I hated that guy

We're going to mention

who it is, but

we've gotten a lot of requests for people for

real life stories, um, past experiences and that kind of thing.

Fun enough, in our, our kitchen, we noticed that there was just like coffee

ground looking stuff in the sink and we weren't sure what was going on.

How did

you find your contractors?

That's a great question.

All

right, guys.

Welcome back to another episode of MillenniUP.

We are not in Seth's kitchen.

Nope.

We are in.

A nicer

kitchen.

A newer

kitchen.

Thank you.

Newer kitchen.

No, so this is our very first, uh, client interview.

So, uh.

Millennium

goes on the road.

Yeah.

It's true.

Yeah.

So, uh, wasn't that hard either?

We, we got, we got, we got set up pretty well.

Yeah.

The, uh, the idea here, obviously, uh, outside of being absolute

expert podcasters at this point, Jen, uh, we actually do.

real estate activities.

And we have clients.

And so we've gotten a lot of requests for people for real life stories, um,

past experiences and that kind of thing.

And that's where you guys come in.

So why don't you guys tell us a little bit about yourself?

Who

you are.

Start at the beginning.

Tell us everything.

Sam, I'll let you start.

All right.

Well, I'm Sam.

Hi Sam.

Hi.

Um, well, I, uh,

how'd you guys meet?

Okay.

That's a good one.

Yeah.

So we met through friends.

I was actually in cosmetology school and I befriended someone and she was dating

a guy and um, I went out with them like a threesome and then he got called up.

What, out of the bullpen?

No, so it basically it was my buddy Nick and Steve.

Steve was dating a girl.

That girl, you know, had Sam, they were going to set her up

with Nick, uh, on this, this, you know, this date, double date.

And then all of a sudden Nick just called me.

He's like, yo, we're going bowling.

You want to go?

So now I'm the fifth wheel.

I'm like, sure.

Yeah, I'll go.

So we made it his house.

And, um, Yeah, I had my lowered Civic with body kit on it.

Super cool looking.

Sam was super into cars and she was in a pit crew at the time.

Um, so I was like, Oh, you want to, you know, ride in my car?

You can.

Cause Steve had like a two seater and barely fit someone in the back.

And so Nick just shoved in the back of his car and then Sam went with me.

Um, talked on the way over to the bowling alley about cars.

I pretended like I knew something about the engines even though I had no idea.

I did not.

Um, and she's like, wow, this guy's got pretty Nice work, sir.

Yeah, like you definitely have to lie up front for sure.

And you didn't pick

up on any.

No.

No, he was actually pretty good.

You know, you can't be as your way through.

Yeah,

when you're in sales, you have to, um,

I'm sure I talked most of

the time, but then the other thing I lied to her about was when we

were done bowling, a relationship found

on dishonesty that it was just the foundation,

the foundation was laid early,

uh, but no, at the end of bowling, Nick's like, so

what do you guys want to do?

You want to go to the The arcade plays some video games and Sam

goes, Video games are for losers.

And I was like, yeah Nick.

Video games are for losers.

Are video games for losers?

No.

I was just, I was so mean.

And you were trying to impress her.

Later that

night I was playing Call of Duty with Nick.

We should, we should uh.

We should ask our audience whether they think video games are lame.

I haven't played like an actual video game outside of like with my kids.

Like I've never played like an adult video game.

How old were you guys when you guys met?

When did this happen?

I was 17 and I was

19 or 20, something like that.

Oh geez.

So you

guys have been together for over 10 years?

Yeah.

Yeah.

It'll be 15.

Well, we'll

be 10 years married in June and then dating.

Dating.

It's dating 14 or 15.

Got it.

Is that together?

Yeah.

Guys are ancient.

Yeah.

In the best way possible.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Cute.

And then outside of that, we had a kid, yeah.

Bought a couple houses, which we're gonna talk about in a minute.

Yep.

Yeah.

So what do you do for a living?

I'm a health insurance broker.

She's one of my clients.

Not to brag.

Not to brag.

I'm one of my own clients as well.

So when you've heard me say I'm

unmedicated now It's all my fault.

Because I draw up the

formularies and I kick off things.

So that's perfect.

Yeah.

Formularies is a

word.

Yeah

Yeah, like

actuaries but formularies.

Well formulary, it's a formulary of drugs that are covered but when

there's multiple it's formularies.

Stop people.

I didn't know formulary was a word.

Yeah.

I'm going to archive that, save it for cocktail parties, that kind of stuff.

There you go.

But yes, would be underinsured without Brian.

So thanks Brian.

Thank you.

Um, okay.

Well, listen, I want to talk, uh, you know, this is a real estate podcast.

Uh, it is, it is.

Oh my

God.

I've been in the wrong place this whole time.

No, it's

good, man.

And I, I'm excited to interview you guys.

You guys are sitting in a kitchen of a house that we helped you find.

And the kitchen is very nice.

Um, why don't you guys tell us a little bit about where your real estate

journey started, including the condo.

Yeah.

The condo that you had so much disdain for.

The condo.

Yeah.

