Matt Rearden, Chief Operating Officer, Four Star Homes

Matt Rearden

Contact Information:

https://www.fourstarhomes.com/

Transcript

This is a transcript from The Floridaville podcast. This transcript was created using artificial intelligence so it may not be an accurate account of what was recorded.

Rosanna Catalano 00:34

This is the Floridaville! Get to know the people behind the Florida names you know, I'm your host Rosanna Catalano. On this episode we get to know Matt Rearden, an executive, attorney, speaker, husband and father. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for Four Star Homes, Central Florida's largest manufactured home broker, where he focuses his efforts on strategic growth, marketing and business operations. We are live video streaming today's episode remotely. I'm in my home office in Tallahassee, and Matt is speaking with us from his office. Welcome to the show.

01:11

Hey, thanks. Good to be here.

Rosanna Catalano 01:13

So in the introduction to our show, I introduced you as the Chief Operating Officer for Star homes. Can you tell us what's your day to day role is with the company?

Matt Rearden 01:23

Well, I kind of do a little bit of everything at our company. I get to work with my mom on a regular basis. So I think we'll talk about being in a family business a little bit here. But for example, today I started out in Orlando, I went to Daytona Beach, I was up to Flagler I went to DeLand, and now I'm back in Orlando. So we have eight offices around the state, where we primarily focus our business on the resale and brokerage of manufactured mobile homes, which is obviously a very large industry here in the state of Florida. You know, my job. While I do handle some legal stuff for the business, we don't have a ton of that that comes in. So I help with marketing a lot and look at a lot of the financials. And I sort of do a lot of the oversight on the company. We have several 100 sales agents that work with us. And so they're out there listing and selling homes, we're helping them put their deals together keep their deals together. But the fun part about my job is no day is ever the same. I get to sometimes touch financials, sometimes I get to walk through homes, I walked through a few of them today where we do some remodeling projects. Other times I get stuck behind a spreadsheet or even today I was designing a mailer postcard that we send out to a lot of different places. So I use a lot of different skills from you know, either growing up my education or just sort of some hands on training that I've done and and every day is I can tell you every day is different at four star homes for me especially.

Rosanna Catalano 02:57

So for those in our audience unfamiliar with four star homes. Can you tell us about the company how it got started?

Matt Rearden 03:04

Yeah, so the first question we always get is it Why is it four star and not five star, which is kind of a funny story. But my mom started the business single mom raising two boys in the Daytona Beach area A number of years ago she went to work for a company at that time. Some people will recognize them from their commercials called Foremost Insurance. and foremost is a big insurance company. They do a lot of manufactured housing insurance, but also recreational vehicles, motorcycles, boats, all that kind of stuff. And they started division where they were going to help broker manufactured housings are at that time known as mobile homes. In order to sell them mobile home insurance on the back end of the deal. Mom ran one of their offices for a number of years and they decided that they were going to just not sell houses anymore. Just focus on insurance. So one day she was working for a company the next day she gets a call and they say we're closing up shop and you know you can do with what you want. We'll we'll let you go in business for yourself, but you have to change the name. So overnight, she changed the name from foremost to four star because it just made sense. kept the same colors at that time it was orange and black. Now we're a little bit closer to garnet and gold, red and gold. And we primarily focus our business on the brokerage and resale of manufactured and mobile homes. It's similar to real estate in that obviously people live in a manufactured house, but they don't own the land underneath the home. We call it chattel property. So the transaction is a little different because it's actually one of the funny stories people first time mobile homebuyers. They laugh when I say single wide double wide, triple wide so what that means is how many pieces did your home come in from the factory so manufactured home is built off site in a factory. You've seen them on the road before and they put them back To semi and drag them to wherever their final location is going to be. And so if you have a single wide mobile home, you actually have one single title and it gets registered through the Department of Motor Vehicles. If you have a double wide, you actually have two titles just like you would have for a car. And they get registered through the Department of Motor Vehicles as we do a title transfer. So manufactured housing is I always describe it as midway between real estate and automobile sales. It's a little easier and quicker, like an automobile sale, we do a lot of cash transactions and the titles go through the DMV. But our agents as we sell inventory, operate very similar to real estate agents, because they have to list our inventory, you know, through a seller and then we have to broker it. So that's primarily what we do. We have a couple other facets of our business, but we probably do about 80 to 90% of our businesses focus strictly on the manufacturing housing transaction.

