April 30, 2025 • 17 mins
In this episode, real estate broker Derek Bradley of Winning Team Realty and HVAC specialist Alexis Orozco from ORO Services Heating and Air provide essential guidance for first-time homebuyers navigating the Texas real estate market. They delve into practical HVAC maintenance tips and overarching real estate strategies, addressing Texas-specific challenges such as extreme heat and high energy costs. Listeners will gain actionable takeaways, including comprehensive checklists and effective negotiation tactics. The dynamic conversation alternates between the guests' areas of expertise, ensuring a well-rounded perspective on what to scrutinize during a home inspection.
Key Takeaways:
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HVAC System Evaluation: Understand the importance of checking the age, maintenance history, and type of refrigerant used in HVAC systems, especially given the Texas climate.
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Home Inspection Essentials: Learn to identify subtle signs of structural issues, such as uneven floors or doors that don't close properly, which may indicate foundation problems.
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Energy Efficiency Tips: Discover how programmable thermostats and proper insulation can lead to significant energy savings.
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Budgeting for Repairs: Get advice on setting aside funds for potential post-purchase repairs, including HVAC system replacements, which can range from $7,000 to $10,000 in Texas.
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Negotiation Strategies: Gain insights into how the condition of HVAC systems and other home features can be leveraged during price negotiations.
Whether you're a first-time buyer or looking to invest in Texas real estate, this episode equips you with the knowledge to make informed decisions and ensure your new home is both comfortable and a sound investment.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's move to Texas. My name is Mark Erickson. We
are joined today by Alexis Orozco of Oo Services Heating
and Air, that's ORO Services Heating and Air, and Derek
Bradley from the Winning Team Realty online at the winning
teamam DFW.com, the winningteam DFW.com. And Derek
Let's start with you. If a first-time home buyer is
(00:23):
all set with the financing, it is an exhilarating and
scary time. What are some of the things that a
first-time homebuyer really needs to watch out for?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Well, uh, first of all, going into the home, um,
they might want to look at some of what could be,
I would say plumbing issues, uh, starting out, and I
say that because a lot of people don't.
Look at those things. They don't go and flush toilets.
They don't check to see if the sinks are draining
(00:53):
properly and things of that nature. And that's just one
of those things when we're looking at a new home,
the main thing is plumbing, electrical, foundation, roof. That's where
we start. So I just want to point out that
a lot of people overlooked that plumbing piece.
Uh, for sure.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
When you're dealing with first-time home buyers, Derek, they're so
close to that dream. Do you find sometimes that people
are just in too much of a hurry to get
to that dream?
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Absolutely. Uh, a lot of times they're so eager, uh,
to get to that dream. Uh, not only do they
overlook
Items by just not knowing any better, but sometimes they
are willing to overlook some items because they're just that
eager to get into the home. So yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Alexis, especially in a place like Texas, uh, the heating
and the air conditioning system are, are so, so important
to people. What questions should first-time home buyers be asking
about that and some of the other associated systems in
the house?
It's a major thing. So initially when home buyers look
at the seller disclosure, they should look in the heating
(01:59):
section if it's gas or electricity or in the cooling section,
but people don't understand what's out there that the HVAC
systems can be so complex that they got to look
if it's a heat pump system when it comes to
being a system fully electric. That's major when it comes
to buying a home cause
The heat pump system will definitely lower your utility bill,
and you know, when first time home buyers get their home,
(02:21):
they spend a bunch of money and they're kind of
in a tight space, but they don't look like what
the monthly cost on the HVAC system can be or
will be. So they had to take close detail, talk
to the contractor, and get an inspection, and actually educate
themselves on what type of HVAC system that the house has.
