Notion Smart Home Review

This is episode number 178 of The Homeowner Show. Whether you're DIY or looking to hire, we're here to help you find the best information and options for you and your home. My name is Kevin Hackett. Here with me is Craig Williams.

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

am here. I am here.

I'm laughing because I know what comes next.

Well, I, I almost wasn't here.

Nice. I'm gonna, I'm gonna get— we're gonna, we're gonna work that out eventually.

I don't know if we are. We'll see. We're on episode 178, man. I don't know.

Probably not gonna happen.

I don't know if we're ever gonna work the bumpity bumps out there. Some people just waiting for it every time.

But we've never even like given anybody any context as to why it's there.

No.

And I'm not gonna.

No.

So, because it's none of your business.

Sounds like some great mystery. Uh, yeah, I did something really stupid.

Uh-huh.

And I'm just glad to be here.

You want to elaborate? Uh, well, okay. Because I have the pictures. Did you put them— did you at least—

Nope. I didn't.

You should have.

I, I should have. Um, we'll, we'll post it somewhere.

Okay.

I have a video. Um, it's an aftermath video because I don't have a, a, a during math.

Okay. Video. So we have a cautionary tale for all you people out there. Yeah, we do. All of you veteran and non-veteran homeowners. Yes. It can happen to either one of you. Yes. But Kevin, Kevin wants to Fill you in to his, to his activities over the last week or so.

Yeah. So we're, we're, doing some things around my house. And, so I, I'm, we're, we were moving some stuff up into our attic. Right?

Mhmm.

And, I called you, actually. I was talking to you on the phone.

Yeah. We were on the phone.

Literally on the phone. And, so, so our attic, and we're putting stuff above the garage, and it's floored up there. Except for a few areas that are kind of, uh, on the extreme edge of the garage, um, attic. And, uh, so I was moving things kind of the outer edges, and I, and I found this piece of wood that was in the way.

Uh-huh.

It's like a little, I don't know, 18 by 18 inch piece of wood. It's a little press wood. I was moving out of the way, and I moved it to an area that wasn't floored. Right up there. And I'm thinking to myself, I'm trying to create some space up here. I might actually have a box or something that would— that I could just set on this because it fits in between the joists. No big deal. But I don't know. I don't know if it's gonna be right. So me thinking, thinking ahead a little bit.

Uh-huh.

And also not thinking fully because I am talking on the phone at the same time.

Multitasking.

Multitasking. And in fact, I'm using my phone as a flashlight because like the light's on behind me and so I'm kind of like blocked a little bit.

So I was on speakerphone.

Yeah, you're on— you— well, no, I was using my AirPods. So I had my AirPods in. Okay. And so I decided I'm gonna see if this thing holds any weight. And so being the smart thing that I, you know, should do is I just put my foot on it. I didn't think I'd put very much weight on it, but apparently I put enough on it.

Uh-huh.

And as soon as I did, that pressed wood, it gave right in the middle and broke, and I lost my balance.

Uh-huh.

And I went right between the joist through the attic all the way to my garage concrete floor.

Yep.

I mean, and it happened just like that, and I was, I was down. I mean, and then I don't have like some crazy high garage, it's a good 9-foot.

Yeah.

And I was standing on top of it from there, you know, so like it was a long way down. And y'all, I, I consider myself more fortunate than most in this moment because if you knew— if I wish I would have put it up— if you knew where I fell in my garage, I— it's a wonder I'm here.

Yeah.

At all. Like, so I felt so I have this, um, this shelving unit that is kind of in the middle of my garage. I know it sounds weird, but it's kind of in the middle of my garage. But the, the way you put this thing together, the legs kind of extend above the top shelf.

Right.

And it's just like a little corner, like an angle bracket.

Right.

Those are all exposed, right? The, the tops of those. So I fell between that and my table saw and my chop saw.

Safest place in the garage.

And my 2 propane tanks. Um, yeah, I— and like my lawnmower. All of these things are like right in this area, and it's a small— you know, it's a small walkway that I've got because it's a garage. I mean, you know. I'm using it as a storage on that side. It's a small walkway, and I fall literally in between the walkway, and I didn't hit any of those things.

I've seen the pictures, y'all. I don't know how he didn't decapitate himself.

I, I don't either. Now, I will tell you, I did hit my head on the concrete. Um, so immediately, I, I don't know what happened. I don't know if I It's very possible that I touched the end call button on the way down. I have no idea. Somewhere along the line, I lost a shoe too. Did you get that shoe back? Yeah, I did eventually. But, like, I, I apparently ended my call with you.

Oh, abruptly.

And I, and I, I've never even asked, did you hear anything? No.

That was the weird part. Like, I mean, like, I heard, like, there was, like, a slight kerfuffle. Okay. On my end, and then you were just gone.

Yeah. And I don't think you knew that I was in my attic. You didn't have a clue that I was in my attic, did you?

I'm trying to remember. For some reason, I did. I, I think I did know you were in your attic.

I may have told you.

I think you told me, like, hey, I'm up here moving some stuff around.

