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Welcome to The Legacy Investor Podcast, where we talk money, investing, business, and what it means to leave a legacy for generations to come. Hosted by Cameron Philgreen, this show dives deep into the intersection of entrepreneurship, investing, and legacy-building, all while keeping God at the center. Whether you're a seasoned investor or just starting out, you'll discover how to align your financial journey with your faith, grow wealth with integrity, and create a lasting impact for generations to come. Join in, as we explore practical strategies, real-world stories, and timeless biblical principles to help you honor God in every step of your journey.
All right. Who out there needs a few tactical tips and tricks for your construction projects or design projects? Interior designer, consultant, remodeling expert Erika Kalkofen with me on the podcast today. had a great conversation about the burr method and construction projects and real estate projects this is such a cool business like she helps people have more peace in their mind and their heart and their home by helping them make sure their construction projects go smoother we all know we've all been in the construction project that's in our own kitchen or our own bathroom our own house and it's just stressful you know trying to figure out where do i make my coffee in the morning and how do I make meals and trying to deal with the kids and the pets and everything. And she helps people just think about that ahead of time and prepare for that ahead of time and just make sure all the puzzle pieces are there so that there's no delays or bottlenecks. And she's just bringing peace to people's homes. And I think that's so cool so that they can, you know, get through the remodel and love the place where they live so that they can do what they're called to do. So let's get into it with Erica and welcome to the Legacy Investor Podcast with Cameron Phil Green. Bye-bye. Okay, Erica Kalkofen, good to see you. Where are you out in the world and what are you up to today? Hey, thank you so much, Cameron. I am just west of Denver in Lakewood, Colorado. It is absolutely gorgeous today and I'm enjoying the sunshine and the blue, blue skies that are out there. Love it. Well, I was excited to have you on the show. It sounds like we have a lot in common. I mean, it sounds like you're either renovating houses yourself or helping people renovate within a budget and hopefully help them to do it right the first time so they can continue living life outside of the construction zone. So just tell us everything you do and catch us up to speed on your story and everything about Erica. Yeah, so in a nutshell, I do homes. I've done everything from property management, hospitality, rentals. I own my own rentals. I help people remodel either their first, second, or third home. I have a lot of repeat clients that we help complete the decor for. And my firm is, yes, we are technically interior designers, but I prefer to say that I'm actually a remodeling designer because typically we're not starting from a blank slate. We're starting from what is existing and we're improving workflows, we're improving room size, we're improving the energy of the house. And really getting into the nuts and bolts of everything from framing, AC, furnaces, windows, doors, trim, and then rough plumbing, rough electrical, and then bringing it back up. Wow, cool. So I was sharing off air. You know, everyone, a lot of people listening are real estate investors. And if you're investing in real estate, you're probably doing some kind of construction. It's one of those things that no one knows until they get into... Real estate investing, no one knows that 90% of my job as a real estate investor is forced appreciation. You can either raise rents or you can improve the property. And 90% of the time, what I'm doing is improving the property. And that is just a fancy way of saying it's construction. Yeah. I mean, a lot of people listening are construction people or they own a house or are going to own a house someday and they're going to do a remodel. Most people in their lifetime are going to do several, at least one home remodel. So give us some tips and tricks, everything Erica has to offer. Let's just put it all on the table. Well, we could be here for a couple of days. I love it. Love it. So I agree with you. You know, as a serial remodeler myself, I think I've remodeled or improved every single home I have lived in. Mind you, I've moved 31 times, which is a little ridiculous. But it's like a job hazard at this point. Right. Right. And when I when I'm working with clients, I usually ask them, you know, have you worked or done a home remodel before? Most of the time, people are going to do anywhere between zero and three remodels in their entire lifetime. I'm guessing you're probably closer to the 20 some, maybe 40 some. I have well over 600 projects that I've completed over 22 years. So, yeah. um so the main thing is make sure you have your workflow set up before you