This is The Homeowner Show. Whether you're DIY or looking to hire, we're here to bring you the best information and options for you and your home. I'm your host, Craig Williams, live Woodlands Waterway, in front of the pub, Baker Street Pub to be exact. Glad you guys could join us. It's gonna be a fun evening. Here live at. I'm gonna reach across here and hit record on that too. Okay, good. I am. I'm running the show all by myself because Kevin is off doing the youth minister thing. So glad you guys can join us here on Facebook, YouTube. If you haven't yet, hit the subscribe button, click the thumbs up, all the fun stuff. Follow the show because we want to make sure that you guys don't miss an episode.
And it really helps out the show in the algorithms. So I got a fun guest tonight. Let me see if I can get this all set up here. There we go. See how this— oh, there we go. All right, let everybody know who you are and what you do.
So my name is Diane Reynolds, and my husband and I run a nonprofit called Matthew's Light, and we help the homeless.
Awesome. So how did you guys get started in this? Actually, pull that just a little bit closer.
Okay. Well, we started about 10 years ago volunteering at our church.
And then we had an opportunity to volunteer at a warming station overnight that was housing homeless during the winter.
Real quick, what's a warming station?
It's in place of a shelter.
That they can't reside there, but we can set up temporary cots and and then they have to leave the next morning.
So like for like around here nights when it's dipping down into the 30s, 40s?
And this was back in New York.
So what, I'm just curious, in New York, what is, when do they open those kind of places up? Is it same temperatures or is it?
Yeah, during the winter they open it. So it's the beginning of winter through the first day of spring that those are open. And this one was at a church.
So, uh, I spent the night, the first night doing that. Uh, they had to have a monitor overnight to stay awake while the customers, the clients, were sleeping.
And that was my first introduction to homeless people. And I was a little nervous to start because I had never been exposed to it before.
But as I sat there and I talked to them and I got to hear their stories and find out that they were actually employed or they had hopes and dreams and what got them to that position, my heart was just opened up completely.
So my husband and I moved to Texas 2 years ago.
Thank you. And we started working with another couple who feed the homeless. Just a couple of people go down once a month and just feed the homeless.
And we were so struck by that, the people down by Minute Maid, We started going more often, and then we started bringing them some provisions, some clothes, some hygiene products.
And we were so moved by everything that we decided that we needed to go bigger, so we made our own nonprofit.
So now there's a community that we serve there that's about 300 homeless people.
And we go down with 50 volunteers. It's completely, totally volunteer. Nobody takes a salary.
And we bring them a wonderful lunch, but then they go down the line, they get their hygiene packs, they get clothes, shoes, blankets, coats. There's a prayer team there if they want it. Nothing is forced on them. My husband is a pastor and he oversees the prayer team for that to talk to the people if they need that. We also hand out information for other resources to help them get off the street. But people don't really know that if you apply for assistance through the city, through the state, it can take up to 2 years before you reach the top of the list and you're actually housed.
So they're on the streets waiting for their number to come up, so to speak.
one, real quick, I want everybody listening because we have people that listen across the country. Minute Maid Park is downtown Houston. It's the middle of downtown Houston, which I would imagine there's a lot of congregating homeless people in the downtown area, probably more than 300 than the people that you're dealing with.
So, but man, I forget where I was going with that. I wanted to make sure people know what Minute Maid was. Oh, what is assistance? I mean, like, because you say it can take 2 months to get assistance.
2 years, sorry. 2 years to get assistance.
To come to the top of the list to be placed in an apartment or housed.
Okay, so housing assistance. This isn't like food stamps or this is just housing.
Okay. And, and why is it taking so long for people to get help with that?
Um, there's just no affordable housing anymore, and that's a big problem.
When we started doing this, it was 5 volunteers, and we would serve 50, 60, maybe 65 people, right? And then the moratorium on the evictions, uh, from COVID ended, and overnight we had another 100, and then shortly after that, another 100. So then we were up to 300. And it just kept growing, and that became the issue. But what a lot of the people that are down there are employed.
They cannot afford the, the rents. The rents have gone up so high.
That if you're making $15, $18, even $20 an hour, you can't afford the rents now. So they're working and they're homeless.
Do you have any idea about like what the average rent is in that area for like low— I would imagine like low-income housing is what is that?
But that's almost impossible to find. And that's the problem.
Because there's no available low-income housing.
So they're having— what they're having to do is actually step up to another level of residence that they can't afford.
What is that level? Do you know what that—
I'm not quite sure what the rents are down there.
I mean, like, it's downtown Houston. I mean, like, up here, I mean, like, I think it's averaging like $2,000 a month.
For like a 1-bedroom, 2-bedroom apartment.
Even if it was $1,800 down there, If you're making $15 an hour—
That's just not happening.
It's just not right. Even if you can afford the rent, then you can't afford the utilities, you can't afford food, you know, things. And then I'm constantly hearing, well, they just need to go get a job, but who's gonna hire them if they don't have access to a shower? Or if they don't have clothes to change into, or even an address to fill out their forms? So it goes deeper than tell them to just get a job.
Yeah, well, and we, so like we used to, my wife and I and a group of our friends, we used to work with quite a few homeless people just in the Spring area. There was a big population at an overpass that we lived near, and we decided every Sunday we were just gonna take dinner. And I think we ended up doing that for like 2 years. And one of the things I remember vividly about most of those guys is they said, if I could just get a driver's license, if I could just get identification, things would change.
Yes, but you can't get identification without an address.
Right. And so like, I think a lot of people don't understand that like there are barriers there because of that. Like you can't say the tent underneath the overpass is your address. It just doesn't work. And then most of them had stories of families that had, you know, just been at their wit's end with them. And this is just— they had no other options because their families were just done with them for whatever reason.
And there is lots of reasons.
You know, about over 30% of the men down there are veterans. So that hurts a lot of the time. My husband's a veteran, so he is very focused on helping them and talking to them.
Yeah. So can— if you're a homeless guy or gal and you're a veteran, can you go to the VA? I mean—
No, no, no. For like— I'm just wondering—
For their medical coverage and things? Yes, they can do that.
Well, I'm wondering like how that works if they don't have like— identification, or, you know what I mean?
I mean, there are organizations that help them get their forms and things they need. So that, yeah, they, they can absolutely get help from the VA.
Are those things that you guys help assist with at all, or are you guys mainly focused on just helping giving, giving them care there?
We are giving them care there, but we do have like information to give them where to go.
If they need further assistance.
And how many like auxiliary organizations are you guys working with?
Oh, I don't know. I would say at least 10.
And each one of those is doing something different, huh?
What's— so what is something that you think most people don't understand about homeless people in general?
In general, that most people are afraid of them.
They're just, they're on hard times. They have hopes, they have dreams, they don't want to be there for the— I mean, there's a very small percentage that does want to stay out there.
But they really want to get off the streets. This is not the life that they chose.
