Luxury Living with Debrae Little

Wesley Knight 0:00
This is a KU NV studios original program. The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 jazz and more the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education. Dave

Debrae Little 0:47
Dave, hello and welcome to luxury living with Debray. I'm your host, Debray little, and we're here to offer interior design advice and creative inspirations for those who love beautiful living today. I'm joined by Justin Anderson, Director of Operations for bees are homes, one of Las Vegas is leading home builders, known for their strong commitment to sustainability. Together, we'll explore how Beezer homes is redefining what it means to build responsibly within the home mark, and what that looks like for today's discerning homeowners. Welcome Good morning. Debray, Oh, I'm so glad you're here. I feel like I'm going to be enlightened, and I certainly look forward to the advice that you're going to share with our listeners today who are interested in purchasing a new home and knowing what sustainability really is and what that means and how that affects them and the purchase and the home purchases that they make. Can you start by defining sustainability.

Justin Anderson 1:41
Sustainability is something that you know, everybody that owns a house, you've got somewhere to live, you've got to think about, I'm going to be here for a long time, so the long haul. So as we construct new homes, one of the things that Beezer we do is think about building a durable product with that low cost to operate later. So not only the cost of the construction, but how is this going to affect the end user? So sustainability, we can use products that have a better shelf life and then have a better useful life, as you know, people families move in and live there and make memories. So

Debrae Little 2:13
sustainability isn't necessarily about products, or is it? I mean when you say that you're building homes that are durable. That means in terms of the products that you're using to construct the home, or the materials, or the lack of off gasses, or whatever the case may be, I'm just trying to really it's a

Justin Anderson 2:35
little bit of all of that. So the materials that we use to construct the home, if we can use a material that's a little bit better in the front end, that will last a little bit longer, that's going to perform better, that's going to cost you less to operate. The sustainability is we're going to use less energy. We're going to use less later if we use something that's a little better today. So take for Windows. If we use a more high performance window, we're not going to be getting the heat or losing heat when we're trying to keep the heat on the inside of the house, we can use that material that's a little it may look a little more costly in the beginning, but we know when we do this and we've used something that's that's sustainably minded, the end user has a better product.

Debrae Little 3:13
I see, I see, so it's in for the long haul. Some of those things that you don't necessarily, as a home buyer, think about, or even fantasize over. You don't think about, oh, I'm going to have these great windows that are going to protect me from the sun and from the heat and all of that. And sometimes the homeowner is looking for bells and whistles,

Justin Anderson 3:30
sure, you know, sure. And they totally are. You know, if we've got products that are behind the walls that you don't see, you don't think about your insulation, you don't think about your windows. But those products and the way they're installed. If we've done it right, we're going to it's going to cost you less if we've done our job

Debrae Little 3:45
well, right? So you're held to, I'm assuming, a certain standard,

Justin Anderson 3:50
absolutely, absolutely building code has a standard that you know, all builders and construction companies have to follow. These are, we've kind of taken it up a notch. So we'll take ENERGY STAR program. There's a lot of talk about energy star right now, but we'll take products that are Energy Star certified and then figure out how we can put those curated products together to make a house that's, you know, responsibly built, and then the end user has a lower cost of

Debrae Little 4:14
ownership, I see, so that goes beyond a refrigerator or a dishwasher. Yes, Energy Star refrigerator.

Justin Anderson 4:22
Refrigerators are great, and so are the ENERGY STAR dishwashers. We, you know, we offer both, but some of the products that you don't get a chance to do over. You know, you can, you can move into a house and hate your carpet and replace the carpet, but, you know, realizing you've got a cold spot in your house and there's a, you know, a void in the insulation somewhere that's, that's a little, that's a tougher hill to climb.

