Latest / The Elite Real Estate Podcast / KJ Russ | The Landlord, Russ Inspections & The Family Legacy of Black Master Plumbers in Detroit

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KJ Russ | The Landlord, Russ Inspections & The Family Legacy of Black Master Plumbers in Detroit · The Elite Real Estate Podcast

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_03: What's up everyone and welcome back to another episode of the Elite Real Estate Podcast, where real estate meets mindset, marketing, and momentum.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_03: I'm your host, Jimmy Nelson, and today we are coming to you live from the Royal Oath Insurance Group right here in Clinton Township, Michigan.
• 0:15
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• 0:17
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• 0:20
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• 0:25
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• 0:31
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• 0:37
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• 0:58
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• 1:04
  SPEAKER_03: Alright, guys, let's get locked in.
• 1:05
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• 1:07
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• 1:12
  SPEAKER_03: Good morning, good morning, good morning, everybody.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_03: Welcome into the Elite Real Estate Podcast this morning.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_03: And uh again, you guys know how excited I get when I have in-studio guests.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_03: So, KJ, my man, I reached out to you on Instagram and uh I saw what you've been doing.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_03: And uh every realtor on here needs to know who you are.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_03: Because there's not much you don't do with houses, man.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I do.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_02: I do a lot.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_02: I do a lot with houses, you know.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_02: Been been in it all my life.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_02: You know, so like I always say, I'm I'm an investor.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_02: Start off that way, but also grew up in the trade.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_02: So my dad was a master plumber, granddad one of the first black master plumbers.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_02: So literally, since all I can remember is being holding tools, you know, helping my dad on the job sites, and then all my family are also plumbers, heating and cooling, contractors, electricians.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_02: I'm also a licensed electrician too.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_02: So I have right under 40 properties in the city of Detroit that I buy and hold.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_02: I'm also flip properties.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_02: I got a couple on the market right now that I'm flipping right now too.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_02: I'm actually just I'm going for my builder's license too.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_02: I just got my opportunity from the state of Michigan to uh I just recently passed my uh, I just finished the class out.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so you know, all things real estate.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_02: So, and I will buy houses off the demolition list and put them back together or even through the land bank or I've done MLS.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_02: I've done, I try to touch a lot, whether it be the Wayne County Tax Auction too.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_02: I've had a lot of experience in that field in that regard.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_02: So I mean, anything that's an opportunity, I always take advantage of it and go for it.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_03: No, man, I was following you on Insta and like, I'm like, man, I gotta get this guy on.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_03: Because you know, again, it's like this stories, right?
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_03: And and I know you're tough because you held a tool bag for your daddy and your granddad, which I did too, right?
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_03: So you get yelled at a lot.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_03: A lot for the wrong tool.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_03: For those of you that haven't done that role yet, like the wrong tool.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_02: You know, the truck's not clean.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you gotta find it through all the stuff.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, my granddad was a was a carpenter.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, right?
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_03: So I always worked, I was the same thing.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_03: Like, there were days, I tell this story a lot, like, and I don't know if my mom even knows this, but like he would I would get called down to the office and he was checking me out of school to go to go work.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_03: I don't think my mom knew.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_03: I think my grandpa just stopped by and said, I'm checking him out.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_03: And uh you get called down of the office.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, what happened?
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_03: Go down to the office, my grandpa's in the office, and he's like, We gotta go to work.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_02: Pack up, let's go.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, sweet, I'm out of school.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_03: That's cool, that's cool.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, but yeah, but I mean, like growing up like that, you know, and again, it it's it's you get exposed to a lot.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you know, and like what was so so obviously you grew up around the trades.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_03: What was the was it also in the real estate investing side too?
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_02: Or so more so my dad had a few rental properties, him and my aunt that I knew of so not too much in regards to the investment side and the real estate side, it's more so going in there to work under investors, property management companies, first-time home buyers.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_02: So we were just kind of always in it.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_02: Uh over when people buying, they're trying to restore older historic district older historic homes in the city of Detroit, too.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_02: So we're just around a lot of people who were investing.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_02: So we were actually the kind with subcontractors, as you know.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_02: So we just kind of opened my eyes to it because we were kept, I always we could do all the things on the house, like especially from the plumbing side.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_02: But then also I just want to kind of take it a bit further.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_02: So I think every generation we try to take it a step further from the shoulder that we're coming off of.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_02: So I know I had a great leverage uh backing from me starting off, like just being exposed to it.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_02: And I like when I see a leak or I see an old pipe, it doesn't scare me, it didn't run me away.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_02: So all the things that I was seeing in these houses that were all messed up, I knew that they could be repaired.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_02: I knew plumbing was one of the big components that were that you were facing a house because once they see plumbing issues, they run.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_02: But I ran to it because I knew how to fix it.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you could do it yourself.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, right?
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_03: Because the scary part, like as an investor side, is I gotta pay the plumber.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_03: For sure.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_03: Like that.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_03: For sure.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_03: You guys are expensive.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_02: Sure, it's definitely expensive.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_02: Definitely expensive to get there.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_03: And super expensive now because it's a dwindling, all the trades are dwindling.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_02: All the trades.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_02: I always tell I'm helping a lot of like young guys and women to get into the trades, and I'm really pushing it because I I again I went, my mom was an educator, so I went to college route too, got a master's degree in cybersecurity, actually.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_02: And then but also I did that and did everything.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_02: I done worked the corporate job, the nine to five, government, real estate, entrepreneur.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_02: So I've kind of touched all phases of different markets because it was helpful.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_02: Because even like now, like what we're doing now, with me home doing home inspections.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_02: I offer mentioned, I'm also a home inspector too.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_02: I do that for a while.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_02: That's what I said.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_03: Every realtor on here needs to know who you are because like you could do everything.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_02: Everything.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_02: And then now that also helps bring the both sides together because I use my skill trades background, but I also use my mom's educational background to educate the clients when they make these purchases in these properties.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_02: So it's a kind of like a if it fits both world both worlds perfectly.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_03: You know, and the the because it is, it's it's I always I have a couple good really inspectors that I really like, right?
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_03: Because they can explain what's going on.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_03: I've had the inspector like almost blow deals up.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, it's not listen, man.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_03: It's a switch, it's a it's a it's an outlet.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_03: We can change it.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_03: For sure, for sure.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_02: It's not an electrical issue.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_02: That's why I say it's a benefit when you have dealing with a home inspector in short, is that if they worked on houses or they have uh, you know, trade background experience, but then also you have to be able to deliver the message.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_02: So that's where also where it helps when I used to be a consultant too, was that I used to, because being my background, working for the government is kind of like it is what it is, but then the consultant helped me kind of lighten the blow.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_02: Because we're here for as a home inspector is to identify what you don't see, but then also we have to deliver have to deliver the message because what I look at it, so me, my background with buying these rough houses, these messed up houses, the lap data houses in general, I know that everything can be repaired.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_02: So it's like, how do I deliver the message to someone who might be a first-time investor, first-time homebuyer, just to kind of give them that security because we also got to inform them, but also, like you said, not scare them because I do know that everything can be repaired, but also that's why I try to leverage myself and always be a resource for them.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_02: So even throughout just not the real estate transaction, but once they purchase the property, they always know because the first thing people get scared of is that they don't have a resource once they buy this property.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_02: They take this chance, they take this big risk, and everyone's already telling them don't do this, don't do that, then they don't have anybody that they can trust.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_02: And so I try to be that unbiased third party who's also a point once they're a prior client of mine, they always can give me a call and I'm always here to help them out, whether it be I help them like by doing or I connect them with the right people that they can basically make sure they get the job done.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you know.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_03: No, I love it, man.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_03: And it's it becomes a big resource.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_03: Now, do you find it hard because you can fix everything and you've you've dealt with this for so long, that you're just like, oh, that's fine.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's and that's why I try to I I I say that a lot because it is, I think everything is repairable, and I know because I've seen it, but then that's why I try to show them what's possible too.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_02: I think a lot of times people don't see the end in sight.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_02: And so I try to show them whether it be on social media or like projects that I've done, just on what I started from and what I turned it into by saying that, you know, because my biggest thing while I always tell everybody is that, and I I didn't, I wasn't who I was today back then.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't, I couldn't buy the houses I buy today back when I first started.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_02: I try to tell them like it's a progression.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_02: And so I didn't come in and start just gutting everything.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_02: It started off with, let me buy something like cosmetic where it might need a light paint or maybe not need a kitchen upgrade, not everything, but just something.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_02: But then I over time my risk tolerance began to build up and I started getting more risky, more risky, more risky, and start going for those bigger projects.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_02: But I didn't start out the gate like that because I also tell people that first experience means everything.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_02: Because if you have a good first experience, then now you will probably go back and do it again because you had that good experience.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_02: But if you have a terrible experience, you're gonna want to sell that property, you're not gonna want to do it again, and you want to be done with real estate.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_02: So I try to also almost like do it in bite-sized turns for folks too.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's big.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_03: You can't boil the ocean, right?
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_03: For sure.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_03: For sure.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_03: That's a good one.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_03: One of the things I always say, you can't boil the ocean, right?
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_03: Like you gotta sometimes just take these things chunks at a time.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_03: And and it is, you have to know what you're doing.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_03: You gotta be able to get your hands dirty a little bit too.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, right.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_03: Unless you have some untapped financial resource where you can just know how or you got the money to get it done.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_03: It's one or the other.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's one or the other.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I know when we did our first flip, like I did almost all the demo.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_03: You know what I mean?
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_03: Like I had my two boys in there, and I'm like, all right, we gotta start tearing all this stuff out.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_03: You know what I mean?
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_03: My youngest son got really good at taking off all the molding.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_03: You know what I mean?