For whatever reason, were they abused or things have happened and they made mistakes, so maybe they have a record and getting a job that's any kind of job when you have a record could be very difficult. So, to restart programs, we need more of, but it's just that it's so expensive right now.
Yeah, and I can imagine like any— at some point, it's just— there's like a level of hopelessness that probably settles in. Like, why would I take this little step when like I'm not gonna get a house because it's taken 2 years? I talked to my buddy and like 2— And sometimes the 2-year thing is not even happening.
Well, and that's something I'm just curious about in general. Like, if it's taken 2 years and these people don't have addresses, how are they finding them to let them know that they've been approved or rejected or—
They do have to keep checking in.
Okay. Okay, so it's like a—
Right. And they do get phones from assistance programs.
Okay, and is this a government program?
Okay, so who are they checking in with?
They all have caseworkers.
But like, what I'm asking, like, what is the department?
It would probably be under the HUD and also their social services program. There's lots of social services programs that are through the city.
So is it like an office you just kind of walk into and things?
I'm like, I'm half curious going like, if I'm ever homeless, I need to know this. Where do I go?
Well, we have big plans in the future. We're talking to people about starting something big.
Which hopefully is something that can be replicated in other inner-city areas.
Where we want to take an abandoned building, an abandoned warehouse, and be future thinking with sustainable energies, make it a sustainable building, aquaponics, indoor gardening.
Oh, you're talking my language with aquaponics. Yeah, I love that stuff. Yes, that's super cool.
We're talking to a very interesting company that is going to partner with us to try to make this happen.
Okay, very cool. So, and so what is What would be your end goal with that? Why do you want to have all those things in place?
So basically it would be sort of like a shelter, but the problem with some of the shelters when I talk to the men is they don't want to be in a group with all men.
Yeah. So they don't want to risk their stuff being stolen. They don't want to fight. They don't want to be kept up all night. So that's why most of the men prefer to stay out on the streets than go to the shelter.
So if we had— if we started with more of a sleep pod, like a single room, no amenities in it, just a bed.
So they had their own private space, safety to get off of the street.
That they— I guess they could lock during the day or—
Okay. Yeah, they have to leave it during the day. This is just a safe place to sleep at night.
And then if they want to go through the programs, we want to offer them programs from rehab, drug programs, job training, things like that that we could do. And then they can move up into one of the apartments as they're going through, like a studio, and it'll be communal meals and things like that.
So, but let's teach them future industries. Let's teach them the sustainable energies and, and the hydroponic and aquaponic gardening.
You know, let's train them how to really be self-sufficient. And the people that we're planning on working with— can I say their name?
They're the ones that are planning on doing the aquaponics.
Is that something they're already involved with?
Yeah, they're wonderful. They're a young, young group of kids that are just going to take over the world one day.
I'd love to talk to them because like, I, I like— I've been, I've been looking into aquaponics for the last 5 years. Just, I mean, it's something I want to eventually put into my property. It's just such an interesting closed ecosystem for creating sustainable food.
Well, Justin Wiley, if you're listening. But that would be like a model that can be replicated inner city, I'm talking about, all around the country even. internationally. One-stop shopping to get people off the streets completely. So that's kind of our goal, is to be future-driven and not replicating what's already out there.
I'll tell you one that you can add to your list that would be really helpful. Yes, beekeeping.
Yes, on the roof. Why not?
Well, no, and like, here's the thing is a lot of people don't realize this— bees in inner cities do better. than bees in the countryside.
Particularly in cities like Houston where they have railways. And there's a lot of theories to it. What a lot of people think is because these railways have these hubs inside big cities, that they're actually bringing in a lot of pollens on the rail cars.
That's a smorgasbord of healthy diet for the bees rather than just a monolithic diet of like almonds or oranges or whatever. They're getting stuff from all over the country that's then being brought into that hub. And so then they have this buffet, right?
And so like they're finding like bees on top of hotel roofs that are like, you know, really, really high where bees typically don't do really well because they don't like to fly very high. But the, the hives themselves are thriving.
Yeah, it's— and so like inner cities seem to be a really good place to raise. In fact, I had a buddy for a long time, he had taken over like an abandoned warehouse and it was just full of bees. He just had hives all over the place and like he was— it was getting it for free because no one wanted that property. And then the bees were kind of acting like guard dogs to keep people out from vandalizing the place.
really want to get to know a lot more forward-thinking people. Yeah, you know, people that are interested in making a difference but changing the way we do things.
So do you guys— I mean, what kind of resources do you guys need to accomplish your goals?
Money. Do you know how much?
It's— we don't know yet. We're just gonna start meeting with the architects and things like that and work on our business plan. So before we do that, we're gonna open a resale shop is our plan, so that can start funding our outreaches.
We're solely reliant on donations now, and those are a little bit hard to come by because the homeless are not a warm fuzzy group of people that people really want to—
That people really want to give their money for.
With all these misconceptions about why they're homeless and It's not, it's not easy to get donations for that. Yeah, but we have the meat donated to us for when we do, when we feed them. Okay, from the Cowboy Church Meat Ministry.
Okay, those guys are awesome.
They are awesome. Yeah, uh, so it still costs us about $300 a month to get the Styrofoam clamshells and side dishes and things like that.
Let me, let me ask you, what kind of meat are you getting from those guys?
Uh, it varies. We get Pork that we do pulled pork. We get ground beef, which we make chili or, you know, sloppy joes, right, like that. We just got some roasts yesterday that we put up in the freezer for next time.
No wild game? I would imagine from the Cowboy Church you got to be getting some wild game.
They've offered it, but I don't know what to do with it.
Really? Oh yeah. Oh, I can help you with that.
But it's— you're gonna make 100 pounds of meat for us?
Yeah. Okay, 100 pounds is nothing.
Make it up and you could come feed the homeless with us.
We did it for a long time. Like, yeah, like 100 pounds is not— I mean, like, what, what, what have they offered you?
Well, I— they make me offers and I'm always just like, I'll take the beef.
Take the beef. I know what to do with that.
Well, depending on what it is, I mean, it's like, I would imagine it's either venison or pork that you're getting from wild game around, at least around here.
Probably not getting any squirrel.
They raise the cows and they go through their rodeo circuit.
Once the cows go to slaughter, then they donate all of the meat to—
Yeah, different charities and different organizations. Huh.
Who's the— I'm trying to think of the famous rock and roll guitarist that's a big game hunter. Ted Nugent, thank you. That's— see, yeah, we can be friends. That's what he does is most— like, he takes big groups on hunts and then he donates all the venison To homeless shelters to feed them. And I mean, because it's crazy nutritious meat and all that kind of stuff.
Yeah. Because you mentioned that you started in New York, I'm curious, is there a difference, at least that you've noticed, between the homeless population there and the homeless population here?
I think people are people no matter where you go. Just the accents are different.
The accents are different.
So yeah, there's really no difference.
And I know one of the things that a lot of people bring up when they start talking about homeless, the homeless population in general, is mental health.
