Level Lock+ and Schlage Encode Plus Review

This is episode number 266 of The Homeowner Show. Well, 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 Greg Williams.

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to The Homeowner Show. We're so glad you could join us for another live episode of The Homeowner Show. How you doing, Kev?

Well, you know, um, kind of, kind of frustrated, to be honest.

Uh-huh.

I mean, I got really, really good things going on.

Yeah.

Really, really frustrating things going on.

What's the frustrating things?

The frustrating thing is my car has been in the shop for what feels like 6 months. No, it's not really been in the shop.

The big one?

No, no, no, the minivan.

The one you're driving?

Yeah, the minivan.

Okay.

It's just— can— like, this thing has been incredible the entirety of our ownership until about 6 months ago. We started having a few issues.

Yeah.

And it's just like they, they won't stop going away. And, and, and just whenever you think it's done, they're like this— it, it's back, or there's a new thing, right? And it's, man, it's one of those weird things. Like, so buying a car right now is not great because, I mean, even though inventory's back up, I mean, there— if you need a part right now for a new vehicle, good luck. It could be a month, it could be 6 months. They're just like, leave the car with us while we wait. And so—

No loaner.

No, not, no, not most of the time. I mean, it depends on the dealership.

Sure.

I mean, dealership to dealership, they're gonna take care of you differently. But, um, I, for a long time, I've not been a new car buyer. Been, you know, buy used, that kind of stuff. Um, and who knows, we may go that route. But I think we're gonna have to get something. And it's frustrating because we hadn't had a car payment in a long time, and we like this car. It, it's everything that we need it to be, but So that's frustrating, you know?

Yeah.

So anyway, that's, that's—

Well, let me, let me put this plug in for a, a brand of dealership.

Okay.

Sewell.

Okay. So I mean, they— I know they do like Cadillac and I don't know what else they do.

They're a luxury brand. I mean, they do Cadillac, Mercedes, uh, Audi. Um, I think they even have like a GMC dealership or 2.

Okay.

They have several dealerships.

Yeah, they do. Several dealerships across, across the Metroplex and, and Houston, probably over in San Antonio too.

One of the reasons people continue to buy from them is because of the customer service. Like, if you have an issue with them, they're going to give you a loaner car. They will— not only will they give you a loaner car, but they will come and pick up your car from you and leave the loaner car with you while they take your car, you know, as long as it's drivable, right, to the dealership to get it repaired.

Man, that's— so my dad just bought a new truck. He bought a Ford. Um, and right out the gate it had a weird thing that was a known issue, and they did that very same thing but from Lubbock, like an hour away. They were driving to, to drop off this vehicle for him, and then he was, he was driving out to, uh, California on a vacation.

Uh-huh.

Got 2 hours away and had the issue, right? They drove to him in a loaner car, let him drive that to California. They knew he was going to California in it. And, and then whenever he got home, it was still another 2 weeks before he got his truck back, but they, they let him keep it. And that was pretty amazing.

That's impressive.

I was like, okay, it depends on the dealership, right?

I mean, no, it absolutely does.

So, you know, you, you get— in many ways, you get what you pay for. I mean, theoretically, I mean, if you're out there spending $60,000, $70,000, $80,000 on a truck, You would think they would take care of you, but—

But that's— that, I mean, you say that like it sounds like an exorbitant amount of money for a truck, but it's not.

And not only that, like, that's— most of that is in the truck.

Yeah.

That's not margin. Most of that is in the truck.

Yeah. So yeah, like, it's not— it's, it's really not weird now. Like, I was, I was talking to a guy the other day and it's like, why is it— it makes me sick to my stomach that it's become commonplace for like a good truck to be $100,000.

I know.

Like, almost as much as what we used to pay for houses.

Right. I mean, you're in those, you're paying $1,200 a month for them or more.

Or way more than that.

It's just like, come on, dude. That's insane.

Yeah. I mean, no, you are, you're paying a house payment.

Absolutely.

For a new car.

Yeah.

Which is, which is why, so this is, again, this is, this is the kind of stuff that we talk about because this is what trickles down through the market. Right?

It does.

This is, this is why used car prices have gone through the roof.

Yep.

Right?

Yep.

Because people are going, okay, I don't wanna pay brand new prices because brand new is stupid because it's so high.

It is.

And I don't wanna pay that high interest rate even though I'm willing to pay a higher interest rate for a used one. It's because the price is lower.

But here's the problem. It's not that much lower anymore. It's not.

No. That, that's the thing. I was just— Used cars are in such demand.

That's right.

It's ramped the price up.

I know. Like, I was— so we, we have a Honda Odyssey. It's a great vehicle.

Mhmm.

Um, and, and who knows? I don't know if we're gonna go back with a minivan. It— they're, they're great. I mean, look, I— there was a point in time when I literally told Eric, my best friend, I literally told him to be like, punch me in the no-no place if, uh, I ever bought a minivan, right? Thankfully, he bought one first. So, but like, they're great for families. They're wonderful.

I understand the utility of them.

Yeah.

I still would never buy one.

Yeah, I get that. That's fine. But for a family vehicle, they're great.

And if my life consisted of simply driving people back and forth to school, sure.

Yeah.

Why not?

Right.

Gas mileage, utility, I get it.

Exactly. Yeah. And we are regularly carting other people's kids around. We do it a lot. And so we need that third row. And guess what? We always have stuff with us. So having cargo space behind the third row is almost impossible. Unless you go to like a Suburban or something, right? So I mean, they're, they're great for all the reasons, and who knows if we'll go back with one. But I was looking at like a, like a, like a higher-end Honda Odyssey, for example. You're looking like $45 grand.

Yeah.

So for a 2 to 3-year-old one that has, you know, 30 to 50,000 miles, like 39, Yeah, not that much difference. No, like $5,000, $6,000, and you get a full new warranty.

You get—

yeah, you know, I mean, I don't know, it's just, it's tough to, to justify. So anyway, I'm frustrated. Not, not because— look, if you got to get a new vehicle, you get a new— get a new vehicle. We are not in the business of buying new vehicles. Hello, I bought a 2004, was the last new truck I bought, and then I traded up for another 2004. You know, I, I'm fine with all of that, but Anyway, I got to keep it out of the shop. It's just, it's not helpful.

Yeah.

When it's in the shop.

It's just bleeding you. It is.

Well, thankfully my mechanic's really good and he's not bleeding me, but he's frustrated. I'm frustrated. The whole— anyway, the whole situation. But like, the good news is there's, there's like lots to celebrate.

Mm-hmm.

Because the Rangers won the World Series.

Oh yeah, that did happen.

That did happen. Oh, after all of the talk, right? It happened.

So does it have a little asterisk next to it?

Not this one.

No?

No.

Drug use, man.

No.

Cheater.

No, didn't happen.

Didn't happen?

No. That's why he got kicked out of the last 2 games. No, absolutely isn't.

Yeah.

No, not even close. That was the whole report. No, well, the report was wrong.

Well, okay.

He got— he literally got injured.

He got injured?

Yes, and that's why he— they took him out. They, they took him— here's the deal.

Like, okay, like, okay, let me— because I, again, like, I don't care.

Sure.

So you're saying there's 0% chance that he was using drugs?