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, all right, all this molding.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_03: All of it's gotta go.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_02: You get that sweat sweat equity in there, and that's a great thing because then now it's then you have a form of appreciation to it once you've kind of gone through it.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not saying you want to do it all forever moving forward, but it's a good experience because then no one can just tell you anything.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_02: So then now you have that hands-on experience where you might understand how long it took you to demo.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_02: You might have that timeline set for when you hire a contractor.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_02: So when you have that real world experience, it just helps you further along when you start trying to invest in real estate too.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_02: Because I see a lot of people who just want to be the financial side, which nothing's wrong with that, but they don't understand the timeline of like contractors and they don't have 90 days, baby.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_02: 90 days, man.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_02: And then, you know, so that's why I always say having both is a great, how I say a great approach to it.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_02: Because then I always felt like I started, I didn't have the money to just pay people to get things done.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_02: I had to put that sweat equity in to get to get the ball rolling for me.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_02: Now I've finally reached a point where I'm more so hands-off of the construction, and now I'm full-time home inspections now.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, but it didn't start off like that.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you know.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_03: So where's your your focus right now is m home inspections mainly?
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_02: So I still like right now, it's almost like the um houses and the rentals, the flips are on autopilot.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_02: I have good teams now where I kind of I may do light electrical for them, but typically now the home inspection business really took off, and I've been so swamped with that, which is a blessing.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_02: And that's kind of where I've transitioned over now too, being more so that's like my full-time job is the home inspection business.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_02: You know, yeah.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_03: Which is important.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_03: Like that, again, that's the crazy thing.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_03: I see I you know, I as an as a realtor, so I'm still a full-time realtor too, right?
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_03: So, but as I go into like into transactions right around trying to get deals accepted on the buy side, I'm seeing so many people just waive an inspection.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_03: Oh no, don't do that.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_03: No, don't do that.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_03: I never have ever done that.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_03: No.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_03: Now in information purposes only or whatever, right?
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_03: I'll lighten it.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_03: It's you haven't been probably doing this long, but I remember like it used to be like on the buyer when it was a buyer's market, you could be like, those switchplate covers need to be switched.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_03: Or give me 10 grand off.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_03: Oh wow.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_03: Oh no, that's great.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_03: No, yeah.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_03: That used to be great on the buy side, you know.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_03: But on the listing side, it was like, oh, this guy's gonna hammer me on this.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and that's why I also, even too, when I go out through these inspections, too, I always try to give things what are reasonable.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_02: So a lot of the inspection, what I always try to tell them, because once you know, like for me, touching every different trade that I've been a part of and having experience under, I have had great teachers.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_02: I always try to give the people all the information so they know what they're walking into, but it's not realistic to expect for the seller side to fix every single nick and cranny for that we call out.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_02: So, like what I always try to say, what's reasonable when you're that's how I look at for when they try to negotiate, is that like people reasonably wouldn't expect to move in with a water leak or have a gas leak, you know, or a hole in the roof.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_02: Those are reasonable expectations I always say.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_02: So like I always look at that term of reasonableness, and that's how I try to help them try to negotiate and then they're in their process a lot of the times too.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_02: So it's not just like how you said switch plate covers, not today.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_02: Like, don't go focus on that stuff, right?
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, focus on the things that are reasonable.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_02: What was somebody reasonably expecting?
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_02: Typically, that's where like then once they see the list, they're like, okay, that makes sense.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I understand.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_02: I I I agree.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, usually that's like that offers a seamless uh transition throughout that transaction that I've experienced.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, because it is, it's clients also have to understand they're buying a used house.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_03: For sure.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_03: For sure.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_03: Like you buy a used car, for sure.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_03: There's some dings on it.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_03: You know what I mean?
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_03: You're buying a used house, there's some dings on it.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_03: You know, some and and a lot of it, I in this might be interesting to you too.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_03: I read this stant not too long ago.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_03: It was talking about homeowners over the age of 70.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_03: That their houses typically sell for like five to seven percent less than uh the neighbors.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_03: And it's because of this the general upkeep.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_02: That makes sense, right?
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_02: That makes sense.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_03: And and so it's like there's general upkeep too, right?
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_03: Like the that that's what that's the hard part.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_03: There's tree branches on the like rubbing the roof.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_03: You know what I mean?
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_03: And so there's different stuff.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_03: So I think it's important that people understand there's going to be some normal wear and tear to this.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_03: Definitely.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_02: You know, and I like those older houses in general because they have good bones.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_02: And I always tell people, I'd rather a house basically when the mechan when the mechanicals get old, I rather the house just get older in age than it was installed improperly.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_02: So a lot of times those those mechanicals were installed correctly at a time, but now what happens, time everything has a service life.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_02: And I'd rather deal with something that at the end of service life and just have to repair it now than as opposed to have to fix something that somebody came in and didn't have a license contract to come in and do the work and now things you got to figure out what's going on.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_02: But I'm always rather I always tell people buy the good bones, and then if something's more so outdated, fine.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_02: But it was installed properly at that time.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_02: So I was go for those kind of properties too.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_02: They were well maintained in general.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_03: And well, that's one of the things I, you know, when I'm taking, especially like first-time home buyers too, right?
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_03: I want to know the hot water tank, furnace, roof.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_03: Like, give me those three ages.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_03: If those are good, buy the house.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_03: Like, because that's expensive stuff you can't show off.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, for sure.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_03: You know, you don't bring somebody in your house, go look at my new water tank.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_03: You know what I mean?
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_02: And that's why I tell people the meats and potatoes in any like home in general is the outside basements, attics.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_02: And that's that means everything.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_02: The exterior, how's like to your point?
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_02: How's the roof?
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_02: Again, how's the exterior?
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_02: Is there any indication that water is getting into the property?
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_02: First thing when I go into the house is go right to the basement and check all the things you're saying.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_02: The electrical electrical components, the HVAC, the plumbing, like you said, the water heater, uh, I'm looking at drain lines, all those are the meats and potatoes of any house.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_02: So again, a lot of people get stuck on the kitchens, the bathrooms.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_02: That's what brings you in.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_02: But what keeps you in is the outside basements, attics.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_02: Because typically on the outside, I can see if water's getting in.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_02: On the basement, I see how the house is built and see what other issues we may see throughout the house.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so by the time I get out the basement, I've seen basically told you about the whole house already.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_02: You know, so I always tell people to look at the meats and potatoes.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_02: And anytime you're looking to buy it, even like to the point, I always try to advise the clients that we're on the phone and like we're trying to like schedule and everything like that.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_02: I always ask them like, because they don't know.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes people, they have the inspect, I always tell like inspector dad, who bought a house 30 years ago.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_02: The worst.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_02: And they got the one.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_02: But I always try to give people because we want to be as granular as possible, too.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_02: So they just have a good working knowledge.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_02: So like it's I always ask them, like, hey, when you went to the showing, did you run the water?
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_02: Typically they say no.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_02: And I say, well, we want to make sure it gets hot to your liking.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_02: We want to make sure the pressure is good enough for you.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_02: It's not to say that's something you're gonna negotiate, but it's more so that they're being a part of the experience, being part of the process.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_02: They're looking more than just the kitchens and bathrooms, but they're also testing the house too, because that's the biggest thing that we don't want to walk, we don't want you to walk into the house blind.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_02: You know, that's what also frightens people because they are the for the first time they're hearing it is at the inspection.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_02: When they could start thinking about this beforehand and they start getting a part of the process, we try to bring them, make them a hands-on, give them hands-on experience too, while they're also at the inspection too.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, I that's the I I always say they have to be at the inspection.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_03: For sure.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_03: You know what I mean?
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_03: They have to be at the inspection, and and I'm usually there too.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_03: But and again, I always like uh inspectors who have a license of some sort, right?
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_03: Because then I don't have to be there right on time.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_03: For sure.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_03: The inspector can go in without me.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, and some people get some agents are really iffy about agents or or inspectors that have a real estate license.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I'm like, why?
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_03: They're not gonna steal your client.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_03: Like they're an inspector, they don't want to, they don't want to do what we do.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_03: For sure.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_03: And we don't want to do what you do.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_03: At all.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_03: At all.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_04: I agree with that.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_03: I agree.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_03: But yeah, the inspector dad always shows up.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_02: That's always they got the tape measure.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_02: They ask me, does I see the refrigerator's not level?
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_03: Do I see any it could be what's been the strangest question you've gotten from inspector dad?
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_03: And I like how you've named it now.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_02: I call it Inspector Dad, yeah.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_02: I got a corrosion, like they they always ask you, like it's always like a try to one-up some, like one-up, but that's what I always be funny.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_02: So a lot of times they'll say the things that are anyone can see that it's corrosion at the water heater.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_02: It was a leak that came, you see the water stains, but then a lot of times, like you know, being licensed electrician, that's when I start getting into the conversation.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_02: I bring them to the electrical panel, and I start talking about the electrical panels, talking about 14 gauge wire, 12 gauge wire, you know, between what's the max ampacity and things like that, then I kind of lose them.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_02: And then they kind of back off a little bit because you gotta, they don't know, they're not well informed around electrical.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_02: So typically they're not.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_02: But but the funniest part with this inspector des is always like everyone can see the the miss the missing shingle, and then everyone be has that inspector lens on inspection day.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_02: And so now it's just that's kind of like what I would say is that they just kind of catch what anyone should normally catch, not what we get paid to catch, but they don't see.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, they might not know that a roof shingle is installed improperly that is actually sagging right there or sloping and out of place.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_02: They'll see that the shingle's missing.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_02: We clearly see that we clearly or the trees in contact with the roof.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_02: They'll clearly see that.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_02: But they don't see what you don't see.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you know, the downspout, right?
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_03: The downspout's not running away from the house.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_03: Really, I know.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_03: I it's right here.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_03: I got it.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_02: All that all that.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_02: It'll like an old AC unit, like old AC.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's from it's from the 90s.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's from the 90s.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_02: It's time, it's time.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_02: You're right.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_02: You got that one correct all the time.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, it it is the it is the one-up game, right?
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_03: Like, did you notice that?
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and it's always trying to, but that's why you try to build that trust out the gate.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_02: So first thing we gotta do is go to electrical panels, see how much you really know.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_02: And then they typically back off from there.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_03: That's the old line.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_03: There was a movie back in the day.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_03: It was called Mr.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_03: Mom.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_03: And a guy was working on his house.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_03: And the guy said, What electrical are you on there?
