The Huddle - Episode 144 -Blue Collar Cruise #8
Hop in—we’re taking another spin through what’s hot (and what’s not) in the trades! On this week’s Blue Collar Cruise, Paul, Daniel, and Jose are back in the driver’s seat, diving into the biggest stories, industry shifts, and real-world issues facing the flooring and construction world right now.
From job site wins and woes, to technology trends and trade show takeaways, this episode is packed with the kind of unfiltered, real talk that makes The Huddle your go-to pit stop for flooring industry insight.
💡 What You’ll Learn in This Episode: This week, we're diving into how AI is (and isn’t) being used in industries like architecture and construction — and why only 6% of architects are tapping into its real potential. We’ll talk about the risks of AI, privacy concerns, and why younger generations are quicker to embrace it. Plus, we’ll break down upcoming tariffs, supply chain impacts, and how they could shake up the flooring and real estate markets. If you're in sales, construction, or just curious about AI's future, you’ll want to tune in!
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Heat Heat
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Heat Heat
[Music]
Hey what's up everyone Welcome to the huddle We are your weekly playbook when
once again anytime Paul is here you don't get the good intro because he's
the only one that can pull it off He's so excited to deliver the intro
It's his own little brach child That's why it is he he worked really hard on that intro and he like previewed it to
us like four or five times before he said it the first time and then I think he changes it a little bit every week Uh
he did uh he said that he practiced it in his reflection Not just the mirror but anytime he seen his reflection somewhere he would stop and practice it
So we're on the blue collar cruise number eight now I missed the last one I
think So I think you missed the last couple Yeah I've been slacking lately Well I
missed the last couple episodes even So welcome back
So we're going to be Go ahead I was going to say can you hear me okay now that I adjusted all this
right here Basically eating the mic Yep
So today we are actually going to get into some uh some AI talk because it's one of
the those biggest I want to say things that people
really don't understand yet but everyone is still using it just
maybe not to the extent that they should be I think yeah there's more more and more
information and videos coming out on on how to utilize it I mean we had a conversation earlier today that uh made
me realize what that I'm not using it to the potential that I that I can be or
should be Yeah So this one is talking about
um architects using AI and it's an
actually staggering low number to me right They're saying that 6% of
architects use AI regularly which is crazy because I thought it would be way more but um going through some of the
I've been going through some Microsoft co-pilot classes and in there even the number was
a lot lower on people that are using AI regularly So you think
that you know 50 60 70 plus percent of people use AI regularly when it's
actually a little bit lower than that in the workforce But of the people that use it how are
they using it too So they're just uh it replaced Google
search It really did I mean I I it didn't really replace it right I mean
you you search something on Google and it comes up with that AI generated thing right at the top and then it gives you
everything else after that So of
the of the 6% that are using it
uh 53 have experimented with AI tools indicating interest in the field uh
firms with 50 or more employees are at the forefront of adoption right Because you're looking they actually have
someone in charge uh I guess teaching people how to use it So the the bigger
you are the more apt you are to use it because people are actually showing you how and they they're implementing
different practices to keep you safe because AI is uh is crazy Well you could
dedicate um the staff for it too right like a a company with 50 or more employees
essentially might have someone that they can just allocate to that the growth of AI uh um involvement uh as their
full-time position until it's implemented So 8% have fully implemented the the AI solutions and additional 20%
are in the process of doing so And that's when it gets difficult because if you're in
these these classes that I've been attending you know a lot of people are scared to say that they're using AI because they think that it's one
cheating at their job which it's not It's just a tool And that's what we need to start realizing that AI is not going
to take over it's just a tool just like any other tool in your toolbox So they they think that it's
cheating or two that they're going to get in trouble from their their workplace So I think it was something
like um 70% of the people that were using it were using their own
personal AI rather than a company supplied one which is even scarier
because AI is the model is used it uses your
information in order to learn and when you're you get it through like us so we
use chat at GPT and Microsoft Copilot right Both So
they they kind of do different things Microsoft Copilot is more focused on like I
can have that look at our our documents in the cloud and pull data from that
When chat GBT you actually have to feed it the information in order to give it back to you
I think there's a way to give it permissions too but the permissions are limited um through chat Uh so if you're
just using you know something the free version basically it's going to use whatever information you give it and
it's going to retain that information Um basically once you give it to
it you're you never getting that back You can't be like "Hey I messed up Give
me that information back." It's just like when people used to say once you put something on the internet it's there forever Once you put something into
these AIs it's in there forever Unless you have a subscription right So we we
have the subscription so that way it doesn't train the models and it keeps our information safe
Yeah And you know what Yeah So that 6% um that are utilizing it like you said
that's low and and maybe that's low because of uh you know internally they
don't want to share information Maybe there's uh proprietary information that they're afraid of of leaking or um
