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Show Summary
In this conversation, Eric Benavides discusses the challenges faced in the construction industry, such as cost, timing, and labor shortages. He introduces a panel approach to building homes, which significantly reduces waste and labor costs while improving efficiency. The discussion highlights the advantages of this method, including faster move-in times for homeowners.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Eric Benavides (00:00)
What did that do? It opened up millions of lots, million lots, know, of land that’s ready to be developed. Schools are in place, streets are in place.And so I really wanted a product that would shine there because I think that’s where we’re going to get the best affordable housing. So while you can go out into the outskirts and the suburbs and use this, I think I’m really have a great niche to be able to get behind houses and the small panels and assemble them behind houses without needing big cranes or concrete trucks or things like that. My panels could be assembled into a house in a matter of two days, depending on the size.
Dylan Silver (02:10)
Hey folks, welcome back to the show. Today’s guest has a really interesting type of home construction system based on panels and he’s based in Plano, Texas. Please welcome Eric Benavides. Eric, welcome to the show.Eric Benavides (02:27)
Thanks Dylan, glad to be here. Appreciate the opportunity to meet you.Dylan Silver (02:30)
It’s always great to have people in the DFW area on the show. I lived in Denton up until recently, now I’m abroad. we were talking before hopping on here. Really, what you’re doing is pretty niche and I would say new and in a lot of ways changing the game. I had some questions before hopping on here, but for our audience who may not be familiar with panel built homes, what is a panel built home?Eric Benavides (02:54)
Well, I think the best way to describe it, it’s a factory built, which typically most homes would be on the side or sticks and bricks, which is probably what most people say when they drive down the street. So it’s a factory built, but instead of creating the whole house, it’s exactly what it sounds like. It’s panels. So the panels in my particular case are the foundation and floor panels, interior wall and exterior wall panels, and then the roof panels. And then you use those panels to assemble into a home.Dylan Silver (03:21)
I want to ask you about how you got into this space. think a lot of people when they think of ⁓ construction and being a builder, there’s so many different ways right now, especially for homes to be built. More people seem to be getting into new construction, but you decided I’m going to do something totally different. What made you decide I’m going to create a new way for homes to be built?Eric Benavides (03:41)
Well, I’ve been a builder since, well, about 40 years in the construction business. And that’s all I ever knew was the sticks and bricks on site construction. Then when COVID happened, I thought people working from home was going to be a long-term play. But during COVID, there was not many people out and about. And so I had a machine shop at that time because I had a business in the oil and gas business. And I had originally started with shipping a tank.and thought people working from home was going to be a long-term play, if you will, and I thought that was going to be something to explore. But shipping containers, no matter how cool they were, were very difficult to get delivered. Cities didn’t do the inspections. And so I started actually just playing with a panelized system, thinking, could I get into somebody’s backyard, get something built that was a little smaller, more workroom offices, things like that. It didn’t have plumbing and you know.
what would be required for bathrooms. And so that was really my foray into it. was just, thought there was gonna be a new market. This was like five years ago. So since then it’s just actually expanded and changed and took on a different face over the iterations that have happened since then. But that was what was really the catalyst study.
Dylan Silver (04:42)
Yeah.I want to get a little bit granular
about how you grew this business because I think for folks who may be looking at being builders themselves or who may be looking at investing in alternative construction, it can be challenging to know where to start, right? And so you decided, hey, I’m going to have a new offering, panel built homes. Did you already have a target audience in mind or was this
in a lot of ways a progression how you scale the business.
Eric Benavides (06:09)
Oh, it was definitely a progression. In the beginning, I was using my panels in my own construction company. And so we were doing the installations ourselves and then Dallas, Fort Worth, you know, in 21, 22 range, we were using what’s called a structural insulating panel from a third party supplier. And so during that time, the product started to evolve because I needed the panels to meet my own needs. But when I started toevolved the products and the panels themselves over time and a lot of certifications and engineering. I really started seeing the value of the panels in the panels itself. And so I kind of switched gears about two years ago and started creating a product that could be used and supplying what I call empowering the builders. And because I came from the builder aspect of it, I knew what I would want as a builder.