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_03: 220?
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_03: He goes, 220, 221, whatever it takes.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_03: 220, 221, whatever it takes.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_03: Whatever it takes.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_03: You know.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_03: But yeah, it is interesting.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, and I have a couple client clients that will do the same thing, right?
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_03: Like they they because in today is now today, the clients and and people that we're representing have more information at their fingertips than they've ever had before.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_03: Chat.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_03: Right?
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_03: They're going to chat, they're going to Claude, whatever, Gemini, whatever one they're using.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_03: Right?
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_03: And they're just putting in, you know, which I talk about with home values.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_03: People go, it's 123 Main Street.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_03: What's my house worth?
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_03: And they go to chat and they and chat does its little thing and tells and spits out a number.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm always like, with agents, you have to say, all right, well, if I walk in there, I said you have to know what they're gonna say.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_03: It used to be Zillow, right?
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_03: They always went to the Zestimat.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_03: Now they have more information, and now they can now they can chat their electrical, they can chat their plumbing, they can chat.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_03: Now it's not giving them great information, but it's giving them information.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_03: Chat's wrong too, a lot of the time.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, what is this?
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_02: It might be a backflow.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_02: They're like, oh, that like a oh plumbing, or it could be anything.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_02: That like a electrical conduit.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, it's wrong.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_02: So it doesn't know.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_02: It's just trying to it's guessing.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_02: It is guessing, it realistically.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_02: So but like sometimes it's right, sometimes it's wrong.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_02: But I've seen a lot of times where people have tried it and have not it's not been accurate in certain in certain regards because they don't know to ask it either.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_02: It doesn't know what to look at.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_02: So like you might not say it's this old galvanized water water supply lines.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_02: You don't they don't know to say that.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_02: So it's just kind of a picture can mean a thousand different things to different people.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_02: So again, it's just trying to, you know, decipher what what you posted and you don't have no context to it.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_02: You know, so that's the only hard part because it's it's great if you can direct it and kind of fine-tune kind of what what you're taking a picture of, but a lot of times people don't even have that information to even give it the best opportunity for it to kind of give you because it can it can't figure it out once you kind of zero it in, like focus it in, then it's great.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but they try to take that and run with it.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_02: So I get a lot of lists of questions that chat told me to ask you all these questions, and I'm like, we literally talked through all that already.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_02: And they just kind of got that checklist, so that's kind of something I face all the time.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_02: The inspections all the time with with chat and all the all the AI.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_03: And one thing I was just talking with a client the other day, and we he took the inspection report.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, put it in the put it in the chat, right?
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_03: And put the inspection report in the chat, which it did give them a lot of answers.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_03: You know what I mean?
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_03: But I'm like, you know, we can't do all that, right?
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_03: For sure.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_03: Like just for sure.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_03: For sure.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_03: Like we can't go ask a seller for all that, just so you know, right?
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_02: No, lots for awareness, lots for awareness, so you know which because the hardest part I'll say the punch you don't see hurt the most.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_02: So we try to pres we try to protect you from that blind side hit.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_02: So we try to protect your six.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_02: You know, that's I always say.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_02: So that's what that's our biggest thing.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_02: So inspections, I always tell people too, inspections aren't pass or fail.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_02: They're just so you make the number one, make the best informed decision, and then now you can use a report for a negotiation tool.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_02: So that's like how I look at all of them.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_02: That's how I tell everybody because we want to make sure you know everything about the house.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_03: I need to know if there's a foundation issue.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_03: Right?
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_03: I need to know if there's a fifty thousand dollar fix when I walk into this place.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_03: Now, if if I'm an investor and I can absorb that and roll that in my costs, then the if the but the price of the house needs to reflect that I gotta do a fifty thousand dollar repair.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_03: You know what I mean?
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_03: For sure.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_03: You know, that first flip we did, uh it had a foundation issue.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_03: We knew it.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_03: But it was on the slab.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_03: It wasn't in the house.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_03: The house foundation was fine.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_03: The slab, they had water running under the slab.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_03: So it created like a river under there.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_03: And that, you know, that slab just stuff.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_03: So we but we knew that.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_03: And we knew it was a it was gonna be about 20 grand.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_03: And but we walked into that flip knowing that was our first 20 grand was gonna be just out.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_03: Out of there.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_03: But again, you know, you have to know that stuff, right?
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_02: My first flip I did, I had bad foundation walls, and I they got me on this.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_02: The one thing that caught me was the kitchen.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_02: I I walked in.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_02: That's why I tell people, like, kind of try things out as if you live here already, open closed doors, open closed windows, cabinet doors, drawers.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_02: Because when I first flip I did, I had foundation issues, the walls were bowling.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_02: I get I already knew that already.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_02: But the one thing I didn't like think about or know, I didn't pull out any of the kitchen drawers.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_02: They're all sink-based.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_02: So sink base has the bottom drawer, oh bottom cabinets open, but the drawer doesn't open.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_02: Like when you might put forks and things like that into your uh utensils, none of those open.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_02: So I had all the drawers at the bottom, all sink-based open.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_02: None of them open.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_02: It all sink-based.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_02: So that's first, I was like, come on.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_02: So of course I was using it as a rental.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_02: That's not gonna, that's really not gonna fly.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_02: So I had to redo the kitchen.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't know because I was just thought it was, I looked at it real fast.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_02: I did the look test.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, it looks good.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_02: And that's all they did.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_02: And then I had to come out.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_02: Luckily it wasn't a big kitchen, but I had to change out a few of those sink based cabinets.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_02: It was crazy.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_02: But that was like my that was like my that was like my intro to real estate.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah for real estate investors.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_02: So like, okay, they got you.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_02: You didn't know.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't get in, I waved the inspection.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't know much because I knew I thought I know this, because I knew I had a strong background in plumbing.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_02: But I wasn't thinking about the whole how everything ties together.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_02: You were like, yeah, I got plumbing, no problem.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_02: But then I mean you still got it done, but it was just something that it was those unforeseen costs that you don't see coming.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_02: Because the worst part is that you go through appraisals, closing costs, and the last thing you gotta do is now we gotta redo a kitchen.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's like those are things you, those things are that's why I always try to tell people because a lot of times speaking from experience, that if I can protect you from the blind side hit, that's what I'm here to do.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_02: That's what I want to do and make sure because I know home the first time home buyers are going through closing costs, inspection costs, appraisal costs, and the last thing you want to do is come in on day one, the furnace is out.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_02: And prepared for it.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_02: Those are big ticket costs that it's that'll be challenging for anybody.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_02: And so we can protect you.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_02: That's half the battle for actually getting an inspection, you know.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_02: So if I would have got an inspection at that time, I would have knew.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_03: That that happened on that that same my first flip too.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_03: It was uh the we the day they were doing the tile.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_03: So they had their mortar and they were doing getting ready to lay out this tile.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_03: Well, the heat the furnace went out.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_03: And it was cold.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_03: And they're like, we can't do this.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_03: I go, I brought portable heaters in and I'm just setting them up.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, yo, you guys keep going.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_03: I'll take care of the furnace.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_03: But yeah, I got heaters just blowing on you guys keep going there.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_03: Like we ain't stopping right now.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_03: I'm standing that.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_03: We can do that too.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_02: You got to do that.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_01: Whatever gets the job done.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_03: Whatever gets the job done.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_03: What's been the what's been the hardest thing I or like the the hardest thing is as far as like, because we knew that there was a shift in real estate, right?
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_03: Like there was a time there you could pick up rentals and and and reuse easy.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_03: And it got a little tougher when things got more expensive.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_03: For sure.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_03: You know, so what's the toughest thing right now?
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_02: Is it is it just finding the houses to flip or to flip and hold, or is it is it just it's finding the right deals, but then also what I would say still, like I'm invest primarily in the city of Detroit.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_02: My hardest part is when you're doing the rehab, is that keeping it safe.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_02: That's my biggest, that's my biggest headache in general.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_02: Because typically when I do these properties, I don't have an issue renting renting them out or too much selling them personally.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_02: But a lot of times mine comes down to theft.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_02: I'm just trying to keep it protected.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_02: Because it's like every project I think about that I've dealt with more so or less is always that's always been the main thing.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_02: When you leave out, am I gonna come back and this door be unlocked by the time I get back?
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_02: Because it's just that's the one of the hardest things to face when you put all that into it.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_02: Because that's that's almost that's what almost broke me when I first started like my third house in.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_02: I I got in there and it was a two-family flat.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_02: I had everything done situated.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_02: It was a land bank property.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_02: So land bank, you have to also take all the boards down and everything like that, so you have to be exposed when you do your final inspection with them.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_02: And then I came back, I came back to the house and the door was already unlocked.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_02: And when you I know we know he locked it, but once that's already there, and because they broke through the window in the basement, and then you see all the furnaces gone, the water heater's gone, kitchen's gone, and then you gotta be able to go back, eat it, and then go do it again.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_02: It's like it's like it everything tells you to run.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_02: But then the fact to see it through, then that's how we're here sitting with you today.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_02: But it but in those moments you have to look in the mirror and do a reality check.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, am I really going to sit down?
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_02: What am I doing then?
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_02: You sitting there, but I just had everything done, kitchens done, you know, and that's like the biggest, that was my biggest challenge, my biggest hurdle that I face today.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_02: Because in those moments, you like want to quit.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_02: Like, this makes no sense, you know.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_02: It doesn't make sense to go back and do it again.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_02: But then something about you says, No, I'm gonna wipe myself off and let me go right back and put it because nobody's coming to save the day.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_02: And so I gotta go back and finish the finish the job.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_03: And that was built when you were growing up getting yelled at for bringing the wrong tools.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_03: Man, yeah.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_03: That was built all when you were growing up.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_02: Here you go, wrong tool again.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_02: I see it's channel locks, you know, it's a pipe wrench, like, okay.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you know, yeah, that was all built from from getting tools for for grandpa that were wrong.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you know what I mean?
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, for sure.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_03: Oh man, but but but you know, it it that character building, you know what I mean?
