What’s the Deal? | Brian Reid & Thomas James Homes

Can you tell me about Thomas James Homes?

We’re a homebuilding company that maximizes property value in high-demand neighborhoods near vibrant towns or cities with limited new construction. Typically, we target older homes, often built in the 1950s-1970s, that underutilize their allowable buildable footprint. We find innovative solutions to increase the value of these homes.

How does the homebuilding process work?

At Thomas James Homes (TJH), we deliver a seamless homebuilding experience from start to finish through our Build on Your Own Lot program. This program allows homeowners to rebuild their existing homes on their own property. Many of our customers unknowingly sit on underutilized assets, so we focus on acquiring older homes, tearing them down, and building larger, modern homes. We offer a fixed price, and once we start construction and pouring the foundation, we guarantee that homeowners will be back in their new homes within twelve months.

Why would consumers want to rebuild with TJH instead of just renovating?

When consumers think of rebuilding, their first thought is to renovate; they’ll try to reconfigure their home in many ways before realizing their plans won’t work. We’ve already done all that work with curated plans based on the width and depth of each lot, which we know is very prominent in each jurisdiction. We’ve established a reputation in the specific counties we work in—no one is buying more land than us in these areas, so our consumers and local municipalities know that we’re improving the aesthetics of the area. In Los Angeles County alone, we’ve replaced seven miles worth of sidewalks to enhance the neighborhoods we work within. Additionally, our homeowners don’t utilize their allowable buildable footprint. If they’re in a jurisdiction where they’re allowed 35%, they’re only using 20% of it. That’s where our value proposition comes in. A lot of the time, we work with people who are retiring, and their children have to make decisions regarding what they’re going to do with the home. The easiest thing to do is to sell it. However, we strategize in conjunction with their CPA or private wealth advisor and tell them they’re missing a potential opportunity for more revenue and to rebuild their home with us instead of selling it. Another instance of us facilitating the rebuilding process is when people don’t want to move out of their neighborhood because they love their area and their neighbors, and we advise them to rebuild instead of renovate. Most people think renovating is the least disruptive, but it doesn’t allow you to expand; it’s just reconfiguring an existing footprint.

What is TJH’s unique selling point?

We provide a frictionless experience to our customers for an endeavor that is normally filled with friction. For example, at the start of the customer journey, owners have access to a platform called Reveal that allows the homeowner to walk through their entire future home before it even exists. We offer them extreme personalization on design elements like cabinet colors,

countertops, lighting, fixtures, flooring, etc. We’ll also give them tangible products like a piece of nine-inch wide hardwood in birch or oak so they can see what it looks like in person and in their future kitchen on our screen. Reveal technology is actually built on a gaming platform so the UX is more enjoyable and simply put, more fun.

We build 300 to 350 homes annually and draw the highest quality contractors for every project. Our scaling of this model, coupled with our ethos of being “consumed with the consumer” is our unique selling point.

How do you keep the consumer engaged throughout the homebuilding process?

We use referral generators with a series of 8 touchpoints to provide our consumers with value propositions that are tangible and intangible at each touchpoint. We’ll send them a nice gift that is TJH-branded in conjunction with an educational piece about their home and any updates on it. We also have several tailored partnerships with brands like Virtuo, which is a concierge service that helps homeowners manage every aspect of their move—from relocation and temporary housing to turning utilities on and off. Our partner in health and wellness is Tonal to provide in-home gyms and fitness studios for those interested. We introduce our partners throughout the process and consistently send surveys to continually improve our consumer experience. We want to create the best possible experience for our consumers because building a home isn’t easy. Our best referral source is happy and engaged customers - somebody telling their friend or neighbor that TJH did a great job and that they should also work with us is invaluable to us and reminds us of the importance of always being in front of your customer.

Which partnership has played a crucial role in the business?

We are now starting to see the beginning of our partnerships playing a crucial role in our business. Our partnership with Inspirato has been the most effective so far. Inspirato is a luxury vacation club with access to a wide range of destinations worldwide. We offer a no-cost membership to all our new clients as well as clients who have done business with us over the last two years. For new clients, the membership is introduced at the beginning of their home building experience, giving them the opportunity to vacation or even live somewhere else temporarily as they are waiting for the completion of their home. Our partnership with Virtuo will be widely used as well. Virtuo is a concierge service that offers our clients guidance and resources through the entire move-out and move-in process. A lot of times our clients have to move twice during their home building experience, and having a concierge service like Virtuo to lean on can drastically simplify the moving process.

What is your background in real estate?

My background in real estate started in the mortgage business because my father was a mortgage executive and I spent many hours at the dinner table talking with him about his trade from a young age. I worked in the financial space for a bit and soon after I joined Wheels Up, a private aviation company, and grew the demographic of people flying private by creating long-term partnerships with real estate developers across the Bahamas, South Carolina, and Georgia. Our partnerships with destination real estate developers allowed Wheels Up to

integrate private flight memberships into lot sales, solving a key hurdle for buyers. When Thomas James Homes was looking for someone who had both exposure and experience in marketing to this demographic, with a hint of finance, I fit the match.

What has been the most challenging part of your role?

Speed has been the most challenging. The homebuilding process takes 12 to 20 months, and when you’re building, you also want to implement other things that create value, which all takes time. It’s my own desire to move faster, but we are living in a world where the system in our industry takes time.

What has been the most rewarding part of your role?

To do what we’re doing, which is two things: one, convince people to tear their home down and rebuild it, and two, sell our spec inventory early before the house is complete. People want to see something, especially at our price point, that’s more than a set of blueprints. Leading the team to create the Reveal experience in our Design Studio, from scratch nonetheless, and continue to sell owners on their next home has been extremely rewarding. When people come into our Design Studio for this appointment, the technology and the human experience is so compelling that we have an 85% conversion rate for those who engage with our platform.

What three pieces of advice would you give to someone just starting out in a marketing or real estate role?

1. Listen. The number one thing I think is very difficult for young professionals or any professional in the new industry to do is really listen.
2. Make sure you surround yourself with people who are smarter than you are, and then apply rule number one, which is to listen. 
3. Don’t be afraid to take risks. Don’t be afraid to understand that you might have a great idea, and when you believe in it, say, why not me? Could I not be the person that comes up with the next biggest, biggest thing? I don’t think there’s enough of why not us or why not me that still exists in our culture today.

This interview was conducted through Traded’s Ambassador Program in collaboration with Julie Berman.
Julie Berman's LinkedIn