Stay Modern With Murray
Welcome to the Stay Modern with Murray Podcast, your go-to source for the latest trends and insider tips in the homebuilding industry. Each episode, we delve into the dynamic realms of design and construction, providing valuable insights that can elevate your understanding and approach to building and renovating homes.
But we don’t stop there! We go beyond mere construction topics to engage with influential figures such as business owners, CEOs, entrepreneurs, and community leaders. These conversations highlight the experiences and expertise of those who are making significant impacts in their respective fields. Here, you will discover not only innovative ideas and practices within homebuilding but also inspirational stories that showcase leadership and creativity in action.
Whether you're a homeowner, a potential builder, or simply interested in the housing industry, our podcast will offer a wealth of knowledge and inspiration. Join us as we explore the intersection of home construction and the vibrant discussions that can help shape the future of your projects. Tune in to enrich your understanding and spark new ideas in homebuilding, design, and business leadership!
Please tune in to hear from industry experts, non-profits, and local business leaders shaping our world. Visit our website at www.murraycustomhomes.com/podcast for more information and to catch the latest episodes. Subscribe today and stay modern with Murray!
Stay Modern With Murray
Expanding Horizons: Murray Enterprises Growth
Join me, Matthew Taylor as I engage in an enlightening conversation with Matt Murray, our President and Founder. We delve into the company's recent home inspection expansion efforts, why he obtained his real estate license, and our partnership with the Pinnacle Bank Arena. Join us and get an inside look into how we're expanding Murray Enterprises!
Welcome to the Murray Minute Edition, a series in the state modern with Murray Podcast, where we dive into custom home building, roofing and home inspection topics with one of the members of our team. Sit back and enjoy the ride with your host, matthew Taylor.
Speaker 2:Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us on the third episode ever of the Murray Minute Edition. It's a segment of the State Modern with Murray Podcast. Today, I am joined by our president and founder, matt Murray. Matt, thanks for joining us, sir. You are welcome, man. We've had some big things happening in the office the last few weeks actually the last couple of months really. One of the biggest things that's really hit home that I don't think is public knowledge yet is that you have secured your real estate license. My man, congratulations. I have.
Speaker 3:I know I'm excited. It's a funny story. I'll get to that in a second, but yes, I have. Would I get it middle-last? Early last week or the week before.
Speaker 2:I think about two weeks ago, if that's like.
Speaker 3:I've kind of kept it under wraps because I didn't know. There's so many nuances with what you can and can't do and what you can and can't say. It's kind of scary. So I just kept it on the DL until I get signed with all the paperwork and signed and everything, and then I'll announce it.
Speaker 2:Craziest thing for me, man, is your phone goes crazy all day, every day, right From the minute your eyes open until they shut. Now you're adding on top of that with everybody trying to solicitate and get you to join their team. Man, that's crazy.
Speaker 3:You know, when I signed up I never really thought about that. So four or five years ago, I think, is when I finally made the leap and gave my company phone number, which was my cell phone, up. It took me a long time, but my phone started ringing 24 hours a day, seven days a week. With the multiple territories we're in, If something would happen overnight my phone would ring nonstop. So finally I gave up that and I have a semi-private cell phone number now. And when I filled up my application for the real estate license I just put my cell phone number but I didn't know that when you passed the exam it would get blasted out or however, they're finding it and it's my cell phone. So now I'm getting texts and phone calls nonstop from brokerages and recruiting officers and bankers, like earlier today, and everybody.
Speaker 2:Does it take you back to being the recruiting days? I mean a little bit from the college wrestling days. It does.
Speaker 3:It does. Yeah, so a little bit about that. It was God. What was it like six months ago I'm trying to think of beginning middle of baseball season, so June-ish and I was spending a tremendous amount of time at the ball fields and our practices were 45 minutes on the other side of town. So by the time you drive there you might as well just stay and to our practices and then we would have tournaments in Council Bluffs, carney, des Moines, grand Island, and they're all weekend tournaments.