Yeah. I probably did.

I'm gonna talk to you while I'm, I'm doing it. And, like, all of a sudden, like, like, there was, like, a kind of, like, an abrupt sound, and then you— it was just gone. And I— and in my mind, I was like, oh, That dummy, he just dropped his phone, like, in between a rafter or something, you know, like, something like that. Or, like, he dropped it on a beam and it cracked in half. I, you know, like, I can't wait to hear.

Right. Right. So the next thing, so it, it was like a good 5, 10 minutes before I heard back from you. No.

Oh, yeah.

No, no, no, no, no. It wasn't that long. Yeah.

Uh-uh, because I tried calling you and no one answered.

So I realized, like, I hit immediately, and I said out loud— I, because I, I was aware enough that I was on the phone— and I said, I just fell through my attic. And then, um, the next thing I know, I've got a text message from you that says, is everything okay?

Yeah, because I was like—

Right. And so then I call you back, and I said, I just fell through the attic. And you're like, what? Are you serious? You know, um, that— you didn't try to call me back multiple times?

No, just once.

Okay, well, it all happened very quickly anyway, um, but So I literally was like, okay, I gotta figure out what's going on. So I wanted to make sure I wasn't actually hurt, right?

Mm-hmm.

I didn't think I was. I mean, I knew I hit my head, but I wasn't dizzy. I didn't like see spots or anything. And everything was moving okay. So I got up, I was like, where's my shoe? Okay, there it is. I put my shoe back on.

And something's gonna go right, it's gonna be me finding the shoe.

That's right, give me the shoe back. And so I walked inside and I'm like, hey babe, could you come here real quick? And she's like, yeah, sure. So she comes out of her office and I was like, I just fell out of the attic. Will you just check me and make sure everything's okay?

And she's like, yeah, you got a couple of good scratches on your back. She's like, this is the lamest come-on that you've ever used.

Yeah, yeah. Here, take my shirt off, won't ya? And, uh, so I mean, I had a pretty good like rash, you know, I don't know, it was like road rash almost.

Yeah.

Um, on, on the lower right-hand part of my back. And that must have— like, the only thing I can think of is that was like coming through the 2x6s. I, I must have, I must have scratched up pretty good there. Um, other than that, like, that, that part of my back was sore just from like being raw. But other than that, I— it— I never was hurt. Like nothing.

It's crazy luck.

Yeah. Oh my gosh. And yeah, Ricky— I mean, uh, uh, my friend Risa here, she said you're very blessed. She lost a dear friend who died 10 years ago from something like that.

Oh yeah, man, people getting hurt.

Yeah. And, and I've heard multiple stories of, um, of people who, you know, break their back, break their neck, you know, get paralyzed, those sorts of things.

Yeah.

Um, and, and again, to know where I fell, like, I, I mean, there's so many ways that could have gone, gone poorly because I didn't— it was one of those deals where when I lost my balance, it was— I had nothing to grab onto. Like, there was nothing anywhere around me. I had my phone in my hand, so I didn't really even have a way to— I didn't know what I was doing. It happened so quickly, and then, then I was down. Yeah. And by that point, I mean, who knows? I mean, I could have been impaled.

Yeah. I mean, I climb around a lot of attics, so I mean, like, I, I think, I think a really good tip for something like that is just like make sure that you do have something. Like, I never take a step unless I know that I have my hand on something.

Yeah.

To at least like if I lose my balance, because I mean, I mean, you're basically walking on a balance beam most of the time up in there. And so like it's really easy to lose your balance if you don't have your bearings, if you don't have something to like take a hold of, you could, you could take a really bad tumble.

Yeah, yeah. And, and you know, I've been in a lot of attics myself, and I've been in my attic a lot of times, and I'm normally very, very careful about that. Man, this— I— it was just a It was a poor choice, first of all. And second of all, um, it just— I wasn't thinking.

Yeah.

Like, I was, I was on the phone while I was in the attic.

You were trying to get stuff done.

Yeah, I was. And I was— and not only that, um, there was a reason I was up there, and I was kind of in a hurry. I was trying to get things done quickly. I just was making poor choices. Anyway, um, so yeah, the— obviously the moral of the story is A couple of things. First of all, be very, very careful whenever you go up in the air. I'm lucky also that it was just a, you know, about a 9-foot drop. I mean, it could have been— I mean, I, I know people that fall 20, 30 feet, right?

Yeah.

And it's obviously very, very bad. Um, so I was lucky. So first of all, that. Second of all, don't do that kind of thing unless someone knows what you're doing.

Yeah.

Because honestly, if I wasn't on the phone with you and something happened, like, my wife would have been— it would have been a while before she found me. Right? My, my mother-in-law was actually in town, and she had gone to pick up the kids. So maybe she would have noticed, but she wasn't back for probably 30 minutes.

Yeah.

And so— and then the other thing is, like, newer watches, like, my— I've got an old Series 2 watch, but, like, the newer watches have, like, a fall feature on it. And I assume that if I had a newer watch, it probably would have picked it up. But, um, this old piece of crap, it was like, hey, the time is 4 o'clock. Thanks for that information.

