Vista Built runs with three people in Victoria’s Macedon Ranges and has a year of work ahead while much of the market waits. On The Good Builder Podcast, Mitch Thompson explained the decisions behind that.
Plenty of builders are describing a quiet market right now. Mitch Thompson is not one of them.
The 31 year old runs Vista Built, a three person building business in Victoria’s Macedon Ranges doing new homes, renovations and extensions. When he joined Az on The Good Builder Podcast, he had roughly a year of work lined up.
There was no single trick behind it. What came through instead was a set of decisions most builders make by default, which Mitch has made on purpose. What standard to build to. Which clients to take on. Which trades to keep. And how to treat the young people coming through.
The building code is where the job starts, not where it finishes
Vista Built works in high performance construction, although Mitch is careful not to call it passive house. He said the business went down this path for the health and longevity of the home rather than for green credentials.
The job underway at the time of recording is an extension to a 105 year old house. Mitch estimated it would finish close to a nine star energy rating once the work is done.
His renovation work keeps showing him why that matters. His team has opened up six or seven renovations in roughly 18 months, in houses ranging from about ten years old to 160. He said every one of them had problems behind the linings.
“Not a single one we’ve pulled apart hasn’t had some sort of mould or decay issue in it.”
About five years ago the team did a membrane training day and has used Pro Clima products since. Mitch said recent jobs where others had used foil left him questioning the choice. The thinking behind it is simple. He wants to avoid buying the minimum product just because the minimum allows it.
His bigger point is about how the code gets read on site.
“We’ve honestly worked for people that are like, you just put that in and do this because that’s what the book says you can do. And it’s like, yeah, I know that’s what the book says, but it’s not right.”
When Az pointed out that most builders talk about hitting the standard, Mitch put it simply: “That’s the minimum, it’s the start.”
What a NatHERS star rating measures
A NatHERS star rating scores how well a home’s building shell keeps it comfortable, on a scale from 0 to 10 stars. The higher the rating, the less heating and cooling the home should need. Under the National Construction Code 2022, the minimum for new homes rose from 6 to 7 stars, which the Victorian Government made mandatory from 1 May 2024.
Saying no to the wrong work is what filled the pipeline
Mitch said Vista Built has turned down five or six decent sized jobs over the past two years. Work that plenty of other builders would have taken.
“I just decided at one point that that’s what I wanted to build and that’s what I was going to stick to.”
The effect, he said, is that clients now arrive having already chosen the builder and the type of build. The last four jobs he priced, Vista Built won. One was a tender where the designer already knew the team.
“You just price the five, and if you get four out of five, it’s better than pricing fifty and getting four anyway.”
That is a different model of running a building business from the one many builders fall into early, where every enquiry gets a quote and the estimating hours disappear into jobs that never land.
Mitch was honest that the shift took nerve. Finding a genuine point of difference and sticking to it means a period where the work is thin.
“It is quite daunting at the start, but you gotta remember it’s a marathon. You might cop it for a year or so while you’re going, I don’t quite have enough work, but it’ll start to pay off.”
Every client relationship runs for at least ten years
Mitch does not treat handover as the end of the job. He said a builder could easily be back at the same house nine and a half years later fixing something, so whether the two parties get along matters from the first meeting.
“You could be here still in eight, nine years. So you need to know that you’re gonna get along.”
When the fit is not right, he said he will usually point the client to another builder who does similar work. The current clients trusted the team enough to head off on holiday to Western Australia while the build carries on.
Most recent work has come through word of mouth, although Vista Built still advertises. In a region where everyone knows everyone, Mitch said reputation moves fast in both directions.
“If you’re not paying people or you’re treating people like crap or you’re not doing a good job, people will know very quickly.”
The same trades for years, paid on time
Mitch said Vista Built has changed one trade in five or six years. His electrician did his apprenticeship alongside him, and several of the local trades he works with have family ties that go back a generation.
He sees those relationships with trades as part of the business, and he sees paying them promptly as part of the deal.
“They talk about builders not being a bank, but if something happens to me, their family doesn’t get to eat this week.”
He described chasing his cabinetmaker for an invoice so he could pay a stage on time. His summary was short: “Keep people paid up, keep people happy and they’ll always come back and do a good job for you.”
The loyalty runs both ways on site. On the morning of recording, his team had laid the first sewer pipes and was boxing up a slab so the concreter could take a few extra days off and simply pour when he got back.
Keep people paid up, keep people happy and they’ll always come back and do a good job for you.
Apprentices are the next generation of builders, not a cheap wage
Both of Mitch’s workers did their apprenticeships with him. He said they are now as invested in high performance building as he is.
“Everyone talks about us needing more apprentices, but no one really thinks about what’s happening in the long run. Everyone just looks at them as a cheap wage.”
His own start shaped that view. He began his apprenticeship on union work in the city, left after about 18 months because of the culture, and finished it working with his father on regional supermarket builds. The commercial years, he said, taught him the basics of making sure people go home with all their toes and fingers every night.
He also sees the cost of the alternative every week. His team regularly pulls apart work from earlier generations of builders and deals with the problems left behind. Teaching young tradespeople differently now, he said, may mean that problem gets skipped for someone else one day.
Vista Built is now looking for an apprentice. Mitch was open that his body is slowing down, and bringing someone in would let him step back from the heaviest work.
People come before systems
Asked what makes a good builder, Mitch pointed past the systems and processes conversation that dominates a lot of industry advice.
“If you don’t have a good team and you don’t have a good culture, you’re not going to get anywhere anyway.”
He said he can leave his two workers for two or three weeks at a time and not worry. For a business of three, that trust is the operating system.
THE GOOD BUILDER TAKE
Most of the pressure builders feel right now sits outside the fence line. Rates, approvals and confidence are not things a three person business controls.
What Mitch has shown is that client selection, trade loyalty and the standard a builder chooses to work to are fully within reach. They take time to pay back. But they compound, and in a quiet market that compounding is visible.
None of what Mitch described is complicated. Build past the minimum. Choose clients you can live with for a decade. Keep your trades and pay them. Train apprentices as though they will run businesses one day.
What stands out is that he made those calls early, before the market forced anyone’s hand. In a year when many builders are waiting for work to come back, a small team in the Macedon Ranges is booked out because it decided years ago what kind of builder it wanted to be.
Listen to the full conversation with Mitch Thompson on The Good Builder Podcast, and follow us for more conversations with the builders doing it well.
Frequently asked questions
The National Construction Code sets the minimum a home must meet. Building beyond it means choosing materials, detailing and energy performance above that floor, for example better membranes and a higher NatHERS star rating, with the aim of a healthier and longer lasting home.
Some builders find that pricing every enquiry wastes estimating time and brings in jobs that do not suit the business. Mitch Thompson of Vista Built said focusing on one type of work meant clients arrived already committed, and he won four of the last four jobs he priced.
Well past handover. Mitch Thompson described the relationship as running for around ten years, because a builder can be called back to fix issues many years after completion.
NatHERS rates the thermal performance of a home’s building shell from 0 to 10 stars. The minimum for new homes under NCC 2022 is 7 stars, mandatory in Victoria from 1 May 2024.
Related articles
- The Builder Who Won’t Build Bad Houses: Dan Saunders on Legacy, Performance and Raising the Bar
- From Apprentice to Supervisor: Building Career Pathways That Keep Talent
Last updated: 29 September 2026. NatHERS figures current as at this date.
General Information Only: This article provides general information only and does not constitute legal, financial, or professional advice. Views expressed by podcast guests are their own. Builders should seek advice specific to their circumstances before making decisions.
0 Comments