MARK ZAVERL

Mark Zaverl and US Best Repair Service, Inc. have been at the forefront of community issues since its 2006 inception, beginning as a small default mortgage field services business focused on preserving the values of local neighborhoods by remedying residential blight. He established the benchmark of excellence in his industry by expediting quality services for hundreds of thousands of properties throughout communities in all 50 states with the U.S. Best proprietary methodology.

One word that undoubtedly characterizes Mark is grit. Examples of this grit are prevalent throughout the early years, beginning with waking up at 5am at 9 years of age to complete his paper route before beginning elementary school. During high school, Mark continued this dynamic of hard work & dedication by filling his typical 14 hour day delicately balancing a full time course schedule and managing a gas station.  In the summers of his adolescence, while his peers were playing sports, hanging out at the malls and going to the beach, Mark was continuing to build upon the strong foundation by laying concrete foundations on construction sites.  A talented athlete, Mark made the difficult decision to  sacrifice sports and college to work, which is the reason his life can be accurately defined by sacrifice, strength, tenacity, and honor.

The story of Mark’s gritty work ethic as a youth is paralleled in the success of U.S. Best. “The foundation I was laying on those hot summer days as a teenager symbolizes to me the foundation of my businesses.” The analogy being, in construction a home is built with the concrete foundation first and everything else follows. If the foundation isn’t right, nothing else will be.

LAYING the FOUNDATION
Mark attributes the success of “U.S. Best” to those teenage and early adulthood days where he doggedly learned everything he could from his employers. “The day after I graduated high school, I got a job pouring concrete.” Within 6 months Mark moved up to installing framing, and this growth continued until, “I felt I could start my own company.” From 1997 to 2006, Mark’s handyman service steadily grew, ultimately exploding in a positive fashion when he begun to transform this local repair company into U.S. Best.

“I saw the writing on the wall,” Mark explains of the pre-foreclosure crisis in ’06 and ’07. “The banks had no idea how to handle both their volume and continuous rate of receipt of foreclosed homes they were suddenly responsible for, and they didn’t understand the actual field work that would be involved in securing their assets.”

Mark saw this opportunity to connect these banks, asset managers and investors to work crews that could provide necessary services for these foreclosed homes. While the default mortgage field services industry was already established, the residential real estate correction that began in 2008 was too large for the industry to comprehend.

INNOVATION
“We started paying our contractors within weeks rather than months,” and sometimes within days, Mark describes. “We were fortunate to have the foresight to reinvest immediately knowing resources would dictate current & future success, which enabled us to almost immediately have a comfortable working capital cushion that allowed us to treat our vendors better than any competitor.” Mark’s experience as a small business general contractor gave him an edge over established industry competitors who were entrenched in the status quo. He was quick to realize the subtleties that created loyal vendors, who would not only prioritize US Best’s work over competitors, but also began to take on our initial philosophy “that if you work for us, we do the job right, no matter what.” This statement has multiple meanings upon itself, referring to instances where they would take the blame for jobs gone bad even if it was really the clients fault or completing tasks above and being the original scope with no hesitation if an unknown obstacle were to appear.

“Sometimes you just have to realize that keeping your client happy means you ditch your ego and make them look good,” even if, “we had to take some losses in order to make significant gains.” This gritty determination to please clients started in his days as a handyman. “I never left a job site with an unsatisfied customer,” Mark says referring to his early days. This tenacious attitude is what helped US Best blossom into an industry leader.

GIVING BACK
For a man who has earned so much through his own toil and sweat, he has a remarkably endearing side and generous heart.  “I have never forgotten where I came from and my humble beginnings.  It’s the struggle that gave me my strength to forge forward in business and life,” said Mark.   As the head of U.S. Best, and a general contractor who serves as community rebuilder and neighborhood caretaker, Mark knows the significance that community has. He has always supported local school programs and sports teams even in his days as a handyman.  “Giving back whether it be of your time or finances is and has been an important part of my life.” 
In 2013 Mark became a member of the Athletes and Entertainers for Kids (AEFK) board of directors and created a companywide volunteer program providing opportunities for his employees and senior level executives to become involved with community organizations.  “Giving employees access to charitable work through their jobs is an effective way to increase morale, reinforce camaraderie and develop corporate social responsibility. When it comes to giving back, everybody wins,” Mark explained.

Mark likes to say, “We take care of our client’s homes like it was our own,” and his business’s success is testament to the truth in that. More importantly and in the same vein, Mark has demonstrated that he cares for his employees like they are family, as evidenced by the fierce loyalty of his team, some who have been with him for over 35 years.

“We are focused on growing our business and building a stronger industry presence, but not at the expense of our community.”  Mark Zaverl is a man with true grit, but he also possesses genuine heart of gold.  He not only has transformed his life and business but continues to help make a remarkable positive impact on the lives of all who know him.

Mark is a devoted father to his three sons, Johnny, Jamie and Jason and resides in Orange County, California.