Thinking about selling your home in Northeast Ohio? Wondering which home improvement projects are actually worth the investment before you list?
In this roundtable discussion, recorded at Lakewood Hardware in Lakewood, Ohio, we talk about practical ways homeowners can prepare their homes for the market, avoid common mistakes, and focus on improvements that can increase value.
Whether you're planning to sell this year or simply want to make smart upgrades, this conversation covers real-world advice that can help you make informed decisions.
In this video we discuss:
• How to prepare your home before listing it for sale
• DIY projects that can improve your home's value
• Which repairs buyers actually notice
• Home improvements that provide the best return on investment
• Tips for Northeast Ohio homeowners
• What buyers are looking for in today's market
If you're buying a home, we also discuss projects that many homeowners choose to tackle after moving in to build equity over time.
Have a question about buying or selling in Northeast Ohio? Leave it in the comments. We'd love to answer it in a future video.
Subscribe for monthly videos about:
• Northeast Ohio Real Estate
• Lakewood Real Estate
• Home Buying Tips
• Home Selling Tips
• Housing Market Updates
• Homeownership Advice
Transcript
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Hey, Northeast Ohio. This is Scott Carpenter with the Carpenter Group at Keller Williams here in Lakewood, Ohio.
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And I'm standing in front of Lakewood Hardware this afternoon where we're going to be having a round table of some
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industry experts um tonight uh here at Lakewood Hardware. We're going to have with me the owner of Lakewood Hardware,
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uh Glenn Palmer. Glenn Palmer will be joining us here as well as John Kanik uh one of my inspector buddies and Todd
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Ligazinski from Revolution Mortgage. Um we'll be talking about uh Northeast Ohio real estate. Uh we'll also be touching
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on what people need to do in order to get their homes ready for sale and if you've just purchased a home, what you might want to do, um projects that you
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might have, um that you might want to do yourselves, um that would improve the value of your home. Um we'll be talking
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about those projects as well. So, I hope that you'll enjoy this uh segment of ours on uh on uh taking care of your
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homes in Northeast Ohio uh here at Lakewood Hardware um where you can get all the tips you need on taking care of your home and things you might want to
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do uh to bring your house up to um you know, improve your home uh value uh or if you just need to get some repairs. Um
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I think you'll appreciate um stopping by Lakewood Hardware. [laughter] So, so, um, welcome guys. We're here at
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Lakewood Hardware, uh, in Lakewood, Ohio on Madison Avenue. I'm Scott Carpenter with the Carpenter Group at Keller Williams and we have with us uh, a
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little round table and I'm going to have everybody here introduce themselves. Um, we're going to be talking about uh, the real estate market here in Northeast
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Ohio. And also, uh, probably more importantly, because we're at Lakewood Hardware, we're going to talk about uh, repairing homes. Um, what people need to
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do to take care of their homes. uh maybe get ready get their homes ready for for the market if they're interested in selling or after they've bought
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something, you know, uh getting their house in order the way that they would like it. And I thought this would be a great spot uh where they can get all the tips and all the materials they need to
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get their job done. So with that, I'm going to start with you, Todd, please. Yeah, I'm Todd with Revolution Mortgage.
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Um been in lending since 99. Um I got some questions for him. I'm kind of curious about a few things, so I can't
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wait to start That's interrogating them.
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Nice. [laughter] Thanks, Lauren from Lifewood Hardware. Apparently, I'm going to get it handed to me tonight. Oh, that's okay.
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It's not a roast yet. [laughter] And uh I'm John with Housemaster Home Inspections.
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Awesome. Well, I'm going to ask I'm going to let Todd ask the first question of the evening since he was putting you on the spot and you seemed very comfortable with the idea.
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I'm just kind of curious like you know so like on my side right the stuff that I see you know there's a lot of people there's more like people buying a home for the first time and there's people
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that are a lot of people are like hunkering down right have you do you notice any trends or anything like that on like what people are buying like is it more like paint or you know what I
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mean like it's mostly paint and stuff right now yeah I mean it's springtime so everybody's buying lawn a garden but paint paint's huge because they're buying a house that was whitewashed
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maybe and they want to make it their own what I'm saying a lot of it lot of it a lot of that Yes. And hunkering down.
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Yeah. Few. Not like it was. I'd say pre-COVID hunkering down was 75% of our business. Really?
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Now it's 10 15. Really? Mhm. Oh, wow.
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So, you have a lot of first-time homeowners coming in here. Absolutely. Yeah. A lot of babies. That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah.
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Some of them we saw them dating, walking the streets, and now they're in with their kids. So, [laughter] it's Yeah.
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Well, you have you have that in your own family. Your your kids. Yeah. [laughter] Walking the streets.
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No. Walking fast and getting married and having children and Yeah. Yeah, it happens once, too.
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Yeah. What do you know?
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That was fast. See, and I got to flip a house. You did? It wasn't even mine. I had to flip.
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Oh my gosh. That's right. Okay. Well, wait a minute. Let's Let's talk about that. So, your So, your kids, he was taking care of a newborn, right?
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Couldn't move in fast enough. Wanted some stuff done. Then decided if we're doing something, we're doing all of it.
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And I had to have him out of that apartment, have somebody rented. So every night I drove over there for three and a half months and built counters, moved electrical.
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This was recent. This was recent. This was just this this spring. Um Hungry Howies and Bud Light.
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Never again. Will never ever eat at those places again.
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No, I put them in the I had it [laughter] was cold. I left it in the garage. I had the refrigerator unplugged. That was eating on the fly. But that's what I ate. It was great.
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Like being a bachelor.
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So So wait a minute. What's the payback for that? I mean, what does he owe you?
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[laughter]
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Lord knows. I don't know.
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[gasps]
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You know, we've got John here and you've been you've been doing some inspecting for the past few years um in this crazy
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market that we're in. Um tell us a little bit about like for example, he's telling us his story. Give us a story
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that um you just can't get out of your head when it comes to home inspections, especially in these older houses. Yeah,
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I would say um you know it's it's funny the the older the home gets the more you can see that there's there's been some
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people who have done a lot of like maintenance on these layers upon layers. Where's the air quotes too? I'm sorry. Maintenance. Yeah. Right. Right.
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I've seen it come in here so I know what you're looking for. Homeowner specials. Right. Right.
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Um but it's just it's years of like bubble gum holding pipes together and and things like that. Oh, that never happens. No. Right.
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[laughter]
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It's it's funny. We were we were doing a house um not not too long ago and it was being held up by um like duct tape like sewer pipelines and stuff like that.
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Oh wow. Oh wow.
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It was getting the job done. But oh my god.
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But uh yeah, you see especially in these older homes just years and years of of people just kind of getting it done, you know, without
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DIY training. Yeah. DIY is is a generous way to put it.
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Yeah. I was say, "Yeah, that's you're really taking a shot at the DIY network with [laughter] that." You really are.
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Yeah, you really are. That's Well, but that's but you know, here's the thing about that. I And I've been around um in this world of renovations
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and so forth for over 40 years. And um and the phone never stops ringing.
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[laughter]
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I can make it stop. [clears throat] You got to learn somehow though. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Well, I was Oh, I'll get to that.
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I'll get to that with this one because I want him to be I want him to be here for this because it's it is like everybody has to learn how to do these things.
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And you start someplace, right? So, let's let's keep going here. I socks. Oh, yeah. Like my socks. Yes, sir.
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Um so, so but here's the thing. After you know, when I got when I bought my first house, it was a fixeruper. It was
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the house that you just described. It had all of the all of those many my house was that house was over a hundred years old and it had all kinds of
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improvements and maintenance that was done over the years. But I had to learn how to do it right.
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And I did I knew I was skilled. I was a you know I was a carpenter. I was I knew how to do things. I was as I like to say
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and I still am a carpenter. And and I and I knew enough to be dangerous, but I needed [clears throat] people like you
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in the hardware stores or in the, you know, wherever, like the the electrical store, wherever I needed to go to get stuff. I was always asking questions because that's how you learn.
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And you can always find an old guy wants to brag.
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And then there's all that information for free if you just entertain the conversation and Yeah. And so I would come in here and find No, just kidding. [laughter]
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But they'll be here tomorrow. I'll tell them you're thinking of them.
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Yeah. But that's a big part of of home ownership right now. I'm So, but one of my pet peeves today is that a lot of
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younger homeowners don't want to do the work.
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Now, am I am I just, you know, am I just reading into my own market here? The what I think or what do you think, Glenn?
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Um, I'd say it's kind of the same. Maybe on the onset it's a little different until they start making a tax bill. They start making that mortgage and then maybe something happens with the car.
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Then they start getting more hands-on.
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You can see it. Okay. Or maybe they just get more comfortable in the house going, "Yeah, I can do this. I've seen it done." Right?
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So, it's both. And then there's the over the top guys that are 3D printing this and that cuz they're [laughter] making a part better than what we sell, which by the way, I I'm going to have some of
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those, too. But, yeah. So, they're either way over the top or just starting out. Is that right? Yeah. Okay. So, so, so there's hope.
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I will tell you a great [laughter] inspector story. When I started in the business in Parma, I had a guy come in and he needed a roll of electrical tape.
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And I said, "Well, what do you" And he was asking a couple questions and I kind of went further. He had a leaky P trap. Oh.
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And it was a and it was an FHA loan and he had to have the drain fixed for the loan to be approved. And that's his fix
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and they approved the loan. [laughter] Yeah. How about that?
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Wow. [laughter] It's a wine of a $2 Prep.
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Well, that was a long time ago. You know what? They don't do that anymore, I don't think.
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Well, [laughter] but it it was it was the it was the FHA inspector. You're working for the people that you're guaranteeing.
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That was pre7. I guarantee. Oh, it was it was 90s.
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Oh, yeah. Yeah. So, in those days, in those days is the buyer. In those days, the buyer could do those repairs.
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Now, you can't do that. The buyer can't do the repairs. But in those days, you could. you just had to sign some paperwork that said, you know, you would take care of it and then they would come
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back and check on it. And uh we did that uh at at our first house with which was an FHA. We took on all the responsibility of the of the repairs.
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I didn't know you could do that. Or you couldn't.
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Well, you could you could do it either way then. Now you can't. Now the seller has to be responsible for the for the repairs. So has to be turnkey.
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Yeah. Has to be turnkey and safe. So Yeah. Yeah. But that's makes sense for the person that doesn't know what he's doing that buys that house. That's fair.
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Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. But at the same time, I I feel like that got in the way a little bit in the way of, you
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know, kind of imploring people to get involved with their homes and get and get working on their on their own, right? Yeah. Okay.
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Nice way to kickstart it.
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He said though, I think it truths too, you got to get comfortable with it. Yeah. Yeah.
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You know, I think when you never had a house before and then you got to tackle all these things, it's like, where do I start? You know, I mean, it's almost overwhelming. Yeah.
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And you sit there and you look at things and you stare at that wall, you stare at that corner like, "All right, I'm going to get a paintbrush or I'm going to fix this and fix that." And but you got to come to some, you know,
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your resources. I mean, you have YouTube, too, right? They can do it. Right. Right.
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Three YouTube videos. There's a right one. There's a wrong one. Yeah.
