Talking business and Buildertrend with David Reid Homes

Show Notes

Joining Tom and Paul on today’s episode of “The Building Code” is Rene Genet of David Reid Homes coming at you all the way from New Zealand. David Reid Homes is a franchise building company with about 18 individual branches around New Zealand – each specializing in custom designs that suit their clients’ needs.

Check out the full episode to hear about how builders at David Reid Homes are effectively running their businesses using Buildertrend and how they are adapting their building processes in the current environment.

Using Buildertrend during covid-19

“Another thing that is really useful is Daily Logs. Daily Logs are great for recording what’s happened on your site in a day. And if you tag as appropriate, so tag as a COVID recording or as a health and safety recording, they can go back and gather what happened and who was there, and just make that whole contact-tracing process easier for the government.”

“Buildertrend is a key part of it (success) for us because it enables our guys to have really good communication with their clients, really good communication with what’s happening on site and knowing where things are at in communicating with people. You think about that at-the-moment with the COVID situation, a whole lot of that communication can happen, as far as providing documentation and scheduling – all that stuff can happen without having to be face-to-face. You can do that through Buildertrend and see what’s going on quite easily.”

How has business been and what processes have you been developing?

  • We’ve been getting many inquiries from people outside the country wanting to build homes. Many of them currently live outside of New Zealand and want to come home.
  • Many of our builders have been using electronic signing to get contracts signed during lockdown and many of the guys worked on getting their administrative functions taken care of, so they were ready when they could go back to work.
  • It’s a fantastic time to work on your business and take a look at your systems. The businesses that will survive during this time are the ones that have good systems and know how to run their business well.
  • Using to-do lists and integrating them with the schedule has been a stand-out feature for us. We use it quite a bit for quality checks.
  • Another tool that has been immensely powerful is the Owner Portal with clients being able to check in on their project and communicate that way.

Franchise locations

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Transcript

Tom Houghton:

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

Paul Wurth:

Hello. I’m Paul Wurth.

Tom Houghton:

And joining us via FaceTime, all the way from New Zealand is Rene Genet from David Reid Homes.

Rene Genet:

Good Day. How are you going?

Tom Houghton:

We’re doing well, all things considered.

Paul Wurth:

Doing well. As you just mentioned, it’s morning your time, but we’re wrapping up our day, our work from home, which I guess doesn’t ever really wrap up.

Rene Genet:

No, it’s a funny old situation, isn’t it?

Tom Houghton:

Yeah.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. It is.

Tom Houghton:

Absolutely.

Paul Wurth:

But we’re happy to have you.

Rene Genet:

No. Nice to be here. Pleasure to be onboard.

Tom Houghton:

I mean, this is so great with technology. Obviously, we can communicate with really anyone all over the world and of course, here at Buildertrend we’ve got clients in over 70-plus countries using our software. And so, it’s great to just check in and see what’s happening all over the world with building and custom builders like yourself.

Rene Genet:

Sounds good. It’s interesting times down here in New Zealand.

Tom Houghton:

We definitely want to hear all about it, but maybe for the listeners, let’s start just first off with David Reid Homes. Just give us a background on the business and dive in there.

Rene Genet:

Sure. No problem. So, David Reid Homes, we’re a franchise building company. So in New Zealand, a lot of the group home or large builders are franchises. So that means essentially, you’ve got a group office or a head office supporting individual businesses using the brand and systems around the country. So we’re nationwide. We have about 18 branches around the country and our focus and the type of homes we build are typically bespoke. So, custom designed one-offs built for the client, for the site or plot of land that they own, or they’re looking to buy, and that’s designed to suit their needs.

Tom Houghton:

Awesome. And you do some pretty great work. I know that there’s a couple of different, because it’s a franchise system, there’s a couple different social media accounts that you have. If we were going to plug one of those for our listeners to tune into, would you have a recommendation there?