So they can move forward on the transaction and feel
comfortable with the utility bills, maintenance, and etc. And Derek,
(02:45):
if you're on a walkthrough of a home, if there's
a hole in the wall somewhere, it's it's obvious, there's
a hole right there, I can see it. What what
are some of the things to watch out for when
when you're walking through a home that that might be
really kind of hidden or very, very subtle.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Yeah, one of the main things that I've come across is, uh,
sometimes the, you know, we could have some subtle signs
of that may be a little bit of a foundation
issue and that would be like, you know, the floors
being a little uneven. It's, you know, sometimes, like you
said before, the homeowners are so eager and they're just
looking around and enjoying the home. And so as I'm
(03:22):
walking through and I'm like, well, this floor over here
is a little uneven and I'm able to take a
step back and tell them it looks like it has
just a little bit.
a slant going and you can feel it if you
walk over in that direction. So I've had to bring
that to some homeowners' attention. That's just one of those
little subtle things that they don't really pay attention to
because they're busy, you know, just kind of walking through
the house and enjoying what they're seeing as opposed to
(03:43):
paying attention to those little subtle signs. And so uneven
floors is a big one. And then sometimes, you know,
doors don't close all the way, they're just opening and
going through, or sometimes the doors are left open.
You know, for the people to come in and view
the house, and so they never check by closing the
(04:04):
door of the seat, you know, so they don't realize
those doors don't close all the way. We may have
a little bit of a structure issue or there's at
least been some kind of settlement going on in this home.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Alexis, how about the heating and the air conditioning system?
What are some red flags? What are the things that
people need to be on the lookout for? I'm glad
you called that out. So, it's pretty basic. You can
look at the air vents. When you look at the
air vents, sometimes they're small in the system. So when
you look at the air vents, you see mold in
the in the air vents that could possibly mean that
(04:35):
the air ducts are not sealed up correctly or has
to lack insulation which causes condensation due to the attics
being so hot and you turn on the cold air.
You might cause mold and it could transfer all over
the system through the air ducts inside of the supply planning,
which is where the air distributes around the whole house,
and that could cause a lot of allergies for the client.
(04:56):
Derek talked about doors and and not being afraid to
sort of open and close doors just to to check
everything out. So Alexis, would you advise people to find
the thermostat or thermostats, as the case may be, and,
and turn the systems on and and see what happens?
Absolutely, yeah. I, I think it should be one of
the first things to do when you're looking at a home.
(05:17):
Turn on the AC system, turn on the heating, even
though you might be looking at the home at the summer,
you definitely want to see the heater's working. You don't
want to catch any pricing, catch you off guard once
you're in your home settled. So it's definitely a thing
to look at.
Arguably the HVAC system is one of the more expensive
things inside the home. How long should an HVAC system
(05:38):
last and, you know, at what point do you start
to say, hmm, maybe, maybe we should start looking at
replacing this? Sure. So here in the US pretty much
it's pretty straightforward. Auto manufacture, when it comes to rich
residential HVAC system, they come with a 10-year warranty on parts.
So pretty much after that, you're pretty much on your
(05:58):
own when it comes to making sure you do the maintenance, every,
every part of the system is working correctly. So once
Year 7, year 8 of the HVAC system hits, I
would recommend taking a close look at further evaluation on
the HVAC system. I might want to consider saving a
little bit of money for what's to come after that.
(06:18):
How about thermostats these days? There, there are so many
electronic type of thermostats out there. Do you, do you
recommend that technology for just about everybody?
Uh, not everybody. There, there's some most school people out there.
There's some people that's just like doing everything manually. They
can see everything, what's in front of them, and it's
pretty easy to manage, but there are some outside thermostats
(06:40):
that are called like AOBs that you can control with
your phone that can be pretty manageable, but it just
really depends on the system and what type of schedule
do you work with. How about the energy efficiency of
the home itself? How can Joe average?
Sort out that on a walkthrough. So going back to
the thermostats, there are some programmable thermostats that you can
start set the temperature to a certain degree and a
(07:03):
certain type of a day. So let's say you work
at an office job from 8 to 3, you can
set that thermostat to set up to a higher temperature
so we can have the AC system not running as much.
And when you're about to get home, get that system
on so you can have a
Cool house, but not having a high electricity bill. And Derek, uh,
(07:24):
based on what Alexis just said about uh 10 years
for the average life of the uh the system or
the warranty on the system anyway, if, if somebody's looking
at a home that has an HVA system that is
older than 10 years, should that be a flag for
maybe renegotiating some numbers?
