May 22, 2024 • 10 mins
Embark on a journey into the heart of custom home construction with our esteemed guest, Peter Rotelli of Rotelli homes, a name that's become a byword for unparalleled craftsmanship in homebuilding. Alongside his powerhouse team, COO Anthony Holosco and CFO Paul Farnsworth, Peter opens up about the evolution of their business post-2008, weaving stories of resilience with a dedication to crafting homes that aren't just living spaces, but reflections of the individuality and dreams of their clients. From pet showers to grand entrances, their in-house experts ensure every whim is brought to life. Studio E's comprehensive package simplifies the complexities of construction, letting you delight in handpicking the details that will eventually echo through the halls of your new home.
Feel the thrill of transformation as you listen to how the Rotelli team demystifies the custom home construction process, transforming it from a daunting endeavor to an exciting creative collaboration. They paint a vivid picture of the client's experience, from managing the nuts and bolts of site improvements to the joy of choosing those final touches that make a house a home. With the expertise of Rotelli, the path to your personalized sanctuary is laden with ease and assurance, culminating in that magical moment when you are handed the keys to your dream realized. If you've ever harbored the dream of building a home that tells your story, this episode is your blueprint to making it a reality.
Feel the thrill of transformation as you listen to how the Rotelli team demystifies the custom home construction process, transforming it from a daunting endeavor to an exciting creative collaboration. They paint a vivid picture of the client's experience, from managing the nuts and bolts of site improvements to the joy of choosing those final touches that make a house a home. With the expertise of Rotelli, the path to your personalized sanctuary is laden with ease and assurance, culminating in that magical moment when you are handed the keys to your dream realized. If you've ever harbored the dream of building a home that tells your story, this episode is your blueprint to making it a reality.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Okay, here we are with another episode of the best
of the best.
Therese, who do you have today?
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Well, I have one of the best of the best right here
with me, Peter Rotelli.
We've known each other for areally long time, haven't we?
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Yes, we have.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Well, I am a middle-aged man, he's also a
jokester.
Yeah, hey, thanks for having meon.
So I'll tell you a little bitabout Rotelli.
We've been in business for 35years.
We have an amazing staff here,a lot of tenureship.
We have Anthony Holosco, who'sthe COO, been here for 25 years.
(00:39):
Paul Farnsworth, the CFO he'sbeen here for over 20.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Side note I graduated with him.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
I know that.
That's when I asked your age.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
I knew your age before I see you knew it.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
So and you know, we just have a, we've been doing
this for a long time thebusiness model has changed over
the years.
Really, the pandemic, not thepandemic the crash of 2008
really changed things and we'rehitting stride and we have a
unique thing going and wedeliver just an amazing, amazing
product.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Yeah, so I think that's one of the things that I
find most is when I'm dealingwith buyers of new construction.
You hear the complaints, youknow the stories.
They're not happy.
You know we don't have thatwith you.
We really have very happycustomers and clients at the end
.
I think you do a really goodjob making sure that the buyer's
vision of what they wantactually comes through, and
(01:32):
that's something I think uniqueto Studio E.
I think you should talk aboutthat a little bit.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
For sure.
Yeah, well, it's just, you know, and it's becoming more and
more unique actually to newconstruction as things have
changed.
The pandemic really pushed withsupply chain issues, that a lot
of the we have seven publiccompanies that build in our
marketplace and the publiccompanies are actually narrowing
down their scope of what youcan change.
(01:58):
You can't move an outlet, youcan't move a window, you can't
add this and that, and, as youknow, our model is we have an
in-house architect, we haveinterior designers, so we
encourage you to build a housethat fits your lifestyle.
And so, as they get morerestrictive, we haven't changed
(02:19):
anything.
We're still allowing people todo what they do.
So, at the end of the day,really, what we do is we kind of
compete with that 800, 500 to700 area, over a million.
We compete with the publiccompanies that build that, but
we allow you to customize it.
(02:40):
You can personalize it to fithow you live, to customize it.
You can personalize it to fityou know how you live.
We're really quick to changeand picking up the new trends.
Where a larger company isbigger ship, harder to turn For
us.
You know, we're kind of we'reentrenched in what we do.
