[00:00:00] Eric Goranson: It's around the house. Every time I bring this up, I will have a couple messages saying that this is a scam, that it's some government conspiracy and hey, I'm a conspiracy junkie. I just don't think this is one of them. And that is, have you had your house checked for radon? I know of way too many people that were never smokers, that didn't have a unhealthy lifestyle and their entire family came down with some kind of lung cancer.

[00:00:34] Eric Goranson: Guess what? They had high levels of radon in your home. So I want you to make sure and check that every few years. Now here's the thing. Radon coming out of your house can be different and difficult to work with sometimes. Here's why. Like in my state here, if I sell my house, part of the condition of the sale is they have to have a radon check and do something [00:01:00] that company can come in.

[00:01:01] Eric Goranson: They do their task. Out the door they go. Now, you could be that you had all of the crawlspace fence open wide up. When it comes to remodeling and renovating your home, there is a lot to know, though, we've got you covered. This is Around the House. Welcome to the Around the House show, the next generation of home improvement.

[00:01:23] Eric Goranson: Thanks for joining me today. I'm Eric G. Thanks for tuning in. Now, it doesn't matter if you're listening on the national radio show on the talk media network, country. I think we're in five time zones. Thanks for catching us on the radio. Or if you're catching us on the podcast, I do appreciate that as well, especially out there on many of the streaming services that are now curing around the house show.

[00:01:45] Eric Goranson: So that's three huge different ways. And number four is even on YouTube. You can catch it over there for you. YouTube listeners. Today, we're going to talk about my top 10 things you should be doing to your home. Now, these are those things that are those maintenance things that get forgotten [00:02:00] all the time.

[00:02:01] Eric Goranson: And, uh, something to protect you and your home. Now, if you want to find out more about us, head over to around the house, online. com. And you can give us a call at the studio here at 833 239 4144. That number again is 833 239 4144. If you like watching things in video, make sure you check us out. We've got about 420 YouTube videos just on the around the house, Northwest stuff.

[00:02:28] Eric Goranson: And you can find that over at around the house online. com. And we've got some great stuff over there for you today. Here's the thing I wanted to talk about this subject. Cause there's so many things that people forget. You get tied up into your normal day to day routine. You're working a job or two.

[00:02:44] Eric Goranson: Trying to get the bills paid in these things, just fly under the radar. And now these are important ones. These are things that you can do probably could save you money. It'll save you money in the long run, no matter what, and you're going to protect yourself. And [00:03:00] first on the list, these aren't in a particular order.

[00:03:02] Eric Goranson: Cause I think they're all fairly equally important. I want you to take your phone and I'd say most people out there have some kind of cloud backup on your phone. If you've got an iPhone, you're walking around with your, uh, iCloud backup. So it keeps everything in storage. Other phone systems have the same thing.

[00:03:21] Eric Goranson: Make sure that you've got that storage backed up, but I want you to walk around your entire house, spend a half hour, walk around and open up every cabinet door while videotaping and narrating and documenting what you have. Start out one side of the house, walk down to the kitchen, open it up. Do you see something of value?

[00:03:45] Eric Goranson: That's probably more expensive. If you can remember where you got it and when say it. If you open up the cabinet door and you go, Oh, there's my rice cooker. I got that here, that expensive. But if you're getting into that expensive [00:04:00] KitchenAid mixer, just go through and document stuff. Go through the jewelry drawer, show that stuff, document, everything start to finish in your house and save it as a video in the cloud.

[00:04:12] Eric Goranson: You can name it inventory, whatever month, 2024, whatever it is, save it as that. And that way you get it. Mention the big stuff. As I said, go around and then save it there. Just open every cabinet, every door. Don't forget the storage things up in the attic, down in the basement, out in the shed, go through your tools.

[00:04:32] Eric Goranson: And remember if, if you walk by your television and go, Oh yeah, I got that last year at Costco, put it in there. Cause you might forget that later. And because here's what happens. If you. End up getting a major loss. Many insurance companies are going to send you a stack of paperwork and say, okay, put down everything you own when you probably got it and where that's hard to remember, but if you can document some of this stuff, it makes it [00:05:00] so much easier because you can go around and go cabinet by cabinet.

