Taylor Avakian
You built the Avicii house.
May 21, 2025 · 1 hr 3 min
"The" LA Mansion Builder | James Corr on Los Angeles Luxury Development
With James Corr — Founder, Corr Group
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In this episode of No Vacancy, Taylor Avakian sits down with James Corr, founder of Corr Group, who shares the raw, behind-the-scenes reality of building luxury homes in one of the most volatile…
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Episode show notes
In this episode of No Vacancy, Taylor Avakian sits down with James Corr, founder of Corr Group, who shares the raw, behind-the-scenes reality of building luxury homes in one of the most volatile real estate markets in recent history. From his roots in Irish construction to flipping multi-million-dollar estates in Los Angeles, James breaks down how he's navigating cost pressure, design expectations, and ultra-wealthy buyer psychology. Learn how top luxury builders are: Managing spec development risk with rising rates Transitioning from contractor to full-time developer Designing homes that speak to emotion and lifestyle Collaborating with agents and architects to shape value Building long-term vision while surviving short-term storms This episode is a real look at what it takes to build, survive, and scale in LA’s luxury market.
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Episode transcript
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0:00–10:00
James Corr
I built that one, yeah. And I built that when I was 25. No way.
Taylor Avakian
I just saw that in the documentary.
James Corr
This is your client's dream home. So a lot of themselves and how they see themselves in the world and all the rest is going into this house. What is it that is making them go and spend this insane amount of money in creating this and hiring all these different people and doing all this sort of stuff?
Taylor Avakian
What are some things that add the most value to a home that maybe people don't know about?
James Corr
And the Avicii house was one that like launched Paul's career, launched my career. And that was great. There was another one we did up in Roberto Lane that we had that in Architecture Digest as well. And like that was a big deal. It's straight off the top is volumes and floor plans. Hire a decent design team, man. Don't cheap out of a design team. We have two Woolsey Fire rebuilds right now, both of which we took over from that type of firm and came in and promised a sun, moon, a star.
Taylor Avakian
Welcome to the podcast. My name is Taylor Vakian and I'm here with my esteemed guest today, James Corr. James.
James Corr
Thank you, Taylor.
Taylor Avakian
Thank you for being here. Um, let me ask you, what is the biggest gamble you've ever taken on a real estate development project and how did it play out?
James Corr
Uh, oh, I mean, single family luxury spec is always a gamble. I mean, we did one in Bel Air, uh, a couple of years ago. Uh, and you know, we were coming out of the pandemic.
James Corr
Uh, and you know, interest rates were still super low. And you know, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the
James Corr
the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the,
James Corr
the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the before we close the sale. Oh. And like, you know, we all have our issues at ULA. It's not going to solve anything. I don't think. And the way it was introduced, you know, it should have been rolled out slowly if they're going to do it. They shouldn't have been so aggressive.
James Corr
They should have consulted with industry, all these sort of things. Like, we all live in LA. We all love LA. We all want to solve the problems that are affecting all of us every day. We have a homeless crisis. It needs to be solved. Let's work together. Talk to the builders. We want to solve it too. Our product is worth more in a cleaner, nicer city. Yeah. I mean, but just this ham -fisted, over -the -top approach. Now, let's not, let's get off you, will it? Because we've been talking about that all day long.
Taylor Avakian
We've been talking about it all day long. Well, you know what?
James Corr
Listen, I still managed to make a half or a decent margin on it. Like, I got out of it okay, but it was because as things got progressively worse and worse, you know, I had to roll back scope and features. And squeeze the living daylights out of the budget and make it work. And then, you know, we actually had more time. You know, I had an 18 -month overall to -market schedule. And then, you know, I'm just trying to squeeze that back down. And we got it sold within 18 months. So that's really good going. Because, you know, it has to be on the market for a month or six weeks. Yeah. And also, when it hit the market, because I could see the writing on the wall, the way things were going, I aggressively chopped pricing just to get the thing off.
Taylor Avakian
Get it done. Like, you can't be emotionally doing this, right?
James Corr
The marketeers were the marketeers.
Taylor Avakian
Yeah.
James Corr
You know that and I know that. So, you know, and while our pricing is not directly tied to the 30 -year fix, because our buyers aren't doing that typically, at the same time, it's the atmosphere and it's the overall feeling in the market and so on. So, you know, it was a big risk, you know, and then also you're looking at it and going, you know, if I have to, you know, do a bridge or refi the hard money, I mean, that is going to double in cost. Right?
Taylor Avakian
Yeah.
James Corr
And like, we got out of that by the skin of our teeth. And it was, you know, listen, we still made money on it. We were very lucky. I've had other deals where I haven't made money on it, but it was much lower risk. Yeah. You could swallow it.
Taylor Avakian
Yeah.
James Corr
Well, I think it was more disappointing than anything else because it was a project by all other metrics we outperformed. But it doesn't matter because there were the market. Yeah.
Taylor Avakian
Man. And just to give people context, so you, you're a luxury home builder by trade and you've been doing this for how many years?
James Corr
Like 20 years. To this, June the 8th, this summer, it'll be 20 years.
Taylor Avakian
Wow.
James Corr
So that was the story we were talking about.
Taylor Avakian
Yes.
James Corr
I arrived out here. So I, you know, I came from like a large scale commercial construction in Ireland. I'm an engineer by trade. And, you know, I'd spent a winter on high rise construction in Dublin, which would be medium rise here. Anyway, as an engineer and it, it, it, it's a chore. It's a trial. The rain is coming sideways at you.
Taylor Avakian
Yeah.
James Corr
I actually, I actually lost surveying instruments off the 18th floor because the wind was coming so hard. Oh my gosh. Yeah.
Taylor Avakian
This building in like Ireland seems incredible. It, it, you know, it's the next level of ability.
James Corr
It's, it's, it's just misery.
James Corr
Misery. Misery important. Yeah. You just have to get out there and keep going, keep going, keep going. And you're, there's always so much pressure on that. You don't get to stop. Like the guys might get to rain off, but you know, as an engineer, you're just trying to keep ahead of everybody. So, um, and that was back in the Celtic target, which was a massive boom in Ireland in the early 2000s. So, you know, everything was going great going. So I decided I wanted to go traveling and I, um, ended up in California. I was supposed to meet my best friend in Sydney for Christmas. This was like in June. I said, well, I'm going to go to California cause I have extended family there and whatever. And I, I want to see more of it. It's good. I've been out here before and I love it.
James Corr
And I just want to see more. I got a job working for a guy down in Laguna Beach doing like oceanfront homes. Wow. Down in Laguna Beach.
Taylor Avakian
What were you doing?
James Corr
Like, so I, I literally started off sweeping the floors at that, but I, like I was an engineer, but I was just, I was literally looking for money to pay for the next leg of my backpacking trip.
Taylor Avakian
Got it.
James Corr
And then just through all the different things, it was like, oh, I might stay a little bit longer. He bought me a truck. Like that was one thing. It was like, here's a new F -150. I'm like, okay, cool. Awesome.
Taylor Avakian
You're like, man, you know, to incentivize someone.
James Corr
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Next thing I'm running projects. And the thing is here, the, the, especially in luxury residential, the construction process
Taylor Avakian
is so much more creative, right?
