The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Construction Intelligence for Realtors: How to Speak the Builder’s Language and Represent Clients With Confidence by Scott Grozelle

Episode Date: March 6, 2026

Construction Intelligence for Realtors: How to Speak the Builder’s Language and Represent Clients With Confidence by Scott Grozelle https://www.amazon.com/Construction-Intelligence-Realtors-Represent-Confidence/dp/B0G7WHQTCH Scottgrozelle.com Construction Intelligence for Realtors Your Competitive Edge in New Construction Sales and the Resale Market Today’s top-producing Realtors have one major advantage: They understand construction better than their competition. Construction Intelligence for Realtors is a practical, insider-focused guide that gives real estate professionals the construction knowledge they wish they learned in licensing. Written by international builder and sales trainer Scott Grozelle, this book shows you how homes are built, how builders operate, and how to use construction intelligence to win clients, close deals, and elevate your credibility in both new construction and resale real estate. Whether you sell pre-construction homes, represent buyers touring new build communities, or primarily work in resale, this book equips you with the tools to speak confidently, spot hidden issues, and become the trusted expert your clients rely on. What You’ll Learn How new homes are built—foundations, framing, mechanicals, inspections, and finishing What builders expect from Realtors (and how to avoid common mistakes) How to spot red flags in both new construction and older homes How to guide clients through walkthroughs, upgrades, warranties, and timelines The truth about builder contracts, allowances, change orders, and pricing How to build stronger relationships with builders, trades, and inspectors How construction knowledge dramatically increases referrals and repeat business Why This Book Matters in Both New Construction AND Resale Most real estate training covers contracts and marketing. Very little explains how a home actually works. This book fills that gap by giving Realtors a clear, easy-to-understand foundation in residential construction. With this knowledge, you will: Negotiate with confidence Protect your clients from costly surprises Explain features and components with authority Catch issues before they become deal-breakers Stand out in listing presentations and buyer consultations Become the “construction-savvy Realtor” every client wants If you want to compete in today’s market, this is the advantage you need. Who This Book Is For Realtors entering new home sales Agents who want stronger builder partnerships Resale-focused Realtors wanting a construction edge Teams and brokerages looking for training resources Anyone who wants to elevate their real estate expertise Why You’ll Love It Scott shares decades of hands-on experience gained from building homes, running developments, and coaching Realtors. The insights are practical, easy to apply, and designed to increase your professionalism, confidence, and income. Become the Realtor who truly understands homes—inside and out. Your clients deserve that level of expertise—and your business will grow because of it. YOUR NEXT STEP The realtors who dominate new-home sales aren’t smarter or more experienced—they simply understand what you’re about to learn. Scroll up and click “Buy Now” to start building your construction intelligence today. About the author Scott Grozelle is a veteran new home sales professional and consultant with over two decades of experience in the residential construction industry. He’s worked with builders, realtors, and buyers across North America, helping bridge the gap between clients and construction professionals. Scott’s passion is empowering people with the knowledge they need to make smarter decisions — whether they’re buying their first home, building from the ground up, or leading a sales team. He’s the author of Secrets Home Builders Don’t Want You to Know and New Home Sales Without the Nonsense, two practical guides that strip away industry jargon and focus on trust, transparency, and communication. When he’s not writing or consulting, Scott enjoys time with family, exploring new projects in real estate development, and sharing insights that make the homebuilding experience better for everyone involved.

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Because you're about to go on a monster education role. rollercoaster with your brain. Now, here's your host, Chris Voss. Hello, folks, Voss here from the Chris Voss Show.com. Ladies and ladies, ladies, things of that makes official, welcome to the show. As always, for 16 years and 20, 100 episodes, we've been bringing the Chris Voss show, the most amazing minds, the most brilliant people, the greatest stories ever told. Is that my stealing there from somebody of the greatest stories ever told?

