Top Housing Trends

This is episode number 354 of The Homeowner Show. Whether you're DIY or looking to hire, we're here to help you find the best information and options for you and your home. My name is Kevin Hackett, and here with me is Craig Williams.

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

You know, I guess I'm all right.

Guess you aight.

I guess I'm all right. I don't, I don't know. I don't have much else to say other than that. It's like life is good.

All right.

Yeah.

I am fantastic.

Okay. Why?

Um, because, uh, A&M swept the Longhorns in baseball.

Oh, okay.

Uh, in fact, we had the weather beat them.

Oh, well, I, I will tell you, like, Baseball is a difficult sport to watch in college.

Yes.

Because they don't make it easy to watch the games.

What do you mean? Like, like on TV?

Like to watch 'em on TV.

Okay.

You can listen to 'em, like most of the time they're broadcast somewhere, but they're, they're kind of difficult to watch on, like just on TV. And so I find myself, even though, you know, I'm a huge baseball fan, uh-huh, I find it difficult to keep up with, with my team. But I will say The Longhorns are typically good at baseball.

Well, they're number 2.

Yeah.

And they're— the Ags were ranked 18.

Okay.

And they took 'em 2 outta 3.

All right.

The game last night got canceled because of weather.

Oh, well, there you go.

You can't take Longhorns out in the rain.

No.

It ruins the suede.

It does. I have to tell you a really funny story. Uh, so my parents are, uh, gone and they're at Sevierville, uh, Tennessee. Are you familiar with that area?

I am.

Okay. So, Uh, really, really cool place. Pigeon Forge, you know.

Um, that is it. Is it? I thought it was Sevierville.

I've always called it Sevierville.

Yeah.

And I, I, I, I could be wrong.

I don't know.

But I, I think it's Sevierville. Okay. But it doesn't matter. Uh, Gatlinburg. I'm sure we'll hear from him. We will. Yeah. Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge. Really, really cool area.

That's like probably, probably my favorite part of Tennessee.

Yeah. I, I would agree.

And other than the strip in Nashville.

Well, there's— cheers. Yeah, seriously. I, I enjoy Branson, Missouri.

Okay.

And Pigeon Forge has a Branson feel.

It has a vibe.

Yeah, it's a vibe a little bit to it. But, um, anyway, I have no clue why I was gonna tell you that story now.

But your parents are in—

so they're, they're there.

Uh-huh.

But there was a reason we were talking about college baseball. Yeah, I know.

Okay. And I completely lost it. Good story, Kev.

Yeah. They're, There's something about— oh, I know what it is. Longhorns. Now we're back.

I'm back, baby.

Um, they, they, they drove by a Longhorn Steakhouse.

Okay.

And next to the Longhorn Steakhouse, there is a large open field with longhorns in the field.

Okay.

And there were—

dinner's coming from there.

Well, you would think, but there were people in like a tour van, like, like an open, like a golf cart type tour van, but it's bigger than a golf cart, right? Like touring around looking at the Longhorns. And my parents were like, those people aren't from Texas. Yeah, that's a—

there's zero chance.

That's right. There's a fairly regular opportunity to see Longhorn cattle around here, whether you like the team or not.

And they're not even that good to eat.

No, they're not. Yeah.

I mean, you can live off of them.

Yeah, but, well, you, yeah, you can, but why would you when there's so many other better options out there?

Well, I mean, they're, it's an iconic brand.

Sure. For sure.

I mean, and the reason that we have them is they were, they could last longer on the trail without losing body fat as much as other kinds of cattle. But then we invented the train and they became unnecessary for anything other than lawn art. Which is kind of like what they are now.

Yeah. And I have another like fun, interesting fact about not Longhorns, but cattle drives in general.

Right.

There are some laws that were enacted a long time ago that are still relative today in the fact that they are still laws that just never got eradicated. when things change.

Sure.

So, you know, it's like a lot of things, like something happens.

Is that like you can't have an apple pie on the windowsill on Sundays or something? Correct. Okay. Yeah.

Something like that. Well, it's one of those, a law was put into place because someone didn't like something. And so they changed the law. Uh-huh. And it's still a law that technically you could get fined for or arrested for or something like that. One, one of the law, my favorite laws is that it, in Texas, it is illegal to carry wire cutters, like, like snips.

Oh, we've talked about this before.

In your pocket.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Which, which I think is hilarious. It's illegal in Texas to carry, um, those in your pocket. Some people call them dikes, right? Um, I don't because obvious reasons, but it's because people would just cut through People's barbed wire to take their cattle up to Kansas.

It has to do with the Range Wars.

It does. And, uh, I just find that to be hilarious. So that's my story. That's all I got. So we got a fun, fun show we're gonna talk about tonight. Yeah.

Yeah. But I, I, I don't wanna, I don't wanna move on without acknowledging like we won 2 outta 3 games.

Yeah.

The third one, the only reason we didn't win the third one is because it got rained out.

Well, there's that. Um, I mean, so, I mean, you, you take a win whenever you can take a win, right?

Well, so like there's apparently there's this whole thing. I, I wasn't even aware of this. Like they keep track between the 2 schools of all the sports. And so like at the end of the year there's like a Lone Star champion. Sure. Between the 2.

Sure.

And like other than football right now, we're whooping tail.

Yeah.

And I'm here for it.

Yeah. Why not? Right.

Wait, and like, have you, have you ever been to a baseball game at A&M?

I actually haven't.

Dude, I, I actually think they're more fun than like a Savannah Bananas game.

Really?

Yeah.

Although the Savannah Bananas are coming to A&M.

They're gonna play at Kyle Field apparently. Um, someone was telling me that the other night. They're like, yeah, we're gonna go see the Savannah Bananas at, at A&M. And I was like, oh, at Bluebell Field? They're like, no, Kyle Field.

At the big one.

And I was like, holy crap.

Yeah, it's a big deal.

Um, but anyway, uh, like it is, the most interactive baseball game you will ever— like, if you are bored going to baseball games because it's just like sitting there and watching, no, no, no.

Like, there's stuff happening everywhere.

There's stuff because like the crowd gets involved in every moment of the game to just taunt the other team. Yeah.

So my favorite is the, the ball counting. Uh-huh. So once you get past, I don't know what the number is, like 4 or 5, like a pitcher, You know, if they're if they're on the mound and they show they throw, I think it's four. I think after four, which is a walk, right? For you know one batter, A&M fans start chanting the number of balls.

Yep.

And so those and you can find this online. There's some really great YouTube videos of ball five, ball five.

Yep.

