Hello DEN-ites! Today, I'm stoked to share a chat I had with Ian Porter of Porter Construction Group, hailing from Atlanta, GA. Ian is DEN's first strategic build partner. What does that mean? Namely, it means Ian has experience developing DEN's plans - he's done it before, and he's done it quite well - so well that we strongly encourage anyone looking to build a DEN in the Metro Atlanta area to reach out to Ian, and build with him. 

As he states himself during the interview, Ian knows how to build in and around the Metro Atlanta area. Facilitating a build is an extensive, multi-tiered process. Not only does Ian have expertise with DEN plans specifically, but he has the permitting acumen, familiarity with procuring and managing supplies in and out of a Metro area, and specific knowledge on how to navigate a build in residential urban areas. Add on Ian's comfortability with DEN’s plans (as well as a cosign from the dude who started DEN - Me!) - c’mon, it doesn't get much better than this.

Here is Porter Construction Group’s website, as well their Instagram.

Even if you’re not in the Metro Atlanta area, this conversation still has something for you. Ian gives practical advice on how to engage builders, which projects he gets most excited about, and his favorite types of introductory emails from prospective clients. There’s something for everyone in here.

I hope you enjoy listening to this conversation as much as I enjoyed having it!

1. Introducing Porter Construction

Mike: Okay, so let's do this. You know, I've done a bunch of these with customers. You are my first like pure play builder interview. So let's start with the softball questions. Who are you? What's the name of the company and what markets do you serve? 

Ian: Yeah, so Ian Porter, Porter Construction Group.

We are an Atlanta based home builder. We service all of Metro Atlanta and then we do some builds up in the North Georgia area, uh, primarily LLJ and some of those markets. 

Mike: And, what comprises most of your business? Do you guys like do residential, multifamily, commercial, renovations?

What are the categories of service and housing you offer? 

Ian: Yeah, so we're a residential company. We do have sort of a unique niche in that we do a lot of ADUs, a lot of small builds. Some unique stuff. We do custom homes as well, just like every other builder. And, we've always kept up a portfolio of additions and renovations as well.

So pretty much everything under the residential category. 

Mike: Awesome. Do you have a favorite type of project or a favorite type of client? 

Ian: Yeah, good question. I think we've had some really fun ones recently in the ADU category and... I think 'cause they're smaller people are able to spend a little more and do some more interesting things.

So we like doing builds that just push the bounds a little bit. Not your everyday stuff. So that's been kind of fun for us lately. 

Mike: That's awesome. This is not the first time that we're meeting, right? Tell us a little bit about like how you first discovered DEN and, you know, what did you do with that discovery?

2. Working with DEN and Building Unique Projects

Ian: Yeah, so like a lot of people, I found DEN on Instagram. My wife and I were looking for a design for an Airbnb property. We liked A-Frames. Not everybody has an A-Frame design, so we, we found the A-Frame retreat, we bought some property in North Georgia and Ellijay and we built the A-Frame. So, that was a long journey, but that's how we first came to know DEN, and have been very involved in the community ever since.

Mike: Amazing. Amazing. Yeah, so for folks listening in, Ian is a builder, built one of our designs, incredible. And now he's one of our strategic build partners, as we unveil new tools for contractors. Well that's really cool. So...

Yeah, tell us a little bit about what excites you about the design process in building a house. And you know, clearly I think both you and I see eye to eye on aesthetics, right? But what do you think is important to deliver on in terms of a... custom build for somebody. From a style or design perspective.

Ian: Yeah, I think it can be different for every client, but I think that's sort of the beauty of it, is you have to know how to meet people where they are and understand what's important to them. Is it style, is it efficiency? Is it a property that needs to have a good ROI? So it is sort of blending that vision with what's gonna work for that client the best in reality.

That could come in a lot of forms, but, you know, one thing I do like to be able to do and sort of drives me, is being able to take a vision a client has, and - maybe it's a little outta reach for them, but maybe there's a way we can value engineer it and kind of back into something that's still gonna give 'em what they want - but maybe make it a little more realistic.

Those are just cool things that seem to come up. We can kind of bring our background as investors and... building the Airbnb and some properties that are a little different. We've become very good at value engineering solutions for people. 

Mike: That's cool. When someone takes an interest in working with you and your firm, like what do you guys do in the early stages of that relationship, to set that relationship up for success?

3. The Builder-Client Relationship

Ian: Yeah, it comes with a lot of meetings and a lot of time spent just trying to understand what the motivation is for people in whatever they're building. Um, there's usually a bigger reason behind why people are making the big life change, whether it's a custom home or a ADU or whatever their journey is, but...

We really try to be involved from the beginning. We wanna be there from the first meeting they have with the architect all the way through groundbreaking. You know, we try to bring on members of our team. I have a few project managers that work for me and I try to integrate them as early as possible. So we can really sort of inform every step in the process, not just us showing up when it's time to swing hammers. 

Mike: Gotcha. 