they're just afraid of any type of leak as far as uh contacts uh email lists I
mean there's a there's a lot of bad that could happen if it's if you're not safe
about it Um and you don't want to go to it for legal advice and don't want to put
financials in it It does make mistakes and maybe that's what and that's called hallucination When AI makes mistakes
it's called hallucinating Yes So uh architects aged 50 and under are
more inclined to use the AI tools which we're seeing that with the
the younger kids too right My son actually posted uh reposted a Tik Tok the other day that it was like if chat
GPT was a person and it's like he's going up and giving them you know bringing them in for a hug and stuff and
they're just chilling eating dinner together It's like the younger younger people embrace it more
Yeah I defin I gave uh my son access uh to um chat and have his own little
channel and all that And uh yeah he just uses it to ask information He he asked a
lot of questions that a 12-year-old would ask And that's what it's supposed to be used
for right the tool then and I think we talked about this one of the last times we talked about AI was them going in
there and and asking the or telling the kids yes you need to use this as a tool
and not as your own brain basically and you
ask it hey how do I learn about this rather than just asking it questions and
thinking that it's going to give you the right answer use it as a tool to learn
Uh the people between 35 and 50 predominantly use the chat bot which is
just just that asking questions while people 35 and under are using it for um
image generation which I have still I have not been able to
get chat GPT or any other thing to actually generate an image the way that
I want to No Yeah You got to be very specific and detailed and yeah I've
messed around with it a little bit and I think uh well it's just the spelling of the words even like I I would put like
preferred flooring and give me some different logo variations for this and it never spelled it right even though
you give it the correct spelling Sometimes you got to tell chat that
they're not listening they're being insubordinate and then and then he'll apologize
So among the 6% who regularly use AI 91% engage with chat bots which is what
everyone thinks of right You go on there you type it Uh 70% employ image
generation tools and 61% utilize grammar support and text analytics which is like
you said it's the new Google You're not going on there and just typing a word seeing how it's spelled You're
asking an AI how to how to spell things even Yeah
So and there's 90% of architects are expressing apprehension
They don't want to use it because hallucinating the accuracy of the outputs right
potential unintended consequences which are you going to get disciplined
by your boss Are you going to feed this information that is proprietary that's
not supposed to be out there and then oops I uh I'm on my own account not the
company's account I just messed up you know So one of a while ago when when it
started getting traction AI I took one of the um education classes that were from the chamber and that was one of the
one of the things that uh one of the instructors or whoever was leading that um had said was that when it came out
some people were putting proprietary information out there that made some of their
um inside documents available to the public and like with financials and
something like that And then once someone else asked the question it can refer to that document and be like "Oh
so Samsung I believe it was did that where engineers were putting code in there." And once you put that in there I
think that's exactly who who was used for the example was Samsung
So you just have to be careful And that leads to the next one which is security and privacy issues right
Because all it takes is if you do have both and then you put everything
into something that's not secure that's an issue And just I think it's just the
older people don't really trust technology anyways right It's
like I I'll put it in terms of you when we started switching over to just take
off software and then you you you being like I don't trust this I just want to
look at a print and then give me a drafting table and a ruler and and some
color pencils Let me do some work But um yeah that that ship has sailed a long
time ago I'm happy that I know how to do it that way but um I'm I'm more excited
about being able to use technology
The authenticity and differentiation between human and AI generated
content and the transparency in data storage and usage is what people are worried
about And the AI generated content can be very very real sometimes I mean I've
seen videos where the only way you know it's AI generated is because there's like there's a glitch in it right A
glitch in the matrix It's just that one little thing but everything else looks totally legit There's pe been people on
TikTok that have come forward and it's like guys I am not this person This is
AI generated and it looks exactly like the videos that these other people post So I think that's one of the scary
things about it especially now How can you tell Well and um and a lot of
subscriptions too like uh even like Instagram and and um some of the the
platforms that they use for for shopping some of those videos are just straight
AI and they're coming out and saying that they've been using AI to generate videos um you know videos
to attract more people by cleaning up uh whatever raw
footage they have And yeah it's
It does what it tells what you tell it to do and it learns what you allow it to learn
um a lot faster than than any person a lot faster than anything you've ever seen
So uh a survey indicated that 74% of architecture engineering and
construction firms are integrating AI in various project phases particularly in
design That's 48% that's them using it as a tool getting ideas because you
where do these things come from and they got to come from somewhere And if you can use it as an idea generator that's
particularly helpful I mean just think of it in terms of writing If you're writing an article and you don't know
how to begin hey this is the article that I'm writing This is what I wanted to talk about Can you help me out a
little bit And
48% was a design and then planning is
42% So there's a lot guys there's a lot for AI