Oh, there's never a 0% chance.

Okay, so what chance?

Well, I don't know.

Like, but what are we talking? Are you talking 20?

Look, I'm thinking— look, with— when it comes to baseball players, when it comes to baseball players, they are all using. That's fine with me.

Uh-huh.

But here's—

It's fine that they're using drugs?

No, it's fine. Your argument that they're all— I'm fine. Okay, I'm, I'm good with the argument.

Uh-huh.

Here's the thing. That's not why he wasn't playing in the last 2 games.

Uh-huh.

The reason he wasn't playing his last 2 games, because he got injured. And they— if you get injured— What was his injury? He, he hurt his oblique.

What is that?

It's back here. Oh, what a sissy. Okay. If you can't turn.

Yeah.

And you're swinging a ball for— at a ball, like, it's, it's a legitimate injury. And it's— and on the baseball, like, you can go look on the baseball injury list. It's a 38-day recovery.

Okay.

So when in, in a series like that, the way the rule is, if you get injured and get put on the injured list, then you can call up another player, right, in replacement. So in a situation where a player is injured, it doesn't make any sense for them to stay on the roster. They did the same thing with Max Scherzer. He got hurt in, in his last outing as well. and he had to come out of the game early. Well, they did the same thing. They took him down. They brought up another pitcher. It's just commonplace for that to happen. Right. So legitimately speaking, there's very few news outlets that were giving any credence to—

I saw it all over the place.

Of course you did, because we live in Houston. So like, it's— that was a rumor, but there's no substantiated rumor, like evidence beyond rumor that that is actually true. He got hurt, put on the injured list. That's the reason he didn't play the last 2 games.

Okay. Okay. So I'm gonna have to do some digging.

Yeah, you can go look. You can go look.

Everything, everything else is subject to— So like, what would be substantial evidence for you to go, okay, he was, he was juicing?

Oh, well, they'd have to give him a drug test. And the only reason they're going to give him a drug test is if there's actual, like, expected drug use or a random drug test. And they're not doing that in the World Series. So really? No, not during the series.

I don't know, that seems stupid.

But like, you can go watch exactly what happened and it's clear when he got injured. I mean, he could hardly even run to first base whenever he got injured because he swung, he was clearly injured.

Yeah.

And came out the very same inning. He didn't, he didn't play the rest of the game.

So, so let me, let me ask you this because this, this is something I actually find And this is why I find it interesting.

Okay.

Not because I think that it's true.

Sure.

But so many, so many Rangers fans want to piss and moan about cheating with the whole call thing, right?

With, with what call thing? That the Astros were stealing signs and all that kind of stuff back in 2017. Right. Okay.

Right. That's, that's like their whole thing is like, I think the whole— they didn't deserve it and blah, blah, blah.

And I think all of Major League Baseball feels that way. Not just Rangers fans.

Well, I think all of Major League Baseball feels that way, but like, also, like, everybody was doing it.

Oh, okay. That's a stupid argument.

Why is that a stupid argument?

If everyone's doing it, it doesn't make it right.

No, it doesn't make it right.

They got caught.

Sure.

And if everyone's doing it—

But like, you know what I mean? Like, it's, it's like that. Like, you know, you're the— I don't know, like everybody's been stealing candy bars from Joey.

Yes.

And Ryan gets caught.

Sure.

And then every other kid goes, oh, Ryan's the worst. Yeah, like, that's just stupid.

Sure.

Like, you were all stealing candy bars from him, like, and now you gang up on him because he's the one that got caught.

See, I, I don't see it that way, and here's why. Because it wasn't the fans that were doing it.

What do you mean with the— no, it's all the kids that were playing.

Like, I understand, but like, the, the problem with the argument is that you're saying like everyone's doing it. Yeah, well, the people saying that everyone did it weren't actually doing it.

You mean the fans?

Yeah.

Oh, I can't— I think, I think in 10 years from now you're going to have baseball players like, yeah, I was doing that. Everybody was doing that. I mean, maybe, but like, everybody knows that they were.

Sure. So I'm, I'm, I'm okay with it. All I'm saying is that I think that the whole entirety of like baseball-dom, whatever you call it, there's— is not just Rangers fans.

Oh, no, no, no, no. I was, I wasn't specifically picking on Rangers fans. I was picking on like all of baseball.

There you go. You know, I'm okay with that.

Like, no, it wasn't, it wasn't like a specific target at the Rangers.

Okay, got it.

Right. So like, at what point, um, because like, I'm, I'm like, again, like, I like the Astros, but like, I'm not a fan, right? I'm like, I grew up being more of like a Braves fan.

Okay. Yeah.

More than anything, I grew up in Florida.

And, and in the '90s, like, come on.

Which, when I was a kid. Yeah. So, um, But, but like, at what point— and this is why I'm asking, because like, let's, let's say it comes out that he was. Sure. For you, does it— because I don't think it does— delegitimize their win?

I think that—

I mean, and then at what point does it?

Well, see, I don't know, because I mean, look, you're talking about a guy who has the most RBIs in Major League Baseball postseason history. this point. He— there were multiple games where his impact was huge. In fact, game 1 of the World Series, they only won because of a home run that he hit, right? Right. There's a walk-off home run by him, right? So like, legitimately speaking, I, as, as an objective type of person, which is very hard for me to do, but is it in this scenario? But as an objective person, I go, no, that's cheating. It's wrong. Uh-huh. It's not okay, right?

But like, I would imagine as a fan, you would rationalize it and go, yeah, but he's not the only one.

No, I wouldn't.

You wouldn't?

Not me.

No?

No.

I would.

I just don't— I do not like the argument of he's, he's not the only one, because I think it takes the— I think, I think it takes off the blame of like— I don't like the argument. Here's, here's the thing. Like, if my child does something wrong, and they get caught, like, my argument isn't gonna be, oh, well, everybody else is doing it, she shouldn't get in trouble for it, right? No, I'd be like, no, she gets in trouble. I don't care if anybody else did. Like, at my house, we take responsibility for our actions.

I agree with that. I agree with that. But like, if— because I think, I think you're putting it like in a sports context.

Sure. Okay.

Put it in a grade context.

Okay.

You know, and let's say that the class is getting grade— graded on a curve.

Okay.

Okay? Which is kinda how baseball works.

I mean— okay, I'm, I'm going with your analogy. Let's go.

Right? And, and so all the kids in the class are cheating to get the grade on the test.

Mmhmm.

Your kid doesn't. And then it affects their score and their ranking in the class that affects the college that they get to go to.

Okay.

Like, you would cry foul. Like, hold the hell up.

Yeah.

Like, everybody's cheating except for my kid.

Yep.

Right?

Yep.

But, like, if your kid is cognizant of that and they recognize, like, look, 99.9% of the kids in this class are cheating, and it's gonna affect the outcome of this, and nope, they're not calling it into question whatsoever, and then they proceed to cheat just like everybody else, I'm gonna go like, look, you guys weren't upholding the rules. They just figured out what the game was.

Yeah.

And then began to participate in it in order to succeed.

Yeah.

I'm sorry. Like, I'm just not going to— I'm not going to come down on them.

Sure. No, no, no.

