Episode 63 - Building an ADU in 2026: What to Expect, What to Avoid, What Works with Sergio Rodriguez
What if the biggest skill in real estate isn’t finding deals… but learning how to handle problems without falling apart? In this episode, Stephen sits down with Sergio Rodriguez, a high-performing general contractor who has built 40 to 50 ADUs in a year and continues to scale with strong systems, steady execution, and an honest approach to client relationships. They talk about what real construction looks like behind the scenes, why investors get distracted by shiny strategies, and how the best results come from staying locked in, solving bigger problems, and keeping long-term tenants instead of chasing top-dollar rent. Sergio also drops real-world advice for homeowners and investors: what to look for when hiring a contractor, how to avoid getting burned by renovations, why communication is half the job, and the construction trends he’s seeing heading into 2026.
Stephen and Sergio talked about:
00:00 Starting the Seattle Journey
05:06 Diving into Real Estate Strategies
07:23 Challenges in the Rental Market
09:18 Navigating Property Management
11:33 The Impact of Market Changes
18:27 The Stress of Remodeling
21:10 Building ADUs: Trends and Changes
24:54 Quality and Client Relationships
26:39 Client Disputes and Handling Difficult Situations
29:04 Effective Communication with Clients
31:54 Choosing the Right Contractor
37:12 Current Trends in Home Design
39:58 Upcoming Projects and Challenges
46:06 Reflections
TRANSCRIPT
∎ Teaser / Highlighted Clip
[Stephen Husted] (0:00 - 0:36)
One of the biggest statements that I've heard from several of them is I'm going to be talking to him every day about the project. I'm like, no, don't do that. Do not call him every day.
Pick a time in the week, discuss what's going on for that week. What's going on in the project. If there's any types of issues or anything that needs to get addressed, but do not call Sergio every day for updates.
You're taking him away from what he's actually supposed to be doing on a day to day. Like, don't, they're like, really? I'm like, yes.
Yeah. Unless you have a relationship like me and then I could talk to you all time.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (0:38 - 1:03)
Yeah. There's a client who calls me every day. Every day.
Are they good? They, they are. But you know what?
That's what you pay me to do. You know, people have anxiety. You know, like, you know, you've been there like just because I'm not at the site or I don't pick up the call on the first ring, doesn't mean things are not moving.
True.
[Stephen Husted] (1:04 - 2:46)
You know, things, even when there's nothing happening at the site themselves, there's things getting planned due to start tapping again.
∎ Podcast Intro:
I'm Steven Husted, and you're listening to the Breakthrough Podcast, a space designed for clarity, curiosity, and the stories that move us. Here, we step away from the noise and into the moments that define us.
The early influences, the hidden struggles, and the breakthroughs that reshape our lives from personal reinvention to building a life through real estate and entrepreneurship. These conversations remind us that success isn't a straight line. It's a series of honest decisions, brave actions and small shifts that change everything.
This is where those stories live. Let's begin.
∎ Guest Introduction:
What does it take to survive construction without burning bridges or losing your sanity? I sit down with Sergio Rodriguez, a seasoned general contractor and ADU builder who's completed dozens of projects across California. Sergio is known not just for building structures, but for how he handles people, stress, and chaos. When things go sideways, we talk about what really happens behind the scenes, dealing with difficult clients, inspection delays, why communication beats speed and how trust is built on job sites, not social media.
Sergio shares hard-earned lessons on choosing contractors, navigating ADU regulations, and why enjoying who you work with can make or break a year-long project. If you've ever considered building, remodeling, investing, or just want an honest look at the construction world, this conversation pulls the curtain back. Let's get into it.
∎ Podcast Proper:
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (2:47 - 3:00)
I think when I met you, you didn't even have a clue about Seattle. And then you called me and you were like, I think I'm going to go to Seattle and I think I'm going to just buy a bunch of property. I was like, okay.
[Stephen Husted] (3:02 - 3:08)
You're just jumping right into this conversation. I just pressed record. We're going for it.
Let's do this.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (3:09 - 3:12)
Part of that whole Seattle click, man. That's pretty cool.
[Stephen Husted] (3:12 - 3:24)
Yeah. It's funny when you get into the thick of it in the beginning, I've had those moments with other friends and colleagues. I'll tell them, Hey, this is what I'm doing.
I'm going this direction and they're like, okay.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (3:24 - 3:44)
I thought you were nuts, bro. I'll be honest with you because I'm kind of a control freak. And when it comes to like construction and I was like, how are you going to do it?
How are you going to have, like how are you going to build all these ADUs and all these lot splits? And like, you don't have your hands on construction, but you're doing it. You're doing it, bro.
Congrats, man.
[Stephen Husted] (3:45 - 3:55)
Thanks. Thanks. Yeah.
I think sometimes it's better to go into things. Kind of blindly and be a little bit nuts and delusional on what you're trying to do.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (3:55 - 4:07)
Does that make sense? Well, see you and I, I think we're kind of wired the same. We're kind of dreamers.
We have a vision. Okay. I'm going to do this.
I'm going to make it happen. And we just go for it blindly.
[Stephen Husted] (4:07 - 6:04)
Yeah. I think that dreaming and visionary aspects of things, there's some times that I'll go for a big period of time, dreaming or visualizing something before I pull the trigger because usually it's a thought. And then I'm kind of like putting the puzzle together before I execute.
