What we learned in 2025. Happy New Years!

This is episode number 343 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. Here with me is Craig Williams.

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to The Homeowner Show. We are so glad you could join us for another live episode here in The Homeowner Show studios. How you doing, Kev?

I'm pretty good. I felt like I had like a little, maybe I always do. I don't know, but it's the end of the year.

Grabbing a little girth.

And I feel like I'm just honing in all the end of the year spirit right now.

We are here for the end of the year fun. We're gonna share with you all of our collective wisdom, what we can muster in this short 5-minute episode. Yes.

Yes.

We have 3 and a half minutes left.

That's right.

I'm probably gonna take most of it with, uh, the rest of this nonsense without actually sharing anything good. No, seriously, we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna try and do a little bit of a, a year review, talk about, you know, what we, what we did this year. Uh, some, some fun accomplishments.

Yeah.

Um, but mostly like big takeaways.

Yeah.

Um, that we, that we had from the year. So, but before we do that, yes, let's, let's thank our sponsor.

Let's do it today. Our sponsor. True Texas Solar and Roofing. You like that little—

did you say two?

No, I said—

oh, two, two, two.

It's so two. It's— yeah, I did not say that, but if I— if it came across that way, if I did, if I did, it would have sounded like two. Uh, True Texas Solar and Roofing, man, they're our friends. I, I like these guys. I honestly— I— we, we don't just allow anybody to be sponsors. We really think that these guys are great for lots of reasons. If you are looking to get solar, or if you're considering solar, give them a call. We're at the end of the year here. Um, you're probably too late to get anything done in 2025. Who knows what 2026 is going to look like as far as the tax incentives go. However, as of now, there are still tax incentives out there.

for solar roofing, and I would give them a call. There's lots of solar options. You can go with solar panels, solar roofs. They can help you out with full grid removal to be able— well, I say that. You still gotta be on the grid. For most people do. But they'll help you with generators, with backup batteries, with Powerwalls, with all the things that you need to get taken care of. On top of that, they can help you out with your roof. So lots of really, really good stuff. Josh and his team, are exceptional at what they do. They are just really on top of it. Give 'em a call. Their number is 936-286-8325.

Give 'em a call. Great guys to work with. So to kick things off a little bit, I don't usually hit the Reddits that often. Oh, okay. Yeah. But there are some cool homeowner, home buyer groups on there where you can ask for advice, you can ask for All this kind of stuff.

Sure.

And, uh, this, this person, I, I'll, I'll use their username cuz that's what you use on Reddit apparently. Um, but it's in the First Time Home Buyer, uh, Reddit. And the title of her, uh, she says she needs advice and she says, hi, I closed on my house today. Surreal feeling. The walkthrough went okay, but I don't know. I kept walking through saying to myself all the things that are wrong with it. and clenching my stomach that it's too small, and I made the worst decision. Our price range didn't have great inventory, and there are a lot of pros to the house. I'm just sick to my stomach worrying if this was a bad buy. Is this a

normal feeling?

That's actually a really vulnerable and real thing.

It is.

It's po— that's a great post.

I, I look, there, there's a reason buying a house is like, one of the most stressful moments in your life.

Yeah.

Like every time you do it, it doesn't matter how many times you do it. It's always, it's never not stressful. Um, I mean, I guess there's guys that are just, you know, psychopaths.

If you've, if you've bought and sold multiple homes or if you're doing it as an investment. Yeah. But for most people buying a house, it's a big deal.

Yeah. I, I think, I think when you don't worry is when you make a mistake.

Yeah.

I mean, I like when you get comfortable doing it is when something slides by and really bites you in the ass.

Yeah.

Um, so I think it's completely normal.

Sure.

I, I think she, I, I mean, like, honestly, and, and most, most of the, I, I, you know, I sort of skimmed through some of the responses and, and most people were generally encouraging and, and, and a lot of people were just saying like, real, well, it depends. I mean, like, did you buy in a nice area? Yeah. Like, where, where, where is the house located? Are there new good schools nearby? Like, there's all sorts of qualifiers.

Sure.

But like, even, even asking those questions, like, it doesn't mean that it was a bad decision. It doesn't mean that it was a good decision. It's like, sure. Do you like the house? Yeah.

And, and And honestly, most of the time, buying a house is a sound investment.

Yeah. It's a good place to stick your money most of the time.

Yeah.

I'd give it a good 80%. Yeah.

I mean, it's just, there's, you're right. There's a lot of factors there.

Yeah.

But when you are, everybody is paying something to live somewhere.

Right.

Right? So when you're putting that into something that you can then sell and turn into a profit, that's a, that's a decent investment.

Yeah.

So, or if it's going to mature. If it's gonna mature. Yeah. And most homes are there. Of course, there are situations, right? But for the most part, historically speaking, buying a home has been a very good investment.

Yeah.

For most people.

I, I mean, like, I, I tend to not look at homes as an investment generally. I look at them more as like sophisticated savings accounts.

Yep.

That require hands-on maintenance.

Yeah.

I mean, sure. That generally offer a better return than most savings accounts.

Yeah.

So, I mean, like, I think if you think about it like that, this is a safe place for me to store my wealth for the time being.

Yep.

And, you know, if I decide to get it back, it's not difficult to get back most of the time.

No. And you have control over it.

Yeah. You can make it more valuable. You can make it less valuable.

That's right.

Yeah.

You, you, if you want to make updates to it, you make updates to it and you can be wise about what those updates are, where you put those updates.

Yeah.

You know, bathrooms, kitchens, uh, exterior. Those are places that, that really are money-making. Mm-hmm. Uh, you know, if you sink a pool, into your backyard, probably not gonna get your money back. Yeah. But, uh, that also depends cuz there are places where you can get your money back on a pool. That's true.

Um, it also depends on the pool.

It depends on the pool. That's exactly it. Money, money on pools are a funny thing. Yeah. They're tricky.

But if you want a good return on the pool, go with the old stock tank.

That's right. Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah, exactly. But no, I, I, I love the, the, the vulnerability.

Yeah. I, I thought it was, I thought it was, Because, like, this is, this is our target. This is, this is who we're talking to most of the time, is we're trying to, like, offer information that's going to quell some of that anxiety. You know, like, because it— what I'm gathering from this is that it's an old house.

Sure.

And, like, I read some of the posts later on. There's some weird smells going on in there.

Okay.

Um, you know, it was a doghouse and, like, they didn't take good care of it and there was carpets and So, like, but, like, fixable. That's, that's very fixable.

