Good evening, and we are live from the Moonshine Deck Ice House in Magnolia, Texas. Welcome to The Homeowner Show. My name is Kevin Haggett, and with me is Craig Williams.
Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to The Homeowner Show. We're so glad you could join us. We're not in the studio.
We are not in the studio.
What is up with that music?
Is it just my ears or does it sound like that all the time?
I think I had it turned up because it's so loud. Because like, as I was just mentioning, there's no chance that this episode is going to be monetized because we have our own theme track going on in the background. Background here at Moonshine. We even got some pickleballers.
I'm— well, I'm rooting for the people that are in the purple.
Yeah. All right. I like the purple over there.
I mean, not, not to be like that guy, but I'll go with the white team. Okay. All right. But you really didn't leave me with many options. The other team doesn't even have congruent uniforms going on.
Exactly. They don't— they don't care.
They're not here because they care.
They didn't show up to play.
So listen, we're so glad you guys could join us live on the stream, or if you're watching this later on. But we want to go ahead and thank our sponsors. First up, Lone Star Appliance Repair. We're so thankful for this company for sponsoring this episode and all of our episodes. They've been with us the longest now. Great company.
listen, you come to us to find out which appliance to buy.
And when and if we give you bad advice, the company that you call to get it fixed is Lone Star Appliance Repair. That's the one. Because it's way cheaper to get your appliances fixed than it is to replace them, and they do a great job. They have a great team that comes out and fixes all your appliance needs, even those in the sink. Well, here's what's funny.
I literally just talked to the lady that will answer your phone or reply to your texts.
No, Darlene and I have a long-running feud.
Oh, she's on Team Kevin, 100%. Literally, she said, hey, I haven't seen you in a long time, and a kitchen sink is still not an appliance.
That's how she started that conversation. So I'm glad that you guys have each other to be wrong with.
No, we're definitely not wrong. Uh, listen, if you need your appliance repaired, you need to give them a call. It's 936-647-2364. 936-647-2364, and you will not be sorry.
Yep. And our other sponsor actually just left.
Like, we could have said hi to him, but he's gone.
Yeah, he had to— he had to go home and have dinner. That's right, because he's a family man. Yeah, even though the CEO is a family man, we can't— we can't speak for the rest of the company, but he's a family man.
So we got True Texas Solar sponsoring this episode, guys. Uh, listen, if you have been curious about getting solar for your home, You want to have a company that's going to be honest and reliable and truthful about your power needs and what is going to work for your home and whether or not it could even work for your home. They're going to tell you if it will work for your home. They're not afraid to tell you like, hey, this isn't going to work. It's not, it's not a good option for you.
Dude, he was telling me just now about a system that they just got through installing that was $130K, but they've got like 3 different battery backup systems. They've got like multiple, they've got generator, they've got wind turbines, they've got all these things. Hooked up plus the solar. I mean, if you need a small system, they can take care of you. If you need a big system, they can take care of you. That's all residential. Then they've got the commercial side of things as well.
Commercial stuff's going nuts right now.
It is. It really, really is. And then, I mean, we— our church just put solar on the church. So like, it's a big, big deal for commercial. And then on top of that, they're actually— they've got a whole roofing team as well. So if you need— if you have roof needs, and let me tell you, because of the storms we've had, y'all—
Dude, the hail we just had this week.
Yeah, it's— It's been really bad. So I mean, if you've got roofing needs, if you've got— if you're like, look, I've been losing power during these storms that have come, you want to figure out a solution, they can take care of you. So give them a call. Their number is 936-286-8325. That's 936-286-8325. And their team, incredible team, they will take care of you.
So, and like, this is not a news show or a political show, but like, I was on the way here, um, I It's worth mentioning Trump was just convicted on all 34 counts.
The whole thing is insane. Every bit of it's insane. I'm not saying that he didn't do anything wrong. I don't know. But like, just the whole situation is nuts.
And I'm loving it. I think we should actually start a whole other show just because of how nuts it is. It's worth talking about.
I'm sure we'll be talking about it later on tonight. But we got a guest sitting down with us.
And I got to be honest, I met you and I'm terrified of your name already. Oh, I know it.
It's Salida, like the town in Colorado.
I've been there. Like Salida, Colorado.
Is that actually where it came from?
Your name? Where does that actually come from?
I actually don't know, because my dad usually, by the time we were born, we had names.
My mom had no say. I just know the first 3 letters. Sol is sun, so he says I'm his ray of sunshine.
I'll take that. So yes, um, not sure, but All right, cool. I found out about Salida, Colorado from a client myself. I was like, oh, did you know there was a Salida, Colorado?
There you go. Well, uh, listen, we want to learn a little bit about more, more about who you are and what you do. Uh, tell us, uh, tell us what you do. I know you've got a couple of businesses. Talk to us about that.
So yes, so we started, uh, first of all, we've been doing catering for, um, since 2008. Um, we started as a catering business, uh, unofficially no name. In 2018, we took on our Porky's Belly Barbecue in Montgomery, Texas. Nice. on 2854 in Honi, Egypt.
That is a really cool building.
Because, well, I want the garage doors.
You want the garage doors?
Can you explain to us, just because this is the Homeowner Show, explain to us what y'all did? Because there was a rundown shack of a place that had some really cool, like, old barn wood type stuff in it and around it, and y'all basically built a building around that, didn't you?
So, yes. Have you been in there?
Recently, so. You guys, so the house— awesome. Well, thanks for supporting our business. So we— if you, if you pass by, like you said, you're right, it used to be a house. It was a 2-bedroom house. We actually have a picture of the lady who built it, and that soon will be posted on our building as well.
Um, you know, on the inside. But, um, 2-bedroom house that when, when we would pass by there, I know there was like trucks, uh, you know, food trucks and stuff, right? I never stopped. It never tempted me. Not that I'm against them, because by all means, right?
But it just didn't. So when we bought the place, it was like my husband was like, I think we need to do something different with it because it's just not going to appetize people with what our vision was, right?
And to back up that story real quick, my husband is an engineer and I'm a nurse at trade. And so we decided— but to me, customer service is customer service no matter where, right? And so when we decided to take on this challenge, we said we have to do something different with this building, but we didn't want to tear down the house. So it was like, he was like, his engineering's like, I need something that'll come Come over. And everybody's like, wait, how are we gonna do this? And I'm like, no, leave the house. So the house became our office space, kitchen, refrigerator, the whole works. We have that extra wooded area, that's where the cooked food remains. So we have a really nice setup where we have raw area, cooked area, you know.
And then when you go and eat there, we wanted to build an outside space, kind of, you know, same scenario we're in right now.
It was COVID brain in our, in our, in the, in the thought of it too, because we wanted to make sure it was an outside setting as well, right? So we wanted to make sure. So open door garage setting, we're like, leave it open. Well, then the house was like, what? Everybody's like, tear it down. Like, what are you gonna do? I'm like, no, that's money wasted, you know?
And second of all, it just became an aesthetic thing because people will be like, oh my God, there's a whole house in here. What is this?
So it's really neat just to see, um, the— how it turned out to be. A lot of work was done by my husband and his father.
Um, a lot of family kicked in to do a lot of it, um, but things that just couldn't, you know, there's a lot of definitely out there people that I can, you know, thank for being part of it. Um, and so we've been there a year now.
All right, so I got 2 big questions for you.
Your favorite dish on the menu?
I'm going to tell you it's going to be our Texas brisket, which is a prime salt pepper brisket.
All right, I'm in. And then number 2, because I'm very envious of them and I think it's something a lot of people want, those glass garage doors on the front. How much, how much did those run you guys? What should people— I mean, because I know people see those a lot and they want them. How much did they run you guys, if you don't mind getting in the ballpark?
