Real Estate News Radio with Rowena Patton

Building Dreams: Real Estate Insights and Cautionary Tales with Joe the Builder

• Rowena Patton

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What happens when you mix a picturesque property, a seasoned builder, and a few tales of mishaps and triumphs? You get a rich blend of real estate wisdom laced with humor and insight. Join us on the Plain English Real Estate Show, where our guest, Joe the Builder, reveals the secrets to constructing a modern marvel under challenging conditions. Discover the immense potential of the stunning 7.9-acre "Duck Pond" estate, perfect for families or as a lucrative short-term rental. Through engaging stories, Joe shares the highs and lows of home building, offering expertise that will inspire both seasoned investors and first-time homeowners.

Prepare to be moved by the heartrending story of unpermitted work and its devastating consequences. Explore the importance of safety and certified inspections in preventing tragedies like the fire that changed a client's life forever. Unravel the complexities of selling a home while building a new one with our stress-free equity program, which promises to cut through the chaos of construction delays and staging stress. From cash offers to home decor tips, gain practical advice to navigate the emotional and logistical challenges of real estate transitions.

Our storytelling takes a lighter turn as we tackle the world of interior design and the occasional hiccups in the renovation process. Whether it's a tale of mismatched tiles or a basement blunder, each anecdote underscores the importance of trusted professionals and meticulous planning. Learn how to harmonize kitchen materials, avoid costly mistakes, and utilize local suppliers for a seamless project timeline. This episode is a treasure trove of lessons from the field, delivered with a dash of wit and a wealth of experience.

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 show. This is Rowena Patton Shocker. We have a great show today. Good morning, joe. Joe, the Builder's back.

Speaker 3:

Good morning.

Speaker 2:

How are you today?

Speaker 3:

Pretty good.

Speaker 2:

Saturday morning. You're probably in the middle of building a home right now, aren't you?

Speaker 3:

It's too cold this morning to work outside anyway.

Speaker 2:

Well, unless you have to, you sound just like a builder.

Speaker 3:

Well, I have a heated cab in the excavator, so I'm headed for that later today?

Speaker 2:

Oh, that's nice. What are you going to be doing later today?

Speaker 3:

Fun stuff pushing over some trees stuff like that.

Speaker 2:

You get to do those jobs at the weekend sometimes, I think, and you're building a beautiful new modern home right now that you will be selling around 525 is that right correct? Or is it a million dollars? It should be. It's a beautiful modern home. We'll have that up here very shortly. Two bedroom, two bath and it's got one of those beautiful modern roofs. And it it's on duck pond, we're calling it. It's like on a play on pond drive.

Speaker 3:

It actually has ducks in the pond you can look down and see from the house but it's like on golden pond.

Speaker 2:

We're going to call it on duck pond. How many acres have you got with that one? 7.9 and you've got a few more acres available that you also got a permit on. So anybody that wants a, a short-term rental or a vrbo, this is it for you. Basically, you've got that house on, usually for a VRBO or Airbnb. I was going to say that's, you know, a little in the higher price point, but it's really not. When you've got that much land, I know your friends hunt on it sometimes. Am I allowed to?

Speaker 3:

say that, yes, there's a lot of deer on it. A lot of other game, turkeys.

Speaker 2:

And you've got another building spot on that piece of land, Correct. And then the other side of the pond, which it overlooks. You've got a tiny house there as well, which you're also looking to sell. Have you worked out the price on that one yet?

Speaker 3:

Yes, I have not worked out a price on it. No, around $20,000, something like that.

Speaker 2:

And then you've got some more. What's in the rest of your acreage on the other side?

Speaker 3:

Lots of stuff to store building materials in the big barn. You've got a beautiful tobacco barn over there. It's turned into a building material barn.

Speaker 2:

That's okay. It's a beautiful barn. So somebody with horses, you've got stalls in there.

Speaker 3:

There previously was a horse barn.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it was a horse barn plus the tobacco barn upstairs it's kind of a combo one. And then you've got the pond right by that and then it goes up a gentle hill so you've got two more building lots there which you've got a septic permit on so you could put two tiny homes you actually could put four.

Speaker 3:

It's approved for wow one four bedroom tank. That's going to be a combined system. But at the time, a couple of years ago, you could only do a two-bedroom minimum. Now you can do a one-bedroom minimum, so it's set up for you could do one four-bedroom house, four one-bedroom houses.

Speaker 2:

And, like many places in the country, they're doing that to get more density so more people can live on the land, which obviously some people would argue with.

Speaker 3:

Except for our zoning, but that's another.

Speaker 2:

So around $1.2, $1.3 million. What's the total acreage? And you've already got three homes on there.

Speaker 3:

There's five more on the other side of the creek, 7.9 with a tract with the house. Approximately yes.

Speaker 2:

So you've got about 13 acres in totality, which is lucky for some. You've already got three homes on there and you could add easily four more homes, so it could be a really cool short-term rental or airbnb, or family estate for that matter, and you will stay and build those homes for them correct, and you build fast as well. I can't believe you've built this last one in four or five months, even with the storm in between.

Speaker 3:

We started when I should know by now, but we've only been on for about two months.

Speaker 2:

Unbelievable, and we had the storm as well. So, yeah, if anybody's interested in Joe's property, give us a call 828-333-4483. And today we have a great show for you. We've put a lot of time and energy and planning into this and here's what we're covering. We've got nine stories for you the tragic consequences of unpermitted work, timing and market challenges for custom homes. The uninsulated edition that's a fun one. The 15 foot I love this one. The 15 foot basement blender here's my favorite one that you're going to go through. The sales promises versus builder knowledge and sometimes I wish this were on video, because the faces you made of the salesperson that years ago that you used to work for the boss, and then the salesperson and the funny things that they used to do such a great story, then. The lowest bid isn't always the best. That's a sad one. The girder that couldn't hold that sounds like some kind of medical problem, doesn't it? The show and tell salesman not girdle girder good the show and tell salesman.

Speaker 2:

Was that the same salesman on that story?

Speaker 3:

It was, yeah, the same salesman, that's right baby.

