Three Generations, One Neighborhood Roofing Company

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Speaker 1
My son drew works with me. He's 26 now that my dad's retired. He rides with me now. I stopped pushing so much of like, let me do the whole thing and started going towards, let me help you out.

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Speaker 2
You're listening to The Roofer Report, the ultimate podcast for roofing professionals, business owners and entrepreneurs. Get insider access and hear about the highs, lows and tales of triumphs from thriving business owners. Brought to you by roofer, hosted by Pete McKendrick.

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Speaker 3
All right. Hey, everybody, welcome back to the Roofer Report. I'm your host, Pete McKendrick. You know, we've been kind of bouncing back and forth between our Roofer the Month series and bringing on some other guests to talk about, you know, some great topics, you know, in line with the industry. You know, we just did a great one, I think that was released.

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Speaker 3
You know, last couple of weeks ago. Based on just from a physical therapist. And kind of giving his take on on the some stuff. So that was, that was a really, really interesting one. So we're trying to mix it up a little bit here. But we are back today with another roofer of the month series.

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Speaker 3
Guest. And really excited to dive into that story. You know, these have been phenomenal stories and just a great, you know, to kind of here everybody's inside into like how they got into roofing and, you know, and what they're doing. You know, with the companies that they're involved with. So excited to get into this one today.

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Speaker 3
So welcome. Jamie Hunt from Snr contracting. Jamie, excited to have you here.

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Speaker 1
I'm excited. It's very rare occasion that anybody wants to talk about me.

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Speaker 3
Yeah. So we are excited to have you and congrats on our roofer of the month. So like I said, this has been a fantastic series. We've been able to hear some some really, really great stories and looking forward to diving into this one with you. Yeah, absolutely. So tell us a little bit about, Snr. Like, how long have you guys been in business?

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Speaker 3
Where are you guys located? What kind of work do you guys do? Just kind of give us a low down.

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Speaker 1
So we started out in Powder Springs, Georgia. We're in Villarrica now. We've also had an office in Hiram. But we started over 30 years ago. Now, this was my dad. I did not start over 30 years ago, but I've been here for 26 years. I've been doing this. I've worked with my dad. I rode with my dad almost every day of those 26 years.

00:02:12:20 - 00:02:37:16
Speaker 1
And I started out when I first started out, I was just a secretary in the office, and I was 18 years old, and I was probably the worst secretary ever. It was at my parents house. I literally commuted from my basement downstairs up to their office upstairs. And I was I had no responsibility. And then I quickly learned, like, if I want to do anything with this, I got to take it serious.

00:02:37:21 - 00:02:57:09
Speaker 1
I also am not like a an a natural extrovert. So it was really hard to learn how to become a salesperson through all of that. And when my dad, my dad had a bad accident, unfortunately he fell off of a roof and I had to take over and just kind of took it by the took the bull by the horns.

00:02:57:09 - 00:03:16:12
Speaker 1
And and after that, even when he got better, thank God he did, he just started riding together and sailing together. And we were such a great team. And so it's it's been great. And he retired December of last year fully. But I have been running the company basically for the past 15 years. Oh, wow.

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Speaker 3
Yeah. You were born and raised into this.

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Speaker 1
Oh yes. Oh, yes.

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Speaker 3
Very cool. So you've probably seen a significant change in the industry. You know, over that time and, and obviously having your dad involved, you know, for the years before that, you know, you guys have probably seen a pretty good evolution of how the company has to be run and the things that you guys have dealt with in customer base specifically.

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Speaker 3
Right. Like what what's been some of the bigger challenges that you guys have seen or faced over the course of that time? Because that's a that's a good long time to be in business.

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Speaker 1
Oh, yeah. I mean, when we went back in those days, like we were doing everything with a handshake and a, you know, written little estimate, like nothing was over computers and even probably too far into that, like my dad was just trying to hold on to this old school thing that I had to eventually say, listen, we can't do that anymore.

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Speaker 1
But the, you know, the hand measuring, big cut up places and, you know, not having roofer back then it was it was a whole lot different. So yeah.