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Third one's going to tell you which one was which.
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Yeah. [laughter] That's too because I've had people come in with I got this on the YouTube. I'm like that is absolutely not correct.
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[laughter] So that's why I brought like in older hardware stores like you know you don't get a lot of questions answered like at Home Depot or Lowe's or things like that.
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No. Got to find the right retired guy there.
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Yep. That's it. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And that's actually that that's why I come or I always found the local hardware store because they knew what they were
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talking about. Or back in the day when we had the when we had the when we had the uh trifecta Yeah. when we had the bar lumber and some of these, you know, some of the old
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some of the old lumber yards, you know, you could go in there and, you know, they would be able to tell you exactly what need you needed, what materials you
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needed for for your, you know, porch or the windows or whatever that needed to be done. So, so I did my edition on my house, Bar Lumber, is that right? At Bar Lumber.
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Went over there and told them, "Here's what I want." And they and they gave you the cut package and they No, no, no. [laughter] All stick built.
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What was that?
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It was all stick built. My dad's My dad's friend was a used to build homes, so he didn't help us, but he came over and critiqued us every night.
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Oh, that's good. That was wrong, and this was right, and we got to do this again.
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The words overkill use quite a bit, but that's what I like. Oh, the overkill. Yeah. Right. Right.
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Exactly. So, so, um, in your business, um, have you been doing many, uh, Lakewood, uh, or Lakewood, uh, inspections?
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Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Um, more over the last few months, couple years. Yeah.
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Okay. So tell me, give let's just talk a little bit about some of those inspections. Yeah. What comes up in Lakewood?
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What comes up in Lakewood? A lot of times knob and tube um Well, let's talk about that.
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Yeah. Um so knob and tube wiring obviously is like an older wiring method. Um every house in Lakewood was built with knob and tube
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and um you know like insurance companies it's kind of like a dirty word knob and tube and you know that was your original comment about the people who've done stuff and done stuff and done stuff. Yeah.
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Yeah. That's where knob and tube that's that's the weakness of knob and tube.
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Other than that, it's a great wiring system. It is. But it's the people that don't know what they're doing the wrong stuff. That's right.
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Uh got a great picture. When we were working on the apartment in a building next door, we were taking on a couple of lights and my buddy unscrewed it and it
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fell to the floor on a yellow extension cord. [laughter] We went up into the loft where all the the loose insulation fill was in and
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they took the rop the knob and tube and skinned back about this much of the wire. Oh, nice.
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And wrapped the extension cord around it and then put [snorts] electrical tape on their house. Oh, wow.
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That's when he goes, "We're rewiring the whole building." So, yeah, not a fire hazard, right? Again, that's what they're fearful of. That's the That's what they're fearful.
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And it's funny because you talk to any electrician, they'll tell you, they're like, "It's some of the the best wiring out there." But yeah, you get you get people doing doing crazy things with it.
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Right. Right. Oh, yeah. Oh, I have seen that in Lakewood houses. I've seen that in mansions. you know, these crazy these
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crazy uh connections that are made everything everything. Now, the thing about but the thing about the knob and tube that's tricky is when you have a
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three-way switch, that is the hardest thing to track down and figure out. How do I rewire this three-way in a knob and tube house? Do you want to do it?
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I've done it.
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You get a 50ft roll of wire or two 50 foot pieces [laughter] of wire, put alligator clips, and check everything.
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That is exactly how I did it. That's exactly how I did it. I had a I did I had just a an you know an eso cord that I had an old there you go that works
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and I and I ran it up and down the steps until I figured it out. I just like you know but it's a but because they don't
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come out of one sleeve they come at it they come at it from different directions. You don't know which one's the common. You don't know which one's the neutral. You don't know
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which one's Sometimes they switch the neutrals and then they switch the neutrals. Right.
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Yeah. All all kinds of ways. And um and this nobody don't Google this, but a Chicago 3-way is when like a common hallway like we have in here.
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Yeah, we have a switch to the light at the top of the stairs.
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That side has a switch, but they jump the positives leave a constant neutral. So you think, "Oh, I turned the light off. I'm going to go turn this thing off and get lit
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cuz that the neutral was the switch." Yes. Do not Google. [laughter] Oh, but that's a very good point because
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when you're in an old house and you're thinking, you know, you're going to replace the the um switches.
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Um you're not just replace like you can't just go buy a three-way switch and and make that connection because like
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you said, if the neutral was the was the thing that was causing the switch, then you're going to give yourself a nice good shock.
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It's funny. I I live up up up the street here and I was having some work done new switches and things like that and um I
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asked my electrician like you want me to like turn the power off before you start working. No, we're good. And I'm watching him. He's like licking his fingers and like [laughter] tapping like
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sparking things together. I'm like, "What is this guy doing?" I mean, this guy's insane.
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You know, he wasn't asleep in electrics class. That's the problem. [laughter] Cuz I was. I don't understand. I can't get near it. I don't like it.
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I had an ambulance on standby. Like [laughter] jeez.
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my father-in-law when we wired my first house. So, we recruited family um to figure out which was the hot wire. He grabbed the copper line, grabbed the
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light switch, one of the legs, and said, "Throw the switch." And he goes, "Okay, turn it off." And he grabs the other one. He goes, "Throw it again." And he goes, "Okay, I got a little tingle." Oh my. You kidding me?
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No way. Oh, yeah.
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That tingle I don't like. I've gotten the tingle before. You can do it, but grab it like a man.
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Don't Don't go in. You have to hold it.
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Commit. [laughter] Okay. But that's not stuff we want our homeowners to do, right? We don't want them doing that.
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That's [laughter] why you get Yeah, exactly. That's why electricians are electricians. That's why we have a fire department. That's right.
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All those things like has everything for you.
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That's right. Well, one of the things about a hardware store is that you do have an assortment of everything. So,
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there's a lot I like to say, you know, I'm a master of some [laughter] um and and I can come into a hardware
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store and and find materials, whatever it is that I need. But sometimes you need expert help. It's not just you that's going to tell them what to do.
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And [clears throat] I'm hoping that you don't tell them to go watch YouTube.
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[laughter]
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Absolutely not. I give him a name of a guy. There you go.
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Maybe he will tell him. At least I'm going to get you where you need to be. And then from there, it's on you.
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It's the what is it? Good, cheap, and fast. Pick two. Yep. Right. And it just doesn't happen all the time. That's right.
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And I don't And again, if I referred any one of you guys out, when somebody calls on phone, I go, "What does he charge?" I don't I don't know. Yeah. You said you wanted a good electrician.
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Yeah. That's what we get. I don't know what he I got you the good electrician. Yeah. Yeah. Does he work for you? Yes.
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And that's that's that's so important, right? That's so important. Um to know to have a good referral, right? I mean, even in our business, just having the a good referral, someone you can count on.
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Um, it's so important and when someone's in a house the first time, especially first-time home buyers, um, you know, they're they're terrified of of all of
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this. I mean, nab and tube, I think, is another one of those things, too, is that, um, I would love it if we could kind of dissuade people from their fear
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a little bit, like, you know, like this is an area that if you get a good electrician that can that can work with the system
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that you've got, then do that. if because you don't have to rewire the whole house, right?
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Um assuming that you're, you know, as you said, the insurance company's gonna work with you.
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Um it used to be you could see a house when you bought it. Like I could I could tell what was done in my house when I bought it cuz nobody had gone in there and just polished them like they're doing now.
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Now you can't. Now you have to trust an electrician. You're going to have to get a pro because you can't see like I wonder if there was an outlet. No. Yeah.
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That's how I found my living room. I'm like, isn't there something there? Sure enough.
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Yeah. Especially in in Lakewood where the houses have been so uh remodeled over the years and changed so many hands. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
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Even some Well, what was the the first flip they did? Well, first one, the Man Cusos over on it was like 284 grand over on Glattis, I think.
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Oh, really?
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Yeah. Oh, yeah. I remember that. And then a year later, it was back on the market. Yep.
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And I think it was a couple of things like they held a second on it when they did it. So when they defaulted on it, they defaulted to the bank. But man, still got the nut. Yeah.
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Right. Right.
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And I I don't know. I have to be We don't have to be specific, but it's close.
19:22
19 minutes, 22 seconds
I know. I get it. But that was But that house was transferred, I think, four times now. Yeah.
19:28
19 minutes, 28 seconds
And then there's one on broccoli. It's up for its fourth or fifth. Yeah. in that many years.
19:33
19 minutes, 33 seconds
You know, it's it you rais a good point though, which is that there's a lot of stuff and Lakewood's really um ripe for
19:41
19 minutes, 41 seconds
uh flips, or it was for a while. Now, Lakewood homes are so expensive, it's a little harder for the for the flippers to make, you know, good bucks, which
19:49
19 minutes, 49 seconds
means that when they do buy something, they're they're not doing the very best work. I I have found that a lot of the flip stuff that's in Lakewood, I mean, I
19:58
19 minutes, 58 seconds
have had clients I've said, "Please, let's let's get out of here because this one's this one has me nervous." Mhm.
20:05
20 minutes, 5 seconds
You know, well, so not to do specifics, but somebody I know and care about bought a house that was a flip and is now in a huge lawsuit because they did a half a
20:15
20 minutes, 15 seconds
roof. They didn't do the They said they waterproof. They did not. They did this.
20:19
20 minutes, 19 seconds
The structural beams are nothing. Didn't pull any permits. Right.
20:22
20 minutes, 22 seconds
Yeah. So, Right. Right. They're out there. Exactly. Sadly. Yep. Exactly.
20:25
20 minutes, 25 seconds
And it's not It's not a shot at the craftsman because there's a lot of good work in that house.
20:29
20 minutes, 29 seconds
The problem is whoever's making the call to cut corners here and here and here. Exactly. And stay within that budget. Yeah. Yeah.
20:36
20 minutes, 36 seconds
And I think that's what that's the bigger problem. Yeah.
20:38
20 minutes, 38 seconds
Yeah. I They still want to have it on the market in six months, but they got to get it done. All right. Well, then just don't do this, do that. And that's where you guys are very
20:46
20 minutes, 46 seconds
important. And sadly, um the inspector on that house also phoned it in.
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20 minutes, 52 seconds
Yeah. So, I mean it was it was everything that could have gone wrong, right?
20:56
20 minutes, 56 seconds
Did actually it did. Wow. Yeah. Other than location. It's a great piece.
20:59
20 minutes, 59 seconds
You'll have to you'll have to tell me more about that one later. Not online.
21:03
21 minutes, 3 seconds
But [laughter] but but but that brings up a good point which is that inspectors can't find everything like they can't take down
21:10
21 minutes, 10 seconds
like this thing about the the the structural beams for example or the electrical that's been up upgraded or
21:17
21 minutes, 17 seconds
the so-called you know um uh waterproofing job. There's only so much that we're [snorts] able to see
21:25
21 minutes, 25 seconds
visually. Talk, if you don't mind, tell us a little bit more about how that works from an inspector's perspective.
21:30
21 minutes, 30 seconds
That's that's one of the toughest parts about my job is, you know, when when someone hires us, they they want one of
21:38
21 minutes, 38 seconds
two things. They either want us to find everything or they want a clean house.