They always ask you for your friends to the show. Go to Goodreach.com, Fortresschusch, Christchristch, Christfoss, LinkedIn.com, Fortezs, Chris Foss, 1 on the TikTok, and all those crazy places on the internet. Opinions expressed by guests on the podcast are solely their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the host or the Chris Foss show. Some guests of the show may be advertising on the podcast, but it's not an endorsement or review of any kind. Terry, a very amazing man on the show, where are we talking about his book and insights and some of the different ways that he can help give people some great advice on how to improve their lives. He is the author of the latest book that came out, December 16th, 2025, called,

construction intelligence for realtors, how to speak the builder language and represent clients with confidence by Scott Grosell. We're going to get into it with him, find out some of his insights, and all that good stuff. He is a veteran, new home sales professional and consultant with over two decades of experience in the residential construction industry. He's working builders, realtors, and buyers across North America helping bridge the gap between clients and construction professionals. His passion is empowering people with the knowledge they need to make smart decisions whether they're building their first home from the ground up or leading a sales team. Welcome to show, Scott. How are you? I'm doing good, Chris.

All right. Give us your dot coms. Where can people find you on the interwebs? Yeah, so they can find me on Scott Grosel.com. And that's where all my information, any kind of education programs and stuff like that, I can be found on. on that site for sure. All right, so give us a .com, or I'm sorry, give us a 3,000 overview of where you, what's inside the book? Okay, yeah, so I guess, you know,

throughout the years of my working with construction and home building, which almost 30 years, I ran into just a lot of, you know, miscommunication seemed to be the big problem. So after all these years, I kind of thought I'd put together some books. And one of them was the real estate intelligence, construction intelligence for realtors. And that one really was put together just to

bridge the gap between the realtors, builders, and clients. Because nothing worse than watching a nice deal, nice build go off the rails for, you know, just because of communication. So that's what that's all about. Yeah, communication is key. Now, is this your first book you've written? or are there other books that you have? Yeah, so my first book was more geared to, like for clients that are building new home construction. So that one was my first book. And that one's also called Secrets. Homebuilders don't want you to know. That one's just got all kinds of, you know, it's got charts, it's got real life stories that I ran into over the years when clients would come to me after I got out of the home building or even during when I was still home building.

And they would ask me for some help. You know, it usually was something that was miscommunication was always, or the contracts, I mean, whatever it was. So I thought I was going to build up a bunch of information over the years that I kept a lot of notes. And that's kind of how I got started with the first book. And that one's for New Home Construction Salespeople. Ah, new home construction salespeople.

And so what was the proponent that wanted to make you write this? Why did you feel this really need to be taken care of? And what are some techniques of using communication to be effective in dealing with all these parties? Yeah. I mean, with builders, they're working with timelines. They're working with their margins. Realters aren't, you know, they're more or less looking at comparables, square footage, and stuff like that.

And when you're talking with builders, they get frustrated when all these extra details are going into a home. And they all cost money. I mean, if you've got a square footage of, say, 2,000 square foot home, but you've got a large area with vaults, you know, vaulted windows, vaulted ceilings, and, you know, there's a cost association with all that. Yeah, and that's why I started putting together what made sense to me. And these are things that I used to work with with realtors because in our home building, construction home building company, I had, you know, shared an office with one of my own, our co-owner, he was a realtor. So we had, you know, 25 agents on board with us and they wanted to learn. So that's when I started getting into that kind of, you know, into those kind of education, I guess you could say.

Oh. Yeah. So. And so communication is really important. You know, it's, if you don't, you know, cross letter your T's and dot your eyes, things can fall apart, you know. I used to be the mortgage business. I was realtor for six years.

And yeah, I mean, all it takes is one thing. to make a whole deal fall apart, and there's so many pieces and parts, there's so many working, you know, things you're relying on other people do their job, and you're trying to do your job, and sometimes you're trying to corral everything or manage people to make sure they do their job. It's quite the thing, really, when it comes down. Yeah. So you get into the details to help educate realtors on how new homes are built. What goes into them, kind of what the builders are expecting.

from realtors, et cetera, et cetera. How do you talk about red flags as well in new construction, older homes? Tell us about some of those details that you talk about in the book. Yeah, so with new homes, you know, if a builder's being vague and the contract, you know, your allowances and stuff like that are not, you know, sufficient. That can throw the, you know, throw the whole project sideways pretty quick. And with resale, I mean, if you've got older, you know, older age, back system, aging roof and stuff like that. You need to know these things before you,

you know, before you're working with a client. So communication is something that, you know, seem to be the biggest thing missing in the industry. I mean, realtor's are not lazy. I mean, they get all the training, they do all those things that are right. But the construction knowledge part of it, timelines and just things that, you know, when you're doing a site walk-through. A messy site always to me is an indicator of, you know, there's problems. You know, and I've always said that. I never seen a good build come out of a messy site or vice versa, right? Yeah, that's very true. That's very true. In your book, some of the other things that you discuss is how to guide clients through walkthroughs, upgrades, warranties, and timelines.