And I think that's the thing that one— so, look, I think some people generally have an idea of how to make things better. So, for example, first house we bought, you know, you have to, you have to have an inspection. You get the whole report back. It's like 29,000 pages long.

Right.

And I remember getting that, and quickly storing it away.

Yeah.

Because I'm like, whatever. That's, that's just a lot of pages. And when we got ready to sell the house, which was about 8 years later, 8 and a half years later, something like that. Yeah. I pulled that document back out and I looked through it and I had done every one of the things that were on the inspection list.

Oh, nice.

But I'd never looked at it.

Oh.

I, I just, I just generally looked around going, you know what? That probably needs fixed. That probably needs fixed.

Let the house talk to you.

That's right. And over time, time, I recognized these things would be better if I fixed them.

Yeah.

Other people wouldn't have a clue what to do about any of those things. And I get that. Wherever you are on that spectrum, that's why we're doing what we're doing. Right?

Yeah.

Because we're bringing people on or we're talking about ways that you, you look at your house, you know, invest into your house, the market. We, we talk about, you know, devices you can put in your house or just general ways that you can own your house in a better way.

Yeah.

That's why we do what we do.

Mm-hmm.

And we've been doing it for almost 350 episodes somehow. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, it's just, it's a, it's a really cool thing to see how this thing has continued to move forward because there's nothing bad about owning a home. It's a good thing. So whatever's going on here, just stick with it.

Yeah.

Just hang out. You know, whenever you see something that needs to be updated, update it. If you can, if you can save up some money to replace those carpets, replace them or put hardwood in or whatever. Like there's lots of things you can do. Not that difficult.

Yeah. And I would say most houses are improvable, but like, let's, let's just say on, on the off chance that you, you bought a lemon.

Okay.

Like, this is not an unrecoverable situation either.

No.

You know, uh, one, everybody's made stupid purchases in their life at one point in time. Sure. You probably bought a pair of shoes that were ugly and stupid, and you liked them anyway, and you wore them, and you were proud to wear them because you liked them.

Yeah.

I think people should think about their houses like that.

Okay.

Like, do you like your house? I mean, like, who cares what Johnny Joshmo thinks about it, or like what the market tells you about your house. Do you like your house? Yeah. That's kind of how I feel about my house. My house is stupid weird.

Yeah. It's super weird.

And I love it.

Yeah.

You know, but like, I don't care if other people love it. Like, I don't get validation by people loving my house. Sure. Am I comfortable in my home? Do I have fun in it? Do my kids grow up? Are they healthy and happy?

Yeah. Mm-hmm.

It's a great house.

Yeah.

So for those reasons, I love my house.

It, it, it serves the purposes that you're looking for.

Yeah.

It gives you a home. It gives you a place to do, uh, entertaining.

Yeah.

Place for your horses.

I can be weird and no one sees me.

Yeah. Right. I, I think that, you know, I walk into my home.

Mm-hmm.

And there are some people that look at my home and go, man, this thing is small. It's 2,200 square foot. It's not that small.

It does seem bigger than that, by the way.

It feels a lot bigger than that.

Yeah.

On the inside. Well, mainly, mainly because most of, most of the living area is where the square footage is.

Mm-hmm.

So, but I, you know, I think about, uh, someone else's home that I'm thinking about right now who's, uh, closer to 5,000 square foot.

Mm-hmm.

And I was thinking just the other day, I walked from my bathroom all the way across the, the house to my daughter's room.

Mm-hmm.

In a moment. And 5,000 square foot house. That takes minutes.

You could, yeah.

To get across the house. Right. And I'm thinking, man, just the, the way you live in your house, live in the house that you wanna live in.

Yeah.

You know, if, if you don't want a large space to traverse every time you wanna walk across it, get a smaller house and don't worry about the person that has the 5,000 square foot house.

Yeah.

And get the house that fits you. If you want a bigger kitchen and smaller living quarters, Great. Yeah. If you don't, whatever, whatever works for you. Mm-hmm. Don't worry about other people because you're the one living there.

Yeah. I will, I will tell you this, man. I don't know why. I, I have a couple of clients that have these and I love them.

Okay.

The giant U-shape.

Oh, interesting.

So, and there's usually like a pool in the middle.

Mm-hmm.

Or like a courtyard.

Yeah.

Something like that.

Like, well, we had one.

It, kind of like that, but like, think on like a much bigger scale.

Sure. Because it was still not huge.

Right.

It's 2,400 square feet.

Think, you know, at least, you know, 30, 40 yards in between the 2 interior walls.

Yeah.

On the— what would be the outside of the house. Right.

Yeah.

And what I like about that is the ones that I've seen on the one side is like, the, the primary suite.

Yep.

With, you know, master bath and then like a drawing room and an office and a library all on that side. And then in that middle bottom section of the U is like a 2-story where you have like a dining room and then upstairs bedrooms and all that kind of stuff. And then over here on this side of the house was like the kitchen and the living room.

Okay.

And then, you know, like every, anything else that you want. And the house I'm thinking of in my head It was like kitchen, living room, home theater, uh, utility room, gym.

Oh, wow.

Like, but like all that is just on the complete opposite side of the main bedroom.

Yeah.

You know, like, it's like you can actually get away.

Yep.

You can have guests, they can hang out in the living room, they can drink and smoke and do whatever they like. Like, have fun, guys. I'm going over here, right? You know, I'll clean it up in the morning. Sure. Like, you don't have to like you can just go.

Sure.

And like, you're just over there and it's really awkward to go into someone's bedroom. So it is, you know, and so like, you can just retreat.

Yeah.

I like that.

Naughty too.

Um, and so like, I've always thought like if I built one, I, I kind of like the idea of there being a courtyard.

Mm-hmm.

In the middle.

Yeah.

To like separate my living space versus my public living space.

Yeah. Um, so I, I like it.

It just, it just, you know, sure. Whatever floats your boat. But like that, I like that. It's very, it's very cool.

Yeah. Let me ask you a question. Uh-huh. Um, you've been in a lot of houses. Um, just, that sounds really creepy.

That's an understatement for sure.

Um, you, you've been in a lot of houses just because of your, your profession.

Yes.

So, um, I, what I would ask is, what is one of the coolest things you've ever seen? inside of a house that you're like, man, that, that's just really, that's really cool. I'll, I'll tell you what mine is while you're thinking.

Okay.

So growing up, I grew up in a real small town in West Texas. I grew up in Lamesa, Texas. Little small place.

Yeah.