We love it, we're passionateabout it, and then we follow
through right throughconstruction and then deliver an
amazing product at the end ofthe day.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Yeah, yeah, and I think the lifestyle piece, you
know you have all these littletouches that you do.
You know if someone has a pet,you're finding a way to put in a
pet shower, or these littlethings that just you don't think
of when you're building a house, because you're going into
these larger track builders andyou're seeing the model and
there's some choices veryminimal amount of choices, um
and you're stuck with that.
(03:22):
Like you said, you can't move awall, you can't add a few
things unless you do it aftersettlement.
Who wants to go intoconstruction again after they've
already moved?
Speaker 1 (03:31):
in so.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
I think the process here is come to the studio.
You get to see the sandbox,which I think is super cool, and
you can see where's your housegoing to sit on this lot and
taking people through thateducation process is something
that most people don't do, andit takes away a lot of the
questions during the process too, and it makes the buyers more
educated.
So I think, that's anotherniche that you have.
(03:52):
That's really cool.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Yeah, yeah, thanks.
So one of the things that Ithink is important is to shed a
light on on what we do behindthe scenes.
We do a lot of heavy lifting.
So to build a custom home todayis Pretty complicated and
pretty tricky.
Two decades ago, I think,anybody could, you know.
(04:14):
You could get approvals and youcould hire a contractor and
kind of muddle your way throughit and build a house.
Today it's become reallysophisticated.
There's a lot of approvalprocess.
So we're set up here at Studio Ereally, and we're the only full
service where, if you come inand you do not own a lot and
(04:35):
you're interested in finding outwhat we do, we have a wonderful
studio here.
Obviously it's tricked out,it's kind of eclectic.
We appeal to every taste.
That's right.
That's kind of.
You know.
We want to show you a littlebit of everything.
So if you don't know your taste, that you know, you can point
stuff out and we can show youpictures and we can pull stuff
up on the screen.
(04:55):
But at the end of the day weare the only company here that
will actually take you in.
We'll source a lot for you.
We use a great real estatecompany.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Keller Williams.
You know, and so we'll source apiece of ground for you.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
We do something that we have proprietary that we call
lot scrub, which will say, hey,you know, and uh, so we'll
source a piece of ground for you.
We do something that we haveproprietary that we call lot
scrub, uh, which will say, hey,you know, you have a, you have a
lot here they're selling for150 000.
We run it through thisproprietary, you know algorithm
that we've put together.
That's taken us years to kindof establish.
That's going to tell us howmuch that lot is going to cost
(05:30):
to put your improvements on it.
And with an industry that hasbeen kind of plagued with a lot
of regulation, those costs havegone up.
So it could be a a hugesurprise Someone who buys a lot
without this lot scrub.
They come back to us andthey're shocked to find out.
(05:52):
You know, maybe I boughtsomething I shouldn't have
bought, right?
Because it's not absurd to finda hundred or a hundred and some
thousand dollars worth of siteimprovement costs that need to
be done after you alreadypurchased your lot.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Yeah, and they're adding more and more regulations
and more conditions, and everyone of those is expensive.
Just keeps going up, yeah, andsometimes you can't even put the
house where you think youwanted to put the house.
So I think that's one of thethings buyers go in almost
blindly, sometimes relying onmaybe just a real estate agent
to say, hey, this is a great lot, let's buy it.
And then all of a sudden youpurchased a lot and now you
(06:26):
can't build the house or it'sgoing to cost you 300,000 more
than you thought so this couldbe a really great opportunity to
come in and just get thateducation on.
what could it cost?
To really build this property,and then we can build a property
around your vision.
That's right, which is so cool.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Yeah, so, uh.
So it's definitely acollaboration between the real
estate community and us as abuilder.
The real estate communityreally understands land and
housing.
So you know, if you have aclient that you're interested
and you can't find something,bring the client to us.
Okay, we're pretty easy, youknow, and what we know is we
know all land and we knowhousing and construction and we
(07:03):
do a really tremendous job withthat.
We're an education center here.
You know, we say, hey, this isStudio E, we're a custom builder
, but really we're an educationcenter to bring someone in.