I'm gonna say ballpark, I'm gonna—
oh, because they're huge.
I know, I wanna— oh, you're gonna throw me out there, but I'm gonna say $70,000 maybe.
$70,000 for each door? No, no, no, for all of them.
How many doors do you guys have there?
Okay, in the front, one on the side.
Yeah, I'm thinking— and, and don't quote me on that—
$17,500 apiece. Yeah, but that's probably Surely that's installed.
So, I mean, like, not cheap.
And basically it takes an indoor space and makes it an outdoor space with the size of those things.
Yeah, it's what you see on a lot of the barndominiums now. Yes, yes.
Even a home, a regular home. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I like them. I've seen them where they're like a kitchen window. Like, it's like—
For like a service counter.
Yeah, so you can open it so that you can be open to the outside. Awesome.
So, and then, so we, we have a limited, limited amount of time. Love hearing about the restaurant, but you also do insurance.
I do, I do. And so real quick on that, it's, uh, we— I opened a—
So you were in nursing and you were seeing what was happening and you're like, everybody's dying, so we need to have—
Oh my gosh, yeah, I hate to say that, but people don't like to talk about that, but we do have to be prepared. So yes, life insurance is a thing. 91% of the people do not understand and know what's out there for us. It's called compounded interest, which is what, you know, a lot of the big corporations, banks, and everybody makes money off of. And so unfortunately, the beautiful thing is that we can do that as well through life insurance and make ourselves earn that interest.
So with living benefits, chronic, critical, terminal, we can have— it's called also, you know, we have term, whole, mortgage life insurance. We have, you know, some of the final expenses type insurances that we have that also have concierge, you know, services that can provide living benefits. And some of this can be as little as less than $100.
So a lot of people are scared of it, but there's nothing to be. And it's, you know, free to give us a call and let me know to run some numbers for you, educate you, because I think at the end of the day, all I am doing is educating everybody, doing some financial literacy. That's all it is.
And it doesn't cost anything for me to talk to you for 30, 40 minutes.
Yeah, life insurance is one of those deals that, like, I'm surprised at how many people don't have it.
Yeah, it's, it's really as affordable as it is, it's crazy that more people don't have it. Especially just, I mean, just simple term insurance.
Yeah, I mean, it's available.
Just FYI, GoFundMes. I mean, people do GoFundMes or selling plates or things like that, but just a GoFundMe, they charge 30 to 40% and they take the money away. So just so you know that, you know, money versus putting I kid you not, I gave a quote today, $27 for $50,000.
$27 a month for whole life. I mean, how do you beat that? For whole life? Yeah, how do you beat that? You know, obviously there's things of age and there's all that stuff, but—
You got a good long while.
Exactly. So, you got a good, you know, chance that you, you know, will get it for sure, that you'll be benefit from it, or your family. Or as, like you said, indexed life insurance, you know, for children. Um, I quoted a child today, $100. Um, he would have at $250,000, a child, and at 5 years of age, $100 a month, and he would have, uh, half a million dollars, right? Uh, easy by like 35. And actually, he can have like $20,000 for college at 18.
And like, it sucks to be morbid about these kinds of things, but like, I was fortunate enough that my parents, you know, started life insurance whole policies for me when I was like 15, 16 years old, you know, and like simple policies that when I turned 65 would, you know, mature at like $350,000.
But like, when we started having kids, my wife was like, listen, one of my biggest fears in this world is that one of our kids would die. Uh, you know, before they were 18. And, and so like, we're gonna take out 2 life insurance policies on each one of these kids. We're gonna take out a term policy and we're gonna take out a whole life policy. Whole life policy is for them for when they're older.
The term policy is for if something were to ever happen to them. Like, I am not going to be a functional human being for like a year.
And like, we're gonna need something to live off of because I ain't working.
And these final expenses pay within 48 hours. So just, you know, the final one, it pays within 48 hours because the life insurance can take anywhere between 60 to 90 days because they have to investigate and, you know, do their process.
So it could take that long. But, you know, when you need it, cash money fast, because I hate to say it, I did have somebody, we just, an example, we did a policy for a father and we told him, what about your kids? He said, hold on. Approved on Monday, and I could— this is 2 weeks, he's burying him today.
Uh, 2 weeks ago, approved on Monday of that week, 2 weeks ago, his son died on Friday.
Of a car accident. So I mean, and these are just things that we speak of so that people know, make awareness. That's all it is. And, and like I said, you're, you're right, people don't like to talk about death because that's not something— it's not a common thing. We don't want to bury our kids. Are you kidding me? No, we don't. But it's, it's the reality. We're in line. We just don't know when we're coming.
We're next. Yeah, that's it.
Well, we got it. We got another, uh, guest coming up. Could let everybody know who, like, how to get a hold of you?
Absolutely. So my company is, uh, Family Advising Legacy, and it is 281-703-3185. Again, 281-703-3185. Give me a call. I'll be happy to help you.
And the restaurant, I mean, his website?
The restaurant is Porky's Belly BBQ. And you can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and come out and visit us on 2854 and Homie Egypt.
Great location. I love the logo too, by the way.
Thank you for sitting down with us. So good to meet you.
Thank you guys. Appreciate you guys.
You got all your life insurance squared away there?
I was asking since he's sitting right next to you.
No, thankfully we do. I can always use more. I can always use more because You just never know. Uh-huh.
Your wife was asking me, she was like, should I get more?
And I was like, I mean, you know, it depends on what your plans are.
Bring it back on her. All right, come on, grab a seat.
What's going on? Say, 10's fine. Yeah, yeah, you got this. That way you can hear, bud.
Man, I've been good. How you been?
Yeah, as much as I want to.
Yeah, well, for people that hadn't met you before, let everybody know who you are and what you do.
Well, my name is Rudy Kalunga and I own RC Pressure Washing. Um, I'm out of Spring, Texas, but kind of handle everything from North Houston to Willis.
Oh, it's pretty big, pretty big area.
For residential. Uh, for commercial, bring it on. I've done jobs in Dallas, uh, Galveston, uh, San Antonio, and Lafayette.
Okay, so willing to travel?
I'm gonna pick that up before you do it. You're taller than our last guest.
So has, has any of the storm stuff like, like brought you in to clean stuff up like that, or is it— is, is that not something that drives your business?
I didn't know with like the flooding and different things like that.
Some people have mentioned it, but I feel like it's more of a luxury service sometimes.
Priority is going to be your home. Priority is going to be your fences and roofs and things like that. So I don't even really try to advertise at those times because I feel like it's not a necessary thing.
If people need it, they're going to call me.
After storm cleanup. So, there might be a bunch of mulch or something that gets run off, but again, are they going to call me for that? No.
Yeah. So, what is the thing that you observe that most people don't realize that can be cleaned or pressure washed? I mean, is it like roofs? Fences. I mean, because I think, I think what most people think of is like driveways.
Most people think driveways.
And maybe like washing the house or something like that. I mean, which, I mean, like, are things that you do. Pool decks. Okay.
Pool decks is another thing. They see it, they walk by it all the time, but they don't realize it can be soft washed. It can be brought back to life, right? Yeah.
Um, let's talk about that for just a second. I was going to talk about the difference between soft washing and pressure washing.
All right, well, basically anything that's not concrete gets soft washed.
Um, does that include like metal? Like metal, like a metal building?
Like a metal building, that would be soft washed as well. Okay, you're gonna spray a chemical compound mixture that kills algae and mold and prevents stuff from growing, but also breaks the adhesion with dirt and spider webs and anything like that that can be rinsed off and cleaned. And then you rinse off at a high volume but low pressure.
