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#64 The Silent Cash-Flow Killer Landlords Ignore (Plumbing) w/ Jordan Barile · Own More Doors

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Hey everyone, it's Juan Weezar with another Own More Doors podcast.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_01: Today, yes, I talk about owning more doors, but today I'm going to show you guys how to save money by owning those doors.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_01: We're going to tackle the subject of plumbing and how that is the one of the biggest expenses when you're an apartment owner, when you have rental properties, and what you could do before something gets out of control, before the leaks, before the calls, before, hey, the sewage is backed up into my tub, before the, hey, there's water coming down from the unit above.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_01: That's a problem.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: You know it is.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: And if you have an experience, you will soon if you own units.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_01: And so we're going to interview Jordan Borelli with Primo Plumbing.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_01: So make sure to tune in.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: What's up, everyone?
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: It's another Own More Doors podcast.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Juan Weezar.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you guys for tuning in.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I have a good friend of mine, Jordan Borelli with Primo Plumbing.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_01: Jordan, man, I uh thank you for being here.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for having me.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: Jordan, so I originally met your dad through a business organization group called Tippers.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: And so I had years of knowing your dad.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: Your dad was great, had a great reputation.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: People uh loved working with Primo Plumbing.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: And then just out of the blue, dad got here's a way that I saw it.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: Dad was out of the picture, Jordan's in the picture.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, who the hell is this guy?
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: And then and then I get to meet Jordan.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_01: Jordan's funny and hilarious, and he's uh he's well spoken.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, man, this is and and he's not shy.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: So um, Jordan.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: So let's hop right into it.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, my our channel is dedicated to, you know, we talk it, we talk about owning more doors, but but today's podcast is like, okay, well, we're gonna own doors, but we have to make sure that we're taking care of the door the doors that we own.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: And and I know and you know, that the majority of um calls that an apartment owner gets are plumbing related.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: And so why don't you take us from like, okay, if you're an apartment owner, um, these are things that you could do to prevent major issues, or these are the things that you should be checking and and just kind of tell us how how frequently they should be looking at those things.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: Because at the end of the day, yes, we want to own more doors, but you want to protect the income, you want to keep um uh as as much profit in your pocket as possible.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_01: You want to provide good service, you don't want to be a bad housing provider.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but you have to know some things specifically to maintenance.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: So whether you know it or your property manager knows it, um, that's what today's show is gonna be about.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna let you take it from the top.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: You tell us, like, hey, these are the things that I see, and this is what what owners could do.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um to yeah, yeah, just protect their their investment, right?
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, at the end of the day, it's as we know in SoCal, everything's so expensive.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: The homes are, the properties are.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I know what's behind the doors, under the doors, above the doors.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we're in and out of people's homes and properties every day, multiple times a day.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's so it's actually kind of scary sometimes how bad of a condition a property could be in.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and in fact, just yesterday I was on a job, uh went out to assist one of my technicians on the job, and the property owner showed up too.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: And he's on the phone with his wife, and he says, the uh the house looks like shit.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: You know, he's not even inside yet.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: And he's just, you know, he's talking to his wife, and he's like, Oh, the how, you know, the paint's peeling, the this and that.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: And and I'm like, Oh, and your drains are not in great shape.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, there's uh we're we were there to to clear one of the issues was uh to clear a uh mainline stoppage.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, and then the original issue we came out for was the laundry drain had broken off.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean it's just so old, so rotten that it just the weight of its of the of its own pipe just made it break.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: And so while we're there testing everything, all of a sudden they're saying, Hey, our whole house is backed up.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, just coincidental timing.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I mean, thankfully we were we were still there when they discovered it, but um, you know, that you know, we're trying to talk to him about you know how to you know get this issue resolved and things like that.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: And he can't take his mind off of all these things that he he hasn't seen because he probably hasn't been there in over a year.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: So you know, Jordan, one of the things that I tell people when you when you own um an apartment building, or like in this case, it sounds like it might be just an investment house, right?
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, or an investment condo, I tell people the best part, you know, you you do own a business that is its own independent business.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, there's income, there's expenses, there's a net operating income, there, there's value in that asset.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: And I tell people, and the best part, you don't have to go to it every day.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_01: But but but on the flip side, you know, you don't yeah, you don't go to it for a couple years, and then you're that could be a problem.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: It could be a problem.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: And and that, you know, that that to me, because we represent a lot of owners, and that realization that, oh my gosh, my property looks like crap, yeah, it uh yes, right?
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_01: Because there, if you own an apartment building or a rental property and the tenants, a good tenant, they're paying rent, right?
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_01: Uh every now and then you get a maintenance call.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you're not worried about the property, right?
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: But things are gonna happen.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: What are the major things that you see from a plumbing perspective when it comes to rental property?
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: So a lot of like stoppages, right?
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, those are urgent.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: You can't put them off, you can't not call your landlord or property management company, and and you know, your only toilet doesn't work, like you're gonna call them.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: So we get a lot of calls about my toilet's running or it's not draining.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we get a lot of like uh sink and shower stoppages.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, those are are always very common because again, it's the world of plumbing, you can't put it off for too long.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: You know, whether you want to or not, or times are tough or not, you need to be able to flush a toilet, you need hot water, you need to be able to take a shower.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: So when you go to work, you don't smell awful.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, those are things where if if it's affecting the tenant, you're gonna know right away.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if you don't know right away, then it's a much bigger issue.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: I've I've gone to calls where the tenants, like, I don't want to call my landlord, I don't want my rent to go up, uh, I don't have a working shower, I'll shower at the gym.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: And it's, you know, I mean, they'll they'll they'll make it do.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, the biggest thing, like my parents own own a couple properties, and the biggest two really big things that I see that they do with their tenants when they when they're first getting started with a new tenant.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: Before the tenant moves in, they do a very thorough walkthrough.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: You know, obviously, like you mentioned, my dad started the plumbing company.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: He's he's very plumbing's on the forefront of his mind, but he's looking at how's the paint, how's the you know, the condition of of everything, including, of course, the plumbing.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: So get a very good understanding of the condition of your property before someone even moves in, or or if you're just buying it, really understand like what's the eight, you know, the heating and cooling status, what's the plumbing status, what's the foundation status?