Ball five. And he throws throws another ball.

It's ball six.

Ball yeah. They yeah they cheer that it's ball seven.

My so my so. I don't know if they're still doing this. When I was in school though, is, you know, every once in a while the unfortunate pitcher needs a little encouragement from his catcher.

Okay, sure.

So the catcher will go out to the mound and have a little chat.

Right.

And as he gets to the mound, the entire crowd begins to chant, touch his butt, touch his butt. Because, you know, usually they give a little, little tap, little tap, little tappity tap.

Wow.

And so like you'll just hear the whole crowd like touches and like if he does it, he's like, woo!

Oh my gosh, that's funny.

That's a good— and I was like, that's funny. That's a good one. Yeah. Uh, that's a, that's a keeper.

Well, you know, I mean, I, I think like if you were like yesterday, we were at a baseball game for my son and my daughter the whole time was like looking at her hair. Do I have any split ends? Like what's going on here? Like she couldn't care less about this game. I think if you don't appreciate the game of baseball, it's boring to you.

Sure.

And so that's not boring. No, like, that's a way to make the crowd go show up. This is a fun experience.

Absolutely.

And yeah, it's in good fun.

Yeah. Yeah. I encourage anybody, if you're in town, like, because they're going to do it. It doesn't matter the team.

Right.

Like, but I think I saw the other day, like the A&M Texas tickets for the baseball game. They were like $1,000 a ticket.

Oh my goodness.

Yeah. What? And it was sold out. Oh, they were like, not even a question. Um, wow. Part, part of it is the, the head coach for Texas was the head coach for A&M.

Oh, like I didn't know that.

Yeah. Like he left A&M to go coach at Texas.

Okay.

And so like anytime he comes to town, It's game on.

Yeah, he deserves that.

Yeah, he does.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So anyway, um, well, we got some fun stuff to go.

Well, yeah, but, but before we do that, uh-huh, um, you, you wanted to talk about the picture.

Yeah, so I mean, like, if you're just dead to the world and you haven't been paying attention, like, apparently Trump reposted this picture. Did you, did you find it?

I did.

Okay. It's not hard to find.

No. And I did not intentionally, like, put it up for us to look at right now.

Okay.

But I've got it on my computer right now.

And it's the one where it looks like he's healing somebody?

Yeah.

Okay. And there's, there's apparently, like, some edits that have been done. Apparently, like, the, the people in the sky behind him have changed on a couple different pictures.

Yeah, they kind of look like— in, in the one that I found, some of them look like soldiers, and one of them looks like a superhero.

I think it's supposed to be like the Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Yeah, I think that's probably true, but he looks like a hero, a superhero.

Yeah. So anyway, apparently Trump reposted this picture. Um, I— and, and the people that hate him or dislike him or disagree with him are like, see, you see the kind of person.

Yeah.

And like, Do I like it? No, I think it's stupid.

It is stupid.

It's like one of the dumbest things I've ever seen. Like, should he repost it? No.

Yeah.

No, he probably like, but like, here's the thing. Does he think that about himself? Maybe.

Yeah, who knows?

But like more, more than likely what he believes is that you will fall for his trap to get enraged about that picture.

Yeah.

More than, I mean, like, More than I believe that he thinks that about himself, I believe that.

Yeah, I would agree.

Now, is he taunting you? Yeah.

100%.

Yeah. He's taunting you into like just rage baiting about this stupid picture that no one, no one in their right mind thinks is an accurate depiction of what they actually think about him.

Yeah, I would agree. Like, so, so let me ask you a question. Uh-huh. Do you think that Donald Trump—

rarely.

Yeah. That Donald Trump ever opens his social media account?

Yes.

You think that he— I'm just curious. I mean, I'm constantly—

I think he constantly opens it.

So you think that he's the one that reposted this, not somebody else?

It wouldn't shock me if he did.

I wouldn't me either. I, that's why I'm asking the question. 'Cause there, there's a lot of people that are like, ah, he doesn't even touch it. Who, he did, he got too much other stuff to do. Someone else posts all that stuff for him. And it's just, you know, maybe, maybe, or maybe he's on his phone all the time.

No, I, I, I think, yeah.

I'm gonna repost this, you know?

No, I, no, I, I, I, I legit think that he probably saw it, thought it was funny, and it's like, if I repost this, this is just gonna piss off so many people. and then cackled the whole way while he was hitting repost.

Yeah.

I really do. I mean, like, and at the same time, could he believe that about himself? Maybe.

Sure.

Maybe.

Yeah.

Like, it's not outside the realm of possibility.

No.

And, you know, but do I think that like the last 5 presidents thought the same things about themselves? 100%.

Yeah.

100%.

Yeah.

They just weren't, they just weren't as overt.

As brash.

No.

Yeah.

But they, I was like, look, you have to, if you have to be so arrogant to even pursue that position in the first place.

Uh, yeah, I would agree. I mean, you have to be the type of person that says, I'm better than everybody else.

Yeah.

Yeah. I know better.

You have to.

You, I'm smarter. I know better. I'm. You know, even, even if you're the whole—

I'm, I'm okay. Like, I'm saying that, and I know people are hearing me, it's like, well, he's like, no. Like, should you? No.

Right.

No, you shouldn't. No, you absolutely shouldn't. But like, the, the realist, the person who is living in reality, says, I will never pursue that, pursue that position. I know I could do a good job at it. I know I'm intelligent. Yeah, I know I could manage the stress. But I don't want the perception on me because I know that no matter what I do, there's gonna be one side that perceives me as being evil and another side that perceives me as being the Messiah.

So you have to be an I don't care person to a certain degree.

Yeah.

I mean, to, to be able to slough that off and go, I don't, I don't care what people think of me. I'm doing this for whatever reason you choose.

Put it this way. The last person that I think that we had that actually cared what people thought was Jimmy Carter. And that man made the worst decisions.

He did make some really bad decisions.

For the country that we've had in generations. And I think he was a good man that made really bad decisions. And like, I think 2 things can be true. The man can be good and the man can make terrible decisions. And I also think that a man can be bad and make good decisions. I'm not making the case that I think Trump is making all good decisions by any stretch of the imagination. Sure. I'm just saying 2 things can be true.

Yeah. Well, and I, I would say whether or not, doesn't matter what side you're on, he does this on purpose.

Yes.

You, you have to understand that, like, and what I mean by that, and, and, and the people that, that hate Trump would say, yeah, that's why he's an idiot, because he does it on— he knows he's willingly, knowingly doing these things. He's an idiot. And I think people on the other side are going, and you're buying it.

