Property Pulse: Unveiling Real Estate Trends & Tales from Huntsville, TX

This is episode number 252 of The Homeowner Show. Well, whether you're DIY or looking to hire, we're here to help you find the best information and options for you and your home. My name is Kevin Hackett, and here with me is Craig Williams.

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

Uh, you know what, I'm doing pretty good.

Were you a little too loud over there?

Yeah, I don't know, uh, what was going on. We were clipping a little bit. Sorry about that. It's been a while since we've been in the studio, to be honest. We had to recalibrate. Yeah, we're trying to, you know, got to get our ducks in a row and all the things. Yeah, all the things. So how are you doing?

Doing good, man.

Yeah?

So I got a, I got a question for you.

Okay.

So how, how was your trip to Dallas?

Uh, the trip was good.

Yeah?

Yeah, the trip was great.

How was that game?

I mean, the game was the game.

The game was the game?

Yeah.

What was the score of that game?

It wasn't in favor of the Rangers.

They, but so they, they fell to the who?

Well, they didn't. They fell to the Astros. It happened.

And then, and then again today, right?

Yeah. Well, they, they dropped 3 of 4 and are still up 3.

Yeah. I want you to just remember this moment the next time you decide to cross me about microwaves. Hey, I didn't, I didn't cross you. This is the, this is the juju that you bring on yourself.

Look, I didn't cross you or anything.

No, no, all I did was I watched the episode.

I just asked—

No, no, no.

A simple question.

You led her down the primrose path and then you decided to bring up an argument about sinks.

Yeah.

Which you've never won.

Well, I did.

Other than, other than just bringing in a patsy.

No, no, no, it's not a patsy. See, what happened is I brought in someone who actually works with appliances.

No, she answers the phones.

She knows.

She's never fixed a thing in her life.

She's never— well, that, that's, that's an awful big assumption. She may have. Yeah, but I do know this.

Uh-huh.

She's never referred someone who called about an appliance fix to her technicians.

Right. Yeah, but let me ask you this.

Okay.

A water heater.

Yep.

An appliance?

No. No, no.

Really?

Yeah.

Why? What is it?

Well, I think it's, uh, well, I don't know what it would be actually, but it's not an appliance. You're not going to buy it in an appliance store.

You absolutely buy it in an appliance store.

Okay.

You do.

Okay.

They're sold in appliance stores across the country.

Okay, then what's your point?

Do they fix them?

I don't know.

They don't.

Okay.

So they— are they not appliances? I don't know. Yeah. So, so why do you get into arguments in which you have no ammunition in the gun?

Well, the ammunition is all over the place with, uh—

No, it's not. It's not.

Yeah.

No, because we've been through this 100 times. What's the definition of an appliance?

It's— well, it's got to be plugged in.

No, that's not the definition.

It's got to have an energy source.

That's not the definition.

What is it?

Huh? Look it up.

Okay, let's do it right now.

Yeah.

Okay, what do you think the definition is?

We've been through this. Okay, because the definition is in my favor.

Okay, I'm looking it up right now. And then device or piece of equipment designed to perform a specific task, typically a domestic one.

Yep, that's the definition.

And the action or process of bringing something into operation.

Yep. Okay, nowhere in there does—

British description—

nowhere in there does it say plugged in ever.

Yeah, but it's— I think it's universally known.

And you know why?

Why?

Because it used to be that washing machines were hand-cranked.

Sure.

They were still an appliance.

Okay. I, I don't see the argument.

What, what do you mean?

What's— I don't see the argument.

Does a sink perform a function?

Well, of course it does.

Okay, what's the definition?

Of what?

You just read it.

Of performing a function?

Yeah.

So there's a lot of things that perform a function then. No, a lot of things that's an appliance.

For domestic tasks.

Okay, there's a lot of things that would probably—

Like what? Uh, like what other things are in the home, Kevin?

Like a vacuum.

A vacuum?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Is that an appliance?

Well, by your definition it is because you plug it in.

And it performs a task.

Yeah, so by your definition it's an appliance.

Okay.

Is it an appliance?

I don't think so.

No?

Do you?

So there are things that you can plug in that perform a domestic task that aren't an appliance?

Sure.

Okay.

Obviously.

So your definition sucks.

Okay, maybe, maybe.

And this is why the Rangers lost.

But yeah, right. So here's the real question.

Uh-huh.

What function— because I get— I'm just curious, what function does the sync perform?

Oh, it performs an amazing function.

Which is?

And for years and years it performed an amazing function until there was another device brought into the scene. It's called washing dishes.

No, no, no. I think the person—

I understand that your genteel hands may never have touched Dawnie.

Oh, oh, no, they have plenty of times. Not, not today, but they have plenty of times. But I think the person actually washing the dishes is a person, not a—

Are they the appliance?

Maybe. No. By your definition, it's a domestic thing that performs a task.

No, I read— you read the definition right there.

Yeah, it's a, it's a It's, it's a device. It didn't say device. I don't think so. I'm going back to the definition. Here's the thing. I don't think that, that a sink does wash dishes.

Wait, it allows you to wash dishes.

Okay.

It also allows water to come in the home.

That is true. It does allow water. It does say a device or a piece of equipment, so it can't be a human.

I'm pretty good at this, by the way. I'm not, I'm not horrible myself, but—

Right now, No.

Here's the thing.

If we take a poll—

Polls don't matter.

They do.

No.

A little bit.

Consistent consensus isn't fact.

Well, I wouldn't say that it is either. I agree with that. However, I will say that a sink doesn't wash anything. Uh-huh.

Well, and a vacuum doesn't necessarily push itself either. But like, what's the point?

Well, some of them do. A Kirby does.

Some of them do. That's why I said some vacuums don't push themselves.

Sure.

Again, I'm good at this.

But I still think that—

So if it doesn't push itself, does it no longer— does it cease to be a vacuum?

Well, of course not.

Okay.

But that being said—

So function matters.

Well, it does. So what it does is it brings water into the house.