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_03: And and it is, it's a strong character because you have to go through stuff like that, right?
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_03: Like, and there are those battles, right?
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_03: I again, same thing.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_03: I had a house, I was listed for a client and they went to do the final walkthrough, and the agent calls me.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_03: He's like, hey, did they take the furnace out?
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, I I don't think so.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_03: He's like, well, it's not here.
• 29:04
  unknown: Yeah.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_02: I see a lot of that with the AC units right now.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, I see a lot of them.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_02: I just every house I go, you see, you see, you see the fuse on the ground, like it's just it it yeah, all the time, especially with ACs right now.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_02: AC units and all that, I see all the time.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_02: It's crazy.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_03: It's crazy.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_03: It's crazy.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_03: It but again, it's what we deal with, yeah, right?
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_03: And it doesn't matter what neighborhood it is.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it'll it's happening.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_03: It happens everywhere.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_03: For sure.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_03: You know what I mean?
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_03: Like it happens everywhere.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_03: For sure.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_03: And and we you you have to just kind of like set absorb it, brush it off, and keep pushing forward.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_02: That's been my great that's been my probably my greatest challenge.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, because sometimes like anything that someone wants, like adding a bathroom is really nothing to me.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_02: Fixing something's nothing to me, like all that is a part of it.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but that's all what I expect to do.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_02: Like if you sell on a house, they're gonna come back with something.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_02: It's just like that's fine.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_02: We can do whatever they requesting to be done.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_02: But when you go in there, you don't you don't budget theft typically.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, like that's not what you like.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_03: You didn't start adding 10% in there.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, like you don't that's not what's that's not part of the budget.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_02: So that's the thing that I think that blindsides so much, it was like, because it was all done.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_02: And then you come back and then it's gone.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_02: It's you know, that's the hard part, I would say.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_02: But then you kind of get smarter in your process of how you kind of doing things, how you secure things, because now how I do things now is different than when I started.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_03: Is it just a timing thing then?
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_03: Like a the process of uh the timing to finish it.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and I I kind of have a different process now where I kind of I will leave it.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_02: I used to like when I first started, we just had a lot of materials just there.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_02: Like you just had materials, it's like everything that we're not using right now, just sitting there at the time.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_02: But then now almost once I do it, I install it immediately.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_02: But I don't put hot water heaters, furnaces in if I don't have to before I need to.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_02: And so I kind of wait for that because a lot of times what they'll do in general, from what I've been seeing, like they'll go down and break the basement window to peek in first, then decide they're coming in or not, typically.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_02: I've been seeing that in a few houses.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, why is my why is my glass block window broke?
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_02: And then that's because they peeked in.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_02: Or why is the um the little vent that you open at the window, why is it broke?
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_02: Because they peeked in.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_02: That's what they try to typically do now.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_02: What I've been seeing.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_02: Whether it's worth it or not.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_02: Whether it's worth it or not.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_02: For sure.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_02: For sure.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_02: And that's what I've so that's why I try to keep it very until the last minute, then we'll go install it.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_02: So I try to kind of not just have things, but then also have a visual.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_02: So I put cameras up and things like that now, Wi-Fi or internet all throughout.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_02: So just to yeah, just to kind of keep eyes on it.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_02: So I would be in the middle of the night, because when you are doing real estate too, especially in the city, you get kind of crazy.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_02: Because I mean, it'd be 1.30.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, I know they're looking at it.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um then you get in the car, you riding wherever it is, wherever it's at, you make a like you look, you're the one looking like kind of suspicious now.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_02: And then you three o'clock again, you're like, I hope they didn't get me.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_02: So you ride back out again.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_02: My wife's like, where are you going?
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_02: But it's just like it kind of gets you like that.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_02: Because it means something.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_02: You don't want to, you worked hard for it.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_02: But I've done that a few times.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_02: Like, want to work on the flip.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_02: You kind of know I'm working on the flip because I'm I'm I'm I'm like doing a uh surveillance overnight.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but that's the reality, especially in Detroit, what I've been experiencing.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_02: So I know a lot of people, a lot of my buddies who are also investing in the city, they uh do the same kind of thing.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_02: But that's why I said let me get cameras up so I don't have to do that all the time.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_02: I got visuals and having the right uh software is in place, security systems in place to give me peace of mind.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you know.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's big, man.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_03: And again, that's another added cost.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, always added cost, yeah.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_03: Like whether that's security or somebody stealing it.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, either way, it's an added cost.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, for sure.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_02: All it's all added that, you know.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_02: I saw okay, that's the my challenging piece, I would say.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_03: What was the so the first one?
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_03: You had a lot of issues with the very first one.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_03: First one?
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, first foundation and yeah, foundation.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that foundation was jacked up.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_02: Bowing walls, yeah.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_02: Cause I was, I was, I bought that when I was living in Philadelphia.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_02: So I moved around around, I moved around a few times too.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_02: I used to went to school in DC.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I used to live in New Orleans.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_02: New Orleans was kind of where I kind of got that bug for just wanting to know about real estate more, so or let's just kind of really understand it.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_02: Not just from a trade's background, but also just how do you buy a house?
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_02: What's the bird method?
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_02: How do you sell it?
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_02: How do you flip it?
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_02: So I was going to all different events, being a, you know, basically like a fly on the wall.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, just any room I get involved in.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_02: Then I got to Philly.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_02: I bought my first primary property.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_02: I just went for it.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't never been, never been to Philly, never lived in Philly.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_02: And I said, I'm buying something because I was prepared and I got all the information.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_02: Because I'm very actionable.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_02: Like I already did the learning, the education piece of it, so I went for it.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_02: And then I was like, when I was living in Philly, I was debating on where I wanted to buy at.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_02: Was it either?
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_02: Because I was in the middle, because in Philly, you're close to you're on the East Coast, so it's like, of course you can't buy in New York.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_02: It's just was too expensive for me.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_02: Uh going back to DC and investing DC is too expensive.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_02: But the middle ground was Philly as well as Baltimore.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_02: And I was debating on Baltimore, Philly, and Detroit.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_02: And so I was like, well, no, I got more resources back in Detroit.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_02: And so that's when I started investing back home.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_02: So I was doing a lot of sight unseen in Detroit.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_02: But that's why I ended up ultimately coming back and investing here.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_02: But that's where it was like dealing with contractors, and that's why I can kind of speak to the out-of-state investors.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_02: I can speak to the first-time home buyers.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_02: I can speak to all the wherever you at in your real estate journey, I can speak to.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_02: Because I remember like the contractor always saying, We gotta go to Home Depot.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_02: You gotta go Home Depot.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_02: We gotta go to Home Depot.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_02: I said, Didn't you just come back from Home Depot 20 minutes ago?
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_02: Why do you have to go back again already?
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_02: Then it's like, it just, why am I seeing like, you know, they buy a pop chips?
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_02: And then this is like, is that all you went to Home Depot for?
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_02: It's like it's it's because the phone says you can do a phone sale.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_02: But it was like I didn't realize how that's why I knew I had to get involved again because I thought at first I would just be hands off.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_02: But I didn't have the money or the right people to kind of do it that way at that time.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_02: So then now that was really what impacted me a lot because I just kept seeing Home Depot, Home Depot.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_02: Like multiple Home Depot, I'm like, if you're doing this, why do you have to go back so many times?
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_02: And it's when does it stop?
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't know when the bleeding was ever going to stop.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_02: That was hard for me.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_02: So that's where I was at.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_02: I finished that one out, but then I knew that's when I came back to Detroit because I wanted to be more hands-on because out of state was hard for me, especially being a newer investor and also being an out of state investor, learning being my project manager too, it didn't really work out well for me personally.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_02: So that's why a lot of times when I help these out-of-state investors, I do try to be their boots on the ground from not trying to you know step on over any lanes, but just give them my experience based on what I've been doing.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_02: Because I can I can you know relate to how they're feeling and I can see what they're trying to do.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_02: So that also helped me deliver the message to them a lot better because I know what they don't see.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_02: I know what they want to know.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_02: Because a lot of times they either they say investors, but they are first-time homebuyers too.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_02: They're trying to first-time investors that they're trying to buy their first property in general.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_02: Then they just happen to see Detroit's a hot market.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, so I try to help them because I also want them to have a good experience.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_02: Because if they do have a good experience, like I said earlier, they're going to continue buying.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_02: And that's what that's ultimately what we want to have.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_02: So that's why I was trying to give create a positive environment and a good experience for them ultimately.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and it's it's big, man.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_03: And it is.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_03: It's it's hard to be so hands-on.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_03: Especially if you have multiple properties going at one time, right?
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_03: And and you're right, the Home Depot thing.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_03: I thought you were talking to me for a second because I'm I'm always that guy too, like, oh, I gotta go back to Home Depot.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, always.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_02: I miss forgot some screws, forgot this.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_02: There's always the little thing you need that I'm like, and that's all it threw me off because it was always like, we need this one thing, we can't finish the job until we get this one thing.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, you can't do nothing else while you're at the house.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_02: Now you gotta be you can't finish that because you you how it's always like I forgot like you got the drywall, you got the drywall mud, you got the drywall nice, got the, but you missed the you forgot the tape.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_02: How you forget the tape?
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, but then it's like are you intentionally going back just to go, you know?
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_03: So those are the- I needed to pop a chips, right?
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I'm hungry now.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_03: You gotta go, you know.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I got a hot dog.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_03: But like, I so now, so now with your process, do you have everything kind of like mapped out?
