Real Estate News Radio with Rowena Patton

Joe's Avoiding Costly Mistakes in Homebuilding and Real Estate

• Rowena Patton

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Discover how to sidestep financial disasters in homebuilding with insights from legendary builder Joe Shively. From houses mistakenly built on the wrong lot to the chaos of incomplete title checks, Joe shares his firsthand experiences, revealing the costly errors that can haunt real estate projects. We'll guide you through the crucial steps of due diligence and stress the value of property surveys, ensuring you don't end up with unexpected surprises, like a septic tank hidden beneath a porch.

Join us as we navigate the intricacies of property building, including the essential planning for septic systems and the hidden costs of land clearing. Joe and I reminisce about the quirks of heating systems in England, exploring why buying land with existing infrastructure can be a smart move. We also tackle the thorny issue of tree planting near homes and offer practical advice on selecting the right species to avoid future plumbing and foundation headaches.

Transitioning smoothly into senior living? We share heartwarming stories of individuals like Mary and Jerry, who are embracing their new communities. Meanwhile, the lighter side of water damage prevention is brought to life with humorous anecdotes and practical tips. Whether it’s the comedic mishaps of turning on water too soon or the serious business of leak detection, this episode is packed with engaging stories and expert advice to help you master the art of real estate and homebuilding.

Speaker 1:

This is the Plain English Real Estate Show with your host, rowena Patton, a show that focuses on the real estate market in terms you can easily understand. Call Rowena now. The number is 240-9962 or 1-800-570-9962. Now here's the English girl in the mountains, the agent that I would trust, rowena Patton.

Speaker 2:

Good morning and welcome to the Real Estate News radio show. We've got lots for you today. We've got an update from Kelly in Utah. We have Joe Shively live in the studio. Our amazing. I think you were called a legendary builder, joe. How about that you called? Me that Good morning Good morning it wasn't me, it was one of your clients, actually Not not that I wouldn't call you that, of course, just saying but yeah, that was, that was pretty cool, right. So welcome back to the show, joe.

Speaker 2:

I'm glad to be here it's your show Joe, show Joe. Oh, I like that. So today we're talking about so the six biggest financial mistakes when you're building a home and how to avoid them. You got any thoughts on that, joe? Tell us about some disasters way back in the past so nobody gets embarrassed.

Speaker 4:

Well, a lot of these weren't my disasters, but I've seen them firsthand.

Speaker 2:

One was yeah right, I guess you heard it from a friend building the house on someone else's property.

Speaker 4:

What? No there's a reason the banks require a foundation survey before they disperse funds and one of the reasons is, you know, sometimes the guy put in your foundation or, if it's a homeowner, they actually didn't know exactly where their survey lines were and built the house, either you know, past their property line and you know obviously that can be a gigantic mistake oh my gosh.

Speaker 2:

Well, you know, and people think all that stuff doesn't happen. Interestingly I don't know if it's interesting or not we had somebody selling a house. We were representing the buyer. This is a couple of years ago I heard it from a friend and we were representing the buyer and something strange was going on. So it was an agent from Florida who was representing herself and her two business partners. Her two business partners were in it as well and they'd bought this house and they were using it. If I'm remembering correctly, they're using it as something like an Airbnb and coming up to stay in the summers. And now they just decided to sell it, for whatever reason. They weren't my clients, so I don't quite know the background. So it turns out and this is an agent. So imagine if a real estate agent can do this.

Speaker 2:

So this real estate agent had bought the property and somehow the title hadn't been done correctly and she'd bought. So it was three, something like three parcels. She'd bought this tiny little triangle that was maybe worth $5,000 with no house on it. Isn't that crazy? And it was years later, and now our buyers are trying to buy the house which she was selling and didn't own. So all kinds of bad things go on there, right? So if you're a real estate agent with that listing, I mean you could that's like ding on your license waiting to happen and all kinds of complaints because you're supposed to do that due diligence, I think, if I'm remembering correctly what came up, because you know we did the buyer, we were acting as the buyer's agent and we did our due diligence making sure what was going on with the property. So I think she was doing it for sale by owner didn't realize that she didn't actually buy the house. This is a house they were selling for $400,000 or $500,000, and they only actually owned a little triangle of land.

Speaker 2:

I'll tell you something even crazier, and this is a testimony to who people are in the mountains, in the mountains of Western North Carolina, wnc strong baby. So they went back to the heirs Get this. It was heirs of the property that they bought it from years earlier and they said oops, we made a mistake when we gave you $500,000 for your house. We didn't actually purchase your house and, by the way, that's all legal. Try fighting that in court. You've given over $300,000 or $500,000 or whatever. They gave over at the point when they bought it and they bought this little triangle of land. Well, it's up to you to do caveat emptor, buyer beware. It's up to you to do your due diligence. How the attorneys didn't spot it is beyond me, but all this got through. So it's true and it happened here. Um, can you believe that it was two or three heirs that owned the property? They signed off on it that's a miracle.

Speaker 2:

It is a. It is a, joe. You are exactly right. It's nothing short of a miracle and you know our clients then went ahead with the purchase and it was all amazing that that all went through. But that is yet another true story from the mountains of western north carolina. But this stuff goes on all over the country and it's remarkable what you just said and it's kind of the same thing, right it's happened several times that I know of around here for sure. Oh, you've known about it several times.

Speaker 4:

Wow, yeah more than once for sure. Another thing you see a lot of clients that like to do some land clearing themselves, so they might go in there and cut a bunch of trees, or have their brother-in-law come in and cut a bunch of trees down.

Speaker 2:

That's common, very common, so you can't get.

Speaker 4:

if you cut a big tree down, it's very easy to dig around it and push it over with an excavator, but if you cut it down low, all of a sudden that turns into a multi-hour paying hundreds of dollars for each stump.

Speaker 2:

A stump grinder. I've had that done, I think, if I remember correctly.