How big of an issue is that in your mind? And then is it, I mean, is it a big issue in your mind?
It is. It is. Yeah, we have several people that have mental issues that we bring provisions to every month. So that's definitely a barrier to them moving forward.
Yeah. Well, and I think that's why a lot of people are sort of standoffish with them because they don't know how to engage that or really how to even deal with that at all. Is that a significant barrier for people getting involved?
Absolutely. It was for me in the beginning. You know, everybody's a little nervous, but they don't know because they're stigmatized. The homeless are stigmatized and they've just been given such a bad rap. But go to an outreach, volunteer somewhere with a group of people so you're not afraid and get to talk to them. And they really are wonderful people. We have one of our famous homeless, I call him famous because everybody knows him. Call him famous. And his name is Grant and he's been there as long as we have. He comes and he gets his stuff, but it took us over a year before he would even look at us. And now he jumps and he smiles for pictures, and we adore him. And every time we come, he says, I need a Bible. So
we go get him a Bible. He says, well, I need 2. I need one for this guy over here. But there's never anybody next to him, so we say, okay, Grant, you can have 2 Bibles.
So, and he's very happy when he leaves. So he's, he's my favorite. But if anybody is curious, they're welcome to come do an outreach with us.
Yeah, yeah, no, I think that'd be a good idea for anybody. I mean, like, just— I mean, like, look, go with people who understand what's going on, because I think for a lot of people, they feel like it's an unsafe situation, right? You know?
And we have never had any problems. Yeah, not a single instance.
Well, yeah, I mean, because I think that's what people are afraid of. They're afraid that because there's an issue of mental health that they're gonna experience violence, right, of some sort. And I'm with you, like, I've worked with the homeless many, many times. And like, when I initially started, yeah, I was concerned. And we had a police officer with us at all times just because we didn't know.
And we don't want to take any chances. But like, over time it was like, well, this is kind of silly. That's Steve.
I mean, and that's just how it was.
Yep, and they come and they give us hugs and, you know, they know we're going to be there. We're down there the second Saturday of every month. They know we're going to be there. They're online waiting for us when we pull up. So it's, it's something that's necessary just to bring them the stuff, like the hygiene packs we give them.
A lot of people will give us soap and shampoo, but if you don't have access to running water, that's not really something. So we give out baby wipes, deodorant, toothbrush and toothpaste. That's the minimum that we put into our hygiene packs.
But that costs us $5 per pack.
So yeah, because we've never had enough donations to buy in a large bulk to reduce that price.
So every month we go and we buy exactly what we need because that's all the money we have every month.
So no one's donating those things?
So that would be helpful.
That would be very helpful.
So somebody listening could donate baby wipes. Baby wipes, absolutely. What else?
If you're a dentist, send me toothbrush and toothpaste.
Yeah, because they get them. I mean, they've got boxes of them.
Yes, so we can use that. And, uh, so the baby wipes and the deodorant are the big thing. That's, that's the biggest part of our expense.
Huh. I know several dentists. That should be an easy one.
Let me, let me ask you this, and I, I don't, I don't intend it for it to be a controversial question or anything, but how much of the way homeless people behave is us putting our expectations on them. You know what I mean?
And I think people will live up to or down to your expectations.
Yeah, I think so too. I really do. I mean, like, you know, when you— so many people, and I'm guilty of this too, when you see the person at the intersection holding the sign, holding the cup, asking for change, I think your instinctual reaction is to look away.
You know, I over the years have purposely tried to, rather than give them money, smile and wave, or at least say hello to them. But like, never try to like— I never try and give them money. And I'm not saying that you're bad if you do give them money. I think it's fine to give them money if you want to. But like, don't treat them as if there's something that can be unseen or should not be looked at. No, right? Yeah.
I suggest people keep a blessing pack in their car.
So that could be the hygiene products we just talked about, maybe a couple of dollars if you— if that's on your heart, pair of socks. But just as you're driving by and you see them, hand them a blessing pack. Yeah, instead.
Awesome. Well, it's, it's been really good talking to you. I really appreciate you sitting down and sharing. I hope you get lots of donations and, and lots of love online because of this.
Oh yeah, so okay, is that a good— can you donate from the website?
Yeah, okay. Is there— is there an— if people want to get involved, do they go to the website?
Yep, they can reach us from the website.
And if they just want to email you?
It's dianer@matthewslight.org.
Okay, I'll try and— I'll try and remember that, get it in the show notes so I can link it up. People want to find you, they can find you.
Thank you so much for sitting down.
Oh, thank you for talking to me.
And I didn't get to meet you, but it's good to see you. Thank you for the help on the name.
That's my husband. That's Pastor Ed Reynolds.
Right. And if you want to talk to Pastor Ed, it's pastored@matthewslight.org.
Oh, she's lighting you up right now. JoJo, you want to jump in here? You want to get Richard in here? All right. I mean, I just talked to him a couple weeks ago. I'll talk to him again. Come on, dude. I have some data for you. I do. Crazy data.
We're actually going to be taking requests.
Oh, look out. Hey, JoJo, can you, can you, like, send a message to, like, the group to, like, light up the, light up the feed for me? That would be fantastic.
Yeah, let's get more people watching today.
That's right. How you doing, man?
Yeah. Anything new? If you guys don't know, this is Richard Yepes from a couple episodes ago.
That's right. I think, I think you commented like on one of our feeds is like, hey, this is good. But episode 232, that was the best.
Trying to get as many plays on episode 232. There's a Grammy for podcasts. I'm trying to get it that direction.
There should be a Grammy.
Definitely. No. So something new. Yeah, I'm on this crazy diet.
What's, what's the new diet?
Well, I've just, you know, I like crazy diets, by the way.
So I just, I just finished one.
You look pretty good. Thank you. Looking good.
I had to shave my mustache, but it was—
That's part of it. That was 4 pounds.
It was, it was a, it was a fatality of my marriage is what that was.
Uh, no, so, you know, carbs are the enemy, blah blah blah blah blah. I'm just, I'm just trying to like do this whole, uh, um, intermittent fasting kind of thing.
Like, I hear good things.
But yeah, you know, try not to eat after a certain time and all this other good stuff. You know, there's, you know, there's— if you can watch TikTok over and over and over and over again, there's going to be 50,000 fads to watch. So I'm just trying to take the stuff I like and make my own kind of diet from it.
So you're cutting carbs and you're intermittent?
Okay, so what is your window?
So my window is like from 1 to 4.
From 1 to 4, that's when you're eating?
Yeah, no, you actually, you know, it actually helps because that's the time I've kind of got all the work out of the way, but then, you know, 1 o'clock comes around and you're like, all right, we gotta get up. And then if I eat something like maybe in the middle of like 2:30 or something, then it'll kind of take me into the rest of the night because the kids coming back from school and they're keeping me occupied and it's kind of like a thing after that.