I mean to you can talk about AI for eight hours a day seven days a week and
not run out of things to talk about I have been to this to the same technical like like the the class for Microsoft
co-pilot numerous times and learned something different every single time Not only because there's so much to
learn but because it's always expanding They release things all the time
So the what they're finding um as far as obstacles of this implementation is the
cost the training for people Um I mean
just look at co-pilot in general I think it's like $32 a month per seat that you
have So it's like if you have a team of five 10 people that are using it that
cost per month is is going to go up exponentially Um we we only have a couple people that
use it but that's also because of the data privacy Like once you get your
co-pilot and you don't have things set up the right way everyone is able to access the information that it can that
it has Uh data privacy and security concerns lack of skilled personnel
that's a that's a huge one right there uh the resistance to change within the industry and we talk about that all the
time And then you look at the ages of people and that's it's the same thing
different piece of of technology It's and when we say technology we don't just
mean computers and stuff because we look at adhesives and talk about technology
and that's when installers are like I've been using this adhesive for 30 years this is how I'm gonna do it And all it
does is it's as easy as reading the bucket to to get to where you're supposed to be And it's just that push
back I I wonder is anybody in the audience uh uh using AI What do you use it for It doesn't have to necessarily be
uh flooring related just in general to see kind of give everybody else an idea
of what direction you can go because everybody's authentic man Everybody has their their own things they're working
on So just curious I'm like me on the
personal side I'm using it for meal prepping cuz my son was in wrestling and
he was like I want to meal prep I mean typically you know it's one of those
harder things to do it's is to actual meal prep but to get things
to mix up in there because I only cook certain things typically So I went in
there and I asked AI you know me and my son are meal prepping He wants to either cut weight maintain weight
uh give me some ideas using these ingredients This is what we like and this
is the like you said the more information you give it the better off your results are going to be And that's
what I did And it's been I mean we meal prepped for a while and got to get back
on it We uh we just got back from Vegas last night so we did not do any meal
prepping in there Yeah Per I'm using it for everything
Like I got so many different folders Uh I problem is I have a lot of different ideas So I try to keep track of ideas in
there using it to organize thoughts organize uh direction of some of the ideas
But yeah I mean if you're not using AI you're falling behind right now And it's the information is out there The classes
that I've been taking are actually free Um what is the app that I use I'll let
you guys know so that way you guys can can look it up and start using it too It's an app called um Meetup And in this
app I just searched for like one Did you It's um I just searched for like
Microsoft Copilot or or you know um I'm part of like a Microsoft 365 user group
because that's the the technology that we use in here And they have meetups and
regular y classes that you can go to at no cost And and that's that's how I
found it looking for looking for groups Matter of fact AI told me about Meetup
Oh if you're looking for specific groups download this app
So definitely get on get on that app and see what what classes they got for you
So what else we got for for today I know we spent a lot of time on that It kind of spun off from the architect use to to
everyday use
Um I feel like we touched base on some of these in in a previous podcast but then again uh or another uh blueco
collar cruise but then again there's always something new always something to talk about even if you're on the same
subject So we're we can talk about this uh Staret
thing that's going on So just go ahead and read the actual CRA
fear and greed index and we're gonna all learn what this means
together I'm actually going to be pulling it up here in a second I'm going to put it on the screen It's a I think
it's like a PowerPoint presentation that they had on there Yep And Daniel's gonna read because his
voice just carries way better on that I went back and listened to a previous episode and and you can't even hear
yourself It sounded like I was in the background somewhere trying to whisper in someone's ear
You see Nate Hall said uh he prefers actual intelligence
You don't even use a laser measure You are holding yourself back my friend Hey
but to each their own right It works for you and you're able to to to make it work dayto day I I get it Um
I will I won't ever just go back to just using a tape measure only I use both
So the the NF this is this is from floor covering weekly says a recent report
from the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates indicates that import volumes Am I
reading the wrong one Yeah US container ports I am reading the
wrong one
This one gave me the wrong
link Anyways we'll continue are projected to remain
elevated through the spring 2025 driven by retailers accelerating shipments ahead of anticipated tariff increases
So I think this just ties into that index that I was talking about So the key
discussion on on this subject is going to be uh I mean these tariffs are
hitting right it If you're a retailer or on the sales
side of things you're going to be getting these letters probably on a daily basis to where they don't even
know when these tariffs are are going to take effect and how much they are So I mean I think we just got
one yesterday for like a 14% and it's still uncertain that if it's going to be
that 14% or if it's going to be more So re starting at 14% Yeah With
So you got to be proactive on on things when um I was talking to getting pricing
for a project and you know our our sales rep came back with this is not with
tariff pricing I recommend you order this as soon as possible because things could
