That Time We Talked About Real Estate Post Covid-19

This is episode number 90 of The Homeowner Show. Whether you're DIY or looking to hire, we're here to help you find the best information and options for you and your home. My name is Kevin Hacken, and here is Craig Williams.

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to The Homeowner Show. We're glad that you could join us. Kev, we're just 10 away from the, the big 1-0-0.

Yeah.

10.

10.

This is the big 90. Episode 90, man.

Man, we're getting close.

I know. I figured your beard would be longer by now though.

Yeah, working on it.

A couple more curly Qs in the mustache there.

Yeah, that's the problem is like my beard actually, it starts curling after it gets to a certain length. So it's probably actually longer than it looks.

It's very Viking of you. Yeah, I need to get you like a hat with some horns on it or something.

I'm, I'm, I've got no mustache like, uh, Mr. Williams has.

Well, none, none really do. So, um, it's, it's, it's quite legendary, folks.

Yes, I'm talking about his dad, if you don't know.

He's, he's started to accessorize it now, too.

Really?

He has, he has taken, he has taken the opportunity of quarantine to add the soul patch down the middle. And so I saw that he's got, he's got the big red curl, but now he's got like this silver streak going down. Yeah. From the lip all the way to the chin.

It looks pretty legit.

He looks dangerous, man.

I, I would, I would not cross your dad. No doubt. No doubt.

Yeah. So anyway, if you have not yet, go ahead, hit the subscribe button, hit the share button, hit the like button, the love button, the laugh button, um, the donkey button, the bird button, whatever the button is, hit the button, the share button, bell button. button. All those buttons. Button, button. Everybody's got a button. Hit the button. Other than that—

Belly button.

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Yeah, we love those.

And we are, as of yesterday when I checked the numbers, still beating Bob Vila.

Boom!

In reviews.

There's no way he catches us at this point.

Nothing like beating up on the elderly.

No, not at all. Every chance I get.

Yeah. So what's, what's, what's been going on in your world, Kev?

Uh, man, I've, uh, a couple of cool things actually. So, uh, one thing that we've been wanting to do to our house since we moved in was down our hall, we had these light fixtures that were just, they were just outdated and we didn't really like them. And I didn't really know what to do about it. We replaced a couple of other fixtures in the area, leading into the hallway. And so we thought, well, maybe we just kind of make that flow into the hallway. But at the end of the day, I was like, you know what, can lights.

Yeah.

That's what we need. We just need can lights. And I actually had our buddy Weston Simon out from New Builds Electric a few weeks ago. And he was telling me about these new cans that they've got that are literally— they're half inch thick. And you, you just basically snap them up into the wall. Now, it was a little bit more involved than that. I mean, I had to— so I took the old fixture down. And you don't really have to worry about turning electricity off as long as the switch is off. You know, you're good most of the time. I did check it. I did check it.

We here at The Homeowner Show do not endorse Kevin's actions in any way or part. Thank you.

So yeah, I mean, we absolutely in no way are going to tell you not to turn the electricity off in order to do this job. You need to do that. But I did check it, made sure we were good. The hardest part was after you get the fixture down, I had to get the old box out of the ceiling and it was braced into the, to the rafter. And so I, you know, I just took a, I took a sledge basically, and not a, not a big sledge, but a small one, and just hammered that thing out and put the new box in, snap that thing in. And it was awesome. It was so easy. 4 of them I did in about an hour and a half.

Mm-hmm.

And that includes, I had to cut a new hole. So instead of a 4-inch hole, it's a 6-inch hole. So I had to cut a new hole and all that. And man, not only did we get like more light, it looks a lot cleaner down the hallway. But now we got LEDs. And so our energy bills is going to be better. And I don't have to worry about my kids leaving the light on all the time. So pretty excited about that.

That's awesome, man. Sure. The new LEDs, like I was not an early adopter with the LEDs because honestly, they look terrible. Yeah, but the new ones actually look really good. I mean, like, yeah.

And I had an option. I could go with a warm white, soft white, or daylight. And I went with the warm white. And I'm telling you, like, the amount of light that those things put out, and they're dimmable on top of that.

Yeah.

So I mean, I didn't have to worry about anything. In fact, I— because they just have 2 clips on them. And so the way they're made, even if you've got a rafter there, It doesn't matter. They're so thin they can go up where a rafter is.

Yep.

As long as it's not— you might have trouble if there were like 2 rafters there together, but even then I bet you could get it up there.

Yeah, yeah. So super convenient. Really, really cool. Yeah, yeah. I love them.

So, but I had another thing here that you will appreciate.

Yeah.

Um, so today I ventured out Go me. And I went to the grocery store.

Yeah.

And as I walked in, I'm looking at strawberries. Kids love strawberries. And there's these 2 ladies standing there and they're like, hydro what? Like, what do you— do you know what this is? And I looked at her and I was like, well, what is it? And she said, it says hydroponics. And I was like, oh, you mean hydroponics?

Hydroponics.

She goes, yeah, I mean, they look really good. These strawberries look really good, but I'm scared of them because I don't know what this is. Do you know what it is? I said, well, have you been to Disney World? She said, yes, I have. And I said, you know the Land Pavilion and the Land ride? I said, you know the giant watermelon, the big lemons? And she said, yeah, absolutely. And I said, done with hydroponics. And she bought like 4 cases of those things.

Yeah, I saw those at the store the other day. Yeah, no, were they good?

They were fantastic. They're like, you know, you know, strawberry is a weird fruit. If you want to call it a fruit, it's actually a berry. It's technically not a fruit. It's what they call a pseudo fruit. because the seeds are on the outside, right?

Right.

We learned things back in elementary school, but people lied to us and told us that strawberries were fruit. The other thing about strawberries is as soon as you pick them, they don't ripen. So you have to have that sweet spot if you want them to be red all the way through. Most people are like, ah, strawberries are supposed to be white in the middle. No, they're not. And these were red all the way through. They were sweet. They were awesome. I should have bought more. So anyway, I was totally pumped that I could buy something grown with hydroponics at the grocery store.

Nice.

Yeah, that's my story.

Well, we have a really cool episode for you guys today. We got our friend Freddie. He's not in the studio. He's in his studio, which appears to have a group of good-looking kids behind him there on the wall. Um, but, uh, we're gonna be, we're gonna be talking about real estate in a post-coronavirus world. And we're pretty excited because this is like one of the first guests we've been able to have on in a while. How you doing, Freddie?

Good, man. Thanks for having me. Uh, again, my name is Freddie, Freddie P, Freddie Polymeri, your real estate pro, here to discuss any and all things real estate and trying to keep everything moving before this, uh, housing economy falls apart on us. But the good news is—

You're propping it up. You've got— you're keeping it together, right?

Yeah, like Atlas, right?

That's right.

But the good news is that there's still tons of people that need to buy and that need to sell. And even though in April, the number of sales were down 20% in the Houston area, the actual median number was up about 2%.

For like the whole year? Or how, what do you mean by—

The average median price of a house.

Oh, the price of the house was up.

The house price went actually up from this April from last April.

Oh.

So there's been a jump there. I mean, a small jump, which is about average.

Yeah.

So the number of actual homes that were bought and sold went down. the pricing remained pretty constant. So, that's a good sign. I've had a lot of people that were looking to buy a house. And a lot of these were like in the oil and gas industries. You know, we're up here in The Woodlands area, North Houston. And that affected a lot of the people that were in that market.

Yeah.

And so, a lot of people are kind of shying away. Wanted to see, you know, obviously when Oil went to negative $36 a few weeks back. Everyone just kind of had to check their pants real quick, right?

Yeah. Oh, to have an oil tank at that time. Yeah. Oh God.

I only had an oil tank just laying around.

Yeah.

Give me 500. Give me 5,000 barrels today. But, you know, it's, it's kind of happened, and then it's kind of moved on. And, and people now, I guess, people now are becoming more comfortable with it. As people know more, as people, you know, you see a little bit more comfort. It's not like this boom shock of what's going to happen tomorrow. People know that tomorrow the sun's going to rise and it's going to set. So people know that things are still going. And I think people are just becoming a little bit more comfortable. But we're still not out. We're not out of the woods. But I think people are just kind of getting used to the idea of

this, you know, COVID-19 world that we're living in right now.

