Latest / WCHS Network Podcasts / 04/10/2024 Ask the Expert with Larry Dawson

Transcript

04/10/2024 Ask the Expert with Larry Dawson · WCHS Network Podcasts

0:00
Our area's most beautiful properties deserve the finest Wilts Meeks Realty Group. We focus
0:05
on buying and selling residential and commercial properties throughout the Tri State area. Contact
0:09
Meeks Realty Group online at Meeks dot us or call three oh four four four
0:13
zero one one zero one. The views and opinions expressed on this program do
0:18
not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of five eight WHS it's employees or WVRC
0:24
Media. And you're listening to ask the expert w c HS the Voice of
0:51
Charleston. I'm Del Cooper. We turn down. Yeah, I think we
1:00
could get that working again. I had had the double audio going on here.
1:04
Apologize for that. You're listening to ask the expert. I know you
1:07
c HS the Voice of Charleston. I'm Del Cooper. Thanks for tuning in
1:10
on this on this Wednesday morning, a little bit of a different schedule for
1:14
Larry Dawson. We had to move some things around, as a lot of
1:15
people did a couple of weeks ago when it came to the weather and so
1:19
forth. Larry, how you doing this morning? Yea, we're having snowed.
1:22
It's uh boy. Last Tuesday and Wednesday, uh I called Dale and
1:27
I said, Dale, I don't think I'm gonna make Wednesday. And then
1:30
I saw your post of what happened here with the antenna tower, and I
1:36
was without electric in Winfield and it you know, we're all trying to everybody
1:42
was dodging that storm and either picking up pieces of debris. Fortunately in Winfield,
1:48
we we did get hit when we were without electric. We uh,
1:51
we got our electric back much sooner than the reports was. And how how
1:57
is the tower effect here with am how are we doing that? Well?
2:01
As far as the physical towers go, we have four towers. Two of
2:06
them are gone, they're on the ground gone. We're still in evaluation on
2:13
how we're going to and what we're going to do as far as those towers
2:15
go. So that was our daytime tower in one of our night times.
2:20
So what we have now is we actually have luckily we have seven stations here,
2:23
we have multiple towers at different sites and things like that, so we're
2:27
kind of piggybacking off of a couple of different scenarios. We just got clearance
2:30
from the FCC yesterday to make sure that after we get a couple tweaks done
2:35
for the relative moderate term we're pretty good where we are. We're going to
2:38
have five eighty one. We'll be back to normal five thousand what daytime power
2:43
within the next week or so, so we'll not be from the same tower,
2:46
but we'll have the same signal a little different directional in the valley,
2:50
so people will get used to that. And then for those in the Kanoff
2:53
Valley, actually our FM repeater signal in ninety six five, because it's kind
2:58
of hijacking a bit off of our sisters Asian ninety six to one kws.
3:01
That signal sounds a fantastic right now. I'm listening to that lie. So
3:05
there's there's actually a little bit of a quality upgrade at the moment for both
3:08
of those stations because of where we had to move things to. Where that's
3:12
going to end up, I don't know. And and also it looks like
3:15
that according to the National Weather Service, they've been reevaluating, you know,
3:17
this tornado that touched down in the St. Albans area a couple of different
3:22
times. Path evaluation now looks like that may have been what took out our
3:25
our towers. That could have been a tornado. Well I text Richard Stevens.
3:31
Well I don't do say Richard Stevens and Chase Barton is Steven's Auto group.
3:37
They now are occupying in space that I did there Nitro with Stevens Auto
3:43
and Nitro, and it was obviously very concerned for them and myself when that
3:49
storm came through. But it looks like bowl everything I can see that the
3:53
Stevens Auto Group in Nitro, we we may got a little bit of win
3:58
down there in a little little I don't think the hell hit, you know,
4:01
that's always the auto guy's biggest fear is the hell. And uh,
4:09
you know I worried about for years and it's funny. Well it's not funny,
4:12
it's just it's just the character me. When that storm came came through,
4:17
I was just as worried about them as I was myself. Obviously.
4:23
Is this something you just don't because you lease the facility and you decided to
4:27
go into retirement, does it make the the feelings go away or the concerns.
4:31
But Stevens occupies, they have a their mothership or the flagship store is
4:36
a Chrysler Ford store located in Danville, and everything is operated under the name
4:43
of Stevens. They have a mensa busy store in Princeton newly require acquired.