And then when my gut tells me, all right, I'm ready to do this. Then I just go all in, but I don't go all in on something that I'm not really like locked in on or passionate about as well. Like, I really, really, really want to be like, I know, okay, this is what I feel.
I'm going to, my guts tell me this, and I'm going to go for it at this point. I mean, let's think about it. And when it comes to real estate, there's a million different things we could do.
We could be doing syndications. We could doing fix and flips. We could do, you know, the list goes on and on and on.
Totally. Yeah. And here's a great example.
When I first started out in Seattle, when I met Alicia on the Glenn Hoonan project, she wanted to go to coffee. She wanted to start investing. And we started talking about that.
But then she brought up, Hey, I want to build an apartment complex. I'm like, that's great. That's cool.
Go for it. And I go, but I can't do that because that's not where my brain is right now. My brain is here in Seattle.
This is what I'm doing. And if you want to fly out with me and you want to get on the ground and meet the team and see some of these in person, great, let's go for it. But I'm not going to go chase that shiny object because what happens is you start to, the more you chase other things, other strategies, you're just dropping the ball.
You're doing 50% of a hundred percent of what you should be putting your time and effort in. That's how I see it. And I've learned that.
I've learned that I've learned. I've learned that the hard way too. I just want to be locked in.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (6:05 - 6:14)
What's next. Where are you with Seattle? Where do you see that whole portfolio in like three years?
[Stephen Husted] (6:15 - 7:02)
Continuing to do exactly what we are currently doing, learning that process as we go, because there is a lot of moving parts to it. It's not as simple as a Instagram post telling you to go buy a house and that you're going to put this money and you're gonna make $300,000 on the backyard doing this, doing an ADU or whatever, a daddy play. I think that it's capital.
You need a lot of capital. I guess if you want to scale, you definitely do. There is things that people are doing.
Like there's people in Seattle that are doing 5% down on our occupied. So they are buying the house, they move into the house, they live in the house and then they build out the backyard over time. I think that's fantastic.
I think that's the greatest little scenario out there for people to do.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (7:02 - 7:03)
5% down.
[Stephen Husted] (7:03 - 7:36)
Yeah. They're doing 5% down, 10% down. That's really cool.
I think just doing more of what we are doing and you know, I've passed on a couple deals recently because you know, the market, it's cooling down right now, but it's also that time of year. Yeah, it is. But it's also the colder months and it's dark and gray.
Things kind of slow down, but interest rates are higher tech jobs with like AI and all that kind of taken away jobs and people are fearful. So you know, markets, they change. That's the thing about real estate.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (7:37 - 8:31)
It's never the same. It's so like you're talking about investing, like even on the rental side things for me, I lost a renter in Napa in November and I was like, dang it man. Why in November dude?
When in Richmond and when I first leased them out, I mean I leased them in a week, found renters in a week, but that was in the summer and now it's like I'm having a hard time finding a renter, right? But everybody's just timing. It's just sucks to get a vacancy in December, Thanksgiving, December.
No one wants to leave. Like they're going to leave like around, people are going to start looking like Superbowl time, you know, like after. So that's what I'm up against right now.
I got to fill in my vacancies. Yeah.
[Stephen Husted] (8:32 - 8:45)
And also in these colder months, November, December typically from what I've experienced is the tenants you end up placing are usually not the best tenants during that time period as well.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (8:45 - 9:04)
That's a really good point. That's a really good point. One of my buddies who owns a ton of buildings here in Silicon Valley, he was like, just wait, just wait.
He had vacancies too. We're not going to fill them until after January. So that's a good point though, dude.
I'm just going to just chill, you know?
[Stephen Husted] (9:05 - 9:21)
Well, and also it really depends if you're in an A, B neighborhood, you know, that you're not too worried about, you know, because leaving property is vacant unless you have somebody checking on the property time to time, you open yourself up to all kinds of different things. Squatters break-ins.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (9:22 - 9:22)
Yeah.
[Stephen Husted] (9:22 - 10:01)
And I can tell you firsthand, like we've had a property that we put on the market and I talked about this yesterday on another podcast. So we had tenants moved out and then the property manager came back to us and they said, you know, we want to put it on the market for this rent. And I was like, look, that seems really high.
And so I did my own analysis and I came in a hundred dollars less. Well, the property sat for 187 days and we were just chasing the market down. Mind you, the tenant that had moved out, which was amazing.
We had on the market for 1250. Okay. 1250.
They're up at like 1500. This is Kansas city.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (10:01 - 10:01)
Okay.
[Stephen Husted] (10:02 - 10:42)
Okay. So we start chasing that market down. We start giving incentives like, you know, half off first month rent, all these different things.
We just secured a tenant. Guess when they're moving in? December 29th.
And it's a husband and wife with four kids in a three bedroom. There you go. And I'm all for housing people, but I'm just saying like that, you know, and we ended up at 1295 on rent.
So we only got $45 more. We're not even going to get rent. We're not going to get our first deposit until February because now the property management, they'll place the tenants, they get the first month.
Right. So then we don't even get this. Yeah.
Yeah. So, yeah.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (10:42 - 10:45)
But you know what though, that you're going to have them for a while.
[Stephen Husted] (10:45 - 10:49)
I am all for keeping tenants in. If they're good tenants, we don't even raise the rents.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (10:49 - 10:58)
You get it high up front and then you don't give them rent increases for like two, three years. Yeah. Yeah.
And you just, you know, or yeah.