But you know, you're talking about letting people know where you are. Like when I, uh, was hunting back in November, um, I was by myself. And you know, which it's usually good to go hunting with somebody.

Sure. Wink wink, Kevin.

Kevin was supposed to go with me.

Yeah, I know. Sorry.

But a lot of the new apps that they have have a feature where you can drop a GPS point and then text that to someone. And so like every day when I would go in, wherever I ended up, where I knew I was about to lose cell service, I would always drop a GPS marker and then text it to my wife. say, hey, this is— I'm gonna be in this area. Um, so that she at least would, you know, have an idea as to where I was going to be the rest of that.

Well, you know, there's other things like, and, you know, this would be a good thing for just children, different things like that. But like, um, you know, they got like the Tile, um, smart little devices. Apple has one now too.

It's like a little tag or what?

Yeah, tag or something. It's like a little size of a quarter or something. Drop it in your pocket. at least have something. I, I don't know, man. All I, all I can say is like, I've talked to a couple of friends. I've got some, some friends that are in insulation and, you know, they were like, oh, I can tell you this story or tell you that story. And, you know, obviously my friend Risa here was, um, telling a story of a tragic accident as well. So just be very careful.

Yeah.

You know, and honestly, like, if you feel unsure, just don't do it. I, I I mean, at the end of the day, it's, it's not worth it. I'm not kidding. I, I, I, I can't tell you how many moments I find myself— I mean, like, like yesterday, I, I've got a couple of spots on my elbow even. I don't know if you can see here. Yeah, you can see those. That, um, like, I, I— spot on my elbow was itching and I scratched it and got one of the scabs that came off. And, uh, I was going, man, I sure am glad I have that scab.

Yeah.

You know what I mean? Like, I'm glad I have that scab and not like a splint.

Yeah.

Or, you know, something else. I mean, it could have been—

Or not an arm. Right.

I mean, there's so many ways that could have— there's 100 different ways that could have gone differently than it did. And, uh, for me, literally, I was back up in the attic like 10 minutes later because I had work to do.

All good?

Yeah. Let's go.

Yeah, exactly.

Don't go over there, right? Because most of it is floored up there. It's just Anyway, yeah, dumb, dumb stuff. So anyway, that's not why we're here today.

No, no, but yeah, no, we, we are here to talk about the Notion.

Yeah, that— not just any Notion.

That's a pretty good notion.

It's a pretty— it's the Notion.

The Notion.

Yeah, uh, which is something that I had no idea. Craig literally was like, hey, by the way, I have a new device that I have to review. Yeah.

That kind of—

that went—

Well, it was forced upon me. I didn't really have an option in the, in the whole situation. Alright.

So divulge what that means.

So the— this device, well, it's actually 3 separate devices. So back that up a little bit. Previous guest on the show, Ryan Aduttle. He's, he's actually my insurance guy. Dude, he even insures my, my Apple Watch.

Oh, yeah. We've talked about that.

Yeah. Yeah. I'm still blown away that I can even do that. Mhmm. I think we actually have 2 or 3 jewelry policies with him.

Yeah.

But anyway, we had to switch our insurance provider.

Okay.

This year. And so we ended up going with this company called Hippo. And so when we signed up with Hippo, Hippo immediately mailed us this device called Notion, and it's motion Home— what is it? I gave you the phrase for it earlier. It's home something.

Uh, you told me, but I don't remember what it is. It detects—

Home sensor.

Yeah, it detects a lot of different things.

Yeah.

In your home. Yeah.

And so I was immediately kind of suspicious about this thing, which I think when you, when you start looking at all the different things that it does, you're like, okay, this is kind of weird. Um, But it, it is kind of cool, um, because you get to choose where you put it in your house. Anyway, it might be best to kind of describe what this thing is. So it is a hub that you get when they send it to you. It comes with 2 sensors. Okay. And each sensor can have up to 3 functions in any given room. And so, and you get to choose what those functions are.

So— Can you do, can you do the 3 at the same time?

Yes.

Okay.

Yeah. Yeah, and but it can only do 3.

Okay.

So because I think— let me see here— 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. It has 8 different functions it can do.

Okay.

But you can only pick 3 of them.

Sure.

For the room that you put it in. And so for, so for certain rooms, it's going to make more sense for different functions.

Yeah.

So I have one on my front door and I have one in my laundry room.

Okay.

Um, and those were options that it, that it gave.

Okay.

Um, so, and it's, it's surprisingly easy to hook up.

Um, what, what do you mean when you say surprisingly easy? Like you just expected it to be difficult?

I expected it to be—

Because it came from insurance?

Well, no, I mean, because like I've, I've hooked up a Philips Hue system. I've, uh, What's the— I've hooked up the Karma system. I've hooked up the— what's the, the smart switches that I have in my house that starts with an L?

Uh, the Lutron. Lutron. Yep.