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Well, that, that would depend, Mark, uh, just because the
system is, you know, maybe.
A little bit older or what is projected to be
the lifespan of maybe at that point, doesn't necessarily mean
that it will impact the home's value or
Uh, give us a little leverage. It just depends. If
that system is performing as it's supposed to, if it's
(08:06):
performing up to code, it's working properly. I mean, you
can walk in, you turn that thing on, and it's
blowing and that house is cold. It's doing everything that
it's supposed to do, it doesn't necessarily mean that we're
going to be able to negotiate a lower price because
it's an older unit. I mean, we cannot hold it
against the homeowner or something.
That may happen in the future as far as the
(08:28):
system may go down at some point, but no, we
can't do that. So as long as it's up to code,
it's performing, it's cool in the house like it's supposed to,
as well as the heating, doing what it is supposed
to do, then the home can pretty much hold its value.
We may want to look into some other things to
kind of have a safety net, but not necessarily would
impact the home's value if it's, you know, performing like
(08:50):
it should be.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
And the air conditioning portion of the HVAC system is,
is so important in Texas. Alexis, what are some things
that people should be looking for on the AC side
of things? I would recommend people looking at the refrigerant
that a system runs with.
So what a lot of people don't know, there's a
lot of refrigerants out there that HVAC systems run with,
and there's some outdated HVAC refrigerants that the government takes
(09:14):
out due to environmental reasons. And when that's the case,
when the HVAC system pops, it has a leak refrigerant
and he needs some
Specific type of refrigerant, for example, there's an older refrigerant
called R22. It could be really expensive to get, or
it might not even get um pretty accessible even for
an HVAC tech, just due to the fact that that
(09:35):
refrigerant might have been outdated years back and they stopped
manufacturing it. And so, what should a potential homeowner do
if they're they're looking at one of those systems that
uses that material? So I would definitely take it into
consideration if when it comes to shooting an offer at
the home, right?
You definitely want to consider that you might sooner than later,
(09:57):
we need a new HVAC system, cause the moment when
something happens to an older HVAC system, with that old refrigerant,
it might not be fixable. We've been talking primarily about
the the sort of the walkthrough of the home, the
interior features of the home. Derek, what about the outside
of the home, where when you get out of the
car, you're in the driveway, what should you be looking
(10:17):
at as you look at the home?
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Yeah, well, you want to start to pay attention, especially
if we're talking about a home where there's wood siding
and whatnot around the house. You want to start to
look at, you know, is there, is there any bowing
of the wood? Do we have dry rotic wood going
on around the house because an appraiser is gonna, gonna, uh,
Possibly spot that stuff too, hopefully if he's up on
(10:40):
top of it, but you definitely want to be looking
for things like that. And then sometimes you may see
where there's water coming off the roof of the house
and it's down the side of the house and it's
caused some kind of a discoloration on the side of
the house. So that lets us know that we may
have a leak coming from the roof or the gutters
are not in place properly.
Or there's some type of damage going on up there,
(11:02):
so we would definitely want to be looking out for
those things that could be a problem later on if
we don't address it right up front.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Typically, if somebody is buying a home and and they're
a first time buyer, they have in their mind, you know,
a few changes.
that are gonna be made. They're they're gonna repaint the
the interior, they're gonna, they're gonna maybe change the the
kitchen around that that sort of thing. What what are
some things that folks should reserve a little cash for
that are common things that kind of go wrong and
(11:31):
become issues after someone has bought a new home?
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Wow. Well, you know, I'm gonna go to the faucets
in the house. A lot of times, uh, there are
leaky faucets, sometimes you don't know. There's a leak going on.
I've experienced that personally. I've had toilets that have a
leak and you don't know until a stain shows up
on the ceiling in the garage.