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and my thing is too now where at first I was interested in just who could do it all.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_02: And I don't want as I don't want a generalist person.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_02: Like something like so I always say it'd be funny, like me.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_02: I don't want somebody like me.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_02: I want somebody who does their specialists with the specialties.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_02: I will pay more because I want to get the job done right.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_02: I just want the licensed plumber, licensed electrician, licensed heating and cooling contractor.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_02: I want to have peace of mind.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_02: My thing right now is peace.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_02: Like that's all I really, that's what I'm chasing right now.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_02: That's priceless.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, for sure.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and then I know that you're doing and having reliable people too.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_02: I have a great team.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_02: I've got taught very well, so that's why we always give a lot of credit to the folks around me.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_02: Because I have all stand-up folks, men and men and women, they all help me out too, because we all have ultimately have the same end goal at the end of time.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_02: Let's get let's knock this out so we can go to the next job.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_02: And so now that's kind of helped me tremendously.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_02: So now that stream is almost on autopilot now, and that's why now at first it was more sort of talking about real estate, but now that's why I can speak more about inspections now, because now I can focus in on inspections instead of trying to like you know, stretch myself too thin by trying to be everywhere and I can't be everywhere.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_02: So now I have a good core team where they kind of got my back on this side.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_02: So it's been great so far.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_03: And it's tough to get to that point.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_03: For sure.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_03: You know what I mean?
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_03: And and you know, I I know a lot of investors, I know a lot of guys that do this.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_03: And the hard part is is then you gotta keep the crew busy.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_03: Right?
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_03: Because that if you don't have the next project, they're gonna find the next project.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_03: For sure.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_03: And whether that's with you or Joe Smith down the street, right?
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_03: Like they're gonna do the next project.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_03: Because they're not gonna sit and not make money.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, absolutely.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_03: Right?
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_03: So their whole goal is just like everybody else is I gotta make more money.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_03: So it's it's keeping them busy.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's the biggest thing.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and that's why even like right now, like that's the next step for me is is to finish out the the builder's license to get that officially and then create my own construction company.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_02: That's the just because I want to everything I do, I want to be legitimate around.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_02: And so that's where I now I will be more confident in taking on additional jobs.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_02: Cause right now I don't do it.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_02: I just like no, I just rather kind of do my thing and work on my houses, but then I realize that I'm almost like doing everyone a disservice because I could help them more, more so less if I have my credentials.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_02: So, and I'll be willing to do it then.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_02: And so now I have the I have every trade, everything you could think of, but then now it's just I might as well umbr have an umbrella under my company now.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_02: So that's kind of where my next step is.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_02: So, like, because I'm already in houses, I'm already like trying to learn as much as I possibly can because we're stepping in now into the energy efficiency sector too.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_02: Uh just trying to help folks become more energy efficient too.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_02: So that's the space we're entering in now.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_02: So it's just ultimately I want to just close the gap.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm always looking at just different opportunities to get better and to help deliver a better service too.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_02: So that's really what we are moving forward to and expanding the inspection company as well as the home improvement company, too.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_02: So that's why I want to also assist.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_02: We have all the people you need.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_02: So, like so your point to keep them busy.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_02: I have more people ask for help than I'm always busy with that.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_02: Like, even while all the time, just yeah, all the time.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, that's why I always want to help.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm just trying to find ways to actually execute on that now, too.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_02: Because I keep hearing the ass, the ass, the ass, like, okay, now let me just answer that, you know, and then have people and help and help them out the best way I know how.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_03: So do you are do you have your real estate license too, or no?
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_02: I don't have a real estate license.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_02: My wife does.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_02: We did the work on that.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_02: My wife does.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_02: My wife does, she got it.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_03: She handles all that, she handles that, she handles that.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_03: She handles that.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, I can't, I she she's great at that too.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_03: I'll let you do it.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_03: Well, it's better to put pretty face as the realtor, right?
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_03: Instead of my face, right?
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_03: Like this face is the realtor doesn't work that well.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_03: I call my wife.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_03: I would too.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_03: But no, man, it's it's but it's cool because now it's now it's a family thing, right?
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_03: Like, and it's it's involvement in the community.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you know what I mean?
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_03: And I think that's a big part of what you're bringing back too is like this can be like help, let's help the community get better, right?
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_03: Let's upgrade these houses.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_03: Let's get for sure, you know, start taking care of things and fixing some things that got run down.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_02: I like what you said too, because that's what I always try to lead with is how can I help?
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_02: I want to help.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_02: That's all I leave like with impact.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_02: Like, that's what all I really talk about.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I'm always here to help.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_02: Always call me to help.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_02: I'm always happy to help, help, help, help, help, help.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_02: Because that's like my biggest thing, because I've seen so many people where they can't finish the job.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_02: They didn't have it's always the same thing.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_02: I had a rant to a bad contractor, and I got a whole scenario about that.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_02: But they always say they ran to a bad contractor, they didn't finish this deal, and something fell apart.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_02: They didn't get back in contact with the realtors.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_02: Almost like it's very transactional.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_02: Of course, real estate is a transaction, but I always try to also it's a community-based business too.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm like, I can deliver this community and I make you feel like, hey, no, like you're like, I see you like family now.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_02: And then you always you develop trust.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_02: So that's always what I kind of lean forward is how do I trust you?
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_02: So I'd rather, you know, develop that and show that I have integrity and that I stand behind my word, that if you call me, I'm going to answer.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_02: I'm going to help you no matter what.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_02: And so I've done that a lot.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_02: That helped me grow my business tremendously because the people, when they're buying a house, it's not like they just call, they Google the larger home inspection companies.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_02: They feel like they actually got someone who they can call and get on that phone and and have a you know, have a real conversation and they got real problems that they someone actually listening on the other line.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_02: And so that's what has helped me a lot in my business growing mine.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_03: So it's it's that's what I always tell agents too.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_03: Like, this is we're in a service business.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_03: Like this is a service industry, for sure, right?
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_03: Real estate is.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_03: And we gotta stop selling so much and start helping people.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_03: For sure.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_03: For sure.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_03: Like, because they're making the biggest financial decisions in our life, for sure.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_03: Typically, for sure.
• 42:19
  SPEAKER_03: You investors, that's a different ball game, right?
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_03: The number either makes sense or it doesn't.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_03: For sure.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_03: There's no emotion involved with it.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_03: But let me ask you this.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_03: So for you, right?
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_03: When things start, you know, you're always helping, you're always helping, you're always helping.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_03: Who's helping you?
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_03: Like who's who's that person you lead?
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_03: Is there a person or is that something that we're working on?
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_03: We're working on it.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_02: But my my I'll say my family, you know, having my wife, my mom, you know, and my daughter now.
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_02: We got another new baby on the way too in September.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_02: Congratulations.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_02: Appreciate it.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, congratulations.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_02: It reminds you to slow down.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_02: It reminds you to see what's important to you, too.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_02: Like, so that's why now is that I what's important to me.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes I'm stuffed like after like five or six o'clock, I kind of just want to be at home.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's okay.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_02: So, but now having a baby, she's when she comes, I open the door, she runs to me.
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_02: That means everything in the world to me.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_02: So it's like, but you work hard, but you also can't forget why you got started.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_02: Because, like, again, like we talked about earlier, entrepreneurship, you're never not busy.
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_02: You always run around.
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you working more than you're nine to five, but it's like, when do you cut it off?
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I mean, so that's been my biggest help for like just seeing the true aspect of it.
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_02: Then when my dad passed, it also showed me a lot too that you know, every we all have a we all have a date.
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_02: And so, but like create the impact, but then also create the impact at home too, because I can be out helping everybody, but then I also got to make sure that I'm helping home too.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_02: So that was a good reflection point for me, too, and just having, you know, the different discussions.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_02: Because I have a lot of I have a lot of great people in my life that, you know, a lot of honest conversations, a lot of just different things we're chasing so much.
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_02: Where it's like, I mean, who doesn't want to be like the biggest entrepreneur, the biggest home inspector, the best contractor, the best electrician?
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, the list goes on, but at some point it's like also what is like winning in your eyes.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_02: And like me having a family, we can go have fun and go to dinner, breakfast.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_02: Those are all like high impact moments for me.
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_02: That's kind of what I like to do as well.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_02: So that my family kind of keeps me zoned in and grounded, I would say.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's it's one of the things too, and you'll you'll see this as your kids get older, because mine are 22 and 15 now, right?
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_03: And my son goes away to school.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_03: He's a you know, he's home right now, but like he's at he goes to Alabama.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_02: Alabama?
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, all side.
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_02: My sister went to Alabama.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, really?
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, roll tie.
• 44:27
  SPEAKER_03: We're a big role, we're a big Alabama family, right?
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, yeah.
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_03: Uh we're huge.
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_03: But but I you know, it's so and he works for the basketball team.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_03: So he's he gets like he's with he got he came home Saturday.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_03: He's leaving Sunday.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_03: You know what I mean?
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_03: Like so it's like these spurts of But so it's one of those things you have to come to the realization it's the it's the quality of the time, not the quantity, right?
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_03: That's true.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_03: And so that's where entrepreneurs and real estate agents will ask me, like, how do you find this work-life balance?
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, there isn't one.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_02: I say it all the time.
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_03: It's a work-life blend.
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_03: Right?
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_03: You got to be able to blend it together.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_03: Like last night we were out to dinner.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_03: I, of course, I had to take a phone call, right?
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_03: So, but I was able to step out, take the phone call, handle what I handled, and then go back in and you know, it wasn't so there's a you for sure you have more control over it for sure sometimes.
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_03: For sure, for sure, for sure.
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_03: Right?
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_03: But it's it's having that realization of like I I still have to take care of business because that's why we're out to dinner.
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_03: Right?
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_03: For sure.
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_03: And then, but I can still come back and have dinner.
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_03: You know.
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_02: I told my wife that too.
• 45:25
  SPEAKER_02: When we got married, I was uh growing the inspection company and we're out on our our honey, our honeymoon, and like I mean, people call and I'm like, I said, it was a 24-hour day.
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_02: If I can't take a five-minute call, let them know, like, hey, I'm out of town, I I wish I could help, but that's half the battle.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_02: But imagine, because I always take it very serious that someone gives me a referral or someone calls me, you have that's that's your first impression.
• 45:47
  SPEAKER_02: And so if let's say if I didn't answer the phone and just didn't never call back, I would never be sitting right here today.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_02: And so it's easier to me say, hey, sorry I'm out of time, I'm actually on my honeymoon right now.
• 45:57
  SPEAKER_02: And they all empathize with that.
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, right.
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I'll see you when you get back to the back.
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, go enjoy it.