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: This is my is, you know, some are some of the floors sinking or you know, getting dilapidated.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um so so understanding your property really well is huge.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: And then the second thing is make it very clear to the tenant, like, if you have any issue, like call us.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: You're not bothering us, you're not inconveniencing us.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: Like, we want to take care of the property so you're comfortable in in this place.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's really important because a lot of people like even then, they they're like, I don't want to bother you.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: And you just have to keep reiterating, you know, you're not bothering me.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: You're we're taking care of the property you're paying for, you know, and so that has to go both ways.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: You have to want to take care of the tenant through the property, and the tenant has to want to, you know, feel appreciated and help you take care of that property.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: So if that doesn't match, it's it's a problem.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_01: You know, uh sometimes uh on buildings that I'm selling, um, I get to go in all the units because I got to see the condition so that I could market it properly.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: I'll go into units and I clearly hear water flowing, you know, from just toilet running.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_01: Toilet running is just running like crazy.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, is this professionally managed?
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, or or or is it self-managed by the owner?
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_01: But there's a water bill out there that's huge, and it's just wasting water.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: I think that is like the silent killer is toilets just like run, even if it's not constant, it could be like every 30 minutes you hear it kick on for like two, three seconds and then turn back off, and then half an hour, 45 minutes later, it kicks on again.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: That happening every half hour to every hour of every single day has raised some of our customers' bills by a thousand dollars a month.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: So you're normally getting, I don't know, what's the average water bill for say a single family home?
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like$400, something like that.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now they're getting a bill for$1,500.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: And you can't say, you can't go back to the water company and say, Oh, I'm so sorry.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't, I didn't realize.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so we had a plumber come out.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: Could you refund?
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: They're like, no, you use that water.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: But but you're not using it, you're just wasting.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's literally, I picture when I see faucets dripping, hose bibs dripping, toilets running, it's change and dollar bills just throwing it down the drain.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's literally what's happening.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: And it's interesting that some, you know, some tenants block the noise out.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_01: They block it out.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: It's just it helps them sleep at night.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: It's just no I it's your duty, but like if if they weren't told, like if they weren't told, um if they weren't told, like, hey, if if you if you hear this, please let me know.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: But you have to tell them because it can happen, it could, it happens all the time it happens in my own tour.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_01: It's at the house.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, okay, so it's happening here, it's gonna be happening everywhere else.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I I think a lot of times when you're an owner, unfortunately, it's it's out of sight, out of mind.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: You want the rent to come in.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, if something, if you get called upon for something, you're gonna fix it.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_01: Most most people will.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but no one's being proactive.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_01: Like what what what are things that people could do that are that are proactive, either when there is a turnover, so there's a vacancy, or, or maybe it's something that they do.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, should should should they be checking water valves and stuff once a year?
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: 100%.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, sometimes the um, you know, like I'll get calls on my units and hey, the uh, you know, there's water coming underneath the toilet base, right?
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: So that's kind of the wax rings, what I've learned.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: Sure, you know, I haven't I know some basic stuff to a I don't know how to fix something, but I know some basic you know how to avoid it in the future, you know, and things to look out for.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: That that's a big one because if you're uh referring to the wax ring, if you've got water pulling up from under your toilet, you know, people think, okay, well, the floor's tile, it's water resistant or waterproof, whatever.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: But the tile only goes so far under the toilet, then there's the flange, and there's usually a gap between the flange and the tile or wood floor or whatever it is.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: And then so the water dust pulling up underneath, some of it's spilling out, but some of it's going down into the floor and the subfloor.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: And now that could, I mean, I've I've walked to you know, inspect people's toilets, and as I step alongside the toilet to then remove it, my boots kind of like sinking into the floor.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's like pushing the floor down.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: That means so much water has, you know, little by little accumulated under that toilet and soaked into the wood.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: Wood acts like a sponge, it just brings it in.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: That now it's deteriorated the wood, and now you're full.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: So now not only do you need new wax ring and to reset the toilet, and all now you have to have a flooring guy come in and chop out the bad wood and the rod wood and redo it.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: So to answer your question, things to look out for just a visual inspection.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: No one ever looks under their bathroom sink, their kitchen sink, their angle sops.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't have a quarter turn shutoff valve, the quarter turn angle sops under each picture, you need that.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: All the time I see those multi-turn, it's kind of like an oval handle, and you have to like twist it a bunch of times to actually turn off the water, those fail constantly.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so people are like, oh, but it works right now.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: It works, but it's an old, outdated, you know, obsolete, you know, uh product, and for a reason, because they've got something better that works, that doesn't fail, that the washer doesn't wear out.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: There's they eliminated the washers more like it's more like a ball valve instead of a gate valve.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the gate valve to shut off to your house.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: If you see those in front of your homes, get rid of them.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: Because one day you may have an emergency because you didn't call us out, you ignored our advice and Juan's advice and said, uh, I don't need to call a plumber.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: I I check myself.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: But then you have a line burst or a or an angle stop start like really leaking bad.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: And you're like, oh, go turn off the water to the house or or the whole building, and now it's it now you're inconveniencing seven people or more, you know, depending on how many units and how many people in each unit, and you go to turn off the gate valve and it won't turn off.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the second or third floor, and so now the water that's leaking is going through their floor into the bottom unit ceiling, affecting their so the thing that I can't stress enough is paying a little bit here and there to maintain the property avoids thousands of dollars in damage and water damage that doesn't even fix the issue.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, you just paid three, four, five thousand dollars if you're lucky, to you know, fix a floor, fix a ceiling in the bottom unit, and I still gotta call that plumber to you know come out and and fix this angle stop, you know.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, people say, Oh gosh, you know, a few hundred dollars to change a couple angle stops, or a few thousand dollars on top of replacing the angle stops.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, because it's only a matter of time, you know.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: As we know in Long Beach, it's a really old city.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, there's still galvanized plumbing systems that people are just, you know, either unaware of, not thinking about, um, or you know, they cross their fingers and toes every night and hope for the best.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, the biggest thing is just visually inspect your properties, whether the owner wants to do it or they want to pay for us to go out and just do an inspection fee.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: And just we will check every single angle stop, every connection, every shutoff valve, um, you know, what's the condition of the faucets, the tub, and little things that you wouldn't think of, like um, you know, when you run the shower is water spraying onto the rim of the tub and then seeping into the wall.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that's not technically a plumbing issue necessarily, but we're gonna point that out to you and say, hey, you may want to have someone come and re-cock the tub or the shower, or you know, there's some gaps between those tiles.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the a handyman could fix that, but you're avoiding, you know, a bathroom remodel.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: You know, so what I see specifically to that is I'll walk into bathrooms and just like you said, the floor's weak.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_01: And so now I know that the support underneath has taken so much water damage through the years, uh, that that it's a complete bathroom remodel.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_01: Because because how can you get down to the uh to the um to the plywood that's shot, and then underneath the plywood it's got the support beams, right?