change tomorrow basically So the the thing that confuses me is what about the product that's already here in the US
What about the product that's already ready to ship They're going to put tariff costs right on that right away too Yeah And and
like I get from a business perspective I get it And if they don't do it and
others do they're leaving money on the table Well I think the reasoning behind that is say say we take that 14% But
that's only 14% and the actual manufacturer gets a 25% So the cost
difference between that 14 and that 25 is what is going to be made up in what
the the stock that they have now So it doesn't hit as hard And I I think
what the hope is is that um they take that and that 14% is good enough until
the the tariffs get lowered or eliminated That makes sense So they're they're
sharing they're sharing the the cost is is what is Yeah They don't want to hit us with the entire you know 10 15 25%
you know at at a 25% rate they they'll split it at that 14 and hopefully that
that offsets itself I do remember the last time they hit it happened to be right when I was remodeling the house
and I had to buy all that wood at like $68 a sheet and that same wood I can go
buy right now for less than $20 a sheet And that's what I've been telling people right They've been asking about how the
tariffs have affected us And I'm like man it's the crazy thing is is that prices just went down like 6 months ago
from last time and now it's doing it all over again So um they're looking at
Chinese goods which have recently doubled from 10 to 20% and now he's
talking about uh an additional 50% on these cuz it's it is it's a it's a trade
war going on What What's If we say we're going to do something they're going to
retaliate If they say they're going to do something we're gonna retaliate Yeah Hopefully it's um hopefully it works out
the way it's planned in the end where it gets everybody at the same table to figure it out Um it
just I guess we got to stop being uh the world's
u purchaser Right Right The all the the tariffs that they put on that
everybody's already had on us versus what's going on now Just trying to equal it out And it'd be nice to have it
equaled out because I didn't I didn't even realize some of those metrics uh up until you know the last year or two on
on some of that And it's just like we are just cons like all the other countries look at us as just a straight
consuming uh country Um and they've been able to get away with it for a long time
and I guess uh we'll see what happens Hopefully it's all for the good So Jesus says he needs help getting
contract material He has a bank so he can get material but how does
he get accounts from like the Mohawks and Shaws or is it just for GC
Technically GC shouldn't have accounts really It should be flooring
contractors And then he says that he he's having issues getting material from
Kristan And that right there um is a I guess you got to look at at each
manufacturer and know that they have different sections of their business So
Mohawk and Shaw both have like Mohawk has the Mohawk group Mohawk floors One's
residential one's commercial Shaw has Shaw floors Shaw contract And then after
that you know you also have um what do they like even Shaw has their
turf line and their their builder line too right Like the products that are specific for
builders Um like the I would say corporate structured
contracts stuff like that when they're selling in volume But it depends on what
what you need So if you're looking at a Shaw they can open you open open you up
a contract account but that doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to be able to get on their residential side
That's where a lot of them even the distributors are looking for you to
carry their their displays If you're not a
display a displaying you know retailer you're not going to be able to get your hands on some of this product So it's
all in who who your rep is and what you can do personally in that relationship
Maybe it's a one-off Hey hey I just need one roll of this and they may end up
doing it for you but typically if you're not going to have their their displays they're not they're not going to sell to
you and and sometimes in um you know when we first started and we were in getting our accounts together we were
told no quite a bit Um but it wasn't because we didn't qualify It was because
they didn't want to flood that area or that zone with the same product You don't you don't want 20 vendors in a 20
mile radius that can all potentially same sell the same product right you want to try to spread it out so that way
um like I said they're just not flooding the their market or their zone per se
Yep So I hope we answered your question on that I would definitely see who the reps are in your area I think you can go
on the websites and search for those or contact them to ask
them because each individual area is going to have different sales reps
Yep So uh as far as this the they're talking
about imposing fees on ships coming from China So this is on top of the
tariff 1 million to 1.5 million for each dock So you're not only looking at a
tariff of 50% you're looking at having to split that cost of just them docking
And remember during COVID we had the this same issue and it wasn't because of
the a trade war like this that was because it was just there was so much to
come in but only a certain amount of docking So some of these companies were paying that like dude I'll give you
50,000 $100,000 to dock my ship right now Well work workforce dwindled right
So so the the people who are available to to uh take charge of the freight to
ship everything were was limited And when you know you have you cut your your
your delivery workforce down to 50 20% All of a sudden that 20% becomes really
valuable Um and people would rather make a little bit of money than no money to
keep their product uh um going to where wherever it needs to go for the sales
They don't want to jeopardize any contracts either So
so he's saying that some people don't even carry Kristan and
that's where he was getting at where not everyone is going they're not going to open everyone up So cuz if you have a
saturated market then it's just like anyone can get it
right They want it to be exclusive to only certain people and protect those dealers so that way they're not
everyone's not selling the same thing So you have to look at the people that are