Maybe.

Like, you're, you're, you're— he's doing it for you.

There are some—

there are—

look, There is a small minority on his side of the aisle that looks at that and says, yep, that's my boy.

Oh, of course.

You know what I mean? Of course. There are those guys out there like, yep, that's, that's 100% right there.

Yeah.

And I'm sorry, like, I don't know what delusional world you're living in where that has to be your reality.

I hope not.

I like, I know it doesn't sound like a fun place to be to me, honestly. I mean, like, you have to be lying to yourself. Constantly.

Yeah.

Like it.

Say it, Craig. I'm baiting you into it.

You won't say it. Twelve years ago, like the some of you that are pissed off about this would not have been pissed off if it was a picture of Obama in the same situation. It's just it's just a fact. It's just a fact. It wouldn't have bothered you, and it wouldn't have bothered you because he was Black.

Okay.

Because it would have seemed okay because he was Black.

Yeah. Yeah.

And like, I, I'm saying both are wrong, right? Both would have been wrong.

Yeah. Like, why?

And, and the people who would have thought that it was right were mostly white.

Yeah. I just, I don't understand. What I really, really just don't understand is why can't we have a decent person?

Let me also caveat that with like, no one would have put Joe Biden in that picture.

Well, no one.

There's not a person that would have made that picture of Joe Biden and liked it and said, yep, this, that's my boy.

No, because no. Well, no, he was nobody's boy. Like, no, nobody likes the guy. I mean, even the Democrats are like, this guy's a moron. He's too old. He's senile. He's delusional. He's got issues. And he did. Like, it's come out. He did.

He 100% did.

He did.

He—

dementia setting in.

This is why the Supreme Court is looking at decisions that he made with Autopen, because they're having to go back and say, okay, was he in a mental capacity where he could have made the decisions, or was it an aide that was just auto-pinning things that they liked?

Right.

Like, because now we don't know.

Now we don't know. It's, it's worth the scrutiny in my mind. But this picture, if you go look, I mean, today is—

I don't know who made it, but you're a moron.

I don't either. I agree.

Let's just, let's put that— is you're a moron. Like, why did you make it? Yeah. There, like, there, there's just nothing good about, like, Okay, let's just say, for instance, that you made it to make the other side angry.

Okay.

Why are we doing those things?

That's dumb.

Why are we doing things specifically to make the other side angry?

Yeah.

If anything, if you think that your ideas are so great, you should be doing less to piss them off and more to show them that your ideas are good.

Yeah, yeah.

All you're doing is pushing them further and further. And I know that there are people that are saying like, well, they'll never be on our side anyway. Okay, really? Like, you know that definitively? Like, that you— like, that your position is so weak that it cannot be convinced through facts and logic? And I get it. Like, there are some people that cannot be convinced by facts and logic.

Agree.

I've heard them say it. I've heard them pronounce it. I don't care what facts and logic you present with me. I will never change my position on this. I get it. Those people exist.

Sure.

They aren't the majority.

No.

The majority of people are willing to be swayed by facts and logic.

Yeah.

So why piss them off?

I think it's because you can.

And isolate them.

It, it, this, this again, I, I, I asked the question, could you have not done anything else better with your time than this?

Uh, yeah.

I mean, you have nothing better to do with your life than this. That's— it's asinine. So, and, and again, I will fully agree. Trump is asinine for reposting it. Let it go, dude. Like, forget it. But yeah, this is stupid. It just is. Yeah, it's stupid.

So anyway, we can talk about this all night. We gotta, we gotta talk about some homeowner trends.

Yeah, we do.

And this is actually fun. And tell you other reasons why you might be stupid.

Um, well, this is— to me, this is a lot of fun because, um, I think understanding trends is really important because some things— it's like gray, right? Painting your house interior walls gray, like that, that was a trend. It was a trend. And it, and honestly, it's kind of going away a little bit. I mean, there's nothing wrong with gray. It's neutral. It lasts forever. But it's the same reason, like, my parents had a green freezer and a green refrigerator.

What kind of green?

It was like that olive green.

Oh yeah?

Yeah.

Like, like, I think that's actually coming back.

It is.

It is.

But, you know, like, these, these are trends and they, they come, they go. I mean, goodness gracious. Like, we've got JNCOs coming back in. So what? Yes. Have you not seen them?

No, no.

There are people wearing JNCOs again.

They all need to be slapped.

They—

well, of course they do, including the people that made them.

Well, Yeah, I don't disagree, but I'm just saying, who— where are these trends?

Okay, I'm looking this up. Where—

I literally saw someone wearing JNCOs just a few days ago, and it's just like—

Were they vintage?

No, they were new. Like, these are like— they are being made again. I'm not joking. Like, between that and like, like lots of things are coming back in style, and I just— it's cyclical and stuff like this happens. Maybe it should.

Maybe it shouldn't. This should shock no one. JNCO, short for Judge None, Choose One, is a Los Angeles, California-based clothing company specializing in boys' and men's jeans. JNCO was founded in 1985. The brand gained recognition in the '90s with its boys' ultra-wide straight-leg denim jeans. They look stupid.

Well, they're huge. Like, you can fit people inside your pants.

Look, I will race anyone in a pair of JNCO jeans.

This— okay, no one on that listens to our show has JNCO jeans, so nobody's gonna take you up on that. But I want someone to take you up on that.

$10,000.

$10,000.

$10,000. I will beat you if you wear a pair of JNCO jeans in the 100-meter dash.

This is, uh, oh my gosh.

That's just funny because if you wear them, you're like more likely to be on the police high-profile list. So you ain't running away from them. They ain't wearing JNCOs.

Oh, this is good. This is good. Butt trends. Uh, not butt trends.

Oh my gosh, they're so dumb. I'm looking at pictures of them right now.

Yeah, they're bad. Um, yeah, not butt trends. Trends.

You ain't got a butt if you wear these.

You don't. You wouldn't know. Um, so What we're gonna talk about today are just 3. We're gonna pick 3, uh-huh, uh, top homeowner trends of today. And these 3, I mean, there's multiple, but these 3 were the ones that stuck, you know, stood out to us. Right? All right. Are you ready for these?

I'm ready.

All right. For number 1, I wanna hear your take on this. Okay.

Because I, I clearly have zero opinions in this episode. Right.

None. None whatsoever. Okay. The first one is this. people that are homeowners are currently seeing their house as their forever home.

Mm-hmm.

