Home Repairs, Insurance, and Financing

It's the Homeowner Show. Whether you're DIY or looking to hire, we're here to bring you the best information and options for you and your home. My name is Craig Williams. I am doing the show without Kevin. Well, he just didn't show up. That's fine. How's everybody doing tonight? We're, we're out here at Moonshine Deck. And it's going to be a good night. So glad everybody could join us. Hey everybody, we're out here with the net. If you can hear, it's noisy because there are a lot of people here, out here networking, visiting with one another, making deals. Business is happening. So, and I got one of the biggest dealmakers with me right now, David McGuffin, Space City Payments. How you doing, bud? Doing well.

How are you?

Pull that thing a little bit closer, bud.

How's that?

Better?

I think so. Can you, can you hear him okay? We got, we got Rizzler sitting back there behind the controls. Uh, you actually, you actually get to be on camera tonight.

So, been a while. Yeah, man.

You doing okay?

Doing great.

Yeah. A little, dude, like put it, can you hear yourself?

Yeah, I can hear myself.

Okay.

There we go. Is that better?

Yeah.

Well, he's, he's, he's adjusting you. Okay. So what's been going on, man?

Nothing much, man. It's that time of the year where I'm busy and, you know, business owners take a look at their, their statements and their financials. That first week of January and they go, I paid how much in credit card?

Everybody's looking at budget.

And then, or they look and say, well, my business has been stagnant for the last year, 2 years. What can we do to help it grow?

Yeah.

Well, what if we offer financing?

Yeah.

I'll be getting those calls.

So a lot of, a lot of homeowners will ultimately end up engaging with you because there's, there's businesses like mine that will use guys like you in order to make the hit of a big project Less hurty.

Yeah. Yeah. And it makes it affordable.

Right.

You know, when you, when you sell a deal like that and, you know, you're looking at the, you know, people look at the overall price, but they're also looking at that monthly payment. You know, what are we paying per month? You know, we know what our mortgage is every month. We know what our car payment is every month. You know, you know how much you have left over, so you know what you can afford. So, you know, a lot of people don't want to spend that cash when they can put it in some investments and continue that cash to grow and just pay that monthly fee. Because sometimes their growth of their investments is more than what the

interest rate is on a, on a short-term loan, especially if you're offering, you know, 0% for 12-month type loan. Right.

So yeah, you know, well, and I, I heard there was a bit of a shakeup in the auto industry with you guys, right?

Or financing. Yes.

Well, not with you.

Well, not, not with me.

Right.

Thank— thankfully. But Snap Finance and Easy Pay both lost their backing banks, so they can no longer fund auto repairs. So auto shops are starting to scramble now, looking for other alternatives. I mean, and there's some out there. I happen to have, you know, a great program for auto repair shops and transmission shops, anything related to that. Yeah, we can do, you know, 0%, same as cash for 12 months. We, you know, we've got— we can go down to subprime credit. We even have no credit needed options, you know, for, for auto repair shops. Yeah, you know, we pretty much cover the gamut when it comes to being able to finance anything.

Is, is there a reason those guys lost their ability to finance those things? Or do you even know?

I don't even know. I just know that, you know, as of end of November, Snap Finance and Easy Finance, Easy Pay, and I believe they had the same backing banks for both of them, those backing banks said they're no longer gonna fund auto repairs.

That just seems weird to me. I mean, like, because auto repair seems like such a solid investment as far as like lending goes. I mean, like, most could be because people need their car in order to get to work or like, Like, people like me, like, I have to have a vehicle in order for work to get done.

Yeah. Well, you have to have several vehicles for work.

I don't want to brag, but yeah, you know, you're absolutely right. I mean, but like, I mean, like, especially as, here's the thing is I know that automotive prices, like for a new car, crazy inflated still.

Oh yeah.

Like, I know that they're inflated and there's like a, I don't want to get like all conspiracy theory on it, but like, I know that there is a collective effort amongst the auto sales people to keep the prices up because their margins are so high and they want to keep them high. And the market, but because of that, there's a high demand on used cars, which is driving the price up on those.

Yep. They've been used, the used car market ever since COVID has been outrageous.

Yeah. So like auto repair to me seems like a solid investment For a lender to be like, well, yeah, people are gonna want to get their used cars worked on more, so we ought to be able to lend. That's a solid investment because they're not spending money on new cars as much.

Well, you know, in my world, that's, you know, Snap and Easy Pay's loss. But yeah, I've got, you know, like I said, I've, you know, I represent 2 different lenders. Both of them have 35+ direct lenders.

Yeah.

So we have options.

Right.

And one of my lenders that I deal with, You know, we have a lender that loves auto repairs. So we can do, we can do the, you know, 550 credit score.

Right.

You know, which, you know, if you look at Synchrony and some of the others that are out there, they only go down to a 650, you know, 620.

As far as like a credit score?

Yeah. Yeah. Some of them can go down to a 625, but what about that single mother of 3 that needs her car to get to work? You know, that just recently went through a divorce, her credit took a hit and she's got a 580 credit score. How's she gonna— how's she gonna get her car fixed?