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Speaker 3
Yeah, yeah I mean it's one of those things too. I you know when I first got into this, a lot of the companies that I dealt with were like yours and had been in business for a long time, you know, multi-generational companies. And, you know, it was one of those things like, if it's not broke, like, why change it?

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Speaker 3
Right? So it's like, hey, I've been successful all these years doing it this way. That's great that you guys have a, you know, a more digital way to do it, but do I really need it? You know, and that was kind of the attitude in the beginning. So it's interesting to see that you've been able to convince him to evolve.

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Speaker 3
Well.

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Speaker 1
It was it took a few people, you know, basically screwing us over before he I was like, listen, we can't do that anymore. Like, unfortunately, it's not the world you grew up in anymore. Things are changing. And it's not a lot of a lot of it for the good and some of it not for the good. So you have to protect yourself.

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Speaker 3
Well, and that's it. You know, that's an interesting piece that a lot of people don't talk about is like, you know, the the handshake deal 15, 20 years ago meant probably a lot more than it does today. Right? And so, you know, and it was much easier to sell jobs that way and to handle customers that way today.

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Speaker 1
I miss it.

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Speaker 3
Yeah. Yeah for sure, for sure. Now do you guys do mostly. Are you just roofing or do you guys do other other things as well?

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Speaker 1
No, we we do roofing, gutters, siding, painting, remodeling. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's about it. We do.

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Speaker 3
A lot.

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Speaker 1
Oh, yeah, we do a lot. But we have phenomenal crews that do all of our work, and we work with a lot of property management, so we're kind of doing just a lot of handyman punch out stuff as well. So we've got we've got somebody for everything now.

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Speaker 3
How big is your company? How many people do you guys have working for you? Obviously based on that comment, I would say you guys are using subcontractors to do work. We do.

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Speaker 1
And most of our subs just work for us only because we keep them busy. But we I mean, we're still a small company, you know, and that to me, like I've had opportunities to grow into a big business. And I'm probably different from most roofers in the sense that I've not wanted that for me, for my business. Like the I'm, I'm happy to grow to a certain point, but I love the integrity of having my hands on everything and knowing that.

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Speaker 1
And not to say that a big company doesn't have integrity, but for me, and like what? I'm leaving, I want to personally be involved with all the things that I'm doing. A lot of my customers leave the situation with me, like us being friends or them feeling like we're family, and I love that. So I want to keep like that small family business style company for me.

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Speaker 3
Yeah, I love this comment because I think we're finding more and more companies that are looking to go that route, right? I think people are really I think there was a time like, I know I've been in this, about nine years now, and there was a time where everyone just wanted to be big, right? It was like, let's push to see how big we can get, you know, how spread out we can be, how many states we can cover, whatever the case may be.

00:07:21:14 - 00:07:41:08
Speaker 3
Right. And I think in recent times, more and more conversations that I'm having with roofers are going the direction, like you're saying is like, hey, I can find a sweet spot where I'm making a comfortable living. My employees are happy. My customers are happy. We don't have to be big in order to do that, right? Like we. So some people, that's a $2 million a year company.

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Speaker 3
For some people that's a $5 million a year company. But we're not having these companies that are exploding into these large companies as much anymore. So it's really interesting that you guys have taken that route. And I think more and more contractors are kind of looking at it that way, right? It's like, hey, I do want to just be that neighborhood roofer that has, you know, exceptional quality, a great track record, you know, and I'm like you said, because.

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Speaker 1
We don't we don't advertise, you know, we I mean, word of mouth is how we get by. I mean, we we have a lot of relationships with insurance companies, but, I mean, we have so much business just from word of mouth.

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Speaker 3
That's funny. We literally just did a thing about a referrals and how important referrals are. And to this industry, referrals are still huge. But even though they don't necessarily look like what they used to look like, you know, I'm not necessarily asking someone at the grocery store. Some of it is more digital than it used to be. It's still a referral, right?

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Speaker 3
And it's still it is that word of mouth piece that's driving a lot of people's businesses.

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Speaker 1
Yeah. And I mean, we I've told my son, my son drew works with me. He's 26. And now he now that my dad's retired, he rides with me now. So I've had such a blessed life of getting to ride with my dad. And now I'm like the old person, I guess. But it's funny, but I've always told him to.