Just south of Lubbock. Uh, hence all the Red Raider gear. Uh-huh. Um, farming town. It's interesting. People build their houses differently out there. For example, most houses in Lamesa, Texas, have a bathroom right off the garage. Okay. With a closet in the bathroom.

Okay.

Because a farmer would come in gross, walk into the bathroom, and all of his closet clothes and everything are right there. He can shower and be ready for the evening. Whatever.

Can go into the house and not get it filthy.

Exactly.

Yeah.

So they, they build things a little bit differently. Well, this one house, friend that I grew up with, The Hogs, that's, they're just people that I remember. They had a swimming pool in their house.

Okay.

So it was an indoor swimming pool inside their house. It was like, it was the coolest thing, man. Like you have, you have a covered swimming pool, right? But it's still outdoor.

Yes.

This was in a residential home inside their house, full-on swimming pool. Like, like you would go to like a hotel that had an indoor swimming pool. It was exactly like that.

Yeah.

And it was the coolest thing. I just remember, I didn't, I wasn't over there swimming a lot, but I did, you know, a few times, birthday parties, different things like that growing up. And, uh, I just remember thinking that was the coolest thing. What for you?

I mean, what would you say? Well, I mean, just on, on that real quick, I, I actually have a client right now that's in building an indoor swimming pool.

Okay.

And she was telling me, back up. When she bought the house, it had the indoor swimming pool. The guy that she bought it from was a retired hotel architect.

Oh.

And so he had scaled down because, like, you remember, like, old hotels? Again, again, giant U-shape.

Yeah.

Pool in the middle indoors.

Yeah.

Right.

Sure.

He scaled down his hotel design and built his house like that.

Interesting.

So what I didn't know Is if you're gonna have an indoor pool, there's a very specific air exchange system that you have to have. He didn't have that.

Oh, because otherwise all the humidity and everything of that pool, it could be awful.

So she bought the house and, and didn't realize, obviously. She's literally, like, gutted this house from the top to the bottom.

Okay.

Like, it had a flat roof. She had to change the roof.

Interesting.

Like, when I say change the roof, she didn't, like, put a new roof on. She had to structurally build a new roof so it had a slope to it.

Wow.

I mean, like, just all kinds of crazy stuff.

Okay.

And she was telling me, she's like, yeah, we had to build, we had to expand the roof on top in order to get the air exchange above the pool because it's such a big piece of equipment. And that one piece of equipment for the pool is $20,000.

Oh my goodness. Whoa.

Just for the indoor. And that's just for the air exchange for the pool. That's right. They're still having to, like, rebuild the pool itself because it was like 40 years old.

Yeah.

And it's like, what do we do? It's like, you can either fill it in or, or fix it. Or fix it.

Yeah.

You know, it's like, those are your 2 options. So anyway, not the coolest thing I've seen in the house, but I, I learned a lot from that. I was like, holy crap, $20 grand for like essentially an air conditioner dehumidifier.

Yeah.

Um, but anyway, um, man, I've seen, uh, I'll give you 2, all right, because 2 come to mind right off the top of your head. Yeah. Um, one, I have a client who was actually on that, uh, Treehouse Builders show.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

Okay.

Um, and they actually hired us to like treat the treehouse. It was a 3-story treehouse.

Oh man.

Uh, air conditioned and then had a suspension bridge from the 2nd story to another tree that had Uh, I don't know what you call it. It's like an observation deck. Oh, like an outdoor observation deck.

Interesting. Yeah.

And they, uh, they had like—

To the savanna. Sure.

I mean, I'm, I'm not, I'm not being specific on purpose because I don't want people to know where the house is.

Of course.

Um, but yeah, and they had, uh, uh, I don't know what you call it, but like where you could store, um, rowboats and kayaks and stuff underneath. It was like a hoist.

Yeah.

That you could bring them up off the ground.

Yeah.

Um, and then there was like a dock underneath that you could take all the boats and stuff out to.

It's called a lift.

Lift.

Thank you. Yeah.

Um, but it wasn't like, it wasn't like mechanical. It was like, it was mechanical, but it wasn't powered.

It was manual.

Yeah.

Okay.

Um, so super cool.

Yeah.

I mean, like you could, you could live out there. Sure. If you really, really want, there was no plumbing. But it was a 3-story treehouse.

Okay, that's cool.

And it was scary to climb that thing as a grown man.

Oh, I bet.

So, I mean, like, it could handle me, don't get me wrong.

Sure.

But like, at the same time, I don't wanna be up there.

Right, yeah, I can see that.

Not my thing. The other one, uh, was a weird Houston thing. Um, if you don't— if you don't know, Houston was built on a bayou.

Yeah.

And so there's no basements.

Right.

So this one house, I was in, it was sort of built like Disney World. Because you know how everything in Disney World is technically on the second floor?

Yeah. Because they've got the utilidors.

Yeah. Which is the ground floor.

Yeah.

Because it was like a swamp.

Yes.

So they built it up where the water wouldn't— it would run off.

Right.

House was the same way. It had a basement.

Okay.

In Houston.

Wow.

And it was a I wanna say 1,500 square foot, uh, wine cellar.

Oh my goodness. That's huge.

Yeah. And, but it wasn't just like a, so like all of the walls were lined and I don't know what kind of wood it was. It was a dark stained wood. It was gorgeous glass front. And then had like all of the cross sections with wine.

Oh, cool.

In there, like the whole wall.

Wow.

On just about every side. So you were like in a circle underground surrounded by wine. And in the middle was a table and like 4 leather chairs on a rug and the floor was rock. And so it was like the perfect temperature and they had the lighting just enough where you could see everything.

Okay.

And it was just a wine tasting room. That's all it was.

Oh my goodness.

And it was the coolest room I've ever been in.

That's cool.

ever.

I love that.

Um, to this day, I, I, I can, I can take you there. We can't get past security, but, well, um, but it's, it's still there. Like, I, man, I, I don't even know who thought of that. I've never seen that in another house, especially in Houston. Yeah.

Like, to, to have a, a basement area at all.

At all. Yeah.

Um, but even, even just the wine, I'll, I'll tell you, like, to have a wine collection is pretty impressive.

Yes.

To begin with. But to have a wine collection that you could do your own tasting with and also just be surrounded in, it's a really cool effect. Yeah. So that's cool.

Especially if the chairs are comfy.

Yeah, no doubt.

But the problem is, is like you have something like that, it's like you wanna go down there, you ain't coming out for a while. No. Like you should make an evening of it.

Exactly. So.

But yeah, but yeah, it like, so I'd want some bourbon down there, but yeah, you know, listen, surrounded by wine while drinking bourbon.