Ian: So anything we can do to sort of be helpful and answer questions and guide constructability along the way, we like to be involved as early as we can be involved. 

Mike: That's really cool. And then - I guess we're talking in kind of industry language here - the pre-construction process, right?

How do you even explain the pre-construction process to like a dentist that wants to build a house, right? How do you explain the value of your presence within that phase of the project? 

Ian: Yeah. You know, it can be a little bit, 'chicken and the egg' I guess.

You know, I get a lot of people that come to me with an idea or a theory or something they're thinking about doing and I think the best way we can be helpful a lot of times is to try and guide them to some place, whether it's in this case DEN outdoors, giving plans or something like that, to sort of have a more informed discussion to make sure... they can afford to do what it is they want to do on some conceptual level.

From there we can get into the more nitty gritty details, but connecting with the right people to get a design on paper to get something that we can price. To sort of make sure that they're not barking up the wrong tree when it comes to whatever their vision is. I think that's one of the ways we kind of early on guide people to where they need to get to.

Mike: Nice. Nice. We hear this like time and time again, on a weekly basis, someone spends like a ton of time in costume design only to find out that they're like way, way over budget, you know? 

Ian: Mm-hmm. 

Mike: Yeah, just like it's super - for folks listening in - it's like really critical, to rightsize the project as early on, you know?

Otherwise you could be like wildly off course, and wildly off course could be like a factor of hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

Ian: Mm-hmm. 

Mike: You know, which is like a make or break, for most people's budgets. 

Ian: Mm-hmm. 

Mike: That's cool. Tell us maybe a little bit about like, one of your last projects that wrapped up.

Was it an ADU? Was it a single family home? What did it look like and what did you like about doing the project? 

Ian: Yeah. One of the last ones we wrapped up recently here, in Atlanta and Kirkwood, more specifically where I live, [was a] two bedroom, two bath, ADU.

Behind these folks' house who, their parents were gonna move into it. They needed to downsize, be closer to home. So it's cool to sort of, put a project together and watch a family sort of work through it together and help people kind of meet a need. You know, it's bigger than just, you know, renovating a bathroom or something.

You're sort of helping 'em with a life change. And we do get a lot of requests for that. And it is cool to kind of see the end product, see the folks, you know, living in their new space. That's always rewarding. 

Mike: Nice, nice. And you know, as a builder, like are there any specific kind of themes of building that you nerd out about?

Do you pay a lot of attention to like policy or zoning reform or permitting reform? Like, do you pay attention to passive house and energy efficiency? Do you pay more attention to the design side? Maybe all of the above. What themes of construction, and the greater ecosystem around it do you really like, and do you focus on?

Ian: Yeah, that's a good question. There are little pieces of all that that I really like to dig into, but I think the design is really... where we shine and where I probably spend the most hours outta the day thinking about just unpacking how to execute different details on a build and backing into the steps that you need to do beforehand to make sure that it turns out a certain way when you're doing a final walk.

You know, I started my career working for a pretty high end custom builder and was fortunate to do a lot of really cool projects that really kind of pushed the bounds and you make a few mistakes and you kinda learn how to correct those things and back into the right ways to do it. And I think the design has just always been something that's really interesting to me... in learning how to better execute things and have a better finished product. 

Mike: That's cool. That's cool. What do you guys bring to the table? I'm assuming that you guys have just like a ton of supplier relationships... you know, to what extent do you guys facilitate permitting, if at all, right? 

Ian: Mm-hmm. 

Mike: What is the local benefit of working with Porter Construction? 

Ian: There's two probably most important answers - the first one is that we are local.

I mean, I live in, Intown Atlanta. Projects are always logistically challenging. The lots are tight. There's no parking on the street. Dealing with neighbors... We're not building out in the country somewhere where you've got 50 acres of room. So truly understanding like how to get equipment in and concrete trucks and receive deliveries. Just all the things that come along with building in town, in Atlanta in and of itself is just something that comes with time and, making all the mistakes and learning the pitfalls. So that's one thing we live here, we work here, we know how to deal with the things that come with building in a big city.

Mike: Mm-hmm. 

Ian: I would say the other part of that too is that, we really are kind of a one-stop shop. I mean, we can handle everything from permitting all the way through completion. We do millwork in-house. We can design millwork. We pretty much can do just about anything. We can have your drawing stamped by engineers.

We know lots of architects, interior designers. I mean, we can put you in touch with anybody that you would need to get all the way from an idea through delivery. 

Mike: Amazing. Amazing. What a pitch! 

Ian: There you go. What else do we need? 

Mike: Amazing. Last question actually, as we're coming up on the bottom of the hour here.

What advice would you give to someone who is endeavoring to build an ADU, or a house, whether that be like, urban infill in Atlanta, or like maybe something in one of these outer urban markets like Ellijay. Generally speaking, what advice would you give to someone who's even thinking about approaching a project as logistically complicated as building a whole freaking house? 

4. Advice for First-Time Builder

Ian: Yeah. Yeah. So, good question. You know, it starts with investing the money in design. You really need to invest some money up front and just a schematic set, a planning set, you know, I know DEN offers, you know, the planning sets, which are great. You need to have something on paper.

