Most people may know him for his hit HGTV show Fixer to Fabulous, but Dave Marrs has been in the construction game much longer than that. The seasoned contractor, owner of Marrs Development, started off as a young apprentice to his father before starting his own business in 2004. Now, he and his wife, Jenny, renovate, design and build homes across the Northwest Arkansas area while filming a TV show that last season pulled in more than 35 million viewers.
AMP spoke with Marrs, who shared his insight on the success of his business, building supplies shortages and where he thinks the construction market is headed.
AMP: How did you get started in construction?
Marrs: I grew up in Colorado, where my dad was a builder. Through high school and college, I did electrical work; I did framing, trim, carpentry and built cabins. Like a lot of us who don’t want to do what our parents do, I went to college and thought I would do corporate America. I ended up doing that for two years, which is great because it got me to Northwest Arkansas, but I realized that I wasn’t using my creativity like I wanted to. So, I went back and started building homes in 2004 in Arkansas. I never really looked back. We’ve been very fortunate, very blessed because of the area that we’re in.
AMP: How have you adapted in the last two years to the changes brought on by the pandemic?
Marrs: When it first started, Jenny and I were still filming the show because construction was one of the essentials in Northwest Arkansas. I think other than getting tested with a swab in my nose two or three times a week, really the only difference was there was less traffic. But that soon changed. We all expected we were going to get big slowdowns, and as you know, just the opposite happened. Real estate exploded. I think that’s a combination of a situation where a lot of people previously weren’t in their homes the entire time. They had been in their offices a lot of the day. And maybe then, when they worked from home, they realized what was and wasn’t working.
I think we’re experiencing — just from the people we talk to — a big boom in growth where in bigger cities or on the coast, people are wanting more of that lifestyle where you have a little bit more space. With people being able to work remotely, they were finally able to do that. We had a perfect storm hit where you’ve got people with the ability to buy who are now wanting to move to smaller markets.
With the shutdown in trucking, the shutdown in a lot of materials and the increase in all the commodity prices, like lumber, it’s completely upended what we were doing pre-COVID. It’s caused Jenny and me, as a business, to be better planners because you have to plan out to get a set of windows right now. You have to plan out 12 to 16 weeks. That’s something that before COVID you might have a two-to-three-week time.
And now you’re trying to complete these projects in similar-to-the-same times with products that aren’t there or take forever to get. The business model has definitely changed. We’re warehousing a lot of items. We’re pre-ordering appliances, lighting, flooring — anything that we can get. We’re fortunate in our area that prices have tracked pretty well with the increases in lumber and all these other essentials for building. But still, it’s all new territory.
AMP: What about the current employee shortage? Has manpower been an issue for you?
Marrs: With that, Jenny and I were blessed that we started in 2004. Part of being a contractor is going through the scratches and bruises of finding subcontractors who are loyal to you and don’t take on too much work and can always get to your jobs.
I think that something that has really been a saving grace for us is that we’ve been around building for so long in the area that the manpower issues have not been as terrible as they could have been. Again, that all comes back to scheduling. My dad used to always tell me a general contractor is worthless day-to-day. Week-to-week, you get a little more important. But that month-to-month — where you’re scheduling and setting up with subcontractors a month in advance so they can pencil you in and they can count on specific work on a set day — that’s where my value as a general contractor comes in for homeowners.
Otherwise, if it’s just a day-to-day thing, homeowners may as well just build houses themselves.
AMP: What’s your take on the future of this industry? What’s in store?
Marrs: Building, in general, is full of peaks and valleys. There will be a downturn without a doubt. There always is. In America, fortunately after every valley there seems to be another peak. I think we’re going to get a lot more regional. One of the great things about Arkansas is there’s a lot of work here, and we’re very centrally located. I read an article this morning that said that every semi-truck in America is backed up by about 100 loads before we get trucking back to where we’re on schedule again.
So, what these truckers are doing, which I don’t blame them, is they’re getting the shortest routes that pay the best. So, I think there is an advantage to being in middle America right now where we are loaded with hardwoods. You go south four or five hours, and you reach a bunch of pine and places where we get our plywood and OSB [oriented strand board], and a lot of that is done in Arkansas. I think that’s going to be an advantage for us. But I don’t see inflation going anywhere anytime soon, so I think we’re just experiencing new normals.
Before COVID, I was paying $7 to $8 a sheet for OSB plywood, and two months ago it was $50 a sheet. I think that we’re never going to go back to what we considered normal, but I’m really liking being in Arkansas right now because it seems like in our area, when the economy goes south, more people go to that big retailer, and they still need to buy chicken, and they still need trucking. So, we have a lot of industries especially in Northwest Arkansas — and in all of Arkansas — that I wouldn’t say it’s recession-proof, but it is very recession-resistant.
Jenny and Dave Marrs renovate, design and build homes in NWA as part of a TV show that attracts more than 35 million viewers.
AMP: What advice can you offer people wanting to get into homebuilding?
Marrs: I really think that the apprenticeship program we used to have in America has pretty much died off, but it’s so important. So, I always tell people that there are a lot of individuals who are good business people, who even in downtimes are still successful and sometimes even excel and grow their business during those times. Usually, those individuals love to talk, and they love to help people out. If someone is wanting to get into this business, I would say go find someone who’s doing it well. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel, just help each other out. I think it helps us, especially our areas, just to get through these times a little bit easier.
Season three of Fixer to Fabulous starring Jenny and Dave Marrs airs on HGTV every Tuesday, (starting Nov. 16) at 8 p.m. and streams on discovery+.