Debrae Little 4:41
Yeah, yeah. That's something that you hope the builder has thought about and taking care of it so it doesn't ends up being a crisis for you when you, when you're when you've moved into the home. So tell me about some of the eco friendly products that are used in construction,

Justin Anderson 4:56
some of the stuff that we've you know, we haven't innovated, but we. We've we've used as housing innovations to make our houses better the windows. Windows is an easy one. So any any house, you want to have natural light inside the house, but if you use a better product, and it's not just the glass, it's the way the glazing is put together, is it a material that's that's going to have a thermal barrier, not only a thermal break in the the frame assembly, but also in the glass. So we're not going to gain as much of that Las Vegas Sun in the summer. We've got a low, low E coating on the outside, so we're reflecting some of that UV ray back outside. So we're not radiant heat on the July, August days, some of the products that we use, like, say, behind the walls, will use insulation that's made from recycled material. So our insulation has recycled content. So we've got, you know, material that's getting a second chance. And, you know, it was made for one thing and now it's being used for something else. So insulations. Some of the insulation comes 70, 75% recycled content. We've got flooring options that have recycled content in the flooring. So we use a few different products there. We've got laminated vinyl plank flooring that's made from recycled content. The carpeting is made with recycled content. So it's Wow. It's looking at, you know, curating products that that we're going to have for the end user, that have the longevity, and then they've also got, you know, that sustainability in mind,

Debrae Little 6:13
I see. So that's the that's the mix or recipe for having the durability.

Justin Anderson 6:19
Yes, it's not having to have the, you know, your window costing you 15 or $20 a month extra to heat and cool your house, because you're losing that energy that you've the air that's on the right side of the window, the conditioned air that we've paid for. We're not losing that because of our window assembly or because of our insulation assembly. So

Debrae Little 6:36
in your day to day, what is your role. What do you actually do for Beezer, and in terms of your title? We know what your title is, but what does that? What does that actually

Justin Anderson 6:47
involve? So the operations would be kind of everything vertically, for building the house, the departments that that I oversee will purchasing the construction department and then the customer care department for the the end user, also in kind of the planning, because of my role with construction and purchasing, I'm in a lot of planning, planning meetings for the design of the houses, some of the finishes, I get a little bit of a say, not too much. We have a design studio, and then our purchasing team does a great job of making sure that we've got, you know, vendors with products that that match with, match up with our curated selections in our design center. So planning meetings, I get to sit in on those, and we get to talk about things that some things that we've got, that we know that work, and some things maybe that don't work so well. I get to be part of some of those, those conversations. It's, you know, as the evolution of my career, it's been one of the things that's been a little more exciting for me as a young man. It's always fun to go play in the dirt and build something to the dream. With your hands. As I, as I've aged, I've realized, you know, some of the things I've seen in some of the places I've been, and it's been been able to have, I've been able to have some conversations with people about wins and losses and what we're trying to do moving forward. So probably one of the most exciting parts of my job is just being able to look forward and see where we're

Debrae Little 8:00
going. So having said that, where is Beezer going? Where are we going? In Las Vegas, in terms of the type of homes that we're building? I mean, I know there's a strong commitment to sustainability, so I'm assuming that things are changing. Things are changing rapidly here, and I always I understand that there is a shortage of homes. I hear that. I hear there's a shortage of affordable homes. I also hear that the concerns with heat and, you know, all the, all the various things that homeowners are concerned about, you know, our home, but the home buying market, I should say,

Justin Anderson 8:34
sure, sure customers are looking for, they've changed. So they're looking for things that are, you know, companies that have sustainability and have that, what are we doing for the planet? So some of the, some of the comments that, you know, people come through our design center, or come through any of our our model home areas, they ask different questions than they did 15 or 20 years ago. Obviously, everybody's, everybody's budgets different. So there's, there's always that budget piece that everybody has in mind. But some of the questions we get, you know, we've got solar assemblies that we're putting on the house, and they're like, how much is extra, is this going to cost me? And depending on the community, it could be completely just contained within the cost of the house. So we've got a community that's got solar panels that are included. So as we talk through, you know, here's, here's what your your house is, and this is where we're this is where we're going with with construction, we're actually building the house so that there's zero energy ready when we're done. So all of our communities have zero energy ready in mind. Zero Energy Ready is putting an assembly on the roof that you can produce the amount of energy that you're consuming, so you don't have to be dependent on the grid for all of your power needs. You're producing what you need on your own roof. So it's kind of that the person that has, maybe the outdoors in mind, or look into the future, the future proof in the house. A lot of a lot of meetings that I'm in, we're talking about things like that. How are we future proofing the house? So we're doing things today that are far beyond code, with sustainability in mind, and with that zero energy. Ready piece of the puzzle. We've got a homeowner that moves in, and then how does that shift their their thinking? Well, I can produce the sun produces the energy that I need to operate my house. What does that do to my power bill? And we've got the curated selections inside, behind the walls, and we've done the things to make sure that that solar assembly on the roof is going to provide the power that they need to live their life.