[Stephen Husted] (10:58 - 11:14)
Cause every situation's different, but here's the thing. Why am I going to take a risk for a hundred dollars to get somebody move out? That was a good tenant because the property management is telling me that I should do this.
Like, cause they don't care.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (11:14 - 11:52)
I mean, as long as they're in that market range though, $200 cheaper here, there you're fine. My sister actually told me when I first started investing, she's been a real estate investor for a long time. She was like cheaper or a little bit below market, but long-term is better.
It is renting it out at the highest. And then you got turnovers and then you're keep giving them rent increases. Like, no, like go in, be reasonable.
And then trust me, if they stay five years, that's where it's at. She's got where they haven't moved out in a decade.
[Stephen Husted] (11:52 - 13:04)
Yeah. Yeah. Because the minute they do move out, you're doing repairs, you're painting, you're then doing advertising.
If you're not self-managing, you got a property management, they're taking that month. They got some, you got to, you may be at a month of vacancy, maybe two months, maybe three, depending on where these properties are located. And then on top of that, you could go through.
So that when I was just telling you about the property management people that came by and were showing the property showed up and the front doors kicked in and their squatters in there. So they got the squatters out, which was, you know, that's a 50, 50 chance. Some people can just stay in there.
They get them out. And then they send me another email going, Hey, I know when we took photos, you guys had washer and dryer and a refrigerator in here. Did you guys take them out?
I'm like, no, we did not take them out. I swear. You know what I'm going to do on, we have this duplex in Kansas city, a really big detached garage and it's got some extra space.
I'm literally going to build a storage unit, my own storage unit so that I can pull appliances out of properties when they see it vacant.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (13:05 - 13:07)
Yeah. How's the market out there?
[Stephen Husted] (13:07 - 13:55)
It's slow to slow down. Yeah. It's slowing down.
And you can tell because especially in these investor groups on Facebook, you can tell when you hear like how the wholesalers are talking and then you see comments like, Hey, you got this property under contract, but it doesn't pencil out. Like you got to go back to the seller. So these wholesalers, they're getting some of them, not all, but some of them are just getting these properties on a contract, but they're not running their numbers because at the end of the day, the seller could want what they want and that wholesaler wants to make some margin on it.
But at the end of the day, the investor is going to underwrite it. And if they can't put the deal together, you don't got a deal. And then you're just wasting time with the seller.
So I see a lot of that on Facebook comments and stuff.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (13:55 - 14:04)
So compare like 2021, 2020, let's say like a nice high in home in Kansas city. How much was it selling for?
[Stephen Husted] (14:05 - 14:11)
It just really depends. I mean, you can be up, you can be from 500,000 up to a million. It just really depends location.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (14:11 - 14:46)
I just want to see how much homes dropped off. Cause if you see the data, it's so funny, man, how crazy, I don't want to get political, but it's crazy. I just remember vividly like during COVID Fox news was like California is going to the dump, you know, like homeless and San Francisco and everyone's leaving San Francisco, but no one's talking about what's happened with the real estate market in Florida and Texas.
Like, do you know how much homes dropped off? Imagine leaving California. You sold your house here.
You bought a house for 600,000 in Florida. That house has worked like four into four hundreds now.
[Stephen Husted] (14:47 - 14:53)
Yeah. They've had some Steve drops and those locations. I've seen that too.
They go back up. Sure.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (14:53 - 15:01)
What I'm trying to get at is do you agree that California is the last to get hit in the first to come back up?
[Stephen Husted] (15:02 - 15:13)
I think it's all depends. It really depends on the market and the location and where you're at. I mean, prime example, look at Palo Alto during the crap.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (15:15 - 15:29)
I didn't do anything. Nothing happens. It does a little bit, but really it's just, yeah, it just comes right back up.
Los Altos.
[Stephen Husted] (15:29 - 15:33)
But if you see a 20% drop in, let's say like Willow Glen, I mean, come on.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (15:35 - 15:36)
That's crazy.
[Stephen Husted] (15:37 - 15:39)
Crazy, but it's still the market's still high.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (15:40 - 16:01)
I don't understand. Like, how is it that, I think we know, right? It's AI tech.
It's the industry, but the whole U S took a dip, but in the Bay area, I don't, I just don't see it. Like homes took a little bit. Yeah, for sure.
Compared to COVID times, homes did get cheaper, but for the most part, not, not by a lot, man. Not by a lot.
[Stephen Husted] (16:01 - 16:14)
Yeah. It really depends on the asset class too. You know, cause remember that condo that I had on the market that they typically fly off the handle.
That one took a long time to sell. We had to do a pretty big price reduction too.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (16:14 - 16:19)
That little condo, the condo industry, I think I heard is not doing great.
[Stephen Husted] (16:19 - 16:48)
No, no. Well, higher interest rates. And that's the barrier entry for that type of a buyer.
They're a little bit more price sensitive on like mortgage payments too. But interesting enough, once we did do that price reduction, who bought it was, you know, a dad for his son who had plenty of money, you know what I mean? So kind of, how did 2025 shape up for you?
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (16:49 - 16:50)
Business wise?
[Stephen Husted] (16:50 - 16:50)
Yeah.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (16:51 - 17:02)
Very good. Yeah. We had a strong year.
Business is up 25% for us this year. Next year it'll probably another 25%.
[Stephen Husted] (17:02 - 17:05)
Am I getting a 25% cut of that too for all of those?
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (17:06 - 17:20)
All my referral. I mean, I'm like your referral though. I mean, you've done two projects together and they both done well.
