The primary focus of this podcast episode centers on the intricacies of constructing container homes, as elucidated by Luke Crosthwaite, an esteemed authority in this niche. As the owner of Crosthwaite Custom Construction, Luke differentiates himself by not only overseeing the physical construction of these homes but also adeptly navigating the complex permitting process that often complicates such projects. His extensive experience enables him to transform raw shipping containers into fully permitted, code-compliant residences, thus providing invaluable insights to listeners contemplating similar endeavors. Throughout our discourse, we explore the evolution of shelter from primitive structures to modern innovations, emphasizing the growing trend towards sustainable living through container home solutions. By engaging with Luke, we aim to equip our audience with the knowledge necessary to pursue their own sustainable housing aspirations with confidence and clarity. The podcast delves into the realm of container homes, featuring Luke Crosthwaite, an expert in the field. He discusses his journey to becoming the 'Container Home Guru', emphasizing the importance of navigating the complexities of permits and structural engineering. Crosthwaite explains that while many are drawn to the aesthetic appeal of container homes, the reality of building them entails a thorough understanding of regulations, engineering standards, and the local building codes. He shares anecdotes from his career, illustrating how his persistence in overcoming bureaucratic hurdles has led to successful projects, thereby establishing his reputation in the industry. The conversation unfolds to highlight the evolution of housing solutions as society increasingly prioritizes sustainability, prompting a shift towards alternative living spaces such as container homes. As the dialogue progresses, listeners gain insights into the practicalities of construction, including the necessity of proper planning and the financial implications of such innovative housing solutions.

Takeaways:

1. Luke Crosthwaite possesses unparalleled expertise in the domain of container homes, rendering him a veritable guru in the field.
2. The process of obtaining permits for container homes is often complex, requiring meticulous attention to detail and comprehensive understanding of local regulations.
3. Container homes represent a sustainable alternative to traditional housing, thus aligning with contemporary environmental consciousness and the urgent need for eco-friendly living solutions.
4. Effective communication is paramount in the construction industry, as it mitigates misunderstandings and ensures that client expectations are met with precision and clarity.
5. The evolution of shelters throughout history underscores humanity's ceaseless quest for innovative and sustainable living solutions, reflecting changing societal needs and environmental considerations.
6. Investing the necessary time and resources into proper planning and permitting can ultimately prevent costly setbacks and complications during the construction process.

Links referenced in this episode:

1. containerhomeguru.com
2. https://crosthwaitecustoms.com/
3. stardustbuilding.org
4. steve@idealhomeimprovementaz.com
5. steve@boxcaruniverse.com
6. on the mark tv

Companies mentioned in this episode:

1. Crosthwaite Custom Construction
2. On the Mark TV
3. Ideal Home Improvement
4. Stardust Building Supplies
5. Mr. Electric of Phoenix-Metro

When it comes to container homes, Luke Crosthwaite is the permit and container home guru.

He doesn't just build with steel.

He knows how to engineer it, structure it and get it approved the first time.

Learn from a pro.

From raw container to fully permitted code compliant homes.

Luke and Crossway custom construction right here today on Boxcar Universe.

Since the dawn of time, mankind has searched for ways to shelter themselves from the elements.

Over the centuries, these shelters have evolved from bamboo huts to concrete towers.

The last few years, there's been a push to save the planet.

Are you ready to embark on a more sustainable lifestyle?

Look no further.

You're about to enter the adventures of container home living.

And now, contractor, radio and TV personality and your host for Boxcar Universe, Steve Dubel.

Hi, I'm Steve Dubell, host of Boxcar Universe.

And here's what's coming up on this week's edition of Boxcar Universe.

We're joined by Luke Crosswait.

He is the owner of Crosswait Custom Construction.

Luke is a skilled builder specializing in container homes, custom homes, high end remodels, and innovative multi container dwellings.

He focuses on craftsmanship and creative design and also he transforms bold ideas into reality.

Whether it's a one kind dream home, a complete renovation or a sustainable alternative living space built from shipping containers.

Luke is your guy.

All that and more on this week's edition of Boxcar Universe, your home for remodeling and renovating your world.

And I'd like to welcome all our listeners to Boxcar Universe.

Container home information as well as regular traditional builds, which we've got a lot of different subcontractors and companies lined up to actually help you with your build.

But today we're focusing mainly on container home building.

And Luke Crosswait is here with us and we want to bring Luth into the show for a minute.

We also have, I just want to take a moment out and say at the end of the show, we're going to have a special announcement by my good friend Mark Balin, who is actually, you know, CEO of On the Mark tv.

And we're going to have a special announcement about my new show, home Renovation iq, which is going to be coming to on the Mark TV here very, very soon.

So I want everybody to stay tuned for that, but Luke is here with us.

And Luke, welcome back to Boxcar Universe.

Thanks for spending time with us today.

Thanks for having me back, Steve.

All right.

It's a great Day.

And as people have turned around, you know, a lot of people back east are experiencing a lot of cold weather.

Like my good friends back in New York.

They were bundling down, I think this past week.

They were buried under like 2 or 3 foot of snow.

But yet here in Arizona, everybody's playing golf.

Yeah.

Isn't that something?

Yeah.

I put my socks on with my Birkenstocks.

Oh.

For the winter weather.

Somebody was asking about the other day.

I couldn't remember.

I know I had it in the back of my head, I couldn't remember Birkenstocks.

But anyway, let's talk about a little bit about your business for our listeners who missed your first show with us.

Tell our listeners a little bit about your business and what you do and how you got started doing container homes.

Sure.

Crosswake Custom construction is my company.

And a lot like Jagermeister.

My last name is interesting to spell, but you remember when you see it.

So I kind of developed the Container home guru as a way for people to more EAs be able to jot down my email and things like that when we're trying to communicate over the phone.

And so that's kind of how things have evolved is I have outlived all the other people that thought they were gonna do containers.

And I'm now the container home guru.

And basically construction is easy.

Right.

You call subs, they show up, you write checks, things happen.

Right.

As long as you got the checkbook, things will happen.

But really the difficult part of this whole business is the permitting.