21:42
21 minutes, 42 seconds
But all of them want a thorough in-depth home inspection. And there are times where, you know, we don't have X-ray vision, so we can't see through walls.
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21 minutes, 51 seconds
If there's um especially in like a finished basement or a finished attic, you know, there are times where you can't see any of the plumbing, you can't see any of the electrical, you can't see
21:59
21 minutes, 59 seconds
the main beams, you can't see the foundation walls, and those are all limitations. You need to explain that to our clients and say like, "Hey, on the surface." Yeah. Like we can see what we can see.
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22 minutes, 9 seconds
Um but, you know, hidden defects may be there. And and again there there are a bunch of different ways for us to find
22:18
22 minutes, 18 seconds
those types of you know issues that might run in a house but um but again like what we want to do is we want to provide education and the
22:27
22 minutes, 27 seconds
when when you're not able to see everything it makes it really challenging.
22:30
22 minutes, 30 seconds
So I have a question. What about like the fixtures, bathroom fixtures and stuff like that? Do you I mean I know you check to make sure that they're in
22:37
22 minutes, 37 seconds
good repair and all that. Do you spot a offthe-shelf piece of garbage and ever notate that?
22:45
22 minutes, 45 seconds
So that's Is there a way to I mean there is a way.
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I mean you can tell that there's certain I would say it's not necessarily something that we would put in a report. Okay.
22:53
22 minutes, 53 seconds
Um but it's something that as you're going through a house you kind of keep it in the back of your head.
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22 minutes, 59 seconds
brass fittings, the rest of the house is probably going
23:07
23 minutes, 7 seconds
to be in some good shape. But if I start seeing some, you know, cheaper materials and um like you pointed out with like
23:15
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plumbing especially, um then it starts putting up my spider senses and I start to look at things a little more critically and and try to dig deeper in things.
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Yeah. Yeah.
23:27
23 minutes, 27 seconds
One thing that's tough even though it's plumbing in general like you have a house that's been flipped. You don't know if there's like I'm dealing with right now with a rental property. I have cracked lines. You know what I mean? The
23:35
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main line there's a crack. You know the tiles.
23:38
23 minutes, 38 seconds
You mean outside? Outside the tile. It's an old house.
23:41
23 minutes, 41 seconds
It's old house. Exactly. Is there a tree old tree out front that was planted, you know, 50, 60 years ago? The trees half dead right now. And those roots Yeah.
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growing in the tiles and the tiles are cracked. Yeah.
23:53
23 minutes, 53 seconds
You know, it sucks. You know what I mean? But that's a hard home inspection.
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Is it not a standard home inspection?
23:58
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Can you say additional I would think you'd have somebody come in cuz again that that house we talked about that happened too. There was a lot of fun there.
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24 minutes, 5 seconds
Well, when you have a when you're in the home inspection there, you know, you're running the water, you're you're filling up the bathtub, you're you know, you're
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making sure at least visually you're checking the drainage, for example. And if there's a if if something's not
24:19
24 minutes, 19 seconds
moving quickly, there's a whole lot of things we can look for right away um that are going to tell us that this
24:26
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was done properly or there's a clog. I had one where they had done a flip and they had a third floor um they had a third floor shower and toilet and
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everything. a nice little nice little bathroom on the third floor of this great big house. And um and it looked really great, but the water was not
24:44
24 minutes, 44 seconds
draining. And and so um we asked for in after the inspection, we asked for them
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24 minutes, 51 seconds
to have a plumber come out and take a look at this and they agreed. And that
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24 minutes, 57 seconds
turned into tearing out the whole floor because the guys who had done all the
25:04
25 minutes, 4 seconds
sheetrock work and then come in and done all the tile work poured all of their thin set and all of their leftover mud
25:13
25 minutes, 13 seconds
in the drain and it just clogged it all up. Well, then that led to another problem that was out on the street on
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25 minutes, 21 seconds
the street side. So between the between the sidewalk and the house, homeowner, your story is responsible for that section.
25:29
25 minutes, 29 seconds
And and we said, "Well, if we're having troubles up here, we need we need to check the whole thing." So we had them check we had them run a camera out out
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the front and of course there too we had a problem with the old uh with the old tile and they had to replace it. So it
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all got done as a part of the as a part of the sale of the we were able to negotiate that with my buyers but
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but that is rare and but the point is is that those are little things that you can you know initially they tell a story
26:00
26 minutes
and the question is what's the story that tells yeah you can see him [laughter] he's got more to that. It's funny cuz like we you know we try to
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like I call it flooding the system right like turn all the showers and sinks and flush toilets all at the same time so that you know water hits it but um I was
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doing a a triplex here in Lakewood of of few years ago and the first floor was vacant the second
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26 minutes, 22 seconds
floor was occupied and so I'm doing my thing and the tenants happen to be home so I'm just chatting with them like hey like you guys have any any issues living
26:30
26 minutes, 30 seconds
here and they're like no it's been great but um what we have noticed is that when when someone lives lives on the first floor. Our bathtub just doesn't drain for weeks. I'm like, wait a second.
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[laughter]
26:41
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That seems like a problem. Wow.
26:44
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And like, but no one's living here right now, so it's not a problem. I'm like, okay. Yeah.
26:47
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So, obviously then you're able There are some things where you just you can't find that in a general home inspection, but like again, kind of doing your due
26:55
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diligence and using the resources available to you, just chatting with the current tenants, you'll you'll find out a little bit more about, you know, the
27:02
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folks who are actually living in the house.
27:04
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Yeah. Did they solve the problem? You were you did your people buy it?
27:07
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I think the deal ended up falling through for a plethora of reasons. Okay.
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But um there there's your digging deeper part right there. Yeah.
27:15
27 minutes, 15 seconds
Right. That's going on. What else is going on?
27:17
27 minutes, 17 seconds
Yeah. We were in a house, we were in a house just this spring um where the tenants on the first floor um uh on the
27:26
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second floor rather told us that they they noticed there was some water in the basement on the floor and they weren't really it was there and it would go away
27:34
27 minutes, 34 seconds
and it was you know it was hard to tell what was going on but they noticed that there was some water on the you know so immediately you're thinking water's coming from outside right
27:42
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well while we were there the people on the first floor started running the water in their kitchen in their sink and
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27 minutes, 50 seconds
we were in the basement and doing a an inspection and the floor started bubbling. [laughter] So it turned out
27:59
27 minutes, 59 seconds
that there was the the sewer line under the floor was already cracked. Oh, really?
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28 minutes, 4 seconds
And so that load of these guys and a couple of other things that were plug that does it too.
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And it just and then there's that. But it was just bubbling up through through the ground.
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Wow. Well, one of my friends had a house and in the middle of the winters, none of his [clears throat] drains were working. Couldn't figure out. We went through I went through all kinds of things with him and it says, "It sounds
28:22
28 minutes, 22 seconds
like there's a vacuum. Like, it's not getting right." And here, two days later, water weather warms up and he comes in the store to get some bleach and whatnot. I'm like,
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28 minutes, 30 seconds
"What are you doing?" And his laundry room floor drain all of a sudden just erupted. Well, the ice that was in the stack released, hit the bottom. That
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pressure coming down, blew everything out of the trap, and all that nasty water was all over his drain. And then his drains work perfectly again. So it
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does happen depending hot showers, not not hot enough to shower. I don't know what causes that. Wow.
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Because I've never had it happen and there's a lot of long hot showers at our house with Yeah. With your I'm just wondering. [laughter] Wow. So I think longer hotter showers is the answer.
29:00
29 minutes
That's from Glenn Palmer, the expert.
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29 minutes, 3 seconds
[laughter]
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29 minutes, 5 seconds
You get a tankless water heater, dude.
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You will say the same thing. [laughter] I got one of those.
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29 minutes, 12 seconds
And you know what? It's the only way to get it going. Absolutely.
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Run it long. [laughter] Absolutely.
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29 minutes, 19 seconds
Wow. That's great. Well, tell me about tell me any other anybody got any other great stories to tell about uh about home repairs.
29:29
29 minutes, 29 seconds
Other thing you can't catch for is also like just rain. Like right now, you've had a lot of rain. Yeah.
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29 minutes, 34 seconds
And a house is dry. You know what I mean? So, you don't know what some issues are. You go to a house when it's a trenchial downpour, you might find some other gremlins that are in that property.
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29 minutes, 42 seconds
Love doing home inspections in the rain. You see everything. All your work's being done below grade. That's awesome.
29:48
29 minutes, 48 seconds
Well, and like you get in the you get in the attic roof. You see everything that comes through. I was I was doing something for um a pre-listing
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29 minutes, 55 seconds
inspection for a couple and before they hired me, there was a they put their house on the market, had a home inspection done, the deal fell
30:04
30 minutes, 4 seconds
through, the buyer wouldn't tell them what they found. They just walked away from the deal. So, they hired me to come in and do a pre-listing and see everything. Just happened to start
30:12
30 minutes, 12 seconds
raining like right as I did that leak in in the roof, few other things. They were able to fix it up with like less than $1,000 worth of
30:21
30 minutes, 21 seconds
repairs. repairs and then they put it back on the market a few weeks later. Sold in like two weeks for more than what they listed the
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30 minutes, 29 seconds
first time. So, it all worked out for them. But serendipity started raining during the inspection. Otherwise, you might not have seen it. It would have been possible. No, right.
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It goes back to the idea that you can't see what you can't you can't see through walls. You can't see all these, you know, all these potential problems in
30:45
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Lakewood. Um I'm because I'm a Lakewood kid. Um, you know, we we grew up um not
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having our basements were never finished. [laughter] We we had one finished basement on the lakefront and that was because the house
30:59
30 minutes, 59 seconds
was built for that. But most Lakewood's uh basement was Clifton. One nice room.
31:05
31 minutes, 5 seconds
One nice room. Yeah. We had a pool room in the basement. It was It was great.
31:09
31 minutes, 9 seconds
But it was but it was not waterproofed like they are today. There was no sump pump in the basement. Um more and more
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31 minutes, 17 seconds
um at least in my street um we're getting water backed up into the into the basement from the street during a
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31 minutes, 25 seconds
torrential downpour. Um do you get people coming in talking about that?
31:29
31 minutes, 29 seconds
We do. Uh happened to me. Happened to me twice. First time it happened was when I first bought my house and I had 18 inches of water and then I finished the
31:36
31 minutes, 36 seconds
entire basement and it happened again like was it two years ago when we had that really good rain? Yeah.
31:41
31 minutes, 41 seconds
And it got it. But again, I mean I built it like it was going to flood again. So if I ever did, but I didn't get 18 inches. Oh, good.
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31 minutes, 46 seconds
But I still got water and it just, you know, ruined carpet and this and that. Okay.
31:49
31 minutes, 49 seconds
But yeah, but I waterproofed it and this is coming up the main line. That's the problem. But my neighbors two doors up, nothing.
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31 minutes, 56 seconds
Me, I get it. I'm like, well, that means I have a clean drain, right? It's can easy to go out and pick up. [laughter] Yeah. And you're But again, the next
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32 minutes, 4 seconds
door neighbors don't have it, but I have it. Okay.