Rene Genet:

Of course. Thanks Tom. We would plug the David Reid Homes in New Zealand or David Reid Homes NZ social media account. So, we’re on Instagram and Facebook, and we’re using both of those quite extensively of course, as everybody is, albeit it’s a smaller population. But great way to get your message out there and showcase some of the wonderful work we do.

Tom Houghton:

Sure. Yeah. So, give them a follow. We’ll put a link to their social media account in the show notes. And you can find that at Buildertrend.com/podcast.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. Follow along. We talk about this in a lot of podcasts. It’s got to be like a follow party. Anytime we throw a tag out there or a handle, follow along. Tom, what’s your handle?

Tom Houghton:

I’m Contech Tom. As in construction tech, that is.

Paul Wurth:

Great content on Tom’s feed. I’m a follower of course. And I’m The Paul Wurth at Instagram and you’ll probably just see my kids.

Rene Genet:

Nice. And look, for us down here even, we’ve followed a number of the accounts that you guys are plugging through “The Building Code.” And it’s actually really nice to see what other builders are doing in other countries and just get some ideas and insights and look at the type of work. Just takes that whole global thing into a bit more of a, makes everything a bit closer, and you get to learn a bit which has really cool.

Tom Houghton:

Absolutely.

Paul Wurth:

It’s important. We’re a visual industry, so posting your projects, finished work, but also work in progress for tips and how to do things is, I’m interested in it so keep doing it.

Tom Houghton:

Absolutely. Well, let’s talk about what’s happening in New Zealand with everything going on, but maybe first start obviously, with challenges of building in your area.

Rene Genet:

Yep, sure. So, as I said, we work throughout the country. New Zealand, as I’m sure you’ve probably know if you look it up, we’re quite geographically diverse. So what I mean by that is, we have a lot of coastline. So, we love to see the sea, we love to play on the water. So Kiwis, that’s what we call ourselves down here, we love to be out on the water and close to it. So what that means in some areas is, building close to the coastline is, you have to look at the products you’re using.

Rene Genet:

They have to be resilient. They have to be able to handle that exposure to weather. And so, the methodologies and the products you use have to be carefully selected. In the Northern part of the country, so in the North Island and particularly the upper part of the North Island, the climates tend to be a bit warmer, so it’s almost subtropical. So, the requirement for installation and keeping your house warm is a lot less.

Rene Genet:

Whereas, further South you go in the middle of the South Island and down into Queenstown, which is an absolutely stunning part of the country, by the way, it’s cold. That’s where our ski fields are, the climate is dry but it’s very, very chilly. So, the requirements there are, the guys have to build a lot warmer homes. They have to able keep them warm without spending a whole bucket load of cash on heating and electricity and the like. So, the whole design methodology and thinking changes a wee bit, just to build to suit the environment.

Rene Genet:

So, what we see is, and you look at the homes we build, we see a difference in styles a wee bit but particularly, the levels of insulation and the types of products that go in vary, depending on the environment the guys are building in.

Tom Houghton:

Nice.

Paul Wurth:

I don’t know if you mentioned this, how many people in New Zealand?

Rene Genet:

So, New Zealand population is just on five million.

Paul Wurth:

Five million. Can you drive through it in a day North to South or?

Rene Genet:

No, you can’t. So, yes. Sorry. Thanks for that, Paul. So, driving from the North Island, the length of the North Island, if you had to drive it, you could probably do it in a day. It’s about 13 hours drive end to end. It’d be a pretty big day. The South Island is probably 10 or 11 hours drive end to end. But there’s this little bit of water in between the two. A nasty piece of water called Cook Strait, and the only way to get across that is by ferry or by flying. So that always slows your day trip up a wee bit.

Paul Wurth:

That’s exciting, it sounds interesting.

Rene Genet:

Yeah. And it’s a beautiful area. Now, the population is largely based in Auckland, that’s our largest city. It has a population about one and a half million, so it’s definitely where the most of the population live. But obviously, the further South you go, the area is just beautiful.