Speaker 4:

It's not cheap.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I took down about seven 40, 50 foot pines, which is very funny if you knew the size of my lot. Well, you've seen the size of my lot. Actually it's like 0.1 or less. I mean it's a little lot on a very steep overlook over the River Arts District. Actually the river's right down at the bottom, and I took down these massive, massive pines and they did not pull them. I, I guess had they been cut higher. Of course I didn't know that had they been cut higher, what you're saying is you could pull them over with an excavator dig around a little bit and push it right over.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yep I think every one cost me two to three hundred dollars. With a big stump grinder guy coming in, it's also really messy, it's a heck of a job. 50 of them, yeah, or I had seven, yeah so you know, probably wouldn't have it, probably would have been half the price to bring in the excavator to pull it over sure yeah, because you, you need that leverage right. You need the sheer force. Is that what it is, or is it the other kind of force?

Speaker 4:

well, you can reach up high and push it over. Yeah, I'm motioning with my hands, but you can't but yes, that is that.

Speaker 2:

That's really interesting. I never thought about that, and so the first one that we talked about was not knowing where your land is. Basically, let's talk about some solutions for that and how we put it right. I want to go back to that before we talk about pulling the trees off and clearing the land, because luckily you'll have, hopefully you'll have good neighbors.

Speaker 4:

I mean mean it's possible somebody could trade you a piece of land on one side for a piece of land on the other. I've heard of that happening In one case. I don't even know what they did. A friend of mine had an addition they built and it was across a neighbor's property line oh gosh. Somebody that wasn't a licensed contractor came there and built it. Yeah, they'll do it, yep.

Speaker 2:

I've got one next to me, actually, that one of the family members built right onto the property line, which means that if I put a fence up there now, they've got no access to the back of their house. We have literally. So, guys, you've got to believe this stuff happens and it's not. I've had people come up from Florida or New York or California because we help people from all around the country and I've had people say things like it just happens in the mountains, because you're all rinky-dink.

Speaker 2:

Actually, we have some of the strongest real estate laws here of anywhere in the country. We're one of the five states left that's an attorney state, so it's not a title company. You go in when you close your property. You go into an attorney. That attorney is looking all over. You know not. There's anything wrong with title companies. I'm not saying that, but we have very strong restrictions here. So the key thing is always get a survey. But also you're putting rights, the sins of the fathers right, because when you bought a property and you didn't have a survey, you may have get this one. I don't know if you've seen this before joe a septic and this is a real story from a house we were helping someone buy.

Speaker 4:

The septic was built under the porch extension there's a reason nowadays, if you pull a building permit for an addition or even a deck, they'll come out and inspect where your lines are at, where your septic tank because it happens, you know now why wouldn't you because somebody's going to ask this why wouldn't you build a septic under the extension?

Speaker 2:

or an oil tank is also a very common one here. So when you've got, or anywhere in the northeast too, because you know a hvac, a heat pump doesn't necessarily tackle, well, no, it just doesn't tackle once you get down a certain certain degree. Do you know what that is?

Speaker 4:

it's probably 30 it's not as efficient when it's under like 40 degrees 40 degrees. Okay, so runs off the heat strips, which is very, you know, makes the meter spin like a top basically yes, and and it doesn't get hot, it doesn't?

Speaker 2:

it reminds me of growing up in england, where we oh they were called storage heaters I thought I was going to struggle there for a minute and these were basically big blocks that heated up on the cheap electricity during the day and then they let go of the heat. Oh no, it's the other way around Cheap electricity at night and then they let the heat go during the day. The problem was, by the time it got to seven or eight o'clock or nine o'clock at night, it wasn't very warm. You know it can't cope with that lower heat. So what do you do then? You have gas, natural gas, or you have earl as they call it in the mountains.

Speaker 6:

Am I saying it right, joe?

Speaker 2:

earl. Oh, come on, randy, you got to do it oh oh oh I have to do it phonetically. Which is or or. How would you spell that exactly?

Speaker 4:

oh, and most of those tanks o-r-l-l.

Speaker 2:

Oral. Is that better oral? Oh, it's closer, I've dug up several of those doing renovations around the house and a lot of times those are leaking for years and people don't know so they're basically paying to oil their the dirt around their foundation, you know which is a major problem, because and that's another thing to think about when you're buying a house, or you know we're talking today about the, the expensive mistakes you can make when building one generally you're not going to put an oil tank in, or am I wrong, joe?

Speaker 4:

we they really don't do that much anymore Propane tanks, oral, oral Oral. But basically, even though you may have a piece of property that's had an existing house on it, you have to know exactly where everything is, where power lines are. You have a designated area for your well. You have to be a certain amount of feet away from that with your house and septic. You know and you don't want to infringe on those areas. You can have some huge mess, financial messes.

Speaker 2:

Well, and a lot of people and you know I often recommend this If you're going to build a house, find a lot that's got an old manufactured home on it, because that means you already have something in place. It's usually septic, it's usually well. It may or may not be UST they're called underground storage tank. That may be oral, it may be propane. Is there anything else it could be?

Speaker 4:

I've actually done that. That was my first house. I bought a, bought a trailer on land and moved it, you know, gave it away, basically and built a house on it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So that's very common to do and you can get a very well-valued piece of land at that because you don't have to start all over again. Now you may be adding a line to the septic. Maybe you know you're building a bigger house. You have to have one line per bedroom at least. Well, you don't have to actually, but if you want to sell it and make some money off it later, always think about an exit plan. If you want to sell it in 10 years, 20 years, six months, you need to make sure you can add lines to it.

Speaker 2:

If you're making the house bigger because we can only put on the MLS, we can only advertise it. The number of lines there are, and each line is a bedroom essentially. Why it's a bedroom and not a bathroom, and each line is a bedroom essentially. Why it's a bedroom and not a bathroom, none of us can ever figure out, but that's a whole other story. But yeah, we're thinking about things that are already in place for a new home. That's a way to solve that. Actually, an expensive mistake is that we can literally segue onto. What about the people who build the septic after the house is built? I love that one. What if it. If then it doesn't like what? Why does that happen?