carousand dealers um differently than the other people
because you don't want everyone to be able to sell this the same thing because then you can just go anywhere and be
like who's going to be the lowest person Yeah I mean and you you have you have a
a different dynamic though bro Like you have the certifications and the training
and the understanding and the knowhow to accompany some of some of the sales Um and you have documentation to back all
that up So it's you can you can portray it as as a
niche market for yourself and and and that's a conversation you can have with your rep and say it all starts with that
that conversation with your rep I think is where what it gets down to It's going on the website and saying "Hey I need an
account for this." And don't get me wrong there's been times where you know someone comes in here and they're like
"This is the material I want." And I'm like "I have this that looks like it." Nope this material and then I contact
the the companies and they're like "Yeah there's three other people around you selling We're not going to let you sell
it." And that's just a sale that either I'm going to convince them that
um this material that I have is just as good or
sorry these are who this is these are the places who sell it Go ask ask one of
them if you can get it from them Yeah And that's where reputation comes in handy too Because if you're sending a
lean to someone because you can't facilitate it Um call them Hey I'm sending so and so your way Just let you
know like I I can't they want this material I don't have access to it I'm not going to be allowed access So um you
go And the other the other option is to Yeah Is that what you just said Is to go to one of these dealers and say "Hey I'm
an installer This is what I need Like help us help me out here." Like let's create a relationship If I have people
that that want to buy it I can come to you I can sell it
from you know from this dealer and you help me out I'll help you I I'll bring
you all the sales whenever someone comes to me Just had a conversation with uh with
another company yesterday about all of that had to say
"Look I understand that that we're referred but you want me to do all your
work and not get any of the margins of the sales That's kind of that's a hard pill to swallow when you realize how
many moving parts and pieces go into um a budget Just a budget Not even not even
a quote Just a budget So the the imports are expected to stay
the same all the way through uh spring and then
they the projections show that they're going to start declining in around June of
25 So we should start seeing less imports from at least China starting in
25 And that's across the board because you do there was a report yesterday that
I was looking at that said even I want to say it was Apple that is going to stop
shipping from China and actually start shipping more from I don't even remember where else
they're they're shipping from but they're going to start shipping from you know shifting away from China
to some one of other manufacturing plants that they have India maybe Oh
yeah there's there was a couple things that I was reading about that the other day too and and there every you know
everybody's just going to shift right Everybody's going to find a loophole They're going to they're going to move
their facilities to another country or update uh the their other facilities
that aren't in China just just to try to beat the the race I guess or beat the
game But we'll see how all that goes
And I think that's one of the issues is that the the flooring se sector is heavily reliant on imports You're
thinking any of your plastic flooring and by that's a lot of
flooring Uh people like to call it LVT LVP
Yeah And that just happens to be the uh material and the flooring that is
projected to increase and increase over the next few years like right So we're looking at supply chain disruptions and
cost cost fluctuations due to tariffs and shipping and that's a double whammy
If they're going to be charging the the tariffs on top of a anything that's coming from China we're going to charge
you 1.5 million to dock
So I mean it's it's not something that we we can control We just have to roll
with it And I would um highly suggest that if you are in
sales to put on
um an escalation clause in anything that you're sending out So you know I wonder
how much time is going to be before uh before people start shipping on the
black market Uh hey you want to get some of this LVP I got it on the low low Got
it I got it on the um a speedboat coming from Cuba tonight Yeah Of course that
Pablo Escobar right Everybody's gonna start finding their own private uh uh people to to kind of fly under the radar
and bring materials in It's funny to think about it like that but dude that's not really that far-fetched So
no I mean like I said man it it's there's nothing we can do about it We just have to roll with the punches Make sure you have an escalation clause in
there and make sure you communicate that with with everyone that you're working with
because we're all in construction We're all under the same thing man Everyone is dealing with it It's not just flooring I
have also you know talked to people
that it's not even things that are coming from overseas It's just supply
chain shortages all around because even one of the bigname manufacturers that
does a lot of base and transitions I'm looking at man I have been waiting for stuff
that was supposed to be here a month ago and they are telling me yes we still have no date for you and it's
like what am I going to do now Yeah And that that is [Music]
uh yeah that's that's a whole another story to be honest
So just just make sure you have yourself covered guys We we don't want anyone uh going out of business because they
didn't just have an escalation clause in there Hey if it raises this
percentage that's got to be covered by you And that's where transparency works
out really good because you're going to be like "Hey I will tell you exactly how much this is going to cost." Like I will
give you the bill you pay it Like I don't care about marking this up I just don't want to lose
And Nate Hall made another comment about there are domestic producers Isn't Adura
made here Um so your domestic producers if you guys are out there right now is
