The 85 South Show with Karlous Miller, DC Young Fly and Chico Bean - Cargo by KVN | BLACK MARKET w/ Karlous Miller

Episode Date: January 22, 2025

Cargo by KVN sits down with Karlous Miller for another episode of the Black Market! Learn more: www.cargobykvn.com  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an IHeart podcast. Welcome to Pretty Private with Ebeney, the podcast where silence is broken and stories are set free. I'm Ebeney, and every Tuesday I'll be sharing all new anonymous stories that would challenge your perceptions and give you new insight on the people around you. Every Tuesday, make sure you listen to Pretty Private from the Black Effect Podcast Network. Tune in on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Your entire identity has been fabricated. Your beloved brother goes missing without a trace.

You discover the depths of your mother's illness. I'm Danny Shapiro, and these are just a few of the powerful stories I'll be mining on our upcoming 12th season of Family Secrets. We continue to be moved and inspired by our guests and their courageously told stories. Listen to Family Secrets Season 12 on the I, My Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Summer's here, and with the kids home and off to camp, it's easy for moms to get lost in the shuffle. On Good Mom's Bad Choices, we're making space to center ourselves with joy, rest, and pleasure.

Take the kids to camp. You know what? It was expensive. But I was also thinking, you have my kid. This is kind of priceless. Take her, feed her, make core memories. I don't have to do anything. Main thing, I don't have to do anything.

To hear this and more, listen to Good Mom's Bad Choices from Black Effect Podcast Network on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Do you remember Vine? It changed the internet forever, and it vanished in its prime. I'm Benedict Townsend, and this is Vine, six seconds that changed the world. The untold story of genius, betrayal, and the app that died so that TikTok could thrive. From overnight stars to the fall that no one saw coming. we're breaking down what made Vine iconic. Listen to Vine on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Hey, man, welcome back to the Black Market. You can bring the bill. What a bill? What it mean? There's money on the flow. Okay. Yeah, like the stock market. They'll go off.

It's money on the table, man. Can we cut? You can say whatever you need to say. I bet. Let's say whatever you need to say. You got some shit to say that good that you're going to need some first work. No, I'll wait. But we got none other than Mr. Kevin Copeland in here with us today.

Kevin, what you got going on, man? Man, I'm just out here trying to change the world, building shipping container homes, as well as, as well as multi-family homes and just doing container developments overall. Now, what got you into that? I used to work on the ships, on the merchant seamen ships. And the ships, I would go on shipping container ships. And when I would come home, I would actually build houses traditionally. Okay.

So I would come home after six months and build on the traditional house. So you'd be out at sea? be out and see overseas on those container ships. Damn. Yeah. You got the whole game from getting through customs and all that. Yeah, I can get you through there. Okay, bet.

I can get just, you know, we'll talk after the, after the show. I ain't got this shit, maybe some cars. You're legal. You're legal. You're legal. Some high-end race cars from Japan or something. Oh, we can get them over, huh? Yeah, most definitely.

Well, for sure. Man, when you started building houses? I started building house when I was 23. I taught myself. Word? Yeah. I built my first house in Charlotte, North Carolina. California.

Just straight out the plan. Yeah, I was on a container ship when I was sitting there working. I was like, I called my girl at the time. I say, yo, when I come home, I'm gonna try to build a house. She said, you crazy, but it's nothing far-fetched for you. So I came home. That's before it was navigation. We had MapQuest.

I drove to Charlotte with the MapQuest, with the directions, right? I found a century 21. I came off the ship with 20,000. Had it all in my book bag. That don't look suspicious at all. No, it don't. 23-year-old black man, backpack full of money. With the duress.

With the duress. I said, yo, I want to buy a piece of land. They said, all, cool. They showed me some land. We found one for 17-5. I went back to the office. I was like, all right, I got $20,000. They were like, no, no, you got to go through closing and all that.

I said, bro, I got $20,000 right now. I want the land. Needless to say, he taught me everything I need to know about the real estate process, but about a market. A month later, I end up acquiring that piece of land. Yep. That's what's up? And then you, what's the next step?

You got the- So this will happen. After I got the land, right? I went to the lot, and I called the real estate agent. I said, what do I do next? He said, you got to get your GC license. I said, what's that? He said, your general contractor license.