4:47
I think they got it in the last three years or so. And in
4:50
the last year they purchased the old King Coacht Chevrolet, which is o'kill and
4:56
I believe Chase spends quite a bit of time there. They have a super
5:00
center there in Somersville, they have one in Beckley, and the newest one
5:03
is in Nitro at four eighteen First Avenue. The telephone number is the same,
5:09
you know. Once again, I occupied that spot since nineteen. I
5:13
bought the building in eighty six and opened the doors in eighty seven. And
5:16
I couldn't ask for a better representation as I sunset my career. They have
5:23
a wonderful staff there, three of which previously worked for me. Donnie's in
5:29
the bike and Donnie's this wonderful individual. He's assisted by Chris Alice. And
5:33
there's another Alis there. His name is ray Ellis. It's the finance director
5:38
there. Jody is the Jody Johnson and I learned after I got to know
5:44
Jody that I knew his father, so I guess I'm telling my age a
5:47
little bit. And then Larry Summy was with me for many many years.
5:50
He's still there and Dakota Lee. They have a lady salesperson there that I
5:56
see her out in a lot of assisting customers and they're bringing in inventory in,
6:00
taking inventory out. And you know, as progress continues in this world
6:06
that it seems like multi stores that are combining seems to be the way.
6:13
I mean, it's if we'd think back not so long ago, you had
6:16
this solo practitioner in one's town and he had his franchise in the next town,
6:23
and they didn't share the same name. Over the last decade, the
6:27
transition has been combining, and that's the way the future. You can stand
6:30
there and fight it, or you can join in. And I decided to
6:32
join in by taking a twilight of my career and settling down to still have
6:40
an office and still keep myself occupied. But I'm watching the Stevens Auto Group
6:46
grow and I'm going to do everything I can to this system because Richard Stevens
6:50
and Chase Bartan from the beginning to today, I mean, I feel like
6:56
we knew each other, we become friends, we become self what business related
7:00
in in the agreement we have drawn up and as far as it's now and
7:05
outsider looking in and coming up here every couple of weeks, speaking in their
7:11
behalf, telling my little stories that I tell about life, and trying to
7:15
put the two together. I think it's going quite well. I've heard of
7:20
transitions that has maybe not went so well after the fact, and maybe it's
7:28
because someone thinks that they're not doing it the way they used to. Well,
7:32
guess what, it's not my They're going to do it their way.
7:36
And by everything that I've seen, they're doing the way that I don't want
7:41
to say the stamp of approval, but I will say with approval, I
7:45
mean, looks good. Going back to where we started with the storms and
7:48
all. I try to sometimes think of something that's happened along the way the
7:55
last two weeks that I might want to share, and and and sharing what's
8:00
in such a way that it will make somewhat sense to people. And I've
8:05
been coming on here many many years, and I've talked about buying over the
8:09
internet, or getting away from the fundamentals, or buying from someone you don't
8:15
know, whether it be your insurance or just pick pick a commodity. And
8:18
there is because of the Internet and and and the I guess crossing the state
8:24
lines has become so easy or the internationalizes it's you know you can you can
8:28
advertise your goods and through the Amazon approach and you can buy it. I
8:33
just recently bought a couple of shirts and had shipped into me. I got
8:37
them yesterday. I don't know where they come from. I just know I
8:39
saw a picture and saw a product. I'm getting ready to make a trip
8:43
to Florida. As I'm aging, I'm trying to do a little bit more
8:46
sun protection, so I bought a couple of sun shirts, sure, just
8:50
to cover. But you when you really need that, that network or that
8:58
relationship, I'm telling you, it is priceless. Unfortunately, Sunday or Saturday
9:03
before Easter, in Nitro, very early in the morning, there was a
9:09
sixteen inch main water line break and it created havoc through through my end of
9:16
Nitro. I got a call at seven in the morning and said, hey,
9:18
you got some some of your product or some of your land underwater.
9:22
I mean, I just I woke up to that sound. So I called
9:26
the mayor. Dave ca spoke, wonderful guy. I was with him yesterday
9:30
in the meeting and I said, Mayor, I said, I understand,
9:33
we have water, excessive water down my end of Nitro, and he was
9:35
unaware of it. I think I woke him up. Within ten minutes.
9:39
He called an officer and there was there was a lot of water. So
9:43
as I pulled into four twenty, a building out I owned a Nitro,
9:48
he was pulling in. Now, this is the mayor of small town.
9:52
Because I woke him, he was concerned. I was concerned. I pulled
9:54
in there and may there was a lot of water and it was coming out
9:58
from what previous lee was a Dodge store. Roger House owns that building,
10:03
and it was flowing very fastly around surrounding the new Dollar General, over into
10:09
my property and rising quickly onto four eighteen, which is Steven's autu. Yeah,
10:18
I own a property, but they lease it and I'm concerned about it.