Paul Wurth:

And did you say you have franchises throughout?

Rene Genet:

Yeah. Throughout New Zealand. So, the northernmost franchise we have is up in a place called Kerikeri. So that’s about three hours drive North of Auckland. We have several based in Auckland city itself doing a couple of different type styles of building. And then, our southernmost franchise is Invercargill, right at the bottom of the South Island.

Paul Wurth:

I guess that was my question. As a franchise, just in general terms, you’re built off of mass producing the same style and business and maybe a home. Do you find yourself, because you’re all over regionally within New Zealand, that you’re building different styles of homes based on the region you’re in or price points?

Rene Genet:

Yeah, absolutely. All of those things have an impact. So, I guess to your point Paul, in Auckland, for instance, density is a real issue. It’s a fast growing city and New Zealand’s typically built on large plots of land, quarter acre type plots of land and single house or single dwelling on that. And of course, as cities get bigger, it doesn’t really work. So, in Auckland City, particularly, we’re seeing a lot more density, so multi-unit, multi-level houses built side by side. Whereas, in the regions, land is a bit cheaper, there’s a bit more space and typically, the average price of housing is a bit less as well because there’s less demand.

Rene Genet:

So, what that means is people are building, if they’re just building in regional towns, picked a wee bit smaller house or a wee bit simpler, maybe a wee bit less architectural. Still nice homes, still for appropriate codes, but not quite the same as what you might build in a city.

Rene Genet:

And probably the other extreme is where you get large stations or farms, you get larger plots of lands and holiday spots like Queenstown and Wanaka, where people are wanting a really nice holiday home or a batch. Place where they can go and spend some time on their time off and relax, and really make the most of the environment. So again, a different style of home.

Tom Houghton:

Lots to offer in New Zealand. I think Paul and I are planning our trip once this whole COVID-19 thing gets out of the way.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. We’ll see you in 2024.

Tom Houghton:

Well, it’s funny actually, Rene, we’ve met in person. You’ve come to Buildertrend University here in the States.

Rene Genet:

Correct.

Tom Houghton:

Maybe you could share a little brief story about that.

Rene Genet:

Yeah. We’ve been using Buildertrend now since about 2016 in our business, and the opportunity for Buildertrend University came up last year as you started doing those. So, we committed to myself and one other coming across and just learning a bit more, getting to meet you guys. New Zealand people really like to deal face-to-face, which I think is probably human nature. So it’s all well and good to deal with a technology company in the States, but it makes it a whole lot more real for us, and hopefully for you as well, to meet the people that are using the product, or designing the product in our case, and to really understand where Buildertrend are at, where they’ve come from. And so, that’s all feels part of your business. So, you want good teams as part of your business and so, it was great to meet the Buildertrend team.

Tom Houghton:

Awesome. So if you’re listening to this and you haven’t come to Buildertrend university, you have no excuse because Rene flew halfway around the world to get to Omaha, Nebraska for it. So, and we’ll be doing those again this fall. We’re going to do everything to keep everything clean and safe, but we’re doing it.

Rene Genet:

Nice stuff.

Tom Houghton:

So, I mean, in this post-COVID world, I feel like we have to talk about this, because I feel like New Zealand has been in the spotlight a little bit, but not too much. So, give us some details on what your world’s been like since this whole COVID-19.

Rene Genet:

It’s been a funny old situation. We had very few cases down here and all the cases initially came in through the border, through people coming in. As a result of the trajectory that it looked like the country was on and based on where other countries were at, New Zealand went into lockdown on the 26th of March. So, lockdown meant for us that everybody had to work from home. A lot of businesses were shut, other than what was deemed to be essential. So in our case, that meant that we couldn’t continue to build houses. We had to shut our sites down. All our offices had to close, all our sites had to be locked up and everything stopped. And that was the case for the vast majority of New Zealand.

