Episode 12: Systemising Your Drafting Process with Kevin Weitzel

In episode 12 of the Professional Builders Secrets podcast, our host, Bosco Anthony is joined by Kevin Weitzel who is the Business Development Manager at Outhouse. Throughout this episode Kevin reveals how builders can systemise their drafting process. 

Outhouse is construction software designed to help builders create and manage their construction projects. Tens of thousands of homes around the world are built from construction documents drafted by Outhouse. With over 20 years experience, the team at Outhouse understands how homes are built and their software helps builders to deliver homes and create accurate sales materials and marketing images for their clients. 

Kevin is a former professional cyclist and Olympic Alternate as well as a highly decorated former United States Marine. His many productive years in the cycling industry landed him a very successful career in the Motorcycle/Automobile industry. 

His belief in and practice of relationship selling catapulted him from floor sales to GM of the largest Motorcycle Dealer network in the United States in less than 5 years. Disenchanted with the auto industry due to unscrupulous business practices, he then joined the team at Outhouse and led the team to the largest sales growth in company history since the downturn. 

He's an expert in interactive web and marketing content, 3D rendering, animation, drafting, matterport, and print marketing collateral. Tune in to episode 12 now to hear Kevin share the best tips for builders to systemise their drafting process. 

 

Kevin Weitzel - VP Business Development & Sales – Outhouse

Kevin has worked at Outhouse for five years, revolutionising the integration of drafting, rendering, print, display, options and web for the building industry. Kevin’s role as Business Development Manager means that he looks after sales, marketing, sales process development, product presentation, quotes, contract preparation, closing and more. 

Connect with Kevin

 

Timeline

1:00 What is Outhouse?
1:55 Invention of the interactive floorplan.

3:47 Kevin’s background.

6:45 What compelled Kevin to move into the construction industry?

7:40 What makes Outhouse different?

9:30 How technology has changed the way builders operate. 

11:15 Debunking intellectual property rights in the industry. 

13:40 Why should builders be paying attention to the digitalisation of systems?

15:00 What needs to change for the industry to embrace innovation?

18:45 What trends is Kevin seeing in the industry?

22:00 What should builders be paying attention to?

 

Links, Resources & More

Outhouse Website
APB Website
APB on Instagram
APB on Facebook
APB on YouTube

Join the Professional Builders Secrets Facebook group for builders & connect with professional builders world-wide.

Bosco Anthony:

Hello and welcome to the Professional Builders Secrets podcast, a podcast by the association of professional builders for building company owners, general managers, VPs and emerging leaders. Here we discuss all things running a professional building company from sales processes, financials, operations and marketing. Today I'm joined by Kevin Weitzel, VP of business development and sales for Outhouse. Kevin, welcome.

Kevin Weitzel:

Hello. Thanks for having me.

Bosco Anthony:

Well, thanks for being here today. Let's get into it, shall we? Start off with telling me a little bit about what you specialise in and what does Outhouse do?

Kevin Weitzel:

Sure. Well, obviously we have a lot of fun with our name, Outhouse. We have nothing to do with porta potties or toilets or Jay Johns or anything. We're actually an outsourced services company for production and semi-custom home builders. We can work in the commercial world, we can work in full custom, we can even work in the remodelling sector. 

Kevin Weitzel:

But really, what it comes down to is that where builders most benefit from utilising our services is when they want to streamline their processes to make their options and their products more standardised. So even when it is custom, or it's pre-curated design, not necessarily just willy-nilly or ‘whatever I feel like doing on my plans’. But in addition to that, we also invented the interactive floor plan a little over 20 years ago now. And that's really where we shine head and shoulders above the rest of the competition that's out there.

Bosco Anthony:

Tell me a little bit about this invention of the interactive floor plan. You talked about it being there for 20 years; how did you actually get into it?

Kevin Weitzel:

It's kind of a funny story, because it wasn't actually even developed to be an interactive floor plan tool for structural options. Our company was founded by three independent companies that all just kept running into each other with various home building clients. We had a drafting services company, a graphics and print company and a rendering and model making company, from back when they used to make models like little monopoly homes and the sales centres. So, way, way back like a time machine.