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_01: All that has to be replaced.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: So now the toilet gets removed, the tile gets removed, the plywood's removed, and now the pedestal scene.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, everything, yeah.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: The pedestal yeah, and then and then you probably have to remove the heavy tub.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: And so it turns into this really, really huge job.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: Uh the one part that scares me, and especially just because I I I bought this new building, and I'm always afraid of the upstairs units because I know that the toilet wax ring is gonna leak at some point, and it goes downstairs, and and now you're disrupting someone underneath.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: And hopefully that water doesn't go on top of their mattress because now you're buying a new mattress.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: And then you got water that comes out of the shower.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: So you have all these things you have to be watching for, and then there's just regular leaks, and sometimes there's water or sewer line leaks within a wall that you had no idea was even, but just happens to be the case.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but in terms of like water coming out of the shower when someone's showering, we see walls where sometimes they're like they look black, you know.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: I don't want to use the word mold, mold expert, but something bio growth.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you touch it and it's weak, and it's like water's been coming out, or or it's on top of the window seal.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: And then, or sometimes you press the tile and the tile kind of gives in.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it should be happy.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_01: You yeah, you see it all the time.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: I I mean, granted, you get hired to fix it.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_01: I just see it, and then I have to make a note of it, like, okay, there's it's it's and I something to add onto your list, right?
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_01: The time and and so you bring up a good point.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um, do people actually hire you for an inspection?
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_01: Because you said, hey, like like there's there's prudent owners out there that say, Hey, um, someone just moved out.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_01: Can you just come in?
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we got it painted and everything.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: Can you just let me know that everything's okay with the plumbing?
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: Right after this episode, I'm I'm going to do a sewer inspection.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a I actually got referred to it's a realtor.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um he contacted someone who was like, uh, that's out of my area.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: So he referred that guy to a friend of mine who said, I'm sorry, that's it's a little out of our range and we're swamped.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: I I can't get to it.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: Call Jordan with Primo Plumbing.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: So he called me, said, Hey, I'm helping these people buy their first home.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: We had an inspection done, they found some things.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: But an inspector, like it just a general inspector, like a general home inspector during an escrow period.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: They're looking at electrical, plumbing, HVAC, structural, framing, like, you know, so many different things.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know, one of the things in the report was the the stair, uh, the staircase to the second floor.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um there's a picture of his fist going through the the railings, and he said, These rails are too wide by today's standard, you know, and and I thought, wow, they really have to check like everything.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: So how they're not the specialist, right?
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: They're a general inspect, you know, home inspector.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_01: And and did you know that that you don't have to be licensed to do what they're doing?
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, really?
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_01: There's no license behind it.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if people that know.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_01: There's no license behind it.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_01: So uh I always tease that like when we have these inspectors come out, everything is um the roof, um, have a roof inspector come out.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_01: Plumbing, yeah, have a uh uh a professional plumbing company, electric.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm like, I I warn our buyers, hey, you're gonna get this report, and there's gonna be suggestions, like I'm like, you know, and the report did say things like um have have a professional come out and and check this.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: And he this guy was actually thorough.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, he camered the sewer and no and noticed a crack in in the drain, and and it was ABS.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: So that means something's pushing up against the ABS so hard that it's cracked it in.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: You know, ABS plastic, I mean it's thick, it's strong, it's nice that it doesn't rust or corrode like cast iron or clay does.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, you don't get the root intrusions that clay does.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: But yet, you know, some people would think, oh, you've got ABS, you're good.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: But then you inspect it and uh it could be better.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so now my job is to go out and and specifically inspect the plumbing thoroughly.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: And what I'm gonna do when I when I camera the sewer is find those spots and then locate them and see is it under a yard?
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: Is it under a driveway?
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: Where is it?
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: So, because it it needs to be repaired.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: And if they're buying a home, I mean, like we said, you're putting a lot of money down.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: There's probably things you want to change and and cosmetic stuff, but cosmetic stuff can wait.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: Plumbing, not so much, you know.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, that's that is the nice thing about our industry.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, why wouldn't I promote, you know, take care of your property and fix it?