So you're using the same equipment, you're just, you know—
Yeah, adjusting the pressure. And you don't adjust the pressure by actually changing the pressure. You actually change the pressure by swapping out the tips.
On the wand. The larger the tip, the less the pressure because, right, less restriction.
Right, that's what actually causes or creates the pressure, the smaller the tip. Obviously your pump is outputting so much.
Right, but if you open up that end, right, or even Then it's not creating that pressure.
Okay. Well, so what, what are some things that you see when you, when you walk up, when you, when you approach a building?
You're like, oh my gosh, like this, this got on here. Like, this is going to take forever to get off. What are the things that you see that are like, this is the absolute worst?
When people want me to wash their home, Mm-hmm. Windows and everything. I can do that.
You have the black mulch around your plants and everything right up to the house.
That creates something called artillery fungus. And there's these little black dots all over your house windows, and I can't get that off with your regular house wash. Even with windows, I have to use fingernails or credit card and scrape each one off. And I'm not gonna include that in your regular price. If you want it, I can do it, but I'm charging by the hour. Yeah, and that's because I don't know, I'm not gonna count every one and be like, you have 169 artillery fungus shells on your window. No, I'm gonna wash your house, and then if they want that, hey, yes, it'll take me about this many hours. And you're gonna pay whatever, however many hours it is. But I will get everyone off. I will make sure if you want
And so does that come exclusively from black mulch?
And it's not something that just comes off. You can't scrape it off with the brushes, hard brushes, and it could still even leave little dots.
Yeah, well, but I mean, mulch, man. Yeah, so many people use it. You need it. Yeah, I mean, it's healthy for your, for your, you know, for your gardens.
And I have my own opinions on it.
Yeah, I mean, y'all do what you want, man.
Pine needles are really good too.
Pine needles are great, man.
Pine needles are great, but if y'all ever get into, uh, y'all ever heard about permaculture and That style, forget about pine needles and mulch, right? Um, I have a friend and a couple friends that are all into it.
I don't know anything about it. I've never heard about it.
Never heard of it? Okay, basically you can create an environmentally— a forest, you know, you have large trees that produce fruit, then you have smaller bushes like berries, and then you have— and they're all— they regrow, right? Uh, let's say green beans now. Green beans and beans create a lot of nitrogen in the soil, right? Uh, or in their leaves. So, all you got to do after you pick the green beans or beans, you chop them down, let them, and that's your mulch.
Now, the berries get all the nitrogen they need, and now your, your fruit trees Right, and it's all a symbiotic relationship. If I go to a house that has anything like that, I'm not using any chemicals. I have options for eco-friendly solutions or just say, hey, I can charge you using just water and pressure, but again, you're going to pay for my time instead of the chemicals this time.
This whole concept of permaculture is really big with HOAs because there's a lot of people who are bucking up against growing lawns instead of growing food and establishing permaculture in their lawn. Because there's people that are saying like, look, we're wasting all these chemicals in irrigation on grass that's not feeding any sort of agriculture. It's just there for appearances.
Instead, we could grow really beautiful lawns that grow food with trees and bushes and, you know, vines and all these kinds of things. But HOAs are pushing back on it because it's it's not as pretty as manicured grass. And people don't like it as much because again, it's not as pretty as manicured grass.
You can make it look gorgeous.
I mean, I'm gonna give a shout out right now to someone in my group here. They're called the Kalos Project, and that is literally what they're trying to do. They're trying to push their whole permaculture onto the woodlands. I mean, here we are in the woodlands. What is better than having trees that produce fruit and create a symbiotic relationship.
I don't think they are, but—
Send me their info. I'd love to— we'd love to talk to them. I mean, it's— it's a— I love that kind of stuff, man.
Man, I'll learn something.
Yeah, you never even heard of it. When I was in my early 20s, I had a friend in Austin— kind of working at Austin— um, but he invited me to this permaculture blitz, and I was like, what do you mean, we can go camping and drinking all night? Sure. It was They built these— they're called berms. And do you know the word? Basically, they're ditches, but they create them in a way to where when the water can collect and then it drains into like a zigzag shape. But on the berms or the mounds, that's where they plant. So what it's doing when it rains, it's collecting that water, right? And soaking the soil.
Yeah, yeah, getting the roots.
But with permaculture, it's not just the food, it's full conservation of water. So when I was there, we moved this big old 1,000-gallon tank into position, and they had this pipe to where all the gutters, right, connected to a pipe, and they had a downspout, but it wasn't directly into the pipe.
You have a cap, like it goes straight down with an L-shape or Y, And the cap collects all the particles, dust, and the water just filters into the tank.
So again, water conservation, using that now.
Yeah, well, there's— and there's— I know there's a lot of HOAs that won't let you do that. No, no.
But small 55-gallon tanks, there's ways to hide those barrels. I mean, you can put one of those barrels literally and And that's decoration.
Yeah, that's, that's cute.
But put, put 4 of them in your backyard now, and this just looks cute everywhere around.
Dude, there's a, uh, there's a famous TED Talk about this guy in, uh, Spain that created a permaculture environment for geese.
Um, and his whole point in doing it is he wanted Do you know about gavage-ing geese?
Like force-feeding them so that you can make foie gras?
So like there's a, there's a famous foie gras competition in France every year.
And every year it's been won by somebody in France. And so, but he created this just like, you know, utopia for geese where they would land and eat And there was so much food that they would actually signal to other geese flying by, they'd be like, hey, there's good food down here. And so they'd actually gavage themselves. And he, without force-feeding the geese, actually ended up winning the foie gras competition.
By having geese voluntarily land on his property to eat all the food that he had laid out and grown for them.
It's a famous TED Talk. You can look it up. It's really, really cool.
And people in France were not happy with him.
Uh, well, he— the guy giving the talk didn't do it. He was the chef that was invited to come check out the whole, the whole sit— what was going on there.
Um, so anyway, what I, what I wanted to get back with you on the, on the power washing stuff is, as you were talking about it, I was thinking in my head, I was like, we have so many like stucco homes here and there's like just different exterior you know, materials that we use on the outside of homes. I would imagine some of them, like stucco, you'd almost have to use a soft wash.
Yeah, no, like I said, anything that's not concrete, I'm soft washing.
there's like zero concrete homes. I mean, but I guess HardiePlank, you would—
Soft wash on HardiePlank. Okay, because it's technically concrete.
Technically, but imagine putting any kind of pressure on it.
I know, yeah, it's gonna crack.
I will use a surface cleaner, right, that I use on the driveway. I'll use it on a pool deck, but with that, I will actually physically dial down the pressure. I'd rather lose a $200 unloader that regulates my pressure than ruin somebody's pool deck.
I don't usually change the pressure on my machine itself.
Okay, um, just, just change the tips out like what you're talking about?
Change the tips out, which even then, okay, I have it set to a way that I don't have to except for pull decks, right? I'll change one all day because the possibility or probability of it breaking is slim to none, but it's there, right?
Um, she's giving us the signal.
No, I'm kidding. Hey, just tell everybody how to get a hold of you so they can get their house cleaned up, man.
Man, uh, you can get a hold of me on— let's see, first of all, phone number is 1-877-754-WASH. For y'all youngsters, wash means 9274.
Those of y'all that don't know how to do cursive, is that the—
Um, You can look me up on Facebook, RC Pressure Washing Texas. I'm in Spring, Texas. And, uh, from bulldozers to buildings, man, we wash your grime away.
Good to see you again, bud.
Thank you. All right. See who's next.
We got somebody coming up.