Speaker 4:

you have to be approved to get a building permit, so that that shouldn't happen now. It could be that somebody screws up and digs into the septic field or something, but yeah but you have to have an approved septic permit. You know they test the ground before you ever start construction now.

Speaker 2:

But what so? What if the ground, the grounds, ground can change?

Speaker 4:

but you know you got. You had to be careful buying property because somebody. You just say your property is approved for septic and it could be something called a drip system which is very expensive differences conventional system might cost you four to five000 to $5,000 or whatever for an average septic system and a drip system could cost you like $30,000.

Speaker 2:

Whoa, what's a drip system?

Speaker 4:

It's basically.

Speaker 2:

I didn't even know about that.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, it's what they use in steep and rocky land a series of pipes.

Speaker 2:

Oh, and it drips out rather than seeps out by osmosis.

Speaker 3:

I guess it's different yes, wow, that's fantastic.

Speaker 2:

One of these days we'll get a very knowledgeable person about septics on the show, because they are widespread throughout the country actually, so maybe not so much in Florida or places that are closer to sea level. Is there any way you don't find septics? Do you know, joe?

Speaker 4:

Where I lived at, you didn't I mean where I grew up at near the coast our well in our backyard was 14 foot deep. You know the water table is very high.

Speaker 2:

Wow, everything was city water and city sewer there. And people, you know, roll their eyes when you say septic and say, oh, I'm not going to buy a piece of land unless it's on city sewer. And I always say, you know, we're all talking about being so green. These days you don't get more green than a septic system, right, because it's going back to the earth. People go oh, doesn't your yard smell? Your yard doesn't smell at all. The grass might be a bit greener.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, you don't have any choice. Anyway, it depends depending on where you live at If you're going to be out in the country. There is no city water or city sewer in Leicester, for instance.

Speaker 2:

But people literally will cut. We have a lot of people who are looking to build a home and looking for land to build a home on and they say I only want land. That you know, because when land is listed on the MLS and we have lots of land listings, by the way, in Western North Carolina If you want to see them you can go to mountainhomehuntcom mountainhomehuntcom. I should have another one called mountain land hunt dot com. But yeah, you can just filter it by land. It'll find you all the land you can filter on unrestricted.

Speaker 2:

It's really the best search out there.

Speaker 2:

It's got all the mls boxes on it that you don't find on regular searches regular searches on websites, by the way are looking to capture you as a lead that's what real estate agents call them, so they'll give you as a few choices as possible, but they're trying to get your name, your email or mine does that as well. After you've looked at a few, however, you will get access to like 60 different check boxes for the MLS and I can really hone in on the search for you, which means that you can put a little star on the land or the house that you're looking at and then I can see it in your account, basically, and then I can guide you through which ones and where they are and everything else, which is extremely useful if you don't live here, obviously, even for people that live here, I can talk you through the pros and the cons for that piece of land or that particular house for that matter. So really important when you're looking at that the thing about septics is what's the other major pro of having a septic?

Speaker 4:

another major pro.

Speaker 2:

You don't have a big bill, I guess exactly no so we're bill right, you don't have to think about the sewer bill and you got to think where's all that sewage going? Is going to treatment plants. Sure, it'd be kind of interesting, wouldn't, if we could switch half of the population over to it. Well, I wonder what population is on septics going to treatment plants? Sure it'd be kind of interesting, wouldn't it, if we could switch half of the population over to. Well, I wonder what population is on septics?

Speaker 4:

probably 20 or something wow, a lot here, a lot in the mountains, for sure yeah, here is probably 50 and yet people are like oh, I'm so.

Speaker 2:

People get scared of septics, and I understand why. However, you know so with septics you're meant to have them pumped again. Expensive mistakes, right. When you don't have them pumped, they can back up and it can get expensive thousands.

Speaker 4:

I've never pumped mine and it's years old, but I don't have any trees on top of it. That's the key you don't have the roots going down, yeah and you know I don't have a lot of people in the house, so if people are, you know, flushing a lot of stuff down, using the trash disposal a lot, and if they have trees of roots, get down there. It just destroys it.

Speaker 2:

You're so correct about the roots. Randy knows my story about Washington DC when I decided to put corn on the cob down my new waste disposal. It was a really powerful one and I was showing off basically no, I mean I was showing off going this thing's really powerful one and I was showing off basically no, I mean I was showing off going, this thing's really powerful, it's more powerful than any waste disposal I've ever had, ever. And it was what in. I'd remodeled the kitchen. It was gorgeous. Actually, I kept the old cabinets. It was absolutely beautiful 1925. And it had the old cast iron sink in that beautiful milky green color. You know I'm talking about not ugly green, but the the nice sort of pale green that they used to use. You know those cast iron sinks with double sides that it takes six men to lift or six strong oh yeah, that matter one of those.

Speaker 2:

It was amazing. So I thought it can take this really powerful waste disposal and I put the corn on the cob down and then they dug up the concrete on the apartment floor downstairs. My, my renter had to move out. Yeah, joe's like wincing at this point. It was awful she had to move out for like three months while we redid the. It was terrible. And why? Because the tree roots had grown through the terracotta pipes that were taking all that waste away. So, yeah, I've experienced tree roots. Tree roots are not fun. Well, for your foundation as well, right? So there's another mistake when you're building a new house, don't plant all your. These people plant trees. Even if you've got a house now, it's not even building a new house.

Speaker 2:

Big trees too, I mean mean, if you want to have trees near your house, have a dogwood or something small like that, yes, so something, and we're not experts on this, so don't sue us when you plant the wrong tree not a weeping willow and not a poplar tree, for instance, or a pine tree, the very worst, oh gosh.

Speaker 4:

yeah, so pine trees tend to be um not not long lived correct, and they're Very brittle and they have some kind of homing device on them where they aim for your house when they fall.

