Shed Geek Podcast
The Shed Geek Podcast offers an in depth analysis of the ever growing and robust Shed Industry. Listeners will experience a variety of guests who identify or specialize in particular niche areas of the Shed Industry. You will be engaged as you hear amateur and professional personalities discuss topics such as: Shed hauling, sales, marketing, Rent to Own, shed history, shed faith, and much more. Host Shannon Latham is a self proclaimed "Shed Geek" who attempts to take you through discussions that are as exciting as the industry itself. Listeners of this podcast include those who play a role directly or indirectly with the Shed Industry itself.
Shed Geek Podcast
Shed Talk with Irvin Plank PART 1
What's it like to run a shed business where your commute to work is 180 miles without a single stoplight? Irvin Plank knows exactly, and his story reveals the surprising ways America's shed industry thrives even in the most remote corners of our country.
Joining us from Eureka, Nevada—"the friendliest town on the loneliest highway in America"—Irvin shares his remarkable journey from the shed-building stronghold of Montezuma, Georgia out west to the Nevada desert. Living in a county twice the size of Delaware but with only 1,500 residents, Irvin offers a perspective on entrepreneurship that few can match.
The conversation weaves through fascinating family connections spanning the shed industry nationwide, from Georgia to Ohio and beyond. We explore how regional differences shape business strategies—like why rent-to-own percentages hover around 20% in Nevada while dominating the Southeast market at 80%. Irvin explains his expansion into shipping containers as complementary storage solutions and the challenges of navigating inconsistent building codes across jurisdictions.
Perhaps most compelling is Irvin's journey itself—from milking cows in Georgia to ranching in Montana to hauling sheds and eventually building his own operation in Nevada. His candid assessment of the industry ("We help this part of America live the American dream of having too much stuff") captures the pragmatic approach that's helped him succeed where population density would suggest otherwise.
Whether you're in the shed business or simply fascinated by rural entrepreneurship, this conversation offers valuable insights on adapting to regional markets, solving universal storage needs, and building community connections across vast distances. Listen now to discover how America's shed industry reaches even its most isolated communities.
For more information or to know more about the Shed Geek Podcast visit us at our website.
Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube at the handle @shedgeekpodcast.
To be a guest on the Shed Geek Podcast visit our website and fill out the "Contact Us" form.
To suggest show topics or ask questions you want answered email us at info@shedgeek.com.
This episodes Sponsors:
Studio Sponsor: Union Grove Lumber
Cardinal Manufacturing
All right guys. Welcome back to another episode of the Shed Geek podcast. Sambassador Friday Fun Days. This is the place where it always happens. Shannon says it happens on Wednesday, I say it happens on Friday. Man, I am so excited and honored to have an old time friend, somebody that I knew long back before. Well, I guess I've been in sheds my whole life, but since I've been in sheds this last time, um, I've got I've got friends and buddies that are in the shed business, that I've literally known my whole life, and this guy, Irvin Plank, is a cousin to my wife and I've man, I don't know, I remember you from way back when. I don't know if you remember me or not, but, uh, 30, 35 years ago, Irvin Plank, how are you doing today?
Irvin:I'm doing great, man. It has been a long time, yeah, I I don't. I don't remember much about you from way back, but it's hard to forget you once you met you, that's for sure.
Sam:That's I don't know. Some people say I'm a big dude and I'm larger in life, but I try to stay in my little box and it doesn't always work real good, you know I was talking to you. I mean talking to Shannon about you a little bit and mentioned. Good, you know I was, I was talking to you, I mean talking to Shannon about you a little bit, mentioned. You know you come from Montezuma, Georgia, which is almost you know, for years it was like the shed capital of the south, long before anybody else was getting into it. And my wife just has a ton of cousins there because her dad was from there and there was what three or four brothers moved in there and a couple sisters, and I mean it's they're, they're all.
Irvin:It's kind of like Abbyville, they're all tied together, they all know each other um, for those of you guys, five or six brothers and a couple sisters, and most of them had 10 to 12 children. So, they certainly replenished South Florida, that's for sure.
Sam:Yep, and you know it's cool to see where all they've gotten scattered out to since then. Listen, here we go on the rabbit trail. I told you we'll get on some rabbit trails, but the other day it's been a couple weeks ago now I had a couple guys show up, oh, from Martinsburg, Ohio, to work on some of our storm relief sheds.
Sam:They wanted to come in and do some finish out work on the inside of them and stuff yeah and, uh, this dude, Brandon Yoder, showed up with a couple of his buddies and stuff and we get to talking there for a little bit and I looked at him. I said, dude, you gotta be from Montezuma, Georgia. And he looked at me kind of a little bit and grin a little bit and he goes I am, I'm like who in the world Like are you? Like, who are your parents? And he was like Glenn Yoder down there, yeah, shed all her. And so, here's a funny thing about Glenn. I knew Glenn even longer than I did anybody from Montezuma, because way back in the 80s, um, he, I don't know why I don't remember if he worked with my sister at hillcrest or if we both happened to be there at the same time at camp week. When everybody cleans that place.
Sam:Oh yeah but. But we met up at Hillcrest and he actually he got in trouble because we got the van stuck in the river on the off the day off people.
Sam:And I don't know.