Kevin Weitzel:

Because they kept running into each other, they just decided to form Outhouse proper, and they've been working together ever since. I had been working with one of our developers to develop a furniture planner. The original intent was that people who were moving into multi-family fixed speculative (spec) home type builds could utilise that furniture planner as a way to space plan their home before they moved in into it. Make sure everything moves in, use it as a planogram so their moving company could just drop everything right where it belongs.

Kevin Weitzel:

We were approached by an Arizona builder who asked us if we could do the same kind of functionality, but move walls and have structural options. So, a few months later we developed that technology. They had that on their website way, way before anybody else. As a matter of fact, I even think they had it in their sales office before anybody else. It's just been going gangbusters ever since. 

Kevin Weitzel:

But the whole concept is that instead of just having a static plan that your potential buyer can look at, you have a plan that could be static, but you could show them what a den would look like in lieu of a bedroom or an extended porch or a garage, literally anything that comes to mind. It allows you to standardise and develop and engineer those options first and then roll them into what the options would be for your client.

Bosco Anthony:

Let's talk about Kevin a little bit here. Was this something that you landed on? Was this a calling that you jumped through? Were you doing something before this? How did you get into this world?

Kevin Weitzel:

It's kind of a funny story. I had zero background in the home building industry, other than somebody who has purchased and sold homes themselves. To cut a long story short, I'm a former professional cyclist. I raced pro from 1983 to about 1989. I was an Olympic alternate in 1988. Then I did a little stint in the Marine Corps; I was a sniper with 7th Marines for eight years. After that, I got back into the bicycle world, not racing anymore just buying and selling bicycles, and I opened a triathlon store here in Arizona.

Kevin Weitzel:

When I sold my store, I went to the world of two and four wheels, like powertrain if you will, motorcycles, cars, et cetera. I made really good money; I made great money selling vehicles. But I just was not very happy. I was completely disenfranchised without even having any joy in my life at all. My friend, who is a principal here at Outhouse, asked me if I could set up a sales program for them because they have never had to have sales; they've always worked with word of mouth. Marketing manager A from this company moves over to B and they say, "Hey, you need to use these products." 

Kevin Weitzel:

There's more competition out there in the world now; it's more of a global market. We have competitors in India, China, the Philippines and in Australia. What it comes down to is that because of all that added competition, we also have the need to always step up our game. So, we had to have a sales protocol in place, a way to reach out to people, a way to put a CRM in place. We needed more than just the good old boy network and handshakes.

Kevin Weitzel:

That's actually been to our benefit, because we have had record sales ever since. As a matter of fact, we’ve had record growth ever since. We were a pretty decent sized company up until the housing crash. We stayed in business only by virtue of an angel loan with an angel investor who came in and kept our company afloat. We actually bought our company back from that angel investor about four and a half years ago. We've just been doing well ever since.

Bosco Anthony:

You were referencing the 2008 recession in the US, right?

Kevin Weitzel:

Yes, yes.

Bosco Anthony:

And that changed the US landscape quite a bit in the building space as well.

Kevin Weitzel:

Oh, it blew apart. Over half the builders in the country were gone in literally a year's time. So yeah, we felt that pinch, we definitely did. Builders who owed us tens of thousands of dollars of invoicing just dried up and disappeared. Good luck paying those bills or collecting on them. So I was asked to come over and set up a sales system. We've had very good success with it and we’ve actually increased our foothold, not only in the United States, but up into Canada, Guatemala and Australia. We've had some fantastic partnerships across the globe. As a matter of fact, Russ Stephens with APB has been a fantastic partner. I should say strategic partner. We align with each other because both of our products, if you will, scratch each other's backs.

Bosco Anthony:

So, you've gone from the Marine Corps and being a former Olympian, to moving to the building and construction space. What compelled you, other than the growth and the success on a personal level, what really compelled you to take all those experiences and think, “This is the industry I'm going to land on?”

Kevin Weitzel:

I'm actually glad you asked that because I have, honestly, never been happier, professionally, than I am now in the home building industry. When you sell tchotchke [souvenirs], you sell bicycles, you sell a little bit of transportation, you're selling an item. But when you sell homes, you're literally selling where people raise their families, where people have memories, where they have quinceaneras [girls’ coming of age parties] in the backyard. They have their birthday parties with people and anniversaries that they celebrate, and this is all done in your home. I'm helping builders who sell and build that product, I'm helping them market their product digitally so they can get that product out and into the face of the people that are wanting to build.