your time to shine man Drop your prices operate off of volume You have a window of opportunity that's pretty small right
now and you could capitalize on it um if you're able to produce and get your
product out and still find a way to make money with a lower margin But the volume thing
like it's a great window of opportunity And that's the thing It's I think every
manufacturer should probably have one or two lines that are made in the USA And
the I think the goal was always to expand and now is the time to do it But
I mean some of the stuff that I've been pricing out has I have been trying to
um look for that made in the USA sticker But the issue is is that
even some of the stuff that's made in the USA was already priced at around the
prices going to be with the tariffs So Americans are more expensive to pay
right It's only going to end up going up from there because if they're going to raise everything else the cost of everything else is
going to end up going with it So I I do have a couple projects out
there quoted with some you know made in the USA stuff because you got to start protecting it
somehow And I figured what better way than to just quote them now and hope for the best later And they come with when
you purchase a product that is made in the USA through per preferred flooring we will throw in for free a couple of
made in the USA stickers for your laptop Proud supporter of USA products
What else we got You have any more to add to to any of that Uh I was I was looking and that I was just out of order
So that um CR daily the the fear and greed index is
what we were talking about before I went into that that other one which worked out great because that was some good
conversation I think Cole has plans in Casey and Vegas
I don't know who Cole is I'll know in a minute
So a recent collaboration between John Burns Research and Consulting and CRA
Daily has produced the Fear and Greed Index a tool designed to assess current
sentiments and expectations within the commercial real estate sector over the next six months
So investors highlight an unprecedented focus on location quality noting that
buyers and tenants are prioritizing A+ locations due to limited resources And I
think that's what we've been we've talked about that before too about how um
the the commercial space has been dwindling especially when you're talking about warehouses and stuff because they
before they were being converted into um offices and now since co it's we've
been seeing a growing number of offices being converted over to like multifamily
Yeah And you you know this is about to get hit hard So there was a place uh
across the street from us that a while ago they said $1 amount They went looked at it after they started the renovation
and they wanted another dollar amount for lease But I got an email saying just just make an offer We'll entertain
anything right now Right like they just want an offer on the space because they made an investment
and all of a sudden nobody is looking for space to
lease They literally just said just make an offer We won't be offended I promise
Because they're not getting anything But um the quarter 125 report is based on
market ratings across four sectors which are multif family industrial retail and
al and office which is pretty all-encompassing when when
we're talking about it Oh he gave a link for the part I found it We'll just we'll just get back to that It says Cole
Manufacturing LLC is a Las Vegas 100% USA made SPC manufacturing facility So
um 100% Nice So I'm happy to be checking it on this uh See look at that Look at
that insight right there That's something we just learned today right And I've been at uh Novales their over
in Georgia and seen their production too So they produce quite a bit here in in
the States I mean it's hard to produce the amount of flooring we need in the states So that's why you get containers
and containers and containers over here But that's also how you get some of that stuff that comes over here with no name
on it You don't know who who made it just a white box And it's like good luck
with this I mean we I get those emails every single day Hey we're where yeah a
manufacturer from overseas buy an entire shipping container full of this
stuff I 100% read those emails with an accent
So Staret suggests that members leverage this data to engage with stakeholders
utilizing their extensive networks to validate findings and foster business development without solely competing on
price That sounds easier said than done
In order for people not to compete on price they got to be doing it for the passion instead of the profit And I think that um
unfortunately you have to do it for profit to some extent For the majority of it has to be for profit otherwise you
can't sustain and can't support passion So I guess finding balance is going to
be hard but finding purpose is even is even harder I guess
So it says I'm going to pop up this thing right here here says a value above
55 indicates expansion while a value below 45 implies contraction which it'll
show you where we've been and what is being projected right now as of quarter
1 So we're looking at this index right here So from 20
quarter 124 to quarter 125 it has actually increased which
means that people are looking at expanding and I think uh a big majority
of that is due to no one really wanting these spaces
anymore And then not only that but hey like you said give me a price I'm not
going to be offended Or them seeing the the value in housing and converting a
lot of these buildings over to that because um a majority of them are in
downtown areas So why not convert them when right that's where a majority of
people want to be anyways
I almost feel like um the the the next industrial revolution is in the US is
about to come Uh people are going to try to get back to the bare bones start manufacturing within either as a hobby
as a passion just to to create their their own brand Um and and this is kind
of where if you look at this area right here where it says access to capital
Um I think it's going to be harder for the regular person to access capital to
invest in things like this And it's going to be those the people that everyone loves all these in
um private equity is going to come in and start purchasing up a lot of stuff
Oh yeah that's already been happening for a while I think the foresight's been