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: But at the same time, all you're doing is protecting your investment and saving money because if you keep putting off, keep putting off in five years down the road, oh shoot, we can't put it off anymore.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the price you would have paid five years ago is a heck of a lot cheaper than it is in five more years, right?
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_01: Does your inspection include you going underneath the uh crawl space?
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: Crawl space because and the attic too.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: If if uh or or even if there is a crawl space, sometimes there are you know plumbing, plumbing, uh, fixture or uh plumbing in the in the attic.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_01: Because for for those people who have a property and there's a leak underneath the house, they don't know there's a leak.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: Until there's like a bad smell.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_01: Or yeah, so yeah.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_01: Because we've been, you know, during inspections, and then uh that's when we discover like there's water's there's There's like the sewer has a the You've got a pond sewage and it's a discount.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: And the old school guys like my dad, he'd say, oh, let me put on a wetsuit, you know.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: But uh, you know, times have changed and and we want to protect our health and and stay healthy because this is such a a physically demanding career that you know if we see a pond of sewage, we're calling a restoration company.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: You want us to fix a leak.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: First, we need to be able to protect ourselves in getting to it, you know, because the you know, some people say, ah, it's just a little bit of sewage.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: Even if that's the case and we don't have any open cuts or something that's gonna, you know, get infected and and give us some weird disease.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: What if there's an electrical line that's draped down and and you know, touching the water?
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: Uh uh I got shocked pretty bad once on a job.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, thankfully, you know, I was good, but I had to go to the hospital, get checked up, make sure I was good.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: I had an entry-exit wound of electricity arcing through my hand uh from touching my cable and it was it was charged somehow.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and when the supply house I went I always go to heard about it, they said, Oh man, did you hear about so and so's son?
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, No, what happened?
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: They said his son just died under a house.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: And it was because and and the worst part was he'd already repiped the whole house.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: He went up to tell the customer, hey ma'am, you know, everything's all set, you're you're all good.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and they said, Oh, did you get a picture of of everything?
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Oh, you know, I'm sorry, I forgot.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: Let me go back under and and get a picture of that.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: Never came back out.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: Because there was a, you know, after chopping everything out and puddles of water everywhere, there was a conduit or something that was draped down hanging in the soil, and there was you know, bare wire something.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: And when he crawled and touched that water, it killed him instantly.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so that's a a kid who had a really bright future and and an amazing job to to you know set him up for the rest of his life, and and it, you know, it's just one of those things.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why he's like, it's so important to hire a professional who knows what they're doing, who knows the risk, who who knows uh what to look out for so that he doesn't put himself or the homeowner or the tenants in in harm's way.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, Jordan, um with with the inspection fee, because I'm I'm I'm gonna highly highly recommend that people do that.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_01: Or in and I get it, people are gonna be like, I don't want to pay someone to go check that, but like don't you want to find out if there's a leak?
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_01: Because it's it's the water down, it's water that's gonna cause a lot of damage.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, definitely.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_01: You're checking um all the water valves underneath um every shelf, yeah, every supply line.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we'll see like little like rust spots on the supply line, and and they don't just get rusty, right?
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: That means like there's probably some like micro tear in the hose that rusted itself shut.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: So that means eventually it's gonna re-rust out, and now you've got a pinhole leak.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, those always happen the middle of the night, right?
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: Or while you're away at work, you know, no one's sitting by their bathroom waiting for something to happen.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: So by the time you see it, it is too late.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: There's there's floor damage, wall damage, drywall damage, tile damage, cabinetry that's ruined, your vanity sink.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: And the nicer your property is, the more expensive it is to to fix it and and you know get it back to how it was.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so yeah, I mean, I I can't stress getting inspection done enough.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, just a simple basic full home inspection for for single family or a single unit, we charge 170.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: You know, some people think, oh, 170, that's not too bad.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: Some people think, God,$170.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: But but if it saves you thousands, which it usually does, you know, knowing is half the battle.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't know what needs to be done, or at least what's coming up, right?
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: It it, you know, if you're calling us, you're being proactive.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, there's not necessarily an issue right now, but but you've got that crystal ball that can show you what's coming up, and it's all written in our report.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: And and and we keep it simple, you know, we just say, you know, the angle stops in in the master bathroom look pretty, you know, pretty good, but the ones in the guest bathroom, in the hallway bathroom, need to be changed.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: We just keep it simple, you know.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: We'll take photos, we'll attach them, we can send them to you, you can see exactly what you know is going on.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: And you and then it's in your court, balls in your court.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to do something about it, great, let's get it going.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the price.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't, okay.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we're right up, we're not forcing anyone to do anything, we're just giving them the options to how do you want to protect your investment, right?
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_01: Jordan, talk to us about water heaters, you know.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_01: Because we're selling a lot of buildings, uh, the inspector will point out that hey, this one's 20 years old, 25 years old, it's it's uh uh beyond its useful life, and and there's all these warnings.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_01: The cost of buying and stalling the water heaters has gone up.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_01: Like, how can someone what kind of advice can you give us when it comes to water heaters?
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um the biggest thing is some people will call me, hey, my tank water heater's leaking all over the place.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm thinking about going to tank lists, right?
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like, okay, well, there's a lot more research that needs to go into providing you an estimate for a tankless than just all right, let's swap it out with the tankless.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: Where's your gas meter in in regards to the location of the water heater and where the water heater is gonna be in the gas meter?
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: Because do you need a dedicated three-quarter inch gas line to the tankless, or can you just branch off and or reuse the half-inch line that's already run to the tank?
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, there's a lot of questions that we need to answer that if it's you know two o'clock on a Friday, you're getting a tank water heater because otherwise you're gonna pay so much, you know, to figure out how we can put a tankless in and and now it's after hours and you know, it needs two guys and you know, all this stuff to get done.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: So being proactive with water heaters is is huge because we have some customers with water heaters in basements.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: People think, a basement in SoCal?