10:22
And so who do I call? The first thing I do? I
10:24
call Chase. I said, Chase, I don't know what's going on.
10:28
I'm here. I've got this. I have a tenant at four twenty on
10:31
the top floor. I called them, you know, I was concerned.
10:35
I was there, and a long came who my insurance agent that I had
10:39
called in a woke and so we all are together, and yes, it's
10:45
the concern of mine because I owned the property, but I'm concerned of everybody
10:48
there because they have personal property. And as we worked along, and I
10:54
was thinking after this because I hadn't ever experienced anything like this. I got
10:58
four foot of water in the basement of the building, and you know,
11:01
what do you do? Show me the playbook? Well, I went to
11:05
the expert, and he happened to be an insurance agent. And I also
11:07
had an expert here that happened to be the mayor, and he was able
11:11
to make some phone calls to try to slow this down and get help in
11:15
there for people needed help. Now, let's say I didn't have that relationship
11:22
with Mayor Casebaut, and let's say I didn't have a relationship with an insurance
11:26
agent, where would you be. You'd be a man up the creek without
11:30
a paddle, so to speak. And I tell people that this going across
11:35
and not doing business with your local vendor, your local insurance, your local
11:39
car dealers, Steven's Autogroup at Nitro or anyone, because you think you're going
11:45
to better yourself by going to one eight hundred or we're going to pay you
11:48
way too much for your car, or we got one way cheaper. And
11:52
that's what I tried to explain to people. How do they pay you way
11:56
too much for your car, but on the flip side, they're selling cars.
12:01
I mean, explain that to me. So it really hit me in
12:05
the face the relationship that I've established throughout the years, and that how it
12:11
came home to me in let's say, an instant. Was it working real
12:16
well for me or my fellow neighbors. Along came Timmy Allen. Timmy Allen
12:20
is Roger House's son law. What does he own the bowling alley across the
12:24
street? What could he not get into the bowling alley across the street.
12:28
And so we had a group of business people there combining our efforts and energy
12:33
and our thoughts trying to memonize the damage that we saw happening to our businesses.
12:41
And yes, you know, no one got hurt and we'll all survive.
12:46
There's a clean up. I probably took a little a once. I
12:48
took the hardest hit Roger House in his building and Timmy Allen down to the
12:54
bowling alley. I mean, we all sustained some disturbance in our business and
13:01
our property. We work together. We've still tim and I text you yesterday.
13:07
But this is that networking that I've talked about, I've reached about on
13:11
this radio show. That is so very very important, especially when you need
13:16
it, and obviously I needed and Richard Tilson was there, my insurance agent.
13:22
He helped me. He helped me address issues because I was I had
13:26
no knowledge of and this like when you have that question about that automobile,
13:33
you know if you have that relationship. And I built a great foundation there
13:37
and it looks, I mean by all outer appearance that Steven's autogroup is taking
13:43
that and running with it. Stop by, you know, visit with the
13:46
guys. Everybody's there. There's a couple of new people, but you'll find
13:50
the same platform that I created and it shows right there in Nitro. I
13:56
told once again, I told Chase and said, I'm going to talk this.
14:00
I don't know what i want to do, but you know I'm gonna
14:01
watch this and keep you, keep you well informed of what's going on.
14:07
The mayor was there once again, Not to be repetitive, but that that
14:11
that meant so much to me. Not that I'm anybody, but I've established
14:15
somewhat of relationship in that little community, and the community was good to me.
14:20
The community was very good, and I tried to be just as equally
14:22
as good bye. I noticed that Steven's Auto Group has stepped up and they're
14:28
they're sponsoring Symbolics in Nitro, and they're new in this community. You know
14:33
Richard Is, you know, he's been in ben County and Chases Raleigh County.
