Pat Perrino has built an impressive portfolio of over 300 homes throughout the Cleveland area suburbs. He kept hearing about Epcon and decide to take the leap and become an Epcon Franchise Builder.
“ You’ve got mentors that can tell you exactly what to do. They’ve done it, they’ve already had the pitfalls. So that to me is very valuable, especially being in a business where I had no help.”
Host: Pat, thank you for sitting down and chatting today. I just wanted to start out and learn a little more about your story and your career. Did you come from home building and why home building?
Pat Perrino of Perrino Custom Builders: My uncles poured concrete. They did masonry and concrete, all my life I was around that. I started in the collision business because it was easier. Started working at a gas station and from there, I started doing body work and I opened a collision shop. I always wanted to be an architect, but I was terrible in school.
So I wound up opening a body shop when I was 17 years old and then wound up blowing it up. We all of a sudden I had guys there that were running the place for me and it really went pretty big, pretty fast.
And so we went to Arizona, me and my family went to Arizona for 10 days because my uncles would disappear there when they weren’t doing concrete because of the wintertime. So it would shut down the concrete [business]. So they’d go there and say, why don’t you come and see where we’re at, what we’re doing? So I did and we loved it.
And the following year we went and I started looking at houses just because we had a lot to do and nothing to do. Certain days we’d look at homes and I’d say, boy these things are really nice. And I built it with a builder and the builder wasn’t that great. I had to keep calling the architect and tell him, I think this is wrong, that’s wrong. Long story short, he came to see the house when it was completed and he goes, why don’t you get into this business?
And I was like, well I always wanted to, but the banks want a track record and I’d have to build houses and I have to go back to work. I go back to my business and my business was kind of running itself with managers and that sort of thing. So he says, well I’m doing like three or four a year. Why don’t you come and build with me and then you can create your own name. We’ll just do them together and then you can go on your own. Because then you’ll have the resources of building homes for the bank track record. So I did do that, and then I built like three or four projects with him and then went on my own into the custom building business.
So that’s how I got in it. And that was 35 years ago.
Host: So let’s fast forward a little bit. 35 years in the industry. How did you get involved with Epcon Franchising?
Pat: Well, with the body shop after being in business for 10 years, they approached me to become a franchise of CARSTAR.
And I did because the guy that approached me was another body shop owner. But there was a program called ARMS that pretty much changed the body shop industry. In Cleveland, we were all running mom and pop stores and we went to this program and they held it in schools and they changed the whole industry.
And so when a friend of mine who owned the shop came and said, they want to know if you want to become a franchise. I was looking for a franchise in building.
Then I heard about Epcon and I came and looked at Epcon. I decided not to do it.
Then I was talking to my banker and I was going to build apartments and I took him to see the location of where I wanted to build the apartments. And then I said, I want to show you my son’s body shop, which we just had built for him, a new one. So I took him there and I was telling him about the story, about the franchise, and I was telling him about how they helped. The whole thing. And he says, you need to join Epcon.
And I said, well let me look into it again. So then I called and said, okay I want to get involved. And Epcon said, well the east side is gone, but we still have the west side. Now I’d never really operated on the west side, so I said, okay I’ll take the west side. So we did. And that’s where we have a community that’s up right now.
Host: What have been some of the biggest benefits that you’ve experienced in your business since joining the Epcon network?
Pat: Amy with sales has been really incredible with our sales people, and just the support system. And I knew my son could never have taken over my collision shop, bought it, exploded it and sold it to consolidators. Now he’s running the building business, so he’s going to take that over from me within the next couple years.
So we still have our custom side going, but we really see the Epcon side [as] being a big part of our business going on and with all the systems and with all the people you could talk to, it’s just very valuable.
Host: So one of the things I want to talk with you about is the design detail that you bring into the Epcon product. And I’m wondering, is that coming from your custom background? What has that transition been like to go from custom over to the Epcon product?
Pat: It comes from my custom background and it comes from me wanting to make an impression when someone walks into each room. I want a “Wow!” factor.
I want them to go “Wow!” Walk into the foyer, walk into the family room, “Wow!” Kitchen, “Wow, wow, wow, wow!”. You know, that has always been what I do and I love the custom side of it. Sometimes they have to hold me back, because I want to do too many things.
I like the add-ons. I like doing things that are different. I’m constantly learning. And then I have great designers. My designers have been with me out of college. My lead designer and the other one’s been with us for about five years.
So they do every remodel job, they do every custom job and they do every Epcon job. And so they’ve gotten really good. And then my carpenters and my painters, they’ve been [on] just about every house with me, so they think how I think. If I tell them I want [a] beam ceiling built, I don’t have to give them a complete drawing. They know how to build it.
Or if I want trusses in a cathedral ceiling, or I want wainscoting in the foyer, or we built a coffee bar and a bourbon bar in our Promenade model with hidden doors so you could hide it and so we do things like that. We do a lot of ceiling treatments, a lot of wall treatments.
Host: Let’s shift gears a little bit and talk about the challenges that you’ve faced along the way. Some of the challenges I’m thinking about might be going from custom building over to the Epcon product. Have there been any challenges in that transition?
Pat: Um, keeping pace is a challenge, [but] I think we got that down. We could build them fast enough, it’s the cost factor, the marketing factor of it.
Host: What advice would you give to a builder who’s on the fence and not sure which way to go?
Pat: I would say it’s a great way to go because what you learn, you cannot learn on your own. You would have to trial and error. You guys have already trial-ed and error-ed it. And that’s what I love about franchises, that’s what I love about [builder] 20 groups, with people that have experience.
That to me is very valuable, especially being in business where I had no help. I’m not the same builder that I was 35 years ago when I started. I mean, through experience, you learn all these things and they bring an invaluable amount of experience to the table.
I love building because you can see what you do, especially if you do things that are a little bit different, you know? Every house is different. Every house kind of takes [on] a life of its own.
I love the excitement. I love the creation. They’ll be here much longer than I’m going to be here.
To learn more about Pat’s story, watch Invaluable Support and Mentors.