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: Where the hell's a basement in SoCal?
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: Well, big spinoles.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's quite a few, right?
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so you know, I'll get a call at two o'clock on a Friday when I'm getting all these other emergencies, and it's like, oh geez, you know, is that when the emergencies come in?
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: Is on Friday?
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: Two o'clock on a Friday.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: So uh we got a couple of things.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: Before shit, it's the fan, yeah.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: But um, you know, then it can happen on the weekend, right?
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um in even in you get lucky, and it's a Monday at 10 a.m.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, all right, cool, but you know, it just takes time.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: So with water heaters, be proactive.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: The average life of a water heater is about 15 years for like a pro-grade water heater.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_00: You bought something good quality, brass parts, good quality materials.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_00: You if you go to Home Depot and you get like, say, a ream water heater, it's got the plastic drain port, it's got cheap, you know, inner materials.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I I've replaced some that are five years old, and it's ridiculous because they saved maybe$400 getting that versus you know, and and you got one-third the lifespan of it.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_01: And so you're getting uh for anyone listening, you're getting your water heaters at I guess a plumbing supply house.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: A plumbing supply house, yeah.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: So we go we stock uh Bradford White.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_00: If you're going with a tank water heater, don't get anything other than Bradford White.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: But I I I stock Bradford White in my shop in Signal Hill, and I stock the repair kits.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: So if your control valve goes out and your tenants calling you, I've got no hot water, it's Friday, I got people coming over for a party tonight, and then another party tomorrow.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: I don't, you know, they're pissed.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: They're and that's the thing.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: When the tenant's pissed, then their friend or their partner saying, Well, legally, we need to have hot water, right?
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: And that, right?
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: So, so the great thing about Bradford White is they make sure at the supply houses and and even just pre-built kits, we stock those.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_00: And they work for 40 or 50 gallon water heaters.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: And so whether you call about a 50 or 40 gallon, we're gonna get it knocked out and and taken care of.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: And and we can get that done within two hours from from the moment you call us to when we call you to say, hey, everything's set.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_00: Your tenant has hot water again, two hours.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I can't, you know, I called uh Ream.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I had someone who called us about a tenant with no hot water.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_00: I went out there, Home Depot, Ream water heater, and I, you know, there's a big stop sign on the on the water heater.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_00: It says, Stop.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: You know, if you have an issue with this water heater, don't bring it back to Home Depot, call this number.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I called the number.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_00: I wait on hold for a while, probably 20 minutes.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_00: And then someone finally answers the phone.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_00: I've got to register the water heater for the for the owner.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_00: What's the owner's name?
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_00: What's their last name?
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: What's their cell number?
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: What's the property address?
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_00: Get everything registered.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: And they say, okay, uh, it is covered under warranty, which I already knew based off the age.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_00: They say, we're gonna transfer you to the shipping department so you can let them know how you know where to ship it to.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like, okay.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_00: Wait on hold another five or so minutes, get to the shipping department.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_00: They say, All right, we can uh we see this uh covered, what address do you want it to?
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_00: I give them the address.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: They say, Okay, uh, we'll ship it to you for free, uh, two to four business days.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_00: This is a Friday afternoon, so they're gonna get it maybe Wednesday, maybe Thursday, or you could pay to expedite the shipping$30, and um you'll have it in one to two business days.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so Monday or Tuesday, but they're still gonna go the whole weekend without hot water.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_00: And sure enough, they got lucky.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_00: It showed up on Monday morning, so we were able to get it done Monday afternoon, but they still went the whole weekend without hot water.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_00: And that to some people that doesn't sound too bad, but my wife makes sure I know very clearly she did not marry a plumber to not have hot water.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_00: We have a tank list.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_00: I kind of have a love-hate relationship with them because anytime there's a power outage, you've got no hot water.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_00: And that only happens when I'm not home and my wife is, and she's ready to take a shower, and I get a call or a text, and she's like, What the f you know, I've got no hot water.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: What the hell?
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, come home and fix this right away.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm out with friends for the first time in two months, and you know, I just want to kick back and relax, and you know, I'm I'm getting chewed out for something I can't control, right?
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_00: So my wife loves a hot shower.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: If her skin if she comes out of the shower and her skin's not glowing red, she didn't burn off that first layer, she's not clean.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: So that's her mindset.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, she she appreciates a hot shower.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I can only imagine, because we're all people, if my wife was a tenant for a property and she didn't have hot water, she'd be on chat GPT.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, how long before I can sue my landlord for not giving me hot water, you know?
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, it's it's just what people do now that you know, and so you know, our job is obviously to fix the issue, but it's also to set you up for success because we're we specialize in service and repair.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: We're not just here to repipe your house and never see you again, we're here to fix whether it's repipe or not, in 10, 15, 20, 30, 50 years, we're gonna be here to take care of the issue again when something else goes wrong, right?
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_00: So um, yeah.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_01: Jordan, um, tell us a little bit about um, you know, did you want to take over dad's business?
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_01: Because I because I I guess when I when I when I knew your dad through the uh through Tippers, the business networking group, um, I don't know that like he would bring you to the breakfast meetings where like I where where it was like a good passing of the baton.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't see that happening.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_01: I just he didn't come, you came, and then you know, I didn't realize you were his son at first, right?