Rene Genet:

We remained in that state for nearly five weeks, and then moved to alert level three on the 28th of April. So, alert level three meant that our construction could start on-site, albeit we had to put in some additional procedure and process to enable that. So, what that looked like was we had to sanitize any contact areas and we’re having to ensure that we can maintain social distancing on our sites. So, on a residential site, that largely means you’re only having one trade on-site at a time and that trade, so if it’s a plumber or an electrician, they are either maintaining their own work bubble, or they are maintaining that social distance, so that there’s no contamination and breaking of bubbles if you like.

Rene Genet:

So, bubbles is an expression our government’s been using for a group of people that have to stick together. So, I don’t know if that’s familiar to you guys. So, my family is it’s own bubble, and you’re supposed to stick within that so you minimize contact with other people.

Paul Wurth:

Now, inside the bubble, are we six feet apart or are we okay?

Rene Genet:

Inside the bubble you’re okay. So, I’m allowed to get close to my wife.

Paul Wurth:

Okay. Good.

Rene Genet:

Hug my kids et cetera. That’s appropriate. But if you are working on a work site, it’s a minimum of a meter. Minimum of a meter, ideally two.

Paul Wurth:

And would you convert that for Tom?

Tom Houghton:

No. I know. 3.3, three feet, three inches.

Paul Wurth:

I knew that.

Rene Genet:

Just over three feet.

Tom Houghton:

They get an extra six inches on their social distancing than we do here in the States.

Paul Wurth:

They do.

Rene Genet:

One of the challenges with the sites of course, was having to record who was there. Who’s been there, it’s also a requirement for contact tracing. So, if something breaks out, you can find out where they’ve been. So, we had to put sanitation stations, a bit of extra signage, things like that on our sites, so people can wash their hands before, when they arrive and before they leave.

Rene Genet:

But recording is really, really important. So, there’s a number of ways you can do that. You can write it on a bit of paper. Most of our guys are using a safety system we have to record through that. So, guys check in on-site. And the other thing that’s really useful is daily logs. Daily logs are great for recording what’s happened on your site on a day. And if you tag it as appropriate, so tag it as a COVID recording, or it’s a health and safety recording. That means that if they need to, they can go back through those and go, “Well, that’s what happened and who was there,” and just make that whole contact tracing process very easy for the government.

Tom Houghton:

Awesome. That’s great to hear another good usage of daily logs there.

Paul Wurth:

That’s a really great point because we haven’t really gone to the stage of contact tracing yet, although there’s definitely been some communication from local and federal government that that is something we’ll be getting into. So, very good to know. I have a question. I don’t know the relationship, where it stands between Australia and New Zealand, so I don’t want to step into these waters and get hit in the crossfire. But do you find that they have a similar experience in their market that you have in New Zealand or is it worse?

Rene Genet:

So Australia, from what I understand and the people I’ve spoken to over there, they’ve taken a slightly different approach. They didn’t lock down as much as New Zealand has. However, they’ve managed to also contain the virus to a similar extent. So, there’s a lot of discussion at the moment about opening the borders between Australia and New Zealand.

Rene Genet:

Both countries want that to happen as soon as possible, mainly for tourism. Tourism in New Zealand is our third biggest earner and of course, it’s stopped dead and the future is not looking great for it in the next year or so. So, really keen for those two borders to open up. It’s just a matter of timing really, when both countries are comfortable, that they’ve got the virus sufficiently contained and that they can contact trace if they need to. I believe Australia is using an app on your phone, which I’m not sure how it works, but I believe it can track you if you need to, if you come into contact with the virus.

Rene Genet:

And that’s been a massive focus here is just keeping in touch with, knowing where you’ve been, who you’ve been in contact with, should they have to trace it.

Paul Wurth:

So, it’s official, you do speak to people in Australia.

Rene Genet:

Definitely speak. We don’t quite speak the same language. There’s some stuff we don’t understand, but the same could be said about us, I suppose. There you go.

