Caleb: Welcome to Real Estate Insights, where I sit down with standout real estate pros across Utah and Idaho to talk about the market, how they work, and how they help their clients win. I'm your host, Caleb Adams. Let's get into it. My guest today is Ethan Tusher of Crescent Ridge Construction in Logan, Utah. I've known Ethan for a while. He's a stellar agent, six years in, licensed in both Utah and Idaho. what really sets Ethan apart and one of the reasons I wanted to have him on here is

Ethan Teuscher: Okay.

Caleb: Before real estate he spent six years in retail banking and he's a real estate investor himself. So he doesn't just bring the real estate agent side, he brings a finance and investor lens. So Ethan, welcome to the show. Did I miss anything you're proud of?

Ethan Teuscher: Appreciate No, no, you pretty much summed it up. So appreciate it.

Caleb: So tell me a little bit about how you got into real estate. how did you get started?

Ethan Teuscher: Yeah, I kind of always wanted to do real estate growing up. I really wanted to be a doctor and own a bunch of real estate and took my first biology class in college and that wasn't gonna happen. So got a job at the bank and yeah, I really enjoyed finance my real estate agent Logan Brown, who's now my broker. He was gonna start his own brokerage and kind of convinced me to jump ship at the bank and come do real estate. And I already owned some property at that point. And I was like, yeah, well, no better way to do it than be an agent. So yeah, and it's been good. Haven't looked back since. Kind of a crazy time. It was right during COVID when I quit the bank or right when they shut down. yeah, it was wild, but it's been a good move.

Caleb: Wow, so Logan twisted your arm into into real estate.

Ethan Teuscher: Yeah, yeah, something like that.

Caleb: that's awesome. and tell me a little bit about the type of clients you typically work with. I know obviously Logan Brown crescent ridge construction, you're doing a lot of builds, but give me a little insight on that.

Ethan Teuscher: Yeah, I actually do a kind of whole lot of everything. We work with a lot of investors. In fact, we just closed, someone we built a home for that he bought it as a house for his daughter to go to school. Four years ago, she just graduated and we just listed it and sold it. And so we do a lot of lot of investor work, but then, you know, a lot of first time home buyers and then obviously the build side. We do a ton of because of Logan Brown and Crested Ridge Construction.

Caleb: It's awesome. for people listening, what what advice would you have for people wanting to build their first house? 'Cause I know building is a little bit more involved than buying an existing house.

Ethan Teuscher: Probably the best advice is just figuring out your numbers. When you're building, you have so many options and you can get really wide-eyed and you can blow your budget out of the water really quick. But if you know your numbers and you can stay focused on those numbers, building is a great option. a lot of times we're seeing appraisals coming significantly higher than what the actual cost is to build.

Caleb: that's awesome. I've heard from some people that sometimes it can be overwhelming, you know, when the world's your oyster, you can do anything.

Ethan Teuscher: Yeah, for sure. like I said, if you can focus on where your numbers need to be at and your builder is, you know, pushing you towards that number, then you're in good shape.

Caleb: in terms of Cache County are there any exciting projects or neighborhoods you're seeing locally?

Ethan Teuscher: Yeah, there's a lot going on. I mean, they're building like crazy here in Cache County. Kind of one of the coolest ones is Willow Lakes out on 10th West They've got some really cool homes going in there. two private lakes for one for wakeboarding and one for skiing. But that just kind of speaks to the diversity of Cache County. You you've got that and then you've got, you know, the university just up the road. So. There's a lot of cool things, a lot of new builds, just a lot of, yeah, a lot of growth here in the Valley.

Caleb: yeah, you're you're right. There's the whole range of types of homes and and areas. in terms of the market locally, do you feel like it's more of a buyer's market or sellers market in Cash Valley?

Ethan Teuscher: if I were to chalk it up to percentage, it'd be like 15 % seller market and 85 % buyers market. It seems like, yeah, it seems like some of these homes, the right home, the right location, right price fly off the market, you know, under contract in less than a couple of days, less than a week typically. And then you have other homes that'll sit for months.