James Corr
That you actually get to express a little bit of creative freedom. You, you, the design teams actually will listen to you when you come back with like an elegant solution for a problem. And, you know, that's a part of my brain that I'd never tickled before. So I got to do that. And then I'm like, this is awesome. I really liked this. And then just every time it was like, I said, I was going to leave, then something would happen. And then here I am 20 years later. Um, I started this business. I was only here three years when I started Cork and Tempe Homes.
Taylor Avakian
Got it.
James Corr
Because within 18 months I was running a whole division in that business. I had like, I don't know, five or six builds that I was running at any one time. I was only like, I was 24, 25. Wow. All these projects. And it was great. Um, but then, you know, the great recession came along. Um, but because it was just me, I'd started my own GC firm. Um, you know, we did one up on Blue Jay Way that was the Avicii house. That one actually got a cover on AD France.
Taylor Avakian
You built the Avicii house.
James Corr
I built that one. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I built that when I was 25. No way. Yeah.
Taylor Avakian
I just saw that in the documentary.
James Corr
Yeah.
Taylor Avakian
Came out about it.
James Corr
There you go. That was us. I could tell you all about that house. All the little things about that house. Cause I built the damn thing. Yeah. Okay.
Taylor Avakian
Can we talk about, so I'm actually super curious to know, like I know apartment construction, um, and I know apartments, but I don't know luxury homes. What's, what are some of the things that people would not expect that you have to deal with or the qualms and, and issues and, you know, shortcuts or, uh, or anything like that?
James Corr
I mean, it depends on what, what angle you're coming from. I mean, like the thing is, you know, I get people coming in and interviewing in the office for roles and they think that because it's super high in luxury construction that, you know, it's all, you know, they're going to be sitting there and launching with clients every day and all this kind of thing. No, it's still down in dirty construction, man. You know, you just have to be much better at it. You know what I mean? You're still on the phones at 6.30 AM, scaring up subs, making sure you have production on site every day, managing your budgets, managing your schedules. Doing job walks and all the rest. So
10:00–20:00
James Corr
in that respect, it's similar, but the level of detail that we go to is. Many times above, like when I throw out numbers and I see the multifamily guys all wince when I say, yeah, you know, we just finished the house for 1800 a foot. And they're like, what are you spending money on?
Taylor Avakian
Yeah.
James Corr
I'm like, well, if I told you how much I spent on the drywall detail, you know, we have all these specialty products that we use and you know, they're all labor sucks. Like they just burn labor hours trying to get it right. So all that kind of stuff. Interesting. That's different. But I suppose the biggest difference would be is the emotional aspect of it. And what I mean by that is, is that often this is your client's dream home. So a lot of themselves and how they see themselves in the world and all the rest is going into this house. And you're trying to understand that person and what their real drivers are. What is it that is making them go and spend this insane amount of money in creating this and hiring all these different people and doing all this sort of stuff. And it's a job.
James Corr
It is hard work on everybody's behalf to build a home at the top level of the market. Your owner has to want to do it. They have to have the funds to do it. They have to have the drive to do it. Your construction team needs to know what they're about. You have to have a design team that's on it. All your consultants have to weigh in right behind. It's a lot of work. Yeah. It's just much more high intensity.
Taylor Avakian
Got it.
James Corr
You know, like I loved like large scale commercial because you're playing with really big toys. Like at one stage you had the tallest tower in the country in Ireland. And I had to climb to the very top to ping the top of it with the GPS so that the airplanes didn't crash into it. Wasn't it? That was fun.
Taylor Avakian
Wow.
James Corr
But like you're playing with really big toys. But the thing is you're a tiny, tiny cog. Whereas you've got less players in luxury residential but much stronger players. You know, you're working with the best design teams in the world. Your engineers are multiple cuts above. Like they come up with like these beautifully designed elegant solutions so you can get these massive cantilevers and make all these systems work and all that kind of stuff. So, you know, that's the difference with it. But the personal aspect, you're dealing with huge egos in some instances. And you're, you know, there's a lot of, there's a lot of emotional loading on it. Like people get really upset if something isn't exactly the way they expect. Yeah. But you don't have any idea what that is because that's an image in their head that they've never been able to express.
James Corr
And you're just hoping that like that wall, that stone that we just spent $80,000 putting there is what they wanted. Wow. You know? So we have all these processes. Like, so our shop drawing process is super detailed. Like we literally go to stone yards or to the quarry even. We bought direct from Italy in the past and literally picked out the part of the mountain where like we want that one. Right. We've done that. And you get all of these things and you literally Photoshop them in the exact slab wall. And you do a full on, not a 3D rendering, but like actual pictures of the material and put it up in the one and say, this is what it's going to look like.
Taylor Avakian
So you give someone a, they can visually see it before they go in.
James Corr
But you're doing that. And I mean, that costs an extra bit of money. But the thing is, it's a whole lot better than them looking at the wall going, actually, it's the wrong shade of gray. Just the worst thing that can happen, you know? Jeez.
Taylor Avakian
Yeah. I couldn't imagine anything worse. So initially it started out as you were the GC making these dreams happen. When did the spec development happen?
James Corr
You know, the thing is, is when you're the GC, you're always kind of, you get it, you have a say, right? You do, you definitely, with the right design teams, you have a seat at the table and you get to, to pitch in and say, well, actually lads, what about this? And, and you know what, what about that? And, you know, I've got a clever idea for that, but you don't have full creative control. And, you know, also there's always, you hear about the, you hear about some of the more successful projects and margins and whatever. And this is back from like 2012, all the way through 2020. I mean, the spec market in LA was insane. And some of the stories from that, you know, we did all the pre -construction on the one and all this sort of stuff.
Taylor Avakian
No way.
James Corr
Yeah. We, we were around a lot of all that. Right. Um, but you see and you go, that's where I want to be. I want to be moving across into that. So I just started doing that more and more and more and more. And, you know, we kept at it and, uh, it was great for a while, you know? Um, but like, you know, business isn't working right now. So we've stepped back for now. Um, that's not to say that I won't be back at it tomorrow. Who knows? But it's, um, that was, that was it. Yeah. I wanted to move across and I wanted to create my own. Products like we have, like, if you walk into one of our homes, you'll start to say, if you walk a bunch of our homes, you'll see a bunch of little details that are like ours. Got it. You'll start.
Taylor Avakian
Has your signature on it.
James Corr
That's core. Like they always do that. Basically, that's the way they like to do it. And the, and the only direct trades, the only, the only employees that we keep directly on the trades anymore is the finished carpenters. Cause that's the final fit and finish and all the rest. Everything else we subcontract out and then it's all management team. Um, but it's all about like putting your stamp on it and make, making your product that bit better. Yeah. Improving everyone a little bit at a time. And when you do spec, you get to experiment on your own. You know, you get to play out ideas that you've had in your head for a while. You're like, I know this will work if I do this. This will work really nicely with that. And I can make this awesome. Yeah. Right.
James Corr
So you, you want to do that, but it's also Iris business. I mean, contracting is a high risk business. Right.
Taylor Avakian
Yeah.
James Corr
Right. When people like we do, it's all cost plus contracts. So people think, oh, well that's easy. You just show up. No, you're, you're, you're, there's still a ton of risk there, but like development is a whole other level of risk. Like, and you know, development is a delayed payday as you know.
Taylor Avakian
Yeah.
James Corr
So, you know, it's the two businesses should compliment each other. They don't, but they should, you know, like our construction cost is less than other developers. Yeah. And our, our quality, the quality of our finished product, I would like to think is far higher than other.
Taylor Avakian
Why is it less?