I think it's— I think Robert's coming over here.
We're going to talk electricity.
Oh, right. Yeah. Have we ever had an electrician on our podcast?
Well, I've talked to him before, but it's only been at these events. I don't think we've ever had him in the studio.
Oh, now you can see her again. There she goes.
So have you, have you been keeping up with the trial at all?
Well, I watched his statement after the— after they brought down the verdict this afternoon.
I mean, he's up there standing like, this is a sham. It's like, this is all done by the Biden administration.
This is all just to keep me from winning. Which, I mean, like, Is— okay, so it's not— it won't be— if he's in prison in November, it won't be the first time a presidential nominee is in prison during the election. It won't be the first time.
Okay, who is the other one?
It's like from the 1920s, and he was like a third-party candidate.
He's an insignificant person in history.
This is not an insignificant person in history.
Until now, right, when like it could potentially happen again. The difference is, is like this This guy right now, he's leading in every poll.
And like, and so it's looking like he'll be like, if everybody was to vote right now, at least according to the polls, the dude would probably be president.
Yeah. So, and like, so my question is, is like, if that happens, can he pardon himself?
That's, that's a good question.
I, you know, but like, even— okay, let's, let's say he can't.
If he wins, yes, whoever his VP would probably take the office for, for a while and then pardon him.
And then part— yeah, either way, he's gonna be in prison for a few months if he wins, and then he's out.
Here's, here's, here's Here's my guess. Let's say he goes to prison. He's going to prison. Well, let's say he's in prison in November. That's the biggest—
that's the big one. Well, the big one is if he's in prison in January.
Yeah, well, yeah, of course.
But you get out in December, Mr. Trump.
Like, I feel like presidential campaigns that I guarantee we're gonna be seeing him in his jumpsuit on camera talking about stuff. This will be maybe the reason that he winds up getting elected alone. Yeah, because I think it'll be— I think it'll be a thing, right? It'll be a thing. Enough of a thing that people will be like, I don't know, like enthralled.
Yeah, I, I don't understand it. Like, if, if this is coming from the other side, I don't understand the strategy.
I mean, no, I don't either.
I mean, like, I think it just brings more attention to everything.
I mean, you create a martyr. Yeah, man. Yeah. Dude, we're just sitting here, you know, we're talking about Trump. We're treading water talking politics here.
Yeah, please relieve us. Relieve us. All right. Can you hear okay?
Yeah, I think I'm good. All right, you good? How y'all doing?
Good, man. How are you doing?
All right, it's gonna be better if you just put it right on top.
Yeah, it's a new hat. I don't want to crush it. Literally first time I wore it.
I'm being weird. All right, we're gonna do it this way.
So get, get up there right close to it so you can hear—
everybody can hear you because—
okay, with the music in the background, it's Sure.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally get that.
I bet you have been crazy busy the last couple of weeks.
Yeah, it's been, uh, pretty busy. Uh, you know, we just kind of stale on the generator, uh, sector for a little bit, and then all of a sudden it just seems like it's out of control, right?
Well, yeah, real quick, tell everybody who you are.
Oh, I'm sorry, I'm Robert. I'm with RWB Electrical.
Uh, it's really cool because there's like lightning right behind you.
That's awesome, right? So, uh, yeah, yeah, we're local here in Montgomery County. We've We take care of— actually Montgomery. We take care of the whole Montgomery County area.
So do you guys try and stay in Montgomery County, or—
We go outside a little bit. It all depends on what's going on, if it's emergency. I mean, if we're really busy that day or not, uh, we try to stay local as much as possible.
Uh, of course we was in Baytown for 15 years, so we're like over there a lot, but we're trying to shut that down because this takes a lot of our time.
Driving an hour and a half there, it's like a half day.
And that's like all commercial kind of stuff over there, wouldn't it?
Well, We used to be all commercial.
About 3 years ago, we went ahead and made a transition and changed our company to residential and commercial service.
I used to do nothing but construction. I used to do new banks, ground-up restaurants, and decided to get out of that.
did that for 15 years. It wasn't a great experience. Always thought I could do it, and we could do it. It's just there's really no money in it.
You know, so decided to get out of that, get into service, and There's a lot more better gratification on this side of it because you get to help customers and people who really need it versus some GC who could care less about you.
That just wants to yell at you. Yeah, I know.
Because you gave me 20 of them.
That's it. Yeah, it was running around like crazy back then. We are now, but not near the same level.
So, well, and so you mentioned generators. I know that that's got to be something that's at the forefront of a lot of people's minds right now.
Oh, definitely. You know, we— and there's so many different kinds. I mean, everybody thinks they got to get the giant one, which I try to tell people, get the biggest one you can afford. There's a couple reasons for that. One is the efficiency of it. It's just like, like driving a car. If you floor the gas, you know, if you floor it, like a small generator start working really hard, right? It's like flooring your car and you just watch the gas needle drop versus, you know, you got a big generator, it's handling a lighter load. than the generator can handle, it's like sitting on cruise control. You're just barely sipping the fuel, right? So it's a lot better. Plus, when it's not working as hard, 100 miles an hour, the motor
lasts longer, everything lasts longer. The generator is not taking a beating.
You know, so, and then, uh, and then also there's other options. People get portables, you know, they want to do a little plug-in versus a whole home, right? And that works too because that's a lot more efficient. I mean, those are about $950 versus $10,000 to $14,000, $15,000.
Well, on the ones that you guys, like, what you're recommending, you know, get the most that you can afford. I mean, are you liking more of the natural gas, the propane? I've even seen some that are diesel. I mean, those are the bigger ones, obviously.
Sure. Well, those prices skyrocket. Diesels are expensive. Yeah, diesels are expensive. Actually, when you get anything above 26 kW, Which is air-cooled. You start getting the liquid-cooled after 26 kW, prices just crazy go up.
What makes that happen? Why does it go up so much?
More demand. If you have a huge house, like you got a 400-amp service, 600-amp service, massive house, or multiple, you know, you got a shop or a mother-in-law house on the side or a swimming pool, and you just got a lot of stuff going on, you want more power too. be able to manage that for you. Of course, that's not very— I mean, 26, we haven't done one bigger than 26.
Yeah, so, and 26 is not that often. Usually 24 is pretty much the standard. And the funny thing is, a lot of people don't understand, like 18 kW is pretty small. Even, I think it may even make it a 16. 18 to 24, you're only talking a few hundred bucks.
It's like, why, why save $600, $800 when you can just jump up to 24, get a little more power, and of course you get all the benefits out of it.
Well, like, at 18, like, what should I expect to be able to run in my house?
An 18 kW, well, you can run everything, especially if you've got a gas house. If your house is gas, you're talking about like furnace, stove, right? All your big ticket items. All your big ticket items. Water heater. When I say that, I mean those are your big amp draw, you know, like heaters. If it's electric, well, they're massive. They pull a lot of amps. So if it's gas, that's great. Water heaters, dryers, your stove— a stove's another big one, you know. If all that's gas, I mean, you really get away with 18 kW, honestly, you know. But like I said, uh, it also gives room for growth. I mean, if you want to put a pool in, or I'm going to put a shop in, I want that to power that up too. Yeah. So
if you look a little further down the road, you know, you can, uh, get something bigger and it'll help you in the future.
I mean, you said something right there, and I gotta ask, are there people genuinely concerned about running their pool when they lose power?
Well, if they lose power, yeah, because what really happens is these pools get stale and stagnant and they'll start molding, and by the time they do get power back, it's a nightmare to get it back corrected. Yeah, so a lot of them want their pool running even though the power's out. Not that they're gonna be out there throwing a party, but it's mostly—
Yeah, it's just like the last thing in the back of my head is like my pool, right?