Yeah.

You know, short of, you know, trying to borrow money from family or friends. Yeah. With the programs like I offer, she can get her car fixed, reasonable interest rate, and, and be on her way again, you know, with a manageable monthly payment.

So really what you need is like, you need, you need all the local auto shops to— because they've, they've lost a lot of their financing ability if they were using these other companies, they need to reach out to you. So you can get them into a, an affordable system where they can, where they can get their clients taken care of for the big repairs.

Exactly.

Yeah.

And it's not just auto, auto repair we do either. I mean, I've got, I mean, we, we, we, we offer financing for attorneys.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Digital marketing agencies, you know, so it's not just for like home services or auto repair. Right. You know, it's basically anybody that's got a, you know, that their average ticket or high tickets are $1,000 and more. You know, people wanna be able to finance that stuff.

Yeah.

Well, I mean, and, and, and to be like very transparent, I mean, like we use you.

Yes.

And like, because one of our biggest ticket items is mosquito misting systems.

Yep.

All right. Which is a, I mean, it, it's a luxury for sure. Yeah. But like they're expensive and like most people just aren't ready or, or have the cash on hand that they wanna spend, you know, between $3,000 and $6,000 to do mosquito control.

Well, you know, you can put it, you know, hand in hand when you're going out to treat somebody's house, you know, doing their, doing their, you know, bimonthly or biquart— you know, their quarterly treatment, you know, say, hey, you know, it's getting ready to come mosquito season, you know, have you thought about a mosquito misting system?

Right.

We offer financing on these. Yeah. So that's, you know, an affordable monthly payment. You know, we can even do, you know, the 0%, you know, same, same as cash, you know, 6, 12, 18 months.

Yeah.

And a lot of people will move on that because they like to enjoy their backyards in this, in the summertime.

For sure. So we, we, I'm getting the wrap-up sign from Sarah over here because we got the next, next guest. But have you, before you go, have you heard about the buy now pay later stuff that's going on?

Oh, like Klarna and—

yeah, yeah, yeah.

You know, what is it, Uplift or something like—

yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you have any thoughts on that?

It's just another way of saying financing.

Is it something that you do?

Well, that's basically what financing is. You buy now, you pay later.

Well, yeah, but this is different though, right? I mean, like where they are, it's like buy now and then start paying like 6 months later, but then that's when the real interest rate kicks in.

Yeah, they're a much higher interest rate than traditional finance.

That's the thing.

They're limited by law how high they can go.

Yes.

But you know, they're, they're gonna be the highest they can possibly get.

Uh-huh.

You know, and you don't see people with 800 or 850 credit scores doing buy now, pay laters usually.

I, I heard somebody talking about payday advance, like these, these paycheck advance companies, like they, they don't fall under the same regulations. And sometimes those guys are charging upwards of like 400%.

It's basically loan sharking.

Yes. It's crazy, man. Like, I can't imagine.

Yeah. Well, you know, business owners, you need to be able to go through somebody that, you know, is trustworthy, that, you know, has a portfolio that they can show you. Like, you know, one of the companies I represent, we do, you know, Windows by Andersen. We have Meineke, we have AMCO Transmissions, you know, so, you know, we've got a lot of big names behind, you know, some of the, the, the lenders that we use. Right, right.

So, all right, so real quick, if people want to get a hold of you, how do they do that?

Well, they can reach me at 737-932-2160, or they can email me at david@spacecitypayments.com, or just go on my website and fill out the contact form.

Fantastic. So, dude, thank you so much for sitting down.

Thanks for having me, dude.

Yeah, this is nice. We're like, we're like, we're close. Yeah, yeah. All right guys, while he's swapping out, I wanna make sure and thank the sponsor for this episode, Lone Star Appliance Repair. Uh, if you ever need an appliance repaired and you are in the North Houston area, they are the go-to company. We use them all the time at my own home. Uh, they even saved my life one time by finding a gas leak in my dryer. Uh, if you need to get ahold of them, you can reach them at 936-647-2364. Again, that is 936. 647-2364. And you can even text them day or night and they will get you on the schedule and make sure that your appliances are well cared for and repaired. They'll also do a lot of maintenance

on your appliances. We had to get them out to clean our dryer because— I mean, not our dryer, our washing machine. I don't know if you guys even know this, but like your washing machine can be rather stinky and they offer a cleaning service for that. Make sure your washing machine lasts a little bit longer and your clothes don't get as funky. Again, give 'em a call, 936-647-2364. All right, we have the incomparable Paul the Plumber. How you doing, man?

I'm doing good.

I'm glad you got my, my official request to come sit down with me.

I sure did.

I really, I wanted to find out how tired you are.

I'm worn out.

You, I bet you you've been just running the gauntlet for like the last 2 weeks.

Well, it was, it's nowhere near as bad as 2021.

Sure.

Most people were prepared this time.

At least a little more prepared.

A little more prepared.

Yeah.

Uh, it's not bad. I'm, I'm kind of down a guy right now.

Okay.

