Blind Trust: The Texas Rat Scam

This is episode number 321 of The Homeowner Show. Whether you're DIY or looking to hire, we're here to help you find the best information and options for you and your home. My name is Kevin Hackett, and here with me is Craig Williams.

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to The Homeowner Show. We are so glad that you could join us for another live episode here in the studio. How you doing, Kev?

Man, it's been a day, dude. It's been, it's been good. Been a long day, but, um, you know, we had semifinal baseball game going on with my, my son tonight. You had a quarterfinal game tonight with your son.

Um, we both walked away victorious.

We did. Yes, we did. And, uh, so my son plays tomorrow for the championship, which is, uh, pretty exciting. Or the World Series, as he calls it. And so we got that going on. My daughter just found out that she was accepted. She's in 6th grade. She found out that she was accepted into advanced theater class, which she had to try out for for next year. So that's pretty exciting. Man, a lot of good things going on. And it's the end of the year, so like end of the school year. And man, May's crazy. Are you in that mode? Like May is a little bit crazy or y'all? Y'all don't do school quite the same way as other people, but—

Yeah, I mean, like, this week is actually our last week of school. I don't know if that's the way it is for y'all's.

No, we got a couple weeks.

You got a couple weeks. So yeah, this is our last week of school.

Yeah.

Um, but we're not even gonna be there for like the last couple of days. We're taking off on Wednesday for a family trip. My cousin's getting married. I get to officiate that wedding.

Nice.

Um, so that's gonna be fun. This is one of like the privileges for me is like, one of the elder cousins. I've done most of my family's weddings.

Cool.

And I'm batting, on my family's side, I'm batting 1,000.

Really?

Collectively, I think I'm batting like 750, 800.

Okay, that's pretty good.

Yeah.

I mean, I don't know where I am on that scale. I've done quite a few weddings. I think, I, I think I've only had one that didn't take.

That didn't take?

Yeah. And it didn't take big time. But, um, beyond that, I think, uh, most of them have gone pretty well to this point.

So yeah, I mean, like, you know, like, it's not that you have anything to do with it.

No, no, no, no.

But like, there's a certain amount of pride in that the ones that you've laid hands on, like that.

Oh yeah.

They, they hang in there.

Sure.

Sure. So I love getting to do my family's.

That's so cool.

Because those are the people that I can look in the eye and be like, what the hell's wrong with you? Yeah. So we're excited about that. We're going to go down to Florida. But this is— we can talk a little bit about— we didn't do a trip report on my Phoenix trip, which we may end up doing a later episode just on that.

Yeah, we should.

Because I went down to Grant Cardone's facility in Scottsdale. And, uh, got to hear from his buddy Brandon and like their whole, uh, program that they're doing for small businesses now.

Yeah.

Um, which was interesting. Mm-hmm. Which was interesting. Um, I made a lot of good friends being there. Scottsdale's a cool town. Phoenix is a cool town.

Yeah.

Um, uh, not my favorite town.

Oh yeah.

Um, but a cool town.

Sure.

For sure. I'm glad I got to go visit it. Um, and my wife and I went and did some hiking, so yeah, we, we might do a later episode just about my trip there. Yeah.

Yeah, we should.

Um, you'd appreciate it, dude. Huge pizza town.

Yeah. Well, that alone makes me wanna go.

Yeah.

Because you know me and pizza.

Like, that's— I know you and pizza.

Like my favorite food group.

Yeah. So, so it like, they, they definitely do pizza right there.

I love it.

Um, so anyway, um, they also do golf really well there in Scottsdale.

Yeah. There's some great golf courses around there. So we enjoy doing that.

I'm not a golfer, but we had a, uh, relatively good lunch on a golf course while we were there. So, yeah, we went to the Tonto National Forest.

Interesting.

Which there's a lot of golf around the Tonto National Forest. So anyway, May's just a crazy month. Like, it never used to be, but now it is.

No, I know. In fact, people are calling it like December without Christmas.

Yes. That seems about right.

It feels like that. I mean, because the truth is, I mean, and it, it bleeds over from April a little bit because you've got all these prom things going on.

Yep.

And then it, it pushes into graduation. And the thing is like, you can't just graduate anymore. You have to have a party and it's gotta be like, everybody has their own party.

Mm-hmm.

So you gotta go to all these parties and, you know, on top of that, there's award ceremonies, there's like baseball, you know, the end of, end of baseball's happening for a lot of Little League type teams. Um, man, it, it's just, it's really busy.

So yeah, that's where we're at. It's, it is, it is exactly where we're at, man. And it's nuts. I mean, like, it doesn't seem like it's gonna slow down because it's just gonna get bigger and bigger every year following.

Yeah.

Um, so, well, I mean, like, but like, and you, you and I are kind of in the stage of life where we have a lot of friends and, and family whose life path is on graduation and prom and weddings and things like, well, not where our friends are getting married, but like our friends' kids are getting married and they're graduating from high school or they're graduating from college or like all those different things.

That's never ending for me.

Yeah, I know. So it's going to be interesting to see how that changes moving forward because you and I are, are part of communities where we, like, there's an expectation that we show up. Yep.

Well, not just an expectation that we show up, but we have an expectation on ourselves that we show up.

Yeah.

There's that as well.

For sure. Yeah. No, there's people that we love and that we care about and we wanna show up for them.