Talk to us about some of that. Yeah, so walkthroughs, you know, there's, there's, there's key walkthroughs always and you know when you're doing rough ends before the drywall goes in and stuff like that you want to identify make sure things look the way your drawings are showing i mean that's right there's always a good thing to make sure the drawings match right it's true right i mean i've seen it uh several times where all of a sudden you know a doors misplaced or the wrong you know wrong location for plumbing. I mean, it's good if you're, you know, if you know what you're looking for yourself, right?

And you know, you're guiding your client and identifying these kind of things. That's, you know, that really gives them confidence. And, you know, builds trust. And at the end of the day, they're going to refer you over again, right? Yeah. I mean, if you're building trust and doing all those things and showing competence, you know, competence is a really big thing.

I'm going to be a little mean here, but I used to work with a lot of realtors. I mean, I was 20 years of the mortgage business and six years with realtors. And sometimes I would sit in my realtor manager head. I don't think it was, I think usually the CEO or head manager. I was, you know, they're usually family-owned brokerages. And I would sit there and realtors would pour in and out of the office. And the questions that they would ask from, and maybe I'm just a bit, a guy who's been in business too long for 18, you know, since 18.

but the questions that they would ask, they would leave the room, and I would sit there with the manager and look at it and be like, what the fuck was that? Yep. Are we hiring morons around here? What's going on?

And if you want to pull facts, there's only a small percentage of realtors that are hugely successful. And probably because they've learned and espouse the things you have in your book. I can testify to that. Because they've learned their trade. A lot of,

and, you know, given, I mean, I hate to be mean to realtors, but many of them are very part-time. They're kind of doing it for a deal once a year. And, you know, at the average realtor lives below the minimum wage. And so it's really important for to learn these techniques. You want to learn your skills. And there seems to be a very large part of realtors. I'm not going to give a percentage, but a very large part of realtors, they just kind of phone it in

or they think that just saying this is a kitchen to someone who knows what a kitchen is, is how you do your job. So I really like how you put this book together and you put these details on there that can make them understand this stuff. Because I'm, like I say, I used to sit just in horror sometimes. The questions as I would see ask and I'd be like, they went to 90 hours of school for this and they didn't learn this shit. That's what I ran into.

And I don't want to learn it. Great. And those were the ones that elevated fast. Yeah, those are the ones that are going to be the successful ones. Yes, exactly. Like I looked back at a couple properties that we sold just not even that long ago, and one we had over in the Rocky Mountains. And it was a top floor condo. And the realtor, we, like we were selling it, and the realtor was just looking at the square footage. Didn't realize we had huge vaults, rake windows, lots of nice detail. I mean, the detail was not like the other ones in the building, but he compared us to one of the same square footage. Oh, wow.

and $150,000 less than what we were asking. And I'm like, I'm not, it's not acceptable. And this is the comparables. I said, I don't really care. I mean, so at the end of the day, we got what we wanted. We got the price. He was, he was thankful at the end of the day because we educated them on why these are worth more.

It's just not about square footage. Your views, I mean, you got all these things. and all these things make a big difference. And when your client sees that you're trying to look out for them, it's a big deal, right? Yeah. Because your job is to have their fiduciary duty at best of heart and represent and work to their fiduciary duty.

It's amazing how that's taught in Realtors School. And then I've had that conversation with a million of them. And, yeah, I mean, it's kind of interesting. We're the one industry that I've seen that every two years, they're forced to have an ethics reminder of what ethics are. Yep. I used to sit and just be like, this is a really cool class. I love it.