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Speaker 1
Speaking of referrals is like you can get business anywhere. And so everywhere we go, restaurants, when we sit and have lunch, we make it a point to try to talk to somebody. And when we talk to somebody, we leave that conversation with a card or leave it on our table, whatever. But you know, that to me, has its kept us going.

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Speaker 3
Yeah, absolutely. And I would assume with you guys being in the same area for so long, and you guys are probably a big part of the community there for sure, you know. And so what are some of the things that you guys do to kind of help that referral base by being part of the community?

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Speaker 1
Well, like so we have done we're we're actually working with a church right now and we're trying to help them raise the money to get the big roof done on the church. It's not a the church's went down after 2020. And so we're helping them their local here to Villarrica. You know just just being we just try to be real and try to try to treat everybody like we don't want to be treated.

00:09:56:03 - 00:10:15:06
Speaker 1
I mean, I, I don't ever look to get rich off of one customer. I'm, I'm being fair with everybody. And that's to me is like, people do business with people. And that's how I've looked at. So I've never had this like shark mentality of sales. Like I've always just tried to be the way I would want to be treated.

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Speaker 3
I like that. What what do you think have been some of the biggest challenges that you've personally have faced with taking over a business that's been around for a very long time?

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Speaker 1
Being a girl, for sure. Being a girl. Yeah, yeah. So the biggest thing for me though, was that like, I had to get out of my own way about that, about getting my feelings hurt. Something happened one time. This this man just did not want to talk to me. He was only talking to my dad. And if I ever tried to say anything, he would like almost shut me up.

00:10:45:12 - 00:11:04:02
Speaker 1
And so I, I was so offended by that. But then the next day, because you know what? I'm. I prayed about it and I was like, like, am I the wrong business? And then I, you know, I went the next day I went to Home Depot and I noticed myself walk right past a woman that was working there to the man and ask him the question.

00:11:04:02 - 00:11:20:10
Speaker 1
I'm like, why I, I just did the same thing, you know? So I had to get realized that, like, we're raised certain, you know, we're raised that way and that not everybody is going to want to talk to me or trust what I have to say. And that's why I've loved that. I've had. Either my dad or my son, because it still happens.

00:11:20:10 - 00:11:40:08
Speaker 1
And I'm like, I'll be whatever you want me to be at this point. So if they're looking at me like, hey, write this down, you be the secretary, I'll be your dancing monkey. I don't care what. Long as you give me the job, I don't care. So, you know, I'm. I'm genuine most of the time. But if I see that somebody is like, oh, I need you to be acting like I like that way I don't care.

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Speaker 3
So I don't want it.

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Speaker 1
Don't bother me anymore. I'm not offended.

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Speaker 3
Yeah, that's an interesting one because I think, like like you said, I think it's a pride thing. Right? I think pride is huge in this industry, both men and women. Right. And so when someone does that, I think, you know, either doesn't want to talk to you or looks down a bit on you because it happens. I've seen it, you know, even on our side, on the software side, I've worked with folks that, you know, we'll get on the phone with a contractor and their contractor will literally say, like, I don't want to talk to this person.

00:12:09:20 - 00:12:15:15
Speaker 3
You know, let me talk to somebody different, whatever the case may be. And, it happens. Right? It's it's just.

00:12:15:21 - 00:12:39:14
Speaker 1
I think it also makes you like it makes me when you have something like that, that kind of sets you, set you down. You have to, you have to, like, work harder. So I have to know more than your average roofing salesman would know. And and and to change someone's mind is really cool because I've had we have also had people that have started out, like not listening to me at all.

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Speaker 1
And then my dad was really good about this because he, he did not like people to do that to me. Like he was really good about telling people, well, I don't really know the answer to that. Let me, let me let you talk to her about that. And then they would be be shocked that I would, could possibly know the answer, and then I would win them over, you know, with, with my knowledge of roofing.

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Speaker 1
And that was, that was really I love when that happens.

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Speaker 3
Yeah. That's pretty cool. That's pretty cool. That's cool that your dad played it that way. You know, he knew a bit. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Right. So, what what do you think has been, you know, one of the what do you guys see as like, the biggest challenge moving forward with your company? Like, obviously times are changing, right?