Debrae Little 10:21
That's That's pretty amazing. That's hard to be Now, how do your competitors stack up? Well, something like that.

Justin Anderson 10:28
We set the bar pretty high. So over the last few years, we've, we've chased forward with raising the bar. You know, two, three years ago, we built a great house. It was a great assembly, and we had solar ready. Was our we wanted to be solar ready. So if you bought a home from us three years ago, you're probably solar ready to means we've done everything to the house to be ready to put a solar array on the roof. But maybe it wasn't included every single one of our houses, whether or not it has a solar array on it right now, today, is ready for solar. So you can provide your own contractor, get the solar company that you like, and put an array up there, or most of the communities, as we're moving forward, we're going to provide solar on the roof, so that you have that energy independence with the mind.

Debrae Little 11:07
So then that brings me to another thought. Then, what about electric vehicles? In terms of your homes? Are you adding Absolutely? Adding that to them? Absolutely?

Justin Anderson 11:17
So each one of our homes is equipped to have an electric car charger in the garage, so behind the walls, we've already run the electrical. We've already got the disconnect in mind. It's kind of really cool how vehicle manufacturers have gotten together. So it's not just each individual manufacturer has a specific charger that they have to use. There's more. It's not quite to the point where it's like a blender. You can just plug it into the wall and it works. But we've got that electrical in the wall, so if you bring an electric car home, you've got the capability, pretty simply, to just have an attachment to the wall and be able to plug that thing and be ready to go,

Debrae Little 11:52
ready to go. Wow, I have to say that I'm impressed. I'm learning every time I learned a little bit more about each of the builders here and what they offer, and I think that's amazing. And I think my clientele, as well as our listeners, would appreciate knowing that you've thought those through. So what are your current projects coming up for the Las Vegas? Which way are you expanding? Are you continuing to go further north in your development with homes, or

Justin Anderson 12:21
we have a pretty broad footprint, I guess you'd call it. We've got projects all over town. We've got a project in Mesquite. So we have the same, the same Zero Energy Ready Homes up in Mesquite. So the kind of the 55 and over community that that really enjoys the lifestyle that you get in Mesquite, we've got the same, we do the same thing out there. We've got a lot of, we currently have a lot of houses being constructed in the Henderson area. That's probably our biggest market right now. But we've got, you know, we're moving land and turning dirt real, real fast right now. So we're back in the southwest market. We've got, we got projects going and coming soon in the northwest. So we've got a lot of, there's a lot of stuff going on right now, and it's all all of the communities are going to be kind of with the same in mind, that zero energy ready product. So we've got everything ready to where you put solar on the roof, and that solar can can power your house for you.

Debrae Little 13:13
So in terms of the does is that, I guess, what I'm trying to figure out is, is that just a particular marketplace that there's there's homes are zero ready? Is that like a certain price point, or is that like the first time buyer, or is that more the the move up buyer? Or is that a the luxury market,

Justin Anderson 13:34
or every banding? So we've got townhouse product that's zero energy ready. We have townhouse product now that has solar panels included on the roof. They come with a car charger. So we've designed the townhouse product to be self sufficient. So that solar array that goes on the roof, you're going to have the same lifestyle as, as you know, some of our bigger product, that's, that's more of a you get into the high end, larger family we've got, you know, we're in the 3000 square foot, two story house market also. And all of those the same banding, we still have the same Zero Energy Ready in mind, so that, you know, obviously the kilowatt system that you have to put on the roofs a little different from a townhouse to a 3300 square foot two story, but because of the curated products that roof, the solar that goes up there is going to power that

Debrae Little 14:17
house, I see. So something for everyone, something for every price point. I should

Justin Anderson 14:21
say, Yeah, you know, the choice part of that is, it's where you're at in life. So whether you're a first time buyer, whether you're an established family, there's some lock and leave. We have got, you know, customers that are lock and leave. They just want to place in Las Vegas, so they can bring their suitcase and have a good, good weekend, or a long weekend, and then then go back to parts unknown. We've got lock and leave. So it's pretty cool. We've, we've, you know, we're not trying to be everything to every person, but we've got something that that is is carefully thought through, that meets the lifestyle demands.

