Texas Home Buying: Yeehaw or Yikes? Saddle Up with Homeowner Tips!

Hey.

It's The Homeowner Show, episode number 326. Whether you're DIY or looking to hire, we're here to bring you the best information and options for you and your home. My name is Craig Williams, and I'm in the studio without Kevin because he's hiding in some South American country right now. I don't know what he's doing, but we're gonna have a good time tonight. Got a lot of fun people in the studio. How's everybody doing tonight? Yep. Brian's not following the rules. He's not on the microphone.

Yeah, I don't have to because you know I'm super freaking loud.

All right, guys. Before we get into it tonight, we're going to do a fun episode about buying a house here in Texas. But want to thank our sponsors. Thank you. Oh, I need to turn the camera on. That's going to be helpful.

There we go.

Everybody wants to be able to see us. Thank you. Oh goodness gracious! Catch up with me.

Hello.

Yep, we're, we're on there.

All right.

Our camera's the one missing.

You do that, right? All right. Come on. There we go. Thank you to Lone Star Appliance Repair. Lone Star Appliance Repair. If you need your appliances fixed, it is way cheaper to go get your appliance fixed than it is to go mess with an idiot salesman at a box store. Uh, you can give them a call at 936-647-2364. You can call, you can even text to set up an appointment. Darlene will be happy to talk to you. Also want to thank our sponsor True Texas Solar and Roofing for all of your home energy needs. If you want to get off the grid, True Texas Solar is your one-stop shop. You can't actually get off the grid, but you can have solar, you can have a generator, and you can have a whole home battery backup system, and they can integrate that

and make it all work together for you.

Great company.

Give them a call, 936-286-8383. 25. And also shout out to Crazy Clean, our sponsor down there in the Florida area. Guys, they are creating this incredible gadget that keeps your toilet clean. It has been stealing Kevin's son's allowance for months now because he used to clean the toilets and now he doesn't have to anymore because Crazy Clean is in the tank and keeping the dirt off the bottom of the toilet. You can find them at crazyclean That's Krazy with a K and Klean with a K. Thank you to all of our sponsors. They are what helps make the show possible. All right, let's see if I can make this happen and what it actually looks like.

Krazy Klean.

Oh, that's beautiful. Uh, now I don't have to mess with the cameras. Um, so let's, let's go around the table, introduce ourselves, you know, like kindergartners, and let everybody know who you are. I am James. And what you do. And maybe something interesting about yourself. You wanna start?

Sure.

Yeah.

Okay, kindergarten. Hi.

I have—

It's better than AA, right?

No, no, oh yes.

Hi, my name's Stephanie.

That could be the interesting part.

Okay.

No, I always think of this as that kindergarten cop movie, you know, where he sits all the kids down, he's like, who's your daddy and what does he do? So it's just like, tell me who you are and what you do.

Yeah, okay, Stephanie. We don't wanna go into the girls have whatever and boys have whatever.

That's the other part of that.

Not your turn, JR.

Oh my God, you're stepping on our stuff.

It's a different era. We'll get into that in a second.

Really?

Okay, so, um, hi, Stephanie Hale with Serendipity Team Traditions Mortgage Group. I own a mortgage company in The Woodlands.

Awesome. Yeah, I think now it's your turn. We're going in order.

James or JR Ramirez? I own AmeriSpec Home Inspections. So we do inspections throughout Houston area and really Harris and surrounding areas, uh, counties.

Okay. Awesome.

I'm Brian Richardson. I own the Richardson Group Realtors. Realtors.

Yeah.

And we do Montgomery County, Harris, and most of the surrounding area in this neck of the woods.

Okay.

And an interesting fact is that I grew roses competitively.

Really?

Yeah. Back in like, oh, 1 to 0.6. Okay. No, 0.5.

Excuse me.

Are you like making your own fertilizer? Like, how deep did we go down the rabbit hole?

Uh, no, we would just use fish emulsion.

Fish?

Yeah.

Oh, nice.

Sorry, I don't even know why I know that.

But like, no, all the people with the best roses, if you walk up on them, they smell like fish.

Really? No, that's correct. Yeah, they were as big as your hand, so I could have done without knowing that.

That's weird.

All right, so since, since I gave you guys the option Of what not to talk about before the show. I'm going to talk about something I want to talk about, which is just a crazy news story that I think has nothing to do with homeownership. You guys all know who Candace Owens is? Yes.

Yes.

Yes. Do you guys? Are you guys aware of the Bridget Macron scandal thing that she's? See, he's not. He didn't want to be on the show, and now he's back there chuckling.

He probably knows way more than I do. The only one that knows what you're talking about.

Are you guys aware like the Bridget? Do you know who Bridget Macron is? So she's married to the Prime Minister of France.

Right? Keep going.

All right. So Candace Owens has asserted and staked her entire reputation that she believes that Bridget is a man.

That's like Obama.

Yeah, the Obama.

Michelle Obama.

That's right.

Yeah. Very similar.

Now I'm going to hell.

So just go on. No, it's— I mean, like, that's a thing that's out there. Oh yeah, hand on the Bible. Uh, um, so she, she had been hammering on this story, and, and kind of the scandalous part about it is like she's a much older woman than, than her husband. I mean, I think by like 15 years, something, something in that neighborhood. Don't, don't quote me on that, but like significantly older woman than, than her husband. Um, and so Candace goes quiet on this story for a couple months, and then comes out this last week and says, hey, you guys probably noticed I haven't been talking about this story for a while, and it's because President Trump called me and

asked me to stop talking about it. And the reason he asked me to stop talking about it is because it was one of the demands from the Prime Minister of France so that we could finish negotiations on the Ukraine. He was really mad about it and just was like, hey, tell her to shut up. So, and so now, now, now there's all this speculation that like she got pranked. Like it wasn't really him because it doesn't, it doesn't sound like something that he would do. Like he would, like, to me it doesn't sound like that's something he would even care about.

Trump impersonators, very common these days.

Well, like you, you have AI that can like legit impersonate somebody, you know, and And from what I was— from what I've read is there are these apps that you can use that make it look like somebody's calling from a number that's not that number.

That's true.

And, and so, you know, if you— I know that.

She just knows stuff. I know that's a thing.

Yeah.

Which to tie back into home buying, like, people get pranked out of their money all the time.

Yes. Yes.

Yes. Well, that was a big deal during COVID when people were selling, like, fake leases and all that kind of stuff. Still, I mean, there's all kinds of scams out there.

Still happening.

Still happening.

Okay.

So anyway, that, I mean, that was like the big, one of the big stories that happened this last week. And I was just flabbergasted. I mean, because if it's true, like what a weird thing to ask for. Like why would you, why would you ask it as part of like a negotiation to start a ceasefire on a war? Hey, stop talking trash about my wife.

Do we get to put on our tinfoil hats now?

100%.

Okay, I forgot mine.

No, I mean, honestly though, the things that go on in a celebrity's life, like, that's far from— like, if you're— don't be a Will Smith and go slap somebody because they say something about your wife.

Sure.

I mean, especially a comedian. I mean, you've kind of opened yourself up to that just for being in there. Like, a lot of people are afraid to be on stuff like this because if you become popular, You never know how you're going to be attacked.

Yeah, 100%.

Yeah.

And where it comes from and who, because some people you think, obviously that would never happen from them. They're, they're my, they're my people.

Yeah.

And then all of a sudden you're being attacked by those people and you're like, okay, well, maybe they're not.

Well, I mean, and you, you guys would be surprised, like, like the dumb stuff that we get, like, from this show. I mean, like, this is a very benign show, honestly. I mean, like, there's not, there's not a whole lot controversial happening on this.

On this program, says the guy who starts it up like, hey, we're talking about houses, but before we start, let's talk about the most controversial thing going on.

I'll tell you, I'll give you, I'll give you an example, and this one has probably gotten close to half a million views. Yeah, yeah, not, not, not right now.

Oh man, come on.

No, I'm the clip, the clip. Turn it off, turn it off.

No, it's not me, it's not me.

Now, this was just a clip from an episode where we were talking about termite pretreats on houses. And it was because I was working with a builder that's here in Houston. And did you see this?

No, I, I, my wife shared something with me and, or somebody shared something with me that was like, people think that there's still pretreats going on, but it's not a requirement.