I'm okay with that.

I'm fine with that.

Yeah, me too. Me too.

Stick it up.

Yep.

Wine. Drinking something a little better.

That's exactly right. Well, all right, well, let's get into this. It's the end of 2025 and let me tell you, man, I, it feels a little, I don't know. It feels interesting because—

It doesn't feel like we've got another year under our belt.

No, it doesn't. I remember talking about the beginning of 2025, the opportunities that were ahead of us. And there's so much change with a new president or another president. He's been here before.

He's back.

He's back.

Back again.

And I, I just, it's interesting. There's a lot that happened. Yeah. And, uh, I'm, I'm sure, I know you've got a list here, so I'm, I'm kind of curious.

I, I don't have a list. I mean, I have some things like in the, in the old noodle.

Sure. Um, let's talk about some of 'em.

Uh, so I mean, like, I mean, just from the get-go, because I know this was like last January. Um, Crazy Clean Works, man.

Oh man, dude.

'Cause we've, we both had it in our, in our, for a year, in our toilets for over a year.

Yeah. Yeah, no, I, mine is still there. And in both of, we've got 2 toilets in our home. Both of them have a Crazy Clean in them.

Yep.

And they stay crazy clean.

Yeah. And we're like, we still get comments on those videos and, and the clips from that show that we did. Um, and the, the one that came through the other day was just making me laugh. This guy got on there and he is like, well, you guys really need to put a disclaimer on there that it doesn't clean poop.

Well, it was okay. You know what? Sorry. Sorry, I didn't think to tell you to clean your toilet also. Like, like to be careful with what you ingest so that it doesn't— anyway, whatever.

Yeah. I mean, did you need a note to the toilet to also wipe yourself?

Right. I don't know. Maybe you should invest in a bidet as well.

Maybe.

I don't know.

Maybe that— but, but yeah. So yes, it's, it's a descaler. That's what it is.

It is.

And like, it, most people don't realize that like that ugly brown yellow stain that you get at the bottom of your toilet isn't from poop.

No.

So yeah, it's your water. It's your water.

Yeah.

So like, it works.

It does.

It continues to work. I mean, just like Steve told us it would.

Yeah.

Uh, super cool getting to talk to him.

Yes.

Having, having just like a great conversation.

Great guy.

Enjoyed great company. And yeah. Yeah. So, Happy to like still like promote their products. They're not paying us or anything like that. But like, it was like our, one of our first episodes of 2025.

Yeah.

And I was like, man, that thing works.

It just works. So I agree.

Yeah. So that was one of my, that was one of my big ones. You wanna just go through my list or like in my, in my head?

Yeah, let's go through your list. Yeah, let's do it.

Um, one, I have to, uh, completely reevaluate my, uh, gun storage situation in my home.

Oh dude.

Uh, cuz I am breaking every single one of the rules. that we talked about a couple episodes ago.

Yeah, me too, unfortunately.

Um, I'm not trying to like give thieves any ideas, but like, I was— as I was listening to him, I was like, this guy is reading my mail.

Yeah.

Um, I've, I've bought into the whole fire, you know, ratings on safes.

Yeah.

I typically store them all in one place. That's really obvious to most thieves. Even though my house is weird, it wouldn't be hard to find.

Sure.

Um, I actually, after, after that episode, I went and moved one of my handguns.

Oh, did you?

I did.

That's funny.

'Cause I was, I had a secure place to put it that I wasn't using.

Yeah.

And I was like, this is stupid. I should be using that thing.

Oh yeah.

Um, I mean, just so like, if, if they got stolen, I wouldn't lose all of them.

Uh-huh.

Um, yeah. But also like, you know, like just everything that I keep in the safe, I was like, this is dumb. Like, why do I, why, like, no, I wouldn't like dig a hole and put everything in that hole.

Well, we do this with so many things in life.

Yeah.

Everybody else is doing X, so let's just do that.

Right.

And while on some level that may be fine, there's other levels it's like, let's, let's listen.

Right.

Let's think, let's listen, let's evaluate. And everything that he said, the more he continued to talk, I was like, Oh my goodness. Like, this is so common sense.

Yeah.

But we don't look at it that way because—

We just, we trust.

We trust. And, and that's the opposite of what thieves are gonna do. Yep. They're gonna not, they're actually trusting that you're an idiot. Yep. And that they're gonna know that all your stuff's gonna be in one place.

Yep.

I mean, I would love to see, uh, you know, like be a fly on a wall with a thief just to see their process. Yeah. To see their process. Mm-hmm. And then to walk into one of his homes that he's outfitted.

Yeah.

And then just go, what? What?

He's, look, he's, he's not wrong. I mean, like I had, uh, one of my work trucks get broken into, uh, earlier this year.

Yeah.

And they took one thing.

Mm-hmm. They knew what they were looking for.

They, they knew the one thing they wanted outta that truck and they weren't gonna hang around to investigate the rest of it. And let me tell you, they missed the most valuable stuff in that truck.

Yeah.

Um, didn't even, I mean, didn't even look at it, didn't consider it.

They got lucky. Well, I mean, you got, I, I mean, honestly, the one thing that they should have grabbed is the one thing you didn't want 'em to grab.

That's true.

You know?

Yeah. Um, but it, it happened.

Yeah.

But it happened just like he said. I mean, like, they're not rifling through my car. They saw something, they broke the glass, they grabbed it and they walked.

Yep.

They weren't going to—

they weren't going to— which is what thieves do.

Yep. Yep. So, I mean, like, and I think, I think a lot of us have like this romantic idea of the thief that's like rifling through the boxes and sneaking through the house. And it's just like, it's not like that. It's like, it's a smash and grab.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and, and honestly, you can, you can put safes in your house. You can do what's, what he talked about as far as like, You know, putting things in different places. I, I loved his whole thing. My 2 biggest weapons are hanging out outside. Mm-hmm. And they're, they'll bark at you and they're loud. They're my 2 biggest deterrents.

Uh-huh.

You know? Yeah. I mean, I frankly, nobody really likes being around my dogs. I, did I tell you the story about the Amazon driver?

No.

Okay.

Let, did you get a note?

No. Uh, so during Christmas, One of my least favorite things is delivery for any package because they hire Uber drivers basically.

Yeah.

To deliver packages that aren't, I mean, they're, they're, they went through some training online, right? They, they're, I, I actually learned that each of those are independent contractors.

Yeah.

And, and that they have their own liability and all that kind of stuff. So, um, but I got a call one day and, uh, we, man, we had been getting so many things delivered in the wrong place. We have very clear instructions. for our delivery driver and they just not following instructions at all.

