Latest / Mic Hamptons Podcast: Hamptons Real Estate & the People Behind It / What’s Really In Your Water? with Brian Leshinger

Transcript

What’s Really In Your Water? with Brian Leshinger · Mic Hamptons Podcast: Hamptons Real Estate & the People Behind It

• 0:00
  Mike Petersohn: Hi, I'm Mike Peterson from Brown Harris Stevens. The Hamptons runs on relationships and over the years, I've built a network of top tier professionals who operate at the highest level. Mike Hamptons is your access point to that world. The people, the insights, and the opportunities behind it all. Hi, welcome to another episode of the Mike Hamptons Podcast.
• 0:30
  This is powered by Flying Point Media. We're in their offices in Southampton. They are the best at what they do on the East End Of Long Island. No question about it. My networking group is called the Hamptons Networking Group, hngli.com is our website.
• 0:46
  We are now up to 34 members and it's a variety of folks. We have everybody from electricians to builders, CAD design, and we all work together to help each other out. And I actually have the pleasure of introducing Brian Leshinger from Maximum Environmental. They are master plumbers and they are a whole lot more than that, which I am going to learn today as well. But also we are going to learn, I want to stress one thing, which is before we even get going, because this is just a true compliment, you guys show up, you do a good job, nobody ever complains.
• 1:25
  I love it. People ask me as a realtor all the time about plumbers, I have just no reservations at all about referring you. So thank you.
• 1:34
  Brian Leshinger: Well, thanks for the kind words, Mike. I do appreciate that. And thanks for having me here. And I'm looking forward to our conversation and going over what we do at Maximum Environmental Maximum Services.
• 1:51
  Mike Petersohn: So the way I got to meet you is through your son. I brought a buyer to a house. She was in the process of doing all her inspections and whatnot. And they hired you guys to do a water inspection, and your son was there. And so we just started talking.
• 2:09
  He was telling me that you not only do water inspections, but you're doing a whole variety of things. And I go, Wow, that sounds like a really good guy to come and visit. And I think he seemed a little reluctant at first. Oh, you know, it was we all are a networking group. Ew, like, what's that all about?
• 2:22
  And it's worked out really well. So, you know, you said this morning you made a comment. I think there was 34 people in the room. Was it like 75% of them have used you and
• 2:36
  Brian Leshinger: Yeah, plugged I you say 75% of the people in our group have used us multiple fashions where we've done plumbing work for them, where they had issues with a leak, a faucet leak. They had a they also had some some problems with their water, backfeeding, their hot water backfeeding in, needed a check valve, we've done with that. We also put in some water treatment systems in, which where that's where I kind of started in this industry and how we got to where we are today.
• 3:14
  Mike Petersohn: And you also involved the Water Treatment System, but you work with the builders in the group. You work with there's a lot more to maximum than just plumbing. I kind of want you to, it's environmental as well. Can you kind of dig into that a little bit?
• 3:34
  Brian Leshinger: Yeah, yeah. So as far as where, how we got started and where maximum environmental started, I was like in the, I was doing the water testing back from the eighties when I started, started, right out of college. Actually, I was in college working at a testing lab, and I was doing all the water testing. And what got what kinda happened was I was going out to people's houses just like you met my son Mhmm. And I'm testing the water.
• 4:07
  And people are like, oh, well, my water is not good. What should I do? And from that, you know, and they kinda just evolved where I was like, oh, yeah. Well, you need to correct it. And here on Long Island, we have low pH, high iron in our water, most of well water.
• 4:23
  So it was just an easy fit. I could test the water. I knew how to fix the water. And that's kinda like how it started. And it developed over years.
• 4:34
  It wasn't just like one day it happened. It happened over years where we got into the water treatment. Because, you know, at first I thought it was a little conflict. You test new water and now you need a water treatment system. But really, it's a full service in my eyes.
• 4:50
  It's not People know that your water needs to be you know, you have water that meets standards, you just want to make it better.