That's right.

And, and be there for them and, and actually be a part of these people's lives. Um, you know, so yeah. Anyway, we got a fun episode for you guys tonight. We got some, some scandals to talk about that, uh, I've actually been encountering in my business.

Sure.

That I wanted to make people aware of and in an ongoing effort to make sure that, uh, people are educated, that they're making educated decisions about their homes.

Yeah. Um, but before we do that, but before we get there, we got, we got some sponsors. We do need to talk about our sponsors, so we want to make sure that we do that. We do love our sponsors, and this time we're going to switch it up for a minute.

Okay.

And we're going to start with Crazy Clean.

Let's do it.

Crazy Clean. Look, y'all, I, I I love this product. I am so happy with this product.

You're sold out.

I'm sold out, man. This product has been a game changer in our home. So Crazy Clean, if you don't know, it's just a little device. I don't know what to call it. It's a, it's a device that you put in your toilet tank. It's got no chemicals in it. It is just, um, really comprised of magnets. And what it does is it changes the state of your water. And because of it, it, It takes out some of the harshness of your water that creates those, those water rings that are in your, your toilet tank.

Let's be honest, they look like poop rings.

They do. They absolutely do. And you have to get in there and you gotta scrub them with a pumice stone or you just leave them. I don't know what people do, but we didn't like them. And, you know, my son loves it because he's the one that has to clean the toilets in my house. And he's in there, you know, scrubbing and scrubbing going, Dad, I've been scrubbing and it's not getting clean. Well, that doesn't happen anymore because without chemicals, this thing changes your water state. And in doing so, you don't have to scrub your toilet anymore. So it is an unbelievable product. It doesn't turn your water blue or green or any weird shade of color. And, uh, it just does what it's supposed to do. So, uh, if you're interested in

having a cleaner toilet and not having to scrub it anymore, because those— Look, here's the other thing. I'm— I know I'm going long on this. Here's the thing. Most of the time you do have to scrub, but in the beginning you might think, okay, I got to get rid of those harsh stains before I— this thing's really going to work. Not true. This thing is going to start working whenever you put it in, and within a first couple of weeks you're going to start seeing those, uh, those water deposits go away. And they're going to be easier and easier and easier to clean. I'll tell you, they're completely gone from my toilet and we didn't scrub them. They

just went away. So use them, check it out. They're an inexpensive product. Really, really cool. You can find them at crazyklean.com. That is crazy with a K and clean with a K dot com. Go check them out. Trust me, you'll be glad you did.

Super affordable product to do on your own.

That's right.

So what's the next one?

Next, we're gonna go with Lone Star Appliance Repair.

Lone Star Appliance Repair. Guys, listen, we, we, we hammer on this and we hammer on this and we hammer on this. It's so much cheaper to repair your appliance than it is to replace it. It costs thousands of dollars to sometimes replace your refrigerator, your dishwasher, your oven, your stovetop. You know, and most of the time, A lot of what needs to happen is it just needs to be cleaned. Yep. It just needs a little love.

Yep.

You know, most of the time, that's it. That's it. And, and Lone Star Appliance Repair is here to give the love. That's it. To, to bring your appliance back to life. And as Kevin often points out, a lot of times you have a matching set, and who wants to break up a matching set?

I don't. No. Like, I— look, I'm, I'm a normal person. I'm not any like, oh, it's got to be fancy. I'm not that type of person. But I want my appliances to match.

I don't know.

That's weird. Is that weird of me?

No, not at all.

I don't think so. I mean, look, we enjoy having things like that that match. So when you look, it's just a year later and they change the, the, the way everything looks, right? From year to year to year. So if you don't repair your appliance, you're going to have a mismatch set. It's just what's going to happen.

Yeah. So before you do that, give Lone Star Appliance Repair a call. They're going to either tell you whether or not you need to replace it, or that they can repair it.

That's exactly right.

They're gonna be honest with you. Give them a call. What's the number, Kev?

The number is 936-647-2364.

And last but not least is True Texas Solar and Roofing.

And Roofing.

Because now they do roofs.

They do.

Which just makes total sense. If you're gonna put solar panels on your roof, why not have the same company replace the shingles, the tile, the metal, whatever it is. Let them get you set up with the right solar system. They are a complete energy independence company that can get you not off the grid, but independent from the grid with a whole home battery generator system, solar production on your home, and they're going to do it with an honest heart. This is because Kevin and I know these guys.

Yeah.

And they don't want to do anything to screw you over and make you think that they are charlatans or scammers because they hate charlatans and scammers and want to expose them for what they are. Don't go with an outside team, go with one that's local. And even if you're not in Texas, guys, you can talk to True Texas Solar because they understand the programs that the government are running right now and they can get you set up with the right system for your home or business. They're actually doing a lot of commercial solar production right now.

Do you know what they're doing in East Texas right now?

I don't specifically know. It's super cool.

They've got a project going on in East Texas right now. I don't know actually if I can say much about it, so I'm not gonna tell where it is or what, you know, the specifics of that. But what I am gonna tell you is they're putting in these solar flowers.

Okay.

Have you seen these?

I think so.

So it's like this, looks like a flower. It's like got a stem and it like these solar panels make the petals of the flower and they move with the sun. And if it, like, if it's gonna rain or storm, it knows that because it senses the weather, right? Like from the Wi-Fi, right? Right. And it will close its petals to protect itself.