So here's, here's the trend. 41% of homeowners, which is a pretty high number, are saying that high interest rates are leading them to view their current house as a forever home. They're not planning on moving. They're going, look, I would rather renovate my house, because it's just too expensive to leave the one that I'm in. So let's get this one paid off, renovate it. We're staying here forever. It doesn't matter. Like even empty nesters who have like a bigger house because they had kids and all that kind of stuff, they're going, I'm not even trying to downsize anymore.

Yeah.

I just want to stay here. I'll renovate it. It'll be fine. Thoughts?

Um, this makes complete sense to me.

It does me too.

One, if you've been listening to the show for any amount of time, Like, it may be, it may be that you're not in a big home. It may be that you're in the small home that you started in 20 years ago.

Right.

And you're going, oh, like my kids are now gone. We survived that nonsense.

Yeah.

And now this actually feels like a big house because there's nobody else living in it anymore other than just me and the missus. Well, let's just stay here because this thing's about paid off.

Right.

You know, or you've been upping your payments over the years and you're like 2 years away from like just giving the bank the middle finger.

Yeah.

You know, and it's like, okay, paid off or new loan.

It's, I mean, realistically, it is a no-brainer.

And, and, and, you know, if you, if you bought a house within the last 2 decades, you probably have a significantly lower interest rate than what you could get right now.

Without question.

So there, there's all sorts of things. And like, if, if you've been, if you've been in that situation for a long time, you don't wanna move. You don't wanna go to a new town. You don't wanna go to a new neighborhood. You don't wanna, Like you have settled into the neighbors that you have, and if not, you know where to like bury them if you get tired of them. Like it's like you understand the community and so you can, you can exist peacefully. You, financially, it's gonna be a lot easier on you. No one wants to move.

No.

It's like the one of the, like other than like public speaking, it's like one of the worst experiences of your life. To, like, pack up all your things and, like, try and figure out where they go in a new place.

Yeah.

It makes, that makes total sense. And, like, if they've been listening to the show, they know that we're completely on board with this.

Oh, yeah.

Like, you don't need more than what you have.

Right.

More than likely.

More than likely. And, and it is so much cheaper to renovate.

Yes.

Than it is to build something new.

Now, turn a one-story into a two-story if you really want to.

You can. Now, now here's what I will say, because I do need to put a caveat in here. If you have the choice of building a brand new house or buying a home and renovating 100% of the interior, you're better off building a new home.

Probably.

It is cheaper. You will be able to spec that house out, lay it out the way you want it.

But that, but that doesn't seem to be the statistic that they're talking about. They're saying like 41% of current homeowners view their current home as their forever home. And that is— that has got to be a scary statistic for the banks.

Oh, yeah. I would agree because— and that— and that's— I just wanna make the distinction of going, no. No.

No.

It's not cheaper to renovate if that's the situation you're in.

Sure.

But if you're looking at, I'm gonna go buy a new home or this home that I've lived in for a significant amount of time, I'm just gonna renovate it, update it, make it a little bit more modern than something that I really wanna live in for the rest of my life. That's way cheaper.

Yeah.

By, I mean, put, put a second mortgage on your house if you have to at that point. It's still going to be cheaper.

Yeah.

But you're right. I mean, if you've lived in your house for very long, your interest rate is likely cheaper. You know, like you're comfortable with the driving distances to everywhere you're going. You're familiar with your surroundings. The only way I would see this not being the case, if you were older, and you've got kids that have moved away and you're interested in moving near them. I can see that being the thing, but truthfully, that it, the statistic makes sense. Yeah.

The only other caveat I could see where it makes sense is if you're a hoarder. Well, yeah, like legitimately, like if you, if you're a hoarder and you're looking to like completely change your mindset and your lifestyle, good luck. First of all, good luck. I mean, cause it's, it's, it's an addiction.

It is.

But. One of the only ways you can get out of that is just go cold turkey and just toss everything and then move into a new place and try and become a different person.

Yeah.

Yeah. Good luck.

Right. It's not gonna work.

Maybe. But, you know what I mean? But like sometimes, but you know, like, you know, sometimes that's what it takes is a completely different change because like we had the guy on the show years ago Oh yeah. That was the hoarder remediation guy.

Yes.

And, and he, he even told us, he's like, we can go in and fix the situation, but, you know, like the statistics show that they're just gonna go right back to their, their old life.

Right.

You know, and part of that is they're in the same environment.

Uh-huh.

You know, but like if they change their environment after throwing everything out, that might be a way to do that.

Maybe.

Um, and at, at that point I might say that might be a good decision for you.

Yeah.

If, if it's gonna, if it's gonna fix that for you.

Mm-hmm.

Okay. Then I might be on board.

Right.

But like, the idea that like the American banks or really any bank is looking at the American spender and saying, okay, 59% are, is our market now. That's not a good thing for them.

No.

That is not a good, because they make, they make most of their money on loan origination.

Sure.

And like, you take 41% of the market off the table.

That's bad.

That's bad.

Yeah.

For them.

Yep.

And like, I'm not, I'm not crying in my tea for them. Like, boo-hoo, you guys have been making gobs of money for years and years and years.

Yeah.

Like, what we have is we have an American public that is saying, we want to start making smart financial decisions for our own futures and for our children's futures. And part of that is, is not being stupid.

Right.

In thinking that we need a bigger, better house than what I currently have. And this could be my forever home and I'd be just fine.

Yeah, I, I, I'm curious your thoughts on, do you think that this is a, a shift in the American consumerism movement? And what I mean by movement is just because for years and years and years, Americans have been driven by consumerism of—

What's the most powerful force in the world?

It is so powerful. And because of the resources that we have available to us, And whether— and what I mean by that is it doesn't matter if you have the resources or if you're crediting your resources, but you've got resources to be able to go buy a new TV or a new car or a new home or, you know, whatever. Like, I, you know, do you think that this is a signal that people are going, uh, we've got to make some changes?

No. I don't.

Okay.

I don't. Um, the, the minute we were able to green screen our lives, uh, and work from home, like this became like just like a non-issue. Mm-hmm. You know, because you, you have the ability now to put a facade out to the world that looks very real.

There's no doubt about that.

And, and so like you don't have to live in a nice house to make people think that you have nice things. You don't have to live in a nice house in order for people to think that you have a nice neighborhood. Like, you can fake the whole thing.

Yeah, you can.

You really can. Um, and there's, there's charlatans and frauds and fakes out there that are doing it every single day, thinking, making you think that they have all the right information, that they have all the right ideas, you know, and they're, they're just leeches that are hanging outside of golf clubs. Yep. Really. I mean, and renting expensive cars on the weekends and just doing like lots of B-roll stuff of them driving those cars. Like, you know, you, you don't, you don't have to have the neighborhood in order to have the reputation now.