• 5:00
  Mike Petersohn: Sure. Funny, you made me laugh about ten minutes ago before we were getting going. There's bottles of water provided by Flying Point, which is lovely, and offered you one. And they're like, No, I've got my own water. And then I just said, Well, did you treat it yourself?
• 5:16
  I
• 5:17
  Brian Leshinger: guess I did.
• 5:19
  Mike Petersohn: You won't drink the, you won't drink that pollen spring, but you'll drink your own. I love it.
• 5:23
  Brian Leshinger: I drink my own. I know, I know the water quality. You know, I have, I have public water. And what I do is I take the public water. And like I said, I make it better.
• 5:33
  And I take it to the point where I'm uncomfortable drinking it, where I know some people are uncomfortable drinking out of plastic bottles. I mean, emergency, you have no choice. You do it, but if you can avoid it.
• 5:47
  Mike Petersohn: So the process, as a realtor, I go to do a deal, they hire, Brian Champagne will come in and they'll like the house, and then they'll often test the water and then you can provide, you'll actually do a deep dive and say, This is the exact solution you need because most, not every home out here, but most are on well water. And I know there's a lot of iron. You can taste it sometimes, you know, whatever. It's probably free radicals, you know, you want to get it.
• 6:18
  Brian Leshinger: Yeah. Well, the iron, you know, it's naturally occurring, the iron. It's really the stuff that's synthetic that you want to be concerned about. But what I've noticed is when I meet a homeowner who just bought a house out here, a lot of them never had well water. They didn't even know what well water is.
• 6:34
  Mike Petersohn: Yeah. City folks, you know, used to great New York City water.
• 6:38
  Brian Leshinger: Yeah. And New York City water's pretty, pretty good water. So they come out here and they're not, they're not used to it. And next thing you know, they're like, oh, my clothes, my white clothes are stained. And I have, I have staining in my toilet, in my toilet, and I also have staining in my tub.
• 6:56
  Mike Petersohn: Oh,
• 6:56
  Brian Leshinger: iron. And it's iron or it's low pH and a copper is starting to leach out and you're getting that bluish color. So, and then it tastes metallic. You have that metal.
• 7:08
  Mike Petersohn: It all can be solved very reasonably and quickly.
• 7:13
  Brian Leshinger: And quickly.
• 7:13
  Mike Petersohn: And it's healthier. You know, I get it. It's all good.
• 7:16
  Brian Leshinger: So I've gone out there, met with homeowners, and I'm like, you know, you have well water. I'm like, what do you mean? I said, you have a well. Let me show you where your well is. And I kind of like educate them on it because you got to know where your well is.
• 7:30
  People are not familiar with that. It's sticking out of the ground. You know, some people I've seen, I've been to a well, I've seen wells at a property where the landscaper, we whacked around it and put a hole in it eventually. And we test the water and it has bacteria in it. It's like, well, you know, you need to protect your well.
• 7:48
  So you try to educate them. They don't realize they have a pressure tank.
• 7:52
  Mike Petersohn: I'm not defending. Generally speaking, most of my customers come from the city, a lot of them in the financial services, what have you. They work nine to five, they live in the city, live in an apartment. All this stuff is taken care of, and then you come out here, Hey, I'm going to get a second home, or I'm going to move out to the Hamptons, and you're not used to certain things. And so it's a learning process for everybody.
• 8:13
  So for me, I say it all the time in front of the group when we're meeting that, you know, you guys are so incredibly helpful for me because I just have the answers now. It's like, Oh, you have a problem with your roof? This is the situation. I'm with plumbing. You know, and if I don't know it, I don't pretend to know it all, do know a guy.
• 8:34
  Yeah, there you go. I'm all good. Going back, you mentioned before, so you grew up in Long Island, where about?
• 8:41
  Brian Leshinger: I grew up in Sabell. Met my wife. She was in next town over, Bohemia. Different schools, little rival. But anyway, we met You worked it out?
• 8:54
  It worked out. And so we both went to college, got married, and we lived in Oakdale for a little bit, but we ended up back in Sable. And now you're a grandpa. And now I'm a grandpa. I have two kids.
