Litz cousins strive for quality service
Providing the ideal outdoor buildings for buyers has been the primary mission for co-owners Brian and Grant Litz. The cousins who had originally worked under the name Premier Buildings Nebraska, has revamped into NE Sheds to match their new vision of making portable garages, sheds and cabins.
“You pick up the phone, you’re actually talking to somebody from Nebraska,” Grant said.
Brian, who previously owned the life insurance company LyvFin, purchased their location at 1529 North W Road near Hampton from his in-laws to join Grant in Premier Buildings Nebraska as a side passion.
“Grant owned it and then I came on and worked underneath him,” he explained.
Getting more involved with their family business, Brian sold Lyvfin to work full-time as a sales manager and co-owner. By the time Brian joined his cousin in May 2022, Grant had a decade’s worth of business selling buildings.
“I started selling 11 years ago now for the previous company that we worked for, Premier Buildings,” Grant stated. “I was also involved in real estate for eight to 10 years. Then as this kind of built up in Nebraska, selling buildings, creating new locations Brian came on, so I stepped away from real estate and (became) fully devoted to this now.”
Part of their newfound devotion to the business was establishing a new partnership with a manufacturing company that makes portable buildings within the state.
“A lot of the shed manufacturers here in Nebraska, they’re actually owned and operated out of Kentucky,” Brian explained. “Everything we do now is built, owned and operated in Nebraska.”
Having achieved success from the year they worked together as Premier Buildings Nebraska, Brian said that searching for a manufacturer wasn’t a challenge.
“In the place we were in, Grant had done such a good job building Premier Buildings Nebraska and that dealership atmosphere to where we could probably pick up the phone and call anybody,” he commented.
Igniting their rebrand in December, Brian and Grant forged their new partnership with Mid-America Structures in Table Rock, a small community located near the southeast corner of Nebraska.
“They are probably two or three steps up in the quality world and it’s just little things, like vapor barriers underneath, all of the roof versus just covering the ridge cap,” Brian noted. “We have actual residential doors on our cabins now and then there’s a drip pan underneath them so water’s not running in the building.”
Overall, Brian said Mid-America shares the same mindset he and Grant share when it comes to running a business.
“When things are going good, anybody can do that, but when things are bad, how do you solve the problem?” Brian said. “Mid-America Structures falls right in line with our value system. Family comes first and do the right thing, even when it’s hard.”
Since joining with Mid-America Structures, NE Sheds has been operating in six locations. In addition to Hampton, Brian and Grant also have sites in Grand Island, Red Cloud, Columbus, Wisner and Atkinson. In total, 62 buildings have been sold since December as of this writing.
At the Hampton site, the cousins have a variety of portable buildings on display, with Brian’s office showcasing an interior design.
“This is kind of an idea on what people can do with it,” Brian said. “That’s why I made it my office and let people see things.”
Another feature for their new website allows customers to order without having to talk to a sales representative.
“If a customer doesn’t want to talk to a salesperson, they can go right in, just order the building and pay for it,” Brain explained. “This is something that Grant has pushed into my head from day one, but we try to make things as simple and as easy as it possibly can be. ”
When customers wish to talk with a sales representative, both Brian and Grant are ready to answer the calls.
“We can pick up our phone and our customer service I think is top notch,” Grant commented. “We pick up our phones, we get to work out right away, so there’s no delays or anything like that. We set ourselves apart as a lot of other companies, this is their side business. This is our full-time business, so we put all of our effort into this.”
Rather on a NE Sheds site or at a location customers want to place a building, NE Sheds’ website at NeSheds.us, allows customers to create their own building idea that NE Sheds and Mid-America Structures use for their project plans.
“They have access to everything we have access to for the most part and they can custom design one right there at home if they want and then they just hit submit,” Grant explained.
He also stated that both he and Brian will perform site inspections where they meet with customers on the property they want to place their building.
“We do a lot on tailgates, drop a tailgate, go meet a customer somewhere on their site and we have our computers there and we can put the order together right there for them,” Grant said.
Along with presenting customers the best experience purchasing a building, Brian and Grant uphold themselves with site inspections to make sure the portable buildings fit the customer’s site.
“If we come out and do a site inspection that doesn’t fit, it’s on us,” Brian said.
When one building didn’t fit on the lot a customer had intended due to a tree, for example, Brian had the tree removed free of charge.
“It was a big win for him,” Brian commented. “He got a really nice new building and didn’t have to remove the tree that he didn’t like. That is one of the perks of those site inspections, we take liability off the customer.”
Also free for customers is the transportation of the portable buildings, which can be delivered anywhere in eastern or central Nebraska.
“If you’re buying from a company that doesn’t have as many dealerships as we do, a lot of times you’re going to have to pay extra and have it dropped off,” Brain said.
The time it takes to make and deliver the portable buildings varies throughout the year, but Brian said they were able to make delivers within four to six weeks during April, which he said was their busiest month since working with Mid-America Structures.
“April was a really big month for Mid-America Structures,” he commented. “We’ve never sold that many buildings in a single month. Right now, the crew is still holding up good.”
For the upcoming summer, he estimated turnaround time at around eight weeks.
Now fully dedicated to NE Sheds, Brian and Grant plan to continue the goal they had set out when they joined together with Premier Buildings Nebraska.
“We are full-time shed people and full-time people, so this isn’t a side gig to us,” Brian commented. “We try to be on the ball with things and make sure people have the best experience possible.”