Mm-hmm.

It was pissing me off. So this guy calls me, uh, and I see it, you can see it's Amazon whenever they call. I answer the phone. He goes, hey, uh, I just delivered your packages, but your dog got it. And I said, um, excuse me? He goes, yeah, your dog got it. And I was like, well, there's only one way that could happen. is if you didn't deliver it correctly. And he goes, well, what do you mean? And I said, did you even— I said, you— here's what I said. I said, you didn't even try to look at where it was supposed to be delivered, did you? He goes, hold on a minute. And he goes, oh, oh, you wanted it delivered over there? And I was like,

yeah, because the dogs can't get over there. Like, I, I very clearly put it in the instructions even that the dogs can't get over there. So put it over there. And he was like, so you didn't want it by your mailbox? I said, dude, you didn't put it by my mailbox because my dogs can't get to the mailbox. Like you, you very poorly tried to deliver this package. And he goes, oh man. I said, so where is it now? And he goes, uh, actually it's out in the middle of the yard. The dogs, it's not in the dog's mouth anymore. That's how he said, that's not the dog's mouth anymore. I go, go get it. And he goes, what? And I was like, yeah, go get it. Because I said, because

if it gets, uh, destroyed, I'm gonna hold you personally responsible for it, whatever that means.

Yeah.

And he goes, uh, okay. And I said, look, dude, my— honestly, my dogs don't want to be near you, right? They're probably gonna run away whenever you get close to them. But they're loud. Go get the package. And he goes, okay, hold on. He goes back, goes, okay, I got it. I'm putting it in the right place right now. And I'm like, this guy, this is great. Like, this is, this is gold right now. Like, the fact that he actually went and got it. But honestly, like, people don't want to be around my dogs.

Yeah.

Just because they're loud. They're big and they're loud, you know? And I, anyway, dude, that's my security device.

If I was him, I would've waited for the dogs to start barking and then just let out a bloodcurdling scream like I was getting mauled. Just, I mean, just to mess with you.

Well, I think he was sufficiently scared for some reason. I was like, go get it. He was like, what? It's just so funny. Uh, anyway, no gun storage. I, I don't think it can be overstated. Can't be overstated.

Yep. Um, so, uh, what is this, number 3 for me?

Yeah.

I've got, I've got 4.

Okay.

Um, 3 is continuing on our fun story about Navy SEALs. Um, apparently lying about being a Navy SEAL is a thing.

Apparently there's something we didn't know.

Yeah. But now there's this thing that like people like to do, which is lie. about who they are.

So what in the world?

Long, long story short, because we're actually gonna be having Don Shipley on the show, which I'm super excited about.

Me too.

Um, he reached out.

Yeah.

Uh, super nice guy.

Mm-hmm.

So cool to get to even talk to him. We, we had about a 15, 20-minute conversation and he just kind of ran me through like, look, this is where I get all of my information. This is the database. I have access to it. Not everybody does. This is why I have access to it. And the guy that you were talking to was just an absolute fraud. And I was like, well, that sucks. And I was like, what do we need to do? And he goes, don't need to do anything. Just let me come on the show and I'll talk to everybody about how I figure this kind of stuff out. And I'm happy to have you. Yeah.

So there you go.

And that, and that episode was this year.

Yeah.

Like we talked to, to, well, not the, not the episode with Alan.

That was 2 years ago.

It was 2 years ago.

It was 2 years ago.

Oh my goodness. So yeah, it was on, yeah. Okay. It was on March 14th. I see it right here. Yeah.

It's, it blew up because Don exposed the guy and all the people that subscribed to his website, which, by the way, is why we couldn't see everything, because he just releases clips onto YouTube. He has a subscription website where people can actually watch the full video.

Man.

Which he gave me access to.

Oh.

Um, so we, so we, I mean, so we could go on and actually see what happened, what people were talking about. Yeah. And he was like, look, you need to know. And, and he was, he was super gracious about it. And he was like, and he was like, He goes, honestly, most people don't do anything with the information that I give them. He goes, and so I appreciate you actually like trying to engage.

Yeah.

Because most people don't wanna print retractions. Sure. They don't wanna admit that like they did something or they talked to somebody that was a fraud or anything. I was like, I don't care.

Yeah.

Like if he's a fraud, he's a fraud.

Sure. I don't mind.

I don't mind having that open, honest conversation. I don't feel like, I mean, like, look, if I screwed up, I'll look, look, I'm the first one to be like, I screwed up.

Sure.

So, but he was like, he's like, look, you guys didn't do anything wrong. This is what people do. They pull the wool over people's eyes all the time. And like, you had no reason to not believe him.

Sure.

Um, he goes, it's just what I do is I expose people who are fakes and frauds. And I'm like, I love it.

I do too. I do too.

Um, man, I'm glad he's out there. I'm glad I don't have to do his job.

No doubt. Um, and I'm glad I'm not the fraud.

Yeah.

Who's like— because he's not backing down.

Oh, no.

Not going to back down.

Well, maybe. Who knows? I've heard some guys back down.

No, the, the, uh, Alan— not Alan, but, uh, Don is not backing down.

No, he's not backing down.

That's what I mean.

No, what I mean is like there are guys that I've seen him have encounters with that won't back down.

Sure.

And then I've heard other guys just be like, once they're confronted with the facts, they're like, I'm so sorry. Yeah, I did that. Gosh. And it's like, ugh, gut punch, man.

No doubt.

Like, why would you do that?

Why would you do that? Speaking of why would you do that?

Uh-huh.

We talked a lot about squatters this last year.

Yeah, we did.

We talked a lot about squatters and unfortunately squatters have rights.

Uh, yep.

And they shouldn't. Nope. And we got into some, some pretty interesting stories. Mm-hmm. And it felt like there for a while it was like every other week or so we were hitting on squatter stories.

It was, people were making it because There was a, uh, there was a, the foreign dude on TikTok.

Yeah.

Uh, teaching people how to squat on people's property.

Yeah.

And I, man, I don't wanna, I don't wanna say what country he was from cuz I, I could get it wrong.

Yeah.

And I don't wanna, that's, that's a little bit of a sensitive topic right now. Yeah. It's like profiling people from different countries.

Yeah. Um, but he was from not the US.

He was from not the US and he was teaching people how to like, how to squat on people's property.

Yeah.

And it's like, and, and TikTok wasn't taking it down.

I know.

And it's like, they don't care. He's teaching them how to— it's like, it's like teaching someone how to burgle.