• 9:13
  One of my kid's wife just had a baby. They had a baby and the other one's pregnant right now. Beautiful. So we'll have two on the way. Two.
• 9:23
  We'll have two this time next year. So it's exciting.
• 9:28
  Mike Petersohn: I like it. I like it. I like it. So we've touched on drinking water solutions and that you are more than a plumber. I think there's more to you than that still.
• 9:40
  What other testing do you do on someone's property? Could you just give a little more comprehensive? It's good for me to know. It's good for other real estate agents to know. You guys are more comprehensive than just about anybody I've ever met.
• 9:51
  Brian Leshinger: Absolutely. Not only do we test water, we can test the air. We can test for mold in the air.
• 10:02
  Mike Petersohn: Didn't know that?
• 10:03
  Brian Leshinger: Yeah. I mean, a lot of homes, a lot of people want to test. A lot of people are allergic to mold, so they want to Ew. They want it. And a lot of times you can't see it.
• 10:12
  It's behind the walls. You know, it's it's in areas that you might not visually see. Home inspector's not gonna see it. So sometimes you you come in, people want air quality testing. So not only mold, we can do volatile organics.
• 10:26
  So a lot of times, I've been in the industry where people might have an oil tank in their house Mhmm. And it leaks. Mhmm. I've gone to someone's house, tested the air. I didn't even have to test the air.
• 10:42
  I walked into their house and I could smell the fuel oil. Yeah. It ten years past since the fuel oil leak. They gutted the house. They dug out all the oil in the basement.
• 10:57
  They refinished everything, and it was still smelling like oil. So, you know, houses like that, they don't smell it anymore. People that live there, they don't smell the oil. Sure. So you walk in, you could smell it.
• 11:08
  It's something that you're like, you know, well, you need to do something about it. So we can come in, we could test the air quality for volatile organics, which is anything with fuel oil, gasoline. Before people will get scared, but everything can be remedied. So it's like Yeah. I'm not looking to scare anybody.
• 11:26
  I'm just I'm giving you a story.
• 11:27
  Mike Petersohn: No. Like with mold, didn't but you won't do the mold remediation. You'll just No. Right. So kind of Brian Champagne, home inspector in the group, he's been on the show.
• 11:38
  He'll be like, Oh, I think there might be some mold. Would hire they would suggest you. The buyer would then turn and say, Well, is there a mold? I've had people walk out of deals before because they fear mold, and mold can absolutely be remediated, and it's not terribly expensive to do it, but they have to go in and figure out what the situation is, and then it becomes inert, and then, you know, gets removed, and then you'll sign off on the back end and say, Hey, it's all gone. So, PI, I've had issues with that before in the past.
• 12:13
  No, don't be so fearful or we can, you know, it becomes a part of the negotiation strategy, etcetera.
• 12:22
  Brian Leshinger: Molds is something that can be remediated. Andre and our group, he does that. That's something that he does. He deals with that all the time. That's one of the things that he could do.
• 12:32
  He could, he could do that. So as far as molds, like you're saying, it's an easy fix. You just got to find it and remove it.
• 12:40
  Mike Petersohn: Yep. So you, who, I'm trying to think in our group, who else do you really correspond with? I know like Joe Rafi is the builder. He'll use you for installations. Like, you know, maybe you can just quickly, like, you know, how this work, this group of ours works together.
• 12:58
  Brian Leshinger: So Jason, the electrician, he's done work for me. We install, we're installing a water treatment system tomorrow in Shelter Island. We need to run an electric line to the treatment system. He's coming in with his team and they're going to run electric line, home run right to our treatment system. So I use him on that.
• 13:19
  I'm working on purchasing a house right now. Chad, the attorney, he's working with us, looking over the contract with something like that. So he's involved with us there. As far as Joe, you know, he's been using us on certain projects. Actually, we're working on, we're going to a project that he's in, in East Hampton today.