They both sold well, you know? Yeah.
[Stephen Husted] (17:20 - 17:20)
They were good.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (17:21 - 17:39)
Yeah. Thanks man. Anytime a client asks for referrals, I always add you because you actually take the time to talk to people.
I have a lot, dude. I have a laundry list of clients that will refer me. No problem.
But they're busy, you know, like, Oh, I forgot to call them back or whatever. I know for you, you'll do it with joy.
[Stephen Husted] (17:40 - 17:47)
Yeah. I love hearing homeowners talk about their, you know, what they think they're going to get themselves into is hilarious.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (17:47 - 20:10)
Yeah. And we try to coach our clients. We try to prepare them to get ready, especially if it's an ADU, it's different because it's in their backyard.
Their lives are not being interfered with in their home. So it's different. But when they're building a house or they're remodeling their house and they have to move out, all I have to say is this, if anyone's watching this, take advice, please, from what I'm about to tell you.
If you have marital problems and you want to do a remodel, you have severe marital problems. Do not do the remote. We have two projects right now where the couple, the clients, they clearly have, look, there's no perfect marriage.
Sure. You have marriage. I have, everybody has their, their thing.
Right. But for the most part, I'm pretty happy with my marriage and I can see you too. These people clearly have severe issues and they went straight into this remodel.
They had no clue what they're getting themselves into. And it puts us in a really bad place because I'm having to play family therapists and they're literally biting each other's heads off in front of us and puts us in a weird place. The project stops.
They're fighting. I'm a punching bag. It's a mess.
I think people don't realize how stressful remodeling is. It's very stressful, man. There's so many, you open up walls and there's dry rot your floor sacks from two inches from one end to the other.
There's change orders up to, you know what? And then people are not ready for it. And if you have already issues in your marriage, all those things, it just amplifies everything.
This year was interesting because we had a few projects where we've had to play therapists. I actually sat a couple down and was like, you guys need help. Wow.
That's crazy. Cause you're the contractor that like you guys need help. And I love to give advice.
I like to read. I live my life and my marriage of principles that I learned from my parents and things that work for me. And so I was like, Hey man, like, how can I help you?
Like you guys need a break. Like this is too much.
[Stephen Husted] (20:11 - 20:15)
Those are not the clients that we really want. How long were you working on that project with them?
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (20:18 - 20:58)
And it's crazy because on both cases, on both clients, there'll be stable and then Armageddon and then stable and then Armageddon. And like that, like literally it could be anything. So we don't know where we stand and it's just, it's not good for any builder.
I think if GC sees this, I'm sure they'll be like, yeah, I have my share as well. So yeah, this year has been interesting. We've had some interesting clients, but for the most part, a great year.
How many ADUs did you build? This year? Probably like half bat, man, like 40.
I have to be like 30, 40, 35.
[Stephen Husted] (20:58 - 21:08)
What are the biggest changes you saw on building in the last year on ADUs? Like what are the things that are changing? What are things that homeowners or investors need to look out for?
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (21:08 - 22:11)
They're allowing gas now. That's new. Gas is allowed.
So we started building ADUs with gas water heaters, which is cool. Okay, cool. PG&E I think is doing a little bit better on processing upgrades, which is cool.
But yeah, though, the gas thing for sure is a relief. Cause now you get a nice water heater. These hybrid water heaters are, they're okay.
They work, but not like a good gas water heater. I don't think the city has sped up their process at all. I think they're still slow.
All of them. Which one's the worst? San Jose.
100% is the worst. San Jose is the worst. The worst.
Dude, inspections, three, four weeks out, three, four weeks. I had a project. We have to check every day for cancellations.
Checking, checking, checking. And I would snag one. Like there'll be an opening and in like 10 minutes it's gone.
But yeah, man, I had a project where a client couldn't get any work done for like two, three weeks.
[Stephen Husted] (22:12 - 22:14)
And fingers crossed you don't get any corrections.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (22:19 - 22:41)
No, but we take the time to really look through everything and make sure it's done. And yeah, we would pass. And the inspectors were cool too.
They're like, Hey, it's little things. I'm gonna let you slide. Cause we're early time.
I don't, we can just take a picture and just send it. That's cool. I mean, come on, man.
Three weeks, but they're short staffed.
[Stephen Husted] (22:41 - 22:44)
Yeah. How do they fill that void?
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (22:44 - 22:52)
I have no idea. There's a lack of talent out there for inspectors. You know, unfortunately a lot of the inspectors are former GCs.
[Stephen Husted] (22:53 - 22:53)
Oh yeah.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (22:53 - 23:04)
It's hard. It's hard to get. I think a lot of cities are struggling to find inspectors and a lot of the young guys don't know what they're doing.
So they're looking for experienced people. There's only a few, there's not that much.
[Stephen Husted] (23:04 - 23:19)
And to be really clear on some things on like direction on that is does take a long time, but I'd rather have things getting looked at correctly. There's some States that are so bad and that ends up giving you a bad product.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (23:20 - 23:23)
Inspectors save the client and they save the GC.
[Stephen Husted] (23:24 - 23:24)
Yeah.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (23:24 - 24:39)
Everybody. I am not of the mindset. Like a lot of GCs have like me against you.
The inspectors are enemy. We're going up against them. No.
Like you want them to, they're protecting you. And then if you pass, guess what? That's your insurance right there.
Hey, look, we passed inspections. Like it's good for everybody. So there's a lack of inspectors out there for sure.