So I'm, I'm running and gunning on top of all that.

I mean, just for context, people watching the show, I mean, cause like there's a lot of people that watch it from not in Texas. I mean, like, we had a massive freeze. Not a massive freeze. It was, it was for Texas. It was a massive freeze.

This last one? Yeah, I would say for us Texans.

Yes.

I mean, because it got like down to like 15.

Yeah. And the one in 2021 was of biblical proportions.

Yeah, that was us.

And they just don't build houses the way they do up north. No, it's the codes are not the same. Different region, different climates.

Yeah.

And yeah, there's, uh, some things we could learn from our brothers from up north. Most of my customers that were from like Minnesota and—

They're like, what the heck?

The Dakotas. When the freeze came in 2021, they were schooling me.

Uh-huh.

And I, I said, man, if I ever start a podcast, I would like to invite you to, but I'm nothing like you, Craig. You are the podcast king. So I had a—

No, I mean, but you could probably do really well. I mean, just talking about the weird stuff that you see. I mean, like really, I mean, like. I, I, I'm a big proponent of like, everybody at least ought to dip their toe in the podcast. I mean, 'cause everybody's got interesting stuff to say. I like the, the whole thing with this show is I have next to nothing interesting to say. I just talk to interesting people and I'm good at asking questions.

Yes, you are.

So it's, so that, that, that's what makes the show interesting is, is guys like you. I mean, 'cause you've, you've had an interesting experience through some unique situations.

Very unique.

Yeah. Very unique.

Any hour of night Over the last 32 years, I've been out at every hour of the night. You could just say 3:13 AM.

Oh, okay.

I've been called out at 3:13 AM.

How, how do you, um, real quick, how do you guys, I mean, I'm, I'm interested, like, just from a business perspective, how you guys manage that?

Well, at this point in my life, when we started business 5 years ago, that was one thing for me to start a business. I don't at the time provide, this time provide a 24-hour service.

Right.

I'm there. I'm trying to help where I can and when I can.

But—

I mean, it's like, are you keeping like a cell phone by the bedside table?

Uh, it's not like that anymore, but that's the way it used to be. I mean, literally, I do work for a doctor and a doctor's like, man, you're more busier than I am.

Yeah.

And it's like, I don't know, my pager goes off. It goes off all the time back then.

Yeah.

But I worked for people that we provided that service at that time for that company.

Yeah.

But it's my, Advancing age, it's a little harder to get up at 2:30 in the morning. I've been out in business at 10, 12, 4 o'clock in the morning, any holiday since we started 5 years ago. And pretty much any evening I could go out, but it's never— a lot of times we get isolated for a residential, a residential customer.

Yeah.

They got 4 toilets, one's not working. They know how to turn the water off, right? If, if I have to go in there and turn the water off, or, or before the freeze, people were trying to get prepped back up a little bit. I'll give you a perfect example. They were trying to get prepped for this freeze and they were breaking stuff 3 or 4 days before, like hose bibs, breaking them off in the brick in the wall. Oh God, I would just go cap it off. And I still haven't got to those customers yet.

Oh my gosh.

I've got a list of about 10 customers we need to get to.

Okay. So We do a little bit of this. It's not plumbing, but do you guys offer like prep services? I mean, like to kind of get your home ready for, like, if you see like a storm coming?

We could do some winterizing, but it's, every case is different. Sure. It's, it's, you know, some people have no insulation, so it's hard. We prep your backflow preventer for your irrigation. I could do that with some dry towels, a screwdriver, and Garbage bag.

Right.

And I can do that and you, it ain't gonna break. But like in the wall, the exterior walls, uh-huh, post-freezes here, that's what you have to worry about.

Exterior walls.

Yeah.

And some stuff closer to the edge, maybe a little bit in the attic. Uh-huh. But most of it's exterior wall. PVC is worse.

Yeah.

CPVC and C— and PVC are the worst. Yeah. They break easy. Copper's the next.

Mm-hmm.

Galvanized, if it's old, It won't split, but if there's a bad spot, it'll start dripping.

Yeah.

Okay. PEX, I will, I'm on the bandwagon for PEX. Out of all those calls we got in 2021, we probably took 1,200 calls for a 2-truck operation in 2021. We were only able to help about 200 families and it was a first come, first serve. And this freeze, we probably took 50 calls. And most people, you're able to— we've been around, we're able to help because they'll wait, they'll wait for us. I'll go over there and cap it off.

Yeah.

Isolate it. Get them one restroom and a kitchen maybe.

And, you know, just get them up and running again.

Get them up and running again and say, look, we'll come back. Call us back. We'll come back, get you running. That way you don't have to worry about it. Yeah. But nowhere near as bad. Most people were prepped and ready to go, which was great.

Yeah. So like we, we do, winterization for misting systems because they're all outside, you know, and it's, it's a pretty simple process, but like you actually have to like be prepared and do it before the cold weather comes. Well, you know, as well as I do, most people's idea of preparation is like day before.

Yeah.

And so like the, what was supposed to be the day before the freeze ended up being the freeze. And so Like most of the people, by the time we got to them, their stuff was already frozen.