(11:56):
and it's like, whoa. And so you got to watch
out for things like that because depending on the timing
of some of these issues, insurance won't cover it and
so the homeowner could be out of pocket. So you
got to watch out for things like that, prepared to
have to replace, you know, uh, leaky faucets. And sometimes
those little small appliances, if we
(12:17):
Got a home warranty, we can probably have some of
those things covered and help with some of the costs
on that when we have, uh, we have some small
appliances like the garbage disposal, uh, the dishwasher, those things
start to malfunction. So yeah, we want to make sure
that we're putting a little something aside for things like
that that may raise their head in the, in the future.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
And a Lexus, if somebody does encounter one of those
HVAC systems that uses that outdated coolant material, what kind
of money should they may be thinking about setting aside
in case they've got to replace the HVAC? Yeah, I mean, again,
I think very, very different ways depending on what type
of system the client's looking for.
(12:58):
But you range here in Texas from around $7000 to
$10,000 when it comes to replacing inside and outside system,
including labor. Again, it can vary when it comes to
having a system that you have gas, a heating gas
or electrical gas, or depending on the sewage, which sewage
is defined through efficiency in the HVACs, so.
(13:20):
It it varies again, but it usually doesn't scale more
than 100 for install. Derek, when you're taking first-time home
buyers through, uh, do you, do you find any commonality
between folks as to, as to what they pay the
most attention to and
What they're most concerned with?
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Yeah, a lot of people and especially here in Texas,
you know, that, that HVA that we're talking about, that's,
that's a big deal because, uh, it gets hot out here. So, yeah,
so we have a lot of people that's looking at that.
And then sometimes, you know, you look at, um, the,
the vents where the, the air is blowing from and
sometimes the homeowner just hasn't taken care of them.
(13:57):
And so people see that and they can see, you know,
that there's, you know, maybe dirt and stuff up there
and sometimes rust. And so that becomes an issue with
a lot of home buyers. They figure that there's something
wrong with the AC unit as a result of, but
not necessarily the case in all the time, but yeah,
that's one of those things that people kind of fixate
on when when we're looking at
Speaker 1 (14:18):
home. And that can be a relatively easy fix oftentimes
as well, right?
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Absolutely. First of all, we want to make sure the
unit is functioning properly and we do that by way
of having initially a home inspection and then having a
licensed professional, uh HVAC professional come out and confirm that
the system is working properly. And then from there, we
just need to get that those air ducts cleaned out
and get some new vents put over the air ducts and,
(14:45):
and we're good to go. So yeah, pretty easy fix.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Alexis, I actually, I'm in a business networking group.
With uh somebody who does what you do for a
living is an HVAC contractor and and he was telling
me the story of of a homeowner who lived in
a place for like 8 or 9 years and the
system had some smells and there were some problems and
yada yada yada and and he got in there and
and realized that the homeowner had no idea that there
(15:10):
was a filter on the intake that needed to be
changed every now and again and it had like 9 years'
worth of gunk on it.
Funny, that's funny. So yeah, I mean, I've seen that
happen a lot of times. It's pretty common, but what
I would look on towards solving besides changing the air filter,
what a lot of people don't know that there are
(15:31):
some fresh airs UV, which are air purifiers that you
put inside the system, and it has the UV light
that will kill any type of bacterial mold that might
grow inside the system and will purify the air.
And it really helps people out when they suffer from
allergies or have a newborn. Actually, I've actually had clients
to have them installed when they just had a newborn,
(15:51):
which will really help purify the air and it will
help maintain clean the house pretty clean, free from smell,
and free from allergies as well.
And as we uh close out here, Derek, we talked
about this early on, sometimes first time home buyers are
are so close to that dream and they're they're just
so emotional. What's your best advice for them to try
(16:13):
to control that and, and, you know, keep their eye
on the ball?
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Well, they have to go and look at the home
and just really kind of see what this home really
has to offer, looking at the potential that the home has,
what is the true condition of this home, looking at
it from a perspective of
You know, I am going to be bringing my family
here and so I need to make sure that we
(16:37):
have a good solid home and so you want to
hold on to the emotions. Don't fall in love with
the home just yet. Wait until it's yours and then
you can fall in love with it. But just take
a step back, see what, what the potential that the
home has, and then just decide, can you see yourself
living here?