Speaker 3:You have a tremendous amount of downtime and then, if he's in the outfield or something, I love baseball, but at this age it's a little boring at times, and so I just I was like I'm OCD and I'm all about new and learning. I love learning, I have a thirst for knowledge and we were going through some growth and I knew a downtime was coming and I always want to continue to expand in our industry and, especially with my wife having her certified general appraiser license, we've kept that as an option, and so I was exploring some ideas with her, like what can I do with my downtime where I'm not just working? Because you know I have an email on my phone and I find myself working a lot, especially in the off hours, at night, in the morning, and I get burned out a little bit. So I like to further my business knowledge and to work without having to do the mundane answering emails and the everyday tasks. And so we were talking about maybe possibly starting up a certified general appraiser or her becoming an appraiser with Murray, and just with her current workload it's just been too much. And she's always had it on her plate because of her appraisal license. She already has half of the real estate licensing done, so she's halfway there. And so she signed up about a year and a half ago and we just have her so busy with processes and building the company out and expansion and builder trend. You know how busy she is, and so I was. She was like you know what, why don't you just do the real estate exam? And I was like you know that's a really good idea. But, sorry, I kind of jumped around a little bit.
Speaker 3:But at that time it was what about home inspections? And we had a couple of people in the office that I thought would be a perfect fit for it, where we kind of wear multiple hats, where if the economy did slow down, they could do inspections and custom homes PMing and so I just thought it was a good fit. So I looked online and kudos to Cesar over at Luxury. He's a good friend of ours, so it was our HVAC work. I spoke with him a little bit and not trying to compete with him, but he gave me good advice and I was like you know what it's online? I can do it online. And so for the next two months during baseball games and weekends away, I just studied for my real home inspection and got my certification. So that gave us Murray inspection services, which we just are now launching because, even though I got my certification, I wanted to carry my certification. We have to have so many in the company that has their certification so they could do the inspection. So we got Tori in our office certified and she's right now doing some mock inspections and stuff like that and getting some further training and then we're ready to roll that out.
Speaker 3:So when I got done with that, I found that I thoroughly enjoyed it. I really did. You know the two hour drives to the games two hours back. I really enjoyed it and got into it and I'm like what's next? You know, I don't want to quit learning. I just love learning. And so I was talking to my wife and she's like why don't you just do the real estate if you want? You know I'm too busy and you can do it. And I thought about it.
Speaker 3:And then I had an event that happened. You guys probably all heard it. I had a bothersome phone call from a realtor in town I won't say names and let me just say this it pissed me off. I got threatened, I got belittled, I was told I was doing stuff wrong and I called the Nebraska Real Estate Commission. You know, operating a company as a home builder for 15, 20 years and not having a real estate license and kind of not, if you're not a realtor, you kind of don't really know what you can and can't do. So I didn't know if I was in the right or the wrong.
Speaker 3:And so I called the Nebraska Real Estate Commission and found out I was in the right and he kept coming. He kept demanding payment, he kept saying that we were doing stuff illegal and I heard through the industry that he was badmouthing us. And it pissed me off and it was like you know what I am? I'm a realtor in spite of him, just so I can know what I can and can't do and whether what I am doing is right or wrong, because I always like to to live on the right side of everything. And so I did. I just enrolled like maybe a month and a half, two months ago, and treated it like I did the home inspection and just when everybody had a basketball practice, baseball practice, football whenever we traveled, I just studied. I took my tests a couple weeks ago and passed. I'm a book nerd, if nobody knows that. I was 4-0 GPA and you know 3-8 in college and I just I love learning, so I took the practice exam so much I did the tests in one hour and six minutes.
Speaker 3:Get out of here Serious, yeah, dude, but yeah. So Susan Ferris, jennifer Susan and me have been, I would consider, a partner. She's been a confinante, she's been a loyal and trusted friend. They come from the medical world so as I continue to get older, unfortunately, and have some health issues, and my father, who has a Lewy body dementia and just got put in hospice, she's helped with him. So just over the years we've formed a really trusting relationship and she's, what I would say, different than most realtors. She saves me more money and tells me not to buy stuff more than she tells me to buy stuff. She's always pulling the reins back on me.
Speaker 2:I bet Megan loves you working with Ferris too, dude yeah.
Speaker 3:And so, just out of respect and honor to her, when I was training for my real estate license, had a lot of questions and leaned on her and she asked me politely more, so demanded that I hang my license with them to train and be underneath Ferris Realty Group. And I did that. So last week I became a member of the Remax team of Ferris Realty and I'm excited and pumped.