Right, you know, no telling. I mean, I'm not a pool guy.
Plus, I'm sure the equipment's sitting, not running. I mean, that might, that might cause an issue as well.
And it's not your question as to why, it's just your, your job to power it.
Oh, what do you— I got you, you know, whatever you need, you know. So definitely. But, uh, yes, that's— those are really picking up. I mean, literally, we've quilted 3 of them today, you know, and we got 1 or 2 more to do on Monday. And so, uh—
Are y'all typically putting in, um, for the transfer switches Uh, and then the— are y'all typically putting in a separate breaker box, or are you wiring it into the whole, you know, a shutoff system in, in the main panel?
We install automatic transfer switches. All depends on your service, you know, between 100 amps to 200 amps. And usually your transfer switches we use is 150 to 200, and they're automatic, so it senses.
Yeah, so it just happens.
It just happens automatically.
Now some people, they want to get like— especially if you get the portable Yeah, yeah. Some people want the little manual transfer switch. I want these kind of breakers to only work when my generator's running. And, uh, those, those become a little bit more complicated. But honest opinion is we usually just backfeed the panel. Yeah, I mean, dude, I tell a lot of people when we do portable generators, go ahead and fire it up, test your house while everything's 100%, kill your main, and just play with it. All right, which breakers I want to work? Is this operating properly? The generator's running just fine. Those are usually good for your Portables. Sometimes customers want the AC to run with the portable. Depends how big
that portable is. Uh, the biggest problem is what's called LRA, which is lock rotor amperes, and that's the initial startup of an AC.
To get that compressor kicking on. Exactly, soft start. I'm not going to say it does it every time, but generally if you put a soft start on the AC, your portable will fire it up.
Yeah, that's what I've got at my house. We've got a, we've got a portable, we've got the Duramax 13,000.
Yep, those are good ones.
HTX, it's tri-fuel, and I've got it on the running off natural gas, uh, which, which is only at, uh, you know, the, the— yeah, startup power.
Yeah, it's gasoline to get the most, get the most, and then, uh, with the natural gas next, and then propane is like bottom of the barrel.
Yeah, we don't— and, and, and plus you're not going to get very much runtime off propane. But like, but yeah, the natural gas, so we've had it running for hours and hours and hours and hours. And we can run our air conditioner and everything. We can run our whole house pretty much on that dude because it's huge.
Those little portables can actually be like a whole home generator, honestly.
And we got it. We went ahead and put the soft start on the, on the AC. So, you know, the only thing— I made a mistake. This is dumb. Um, I decided to save money and go with the electric, uh, dryer, but we have gas right at the dryer, and I should have gone with the gas dryer. That was dumb.
Now, the gas dryers are more expensive.
They are, but they save you a bunch of money in the long run. Yeah, sure they do.
And that's, that's something I should have done. But, uh, beyond that, we've got, we've got a, you know, natural gas, and so that makes it, that makes it nice on the generator because I just hook that thing up to gas and I'm good.
It'll run till it falls apart.
Yes, it will. It sure will. And that thing, that thing runs nice, man.
Yeah, and that's, that's the great thing if you got natural gas because And you get the tri-fuels.
Because don't get me wrong, the gas is great, but man, if you're out of power, man, you got to have like 16 gas cans.
Oh no, no, chasing around everywhere trying to get too much. Yeah, so this is really nice. Actually, they just came out with a 15,000. Have you seen it?
Actually, they came out— the one I just seen is 16, but that's a dual fuel. Oh, is it dual?
That's a dual. Okay, so the tri-fuel is a 15, and I was like, oh man, if it— that would be nice. Yeah, that would be nice. But I know I'm not about to go buy it because I got 13. Honestly does fine. It does fine.
If it's doing what you need.
I mean, but my deal here's— and this is where, where the rubber met the road for me— is we live on some property and we have a well, and without power we don't have water.
Yeah, that's an issue. And so we have city—
so we don't have city water, so we have to have the well running. And so, you know, if we lose power, that's a, that's a big, big deal. So that's why we went ahead and did it, and I bought just the biggest dude I could find at the time.
What I mean, like, on these— because I mean, when you start looking at like 5 figures on some of these kinds of things, I mean, like, not a lot of people keep that kind of cash on hand. Are they able to finance them?
Definitely, yes. We got a third-party financing company that we use, and they stretch them out as far as you want, short as you want. They work. Now, that part I really don't see because Between the customer and the finance company. They give us the green light, hey, you're good, you know, we're down or whatever. And it's totally between the customer if they want to use that person or not. Yeah, but like most banks, I mean, they'll give you like a 5-year whatever. That's something— I mean, these guys will stretch that thing out like 15 years. Oh wow. To where your monthly rate's like next to nothing. Yeah, you know, because it is a big thing to— sure, to drop down all at one time for sure.
Do you know what kind of rates they're getting on them right now, or is that something you're not able to see?
29%. Jeez, just use your Home Depot card.
Exactly. Yeah, it's not like that. I mean, I, I can't— I'm not 100% for sure. I want to say 10-ish. Okay, somewhere in that neighborhood. Yeah, I mean, that's so— I think I've heard some customers say 10-ish or 12-ish, somewhere in that neighborhood.
But, um, it's a sliding scale depending on how good their credit is.
I think there's 3 or 4 tiers that you're in. Okay, so it all depends which one you fall in.
Yeah, you know, so Well, listen, we're getting the signal from Sarah. Let everybody know how to get a hold of you and, uh, yeah, definitely.
Uh, once again, my name is Robert. Christy is my wife. She's the one that usually answers the phone. We're with RWB Electrical Services right here in Montgomery County. Our phone number is 832-307-7967. You can find us on Google.
Awesome, man. Dude, thanks for sitting down.
Lots of good stuff. I appreciate y'all's time. Thank y'all very much. Y'all have a great evening.
Dude, you too, bud. Good to see you again. Oh yeah, man, that's on my list, man.
Dude, I'm telling you, I'm so glad.
I have a generator. Yeah, yeah, and I, I can, I can run stuff that I need. I couldn't run my air conditioner or anything like that right now. You have to have that, you have to have that transfer switch.
Yeah, you, you definitely have to have that transfer switch if you want to run your house. I mean, yeah, and it wasn't too bad. I mean, we We, uh, we got it installed for, for a fairly good price, and we put ours on our entire breaker box. So it's got a, it's got a manual override that, uh, turns on a 50-amp breaker. Okay, 50-amp breaker then can run whatever it is.
I've seen the systems, they're awesome.
They are. I mean, they're great. Yeah, totally worth it. Totally worth it, dude.
Um, there's also a, uh, there's a report that just came out, will probably be coming covering this on the next episode. But anyway, they've just said that, like, expect rates to hang out at 7% until after 2026.
They came out and said, like, we're not changing them. And this is actually part of the reason that we know that that's probably going to happen is, and this is election stuff, that, you know, One of the things that they're talking about is the guy that manages that, we can't— they can't replace him until May of 2026. Oh, that's when his term is up.
That's a long time from now.
And so that's the earliest they could fire that guy.
And replace him with somebody that might do something a little bit different to get some better terms for homeowners. But they All the banks are saying right now, like, look, and that's, and that's what, like, that's what we're saying. And I actually think we have a real estate guy coming up. Yeah, we can talk about this. Um, but that, that's what to expect if you have good credit.
I know, I know, dude. I— so I was telling you earlier about my vehicle. Like, I was looking to go buy a used vehicle and like 6 to 7% was the best I could get even through a credit union. Geez, it's tough.