• 46:01
  SPEAKER_02: Let me get off the phone.
• 46:03
  SPEAKER_02: So then it already then now that kind of that that five-minute conversation saved me years down the road for just having and it allowed me to continue to build business just from that little five-minute conversation, as opposed to saying, I'm out of office, I'm not answering the phone.
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_02: That doesn't work like that, especially me trying to grow a business.
• 46:18
  SPEAKER_02: Right, you know, so as you already know, it's a blending.
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_02: So it's no balance.
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_02: But then that's where it's like it didn't take away the day, it didn't take away the moment where I'm always working.
• 46:25
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, hey, I'm out of town right now.
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_02: I'm sorry, just communication.
• 46:28
  SPEAKER_02: Because most people would I've noticed that I try to communicate very effectively in real estate, because that's what a lot of people are looking for.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_02: As long as you know what's coming your way, you can pretty much understand.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_02: Like you it's all understandable, but you just need to communicate.
• 46:41
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of times people don't want to communicate in general.
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_02: Like if you're running a few minutes behind, just send a text, like, hey, I'm a you know, a few or whatever, just so I know what's happening.
• 46:48
  SPEAKER_02: Don't leave me in the dark.
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's the biggest thing I've seen.
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_02: Like in real estate.
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_02: That's why I see a lot of contractors.
• 46:53
  SPEAKER_02: I talk to a lot of them because I try to also help in general, because they communication is a big thing in real estate, I'll say.
• 46:59
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you know, it is, yeah, it is, and you know, that conversation you had on your honeymoon.
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that they will remember that.
• 47:05
  SPEAKER_03: For sure.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_03: Like that is etched in their memory of man, you took my phone call when you're on your honeymoon.
• 47:09
  SPEAKER_03: Like and and they're appreciative of that, right?
• 47:12
  SPEAKER_03: So that's the referral.
• 47:13
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, that's that's the game, that's the long play.
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_02: Still work with them to this day, and even if I'm out of town, because I mean, we're human.
• 47:19
  SPEAKER_02: We we go out of town, we got this, we got we do this.
• 47:22
  SPEAKER_02: So it's like you can't you can't do everything, but the biggest thing we can do is always communicate.
• 47:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 47:26
  SPEAKER_02: The phone is just like, hey, I'm out of town right now, I can't, I can't get there.
• 47:29
  SPEAKER_02: We gotta or let them know ahead of time.
• 47:30
  SPEAKER_02: So I try to let a lot of a lot of the realtors I work with let them know beforehand that hey, I'm going out of town, I have this trip plan, especially the ones I work with all the time, and so that they have a heads up because then you know we all have a great relationship now, so you know, because at first at a while I couldn't go on vacation.
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_02: I couldn't, I didn't feel comfortable out of town.
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, I'm growing this business, I need to be back in town, but then now finally things are starting to settle in, and yeah, now it's been it's been a great journey, it's been a great ride.
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you start to get to a sweet spot, right?
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_03: Where it's kind of like the business is sort of taking care of itself, right?
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_03: For sure.
• 48:01
  SPEAKER_03: Um and then it and then what's the and obviously builder's license, we're gonna that's the next journey, right?
• 48:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, for sure.
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_02: It's just continue to grow and scale the uh inspection company, because that's what I've been focused on a lot too.
• 48:13
  SPEAKER_02: That's why I've been trying to partner with different cities across uh just to do different types of inspections for them, different services that we can offer.
• 48:19
  SPEAKER_02: The energy efficiency space, trying to, you know, do energy audits as well.
• 48:23
  SPEAKER_02: That's one of the next steps we're doing too.
• 48:25
  SPEAKER_02: So just keep expanding where I can kind of keep building on the team.
• 48:28
  SPEAKER_02: I have uh we have another inspector with me too that we work together with growing the company in general.
• 48:33
  SPEAKER_02: But ultimately, my goal is to continue, and that's hard where in the inspections is like your baby.
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_02: Like every every every person is a good thing.
• 48:40
  SPEAKER_02: That's the one you started, right?
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_02: That's the one you started, and it's it's different because typically I can call an electrician and they follow the code.
• 48:49
  SPEAKER_02: You know, they're gonna they're gonna install per code, or the plumber, they're gonna install per code.
• 48:54
  SPEAKER_02: But when you're dealing with a home inspection, it's like there's so many different factors that we don't talk about because you have to be able to be customer friendly, I would say, or that's what I would say, customer friendly, also be very knowledgeable of all components of the home.
• 49:09
  SPEAKER_02: Like it's hard to say my background kind of helped me push me in that light to know so much about the house, me working on houses, me messing up, me making mistakes on things while working on projects.
• 49:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 49:19
  SPEAKER_02: That all like comes to the experience, but it's hard to give that trust to somebody else than then your name's on top of it.
• 49:25
  SPEAKER_02: That's the hardest part, is that you know, because they've typically don't have the same experience that I have, you know, coming coming in.
• 49:31
  SPEAKER_02: Not saying they can't do it, but that's where it's harder to find trustworthy people to do the inspections.
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_02: Like the construction is not as hard, I would say, as as difficult, because I can find more electricians that are going to install per code than it is to be a home inspector to find defects, and you gotta pay attention to what's important to you, what's not important, because again, in Michigan, you just gotta be certified.
• 49:51
  SPEAKER_02: You don't even have a license to follow, or you know, you can't follow different standards.
• 49:54
  SPEAKER_02: Trust me, I know.
• 49:54
  SPEAKER_02: You know exactly, exactly.
• 49:58
  SPEAKER_02: So that's my biggest challenge, kind of try to continue to build, but also get help and assistance in the home inspection space because at first I started off as just an investor.
• 50:06
  SPEAKER_02: I was thinking I'm just gonna be an investor, and that's pretty much it.
• 50:09
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 50:10
  SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna stand in this pile of money, that's it, and I'm just gonna invest it.
• 50:13
  SPEAKER_03: That's it.
• 50:13
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, okay, I've but then the inspection company, I mean, then I realized that it taught me a lot that I invest a lot more in businesses now because that's the cash cow.
• 50:22
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 50:23
  SPEAKER_02: And that's really where it rolls in at.
• 50:24
  SPEAKER_02: And so my biggest thing is like, how do we uh but now I kind of it's almost like I pivoted.
• 50:30
  SPEAKER_02: So this is like my nine to five home inspection.
• 50:31
  SPEAKER_02: It's like my nine to five now, I would say.
• 50:33
  SPEAKER_02: But then I funnel the extra the proceeds from inspections into real estate.
• 50:38
  SPEAKER_02: So whether it be investment properties or flipping properties in general, I roll that in.
• 50:42
  SPEAKER_02: So like now that's like my because I've even your nine to five, that's your biggest investor, I would say.
• 50:47
  SPEAKER_02: So the home inspections company has been my biggest investor.
• 50:49
  SPEAKER_02: So I've taken that and then tie it right back, re-reinvest it right back into real estate.
• 50:53
  SPEAKER_03: I love it.
• 50:54
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I love it.
• 50:55
  SPEAKER_03: And it you know, this is the hardest part about being a leader, yeah.
• 50:58
  SPEAKER_03: Right?
• 50:58
  SPEAKER_03: The hardest part about being is recreating yourself and others.
• 51:01
  SPEAKER_03: Like, because they don't, you know, not everybody has our motor.
• 51:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you know, not everybody has the the the wherewithal to go through the everybody's steal and everything.
• 51:10
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you know what I mean.
• 51:11
  SPEAKER_03: Like walking back in the house with all the stuff I just did and that's all gone.
• 51:14
  SPEAKER_03: For sure.
• 51:15
  SPEAKER_03: To go, all right, let's put it back in.
• 51:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you know what I mean?
• 51:18
  SPEAKER_03: Like not everybody has that drive and determination to do that.
• 51:21
  SPEAKER_03: A lot of people would have quit.
• 51:22
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 51:22
  SPEAKER_03: So it's hard to like find that and recreate that in others.
• 51:25
  SPEAKER_03: That's probably like the biggest thing as an entrepreneur is like, you know, people say, Well, I w I want to do what you do.
• 51:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, no, you don't.
• 51:32
  SPEAKER_03: It's like, you okay, ride with me for a day.
• 51:35
  SPEAKER_03: Here's my phone, take it.
• 51:37
  SPEAKER_02: Get the call at 2 a.m.
• 51:38
  SPEAKER_02: I just had a house.
• 51:39
  SPEAKER_02: I just had a house they just haven't.
• 51:41
  SPEAKER_02: Like earlier, earlier this week, Monday or Tuesday, they got a call from my tenant.
• 51:45
  SPEAKER_02: The neighbor's garage caught on fire.
• 51:48
  SPEAKER_02: I have vinyl siding on my house.
• 51:50
  SPEAKER_04: Oh boy.
• 51:51
  SPEAKER_02: And so the heat caused it to melt on my house.
• 51:54
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 51:54
  SPEAKER_02: And that's just what I dealt with on a Monday or Tuesday.
• 51:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 51:57
  SPEAKER_02: It's just it's like always something.
• 51:58
  SPEAKER_02: I'm thinking the house is done, completed, everything's fine.
• 52:01
  SPEAKER_02: Not even anything to do with me.
• 52:03
  SPEAKER_02: The neighbor garage caught on fire.
• 52:06
  SPEAKER_02: And not an impact of me.
• 52:07
  SPEAKER_02: So now that's another job I gotta take on that I was not expecting to do now.
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_02: Unexpected expense.
• 52:12
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 52:12
  SPEAKER_02: You know.
• 52:13
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 52:13
  SPEAKER_03: And it it's it it happens, right?
• 52:15
  SPEAKER_03: That's that's that's the life, right?
• 52:17
  SPEAKER_03: That's the life.
• 52:18
  SPEAKER_03: That's and and you being prepared for it.
• 52:20
  SPEAKER_03: Like that's the in sometimes we're not even prepared for it, but that's just part of it.
• 52:24
  SPEAKER_03: What was your contractor story?
• 52:26
  SPEAKER_02: My contract story?