Right. Which is a task performed by a device in the home, which according to the definition of the word is an

I'm going to be.

No, I'm gonna make my own definition real quick. Uh-huh. That's it.

Your own definition?

Yeah.

Well, while you're at it, why don't you just, like, give the Rangers a win? Because, like, if you can change that— I would love to. Because they lost the series, right? They lost the series. And here's why this is so sweet. You took the opportunity while I was away from the show to, to bring this up with somebody.

I did.

So I couldn't defend myself.

That's exactly why.

And then what happened is, is you drove all the way to Dallas to watch the Rangers play, and I could give a flying fart in the wind about sports, but it was so delicious to watch them lose.

Well, we'll see what happens the rest of the season.

It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter the rest of this. One, they're not going to play in the World Series against each other.

No, it's never going to happen. No.

So they have this series.

That's true.

And they lost this series.

They did. Yeah.

There's another series coming up. The Rangers could go on to win, what is it, the division?

Yeah.

Yeah?

Uh-huh.

So, and like, that's defined as the people that are in the division. Oh, because definitions matter.

They do, for the most part, they do.

Sorry, I've been loading my gun for a while.

I can tell.

Yeah.

It's been way too long since we've spent time together for you to load, load and load and load and load. and load. Yeah, the problem is most people still disagree with you.

It doesn't matter.

It does.

Like, doesn't matter to you. Well, no, go read the definition.

If—

take it up with the dictionary.

Okay.

Yeah, that's, that's the problem is like you could, you could disagree with me all you want. Make it not that.

Okay, I'll find something else.

Make a sink not that because a sink is that.

Okay.

In the same way that a water heater is.

Well, but, but a water heater has an energy source still.

Yeah, sure. But like, that's what I'm saying is like, I— so like, they don't work on water heaters.

Sure.

Because most of the time that's a plumber.

Sure.

Plumbers take care of that.

Yeah.

It doesn't make it not an appliance just because they don't work on it.

Oh, I agree with that.

Yeah. And that's really it. A plumber works on a water heater. A plumber works on a sink.

My, my point was that they should know what the difference is between an appliance and not an appliance.

They should.

They should.

They should. But I, I, I'm guessing, I'm guessing they haven't looked up the actual definition.

Okay.

So that's—

well, if they listen to our show, then they'll know now.

They'll know. They'll know.

They'll know what it is.

Yeah. So what else is— okay, so let me, let me, let me tell you something that, that we did just the other day, um, for— and this is just for Texas people. So like, if, um, which, which by the way, we're like number 3 in Oman.

What is that?

It's a country.

Oh.

In the Middle East. Well, so shout out, shout out to Oman.

Yes. Thank you for listening, Mr. and Mrs. People in Oman.

Yeah. So what I like, it's, it's really close to like Dubai for, for people wanting to know, like Dubai.

Lots of smart people.

Lots of smart people living there. They, they really enjoy our content apparently.

I don't, I don't blame them.

Yeah. Why not? But to get this, this kind of They get this kind of banter. Yeah. Um, but we, uh, we went to, uh, Blue Lagoon.

Oh, okay.

Have you heard of this?

Yeah.

Have you been?

No.

So we, we did our research. This was actually my Father's Day gift that I got to cash in just this past week.

I saw pictures.

Yeah.

It looks amazing.

It is amazing. Where is it? It's in Huntsville.

Okay.

So I can, uh, it's about an hour north of here. Yeah, it's close. I mean, I think, I think the map said it was only going to take us like 48 minutes from here to get there.

Okay.

Um, but you— so it's—

they—

and, and, you know, I, I haven't seen anything better, but clearest water in Texas.

Yeah, I mean, just the pictures that I saw were immaculate.

Yeah, it's, it's pretty nuts. And I would say you've got about a good 12 feet of visibility. Wow.

Is it cold?

It wasn't when we went.

Okay.

Now you get down about 8 feet.

Yeah.

And it gets nice and cool. Yeah.

That's a pretty good ways down there.

It is. And you don't want to like hang out there for a long time.

No.

But it's— you can go and get your scuba certification there.

Oh, really?

Yeah, that's like, that's like their main gig.

Okay.

Because if you go, like, you— the way it works is There's— so like, there's 2 lagoons.

Okay.

And on our lagoon, I think there were 10 slips.

Okay.

Each slip has like its own, uh, like a little shelter with a picnic table and then your own beach entry.

So do you rent one of those slips for the—

By the day.

By the day?

Yeah.

Interesting.

So, but in order to get one You have to be there before opening, and it opens at 9.

Oh, so you can't reserve them in advance?

You cannot unless you're a scuba diver.

Oh.

If you're a scuba diver, you can reserve it because they give priority to scuba divers, and I think it's because they do scuba instruction.

Yeah.

Which makes sense. Um, so if all the slips are filled with scuba divers, doesn't matter if you're in line or not, you ain't getting in.

Wow.

And there's a limited amount of space.

Interesting.

Every day.

Okay, um, and which means it's exclusive in that you're gonna get— you're not gonna get overrun with people?

No.

Okay.

No, not at all. Um, I mean, we, we were on that lagoon, we got there, we got in at like 9:15, and we were like number 8 car in line.

Oh wow.

And we still got it. Well, part of it was we were willing to pay cash, so we got a little bit ahead of everybody that was in, in line. Um, But you, uh, yeah, so like we were, we were on the lake and I think the whole time we were there, there may have been 10 people on the whole thing.

Wow, that's crazy.

The whole time we were there. Um, that's awesome. Yeah, and I mean, like, you— I mean, like, as long as they're not being like loud and stupid, yeah, you don't really hear them. Sure, it's a big enough place. They're like across the lagoon from you, right? Um, but man, I, I will, I will say this. I was enjoying myself so much. I have never been so sunburned in my life. Oh my gosh.

Totally forgot to actually apply.

No, I did. No, I didn't reapply. That was the problem, was I applied and I was just like, I'm good.

Yeah.