Yeah, we do have some Weather.
Yeah, that's— I was choosing this. Maybe our last one because it looks like the storm's gonna be here in about 20 minutes.
Let's go. Could be sooner, could be in a minute.
Yeah. Corey, what's up, man?
Hey, what's up, dude? We're doing the Rolling Thunder issue. Yes, podcast tonight.
Yes, we are. How you doing, man?
Man, I'm rocking and rolling. How are you?
Good, good. Introduce yourself to everybody that has not met you before. You've been on our podcast before.
I've been on the podcast 5, 6, 4 times. I don't know, a couple, a few. Anyway, Corey Reeves, Reeves Realty Group. We're Adam Montgomery, husband and wife team serving all of your real estate needs, covering Greater Houston and anything in between.
All right, that was nice.
He was on our most controversial episode that you weren't there for.
It was, uh, Corey and Steve and JoJo and I.
Oh yeah, I heard. I listened to that episode.
You really did? The whole thing?
I was a glutton for punishment, I'll just tell you that.
We went off on about 15 million tangents, dude.
I, I was like, what is this about?
It wasn't. Yeah, that was the whole point. I needed to wear a Teflon hat when I was done.
I was like, man, I guess I really am the glue that holds this whole thing together.
Well, you know, there wasn't much to begin with, Kevin.
It was, it was hanging by a thread, as it were. Yeah, for sure.
Corey, we were, we were just talking— one, we were just talking about political stuff.
And the reason was, I was telling Kevin, there was a report that just came out about how— is it the SEC? Man, I can never remember the name of these organizations. The ones that govern—
No, not the radio. The interest rates.
I'm gonna get— I got rated for this.
I can never remember stuff like this.
Anyway, the guy over— all the banks are now saying like we should expect expect 7% to be the norm into 2026.
and that's like for good credit.
Is that what you're hearing as well, Corey?
I don't have a crystal ball. So that's the thing is what I will not do is go speculate. All I can do is what I'm hearing. And it says I can draw a line in the sand between half here and half there that say it's going to be in the 5s or it's going to stay in the 6s or it's going to go up. Literally, We don't have a roadmap. I wish I had a crystal ball. I'd be really rich right now if I did.
All we can do is navigate.
Yeah, well, I'm gonna relate it to real estate, right? Anytime is a good time to buy simply because real estate always increases. No matter what the interest rate does, it always increases in value. So whatever you paid for it, you're gonna be earning equity on your home. Right, regardless of the interest rate. So when the interest rate does drop, you're gonna earn even more equity because then you can sell it and people will pay more for it and you will recoup your money.
Yeah, I mean, you're paying it down and it's probably gonna increase in value.
It's always gonna increase in value.
So you're, you're at this point where you're, you're creating a wider margin of equity all the time.
What I think is weird about this whole situation is real estate is so different from cars, right? Because if I go buy a car, car, like, you know, and I'm not comparing you to a car salesman whatsoever, but—
Yeah, but like, you know, if I go in to buy a car, I'm dealing with that one guy.
And that guy, what is— do you know what his question is every single time you talk to him?
Well, no, it's not what's your budget, it's what do you want—
what do you want your monthly payment to be? And you know why they do that, right?
Yeah, but like, that way they can build in everything.
But You can't do that in real estate because that's not even, that's not even your area. You have to take them to a whole separate person. Yeah, to even get there.
And so, which is good, it protects us, right?
And anybody starts talking about buying, the first question we ask them after we get to know them for a hot second is, are you pre-approved? And if they're not pre-approved, hey, we've got several lenders that, that, that we work with that we can refer you to. And you pick the one that best fits your personality and see what the programs are and pick the one and let us know which one that is. And then we can start shopping homes for you based on your budget.
Yeah, that's how we handle it.
Well, because otherwise we don't even— it's a shot in the dark.
Well, we don't go show homes to people that aren't qualified because we have no idea. They might be able to buy a million-dollar home or they might not be able to buy a $2,000 home.
Yeah, and like, and because you don't— I mean, like, that's private information.
Yeah, we don't, we don't get into those details until we start getting into the loan approval process with title and things of that nature. But we've already, we've already gathered a good relationship by that, by that time.
And I actually don't know this, are you guys, are you guys even able to see that information?
Is that because they offer it to you, or—
Most of the time when we deal with the lenders, we've got a really close relationship with the lender. Like if we're working with the buyer.
So we can help them over the pitfalls if they've got some issues, or we need to do some comps, or we need to ask for some sellers' concessions or things of that nature. We can do those based on numbers. So the lender and us and the buyers work really close together.
So that way, if they are a little short, we can, we can ask for different gauges. Maybe the sales price goes a little lower, or the appraisal didn't come in quite where it needed to. Yeah, will they, will they drop the sales price? Or if we need seller's concessions, which means the seller would give back $2,000 or $3,000, we could use that to buy into the loan. Or we've even been known to give our commission if it comes down to it. We've even given a percentage of our commission because we care that much and we've gone this far.
That we will give a percentage of our commission. Not always, and everybody watching, this is not Normal practice. But, but if it comes down to you getting into a new home, we, we will work with you and do the best we possibly can to get that done.
Isn't that something that they just changed the rules on about you guys being able to adjust your commissions?
So commissions have always been negotiable.
Anybody that says industry standard, set standard, typical price, It's wrong, okay? It became an accepted practice at 6%.
And I say 6% because the seller typically paid 6%, 3% on each side, right? So if you're for sale by owner, you're not paying any. Or maybe you're paying a buyer's agent 3% or 2%. That's not governed. So if you hire me and you want me to sell your house and you say, Corey, I'm not paying you 3%, I'll do it for 2%, and I'll look at you and say, what level of service do you want? I've got a 1%, a 2%, and a 3% service.
This is what comes with our 3%. It's full bore. It's marketing, paid advertising, Facebook generation, reverse prospecting. I mean, direct mails. We spend a lot of money to get your home sold.
So all we're doing is asking for 3% to recoup some of our money because we still have to live too.
So, um, people have a misconception of we shouldn't make any money for some reason, and I haven't wrapped my head around that. Yeah, because the amount of work that we do for free is amazing.
We don't work— we don't get paid until we hit a table, and then we hear close and funded. Yeah, right. So, so commissions have always been negotiated, right? And I will I'll tell you, like, say Mr. Craig's selling his house. He gets Corey Reeves out there, Reeves Realty Group, and says, hey, so tell me, what can you do for me? You're interviewing 3 other people. Well, the other 2 people said I can charge— they're only gonna charge me 5%. I'm like, okay, are we gonna cut ours or are we gonna cut the buyer's? Well, well, I don't want to cut yours. Well, why not? Okay, because that gets in my advertising dollars. Well, it's true, it
does, but I can do this for 2% and we can pay 3%, but this is what you're gonna get. Oh, well, let's cut the buyers. Okay, so here's— so here's the—
Yeah, so here's, here's the deal with the cutting the buyer side, right, is the 4 houses that are listed around you that are all listed at 3% You're gonna be listing for 2%. So if you don't want to cut mine, you want to cut theirs, and I'm an agent and I'm out showing properties and there's 3 houses around you that are offering 3% to the buyer's agent and you're offering 2%, what houses do you think he's gonna go show?
Yeah, I'm not gonna— I'm not gonna even push your house.
Do you see what I'm saying?
So these are legitimate conversations. It's coming up really hard, really fast. As of July, we're not allowed to put the commission in the MLS anymore that agents can see.
That's what I was— that's what I was—
That doesn't mean it's going away. We just now have to make a phone call to that agent and say, are y'all paying a buyer's commission? And if not, then you need to have a conversation with your buyer at that point and see if they want to make up the difference.