And then the questions you hear asked about fiduciary duty and stuff, I'd just be like, are you fucking serious? Like, you're in this business, huh? You shouldn't be even working at McDonald's. With some of the ethics here. And I've had all sorts of, you know, I've had those side things where people tried to go around fordiscary duty. They're like, just tell me what price you're,

client wants. I'll tell you what my price. We'll make a deal here so we can get this done. I'm like, yeah, you're going to lose your license there. I saw a lot of shit in the business. But, you know, there's good realtors and they're the smart realtors that have the working knowledge like you. They've worked their trade. They've invested in knowing more. And reading books like yours, I think could have really, I would have been handing out back in the day. Yeah. Like I said, I kept a lot of notes and a lot of stories. So the book was built around real-life experiences, and it was fun to do. I mean, I like educating people, and I've been pulled into many situations over the years.

And if I can help, I can help. If I can't, you know, so be it. Yeah. You talk about negotiating. That's one of the other things I found interesting. I've always, you know, there's a co-name of mine who ripped off the Chris Foss brand. that we had eight years into it, who had no follower, so he decided to hijack a brand or hijacks it who's into negotiating. But back in the day, in the early 2000s, I would

negotiate for deals. And you, you know, you go back and forth. That's a negotiation. And I have these people that would come to me and they'd make, you know, some offer, low bid, maybe, or something, you know, and to me, you know, if you understand negotiations, and I think I learned this from Nightingale Conan. I can't remember who the author was in the 90s or 2000s. I learned it from. Basically, you start on the far edges of a negotiation of what both parties might think are plausible. And then you move to the middle and you keep going back and forth. And one of the other things that really surprise you the real estate business would, you know, people come to me with, you know, they're asking for 30,000 off the price, maybe just as an example.

And we'd be like, no, that's not going to work. bring us a better off to the table or, you know, I would, I would write back and, you know, stand our position. And then they wouldn't ever write back again, just wander off. And you're like, wait, wait, are you going to come back? You're going to come back where this is the negotiation back and forth process. It's a back and forth. It is. And it's supposed to be back and forth. You're right. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, you work things out. And, you know, maybe, maybe you come up with conditions, you're like, okay, we want 20,000 off, we want you to fix,

repaint the place or something. You know, there's all sorts of ways to make a deal work, as you know. And they would just, they would just leave. Yeah.

And I'd write them and I'd be like, do you, do you have a counter? It's probably a way to make this deal work. And I'm, I'm actually kind of, I mean, I'm not betraying my client's fiduciary duty,

but I'm kind of giving him signaling that, you know, my client would like to sell this home, and they might be amenable if the terms, of, you know, conditions we can all agree on, but you've got to present them. You work with me. I don't think a lot of them really understand, you know, the whole process.

Yeah. And that's where it gets lost, too, right? Yeah, that's where it gets lost and all the negotiating and everything. Now, what are some other aspects in this book you talk about? You talk about it's for realtors in their new homes, agents who want to build stronger partnerships, resale focused realtors who want a construction edge, teams of brokerages look into training resources.

Boy, like I say, I would have handed your book out to everybody I saw at the Monday meeting at the real estate office. Everyone wants to elevate the real estate. So it sounds like some people that are just general real estate people or general people. Maybe you want to have your home built. You want to know how to talk to construction people and communicate, how to check for stuff, and how to keep issues. from coming out of control.

It sounds like a pretty smart gig. That's it. I mean, there's so many, like you said, and a lot of moving parts to this, to the industry and just elevate yourself. I mean, we used to have like appraisers that would just get so upset with the realtors. I mean, that's the other end of it.

And like you said, roger's brokers. They had somebody they're comfortable with. They would recommend them all day long. Oh, yeah. But this extra little knowledge, I mean, that's just going to elevate and it's going to create your database. It's going to grow your business. And I mean, for entry-level people, they're just getting into it.

You can really do quantum leaps and get ahead of some of the seasoned veterans that all they know what to do is work with customer square foot. And, you know, and they're really good at selling you how your house is not worth what you think it is. But they don't know a lot of times of what's behind the scenes of this. Yeah. So that's where it comes in. I mean, it's for resale. It's for new homes. It's working with builders that are frustrated.