32:06
32 minutes, 6 seconds
It's just I think my drain, however, is right. So you shouldn't So what we're saying is is you you shouldn't clean your drains.
32:13
32 minutes, 13 seconds
I think that's [laughter] if you have if that's if that's your perpetual issue. Yes. Let them clog a little bit.
32:18
32 minutes, 18 seconds
I mean that sounds cheaper than hiring a plumber.
32:21
32 minutes, 21 seconds
Well, they talk about getting backwater preventers, but I don't know if Lakewood accepts them or doesn't accept them. Do they accept them?
32:26
32 minutes, 26 seconds
So we've got we've got three house or outside. Do they allow it to say? Well, they're allowing the outside ones cuz we've got three now on our
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32 minutes, 33 seconds
street and I'm considering getting one a backflow pre on on mine cuz we did have water in the basement and it was kind of
32:40
32 minutes, 40 seconds
it was kind of a big deal. Like I had all this stuff on the floor. I didn't even think about this. I'd never experienced this before and there was
32:48
32 minutes, 48 seconds
six inches of water in there and I was you know I mean it was and I flooded after I waterproof. The entire house has been waterproof but still.
32:54
32 minutes, 54 seconds
Yeah. But that's not that's not the water. It's not the water.
32:57
32 minutes, 57 seconds
And that's what people get confused with a lot of times. Well, no, that's not your problem. No, that's the stream. Is it coming through the wall?
33:04
33 minutes, 4 seconds
It's coming through. No, no, it's coming If it's coming through the wall, then your waterproofing will help.
33:08
33 minutes, 8 seconds
But if it's not coming through the wall, then if it's coming through the pipes, it's not going to matter.
33:13
33 minutes, 13 seconds
Half the time when it's coming through the walls, it's the down spouts are plugged. Oh, yeah.
33:16
33 minutes, 16 seconds
Snake them out. I had a neighbor for years tried everything imaginable to try and waterproof and paint his basement where his workshop was. And I said, "Would you go rent a snake and snake
33:24
33 minutes, 24 seconds
those drains?" Had it done. Never had a drop of water again.
33:26
33 minutes, 26 seconds
Yeah. Because you guys all crocs here where they're they got to go through your they go through this like the store sores.
33:32
33 minutes, 32 seconds
Um you can from the street out at the traffic, but you can't do it up to your house. Right. Right.
33:37
33 minutes, 37 seconds
That's on you, but you go down a down spout or something that way.
33:40
33 minutes, 40 seconds
This is where everybody everybody in Lakewood has um well these most of these homes in Lakewood have what they called a um uh what was it called? The combination.
33:50
33 minutes, 50 seconds
No, no, no. Um the flusher. The flusher.
33:53
33 minutes, 53 seconds
Um Oh, one down spout and would be the flusher and that would go through the sewer line. Yeah.
33:59
33 minutes, 59 seconds
And that would flush out the the bad stuff.
34:02
34 minutes, 2 seconds
And um and then the rest of them would go along the side of the house, right?
34:06
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And then connect out and go into the street. And there usually there's a there's usually a Y out there in your in the front and it's about three and a half four feet down.
34:15
34 minutes, 15 seconds
So it's running that whole pipe is running along the side of the house and it's just clay pipe. Yeah. And people have planted bushes and all kinds of
34:23
34 minutes, 23 seconds
stuff around the house and so they break and then there's or they get, you know, something clogged it up and then just it just sits there and the water is going
34:31
34 minutes, 31 seconds
someplace and then obviously the place it's going to go that's fastest is coming into your house, right? So your walls are are wet
34:39
34 minutes, 39 seconds
from that. And if you just clean them out, um I actually put in a French drain so it would even take more water away from the house cuz
34:47
34 minutes, 47 seconds
Well, those speed blocks fill up with water.
34:49
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Oh yeah. It's just it's a cinder block, but it's way better than a cinder block.
34:53
34 minutes, 53 seconds
And it'll hold water. I had a customer drilled told them to drill a quarterinch hole in it and it took it a day to leak leaking down. Yeah. Not like dripping, running out.
35:01
35 minutes, 1 second
Yeah. Running.
35:02
35 minutes, 2 seconds
Her entire foundation was filled with water. Wow. Oh my gosh.
35:05
35 minutes, 5 seconds
So, get somebody in there to look at your down spots because I'm certain that's where it's coming from.
35:09
35 minutes, 9 seconds
Right. Right. So, so let's just tell that story. Are are we okay time wise?
35:14
35 minutes, 14 seconds
We good? [clears throat] So, let me just tell that story because you mentioned it. Um those those most of the Lakewood basements are not cinder block
35:22
35 minutes, 22 seconds
basements. They are they're a clay tile and they're all empty and and then they're just fastened together with mortar
35:30
35 minutes, 30 seconds
and so they become, you know, repositories for all of that outside moisture. And if you got a lot of water coming in
35:37
35 minutes, 37 seconds
and rodents and stuff gets in there and and eventually, you know, it freeze and thaws and that's when you start to see the spalding of your brick. and so forth
35:46
35 minutes, 46 seconds
on the inside. Whatever is on the inside, we start spalding that because water's getting in.
35:52
35 minutes, 52 seconds
And um anyway, the the long and the short of it is is that um what we do to you know to try to keep it out is the story you were telling is kind of
36:00
36 minutes
like the that's like what you want to do after you've taken care of the problem in the in the in the wall or outside where all this water's getting in.
36:08
36 minutes, 8 seconds
It's insane what it can do. Yeah. Yeah.
36:11
36 minutes, 11 seconds
And every city's got a different problem, right? The cinder blocks are out in Westlake. It's different there. It's different. Exactly. Yeah.
36:17
36 minutes, 17 seconds
What was it? Uh Ohio City. Lot of sand. Oh my gosh. It's clay here. It is incredible. It's all sand. It's beach.
36:25
36 minutes, 25 seconds
Oh my god. Beach six feet down. It's amazing.
36:27
36 minutes, 27 seconds
So my So more so my so my um partner's son and his and his um fiance are building a house
36:35
36 minutes, 35 seconds
on West 50th in Ohio City. And um and unfortunately the whole the they were trying to keep some of the original house there, but it it didn't work out.
36:46
36 minutes, 46 seconds
And so um they had to just start over and and um when they dug for the foundation, the foundation is really
36:53
36 minutes, 53 seconds
deep. I think it's the first the the floor is about 8 feet down. And when they did the excavation, it it just it
37:02
37 minutes, 2 seconds
was all sand. Every bit of it was sand and roots from old trees and stuff, but every bit of it was sand. So now they've just got it, like you said, it looks
37:10
37 minutes, 10 seconds
like a sand dune there. They've got the they've got the foundation. They've got the the structures being built. And now there's this great big there's this
37:18
37 minutes, 18 seconds
great big sand dune there on the side of the house. Yeah. But they still have to but they still have to put drainage in.
37:23
37 minutes, 23 seconds
So they still have drainage inside and outside.
37:26
37 minutes, 26 seconds
Oh, yeah. Because if you're building new, do it. Yeah.
37:28
37 minutes, 28 seconds
You're doing it and it's code. You got to do it. You got to have it not need it. Exactly. Right. Right.
37:33
37 minutes, 33 seconds
So, um, so that's interesting. We were talking about that. And the other thing that comes up, um, in Lakewood is windows. I mean, I know you guys are
37:41
37 minutes, 41 seconds
doing a lot of windows. You get a lot of people coming in with for glass and things like that. Huge. Yeah.
37:47
37 minutes, 47 seconds
Huge. I bet you there's right now there's probably well over a hundred screens and windows that have to be done next door.
37:55
37 minutes, 55 seconds
Easy. [laughter] Easy. I think I have to build 25 and then we have all the hundred on top of that. So, it's insane. Oh, really? Oh yeah.
38:03
38 minutes, 3 seconds
Okay. So, so we're talking about triple track and we're talking about old windows. You guys would you guys do the work on that stuff still?
38:10
38 minutes, 10 seconds
Okay. Restore the old windows like the old like uh No, restoration's a totally different thing. Do we make them operable again?
38:16
38 minutes, 16 seconds
Absolutely. I will not. I tried. We thought, oh, we people want us to reglaze things, pull out, and make their French doors beautiful. That is so
38:24
38 minutes, 24 seconds
tedious and time consuming. I would lose 90% of my other business to do that.
38:30
38 minutes, 30 seconds
It's just so timeconuming and nobody nobody would say hey it's going to be $600 to do that. They don't want to hear that, right?
38:35
38 minutes, 35 seconds
They want to hear I could have a weekend with my buddy while you do my work and it's that's not the way it works. It's it's going to cost you it's insane.
38:42
38 minutes, 42 seconds
[laughter] I mean it really is the amount of work that we get. But it's craftsmanship.
38:46
38 minutes, 46 seconds
It's basically we're going to repair it, make it work. It's going to be perfect when it goes out of here, but it is not going to be something you're going to look at and go look at this. Right.
38:54
38 minutes, 54 seconds
Look at my Yeah. the investment I've made.
38:57
38 minutes, 57 seconds
Yeah. Exactly. Right. Because it's a it's like fixing drainage.
38:59
38 minutes, 59 seconds
Yeah. Yeah. You do it and and you just be happy that you got it done, right?
39:04
39 minutes, 4 seconds
It's going to function. You're going to forget about it. And that's that's our success right there. Yeah.
39:09
39 minutes, 9 seconds
If it works and you never think about it again, then we did our job. Yeah.
39:12
39 minutes, 12 seconds
That's that's the best way to do it back in the day.
39:14
39 minutes, 14 seconds
But now we're losing a lot of that cuz everybody's doing new vinyl. Well, that's what I was going to say. So, what's happening? Just more screens. Okay. Yeah.
39:21
39 minutes, 21 seconds
Yeah. So, it's just just more it's different work, but it's it's still the same amount. So, dogs still jump through screens. Hallelujah, brother. Yes, they do.
39:28
39 minutes, 28 seconds
[laughter]
39:29
39 minutes, 29 seconds
And cats. Squirrels went in the house trying to get the peanuts that the little old lady leaves on the window sill so she could grab them when she walks out and they chew a hole right
39:37
39 minutes, 37 seconds
through her screen. I'm like, and Yeah. Yeah. You had the bait right there. He's a rodent, man. He's going after it. You just had a bad trap. He's hungry. Yeah. You had a bad trap.
39:45
39 minutes, 45 seconds
Yeah. And your trap wasn't a trap.
39:47
39 minutes, 47 seconds
[laughter]
39:48
39 minutes, 48 seconds
That's good. Well, we're seeing a I mean, I I know when when I first the first house I bought, it was it was the
39:56
39 minutes, 56 seconds
job that I did. I would I would pull the windows apart and, you know, redo the lines, redo the sash cords and and uh
40:04
40 minutes, 4 seconds
and then, you know, replace all the glass and and did and the and the weights. In fact, for a while there, you were collecting weights on those on
40:11
40 minutes, 11 seconds
those windows. And I probably gave that up because I know you said nobody's doing it. I used to sell so much sash cord and people be when are
40:20
40 minutes, 20 seconds
you going to have more sash cord? You know, I used to buy big bulk rolls and we'd sell it. Nothing. Oh, really?