Yeah, one of the things that's— that I feel is that things are normal again, even if it's not— even if it's not a normal that we're used to. Like, people keep saying, hey, I'm ready to get back to normal. Well, I feel like this has become a new normal in a lot of ways. Now, I'm not saying that it couldn't or shouldn't go back to the normal we experienced back in February, for example. But right now, I mean, I think people are kind of— I mean, we've done this now for like 60 days. So there's some normalcy happening at this point.

Right. We're norm— we're being normalized of now we're being very, you know, everyone's being very conscious of keeping their hands clean.

Yep.

Keeping their distances. Some people wearing masks, you know, you have your maskers and your anti-maskers. You know, before it was, before it was Republican versus Democrat. Now it's Republican with mask, Republican without mask. Now it's Democrat with masks and Democrats without masks. Now you have the Democrats that wear masks with the Republicans that wear masks. And then you have the same on the other side. So it's kind of, you know, as far as the political scene goes, muddied the waters a little bit because you have people on both sides. And, you know, as so many small businesses, as you know, I don't know what the numbers are. I have no idea.

But— Yeah.

20 years ago, we didn't have that many small businesses like we do now. Like every other person's got some type of small side business of some type, whether you sell Scentsy, whether you have a show like this, whether you do whatever, like everyone's got like that small side business of some type, most people, which we didn't have 20 years ago. Like, yeah, it just, I mean, unless you sold Mary Kay or You sold Amway or you sold, you know, Scentsy, maybe if that was around there. You didn't really have that type of small businesses that people do now. So, you know, lots of things have changed. And I think people will evolve, you know, into the next thing, whether it's a year from now, 6 months from now, I think people will still evolve, but I

think we're just gonna do things a lot cleaner from now on.

You know, yeah, I mean, things are definitely shifting for sure. I mean, like you, you definitely see people moving into, uh, delivery service roles. You know, we're seeing a lot of people, you know, like, you know, where people are going and buying groceries for other people and, and different Instacart jobs and, and, and, you know, virtual job. And those aren't really like you say virtual jobs, but like, you know, jobs that are powered by internet business. Um, right. So you're seeing that a lot. And I do want to kind of jump back for a second onto that, that 20% down, 2% up. Is, is that something that was surprising to you? Or what do you think it was that was helping, you know, keep the price of real estate around

here propped up? Because, I mean, like, you know, typically when you see a glut in the market where there's a lot of houses on the market and they're not being moved, you start seeing prices come down. And so, but you're saying like, we actually saw prices go tick up a little bit.

Yeah.

You know, what, what, you know, I mean, you know, this is probably purely speculation, but what do you, what do you think's going on? And is that, is that just a Texas thing that we're seeing?

Well, what I think happened is you had a lot of sellers pull back. Okay. A lot of people that were gonna, that were either the seller either could not move because maybe, maybe the situation for them to actually get a new house changed. So they maybe pulled back and took their house off the market. Or it could have been, I don't want people in my house right now. Right? Like, especially like early March, throughout March, and early, early April, it was like, I don't know what people got. I don't know what's going on. I don't want just random people running in my house.

Yeah.

So I'm pulling my house off the market. So I think it was a combination of sellers not knowing what what they're gonna— what's gonna be their situation coming up, along with a little bit of that fear where, hey, I don't want— because we had— I saw it a lot where sellers said, I don't want people in my house. And then the same buyer said, I don't want to go in anybody's house.

Yeah.

So you had a situation where a seller didn't want to sell and all of a sudden a buyer didn't want to buy because they didn't want to go into someone's house. They're like, Well, if I go in this house, how do I know that they don't have something?

Yeah.

Then I might not catch it walking in. So, there was a lot of that. But I will say, people, the people that really needed to sell and the people that really needed to buy kept those prices up. Because like you, because then you had a lot of people that let's say like me and my wife, like Every blue moon, we're like, get kind of the deal of let's go look at some houses. Well, when all that happened, yeah, we stopped just— we stopped the casual looking, right? Because we're just not going to go into somebody's house if we're not, you know, dead serious on let's— we need to move. We need to move. Yeah, we're not just going to just start looking at houses. So the

people that were really, really needing to buy were still buying. And the people that really, really needed to sell were still selling. So, you still had your hardcore buyers, your hardcore sellers. It's just, it just shrunk.

Yeah.

But it kept the numbers up. I was surprised to see that.

How much did interest rates play into people's desire to say, hey, I can pay a little bit more for the house that I actually really want. because now the interest rate dropped. And so I'm able to get more house for the same amount of money. I don't really have to ask for less. I'll pay that because I need the house. It's, you know, there are less houses on the market all of a sudden. How much of that do you think played into what you're talking about?

Well, you know, the interest rates did a funny thing in April. You know, in March, they were starting to dip. And then in April, when all this really was full force, it, it took a major dip.

Yeah.

And then all of a sudden, within a week, it went from, I want to say, 3.75 down to 3. And then in 2 days, it went back to 3.5 and then back down to 3. I mean, it was doing this within, within a lunch period.

Good grief.

I mean, it was really moving fast because, because what happened is they want people to lower the rates so people can get in houses. But, you know, and still is today, you know, they've tightened up the credit restrictions, the big major companies, Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, well, at least Chase and Wells Fargo, Bank of America hasn't said for sure. But Wells Fargo, uh, Chase has now said you need a 700 credit score.

Yeah.

You need 20% down. Like, we're not doing— unless you're a AAA buyer, unless you're pretty much perfect along the radar, we're not going to originate your loan. You go ahead and do— have a mortgage company or credit union somewhere else do your mortgage origination. And, you know, maybe we'll take it from there. But unless you were a AAA, you know, 750 credit score, 4 years in your job, you know, your DTI was like no more than 25-30%. Like you had to fit all that criteria perfectly.

Yeah.

Or like Chase to take your loan and they're still there. And Wells Fargo now is jumping on that too. So, Because the investors, the big, big, big investors that buy the mortgage-backed securities, they're scared when all this started because people are starting to miss their mortgage, their mortgages. And that's what is starting slowly to happen right now. Like, okay, you missed one mortgage payment, maybe you miss another one. You know, if you go into that 3rd and 4th month and you have not secured your forbearance with your lender, you're gonna be in a pre-foreclosure situation coming in August, September.

Yeah. Yeah. A lot of people don't understand that whole forbearance thing for sure.

Yeah.

So— It's not forgiveness.

No. And I urge every single person out there, if you are going— if you absolutely have to miss your payment, Please, please, please just don't miss your payment. Call your credit union, call your lender, call whoever is servicing your mortgage and talk to them and ask them and, and, and, and get emails from them, get confirmation from them, because you want to make sure that whatever you are signed up for, whatever you have agreed to, is in writing on paper. Because in 4 months from now and you've missed 4 payments and you're expecting to just start over, and, and at the same time Wells Fargo is expecting you to, to send 4 mortgage payments at once.

Yeah.

That's going to be a problem. And there's going to be people— there is going to be a handful of people that's going to be stuck. And then you know what happens when you miss 4 months of mortgage payments? You can no longer refinance.

Yeah.

And if you don't pay it up, they're going to start pre-foreclosure, uh, proceedings. So it's It's gonna be bad. I mean, it's gonna get ruined to a handful of people.

Yeah, it's gonna get—

it's gonna happen.

Yeah, I imagine, I imagine those big banks are all sitting back going, yeah, we watched The Big Short, you know, well, you know, like, we're not, we're not gonna let this happen again. We're, you know, fool us once, fine, but not, not again. We're not, we're not going through this again, you know. And so they're not gonna, they're not gonna put these, these easy, you know, easy applications, low credit score, no money down loans. They're just not going to do it again. I think they probably see the writing on the wall going, well, if we drop interest rates, everybody's going to think it's— they threw the chum in the water, essentially.

Right. Right now, because we're just in that first month, really, of people starting to miss their payments, Because I, and you know, it's, it's, it hasn't started yet. But you know, May, June, July, so August is when we're gonna start seeing some things happen and probably some really upset people that thought one thing was happening. And now something that they were not expecting for is actually happening.