Sam:We were forwarding the river where they normally do it. I don't know what happened, but somehow we got the van stuck and that's what I remember about him. He says he don don't remember. He says he don't even remember the story. So, I'm like, well, maybe you did it so often you don't remember doing it. But it's just the, the man I mean. You know, you meet the guys up in Alabama. You know Coleman area up there. They're related. They got ties back and if you take it back even further, you go back to Norfolk, Virginia, where they all come from. You know those five brothers and sisters. Now, all of a sudden, like my daddy-in-law, he would have been born in Norfolk before they ever moved to Montezuma. Now, all of a sudden, you tie in with where I grew up in Kentucky. Most of those people came from Norfolk.
Irvin:Yeah, and I just I got a neighbor out here now I live in the middle of nowhere and actually he's the guy that does some delivering for me here locally and his, my, uh, my parents were out here for my 50th birthday a couple months ago and he's talking to my dad and he tells my dad I don't know, they're chit chat and um, and he said that his, his grandpa or I think he said it was his grandpa used to live in Norfolk and my dad was born there, and he said well, what's his name?
Sam:Oh, he told him his name he's a peachy and he said oh yeah, that's our neighbor who lived just down the road.
Irvin:They moved to Pennsylvania I don't remember what part of Pennsylvania there was. Another group of them went up there, all about the time that all those farms could be sold for all that money because of development coming in and they scattered about.
Sam:I didn't know, they went to Pennsylvania, but I guess some people.
Irvin:They went all over the place when that happened.
Sam:Yeah, when those farms started selling, that's man. That would have been like. Most of that happened late 60s, early 70s. No well, Montezuma started 53.
Irvin:I think they showed up down there in about 53 54 okay, so it's even older than I thought it was yeah, yeah, yeah, it's quite, uh quite the deal how all those people scattered out. But yeah, that's, that's uh, there's a lot of I run into people at random places.
Irvin:That that that you related to in some fashion and one thing, one thing I like to read, and ever since I was a little guy read genealogy books. I read anything that was in the library at my dad's house. You know, and so I knew a lot of people that I was, that I was kin to and every every now and then I run into someone and they tell me like nah, I ain't got no relation with that name. And then they tell me, you know most of it comes from those people that went to South America or Central America, and I kind of forget.
Sam:Yeah.
Irvin:Really don't really know as well how how I'm connected to them. But yeah, it's a, the world is quite small at times.
Sam:Yes, it is. Shannon has made the comment many times big world, small industry when it comes to connections. Oh man, I love talking to the locals here about the shed industry because they can't fathom how big an industry it is that they don't even know about. They have two sheds in their backyard but they're like, oh, it's not a big deal. And I'm like, well, everybody in America's, you know, in got sheds, that's right. And they're like man, they're just like, they just think it's crazy how I get people from all over the place, you know, especially bringing sheds in.
Irvin:You know, for people we you know, oh, man, and let me tell you something you just said, let me give you a little, another little nugget. There you said, when you said Martinsburg, I knew exactly what you were talking about. My wife is from Martinsburg. Whenever I go to, whenever I go to Martinsburg, I go out and see Brandon and it's only about five minutes from where we stay and her family and all you know and all her family is right around there. But yeah, I go see Brandon every time I'm up there.
Sam:Oh my word, that is crazy. You know, I knew your wife was from Ohio, but I forgot she was from Martinsburg. Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah, so you just turned 50. I did. I was going to ask you how close you are in age to me. I knew you were just a hair younger, but you're only three years difference from me. So, yeah, that's wild. There you go, yeah.
Irvin:You might have got 80 years of living in your 50 years.
Sam:Some days I feel like I'm 80. I'm tired, yeah. So let's get back to your introduction a little bit. I interrupted you, so you're.
Irvin:You're somewhere out in Nevada I am, yeah, yeah, we are. I live in Eureka Nevada, which is pretty much. Eureka Nevada is called the friendliest, the friendliest town on the loneliest highway in America, where I live. We're a long ways out here and I am a partner in a company called Out West Buildings, that's over in Fallon, which is an hour east of Reno yeah. I have 180 miles to the shop. So, needless to say, I don't go to my shop every day or anything. I get over there several times a month.
Irvin:But, yeah, we're just to give you a bit of an. So most of the people the reason we don't have a shop here where I live is because there's just not that many people here. We put it up over there and the bigger population in northern Nevada is within um, within two hours, two and a half hours of our, of our shop there in Fallon, and then we have all of northern California. Sacramento is only three hours, maybe a little over three hours.
Irvin:Sacramento, yeah, and so we we're on the eastern edge of a big population. From me to the town of Fallon is 180 miles. I don't go through one stoplight or a stop sign to get there.
Sam:No way.
Irvin:The whole way, 180 miles, I go through one little bitty town. It's not an incorporated town. They have a gas station, uh, two bars, I think, a hotel or so. But a church, church or two. Yeah, it's pretty remote and just an idea of the county I live in, eure, eureka County. If you drew it on a map, it's the shape of Delaware, twice the size of Delaware and it has 1,500 people in it.
Sam:No way. Twice the size of Delaware and has 1,500. You got any property for sale out there. You looking for any new neighbors?
Irvin:I just talked to a customer of mine while ago. She was trying to sell me some land. A huge amount of this land out here is BLM and Forest Service, so it's actually a very small percentage is private. It's kind of a pain in the butt, but can you? Hunt that?
