Uncovering the Secrets of Real Estate, Scrap, and Home Building with Industry Insiders

All right, so, so, so based off what I've told you so far, we're gonna— oh, real quick, thank you again to our sponsor tonight.

That's right.

Lone Star Appliance Repair.

That's right.

Reach them at 936-929-6335, and you can reach them at lonestarappliance.us. You can talk to Sarah over there who's a fantastic owner. Real quick, guys, I mean, I did have to call her this past week because we had a gas leak in our dryer. And I mean, like, she was very responsive, got back to us as quick as she could, told us the earliest date that she could get out, and even walked us through some things that we could try to fix it ourselves. And so, like, she's, she's not just in the business of, you know, making money, but—

That's right.

They're in the business of actually getting people taken care of. And so if you want a— if you want to be taken care of right, give them a call.

Again, well, you're going to save money.

You're going to save money, right? I mean, like, between possibly your life, in my instance.

Very true. And I know you're about to give the phone number. It's up here. We'll say it anyway. But the thing is, like, when you go and repair something, you're keeping it out of the landfill. That's one thing. But also, like, it's probably going to cost you, you know, hundreds of dollars rather than replacing it, which is probably gonna be, you know, 6 times that amount. You know, it's like, you know, you're saving money and you're, you know, not putting something else in the landfill. It's really, really good. Uh, their number is 936-296-3355, or you can find them at lonestarappliance.us.

Yeah, awesome. Great sponsor. Thank you guys for sponsoring the show tonight. Um, so yeah, man, so based off of the, uh, the information I've given you so far, what do you think? Well, I mean, so like, people, people attacked them and also supported them. I'm talking Southern Star.

Well, like, yeah, like, so what— here's one of the things that I saw, and this is why I knew that there was a problem. Southern Star blew up. Yeah, like that. Like the next day, or maybe it was the weekend after that happened. I don't remember what the days were, but like the next thing that happened was like they were overrun. They had to shut down early just because of— they were running out of stuff, right? Because people were supporting them. Now, there were also going to be plenty of people that were on the other side of that, right? That, you know, blasting them, whatever. I mean, according to them, they were receiving numerous threats. I don't doubt that. I don't doubt that. But

again, I mean, it's like one of those deals, and I don't really know where the fine line is with all of this. And, you know, here we are, we're putting on a podcast, and anybody in the world can listen to this if they want to. But the reality of it is, like, we live in a state where if you want to not do something, you don't have to. Sure. If you don't want to provide service to somebody, you don't have to.

Right.

I mean, there's no repercussions if you just say, you know what, I don't like you wearing a hat. Craig?

Sure.

Get out of my business.

Yeah.

You can do that.

Yeah.

And now, are people going to blast you for that?

Absolutely.

They'll blast you for it. I think, I think, well, and I've listened to some interviews with this guy, the CEO.

Okay. Right.

And so his big statement has been, is like, listen, we're an apolitical organization. So we don't want, we don't want political things happening here, which I, okay. We're just going to go ahead and say that's complete BS. It just is. Every organization is going to be political whether they want to or not just by having people use your product. I mean, like, I would imagine there has been a political candidate that has had a sip of Southern Star beer and enjoyed it and probably didn't agree with the politics.

Absolutely.

And they let him do it.

Why?

Because he bought it.

Sure.

And they've had other political events there. So that's where people were like, well, hang on. And so that's when people started getting suspicious of, be like, well, what's, what's actually going on here? Like, because we know that you do other, you do other events that are like political in nature. So like, why, why is this one the problem? But like, you've been okay with all the rest of them. And so they're saying like, and, you know, to, to the Southern Stars credit, like Kyle Rittenhouse, whether or not you, you think he's innocent, guilty, whatever or not, I mean, he is a controversial figure.

Yes.

So, I mean, like, you can, you can completely support him, but also recognize he's a controversial person.

Yeah, he is.

So it's, it's just a crazy, crazy situation going on there. And so, you know, who knows what's next? So what I do know, if you want to put those headphones on that way, you will be all able to hear each other. We got it. We got a guest sitting now. We're going to introduce her in just a second.

Yeah.

They moved the event just down the street.

Oh, really?

I didn't even realize. Which I actually think could be more problematic going, going down. I mean, like, it's— I think it's actually happening this weekend. Oh, really? Yeah.

Oh, that's gonna be ugly.

So it could be.

I mean, you, you've made it, you've made it a thing.

You've made it a thing.

And now that it's a thing, it's gonna be a thing.

It's gonna continue to be a thing.

That's right.

Yeah. So anyway, we got a new guest. We actually haven't met before.

Hi.

Hi, I'm Craig. This is Kevin.

Hi, welcome. Go ahead and pull that microphone right up to your mouth.

Yeah, just make sure you can hear.

There you go. All right, is this better?

Perfect.

Okay, I'm Amy Lampman. I'm with the Lampman Home Team with eXp Realty.

eXp.

Okay, very cool. So are you a realtor or—

I'm a realtor team leader.

Team leader.

Okay.

Trainer.

Trainer.

So what's the difference between a realtor team leader and a broker?

A broker has to have a certain license.

Okay, so you have no license?

I have a license to be a realtor. I have a license to drive. I have a license. I'm a licensed realtor who started a real estate team because I have a lot of experience and I work for an amazing broker and that way I don't have to have the responsibility of owning the brokerage.

Right, okay, right.

So, so they, they're working under your brokerage, but, but you're kind of leading a team?

Yes.

Okay, amazing. I don't think I've ever heard of that type of scenario.

Is this common?

Well, it's kind of groundbreaking, and it's something that eXp launched back in 2009 after the real estate crash. Cloud-based business, baby.

Okay, well, I just, like I said, I, that's not, that's not something that I've I've really ever considered or heard about. So that— this is new to me. And we've talked to a lot of, like, we talked to a lot of realtors.

Yeah, for sure.

Home construction types of people and those types of things. And so I don't know, it's interesting. I've never heard of it.

Yeah. And does— and, and I may be way off base here, but does eXp— they do more than just, like, real estate, right? I mean, like—

So eXp is actually It's a publicly traded company, and it's a holding company.

Okay.

So it's a worldwide company. So when you join our brokerage, it's kind of incredible, but we have technology companies, we have title companies, there's numerous companies. We own one called Virbela, and just by being a partner with the company, you are part owner in all those subcompanies. So it's almost like an umbrella.

Okay. But they do other real estate things too, like they do like lending and different things like that?

Yes, we have Success Lending. Yeah, yeah, and that's one of our businesses that we own, and we are worldwide. And the neat thing about that is if you came to me and you said, Amy, you're licensed in Texas, I have a condo in Florida, can you help me? I can find a business partner in 2 minutes. Yeah, that has accolades, top realtor in that direct market area, and then we can work together, and I could actually negotiate on your behalf but using their license.

Oh wow, that is— that's super unique.

We need to talk.

Yeah, no doubt, because Craig has some ideas.

Well, and we're also very investor-friendly, which in this market, I mean, I know that you've heard it's shifting, it's changing, interest rates are up, now they're down, you know what's happening. And the neat thing about it is even in a market that's shifting, you know, if you know the right people, if you know people that have been smart with their money, they want to invest in homes. Absolutely. So right now when people are like, oh, Market's so slow. I'm like, market's busy. Like, I'm so busy. I just, you know, talk to different types of people.

