John Casmon

Why You Need to Avoid Deposits and Develop a Clear Scope of Work for Your Contractor with Greg Dicke

After joining the Navy out of high school, Greg Dickerson started a remodeling company and turned it into one of the largest development firms in the area. His trick was to find the best people and give them the systems and tools to be successful. Over the past 20 years, he has bought, developed and sold over $200 million in real estate. On today’s show he shares show investors can build strong teams and manage contractors more effectively. In addition, he shares his thoughts on opportunities throughout the DC and Virginia area.

Key Market Insights

Natural born entrepreneur, even as a little kid
Dad told him he needed to make money to pay for martial arts
Went into Navy out of high school
Started remodeling company that turned into one of the largest development firms in the area
Hired best people from the top competitors and turned them loose
Partnered with other professionals to create 12 businesses
Sincere desire to do everything it takes morally, legally, ethically to be successful
Contractors are great workers, not great business people
Imperfect people, working with imperfect products, in an imperfect world looking for a perfect outcome
Contractors need a clearly defined scope of work & timeline to be ready
Find professionals who are good at what they do, help them be more profitable, develop great scheduling system
Flip the pyramid – your job is to help everyone on your team
Norfolk, VA is a military area with strong naval base
From Virginia Beach, lived in Outerbanks and now in Charlottesville
Northern Virginia market has expanded rapidly and he is now focused on the DC Corridor
UVA is one of the main drivers in Charlottesville
What’s the highest and best use of that property
Development is getting more and more expensive
How receptive is the town, municipality of the development plan for vacant land?
Working on opportunity zone projects