And then you make a decision, uh, based upon that. No,
(17:00):
no emotions, don't, don't connect with you, oh, this reminds
me of grandma's house or this reminds me of this,
that and the other. That's not what you want to
do when you're looking at these homes, uh, for the
first time, especially because then you start to bring in
those emotions and it just kind of clouds the judgment
of those first-time home buyers. So I just say, look
(17:20):
at the potential of the home.
Decide whether or not you can see yourself living there
in the home, in the neighborhood, and does it meet
your family's needs.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Alexis Orozco Oo Services Heating and Air, that's ORO Services
Heating and Air, you throw that into Google, add the
word Texas to it, and you will find Alexis and
Derek Bradley, the winning Team Realty online at the Winningteam DFW.com.
Thank you for spending time with us.
And you guys.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
You're welcome. Thank you, sir.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
For let's move to Texas, I'm Mark Erickson.
Let's move to Texas. My name is Mark Erickson. We
are joined today by Alexis Orozco of Oo Services Heating
and Air, that's ORO Services Heating and Air, and Derek
Bradley from the Winning Team Realty online at the winning
teamam DFW.com, the winningteam DFW.com. And Derek
Let's start with you. If a first-time home buyer is
(00:23):
all set with the financing, it is an exhilarating and
scary time. What are some of the things that a
first-time homebuyer really needs to watch out for?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Well, uh, first of all, going into the home, um,
they might want to look at some of what could be,
I would say plumbing issues, uh, starting out, and I
say that because a lot of people don't.
Look at those things. They don't go and flush toilets.
They don't check to see if the sinks are draining
(00:53):
properly and things of that nature. And that's just one
of those things when we're looking at a new home,
the main thing is plumbing, electrical, foundation, roof. That's where
we start. So I just want to point out that
a lot of people overlooked that plumbing piece.
Uh, for sure.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
When you're dealing with first-time home buyers, Derek, they're so
close to that dream. Do you find sometimes that people
are just in too much of a hurry to get
to that dream?
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Absolutely. Uh, a lot of times they're so eager, uh,
to get to that dream. Uh, not only do they
overlook
Items by just not knowing any better, but sometimes they
are willing to overlook some items because they're just that
eager to get into the home. So yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Alexis, especially in a place like Texas, uh, the heating
and the air conditioning system are, are so, so important
to people. What questions should first-time home buyers be asking
about that and some of the other associated systems in
the house?
It's a major thing. So initially when home buyers look
at the seller disclosure, they should look in the heating
(01:59):
section if it's gas or electricity or in the cooling section,
but people don't understand what's out there that the HVAC
systems can be so complex that they got to look
if it's a heat pump system when it comes to
being a system fully electric. That's major when it comes
to buying a home cause
The heat pump system will definitely lower your utility bill,
and you know, when first time home buyers get their home,
(02:21):
they spend a bunch of money and they're kind of
in a tight space, but they don't look like what
the monthly cost on the HVAC system can be or
will be. So they had to take close detail, talk
to the contractor, and get an inspection, and actually educate
themselves on what type of HVAC system that the house has.
So they can move forward on the transaction and feel
comfortable with the utility bills, maintenance, and etc. And Derek,
(02:45):
if you're on a walkthrough of a home, if there's
a hole in the wall somewhere, it's it's obvious, there's
a hole right there, I can see it. What what
are some of the things to watch out for when
when you're walking through a home that that might be
really kind of hidden or very, very subtle.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Yeah, one of the main things that I've come across is, uh,
sometimes the, you know, we could have some subtle signs
of that may be a little bit of a foundation
issue and that would be like, you know, the floors
being a little uneven. It's, you know, sometimes, like you
said before, the homeowners are so eager and they're just
looking around and enjoying the home. And so as I'm
(03:22):
walking through and I'm like, well, this floor over here
is a little uneven and I'm able to take a
step back and tell them it looks like it has
just a little bit.
a slant going and you can feel it if you
walk over in that direction. So I've had to bring
that to some homeowners' attention. That's just one of those
little subtle things that they don't really pay attention to
because they're busy, you know, just kind of walking through
the house and enjoying what they're seeing as opposed to
(03:43):
paying attention to those little subtle signs. And so uneven
floors is a big one. And then sometimes, you know,
doors don't close all the way, they're just opening and
going through, or sometimes the doors are left open.