It's working with appraisers that are frustrated, banks, lenders, all of them. So it's another area that I see. I look at it this way. When I would go into Best Buy or I would walk into an RV to buy an RV or something, those guys knew everything about the project. And I'm thinking, why do these people not know really much? about what they're trying to sell. Yeah, yeah.

And like you say, a lot of them are part-time. I mean, a lot of people get into it. Their spouse makes all the money, and they're just kind of, I don't know, ham-hadding a deal or once a year or something. The average real estate is it lives below the parley line. So your book can really help people, I think, and really good there. Tell us about some of the services you offer on your website.

Do you do coaching, consulting, training, speaking? Give us some insights in your offers there. Yeah, so we've got, One that we've just, we're putting together right now is I've got one landing page, RealtorBuilderguide.com. That kind of gives you some 10 mistakes that builders make. So there's ongoing blogs and information that I've got on that. And then another landing page is no builder mistakes.com.

So those are the costing mistakes, homebills, homebuyers make hiring a contractor. So it kind of shows you before you get into the trap, right? right? And the other one, the realtor builder guide, you know, it's 10 mistakes that builders make when working with, or, yeah, builders make when they're working with a realtor. So these things all kind of play together. And it's just, you know, it's really set the tone. The other thing that what I'm doing right now is I'm putting together a six. How would I explain this? I'm just kind of finalizing now. I've been working on it for a few months. But it's kind of like, I've got six spots for realtors that I'm going to be putting a six-week-long program together

and just coaching right through it. So it's, you know, once or once a week for six weeks. And, you know, it's myself doing it through Zoom and, you know, helping bridge that gap. I just think it's, it's, there's a market for it. I've been working. The thing is I've been working and doing this for several years now. and I just really started to work at it harder now. I mean, and here in Mexico, I just built a six-plex right here in Porto Vierta.

Wow. Yeah, that was a challenge. I put a rooftop pool. Yeah, you know, that's just finished up. We've sold 50% of them now. And, you know, I coach in that to where I can work as an advisor on that kind of construction than doing over the years, too. Maybe you can get hired by construction.

builders to work the agents and communicate between. I've done that. I actually had... Oh, really? Before I left Canada, I had a guy he was working out of Calgary. He was getting ready to hit the ground on a big project, a huge project. You know, it was like 120 units. And he had a lot of, you know, people committed capital to it.

And he wanted me to look over things because he was just not great about where it was sitting with numbers. So I analyzed it. I had him send me all the information, and I dug very deep into it, and he was definitely being misled, I would say. I don't want to say a whole lot about it,

but, you know, I helped guide him through that process, and it worked out well for him. Saved a lot of money. Saved a lot of money. Yeah. A lot of good things.

So people can reach out to you and book a call on your website. They can buy the book and get into everything else. Anything future coming? up any future books anything else you want to plug on the show while you're here i don't know i'm just kind of you know i'm pretty busy with with what's going on right now and i just finished like i said the sixplex i i got a few renovations that i'm working on also but this is more of my passion

where i want to go with with you know you spend your whole life building all these you know all these stories and and just situations that you've dealt with you know i i do get one of the warm program providers that we had has actually sent me clients with builders that they're having a problem with. The clients are having problems with particular builders. That's been kind of an eye-opener too. I mean, they send me all their contracts and then I analyze and they help them. You know, the big thing is when you're going into a contract, as you know, make sure you know what you're signing and make sure you know what you're getting. And that's the big part of it. Oh, yeah. Make sure you know what you're getting. So give people final pitch out to pick up your

book as we go out and your dot-coms. Okay. Yeah, my dot-coms is Scott Grozel, G-R-O-Z-E-L-L-E dot com and the books. Hang, let me just get, make sure how he's got it right. Secret home builders don't want you to know. Like it's for anybody that's doing renovations, new bills, any time you're dealing with contractors, it's got so much information, check, like lists, pro tips. And, you know, it's got a lot of good information in there.

And the second one, the new home sales for new home sales without the nonsense. I mean, that's one is definitely more geared to realtors working with new home sales. And just, you know, the new home sales professional, it's not necessarily a realtor, right? And they sit in the show home, you know, how to close more deals, how to pre-qualify, all those kind of things. I mean, that's, you can waste a lot of time working with people that are just tire kickers. Oh, yeah. You recognize wasting your time. You're losing.