Interesting.

And these, they're, they're going in in all these commercial spaces because they're kind of neat to look at. And so pretty cool what they, what these guys can do. They have a wide experience level, a wide knowledge base, And so give them a call. Easiest way to get them is to do that, which is 936-286-8325. And they're all— all of these are linked up in our show notes as well. So if you ever forget that number, just check our show notes and they're all there.

Yep. You can find it on YouTube, Facebook, or anywhere you listen to podcasts.

That's right.

So guys, here's the deal. Tonight I am pissed off. Kevin and I were talking a little bit about a little bit before the show. We had a couple other shows that were lined up before this, but this one is just too important to just slink past. We, we had a real estate agent reach out to me earlier this week and tell me about a situation that just boiled my absolute fricking blood. Yeah. And there's, there's actually 2 situations. I'll start off, I'll start, I will start off with the more mild one.

Okay.

Um, the more mild one is a roach situation with a single mom. And this—

Which, first of all, let me just tell you, if you screw over single moms as a contractor, shame on you.

Yes.

Look, they're doing the best they can to begin with. Shame on you.

Shame on you.

Right? Yeah.

So, uh, and I don't know necessarily this is a situation where somebody's getting screwed over.

They are.

I mean, like, yes, they are getting screwed over. I don't know that it is the malintent of the company as much as it is the ignorance of the company.

That's fair.

So just to give them a little bit of grace on this one, but we had a single mom reach out to our business that was struggling with German roaches. And for those of you that don't know or maybe not live in an area that struggles with German roaches, German roaches are classified as a filth roach. And they will get inside your appliances. They will get inside your kitchen cabinets. They will get— and typically anywhere in your house that has a level of humidity is where they like to set up shop.

Okay.

And they're nasty.

They are nasty.

They're just gross.

Yeah.

A lot of times you'll, you'll begin to notice them in your kitchen and bathroom areas because they will leave fecal deposits on your outlets in your kitchen and bathroom. Oh, so like you'll start seeing like black speckling on the outside of your power outlets in those areas. That's, that's a surefire sign that you're actually dealing with it. A lot of times people talk about, well, I turned the lights on in the kitchen and roaches just went scattering.

Yeah.

That's usually a good indication that you're dealing with a filth roach in the kitchen. And typically it's going to be a German roach. This woman called us and what she described, she was dealing with German roaches. And our staff in the office was, was handling it really, really well, asking her questions. And just based off of the conversation that they were having, they, they had high levels of concern that this customer was not being taken care of properly. Okay. Um, because anytime you have an infestation of German roaches, you really have to clean out the entire kitchen. You gotta get everything outta the cabinets.

Um, and why would you not wanna do that anyway? They've been crawling all over everything.

Right.

Yeah.

So, but like the reason you do that is because you want to have whoever's coming to treat them to have full access to everywhere so that they're not having any cross-contamination on your dishes, on your pots and pans, on any other kitchen utensils that you might be using. And, and so, like, it, it's a lot of work on the homeowner even to have this taken care of.

Sure.

So this lady, she's a single mom. She's got a 1-year-old in the house, which, by the way, you don't want pesticides in your house when you have a 1-year-old.

No.

We have a policy at our company that we won't even come inside unless the child is older than Oh, okay. Because it's just not safe. Most 2-year-olds don't have a fully developed liver and kidney. They can't filter out toxins as well as adults can.

Is that true for pets as well? Or is it just—

I don't know about pets. Pets tend to develop a little bit quicker than humans. I don't know specifically when it comes to cats and dogs. I do know that when there's birds and fish in the house, pesticides are just absolute no-stop stop right here. Don't do, because it'll kill every single one of them.

Okay. Um, and dude, I was just FYI, I was at the, uh, the auto parts store the other day. Uh-huh. And dude walks in with a, with a bird on his shoulder.

Oh, nice.

Like a small bird, not like a big bird, but it was a small bird and he was just like chilling, crawling around all over. Yeah. Yeah. Just crawling around. And the guy was just like, is this, you know, he was over there talking to the lady. He was like, what is the difference between this windshield wiper fluid and this windshield wiper fluid? And the bird's just like crawling around anyway. It was just, it was unique. You don't see that very often.

But this is, this is That's something I think most people should be aware of is if you have, if you do have fish and birds in your house and you have pest control people coming by, don't let them in your house unless they've asked you the question, do you have fish and birds? Where are they? Where should I avoid?

Yeah.

Like, because it will absolutely kill them. That's good to know. Not even a question.

That's good to know.

And or make them like severely sick.

Yeah.

Unless you're extremely careful. So anyway, this, this woman had been struggling with German roaches for months.

Okay.

And so my office let me know this was going on. Um, and I decided to take a personal interest in it and went over there and checked it out.

Okay.

Uh, I found them immediately.

Sure.

And know what you're looking for and, and begin to ask lots of questions like, what is the other, what has the previous pest control company been doing? Because she was reaching out to us because the other pest control, pest control company hadn't been performing.

Okay.

Um, And I, you know, just began to ask lots of questions like, what have they been doing? She's like, well, he's mostly been spraying on the outside.

Okay.

Okay. Could I take a look at the invoices to see what they've been doing? I don't want to do anything that's going to counteract anything they've been doing or possibly cause a problem. Let me see what they've been doing.