Speaker 2:

That's right. Yeah, what did he say? What was his motto? Whatever it takes to sell the job, baby. Whatever it takes to sell the job, oh my gosh. And then the sleeping area fire.

Speaker 2:

So we've got a lot to get through today, guys, let's jump right into it. Hope you all had a great holiday. So, and just so you know, joe is the fastest downloaded radio show in history. So this show is broadcast live today. If you're listening and it's on the podcast obviously it's not you can see all of the previous podcasts at realestatenewsradiocom. Realestatenewsradiocom. If you've got a friend around the country that's listening, that's thinking about remodeling or building a home, you want to get them listening to live to this. So you've got the listen live link plus the podcast link at realestatenewsradiocom. I'll repeat that for you throughout the show. So get on with your friends now, text them and tell them to go to realestatenewsradiocom and click the link to listen live.

Speaker 2:

Or even lesson one, the story one the tragic consequences of an unpermitted work. This one is mine, actually, and I had a client who shared just a heartbreaking story from her childhood. So her family had decided to convert their attic into a sleeping area for the kids during the annual gathering. So she was the aunt who, all the kids, came to that particular house for the holidays. This was in New York and they laid down the boards for the flooring and strung up some electrical wires and obviously all done without permits. You can't just hang wires up there. But many of you who are not 19 remember this from your childhood when your families did stuff like that. Do you remember anything like that, randy? Did you do anything in your family where you know the old extension wire was pulled out or the basement was remodeled without any permits and the plumbing done by jack down the road?

Speaker 4:

I think I I used the term before we went on the air. Uh, we call a drop cord it's an extension cord by by legal definition, but we call it a drop cord and they were strung everywhere.

Speaker 2:

It's kind of like when you used to travel with your mom in the car and it had those definition but we call it a drop cord, and they were strung everywhere. It's kind of like when you used to travel with your mom in the car and it had those old vinyl bench sheets at the back and you just slide up and down them with no seatbelts in sight, right.

Speaker 4:

That's the truth.

Speaker 2:

Or you traveled in the back of the car.

Speaker 4:

You got up in the back window.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, back window, or or um, oh my god seatbelts were optional seatbelts.

Speaker 2:

Well, we didn't even have seatbelts for the longest time. I don't know when seatbelts came in, but, um, you know many of us. I know this is going to be a shocker for you kids out there, but many of us remember when, shit, when seatbelts weren't even around. I think joe's he is a he just popped a beer for this one. So you still see occasionally pickup trucks here with kids in the back. I've even seen that on the highway I was getting ready to make a comment about the electricians.

Speaker 3:

They have some of those electricians like on the job you were talking about. They had to make the tough decision between lunch and a six pack after work.

Speaker 2:

you know they had to make the tough decision between lunch and a six pack after work Is that at lunchtime before they go back on the job. I do remember years ago doing a job where we brought the roofers in and, don't worry, I will get back to the, the unpermitted work story. Well, we brought the roofers in. I had a GC doing the job who disappeared halfway through the job. That's all of the story. He brought the roofers in and we got a complaint. Actually, I'll tell a story. It was from the night court judge who lived across the street in Monford and he called in.

Speaker 2:

Harry, yeah, harry.

Speaker 4:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Sadly not with us anymore. He was doing stand-up comedy for the longest time. But he called it in and the roofers were on the roof. Uh, smoking joints on the roof while they were doing the roofing. Yeah, it's a true story plenty of airflow.

Speaker 3:

Another true story.

Speaker 2:

So, um here, so here we go. We're back with my client who, um, was actually very happy because we do certified pre-owned homes, or I'll come to that in a second. So all these wires were strung up in new york, all the kids were coming together for the holidays and the attic caught fire and actually one of her cousins lost her life. It was awful. So you know, when she was with us we explained to her she was looking at one of our listings. That's how she came in and she said what's this cpo thing on the listing? And we explained it because the vast majority of our listings for many years I'm 3500 transactions plus in in this local area in western north carolina and I explained to her that almost all of our sellers choose the certified pre-owned process.

Speaker 2:

I've been teaching that to agents around the country for many years. That's where the inspections, always the inspections and sometimes the appraisals, are done up front. So what that means is it uncovers everything. Now, of course, any great agent or experienced agent you're not a bad agent because you just got your license last week, but many of you list with you, know your I don't know your friend Sally, who got her license last week, or that does one listing a year. When you have that kind of experience you don't or lack of experience, you don't necessarily know to look for unpermitted work and you know as a seller and I get it as a seller you don't necessarily want to say anything about it or you may not know anything about it. So as an experienced agent or builder or contractor or anything else, certainly inspector, you can look at a house and know if it's had an extension, right, joe, you know if there's any addition that's been put on. They're called extensions in.

Speaker 3:

England, especially if the electrician that had the six-pack caper built it.

Speaker 2:

Or no license, or you know, you just never know. It might be Jim down the street. So you know, having somebody, especially on the buyer side when you're going in to make sure you're protected on that is so important. She literally had tears in her eyes telling us this whole story, not surprisingly, but it meant that it's not a perfect process. Nothing is a perfect process. But when you list your home and you do the inspection up front, of course we have a cash CPO process now where the money can be upfronted for you to do all of that and you get your money in 14 days. But that's the next step on from a certified pre-owned home. We also have a cash CPO home. So look out, especially if you're buying, you know, look out for the red flags, unpermitted work, especially involving electrical and structural changes. It's the health and safety piece. You don't want things collapsing. You don't want electrical causing fires. You don't want to drown in a plumbing flood because the plumbing's, not it's a disaster.

Speaker 3:

I've seen a few of those Really. I've seen a few of those Really.

Speaker 2:

Well, and you know, so often maybe not today, maybe in the past, but even today you put your mother-in-law or your father-in-law or the kids down in the basement area, which is often the area that you finished out later on with the electrical and the plumbing right. So you know if you are concerned about making sure you do it right. I think we have so many people that are engineer-minded who say, oh, I've got this, but you can't know everything about everything.

Speaker 3:

You've got to make, for instance, egress. You don't want to stick them in a room they can't get out of if the house were to catch on fire.

