Eric Tan and Mo Seebeck’s backstories include chapters spent working for production home builders and major corporations. Tan put in time at Ernst and Young and then moved to Pulte Homes in Los Angeles. Seebeck has a strong background in civil engineering and worked with a number of major builders in Las Vegas including Harmony Homes, Storybook Homes, and the now defunct Rhodes Homes. Tiring of solving managerial headaches and anxious to get back into actually building something, they decided to do something different.
They met while they were both working at Pacific Rim Real Estate Group also based in Vegas, which specialized in acquiring distressed real estate assets. The duo started Paragon Life Builders in 2015 and began making their own bones in the business by acquiring and building on finished lots – which at the time were in abundance.
The pair’s first acquisition consisted of four large lots located within a small gated community.
“We designed and built the same 2,500-square-foot house on each lot, slightly modifying the elevation and garage sizes,” says Seebeck. “Then we started a townhome project by completing the final 11 townhomes of a larger overall community. We have also constructed numerous new homes in communities that were otherwise abandoned by their original developers.”
The firm puts a high value on working personally with crews, subs, buyers, and prospective clients, which helps in communities nervous about working with new developers. “As a result of those efforts, we became friends with the neighbors and local associations – groups that were fearful of someone coming in and trying to recreate the neighborhood,” says Tan.
The duo closed 14 homes prior to 2018 and are projecting to do 14 this year as their business model continues to evolve. Finishing up other developers’ projects is being phased out due to the shrinking availability of acceptable lots. “Finished lots were already finite in supply when the recession struck,” says Seebeck. “As the demand for new homes picked up, finished lot inventories in prime locations quickly disappeared.”
Paragon Life is now putting its resourceful, fix-it-up attitude into building and finishing luxury spec homes. The team believes that offering extra special extras separates them from the herd of builders and developers in Las Vegas. Their standard list of goodies include 42-inch upper cabinets, undermounted sinks, quartz or granite slab countertops, soft water loops, wall mount TV outlets, “Smurf tubes” for wiring, elongated toilets, and high-amp USB connectors in wall sockets.
In order to be able to offer the premium upgrades while still turning a profit, Paragon deals in creative purchasing. “Rather than going through the subcontractor to purchase materials, where there are heavy markups, we negotiate and purchase directly from suppliers, eliminate the markup and pick a better material. It’s not beneath us to scour the internet to source the same materials for less,” says Seebeck.
The founders’ background in production home building starts to become evident when they discuss their different approach to pricing strategies. “Whenever a builder can stop focusing on option profits and expends more energy on negotiating quantity-driven feature pricing, there will be a measurable increase in base price house profit,” says Tan. “A favorable byproduct of this strategy creates an advantage to our office and field staff, giving them fewer options to manage, and making the home delivery process more efficient.”
Even though the firm has been growing, Paragon is still considered a “boutique builder” that’s working niches in a tricky location. The firm believes Las Vegas is a seller’s market due to low levels of resale inventory, limited new home production, and high demand. But while sales prices are going up, the strong demand is also raising building costs and stretching construction timelines. Just like everywhere else, the construction labor force is tight, as is available land.
“As a result, we are seeing similar levels of builder desperation that compares with the pre-recession era. This is leading to creative land plays that are often in unexpected areas of the valley,” says Seebeck. In order for Paragon to continue their trajectory of success they may have to think about doing things differently, which for them should be pretty easy.