Right.

So she shows me the invoices and this woman has been paying $145 a visit for this guy to spray on the outside of the home.

Really?

And German roaches aren't even listed on the invoice, which in the state of Texas, if you're spraying for a particular pest, you have to list the pest on the, on, on the invoice.

On the invoice.

Uh, what's the—

That's just so you know, that's a, that's a lot of money.

Yes.

And here's, let me tell you why I know that's a lot of money because I do quarterly pest control.

Right.

And that's almost double what I pay. Maybe not quite. But it's, it's a lot.

I'm trying to think what you pay right now.

I don't know. I think it's like $89.

Something like that. And you pay, you're paying $45 a month. So it's like $100, I guess it's like $130 what you're paying for every 3 months.

Yeah, probably like, yeah. But so whatever it is, it's not that much.

It's not that much.

Yeah.

And, and, but like, you're not even having like a specific problem.

No, I'm not.

And she's paid over the last 3 months, $145 a trip. And, and still not think— things have still not gotten better.

Wow.

Um, and so we begin to ask her, like, have they asked you to clean the cabinets out? No, they haven't asked us to clean the cabinets out. Have they asked you to leave the home? No, they haven't asked us to leave the home. Like, have they sprayed inside? No, they haven't done anything inside. And, and so here's, here's the funny part, man, is I look at the invoice and I see the person who's doing the work And I know the person who's doing the work. It's a friend of mine's son.

Okay.

Who I know hasn't been in the business more than a year.

Okay.

And I'm like, that's a good kid that doesn't know what he's doing.

Sure.

And she tells me that he has to call his boss back at the office to see what they can even do. And I don't know his boss, but like I can tell you based off what he's telling him to do, that they're not going to get the results that they want.

Right.

And so now you have a dissatisfied person that's frustrated, that has a baby, that's concerned about roaches getting on like their bottles and their plates.

Sure.

And all these kinds of things. And so anyway, it wasn't like as much as a deception as much as it was just like an ignorance thing.

Sure.

And here's my— this is my cautionary tale on this. New, new companies come around all the time with great prices.

Sure.

Like, the question to ask is, how long have you been doing this? Like, what's your experience level? Yeah. Like, and that, that's an important question. It doesn't mean that it disqualifies them.

No.

Um, because people, you know, I, I've, I've known people that have been in the industry for 20 years and they break off and they start their own company.

Yep.

and then they start doing their own business, and they have a lot of experience and can pass on a lot of knowledge and, and provide a good service.

Right.

Even though they've been in business for 3 months.

And there also could be someone who takes that a different direction, who you say, how long have you been doing this? And they go, oh, well, I've been doing this for 3 months.

Right.

Okay. That technician has been doing it for 3 months, but how long has the company been in business? Right. What they're, they're, uh, there are other questions that probably need to be asked, but that's a great first question.

100%.

Yeah.

Yeah. And it, it's not rude to ask that question, by the way. I get asked all kinds of questions all the time. None of them bother me anymore.

Yeah.

Mostly because I have the right answer. But here, like, this particular technician wasn't able to solve her problem, not because he was unethical or deceptive, but he hadn't been trained how to deal with this situation. Sure. Most likely. Yeah. You know, this, this is a company that has moved very, very quickly in order to gate— get a lot of new business in our area very quickly. My guess is, is so they can flip it and sell the company pretty quickly. Yeah.

Which, you know, again, there's nothing wrong with that.

Do your thing.

Yeah.

Do your thing. But like, that's, that's not our game.

just be, yeah, it's be aware of what you're, of, of who you're working with.

Right.

Yeah.

So situation number 2, this is when a real estate friend of ours calls and I'm not gonna name her cuz I don't wanna get her in trouble and we're not gonna name the company.

Nope.

Because I don't wanna get sued by them.

Right.

But here's the situation is a real estate friend of ours.

Yes.

Calls me and says, what do you know about rodent resistant insulation.

Okay.

To which I respond, I've never heard of that. I'm not sure it exists. Let me look into it.

Yep.

I began to look into it. So what do I do? I reach out to our friend Steve.

Yeah, he's the expert.

And I say, Steve, what do you know about rodent-resistant insulation? He goes—

How quick did he start laughing at you?

He laughed very quickly.

Because I know Steve. Yeah. And first of all, I know that rodent-resistant insulation does not exist.

Doesn't exist.

No.

Um, so what Steve tells me— Steve Spoon, Victory Insulation, by the way. Um, if you need insulation answers, I, I promise you, like, he is the most knowledgeable guy that I've, I've ever met. And if he doesn't know, he knows the guy to find the answer.

You're right.

Um, he says there are guys who are willing to market insulation as if it were rodent resistant. Most of it is Uh, it has a, uh, it's an acid, boric acid infused into the insulation. And those guys will tell you that rodents don't like the smell of boric acid.

Okay.

Which means nothing.

Sure.

Um, and he goes, so they have that, um, but it doesn't really work. And he goes, the other one's spray foam, closed-cell foam. But he goes, at the end of the day, There.

Yes.

I'm in. That's your cue.

I'm empty.

Okay.

But yes, I'll thank—

I'll raise one for you.

Yes. Thank you. Especially whenever, uh, we're talking about, you know, Steve.