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_01: And so when did you realize you're like, all right, like like dad wanted you to take over, or you're like, uh, hey, I should do this.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_00: So it's an interesting story.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_00: Even getting into plumbing wasn't my first choice.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, going going to school, I was not a great student.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_00: I had terrible ADHD.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I I really struggled with just taking a test, you know.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but my biggest, you know, my parents were truly or are truly amazing.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_00: They're still around, they're still still still great people.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but you know, my mom and dad just wanted me to do the best I could in school.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_00: So I was like, look, if I could at least get B's and C's get through high school, like, cool, I'll be happy.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I was very nerdy, you know, back then, and still am.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I I love video games.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_00: I don't play nearly as much as I used to.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, otherwise the business would be in terrible shape.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but you know, I a couple of summers when I was uh, you know, in Milliken, a couple of the summers, my dad said, Hey, you know, get out of the house.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_00: Like, come to work with me.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_00: I need help, you know, make some money.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought, okay, more money, buy more video games.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_00: Why not?
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'd go to work with him, and and uh, I'll admit, I I was pretty useless when I first started.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, everyone is, you know, it you don't know what you don't know, but I I didn't really have the drive.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't like, yeah, this is what I'm gonna do.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_00: But I I started working with him, I was learning, getting that hands-on experience, and and getting paid, right?
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm getting paid to learn.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm useless as I don't know channel locks from a screwdriver, and I'm getting paid to figure it out.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you don't get paid to go to college, you pay them to teach you, right?
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm getting paid to learn such a useful skill.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_00: And and as AI, and maybe we'll get into that, as AI gets more and more prevalent, people are like, oh shoo, you know, like I went to college for this job, and a robot, you know, a computer just took it from me, you know.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, so I I I worked a couple summers with him, and then in my senior year of high school, my teacher said to me, You know, hey Jordan, like what college do you want to apply to?
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_00: I thought, oh God, you know, me in college uh doesn't sound like a pretty picture, you know.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna end up partying and drinking and wasting money.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_00: And so I I went home, I said, Hey, you know, dad, I think I want to work with you.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, My dad's very grounded, very, you know, realistic kind of person.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_00: And and he said, All right, but you need to work.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you're not just riding along to sit there and not look pretty, because you know, I don't have the pretty face to, you know, be the face of the company, but you know, you need to work.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_00: Like people are calling us for help, right?
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_00: You don't become a police officer and someone is like, help me, help.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_00: And you're like, Yeah, I don't feel like it, right?
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_00: So he was very big on like you you need to put in the work and and and try really hard if you want to work, uh, work work for me.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_00: And and I said, All right, you know, let's do it.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_00: Because I I really didn't have any other, I mean, it was the easy in, right?
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_00: Dad'll hire me.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_00: Why not?
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_00: So I got into that, and then long story short, for that, what what got me to really love plumbing was hearing so you know, because uh when I first started working for my dad, he had already had his business for 15 years.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_00: He started in 1995.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_00: I graduated in 2011 and have been working for him full time ever since.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I heard so many stories about how my dad saved the day on Christmas morning when everything's stopped up and and everything was flooding, and he came out and saved the day.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I would think back to, oh, you know, I remember Christmas morning.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_00: We opened up our gifts, and then my dad left for an hour or two.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm distracted with my new toy, right?
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'm happy.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_00: See ya, dad.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_00: Go have fun or go to work, whatever you're doing.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm playing with my new Christmas toy, and and he's back in a couple hours, feels like two minutes to me, but he just saved Christmas for someone, right?
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when all your toys are backing up and overflowing and causing a mess, or or you just can't use the bathroom and you've got a house full of people, that's an issue, right?
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so hearing my dad, you know, on weekends and late nights and holidays, and it didn't matter when, and all these people are are saying how wonderful my dad is, it really was like, whoa, like that's like I was I don't think I was ever more proud of my dad than hearing those stories, right?
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I kind of was like, I I want I want to be the hero, right?
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_00: I want to be the guy who saves the day and who saves Christmas and you know just a Tuesday afternoon, you know?
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so I I really started to appreciate and and start to fall in love with plumbing because I'm it's it's uh I I'm providing a service to someone.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_00: I like to be that's something my mom really instilled in me was hold the door open for people, say please and thank you, be a gentleman, be polite, you know, help people.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_00: If you see someone with a car broken down on the side of the road, help them push it out of the way, you know?
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_00: Like don't just sit there and record it or drive, you know, like be be a a person who cares, right?
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_00: So so I really started to like really take plumbing and just go 100% into it.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_00: And but to answer your question about did I want to take over the business?
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yes and no, you know, it he we started having those talks, you know.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_00: My dad was getting older, you know, he was beat, you know, his physically was just his body was was just beat to heck, you know.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, one day he said to me, Hey, you know, I'm gonna start having you answer the phones and you go out and do the calls, like because we were small, you know, it was just my dad and I, and maybe one other guy.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so my dad was the one answering the phones, doing the calls, you know, doing everything.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_00: So he's like, Why don't you start answering the calls and helping people over the phone and then you go out and and do the jobs?
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_00: I said, All right, let's do it, you know.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but I said on one condition, we get off a pen and paper because I'm not calling you every night at you know eight o'clock at night and saying, What do you have for 8 a.m.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_00: tomorrow?
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_00: What what about 10 a.m.?
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_00: And what about Wednesday at 3 p.m.?
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_00: And we're not doing that.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_00: So we we started putting everything on Google Calendar, syncing our calendars and figuring out a way to make things a little more modern.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_00: And then that led to you know, seeing like, oh, like just that little change like really helped a lot.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_00: And and then then my dad was like, hey, like now I kind of need to get out of the field.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_00: Like I'm it it hurts, you know, to get up and down from my knees and crawl under houses and get out from you know, pretzel myself and cram myself up from under a sink.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you you're gonna kind of do everything now.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_00: I said, All right.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_00: He said, or you can sell the business and go work for someone else.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_00: You're good at what you do, you show up every day, you're you're responsible, you're you're dedicated.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_00: Any company would love to have you.
