Feature Spotlight: BRI with Tony Ravenstahl

Show Notes

This week we are joined by Tony Ravenstahl from SilverStone Group to talk about one of our Pro Services: Builders’ Risk Insurance.

What is Builders’ Risk Insurance?

Builders’ Risk Insurance is needed by a builder or homeowner when dealing with new home builds. It covers fire, wind and hail damage to the structure, as well as any theft or vandalism on the job site. Builders’ Risk Insurance is required for anyone in new home building.

Silverstone Group

SilverStone Group is based in Omaha, Neb., and has been around since 1945. Buildertrend partners with SilverStone Group to give our clients easier access to Builders’ Risk Insurance. Because SilverStone is in-house at Buildertrend, they are able to offer our customers competitive group rates.

The process to fill out the free, one-time application is simple.

In your Buildertrend account: click the cogwheel at the top of the screen, click set up, click into the project management section, click on the Builders’ Risk Insurance tab, click and fill out the application.

Or email Tony at construction@ssgi.com.

Related content:

Buildertrend โ€“ Builders’ Risk Insurance

Have any ideas for future Pro Services? Contact our Corporate Development team at partnerships@buildertrend.com.

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Transcript

Tom Houghton:

Youโ€™re listening to โ€œThe Building Code.โ€ Iโ€™m Tom Houghton.

Paul Wurth:

Iโ€™m Paul Wurth.

Tom Houghton:

Itโ€™s almost like you forgot for a second there. It looked like a little bit of a tag.

Paul Wurth:

I like to change it up.

Tom Houghton:

You did change it up. You got me. That was good. Weโ€™ve got another Pro Service Spotlight today, Paul.

Paul Wurth:

Exciting.

Tom Houghton:

Very exciting. Weโ€™re joined by Tony Ravenstahl from SilverStone Insurance. Heโ€™s an account executive over there, and heโ€™s also got a little history with Buildertrend, too.

Tony Ravenstahl:

Thatโ€™s correct. I appreciate you guys having me on.

Paul Wurth:

Welcome.

Tony Ravenstahl:

Thank you.

Paul Wurth:

Tony? Anthony?

Tony Ravenstahl:

Tony.

Tom Houghton:

Friends call him Tony.

Paul Wurth:

Have you ever gone by Anthony?

Tony Ravenstahl:

I have not.

Paul Wurth:

Okay. Good. We know Tony. He was a Buildertrend employee for how many years?

Tony Ravenstahl:

I was a Buildertrend employee for one year.

Paul Wurth:

One year?

Tony Ravenstahl:

Correct.

Paul Wurth:

And then weโ€™ve been, I guess, business to business partners with SilverStone and acquaintances for a long time. They are a national company that happens to be located in Omaha. Theyโ€™re a great friend of our business, and weโ€™d been working together to find a mutually beneficial program for our clients, and we tagged Tony as the best person to help kick that off. So, kudos you, buddy.

Tony Ravenstahl:

Thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah, itโ€™s been a great opportunity here, and I know everybody at SilverStone is super excited about it. Been going on for three years now and having a lot of success year after year, so itโ€™s been awesome.

Tom Houghton:

Thatโ€™s great. Really, to Paulโ€™s point there, itโ€™s a win-win for not only Buildertrend an SilverStone, but more importantly, itโ€™s a win-win for our clients. Letโ€™s dive in and talk about kind of what the Builderโ€™s Risk Insurance offering is for our clients. Take it away, Tony.

Paul Wurth:

Tom, Builderโ€™s Risk Insurance. I donโ€™t even know what that is.

Tom Houghton:

Oh, well, maybe Tony can fill us in.

Tony Ravenstahl:

Iโ€™m here for you guys. The Builderโ€™s Risk Insurance, a lot of builders when they hear it right off the top of their head, they think maybe a workerโ€™s comp or a general liability. Itโ€™s not that. Itโ€™s more of a course of construction, vertical construction. If youโ€™re a new home builder, a remodeler thatโ€™s doing a whole house gut, youโ€™re going to get this insurance to cover that structure in case of fire, hail, wind, or any vandalism or theft on the job site.