That's right. As well. At the end of the day, they'll just chew through it if they want to. And I was like, I've seen that 100 times. That makes complete sense to me. So then I reach out to an entomologist friend of mine.

Okay.

Who's been in the pest control industry for 35-some-odd years.

All right.

And I said, hey, have you ever heard of rodent-resistant insulation? He goes, no, what the hell is that?

Yeah.

And I'm like, I don't know. That's why I'm calling you because this company has told this woman who's trying to sell this home that they're going to— and she had a mouse problem.

Yes.

And they came in and that's probably a good way to start with it.

That's important.

That is important. Here's, here's the situation. This woman had a mouse problem. Company came in, big company, big multi-state national corporation.

Most of you have heard of this company.

You've all heard of this name, and it's even not— it's not even hard to figure out because most other companies aren't even working in insulation.

Yeah.

Um, so just Google it.

Yeah.

Um, but the company comes in and says, oh, you have a massive rodent infestation. We need to replace all the insulation in your attic. It's gonna cost $7,000.

Which, okay, let, let's stop there for just a moment.

Uh-huh.

In and of itself, what they have just said could be true.

Could be true.

Could be absolutely true. If you've got a rodent infestation, you may have compromised insulation and you may need to get rid of the insulation so that they can mitigate the problem and that you can get in better shape. that is a possibility. So up to this point, I think, okay, worth considering, right?

So, and carry on. Yeah, no, so like there are several diseases that you can get from rodent feces. Sure. Let me, let me just put that out front. Like if you have a bad enough infestation, that, that's a legitimate fear that you can have. I think it was like Gene Hackman that recently passed away. They found that like, I think his wife died of either like hantavirus or runtavirus, something like that. That's like, you contract that from rodent feces.

Okay.

Um, which that was like the big scandal with him passing away.

Oh, really?

I don't know if you—

I did not know that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, so I think it was the hantavirus that she had, and it may have been that he contracted it from her. I don't remember the situation, but there was something to do in the whole scandal Of the Hackman dual deceasement that happened there.

Okay.

Anyway, coming coming back to this, the big company comes in and says she called them because she had mice in the garage.

Okay.

And they came in and said your attic is infested. We need to replace all of the insulation, and we need to replace it with rodent-resistant insulation.

Ding ding ding ding ding ding ding.

Right?

All of a sudden, that should make you go, I— but again, it, it, it should, but like, it should, it should at least make you question something in my mind.

Right.

Now, maybe not everybody's mind because I'm probably a little more aware of certain things, uh, insulation being one of them. I've talked to Steve a lot, but nevertheless, this is what they told her.

But like, here's, here's the problem is this woman is needing to sell her home.

Yeah.

So there's a certain amount of downward pressure on, on the situation.

Sure.

Um, so that, that's important to keep in mind. Um, and, and so they tell her it's going to be $7,000. She tells them she doesn't have $7,000. They said, that's not, that's not a problem. We can finance you for you, finance it for you. It's going to be $9,000.

Oh, $2,000 for financing?

Yep.

Uh, no, okay, $2,000 for financing, everything's relative. $2,000 for financing on $7,000, that's a lot of money.

That's a lot of money. Yeah, it's a lot of money.

I mean, $2,000 on financing on a million-dollar home, oh great, right? I'll buy 7.

I'll do it. Yeah, all day long. All day.

Yeah.

So, um, so anyway, she agrees. They come in and replace the insulation. Well, 4 weeks later, she reaches out to them. And also, just to be understanding, like, my— our friend in real estate was deathly ill at the time that this is all going on. So she actually does try to call the real estate agent. Real estate agent can't answer the phone because she's just deathly ill.

Right.

What happens is because she can't reach her, she goes with the answer from the big company.

Because she doesn't know the difference. Because at this point, she's—

in her mind, big companies should be trusted.

Right. And, and not only should they be trusted, she's in a pinch.

Yes.

She's gotta get something done.

In her mind, she's in a pinch.

Right. She thinks that she's in a pinch because she's been told she's in a pinch. Right. Right. It's like, it's like the guy from O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Yes.

Damn, I'm in a tight spot.

I'm in a tight spot. Yeah, right.

She thinks she's in a tight spot.

So, um, but here's, here's the problem. There's, there's many problems with this. And you and I, just, just by, just off of the brief amount of information that I've conveyed to you, you've already recognized that there's, there's a problem.

Yeah, there's, there's, well, there's 2 things that I see as a problem. Number one, um, I understand rodents enough to know that if they want to eat through it, they're going to.

Right.

I've, I've had, I've seen rodents eat through wiring in a car.

Mm-hmm.

I've seen them eat through wiring in, in, in homes. If they can—

Cars are actually becoming more common than you would think.

Uh, yeah, it's crazy.

Oh, wait. And here's, here's the thing. And I think people need to understand about rodents. A lot of this wire sheathing, in order to save money, they're making it out of soy, which is— Sounds delicious.

I was gonna say, it sounds delicious.

To them.

Because I, well, I like soy.

Yeah, sure.

I'm not gonna eat through wiring, but I do find soy delicious. It is.

It's quite yummy.

Yeah.

And so like when we come across this many times, people are like, why are they eating the wires? It's like, well, I mean, they're probably trying to save money by sheathing the wire with soy.

Yeah.

It's the same thing with, um, PEX.

Okay.

Cheaper, cheaper PEX.

Yeah.