Right.

You just don't. And so, and, you know, it, it's not as if businesses haven't figured out how to get their pound of flesh.

Okay. Tell me what you mean.

So, you know, you, You, you look at companies like Rocket Money, like, what's their spiel? Are you familiar with them?

Yeah.

You know, like, they, they will tell you, like, they'll do like a man on the street segment. Like, do you know how many recurring payments you have every single month? Right. And like, that's their thing is like, I'll give you $1,000 if you know how many recurring payments.

Right. And the subscriptions is their big deal. It's like, oh, I've got like 4 subscriptions. And they do their thing. It's like, you have 20.

Yeah.

You have so many.

And that's the thing is like, they've all figured out how to like micro bleed you dry every single month. And so it's, you know, it used to be that most people would put most of their money into their perceived hard asset of real estate.

Right.

Now it's not the case. It's like they're putting most of the resources towards like Netflix and Disney Plus and like whatever other subscriptions that they need every month, you know, whether that be Google Storage or Apple Storage. I mean, and it's, it's just nickel and diming the American person dry.

Yeah. Yeah.

I agree. And so like at the end of the day, they can't, they can't perceive of having enough cash to do anything else other than live where they live.

Yeah.

I, I think that's a big part of it. Mm-hmm.

I don't disagree.

You know, and so like, You know, financial intelligence is, is a big part of what we're lacking. You know, you know, when, when we, when you and I were kids, our parents balanced a checkbook.

Yes, they did.

You had to take account for every bit of money that came in and out of your account. We made it so— We made it so easy for people to spend money. You know, you can just, you know, skip on past zero, as Jim Rohn would say.

Yeah.

And, and not even, not even blink an eye.

Right.

Because you, you now have credit that you can accumulate over, you know, and then, and then you have someone that's sitting in, you know, $10,000, $20,000, $30,000 worth of credit card debt that's accumulating at 26%. Mm-hmm. You know, and, and they're just stuck. Yep. And it's like, what do you do?

Well, yeah. Well, because they're not, they're not out there making more money, especially whenever, like we've talked about, like gas is more expensive, which makes transportation more expensive, which makes food more expensive, expensive, which makes everything that you buy is now more expensive.

Which, which is why I'm like, cry me a river, Banks, when it's like 41% of the people are looking at their, this home as their forever home. It's like, no, no, you created this situation by making capital so easy to acquire.

That's right.

And spend and use. Like you, and you tricked the American public into thinking that because they had access to capital, that they should be spending it. They, that they, that they then needed all these things. They needed streaming services. They needed fast internet. They needed, I, I don't know, like, an app that tells them where to walk their dog in the afternoon. It's like, it's like all these things that they think that they need that they don't really need.

Right.

But they, that they want.

Sure.

That are a convenience, that are a luxury.

But do they actually use?

No.

Right.

They don't.

No, they don't.

And, and like, just about, just about everybody is paying for a subscription that they don't really need.

100%.

And, and if I, I, I say one, I mean, most people are probably paying for like 5. Yeah.

Because I mean, the truth is like, um, I mean, there's so many ways to get around things, so many ways to figure things out, but like, whenever you're paying for YouTube TV plus Netflix, Netflix plus Hulu plus Disney Plus, it's like, Pick one.

Yeah. Have you ever, you know, you ever watched, uh, Caleb Hammer?

No, dude.

I, I, I, one, I think he's a jerk.

Okay.

I really do. I think he, one, like there's, there's no way that anybody would actually talk to people the way that he talks to people, but okay. His, what is the name of his show? Hang on here.

I don't, I don't know anything about him.

I'm gonna look it up real quick.

Go look it up.

Um, best known for hosting Financial Audit, a show analyzing guests' personal finance. So like, you have to volunteer to go on this guy's show and you have to give him all of your personal finances.

What?

Yes. I'll show you some clips after we're done. Okay. Um, and he just rakes them over the coals. And he's really mean and, and rightfully so, because there are some serious morons that go on his show thinking like, oh, I'm gonna come out great in this. And, and he just, I mean, it's just pillaging through people's finances going like, what is wrong with you? Why did you spend $120,000 last year when you made $40,000?

Oh. Right?

Like, why did you buy this $200,000 car when you only make $35,000 a year? I mean, it's like, it's stuff that makes sense when you're watching it, but like, he is such an ass about it.

Ugh.

Um, but, and the reason I say like, I appreciate what he's doing, but at the same time, I don't think he's winning hearts and minds.

Sure.

Um, and like, it almost ends up being like a left versus right thing because he's like, why are you spending all this money? It's like, well, why are you a, fascist on the right. And it's like, no, like, I'm just financially intelligent.

A shocker.

So, but he's got, like, he's got 3.03 million subscribers.

Of people that are just letting him rake them over the coals.

Well, no, those are just his viewers, the people that subscribe to his channel.

But the people that are on his show are letting him go, you're—

Yeah. You're being a moron. They, they, they sign the release forms. They do everything. He's got over 3 billion views. Um, like, he's, he's an interesting cat. Like, like, not, not super attractive, doesn't like appear overly intelligent. Like, he's not dumb by any stretch of the imagination.

Sure.

It's just like he can add and subtract. Um, and, and apparently he came from like a really tough financial situation when he was in his 20s and just made the decision like, I don't want to live like this anymore.

Yeah.

Which, good on him, man.

Sure.

I mean, he's obviously very successful now. He's in Michigan. Um, uh, I watched, I think I watched an interview with him on the Iced Coffee Podcast. Um, interesting. Those, I don't know if you're familiar with those guys. I don't know about that one. They're financial guys as well.

Okay.

Talking about like, all of those guys kind of hang out in like the same realm as like Dave Ramsey.

Okay.

Yeah. Don't be stupid. Don't go into debt. Spend what you make. You know, have a bucket for every category of your life. That, that kind of, it's like, it's really, really simple stuff.

Yeah.

And so like when they come across people that like violate the terms of that social agreement, they just blow up.

Yeah. So anyway, interesting.

I don't know where we were at.

Well, I, I, I, I do want to move on to the next one, but because, but I want to, I want to say it this way, that the most important thing you can do whenever it comes to owning your home is make solid financial decisions with it.

Yeah.

And, and don't overextend yourself. Don't overextend yourself. Like, don't buy something at the top of your budget. Don't buy something that's going to make you go, man, what if I lose my job? What's going to happen?

Yeah.

