Live from IBS with Brad Leavitt: A Finer Touch Construction

Tom Houghton:

You’re listening to “The Building Code,” your guide to a better way to run your business. I’m Tom Houghton.

Paul Wurth:

Hello, I’m Paul Wurth.

Tom Houghton:

And we’ve got a special guest hopping in real quick here at the International Builders’ Show. Joining us today, Brad Leavitt, president of AFT Construction.

Brad Leavitt:

A Finer Touch Construction, but everyone knows this as AFT. So, that’s perfect.

Tom Houghton:

That’s perfect.

Paul Wurth:

What up, Brad? How’s the show?

Brad Leavitt:

Good. It’s been amazing.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah?

Brad Leavitt:

Yeah. Super great. It’s just fun to network, see everyone, see what Buildertrend’s doing now, see what all our vendors are doing, and that networking, of course.

Paul Wurth:

Love it. So we were here a year ago at this exact table.

Brad Leavitt:

Yep.

Paul Wurth:

Learned about your business. You were one of our first episodes, right?

Tom Houghton:

Episode three, I think.

Paul Wurth:

Was that three?

Tom Houghton:

Yeah.

Paul Wurth:

Great. So thanks for coming back on.

Brad Leavitt:

Absolutely.

Paul Wurth:

We’re calling this a little 10 minute check-in.

Tom Houghton:

10 minute check-in with Brad.

Paul Wurth:

All right. So in 10 minutes, what’s happened with your business in a year?

Brad Leavitt:

Wow. It’s really changed a lot. We’ve been very blessed, very fortunate. We’ve increased our size. We’ve had a few great hires, some super skilled project managers and supers, and then we’ve been awarded some amazing projects. We have some really fun stuff coming up. From a building science side, we’re going to be doing a net zero home in Scottsdale, off the grid. We have some ICF projects, which I know Tom flew out, he got to see that. And we’re going to be doing a few more ICF homes there in town.

Brad Leavitt:

And we have a couple of really signature homes that we haven’t released a lot about it, but one of them’s 15,000 square feet, super detailed, amazing design, just incredible. And then another one that’s on 12 acres of a hillside up in Scottsdale that we were just awarded a couple of weeks ago. So it’s really exciting. We have some really flagship projects coming in that we’re excited to start marketing.

Paul Wurth:

That’s awesome.

Tom Houghton:

That’s incredible.

Paul Wurth:

Are those celebrity homes? Tell us who they are.

Brad Leavitt:

In their own world, they’re celebrities, yeah, for sure. But no, very successful. Good people, good clients. So we’re fortunate to be working with them.

Paul Wurth:

You know me, I don’t know much about science and building science. Whoopsy daisy, that’s my industry. What’d you say, a net zero? What does that mean?

Brad Leavitt:

So net-zero is a term that’s used for homes that are off the grid. So it only uses as much energy as it consumes, right?

Paul Wurth:

Okay.

Brad Leavitt:

So it’s homes that are designed from an energy efficiency, just to optimize the energy in the home, to maintain the energy of the home, and then utilize solar power and other things to help it function on a day-to-day basis.

Paul Wurth:

Okay, cool. That’s something you’d be into.

Tom Houghton:

I love it. Yeah. Completely off grid that way. So new alliance, fantastic.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah, cool. So business is growing by employee size, projects, volume, number of projects, but also size projects is going up.

Brad Leavitt:

Yeah, absolutely. We continue to do residential and commercial, that’s kind of our portfolio there. So we have some fun commercial ones. We’re doing some land development, which is our first one. So joint venture there. And for any of the followers that seen what we’re doing, we post about that, so that’s been fun. Some retail spaces, we’re doing some off sites/on sites and underground construction.

Brad Leavitt:

So a little bit different when you’re working with the horizontal construction, we call it, when it’s underground, as opposed to the vertical, which a lot of us know here at KBS/IBS.

Paul Wurth:

Right, yeah. Wait, so you said follow. I follow you. I watch all of your stories.

Brad Leavitt:

Yeah.

Paul Wurth:

They’re really great. So what’s your handle on Instagram?

Brad Leavitt:

So handle is A-F-T underscore construction. So it stands for a finer touch, so AFT underscore construction is pretty much our handle on all the social media channels. They’re all consistent there.