Sure, sure. Yeah, well, I think, I think right now the big thing that's, that's changed, and you correct me if I'm wrong, it's not that the market's not busy, it's just that properties are sitting, they're sitting on the market for a reasonable amount of time. Whereas before, like, they were, they'd last like 2 days and people just got used to that. And now it's like, if it sits there for a week, it's like, what's going on?

Well, it's the good old adage of supply and demand.

Yeah.

And so when there was, you know, that fear after COVID, like, what's happening? I want a bigger house. Everybody had all of these demands and desires.

Yeah.

And then all of a sudden there was a shortage, right?

Yeah. So because we couldn't build it, we—

Yes, right, exactly. There's supply plane— supply, uh, chain management issues.

Yeah.

So we weren't getting things in. There was a shortage of toilet paper along with all the building supplies and paint. Forget about it. Right. So yeah, it was—

yeah, that was so nuts, man. Like, seriously, like, if you wanted to find high— like, if you wanted to find oil-based paint, it was not available. You could not buy it.

Oh, try to find Clorox wipes.

Oh, right now? Right now?

No, not now. But back then, one tub of them was $47. What in the world?

Like buying eggs right now.

Oh, eggs right now, $7. I'm very offended by that.

Right? Like, your mom is sitting on a gold mine.

I know, she's sitting pretty. She'll probably be here tonight. Like, I'm gonna buy—

I'm literally gonna buy chicken.

Yeah, there's a lot of people going rogue with the HOA. They're like, nuts to this, I'm gonna get a chicken and you're not gonna stop me, right? Like, the fees from my HOA will be less than the carton of eggs, so fine.

It's true, right? It's worth it. They sacrifice.

Believe it or not, did you know that in my neighborhood I can't have chickens?

I don't doubt it. A lot of neighborhoods have banned them.

I live in an acreage neighborhood.

I know.

That's highly offensive.

I know. Like, look, I live on acres. Like, why can't you Are you kidding me?

They're banned at my place.

Oh, they are?

Yeah.

See, now I could do it, no one would know.

Well, that's the thing is like, as long as you don't have a rooster, you're probably gonna be okay. Like, that's the thing is like, someone's gonna have to report you, probably.

Yeah, but— and no one cares at my place.

Well, and if you have land, yeah, that's in high demand. We have so many people looking for land. And we do— we don't only sell residential, but we look for ranches for land, for commercial. Yeah, so my agents cover all aspects of real estate.

Fantastic.

Awesome.

So are you— I mean, with, with prices still being, you know, not astronomically, but they're still high, and, and rates are high, do you see people opting for different options on their home? Maybe something smaller? Or people still like, look, I want, I want a bigger house? Or, you know, most people looking to move up?

So right now what we're seeing is that prices were overinflated because of the frenzy from the past year, right? Okay.

Yeah.

So we had to reset seller expectations and say, look, those were overinflated prices. It was like a false appreciation.

Yeah.

So people that thought, oh, my home appreciated $100,000 in a matter of 6 months— no, that's— if you got lucky, you got lucky and sold during that little moment in time. Yeah, that little unicorn glitch in the universe.

Hey, but other than that, let me tell you, I sold my house at the end of March of '22, and I bought a house at the beginning of— end of April of '22. And I couldn't have struck gold better because my house sold for probably $75,000 more than it should have sold for.

Yeah.

And I only paid on, on a much like a triple the price piece of property I only paid like 10% over at the time. So I made, I made about 50% on my house.

Nice.

Of what I should have made. And I only paid 10% over of what I purchased. Like, this vortex happened right at the perfect moment. I got lucky.

Well, I'll tell you this.

And the interest rate— sorry, I cut you off.

No, you're good.

Interest rate was 4.5% at the time.

Nice.

So I really did hit a vortex.

Well, in 2020, when everybody was, you know, at home staring at the computer because we weren't allowed to go out, my husband and I were like, hmm, we're bored. Let's find a lake house. So we went shopping for a lake house and closed November of 2020. It had ugly pictures. No one could see it because of COVID But I'm a licensed realtor in Texas, so I showed it to myself.

Oh, there you go.

And let's just say that it's now doubled its value.

Oh wow.

In literally 2 years.

Good for you.

So it's, it's wild.

Good for you. And you got a lake house. That's right.

And my interest rate on that one, 2.75%.

Oh, that's nuts.

Yeah, that, that is nuts.

You can't, you can't sell it now. I mean, like, it's like—

No, it's not worth it to sell.

It's almost like they're paying you to have it compared to what you're getting right now.

Well, and then I turned it into a write-off. I talked to my CPA and I was like, uh, how do I make this not just a unicorn but a unicorn Pegasus.

Yeah, yeah, perfect.

I need wings.

So you have like VRBO on that deal?

No, we're not allowed to STR it or VRBO it. No, it's all about being creative since I have a real estate team, right? It's a business.

So you're giving them perks.

So I actually bring my team there and we do team leadership and trainings. So I rent it to yourself, to myself.

Yeah, I love it.

Yep.

And my CPA is like, Like, you run a business, a legitimate business.

Yeah.

And I actually have 150 agents that work in my revenue group, right? So I can bring any of them in and I just charge myself a pretty penny. It's worth it.

Yeah, it is.

It's a lake house with a view of Lake Travis.

There you go.

Can't beat that.

It's all about being creative in real estate. So if you want a creative team that will look and find you deals and, and just show you how to find those unicorns, then that's when you call us.

Okay, awesome. So the reason we probably should talk is I've been hunting in Arkansas for like a couple years now, just waiting for the right deal to come along. So I know where I want to be, like I know what I want, I'm just waiting for the right one to come along and like I need— I'm just gonna have to be creative in how I purchase it. Yeah, and like, I've worked with an agent there. She's kind of fallen off the map. I don't know if she was one of these Johnny-come-lately real estate agents that like was in it for the COVID and now she's out.

Let's just say all realtors are not created equal.

That is for certain. So, but yeah, so like, I've, you know, and but like buying, buying out-of-state property can be tricky.

Absolutely.

You know, like when you don't know anybody there really.

I mean, you You can't be—

you can't have your feet on the ground all the time. I would imagine like even, you know, even something like on Lake Travis, like where you— it's not as convenient to be there when you live here, you know, to get there and actually, you know, put eyeballs on it. So you got to get creative that way too, unless you're the agent. Exactly.

Perks.

Yeah. So I mean, even like just out-of-town property can be tricky.

So what are you going to do with Arkansas property?

My, my—

Nothing.

Yeah, really.

I mean, that's pretty much it.

No, so my, my big goal, and I tell people this all the time and they think I'm weird, but it's fine. I want to own a waterfall, and there are tons of them in Arkansas. And the land, the land, like when I started shopping there, this is what irritates me, is when I started shopping there, it was $2,000 an acre, and I think it's somewhere between like $6,000 and $8,000 an acre now, which is still way cheaper than it is here. Um, and so we, we want a big recreation piece of property where we can, we can go hunting, fishing, hiking, take people for recreation.

Um, how many acres are you looking for?

I would like to have about 100. Um, you know, but like, you know, 40 to 60 would be fine. I can do everything I want to do on 40 to 60 acres. There's certain like regulations and stuff that you have to abide by in Arkansas, and there's certain perks I want. Um, with land ownership there. So like a big one is when you own a certain amount of land there, you automatically get an elk tag every year, which is super hard to get in pretty much every state. But if you own a certain amount of land, you get it, you get an automatic elk tag. Um, not that there's elk throughout Arkansas, but you know, you still get

it. Um, and then, you know, and then, you know, you just, you want enough space to, you know, ride horses and—

Where other people can't Yep.