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Speaker 3
Like you said, you guys have had to evolve from a handshake deal now to a more digital use, you know, a products like roofer and things like that. What do you guys see moving forward as some of the bigger challenges?

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Speaker 1
Well, I think one of the biggest ones is that there's just so much competition there. Is there a new roofer is popping up every week. And the good thing is, a lot of times they end up clearing their own self out because they get into something that they know nothing about. And so but it is it doesn't make it hard when there's so much competition and so many people, and then there will be people who are just willing to do it for nothing.

00:13:57:13 - 00:14:17:03
Speaker 1
Yeah. And so that that definitely makes it hard. But honestly, I have never once worried about it because I've, you know, I'm a Christian. I literally put all my faith in the Lord. And I has worked out every single day, even times when it's a winner. You know what is about to be now and things just feel like they flatlined.

00:14:17:03 - 00:14:21:13
Speaker 1
It's like I, it's I've never worried. I've always just had faith and it's always worked out.

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Speaker 3
Yeah. Let's talk a little bit about that, because you guys are in an area where you do experience some seasonality, right? So it's yeah, it does get cold there. Like we were just talking about before we started. I lived in that area for a while and it's you get some pretty cool winters. What do you guys do to kind of carry you through that, that winter time?

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Speaker 3
Because there probably is a time I would assume that you guys can roof through some of it, but there are probably times where it gets more severe and you can't.

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Speaker 1
Yeah. When it gets below 40 we don't roof and that's usually just a couple of months. But we I'm for one I'm preparing I'm preparing everybody who works for me. I'm saying, hey listen, it's coming. So, you know, prepare. Don't go. You know, it's feast or famine sometimes. So don't go. Take during the feast and spend all your money and, you know, just basically be prepared.

00:15:08:14 - 00:15:28:22
Speaker 1
But we also we do like I said, we do inside work. So there's a lot that's when we start really focusing on the remodel side. I would I really want to get in more with commercial. That's kind of where we've been going is is trying to do more commercial work. So, you know, and that's all there's in interior stuff on that you can do.

00:15:28:22 - 00:15:30:18
Speaker 1
There's always something to do in that.

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Speaker 3
Yeah. This is interesting. Let's talk a little bit about it because I think, you know, when I came into the industry a number of years ago, it was always insurance, right? It was like, oh, we're going to go from retail to insurance. Insurance is where we're going to make all our money. And that's kind of faded a bit.

00:15:47:06 - 00:16:07:23
Speaker 3
And now we're seeing a push into commercial, right? A lot of people are saying like, hey, I'm a residential person. I've had a residential company for a number of years, but now I want to start to dabble in or start to add commercial. And so, you know, and we're seeing more and more of that, you know, sometimes on a smaller scale, you know, hey, I'm just going to go do repairs in the commercial side.

00:16:08:02 - 00:16:28:14
Speaker 3
I really like your angle of you guys potentially taking on some interior commercial stuff, which is different, right? Most people just think of it from a roofing perspective. But, obviously there's much, much bigger projects. And I know a good friend of mine who has a company in Florida, they're they're doing a lot of commercial work now, you know, family buildings, apartment complexes, that kind of stuff.

00:16:28:17 - 00:16:41:08
Speaker 3
And they're doing a lot more than just roofing, like they're they're taking on like full exterior stucco jobs and all this other stuff. And so, talk a little bit about what made you guys decide to want to push into commercial.

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Speaker 1
Well, so what I noticed was that, like when we would go to apartment complexes to try to, you know, get full roofs there a lot of times they, you know, some of them would look so bad and I'd be like, there's a reason why they haven't done this yet. Yeah. So I stopped pushing so much of like, let me do the whole thing and started going towards, let me help you out, you know, like let let's do repairs.

00:17:03:07 - 00:17:24:22
Speaker 1
Well, when you get in and you treat them well and, and you get tons of repairs and you're just doing them all the time and then, you know, then I have a relationship. And so then I can work myself to the inside work and then I can prove myself there. So it's to me, it was all about like baby steps, like taking these baby steps to get in with people and basically build a relationship and build trust.