And most of the time, the buyers are trying to get a down payment. Yeah, they're trying to close on a home which is costing them money, and now they've got to pay your commission.
No thank you. So I'll find another house. That's what it boils down to. I'll find another house.
Do you see where I'm going with this?
So commercial has always been this way, and commercial typically pays 4%, but it's never advertised. You have to call. So now we're gonna have to call all the houses that they're interested in and ask if they're paying a buyer's commission, right? And if they're not paying a buyer's commission, then you have that conversation your buyer and go, hey, Mr. Buyer, they're not paying buyer's commission on this house. Are you— do you still want to go see this property, or do you want to go see the other 3 that you like that are paying 3%?
Yeah, and at the end of the day, is that 1% really that worth it to you? Most of the time it's not. Now, if you're on a $3 million home, that may— that 1% may really matter, but actually it's quite the opposite.
If you're in a $3 million home, the percentages don't matter much at all. If you're looking at $350,000 homes, it matters a lot more on those than it does on the $3 million.
Because if you got $3 million, then you got money and you're not worried about a percent.
2% is still okay on a $3 million one. Correct.
Yeah, yeah. So where the rubber hits the road and it gets really kind of nitty-gritty is like your first-time homebuyers that are barely scrimping to get a down payment to get into a into house. a house and even asking for down payment assistance on a DPA through their lending company, and we're even trying to shave points and do other things to get sellers concessions, and then all of a sudden we don't get paid for that?
Yeah, a lot more work for a lot less money.
But I don't think a lot of people realize that. I don't think a lot of people don't look at it that way. No, but that's because, you know, when you're in a lower tier, a lower buyer's market, yes, I mean, you're— most, most people are having to scrape it together like you're saying.
And so they're looking for every corner to cut that they can get.
We pride ourselves on helping people that can't, that are looking for rentals, and we turn them into buyers. But it takes work.
This was my whole beef with the whole situation, was like taking away the ability from real estate agents to negotiate their commissions. Because one of the best ways for guys that are just getting into the business to get a foothold is to be able to work for cheaper than the more experienced guy. And I don't— so like, don't take that away from them. I mean, because they need some lever to compete. So when all that stuff was coming out, it was just bugging me.
So you can do 1% listings, but you just do online and you never have consultations, and all you do is put it on the MLS, and there's literally nothing else that comes with it. Maybe a sign.
You know, and you take pictures with your cell phone. Because those are the ones that we actually hire professional photographers to come out and make your house look good. Yeah, we'll even do video tours if you want. So I mean, it's— we do drone footage on our acreage properties. That way you can get a whole view of all the, all the points of the property. So we're getting, we're getting the, the stare, the stare that we're fixing to get murdered by— murdered, death, killed by tornado.
She's awesome. She's keeping us honest. All right, real quick, you let everybody know how to get a hold of you.
Cool. Corey Reeves, Reeves Realty Group, husband and wife team out of Montgomery, Texas. It's 281-932-2423. Again, 281-932-2423. Reeves Realty Group, reavesrg.com. And our tagline is Relax Your Home.
Always good to talk to you.
All right, I think we, I think we got one more. Okay. And then we're gonna— this A storm is a-brewin'.
It is. I can see it. I can feel it. Yeah, yeah, it's coming.
Hello, hello. Put these on so you can hear yourself and hear us as well.
All right, all right. And, uh, don't, don't be afraid to get—
You got her in the shot there?
All right, all right, let it—
I pull that right up to your mouth right there. There you go. Let everybody know who you are and what you do.
Awesome. Um, so my name is Sienna Nunez. I am an insurance broker for Goosehead Insurance.
Yeah, so I do everything property and casualty, so homeowners insurance, renters, landlord, tenant, auto insurance, uh, watercraft, so, you know, boat, motorcycle, ATV, kind of covers you know, everything in one.
So you kind of had a big day the other day with the hail. Are you getting some hail calls?
Yeah, I did get one, um, something about, you know, a roof. It was just one good thing I was able to, to get us— to get him to our service department. We have a great service department that takes care of all that. So, right, we're more on the sales side, so we handle, you know, starting them up with the policies. But anytime, you know, we have a customer that needs help as far as a claim, questions updating their policy, changing effective dates, you know, we have a great service department for that. And, you know, they call us and we get them immediately, either schedule a call, service to call them, or we can immediately transfer them as well. So yeah.
Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, I mean, I imagine they're coming. I mean, like, yeah, I mean, yeah, I just watching Facebook, I could, I could just hear the roofers salivating. Oh yeah, they're everywhere.
I mean, and It was everything from marble up to golf ball size hail. Oh, dude. And it was.
Did you see the video I posted about it? Where it was hitting the skylight?
Yeah, like it was it was marble sized hail and it's a pop pop pop pop hit my skylight. So I did like a thirty second video and it was it was like hearing like a gun go off.
Yeah, it's not good. Yeah, it's not good. Well, and with just with the storms that were happening, I mean there's flooding. The flooding has been bad. So you got homeowners. insurance that are probably being, you know, looked at. And that's another thing, let's talk about that for just a minute since, since, uh, flooding is such a big deal.
We've had that too, yeah.
Do y'all offer flood insurance on top of homeowners?
Yes, um, so that's something completely separate from our homeowners. A lot of— and it's crazy, me getting into this insurance industry, a lot of people don't know this. Um, they think that flood is included with the homeowners insurance, and, you know, it's Especially not here. It's not. It's not going to be. It hasn't been. You know, so when they have, you know, rising waters, they're like, oh yeah, it's covered under my homeowner's. It's like, no, that's water backup. That's completely different water damages within the home that's caused by that. That's— you're protected under, but not for flood.
So isn't flooding covered in renters insurance though? Because it's only like the items within the home and not the home itself?
So, it depends on what kind of renters you're talking about. Are we talking about landlord or tenant?
So, tenant, that's going to be on the landlord side. So, for tenant, a renter's tenant, that's going to cover personal property within the home. So, it's not going to be— the home itself is going to be on the landlord to have that renter's insurance as far as that goes, because if a flood comes, that's their property, they own that property. So the renter, the tenant, I guess we want to say that way. I know we got to kind of specify it, right? But the tenant is gonna have to have their renter's insurance as far as personal property. If, you know, they get broken into, a window's broken due to, you know, that's not the landlord's fault that somebody wants to break in and grab their belongings.
If a window's broken, you know, any type of breakage into the home, They're gonna have to take care of that, the tenant is. But as far as flooding, that's, that's on the landlord to have because that's their property.
But what about the contents of the house, like the furniture and all that? I thought that was covered by renters insurance, covered flood damage to like your couch and your bed and your appliances.
For a tenant, yes, yes, yes. Okay, yeah, in that aspect, yes. So yeah, they're gonna be covered for that in the event that something happens. They have that coverage there for the personal property.
I think that's where that assumption comes from.
You know, is most— because most people make the transition from being a renter, yeah, to owner. And when they were a renter, they had renter's insurance that covered flood damage to their property, just the, you know, appliances and all that kind of stuff. And so then they assume when they get a homeowner's policy, like, oh, flood insurance is included, because they never asked the question. They didn't know, and they didn't listen to this podcast.
Right, right, right. They gotta listen to the podcast.
There's a lot of gray area. I did a Lunch and Learn the other day with Carswell Real Estate, and to know that so many realtors don't know how flood insurance works, right, and what it actually covers, there's a lot of gray area. And that's kind of scary, you know, because these are people selling homes, you know, and that's not, you know, it's not their job, you know, it's our— that's our job. But it's important to have these Lunch and Learns so that when they're selling a home and, you know, they're selling it in a high-risk flood zone, they understand—
What flood is gonna cover and what's— what flood's not gonna cover.