Yeah.

So I really hate to see that. But That's why I urge everybody, if you have not talked to your servicer, or your bank or credit union or your mortgage company, whoever you got your loan through, please, please, please pick up the phone, give them a call, make sure that you are covered with whatever, make sure you have a plan. Yeah, all I ask, just have a plan.

Well, yeah. And one of the things on top of that is, if you can pay your mortgage, pay it. Don't, don't, don't try to go into this, this game of, oh, I can get like a month or two here where I don't have to pay this. If I just, you know, play my cards right. Don't do that because you still are going to owe that money sometime. And it could be sooner than later, or it could be later than later, but even later than later, you're adding interest. You're adding all of these things. Like you just, if you can pay your mortgage, pay your mortgage, please. Right?

Yes. 120,000%. Because it, You know, and, you know, some people got stimulus money, and if you did, and that's what you needed to keep you afloat for another month, that's where it should go. Keep your lights on and keep your mortgage going. So, you know.

Absolutely. Yeah, the other thing I think—

We're gonna see.

I think the other thing people should pay attention to that you said is, you know, if you are prepared and you're sitting in a good position, August might be a time to look for some good deals. So not that we want to take advantage of people's bad situations, but, you know, it's going to be the reality. And somebody's, somebody's going to be scooping up some, some, some big deals come August, probably.

Yeah. And, and not only are they going to be big deals, which I think you're exactly right, I think we're going to have, you know, one of the things, and Freddie, you, you probably know this way better than we do. But like, whenever it comes to foreclosed homes, so many times you walk into those things, you're like, holy cow, like, no wonder this thing is such a good deal, right?

Yeah.

Like, and some people use that opportunity to just go nuts and like punch holes in the walls and like, you know, pee on the carpet, you know, all kinds of crazy stuff, right? But what I think we're gonna see is not only are we going to see a bunch of homes that are going to be really great deals, they're going to be in foreclosure, but I think there are going to be some nice homes that are in good condition, good people that kept those homes up that just fell onto hard times. And I think you're potentially going to find some of the best foreclosures on the market that maybe we've seen in a very, very long time.

Yeah. And I think we will too. And, you know, I hope that if if you are getting to a place to where you're getting into a pre-foreclosure, I would urge you, for one, call, like I said, call your servicer, call your bank, make a deal, do something because your foreclosure is going to stick with you for a long time, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 years. You don't want that. And if anything, if you have equity, at least sell your house.

Yeah.

You know, if you're gonna, if you're gonna have to move out anyways, and you have a nice house, just sell it and make whatever you can off it. If it's $10,000, if it's $50,000, don't just lose it.

Yeah.

That— I mean, I understand if you have zero equity, you just moved in maybe, and you have no equity and your house has not appreciated at all and you can't afford the real estate fees and all those things. I get that part. But if you've been in your house for more than 3 years, you probably have At least some equity in your home. Your home has appreciated 2% to 3% in the last every year. So you have an opportunity where you can at least make a little bit of money, avoid that foreclosure stain on your report, and you can still get into something else. So I mean, you know, don't just give it away, make something off it. If, if

as my suggestion, because it's gonna put some money in your pocket, and it's gonna save your credit. So that's the way to go if you're in that situation.

Yeah. Well, and hopefully many people don't find themselves in that situation, for sure. What other big changes are you seeing right now in— and we're not really in a post- COVID world, Red? I mean, we're still kind of existing in it, but you're seeing the changes that are either happening right now or coming on the horizon. What other changes are you seeing to the way people are going to have to buy houses in the months to come?

Well, one thing that sellers have done that has— I'm not sure if you're familiar with the Matterport Matterport is a virtual 3D tour of a home.

Okay.

And the Matterport has been around for 6, 7 years, maybe even a little bit longer. And it's really like you— it's very similar to Google Maps.

Okay.

When you go to Google Maps, you go to a spot, you go to Street View, and then you start walking around. It's the exact same thing, but it's inside of a house.

Okay.

So you go to one spot and then you walk 6 feet and you're in another spot. You can look all the way 360, you can look up and down. So it's complete, it's a complete portrait of your house. It's super cool. But so many people now are utilizing the Matterport system instead of actually going to the house.

Hmm.

They're virtually walking the house, which they can do on their phone. You don't actually need like a virtual 3D iSet. You can just do it on your phone, you can walk through, and it's a really easy way.

Is it something that's intended to be supplemented with the goggles?

It can be. Okay, it can be.

That's kind of cool.

But, but yeah, but you don't need it. But most people don't have that yet.

Sure.

Yeah. So it's not— it's most people just do on their phone. But it's funny, the other day, I was looking at this house. And I told my wife, hey, check out this house. It looks pretty cool. I like the way it looks. And I went to the Matterport and I walked through it real quick. I was like, that house is too small. So that's actually the downfall of it.

You just need the iPad Pro, man.

Yeah. Well, the down part is you can walk through a house now to where like, in one sense, it's great because like, you don't need to go drive to every single house to go view it.

Yeah.

But in another sense, so it's going to cut down for the seller. It gives the buyer a chance to see their house. But in another chance, you don't save anything. Like on some homes, I may only post a few pictures because I want to bring them to the house. I'll post the very good pictures.

Yeah.

Maybe a shot of the huge kitchen, a shot of the living room, and a shot of the master bath. But I want them to come see the rest of it. So I don't give them everything. This gives you everything. You can see every nook and cranny of that house. So in one way, it helps people look at it. But another chance, it gives away that little surprise of, ooh, well, let's go see that house because I want to see more. Yeah, takes that away.

It is really interesting because the other, the other day, I looked at something. I don't even remember why. Maybe my brother was looking at some homes and sent something to me. And I was clicking through the pictures. And all of a sudden, I got to like this 360 view. And I'm like, I've seen that before. Um, and so I clicked on it and I'm like, wait a minute, that's not, that's not 360. Like, holy cow. Like, I'm walking through this home and I'm like, I'm walking up the stairs and, and I'm like, I'm looking into the hallways and, and in, into, into rooms. And I'm like, this house was awesome until I saw how it was laid out. Like, now—

I would never, ever, ever. There's a bedroom that backs up to the garbage disposal or something. It's like, this is dope.

Exactly.

And because whenever you just look at pictures, like this specific house, when you just look at pictures, you're like, wow, it's a really nice kitchen. Wow, it's a really nice bedroom. Wow, that's a really nice bathroom. But then whenever you realize, oh, you gotta get to the bedroom by doing what? You got to walk down this. This is stupid. I would never, ever, ever want this. And so I was like immediately turned off. But the whole experience, like I could walk around the backyard. I was like, this is this technology. I've never seen this before. And I'm really interested now that you said that, that it's becoming more of a thing. And it wasn't just like some really, you know, super rich person that was putting this out. Like,

this is a thing that you can do if you want to pay for the service, I guess.

Yeah. Yeah, so guys, I'm gonna pause real quick. I'm gonna, um, just hang on one sec. Sure.

Kev, I gotta show you this pool at this new house I was at today.

Oh yeah?

It was over 80,000 gallons.

What?

Yeah.

Were they doing with that thing?

It looks better than most of the pools at Disney, and I'm not even exaggerating.

Man, like I've seen some of these things in, in some remote places where like they're, that's their thing. It's like they've got a water park at their house that's an Airbnb or something.

Uh-huh.

Um, but I mean, that sounds amazing.

Uh, yeah, I'll, I'll send you the link to it. So it's like the house is, it's over in Tomball, but it's for sale for like $1.4 Oh, so if you and I go in together, we still couldn't buy it? Still couldn't buy it.

Well, I'm only good for about $78,000.

So, okay.

Yeah, no, so, so the service, uh, the Matterport service, the 3D service, um, it's cheap.

Really?

Really, it's cheap.

It's I mean, is it like, is it like per unit or is it like a subscription fee?

So we hire, well, I hire almost every, all the real estate agents, we hire a photographer and they perform those services.

Okay.