00:17:25:00 - 00:17:42:06
Speaker 3
Yeah, I love the angle of using the repairs as an entry point. We yeah, we had another roofer of the month. You did something similar. He actually started his entire company around just doing repairs and then kind of like worked his way up to where the people who he had done repairs for started coming back to him because he had built this relationship with them.

00:17:42:12 - 00:17:54:16
Speaker 3
And they started coming back and asking him to like, redo the roof and other things. And so have you guys always been, kind of a multifaceted company or did you just start out doing just roofing? And then slowly we.

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Speaker 1
Actually started out just doing gutters. So it was our gutter company. And then when I joined in, like, like I said, I was a terrible secretary. But then when I finally decided to take it serious, I was like, we need to get into roofing. Well, that's that's where the money's at. That's where the, you know, that's how it started.

00:18:12:12 - 00:18:31:05
Speaker 1
Was that like, this is a bigger deal. We need to get into roofing. We got into roofing. I was we were all so relieved because if you know anything about gutters, running a gutter company is probably the hardest that I mean to find reliable help and people that will show up. When we got into roofing, we were like, this is so easy.

00:18:31:07 - 00:18:50:17
Speaker 1
And so we've just like we stayed in just roofing for the longest time. And then it was probably are maybe ten years ago that we ventured out into other, and it was basically just out of chance. It was because, you know, I think it was one of the apartments that we worked with had needed other things and asked us, do y'all do this?

00:18:50:17 - 00:18:52:15
Speaker 1
And I was like, yep, yep.

00:18:52:16 - 00:18:54:04
Speaker 3
We do. We'll figure.

00:18:54:04 - 00:19:19:04
Speaker 1
It out, you know? And then it just kind of and we've been through some, you know, awful subs and worked through those. And we have got so many good people working for us now. But it takes time to weed through that. And when you do have them, you know, giving them enough work and treating them good enough and, you know, gassing them up, making them feel good and and keeping that, keeping that good help because they'll be gone if they're good, if you don't treat them right, you know.

00:19:19:05 - 00:19:21:01
Speaker 1
So that's a big thing for us.

00:19:21:02 - 00:19:28:07
Speaker 3
Just keep them interesting. I found it interesting that you said that, that you guys, they work almost exclusively for you guys.

00:19:28:12 - 00:19:31:14
Speaker 4
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's what.

00:19:31:16 - 00:19:53:14
Speaker 1
I love. And everybody who has, you know, like our one of our painters that works with us, he was he just has been working with some other contractors and he was like, I love working with y'all. I love working with you all so much. I'm really good about I want to pay people what they're worth. I never try to undercut anybody on, you know, and I want to be that contractor that they're like, you're my favorite.

00:19:53:16 - 00:20:02:11
Speaker 1
So. And that they want to work with us. And I just got to keep them busy. But yeah, I mean, I'm sure they work with other people too. But but we keep them busy enough. They primarily working with us.

00:20:02:12 - 00:20:18:22
Speaker 3
I like that now. You said that you guys made the transition. Obviously once you came in and you you know, recently you have more or less convinced your dad like, hey, we had to get away from the pen and paper thing. What were some of the like the deciding factor? What were some of the things that really pushed you guys to make the switch to digital?

00:20:19:02 - 00:20:25:12
Speaker 3
And you know what? What have you seen have been some of the advantages now that you guys are have been on it for a while.

00:20:25:13 - 00:20:26:14
Speaker 4
Yeah.

00:20:26:16 - 00:20:40:05
Speaker 1
So well, he there was a lot of times that he would say something to somebody. I would witness him saying it to somebody, and then we would do the roof, and then they would say, oh, you never said that. I don't remember that. That didn't happen. And I was like, dad, we have to have a paper trail.

00:20:40:07 - 00:21:00:07
Speaker 1
And I mean, like, this cannot be verbal anymore. Down to the very last thing. There was one time that we had told a customer to that we cover their air conditioning unit when we so that nothing gets down in there and we're like, but you need to turn it off while we're tearing off, and then you can turn it back on because we don't want it to burn out.