Speaker 2:

Right, my gosh. Yeah, exactly that's what egress is all about. So permits are usually about safety, so always watch that one and verify the permits for the renovations and choose a certified pre-owned home. We have agents all over the country doing it now and work with licensed professionals. We've got some more of those coming on. And Joe story two timing and market challenges for custom homes. Tell us about this one.

Speaker 3:

Well, this was a friend of mine. Mine, it wasn't actually a house I was building, but he was building a big house for someone. They had a house um, I think it was under contract out of state and something happened near the tail end of before completion, before it was right before it was almost done, and the sale fell through and so on their home.

Speaker 2:

Yes, Okay.

Speaker 2:

And so, oh, this is the one you told me about. So your friend the builder which is very commonplace I talk to builders all the time that go through this your friend the builder was building a custom home and you know custom homes take a little bit longer. But even if they take six months, which is pretty fast to build a home, often here in the mountains, you can be a year, you can be 18 months for a bigger custom home. So you know what. What can happen, joe, to hold up that timing on your deadline.

Speaker 3:

I mean obviously you're speaking for a friend here, not yourself, right? Well, um, I mean, just look at the natural disaster we just had. You have stuff like that. You have supply chain stuff. We've had big shortages of drywall, for instance, plumbing components.

Speaker 2:

You told me about that after the storm, so talk about the drywall a little bit. The problems, I mean, these are real-life problems that are going on right now.

Speaker 3:

That was a few years ago, but you had to call and reserve it a few weeks ahead of time.

Speaker 2:

You couldn't just go pick up enough drywall to to start your house. Well then, you've got the different types of drywall, so a lot of people wouldn't necessarily know that you've got the thinner dry. I mean, tell us about the stretch board.

Speaker 3:

You have five, eights.

Speaker 2:

You have moisture resistance, so it's not just, you can't just go to lowes or home depot and pick up any old drywall, right, you've got to get the right stuff for the right job, right. So, and then we had the port closures recently. I can't believe that didn't hold up some of the appliances and things coming in. Have you ever had a holdup with appliances?

Speaker 3:

I have I think cabinets were probably my worst ones Like if there was a damaged cabinet and you would wait oh, that'll be six to eight weeks where a forklift jabbed through your base cabinet. So then you can't put the marble tops on, then you can't get the, so everything's delayed.

Speaker 2:

yes, it's a chain reaction and you can't order those things in there. And the chain reaction starts when you're building a home with the people you're building a home for, 80 or 90 percent of them are selling the home and sometimes they're selling the home in a different state, so you don't know if they again have they used. You know sally down the street not sorry if you're a realtor called sally, I'm not poking here, it's just but you know a lot of people just work with their friends and don't look at the experience piece we're. We're in almost everywhere in the country now. We're in a slowing market. So it's just just what happens.

Speaker 2:

Good old Clermont-Juglar, 1860 economic cycle seven to 11 years. So we expect this decline in prices now for the next three and a half to five and a half years. They slowly decline and then they go back up again and history tells us that whatever it's worth today, in 10 years time it's going to be worth a lot more. So people say well, you know, I don't believe you that the economic cycle goes on in between. It's been going on since 1860. Don't believe anybody that's telling you oh, we're protected here. We're a really special market. Have you ever heard that, joe?

Speaker 3:

Sure have. It's hard to imagine what rents are going to be 10 years from now, isn't it?

Speaker 2:

Oh, what rents are going to be 10 years from now, isn't it? Oh my gosh, yeah, really Well. And rents people always say well, rents are outrageous here, and I saw one the other day that was $3,500 a month, which sounds like a lot right For a three bedroom house. However, that same house, if you were to buy it, would be $550,000, $600,000. So a $600,000 mortgage.

Speaker 2:

rents should always be a little bit more than the mortgage payment right, Exactly Because you've got all the utilities, you've got the upkeep cost, you've got everything, you've got the insurance, you've got everything else that goes on with the house. So they always say actually, go on 1%. So for investors let me put it this way For investors who are purchasing a home for a rental, they always say use the 1% rule. So, on the example I just gave, let's say a $600,000 home that rent should be $6,000 for the investor to make any money.

Speaker 3:

It'd make Dave Ramsey have a heart attack.

Speaker 2:

It would make Dave Ramsey have an absolute heart attack. So hence, you know, investors want to buy homes under 300,000. Good luck with that in many markets in the country. So you've got these big investor groups now buying homes, even like single people investors, all these courses. I mean they might be married, but you know what I mean. They're not part of a big group, not single. In that way they could be part of a couple and just not part of the big group, not single. In that way they could be part of a couple and just not part of the big group you have. You know, I know people here who are buying uh houses in in the middle of the country, for example, because the middle of the country tends to be an awful lot cheaper. You still buy a house for two hundred thousand dollars, a big house for two hundred thousand dollars, overlooking a pond. You know it's amazing. So you know, just just watch that.

Speaker 2:

It's very, very common when you're a builder you know we're talking about timing and market challenges for custom homes it's very common when you're a builder for these delays to come in. We had the recent port closures. We had cabinets. I think you're exactly right. The cabinets are the big one. Materials are sort of out there in terms of port closures and you know, covid or hurricanes or something like that, but then it recovers, whereas cabinets very, very common. Somebody makes a mistake, especially less experienced builders. It's all coming back to experience again. If you make one mistake and you're two inches off, that could be a domino effect or chain effect. Did you call it a chain effect?

Speaker 3:

Chain effect. I guess it is what you want to do with. That is when you order. Hopefully you can find a line of cabinets that can be quickly replaced if there's a problem.

Speaker 2:

That's what I always check on. Critical right yes, often that's with local, because it happened to me the last house I built. Yes, they had four of them damaged out of 16 or whatever it was, and they got damaged in the delivery.

Speaker 3:

They had the same electrician that we were talking about earlier with the six pack. He was driving the forklift at the cabinet plant. And he wasn't a very good forklift operator.

Speaker 2:

There's always one right, and these are like high-end, nicer quality cabinets too, so would you recommend always going with a local cabinet builder or somebody that, or somebody that has a fast yeah, well, these weren't local.