Oh, yes.

And so that's actually, you know, what kind of led me down this road is I had some interesting opportunities to build some container stuff and had to whip together the business bits that go along with something like that, like the structural engineering and where most guys would probably fizzle out.

I hung in there and just, I don't know if it's hard headedness or what, but I just stuck with it and did remodels.

Anything else if I had to, and got the structural engineering and figured out myself how to get the permits and that's what kicked the doors open.

To be able to build these things, you got to have permits to build them.

Exactly.

I think a lot of people that, you know, you see this stuff on social media all the time.

Well, this guy, I got this container, I put it in my backyard.

You know, they, but yet, you know, they're, they're youtubing their, their experience because they have no clue what's going on and they think that they could Just modify a container and move.

And all of a sudden, well, I have an adu.

Okay.

But there's a whole lot more involved in it, as you had said.

And one of the things is the permitting.

And a lot of times the municipalities over the last few years, they're getting better, and they're being.

I think they have experienced and seen enough of container homes now where they're.

They're turning around and they're approving more permits.

But, you know, you go back three, four years ago or even earlier, I mean, they see plans for a container home, and they're like, what's this?

I mean, it's a little bit.

It's frustrating, but it's something that I see.

But you had to work through and you were successful where, as well as a lot of those other people just, you know, they folded.

Well, I spent a lot of my life with animals, and I had to get good at reading body language and things like that, you know, And I.

Although I excelled at being a horse trainer and things like that, early on, I had a big deficit when it came to dealing with people.

And so my brain started to associate the two.

The deficit there and started being able to read people.

And I've learned how to be diplomatic in these sort of places.

Right.

Because just the word container home with the right personality or the wrong personality can have an immediate clash.

Right.

And it's a way people think.

For example, container homes don't exist, you know.

So do you live in a traditionally built home right now, Steve?

Yes.

Okay.

Would you say that you live in a tree house?

No.

Okay.

What built your home?

Lumber.

Lumber, Right.

So we no longer call it a tree.

You don't say you live in a tree house.

So in the same fashion, you do not live in a container home.

Container homes don't exist.

Right.

It is no longer a container, just like lumber is no longer a tree.

It's been repurposed into an engineered building product.

And we can prove that on paper, whether it's, you know, the R values or the structural engineering behind it.

You know, a lot of people.

I see a lot.

You know, I get all kinds of comments on my YouTube.

You know, most of them are very positive, but of course, we get the, you know, the exception to the rule.

And somebody sees containers and just starts foaming at the mouth, essentially.

And, you know, containers in the desert.

What are you doing?

Yeah.

How could you live in a container when it's 120 degrees outside?

Yeah.

No, nobody thought of that.

You know, we just.

We're out here baking cookies, you know.

Yeah.

What people don't understand is a lot of nuances about containers are just false.

Like these guys say, you know, they're getting more.

They make their money off of YouTube and changing the narrative to fit, you know, their, their controversy, their controversial material, you know, but there's, they don't, what they don't show you is when they call me when they got shut down by the city, a lot of what I do isn't even building.

It's just permit related.

Like a lot of these people that do additions or have one of these Chinese containers dropped on their property, they get a nasty gram, the locals, and then I fix it for them and I can.

I'm building a winery down in Santa Cruz county.

Really.

Right.

So every zip code is going to be different.

Right.

Because of my container home guru business model and not getting it stuck in the mucky muck of a retail environment.

I try to pay 5 for the drywall, charge you 10, and not tell you about any of that because of my business model and my scalability and being able to work all around the state.

It's led me to having a PhD in the permit side of things and dealing with the personalities within there.

You know, sometimes you say, like I tell people, if they're going, if they're looking for finance, don't say container home.

Because certain people will just turn off mentally when they hear those words.

And they start telling you all these things that they think about the law that is just urban myth.

You know, they think that containers can or can't be over here.

They, you know, the container home thing in the first place.

And then they see our plans, you know, and then the people that were, that were foaming at the mouth now are approving my permits.

You know, like Cochise in Cochise county, where we did the missile silo project, that gigantic house.

I actually had to pull two separate permits.

Although it is one house.

They just could shout out to Cochise, you guys are terrific.

If you're listening to this, you guys did great.

But I just thought it was a little bit funny that we were forced into doing two permits.

It's one house.

But because the two buildings are connected, they made me do all this.

So I had to pay fees for two sets of permits and all that kind of stuff.

So you get, you know, you get through all these little nuances.

But essentially now that's all I do is I should just be.

In fact, I have some new shirts made that just say building permit guru on them.

Yeah, just gonna say that.

That's, you know, because like, for example, on a lot of the little projects, I don't build them.

Right.

There's not a lot of jack for me to be tied to that job in the classic sense of a contractor.

And I don't want to be.

I would rather enrich the person that is trying to build that to hit a lower cost per square foot.

I'll get some cool content out of it, you know, and I get.

They'll need me a little bit along the way.

They'll need some of my heavy, heavy hitting subs.

Like they probably need a structural welder in most cases.

Or like my electrician.

Right.

But like that double 40 I did out in Goodyear, those people saved a ton of money doing all the work themselves, but they never could have got to that point if they didn't go with me through the permit.

Sure.

So I'm happy to take those small jobs through, through fruition of permits and then just turn them loose and they can build it themselves and they can be listed as an owner build with the city or with the county, whatever they're doing.

And they're in charge.

If they need to bring me in for, for a little bit of consulting, you know, they can do it.

But it's the best thing for the people with a little more modest budget to get through it.

Yeah, absolutely.

And that's, and that's a great thing because, you know, there are a lot of people out there which are DIY as, as we like to say.

They, they have these DIY tendencies.

However, sometimes without your help and, and my help, they are dangerous with tools.

Yeah.

And they're going to get hurt.

They're definitely going to get hurt.

And I think seeking out a professional is so important because like you said, there's so much misinformation on social media, YouTube, you know, everybody thinks they could do a YouTube video.

And I know our listeners have heard the stories that I've told of my experiences about seeing people try and show their knowledge.

And I use that loosely.