Right. And it's for free. Like, he—

why?

You're not even, you're not even profiting off of this. You're just being a jerk. Yeah. To put it kindly.

Well, I mean, he could have been, he could have been making money off of it.

I guess possible.

It was a pretty popular channel. I mean, you get popular enough on TikTok, you, you make money. You can make some money.

Yeah, you can. Yeah. Um, for sure.

I mean, it's, it's, I don't know that it's much better than doing stupid dances.

Um, not much, but, but maybe.

Uh, I would do neither.

No, I would not do, yeah, the stupid dances. I'm out. Yeah. Um, well, for lots of reasons. Uh-huh. I can't dance. That's the number one reason. It could make you very popular, Kevin. Uh, it can, it would make me popular.

Maybe you could like nail the Elaine.

For, uh, yeah, I would be closer to the Elaine than I would be the Carlton. I'll put it that way. Uh, but I, here, here's another thing that I, I think was interesting in, uh, in '25 was we've seen whether, whether it's good or bad, you can, you can take your pick on where it is, but we've seen the leveling of interest rates. They've, they've leveled. Pretty good. Yeah. They're not, they're not like going up anymore. They're not coming down though, but they're just kind of, they're holding. And we follow this as much as we can just because it's, for us, I think it's just kind of interesting.

Yeah.

Neither one of us are in the market to buy a home, but it's always interesting to know what's going on out there.

Yeah.

And they're like, these interest rates have just kind of hovered. And I think that it's, we have not seen any massive boom, of sales, and we've not seen a massive decline of home sales. I think all realtors, I think, would like to see—

They'd like to see more.

Yeah, they'd like to see more sales. And I think that there are people out there that would love to still sell their house, and they've been waiting. But for the most part, and I know that, look, we can debate all day long whether or not where the interest rate is, is good or bad. Um, we can debate that all day long. We can debate things about where inflation is. We can debate things about just money in general. But what I will say is the fact that the interest rates have held, it does say something about the economy.

It's steady.

It's steady.

Yeah.

You may not like where it's at, and I'm, I would probably be in the same boat. I don't like where it's at. I would like it to, you know, the, the whole idea of money to be less.

Yeah.

I would like my groceries to be less. Actually, gas is pretty good right now. Um, but I would like my groceries to be less. I would like my electricity to be less. I would like my, you know, my interest rates to be less. All those things I would like to be less, but we're not seeing massive fluctuation. We're not seeing hikes. We're not seeing dips. it's holding. And say what you want to about the government, whatever, there's something to be said about steady.

Yeah. So I just, I just had ChatGPT look it up for me.

Okay.

Just kind of see where we're at right now.

Okay.

And based off what it could find as of December of 2025, the national average for like a 30-year fixed is around 6.18 to 6.2.

Yeah. So that's actually down a little bit.

It's down a little bit.

Because I think we were up high 6s, maybe low 7s.

Yeah. And then, and then, you know, some of them are quoting between 6.1 to 6.5.

Okay.

FHA are showing 5.8 to 6%, which is not bad.

Yeah.

But if you're able to get into a 15-year, the average is around 5.5%.

Okay.

So, I mean, that's, that's good.

No, in, in comparison to what it's been over the last 2 years, that's actually not bad at all.

Yeah.

Not bad at all.

So the, the issue, the issue we're having right now is that prices are still high.

Yeah.

They just have no— we— there's no bubble that's popped or anything like that. Um, and, and, and no one really knows what's propping it up, you know. And a lot of people are wanting to throw it at the feet of BlackRock and some of these other conglomerates, um, that have been, you know, scooping up all these houses and, and putting them into portfolios. And like, fair enough. Like they're, they're sure. They have a, they, they now have a vested interest in keeping market prices high.

Sure.

On those homes because they don't, they don't wanna lose value for their clients.

Right.

Or their portfolios. So I, I, I get that, that thought process. I don't, I don't know that that's even 10 or 20% of it. No. I mean, like, if you were, if you were going to say, I, I think if you were to talk to any smart money person and go like, what is like the largest contributing factor to housing prices not coming down, I think they would say it's a contributing factor, but it's not the main one.

Yeah.

I think there's too many other factors involved. I mean, like one, like I don't know that we've actually seen building supply numbers, costs come down.

No.

Those haven't come down. I mean, they're not like they were during COVID No. But they're still way higher.

Yep.

And, and, and tracking way higher above inflation. And at their, at their current prices.

Yeah.

And, and so like, if you're looking at a builder going like, hey, I need you to bring the prices down. And he is like, yeah, but I need you to get me to have trees cost less. I mean, it's like, yeah, there's, and, and like all the nuts and bolts and the fixtures and all that stuff went up. And th— this is, this is something that we talked about. I, man, I don't remember when we talked about this. It was a long time ago. We were talking about the price of cars.

Hmm.

And, I had talked to, a guy that had moved here, I think it was from like West Texas or something like that, that had been in the automobile industry. Like he'd worked for a large car dealership.

Okay.

And he was like, I, he goes, I ethically could not continue working for the car dealership. And I was like, why? He goes, well, the companies that are selling the cars got used to the prices that we were selling at and their costs went down, but because the prices of the cars normalized, they took the opportunity to take larger profits.

Yeah.

On the, on the back end. And so, and I kind of get the feeling that that's where we're at.

Yep.

With homes.

Yep.

Is everybody's prices went up.

We get comfortable.

And there's, you know, like any business will tell you like, why in the world would I ever bring my prices down?

Sure.

Like it just, it doesn't make sense. Nope. If you, all of a sudden your margins get bigger because in the back of your head, you're going, yeah, but what happens when it happens again? And then I have to jack 'em up and everyone's pissed at me. It's like, why not just keep 'em high?

Yep. And, you know, especially if people are paying and they're paying.

So, you know, and I'm not, I'm not saying like there's like a boondoggle of like, you know, money being made across the board and all, but like, if, if it's just ratcheted up a little bit across the board on everything.

Yeah.

Like, Why, what incentive do they have to bring it down? None.

None. Nope.

So, you know, it, it, it is, it, I mean, like, I hate, I hate the phrase, but it is what it is. Yeah. So the other, the other side of that is, there's a lot of people out there who are talking about we have normalized the luxury home in the US.

Yeah.

And young people, there's, there's 2 issues. Young people who are, First-time homebuyers. And, like, again, this is, like, this is a generalization. I realize not everybody is like this, but, like, there is this weird sort of entitlement that, like, you have to have all the fancy things in your house the first time you buy it.