[00:05:03] Eric Goranson: I have lost stuff before. It was probably 15 years ago. I pulled up in front of my rental house. I was in and somebody had pulled up with a truck and drugged the garage door off the front of the building in Seattle. And I lost all my tools in for a year. I'd go in my toolbox and go, Oh, I forgot I had that.

[00:05:22] Eric Goranson: Now I have to go buy it after I'd filed my insurance claim. And so that's one of those things that I always got burned on. Absolutely got burned on. And then, so take a look, just hit everything you can and keep it well stored. So the next one here, that's a good one. Just keep it, do it probably once a year, go through.

[00:05:43] Eric Goranson: That's a good annual event. Go through and just take inventory and that way you've got it. It'll save you in the long run, especially if you have any kind of a theft, cause you can go back through it and go, Oh, where is that? And that'll help you out. All right. Next on the list here, are you measuring [00:06:00] humidity in your home?

[00:06:02] Eric Goranson: And is it over 60 percent if you can't walk into your house right now and say, what's the humidity in here? If you don't have a way to measure that you could have mold issues, hiding someplace. And you'd never know it. Now, most of the smart thermostats that we see today have got this covered. They've got some kind of a humidity sensor, but that's a point sensor right there in that hallway or wherever that is.

[00:06:28] Eric Goranson: So here's what you can do. You can get portable ones to go around. One of the easiest ways is to go get for 30 or 40 bucks. One of those weather stations. That you'd put on your kitchen counter and put this sensor outside. That gives you two sensors. So now you can move that around your house, put one in the basement, put one in a crawl space wherever, and you can modify that and move it around wherever you need to, because here's the thing.

[00:06:55] Eric Goranson: If you're getting over 60 percent relative humidity, you have a mold problem. I [00:07:00] almost guarantee it. It's going to start growing and there's so many homes out there. That have mold issues that nobody thinks about because they don't see it. It could be up in the attic. It could be in the crawl space. It could be in the basement.

[00:07:14] Eric Goranson: It could be in one corner of the basement. But if you're not watching that humidity, you can have a problem. Now, certain areas have higher humidity, but it might not be that humid outside, but you could have a water leak or you could have a moisture issue that's raising that humidity and causing that problem.

[00:07:31] Eric Goranson: You could go, Hey, I live in the Pacific Northwest. It's not always that humid. You're right. But all it takes is to have water leaking around siding someplace in a room and you've got high humidity and you've got mold growing in there and you don't know till it's way too late. So going around and measuring humidity in your home is a great way to see what's going on and then you can deal with the problems as they come out.

[00:07:52] Eric Goranson: So that's an important one right there. So there you go. That's a big one. Next on the list here. When was the last time you had [00:08:00] your HVAC system serviced? I want to say if you've got an HVAC system, you should have somebody coming out at least once a year. If it's new, if it's old, here's the thing, they can look at capacitors on your air conditioner.

[00:08:14] Eric Goranson: They can take a peek at stuff and go, wow, that thing is swelled up. It is going to blow up the next time you have a high heat situation and that thing gets under load. And that small part can be replaced with a part off the truck. And then that prevents a future, future outage of that system. So your HVAC system really guys is like your vehicle.

[00:08:39] Eric Goranson: If you're not changing the oil, that kind of thing, that maintenance will get you. So make sure that you've got that annual maintenance going. If you're in an area where you have a lot of heat and a lot of cooling, I would have it done every six months. You can have the heating system checked, have the cooling system checked.

[00:08:56] Eric Goranson: And if you're down in very hot states down south, [00:09:00] I would look at having it done twice a year. So that way you can make sure that all the drain lines are flushed out. And here's the thing. As we get into more. Computerized systems, as we get more efficient, as we know, those take more computers and are a little more finicky.

[00:09:14] Eric Goranson: So you want to make sure you're on it. And that way that service gets done because you want to extend this out as long as you can. Because systems are expensive right now, as you can spend 15 to 20, 000 bucks pretty quickly on a high efficiency system. And if you could hold that off for a little bit until interest rates get better or the economy gets a little better, that's going to save you some serious money, which I like.

[00:09:40] Eric Goranson: All right, everybody. We'll be right with more around the house after these important messages don't go anywhere.