Don't buy something just because the idea of owning a home is better than the idea of not owning a home.

Well, because, because most people, they make an extra grand in a month. Sure. And then they go, oh, now I can buy so much more. This.

Right.

And then they go buy that. Mhmm. And then they don't have the $1,000 anymore and they've lost the cushion. Right.

Well, and, and when in reality, that $1,000 a month would be better served to go buy something or stay where you're at or buy something that you get to keep that $1,000 a month. And guess what? In 2 years, you can build the kitchen of your dreams.

Yeah.

In that home. You know? And if something happens in those 2 years where you need that $1,000 a month, now you have it. Mm-hmm. You know? So just, I think those smart financial decisions are really important, but this leads me into number 2.

Let's do it.

And I love this one. for lots of reasons I love this one, but I think that it's a little bit counterintuitive to what we've been talking, but not too much. There has been a massive outdoor living investment spike.

Mhm.

So, uh, for example, people that had outdoor TVs, like, the numbers have gone crazy.

Yeah.

From 2 years to roughly 2 years.

Outdoor TVs and speakers, right?

Yes. Those are the 2 big ones. So, so the, the number of, of people in, in a percentage-wise who have, who have gone from, I have an outdoor TV to now the people that have an outdoor TV, it's a 5 times increase.

Yeah.

Like, if there were 21 people that owned an outdoor TV in 2024, that number is now 100. A 5-time increase.

Yeah.

And similarly, for outdoor speakers, if 29, uh, 29 people owned outdoor speakers in 2024, now 90 people own them. So you're almost, yeah, 3 to 4x on those sorts of things. And so here's what's happening. They're, they're building, like, people are building outdoor rooms, not just outdoor patios.

Yes, that is, that is accurate.

Yeah, they're, they're looking for this, this sanctuary space. Uh, and they, they are looking like going, look, I want an outdoor extension of my indoor home. Because, and I think, I think COVID precipitated some of this.

I think that was, I think there's a, there's a, there's a part of that that's absolutely true.

Right. And I, and I think another part of it is like, people want this experience of being outdoors, of enjoying the outdoor space, but I don't want to, like, this is what's interesting to me. So many homeowners associations over the years have prided themselves on having a great pool, uh, you know, these great park areas, these great picnic places. And while those are great, I think that people are more and more going, I don't want to do that in community with other people. I just want to do it with my family.

Yeah.

And I would rather invite people over and have that experience. And so what's happening is it's so many people or just going— it's a mindset. I want my own outdoor living space in my backyard. Forget having grass back there. I would just rather have something that's outdoor, right? Um, for us to experience. So I— it is— it feels a little counterintuitive what we've been talking about, about like saving money and those sorts of things, but I actually think it, it falls in line. with people staying in their home?

So I think, I, I, I think there's part of that, but I also think you, you look back at, I mean, let's, let's just go back to early 2000s.

Okay.

If you in 2005 went to go buy a 75-inch flat-screen television.

Oh my gosh. Right. Well, first of all, I don't think those existed. But if they did, it would be $10,000.

Right.

Literally.

Okay.

Okay.

So take that to today. Buy a 75-inch flat screen.

For $297.

Yeah.

At Walmart.

And that's, that's, that's what I'm saying is outdoor entertainment spaces have become more cheaper to obtain for the consumer.

Agreed.

Agreed. And, and so when people saw prices dropping, it became, I, I think everybody wanted that all along.

Mhmm.

Sure. And, and then you, you also start looking at speakers. Well, that just naturally flows with outdoor television.

Right.

And/or projectors like what we have here.

Sure.

So, like, it, it makes sense to me. It became a much more achievable goal for the homeowner to say, oh, like, I, I can have, like, an outdoor living room. I can outdoor, outdoor living space. And, like, you start combining that with, like, an outdoor kitchen.

Like, yep.

It, you know, like we, we've talked about this before. Like you can get a Blackstone for less than $300.

Sure.

Like that's a great way to have like a lot of people over, cook some good food.

Mm-hmm.

Sit by the TV, watch the game, watch the Ags whoop the ever-living crap outta the Longhorns and, and have a good day.

Mm-hmm.

And, and so like, it makes complete sense to me that that's becoming more and more of a common thing in people's yards. When it used to be only obtainable by the rich who could pay $10,000 for a flat-screen TV on the outside. Now that's, that's not $10,000, it's $250.

Sure. So attainable.

It's very like, and I can't tell you the number, like I'm, I'm in people's backyards all the time, not because I'm a creeper, I'm just invited because I'm dealing with problems. But like just about everybody I know has a flat-screen TV on the backyard. Yeah. And it's not necessarily an outdoor TV. No.

You don't. Why?

Because people are less afraid to put a piece of electronics on the backyard because they're so cheaply replaced.

Yeah, who cares? I mean, at $297, no joke. I'm not joking about that price.

No, you're not joking. I understand exactly what you're saying.

You can get a 100-inch TV for $1,000.

Yeah.

So 75 inches, $297 at Walmart, You put it out there. Next season it goes out.

You buy another one.

You buy another one. Who cares? Like, it's, it's long gone are the days of apply, like, like TV repair guys.

But this is, you know, this is, this is good news for the contractor. This is good news for the electrician. This is good news for the plumber. This is good news for all the trades because you now have the opportunity to improve those spaces where like, as before, the only thing you were doing was solving problems on the inside of the home. Now you have the opportunity to improve situations on the outside of the home, right? Where honestly things are more accessible.

Sure.

And so it's easier work, but people are way more impressed with convenience.

Yeah.

With like a sink.

Yeah.

With, you know, whatever, like an ice machine on the outside. Like what the, the, the possibilities are endless.

Mm-hmm.

And, and so like, I think contractors like myself and other tradespeople should be looking at this as an opportunity because we now have homeowners that are very interested in having entertainment spaces on the outside of their home.

Yeah.

And entertainment spaces on the outside of their home are way more accessible because you don't have to— you're not having to be as hospitable in order to invite people to your home.

Yeah.

Yeah. They're not coming inside. They're just hanging out in the yard.

Right.

And, and, and they don't feel the need to come inside. Why? 'Cause there's a TV there, there's speakers there, there's a refrigerator there, there's a grill there, there's a table there, there's a sink there. You wanna wash your hands?

Fine.

There's an outdoor bathroom over there.

Yep.

Like all these things become options on the outside of the home.

Yeah.

And so like, it doesn't matter if your laundry room's a mess because no one's going in there.

No one's going in.

We're all hanging out there eating hot dogs.

That's right. So, and, and we're happy.