14:39
But they stepped in the community and they want to put back in your
14:43
give back, and and all they ask is an opportunity. So I guess
14:48
I'm here as a spokesperson has stopped by and visit with him. And if
14:52
you if you do not know, introduce yourself or reintroduce yourself to the Auto
14:58
Group. If you want to talk to Larry this morning, I want to
15:01
talk a little bit about anything we're talking about this morning, or Larry's talking
15:03
a little bit about you know, doing business the right way, about about
15:07
networking and of course previously used vehicles, buying or selling. Larry can at
15:11
least still point you in the right direction. You can give us a call
15:13
this morning three zero four, three four five fifty to fifteen. If you
15:16
want to talk to Larry about any of those things or the city of Nitro,
15:18
anything like I give us called this morning three zero four three four five
15:20
fifty to fifty eight. You can text over your questions the three zero four
15:22
non three five five zero zero eight three zero four non three five five zero
15:26
zero eight what you're describing as far as you have like overlapping circles of people
15:33
that are engaged and interested in the things that they're worrying about. You know,
15:37
you have a relationship with the mayor. You have a relationship with your
15:39
insurance agent. Your mayor obviously has a good relationship with Nitro. He has
15:43
a has a you know, he has a personal interest in seeing the buildings
15:48
that remain commercially viable. In all those things. But all of these things
15:52
work together when you make those connections. You know, the mayor would still
15:54
be invested in Nitro even if he didn't know Larry Dawson. Your insurance agent
16:00
would still be a good insurance agent, even if you didn't know Larry Dawson.
16:03
The fact that you had to put the effort in you of those of
16:06
that triangle there, you're the common piece that you made the connections with both
16:08
of those people to bring it together. The connections to for these things exist
16:12
out there, and I think what we've lost a little bit is I think
16:17
there's two things. I think we were a little lazy when it comes to
16:21
picking up the phone, walking down the street, things along those lines.
16:23
And I think also there's this desire to do things as easy as we possibly
16:30
can. And I think that what you get at like a national letter level,
16:34
if we talk about the C car Company or any of those things.
16:37
I think that there's this reality that they cut corners so much that from somebody
16:45
on the outside looking in, it seems like an easier process. Oh well,
16:48
they don't need all that paperwork that I would need if I would go
16:49
down the street to the bank, so I could just send them my paycheck
16:53
stub and my you know, a selfie and they're going to give me a
16:56
loan or whatever, you know. Whereas if you go to your bank down
16:59
the street or whatever might be, they might require you to bring in a
17:02
little bit more documentation, different things along those lines. That's because they're trying
17:06
to build that relationship with you in part, you know, I mean,
17:07
and it has to start at a professional point at some point when you're just
17:11
like trying to find the solution that makes it as easy as possible for you
17:15
and allows you to check the box that says, okay, I have insurance,
17:18
Okay, I did this, I did that, I got my car
17:21
inspect or whatever it might be. But you kind of know, in the
17:23
back of your head and in your heart of hearts, you're cutting every possible
17:27
corner that you can. It might be fine, and you may never come
17:30
to the point where you are in an unfortunate situation where you're at a disadvantage
17:37
because of that. But the one time that it comes up where you do
17:38
need to have a local connection somebody that you've talked to, or relationship that
17:41
you've built or something like that, you can find yourself in a situation where
17:45
all you've done is go to www. Dot onehandd dot com and those are
17:48
the only relationships that you have to call on, and you're sitting there in
17:52
a basement that's flooding and you don't have anybody to talk to about it.
17:55
Let me tell you how small this world is and how information will get out.
18:00
And right before we went on the air, seconds before I did something
18:03
and showed it to Dell, and I could tell by his facial expression he
18:07
was taken by Yeah. And what I did. I took my cell phone
18:11
and I put my cell phone number in Google and opened it up and showed
18:17
Dell all the information. And I'm a nobody, all the information and Dell
18:22
then we went on l He did not look at it as thorough as I
18:26
did. But just with my cell phone number, it showed property that I
18:30
owned. It showed my age, it showed my eye. I lost my
18:33
mother last year. It has her name. My wife died thirty years ago.
18:37
It had her name, It had everything affiliated to me. It was
18:41
page after page of information when Larry Dawson simply by entering my cell phone.
18:48
Now, as we stood there watching the floody waters, you know, the
18:52
mayor knows me, the police officer shows me. Aj Sheen was the they
18:56
all know me. There was no reason to go to that and let's say
19:00
creep or that telephone number to find out about me. Gosh, they all
19:04
know about me. But how about that person cross the state line. It's
19:07
you just called because you're wanting to buy something from them, and you give
19:11
them that cell phone number. Now what you think the first thing they do
19:15
is now you can Google that you get off of you get on people's social
19:19
media things and stuff along those lines. Yeah, everything you've posted on social
19:25
media, whether it be good or bad, where you went back and tried
19:27
to delete it, it shows your life. And to tell you something else
19:30
that is alarming. If you take it down, and I'm sure this is
19:37
done, go to Google Earth. Oh sure, zip down in front of
19:41
your house and looked at the playground in the bike and the house to the
19:45
side and all the things simply by giving a cell phone number. I mean
19:48
I showed to Dell and I'm telling you, and I know what that is
19:52
going to do. After your show, You're probably gonna do yours. Yeah.