And if you're not ready and youthink you're going to move in
five or six years, plant theseed now, find out the process,
how it takes place, how it works.
I mean, that's what we want todo.
So we want traffic to come inhere, look at the studio and be
(07:25):
able to talk to you and say, hey, you know, someday or if you're
ready now, let's start lookingfor lots for you.
Because it definitely is aprocess.
It takes time.
Versus if you're going intocommunity and you're buying a
track house, it may be an eightmonth process.
Here we're touching about 12months.
If everything fires on allcylinders, you come in, we
source a piece of ground for you, we gain approvals, we get a
(07:48):
building permit, we beginconstruction.
Once we begin construction,then we can, we can work, we can
tell you the timing of things.
It's tough up until then whenwe have different municipalities
that are involved.
You know to be able to give youtiming, but roughly it's about
a 12 to 14 month process.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Okay, and that's good to know, cause I think people
in their head for some reasonthink it's that eight to 10
months, but that's more of a,you know, going into a new
construction development whereeverything's been done already.
Okay.
I think the other thing tomention too is you're so easy to
work with as a real estateagent.
I find that you know we canalways get ahold of you for
questions answers.
You're very honest.
You'll let us know right awaybefore we spend a lot of time.
(08:25):
Hey, that lot's just not goingto cut it, sure, and it saves
the buyer at the end of the daya lot of wasted time and energy.
So I appreciate that from you,yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Well, thank you, and we we we appreciate, we love
working with you guys.
So one of the things that Ididn't mention that I do want to
bring up is, when it comes downto the site improvement costs.
One of the things that we dowhen we do our lot scrub, we
give you an estimate for thatand that cost.
We go ahead and we do that, wesub it out because we have
contracts with well diggers, wehave contracts with septic
(09:00):
companies, contracts with allthe different professionals that
are needed to be able to getthis done.
We pass that along free ofcharge.
All we want is the opportunityto build you a house.
So, and again, if you take thisentire package, that what we
offer and you put a red bow onit, that's what we do and at the
end of the day, all the heavylifting is done behind the
(09:21):
scenes and our goal ultimately,is have the client come here,
the real estate agent droppedthem off we're happy to pay
commission on them, and then theclient has all the fun stuff
picking the colors, bringing youknow Pinterest stuff in and we
build the house and we gothrough all this stuff, the
township and everything and atthe end of the day we get to
(09:43):
turn the keys over and they havea beautiful custom home.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Yeah, I love that, so I listen, if you're out there
listening.
I think one of the things youshould take away from this is,
if you have thought aboutbuilding um or it's a dream, you
should make an appointment,come in and find out if that
dream can become a reality hereand get the education.
It's such a great idea.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
We're easy peasy, man .
Stop on in.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Peter, thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Thanks, great to be here.
Okay, here we are with another episode of the best
of the best.
Therese, who do you have today?
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Well, I have one of the best of the best right here
with me, Peter Rotelli.
We've known each other for areally long time, haven't we?
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Yes, we have.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Well, I am a middle-aged man, he's also a
jokester.
Yeah, hey, thanks for having meon.
So I'll tell you a little bitabout Rotelli.
We've been in business for 35years.
We have an amazing staff here,a lot of tenureship.
We have Anthony Holosco, who'sthe COO, been here for 25 years.
(00:39):
Paul Farnsworth, the CFO he'sbeen here for over 20.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Side note I graduated with him.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
I know that.
That's when I asked your age.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
I knew your age before I see you knew it.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
So and you know, we just have a, we've been doing
this for a long time thebusiness model has changed over
the years.
Really, the pandemic, not thepandemic the crash of 2008
really changed things and we'rehitting stride and we have a
unique thing going and wedeliver just an amazing, amazing
product.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Yeah, so I think that's one of the things that I
find most is when I'm dealingwith buyers of new construction.
You hear the complaints, youknow the stories.
They're not happy.
You know we don't have thatwith you.
We really have very happycustomers and clients at the end
.
I think you do a really goodjob making sure that the buyer's
vision of what they wantactually comes through, and
(01:32):
that's something I think uniqueto Studio E.
I think you should talk aboutthat a little bit.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
For sure.
Yeah, well, it's just, you know, and it's becoming more and
more unique actually to newconstruction as things have
changed.