40:24
40 minutes, 24 seconds
Nothing. I had a guy nine feet yesterday. That's it. Wow. Okay. So, that that business has is gone.
40:30
40 minutes, 30 seconds
There's a few craftsmen out there, but it's just not what it was. So, that's again that's that flipper house last six years, seven years. Yeah. Yeah. Just not seeing anybody.
40:39
40 minutes, 39 seconds
So, they're going out and the people that do do it are doing restorations and it's beautiful work. Yeah.
40:43
40 minutes, 43 seconds
So, Yeah. Right.
40:44
40 minutes, 44 seconds
Good for them. So now they're just cutting the cord, letting the weight drop in the side and putting it on a replacement window in.
40:50
40 minutes, 50 seconds
Oh yeah. And if they're they shouldn't be doing it that way, but okay.
40:54
40 minutes, 54 seconds
[laughter]
40:55
40 minutes, 55 seconds
You pull the rope, you pull the weight, you pull the pole, you fill it with insulation. Fill it with insulation.
40:59
40 minutes, 59 seconds
Yeah, exactly.
41:01
41 minutes, 1 second
But yeah, I saw that on YouTube. I [laughter] I bet you did. Oh Laughed himself right out of the picture. That's awesome.
41:11
41 minutes, 11 seconds
[laughter] Oh, look what you two can do to you. Left's already fell out of his chair.
41:19
41 minutes, 19 seconds
Yeah. [laughter] You, you know, when you're and and when you're doing those inspections in in an older city like Lakewood, you're running
41:28
41 minutes, 28 seconds
into those window problems, gutter problems, roof problems, doors, doors. um you know uh what tell us a
41:37
41 minutes, 37 seconds
little bit about you know that that you know what you see out there going on with those with [clears throat] those repairs and things like that.
41:44
41 minutes, 44 seconds
Yeah. I mean, it's just a lot of it's age, you know, like throw uh unlevel floors in there, too, you know. Um I
41:52
41 minutes, 52 seconds
just I I like to preface people, you know, before I talk to them like, "Hey, like you're in a hundred and something old house. You know, your floors are going to be unlevel, your walls are
42:00
42 minutes
going to be wavy, and your windows might not work that well. You know, I did.
42:07
42 minutes, 7 seconds
Right. [laughter] I'll take you downstairs and show you the shims." He shimmed it all up.
42:12
42 minutes, 12 seconds
Yeah. just try to put everything into context for people, you know, right?
42:15
42 minutes, 15 seconds
But um doors really I mean how many old doors do you see on average?
42:20
42 minutes, 20 seconds
You know what I mean? One out of two, one out of 10.
42:23
42 minutes, 23 seconds
I don't know if I could put a number on it, but a fair amount. Yeah. Really? Still have original doors? Yeah. The steel. Yeah.
42:29
42 minutes, 29 seconds
And you know, those are soulless. I hate to say they are.
42:32
42 minutes, 32 seconds
From my house, um we still have the old like mortise lock doors. And it's funny cuz like in the winter time they all
42:39
42 minutes, 39 seconds
latch properly. in the summertime they don't close. Right. Right.
42:43
42 minutes, 43 seconds
And so, you know, you just you got an old house, it just they breathe, they live, and you know, you're gonna you just kind of got to go with the flow sometimes.
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42 minutes, 52 seconds
Right. Right.
42:53
42 minutes, 53 seconds
I had a client recently though. She called me up and she bought an old house. It's actually in Ohio City and she's redoing her porches. Did loan two
43:01
43 minutes, 1 second
years ago and she got a quote, you know, her porch and it's like $42,000 to redo these porches cuz the ground's all messed up. they have to like redo foot
43:09
43 minutes, 9 seconds
like she told me I'm like it's a big she because people ask you for a referral you know what I mean and right like I didn't have anybody for her you know and she's got quotes and that's
43:17
43 minutes, 17 seconds
about like what all her quotes are and but it's like everything be torn down and it's just it's a stupid number you know it's got but she's got that's a new number
43:25
43 minutes, 25 seconds
it is a new I hate that phrase but it is it's a new number that's a $20,000 job at best yeah right now it's not
43:32
43 minutes, 32 seconds
right now it's not Yeah exactly and the sooner I learn to get come to grips with that better off I'll What I just really struggle with that that part
43:40
43 minutes, 40 seconds
of the whole thing is cuz I get to see it from the wholesale end of it through. Yeah.
43:44
43 minutes, 44 seconds
And you can just see stuff for what reason? Yeah. Crazy.
43:49
43 minutes, 49 seconds
But there's other things that you can find that would be an equivalent amount of whatever product that would be whatever goo they formed into something, right?
43:56
43 minutes, 56 seconds
And it's 10% of that. So how can you machine this and make it for 10 cents and this is a dollar, right? Why is that? And it's just because they can't.
44:04
44 minutes, 4 seconds
There's no rhyme or reason to it. It has nothing to do with math. or physics or anything. The way they manufacture stuff, it's just greed. It's got to be. It's just greed.
44:12
44 minutes, 12 seconds
There's no other way of doing it. Yeah.
44:14
44 minutes, 14 seconds
Are you starting to see more um like front porch rebuilds in Lakewood? Yeah. Yeah.
44:18
44 minutes, 18 seconds
Um a lot more.
44:20
44 minutes, 20 seconds
Who's Jesse Carter has practical renovations? Beautiful work. Like beautiful work. Okay. But he only works in Lakewood.
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44 minutes, 28 seconds
Yeah.
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44 minutes, 29 seconds
And then he just started the Lakewood Porch and Rail Company as a secondary business. His work is impeccable.
44:35
44 minutes, 35 seconds
Okay. But I bet you you would be on a one-year list to get on his thing, right? At least.
44:38
44 minutes, 38 seconds
Is he does he do uh does he do the masonry as well?
44:43
44 minutes, 43 seconds
If he doesn't personally, I did sell him mortar and a wheelbarrow last week or something, [laughter] but I don't know if he does it personally and depending on his job, but he has somebody talented.
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44 minutes, 51 seconds
Probably the right guy. Absolutely.
44:52
44 minutes, 52 seconds
Yeah, he's I I can't say enough about him. I like everything he does.
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44 minutes, 56 seconds
That's awesome. That was a little And I'd love to like I would love to just promote him, right?
45:00
45 minutes
But what for what? So he can take another phone call of people that he's not going to build a service for at least to him. Yeah. As long as he's got business, right?
45:07
45 minutes, 7 seconds
I will talk highly of him, but I'm not going to tell people you need to call him and get him. [laughter] If you want something done though, is it worth waiting? You know, if you want by
45:16
45 minutes, 16 seconds
the right person like do you really need it? Now, I know it's annoying cuz it's on the back of your head.
45:20
45 minutes, 20 seconds
He's going to leave that 42 guy in the dust, right?
45:23
45 minutes, 23 seconds
It's going to be a 50 job from from him, but you're going to get everything and it's going to be beautiful.
45:28
45 minutes, 28 seconds
You're not going to have buyers remorse like ah, he didn't do this or they didn't do this, they didn't do that. I guarantee you if he uses any coaul, it's not because he left a gap between two boards, right?
45:36
45 minutes, 36 seconds
He's using it just to waterproof behind something. He's an amazing carpenter. Okay. I like him.
45:40
45 minutes, 40 seconds
That's awesome. You know, I think that's a I think what you're saying is is that you get what you pay for in a lot of and it's not
45:47
45 minutes, 47 seconds
but those but the Jesse has allowed these other guys to I understand he's brought them up because they're all they're all competing at that same level, but the but the workmanship isn't there. The
45:56
45 minutes, 56 seconds
craftsmanship isn't quite there. So, I think that's a good point and I So, one of the one of the things I tell people, including my partner, is you know, look,
46:05
46 minutes, 5 seconds
I I love all the research we're doing on YouTube. Don't fall off the chair again, but [laughter] um you know, I love all that research we're doing, but we also
46:13
46 minutes, 13 seconds
need to see their work. Like, I want to go see it, right? I want to go I want to pull up to the house and go look at that. I want to know that they're doing this correctly.
46:23
46 minutes, 23 seconds
Um and that I'm going to be satisfied. I mean I don't you know sometimes it's that extra that extra money is well
46:31
46 minutes, 31 seconds
spent because you're getting that you you know now that this is the quality that this guy can these people can do
46:38
46 minutes, 38 seconds
and you can hold their you know you hold hold their feet to the fire and say hey I saw these other projects that you did and yours wasn't the one that you did
46:45
46 minutes, 45 seconds
for us wasn't quite as good. What's up with that? We got to work on that. We got to get back to work.
46:49
46 minutes, 49 seconds
Yeah. There's a lot of guys in Lakewood and I tell people when I refer them he's been doing this in Lakewood for 30 years. You're fine. Yeah, you know that they're looking for that
46:56
46 minutes, 56 seconds
as well. That's a big part of what people ask for.
46:59
46 minutes, 59 seconds
I had a um customer who decided he thought it would be a really good idea that we would work together. He would run a contracting business out of here.
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47 minutes, 7 seconds
And [laughter] he says because when a plumber pulls away and you just see the dust settle behind his van, how do you ever know that you can get a hold? But
47:14
47 minutes, 14 seconds
here you have a location. You have a physical location that gives people confidence.
47:18
47 minutes, 18 seconds
But I think those good jobs in town or only working in town also give them people confidence.
47:23
47 minutes, 23 seconds
Yeah. Yeah. because they're going to be seen and and yeah, you're going to see them at the coffee shop someday. Yeah, that's going to be awkward.
47:28
47 minutes, 28 seconds
That's that's going to be awkward if they're not doing a good job.
47:30
47 minutes, 30 seconds
But again, if you can do it for 30 years in this town, you're either the best at at, you know, ruining people's lives, [laughter] you know what I mean? Or you're very good at your job.
47:39
47 minutes, 39 seconds
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I think that's a really good It's also knowing the houses. I think there's a lot to that. I mean, you could be a contractor, do what I mean, you could do things, but like knowing the
47:47
47 minutes, 47 seconds
houses that are around here, I think there's a lot that says to that, you know, the way it looks, the way things are put together, because I'm sure there's a lot of similarities. These houses are the way they're built.
47:55
47 minutes, 55 seconds
Oh, absolutely. I can tell you right now, all the windows, you know, they're standardized sizes, but they're all, you know, 100 years old, right? [laughter]
48:02
48 minutes, 2 seconds
I It's It's funny you say that because you can definitely tell the people who know how to work on old houses and the ones who don't. I again had someone
48:10
48 minutes, 10 seconds
working on my house. I asked them to to install a deadbolt in my front door. It took this guy four days to like oh my gosh [laughter]
48:18
48 minutes, 18 seconds
drill through and then he the somehow the the door ended off it ended up off its hinges. He was cutting things on the door.
48:26
48 minutes, 26 seconds
Oh my gosh. This is a nightmare.
48:27
48 minutes, 27 seconds
Yeah. And and it wasn't four days cuz he was meticulous.
48:30
48 minutes, 30 seconds
No, just [laughter] cuz he could not figure it out. That's a nightmare.
48:35
48 minutes, 35 seconds
What kind of door do you got in that house? Some Well, he doesn't have a door anymore.