Speaker 2:It's not public knowledge yet, but I'm excited to put it out there and to get going, dude, we're fired up for you and I want to get into what this means for Murray and all that. But on a personal level the story that you told about the call that you received, man to me what that comes off as is networking. Right, we talked about it with Rob and the podcast that just came out yesterday. Lincoln is the biggest smallest town I've ever been a part of, so when somebody were to call and dig their claws into you like that, you have two options. You can either say, okay, I'm gonna back away and maybe I am wrong, but you did the other thing. You've dug in, you've realized that you're doing it the right way, and then you said, all right, let's battle. Then you know what You're gonna keep pushing me until I'm gonna go get it myself.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and no disrespect to realtors. I've loved working with 99% of everyone that I've worked with and they do great work, and that's not the reason that I did it was to get rid of realtors and to not have to work with realtors. It was actually out of respect for all of them and just with us. With our continued growth, we continue to get more and more inventory and we have 18 lots in inventory that are just sitting there and we're doing stuff in Grand Island and we're doing flip houses. And that was another spark was, as the economy kind of turns down, flip houses become lucrative because people are having trouble selling, especially with empty nesters. You have these people moving out of town or deaths and they don't have the luxury of just putting it on the market and waiting. And especially with interest rates and the economy the way that it is, houses are sitting for a little bit longer than what they used to. So you are starting to get these little pocket listings in these houses that need to be sold right away. So we just have a high turnover and a high volume. And another aspect that Megan actually wanted to get her real estate license for is we have a lot of people, a lot of really good clients that we build for that, throughout the middle of the build or the beginning of the build, they have a house to sell and they get a relationship with our PMs and Megan and myself and they just say, man, I wish you guys could sell my home. I trust you. I'd love to hear what you have to say about you know the house, what we could do to it to fix it up, to get it ready to sell.
Speaker 3:You know, if some of them don't have a basement finish, they wanna know if it's a good return on investment to finish the basement. So we're involved in that and we typically just hand off those leads, so we're going through. You know, if we're building $20 million in houses per year, all those clients that are coming to us, the majority of them have a house to sell and so we're just handing that money off. And so you know just our continued expansion or continued growth. I wanna continue to expand in our industry and so, no matter what that looks like home inspections, maybe appraisals, now real estate, and so just being able to leverage that end and maybe get into some developments and stuff like that I think it just opened some doors. It wasn't about trying to take money away from people or that. I didn't like the realtor we were dealing with. It was just a good play for our company, I feel like.
Speaker 2:But what it sounds like to me is now, when the customer or the client walks through the door to meet with you, Jonah or Megan, what they're gonna get is, from start to finish, we can be a prior to this. Now. We can be a part of your process From the minute you knock on our door.
Speaker 3:Tell we sell your house Absolutely. And I got turned on to a couple of big international builders and Lennar's one of them, if I'm gonna name drop and you look at their history and that is what they did. They stayed in their lane but they expanded within their lane and they are. They're exactly what you just said and that's what I wanna be. They are legitimately a one-stop shop. So they started, they were a home builder and they just started acquiring companies within their lane. So they are the true definition of a one-stop shop. They are the title company, they're the appraisal company, they're the inspection company, they are everything in between, and so you get to work with the same person straight through. And so, yes, you are right, that is kind of what we're leaning towards. Whatever aspect of a home you have, we can do the inspection, we could do the roof, we can build it, we can remodel it, we can sell it, we can buy it. So just trying to be the hands-on, yeah, I got goosebumps, I got goosebumps.
Speaker 2:It's just to me, going into this and meeting you from months ago, the idea and the vision that you had just completely sparked something in me where I'm like all right, dude, let's go then let's be your one-stop shop. Why would you go anywhere else?
Speaker 3:Right, that's what we wanna be, but we have to be. You gotta be careful. I always say, when you call somebody, when you call a subcontractor, for instance, and they say they can do everything, what I've learned is they do everything, but not very good. I always like a carpenter that's only a carpenter. A bricklayer that's only a bricklayer. So we just gotta be careful, as we expand, that we have the right people in the right places, and that's why I partnered with Ferris Rilte, because I know that I won't have enough time to dedicate to being a full-time realtor and I need to make sure I get my clients the full attention that it deserves. So, whether I'm the lead agent or a co-listing agent, and needing to help with some paperwork and back-in work and being just taught by somebody that I trust tremendously is great. So that's why I chose to join a team.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I wanna talk about Ferris and remixing, what that kind of means for our team and their team in combining. But first I should've emailed you this before. But this is just evidence. Here we go off the cuff, we don't write anything down. What was the one thing about the process of the national and state exam that maybe caught you by surprise? You weren't expecting the hardest part, the easiest part, the part that you loved, I mean you know what's crazy is.