Paul Wurth:

Do we call that a handle or did I just go Top Gun?

Brad Leavitt:

No, that’s fine. Yeah.

Paul Wurth:

Because they call those handles, right? Maverick?

Tom Houghton:

That’s right, Goose.

Brad Leavitt:

Yeah.

Paul Wurth:

That’s right, yeah. So the handle, we can use that.

Tom Houghton:

That’s kind of coming back in too, because they’re making a top gun remake.

Paul Wurth:

Two.

Tom Houghton:

Well, yeah, two I guess. The story continues.

Paul Wurth:

The story continues.

Brad Leavitt:

Just featuring Tom.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah, I know.

Paul Wurth:

Featuring Tom himself.

Tom Houghton:

He’s just still doing it.

Paul Wurth:

No, featuring this Tom.

Tom Houghton:

Oh yeah, me.

Paul Wurth:

This Tom.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah.

Paul Wurth:

Hollywood Tom.

Tom Houghton:

I’m in the background in one of the shots.

Paul Wurth:

He’s doing some videography for him, which is nice.

Brad Leavitt:

Yes. That’s a nice little side project.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah, it’s a little plug.

Tom Houghton:

Excellent side gig.

Paul Wurth:

We call that a side hustle.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah, exactly.

Paul Wurth:

Buildertrend is still your passion.

Tom Houghton:

That’s right. Of course.

Paul Wurth:

Okay, good. All right, so as part of the check-in, we just looked at last year. What’s next year look like? Any goals or plans?

Brad Leavitt:

Yeah. So we, again, it’s that pipeline. So we have an investor we’re working with and we’re looking at, there’s some technology actually, not too far around the corner from you. We did a little video with Buildertrend, so Delos it’s a company that’s right down from here and they are working with the health of the home. So they’re working with air filtration, water filtration, lighting, a lot of the things that we’re dealing with that add stress or create some of the unhealthy lifestyles we have.

Brad Leavitt:

So we are working with them on now building, not only a more energy efficient, better home, but also a healthy home. So, that’s something that we’ve been pursuing with our team. We have a couple of projects in line that we’d like to partner with them on. So, that’s exciting. And then of course, just the normal portfolio of stuff that we’re chasing.

Paul Wurth:

Grow your business.

Tom Houghton:

I love it.

Brad Leavitt:

Yeah, absolutely.

Tom Houghton:

This healthy home thing. This is a new trend that we’re seeing. I like this trend. I think it’s a good trend.

Paul Wurth:

Well, does that mean the people who live there live a healthier-

Tom Houghton:

Lifestyle.

Paul Wurth:

Lifestyle, because of the air call quality, whatever, all the things you’re doing.

Brad Leavitt:

Yeah. Well you think about it, one of their big pitches is … You think about it today, we spend, humans for a long time were outside, and now 90% of our time’s inside. We’re at work in our office, we’re in our home, in our car. And so we’ve worked on the energy efficiency of the home and the billing sense, but we haven’t really figured out with this tight home, how does that impact us? Because the minute you start putting in furniture and the VOCs from that, from all the fabrics that are in their paints, the VOCs and those chemicals, and other things that affect that.

Brad Leavitt:

So it’s really important that we start to understand, okay, how can we continue to push that envelope and just be healthier as people, especially in today’s day and age?

Paul Wurth:

What’s a VOC?

Brad Leavitt:

So VOC is … I’ll have to look up … But it’s the off gassing.

Tom Houghton:

And it’s particles too, it’s measuring.

Brad Leavitt:

Yeah, it’s the particles that come from paint. You’ll notice, a freshly painted room, the VOCs.

Tom Houghton:

The fumes.

Brad Leavitt:

So it’s that fume, and then same as from furniture, the same thing. Some of the furniture, toys we buy, it has inherent chemicals that come into the air and particles we breathe.

Tom Houghton:

We’re all family guys here. When we had one of our kids, we bought a camera that had a VOC monitor in it. So anytime the heat would kick on at night to heat up the room for the kids, the VOCs would just spike through the roof. So this is-

Brad Leavitt:

Moving all the particles and-

Paul Wurth:

Yep.

Tom Houghton:

Yep. So definitely interesting to see where that space is headed.

Brad Leavitt:

Yeah. It’s exciting.