00:21:00:09 - 00:21:15:06
Speaker 1
Well, it turned out it was in the middle of the summer and we covered it and they didn't turn it off. And we were like. And my dad was like, well, I, I told you to turn it off. And they're like, oh, you never said that. And I was very said it. But, you know, if you don't have a paper trail.

00:21:15:08 - 00:21:17:12
Speaker 1
So we ended up having to fix it.

00:21:17:13 - 00:21:18:12
Speaker 4
Yeah.

00:21:18:13 - 00:21:40:08
Speaker 3
It's funny, I, I had another contractor who's based out of South Carolina that I worked with a while back, and some similar things happened to him. He started getting burned. It's kind of the same way, you know, people saying like, oh, I don't remember your sales guy saying that or like, oh, I didn't agree to that. And so he actually added, a whole entire page to his contract that was literally line item by line.

00:21:40:10 - 00:21:58:12
Speaker 3
He would have his his customers have to initial it. And I said to him once I'm like, isn't that like tedious to go through at the kitchen table and like, you know, don't customers get like upset that they have to like initial all these things? And he said, oh, it's not for the customers. It's for my sales guy not to forget to review.

00:21:58:13 - 00:21:59:19
Speaker 4
This stuff. Yeah, yeah.

00:21:59:20 - 00:22:17:07
Speaker 3
Right. I want to make sure that none of this stuff gets missed. I want to make sure that they talk about every single one of these points because, you know, is similar situation. If they forget to mention that and it comes back and bites us like I'm going to have to be responsible for it. So yeah, you know, he had tried to cover his bases that way, but yeah.

00:22:17:09 - 00:22:33:00
Speaker 3
So, how have you guys found the transition to digital? You know, obviously being an older company, like obviously you guys had a pretty good process in place, probably from a manual standpoint. How has that transition been to to using products like roofer and and things like that?

00:22:33:02 - 00:22:51:16
Speaker 1
Well, it's been great for me because I've always just been a researcher. So when, you know, we were up there especially we love like that, we can do the measurements like, oh, I remember when that first happened. In fact, I like to say, I know this isn't true, but I like to say I said my put y'all in the map with a, b, c.

00:22:51:16 - 00:22:52:07
Speaker 4
Because.

00:22:52:11 - 00:23:09:04
Speaker 1
I they did, you know, they were using the competitor before and they this was when, you know, y'all were brand new. I was using y'all one of the first customers. So and I told my rep about it and then he was like, well, I'm going to tell corporate about them. And then next thing I know, y'all are working with ABC.

00:23:09:05 - 00:23:11:08
Speaker 4
Which is awesome. Yeah.

00:23:11:10 - 00:23:31:03
Speaker 1
But, but yeah, so I'm a researcher, so I was, you know, I was like, there's got to be another way where we're not up here for two hours up on this cut up roof. And I just happened to, you know, look and see how to how that worked and and just little things like that. So I've always been the researcher into the digital things.

00:23:31:05 - 00:23:46:02
Speaker 1
My dad has always I've just had to pull him along with it. And he but he has realized like finally he would learn, he learned how to work our systems a little bit and and got with it a little bit. But he still he would he still real, real big on a handshake.

00:23:46:06 - 00:23:51:19
Speaker 3
Oh that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Once you've done business that way, I'm sure it's hard to break that habit, you know.

00:23:51:22 - 00:23:53:18
Speaker 4
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:23:53:21 - 00:24:13:00
Speaker 3
What have you guys seen as the biggest advantages to using the digital? You know, from a time saving standpoint? I know the paper trail thing obviously from an accountability piece. They're having that paper trail obviously was a big one for you guys. You know how how well has it work. Has it done other things for the business from an efficiency standpoint?

00:24:13:02 - 00:24:35:19
Speaker 1
I mean, mainly like time and keeping everybody organized, because if I have, you know, a way that I can, you know, dispatch basically everybody and say, here's what you're doing on this day, I'm not having to, you know, even giving them alerts or whatever. I'm not having to spend my time dealing with them. They know exactly what they're supposed to do for the day.