Speaker 3:

I guess they were still shipped in, but they were. They had a fast replacement thing, got it. Three days is what it took to replace them.

Speaker 2:

Well, you know, I've had luck with Lowe's in the past and they have four or five different lines of cabinets and they've often said to me you know, this one is local, so if there's any issues, the delivery is so much faster. You can get it in two or three weeks instead of the six or eight or 12 weeks, and that changes everything. So if you're remodeling your house, maybe for a sale, then think about that. A lot of people like oh, we've got to change out the kitchen, you know, change out the countertops. So your average weight is going to be six to 12 weeks on the cabinets, your average weight on the countertops. That's going to be a good month, right?

Speaker 3:

It can be. Yeah, it depends if your stuff is in stock and how many kitchens your countertop guy has lined up on average, though, what would you say?

Speaker 2:

I know two to three weeks for me right now, well, that's fast.

Speaker 3:

They basically come in and do a template yes of everything. And then they fabricate everything, bring it back and put it in so you're a builder.

Speaker 2:

I've, over the years, I've remodeled 42 and obviously I'm not a builder. I wouldn't say I don't know what I'm doing, but I don't have anything like the experience you have. So I can say, as a homeowner doing it, then I would double that time for the countertops to come in. So you've got to think about that if you're selling your home. Or, of course, you can always use cash CPO, where we can get the majority of your equity within 70 days, we can get you out in your new place and then we basically flip it for you. Of course, because we're doing so many, we're a bit more like Joe in that we've got the shorter times and, quite honestly, we're not always replacing cabinets and things like that. You know we're doing a remodel, we might just be putting the countertops on, but we know the people where we can get it in two weeks instead of the six to ten weeks that you're normally waiting and all the money's up fronted, you don't have to do anything and then people walk into your home and it looks a whole lot better. So, yeah, it's very common for builders not to be able to hit that timing and I've seen it time and time again, honestly. I was talking to a builder a few weeks ago who said yeah, you know it's commonplace and it's very frustrating for everybody involved.

Speaker 2:

So you've got the person who's building the home and they're especially especially if this is your dream home. This may be the first home you've built. In fact, probably 60 to 70 percent of the people building a home if it's a custom home. Even if it's not a custom home, you know something's being built in a neighborhood and it's one of six different styles that you can have. This may be the first one you've ever built. It's nerve-wracking. Have you ever found that, joe, with customers who are doing a big remodel or a new home build? Are they stressed?

Speaker 3:

Oh yeah, all the time.

Speaker 2:

Are they calling you constantly?

Speaker 3:

It gets overwhelming during the course of the house. You know I can't get.

Speaker 2:

I'm sure.

Speaker 3:

And then they have to keep making decisions, and not every homeowner is gifted in you know, choosing colors or materials or anything else or subcontractors won't tell them about pitfalls and stuff they should avoid. They'll just get in and do their job and things happen. Or they won't clean their mess up, or they'll assume that somebody else is supposed to do this and the homeowner doesn't know a lot of times.

Speaker 2:

So you've got all that stress going on and, at the same time, two-thirds or more of you have a home to sell so that you can close on your new build. So, even though you've got a GC who said he's the best thing since sliced bread, and you know he builds more homes than anybody else I mean everybody's going to tell you this. Right, we're going to come on to the sales Pat in just a little bit. In one of our stories, everything's perfect. Things naturally go. Bit in one of our stories Everything's perfect. Things naturally go wrong in terms of the timing. And the vast majority of you have to sell your home while you're getting on a plane and flying back and forward, maybe, or driving a long way, or even driving down the street, you know, but you're going back and forward meeting with your builder. How often do you meet with clients when you're building a home? And I know you're going to say as little as possible.

Speaker 3:

As little as possible. A lot actually.

Speaker 2:

Is it weekly, though, or?

Speaker 3:

Absolutely usually for me.

Speaker 2:

I mean you want to come in and see what's going on. Right, it's like, oh, the cabinet's in, yet it gets really exciting. Imagine the faces of the people who are building the home when you say of the people who are building the home when you say sorry, johnny, the forklift driver put his forks through the cabinets and they've got to rebuild them. How disappointing is that. What do you do if you've already got your home listed Right?

Speaker 3:

Right.

Speaker 2:

That's terrifying right. You head to the ABC store, you head to the ABC store like all the builders on your project. No, just kidding, of course, of course.

Speaker 1:

Yes, absolutely, just kidding.

Speaker 2:

So Joe's kidding anyway, because you're a teetotaler, right, joe?

Speaker 3:

I'm drinking carbonated water right now.

Speaker 2:

Well, he is, it's true. What is that? Let me see it.

Speaker 3:

Coconut, pineapple, it's true.

Speaker 2:

What is that? Let me see it Coconut pineapple. He's drinking coconut pineapple fizzy water. Are you a real builder?

Speaker 3:

Now hand me the vodka over there.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we don't know. Well, we heard him crack it. We heard him pop it earlier, so we know it's truthful and I can see him and he hasn't got anything in it, I promise. So you know it's a stressful time when you're building a home, the builders. You're building a home, the builders. You're meeting with the builder all the time. So normally what happens is which I think is very sad the builder is you know. So there's a lot of builders who said they'd have it ready for Thanksgiving, right now, and now they're saying it'll be ready by Christmas.

Speaker 3:

Nobody does anything over the holidays. Building-wise, they might say they're going to. But typically your subcontractors vanish and then there's that too I know a lot of supply places are closed as well yes, of course, and you're not necessarily building that in.

Speaker 2:

So, um, you know, I know it's the same with a lot of real estate teams around the country. Now I've got the team leaders going to me. I just, you know, I've got all these people want to buy or sell a home and they're calling us and we can't keep on top of all the calls that are coming in. I know for me I'm getting so many requests for cash offers right now. If you want a cash offer on your home and this is a full market value cash offer anywhere in the country actually you can call 828-333-4483. We'll talk you through the process. There's no obligation, the first thing we do. So call in 828-333-4483. Give your address. We'll put it in for approval for you so that we're not wasting any of your time. That will tell you whether you get approved or not, and it's pretty simple. You get the vast majority of your equity off the bat, so you don't have to have any showings, you don't have to fix anything up, you don't have to go through all that stress. No sign outside, no nosy neighbors saying oh, where are you going? What are you doing?