Right.

And it's like, all we can do is just like pull it out and thaw it out and hope it, hope it survives. It's like, you know.

Well, the funny thing about this freeze, I didn't see as much widespread stuff, outdoor stuff, hose bibs. I cut stuff out because they knew it was frozen and stuff. And there was still ice in it. And, but we didn't get, we didn't have the 2021 that was like 4 days.

Yes.

Of below freezing. If you can get below freezing, 10, 15 degrees, and then maybe the next day it goes up to 35, you're okay.

Right.

Because it'll fall back in a safe way. But if it's more than 24 hours, you start worrying. If it's more than 36, get ready. If it's 48 hours, The plumber better get some rest because literally all hell's about to break loose. And I was praying that we just warm up. I'm serious.

Yeah.

It happened about 33, 34 years ago when the last big one.

Mm-hmm.

And it was before I got into plumbing, literally before. And 2021, I was 51 years old when that one came through. I hope another 30 years passes before we get one like that. I'll be in my 80s.

It's just like you'll be retired.

Yeah. I'm hoping I'll be retired and if I'm not, I don't think I'll be too old to even jump in somebody's attic and do anything. So, but I don't wish that on nobody.

So you, were you guys the ones that ended up repiping my parents' house or was that somebody else?

No, that was someone else.

That was somebody else. But okay. But they redid it with PEX.

Yes.

How, how crucial is that for people in their homes? I mean, 'cause like, I know a lot of new homes are putting PEX in, but like from, from your perspective, like how crucial is that for like extreme weather events?

Uh, PEX is the most resilient. PEX Type A is the expandable one. The Uponor is the brand name that I know of. There's—

What is it?

Uponor.

Uponor.

And that's, that's a brand name. And that stuff right there, I've— I was showed this stuff about 12, 15 years ago, and I was the old-style plumber. I don't believe in that stuff. Yeah, if it ain't copper, it ain't gonna work. And The rep, we had to be— it was just the rep needed to show us how to do it.

Right.

And we, during training, I go, them plastic fittings are gonna break, my man. These poly fittings you have, they're black and it's kind of a plastic. He goes, no, sir, they don't. I go, okay, tell me. He goes, this pipe expands when it freezes. That's Type A only. And there's B and C.

Oh, okay.

Okay. Type A will expand and then He goes, when that stuff freezes, all the water in them fittings actually go to the pipe. So me and my critical, critical thinking, I went home, had a deep freeze, made up a tee with 4-foot on each side with a cap, capped everything off, put it in my deep freeze for about 2 weeks, came out, cut that fitting right in half. There wasn't a drop of water in that fitting.

Really?

And then I left the other one in there. I took it out and put it in my garage in the middle of the summer. At the end of the day, it all went back to original size and nothing busted.

That's cool.

And like I said, we had over 1,200 calls in 2021, but not one PEX line had a freeze break or any— and that's including B and C PEX.

Oh, okay. So like even on the lower grades?

My very first call out was to a lady in The Woodlands on Lake Woodlands. And what's so funny is these are really zoned homes where, you know, they have a neighborhood Facebook page and they have neighborhood homeowner association. Somebody put in an outdoor kitchen and run a PEX line from the house where the hose bib is along the lattice in front of it, blew. It was snow everywhere. Things started breaking in the house, the CPVC, which was going to break if it's not protected.

Right.

Went along the side of the house, went under the outdoor kitchen. And the pipe that it connected to broke. And then the— well, it's about 60 foot and the 2 little copper lines at the faucet and the angle stops broke.

Exploded the PEX.

But the PEX was fine. So I really, now in this freeze, I told people we're just gonna replace 10 foot, 12 foot of PEX. It's relatively a good price and I get a, a flat price for 10.

Yeah.

10 feet. And, and that, like your hose bib, we can come up the wall.

Yeah.

Go in, in the attic or in the subfloor 2 or 3 feet. That'll kick it out of a freeze zone.

Huh.

And we charge somebody $475, $500 to do that. And if it's gotta go another 5 feet, man, what the heck? I just take care of my customer.

Yeah, absolutely.

So customer's more like family to us than, than a customer.

Absolutely.

Sorry, I'm getting the signal from Sarah. All right, but real quick, I want to— simple question. Thumbs up, thumbs down, shark bites?

In a pinch, thumbs up. But permanent, I still, from freeze in 2021, still go fix the stuff from the handyman that fixed it in 2021.

With the shark bites?

With the shark bites that exploded in this freeze.

Ooh, there you go.

And every other freeze.

That's what I wanted to know.

cap it off temporarily with one or something, but it will not be a permanent repair. Not, not any self-respected licensed insured plumber with a reputation is going to do that.

Oh, there you go. That's what I wanted to hear. All right. How do people get ahold of you, bud?

Oh, they can call us at 832-521-3252, or they can go to our website, www.paultheplumberllc.com. They can schedule online. It's a request. It's not Concrete, but sure. And you know, pretty much. Thank you for having me on your show here, man.