Enjoy your— yep. And really, my only stipulation is I want a waterfall. It doesn't even have to be a big one. I just want a waterfall.

I love that.

So that's— I've been hunting for 2 years there. So we— and we go every year.

And dude, remember the— remember the cave? Dude, we found a cave. He found a cave and he didn't realize. He showed me. He's like, man, I found a cave. And I'm like, I'm like, really? You gotta be kidding me. Like, okay, a cave, a bear cave, like a little bit of cave. He's like, no dude, like this is a cave.

Like a legit cave.

Yeah, it's right.

Well, I didn't realize how big it was.

Yeah, so, so he showed it to me. I'm looking at the pictures. I'm like, dude, when you said a cave, I didn't know that you meant like you could park a helicopter in this thing. He goes, what are you talking about? I was like, look, come look at this. And I've shown him the picture and I'm like, look right there, that's a person.

Yeah.

And he goes, what?

And I'm That's a person walking on the bottom of the cave.

That's the top of the cave.

So it was like, it was this huge perspective picture. Like, you know, imagine it being like the picture's this big and the person's like that tall, but that's the whole cave. And it's like, I was like, holy— like, I thought it was just something somebody could walk through. It was like, no, like, it was a limestone mine that someone had carved out. And so it was this huge space on the inside of a cave. But like, stuff like that's available there all the time. But there's, there's not a lot of industry there.

Well, I think part of the problem is that since there's not a lot of industry, there's not a lot of like access points, right? It's very rural. And when I say rural, it's not like, oh, like Montgomery's rural. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about like nobody's anywhere, right? Like you may be 40 miles from the next person, you know?

Which is exactly what I want.

Yeah. So, so I like it.

Yeah, absolutely. So anything, anything else cool you're seeing in the real estate market right now?

I love that lenders are actually being creative with problem-solving. Mm-hmm. The interest rates have dropped, just so you all know. Okay, they have dropped by about half.

I saw like 5.5% the other day.

Yes. Yeah, so we are below the 6s. Right before Christmas, we were mid-6s, and now we're almost a whole point lower.

Okay.

So that's going in the right direction. There's so many programs out there. It was really a big struggle for veterans to get loans when we had the frenzy. People just wouldn't allow veteran loans, and now we're available to help them because it's just now it's not such an intense frenzy market. Right.

Are y'all doing the whole deal where like if you buy a home and we refinance it for you, we'll refinance for free?

So there are a lot of lenders doing that, yes, and that's It's a 2-1 buydown. So basically, the interesting thing you want to know about a 2-1 buydown is that it has to be a seller contribution. So it has to actually be on a 1 to 4 contract. The seller has to contribute on line 12B. So that's really important if you want that buydown. So right now, if it's a 5.5% interest rate, you can actually get 3.5% interest for your first year.

Wow. Okay.

And 3.5%, hey, who wouldn't do that?

That's really good.

And that's why the phone's ringing again. I mean, it took a little break, which was nice for holiday. But now, I mean, it is— my team alone has locked in like 4 deals this week.

Yeah.

Which for second week of January is impressive.

Hello.

And now, um, we're seeing a lot of activity. So that's great news for everyone because it's not really a buyer's market or a seller's market. And when people say that in the news, what they don't understand is it's so geographic specific. So something that's happening in Cypress, Texas is not happening in Montgomeryville, memory, right? If it's happening in The Woodlands, it may not be happening in Bel Air. So it's really, you have to look at the very specific neighborhood or zip code and then have your— and if you're not a seasoned realtor, you wouldn't even understand that. So you need somebody with experience, right? I happen to be an Icon agent with the company, which means top 2% of 85,000 agents.

Wow.

And so having knowledge and working with someone that actually has the knowledge to understand that So you could say, I'm looking in Montgomery, and I could say, let's look at the neighborhood you want to look at, and then let's analyze if it's buyers or sellers.

Hmm, that's crazy.

Well, and if people are interested, I think in 2 weeks we actually have Richard coming on the show, and the name of his company is escaping me, but he's doing those kinds of loans. Yeah, the whole reason we're having him on is so he can explain how they work. Yeah, because he's a lender.

Yeah, so it is really interesting. So I would I would be interested to hear what your take on this is. We made some predictions, the Homeowner Show made some predictions at the beginning of the year, and one of the predictions that I made was that— kind of bold prediction— was that the market that happened in, you know, 2021, that was, you know, ridiculous where people are, you know, paying, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars over. There's 50 offers in the first 24 hours, maybe even more. I predict that that's actually going to get worse. Like, that, that was a good time. I predict that that's going to come back and that we're going to have this frenzy again,

uh, but it's going to be worse. That, that's my prediction. He predicted the absolute opposite.

That's true.

Of that, and that, that it's actually— some things are going to settle down and in, in some pretty big ways. I'm curious, what do you think is going to happen by the end of 2023?

Well, I always tell clients we are not fortune tellers.

No, we're not. But I get it.

But, but, but on that note, just looking at historically what's happened in the past and knowing how we had almost like a whip effect. So for me, the whip effect is you put something out there in the news and then how does everyone react? Oh, we have a shortage of toilet paper. Everyone goes and buys toilet paper. That's a whip effect, right?

Right, yeah.

So the whip effect is the market is so down, what's going to happen? Well, the interesting thing is that lenders took 3 months to come up with a solution and to start marketing. It takes time to get knowledge into everyone's brain, right? You hear it one time, you don't believe it unless it's like doom and gloom, right? But I think that now that lenders are creating so many solutions and they're coming up with— DPAs are back, HELOCs are coming back, we have VAs are available again, FHAs are better than ever. And I think that because there's so many solutions and this isn't a crisis like we had in 2008, I think the solutions are going to

outweigh the problem.

Mm-hmm.

And so I think that it's going to be more of a balanced market. I don't think it's going to be such a frenzy like you're saying where it's going to be $100 offers, but I don't think it's gonna be like desolate on the other end. I think it's gonna be more balanced, and I think key is working with people with experience. Because I have a house right now that is on the market. It sat for like 5 months, okay? That's not good, right? But I will say, we actually had buyers. We had buyers at full price. Buyers fell out because buyer's remorse hit really big during the frenzy.

Yeah.

So we would go through multiple contracts. Well, you wouldn't believe this, but I got 2 offers on it in the last 48 hours.

Wow.

One being full price, and it's been on the market 5 months. So it's interesting how the mindset's changing, and I really think that it took 90 days for people to come up with a solution and go, okay.

And the reality of it is that the lenders, the bank— I mean, the bank lenders, everybody wants to find a solution. I don't think that people out there are going, how can we just, you know, make this problem worse?

Well, you do know they canceled DPAs during the frenzy.

Yeah, I actually don't know what those are.

Okay, DPA is down payment assistance.

Okay.

Yeah.

So people who, you know what, they're hardworking, but maybe they only have $10,000 in their bank account. Yeah, so DPA would offer them maybe a 3% towards closing costs, and if they're doing an FHA loan, then the 3% goes towards their closing costs, and their money can actually go towards their down payment. Okay. And so it creates the dream come true for these young homeowners.