19:55
The thing that is alarming to me and not really alarming, but the
19:59
serve this has been around forever, but they they sort of gate kept the
20:03
information and it's basically public record information, and what they do is just aggregate
20:07
the public record information in one place you can go get it all at one
20:11
time, and they hit it behind a paywall. So I mean, yes,
20:14
the information was out there, but you'd have to pay like eight bucks
20:17
one time in order to get it. Yours was just there without you know
20:19
that that barrier of eight bucks. Sure, it's not gonna it's not going
20:23
to keep a scammer from getting hold of you. But just generally somebody being
20:26
a nosy neighbor or whatever, they're not going to find a ton of information
20:30
on yours had basically your whole life just public from public information that was available
20:36
on Google. That's a little alarming. Well what I think is happening.
20:38
And I don't know. I'm you know, I'm not a detective. But
20:44
by when I was alarmed to this, when I realized that the information that
20:48
I just showed you, you scroll through, there there's and if you're creeping,
20:52
or if you're nosy, or if you're trying to find that you're going
20:56
to hit somewhere, there's going to be a wall brick wall that then there
21:00
and say well, if you'll pay you you know probably either traffic accident,
21:03
lawsuits, criminal history, you know, something like that that you're going to
21:08
stumble up born because you're correct, I mean, all that is information that
21:12
was now published or once published. I do not have a landline. But
21:17
it showed my old lamb light. Not only did it show my old lamb,
21:22
I'd say that real fast. My whole telephone number at the address I
21:27
occupy now, but where I previously lived. And I've lived in my home
21:33
now for nineteen years, so it goes back further than that. And that's
21:38
pretty scary letting, you know, information that goes back. You know,
21:44
I tell my life's pretty transparent. I've been in the public eyes, you
21:48
know, right there in Nitro basically a long time, more than half my
21:52
life. And so other than when I go home and close the door,
21:56
everybody I was a you know, open book. You kind of watched,
22:00
and not that I was anybody, but you saw you you know, you
22:03
saw the display automobiles myself and sure I coming up here and you know,
22:07
talking about the dealership now, you know I'm sharing with Steven's Auto Group.
22:11
It's you know, it's it's what I do. But when you go back
22:15
and you're trying to buy that commodity or getting information, one of the experiences
22:22
I had during this flooding event has been a wonderful experience. And I want
22:26
to brag them a little bit. It's surf Pro. That was the cavalry
22:30
I called them right after I discovered because once again I did not know I've
22:34
never had a flood I did not know what to do now. And the
22:37
next day is Easter Sunday. Most people are going to spend Easter Sunday with
22:41
their families and church and all the things. I was with Surfpro at eight
22:45
o'clock in the morning. Oh wow, they showed up and and you know,
22:49
I have videos and all the things that I had, you know,
22:52
to protect myself to go through because I wasn't sure exactly what all was damaged
22:57
down there, and there were eligible and so we walked through them. But
23:02
I will say this serf Pro, who says came to he came to a
23:07
person that was in need, and they provide an excellent service in my behalf,
23:11
I can't say enough of good about serf Pro. But once again I
23:15
was listening to advice from professionals that had my interest also in heart. They
23:22
were just not across the state line. I didn't call one eight hundred serve
23:26
pro or one eight hundred buy your cheap insurance here, we're gonna save you
23:30
all this money, or we're gonna pay you too much for your car.
23:33
I relied upon foundations that I have built over the years, and I can't
23:41
tell people do not break that relationship over a price. Everybody's got a price,
23:48
but how many people's got value? You think of it, price and
23:52
value does not go together. I mean you think you go out, if
23:56
you buy the most expensive, you get the best value. You're wrong.
24:00
And there's other ways that We'll take a break here and maybe maybe I'll share
24:03
a story that illustrates us a little bit. But there's other ways. Price
24:06
is the main bait place. But whenever you run into a bottleneck of professional
24:10
services, people can try to get you in different ways. They can do
24:11
it super fast, way faster than anybody else. You know, there there's
24:15
a or less paperwork. Like I've talked before, there's different ways that places
24:19
that aren't quite up to snuff with the places maybe you should be going that
24:23
can they'll they'll use that to get you in there. It's like they're saying,
24:26
we know we're lesser than the other guys, but look at what you're
24:30
going to keep from having to do by coming to us. I have an
24:33
example of that. Maybe I'll share when we come back. Maybe not.