So they come out and they have a tripod and put it in the area and it spins around. then they move it to another area and it spins around. So it's almost like the Google car.

So really, you just got to hire the right photographer that has the ability to do these things.

Yeah, but now, right now, almost all the photographers do them. Because they're like, if I don't do it, everybody else is doing it. So now they're all kind of stuck like, well, I guess I gotta do it. And they, they don't like doing it.

Really? Does it take a long time?

Yeah, it could take about an hour.

Yeah, I can see that.

And it's only about $100 or so. That's what they charge, $100, $120.

Yeah, that's cheap. Yeah, that's not bad.

Yeah, and like a photographer, like most homes, let's just say a very 2,500 square foot house, you know, 2-story, whatever. It takes a photographer about 10 to 12 minutes to shoot that whole house. They go in, tripod, click, click, click. They already got their settings, so they're not really having to do anything. They turn all the lights on in the house, which usually they're already on. They, they hit the button one time and it takes usually 3 shots. Boom, boom, boom. A light, a dark, and a medium.

Mm-hmm.

So they catch all the light, they catch all the blacks, And the medium. It's almost like, you know, you're listening to music, you got your subs, then you got your 6x9s. It's like the same deal. So they just walk in, click, click, click, click, click, click. 10 minutes, they're out of there. Yeah, you know, $100, you know, but now they got to do this other thing that's $100, $120. And it takes an hour.

So I can see why that would frustrate them because they're almost, you know, quadrupling the amount of time it takes them to get through a stop. So what is the name of this stuff again? It's called Matterport. Matterport. Kev, can you look up how expensive that equipment is?

Sure. Yeah, because one of the things that I'm kind of interested in is like, because Greg and I have a mutual friend that shoots houses, and I'm just kind of curious, like, Is it— you mentioned it's like this circle type thing that like just, you know, takes this 360 thing. I wonder if that's like a piece of equipment in and of itself. They use their regular camera or if they have to have like their own camera to do that with. I mean, I'm just kind of interested in how that works.

Well, I think Matterport themselves has their own equipment where they're— it's their own camera. You buy like a kit.

Okay.

Okay. It used to be about, I want to say about $4,000.

Oof.

Yeah.

That's what I'm looking right now. And I mean, you're looking at like $3,500 roughly.

Yeah.

That's a pretty steep investment for, you know, you gotta be turning a bunch of houses to get that in the black.

Yeah. Now that being said though, I mean, like it also looks like it works with, you know, 3D cameras, but it also works with like an iPhone. So, you know, if you've got like the iPhone 11 Pro right now or something, it's got a pretty good camera on it. I mean, I guess there's a possibility that you could use that. I mean, I don't know that these real estate people are trying to do that, but I'm just saying, looks like you can.

I think it depends on the house. I mean, like if you have like a a half-million-dollar home? Probably not. You probably want to get like their professional photographer's lens on there.

Yeah.

But if you're doing a, you know, $180,000 house, it might be enough to say, okay, we'll just use this as an extra tool. And we'll just go ahead and do it.

Yeah, but we're still, we're still talking. It's a significant investment no matter what. I mean, it's one of those deals where it's like, if you're gonna go in, Bro, you gotta go. Yeah.

Yeah. And there actually are other companies now that have started like that Matterport 3D feature.

Great Value brand.

Yeah, yeah. The doc— the Dr. K.

That's right. Dr. Thunder, baby. That's where it's at.

So they have those now where like they're you know, as another option, but I haven't explored any of those. But I know that there's some companies that are starting to do that. It's kind of like a DIY where you buy the kit and kind of do it yourself. But, you know, that's probably going to be closer to $2,000. I'm not really sure. But I'm just— that's just kind of a guess.

Yeah.

Probably.

I'm just here to tell you like, that experience for me was amazing. Honestly, I'm, I'm just here to tell you, like, I'm not in the market to buy a new house right now. But if I find out that there's a house that has it, I'm gonna go look at it. Just because I'm interested. I'm interested in just that, that technology. I used to do it. I used to walk streets with Google View though, too, like, like Google Street View, because I'm like, I've never been in this area. Like, that's a gated neighborhood. I'd kind of like to see what's in there, you know. I mean, it's just, it's a really cool technology.

You know?

Yeah, it is. And, and what you said, Kevin, about you walked in the house and you're like, man, this bedroom, like, you gotta like cross this other hallway to get to this bedroom. Like, this sucks. Like, it saves you time though, right?

Yeah.

Like, I don't have to go to that house.

Yeah. You're like, hey, I just saved myself 30 minutes right there. Boom. And at the same— and the thing about it, though, the seller is the one that actually probably provided you that video. So even though, you know, they would rather you come out to the house and look at it yourself, in most cases, but now you've seen it and you're like, next. So for them, it goes both ways, you know?

Yeah.

So it's kind of like this catch-22. But But like right now, one of the things that I'm finding, just take real estate off the table for a minute, like restaurants, for example, there's a place we love here in Montgomery called Pizza Shack.

So we love Pizza Shack.

Oh, off 105, right?

Yes, yes. So we love Pizza Shack and not just for their pizza. Like we ordered their Philly cheesesteak the other day and it's worth having. So, One of the things that they did is they decided not to open even though they could at 25%, because they realized that they are actually doing more business and able to hire more people through their delivery and their takeout stuff than they would be if they were to open their, their store right now. So you kind of move that into other markets and you go, okay, what is my best option for getting people to see the product that I've got to offer. And no, I can't walk in that house

and see that, you know, man, this is great. The neighborhood's great. I like to feel like there's not a lot of traffic, that there's kids in this neighborhood, cul-de-sac, you know, all these sorts of things that may be, you know, really cool. But man, all of a sudden, I'm not— I don't like the layout of that. So it's a weird catch-22, because you want people to see your house, And it gives them a greater opportunity to really know what they're looking at without actually stepping foot. But at the same time, it's like, that's— I don't know. So what do you think? I'm curious, what do you think that it is a positive thing or a negative thing? Would you do it if you were selling your house right now?

I would, I would. And I would mainly do it because you want more eyeballs. At the end of the day, you want more eyeballs on your house. And your house kind of is what it is, whether your house is great, or your house, you know, kind of sucks. Your house kind of is what it is. So whether they see your house online, or they come and see it in person, if they— the 3D is really going to tell them both ways. So— And some people will say, you know what, that house, I like the layout. And some people are the opposite. They're like, you know what, I walked through that house, and I still like it.

So sure. So now I want to go— now I want to go see it in person and really see what it looks like. So, you know, it does— it is a catch-22. It does go both ways.

Yeah. Now, now, you know, it smells like a cat after you walk in.

You're like, that's, that's, that's in the— that's in the Uber package. We'll send you some smells.

Disney-fied version. Yeah, the Disney-fied version.

Oh, it's a 4G.

Hey, that's a— that's a— that would be a cool feature though. It would. There's a— not only, not only do we provide you with the 3D Matterport system, we have an Uber system where we come pick you up and you can come look at the house. That's kind of cool. Yeah. As long as you, as long as you give us your preapproval first. And then you can go through Taco Bell on the way home. Cocktails will be provided.

That's right. You provide drinks and that way they're a little drunk whenever they get there.

If it's Uber, they can drink, man.

That's right, Freddie, man.

I think we're on to something here. I mean, like, we could move a lot of houses.

Hey, we'll just take Kevin to Pizza Shack first, get the Uber Eats on the way there, get them all, get them all hyped up, get them some good music.

It's just date night at that point.

That, that is, that is a reality TV show waiting to happen.

Hey, hey, and then you can eat your— and then you can have dinner The food you just got in the house.

In the house.

Oh, you eat dinner. You can see what does it feel like to eat dinner in this house?

Test drive the house. Eat.

Yep.

I love it.

Hey, open up the fridge. Oh man, get, get, you know, we check out this ice here.

Boom.

Good cup.

Hey, dude, we partner with some local restaurants.

Yes, people. Yeah.

Yep.

I like it. Surprise. In 5 years, people are doing that.

You heard it here first.

That's right.

You heard it. here on the Homeowners Show.

Dude, I've, I've been in some houses that people would pay to have dinner in.