James Corr
Sorry. Excuse me. You want some water? Oh, cheers, Blake. Thank you. Yep. Um, why is it less? Because we understand it. Like, this is what we do all day, every day. We have, we literally have a team of project managers.
Taylor Avakian
But what separates you from another GC or another builder? Like, why can you do it for less than what they can?
James Corr
For the developers, because developers tend not to be builders. You know, we're an actual technical builder. Like we know, like I can run, I can run load calcs on a steel frame if I really want to.
Taylor Avakian
Got it.
James Corr
Right. I can figure out how to stretch the max out of a product. I know where I need to spend extra money on waterproof membranes and where I can peel back. I know where the lighting package, we need to spend more there and a hell of a lot less over there. And I can make those decisions on the fly and implement. Right. So we're able to like tailor our product. Yeah. To, to, to do exactly what it's meant to do and still be the appropriate quality for the price point that you're selling at. Right. So we're able to do all of that kind of stuff. And, you know, it's, uh, so it's, it's more, um, I would say purposeful, right? Like it actually does exactly what it's meant to do.
James Corr
Like a lot of times when we get like, let's say on a GC job and we'll get a lighting package back from a lighting designer. And you do need good lighting designers. Right. I just want to make that clear from the start, but they will do like the, the main living spaces and they'll do a really high spec for that. And that, that's lighting package for that room would be insanely expensive. And then they'll just roll it across the house. You know, you'll have equipment rooms that'll have like, you know, a couple of thousand dollars in, in recess cans in the ceiling. You're like, that needs to be $200.
Taylor Avakian
Yeah.
James Corr
So like, that's the difference.
Taylor Avakian
Do you, how much input do you have? If this is someone's dream, like you're on a GC job and billionaire or, you know, a hundred millionaire, they're like, I want this. And then a price isn't really an issue. How much say do you have in dictating like, Hey, I don't think we should do that versus, all right, you said we're going to do it.
James Corr
Fine.
Taylor Avakian
I'll put in these thousand dollar can lights.
James Corr
I, what I will do is I'll have a polite conversation. It depends. Every project's different. Some projects are like, just think from the years down.
Taylor Avakian
Got it.
James Corr
Just do.
Taylor Avakian
Yeah.
James Corr
That's it. Yeah. And that's fine too. But those tend to be large projects where there's already a construction manager in place that is giving that feedback to the homeowner. I want to make sure that that feedback is going to the homeowner. So that homeowner is getting that from someone. It doesn't have to be me, but they need to get it from someone. Right. And that's part of what I want to talk about as well, different roles and responsibilities in luxury building, why they're so important. People don't understand them because it's quite a complex thing. But we do get to have feedback. And, you know, when we have a good project group where you've got a receptive owner and a design team you've got a good relationship with, it's a constant conversation. You're constantly having chats and you're, you know, because you're trying to stretch the budget. Always.
James Corr
You're always trying to get the max bang for your buck, you know, and you've got your golden goose parts of the house where you're like, that cannot be touched. So therefore we need to find money elsewhere to make this what it should be. You're, you're moving parts around the board. So it's a very collaborative process. And that's really important that you have a good project team that is, that knows each other and isn't at each other's throats all the time, that they actually want to work and help each other. So like when the builder says, when I turn around and I say, Hey, I, I cannot do that. That's going to blow our budget on this. I can do this. Now I know you want that. I can make that happen easier than this.
Taylor Avakian
Are you willing to work with me on this?
James Corr
And when you have that kind of flow back and forth with the team and an owner that's willing to say, right, these guys are working it out and I'm okay with this and we're going to get to the end. That's when you have a great project team. That's when the magic happens. Like both of the homes that we've had heavily featured in AD, that has been the culture on the job. Different, completely different teams, but that's been the overriding culture.
Taylor Avakian
Everyone's coming together to make this dream a reality.
James Corr
There's
20:00–30:00
James Corr
still arguments. Yeah. Right? Like every, everybody, and that's the thing. Everybody gets, everybody's more invested in these things. It's not about the money. Like people want to do the very best. That's where you go. There's easier money to be made in construction, building luxury homes. Right?
Taylor Avakian
Yes.
James Corr
There is. But you do it because it's the very top end of the market and you want to be the best.
Taylor Avakian
What are some things that, um, add the most value to a home that, uh, maybe people don't know about? Like, is it kitchens? Is it lighting? Is it outdoor space? Like, what are the things that actually add the most value to these properties versus making it, you know, that's going to cost $10,000, but it's not really going to add any value because
James Corr
the feel or whatever. Right. I, that's a great question. It depends on the property, but I'll tell you a couple of my greatest hits straight off the top is volumes and flow on floor plans. Hire a decent design team, man. Don't cheap out on the design team because when you walk into a home and there's no flow, like you should like subconsciously be able to find your way around the house if it's well designed. Right. You should just like kind of know there's obviously a powder room over here somewhere.
Taylor Avakian
Yeah.
James Corr
And yeah. Oh, well, the kitchen's over there. It kind of makes sense. You know, you should, it should flow and it should make work. And the other one, and this is volumes is ceiling heights and natural light. It's all kind of integrated. Right. And if you've got a good design team, because if you go too high and too shallow of a space, it looks weird. Right. So if you, if you nail that, you can give this impression of quality and you know, um, just, it feels like a much better home when that's done. Right. And that doesn't mean just stretching as tall as you can. It just means that it's, it's, it's what it should be. And though, like, it's not that expensive to stretch your floor plates an extra little bit. Yeah. You pay a little bit extra on glazing, but you get such a better quality finished
James Corr
product out of it. And then that's it for life. That's that structure. As long as that structure is standing, this is an integral part of what makes that structure special. And you can do whatever you want. You can go with cheap cabinets and five years later, rip out the cheap cabinets and then go buy a really nice set of cabinets. Go down to Mass Beverly, go wherever and put in something beautiful in five years time. But you're never changing that ceiling light. That is what that is, unless you're ripping it out and doing it all over again. And then there's all the finishes and so on. Again, having a well coordinated finished package, have everything talk to each other, make sure, you know, you're, all your color tones are like, you know, all playing nice together.
Taylor Avakian
Yeah.
James Corr
You know, do all of that and make sure it's well executed. Like I have put in Ikea cabinets in $30 million homes. Right. And they have worked perfectly fine now in secondary space, not in the primary. Sure. They've worked perfectly fine because they looked like they should have been there. They had some nice stone on top, the flooring, the colors, everything worked right. And it was just simple and it worked. So, you know, this is how you can add value and do these things. If you know what you're doing, you know, on a good design team and a good build team will help you do that.
Taylor Avakian
How, so how do you come up with pricing for, for residential mega mansions? Like, how do you say that this property is worth a hundred million dollars versus this one's worth 50?
James Corr
That's a great question. I'd love to know the secret to that. Yeah. You know, honestly, it can, it can vary so much and, and neighborhoods get super hot and then they're cool. And then, you know, like when I first started up in LA, the Avicii house, that was in the bird streets and the bird streets were red hot. Everybody wanted to be there, you know, and it was, it was insane. I actually went to kick Leonardo DiCaprio out of an open house one day because he was walking to the Avicii house.
Taylor Avakian
No way.
James Corr
He was wearing his motorcycle helmet.
Taylor Avakian
Uh huh.
James Corr
And, uh, I thought he was just some dude off the street.