Debrae Little 14:52
No, it does. I mean, I find that, well, do you find you probably are more up on the statistics than I am? Are we still having a large number of folks moving to Las Vegas now to take advantage of our fact that there is no state income tax and some of those other things, and the property value, the cost of the property is better say, if you came from California here, then you're like, oh my god, what I can get for my dollars is just amazing. Yeah,

Justin Anderson 15:18
there's still, there are still a lot of folks that are moving here from somewhere else, just with the changing. You know, Las Vegas is the final it's not the town that ever sleeps. It's like the town that always changes. So there's, you know, the women's basketball and the hockey and we're going to baseball stadium. So there's a lot of people that come here with not only job opportunity, but that Low Income State Income Tax. We don't have it. So if you're moving from California, it's, it's definitely, I would say, when you bring your paycheck home, it's going to look different. So you have a little more, you have a little more money left after the bills go out, hopefully. But yeah, we've, we've got, you know, folks coming from all over the place that are still, they're still coming and calling Las Vegas home, which is pretty

Debrae Little 16:00
exciting. No, I think it is too it's the development and the growing. I think I'm thinking, one day we're going to run out of land soon, but until then, it's like, build on, yeah,

Justin Anderson 16:09
yeah. It's, you know, Las Vegas is a, is a land constrained area. You can go outside and look around and see mountains pretty much every direction. So you know that, you know there's not going to be, there's not going to be house all the way up the side of the side of the mountain, like there is in some places in California and in Colorado, but we sell, there's still a lot of land out that for expansion and growth. There's still, we still have a lot of potential here, and it's exciting with some of the other industry that's moving to town, that that industry that hasn't been here, you know, when I first came to I came to Las Vegas on vacation in the 90s, and it was like, I had the same conception from, you know, small town Iowa. Kid came, not came out to Las Vegas, and thought it's all just casinos. And then you, when you're flying in, you see how many houses are out here, and you're like, wow, it's more than just a, you know, just a strip of casinos on Las Vegas Boulevard. So it's exciting.

Debrae Little 16:56
Yeah, there's definitely offers a quality of life for people, and people actually live here. Yeah, yeah, go to grocery store, all of the things, all the things that everyone needs to have a sense of community does, does exist here. Let me ask you about customization and in terms of the home buyers experience at bees are homes. I know we touched on briefly about energy, Star appliances, but what other offerings are there when you when you purchase a Beezer home, beside the we talked about the solar panels and being and Durrell ready and different things like that,

Justin Anderson 17:29
choice is a big thing with Beezer. So we're going to offer you choice plans where you've got the option to pick kitchen a or kitchen B, primary bathroom a, primary bathroom B. So you're going to get those choices, and it's baked into the cost of the house. So it's not something where you've got, you know, I really like kitchen B, but it costs x amount of dollars more, so I can't afford it. So I can't, I can't live the way that I want to live in the house. We've got that choice already set up for you, so you've got, it's a different configuration, and a lot of times we'll model it one way, and then have another house we can show you that that's, here's kitchen a versus kitchen B, we've got mortgage choice, so we've got mortgage lenders that are competing for your business. So it's not, you know, if you come by from a house, a house from us, you've got to pick mortgage company, a or, you know, just bring your own, your own financing. We've got mortgage Choice Program. So we've got lenders that are competing to get your business. We've got surprising performance. We've got style choice, so the surprising performance goes into a lot of the things that we've got that a lot of people don't understand. That's behind the walls. So each model community, we're going to have a deconstructed wall assembly set up, and we've done a lot of training with our sales staff to make sure they can talk about that. So when people come in and they're like, Hey, what's this? Why do you have a wall that looks like it's included in the showroom? We can talk about the insulation. We can talk about the things that we're doing to weatherize the house. It's that surprising performance and then the style choice part of it. As far as design goes, we've got curated selections in our design centers. So every every Beezer community get, you get the opportunity to come in and go to the Design Center. And we've got curated selections for like urban, farmhouse and modern, modern, I don't know, organic. There's six or seven different, different curated selections. So you can go through and then you can pick from there and go, like, a level deeper, like, I like this color, and I want to bring this fixture over here, and it's stuff that is already been thought through. So as a as a buyer, you don't go in and just get your, like, your hair blown back, because there's so much choice with design, with flooring selections. I mean, with paint, have you? Have you ever had to try to buy white paint? Like you go to the store and say, I want white paint, and there's 56 different shades of white, and you're like, oh my goodness, which shade of white is my house? So we've got those curated selections that work together. So you've got color palette that works with not only your flooring, but your countertops, with your cabinets with the color on the walls. So we've got design centers that are set up to help you have a little more comfort in knowing that this was well thought through. These are the things that are going to help me live my life the way I'm going to live it. But a simpler step forward.