And I got home and like the tops of my feet and my thighs, man.

Sounds awful.

It was like radiating heat for the next 2 days.

Oh my goodness.

It was the worst. That's horrible. And we were pretty sure like my son may have gotten like sun poisoning.

Oh my goodness.

I mean, it was, it was like, and, but we were both like, it was so cool. We'll go back.

Worth it. Just next time wear more clothes.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, but like, if you're in like the, the South Texas area, yeah, it's definitely worth the trip. Just make sure that if you go, like, you plan to get there early.

Yeah.

And a good, a good tip on, on this one is to call ahead and see if they have scuba reservations. They'll tell you. Okay. And if you follow them on social media, they'll be like, hey, park's— and that actually happened the next day after we were there, was like, hey, park's closed. We're full on scuba reservations.

Wow.

So it happens. Sure. And I think it typically happens on the weekend because we went during the week.

That makes sense.

But I mean, like, if you— I mean, it opens at 9, it closes at 6.

That's a good long day.

And it cost us, I think it was like $200.

Okay.

For everybody.

It's not bad. That's a good day.

Yeah, it was not bad at all.

No.

So.

I like it. Worth the trip, man. Sure.

I mean, we packed a picnic lunch and just had a good old time.

That sounds fun. So for sure.

We did take, uh, we took a lot of tubes.

Oh, okay.

Like, we took a lot of our own, like, yeah, stuff to— because there's like, they don't want you swimming out in the middle because it's pretty—

it's really deep.

Yeah.

And I'm sure there's fish and other things.

There are. There are. And that's actually kind of part of the fun is if I've got one of those— have you seen the 180-degree snorkel masks?

Yes.

Yeah. So I've got one of those.

Okay.

Um, and this— the snorkel on it is amazing.

Really?

Yeah, because it's, it's, it's got a baffle on it so you can dive.

That's pretty cool.

You know how like on a regular snorkel you kind of like stick your tongue in the hole to keep water?

That's the only thing you can do, right? Because if you go down, water is going to get in your snorkel, right? But this has like a— almost like a damper or some sort.

Yeah, it's— there's a ball in the snorkel. Okay. So like when you go underwater, the ball closes over the hole.

So you don't even have to do anything. It just does it automatically.

Does it automatically.

That's amazing.

So, and you can, with those 180-degree snorkel masks, you can breathe through your nose or your mouth.

Wow.

I mean, like, it's there because it seals off everything from your nose around your mouth. Okay. And then gives you full vision with your eyes.

Wow.

Round, round like that. Um, yeah, I've taken it there. I've taken it to the Caribbean. I mean, I'll never go back to another snorkel mask.

I can't imagine. That sounds too good.

I mean, just the ability to breathe through my nose. Yeah, that's a huge game changer. And like, all you— so like, when you go, when you dive down— I'm not a big snorkeler, by the way. I don't do this a whole lot. Yeah, but I've done it enough over the years that it's like, I know what's annoying and what's not. When you dive down and you stick your tongue in the hole to keep the water from coming in, And when you come out, you have to clear that snorkel.

You got to blow it out.

So you don't have to do that.

Yeah, I mean, and that wastes a lot of breath, honestly. Like, you— that you gotta, you gotta hold that breath and make sure you have that to expel it whenever you come back up. Right, right, right.

So none of that's even part of the equation.

Interesting.

Yeah, there is a, there is a weird bit, like if you tilt forward too much, it'll, it'll shut the— it'll close the baffle even if you're above the water level. It's not a water level thing, it's a It's a gravity thing.

Okay, that makes sense.

So anyway, what's been going on with you, man?

Well, you mentioned heat, um, so I have to tell you something crazy. Um, so we finished my, my mother-in-law's house back in February, right? One of the things that we did is— so it's a metal building, and because it's a metal building, we chose to take advantage of all the things that a metal building offers. And one of that is the ability to just do closed-cell foam, right? for insulation purposes. So the way that works is once they get the— once they get the metal structure up, get the, the skin on it and everything, they, they just come in with, you know, well, then they gotta actually, um, they, they stud it out, they, they run all the, the electrical wiring, all the plumbing

so that it's all where it needs to go.

Mm-hmm.

And then they come in and spray foam the entire thing, right? So basically head to toe. Yeah, for all intents and purposes, you have an igloo. Yeah, like you, you've created, uh, you know, a cooler, for example. Like a— like think about a Yeti cooler. It's kind of like one of those, right? That's what you created. So the next question is, what do you want to do with your air conditioning?

Mm-hmm.

Because we live in South Texas, you gotta have the air conditioning, right? So you either go with a traditional, you know, condenser furnace, you know, split unit type of thing, or you go with mini-split, right, units. And my, my mother-in-law didn't want the mini-splits. She didn't like the way they looked, so she went with a traditional system.

Ductwork and all that kind of stuff.

Ductwork. Yeah, all that kind of stuff. She just likes— she prefers that look. So, okay, fine. Doesn't really matter. Just as long as everything is installed well and does what it's supposed to do, we're good. Well, 2 weeks ago, she, she, she calls me and she's like, my air conditioner is running nonstop and will not bring the temperature below 78 degrees. Now, you remember that it was— I mean, we had every day of the week was 100 plus.

Oh, yeah. It's been a massive heat wave through here.

Yeah. It's been awful. And there was no relief. I mean, it— the humidity was high because there was, like, chance of rain every day too on top of, like, 101, 102-degree temperatures.

Right.

But still, I'm looking at my house that is a traditional, you know, brick-and-mortar home, right? And it, it's working fine. I ever cooling it down to 75, 73, whatever I want it. And so I call my buddy Steve, Steve Smoon. He's been on—

Yeah.

Victory Insulation. He's been on, on the show before. And I'm like, I've never met anybody that knows insulation as well as he does.

Sure.