You know, like, and I think, I think that's the same thing in professional sports. Like, I think there's so many guys that are looking around going like, we all know there has to be a competitive advantage. Yeah.

You're saying.

Yeah. And like, I'm not, I'm not going to like step away from that. And, and again, I'm not even saying that it's right.

No, no, no, but no, but I, I hear your point. I mean, because at the end of the day, like, these— time to drink. Uh, if, uh, I'm right there, I'm here for you. Yeah, if, if there's one of those situations, like, here's, here's the problem. This is the problem I have with, like, people saying that, like, the NFL is rigged, for example. Okay, okay. They're like, they're like, yeah, it's all played out. And, and, you know, it's all predetermined who's gonna win what games, etc., etc. And I'm like, okay, let's think about this. Let's be rational and think about this for just a minute.

Uh-huh.

So just the players on the, on the field, uh-huh, not the people on the bench, not the coaches, nobody else. There's 22 players on the, on the field.

Yeah, I see where you're going. Like, there's too many people to control.

You can't— no, no, no. Who at some point someone's gonna go, I'm gonna catch that ball, man. Yeah, no, I'm catching that ball.

And who do we have to blame for this?

Boxing. Okay.

Yeah. No, really.

Yes.

Or yeah, because it's one-on-one. It is, you know, and you can— I mean, like, I'm sorry, everybody's manipulatable at some point. Yep. You know, and especially when it's one-on-one. Yes.

A one-on-one. Yes, I understand. But whenever it comes to 22 people on the field, 11 versus 11. Yeah. And then on top of that, you got 7 officials who are all conspiring in this weird moment.

Like, not, not only that, like, it's like, it's not just like the, the 22 people that you have involved, right? It's that their bonuses are based off performance and, and succeeding into the postseason.

I mean, the same. So you carry that over into the baseball conversation with the, with the whole juicing thing. They're— everybody's trying to find that competitive advantage. I understand that. I get that. I also don't find it okay.

Sure.

Now, but so I'm with you, I'm with you whenever you're like, look, if at some point, if everyone's doing it, uh-huh, I think that you— yeah, it's like, do I play the curve or do I just sit it out, you know? Yeah. Do I— which one do I choose to do? Mhm. Unfortunately The Astros were on the wrong end of that deal because they got caught. Yeah. And it affected what a lot of people think of them.

Sure.

So there, there's that.

No, no, it definitely affected what people thought of them.

Yeah.

I mean, but like, so do you think that Mark McGwire should have like an asterisk next to his name?

Yes.

Yeah. But he doesn't.

He doesn't. Neither does Barry Bonds.

Right.

And I, yeah, I do think so. I, I think it's different than— I think it's different than like the, the Pete Rose deal, which I, I think that's such a— I do too.

Sham.

I do too, because Pete Rose got—

That's a sacrificial lamb is what that is.

It absolutely was. And not only that, he didn't bet against— I mean, he, he bet that his team would win, right?

Yeah.

Not that they would lose, right? Like, he, he wasn't betting. He wasn't you know, tanking the system or anything.

Right.

He wasn't. He was trying to win and—

And knew that he was a contributing factor.

Not only that, like, he's apologized over and over and over and over and over and over.

Which I would just tell him to just— Sure. But he didn't stick it.

Not only that, you do realize that legalized gambling in baseball became a thing this year, right?

Yes.

And you realize that he was the one that placed the very first bet.

That's so fantastic.

For the Reds to win the World Series. I love that.

I love that.

It's like one of the best stories ever, right? But like, I think that's a different scenario than what we're talking about here. And I look, I think that people—

And so, so like, I guess the question at the end of all that, like, would it— if it came out that he was, would it bother you?

Yes.

Really?

Yes.

See, it just wouldn't bother me.

It does. It does. And the reason it does is because—

Here's, here's why it doesn't bother me, because I think You know, it's— and like, I live in Houston, I get it. Like, I think it's— I think it's people just wanting, like, I want to throw shade at somebody because we didn't win.

Oh, well, that's true. That is definitely true. In fact, I mean, so much so. And look, I'm— I'm not out here hating on the hashtag.

I mean, because my legitimate response to it would have been, so? Yeah.

And well, and on some level that has happened. Yeah.

But You want it? Because if you want to test my guy, let's test all your guys.

Sure.

Let's just test all of them.

I'm okay with that.

Let's just test all of them.

I'm, I'm actually okay with that. So, and, and by the way, they took out tons of cameras out of all the— all over MLB stadiums. Took them out.

Why?

Because of the potential for, for cheating. So they took them out. So like something did happen with all of it. And I think it's probably better for the game. Now, there's also a part of me— I mean, they've also put— instituted new deals like the electronic, you know, pitch deal where they, they hear it in their ear and the catcher calls it on a little button, or the pitcher can call it too. But now, now that—

Is that them trying to like obfuscate cheating? Yeah, picking up signals and stuff because you're not putting signals down, right?

You're, you're literally just punching a button and no one, no one knows what you punched, right? So like Yeah, they're, they're trying to crack down on some of those things, which I think is, I think is good. Um, but at the same time, it's like, look, man, if you're dumb enough to allow someone to know what sign you're putting down, well, maybe you ought to be caught as far as that goes.

Yeah.

But I don't know, man. Like, I just don't, I don't like, I don't like scenarios where a win feels illegitimate because of something that could have been prevented.

But every, every loser in the history has, has done that.

What do you mean?

I mean, they've, they've explained away their loss.

Oh yeah.

Like, well, it wouldn't have happened if this hadn't happened, or it wouldn't happen if this would have happened. I mean, like, sure, that's every contest in the history of time. has, has gone that way.

And I, I agree. So, I mean, because I— we— a lot of times it's just we don't want to own up to the fact that— I mean, and it happens where people are like, look, I had a bad day.

Sure.

You know, but, but in reality, I mean, like, when, when people say things like, well, the bats, the bats went cold tonight, I'm like, well, that pitcher was really good. Good pitching beats good batting every day of the week. So, you know, at some point you go, the bats didn't go cold, the pitcher was really good.

Yeah.

And I think this is a, like, a lost art in our, in our world of going, no, that other person was amazing.

Sure.

Right?

Like, it just depends on who you're rooting for.

It, it absolutely does. But I think that what— why can't, why can't someone go, you know what, they were better than us tonight.

Mhm.

Why is that not— why is that so difficult?

I don't know why.

I mean, but it is. It's very difficult.

Well, I mean, you know, probably because this goes back to my initial point of like why I don't even like sports anymore is because people take it too personally. They do.

Absolutely. At the end of the day, it's— drink up— it's a— it, it's, it's one of those things where it's like, man, it's a sport. It's not— I mean, it's, it's supposed to be fun.

Yeah.

I mean, you, you're doing it for enjoyment, for entertainment. And, and yeah, I mean, look, I've been— I, I'm— I've been super into sports my entire life.

Mhm.

And baseball has been my, my sport of choice as far as what I choose to watch. Um, I, I love all sports. I've watched football, I love— I've watched basketball, college only. But, uh, I, I love watching the game. And yes, my team has been on the losing end of every battle until this year.

Until this year. Was this their first World Series?

First— no, first World Series win.