But yeah, things are, one of the also things we did this year is we're not all about speed anymore. I think in 2021 and 2022, we were busting out 80 years, like three, four months, boom, boom. And it just, we were on the roll this year.
I think we, I wanted to kind of change that because it's not all about speed. I don't think it changes the customer's experience, whether you take three months or five months. I don't think so.
I don't think it moves the needle. I wanted to just kind of go a little bit more steady, but I want to kind of level up. We've never had a complaint about quality.
They'll probably say, Hey, they took a little bit too long or maybe something got missed if they're going to complain, but you're never going to hear Integrum's quality is crap.
[Stephen Husted] (24:40 - 24:56)
Shit happens. But I think the one thing that you got going for you too, whenever there has been something that's come up, you address it, get it done. Whatever that is, whatever that is, you know, and that's cool.
And that's, that's, that's where it's at, you know, because nothing's perfect.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (24:57 - 25:56)
Yeah. I had a client, she's in real estate. She's a great client, very demanding.
She knew what she wanted. She's really holds you to it. You know, it came out beautiful.
I mean, the remodel is amazing, but she told me at the end, at the end, when we had our last walkthrough, she said, you know what I learned from this whole process? When I was shopping GCs, I was looking for someone who was going to give me the best product. And I believe that you did, but I would tell people not to look for that necessarily look for someone who's going to do right by you because things happen.
And I said, you nailed it. Amen, sister. That's it.
Because trust me, I worked for a high end GC. I did. I know what fine elevated museum like homes look like.
And things happen in those two. There's things are going to happen. It's construction and homeowners don't realize that.
[Stephen Husted] (25:56 - 25:56)
Yeah.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (25:57 - 26:22)
Yeah. Too much social media, too much BSGCs on, on Instagram. It makes me sick.
Like so fake. We're going to do this and we're going to do, and they're just like so overhyped. And it's like, this is such BS.
Like, I bet you they have problems. Like I don't buy that, you know? But yeah, no, she nailed it.
She said find someone that's going to do right by you because things are going to happen. And that's it.
[Stephen Husted] (26:23 - 26:24)
Was she the Willow Glen client?
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (26:26 - 27:32)
Yeah. As I'll tell you, there was, when I was building my property here, I'm in my office right now. There's like two other builds around the corner.
And the couple came and they were like, man, we love looking at this house. Like your house is like beautiful and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, thank you.
I gave them a tour and they said, I wish we found you because we're in the process of building, as you can see. And the client, the RGC just cursed us out. Wow.
Cussed us out over some change order disputes. He said F you and, and called us some names and he hung up and dude, if you go to that job site, they have a, I'm not going to say any names. They're a reputable GC.
I've seen their signs. They have a lot of projects, but their Instagram is lit. And I can't believe that that's happening.
I would never. There's two sides. Who knows?
It could be the. There's two sides, but I would never dude, trust me. I just finished telling you about this couple.
That is a nightmare. Like they have issues and they have verbally attacked me as well.
[Stephen Husted] (27:32 - 27:36)
Oh, but the ones with the marital. Oh yeah. Yeah.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (27:36 - 28:22)
Oh yeah. Okay. It's everything's my fault
Cause they have issues. So they're looking for, it's just a cluster. They always apologize afterwards too.
Cause they know that. Yeah. I'm sorry, man.
Stop right now. You know, it's just like, it's okay, bro. We'll get through it.
And their job, their house is done. It's beautiful house and they're happy. But the point is, even in that scenario, that doesn't even register in my brain, dude, to like custom out.
Like what I do in that scenario. And I said, look, we're not getting anywhere. You're getting a little too hot.
Let's talk tomorrow. Okay. We'll talk tomorrow.
And that's it. I've never thought about cussing out my clients. I don't see you doing that, bro.
[Stephen Husted] (28:23 - 29:32)
Like, no, I wouldn't cuss out. I wouldn't cuss out my client. But my point is like, you really don't know if that's really what was actually said.
Like, who knows? They could be the ones that are penny pinching the contractor, making them try to do a bunch of work that wasn't in the proposal and then blaming them when they don't do it. So let's like, Oh, we've been there too.
That's like when you're the potential clients have called me. I remember one of the biggest questions, well, not questions, but the statements that I've heard from several of them is I'm going to be talking to him every day about the project. I'm like, no, don't do that.
Do not call him every day. Pick a time in the week, discuss what's going on for that week. What's going on in the project.
If there's any types of issues or anything that needs to get addressed, but do not call Sergio every day for updates. You're taking him away from what he's actually supposed to be doing on a day to day. Like, don't, and they're like, really?
I'm like, yes. Yeah. Unless you have a relationship like me and then I could talk to you all the time.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (29:33 - 30:20)
Yeah. There's a client who calls me every day. Every day.
Are they good? They are, but you know what? That's what you pay me to do.
You know, people have anxiety. Yeah, that's true. You know, like, you know, you've been there like, just because I'm not at the site or I don't pick up the call on the first ring doesn't mean things are not moving.
True. You know how things, even when there's nothing happening at the site themselves. There's things getting planned due to start tapping again.
The tower is getting his, we're waiting for the waterproofer. The stone's getting fabricated outside. Cabinets are being built.
People think empty job site is bad. Like, no, there's times where we're not going to be there.
[Stephen Husted] (30:20 - 30:50)
But so let me ask you a question. So on that aspect, because I brought this up to like Alicia and I talked to this, to investors that I, that I coach, I tell them, Hey, look, if you're not getting any communication and you're going a month and there's really nothing moving and you're having some bigger issue, you do have a problem. You probably do need to get another contractor, but how do you communicate those?