Bosco Anthony:

Success – what really sparked that for your business? Was it the timing? Was it the digital outlets that you were providing?

Kevin Weitzel:

The original onset before my time, or the original success, was that we hit the market with a product that nobody else had. Interactive floor plans – man, we were it! There's a lot of other products we do, obviously we produce 3D renderings and virtual tours. A lot of that has actually been commoditised globally. You can get renderings anywhere by anybody. There used to be a big difference between some of the developing countries that were providing renderings versus our top tier countries I would say, our most developed countries. But honestly, those have been levelled out a bunch. There used to be a huge difference, but it truly is a worldwide market, and there's a lot of talented people out there.

Kevin Weitzel:

Where we gain most of our success now, is that our systems build and integrate with each other and with other systems. For builders who utilise us for drafting, when we draft their construction documents for their homes, their blueprints if you will, one of our by-products is that all the content that we draft, we can actually turn into interactive floor plans, so we can provide the interactive floor lines practically for free. 

Kevin Weitzel:

I don’t want to make this a sales pitch about Outhouse, but our services build. When we do renderings for a builder, we have a visualiser. So now, instead of just showing a static, 3D image, you can actually show it with different shingles, different stone, different siding, different paint schemes instantaneously, because the internet speeds everything up. Computer processing has sped everything up. The video game infusement of their technology into our industry has allowed that to escalate and just jump leaps and bounds over what it has been in the past.

Kevin Weitzel:

Historically, the home building industry is really slow to innovate. A lot of times the only instigation factor in a home builder wanting to move forward with a new technology or a new service or a new way of thinking about something is that competitor B down the road just did it. So, now we need to do what they’re doing. That’s kind of sad because for an industry that literally builds homes for everybody around the world, it is kind of silly that there is so little innovation in our industry.

Bosco Anthony:

Take us through the world of interactive floor planning and these architectural plans. Obviously, the internet has really digitalised systems around. How has that changed in the last few years? You're responsible for relationships and business development with other builders, what do you get to do on a day-to-day basis?

Kevin Weitzel:

A good example of that would be building information modelling (BIM) or technology where builders cannot just draft in 2D, but they can draft in 3D. And they cannot just draft the architectural standards of the home, but they can draft the electrical, the mechanical, the mechanical electrical and plumbing (MEP) and all the civil aspects all into the same plan. So you, Bosco, could be in one country drafting the plumbing. I could have my team over here doing all the architectural work, and then another team over in England could be doing all the structural engineering, all at the same time. That's the beauty of BIM, that it can all be done at the same time.

Kevin Weitzel:

Now, why does BIM not work globally and worldwide? It doesn't work for everybody. It's a fantastic concept and idea, and it works fantastically for commercial and it works well for spec building. However, the magic bubble that has not been obtained yet is how to build in structural options into a BIM structure. That's the only real downfall so far. For the single family home builder out there, 2D drafting is technically still the best way to go, because it also ties in with all the other systems that are out there. Now, when all these other systems – like for 3D Studio Max and all those – start to catch up to that technology and can integrate with the files that are produced out of these BIM software programs, then we're talking about a different story, and that's coming really soon. Technology is just flying by.

Bosco Anthony:

We talked about this technology also being outsourced to other parts of the world. Are you ever concerned about data breaches? Are there any dark truths to this industry and what surrounds you?

Kevin Weitzel:

Man, I'm glad you asked that question. Let's just go nitty gritty on this one. If you produce a purse, a purse, not even a home building, we're just talking about a purse. You think, "Wow, I've designed this beautiful purse. People are going to buy this thing, it's going to be fantastic," and you take it to China. Your intellectual property is now gone, it's gone. That purse is now being made by 30 or 40 different brand name manufacturers, and sub-brand names, and it’s private labelled left and right, all from your design, and you're none the wiser."