Speaker 2:

I had a client who used it. They had a business locally and they didn't want to advertise to all the people they were supplying locally. It was a B2b, a business to business, that they were selling their home. So it's private, you don't have anybody traipsing through your home, you don't have to keep it show ready and um, we, we buy it out, basically, and you still have full control. We talk with you all the time and we get somebody like joe in who's a gc fully licensed.

Speaker 2:

We do everything from a deep. It could just be a deep clean. It could just be be that you're not there with all your you know anybody. That is, if you think about it. If you're staging your home for sale, you probably wouldn't use your own furniture to do that. I'm not being rude about your furniture. It's just that from when you bought it, even five years ago, things have moved on, so you want it to look current. If you've had it, for I just did one recently that had wallpaper up in the bathroom nobody puts. Well, you've got the new wallpaper, but that's. That's a whole different thing. Most people don't put wallpaper in the bathroom anymore it had the old, had the old.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I'm sure you're doing that in your new modern home. Actually there is, you know, wallpapers actually become fashionable again, but it's 45 a45 a roll minimum. It's insane. I remember when you should buy it for $2 and 50. That's a whole other story. So just the fact that you're not there with your furniture and your pets and just the inconvenience of having to make that call every time Can you show it at 10 o'clock? And the logistics of the buyers you know, know they're going back to Florida tomorrow.

Speaker 2:

All that goes away out the window poof, and even a deep clean and just sprucing it up and making it ready to go. Maybe we'll paint it. Maybe we'll spend two, three thousand dollars painting the interior, something like that. Maybe we'll just clear out all the stuff and have it looking all fresh and clean. It could be that little can easily get you 5, 10% more for your home, which means that two thirds of our sellers get more than with a traditional sale. But they don't have any of the hassle. It works the same for the builder CPO. You can see more about this at buildercpocom. That's builder CPO like certified pre-owned buildercpocom. So what we do? So builders are telling their clients hey, clients, hey, listen, you don't have to go through all that stress where you don't know when to list your home. And you know, unfortunately the deadlines do move sometimes. You know you can't help it. I mean, joe, I'm sure you can't help it. It's not your fault most of the time if you're not absolutely hitting can't control the weather you can't control the weather.

Speaker 2:

You can't control materials. You can't control the weather. You can't control the weather. You can't control materials. You can't control staff. Sometimes you know there are things that happen where you can't get it exact. But do you know from your CO your certificate of occupancy when they're getting in Two weeks before? Do you know what that deadline is? Can you hit that deadline?

Speaker 3:

When you get close to the end, you can hit it Okay so you can hit that deadline 14.

Speaker 2:

So 99% of the time you can hit that deadline 14 days out. Is that about right?

Speaker 3:

Upper 90s, yeah, and 90s, I guess 95%.

Speaker 1:

I mean you're a very honest guy 95.3.

Speaker 2:

95.3% of the time, so upper 90s most of the time, unless some weather comes in we didn't know about. There's always things that can happen, guys. Obviously, the vast majority of the time you can hit that deadline and actually, even if you didn't, it wouldn't cause a problem with this, because what we do 14 days out, you press that easy button. So the people who you're building the home for press that easy button. They're going to get up to 70% out, which is the majority of their equity. The HELOCs, home Equity Lines of Credits are paid off. The mortgage is paid off if they've got any, or they release all that cash. Now they can buy your new home and everybody out there is going oh, it's just like a cash shuffle. We can get anybody to buy a house at 70%. No, that's not what it is. So on average, you're going to get a future check of 20 to 50% when the home is sold. That's why two-thirds of our sellers make more money and yet they don't have to go through the showings and the fixing up and they don't have to pull out of Joe's contract or Joe's friend. I know you were talking about a friend there. You don't have to pull out of the contract because you can't sell your house and what's more.

Speaker 2:

The stress involved in that is just miserable. I know I've got a really good friend and we're going to do a show together and talk about this. I've got a really good friend in the real estate industry who is under contract on her home. She's moving next Thursday. What a nightmare. I'm clearing out my home. It's as if I'm moving right now. You're about to do it, joe. It's not fun, is it? Definitely not home. It's as if I'm moving right now. You're about to do it, joe.

Speaker 3:

It's not fun, is it definitely not?

Speaker 2:

is it I mean? What about? As much fun as picking out colors for me, right yeah, and the fun thing is that the new house that Joe is building, you could actually have the opportunity to buy his as well, which is absolutely incredible, and he's got all that extra land that goes with it, and your, your home, is under construction, the other one is under construction, the other ones, uh, yours is further along, I'd say, and you've got beautiful tip. What do you call that tin that you have on the ceiling?

Speaker 3:

um. You can call it um re. What's the word I'm looking for? I'm having some brain flatulence, yeah reutilized re-possessed, re-possessed yeah.

Speaker 2:

It's definitely possessed. Joe's whole house will be possessed by you.

Speaker 3:

It has a lot of rustic stuff like that in it. The rust You've got barn wood. You've got barn wood trim in the kitchen, laurel branches.

Speaker 2:

The laurel branches are incredible.

Speaker 3:

I've never seen anybody put them in the side of the steps before, where it looks like they're growing out of the steps. That's incredible. Where did you learn to do that?

Speaker 2:

um, just seeing them do it around town a little bit and and just experimented with it on my own and it's incredible. So there's all the laurel branches going up the steps and you've got a full owner suite on the main level. But there's still time to put your finishes on that one. And, like I said before, uh, if you just tuned in, this is a whole estate. You've got joe's house. How big is it, joe? About 2 000 square feet all finished off.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, there's a room upstairs that's unfinished um, so it'd be 2200, I think 2200, and then you've got at least two more, if not four more homes that can be built in the front and this is not high density, beautiful views. It's only 30 minutes from town, overlooks Duck Pond, so it's going to be called On Duck Pond. You've got a little tiny house that's already there, almost finished off. You've got the new modern house overlooking the pond from the other side, on 13 acres in totality. So you've already got three homes to go in. And if you want to build more, you can, and Joe will build them for you and he builds them fast and you're super cheap, right, joe?