24:34
We'll see. Let's gohe and take a break. Larry Dawson's here from larr
24:37
Dawson's formerly of larr Dawson's auto sells man. It's gotta be hard for you.
24:41
It's hard for me after all these years not to say Larry Dawson's aufice.
24:45
There we go. Hey, look it's Larry Dawson on the radio.
24:48
You know who he is. You can give us a call this morning.
24:49
Three zer a four three four five fifty eight fifty eight three four five fifty
24:52
eight fifty eight. I'm Delkob. We're going to take a break and be
24:53
back right after this. You're listening to five ad w c HS, the
24:56
Voice of Charleston. Attention, West Virginians. Patrick Morrissey is the one proven
25:03
conservative running for governor with an unmatched record of delivering victories for our state.
25:07
Conservative Republican Patrick Morrissey has been endorsed by the NRA, stood up against federal
25:14
overreach, fought and sued Joe Biden to protect West Virginia jobs, and defended
25:19
our values against the far left agenda. When Biden screws, West Virginia is
25:26
sued Biden, and West Virginia wins a lot. I'm Attorney General. Patrick
25:30
Morrissey. Had fought against the deep state and one to protect our jobs,
25:37
defended our Second Amendment rights upheld the sanctity of life, protected our kids from
25:42
the WOP left and the radical agenda. I'm the only proven conservative running and
25:48
was the first to endorse Trump in this race. Paid for by Morrissey twenty
25:52
twenty four. Patrick Morrissey is the one proven conservative running for governor. You're
26:15
listening to as the exort WCHS. The voice of Charles and Larrydawson is here.
26:18
Three zero four three four five fifty eight fifty eight. It's all to
26:21
Larry three zero four three four five fifty eight fifty eight. You can also
26:23
check out Stephen's Auto Group online at Stevens Auto dot com. Stevens Auto dot
26:26
com. You can find out all you want about Steven's Auto Group that is
26:30
now located in Nitro, West Virginia. They've expanded to Larry's old place.
26:33
That's for eighteen First Avenue South in Nitro, West Virginia. You can call
26:37
us this morning at three zerre a four three four five fifty eight fifty eight.
26:40
Three zerre a four three four five fifty eight fifty eight. Just briefly,
26:42
you were we were talking before the break about basically trying to find services
26:48
there's people that will try to find services in different things that maybe not will
26:52
give them the best service. They're shopping for price, they're shopping for things
26:56
that aren't necessarily the service, but things that make their life easier in some
26:59
way. And there is a value to that in a way. But sometimes
27:03
when you look at taking short cuts, the short cuts can you know,
27:06
lead you into a problem. When I was back doing mortgages years and years
27:11
and years ago, there was a guy in town. This was in Michigan.
27:14
There was a guy in town who did appraisals. This was during the
27:17
Wild West days of the mortgages, and so this was prior to two thousand
27:21
and eight. Regulations were very very loose on things along these lines, and
27:25
appraisers have regulations. They have certain things that they have to meet within goidelines
27:27
and finding neighborhoods and stuff like that. If you're unethical, you can find
27:32
ways because you're sending these things out of state usually for an underwriter to look
27:34
at them, so they don't know a neighborhood quite as well as what a
27:37
local person would or a real estate agent or something like that. So there
27:41
was a vein of appraisers back in these days because people were refinancing their house
27:47
at such a quick rate. You know, you would have somebody that would
27:49
refinance to get out from under a rate that they got in, you know,
27:52
nineteen eighty seven or something, and suddenly they're saving theirselves a whole bunch
27:56
of money, and then they get kind of addicted to it. The next
27:57
year, they're like, oh, the interest rates went down again. Let
28:00
me I can refinance again and pull more cash out, and my payment's hardly
28:03
go up because I'm dropping my interest right down. You do that a few
28:07
times and suddenly you're out of equity. Well, man, the market's hot.
28:11
What are you do when you're out of equity? Well, you need
28:11
the house to be worth more. If the house isn't really worth all that
28:15
much more, it's have to have this appraiser, right, and I can
28:18
call this a praiser, and you know he's known to be able to get
28:19
you another twenty percent, you know, off of that home value. And
28:22
how could do any harm? Home values are going up so quick right now
28:26
that they're appreciating a ten percent a year, and then this isn't going to
28:29
cost anything. There's no reason not to do this, And so what an
28:32
unethical mortgage originator would do where sometimes the client on the other end of things
28:37
that's heard about these things is they want to push it a little bit.
28:38
My house isn't worth two hundred thousand, it's worth two hundred forty thousand.