48:38
48 minutes, 38 seconds
Yeah, he's got a bunch of bunch of toothpicks.
48:41
48 minutes, 41 seconds
Yeah, [laughter] it's dust. Now, in all fairness, I fell off the chair. I sit in a chair all day. Not this is the longest I've ever sat on a ladder in my whole life combined, collectively.
48:52
48 minutes, 52 seconds
Give him a break. [laughter] That's good. That's good. Well, we've had um we've had some really wild
48:59
48 minutes, 59 seconds
weather this year. Um you guys don't do a lot in the heating and cooling area, right?
49:05
49 minutes, 5 seconds
Furnace filters. furnace filters. That's what I'm saying.
49:08
49 minutes, 8 seconds
Right. Okay. Okay. Good to know. And um and when people do have, like you said though, when people are are um looking
49:15
49 minutes, 15 seconds
for u contractors, people who help them in Lakewood, you have a you have a a whole book of them out out there. Do you have HVAC people in there, too?
49:24
49 minutes, 24 seconds
Yeah.
49:25
49 minutes, 25 seconds
Okay. Because one of those things is uh is uh steam steam and hot water. We still have Yeah, we still have boiler heat. We still have steam and hot water
49:33
49 minutes, 33 seconds
people. um homes and and uh we were talking about leaks. I was thinking about those leaks from earlier in that conversation. I can remember I can tell
49:42
49 minutes, 42 seconds
you so many times I've walked into a house which was a steam or a hot water and there's rags tied around the tied
49:49
49 minutes, 49 seconds
around the pipes, right? Going into going into it or out of it. It could be the condensate. It could be the steam or the hot water going in. They just tie rags around.
49:58
49 minutes, 58 seconds
That's where people don't that's that's where they're in over their head and that's where they cut bait. That's exactly it. It's not that It's not that much different than anything else, but it takes a bigger set of tools. Exactly.
50:08
50 minutes, 8 seconds
And it takes a lot more muscle. And that's where they, you know, Yeah. You're moving a what, a 200lb radiator? Yeah.
50:14
50 minutes, 14 seconds
Sure. [laughter] And that's a oneman hobby job on the weekend.
50:17
50 minutes, 17 seconds
And there's how many rooms that we have to do this in? [laughter] Everyone in this building so far.
50:23
50 minutes, 23 seconds
Yeah. You've been you did that here, right?
50:25
50 minutes, 25 seconds
That's hands down the best heat I grew up. Our house was all rad or uh boiler heat. Yeah.
50:30
50 minutes, 30 seconds
And that house was always warm. Each room could have its own kind of temperature. Like it was awesome. Right. Right.
50:35
50 minutes, 35 seconds
Compared to my house now, it's all, you know, forced air. You have drafty rooms, cold rooms. It's all different. Yeah. Yeah. I I run into a lot more gas furnaces.
50:43
50 minutes, 43 seconds
But, um, the very first home inspection I ever did, I I walk into the basement and I see, you know, like the octopus. Hallelujah.
50:52
50 minutes, 52 seconds
And I about had a heart attack. Was it the Clopeex house? What's that?
50:56
50 minutes, 56 seconds
The Clopeex. [laughter] Wasn't that from neighbors?
50:59
50 minutes, 59 seconds
Yeah, maybe. But um I I about had a heart attack. I'm like I'm of course very first one the thing that I'm like
51:07
51 minutes, 7 seconds
least comfortable with and I you know I'm walking around I'm looking at it and I'm like I see a gas powered furnace sitting right behind it. [laughter] Like thank God.
51:16
51 minutes, 16 seconds
They had they had to just art [laughter] they just disconnected and it was a big cast iron thing. So like you're not
51:24
51 minutes, 24 seconds
getting out of the basement. They just left it there and Oh god. I love it. Well, one of the one of those things that comes up because and and I've been uh you know, I'm old
51:34
51 minutes, 34 seconds
enough to to have done it without masks and other stuff, protective stuff. But there there is asbestous in our
51:42
51 minutes, 42 seconds
basements when we have these old boilers.
51:45
51 minutes, 45 seconds
They speak to that in loans now, don't don't they? Don't they speak to asbestous and loans? That's what I thought. Yeah.
51:50
51 minutes, 50 seconds
That and what dry cleaning, huh? Dry cleaners. That's another one that they're kind of the red flag. It is a red flag for dry cleaners. Well, yeah.
51:57
51 minutes, 57 seconds
Well, for No, no, but for loans on buildings that once house dry cleaning or something like that.
52:02
52 minutes, 2 seconds
Oh, yeah. We don't even touch that kind of stuff, right?
52:04
52 minutes, 4 seconds
That's more commercial mixeduse type stuff with a dry cleaner. Business loans. So, it's more residential. Is that because of the chemicals? Has to be. Yeah.
52:12
52 minutes, 12 seconds
Yeah. And it's in the ground. It's like It's like having a gas station next door, you know? Might be worse. I'm not sure. Yeah, I think it is.
52:18
52 minutes, 18 seconds
Cuz I think that's what like what the hospital was where the dry cleaner was in the basement there.
52:22
52 minutes, 22 seconds
There was someone recent I was talking to. They had rags from redoing refinishing floors like with polyurethane or something and they had the rags by the outlet and everything.
52:30
52 minutes, 30 seconds
The house caught on fire. Oh my god.
52:32
52 minutes, 32 seconds
I mean, this was like happened years ago. They were just telling like kind of like war stories of things that happened and yeah, I would honestly I wouldn't have even known about that.
52:40
52 minutes, 40 seconds
Oh, there's a lot that happens that self-combustion is a very very common.
52:44
52 minutes, 44 seconds
It's real. I mean, it's a real but you're supposed to keep them in a container that's a metal container. We opened the store. We sanded the floors
52:51
52 minutes, 51 seconds
and then I got a 50% lin no 30% linseed, 30% boiled linseed, 30% tarpentine mix and we put all over the floors to the
52:59
52 minutes, 59 seconds
floors. Great. Looked great. Year later I did it.
53:01
53 minutes, 1 second
Came in the next day and it didn't dry like the first time and it was sticky or slippery. Slippery. So we had to close and I was in here with rags just like
53:09
53 minutes, 9 seconds
like speed skating back and forth and a cotton mop. Cotton mop was my last pass and I left it by the door so I'll come up later.
53:15
53 minutes, 15 seconds
Came up later, picked that thing up and it was on fire. went right in. That's crazy. Holy crap. That's when I learned my lesson on that. Wow. That's crazy.
53:23
53 minutes, 23 seconds
Now I tell everybody it's buying stain or something like that. Throw put them in a wet ziplockc bag. Throw them in a sink. Something, right? Throw them in the trash can.
53:31
53 minutes, 31 seconds
Water wet. [laughter] Exactly.
53:33
53 minutes, 33 seconds
We don't realize how bad fumes are. You know what I mean? It's something you take for granted. You think it's okay.
53:37
53 minutes, 37 seconds
The air is going to be fine. But And it's less frequent now. It used to be 40 years ago, everybody knew it because all those products were available. And now it's very hard to get
53:44
53 minutes, 44 seconds
certain things. Most of it's all acrylics. They don't understand, right?
53:48
53 minutes, 48 seconds
body when they're using something volatile and it's unsafe like that. Yeah.
53:52
53 minutes, 52 seconds
Well, going back to the asbestous in in Lakewood homes, you know, it's even it's even used in in um some of the covering
53:59
53 minutes, 59 seconds
for the for the um uh favorite duck work as well.
54:05
54 minutes, 5 seconds
Oh, yeah. I had mine when I first bought my house.
54:07
54 minutes, 7 seconds
It's sealed with that stuff. So, you got to be really careful with that when people come in and they're telling you like your your story about the about the um uh the furnace made me think of it
54:16
54 minutes, 16 seconds
because I have been in so many basements where they've had they've had that great big old just like your story, the great big old one was left there and then the
54:24
54 minutes, 24 seconds
new one was in the basement, but on that great big old boiler was a covering of asbestous and and [clears throat] it was kind of like trled on. Oh, yeah.
54:34
54 minutes, 34 seconds
Remember the big ones? Sure.
54:36
54 minutes, 36 seconds
Asus that just trled on. So, not only does this cast iron thing weigh, you know, 1,000 lbs, you get another
54:43
54 minutes, 43 seconds
250. That's right. Yeah. So, when people come in and they've got they've got stuff like that going on in their house, what what do you normally do?
54:52
54 minutes, 52 seconds
Well, I used to Well, what I did here is I used peel bond, but I had the rest of it encapsulated with with newer stuff. So, and a covering on that.
54:59
54 minutes, 59 seconds
But you can use peel bonds like it's like a liquid rubber. It's fantastic.
55:04
55 minutes, 4 seconds
And I use it on my house and everything else. That's what I did on some pipes here. But Flex Seal is my new favorite.
55:08
55 minutes, 8 seconds
Flex Seal. Yeah, believe it or not. I thought that was all rubbish. That is not where they put a boat on YouTube,
55:14
55 minutes, 14 seconds
[laughter]
55:16
55 minutes, 16 seconds
dude.
55:17
55 minutes, 17 seconds
It is. It is. Absolutely. I've used every one of their products. I cannot say enough about really. Did you build a boat yet? Not yet.
55:23
55 minutes, 23 seconds
Okay. So, so that but but that is encapsulation. And I think the most important thing to say about that is is that we're we're being safe because
55:32
55 minutes, 32 seconds
we're not upsetting the material. We're just covering it and that's keeping it safe.
55:37
55 minutes, 37 seconds
So when we've got a Lakewood house, you know, we've got what we think is is some dangerous wiring. We might have some
55:44
55 minutes, 44 seconds
dangerous asbestous coverings and things like that. Um, I'm thinking about what are some of the other dangerous things
55:51
55 minutes, 51 seconds
that people um I know one I know one I'm going to tell you but um you'll probably think of it yourself but lenolium floors
55:58
55 minutes, 58 seconds
that have got the asbestous mastic in the floors.
56:02
56 minutes, 2 seconds
So in those cases we're in those cases we're just encapsulating right we're covering it up. We're trying to upset it.
56:09
56 minutes, 9 seconds
If you nail through it yeah that's you're making it fryable. Are you I don't know. Yeah. Right.
56:15
56 minutes, 15 seconds
Can you Yeah. Is it Is it going to kill you? Yeah.
56:19
56 minutes, 19 seconds
Yeah. Most of the time that stuff's And nowadays it's in the basement too. We get We got the lenolium in the basement and it's glued down with that.
56:26
56 minutes, 26 seconds
Yeah. And a lot of the 12 x 12 like VCT tiles, old school VCT ones. Yeah.
56:30
56 minutes, 30 seconds
Exactly. Yeah. So, you really have to be careful with that stuff. And I I re I personally recommend, you know, to my clients, you know, you really should
56:38
56 minutes, 38 seconds
have someone do this for you, right? Um because it's just some of those I kind of agree with him one thing. It's like I think something else is going to get you. I think if you work in it every
56:47
56 minutes, 47 seconds
day, it's a different thing than you know if you had some tiles and you know Yeah.