So how'd you guys find that property and how long did you live there?

And then we can talk a little bit about how you got, got to here.

So we, uh, we lived when we first got married.

We lived in an apartment and, um, which was, you know, fine.

Um, but we wanted to get something of our own and our friend, Nick, ironically,

from, you know, how we met, uh, I don't know, apparently he likes video games.

So Nick actually lived in this.

It's a condo community, and, um, we really liked his condo.

And so we were like, Hey, wouldn't it be great if we were neighbors?

So we bought a place there.

Um, and how old were you when you guys bought the condo?

25 ish?

Yeah.

I think 25, 20, 22 and 25.

So 18, 19?

2018, 2019?

It was 2016.

I think it was.

15 or 16 I think it was.

Um, cause we were in that place for about five years.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So talk to us about the experience there.

Like it?

Hate it?

So, you

Oh, God.

Well.

Pros and cons of condos.

So

yeah, there's definitely pros and there's cons.

But we had more cons towards the end.

For obvious reasons.

Yeah, I think, um.

That's

a million times too.

Which I can't wait until we get to that.

For why you decided to move out.

But yes, what were you saying?

Yeah, so I think, um, being young and not really knowing much.

We thought HOA.

That's great.

Like, you know, they take care of everything, the trash, they mow,

you know, all this stuff and we just have to take care of the inside.

No big deal.

Um, yeah, so that did not go so great.

No.

Tell us, tell us, dive into all of our fun issues.

Yeah, go ahead.

She sounds a little triggered on

that.

Um, well, let's see, we, uh, we move in maybe a month later, all of

a sudden, just we're hearing like.

Not sure what it is.

We were out now, just to paint you a quick picture.

We were on the lower unit, uh, of this, uh, it was basically like a long,

uh, building with 16, uh, exactly.

I don't know what style that was, but so yeah, you had people on top, people

on bottom, we were on the bottom.

Our bedrooms were kind of like underneath.

the ground a little bit.

So you had windows, but, um, you majority, you know, was underground.

Um, and yeah, in the bathroom, we were just like, what is that sound?

Like, and it's like, who do you call first?

It's like, who do you call?

Do you?

You don't have, like, a landlord.

Because you just come from renting, too.

Right, so, like, we didn't really know exactly what was going on.

The kitchen was first.

Oh, was the kitchen first?

Yeah.

Oh, well, you can talk about the kitchen if you want.

So what are we

talking about?

Are we talking about, like, gremlins, leaks?

Like, what's the story?

All of our issues are water issues.

Um,

well, I'll finish with the bathroom first.

So, yeah, the, it sprung a leak in some kind of supply line.

Um, Um, Ended up having to call the HO, or the HOA.

We knew one person on it and then they got us with the, the, um, the property

manager sent a guy out, they had to rip out the ceiling because it was starting

to sag, like it was, you know, big deal.

So that was one, one water issue, not the first, but fun enough in our, our kitchen.

Um, we noticed that there was just like, like after like the nighttime we

would come in, there was like these like coffee ground looking stuff in the sink

and we weren't sure what was going on.

And then like another day or two went by and then we're just hearing this gurgling.

Turns out someone put, what was it a diaper or a rag down the sink that was

upstairs and it backed up into ours because we had, I don't know what you

call it, but there's like a ventilation little, like a vent for your kitchen sink

that didn't have the cap or like the back stop on it to keep it from overflowing.

So that was also backing up and just soaking into the bottom of our.

The whole floor was soaked.

Cut.

Nasty.

So you had some water

issues?

Yep, yep.

Water issues there.

So you, uh, did you file any insurance claims?

We did.

And we had to get the whole kitchen redone.

Gutted and redone and redone.

Insurance companies did not like us in

that house.

No.

Still, still

affecting us till this day, actually.

So.

We need

an insurance rate.

Yeah.

Yeah, because it does travel.

A lot of people don't realize it can travel.

It's like five or six years, right?

It can travel from property to property.

Yeah.

We didn't realize that.

You can travel because potentially, you know, the insurance company

will say, it's like maybe they're doing something that's like, they're

going to take care of things, they're going to risk your behavior.

Or they're

just really picky.

Like, oh yeah, this happened.

Now I want to file a claim.

Yeah.

But uh, the other water issue was beautiful because um,

It was beautiful.

Well it was

when, well we had another small one in Jack's room, right?

Uh, bathroom.

So both bathrooms.

We'll get to that one.

That was the last one.

Okay.

That pushed us over the edge.

Four.

Five.

If you think about it, the bathroom, the kitchen, Jack's room, the small one,

our room, and then right before we left.

Are there any other rooms?

Yeah,

pretty much almost every room.

We might need to know the name of this development so we can,

or refresher on this development so we can not put people into it.

Did Nick have any problems?

No, he was the top unit owner.

Which by the way, if you're going to buy one of those.

He did,

he did, um, have, uh, someone, the roof was leaking and it was

traveling and they couldn't find it.

And Nick never.

Looked into it.

He like asked about it.

Ignorance

is

bliss.