And when they do home improvement, so it's so important to be able to, if you want to do something, seek out the professionals like yourself.

And this way you could, they can guide you through the maze that they need so that this way they can get through it, you know?

Yeah, I think.

Well, I think what's interesting about our industry is there's a lot of stereotypes, you know, big, tough construction guy, right?

Yeah.

And they typically run from communication.

They run from spreadsheets.

Right.

And so.

And all that stuff.

Right.

They just want to.

Want to drive the trucks and do the part.

But when I learned that, that was the weakness in this whole industry.

You know, essentially construction is just communication is what it comes down to.

And you can't communicate effectively with your customers if you're always hiding on the other side of the haystack about what you're pulling off of the, you know, your subs.

You're in this never ending cat and mouse game because you're in a retail model and you spend more time looking, trying to cook up a deal on your customer than you do watching the project, you know, so especially for somebody like me, you know, I don't need to be looking at anything else and, you know, exhausting my brain trying to work another deal on you.

Because you know what happens when people start changing their minds that affects my paycheck.

It's called change order time.

Yeah.

Everybody gets heartburn about that.

Right.

But because of my cost plus model, it's on you.

You want to change it, it's coming out of your deal.

It doesn't affect.

I can because I'm paid specifically and isolated to be a cons, an oracle, somebody that's been through this stuff.

Right.

But what I wanted to touch base on was a lot of guys are set in their ways.

What I like to think sets me apart is I let the data do the talking.

So there's actually times I talk people out of containers for one reason or another, you know, but I listen to my tradesmen and by gathering all that data, whether it's from my subs or the engineers or whatever, and listening to them and not forcing the idea that I have.

We're able to, by letting you know the scientific method take place naturally, we wind up with the best every time.

Because I'm not trying to force what my ideals are.

I truly let you know the data, do the talking.

Like the winery, for example, down there is not going to be containers.

They had a certain budget and they're out there quite a ways, you know.

And right now you can get a really good deal on a kit building, you know, much more straightforward for the permit process.

You just got to build out the rest of the sheets, plumbing, you know, H vac, all the kind of stuff that goes with it.

But you know, just throw an extra 100 grand at it.

If you want to build something elaborate with containers, you know, containers are right now to get them, get them delivered and fab, you know, for one trip, you're in at 10 grand, you know, so put three of those together plus the crane, you're at 100 grand.

You don't even have a roof over it or anything.

You got to do three more walls like that, you know, so.

So it's not always cheaper to use containers.

It can be, but what people don't understand is it's 100 tied to the design.

So when you see my ornate stuff like the tap in Flagstaff, that really cute little design, now that's right in the heart of Flagstaff.

So the juice is worth the squeeze for that homeowner to pay for the more Gucci stuff that we put on that thing.

Right.

Because it's an experience based Airbnb.

It's, it's a crowd drawer.

Right.

People drive.

Stop.

You call me all the time on that place.

Right.

And want to know just what it is.

Whereas, you know, a different situation like Cochise.

I've got an idea to put some Airbnbs in there and I would just do single containers.

Right, Right.

So if you.

But once you start connecting them or like the pine project, I don't know if you've seen where we go two stories and then turn the top, the top two.

So they're not going together the way God intended them to go together.

You know, once you start doing that more ornate stuff, the budget goes out the door.

But what people don't realize is those aren't budget builds in the first place.

Those are experience based little Disneyland Airbnbs.

Right, Right.

And the people that are watching this stuff want something economical to live in.

Right.

So they're not understanding the real behind the curtain workings is they're seeing these palaces to go together and thinking that because it's containers, they can get one like that for 100 grand.

They don't know that that costs 500 grand to put in because that's a product that's going to make money.

That's not for.

That's not somebody's forever home.

Yeah.

It's not somebody's forever home.

Yeah.

So there are ways to use containers that can be super cost effective.

But the truth is most people are trying, they're trying to do.

They're trying to, they're trying to do something unique anyways and that's why they're really using containers, you know, like I'M really interested in earth bags right now.

Those are pretty interesting because I have some property in Mexico and what's.

What I've learned from the natives is they'll just quarry out of the side of a hill and make their brick right there, you know.

So if I could do earth bags, you know, because I'm down there by the coast.

So although containers are a sea going vessel, you know, that would require a little bit of paint maintenance to keep them.

Okay.

Down there by the ocean, you've still got a metal product that's next to the ocean.

You know those.

That's an oil and water situation.

Whereas if you had.

And then you.

There's the trucking, you know, you got to get these things somewhere.

You gotta get them, you gotta get them off that.

People don't realize they're heavy.

They weigh empty and you know, you gotta get truckers to take them out there.

They're not cheap.

And so it's all those little extra costs that people don't real.

They might see a container listed somewhere for six grand.

But you got to get that pot liquor to your property unloaded, welded up, picked back up and put on the foundation.

Somebody's got to build the foundation.

Somebody's got to run the electrical to it, you know, city sewer, septic, all the kind of stuff that come with it.

For example, I had a guy, we got his permits in Coolidge, he got hit because he's within a certain proximity of downtown in Coolidge.

He got hit with a $10,000 impact fee.

Ouch.

Yeah, so there's just, you know, there's

a lot of hidden fees in there that people just don't realize.

And I'm.

We're going to take a short break, but after we come back, I want to share a story about a homeowner that we're doing some restoration work for from her house with a storm.

And she wanted to put a container on her property and possibly go back later and build it out so she'd have a, you know, an adu.

But that story is, is there's a lot to learn from that story.

So I want everybody to hang tight.

And you're listening to Boxcar Universe.

We'll be right back.

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All right, and we are back and you're listening to Boxcar Universe.

And we are here talking with Luke Crosswait from Crosswait Custom Construction.

And we're talking about container homes.

And if you just tuned in, we were going through the issues about, you know, permits and anybody who's gone through just regular traditional home building has gone through, you know, the issues about getting a permit.

And you know, one thing, Luke, that I always hear before I want to get into that story I mentioned before the break is that, you know, when somebody comes in, they call me and they say, well, we want to do this remodel or if they want to do this, you know.

And I said, well, look, it's going to require a permit, you know.