Speaker 3:

Well, yeah, for free, almost no really. I have a lot less overhead than a lot of these big companies.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's pretty cool when you can find a local builder that has the kind of experience that Joe has, that's built hundreds. How many hundreds of homes do you think you've built, joe?

Speaker 3:

I mean turnkey. I haven't built hundreds and hundreds, but I've worked on definitely probably over a thousand, I'd say. Wow, we built a lot of houses when I was a teenager In three different states, Framing at the beach yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so Virginia Beach, florida and in North Carolina. So what a wealth of experience. So if you're thinking about building a home, just remember there's lots of things that go into that and take the stress out of selling your home. You don't have to think about listing it or imagine. So, oh my gosh, when you're moving never mind when you're building a new home or not imagine running back and forward to the builder, like it's exciting and scary at the same time. So, joe, you're gonna say things like you know, joe, I just I don't know if it's too late to change it. Tell me if you ever heard this before. Joe, I don't know if it's too late to change it. Uh, I know we were going to do the backsplash. Later, however, I saw something in a magazine where it's got a nice stainless steel hood and the and the uh, the quartz goes all the way up the back behind the hood and you say what, joe? Have you ever heard anything like that?

Speaker 3:

whenever they come up with last minute changes like that, you say you have to pull out your trump card. Unfortunately, that's against code. No, I don't.

Speaker 2:

And if you so, if you did it, where suddenly you've got this magnificent you know, you've seen it on pinterest, you've seen it on facebook, happens all its worst builders worst enemies. What have you been asked for?

Speaker 3:

I had a client um, I built, I built two houses for them. I built one in 99 and I built one about four years ago for them. And anyway, in 1999 it was pretty painless. They didn't have pinterest.

Speaker 2:

By the time 2019 rolled around, um, they had pinterest and I was getting bombarded with oh I mean hundreds of pictures over the weekend especially well, the worst thing is they're not even saying um, listen, I've chosen the granite at the local store and you know we've got, for example, we've got a granite store here that must have I don't know, 300 slabs in it of all different types, and it can get a little bit overwhelming you know, for me especially, Well, yeah, for anyone really and you go in you don't necessarily know the difference between quartz and quartzite and silestone and granite and marble and you fall in love with this thing.

Speaker 2:

You're not thinking about the pattern or how it runs in it, or the difference between a manufactured stone.

Speaker 3:

Men are not thinking about that at all. Men are thinking look over there and say there's some gray granite. And then all of a sudden you get told that there's brown undertones and look at the gray why are you laughing, randy? I glaze over, man, I just glaze over when I look at wallpaper, books or material, sewing material oh, we have to hold it next to the paint color, the tile and the flooring and the cabinets yeah and then all of a sudden you see smoke coming from the top of my head.

Speaker 2:

But the funny thing is I bet you both appreciate it when it's all put together oh yeah okay so the way to do this, guys, when you're when you're doing this and and probably all the ladies are out there going well, we know that's stupid is go, don't worry, go buy your samples. So go to your tile store, get most of them, will sell you one tile.

Speaker 3:

And wait out in the truck while the woman goes inside.

Speaker 2:

Oh my gosh, I'm glad I'm not saying this. Go to Lowe's and Home Depot. Lowe's, here, locally, have the best selection of tile, I can tell you by far, and you can buy one tile. So do all your research. You know, even if your builder's building it and they've got you know, I don't know their supplies they want to use or anything else, that's fine. So go and buy your big tile. Go and buy your little tile. Look at all the ideas on Pinterest. Heck, you can call me, I'll talk you all through it.

Speaker 2:

This is one of my most fun things to do. I've done at least 40 kitchens in my life and this is a hobby. What's wrong with me? So you buy your big tile, buy two or three of them, buy two or three little tiles that you like, that go with the big tiles and then go to the granite store and put it all together. Or start if you're in love with, go with the thing that you're in love with that makes the big splash. That is the most expensive.

Speaker 2:

Listen, you can get cabinets of any color and you can get neutral cabinets, you can get white cabinets, you can get black cabinets, green cabinets, blue cabinets You've got a hundred choices of cabinets, your cabinets will work. I like to choose the granite or the quartz or the quartzite or the silestone or any of the other brand names you want to give it first and because what you know then is what color tones you're going with. So maybe you're going, you know, a very common one right now is the big white quartz. That's a man-made material. That means you get much bigger sheets. It's square on the outside, it's antibacterial, easier to fill than granite, so you don't have to keep sealing it all that good stuff. And it's in between silestone and which is also quartz. But whatever, I'm using brand names here.

Speaker 2:

So when you've chosen that very often you can get a sample. So you can get your sample and take it to the tile places with you or paint places you know. Go out to Sherwin-Williams or wherever you're getting your paint from and take the samples with you. Get a tub, get a plastic tub or you know a reusable shopping bag or something. Put all your tile in it, start collecting your paint samples. Make sure it's in the back of your car, because every time you know, when you're thinking about building a house or you've got that contract in, start right away, You're always going to one of those hardware stores, right, you're always going to the tile shops because suddenly you're obsessed with building your house. So every time you want that bag with you. So you've got all your samples.

Speaker 2:

So if you, for example, if you can't get the, maybe you can't get the piece of granite or silestone or quartz or whatever you're using, use quartz, it's just, it's the thing to use, just saying, um, so you, you've got your tile. Now you've got your paint colors. Your paint colors match your tile. Go in back to your granite or your quartz, hold them all up together in the same light. So people say, oh, it's got to be in the light of the house. No, as long as you're using the same light wherever you're at it, doesn't matter, right, because all the colors are going to work together. Now, if you've got other things you're bringing in, like chairs or something you're trying to match, that that's a different thing. But just make sure you carry them all around in a bag, put them in the back of the car, because you're not necessarily planning to go on these trips, right, you? But you're always at the hardware store.