Speaker 3:So, actually, if you've listened to previous podcasts, I took the MCATs to go to medical school and that was one of the hardest tests. I actually walked out of there crying like legitimately crying, because there was just a lot that I didn't know, because I actually ended up taking it a couple of years after college. But this test was unique in the fact that I took I did the VAN Ed and I took every practice exam so many times. I was doing it with Megan and I could go through the 80 questions in under five minutes because I had already seen every question right. So, like I did it the test so many times that I already knew the answer before I started reading the question. But you don't want to memorize it, you truly don't. You want to understand the concept, but I had already read the question so many times. But I'd done every test, exhausted every option.
Speaker 3:But when I took the test, the reason I got done so fast is I either knew it right away, because it was right out of the practice questions, right out of the study material, or which blew me away. There were some questions on there that I had no clue about, like it didn't matter if I spent 10 minutes On that question. There was no way that I was gonna leverage my brain to figure out what the heck they were talking about. That was frustrating, yeah, but I just said you know what? I chalked it up to a loss. I just put the best answer and moved right on because there was nothing I could do, which was surprising because I I studied tremendously hard on for this and read every piece of material and took every practice exam and there were still questions on there that I was like what the eff are you talking about? So that kind of sucked. But no, for the most part that I would give a five star rating to the training material and the practice exams.
Speaker 2:It prepped me my moment for me, the easier part was the national one. The harder part that I still haven't passed was the Nebraska one, the state one.
Speaker 3:I forgot that. Yeah, and I don't know why. You know what's crazy? It was the flip for me, I bet I think everybody's learns differently, but the state was easy and the national was hard. You would think that would be the case, right?
Speaker 2:Like, I live in it. I've only lived in it anyways. Okay, so I want to go back to Ferris. I want to go back to rematch. Rematch, real quick. You had talked about your guys's relationship and being a team for so many years. How did you end up meeting her? Was it through dad? Is that what you said?
Speaker 3:No, Crazy story. I think I had a podcast with Susan. We talked about that a little bit. But um, so oddly enough, gosh, it was probably back in 0708, in the infancy of my company. I had just built my own house, I think, and hadn't even dabbled into flip houses or remodels. And I started looking into it and there was this house in Piedmont that was for self or what seemed reasonably Well priced at the time I think it was a 140 150. But it needed a tremendous amount of work. And I went there and I walked through it in the evening with a realtor I think it was cut, my buddy Kyle Greg, and there was another lady in there with a builder, his Bob Schultz, and walking through and I was like, well, I was wondering what they were doing, but I I trusted is probably competition and so I put a bid in on the house and I lost it by a thousand bucks and it didn't know who it was.
Speaker 3:And and so, fast forward, I went to sell my, my first house I ever built on wilderness Ridge golf course, and I let my buddy Kyle list it. He was more into foreclosures and stuff. I gave him a shot and he didn't. He didn't get it sold. So he's like, gave me permission to move on and Susan Ferris's signs were all over town, especially in Ravenwood Out on 93rd and old Cheney and my brother had built in there and hers he's just like her signs are everywhere.
Speaker 3:So I called her for a consultation at the house and and she walked in and we just got to talking and I just telling her about how I want to get into some flip houses and remodels and and maybe start become a builder. I wasn't even a builder yet and we just got to talking and she was the one that outbid me. So, anyways, she was like, do you know what we did with that house? And I was like no, because it was like a year or two ago before that. So they started demoing it, her and her husband themselves, and it found so many issues. Bob Schultz was like I Think it'd be cheaper if you just demoed it. So after they spent months like partially demoing, like drywall, electrical plumbing, they ended up just bulldozing the thing down yeah, and started fresh and that's where she still lives today. No way, yeah, yep. So she built her house with Bob Schultz. He's big competitor of mine back in the day, great builder though. Yeah, great built house ship and she, when she goes to sell at some point it'll be worth a million dollars, man.
Speaker 3:But that's how I met her and through that, just I Think, I bought a couple of lots from her in the next six months and she got me into Ravenwood, told Bob that I wasn't a competition and got me into there and then we did the ridge together and just through that she, you know, I learned of their medical background and then she just became one of my trusted advisors, like wholeheartedly her and my banker Marlin. Between the two of them, if they give me the green light to do something, I know it's a go. Like I said, most of the time it's me saying, hey, I think we should do this, and you know she'll get commission off of it. I'm like let's go buy this million dollar house. She's like no, I don't think we should, it's not good timing, you know bad opportunity. So she's just always been like that about my health, my dad's health, my family, money, financials, whether she has skin in the game or not. Can't tell you how many. You know lots we've purchased throughout the years where they're not on the MLS, they're not listed, and she gets zero dollars for them and she helps me go through the Platinum, decide which lots to buy and why, and and dedicates entire days to it, does competitive market analysis and then I buy them and she gets nothing. Yeah, so I owe a lot to her and I and I feel like it was a smart move to to train underneath her and and later. You know, actually it's kind of funny.