I bet. I took the test, study for that, took the test past it. Call them again. All right, what's next? He said, now you've got to order your root trust, your eye joists and everything like that, amongst the blueprint that you actually submit for permit. I see there's a lot of people don't know this,

where you get your blueprint from. I actually designed all my stuff, all my houses. Hey, man, I didn't know you. Good. You know, man, I went to Virginia Commonwealth University, and I was pretty good at architectural drafting. I didn't finish college, but I obtained everything I needed to learn. That saved you a gang of bread right there.

Yeah, because I'm not in no country. college debt whatsoever. That's what's up. Yeah. So, uh, your own blueprint. Yeah. And I partner, so I design it, I sketch it, design it, and I send it to a, um, my architect or a draftsman. Okay. It just digitize it. Yeah. But it's pretty much, mostly my concepts. And also my friend, uh, 80 modern designs. He actually does some of my concepts too. Okay. Yeah. Keep going. So look. So I got the blueprint. So I got the blue friends. Got the plans. I got the plans. Plans have been approved, so I got my permits. Okay.

So now I'm on YouTube, how to build a house. Come on, man. Because I just studied enough to just get my GC lights. No, I might not put this episode out if you telling me that you just sat here and looked on YouTube and figured out how to build a house. And then there's going to be a whole bunch of men watching this, but they laid it. And she's going to be looking at them like, so you mean to tell me you can't build a house? Look, Kevin built the house? Look.

I built my first house watching you guys. two videos. Damn, Kevin. Now I feel like I ain't shit. No, man. What else I had to lose? I ain't having to lose. You right. You know what I'm saying? So, uh... I'm not on the whole black male population right there. I ain't mean to. Damn, we ain't doing enough. I'll teach somebody if they want to learn. Now, that's the game right there. Yeah, I'll teach you if you want to learn. I got a seminar coming for all of this year too. Okay, where's it? It's going to be in Atlanta.

I bet. That's all we need to know. So get back to the process. So YouTube. So, I'm YouTube and how to build a house. The first thing, of course, you gotta do is dig your footing. Yeah. I went to Home Depot and I got two shovels. Come on, Greg. I'm telling you, the story is well.

You didn't think you should dig the footing by yourself. Watch, watch, watch. So it lasted for them out maybe three hours before I was too tired, so I had a crew to come to dig the footing, the trench for the footing, right? Had the concrete guys came, poured the footing, support the footing, then I found a Mexican to build the foundation wall. So once I did that, see how they have us hesitant to even say that.

We want to give much love and respect to all the Migos who'll be helping us with these projects, bro. Especially my guy Vic, we appreciate y'all. Exactly. So look, once I got the foundation wall done, I went to Home Depot and found some other Mexicans. And asked them, and asked them, like, if they would come over to the property and give me an estimate to frame the house up. The best. They're the best.

That's what you thought. That's what I thought. Maybe not that crew, but there was one day. So, old head, black dude, he pulled up on me, and he came out there, saw what I had going on, looked at the blueprints, and he had an assistant with him, a dude named JJ. So I'm peeping his assistant, like, yo, when he leave me and you're going to change numbers real quick. because the old head was already trying to rip my head off. You can tell. Of course.

So he went in the car. Me and JJ chopped it up later on. I picked up JJ the next day. He said, boss man, what are we doing? I said, we're going to frame the house today. Man, he said, what we're going to frame it? Where are the nail guns at? I said, what's a nail gun?

He said, the nail guns that you put the nails into the wood. I said, man, look, I don't got no nail gun, man. I got two hammers and a box of nails in the back seat. He looked back there He said boss man We're not building the ark We're trying to build a house So needless to say

I went on Craigslist You got me a powder actuated Neal gun And that was the start Of us building The very first house That's what's up

Brough Facebook marketplace Get you an air tank You know what I got the one With the one with the gas carches So I ain't even need the air tank Because I ain't had no electricity See I didn't know you needed

A temporary pole out there When you building the first house Anybody know anything about building some houses, though? They're digging some foot, and that is some hard-ass work, bro. That is some back-breaking labor. I used, I don't have had all kind of jobs when they come to construction, demolition, like, from the ground up, bricking, like, labor, all that shit. Hanks and concrete, hanging, flicking, uh, hanging sheep rock. Shit.

I own sheet rocking at first out, 16 hundred square feet. Shit, I don't know what's worse. Hanging it or taking that shit out. Hanging it. It took me, it took me about a, about two weeks. weeks to hang it, I couldn't walk afterwards for about four days. Oh, your body lock up. My back wouldn't flex up.

Exactly. Your knees and shit did it, man. I didn't know. That's why when you see the guys who do that shit for real, they have a whole lot of equipment that make you be like, what they need that? Oh. Man, I get it. Yeah, man, I get it.