Paul Wurth:

Iโ€™m sorry to stop your pitch.

Tony Ravenstahl:

Youโ€™re okay.

Paul Wurth:

But weโ€™re going to make it conversational. Is it required?

Tony Ravenstahl:

It is required. Yeah.

Paul Wurth:

In every state itโ€™s required? And who requires it? Is it a federal requirement?

Tony Ravenstahl:

Yeah.

Paul Wurth:

Is it federal or state?

Tony Ravenstahl:

If youโ€™re building a brand new home, and youโ€™re getting a loan from a bank, theyโ€™re going to require you guys to get a Builderโ€™s Risk Insurance. Anytime you are building a brand new home, youโ€™re going to want to get Builderโ€™s Risk Insurance, whether your clients are getting it or the builder is actually getting it.

Tom Houghton:

Anybody listening to this who is a client of ours or in construction knows about Builderโ€™s Risk Insurance?

Tony Ravenstahl:

Correct. If theyโ€™re in new homes, they would know about Builderโ€™s Risk Insurance.

Paul Wurth:

All right. Whatโ€™s our offering? Weโ€™re not just offering them Builderโ€™s Risk Insurance. Thereโ€™s some advantages to our partnership with SilverStone and it being integrated with Buildertrend, right?

Tony Ravenstahl:

Correct. Yeah. A couple of things is, the most importantly is the group rate we have to offer. A lot of other local agents, they may dealing with one or two builders. Weโ€™re dealing with thousands of builders, courtesy of Buildertrend. The number one is we can offer a group rate really competitive for your clients. The second thing, as you mentioned, Paul, everything is going to happen right through Buildertrend. You can get an application filled out, get approved, and actually put policies in place, right through each individual job.

Tom Houghton:

All in one place.

Paul Wurth:

As I understand it, there is some administrative pains, right, when youโ€™re just doing policy, policy. Not that anything is bad about local insurance companies. We have a lot of friends who are in that business and thatโ€™s a great asset to everybody. But when you have to do it one at a time, thereโ€™s paperwork with that and trying to find the certifications, is that true?

Tony Ravenstahl:

Yep. Correct. Thereโ€™s a lot of back and forth with your agent and them. What Buildertrend does is, they make it seamless right through your builder trend account. Some builders weโ€™ve never even talked to, theyโ€™ve got approved and theyโ€™ve actually put policies in place and paid for it, and they have coverage without even ever speaking with us.

Tom Houghton:

All those policy documents to your point, Paul, those are stored in Buildertrend, right? So you can keep it all in one place?

Tony Ravenstahl:

Correct. Under each individual job youโ€™ll have your own certificate and they stay there for the life of that job.

Tom Houghton:

Wow, thatโ€™s nice.

Paul Wurth:

All the administrative people listening to this-

Tom Houghton:

Theyโ€™re excited.

Paul Wurth:

โ€ฆ go talk to the owners of the business and say, โ€œHey, this is going to make my life easier.โ€ And the owners of the business, Tony, are going to care about the bottom line, right? Letโ€™s talk turkey.

Tony Ravenstahl:

Correct.

Paul Wurth:

Thanksgiving holiday.

Tom Houghton:

Thanksgiving. Weโ€™re a little late. This is getting released right before Christmas.

Paul Wurth:

You can have turkey at Christmas.

Tom Houghton:

There you go, turkey at Christmas.

Paul Wurth:

Letโ€™s talk Turkey.

Tom Houghton:

Christmas turkey.

Paul Wurth:

Correct me if Iโ€™m wrong, you canโ€™t guarantee better rates than what theyโ€™re getting, but in general, because of SilverStoneโ€™s pooling all of our clientele and that being the risk pool, theyโ€™re able to get a little bit more aggressive on the rates. Is that fair to say?

Tony Ravenstahl:

Yeah, I would definitely say-

Paul Wurth:

Can I say that?

Tom Houghton:

Yeah, I think Tony might need to say. I donโ€™t know if we can say that.

Paul Wurth:

Is the scary department insurance coming after me for that one?

