10. People You Should Know: Ashton Hines, Real Estate for the Financially Tired

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_04 (00:00):
Like if you think about the like HGTV stupid shows
where like some person whoshouldn't be buying a house,
like they they like follow themaround like Mary loves a house
by the the beach and herbudget's you know three hundred
dollars a month.
You're like Mary is drinking,you know like there's this
doesn't exist, right?

SPEAKER_00 (00:28):
You're listening to premeditated opinions because
yes, we thought about it, andthen we said it anyway.
I'm Pamela.

SPEAKER_02 (00:34):
And I'm Josh, and we are two people who somehow share
a brain and decided to weaponizeour brains with microphones.
Each week we unpack anythingfrom politics and religion to
carpool dread and everything inbetween.

SPEAKER_00 (00:47):
You know, it would really help us a lot if you
followed us on Instagram andYouTube.
Giving us a like and a follow isprobably the best thing your
thumbs will do today.

SPEAKER_02 (00:56):
We are not experts.
We are just way too confident inour own opinions.
With all that being said, let'sget started.
Well, welcome back toPremeditated Opinions.
We are thrilled to be joinedtoday by my good buddy Ashton
Hines.

SPEAKER_04 (01:08):
Thanks for having me.
Hey man.
What's up?

SPEAKER_02 (01:11):
So Ashton is uh a longtime friend of mine.
Uh, we actually met in churchenvironments years ago.
Um, and he is a uh real estateprofessional here in North
Texas.
You're gonna hear a lot aboutthat.
He also has a podcast called theReal Estate Heavyweights that he
hosts with his uh podcastco-host uh Tavis Westbrook.
Yep.
And um uh we want to make surethat that gets on all of your

(01:32):
radars as well.
But uh yeah, man, we this is a asegment that we call people you
should know.
And so we're bringing in uh justfolks within our community that
are good humans, are a fun hang,are interesting to listen to,
and ideally have something tooffer um the community that we
tend to try and talk to.

(01:53):
Yeah.
Um, and so one of the thingsthat that's been sort of a
common um thread for us, uh, wewe tend to tackle a lot of stuff
that is centered around themillennial experience because
that's a category that both ofus fall into, and and that's by
and large the category of peoplethat we end up speaking to.
And so one of the things that isa common centerpiece of

(02:15):
conversation for us is realestate stuff.
And uh, you know, we really arenot super well versed in the
nuts and bolts uh of how allthis stuff works.
And there's also just a lot ofstereotypes around real estate
in general, and uh I I want totalk through a couple of those

(02:36):
and see how real they actuallyare.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (02:39):
Um but well, and I think that real estate has
changed a lot, even in the lastcouple of years, last five
years, 10 years.
I mean, from the time when webought our first home to when we
moved here, I mean, things hadchanged drastically.
So definitely curious to hearthoughts on on kind of the
current landscape and thingslike that.

SPEAKER_02 (03:00):
Yeah, but why don't you give us a little bit of your
background, just kind ofintroduce yourself and how you
got into real estate in thefirst place and all that stuff,
and then we'll we'll we'll takeit from there.

SPEAKER_04 (03:07):
Well, we skipped over how we met.
I'll I'm gonna back up just alittle bit because please do.
I I know you've talked a littlebit about your worship
experience.
So I for a while I sang inchurch.
I never officially no, that's Idid something in Louisiana.
So I sang in Louisiana.
We moved to town.
Uh, we moved here, we've beenhere a little over, let's see,
12-ish, 13 years, something likethat.

(03:30):
Uh, we were going to a church upin Frisco, it was like super
polished.
I was like, I want to, I want tosing.
Well, I I went and tried, Idon't remember I ever told you
this, but they had this likewhole YouTube audition thing.
I had to like record a video.
What?
Yeah.
Wow.
I had to record like this wholevideo, and I was like really
nervous.
This is like pre-me doinganything on YouTube or anything.

(03:50):
I was not, this is not my thing.
But I was recording and I did, Isent it in, I waited, I waited,
I waited, never heard anything,right?
So like I reach out.
Then I got this weird response.
Basically, it was like I thinkthe Lord's calling me in a
different direction.
It was like, I was like, theLord's calling me not to be
here.
Yeah, that's what that's theLord's calling me to do.
So I had some friends that weregoing to y'all's new

(04:13):
contemporary service at St.
Andrew's.
So they're like, Oh, you need togo, you need to meet this guy,
Josh.
They just started contemporary.
I'm like, okay, cool.
So we went, I went there.
Oh, this is neat.
So I then I contacted you, andI'd come off this like
elaborate, you know, first roundof you know, American Idol type
thing.
And you're like, come up to myoffice at this point, at this

(04:35):
time.
I go there, I'm nervous becauseI'm like, Dallas is different.
Like they're high level, right?
You come in there, you have yourguitar, you're like, hey, tell
me about yourself.
We talked a little bit.
All right, well, just sing alongwith me on this one.
You probably played, I don'tknow, like a chorus.
And I sang along, you're like,You're good.
All right, I'll I'll book youin.
Yeah.

(04:55):
And then I was like, really?
And then I'm walking out, he'slike, Oh, I don't know if I told
you this, it's a paid position.
I'm like, This is amazing.
And I was like, So that was likehow I got in on there, and of
course, so it doesn't take muchto impress Josh, is what you're
saying.

SPEAKER_00 (05:10):
But this is what I've taken away from this.

SPEAKER_04 (05:11):
No, that was that amazing.
That's what you should takeaway.
Yeah, okay.
He heard the voice of an angel.
He said, Hey, I have to havethis guy.

SPEAKER_02 (05:18):
It was like a mixture of Fergie and Visa.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (05:20):
Yeah.
That was hard.
That was my introduction.
Of course, then you know, youhave the green room and you hang
at the church, and that's whenyou get to know people.
Oh, totally.
We had such a cool mix of peopleduring that time.
Oh, yeah.
Super high-level professionalmusicians.
I definitely felt out of placethere.
And you know, I would step onthe stage every three weeks or
so, and I did fine, but youwould inevitably mess up.

(05:43):
And those guys like can they cancover up everything, right?
You know, like you would neverknow it because these guys are
they're the best.

SPEAKER_02 (05:51):
That's that's actually how I designed my whole
career.
I just surround myself withpeople who are all a lot better
than me, yeah, that can pivotwhen I screw something up.
Yeah, and that's that and that'show I have done everything
professional in my life for thelast 20 years.

SPEAKER_00 (06:04):
That is definitely your amo.

SPEAKER_02 (06:06):
Yeah.
I don't I've if I'm the worstmusician on stage, I've done it
right.
Um, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (06:11):
Well, if for me at work there, I had a great time.
I always sort of knew my place,and I just enjoyed being around
like really good, really goodpeople.
So I appreciate it.
It was like a make-in-wish thingor something.
I was like, I'm not really surehow it worked out, but like I
never y'all never had a bigreveal, like, oh, good job,
buddy.
But like I did have a good time.

SPEAKER_00 (06:32):
There was not enough pumping circumstance for him.
Right.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (06:35):
Well, you know, we tried to do Disney World and he
didn't want to do that.
So we were like, well, let'schurch.

SPEAKER_04 (06:39):
Let's let him sing every once in a while.
That'd be a cool thing.

SPEAKER_02 (06:41):
But no, we we uh we became friends um th throughout
that time.
And then really one of thethings that that really
galvanized not just myfriendship with you, but sort of
that that whole group ofmusicians we were working with
was COVID.
Yeah, because there was a seasonduring COVID where we were just
some of the only people that wesaw were these other musicians

(07:04):
because what we were doing atthe time, and I don't want to
get us too far off track here,but what we were doing at the
time was we were pre-recordinguh church services and just
releasing them online onSundays.
And so we would come up and wewould social distance and we
would mask and all of that.
Um, and then we would record allthe music for a service and we'd
go change clothes, and we'd comeback and record all the music

(07:26):
for the two weeks from now, gochange clothes, and we would do
two or three weeks at a time.
And so we'd end up spending likeall day together, and outside of
that, we're all pretty secluded,you know.
And and so that became thecenterpiece for a lot of these
relationships that was reallycool, and it it really I don't
know, it just made us all prettyclose.

(07:47):
And then actually, I rememberlike you were one of the first
people I knew who actually gotCOVID.
I was I was early on.
I was worried about you, man.
I was worried about me.
Yeah, I I remember getting thatphone call.
It was like it was because I hadonly seen him a few days prior,
and um he he called me up.
He's like, Man, I just testedpositive.
And I and he was the firstperson I knew who had tested

(08:09):
positive.

SPEAKER_04 (08:10):
I worked in the healthcare company, I was the
first person in our company, inour big division.
That so that was a weird time.

SPEAKER_02 (08:15):
It was a weird time, it was bizarre, and I was just
like, Man, I hope you live andstuff, yeah.
Um, you know, which you know,obviously it worked out.
It worked out, yeah, it workedout.

SPEAKER_04 (08:23):
So um, but yeah, so you know, I've known you through
there.
So a little side note too.
I've done I do I do a podcast,123 episodes.
I do my research for y'all.
Okay, so I do come bearinggifts.
Okay, okay, I I don't want toinvite myself, you know, but I'm
gonna invite myself.
Okay, so here's you you teasethis, you tease this on one of

(08:45):
your recent oh no.
Oh man.
I knew nothing about this.
So look, I'm a tequila person,right?

SPEAKER_00 (08:53):
Yes, now it all makes sense.

SPEAKER_04 (08:56):
Now I've cut back, I've cut back recently.

SPEAKER_00 (08:58):
Okay, that's fair.