Yes.

And that was you?

It was me. That was me. That was me.

Hey, man. So it's a small world after all.

That's good.

Disney was right. Wow.

And thank you for confirming, by the way.

Validation.

But like, I, I put that out there and it was, I, it was because I had already always been operating under the assumption that it was required. Yeah. Because I've been, I've been doing it so long. It's like, and it was like never an industry, part of my industry I wanted to get into. So I'm talking to a builder that I work for. We, we're doing a bunch of other stuff for him. And I was like, hey, what are you guys doing for pretreats? And he's like, oh, we don't do anything. And I'm like, why? And he goes, because we don't have to here where they were building. And like, you, you would have thought I was Judas Iscariot, man. Like, guys coming out of the woodwork is like, I've been building houses in

DFW for 25 years. You gotta do a pretreat in Texas every single time. I'm like, yeah, dude, in DFW you 100% do because that's that county.

Yeah.

And, and like, they're— and then I'm literally watching guys send in copies from ChatGPT where they've looked it up because they're questioning whether or not they're right. And they're asking ChatGPT, do you have— is it— are pre-treats required in Texas? And it's like the answer— I can sit the— I can send the prompt in and get the exact same thing. And it's like, dude, you didn't go read the law. You just looked at AI and didn't actually research. That's not the law.

Yeah, the names have been changed to protect end of service. Yeah.

So, I mean, but, but it's dumb stuff like that where they'll, I mean, they will just excoriate you and like, they don't even know what they're talking about.

I, I get that a lot in, in my industry.

Okay.

Not, not specifically about that, but just in general, people will ask me, well, what does the code say? And I'm like, one, I'm not a code inspector.

Mm-hmm.

One thing you have to know about code is that code applies only at the level that that particular jurisdiction Says it has to. And what I mean by that is like, they may still be working on 2010 code. And you're asking me, and I learn current standards, which means that I can call something out. And the builder, this literally happened to me recently in not too far from here. We'll call out names.

Sure.

But we called out—

The names have been changed.

Exactly. We called, we said, hey, there's a, there's a water heater. Yeah, water heater is tankless. But it was at a level in the garage where it was like, you could run into this with a car. And we said you should probably put something to help guard it.

A blockade of some sort.

Yeah.

I mean, it was very standard. And so they went to the builder, the buyer went to the builder and asked for it. And they were like, yeah, it's not— we're tired here. We're not doing it. It's like, really? Like, it seems like you'd want to protect the people that are buying.

Bold choice. Yeah, exactly.

Real bold choice. Like, something goes wrong. And we mentioned it, they may come back to you and say, yeah, you said you wouldn't work. We're going to do it.

Yeah, it's crazy.

So I mean, makes perfect sense.

But I do make that very clear when I when I talk to people about home inspection. I'm like, there's nothing that I call out that one, the if the seller especially not a builder has to fix, even if it is current code because it's not a requirement to bring a house up to code. And then two. If I call, if it's a builder and it's not in that jurisdiction yet, right? They're not going to do it. It just doesn't happen. So we're not a code inspector. We understand code and we will usually inspect based on current code, but it may not be even a requirement in the area we're doing it. And we, but we also try to go above that standard. We look at safety standards like, hey, even if it's not, yeah, even if it's not

a requirement.

Like, what did you say? Door stoppers. Door stoppers.

My favorite when it shows up on an inspection.

Door stopper. Son of a bitch.

Yeah, you never know.

Bad house. Oh no, you can't buy that. You could die.

Let's get out of here right now.

Haunted. JR doesn't do that, but there are inspectors.

There are inspectors.

Fill pages.

Yep. But I mean, I don't like—

they're checking every door jamb like, oh, that— nope, nope, nope, nope.

Literally.

Oh my gosh.

That's—

imagine having the buyer who wants them to replace them.

Yeah.

For $1.99 apiece.

None of your clients would do that.

No, they would. I'm not using one of yours as an example. That you know of. Oh, that's, again, names changed. They are not innocent. Will. Yeah. Where's that? That's funny.

Yeah. Well, okay, so we can, we can, we can put, we can do some tinfoil stuff on some real estate. I mean, like, So one of the, I mean, just doing some prep work for the show, in 2024, Houston led the nation in the most building permits issued. Like, that's true. You know, 100% across the nation.

Yep.

It's, and so one of the things like specifically here in Conroe is like they have put a moratorium for like what, 120 days?

And on, if you look at the satellite maps, On our area, the dirt that's been scraped for subdivisions is staggering. That's why we've got a soggy market right now. It's like a very mushy, and houses are still selling, but, and it picked up the, there was an election this last November, and then there was a guy got sworn in.

Who was running in that?

I won't mention any, but it starts with a T and ends with a run.

We don't really know who was running exactly.

Yeah, it picked up 2 weeks after he got inaugurated. So, and then that was a pickup, it was a flush, and we're starting to back into it a little bit. But digging into that, the builders are 3 years behind.

Yeah.

So they're building for '21, which is— there was no inventory. How do you deal with 12 offers in a day? Right. So, and that's what— that's one of the contributing factors of North Houston, Conroe being the 2nd most non-good place right now because they're building for Just crap. They're selling a house right now.

Yeah. But there's places, I mean, like, I assume that moratorium only applies to city proper. And so there's areas outside of that where you can, they can still build.

Oh, they are. You know, but they're still having trouble getting things in. So that is City of Conroe. However, there's still areas that are outside if you go out past Magnolia, kind of in those areas where they can't get power to some of the communities now. So you've got people under contract, these new communities that have been started up, And they're now 60, 90 days out from even getting infrastructure access to power. So they're all paused.

That's crazy. Well, okay. And then on the flip side of that, mayor of Houston just introduced a building permit expedition, expediting program where they're promising now to expedite all residential builds for in 30 days.

So has anybody ever applied for a city of Houston permit?

Well, that's the thing is like it just, it just started in one time. Okay. I did it one time.

I'm still waiting. That was 50 years ago.

So I looked it up and I was like, okay, so what's the data on this right now? And they're like, there's no data because it just started in July.

Yeah. So previously they were waiting 6 months to put a window in.

Yes. Yeah.

It's nuts. But you got a window.

Wow.

I mean, be thankful.

Well, and they said that they still had outstanding permits from like a year ago.

Yes.

And I'm like, okay, so like you're gonna process the new ones in 30 days? Or like, what's gonna—

like, it's not a good way to do business.

Yeah, sure, that's gonna have negative impact. It sounds great to the people that want the hurry. However, because it's with any bureaucracy— I'm with the government and I'm here to help. Sorry, I said that out loud. Um, is, is it's gonna happen so fast they're not gonna see it and it's just be like, you know, rubber stamp, stamp it.

Yeah, yeah.

Gone. Get it.

Well, I mean, is that why they're doing it though? I mean, like, do they have so much backlog that they're just trying to like move the voters? Voters? Do we have like an election for mayor coming up?

Like, what's— you never don't.

Oh yeah, that's fair.

So that— but the idea is like, dude, that's all they want. It's butts in seats. Did they— well, we did this expeditious thing and that, you know, that's great. The medication's great. But then You know, you got explosive diarrhea, your limbs fly off and blood shoots out your eyes. I wouldn't want that medication. Part of it is also attraction because they have a history of deterring the development because the process is so bad. I mean, you have people here, pool builders that are like, nope, nope, you're in City of Houston. I'm not even going to do it because it's not worth what it takes. It's just not a good process. And so sometimes by saying things like that and we're going to put this into process,

they haven't done it so they can't prove it.

Right.

But what will they attract and what are they going to bring by offering it?

Well, they're probably definitely going to get more applicants.

I mean, you You know, which is money, right? Because you pay for that permit and you pay for the land.

Well, I'm just curious if it, if it, is it, because I'm looking at it going like, are you talking about like new neighborhoods? Are you talking about like demoing something in the Heights and then building something new? Like, what are we talking about here? What are we trying to stimulate? I don't even know. Like, because we're like, are we trying to like, I don't know, refurbish old neighborhoods? Because there's not a lot of places to build down there anymore.