First World Series, that's what I meant. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

They, they went in 10 and 11, but yeah, it's the first World Series win and it felt really good. Yeah, you know, it's exciting.

It is exciting. And, and are there, are there any, are there any clubs out there that still have yet to win one?

Tampa Bay.

Really?

Uh-huh. but they've not been around as long as the Rangers have. I mean, they're, they're in comparison, they're a fairly new franchise when it comes to that. But, but yeah, no, they're the— so it was the Rangers and the, and the Rays, and the Rays have had seemingly more opportunities than, than the Rangers. But, um, but anyway, like, I, I guess the thing that, that bothers me more than anything else, and, and I see this from both ends, I mean, I, I've heard plenty of Astros fans go, man, the Rangers fans are the worst.

Uh-huh.

And plenty of Rangers fans are going, man, the Astros fans are the worst.

Mm-hmm.

Like, I, I don't know, like, why can't it just be— I'm, I'm fine with rivalries. I'm fine with, you know, hey, you know, I like my team better than yours.

Sure.

I love that kind of banter. It's fine. But I, I've had to really talk to my son about this because he's— I mean, he's 8 years old.

Uh-huh.

And he's a huge sports fan.

Mm-hmm.

watches more baseball than most adults and knows the game. And like, we had to under— we had to have this conversation of like, look, it's okay to say boo Astros. It's not okay to say the Astros suck. To me, those 2 things are different.

Sure.

And so I'm trying to teach that to my child. That means I have to do that myself, right? I, I have to be at a point where I'm like, I'm not doing the same thing, right?

Yeah.

And, and I think that there's too many adults in the world who can't just go, look, it's, it's a game, right? It's a game that you're not playing.

Yeah.

You're a spectator.

Yeah.

You have no control over it, right? Like, so, so whatever happens happens regardless of whether you're cheering for this team or that team, right? And so look, your team got beat, my team got beat, who cares?

Like, Great.

My team was better than your team this time. Why is that not okay? Yeah, your team was better than my team last year. Why is that not okay? It should be. Yeah. And I can be disappointed or I can be excited, but for me to go bash other people, right, in, in the whole scheme of it, I'm like, come on, people, like, get over it. Yeah, be, be a decent person.

That's mine.

That's my whole thing.

Yeah. Have I ever told you, um, my, uh, Texas Tech story my freshman year at A&M?

I think so.

About the goalposts and everything?

Yeah.

Okay, I won't, I won't rehash it then.

Yeah, well, it's—

but that, I mean, that's really when I changed like my whole perspective on sports, man.

So much of that is just like, again, you get too wrapped up.

Yeah.

You get too wrapped up. And, and, you know, I mean, you, you've had a lot of, a lot of tragic situations that happen around surrounding sports and you know, with, with the big bonfire thing that you were part of.

And like, well, that was, that was, that was a whole different thing.

It was, yeah, surrounding a sporting event for sure. And like, there's, there's so much that rides on this kind of stuff. There's a re— people ask, well, why do, why do these players make so much money? Why do these, you know, coaches make so much money? It's because there's a lot of money riding on it.

Because there's a lot of people that care.

There are, yeah. There are a lot of people that that's where they're choosing to put their money. Yeah.

Which I think is foolish.

It is. Speaking of money, you know what? You know what costs a lot of money?

What's that?

Smart locks.

Smart locks.

They're not cheap. Alright.

Hey, before we do that, I got, I got some— I want— I do wanna get to that. I got some stats.

Oh, we do. I forgot about this. Yeah.

I wanna throw at you real quick. So we got some real estate stats I wanna throw at you, and this is revolving around real estate agents. Okay. Do you— I'm gonna, I'm gonna let you guess real quick.

Okay.

How many real estate agents do you think have left the industry In 2023?

Percentage?

No, just number.

Oh, I don't know how many there were before. So, like, this is a really difficult number for me to get. Dude, it's a lot. It— I'm, I'm gonna guess.

Are we talking to Texas or United States?

Jeez, I have no idea. I bet it's in the hundreds of thousands.

Hundreds of thousands? Yes.

I bet it's a— I bet it's 105,000. I'm just throwing it out.

You're, you're a little far north. 60,000 in 2020, just in 2023. that have left the industry.

It's just not surprising to me.

Sure.

You know, I mean, I, again, I, I had no reference. That's like me, like, spitting to the wind, right? I have no idea.

Yeah.

But that's not surprising to me.

Yeah. So here's the other one. How long do most real estate agents last?

6 and a half months.

6 and a half months. Most of them fail within their first year.

Okay.

Yeah. Most.

Yeah. I don't doubt that.

Uh, let's see.

And what's funny, funny about even how you said that was they fail.

Uh-huh.

It's not that they just don't make it, it's that they fail.

They fail.

And they do. Then obviously that is a failure.

But it's like, like you can, you can quit for all the right reasons, right?

But it's still failure.

It's still a failure.

That's right. I just love the terminology that they're using, you know.

Let's— okay. So here, here it is. In, in the US, there— and I knew this. I don't know why I didn't. So there's, there's roughly 1.5 million real estate agents in the US.

Okay. So in 2020, that would've been a helpful number to know going into my 100,000 because I just said, you know, like 7.5% of them. Right. Yeah.

And, and so, you know, and I for— There was, there was an article I was reading earlier this week, and it was about how many agents we have versus how many have quit. And it's the first time in a really, really long time that we haven't had more new agents than have fallen away.

Because here's—

so right now, right now it's, it's where more have quit than have signed up.

Yeah, I think historically real estate has been a really interesting job. I mean, I think there have been a lot of people that are like, man, it would be a lot of fun to go around, sell houses.

Yeah.

And, and right now it ain't fun.

It ain't fun right now.

It is not fun.

It is not for the light of— faint of heart.

No.

Yeah. And like, this, this is the thing, is like every, every agent that we've ever had on this show He's still in the game.

Well, yeah, but that— but there's, there's a reason for that.

Those— I know so many that have fallen by the wayside.

I do too. You and I can sit here and name them. Yeah, but, but those— and those that were in it and have been in it for, for like 10, 20 years, 30 years, some of them, those are the ones who have figured it out, who have made it, because they, they know the ups and downs. They've lived the ups and downs, and they The other thing is they understand the tips and tricks and they, they know a lot more. Just, there's so much about understanding the industry, right?

Those are the people who have been waiting for these people to fall off.

Oh yeah, they have. But yeah, because they've been— what little they did succeed at, they've stolen.

They're scooping it up.

They are.

Yeah, yeah.

That's— and there's a lot of money to be had right now in the real estate. I mean, There's a huge deal going on. I don't even know this was happening, but the whole litigation stuff with like not paying the buyer agent.

Uh-huh.

I, I didn't even know this was a thing.

Yeah.

I had no idea this was a thing, but like it's a, it's a big deal. I— we need to get Freddie on just to talk about that. I'm sure he would. I have no doubt he would. Do you know what I'm talking about?

A little bit.

Okay, so like You just go check out his Facebook post and you'll find. But like, I, I had no idea this was happening, but basically people have a right to not pay the buyer agent.

Yeah. So it was a $1.8 billion verdict, right? Yeah.

And it was— that's a big deal.

Was it a class action suit?

I think so.

Let's see here.