00:24:35:21 - 00:24:51:15
Speaker 1
Helps my crews in that way. Obviously, measuring keeps us from not not only spending a ton of time, but the dangerous aspect of of, you know, some roofs that we get on that are super sketchy. I can just like, do the measurement, I.

00:24:51:15 - 00:24:53:11
Speaker 4
Love it. Yeah.

00:24:53:12 - 00:25:00:12
Speaker 3
Talk a little bit about, repairs because now you guys are doing repairs. You do repairs on the residential side as well.

00:25:00:13 - 00:25:03:04
Speaker 1
Oh yeah, we do mainly residential right now.

00:25:03:09 - 00:25:03:21
Speaker 4
Yeah.

00:25:03:23 - 00:25:07:13
Speaker 3
So how big have repairs been for your business?

00:25:07:15 - 00:25:08:06
Speaker 4
Huge.

00:25:08:09 - 00:25:27:22
Speaker 1
I mean, I remember I remember about 10 or 15 years ago, no one wanted to touch repairs. Everyone hated them. They were like, oh, I don't want that. I and I felt that way too. But I feel the total opposite now, especially with, you know, like that church I was telling you in Villa Rica, we've been repairing that forever.

00:25:27:23 - 00:25:45:14
Speaker 1
And that's finally at a point where I'm like, we cannot repair this anymore. But I mean, so we gotta we, we, we've been getting money. You get repeated money out of stuff like that. So I mean, especially with multifamily things and I mean, you're, you end up making a ton and then eventually you're going to replace the roof anyway.

00:25:45:15 - 00:26:03:00
Speaker 1
So I love that. I love repairs, you know, I do feel like you show up on some of them and, and you tell your minimum and the customer is like, what? What? And then when you get done and they're like, it only took you 15 minutes. And I'm like, yeah, because we have all the tools and.

00:26:03:02 - 00:26:03:21
Speaker 4
And know and.

00:26:03:21 - 00:26:06:18
Speaker 1
We have a expertise in this. Did you want to go try it?

00:26:06:19 - 00:26:08:07
Speaker 4
Yeah. So that's.

00:26:08:07 - 00:26:15:21
Speaker 1
The only hard part about them is trying to show the value to the customer sometimes. But yeah I love repairs.

00:26:16:03 - 00:26:32:03
Speaker 3
Yeah I like that, I like that I think it for the longest time, like you said, I think it's a great point that you made is that for the longest time it was probably the most overlooked thing in roofing, right? People shot away from it. They didn't want to be bothered with it. Low tickets. Right. They think like, oh, it's a low ticket item.

00:26:32:04 - 00:26:52:11
Speaker 3
Like it's not really worth it. But I think more and more people are realizing that, like you said, there's a lot of income to be made there. And the biggest thing is you're developing that relationship right, with the customer that maybe isn't prepared to buy today. You know, and you can do a small repair for them and, and bridge that gap for them until they get to the point where they're ready to buy again.

00:26:52:11 - 00:27:07:21
Speaker 1
It earns that trust. If you're if you're being fair and you're genuinely taking care and saying, you know, I think you may be able to get 2 or 3 more years out of this roof. We just do this roof tune up for you. Then, you know, and then we follow up, we, you know, hey, do you need us to.

00:27:07:22 - 00:27:15:14
Speaker 1
We'll come back for free. Do you need us to come check it? We'll come check it and let us keep coming and check and till you're ready. And when you're ready, we'll let you know.

00:27:15:16 - 00:27:16:10
Speaker 4
Yeah. That's great.

00:27:16:11 - 00:27:32:03
Speaker 1
Whether that be insurance or, you know, like, oh, you know, it's not quite got enough for an insurance claim, but, you know, we'll check it for free every time a big storm comes through, call us out, we'll come through, check it out, let you know where you're at, or if it's just like, okay, it's at the end of its life.

00:27:32:03 - 00:27:33:19
Speaker 1
You need to bite the bullet.

00:27:34:01 - 00:27:54:13
Speaker 3
Yeah, no, that's super smart. I worked with a contractor who sold maintenance agreements where he would go do like quarterly maintenance, where he would literally just send someone out there to check the roof and say, you know, like, you know, hey, just let us take a look once over. Hey, everything looks good. We'll see you in, you know, a couple of months or.