28:42
And you go out and you find the person that will give you a value
28:45
of two hundred and forty thousand, because that's what you need to make the
28:48
loan work for whatever it may be. So you are you're not having to
28:52
worry about all these pesky guidelines and things that other appraisers were worried about.
28:56
You're not worried about getting the proper comps or anything like that. And so
29:00
you're just going to this guy. And I swear I've seen this guy do
29:03
this before. He would wholesale make up comparables, and he had shoe boxes.
29:07
This was back before you would print these things out. He had shoeboxes
29:11
full of polaroids or developed film of all these properties that he's evaluated over time.
29:17
He would just randomly pull things out, all what are we looking for
29:18
here about a seventeen hundred square foot ranch house. Oh, here's one.
29:22
He wouldn't actually go out and take the pictures. Anyway, long story short,
29:26
when these people got called on their loans being you know, when two
29:30
thousand and eight started approaching and people were in trouble with equity, all of
29:33
these people found themselves upside down on their homes because they used an appraiser who
29:37
was unethical giving them fifteen twenty thirty percent more value in their homes that they
29:41
could get more cash out of it. Guess where he was when they lost
29:45
their houses? Gone literally in Canada. He literally fled to another country because
29:49
he was in so much trouble. But all of these people just lost their
29:52
house. That happened down in Tayte Valley, particularly in one subdivision, and
29:59
the person were one of the people that was participating in it. Obviously there
30:03
was more than one. They went to jail, and I believe more than
30:08
one went to jail. But at the end of the day, it was
30:11
a short term and look at how many you know, look what was lost.
30:15
And that's what I try to tell people in your purchasing or you're barring,
30:21
slow down, you know, ask questions. Is my mother was aging,
30:26
my brothers and I we all tried to attend when she went to a
30:30
doctor because I saw something that in aging people they would go in front of
30:37
the doctor and clam up, not ask questions. And so not that I'm
30:41
young, but I was younger, and I'm not scared of asking questions.
30:47
You go in and ask questions. And one thing that I try to advise
30:51
people when they're out looking at shopping and buying an automobile, it's okay to
30:55
talk, It's okay to ask questions. And normally if you start asking question
31:00
questions, you can get the person on the other side, the salespersons,
31:03
you know, to talk back and get that line of communication going. I've
31:08
said this many times. I wasn't a great salesman, but I was very
31:12
good at listening. I'm extremely good at listening because my reading and comprehending skills
31:19
are a weak I know my weakness, so I accelerate in that other area.
31:23
And if you will set and talk and just ask questions, and there's
31:27
always a tomorrow, you know, there's always after a while. But inform
31:33
yourself because you know, when I hear of a deal go bad, I've
31:38
heard this, well, they didn't tell me, And my answer is,
31:42
did you ask him? You know, ask those questions. And my answer
31:48
was to questions that I did not know the answer, I would say,
31:52
I do not know, but I'll try to find out. And a man
31:56
taught me that a long time ago. Actually he was my insurance agent.
32:00
I was young, I just started a business. I was in my twenties.
32:05
I just bought a building. I was trying to and Keith Metheny was
32:07
a retired automobile salesperson went to work for Motors Mutual and he was a very
32:12
good friend. Lived or he was down the street and I would go down
32:15
and propose questions to him because I was new and he was relatively new at
32:21
insurance, but he was much older than me. And he taught me that.
32:25
He says, I don't know, but I'll find out, and he
32:29
did. He would find the correct answer, not the answer, he would
32:32
find a correct answer. He taught me something. I don't think he realized
32:37
he was teaching me that, but I picked up on. I thought,
32:39
you know what, it's a stand up guy. He doesn't know, and
32:43
he'll throw up his hand and say, I don't know, but I'm going
32:45
to find out. And I find that in areas when people were talking that
32:52
words are just words, but if they have meaning, in facts behind him,
32:57
then you know that you can take that as factual. If you don't
32:59
know, say I don't know. I think we had a president used to
33:02
say I don't recall, but you know what. It worked and maybe he
33:07
didn't recall, but at least he didn't stumble through by saying something that was
33:12
untrue. And I admire that in Keith Natheni and he taught I'm in an
33:16
older fac I'm you know, I'm sixty six years old now I was just
33:20
twenty six or seven of them. So that was a forty year lesson.
33:23
I learned, you know that long ago, but I still use it today.
