Schell Brothers’ VP of Warranty Service Dan Matta has been with the company since the beginning, and he’s worn many hats throughout his sixteen years here. I sat down with Dan to hear all about his journey from an on-site laborer working in Schell communities to his current role, and how he’s believed in the company vision since day one.
Q: How did you start working for Schell Brothers?
A: I was actually a Health and Physical Education teacher for 3 years, and decided that I didn’t want to teach forever. I had signed up for a real estate class right before I became friends with Chris Schell through lifeguarding at Rehoboth Beach. We were talking at a party and Chris said he was looking for energetic and smart people to join his new, young company. I had a non-traditional interview with him where we drove through some communities, and a week later I was hired as Schell Brothers’ twelfth employee! I ultimately decided to take the job because I believed in Chris and the vision he had.
Q: How many years have you been here?
A: I started in November 2003, so I’m in my sixteenth year.
Q: As the company has grown, how has your role changed?
A: I’ve had a lot of different roles here at Schell, starting as a laborer and then eventually an assistant superintendent, assistant project manager, project manager, and now my current position as VP of Warranty. I’ve spent time in the field learning about construction and then project management. When I was a project manager for Echelon custom homes, I started taking over the warranty of our homes with clients. Chris recognized that and asked me to take over warranty for the entire company.
Q: What does your day-to-day look like?
A: Warranty operations and customer service for our homeowners is my priority, which includes ensuring that post-settlement operations are running as smoothly as possible. I also go into our communities to meet with homeowners so that I can better understand concerns or challenging situations they may have. What I really love about my job is helping homeowners and hearing the feedback they have. Anything they share with me can help my team to grow, which is a positive!
Q: What do you believe is the key to Schell Brothers’ success?
A: Our team members and the passion we all have to make our homeowners and each other happy. We’ve built an environment that we want to work in. That passion and the culture that we embrace goes into our day-to-day operations here and truly does lead to happiness.
Q: Have you always been the resident Schell Brothers motivator?
A: Yes. I’m someone who tries to view everything in a positive light. I love getting my team hyped up and motivated, because I think we should all bring an energy and excitement to what we do each day. I also like to remind everyone of the “why” – why we do what we do every day at Schell Brothers. And the answer is our company mission: to bring happiness to ourselves and our homeowners.