So, so far so good. If you talk to me next week, who knows?
But it was— we could only have— and really all I was having was like a small protein shake during the day.
If I needed something. And I eventually got to a point where I just cut that out.
But then we couldn't eat, and this my wife and I did this together. We couldn't eat until after five thirty.
And the only thing that we could have is meat and veggies.
Just salt and pepper. That was it. Yeah. And that's that's kind of like along the lines what I'm doing. Yeah. I mean, it sounds very similar.
Just mine's just moving up a little bit more.
Have you have you ever heard of Peter Attia?
So he might be worth checking out. He's a—
So he is a physician that studies longevity.
And he studies the effects of long— he actually is convinced that intermittent fasting is the key to longevity.
And he— I don't know if he's still doing it, but he was doing it where he was doing all of his medical practice and then he would come home and he would eat. I think it was like at 6 o'clock. And he said it was like he was—
it was just It was just brutal.
Yeah, it was. I mean, he's just scarfing food down. He was eating whatever he wanted, right? But it went like from like 6 to like 8, he could eat and that was it.
And, you know, I— in our line of work, especially in my line of work where, uh, you're sitting at a desk for a long period of time.
And, uh, you're snacking a lot. Yeah, that's what I— and, and I've— cutting out the snacks has definitely helped, like a page-turner. Because you're not reaching for something as much as you used to. Yeah. And if you don't know, realtors like to eat.
They like to be taken to lunch.
They like to be taken to lunch. And there's always networking events or something.
Oh, so that's why you've got the window you got. I understand now because you want to keep the networking opportunities.
It's like, can we meet at the library? Can we read some books? Let's go where there's no food.
I actually been thinking about doing something like that.
Because it's true, like, realtors, you know, in this, in this field, it's always networking, drinking, food, lunches. This lunch, come to this lunch.
Finger foods here, come to an open house, finger foods. Come to, uh, so I'm thinking about, you know, if I, if I get pretty good on this thing, I, I think, I think the hardest part of losing weight is doing it alone. Uh-huh.
And I think if I get a lot of other people on board, I've been thinking about setting up some kind of program on just this whole initiative called Lose Weight Real Estate. And then that way, instead of meeting at a bar or something like that, just, hey, let all the agents know, hey, a bunch of us are going to meet at such and such park for 3K.
Let's all meet and we all work out together and we can network it that way. Bring your cards or whatnot, but let's feel better just kind of work on ourselves a little bit, and then we can network afterwards. But I think, I think it'd be interesting, you know, see how people actually, you know, take advantage of it.
Oh, we— I just got a comment from Kevin.
Well, yeah, where's Kevin?
He goes, he goes, what's going on? Where am I? You're not here, right?
Slacker, man. This is like the 50th million show. You're missing it.
So I— so here's an idea for you, and I think If you could arrange this, I think you would dominate the real estate lending market.
I think— wow, that's really loud.
It has to be loud if it's getting picked up on the microphone over here.
Yeah, it's not even anything worth looking at. If you could set up the real estate fight club where you've got the Coldwell guy over here, right, and the RE/MAX guy over here, and we're gonna get together and we're just gonna watch them beat the ever-living hell out of one another.
One, it's gonna be good for the fitness.
Two, everyone's gonna want to come see.
Oh yeah, take your bets. And nope, who's getting this listing? One night only, Sunday, Sunday, Sunday.
You need, you need to like throw the $2 million listing up, right? Whoever Last man standing.
That would make this business 100% more interesting. Oh my gosh, if realtors had to physically fight for—
I'm here for it. I would show up for that. I'm not even—
that's pay-per-view stuff right there. That's, that's going beyond, uh, you know, Fight Club. Yeah, it's, it's literally getting people involved.
Hey, you just wanna— you want another viral video, don't you? Is that She, she kissed me at the last event and I put it up as a clip and it went nuts.
And I said, I, I, I, I do.
Well, Brandy, you gotta, you gotta bring the eye candy on these things, you know.
Say what? Yep, it's in the middle console. That was my wife. She kissed me.
So like what I did on the video, I said random woman interrupts, interrupts interview.
You know, these podcasts, you never know what's going to happen.
You never know what's going to happen.
Just random people walking up to you and kissing you.
Are you ready for these, these statistics?
did you need something, JoJo? Say what?
She just— she wants to watch. She wants to be involved.
JoJo, our fearless leader.
All right, so here we go. This is the, uh, Census Bureau.
Released their numbers on the number of people moving from states and the number of people moving into certain states.
So which states received the most population uptick? So meaning how many people moved into those states? And then which states had a decrease in population.
So I'm gonna— I wanna, I wanna put it to you, see, see how well you do. Which— let's go with the top 4.
Which, which states do you think were the top 4 for population increase?
Florida's kind of like Texas.
I'm not, I'm not gonna affirm any of these until you get through the list.
Increase. Increase. Tennessee.
Maybe because a couple of friends of mine just moved to Tennessee. And the last but not least, something interesting. Maybe Virginia.
So the top 4, you weren't far off, by the way. And this is based off 2022 Census Bureau data.
Number 3, North Carolina.
Number 4, South Carolina.
So you weren't far off there.
But it's a drastic drop-off from Texas to North Carolina.
So Florida in 2022 saw a 1.9% increase in their population.
which was 318,000 people. Okay. Give or take a few.
That's a lot of retirees.
Yeah, right. I don't think it's retirees. Right. Florida— I mean, Texas saw a 1.6% increase in their population at 230,000. It's actually closer to 231,000. North Carolina was a 1.3% increase at 99,000.
I'm not— I'm giving easy numbers because there are specific numbers, but nobody cares.
And then South Carolina was a 1.7% increase at $84,000.
I wonder why the Carolinas though. I mean, what's— I mean, they have beaches. I mean, they got nice beaches over there. So I mean—
Well, and so I think I can answer that by asking you if you know the top 4 losers in the top 10.
California has to be one of them.
Are you talking about Washington State or Washington D.C.?
Losers. Da da da da da. Nevada maybe?
And one of these eastern ones, maybe New Hampshire.
New Hampshire. Okay. So the top four losers.
California was the number one loser.
Okay. I should have said that. I was afraid to say that because it's the Big Apple. You don't want to think of them as losing people. Yep.
And then Illinois and New Jersey.
Those are the top 4 losers. And so here's what's interesting. The numbers almost exactly coincide.
So it's like if 1 point something left Illinois, but 1 point something got to Texas. Well, no, no, no, no.
No, like the percentages are less.
But the amount of people is almost exactly the same.
It's just I can see New York, New Jersey, Illinois too.
Well, a lot of people don't do Illinois, but they forget about Chicago.
Yeah. So California lost 343,000.
New York lost 299,000. Yeah. And then Illinois, 141,000.
And then New Jersey, 64,000. So I, I think if you were to like take the top 4 and the bottom 4, and I think those numbers would be almost like within 50,000.