Debrae Little 19:57
It sounds as if really you're trying to. Um, help the home buyer envision what that home will look like. Absolutely, all the components. When everything is in, this is really what you're going to get. And, and it feels like it's a custom home to them.

Justin Anderson 20:10
Yeah, absolutely, yeah, absolutely. You know, being, I've bought a new house before, and, and part of it being in the in the industry, it's easy for me to look past things that are just seem like easy selections to make. But, you know, my wife's a veterinarian, she goes into a paint studio, and it's, well, which, which color white are we gonna get? And it's, there's 56 of them there, and then what, what goes with this shade of white? So we've taken some of that guesswork out of it, so you have a level of comfort that comes with knowing that you know our design, our design center is set up to help you make your selections,

Debrae Little 20:41
yeah? Which is always, it's nice, and that's where folks like myself as an interior designer come get involved in the process. Especially, maybe, perhaps they've gone to the Design Center and maybe just chose white, yeah, and said, You know what? Maybe your daughter's room needs to be pink. Maybe, absolutely, maybe your husband's study, or this room you set aside, needs to be, you know, something that refreshes him and he feels like he's energized, and maybe we need to paint that green. And then, for that matter, maybe, you know grandma that comes to visit that room downstairs, you know, she wants it yellow, because that was her favorite color back in the day, makes her happy. Yeah. And so it's nice to have those options, but it's nice to rely on people like myself to come in and assist with those decisions. If it when it comes down to it, because I specialize, as you know, interior designers specialize in customization. That's what we do. We try to personalize a space for that that family or that individual who has purchased a home or needs to in this, in my instance, remodel, because I do a lot of renovations. Sure, what advances in home building, and we may have already touched on this, are most exciting, or you're excited about that's coming up in 2026, and beyond. I mean, there's AI, and everyone keeps talking about AI. Is that some kind of integration that will happen in the home building process, or is it something that will become something that customers will be able to use say they've purchased a home and they're ready to customize it? Are there going to be a screen that comes up and shows what your finished project will look like if I've painted my bathroom blue or as opposed to red?

Justin Anderson 22:21
Yeah, there's, there's a little bit of AI that we're, we're sprinkling in right now in construction. There's probably the thing that I'm more excited about than, say, AI is just recycled product and recycled content. So, you know, if I had to say, one of the innovations that I look forward to are hearing about products that that have been one thing, and now they're, they're coming out, and they're, they get a life as something else, so that recycled the content with the, you know, that sustainability mindset AI is cool. We've, we've started, you know, just dipped our toe in the water, I think, with AI. So it'll be curious to see where that goes in construction, as far as if we've able to automate some of the assemblies. You know, I know they build cars with fully automated plants. Our manufacturing facility for houses are out on site. So I don't know how that would look with, you know, AI driven stuff, but to your point, being able to see a color on a wall before it's actually constructed, I could see where AI would come in, you know, in the design part of it, where we could get a get a feeling or a sense for how it's going to look when it's done,

Debrae Little 23:23
right? I think that would be just really helpful to a home buyer, sure, because, as you mentioned, with your wife, is going in and seeing, you know, 52 different shades of white, and what is that going to look like under the lighting at our home? And those are difficult decisions for homeowners.