Rosanna Catalano 06:01

I did not know that about man. I knew it was a big industry. I just didn't know to what extent. So thank you for that.

06:09

Yeah,

Rosanna Catalano 06:10

you work for some pretty significant and well known companies before working for four star homes. Can you tell us what motivated you to make that transition to your family's company?

Matt Rearden 06:22

Yeah, I you know, had a really fun career. And I think we'll talk about that, you know, kind of how I got the four star homes. If I ever write a book one day, I think the tagline is going to be from theme parks to trailer parks. Because I think that'll just get people thinking about what the world happened. But, you know, I was with went to law school was with NASCAR for a number of years in Daytona Beach, made the transition to SeaWorld parks entertainment here in Orlando, and then moved from the theme park industry to help run our family business. But you know, after 1518 years, being corporate counsel and also be in a senior executive role in a theme park industry. For me, it was a quality of life issue. It was also some transition that was taking place, you know, at SeaWorld Ryan was there, and also the growth of our business. So you're right, it's a very, very big operation in Florida. It's a huge industry in Florida. You know, my mom and I sort of talked about it, and she said, I got a few options here, I can sell the business, I can shut the business down, or we can you know, find somebody to run it. And for me, it was I was doing a lot of international travel back in kind of 17 and 18 I spent a lot of time in China, a lot of time in the Middle East and I was running the international development for SeaWorld. So I was on a plane a lot of we have three small children at home. And it was a quality of life. For me. It was also a decision where I got the opportunity to work in a family business and and kind of control my own destiny a little bit more than than being in a corporation like I was so the business has grown. It gave me a really cool opportunity to you know, be in the business but also use my finance background, my legal background, to help engage and try to grow what what my mom has built over the last couple of years.

Rosanna Catalano 08:17

Amazing. So let's take a quick commercial break and we come back I want to talk to you about your childhood, earlier work and your faith. At Rocket Ship Consultants. Our mission is to take your organization to the next level. Our team develops strategic communication plans that help entrepreneurs, corporations, associations and individuals reach new heights. Our consulting team is made up of attorneys with additional experience in journalism, public relations, politics, broadcasting and advocacy. Let us help you take that dream you have or a podcast or video show and make it into a reality. We can create networking opportunities, educational forums, and interactive conferences to spread your message. Let our team provide you with fresh ideas and inspiration. rocketship consultants offers a variety of services. So check out our website at rocket ship consultants calm takeoff with Rocket Ship Consultants and launch your organization with us.

Rosanna Catalano 09:32

Welcome back to the Floridaville. On this episode, we are speaking to Matt Reardon, an attorney and business executive with Four Star Homes. Now I've known you for several years. And I know your faith is very important to you. Have you always had a strong faith?

Matt Rearden 09:49

Yeah, I have it's my faith is the paramount thing and everything that I do guiding principles to my life. I try to operate you know our business My life according to biblical principles, and, you know, honestly, I've kind of been around the church, and in church and youth camps and youth groups and all that, since really I can, I can remember my, my brother and I grew up with my mom and a single parent home and the church was one of those foundational, you know, deals in our home that we were, you know, in church on Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, we were kind of just our life revolved around that. But, you know, as I grew up and really developed my my own relationship with Christ, it's become the foundation that started at a very early age and really solidified in my early teenage years college years. And it's important to me, it's the the number one thing that I try to guide my life by trying to make my decisions by, but it's a it's a critical factor. And it's, it's part of who I am.

Rosanna Catalano 10:52

So, you alluded to it a little bit. Tell us what your home life was like growing up. You talked about your

Matt Rearden 10:58

Yeah, yeah. So it was, you know, my mom, my brother, and I, you know, my parents got divorced when, when we were real small, and we still have a great relationship with my dad, but we primarily live with my mom. So it was the three of us and, you know, Mom, she'll, she'll tell you how a hairdressing degree and a real estate license and two small kids to raise and she had no idea what she was going to do or how she was going to do it. And the opportunity in the manufactured housing industry popped up. That that became what is forced our homes today. And she would tell you, she was just trying to figure out a way to put food on the table and raise these two, two boys that were in her home. john and i are two and a half years apart. So as mom was growing the business, I was the older you know, of the two. We're a very close knit family. In fact, my brother still lives just a few miles away from us. Now I moved to Orlando first and then he moved and then my mom actually bought a house over here too. So we see each other a lot. But, you know, we grew up the three of us really, really tight. And we also had a really, really amazing group around us, with our church with our school where we had a really fun childhood it was you know, lifelong friends. Faith was very important to us continues to be family was very important with us, and it continues to be that way. But it was the three of us and and we had a really good time growing up in the Daytona Beach area. So I'm I was born in Lakeland, you don't find many of us native Floridians around but born in Lakeland, grew up in Daytona and, you know, have lived here most of my life.