Does he still live

there?

No.

No.

No.

No.

No.

No.

Okay, so you had lots of water problems.

Yes.

And

so what did you guys want to, uh, so when did

you actually decide to move?

Uh, well shortly after having the big water issue, um, we had

Jack's birthday party, um, and there was just not enough room.

Yeah.

So many toys.

Toys everywhere.

Yeah.

We tell it all the time.

And mind you people, I did not know Brian and Sam until, uh, before I

got, like right before I got licensed.

So the story that, but somehow I still know very, very in detail as to

what their final straw was that got them to move because Zetha said it.

Yeah.

And I think I interviewed you guys.

I had a bunch of questions for you about a year and a half ago and I, I,

I didn't know that until then though.

Yeah.

I didn't know that until the end of 2022, but you had already moved.

So

what was

the final straw?

Yeah.

Yeah.

It was the toys, I think.

There's just no room for all the shit.

There's just no

room for anything.

There's no storage in condos.

Yeah, I mean, we had

a few closets that you could shove crap into, but like, the third bedroom

that we had was just overflow for John.

And it was

his office.

Yeah.

So it was his office with a bunch of, uh,

Yeah, I had like a little spot where I can like

get in there and sit at my desk.

Got it.

So what, uh, so what year was that?

Was that 2020?

Yeah.

Yeah, that was, uh, like we made that decision right

around his birthday in June,

like literally right after.

So we, so we met really in like the beginning of COVID.

Yeah, we

met, uh, like that October before, I think it was in 19, I

think is when you join the group.

Yeah.

Oh, that you joined the group?

The group for, for him helping us, us in 19.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think you hated me.

Yeah.

No, I, you didn't vote for me.

Yeah.

There was a couple realtors in our networking group that were,

um, auditioning, if you will.

And I Well, let's break down

the networking groups so people actually understand how this works.

Mm-Hmm.

. So, um, Brian and Seth are in a networking group, and the way that it works is it's.

It's a bunch of different, uh, types of vendors, but you get to

have one vendor per category so that it's a whole referral network.

It's like

a BNI, uh, without the bullshit, it's a, it's an industry

exclusive, you know, one at a time.

Yeah.

It's a referral based network.

So you can't

have, so you can't have more than one realtor in it.

So you have one specific realtor, you have one specific insurance broker.

And how many people, uh, Audition have five, six?

I want to say it was like four or five or five and you hated me.

Yeah.

I picked someone else because Seth was just talking about numbers all the time.

And you're looking at me.

I'm so great.

And this is what he did.

I picked the person that, that did not focus as much on the numbers, but

did you, did you also pick the person or you didn't pick

the person who mentioned that he had started two networking groups

and understand how networking works?

Cause I'm pretty sure I said that too.

Yeah.

I think it's all worked out a little bit for you too, huh?

Hold on.

I

think it's all worked out,

huh?

Are

we talking about what I think we're

talking about?

Why don't you go

grab a cup of coffee, let's

talk.

Alright, sweet.

Starbucks.

Yeah, no, but.

Yeah, so, no, no, that's good.

So then it was right after COVID hit, and then you guys called

me like three months later.

Did you guys interview anyone else before?

Yeah, one guy.

We did,

yeah.

I hated that guy.

We're not going to mention who it is, but

yeah, I don't think we I don't we're not going to Um selection

process of an agent is yeah,

that's actually something Everybody about is like how did you

guys actually what were you guys looking for in a real estate agent?

What were the criteria you were super interested in?

Like, tell us about that process.

Um, well, um, without give me so much adulation, so my head doesn't fit it.

That's, that's what you always say.

Yeah, that's true.

Yeah.

I mean, you can do a little bit, but not a ton.

I think it's important, uh, for the realtor to really listen to what you want.

Um, like when I spoke with you, it was like, I told you what I wanted and

you're like, okay, yeah, let's do it.

The other realtor was like, I know better than you.

And I did it like that.

He was very much on, we need to sell your condo first, then look at houses.

And I said, no, I'm not worried about my condo.

It'll sell.

Yeah.

I'm worried about looking at my forever home.

That is my goal.

Let's, you know, and when I told you that, it was like, yeah, I agree.

Condo will sell.

Yeah.

We need to look at what, focus on what you guys want for your house.

And did you, uh, did you guys, do you guys care

about like the company that anyone worked for or anything?

Not really.

No, no, no.

Well, I will say one thing, one of the, the guy that we did interview

with, um, was part of one company, but like, just, I knew him, but he was just

going by the book, just reading through his presentation, and I hated that.

Oh, yes, the folder.

Oh, yeah, there was a folder and all that stuff, and it was way too much.

Yeah, I didn't like that.

Yeah, I have

a presentation.

Yeah, and it was very much like, we need to do this.

I

shouldn't say this, I haven't given like a listing

presentation like that since I left Berkshire Hathaway in 8th grade.

2019.

And it's like, people don't want to be presented.

No, I want a real person.

Yeah.

I think I just walked in with one of my little notebooks

and I sat down, I think you guys toured me and I sat down and I just

listened to what you guys want.