Yeah.

When you pull DPAs away and you say we're not giving veteran loans, like, you're cutting out veterans, you're cutting out first-time buyers. So now with a more balanced market, the people that we love to serve, which are our veterans, our heroes, and our first-time buyers, they're— they have options now.

That's awesome.

And the builders right now, oh my goodness, The builders have too much inventory. So a year ago they had a shortage, so what did they do? They tripled down, right?

Sure.

We don't have enough houses, let's go build 30.

Sure. Yeah.

So now they're like, uh, we have 10 houses, we'll drop them by $25,000 every week until we sell them.

Yeah, well, we were just getting the wrap-up sign from Christian here. Um, no, I think you're probably right. I mean, I think the only difference there would be— like, we can't control what the Fed does, and like the whip effect, like kind of what you're talking about. Like, if the Fed were to take interest rates to like 10%, I mean, it would tank. I mean, because people would just stop buying because they don't— they don't— no one wants to pay 10% interest, even though some people pay like 27% interest on their credit cards.

Well, but you know what? When people stop buying, you know who always buys?

Oh, the people that have cash.

Investors. And guess what? All of our big oil guys, they all got big checks.

Well, yeah, and they're just, they're waiting for something like that to happen. They really are. I mean, because they'll swoop in and just snag all the cheap stuff right off the market and not pay the interest.

So the feds will actually hurt the veterans and the first-time buyers?

Yeah, no, they will. And like, don't, I mean, like, don't hear me saying that I think the Fed's looking out for the little man at all. I mean, yeah, anyway, anyway, if people need a good real estate agent, how do they, how do they find you?

I'm Amy Lampman with the Lampman Home Team. My number— this is my personal cell phone number.

Oh, look out.

Okay, 832-457-0511.

All right, you might be getting some unsolicited text messages.

That's okay, I put it out everywhere. I'm in the universe, it's all good.

That's—

it's so funny to me.

I'm like, no, don't, don't give your cell phone out, people will find you. I'm like, seriously, people are gonna find you. They're gonna want to find you.

We want people to find us.

It's okay.

Absolutely.

Yeah, that's exactly right.

Thank you so much for sitting down with us.

It was so nice meeting y'all both.

No, they're really, really good.

Well, we're gonna come talk to you later. Both of us have things to talk to you about.

Okay, let's do it.

That's—

you know what, and I'll give you koozies with the phone number.

Hey, there we go. All right, we can send unsolicited texts.

Yes, we can, and we will.

All my favorite properties in Arkansas.

All right, very cool.

Thank you. Thank you so much. All right, all right, we're gonna give a shout— one last shout out to our tonight's sponsor, Lone Star Appliances, or Lone Star Appliance Repair. Again, you can reach them at 296-3355, and you can also go to the website at lonestarappliance.us. And I know that you can find them on Facebook. They are very responsive there. Great company. Good friend Sarah runs that company. She would love to fix your stove, your refrigerator, washer, dryer, wash—

dishwasher.

Dishwasher. They do those. That's— oh, microwave. All the time.

Do people fix microwaves?

I don't think people fix microwaves.

I know you hate them.

I know. They should just throw them in the trash. Are you— are you next Are you next?

Come on, dude.

Come on in.

Just need the the headphones right there.

Never done this.

Never done this. You know how to.

All right.

You've talked with people before though, right?

We'll find out. We'll find out.

That's right.

All right.

Well, welcome.

Go ahead and pull that microphone straight up to your mouth. That way people people can hear you nice and loud.

There you go.

All right.

Tell us who you are and what you do, man.

I'm Michael Moody with. Home Builders Elite. We remodel houses, build additions. We started drying out homes, been expanding all over the Houston area. Worked hard to get a great name.

Yeah.

And work hard to keep a good name.

For sure, man.

Yeah.

How long you been at this?

So we're in our 5th year now.

Congratulations.

Yeah, we are.

That's, that's the magic year. Yes, yes it is. I mean, like, like, like, in all seriousness, like, that's the— like, that's most— that's when most people drop out. It's like year 4, year 5.

Yeah.

So this is January, it's going to be a great year.

There you go.

That's right.

I don't think dropping out's an option.

Not at this point. That's, that's the attitude right there. So I mean, you guys, additions and remodels, I mean, like, is there anything that you guys specialize in, or is it—

So we specialize in kitchens and bathrooms.

Okay.

And we've been specializing in that for about 4 years now. And we do a lot of tile work, we do a lot of custom cabinets, really, really good work.

Awesome.

I mean, you guys are actually building the cabinets?

Yes, sir. I've got a cabinet guy that works for me full-time. So I hire full-time employees. We vet everybody. We, we keep the same guys, so we've got a lot of repeat customers. They, they have, you know, established relationships with the guys. They end up knowing all of us, you know. They get the same guys back to their house every time we do work. And, uh, you know, I'm a little different than a lot of other contractors.

What do you, what do you feel like sets you, sets you apart and makes you different?

Well, the fact that, uh, that we do have full-time workers.

That is different, yeah.

And subcontractors. And then from, from the beginning when I started this, I knew it was all about my name.

Hmm, that's so true.

And you know, this day and age, you gotta, you gotta get a good name and keep a good name. So my name's always been the most important thing. You know, we have a warranty with everything we do. I've always honored the warranty.

Is the warranty different for every project, or you guys kind of have a standard one?

We have a standard 1-year warranty on parts and labor. And, um, and I mean, this— everything's worked out good. You know, we've made mistakes along the way and had to— sure, had to do warranty calls, and I've done every one of them. You know, we, we make it a point to— we're making a point to keep everybody happy.

Yeah, so do you guys have a plumber on staff then?

Uh, yes, we've got licensed plumber, licensed electrical. Um, so the, uh—

I mean, like, I just want everyone to know, like, that's unusual. It is, it's extremely unusual. I mean, like, I know a lot of contractors and we've had a lot of them on the show.

Rarely— I'm getting a house built right now and it's done by a GC, which is fine, it's, it's fine, but you're having to sub everything out. And here's part of the problem with subbing everything out. For example, we had a guy come in and rough in our electrical stuff. Well, he got busy. I don't know what he did, but he kind of crapped out on us. So, you know, it's time to do the rest of the electrical before the insulation can go in, and he's nowhere to be found. So we had to go find another electrician, which is— again, we probably wound up better in the end, but we lost a week. And we didn't know this guy. We had to come in So with your

system, you can tell the homeowner from the beginning, look, the process that we're going to give you is completely in-house, right? Like we may have—

We do things completely different. And most of the time I get my money on the end. Yeah. And I explain that to my customers, you know. So our goal is to go in to do you a good job and to get it completed in a timely manner. You know, and like I say, we're a growing company and we've been doing really good. We're expanding in new areas. We built a crew to work Woodlands, Magnolia, Tomball, that whole area. Yeah, so wow.

So do you do just remodeling or do you build homes as well?

We do remodeling, we build additions. When it comes to a new home, I subcontract out the framing. But we recently started another company drying out homes.

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Like water remediation kind of stuff?

Yes, sir.

Okay.

So I've gotten nationally certified. And I handle insurance companies a lot. I've been doing it for years. So I actually go in, we can dry the home out. I can handle the whole insurance process, and then we rebuild the whole home.

Oh, wow.

Wow. I love that.