Paul Wurth:

But on a serious note. You brought up a point and I wanted to ask you about this. Your business, as it relates to that demographic you build for holiday homes, have you seen some of that interest drop off, some of the inquiries from some people who might live out of the country and want to build a place there?

Rene Genet:

Funnily enough, we’re actually getting a reasonable amount of inquiry from people that live outside of the country and want to come home when they can. They want to get back here and they want a house to move back into, and they want a new home to live in.

Rene Genet:

Probably, the reason for that is New Zealand’s handled the COVID thing pretty well. We seem, evidently, to have pretty good governance. And so as a result of that, it’s pretty much a safe haven. A lot of people have that view that, when and if they can get down here, it’s the place they want to be because it’s pretty stable. The economy is pretty good. The government’s managed it pretty well, so it’s not a bad place to be.

Rene Genet:

So, we’re definitely getting inquiry from overseas. Some of that will be expats wanting to come back home. There’s been a lot come back. Not all of them have of course, but they’ll be looking at where they were living and going, well, actually this is a little bit difficult and I’m keen to get back to New Zealand. Now is the time.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah. It seems like it’s been really well managed down there for sure, with what we’re seeing from these reports and from your report too as well.

Rene Genet:

Yeah. I mean, that’s what it seems like as well. I mean, obviously, there’s a bit of noise in the media from business owners that can’t yet open. If you’re running a restaurant it’s really difficult. Restaurants can open at the moment, but only through delivery, we can’t go and sit in a restaurant and eat. So, we’re hoping early next week to reduce our alert level again, to loosen things up a bit so restaurants can open. I haven’t been able to get a haircut for over six weeks, all of that sort of stuff. Just stuff you’re used to daily life has just changed, and lots of businesses will be hurting as a result of that.

Tom Houghton:

Absolutely. Well, what have you guys been doing to, you mentioned you were shut down for a little bit. How did you weather that storm and what processes have you been evolving over this time?

Rene Genet:

So, through that time, we’ve spent a lot of time obviously, doing Zoom calls and FaceTiming with our teams and working with them to basically, just get their back office and systems really well bedded in. It was a great opportunity for them just to tidy up things that needed tidying up. They were still able to price work, get jobs priced. They were still able to get projects signed. So, a number of the guys signed up contracts during that lockdown phase, just through electronic signing. And they were still able to lodge building consents or permits, get those sorts of permissions through as well.

Rene Genet:

So, there’s a number of admin type functions they could do. And so, a number of the guys were working on that just to get themselves ready so that when they could go back to work, they could focus on construction, not on doing their paperwork and administration functions.

Rene Genet:

And that’s sort of been the case. That’s what we have seen. They’ve just got all their sites open and running pretty quickly because obviously, they’re motivated to do that. And the inquiry is still sitting there at the moment. New Zealand housing market, it was strong when we went into lockdown. It will no doubt decline a little, but there’s a massive backlog of demand for houses in this country, so we don’t see it dropping dramatically. But again, it’s a bit of a who knows?

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. It’s tough to understand what the market’s going to do. There are some people who say, as far as the US, if there’s a construction boom ahead of us for the reasons you had just mentioned Rene. But for silver linings, which I think everybody should be looking for during these times. I mean, I’ve talked to hundreds of our clients that are taking this opportunity to finally slow down a little bit and evaluate their processes.

Paul Wurth:

There’s a race to Buildertrend, most of our clients are Buildertrend users. It’s a really good time to do an account review. Look at the features you’re using, work with our education team to ensure you’re using those features most efficiently, because there’s always small little feature updates we do all the time. And then, if you’re not using a certain feature or a service we offer, it’s good just to understand that that can drive additional value to the monthly fee.

Paul Wurth:

So, if you’re listening and you haven’t done an account review yet with your account executive, reach out. It’s a great way to spend some time right now.

