Ladies and gentlemen welcome back to another episode to meet up your host as usual Alvaralunia here to bring you another exciting guest this time is gonna be about luxury development And that's why we're gonna be heading all the way to Calgary, Alberta in Canada to have with us our friend Melissa Hilsko She's a luxury costume builder There she is, what's happening Melissa? How are you? I'm cold, not doing as good as you are and it's in warm floor No, my army, right? It's my army Yes, it's minus 26 here today, so Mmhmm Oh my gosh, you know I'm good here In fact, we were talking this morning at this morning, I was flying the helicopter And it was such a beautiful day over flying my army and I'm like, wow, we're so lucky to live here But I gotta tell you, what you're doing in Calgary is just fantastic The homes that you're building and the way that you're doing it What about the place that you're amazing luxury home, right?
Well, I'm not quite like a great home, I'm in my very old historic office So since I will never live in a historic home, we have our office in a historic home Which makes us appreciate the new homes that we built because there's conversation Wow, very good Well, first of all, I'm really really excited about today's house I appreciate you that you're taking the time to chat with us to tell us all about the exciting thing that you're doing with your business We're on the homes and how has been really in the last couple years with this Trinity growth in real estate So tell us a little bit about what's going on, who are you, what are you working on? All the fun stuff, so we're like, yeah, we're an electric home builder based up in Calgary, Alberta, the Great White North Where it's like I said, mine is 26 today, no palm trees in sight Mmhmm Yeah, so every home that we build and design is custom designed on a car client basis So it's really unique where it's not cookie cutter, we've never done the same thing twice I hardly even use the same paint colors twice Just because we want to make each home representative of our client Not necessarily what I want, but I want the home to speak to our client and their aesthetic It's their investment. The markup here has actually been very interesting So I know during the downturn during COVID when the world was ending We saw a very large downturn up here where a lot of my friends that are builders in the US were seeing a surge And now I think there's a little bit of a downturn in the States But we're seeing this search has now finally come up into our area Where we are at is very heavily driven by oil and gas and I feel like that's also helping our, you know, economic climate here in Calgary as well For the luxury home market, but it's been it's been a while right the last couple years not gonna lie Yeah, which I think it has been for everybody, but it's great And we have some, you know, so many amazing homes in the works right now at various stages We have one that we're getting ready to hand over next month We have a few that are in sort of the finishing stage where we're building all of the cabinetry and such and then quite a few at framing Foundation and yes guys still do work here outside when it is as cold as it is today, so What's the demand right now in Calgary like who are the majority of people that want to work with you? Well, it honestly varies like the homes that we have in our construction right now vary from about 1.5 million just for the whole not including land All the way up to over 7 million, so we build a very large range price range scale finishing You know, my husband always says he's like, you know, he has no ego when it comes to building homes As well and what we'll deliver but one thing we can guarantee is we're gonna deliver the best quality top notch service You know during the process and after the process and everything else Yeah, I mean it's actually really interesting that I love it because each home is so unique and so individual You know, I'll go to one home that's 3,000 square feet above grade and then the next outside I'm going to is 6500 square feet above grade over twice the size And one home is going to be very traditional have a lot of more old world Your candy tailings where the other one is going to be very modern with you know, you know, just blow your mind type of detail You know read a detailing home tomorrow, but brass whatever um each one is so different So it makes my job as the lead designer very interesting keeps me in my pose Um it is though It's a lot of fun and always trying and I don't want to use the word trend but trying to stay ahead of the trends is basically what You know, we can't say we say like we don't build to the trends like you can look through our website And you know, I think a lot of people would have a hard time number one picking out which home is of what value and to which home was Built to win.
Um, we're all about designing homes that have a classic appeal that will last the test of time You know our previous home that we lived in was I think it's now almost 12 years old and if I were to show it to people today They'd be like I still love it. Let's quit. I mean people And now if you're coming to be I want to pick a ball in my home Law simulator, yeah, so are you getting any of those specific treasure the moment? Yeah, for sure.
I mean we more and more homes are having golf simulators installed, especially with our climate You know, I mean, we have a very short exterior golfing season and the great thing with a lot of these golf simulators that we use is they're Multifunctional you can actually add on shooting games. I'm talking football for all this stuff So it's not just for you know, the golfer in the home. It's actually for everybody. I'm not a golfer We have one but I will admit after one too many martinis.
I like going in shooting Yeah, it's fun So the golf simulator has certainly been something that we're starting to see in a lot more of our homes and is heavily requested Um, we have one home that's in design right now that kind of as you were speaking of the wellness Aspect, you know has a beautiful home gym with a sauna called plunge pool is installed in it and then it leads to Hot tub and pool areas So there's many factors and many things that are coming into it And I think people have realized, you know during that lockdown our home is more than just a home It has to be our safe space and our sanctuary and if you're gonna make the investment make it exactly what you want it to be I love that. Now. How do you stay relevant in such a competitive industry? How do you get leads?
How do you maintain that peak performance? So everything that we get lead-wise is repeat and referral So it comes down to our reputation our reputation is how we stay relevant in this industry and especially in this market Um, we really pride ourselves on the way that we treat our clients throughout the entire build process and after the build process You know if a client comes to us and says, you know, we had one client who bought a home with us 19 years ago And they're like, oh, we just want to do a few little things here and there we'll facilitate that for you Obviously, there's going to be a cause associated with it like we can't do the work for free But we will go in we will facilitate that for you We will handle that for them and that's the way it is with every single client And I think that that goes above and beyond right means some other builders in the city do But the one thing to note is an unhappy client will tell a thousand people a happy client will tell us small handful So it's all about treating each client, you know, basically like they're priceless Has been social media also a good driving force Um, I mean, I think we can all agree that Don't listen to me on instagram. That instagram is not what it was a couple of years ago Growth was much easier even a year ago than what it is now. Um, it is a full-time job You know, I handle all the social media.