56:52
56 minutes, 52 seconds
And it's important to like you know people hear aspous they hear paint knob and tube and like it immediately
57:01
57 minutes, 1 second
like sends off all these red flags in their heads and it's about educating them and teaching them that like
57:08
57 minutes, 8 seconds
this piece of wiring is not going to kill you. This this insulation left alone is not going to kill you. Here's how you manage it. Right. Right.
57:16
57 minutes, 16 seconds
Um because again, going back to every house, do you think flip how many deals do you think flippers got because people walked away because of those exact problems?
57:24
57 minutes, 24 seconds
God, it's it's you know what I mean? Because they know they know the value of the box and and sadly most people don't. They're like,
57:31
57 minutes, 31 seconds
"Well, Zillow says, well, you know, maybe maybe you need to find a family member that somebody that you know that can help advise you because just going
57:39
57 minutes, 39 seconds
by what Zillow says and then buying something that could have just needed, you know, whatever, right? breaker panel, right? Or something. Yeah. Or just somebody to rewrap a two foot
57:47
57 minutes, 47 seconds
section of asbestous. You may have missed out on a great house. Right. Exactly. Sadly. Yeah. I I agree with that a thousand%.
57:54
57 minutes, 54 seconds
Is that a thing? No. Guess not. It's a It's 100%. But I [laughter] Exactly.
58:00
58 minutes
No. And but that goes back to what we were talking about earlier is that is that we um is that you you know most buyers
58:08
58 minutes, 8 seconds
um at least well I shouldn't say most but many buyers want to have everything finished want to have everything done
58:15
58 minutes, 15 seconds
and they want to just kind of move in and and going back to your points or illusion to uh value. Um, sometimes
58:23
58 minutes, 23 seconds
that's where you get the best value is in those houses that didn't get all that work done and people are people are shying away because they're they're they're saying,
58:32
58 minutes, 32 seconds
"Oh, but it needs, you know, the the electrical's got all these uh black wires hanging everywhere. I don't know what to do about that or or the, you
58:40
58 minutes, 40 seconds
know, the HVAC system is is a little bit older and they're not familiar with it." Um, I'm looking at it like, "Wow, there's a deal." Like, there's an opportunity. You got to think like the
58:48
58 minutes, 48 seconds
flipper, right? think like the guy who's looking at it like an investor that's saying, "Hey, I can do we can take care of all this all this stuff. We can
58:56
58 minutes, 56 seconds
increase the value of the home and and benefit from, you know, from the equity that we're building uh in that in that property."
59:03
59 minutes, 3 seconds
Do you know that um spray painted or painted knob and tube that's exposed in a basement is no longer code and it's a fire hazard?
59:10
59 minutes, 10 seconds
It's a fire hazard because it can't cool. Yep. Exactly.
59:12
59 minutes, 12 seconds
So, that's a great way to, you know, somebody's like, "Look, this is this is not code. It's been painted." Yeah. And that could be a great way to get your customer a better price.
59:19
59 minutes, 19 seconds
And and it's almost every single flip.
59:23
59 minutes, 23 seconds
Well, they they'll paint the the the ceiling because it looks pretty, right?
59:27
59 minutes, 27 seconds
It hides [clears throat] and they'll just spray everything. It hides all the stains. It hides all the Yep. Exactly. Yeah.
59:32
59 minutes, 32 seconds
Just you can't be intimidated by the house that needs a little bit of love.
59:36
59 minutes, 36 seconds
And and this like a lot of the houses, it's been this way for how long? It doesn't have to be fixed right now. And I think people go in panic mode.
59:43
59 minutes, 43 seconds
They think they got to do fix a knob and tube wiring and fix this and do that and then it's okay to stage something and get a house. I'd rather a house. Yeah.
59:51
59 minutes, 51 seconds
Get a house that's a better deal today.
59:53
59 minutes, 53 seconds
Get because all that stuff that's done by the flipper again, you don't know what kind of work they did like the stuff you're saying. They did the certain things and then other stuff they
1:00:00
1 hour
throw to the side because it's not important because it's not within their budget.
1:00:03
1 hour, 3 seconds
Yeah. And it's important to remember too that like you you're at the end of the day you're buying a 80, 90, 100 year old house like you're buying a used thing,
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1 hour, 12 seconds
right? It's not going to be perfect unless you even even when you build new, they're not perfect, right?
1:00:17
1 hour, 17 seconds
But um just like going into it the right with the right mindset of knowing that like there's going to be some work that needs to be done. How much work am I willing
1:00:26
1 hour, 26 seconds
to do and how much am I willing to spend on that and what am I willing to live with until all of that is is done. That's exactly right.
1:00:33
1 hour, 33 seconds
Yeah. Yeah. Did you want to say something? Did you have something you needed to say? Oh, you looked like you were telling me something. Okay. Standing up.
1:00:39
1 hour, 39 seconds
Yeah. So, but that brings up another but that brings up another point which is um I look at the inspection reports um you
1:00:46
1 hour, 46 seconds
know every day and I and I have that conversation with my clients about you know state about staging or timing um
1:00:53
1 hour, 53 seconds
some of these repairs and we talk about the value of some of these things the cost of some of these things and how it's going to increase the value of the
1:00:59
1 hour, 59 seconds
home over time and I I always take those um reports sometimes they're you know 50 60 pages long and I tell the homeowner
1:01:08
1 hour, 1 minute, 8 seconds
let's Let's turn this into a deferred maintenance list so that we're so that we're saying here's the stuff that we're going to
1:01:16
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take care of right away. You know, these are the five things that we're going to do right away and here's the stuff that we're going to do over the course of the next, you know, 3 to 5 years.
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1 hour, 1 minute, 24 seconds
See, that's that older person that can help them down that path.
1:01:26
1 hour, 1 minute, 26 seconds
No offense. You know what I mean? When I said that earlier, that's what you're helping them with. Understand a little perspective. Yeah. Exactly.
1:01:32
1 hour, 1 minute, 32 seconds
Tomorrow's not here yet. We got tomorrow. We're going to do it tomorrow.
1:01:35
1 hour, 1 minute, 35 seconds
Yeah. Exactly. There's fewer tomorrows for me, but and you um but anyway, there's an end to these.
1:01:42
1 hour, 1 minute, 42 seconds
There's an end. Oh my god, there's an end. Um anyway, so so but I I look at it that way when you when you're presenting those, do you ever talk about these repairs in that way?
1:01:51
1 hour, 1 minute, 51 seconds
Yeah. I mean, I I I tell people, you know, again, going back to it, every house, whether it's 1901, 2021, there's something wrong with it. My job is to
1:01:59
1 hour, 1 minute, 59 seconds
find it and then, you know, it's everything is negotiable. Everything is fixable and it's between you and your
1:02:07
1 hour, 2 minutes, 7 seconds
agent on what are those those things that you want to negotiate on, what are those hills you want to die on, and what are those things that you're willing to live with for a little while. You know, are you are you going to
1:02:15
1 hour, 2 minutes, 15 seconds
are you going to hammer them on the hole in the roof that's letting you know water stream in or are you going to hammer them on the outlet covers that need to be, you know, installed, right?
1:02:25
1 hour, 2 minutes, 25 seconds
So, um it's it's all about context. It's all about putting things into perspective for them and and a lot of times it's, you know, talking them off a ledge, right? Like you probably work with
1:02:34
1 hour, 2 minutes, 34 seconds
buyers all the time who, you know, they've been they've been working with with you for three years and they haven't found a house because they're so picky.
1:02:41
1 hour, 2 minutes, 41 seconds
You know, it's just I just want to say that never happens in my business. But go ahead. [laughter] Sorry, not your business. Some some people's business it happens.
1:02:50
1 hour, 2 minutes, 50 seconds
But um no, I mean it's just like I said, it's it's putting things into context for people so that you know they they understand that it
1:02:59
1 hour, 2 minutes, 59 seconds
just because it's a problem or just because it's a defect doesn't mean it needs to be taken care of right now.
1:03:04
1 hour, 3 minutes, 4 seconds
Like your house isn't going to catch on fire. It's not going to fall down. It's stood this long. It's Exactly.
1:03:10
1 hour, 3 minutes, 10 seconds
Yeah. You want to you want to extend the life of of your home. you want to make it yours. You know, if you bought a if
1:03:16
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you bought a fully functioning thing and you know, is that really yours until you put your personal touch on it? You know, it's like making dinner.
1:03:24
1 hour, 3 minutes, 24 seconds
As you take care of it, it gets it becomes more and more yours.
1:03:27
1 hour, 3 minutes, 27 seconds
Yeah. You you could buy you could buy Uber Eats and it's a fully made burrito or you could, you know, put your own little twist on it with, you know, different spices, right?
1:03:36
1 hour, 3 minutes, 36 seconds
Hot sauce. It's like age mechanicals scare people. You know, they think a furnace is 15 years old, it's done. Like my furnace in my house is 27 years old.
1:03:44
1 hour, 3 minutes, 44 seconds
It's such a [clears throat] big deal.
1:03:45
1 hour, 3 minutes, 45 seconds
It works. You know what I mean? I I'll limp it along. I'll fix a blower, get a blower motor, whatever is wrong with it, and not replace it. But a lot of time, like the first time home buyer, they go
1:03:54
1 hour, 3 minutes, 54 seconds
in panic mode when they hear this. And a lot of it's by the inspector, too. If the inspector sometimes a little too harsh with them, they kind of get in panic like, you
1:04:03
1 hour, 4 minutes, 3 seconds
know, this is this old, this is at the end of its economic life. But, you know, it's like if they could say like, you know, it could be repaired, it's older, but it's repable. You know, I think it's
1:04:10
1 hour, 4 minutes, 10 seconds
just having that being able to put that perspective.
1:04:12
1 hour, 4 minutes, 12 seconds
That my air temp Chrysler air temp got replaced today. It was in the house when we bought it. It's from the early 70s. Oh my gosh. Still works.
1:04:20
1 hour, 4 minutes, 20 seconds
Wow. Oh my gosh. It died on a Saturday Saturday morning.
1:04:25
1 hour, 4 minutes, 25 seconds
Friday morning. I was down at Airate at 7:00 when they opened. Bought a new motor. Put a new motor in it. Had it back working. Got to work by night.
1:04:31
1 hour, 4 minutes, 31 seconds
Wow. [laughter] So, yes, I will not be doing on a new one cuz I looked at the inside of that today. Well, there's no have to take it to a computer tech.
1:04:38
1 hour, 4 minutes, 38 seconds
Yes. There's heat sinks on these things and everything. I'm like, "What is that?" Yeah. Yeah. I'm out.
1:04:44
1 hour, 4 minutes, 44 seconds
But that's [laughter] that's the thing like with proper maintenance these everything has a service life, but like if if if I go into a basement
1:04:52
1 hour, 4 minutes, 52 seconds
and I see all these records like they got the tags on them, right? Showing like every year there's been service.
1:04:57
1 hour, 4 minutes, 57 seconds
You open up the the um air filter and it's clean. You know that they've been taking care of it. Like just because it's a 25-year-old furnace doesn't mean
1:05:06
1 hour, 5 minutes, 6 seconds
that it's acting like a 25-y old furnace. cuz I've seen some 10-year-old furnaces that look nasty and gnarly
1:05:13
1 hour, 5 minutes, 13 seconds
compared to other reason went away is we wanted to get air conditioning and it was time. Yeah.