[00:09:56] Eric Goranson: So many people with[00:10:00]

[00:10:09] Eric Goranson: to be around the house show the next generation of home improvement. Thanks for joining me. I am Eric G and we've got a great show here. We've been talking about my top 10 things you should be doing to your home right now. Those annual things. For maintenance that you should be paying attention to, or those phone calls, a little things you should be filling out and getting taken care of.

[00:10:28] Eric Goranson: So that way you can keep the most of your home. In the last segment, we talked about videotape and all your belongings for insurance purposes, keeping records of that. And are you measuring humidity in your home? And if you had your HVAC serviced this year, next on the list here, have you checked your smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors to see if they're expired, these things have an expiration date on them and they usually say, Hey, they were manufactured here replaced by, but we always say, Hey, check the batteries, something we don't do that as [00:11:00] often anymore.

[00:11:01] Eric Goranson: Because so many have lifetime batteries, they have electric with a lifetime backup, and they just get forgotten. They don't get tested and we need to check them out. So here's the thing. I want you to go up, pop up there, take a peek and make sure they're one working correctly in two that they have. The right expiration date on them.

[00:11:22] Eric Goranson: It's like milk. You want to make sure those things are dialed in, ready to go. Now, if you have those ones that give you the phantom settings and all that weird stuff where it goes beep and makes weird stuff, or you take a shower and somebody opens a bathroom door and it sets it off with steam, there are some smarter options out there.

[00:11:41] Eric Goranson: So like for instance, in my kitchen, I have Google Nest protect. Because sometimes I'll be cooking a steak in the oven or something like that. And maybe the hood didn't get turned on high enough, or I've just got a really good thing going in there and the hood isn't keeping up, even though it's like 1200 CFM that can happen.

[00:11:59] Eric Goranson: And then [00:12:00] it will warn me that it's going to go off, Hey, smoke detected in the kitchen area. And then I can grab it on my app and mute it. So. The other thing with that too, that's really cool is if you're outside of the house and you're out running around and it's smoke and carbon monoxide detector goes off, it'll tell you whether you're at home or not.

[00:12:18] Eric Goranson: And that's a cool thing, especially for you parents that are working at home or if you travel a lot, it'll tell you if something's going sideways in your house. So that's an important one right there. So make sure to get that checked. Now, next up here is a big one. And for some reason, this one is controversial and I don't get it.

[00:12:36] Eric Goranson: Every time I bring this up, I will have a couple of messages saying that this is a scam, that it's some government conspiracy and. I'm a conspiracy junkie. I just don't think this is one of them. And that is, have you had your house checked for radon? I know of way too many people that were never smokers that didn't have a unhealthy lifestyle [00:13:00] and their entire family came down with some kind of lung cancer and guess what?

[00:13:04] Eric Goranson: They had high levels of radon in your home. So I want you to make sure. And check that every few years. Now, here's the thing, radon coming out of your house can be different and difficult to work with sometimes. Here's why, like in my state here, if I sell my house, part of the condition of the sales, they have to have a radon check and something that company can come in, they do their test out the door.

[00:13:33] Eric Goranson: They go. Now you could be that you had all of the crawlspace vents open wide up. You could have a great breeze in the air that day in none of the radon that was coming out of the ground, came up into the house. You also could have had it where the HVAC system was working or they had windows. The place was aired out beforehand, whatever, or you'll have [00:14:00] a small earthquake event, like a little 3.

[00:14:03] Eric Goranson: 0 little four point. You feel it go. That was cool. And off you go. Radon can come up and I've had this before where. There's one house on the street that's got high radon. You've tested a couple times. It's yours, but the neighbor next door is fine. And these are things you should be paying attention to. So that's why I think it's really important to have that radon test.

[00:14:24] Eric Goranson: You can get portable radon detectors if you're really concerned about it. But in my area, there's a lot of areas in the country where radon is a huge issue. And radon is an odorless, colorless gas that's radioactive that comes up from the ground. And pops up through cracks in the earth and gets into your home.

[00:14:44] Eric Goranson: Now, if you've got a encapsulated crawl space that is there, if you've got a radon detection system, that's even better where it's removing the air underneath the slab, giving it that ventilation, keeping it from outside of the house. Still, I want to make sure that you're checking it and [00:15:00] you're keeping it all dialed in.