tear your kitchen apart like figure out where a backup kitchen is going to be if indeed living in the house like nothing will make you crazier than trying to find your coffee the day after demo and not being able to find it totally doesn't set your day up right for anything, right? And then second thing with that is really have a clear, concrete plan for moving forward. If you are working specifically on your primary residence, I usually like to get as much of the product into the garage or storage unit before we do the demo so that the time compression can remain as small as possible. Yeah. That's good. Yeah, that's what I do. Well, not speaking for primary residences as much. It sounds like most of what you do is on the owner-occupied places, but we can talk about non-owner-occupied too if you want. But yeah, my guys, I have this construction crew that I use pretty much recurring. And if the material is there... they will kill it they will put the puzzle together so quickly it's amazing how fast this crew of like five or six guys is if the material is not there that's like a huge that's the bottleneck like i'm the bottleneck at that point and so uh yeah most construction crews can go pretty fast if they have all the puzzle pieces they're ready to go so all right so so yeah know where your second kitchen and bathroom and coffee is going to be Have the material there ready to go. What else do you feel like is your forte or a strength that you have in the construction space? For specifically working with homeowners, whether it's their primary residence or their secondary residence, I do a lot of work up in the mountains by Winter Park, Grand Lake, Colorado. And when... We are talking investment into their home. I do utilize a budgeting worksheet that helps break down the cost for everything from demo and trash services. Oh my gosh, don't even get me started. Anyway, sorry. But then you've got your cabinet cost, your countertops, your tile, your glass, your hardware. You know, all the things that go into that project in the way I tend to lay it out is we do materials estimate. All of our labor is time and materials, and I'm sure the investors out there can relate to that. But at least that gives the homeowner a gauge for where we're at and where do we need to go. Love it. Okay. Biggest mistakes you see people making on the owner-occupied construction side and non-owner-occupied. Biggest mistake, owner occupied. Hey, we don't have anything better to do this weekend. Let's demo the kitchen. Do you have a story there? Sounds like you might have a story there. I have a few stories of going in for a consultation and I'm like, wow, where's your kitchen? They're like, oh, yeah, we took it out this weekend. I'm like, great. You do realize cabinets take like anywhere from two to six weeks or up to 16 weeks to arrive, right? Yeah. Biggest mistake non owner occupied is to make a decision without getting all the information or choosing an estimate or a person because they are either the lowest cost estimate without providing the full service. package like my firm does. And then I'll still get a call for a consultation. Can you come and fix this? And I'm like, yeah, it's going to cost you more. Yeah. Making a decision without all the information. What do you mean by that? um so most homeowners do not understand the um the sequencing in a construction project so they're like oh we need a painter so they'll run off and hire a painter and then they'll come back and be like oh we need flooring and they'll run off and hire a flooring guy and then they'll come back and be like oh we need cabinets or we need whatever and so they're they're basically just rushing to hire somebody, make a decision, find the materials without understanding demo comes first, then we have to do the electrical, then we have to do the plumbing, then we have to do insulation, drywall, mud, paint, flooring, you know, just all the things to get them back into sequence. Yeah, very cool. Cool. So for real estate investors out there, you guessed around 40. I think I'm close to 100 flips or rehabs at this point. I don't know, maybe 80. So for people like me or even people that have done five or 10 construction projects or small to medium to full guts, I mean, do you have any, a lot of us, I feel like there's almost like there's nothing I haven't seen or like I couldn't make a mistake at this point in my investing career. But what are my, maybe my blind spots? Like what's something you're like, hey, for all the investors out there, you know, keep an eye on this, this thing. Are there any blind spots you see people have? Yeah, you know, that's such a great question because I am also a licensed realtor in Colorado. And so when I'm taking buyers around and I walk in and I'm like, oh, this is a flip. It's all in the details, guys. It's like finish the edges of the tile. caulk underneath the cabinets to the tile like like make your make your cuts clean actually like if you're using a butcher block countertop which i do a lot right either either deliberately 45 that and epoxy