Rosanna Catalano 12:35

So where did you go to college and what was your major?

Matt Rearden 12:38

So the only years that I really lived out of Florida was when I went to college. And I did my undergrad degree at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma. So I graduated from high school when I was 17. And I know it was a little daunting for for mom to send her oldest son halfway across the country to Tulsa, Oklahoma. But I had a teacher that I went to that top science, his name was Howard Lucy and I had no idea where I was going to go to college and his son went to or Roberts and he said, I think you'd really like this. So, you know, my mom and I took a trip out there I was kind of hooked. I took off to where you spent four great ears in Tulsa. Actually, a surprising fact about me is I went on a music scholarship. I played the trumpet. And so I went to Tulsa tried out, you know, got a music scholarship very quickly pivoted while I was at it, where are you from music to politics, if you can believe it. So I was in student government and ultimately was student body president at at ORU and did my degree in finance and and then moved back to Florida. So my four years out of the state I was in in the metropolitan area of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Rosanna Catalano 13:53

That's fantastic. Do you still play the trumpet?

Matt Rearden 13:56

I don't. I actually was doing some work at the house the other day, and I found my trumpet in the attic. And I pulled it out and blew a little bit and my kids were like, what is this going on? But no, I I just stopped playing I love music. I love all kinds of music. But no, I don't I don't play much anymore.

Rosanna Catalano 14:13

I had not picked up my cello in 30 years. And I started picking it up about a year over a year ago. And it's very hard.

Matt Rearden 14:24

So I was in like the marching band and all that fun stuff. It was great. But yeah, I would be scared to actually really try to pick it up again.

Rosanna Catalano 14:33

Oh, I had to start from the beginning. So tell us about how you stay connected to your alma mater, Oral Roberts University.

Matt Rearden 14:41

So, you know after or you I took a year off and and worked a little bit. They went to law school and I really wasn't super connected to my alma mater. until probably, I don't know 15 years ago or so I'd kind of gotten my career rolling and gotten out of, you know, law school and I got an opportunity to serve on the Alumni Board. So I did that. Ultimately, I was the chairman of the Alumni Association, at a time where ORU was actually in search for a new university president. So they wanted a seven group, seven person group of people to help select the university president, they wanted, you know, diverse interaction and representation. So I was the alumni representative, because I happen to sit in the chair. So I got to sit on this, you know, university president Search Committee, which was really an amazing experience with some really tremendous people. And, and we selected who the current president, Dr. Billy Wilson, was there. And being in there, they asked me to move off the Alumni Board and actually become a trustee of the university. So I guess it's been about seven or eight years ago, I became a trustee at the university. I spend, you know, two or three weekends a year in Tulsa. And a lot of time here. I chaired the development committee, so help do fundraising and all that fun stuff. But you know, are you as a springboard of my life, it gave me some real, it gave me a great education, my degrees in business finance, and they have just a great business school there. But also, you know, biblically, in my faith, a foundation to springboard my life. And so I find it a great honor. It's one of the joys that I have to give back to the place that gave so much to me. Like I got a few more years on my term as a trustee, we do nine year terms. And so I was actually scratching my head the other day thinking, What am I going to do when this thing is over? Because I just love it so much. But I love being in Tulsa, I love the university and interacting with the students that are there and the great things that the university is doing.

Rosanna Catalano 16:45

So tell us where you went to law school. I'm not sure you mentioned that.