So then you flipped the whole script. Did you sell the house or you sell? Yeah, I sold it. I listed it. Since I built it myself, I said, man, I might as well try to sell it myself. I went to the good way down the street. Got me a pair of DACA's and a polo shirt. I stood out there because they said,

baked goods make a person feel at home and buy the house. I went to get some, I went and bake some cookies in the house. Man, shut. Hey, what can't you? I lie to you not. I lied to you not. I went and baked cookies. I stood in the living room.

My hands behind my back trying to look presidential. Three people showed up, two of them came to the wrong house. Yeah. Needless to say, after that, I shut everything down. I listed with an agent on the Thursday. We was on a contract by that following Tuesday. Was it hard to sell the first house that you built? No, not necessarily because I hired a professional.

I'm not, I can't do everything by myself. I'm saying, like, you weren't attached to it at all. And I don't care nothing about that. I'm trying to get a... My hard work! I'm 23. I started at 23, and I finished when I was 25. I was trying to get the bread back.

I feel you. Trying to get the bread back. So... How'd you do on it? Huh? How'd you do as far as... I did decent, I think. I didn't do my numbers.

I know I sold it for 166, I walked away with 142, and I bought the land for 17.5, and I think I put mostly my labor in it. So I built it for about 80 to 90. Okay. So I didn't make a whole lot of profit, but I gained experience that helped me build, learn how to build shipping containers, too. Yeah. So what was your next project after that? My next project after that was a project in Raleigh. I took it up a notch.

I built another traditional, but it was 25. Yeah, single family 2,500 square feet in Raleigh, North Carolina. Now, how did you do on that one? I did decent. You got the experience at this point. Did you keep the same crew? I cut the time down by six months. Okay.

And I sold that one for $2.25. And I think I walked away about $65,000 on that one. So that was sweet. That was sweet. So now you got the urge. You're in the game. Now I ain't scared to build nothing. Right.

Yeah, so needless to say, I did that cycle going on. the ship coming home building the house I did that for about 12 to 13 years okay in 2018 they put shipping containers in the in the building code so I was like man if I work on container ships I come home and build traditional houses why not try to merge my two professions and see what happened you already got the plug you should know somebody you know what's a little something so yeah and I won't scared of nothing because I didn't did everything from cutting my thing off building that first house to sleeping number of my car for months of the time he'd like man look i know how to make a five dollar a little

seizes piece of stretch for a week damn that's that's some shit i don't want to even know how to do that shit ain't even good the next day so i know that shit they're on day five everything i came off the shit with had to go into the house that's crazy when you said you cut your finger off i was looking at the tip of the zone or the damn they put the shit back on yeah because it was held on by this little piece of skin but i was back working two day little I ain't with a hand behind my back. Yeah. You got to want it.

No, exactly. Now, how has the shipping container game been, though? It's going good. Is it still at the beginning stage? Yeah, it's still at the beginning stages, and I'm fine-tuning my strategy and my target audience. I think a lot of education still needs to be had with shipping containers because a lot of people think they're cheap to build.

cheap to build if you're willing to downsize. You have to make a sacrifice. Cost as much as a house. Costs a little bit more. Shut up. The way I explain it, I tell them like this, you can go to Home Depot once again, find guys across the street,

ask them how many of them people know how to do framing. Everybody gonna raise the hand. They ask them, same crowd of people, how many people know how to do welding? Metal fabrication. That's a profession, so they charge for it like it's a profession. Exactly. So that's why it costs a little bit more.

The savings within shipping containers is on the back end. Like, for instance, an Airbnb. Airbnb's have two categories, traditional and special. Containers going special. You can charge things up to 25% or 30% more if it's in a special category. Containers are the number two search thing on YouTube besides kits. So it's super popular and it's bubbling right now. So that's where container homes make the most sense.

on a smaller with a smaller structure or if you're doing something like building a apartment complex where the building is going to be appraised based on the rent role and not the location so that's where it makes sense of you said that you were able to

you got some information about the shipping containers being up the code what are some of the differences for the shipping containers as far building code So the thing is, a lot of people, when I tell them the price of one single container, which is anywhere from 4,500 to 5,500, they say, oh, I can get it for 1,300. Yeah, but the state of Georgia doesn't allow you to build with shipping containers older than 4 years old.