it seal it together don't just do a butt joint and call it good it'll be fine yeah yeah yeah yeah that's good yeah because buyers buyers notice those things more than we think right yeah yeah um the other thing i have a full bandwagon on is use matching light bulbs and i don't care what side you're talking about this is real estate or design because like if you go in and you look at the ceiling of can lights and you've got Some that are compact fluorescent and some are LED, but they're super bright. And some are maybe they're LED, but they're 2700 Kelvin. It's like you get all the different colors. So just pick your favorite. I don't care what it is and stick with it. You know? Yeah. Yeah. That's good. I'm definitely partial against the cool 5,000 Kelvin. Oh my gosh. If I walk in a house and it has that blue sunlight Oh my gosh. I'm like, we need to change that immediately. Like day one, you know, if I, if I'm like buying the place or if I'm going to move. Well, here's what I would say to your investors. Okay. So if you're investing in a house and you're taking the time and energy and money to flip that house and put it back on the market, make it so that your buyer doesn't have any trips coming in. Meaning like, Oh my God, this place is so bright. Make it homey, make it warm, make it cozy, right? Maybe you actually splurge to stage one small room so they can see what it looks like. But yeah, anything like that. Like, yeah, just eliminate the snags. I love it. Eliminate the snags. That's awesome. What got you into this design consultation and remodeling consultation? And like, what's the why behind your business? You know, that's such a great question. So the why is that I really believe everybody, everybody should have a home that they feel really, really good about so that they can go out and do their best work. Like I mentioned, I've moved quite a few times. And if I don't feel like I have a secure base, a secure home that I can then go out and give of myself, to my projects and my clients and things like that I can't do the best work yes that I have been called to do and everybody's call I don't care what your calling is whether it's you know grocery worker or contractor or podcaster you need to feel really good about your office your house where what you come home to, which is why our tagline, Love Your Home, Love Your Life, is not just a tagline. It is our mission, my mission. Yeah, that's so good. I love that. I just painted my garage, which is kind of a work area. I'm actually in my garage studio apartment right now, but I painted the car area of the garage, the floor and the walls. It probably took a compiled, I don't know, eight or 10 hours altogether to prep it and tape it and spray it and everything. And I, my internal world, and you might say, Cameron, you shouldn't have been doing that. You know, your time is worth more or whatever. But like my internal world during that three-day project or whatever was so much more anxious, you know? And it was harder for me to focus, especially in my office. Like when my whole garage is taped up in plastic, you know, I just paint and it's just like such a mess. And they say the state of your heart changes oftentimes the state of your heart or your mind is like the state of your bedroom. So if your bedroom's a mess, your heart and your mind, your brain space is probably a mess too and that's kind of how I felt during that little tiny garage project and so I love your business because you're helping people not have that experience that I did you're helping them just have a peaceful life and work and family outside of the construction site and that's just so cool do you want to say anything else on that Yeah, you know, I don't want anybody out there to think that I don't also go through these same stages and the same design dilemmas. I mean, my office, I literally just set up like a week ago. And before then, there was a blow-up mattress and all the paperwork was everywhere. And there was a table and two extra lamps and everything. And I actually shot a before video for my social team. And then as I got done with sections, but it's like I get into that zone where I'm like, I'm making it so much nicer. It feels good. And I can look at the before and afters and just really pour that love and that harmony into that space. Yeah. Yeah. That's so cool. Okay, moving away from construction, and then we'll kind of land the plane here. This is like the most tactical, you know, like design and remodeling construction tips from Erica. Absolutely. So, moving away from like the construction side, what about design? Any like, you know, design is one of those like... it's such a soft skill i guess in a way it's like you're kind of people think you're either good at it or you're not is that true and what what like tips and tricks do you have for people uh no i don't think it is true i think it definitely can be a learned uh skill um you know it's it for me it's art right so you have your words like balance and negative space, positive space, things like that. Those are all learned