00:27:54:15 - 00:28:01:02
Speaker 3
Hey, this minor repair needs to be done. Or, like you said, or. Hey, we're at the end of your life now. Like we need to fix this roof, right? And so.

00:28:01:05 - 00:28:01:15
Speaker 4
Yeah.

00:28:01:21 - 00:28:18:18
Speaker 3
But keeps you top of mind, right? It keeps you as the person. They're, they're going to call if they do have an issue. Right. Especially like you said with you guys get some pretty significant hail there. So, you know, this way they know who to call when that happens. So, talk a little bit about the future.

00:28:18:18 - 00:28:26:15
Speaker 3
What's the future hold for for Snr? What are you guys thinking here as you, as you move into the next, say, 3 to 5 years?

00:28:26:17 - 00:28:48:20
Speaker 1
Well, again, I would really love to get and get more into the commercial end of things. I, I've dabbled in it a little bit and I really like it. I've really perfected working with the homeowner, and it's a whole different ball game when you're working with, you know, the big owners of big buildings or managers. It's it's just totally different.

00:28:48:20 - 00:29:09:13
Speaker 1
So, it's just a whole new skill to hone. And I'm, I'm working on that. And I really I really want that to be the future, especially for my son. And he's doing so great. He he he's just a natural. He is way more of a natural extrovert than I am. So it's it's really nice to to have him.

00:29:09:15 - 00:29:12:03
Speaker 1
You know, a part of it. And he's going to be helping out.

00:29:12:03 - 00:29:17:09
Speaker 3
So as the goal for the company to eventually get handed down to him and keep it in the family.

00:29:17:12 - 00:29:18:08
Speaker 4
Yes. Love it.

00:29:18:08 - 00:29:21:14
Speaker 1
That is the goal that obviously he has to work towards that.

00:29:21:15 - 00:29:22:00
Speaker 4
Sure.

00:29:22:01 - 00:29:43:00
Speaker 1
You know, he has to earn that. He's not getting anything just handed. But he is. He he's going to do great. I already know it. I mean, he he does. We're such a good team and it's such a so neat that like the dynamic that I had with my dad and how powerful of a team we were, it's like I was so worried about that when we started riding together that it wouldn't be the same.

00:29:43:00 - 00:29:45:12
Speaker 1
And it's the same. It's so good.

00:29:45:14 - 00:29:46:18
Speaker 3
That's pretty cool.

00:29:46:20 - 00:29:47:12
Speaker 4
Yeah.

00:29:47:14 - 00:30:00:22
Speaker 3
That's pretty cool. Well, and and so obviously the goal you guys are not looking really to expand the company at all other than into commercial. But you're still going to stay. You know there in Villarrica and and be the neighborhood roofer I like that.

00:30:00:23 - 00:30:02:00
Speaker 4
Yeah, yeah.

00:30:02:02 - 00:30:19:00
Speaker 3
Very cool. Well, this has been awesome. I think. I really appreciate you jumping on, Jamie. I think that you guys are a great example of a company I love. You know, we don't see too many of these anymore that have been handed down, right, that are that are going from these generational roofing companies. They don't exist as much as they used to.

00:30:19:02 - 00:30:33:05
Speaker 3
And so it's kind of refreshing to, to see one and, and have this conversation with you and really you guys. Yeah. See you guys doing that and doing well with it. And so yeah, congrats on being roofer of the month. And thank you for today.

00:30:33:07 - 00:30:34:21
Speaker 1
I really appreciate it.

00:30:34:23 - 00:30:55:17
Speaker 3
All right. Well thank you everybody for joining us. We really appreciate you listening in. And hopefully you got some good stuff here out of Jamie's conversation. And, say go watch some of the other roof of the month series as well, some other great insight in those calls. And, you know, as always, we will see you next time on the roof for report.

00:30:55:17 - 00:30:57:07
Speaker 3
Thank you everybody. Hey, everybody.

00:30:57:07 - 00:31:07:15
Speaker 5
Thank you for listening. Check us out next time on the roofer podcast. But until then, be sure to like us, subscribe to us and check out all our other episodes on YouTube and Spotify.

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