The pandemic really pushed withsupply chain issues, that a lot
of the we have seven publiccompanies that build in our
marketplace and the publiccompanies are actually narrowing
down their scope of what youcan change.
(01:58):
You can't move an outlet, youcan't move a window, you can't
add this and that, and, as youknow, our model is we have an
in-house architect, we haveinterior designers, so we
encourage you to build a housethat fits your lifestyle.
And so, as they get morerestrictive, we haven't changed
(02:19):
anything.
We're still allowing people todo what they do.
So, at the end of the day,really, what we do is we kind of
compete with that 800, 500 to700 area, over a million.
We compete with the publiccompanies that build that, but
we allow you to customize it.
(02:40):
You can personalize it to fithow you live, to customize it.
You can personalize it to fityou know how you live.
We're really quick to changeand picking up the new trends.
Where a larger company isbigger ship, harder to turn For
us.
You know, we're kind of we'reentrenched in what we do.
We love it, we're passionateabout it, and then we follow
through right throughconstruction and then deliver an
amazing product at the end ofthe day.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Yeah, yeah, and I think the lifestyle piece, you
know you have all these littletouches that you do.
You know if someone has a pet,you're finding a way to put in a
pet shower, or these littlethings that just you don't think
of when you're building a house, because you're going into
these larger track builders andyou're seeing the model and
there's some choices veryminimal amount of choices, um
and you're stuck with that.
(03:22):
Like you said, you can't move awall, you can't add a few
things unless you do it aftersettlement.
Who wants to go intoconstruction again after they've
already moved?
Speaker 1 (03:31):
in so.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
I think the process here is come to the studio.
You get to see the sandbox,which I think is super cool, and
you can see where's your housegoing to sit on this lot and
taking people through thateducation process is something
that most people don't do, andit takes away a lot of the
questions during the process too, and it makes the buyers more
educated.
So I think, that's anotherniche that you have.
(03:52):
That's really cool.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Yeah, yeah, thanks.
So one of the things that Ithink is important is to shed a
light on on what we do behindthe scenes.
We do a lot of heavy lifting.
So to build a custom home todayis Pretty complicated and
pretty tricky.
Two decades ago, I think,anybody could, you know.
(04:14):
You could get approvals and youcould hire a contractor and
kind of muddle your way throughit and build a house.
Today it's become reallysophisticated.
There's a lot of approvalprocess.
So we're set up here at Studio Ereally, and we're the only full
service where, if you come inand you do not own a lot and
(04:35):
you're interested in finding outwhat we do, we have a wonderful
studio here.
Obviously it's tricked out,it's kind of eclectic.
We appeal to every taste.
That's right.
That's kind of.
You know.
We want to show you a littlebit of everything.
So if you don't know your taste, that you know, you can point
stuff out and we can show youpictures and we can pull stuff
up on the screen.
(04:55):
But at the end of the day weare the only company here that
will actually take you in.
We'll source a lot for you.
We use a great real estatecompany.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Keller Williams.
You know, and so we'll source apiece of ground for you.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
We do something that we have proprietary that we call
lot scrub, which will say, hey,you know, and uh, so we'll
source a piece of ground for you.
We do something that we haveproprietary that we call lot
scrub, uh, which will say, hey,you know, you have a, you have a
lot here they're selling for150 000.
We run it through thisproprietary, you know algorithm
that we've put together.
That's taken us years to kindof establish.
That's going to tell us howmuch that lot is going to cost
(05:30):
to put your improvements on it.
And with an industry that hasbeen kind of plagued with a lot
of regulation, those costs havegone up.
So it could be a a hugesurprise Someone who buys a lot
without this lot scrub.
They come back to us andthey're shocked to find out.
(05:52):
You know, maybe I boughtsomething I shouldn't have
bought, right?
Because it's not absurd to finda hundred or a hundred and some
thousand dollars worth of siteimprovement costs that need to
be done after you alreadypurchased your lot.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Yeah, and they're adding more and more regulations
and more conditions, and everyone of those is expensive.
Just keeps going up, yeah, andsometimes you can't even put the
house where you think youwanted to put the house.