Use of the word refurbish with The older neighborhoods, you're— and you've seen this— is McMansions, right? They'll take the old 3/2 regular houses on a regular lot and 3-story it up. Oh man, that's the— I sold one for like $850,000. It was a little 3/2. It was a nice little 1,700-square-foot home, right? $850,000. And then bam, knocked it out. It was— yeah, it was huge.

I mean, that turned into like a $3 million investment, right?

Yes, sir. Which is what happens when they tax that. Oh wait, more money. Yeah, that's why we want to expedite.

Because that's what I'm saying is like, is that the reason? Are we trying to bring in more tax revenue? I mean, because there's, there's not.

I can't speak for them.

Right.

Because I do not know. However, that will be the result.

Well, because like it seems, I mean, because we, I mean, is everybody here in Montgomery County? Yes. No. Where are you? Are you Harris?

Oh yeah, he's spread out. But he's not City of Houston.

Yeah, but you still got hit with the, uh, Harris County.

He's not real happy right now. Calm down.

But that was the one that they did the loophole on the tax increase. Did you get swept up in that?

So there's a little bit different story for me. It's not going to be helpful for anybody because I'm just not in that realm. I'm a vet.

I'm old.

Right.

And so I don't really track that stuff because it doesn't affect you.

Yeah. Yeah.

So whatever, however that— I don't want to put in some input that like I know anything about it.

Sure. Well, I mean, so my—

unfortunately, because I should—

You got neighbors.

Maybe care more. But I mean, the truth of the matter is most of the time the people that are affected are usually the people in Houston proper. Harris is not as affected, but Harris County still gets kind of beat up on a lot of the little crap.

Well, the only reason I know anything about it, my main office is down there. In spring.

Uh-huh. Yeah.

And it was, it was like something like you can't increase the property taxes more than 15 to 18% unless it's been declared an emergency or a catastrophe of some sort. And they used COVID as a— an example, an end around to go, oh, we need to go up.

Never let a crisis go to waste. Yeah. Right.

Yeah. So, but I feel like I, My tinfoil's getting a little bit—

This year's getting a little snug. Yeah.

I'm like, wow, I didn't know we were gonna go this deep into some of this stuff.

Okay. A lot of deep travel.

Go there. Yeah. Well, no, I mean, like, it hurt a lot of people. I mean, like, yeah, still, you know, I mean, people, people, I mean, there's a lot of people that have been living there since the '70s.

Mm-hmm.

You know, and like a 15% increase on your property taxes is nuts for a lot of people who are on fixed incomes.

And that's a, that's one of the reasons that a lot of people don't like the refurb of a refurb, refurbing a neighborhood. Because, you know, and you can go into Bel Air and you can go look at a McMansion in there. And right next to it is a little, shoot, it's not even a 3/2. You're lucky if it's a 2/1/1.

Mm-hmm.

A little bitty thing. You're like, and people will go in and buy that just for the property for a lot of money, $1 million just for the property. tear that down and then build a million-dollar house and have a $3 to $4 million property right there. It's, it's kind of weird. But who was living in there before? Down where I live, there's a—

Which neighborhood are you in, by the way?

Spring Creek Oaks.

Spring Creek. Okay.

Okay. So down in that area, right along Kuykendall, there's a really nice area. I shouldn't say really nice. It's, it's a nice area that's been kind of built up, not neighborhood, but right next to a lot of this commercial is a house that looks like somebody runs a business out of there too. But it's like, really, it's not— you can tell that somebody's holding on to it because it's been in the family for a while.

Yep.

And they're like, yeah, we're not selling it. And you'll see people having a family event out there. And you're like, this is really a weird spot to have that. But they're holding on to it because To them, paying, I don't know, $600,000, $700,000 for a house is ludicrous. Yeah. And people coming in and offering probably some of the money that they're being offered is probably like, my— this is more important to me than the money. And they want that. Well, I mean, like, somebody in that family does, at least. Not necessarily all.

Not everybody.

Just, just, I mean, like, right, Kirkendall 2920, right?

Yeah.

Which is where my office is.

not far from there.

I've been there since '92.

So you go down one, one block— oh, well, not one block, but one light from Kuykendall and 2920.

So like, as I'm talking about, as crazy as that intersection is, like, with less than a mile away from there is a Century Ranch. Yeah, a lot of people think there's cows on Rhodes Road.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay.

And those, those, those are friends of ours.

I love that about Houston.

That's who—

I mean, not just Houston, but, but, but like, that's what I like about Texas. Like, you can be in River Oaks or wherever, Houston area, that's got a lot of money and people from other parts of the world, because I don't want to say country, because to me, if you're not from Texas, you're not really a— it's a little bit— yeah, even you, girl, talk a little fast for me, but—

So rude.

I know, right? Sorry.

But I think the reins here, cowboy.

But no, my point is like, that's part of what we are like.

Oh sure.

When I was a kid growing up, if once you got past 610, between 610 and, and, and Conroe, it was like one big cow pasture.

It was a wilderness.

The only, the only break that you had was literally the blimp. Yeah, right there. Yeah, back when we had the good— we're halfway there.

You're way back machine.

Oh yeah, this is way back. But even inside of Houston proper, even in 610 area, You can drive through areas and there's still cow pastures there.

Yeah.

I mean, they're not that uncommon.

No.

They're all over the place.

It's a bizarre place to live, man. Like, I—

It's awesome. I love it.

Yeah. I mean, as long as you get out of there before 2 o'clock in the afternoon. Yeah.

Otherwise your travel time just doubled or tripled sometimes.

Let me tell you how often I'm in the office after 2. Not often.

I, I believe that.

Well, so, okay. I, I kind of want to go around the table and see, like, because I, I think all of you kind of come at this from a different perspective. Like, where, where would you guys push people to look at a new home purchase right now? Um, like, is there like a neighborhood? Is there an area that you think that's great? And because you, you guys probably think he's got notes. Well, but you, you guys all probably come at it from a different perspective. And you have your own reasons. So I'm interested to hear why, because you guys are all in real estate in one form, shape, or another. So I mean, like, do you want me to put you on the spot or you want me to pick on Brian?

I mean, I'm—

yeah, I want to go ahead. Go ahead.

I will start with, I don't have an area that I would say is a blanket. Here's for everybody. I think every client that comes, it's what are you looking for?

Right.

Because to be honest, I don't want to be near cows. Horses, all the things, right?

Just on the other side of that wall.

I know.

No, no, I do like the— I do like your horses. They seemed nice.

Except for the gate they knocked down.

They did seem a little aggressive, but pretty, so it's fine. Anyways, no, I think the area is definitely aggressive. B-E aggressive.

Spell the word, please. So many people say that.

It's B-E aggressive. E, like the word. Um, love you. Okay, that was— that's good.

Anyway, I like it.

So I will say, I don't pick area, um, but I, I live in Montgomery County. I live about, I don't know, 500 feet outside of Harris County. Okay, right past Spring Creek.

Just got out and just like stepped right over the line.

Right over the line. Yep. My brother's like, we're neighbors. I'm like, not really, because you're on that side of the line. So we're not the same. We are We are not equals. It's fine. Anyway.

Wow, he's a Navy guy. Be gentle.

Again, we are not equals.

Be gentle with us.

Okay, I try. Okay, anyways, so I think it does depend on the area. I will say I'm partial to Montgomery County. I think that we have an area that really does provide all the things that I think I would want in a city, right? We have everywhere you want to shop. We have conveniences galore. We have the lake, we have communities, we have good-ish schools. Good-ish. Because it's to each their own, right? I mean, there's some people that the public school system is never going to be enough. You know, we have a great eclectic— we have all the things. So you have your private schools, you have your different school districts. I also feel like being in Montgomery County, I've been here for 20

years, so I'm kind of a Texan, right?

You're like old.

Okay.

I mean, oh no, I'm sorry, you're a Texan. That's what you're known for.

Yeah, you're a Texan. Keep going, JR. But I do feel in the time that I've been here, so I've owned my first house I bought when I was 22, so I've never rented. I've always owned.

You're only 22?

Yeah.

No way.

Yeah, that just happened.

He's trying to win you back.