Mhmm.

Okay? So if that's what the market's demanding, like, if you're a builder and that's what, like, your clients get, well, it's, like, a nice house, but I'd much rather have with this and with this.

Right.

Well, that's a larger footprint. That's more expensive build. That's, there's a lot of things. And so, like, that's gonna jack up the price on what you're gonna be paying for. And so if that's, if that's the case, then you are going to, as the builder, be less incentivized to build lower, smaller, more affordable first-time homes.

Mhmm.

And so the first-time home buyer, when they get into it, I think, you know, sort of like the gal on Reddit was talking about, there weren't a lot of stuff. There wasn't a lot of, inventory.

Sure.

In my price range.

Yeah.

So it's, it's a catch-22. I mean, like, there's, there's no inventory because you asked for it. Yeah. And the builder built it. Well, now you're telling 'em you can't afford it.

Yep. And, and, and then, you know, we see neighborhoods from time to time that go up with these little starter homes. Yep. And we almost like scoff at them.

Oh, I don't.

Uh, many people do though. Yeah. It's like, oh, there goes in low, another low income housing development. It's like, that's—

I, I see that attitude more with like apartment complexes than anything.

Sure.

Um, and, and fair enough. Like, I get it. I don't wanna live next to one.

Right.

It's not my, not, not the stage of life I'm at anymore.

Yeah. But that's the thing is you're not, you're not a first-time home buyer. No. And you don't need to be a first-time home buyer a second time. Like, you, you know, the idea, it realistically, I know the, the attitude is crazy, but the idea of buying a starter home is a longstanding thing.

Yeah.

For forever. It's like, look, you buy a starter home, build up some equity so that you can get what you want.

Yeah.

You know? And there's 2 ways to go about it. Frankly, my wife and I didn't want to buy a starter home, but it wasn't because we didn't want a starter home.

Yeah.

We just didn't want to, uh, necessarily buy the newest thing.

Right.

So the first house that we bought was, was built in 1945. So it was, it was a little bit nicer than a starter home, but it was old and we had a lot of things that needed to be fixed on it. So there, there's a couple of ways you can go about it. You don't have to buy a small house if you don't want a small house. You might just have to buy an old house.

And fix it up.

And fix it up. It may not be in the neighborhood that you want, or it may not be, you know, there, there's a lot of different ways to get what you want. But again, uh, I think you're right. It's, it's an interesting thing with building materials being what they are. And with, you know, I think we, we do, especially those of us that live in a city, I think it's more difficult to have this idea of I've got to have the nicer house in the better neighborhood. in the neighborhood that's more accessible to the places that I wanna be, all of those sorts of things. I think that is a little bit different than people that live in small town USA.

Sure.

Uh, because that's just what you're used to.

Well, there, there's also like this, I, there's an elephant in the room that I think needs to be addressed.

Okay.

And I think that elephant is we have gotten away from the idea that you could be content in the very first house that you buy for the rest of your life.

Yeah.

I mean, it, like, part of, part of what used to be the American dream is, you know, like, you buy that house, you have your family in that house, and then you retire in that house.

Sure.

And at some point in time in your late 40s, early 50s, you give the middle finger to the bank as you burn the mortgage and when you make the last payment.

Sure.

You know, and people just don't do that anymore. No, they don't pay off their houses. They just, they just keep upgrading and upgrading. And I'm not happy here. I wanna go to a bigger one. I wanted like one of the, and like, I understand, like we've been conditioned that way, but like, how much better off financially would you be by the time you are 48 years old that you're not making a house payment anymore?

Mm-hmm.

And like from like 45 to 60 years old is like, people's prime earning years. So if you could squirrel all that cash away that you would be putting into a house, when you want to retire, you could probably retire. You'd probably have plenty of money. You'd have a house that's paid off. May not be the fanciest house, but you could probably put the fanciest things inside it that you want.

That's right.

We just don't—

Or go where you want.

Or go where— you could go stay in a really nice hotel all you want. You could have the nice things without— you don't necessarily have to have a nice house. And some people just aren't You know, you don't need, you don't need a really nice house.

You know, it's interesting. Uh, we have a, we have a good friend who, um, they, they bought a, a starter home and what they did, it was just brilliant, is they, they were both, uh, just the two of them. Mm-hmm. Uh, dual income family and they lived completely on the, including buying their house, right? On one of their salaries.

Right.

The other one just completely socked it away. And, uh, they, they paid off that house. Uh, they accelerated their payments. That, this is how well they lived. Uh, you know what I mean by that? Efficient. They lived very efficiently.

Right.

And they, they paid off that house in like 10 years. And then, I mean, now they don't, they don't have any house payment.

Right.

And they learned how to live on one income.

On a lot less.

On a lot less. And you would never know how well off they are. Right. But they're well off. Yep. But they, they can, they can give the way they want to.

Mm-hmm.

They can go where they want to. They can play the way they wanna play. And I, you know, there's something to be said about just living frugally, right? There is. Um, and, and I'll say there's, you don't have to be, you don't have to have the highest earning job to be someone who, who has whatever they want.

Yeah.

You just gotta be smart.

Yep.

So what else? Is there anything else? Oh yeah, man.

Um, big one that we talked about several times this year was insulation.

Oh, dude.

And so I'm gonna, I'm gonna leave the names out so that the parties can remain anonymous and, uh, you know, nonliable.

Yeah.

Um, but we had somebody that's a good friend of the show call both of us.

Mm-hmm.

And be like, hey, remember all that stuff you guys were talking about with insulation?

Yeah.

Well, now Orkin has a billboard out on Beltway 8. Yep. Saying that they have pest-resistant insulation. Like they put it on the billboard.

Yeah.

So like, it's like, we're not in trouble.

No.

For saying something that they advertise.

Their name is on the billboard.

Yep.

That, I mean, they put it out there.

They put it out there. So, and like, we cover this in great detail that multiple times that there's just no such thing. No, there's no such thing as pest resistant. And it's like, you know, if you talk to any like insulation expert, they're gonna be like, yeah, they're not gonna want to go in that insulation as much as they would maybe another insulation.

Sure.

It's It's not going to keep anything out of your house.

No. And if they're already there, it's not doing— they're not doing anything. No, no.

Now, I mean, you might chase them out when you suck up all the old insulation.

Sure.

But I mean, like, they're just gonna come back.

They're gonna come back. If you, if you can rid your house of all rodents, which would be a feat, but if you could do that, then there are certain types of insulation that do better at keeping them out than others.

Sure.