Speaker 3:We were looking at a flip house Just last week, two Fridays ago actually. I remember this and it's risky. It's a risky house. It really is. But she is 100% green light and Tom and Megan are no, they're saying no, the economy's coming down, interest rates are gonna go up, don't do it. Susan's like let's go. And I was a queen flip and actually funny story we were at, we were a press box and and after you guys left two Fridays ago, we were gonna flip Tom's range Rover keys and if it came up one side, we were gonna say yes, and if it came up the other side, it said no and she flipped them and when they hit the table they broke and shattered. Gotta be a good sign.
Speaker 3:I don't know what that means. It means something, yeah, but I don't. Anyways, I was like At the end of the day, I was just sitting there talking, and that's a lot of the times how I figure out the answers to my questions Is I just talk. And I was like you know what I've always said For years and years if Susan Faris says go, I go. And so I said, screw it, let's do it.
Speaker 3:And but I told her. I said, susan, I have, I passed my real estate exam. As soon as I hang my license with somebody, I'm a realtor, I would be the buying agent for this. And we're sitting in the kitchen at the house on Friday and I'm like is there a reason that I wouldn't wait? You know it's a 650 thousand dollar house. There's a reason I wouldn't wait one week to buy this. There's no rush. It's been on the market for six months. And what I love about Susan Faris, she looked me straight in the eyes and said this is our last hurrah together before you are your realtor. This will be the last contract I drop for you and I'm the one that showed you this house and I represent you and I've been doing it for a long time and I feel like you owe me this.
Speaker 3:I love her and that's why I love her. There's no beating around the bush. That's the answer that I needed and it's the complete honest truth. I just didn't understand why she was pushing me to do it and not wait, and that was the answer I needed. But that's how she's always been with me. I just don't like Ever the feeling that there's something else. You know, like I was, just I didn't. I hate to not know the alternative motive other than her being 100% invested in my success, and I truly feel like that's what she's been the entire way.
Speaker 2:I think, dude, at the end of the day, like I've met her and I've seen her come in and I've seen your guys' interactions and I might be speaking out of turn, but I think at the end of the day, she's dang proud of you, man. Like that comes with almost like a sense of not like not a child, but like a family friend, Like I'm helping you get to this point and now you're doing it on your own. So let's do have one more dance, right, Like Jordan said last dance.
Speaker 3:I was like done, done. I pumped. You put it to me like that, yeah, because when I walked into that meeting I was like I'm gonna wait a week. I don't know why she wouldn't just want me to wait a week. Would you put it like that? I was like done. I owe you that. But you are correct, I don't know how we got that relationship, but we did and it's amazing and I hope it keeps going because it's like I said, when I started, she took a chance on me. She was representing one of the best builders biggest builders in town and she said she thought that I was the future. I don't know why she kept saying that. She said I think you're the future builder of Lincoln and she's rode with me since I was the small guy, so good man.
Speaker 2:Again, something that I've picked up from you and I know you have another meeting so I won't hold you too much longer but something that I've learned from you along this process in these last six months or whatever it's been, is maybe something doesn't happen today, but, like you, have to keep growing that relationship, almost like a flower, keep watering that seed Because it will come back around. You're absolutely right. If we don't get a client today, don't? It's almost like Nebraska recruiting. Don't crap on the recruits just because they chose somewhere else. There is more time and it will come background. So that networking relationships that's something that I've picked up from you. And the way that you talk to people good, bad or indifferent how they're treating you, you're always the same. You know the same.
Speaker 3:Right and I know we're gonna have some work to do. Just naturally, there's some I don't wanna say animosity, but I don't know the proper word for it but between realtors and builders there always has been and probably always will be some animosity or drama. There's just some builders that and developers that just don't wanna use realtors and don't put their stuff on the market. And, admittedly, over the last two or three years we were selling too much. I mean, we were maxed out and we couldn't sell anymore. We were, you know, we were hiring as fast as we could. Our PMs were beating their head against the wall and so we really didn't need to list it. It wasn't that we didn't want to, it's just we were at max capacity and that was without, you know, listing stuff. And but we're gonna have some work to do.