I feel it. His drink's empty. No, she doesn't. She'll never forgive you for that. It's fair. Anyways, I do think that Montgomery County is a good area as far as, you know, we've seen different things happen. We've seen ups and downs in the markets. We've seen Exxon coming in. We've seen mortgage crash. We've seen foreclosures. We've seen all those things, and in that entire 20-year span, we have still always had strong property values. We've had good areas. We haven't seen just everything go bad. Um, so I do— when I talk to people and they say, I'm moving, you know, from out of state or wherever, and I'm looking at all these places, I do tell people, I think you should stay somewhere

like here. I think Conroe specifically— I worked in the city of Conroe for a while, and there's a lot of good values. There's a lot of good if you want that, you know, Bryanism down-home stuff, you've got it. And if you don't, and you are like the anti-Woodlands, you know, you could just move 2 blocks down, 2 exits.

Yeah.

And you have a different world. So I think that we hold our value very well. I think that we've got a ton of resources. I think it's a great area.

Yeah, I think anybody that's had their house more than 7 years has crazy amounts of equity. I mean, just, I mean, really, I mean, yes, because like, it doesn't seem like values are coming down that much. I mean, prices seem to be coming down on the market. But people's values don't seem to be coming down that much.

If you talk to the appraisal district, you're correct.

You're right. Yeah.

And I will say that's kind of a mis— so what you just said, so the values aren't coming down, but what they're paying is.

Yes.

That's what brings values down.

Eventually.

Eventually. Right. And so I think we are in a leveling period. But we also saw a lot happening in '21 where we had, you know, almost every other loan I was doing was I'm coming from California, I'm coming from Colorado, I'm coming from all these places. I'll pay $50,000, $75,000, $100,000 over.

Right, because they have the cash.

Because they had the cash, right? And so a lot of those numbers became very inflated. You also had people buying at an unrealistic interest rate. And so what they thought was affordable is hopefully never going to happen again. Like, we should never have 2% interest rates. Like, if you have them, fantastic. You're not supposed to.

Okay.

Right, it's just not. So I think a lot of that misconception or the way the world was at that time is not a forever model. Right. Really. Um, and so that did drive up values, unfortunately, for people who pay taxes on that and things like that. Um, but as those prices—

Thanks for covering us over there in Harris County. Yeah.

As those prices start coming down, it will level out some of the market and we still have a ton of equity, which is great.

Yeah.

It's just not 2022. No.

Well, I, so I, I was looking up, um, like just, just like regular real estate statistics and stuff, uh, before the show. And I was, I was surprised because I was, I was looking at what's the biggest movers from places to Texas right now? Do you guys know the 3? At least, I mean, what I read, what was, what I think that there's 2 that are obvious, which is California.

Left.

And New York. Do you guys know the 3rd one?

Oregon?

No. Colorado?

I was shocked by the 3rd one.

Blue? I'll stop.

No, it was Florida.

Really?

Yes. Um, I, I don't—

wildlife can kill you just as fast as ours, right?

Which, I mean, like, might be, might be cause for concern. I mean, like, there is the Florida Man syndrome. I mean, like, we, we, we don't need a lot of that energy here. We got— we're close enough to Louisiana that, like, we—

a lot of throwing under the bus today. He's not in the mic.

It's okay. I'm from Florida.

Oh no. Are you really?

Oh yeah.

So we got 2 Texans.

So be mean to everybody. So things with Florida, talking about that, is, is that's not a surprise because you look at their market volatility has been, yeah, it's as bad as California except they're not as, and I'm going to go political, they're not as blue.

Right.

So they're not facing libtardism. The trick here is, um, they're facing, well, our market's so volatile, right? And the, the houses are so crazy there.

When I, when I saw that, I kind of, I was, I kind of like did a little bit more of a deep dive. I was like, why is this happening? And they're like, well, because the, the tax structure seems to be better for people. They can remote work, most of them. And, and so like, and, and then, and the property values seem to be lower and it seems to be more of a buyer's market here than it is there right now.

Correct.

So they can, they can pull a lot of their equity out of their, you know, expensive houses in Florida. I mean, just kind of like what you were saying, everybody else, Colorado, wherever, um, and they can bring it here, live a little bit more affordably, um, and, you know, be happy, happy, happy.

I love it. All right, say something intelligent. I mean, look at Galveston real estate market if you want to see an area that is in our backyard that is struggling. No, I'm dead serious because Very much like a Florida. You have— I mean, prices went through the roof because there was the Airbnb market during COVID There was a lot of travel, there was a lot of that. You could acquire properties in '21 for double what they were probably worth. And now you've got— I think last time I looked, there's 1,500 houses on the market just on Galveston Island.

I was actually talking to somebody about that today, and I was, I was telling them, I think, I think a lot of that has to do with insurance.

Absolutely. Yeah. Also, but the overinflated prices that these people got into these houses for.

I mean, insurance-wise, you're stuck if you buy a property and the insurance company goes, yeah, we're not covering it.

Right.

It's like, what do you do then? I mean, how do you fulfill mortgage requirements, which is you have to have insurance?

3 insurances. Hazard, TUIA, and flood.

Oh, Lord. Now you're stuck with a property and you're like, please help. And whoever's offering it, you're paying it.

Well, it's, it's, it's a, it's a, it's a double-edged sword, right? Because like when you, when the insurance companies do that where they're not gonna insure a property, it only leaves the ultra wealthy with the opportunity to buy those because they're the only ones with the cash.

Yeah. They can self— yeah, they can basically self-insure.

They can buy it and not have to have insurance.

Yeah.

So cash it.

Yeah. It's crazy. So it, it's just, it's just one of the, like we've, we've been talking about insurance on this program a lot. Most of the, I mean, the California fires was a big part of that. Because everyone was crying wolf, like, oh, like, like we didn't know. And it's like, no, they've been talking about this for like 3 or 4 years.

Like, started with Hawaii.

Yes.

That was where the flares went out first. Then California burst into flames.

Yeah. Well, and a lot of people don't realize the same thing's happening here. It's just with roofs and flood.

Yeah. Well, and from what I saw, a lot of the people that I was representing, I would listen to Some of their the advice they were getting, and it was like, oh yeah, just buy the house and then hold on to it for a couple years and then just file a claim. It's like, hmm, God, what?

Yeah, that's and it got fraud.

Yeah, I mean, and I don't know that it was fraud. It was it was an acceptable practice. I mean, what's more fraudulent than hey, you have to have this coverage, and you got to pay what I tell you to. Yeah, so. That's, I mean, that's not good.

Extortion, it's different, but.

Yeah, it's different. Like, you know, but I mean, I had one real thing. I had one client that was asking me to inspect his roof and I was asking him why. And he was like, oh, I need something for the insurance company. I'm like, but I don't know what I'm going to give you that will help you. And he said, well, I mean, they won't cover me. And I'm like, typically when that's happening, that just means that they're trying to get out of the market. If you don't have a brand new roof, they don't want to cover you. It's too much liability for them. And, and, but they weren't telling them, change the roof and we'll cover you. That was what was weird to me. I was like,

just make it simple. Get a new roof.

Texas did come out with boring stuff, a program for like an actual cash value. So basically year 1, okay, we'll cover 100%. And then it will stair-step down every year after that. So it decreases coverage. So we are the problem. It's always the lender's fault. That's what I've learned.

Thanks.

Yeah, sorry.

I don't think it's Stephanie though.

I think she's got it going on. Someone top her off.

Bring that, just bring that bottle over here.

So, but the issue is, so in order to, and it's really beyond the lender's fault, it's a HUD, a VA, you know, Freddie, Fannie, and they will not insure the loan if you do not insure the fact that that person has full replacement coverage and throughout, through and throughout. So it doesn't matter that you have an annual insurance policy. If you have a brand new house, but it is set up under that new Texas policy that does allow them to drop the coverage every year, we have to assume for a 30-year mortgage that at some point, if you continue with the policy that we're underwriting, that you are going to not have coverage.

Yep.

And so then we require a full replacement, which when you require full replacement, they say nope, after almost 7 years. It becomes almost impossible for them to get full replacement or you're paying $5,000, $6,000, $7,000. Yeah.

Because I've heard people that— But it's our fault. In the circles I travel, it's like if I've heard buyers state that if it's— they've been told by insurance companies, if it's over 10 years, they're not going to pay.

It's true.