Tom Houghton:

I think so.

Tony Ravenstahl:

They might be.

Tom Houghton:

Tony, maybe you might need to clear that up a little bit.

Paul Wurth:

Let me write that down and go ahead and repeat that.

Tony Ravenstahl:

No, I canโ€™t say 100% weโ€™re always competitive. One thing I always tell your guys as clients is give us a shot. Itโ€™s completely free to fill out the application. Itโ€™s a one-time application and going to get you approved and in Buildertrend. I can say Iโ€™ve been doing this for three years now, and the conversations I have all over the United States is very positive. A lot of builders are saving. A lot of builders hear me say this and think Iโ€™m crazy, but theyโ€™re saving five, six, $700 per job, which is amazing.

Paul Wurth:

Nice.

Tom Houghton:

Wow.

Paul Wurth:

Carry the one, if you have a bunch of jobs, that could pay for Buildertrend altogether, right?

Tom Houghton:

Yeah. Very easily.

Tony Ravenstahl:

Iโ€™ve actually had builders, weโ€™ve had that conversation as well. Theyโ€™ve gotten approved, looked our rates, compared and [crosstalk]

Paul Wurth:

So no matter what, itโ€™s worth it just to see the rates. And thatโ€™s just as simple as filling out an application?

Tony Ravenstahl:

It is. Yeah. Itโ€™s a one-time application, going to get you approved. The application is really 8 to 15 questions long, really, really basic company information.

Tom Houghton:

And you said they can do that in their Buildertrend account?

Tony Ravenstahl:

Yep. So, two options I always suggest builders to go to. Number one is, obviously, me, or I have a partner here that sits with me at Buildertrend, His name is Kyle Swinicki. He came on a year. Give us a call. Weโ€™d love to answer any questions. We can get the application filled out over the phone, but if you donโ€™t want to, you can apply for Builderโ€™s Risk Insurance right through your Buildertrend account. Essentially, all youโ€™ve got to do, on the top of your Buildertrend account thereโ€™s a little cog wheel there. Click on Set Up. It will bring a brand new page up. Thereโ€™s a Project Management section. In that Project Management section, thereโ€™s a Builderโ€™s Risk Insurance tab. You click that, fill out the application, sends to our underwriter. We get you approved and then we put the proposal on where the application was.

Tom Houghton:

You just kind of swap it out real fast.

Tony Ravenstahl:

Exactly.

Tom Houghton:

Thatโ€™s nice.

Paul Wurth:

So thereโ€™s two SilverStone representatives that work exclusively with our Buildertrend client base to do this, right?

Tony Ravenstahl:

Yeah.

Paul Wurth:

So itโ€™s Kyle Swinicki and Tony Ravenstahl?

Tony Ravenstahl:

Correct.

Paul Wurth:

It sounds like a law firm.

Tom Houghton:

It does. Ravenstahl-

Paul Wurth:

Swinicki and Ravenstahl.

Tom Houghton:

Tony, you talked about your team, obviously, you and Kyle. Who is SilverStone? Can you give us more background on that? Who are they working with?

Tony Ravenstahl:

Thatโ€™s awesome. SilverStone, weโ€™re based here in Omaha, Nebraska. Obviously, the reason we were able to do the partnership with Buildertrend. Weโ€™ve been around since 1945. They are a family and employee owned company. Itโ€™s just a great company here in Omaha. They do a lot of research. We can offer a great price for our Builderโ€™s Risk Insurance, but SilverStone is really about offering the best coverage at a great price. Theyโ€™re looking out for you guys as builders, as well, and weโ€™re not just offering a great price with not good coverage. The coverage is there and also with the price, as well.

Tom Houghton:

Awesome. It sounds like a win-win-win now. Win on price, win on the partnership level of the company and win on ease of use.