And like, don't quote me on this, but like from what I've heard is cheaper PEX is being made with soy.

Interesting. Uh, well, so I, that's the one thing that I find a little bit alarming is that they're saying that something is, is what it is, that, that they're, that they're saying that something is rodent-proof. And I just know that rodents will eat through almost anything to get to what they want to get to. And that's the one problem. The second problem I find just off the bat, and I understand the real estate agent is unavailable. Great. I get that. That happens. Always. Will you— how— I do not know how many times you have heard us say, get multiple opinions. She could have and should have consulted at least one other company, probably 2 other companies. Getting, getting

3 bids is probably smart every single time. Now, I will tell you that in the world that we live in, sometimes it's hard to get contractors to answer their phone.

Yes.

I get that. And it's, it's really dumb. You contractors out there that are listening, because I know you're listening to our show, answer your daggum phone. I promise you, you will find that you will close more deals if you just answer your phone because people are calling other people and they're not answering theirs. If you answer your phone, they're probably going to hire you. So answer your daggum phone. That's a little side bit.

Yeah.

For what it's worth.

Yeah.

So those are the first 2 things I see. I see a rodent issue that seems odd. And I think that she should have contacted at least 1 or 2 other companies. Yeah.

So, I mean, like, I just did like a brief search on PEX. Is it made of soy? And it says it's not made of soy.

Okay, good.

Which is good.

Yeah.

But like, it's not stopping rodents from chewing through it.

Sure. Because rodents will chew through whatever they need to to get to where they wanna go.

PEX is nice and soft. Rodents have to chew. Yeah, it's just there.

It is.

So just, just be aware of that. Okay, so, so getting back to this, to this story, um, woman ends up agreeing to pay the $7,000 plus the $2,000 for financing. Um, so much money to solve her rodent problem. A good— not a good, but like a key aspect of this story to understand is that the woman is blind. What? Yeah.

So, oh, oh my God. Okay. Just a minute.

Mm-hmm.

What? Yeah. So, okay.

So she has no, no, she has no way to confirm.

That's what I would do first.

Yeah.

If, look, if Steve comes over to my house or you come over to my house or anybody comes over to my house and says, Hey, Kevin, you got a problem with your insulation. I'm gonna go, let me look.

Right.

She can't look.

She can't look.

So she has no idea.

She has no choice but to trust what they're telling her.

So this person, at, at, at very minimum, could be taken advantage of.

Yeah.

Could be. I'm not saying she is yet. She is. But very likely, Oh my gosh.

Yeah. So this is, this is, this is the problem, right?

Yeah.

Is you, and, and like, here's, here's the thing to understand is when I'm, when I'm talking to my real estate friend, I'm like, it was a mouse problem. I mean, like we could have taken care of that for less than $200. Most likely.

Most likely.

Most likely. I don't have my—

You could have.

I, I don't have my eyeballs on it.

Right.

But like, right, in, in the aggregate, I know that most mouse problems can be taken care of for less than $200.

Right.

It's, it's not difficult, especially when you're in a time crunch and when you have a real estate deal on the line. You just need somebody that's gonna come in and say, I can take care of this for you.

Yeah. And, and honestly, that's really inexpensive considering this person that we talked about earlier.

Oh, road jobs can be vastly expensive. I mean, like, ridiculously expensive. I mean, they, they allowed me to have my best month in company history last month. I mean, like, it, it, I mean, like, it just is what it is. When it's bad, it's bad.

Yeah.

And then it, you're, like, look, just expect to pay a lot of money because it's gross and it's nasty and it's gonna cause a lot of work and it's gonna cause, you know, my employees to have to use a lot of PPE. And you, you're just gonna have to be okay with that because one, like it's dangerous work. Two, we're gonna get results.

Yeah.

Uh, and so, but in a situation like this where you tell, you tell me you have a mouse in the garage, like I'm gonna investigate, but I have tools in my, in my box that it's like, okay, we can solve this in like 5 minutes.

Yeah. And oh, by the way, if the The insulation needs to be removed and replaced.

It doesn't need to be all of it.

No. Most likely. Well, well, tell me why.

Tell me why. Because you can, you can replace, you, I mean, mice typically move 20 feet their entire lives.

Okay.

And so you can, you can usually identify where they've been pooping and crapping and peeing.

Mm-hmm.

Oh, you know, they're over their time in the, in the attic.

And they're probably gonna be in a central area. Yes. Wherever that central area is, over a bedroom, over the kitchen. Probably over the kitchen, maybe the laundry room.

Yeah. So, I mean, it's a place where they can easily get to food. Yes.

Yeah.

And so, like, you can just remove that insulation and then replace it. And it's going to be cheap.

Especially if you're trying to sell the home. Now, look, I'm not trying to tell you to go out there and screw the people that are going to buy your home from you.

No.

But if you're trying to sell a home and you're trying to make the most on your home as possible, you don't have to do everything for the other person.

Nope.

You just don't.

You don't.

And I, and you can, like, ethically and morally do that.

Do the right thing.

Yes.

At a lower cost.

Yes.

And, and still get that house sold.

Right.

So, like, she, she's gonna be out 9 grand when that house sells off of whatever she ends up getting her equity out of that house in.

That's terrible.

So, and it, it gets better.

Oh, we're not done?

No, we're not done.

Oh.

Um, so they replaced the insulation.