• 13:50
  Mike Petersohn: She just closed on that house two weeks ago.
• 13:56
  Brian Leshinger: Yeah. So he's, I think it's a, I think it was a faucet that he needed, or a shower, a shower, new, a shower body, old shower body that we needed to replace.
• 14:09
  Mike Petersohn: Got
• 14:10
  Brian Leshinger: it. So yeah, we're working with you know, I'm working with Andre also on some of his renovations he's doing.
• 14:17
  Mike Petersohn: So that buyer for that house was ready to do all she bought a fixer upper, and she had a great deal on it, and there's a lot of great upside on that particular house. But then she's kind of asked me a couple of questions like, these are the people that I know. And all of a sudden she met Joe and just said, like, oh my God, like, this is amazing. Showed up. He quoted me a really fair price, and then, you know, we're starting the work right away.
• 14:46
  And then, of course, in the group, he's, you know, wherever and whenever possible. You know, he might bring in Dennis for the roof at some point if he needs some work. I said, You know, probably will. She's aware of that, etcetera, etcetera. I think she's got Daniel doing all the interior construction work as far as, like, sheet rocking and moving some walls around and whatnot, and just, you know, raising the value of the house because it needs it.
• 15:09
  So that's I wanted to get across to the audience, like, that's how the group works together.
• 15:17
  Brian Leshinger: Yeah, we're all interacting with each other. We're all using each other. We're networking, basically. Yeah. But it's also
• 15:22
  Mike Petersohn: you know that if you call Jason, he's going to show up and he's going to do a job and vice versa. And, you know, it's I like that.
• 15:31
  Brian Leshinger: I feel like the group puts a little not pressure on everybody, but it kind of like You got to perform. You got to perform because you know what? You're going to be there on Thursday, and if you don't perform, someone's going to call you out on it in front of the group.
• 15:45
  Mike Petersohn: And that being said, you know
• 15:46
  Brian Leshinger: I think that's a good thing.
• 15:47
  Mike Petersohn: Yeah, absolutely. But even, you know, we keep bringing up Jason, who will be on the show when the future episodes coming up. He, you know, he's turned around one day and just stood up in front of the whole group and just said, This group has changed my life. And he's so reluctant to be involved in the beginning. And now he's hired more people.
• 16:09
  He's an electrician. He shows up, does a good job and charges a fair price. People like him. So that is all really good. I always like to know things go bad.
• 16:20
  They go bad on me as a realtor sometimes, deals blow up for whatever reason, my fault, not my fault. I own it if it is. But any really memorable projects, good or bad, that you want to, like, spring to mind? Like, Oh, I'd love to tell people about this.
• 16:37
  Brian Leshinger: Well, I mean, as far as, you know, accountability. You know, we had our job recently where we went in to do a repair on a vanity. It was a brand new vanity. We we did the repair, and we shifted the vanity to center it, and it wasn't supposed to be centered. Oh.
• 17:04
  And we piped everything in. We had to go back and redo it. And I was like, alright. We owned it. Yeah.
• 17:10
  We owned it. Know? Absolutely. Know, some people could have, you know, sat there and fought it and said, you know, I just, I did what you normally would do. But that's not the case.
• 17:21
  It's what the client wants. That's what you're supposed to do. And if, you know, things like that. So that's one of those, you know, something that happens. I mean, there's other projects like the as far as like environmental goes, that I'm proud of that that there's we we we did some disinfection of the Chase Building in Manhattan last summer.
• 17:42
  Was probably the biggest building we ever did. It's 60 something stories. It a massive job for us. We had to disinfect all the plumbing lines and test all the water afterwards, and it was something that needed to be done in a short amount of time over the weekend. And it was a massive job to do in a short period of time.
• 18:06
  We got it done and it was a success
• 18:11
  Mike Petersohn: I for think it's always interesting. So dealing with municipalities and whatnot, like you're programmed in, I think, Babylon Beaches?