Always good.

It's always good to talk.

Yeah, man.

Thank you. Have a good night.

You too, buddy.

All right, guys. You just heard some some some strong wisdom from Paul the plumber on the shark bites. Take take that to heart again. Thank you to our sponsor Lone Star Appliance Repair again if you need any of your appliances repaired. Give 'em a call. You can reach out to them at 936-647-2364. They will get you taken care of. Refrigerator, washing machine, dishwasher. I don't think they do microwaves. You could ask 'em. Might, it might happen. So anyway, we got our next guest sitting with us right now. Tell everybody who you are. Well, you're gonna, you're gonna have to pull that thing real close.

Can you hear me now? They told me to keep it quiet because obviously it's Well, no, you don't.

You, you be loud. That's the thing. You, you gotta speak up.

Deal. I am Christy Witherspoon and I'm the owner of Floor Expo, a flooring company, and handle all your commercial flooring and needs, installation, materials, labor, you name it, we got you.

Yeah. So what I want you to do, yes, pull it, pull it in towards almost touching your chin.

There you go.

And it's not because you're being quiet, it's because everything else is loud around us.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Is that better?

Oh yeah, that's, that's way better.

I have a deep voice, so that's—

No, that's good. That's why I was like, The trick is, as long as you can hear you in the headphones, like, they can all hear you.

Perfect.

So, okay, how long you been doing this?

Respectively, 7 years. We've— we started in, uh, 2018, October of 2018. Me and the— me and the person who started it together, we were tired of the way the industry was working. There's a lot of wishy-washy stuff in our industry, and there's no uniformity, right? And there's no clarity. And so that's what we're trying to bring to the table, a little bit of clarity to the flooring industry.

I want to move this real quick.

Sure.

It's like oddly in the shot. There's no one there talking. So, so I mean, like, do you, do you guys have like a specialty or do you just kind of do all floors?

Specialty? That's an interesting question. I would say our specialty is the fact that we're actually licensed.

Um, okay.

We actually have hold certifications. You know, boss man makes us go through certification classes to continue and continue our education within the industry. Cuz there are, have, there are and will be always changes within our industry. And so, Continuing education is key to us. Yeah. So that's, I think that's what kind of sets us apart. We actually continue to learn and wanna continue that growth spurt. Yeah.

And if, yeah, I mean, like, correct me if I'm wrong, I mean, like, you don't have to have certifications in Texas.

You're correct. Yeah. You don't. Which makes us unique. So Bossman comes from Georgia, and in Georgia they require you to have a license, like a plumber and electrician.

Yeah.

Whereas in Texas, it's kind of like a free-for-all, right? They even did away with the plumber's licensing in 2018, and all the whole industry was like, why would you do that? That's water that they damage everything.

Yeah.

But you're right. So hopefully we bring it back to Texas to, you know, keep people like us alive. That's, you know, you know a little bit more than your average Joe.

Yeah.

No, I was, I was, I was talking to, um, my buddy Eric Gordonson. He runs, he goes by Eric G. He's up in Portland and he runs one of the biggest home improvement radio shows in the country.

Wow.

And we were, he and I were just having a conversation about GCs in, in Texas and I was like, bro, like no, nobody, like roofers and GCs, there's, there's no license, there's no regulation, there's nothing. I mean, like, you can just call yourself that thing and go do the thing.

Pay a couple hundred bucks to have it.

Yeah. And he's like, you gotta be kidding me. And I was like, no, I mean, like, it is literally the Wild West in Texas. Like, you, like, you don't have to have anything. I mean, like, I, like, every— I'm a GC right now. I just, I declared it.

It's true.

And, but like, and he was blown away because there's so many like regulations and permits and things that people have to pull just to do like things. Simple things like, and I, I don't mean to say that it's simple.

Of course.

But like compared to like electrical or some other stuff, like it's simple, but like they have to pull permits for that kind of stuff.

Absolutely.

And like, we just don't have to do that here. And so like the fact that you have any sort of certification is impressive because I mean, you're going above and beyond what is required of you.

State required.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You have to. And it's, it's interesting that, you know, the more I've seen in this industry coming from a medical background, You know, and having, you know, we have to have our kinds of licensing in the medical industry. So why is it okay for the medical industry to have all those licensing but not for like the flooring or the electrician or the, you know, the general contractor?

Which the people in the medical field end up having to address later on.

Exactly.

You know, you think about the price variation, it's almost exactly the same as the medical industry. You know, to have a colonoscopy is going to cost you $100,000. To remodel a whole house because a plumber messed up, it's going to cost you $100,000.

Yeah.

You know, it's the same.

So yeah. What was your background in medical?

Actually, I was going to be a GI specialist. I wanted to work with your, with your gut and your butt. I'm fascinated with your intestines and I'm fascinated with poop. And so I'm that oddball, but yeah, I wanted to be a GI specialist was my end-all goal.

So yeah.

Can you sing the Check the Poo song from Scrubs?

No, man.

I'm not that good. Do you know what I'm talking about?