And so it’s definitely progressed from me using my own products to providing products that really, I wouldn’t say somebody novice, we’re still building homes, It’s still a big undertaking, but it was a lot easier by using these panel systems to allow and educate people and empower people to do their own products. It’s almost like a kit.
Dylan Silver (07:11)
Yeah.As a builder yourself with an extensive background, when you’re approaching other builders and when they’re trying to better understand why go with panel built versus other options that they have, what’s the main reasons why builders should consider panel built homes?
Eric Benavides (07:36)
Well, it’s the same challenges that everybody’s had, cost, ⁓ timing, labor shortages, there’s a lot of waste. When you take a panel approach, since it’s factory built, we reduce a lot of that. So imagine like when my kit shows up, the foundation instead of concrete foundation is a period B, which is a crawl space type house, which is still.common across the United States and many houses were built that way. And so I, that penalized approach is just imagine when those panels show up that your framing crew showed up, your sheetrock crew, your insulation crew, your siding crew, all those guys and all those crews and people all showed up in my panel system in one time. And so not only do you lose or you…
Dylan Silver (08:01)
Right.Eric Benavides (08:23)
a lot of expenses, but you’ve reduced a lot of labor. And then of course, we’re also reducing a lot of waste. And then when you’re talking about being able to move somebody in, whether it’s a homeowner renting in a matter of 30 days versus maybe four or five months, that’s a pretty significant savings in general. So that’s the route that I believe the penalized system can really help the industry and empower a lot of builders, especially the new type builders or the smaller builders who can’t really get crews because they don’t have enough volume.Dylan Silver (08:35)
Yeah.I’m imagining you have, have you faced folks who are thinking, well, panels, you know, this seems, you know, a totally different concept to me. I’m a builder, I’m looking at putting up many of these, is this gonna be a fit for me? Have you faced any of that skepticism and what has been your feedback to folks when they maybe expressed some of those sentiments?
Eric Benavides (09:09)
you⁓ pretty much daily for the last two years. I’ve gotten a little bit of pushback on it. The reason why is my panels are a little bit different than what most panels. You’re probably driven down the road and staying in big house that’s got trusses and wall panels and it’s kind of stacked on top of it. You know, I’m different than that because my panels are again completed. They have the sheetrock, they have the styling, they have their own certifications. So not being the first one to the market with that kind of product, it’s a little
confusing in the beginning because people when they think modular they think a certain thing when they see panels they see a certain thing and so because a little bit different they’re just it takes a little while for them to get their arms around what’s been able to be accomplished because it is new.
Dylan Silver (09:45)
Right.I want to ask you about the use cases for panel built homes. think when people are thinking about some of the other alternative construction methods, they’re thinking, okay, well, I’ve got to be able to maneuver this into an area, so I can’t necessarily put this anywhere. Can panel built homes really be put anywhere? Do they have to be put maybe in the outskirts of a city or something like this?
Eric Benavides (10:50)
No, actually the product itself, and I will start talking about kind of my product and the way my panels work. Again, I took a panel first approach, so I have panels that have different configurations. And because they’re smaller, they actually fit in back of people’s, know, sensory dwelling units, backyards, infill, where they’re smaller city lots that they’re maybe housing very close to each other.Dylan Silver (10:59)
Right.Eric Benavides (11:16)
And so, no, the type of approach I took is for that. I believe there’s a real big market out there. In California, it’s called, I think, State Bill 9, SB 9, which is that multi-use or more houses on one lot. And that’s coming prevalent in a lot of other places in the city of Austin, they allow it. And I think it’s going to continue.What did that do? It opened up millions of lots, million lots, know, of land that’s ready to be developed. Schools are in place, streets are in place.
And so I really wanted a product that would shine there because I think that’s where we’re going to get the best affordable housing. So while you can go out into the outskirts and the suburbs and use this, I think I’m really have a great niche to be able to get behind houses and the small panels and assemble them behind houses without needing big cranes or concrete trucks or things like that. My panels could be assembled into a house in a matter of two days, depending on the size.