been there to the people who are at the top of that uh that food chain They they already see
it So industrial and multifamily real estate are the strongest
sectors and that's crazy because we don't
see a lot of the industri I mean there is still quite a bit of industrial going up It's
just I don't understand why a lot of it isn't A lot of new stuff is coming up
but a lot of the stuff that's been around for a while people aren't wanting to lease for some reason
Yeah Well you're you're you're leasing somebody else's problems I think um a lot of a lot of places that you get to
lease are are outdated as far as um their features right So and
It's as not as cost effective as it used to be to lease and renovate as it is to
just get some land and build from scratch You know if if you're looking at
even a 15% cost difference to customize versus uh renovate you know people would
rather invest that 15% and getting exactly what they want instead of changing what they don't like
Right You can see right here where it's saying that office is steadily shrinking and that's
probably um half the reason why some of these people are trying to do um you
know 100% back to the office trying to save this retail or this uh real estate
market from from itself right now I mean even I
think Tanya goes into the office one day a week right now and that's it They've
already um they've already closed one of the buildings down where she works It's
just all empty and they've consolidated all into one building
you know when when real estate started when people were getting put
against others and bidding against each other um I said that when that started I said "Yep
they're going to totally mess everything up They're going to give a false representation of actual value Uh it's
going to cause everything to go up." And that's exactly what what happened And that
was that was right Yeah 2020 That was like right around co when it started happening And then
you look at this retail right here Um I have actually seen
some some stuff that said that they're they're looking at a return to retailers
because of everything being online They're actually going to the younger people are
going to want to start going back to retail because of
like I don't know like Nate was saying earlier a lot of untrustworthy people
online or you know the like um Teeu and stuff where yeah you can get something
super cheap well I don't know how cheap it's going to be anymore but it's not that quality that you want and people
are going to start getting sick of it and then focusing on going to more retail
Well it's like uh a lot of people are very what Textile like you like to buy online I am just getting comfortable in
doing that sometimes but I like to go feel and touch and look and smell and Well I think a lot of it has
to do too with um some of these online retailers shifting their return policy
where it's like you can't just order something and then return it It's
there's there's got to be some some sort of process in there where it's like too many I think maybe it's due to the
people that are sending things back that aren't what it says it is Like yeah I'm going to order this and then just put a
rock in this box and send it back But industrial is growing too Um I think
a part of that is due to the construction industry in general growing
and needing warehouse space
Construction is growing in in terms of what um the need for it
So people still want to build but the labor force is dwindling Uh but you
still need somewhere to store all your materials Yeah
Beth says "For flooring in particular it is very much a tactile experience involved What is the first thing you do
when you look at a new collection of something?" You have to touch it right Mhm Yeah I 100%
tools So we we did um what is it A pastry restaurant a few
years ago and I did provide them physical samples but after a while they were like "This texture is just holding
the flowers and stuff in it and it's really hard to clean So I think that's
where where you're you're looking at you know people want to touch it and feel it rather than just seeing a picture and
looking at the color like "Oh I love that color." Well what's it feel like Is it going to per is it going to provide
me the I don't know the smoothness that I
need in order to to be cleanable right Well that's one of the things like is it not only is it going to be
aesthetically pleasing but how is it going to perform right And a lot of people in most cases people neglect the
maintenance portion of it because they're going more for aesthetics than performance and cleanability and
maintainability So that's where a professional's got to come in and say "Hey if you get this just so you know
like um that beveled edge on that LVP that you want and this is how you cook and
what you cook with a lot this is it's going to get stuck It's going to start looking a little a little odd very
quickly So when you're when you're looking at this right and looking at it in terms of
what's it going to do to affect the flooring industry you're looking at multifamily man And
it's it's something that we've never we haven't done too much of but the people
that do multifamily do end up making quite a bit of money Um the thing is is
that once when you're looking at it it's not a huge money maker per se for the
installation side because it's typically a race to the bottom on the install rates because
they're they're looking at it like let's turn this over as fast as we can Don't
care what the prep looks like They're not looking at any of that They're just like put it in and get out and get out
Let's get people in these units is really Yeah And and that's because you know that multif family they're not
they're not necessarily going to last forever anyways right Let's get people in them start making money so that way
we have enough in pocket And I don't care if we're going to have to replace it after this tenant because we're just
going to put some more inexpensive stuff in there with some inexpensive labor and
all it does is have to last that next tenant
Yep You gotta it's got to last a year right But the I think that's where we fall
short on bidding on multif family is we don't look at it like that because we're always like well I want to do it right
If I'm not going to do it right I'm not going to do it Well if you do it right a
correct installation with correct maintenance can outlast an improper