• 18:20
  Brian Leshinger: Yeah, we do work at the beaches. We were their drinking water operator at times. They did hire one person now that does it, but we're their support. So when he's on vacation, we cover for him, but we do all the servicing of their treatment systems. They have four different treatment systems over there that are
• 18:40
  Mike Petersohn: pretty massive. Big or small, you do
• 18:42
  Brian Leshinger: it all. Yes. Big or small, we do it all.
• 18:44
  Mike Petersohn: Absolutely. It's interesting to me, like when you get engaged at that level or you're doing like the Chase Building, a Chase building in New York City, what have you, Or like the Stasi guys are out in Montauk right now replacing all this like even though they're stonemasons and they do pool surrounds, they're actually running the new sidewalk from gurneys into town right now, which is pretty cool. Guess pretty cool. So I like that you guys are more multidimensional than my local plumber, who's a lovely guy, but Yeah,
• 19:19
  Brian Leshinger: we're a little bit different. I mean, we had someone brought up the UN Building today that they worked at.
• 19:24
  Mike Petersohn: We worked on that building also
• 19:26
  Brian Leshinger: probably about ten years ago when they were renovating the whole building. He was probably there at the same time.
• 19:32
  Mike Petersohn: Yeah, that's a bit old school. So I guess, I mean, we kind of touched on it, but it does. I do think it's worth reiterating, like what makes you different? If I hire you, like, why am I so impressed?
• 19:49
  Brian Leshinger: Well, I mean, you hire us, you're going to call the number to the office and someone's going to answer. And if someone doesn't answer, you can call my cell phone or someone else's cell phone. We're, we always have access. You always have access to us. So that makes it easier.
• 20:10
  If we make an appointment, we're going to show up on time. Yep. That's important. We're going to do what we say we're going to do. And we're going to complete the job to your satisfaction.
• 20:21
  Mike Petersohn: At the price you quote it.
• 20:23
  Brian Leshinger: At the price we quote it, yeah. So, and a lot of times, just answering a phone. I mean, I know contractors, you call them, they don't call you back, they don't show up. Or, hey, there's times when you're waiting for a back order on materials and it doesn't come in. And you tell the person, oh, it's going to come in on Tuesday, and Tuesday comes around and it doesn't come in.
• 20:51
  Well, you have to call that client and let them know. Some people just don't, or they start calling you and they just ignore you. And I noticed that that's what makes us different. We're always going to be this communication with us. And when things do go wrong, we're going to update you and keep you informed.
• 21:09
  Mike Petersohn: So along that line of things do go wrong. You know, we just came through a really rough winter, right? Pipes are bursting. So sometimes, you know, my first logical thought would be like, Oh, my God, let me call my plumber. You're walking the door, and you may fix that pipe or pipes or whatever the issue is, but now you have restoration.
• 21:28
  So that's why having the group where Andre then kicks into his mode and dealing with the insurance companies, helping to figure out, okay, we're going to need to rip out all this sheetrock, replace these floors, do this or do that, But you're probably the first call more often than not because there's water involved.
• 21:47
  Brian Leshinger: Absolutely. You know, we have to fix the problem. We have to fix the source. So, you know, we're normally called in. We fix that.
• 21:58
  We get everything back up Restoration
• 22:00
  Mike Petersohn: guy comes, then he's going to outsource to whoever can get the job done for everything else, he's going need new rewiring or whatever. So all the way down to the paint.
• 22:10
  Brian Leshinger: Yeah. And this winter was a challenging winter for everybody. Oh, my goodness. How
• 22:18
  Mike Petersohn: about this next generation? Like, obviously, got your kids involved. Are both your kids in business?
• 22:24
  Brian Leshinger: No. No. Just Matthew. Matthew. He's involved.
• 22:28
  Steven is my oldest son. He works in Manhattan. Matt was working in there too. COVID came around, kind of shut Manhattan down. But both my kids were always involved.
• 22:44
  You know, when they were a little kid, I would take them on jobs. They were were doing water testing when they were little. They were doing water sample collection when they were little. They were going out to jobs with me, doing water treatment. So I work.