[00:15:01] Eric Goranson: So that way you're good to go. So check that radon. I recommend it no more than every five years to have it checked. Make sure you're good. It's not that expensive. And have it done that way. You know what you got going that way you're safe. That's an easy way to, uh, check off a box and not have to worry about the cancer risks that come with radon.

[00:15:22] Eric Goranson: So, all right, next one here is an important one and it goes off on this, but it's another one. That's super important. Have that air quality check. And make sure what's in your air. So a great example, my friend, Caroline Blazowski, America's healthy home expert, she does air testing that does really elaborate air testing, something you could do a lot of this yourself.

[00:15:48] Eric Goranson: Without having to go to that expense, you can jump online and buy some air quality testing devices out there. There's some great ones and we'll bring her on and talk to her about it one of these days here and talk about it in the show. But if [00:16:00] you sit there and talk about that and start measuring like your PM 2.

[00:16:06] Eric Goranson: 5, that is 2. 5 particulate matter. That is how much dust and debris is in your air. That's a big one. Now you want to see what chemicals are in your air as well. So by taking a look at your air quality, that will tell you what's going on in your house. And it's interesting. You can see, wait a minute. Do I have a chemical thing of cleaner?

[00:16:31] Eric Goranson: That's upside down under my sink. That'll show up in that air testing. Trust me. Caroline has done air testing before and can look at the test results and go. Wow. You got five or six probably of those handy wipes. The ones that come in a little tub that you have sitting around your house for cleaning up messes with the kids.

[00:16:51] Eric Goranson: She can tell you how many of those are open because the chemicals in the air. So this is an important stuff to really make sure. Your air is healthy. [00:17:00] And so by having this, you can really see what's going on and what you need to do to get a healthier air. And the thing is two guys, one, it's going to show you, maybe you need more ventilation.

[00:17:10] Eric Goranson: Maybe you need more fresh air. Maybe you need a better filter. Maybe you need an air filter inside the house and all this stuff. It keeps down dust. It keeps down all that particulate matter is the stuff in that sunny day, that's floating around in the area. Oh, look at that stream of light. And you see all the little stuff floating around.

[00:17:29] Eric Goranson: That's the stuff I'm talking about. That's the stuff we want to make sure that we've got under control. So you really don't have to worry about it. And that way you've got just better air quality and less cleaning around the house. So there's nothing wrong with that. Hey guys, if you want to find out more about us, head over to around the house, online.

[00:17:45] Eric Goranson: com. And if you have questions or comments, you can give us a call at 833 239 4144. That number again is 833 239 4144. And if you're listening to this episode between [00:18:00] June 1st, 2024, In July 3rd, 2024, we have a great contest. Where we are giving away an absolutely amazing gift. And this is a prize that is pretty amazing.

[00:18:14] Eric Goranson: So given away with the partnership with gen tent and electric generators direct and power equipment direct, we're giving away a wonderful generator. So you want to take a look over there, enter it around the house, online. com. And you can find out more about there. It is a heck of a deal around the house.

[00:18:31] Eric Goranson: We'll be right back. Don't go anywhere.[00:19:00]

[00:19:12] Eric Goranson: Actually around the house show the next generation of home improvement. Thanks for joining me today. I'm Eric G. We've been talking about my top 10 things you should be doing for your home. Right now, this is that annual list of those things. My big top 10 of the things you should be making sure you take care on your house every single year.

[00:19:30] Eric Goranson: Or at least make sure that you've got it scheduled and you have it figured out. So this is that list. This isn't our home maintenance checklist. This isn't the fall or the spring version. This is just that one there that really helps you not forget these key items you should be doing around your house.

[00:19:45] Eric Goranson: If you want to find out more about us, head over to around the house, online. com for the website. And yes, this summer, we do have a new website coming soon that I can't wait to reveal to you. That is a big process we're working on. So stay tuned for that. Thanks. [00:20:00] The next one on the list here, if you want to go back, if you just joining us on the radio, we talked about videotaping all your belongings for insurance purposes.

[00:20:08] Eric Goranson: Are you measuring humidity or home, making sure that it's not over 60%. Have you had your HVAC system service this year? Have you checked your smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detector to see if they're expired? And then have you checked your home for radon? And we just talked about having air quality check.

[00:20:26] Eric Goranson: Now the next one here, and this is important. Have you tested your drinking water? And this is something that is becoming more and more of an issue out there. And it can be old homes. It could be well systems. You could be on city water and you want to figure out what you got going on. This is something that's becoming more and more of an issue.