Speaker 3:I understand that I'm wearing multiple hats. I'm the builder. I got a realtors license. It would appear on paper that I'm just trying to cut people out of the middle and keep more money for ourselves, and but, if you know me, that's not the reason. We're still gonna treat realtors with the same respect and still pay realtors. You know. That's why I will probably always be part of a team.
Speaker 3:My goal isn't to cut realtors out, and truly it's. We live and die. By realtors I mean every part of our industry, every part of the companies that I built. I realize that would not exist without the referrals and recommendations and good talk from realtors. I owe them everything, so I gotta be able to forest those relationships and get the message out that I'm not here to cut you out and think that I can do your job better and stuff like that. But from home inspections to roof referrals, you know. That's why we have a brand ambassador, rob, that connects with realtors and everything we do is just to try to let them know that we appreciate what they do. And we're taking a little page out of Denver Colorado's book and if you've never worked in Denver you might not know this.
Speaker 3:But everything comes with a price tag, and I hated it at first. And what I mean by that was if you refer anybody to anyone or refer anything, there's a price tag to it. And I hated it at first. But I just realized that it was the way of the world there, and if you didn't buy into that philosophy, you're gonna be left behind, and Lincoln's not like that. And so part of me was like why can't we bring that ideology to Lincoln?
Speaker 3:Like, for instance, if, within the bounds of legalities and the realtor commission, if you're a realtor and you're gonna send me a referral for either a roof, a home inspection, a new home, I think you deserve to be paid for that. Agreed, I wanna be the name that's coming out of your mouth. If you're just a realtor out there, that's you have a home inspector that doesn't pay you referrals and you don't really know him, I wanna be that referral. I'll pay you for that referral. I think too many people are stepping over the fact, or misrepresent the fact, that that lead, that referral, is worth something. I mean, we have a full-time marketing director that his whole goal is to capture leads, and so I know what the cost of acquisition for a lead is and the cost for a referral, and so I'm willing to pay for it. And so we just gotta get the word out of why we did this and what we're doing.
Speaker 2:Well said, two things left. First, why Murray and you can put that however you want and just be brutally honest with the people why come to Murray? Why us?
Speaker 3:You know we find people like you. I appreciate you guys telling me that I'm the one that you know bleeds out the loyalty and the make good decisions and respect and honor. But that's truly why I try to hire people. And you know we've had a podcast with you, but I wasn't even hiring for the position that you got. But I found you and I knew that you fit the culture and the company mode that we were looking for and so we just couldn't let you go.
Speaker 3:But I think it's a tremendous amount of caring. It's like almost over caring. You know we're wearing our hearts on our sleeves. Sometimes there's hard decisions you have to make and the thing that sucks about our industry that I think pangs you too is we can't please everyone. You know, sometimes we're pissing off a sub to make a customer happy, or pissing off a customer to make a sub happy. Sometimes it feels like you can't ever win. But goddamn, we try. Yes, we do. We try awful hard and in everything we do we try hard. You know, at the end of the day you obviously want to be profitable, but I don't think that's why we all do what we do.
Speaker 3:I just love To expand, I love to crow. I love to learn, I love to start businesses. I love to hire new people. That's just fun for me. You know, if I want a hundred million dollars today, I Wouldn't retire. There are certain things about my job that I don't like. I don't like being the bearer of bad news. I don't like some of the emails I have to answer, but I absolutely love being an entrepreneur and doing what I do. I would continue doing what I'm doing. I would just grow it faster. It's, it's thrilling to me, yeah, and I think that's why I think we all love our job wholeheartedly and we'd love to do the right thing and we love to make people happy.
Speaker 2:Yeah so Melissa asked me when? That way I think it was like 1.7 bill, melissa, my wife she had when I finally played the lottery, when I went over a billion. She's like, what are you gonna do? I said I'm gonna go straight to Matt, we're gonna do something. We're gonna turn one into two and two into four and four into more. Real quick, there you go. That's as you're right, man it. It is such a fulfilling, rewarding, satisfying, aggravating, you know, like it's all, it's everything and it's not the same thing ever. It's something new every day. I walked through this door, man, I love it. Yeah, I.