SPEAKER_04 (08:59):
Uh it's it's I'm I'm dropping weight, that's the only
real reason.
Uh and you know, Nate Bergazi,like he he tells everyone he
used to weigh 400 pounds just soeveryone's always proud of him,
no matter what he weighs.
So like that's kind of where Iam.
Like, like until recently Iweighed 310, right?
So I'm like, I'm on my way down.
So I'm until I get that a littlebit, but I'll be back.
Okay.
But so I want to contribute toyour tequila tasting.

(09:22):
Yeah.
You're welcome to try it withoutme.
You can do round one without me,whatever.
But at some point, I'm invitingmyself back.
Oh, absolutely.
Tequila tasting.
All right.
So wild commons a very good,very good tequila.

SPEAKER_00 (09:35):
Oh, we do like the reposadas.

SPEAKER_02 (09:37):
Yeah, yeah.
So this is a wild common uhreposado tequila.
Um this looks brilliant.

SPEAKER_04 (09:43):
I don't really know a lot about this brand, but
yeah, it's so I don't know a tonabout tequila, but basically,
this is the I'm gonna go get theglass high end.
This is on the higher end of theoh wait, he said he can't drink
it yet.
Okay, um, you know, you haveyour single estate, you have
blends, all this stuff.
So this is not necessarily asingle estate, but it's uh the

(10:05):
way they prepare it and age it,it's like super well thought out
and complicated.
It comes from a distillerythat's well known.
So anyway, I think you'll enjoyit.
I genius.
I I definitely love it.
It's uh it's kind of this thisearthy, grassy tequila.
I'm just gonna throw that outthere.
Yeah.
Uh, these are the notes that youuh you know, you're supposed to
be able to.

SPEAKER_02 (10:22):
So we we have actually uh so for starters,
thank you so much.
How amazing setting the ticketwith the rest of your guests.
Exactly.
If you want to be a guest on ourpodcast, this is your first
class ticket.
Like, yeah, that that's thatactually, I I don't we could
talk more about how we want toorganize that, but I mean if
someone wants to supply tequilafor tequila Tuesday, then I

(10:45):
think we can figure out a littlebit of conversation.
But but thank you very much.
This this will certainly go togood use.
Um, and yeah, we we will haveyou back on for sure.
Yes, uh, and we can tell moremusic stories.

SPEAKER_05 (10:58):
Yes, well, good.

SPEAKER_04 (11:00):
Uh, but yeah, so um uh let me let me answer a few of
the the basic real estatequestions.
So my background in real estateis I I kind of ish grew up in
the the realm of real estate.
I uh have a brother-in-lawthat's a broker down in Austin.
I worked for him for a littlewhile.
I've been in the business alittle over five years.

(11:21):
I blended my career as atherapist, uh physical therapist
assistant for four years, becamean agent.
I've been full-time for almost ayear and a half, a little over a
year.
Um, I worked for Dustin for awhile, I worked for Kelly
Williams now.
My parents and Austin flippedhouses for several years, um,
kind of down right before my dadpassed.

(11:41):
That's what they were doing.
So I just knew that world.
Dustin and Megan flip, he's abroker.
And then way, way back when Iwas in college, I went to
Pepperdine, and one of my bestfriends was in a real estate
family.
And I had read Rich Dad, PoorDad one summer, and it was on my
radar.
Then we graduated and Lawrenceis was doing some investing.

unknown (12:03):
Okay.

SPEAKER_04 (12:03):
And he invested in flips in Bakersfield and in
Dallas from LA from a distance.
And his boots on the ground guyin Dallas was this guy named
Tavis Westbrook.
I had no idea who it was, right?
So I started following Tavis onon Facebook just because
Lawrence knew him.
We invested a very small amountof money into what he was doing.
And I just kept track of thisguy in Dallas.

(12:25):
And so then when we moved here,and I knew I wanted to flip and
I wanted to be involved, Istarted reaching out.
It took me about three times ofmessaging him on Facebook until
he finally said, like, yeah,let's grab lunch.
And we became friends.
I bought a flip from him.
He helped me complete a coupleflips that I was not doing great
in.
And our podcast was born out ofthat.

(12:45):
It was sort of like this mentormentee scenario of him teaching
me how to flip homes, sellhomes.
He's been in the business 20years, done a ton, right?
Um, it's morphed into a littlebit more peer to peer because
I've I've grown my businesssome.
I went full-time, I've hadenough sales to feel good about
what I'm doing.
And, you know, we've completedfour flips.

(13:07):
We haven't done any in over ayear.
Uh, but you know, I sold y'all'shouse.
We've we've interacted a lotover real estate.
Um, and so you know, fastforward, now I'm going through a
personal transition, recentlydivorced.
Uh, I was recently the realtorfor my now ex-wife buying a
house in Bluisville.
That's a weird experience.

(13:27):
So, you know, if you wantsomebody who's cool, I wasn't
gonna bring that up.
No, listen, I haven't talkedabout it on our podcast yet.
Oh, really?
But um breaking news.
Yeah, I mean, you know, it'sbeen final for several months,
and we just have been low-keyabout it.
And I've been waiting to sellthe house to kind of finalize
things, but the house is takingforever to sell, and at some
point you just kind of have tolive life, you know.

(13:48):
But if we're if we're gonna talkto other people about, you know,
scenarios in life and uh workingthrough problems, I mean, that
they just come up, right?

SPEAKER_02 (13:57):
Well, they they do, and just to not to distract us
too bad, but like I've done soso Krista and I built our first
home and then we sold that, andwe've basically done three like
buy and sell real estatetransactions in the course of
our marriage.
And one of the thoughts thatI've had multiple times is like

(14:18):
it's kind of unavoidable tobuild a little bit of real
relationship with this personwho's helping you with such a
major transaction in your life.
Like, like from for the vastmajority of people, the purchase
of a home is the single largestfinancial commitment you are
ever gonna make for the vastmajority of people.
And it involves substantialdetails about your personal

(14:40):
life, including things you donot normally share with people.
Like you're disclosing income,you're disclosing credit scores,
you're disclosing things thatlike are windows into some
pretty personal stuff.
And so it really starts tomatter who you're working with
because you want to feel alittle bit safe and not judged

(15:01):
inside those circumstances, andand like you're working
alongside somebody who istrustworthy, who is a good
communicator, who, you know, isnot going to look at your
circumstances and be judgmental.
And you know, because it's it'svulnerable.

SPEAKER_01 (15:17):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (15:17):
And and so, like, how how has that been for you?
Like, as you've navigated,especially some of those early
transactions, you were kind ofgetting into the business.
Like, did you have anyexperiences early on where you
were just where you became awareof some of that vulnerability?

SPEAKER_04 (15:31):
Yeah, I mean, very early on, I worked with a young,
young guy, and he I didn't knowmuch about him.
And getting an insight into hisfinances actually is what taught
me how to flip my second house.
And this is one of the things Iwas gonna talk to you about.
Is there's a lot of creativeways to get into houses.
But when someone has to open upthe books and say, like, this is

(15:53):
how I'm gonna pay for this, andthis is like it's not just a
here's my check, like the bankwants to know where that check's
coming from and you know, creditand all that stuff.
And so getting to know him andgetting the door open to some of
the possibilities early on wasamazing.
And so we can talk about himdipping into this 401k and that
sort of thing.
But you know, a very vulnerablepart of I've worked with several

(16:16):
home health level clients, a fewof them were my patients, but
you know, families of friendsand stuff like that that are in
that phase of going to assistedliving, that sort of thing.
And there's a lot of emotiontied into mom not being able to,
you know, open cans anymore athome, and they need she needs
assistance, she's got to moveover here, or the memory she's

(16:38):
left the back door open threetimes, or like all those things.
So not only are you dealing withthis family that is having to
come to grips with mom's not thesame anymore, but now it's like,
do we have the right paperworksigned so I can sign a title and
all the lawyer stuff?
And can we get the money that weneed to pay for assisted living?
And what do we do with all thisstuff?

(16:58):
Like it's a lot.
And um, I had a family last yearthat sold five acres in a an
original house in Keller, it waslike 50 years old, they'd been
there forever.
And it was like they weren'thoarders necessarily, but they
like to collect, you know, it'slike they didn't collect they
didn't collect like milk jugsand stuff, but I mean it was a
lot of like a lot of stuff, andit took us months to work

(17:21):
through just the emotions ofokay, we need to get rid of
this.
Now what?
Okay, now we we're gonna have anestate sale.
Now they're gonna come the junkpeople are coming.
You know, it's like we helpedsell cars and stuff.
It's like there's so muchemotion that's and you realize
one, you realize in real estateit's not always about the money.
Sometimes it's about ease andjust helping someone through the

(17:44):
process.
It's not how much is what's themost I can make out of this, or
how's the fastest I can sell it.
Those are factors.
But a lot of times real estatetransactions just have it's it's
about solving problems.
Maybe it's a money problem,maybe it's a time problem, maybe
it's a you know convenience.
They're you're answering allthese questions.
So yes, I think I bring a lot ofvalue to situations, but also I

(18:07):
completely understand thecurrent market and where people
are kind of on the sidelineswanting to get in, and it's
emotional.
It's like I want I think I wantto own real estate, I'm supposed
to own real estate.
My financial advisor says it's agood idea.
The American dream is to ownreal estate, like can I jump in
or what's wrong with me if Ican't figure it out?
There's like social stigma if Idon't own a house in some

(18:29):
circles.
Uh but so like working throughsome of that too and educating,
I and I enjoy that because Idon't have all the answers, but
I think there are pathways toowning, but there's also you you
told me something actually thatno one's ever told me before.
When you sold your house uhCimarron Trail, yeah, yeah on

(18:50):
Cimron and you y'all rented, yousaid we're at a place in life
where we just need some controlover the budget, we just need
some predictability.
And if you have a mortgage andyou have a house, that
mortgage-ish is the most or theleast you're gonna spend that
month.
Okay, because you have maybe theair conditioner goes out, maybe

(19:13):
then you need a new roof, maybethe pool, like it goes up from
the mortgage.
If you rent something, that'sbasically the most you're gonna
spend that month on housing.
It's very finite because ifsomething goes wrong, you call
someone.
And so there is a freedom tothat lifestyle.
Um and I know for y'all it theconversation was we want to

(19:33):
accomplish some things, we wantto travel, we want to get an RV,
we want to do some things, andthis is how we're gonna
accomplish it.
And the sacrifice is going to alittle bit of a smaller rental
that we can't completelypersonalize, but it's going to
accomplish some life goals thatfor now, those were more
important.