Taylor Avakian
You're like, Hey, get out of, you can't be here, man.
James Corr
He was wearing cargo shorts and a ratty t -shirt. I mean, pizza delivery guy. He's like, get out.
Taylor Avakian
And there's Leo DiCaprio.
James Corr
Yeah. And I was in the middle of doing this and he goes, Oh, Hey. And I realized it wasn't. I'm like, hi, nice to meet you. That's hilarious. But like when the neighborhood is hot, like that's what's going on. There's people come to look at it. They're getting inspiration that the hottest designers are working there and it's like stuff is getting published and it's cool. And, you know, that feeds into it as well. And, you know, that changes around like Bel Air. When I first came up here, Bel Air was always big money, but it wasn't red hot that way it has been for the last while. And that's kind of cool enough. Truesdale came on massively as well. So there's kind of that. And, you know, you have people setting comps as well.
James Corr
And then you're feeding off those comps and what way the industry is going, what way the market's going. How does that factor into it and all this kind of stuff. So a lot of times you're throwing something out of board and thinking I can get that, but you don't know. And things change over the course of a project, you know. So the pricing is, it's a bit of a mixed bag, but like on one block, you know, there's one street up in the Byrds Oil. My brother was the project manager on a big bill there. And like the pricing difference from down in the turning circle, which is right out in the view, two homes sold for like 30, the high 30s. And then the next one that my brother did was in the mid 40s next to it. Right.
James Corr
And so that's what those made. And they were really well finished, a beautiful finished product. It was really nice. And it was the same buyer bought both of them to connect them together, have them side by side.
Taylor Avakian
Elon?
James Corr
No, it wasn't.
Taylor Avakian
Oh, okay.
James Corr
No, no, no. He was a Bel Air guy and then he's out of there.
Taylor Avakian
Got it.
James Corr
Um, and then like back up around the corner with like minimal views. I think they had a hard time selling a house for 11 with a similar square footage. Wow. But like that's the Delta, right? That's crazy. But the thing is though, so this is what happens. You get people coming into the development business thinking, you know, well, everybody else is doing this. This makes sense, but they don't know these little things. And it's all like views are, are, are. The most important. Okay. And then buildability and what you can actually do. And you kind of work back from there and like, is this replaceable or not? Like, can this be built again? And if it can't, that adds a premium.
Taylor Avakian
Is it a, like, who are your neighbors?
James Corr
All this kind of stuff too. So all this stuff factors in. And then is it a well -designed product? Does it flow?
Taylor Avakian
Is it nice?
James Corr
Like if a buyer walks through a house and they feel like they're going to have to come in and do a remodel to make it suit them. They're going to factor that in minus your ask always. And that could be something as simple as the color scheme is wrong. So that's why you see specs tend to have much, a blander color scheme because you're trying to appeal to everyone. Like just.
Taylor Avakian
Got it.
James Corr
Right. But like you have, um, you have these massive differences and you kind of have to, you have, you have to know, you have to be up there and dealing with it all the time. And you see people going in, they, they, they think their home is worth, you know, 3,500 a foot. And I know it's, it's not worth 2,200 a foot because it's got these factors that a buyer is going to look at and discount. And that happens.
Taylor Avakian
So how much do real estate agents play into. That pricing the market where people go with the new hot neighborhood is.
James Corr
They're the market makers.
Taylor Avakian
Really?
James Corr
Yeah. I mean, when I first got into it and you know, as an engineer, like I want to see like actual labor hours and all the rest of it, you know, what are you doing to deserve your fee? I didn't understand the whole sales side of things at all. Right. I talked to the developer that kind of, I built the blue Jay house with, and you know, he's, he's a friend and, you know, helped me on a lot of different things. And I said, well, why do, can I not just get my, my broker's license? And he goes, got to pay the Pied Piper dude. And I was like, what? He goes, just don't argue with me. Just do it. Yeah. It's like, okay. And then when you start to work with top brokers and you start to see them pulling deals together out of
James Corr
thin air, just out of like their, out of their, phone, I know someone who wants this. And when you see how they do it, because you know, this is discretionary income for a lot of your buyers. They'd like a house in the Barser. They'd like a house in Truesdale. Well, you know, if something doesn't come up, no big deal. I don't care. You know? And then if the right broker gets on the phone, like, you know, and you know, all their names, all the TV shows and all the rest. And, you know, if one of them gets on the phone and says, I've got the house for you, you're going to love this. And then they get over there and then they say, remember, we talked about this. We've been for dinner here and all. You see their value and you go, that's why you need them.
James Corr
And that's why they set the pricing because they know what the market can bear. It's awesome. When you see, when you see a good broker, do their job, do it. Well, it's like, I could never do that.
Taylor Avakian
That's, it's so cool to see because it's, it's so much different. I would say in commercial and what we do because, and again, I was actually talking to someone else, um, about emotional. Right.
James Corr
There is, it's all vibes.
Taylor Avakian
It's all vibes. It's all vibes. Now commercial, I was, is less emotional. There's still emotions, but homes are, are completely. Especially if it's discretionary income. Right.
James Corr
Well, you're selling a lifestyle. Like, I mean, like, you know, you don't need more than, you know, like once you go over 4,000 square feet of a house, you know, if it's you or a couple, there's parts of the house you don't go in from one end of the year to the other. So like, yeah, you've got a wellness center and you know, you've got a media room, you've got all this sort of stuff, which is super cool. It's great to have people over do this, but they're not necessary. You don't need them. Um, so it's like when a good broker is walking around the house, they're talking about like, just think of Super Bowl Sunday or, you know, think of what that looks like. And a plan. Think about Super Bowl Sunday. Yeah. All this kind of stuff.
Taylor Avakian
Wow. It's just this, oh, the planning images there. Imagine what you could do. Imagine your kids growing up here.
James Corr
Yeah.
Taylor Avakian
Imagine the kitchen, the Thanksgiving dinners you can have on this massive 100 foot table.
James Corr
Yeah. Oh, completely. And the thing is, that's what grabs people. And they go, they see it and they start to get excited about it. And then they get, you know, they go off and they think about it. And it's like, you know, when you, when you see a nice car or whatever, and you're like, oh yeah, it doesn't make sense financially. But you know what?
Taylor Avakian
But
30:00–40:00
Taylor Avakian
I need it. I need that car. I need a sports car. You know what?
James Corr
I deserve it.
Taylor Avakian
So speaking of luxury, I wanted to talk to you about this and the Palisades and what's going on there.
James Corr
Yeah.
Taylor Avakian
Tell me about what do you think it's going to take to get the Palisades back to where it is? What's your opinion on it? Like, I really haven't talked to you about this, so just give me your thoughts on what's going on there.
James Corr
I am. We're talking to a lot of people. I mean, for us, we won't start signing contracts till probably towards the second half, probably the Q3, I'd say. We're getting a lot of calls from design teams saying, what's your production schedule look like? You know, are you, are you ready to go? And we're trying to clear off a lot of projects off the books. So we are ready to go and we're, we're doing all of that. And it's tragic what happened. You know, I, I, I, I'm being told that a lot of the necessary things for the rebuild to do it right are happening. And such as undergrounding the power and all this kind of stuff. Um, so that's good, but there's still a long way to go with how this is going to be managed and how this is going to be done. There's a lot of uncertainty.