Speaker 3:That is why I love it. You know we're coming to a down period, but I've. I don't think I've ever had more fun in a down period. I've Become a home inspector, I've got my real estate license or buying flip houses. We close on our second one next month. I've spent the weekend with my son demoing and my daughter demoing a house and I saw that down Do buddy.
Speaker 2:Look like he was having a ball dude.
Speaker 3:Yeah, just think it of take hammers and throw them through walls and stuff like you, just make the most of it. But no, I'm gonna continue now. Now I'm training for, or we're really hoping, in the next 12 months to 18 months to roll out quite a few due divisions in the roofing world. I've spent a lot of time, energy and effort on the custom homes world and and Tom's over there on the roofing side saying help me, help me. So I'm really trying to get out of the weeds with with custom homes a little bit during this town time and spend some time on roofing. So I already started studying for my Realist sorry my roofing license, contractors license in both Florida and Arizona. We have some ties there and we'll have some ties there in the near future. So hoping to expand those territories and I I think I found a new addiction.
Speaker 3:I mean, if you be realistic with yourself and ask yourself this is what I did to myself is what do I do to suit myself to sleep? What do I do when it's five o'clock in the morning and I can't sleep, but I don't want to work? I go on social media. That's what I do and it's it's, it's a norm, it's became a complete norm for me. If I can't sleep at 10 from 10 to 10 30 I just play on Facebook or play on snapchat. When I can't sleep at five in the morning, I play on Facebook. Now I just pull up my study material. If I can't sleep, at least I'm learning, and most of the time it puts me back to sleep. Yeah, so I get more sleep. So it's like a win-win.
Speaker 2:Traded one, you traded one for another, but this one's benefiting a lot of people, right yeah, right yeah. You serious you serious about the, the, the roofing division and all that? Are we? So we're sorry, corning. So yeah, dude, that is awesome, yep.
Speaker 3:So it's been. It's been on our radar for two or three years. First it was gonna be Des Moines, because Des Moines got a whole bunch of storms, but actually the storms are so bad that they were requiring engineers for every roof and it was just a little bit more. We wanted to bite off for our first expansion. So, yeah, that's really why we've been trying to process out this company and create a playbook right, create a playbook of how we did it here, how we do it here, and then roll it out into another territory. And my, my, my dream is is I want to take the entire Murray product. I think we're starting a new slogan Hopefully soon, that's. I think it's we are Murray, just because we're getting so many companies. But to roll out all Product offerings that Murray has to another territory like, for instance, we're in Grand Island only roofing, we're building custom homes those two for economic development, but we're kind of not Fully ready to build custom homes. And GI is where we've been kind of holding off. But I want to create a playbook for our companies such that when we go to GI we can take Roofing, custom homes, remodels, inspections, realtor, everything, appraisal, everything. So you just roll out an entire. We are Murray into another territory. So that's the ultimate goal.
Speaker 3:But, like Tom says, I Didn't help him with the Des Moines thing and it didn't go. I really haven't helped too much in Houston and so I've been slacking as a boss in the roofing department. Tom continue it, lets me know and says I need Murray time. That's what he calls it Murray time. I need Murray time. So I've been harping on him every time the Tom, you need to expand, you need to expand. He's like I need Murray time, like he does really good at At a tee in the ball up, but he just needs me to knock the ball out of the park. So I'm really hoping to help him get that going and and it's the reason I'm dedicating some time to studying for for floor in Arizona, which we're really excited about and no, it's exciting, man, yeah, we're not slowing down, I'm fired up.
Speaker 2:I'm telling you, man, expansion gets me fired up, learning new things. I love it because I don't have my bachelor's degree yet. I've always said you know, I got my associates and a lot of da, da, da, but I have to have something that says hire me instead of you, right? Like? I think I told you that during the interview like so I have certifications, I have background, I have training in this, I can do this, I can do that. It's not a master of anything, but I can do a little bit of all you know. It's good.
Speaker 2:So I want to end it on this knowing and I think we did this on your, on your podcast, on on your channel but for this part, knowing what you know now, being through what you've been through life, has kicked us and picked us up when that needed to. Is there a piece of advice that you would give little Matt Murray back? Knowing what you know now you know when the roofing things were kicking off, or even before that. What's a piece of advice? If you could talk to yourself, what would you say?
Speaker 3:Oh, man, I'll tell you this People you know when people talk about going back in time, boy, I wish I could go back to when I was a high school or a college kid. I have OCD and it's a blessing and a curse. As you get older, you start to realize that it's more of a curse and a blessing. I start to see the same attributes of OCD in my son that I see in myself and it makes me cry because the dude can't not do his homework and get a 10 out of 10 or else he's Beside himself. If he doesn't win every sprint in sports he's pissed. If you know what I'm saying and it and it.