Yeah, it was was a big deal. And, and so like, there's, there's a lot of money transferred in some of these deals, you know.

So this was— okay, so this was specifically against Home Services of America and Keller Williams, right?

But there were a lot of people caught in the crossfire, including like these, like Zillow and a lot of these other places, uh-huh, Redfin and like RE/MAX, I think, was even part of it. Like, all of these people were caught in the crossfire. It was a big deal.

Yeah, yeah. And like, that's, that's not going to help things.

No, nope. Because at that point, like, okay, not only do I have to worry about all of the junk going on in the real estate industry, now I may even not get paid, right, to do it. And on top of that, I might face lawsuits because of it.

Yeah. So, okay. So here's, here's what the article— and this is from CNN, by the way. It says the cornerstone of the plaintiff's argument is that NAR is forcing home sellers to pay an inflated commission that is then split between their agent and the buyer's agent. The home sellers argued commission sharing as a condition for access to the Multiple Listing Service was unfair and kept commissions artificially high. Typically, when a home goes on the market for sale, the seller offers their broker a set of commission. For decades, the commission has consistently been around 6% of the sale price, usually with a 3% split for the buyer's and seller's agents.

Right.

In a competitive market, the home sellers argue the cost of the buyer's agent's commissions would be paid not by the seller, but by the buyer who received the service. The seller said that the buyer should be able to negotiate the fee with their agent and that the seller should not be on the hook for paying it. NAR and the other defendants argued in court that their commissions were— are always negotiable. They also said that the system of having their seller's agent split the commission with the buyer's agent allows buyers who are already weighed down with expenses like down payment, closing costs, inspections, and appraisals to avoid the added expense of having to pay an agent as well.

Consumer advocates celebrated the verdict and hoped that plaintiffs would also receive their request for the judge to to order changes to how commissions are structured in the industry. While large— while already large, the award could grow even more to a total of $5 billion, depending on what the judge decides.

So, like, legitimately speaking, okay, just take a step back for a minute. You sell a house.

Uh-huh.

What are your costs incurred?

Next to nothing.

Right. You buy a house. What are costs incurred?

Well, you gotta pay the commission to the— so, so here's— okay. Here's, here's where I will— here, here, here's where I'll defend this a little bit.

I'm not, I'm not for or against. I'm just asking the question right now.

Well, and I'll, I'll give you, I'll give you a real case scenario.

Okay.

So when my wife and I bought our first house, we had very little money.

Right.

And we were in ministry and had very little savings. And so we had to scrape together what we had.

Been there.

And but we knew that we wanted to get into a house.

Yep.

And there was a very kind lady who's no longer in real estate. So I'm not gonna mention her name.

Sure.

Even though I love her dearly and, and still do everything I can to take care of her today for this very reason. She was a real estate agent. And she said, I wanna sell you your first house. Thank you so much. And she took us around, she showed us all kinds of stuff. We ended up getting a model home in a neighborhood close to where we wanted to be.

Sure.

I mean, she worked night and day for us.

Right.

And so we're sitting down at the table, uh, to close, to close, and the, the guy says, okay, so you have this much for the seller's agent and this much for the buyer's agent. And she goes, no, no, no, no, no, take that off. And he's— he looks at her and he goes, what the hell are you talking about?

Yeah.

And she goes, I'm not— I'm not taking a commission on this one. Yeah. And he's like, why? And she goes, they go to my church, I'm taking care of him. And I looked at her and I was like, what is wrong with you? Right?

No, no, we— we— we expected to pay this.

Yeah, we expected to pay this, right? And she goes, no, no, no, Take that off. I don't want them to pay that. And he said, are you sure? Yeah. And she goes, absolutely. And he looked at me and she goes, are you okay with this? I was like, I don't know.

I don't know what to say right now. What am I supposed to say?

Like, because I think if I tell you no, I'm gonna make her mad, and I'm more scared of her than I am of you, right? So you do whatever she says.

Because that— I don't know what the number was, but it's probably north of $4,000. I was— I mean, I mean, in a starter home even.

Yeah, like And so I, I get, I, I get that you want to protect buyers' agents, that you want them to have the option of that.

Sure.

But you are taking away negotiating power. You are, to a certain degree, when you, when you institutionalize commissions. Yep. So I'm not saying that buyers' agents shouldn't get what they deserve. They absolutely should get what they deserve because they're hardworking They put in a lot of time.

That's right.

But to make it— it's, it's the same argument for minimum wage, man.

Well, yeah, because the thing with, the thing with the, uh, with this is it's been widely accepted to be 6% split, right? That there's no standard. No, that doesn't mean anything. No. If you want to take 2%, you can. If you want to take 0%, you can, right?

Like, that, that's the thing, man, is like it takes away the competitive edge for a less experienced agent.

Yep.

And so, like, you should, as a young agent, be able to go, you know what, I'm gonna only take 2 on this one, right? I'm only gonna take 3 on this one. I'm only gonna take 1.5 on this one, right? Because I wanna make sure that you work with me rather than the guy that's expecting 4, right?

That's exactly right.

And, you know, that, that's your prerogative as an individual to be competitive in the market.

Sure. I mean, if I could sell 10 houses at 2%, uh-huh, or 1 house at 4%, what do you think I'm gonna do?

Yeah.

Every time, 2%.

Now here's, here's the difference. If you have brokerages that are saying, yeah, like, we're gonna pay you 3%, right, and then they withhold that, that's different. That's a totally different story.

Yeah.

And like, and if you didn't agree, like, and again, like, if you're a young agent and you didn't pay attention to the fine print, right, Again, chalk it up to experience, right?

Do better next time.

Yeah.

And but I will tell you, like, if you, if you talk to those agents that are, that have been in it for, for 10, 15, 20, 30 years, they're going to tell you straight up, I will not work for less than 3%.

Good for them.

And there's a reason for that. They know what they've put in. They understand what they're worth.

Oh yeah. They know And they're probably worth more.

They're probably worth more. But they also understand that I'm going to sell a $250,000 house and I'm going to sell a $2 million house, and somewhere in the middle it's going to kind of even out.

Yeah.

But, but they're— here's the thing, man, like, they're not just working 8 to 5.

No.

They're working around the clock. There, there are people that are super inconsiderate and are, are texting them at 10, 11, 12 o'clock at night.

Yeah.

And, and then they're expected to drop what they're doing, change their plans, not go on vacation, etc., etc., just to, to meet the weird demands of the buyer or the seller.

Yeah.

And, and many times you just don't know what you're gonna get on top of that. Like, there's this, there's this huge safety issue in all of this. Like, I know a lot of agents are like, nope, not doing, uh, open houses, not doing it.

Yeah.

You mean you want me as a female— not all female, right? But as a, as a female to sit in a home for 2 hours that I've advertised I'm gonna be the only one there for a little while?

Yeah.

Really? I don't think that's very safe, do you?

Well, and I also don't— I mean, I mean, just my own personal— I don't think open houses are worth the time or the effort.

And that's the other thing that most of them are saying. They're like, how many— if you were to ask them how many homes have they sold due to an open house. Yeah, it— like, the number is so astronomically low, it's not worth their time, it's not worth their safety, it's not worth their effort. They're— but they're already putting their, their time and effort in, in so many other ways. You've asked them to be on call, you know. And, and look, we did the same thing.