Okay.

Um, with this rodent-resistant insulation.

Sure.

That doesn't exist.

Right.

Um, and, and she still has mice in her garage.

Because they— do you tell me they didn't even mitigate the problem?

No.

What?

No. So she reaches out to the company and she says, hey, I still have mice in my garage. I just spent $9,000. What the hell?

Fix it.

Yeah. Their response is, oh, you live next to a field and we can't control your neighbors. You're probably just always going to have mice in that house.

Uh-uh.

Yes.

What?

Yes. Now look, here's the thing. If you spend 9 grand with my company and you call me and you say, hey, the problem that you said that you were going to solve by spending 9 grand is not solved.

I'm dropping my sprayer and I'm getting over to your house.

I'm going to your house and I'm dropping the A-bomb.

Right.

Whatever that is.

Whatever it is.

On your house in order to solve your problem.

Yeah.

Because the last thing that I need having said about my company is that you spent 9 grand and nothing got better.

Yeah.

That's the worst thing you can, you can say. And, and, and so the real estate agent is pissed.

Well, of course.

The homeowner is pissed. Sure. And we're pissed.

Uh-huh.

And can't say the name of the company.

Right.

Um, DM us. I'll be happy to tell you.

Right. Just, we're not going to do it on public That's right.

I'll, I'll, I'll release it a letter at a time.

Right.

Over a semester. That way you can, you can prove nothing. Right. Um, but it's, it's one of the, look, you've, you've seen commercials from this company, you know this company, and here's the thing that I know is insulation is a high ticket, high, um, commission job.

Sure.

And so like, most likely this person saw an opportunity with a disabled person to get a high commission ticket without having anybody look behind him and say, is what you're doing was the truth? Is what you're doing the best option?

I hate that.

He saw a person in a difficult position and offered them a solution that was going to give him a big paycheck at the end of the month. Um, and this is, this is why you and I started this show.

That's it. This is like the perfect classic example of why.

So that we can tell these kinds of cautionary tales and let people know, like, look, one of the best things and one of the most annoying things that you can do for yourself as a homeowner is to get 2 or 3 opinions. Yeah. I mean, be— because had this person called me, they would've had a vastly different conversation. Mm-hmm. Um, because I'm genuinely not interested in writing them the massive ticket. I'm interested in solving their problem.

Right.

And how can I do it that's gonna serve you best?

Right.

Because there's, there's a, there's a big difference between me solving your rodent problem and me solving your rodent problem as you're trying to sell your house.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

And, and also, I, I'll just say this, the, the, the people that are out there doing things well, the, the reason they're doing things well is because they understand that if you, if you come in and solve someone's problem, then you become their problem solver.

Yes.

For a while until you stop solving problems.

Not, not just their, not just their problem solver, but their truth teller.

That's it.

That, that, that, I think that, I think that one's actually way more important.

Sure. I can see that.

You know, and, and like you and I were watching a video from this charlatan earlier tonight that I was showing you that was—

I think we're gonna have to expose that too.

I, I don't know how to do that.

I, I think we can expose it without naming the person as well.

I, because we can't show the video because—

No.

It's like his logo's in it.

And I can't, and I can't reenact any of it.

No. I mean, like the sh— long, long story short, we, I had a, I had a client reach out to me. It was like, hey, I think this guy's like trying to like scare me into treating my house for termites. And like, what are you talking about? And he's like, well, could you come out and inspect my home? And I went out and inspected his home. His home looks fine. And he, he shares with me these videos from this other company that is using like academic language and scientific language, which is not wrong. He's— the things that he's saying are not wrong. But he's using them in order to amp up the fear factor of the customer into treating his house for termites, which in our industry

is one of the most expensive treatments that you can get.

Sure.

And he's, he's using like scare tactics and, and cheap tricks in order to make this guy think that his house is infested with termites.

Right.

Or that it will be very, very, very soon. And I'm watching the video. I'm like, this is malarkey, right?

At best. Yeah. No, it's, it's one of those things where anytime, and this goes back to, again, exactly what we're talking about. The reason we're having this conversation. If you don't have a contractor that can talk to you in a way that you understand, find someone else.

Yeah. Because that's someone that's trying to manipulate you.

That's right. industry-specific language is dangerous. It's dangerous only whenever— because you don't know what they're talking about.

Right.

It may be true, it may be accurate, it may be exactly what you need in the long run, but I'll tell you right now, I mean, this is, this is the case in so many industries. The metric should be, um, success.

Right.

Show me what success looks like. Here's Here's what that guy could have done. He could have gone in there. Let's say that, let's say there was actual termite problem, which there's not, but let's say there was. This guy could have gone in and goes, look, you have a termite problem right here and I can fix it. Right. That's all that the customer really cares about.

Which was not even on the table for this particular client. Client didn't have termite problems.

Which is why he does what he does. If, if there is a contractor that comes to you and says yada, yada, yada, yada, yada, and you don't understand any of it, run because they're trying to scam you. They're trying to fearmonger you into doing something.

Do you remember his opening volley in the video?

Remind me.

He goes, let me educate you. Oh yeah.

Yeah, because you're obviously a moron.

Yes.

You have no clue what you're talking about. Let me, the expert, tell you exactly what you don't know.