33:27
If I don't know, I don't know. I think that related to
33:30
that, And this is a lesson that I still haven't learned completely. I'm
33:32
trying to get better at it. But whenever you're in a situation where you
33:37
think you need to ask a question and but a certain answer to that question
33:42
is going to make whatever it is you're dealing with more difficult, whether it
33:44
be a car or a medical situation, finance, whatever it is. I
33:49
think I know I have a tendency too, and I have a feeling there's
33:52
other people that if it goes unsaid by the person you're talking to, you
33:55
might just be like, all right, it must not be that important.
33:58
Then you know, I'm not going to worry about it how often And this
34:00
is me talking about myself, whether it be an hour, a week,
34:06
a month, or a year later, that that comes back to bite you
34:08
in some way, shape or form. That you're sitting there and you're you're
34:13
experiencing the moment on whatever's going wrong is going wrong, You're like, this
34:16
all goes back to that moment where I didn't follow up on that question.
34:20
If I would have, and I may not have liked the answer, but
34:22
if I would have, this wouldn't be happening to me. Now there's that
34:27
happens to me on a relative maybe not as much as it once did,
34:30
but I would find myself being in that situation where I'd be like, man,
34:32
I knew that I should have asked this. I knew that I should
34:35
have followed up on this. I knew I should have taken whatever action it
34:37
was, but because I was lazy, I didn't want to hear the answer.
34:40
I was just hoping things will work out, wish casting a little bit,
34:43
whatever it was. I would just let it. Oh. I mean
34:45
that's a discipline thing. I mean what I mean everything that you talk about
34:49
and what we and what you try to portray on the show is you condition
34:52
yourself to make these relationships and you have the discipline to make sure that you're
34:55
not being lazy, you know, sending emails when we you can pick up
35:00
the phone or something along those lines. I mean, you can still make
35:01
these relationships. Yeah, it's never too late, you know. And sometimes
35:07
when you have a bad relationship. I learned this in the automobile business.
35:10
Sometimes a buyer and seller they're just not getting on the same page. That's
35:15
okay for the salesman to go get another salesperson. Say you know what,
35:22
maybe Dal can assist you better than I can, because I think maybe he's
35:25
more expertise or in this Volvo where you know, I'm kind of a Chevy
35:30
truck guy. That's not a sign of weakness, that's a sign of honesty.
35:35
And I think that's a failure that I see a lot of salespeople that
35:38
you know, they want to accommodate. I mean they want to be the
35:40
walking vocabulary in encyclopedia. You can't possibly be, I know, I couldn't.
35:45
And I think I was pretty darn good, but I was not able
35:49
to answer all questions. And there's nothing wrong with going to get another person
35:54
to walk in and maybe maybe the personality's jail batter. And that's okay because
36:01
if that other salesperson will do it for you, if you can get that
36:04
working back in relationship. But when you stand up and say, well,
36:07
you know it's my it's my customer. You know, if I can't sell
36:10
them, you're not gonna sell them, that's just the wrong attitude. That's
36:14
why customers leave because whatever reason, sometimes they're just not jelling. I mean,
36:20
you can line up one hundred people and I think you're a really nice
36:22
guiddale and I think I have that personality. But if we line them up
36:25
there and we start walking through there, there's gonna be somebody who come up
36:29
on eh, I'm not sure this is that's true. That's true. There
36:34
you go. I mean, it's just it may not be your fault.
36:36
And that's why I see sometimes customers leave because it's not the automobile. They're
36:40
just not jelling. It's great information, as always in Sage Advice from Larry
36:45
Dawson, formerly of Larr Dawson's Auto Sales now advocate for Stevens Auto Group.
36:49
You can find it more information about Steven's Autogroup one line of Stephens Auto dot
36:52
Com. Stephen's Auto dot Com now located at four eighteen First Avenue South in
36:54
Nitro, West Virginia. Their phone number three zero four seven through seven zero
36:58
four at six work. Thank you so much for your time. You'll be
37:00
back on the first of May April. I'm going to take a little May.
37:04
Yeah, the first of May, I'm gonna go south and so we're
37:06
gonna do five or we're gonna do first, third, and fifth Wednesday because
37:10
it's a five Wednesday. Yeah, So we'll get Larry three times in May
37:14
and uh and no more this month. So we'll take a break on the
37:16
the next Larry also show and be back for three and May. Thank you
37:20
so much for your time. Thank you for having have a great day everyone.
37:22
Dave Violin is coming up next with five eighty Live followed by talk line
37:25
and then I'll be back this afternoon Dave weekly from me your news hot line
37:28
of three or six. Have a great day everyone on five eight w c
37:30
HS Fighting w c H S A Y six point five on Charleston one oh
37:49
four point five Cross Lane, w u v RC Media Station. We're proud
37:54
to live here too,