Speaker 3:

Just take it in with you and go. It's probably a great way to get some tasks done around the house by your husband. You can give him a choice Either go color shopping with me or reshingle the roof.

Speaker 2:

No, you probably take him to carry the bag for you because it gets a bit heavy by the time you've got all this tile and everything else. You can take the tile back if you're careful with it. As long as it's not five years later and they don't stock it anymore, you can get all that money back. So it's not costing you anything to do that. It's cost of money, unemployed, I guess.

Speaker 2:

I'd rather get a root canal, oh my gosh, you guys. Well, anybody here can take me and I'll help you if you don't have anybody to help you, but it makes all the difference in the world when you get that right. A real easy way to do it is take a base color from your granite. So if you've got a white or an off-white one, have your white or your off-white match the background of your quartz. So, in other words, if you've got a white quartz with the like marble band in it, like that charcoal gray or lighter gray band in it, go with the white, make it. Make your living space as neutral as possible, as neutral as possible.

Speaker 2:

Why Add color with the furniture? Add color with the cushions, the pillows, the accents. Now you know what you want to. Don't add color with your furniture. Get neutral furniture as well. Here's why Add color with all the accents. They're much cheaper to change when you get bored of your lime green or your orange or your peach or your gray or your blue, or when it's not in fashion in five years' time or you just want to change. Gentlemen, have you ever had ladies in your life that feel like a change every season?

Speaker 3:

Every five minutes you mean.

Speaker 2:

Every five minutes. What about you, randy? Ever had a lady in your life that that felt like a change, or a man in your life, for that matter, that felt like a change? So you can't yeah but he's like, and you're like what's wrong with it? It works. My avocado fridge still works. What's the problem? Right?

Speaker 3:

you can't use camouflage on the walls, because everything would match with that. That's what what I was thinking.

Speaker 2:

Here's the thing with camouflage. You put that on your pillows. You put that on your bedspread.

Speaker 2:

You put that, so you put your color on anything under $100. Or you know, yes, there's things outside of that. You may have some beautiful piece that you bought years ago, like I've got a beautiful glass octopus that I bought in Miami 20 years ago. I just can't let it go. And it's blues and greens and gorgeous big thing. Actually, I don't even know where it is. I think someone stole it, never mind. But you're always going to have things like that. But think about the things you can buy that are bright colors for under $100. You can go to TJ Maxx and get your vases. I'm realizing you guys don't know what I'm talking about. Sorry.

Speaker 3:

No, this is like Venus and Mars. I've never been shopping for vases, believe it or not.

Speaker 2:

So TJ Maxx you can get glass plates and dishes, you know, for the holidays, or whatever, or pillows. Like you guys don't use pillows, which is very strange because you're always laying about on the couch watching football. If you want a shot of orange, now you can have a shot of orange, or, you know, I don't know Clemson orange, Is it Clemson orange?

Speaker 3:

They definitely have an orange.

Speaker 2:

Okay, or your.

Speaker 2:

Carolina blue or whatever it is. You know All your stuff that you can add for under $100,. You can change that in a year if you're bored with it. Maybe you're supporting a different team or you're just trying to get a nice pop of color in. Maybe you're in a high end house. It's the same thing. You want everything neutral and you know, have it in the same shades and the same tones. All right, I can see you're all bored with me talking about that. It also makes everything look much higher end when you do that and you don't have all these clashing colors and everything works together and your furniture I'll take your word for it.

Speaker 2:

Your furniture will last much longer. I know for you guys your furniture lasts forever.

Speaker 3:

Hey, I've only had mine since 78, so I don't know.

Speaker 2:

Especially when you meet a bachelor that's had his furniture handed down by his parents. Couple grandparents might be more fun, you know, but they came over from germany and it's all like yeah see two five gallon buckets and a board makes a coffee table that'll never go out of fashion actually the best advice I've ever been given was by a lady and it's kind of structured my whole life.

Speaker 4:

Khaki goes with everything. Oh my gosh, khaki goes with everything khaki pants, khaki walls, khaki, whatever khaki goes with everything that might be a little 1980s at this point.

Speaker 2:

Was that a while ago, randy, I think.

Speaker 4:

I still have some of those pants was first wife. Well, we won't go into that.

Speaker 2:

Well, and we say what did your first wife die of?

Speaker 4:

She wouldn't drink her.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, talking back right. So story three, the uninsulated edition, without a GC in charge. These are going to be speedy stories, Joe, because, can you believe, as usual, we've got eight minutes left.

Speaker 3:

No way, yeah, okay, you believe, as usual, we've got eight minutes left. No way, yeah, okay, in this one, um, I basically have. I have a friend of mine that does jobs, basically little tune-up jobs yeah for the realtor.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and he went over and there was a big crack in the upstairs drywall and anyway they they wanted a general contractor sign off that there was nothing structural yeah, and when I went probably they were under contract because it happens sometimes and somebody wants a gc to write a note saying there's nothing wrong with this thing that's been done and it was a big attic room, ran the entire length of the house, probably 40 foot by 12 or whatever.

Speaker 3:

It was like a game room or something yeah, and so it's one of those with the where it has the five foot wall on the outside, then up at an angle, then a little flat spot, and when I stuck my head behind through one of the access doors there's no insulation behind the knee wall. Then I look up, going up the angle, and you can just see space between the rafters. There's no insulation there.

Speaker 2:

So the whole thing is built uninsulated.

Speaker 3:

Well, at daylight you can see the space. You can just see the space. Oh my gosh, I had a flashlight but the whole thing. And then it's pretty obvious it was done without permits at that point because besides that there was other, like a square hole cut out for a round ceiling fan fixture.

Speaker 2:

Oh no, Insulation hanging out, oh like oops and stuff like that, and they didn't change it.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and she was pretty heartbroken when I was, so I don't know what they ever did.

Speaker 2:

Could they get the insulation in after that, Because you're basically talking about an A-frame.

Speaker 3:

I mean you can try to take a stick, but you're supposed to have a baffle if you're using traditional insulation up against the plywood. So space. So that'd be really hard to do. I don't know what they end up doing. You'd have to pull all the ceiling off.