And I said, okay, well, we'll just figure out how to make that work.

Yeah.

Right.

Yeah.

It was great.

You're a real person.

That was good because it was just more of a conversational type of thing.

You understood it and just kind of gathered that info.

Your glass was half empty, in a good way.

Yeah.

Or what were we talking about in our networking group last week?

Keep your glass, or there's, there's more value in the empty part of the

glass than there is in the filled part.

Oh, I don't think that was me.

Were you not there last week?

I was, I was.

But we're basically talking about how when you do have a.

I say a ton in that

group though.

He's really just like half asleep and.

Yeah.

No, no, I have

to fill the void in that group a lot where I'm like, I

have to pick up the conversation.

You do a good job of that too, but.

Yeah, no, they were just talking about that most valuable part of the,

the listening and the conversation.

Oh, no, no, no, no.

Empty piece.

It's not the

empty piece.

No, you use your ears and your mouth and the proportion they were given to you.

You listen twice as much as you

talk.

That's not what we were talking about, but that's fine.

Yeah,

but that's good too.

Yeah, yeah.

That's good,

continue.

Um, no, but it's super, it's, it's definitely true.

I mean, the old school sales, you know, uh, David Knox, you know, Floyd

Wickman, or who are these are these, like these old real estate salespeople.

They all talk like you, you go in, you show your value, you, you essentially

go in with all this like glossy material and you show how professional you are.

Even if your mom wants to sell their house, you go in and you give

that presentation and like, I was.

I joined Berkshire Hathaway in 2015 and I was like, that was how I was kind of

taught and great company and I think it really had to do with the people I

was like, kind of connected with, but I started going into these meetings and

like, like people were checking their phones and I was like, only halfway

through and I was like, okay, like, listen guys, like, let's try to get through this.

And I was, and then I just, I think To be honest with you, I think my big like kind

of Eureka moment was when I went in and I was like last, it was just a come with me

call, meaning like just come in or I want to get, I want to get sold like tomorrow

and I went in, I didn't have anything and I just sat there and talked to them

and like it ended up working out so much better because I had nothing to give them.

So I was like, okay.

And then I'd never done a listing presentation since like a real.

Like with the binder and like sliding all the glossy material over because that's

not what people really care about now

at most I'll have like some of the docs like in a

folder in my bag It's like somebody's like really interested in having it

right then and they're like, well, do I have to like sign anything?

I'm like, I mean I have it I'd rather you know what you're signing

So if you want to look it over when you're bored and can't sleep at

like 10 o'clock at night, go ahead

Yeah, but

otherwise like we're just here to gather information

Yeah, so I call it the two I call it the two step approach

So I come over fact find look at the property like I think people Realtors

run into the problem because they go to the property they've never seen it

before, they go in with comps and then they have to like adjust it on the fly.

The one thing that was nice about Berkshire Hathaway is that they did

teach you this, which was like go in, fact find, listen to what they

want and then you can come back and show comps and all your value.

Yeah.

But even then I still usually just don't even do that because we have, I try to

draw as much conversation where there's enough trust, where I don't have to like

come back and show you like all my stats.

Right.

I don't think I've ever told.

Like any of my clients, like how much volume I do or Just as your

networking group, apparently.

Yeah.

To get the spot, to get the spot.

Sure.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, what else do you want me to talk about?

I don't know.

Phillies?

I don't know.

All right.

So we got you guys set up.

We were able to cater to your situation.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Um, and then were you guys like nervous about buying a house?

Were you guys stressed?

He was,

I was excited and we weren't even, we were like, let's just go look.

Well, not me.

He said, let's go look.

And I was like, We're buying something.

We'll talk about that later.

Yeah.

Um, but yeah, so we were just looking and spent the whole

day looking until we came here.

We only went out once.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

One, one day

goes to fishing

clients.

No, I would say this, this, it, it, it doesn't.

It's not that uncommon.

I mean, people, because, because the thing is you get between Zillow and

all the time you spend before you even talk to a realtor and then when,

if you have a good realtor, like between those two buckets, like you

can get really clear on what you want.

So then

were you, okay, because there are people who, Will not pull

the trigger to put it in an offer.

Cause it's their first day out seeing houses and it's the

first time they've seen them.

Did you have any nerves about like, or second guessing of, but this was

our first day out now, not at all

when we, go ahead.

I was going to say when we were buying, like it was COVID and we kind of

already knew that the market was pretty hot and we were, you know, going to be

possibly bidding on, on things above asking or whatever, and it wasn't quite

there yet, but it was getting there and.

Yeah, no, when we, we saw the other houses, we saw four

houses and this one, right.

That was, we saw five houses total that day or something.

And, um, yeah, no, just when we were here, we're like, yeah, it's perfect area.

It's the, the, it was the school district we wanted.

Price was good.

And we're just like, yeah, let's just do it.

Because my, my thought was, Let's throw in an offer.

Worse they're going to say is no.

Yeah.

And then, you know, whatever.

But I felt But we

really did fall in love with it.

Yeah.