And so I was like, what's going on? And he said, well, Um, he said basically, how, how is that unit being cooled off? And I said, I, I mean, it's up in the attic. And he said, is there any ventilation, you know, at all to the unit itself? I was like, well, of course not, because it's closed cell foam. There's no ventilation up there. And he goes, that's your issue. You gotta have— your unit is working too hard. And I said, okay, I, I mean, that makes sense. And he said, think of it this way. He said, imagine you take a Yeti cooler and you put ice in the bottom half of it and fill it up with drinks. And then you put a,

like, a false top in there or false bottom, however you want to look at it. Um, something that seals off the bottom part, and then you just close the lid. and you've got half of it with nothing in it, the bottom half has ice in it. He said what happens is that top half is going to get hotter than the bottom half.

Mhmm.

And there's heat transfer that winds up happening. And at the end of the day, the ice will melt faster that way than if you remove that false bottom and the entire space is heated and cooled. Right? So you've got to basically air condition the entire cooler in order for it to not have heat transfer issues. Makes 100% sense to me whenever he explains it to me that way. And so you go up into the attic in my mother-in-law's house, it's over 100 degrees up in the attic.

Oh my gosh. It's not supposed to be like that with closed cell foam.

It's not supposed to be like that with closed cell foam.

Yeah.

And so we, we called out the people that installed the air conditioning unit and they were like, oh, it's probably this or this. And they've, they're like, ah, maybe this pipe over here isn't sealed up well or whatever. And long story short, they were like, the reason this is happening is cuz there's no ventilation in the, in the attic. They were like, they were like, we need to put vents in the attic. And I'm like, no, we're not putting vents in the attic. That completely defeats the purpose of having closed cell foam.

Right.

Like, you cannot create holes in it. Otherwise, you've got problems, and you've— that defeats the purpose of having closed cell foam. But they couldn't wrap their mind around this. And so, you know, Steve was basically saying, you've got to add cold air up into, into the attic, which—

So that they didn't put a send and return in the attic?

No. Oh no, they didn't. Oh, and so, so there's no— there's—

I mean, like, I'm, I'm no AC expert and I'm no, like, but I've learned over the years, like, if you got closed cell foam in the attic, you better have a send and return up there.

Yeah, there's got to be some way to get cool air up into the attic. And at the end of the day, this is, this is what's hard to wrap your mind around, uh, if you've never had closed cell foam. the attic needs to be the same temperature as the house. The house.

Yeah.

And my, my mother-in-law was even having a real hard time. She was like, I don't wanna air condition my attic. I don't have, like, that's, it's gonna cost so much money to air condition, like, a whole nother floor. No.

It's gonna save you money.

And I'm like, okay. And this is, this is one of the reasons I wanna bring this up on the show is because, like, I want other people to, to realize that there's a reason that Yetis keep your drinks colder longer than a traditional old, you know, cooler. It's because it's got closed-cell foam in it. And one of the things that does is just it holds all of the, the insulation. It holds all the temperature in. And if you start venting that thing, it's gonna be like anything else. It's gonna melt, right?

Right.

It's gonna melt your stuff. So you can't put ventilation in it. But you got to make sure that it's cooling the whole thing. And so once you get that temperature the same up in the attic as it is in the house, your air conditioner is hardly going to run.

Right.

Because it's not going to need to.

Yep.

And so I— we called, we called another guy, um, who has been doing air conditioning for a long, long time. And, um, we, we talked to 3 different people. Well, 3 different types of people. We talked to more people than that. One of them is like, you got to ventilate the attic. And we're like, of course not doing that. Someone else said, uh, well, you're gonna have to actually put an in— like an air intake into the, the unit and an exhaust out of the unit to bring air through that unit so that it's cooling itself off. That'll help. Um, and then this other guy who we're actually bringing out on Thursday He goes, that's

wrong also. You've got to have, like you said, ascend and return. You've gotta have cold air going up. And honestly, what a lot of times what they do is they just literally cut a vent into the, the ceiling. Mm-hmm. That has nothing really there other than it's pulling air into the attic. So you've got that, like you said, ascend and return.

Yeah.

And it's, and it's bringing the, the air throughout the entire building. to be the same. So he's coming out on Thursday, but he agreed with Steve, who's the insulation expert in my opinion.

Right.

And we're gonna get this all taken care of, but it, it, it's really bizarre. It's already been better because we, we actually had a— there, there's a screened-in porch at my mother-in-law's house.

Right.

That the— when the guys installed the AC, they didn't realize that that was going to be an uh, open-air thing.

Uh-huh.

Uh, so they put a vent, they put a return or a, uh, a register, a register vent.

Yeah.

In there with ducting. So they actually took that out and plugged it up. Well, we just opened it and left it up in the attic. Now it needs to be dampered down, and this, this guy that's coming out on Thursday, he'll be able to figure all that out. But as soon as we started putting cold air up into the attic, the air conditioner starts working better.

I bet.

So it's just one of those things that if, if what you don't know is what you don't know. And, like, my general contractor didn't even know that because he doesn't do tons and tons of metal buildings. He's learning things.

Sure.

But, you know, and, you know, I know that my mother-in-law was kinda like, well, the general contractor should have known that. I was like, no. Here's the thing. The air conditioner guy should have known that.

Yes.

And, and she said, well, why would the insulation guy not tell them that?

I was like, Here's the thing.

The insulation guy, even if he did tell them, it's not his job—

To make sure that they—

To make sure the air conditioner guy knows how to do his job.

Yeah.

And even if he told him that, this, I mean, the guy that installed the air conditioner is going, you have to ventilate this thing. He knows nothing about closed cell foam and how it works. He knows nothing about it.

It's still, it's still new enough that like a lot of, a lot of guys still don't know.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

And so, and that, that actually goes the same if it was open cell foam. It would be the same. But you don't wanna put that in a, in a metal building home. You wanna put the closed cell. But that being said, like, I, I, I just think it's important for our people to hear, like, if you're listening to this right now, closed cell foam is an amazing product. It costs a lot more money.

Mhmm.

But here's the thing. We've talked about this before. Fiberglass insulation that you put on, you know, traditional attic ceilings, it's about 30% efficient. Which you might think that's not that much, but it, it works.