traits. At the end of the day, though, it's putting those materials together that really makes a big difference. Mistakes that people can easily make is following the fad or the trend or the cool thing that happens to be on the socials. My advice would be to stick to Not bland, not beige. We don't do any of those. But stick to timeless trends. Stick to the on-trend or the current colors. Like the Sherwin-Williams 2026 deck is finally out. And it's an absolute beautiful deck. Oh, cool. And using colors that are always going to be timeless and last make a huge difference, in my opinion. So if you want to do the lime green, great, keep it in the mudroom. If you want to pair that with bright yellow, white and silver, that's a good design tip. But maybe not lime green cabinetry, unless you're there forever. I love it. Yeah, this is cool. I've never heard of the Sherwin-Williams Color Mix Trend Forecast Anthology. Interesting. So I've never seen this, but yeah, the colors are tight. They've got like, guys, if you want to look it up, just type in, I just typed in SW2026deck And they've got like, I don't know, 30 colors that are kind of just on trend and you like can't go wrong with these. That's awesome. And a quick tip also, Sherwin-Williams, a lot of people love it. I'm not a Sherwin-Williams guy just because I... It's just more expensive and I'm not like a painter. A lot of painters can get significant discounts at Sherwin. But... I'm a Home Depot guy, and any Sherwin-Williams color, you can have them match it to the Bayer equivalent. So I'm like Bayer all the way, but that's a side note. I actually think Behr has some great colors. I think Balspar has some great colors and great products. I know Behr's got the two-in-one, so it's got the primer plus your color. The main thing with that is if you're going over a super dark color, you're still going to want to prime that down to about an 18% gray to get the color that you actually want. Yeah, yeah. Love it. Phenomenal stuff, isn't it? Awesome. So Erica, you mentioned you have a few resources people can go grab. Where can they grab those and how can people find you and follow you and all the things? Yeah. Um, so we, uh, so my marketing team and I have been pivoting and rebranding lately. Um, the easiest way to find me is get your home today.com and we're going to have some freebies for everybody. There's going to be a PDF for a budget worksheet. Um, And then our love your home worksheet, which is just fun to play with. And that would be probably the best way to find me. Love it. Instagram by chance. Nope, not yet. Hey, awesome. My team's like on the edge of their seat for when I pull the trigger on that. And I'm like, if y'all want to manage it, great. Sure, sure. That's awesome. That's great. Well, Erica, thanks for joining me today. And guys, if you want to reach out to Erica, please do. Website in the show notes, name in the show notes. And if you're in Colorado, especially. Yeah. work with erica but do you guys sorry i i was just about to end the show but i want to ask one more thing do you do you uh do like mobile consultation are you like just colorado no i can definitely do long distance consultations and um and depending upon where you're at i already have people set up to actually go to the house and measure If not, there's ways that we can do that. And I am all over it. I love to travel. I'm happy to come and see your house and figure out what's going on. Yeah, I love it. And we can go through all of your job sites and everything. Yes, I love it. Really what we need is my wife is like a very good interior designer, but she just often needs someone to bounce stuff off of. But we're under contract. We've lived in our house for five years and we're under contract to move. And that like that's where we need we need help. We're seeing a bounce stuff off of people with the flips. I'm like, you know, it's kind of the same thing. the same go-to stuff every time almost it's kind of becoming uh i don't know it's just kind of easier that way yeah rather than like reinventing the wheel every time but anyway i digress erica great talking to you and if you're in colorado or anywhere else in the world contact erica and get a hold of her all right we'll see you guys thank you sir Guys, thank you so much for tuning into this episode of The Legacy Investor. Hey, if you want to help us grow and support us, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. That really helps a lot. Please subscribe to my YouTube channel, Cameron Filgreen. It's still new and growing, but I am going to start posting on there more regularly. Follow me on Instagram at Cameron underscore Filgreen. If you know someone who should be on this podcast, Go fill out the form on my website. It's CameronPhilGreen.com slash podcast. Fill out the form there. I'd love to have more guests on this podcast. It's been a blast. And music is by Eric Lopez Villaverde. Reach out to him for all your music needs. On Instagram, he's Eric Lopez Villaverde. Hope you guys have a great day and thank you for tuning in. Bye-bye.