If somebody comes to you thinking that you have some downtime, like it's all about communication, would you agree and how you just communicate with the client and what's going on?
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (30:51 - 30:54)
50% of everything. Yeah.
[Stephen Husted] (30:55 - 31:00)
Okay. Yeah. Cause some people just don't know what they don't know.
And if they don't see you there, especially cause they got cameras these days.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (31:00 - 31:43)
Yeah. They're all out. Like just like, dude, I've never walked out on a client.
Never, never dude, dude. I had a client who owed me $200,000 and refused to pay me. Because she had like some issues when I first started, this is 2019.
My lawyer was like, dude, why didn't you get off the job? Why didn't you finish the job? I was like, cause I'm supposed to finish the job.
My point is I'll never walk out on a client like that. Payment issues are an issue and we would resolve it, but it's not in my nature to just leave people hanging like that. And that's what some contractors do though.
And Hey, to each their own, like if we don't get payment within seven days, we'll get off the job site. And most contracts say that actually.
[Stephen Husted] (31:43 - 32:02)
I got a question for you and this is kind of a crazy one to ask you as a contractor, but what does a homeowner or investor, what are the things that a homeowner and investor should look for in a contractor? Not just about, I'm not talking, not the whole price they go for price and they're like, that doesn't always equate to a good scenario.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (32:02 - 34:30)
Low hanging fruit stuff. Of course, make sure they're licensed, make sure they're insured, make sure they have workers comp look online, okay. Look online.
Online is going to tell you if they have disciplinary action on their license and it'll tell you if they have workers comp, if they're a general contractor and they don't have workers comp run the other way. And they still, and no one subs out a hundred percent of everything. That's like, no, you need workers comp.
Okay. I would say, but beyond the low hanging fruit stuff, hire someone that you like. That is one of the biggest ones.
Someone that you enjoy talking to, like meet them, have coffee with them, meet them at the house, have coffee with them. Hey, tell me about your family. You have kids.
You're going to be dealing with this person for a year, dude. And probably beyond because if things are going to happen, is he going to come back? Get to know him, get to know her.
There's a woman GCs too. And if you like it, are they pleasant to deal with? Are they pleasant to deal with?
Are they honest? Do you get a good gut feeling that they're telling you the truth, that they're not overselling you, right? Go to the job sites.
I would say go to their job sites, go visit a site. If it's not finished, fine. Go to a rough end job, go see their site, go see how clean the site is.
Don't expect it all hella clean. Cause it's a job site. I've been on some job sites that are like, like, holy moly dude, like beer, like all that.
That's not good, but really like talk to referrals for sure. But I would say, yeah, man, you're dating that person. You're going to be in that person's life.
They're going to be in your life for a year. So why not work with someone that you actually enjoy? And here's the thing.
If they're a jerk and you haven't given them any money, imagine when you start giving them money. Yeah. Go to respond and you haven't given them any money yet.
When you give them $500,000, they're going to be like, screw you. I'll get to you when I get to you. So quick to respond, hire someone that you enjoy, that you would do.
And if you haven't found that, then don't hire any of them. Hire us.
[Stephen Husted] (34:31 - 35:38)
Well, this funny thing, you know what I asked the people that call me that you refer where they're still talking and they're asking about something about overcharges, you know, like does he overcharge? And, you know, you know, doing the project, I'm like, look, usually the people that are blowing the budget, it's the homeowner or the investor typically, or you know, there's something that happens within that project. That is it's unforeseen and they got to bring it to you and you got to make a decision because it's your property, it's your investment, that one.
But I also, I also asked them too, like, how do you like Sergio so far? Like personality wise, you know, and they're like, Oh yeah. And that's what I talk.
I'm like, I go, that's huge for me. It's one of my biggest parts. I want them to be good at what they do.
But if I'm going to be talking to that person, that contractor, the handyman architect, I really want to enjoy talking to them on the phone and could go have coffee or have a meal. Like I have my Sergio in Seattle. Roman is like, we get together.
We, when I show up there, we're getting coffee, we go to dinner, shoot the shit.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (35:39 - 36:43)
You know, we can talk about, dude, we don't even talk about work. Sometimes we're talking about religion, health, you know, going trober and a lot of my clients become my friends. A lot of my clients become my friends.
Like there's a lot of clients that are like, Hey, you know, you're free. Let's go have a drink. Let's go have coffee, whatever, like all the time.
In fact, I ran into one of my clients with my girls, with my family last Thursday, we had Italian food and he yelled my name and I turned around and it was him. And you know, I took care of his tab, you know, he was super grateful. Like I always do that when I run into my clients at restaurants, I always take care of the tab.
Yeah, that's cool. He was super grateful. He was with an investor and his investor buddy.
He was like, dude, it's like the stars aligned. Cause he's thinking about adding ADUs. And I'm even doing that with my subcontractors, bro.
We said a thing with the company. Like if the subcontractor and us were not vibing, they're out. I enjoy working with men.
Life is too short to be dealing with people that are just arrogant and rude and disrespectful. It's not worth it. It's not worth it to me.
[Stephen Husted] (36:44 - 36:59)
Yeah, I totally agree. Yeah. Cause they will just, especially if it's a long process, you're going to, you're going to feel just bummed out every time, you know, you have to get around that individual for whatever reason.