installation with correct maintenance
Yep And that's what people don't look at But I mean it's not our money that's
being invested into these places So they can do what they want It's only our money if it fails
So it's they're looking at office
falling which I mean I don't know Even I think Chase um Chase Bank said that they
were going to do 100% return to the office and then they got a new CEO and the new CEO CEO was like "Yeah we're not
going to do that
So I mean if you're in the market definitely look into some some multifamily um industrial I know a few
people were looking at expanding into even the polished concrete market
the the codings market It's going to be huge in in these industrial spaces like
um Nate was saying that there's a lot of square footage in these places and
it's a majority of it that I've seen has been all polished concrete
Yeah there's a lot there is a lot of it And because it it it lasts right they're
going to polish it they have to maintain it It's easier There's no adhesives There's no there's not a lot of moving
parts to the polished concrete if the system is done properly And it it's just it's been a growing
market for so many years Um we've lost I mean just look at grocery stores have
been switching over to polished concrete for for years and then it's just not until recently where you go in there and
it's like oh now they're they're kind of switching back But how long is that going to last too I mean no one is
really going back to BCT unless they've had it in there already for years
Yeah you gota be that's that's uh I would say the older generations
um because that's what they know just like the word lenolium is thrown around
for for any kind of resilient Yeah it's the lenolium tile that clicks together
64% of commercial real estate investors are holding tight in the first quarter That means they're holding on to
their money right now and they're going to getting ready to invest here coming up pretty soon Yeah Because what happens
when you don't spend money If you're not buying then the prices aren't going to go up They're going to go down because
people need to sell And once they go down that's going to be attack mode
So if any of our listeners want to partner up and buy some properties over here in our area there's some for sale Let me know
I was already talking to uh to someone about that last week Like it's it's going to be about that time to where we
got to start pulling some money together and become your own private equity Yep
But it's just it's it's nice to see that people are actually doing this research and putting it out there for everyone to
see Like this right here was just downloaded off of a a website that the article was on And they they give you
everything Hey come learn about this and and do what you would will with this
information Look at those interest rates I think that's really what people are
are looking for right now is let's see these interest rates go down and then
you're going to see a bunch of people buying stuff up right and if they don't go down like the
value or the cost of the property will stay a little bit lower but once interest rates go down the price is
going to go back up kind of offset that or balance that I would say
um I almost man there's just so many opportunities on on buildings that need
a little when I say a little bit of love they need a lot of love But with the
right kind of love they you can you can double the value over by us anyway
Um but you know me I always have a million ideas but only one good one out of every
million But the information is there guys Make sure you uh look at stuff like
this and then start basing your the decisions that
you're making in your business on kind of what the experts are saying is going to be happening Um now would probably be
a good time to look into a a line of credit or you know if you were already
looking at expanding Um it I don't know if it's necessarily
the greatest time for a loan because of the rates are so high but it's definitely a good time to start
getting some some liquid in your pocket So that way when it is time you're able to uh capitalize on some of the stuff
Even if you're not buying the property to have that that liquid in your pocket in order to purchase goods in order for
when someone else buys these they're going to be be ready to start flipping and getting it getting it ready to uh
lease right away And there's a lot of different loans and types that you can check into for the
financials uh depending on on how you're classified or want to be classified
Um information is is is at everyone's fingertips There's there's no reason for you not to be able to to ask a question
and then find the right channels to go to And then and then being full circle on what we were talking about today
start feeding this stuff into AI and giving it you know ideas and how you
you're going to utilize this stuff Hey this is the information I have What are your thoughts on it What should I be
doing with this information What do you see What are other people saying I think that's the biggest thing What are other
people that are looking for the same information I'm saying or I'm asking
saying about this So we'll see what happens guys It's
going to be um I think anyone in business for themselves is always a roller coaster
but it's going to be a roller coaster for everyone coming up here seeing how these tariffs are going to are going to
shape the way we do business It's always going to be a roller coaster Just just
plan on that for the rest of your career Well thanks for listening in guys Uh we
are over time now I didn't We didn't even think we were going to last an hour and ended up being over an hour Yeah
Oops But yeah thanks for listening in If you like the content make sure you're liking
subscribing um like subscribe sharing sharing our stuff I mean that's the
biggest thing Let's get it in front of as many people as you can If you don't like it let us know Um we're we're
grown-ups so we can take it If you don't like it why don't you share it with all your friends and then ask them if they like it too because maybe they don't
like it too and they can team up with you and let you know Thanks guys for uh for joining the the
blue collar crew blue collar cruise number eight and uh we'll see you next week Thank you everyone