We're the one-stop shop, and that's been my goal for, for a few years now, and we're making it happen.

So was that something that you just came across and just wanted to try it out, or did you have experience in that, or something your customers were asking you for?

I started dealing with the remodeling part of, you know, insurance jobs. I started dealing with adjusters. And then I just saw an opportunity because they're having to get separate companies to do it.

Yeah, it's easier for them if there's a one-stop shop.

Yeah, that became my dream. And then, you know, that's the reason that I didn't get into building new, you know, new construction homes. Yeah, I went a different route.

Hmm. Well, and I think that's one of the things that is challenging for a lot of contractors. Where the The contractor network here, we talk to a lot of contractors on our show, and it's one of those deals, especially for people— you're in year 5 here, okay? So when you're in year 3, there's a lot of people that are still ramping. They're still ramping up and still, they're, you know, they're going, oh, well, I'll do that and I'll do that and I'll do that and I'll do that and I'll do that. And at the end of the day, it's like, man, I do— I'm a jack of all trades and master of none.

Mm-hmm.

And then they wound up having to try to pull the themselves back and go, what do I actually really want to do? You know, and, but, but to begin with, you're trying to, to make a dollar, you're trying to support your family, you're trying to pay the bills and all those sorts of things. But it, you know, when you can truly find a lane and stick in that lane, the amazing thing is people will find you. And when they do, you're going to be able to say, look, this is what we do. We don't do that. We don't do that. We do this. And I think that there's a real opportunity in that. So I say kudos to you, for sure.

I appreciate it. We, uh, you know, I had to learn over the years, and I mean what you were just saying, uh, if you want to build cabinets, you hire a cabinet guy, you know. If you want to do plumbing, you get a plumber, whatever. And so that's where we're at. We've, we've got the cabinet guys, we, we've got I've got guys that do drywall, that's their specialty. Um, you know, we, we, we do good work.

Yeah.

Awesome.

Was there— is there anything, uh, new that you're seeing people ask you to do in like kitchens and bathrooms that it's kind of unique?

We have been doing a lot more cabinets.

Uh, people just ripping out old ones and putting new ones in, or—

Yeah, we're, we're doing more custom cabinets.

Okay.

So, you know, it's a little more expensive, but they, they're a lot nicer, much better product.

And I tell you what, we just— so we bought a house back in May. And one of the things we did is the kitchen was really nice. But the cabinets were kind of a birch color. They were high gloss enamel finish. Basically. And so we decided we're going to strip them down, we're going to take the cabinet doors off and put new doors and drawer fronts on.

A lot of people do that.

And we decided to put soft close on everything. My paint guy, Aaron Bernizal, he's awesome.

He's been on our show before.

I think they're here tonight. Oh, I hope so. I need to go see him. Uh, he does great, great painting. And so we had him come in and do it, and he was like, I'll put the doors on, I'll do that kind of stuff, but I'm not going to do the drawer slides. And I'm like, really? And he's like, yeah, it's, it's, it's a headache and I don't want to do it. Um, and I wound up doing it myself, and let me tell you, that is a project and it is no fun. And, uh, we, we figured it out, but it was a big, big problem. But man, we completely changed the look of, of our kitchen

by changing the doors and drawer fronts, changing the hardware, and painting everything.

So that actually sells me a lot of kitchens because I do give the customers that option. You know, if the cabinets are good, that'll save you some money. Absolutely.

Why not? Absolutely.

It actually helps land jobs.

So let me ask you one more question. Are you finding— you know, we got some background noise here.

Sorry about that. We're starting the program.

Yeah, we may need to wrap this up really quickly. But, um, are you finding that people are putting color into their cabinets instead of just like the standard white or anything? Are you finding that?

Yeah, we're putting color into cabinets. You know, it's a preference.

Sure.

You know, some customers, we've painted cabinets, I would not want that color cabinet.

Yeah.

And they love it.

Yeah.

It's basically a lot of neutral colors, your grays and everything, but We do run across the occasional one that wants something fancy.

Well, we did, we did, we did white cabinets in our island. We did a, like a green, like a sage green. Looks fantastic.

Yeah, it really, really does. Yeah. So what about, what about in bathrooms? Well, actually, on the, on the cabinet, uh, subject, I, I've been noticing a trend where people are opting to not have top cabinets and just like open shelves. So yeah, are you seeing that?

Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yeah, we, uh, so we do that a lot also. Um, we've got a Facebook website, you know, you can check us out.

Yeah.

Uh, but we have done that multiple times.

Awesome. It's my dad walking behind you right there. There he is.

If you can't tell, he's the man with the plan right there.

Trust me. Yeah, we, I mean, we actually did that in our house. We did like the, um, what do you call it? It's rough-cut cedar. Uh, so it's great. So it's still Like, you know, it's not finished, it's just like the, the way that the wood—

Live edge.

Yeah, live edge.

That's the word. Yeah, thank you.

Um, Kevin did that for me, actually. Not you, but yeah, the other friend, the good Kevin. Um, but, but yeah, so I mean, like, I, I, we didn't do it because it was trendy, it just fit our kitchen. But I was just curious if you've been seeing that quite a bit.

Um, we have. I mean, you know, the scope of work changes Job to job.

Yeah.

But, but yeah, we are running across that.

Yeah. The other, the other thing I've been seeing, particularly with bathrooms, is this, this deal where like they'll put like a freestanding tub on the exterior wall of the shower. And so like that, there's like a freestanding wall, freestanding tub, and then behind it, it's like 2 sides to go walk into the shower. Have you seen these?

Yes.

Yeah. It seems to be really popular right now.

Yeah, we've done them. We've put, you know, we expand, we'll expand the shower, we can put the tub in the shower if there's enough room.

I've seen that too, yeah.

We've done that and it looks amazing. So I mean, you're kind of limited to your space. A lot of people don't have a restroom that big.

You need quite a bit of room to do that, yeah.

But if you do have a restroom that large, you know, it looks amazing.

Are they putting the tub in the shower I mean, is it— I mean, this is just your opinion, but like, do you think it's aesthetics or is it like easier to tie into like the same drain line?

Well, from, from what the customers have told me, they want to be able to sit in their tub, step out the tub, rinse off in the shower. It's all in the same area or vice versa. Normally when we do that, we got to move the plumbing anyway.

Okay.

But It's another thing, I guess, that's a preference.

Yeah, well, a lot of people don't realize it, like, that's a giant hole in your, in your slab.

That's a big hole. And it really— and the biggest hole is the toilet. We got a big hole there for the toilet. And so once you start moving stuff around in there, I mean, it can be done, but around here we got a lot of slabs, so it's busting up a lot of concrete. Then you got to bring in new concrete and that kind of stuff. I mean, it, it's, it's not inexpensive. And so what one of the things that—

that's where it gets It's costly, uh, you know, when you have to start busting concrete and stuff, it's a lot of work.

Yeah. So you got, you got people that are coming in, I'm sure you find this all the time, they're like, hey, we want to redo our, our master bathroom. You're like, okay, great, you come over there, you're like, what's your budget? Like, oh, we got about $15,000. It's like, whoa, like, do you want us to also put it back together? Yeah, like, because we can, we can kind of tear everything out for 15 grand, but it's gonna be another $30,000 to put everything back in, you know. It's just the way it goes.

Let me tell you something. I was, I was talking to a buddy the other day, and he, he was telling me that they just installed a new toilet in his house, and that toilet was $10,000.