Matt Rearden 16:49

So I came back to Florida. And when I was student body president at ORU, my last year, I was doing a lot of traveling and kind of helping promote the university and things like that. So I literally had no idea what I was going to do when I graduated, I knew I had a business degree but and I took the L sat without studying for it at the University of Oklahoma, and, you know, and came home and I'm like, I didn't I didn't apply to go to grad school. I was like, I was just done because I was, you know, working as student body president travel and trying to graduate all that stuff come I came back to Florida, and I took a job for a day Believe it or not selling Jeeps, right. So that was my first job out of college was I was gonna be a car salesman because I just didn't know what to do. And my first day on the job selling Jeeps, I get this call and I had applied for a job with State Farm Insurance companies and they called me and said, hey, you've been selected to become a claims adjuster with State Farm. I went did so obviously I didn't last very long selling jeeps I don't even think I sold a vehicle. But I liked cars. So that was a good start. And so I went and adjusted claims at State Farm and then applied to a couple of law schools and, and landed in Tallahassee at Florida State. I knew I wanted to stay in Florida. I picked it because it was close to the Capitol and the Supreme Court and the DCA and, and and a little bit smaller law school about 200 in our class and really enjoyed my three years there. Thinking back especially now that we're just out of the presidential election cycle. So one of my years I was there from 1990 to 2001. So I was in Tallahassee when the hanging chads going on, and I remember all of our professors and everybody giving all the Florida constitutional advice, and, you know, everybody else was watching it on CNN, I was watching it out of the back of a classroom because it was happening across the street. So I was in Tallahassee, love Florida State, I was on their alumni board for a while, still a season ticket holder and spent a decent amount of time in Tallahassee a family out there and really appreciate the education that I got there at the university.

Rosanna Catalano 18:59

So tell us where your first job was out of law school.

Matt Rearden 19:04

So out of law school, this is an encouragement to anybody that feels like they don't have a connection. my then girlfriend now wife, worked at Daytona International Speedway, where I was, you know, from us from Daytona. And she worked in the marketing department and I did all the traditional stuff that you would do in law school, I did all the on campus interviewing I, you know, I talked to a bunch of law firms and I just thought I probably gonna end up in Jacksonville Orlando, maybe Atlanta, working for a big law firm, and just nothing kind of clicked for me or for any of those firms. So, Amanda, she grabbed a directory, like literally a directory from the work directory, and I said, Well, they get the legal department. Well, let me see what happens. So I literally sent in a blind resume did not know a person at all in the legal department. And, you know, lo and behold, a couple of weeks later, I get a phone Call and they're like, you know, hey, we want to talk to you about this new position that we're going to open up. It's a hybrid, HR and legal position. And I'm like, okay, that's pretty cool. So we chatted about it. So I actually started out as a associate general counsel and securities administrator for international speedway corporation which is affiliated with with NASCAR. They've since merged so they're together now. And I administered their stock program on the inside their internal stock program and and then learn how to negotiate marketing deals and did and move my way up in the organization there, but it was a blind resume. Some would call it dumb luck, but it was back home. And it was a really, really fun 10 years.

Rosanna Catalano 20:42

incredible story. I love that. So you spent significant time at NASCAR. And then SeaWorld Can you share with our audience how, you know, you got to SeaWorld from NASCAR and the type of work that you did there.

Matt Rearden 21:00

Yeah, yeah. So I was with international speedway Corporation, NASCAR for about 10 years. And as I moved in, sort of found my niche I became, I wouldn't call it an expert, but I specialized in intellectual property marketing and development. So those were kind of the three areas that I really paid a lot of attention to. I was fortunate at NASCAR to be able to negotiate some of the biggest deals in the industry at that time. The sponsorship with Coca Cola with Gatorade with Anheuser Busch, you know, we have a business guy on one side, but as soon as they strike the deal, they call the lawyers to paper it up. So I was working with our business guys, and, and just made a lot of really good contacts in the industry. So one day, I'm in my office in Daytona, and I get a call from a gentleman who I had done numerous deals with. And I was convinced that he was calling me to say, Hey, we already did XYZ deal. Let's paper it up. We're going to do it for a new, another racetrack. And, lo and behold, I had negotiated many, many contracts against this lawyer. He was at Anheuser Busch, and and he said, Hey, I'm going to be your neighbor. And I said, What are you talking about? He goes, I'm moving to Orlando. Anheuser Busch has just sold their parks and entertainment division, our theme parks made up of SeaWorld Busch Gardens, sesame place and a few waterparks to Blackstone private equity group. And we have to build up a company because we're separating from Anheuser Busch. So we don't have any accounting. We don't have any legal, you know, we got all the park operations, but we don't have a corporate staff. And, you know, long story short, I tell a lot of people this, especially new lawyers, I say, you know, your job is to get the deal done and advocate for your client as best you can. But you also need to understand that that person on the other side of the table may be your boss one day, and I didn't ever really interview with him. We had negotiated so many deals, we were colleagues, we became friends, he and he said to me, in my interview, he said, Look, I know you're a fair lawyer, I know you're a good lawyer, but I know that your main function is to get the job done, put the deal together. And that's why I want you on my team. So he recruited me to Orlando, I was there for, you know, let's see about almost 10 years, about eight years, started out my background, knowing securities helped me because we then took the company public in 2013. So my securities background helped. And then just as soon as we took the company public, the CEO walked into my office and said, Hey, you know, you got kind of a range in your skill set. I don't want you in the legal department anymore. I want you to come work for me. So when the CEO says that you do and and I left the Legal Group and was the Chief of Staff for his office for the CEOs office for a number of years, and then transitioned to work directly for the CEO, actually, full circle on my career, heading up the international development, but then also leading the business side of the marketing and sponsorship for SeaWorld Busch Gardens, sesame place and the other parks.