And I think it's like that, that six letter ugly word, you know, because, you know, P, E, R, M, I, T. Because the first thing that they will do is, well, do I really need it?

And I'm like, yes, you need it because if you don't, you know, it's going to, if you sell your house, years later, it's going to come bite you in the ass because you've got to have the permit because you have to.

You have to substantiate the remodel work that you did, that it was done by a licensed bonded insured contractor so that the person buying the home knows that there's some credibility in what you did.

That's one of the things that I find all the time when people buy flips.

I said, well, who did this or who did that?

And they're like, well, the flipper did it.

Well, the flipper probably got Joe Blow to come in and do the framing and his brother to do the Drywall work.

And you just don't know if there was any credibility behind it.

But that's one thing.

You must get a permit.

Now, talking about this story I was telling you about, there was this lady who actually unfortunately was the victim of one of the summer haboob storms that we had about a year or so ago.

And she lives in kind of like north northwest Phoenix.

Okay, right off I17.

And it took out her whole carport and part of the front part of her house on top of the, the kitchen.

So she's, she was going through her bits and pieces and she is one of those people that loves to recycle.

So she's in the middle of slowing the process down because she wants to recycle every, you know, stick of, of whatever she can.

But the point about the containers and the permitting is that she wanted that they were going to give her a certain amount of money to bags to load all her stuff in a container or storage bin or something, a pack out in the pack in type of maneuver.

Okay.

She wanted to get a container to be able to do that and put it in and use the funding for that.

But then she also wanted to use it for, you know, go down the road when the house gets rebuilt and then just build out the container and have an 8, you know, an ADU there.

So we had told her, trying to guide her along the way.

I said, look, first of all, where she had her property, where it was, it was backed up to a commercial parking lot and the other side, she was like on a cul de sac.

So she had a house to the left and right of her where she wanted to put it.

There was just no way that you could effectively put it in where you want it, where it would have looked good in your backyard makeup.

So we told her, I said, first of all, like you say, gotta get a permit.

You have to put a pad down or, you know, pylons or something to be able to sit the container on.

I said, you can't do that without having concrete work done and get the permits.

And then to effectively put it where you want, you have to crane it in.

You can't just have a trucker slide it off onto your pad because there just wasn't enough room in the backyard.

So we told her what it was there.

We gave her a price on what it was going to cost.

So she hemmed in hard about it until finally all of a sudden one day, she says to me, well, I had the guy bring the 40 foot container over and they dropped it on the property.

I'm like, really?

Did you get the perm?

No.

Where did they put it?

Turns out she had to because of the storm.

They had to rebuild her whole block wall.

So what they did was they left, you know, this block wall between the.

The pilasters are 13ft roughly.

So she left one open so the trucker driver could drive in, but he couldn't put it exactly where he wanted.

So she just dropped it on the ground on a couple of like two by fours spread out around the perimeter so it wouldn't sit directly on the ground.

And then she left it.

I said, okay, but that old saying, you know, you could, you could appreciate this.

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink it because it's like, what are you going to do when the house gets rebuilt?

You can't just leave it there.

I said, the city's going to come by.

What do you think is going to happen when the city inspector comes by and he's looking at the house and he's going to pay attention to what all the things are on the property and he's going to.

What happens if he goes back and looks and says, hey, they got this container on the property.

Is it storage or, or what?

You know, and of course it could.

They're going to come back and they'll eventually find out that she's going to use it for, you know, an adu and it's going to come back to bite her so she doesn't know.

And see, even explaining it to her, it did, it didn't make any difference because she didn't want to spend the money because she.

That ugly word, permit.

Well, as a contractor, the pen is truly mightier than the sword.

That's true.

And so.

Or than the sledgehammer, I guess you could say.

But basically it's very expensive to be cheap, you know, and so, you know, for example, I know guys that have paid lawyers, you know, 25 grand for a sit down.

But the information that they got from that meeting kicked doors open to go make millions, you know, so there's different types of personalities in this world where, you know, some people would rather, you know, the lazy man works twice also, right?

So they'd rather cut the corners now and then and then suffer through all the consequences later, you know, and so there's just, you know, different people.

You know, some people will understand that it's the same cost to drive a newer car that's under warranty than it is to go.

You're going to Pay the same amount of money just one way, you have less headaches, but it's the same amount of money you're going to pay.

You know, on average, if you own an old diesel truck, it cost you six grand just in maintenance on that guy to own a year.

You know what I mean?

Sure.

And, you know, cut.

That's not far off from a year's worth of car payments, you know, and that kind of thing.

So there's a lot of things in the business that are counterintuitive.

For example, a guy like me, I'm managing about $10 million right now in product in any given time, right.

I do not drive a truck.

I'm a big builder guy.

All that stuff, okay?

I've got my company shirts and hats.

I do not own a truck, although I build stuff for a living.

Right.

And so counterintuitive to what a lot of people think, my car.

Because all I do, you know, I'm running around with the pen, not the sword.

So for me to use my brain and as my biggest tool, I need to be able to get places.

And that means I need, you know, things to be efficient.

So it makes a lot more sense for me to be in a little car.

So things are a lot of the time counterintuitive to what they look like on the surface.

So people like that, you know, I know I've.

I've had a couple of women in my life that thought it made sense to drive all the way across town to save 10 cents a gallon, you know, and burn 20 cents getting there.

And so as construction guys, we gotta realize sometimes that our customers are basing their entire foundation of knowledge and construction on Bob the Builder.

Bob the Builder, you know, and at least in our industry, there is some parameter or index of credibility, right?

Meaning you can hire a licensed guy.

But imagine like, you know, the world I came from before that my family comes from, which is horse training.

You know, these people are the same type of individuals.

They want some masterpiece built and they want to hire somebody with a black belt in that area to do it.

But they are basing their entire foundation on horses and Flicka, you know, and so they've cut.

They're coming to you with these ideas, and when you start popping these bubbles and bringing them into reality, they're not going to be.

They're only going to be as receptive to these realities as you are able to convey the message.

Right?

So if you.