Uh, I never actually watched Scrubs just because there were so many fallacies in that show that everyone's like, don't watch it because you're going to get corrupted by the industry. So I never did.

Do yourself a favor and just Google it. Oh yeah, just, or YouTube, because it's quite, it's quite a good musical number called Check the Poo.

I'm gonna do that. Check the poo. And I'll get with you. I got you. I'm gonna get back to you on that one.

I want, I want some genuine feedback.

Okay.

I don't think there's anything accurate about it.

Probably not.

I think it was just a good song.

I think so too. I'll have to remember it though. I'll give it in my next meeting. I might even sing it as my little 30-second clip.

Yeah. Zach Braff, if you want to give me some commissions off that, that's fine. We'll take that. Yeah.

Yeah.

I like that.

Free advertising. new downloads you're getting. That's just, that's just for me.

Indeed.

Yeah. So I mean, do you, do you have a, like when, when a customer, I don't even know like what your process is. I mean, is it people reaching out to you, you go into the home? Do you guys have like a showroom that you bring them into? How does that work for you guys?

We do. So we have, we have a brick and mortar that we actually run out of. We, we are, we are able to bring the samples to the homeowners' homes if they already pre-choose those selections. I'm able to bring those selections with me. I do take them back unless they want to keep them for a couple days. And then I have a small fee of $25. That's just Because that's how much manufacturers charge us to replace those samples if we need to. Okay. 9 times out of 10, we get them back or we take them with us. Yeah, I come out, I assess the floors, I do it for free. Come out, give them an itemized detailed list about what it's going to take. I list materials

first and then labor after. Homeowners are more than welcome to pick and choose what they want to do, kind of like an à la carte kind of thing. Yeah. And so sometimes homeowners will be like, oh no, my husband's gonna rip up the carpet. Hey, cool. My installers will appreciate that. Trust me.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We'll clean up the floor for you so we can level and prime, but Other than that, yeah. Itemized.

So like, from your experience, what's the— what's like one of the biggest mistakes people make in picking out flooring?

Oh man, they try to go with the fad. Oh, with fad.

Okay.

Everyone wants to be with the Joneses and keep up with the Joneses.

So like, what's the fad right now?

Gray. Get out of gray.

Oh really?

Get out of gray.

Like gray wood or like what?

Like gray in general. So like, if people stay with your primary colors, that's great. That gray comes within the same 24 box of Crayola crayons, right? Sure. Stick with those. Stick with those 24. All these other grays that are out there right now, they're— it's coming. It's going to come and go. Right now, blues are coming in, greens are coming in, black, white, gold.

Those are—

again, it's a fad, but your primary colors will never leave existence. They're always going to be your primary colors. But gray, let it go.

Just let it go. I heard that that was like a big color that people were like, excuse me, painting their walls now. So are they like, are they doubling down with the walls and the floors?

Gray whitewash finish is so popular right now.

Why?

I don't—

that—

thank you. That's my— that is the begging question, right?

Why?

Like, yeah, like, who's, who's pushing it?

The industry. Texas. So Texas is everything that starts up. They say in the industry everything starts up north and then kind of merges down into Texas. Well, grays were popular 6 years ago in New York and everything up north. And then now we're catching on to the grays. Well, now New York is on the blacks, the whites, the golds, the pinks, the greens, the blues. And it's, we're still dealing with the grays. It's like, step away from the gray, you know, get away, you know? And I'm hoping that people stop going with what the Jones has. Go with what you want.

Sure.

That's not their house. If they don't like it, there's the door.

And that, that's actually what I tell people all the time because like, If, if someone comes into your home and they wanna buy your home, like say you're selling your home and you spend like 10 grand changing all the floors out to sell your house, I'm sorry. Like they're probably just gonna rip all that up anyway. I mean, like, which is great for you because you can like double dip.

Yeah.

You know, but like just get what you want because more than likely they're gonna tear it out anyway.

Exactly.

And just do what they want. Yeah. So just do what you like.

Give them that, give them that option. Like, hey, you know what, we'll give you this amount of money off because we're not going to redo the floors. We're going to let you come in and make this your own. You're going to make it your own home anyway. Yeah, right. You're going to change some features around. As long as the bone structure is good and you're fixing everything else, like paint color. Yeah, your color and my color aren't the favorite color, you know.

I see you sneaking in, Randolph. Don't see—

I've—

we all saw you, you know.

So it— and that's where, that's where it's It's stop keeping up with the Joneses and do what you want to do. Be your own Joan, you know?

Yeah, absolutely. So is it, when people are doing grays, is it more like tile or are they doing like laminate, wood?

The laminates and woods.

Hopefully not carpet. Gray carpet just seems like the worst. It seems like the worst.

It's again, it's a fad and it's like, how do you match to that? You know, you can't put browns with it. You don't want to do warm and cold. I mean, and then they're trying to make it to where The grays have a little bit of browns and they have a little bit of whites to kind of make it to where you can utilize it.

Don't want to kill yourself?

Get away from the gray. Get away. I mean, it's, you know, every time I see gray, I'm like, oh, do you really want to? You know, your neighbor has that.