You're not working with the right people. Definitely. Yeah, I mean, I would go to, my wife and I, we'd go to the different show homes when we go on vacation and that. Because I was just, I just loved doing that. You know, just seeing how these salespeople were going to respond to questions and watching other people coming into the show homes. And it was interesting. And, you know, I learned a lot right from that. And the successful ones were asked.

the right questions. They knew how to pre-qualify. Yeah. Yeah. That was huge. And that is huge. I trained our guys that way, our guys. It was fun. And the ones that wanted to learn did well. They did great. Yeah. Some of them are in the poverty line and well below. But there's some that are making, you know, I don't know what the top percentage of these, you know, of that industry, but it's high. The ones that are making the highest amount is a very low percentage. Yeah. So I think it's five or three percent. It might be smaller. It's pretty long. Yeah. It's great. And then obviously my third book, the construction intelligence for realtors is my last or my latest one.

And I might do another couple of books or maybe a couple extra additions if I see, you know, the need for it. But I kind of feel good about what I've got. And it's kind of keeping me pretty busy. and I don't want to I've got to enjoy life too, right? Yeah, you've got to enjoy life here in Mexico, a beautiful place too. It is. It has four years now, so.

How do you like Mexico over Canada? I like the weather. That's true. And the beach, maybe. Yeah, yeah, because I mean, I've got my dog that big 80-pound Labradoodle. Oh, wow. So she's fun to bring down to the beach,

and it's so close to our house. I can walk there in 10 minutes. Oh, yeah. They love the water and stuff. Canada is nice. I'm going to be seeing here a few months. I'm a big Rush fan. Oh, I've seen them twice.

Yeah, they're going to be doing the big tour there without the Neil Peart. And I'm a big trailer park boys fan. So I love Canada. In Rush play at then. The Rush is opening at, it's in LA. I think it's June or May, May, June. June 7th, I think it is. They're opening at the forum, I think it is.

is the only forum. I have to check my tickets, but I have three sets of tickets that week through three different shows. And then they're going to tour all over the world. And I think they just announced they're going to do South America, so they'll probably come see you and Europe.

Yeah. You might be 20, 27. But yeah, I just hope to make it through the tour. I mean, these boys have been touring all their lives. They were both 70 and arthritis and, you know, all the stuff that comes with the old age. so I don't think of one. Same without Neil Perch.

It won't. I mean, it just won't, but I've been in a lot of rush concerts, and I'm just so happy to see them. I blew off the last couple of concerts, because I thought I just wasn't, I don't know, I was in a good place going to see them or something. I don't know. I was having trouble with their last few albums, too. And I thought there would be a big final show. I mean, knew Neil was wearing down.

I was like, yeah, they'll announce a final show. And this is the final tour, man. We're getting tool for the shit. And to have them, me miss the last, I would have been at the last concert because I was living in California at the time. I believe it was the LA Forum or the Angel Stadium in Orange County. And so it was just, it was, you know, for 10 years, I've been just going, kicking myself going, please, just do one more. I hope you, the book does well and you continue to work with these real estate agents because you got a lot of money you can make off these agents. I don't know what they're doing because there's a lot of them.

And it shows. I just want to help at the end of the day. And if you get that gap and fill the need, everybody's happy. It's a win. And that's just a win. Win, win. So thank you, Scott, for coming the show. We really appreciate it.

Thank you. Thanks, Chris. Thank you. Thanks for honors for tuning in. Orup is book, Wherever Fine Books are sold, folks. Construction Intelligence for Realtors, how to speak the builder's language and represent clients with confidence, out December 16th, 2025. You can find links on the Chris Faw Show. Be good to each other, folks. Stay safe. We'll see you guys next.

You've been listening to the most amazing, intelligent podcast ever made to improve your brain and your life. Warning, consuming too much of the Chris Walsh Show podcast can lead to people thinking you're smarter, younger, and irresistible sexy. Consume in regularly moderated amounts. Consult a doctor for any resulting brain bleed. All right, Scott, we got into the can. Great job.