If you tell them how stupid they are for having that idea, probably not gonna go.

Your pitch is not gonna go over.

Right.

Kind of like if I walk up to a horse and just start pushing the saddle in front of his face, I'm gonna get cow kicked.

And that training session didn't go very well, right?

Yeah, it's really true.

So I've learned, and a lot of it does come from my unique background in animals and stuff like that.

But I've learned to take the time with people and explain it because there are times I have to explain that water only travels downhill, go uphill unless there's a big pump.

But these are things that you'd be surprised, but they do have to be explained.

And that's where I sort of create visual tools, whether it's a spreadsheet or a video or we get on a virtual meeting with my customers.

But I break it down into phases, which is why as a builder, I don't want all your money up front.

Right.

If I'm going to start a project with you, we go through three phases.

The first one's going to be a due diligence and design phase where because I'm the designer and the builder, I want to create a product that is suitable for your needs and budget.

Whereas architects that are cut out of the part of building, they just want to introduce their own fancy ideas.

In fact, some of them are scammy enough to almost price you out of your build point because they don't ever have to finish.

Exactly.

So because I live in a world where there's full transparency and I am now disarmed to be that predator.

Right.

I'm now on your team, right.

Because my paycheck is isolated.

Okay, you got 500 grand to spend.

Let's figure out how to get you the most house for that.

Oh, your house is over here.

It's got these other interesting nuances.

You've got a wash right down the.

Who knows, you know what I mean?

So what I do is I'll isolate the customer for just a period of due diligence and design and see if it's even viable because that's also a time where I get to learn about that customer.

Maybe I don't want to work for you after I've been dealing with you for a month.

You know what I mean?

Maybe you don't want to work with me either.

You know, it's a two way street, but.

And maybe your project isn't viable.

And wouldn't you recommend rather only be out a few shillings for that process and know what the truth is before you're 100 grand deep and nobody knew that you can't have this because there's 100 year wash. And you guys are messing with the ejection point on the property.

And Swip is not going to let it happen or who knows what, you know what I mean?

I have an interesting situation where a hockey player with a multimillion dollar house is next to another multimillion dollar house that I'm building.

Well, he went ahead and put in a basketball court without a permit and that changed the hist historical flow.

Now what's interesting is the customer that I'm building the house for wants to pull financing.

Okay?

So there's a loan attached to that, which means that loan is not satisfied until the certificate of occupancy is issued.

Now the neighbor and his wash in that basketball court could prevent the certificate of occupancy from ever being produced until that stuff gets hammered.

Now who's the guy that's on the hook in that meantime?

Me as the builder, because I need to satisfy the loan with that certificate of occupancy.

So there are so many layers to this stuff that go back to geology.

You have to know if you're in Phoenix, you have to get a geotechnical company to come out and take a sample of the dirt so that, that'll provide an index that your structural engineer can build his foundation plan off of.

There's just all these expenses that people have no idea are coming.

And it is specifically the permit process, not the construction process that'll make or break one of these deals.

And so you can argue with people like that, but what I've learned is how to, you'd say in the horse world, say sack them out, which is like, you know, you have a sack of cans and bottles and stuff that's very scary to a horse.

Right.

That looks like something that's gonna cut your head off to a horse.

And you introduce it to them and pretty soon it's no longer a threat.

Right?

So it's all in how you present the information theft and a good sale are really just salesmanship away from the tr.

You see what I'm saying?

Yeah.

Before, before we go to break, I just want to review a couple of things real quick, okay.

For all our listeners.

Okay, so let's talk about some nuts and bolts of the container.

Okay, so obviously you use new containers or one time use.

Okay, let's talk about the insides.

Let's talk about now people understand.

Well, why do you say, Steve, that it's built just like a regular home?

Well, because obviously you get electric still runs.

I mean, you have framing first of all.

Do you use wood framing or metal framing?

I like to use metal now.

Okay.

I don't see the advantage of introducing an organic component when we're already, you know, it's counterproductive to the mantra of the project in the first place.

Right.

One of the things that we're.

That's so special about the containers, we're avoiding any organic components that will rot and need to be replaced over time.

So although the timber is going to be pretty darn safe in there, especially with closed cell spray foam insulation, it's not much of a difference at all to go with that metal.

And now you have, you know, a completely mold resistant product in there.

And then what people need to know is that is a metal product which does introduce sweating.

And so you cannot just throw regular old bat insulation in there.

You might be able to get away with it here in the desert because it's in the valley.

It's pretty easy.

Right.

But get into more interesting climates.

The closed cell is absolutely needed.

But it doesn't matter what I'm building.

I put closed cell.

Yeah, closed cell.

It's just easier and it's more efficient.

It seals up all the nooks and crannies and you have.

It's just going to give you better r value all the way around.

Yeah.

Which is really good.

And then obviously drywall is pretty standard, you know, and that's not a problem.

The only other thing that you have to worry about besides regular plumbing and the electric is the how you use.

Are you hooking up to a septic or are you hooking up to traditional city plumbing?

Right.

And I'm sure you've probably done both.

Yeah.

Of course, all the people that are out in the boonies a bit more were doing septic, so sending the excavators out there to punch a hole in the ground.

For both the percolation test, which for your listeners is a test where they will dig about four feet down in five different areas and they'll drop a bucket down in that hole with some holes drilled into the bucket.

And they have a way of, of reading how long the water will take to percolate.

Just like your, your coffee maker to probably a percolator.

So it measures and will.

Will have a readable index of how well the native material does or does not percolate.

So for example, if it does not, then a septic system that is non traditional will need to be designed for that area, which can happen.

And so you just Never know.

Like I say, you gotta let the data do the talking.

Yep, let the data do the talking.

And obviously you need to be patient and do your due diligence to make sure that you're speaking with the right people.

And there's no harm in getting a second opinion, even if you like the.

The first person you talk to, because it would just be confirmation that you're.

You're on the right track, especially with cost.

You know, like I just, I'm building a winery right now down in Elgin.

Right.

And.

And what's interesting when you get outside of the city is there's certain nuances that you would think would be automatic.

Like you could get a really good small town vibe.

Which is.