Expect a different mortgage payment.
Well, here's like situations I've run across that I think are absolutely insane, because when you buy a home, the person that you're buying it from is supposed to disclose things that have happened to the home. Well, everyone just assumes that everyone's honest.
And I can't tell you the number of people that I've talked to over the last 3 weeks that are in a house that flooded, and they said, well, the guy I bought it from said it's never flooded before. And like, all of their neighbors are like, who told you that? The house has flooded 5 times.
And there's ways of getting around that. I mean, like, if you paid cash for the house, the next thing that you turn around and sell it, you don't have to disclose anything. Right, because you don't know anything because you paid cash. You paid cash. And that happens all the time. Um, and so, but also I've heard like in River Plantation, and I'm sure this isn't what you guys are running, but like people were telling me like we opted not to get flood insurance because it was going to be $750 a month. And I'm like, golly, I mean like did you shop it around?
I mean, yeah, but here's the thing. $400 a month in a non-floodplain is how much it— I mean, $400 a year is how much it costs. $750 a month? A month. Now we're talking a whole different conversation.
$400 a year in a non-floodplain, that's okay.
That's like a crazy, really expensive car.
yes, you're talking about $70,000. And that's a payment that doesn't go away.
Yeah, no. No, that's for as long as you live in that home and you want to be protected.
I mean, have you written any flood policies here lately?
I have written some, and it's been a higher rate than what it was before the storm.
Unfortunately, you know, and these people— some people think that, oh, there's a storm coming, let me sign up for flood insurance. Well, there's a wait period for that. Yeah, the only way that you can get flood insurance immediately is if it's a new home purchase, like you're closing on a home. That is the only way.
But you have 30 days on that too, or 60 days.
No, on it. So if it's an— if it's a new home purchase, you can— it's closed immediately with like the home policy and everything. So like you have the 2 different quotes for flood and homeowners that can close immediately, just like you said the effective date is tomorrow and you're closing tomorrow.
But don't you get 60 days to do that?
I think what he's saying is you have 60 days after closing that you could add it on, right?
Immediately? Correct, correct, correct, correct, correct.
Because we did that whenever— so we bought our house first house that we had when we lived here in July. Well, we closed on it the beginning of July, and then Harvey was coming in April.
2 days before Harvey hit, I got flood insurance, and with 12 hours it was active because I just didn't know. I didn't know what the— I just didn't know what was gonna happen. And for $400 a year, I was willing to take the risk of buying flood insurance. And I was able to, and he was like, yeah, you're within 60 days, so you can go ahead and do it immediately.
Right. I guess what I mean to say is, you know, if somebody's been, uh, it's not a new home purchase and they've just been living there and they see a storm coming and they're like, let me get it real quick, um, 30 days is a wait period. So if the storm's in 2 weeks, you know, they're out of luck if they get flooded. Because some people, that's the way of the insurance trying to protect themselves. Oh yeah, you know, claims coming up and they're like now having to dish out all this money. For people that just signed up 2 days ago and now—
Well, and when you say new home, are you, are you saying like a new purchase or a new construction?
It could be built in '81 and it's fine.
Right, right, right, right, right. Yeah, not necessarily new construction, just new purchase in general. You know, helping the client out. And the client's going to know, it's going to be either told by the realtor, it's going to be told by the insurance agent, hey, you're in a high-risk flood zone.
And I'm going to ask a question, and I assume the answer, but I want to ask it. Are you getting better rates on new construction than you would older homes?
I have guesses. I don't know for sure, but I can— I mean, like, maybe you can tell us.
So new homes, new home builds are going to be way better on premiums. because the roof is brand new. Everything inside the home is new.
So there's not any cracks, there's not an old roof, there's not, there's not any problems with the home yet, you know. So you're gonna, whenever you, we go through the quoting process, everything's listed as brand new, as 2024 per se, let's say this year.
So the, the insurer is going to love that, the insurance company is going to love that because everything's brand new. But if you're going to give me a home that was built in the 1960s, the roof is 24 years old, that premium is different. And then depending on the area that it's in, let's say if it's in Brazoria County, that premium is gonna be anywhere from $3,500 up to $5,500. Yeah, for the year, it really just depends. There's some carriers that will exclude wind and hail due to the wind claims in the area, so you have to get a second policy. I just did one like that.
Yeah, I had to do 2 policies, a Texas Windstorm and a Texas Fair Plan, because nobody else would take them. So Texas Fair Plan was like my last option, and I had to bind the wind and hail policy through Texas Windstorm because Texas Fair Plan excluded it.
So, well, I've been, I've been hearing in the insurance underground, uh, so I mean, like, I don't know if you've been hearing any of this, but like, I've been hearing that about roofs in general, like, that, that's like in, in the near, very, very near future, just look for that to be either a separate policy from the homeowner's or to just be off the table completely, because there's so many insurance companies that have just taken it in the shorts of, you know, them having such lenient policies on roofs, generous policies on roofs, honestly, that they can't sustain them anymore. Like, people are just taking advantage of the system, and, you know, these insurance companies are having to, you know, shell out now $12,000, $15,000, $20,000, $30,000 on, you know,
roofs that are 20 years old.
I don't— I haven't heard anything like that. I think the insurance has a good way of protecting themselves from that. And in that way, how they protect themselves is because if the roof— you know, you're gonna have agents that are gonna manipulate the system because we have that access. We can do that. Yeah. You know, but that's whether we lose our license or not. Yeah, that's absolutely, you know, so it's like, are we going to really want to make this roof new 2024, this 2010 roof new?
To lose our license, you know, lose our job basically? No. I mean, some agents will, will do that just so they can get that premium. Yeah. Um, you know, and, and how the insurance protects themselves is, you know, they have inspections. So that's what happens sometimes is, you know, the agent will do that And then 30 days later, when the policy's, you know, that's usually when they do the inspections, insurance carriers, after the policy's been bound.
They'll go out there and inspect. And okay, maybe they're not going to be able to see, yeah, that roof's a 2016 roof, exact year. No, but they'll get a general estimate. They're going to know if a roof is a 2024 roof or if a roof is a 2015, 2011 roof. They're going to be able to see that difference, that amount, that extent of Of years, excuse me, of years, they're gonna know that. And so that's when that inspection helps, and that's when you get upset homeowners when they kick back saying, we're gonna cancel your policy if you don't replace your roof. And now they're dealing with this expensive replacement of roof due to their agent putting them in that situation.
Yeah, well listen, I could talk about this stuff all day. We have a bad storm brewing coming in right behind you. We need to get all this stuff taken down. Thank you so much for sitting down and talking. Give everybody your phone number, your contact information if they need it. If they need a policy, auto, home, whatever, I mean, let them know, let them know how to get a hold of you.
Awesome. Yes, uh, thank you guys for listening. This is Sienna Nunez. I work for Goosehead Insurance. Uh, if you ever need anything, you can reach me at 281-324-0451. Thanks so much.
Thank you. All right, well, now it's been good, man.
Yeah, it's been real good.
But it's time to be done.
I'm hitting the music because I gotta tear this thing down.
That's right. Thank you for tuning in. Thank you for listening. Thank you for watching. For everyone, uh, appreciate you very much. Hope everyone has a good safe night. It's been a lot of storms recently, at least down here. Stay safe out there. And, uh, look, if you haven't already subscribed, liked all the channels, please go do that. That really helps us. Leave us a 5-star rating review. Until next time, y'all, we'll see you later.