[00:20:47] Eric Goranson: And I think it's something that we should always be paying attention to. And it's pretty easy to do a water quality test and send it off. And then what you're working with. And if you're planning on doing any kind of filtration system. If you go, Hey, [00:21:00] I want to reduce the hard water deposits. I want to make sure and put a filter in.

[00:21:05] Eric Goranson: The first thing you do is test your water and make sure what's in it. So you know what to leave and what you take out of it. So the water quality test is really important. Now, some of the things that you're worried about, and this is something that is important that you should be looking at in your water.

[00:21:23] Eric Goranson: And you want to see chlorine. Is that an issue? Where is that at? Is your city, county, water company? What is that? Do you have too much chlorine in your water? That's another one. And then, of course, we're not going to get into this. There are systems out there that can remove fluoride and that kind of stuff if that's a concern.

[00:21:43] Eric Goranson: But really the big stuff that you're starting to worry about now is one of them is the microbiological stuff, the fecal coliform, all the different coliform, and even the turbidity, which is the kind of soil runoff remains there. That's another one there that you're looking for. [00:22:00] And then you really want to pay attention to the inorganics lead.

[00:22:04] Eric Goranson: That's been an issue. And even copper, which is that is. Is a degradation of your pipes. And that can happen as well from the pH being off on the water. So if it's too acidic, it's starting to etch into that copper. That can be a problem. It can really turn around and be a problem that way. And then the, and again, back in that inorganic, it could be salts.

[00:22:27] Eric Goranson: It could be metals. It could be stuff that's coming from stormwater runoff, could be a lot of stuff from farming, pesticides, herbicides, and then of course, all of those organic chemical contaminants. That's stormwater again, it could be septic systems, it could be gas stations. And all of that stuff. And another one is radiological and that is radiation, which could be, as we talked about earlier, radon in your water.

[00:22:53] Eric Goranson: And that's a really big one right there, including, uh, anything else that could be in the, in that groundwater. [00:23:00] So, uh, I've seen this with wells. I've seen people have high radon levels and it was coming in from their well system. And what happened was, is they were just taken in and they'd go take a steamy shower.

[00:23:12] Eric Goranson: They were filling that shower compartment up with radon gas because of the steam. And it was going right into their system and that was really unhealthy. So that's a big one there. And then there's all these difference in things like that naturally occur in lakes and streams. And this is something that usually happens in summer times.

[00:23:31] Eric Goranson: And those are ones that you have to be really careful of. And so those blooms really, if your water system is doing that, we have had that in the Pacific Northwest here where people like cities are pulling out of mountain lakes, things like that. Of course, you get a hot summer and these toxins come up and all of a sudden they have this algae bloom.

[00:23:50] Eric Goranson: And now the city can't use the water system. And so these are problems that we have around here. I remember a few years ago, there was a couple of cities that had boil water notices [00:24:00] for weeks. Because of this. So this could be a problem. So, and that's when they get into that drinking and bottle water notices and that kind of stuff.

[00:24:08] Eric Goranson: So that's big right there. Now, the other thing that we're starting to see here with drinking water that I want you to start to pay attention to, and finally the government's getting involved in this is PFAS, which is P F A S. That is that basically a group of human made chemicals found in a lot of different products.

[00:24:28] Eric Goranson: So it has been used since the 1940s and you see it, anything from Teflons that you see out there, coatings to even firefighting chemicals used in the mountain ranges. So, or in the desert. So these are things that have happened over the years and they've been used in there and it has ended up in our drinking water supply.

[00:24:49] Eric Goranson: So there are some new rules out there that the, the EPA is working on, and it's the basically unregulated contaminant monitoring rule that they're coming out with the EPA. [00:25:00] And it's technically, if you want to dive into the weeds on this, it's UCMR 5. So they're trying to understand the frequency of these different, basically 29 substances are found in the nation's drinking water system.

[00:25:15] Eric Goranson: So they're looking at that. So. That's that UCMR5 they're starting to look into. So a lot of different city monitoring systems are getting involved with this. But one thing that you should do is if you're on a city water system, jump on or a public system basically, head over to their website and take a look and see what their water quality report says.