Tom Houghton:

For sure.

Brad Leavitt:

The more we know, the better it is, right?

Tom Houghton:

Absolutely.

Brad Leavitt:

That’s why we’re here at the Builders’ Show, to see some of these new technologies and new products and see how that affects and how we can use it to help strengthen our business.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah.

Paul Wurth:

We’re right through halfway with the IBS. Any cool classes you want to shout out or things that you’ve seen here?

Brad Leavitt:

You know, we have not done any classes yet. It’s been a whirlwind. We’ve been walking around yesterday and today. We’ve had a few speaking engagements and networking. So now, hopefully, this afternoon and tomorrow. I will say there is one speaking event that I’ll put a plug in for. So tomorrow at 11 a.m., we are working with SCS foam. We have a building science seminar from 11 to noon.

Brad Leavitt:

So that is actually not too far from you, from Buildertrend either. So, that’ll be fun. Tomorrow at 11, so we’ll be doing that.

Paul Wurth:

Great.

Tom Houghton:

That’s Thursday.

Brad Leavitt:

That’s Thursday, Thursday for those listening, yeah.

Paul Wurth:

Yep, awesome.

Tom Houghton:

Okay. Last time you were on, you blew our minds with drinking fountains in the home. Do you remember that?

Paul Wurth:

Oh yeah, absolutely.

Tom Houghton:

That’s still one of my favorite conversations.

Paul Wurth:

I still want to do that.

Tom Houghton:

I know. Can you do it again?

Brad Leavitt:

Absolutely.

Tom Houghton:

What’s what’s the next thing?

Brad Leavitt:

So let’s see. Outside of that, so I talked about Delos living, but going back to the drinking fountains, it’s kind of funny because we continue to put drinking fountains in all our homes, but that’s now changed. So now we’re putting in the Elkay ezH2O Live, which is the definition. So, if you go to the Elkay booth in the North hall downstairs, you can see that in action. It’s actually in all of our homes. So if you follow our social media.

Brad Leavitt:

And that’s great too coming from an environment perspective, where now we’re not using as much bottles and we can refill, it’s refillable, and then you don’t have that big, clunky water fountain in the house, right? So the kids can use their cups and just go in the pantry and now fill up their water bottle for the day.

Paul Wurth:

Wow.

Tom Houghton:

Check out the show notes for a picture of one of us … I’ll volunteer to go down and check that out.

Paul Wurth:

I’ll go with you.

Brad Leavitt:

Do it. Yeah. It’s really cool.

Tom Houghton:

Both of us. Fantastic. We’ll go down there and we’ll check it out and put it in the show notes.

Brad Leavitt:

Perfect. Easy to install from a contractor side too. We’ve put them all in. They’re a piece of cake.

Tom Houghton:

Love it. So that way, when we go back to Omaha and we say, “We want this in our house,” they’d be like, “Ah, I don’t know. That seems difficult.” We’ll just be like, “Nope. Call up Brad.”

Paul Wurth:

Call Brad right now.

Tom Houghton:

Arizona, it’s a must. It’s so dry there and hot. Right now, it’s nice. But in the summer, it’s amazing how much water you drink.

Brad Leavitt:

Sure.

Tom Houghton:

It’s a must.

Brad Leavitt:

That’s good. Got to mix in the water. Stay hydrated.

Tom Houghton:

Oh, yeah.

Paul Wurth:

That’s right.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah. Good stuff. Well, Brad, thank you so much for coming on with this 10-minute check-in real quick. We’ve enjoyed getting to chat with you again. Of course, one of our favorite customers, mine personally.

Paul Wurth:

And guest.

Brad Leavitt:

Well, thanks. Yeah. Pleasure to be with you guys and be using your product. Buildertrend’s great for us. I speak about a lot just with the daily logs. That’s something … Our owner portal, all of our clients are out of town, out of state, 80% of them are at least, so it makes it super easy for them to interact with our projects.

Paul Wurth:

That’s awesome.

Brad Leavitt:

So, keep up the good work.

Paul Wurth:

Thank you, man. Appreciate it.

Tom Houghton:

Thanks, Brad.

Brad Leavitt:

Thanks.

Tom Houghton:

Love what you heard? Don’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 we’ll see you next time on “The Building Code.” Appreciate you.