James Corr
The rules are changing all the time. There's definitions on statements being made. I got another email yesterday, a clarification on the 110 rule and all of this sort of stuff. And it's going to be difficult. And one of the things that I'm bumping up against is, you know, like we've been at this now for 20 years. We know what we're doing. Right. And it's under the same license number. We're not messing around. We do a good quality product. We have a lot of repeat clients and we're going to be at it for 20 more. Right. That's, that's us. That's who we are. We don't take on silly projects. You know, we, we want to be around. But what I'm bumping up against is I'm talking to people who have never considered building a house before. And they've been sold simplicity. This is not a simple process. This is difficult.
James Corr
And it's going to be more difficult than normal because. You know, the ground is going to be shifting under your feet and what you can and can't do, you know, and the availability of resources and the cost of resources, such as labor material. All this is going to be changing all the time. So you really, you know, for people, a lot of people are going to say, you know what, this is not for me. And I respect that. And this is one of the things that I wanted to talk about today, because I have people that I'm talking to that are getting promised. Not promised, but being sold on the idea that you can build for X per square foot and we can do it in this time frame. And you just hire a design build firm. We'll handle it all for you. And it's not true.
James Corr
It's just not true. And what's happening here is, and I'm going to get plenty of business anyway. Right. I like we're going to be busy no matter what. But I think that's wrong because we have two Woolsey fire rebuilds right now. Both of which we took over from that type of firm who came in and promised a sun, moon, the stars soaked the budget and then disappeared. Right. And what happens there is, and I have a lot of friends and family who live in Palisades. I live in Santa Monica. Right. And so Palisades is my backyard. I have a lot of friends who live over there. I've spent a bunch of Christmases and Thanksgiving over at friends' houses over there. You know, my kids have friends over there. Like it's still open to us. And what I'm seeing is people are making long -term plans.
James Corr
And, you know, the Palisades is a great family neighborhood. It's the bit for me that gets me is the kids. Right. You can replace your sub -zero, man. Yeah. The kids are projects. That's the bit that makes me sad. Yeah. You know, but people are making plans around their family's futures based on things that are being told that are impossible to perform on. And that's, that's not cool. Like, yeah. So put it simply, it's not on and I'm seeing too much of it. And people like, you know, the, the modular guys are saying we've like the modular thing is it's like the cold fusion of our industry. It's always five years away. It's always coming, but it never quite works.
Taylor Avakian
Yeah. You know what I mean?
James Corr
And maybe it will work in more cookie cutter areas. But I dealt with modular 25 years ago in Dublin. Right. I like when we were doing our, our high rise, we would drop in pods of the kitchens and bathrooms. So that was like a very early version of it. And it works in certain circumstances, but it does not work in highly custom, weird shaped lots with difficult soil conditions and drainage issues and all the sort of stuff that you have in just about every lot in the Palisades. Right. Same with design build stuff. Like it's very hard to scale a high end design firm and it's very hard to scale a high end construction firm.
Taylor Avakian
How do you do both at the same time?
James Corr
Which is what will have to happen here. Like we are, we have resources in place to, to, to double our capacity this time next year. Wow. But I'm training staff now. Yeah. And I also have the workflow today to put those staff on, to train them for next year. Design build firm doesn't have that. Yeah. Maybe one in town that everybody knows their name. Yeah. That could probably do it. But the problem is it's, you know, with design build, it's like, you know, which one are you good at? Cause you're not good at both. Cause it's two different mentalities. You, you'd have to have a split personality. Yeah. To do design build firm. Yeah. You know, so I'm seeing a lot of this sort of stuff in the Palisades and, you know, in reality, it's, people are going to have to make hard decisions and they need
James Corr
correct information to do so. They need to know what the real lie of the land is. What is this going to take?
Taylor Avakian
What do you think the expenses are going to increase from?
James Corr
So the Monday before the fires kicked off, A, we had a housing crisis already, right? B, like for our luxury product, it went from about 800 a foot to, we just finished one at 1800 a foot. Right. Now that's, that's a range, but because we do a lot of spec, like we do, we do a lot of different stuff.
Taylor Avakian
You know how to build nice for as little as possible.
James Corr
Yeah.
Taylor Avakian
And also as expensive as possible.
James Corr
Exactly. We, we, we have, like, we have, we have a range of staff depending on the type of project, you know, and different staff are suited to different things. So like Venice modern would be closer to 800 a foot.
Taylor Avakian
Yeah.
James Corr
Right. Clean and simple. Yeah. Right. But it's, it's not super high end. But then, you know, we, Truesdale or the Bard streets or Bel Air, you know, you're, you're talking, you know, we've, we've a big one in Bel Air coming up to the finish line right now. And that's about 1400 a foot. And that's got some very nice stuff, but it's not like no holds barred. And then we have another one that we just finished at 1800 a foot. And there's stuff that's happening with much higher, but like, you know, the biggest challenges we're going to have. There's three big challenges building going forward. Cost of labor, cost of material. I don't think we need to talk about why they're an issue. Um, but they're going to be a massive issue because the labor that you're using in our end of the industry, it's not fungible.
James Corr
You can't just go replace your finished carpenters with whoever else. You can't just pull them off commercial projects. Right. These guys take years of training. They're craftsmen. So it's, it's, you know, with, with all the immigration stuff, it's a problem, a major problem. And that's really going to show up down the road, you know, and that's why you want to have build teams that are active locally, that already have the resources that are adding water to those resources rather than trying to create those teams from scratch. Obviously with the, with the material tariffs, everything comes from somewhere else. And then I suppose the third big factor I would say is the actual build process. You know, the ground is going to be shifting under your feet all the time in terms of what the city is requiring, how fast inspections are happening and all that kind of stuff.
James Corr
I'm not seeing LADBS hiring at anywhere near the rate that they would need to, to handle this level of construction. I don't think they can. There's been a lot of talk and I've talked to some people about the self -certification process. I think it's, it's either the city of San Diego or one of the cities next to us, uh, started self -certification a couple of years ago or two years ago, because they couldn't deal with the backlog from the pandemic.
James Corr
And their backlog of plans and plan check went from nine months to a couple of weeks because of self -certification. Right. Right.
Taylor Avakian
Can you explain self -certification?
James Corr
So basically when there's a lot of different variations on that, right, that could mean a lot of different things. Okay. So basically it means that if your project is within these parameters and the city defines those parameters, you can self -certify as an architect that these plans meet these requirements. And maybe you have a survey or whatever, just to self -check or whatever, and, or you bring in deputy inspectors to sign off on it or whatever. But basically it's like within this box, we can build it. It's fine. I'm giving you my word that it meets the code and it meets your requirements and so on. And that's it. Got it. And that makes sense because, you know, people think that the city inspectors are there to look at the quality of your work and so on. They're not.
James Corr
Like when the lawsuits start flying on a project, the city are nowhere to be seen. So the liability ends up with the design team and the, and the builders anyway. Right. So just follow that chain all the way through and let it happen. Then. So that's on the design side and the approval side that would just cut down so much of the nonsense. Like right now on one of the Wolsey fire rebuilds, we've been told that if we change one detail, we're back into plan check and it's going to take four months. So if I, if I want to tweak some of the engineering details, which I actually need to, it's going to take me four months to get an approved on that. And that that's unreasonable, you know? And that's, that's, you know, adding however much your carry cost on that property is a month.
Taylor Avakian
Yeah.
James Corr
Right.
Taylor Avakian
Why, why is it take so long?