[00:25:38] Eric Goranson: Do they have one? What's it say? What's in there? And they have to put that out. I think it's a federal mandate. Now they have to go in there and take a look at that, but they put that out and take a look and see what that is. So make sure if you're getting your testing, but here's the problem that's usually done at the city.

[00:25:54] Eric Goranson: So if you've got lead or other metals that could be contaminating that water [00:26:00] between there and your home. So make sure that you're monitoring that and make sure that you know what that is. And to be honest, I think it's really good to have your water quality tested every few years. See what it's doing.

[00:26:11] Eric Goranson: See what it's saying. See what comes up. All of a sudden, what could be one of those things that you're sitting there and you're like, wait a minute, all of a sudden I'm getting water spots. Maybe your softener is not working. Your filter's not working. These are things you want to do to test and make sure that you're looking good.

[00:26:26] Eric Goranson: So that's a big one right there. All right. Next up here. Have your, have you had a chimney service done? And I'm going to do this. This is a two part here. When was the last time if you've got a wood fireplace or even a wood stove, have you had somebody up there to inspect that chimney? Have you had that flu taken a look at?

[00:26:48] Eric Goranson: Has it been cleaned? All that stuff off season, like we're getting into now, it's not a bad time to have the chimney sweeps out there, making sure that thing's in good condition. Dean, it's a great time of year. If you need to have a [00:27:00] brick repointed up there. And have that dialed in that's important. So really take some time there.

[00:27:06] Eric Goranson: And the other one that if you don't have that, and this is something that's really important as well. So this is going to be a hashtag on this or a side dash on this of the other one. When was the last time you cleaned your dryer duct? You should be doing that once a year, really. And if you have a lot of kids, a lot of family, or it's used a lot, maybe twice a year.

[00:27:28] Eric Goranson: And you can jump online on Amazon and get one of those devices. It's a fiberglass rod with some brushes on it. You can go through and do this yourself. Uh, what I do is I turn one, I measure the distance between the outside and where the dryer is. So I have an idea and then I'll Mark on the rods, how far that is.

[00:27:46] Eric Goranson: So I know how close I'm getting to things, but then I just go through and clean it out and it's really easy. Go through, clean it out. And I turn the dryer on air only. I put a desk mask on cause you're gonna get covered [00:28:00] in lint. And that way you can prevent that future fire and, uh, 15 bucks for a kid on Amazon and shows up your door and then you can clean it yourself.

[00:28:09] Eric Goranson: You can always hire companies to come out and do it. There's plenty of those dryer vent companies out there that do it as well in many big cities, but that's how I would do it and make sure that styled in and clean, and that could prevent a dryer fire. It's gonna be more efficient. If it's all clogged up, your clothes are gonna dry so much faster, and that'll be a big thing right there.

[00:28:29] Eric Goranson: Alright everybody, we've got a few more when we come back. Don't change that. Dial around the house. We'll be right back after these important messages. Don't go anywhere.[00:29:00]

[00:29:09] Eric Goranson: Welcome back to the around the house show, the next generation of home improvement. Thanks for joining me today. We've been going through my top 10 things you should be doing for your home right now. And uh, we're going to, I'm going to give you these two quickly here and then we're going to go to an interview with my buddy, Tony.

[00:29:24] Eric Goranson: Who is an insurance agent. That's going to help explain some of this stuff because he's just really good at it. And I learned a lot from him. So we'll bring him on the show here in a minute, but ask your insurance company and see if they will give you a ting sensor T I N G. Now ting is a really cool device.

[00:29:43] Eric Goranson: And what it does is it monitors your electrical system in your home, and it can actually prevent a fire in many insurance companies are giving these away. Why go out and spend a few hundred bucks in the membership fees on those? When you can have an insurance company pay for it. You can look that up, uh, tingfire.

[00:29:59] Eric Goranson: com. [00:30:00] And so it is a fire prevention device that monitors your electrical system. So that one there, and then of course, double check your insurance coverage for your home and your cars to make sure you're covered and by talking to your agent. So why not here? Let's go talk to my actual agent, my buddy, Tony, who I've worked with in radio for years.