Yeah, no, that's exactly what charlatans do, is they try and convince you that you're stupid and that they're smart and that they need to tell you everything that they know, that the secret, the secret knowledge that they have. And it's like, no, like any idiot can see that they have a termite problem, right? Legitimately, like you can tell because like all of a sudden you'll have swarmers on the inside of it, or there's, there's a mud tube on the outside of your house. And, and like, these are not difficult things to, to show, to determine.

Yep. Right.

And, but like this person comes along and says, let me educate you, educate you about how dangerous of a situation that you've put yourself in by buying this house.

That's right.

And it's like, look, let me ask you, holy hell.

Yeah. Let me ask you this question. Are you smarter than I am? Me? Yes.

I don't know.

Right. You might be, but I guarantee you're smarter than I am when it comes to pest control.

Probably. And they're on that particular topic.

That's the thing. Like, when someone walks up to you and says, let me educate you about something. Look, I would love for you, Craig, the expert on pest control, to help educate me what I need to know. What I don't need you to do is speak to me as if I'm a moron.

Right.

Which is what this guy was doing.

Yeah.

He was speaking to someone as if they were a moron. Not only did he speak to them as if they were a moron, he did it in a format that they couldn't respond.

Yes.

He sent him a video, and oh, by the way, there were 4 of them.

Well, he had to break it up because it was text messages. Oh, well, I don't care!

Like, there were 4 different messages! Well, let's—

I mean, let's just be fair. I mean, like, there are limitations as to the amount of data. I don't care. Like, they make you do— they make you do that.

This is dumb. I get— I get the point.

Yeah, yeah.

My point is that he— like, how do I even respond to that?

You can't.

You can't!

Other than to say, oh, come please save my home.

Right. Or let's go get another opinion, which is exactly what this person did. And it's exactly why you can step in and go, look, let me explain, yada, yada, yada. But I yada, yada'd in a language that you can understand. Yeah. And all of a sudden, I got the job and he didn't.

But which is—

there's no job.

Which is exactly what happened. Sure. I now have that client as a trusted client.

That's right.

And because you're a truth teller, he gets nothing.

That's right.

And I, I get everything else.

Yep.

Because this guy decided to be smarmy.

That's it. I— look, y'all, we— there are people out there that are honest, good people that do crappy work.

Mhm.

There, there are. And yet, um, there are plenty of others out there that are horrible at what they do, and they come across looking like the best, most smart, most unbelievably professional person on the planet, and they're not. So somewhere in the middle is where you need to find your right person.

Your person.

Your person. Call the people and look, if you— I'll just tell you, if you find people that don't answer their phone—

But like, this is the thing that's important is this isn't just like pest control. This is plumbing. Exactly. This is electrical.

Yes.

This— all, all the things on your lawn. I mean, all those things. I mean, like, because there's people that are willing to just run a line of bull up your backside and tell you that they're smarter than you and that they know better than you. And like, that's fine. Check them out.

That's right.

Back, like, run their invoices against other companies. And this, to me, this is the most powerful thing. If you are even slightly suspicious, pull up those invoices and let other companies look at those invoices and, and look and see what they're doing versus what they might be doing. Like, this is key.

Yeah, it is.

You know, particularly in our industry, because I can look and see, like, what chemicals they're using, what applications that they're using, what target pests they're going after. This is how I solved the problem for the single mom is because I was looking at it going like, They don't even list German roaches on the invoice as a target pest, which you're legally obligated to do by the state if that's what you're going after. And they're telling you that's what they're going after, but here's what it says on the invoice. And so if you ever complain and you go to the state and you tell them like, hey, this company said this, they did this, and they didn't solve my problem, they're going to be able to go back to the state and say,

yeah, but look at the invoice. The invoice says this.

Yeah.

We weren't even going after German roaches. We were doing this. And she can't tell you whether or not those things were in the house. She's complaining about this. Well, that's just— she crazy. You know?

Yeah.

And that's the game that gets played.

It is. Yeah. And again, we don't have all the answers, y'all. What we do have is a little bit of understanding of the system. And so our our goal in having these conversations is just to help you understand that you can own your home in a smart way.

Mm-hmm.

You can own your home in, uh, a way that doesn't cost you tons and tons of money, and you can own your home, uh, in a way that you feel confident. And so finding the right people, they are out there. I promise they are out there. You just gotta look sometimes. So The other thing I would tell you this, once you find the people that are doing it really well, go give them reviews on Google.

Oh yeah.

Go give them reviews on Facebook. Go give them reviews on Yelp. Go give them reviews on your personal Facebook page. Like, do the things that you can to build those companies up because they need it. They deserve it. And those are the types of people we want in our economy. Those are the people that are, you know, these big companies that are making beaucoup of money already. They don't need your $9,000. They don't. No, they, they're not going to go under if they don't get your $9,000, but the right person will probably do the job, do it the right way, do it for a lot less money. So there's my story.

Yep. Yep. Good stuff, man. Anything else tonight?

No, I think we're good, man. Thank you, uh, all for staying up with us late. It is crossing over to the midnight mark really quickly here in Central Texas. So Uh, thank you so much for, uh, being with us, for hanging out with us. If you haven't already, please like and subscribe to all of our channels on Facebook, on YouTube. Leave us a 5-star rating and review on, uh, Apple Podcasts or anywhere where you listen to us. We thank you so much. Appreciate you. We're here every week. Until next time, we'll see you later.

See ya.