Shoot, yeah.

Just—

I mean, that—

Yeah, I think it's a great idea.

You're gonna be getting in that Uber and people are gonna be— your Uber drivers are gonna be like, are those swim trunks? Why, yes they are.

I legitimately think this idea could make Uber profitable.

We're eating on the deck. We're eating on the deck when we get there.

That's right. I got my sunscreen.

Oh man.

That was— see, you see, it's, it's, it's not, it's not that bad of an idea. So you could almost like, it's like test driving the house.

Yeah.

You know, or maybe, maybe vacant homes will, you know, start leaving it like an Airbnb where you kind of test it out for a day or two, kind of. I want to see what this feels— I want to see what it feels like. I want to feel— because honestly, that's the thing. People always say, I want to see what it feels like waking up there. And that, and that doesn't happen. That, that's not our reality at this point.

Nope.

But if the house was vacant, and it was still— it still had furniture, you could live, you could live like that one day. reality type of, I want to see what it feels like going to bed. I want to see what it feels like waking up. Now, I don't know if you're gonna feel comfortable sleeping in someone else's bed, but you get the idea.

Yeah. Well, guys, what we're gonna have to do is we're gonna have to go ahead and cut this off right now, cut that whole segment out so that people don't go jump on this before we have a business idea here.

We need to form the LLC first.

Someone listening. We have some really smart listeners. I'm just saying, like, with means.

Hey, as long as they give us credit.

I can tell by the numbers. Yeah, they're smart.

I'm telling you, it's a hell of an idea.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

Man, I'm actually curious if you're seeing a change in the features people are looking at in homes regarding the whole coronavirus situation. I mean, like, are people looking at different air filtration systems? Are there different amenities to homes that people are zeroing in on because of everything that's been happening in the world?

You know, I don't think so yet. Not yet. I think people are still— I think a lot of people still believe that things will go back to the way they were.

Right.

So they're not ready to evolve their life around this staying, even though that might be the case. Yeah, I think that people are kind of planning on— lost you, Craig. I'm here.

Yeah.

Sorry. I'm back.

I think, I think people aren't ready to succumb to this being something that's gonna stay here for the next 2, 3, 4 years. I think people are still hoping next month, next month, next season, we're gonna get through it. And it's gonna be a thing of the past. You know, if they get a vaccine in the next year, hopefully it will be, but I don't think people are thinking that far into the future yet. I think people are still more concerned about open concept, type of granite, 3-car garage.

Yeah, those are the things people are still looking for, basically.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't think the health factor has, has really come into play yet.

Mm-hmm.

But, you know, I think if this, what we're experiencing continues in the same pattern that we're going into, I think yes, 2021 homebuilders especially will evolve into some more clean feature technique type, you know, I think, but I don't really know what that looks like yet.

Yeah.

I mean, you know, everyone right now is like, well, keep washing your hands is like the number one thing, like, wash your hands, cover your mouth, wear a mask if you go out. But there's not a lot of features to add to a home yet.

Yeah, yeah.

But at the same time, like, I think this is important. Can you kind of give us what, what your own kind of restrictions are for showing someone a home right now? Because my brother is in the market right now. He lives up in Amarillo. And he's kind of been telling me like some of the ways that he has to walk through a home right now. What, what kind of restrictions are y'all are y'all under right now as far as just the general realtor vibe and what people are expecting?

Well, so we're in Montgomery County. And there is not anything very specific that they have given us orders to, like, we can still go show homes. But most people wear a mask. when showing, because we're going into multiple homes, I bring a hand sanitizer spray. So, like when I'm going to open a lockbox, right? Spray the lockbox, wipe it down. Going into the house, I tell buyers to keep their hands in their pockets.

Hmm.

Because I don't want them touching anything and I don't want— that goes both ways, them touching something and leaving something behind or whatever. It's just easier if they keep their hands in their pockets to themselves, not to be opening drawers, doors, closets, doors. I have gloves and protection. So if they need something open, I can assist them. Yeah, but it's not like a free-for-all kind of where it was where you walk in, put your hands on the counter, you know, rifle through everything. Yeah, see what's— Yeah, I mean, that's pretty much stopped.

Yeah.

For the safety of not just the buyer but the seller too. I mean, you know, we want to leave that house as clean as the way that they left it, right? So, we want to leave it 100% germ-free. So, the biggest thing is really just being conscious of the things you're doing because a lot of times like you're touching your eye, you're touching yourself, and you're not really thinking about it. So it's just really reminding people, I try to tell people to keep their hands in their pockets. Because that way, it's just an accidental— and not to say people are walking around coronavirus, but, you know, you're not thinking of the things that you're putting your hands on. Yeah, for the most part. So if you

have your hands in your pockets, that saves a lot right there.

That's exactly what he's— what they're— what he said that he's experiencing. And it's not a bad thing. It's just a very different feeling for the buyer, but it does give the seller a little bit of, I guess, an assurance that when I come back into my home, I don't have to go through and sanitize the whole thing, every doorknob before I, you know, before I can live again.

Right. And a lot of sellers right now are providing sanitizer like at the door. So when you're walking in the door, there's a table there. and it's got hand sanitizer. So, a lot of the sellers are giving the buyers the opportunity to clean their hands right when they walk in. A lot of home sellers are providing gloves. A lot of sellers are providing booties for their shoes.

Hmm.

So, they're, you know, a lot of home sellers and agents, they're really trying to do their best to keep everything going as clean as possible. Because the last thing we really, really want is for a buyer to come in the house, have coronavirus, leave some of their germs somewhere, the seller get it, and then that's going to be a big story that buyers are coming in and, and—

Cross-contaminating each other.

Yeah. You know, I can only imagine, you know, real estate agent Freddie Palomares showed 4 people and they contracted the home seller's coronavirus.

So You know, now he's waiting tables.

And now he's working at DoorDash.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Not that there's anything wrong with DoorDash or waiting tables.

Exactly, exactly.

But yeah, so, you know, we're just definitely trying our best. And I think, you know, I feel this way about the coronavirus in general. If everybody really just does their best, practice their distance, practice covering their mouth, practice washing their hands, just really being conscious about what you're doing, I think that's gonna take away a vast majority of the issue. But I guess it's still to be seen.

Yeah. And I can also imagine in the near future, just because of, you know, and I don't know exactly how many days we've been in, you know, a stay-at-home order, even though like we're not technically under that anymore, people are still being encouraged to stay at home. How long has it been now, Kev? Has it been 90 days or has it been just 60 days?

It's been 60.

60 days. So anyway, after—

It feels like 90.

It feels like 90, yeah. I can imagine after 60 days, especially with the school cancellations and everything that's been going on, where moms and dads have been at home with their kids for an extended period of time, where they've not been able to get out and go do some of the things that they're usually able to do when the kids are home for summer, that some amenities at home are gonna be given a different value now than they were in the past, where they can go, well, what if my kid gets sent home from school again? Are we gonna have enough to keep them busy here at the house? Are we gonna have the things that's gonna make it an enjoyable experience for all of us to, you know, be in

quarantine again? Or, you know, whatever the situation might be.

Yeah, I've never in my life Driven. So in our, in our neighborhood, I've mentioned this before, it's kind of a golf cart neighborhood, right? So people drive their golf carts around. And we've done that multiple times. We get in our golf cart, we'll just ride around just to get out of the house, right? And I have never been more jealous of people walking around in bathing suits because they have a pool in their backyard. And I've never, ever, ever wanted a pool because my buddy Craig has one, right? Like I can— I know people and are just— I can drive my golf cart down and normally just go down and get into the pools that I pay for every month, right? But I

can't do that right now. So all of a sudden, I think you're kind of right. Like, there are certain things that I'm looking at it going, and that would be really nice to have. I've never really wanted it before. But all of a sudden, I kind of wish I had it.

I think right now we're seeing a lot of people doing extending like their, their, their backyards as far as like they're extending their patios.

Mm-hmm.

They're building out. I think that's big right now. You know, I've had a couple friends recently, they've added like, like a 10 by 30 in their backyard where they can have, instead of just having the grass, they have some entertaining space. Seen a lot of pools start to come up. And then like right now, people that are in their homes, they're kind of like, they're kind of really seeing what they don't like about their house.