What?

Oh wow.

Yeah, so I mean, like, $15,000, like, you're not doing nothing.

It got gold in it?

No, it was, it was a high-tech heated seat bidet thing. But anyway, we were getting the wrap-up sign from Christian. I think he's got somebody else he needs to bring up here. If people need to get a hold of you, man, how do they find you?

So it's www.homebuilderseliteLLC.com. We're also on Facebook.

Okay.

And every other social media.

So you guys are on Instagram, I'd imagine? Got lots of pictures of your work and stuff up there?

Yes, sir.

Okay, a lot of people looking for house stuff.

Chamber of Commerce.

Which chamber?

Clear Lake.

Clear Lake, okay.

So I've been with them for years, but we're kind of easy to find.

Awesome.

You just gotta look.

All right, very cool. Well, thanks for being here.

Really good to meet you. Hopefully that wasn't too strenuous on you.

No, sir.

Good.

All right, all right, y'all have a good one.

All right, enjoy.

So, well, dude, so while we're waiting for Christian to, uh, unless we might be done, I don't know.

I don't know.

So one of the other big things that happened this week is, uh, do you know who Steven Crowder is?

Yeah.

So, you know, he left, uh, the company that he was with, you know, he's— he had another company putting his stuff up, paying him to make his show and all this kind of stuff. So he left that, that group.

Okay.

And so he's been shopping around for a new group. Well, he, he blasted Nobody a few days ago, uh, saying, I'm tired of these so-called conservative companies taking advantage of everybody online, and revealed aspects of a proposed contract, uh, that a company had offered him as an agreement.

Okay.

And I was talking about, you know, how, how these guys are being underhanded and shady and all this kind of stuff. Well, the company that offered him the deal came out today with a video and said, no, no, that was us.

Hang on.

And it was The Daily Wire.

Oh wow.

And they were like, look, we're not, we're not gonna sit around here and let him like Hint at like that we're being unethical. You don't. And the dude sat down and read through the whole contract and explained the whole thing and why it's this way, and this is how it is for all of our talent.

Da da da da da.

And I was like, "Ooh, this this could be fun." Wow. To watch me.

Daily Wire—they don't back down from fights. No. In fact, they go in and find them. No.

Are you are you gonna rap on there? You can you can no. Okay. Christian, don't let him intimidate you.

Yeah, he will.

He backed away.

He was like, I don't know who this mammoth of a man is. Hey, welcome!

Hey, what's up, buddy? How are you? Welcome, welcome!

Grab those right there, that way you can— you'll be able to hear.

Uh, I do, definitely.

And so you'll want to— as long as you can hear yourself, everybody else can hear you.

Yes, I can. All right, great.

You want to put it like right here?

There you go. How's that?

Perfect. You can pull it to you, whatever works.

What are my first time on a podcast?

Oh, is it really? Awesome. Well, welcome.

We're breaking a lot of people in tonight.

That's right. Awesome.

Awesome. So if you don't— we're the homeowner show, so we talk about all things houses. We review products and interview people, I assume, like yourself. Absolutely. Tell us your name and what you do, man.

My name is Delaware Ahmed. Um, we— I personally run Permeant Waste Recycling Services.

Oh cool, let's check it out. Um, yeah, hand that over. Awesome.

So, um, simply put, it's a construction and demolition, um, and scrap metal recycling waste— or a construction demolition waste management company.

Okay.

We also have our own scrapyard. So we do— yeah, well, we had the scrapyard long before.

He's showing it to everybody.

Like almost since '88. Oh, okay. Yeah, I'm a second generation myself and expanded into waste management about 7 years ago, okay, in 2015. And so we provide roll-off waste service to, you know, the Houston surrounding area.

Okay, so with this, with the scrapyard, you guys aren't those guys that like paying like $2 bills or something?

No, those are friends, those are good friends, uh, C&D. Um, but yeah, similar, very similar, similar. But I mean, within this, the scrap market is very fragmented, as in there's so many different ways that you can make money in the scrap metal business.

Sure.

I mean, one way is the people bring it in and you— $2 bills. Another way is you market yourself as someone who buys strictly from commercial industrial accounts, you know, larger equipment that needs processing, that's not ready to be handled by, you know, it needs equipment and forklifts and excavators. And so what do you do with them when they— Yeah, exactly. So you get them, you got to arrange the specialized logistics, the permits, you know, the specialized truck and haul them in, make sure all the routes are good, have ways to unload them, have the equipment necessary to process them. And then, you know, at the end of the day, it's scrap metal.

Okay, well, I got a question right off the bat.

Yeah, absolutely.

Do you take refrigerators?

There are regulations with refrigerators. Exactly.

So we were just talking about this. We have no idea what they are.

So here's the thing, like, we were just talking about the fact that, like, Because one of our, uh, our sponsors for today is Lone Star Appliance Repair. We were talking about that it's, it's better to repair your refrigerator than to put it in the landfill. And part of that is because you got Freon in that thing. Absolutely. You got to figure out how to get rid of it, and we don't know how to get rid of it.

Well, there's a company, I can't remember the name off the top of my head, but I, I know because I've dealt with them before. We had large chillers that go on top of, you know— oh yeah, like they're huge. I mean, they're like 20 feet, 30 feet long, and they had Freon in them. And so there's this company that comes, they won't pay, I mean, depending on the market, but generally it's just enough to just, you know, cover a little bit of cost, and they'll come extract it, pay you a little bit for it. And, um, that's about it.

That's awesome because the thing is, like, you can't— like, there's a place by my house that will take the refrigerator, but they will not take it with Freon in it. Yeah. So what a lot of people do They just saw that line, they puncture it, and let it drain out, which is really bad for the environment, right? So yeah, uh, it's, it's like, what are we supposed to do, right?

Now we know.

Yeah, so I mean, you can just Google. I mean, the individual name of the company is almost irrelevant. I mean, in the day and age of Google, you can just go online, type in refrigerant recovery, Freon recovery Houston, okay? And some company will come up. You cold call 2, 3 of them, some of them will say, yeah, well, we'll come out and We'll do it for you.

But that's not something we can bring to you.

Well, you can. I mean, I'll make arrangements for it.

Okay.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, a lot of, you know, other scrapyards, they can take it, they just don't want to go through the headache.

Yeah, sure.

Yeah, you know, we'll, we'll manage it. But I mean, we generally won't take individual loads. Uh, we like to take full truckloads or semi 18-wheelers. Now I'm only talking about one company we got. We got to do a lot. Um, we're a sponsor for 2 companies. The other one Is right here.

Okay, HGS.

Yeah, HGS Roofing. And so my brother runs that one. Uh, we're all, you know, under a family company, also a parent company. And I run the scrap metal waste management and the roofing and siding, which is a material supply company. Yeah, it's located off of Airline Drive, 10307 Airline.

So is it a— you guys providing the materials for roofs and siding? You don't actually like install the roofs?

No, we don't. Okay, we, we've We supply it. I mean, I think at all times we probably have about 300 truckloads of material on the ground.

Wow.

At all times. So it's a pretty sizable quantity.

Are you guys pretty specific in those materials or do you have like all a variety of different materials?

We're specific in what we carry, as in it's residential architectural roofing.

Okay.

Okay. So residential roofing that you probably have at your house, you know, that we all have.

Various colors.

Every color.