Sam:can you hunt that property?
Irvin:yeah you mean public land yeah, if you get a tag.
Irvin:You'll get drawn for everything.
Sam:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, sure, so you build sheds we do Yep Cool.
Irvin:We've been doing that for 10 years. In March it was 10 years.
Sam:So do you just build sheds and sell off of one lot there? Do you have dealers? Do you have sales lots? Where do you move your sheds and sell off a one lot there? Do you have dealers? Do you have? How do you? Do you have sales lots where?
Irvin:do you move your sheds yeah, right now we sell most. When I say most, I mean upper 90 percentage of our, of our sheds are sold right through our main office, right at our headquarters where we build and we have some display lots um we did go down the road with the classic, having consignment sheds at, at uh feed stores and you know different places like that and uh, boy it's um.
Irvin:There's a big learning curve to get dealers and I hear people talking about this a lot more now than they used to. But I didn't know this when we got into it. I got introduced into this world through hauling and so I knew how the dealer thing worked. And boy, I'll tell you what people, if they're not, if they're not geared to sell for you. It's been my experience and just talking to other people, it sounds like it's the same thing. You know, if they're selling feed, they're selling feed.
Irvin:They sell a shed to someone who comes and says I want that thing right over there, it's not a high priority in their life, and so that we kind of phased out a couple of years ago when we started trying to do a little bit more of the online dealing with selling with online leads and that sort of thing and getting people to talk to our people in our office yes, what we tried to do and that's where we're at right now.
Irvin:I sell some sheds over here at my house. I got property here. I sell some sheds and shipping containers. I would be really the only dealer that we have. But I don't really set the world on fire over here, as you can imagine.
Advertisement:Yeah, yeah, I got a big day. Tomorrow I have a fully finished 18 by 40 cabin. That's going to require two to three mils to get it delivered Way back in the sticks and down a dirt lane With all the rain we've had lately, it's going to be a mess, but it needs a bigger mule.
Advertisement:Well, when you talk, cardinal listens and you ask for it. With its diesel-powered 69-horse engine and capacity to move 40,000-pound sheds, the Mule 9069 is ready to turn your big days into just another day in the good life.
Advertisement:Ah, that's right. You're talking about the one they had up at Michigan at the Shed Show. That monster mule, that man, that thing was awesome, that's right.
Advertisement:It's the one you've seen at all the shed hauler barbecues.
Advertisement:Man, yeah, there's nothing like a little diesel donkey to make my day go so much better.
Sam:Where were you hauling sheds In?
Irvin:Montezuma Okay.
Sam:So that was before you moved out.
Irvin:No, no. So, I moved out West. I grew up down there milking cows and I moved out West to, uh, the reason I well, I say the reason. I wanted to go see the West, but I figured I needed to go see the West before I get married. I was 21 years old, and you hear a lot of people talk about they wish they'd have done this or that before they get married. So, I moved out and called to Colorado.
Irvin:That was in 96 and oh wow, yeah, yeah, and I did that for about um, I did that for about five years or I was in no four years. Four years I was in construction, worked on some wheat farms and um, and just a second here. Um, sorry about that, no it's all good.
Irvin:Anyhow, um, where was I? Oh yeah. And then I learned about, I learned that people made a living. I seen, I seen I got out here and learned that people were making a living out in the wilderness horseback and my eyes got real big. I like wilderness hunting all that sort of stuff living out in the wilderness horseback and my eyes got real big. I like wilderness hunting all that sort of stuff living out in the sticks. And so I went and learned and got into cowboying.
Irvin:And I did that in Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and I ended up in Nevada in 03. And I liked it here and didn't want to leave and I got an opportunity to I had a place to run cows that I could get my own cows and run my own cows and you know, lease grass from a rancher, a friend of mine.
Irvin:And I didn't want to go in debt. And I heard about my dad had started a whole building sheds for Dirksen down there in Mons I think in 02. And I was talking to some of these drivers who were good friends of mine and I was listening to them talk about the money they were making.
Sam:And it didn't take much money for me to live.
Irvin:You know, I lived down here in sticks. It just did not take much and I'm sitting there, my eyes got big. I can pay for a bunch of cows and do this for two years. So that's what I did I went back down there and hauled sheds for two years. Oh yeah, Talking about a roundabout circle now you were talking about Glen a while ago.
Sam:Yep.
Irvin:I kept that truck in company I did that for two years, moved out here came back out, bought my cows, horses, truck trailer.
Irvin:I brought my truck out here, that I was hauling sheds with.
Irvin:And.
Irvin:I left my trailer down there and kept my business, kept my trucking business and I had a driver. I hired my brother, I think my brother drove for me for one year, and then John Hershberger drove for me for one year and then, uh, John Hershberger drove for me for two years, two years, and I sold it to him. I sold my business to him, and he sold it to Glenn. No way, yes, sir, what? That's the route that that Glenn ended up with oh, my word but, anyhow, that's crazy right there through that whole experience.
Irvin:That's where I learned about the, about the shed business and got interested. I don't know if I was completely interested in at the time of maybe I just most I got into cow business out here. I loved what I was doing you couldn't have got me out of it for nothing. I mean, there was no. I loved what I was doing, but the opportunity came up with this partner of mine who's another rancher and he had some money he wanted to invest in something and I was working for him for a little while and we kind of got to talk.