• 23:00
  Mike Petersohn: So I'm a master mason, but it has nothing to do with stonework. But, what makes you a master plumber? What's that delineation?
• 23:10
  Brian Leshinger: Well, master plumber, any type of master plumber needs to have some type of certification. So like our company has a license to do plumbing work in Suffolk County and, you know, Suffolk County or certain towns. So in Unlowdown, every town, just about every town has its own license you need to have for a plumber. It's not just one general license. Southampton, East Hampton.
• 23:39
  They all have an ice slip, Huntington. So you need to get that license or you can't cut any pipes. I mean, you can move a water treatment system, but you can't cut a pipe. You can pull it out, disconnect it. But once you cut a pipe, you need to have a license.
• 23:57
  So that's what our company has. We also, just recently, they came up with a new license for working on any natural gas. That's right. That's something that our company just got also.
• 24:10
  Mike Petersohn: So are you now, can you just dig a little deeper on that? Like, so if I'm running gas lines, wouldn't think, I wouldn't have thought to use you, but now.
• 24:20
  Brian Leshinger: If you're dealing with National Grid, they will not sign off on anything unless you have their certificate or the license.
• 24:31
  Mike Petersohn: And you have that.
• 24:32
  Brian Leshinger: And our company has that, yes.
• 24:34
  Mike Petersohn: Beautiful. Good to know. So what about if I, this is just me. What about if I'm connecting my propane tank that heats my pool to my
• 24:44
  Brian Leshinger: barbecue? Propane is a little bit different. It seems like the propane industry Doesn't want you guys involved. I mean, some of them do. It's like, it's a little bit different with the propane.
• 24:58
  Me personally, I wouldn't run anything unless we did it to code. Is, I mean, I see some propane running. I see how people run. Sometimes I walk into a house and I see how they run the propane. I'm like, that's a little, shouldn't be done that way.
• 25:15
  But it's done out there. You know, people do things without getting their permits and they do, you know, they just hire whoever is the best price. Care for the quality. Yeah. We've all been
• 25:29
  Mike Petersohn: down that road together on a few people. It's, yeah, do it right. Get it, you know, make sure it's legal. Make sure you're to code. It's really important because someday you may not have that house and when you don't want to be retroactively fixing things from years past.
• 25:50
  Well, I want to thank you for coming in today. This has been it's always educational. I always feel like whenever I sit down with anybody in the group, I learn. And just it makes my job as a realtor so much easier because I just feel like I know more than most and give myself a little credit, but it's not because I'm so smart. I just surround myself with smart people, which is great.
• 26:15
  So thank you anyway. So thank you again for coming in. And if you want to let the folks know how to get in touch with you, please do.
• 26:22
  Brian Leshinger: Yeah. Brian Leshinger from Maximum Services, Maximum Environmental, two companies, both located in Holbrook. If you want to get in touch with us, can call the office, (631) 589-1225. Beautiful.
• 26:42
  Mike Petersohn: So thank you again for coming in and thank you for tuning into another episode of the Mike Hamptons Podcast. We're powered by HNG, the Hamptons Networking Group, and this has all been supported by Flying Point Media, the best in the business. I love them. So if you ever need help around the house, you need help in general, I know a guy. This is where deals get done in The Hamptons, and thanks for tuning in.
• 27:07
  We'll see you on the next podcast. Hey, this is Michael. Thanks for listening to Mike Hamptons, powered by the Hamptons Networking Group, where the right people make the right things happen. If you're planning anything in The Hamptons, buying, selling, building, hosting, or investing, don't do it alone. Tap into our network of vetted top tier service providers who get things done at the highest level.
• 27:33
  And if real estate is part of your plan, I bring deep knowledge, strong network, and a track record of getting deals done the right way. Reach out anytime. We'll see you on the next one. You can call, text, or DM me right now or visit my website to get connected. I work with a Titan Network and the best deals go to the people who move first.
• 27:54
  Don't forget to subscribe. I'll see you on the next deal. Keep making moves.