It's like, Oh God, it's draining. It's draining on you.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (37:00 - 37:01)
It is. It is.
[Stephen Husted] (37:01 - 37:19)
What did you see trend wise for 2025? That really was kind of coming to the forefront. Like what were you seeing in builds from designers and things that you guys were doing?
But I can tell you one thing right now. I tell you two things right now that I saw on a lot of the projects. I love the cabinet maker gentlemen.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (37:19 - 37:23)
Vlad? Yeah. He's the best man.
[Stephen Husted] (37:23 - 37:26)
Dude, he does bad ass. This shit is bad ass.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (37:27 - 37:27)
Vlad's the best.
[Stephen Husted] (37:28 - 37:29)
I love he's passionate too.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (37:30 - 37:41)
He's like exact to the dude. And if a dude, if something's off by half an inch, quarter of an inch, he'll call me, Hey, this is off. We need to throw out the wall
And it's like, dude, it's fine.
[Stephen Husted] (37:41 - 37:43)
What's the name of his cabinet company? What is it again?
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (37:43 - 37:54)
Well done. Well done. Shut up.
Man, you guys are the best. He's bad ass. Yeah.
We're doing a beautiful house in San Diego. Beautiful. And I can't wait to see those cabinets.
[Stephen Husted] (37:55 - 37:57)
What are you seeing? What trends were kind of popping on?
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (37:58 - 38:05)
Trends, more plaster, more lime wash. That's coming out. That's becoming more and more requested.
[Stephen Husted] (38:06 - 38:07)
Like what we did at Glenuna.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (38:08 - 38:30)
Yeah. That's getting more hype. Like people are doing a lot more neutral now off whites.
No one's doing like crisp white cabinets and stuff. Like unless it's rental, like people are not doing white cabinets anymore. They're going like off white, like Glenuna.
That kitchen is going to look nice for 10 years.
[Stephen Husted] (38:31 - 38:32)
Easily.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (38:32 - 38:33)
Easily.
[Stephen Husted] (38:34 - 38:38)
And then you can adjust it just by some pain and hardware and it's back to a different look.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (38:39 - 38:45)
Yeah. Like no gray floors, no gray cabinets. Like that's, I'm not seeing that.
[Stephen Husted] (38:46 - 38:54)
What type of cabinets? You know what we're doing in Seattle? Most of them are, you know, we're turning them into rentals, but we're also going with that thinner shaker look.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (38:55 - 39:02)
Oh yeah. That's cool. That's going to last long though.
It won't. I don't think so. I think a lot of things die out fast.
[Stephen Husted] (39:03 - 39:15)
Yeah. But I think that one, it's like, even if it went out, it would be okay because it's not like overly, it's not like some backsplashes that were back in like early 2004, like the little recycle glass.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (39:16 - 39:44)
I'm seeing a lot of travertine now. People are requesting travertine a lot, which was out for a long time, but dude, natural products don't go out of style, bro. It's just how you put them together.
Like travertine's a beautiful stone, but people stayed away from it for a long time because it's too big, too creamy, you know? But yeah, no, it's, it's, it's, it's coming back. Silver vein cut.
It's beautiful.
[Stephen Husted] (39:45 - 39:57)
That's good. What do you got in the pipeline for this 2026 so far? Did you finish the Campbell, the ADUs?
Oh no, waiting for PG&E. You had some drama on that one, right?
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (39:57 - 40:14)
Something happened? No, no. That project, PG&E, is taking forever.
But the underground systems that we put in that, that was a whole infrastructure, like new transformers, everything like that. That was a big electrical project.
[Stephen Husted] (40:15 - 40:17)
How many units were on that site?
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (40:17 - 40:17)
17.
[Stephen Husted] (40:18 - 40:21)
17? But didn't something get broken into?
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (40:22 - 40:24)
Oh yeah. Homeless people were breaking into the ADUs.
[Stephen Husted] (40:24 - 40:28)
I thought somebody stole like all the copper or something crazy. They did.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (40:29 - 40:38)
Okay. Yeah. They ripped out my Romex.
But yeah, that was a nice project, but we're pretty much done. We're just waiting for PG&E. They're doing the landscaping there.
I can't wait to see it. Can't wait.
[Stephen Husted] (40:39 - 41:04)
There's one over by my house, right? There's this section. It's an apartment complex.
So it's basically like, I'll give you a visual. It's one apartment complex here, one here, right? Then in the middle is the parking to go to the back.
They have carports, right? But dude, it's got this huge chunk of land and there's a pool. It must be 14, 20,000 square feet, I would say.
Just sitting there, dude. Just sitting there.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (41:04 - 41:07)
Would you approach them and ask them to add ADUs?
[Stephen Husted] (41:08 - 41:32)
It'd be the perfect spot. I don't know. It's so much wasted land.
Send me the address. Yeah, I will. It's in Willow Glen, border capital, I guess.
So send them a letter and just show them what you did at the union apartment complex, what you did there. Just go, Hey, I don't know if you're interested. You got some land.
I know that you do. And Hey, come check out this project.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (41:33 - 41:42)
That's what my buddy does. My buddy's over there at LTM. That's what they do.
They do like a feasibility study and they'll send out like an email or a letter.
[Stephen Husted] (41:42 - 41:44)
Oh yeah. Yeah. It's perfect.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (41:45 - 41:50)
We did this free for free. Like this is what we do. And I think it's working out for them.