Though.

Yeah, well, the

potential.

I mean, the house was, was, had needed some work, but Yes.

The location and the long term, the long, the long term viability of

the home and the, and the location was enough to overcome that.

We'll be sure

to add in some before and after pictures.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Complements of Brian Cannon.

Yeah.

Uh, and you guys were unique in 2020 with, uh, with,

uh, among all my clients because you had a home sale contingency.

We did.

And we, and we won a bidding war.

Well, it was like a

home sale contingency is before you explain

what a home sale contingency is.

Okay.

So home sale contingency is basically saying, so they're putting out an

offer and they're Seth is submitting this to the seller and saying

like, yes, these are all the terms.

However, it is all contingent on them selling their house.

And if the house doesn't sell, then we don't have to buy your house.

So.

You're essentially attaching a whole other

transaction to the home sale.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Uh, which can be very hard for a seller to take, especially when

there's multiple offers and.

So if

you're selling your house and you're wondering like why

your agent may be not recommending a home, an offer with a home sale

contingency, that would be why.

Yeah.

So.

Or if you're trying to buy one and you

have that, that's, you know.

So that, and in their case, we were able to get them under

contract because we offered more money.

Yes.

And in the

end, that's really what the seller wanted.

Yeah.

He just wanted, he needed as much cash as he could get his hands on.

Yeah.

Came from me doing.

Asking lots of questions of the listing agent and figuring out what was going on.

Yeah, right.

Um, and yeah, so we just, we threw out a big number and we, I

think we inspected this property.

Mm hmm.

Yeah.

We had an inspection.

And a home.

COVID.

So that's good.

It's good work by you guys.

Let's talk about the house, um, itself.

What have you guys done to it since you moved in?

Actually, I

do have a question.

Yeah.

So you have done a lot of, a lot of work to it since you've gotten it.

So I didn't see it beforehand, but what was the, like, what was the

deciding factor that said, yeah, this is, this is what I want.

What made it very decisive?

Uh, the layout,

the

layout, how, um, The, the open concept of the kitchen into the dining

room and we can see right in the living room and that's what I've wanted.

Um, there was a huge wall right here.

So like two

doorway or two walkway.

You had like a partition

wall for the dining room, right?

Yeah, and this was all the kitchen.

Yeah, this was Can this solid?

You guys can see this?

No.

Half of this was the kitchen over there was like a breakfast.

Breakfast?

No, there was a door there.

Mm-Hmm.

. There was a window there.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

We'll see the

before pictures, but when we walked in, the first thing we're

like, the wall's coming down.

I can, like, I visioned how I wanted this kitchen done so that we can open

it up and really make it what we want.

Yeah.

Do you think that being decisive, uh, with

your decisions with each other.

When going into the house that day that you went out, is what got you

into this house as soon as you did?

Yeah,

I think so.

I mean, we're, we're people that, you know, We'll think about something

for a long time, but if we find something we like, we're just

like, all right, yeah, that's fine.

Yeah.

We're usually always on the same page.

Hence the two automobiles outside.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The Bronco and the, listen, are these, are they,

so let me ask you about these, these, these, uh, magnificent,

uh, automobiles you have outside.

Are you impulse buyers, or are you a shopper and go to multiple

dealerships, look around, or are you just like, hey honey, I wanna

get a truck, let's go get it?

I would say a mixture of both.

I

think so, because you know, there's a lot of thinking and thought

prior to actually going and looking.

Like YouTube videos and everything.

Okay, so you do research.

We do a lot of research.

But we don't like, we don't say like, Like, basically how it goes is it's

a Saturday and we're like, eh, let's go to the dealership and take a look.

But we've already done the research.

I need

like a, like a six month due diligence, due diligence on my car.

My car, I just, I looked up like all the stuff and then I ended up,

actually I ended up going to the dealership thinking I wanted one

thing and I ended up buying another.

That's like how I

bought my car.

I mean, it seemed impulsive and it was a.

I'm going to go see that car today.

And, but I had, and people thought that it was impossible.

It's like, I have been doing my research for five years.

Like I would go and test drive them.

I would like, I, It's kind of vetted out every style of them and really like, I

just like which kind that I would want, made sure it was in the right timing,

but that was all the stuff I'll link back in that I didn't really tell anybody.

And then all of a sudden it was, you know, I text my friend, my roommate

at the time, and I was like, Hey, by the way, uh, when I come home tonight,

I'm not coming home with my Honda.

Uh, there will be a Jeep.

And she was like, what?

And I was like, yeah, surprise.

I got a car today.

Uh, so it seems impulsive and like, you know, that's like, we

have my home anniversary episode where it's like, seemed impulsive,

but well, that was actually more impulsive than my car purchase.

But, you know, it's like you do all that like backend work and people

think that they're being impulsive by just saying like, let's just

throw an offer out today on day one.

But it's like, I don't even think people who have done that

back work consider it back work.

All those like looking into Zillow's and all of the conversations that

happen, they don't like factor that into their, their process.

They think that the process starts, you know, when the first day you go

out and that's day one, when really like all that backend work and research

and the thought process is done.