1:05:17
1 hour, 5 minutes, 17 seconds
But it hadn't there was nothing wrong with it. Oh yeah. You guys didn't have air?
1:05:20
1 hour, 5 minutes, 20 seconds
You didn't have air up until like this last Saturday. No, I still don't have air. Yeah. They're doing it today. They're doing it today.
1:05:26
1 hour, 5 minutes, 26 seconds
You've never had air? [laughter] You see, there's a lot of fans for sale at the hardware store. [laughter] We have window units.
1:05:33
1 hour, 5 minutes, 33 seconds
We have air. We have air here now. Right. We never did. What? about 21.
1:05:39
1 hour, 5 minutes, 39 seconds
I know in the hardware I was running these big barrel fans back in there and you'd sweat like a
1:05:46
1 hour, 5 minutes, 46 seconds
[laughter]
1:05:47
1 hour, 5 minutes, 47 seconds
Oh yeah. First thing you do when you get out of here is go home like I got to shower. This is really old school.
1:05:52
1 hour, 5 minutes, 52 seconds
Oh yeah. It was And and I've noticed now that now that we have the air conditioning, people don't just come in and grab that one tube of and get out. Don't wander around. Now that we
1:06:00
1 hour, 6 minutes
put on better music, [laughter] Right. Right. Wait a minute. The 70s music, our 70s music is better music. Absolutely.
1:06:08
1 hour, 6 minutes, 8 seconds
All right. I like that.
1:06:09
1 hour, 6 minutes, 9 seconds
Absolutely. [laughter] We were playing Led Zeppelin earlier.
1:06:13
1 hour, 6 minutes, 13 seconds
Who goes to a hardware store? Who goes to an Ace Hardware store and listens to Led Zeppelin, right? [laughter] Do you know how many compliments I've actually gotten by people about the music? We'll
1:06:22
1 hour, 6 minutes, 22 seconds
just do Grateful Dead on Saturday or something. People like, "This is amazing." I'm like, "Music. [laughter] I get it." But some people you don't see it anywhere. And the guys that are died they're die hard. They love it.
1:06:32
1 hour, 6 minutes, 32 seconds
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
1:06:33
1 hour, 6 minutes, 33 seconds
Was it Daryl had a guy bringing us um Mahogany Rush stuff? doing some live stuff and I got these DVDs, burned them for everybody, brought them in. I'm like, "Wow, that's really cool." Oh, yeah. Yes.
1:06:41
1 hour, 6 minutes, 41 seconds
I love it. [laughter] The stuff you get at the hardware store. You don't get that at Home Depot. No, you don't get that. I love that.
1:06:49
1 hour, 6 minutes, 49 seconds
But it's also re I might go back to the resources. I think that's all a big piece of it all. You know what I mean?
1:06:54
1 hour, 6 minutes, 54 seconds
Like you have places like this, like the place I was telling you about.
1:06:56
1 hour, 6 minutes, 56 seconds
You I mean, you have like the place that's like a fixer of the community. That's how you're going to find things.
1:07:01
1 hour, 7 minutes, 1 second
That's why like, you know, local a local everybody. If you have people within that pocket that understand it, that makes you more comfortable with getting into projects and doing things.
1:07:09
1 hour, 7 minutes, 9 seconds
Right. Right. Yeah.
1:07:11
1 hour, 7 minutes, 11 seconds
Hardest thing is finding somebody that knows that, that can relay that. Yeah. That's a blessing.
1:07:15
1 hour, 7 minutes, 15 seconds
Yeah. Yeah. I agree. That's I think that's um something that I hope that we are instilling more and more with our
1:07:24
1 hour, 7 minutes, 24 seconds
with our people that are younger um as they're, you know, buying and and selling homes. That's one of the things I really try to be clear about. Going
1:07:33
1 hour, 7 minutes, 33 seconds
back to the 100 plus year old house though, it it does take a different you you do have to have a different attitude about buying a house in Lakewood.
1:07:42
1 hour, 7 minutes, 42 seconds
Yep.
1:07:42
1 hour, 7 minutes, 42 seconds
Um you know, you're not you're I mean, I've seen there there are some amazing renovation jobs. I was down at that $2.4
1:07:50
1 hour, 7 minutes, 50 seconds
million Manuso job on the lakefront and uh showed that right before it got sold.
1:07:56
1 hour, 7 minutes, 56 seconds
And uh it's it's gorgeous. It's one by Roy. The one at the one at the end of web. Oh, okay. The one at the end of web.
1:08:02
1 hour, 8 minutes, 2 seconds
Oh, they took the one that that really modern one.
1:08:04
1 hour, 8 minutes, 4 seconds
Remember the No, no, no. Remember? Yeah, it's modern now, but it was it was just a regular brick house that had the brick
1:08:11
1 hour, 8 minutes, 11 seconds
um front porch, the red deep red brick, and it was facing um web, but it was on the lakefront. So, so like the side of the house faced the lakefront, right?
1:08:21
1 hour, 8 minutes, 21 seconds
Okay. Okay. So, they got that thing and they the couple that bought it renovated it and did this amazing job and then they decided they didn't want to stay.
1:08:30
1 hour, 8 minutes, 30 seconds
They decided to they had other homes and so they decided to to sell it and and so we um I had a client who wanted to go
1:08:37
1 hour, 8 minutes, 37 seconds
take a look at it. So, we did. It was on the market for 2.4 million and it's worth every penny of the 2.4. If you're
1:08:44
1 hour, 8 minutes, 44 seconds
thinking Porsches cost $40,000, um this thing was just absolutely fantastic. But what they did was they just built on
1:08:53
1 hour, 8 minutes, 53 seconds
this large, beautifully designed addition to the house. So when you walked in, you see a lot of the new
1:08:59
1 hour, 8 minutes, 59 seconds
house, but there's a staircase that takes you up into the old house, like where the old bedrooms were. Um, so it
1:09:08
1 hour, 9 minutes, 8 seconds
there's still some of the quaint qualities of of a typical, you know, 2,000 foot Lakewood house. Nice. Um, but
1:09:15
1 hour, 9 minutes, 15 seconds
it had this other great room and this gorgeous kitchen. All of that looked out on onto the lake.
1:09:22
1 hour, 9 minutes, 22 seconds
Um, but it's pretty, you know, that's that's rare, right? That's really really rare in in a city like Lakewood. You know, of course they had all new
1:09:30
1 hour, 9 minutes, 30 seconds
mechanicals and everything about that place was they he showed me the they showed me the, you know, the stripped down version of it when they gutted it
1:09:38
1 hour, 9 minutes, 38 seconds
and so forth. And so they just basically, you know, started from scratch. Um, but it was absolutely gorgeous. and and then um uh but then
1:09:46
1 hour, 9 minutes, 46 seconds
you see you you know that when you're looking at other houses in Lakewood that's not that's not typical. Um there's a lot of nicely done renovations
1:09:55
1 hour, 9 minutes, 55 seconds
here and there. Um but you're still you're buying an older house and you have to know, you know, from basement
1:10:02
1 hour, 10 minutes, 2 seconds
all the way up to the to the roof. Um there's just all there's you know home ownership in Lakewood is is different. Yep.
1:10:09
1 hour, 10 minutes, 9 seconds
It's different from, you know, Avon Lake or Westlake where there's a development, right? Yeah. Yeah. Old Westlake.
1:10:17
1 hour, 10 minutes, 17 seconds
Yeah.
1:10:18
1 hour, 10 minutes, 18 seconds
An older West Lake. They got some nice houses. But what's old there? That's a a brick bungalow was 40s 50s. Yeah, probably.
1:10:26
1 hour, 10 minutes, 26 seconds
Right. Exactly.
1:10:27
1 hour, 10 minutes, 27 seconds
Still a nice house. Yeah. But Yeah. And that was an old house in in uh in places like West Lake. Yeah. your kids, your son and daughter-in-law, they
1:10:35
1 hour, 10 minutes, 35 seconds
just they just took over grandparents house over in River. That was that era, right? 40s for sure.
1:10:42
1 hour, 10 minutes, 42 seconds
Yeah. I never worked on a house like that. Built like that before. So, I found out a lot of neat things when I was working on it. Just Oh, yeah. Because you're a liquid kid. It's rock laugh, not laugh. [clears throat] That's not plastering.
1:10:50
1 hour, 10 minutes, 50 seconds
It's rock laugh and plaster.
1:10:51
1 hour, 10 minutes, 51 seconds
Oh, yeah. Which is Did you have the Did you have the little squares of of uh Yeah. Right. Right. And try to put an outlet in there.
1:10:58
1 hour, 10 minutes, 58 seconds
That's a It's a totally different Everything's different. Oh, yeah. It was a lot of fun.
1:11:03
1 hour, 11 minutes, 3 seconds
Yeah, that's interesting because that's that's Parma plus subfloors where we don't have subfloors here. We're just hardwood on joys, right? Mostly, right? Exactly.
1:11:10
1 hour, 11 minutes, 10 seconds
There's a lot of different things for me to learn.
1:11:12
1 hour, 11 minutes, 12 seconds
Yeah. Yeah, this is fun. That is cool. That is cool.
1:11:16
1 hour, 11 minutes, 16 seconds
Well, guys, anything you want to add before we wrap this up?
1:11:20
1 hour, 11 minutes, 20 seconds
Any little stories? Wanna I don't want to be here all night, right? Okay.
1:11:24
1 hour, 11 minutes, 24 seconds
Well, luckily you live close, but it was Yeah, I could have ridden my bike rode my bike. This was fun. This was fun. It was.
1:11:31
1 hour, 11 minutes, 31 seconds
Yeah. I really appreciate it. It was really good. Learned a lot. Had some fun doing it. Um, guys, this was really
1:11:38
1 hour, 11 minutes, 38 seconds
great. We had Todd Legazinski here from Revolution Mortgage, which I really, really appreciate. One of my go-to
1:11:45
1 hour, 11 minutes, 45 seconds
partners in in lending. We also had John Kanik here from Homemaster um, Inspections. And, uh, John, it's been
1:11:54
1 hour, 11 minutes, 54 seconds
great getting to know you and I'm looking forward to doing some business with you in the future. And we're here at Lakewood Hardware with Glenn Palmer.
1:12:02
1 hour, 12 minutes, 2 seconds
Um, Glenn, Glenn, I wish you'd worn the t-shirt that I like, which was which is the Got Nails. What was it?
1:12:10
1 hour, 12 minutes, 10 seconds
What was it? The There you go. Got nuts.
1:12:14
1 hour, 12 minutes, 14 seconds
[laughter]
1:12:14
1 hour, 12 minutes, 14 seconds
I'm drinking out of it all night. Specifically for that reason.
1:12:19
1 hour, 12 minutes, 19 seconds
I said got nails for a reason. Anyway,
1:12:22
1 hour, 12 minutes, 22 seconds
[laughter]
1:12:24
1 hour, 12 minutes, 24 seconds
and I'm Sott Carpenter with the Carpenter Group at Keller Williams. Thank you for joining us.