Yeah.

You know, you're in your house a lot. They're like, you know what, next time we move, I want to get— and usually if, like, if let's say 2 kids share a room, like if they're in a 3-bedroom, they're like, we're gonna move into a 4-bedroom so you can have your own rooms. Like that, that type of thing is really You know, I think starting to weigh on people where like, we want something bigger, or maybe we don't have a game room. If you're just in a regular house, maybe you're just in a small 3/2, 1,400 square feet, which a lot of people are in. And they have, you know, 3 kids. They're like, you know what, we're gonna have to get a 4th bedroom, maybe a game room. And for

some people, that would be a huge improvement.

Yeah.

Oh yeah, they currently have Yeah.

And by the way, kids, it's not for you. It's for me. It's for my sanity. I'm not giving you your own room because you deserve it. I'm giving you your own room so that I don't kill you. That's what's happening right now. All right. Now you need to know what that's like.

Yeah. Yeah. It's not really for you. You're gonna use it. But it's really for me. Yeah. I don't want you watching my TV.

That's right. I'm tired of—

I'm tired of refereeing when I send you to your room Refereeing after that, you know?

Yeah. And I have two boys, four and six, so I.

You've definitely experienced this.

Oh yeah, it's a total like wrestling WrestleMania daily.

So that's awesome.

Oh yeah, yeah it is.

Yeah, Craig and I don't know what that's like. And we have boys, but we don't have two of them.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. See, like. when you have like one boy, one girl, I'm sure you get like the kind of, you know, competitiveness and those things.

Not the same.

They know, but you know, they're gonna race to something, they're gonna race somewhere. Well, first they're gonna race to the starting line where they're gonna start. They haven't even started racing yet, but they're gonna race to the starting line. When they get there, they decide they're gonna run to someplace and whoever wins or whoever loses will start running back first. And say, well, I want on the way back. Yeah, they'll start, they'll start making up finish lines, you know, after it's over.

So yeah, so, so this is kind of where we've come to, like, tonight, you know, I told you I went to the grocery store. Well, I bought that, I bought a big box of Honey Nut Cheerios. And so my wife went through another box of something today. And I was like, alright, I'm gonna take these out to the trash can. She said, no, no, no, no, no. Don't take those to the trash can. And I was like, why? They're trash. And she was like, no, no, no, they will play with those and that is gonna be their new toy. And I was like, okay, fine. So I literally, I stopped where I was, which is by the front door, and I just set 'em there. And not 10 minutes later,

my kids were playing a game where they were role-playing. They were, you know, they were like in an airplane or something and it was an overnight flight. Disney World, by the way. And, um, and we had to eat. And so they had these boxes of food. She was like, good— my daughter was like, good thing we got some Cheerios. I was like, good thing, you know. So they got new toys every time we run out of food. Like, they got new toys.

That's so true. It's so funny that you even said that. We just— like last week, we had 2 empty bottles, uh, 2 empty, uh, boxes of cereal. And I was about to throw them out. And my wife's like, I think the boys want to play with those. I'm like, okay. 20 minutes later, they're now robots. They got the red Solo cups as feet. They got something else sticking out of their, out of their arms, and they got a head.

Nice.

Like, I made robots out of those. Like, that's great. I'm glad I didn't throw them out.

Yeah, that's fantastic.

Kids love boxes more than they love the actual toy.

Absolutely.

Yeah, we always save those Amazon boxes on the porch, man. Those become forts.

That's like the other— that's another business idea I had. I'm like, just sell the box with no toy in it. You can charge the same amount, but just tell parents— and the parents are happy because they're like, now I don't have this piece of junk toy laying around. I'm going to have the box anyway. So everybody's happy. You spend the same amount. The kids don't want the toy anyway. Hey, it's cheap.

You're not mad when they break it.

Really not. Hey, hey, hey, you know what? You know what? Believe me, Toy Box, that could be— that's the toy. It's a Toy Box.

Yes.

Same guys that did Pet Rock.

Yes.

'80s.

Yes. That was, that was a legitimate business. They made a ton of money. Many people fell for it. And I got a business outside right now with pet rocks. I got a lot of them.

You got a farm.

I got a lot of them. That's right.

That's right.

You got pet rocks and you get like, hey, look, Toy Box.

That's right.

Toy Box right here.

That's right.

$3.

Name them, give them a backstory.

That's right. I mean, it's easy. It's easy. Well, Freddie, what else? What else have we not covered? I mean, there's so much to real estate that we have not even touched on. I mean, You know, you mentioned DTI earlier, and I immediately thought, man, people need to go— if they don't know what DTI is, they need to go back and listen to our episode with Haley Thayer on acronyms. And there's so much with regard to real estate, we could have like 17 other episodes if we wanted to. But like, what right now do you think you want to mention? Is there anything else that we've not hit on?

Oh, man, like you said, there could be a million things we could touch on. And the one thing I always come back to for so many people, and a lot of people understand, but a lot of people don't, is just how important your credit is. Like, I just could never stress that enough. Like, your credit score, people kind of like, you know, don't think too much about missing payments here and there, but your credit score like, it's worth so much in real estate. Like, people just don't understand, like, if you're just paying your bills on time, like, and increasing your credit score, like, that does so much for you. Because the difference between, like, a 620 score and a 720 score,

or a 580 score and a 680 score, I mean, you're— it's like $100 a month, it could be, or more.

Yeah.

Like, all you gotta do is, like, really pay attention here. And not that you have to check it every day, but just be conscious of what you're really, you know, really doing with your scores and just pay your bills on time. It's so important because you have a great track. I see it all the time. People are like, I make great money. You know, I've got a good job and your credit score sucks.

Yeah.

I'm like, how do you make $200,000 a year and you're like at a 550? Like, how are you at 550? Oh, well, I don't really pay my bills on time. I'm like, it's gonna cost you like $300 a month now because you don't pay your bills on time.

Yeah.

So, it's just like, you know, I could go on about, you know, new construction or, you know, there's so many things to talk about. But for so many people, like, I just really hope that they take their credit score because that is their gateway. If you have great credit, and maybe you don't have a ton of money, there are so many programs that you will qualify for. Even if you make $50,000, $40,000 a year, but you have really, really good credit.

Yeah.

There are so many programs that will help you buy a house.

What do you mean when you say really, really good credit? What do you— what score are you looking at when you say really good credit? Real estate-wise?

720 to 750 is what I consider. I mean, Obviously, if you're 800, that's where you really want to be. But I mean, this is a small percentage of— yeah. I will say my credit's at 812.

Yeah. Dang.

Last time I saw it.

Nice.

So, you know, and I don't check it that often. I probably check it every 6 months, but I know I'm paying on time. And yeah, you know, it's not really going anywhere. But, you know, I just, I don't want people to, you know, because if you're at 720 or 750, you qualify for every program out there.

Hmm.

There's programs out there. You know, there's a program called for low to moderate income people. It's called Easterseals. They give away $12,000 to buy a house if you have like 720 credit. They'll give you the money.

Nice.

Wow.

So, you know, all you need to do is pay your bills on time.

Yeah. And I think there's— that's one of the things that like, if you're wondering, if you're out there sitting there going, man, like I do pay my bills on time, but I can't pass that 700 threshold. Like I don't even know what to do. Go just do a Google search. How do I increase my credit? Because it's not just paying your bills on time, right? There's a lot of other things that factor into it. In fact, I actually, I actually hurt myself one time. It wasn't bad, but I've got good credit. And I went and I opened up a credit card. And they immediately gave me a credit line of $30,000 on that, on that credit card. And this was like 10 years ago. And I was, I was

almost, you know, 30 at that point. I'm like, there, I do not need a $30,000 credit limit. And so I literally asked them to lower it. And I asked them to lower it down to $20,000, and they did. But one of the things you need to know is that the amount of credit that you have versus how much credit you've used factors into how good your credit's going to be. So if you've got a $5,000 credit limit and you're, you know, you're at $3,500, your income, like your ratio of how much debt you have is higher than if you had $3,500 and $30,000 credit limit, right? So all of these things factor in. And so the

more you know about what factors into your credit gives you power to do something about it. So maybe you need to call and say, hey, I paid my bills on time, can you increase my credit limit? Probably they will, you know, so those types of things are power for you.