Right. Yeah. I mean, you know what, what the craziest thing is, I guess if it just wasn't so pricey, because the amount of money people make isn't increasing. So I'm— but the way you live in New York and New Jersey is, and Chicago.
Well, yeah, but like, if, if, if these numbers are true, right? We're like, not true, like obviously these numbers are true, but like we're seeing the people from California, New York go to Texas and Florida, right? They're able to afford a better lifestyle for sure.
Yeah, uh, if, if that's what's happening. We don't know for sure. One of the ones that was weird to me is Let's see, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. The number 6 loser was Louisiana.
A lot of people were leaving Louisiana.
Because it's— I think, I think it's all about opportunities. And I think if you're not in Louisiana, you got a handful of big towns, uh, you go there for college because everybody wants to go to LSU, but then you leave there to go do something else. Yeah, but like, um, Louisiana story. If you're going to Louisiana, as soon as you leave Texas, get gas. Fill up your tank all the way because in Texas, you got a gas station every other exit. In Louisiana, there's so many bridges.
I almost foolishly, mistakenly almost ran out of gas on one of those long bridges.
And I was sweating bullets because I just, in my head, I was waiting for another gas station.
There's one coming right up.
Yeah, you know, I'm so spoiled in Texas.
As soon as you pass the state line in Louisiana, you fill her up because goodness gracious. And you could probably go from one end of Louisiana to the other on a tank of gas.
It depends on where you start, but yeah, you could do it. Oh yeah. Yeah. Well, but like, you know, the funny thing about Louisiana though is like once you leave Texas— it's sprinkling. You see that?
No, no, no. That's gonna make it interesting.
Yeah. Hopefully that doesn't pick up because I'm fine with it right now, but if it gets any heavier, I'm gonna get this equipment out of here. Like Louisiana, man, if you stop at the gas station, there's, there's 2 things that are available in those gas stations that aren't in Texas. One is liquor. Yeah. And the other one's boudin. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, maybe some gambling. There's gambling in the gas stations.
That's, that's a must. Yeah. It's the craziest thing. As soon as you get in Louisiana, you're like, okay, they got boudin here. Yeah. And then, yeah, there's a slot machine over there, by the way. Yeah.
So, I mean, it was, it was surprising to me just because, like, Louisiana is cheap living.
Like, and there's some, there's some really pretty parts of Louisiana.
Taxes are like crazy low. Yeah. Compared to ours.
So it was just weird to me, like, I mean, because if the trend is like people are leaving to go to lower taxed states and more affordable states, you know, like, you know, Florida and Texas, I mean, like, those are just like weird unicorns. They really are. I mean, like, they're low tax, but they also have a lot of opportunity, right, in both of those states.
North Carolina, South Carolina, that one's the weird one to me. What I think is happening is that's like a halfway point. between Florida and New York.
And I think, I think some people are like, well, I don't want to get like cooked. Yeah.
I want to see some snow every now and then. Yeah. Yeah, it could be.
And there's mountains and it's pretty like North Carolina is gorgeous.
Yeah. I've been to Charlotte. Charlotte's pretty nice.
So, and like the ones after that, I mean, like make total sense. I mean, because after that it's Tennessee, Georgia, Arizona, Idaho, Alabama, Oklahoma, Nevada, Arkansas, Montana. I mean, like, all the, all the ones after that, I'm like, okay, that makes total sense.
Yeah, no, most definitely. I think, uh, you know, I had to— when I had to go to Louisiana that one time, uh, because usually you just drive through it, um, I, I, you know, I'm licensed Louisiana. You want a loan in Louisiana, I can help you. Uh, but, uh, I had to help a realtor over there, and so when they were writing a contract— contract's totally different than Texas, and I'm pretty spoiled with Texas— but, um, I was looking at taxes, and that was kind of just mind-blowing because I was kind of looking at what I'm used to calculating for people here in taxes. And then when I sent a good faith estimate to my buyer in Louisiana, he almost lost his mind. He was like, wait a minute, you got those taxes?
And I was like, I don't, I don't know what— I don't know what are they. And I had to talk to the agent. He was like, man, you're, you're way overinflated on those taxes. And I was like, well, what are they? He's like, they're like 0.55 in the area.
And so it was just kind of like an eye-opener. I was like, man, taxes like crazy cheap in Louisiana, but I guess you got to like pick your battles, what you want, you know. Yeah. How much, how much money can you actually make if, you know, in Louisiana, if you're not on an oil derrick or something?
I guess. I mean, does Louis— do you know, I mean, does Louisiana have like state income tax?
You don't know? I don't know either.
They might. I mean, so they got to get money from all these gambling casinos. I know they got to be winning off of that.
I, I do know that if you're from Louisiana, you go to college for free.
Well, if it's a state school.
I didn't know that. Yeah.
I mean, that's pretty cool. I mean, at least that's— don't quote me on that. I know that's the way it used to be. That's what I heard. Like, all— like, pretty much all my— I have a lot of family in Louisiana. They're all sugarcane farmers.
And like, pretty much all of them went to Louisiana State. Yeah, for free.
And because they're like residents of Louisiana.
Yeah. No, I mean, that's, that's, that's good. I mean, I wish Texas would get on board, but Texas has so many big name schools, it's kind of hard to do that. They're making so much money off of everything.
Well, I mean, and there's enough out-of-state people that want to go to Texas schools too. I mean, I, I think in Louisiana, like, if you have any out-of-state people, they— it's LSU.
Oh yeah, maybe Tulane, but like LSU is going to be pretty much the location.
Well, and, and I think you told me the other day, this was after we did our episode, that loans are like— loans are up. Oh yeah, right now.
Right. So Crazy thing, like, and this is after our episode we did back in January. Um, yeah, February blew up out of nowhere, um, just with the amount of loans. We're having a big month, uh, compared to what we had probably same time last year when rates were lower.
So you're doing more when—
We're probably neck and neck, uh, about the same.
Um, because the want the wants there. I don't—
I think it's people are just tired of waiting. They thought they were going to wait out the interest rate.
I think that's the biggest thing is you thought this was going to kind of go somewhere. So maybe that one thing you said in your head is, I'll wait till the new year.
But of course, I can see everybody's New Year's resolution, if you don't have one, is getting a home. But yeah, our applications, our closings, February, we're having a huge month in February and it's It's kind of out of— we, we didn't predict it because we thought it was usually, for all intents and purposes, the first quarter of real estate's always the slowest because we're getting out of these holiday months. And, um, but there they picked up. I was pretty surprised. I hope we keep it up. I hope, I hope the confidence— and that's the biggest thing— I hope the confidence in buying a home is still there, um, going forward, you know, because rates aren't going to do anything anytime soon. Inflation, yes, has been down for the last 2 months, and that's what they were going for. But
I don't see a drastic rate change anytime soon. Yeah, um, because we're still kind of going through it. But I mean, yeah, I think, I think the confidence of buying a house is, is back to a point, which is pretty good.