SPEAKER_02 (19:51):
Yeah, yeah.
And, you know, the for us, itwas everything you just said,
and plus, you know, Krista waswanting to make a little bit of
a professional transition on topof all of that.
I mean, there were there were somany factors that were playing a
role in us wanting to make amove.
And we were in a home that wasbuilt in the mid-70s that had
just been non-stop work.

(20:12):
I mean, we had just every singlemonth it felt like we were just
dumping money into this house.
And we loved the home.
You'd been there loads of times.
I mean, it was a gorgeous place.
Um, and it was very wellappointed for what our specific
needs were.
But at the end of the day, youknow, some of what we um, some
of what we we really wanted toaccomplish as a family was kind

(20:34):
of being stalled by the factthat we were continuing to dump
money into this thing that justwe couldn't seem to break free
from.
And so yeah, um, and it washonestly, it was one of those
situations where one day I justkind of caved and texted you and
I was like, hey man, can youpull comps on on our house and
and just like let's just seewhat's even possible?

(20:56):
Yeah.
Um, and then you did a killerjob of of getting it listed and
and sold and worked with apretty difficult realtor on the
other side of that.
That was an interesting one.
Yeah, that's what it was.

SPEAKER_04 (21:06):
Um, but it makes you grow.
Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (21:10):
It was it was funny.
It was so I will tell this storybecause I I've always enjoyed
this.
So the home that we sold had umhad keyless entry on every door.
So every door had a keypad.
And I have been extremelyupfront about this from day one
that that all of the entries arejust keyed entries.

(21:31):
I'm sorry, are are they have nophysical keys?
It was just a number pad.
And so um we end up getting to apoint where like we we have a
buyer, everything is goinggreat.
It it's the day of closing.
And I've told him, I don't knowhow many times, that there we
don't have physical keys, wejust never had them made.
We've always only used thenumber pads.

(21:53):
Even when I showed up to thetitle company to do the closing,
they asked for a physical key,and I and I told them, Oh, it's
there is no physical key, it'sjust a number pad, and I gave
them the code.
And even the title companydidn't bat an eye.

SPEAKER_01 (22:06):
They're like, okay, cool, yeah, no worries.

SPEAKER_02 (22:08):
And and then later that same day, I get a phone
call from Ashton, and he's like,Hey, your buyer's freaking out
that there's no physical key,and and they're worried that
like someone's just gonna breakinto the home and that they
can't lock the doors and allthat.
I was like, dude, I've livedthere for all these years, it's
never been an issue, and and allthis.

(22:30):
And so I tell him, I was like,look, because my frustration is
pretty high.
You're over it at this point,yeah.
Uh, because they hadn't been theeasiest buyer.
And so finally I was like, fine,I'll call a locksmith right now.
Like, I'll get somebody outthere, like, just tell them I'm
sending help in action.
And he just goes, No.

(22:52):
And I was like, and I rememberI'm standing in Kroger while
we're having this conversation.
I just kind of stopped in themiddle of the eye.
I was like, what do you mean,no?
And then and he goes, I'm notgonna let you do that.
I was like, okay.

SPEAKER_00 (23:04):
He's like my responsibility was just to have
this conversation with you andto double check.
And that's it.
If there's no key, there's nokey.
Like there's nothing else thatcan be done here.

SPEAKER_04 (23:14):
We're done, you know.

SPEAKER_02 (23:15):
Yeah, yeah.
But it was so funny to mebecause I was like, man, okay.
I didn't even have aconversation with you.

SPEAKER_00 (23:22):
Like, I didn't even think about that.
But like our house now is Idon't think we have a key.

SPEAKER_04 (23:26):
And I didn't bat and I uh and maybe it's part of the
newer contract that basicallydigital stuff is written in to
where there's so much digitalnow that you have to agree to
pass on passwords and theability to, you know.
So more and more people, that'sthe reality.
And they were it was just moreof an old school, there was just
a lot, you know.
There were there were there werea lot, and it was like, look, if

(23:48):
we cave to this, then they'recalling in a week about this,
and another week, and I thinkthey may have even tried that.
Like they did sprinklers thisand blah blah blah.
It's like no, they tried someother stuff.

SPEAKER_02 (23:56):
Well, and then we also had a pool at that house,
and I had left like oh hundredsof dollars, maybe a thousand
dollars worth of pool chemicalsthere because like I didn't have
a need for them anymore.
Like, here's all the chemicals,I'm just trying to be a good
person, whatever.
Yeah, and but there were stillall these nitpicky things that
would come up, and I was like,guys, I'm about to come get all

(24:16):
those pool chemicals.

SPEAKER_01 (24:17):
Like I'm about to use my code seriously and get
into that house, right?

SPEAKER_04 (24:23):
Oh my god, yeah, but it can be like that, right?
So, I mean, look, I I I know itcan be frustrating the buy and
sell and all that.
I know when we originally talkedabout kind of this whole idea in
the conversation, is like peopleour age, you know, I'm I'm about
to be 46.
He's like a lot of people haveexperienced maybe some sort of
homeownership, you know, you'veyou've been in and out of the

(24:45):
market.
A lot has changed since we'vebeen of a homeowner age, you
know, in um like the last 18years or so.
I mean, the the interest ratemarket has fluctuated.
Now, when we were, you know, in1979, everyone I, you know,
every oldie I talked to, it'slike, oh, it was 13% when we

(25:06):
bought our first house inWisconsin.
It's like, oh, that's that sucksfor you.
However, I can't afford thishouse now, and that's what I'm
frustrated at.
They want it like somehow thatmakes you feel like amazing, you
know, like, oh, I paid 13% myfirst home.
But so it it kind of fluctuated.
So you know, uh when we wentinto the crash of 08, the rates

(25:26):
just dropped because they neededpeople to come back into the
market.
Um, it was just uh it completelyflooded the the inventory and
they had to incentivize peopleto get out there and buy.
And so they dropped the rates.
And so then we had this longrun.
I mean, even before that, wewere in the fives and sixes
after 9-11.

(25:47):
We were in the fives and sixes.
So that's about what we are now.
And then 08 dips, and then wecome back, and we get a lot of
us when our first-time homebuyer experiences or second or
third home, we're in the threeto four percent uh range, and
that's what you got used to.
Then COVID happens, and uh wehave a lot of the uh shutdowns,

(26:09):
the economy goes crazy, uh, wehave war, you know, wars
overseas that uh impact theenergy markets.
We have a lot of payments goingto people that can sort of like
falsely look like it's goingwell, but then it doesn't, you
know, the the core of theeconomy is not going well, and
inflation happens.
So now we have this inflationand rates are going up.

(26:31):
And so that's the reaction tothat.
They're slowly bringing themdown with just recently our rate
cuts.
You know, we were close to 8%for a while, and they've crept
down naturally.
Then we just did rate cuts.
And they anticipate two morethis year.
The thing that's a little bit ofa misnomer, everyone waits for
the rate cuts.
Whenever the Fed cuts theirrate, it doesn't directly impact

(26:52):
mortgage mortgage price andmortgage cost, but the the
markets do go off of that.
And so a lot of the anticipationof those rate cuts have already
been baked in.
So it's not like in two monthsor let's say six weeks, the rate
hat cut happens and all of asudden, oh, three quarters of a
point, we're all good.
It's already sort of creepingdown with anticipation of that.

(27:13):
So I would say by next year, ifI had to guess, I'm not an
economist, like we'll probablyfloat into the fives, mid-fives,
something like that.
Everything that I've heard from,you know, there's definitely
people who spend way more timeon this than me.
But the government and most, youknow, Fannie Mae, Freddie May,
Freddie Mac, all that stuff,five and a half, mid-fives,
probably target type stuff.

(27:35):
So I don't think if we go backinto the threes, something is
like severely wrong with theglobal economy.
There's other things that havegone really poorly.
That's not a target rate, youknow.
Um, like I said, after 9-11, wewere in like the fives and
sixes, and it was going okay.
Um so if we go back to that,there's just bigger problems.

SPEAKER_05 (27:52):
Right.

SPEAKER_04 (27:52):
Um, but you know, supply and demand is is an
issue.
The nice thing is right now,like let's say you're coming
from a rental situation, youdon't have a house to sell.
I'm I'm trying to sell mypersonal house because of
personal problems.
And there's more inventory inDFW now than the last 10 years.
So when we first started ourpodcast two years ago, inventory

(28:14):
in DFW was roughly 34,000 units.
Now it's over 52, 53,000 unitssignificantly changed.

SPEAKER_00 (28:22):
Um is that because of the construction of new
homes?
Like how like what are thepercentages there?

SPEAKER_04 (28:29):
Cost of money.
So the basically there's justmore people on the sidelines
that aren't your first-time homebuyers, your young, you know,
younger folks that are trying toget in, your people coming in
from rentals is not happening asmuch because it's just
expensive.
The mortgages are expensive.
Yes.
Um the builders, the UnitedStates is they they they

(28:51):
fluctuate between four millionand six million units short of
inventory.
So overall, we still actuallydon't have enough inventory for
there to be enough houses.
But right now, we in like inorder to an acute state, we have
more out there than is beingable to be absorbed by the
people who can afford it.