So you want to use what they call one trips. The only time they were on the ocean is when they came from China to the United States. So it's funny, you'll order a one trip and get it for $5,500, or you can try to get a new container that's about $8,500. They still got to make the same trip across because they manufacture in China. So that's the largest, that's the biggest code that you don't want to violate because potentially they will check that name, that plate on the shipping container that has the manufacturing day. Damn, that's crazy. You think once you buy it, you just buy it. But it's got to be, like you said, the code,

it's got to be certain age. Yeah. That's dope. And even with the aesthetic of it, you don't want to build no container house with a bunch of dense in it. Like, I care about that type of stuff. And ain't nobody, if I'm doing,

if I'm building houses for resale, that's not going to be aesthetic and pleasing. Yeah, it's going to fuck the profit up. Yeah. So. So on your first joint, your first joint, Your first shipping container house, where how did this shit turn out? That's the one that ended up on AGTV?

Word. Yeah. You either like the coldest nigga or like the luckiest nigga that I didn't ever had on here. Look and hard work, I guess. Luck ain't shit doing preparation meet the opportunity. Exactly. So you're killing it out here. I'm trying.

It's still, like I said, we're still in the beginning stages. It's still our education has to be learned. But for the most part, I'm doing all right. I got a partnership with a push-a-tee. We're building the development in the North Carolinas. Also, I got a development that's going up the top of the year in Ghana. I see. That's hard.

Yeah. We got 20 acres. We got 20 acres of it. How many shipping container homes could you put on 28? That's a loaded question because you want to have it centralized with some type of spacing or something like that. But I say to put, for an acre, you could put a two-bedroom, one bathroom, which is 640 square feet. That's 16 by 40. You could probably put eight on one acre.

Okay. So whatever that is, times 20. About six. There you go. And the area is called Shah Hills, that's gone right outside of a crop. Okay. That's what a pay for it. Yeah.

So look, have you built? like one of the big-ass shipping container mansion type shit? Like they'll be on aging TV? Yeah, the one I built. It's those 1,900 square feet. And the second one I built, which is around the corner. That one is actually 2,400 square feet. Now, how does work?

People reach out and be like, I want you to build me one, or they just hit you and buy one? Usually people will contact me through the website, Cargo by KVN.com, and they will inquire about purchasing. but we're actually about to redo the website and it's going to be more of

an e-commerce-based look to it where you can just click and pay all right I'm gonna go on there because I want to get in on the push a T deal I mean I know y'all got big paper I can get two of them let's rule I'm I need two of them we can do it one in America and then

give me one over there and Ghana so when we go over there I already be set up trust me I got you don't be just hey you're Hey, I don't talk because I got lips. I got it. And I get a discount because you was on the show and shit. We can do that too.

Yeah, exactly, man. But let them know what the website is, how they can reach out to you via social media, all that. The website is www.cargo by KVN.com. My Instagram is KVN, The Builder. YouTube is Cargo by KVN. And the professional page on Instagram is Cargo by KVN. So, yeah, check me up. Check us out

because I just bought two of them bitches I ain't fucking dang you you sell me one and a half You said one and a half I guess you I'm based on my discount talking about KVN Black Market

We're out of here Money on the floor Welcome to Pretty Private With Ebeney The podcast where silence is broken And stories are set free I'm Ebeney, and every Tuesday I'll be sharing all new anonymous stories that would challenge your perceptions and give you new insight on the people around you. Every Tuesday, make sure you listen to Pretty Private from the Black Effect Podcast Network.

Tune in on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Your entire identity has been fabricated. Your beloved brother goes missing without a trace. You discover the depths of your mother's illness. I'm Danny Shapiro, and these are just a few of the powerful stories I'll be mining on our upcoming 12th season of Family Secrets. We continue to be moved and inspired by our guests and their courageously told stories. Listen to Family Secrets Season 12 on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Summer's here, and with the kids home and off to camp, it's easy for moms to get lost in the shuffle.

On Good Mom's Bad Choices, we're making space to center ourselves. with joy, rest, and pleasure. Take the kids to camp. You know what? It was expensive. But I was also thinking, you have my kid, this is kind of priceless.

Take her, feed her, make core memories. I don't have to do anything. Main thing, I don't have to do anything. To hear this and more, listen to Good Mom's Bad Choices from Black Effect Podcast Network

on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Do you remember Vine? It changed the internet forever, and it vanished in its prime. I'm Benedict Townsend, and this is Vine, six seconds that changed the world. The untold story of genius, betrayal,

and the app that died so that TikTok could thrive. From overnight stars to the fall that no one saw coming, we're breaking down what made Vine iconic. Listen to Vine on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Thank you.