• 52:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 52:27
  SPEAKER_02: Oh man.
• 52:28
  SPEAKER_02: No, well, contract, it's just my thing is this.
• 52:31
  SPEAKER_02: My thing is this.
• 52:32
  SPEAKER_02: We don't have to we don't have to name names.
• 52:34
  SPEAKER_02: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no names.
• 52:36
  SPEAKER_02: It's not but it's not even like I was this is me siding with the contractors because what I always say, I also look at, I put the perspective to the I put the mirror to the the investor or the home buyers that also you need to know what's going on too.
• 52:51
  SPEAKER_02: Like you need to do your due diligence.
• 52:52
  SPEAKER_02: So they don't talk about that often.
• 52:53
  SPEAKER_02: It's always like that, I had a bad contractor, had a bad running with a contractor.
• 52:57
  SPEAKER_02: But a lot of times you also didn't do your due diligence, you didn't do your own research and things like that either.
• 53:01
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 53:01
  SPEAKER_02: And so I always say that, again, what typically when you go, let's say change a tire, you might not know everything about tires, but you know a little bit about it.
• 53:08
  SPEAKER_02: They're gonna patch it, they're gonna plug it, they're gonna do you might know a little bit where you're going, you know what I mean?
• 53:13
  SPEAKER_02: But a lot of times with the contractors, they just kind of want to be hands-off, don't know nothing, and then just kind of let it let it go.
• 53:17
  SPEAKER_02: You gotta be somewhat knowledgeable because they're gonna do exactly, let's say I want a kitchen done.
• 53:22
  SPEAKER_02: You have to have a vision for your kitchen, they're gonna do it to whatever they can think of.
• 53:26
  SPEAKER_02: They can't read your mind, but you also didn't communicate that to them.
• 53:29
  SPEAKER_02: I hear that all the time.
• 53:30
  SPEAKER_02: Like they didn't do it right, they didn't have the cabinets right, this and this.
• 53:33
  SPEAKER_02: But you also didn't provide them a vision of how you perceived it.
• 53:36
  SPEAKER_02: You just I want my bathroom done.
• 53:37
  SPEAKER_02: That's it.
• 53:38
  SPEAKER_02: I just want my bathroom done.
• 53:39
  SPEAKER_02: But it's like you also have to do some due diligence too in what you're doing and what you're asking for.
• 53:44
  SPEAKER_02: You just can't, to me, be hands-off.
• 53:46
  SPEAKER_02: And I would still say that's where I keep seeing the biggest flaws that well, they didn't do this right, they didn't do this, they didn't do that.
• 53:51
  SPEAKER_02: But like you also didn't give them like a helping hand in what your vision was because a lot of times it starts off like, I just don't want this old, I want I want my old grandma's tile gone, I want new tile all through here.
• 54:02
  SPEAKER_02: And then they then you just give them how I look at contractors, a lot of times, we're installers.
• 54:08
  SPEAKER_02: So we install what anything you want, whatever your vision is to install, so that's fine, but you also have a piece, you know, you have a piece to play in in it as well.
• 54:15
  SPEAKER_02: So that's really not a crazy contractor story, but it's more so I always try to tell people too, like what did you what was your part in it too?
• 54:21
  SPEAKER_02: Because a lot of times, did you communicate effectively?
• 54:23
  SPEAKER_02: Did you give them the like did you lay out exactly what you wanted?
• 54:26
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of times they typically when I talk to them, they say no, I didn't, I didn't.
• 54:29
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't.
• 54:29
  SPEAKER_02: And then so that's always trying to frame perspective on both sides, I would say.
• 54:33
  SPEAKER_02: That's pretty much all for the contractor story.
• 54:35
  SPEAKER_02: But it's just I just say as much as we deal, because even the contractors too, well, I've done it where they want you to do the work fast and they pay slow.
• 54:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 54:44
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, but then but they don't talk about that part of it though.
• 54:46
  SPEAKER_02: Like, okay, but then well, I can't believe that guy didn't want to come back.
• 54:49
  SPEAKER_02: He's not answering the phone anymore.
• 54:50
  SPEAKER_03: But it's like it's always he was here for three weeks and he's bam.
• 54:53
  SPEAKER_02: You gotta you gotta be you gotta be a good customer too.
• 54:56
  SPEAKER_02: That I think people miss.
• 54:57
  SPEAKER_02: And so I think it's a two-part series to everything.
• 54:59
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, well, what did you what was your part to play?
• 55:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and that's how I look at it.
• 55:02
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, you know, so that's what I would say.
• 55:04
  SPEAKER_02: It's just it's a it's a it's a two-way street typically when you're hearing the stories of people, it's usually a two-part, I was I would say.
• 55:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 55:10
  SPEAKER_02: That's in short, but that's what I meant by contractors.
• 55:13
  SPEAKER_03: Well, it's always a two-way street.
• 55:14
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 55:15
  SPEAKER_03: Not everybody agrees with that.
• 55:16
  SPEAKER_03: For sure.
• 55:17
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 55:17
  SPEAKER_03: For sure.
• 55:18
  SPEAKER_03: And nobody likes to look at the mirror and go, this was it my fault.
• 55:22
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, right.
• 55:23
  SPEAKER_02: No, no, no, that's why I say like too.
• 55:24
  SPEAKER_02: Like, if you got somebody that comes in to like, well, even with me, well, sometimes I face that.
• 55:30
  SPEAKER_02: I'll tell somebody what it'll cost.
• 55:33
  SPEAKER_02: Example.
• 55:33
  SPEAKER_02: I had it, I had a house where we gave them an estimate, didn't want to go with us, fine, so be it.
• 55:39
  SPEAKER_02: House caught on fire.
• 55:41
  SPEAKER_02: Call us back.
• 55:42
  SPEAKER_02: We gotta fix it.
• 55:43
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 55:45
  SPEAKER_02: But so you that's the only say that's the only that's only to say is that they chose to go with someone who wasn't licensed, didn't they could it would turn on for you.
• 55:54
  SPEAKER_02: You thought it was fine, but you wanted a cheaper contractor.
• 55:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 55:57
  SPEAKER_02: And not saying cheaper is always better or whatever, that's not the point of it, but like you went somebody who's not, I guess, a credible source that you would you went through.
• 56:04
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 56:04
  SPEAKER_02: And so you didn't verify them.
• 56:06
  SPEAKER_02: They just got somebody with the price that you're looking for, and then you were done.
• 56:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you didn't do your due diligence on like, do they have any licenses?
• 56:11
  SPEAKER_02: Do they have, do they pull any permits?
• 56:13
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you didn't do any of that either.
• 56:15
  SPEAKER_02: So that's still your doing.
• 56:16
  SPEAKER_02: You hired that person.
• 56:17
  SPEAKER_02: Like you, I mean, you knew what you were buying.
• 56:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 56:19
  SPEAKER_02: I told you we can do this, this, this, and this.
• 56:21
  SPEAKER_02: And you decide not to.
• 56:22
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, that's still the risk you would want to take on.
• 56:24
  SPEAKER_02: So it's not necessarily that they'll but they'll say that contractor didn't do right.
• 56:28
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, he he don't have any of the paperwork to say he can do it right.
• 56:31
  SPEAKER_02: You know, so it's just he did it to the best of his ability.
• 56:34
  SPEAKER_02: Best of his ability.
• 56:35
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 56:36
  SPEAKER_03: His ability is not my ability, but he did it to the best of his ability.
• 56:38
  SPEAKER_02: He might know how to put he might know how to hang a light, but he doesn't know where everything ties into.
• 56:43
  SPEAKER_02: What's he tying into?
• 56:43
  SPEAKER_02: What's he connected to?
• 56:44
  SPEAKER_02: Is he overloading the circuit?
• 56:45
  SPEAKER_02: Those things like that.
• 56:46
  SPEAKER_02: It's the circuit on the right breaker, you know, just things that you may not consider.
• 56:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 56:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um, that's what you're paying for the experience side of it too.
• 56:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I would say.
• 56:54
  SPEAKER_02: So, but a lot of people, that's where I would say that it's also you have to do your due diligence as well on who you're bringing in, who you're hiring for these projects.
• 57:00
  SPEAKER_02: Because a lot of times people will go with people who can say, I can do everything.
• 57:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 57:03
  SPEAKER_02: That's not who you want to have at your to me.
• 57:05
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, at a time I was accepting that.
• 57:07
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 57:07
  SPEAKER_03: But when you grow coming from the guy that does everything.
• 57:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, coming from the guy that's I wouldn't, I wouldn't want, I wouldn't want that for me.
• 57:13
  SPEAKER_03: But like coming from the cybersecurity expert that's a master plumber.
• 57:17
  SPEAKER_02: Man, I'm like, but that's why I try to tell people, I want specialists now.
• 57:21
  SPEAKER_02: I want specialists.
• 57:22
  SPEAKER_02: Then you gotta, for me, you gotta pay because uh, you know, when you go, I was looking we ride through new construction, you see just different, they're all specialists coming in.
• 57:28
  SPEAKER_02: You don't just have somebody just doing every single thing.
• 57:30
  SPEAKER_02: It's like you might have somebody who can handy or or labor or things like that, but you're not uh it's it's more systematic approach.
• 57:36
  SPEAKER_02: So I kind of want to I kind of look at me the same way.
• 57:38
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 57:38
  SPEAKER_02: Because I want the people who do, when I want what do you do?
• 57:41
  SPEAKER_02: Like when people I do everything.
• 57:42
  SPEAKER_02: What do you do?
• 57:42
  SPEAKER_02: Like what's your specialty?
• 57:43
  SPEAKER_02: No, I don't need the person that do I go from junk removal to I install your furnace and knock off the roof.
• 57:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 57:49
  SPEAKER_02: Like, no, I'm fine.
• 57:51
  SPEAKER_02: No, thank you.
• 57:52
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 57:53
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 57:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but that's what I tell everybody, you know, it's just kind of do your due diligence and get, but also like referrals and it's a it's a isn't it's is is ever changing.