Yeah.

I mean, whenever you need to find a house, like, especially in the market that we bought our house in, it was like, can you be there in an hour?

Yeah.

Right? Like, who knows, it might not be there in an hour and a half. So yeah, can you be there and out? Now, right now, things are a little bit better than that. But it's, yeah, it's a tough deal.

Oh yeah, things are, things are sitting on the market longer. I'm not telling people to drag their feet.

No.

But like, like, you don't have to be there within 48 hours.

Exactly. No, you don't. And, and you've got some negotiating power right now.

Yeah.

Because the interest rates are the thing that are keeping it negotiable.

Yeah, for sure.

So it's a, it's a weird, it's a weird place out there. And I understand, like, I know so many people, like you said, who have been in the real estate market or industry and have gotten out Because it's just not—

yeah, it's—

hey, a lot of them are not being profitable in this space. No, you know, they might sell one house in a year, maybe two. Yeah, well, you ought to be selling that many a month or more.

Yeah, in order to be profitable, you know, or to make any sort of living.

Exactly. Yeah, yeah. So it's tough.

All right, so we're here to talk about locks. I'm here for it. I'm ready.

Let's do it. Uh, we don't have to take a ton of time. I'll tell you this, so we have done smart lock episode before. It was a long time ago because it was one of the first things—

Schlage, wasn't it?

It was a Schlage, and, um, it was the Schlage Sense, um, and it was a— it's a great lock. I put 3 of them on my, on my last house. Absolutely loved them.

Did you leave all those there?

Yes.

Okay.

I left all of them there, and they're, they're great for a lot of reasons.

You still have access?

No, no, I've relinquished access.

I'm actually curious as to how that works when you sell a home. Do you like How do you, how do you prove that like you don't have access to those anymore?

I don't know exactly. I mean—

That seems problematic.

It, it, it definitely can be, but once you gain access to it, you can lock people out.

Okay. So like, have they locked you out?

I don't know.

You haven't even checked?

No.

I'd be so curious.

No, I don't. I'm sure they did. Trust me. They put explosives on my, on my property before I sold it. So I'm sure they locked me out. No. I, yeah, I don't, I don't know exactly. I, I know this, I, I set all the codes to like zeros, uh, and then I deleted my account.

Oh.

Is what I did.

So they could— okay.

So they could go in and they knew what the codes were and they could set up their own account and then change the codes.

Right, right.

So that, that's how I did it. But, um, smart locks have actually come a long way and One of the things that, that the ones we had didn't have that I was interested in was, um, Apple HomeKeys.

Okay.

So Apple HomeKeys are really kind of cool, and they're— I think it's just called Apple Keys because you can use it for your car these days too.

Huh.

Um, but you can literally use your watch or your phone, uh, to gain entry or to start your vehicle. So the new one that—

Like, is this like a whole separate app that Apple has?

Uh, no, it's part of their home—

Part of the HomeKit?

HomeKit.

Okay.

Um, or, or not just— you don't have to have HomeKit in order to do it. You just have to have the Home app. It's on the Home app.

Okay.

The HomeKit is like its, its own little like hub and all, all that kind of thing. Like you have to have like an Apple TV or something like that to be the, the hub. But anyway, so Schlage came out with a new, uh, a new version of the lock that I got, and it was called the Schlage Encode. Well, then they came out with the Encode Plus, and the Encode Plus was unavailable for a long time. I think it was just production issues and, and supply chain stuff.

Uh-huh.

Finally, I got my hands on one. They had it on like, uh, the Amazon deals. What is like Prime Days or something like that, whatever it's called. And, uh, so they had a discount on it, and so I went ahead and bought it. And dude, it, it's just so great. I mean, it, it's exactly what you want it to be. I mean, it's got a keypad on, like a touchpad on it, and I can literally hold my watch up to it. I don't have to do anything to my watch. I don't have to turn it on. I don't have to like open up an app or anything. I just hold my watch up to it and—

Yeah.

And it unlocks. So it does everything that you need to do. On top of that, you can schedule it. You know, like, in fact, every night at a certain time, it, it automatically locks.

Yeah.

Yeah. If it's unlocked, it automatically locks. If I leave the area, um, it asks me, you know, do you want me to lock the doors? If I come into the area, it asks me, do you wanna unlock the doors? And you can set that all. It's geofencing.

Right. Yeah.

You can set all that up. Uh, you can put in any number of codes that you want for people, or you can set them for a time frame. Like, if you as my pest control guy needed to get in my house, I could just give you a code.

Mm-hmm.

It only worked during certain hours and whatever. So it does all of those sorts of things. It's a great product. Um, and Schlage has been around for centuries, right? They've— well, not really, but they've been around. They've been around forever. And, and they're, they're just a, a great a great product. They've got different trim colors and they've got different, a couple of different, um, options. But, um, but it also works with, with, um, Alexa and with, uh, Siri. So you can tell it to open.

Right.

It will. Um, you know, there's a, there's a lot of those things. It's easy to install. It installs as easily as a, as most any deadbolt does. Take the old deadbolt off, just kind of put this one in. Not a big deal. Anybody can do it. Um, that's actually not the thing that I really want to talk about.

Okay.

The thing that I really want to talk about is the other locks that I got, because that specific lock, it's pretty big. It's pretty bulky, right? Um, I mean, I don't know, it's like, I don't know, like 3.5 inches by 2 inches or something. And we— the house that we bought have some of those, um, So they've got the big glass doors, glass window doors.

Yeah.

Like French door looking things. But most of them have an aftermarket blind system put on them. And so, you know, it sticks out from the back of the door. They're actually great, but—

Oh yeah.

But it's aftermarket. You know, now they've got those cool ones that are like built into the door. Those are cool. They're expensive, but they're very cool.

Yeah.

But because of the way 2 of them were, uh, installed, they, they take up almost up right up to the deadbolt, like the space. And so we couldn't put one of these new, uh, Schlage ones on there because it, it just, it wouldn't fit.

Mm-hmm.

So I was like, okay, well, I guess I'm never gonna put a, a smart lock on, on those 2 doors, which is fine. They weren't the front door. It's not the end of the world. But, uh, then I come across Level Lock.

Mhm.

I'd never heard of this before. Saw an ad for it. I started doing some research on it. This thing is unbelievable. You can literally go to, um, level.co and, and find information about it. You can go to Amazon. They're sold on Amazon. That's actually where I bought them. I bought them on, on Prime Deals as well. Um, but it looks just like a deadbolt.

Yeah, no, I saw the pictures. It looks—

I mean, it is, it is the size of a deadbolt. And here's what's crazy about this thing. So part of, part of what makes a smart lock a smart lock is it's got to have power. I mean, if it doesn't have power, it doesn't work, right? So like the Schlage, it has like 4 AA batteries you put in it, and it— I mean, it's 4 AA batteries. It takes up a lot of space. In order to have just the deadbolt, they had to get creative. Guess where the battery is?

Um, in the knob in the back?

Nope.

I don't know.

It's in the deadbolt itself.

Oh, like in the actual—

Yeah, it's in the deadbolt, uh, what do they call that? The striker? I don't know, not the striker, that's the thing on the wall. The bolt.