They're not going to pay. And it's not even like a caveat, like, well, if you got an inspection and we get the— we'll look it over and we'll Yeah, it's like 10 years.

And then, and then the evil lender comes in and says you have to replace it.

Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, what people are doing these days is they're filling out their seller disclosure and they're just, they're not sure how old the roof is.

Yeah.

Right. So what do we do? We go and find every other seller disclosure from every sale previously to figure out when the last owner of that property knew how old the roof was. Yeah. Because unknown is not an option. And then we bring an inspector out who won't give us a, yeah, you know, So, so math. Well, so there's—

so an insurance, like, for, from an inspector's perspective, I can never tell you how old a roof is. The only person who knows, well, I shouldn't say only per— there's 2 people that know. The buyer, who may not want to tell you, or may not remember, and the guy who actually replaced the roof.

It's pretty expensive. I think most people would remember.

Unless insurance paid for it, and then they don't care.

Yeah. Like, That's part of it. But I mean, just being old. I mean, I thought that something happened. I'm from the '80s. No, I'm just—

you're from the '80s? Excuse me.

No, I'm just saying, like, if you tell me 20 years ago, I'm thinking 1980-something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Not, not 2020-something or 2005 or whatever. I'm not thinking that's 20 years ago. I'm thinking 1980-something. So my point is, like, you lose track of time, especially if you've been in the house 30 years. You're like, I feel like I just replaced that roof. No, that was 30 years ago.

10 years. Yeah.

So no insurance for you.

Yeah. They don't remember.

I'm thinking if you don't disclose it, it's not good.

Probably not.

Probably not. From the real estate perspective, disclose is disclose. I mean, it doesn't matter if you had a volcano in the third bedroom. Who cares? Disclose it. We remediated it. Yeah. Yeah. Geologist. National Geographic came in, it was great, special.

But I also think that's one of the reasons that you see, especially in the investment realm, you get a lot of wholesalers that are like, yeah, sell it to us sight unseen.

Mm-hmm.

No disclosure. Because now all of a sudden, they're not the, they're not the real owner. So they're selling to the investor. And they're telling them, we don't know.

Right.

And that's acceptable.

Right. And where it does hurt is you take those homes that are under $300,000. that are cash properties, right? Because you have investors all day long that will buy sight unseen. Well, that other market that is in that under $300,000 are your people who need assistance, right?

Yeah.

They need affordability. They're trying to get a house that they can move their family into. That's like that entry-level home. They're competing against cash. And even if they weren't competing, they're competing against high interest rates, insurance they can't afford, you know? So it makes it that gap of homeownership is actually getting a little bit worse for those people. Yeah. Because of some of that.

But I will tell you, a lot of people—

Liability. Almost.

But a lot of people get wrapped up in that, oh, those are the poor people that are struggling. And under $300,000 is not poor. No, no. My point is, is that it's not necessarily the single mom or the person that's kind of whatever, had made bad decisions trying to get their life on track.

Well, the income level now is $100,000.

I know people. Yeah, I know, right?

That's literally like you are now under the median income. I think it's $80,100 a year in our area.

I did an inspection that was through a, you know, help program. And I had a, I was representing a doctor.

Yep.

MD. I mean, she was really new. Like, she had just finished, I think, her residency or whatever. And she was not buying, because she was still single, she was not buying a super expensive house. And she needed help. Like, she was— and she was working her tail off, a lot of hours. And I was like, okay, well, you know, here I am. I'll help you as much as I can. But I, you know, you go into that and you're thinking, I'm, I don't know, representing somebody who doesn't have a lot of potential or may not have had a hard life or something old school. She's like, yeah, no, she's just really worked really hard, had a really

smart girl, had a lot of opportunity coming her way, but she just wasn't there yet.

Yeah. Starter home, kids just getting married, you know, out of college or whatever, trades. It's hard for them to compete. The guy just walks in and goes, cash. Yeah. Yeah, we're done. Yeah, came over, especially in the real estate world, you know, cash is king, or Ross. So, but it's getting harder and harder. There's greater disparity with that, especially especially with the new homes. Don't mind the bartender.

Yeah, since you're up.

Yeah. Sensuous. Sensuous.

I'm good. So I just looked this up. I mean, because you were talking about the '80s and I was interested to see like what percentage of people's income—

Dude, stage diving with the dead Kennedys.

J.R. Ramirez. What, like what percentage of the income were people paying on their mortgages in the '80s versus today? And it didn't have like an exact figure, but like, this is interesting. So like interest rates in the '80s was between 12 and 18%.

Yeah.

It was not small. Like a lot of people think it was huge. Something that—

But the, but the median household income was $24,000 a year.

Okay.

That's the median. And the average home price was $85,000. Um, and, and so the, the average mortgage payment was between $700 and $900 a month. So versus today, average home price is $400,000 with a 6.5% to 7.5% interest rate. Household median is only $75,000. And so then the mortgage rate is 2,200% to 2,800% average.

Greater disparity.

I mean, it's, it's a massive disparity.

Oh yeah. Even with the, and so when people complain about interest rates, I just—

Oh, here, here it is. Sorry. It's, it's the, the, the ratio in 1980, in the 1980s was between 25% and 30% of gross income. Versus today, it's 35 to 45 percent.

But there was a little bit different scenario during that time.

I hope you don't own a car.

It was it was more of a top ramen and beans. Hey, for dinner, save, save, save, and then buy. It wasn't you deserve a home because you breathe.

No.

Yeah.

And well, and I've been in a lot of houses where I'm like, I think a lot of people's pushback on that is they're not making enough to where they can save. Right.

Because interest rates are better. And that's the thing too, right? You make more money on your money.

And I I Yeah.

Shoots you square.

Nice.

You're good.

Oh no, he's not done yet. That was fun.

You know, there's been a lot of study of people that, that, uh, have different lifestyles and different incomes. And the, the typically the, the big thing that drives the difference is not their income. It's how they live.

Sure.

If, if you think you deserve something, even though you may or may not, you're not, you're trying to live at a standard that entitled. I know, right?

Yeah.

So it's, and, and me and my wife, like, we, we held off on a lot of things that a lot of our friends were doing. Like, to me, it was never, hey, I should have a summer vacation every summer. It's like, nah, we can't afford that crap.

But I mean, it is, I was, I was listening to a guy talk about this the other day. And it's like, the average person has like 5 or 6 streaming services that they're paying for monthly.

Yeah.

I mean, And they think that they're saving money because each one of them is only like $12 or $15 or $20, and it's less than, it's less than what they were paying for cable. But like, you compound those and you're paying more than you were ever for cable, which is, you know, evil and demonic.

No, to your point, what I mean, if you've watched the, the, there's a reason that all these, like, services have the same kind of approach.

Sure.

And the approach is, hey, try us free for 4 months. 8 months later, you're like, oh, wait a minute, I'm paying for what? I need to get rid of that. And then 2 years later, you're like, dang it, I never forgot. I forgot I should cancel it right now. And then 5 years later, you're like, has it been really 7 years?

Oh my God. Yeah.

Turn it off. Don't take the deal. The deal, it's just like anything else. If you're not watching it, It's gonna bite you.

Isn't it crazy that we have services specifically for finding hidden subscriptions?

Yeah, you pay, you pay, you pay a subscription fee to find out how you're wasting, like, and they're making millions. And you're giving them all your bank logins. Yeah.

I mean, one of the guys that we, we, uh, I've networked with in the past, one of his, his tagline is, if I don't save you a dime, I don't make a nickel or something like that.

Yeah.

You know, it's like, I only get half of whatever I Save you. Would I ever save you? But I will find your savings or I won't. I don't get paid. It's like, and people, we, I think we in general need that. Like, like you said, there's just, there's just so many. I went, I looked at something that I got charged on the other day and I was like, I know I turned that crap off. I just, oh.

And this is not part of our program.

And so now I have to go back and re— Look at it and then go back to them because there's, I'm sure that there's something like, oh, oh, I'm sorry, we forgot. And is what they're gonna tell me. And I'm gonna go, no, here's the documentation. Yeah. You need to pay me back. But they're gonna continue to charge me as long as I brought the receipts.

