Thomas Winterton

So I've got my fingers into a lot of different areas.

I started off in construction.

So I went to college for construction management.

So I got my contractor's license when I was like 23.

And

The requirements for a contractor's license varies even across the United States.

Different states have different requirements.

And so in some states, that's not a very big deal.

But in Utah, it actually takes a lot of work, and it takes at least four years before a person can get their contractor's license.

It's kind of the equivalent of having a bachelor's degree in some ways because you have to work –

Four years full-time under a licensed contractor, you have to take several state tests and pass them in order to get this.

for me, it was a big achievement to be able to get this at the age of 23.

And then I started building, um, I didn't just want to build any homes.

I wanted to build the biggest, best homes.

And, and, uh, if I'm not challenged, I'm not happy.

So I, uh, I quickly got into high end custom homes.

We were doing, uh, very large homes, eight, nine, 10,000 square foot homes.

And, um, and so that's really what kind of got me into the ranch was, uh,

2008, when we had a recession here in the United States, and I think it was pretty much worldwide, construction became very hard because people couldn't get loans.

And especially the clients that I was specifically dealing with, high-end homes that were costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, millions of dollars, these took jumbo loans and those went away.