You know, for the people to come in and view
the house, and so they never check by closing the
(04:04):
door of the seat, you know, so they don't realize
those doors don't close all the way. We may have
a little bit of a structure issue or there's at
least been some kind of settlement going on in this home.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Alexis, how about the heating and the air conditioning system?
What are some red flags? What are the things that
people need to be on the lookout for? I'm glad
you called that out. So, it's pretty basic. You can
look at the air vents. When you look at the
air vents, sometimes they're small in the system. So when
you look at the air vents, you see mold in
the in the air vents that could possibly mean that
(04:35):
the air ducts are not sealed up correctly or has
to lack insulation which causes condensation due to the attics
being so hot and you turn on the cold air.
You might cause mold and it could transfer all over
the system through the air ducts inside of the supply planning,
which is where the air distributes around the whole house,
and that could cause a lot of allergies for the client.
(04:56):
Derek talked about doors and and not being afraid to
sort of open and close doors just to to check
everything out. So Alexis, would you advise people to find
the thermostat or thermostats, as the case may be, and,
and turn the systems on and and see what happens?
Absolutely, yeah. I, I think it should be one of
the first things to do when you're looking at a home.
(05:17):
Turn on the AC system, turn on the heating, even
though you might be looking at the home at the summer,
you definitely want to see the heater's working. You don't
want to catch any pricing, catch you off guard once
you're in your home settled. So it's definitely a thing
to look at.
Arguably the HVAC system is one of the more expensive
things inside the home. How long should an HVAC system
(05:38):
last and, you know, at what point do you start
to say, hmm, maybe, maybe we should start looking at
replacing this? Sure. So here in the US pretty much
it's pretty straightforward. Auto manufacture, when it comes to rich
residential HVAC system, they come with a 10-year warranty on parts.
So pretty much after that, you're pretty much on your
(05:58):
own when it comes to making sure you do the maintenance, every,
every part of the system is working correctly. So once
Year 7, year 8 of the HVAC system hits, I
would recommend taking a close look at further evaluation on
the HVAC system. I might want to consider saving a
little bit of money for what's to come after that.
(06:18):
How about thermostats these days? There, there are so many
electronic type of thermostats out there. Do you, do you
recommend that technology for just about everybody?
Uh, not everybody. There, there's some most school people out there.
There's some people that's just like doing everything manually. They
can see everything, what's in front of them, and it's
pretty easy to manage, but there are some outside thermostats
(06:40):
that are called like AOBs that you can control with
your phone that can be pretty manageable, but it just
really depends on the system and what type of schedule
do you work with. How about the energy efficiency of
the home itself? How can Joe average?
Sort out that on a walkthrough. So going back to
the thermostats, there are some programmable thermostats that you can
start set the temperature to a certain degree and a
(07:03):
certain type of a day. So let's say you work
at an office job from 8 to 3, you can
set that thermostat to set up to a higher temperature
so we can have the AC system not running as much.
And when you're about to get home, get that system
on so you can have a
Cool house, but not having a high electricity bill. And Derek, uh,
(07:24):
based on what Alexis just said about uh 10 years
for the average life of the uh the system or
the warranty on the system anyway, if, if somebody's looking
at a home that has an HVA system that is
older than 10 years, should that be a flag for
maybe renegotiating some numbers?
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Well, that, that would depend, Mark, uh, just because the
system is, you know, maybe.
A little bit older or what is projected to be
the lifespan of maybe at that point, doesn't necessarily mean
that it will impact the home's value or
Uh, give us a little leverage. It just depends. If
that system is performing as it's supposed to, if it's
(08:06):
performing up to code, it's working properly. I mean, you
can walk in, you turn that thing on, and it's
blowing and that house is cold. It's doing everything that
it's supposed to do, it doesn't necessarily mean that we're
going to be able to negotiate a lower price because
it's an older unit. I mean, we cannot hold it
against the homeowner or something.