You hate yourself, huh?

Yeah. Do you want, do you want to be the, do you want to be the standout kind or do you want to just kind of follow the crowd kind of person? That kind of makes me start thinking and then I can kind of merge in to be like, What do you like?

You know, what color?

What is your favorite color? Let's find something that matches that. What's your favorite piece of furniture? Let's work around that. You know, and if grays, if grays works, then that's great. Let's gray it out. But get away from the gray. Yeah, that's gonna be my niche for this entire year. I don't want to see any gray.

How to kill the gray.

Exactly. Don't call me for gray.

So, which, I mean, could put you on some weird threads. They may all think that you like, you hate Liam Neeson.

The gray ones. I mean, right, I'm gonna get, you know, I'm gonna get some awkward stuff. I can see my— I can see everyone's comments. Yeah, it's gonna be great. She's a, she's a gray hater. No, I promise I'm not. But it's also a gray area, you know.

Oh, there you go.

Black and white, there's a gray area, you know. We'll play off on that. It's a spin-off.

All right, well, Sarah, Sarah was pointing to me. Someone— I don't know where they're— I think it might be Matt right there. I think, I don't know. But like real quick, how do you— if people want to get ahold of you, how do they find you?

They can Google us, floorxpo.com, or they can reach out to me on my cell phone number. I answer it night and day. Don't call me after 8. I'm pretty much done at that point. But text message me anytime, 832-984-2681. Awesome. Anytime.

Texting is good.

Texting is good. I'm obviously— we got to stay with the crowd. So texting is in. They'd rather text than call.

So do you guys have any social media, Facebook, We do.

We have all our social medias, Instagrams. I'm working on some of those pages and we got some, we got some cool things in the works that we're going to start incorporating and we'll go from there. We're actually doing a referrals page and adding some of our wonderful members here for on the net. And so that way, if my homeowners ask me when I'm in a house that says, hey, do you know so-and-so or do you have so-and-so?

Right.

Hey, go to my, check out my referrals page. All my list of contacts are right there.

Fantastic.

So yeah, thank you so much for sitting down.

Thank you. Appreciate it. Thanks for having me.

Good to meet you.

All right, you guys.

All right, guys, we are, we are, we are working. We are working through the guests tonight. Sarah is doing an incredible job. Who we got? Okay. Very cool.

Thank you so much.

Come on in, man. How are you?

Good, bud.

How are you doing?

Awesome.

Hello.

Come on in and sit down.

So, thank you.

This is the Rizzler.

Rizzlo.

That's my man right there. Look at that. So if you want to grab those right there. That way you can, you can hear yourself, your, your lovely sonorous voice that everyone is going to enjoy for the next 10 minutes.

Fantastic.

Thank you so much.

Tell everybody who you are and what you do, bud.

Yeah. Uh, my name is Michael Andrade, also known as the Cobra Slayer, and we are your shield in healthcare. Uh, we work with individuals, families, and small businesses.

Why the Cobra Slayer?

Great question. My background comes from working as a vendor partner with Texas Workforce Solutions.

Okay.

And I work directly with large layoff groups across the country. You get laid off, a lot of times your hair's on fire and you might not get the message from HR.

Uh-huh.

So you don't understand your benefits and COBRA insurance can be very expensive.

Yes.

For Americans. And lo and behold, the, the role I had as a vendor partner with Workforce Solutions, we exceeded our budget, but when a company makes bad choices in other states, There's layoffs. So I was in the same layoff line that I had helped so many with. And I realized at that time that the experience I had helping displaced workers understand free benefits and services through Workforce Solutions or the Department of Labor, I realized that I can fill that void with health insurance. So the Cobra Slayer was coined.

I just wanted to check. I didn't know if it was an actual snake story or if we're talking about— if we're staying in the insurance lane.

Yes, sir.

So like, can you, I mean, like just real quick for people that don't know, what is COBRA?

COBRA is an extension of your employer plan. So in the United States of America, if you're offered a major medical plan, which means if you're over 50 employees in the company, it's required by law that you're offered major medical insurance. Major medical is defined by really 4 criteria. Number one, it covers preexisting conditions. It covers mental health, it covers alcohol drug rehabilitation, and it covers pregnancy. So if you need that coverage, you can maintain your same employer plan, which is COBRA insurance after the fact. You can keep it for 18 months and there are some exceptions after that. But COBRA insurance can be very expensive because that employer's usually no longer paying the portion of your premium.

And you're also paying the full thing, right?

You're getting also taxed 2% of the group rate.

Really?

So you're, you're paying more than—

So it's, it's like, it's the full, the full amount plus 2.

Yes.

That's crazy.

Yep.

I mean, like, I'm glad it's there and available for transition people, but like, still, like, that's, that's a lot of money.

Yes, sir. So in some cases, that ridiculous premium is going to save that individual or that family to ensure they get the care they need.

Yeah.

Do you know what on average people pay when they're on COBRA?

It fluctuates, but it's typically more expensive than that individual or family can pay on the private market.