The bolt.

Bolt. That's what it is. literally, you, you like unscrew the end and put the battery in that. It's like one of those little camera batteries. And so it like— they, they made this thing like super efficient whenever it comes to space.

Mm-hmm.

Um, and the way you install it is pretty simple, but it's got a very specific way that installs, but it's very, very simple. But it works just the same. Like, it, it connects with Alexa or with your home app for, uh, for Apple. Yeah, you can set the same, uh, parameters on it. The thing that, that it doesn't have is an onboard keypad, right? But you can buy a separate keypad.

Oh, like one you can put on?

Yeah, you can put it on like the post of your, your—

How does it connect though?

It— that thing connects by, by Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, I assume, uh, one of the two. Um, but yeah, they connect probably connect Bluetooth. I do— I don't have one because I just don't need that, um, where, where I'm at because I've got the front.

I see the, I see the separate keypad. It's like $80.

Yeah, it's not— it's, it's actually not too much. I mean, they cost roughly what the Schlage does, uh, but I mean, the parts are very—

It's Bluetooth.

It's Bluetooth.

There you go.

Uh, the parts are very like substantial and they feel nice, they look nice, they've got a great look to them, but they've got some cool features to it. So, obviously, you can do everything you can with the other, with the Schlage, except it doesn't have the onboard keypad, but you can schedule, you can put, give peo— you can literally just, like, share Apple Keys with people.

Mhmm.

So if I want you to get in, I could share an Apple Key with you, and you could use your phone to unlock it.

Yeah. Have you, have you looked at the mini cards? Yes.

So they come with 2.

Oh, they come with 2?

They, well, they come with 2 regular cards. They come with 2, uh, they look like little—

I say cards, it looks like a guitar pick is what it looks like.

Yeah, those are, those are the minis. Okay, so they also come with 2 like credit cards, and those credit cards are linked to that lock. So for instance, I could just give one of those to my kids, right? And if they're coming home from school, they could use that to get in if they don't have a watch or whatever.

Well, like, so like on here it's a 4-pack of the minis.

Yeah.

And it's $20.

Yeah, it's not, it's not expensive. And you, and, and again, you can give those to family.

Yeah.

Give them to friends. You can put, hide those really easily. Somewhere.

Yeah.

Easy to hide those, right? Um, but again, I just literally hold my, my watch up to it or my phone up to it and boom, it, it unlocks. Here's the other thing, you can enable it to, you can enable or not enable this. Um, but if, if you're leaving I, I've got ours enabled to do this. You can just touch it and it locks.

Okay.

Like, I, I guess it recognizes touch somehow. It's not a fingerprint or anything like that. You just touch it and it locks. Now, you don't touch it— I think you can set it to touch and unlock, but that seems a little stupid.

Sure.

Um, I mean, unless people know, they're probably not going to try to, oh, let me touch this deadbolt, see if it unlocks.

Well, no, because it looks just like a regular deadbolt.

Looks exactly like a deadbolt.

So, but, and I say that because like it looks like it, it also has keys.

Yeah, it does.

So you can unlock it with a key.

It does, which the Schlage does too. Uh-huh. Yes, so it does have keys and you can give someone a key if you need, uh, but I mean, well, I mean, there's a bunch of them now that don't have keys. Yeah, there are. Yeah, there are. And to me, to me, like that failsafe is really nice.

Sure.

Like if a locksmith needs to come and open your door or something, I'd rather that happen than break a window.

Right.

You know, um, but, but yeah, it's also interesting the way, the way you like put it all together. The last thing that you put on is the knob, and it literally just, just fits on, no big deal. You don't have to, you don't have to use a tool or anything to like tighten the knob, the knob on, right? But it clicks in and you can't pull the knob back off without like putting a paper clip in it or something to kind of release it, but Um, but yeah, dude, like, it's—

Is it, is it Wi-Fi enabled as well then?

It is.

Okay.

Yeah, so it's Wi-Fi enabled. Um, I will tell you this, one of the things that's unique about it, because this, this isn't a problem, just something you might need to know. So most deadbolts are not round.

Okay.

Most deadbolts are kind of oblong, right?

Yeah.

And so when most deadbolts are installed, the hole that goes into the striker and into the, um, the faceplate of the, of the wall is oblong as well. So I, I actually had to do some mortise work and, and like clear out a round.

Okay.

Because since you're putting a round battery in that thing, the bolt is actually round. So in both of my applications, I had to kind of make the hole more round, but they give you some options. Like, there's, there's different size strike plates and things like that depending on what you had previously. Um, super easy. Actually, this one was easier to install except for having to do some of the—

Some of the mortise work.

Um, it was easier to install than the Schlage was, so But I— it's a great lock, man. Like, I'm super happy with it.

Yeah.

So anyway, I mean, they're, they're not cheap. I mean, both, both the Schlage, um, I actually don't know exactly, it was $350, something like that. These Level Lock Pluses, they're like $330. But, um, you know, yeah, for what it—

for what it does, yeah, that doesn't seem like an unreasonable price.

I mean, especially if you just want one lock. If you want one lock in your home that's accessible, if you leave, if you just don't want to bring your keys, or, you know, you just want to give some, some sort of, uh, exterior access if you're not home and something happens, you need someone to get in the house, whatever, you can unlock it from anywhere. Um, if you want that, it's a pretty inexpensive price to give people access to your house.

For sure.

If they need it. If you did what I did and bought 3 of them, it gets expensive.

Oh yeah.

Um, but again, it was a choice that I made. It's something we had at the old house, we wanted the new one. So.

So how, how long have you had them installed now?

Oh goodness, probably 6 weeks.

6 weeks. So there's a reason I'm asking, because like, as, as per usual, I, I looked up the, the 1-star reviews.

Oh yeah, come on with them, come on with them.

So not because I'm trying to ditch on them, but I want to know the bad stuff. Sure. And to be fair, okay, so here's the stats, at least on Amazon. It's 64% 5-star, 8% 4-star, 3-star, 5-star, sorry, 5% 3-star, 5% 2-star, and 19% 1-star.

Yeah, that's Which is— It's a pretty big 1-star.

It's a pretty significant on the 1-star. And I, I will tell you, uh, like, from what I've read so far, most of them have to do with battery life.

Yeah.

Um, and, and so, like, here's one. This is just from in September this year. It says, uh, this is from Jason. Uh, while this product is beautiful, its battery life in direct sunlight is abysmal. I have gone through a CR2 battery every 1 to 3 days.

Oh my goodness.

The lock is not jammed or has any mechanical issues. The battery drains fast. I hope they fix the problems. I'm beyond my return period for and trying to get my money back. In the meantime, I returned to the tried and true Yale locks.

Huh.

I also have to knock the product for— okay. I also have to knock the product for needing more integrations. Apple Home and a poor Amazon Sidewalk integration are pretty limited.

Huh.

So I guess it just does Apple Home and Amazon Sidewalk.

Okay.

Um, I mean, is that—

I sure, I, I don't know. I mean, I use that, I use—

You use Apple, so I mean, like, you wouldn't have looked into anything else?

No, to me it doesn't matter. Yeah, if you need Google, okay, well then don't buy this product if that's the case, you know.