Yes, no, you're 120% correct. Like how much you have compared to how much credit you have available. So like if you— they say, and I don't know what the true number is, but like they want you to have spent only about 10% of your available credit. So if you have a $10,000 limit, they want you to be between a $10,000 credit limit, they want you to spend around $1,000. That's what they want your— floating balance to be.

Balance sheet, yeah.

We want you to have $9,000 available. That looks favorable. Now, we don't want anyone necessarily to close any of their credit lines out because once you do that, your numbers are skewed because your DTI is gonna be off. We want you to keep your available credit or raise it possibly in some situations, but we don't want you to definitely max out because if you have $10,000 credit line and you used $9,000, not looking too good for you. It looks like you've way overspent what you really should be.

Knowledge is power in those moments.

We actually have an episode coming up with, I think our mutual friend Mason is going to come in and actually do a deep dive on credit repair with us. I'm actually looking forward to that one because there's a bunch I don't— even though our credit scores are good, I don't necessarily even know how I got there. Um, so we're gonna be—

Yeah, you know what, you know what else is power, Craig?

Hmm?

A good plumber.

A good plumber?

Yeah.

Really?

Man, if, if you don't have a good plumber, you're probably, um, literally down the crap hole.

Every single time, which is why we're happy that we have a good sponsor of the show, Paul the Plumber. Uh, you can reach Paul at 832-521-3250. You can also reach him at paultheplumberllc.com. Find him on Facebook. Not only can you find him on Facebook, you can book him on Facebook. That is incredible.

We were talking, we were talking about that virtual stuff earlier. Um, and I don't know if you know this, Freddie, but like with Paul, you can do a virtual, uh, visit with him and you can show him what your problem is virtually. So that he comes prepared for that job to get taken place and he knows exactly what it looks like. He knows all the parts that he needs. And so that's, that's just, you want to talk about power. Like to me, the less that I have to interact with my plumber, the better, right?

Yes.

So, you know, get them in, get them out so that my faucets run correctly, that my toilet flushes every time, whatever is going on, I want to make sure that the sooner I can get him out, the better.

You know, there are 2 godsons out there. Teachers.

Yeah.

And plumbers.

Right?

Yeah.

We're so thankful for Paul.

I'm telling you, because people like Paul, like my— I tell people this all the time. My number one most hated dad job is the job of the plumber.

Yeah.

Dad, the toilet doesn't work. Husband, I fucked up our sink again. Like, the number one most hated job of myself and most men out there is that of the plumber. So Paul, we thank you.

We love you.

Your services.

That's right.

Absolutely.

That's right. Well, I'll tell you what, like, I mean, this has been really good information, Freddie. I think you've really helped us understand because I think so much of what we're experiencing right now, people have questions about. People just don't understand. Again, I mentioned it earlier, knowledge is power. The more you know about a situation, the more you understand a situation, the more comfortable you're going to be however you choose to deal with that situation. And so, you know, you're right. There are still people that need to buy houses. There are still people that are getting new jobs in new places. They're moving. there are other places, other people that need to move as well and need to sell their house. Like,

so what does that look like? Because to be honest, I don't really want to go into someone else's house right now. There's a reason we are not in the Homeowner Show studio right now. There's a reason. And it's not because I don't like you guys, it's because I don't want your germs, right?

Yeah.

So, so like, we just have to be careful. And so being careful and understanding the situation is really, really important. I think you really helped us with that. So, man, thanks for joining us. However, we absolutely cannot let you get away before we do that thing that we do, which is the Final Four!

The Final Four! I thought you were evoking the Wonders there for a second. I was ready to start singing the song. Every time you— no.

Hey, that's fine. We can do that, too.

Okay.

We can do that, too. But no, we got 4 questions. Freddy, that we ask all of our guests, including you. So we're gonna just start it off here with the first question, which is, what's the must-have tool that you will not leave your house without?

Well, I'd love to say my hammer. But since I'm not that handy, I would probably say this.

Yeah, the phone.

And, and I will say it's not just the phone. I mean, For most people, we do a little bit of everything, but literally because I could do my entire business, my entire real estate business on this, not only just with contracts and I mean everything. I shoot all my videos with this.

Yeah.

Like the video I'm shooting right now is with my phone, actually. So like all my social media that I've, that I've done, all of my videos that I've shot, and I've probably shot about 50 the home videos, everything I've shot has been with my phone.

Yeah. I mean, like, they're incredible, incredible devices that allow businesses to operate at a much higher rate and a much higher level. I mean, for sure. Yeah.

I mean, honestly, honestly, if they came out and said, if everyone's phone— if my phone died today and I had to buy a $5,000 phone, I would.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we all would.

Yeah. I mean, I would have to. I would, I would do it because it's so essential. Like, like I said, I would love to say it's a hammer, or like a, like a drill I have in my truck. But honestly, my gun is my phone.

Yeah, you can order a drill on your phone. So, you know, if you need one bad enough, and if you live in certain areas of the world, You can have it delivered from Amazon in an hour.

Yep.

So that's true.

You can't even go to the store that quick.

You know, I was talking just real quick, talking about Amazon. I want to say something about Amazon real quick that I was talking to another person today. You know why Amazon wins and how awesome they win? They figured out logistics. They are the logistics freaking champions. And that's why they win.

Yeah.

Yep. If If I could curtail my business to be a logistics champion, that's how you win.

Yeah.

Like, God, between them and Chick-fil-A, they got it covered.

I tell you the reason, man. I mean, like, and I'm serious about this. They're not afraid to test. They're not afraid to test. I mean, like, they will do some crazy stuff to find out what people want. You know, like you think about like those, those lockers, the Amazon lockers. They're getting real estate for free by putting those lockers in at gas stations and apartment complexes and all that kind of stuff. They get their brand out there. That was just a hunch. But you're right, that's a logistics thing that they're like, we're going to test this and see if it works. When it works, they double down on it like crazy.

Yes, they do.

Hey, here's something real interesting that they did this past year. I don't know if it's something brand new, or just something that I just heard of is, you know, like now you could take your Amazon box, your Amazon product, whatever you got, you could take it to Kohl's.

Yeah, I've done that actually.

Kohl's now takes— and, and, and it serves 2 purposes. Kohl's wants you— wants to be the Amazon provider because now everyone's going into Kohl's, right?

And you know where their customer service is?

In the back.

No, it's at the back of their store. Uh, you have to walk through the entire Kohl's store at every location to get to their customer service. Well, guess where you return stuff for Amazon? At the back of the store as well, at customer service. So you're right, it's a very dualistic relationship.

And you know, I don't know if you guys haven't done it, they'll, uh, if you, if you do return things to Kohl's rather than like a, you know, a FedEx place or a UPS place or something, if you take it to Kohl's Part of your return receipt is a 10% coupon for anything you want to buy in Kohl's.

Right. And you don't have to box it up. It's the same thing with the UPS Store. You don't have to box it up. You can take your opened package to UPS and they will box it up for you. And Kohl's will do the same thing.

Yep.

It's amazing. It's, it's just smart, smart business.

It's, it's so smart. Yeah. It's not even funny.

No, no, they're paying people just to plan. That's all they do. You know, if I could pay people to plan, I might—

Exactly 8 years to the day that I joined. March 16th was my anniversary start date and end date. And I think there was 400 employees when I left and about 300 when I started. So I mean, it's a, it's a big travel agency right now. Obviously, with coronavirus, they're in— they're hurting bad because people are canceling their vacations and people are getting stuck on cruise ships. And there's a lot of bad publicity that goes on with that. So I feel for those guys because I still have, I still have friends that, that were there even though I left 6, 7, 6, 5 years ago, 6 years ago.

Okay.