Rosanna Catalano 24:09

Amazing, amazing journey from a blind resume.

24:13

That's exactly right.

Rosanna Catalano 24:17

anyone that knows you knows that your wife and children plays significant role in your life. Tell us about them?

24:24

No, they're my favorite. They're my favorite people to be with. You know, Amanda, and I've been married almost 18 years now. We have three amazing children. Mackenzie six, almost 16 and I can't believe she's almost 16 Ava is 13 and our son Austin is 10. They they're the compass for my life. You know, besides my faith, my family is the next in line. I think anybody would know that. And, you know, we've talked about earlier part of my job transition was I was traveling so much I mean, I did a couple 100,000 miles, the last year that I was at SeaWorld And, and I felt like I didn't want to miss this part of their lives. I didn't, I love being with my family, I love being with my wife and my kids. And, you know, we just have such a good time together that for me, my job transition had a lot to do with that choice where I wanted to be with them. I wanted to invest in the most important thing that I have in my life, which is them. And it's really turned out, turned out great. Mackenzie is a cheerleader, Eva plays piano, Austin plays baseball, they all have their great personalities. But Amanda and I love each other a ton. We love to raise our family together, and we love just being together as a family.

Rosanna Catalano 25:38

It's wonderful. So, you know, you've spent a large part of your career working in the business world. And I think it's safe to say that the goal sometimes of business, the business world don't necessarily always align with Christian values. So how do you deal with situations like this? And how do you continue to walk in faith?

Matt Rearden 26:04

Yeah, the business. The business world sometimes can be very cutthroat, right? It's all about the bottom line. Sometimes it's about people, but most of the time, it's just about getting the deal done, how we make money, how do we make more money? What can we do, and you know, I allow my Christian faith to really guide the principles that we have, I would say I have a little bit more freedom and flexibility, especially, you know, owning the family business where we are very forward in our faith. We talk about our faith a lot, I taken some cues and hints from companies like chick fil a and Hobby Lobby, and, you know, those that have have really been forward with their faith. And, you know, what I would say is, Hey, I try to be as fair as I can with everybody. I try to treat everybody with respect. And what we find is if you treat people, right, and you treat them with love, and compassion, it just works. I had a boss that wrote a book called love works. And it was just all about how you use the principles of love to guide your business, and see how it ends up on the backside. And it does every time. So for us, it's not about the almighty dollar. It's not about the the black and white on the bottom line. Yes, we have to pay our bills. Yes, we need to make money. But doing the right thing, doing it with excellence, doing it with integrity, and doing it according to the golden rule that the Bible says that you do unto others as you would have done unto you. And if we operate our lives like that, I believe that there's a win win in business, and in anything you do in life, to walk according to those principles and treat people the right way.

Rosanna Catalano 27:42

We'd like to end our show with a little fun by asking all of our guests the same seven questions we've turned now from a very serious question. Thank you for answering. Now, some fun. So what would people be surprised to know about you?

Matt Rearden 28:01

Well, I already told you one that I used to play the trumpet, right? Um, you know, that's probably one that I people cannot believe that I went to school and a music scholarship, but probably the probably one of the more surprising things about me. I got a lot of little things that I do. I'm a coffee connoisseur, but they wouldn't be surprised about that. I just, I love good coffee. I love coffee from all over and all my friends know when they go out of town or go out of the country. You know, they need to bring me back a pound of coffee. And I might have gone overweight The last time I went to Guatemala on a missions trip because I gave away a lot of clothes, but I brought back a lot of coffee and I stashed I don't know 10 or 12 pounds of coffee back and I went overweight on my bag. So there's Fun fact for you.

Rosanna Catalano 28:48

When you have guests in town, where is your favorite place to take them?