I replied every single DM. I replied that most comments I can Um scheduling all the posts making the reels everything else So you have a lot of food I don't know Yes, many and don't forget being a mom too. Anyway, um, but it's it's Social media has really impacted us because it may have gotten leads from that because we're able to be able to showcase our work And people like I've been following you for years Like now we're finally ready to build let's talk and it's absolutely let's go let's chat Um, so it is even though the growth is painful at the moment and some days I just want to kind of like throw in the towel It's still pushing forward staying consistent with it Um, and you know and getting more of these leads from social media whether it's instagram or on facebook I'm trying really hard on tick tock. I'm too old and I don't understand it and the comments that you get on there I don't know these people Oh It's a day of work for you.
I say like all these crazy stuff. I tell you Yeah, and I'm like like I posted one a couple weeks ago about hardwood in a bathroom And this person was like, no stupid and I'm like, actually it's not I do it alone. No, it's stupid If you have kids you can't do it. I'm like, well, I have two kids and I'm done in the last three homes But then and then I'm like do I really want to be arguing?
Thumbs up. That's it Because the interesting thing is that it still has that element of virality that it's more difficult than any other button So I like tick to for that reason because instagram is harder as you said to grow at that level And the traffic that you can generate from tick to your instagram account or youtube or your website is huge So even though you get those to become an asset a super luxury group we've had in like now some recent video But finally you're getting like eight million views five million views Three million views where it takes a while is the compalt effect is the consistency Yeah, and I do The only reason I started doing instagram is the gentleman that does a lot of our journal videos and aerials and everything else He did one of our own personal home and he posted on tick tock and it had over like, you know, almost like two million likes her Oh, wow, I don't know. I don't know. I was like, oh, this is kind of going viral I'm like, yeah, she got on tick tock and like write the co-tell of this But then as I'm reading through it like all these kids like people that are my kids ages talking about how they want to build this home in minecraft And I'm like, no, you're not my client.
You're my client one day, so maybe my client one day, so maybe That's funny. That's funny. Now, let's talk about what's been the biggest obstacle that you've faced throughout all these years And what did you learn from it? It's obstacle honestly, it's all about life balance and it's something that I'm not good at and it's something that I'm still struggling with Having two teenage sons and owning this in this company and working with my husband You know, it's a very fine line of when we get home at night the work stops You know, even though for the last like we can have we've been in home at seven o'clock at night And it's like I'm ordering, you know dinner for my kids on the way home on the phone There and it's like sit down for the last one and you just want to You can press but it's all about finding that life balance So one thing that we've really started to do is is taking at least a weekend every month where we log off We zone out we just it's about connect time with the boys us and everything because I mean time is passing I like I almost have a 17 year old son and a 15 year old son and I'm like you wear like these babies out like now You know, my old son is right away in high school next year and I'm like, how is this even possible?
And I'm thinking like now we're talking to him about what do you want to do in university? What do you want to do for a career and I'm just like how am I having this conversation with this woman that I created? I wanted to ask you just a couple more things to sign on your also super busy So I want to ask you something that we I guess which is what is the definition of luxury for you? Definition of luxury for me it really comes down to I think just and it's not necessarily a price point in my mind I mean granted I like my luxury items don't get me wrong But for me luxury is something that's unique to you and it speaks to you and what you want So that's why I feel like every single home that we built is truly a luxury home because it is exactly what you have in your mind Or what I have in my mind for you, but it's handcrafted specifically for you.
It's one of a kind It's something that nobody else has it was painstakingly put together by best craftsmen in the industry And handed over you know with kid gloves so for me, that's what luxury really is It's you know, like I said, it's not necessarily a designer handbag for designer jewelry if you're giving it to me They'll take it Yeah, yeah Yeah, so that that is probably the best way that that I personally would describe luxury That's amazing. So the last question for you if you will have to start over again, would you take it? No, I wouldn't you know, I always live by life seeing them have absolutely no regrets in life And I'm not from believer in that. I like it And you know, I've had some pretty interesting meetings.
I always believe that everybody leads you, you know, down a certain path and everything else So I look at the path that got me to where I am today and yeah, I wouldn't change anything You know, I lived in New York City twice and left twice and because I'm not in this situation I've been now in the position I'm in now and I couldn't be happier. So no regrets. No changes I love it. I love it.
So if anybody wants to reach out to you work with you work and they find you aside from Instagram What's the best way? Instagram TikTok You know, we're still trending water over there. We've ran to home space the page and obviously we have a great website But I also helped build and design as well and lots of on their upcoming projects are also showcased on there as well too Well, I encourage everybody to follow Melissa and what you're doing because it's fantastic congratulations on what you're doing It was a pleasure It was a pleasure to talk to you even though it was like, you know, back in the corner I'm gonna handle the call. You can always go to my army I will be giving you a ring when I need to call out and you can take me around for a helicopter ride and show me some of the beautiful I am all with pleasure with pleasure.
That's what we do Thank you so much for having me today. It was such a pleasure to finally connect in person at least over the phone. So thank you Thank you, Melissa. Thank you, everybody.
Bye And thanks again for everybody tuning in today. We hope you enjoyed it and remember embrace each beautiful success in life My name is Alvaro and I'll see you next time