Speaker 2:

I love that they do. Mine was so close to the roof and to my, judy my neighbor, who's sadly passed since. We're thinking about you, judy, rest in peace. You were such a fun neighbor. She would complain because all the needles were going on her roof. They're all going on my roof. Um, yeah, I mean they were her pines too. I wasn't putting the pine needles on her, but it's a mess all the sap on your car. And then they were for, honestly, 40, 50 foot high on that tiny little lot. They'd have crushed the house literally with the homing device that they have to fall on it. Can you imagine in helene what those pine trees would have done?

Speaker 4:

I wouldn't have a house yeah, and they tend to grow towards light too. So you have a clear, you have a cleared house site. For instance, all the trees over the next 10 years after you build the house lean towards that area that's interesting sort of curve in yep.

Speaker 2:

Yep, that's really interesting. I took mine out and I wish so. When you're taking trees down and this is for the tree guys out there as well if you're having people coming to take the trees down, some people just cut them off at the root. I would not advise doing that. Get the darn things out.

Speaker 4:

I know it's more expensive but get the whole thing out. Is there any reason not to do that, joe, not to get the whole root out? Well, sometimes you can't. You know it's not practical or very expensive. You know what I mean.

Speaker 2:

So if you can kill the, tree or or if it's already dead, it's not a big deal. The problem is that root is going to rot over time. I always think about I'm a long-term girl as well I want to build a house.

Speaker 2:

Maybe it's because I'm english. She knows you know you go back to England. You can go in houses that have been there. There's a little church down by where I grew up that's been there for 850 years. So I'm always thinking about how do you build something not just for my life, but a lot more lives as well? And those roots over time are going to rot and then the ground's going to cave in, right, I mean not necessarily cave in, but slowly drop.

Speaker 4:

Don't have big trees right next to your house.

Speaker 2:

Don't have big trees next to your house, or over your septic field right. Or over your septic field, the forest is the forest.

Speaker 7:

That's where these big oaks and pines belong, around your house. It's an understory 30 high, 30 wide Ornamental dogwoods, cherries.

Speaker 2:

How do you know about this?

Speaker 7:

Just do, don't put those big oak trees near your house.

Speaker 2:

That's a big one too, I think.

Speaker 7:

And they were the ones that really suffered during this hurricane was the oak trees.

Speaker 2:

I can only imagine.

Speaker 4:

They're considered a very strong tree, but I showed you the picture of the house. I built in 96 that just snapped in two and it was gigantic, I mean three people couldn't reach around it. It snapped in two and just completely destroyed a house.

Speaker 2:

And I saw so many and you're still seeing them now. Actually, I mean, they've cut them off at the root, but these massive trees, you know, 40, 50, 60 foot high, just didn't snap and just like toppled over and the root ball was just sticking up all over the place, not just one or two over, and the root ball was just sticking up all over the place, not just one or two here thousands, tens of thousands right unbelievable.

Speaker 2:

So, um, I just wanted to mention what I replaced the pine trees with because I got the roots out were laurels, so that they're skip laurels, not the little van luchens laurels. They have little leaves, but the, the uh, the uh, skip laurels. And you can dm me if you just look at rowena pattern and dm me if you want to link to these things. They're evergreen, they grow. I've had them grow 20 feet, so they're not going to get higher than 20 feet. They grow about as fast as um, the what are those things called?

Speaker 2:

not the green giants cypress the cypress the leyland cypress, yeah, the leyland cypress that people put in that, by the way, have a very short life yes in england they plant them all around the house on these tiny little lots and they get gigantic.

Speaker 2:

They grow two or three feet a year and then they die so and then you've got to replace this 20 foot tree. Don't do that. Have a look at the laurels. They're gorgeous, they're evergreen, they've got lovely, you know, dark green, shiny leaves, beautiful flowers in the spring, and then they have big, dark berries. I like. I like bushes and trees. That gifts that keep on giving, you know, flower, pretty leaves, berries, all that stuff and they make a really, really nice hedge, a great privacy hedge nice barriers make for um good neighbor relations right yes we don't want to see our neighbor out in his underwear getting his newspaper or whatever and there's another expensive mistake.

Speaker 2:

When you're building a house. You're now four years in. You're like, oh, I wish I'd put those trees in, because guess what I put? I put my laurels in probably five years ago. Now they are you. You've seen them, joe. How tall do you think they are? 15 feet.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, close to it.

Speaker 2:

Probably 15 feet high. That's plenty, especially on a small lot. You know, give them another few years they'll be 20 feet high. Imagine if I didn't put them in when I moved. In fact I've planted some now at the front because they've planted a new big rental house across the street. So I just want to sort of round off the corners a little bit more. And now they're tiny, so you can't replace that mistake. It's very, very hard to buy a tree that's 20 feet high. If you even can I mean you can occasionally Right now I guess you could just go around and trip one that's fallen over and stick it in the ground. Does that work?

Speaker 4:

Sure, now I guess you could just go around and trip one that's fallen over and stick it in the ground. Does that work?

Speaker 2:

Probably have a snowball's chance, and you know what? Probably not. That's right. So I want to check in with Kelly and Deanna in Utah. First off, let me give you a quick update about Susan and Dennis, who we're making great progress on their house. Susan and Dennis, who we're making great progress on their house, but, kelly, I want to check in with you in Utah just to see how you're getting on there. So, kelly, you were looking to give an update on one of the senior living communities that you went to.

Speaker 8:

Yes, I got a return call, surprising to me, from one of the communities I visited and they are hiring in an additional sales executive and the marketing director called me back and asked me if I would come back and represent the senior living CPO program to her and her new sales executive, which was completely caught me off guard. I you know I'm not due, or I'm probably about due, for another visit, an update with them, take some flyers and stuff. But she called me out of the blue and it was like excellent, I'll meet you, give me a time. So I'm going to meet her in the next few days.

Speaker 2:

That's awesome. So your point is, kelly, that when you're going into the senior living communities so your point is, kelly, that when you're going into these senior living communities which Deanna Allen is also on the call today also goes in around your area, around Salt Lake City they are really enjoying you going in. You said you were shocked that they called you back, but it's always a surprise when people are like yes, please, you've got a program that is so useful for us, right? Is that what you're finding as you're going in and talking with those communities?