Kevin Weitzel:

Now think about that from a home building standpoint. You can spend tens of thousands of dollars designing and developing plans as a home builder. What are your thoughts? What are my thoughts when you send that work to, let's say India, to have some plans drafted in India? They don't have the same rules and regulations they have in Australia or New Zealand or in the United States or in England or Canada, so that intellectual property's gone. You invested tens of thousands of dollars into the development of that product, and it’s now being sold to everybody else out there. Your standards, your innovations, all of that is now just open-source property that anybody can grab hold of.

Bosco Anthony:

Do builders know this?

Kevin Weitzel:

Some do, some don't care. The ugly truth is that some really don't care. They're like, "Hey, as long as I benefit from it, as long as it costs me less, I'm okay with that." Let me just take a step back. When you're talking about a typical 30-foot-wide product that's a big old rectangle, where literally you just squeeze the rooms in, there's only so much innovation you can do there.

Kevin Weitzel:

There's only so many ways you can cut up that box, shift rooms around, shift walls around within reason. Rooms have to be a certain size to accommodate a bed. Bathrooms have to be a certain size to accommodate getting in and out, taking a shower or whatever. But when you're talking about larger scale homes and multi-level and multi-floor homes, there's a lot more design development that goes into those. So, why would you want to invest all that and then just give it away to your competition? When you go overseas, that does happen.

Bosco Anthony:

Right, right. Now, take me through the world of the builders from their lens. I've heard of people who still use a sketchpad in some parts of the world, as well. Why should builders be paying attention to this digitalisation of systems and that whole automation and availability of what you offer?

Kevin Weitzel:

There is still a world out there for hand-drawn architecture. And trust me, we all love it. As a matter of fact, when we look at hand-drawn watercolour renderings, they're beautiful. They're still beautiful, they're just not efficient. If you make a complete facelift to a plan, now you've got to find somebody and pay them $600, $700, $800 to have them redo that watercolour rendering when it could be done in just a couple of switches. I oversimplify, being a sales guy, but you flip a couple of switches and then poof, you've got a new rendering that matches at a new elevation.

Kevin Weitzel:

There's a lot of cost savings when it comes to drafting electronically or digitally, using CAD. But even more so, with the other systems that it ties to pushing forward to your marketing collateral. You can take that same drafting file instead of a hand drawing, take that same drafting file and now push it through to your engineers in a matter of seconds. You can have that brought back and have revisions done in a matter of minutes. When it comes to pushing forward to your digital collateral, again, renderings, interactives, tying into other systems, your CRM, your estimating software, all that can be done with a few keystrokes. Whereas with hand drawings and the old-school ways, you're literally tying your own hands.

Bosco Anthony:

You mentioned something really interesting about the fact that the industry is slow to innovate, and it's typically keeping up with the Joneses, as they say. If someone else is doing it, we should do it as well. What needs to change for the building industry to embrace innovation?

Kevin Weitzel:

Well, let's look at the frog and the pan. When do we change? When does the frog decide that it's time to jump out of this pan that just keeps getting hotter and hotter? The sad truth is, the frog doesn't jump out of that pan because he just doesn't realise that it's getting warmer; it's a slow transition. That is the crux of the home building industry, it’s that we are a slow built, slow moving transition. I mean, we're still using stick and stucco. We're still using bricks to build homes. There are so many new materials and technologies that are out there. We've got solar, we've got wind, they’re ways to power homes where they don't even have to be on the grid anymore. They legitimately do not have to be on the grid, but home builders don't do it.

Kevin Weitzel:

Why don't they do it? Because this is the way we've done things for the last 40 years. Or, "Why would I take on this expense when my competition is not?" Solar panels on roofs, that's passive electricity. “Why would I take on the expense of adding $20,000 to my home when my competition can beat me by $20,000 for a similar home now?” Well, because you want to do something that's better for your planet. The harsh truth is that the worries that builders have now about competitor A, B and C, those are small little itty-bitty battles that they're having to worry about. They seem big now, but let's fast forward 20, 30, 40 years from now, when water becomes an issue and population becomes an issue.