That may happen in the future as far as the
(08:28):
system may go down at some point, but no, we
can't do that. So as long as it's up to code,
it's performing, it's cool in the house like it's supposed to,
as well as the heating, doing what it is supposed
to do, then the home can pretty much hold its value.
We may want to look into some other things to
kind of have a safety net, but not necessarily would
impact the home's value if it's, you know, performing like
(08:50):
it should be.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
And the air conditioning portion of the HVAC system is,
is so important in Texas. Alexis, what are some things
that people should be looking for on the AC side
of things? I would recommend people looking at the refrigerant
that a system runs with.
So what a lot of people don't know, there's a
lot of refrigerants out there that HVAC systems run with,
and there's some outdated HVAC refrigerants that the government takes
(09:14):
out due to environmental reasons. And when that's the case,
when the HVAC system pops, it has a leak refrigerant
and he needs some
Specific type of refrigerant, for example, there's an older refrigerant
called R22. It could be really expensive to get, or
it might not even get um pretty accessible even for
an HVAC tech, just due to the fact that that
(09:35):
refrigerant might have been outdated years back and they stopped
manufacturing it. And so, what should a potential homeowner do
if they're they're looking at one of those systems that
uses that material? So I would definitely take it into
consideration if when it comes to shooting an offer at
the home, right?
You definitely want to consider that you might sooner than later,
(09:57):
we need a new HVAC system, cause the moment when
something happens to an older HVAC system, with that old refrigerant,
it might not be fixable. We've been talking primarily about
the the sort of the walkthrough of the home, the
interior features of the home. Derek, what about the outside
of the home, where when you get out of the
car, you're in the driveway, what should you be looking
(10:17):
at as you look at the home?
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Yeah, well, you want to start to pay attention, especially
if we're talking about a home where there's wood siding
and whatnot around the house. You want to start to
look at, you know, is there, is there any bowing
of the wood? Do we have dry rotic wood going
on around the house because an appraiser is gonna, gonna, uh,
Possibly spot that stuff too, hopefully if he's up on
(10:40):
top of it, but you definitely want to be looking
for things like that. And then sometimes you may see
where there's water coming off the roof of the house
and it's down the side of the house and it's
caused some kind of a discoloration on the side of
the house. So that lets us know that we may
have a leak coming from the roof or the gutters
are not in place properly.
Or there's some type of damage going on up there,
(11:02):
so we would definitely want to be looking out for
those things that could be a problem later on if
we don't address it right up front.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Typically, if somebody is buying a home and and they're
a first time buyer, they have in their mind, you know,
a few changes.
that are gonna be made. They're they're gonna repaint the
the interior, they're gonna, they're gonna maybe change the the
kitchen around that that sort of thing. What what are
some things that folks should reserve a little cash for
that are common things that kind of go wrong and
(11:31):
become issues after someone has bought a new home?
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Wow. Well, you know, I'm gonna go to the faucets
in the house. A lot of times, uh, there are
leaky faucets, sometimes you don't know. There's a leak going on.
I've experienced that personally. I've had toilets that have a
leak and you don't know until a stain shows up
on the ceiling in the garage.
(11:56):
and it's like, whoa. And so you got to watch
out for things like that because depending on the timing
of some of these issues, insurance won't cover it and
so the homeowner could be out of pocket. So you
got to watch out for things like that, prepared to
have to replace, you know, uh, leaky faucets. And sometimes
those little small appliances, if we
(12:17):
Got a home warranty, we can probably have some of
those things covered and help with some of the costs
on that when we have, uh, we have some small
appliances like the garbage disposal, uh, the dishwasher, those things
start to malfunction. So yeah, we want to make sure
that we're putting a little something aside for things like
that that may raise their head in the, in the future.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
And a Lexus, if somebody does encounter one of those
HVAC systems that uses that outdated coolant material, what kind
of money should they may be thinking about setting aside
in case they've got to replace the HVAC? Yeah, I mean, again,
I think very, very different ways depending on what type
of system the client's looking for.
(12:58):
But you range here in Texas from around $7000 to
$10,000 when it comes to replacing inside and outside system,
including labor. Again, it can vary when it comes to
having a system that you have gas, a heating gas
or electrical gas, or depending on the sewage, which sewage
is defined through efficiency in the HVACs, so.