Irvin:It took us several years to get anything put together, but I kind of wanted more than one flow of income, just be a little more diversified. He wanted to do the exact same thing and that's kind of what was the impetus, I guess, and just getting that thing moving and getting going with it, yep so do you still have cows?
Sam:I do not I sold I.
Irvin:I have a milk cow, that's all I got two uh two, three years ago. Three years ago, the ranch I was on, so so that ranch I was on um.
Irvin:I left there in 2010, I think in the winter of 10 the place I was on when I first came back out here and then I got hooked up with a guy that had a ranch here. He summer he wintered close 20 miles south of where I live. The cows would be out there for the winter, then in the summertime they would go north um 200 miles and I would go up there and take care of them up there, and so I was taking care of about 350 head and I did that every year until seven, until through 17, I think it was through so no, we got married in 15, 16.
Irvin:I did it, 17. We had a baby. We had a baby in 16 and 17. I didn't go back up for the summer.
Sam:Okay.
Irvin:We stayed down here and I didn't do that summertime thing but I kept taking care of him in the wintertime, six months in the wintertime until two, three years ago, oh really. And when he sold his cows, when he sold the ranch, the new guy. The new guy was not, he was kind of a one of those flaky kind of jokers and yeah, he wanted me to stay there, but he never really would give me a good answer on how it would look.
Irvin:I just sold my cows and I had plenty of things to do in the shed business keep me busy until I found another opportunity. So yeah I did not have cows today. I go help neighbors and that sort of thing yeah, so did y'all cattle drive them up there?
Sam:did you haul them? We hauled them. No, we all loaded them up and hauled them up there and john yeah, and you would love this man.
Irvin:You're an old truck driver, man, john, the guy that I run the cows for, uh, with that on the ranch and every spring and every fall he had his own truck. His sister was the first licensed female elk guy in the state of Wyoming. She came and drove our haul, our cows, back and forth there's a nine mile, nine hour circle nine hour circle nine hours and she's the last year that she drove. She was 72 or 73, I think oh my word, yeah, wow just a professional truck driver now.
Irvin:She didn't jump up and down in the in the bull wagon we did before, but she was just uh when you. That's amazing you put those cows on that truck with her. They were taken care of buddy buddy.
Sam:That's crazy. Oh, my word.
Irvin:And you know what she does, you know why she she called that her vacation.
Sam:Well, I guess, if you're an elk guide, I can only imagine what that entails climbing up and down hills all day long.
Irvin:Yeah, well, she ain't been an elk guide for many, many years, but now she manages a convenience store that sells I think I think she said she gave me the numbers, but I think it was around 30 tons of fried chicken every year 30 tons. Yeah, and she's over there. She's just north of Suarez over there in Utah. She's just north of him, about 30 miles.
Sam:Yeah.
Irvin:She's in a convenience store up there. No way, and she works seven days a week and she takes a vacation and comes and works for us 12, 15 days at a time, making nine hour trips.
Sam:That's hilarious. Oh my word, that is a pile of chicken getting moved, boy you ain't kidding. Yeah, so you said something about shipping containers. You got shipping containers there by your house.
Irvin:I do yeah.
Sam:You're in the middle of nowhere to be getting shipping containers.
Irvin:Well, we have this stuff out here called pavement and we have round wheels and people bring them in on round wheels on the pavement man? No way it's actually we sell a little bit more of those things in sheds right here where I'm at and I have some sitting in my yard. I mean it's worth doing, but you know it's a small population here, but I also have them for self-storage.
Sam:Oh, okay, you have them where people can just use them, that's right. All that place.
Irvin:Yeah, just right here on my place. But I mean, we have the mining industry here, the mining industry, is you just, it's huge, very big mining industry and they use containers and the people that work there are familiar with them, so they use them at their house. They use yeah, they buy 10 acres and put a container on it that sort of stuff so what does a uh multi-trip 40-foot container retail for there, where you're at? Oh shoot, that's right around a multi.
Sam:Oh, you mean like used one yeah a used one is going to be about 4649 somewhere in there yeah, it's not that much different from here, a little bit, but not much, the one trippers right now, of course, the whole world is getting all jacked up with these tariffs.
Irvin:The container world is feeling it.
Sam:I was going to get around to that, so let's just go ahead and have this conversation. Their containers are fixing to go up in price, aren't they?
Irvin:They already have out here, really, the one-trippers. The one-trippers have, the used ones have, and I don't know exactly what that means. But yeah they went up 10%.
Sam:So a one-tripper. What does that retail for?
Irvin:It's around 7 thousand around seven.
Sam:Okay, yeah, yeah are the are most of those coming in from sacramento these are coming in from.
Irvin:I get them right here at my place. I get them from Salt Lake and some from long beach and then over in Fallon we get most of those from long beach oh, oh, really Okay, all right, that's crazy. I don't know what the best way, Oakland is closer than Long Beach is, but we got a really good relationship with a company down there.
Irvin:They're really better on their used ones specifically, but they're the ones that kind of helped us get this thing up and going and it's not that much better. I think one-trippers are harder to come by in Oakland.
Sam:Okay.
Irvin:Southern California has a lot bigger supply of those one-trippers.
Sam:I got you. That makes sense. Do you sell more of the one than the other, or can you not really tell?