Speaker 2:

Basically, or maybe the buyers decided not to buy it, or maybe they said sorry, the contractors are too busy right now and we can't get a letter and they bought it anyway. That's the scary thing about all of this. You've really got to make sure that you're building a home or buying a home with somebody you trust. This is where Certified Pre-Owned comes in. If you've got a home and you're selling it, go to your agent right now. Well, call me if you're not listed yet, of course, 828-333-4483.

Speaker 2:

This is Rowena Patton on the Real Estate News Radio Show. If you've just tuned in, we're on story four and, by the way, if you just tuned in, you want to hear this whole thing realestatenewsradiocom. Realestatenewsradiocom you can listen live and you can listen to the podcast. This podcast, randy's amazing. He gets it up about 10 minutes after it's broadcast and it's the same thing. If you're listening on the podcast and you want a friend to listen, you can either share it with them, if you know how to do that, or just tell them to go to realestatenewsradiocom. So story four. We've only got five more to go in the next five minutes. Story four the 15-foot basement blender. I love this one with the homeowner as GC.

Speaker 3:

So basically around here you guys might have seen, when you basically cut a house seat there's a flat spot for the basement and maybe, if it's, yeah, we have no idea what you're talking about. Thanks, so they cut out another flat spot for the garage, but nobody measured the height difference.

Speaker 2:

Oh no.

Speaker 3:

So by the time they get in footings and stuff, there's a 15-foot difference instead of 10-foot or under. You're supposed to stay under with standard block and they ended up having to put five foot of gravel in the whole basement and put the slab on that, which I don't even know if that's structurally sound to start with, but not only that it's a lot of money.

Speaker 2:

Most places in the country you can be your own GC. So just get a GC on side that you know and love and say listen, I do want to do this myself. However, I want some help. That's the worst-case scenario. But at least you've got somebody there to just check on you along the way, because that's a $20,000 mistake at least, even if it's structurally sound. So just be careful. We're not saying you know Joe's here. So we're not just saying hire a GC because it costs you money. We're saying because you can make some really scary mistakes when you've got experience. It's like selling your home on your own. You don't know what you don't know. I've sold over00, over 3500 properties like. That gives you some experience and you know the pitfalls.

Speaker 3:

So story five I love this one sales promises versus builder knowledge this is a company I worked for for about a year in virginia um long time ago, early 90s. I moved back there for a year or so and this guy guy that, um, the owner of the company was a super nice conservative Christian guy. He was very honest and his salesman was the exact opposite, so he would say anything or do anything to get a job and they they sent me out to one job to put down a quarter inch plywood on the nail it down to the floor, and it's about an hour drive. I drive all the way out there with a load of plywood and it's the house with the slab foundation. So it was a concrete floor.

Speaker 2:

Oh Lord.

Speaker 3:

So I call him and say what do you guys want me to do with this plywood now, Because I got over?

Speaker 2:

here, it's a concrete floor, you can't nail it yeah.

Speaker 3:

And I can just hear him right now you don't think you know everything. Just put it down anyway, nail it down anyway. You can't not drive a staple in the concrete.

Speaker 2:

And he insisted that you glue it down and he tried to tell me to glue it down.

Speaker 3:

And I refused and ended up. They went back and tore it up with razor blades. You scrape it up.

Speaker 2:

Oh my gosh.

Speaker 3:

Because it was half off. In some spots you can go over linoleum. That was the day when everybody was using linoleum versus the laminated stuff now.

Speaker 2:

And he said just because you've never done it before doesn't mean to say it can't be done, unbelievable. And then we've got six. So it's this oh, this is a different salesperson, this is a different salesperson, but I want to get to the next story on him too. And we've got a whole two minutes left. So, um, story six. The lowest bid isn't always the best.

Speaker 3:

The lowest bid isn't, definitely is not the best, and neither is paying your contractor before they're done. And this particular case, uh, this guy outbid me by a lot of money. It was over $10,000. And this guy outbid me by a lot of money. It was over $10,000, and this was 30 years ago, basically. And so when they did it, they started the job and somehow talked the guy into paying them the whole amount.

Speaker 2:

Oh my gosh, as they were just starting.

Speaker 3:

And they did put up a couple walls, but that's it, and then they left.

Speaker 2:

Oh my gosh, and they were out.

Speaker 3:

All that many Went back to Tennessee, just like in the country. Song.

Speaker 2:

And then we've got the girder that couldn't hold the no permits in GC. What about that one?

Speaker 3:

That was one that evidently is. When I first moved up here in like 90, and this guy had his brother-in-law, which you know the deal with it never hire your brother-in-law to build stuff for you and he had his girder, for his crawl space was one two-by-eight laid flat, and so whenever anybody walked across it it would move down by like an inch and creak and pop.

Speaker 2:

All right, We've got to finish up very quickly with whatever it takes to sell the job baby. Same salesman as before.

Speaker 3:

Same salesman as before. Baby that guy. So he would basically give unrealistic time goals and say whatever it took. He would get a check from the homeowners, tear their kitchen cabinets out and then tell them they'd be back together in a week or so. Knowing the whole time, it was six to eight weeks to get your cabinets delivered.

Speaker 2:

That's the kitchen.

Speaker 2:

You're without your kitchen and those people lived in the house and they sent you back in to make the homeowners feel better yeah, and after I left with a black eye, you know no, I didn't they were, I would try to smooth things over, but let's see if we can get the last one in the sleeping area fire the attic that was turned into the game room without proper planning. So where you uh it was, it was the one where you were working next door. I remember you telling me about it and they didn't. They were doing the game room upstairs without the planning and they asked you to sign off on it in the in the top and you wouldn't, because you're a gc and you value your license more than that. All about experience, guys. Give us a call 828-333-4483, realestatenewsradiocom realestatenewsradiocom, to listen to the podcast. Thank you so much, joe.

Speaker 1:

You're welcome. This has been the Plain English Real Estate Show with Rowena Patton. Visit Rowena and post your questions at radioashvillecom or call her at 828-210-1648.

People on this episode

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Rowena Patton, NC, FL, DC, CA

Host
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Joe Shively, WNC / Virginia Beach / Florida

Guest