And yeah, when the weather's good.

Well, sure.

And, and, and if it's not, we have options to improve that.

We do because we've got misting systems and we've got fans and we've got things that can—

Swamp coolers.

There's so many things that can— pools, right? They, they fix that problem as well. And then, and then you got guys like you are doing outdoor, uh, mosquito misting systems. So you're, you're controlling the bug, the bug population as well.

Like, oh dude, like I didn't, I didn't even tell you, like we're, we just took over an entire park.

Really?

Doing mosquito control. Congrats. And that's not even through pesticides. We're doing a bucket system.

Interesting.

On all, what is it, like 15 acres of this park?

Wow.

Um, like, so all that is manageable now, like without even spraying pesticides.

It's great.

So, uh, there's options.

Yeah, for sure.

So, uh, let's move on to the last one, which I think is my favorite, by the way. The last one, if I remember correctly.

Yeah. The last one is, is probably my favorite as well. Um, the, the, the title of this one that I'm going to give it is quality and availability.

Okay.

Trump brand loyalty. So here's what that means.

Did you just slide the, the word Trump in there for the—

Well, maybe. Maybe. I'm just saying, all I'm saying is quality availability are king over brand loyalty. Sorry. Trump king. Okay. Whatever. So here's what, here's the trend. Okay? So for years and years and years, people bought a brand. Because they said in their brains, this brand represents quality. I'm gonna use Maytag for an example.

Okay.

Like for years and years and years, Maytag was that, that washer and dryer that you knew was gonna stand for just this excellence in quality. The brand itself was so superior. There's like, I would rather buy a Maytag, spend a little more money, because I know that it's going to last longer than the Frigidaire brand or whatever. Brand loyalty became a massive thing for so many years. I mean, you remember, do you remember like back in the day whenever you, you'd see the, the Chevy commercials? What their brand was like, like a rock.

Like a rock. Yeah.

Like a rock.

There's even the song.

It was like a rock. And it was like this idea of like Chevy's this, this brand that, that, that like in its core is quality. Like, you know, nothing's going to break this thing. Well, here's what's happened over time. And I think Amazon has been the precipitator of most of this because, you know, while Amazon was some dude that started selling books out of his garage, it's grown into the most global powerhouse of a of a, uh, a commerce that's unbelievable today.

Right.

But here's what's so cool about it is everybody knows based on crowdsourcing how good a product is. Yeah. So now what's happening is if it's available and it's got good reviews online and I can get it in 2 days, I will buy that. I don't care what brand it is. Brand doesn't matter to me.

Yeah. If it's, if it's Prime.

If it's Prime. and I can get it in 2 days, I will wait 2 days over this thing that I've never heard of. I don't know where it came from. I don't know who produces it. I don't know how long they've been in business. I don't know what their return policy is like other than Prime will let me return it versus going to Home Depot and buying the Lutron brand or the, that Maytag brand or the whatever brand, GE or whatever brand you think is.

Yeah.

was, you know, the brand of choice. Who cares now? I can get that cheap. I can get that quick and it'll do the job.

Yep.

So quality and availability trump brand all the time right now. Yeah.

And I think that, I think that's the trick that brands are going to have to start jumping through right now is, you know, you may have a quality product, but is it available?

Right.

Can you get it to the consumer quickly? Can you, can you make sure that like the, I don't, I don't even know how to put it because like I've made this decision on multiple times where it's like, I can get this one in 2 days or I can wait 2 weeks and get this one that I know. No, I'm, I'm, I'm like, I feel like I need it now. And so I'm not willing to wait.

Right.

And, and there's, there's a lack of patience in the consumer.

Yep.

And, and so the brands that have been around for a long time, I think some of it is just arrogance that they've been able to live off their brand for such a long time that now you have other people moving into their sector going like, no, we'll get it to you quicker. And they, because they understand the algorithm.

Sure.

You know? Yeah. And like, this is, this is actually something I was talking, I was, I was, I was on the, what was the name of that podcast I was on this this morning.

Oh, you mentioned it and I don't remember.

Hang on. Uh, the Intelligent Builder. Yeah. I was on the Intelligent Builder and he was asking me about brands and I said, brands have this tricky thing that they're gonna have to navigate right now in that a lot of them are attached to a face.

Oh yeah.

You know what I mean?

Uh-huh.

And the problem is like, what if that face messes up?

Mm.

Then the brand is toast.

It is.

But like, if you don't know, there's a guy named Jeff Bezos that founded Amazon.

I remember that guy.

And most people can't tell you what he looks like. And it was probably one of the most intelligent business decisions ever.

Yeah, for sure.

Because the brand is Amazon. It's not Jeff Bezos.

Yep.

Jeff Bezos owns Amazon. He owns the Washington Post and a bunch of other stuff. But like, no one knows what the dude looks like.

Nope.

Across, I mean, like, there's probably like a few, like tech journalists and, and things like that that know what he looks like because he's had some hair plugs and—

Sure.

Because he's a multi-freaking billionaire.

Yeah, he is. But almost trillionaire.

But like his face is not associated with that brand. That brand is associated with Prime and getting you products cheaply.

Yes, it is.

Quickly and on time. And, and it's like, it's associated with all these things, but no one associates that brand with his face.

Yeah, nobody.

So, but this is, this is the problem is you have other brands that have been around for decades that have gotten fat and lazy off of their brand recognition. And now they have other brands moving into the space going, no, we'll get it to you quicker. And the consumer doesn't care if your brand lasts 5 times longer.

Doesn't matter.

Because they've all bought into the idea of designed obsolescence.

Yep.

Because that is a real thing that's been occurring in the marketplace. And I was, I was telling you before we got started on the show, I, I did a little bit of research on this. Oh shoot, where did it go? Here we go. Um, and, and so I was looking at the numbers since the 1990s based off consumer confidence confidence on, on brands in the marketplace. And the, the number one key factor is longevity. Right? And so in the 1990s, it wasn't odd to have a refrigerator that was more than 15 years old.

Not odd at all.

Right? And so what they're in, and what it's called is the durability gap. And it says in the 1990s, appliances were often mechanical and over-engineered. And the data suggests a significant swing in how long a consumer expects a expects a purchase to last.

Yeah.

Right. Not how long it actually lasts. Right. But how long they expect it to last. In the 1990s, it was common for a refrigerator to be 15 to 20 years old. 35% of the households had a primary fridge older than 10 years. Okay.

Interesting.