So, um, let's see here, which, let me—

I'll, I'll say, um, I would guess one of mine would be Not in direct— no, none of mine would be in direct sunlight because I've got a, I've got a screen door on one door. The other one is under a porch, so I'm not getting that.

I don't know why direct sunlight would even—

It's probably what he assumes is the problem.

Yeah.

And I'll tell you this, if you're going through battery every 1 to 3 days, there's a different issue. That thing is not stopping doing something.

Yeah, it's doing— it's constantly doing something.

Continually doing something. Which means there's probably something more going on.

It's probably like some mechanical or short or something.

That's what I would think, but I, I've not had to replace the batteries. Yeah, so far.

6 weeks.

Yeah, and we go in and out of them all the time.

Sure.

You know.

Um, okay, so here's one from C. It's just the letter C. C. Um, C. Li.

C. Li.

Yeah. Uh, I don't know the gender of this person. I truly love how this product looks. I purchased this for the home's back door because I didn't need a smart lock with a built-in keypad for that door. All other exterior doors we fitted with Schlage Encode Plus smart locks.

That's exactly what I have.

Which we love, but are a bit bulky in appearance. So I bought the Level Lock Plus for the back door. It's sleek and minimalist and most of all understated. It doesn't call attention to itself. After having installed, it calibrated properly, but then subsequently repeated failed to pair with Apple HomeKit despite being connected and functional via the Level mobile app. Then the deadbolt began stopping halfway and causing an error readout to occur. This error message never went away. Very disappointed with this horrible product execution. Unreliable out of the box and a headache to set up. Returning it and replacing it with a Schlage.

So, so go ahead.

I mean, like, that sounds— some of that to me sounds like poor installation.

Yeah, because one of the things I was going to say is, let me give you an example. The last house, you remember the last house we lived in, right? my, my Apple TV, the hub, was at the very front of my house.

Right.

My back door was way down a hallway. Right.

Yeah.

Multiple walls in between.

Sure.

And it would not connect half the time. And it was just too far away from the hub.

Yeah.

And so if that were the case in this scenario, you're gonna have a failure.

Right.

I will also tell you that if you, if you didn't mortise out your Your door. Yeah, if you strike plate— strike plate— if you didn't do that, it, it very likely could, could stop halfway without it.

So, and this is something that I've done many times. Do you think that is probably a result of trying to use the old strike plate?

Oh yeah.

Does it come with a new strike plate?

It does, and you have to use the new one because it's a different size, right? I mean, it's, it's literally more of a circle, and it is a perfect circle. Right. And it's just, it's just a different shape. It's a different shape.

Yeah.

And so if, if you— if, if the person that installed your, your deadbolt didn't use a, uh, a, a jig to install it with, then if they just used like a, a regular drill bit, you'd be totally fine. Yeah. But if they used a jig to do it with, then it's gonna carve it out just perfectly. And yeah, I, I'm— I can see how potential, um, installation error could make this happen. I will tell you this too, I don't know if they're still doing it. When I bought mine, I did not know this was a thing, but they were doing free install.

Oh.

They were sending out up to— I think that they were saying it's like a $130, uh, value. They were sending out contractors.

That's cool.

Install it for you for free. Well, I didn't know that. If I would have—

Why wouldn't you take that?

I guarantee if I would have known that was a thing, I would have let him do it.

Yeah.

But I didn't, so I, I did it myself. But, um, but yeah, I mean, I, I can see that if you didn't know how to install it, or if— and, and maybe I'm not saying that that was the case. I'm saying if it was, I could see these things being a problem.

Yeah. I, I'll just tell you, like, I think 80 to 90% of these 1-star reviews, most of them mention something to do with the battery life.

Sure.

Which makes sense to me. I mean, like, when you have such something so low profile, like, you had to get creative as to how you even get the battery in there.

That's right.

And which means you couldn't put a big battery. I mean, like, if anything starts draining that battery, it's just not going to last long. Nope. So that makes sense to me. But, like, if everything's functioning properly, it should last a while, right?

And again, is it easy to change the battery? Yeah, you literally just, like, You, you turn the— you open the door, turn the deadbolt to where the bolt comes out, unscrew the end, pull it out.

Yeah.

That's all. I mean—

I mean, it's, it's inconvenient.

Well, it's, it's because it's in some way it's more convenient.

Well, it's definitely more convenient than other deadbolts.

Than other deadbolts. But here's the deal, like, if, if my— when my battery goes out, because it will, when my battery goes out, I'm gonna buy a lithium and it'll last longer. I mean, they cost more, but if I— for certain applications, I don't— I mean, if it's a remote, I'm not putting lithium in a remote, but if it's—

I'm also curious as to how many of these people have the keypad. Yeah, because Bluetooth drains batteries.

Sure it does.

Like nobody's business. It really does. And so like, if you have that keypad attached, I imagine the battery is going to last half as long.

I wouldn't doubt that either.

Because like, I have an electronic keypad for house. But it's not Wi-Fi enabled, and it's not Bluetooth. It's literally just a digital combo lock so that it's easy for us to give a code to somebody to come in the house if they need to. But also, my dog knows how to open the front door. Yeah. And I wanna be able to keep her out because while she is intelligent on how to use doorknobs, she doesn't know how to remember a code yet.

Not yet.

So, but give her time.

Within— yeah. Being an Aussie, I will. I've had one.

So she's watching. She's watching and learning.

Oh, she is. She's listening to this right now.

Yeah, she's one of our biggest fans.

Now, yeah. Now, in fairness, I want to look at the 1-star reviews on the Schlage as well now. So I literally just pulled it up. I'm going to go after the first one.

Okay.

This is by a name that I can't pronounce. DJ Sigma is what it looks like.

Okay.

We'll see. Um, the title is Expensive Junk.

Huh.

Got this product and put in the new batteries that came with it, set it up on my phone and tested it out and worked fine. Then I disassemble it, take out the batteries and put it in a Ziploc bag. One month later, I'm installing it in my Airbnb and then, and put the batteries in, absolutely no power. Changed 2 sets of batteries, same issue. Pulled out my voltage meter and tested the battery bank, and it was pushing out 6 volts as it should. So now I spent all this money and have ended up reinstalling the old lock. Then I can't return this because 30 days have passed, and so I don't know what to do other than leave a review

and warn people against these battery-operated door locks. I don't, I don't know.

Like— What did you put in the Ziploc bag with it?

I don't know. you put it in the freezer afterwards? It's just such a weird thing to do. No.

Man, like, I, I, I get, I, I get the impulse to go, okay, I'm going to test this thing right here and make sure that it works before I take it to my other property.

Exactly.

But like, in my mind, I'm going, okay, like, it doesn't matter if it works here. I need it to work there.

There.

So I'm going to install it there.

Right.

Because Like, then I'm going to know if it works, and then I can make the decision as to whether or not I take it back.

So here's what I'm guessing. I'm guessing that this poor soul, DJ Sigma, decided, I'm gonna buy this today.

Yeah.

Impulse. I'm gonna buy it today. I'm not going to my Airbnb for 45 days. I'm gonna test this thing, make sure it works here.

Yeah.

Because after 30 days, I can't return it. I bet that's what happened.

Stupid impulse.