I, I, I read a couple of articles that was saying there was, uh, some, some hopefulness in the economy. Not in the sense that like rates are going to come down or that much is going to change, but that we may have hit sort of like a plateau that we're going to be on for a while, right?
And I, I, I think for most people, like, this isn't like ideal situation, like before when we could, you know, see something sub-3% from time to time on an interest rate. But like, this is very manageable. Yeah.
Yeah. Like, my first mortgage was 6.5%, and I was smitten. Yeah, I was, I was pretty happy about it. Um, so for those of you who don't know, we're actually at A networking event. The net.
Yeah, we got, we got to level up.
Yeah. And I just got here, but did you just get here? I did.
Yeah. Like you hadn't been inside for a while?
Well, I mean, I walked inside and then JoJo grabbed me and then I was like, yeah, I like talking.
Oh, Robert's showing up late.
What was this guy moving? Robert with Greenlight Movers. Showing up late today, man.
What's going on, man? I mean, you can't, you can't not call him out with his logo right behind your head.
Like this guy right here.
You can't, you can't, you can't use the crutches as the excuse anymore.
That's why I told him. He's skipping on that good foot now.
That's right. He's feeling it.
He's feeling it. That's too funny. That's too funny.
So anyway, you were telling me interest rates are—
Yeah. So I, you know, like I said, my first rate was 6.5% and I was pretty smitten about it. And rates are still like around upper 5s, low 6s. And it's not, it's not going to kill you. But like I always tell people, if you're not going to complain to me about your 22% credit card in your pocket, right?
That's the thing. That's the thing that bugs me is like, really? Like, show me your wallet.
If you're walking around with a 22% Apple Card, don't fight me on your mortgage interest rate.
Is that really what Apple's charging?
Yeah, Goldman Sachs is pretty high on that Apple Card. It's, it's pretty nuts. Uh, I think the only thing they got going for them is that they don't give you a yearly fee, but they— okay, they charge you what they charge you.
Um, is that like— is it like most other cards where if you don't pay it off at the end of the month, that's when the 22% kicks in?
Yeah. Oh yeah. But, and then I'll give it to Apple. If you do have an iPhone and those things link together automatically, which is kind of next level, but, um, that app tells you, hey, pay this and this is what your interest is. Yeah. No, I mean, I think it's cool because a lot of other credit card companies, you're kind of just guessing and saying, well, what if I pay half my card? Or what if I pay 75%? The way the Apple Card works, if you say, look, I can't pay the full amount, but I can only pay X, it's going to say, okay, well, if you can only pay X, you're only going to pay this much interest.
So at least you can kind of plan for that, opposed to where Capital One, I've never had a point where I was like, hey, I noticed you're only paying half of what your bill is.
Yeah. Citibank's actually pretty good about that. They'll let you know because they do a lot of, um, what's the word I'm looking for, where it, you know, like that you can buy like a big item and it's 0% for so many months.
But then they'll let you know like, hey, this thing is expiring pretty soon. Here's what you got left to pay in order so that that doesn't happen.
No, then yeah, that's good. Um, because that same day, 12 months financing, I think a lot of people take advantage of that for sure.
Yeah, no, I mean like we're fixing to start offering it in our company for like big ticket items where people, people can get 0% interest for 12 months. And it's, it's because those— most people like And you know this, most people just don't have that kind of cash on hand to do those kinds of big-ticket items or those unexpected items that they need to happen for their home. You know, like you start thinking about, you know, like a $10,000 air conditioner repair.
Yeah, I mean, I think anytime you can kind of do something like that, because like you said, not a lot of people have that kind of money just kind of on hand, and you could do like a 6 to 12 months. I know when I got my tires from Discount Tire, you know. I mean, right, 4 sets of tires nowadays set you back $1,500 easy. Yeah, easy. Um, and if you're not walking around with $1,500, or you just don't want to pay that at that point, I know, I know that Discount Tire does a 90-day same-as-cash kind of initiative.
Um, but yeah, that's good to know that, uh, you know, Excalibur is offering different financial packages to get its services.
Yeah, it's Might as well, right?
Uh, anything else cool happening in the market right now?
In the market? I mean, no. I mean, so we like— the great thing I like about my company is that we are a mortgage company, so they're always thinking outside the box on how to provide just different kind of mortgages to reinstill that confidence. So today we had a meeting. Um, so FHA, which is a 3.5% government loan— FHA is a Federal Housing Administration loan, 30-year fixed.
So really quick, you said 3.5%, that's what you'd have to do as the down payment?
Yeah, so it requires 3.5% down. Today we announced that we're offering down payment assistance to coincide with that loan. Where a lot of other down payment assistance have requirements for coinciding with that loan, we're taking the first-time homebuyer off the table, we're taking the income limit off the table. So you could be a repeated buyer, make as much as a doctor, and as long as you meet the credit requirements and all the debt-to-income requirements, you— if you need the down payment assistance, we have that to offer you. And so—
So how much of assistance are you guys offering?
So we'll cover the 3.5% down plus some closing costs.
So now, on an FHA, can you only do the 3.5% once?
Because I know you only get so many FHA loans in your lifetime.
No, you can get an FHA. You just can't have 2. And there's a gray line to that. You just can't have 2 FHA loans at one time because an FHA is a primary property product.
Like, you can't say, hey, I want to buy an investment home on an FHA. However, let's just say you live in Florida and you're making that move to Texas. Um, and you had an FHA in Florida, but now you're coming to Texas. This is where they moved you. This is where your new job is. Um, you can get another FHA and have 2 at one time. It just— it's a, it's a huge distance thing. But yeah, but FHA, because it is a government loan, they want to strictly be a primary property product.
That's what they're geared for.
Why did I think you could only have like— for some reason, 16 is sick sticking in my head. Like, you can only have like so many FHAs in your Like, no, as long as you—
like, if I sold a home and went to get another one, you can get an FHA loan as many times.
So down payment assistance up to 5%. So you guys are covering like 1.5% above what the requirement is, right? So how does that work exactly? So would that amount then just be added back into the loan?
No. So the great thing is, is so that Down payment is 3.5%. We cover that 3.5% on that down payment. Uh, and then you have third-party fees. You have title company, title companies taking—
So that extra percent and a half is in order to cover those?
So the extra percent and a half is going to cover those third-party fees that, um, coincide with your loan that we don't have control over. So the good thing is, is if you need someone, if you need some additional money to pay for that, so where an average person would bring $15,000 to a $250,000 loan, you know, that just got reduced to under $5,000.
So it makes home buying a lot more affordable and easy.
So before the show started, I was actually talking to one of the servers here.
And he was, he was asking, he's like, hey, what's the show about? I was like, what's the homeowner show? And he's like, I can't buy a home. And I'm like, well, why not? And he's like, I don't have any credit. Yeah. I'm like, why don't you have any credit? He goes, I don't, I don't want to mess with that stuff. And I was like, dude, just buy a credit card. Oh yeah, get you, get a credit card, buy a candy bar once a month, pay it off, and you'll have credit. Yeah. Like, so, but like, what, what about people that don't have credit?