• 58:03
  SPEAKER_02: So you always gotta just be, you know, just kind of freshen up everything.
• 58:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, keep sharpening your skills, I would say.
• 58:09
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 58:09
  SPEAKER_02: In both regards, whether you be an investor, whether you be a contractor, it's just because then, you know, you just want to ultimately how I look at it, I want to deliver a good experience.
• 58:16
  SPEAKER_02: But I want the, I want, I don't want to build my real estate team with bench players personally.
• 58:21
  SPEAKER_02: Not saying bench players not good, but I still want to have, I want to have prime players in there.
• 58:26
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 58:26
  SPEAKER_02: I don't want to all just build a team with bench players and expect to have, you know, win a championship.
• 58:30
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 58:30
  SPEAKER_02: Because I don't think you can win a championship with bench players all the way.
• 58:32
  SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
• 58:33
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 58:33
  SPEAKER_02: That's the distance.
• 58:34
  SPEAKER_02: In short.
• 58:37
  SPEAKER_02: You know, so that's what I would say.
• 58:38
  SPEAKER_02: Like, no, I want I want I want the you know, those uh premiere people too to try to help me.
• 58:44
  SPEAKER_02: And that's what helped me grow, because uh I have the right teams now, so that's what I would say.
• 58:48
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 58:49
  SPEAKER_03: No, I love it, man.
• 58:50
  SPEAKER_03: And I think that I think your story is special, yeah, right?
• 58:53
  SPEAKER_03: It's the family lineage, it's that it's community.
• 58:55
  SPEAKER_03: How am I helping this out?
• 58:56
  SPEAKER_03: How am I doing the right things?
• 58:57
  SPEAKER_03: And and and I think that I think you know, you're gonna have an impact on the next generation.
• 59:02
  SPEAKER_03: You know what I mean?
• 59:02
  SPEAKER_03: Because people are gonna aspire to be you.
• 59:05
  SPEAKER_03: You know what I mean?
• 59:06
  SPEAKER_03: Like, how how can I do what KJ does?
• 59:08
  SPEAKER_03: Right, yeah, how can I how can I do those same things?
• 59:10
  SPEAKER_03: And it's like go go to trade school, right?
• 59:13
  SPEAKER_03: Like do all these.
• 59:14
  SPEAKER_03: This is this is my this is what I did, yeah, right?
• 59:16
  SPEAKER_03: You could probably take the cybersecurity part out.
• 59:18
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 59:19
  SPEAKER_02: You ain't gotta do that one.
• 59:20
  SPEAKER_02: But that also what happened with that though, realistically, it helped me understand what cybersecurity really was.
• 59:26
  SPEAKER_02: Because it's like you have cyber, which is like essentially what it is, you have you have uh you have IT and you have security departments.
• 59:33
  SPEAKER_02: They don't communicate typically, they typically in two different departments, but they missing because now you have people who can secure the building who understand physical security, but then you have IT who can build you anything but don't understand security.
• 59:44
  SPEAKER_02: And like the two worlds don't even meet.
• 59:45
  SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
• 59:46
  SPEAKER_02: So over that middle ground.
• 59:47
  SPEAKER_02: So same thing with a home inspector.
• 59:48
  SPEAKER_02: So it kind of fills in the same way.
• 59:50
  SPEAKER_02: Is that I understood that it was a space where you could sell anything and you got a contract who can build anything, but the two sides don't meet to kind of deliver the message to the homeowner or to the investor.
• 59:59
  SPEAKER_02: So that's a missing piece.
• 1:00:00
  SPEAKER_02: So I try to funnel that, but that's where the background got me, because I write reports like I work for the government, still like doing like cyber.
• 1:00:08
  SPEAKER_02: Of course you do.
• 1:00:09
  SPEAKER_02: But then I'll be delivering the message like a consultant.
• 1:00:10
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:00:11
  SPEAKER_02: You know, so it kind of helped me too, because I thought that was my experience.
• 1:00:14
  SPEAKER_02: I leveraged my experience that I got from the work life and brought it in.
• 1:00:17
  SPEAKER_02: But you don't have to do cybersecurity to understand it.
• 1:00:19
  SPEAKER_02: But it was a good background for me because I still went all the routes because I can still talk to it, helps me communicate with clients because I've deal with a lot of people, might be IT, might be cybersecurity, yeah, might have a master's degree.
• 1:00:32
  SPEAKER_02: Because most people uh you deal with them not really going higher than a master's.
• 1:00:35
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, some of them have a doctorate's, but most of them are they I've already obtained those things too.
• 1:00:39
  SPEAKER_02: So it helps me relate to you, like, oh, you did this, or like you're like how we just at Alabama.
• 1:00:43
  SPEAKER_02: My sister went to Alabama whole time.
• 1:00:44
  SPEAKER_02: Like, how common is that?
• 1:00:45
  SPEAKER_02: But again, that's still our experience that we can speak to and kind of you know further further have a conversation around.
• 1:00:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:00:50
  SPEAKER_02: So that's helped me because it's like it's so well versed, but then it's still like focused on the same thing.
• 1:00:55
  SPEAKER_02: So it's not just trying to do every single thing right now, but it's just, you know, it's uh, I would say it's all helpful, all kinds of ties in.
• 1:01:02
  SPEAKER_02: And that's why I always tell people just never stop learning.
• 1:01:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:01:04
  SPEAKER_02: Because even now, I'm still trying to, I'm still looking in the mirror every day.
• 1:01:07
  SPEAKER_02: I still look in the mirror, see where I can improve at.
• 1:01:09
  SPEAKER_02: That's why I'm still in different cohorts, there's different opportunities that are offered, and I'm just trying to take advantage of everything because I always look at it from the standpoint as that I can't tell my daughter she can be anything she wants to be, and I'm and I'm not doing it.
• 1:01:21
  SPEAKER_02: I gotta be the example.
• 1:01:22
  SPEAKER_02: So, in short, it's like, how do I continue to be that?
• 1:01:25
  SPEAKER_02: Because I, if not, I'm giving her BS.
• 1:01:27
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 1:01:28
  SPEAKER_02: Then I want to make sure that when she looks at me, like, I know my dad her to be something proud of something that she sees in front of her too.
• 1:01:33
  SPEAKER_04: So my dad did that.
• 1:01:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and like boom, I look the same way.
• 1:01:36
  SPEAKER_02: Like, look at you know, Ford, Ford.
• 1:01:38
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, the name and what it started.
• 1:01:40
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:01:41
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, I could be the same, I could be the originator, I could be that too.
• 1:01:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you know what I mean?
• 1:01:44
  SPEAKER_02: Just how I look at myself.
• 1:01:45
  SPEAKER_02: So I want to push that same thing in my life because I never know what well, like KJ, but then like the Rust brand, it's like how how far can this really go?
• 1:01:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:01:54
  SPEAKER_02: And then they stand on top of the shoulders.
• 1:01:55
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm standing on top of the shoulders of my ancestors that came before me, my granddad, my my dad.
• 1:02:00
  SPEAKER_02: And then I to my dad could never imagine what I would take this to.
• 1:02:04
  SPEAKER_02: Even like he was like, You sure you can do this?
• 1:02:06
  SPEAKER_02: He was he was of course he had the best interest for me, but he is he just his I realized the ceilings.
• 1:02:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, the ceilings only so high.
• 1:02:13
  SPEAKER_02: And then now it's not saying they don't see, but that's all they can see.
• 1:02:16
  SPEAKER_02: But once you take the ceiling off, like, oh, yeah, okay, but then now you continue going.
• 1:02:20
  SPEAKER_02: So even things I can't even imagine, it's like I don't know where my daughter or my son will take it to to the next level, but that's where I'm trying to give them the stepping stones, like or being that that opportunity for them to continue to grow.
• 1:02:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that base layer, right?
• 1:02:34
  SPEAKER_02: For sure.
• 1:02:34
  SPEAKER_02: Well, as we're wrapping up today, where can everybody find you?
• 1:02:36
  SPEAKER_02: I'm on Instagram a lot, so KJ underscore Russ is the biggest thing, or rustinspections.com.
• 1:02:41
  SPEAKER_02: Book an inspection.
• 1:02:42
  SPEAKER_03: Rustinspections.com.
• 1:02:43
  SPEAKER_03: I love it.
• 1:02:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, everybody go book an inspection today.
• 1:02:46
  SPEAKER_02: Sell a house, book an inspection.
• 1:02:48
  SPEAKER_02: Even just book one, we also do pre-sale.
• 1:02:50
  SPEAKER_02: We we can look at your house to see what's going on.
• 1:02:53
  SPEAKER_02: So it's always a good thing.
• 1:02:54
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah.
• 1:02:55
  SPEAKER_03: And the pre-sale ones are coming back.
• 1:02:56
  SPEAKER_03: That's to tell everybody.
• 1:02:57
  SPEAKER_02: We can get you in front of it right now.
• 1:02:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:02:59
  SPEAKER_02: If you're thinking about selling, call us.
• 1:03:00
  SPEAKER_02: If you want to sell, call us.
• 1:03:01
  SPEAKER_02: If you got someone on the market, call us.
• 1:03:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:03:03
  SPEAKER_03: Well, if you think about selling, call me first, then I'll call you.
• 1:03:05
  SPEAKER_03: You call me.
• 1:03:07
  SPEAKER_03: Oh man, well, I appreciate you coming out this morning.
• 1:03:09
  SPEAKER_03: I told you this hour goes fast.
• 1:03:11
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, this hour goes fast.
• 1:03:12
  SPEAKER_03: So I appreciate it.
• 1:03:13
  SPEAKER_03: We'll have to get you back because we got some more stories to cover and go from there.
• 1:03:16
  SPEAKER_03: But guys, you can find us wherever you find podcasts.
• 1:03:18
  SPEAKER_03: Find us at the Elite Real Estate Podcast, the EliteEdge Network.com, Leader Edge Network on YouTube.
• 1:03:23
  SPEAKER_03: Like and subscribe to the channel, and we will see you all next week.
• 1:03:26
  SPEAKER_03: Everybody have a great 4th of July.