Yeah.

Uh, closed-cell foam is 94% efficient.

Yeah.

Unless you're not heating and cooling the cooler the way you should, you know. So that has been our experience over the last couple of weeks as she's been trying to cool our house down. And it's like—

That had to be miserable.

Oh, and not only that, like—

Especially like it's like brand new, like this should be functioning right. Like, what's going on?

And she's concerned, frankly. I mean, her air conditioner was running nonstop. So she's just worried about her electric bill too. And it's probably gonna be stupid this month. But man, that here it goes again. It goes to show that like finding people to work on your house that actually know what they're doing.

Yeah.

And, and look, I—

Or getting the right people together.

That's right. Yeah. That, that actually can help each other figure things out. I mean, I'm fine with that too. And, you know, this is, this is, I'm, I'm gonna tell you that this is something that is our issue.

Mhmm.

As much as it is anybody's issue. But the people that installed it don't speak English. Okay. Well, we don't speak Spanish. So on top of all of this, there's a language barrier. Yeah.

Okay.

So on top of this, or one of the guys did, but he wasn't the one that came out every day.

Right.

And so now we've got a language barrier. And I'm not saying that that's good, bad, or otherwise. It's just part. It's a fact.

It's what it is. It's what it is.

Yeah. And so we had language barrier on top of that. So finding people that know what they're doing, that you can communicate with, that can communicate with you, like, all of that's really, really important. And at the end of the day, you might wind up paying more to get the good person out, the right person out, but hopefully you won't be dealing with these types of issues down the road too. So learn from our mistakes at this point, I guess, is the moral of the story.

So I, I just, just a quick tip for everybody with you know, dealing with language barriers, which, I mean, in Texas is going to be an issue sometimes. I mean, if you haven't learned how to speak Spanish, like, you're going to have a language barrier issue from time to time. You are. Google Translate is good. I mean, like, as far as, like, getting the message across as to what you're trying to say, very effective.

It is.

I've had to use it a couple of times, um, and I've— both ways, because not only will it translate me going to Spanish, It'll translate them coming to English. Right. Um, and so we were able, not quickly.

Yeah.

But we were able to communicate.

Yeah.

The, the, the issue with that winds up, so one of the issues that happens, if you start getting technical about stuff, it can be, it can be tricky.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

One of, one of the weird things that happened though is one of the guys that couldn't speak very good English, he, he went up into the attic to work on checks a couple things out. And he had— my mother-in-law had, had loaned him her, like, really nice flashlight, and he dropped it down the wall.

Oh, no.

And it's still down the wall because—

Oh, gosh.

I mean, it's like, it's just really nice, like, $50 flashlight. Um, but when he did that, she didn't realize it at the time, but it happened to be right where the internet connection comes in, and it knocked the internet connection loose.

Oh, no.

So she's in this black hole where we live. If you don't have internet, you, you're not talking to people.

Right.

And so she's tried to use a translate app and it won't work because she has no internet. And so it wound up being a bigger issue. But, uh, anyway, I think we're gonna get all this figured out pretty quickly.

But yeah. Um, so they're installing a send and return? Yeah.

Well, yeah. So what's gonna happen is this guy's gonna come out, he's gonna look at things from, from every angle. One of the things that's very interesting that he said, and it makes sense to me, is where that screened-in porch is, above that is just open to the attic. It's just attic. And he said, until you— until you— we're probably gonna have to build like false wall around that up in the attic and foam that so that you don't have heat transfer issues. Because when you have heat transfer issues, you're gonna create condensation. Yep.

And that's—

When you create condensation, then you're gonna get mold.

Yep.

So we're probably— we probably got more work that's going to have to be done. But again, having the right people working on it to begin with, you don't have these issues.

Yeah. So, so is this— is this all out of pocket?

Um, I'm not sure yet.

Okay.

I've not chased any channels. Um, I know the guy that's gonna do it for me is gonna, you know, treat me right for sure. Um, and honestly, I don't think it's going to be that much work in order for him to get it where it needs to be because we've already got that extra duct that's available, right? It just needs to be secured and put a register on and dampered down to the right CFM, and then putting a— putting some sort of return in the right place. I don't think it's gonna be that much. As far as building another wall and foaming it, I mean, I kind of look at it as that should have been done to begin with.

Yeah.

And so whether it gets done today or whether it got done then, I'm gonna have to pay for it one way or the other.

Yeah.

Right. So as far as that goes, it's probably gonna be out of pocket for me or for my mother-in-law actually. But, um, I, I'm not as upset about that as I am the fact— for the fact that like the electric bill is gonna be what it's gonna be.

Yeah.

But there— no, nobody's gonna be able to take that responsibility on.

Yeah. So anyway, okay, so here we're gonna, we're gonna shift a little bit. Okay. Um, because I think that's interesting, and I think people building homes and metal homes should definitely have that information.

Yeah.

I mean, you want to have the right insulation person, you want to have the right AC person. Um, and also, like, there's a lot of homes that have been converted.

Oh yeah.

You know, and, and so you, you want to be able you want to have an inspector who is knowledgeable enough to look at something like that and go, this was done properly, this was done improperly, right? You know, because conversions can be trickier than new builds. Sure.

So anyway, not only that, like, I mean, just be aware, like, where we're at, we had to pull permits, but we didn't have to do inspections.

Yeah.

And because we didn't have to, we're not paying for it, right? I mean, just make sure it gets done right to begin with. Well, anyway, yeah, it's part of it.

So anyway, one of the things I wanted to go through quickly tonight is we, we've got the June 2023 monthly housing report.

Yeah.

And this is from realtor.com. I'm gonna hit the highlights on this real quick just because I think they're interesting. And there's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 highlights from this. And we can, we can dig into these as much as you want, Kev. But just information I think people need to have there. I mean, like, the reports are different based on state to state. But this is nationwide.

Okay.

