A Home Renovation Team That Leads by Empowerment

 

---

Mikayla Miller met with several siding companies to work on the exterior of her modest house in Fridley, built in 1955. But the interactions all felt uncomfortable, a bit off.

“The sales tactics seemed more focused on closing a deal than on helping me make the right decision for my home,” she recalls. “I often walked away feeling pressured, uncertain, and like I was being upsold on things I didn’t actually need.”

Then Miller discovered Blackrock Construction, a woman-owned firm founded a year ago in the Twin Cities by attorneys Sarah Baso and Cindy Litwitz, as well as construction professional Penny Erickson. The team wanted to create a company that differed from the high-pressure, often patronizing treatment they had experienced on home projects of their own.

Blackrock earned Miller’s business primarily because they helped her feel “empowered” rather than dismissed. “They took the time to explain my options without overcomplicating things,” she says.

 

Back to School

Helping clients understand the details and processes of home maintenance and renovation is a cornerstone of the Blackrock business model. That includes classes the company offers through Twin Cities community education programs under the umbrella “The Empowered Homeowner.”

Baso, an attorney, prepares and leads classes about repairs and insurance claims, interior and exterior inspections, understanding homeowners’ insurance, and more. “Don’t let someone make you feel silly or that your questions aren’t warranted,” she told a recent online class of current and potential homeowners. “You are the best person to advocate for your specific needs and interests.”

The classes fill quickly, but yield little revenue for Blackrock. Baso avoids company promotions. “I don’t want to devalue what we’re saying because we’re trying to sell,” she explains.

Sharing information is key to the company’s approach in what remains a male-dominated field. Equipping homeowners with “life skills” is ethical and strategic, says Erickson, who also offers on-site education with home owners. “We have to look at our business in the long run.”

That conviction stems from personal experience. The first house that Baso bought, a decade ago, had “undisclosed black mold,” which created respiratory problems for her daughter.

Erickson and Litwitz also own their own home. Litwitz, the other attorney on the Blackrock team, had a personal experience nearly a decade ago with a siding project that turned into “a huge disaster. … Your house typically is your biggest asset,” she explains. “I dealt with insurance on my own. There are so many things I wish I would have known.”

 

Helping Others Help Themselves

A recent two-part class on home exteriors covered the various parts of a roof — soffit, fascia, eaves, gutters — as well as maintenance during the winter, the merits of synthetic “wrapping” to re-side an old house, statutory warranties, and all manner of insurance issues.

“I’m a total insurance geek,” says Baso. “For many people, these classes introduce a lot of new terms: actual cash value, what depreciation is, actual replacement cost.”

Blackrock Construction recently rebranded from Blackrock Exteriors to reflect its additional work in kitchens, bathrooms, and clearing out old-house hazards, such as asbestos, mold, and lead.

The word “values” comes up often among the three partners. Blackrock contracts with the Community Action Partnership of Washington and Ramsey Counties on projects for single-family homeowners on public assistance.

One such client, Christy O’Neill, needed roof repair because of an improperly installed vent. A medically retired firefighter and paramedic, O’Neill says they “made sure I was informed of every step, understood every step, and was comfortable with different contractors coming and going throughout the job.”

Weary of the “power dynamic” between customers and contractors, Baso says the goal is that homeowners should be able to advocate for themselves.