So, but that was one job where I had, I was comfortable with. I bought a house there. I'd done a lot of milestones at that job. But I loved, I've always loved real estate. I've always, I used to be at work at Vacations To Go and just look at the houses that were for sale and see where I could find the best deal. So, I would say, okay, what's the biggest 5-bedroom house I can find for under $200,000. And I would search all of Houston and I would find that house. Okay, that's, that's a good deal. Yeah. And then I would always do all these like little searches all the time, just, just for—

Just see what you could find. Yeah.

Just to see what I got. And I actually ended up buying a house, ended up buying a house and I sold it like 4 years later and I made like $50,000 on it.

Nice.

Because I searched and found a house that was like a good deal and, you know, all that jazz. But anyway, so, and then I was like, I love real estate. And so, it's— so being in real estate for me is easy because something I really enjoy doing. I enjoy helping people, business partners, other real estate professionals. Like, I'm always an open book on all things. So, I love helping people. I love working with people. So— real estate for me was like a natural fit.

Yeah. All right.

All right, cool. Real estate for me with Freddie P. There you go.

There you go.

All right. Well, we got another question for you. So, how do you wind down at the end of a long day?

Usually, so, as I said, I have 2 boys, right? So, they wind down about 8:30. So I wind down about 8:45.

Yep.

And usually, honestly, I probably just watch just something relaxing on TV right now. You know, I'm— embarrassingly enough, I just really started watching Netflix.

Hmm.

Like, I haven't been like watching Netflix like the other 99% of the world has been. So like right now I'm like watching House of Cards, which has been like over for 5 years. Like in season 2.

Yeah.

So, you know, usually I'll pour like a, like a whiskey and something Sprite, or I'll make a little mixed drink or—

Yeah.

You know, right now during this whole coronavirus thing, I'm actually drinking this Gloria's Margaritas. There's a free plug for you, Gloria. Oh, and they make some good— make some good wine margarita.

Oh, those to-go margaritas.

Brilliant.

Yeah.

And I, at one point, I had like 2 gallons of to-go margaritas in my freezer. You know, right now, I will say, you know, I think everyone's drinking just a little bit more than they're used to.

I would, I would, I would I would say that's a fair guess.

Yeah. The liquor industry is not hurting quite like the travel industry is hurting.

No, never lost a step.

They've taken all their money. You're not traveling, you're just buying booze.

That's right. So honey, I— we just saved $3,000 because we can't go anywhere. Guess what we can buy, right?

Top shelf. Top shelf.

That's right. Which brings us to the next and last question, which is, what is one of the best pieces of wisdom or advice that you've ever received?

So I have 2 people that I really— this is gonna be almost silly, but I have 2 people that I listen to almost every day on YouTube.

Thanks. Thanks. Feels good.

You're already on the show. You don't have to plug it.

That's right. So, and you guys know them. One is Arnold Schwarzenegger, who he's, he's kind of, you know, as he's gone out of the bodybuilding and into like, you know, the whole government and then the whole motivational speaking, he's, he was one person I listened to every day. And he was always like, his one thing was like, always follow your dreams. always work really hard. So, he's had a couple of speeches that really I took to heart. And, he's like, if you just follow these 5 rules, you're going to be great, but you really have to be true to yourself. And so, Arnold is someone who I always in bodybuilding looked up to and I always loved his movies as a kid. But now, being older, he's got these motivation And I've always

really listened to that. And the other person that I've started listening to is Steve Harvey.

Yeah, no, he's got some good stuff.

Yeah. So Steve Harvey, you know, he's on all these shows. And, you know, he's, he's on TV every single night now. But he's got some really incredible motivational speeches. And one of them is just about jumping. One of them is just about at least one time in your life, whatever you do, whatever you're gifted at, just jump.

Yeah.

Take off, like get to that cliff when you're ready. And just, just one, at least one time in your life, just jump and see what happens. So, you know, I took that really to heart also about, you know, have some faith, believe in yourself. And at least one time, if you have a gift, or you have something that's in your heart that you really want to do, you know, against all odds, just one time in your life, just take that jump. And I really took that to heart about, about my life in general, but in the business, like, don't, don't be afraid. Yeah, if you want, you know, if you, if you, if you want

something, ask for it. And, you know, so those are some things that I really— that those are 2 guys that I really just watch and kind of keep me motivated, keep me going every day. And I really enjoy sharing those, those stories with other people.

Is that the— is that the Steve Harvey talk where he talks about his friend that cuts grass and his friend that cuts hair and the lady that bakes pies. Is that that talk?

Oh yeah, there's, there's, there's, he's got, he's got 3 of them, but that's one of them.

Okay.

Where he's talked about a guy, he's like, that's all he does is cut hair.

Right.

He don't do anything special.

Yeah.

That's all he does is cut hair. You know, he makes $5 million a year now. Got another friend, all he does is cut grass. He don't do anything else. He's nothing special, but he's a professional gifted at cutting grass. That's what he's always done. He's like, you know, yeah. And, and that's what he talks about, following your gift. He's like, you know, your career is what you're made for, but your gift is what is what's inside of you. And if you let out your gift, you'll never work a day in your life.

Yeah.

You know, just do what you're gifted at.

Yep.

So, you know, so I'll tell you this, man. There's a guy that he—

I don't know if he learned it directly from him or not.

but a guy named Dr. Myles Munroe, who has a talk that he does about the gift, which if you haven't ever heard it, there's a couple of mashups of him and Steve Harvey talking about it, and you can see how they kind of line up a little bit. But if you haven't ever heard of him or listened to his talk on gifting, incredible stuff, man. Absolutely incredible. I love that talk by Steve Harvey. It's awesome. Kev, if we can, we should link that up in the show notes for sure.

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah. Oh, dude. I tell everybody those Steve Harvey videos. There's, there's 2 of them. They're about 30 minutes long, man. I listened to one first time I heard it, man. I started— I was washing my truck. I was washing my truck listening to it first time. I started crying.

Yeah, no, it's good.

He's— first time I ever heard it. I was like, man, it was just, it just hit me. I was like, wow, that's incredible. That's incredible. Talking about You know, being true to yourself, whatever you're gifted at, dude. And that's, and that's why I feel like I'm in real estate. Like, I'm, yes, I'm selling homes, selling land, but I'm more of a helping facilitator in those situations.

Yeah.

So hopefully, I feel like I'm in the right spot. So we'll see how it goes.

Awesome.

Man, that's awesome. Yeah, that's awesome.

Well, we can't— we have a 5th and secret question. that we always ask. Okay. And it's really complicated. You ready?

Yeah.

How do people get ahold of you if they want to find you?

So, if you want to find me, you can give me a call. Again, my name is Freddie P. Freddie Palomares, your real estate pro. You can call me at 832-606-3709. You can find me on Facebook at The Real Freddie P. or my business page, which is Texas Direct Realty Group. So reach me, find me, text me, call me. I'm always available. I work till at least 10:16 at night.

That's right, baby.

So just Facebook, no Instagram, no Twitter, none of that?

I really, you know, I really, I'm on Instagram, but I don't, filter it because on Facebook, like I have tons and tons and tons of Facebook and groups and—

Yeah, that's where you're focused.

Facebook takes up— Facebook takes up just a massive amount of my time right now.

Yeah.

So I don't think— I don't think there's anything wrong with Twitter or Instagram. I just— Facebook's got me slammed right now.

Sure. Now we bash on Twitter all the time. I mean, we're on there, we just don't respond to anything. Twitter, who?

Yeah, exactly. Well, listen, man, it's, uh, it's been good. Um, what, what have we missed, Craig? Anything else?

I think that's it, man. We, we, we did the shameless plug at the beginning. We, we got the contact info at the end. We did, uh, we, we, we celebrated our sponsor, Paul the Plumber. It has been a full and complete show.

Man, it's been good. Maybe this episode seems like it's been a little bit long. I actually have no idea how long it's been. What I know is that interaction with people is awesome.

Yes.

Thank you for being people and interacting with me right now. It's been wonderful. Thank you for downloading this episode. Keep us downloaded, please. Do whatever you got to do. Share, whatever. Thank you for downloading. We appreciate it very, very much. We're here every single Tuesday. Rain, sleet, snow, coronavirus, we are here on Tuesdays. Until then, we'll see you next time. See ya.