Yeah.

Every color. Now residential roofing also goes into clay roofs, roofing and Spanish tile. Okay, so you guys do this? No, we don't do that.

You don't do that?

Okay.

We do the shingles. The shingles.

Okay. The classic shingles.

No metal roofs? No.

Okay.

Yeah, so do your thing, man. Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, uh, we were just talking about that.

Yeah, yeah. So now, yeah, there it goes right there. So, um, yeah, we supply it, and then along with that, siding.

What kind of siding?

Um, it's called lap siding.

Okay.

I'm not too familiar with it. I mean, it goes into details.

Is it wood or is it—

No, it's HardiePlank.

Okay.

He's a hardy place for you, but he's not— I can dispose of it and I refer you to where you want to buy it. Um, but yeah, and the HardiePlank is a brand. Um, but yes, the same material, the board. Yeah, the cement board, the fiberboard, or whatever it's— yeah, yeah. And so, yeah, and Hardie is one of the brands that we carry, and all the major brands of roofing. Uh, okay, you know, GAF, CertainTeed, Landmark. Okay, uh, Atlas, Tamko, Owens Corning, um, Malarkey, and so on.

So do you guys mainly supply like businesses in the Houston area, or are you guys—

Mostly contractors that are installing the roofs. So mostly roofing companies that do the physical installation themselves. The contractors don't come to us.

Right.

And so this is a perfect event for that because contractors are the ones that 99% of the time buy from us.

Yeah.

And so the, you know, it's even priced in a way where the business owner, I mean, the contractors are the ones that structure their pricing in a way, you know, whenever they sell it off to homeowners.

You can't control what they're charging for it.

Yeah, I mean, on average, like last I checked was like, I mean, this was like 2017, I remember, but I think it was like $180, $200 a square. Maybe it's gone up a little bit, but ballpark around that. So we'll give it for like $50, $60. They have their markup of $50, $60 in labor or whatever.

So what's the, what do you, I mean, and I know that you're in the more the I'm in the waste management side of things, but like, um, do you guys carry different degrees of those residential shingles? Like, I've heard now that there's even like a 40-year lifetime. Yeah, which is like a lifetime one. Okay.

Yeah, well, lifetime is essentially 40-year. Okay. Yeah, uh, a 40-year. So there's 20-year, 30-year, and I'm going by my best memory from the most—

No, that's fine.

Yeah, I briefly worked at—

again, people can Google it and find out for yourself.

So, uh, yeah, 20 years, the— they're not architectural, they're not lapped, they're just plain flat shingles. 30-year are your standard ones, and lifetime are the, the ones, the 40-year ones that you were talking about. Yeah. And, um, that's considered life. I mean, generally people's, you know, what's the life of a house?

Most people don't own their home more than 40 years.

Yeah, there you go. Yeah. So, and, uh, yeah, so that's what, that's what that's considered. And so yeah, we, we stock a, a huge quantity. And a huge variety of colors. And so, I mean, I don't know if he's made it in yet, but he's going to be joining in to the event.

Awesome. Your brother?

My brother. Okay. Young brother. But yeah, so I mean, I'm mostly responsible for the waste management.

Yeah. Well, I do have a— I do have an interesting question for you on that end. I think on the show before I have talked about the thing that is buried in my pasture. Oh yeah. Have we talked about that before? So, in my pasture, so when I bought the property, out in the pasture there was a metal square just in the ground, and I was like, well, that's kind of weird. So, I went out there with a shovel. I was like, I'll just get this thing up. Wouldn't budge. Went back with a pry bar, like a crowbar, right? I was like, wouldn't budge. Went back with like a 6-foot pry bar, couldn't get it to move. And I was like,

what is this thing? Like, it's driving me nuts. But I, you know, I didn't have anything to dig it up with. So one weekend my wife let me rent one of those Bobcat skid steers, right? I was using it to move some dirt by the barn, and I got done with that project early, and I was like, you know what, I remember that square out there in the pasture. I'm gonna dig that booger up. Well, like 4 hours later, I finally pry this thing out of the ground, and it's, uh, the tread off of a bulldozer.

That's the tracks.

Yeah, and it's, it's, it's got to be 2,000 or 3,000 pounds. Yeah. And I'm like, all right, like, this, this could potentially be a good investment for me to put back in the ground because I could take it to a scrapyard. Yeah.

I don't know what they—

what it is by the pound, but I got a lot of pounds.

Yeah, no, absolutely. Um, yeah, you randomly, you know, you'll find these things I mean, is that something I could bring in? Oh, without a doubt. As long as this doesn't have norm, which is radiation. But I don't think for any reason—

I wouldn't think it would.

It wouldn't. The only—

That norm. We don't like that guy. Norm.

He's kind of out of the norm.

Norm.

Get that out of here. What's funny, let me tell you what's funny about that story, is his wife, she comes out and is like, what in the world are you doing?

And he's like, no, I was super proud. I was like, look at this, look at this, look what I found.

And she goes, well, put it back.

She made him put it— it's— he buried it. I buried it back.

Wait, your name is not Norm, is it?

No, no, no, it's not.

No, that's so good. I thought, I thought I accidentally said a bad joke.

No, no, that's funny.

No, but like, the problem is like, you probably could make some money off of that thing. However, It's buried in the ground again.

Yeah, she made it buried.

So now here's, here's what would have to happen. You'd have to go rent another Bobcat.

Listen, babe, fun, fun. Just talk to a guy.

So it's like, I gotta go spend some money to make money.

So yeah, man, no, I'm, I'm loving this event. This is my first time here. I think we just, uh, I think I learned about— I, I, I started looking into the group of that sponsors this event. Yeah, last week. And then I, over the weekend, learned about the event. By Monday, Tuesday, um, became a sponsor. And so it was my first time. I didn't, you know, I wanted to kind of feel it out before setting up, you know.

Yeah.

But I think on the next event— is it— does it happen on a monthly basis?

Yeah, so it's the 3rd Thursday of every month. Okay. Is, is what we've been told. Okay. So, and we appreciate you sponsoring. I mean, that's— that you guys are the reason we get to come out and do these things.

No, no, it's mutually beneficial for everyone. I mean, oh yeah, you know, these community events, way better than just humongous NRG type ones, you know, the one at Reliant, or you don't even get around to talking to as many people as you would. No, but you know, most of the people here look like they're small business owners. They are, myself. Yeah, and this is that little pocket, and we, you know, where our yards are just down the street, you know.

Oh cool. So, okay.

Yeah, I mean, I live on Lueta, so nice.

Perfect. Yeah. Yeah. So like for my business, my office is actually right there at Kirkendall 2920.

Kirkendall. Oh, Springs. All right. Yeah. Wow. Tell me about, uh, is this, is this a, uh, the podcast? Is that y'all's?

No, no, this is, this is just our, this is our side hustle.

Yeah, we just do this, we do this for fun.

Pretty much. Side hustles are, man, so I'm telling you, side hustles are a hack. In life.

They can be. They can, yeah. But this one is more of a— I don't know, we've been doing this for a while. We put out, I don't know, we're about 230 episodes in. I've been doing it for, I don't know, 4 and a half, 5 years?

About 4 years, yeah, yeah.

And so we've been doing it for a while. We don't make a lot of money doing this. In fact, we lose money doing this.

I mean, like, we do, but we don't.

Yeah, yeah. Well, inadvertently we do, like, indirectly.