[Stephen Husted] (41:51 - 42:12)
Well, if you can take that friction out of the equation for a homeowner or investor, whatever the case may be, and they just see numbers and like, Hey, this is possible. You're halfway there. Now it's just executing, getting financing and hiring a GC and figuring out that.
But they just did that up front. Smart. That's a great idea.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (42:12 - 42:16)
Oh no, it works. It works. Who did that
Uh, the architect.
[Stephen Husted] (42:17 - 42:20)
Who did the report and set the feasibility over to the owner?
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (42:20 - 42:22)
You do know Brian. I introduced you to Brian.
[Stephen Husted] (42:22 - 42:23)
Yeah.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (42:23 - 42:24)
Yeah. Brian.
[Stephen Husted] (42:25 - 43:10)
Okay. Let's work on that one. We should.
There's so much land in the back. And you know, but here's the thing, just because you can build like, as long as you're not taking away parking, I know these they're, they're, you know, doing ADUs and carports now in like LA and literally taking away people's parking. Yeah.
In Koreatown. Like they don't even have parking and these older people are in these apartment complexes and they're like, where am I going to walk four blocks to get to my apartment now? And dude, so by the way, we're not doing that in Seattle as well.
Like we've bought some properties that are close to transit, which requires no parking, still put parking in.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (43:11 - 43:11)
Really?
[Stephen Husted] (43:11 - 44:01)
Oh yeah. I mean who like sometimes we'll build, they'll say, Hey, you can just do a one car garage. I'm like, do I have a open parking spot?
Like where are these people who has just one car? I mean, I don't know anybody that just has one car in the family. I just don't know.
And so I think it's all great that you should be by transit and there should be some incentives to build housing by transit. But I don't know about pulled, taking away parking scenarios. I don't think that's going to play out.
Seattle's kind of a different type market for certain things. Like their garages are detached right off alleys and their garages, most of them are just falling apart. So I'm not even using them.
They're parking in, you know, in the alley or they're parking in front of the house. You know, like it's, yeah, it's pretty common and their basements or their storage, so to speak.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (44:02 - 44:08)
I would say for 2026 shoot, we probably have like 50 projects.
[Stephen Husted] (44:08 - 44:09)
That's good.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (44:09 - 44:12)
Yeah. You're going to be busy. I'm going to be busy.
[Stephen Husted] (44:12 - 44:27)
I'm still looking for ours. I'm just kind of bummed. I didn't get that one in the beginning of the year where that, that one's, that one's done.
Which one was, remember the, that old like a hundred year old home. He went and looked at over in the Rose garden area.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (44:28 - 44:28)
Yeah.
[Stephen Husted] (44:28 - 44:29)
Yeah.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (44:29 - 44:30)
Yeah. I did.
[Stephen Husted] (44:30 - 44:52)
That was cool. Well, no, it was not cool. Awesome.
Well, I wish you a great, a great year. Thank you, man. You know, I already know we're probably going to be doing some things.
Well, we have the other project for hopefully we'll see. We'll see. We're channeling it right now.
We're working on that one. That should happen. I think that that one's going to happen.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (44:52 - 45:12)
You know what's so weird? We became like a Willow Glen GC. We've done a lot.
I'm doing another one on a Daniel street, Daniels Avenue, but like Willow Glen, I have a lot of, I've done a lot of projects and we're looking like you were the first one. Really? We were the first one.
That one did. We just started. We moved in.
[Stephen Husted] (45:13 - 45:16)
Yeah, it's good. It's cool. It's a good place to be too.
Cool houses.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (45:17 - 45:40)
Homeowners have a bad rep. I don't know why. The who?
The residents of Willow Glen, they have a bad rep. Maybe they'll be like, Oh, they're stuck up. Or they think they're in Palo Alto that I've heard that from multiple people, but I've told, that's not true.
I don't think that's true at all. I've had nothing but great experiences with people from Willow Glen.
[Stephen Husted] (45:40 - 45:48)
They're shitty and rude people all over. It doesn't fucking matter. It's everywhere.
You got good people. I got bad people.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (45:49 - 45:51)
I don't understand that. Like that's so dumb.
[Stephen Husted] (45:54 - 45:59)
Yeah. By the way, you're officially my first repeat podcast guest.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (46:00 - 46:01)
Nice. It's a pleasure.
[Stephen Husted] (46:03 - 46:04)
Yeah. Is that crazy?
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (46:04 - 46:04)
That's awesome.
[Stephen Husted] (46:05 - 46:16)
Yeah. I didn't want to tell you that in the beginning. So hopefully this episode came out good because I'm hearing some type of delay with you during this.
I'm like, I'm going, I'm not stopping. We're just going to keep going.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (46:16 - 46:20)
No, I don't hear it. I don't hear the delay. Cause usually I can hear the delay.
[Stephen Husted] (46:20 - 46:44)
Oh really? Okay, good. Well, hopefully it's, you know, that's one thing I've learned over.
So we're 66 episodes in. Nice. You know, there's some times when there's technical difficulties or, you know, maybe somebody said something or like, ah, I go, Hey, don't worry about it.
Like you need to get out. You got a dog barking. Just we're going to edit it out.
Like it's all good. Like I used to freak out on that in the beginning, but it's like not anymore.
[SERGIO RODRIGUEZ] (46:44 - 46:45)
Right on man.
[Stephen Husted] (46:45 - 47:19)
For having me. Right on dude. I'll talk to you soon.
You have a good rest of your day. Bye. Bye.
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