Dylan Silver (12:07)
That bringsup another area of interest. think for myself and a lot of people, I’m sure many members of our audience, when we talk about the housing crisis and affordable housing, you mentioned what’s going on in California where I’m seeing a lot of people having ADUs in California, which as a Texas licensed realtor myself, I was surprised by. said, look at California being a little bit leading the curve here. I’m curious.
to get your perspective on accessory dwelling units and are we gonna start to see more and more of that? Are people gonna start to put in Texas ADUs in their backyard? Is it gonna be limited to certain areas? What’s your general feedback on that?
Eric Benavides (12:45)
I believe that the backyard is going to be a nationwide trend. Again, it’s the easiest way for municipalities to absorb new units without streets and, you know, the school districts and things like that. So imagine having to be a subdivision and you got to go make sure there’s sewer capacity. All this is inside. And when you’re taking a tract of land and making it smaller, which get portable housing to require smaller tract of land.I think it is really going to be a brand new, I want to call it brand new industry, but I think it’s going to be a new industry because normal builders really wouldn’t like decentralized building. So who’s really doing that? Is it a remodeler? Is it a custom home builder? I think it’s going to be a new building. I really do.
Dylan Silver (13:22)
Yeah.Yeah. I think,
you know, you mentioned the ADUs, you know, we’re mentioning builders as well. But I also think that the average and I am a little hesitant in saying this, but I also think the average person who is a homeowner now, especially a younger homeowner, is having to think more and more like an investor in order to get into that home. They may be having to jump through some more hurdles than
previous generations have had to and I think because of this in many ways more people are looking at how do I get involved in real estate as an investor whether it’s ADUs, whether it’s know storage facilities and I think one of the things that’s really interesting right now we mentioned that in California you’re in Plano is how many people are looking at ADUs in this opportunity all over and to your point Eric I think it will be a national
Eric Benavides (15:05)
⁓ for sure. And one of the reasons I created this system is exactly what you said. If you’re a novice, if you will, somebody who’s just kind of getting in the game, you know, how do you get your questions answered? And the reason I like this route is because in my particular case, when you have the kit, then you’re empowering people to at least know, this will make code in my area, because I can just go in and ask the cities, will it make code?Can I use these products? Who can assemble it? Because when you’re starting out, you’re going to rely on other contractors and nothing against other contractors, but usually they’re busy and they’ve got other commitments. You know, of course, there’s some people out there that probably do a little bit of advantage taking, not like the very, very small amount. So how do you, how do you empower people to get that information? And one of the ways to do it is to make construction easy. And that was kind of the approach I took so that people again could be empowered to find that information out.
If you’re willing to save money, you’ve got to get in there and do it yourself. But in the end, you’re still building a home. It’s still loud, it’s trough, it’s heavy. It’s an undertaking. Not that it can’t be done, people do it every day. it was really important for me to answer that question that you just asked. How do you get information to the people?
Dylan Silver (16:16)
We are coming up on time here, Eric. I do want to ask you a couple granular questions about Fornidos and specifically how our audience or folks in general, if they’re in ⁓ Texas or really if they’re anywhere, can learn more about your company and also maybe how they could look into a panel built home for themselves.Eric Benavides (16:32)
Sure, like everybody else, we have a YouTube page. It’s got some basic videos of how we put some things together. Our website’s got some information on it. Of course, I’m available to ask questions. There’s two major things about my system is because my system’s been approved, the International Code Council has an approval system, which we’re the first company to be approved with plans and the products itself. And so that’s called the ESR, Evaluation Service Report. I’m ESR 5284.EER equivalency report 5284. And that right there will show you the in-depth and the certification for my product straight from the International Code Council’s website themselves. That’s what most municipalities in the country use to figure out how to, I’m talking about the Plains examiners and inspectors, how to make sure a product is approved. That’s where they go.
Dylan Silver (17:19)
Eric, thank you so much for coming on the show here today.Eric Benavides (17:22)
Absolutely, Dylan. I appreciate the time. I’m glad that I enjoyed the conversation, had great questions, and I’m looking forward to answering any more questions that your audience may have.