Speaker 8:

Well, correct, but it wasn't necessarily a. You know it was one of those I had to. You know it was on the schedule to go back and visit, take some flyers and reintroduce. But for her to remember and come back to me was like that's. It obviously made an impact because it was a community I needed to get to. I literally had some uh, an elderly couple who were friends in my neighborhood. I knew them very well and they went to this community. That's one of the reasons why I picked that zip code and she remembered them and the husband sadly passed away a year ago. So, but that was the reason I went to that, because I went out and visited them, yeah, at least the wife and the husband. He had Alzheimer's dementia, whichever, I don't remember, but he wasn't in a stage to be visited. But it's like I'm going to go visit this place because I know they picked it, because it works for them. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so Deanna for them. Yeah, yeah, so Deanna. Deanna, this is Deanna Allen, who's our chief coach for senior living in Utah. Deanna, how are you getting on with Mary and Jerry? I've had people reach out this week to say, oh, we love the story about Mary and Jerry, so we're going to update you all. And I've got Susan and Dennis as well, who have now moved on to their new home. They're not in senior living, they've moved on to their new home through this program. But give me an update on Mary and Jerry, how's it going? So they're already moved into their senior living community. For those of you who haven't been following Mary and Jerry's story and now we are doing the HGTV magic on the home and then we'll be reselling it and then Mary and Jerry will get another check. So how's it going, deanna?

Speaker 3:

They will. Yeah, it's going really well. They are still moving in and getting settled in. So we were supposed to meet yesterday but she asked for just a little bit more time. So we're rescheduled for next Tuesday to go visit them in their community and bring them a little move-in gift that Kelly and I put together. But yeah, things are going really well with them. She's super excited about how the first stage of the process went. They're looking forward to that next paycheck that will come when we sell the home and Kelly's been in there working really hard to get that done.

Speaker 2:

How close are you to listing it now, kelly? So you're doing the HGTV magic. What work have you completed now for Mary and Jerry? Are they able to get back and see the house as you're working on it? Are they going to see it at all, or is it too?

Speaker 8:

far away. No, they're like 20 minutes away and Mary came back two days ago, so I have it in a completely demoed situation, which doesn't mean that it's a disaster. No, I got everything torn back and ready to put back together In the next week or so I will be. So I'm literally picking up cabinets today Awesome and hopefully getting countertops templated in the next two days. But in the next week excuse me, in the next week we will carpet the bedrooms, paint the bedrooms. I have had new doors made, so it will be just cute as a button when we're done. That's fantastic.

Speaker 2:

So you'll be getting on Coming Soon here real soon, I'm guessing. And Coming Soon is an agent. So you know you guys aren't agents who are listening most of you, at least, I know. We do have a lot of agents listening around the country. You know what we do is we? Almost everywhere in the country we have a program called Coming Soon. That's when we put a house that we're listing on the market. You can't go into it yet because we're in the last couple of weeks of doing something to it. So are you getting it on that coming soon program, kelly, I'm guessing?

Speaker 8:

It's getting close. Good, but yeah, I have some restrictions with the coming soon in my state, so I have to have it ready and then I have to put it on the MLS immediately, just for reference, but we're within a few weeks of having it on the market Wonderful.

Speaker 2:

And I'll give you an update on Susan and Dennis, who are now happily ensconced in their house in Ocala. We have finished the painting on their house at Tipperary I will be getting it on coming soon because we've only got the painting left to do and it's a wonderful house for this area because it has a pool. And for those of you in warm areas like, yeah, most houses have a pool, no, we're in Asheville, north Carolina, and this is one that Joey, our CEO, managed to get through in the hurricane. There was no water in the house and he still managed to get it through so that the house closed stage one and the Susan and Dennis could get off in their car with all their kitty cats and get down to a color, and now they're in their brand new home down there. I'm so happy for them.

Speaker 2:

Meanwhile, we're working as busily as we can to um, we did the inspection, we did the appraisal, everything's been fixed on the inspection report and you know we have the appraisal in place and um, all we need to do now is paint it and do the modification. So you know, on inspections for those for you selling house or buying a house, they're not going to put the walls of cream or you know the walls aren't. The walls are nice and neutral. So therefore, that doesn't come up on the inspection. It's just items that are health and safety or need repairing. So the cosmetic things that can make your house worth so much more don't come up on that report, right? So what we're doing in that one is we're refinishing the countertops, we're refinishing the counters, we're putting new hardware on the doors, we're having everything painted. There was a little bit of wallpaper here and there. We're taking down the wallpaper. We're painting the fireplace white. It's going to look so clean and fresh and nice when it's done and, like I say, it has a pool. We probably have 2% of our houses if that here have a pool. It's in a great area and we call it hot West Asheville. So, yeah, can't wait to get that one on and that will be going on in the next week here. So expect to see some listing paperwork coming across. Joey, I know you'll take care of that for us very fast. So, yeah, that's our updates for this week and thank you for listening to our next little episode there, guys with me. So we want to have an update on what's happened with real estate after the hurricane. So obviously we had Helene.

Speaker 2:

In Western North Carolina, a lot of the market just stopped for a minute. Most of it is back on now. I'm having people call me all the time that want to come up to see the rest of the leaves or anything else. You know, is Asheville, north Carolina still devastated, or can we come? Most hotels are open. Most restaurants are open. We are still eating off paper plates. Asheville itself, the city is still under a boil water advisory, which sounds scary to most people, except for us. We didn't have any phones, we didn't have any electric, we didn't have any water, we didn't have anything. So suddenly it's absolutely wonderful. And we also have Christine and Margaret on the phone, who are in the bradenton area in florida. Would one of you like to jump in and say what's happening there?