Really a whole part of the whole grand picture.

So day one, if you find it, then go for it.

Right, right.

Yeah.

You love fomo.

And I think the other thing too is like we mentally prepared for all the

things we've done and sort of pushed things off as far as we possibly can

until we're like, all right, fine.

We've either saved up enough money, we're in the right spot, whatever.

Like this truck purchases we just bought our, has been in the works.

For quite a while.

And it's just like,

Sam just bought this banging truck.

Yeah.

Like

truck, truck.

Um, but yeah, no, that's, we, we've wanted a truck for the

longest time because we do do a lot of home renovations, whether

it's ourselves or someone else, but you're handy as fuck, man.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Uh, well then you just sold off

all your equipment.

It was just like that candle thing I showed you earlier.

Yeah.

Yeah.

There was a comparison for people with just regular brains.

Neurotypical.

Neurotypical versus like ADHD.

Neurotypical is like a candle.

It's got a lot of length to it.

It burns very, you know, equally throughout.

That's symbolic to interests that you have and hobbies.

Yeah.

Like, oh, it burns equally.

Like, oh, it's a long time.

Like, you have it.

And then it's like, Sparkler.

Yeah.

And it's like, all right, I'm done.

I'm burnt out.

Yeah.

Um.

My cuppeth over floweth.

That's good.

So, okay.

So you, uh, what have you guys done to, to this house?

So you, uh, just for context, you guys live in a, but what?

Like a 2, 100 square foot, uh, four bedroom, three, three

bedroom, two and a half bath.

Um, palace.

Yes.

And so you redid this kitchen.

Yep.

Redid the whole kitchen last year.

Um, we actually, we've redone our laundry room.

We've redone the half bath.

Um, and currently they're just finishing up, um, the back,

the covered deck, covered deck, screened in porch on the back.

Yeah.

And I told you, you got to screen it.

And do you, were you guys always going to screen it?

Cause I.

Uh, yeah, we're

backed up to all

those trees.

You can't control coast over there.

Oh, yeah, the, um, Screened in porches are, I mean,

people will buy homes just for them.

Yeah.

They're awesome.

Yeah.

It is really nice.

Was it just an open deck before?

Yes.

And

they, they, they faced west.

So that thing was probably like a griddle plate.

Griddle plate.

Yeah.

And I think I said that when we bought it.

It was hot that day.

I think when we bought it, I said, guys, just keep in mind, like, you're

probably gonna put like an awning on this house, on this, this house or something.

Yeah.

It's just gonna,

it's just.

Like even just the trim on the window outside was just

warping because it was so hot.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, a lot of people don't realize that when you put these like composite

decks, I don't remember what you guys had, but it was like an old company,

you will put these composite decks and there's, there's, you know, the

density makes them more durable, but the density also makes them hold heat.

Yeah, there are times when like you can't even walk on them, especially

with like little kids, hot.

Yeah, yeah.

And even, even like pressure treated wood can get really hot if it's, if

it's all, you know, it's sitting out.

So, uh, that's one of the reasons people get awnings is not just for the

shade, it's just to keep it cool because otherwise you can't sit out there when

like you're supposed to be sitting out there, which is in the summer, right?

So, uh, so you guys had a good experience.

What would any advice for somebody who's thinking about

doing a major home renovation?

What are the lessons you guys have learned?

And how was it?

Was it a raging pain in the ass?

Or, I mean, living through a construction

zone.

It's never fun living through construction.

But, I mean, you have to, it is worth it.

And you have to be mentally prepared.

I mean, there's, there's, I like things very clean.

And there's going to be dust.

There's going to be dirt.

There's going to be mud.

Oh, he loved it.

He loved it.

He loves working on things.

Um.

Yeah, he just he thinks it's great.

I think the other thing, too, is, you know, if you are going to do a home,

especially for the kitchen renovation where you're not going to have a working.

You know, sink or dishwasher.

Yeah.

Plan that stuff out because we, we did.

The tub works great.

Yeah.

We did the tub, just took it upstairs.

Yeah.

Uh, our neighbor has like a temporary sink.

Give it to Jack while

he's taking a bath and just be like, here,

sweetie, wash the dishes.

Training them for a future.

But yeah, like not utilizing all your hard dishes.

Use a lot of paper stuff.

Um, sort of plan out dinners ahead of time.

Yeah.

Grill.

the summer and grill.

Yeah.

Do you guys just have a refrigerator in the garage?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Uh, well then they moved this one in our living room.

Okay.

So you

just make it work.

I, I, I, um, had a different experience where I, uh, didn't live in the house.

We bought a house and we renovate before we moved in, but I went

through when I was younger.

I mean, I ain't never ate more tuna melts in my entire life.

And we lived out of a toaster oven and like a little, a little mini fridge.

And you know, yeah.

And just paper plates.

And you just, you just make do.

Yeah.

We

had in the garage bed a table set up with the microwave and the toaster.

And I went out there and.

How long did the project take?

Five, six weeks?

Yeah.

Something like that.

