do you want to create one? So that’s how the conversation will start. Now, some people are delusional wanting to build a 5,000 square foot home for 300,000. And I tell them, yeah, that’s not going to work out. Right. Right.
John Harcar (19:05)
Come on, man. You can’t do that. Stuff’s cheap nowadays, isn’t it?Has the rise in costs in a lot of this really affected your business at all, or like cost of goods and all those type of things? No.
Justice Opute (19:19)
Not much. Now,I haven’t noticed it a lot. Lambert at some point was Trusses, because we use Trusses in Florida, was so important, but not, you know, the margins were good enough to a point where I don’t have to really increase the price. It’s not been significant enough for me to say, okay, all right, it’s time to increase price.
John Harcar (19:40)
Awesome. If there’s some folks on here that maybe they have some land they want to sell you or if they just want to work with you and talk to you, what’s the best way for them to be able to get in touch with you?Justice Opute (19:50)
⁓ yeah, so my Instagram is one thing that I check constantly and it’s jayopus.bldr. That’s my Instagram. That’s really the only social media I am very active on. And my email is opushomesfl.gmail.com. So that’s one way people can get in touch with me and we can discuss.I’m really, really interested in, like I said, I’m a newbie in the Texas Dallas area, Texas market. So I would be learning as well, sharing my experience from Florida. because yeah, every building department, in statewide have different rules and regulations you have to follow. So you learn as you go.
John Harcar (20:25)
Mm-hmm.That’s awesome.
Yeah. I love it. Well, cool. Hey, guys, I hope everybody listening out there got some value from this. You know, we’ll put all
that contact information in the show notes so the folks will be able to get in touch with you. Justice, thank you for coming on and sharing your story, sharing your journey. Love to hear it. Welcome to Texas. And, you know, guys, if you have any land out there, reach out and we’ll see you guys on the next one. Cheers.
Justice Opute (21:00)
Thank you,All right, appreciate it. Thank you.