Irvin:Usually we sell more one trippers.
Sam:Really.
Irvin:Yeah.
Sam:Interesting. Now I'd want to ask Kevin Cook here. I would have guessed we sell more multi-trip ones than we do one trippers. But now I'm going to ask him. I'm curious about that. I just don't feel like I see many one-trippers around. Most of them we have around here. They're a little bit beat up. Nobody cares. It's a container, they're decent. You might have to patch a hole here or there or something.
Irvin:I'm sure there's a little bit different in culture, that you know how that is. There's a little bit difference in one part of the country versus the other. I I don't really know what would make drive that completely different. Out here one thing at our we usually just have more one tripper sitting around.
Sam:That's what does it. Maybe it does you tell what you have.
Irvin:We stock a little bit more of them, and out here they're tan and they fit right in.
Sam:They blend.
Irvin:Right into the desert very well With the other colors that people paint their stuff and I don't know, I don't know why that would be different from one place to the other.
Sam:Well and my perception might be wrong on it too.
Advertisement:Introducing the Challenger, the revolutionary new shed mover that's taking the industry by storm. The Challenger features a touchless design ensuring it only makes contact at the end of the skids and the bottom of the floor joists, so rest easy knowing your gable walls will remain pristine. Worried about reliability? Fear not, the Challenger is always up for the challenge and will not overturn or scuff your shed. Harness the power of innovative wireless technology. Remotely control the Challenger via your smartphone. No cell service needed. And guess what? The cell phone remote comes standard with every Challenger, at no extra cost.
Advertisement:Featuring floating forks, a four-directional tilting mast and sliding weight transfer, move the shed weight precisely where you need it to get ultimate traction With self-loading capability, straight onto your truck. Say goodbye to the need for a hydraulic carriage. The Challenger makes your job easy and more efficient. Choose from two machine sizes 10,000 pounds and 15,000 pounds. Perfect for any job. Visit www. shedchallenger. com or call or text 828-220-3508 for more information. Experience the future of shed moving with the Challenger.
Sam:What's up on shed side? What's your average size shed that you're selling?
Sam:10 by 20 10 by 20 yeah okay and you're still mostly doing sheds, or are you finding you're going more into? Are you getting into anything that you know is being used for housing?
Irvin:oh boy, out here, out here. They're not too friendly to housing with those things so you don't, you don't deal with that much these people think what as deal with it? As far as what?
Sam:as far as people trying to buy them and use them for housing people do that yeah, but if they go to the building department, our building departments think they're in California.
Irvin:And I mean this bizarre. It's the most bizarre thing you'll ever see. The one thing that's about it is we have these huge counties and the population is all in town. You know the population centers. You get away from town. It really can. It really can be a long ways between houses. I forgot to tell you. When I drive from here to Fallon I just thought of this the other day when I'm not by that little town, after I leave my valley I drive by. Within a mile of the road there might be two houses. It ain't like I'm driving through a bunch of farms and remote Nothing. There is nothing out there. It's big desert country.
Sam:Oh my word, it's crazy.
Irvin:Mountains yeah, but why was I saying that I just went down a rabbit trail? But I don't know.
Sam:I was asking about people buying them to live in.
Irvin:The county I live in and Nye County, which is the next county to the south, we don't have no building codes. There are no building codes. You do it here. I just set a neighbor up with one the other day. He's going to live in it. In other counties we can't really promote them at all as livable. They're not inspected for that.
Irvin:We tell our customers listen, because they'll come and say you know how they do, hey, I want to live in this thing. I said, okay, that's fine, you just get your building department to sign off on that and we'll get you a building. But no, there's not.
Irvin:But there's people that do it.
Irvin:There's plenty of people that buy them and never get a permit.
Sam:Yeah, yeah, I mean, we still have that. Even here there's still areas you can hide them, put them up, get living in them, you know, and nobody catches them. But yeah, for the majority depart, they're going to get busted pretty quick now where you live, are there.
Irvin:Are they county building codes or city building codes?
Sam:we have county building codes. Um, each city has their own set of codes that they can adhere to or they can use county codes. So, some of your bigger cities you know you get up to I don't know 7,500, 10,000 people. They're pretty quick to have their own guy on board. They'll run their own set of codes, separate from county, and they can do that as county and they can do that as a municipality. They can do that. But then, like Williamston, they prefer to just let it run through county, and you can do that too.
Sam:Oh, yeah, yeah, Some of the cities are easier to work with than the county. And then some of the cities you just might about forget it.
Irvin:Yeah, yeah that's how it is here.
Irvin:It's all county Reno probably has. I don't know if Reno even has their own.
Sam:Yeah.
Irvin:I think it's about all county and it's definitely some much even over in California. California you're running a whole bunch of mess and I was just dealing with one here in the last week that bringing a bunch of stuff we never heard of before and I we haven't been to that county very often, and so I think that we just got a building department that is doing things different than the other people do. Is what?
Sam:it is, yeah, it happens. We, yeah, even our counties aren't all the same. They all say they're going by the same code book, but then they apply it differently yeah kind of remind you, kind of remind you of churches in the bible. We're all reading the same bible.
Irvin:We all got different rules I mean, I used to build houses here.