(13:20):
It it varies again, but it usually doesn't scale more
than 100 for install. Derek, when you're taking first-time home
buyers through, uh, do you, do you find any commonality
between folks as to, as to what they pay the
most attention to and
What they're most concerned with?
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Yeah, a lot of people and especially here in Texas,
you know, that, that HVA that we're talking about, that's,
that's a big deal because, uh, it gets hot out here. So, yeah,
so we have a lot of people that's looking at that.
And then sometimes, you know, you look at, um, the,
the vents where the, the air is blowing from and
sometimes the homeowner just hasn't taken care of them.
(13:57):
And so people see that and they can see, you know,
that there's, you know, maybe dirt and stuff up there
and sometimes rust. And so that becomes an issue with
a lot of home buyers. They figure that there's something
wrong with the AC unit as a result of, but
not necessarily the case in all the time, but yeah,
that's one of those things that people kind of fixate
on when when we're looking at
Speaker 1 (14:18):
home. And that can be a relatively easy fix oftentimes
as well, right?
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Absolutely. First of all, we want to make sure the
unit is functioning properly and we do that by way
of having initially a home inspection and then having a
licensed professional, uh HVAC professional come out and confirm that
the system is working properly. And then from there, we
just need to get that those air ducts cleaned out
and get some new vents put over the air ducts and,
(14:45):
and we're good to go. So yeah, pretty easy fix.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Alexis, I actually, I'm in a business networking group.
With uh somebody who does what you do for a
living is an HVAC contractor and and he was telling
me the story of of a homeowner who lived in
a place for like 8 or 9 years and the
system had some smells and there were some problems and
yada yada yada and and he got in there and
and realized that the homeowner had no idea that there
(15:10):
was a filter on the intake that needed to be
changed every now and again and it had like 9 years'
worth of gunk on it.
Funny, that's funny. So yeah, I mean, I've seen that
happen a lot of times. It's pretty common, but what
I would look on towards solving besides changing the air filter,
what a lot of people don't know that there are
(15:31):
some fresh airs UV, which are air purifiers that you
put inside the system, and it has the UV light
that will kill any type of bacterial mold that might
grow inside the system and will purify the air.
And it really helps people out when they suffer from
allergies or have a newborn. Actually, I've actually had clients
to have them installed when they just had a newborn,
(15:51):
which will really help purify the air and it will
help maintain clean the house pretty clean, free from smell,
and free from allergies as well.
And as we uh close out here, Derek, we talked
about this early on, sometimes first time home buyers are
are so close to that dream and they're they're just
so emotional. What's your best advice for them to try
(16:13):
to control that and, and, you know, keep their eye
on the ball?
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Well, they have to go and look at the home
and just really kind of see what this home really
has to offer, looking at the potential that the home has,
what is the true condition of this home, looking at
it from a perspective of
You know, I am going to be bringing my family
here and so I need to make sure that we
(16:37):
have a good solid home and so you want to
hold on to the emotions. Don't fall in love with
the home just yet. Wait until it's yours and then
you can fall in love with it. But just take
a step back, see what, what the potential that the
home has, and then just decide, can you see yourself
living here?
And then you make a decision, uh, based upon that. No,
(17:00):
no emotions, don't, don't connect with you, oh, this reminds
me of grandma's house or this reminds me of this,
that and the other. That's not what you want to
do when you're looking at these homes, uh, for the
first time, especially because then you start to bring in
those emotions and it just kind of clouds the judgment
of those first-time home buyers. So I just say, look
(17:20):
at the potential of the home.
Decide whether or not you can see yourself living there
in the home, in the neighborhood, and does it meet
your family's needs.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Alexis Orozco Oo Services Heating and Air, that's ORO Services
Heating and Air, you throw that into Google, add the
word Texas to it, and you will find Alexis and
Derek Bradley, the winning Team Realty online at the Winningteam DFW.com.
Thank you for spending time with us.
And you guys.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
You're welcome. Thank you, sir.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
For let's move to Texas, I'm Mark Erickson.
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