You know, so, like, we, you know, like, we're, you know, people, people are listening to this show in, you know, all 50 states.

Right.

All kinds of different countries. You know, obviously, Oman. Shout out. Shout out to Oman. So the— okay. So here's, here's the first one. The number of homes actively for sale increased by 7.1% compared to last year. So June, June of 2023 versus '22, there's 7.1% more homes for sale this June than there was last June.

Wonder— So one of the things that's interesting to me is, is we've said since, I mean, probably for 3 years now at least, since COVID happened, that people have been scared to sell their home because the rising prices have, have deterred them from doing so. Because they're going, look, I can sell my house at top dollar, but I can't buy another house except for top dollar, right? So I don't know what I'm going to be able to get into. So I think it, I think it forced people to just Stay.

Yeah.

But after some time, if you're wanting to move, you gotta just bite the bullet.

Yeah.

So I think that's probably got some of it to do with it. But the other thing is, even though interest rates have gone up, housing— the housing market is like— the pricing has gone down. Like, you can actually negotiate a house right now.

Yeah, it's, it's more— I mean, it's becoming more of a buyer's market. I don't know that it is a buyer's market yet. Um, but it's becoming more and more so.

Sure.

Um, and, and some of these, some of these other stats may, may help, uh, bolster that up. Uh, the total number of unsold homes, including homes that are under contract, decreased by 4.6% compared to last year.

So they're selling more homes. That was— is that what I'm reading?

No, no, no. There's, there's more homes on the market.

Oh, okay. Essentially.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay. Um, so there's total number of unsold homes, including homes that are under contract, Okay. Decreased.

Decreased.

Yeah.

Okay.

Um, all right, so home sellers were less active in June, uh, with 25.7% fewer homes newly listed for sale compared to last year.

Okay, so that's really interesting. So there are actually more houses that are for sale But fewer houses that are actually selling, basically.

Yes.

They're staying on the market so much longer that there's now a statistic.

There's, there's 25% less newly listed.

Yeah.

So even though there's 7.1% more houses, more, it's because there's so much carryover.

Yeah.

From the previous month.

Yeah.

So there's not as many new listings.

And they're not selling as quickly, so they're staying on the market longer, so they're carrying over.

Which is discouraging people from putting their house on the market.

Of course. Because it's like, I— well, me and people have such short memories. They're like, they're like, well, so-and-so last year sold their house in 3 days and had 49 offers. Yeah. And they're like, well, yeah, but do you remember like what 2016 was like? I don't.

I'm just pulling that. Someone, someone in our family was really worried about selling their home recently, and they put it on the market and it sold within 3 days.

Sure. That's still happening.

It's still happening. It just depends on the property. It depends on where it is.

It depends on lots of different things. And again, this is nationwide. Nationwide.

Nationwide.

This is not happening in Houston Metroplex right now. Right.

Well, I mean, like, the— you're, you're seeing a slowdown in Houston. It's just not by these metrics.

Right.

Um, so the median prices of homes for sale decreased by 0.9%, so almost 1%.

Yeah.

Um, annually in June.

The— okay.

And this is, this is, this is the key point, I think, from this whole data set. So, like, median price of homes de— for sale decreased by 0. by 0.9% annually in June, the first decline seen since 2017.

Oh, yeah. That's interesting.

That's the— so essentially what they're saying is if what we think is happening, at least what I think is happening, is they've hit the top of the bell curve and now it's coming back down.

Coming back down. And it— but it's, it's taken 6 years.

Yes.

For that to happen.

Which, which makes sense.

Sure.

Because it usually, it usually runs in 8-year cycles.

Okay.

So we've probably got 2 more years.

Yeah.

To hit the bottom of this one.

Well, and—

If, if, if the trends continue like they usually do.

Right. And I, I guess the other thing along with that is even though interest rates started going up over a year ago. So started really going up April, May of last year too. Well, they were starting, they were trending up starting in January.

Yeah.

Of, of '22. Uh, because I think the end of '21, there were still, I mean, people were still, you know, getting like 3% on their homes.

Yep.

And then where we got ours in April was 4.5%, and it just kept going up and up and up and up. It's just now causing the house prices to actually go down.

Mhmm.

That's an interesting—

it just takes a long time for some of this stuff to actually make a difference. Yeah. And so here's the last one. Homes spent 44 days on the market on average.

Okay.

Which is 13 days longer than last year, but still shorter than before the pandemic.

Yeah. Well, again, short memories, right? We forget how long it takes to sell a home sometimes. Um, there's a beautiful property, um, not far from where we live, and I went and looked at it as soon as it went on the market because I was like, I've always thought this was a beautiful property. Um, I'm like, I'm just curious, like, how much is this thing worth? And it was like $1.3 million. Like, it was—

Yeah.

It was a beautiful property for a reason. Um, but it sat on the market for probably at least 2 months. Before we just saw sale pending, uh, posted on it. And so like, I, I— it is interesting, the timeline is lengthening.

Yep.

Of how long it's taking to actually come to an agreement with people.

Oh yeah. So I saw, I saw one on the market that came on the other day that it was, it was pretty similar to what we have here. Uh, it was just a little bit more land in the house. It was just a little bit nicer. And I— here's why I'm saying that. because it was like just north of $4 million.

Oh my goodness.

And like, it wasn't that much different than what we have here. And I was like, there's no way. Yeah, I could sell this for $4 million.

No, there's no way.

And I'm like, okay, so like, what, what's going on with this property? Yeah, that like really distinguishes it. I mean, like, I mean, it was just a little bit more land and it was, it was like a barndominium with an outbuilding.

Okay.

I mean, like, it really wasn't that much different.

And I was like, location, maybe?

It wasn't that great of a location. I mean, like, I mean, like, you know, okay, it was— it's in a different— it's in the same county.

Okay.

But it's in a different city.

Okay.

So that— I mean, that's really the only difference.

Yeah.

And I'm looking at it going, okay, like, I have access to a major waterway.

Yep.

As well as a private waterway.