Caseta. Yeah, I've hooked that system up before. Um, you know, even, even like setting up like an Alexa to a certain degree is— takes a little bit of time.

It's just you, you have to read the directions, you gotta try it. There's a whole process. Yeah, yeah, all those things.

So I expected it to be like that. Really, once I had the— oh, and like the Ecobee, setting up the Ecobee.

Yeah.

I mean, like, you know, plugging all the wires in, that whole process. Like, these smart devices, while creating convenience, can be frustrating to install sometimes. And I realize that all these companies are trying to do the best they can, but, you know, you know, with ease.

Yeah.

comes some work.

Sure.

Um, so anyway, right out of the box, I mean, you basically take the hub out, you plug it in the wall, you pull up the app, it detects the hub, and then you connect it to the Wi-Fi.

Okay.

And from there, you just activate the sensors on the app. The app connects it to the hub, you put it where the app tells you to put it, and then it asks you what 3 functions you want for each one of the sensors.

Wow, so it literally walks you through the entire process. Yeah, it's perfect.

Super easy. And like, the discs are, are the sensors, and they're about the size of a 50-cent piece.

Okay.

Do you—

now, now, do those stand up somewhere? Do they just lay down somewhere?

So they, they have adhesive on the back.

Oh, okay.

Because they're intended to like attach to a wall.

Sure.

attached to a door, attached to a window, all that kind of stuff.

Right.

Um, so you, you just take the adhesive off and put it near what it is you're wanting it to detect.

Sure.

So mine, um, on my, on, on my front door, it detects whether or not the door opens. It detects severe change in temperature.

Oh. So, like, if you leave the door open?

Yeah.

Or if there's, like, a hole through the door type of thing?

Or, like, yeah. Like, like, in the winter, if it got really cold.

Yeah.

If it's summer, if it got really hot.

Okay.

It would tell you.

Okay.

It's like, hey, the temperature just rose to— like, it— and it's done it a couple times now. Like, we've, we've had— we had those 2 days last week where it got in the 20s.

Yeah.

And my front door, at one point, it said, hey, the temperature at the front door just dropped to, like, 55 degrees. Everything okay?

Interesting.

And it is a notification it sent to my watch and my phone. Okay. Um, so it— temperature, uh, door open, close, and then it detects water leaks.

Oh, nice. Yeah.

Um, which is, is actually helpful for me because the water main coming into my house is like right next to the front door. Um, and, and then the other one, it goes in my laundry room. Now laundry room is kind of cool. Because in my laundry room I have a safe, and one of the options on the sensors is to detect whether or not your safe has been opened.

Really?

Yeah.

Okay.

So in my laundry room, it detects safe open and close, temperature, and water leak.

Okay.

Because it's my laundry room.

Sure.

And so those are the ones that I, that I opted to have. The other options that it has— I see we've got water leak, which we were— temperature change, It can detect a sliding door opening and closing. It can detect the garage door opening and closing, uh, the safe door opening and closing. It can detect a window opening and closing. It can detect an alarm going off, so it actually has a noise sensor on it as well, and then a regular door opening and closing. Now that could be an interior door or an exterior door.

Okay, so I guess my next question is, because those are all Those are all pretty good functions, right?

Yeah.

So can you get more sensors?

Yes.

How many sensors can it hold? Do you know?

That I don't know. I mean, like, on my app it looks like I have a slot available for like 6 of them.

Okay.

Um, but I don't— I mean, I don't see it. I think the issue would be how much bandwidth do you have on your Wi-Fi.

Sure. Well, and that, that's something that we've said multiple times here. Like, a lot of people they look at their, their Wi-Fi speed and they go, okay, I did the research and it shows that it only takes, you know, like 2 gigabytes of, of speed to, uh, to, to download a movie or a video, right?

Right.

So really I just need a small amount of, you know, Wi-Fi. I don't need the 500, I need like the 20. Right? Like, it's not that much. But you also got to understand, like, at my house alone— and my kids are small and we don't let them have a lot of devices or anything— um, my house alone, we got like 20 different devices on our Wi-Fi, right? Because we got— we— my wife and each have, have a phone, a watch, an iPad, a computer, a TV, thermostats, um, and I could go on, right?

Right.

There's, there's multiple things, and all of those take up a little bit of bandwidth. And so it makes sense. I mean, the more sensors you've got, the more things that are pulling your Wi-Fi, you know?

For sure.

So it makes sense.

Yeah. So I mean, it— but it doesn't seem like it's taking up that much.

It probably isn't.

No, but it does send me notifications even when I'm away from the house.

Okay. Yeah.

So like, I know every time my front door opens.

Yeah.

Which is kind of—

Do you like that?

Um, it's been helpful.

Yeah.

Like at night, I mean, because like my kids go out and they feed animals and stuff at night. And so like, I'll know, okay, like that's, that's them going to go do this, or that's them probably going to like, oh, what's that? Okay, I don't know, why is anybody coming in and out of the house?

Right.