Which implies a yes, sir, no sir, and punctuality and that kind of thing.

Well, actually, a lot of the time you get somebody that has horrible communication, horrible customer service because they're the only people out there and they don't give a damn if you call or don't,

and they have to just deal with it.

Yeah.

And they might not like you because you're an out of towner and so they'll just double the price up anyway.

So once again, you know, we're gonna say that word counterintuitive a lot, but sometimes some providers, it makes more sense to send my local guys, right?

But as an example, I was looking for a civil engineer because this project is gonna have a distillery on one half of the Met and the other half will have a tasting room.

Right.

Now that means I can't do the site plan myself any longer.

This is now a commercial build.

I have to hire a civil engineer, right.

He has to do a hydrology report, I have to have ADA compliant parking and all that kind of stuff that this now brings in, right.

So I'm looking for a guy down there and I get one bid for 30 grand and I get another bid for 10 grand.

You know, big swing, you know, and so it just this stuff.

Yeah.

You should get a second opinion.

If you feel like your spidey senses are tingling.

Listen.

And it doesn't take much to just call somebody and ask them.

I find a lot of people.

You mentioned the Churchill earlier.

The only reason I have the structural engineers I'm working with is because I called and asked.

I said, hey, I'm a fan, I want to do this stuff.

Who's your structural engineer?

He gave it to me.

And if you don't ask those questions, like who is it?

Steve Jobs?

And he was just calling, calling the guys when he was a kid and wanted to get started and they, you know, but that's all it takes is just call people and they'll tell you,

yeah, that's all, that's all you need.

All right, we're going to take a short break.

When we come back, we're going to hear from my good friend Mark Malan from on the Mark tv and also the upcoming episodes of yours truly, home renovation iq.

So I want everybody to hang tight.

Don't go away.

You're listening to Boxcar Universe.

Hi, I'm Erica Thompson, the dominating designer, a hard working artist with a sense of humor.

What is the dominating designer process?

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I would love to help you with your upcoming project.

Please reach out to me on Instagram thedominatingdesigner.

Hi, I'm Sean with Mr. Electric and I have a tip to help make your life better.

One important reminder is to call a qualified electrician when you have frequent problems with blowing fuses or tripping circuit breakers.

When a circuit breaker trips or a fuse blows, it's indicating that you have a problem with some other part of the circuit.

If your breaker trips more than once, you should have a qualified electrician come out and take a look at it.

Contrary to what may be acceptable, you really shouldn't try to continuously try to reset the breaker because there may be a problem somewhere else down the circuit and you could be causing a fire hazard.

There could be a loose connection or some other form of problem on the circuit and every time you reset the circuit breaker, it could be causing a spark at the other end.

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All right, we are back and you are listening to Boxcar Universe.

And we're here with Luke Crosswait.

And right now I want to also introduce my good friend Mark Balin from On the Mark tv.

Mark, thanks for being here with us today on Boxcar Universe.

It's an honor and a privilege, sir.

Thank you for having me.

It's great to have you here.

And you know, Mark and I met several weeks ago at a great event over at a pickleball center over in Mesa called Dink and Dine.

And he was telling me about everything about his, you know, streaming services and everything else that he is doing.

But I'll let Mark fill you in on on the Mark tv.

Even before that, you were introduced me by a young lady named Karen Crawford who I invited.

Karen invited you to an event called called the Easy Way Pitch Party that happens every other Thursday, actually tonight.

And.

Oh, I'm sorry.

And what happened was the Easy Way Pitch Party, which happens every other Thursday, which is tonight, actually, and that's where I first met you.

And then we, I found out you lived in Phoenix and then we started doing some things here in Phoenix and then we ended up over there at Dink and Dime Pickleball park over in Mason, Arizona.

Yes.

Where we're also having this major event called Pickleball 2.

Coming up on March 7th and 8th, 8th for opiate and Fentanyl awareness is going to be an amazing telethon that we're putting on with Tommy Ranger and myself, Ernest Cartwright, Maureen Cooper and many other people are involved in this amazing event that we're going to do in.

So it's great knowing you, Steve.

Yeah, it's great knowing you too.

And I, I, I foresee great things coming our way and things that we can collaborate on.

But the one thing that I want to let all our listeners know about is I had mentioned Home Renovation iq, which is the, the name of the, of the show of video and stuff where I actually go through and show and educate people about home improvement products, services, what not to do, much like Luke and I were talking about earlier on, you know, asking the right questions and getting the right information from the, the people that you can trust.

So one of the things that I always wanted to do was make a difference in giving back to the community.

And this was one thing that I always wanted to do.

And Mark is actually going to make it happen for us next month.

So what on the mark TV Marc TV does is I'm a global streaming television network reaching millions and millions of people.

And the biggest thing I do is put eyeballs on the product.

You're you and your brand.

I bring millions and millions of eyeballs so people know what you do and why you do it.

And when I'm sitting in a room with Luke and Steve here, it's their massive amount of experience in what they do.

When they talk, you listen.

They're kind of the E.F. hutton of construction.

Steve is the gentleman that tells you about how home building since what the 80s.

And then Luke brings the innovation of what they call container homes now.

So he's updated what everything is so now he's bringing the cost of a container homes into the real world and giving you the opportunity to give you some more options.

Let's say you don't.

Let's say you're a couple and you don't want to go big house, you know and, and do all that stuff and you don't want grass, you don't want land, you don't want all that stuff.

All you want is a piece of concrete and a place to live.

And that's where container homes come available.

And then if you wanted to do an addition and all you have to do is buy another container home and let you know leak.

Luke take care of that with the container guru and that he is and his home building.

And that's what you do, you just add on to it.

And that's why this is a special kind of thing because when you're trying to build a home and then you try to add a garage or you try to add a second room or a second house, you know, it's, it's difficult.

You know, we're a mother in law house where now if you own a home and you have enough backyard, you can make a mother in law casita directly out of a container home.

Isn't that amazing?

Stick your mother, stick your mother in law in a metal box.

It wouldn't be the first time that somebody has said that.