Speaker 6:

chris, you want to go first, as you're in bradenton, I believe, and you, you took a direct hit there uh, yes, um, bradenton, our beaches, bradenton Beach, anna Maria Island, they're still working on getting everything, you know, all the sand, mainly out of the streets and debris picked up. But it's coming back. It's been, I think, probably about four weeks now actually, and we're just, you know, still trying to get roofs put on and there's a lot of blue tarts still on a lot of houses on their roofs.

Speaker 2:

So I better remember, for I remember that from living down in miami. After a hurricane and I went through three or four down there when I lived there, and after the hurricane there would be blue tarps everywhere because the roofs would come off. Um right, there's hardly any blue tarps, but you know well we didn't have the kind of our damage was caused by flooding. You know, we don't take the direct hits from hurricanes and I guess that's why the roofs come off because of all the wind. I'm not talking I'm not really talking like a weather forecaster here, I'm not sounding very knowledgeable about hurricanes. So we had for those of you trying to keep track of what's going on with hurricanes we had Aline come through which caused so much damage, and then we had Milton only a week or two later.

Speaker 6:

Which that really came into Siesta Key, Sarasota, more so than the Bradenton area, which Sarasota and Bradenton are right next to each other. But Siesta Key beaches, they got the brunt of it, I think, worse than our beach did in Bradenton, which I work both areas. So it's going to take them and Siesta a little bit longer to clear up than it will the Bradenton beach area.

Speaker 2:

So what are you seeing as you drive around? For people who love that area and of course you know, we all have so many, so many people that love going to the west coast of Florida For those of you in California who don't tend to go to Florida to vacation, because it's so in that's on the west coast of Florida when you're driving around, are you seeing? You know, obviously you're seeing a lot of blue tarps. Are the hotels open? Is tourism coming back? Are the restaurants open? Are you seeing trees piled up by the side of the road? What are you?

Speaker 6:

seeing. Well, margaret's down a little further south than I am. She's in the Naples area, so we're about two hours apart. But, um, here in the Sarasota Bradenton area, uh, a lot of restaurants are back open on Longboat Key, which is right in between Bradenton and Sarasota. A lot of the restaurants um down in Siesta Key are about half of them have been able to open back up, uh, up that are on the beach end, but for the most part, the rest of Sarasota and the rest of Bradenton, it's just a matter of them finishing picking up the debris. But all restaurants, stores and everything are back open and up and running like nothing ever happened.

Speaker 2:

Well, of course you're in Florida, where you know, I used to live down there, so I've got some experience of this myself. It's just run so well in such a way, because you're used to dealing with hurricanes and you've also got a governor down there who's all over it right Anytime anything happens. What about in Naples? Anything go on in Naples, margaret, that you saw.

Speaker 5:

Yes, it was really incredible. The Helene actually had a storm surge of about four feet and then when Milton came it was a foot higher, so it was five feet, and that was over in the coastal areas and I mean it was unfortunate, but it was the homes that were along there that really got hit. But the main area where it was severe was in Lee County, and in Lee County and Charlotte County you have some of those islands that are over there that really were affected by the damage of it with the surge. I mean there's some restaurants that aren't even reopening. And Another aspect of it that was horrendous were the tornadoes. We had a lot of tornadoes here that really affected Naples, fort Myers.

Speaker 2:

I mean just from the aftermath of it all, and that's unusual right to get the tornadoes in your area. It is, yeah, we normally see those in the Midwest and over the flat areas, for obvious reasons for anybody that knows anything about weather, which obviously I don't know too much about it. Um, but yeah, it's, I do know that it's. It's kind of unusual to see the hurricanes and tornadoes in florida not the hurricanes which, again, when you're dealing with something you're unused to, which is what happened with helene here, and really it was those two hurricanes coming back to back that really caused the problem there. So thank you so much for that update and we're all giving hugs and prayers to everybody in the areas where that kind of devastation has gone on.

Speaker 2:

We're still picking up in the Asheville area but, like I say, a lot of it is open. We've got a lot of people visiting and you know there's a lot of businesses that are being hurt very much and they're all looking forward to the tourism now. Isn't that the truth? I mean, we really want people back here and although people seem to be back here, joe, you're here, Don't you see so many people driving around?

Speaker 4:

The first thing I did once places opened up you know, I was searching them out, right.

Speaker 2:

Well, we've got cabin fever. It reminds me of COVID, when we couldn't go out to eat. And, okay, this time it was only a week or two in most cases. And you know, the average restaurant employs 80 people. I was at one last night that ate to eat pizza. That has, they think, 50 or 60 people, and that's a small pizza joint. Right, that's a lot of people. So when something happens like this, that's a lot of people out of work for a week, two weeks and sometimes for good, which is obviously uh, terrible and quite devastating for an area and and um, those people are back at work now. In the main I mean not everywhere, but in the main Probably 95% of the restaurants are back open and let's go support them. Wnc Strong right.

Speaker 4:

Definitely I'll do my part.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, exactly yeah, we've got to do that right. Okay, so we're talking today about the six biggest financial mistakes when building a home and how to avoid them with Joe Shively. This is Rowena Patton on the Real Estate News Radio Show. If you've just tuned in and Joe, we've got about 15 minutes left. I don't know where the time goes on our shows. It goes so quickly because we're enjoying ourselves so much. Even Randy, our producer, who we drag out of bed on a Saturday morning, I think enjoys hanging out with us on a Saturday, but he's got to say that, I guess, hasn't he?

Speaker 7:

He's got to say that I do. I do After how many years?

Speaker 2:

12?, 12 years yeah, I'm kind of used to it 12 years of a Saturday morning and Randy wouldn't want to hang out anywhere else right, randy, that's right. So what else you got for us, Joe?

Speaker 4:

Probably turning the water on too soon or, for instance, or before you move in and leaving it on what's wrong with that A couple of horror stories. One contractor I know they were having a housewarming party his client and so they turned the water on and checked stuff on a Friday and then they were going to have the housewarming party on a Sunday, I think.

Speaker 2:

So they were sensible and they checked it out before time, because they're going to have this lovely party.