James Corr
Because cities are, are, are slow to staff up. And, you know, like last
40:00–50:00
James Corr
winter, the only organization that I dealt with that shut down because of the COVID spike was LADBS. Yeah. Yeah. Or they work from home. Well, that's not the answer. You know what I mean? Yeah. So like, there are very good people in all these organizations. I want to make that clear. Yeah. There absolutely is. But the problem is there's, there's plenty that don't have the drive or the will to work independently. And their work from home rules are ridiculous. You know, like this is a, this is a, an in -person industry that we're in, you know, on the build side anyway. And, you know, it has to move fast and it has real time, massive financial repercussions when you have one actor in the process that is not moving at the same pace as everyone else. Yeah.
Taylor Avakian
Holds it up.
James Corr
Holds it up. So this is why people who do decide that I want to do the build, I want to go and I want to commit to this and I want to follow it all the way through. Don't go, don't be, don't be, you know, enticed by the simple sounding solution. It's just burying the risk. Right.
Taylor Avakian
Don't rush it.
James Corr
Don't like, look at it and talk to the, all the people involved and look at who you really need on your team. And I would actually strongly recommend for the vast majority of people that they should talk to a construction manager, a client side construction manager, because when the, uh, the rules are changing all the time and things are moving and you, you've got a lot of different moving parts. You need someone in your corner that doesn't have a conflict of interest that is on your side.
Taylor Avakian
What's up on the wall?
James Corr
Yeah.
Taylor Avakian
Yeah. It's, um, it's so interesting because I mean, we hear it too, on the development front from the multifamily side is it's so slow. I mean, there's, there's so many hoops. It takes people 18 months to get electricity to their building and there's backup from all the materials. Plus the city's taken a long time to approve everything. So imagine 10,000 structures that just got burned down that all have to be rebuilt.
James Corr
Right.
Taylor Avakian
Like that is a massive, massive inflow of projects that frankly, the city doesn't have the capacity to be able to move through in the current way and manner that they're doing it. So that makes complete sense. It's I'm curious to know your thoughts on the materials, because what I've heard a lot is that they're going to require like fire resistant materials and all this kind of stuff.
James Corr
But the thing is, a lot of the materials we use already are fire resistance. It's actually, it's actually more the techniques is, and that's okay. We can change those.
Taylor Avakian
What do you mean by that?
James Corr
Okay. So I mean, Sturko is a fire resistant material, right? So there's been a massive push for wood paneling because it's cool. Yeah. I'm sure you've noticed.
Taylor Avakian
Yeah.
James Corr
Right. It's nice. Yeah. Well, it's not very fire resistant, is it? And then like, you know, how you design the structure, like the massing of the structure, you know, and how you landscape around the structure. And then, you know, the, the, the roofing materials that you use and all this kind of stuff all have a massive impact on how fire resistant your, uh, your build is. Now, when you're spending $1,200 a square foot, that's not going to drive your materials cost a lot. Because you're already spending money on materials. Mm -hmm. Like we already spend serious money on our, on our roofing membranes because we're buying the best that we can buy because this is a high spec structure and it's got it. So, you know, if you want something with a higher fire rating or whatever, not that much more money. The labor is the bigger problem.
James Corr
That's for our end of the industry. Labor is a bigger driver of cost. The material costs.
Taylor Avakian
Because there's not enough of it.
James Corr
Not enough of it. And it's also highly specialized and detailed. Right? So when you have, you know, you're using the same two by fours that you're using or the same two by sixes that you're using in a commercial building like this. But we're doing a lot more work to put those in place. A lot more details and so on. So a lot more labor.
Taylor Avakian
More time.
James Corr
A lot more time applied to everything. Got it. So, you know, and that's a gross oversimplification, but it kind of gives you the idea. But, you know, we're doing, we're in the middle of writing a paper in the office right now to send out to all of our clients about like, you know, simple tips. Because there's so many simple little things. Like, you know, we're, we had already been talking to an exterior fire sprinkler company anyway about a different project. And we've been talking for six months and then this happened. We're like, all right, we actually need to get the full package. So we're trying to figure out how to integrate those systems into our houses from the get go. You know, so that kind of stuff is happening. Our landscape design is a big one because your landscape design
James Corr
will dictate how much flammable material is up against the house, you know? And that's often where the danger comes from. You're venting.
Taylor Avakian
How do you vent the properties? You know, if you've got a, if you've got a subfloor, you know what I mean? Are those fire retardant vents?
James Corr
All this kind of stuff. But those, they're not expensive. It's just you.
Taylor Avakian
Little tips like that.
James Corr
Little things like that.
Taylor Avakian
Will this be ready? Is this something we can share in the show notes for people to download?
James Corr
I better get out of it. I better do my homework. I was going to say. Yeah.
Taylor Avakian
No, we have a little bit of time. This will be, we got a backlog. But by the time that this comes out, we're going to try to be able to put this in the show notes. So for people who are rebuilding or want to learn some tips for making your buildings more fire resistant, they can download it here.
James Corr
Exactly. Yeah. Happy to. And the thing is, these are simple things. And the other thing, all of the design teams we're working with are all a lot more aware now. It was always a factor, but it was never really, it wasn't front of brain nowadays. So for us, it's going to inform design. You're going to start to see certain features in homes and certain design features that are going to be clever workarounds. They're going to start to become prominent. You want to see a lot more of that kind of stuff. You know what I mean? Interesting. We don't even know what they are yet, but it'll happen.
Taylor Avakian
It'll happen. You'll be able to notice this stone here or this, you know, landscaping where there's stones or something like that. You know, little pebbles. I love those little pebble driveways.
James Corr
Yeah. Yeah.
Taylor Avakian
They're annoying to clean up, but they look beautiful. And they're fire resistant.
James Corr
And they're fire resistant. Yeah. Yeah. But there's a lot of stuff like that that's going to happen. And it's, it'll be for the good. But, you know, on a macro scale, like on a bigger scale, you know, big thing is undergrounding power. And because that's always, you know, one of the main drivers. Yeah. You know, so there's going to have to be a lot of work done to that. How we handle fires as a city has to be changed as well. A lot of that has to happen, but I can't talk about that. I can talk about building things, but there's a lot of stuff that needs to change. And I mean, if ever there was a reason to change it, we have one.
Taylor Avakian
Do you feel like, um, the people, and you were talking about this earlier is, is the cohesiveness of a team to come together, to be able to make something like the Avicii home or these really incredible properties, even now on the scale of just a normal house, you know, I mean, it's a Palisades house, but Altadena too. What's the, what is the importance of that team coming together?
James Corr
So important, but also your relationship as a homeowner with the individual parts of the team, you need to be able to go to the construction team and get a straight answer. You need to be able to go to the design team and get a straight answer. You need to be able to actually see if something's normal. You need to say like, is like, so you go to, so there's an issue with a design element and you need to be able to go to your contractor and he sends you a change order for $20,000 and you're like, what is this? And you need to be able to go, well, you know, is this realistic?
Taylor Avakian
Is it normal? Is it fair?
James Corr
And you need to want to trust the answer you get back. If you don't have the time to do that, if you're working 60 hours a week to make this pay, you need to have someone else to do that for you. But that contractor, let's say, let's keep talking about this one change order. They'll say, well, actually, no, this is a specific thing from the, from the design team. And, you know, we, we can, we can do it a different way. It's a lot less, but you know, this is what they want. And then if there's an issue with construction, if things are taking longer than what they should, what you think they should, and the contractor is blaming all these other factors and whatever, you need to be able to go to the design team and say, is this normal?