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I just thought to myself, I said, Yeah, man, but almost 30 years.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_00: I I think at the point at this point of the conversation, we were 25 to 26 years into him starting the business.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_00: I thought, I don't want to throw all that away.
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_00: You know, this reputation you've built is huge.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, Primo is almost like a second last name to us, you know.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I I didn't want to just throw that away, you know, and so I said, No, you know, I want to, I want to take over and keep it going.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_00: I said, but I also want to grow it because I I physically looked at my dad and said, Your your body's shot, you know, you're you've had one shoulder surgery, you need another one, both your knees are are shot, you've got, you know, horrible arthritis, like and some of those injuries were just from play, right?
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but some of them are are the wear and tear from plumbing, you know.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so I said, you know, I want to I want to grow the company because I don't want all that on me.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_00: But if you have even just a two, three, four-person team, you can kind of alternate.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I don't have the same guy doing the same jobs over and over and over again.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like we we rotate and we kind of share the load and we work as a team.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_00: And my dad always talks about how he repiped homes by himself.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to do that, you know?
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_00: I want to be home for dinner and and and not be dead tired.
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I go home and my wife wants to maybe go out, have dinner, take the dog for a walk, or you know, go out, do something fun, meet up with friends.
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I don't want to be so exhausted that I just work and sleep.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: Jordan, so so you um you brought up AI.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_01: And on one of my previous shows, I talked about how uh white-collar jobs, a lot of them are gonna be in jeopardy.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_01: And and AI is gonna I mean, and I'm saying, hey, uh, if you're a plumber, electrician, framer, drywaller, like there's certain jobs that are like totally protected from AI.
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, because there's no way AI is gonna get underneath your sink to change out the P trap.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_01: To change out um, so like that's gotta make you feel like like you took this gamble, right?
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_01: And back then the word AI wasn't even a thing.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_01: We had no idea what it was gonna do.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_01: And now looking back, it was probably the smartest thing you could have done.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right.
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_01: And and then you're growing the business, and you know, you had a grand opening, and I was, you know, I went to go support you.
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_01: It was cool to see your dad, your parents, and then meet all the employees and and actually actually see you do what you told your dad you were gonna do.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm I'm sure he's very proud.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um how does that make you feel?
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_01: Like, man, I uh dude, I'm I'm I'm glad that that AI can't do plumbing.
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I got really lucky.
• 45:13
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, like I said, the only reason I picked plumbing was the easy end, right?
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and and actually plumbing used to be hard to get into.
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you had to know somebody who who kind of knew your your work ethic and your personality.
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_00: So usually a family member, and they'd say, All right, yeah, we'll bring the cousin in, or we'll bring the nephew in, or we'll bring the brother or son in, you know.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_00: But now, I mean, the we've pushed we've pushed the technology field for so long, computers and science and and just the tech industry just exploded that I think you know, the education education system forgot about the trade, you know.
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_00: When I was at Milliken and and graduated in 2011, the only hands-on shop that was left was uh auto, auto tech.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_00: And even then it was like, you know, it was kind of pathetic, you know, it just was very it wasn't very broad or or you know, it didn't really dive in deep to it much.
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_00: It was like, you know, take out a couple pistons and put them back in and then take a test on how the gearing works.
• 46:29
  SPEAKER_00: It just it didn't seem very, you know, helpful, right?
• 46:34
  SPEAKER_00: It it did like I kind of thought like, oh, I might want to go into the automotive industry, and then I was like, oh, this is kind of I don't know, you know, like my dad's a better teacher for plumbing than my teacher for the automotive class.
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I I just I truly lucked out, you know.
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_00: I I I mean, I went from getting kicked out of sixth grade to valedictorian at my trade school, you know, it just when you find that thing you love, you know, it just worked out, you know.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, I mean, so many people, I mean, I would yeah, I was listening to your your episode, the previous episode with uh Brandon, right?
• 47:11
  SPEAKER_00: And you I was like, Juan's worried about real realtors losing their jobs.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, you're kidding me.
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, I wouldn't want to deal with AI to buy a home.
• 47:22
  SPEAKER_00: I want to like I appreciate coming to your guys' office and talking to someone like Phoebe and saying, like, hey, here's what we have financially, like, where are we at?
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_00: You know, what can we do with it?
• 47:33
  SPEAKER_00: Could I ask AI that?
• 47:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, maybe, probably, right?
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_00: You could, but someone with experience and and being able to have that conversation with it, I mean, I I value that, right?
• 47:47
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, it I don't know, you know, but AI is definitely it's already taken jobs, right?
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's already machines flipping burgers at McDonald's, you know, and people are like, Oh, I can't believe they took jobs.
• 48:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, but it's so simple.
• 48:03
  SPEAKER_00: You're flipping a burger, right?
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_00: Why should you get minimum wage for something that literally a robot can do?
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think what's gonna happen is I think that the you know, your your dad early on said, Hey, you could sell your your plumbing business.
• 48:19
  SPEAKER_01: I think people that are in the corporate world who get laid off, um, and again, not not everyone gets laid off, sure.
• 48:25
  SPEAKER_01: But let's just say they keep 20% of the staff because AI could do the the other 8%.
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_01: So that is gonna happen.
• 48:32
  SPEAKER_01: And so then you got these people that that are educated, they're gonna read the room like, okay, I probably shouldn't go back into a uh a corporate type job.
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um, maybe I'll buy because there's two things.
• 48:44
  SPEAKER_01: You could either start your own business and like your dad did, and it took 30 years to get it going, or you or you, well, let me just buy an existing business, right?
• 48:54
  SPEAKER_01: And then something like yours comes up to play.
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_01: Not that you ever want to sell it, but I'm just letting you know that that that those types of businesses, I believe there's gonna be a bigger pull of buyers.