It's so important, guys, to hire contractors who

are efficient, because especially for kitchens and bathrooms.

Well, I would say it's probably one of the things people

don't think about too much is the planning piece of it, as far as like

eating and functioning and like, Things that are so small as doing dishes.

Yeah,

the, the other thing is that kitchens and bathrooms also

have so many, so much detail work.

And, you know, cause you have faucets and you've got, you know, you got

backsplashes and tile and all that stuff.

And so there's a lot to be more to be done.

So the efficiency piece of your contractor is super important because I mean, someone

could, I mean, this kitchen, I could, I know there's contractors that are,

this would be 10, 11 weeks, you know?

Oh yeah.

They're not efficient when they're ordering.

They're not efficient with how they deploy, you know, their people.

And also they're just slower.

Yeah.

How did

you find your contractors?

That's a great question.

Oh yeah.

We know this

great guy, um,

called up our, our realtor.

We called our realtor.

That's right.

Yeah.

But yeah, so I think the other important piece not to take

away from your head exploding here, um, Is that we did a lot of like

research on stuff ourselves first.

So like we ordered our cabinets cause they were like, Oh yeah, it's

going to take like six weeks or so.

And we're like, yeah, let's just order them.

It was on a crazy sale at Lowe's.

Uh, and we also, we looked at two other places, cabinets,

and it's crazy expensive.

That we did shop around.

Yeah.

Um, the, the, uh, quartz we sourced from neighbors of ours who did crazy

research on it, found a great place.

So like, we already had a lot of those moving parts ordered.

Yeah.

Yes.

And when we called John, it was just like, all right, yeah, like

we have this coming in this time.

We have this already picked out.

Um, whatever.

You

are his favorite client.

Right?

So

that was the other thing.

And he was just like, great.

This is what I can do.

I can do it this time.

And he, he had everything, like everything fell into place.

He even told me, he's just, normally there's delays on stuff and like,

we're not going to be able to finish this part until that part gets done.

That's like the equivalent of like a buyer going to

the lender that we had recommended to and doing everything that they

spell out for them in a timely fashion and just getting on top of things.

So that things move along so smoothly.

So you were your contractor's favorite clients.

Yes.

You had all your prep work done and got all the stuff ordered.

So you just basically had to like, plug, I say plug in place.

Like it's that easy.

But at Settlement, I tell all my clients and I'm pretty

sure I told you, I said, this doesn't mean the end of a relationship.

It just phases into something else.

Clearly you're sitting in your kitchen like,

Hey, can we get a podcast

audience?

Yeah.

Three years later, you know, you guys have called me for all kinds of things.

The inspector came back, helped you fix some certain things.

Yeah.

So, I mean, part of what we do is, and I think most realtors should do this, is

to just kind of bring you into the tent, you know, and I don't want my clients

going and Googling and Angie's listing like for clients, because you don't

know who you're going to get, right.

And you can just learn from all my clients.

Same way.

My client, my clients who just settled down the street, they.

I went to you because you, you had just redone your kitchen and your

contractor then went over to theirs and they're super fans of John as well.

So there's no reason for my clients to go and try to like, listen,

you have a favorite contractor.

You have somebody you really want to use.

That's fine.

He's got a good reputation, but.

I think a lot of realtors are like, okay, call me in three to five years

when you buy and sell your next house.

And I don't believe that that's the way it should be doing, you know, should be done.

I want to always be able to take care of you guys.

And it's like,

and the thing that people don't realize,

like, and we harp on this a lot.

It's like, you know, we already, we did the hard work.

We already vetted these people out.

Yeah, they're already vetted.

And it's like, we don't get anything from it.

Yeah.

Other than just peace of mind.

I mean, like, shoot, three years ago, I passed out at a settle bit and

Seth was like, here's Brian's number.

Yeah.

And bada bings.

Yeah.

Take my ass.

It was, it's funny you should mention that because I never get anything

out of it, but I took a two client in Ambler, I took two clients out,

uh, the referrers and the referees.

And I just, I had never asked any of them, any for those two couples.

And I was like, how did you find, like, how did the, how

did I come up in conversation?

And Colin, I, Colin needed a bathroom remodeled.

And I sent him, I sent him a contractor and Kevin was across the office and they

were just talking and it was like, what are you, what are you doing at your house?

Like, Oh, well, it's like, I'm redoing my bathroom.

My realtor always said just to call him or whatever.

And.

He's like, yeah, I was like, you know, Aaron and I are thinking about

buying a house soon or whatever.

And then that's, that's how it actually, it wasn't, it wasn't, it was

because I made a contractor referral.

Yeah.

So it's, you know, that's a, not my intention when I do it, but I

thought it was funny that, that that's actually how it, how it happened.

Yeah.

And I gave the, and Colin and Kendall were the same way.

I was just like, listen, and they, they're, they're pharmaceutical people.

They have no idea.

They're the softest hands in the world.

They have no handy experience whatsoever.

And I'm like, guys, don't.

Like just, just call me if you need anything.

And they're like, please, like I, cause God, like we

have no idea what we're doing.