Speaker 4:

Sure. And then something popped loose in an upstairs bathroom and it ran water the whole weekend. And when they opened the door, you know they got a surprise. They didn't want and obviously they had to cancel the party.

Speaker 2:

Surprise.

Speaker 4:

If it's in an upstairs room, it's bad enough if it's in a downstairs room.

Speaker 2:

Oh, that's awful.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, so it was thousands and thousands of dollars.

Speaker 2:

So I think this may have happened to people who have gone away from the homes. In Helene, for example, A lot of people left in the city of Asheville right when it happened. How many weeks in now are we? Randy? I'll put you on the spot for a minute so you can figure it out.

Speaker 7:

We're seven weeks in.

Speaker 2:

You know it's, so I love the fact I put you on the spot and you know, and you said the water's probably going to be drinkable again next week.

Speaker 7:

Yeah, asheville City water customers. They will do that pending the results of extensive testing on Tuesday.

Speaker 2:

At least we can flush the toilet and, you know, wash our clothes and all that it's not even affecting me because I don't drink the water anyway. I drink bottled water, so you know. But obviously we want to drink a water bath and even when you're feeding your dogs, we're giving them bottled water. So you know, I mean obviously.

Speaker 4:

A lot of chlorine in the water, though. That's why I have this blonde hair.

Speaker 2:

That's why, Me too. That's why I have all this blonde hair. Yes, the reason why, I'm sure and I want to know who that lovely man is, who calls me every day and says this is a notice from the city of Asheville.

Speaker 7:

They call you twice and they text you twice. There's four events on my phone every afternoon.

Speaker 2:

I get it in Spanish too. Who is?

Speaker 7:

that lovely guy. One in English each.

Speaker 2:

And it was so funny yesterday because you know what he said. This has some new information because he realizes that every time we listen, we're like delete. It comes in as spam, not delete. I mean end on your phone, you know Delete. It comes in as spam, not delete.

Speaker 2:

I mean end on your phone. You know Exactly, but who is this guy? I'd love to know who this guy is. Who is this secret guy who calls us every day? Thank you for doing that, because that takes five minutes out of your day saying the same old thing every day that was addressed in one of the daily briefings from the city.

Speaker 7:

Oh funny, People were complaining about that.

Speaker 4:

The most hated guy in Asheville yeah.

Speaker 7:

Right, but they are required by federal law to warn you that there's a Boyle advisory and whomever you are.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, Big hugs. We'll take you out for a drink one night, whomever you are.

Speaker 7:

Clear, do you?

Speaker 2:

think he's real, is it?

Speaker 7:

an AI? Is it a bot? I?

Speaker 2:

think he's real. Is it an AI? Is it a bot? I think he's real, don't you?

Speaker 7:

I don't know I haven't listened long enough to find out.

Speaker 2:

You hit end right away.

Speaker 1:

That's hilarious.

Speaker 2:

So you know, you wonder. A lot of people went away because not that it's their second home, they live there. But myself I moved out for a couple of weeks because, eight days in, I'm running a national business, you know, and I need to be able to get hold of my clients, my listings here, my buyers coming in here. We had no internet, so you know I had to go move somewhere else, so I left the house. I'm back in the house now. However, I didn't turn the water off. I didn't quite know what to do, and I have heard things where, when the water's turned back on, it creates so much pressure that it causes a problem and you get floods. Is that true, joe?

Speaker 4:

I've heard that, but also it could happen. You could have your sink left on and you wouldn't know it for it oh yes, because you're trying to see whether the water's on or not right so oh no you have that overflowing right. Well, you're not home for days and days.

Speaker 2:

So turn your water off if you're leaving for an extended time, basically, and if you were building a new house, wouldn't it be great? And I think they have these now. The switch that you switch off when you leave, it switches everything off. It's like a whole house switch, basically.

Speaker 4:

Well, you could. Oftentimes, where I'm usually built at in rural areas, they have the well anyway. So you just turn the breaker to the well off. Just make sure your breaker is also off to the hot water heater. But the water shut off a lot of times in a crawl space. It's not very convenient If you sold a house to a librarian.

Speaker 4:

For instance, she wouldn't crawl in the crawl space and want to shut the water off right. Does that have to do with being a librarian? I just pictured a 75-year-old woman crawling on her hands and knees in the crawl space?

Speaker 2:

I ain't going in the crawl space to do that either. I don't even know where mine is. That's embarrassing, isn't it?

Speaker 2:

You should Okay so we probably should do a whole other show on winterizing your home, because that one's really water's very important. I know and I used to work for an insurance company, zurich Financial, for a very long time. I used to work directly for the chairman and one thing I found out is one of the most common home insurance claims is when the water line pops off the back of a fridge. You know the one that goes to the back of the fridge. I think they've changed code on those now where they're not the little plastic thing that goes on.

Speaker 4:

The braided steel ones are the best, for sure.

Speaker 2:

I think they've changed the code on them now, or you tend to get those, but you want to change them if you have the old plastic one. Amen.

Speaker 3:

I'm a victim. I'm a victim too.

Speaker 2:

So many people are. It's one of the most common claims, and here's what it does.

Speaker 4:

you're thinking, oh, it's just a little flood in the kitchen no, it's insidious, because it's just a drip, drip, drip and it never happens while you're standing in the kitchen. No, no, it's always when you're running down the back of the weekend or whatever.

Speaker 2:

Yeah it's running down the back of the fridge. You don't even hear it. So mine went and I want to hear your story in a second. Randy. Mine went down the back of the fridge under the beautiful floor. It was like wide plank cherry floor. My entire kitchen had to be pulled out, all of my dining room had to be pulled out and some of the cabinets had to be replaced. It was awful. I think it was 20 or 30 000 insurance claim. It was terrible, all from that little pipe on the back of the fridge. So anytime now you can buy an alarm and it's very inexpensive and it's probably battery powered or something that you put and you can get battery powered ones that you just pop into the fridge and would hear the alarm going off, because it's not about that little drip that happens. It's about that little drip over time when it happens.