(29:11):
So inventory just keeps stackingup, stacking up, stacking up.
Now, the nice thing is thatrates are dipping a little bit.
And there is a point right nowthat I think is actually a great
time to buy because as a buyer,you have way more leverage than
you have had in years.

(29:32):
I mean, if you go back to thehyper hot market that everyone
seemed to love of 3% mortgages,well, you might have to offer on
10 houses to get the house youwant.

SPEAKER_05 (29:42):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (29:42):
Because you and everyone else is going after the
same thing.
So it had its own frustration.
Well, what happens when there'smore people looking for a
smaller amount of things andprices go up?
So that price jump of like 30%in some neighborhoods, 40% in
some neighborhoods around time,that's not sustainable.
Like everyone loves to own ahouse and now all of a sudden,

(30:02):
holy, we're geniuses.
Three years later, we have 200grand equity in our house.
Like, no, this was a that was ahyper like like inflation in the
moment bubble of prices.
Now it's coming back a littlebit.
So if you look at like a 10-yearrun, DFW overall, like you're
looking at 60 to 80 percentincrease in value.

(30:26):
Yeah, which is crazy.
It's insane.
Yeah, insane.
Over 10 years, now over the lastyear, we've pulled back like ish
6%, like from zero to six,depending on the pocket,
depending on the price points.
Now, in my neighborhood rightnow, I just sent a report out.

(30:47):
Things are selling within 14days of 99% of original asking,
and they may have pulled back alittle bit from a few years ago.
They're not way, way more, butit's still sellable.
Um, but if you're a buyer cominginto the market, you can if you
are like, hey, I don't need tohave the house that just came on
last week.

(31:08):
If you're like, I'll wait, andI'm I only want to look at the
stuff that's been on for amonth, two, three, four months.
Now you have tremendousleverage.
Because uh, I talked to my guy,Thomas Ross, local mortgage guy.
I work with another another one,David Kakish, have some great
mortgage people, very creative.
Thomas is local, he did my uhlast deal that I did.

(31:31):
He ran numbers, and one of thestrategies that you can do is
let's say you go into a houseand he used the$600,000 house.
Average house here is$430,000.
$600,000.
If you're gonna ask for adiscount, instead of saying,
hey, I I I only want I want youto come off the price$25,000 and
I only want to finance$575,000.

(31:54):
Your overall mortgage payment, Ithink his numbers, it came down
like$150-ish, something likethat.
If you instead say, I want touse that 20 same$25,000, but I
want to buy, it's called buyingdown your rate, you can send
that to the lender and they usethat to front load interest
payments.

(32:14):
And it's called buying down therate.
There's different programs,two-one buy downs, where it's
like, and if it's six now, it'sgonna be four for a year, five
for a year, then six.
Or it's just they they do itdifferently.
But if you can pay that offearly, the five-year delta, the
difference in doing those two isabout 30 grand.

(32:35):
Wow.
That's a big difference.
It's a big difference.
Yeah, so now your monthlypayment is, you know, if you do
the buy down, you're gonna getan extra 150 or 200.
So you're you're reducing yourmonthly payment more, but the
the magic is in as you gofurther down the road because
you that interest rate is lower.
And so it, you know, for peoplethat are struggling to afford

(32:57):
it, that's one way to get youroverall mortgage down and your
long-term payments down.
So that that the first thing Iwould do, instead of thinking,
hey, I have a house that Ireally want, let's see if they
would come down 30 grand inprice.
I would talk to your mortgageperson and say, hey, what's my
best option here?
Should I ask for maybe, maybeit's 15 grand off the price and
15 grand towards closing cost orthe rate.

(33:20):
You can also really reduce theamount that you're bringing to
closing because they can say,hey, I'm gonna contribute 10, 15
grand towards your closing cost.
So you're able to, you know, getinto this house with not a whole
lot out of pocket.
Uh, I just sold a house over inCarrollton, first-time home
buyers.
This doesn't count foreverybody, but this specific
house was in this economic zonethat qualified for this specific

(33:43):
loan that they were zero down.
Like they, I mean, they werelike first time, first-time
people, and they came in and wehad to sign off on something
that basically said they arefinancing 100% of this deal.
And it closed and it was great.
So those programs.

SPEAKER_02 (33:58):
I mean, what kind of credit score do you have to have
or something like that?

SPEAKER_04 (34:00):
I don't know their credit score.
I would imagine that it's nothorrible, but also they were
young.
I mean, this is a young couple,and I don't even know that they
were married.
I mean, it was like so, all thatto be said is I would encourage
people to not get married tolike one bank, you know.
Oh, I go to Frost, I'm gonna useFrost.

(34:22):
They're great, but there'smortgage brokers out there,
there's there's creative peoplethat they see it's just like car
dealerships every day.
They have a management meetingand they're like, look, we're
low this month, we're gonna dropthis fee, we're gonna drop the
rate, we're gonna offer this.
And they see all of that andthey can say, Hey, today with

(34:43):
your credit score, you're aveteran, you're this
nationality, whatever yoursituation is, you qualify for
this one, this is a good deal.
I'll lock you in right now, andthen you can go with that.
So if you're flexible on thatpart, I would the other thing
you can do, and I would highlyencourage, I had a buyer that

(35:04):
really got into it.
I actually had to back away atone point because I know I knew
the lender.
But my buyer was obsessed withgetting two lenders to fight
with each other over rate, andhe saved a ton of money.
A ton.
I'm talking thousands.

unknown (35:21):
Wow.

SPEAKER_04 (35:21):
Because these two lenders, I could do this.
Oh, well, I'll match that.
Well, I could do this, I'llmatch it.
And they went down until one ofthem's like, I'm not doing any
more.
Because even you know, realestate agents have certain
commissions that they make, butlenders have their own
commission structure.
They have their own feestructure and it's negotiable.
And so if you're not negotiatingon your rate between two

(35:44):
lenders, you're definitelylosing out on your down payment,
your fees that you're paying atclosing, and you can literally
come off the rate.
They may say today our rate's6.2, but they could negotiate
down to let's say 5.8 orsomething, like 585.
And then they the people buy youdown another point.

(36:04):
So now you're into like 475.
Like it's doable.

SPEAKER_05 (36:08):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (36:08):
So that those are kind of the some of the basics.
I would say, like, yes, it'shard, but it's doable in that
sense, outside of getting tolike buying a cheaper house, you
know, like going way out.
Like I showed a piece ofproperty that's$250,000, like in
crumb.
You know, it's like if you wantto live out there, you can find
stuff, you know, or if you wantlike a complete project that

(36:32):
you're gonna have like to reallydo a bunch of work to, you can
find those cheap.
But there's ways to kind ofaround it as well.
Wow.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (36:41):
We should be charging money for this episode.
This is like this is this isgood stuff.
This is horrible.
We could pay wallets.
This is the premium.
This is the premium.
Yeah, seriously, this is great.
Like I I'm learning tons.
Um, so what do you think are youyou've tackled a lot of the the
some of the commonmisconceptions around, well,

(37:01):
there's no way I could get intoanything and afford it.
And and I think that's extremelyhelpful at the outset.
What do you think are some ofthe common mistakes that people
make when when they're buying ahome, even if they're
experienced buyers?
What do you what do you try andsteer people away from, you
know, as they're engaging withthese transactions?

SPEAKER_04 (37:19):
Yeah.
And I side note, there's othercreative ways to finance that.
I didn't get it to, they're morecomplicated.
Hit me up.
I'm happy to have aconversation.
There's things called subjecttwo, um, which is and then
there's taking over, sort of uhassuming a loan.
Where if someone has a 3% loan,some some loans will allow you
to take over their paymentslegally.

(37:41):
There's a gray area calledsubject two, which is basically
you're taking it over withouttechnically telling the bank.
Um, it's it's doable and a lotof people do it.
I mean, there's whole groups ofinvestors that that's how they
acquire properties.
And that's kind of like an ownerfinance version of things, and
you make up your own rules.
Like, hey, what is your downpayment?
What is it?

(38:01):
You want the payment?
You want a 40-year loan?
50.
Like, that's what we should havedone when we moved here.

SPEAKER_00 (38:06):
We had we let we walked away back home, some from
Louisville.
It was a$300,000 house.
We had it at 15 years at 2.1%.

SPEAKER_04 (38:15):
Oh wow.
Yeah.
You could have someone wouldhave assumed that.
And you the nice thing aboutthat is a lot of times they'll
actually pay top dollar becausethey know they're gonna get
their money back, they'reholding it for a while, they
want it as a rental, and they'relike, Look, our you know, your
mortgage is let's let's say atthat level, your mortgage is

(38:37):
$1,600.
But I know that we could rentthis for$2,000 all day.
Well, they're delta$400 plus theappreciation, like, we're fine.
We'll pay you top dollar, andyou're like, great, top dollar.
All you hear is I just sold myhouse for what I wanted.
And they pay you a small downpayment, and it all works.

(38:57):
Those things are possible.
You know, there's it's calledcreative financing, not to
mention um you create which isnot creative accounting, which
is illegal, not creativeaccounting, not the stuff that
got us in trouble in 2008.
But if you're interested in thatsubject to assemble mortgage,
it's all out there, right?
Um, you could also there's thething called house hacking,
which where there's this wholetypically not for families, but

(39:20):
if if you're cool with aroommate or someone living in
the garage apartment or you havea pool house, or maybe you
specifically buy something thatcan be segmented that hey, they
can come in the garage in theback door, we can come in the
front door.
We rarely rarely see each other,and they're gonna give us this
rent to subsidize our payments.
That's a another great way to dothings.