Yep.

Um, we have a lot of stuff going for our property. Yeah. And I'm like, why, why is that one— I mean, it was, it was, it was a newer building. I'll give it that. I'll give it that. It was a newer building.

Sure.

But I don't know that it was like $3 million more.

Do— does it have anything to do with the neighborhood maybe? I don't know. Well, you've got, you've got access to those things. A lot of the homes in this neighborhood are not worth No.

They're not worth what ours is worth. No.

Exactly.

So, and that, that's, that, that's the weird thing though, man, is we, we bought one of the middle properties in our neighborhood.

Although you have the most land of any property.

Yes.

In the neighborhood.

Yes. That's true. I, I, I, I don't know that we still have the most valuable property in the neighborhood. But we ended up with like at least in the top 10%.

I would agree. There— some people have come in and built some really nice properties.

Yes. That's definitely very nice.

Kind of on the back end.

Yep.

Yeah.

And they don't have as much land as we do.

Well, they've got like a, a 6th of the land that you have, probably like 1, maybe 2 acres, right?

Uh, most of them I think 2 or 3.

Okay.

Yeah. Um, But they definitely don't have the access that we have along with some other things. And so it put me on a path of going, wait, why is that one that much? I really couldn't figure it out. I mean, it was a pretty property, don't get me wrong.

But it's still on the market.

It's still on the market.

There's that. So it is very interesting to watch these trends kind of happen.

Yeah.

And, you know, all the predictors have, have said the housing prices are going to come down. Who knows when the interest rates are gonna come down?

Well, like, they, they necessarily have to.

They have to. I know. I mean—

Now the, the difference is, is, like, coming down is way different than crashing. Yeah.

I mean, again, historically, they're really low.

The housing prices? No.

The interest rates. Interest rates. Yes. Interest rates are still historically really low at 7%, whatever they are, 7.5%. whatever. They're still really low historically, but—

I think people are getting, like, closer to 5 now.

I don't actually know what it is, but, I mean, somewhere there between it.

Yeah.

It's probably not its highest.

It's between 5 and 7. And a lot of it depends on your income and your, you know, your credit score.

Of course.

All that kinda stuff.

But that's still historically really low.

Very.

It's just we saw 2.5 or 2.3 or something like that. during the pandemic. And so like, those are never going to happen again.

I don't know.

No.

Well, I mean, never is a strong word.

I mean, it would be crazy for that kind of thing to happen again. But I agree. I mean, houses coming down steadily, it's not a bad thing. I mean, they need to come down.

And here's the thing I think a lot of people need to realize is high interest rates is not necessarily a bad thing.

Sure.

I mean, you can, you can come complain about high interest rates a lot, but you know, you know what people were really— what some people were complaining about when we had low interest rates for houses?

What's that?

Is the return on their savings.

You can't have it both ways.

You can't have it both ways. You're not gonna, you're not gonna be getting 12% on your savings and getting a 2% interest loan for your home. You're gonna be getting 2% return, right? If not less, right? Remember, like a 1.5% return on your savings, if you're lucky.

If you're lucky.

If the market is at a 2% interest rate.

You gotta— it's gotta bear out somewhere.

Right. And so like all these people who are complaining or mocking people going like, you guys don't understand what good interest rates are because we were paying 15%, 16%, 17% for houses back in the late '70s and early '80s.

Right.

Well, they were also getting really good interest rates, 12% to 15% on their savings.

Savings. Not, not just like money markets or mutual funds or CDs. We're talking about—

Yeah. Savings. Just savings. And, and a lot of people don't realize that there's, there's a way that this can go that would be really unpleasant, which is negative interest rates.

Well, yeah.

Which, which happened in Japan. It did.

Yeah.

And it was because Japan had a culture of hoarding money.

Right.

And so what happened was, is the market responded to that and said like, hey, look, we're gonna force you to spend your money. How are we gonna do that? We're gonna put negative interest rates, which is great if you're borrowing money.

Yeah.

Because they're gonna pay you to borrow the money.

That's right.

Problem is, no one was borrowing the money.

Now you gotta go spend it.

So what we're gonna do is we're gonna put negative interest rates, which means that we're gonna charge you for storing the money in our banks. So you're making nothing on anything that you save. You're actually paying money to save money.

Right.

So there's a way that this can go that—

It would be awful. That would not be good.

It would be awful for savers.

It would be awful for— yeah, exactly. For me. So I think that what's interesting in this whole thing is because of things like the pandemic, more people are working from home. which necessitates a larger home. One of the things you saw back whenever the interest rates were—

That's true, but that's happening less and less.

People working at home, you mean?

Yes. No.

It's, it's actually, it is. I, it is happening less and less.

It's happening more than it was in the past, but it's happening less and less progressively moving forward.

Well, but a lot of those people are still working at home. So I think A lot— there's— I know there's people going back to the office, but it's not happening at the rate that most would thought it would be.

Well, if you, if you want my prediction on this, here's what I think is gonna— I think there's a lot of people that wanna stay working at home. And I, I think, I think there are some companies that are gonna try and prolong that as long as they possibly can.

Sure.

That being said, I think also those people who continue to demand to work from home when everyone else is going back to the office, are eventually going to be let go.

Okay. That'll be interesting. I, I, I think that's very interesting. And maybe, maybe you're right. The, the thing that I find that's hap—

Well, it's gonna be easy to let them go.

Oh, it's so super easy.

Because they, they have no personal connection to this person that they never see.

Right.

You know? And, and so, like, if you're, if you're a person working from home and you're like, well, I've, I've just, I'm, I'm on the gravy train.

Yeah.

Which you, you have been.

Yeah. Sure.

Let's just be honest. You have been.

Sure.

It's been nice.

Yep.

But you know what, if you're— if the people in your company are going back to the office and you're not, and you're holding out, it's not a smart move if you want to keep your job. If you want to— if you want to move on to something else, that's fine, you know.