Or, um, I think it was a few days ago, uh, the front door opened and I knew nobody was at home, at least in my house. And so I called somebody that I knew was on the property and I was like, hey, is my front door standing open? And they're like, yeah. And I was like, hey, I think, I think Clara opened the front door.

Can you go— That dog.

Can you go see if she's in there and get her out?

Right.

And sure enough, she'd opened the front door and just let herself in.

Wow.

So, so it's been helpful in that regard.

Sure.

Um, the other 2 things that about it that I thought were interesting— well, okay, so here's, here's the big one. Um, and this, this is, this isn't one of the things I thought was interesting about it. This was just like kind of a gut punch about it is I didn't want to put it on my house.

Okay.

Um, I was just like, I don't like this thing.

Which, which is one of my questions. I, I don't want to derail you too long, but why were you having to do this? Because this was not an option.

Not enough.

This was a requirement.

It was an option.

Oh, it was?

Yes.

Or like a ridiculous raise in your premium, right?

Exactly.

Okay.

Yes, that was the thing is like, you can choose not to put this on your house, but your price is going to go up by this amount.

Okay.

And it was like, well, I don't want to pay that much, so—

Right.

And this seems kind of interesting, I'll check it out.

Yeah. So, so why, why do you think that they were making you do this?

Um, because I, I think like with most other things, early detection or detection just at all can help prevent a lot of damage. that they are trying to mitigate not having to pay for.

Sure.

So, like, and I think one of the big ones is water leaks.

Yeah.

I mean, like, around here, I mean, like, you and I both know several people that have had massive damage to their homes because of leaks, right? You know, whether that be pipes freezing, pipes breaking, toilets busting, whatever it is. And it's, it's usually like a hot water heater in the attic or something that just, like, floods the whole house. Something like that. And so if you have a device that like can detect that water is leaking, then you're gonna be— have a better chance of getting it shut off before it causes a whole bunch of damage that they are then going to have to pay out for.

Right.

So it's in their best interest to have something that can do that.

Okay.

Um, and I think the same thing with temperature change. Temperature change usually indicates that there's an issue with your air conditioner or your heater.

Yep.

And so, like, if you can detect that before it really goes south, then you might have a better chance of repairing it rather than, you know, it breaking, potentially causing some damage, you know, all the— all that kind of stuff. And, you know, with the doors and the windows, well, that just decre— increases efficiency, which keeps mold and things from getting out inside the house. So, I mean, like, they're really trying, I think, to protect you while at the same time protecting their own interests.

Can it detect if you fall through the roof? Just curious.

Well, so like it, it can, it can detect like breaks. Okay. You know, it does have noise sensors, like if alarms are going off and things like that. I don't know if it would have detected you falling through the roof.

Probably not.

Uh, the ceiling. Um, but you know, maybe.

I don't know. So depending on where the sensor was, right?

Yeah, exactly. And that's, that's kind of the thing is you get the choice as to where you put the things. I don't know if they charge you if you, if you request more. I haven't looked into that.

Try.

Um, so I mean, it's, it's worth a shot.

Sure.

Um, I just haven't— I mean, I just wanted to kind of see how it went. Yeah. With the initial system.

Yeah.

And I've been pretty happy with it. I mean, like, it's very responsive. Um, so, and like, it does its job. The, the 2 things that I thought were interesting, uh, one, it has the ability to connect to IFTTT.

Oh, nice.

Um, I don't know, I haven't played with that yet. But I'm interested in that to see what it— because I would imagine like I could connect it to like my Ecobee.

Okay, so let's, let's tell people what that is real quick.

What the IFTTT? If This Then That. It's an app that you can— I, I think it's available on Android, right?

Oh, I'm sure.

So I know it's available on Apple. Yeah, I use it all the time to allow apps on my phone to talk to one another, basically. So it's, it's, it, I mean, when it's, what it's saying, it's a programming thing, basically. If this, then that. So like, if an app does this, that app then tells the other app to do this.

Right. So it's just a, it's, it's a communication between digital things.

Yes.

This way it is.

And an example of that would be a way I use it all the time is my wife always knows if, if my wife is home, she knows when I'm close to home in the summertime. Because when I come within 2 miles of the house, my map app communicates through If This Then That to the Ecobee. Because when I enter a 2-mile radius of my home, it changes the thermostat, right, to my temperature.

Sure.

And she doesn't like my temperature, so she knows that I'm on my way home. I like that I send a chill through the house before I arrive. So—

This ghostly feeling just entered.

Daddy's on his way.

Alright. What was the gut punch?

Well, so when I realized that it— well, I mean, the gut punch was really that, you know, hey, if you don't put this in, we're gonna raise your rates. So, and that was how we were able to get our, our home insurance lowered.

Sure.

Putting this device in. And I think I know how it's being paid for.

Okay.

So one of the integrations other than IFTTT is HomeAdvisor.

Oh.

And so it has the option within the app that says, hey, would you like us to contact a plumber for you? Or no, the way it words it is, we can con— we can have a plumber at your house within 90 minutes of a detected water leak.

Interesting.

I was like, that is interesting. Now, I'm not saying that's a bad thing.