Kevin Weitzel:

We're just talking about density now. There are countries, look at San Paul, Brazil, where they've got houses stacked on top of houses, stacked on top of houses. And these aren't houses folks, these are shacks. So that population is there, and the only way for them to get out of that lock-in is to chop down forests, or to relocate to other countries. So, the worries of the home builder, worrying about whether competition A, B or C is doing X, Y or Z, those are pretty small little things to worry about. They need to worry more about the big picture and how can I still produce a sustainable product? Not only that I can build and profit from now, but that society can utilise and benefit from 30, 40, 50 years from now.

Bosco Anthony:

Let's get into your perspective, shall we, about the construction industry? What keeps you up at night and what gets you excited in the morning to do what you do?

Kevin Weitzel:

I'd love to say that I'm so secure that my competition doesn't keep me up at night, but sometimes my competition does keep me up at night. But no, when it really comes down to it, I don't really lose a lot of sleep over the things that I do for our industry. The long and the short of it is that I'm just a sales guy in the big scheme of things. I worry more about our ecology. I worry about coastal areas being eroded by global warming. I don't want to sound like a big giant, I can hear the audience now. "What, is he interviewing a tree hugger?" Am I a little bit of a tree hugger? I guess I am, because mother nature proves to us time and time again, you're not supposed to mess with her.

Kevin Weitzel:

I'm kept up at night by population growth, by areas of the world where the mass population is having to move out of unsustainable areas. Areas that are just grotesquely overpopulated, that no longer have any natural resources to service them. We have these nice first world problems of, “What colour car am I going to buy?" Not, "Can I feed my family today?" It’s not to say there aren't people out there worried about feeding their family, but it's all on a big scale of importance and not so important.

Kevin Weitzel:

So, the things that keep me up are, is our industry paying enough attention to our world? Are they paying enough attention to affordability? Are they paying enough attention to being able to have renewable resources to be able to build homes? Those are the kinds of things that bother me and they shouldn't, because I don't even build the home. I just sell the products that allow builders to market their homes. But that's the stuff that gets me.

Bosco Anthony:

Right. So what are some of the trends that surround the residential industry that you're seeing today, potentially even sustainable trends as well? What are some of the things that you're seeing that are shaping the future of where we're going?

Kevin Weitzel:

Well, I like to look at what they're doing in Scandinavia with modular building. Love it or hate it, or be afraid of it if you want to, but modular building is so much more efficient. When those systems are in place, you can literally build a home, not on site, but in a factory. You can build sections of it and have minimal assembly and locations. So, you reduce waste, you reduce time, you can build homes considerably faster, and you can palletise them.

Kevin Weitzel:

I think that because we've been doing it the same old way here in the United States, we have not embraced modular building as much as we should have. We do trusses; how many home builders build roofing trusses? Most of them just hire that in. They just buy the roofing trusses, they get delivered, the crane drops them into place and they’re done. So, what's the difference between doing that with whole wall panels and flooring systems that could literally be dropped in? When I look at innovation, I look at Scandinavia and just see how they're building homes complete and just dropping them into location. I think it's fantastic.

Bosco Anthony:

So, you're talking about pre-manufacturing some of these entities that come with the home building side of things? It's almost like the Tesla model of building homes, I guess.

Kevin Weitzel:

That's exactly it. I think that we need to look at some of these other industries that have moved in that direction. There's a reason why Ikea has these gigantic stores and they're always full. They're always full because they make an inexpensive, reproducible, ecologically sound product that everybody can afford. Affordability is there, sustainability is there.

Bosco Anthony:

Ikea's come a long way, too. You can get your kitchens built from there now. You can get pretty much everything for the interior from Ikea as well. It's interesting that you mentioned that. Do you see this concept of eco solutions making its way to the US? I know the US does have a modular building entity. But do you see this becoming even more enhanced in the future?

Kevin Weitzel:

I think the industry's going to force it to happen. It's going to have to happen. The problem is, do we have builders who could thrive and survive, versus just struggle and buggle, by implementing some of the modular technologies that are out there? I think that questions very easily answered when we look at Europe. There are even a lot of modular buildings down in Australia. 

Kevin Weitzel:

So, it is here, it's just a question of when it's going to take place. Insulation materials, plastics, there are people creating with these. I forget the gal's name, but pretty recently it was in the news where she's taking and compressing plastic that literally just goes into landfill, and she’s turning it into building blocks. Now granted, you don't want that to catch on fire, because that'd make a pretty nasty burn, but as far as structurally, it’s solid stuff.