[00:30:19] Eric Goranson: And, uh, he is also an insurance expert. Now let's go out here to Tony. You got my buddy, Tony Russell insurance. Welcome to around the house, my friend. Thank you, Eric. It's good to be here. Good to see you again. I great to see you, buddy. You and I used to work in the same building doing radio and full disclosure, I leaned on you when I did my insurance because I was buying online.

[00:30:41] Eric Goranson: I didn't really realize how underinsured I was. And I went, Hey, wait a minute. If I'm underinsured. A lot of people are too. So I thought I'd have you on the show and talk about that a little bit. Yeah. You know, where you want to focus more on the homeowner stuff is if I could just say, if I could just say quickly, there are so many [00:31:00] uninsured and underinsured auto motorists out there.

[00:31:04] Eric Goranson: So. Everyone needs to be very careful. I would look at, go over your auto insurance with your agent, make sure you're covered. I guarantee state minimums not going to be enough because the price of parts and cars, the price to repair them has skyrocketed. You do not want state minimums, but we're going to talk about homeowners.

[00:31:24] Eric Goranson: That's what you want to talk about. And the same is true for it. You got it. Prices are skyrocketing. Man, it is. If you think about it, our homes have been going up. Some people's homes have gone up 40 or 50 percent over the last seven to 10 years or more. Right. And then when you go out and buy an insurance policy online, I'm always concerned because for me, I haven't talked to anybody until I talked to you, for instance, about what I have in the house and you might not get what you're paying for.

[00:31:50] Eric Goranson: You're a great example, especially when we don't want to talk about too much what you got in your house, but as you can, people have seen it on the show. I've been doing a lot of projects. If you have, [00:32:00] you have nice things, right? And so if I drove by your home. Or if you stood outside your home, you'd put a value on it.

[00:32:07] Eric Goranson: It just based on the structure. But if we said he has a TV in his shower, he has it, he has an alarm system, security system, that's top notch, all those things that your, many of your sponsors have been good enough to help you with that increased on your property. Remember how it really increased the value of your property.

[00:32:27] Eric Goranson: Once we added that. And what people don't understand, going back to the cars, like when you buy a car and you add a big tires and you add the roll bars and you add all these nice things, that's not covered if you're total your vehicle, unless you let the agent know and they add those things to your policy.

[00:32:46] Eric Goranson: Same is true with your home. If I don't know you have those top notch electronics throughout the house, or let's say some guys In your position and that have your background, they love to work on the cars. They love to work on homes. [00:33:00] They have tons of tool. All those tools are not going to be covered.

[00:33:04] Eric Goranson: Yeah. Yeah. Ah, and it's interesting. I learned this the hard way a number of years ago and I had, I was living in Seattle at the time and single guy, single dad, raising two kids and. And all of a sudden I come home and 1920s house with kind of the barn style garage doors, right? And my garage doors are sitting in my driveway because somebody hooked a chain to it Off the building.

[00:33:29] Eric Goranson: Yeah, and I had an empty garage and didn't start reading the fine print until then because I didn't realize that, okay, only a little bit of that was covered and then I had to go out and pay for those tools and work through the reimbursement process. I didn't have seven or eight grand in my pocket to go out and get tied up for six months while I went through that process.

[00:33:51] Eric Goranson: And that was tough. It is. And that's why that's, I understand going online and buying things. It's quick, it's simple, but when it comes to your home, your autos, you want [00:34:00] someone who's going to ask you the right question. It's like going on WebMD to diagnose your problem and saying, Oh, I must have a strep throat because that's what MD WebMD says.

[00:34:10] Eric Goranson: If you had gone to the doctor and he'd asked you a few more questions, maybe you find out you have something work. And so the question, so would you call your agent? They need to add, they'll ask you the right questions. A deck on the back of the house. That could be very expensive. How big is it? Some people have it the entire length of their home.

[00:34:27] Eric Goranson: And so you need to know that. Cause again. If the house is total and you only have on there that you had a back patio, the deck's not covered. And so you need to know those things. The big thing to remember right now, and I know if you've looked at your most recent renewal on your homeowners in the last six months, probably shocked.

[00:34:50] Eric Goranson: And what we're being held, don't shoot the messenger is it's all based on inflation. It's based on inflation. Price of lumber is [00:35:00] astronomical. And so that's what's, that's what's causing these rate increases and, and that's why you need to make sure you have enough coverage. It's called, it's that structure a coverage where you're, well, I know a lot of your, this may sound like no doubt, but only the structure is covered, right?