Taylor Avakian
Is it fair? Is it right?
James Corr
And you need to be able to get a straight answer back. And this is why church and state should always be separated. And the contracting structure, the contract structure is very important. It's a triangle. There's ownership, construction and design. All three are separate elements. Right. And if you can't fulfill the ownership role in terms of managing the teams, you need to get a construction manager to help you to do this. That individual will pay for themselves multiple times over during the project. If you're not able to do it, they absolutely will. And, you know, I'm saying this and they're normally a pain in their neck, but it's like their neck. Yeah. Like this is important, you know? And this is part of like, people are being sold this simplistic way of doing it with the modular and the design build. I'm like, it doesn't work.
James Corr
I've taken over so many of those projects. And this is the only way that you can do this and do this well and get something that's correct and for the right price point at the end of the day. It seems like more work up front, but it's actually a lot less work in the long run. Yeah. It's really important that you get a team as well, that they're all on a par caliber wise so that they're all like working around this quality level and around this price point and that they, they know each other to a certain extent. They don't necessarily have to have work together in the past, but that they've done similar caliber homes before. So they know what to expect out of each other. That's very important as well. You know, if, if you're getting a farm that's coming from out of town, they're coming in
James Corr
and they haven't built anything like this before, you know, you're going to be their Guinea pig and you don't want to be that.
Taylor Avakian
No, no, you don't.
James Corr
You don't.
Taylor Avakian
Especially on these multi -million dollar
50:00–1:00:00
Taylor Avakian
homes. It's a people. I mean, there's a reason why the, the YouTube videos of the house tours are so highly viewed because there's this aura, this feeling of, wow, like imagine living in that. It is that imagine yourself being in those shoes, having this as your own, being able to spend time there. What are some of the, your favorite projects or homes that you've been in or some maybe that were featured in AD or like, what are, what are some of your favorite things?
James Corr
It's funny. I was at a, I was at a dinner last night and the architect that did the EV chairs was speaking at a poll and, um, and he always, he has the same answer and I agree with him. It's like, you know, when you're asked about your favorite house, they're like, well, you know, it's like being asked for your favorite child. You know, cause every house there's some that you hate. Yeah. We won't talk about those. And that's nearly, nearly always informed by an individual, like an owner that was just really, really hard to deal with or whatever. Um, but yeah, you have your favorite projects and it's nearly always because you love the project team and the house is awesome and you all got to do better. And the VHS was one that like launched Paul's career, launched my career. And that was great.
James Corr
There was another one we did up in Roberto Lane that we had that in architecture digest as well. And like, that was, uh, you know, that was, that was a big deal. And the client there was great. Uh, still friends with him to this day. Go for dinner all the time, you know? So it's like when you, when you make long -term relate, cause you get to know people really well. When you're building something for a couple of years and you're building their dream home and they're, they're telling you why this room is so important. And they're talking about childhood memories and stuff. You get to know people very well. Yeah. You know, and that, that's fun.
Taylor Avakian
Yeah.
James Corr
You know, the relationships. Yeah. The relationships are fun, you know, and that's, and, and, and that creative process and all that. So that, that actually like, cause after a while, you know, you see a new feature and like, yeah, that's cool. I like it, but also it's not what, you know, it's the people. Like you have to like the people and actually want to be like, uh, I really want to make this cool. I know they're going to love this. Let me see if I can make this work. Right. And then you kind of go here, what do you think of that? Like, do you want to do this? I thought of it for you and all. So you're trying to do that kind of stuff all the time. And that's the more personal side of it. It's a lot of fun, you know?
Taylor Avakian
If you had to build your dream home, what would, what would the features be? What are your favorite things that would be in there? What would you make sure would be in there?
James Corr
Oh, oh, that changes daily. And it's in my head. Yeah. I actually, to be honest with you, uh, I had this conversation with someone the other day. I, uh, I don't think I'd build my own dream. I've built very nice homes for myself, but then I'm always trading them or whatever. Um, I'd love to do a full restoration on, on like a case study home or something like that.
Taylor Avakian
What is it? What kind of home?
James Corr
It's like a mid -century home. Like one, one. I love mid -century. An architecturally significant home. Because I, I actually, from living in and, and building large homes, you kind of learn that you don't need all of that. Mm -hmm. Right. You actually don't. So it's just something really well designed and quite compact with fantastic views and a nice pool. You're good. So, yeah, there was, there was one in particular that we looked at a couple of years ago, um, in Crestwood, I think it is up in Brentwood, up the top of a hill. We just fell in love with it. But the problem with something like that is, is you can't really approach it unless you have the resources in hand to do it because you can't have to do it.
James Corr
Like on a restoration like that, if you're going to do it, you got to do it right because you're only, you're, you're only a tenant in one respect. You own it, but you know, you're preserving it. Yeah. To give it on to either your kids or to sell it to someone else who'd appreciate it. You're preserving our, our, you know, architectural heritage and that's really important, you know? So even though we build all these really nice, cool homes, I love old homes as well.
Taylor Avakian
Ah, the story, right?
James Corr
The story, right. Exactly.
Taylor Avakian
What was in, in that architect's mind or that builder's mind when in 1960, they, you know, built this funky, you know, movement or like it flows so uniquely and it was a different time and different aura around what was going on there. And you can kind of be transferred back.
James Corr
Yeah. 100%.
Taylor Avakian
What goes into, um, like a restoration versus a new build?
Taylor Avakian
Um, what was it?
James Corr
My brother was on the, um, it was the, the Bond house out in, uh, in Palm Springs. He was doing some restoration work on that. And we were joking about it. Uh, cause he was in the thick of demo. And now when I say demo, it's like with a, you know, one of those little archeologist hammers. Right.
Taylor Avakian
Like you're just, yeah. Like.
James Corr
Exactly. He was like, yeah. You know, it's just like peeling an onion. You just keep peeling back the layers until you get to the good layer. And it just makes you cry all the way through it. I'm like, I was like, yeah. Pain.
Taylor Avakian
Cause every layer costs a lot of money.
James Corr
So you're just going and going until you find like good grounds. Got it. And you build it back up and you have, you know, it depends on how, how detailed you're going. You know, you could bring in, you know, the likes of Esher Goodward, you know, like conservation architects who that's what they do. And they do it really well and you can do that kind of stuff. And, you know, they're, they're literally pulling up the original plans and saying, this was the material used. It was made out of asbestos. So we can't use it again. But here's something we found that looks and feels the same. You know, you can go nuts. It's the same as like when you see, you know, like those concourse, that I'm Ferraris up in, um, up in there. Yeah. You know, the, the one up in there.
Taylor Avakian
Concourse, the elegance.
James Corr
Yeah, exactly. Thank you. Um, and you see guys and the cars are better than they ever were when they came out of the factory. So I think that's a step too far, but that's a personal opinion. Yeah. You know, you do you. Once, once you're doing a good job, you do you. Right. Um, so you can do that. And there's lots of really good stuff like that that you can do. But like, you know, I remember walking with a friend, a house that he was doing up in Laurel Canyon. And I think it was, was it, was it a Schindler or a Lawton? I can't remember. It's a while ago. So, and he, he literally had a finished carpenter spend three weeks lining up all the slot cuts and the screws on the eBay decks. So that they all lined perfectly. Wow. Now the decks were already down.