Yeah. Well, I, but like, that's, that's a part of like financial intelligence. Right? And I'm sure you guys, I mean, especially on like the buying, selling end of homes, I mean, like, get to experience the lack of financial intelligence and people, like how unprepared people are when they show up. To, to purchase a home or think that, or think that they're ready to buy a home.

That's part of that, that whenever you're sitting in their kitchen and you're going over it and it's like, okay, and, and you go through, okay, look, you need to tell me the truth. And we start getting into how much do you make? How much do you owe? And so if you sell this house right now, you're going to have to bring $5,000, but going back to the $21,000. I mean, we've had people bring money to the table to sell a house. So it's the same thing. It's like we walked away.

Yeah, it's crazy.

No, it's a very abusive relationship we have. But the idea is we walked away from 2 this last week. Just, this is, you know, goofy. If you do this, you're going to be plunging yourself into— you get Top Ramen and beans every night. And then what are you going to buy? So, well, the idea was like, one of them was like, oh wow, that's cool, relationship for life. Then the other one went with, you know what, we're going to get another realtor that'll do it. There's 12 billion that will.

Yeah, have fun.

Don't make— well, I think put fun in dysfunctional. Also, there was a story that I read and it sounded crazy. Somebody actually read it back to me and they're like, can you believe people do that? So Affirm, you know, you hear about FlexPay and Affirm and Afterpay and all of these services that allow you to break down an expense. So the number of people, and I want to say, and I could find it later if somebody wants to fact-check me, but it was like 30% increase of people using Affirm to buy groceries. And some people—

Oh, Affirm, like the— okay.

Like where you pay over time for an expense. And so why are you laughing?

Really? Like people are paying over time for a service?

Yeah, well, it's like a credit. So it's like a credit card, but not a credit card, right? Yeah. At checkout, you decide, hey, I'm going to pay this out over 3, 6, 12 months.

Is that part of the buy now, pay later?

It is. Okay. It's all the buy now, pay later thing. There's 5 or 6 different companies that are doing it. However, this is where people don't realize because it doesn't pull your credit. It doesn't show up on credit, although sometimes it does. She used air parentheses. We all saw it. Right.

Yeah, right. We got video.

We got video.

Yeah, I did.

I did. Well deserved. Well deserved. Absolutely.

So point being is that affordability, right, it's hard. So people are doing things like that and they're financing out small purchases over time. Well, when they go to buy a house, what people do not realize is a debt is a debt. If you owe somebody money, whether or not it was a Discover credit card or a mortgage, we see it, right? We're looking at your bank statements, we're looking at your credit, we're seeing what you're paying. And so because you financed 6 pairs of Nikes over time— I'm not— this, this is a true story. 1,000% real story. So glad I didn't shoot that out of my nose.

That would be funny.

This was a real client of mine last summer— or sorry, last Christmas— was closing and he had bought Christmas gifts, and every time he checked out, he did a Pay as you go. Well, so the thing is, he might have split it up in 3 payments or 6 payments, but those are $50 apiece, right? So I'm adding those to your debt ratio. And so it made a bigger problem for him because now he afforded— well, he could not afford what he wanted to, but he didn't see that it was— that was a debt. That was the same thing as taking a loan out. But the sad part too is that people are using that to buy groceries. Alligator appetite, hummingbird budget.

Yeah, man. We have to be smart about what we do either way. It's, it's, nobody's teaching anybody any patience. Nobody's teaching anybody delayed gratification.

That gets back to what you said originally.

Nobody's doing the things that they really want.

But the industry is, we, we're teaching that like as we go along, we run into them and say, okay, so timeout. You should not spend this much on, you're eating out, you know, 6 times a week.

Right.

As opposed to, why don't you get a ham sandwich? You know?

Sure.

Take something to work.

And so take your lunch. Or you're spending a quarter of a million dollars to have an entry-level basic house, right? And so if you're thinking— this is— so my daughter, being a child of a mom who has a mortgage company, when she moved to Austin, she said, well, I don't want to rent. I should buy, right? I'm like, well, come here, come here, baby. You should, right? Let's talk about that. You've learned so much. No, the thing is, you're making— Threw herself under the bus, didn't she? I do. I love that my daughter said that. I love that she understood we don't rent forever. We want to buy. Right. Educational opportunity.

Right.

This is good. At the same time, you should maybe graduate college and have an income first. Yeah, have a job. But either way, if you think about an entry-level home is a quarter of a million dollars, right? $250,000 is entry-level. That's a big purchase. And I will tell you, people who come to me, they're like, I'm under contract, I'm buying a house. What do I do? I want to qualify. You thought more about the $100 pair of shoes you bought than you thought about signing a contract to buy a $250,000 house. Because people just think, well, I saw a YouTube video and you can just get a mortgage. Yeah, because, you know, because we're not teaching people like how you actually set yourself up

for being able to purchase, being able to set yourself up financially. What happens when you have to buy 3 water hoses? That's $300 you weren't expecting. Like, It's expensive to own a house. And it's something that is a 30-year commitment. So when we're underwriting it, we're looking at it like that. You want our money. You have no reason sometimes to get it. And you're paying it back over 30 years. Show me why.

I do believe like, to that same point, like I see houses on the back end where nobody's taking care of it, no maintenance, it's being sold at wholesale.

price.

And I'm like, okay, well, what happened in the front end? Like, did they realize there's maintenance involved in the house? Like, changing out a filter costs money. Flushing a water heater costs money.

I learned that.

Like cutting the grass, having the equipment to cut the grass, like having tools. I had one friend, and this is a really ridiculous story. I have a really good friend.

Tell it.

Who was a— he graduated from the same school as I did. So he's supposed to know. I'm not an Aggie. Naval Academy. So this guy was one step up, I believe. But anyway, nationwide awesome.

She's going to put this on the table right here.

I see it. I see it.

Is that a Nike ring?

It is.

Are they always? We're gonna get along fine.

Aren't they always?

I get along with everybody. I don't know what you're talking about.

And he went to, where are you from again? Florida?

Yeah.

Found the center of the universe, right? So anyway, I go over to visit him one day and I'm walking into his house and the alarm on his car is going off and I'm thinking to myself, dude, like, what's going on?

Are you okay?

He's like, yeah, my alarm won't shut off. And I'm like, do something.

We're just gonna live with it.

Yeah, he's like, I don't know what. That's true.

It's very similar.

Yeah. Now this is, but this is a 26-ish year old man. 27 almost. No, even older.

Yeah. They don't get better.

I was, I was almost 30. So he was, he was 28. He was a couple years younger than me. And he's like, Just flabbergasted and trying to figure out, like, I don't know what to do. And I'm like, you could disconnect the battery on the car. And he's like, that's a good idea. And then, but the point of the story is, I said, if you give me your tools, I can do that for you.

Yeah.

This is a grown man. He said grown ass man. I didn't say that. I said grown ass.

Okay, well, I was trying to not say it too.

I said, we all knew what you meant. who owns a house, has a mortgage, and doesn't even have tools.

Sure.

My son told me a similar thing when he was a kid. I asked him, what are you gonna do? Because I was trying to explain to him maintenance and how to keep up with stuff. And this was in the car scenario. I said, well, what are you gonna do when your car breaks? I'm just gonna hire somebody, Dad. And I was like, really? Fast forward 5 years, he's in college and he doesn't have any money, but his car needs maintenance. And I go, Yeah, go ahead. I had one of my— I told one of my friends, yeah, go ahead and fix it. It was going to be $3,000. He's like, yeah, he couldn't breathe. And I'm like, dude, or the thing I tried to teach you

5 years ago, we can go through those steps.

Yeah.

He's like, yeah, yeah, let's do that.

Let's do that.

Like, really getting into those 3, like garden hose, that's $300.

Yeah.

I'd rather go to Fleming's.

Sure.

Yeah. That makes more sense, right? Yeah. Okay, cool. For sure. Get a special. Whatever.

It's the happiness for the day.

Yeah.

I don't have to face my problems today.

I can just worry about them tomorrow.

Well, I, I, I, I kind of think of first-time homebuyers is like the daughter that starts dating the guy that thinks he's gonna make it as a musician.

Oh Lord.

You know, nobody wants a daughter. She doesn't understand the kind of maintenance program that she's buying right now.

It's in the man that she's married.