So I think that's one of thethings buyers go in almost
blindly, sometimes relying onmaybe just a real estate agent
to say, hey, this is a great lot, let's buy it.
And then all of a sudden youpurchased a lot and now you
(06:26):
can't build the house or it'sgoing to cost you 300,000 more
than you thought so this couldbe a really great opportunity to
come in and just get thateducation on.
what could it cost?
To really build this property,and then we can build a property
around your vision.
That's right, which is so cool.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Yeah, so, uh.
So it's definitely acollaboration between the real
estate community and us as abuilder.
The real estate communityreally understands land and
housing.
So you know, if you have aclient that you're interested
and you can't find something,bring the client to us.
Okay, we're pretty easy, youknow, and what we know is we
know all land and we knowhousing and construction and we
(07:03):
do a really tremendous job withthat.
We're an education center here.
You know, we say, hey, this isStudio E, we're a custom builder
, but really we're an educationcenter to bring someone in.
And if you're not ready and youthink you're going to move in
five or six years, plant theseed now, find out the process,
how it takes place, how it works.
I mean, that's what we want todo.
So we want traffic to come inhere, look at the studio and be
(07:25):
able to talk to you and say, hey, you know, someday or if you're
ready now, let's start lookingfor lots for you.
Because it definitely is aprocess.
It takes time.
Versus if you're going intocommunity and you're buying a
track house, it may be an eightmonth process.
Here we're touching about 12months.
If everything fires on allcylinders, you come in, we
source a piece of ground for you, we gain approvals, we get a
(07:48):
building permit, we beginconstruction.
Once we begin construction,then we can, we can work, we can
tell you the timing of things.
It's tough up until then whenwe have different municipalities
that are involved.
You know to be able to give youtiming, but roughly it's about
a 12 to 14 month process.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Okay, and that's good to know, cause I think people
in their head for some reasonthink it's that eight to 10
months, but that's more of a,you know, going into a new
construction development whereeverything's been done already.
Okay.
I think the other thing tomention too is you're so easy to
work with as a real estateagent.
I find that you know we canalways get ahold of you for
questions answers.
You're very honest.
You'll let us know right awaybefore we spend a lot of time.
(08:25):
Hey, that lot's just not goingto cut it, sure, and it saves
the buyer at the end of the daya lot of wasted time and energy.
So I appreciate that from you,yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Well, thank you, and we we we appreciate, we love
working with you guys.
So one of the things that Ididn't mention that I do want to
bring up is, when it comes downto the site improvement costs.
One of the things that we dowhen we do our lot scrub, we
give you an estimate for thatand that cost.
We go ahead and we do that, wesub it out because we have
contracts with well diggers, wehave contracts with septic
(09:00):
companies, contracts with allthe different professionals that
are needed to be able to getthis done.
We pass that along free ofcharge.
All we want is the opportunityto build you a house.
So, and again, if you take thisentire package, that what we
offer and you put a red bow onit, that's what we do and at the
end of the day, all the heavylifting is done behind the
(09:21):
scenes and our goal ultimately,is have the client come here,
the real estate agent droppedthem off we're happy to pay
commission on them, and then theclient has all the fun stuff
picking the colors, bringing youknow Pinterest stuff in and we
build the house and we gothrough all this stuff, the
township and everything and atthe end of the day we get to
(09:43):
turn the keys over and they havea beautiful custom home.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Yeah, I love that, so I listen, if you're out there
listening.
I think one of the things youshould take away from this is,
if you have thought aboutbuilding um or it's a dream, you
should make an appointment,come in and find out if that
dream can become a reality hereand get the education.
It's such a great idea.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
We're easy peasy, man .
Stop on in.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Peter, thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Thanks, great to be here.
Popular Podcasts
Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club
Welcome to Bookmarked by Reese’s Book Club — the podcast where great stories, bold women, and irresistible conversations collide! Hosted by award-winning journalist Danielle Robay, each week new episodes balance thoughtful literary insight with the fervor of buzzy book trends, pop culture and more. Bookmarked brings together celebrities, tastemakers, influencers and authors from Reese's Book Club and beyond to share stories that transcend the page. Pull up a chair. You’re not just listening — you’re part of the conversation.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com