Justin Anderson 23:40
Absolutely. Yeah. And you know, we rely on a lot of design professionals like yourself to make sure that the buyers feel comfortable. And you know, that's where our design centers got set up. Was we had, we have interior designers that curated these selections to try to just take another level of just peace and comfort. So when people come in there, they have a comfortable experience in our design center, so they don't feel like there. There's too much to try to think about. We've, we've put these things together, and it looks great, right? So we like this, and we like this. So then you can pick between A and B, or, you know, F and C, you can, you can make your selection, and then you know that it was design minded, you're going to have a good product when it's all done.

Debrae Little 24:16
So let me ask you, and because I will have to say, I haven't been into a Beezer model recently, are you? Are any of your your homes that you're constructing have fireplaces, and then

Justin Anderson 24:28
we have some it kind of, it depends on the where we're building. In town, like our 55 and over community, we offer fireplace, but we don't have gas in any of our communities, so it's all electric, yeah, so with the sustainability part, we've we've built it to where you don't have to be mining for gas out in your backyard so that you heat your house. We've got it with electricity, but we offer electric fireplaces in in a handful of communities around town. So it is an option, and we, we do, you know, somebody will tour a community that. That has a fireplace modeled, and then the their purchase, they it's important to them, so we'll, you know, we'll write up an option for them to come in and be able to pay for that fireplace. So it's not a hard No, but it's just not modeled and offered it in some of the communities. But we do, we do offer fireplaces.

Debrae Little 25:15
Yes. So for today's home buyer, what advice would you give them if they're coming out and they're they're looking they're on the hunt for that that new home, what advice would you give them in terms of what they should really know, or what would you like them to know or have them be aware of in their house? Hunting journey

Justin Anderson 25:36
one of the things that so if, if my sister was buying a house, and she says, I know where you work and I know who you work for. What advice would you give me about buying a new house? I would tell her to search beyond just monthly payment. What's that cost of ownership? If you're you know, looking through different model home communities, ask them what it costs to operate. We've all in the building industry. We all have to have our houses modeled So, and I don't mean modeled like for you and I to walk through to see the finishes, but we have to have it modeled with energy consumption in mind. So what, what does a model of the energy bill look like? What is your let go bill going to look like? What is that cost of ownership? And figure, not only your monthly payment, but if my monthly payment is is going to be x over here, but my monthly savings, because I'm using less energy on this product over here. What does that do for your monthly budget? What does that do for you? Know, how you've how you've been able to live in your house? So what? What's that? What does that look like for you?

Debrae Little 26:29
I wanted to ask you about this might be an interesting question, but in terms of lawns, lawn care and that type of thing when you build a house, I'm assuming that the lawns and the landscaping work is not done Correct. Or

Justin Anderson 26:43
the front yard, we have every single front yard is done. The rear yard, we don't offer landscape packages, okay?

Debrae Little 26:49
But on the landscape packages from the front yard, is that artificial? Is that artificial grass? Or we

Justin Anderson 26:55
will not put in artificial turf, or real turf for the most part. We'll use water smart so we use water smart fixtures throughout the house. And then also we try to plant drought tolerant materials in the front yards. So trees and shrubs that probably aren't native, if you drive from here to California to know what's native, but we use the different plants that can do well here with a little bit of water. So yeah, just drippers. So it's, it's mostly drippers. So trying to be water conscious also is one of the things that, you know, we're trying to make sure that we're not doing stuff that that is sort of counterproductive for the area that we live. It's a desert out there, right?

Debrae Little 27:34
It is. Well, I had to get that in because that's, that's a question that I had someone asked me recently, and I was like, I don't think it's finished with a landscaping package, but that's something that most of the time, I find that there's customization there, but I'm just curious, as if we bought a house, whether or not that would be something that would be already included. So I want to say thank you for joining us on luxury living with Debray. Thank you. A special thanks to Justin Anderson and the team at bees are homes for sharing their insights on sustainability and innovation in today's home market. As always, I hope the conversation leaves you inspired to think about how thoughtful design and mindful building can innovate the way we live. I'm Debray little reminding you that true luxury isn't just what we see, it's what we feel when we're surrounded by beauty, comfort and intention. Until next time, stay inspired and keep designing your best life. Stay tuned for more episodes of luxury living with Debray on K, U, n, b, 91.5, every third Sunday at 9:30am I.

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