No. Necessarily.

But for those of us who own small businesses, we hate HomeAdvisor.

Yes.

I mean, I, I, I don't know a single small business owner that likes that.

I've never talked to one. Um, every, every, every small business owner that I've ever talked to that likes HomeAdvisor, A, either has used them less than a month.

Yep.

Or B, have said it's a necessary evil. I've heard that. To which I say, that's not true. That's not true. I can promise you there are ways around that.

Yeah.

And that are much better. So if you, if you wanna know what that is, call me. But, but that being said, like, No, they're, they're a horrible company. And if you work for HomeAdvisor, shame on you.

Yeah.

That's how I feel about it.

I mean, personal opinion, it's a scam. It—

well, of course it is. So let's tell people what it is. Okay, real quick, I will tell them. Uh-huh.

I don't—

because I don't have a problem telling you.

Sure.

Here's what happens. You, you sign up with HomeAdvisor to any— because you need a plumber, right? Right. and you say, I, Kevin Hackett, need a plumber. HomeAdvisor then takes that information and sends it not to one plumber, but to as many plumbers as they can.

Right.

Typically 5 to 10. Um, and they're gonna charge that plumber probably around $50 every single time. plumber they can find. They're gonna charge them for your information.

Mhmm.

And so they're gonna tell you, we have all of these trusted people that we have vetted.

Yeah.

That are gonna be the best plumbers in the world to come to your house. Let me—

okay. And, yeah. And they do say that.

They do.

Let me tell you their vetting process.

Okay.

I get a phone call.

Uh-huh.

Craig, would you like to have more jobs in this area?

Mhmm.

That's their vetting process.

Yep. If you're willing to pay them, then they're willing to make you their trusted people.

Yeah.

Right? And they're even gonna send you a little nice little logo to put on your website. So whenever people come to your website, they're gonna say, look, you're a trusted HomeAdvisor representative. It's just a Trojan horse. It is. And, and the reality of it is your information is being sent to not one plumber person. They're sending it to 10. And they're, they're, they're getting paid every single time someone takes that information. And so here's, here's what actually has happens from time to time is you as a homeowner, you sign up with HomeAdvisor and you're like, how many people are gonna call me?

Yeah.

Like, I just wanted 1 plumber, maybe 2, but now I've got 10 plumbers calling me. Stop calling me. And the problem is it doesn't matter whether that plumber gets that job or not. They're paying $50 every time.

Yeah.

And they're calling you because they've paid $50 for that.

Yeah.

Or, or whatever the number is.

$50 worth of—

Exactly. And so anyway, they're not the only ones. Angie's Leads are the same way. It's the same company. And it is. The— they own— Angie's Leads owns HomeAdvisor. There's Thumbtack. There's Porch. There's, house.

Mhmm.

All of these places, just so you know, home— homeowners, these, these places are not your friend.

Unfortunately, they're not your friend, and they're not the business owner's friend either.

They're definitely not your friend. They are scam artists to the, the business owner. Yeah, that's my opinion.

And I—

and, and you as a small business owner can back that up.

Here's the other thing that irritates me is these other home improvement shows that have them on as sponsors. I mean, that should tell you everything you need to know about those people.

Yeah.

I'm, I'm sorry. Like, it's just one, it's tacky.

I, I'm, I'm done keeping my mouth shut. Like, that's the thing is like, it's just frustrating to know that, you know, when you Google plumber, these are the first ones that pop up a lot of times. Yeah. And so do your research. I promise you, you as a homeowner are smarter than the internet. So do your research.

I, I'd actually be really interested to hear if, like, someone's had, like, a good experience with HomeAdvisor or Angie's Leads or whatever.

It used to be Angie's List.

It's—

It used to be Angie's List. They changed their names to Angie's Leads. But you just see Angie's whenever you go to their website, but they're— they own HomeAdvisor.

Yeah.

And so it, it's just the way that works. But, yeah, I, I'm sure that there are some homeowners somewhere that have found someone that, that they're somewhat happy with. I don't know. I would assume that's the case. I, I've, I've still yet to find a small business owner that, that feels like they've been helpful.

The, like, in exactly what you said is the most positive thing I've ever heard about it. Well, it's a necessary evil. It's the only way I get good leads.

Yeah.

And it's like, no, no, no, sorry.

There's better ways.

And like, and like, I'm, I'm, I'm telling you guys this as somebody who's used their services.

Like, well, they're relentless when they call, man.

Here, here was, here was my experience with them. Hey, I need leads in these specific zip codes. And, and so it wasn't even— I never got any in those zip codes, and it was always the zip codes around those zip codes. And, and then they would send me the bill, and I'm like, I'm not paying for this. Yeah, like, why? I'm like, well, we had an agreement that you were gonna send me leads in these zip codes, and you never sent me any in these zip codes. You sent me in all the zip codes around those zip codes. Like, you did the exact opposite of what I asked you to do, and then you want me to be happy about it and pay you for it.

Right.