Rene Genet:

Yeah. Fantastic opportunity to work on their business and look at their systems. Whatever happens to the building industry in this country and I guess in any country, there will be businesses that fail, but I think the ones that will survive are the ones that have good system, good process, and really know how to run their business well. And so, what that means is they become quite scalable. So, our business is really built around being scalable. And so, what I mean by that is, you can start really small. You can build three or four homes a year and run our systems and be profitable, but at the same time, you can run 20 homes a year or more, all custom designed and still be profitable. And the systems scale up to suit that.

Rene Genet:

So, Buildertrend is a key part of that for us, because it enables our guys to have really good communication with their clients, really good communication with what’s happening on-site and knowing where things are at and communicating with people. And you think about that at the moment with the COVID situation, a whole lot of that communication can happen as far as providing documentation, scheduling, all that sort of stuff can happen without having to be face-to-face. They can do that through Buildertrend and see what’s going on quite easily.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. That’s what I’ve always liked about franchise concept inside of construction. It really does give the business the tools that, for the most part, construction companies don’t have, which is systems and processes, and this is how we do this, and here’s how we hold people accountable and look at our KPIs. I mean, it’s tailor built-in with David Reid Homes and how you guys scale, which is really cool to see, because I think that’s just a huge leg up for somebody. If you’re looking to get into home building and somebody provides you with all of these processes and systems, so all you have to do is just say, “Let’s work the system and focus on effort and attitude.” I think that really makes a lot of sense for this industry.

Rene Genet:

It does and that ultimately, I mean, I work for the franchisor and that’s what we sell. We sell systems and process. And so, guys that come onboard and become part of our network, typically, they are builders already, they’re running their own construction company and they want to take that next step up. But they’re busy people, busy building houses and so, trying to create systems and process is quite a lot of work, particularly if you don’t have a real understanding of what that should look like.

Rene Genet:

And so, we’re able to provide proven systems that our guys are running. We know they work because the guys that use them well, make good money, run good businesses. The key to doing this the same is applying them in your own business. And so, it’s a really attractive proposition for someone looking to start a construction business.

Tom Houghton:

Speaking of all these processes that you have, all this knowledge you have, you mentioned daily logs earlier. I’m curious. Do you have any other existing processes that you’ve had in your tool belt at this time, that you’d recommend as a tip for other people to keep their eye on or start implementing in their business?

Rene Genet:

With Buildertrend, see your daily logs is a really useful one. I think the more you do that, the more you learn what you can do with it, which is really cool. The other one that’s been quite a standout for us is the to-do lists and getting those integrated into the schedule. And that takes a bit of thinking because when guys initially are building their schedules or working with their schedules, they’re thinking of everything they have to do on the house, on the project and putting that in the schedule. So, when I say everything, things like, checking the quality of some of the work and ordering some supplies and materials. But as you start to work it, you realize that to-dos is actually the most powerful tool for that. And we’ve used it quite a bit now.

Rene Genet:

We use it quite a bit for quality checks. So, as an example, before we line a house, as in, put the, we call it chipboard but plasterboard up on the walls, you have to get an inspection and often guys will just use that inspection as the quality check. But what we get our project managers to do is to go through a to-do list as well, and check a whole list of items that we want to know is, as the builder, have been done and have been done to an appropriate standard.

Rene Genet:

So, it could be simple things like making sure that all the wiring’s in place where it needs to be, that there’s logs or bits of timber on the walls where you want to fix a TV bracket or a mirror or something at a later stage. Checking those little things that are easy to miss, that if you don’t do it and you get to the stage where you need to hang that TV, or hang up that towel rail, it becomes a massive problem or a much bigger problem at the end of the job.