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, this is just kind of like a like a domino effect of what's happening, and I'm not making it up.
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I I I do read uh up on some of what's happening, and it's just kind of an interesting thing.
• 49:13
  SPEAKER_01: But I I think that you're in a really good place.
• 49:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 49:16
  SPEAKER_00: PE groups are buying up trade companies like crazy right now.
• 49:22
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it it's and it's always kind of been like that, but it's definitely taking off because right what do you mean PE groups?
• 49:28
  SPEAKER_00: Like uh private equity, got it right.
• 49:30
  SPEAKER_00: So they're like, hey, I've got two business partners, and we want to buy a plumbing company, one that's successful, it's already practically printing money.
• 49:41
  SPEAKER_00: They've got all the processes in place.
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_00: That's the hardest thing that I'm working on right now, is getting processes in place for everything.
• 49:48
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, like you said, it's taking us 30 years to really get going.
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_00: Some companies have sold for tens of millions in six years.
• 49:56
  SPEAKER_00: A good friend of mine, uh Victor Rancor, sold uh the company Absolute Airflow for a lot of money, and he started it from absolutely absolutely nothing to tens of millions in six years.
• 50:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 50:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 50:11
  SPEAKER_00: You know, but he knew he when he started his business, I mean, he knew what he was doing, but he didn't, you know, it was it was his first time too.
• 50:18
  SPEAKER_00: But he had worked at really successful companies and knew you know the direction he wanted to go, you know.
• 50:26
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I mean, you know, why wouldn't you buy a company like that, right?
• 50:31
  SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
• 50:32
  SPEAKER_01: Jordan, um, I'm gonna give you the final say.
• 50:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so let us know um how someone could get a hold of the company if they have, you know, either if if they want to do the kind of the inspection, which which I highly recommend that people do because I um when we sell a building and there's a lot of plumbing issues, we and I'm representing the buyer, we're gonna get massive, massive credits or price reductions on behalf of our buyer.
• 50:56
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
• 50:57
  SPEAKER_01: If I'm representing the seller, then then I'm negotiating because of like, well, look at all the bad things that right.
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_01: So like that that is money being thrown away.
• 51:05
  SPEAKER_01: Like, if if there's not a problem, there's no negotiations that take place.
• 51:09
  SPEAKER_01: But if there's a problem, there's gonna be further negotiations after we've agreed on the contract.
• 51:13
  SPEAKER_01: So I'll give you the final saying.
• 51:14
  SPEAKER_01: Let us know how someone could get a hold of you.
• 51:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 51:18
  SPEAKER_00: So uh, I mean, you can follow me on Instagram uh personally.
• 51:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Jordan the Primo Plumber, or uh our company page, Primo Plumbing and Heating.
• 51:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then and on Facebook.
• 51:30
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but if you want to call me, I'll give you my cell, 562-706-7069.
• 51:36
  SPEAKER_00: Sounds like a fake number, but it's not.
• 51:38
  SPEAKER_00: So the number my wife calls me at.
• 51:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then our business number.
• 51:43
  SPEAKER_00: If you like truly want to like set up an appointment or talk to me, because I'm the office lady, uh, as pretty as I am, uh, 562-429-1221.
• 51:53
  SPEAKER_00: You'll you can call us if you just ask for Jordan.
• 51:57
  SPEAKER_00: You know, ask for Jordan.
• 51:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'll give you a call back.
• 52:00
  SPEAKER_00: You know, just give give him a brief description of kind of what you're looking for.
• 52:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'll call you back right away and just you know help you out.
• 52:06
  SPEAKER_00: I don't, I'm not a lawyer.
• 52:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not, I'm not gonna charge you to consult over the phone.
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm always I'm truly always happy to to answer questions and and just help help you, you know.
• 52:18
  SPEAKER_00: I I'm I truly love helping people.
• 52:20
  SPEAKER_00: So any way I can, even other plumbing companies.
• 52:23
  SPEAKER_00: I I I even have small guys coming up to me now, which is like mind blowing because I feel like I'm still a small guy, but I have you know people who just started their company reaching out to me and saying, like, hey, like, how did you do this or how do you do that?
• 52:37
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, we're here to be better, right?
• 52:41
  SPEAKER_00: You know, our our slogan is others may be good, we're primo.
• 52:45
  SPEAKER_00: And and you know, and I guess just a quick thing on our on our name.
• 52:49
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of people get confused.
• 52:50
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, our family's Italian, and in Italian, primo means you know, top, top notch, you know, top quality.
• 52:56
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you want a primo steak.
• 52:58
  SPEAKER_00: The surfers are talking about how primo the waves are, right?
• 53:02
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, a lot of people think like, oh, there's like two cousins who you know own the company together, because in Spanish, primo means cousins, right?
• 53:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 53:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but we treat people like family, you know, absolutely.
• 53:13
  SPEAKER_00: And um, and and we're very big on top-notch quality.
• 53:17
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we pay for our guys to go to trade school um or have paid for them to go and and graduate.
• 53:23
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I that's what I did.
• 53:25
  SPEAKER_00: I had a fantastic experience with an absolutely incredible uh teacher at the at the PHC.
• 53:32
  SPEAKER_00: And and now I I knew I need to send my guys to this school so they could learn as much as they can and be the best they can.
• 53:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so yeah, I mean, call me, text me.
• 53:44
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you could email me, Jordan, at primoplumbing.net.
• 53:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, any questions you guys have, hit me up.
• 53:50
  SPEAKER_01: Let me know.
• 53:51
  SPEAKER_01: Make sure you let them know that you heard them here on the Own More Doors podcast.
• 53:55
  SPEAKER_01: Jordan, thank you so much.
• 53:56
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 53:57
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.