(39:41):
That's not for everybody, youknow.
Obviously, families and but ifyou're in a situation, it's
like, okay, yeah, I don't mindhaving roommates.
I can be the like Daniel does,he can be the landlord and he
rents the three of his buddiesand he pays for his mortgage
that way.
Um, and then after a while, youcan go do another one and
another one.
Um, so there's just there's waysum to do all that.

(40:02):
What was I?
I I got sidetracked.

SPEAKER_02 (40:03):
No, you're fine.
I was uh just about the ifthere's common mistakes that
people make.

SPEAKER_04 (40:08):
Okay, so the I would say the one of the big mistakes
is getting dug in on certainaspects of what you want.
Now, of course, there's there'snon-negotiables, like maybe it's
like I I do not want a pool, orI have to have, you know, a
bedroom downstairs because mymom lives with us and she can't
climb the stairs.
Like there's those things,right?

(40:29):
But like if you think about thelike HGTV stupid shows where
like some person who shouldn'tbe buying a house, like they
they like follow them aroundlike Mary loves a house by the
the beach and her budget's youknow$300 a month.
You're like Mary is drinking,you know, like there's this
doesn't exist, right?

(40:49):
And she walks in like she owns aplace.
She goes, I just don't thinkthis is gonna work for me.
Like at some point, some ofthose features and I I just kind
of need it this way.
If you can be flexible on thatpart, like you're gonna open
your your mind up and youroptions up to a lot of things.
School zones, another thing.
Like if your kids are, let's saythey're in private school, like,
you know, hey, you can go to alot of less expensive places and

(41:13):
still go to this school.
You know, Garland is a greatexample.
Choose your school.
So you can live in differentparts of Garland and go to any
of the schools you want.
And so you could live in aslightly less expensive boot,
maybe put in for a really niceschool.
So there's ways to kind ofmanipulate that.
Of course, if you're not dealingwith schools, and you know, I
would take advantage of that.
There's there's parts of townthat are less expensive because

(41:35):
of the school side.

SPEAKER_05 (41:36):
Yep.

SPEAKER_04 (41:36):
Uh, there's parts of town we made uh South Lake made
a national list recently as themost inflated homes as a
contribution to the school zone.
So people are willing to paymore, like 1.7 times more than a
normal to be in that schoolzone.
Uh and then we had so DFW hadseveral others that were on the

(41:59):
list.
I'm sure Highland Park is upthere.
They're they're willing to paymore, but that the opposite is
true.
Where you can get really goodneighborhoods that happen to be
in bad school zones, but you'relike, I don't care.
I'm, you know, I don't havekids.
I'm gonna be living here for awhile.
It's close to this part of townI really like.
I'm gonna take advantage ofthis.
Yeah, and so if you can beflexible and not get too dug in

(42:22):
there, I would that to me,that's the biggest thing because
you're just gonna open up youroptions a ton.

SPEAKER_00 (42:27):
Kids are such a drag.

SPEAKER_02 (42:29):
It's really just a problem.
Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (42:32):
But the nice thing is, is there are we we go to
Louisville ISD, Hebron HighSchool.
I love it.
It's not on the top of any list,it's not on the bottom of any
list.
It's kind of one of those thingsyou it is what you make of it.
It's it's good enough to whereif you want to apply yourself
and you want to do a band orwhatever, you can be really high
level.
If you want to not do all thatand completely get lost, I'm

(42:53):
sure there's arguments to belike this is horrible.
You know, um, yeah, so there's alot of those in DFW, kind of the
decent middle ground areas thatyou can go to that you're not
gonna hyper overpay for thebest.
There's some people out therethat just want the best.
That's they start with school.
Yeah, they start with thiselementary district, they start

(43:14):
with this high school, that'swhat they want.
And you know, it does inflatethose prices.
Um, I just did I grew up inRound Rock at public school.
I was fine, you know, my kidsare gonna be fine, you know,
they'll be good.
They do their best and they'veturned out okay so far.
It's like, we're good.
You know, I'm not I'm not gonnalike sacrifice everything to go
live in Highland Park just soyou can go to a public school

(43:36):
that's like the highest level ofwhatever.
It was just what that sacrificethat wasn't for us, you know.

SPEAKER_02 (43:42):
So you've also been involved in some home flip
transactions.
I know that you've gotrelationships with people.
I mean, you mentioned our friendDaniel, who who is kind of in
the rental property game andstuff like that.
What what have you learned fromflipping homes?
What do you do you feel likethat market is still kind of out
there and available?

(44:03):
I I feel like there was a hugetrend around that a handful of
years ago.
And at least from myperspective, it seemed to kind
of taper off as far as likepeople who are really active in
that home flip environment.
But I know you've done some ofthat.
I've been to some of your homeflips.
There's one not far from wherewe're sitting right now.
Um and what did you learn fromthat?
And and you know, if you weretalking to somebody who is

(44:24):
interested in learning moreabout that, how does somebody
even break into something likethat?

SPEAKER_04 (44:29):
So you can flip the the long and short is you can
invest in real estate in anymarket.
The math is simple.
You buy something for way lessthan you can sell it for, and
you have the budget in themiddle that allows you to fix it
up.
And the key is you have to havethe ability to find them in the

(44:51):
first place.
Now, that is the skill set thatebbs and flows, I think.
You have now I think thepopularity for a while, one like
you had the you just theproliferation of your HGTVs and
chip and Joannas and all that,where it's just like super cool.
And also, you had this thatperiod of time that everything

(45:13):
was going up over two or threeyears, 30% a year, 20%, 15%.
And you could completely screwup and buy the house wrong and
not budget properly, and oh, Ilove this tile, and I it all
that stuff, and still sell itand make money or not lose
money, and you felt like agenius.
It was not true, and so thenpeople start getting caught, and

(45:37):
their their skill set is notthere to buy properly and run on
a budget, and then they go totry to sell and they lose a ton
of money.
And that transition is I almostgot caught right there.
That's my last flip.
Was I was over budget, Tavishelped me kind of get through
that.
I made money on my last one, butit was I was close.

(45:58):
I lost a little bit of money inthe Richardson one, but I was
just like it was scary enough tobe like, okay, I need to make
sure the next time I do this,I'm good.
Because my first two were slamdunks.
I could have written a book.
Like my first flip, no joke.
I got it.
I I did my rehab was fivedollars because I bought it, it

(46:21):
was distressed, it was in EastPlano.
This is the first time I everdid it.
I borrowed against my 401k,which is what I learned from my
first buyer that I was tellingyou about.
You can borrow against your 401kfor certain, it's a loan against
yourself.
I did that to get into my hardmoney loan.
It was a it's a bridge loan,it's like in the weeds.
But basically, I used my 401k toget a loan to buy a house.

(46:46):
I was gonna rehab it and sellit.
That was the intent.
In the meantime, they moved out.
The refrigerator line wasleaking a little bit.
I went to Home Depot, got thatlittle screw-on cap, five bucks.
When did that?
I was waiting to get my rehabstarted like an idiot.
I didn't have everything linedup.
I was gonna be like, Oh, I'mgonna get my guys now.
My brother-in-law, who flippedin Austin, said, Hey, there's a

(47:07):
lot of home buyers, like we'llbuy your home, you know, like
those guys.
There's a lot of home buyers,and they work with these hedge
funds that buy just dozens anddozens of rentals at a time.
Um and at the time they werebuying everything.
And he's like, just pitch it tothem and see what they would
give you.
Okay, I wanted to do the flip.
I was really excited.

(47:28):
This is my first time, I've beenlooking forward to this for a
long time.
I'll check it out.
Pitched it to this guy, and Iwas gonna net in the realm of I
I think it ended up beingsomewhere between 40 and$50,000
for five dollars.
And and I was like, Yeah, I'lldo that.
I mean, that was what I waslike, I had written that into

(47:50):
some ROI right there, buddy.
Yeah, I had written that, I waslike, that's what I wanted to do
through the rehab.
Like, why would I wait threemonths, go through all this, and
maybe make it wherein like thisguy's looking at me right now.
And so I was out of town when Isigned that deal.
I was like, man, this is great.
My next one went similarly well.
I was like, this is the best.
And then I got into like my bigones, my two big ones.

(48:12):
They were real, realrenovations, and I made all the
mistakes hiring wrong people,not stacking people properly,
overdesigning all the stuff.
And the market was just goodenough to where it saved me.
But the people that went in alittle after me in the last few
years that don't have that skillset, they will lose their shirt.

(48:32):
And so you have people likeTabis, who I do the podcast
with, who's done over 200 flipsat this point over the course of
20 years, hundreds oftransactions.
I've seen him walk away from adeal.
Every deal he does, he writes in50 grand.
He would tell you that.
Like that's his that's hisbaseline profit.
If I've seen him walk away froma deal that we were gonna make
45, that was like a pencil at45.

(48:54):
It's like no.
And I'm like, what?
Yeah, I was like, I will do,I'll do it, you know.
But I didn't have the the theguys on he's just very
disciplined about what works andwhat doesn't.
And he has his budget and heknows what things are gonna cost
and it runs on budget.
And very rarely, like we haveone right now, that he's there

(49:14):
was a mold issue that took a lotmore when we peeled things back.
It was like, okay, this is oneof those things you see on TV.
It's like, oh well, shoot, wegot 20 grand we didn't account
for.
Like that happened, you know.
And so this one, he'll make alittle bit, but he may not kill
it.
But in general, it he's aprofessional.

(49:35):
And so the the amateurs, thehobbyists got washed out of the
market.
The professionals are more orless doing it, but there's a lot
of inventory because think aboutthere's like I said, there's
over 50,000 units just sittingthere.
Someone who's been sitting theresix months, someone comes along,
is like, look, I can't pay youfull price.
This is my price.
And they're like, I'll go forit.