Speaker 2:

For six months Mine actually, 12 feet away from where the fridge was, in the dining room, in a different room, I was seeing a bit of a dark patch and I thought, oh, the dog's peed. Bad girl, uma, right, she was getting older. I thought, oh, she peed on the floor and it was darker and the darkness never really went away. It was where, obviously, you get a low spot with water. It's where that water was sitting. Terrible. What was yours, randy?

Speaker 7:

Very similar the actual valve right on the back where that plastic tube connects to the ice maker. That valve split overnight. This only happened while we were asleep Next morning.

Speaker 2:

next morning get up step on the carpet in the bedroom and squish in the bedroom. Yeah, it had gone off. You have a fridge in your bedroom. No, this came from the kitchen, which sounds great, by the way and in the finished basement.

Speaker 7:

Uh, the all that water on the floor went down to the ceiling of the basement, tore down sheetrock and light fixtures that fell on top of cars, and cars had to be painted what it like. One night of that valve leaking almost wrecked that home. I mean we had to move out while all of this was.

Speaker 2:

Sounds like a country song it was a sad country song.

Speaker 7:

I might have to write that for you. Sad country song, that's awful country song. I might have to write that for you Sad country song, that's awful.

Speaker 4:

Well, how? Dangerous too, if the floor starts going through and you have to gut a lot of stuff, because once everything gets wet right, it turns into mold and stuff. Like I used to do some insurance renovations where the firemen would actually come in. They make a bigger mess than the fire you know they take a fire, hose and throw it all. Well, you have to gut everything. Then you know, tear the sheetrock off the walls, all kinds of flooring.

Speaker 2:

And if you're a firefighter, thank you for your service.

Speaker 4:

Yes, exactly.

Speaker 2:

And we should say to veterans of course it was. We had, you know, veterans Day last week. Thank you for your service, thank you to all of you out there, all the first responders and your families and, of course, we're proud support supporters of 10 order towers. You can read more about that at um, mlsheroescom. Um, go to 10 towers, t2torg. We actually, uh, it's heroes mlscom, sorry, heroes mlscom. We've got all the links on there, the, the videos and everything else. And um, it's just amazing organization. It's only 11 a month and, uh, we'll do a whole nother show on that because we've only got a few minutes left. But yeah, water is a really, really big one. But thank you for your service and thank you to all the families out there that supported them through their service, because the whole family serves. That's a lot of people around each person that's serving. You know the worry and the fear and just everything that goes along with that. It's not fun. What else you got, joe? We've got two minutes left. Give us all those horrible Foundational issues.

Speaker 4:

That's probably one of the biggest ones I see is like people scrimp on. You know, if you're using a standard block foundation, for instance, you want to fill some of the block cells, the holes in the block, up with concrete and steel and a lot of people try to scrimp on that or do the bare minimum. And just because it passes code doesn't mean it's the right thing to do. A guy, one of the local inspectors that teaches my continuing education class, he has a saying you, you know, a code is a bare legal requirement wow you know, and that's so true, you put you can?

Speaker 2:

he doesn't mean a fuzzy bath right, so you so.

Speaker 4:

For instance, if you put um concrete every four foot in the wall which, depending on your backfill, if you get too close with a piece of machinery on the outside, you can put a gigantic crack, or you know, wow, like that. So yeah, you want to exceed the codes and not do what your brother-in-law might tell you.

Speaker 2:

You know that sounds like real estate is always like well, you know my I'm in negotiations. Well, my brother you know for for clients. Well, my brother, you know four clients. Well, my brother's in real estate in New York, and he said you always got to love that.

Speaker 2:

Well, first of all, every state is different in real estate, you know, not to mention you don't know what's going on locally. Not to mention, there's a reason why you hired me, I think because you trust me. Now, do I want to hear other people's opinions? Sure, but there's usually a reason why I'm saying what I'm saying, and anybody that's worked with me knows that I'm explaining as much as you want me to explain. I'll give you all the underbelly of why I'm doing something.

Speaker 2:

And all the strategies are there for a reason. That's why we're running the full market value cash offer. It's not for everybody, but it's for a lot of people that don't want to go through fixing up things on the house. They don't want to have to hire people like Joe and spend lots of oodles of money with him to clean up the house because of all the inspection issues. And that's what we're doing for these homes and we're putting them right so that we can then market them and have the best listings on the market, which is what we've got. Give us one very quickly, joe, to wrap us up.

Speaker 4:

Another one. Yeah, let the market, which is what we've got, give us one very quickly, joe to wrap us up another one. Yeah, um, let's see how about? Um not checking on your subcontractor's background?

Speaker 2:

oh my gosh right.

Speaker 4:

You just don't take somebody's word that they do good work. You check um resources and talk to other people they've done jobs for that's kind of like my friend says again, isn't it?

Speaker 2:

it's sort of the same things along the same lines. Well, you know, bill, know, billy down the street had Johnny, who doesn't necessarily have a GC license or some of these GCs. You just went through your continuing education for your general contractor. You have to do that every year, correct? You have to sit through, unfortunately.

Speaker 4:

Yes, yeah, more training.

Speaker 2:

I know you love it and learn so much from it. Most boring day of my life. Some days, some classes, well, and you're in it and you work in it, unlike many general contractors who, you know, are basically looking over jobs and having a group of people on site whereas you're in it. Very different. So, yeah, it may even cost you a little bit more, not always it. May, joe, give your phone number so people can reach you. It's 828-319-1449. Thanks for listening guys.

Speaker 1:

We'll see you on the radio next week. This has been the Plain English Real Estate Show with Rowena Patton. Visit Rowena and post your questions at RadioAshevillecom or call her at 828-210-1648. We're Western North Carolina Strong, from the Apple Tree Automotive Superstore Studios. This is News Radio 570. Wwnc Asheville and iHeart Radio Station.

People on this episode

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Rowena Patton, NC, FL, DC, CA

Host
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Deanna Allen, Utah

Guest
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Kelly Denny, Utah

Guest