So if you have what's called a zero, a true zero, they call it a true zero, um, not, hey, I used to have credit but I got out of the credit game and I had some collections and now I just don't have any credit, right? Um, a true zero is like you've never established credit at all because like that server, he just was afraid of it, didn't want to get into it, or just—
Right, right. No, definitely. If you— I still think that credit awareness should be taught in our schools, but that's another topic.
You willing to teach that class?
Hey, I actually used to do, uh, if anybody's familiar with Topelchin, The Pelican, um, is a foster care company here in Houston, and they help foster kids that age out of foster care.
And I used to teach a class called The Economy of Me to those kids before they got fostered out, because unfortunately, um, after— at 18, they're gone.
so like, I mean, there are assistance programs, but like, they're, they're done with—
yeah. So, so The Pelican did quite a bit. They actually gave they were able to go to college for free and then they were able to set them up with a couple of things. But heck, that economy piece, like I said, it's the economy of you. It's the economy of me. They weren't getting that. And I think money is the only common denominator among all of us, especially if you're an orphan and about to go on your own. But yeah.
You need to talk to my wife about this. She used to work with Love Fosters Hope. Are you familiar with them? It's a foster care organization. And they actually have a house not far from here where they offer free housing to kids who have gone through their programs that have aged out of foster care. Okay.
And so education and mentoring is a big part of what they do. And you're absolutely right. I mean, they just don't have life skills because they've been institutionalized for so— most of them for so long or have been passed around from house to house and they just they've never had the chance to develop those skills. So someone like you that can come in and actually teach this.
Yeah, it was, it was a great class. I mean, because it was a 2-week class, and it was a 2-week class. And so, um, again, we had all the study material, they had all these handouts, they, you know, we gave them everything. We made it fun. It wasn't just like, hey, learn this and we'll do this. It, you know, and at the end of the 2 weeks, we had what's called a real-life, uh, a real-life activity where we would have different booths set up in the gym.
And each booth was cars or housing or like so. And we would give everybody a handout. They didn't know what their— they didn't know what their job was. So we'd say, okay, here's all the handouts. And they would say, okay, well, I'm a nurse and I make this much money. And so they would have this limit they would have to stick to and then go into the gym. And you had to have housing, you had to have your transportation. And so what the awesome thing was is that you give them all these limits, especially on the cars. You know, it has, you know, you have your Corvettes to your Honda.
And then, and then like there's a place for pets and there's a place for like going out. And so it's so funny because they're going through each one and they realize how much all this stuff costs, and then they're backtracking. They're like, okay, well maybe I don't need the Corvette. Maybe I, maybe I do need a bicycle or a bus pass. And so like, I always ask this, my favorite question, when after it's all said and done, I was like, how many people started off with a dog when it all started? And everybody's raising their hand. I was like, how many people have dogs now? And everybody's like, raise your hand. They're like, those things are expensive.
So it was, it was, it was pretty cool to do that, uh, and just kind of just eye-opening experience with those kids, uh, but it was really good.
Anytime you can take young kids through like a budgeting sort of situation Yeah, I guess it tends to be eye-opening. Like, here's your rent, here's your groceries, right? Here's your utilities. Yeah, here's your taxes. Here's the— I mean, here's all of it, like, and sort it out. Yeah, like, and you know, it's funny how conservative they become. Like, and I don't mean like politically, right? Like, I mean, just like—
No, with their own money. Yeah, I mean, I mean, when it— when you kind of have your own— I mean, I did with that with my son, uh, when he started to work. I was like, look, I don't care what you do with this and this, but 10% of your check needs to go here.
I was like, no. And even now that he's in the Marines, um, I set him up an IRA. I was like, okay, this much money a month has to go into here.
Um, because my parents never told me about this stuff.
Yeah. And, and I think unfortunately they just didn't know. And I'm, I'm glad that I can just say, look, this is what you gotta do. And if I'm not here to make you a millionaire, you're gonna be a millionaire on your own. Um, but this is how you have to do it. And I think now that it's being deducted from his check and things like that, we'll go somewhere and he'll be like, oh, maybe I don't need that. Maybe I don't need those Oakleys. Can we go to Walmart and get those socks? Yeah.
But if you can set it up on an automatic withdrawal, I mean, if you do that as a young person, one, you're developing the discipline. Two, it's like, okay, now it just becomes routine and you don't even notice it over time because it's always being taken out. It's never present in your bank account.
to be a temptation to like, well, I'll skip it this month. Yeah. You know, whatever. It's setting up that automation for future wealth.
Right. No, definitely. Definitely. I mean, again, like, I wish it was something that was told to me. And but when I finally found out about it, it's kind of like the eye-opener. Man, why I doing this the whole time? Yeah. I was wasting on women and—
Uh, how's your Valentine's Day?
Oh, dude. So we, uh, my wife doesn't like Valentine's. Nice.
So we, we, we have some fun traditions that we do. So I don't even think I've told the story on the, on the show before, but one of our first fights as a couple was over Valentine's Day. Um, and we—
What do you mean you don't like it? Yeah. What's a 5 stars?
Well, it was, it was when we were dating and she— we were— we actually had a long-distance relationship. She was living in Dallas and I was living in Houston. And, uh, I— Valentine's Day was coming up and I was making a fuss about having to do anything about it just because I was stupid. And she was like, why is this a big deal? And I was— and so I came up with this really dumb thing that I said to her, which was, Look, you making me celebrate Valentine's Day is like me making you celebrate Arbor Day, as if Arbor Day was important to me. I was like, I was like, if Arbor Day was really important to me and I made you celebrate it, this is what this feels like. It's like you making me
celebrate this. So after we got engaged, do you know what day she picked for our wedding? Arbor Day.
Yeah. So every year on Valentine's Day and our anniversary, you know what she gets?
Trees. So on Valentine's Day, I gave her a peach tree.
And she loves it now. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's sweet and it's romantic.
So we— and we have a— we actually have a pillow that stays on our bed all the time. And it's— what is it? How does it go? Oh, marriage. It's, it's a saying. It says marriage is all about winning.
And that's, that's the, that's one of the ways I win.
Is I did something really dumb today. Yeah, that's right. That's right. When, when I was young, I did something dumb, but here's how I'm winning now.
Because, because that stupid thing that I did. So, so I, I, after we talked back in January, there was something about you I did not realize.
I did not realize you'd been a fireman.
How long were you a fireman?
Was it, was it, uh, Houston Fire Department?
Uh, so I, I got in as a firefighter and, uh, um, yeah, uh, December 28th in this— what is going on with this rain?
I know, it's like starting to come.
Um, December 28th was my last shift, uh, 2022.
Uh, oh wow, so like pretty recently.