But no, but I think it's, it's again it's so important to be able to in you Know, with your, your vast experience, as well as, you know, the reach that you have, I think it's.

I think it's going to be really good.

The show's going to be good.

We're going to be able to reach a lot of people, not just here in the Arizona market, but, you know, a lot of the information that I share can be used anywhere, you know, and a lot of it is based on good common sense.

Well, the most important thing about what you do and what he does is there's a lot of places across the world that don't have lumber.

They don't have the trees, they don't have what we have.

They don't have the resources, they don't have the water, they don't have the.

They can't set structure up.

They can't do the electricity and everything like that.

They don't have the structure.

They don't have the wires and the antennas and all that stuff where they can put cable into their house and do everything like we do right here in the city of Phoenix.

They don't have it.

They literally, if you go to Indonesia, Malaysia, China, Singapore, poor, you go to Africa, especially in Africa and especially in like Mexico and Cuba and places like that, they don't have the infrastructure the United States has.

We, we don't.

They don't even have epa, don't have nothing.

So what happens is a person like this gentleman right here, he can put a.

He can build a church in Conga, you know, for half the cost.

And actually just what, you drop a couple of containers, you put them across the, you know, you get a couple local guys, no construction, and you build out a church.

And the time building a church would be cut in half, death.

And it's so much less hassles and struggles through it.

So that's the great part about container homes.

They go where you can't normally do.

And then I also have a gentleman that I'm working with right now named Brian Figueroa, and he's bringing in, he owns a company called Green Tech, and he says he can.

If you put a slab of concrete down on the ground, he could build a home in less than three days.

And the reason is he can build that is because of the technology that we have available.

This is not where, you know, Bob the Builder, like exactly what he mentioned earlier, where the people build a home.

I mean, I watched my, you know, my, my old man built a house in New Jersey in 19, you know, 44, you know, and built his first house that coming out of, you know, the Navy.

And it was a wood home.

And I mean, later on you have.

I.

We.

He had a.

The basement used to flood.

They had to put sump pumps in.

They had a redo the attic.

They had to put insulation.

And then, you know what happened.

Think about the 70s and 80s aluminum siding.

Oh, my God, what a mess.

Aluminum siding.

You got to take your wood home and drop your house into metal because the wood was rotting out in termites.

So what happens in these homes is it's all been upgraded.

So what?

That's exactly what Luke is doing.

So Steve is the old school construction guy that can take it up to another level.

But what Luke is doing is he's taken into 20, 26 and beyond.

And you could do a lot of things with these homes that you could never do before, and you can put them in places where they couldn't be before.

So like I saw somebody build one on the side of a mountain.

You could.

It's hard to build a home on the side of a mountain and get the permits and the construction.

It's impossible.

So that's what Luke does.

Luke is modernizing home building.

And with the best thing about a container home, you know what, it's never going to have aluminum siding.

So.

Because guess what?

It's already metal.

So that's what I see.

I'm old.

I'm 64 years old, and I've watched these things happen.

And I watched a house in Belleville, New Jersey, get aluminum siding and some pump and concrete.

I used to.

My.

My porch was wood.

And you could see, I was like, I'd step up into my porch and my foot would fall through the rot, you know?

And now this doesn't happen anymore.

Why?

Because we've created this concrete and wood that.

Why are houses going up in a month compared to a year?

Because of the technology and the brilliance behind a gentleman like Ruth Crossway and a gentleman like Steve DeBell.

And what we're doing with on the Mark TVs, we're bringing this knowledge, this experience to you directly, okay?

Where you can go on your cell phone, go on your tablet, go on all your devices, and know what you're doing.

And that way, if you decide to do it on your own, at least you have an expert behind you.

And here's the best, best part.

We're going to give Luke a show.

This is going to be a surprise for him.

We're going to give Luke a show called it's going to be a call in show where you can call into Luke Crossways and find out his permit knowledge because there's nobody on this planet there's no permit like lc.

I love it.

That's right.

That's right.

Ask the guru.

Ask the guru.

That's right.

That's why we control a construction guru.

We're going to drop another one called permit guru.com.

i got it.

So I've got a idea for you.

Better you better own permit guru.com.

actually I own like a whole bunch of domains that are like that.

But what I want to do is get you to come down to the Eloy factory and I want to get a carpet put on a pallet.

So they pick me up and I'm laying on, you know, it's in the shots in tight and you only see me sit.

I actually heard, you know it's funny, it's.

Here's the funny part.

Years ago, not too long ago I had a warehouse on University and a gentleman named Ben Powers and I, you know, I'm not fan but he brought this container to my, my property and that's how I met Steve the first time because he was a construction guy and of course he tried to go, you know, cheap is double the price.

He tried to get a gentleman with less experience and less knowledge and try to build it and it was a mess.

All right.

And what happened was I was heard about your factory up in Eloy.

This is not the first time I'm hearing about it.

I heard about five years ago.

It was brought to my attention.

I actually think that I was supposed to go up to Eli.

I know I went to Williams and a couple other places about container homes and I was about to invest into them.

So I really believe that I was actually, I think I, I almost want to say I've been there but I don't think I have.

But I know I was supposed to go there.

So how long have you had that factory, sir?

Well we, I've been out of Apache Junction and Eloy so we've got a. I work with another partner here in Apache Junction and started with those guys.

So like the first media deal that kicked off when we were doing the 26 apartments the new, the Phoenix New Times.

Mike.

Shout out to Mike.

He might be listening.

That's who I had lunch with today actually.

They've got a pretty awesome facility over here for the, for the earth.

And so when that Phoenix New Times article hit then all the local channel 3 picked it up and channel 11 and all that and basically I had to work with, to expand, I had to get another facility.

So I have two modular partners that I work with.

One in Apache Junction, one in Eloy.

And so in Eloy, I've been working with those guys for about three years now.

Yeah, it would be absolute honor.

I would love to take my phone or take my camera up there and go to Eloy Factory.

And I love to put it out to my fans and my audience and my audience.

You have to understand something.

My audience is a little different because I reach places that people can't reach.

I partner up with a young lady named Maureen Cooper who's been doing streaming television for over 30 years.