They're both from Michigan.

They don't know anybody.

They got transferred to Merck.

So that's good.

Um, what is something, if you were going to go back and do it, all over again.

Is there anything you would do differently about your home purchase, home experience?

Home sell.

Home

selling.

Anything, or what's something you would tell an aspiring person who

wants to, who maybe is sitting in a condo in a, you know, that's too small.

What would be the thing you would tell them?

I don't

know.

Have to put you on the spot.

Oh yeah.

Well get out of your condo.

Yeah.

Get a house.

Condos can be good,

but not all the time.

Yeah.

Um, I would say have patience.

Okay.

Patience is key and really have trust in your realtor.

Yeah.

I mean you, you really need to have trust in them and tell them everything.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We've since developed like a questionnaire and everything.

Like I have a few forms and, and I have everyone filled out.

It's like five, five pages, six pages.

No, I think

I just graduated to seven.

She just graduated seven.

So, and so it's basically just kind of pulls all the questions out instead of

us having to go through these, like, you know, kind of meandering interviews.

Like we're just like, we slide across and we have the couple fill it out together

because then it forces them to kind of confront and talk about certain things.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think.

Viewing the realtor as the quarterback in the situation because you really

are you're the the one orchestrating everything and Yeah, like Sam said

to put the trust in you and be like this is on your shoulders now

I want to get out of this house.

I want to buy another house.

I'm going to try not to worry about the sale of my own house.

She wasn't worried at all.

I was very concerned, obviously, after having so many water issues.

I remember being, I remember the cross.

Like, what was

your biggest, like

I didn't think it was going to sell.

Yeah, well, you also, you had

It sold in two days, guys.

No, no, no, no.

You

had, you had money.

No, I was the same way.

You had money in the street.

And you need the money to come, come back.

And I remember being, I remember selling that, that condo and she,

yeah, she was cool as a cucumber and you were just like, Did they like it?

They like it.

I was like, Jesus Christ.

They, they left 15 minutes ago.

I will get the feedback.

Have we got a lot of shows on that though?

Even for so

many, so many, we stopped the showings

by Thursday or Friday.

It was on

a Tuesday.

They were

getting practically a new home or new condo.

Yeah.

And then you're kind of everything and when you go to sell your home,

get a trailer, pack everything up and drop it off at your parents

house and make it look like you have.

There's so much room in there and they're like, wow, look at all this space.

That's funny.

We just did an episode on staging and minimalizing and downsizing and

like moving things somewhere else.

Oh

yeah.

We don't have to take all like the personal pictures out, but don't have

your, your walls flooded with pictures.

Yeah.

Less is more.

Yeah.

Always.

See?

It's not just us.

Verified by clients.

What?

You keep slapping me.

I know.

That's intentional.

It's emphasis.

Yes.

Oh, okay.

That's fine.

I'm trying to keep my hand as quiet as possible over here.

It's also your foot.

You're doing a kick.

You're

making the friggin eye look

like a kick drum.

You have the softest touch on that counter now.

All right.

So we're going to do a speed round.

Okay.

Okay.

Questions.

Uh, you guys need to answer together.

Movies or music?

Movies.

Music.

Camping or traveling?

Camping.

Camping, probably.

I don't like traveling too far.

Pepsi or Coke?

Coke.

Ugh,

neither.

Yeah, girl.

Oh, I'm right there

with you.

I'm just kidding.

Yeah, I don't.

Taylor Swift or Beyonce?

Taylor.

Baseball or football?

Baseball.

Coffee or tea?

Coffee.

Coffee.

Yep.

Beach or

mountains?

Beach.

Beach.

Favorite actor?

Vin Diesel.

Yeah, she just loves him.

I don't have one.

I don't have a favorite actor.

Oh, you know what?

Will Ferrell.

Yeah, Will Ferrell is my favorite.

Favorite musician?

Musical act?

Group?

Everything.

Everything.

He really is.

He jumps in.

Yeah.

I don't know.

Depends on

the mood.

What's your bucket list vacation slash trip?

You get money's no object, you get all the flexibility in the world, you can

go anywhere for as long as you want.

What is it?

Uh.

But you have to come home.

Can't, like, move.

Like, what's the, what would be the dream trip?

I mean, this one isn't even, like, traveling, apparently.

I don't.

Yeah, uh, we're very simple.

I would say Like a road

trip?

Forge

National Park.

No, like go down south somewhere.

Just do a big food road trip.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We always talked about that.

Yeah.

Sitting out of banks, going down to Florida, coming back.

Yeah, that's great.

Yeah.

Well,

we had a bunch of questions.

Um, We didn't ask any of these, so.

No,

very few of them.

Sorry.

That's what's behind me.

So, well, thank you for sitting with us.

I know you have to run and get the little guy.

Yeah.

And I appreciate your time.

Well, for having us.

Yeah, sure, thank you.

Thanks for

opening your home to us.

Of course,

anytime.

Come back.

We got the keg right over there.

Let's do those before hand pictures.

All right.

Bye.

See ya.