And like, I never closed anything because nobody was actually looking for the thing. And so like, if you really want to be like just a giant dick to somebody, just go, go ask for services on HomeLead and then never buy anything.

Yeah.

Because you've just literally cost Small local small businesses, probably $500. Yeah, in total.

Yeah. Yep.

So I mean, and but people do it all the time, and they're like, well, I'm just shopping.

Yeah, you're not shopping. No.

I mean, like you were just curious, and you were being lazy, and you didn't want to actually do any research.

Yep.

So, so, fooey on you too.

Yeah. My point, and you said it very articulate as a business owner yourself, but like. I, I think that you as a homeowner are smart enough to go on the internet and go, this company is doing a great job.

Yeah.

Right? You don't have to have HomeAdvisor or Angie's List or Houzz or Porch to make smart decisions about who you wanna hire. Right? That's what we're about here is we're helping you figure out who are the right contractors to go after.

Yeah.

How do I vet these contractors? How do I know who's a good contractor and who's not a good contractor. And if you don't— if you, if you are listening to our show right now and you're going, hey, Kevin, Craig, I, I've got an episode idea for you because I have this thing that I need done at my house and we've never done an episode on it, let us know.

Yeah.

We'll find someone. We know a lot of people, so we'll, we'll find someone and do it. And so the— but it's really interesting, this So this system, the Notion, is they're getting paid.

I had—

but they have to be. They are getting paid for by HomeAdvisor. And look, HomeAdvisor is a giant. They are. I mean—

Well, this is, this is very similar. So there is a— people, people do this all the time, and I don't, I don't begrudge them it because it's a good idea.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. It's a great idea.

It's Home— for HomeAdvisor, it's a great idea. Hey, we'll pay for these devices, If you will give us exclusive rights to creating the leads from water leaks. It's, it's because plumbing jobs, if there's a water leak, tend to be really expensive jobs. And so people will pay for those leads more. Like, I get it. Like, it makes sense. But, like, I just don't trust that company. Sure. And so, like, when I saw that, I was like, now I don't trust the thing.

They made a poor decision by partnering themselves with that. Yeah.

So there's a similar product in our industry. Uh, this company, they, they had a, a good idea, it just doesn't work, um, where they have a home injection system that they install on new construction houses in the area. And so they, they went to the builder and they're like, hey, we'll install these for free as long as you allow us to put our paperwork on the house and in the closing documents for all these houses. And so, like, their name is everywhere, is everywhere on these houses. And people think that it's smart because it's a device that the home— that the home builder had installed on the home.

Sure.

And it does seem in theory like a great idea.

It's a terrible idea.

It's the worst.

Yeah.

Oh, anyway, I don't want to, like, That, that company is, is probably a good company.

Yeah.

They're, they're doing good at getting their name. Everybody knows their name.

Yeah.

And because everybody has their product on their house.

Mhmm.

You know? And so, like, I, I get it. Like, it works.

Sure.

But it's a terrible product.

Yeah.

So, like, like, at the end of the day, if you're not delivering, like—

Then you're not a great company.

I get so much business from them.

Mhmm. Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

And, and, and that's— look. There are a lot of people out there that are very smart business people, but they don't have your best interest in mind.

Right.

They have their best interest in mind and they're out to make money. And so ask yourself the question, why, why is this person advertising to me? You know, and, and just, just do your, just do your homework. That's, that's all. We, we just want to empower you as a homeowner. Do the, you know, do the research. Shouldn't take that long.

Yeah.

To, to do, and you can find, you can find really good companies.

Yeah.

To do the work for you.

So, I mean, like, I, again, like, I haven't had any problems with this, this device.

Yeah. And I'm definitely— Well, and it obviously has some really, really cool features.

Yeah.

And you didn't have to pay for it. I didn't have to pay for it. Smart devices are expensive. Yeah.

I feel like I'm getting some of my money back from HomeAdvisor. So, but I'm not, I'm not integrating it.

Right. I, I won't use this. Because you have that option. Yeah, you can turn it on or off.

Yep.

Okay.

So, but it's the only 2 apps that it integrates with.

Okay.

So there you go.

There you go.

So, and, and no complaints from Hippo thus far. I mean, like, I haven't had to make any claims, but I mean, prices seem good. They seem to cover all the things I wanted to cover.

Yeah.

Um, you know, and I, and I trust Ryan to point us in a good direction. Sure. So, you know, there's a lot of, there's a lot of, um, Okay.

I'll say it this way. A lot of really big companies are good companies, but some of these smaller companies, their customer service is so much better because they have to.

Yeah.

I mean, for no other reason.

It's the only way they can compete.

It's the only— they, they, they can't compete on price.

Yeah.

They can't compete on product sometimes. They can't compete on, you know, maybe even a certain time frame. I don't know. But they can definitely compete on customer service and how well you get treated. So, you know, don't be afraid of some new companies. As long as you kind of do your due diligence and those sorts of things, they may be really, really good.

Yeah.