But that, that's just not— pest-resistant insulation is not a thing.

Such— I mean, I wish, I wish Don would get into—

Oh, yeah. Yeah.

It's, it's just one of those things that pisses me off because I've seen, I've seen multiple situations just this year where people are getting scammed.

Mhmm.

Because when you, when you add that label to it, you're able to add a premium onto the cost. Yeah. So it's more expensive than traditional insulation because you're putting in pest-resistant insulation.

It's the same stuff. It's the same stuff. It's such— it's, it's laughable that— I mean, I don't know, they're, they're selling you a bill of goods. I mean, it's just—

if, you know, and look here, let me also back this up a little bit. Orkin's not the only one doing it. No, they're just the one that put a billboard so we could actually finally talk about it. But when we were talking about it before Orkin was one of the companies we were talking about.

Yeah, there you go. So I— here, here's what I would tell anybody about anything, especially whenever it comes to owning your home. If it sounds a little weird, it probably is.

It probably is.

And do your research. Yeah, like just do your research. And I— we— this is something that from episode 1, we have done our best to help people understand, like Get multiple bids.

Yeah.

Talk to multiple people. Get, you know, do your due diligence because otherwise you're gonna get scammed.

Yeah.

You know why? Because people want to make money.

Yeah.

And if they don't know you, they don't care about you. So just, there are people out there that will get to know you and will want to do what's best for you and will try to understand the situation that you're in and do the right thing for the right reasons. Mm-hmm. Go Go use those people. They're out there. And just because they're a smaller company doesn't mean they're a worse company.

No.

In fact, so many contractors that I'm aware of stopped working for the big companies to start their own company to do it better.

Yeah. The, the big thing that, one of the big things that people need to consider when they're talking about working with, like, a big company versus a little company, a little company has the ability to be more creative.

Mm-hmm.

They don't, they're not hamstrung like big company operators are.

Yeah.

Because there are, they limit them and are incentivized to do specific things for that company.

Yep.

That, that company has probably handed down from on, on high.

Mm-hmm.

From Ohio.

Yeah.

And it's not to dog on Ohio. It's just like if you're living in Ohio and you're the CEO of like an electrical company, you don't understand the electrical needs of people in Texas or California or Washington, but like, you're part of this big conglomerate and you guys have learned how to make money and good for you.

Yep.

But like, they can't be as creative as a 5 to 10 man team operating in, you know, Portland.

That's right.

You know, whatever. Like, they just can't.

Nope.

And, and so like, those guys, even though like, They still have to be licensed. They still have to be insured. They're just gonna be able to offer you a more hands-on approach to your problems. Yeah. And, and probably offer you more than one solution, maybe 4 or 5 solutions. Then this other company is gonna come in with a square peg in a square hole.

Yep.

I, it's just the way it is.

It's the way it is. And what's interesting is this person that called us, as I was talking to him, I was like, look, like, this is gonna— I just don't understand because this will come back to bite them. This, like, putting this up on a billboard, it's gonna come back to bite them. And he— and here's what he said. He said, yeah, but they can absorb all the bites.

Yep.

Whenever they're mostly nibbles in comparison to the other people that they're gonna get with it. And I think that's part of the issue is They don't even care at that point. Whereas a smaller company, and I'm not saying all small companies are great. Sure.

Don't, don't hear me on that. There's bad small companies.

Do your due diligence is what I'm saying. But a smaller company has their reputation to uphold. And if you come at them because they did something wrong and they're not willing to fix it, they can wreck their entire business. Yeah.

I mean, like one of the, one of the big things that I think most people need to check on when they're dealing with a small business, do they have a physical address?

Yeah.

If they have a physical address that has, like, a sign for their business out front, I'm not talking about, like, somebody's home or something like that, but, like, if they have a sign, if they're in that community, you have a physical address that you can, like, actually go knock on a door or something like that. That's a cus— that's, that's a business that is interested in upholding their reputation in the community.

Mhmm.

That's a, and it's a much more valuable thing to them than, like, a big company.

Sure.

Because they have to answer to their neighbors.

That's right.

You know, and even, even in a place like Houston, like, look, you don't wanna get called out on one of these like neighborhood groups. Ugh. Or, you know, I love whatever city I'm living in groups.

Ugh. I mean, like, it'll go down, right?

I mean, like, we experienced that during the whole Charlie Kirk thing where somebody just said something really dumb and they had to leave. And I mean, I think they're still around. Yeah.

But like, but, but their business is closed down.

Yeah.

And he— and this person had a fairly thriving business, not just a business, had lots of things going that were going well.

Yeah, suddenly people that didn't know him knew him really well.

Yep, and attacked him.

In all the wrong ways.

Not physically, as far as I know.

I don't think— yeah.

But very verbally.

Hopefully no one physically attacked him.

And through reviews and through methods that hurt.

Are crippling.

They're crippling.

Yeah.

Yep.

So, I mean, you know, you just, you don't wanna get on the community's bad side.

Right.

And it just, it takes one bad story.

Yep.

To just, I mean, flip the script on the whole business.

And, and if you get on Orkin's bad side, or if Orkin gets on your bad side and you put it out there in the community.

Yeah.

They couldn't care less. They don't care. They don't care.

So they'll tell you that they care. They don't care. No. Look, look, look, we should, we should probably clarify that statement. The corporation doesn't care. I'm sure there are individuals that live in this community that work for Orkin that genuinely care.

Well, and their, their job matters. And if you attack, you know, like if, if, I mean, who knows, they could lose their job. And that's, I, I'm just saying the company as a whole. Yeah. They don't care. Right.

Yeah. I'm, I'm with you on that. So anyway, man, it's been an interesting year. Um, yeah, definitely learned a lot, a lot of stuff I wasn't planning on learning.

Yeah.

Uh, wasn't even on my radar.

Right.

So, but I, I don't know. Is there anything else for you?

Man, no, there, there, I've already got some things that I, I, I know are coming up in 2026. Uh-huh. Um, I, I've, I've learned some things just about my own house recently that we'll probably wind up talking about. All right. At some point. And, uh, man, I'm, I'm, I'm always excited when New Year comes around.

Mm-hmm.

Because it just, it follow— you, you've heard me say it on here. Christmas time is my favorite time of year.

Yep.

It's, there's a joy in the air that I just absolutely love and and the beginning of the year follows that, and there's just excitement and there's opportunity ahead.

Yeah.

It just feels like it's a reset. Anything that you wish you would've done differently, you have the opportunity to start over and do differently. But those of you who are out there just going, man, I'm just hanging on, hang on.