SPEAKER_00 (49:55):
Well, and too, I wonder, you know, COVID hit and
you know, the price of lumberwent through the roof.

SPEAKER_04 (50:01):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (50:01):
Um, and then you have um well, no one can work on
job sites, you know, likeeverything was well, yeah, true.
And then they they made itharder to flip, like especially
with financing, and then the umthe interest rates went through
the roof.
So it's just like for people whowere probably those amateurs

(50:23):
you're talking about.
I mean, you just got pricedright out of the market because
you're like, I don't have, Ican't afford triple the price of
lumber.
And I mean, I know you're notbuilding from scratch, but I
mean, you're taking walls downand doing things like that.
I mean, and then I don't want tobring up tariffs, but I'm sure
that that also is contributingto tile prices and certain
things that I'm sure are gettingimported.

(50:46):
And then, you know, even justthe cost of homes inflating.
Like when we sold our house, Imean, like I said, we bought it
for 300, sold it at um 422.
Um, now that home, we're we'restuck in a place right now where
um we don't know if we canafford to go back.
Like the home that we had isprobably now$200,000 more.

(51:07):
Um, and this has only been ahandful of years.

SPEAKER_05 (51:09):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (51:10):
But with the market going up, and then yeah, I'm
like, there's no way.
Like, we can't afford the samehouse for more than twice the
interest rate plus$200,000 ontop of it.

SPEAKER_04 (51:21):
Like I very difficult.

SPEAKER_00 (51:23):
It is.

SPEAKER_04 (51:24):
It depends on what you're wanting to get out of
real estate, and that's what youhave to ask yourself.
Are you doing real estatebecause you think it's a good
investment and you want a returnon your dollar?
Or do you want it for alifestyle, or do you want kind
of this blend?
Maybe it's a little bit of both.

SPEAKER_05 (51:40):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (51:40):
If you're using, it's like, hey, I just want the
appreciation and I want, I knowreal estate's a good investment
because there's ways to getinvolved in real estate
investing that don't involveowning a house.
There's there's mutual fundsthat are tied to the market,
there's investors out there whowill utilize your money.
Like I borrowed against my 401k.
I've also had private lendersthat gave me their 30,000,

(52:02):
40,000, 50,000 so I could getinto a loan.
There's ways to get involved inthe market to allow your money
to work that could give you areturn and still benefit from
the market.
The other thing, too, is like,you know, this is an out there
idea, but you could look atsomething like, hey, Sherman
Denison, is a great example.

(52:24):
I love Sherman Denison rightnow.
It's blowing up because of thesemiconductors.
You have Lake Texoma right northof there.
There's billions of dollarsgoing into Lake Texoma right
now.
That whole corridor going toOklahoma is like exploding.
But the values, they have goneup, but it's still very
approachable to buy a house inthat corridor, you know, north
of Melissa, all the way up tolet's say Denison.

(52:46):
And if you like like look, Ican't afford a$600,000 house
right now, but I can rent here,I can afford a$250,000 house.
Maybe the play is let's buy arental house, get the
appreciation that you wouldnormally get with you know,
owning real estate, get some taxbenefits.
They're paying for the mortgage.

(53:06):
Maybe they make you an extrathree, four hundred dollars a
month that you can use forlifestyle.
And then whenever you're readyto do your own thing, it's like,
hey, let's sell this or let'stake a loan out against that,
and you get some of the benefitsof real estate, but it's more of
a an approachable price point,you can go to the periphery and
find that.
I mean, like I said, I've crumb,Aubrey, Pilot Point, all that up

(53:29):
there is still relativelyapproachable.
And so if you're like, look,we've got 50 grand, we want to
be in real estate, we can'tafford a down payment on a
$600,000 house that we love, butwe can do what we're doing for a
while.
Let's do it this way.
Like, that's another way tocreate some equity in real
estate that you might be able touse now.
Again, I'm not a financialadvisor, I'm not an economist.

(53:49):
Talk to your people, but that'skind of what I would, you know.

SPEAKER_02 (53:52):
Well, and I imagine that that same concept holds up.
I mean, you're talking aboutareas that are all sort of on
the the outskirts of the the DFWmetroplex.
And so for anyone who doesn'tknow, like sorry, yeah, y'all
aren't just DFW.

SPEAKER_04 (54:06):
My podcast is only DFW.

SPEAKER_02 (54:07):
So no, no, no, you're totally fine.
But like I I think the conceptholds true, though.
I'm sure it does to some degree,where whatever major
metropolitan area you're in, youknow, if if you decide to kind
of look on the outskirts of thatto try and jump into a rental
property that just gets you intothe game and allows some entry
in it, and then you leveragethat in three, four, five years

(54:28):
as you know, you're you buildsome equity and the market
shifts and all that, I thinkthat's really, really smart.
And and it's kind of a a naturalpath into that that desire we
were talking about earlier,where it's like, I do want to be
a homeowner, I want to feel likeI'm I'm sort of planted and have
some roots.

(54:48):
And I I think I think that's thething that I for me, like so.
Chris and I built our first homeand we actually owned it for
about nine years, and then andit for three years within those
nine years, we were using it asa rental property.
And that didn't go great.
Um, now it mostly didn't gogreat because I didn't know what

(55:09):
I was doing.
Yeah, and I've been there, yeah.
And so I just I wish that Icould talk to me um, you know,
all those years ago and be like,hey, how about you involve some
professionals in this becauseyou are making this up as you
go, and that's not how to dothis.
And and I was trying to crossthe T's and dot the I's as much
as I could, and I was doing thebackground checks, and I was I I

(55:30):
thought that I was vettingpeople well, and I just wasn't.
That was really what it camedown to.
And then I wasn't payingattention to the red flags that
were happening even after thosepeople were in the home.
And so it really turned intoquite a disaster.
Um, we ended up moving back intothe home after the runners were
gone, and it took us 18 monthsto rehabilitate the home to the

(55:52):
point where we felt like wecould sell it.
And we had to strip flooring, wehad to strip sheetrock in some
areas, we every appliance, wehad to replace the whole air
conditioning system.
We and you know, at the time wewere in a place of some
financial stability at the time,but but those are huge ticket
items when you start stackingthem all against each other.

(56:12):
And so I just yeah, I rememberjust being completely
overwhelmed by that.

SPEAKER_04 (56:16):
And and at the same time, it's not for everybody,
it's not rental, it's not foreverybody, but also like so many
things in what you're talkingabout.

SPEAKER_02 (56:23):
I I think that you just have to find a professional
you trust.
Yeah, and and that's really somuch of what you were talking
about, even around the lendingside of things, because the
lending side is that that's thebarrier to entry for a lot of
people, is they are sointimidated by that.
They think, oh, I exactly yeah,I have to have 20% down, yeah,
and I have to be able toshoulder this.
But from a lot of what youdescribed, that's not really the

(56:46):
case at all.
There, there's plenty of optionsout there.
Now, if you want to be thatbuyer, that's available too.
You can just bring that 20%cash, and here you go.
But you know, it sounds likewhat a lot of people are missing
is hey, how about we try andfind a trusted professional
looking guidance?

SPEAKER_00 (57:03):
Yeah, so so I my question uh for you was gonna be
if you know, we've got theseyoung 20s who are just feeling
hopeless when it comes to owningreal estate, like everyone, you
know, we still have thatmentality of like making it is
owning a home and and you know,a nice neighborhood and all

(57:25):
those things.
What would you say to someone ifyou haven't already?
What would you say to someone inthat phase of life that wants to
that is looking?
You know, maybe that they'restable, maybe they have one or
two kids, they're renting, theythey really wanna to make that
leap.
What would you say to thatperson and how would you advise

(57:51):
them about finding someone thatthey can trust?

SPEAKER_04 (57:53):
Yeah, that's a great question.
So I'll answer the the secondone.
There's a lot of great mortgagelenders out there, there's a lot
of good real estate agents, youknow.
Um I would look for people thathave a track record, have
experience, have reviews.
You know, I don't have hundredsof reviews, you know, but I have
a presence.

(58:14):
I always tell, you know,tablets.

SPEAKER_00 (58:15):
Hopefully you'll get like four more.
Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (58:17):
Look, hey, look, find me, whatever.
You know, but you know, I alwayssay find people that are on
social media they because theycan't hide.
These are people that areanswering questions and reviews,
and they're gonna probably treatyou right because they they
they're out there.
You know, if you have someoneyou have you can't find them

(58:38):
anywhere online, it's a in myopinion, a little bit of a
problem, you know.
Now, finding there's greatpeople out there that don't have
a presence, but I would probablystart there.
Find someone that you you know,like, and trust.
There's all sorts of meetups.
There's you know, ask someone acoffee, like there's no dumb
questions.
And so I would go to open housesand find people.
I would, you know, just try totest out.

(59:00):
I would probably not go withlike my coworker's cousin that
just started because I want tohelp him out a little bit.
Now we all start and that'sfine, but there's there's people
out there that have trackrecords and all that.
Lenders the same way.
You know, I would find, get somerecommendations of someone that
you trust, like, hey, this wentgreat, go with this person.
I wouldn't go off of like, oh, II heard a guy and he's you know,

(59:23):
my coworker, this coffee guy,he's really trying to get in the
mortgage industry.
It's just there's so much atstake right now that I would at
least go with someone with atrack record there.
And don't be, don't be afraid tointerview people, but also if
you're new, don't come at itlike you're here to impress me.
You know, I that kind of drivesme crazy a little bit.