Sam:I built houses in South Georgia, built houses in k Kentucky, and they all say they go by the you know residential code book. And everywhere I've ever been, even county to county, city to city, you know, it never fails. They all got their own little pet peeves that they play up to and they all got this they don't like and this they do like. I tell them all the time. You know, I used to hold up my big old book, my code book, and I'd be like are you going by this, Are you going by what you like in it or don't like in it? You know, because you never know.
Irvin:That's a fact. That's a fact. I don't know how they come up with what they. I have no idea.
Sam:It doesn't make any sense. Well, the crazy thing about it is that you know the International Residential Code. What happens in Northern California is completely different than what happens in Middle Georgia or what happens in Missouri.
Irvin:You mean as far as the demands on the structure. Yeah, I mean, I'm saying the natural demand, you know you mean. As far as the demands on the structure, yeah, I mean.
Sam:I'm saying the natural demand. You know the dirt, the atmosphere, the climate, the temperatures, everything changes.
Irvin:Yeah.
Sam:So I remember the first time I went up into Canada on a mission trip I'd been up there trucking numerous times back in the early nineties and, uh, first time I went up there on a mission trip uh, 2003 or four or somewhere in there and I had a buddy up there that was a house builder and he, he wanted me to. We were up in red Lake and the kids were doing street Bible school and he wanted me to go out and look at a couple of his houses because he knew I built houses and stuff and I was floored. They were building their basements with treated studs and treated plywood.
Irvin:Good grief.
Sam:That's like the sorriest thing you can do to us and and for them it doesn't matter. It's the best thing you can do.
Irvin:You know it works for them it's just you know, wow so yeah, and you know and you know, just um, I don't know, we delivered a building down to um in the Bishop, California area, which is California I mean it's they're crazy over there on their, on their building codes and somehow this woman, I don't I kind of wonder if I shouldn't get her to come work for us, but somehow she got her county to sign off on our building for living quarters. I mean, I asked her in every way. I knew how.
Irvin:I'm just sitting there going. There is no way they're going to sign off.
Irvin:Well, yeah, yeah, and she came up and there were a few things that we had to do. We wrapped it, which we don't normally do, yeah. Yeah, a couple things we did that you would do for housing, and I think the siding had to be we used 716th, I think it had to be. Yeah, we used 3-8th, it had to be 716th or something like that. Yeah, something had to be a size bigger, like that, and shoot as far as I know we got paid for it.
Sam:She's had it for a couple of months. I have not heard any complaints.
Irvin:This thing she's going to live in it Now how in the world it was never inspected during manufacturing. Nothing we didn't have it. I said it was legal for anything. None of those things.
Sam:Yeah, yeah. Well, I know a customer can make a difference because I've seen it go the opposite way. We know a customer can make a difference because I've seen it go the opposite way. We put sheds into areas where we never had an issue, and then a customer goes and pulls a building permit and all of a sudden they can't have one. I don't know what they do, what they say they're going to do or what happens, but you know there'll be 10 of them in the neighborhood and then one of them can't get one yeah, yeah, yeah I don't know yeah, yeah yeah, make I don't know.
Sam:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Irvin:Yeah, makes no sense. It's who you know, man, what is all.
Sam:So, I kind of try to keep up with the whole shed industry regionally northwest, northeast, southwest, southeast and then what I call central. You would be, I guess. In my opinion I'd put you in the southwest a little bit, but you're almost just west. What does your rent-to-own picture look like?
Irvin:You mean like a percentage type thing? Yeah, yeah, Versus retail Boy. The last time I looked, man, I can't remember. It's in the 20s.
Sam:So it is that low.
Irvin:Something like that, yeah.
Sam:Oh, my word, that is. That's that, just like that's the percentage of cash sales in the Southeast. That's right, I know all about that If you were hauling out a Montezuma, you'd know all about it even back then, and it's only got worse.
Irvin:Yes, yes, I do. Yeah, that's, I know it's, I thought it would. I didn't know. You know, when we started this thing we didn't have any idea. We kind of expected it to be like. I didn't expect it to be quite as high as down there but it was higher in COVID.
Irvin:In COVID it no no, no, it went down in.
Irvin:COVID, it was down in the mid-teens I think, but it's back up in the low 20s 23. I don't remember what it was. I just looked at it about a month ago, or something. That's crazy.
Sam:I was going to say about getting your rent done. But that ain't even worth fooling with.
Sam:Yeah, no that's a good idea. Listen, Jason, and I talk about that. You know the Northwest up there where he's at Now, obviously some of the nationwide guys that have higher rentals or you know, I'm sure their numbers change a little bit more. But you take like Jason Kaufman up there, you know he's with you Low, you know high, high teen percentage, low 20s and it's like he don't. You know that's perfectly fine with him, he don't want to deal with it yeah, he does his own no, he's got, he's.
Irvin:He's buddies with monts um, you know, they're double cousins and everything he don't want to go to the pickups and all that sort of stuff no, you know he doesn't like doing any of that.
Sam:I don't know if he's got bad memories of new y York or what he's got going on.
Irvin:I'll tell you what that was one of the things when I was down there hauling, every now and then we'd have back. I was there in 06 and 07. That's when.
Sam:I was down there.
Irvin:I take anything. I was single. I didn't have no property to take care of. I was there for one thing, and that was to make that business make money.
Sam:And if I didn't have work?