Okay.

And the discussion we have is really about health to determine who qualifies for the private plans. Those private plans make sense because they're not major medical. And so what we truly do is we level the playing field. We Help someone understand, do you need to pay for that major medical insurance and pay that high premium, or can you get on a private plan that doesn't offer all the bells and whistles but satisfies you and gets you what you need?

So where do you enter the equation? Are you working with like the business owners? Are you working with individuals? Like, where do you come in?

All levels. So I have a lot of background working with large LEO groups. So I've built some really good relationships with HR partners. And, you know, they can refer people out to me. But networking, which brought us here today, word of mouth, and, you know, really getting referred out, or social media.

Yeah.

But it's really anytime somebody may have a life-changing event, baby, they lost coverage, they've moved into a new state, you're a small business and you're just trying to retain employees or look for something more affordable, you don't have the time of day to go out and do these things on your own and become a health insurance specialist, right?

Yeah.

Or broker. So really all different levels.

Cool.

So I mean, like for people that are listening that like either have health insurance or maybe they're looking to go like the private route, what are some ways that individuals don't take advantage of their health insurance? You know what I mean? Like, because I imagine there's a lot of programs and And it's, it's different for every plan, I know, but like in, in general, what are some things in health insurance that most people don't take advantage of? If you, if you can think of anything off the top of your head.

It's being scared or not truly understanding what they really have access to is the biggest, the unknown.

Just, just not knowing what their, what their program provides.

So case in point, something that's really important to change in the last year or so is tax credits. what a family or an individual can receive by the government every month based on their household size or their income. A lot of people feel that, okay, I made X amount of dollars, I make too much money to get a subsidy.

Right.

But in reality, when we have conversations and inform them that laws and regulations have changed, so they're giving away more than before, some cases that family that makes $150,000, $160,000, who assumed they were made too much, they may be eligible for help. And in the state of Texas, the big difficulty we have is the network access through the government is going to be an HMO or EPO, which is limited. So if you go outside the lines and you're, even though you pay a high premium or get it for free, you're out of network and you have no coverage. And at that point, it's important for people that are out there wondering what's next, it's important that they talk to an

agent like myself who's captive, who is a captive agent, but I'm able to show people in small businesses things they cannot find on their own.

Right.

So that's a huge misperception. People don't realize there's plans out there because they went to healthcare.gov, they didn't find what they like, so kind of put their hands in the air and it's done. But yeah, the reality is That's what we do.

Yeah. Like it, like in our business, like we have, we have an employee that needs some very specific medical care. And so we had switched some of our insurance and their biggest complaint to us was like, man, it's so difficult to find the person that works within the system that you put us in now.

Sure.

And, and so we ended up having several conversations with our rep. Mm-hmm. Like, Having to sit down with them and go like, okay, this is what you need to do and this is what you need to do. And it's, it's so convoluted, it seems, for like the average Joe.

Absolutely.

You know, and, and like, I think, I think there's a lot of people that are in that situation that feel like they would be bothering you to call, you know? But like, that's, that's not the case at all from what I'm gathering.

No.

Like you, you want to help, like you want to get them plugged in.

You want to, Yes.

Our, our philosophy there is the more that we know, the more we can help.

Right.

And we truly, truly mean that. And our motto is we are here when you need us the most.

Yeah.

So there's the only bad question is a question that's not asked.

Right. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I mean, cause the, the worst thing you could say is I don't know, which is an honest answer, but like most of the time, if it's, I don't know, it's probably I'll find out.

Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. You learn something new in this business every day.

So what are, what are some people's, and we're running up against some time, but I'm very curious about this.

Absolutely.

What are, what are some of the most common things that people struggle to get help with that you've found?

They think because they have, because they have health insurance, they've checked the box and they're done. But in reality is that's only a portion of what they should know.

Right.

What is your insurance going to cover if you were in an accident? So what is your deductible? What is your max out-of-pocket? What kind of coverage do you have in-network or out-of-network?

Right.

And what else is available out there in the marketplace aside from what you have? And that's the biggest thing, just like P&C, the costs have gone up. It's always important to understand what you have and compare it to things that may be available because plans change all the time.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely, man. It's super interesting stuff, man. I wish, I wish we had a little bit more time to like delve into some of it. I gotta, I gotta get the next guest, but like you, and so like you can help individuals, you can help businesses, people in between jobs, you can help them out with their COBRA.

Yes, sir.

Because you're the COBRA slayer or killer?

Slayer.

It's COBRA Slayer. All right. If people need to get ahold of you, man, how do they find you?

Yeah, they can call me on my cell phone. I'm local here in The Woodlands. My cell phone Our phone is 312-560-1980. And, if they want to read about us or read our reviews and see how we've helped others, they can find us online at www.mlahelp.info.

Cool. And, can you help people outside of Texas?

We're licensed in the majority of the United States.

Sweet. I mean, we got people listening in all 50 states.

Thank you so much.

Dude, thank you for sitting down. Really, really good to meet you, bud. Pleasure. Yeah, have a good night.

You too.

Thank you.