Rene Genet:

So, To-Do’s are really good to integrate into the schedule for that. I think that’s been a really powerful tool for our guys. And the other one that’s just immensely powerful, particularly given our geography, is the owner portal. Owners will be able to see what’s happening on their site and communicate by means of that. It consolidates communication into one place, so you’re not looking through emails and all sorts of other processes to find out what the messages were. And it enables the clients who, in a lot of our cases, are living remotely to where the build is, to see what’s happening on-site, communicate with the builder in an easy fashion.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. Those both completely align with what we talk about with our clients. One thing with to-dos that you brought up, is that checklist item’s so great, but it can be templated and reproduced every job. And you can also tie it to the schedule, which a lot of people do. So, let’s say for instance, that before we move on from framing, we have this list of 10 things we want to do as a business, that shows up on the last day of framing, and then that can be completed by the rep.

Paul Wurth:

The other thing we’ve seen people do before they put a plaster or drywall, which is a nice tip, is actually take a video or a 360 photo of the walls and all the outlets before the plaster goes up. So that if, as a business, you want to refer to that, or as a client, you post that in the client portal. So, after the job is complete, when they’re living in their home, if they want to reference that for what they want to do, which is hang stuff up or whatever it may be. That’s a nice tip we’ve heard from people as well.

Rene Genet:

Yeah. It’s a great tip, and we do that all the time actually. In fact, I recall one job where it was a real issue and luckily, having those photos, our electrician had forgotten where he’s putting his wire. Take the photo. Or a light fitting and it was like, he wants to cut a hole in the wall and was like, “No, you’re not doing that buddy.” Photos save you in that situation. And the great thing about that is everyone’s got the tool in their pocket. Everyone’s got a smart phone now, you may as well use it.

Tom Houghton:

Absolutely. So, I think that’s the tip of the day. Take a picture, save yourself cutting a hole in the wall right there.

Rene Genet:

That’s one. Definitely do that.

Paul Wurth:

Or take a video instead of a hundred photos, or a 360 photo.

Tom Houghton:

There you go.

Paul Wurth:

You’re a video guy, Tom. You should’ve known that one.

Tom Houghton:

I’m a big video guy. I’m a big video guy. Yeah. Awesome. Well, Rene, thank you so much for coming on the podcast and sharing your experience with all that’s happening down in New Zealand. We really, really appreciate it. Of course, we appreciate you being a part of the Buildertrend family and we wish you continued success in your business there.

Rene Genet:

Thanks very much. Really appreciate it and appreciate the invite. And it’s good to catch up with your guys and see what’s happening over there in the US and share a bit of what’s happening down here in NZ.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. And if Tom and I make it down there, just keep a room ready for us inside the bubble or outside. Either one’s fine.

Rene Genet:

Yeah. There’s no shortage of hotel rooms down here at the moment.

Paul Wurth:

I’m sure.

Rene Genet:

Or camper vans or rental cars. There’s plenty of them available at the moment.

Paul Wurth:

Good.

Rene Genet:

I tell you what we’re looking forward to happening down here is having sports happening again.

Tom Houghton:

Sure. I think-

Rene Genet:

It’s just like nothing going. No rugby, no nothing at all.

Tom Houghton:

I think we all are missing a little bit of our sports.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. I don’t think I can handle a replay of the 1987 Regional Baseball World Series. I’ve seen every old sporting event in the world at this point.

Rene Genet:

They just announced the new All Black captain last night on the news. And it’s like, the first question everyone’s asking is, “When are we going to be playing? When are we going to see some games?” But we just don’t know.

Tom Houghton:

Hopefully it’s soon.

Paul Wurth:

I’ll tell you what, if the All Blacks and the rugby starts opening up in New Zealand, you will have a record level of international viewership. If nothing else is up is opened up in the U.S.

Rene Genet:

That’s a smart move, isn’t it? Get it going.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. Well, Korean baseball just opened up and they’re hitting record numbers as well. So, there you go.

Tom Houghton:

Good stuff.

Rene Genet:

Very good.

Tom Houghton:

All right, Rene, thank you so much.

Rene Genet:

Thank you guys. Good to talk to you.

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.

Rene Genet | David Reid Homes


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