You know, I mean, look at Tachus, for example. I mean, Tachus, we've been so happy with Tachus internet service around here. They're small, small company. Now they've been bought out. But, well, I mean, that's— but they're still doing really great things. And their customer service— I still called the other day for a technical problem, and the same guy answered the phone that did before they got bought out. Yeah. And, and super nice guy. He helped out. It was awesome.

Well, and, and a lot of people around here look at bought out as selling out.

Yeah.

You know, and I, I understand that.

Like, we—

the big kerfuffle around here a few years ago was that Carbach beer sold out. I think it was like Heineken.

Budweiser. It was Budweiser, wasn't it? I, I don't remember. I think it's Budweiser. Yeah.

But anyway, they sold out.

Yeah.

Everyone's like, oh my gosh, this is the worst. How dare you guys sell out? This is a local craft.

And they kept the brewmaster. They did.

But like, when a company like that sells, it doesn't mean— a lot of times what it indicates is that they're doing something right, really well, because the people buying them either want their list of ideas and secrets Or they're like, hey, they're profitable.

Yep.

Let's take that thing and make it more profitable.

Absolutely. Um, well, a lot of times you can write into an agreement certain, certain criteria, right? Like, yeah, you can't do this or you can't do that. It's part of the, part of the agreement, right? Yeah, part of the sale of the company. And it's not a bad thing.

No.

Uh, but I, I do find it can be. It can, but not always, right? So The type of thing that this, this notion is very similar to what— who was it? Was it Allstate that did it first with the, with the car transmitter thing where they—

you plug it into the port in your car and it'll tell you how fast you're braking, speeding up, accelerating, all that stuff?

Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. And it gives you a discount over time. The better driver that you are, you get a discount on your, on your insurance. It's the same type of thing. Number one, they're trying to help you be a better driver. They really are. They're like, look, we're going to reward you for braking better.

Yeah.

And for not driving as fast and for obeying the laws a little bit better. And they can, they could take that data and it, it wirelessly uploaded, you know, to the internet, to the cloud, and you would get Discounts. Yeah. Um, and this is a similar type of thing. I mean, it's just one of those ways where an insurance company is going, look, we're trying to protect you, we're trying to help you be a better homeowner, all of those sorts of— because at the end of the day, a more efficient house is going to make you happier, right?

So it's going to lower your bills and it's going to do lots of different stuff.

Yeah. So there you go.

Yeah, it— I mean, like, thus far, I mean, like I said, super easy to install, does some cool things. Notifications work really, really well. I mean, you can turn them off if you want. I mean, it's kind of like the Ring doorbell. Like, if you don't want to be bothered by it, just turn it off.

Sure. Just turn it off.

So, but like, it, you know, it, it does some cool stuff.

Yeah. So, uh, my, my friend Rod actually just, uh, messaged us here and it said, um, that they have Brotherhood, Brotherhood Mutual. That's their insurance company. Okay. And they gave us a, they gave him a, a Notion as well. Okay, so how long?

So yeah, I want to know how long they've had it.

Okay, I'll ask. So Rod, how long have they had it?

Well, because how long have you had it? I want to know if like they've been, you know, because it's been more than a year. I want to know if they've gotten like a phone call from like HomeAdvisor.

Oh, you know, it's interesting.

Hey, any services you need? Like, uh, that's the thing, it's like, oh, I don't want to know.

Okay, so, so I know Rod pretty well, this, uh, this person who's chiming in right now. He also hates HomeAdvisor. So—

Well, I wanna know if he even knew because I had to—

He probably didn't.

I have to— I had to dig through the app a little bit to even find that.

Okay.

He said 6 months.

He's had it for 6 months.

6 months?

Okay. So did he—

did he know about the HomeAdvisor thing?

Rod, did you know about the HomeAdvisor thing? We're super technical over here. Like, you remember whatever people like call into the radio show?

We're just texting into the radio show. No, we don't do that.

Uh, he said no, they've not had any and had any calls.

So, okay.

So yeah, I don't know.

Gird your loins.

Yeah, we'll see what happens. We'll see what happens. So it's, it's funny you said gird your loins. I'll tell you why later.

Okay.

It's funny, but he did not know that it was in cahoots with, uh, they're cahooting. They're cahooting with, uh, The HomeAdvisor. Oh man, look, y'all, we are trying to make y'all better homeowners here, and, and Notion's trying to make you a better homeowner too. It's actually a pretty cool device. It is. The fact that, I mean, anytime you get something for free that actually makes your life better— I mean, it's not free, some— someone's paying for it.

I'm paying for it.

Yeah, you're paying for it. But at the end of the day, um, hopefully it's gonna keep your house a little bit smarter.

Okay.

So we'll see what happens.

Anything else?

And I think that's it. Thank you guys for, uh, downloading today's episode. We are here each and every Tuesday. If you have not yet, go and like our Facebook page. We are one person away from 2,000 likes.

Yeah.

So please be that 2,000th person. Go like our Facebook page. Leave us a 5-star rating review on iTunes if you haven't already. We appreciate you guys. Until next time, we'll see you later. And subscribe to YouTube!