(59:43):
I work with some newer investorsand they're like, hey, I'm
interviewing agents right now.
Like, bro, I'm interviewing you.
I am not wasting my time onanother investor who wants to
act like they know what they'redoing because I've worked with
enough of them that do.
And it's like night and day, youknow?
And so always go in with alittle bit of humility and say,
look, I don't quite.
Know what this is?
Can you teach me?
Find someone who's willing tolike spend time with you and

(01:00:04):
answer those questions becausewhen it gets stressful, like you
want to be able to call thisperson and like have them walk
you through.
A lot of people have these likelarge teams and you're working
with three different people.
I would personally want to workwith one or two people that are
willing to like take your call.
So that's where I would.

SPEAKER_00 (01:00:20):
Oh, I'll be honest.
I have used my real estate agentas a therapist before.
Like talk me off the ledge.
Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (01:00:28):
It can be very, very stressful.
Yes.
But again, I'll go back to I'vebeen in some stressful
situations when it comes to realestate.
I'm fine with it, right?

SPEAKER_05 (01:00:36):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (01:00:36):
Um, advice to younger, uh, younger folk.
Well, that sounds so stupid.
Young folks.

SPEAKER_02 (01:00:43):
Well, young whoopersnappers.

SPEAKER_00 (01:00:45):
No, so those, those, uh, those Gen Z, those young
millennials who are literallyjust feeling like I'm never
gonna be able to do this.

SPEAKER_04 (01:00:53):
So on the mortgage front, you know, you have
someone like Thomas, he puts outa lot of content for first-time
homebuyers.
He does webinars, he doesmeetups for first-time
homebuyers to educate.
What's his podcast?
Thomas Ross, he doesn't haveone.
Thomas Ross, put the link in theuh show notes.
Yeah, yeah, got it.
Um but yes, he's great.
And he uh he can definitelyeducate you on on and he really
specializes in first-time folks.

(01:01:15):
So I would say be again be opento options.
New home builders on theperiphery of wherever you're
living, new home builders areoffering crazy incentives right
now.
A lot of incentives with uh withrates, with you know, putting
blinds in and all the stuff,right?
Now, if you want to live in thetrendy part of uptown in Dallas

(01:01:38):
or wherever that is where you'reliving, that may not happen for
you.
But if you're willing to drive alittle further out in order to
get a home, then that's anoption.
If you want to live closer in, Iwould highly suggest looking at
condos or townhomes.
I would highly suggest beingokay with teaming up with
someone or having you know, yoube the person getting into it,
but then you have roommates.

(01:01:59):
Like get creative in that front.
But you'd be shocked with whatyou could get a condo, buy a
condo for right here.
They don't appreciate as muchlong term, yeah, but you can buy
one and you could keep it longterm for a rental, and they
actually rent for pretty good.
Yeah, um, you know, you have tobe careful on some of your
condos and townhomes on the HOA.
There, they the monthly HOA canbe up there.

(01:02:20):
Um but I so there's there's twolevers on buying a home.
You have the cost and you havewhat you're bringing to the
table.
So either be okay with workingextra, saving, maybe cutting
back on certain things to say,like, I know I want to live in
this neighborhood, and I know mymortgage guy says I have to

(01:02:41):
bring whatever 40 grand to thetable.
And so maybe you're asking momand dad for a little bit, maybe
you're selling some stuff, ormaybe you're okay with a
roommate or moving a littlefurther out.
So if you I would just say thegeneral concept is like just be
a little flexible.
If you want to get into thegame, open your mind to what's

(01:03:02):
possible and not just get soldon, like, I want a townhome in
this neighborhood, and I onlyhave five percent, and I'm gonna
be really bitter because I justcan't do that right now.
It's just that's not gonna getyou anywhere, you know.
So there's options out there,and there's people every day
that are buying houses, there'speople every day that are
investing in real estate.
I mean, trans hundreds andhundreds of transactions are

(01:03:25):
happening, not just here, buteverywhere.
And that's usually kind of likethe reality check for folks.
Talk with an agent, how manyhouses sold, like went pending
last week?
1300 or whatever.
Like people are making thingshappen.
How do I become one of thosepeople?
And that's that would be myadvice.
I think it's doable, there'sprograms out there, but it may

(01:03:46):
take some sacrifice in eitherwhat you're looking for or maybe
the money you're bringing to thetable.
A lot of people I deal with,especially on the young side,
are having some sort ofcontribution from somewhere, you
know, family, and I know noteverybody has that.
Yeah, the downside of the peoplethat I've worked with that are
first-time home buyers thatdrives me insane as a as an
agent are the people that theysomehow think that they're never

(01:04:08):
gonna have to go to Home Depot.
I'm like, look, I can't helpyou.
You know, like I can't.
You're buying a 1978 housethat's been renovated, we've
done the best we could, but youmay have to go to Lowe's every
once in a while.

SPEAKER_00 (01:04:21):
And I would say learn to love Lowe's.

SPEAKER_02 (01:04:26):
I I used to love going, like, I liked tinkering
with my house.

SPEAKER_04 (01:04:29):
Yeah, I really did.
I I enjoyed it.
You'd be amazed with how manylike I'm shocked when I go
walking and I look in the garageand there's like nothing in
there.
I'm like, who are you?
Like, how is this even possible?
You don't have tools, you know,like you don't have a table saw
with wood hanging from theceiling.
Okay, what is going on?
So, like, but there is a wholegeneration that just I would say
become comfortable with a littlebit of home maintenance.

(01:04:50):
So you can buy something thatcheaper that needs a little bit
of fixing up.
Okay, I'm gonna take on this.
Now you've bought you've builtsome equity into the house
because you bought it cheaper,you fixed it up, now you could
sell it.
Like, there's just there's waysto do it.

SPEAKER_02 (01:05:02):
Two houses ago, Kristen and I were in a home
right when COVID hit, and uh itwas our Plano house, which I'm
pretty sure you were at at leastonce because we we were already
working in the Plano area then.
And um we just found ourselveswith all this time on our hands.
Now, I don't pr I don't think ofmyself as an extraordinarily
handy guy, but I'm not bad.

(01:05:24):
Like I'm I'm not like, oh, I'mgonna be a MacGyver.
Right, yeah.
I I I can figure stuff out.
And so we had all this time onour hands, and and Krista looked
at me one day.
I remember it was Easter Sundayof 2020, it was that evening,
and she she's just kind ofstaring at something over my
head.
We were sitting at the kitchentable and she just staring off
into space, and I kind of lookedbehind me, and it's this like
cabinet area that we had in onepart of our kitchen.

(01:05:47):
It was sort of this built-incabinets with a shelf and and
all this.
And she just goes, I want topaint that.
I was like, Okay, let's go.
And we had painted tons ofstuff.
This is not foreign territory,but what that started was us
renovating our entire kitchen.
Oh, yeah.
And and so, and because ofCOVID, we had time on our hands,

(01:06:08):
and I just got on YouTube.
Yeah, I went to YouTubeuniversity, and like I I wasn't
intimidated by all of this, butI had never like hung cabinet
doors before.
Well, turns out there's somemethodology to it, and if you'll
take the time to learn thatmethodology, it's not that hard.
But you know, we refinished ourentire cabinets.

(01:06:29):
I put new, I put soft closedhinges on.
And so I had to learn how tothen remount those doors with
the different hinges, drew drillnew holes.
But you know, cabinet doors haveto line up, everything has to
match.
And I actually enjoyed learningall of that stuff.
I bought a couple of tools tohelp me do it and and leaned
into that whole process.

(01:06:49):
I learned some electrical stuff.
We actually rewired a couple ofelectrical parts of our kitchen
that I did myself, and and thatwas the most intimidating part
to me.
I don't really like messing withelectrical, but um, but it was
small enough to where I feltlike I can take this on and
figure it out.
And so, you know, I I think thatthat's that's so available to
young buyers as well.

(01:07:10):
It's like if you're buying aproperty that needs a little bit
of that attention, it's youknow, it's not like you just are
gonna wander the aisles of HomeDepot and hope that you figure
out how to do whatever you'retrying to do.
There are plenty of resourcesonline now, including resources
offered by places like HomeDepot and Lowe's that have full
tutorials.

(01:07:30):
That's how I learned to replaceour dishwasher.
I watched a Home Depot tutorialon it.
Yep.

SPEAKER_00 (01:07:34):
And well, a lot of the manufacturers now too are
also providing troubleshootingand videos and things like that.
So yeah, I mean, it is possible.
You just have to do it.

SPEAKER_04 (01:07:45):
You just have to be willing to do that.
And that's why be flexible, bewilling to learn, get your hands
dirty a little bit, and thenyou'll work yourself into the
market and you'll either think,like, I'm fine with doing that
again.
You trade every two years whereyou're not being taxed as much,
and you can just, hey, I'm gonnasell and go to another one.
So you use that to another downpayment, you move up, you move
up.

(01:08:05):
You house hack, you haveroommate sign.
I'm fine with this, I'm gonna dothis again.
Or you're like, I'm never doingthat again.
And I don't I want to rentbecause I don't care to deal
with any of this.
And I'm willing to make thatsacrifice.
But all that to be said is likethere are there are options.
I know it sucks, I know therates are not ideal for our
lifetime.

(01:08:26):
Yeah, historically they're okay.
Yeah, I know most people don'twant to hear this, but actually
affordability has gone uh is isimproved for the first time in
the last two and a half years.
So things are systemicallyimproving to where and that was
due to the rate cuts.

(01:08:46):
So if those can come down alittle bit more, certain things
are gonna happen to where theaffordability is improving.
Um you just have to be willingto like get out there and try.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (01:08:57):
Yeah.
I didn't know when we launchedinto having a podcast that we
would give like actualapplicable consumer advice, but
I think that is exactly what wehave done today.