Irvin:and those rental companies had buildings to pick up, I would go pick them up.
Sam:I didn't do a huge amount.
Irvin:Sometimes you didn't hardly have time to do any of them, but anytime I had time to slow season and that sort of stuff and you get into some interesting stuff, man, and you learn how to uh, you learn how to load and move quick kind of becomes a game to you. I can only imagine it's got to take a bit of a certain kind of a person to do that every day for a living.
Sam:Yeah, yeah, I agree, there's some guys. It's kind of crazy. I've watched some guys get really good at it and then they got too good at it and they lost their edge and they're gone. And then I've watched some other guys. So, I've always been of the opinion that if you're, if you're a company, let's let's just use Mike and Arlen with Westwood down here.
Sam:If you're a company, that's all about customer service. You have drivers that are getting. You know they're not getting paid per shed, they're getting paid to go out there and make a customer happy. They're paid to represent a company. They're paid to be top of the line customer service. Those guys just do not make good pickup guys. There are a couple I know of a half a dozen guys across the US that are fantastic delivery drivers, that do fantastic at picking them back up. The majority of them.
Sam:It takes a different personality. It takes a different commitment. I don't know whatever you want to call it. I'm not saying the one's better than the other. I'm just saying it takes a different set of rules. It takes a different mindset. Now, that being said, I know some guys right now that have been at it for quite a few years that are doing phenomenal at doing pickups and they haven't stressed themselves out to the max, and how they haven't, I don't know. But, um, one of them actually had a, a short video the other day. He posted on the hauler page and I was just amazed at how much he was getting reamed out, how calm and cool he was, staying over it. Um, and he'll, he'll tell you in you know you got to de-escalate situations. You can't escalate them. You know it might look good for TikTok but it don't work elsewhere.
Sam:So, yeah, it has been cool to watch guys do that you know, and then to watch guys like Mark and Mike and Arlen still have to figure out how to keep up with that. Watch guys like Mark and Mike and Arlen still have to figure out how to keep up with that.
Advertisement:Unlock the power of productivity with Cardinal Leasing. Are you looking to elevate your business operations with top-tier equipment? Look no further than Cardinal Leasing. We offer a wide range of reliable and high-quality equipment tailored to meet your unique needs. Flexible leasing options of reliable and high-quality equipment tailored to meet your unique needs. Flexible leasing options Whether you need short-term rentals or long-term solutions. Our customizable leasing plans are designed to provide maximum flexibility and affordability. Conventional financing available Cardinal Leasing also offers great conventional finance options for those of you that prefer that over-lease purchase options.
Advertisement:Expert support Our team of experienced professionals is here to guide you every step of the way, ensuring a seamless leasing experience. Boost efficiency. With our top-of-the-line equipment, you can enhance productivity, reduce downtime and achieve your business goals faster. Why choose Cardinal Leasing? Competitive rates, exceptional customer service, hassle-free process, quick and easy approvals. Don't let outdated equipment hold you back. Partner with Cardinal Leasing today and take your business to the next level. Contact us now. Visit our website at equipment. cardinalleasing. us, or call us at 618-803-4086 to get started.
Sam:Yeah, the thing is it might become a game to those people, because I can see where I might.
Irvin:I'm not. I've learned. I think I've learned that I kind of look at it like this right here. This is what I tell my wife sometimes you got these high motions and you got this river coming off a mountain, just flying down. It's just, you know it's high speed coming down. Think about that one time. When it comes down and hits another high speed river, you just got a big boiling mess. These two jacked up people get together and they just got a big boiling mess. These two jacked up people get together and they just make a big old mess. If you can be the calm river down there that this high speed river comes into, then then, like it doesn't matter how hard you pound that, that, that calm river, it's still it'll. It'll slow it down, it don't.
Irvin:You can beat the crap out of it and I think that's kind of how we deal with rent. I mean, I've run my own rent to own company and so every now and then you got people that call you or you got to call and it's and even dealing with the shed company. Yeah, sometimes you have people that got cross the miscommunication. People promise one thing, something didn't show, I don't. You know, whatever the situation is, and you go in there and if you, if you can be decent and treat them like just like a person and start listening, you'll soon get their attention and they'll they'll pay they'll realize that you're listening and you're going to.
Irvin:You're going to, you're gonna, you're gonna do the best you can now. There are some people every now and then are just they're just they're just gonna do their crazy thing, but um I guarantee if you had to do that if you run into a whole bunch of those situations as a pickup man even a rent-to-own company customer service person has got to be a special breed of people.
Sam:Yeah, because they hear it on the phone all the time. Oh man.
Irvin:And I think what you just said about how, having that customer service person whether it's the driver or the person on the phone if you can get them people on the phone or the person that's sitting in front you can get them people on the phone or the person that's sitting in front of you when you're picking up to think that you have their best interest at heart you'll get a lot more. You just get something done with that.
Irvin:It might not be what you hope to get done, but you'll make a step in the right direction.
Sam:Yeah, yeah, this is true, I agree, yep. So you said you're your own rent to own company. So you, just you pretty much. Are you able to track that pretty much all yourself. You got somebody doing it for you. How do you do that in-house?