Bosco Anthony:

So, what should builders be paying attention to as we embrace this new frontier? I think someone once called the residential and construction space ‘the final frontier’. But what should builders really be paying attention to moving forward?

Kevin Weitzel:

I think we should be concerned – and this isn't necessarily a global problem, it's more of a North American problem – about this mass acquisition that's happening where the biggest builders literally have the lion’s share of the market. You have some smaller builders; there are 10,000 plus builders in the United States. If you look at the top 100 builders, you go from 50,000 plans a builder, down to, I think at the bottom of the hundred, it might be 400 or 500 plans a builder.

Kevin Weitzel:

That means you've got 9,500 other builders or 9,700 other builders who are building less than 400 homes a year. That's a lot of people divvying up very small slices of the pie, and to make that profitable is very difficult. So, I think this acquisition and cornering of markets is something that we need to be concerned about. There are some markets where these players aren't in, but these major players are moving into the Boise market, where in the Boise market, they haven't had that big player. CBH Building Services has been the big gorilla in the room. Now you’ve got Lennar Corporation moving up there and D.R. Horton moving up there. Once those big beasts move into your market, the whole game changes.

Bosco Anthony:

That's because they're buying up the competitors and building it as part of their brand, I guess. Is that right?

Kevin Weitzel:

Well, it's twofold. They not only buy up competitors, they buy up low line competitors, whether they're successful or struggling. But then they also are much more funded. They can come in and buy premium land. So, now they're buying the dirt that everybody wants to live on, and if they're buying up and locking up that dirt, you being a smaller builder, you're just shoved right out of the market.

Bosco Anthony:

So, they're literally buying the portfolios is what you're saying?

Kevin Weitzel:

That's exactly what they're doing.

Bosco Anthony:

Wow. So will the industry always have room for custom home building? You talked about so many different trends, eco building or sustainable options. What are the insights that you're gathering on the front lines? And do you still see room for custom home building as well?

Kevin Weitzel:

There's always going to be room for custom home building. There's always going to be the affluent, who want their homes built the way they want them built. They don't want to buy an off the rack home. You're going to have that, which is a shrinking population, you're going to have that population like myself that's in what we call the middle class. I like the idea of custom, but I also like the simplicity of being able to get this home built just right now and move into it. It's already been finished with a curated design of awesome finishes. Done. Who doesn't want the easy button?

Kevin Weitzel:

But I think I'm also a weirdo. I think I'm not that normal person, that once you've made it to that level of affluence where you can afford to buy your custom home, but you wouldn't want to buy the custom home. Who wants to drive the same car everybody else is driving? Everybody wants their chrome wheels or their tinted windows and their sound system and their spoiler in the back. We want that with our homes, too.

Bosco Anthony:

Right, right. Well, Kevin, it's been a really insightful interview. I've learned so much about the world that you come from. Any final words to our listeners out there who are the builders, either getting into it or builders who have been there for a while? Or people who are still on the fence about embracing the technology that you provide – any final words for them?

Kevin Weitzel:

Embrace change. Definitely do not be afraid of change, don't be fearful of change. The whole world is based on change. Everything we do, every technology we have, even phones. Thirty years ago we may have had cell phones, but we didn't have cell phones in the pocket of every single person on the planet. So, don't be afraid of change because if you are not changing, and actually I'm going to quote John Burns on this. John Burns said, "If you run your business today that you did 10 years ago, you won't be relevant or even in business, 10 years from now."

Kevin Weitzel:

Then Russ Stephens even adds to that saying, "Not only do you have to be relevant, but you have to be on point, not only with your profitability, but with your product offering and knowing what your customers want. Not just what you want to build." So, I think it really comes down to that you can have the passion to build homes, but if you're not willing to make the change to suit the market, the needs of your buyers, the needs of the environment, you're going to be in some trouble.

Bosco Anthony:

Well, thanks so much for being with us, Kevin. I really appreciate your time today and your insights. And we really loved having you on this episode.

Kevin Weitzel:

Thank you. I appreciate it.

Bosco Anthony:

Cheers.