In 2020, while the median lifespan has only dropped slightly to about 13 years, okay, for large, large appliances overall, the failure rate in the first 5 years had surged. Okay. In 2004, only 3.5% of appliances failed within the first 5 years. Interesting. By 2010, the number jumped to 8%, and it remains a primary driver of consumer skepticism today. So between 2004 and 2010, you had the failure rate within the first 5 years more than double.

That's crazy. It really is.

And that, that tanked consumer confidence. Sure. In multiple brands across.

Yeah. And it, It wasn't just, it wasn't just that like, oh, by the way, like some of these brands that we've trusted for a long time, and I'm gonna take something like, like Maytag and Kenmore. I'm gonna take those 2 brands for a minute and say those 2 brands did unbelievable things for people.

Mm-hmm.

Sears was, was unbelievably like so well thought of, right? That I can go to Sears, get a good quality appliance. Guess what happened? Samsung and LG happened. Mm-hmm. Samsung and LG came out and everybody started selling Samsung and LG appliances. They came onto the scene for the first time. These are well-known brands.

In other categories.

In other categories, they're so well known They were failures at appliances over and over and over. Pete, we talked about it with Lone Star Appliance Repair. They will tell you, don't buy an LG. It's terrible. It's gonna fail on you. Well, guess what it did? It tanked Sears.

Yep.

It tanked Sears. Not because Kenmore wasn't a good product, but because LG wasn't a good product. So your point is very well taken. And Oh, by the way, this was bizarre to me. I had to go. I said that on purpose. I had to go to IKEA the other day. I had to go to IKEA.

You went all the way down to I-10?

I did. I did. Well, there's a reason. I can tell you about it later. It doesn't matter. I, I had to go to IKEA. I was walking through IKEA for the first time in years. I just don't go down there. It's so far. And it's IKEA. I don't really buy their stuff that much. However, they have a whole appliance section.

Oh, do they now?

That I had no clue about. And it is really nice looking stuff. I mean, everything from just like, like ranges that are built in to slide-ins to standalones. to ovens that are built-in ovens to standalones, really nice looking stuff. They have faucets. They have all sorts of like things that they used to not have. And I'm looking at it going, who cares?

It's cheaper.

Who cares?

Yeah.

Like it's probably fine. Does it work? Does it work?

Yeah.

It's probably fine. Because no longer do we associate quality with a name brand. With a name brand. We just don't.

I think, I think there are a few exceptions to that rule. There are exceptions, but I think there are a few exceptions. So here, let me give you an example.

Okay.

Because this, this chart broke it down over washing machines. So, and this is a 2026 service rate Based off of, uh, 4 different brands.

Okay.

And they're all recognizable brands. Um, so Speed Queen.

Oh yeah.

Okay. In 2026, they have a 3.7% service rate, meaning—

oh, they're so good.

3.7% of them actually need repairs.

They're such a good brand.

Right? Um, but like, here's the thing. There's no Wi-Fi on them.

Nope.

There's no Bluetooth on them.

Nope.

They are steel.

They're just, they're old school washing machines. Washing machines. They've got agitators in them. Like they are old school washing machines.

Yep. So take the Speed Queen at 3.7%. 3.7% of all Speed Queens need repairs within the first year.

That's not much.

Okay. LG.

Mm-hmm.

5.5% need repairs within the first year.

That's a pretty big jump.

Okay.

I mean, we, you, you wouldn't think that a point and a half is that much.

It's quite a bit. It's a bunch.

Yeah.

Um, Miele.

I don't know what that is.

It's a, it's a, it's an appliance brand. Okay. Um, 7.4%.

Oh, we're getting close to 10, right?

Within the first year. Oh, like, and, and they're, they're, they're like a high quality brand.

Sure.

But like 7.4% within the first year.

That's a lot. That's a lot. Bosch. Bosch. Bosch. Look, Bosch for years is because they were the, uh, tool. They were like hardy.

Yeah.

Right. So then they start making appliances and what's the number?

Uh, let me also point this out. Bosch is consistently voted America's most trusted for kitchen suites.

Wow. Okay.

So, and Bosch tends to be like the high end, right? option in whatever retail space that they're in.

Sure.

8.7%.

We're climbing to 10 so quick.

Right? So I mean, like, that's just 4 that most people know.

Right. Right?

And like, you know, Speed Queen to me is the anomaly. Oh, for sure.

In that group.

For sure.

Because you know what Speed Queen is? Speed Queen is the laundromat brand. Literally, like, if you go to laundromats, you're gonna find speed queens.

Yep.

And so why would you put that in your house? Like, look at the psychology behind this. Why would I put a speed queen in my house whenever I'm not a laundromat type of person?

Yeah.

You know what I mean?

Yeah, yeah.

Like, I— no, no, no, no, I am not a laundromat type of person. I would never take my stuff— I don't need to take my stuff to a laundromat. I've got my own washer and dryer at home. I can take care of myself. I don't have to put quarters in machine. Yep. Right. Yeah. And yet by far the best brand on the market, 100%, without question.

So what, what this report actually summarized, and I think it's aptly put, is it's, it's a pivot. We move from confidence and longevity to frustration with complexity.

Yeah.

What we see is those brands that are giving you like the new fancy things, along the way are the ones that create the most complications and potential for breakdown.

Yep.

In the system.

Yep.

It's not, it's not to say that we shouldn't expect the brands that we trust to give us new innovations. It means that the brands have moved so quickly into innovation that they forgot about quality along the way.

That's for sure.

And so it's trying to keep up. It's, it's more prudent for the homeowner to look at longevity and quality. And this is the trend that we're seeing.

It is.

Is that they're highly suspicious of options. Like, when you tell me, like, when the salesman is saying, well, you should really look at this one, what incentives are you getting? What, what, what are, what are those options? Like, why are those, why are those so intriguing?

Why?

Like, you should be asking a lot of why questions.

Yep.

When you're being pushed towards a a specific brand.

Yeah.

You know, like, why do I need steam in my wash cycle?

Right.

Like, why do I need all these things?

I've never needed it before.

My clothes smelled better.

Right.

When I did this other thing.

Yeah.

And now I'm doing this and I'm having to have a repairman come in every 2 weeks because the motherboard breaks down. My other washing machine didn't have a motherboard.

Like, so true.

It just needs to spin.

Yeah.

And wash the clothes.

Uh-huh. And it did a better job.

And it did a better job. And like, there's a lot of consumers that are looking at this going, like, why do I have to replace my iPhone every 2 years? Like, because it's designed obsolescence.

It is.

And like, like there have been court cases and court cases and court cases that have proven that this is what businesses are doing now.

Yep.