Exactly. Experience here, you know, and Because I can, I can remember when I was, when I was a young homeowner, there was, you know, there were, there was a time where my wife and I, we almost lost our house, um, because I was financially stupid and, and, you know, just irresponsible. There was a month I remember where we went through $15 grand like that.

Oh Lordy.

You know, and as a young married couple, that was a lot. That rocked our world, man.

For anybody, that's a lot of money. I don't want to underscore that.

That's a And, and we didn't even really know, like, looking back.

What happened?

Yeah, it was like the bus came so fast, you know, like it just hit us and we didn't know what to do. We didn't even know where the money was coming from. We were just like, well, we gotta do it. And like, you know, some things you just kind of figure out, but at the same time, like, there was nothing in our minds as we were buying the house because we were in love with the house. You know, and so we couldn't see.

You need to behave right now.

Now, I've actually gone through that scenario when the first time me and my wife bought, we were young military in Norfolk area, Norfolk, Virginia. And she really wanted this house. And I was like, we can't. And she's like, why? I said, sweetheart, there's literally nothing about this house that we're gonna make better. We've got 2 kids, one on the way. We've got a dog. This guy is like a single, you know, he's married, but he's, it's only him and his wife. Right. He's a, he's a fix-it-all guy. He's got all kinds of time and it looks immaculate and it looks awesome. But what are we adding to it? We're literally going to add zero and we're going to lose our butt if it's a house

fire.

Yeah. Oh yeah.

That's okay. And she was like, she was not happy with me, but she listened and it worked out. Yeah. We got today. We went and found the house that was a 2-story. The, the people who lived in it had already moved out. And I was like, yeah, they're, they're, they're hungry. They want to get rid of this mortgage. They've paid it a couple months. Let's offer them this. And, and even the, even the realtor was like, no, that's not going to ever work here. And I was like, I don't care. Let's offer it.

Send it. Full send.

Yep.

Full send. It was awesome.

Go, go, go.

Well, I mean, circling back to my original question, which we got, you know, So like, where would you encourage people to look if they're looking for like their first home purchase right now? Is there, is there an area? Is there a, I mean, like, you like, where would, where would you like to encourage people to go? I mean, or do you want to like cheat like she did?

I didn't cheat.

I'm just kidding.

I'm just in front of watching her eyes get big. Do it again.

I, I really, I, I really like you. You're like one of the first people to ever push back on me. I love it.

Back to where we were, what we were talking about. I want you to look where you can afford. Don't, don't. And, and if you're, if you really have a smart or IQ for finance, the, the good thing, the really what you should be looking for is something that, uh, is not even within, well, well within. I, I had, I had financiers coming to me going, you know, you can afford this. And I'm like, just so you know, the reason I can afford it is because I haven't made dumb decisions.

Yeah.

By taking, taking people who want to sell something to me word that I can afford it. I don't care that you think I can afford it. I'm telling you what I want to pay and what I feel comfortable with paying every month. So look for something that you can pay for every month comfortably, because there is an aspect of that house that you'll— until you get in there.

Mm-hmm.

I like, I really like new houses. And the reason I do has more to do with the code. And most of the time, if I look at a house that's 20 years old, I'm looking at a house, I'm like, I'm bringing up all these deficiencies. And they're deficiencies because the building standard has changed.

Sure.

Because I don't like using code, I like using standard. So the building standards can't— so I'm changing, I'm giving you all these things that really aren't necessarily Bad. They just— you need the maintenance. They're better now. And so now I'm not calling out as much stuff. And if you're smart on it and you buy that house well within your range and you're still growing, like not necessarily family, like having more kids, but growing, like I'm getting ready to have a, you know, make a, get a promotion and my wife's getting ready to get a promotion. All these different things are going on. The next time you buy, you don't have to sell that house. You can do this crazy thing called renting and have a secondary income and

go buy, once again, another affordable house, something that is well within your— not taking, oh, look, now we make— because I've made these mistakes too. And now I'm making another $1,000 before tax, by the way. And so let's go spend $1,000 more a month when we weren't able to make it on what we were making before.

You're not laughing good.

I'm doing terrible math.

Do you think that's because people convince themselves that like, no, I'll do the ham sandwich? Yes.

You know?

No, absolutely.

People will give up everything when it's because they think— think about like you're exercising for 30 days. You're like, I can give it all up. I can do it for 30 days.

Yeah.

But can you do it for 30 years? Right?

Yeah.

But can you stick to that? And you also don't think about when we talk about like what you can afford from a mortgage perspective, you're looking at 45 to 57% of their pre-tax money.

Yeah.

So you're already giving away 20 to 33% of that to Uncle Sam.

Yeah.

If you're getting a mortgage, the other people are paying cash. But then you have to live, right? You have to pay groceries. You have to pay utility. You can't. You're at 100% of your pretax money in that house.

And you haven't even gone into what you really like to do. Right. No shoes for you.

No shoes for you.

Oh man. We're air quotes, baby.

It's catching.

It's better than finger quotes. Guns.

Yeah, she's not wrong.

But there's a lot, there's a lot to buying a house that— and what's killing, what just destroys me is that so many young people are looking for advice from a friend. Please.

Who's bought one house?

No, barely bought it. They bought it last month.

They watched a TikTok.

Yeah, or they looked at social media. They haven't gone to their parents and gone.

No, if they're if they're watching our TikTok channel, they're fine. No, I was just.

Right, check the credentials.

Yeah, because and like from my in my in my world where I was dealing with what was coming down from my family, we didn't have all that other stuff to look at. I Would call dad, right?

I think I screwed up.

What the heck does this mean? Like, how's this work? What do I what I need to do? There was no TikTok, right? And and I definitely didn't go call like why would I call my buddy? He's an idiot like me. I'm not stupid. Yeah, there needs to be a dad.

I watched that guy pee on an electric fence. Yeah, yeah.

This guy's super smart. I think anyway, I don't want to go down that path, but there's something.

He's got a guy in his mind right now.

No, I I literally thought of my best friend. My best friend. Growing up. Not that we peed on an electric fence, but he talked me into freaking going and playing BB gun wars with like t-shirts on. It's like, that hurt really bad. This is a really bad idea, but let's do it anyway.

Yeah. Okay.

Yeah, that's a great idea.

Yeah, don't take advice from your friends.

No, no, don't take advice from your friends. Talk to your dad or your mom.

Watch this.

This will be fun. Or your realtor.

Yeah. Stephanie's gonna do this because I told her this was a great idea. She's gonna do it. She's gonna do it.

Exactly.

Exactly. But we see that a lot in our society now. Like, nobody's seeking wisdom. They're looking at their friend who has absolutely no wisdom, and they're taking their word. And then 20 years— not even 20 years later, 2 years later, they're going, oh my God, everything's going wrong. What happened? It's like, Did you talk to your dad? Did you like, and if your dad's an idiot, because I mean, I can be an idiot. I'm not trying to, there's some people who go through that, but did you seek somebody who's in a position that you would like to see yourself in, in 20 years?

Yeah.

Okay.

Well then what are you doing? Well, I don't like talking to old people. Well, maybe you need to learn how to. Or live like you do and lose everything. It's up to you. Yeah, I don't say I don't care. I do care. That's why I'm telling you not to do it.

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. Oh great.

All right, Brian, it's, it's, it's you. It's you now. Yeah, like, what's— where are you?

Where are my listings right now? Oh God. Yeah, no, that's funny. Uh, I'm gonna— I was gonna go across.

He's got numbers right now.

I mean, that's a fair reason.

4567 Holly Lane.

Yeah, check my list.

I mean, I would have picked I've prepared some notes.

How can we send these to the people on the line?

So the thing about buying a house in the area is there's 5 areas that are depressed or squishy.

What do you mean by squishy?

Squishy. The, the, their builders have overbuilt. There's been no improvements in the backyard. And you can tell people who haven't done improvements. And this is a multifaceted thing about selling a house. Redo the kitchen, redo the master.

Pull it up just a little bit.

Just do them one at a time.

There you go.

Do it a little bit. It's like, you know, sprinkles. It's like cupcakes.

Yeah.

You do a little bit, you spend on the home. That'll— the resale market. But we've been overbuilt. And I get— I'm going to trash builders right now.