Irvin:well, it's, it's, it's. I own it, separate from the shed company me and my partner. We have separate rent-to-own companies and we do have one other company that helps us with a few things that we don't do. But yeah, we don't have the offices together. I don't know if that's good, bad or indifferent, but I run my rent-to-own company over here where I live. It pretty much runs like anything else Buy a shed, rent a shed to a customer and rental company pays for it, and then they start dealing with the customer.
Sam:Yeah, cool. What's your container? I know you're branching out some with containers. What's your feature look like? What do you want to do with containers?
Irvin:What do I want to do with containers? Well, I don't know. I think I mean, it's kind of the same as anything else. We're just a company. Here's what we do. We help this part of America live the American dream of having too much stuff. We give them a place to put it.
Sam:That's the whole thing in a nutshell, right there.
Irvin:Too much stuff, too much stuff, too much stuff. I tell people, Walmart's our friend man. Whatever was in Walmart a few months ago is now in one of our buildings. You need a building to put it in or a container. In a lot of ways it's just another storage product. I mean we've got the mining industry out here and we're kind of looking at some office type stuff with that around my construction and of course you have construction anywhere that uses that there's.
Irvin:There's some use for that, but it kind of seems like it's been a hard nut for us to crack very well to get in it at a very high level. But we're getting a little bit of traction in it. Basically, we just take it, frame the interior out and wire it, you know, for an office.
Sam:Yeah, yeah. Do you, as a rent-to-own company, give that as an option?
Irvin:Yeah, we rent-to-own containers. We we had, we do, we rent our own containers. Now the office thing I'm, I think I got one of them like that, Brandon, generally the office thing, we try to rent the office as a as our shed company. We try to rent, rent the office out to people and you know cause it's construction.
Irvin:They want it for six months or whatever.
Irvin:That's kind of hit or miss kind of a thing. We sell some, but, boy, you better have some sheds. Containers ain't going to For our operation, containers ain't going to keep us going.
Sam:But it is a very good option.
Irvin:I kind of think of it like this, and I kind of think of it like there's two different kinds of people that come in there wanting something to put their stuff in, and one of them is completely fine with a beat-up container or a good-looking container. They just want they're very practical. And then they've got the other people that want the same thing done. They just don't want a container in their property, they want a shed. And so that's where you know we're there to help them with both of them.
Sam:Yep. So are you looking for dealers for your container business?
Irvin:I am not at the moment. I've kind of dabbled in that a little bit. I think I talked to you about that before. Yeah, um, I kind of got some other things that we're trying to get taken care of at the moment.
Irvin:So, I don't um, yeah, I've got a few right now, and even that ain't really I ain't. I ain't figured out how to sell I other people ain't figured out how to sell them. Yeah, for me yet, for some reason I don't know, is is you guys dealing containers? Do you move quite a few? I mean, is it worth having them?
Sam:so in my here's my opinion of that it's worth having three or four of them sitting on the lot. So, here's what I'm struggling with right now and I've had this conversation with numerous people lately. Now, if you're doing you're like you do one trippers and they look pretty good and they're that neutral tan color. That's fine. We don't have those on our lot right now because, like I said, we just don't move those. But in my personal opinion, for what I like to see on a lot, it's a way to get traffic in. And while they're in there looking at a container, they see a shed. They like yeah. So you might not. I just see it as a sale. It might not be a container sale. Here's the problem I have with all the containers I see around us here locally. Just go to Sherwin-Williams and buy a five-gallon can of paint and paint the thing, yeah, looks awful. But I can't get anybody to understand that.
Sam:I told Aaron today, literally today, Aaron and I were, yeah, we were driving by a couple of lots and you know we kept. He. He wanted to know about the whole container thing Cause we just started getting them on shed gals lot. You know, and partially my fault, I dropped the ball and didn't tell Susan that Kevin wanted to do them. But they finally got a couple of them out there and he was looking at them because he's looking for a container. Right, he wants two containers that he can put in a hole. He's got, he's gonna cut, put them together, weld them, cut the middle out, you know, and he's gonna do a bunker down there for his man cape, which is fine. So he's looking at him and he's paying attention. He's like, oh, this guy got something too. And I'm like, well, you notice about all of them? He's like, well, it don't matter to me because I'm going to put them in the ground, but they're ugly, you know it wouldn't hurt to just go out there and spray some paint on them. You know it doesn't matter if it's chipped up or whatever. So that was my I guess that's my one hang up on it.
Sam:But back to your question. I still think they bring traffic in. People drive by and they're like, oh, he's got containers, let's swing in there and see what he can do. It's pretty competitive around here. There's probably one, two, let me think. I know there's a dozen places within 30 minutes of me. I can go buy a container.
Irvin:Good grief.
Sam:And some of them are right beside the interstate. They're stacked as tall as that poor little monster fort in Michigan. Get them up Four or five high. Many mobiles here. What's the other one? There's three national ones here that all have them.
Irvin:They're out here too.
Sam:Then there's a couple guys that have them on shed lots and there's a couple guys that just sell them on container lots, completely on own. You know. They have the little land, all trailers and uh, you know. And then there's one guy right here, close to me, actually, Mr bill, who does what you're talking about. He rolls them into a shop, puts doors in and puts bars over windows and fixes them up into construction containers, to offices or whatever you want. You know, man cave looking things.
Sam:Thank y'all for listening to today's episode. This was part one of a two-part episode, so be sure to listen next week to finish today's podcast