I call the godmother of streaming television.

And what she's done is she helped with all the content.

So once you have all that content, everybody wants to know you.

And that's what so she has, because of her content, she's been at Whale TV came to her like five years ago when they were doing like 20 TVs in a small market in Beijing.

And now they have 400 brands of televisions across four continents.

And we now have a company called Limex that is putting me in usa Canada, where I'm going to be on every single smart TV coming out for now on my network will be on there.

And I'm not a podcast, I'm not a TV channel, I'm a network.

I have 18 other channels under me, so.

And also we reach Francophones in Africa, America.

And we're working with a gentleman named Dr. Ames out in the way we're creating.

He has 8, 000 churches and temples.

Imagine what this can do.

Like I was just in myself.

I was in Lombok, Indonesia and my son got married out in Lombok, which is the.

There's over a thousand mosques in Lombok island and I was out there by the Indian Ocean.

And imagine what this could do.

Like, I mean maybe we can build a container mosque.

It'd be kind of crazy, but it can be done.

Or a container temple or a container church.

I mean these are all feasible now where there's places on the like islands that you can't get lumber to, you know, and there's no lumber to be seen.

There's places where you go, what about the desert?

What about places that are barren?

And plus guys, we're killing our trees.

So how many trees are actually left?

Yeah, it's, it's why one thing that we need to do is always be don't use one resource of.

We were looking at a lot of different resources.

And then again, obviously one of the things we like to talk about here on the show is talk about sustainability.

So if you have to go back and you know, we try and replenish obviously trees and, and other types of forms of stuff that we pull out of the ground to try and replenish what we can.

So if it is something that can be grown, that there will always be supply.

But Luke, before we wrap up the show, we want to let all our listeners know your contact information.

Yeah, you guys can head over to containerhomeguru.com and I'm on every tick tock, YouTube, Insta and all that stuff.

Although my stuff doesn't get a lot of action because I'm usually busy in the field doing stuff.

But you can find my videos all over the place.

But they're all usually at the.

At.

You can find anything at the.

At the website.

And we're going to be doing Container Home University pretty soon.

So, you know, my intention is not to gatekeep the information.

I'd like to enrich people that are trying to break out of the trap that is owning a home in the burbs here.

And you know, there's a lot of ways to get to those people.

So check out containerhomeguru.com and container home University.

That's great.

And Mark, let our listeners know how they can reach you.

Well, let me add that Luke is a guru because what happens is, is he's about to go to Palisades in California where tragedy hit deep.

You know, we worship these celebrities, we worship these stars, we worship movie stars, we worship TV stars and we watch them and we worship them.

We speak about them and we love them because they bring us beautiful entertainment.

And what happened was these tremendous celebrities lost a lot of homes and a lot of places.

It was deep tragedy.

And right now this gentleman is going to take his time and spend the next couple of weeks in California helping stars and helping people just get homes again because that wood burnt, you know, and now they're trying to rethink it.

So.

And also he mentioned a key word, sustainability.

That's a major word.

I learned that.

I was, I was teaching, I was recruiting students for Kaplan University during, before the crisis hit when everybody was losing their jobs and everybody was pivoting and we're like, Obama came out with the green world.

Everybody's supposed to go in sustainability and stuff.

And that's where Container Homes really started to hit strong.

So if you get up when we.

Luke, when he gets back from California we're going to be talking and I really want him to come to onto Mark TV and bring his knowledge and Steve the Bell and his, their knowledge.

And you know, these are guys, you know, we grew up with the Bob Vilas and people like that and all those people.

But these guys have updated it so much where I mean, they're special.

So my name is Mark balin.

I'm the CEO of On the Mark TV.

Marc TV.

You can find me on the mark marctv.com I'm also big on Facebook, LinkedIn and everywhere else.

You'll find me everywhere.

Guys.

I'm, I'm the platinum connector on the, the walking billboard.

I have a lot of nicknames that have been given to me over the years.

I, I partner with Easy Way TV Easy Way News on nonprofit tv.

I partner with all them.

I do a lot of things for a lot of people and I'm, I'm a Navy guy.

So I helped veterans and that's why we're doing this amazing event come up March 7th and 8th called Brickleball 2 too.

It's at Dink and Dine in Mesa, Arizona.

Guys, if you care about what's happening to this world with opiates, fentanyl, mental awareness and suicide prevention, please come out.

Donate.

Share your peace, Share your love with us on March 7th and 8th at Dink and Dine in Mesa, Arizona.

Thank you.

All right.

Yeah, guys, I really appreciate you being here and again we're going to be looking for a lot of great people to come out to the event.

Obviously, if you're not in the state of Arizona or in Mesa, please check out the stream on on the Mark TV because it's going to be streamed worldwide.

So you'll be able to see what's going on, see all the, the athletes, the people, yours truly will be out there and we'll be doing interviews and stuff like that.

So please make sure you check that event out.

March 7th and 8th, meet and greet on Saturday night and then Sunday's the big event where you is going to be a lot of pickleball competition.

And you know, one of the fun things that I'm looking forward to, guys, is I want to see the Phoenix Suns gorilla play Sparky from asu.

That's what.

And pickleball, it's going to be a classic.

It's going to be a classic.

He's the underhand specialist.

Mr. Rick Barry, hall of famer, will be there playing and he's a professional pickleball player at 81 years old.

God bless his soul.

God bless him.

Now I have to meet that.

We have to meet him.

He's going to be awesome.

But again, I want to thank you for all our awesome listeners who listen to Boxcar Universe every week.

Remember, we are your source for cutting edge information on remodeling container homes and container pools.

So let us help and design and build your container home or traditional home.

We also can include solar.

If you're interested in solar for your home, I can help you with that as well.

But all what we'd like to do is just live the sustainable lifestyle.

But if you have any questions at all about our guests or about anything that we're doing, especially with home renovation, I can you and on the Mark TV, you could always email me@steveoxcaruniverse.com and remember, Boxcar Universe can be heard weekly on any podcast player.

And always remember, let us remodel and renovate your world.

Have a great weekend.

You're a great American.

I love you.

Sam.