I was— so for the first part of my, my, my career, I was just a standard pipeman firefighter, and then for the like the last half I was an EO, engine operator.
So I got to, I got to drive those nice big trucks.
Got the big wheel in the back.
Honk and tell people to get out of my way.
And so, so as, as far as like a home structure question, because I imagine this is something you experience, what is, as far as fire is concerned, like what's the most vulnerable place in your home?
Believe it or not, what we call it in the fire service, and if there's a beep, let's get that beep. The shitter fan.
Oh, like the exhaust fan? Because people turn them on and never turn them off.
Well, it's not only that. The motor in that is not like an industrial motor that you think it would be. And then plus, you have to understand that thing's sucking dust and all kinds of whatever.
Combustibles. And so, like, when that fan goes out, that's nothing but attic space above it. And so, when that fan goes out or has electrical whatever, And y'all don't, you know, nobody really pays any mind. You know, they'll empty out the lint, you know, in the washer and dryer, and they'll do the air ducts. They'll get all that stuff out of there. But that one place, they just think it's a well-oiled machine and they don't clean it. And they just— that fan in that motor assembly is not, you know, it's not a GE. It's not going to last you the rest of your life. And so we get a lot of— unfortunately, we get a lot of house
fires that start in that area. area? Are they smoke? Are they a cause, you know, they set off fire alarms? So, you know, aside from the obvious, hey, the kitchen, and, you know, do this, and you don't know how to put out a grease fire, yes, that's always one of them. But which—
I mean, just back up to that one real quick because I think that's an important one to tell you, right?
If you don't know how to put out a grease fire, yes, do not use water on a grease fire. Do not use water just because water evaporates and then it spreads in that grease. And yeah, it's—
we've seen a lot of that as well.
I would imagine if you're in the kitchen, one of the best things to use would be like a sack of flour.
Yes, that, that works perfect. Or just throwing the lid on it. Uh, sometimes if you have that lid nearby and it starts to flame up on you just because you just have it too hot, and if you throw a lid on it, it's going to kill itself. Yeah, uh, because you're taking away the oxygen, you're taking away that, that one piece that it needs to survive. And, and so flour is good. Throwing the lid on it or just calling your fire department if you're completely scared and getting out of the house.
Yeah, I mean, because grease fires can, I mean, like, they can get pretty big really quick.
Oh, they can get pretty bad. And you have to understand, everything in your kitchen or everything in your house nowadays is combustible. It's not like the homes that, you know, we probably grew up in, that everything's made out of wood and it's all sturdy and there's no chemicals in it. You know, if you think about your kitchen right now, what's above it? Well, you got a plastic ventilating fan and plastic here and plastic there and, um, the fluorescent lights, you know, all that stuff melts.
Uh, and once it starts melting, I mean, it combusts. I mean, like, it catches fire and then it spreads.
Oh yeah, most definitely. So, so yeah, so just kind of one thing to kind of keep— and also, if you don't have a fire extinguisher in your house, why not? Yeah, and you can get them at Costco, anywhere really, Walmart. Uh, you know, get a little one. And, and the great thing about the fire extinguishers you buy at stores. They're chemical-based. They're not like the fire extinguishers you're kind of seeing like big industrial buildings. They're chemical-based, so if you do get a grease fire, those are perfect as well. It's going to make a little bit of a mess, but at least you're going to save your house. Yeah, so just throw one underneath the sink and hopefully you never have to use it. But I mean—
Are the, are the newer fire extinguishers lasting longer than some of the— like, like if you have a fire extinguisher in your kitchen from like 1984, right? I mean, you probably need to upgrade. Right, right, right. But are the newer ones lasting longer?
So those, those dry chem ones do last a little bit longer, okay, just because of the settlement, you know, like you don't have to go in there and shake it every once in a while. But, um, it's not— they may not be full strength when you initially get them as far as a spray is concerned, but it's going to come out of there. But I always, always use the turning back the clock scenario for all my fire stuff. So When, you know, when it's daylight savings, when you move your clock forward and move the clock back, check your fire detectors and check your fire extinguishers because you're only doing it, you know, twice a year.
It's not hurting anything. Hey, I'm moving my clock and here are all the things I have to do in those initiatives. Let's check the fire extinguishers, let's check the fire detectors, and then you can move on with your day. But, you know, it doesn't really hurt to set those 2 dates as a reminder.
Yeah, on average, how long should those things be lasting?
Uh, fire extinguishers, you know, batteries usually last about a year. Uh, if— or in some fire extinguishers— not fire extinguishers, uh, fire, uh, detectors, usually the batteries last about a year. The good ones, uh, are connected to the wiring in your house, uh, so they, they're ongoing. You just might want to just clean them, vacuum them out, make sure they're not having any dust or anything else like that.
Oh, the dust will prevent them from—
Well, the dust will like set off a false trigger.
So you just want to make sure that there's no dust and things like that because, you know, you don't want to false trigger it. But yeah, I mean, as long as you do it, just kind of maintenance, I mean, uh, they last for a while, a good while. I haven't really seen one kind of go out. I mean, I think when they start turning yellow because the plastic, you might want to replace them at that point in time.
But get a little age on them.
Just give them the maintenance they need. Give them some love.
Well, anything else you want to let everybody know about?
No. I mean, just if you're not part of this group, the whole reason why I'm here today is this networking group, The Net. Awesome. All small businesses. Me being a loan officer, even though my company's nationwide, Next Mortgage is small town. So the great thing about this group of small businesses is that we're just trying to grow. We're trying to provide services to you. whether it be exterminating or, you know, affordable air care or plumbing and things like that. You know, we want to provide that best service. And I think when you get word of mouth, I think when someone refers you somebody and says, hey, you need to call this guy for such and such reading, I think it goes a lot further than you Googling yourself.
Yeah. And so that's all we're trying to do here tonight is just, you know, network and meet new people. And that way when I'm at a closing or someone, you know, and I And I talked to JoJo about this yesterday. I went to a closing on Monday and my buyer specifically, he was like, hey, I'm new. He just first-time home buyer. He moved to Texas and he doesn't know an exterminator. He doesn't know a mover. He doesn't know, you know, so me as a loan officer, the great thing is I'm going to start providing this nice little PDF pamphlet or like closing package so I can say, look, here are all the people I affiliate with, and you can call them if you need these services. And I think that's going to go a long way with our
group because it's going to be able to, um, let my buyers know, hey, if you need a mover to move into the new house, or if you need someone to help you do plumbing or whatnot, or, you know, with your home, here's a group of people that are already vetted because they're part of this group. They network with me, and, and, uh, I think that's going to help a lot of my buyers.
Cool, man. I appreciate you sitting down with me.
Oh, man. Anytime. Anytime you need a third wheel.
When Kevin gets sick, he's the third wheel.
Everyone else is way above me.
That's right. But do you think you could rustle me up somebody?
I'll go find you someone. All right.
Yeah, I'm gonna go see what else is going on.