[00:35:17] Eric Goranson: Because the land's going to say, so you're, you're not, it's not based on the value of like your real estate agent comes and they appraise everything. As an agent, we're just, as an insurance agent, we're just looking at the structure itself. How is it designed? Is it custom built? That's a big one, right?

[00:35:33] Eric Goranson: Versus just standard built. Do you have a lot of wood flooring? Do you have a lot of carpeting? All those things need to be figured in so you get the right price. And if, God forbid, something happens. You get covered with the same material that the house was good. Does that make sense? Yeah. So you don't want, and it can be tough when you've got an older home, for instance, let's say it was built in the twenties, thirties, forties, fifties, or even sixties.

[00:35:58] Eric Goranson: And now you're trying to build that to [00:36:00] current 2023 building code. And some of those materials that you wanted to put back in there were very expensive compared to what they were 50, 60, 70 years ago. That's up quick. And you need to make sure that you've got that covered versus just building a spec house back on the same lot.

[00:36:17] Eric Goranson: They didn't have those same materials. Yeah. That's a great point because like downtown Portland, downtown Seattle, some of these older towns too, that just have these beautiful old restored homes. Yeah. You definitely want to know what you're doing when you get those insured. Cause some of those, some of that, uh, some of those products are still available.

[00:36:36] Eric Goranson: Most are not, but you want to make sure you get them, you get it built back as close as they will get it for you. Absolutely. And the same goes for people out there that are apartments that are maybe wanting to be homeowners out there. My daughter, I gave her a big speech about making sure that she had a renter's insurance because she's a new renter.

[00:36:56] Eric Goranson: And. I'll tell you what, you want to be covered in those situations because if you're [00:37:00] trying to put money away to get a house one day, you have a total loss and that can be not your fault. Right? That could be somebody in the unit below you falling asleep, smoking one night and all of a sudden everything's gone while you're at work.

[00:37:11] Eric Goranson: Absolutely. One client, a teenage daughter was burning a candle. In her apartment in the apartment, they had a three bedroom apartment, two or three bedroom. One of the daughters was just burning the candle, caught the drapes on fire, the whole burned the room. Luckily they had sprinklers, which is a discount by the way, on your insurance.

[00:37:31] Eric Goranson: If you let them know you have this, but so they would have never gotten renter's insurance, but the complex made them buy it. And so what happened though, they were put up in a hotel for an entire month. All their personal belongings were covered. And then once everything was restored, they moved back into the apartment that cost them 15 a month.

[00:37:55] Eric Goranson: That's what they paid for that 15 bucks a month. Yeah, and you can't go through [00:38:00] drive through for 2 people and get a meal. No, and people always underestimate how much they have in personal property. So I try to go minimum with maybe a couple living in. Uh, a home or so a minimum of 75, 000. It may sound like a lot to people.

[00:38:16] Eric Goranson: Just walk around your apartment, walk around your home and just start maybe taking a calculator just for fun and see, oh my gosh, I paid 5, 000 for that big screen TV or that huge screen TV. And so that brings us to a really important point, Eric, is make sure that you get that replacement cost content.

[00:38:36] Eric Goranson: What that means you want to make sure you ask the agent, are you going to replace that big screen TV? As if it's new or at a depreciated value. If somebody wants to talk to you, how do they track you down? My friend, they can go to Tony at Tony Russell, insurance. com. Email me right there. Or. Tony Russell, insurance.

[00:38:56] Eric Goranson: com. That's T O N Y R U S E L [00:39:00] Tony Russell, insurance. com. And even if you're out of the area, you're out of the Pacific Northwest area, give me an email or I'd be glad to help you find somebody in your area. I'm always recommending independent insurance agents, but. I better be careful. I don't know who's sponsoring the show today.

[00:39:17] Eric Goranson: So you're good, brother. You appreciate it, Tony. Hey man, thanks for being my insurance expert. I wanted to bring you on just to talk about this stuff. Cause I think it's important for everybody out there, whether you're a homeowner or a renter. Yeah, Eric, it's always good to see you. I love what you're doing and congratulations on your huge success.

[00:39:34] Eric Goranson: I'm Eric G and you've been listening to around the

[00:39:44] Eric Goranson: house.