Paul Wurth:

There you go. Thatโ€™s great. Just to recap, we would put our Builderโ€™s Risk Insurance partnership with SilverStone under our Pro Services umbrella. This is a division of our business that was really spearheaded about four years ago. Our payment processing was probably the first one. It wasnโ€™t โ€œprobablyโ€, it was the first one. Builderโ€™s Risk Insurance is now there. We offer website development. We also offer some additional training services in our Buildertrend University that Tom and I speak to a lot of, and then also some onsite consulting, which we have an episode on that, as well. That part of the business, Tony, would you say, talking to our clients is just, โ€œHere are some things that you get access to because youโ€™ve decided to join the Buildertrend family, become a subscriber and youโ€™re a user.โ€ Right? So theyโ€™re exclusive.

Tony Ravenstahl:

Exactly.

Paul Wurth:

Thatโ€™s a really cool thing. Itโ€™s something for all of our user base to keep our eye out in 2020 and beyond, because we continually add to that. We have a corporate development team headed by David Arnold, who does a great job of finding more and more opportunities and partnerships that are out there that will help bring value to your business as being a Buildertrend user. If you have any ideas-

Tom Houghton:

We want to hear them.

Paul Wurth:

Weโ€™ll put, actually, a contact to our Corp Dev team on the show notes website, as well as, Tony, whatโ€™s the best way to contact you and your team?

Tony Ravenstahl:

Yeah. You guys can always contact us. The best way I would say is an email. We do take a lot of emails. Itโ€™s really easy. If you guys are already here, itโ€™s just going to be a construction@ssgi.com email.

Tom Houghton:

Love that. Super easy.

Tony Ravenstahl:

Super simple.

Tom Houghton:

Construction@ssgi.com.

Tony Ravenstahl:

You got it.

Paul Wurth:

Now, typically, we save questions about our Buildertrend employees for Buildertrend employees, so weโ€™re in a bit of a quandary here, Tom.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah.

Paul Wurth:

Heโ€™s not an employee of our company-

Tom Houghton:

No, heโ€™s not.

Paul Wurth:

โ€ฆ anymore.

Tom Houghton:

Not anymore.

Paul Wurth:

Should we still offer him a few?

Tom Houghton:

We could offer him one as a consolation prize.

Paul Wurth:

Okay. We get one question about Tony to learn more about him. Number one, here, two. Because you have a fun fact about somebody in your family, right?

Tony Ravenstahl:

Yes I do. Yes.

Tom Houghton:

Spoiler alert.

Paul Wurth:

Your cousin three times removed was who?

Tony Ravenstahl:

My cousin used to be the mayor of Pittsburgh.

Paul Wurth:

Not removed. He is your first cousin. Right?

Tony Ravenstahl:

First cousin.

Paul Wurth:

He had a famous story. When the Pittsburgh Steelers were playing the Baltimore Ravens three, four years ago for a playoff game?

Tony Ravenstahl:

Correct.

Paul Wurth:

He actually changed his last name from Ravenstahl. Baltimore Ravens [crosstalk]-

Tom Houghton:

Right. Thatโ€™s a conflict of interest.

Paul Wurth:

What did he name it to?

Tony Ravenstahl:

He went from Ravenstahl to Steelerstahl for about a week while they played.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. I mean, just-

Tom Houghton:

Thatโ€™s dedication.

Tony Ravenstahl:

He was dedicated.

Paul Wurth:

Dedication.

Tom Houghton:

I also love your dedication on the Freudian slip where you said Silverstahl. Youโ€™re changing your name, because youโ€™re so dedicated to the SilverStone.

Paul Wurth:

That means heโ€™s dedicated.

Tom Houghton:

I love it.

Paul Wurth:

To let you know that.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah. Thatโ€™s good.

Paul Wurth:

All right. How about a real question?

Tom Houghton:

Well, I mean, that was a pretty great question.

Paul Wurth:

That was your question?

Tom Houghton:

I love that you were a Tony historian, here, or something.

Paul Wurth:

Well, Iโ€™ve known him for a while. Heโ€™s a good kid.

Tom Houghton:

He is.

Tony Ravenstahl:

Thank you.