Caleb: really? Okay. So

Ethan Teuscher: that home I was telling you about, uh, just barely that, that investor, bought it for his daughter four years ago. we listed on a Monday, we were under contract by Wednesday, and closed, three weeks later. You'll have homes like that. That'll just fly. And then you have other homes that are good homes and you think their price well, and they sit for, you know, four to six months. So that's why I say that 15%. I think there's. buyers that are ready to move for the right home and they're willing to pay top dollar. But then, you know, if there's other homes that for whatever reason just sit. So it's an interesting market for sure right now.

Caleb: Yeah, it almost feels like a like a case by case. It's hard to give a blanket statement to all homes because they're all so unique right now. Yeah, that's interesting. Well I wanna talk about the the client experience a little bit, and like how you guys help clients win. do you guys focus on with the client experience?

Ethan Teuscher: Mm hmm. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. when I first meet a client, you know, that's been referred to or however I come in contact, I think the hope is just that they feel heard and they know that we're going to communicate with them, It seems like the number one thing to be successful is or to make sure that client has a good experience is communication. Whether it's a good or a bad thing, they know what's happening, when it's happening, how it's gonna happen. Whether it's a text every day or a call and just an explanation, but communication makes a big difference

Caleb: not letting get lost in the weeds of the process. Well, I know the one we did together, you you were really great,

Ethan Teuscher: Mm-hmm, for sure. And it's easy to do that.

Caleb: what expertise do you feel like your team brings that others don't?

Ethan Teuscher: Good question. I think we've seen it all. We obviously are pretty heavily involved on the construction side of things, but that carries over to other aspects of real estate. Whether it's a pre-existing home, we kind of get a sense of what it takes to fix certain repairs that are brought up in the inspection. We've seen everything from... construction to investor to first time home buyers to developments. We just have a wide experience in all of those.

Caleb: one thing I would add is like just the down to earth part. I feel like sometimes builders get so big that it yeah, you feel like a a cog in the system. But I I've never felt that way or I don't think clients have.

Ethan Teuscher: Yeah. Appreciate it. Yeah, I feel like we've kind of fallen into this niche of not trying to get too big, you know, big enough that we can take care of our clients and get you a good price, but yeah, we're not scaling too quick or getting too big to where we drop off quality.

Caleb: Yeah, what what's a common mistake that you see clients make when it comes to building a home?

Ethan Teuscher: Do you mean like, like in the build process or just getting started or?

Caleb: Maybe both. Yeah, getting started and then throughout the build.

Ethan Teuscher: Yeah, I think a big mistake that people make is they search these floor plans online and then they kind of get this idea of like, yeah, it's only 2000 square feet. And then they think it's going to be a certain cost because they base per square foot based on current real estate or pre-existing homes. And so they get in their mind that like, this is going to be so much. And then they talk to the builder. and it's just like, you want to have some expectations, but you almost need to go into the bill process with no expectations. Um, because once you get expectations, especially for like, you know, your dream home or a custom home, you want it a certain way. And then when the builder's telling you. No, that, you know, it's going to cost, you know, four times what you think it's going to cost.

Caleb: Yeah, Chat GPT's estimate wasn't accurate.

Ethan Teuscher: So really. Yeah, exactly. you almost need to go into no expectations when you go into a build and, you know, just same thing, like I mentioned before, once you know your budget, don't try and, overshoot that budget, just stay focused on that number. If it's out of the budget, don't, don't do it. You know, if it's two-tone paint or if it's, you know, a bigger RV pad, like just don't do it. It sounds great, but when it comes to the budget, that's what you got to focus on.

Caleb: Yeah, so it sounds like for people doing planning at home, it's the old analysis paralysis, you know, like just just go talk to Ethan. Don't get don't get too in the weeds. what's the best way for them to get in touch with you?

Ethan Teuscher: Mm-hmm. Yeah, so you can follow us on Instagram Crescent Ridge homes, we have an Instagram page and then my real estate page is living in Cache Valley. Just Ethan Tusher and then I have a personal Instagram. You can follow me there. our website is homes crescentridge.com. you can schedule an appointment to meet with us that way as well. but Instagram is probably the best way to contact us.

Caleb: Awesome. I appreciate having you on today and and getting your insight. That's a wrap on this episode of Real Estate Insights. A huge thank you to my guest for sharing their time and playbook. If you're a top agent in Utah or Idaho and you'd like to be featured on the show, I'd love to have you. Reach out anytime. I'm Caleb Adams, mortgage broker here in Utah and Idaho, who loves connecting great agents with great people who need them. We'll see you next time.