Bring it.

There are some that are like, literally, they're wonderful. They build a good quality product. They rock the CASBA. Um, but there's others, they're all about doink, make the money now. They're gone. That house is going to destroy in 5 years. Doesn't matter what the weather patterns. We're Southeast Texas. Everything here is trying to kill you, the weather. Yeah. So same thing. So, uh, the Fulcher, Pearland, uh, Conroe. Conroe's the one that's been mostly attacked with looking at the satellite imagery, how much dirt's been scraped. And that gets it back to, well, do we have the infrastructure? I mean, just look at the San Jacinto River Authority. Do we have the water?

Right. You know, that was the big issue that they, that they cited. When they shut everything down.

That's true. That happened already in Austin with Travis. That's still happening right now. That's been a fight since Harvey 2017 about like, oh no, they let the water go. Well, okay, that or break the dam. And then all this isn't flood zone. This is a tsunami.

Another lake.

And all of these factors play into— so it's all about getting into what JR and Steph were talking about earlier. Is if you're in a hurry and you're going to buy a house right now, you're going to regret that. You have to take your time to ask the questions. And people, we every day, friends and family program. Well, my brother's a realtor. Well, how many did they sell last year? 4. So, you know, and they're cutting me a deal.

Yeah.

And to be fair, I had a Brian that I've worked with before.

It's the Brians.

And I literally told a friend, if you have a friend who does real estate, you need to make friends with this guy instead because this guy's going to take care of you. If you have a brother-in-law, take— get the Brian guy. Get, get this guy that I worked with before.

You can't show him money because he'll take it.

So, but no, it's, it's uber important because you Do not want to deal with somebody who doesn't know what they're doing.

And then that builds into all the factors on buying like entry-level new home. You know, I'm going to use one scenario is kids out of college get married. They really don't know anything. So what are they going to do? Well, we're going to go buy in The Woodlands. Are you now?

Yeah.

Okay. Because that has all of Mitchell's ideas of what a neighborhood should be.

Those trees are huge and they ain't coming down.

Lord, no. They are in your foundation.

Yeah.

Even, even within the defined interests, Madam Prosecutor, of your foundation. But the idea is, instead of the, the clean suite, the, the, you know, Cali done Texas, uh, new stuff that they've got now, what can you afford? It does— is it close to the amenities? Is it close to an H-E-B? You know, can't the schools, and that's why she went ish with the schools. Yeah, right.

But I, yeah, and I, I know you're probably gonna allude to this, but I will. I'm now, I feel like that has been a huge part of like holding value. If you, if you think you're going to save a little bit of coin buying a house in, in a Worse, not even a worse neighborhood, just a bad school district or a bad school area.

The cost of a bad kid is way worse than a bad investment. Yeah.

Well, and you're not going to get—

I don't know the numbers on that, but I'm going to—

Well, there's one. The value of the house just isn't going to hold.

Right. So the idea is take your time. And, and go and do your research. If you get in a hurry, you will fall and you're gonna end up buying from one of the builders, uh, that is, uh, craptacular.

Yeah. Craptacular.

And they're gonna explode off the map. They're not gonna have any— this goes back into master-planned communities versus what they're doing now. We're gonna have a pool, man. I love going to those homeowners associations with the new— and I live in a whatever, uh, whatever.

Master-planned community?

No, no, I do not. I live in it like it's like model. We're all HOA garbage. Yeah. I love watching the development.

No, I actually am in an HOA.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

Here?

Okay. Isn't that crazy?

That is crazy. Okay. No, his he's not wrong. His HOA is crazy.

You're not wrong about that.

It is. It's not even all over the place. It that is short of what you're dude. You're we'll take this one offline because there are a lot of questions.

No, ask away because I don't mind. I don't mind airing on the street on the way here.

They're also in.

Yes.

And they have rules?

Yeah.

Yes.

No, because—

Okay, not, not the mobile home that you drove past.

Pink gazebo.

That— she, she is outside of bounds.

Okay, I was like, where does the HOA start?

Yes.

Okay. I came from 2854, right? But they have a chunk of water just south of here.

Yes.

So that gets to be exciting as well.

Yes. So, so, I mean, do you guys want to hear crazy HOA stuff in our neighborhood right now?

Yes, we do.

Because it, it's in litigation.

I do know.

There are lawsuits involved.

Juicy.

You're not part of the lawsuit? No.

Okay, nice.

So I mean, how many of you— I mean, I know you've kind of looked around the neighborhood before. Have you guys like looked around?

We've seen here.

Okay, so here. Yeah. First, across the street is a, is a 90-acre lake that is private. Okay, just for this community.

90 acres.

Hence the name North Shore.

Yes.

Because I was wondering.

Yeah. Yeah. And it's Lake Forest Falls is what it's called. So when we moved in, which was 11 years ago, the neighborhood decided that they are, I will give them this, they are fiscally responsible. Very. But this neighborhood's been here since the '50s.

Okay.

So it used to be like oil guys weekend place because it was here before Lake Conroe was.

Okay.

Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah.

And, and so the lake had, so there's a dam on the north end that's a spillway for the San Jacinto. And on the south, on the south end of the lake, there's actually a creek that feeds the lake. So it pours a lot of silt into the lake. So the neighborhood's solution to that, because we don't have a management company, was to buy a dredger.

Ooh, what?

We just got exciting. Keep going.

I can take you to where it's parked.

I mean, it's really exciting. Yes. Thank you.

So that was their solution.

Yes. Oh, wow.

Did they have anybody who knew?

Yes. There's one guy.

There's that guy.

And he's probably the one who recommended they buy it.

It's not me. There are, I think there are now 3 guys that know how to operate it.

Okay.

So, but then what they did was they formed a separate LLC to operate the dredger.

Just in case they get sued and screw stuff up.

And, and so that allowed the HOA to then pay the LLC.

Oh, nice. Yes. Money making.

Yes.

Do it.

And so then people began to ask questions. How much are we paying the LLC to operate the dredger? Because this doesn't seem to be operating that quickly. And then compound that with, we hired an engineering firm and then we formed a separate LLC. In order to investigate building a silt trap to keep the silt from coming back in the lake so we wouldn't have to operate the dredger as much.

Awesome.

And so like, nice.

And then, and then so some people who have, you know, some financial intelligence began to come in and said, hey, we need to audit the budget for the neighborhood. And everyone's like, no, we're not doing that. And it's like, oh, okay. Now, now we got some lawyers.

Yeah. Now we're getting some lawyers involved. Yep.

Yep.

Let's do this.

So that's, that's currently in motion right now.

Okay.

Yeah. Wow. There's no bias or interest at all. That's great. I love that.

Yeah. So all that to say, still a great place to live. Like, I mean, like, I 100% recommend it. I mean, like, it's such like a great small community.

It is.

Like, you know, there's, yeah. I mean, like, we just got done with like our 4th of July parade and pancake breakfast by the lake. I mean, it's just, it's a cool place to live.

Dude, so, so do people actually operate any kind of like boats?

Oh yeah, you can ski out there. Oh yeah, there's—

I mean, it sounds large, but I, I know that, I know that Lake Conroe is a lot bigger.

Oh, it's way bigger. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But like, you know, there's a swim island out in the middle that has boat docks and a diving board.

In the middle of the lake? In the middle of the lake.

So me and the kids take like, we, we have, we have like little fishing boats and and pontoons and stuff that we, you know, I just started an invitation.

Did he say we can come out and do some fishing?

We can do a lake day. Yeah. Well, you know, so I mean, like, there's nothing like inviting yourself, right? Is everybody in here NET members? Yeah.

Yes.

Yes. So, oh, we're working on it. Okay, that's fine. Well, let me, let me, let me up the ante. All right.

He doesn't need no bribery. He's fine.

So this is where we Have the annual net crawfish boil every year, so everybody everybody comes out here.

Do you get an actual actual Cajun to come out here? Oh yeah. Okay. Just want to make sure it wasn't some.

Okay.

There's water behind her. He's from. I didn't say. Yeah. I know he's from Florida. He's from Florida. Didn't you say you're from Florida?

I am from Florida. I have a lot of family in New Iberia though.

Okay.

Okay.

Well, there you go.

See, he knows.