Today we’d like to introduce you to Nick Ammons
Hi Nick, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I grew up in the industry, my dad was/is a builder so I grew up on job sites. I like to tell people it’s in my blood. I started working on job sites when I got my drivers license at 16. After high school I worked in a prefabrication shop where we built parts for homes. I worked there while going to community college. I went to college for year and then got a job building custom homes full time. We built most aspects of the homes ourselves so I’ve done anything from forming foundations to installing tile and hardwoods. I’ve literally done it all with the exception of the mechanical trades, electrical, plumbing and HVAC. Because I’ve literally built homes with my bare hands I know what the outcome should be, I know what quality looks like and what proper installation is. I did that for a couple years and decided to try school again, I went back to the community college, played soccer and received my Associates Degree. From there I went to school at Mesa State University in Colorado where I played soccer and took classes for construction management. I ended up tearing my ACL in my first season, it happened toward the end of the season so my recovery wouldn’t be fast enough to play in the next season. I went to live with some friends in Denver for the summer and never went back. One of my friends was in real estate and this was during the 2008 housing crash so fix n flips were big business. Because of my background, I decided to start doing fix n flips. I did that for about a year and half and decided it just wasn’t what I wanted for myself. I have an entrepreneurial mindset, I wanted to build and operate successful businesses, I didn’t necessarily want to be doing manual labor the rest of my life and their was very little opportunity to scale what I was doing. I went back home, worked for another year with the custom home builder, saved some money and moved to Austin. My current business partner owned a moving company at the time, we’ve known each other since we were in grade school and have been best friends since. He knew I didn’t want to be back home so he said if I could buy another moving truck we could partner in his moving company, so I worked side jobs after work and saved the money to buy another truck. We operated the moving company for about 2.5 years before we sold it. Prior to the sale we also partnered in a make-ready company where we did what you call “turns”. This is when a an apartment has been rented but the current tenant is moving out and it has to be made ready for the new tenant. So we would paint, carpet clean and clean the units between tenants. We then sold our equity to the original owner and started a fulfillment company where we packaged and shipped products that were sold online. We had a friend of ours who was in the internet marketing space and he was moving a lot of product. Instead of paying someone else to do the fulfillment, we partnered with him and brought it in house. We ran that company for about a year and then sold it to our friends other partner. The 3 of us then started a few online media companies where I was doing content curation and product development but I quickly realized I that also wasn’t for me:). So, I branched off into the real estate world where we created CKN Capital Group. The C stands for Chris, he is the online marketer, the K stands for Kaleb, he is my best friend from high school and then the N is clearly Nick. We bought properties for development purposes. We bought old homes that needed to be tore down and rebuilt. With the thriving Austin market we did very well over the past 7 years. Now with the high interest rates the spec home market isn’t as lucrative so we have sense rebranded to CKN Homes where we are also building custom homes and renovations. We also have 3 luxury properties that we rent on short term rental sites and have created a property management company where we take on clients and manage their properties as well.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It’s very rarely smooth, if you want to grow you are always taking risks and pushing limits. We’ve been very conservative and reinvested most of our money but there are times when capital is tight. There are also challenges when tradesmen don’t do a good job and you have to find someone else to complete the work. When you have high expectations for your product, finding quality craftsmanship can be challenging.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
We are a developer and custom home builder, we also do renovations. We pride ourselves on building exceptionally, no exceptions. Attention to detail and quality is my highest priority. and our work speaks for itself. We have someone onsite everyday, we use Buildertrend to update and communicate with our clients. There they can see progress pictures, daily activity, upcoming schedule, financials, etc. We strive to take on any challenge, there is nothing we cannot do, we aren’t afraid of any challenges. I’ve been in the industry since I was 16, it’s in my blood. Building is a passion of mine and I take great pride in every project we take part in.
I think our communication sets us apart, you will know what’s going on every step of the way. We have created a fully transparent process with our open book model, it takes guessing out of what it costs.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
I was a shy kid, introverted for sure. Sports really got me out of my shell. I loved basketball and soccer. I played both in high school and went on to play soccer in college. I was either riding bikes or playing sports as a kid but I was always outside.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.cknhomes.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cknhomes/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CKNCAPITAL
Image Credits
Jeremy Doddrige