Taylor Avakian
Yeah.
James Corr
He just had to go back and line up all the screw heads.
Taylor Avakian
The, the, the, the four, the plus.
James Corr
No, it was one. It was a single. So it was even more difficult. Oh my God. I don't just, I'm like, oh, just turn on my, it's just, yeah. Go back. Like had a laser light down it. Like, and this is a huge deck around all the way across. Holy crap. And he was, he was trying to trace. There was the glass that had been used in the walls in the bathrooms. They use this glass. It's like a milky colored glass. It was, it was a specific product and it came out of Detroit in like 1936 or something like this. And he couldn't find it anywhere. And he had one panel that was broken. He didn't want to demo the bathroom. And, you know, he was like, he was determined to do this. He managed to find a couple of sheets of this glass stuck in a warehouse somewhere
James Corr
in the East coast. I don't know where he had spent two years looking for this. And he'd sent someone across the country in a truck. One that, you know, the glazing trucks.
Taylor Avakian
Yeah.
James Corr
Yeah.
Taylor Avakian
Yeah. With the glings.
James Corr
Yeah.
Taylor Avakian
The glass.
James Corr
Yeah. I had to pick up these glass and then drive back across at like 45 miles an hour. Oh my gosh. Like the, but this is the level of insanity that you go to on some of these restorations. Yeah. I think there's part of it is cool. It's like, you know, that's nuts. That's art, man. Yeah. It's, it's awesome, but you're insane, but it's awesome. So, you know, it's cool. But yeah, I don't know if I'd be that, I'm not patient. So that's, that's the other problem that I would have. I'm not patient at all. I want it done now. So that, that's, you know.
Taylor Avakian
So then what's next? What's next for core construction? What's next for you? What's, what do you have moving forward?
James Corr
We have, you know, we're, we're going to be busy. We've got a lot of fun projects on the way right now. You know, we're finishing up a couple of cool houses right now. We've got a great team.
James Corr
And we're looking to just keep building that team. We've been doing a great job, you know, adding bit by bit into our team. We're big on our culture in the business. We've got a great skill sets across the business. You know, we've got lead certified architects and project managers and engineers and, you know, all working as PMs. There's a lot of different skill sets. So keep building the, the, the contracting team and we'll keep doing that for now. We've got a service business that's going pretty well. And that's interesting. It's, it's, you know, it's, it's not as exciting as everything else, but it's, it's necessary.
Taylor Avakian
What do you mean a service business?
James Corr
So one of the things that we found is like, so, you know, you bring in your car to get it service twice a year, right?
Taylor Avakian
Yeah. Your car is a lot less, less complex than most of the houses that we build, right?
James Corr
The houses that we build are insanely complex and there's no other house in the world quite like it. That's been put together this way in the past. So when we finish house and hand it over or sell the house or whatever, you know, a lot of the people that deal with the maintenance after the fact, don't fully understand the requirements of, you know, of the house, what it needs to be maintained properly. We do a lot of work to do that.
Taylor Avakian
Do you have an example?
James Corr
Yeah. So, I mean, like, you know, if you, um, if you have someone come in and install a satellite dish on your, your brand new roof and, you know, the direct TV guy, I don't think anybody uses that. And, you know, this is the cable guy, this, the cable guy, this has happened, right? And they come in and they poke a hole in your roof and then they get a bucket of Henry's and they slap it down on the hole. Well, we've just spent $120,000 on that waterproofing membrane on that roof. And that one little dollop of Henry's has now voided the warranty and that whole thing. And by the way, $20,000 out of that $120,000 we spent, it was for an extended warranty. So we'd have a 20 year warranty on the roof, right? And because he's used a product that's not approved for use in that roof, the
James Corr
manufacturer's warranty is out the window and probably the supplier's warranty, the installer's warranty as well. Now he's not to know this, right? He's only doing his job. He's trying to get in and out so he can get home. All right. But you need to know these things.
1:00:00–1:10:00
James Corr
And this, this is the sort of stuff that, you know, only if you're in or into the business, you're going to understand that. And you're going to go, no, don't touch that. Don't go near it.
Taylor Avakian
Why?
James Corr
It's only, you know, it's, it's, it's a piece of roof material. You know, it's a lot more complicated. Interesting. So with the service business, we're like, look, you know, we get these calls anyway.
Taylor Avakian
Why not spin it off into a separate business and do that?
James Corr
So we're developing that as well, little by little. Um, but yeah, you know, we're going to, we're going to try and finish off the current crop of projects well. And, um, yeah, excited about a couple of them. And then, um, yeah, we're going to be busy and, uh, looking forward to that as well. Um, you know, it's, yeah, on the contracting side, it's exciting. And then, you know, you never know what the spec stuff, things might change.
Taylor Avakian
Do you think you'll ever get into a apartment development?
James Corr
I, uh, I'm always interested. Um, I love looking at all sorts of development, right? It's just that this, we're known for the single family stuff. So it's, it's easy for me to slip back into the single family stuff. Um, I can, I can evaluate a single family deal in about two minutes. Yeah. I walk the property. I know what I can do and have the numbers in back my head and that's it. It's probably a little bit too easy kind of in that respect. Yeah. Kind of like, you know, so it's comfortable, but I'm always, I would love to do some high end, um, multifamily. I think there's going to be a massive need in LA for it, like high quality, like family type, um, multifamily. Because, you know, if we want our city, uh, to keep growing, we have to provide
James Corr
more housing and we're fairly well built out now at the moment. You know?
Taylor Avakian
Yeah. So it's hard to build. It's very, very hard to build. And it, it's, it's very interesting for, from you coming from the high end luxury where pricing really doesn't matter to, uh, to apartments. Where it's how do we build the nicest, the cheapest possible to get as many units on this highest density lot, you know, imaginable.
James Corr
But that's why I'm saying high end, because like I, I walk, I, I, I've walked multifamily development and I'm looking at some of the waterproof details. I'm like, Oh God, that's a lawsuit waiting to happen, man.
Taylor Avakian
Yeah.
James Corr
And you know, it's, uh, I don't want to go there. Like, I'm not interested in that. Like what I, what I like doing and it doesn't matter whether it's a $50 million house or, you know, an apartment. You like to create cool spaces that people go, Oh, this is, this is, I never would have thought this was like this from the outside. This is awesome. So stuff like that is kind of like, you get a kick out of that. Yeah.
Taylor Avakian
What the price point, just doing something interesting that makes people go, Huh?
James Corr
That's cool. Mm -hmm. Oh yeah. I'd never thought of that before. I'd never looked at it. I'm like, I like doing that. So, you know, maybe something like that down the road, but you know, right now we've got a, we've got our
Taylor Avakian
hands full.
James Corr
We've got our hands full.
Taylor Avakian
You're going to have a lot of construction going on.
James Corr
We are.
Taylor Avakian
So we're focusing on that for now.
James Corr
Like that's, and you know, cause we're trying, we want to do a good job for it. Yeah. So, you know, we're going to get on with that.
Taylor Avakian
James.
James Corr
Yeah.
Taylor Avakian
Thank you very much for being here, brother.
James Corr
Yeah.
Taylor Avakian
I appreciate that. Yeah. This is great. I, uh, I learned more about developments and new construction, luxury homes than I think I've ever learned in my life. So I appreciate it.
James Corr
I mean, I could talk all day.
Taylor Avakian
Thank you very much, brother. I appreciate it.
James Corr
All right.