I think the mistake people make is getting too far down the road, whether it's with money or with time or with both, and finding out that the project's just not what they thought it was for whatever reason. And just investing a little bit of money. Uh, a little bit of, you know, paying some professionals to get involved and give you that quick 'go-no-go' conversation and just giving a builder a set of plans saying, 'hey, I want to build this'.

You know, even on a floor plan level, 'is this possible?' That's gonna give you a lot of the information you need. I mean, I price plans for people off of just a floor plan, just to give 'em a range of, 'will this fit on this lot? Can I afford to build this on this lot? Does this even make sense?' That's where you need to start.

I think people get too far down the road of falling in love with a lot, or a home design or a scenario, whatever the case may be, but just investing that little bit of money up front to get something on paper is gonna make a world of difference, to be able to quickly know whether it's gonna work out.

Mike: Yeah, I gotcha. Gotcha. You guys recently integrated our design catalog in your site, so people can actually just like select a DEN design, directly from your website and start the conversation from there. But if someone were to send you an email, what is the perfect intro email that a would-be home builder would send to a general contractor in your opinion. 

Ian: You know, I got one today actually that's great. It said, 'hey, I had talked to people a while ago. They got some plans drawn up by an architect. They said, 'we're ready to start pricing this project out. Here are all the plans. Let me know when you can come take a look.'

Mike: Nice. 

Ian: That's great. Somebody approaches me with a full schematic set of plans, says they're ready to take the project seriously. They're engaging me, to come out, take a look and get the ball rolling. That's music to my ears.

Most of the emails I get are more, 'hey, I have an idea. What do you think about this?' 

Mike: Mm. Yeah. 

Ian: I don't know what I think about it yet, but if you send me an email that has a full, or at least a schematic plan set, that's fantastic. We can talk about that all day long. 

Mike: Amazing. And presumably they also sent you like an address to a property to come visit them as well?

Ian: Mm-hmm. 

Mike: Yeah. Yeah. 

Ian: Yep. It's real. It exists. They're putting the legwork in already. That's what we want to hear. 

Mike: Yeah. Awesome. I mean, like this mirrors like a lot of the guidance that we give to people who are endeavoring to build DENs. Like every week I spend a ton of time with prospects and customers to just try to coach them really. Right? And also like we ourselves have operationalized a service called Builder Match, where we connect people with builders in various markets. We take that silver bullet approach, like when the client is ready, you know, we're like. 'hey, we're working with Ian as an owner's rep, right? Ian has a property at like 123 Atlanta Way! And attached are a set of drawings, they're ready to accelerate a conversation towards pricing.' And I would say even then like our open rate and like response rate is like about 40%, because some builders look at that and they're like, 'well, my dance card's full. You know, like, maybe this is like too far of a commute'. They're very quickly disqualifying. But we constantly tell people this all the time. We're like 'the realer that you can make your project seem by like doing the legwork and like presenting as like a real opportunity, the more success you'll have in fostering a good relationship with your builder.' You can hear it, hear from the horse's mouth folks. It's like, builders wanna help you. 

Ian: Mm-hmm. 

Mike: Like, you know, they're like... here to help you! They provide an incredible service!

They've done it before! They've got all the local connects. You just have to be like a serious contender to like move forward in the process. So. I mean, I'm not surprised to hear that. 

Ian: Mm-hmm. 

Mike: That's really cool that like, the best practices that we share with people are the best practices that you see working on a day-to-day basis, so...

Ian: Mm-hmm. 

Mike: Um, so that's it, man! Is there anything last that you wanna say about, you know, Atlanta, about whatever, like where do we get the best, you know, fried chicken? You tell us! This is closing remarks from Ian Porter, everybody. 

5. Final Thoughts and Shoutouts

Ian: Yeah. Well, I'm an East Atlanta guy.

We live in Kirkwood, so, um, we've got all of our favorite spots here in East Atlanta.

Closing remarks, man. I want to give you a shout out, for the product you built with DEN, but also the community. It's been really cool. Just connecting with all the other people that have built DEN products and stuff, has been an unexpected bonus for us.

So that's been a lot of fun, and not something that's so easy to build. So, yeah. Congrats to everything you've done, Mike. I appreciate it being a part of it. 

Mike: Awesome. I mean, right back at you. It's like we're, we're nothing without the people that are participating in the community. You know, I'm just, I'm just good at flirting with people on webcam and doing these interviews.

That's really like my claim to fame. So... 

Ian: That's a superpower man. 

Mike: Exactly. Well, dude, listen, thanks for joining us today. On behalf of the whole DEN team, you know, thanks so much for your support. Thanks for being one of our strategic partners in the Atlanta market. And yeah, if anyone wants to build a house in Atlanta, an ADU, or if you wanna build something in Ellijay, hit our friend Ian Porter up, and he'll take care of you!

So with that, everybody, we'll say goodbye.