Speaker 3:I Think there's a certain sense of trade-off between success and happiness. I just wish you would enjoy it, like whether your team's winning or not. Have fun. I wish I could tell myself that. So what I mean by that is, every time people talk about going back, I wouldn't want to have to do what I did again. It's too much, I worked too hard, I didn't enjoy it, I didn't slow down and smell the roses, I just so.
Speaker 3:I'm trying to really do stuff now that I find enjoyment in, and that's business and growth and entrepreneurship.
Speaker 3:Before you know, for 10 years it wasn't that fun. I just have set two lofty goals and expectations and I wore too many hats and I did too much and put in too much time and I really wish that I could just tell myself to slow down, hire the right people and get rid of some of the hats you wear and enjoy it. And that's really where I want to get to. I find myself up at night worried about the interest rates and how long it's going to take and the new war that's going on and stuff like that, but at the end of the day we can't control it. But I just I really want to get to a point in time with the company where I can come in every day and be happy and be the light. I try to do that every day but it's hard because I'm in the weeds with you guys working 60, 70, 80 hours a week, and I want to get out of the weeds and be the navigational beacon for you guys and excitement. So I would just tell myself to enjoy it more.
Speaker 2:While I'm wearing the podcast hat still, and not the PM hat, I want to give you a piece of advice, man. You're doing such an incredible job you have I'll just use myself. For example. Last Friday fall break, you're like, hey, you can go be with your kids. My kids wanted to be here. So and it's not just me, I, you know you talk about stopping and smelling the roses. Dude, you're doing something that when you look back in 20 years, like, my kids are going to have a life, Tori's kids are going to have a life, Shannon's kids are going to have it, and that's because of you and the team that you've put in this building. I appreciate it. I would not be where I am unless I sent that application to you and then blew up your phone about 45 times. So, again, my piece of advice for myself is you know, trust myself. And for you, man, you're kicking ass and I can't thank you enough. I appreciate it, man. It's incredible.
Speaker 3:Well, don't miss the last part of it. I know we're pressed for time.
Speaker 2:All right, thanks everybody, I appreciate you guys.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I don't want to miss the last part because Mark Bame, Janelle Bame I had a podcast with him and little did we know that was going to come out of that. I think we briefly mentioned it, but Shannon and Mark were able to put together an advertising package for us, so we are now an official sponsor of the Pinnacle Bank Arena.
Speaker 2:So oh, okay, so it says there official sponsor of PBA. Okay, I did not listen to all of the Mark episode. What does that mean for us?
Speaker 3:So Shannon would be able to better address that. But you know there's packages you can put together and you know there's a barrier of entry. It comes with a cost, but you know we are an official sponsor, then we can use that tag. Now we are on their TVs, we're on their LED strip, we get a, I would say, a Murray mural on one of the exits.
Speaker 3:Just a lot of different stuff. The one that I'm most excited about is that we get a. Do we get three boxes for three games? Yeah, you know I'm very horrible about my social life. You know, between my kids and work I don't really do much. The only time I really do anything is an ADC invites us out or a banker invites us to the games, and so I'm super pumped to actually have a reason to take my kids out and go out and do stuff. So I think we have three boxes for games and some other stuff that we get that came with it, and so we'll be able to spoil the company and take our kids and watch some games and stuff like that. But just a lot of different advertising aspects and being able to say that Mark and Shannon were able to do it and we're an official sponsor of PBA.
Speaker 2:You heard it here first. Ladies and gentlemen, murray Custom Homes, roofing and Inspections is now one of these sponsors for the Pinnacle Bank Arena. Yeah, buddy, let's go. Baby, I'm so fired up. Yeah, that's so cool. Anything else, matt, you good? No, I'm good, I appreciate it. Thanks everybody for tuning in to this latest episode of the Murray Minute Edition. It's a segment of the Stay Modern with Murray podcast. We appreciate everybody listening, looking forward to keeping you guys updated. Make sure you guys stop by the office. Talk to Megan Jonah Matt today about building your future home.
Speaker 1:Thank you for joining us on this episode of Stay Modern with Murray, the Murray Minute Edition. If you have topics you would like us to discuss, please email us at info at MurrayCustomHomescom or message us at MurrayCustomHomescom.