Well, but I think the, the point that you make is really good. Like, if I don't ever have to see you, then I don't have to deal with your, like, any— anything. I don't have to deal with it, right? I see you on camera maybe, but I don't have to even see you clean out your office. So it doesn't matter.

Right?

Yeah. So I— but what was happening, I think this is interesting. So back when the interest rates were 14%, 15%, 16%, people were just building smaller homes. They were, they were building 1,200, 1,300, 1,400, 1,500 square foot of homes. Like, a, an 1,800, a 2,000 square foot home at that point was a big home. It was a big home. So Now people are wanting these 3,500 square foot homes.

Yeah.

Because, well, that's where I live, that's where I office, that's where I do everything, so I need my space.

Yeah.

Right? Well, if, if you had 14, 15, 16% interest at that rate, you would not be able to do it.

Right.

So back when the interest rates are, are down at 2, 3, 4%, you can afford to have a larger house at that rate. Whenever it gets up to this 6%, 7%, even, you know, 7%, it's more difficult to buy a bigger home.

Yeah.

So it's, it's, it's this weird thing of like, you, you gotta kind of figure out, am I gonna buy a bigger house? Or am I gonna spend more money, less money, smaller house? What am I gonna do? I, I, it'll be interesting to kind of see how that continues to, to, because I, I think what's gonna wind up happening, especially if these people get laid off, Well, they can't afford that big house anymore.

No.

And when that happens, they've got to sell it. Someone else is going to come in. They're going to be able to buy it for a lower interest rate because eventually that's going to go back down. It's— the whole thing's going to be very interesting to watch, in my opinion.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, and, and one of the big trends before COVID hit was tiny homes.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, like, I did—

I— in fact, there was a tiny home, uh, seller in, in the town that I live in, it's gone. Like, a lot of those tiny homes are not— I mean, you just don't hear that trend much anymore.

Not as much anymore.

I mean, again, people are not— they're needing to live in their house and work at their house and do all this kind of stuff.

And it's like, yeah, I mean, like, part of me is just like, look, you need a 3,500 square foot home because you need your space. Grow up.

Yeah, that, that's when you actually take a corner. That's when you actually do need a tiny home. If you need 3,500 square feet, you need space, go get a tiny home and get space.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's how I think you need to get it.

Jeez.

But yeah, 30— golly, I don't— I would hate to clean a 3,500 square foot house. I would hate to clean it.

Yeah, it always looks nice until you have to clean it.

Or, or air condition it, or I mean—

Anything.

Yeah, like there's more things to break, there's more flooring to replace, there's more paint to keep— I mean, the whole thing to maintain, it's a lot.

It is. So it is. I mean, like, I would— I mean, like, my, my personal opinion, I'd much rather have like 3 1,500-square-foot homes than one 3,500.

Well, I mean, that, that's kind of what we've got on— I mean, ours is 2,200, my mother-in-law's is 1,200.

So, you know, I just mean in different states, but that would help too.

Yeah, then, then you also need a tiny airplane.

Well, I'm working on that. I'm working on it.

It's probably cheaper to just rent other people's airplanes.

Um, depends. It's like with airplanes, it really depends on the size of your family. Sure. Like if you, if you, if you have a nuclear family, like 4 people, it's easy, dude. It's less than a car.

Yeah.

I mean, to buy one.

Oh, sure.

Um, yeah, you know, when you have 5, you have 5, you got that one extra, one extra.

It's like, we, we made that decision, didn't we?

Well, you can still get one for less than some cars.

Yeah, that's almost always the case. I could buy a house for less than some cars. Even with these interest rates.

Yeah. Yeah.

Although once you get to those cars, they can actually be an asset.

They can.

Yeah. There are cars that are assets, believe it or not.

Yeah. So my, my buddy Christian learned about that the hard way though. Oh, with his— he had an Aston Martin.

Oh.

Um, anyway. Yeah, it, it, it turned into a lemon.

Yeah, that's—

he ended up getting his money back, but it was, it was, it was a long road to hoe, to say the least.

That's frustrating.

Yeah.

But there definitely are cars that will make you money.

Yeah.

And, and that's— I'll tell you what, that's one of those places where like, like you see a lot of these rich people, they're like, man, why are they— there are rich people that drive Honda Accords, and there are rich people that drive Aston Martins or Rolls-Royces or Bentleys or things like that. And, and both of them are making smart financial decisions.

And it's really hard to figure that out. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's, well, part of it is, is like, what, what do you enjoy?

Sure.

Because if you enjoy cars, you're gonna be more invested in learning about the cars. Sure. And you're gonna know what's valuable, what's not valuable. And, you know, the, the guy that's driving the Honda Accord that's really wealthy probably doesn't care about cars.

No.

He probably cares about something else. Sure. And that's where he's spending his time and his money.

Sure.

Which is smart.

Yep.

Like, don't get involved in something you don't know about.

Right. Or care about. Or care about. Yeah. Or want to know about. But if you like cars and you want to continue having your money make money, well then go get some nice cars.

I will tell you, man, like, I've had some clients that are Ferrari collectors.

Oh, wow.

Those seem like expensive to keep.

Yeah.

Like, they all have to be constantly plugged in. Um, anyway, like, it's— and it's like, it's like walking on eggshells around them.

I know.

And it's like, can I, can I even come within like 3 feet of it?

Like, what's the deal here? Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Like, dude, are they driven? No, they're never driven.

No.

Um, and like, to me, that, that's the part that it's like, I don't want— I don't like this. No, I don't want that if I can't use it.

I agree with that.

So yeah, anyway, anything else, man?

No, I think that's about it. So I appreciate everyone listening in on this episode, 252. Man, we've passed the 250 mark.

Yeah.

That's kind of cool.

We're up there with the big dogs.

Yes, we are. Thanks for tuning in. If you haven't already, like, 250 episodes, like, like our stuff, subscribe, go find us on, on, uh, YouTube, Instagram, all those places. We're all over the place. Thanks for joining. We're here each and every Tuesday on the audio podcast. And until next time, we'll see you later.