I mean, really, for us, for the people— I know a lot of people watch the show and they're like, oh my gosh, Kevin and Craig, I mean, like, they're probably doing pretty good on the show. Like, seriously, like, I've had people be like, oh my gosh, like, you know, you're— but like, here's the thing is like, we don't— we actually don't make money off the show, but like, what's valuable to us is this.

Yeah, conversations.

Like, we get to meet new people pretty much every week, and we get to talk to them about their business, and, and then we have a business relationship with those people. And that's been like exponentially valuable to us.

I think the value of any sort of media marketing, mass media marketing, which is— and podcasts in this day and age, yeah, you know, working. Oh yeah, way more than ever before. Yeah. And I think the credibility of actual media companies has tanked.

Oh, for sure.

In the past however many years.

I mean, they are scrambling to survive.

And the podcasters and the podcast companies or the podcast show hosts are the ones that people are going to for incredible, credible sources of news because it's just people talking.

We have no agenda. Like, like, there's nobody telling us, Craig, you shouldn't have said that. Yeah, Kevin, you shouldn't have said that. Like, at the end of the day, we're gonna say what we think. Yeah, and, and it— and I think there's something very valuable in that. People know that we're gonna get honest opinions. Even if I disagree with your opinion, without a doubt, I know that it's not biased.

Without a doubt. Yeah, you're allowed to give it.

Yeah, that's right. And we— I mean, like, we don't pay our guests. I mean, like, we don't, and they don't pay us to come on the show. No, that never—

I am thoroughly impressed. I'm gonna look into this show a lot more as soon as I—

Well, here's the deal. We've never had a Waste Management person on the show out of 230 episodes. episodes. Wow. And we, we record, uh, episodes and we come out every single week.

Honestly, that's the other fun part about this for us is like we get to meet you. Yeah. We don't know anything about this, but we get to learn about it.

Yeah. I'll tell you a lot more. I mean, since we're here, come on, I'll tell you a lot more about what we do. Uh, because we have a background in, uh, scrap. Yeah. A lot of times you end up with good material. So what we started doing was we started buying from a lot of the yards that we have You know, my family, my uncle owns a yard and a 99 and 2, you know, so many.

Okay.

We have pretty deep roots in the scrap business, but we started buying good surplus material, started supplying wholesale truckloads to other fabrication companies that don't necessarily need their material being MTR coded and material test reports. You know, some customers you do need that, but if you're building a dumpster, Real quick, what's the value in having that rating? Meaning what?

You said MTR.

MTR, material test report. So like, for example, if you're a fabrication company and you're building for Exxon, Exxon has a lot of liabilities. You know, I don't want to say any names, but let's say you're building for a large-cap oil and gas company. You know, you would need to have a test report, material test reports that releases the liability off of you.

I got you.

And that the material is not some second grade that didn't pass quality control in manufacturing and is, you know, is good for fabrication so that the fabrication company can pass it on and say, hey, this is all certified material. And there's ASME and other engineering societies that require MTRs in order to certify whatever fabrication their oil and gas companies are doing. And so we're not in oil and gas, you know, we're building dumpsters.

Yeah.

And so Steel, for the most part. At the end of the day, the way I look at it is steel. Yeah. Um, and if you're building a— yeah, I mean, you know, for people that are building like their own, you know, that are building— there's so many different things you can do with steel fabrication, right? And the majority of the things are made out of plates and steel and structural. And so like people, for example, building fencing. And so we supply that.

Are you guys actually building these?

We supply the steel. We build the containers, we supply the service of the containers and do the waste management, we buy the scrap metal. So if you, if you take out the effort and you have a demolition going on and you take the effort out and you sort everything out, yeah, we'll buy that from you. We're not going to charge you for it, assuming— I mean, there's conditions. It has to be over 10,000 pounds, right? It has to cover the cost of us coming over there. Yeah, but majority of the time it well overcovers the cost.

It sounds like everything y'all are doing is very sustainable. I really like that. Like, you're, you're, you're talking about you're not, you're not outsourcing this to build this, and you're not turning around and selling this over to— you're, you're bringing stuff in. This is brilliant. I don't know if you heard what he's saying. He's taking your junk, bringing it to his place, repurposing it back into steel that can be built into a container that can go out and get more junk that will bring it back in. You see what I'm saying?

I never thought about it like that.

It is sustainable. No, it is a really, really interesting process.

Wow. Yeah, that is.

Do, do you guys work with A&W at all?

No, I just learned about Christian.

I was going to say, that'd be a good contact for you.

Oh, absolutely. I just met him. I met him through Christian, and, uh, Christian Scott introduced me— introduced me to—

that was a fun noise, wasn't it?

That was nice.

Yeah, and so he's an awesome guy. Actually, the container sizes that he has, we don't have.

Oh, okay.

He has a lot of the 15 yards and the 20 yards, and we have some 20 yards, but we don't have too many. And so I would love to partner, you know, with someone that we can just refer the smaller, you know, when we don't have the containers.

Yeah, yeah. So we'll— well, we probably need to wrap up just because we're— but But I wanted to ask you real quick, I mean, is there— I know for a long time there was a big controversy around copper. Yeah, I mean, obviously you guys probably take in copper.

I try not to.

You try not to? That's why I was asking.

I actually try not to. We try to not take any material in. The only material that's coming into our yard, we have gone out and bought it. We've gone out and done the bid. Yeah. And we buy it from a company. Yeah. And, you know, Nobody can just walk in and say, hey, I got this, would you want to buy it? Yeah, you know, those are nothing like— those are considered peddler yards and they make a lot of money. Yeah, but they come with their own set of problems. Yeah, yeah. And ours comes with our set of problems, but we'd rather deal with these problems. Yeah, you got to pick your problems.

I want the problems I can handle, not the ones I know.

Absolutely.

Well, anyway, um, yeah, man, well, if people— if, if people want to get one of these containers or they've got some scrap they want to sell you or Or they need some roofing material or siding material, how do they get a hold of you guys?

Well, let me give you my phone number, Instagram, website, email.

Okay.

You know, our name is Permeant Waste Recycling Services. You can Google us. Okay. You can find us on Instagram, Permeant Waste. Okay. You can contact us.

You can email. I mean—

Someone will respond if they send you a message?

Absolutely. Someone's there in any form.

Okay.

Email, phone contact, email, stop by, visit us physically if you will.

Oh yeah, absolutely, man. Yeah, perfect. All right, awesome, dude. Thank you so much for sitting down with us.

Thank you for having me.

All right, enjoy your time here. Absolutely.

Thank you, man. Really good to meet you.

Likewise. Bye-bye. All right, guys, I think we're gonna, we're gonna wrap up today's episode. We got, we got people up on the stage, um, but thank you. We'll, uh, we'll cover some of these controversies that we brought up during this show later on, I suppose.

Yeah, thanks for listening to the episode. Thanks for downloading today. And, um, yeah, we're gonna be, uh, interesting, uh, interested in finding more about the Contractor Network, and we're gonna be here more.

So, um, so yeah, 3rd Thursday of every month.

Could be fun. Should be fun. Yeah.

All right, guys. So thank you all for joining us. If you haven't yet, hit the click, click, click the like, click the, uh, subscribe button.

Do it all.

Um, what else we got?

I don't know, I think that's it. There it is, the bump music. We'll see you guys later.