Tom Houghton:

He does a great job. But I do want to talk about one more thing. We were talking before the show about kind of benefits of what our customers, our Buildertrend clients, get out of this relationship with SilverStone. One of those things is, like you said, you can fill out the application anytime online, and just kind of having access to you guys. Whatโ€™s that like compared to their local agent? Right? Because I think weโ€™ve talked about how sometimes somebodyโ€™s local agent is out meeting another client or something like that. Maybe you can speak to the availability that people have when they use the SilverStone connection that we have here.

Tony Ravenstahl:

Yeah. Nothing to take away from any other local insurance agents. But, me and Kyle, my partner, this is what we do 8 a.m. to 5 p.m, Monday through Friday. Weโ€™re at Buildertrend in front of two phones, in front of two computers, and weโ€™re strictly selling Builderโ€™s Risk Insurance to your clients. Other insurance agents might have another clientโ€™s general liability workersโ€™ comp. Weโ€™re dedicated to these guys on their Builderโ€™s Risk Insurance. With that being said, as I mentioned before, everything is going to happen right through Buildertrend. Once they get approved, if they donโ€™t want to talk to me, or if theyโ€™re an early riser, or if they work late, they want to put a policy in at 4 a.m. in the morning, or put a policy in at 1 a.m. in the morning, they can do that because it will just happen right through Buildertrend.

Paul Wurth:

Whatโ€™s the craziest time a policy has been [crosstalk]?

Tony Ravenstahl:

Well, depending on east and west coast, stuff like that, weโ€™ve seen one come in on the east coast at 4 a.m. And then latest is probably, it can get up there until about 11 p.m., midnight.

Paul Wurth:

There you go.

Tom Houghton:

People working late.

Paul Wurth:

Always working in this industry.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah. Thatโ€™s good. Thatโ€™s awesome. Well, yeah. I just figured weโ€™d want to hear more about that just to, again, kind of reassure our clients on why this is such a great offering. Itโ€™s really amazing what we are able to do when we kind of pool together, and so thatโ€™s just another great benefit of using Buildertrend and partnering with great people like SilverStone. Thank you so much, Tony, for coming on the podcast today and sharing about Builderโ€™s Risk Insurance and our partnership with SilverStone. We loved hearing about it.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah, Tony, sir, I understand that you are going to be at the International Buildersโ€™ Show in January in Las Vegas. Weโ€™re going to give you a little spot at our booth. If youโ€™re listening and you plan to come to the International Buildersโ€™ Show, or you just have to be in Las Vegas to catch a show.

Tom Houghton:

Sure. Frequenting Las Vegas.

Paul Wurth:

The Beatles.

Tom Houghton:

A Cirque show.

Paul Wurth:

Whoโ€™s got a residency there now? Lady Gaga or somebody?

Tom Houghton:

Probably not. No. Sheโ€™s off on tour.

Paul Wurth:

If youโ€™re in Las Vegas for any reason, hop on over to the Las Vegas Convention Center, South Hall-

Tom Houghton:

South Hall, Booth SU1010.

Paul Wurth:

You canโ€™t miss us. Our RV is going to be there.

Tom Houghton:

Itโ€™s going to be there.

Paul Wurth:

Thereโ€™s going to be a light show from Tom there, as well.

Tom Houghton:

Thatโ€™s right.

Paul Wurth:

Is that right?

Tom Houghton:

Well, I mean, donโ€™t spoil it.

Paul Wurth:

Okay, sorry. And a podcast booth, so maybe you can hop on this podcast when youโ€™re there.

Tom Houghton:

Thatโ€™s right.

Paul Wurth:

And come see Tony and the SilverStone team.

Tony Ravenstahl:

Yeah. Iโ€™d love to talk to anybody at IBS, see if we can help you guys out. Tom, Paul, I really appreciate you guys having us on and letting me represent SilverStone.

Paul Wurth:

Thank you.

Tom Houghton:

Thanks. Love what you heard? Donโ€™t forget to rate and subscribe to our podcast, so you can hear from more guests that will benefit your business. Also, please check out our show notes page for more information on what we discussed on this episode. You can find it at buildertrend.com/podcast. Thanks for listening, and weโ€™ll see you next time on โ€œThe Building Code.โ€

Paul Wurth:

Appreciate you.

Tony Ravenstahl | SilverStone Group


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