SPEAKER_00 (01:09:08):
It was not part of our premeditated opinion.

SPEAKER_04 (01:09:11):
So here's I I will change subjects because when I
was listening to some of y'all'sstuff, I was like, okay, they go
on tangents, right?
We love a tangent.
So here's advice.
I'm gonna give some advice.
Oh god.
Okay.

SPEAKER_00 (01:09:22):
No, no, he's excited.
I'm like, oh.

SPEAKER_02 (01:09:26):
I'm like, I'm about to open the tequila you brought.

SPEAKER_00 (01:09:29):
Yeah, here's what I am for a different reason.

SPEAKER_04 (01:09:32):
Chili's needs to be careful.
They are changing their skilletqueso recipe.
Did you know this?
No.
Did you grow up going toChili's?
Is that like an acceptablerestaurant for you?
I still like going to Chili'sand I get scoffed at because I
like chips and queso and coldblue moon beer.
Like, that's like that is myidea of like a great night.

(01:09:52):
You know, like like I'm prettysimple.
I like all sips on a roadtourney.

SPEAKER_00 (01:09:57):
You can find Ashton at your local chili.

SPEAKER_02 (01:10:00):
Yes, like something that says ask me about real
estate.

SPEAKER_04 (01:10:04):
Yeah, and ask me why I'm 310 pounds.
But it's like, that's why I haveto like cut back on that, but
yeah, they're changing theirrecipe.
And it's like they're going likefresh chilies and all this
stuff, and like all this freshonions and I'm like, this is the
download.

SPEAKER_00 (01:10:18):
I like how you want to give us feedback on tangents.

SPEAKER_04 (01:10:20):
Yeah, yeah.
No, no, so to that point though,that's a terrible idea.
Yes, there's this is one ofthose stalwart like restaurants
that like I grew up going tothat's still like we live in
Dallas, so we have like 90different options to eat.
And so, but but there's stillparts of the country, like large
parts of the country, that outback in Chili's are like some of

(01:10:42):
the nicer places to go.
And I'm like, they startedmessing with this, like, please
don't.
Right.
Like, I just want certain thingsin my life to remain the same.
And don't change the don't takeblue moon off a tap and don't
change how thick your chips are,and don't change the queso.

SPEAKER_00 (01:10:54):
Oh, when tumbleweed, did you all ever have
tumbleweed?

SPEAKER_02 (01:10:57):
We don't have tumbleweed here.

SPEAKER_00 (01:10:58):
No, okay.
Well, when tumbleweed changedtheir queso, I was like, that's
it.
Like, let's just it's a bridgetoo far.
It is.

SPEAKER_02 (01:11:04):
It's like and look, especially, especially in the
south, but specifically and thenthey went under and I was like,
ha ha.
I mean, especially in the south,but specifically in Texas, queso
is its own food group.

SPEAKER_04 (01:11:15):
Yeah, well, yeah, there's a lot of places are like
that's their main appetizerwhere they're known, like they
have great queso.

SPEAKER_00 (01:11:22):
Oh, that's why I didn't go to Chipotle for a long
time because they didn't havetaste water.

SPEAKER_02 (01:11:25):
Yeah, yeah, and then when they first did it was just
cheese water.
It's really weird.

SPEAKER_04 (01:11:29):
But like Torchies is a great restaurant because they
have great queso.
They really you know, likethere's just certain places that
have it, but probably one of myfirst, you know, I grew up in
Round Rock, but you know, a lotof places would have queso.
But my I just there's somethingabout that stupid skillet that
they bring out at Chili's, andthey have like cheap meat meat
chunks in there.
Oh, yeah.

(01:11:50):
I'm like, I like it's liquidcheese with like processed meat.
Oh, the most processed.
Nobody has ever gone in.
This is a corporate decisionbecause no one has ever walked
in to order liquid cheese withprocessed meat and thought, I
wish this was fresher.
Like it just doesn't, like it'snever happened.
Like someone from corporate'slike, I think we need to advance
and like no, we don't This iswhy Taco Bell has never changed.

(01:12:12):
Right, exactly.
They know they're they knowtheir audience.

SPEAKER_02 (01:12:15):
Yeah, and if they do change, there's a mutiny.
You know, it it's hilarious.

SPEAKER_04 (01:12:22):
I need the cracker barrel mob to to go to Chili's
now.
They need to please stop, pleasestop this.

SPEAKER_00 (01:12:27):
Uh I think it's gonna start with this podcast
when this podcast drops.
Like you usually does.

SPEAKER_04 (01:12:31):
So sorry about sorry the food tangent.

SPEAKER_02 (01:12:34):
No, we love a food tangent, but that that that's
and we're such a culturalmonolith at this point that
we're certainly gonna have aninfluence on Chili's and the I
mean we've already changed theflow of traffic.
We did, yeah, single-handedly.
So and I'm pretty sure thatTaylor Swift and Travis Kelsey
got engaged because we talkedabout that.
Oh yeah, okay.
So what's next?
Yeah, we're gonna save Chili'squeso.

(01:12:55):
Um save chilies, and yeah, andsave chilies, and then we'll
fund NASA or something.
But the so that is genuinely aterrible decision.
I have eaten a lot of chilies.
So when I um there was a seasonin my life when I was quite a
bit younger where I would dosome traveling and work as a
musician, um, and I alwayslooked for chilies because at

(01:13:16):
that season of my life I was notwell funded, you know.
I had to be a little bit mindfulof the budget, and chilies was
just consistent.
Yeah, like everywhere I went, itwas gonna be the same.
And I could get the chickencrispers with the whatever I
wanted to be like changed thoseyears ago.

SPEAKER_00 (01:13:30):
I know.
Yeah, it's a terrible idea.
So now they might as well justcompletely rebrand.

SPEAKER_04 (01:13:34):
Right.
Yeah, exactly.
It'll just be a health food,it'll be like the next, it'll be
the next kava or whatever.
It's like we have whole chilies,hummus instead of queso.
Like, no.
No, give the people what theywant.

SPEAKER_00 (01:13:46):
Okay, what's your feedback?
What's your feedback?

SPEAKER_02 (01:13:49):
I think I I've would you have feedback for us on
whether or not we should go ontangents?

SPEAKER_04 (01:13:53):
Oh, I love your tangents.

SPEAKER_02 (01:13:54):
Oh yeah, no, no, I do like endorsing the tangents.

SPEAKER_04 (01:13:56):
Yeah, I endorse the tangents.
Okay.
Yeah, no, I think it's that'swhat you know, it's endearing,
and I think it's what peoplewant to.
I mean, the the reality is likepeople are normal people and
they have conversations.
And it's it's find, you know, intheir I the podcast I enjoy, and
I do like you know y'all'sstyle, is the one that's just
available to open, you know,talk about randomness.

(01:14:19):
Now finding the it's like theSeinfeld thing, like finding the
randomness that resonates issometimes difficult.
You know, it's like because itwhatever resonates for you may
not for other people.
That was the magic of that show.
It's like the show about nothingwas the best show ever.
And because all the nothingnesswas like so common, I mean
there's a lot of like comedythat's built around that, like

(01:14:40):
just observational humor andstuff like that.
So, yes, no, I think it's Ithink it's great.
I think y'all should keep going.

SPEAKER_00 (01:14:45):
We go in with a plan and then we just see where it
goes, right?

SPEAKER_02 (01:14:49):
Yeah, we normally have a piece of paper taped to
one of our camera tripods thatwe sharpie onto it what we're
talking about that day, yeah,and then we just sort of riff on
those things until we feel likewe've actually done something
productive.
And and honestly, like what theway I've started describing this
podcast is we're sort of amillennial morning drive show.

SPEAKER_00 (01:15:09):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (01:15:10):
Like we're we're what you're gonna throw on in
the car when you're on the wayto work, and we're gonna keep
things reasonably lighthearted.
Sometimes we dive into somelittle heavier, deeper stuff,
but but for the most part, youknow, we try and talk about
applicable things that areimportant to us that seem to
have cultural resonate like thatresonate culturally, like Taylor
Swift.
Exactly.

(01:15:30):
That's low-hanging fruit.
Um, but we, you know, we do tryand do that.
But at the same time, like Ilove the idea that we also can
bring on subject matter expertsand and talk to you about things
that are applicable to ouractual lives and the lives of an
awful lot of people.
And honestly, like listening toa lot of what you've said gives

(01:15:54):
me personally, even a lot ofhope.
Um, you know, and there's somethings that that you know, I
mean, obviously, you know, we'rewe're not gonna stay in in the
home that we're in forever.
And I certainly plan to enterback into the real estate
ownership market, but there'seven a couple of things that
you've mentioned in the courseof our recording where I've
gone, oh, maybe I need to talkto you a little more about that.

(01:16:15):
I know, me too.

SPEAKER_00 (01:16:15):
I'm like, oh, well, maybe we can make something
work.

SPEAKER_02 (01:16:18):
All right, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (01:16:18):
And so I mean, I've literally for the last several
months just kind of thought likewe're stuck.

SPEAKER_04 (01:16:22):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (01:16:23):
I felt stuck.

SPEAKER_04 (01:16:24):
Yeah.
And a lot of people have.
The good thing is I think it isshifting.
I think rates are coming back.
There's the the window you have,I think, is fairly short.
Because if rates keep comingback, more buyers get into the
market, it absorbs some of theinventory, prices start going
up.

(01:16:44):
So your net payment, your netmortgage payment will actually
be the same or go up becauseyou're even though you're lower
finance, you're you're financinghigher.
So I think you have a window.
I'm saying all this.
I think you do have a specialwindow right now as a buyer.
Now, if you're selling a houseas well, then you got to
navigate that.
But as a buyer, you do have aspecial window where the rates
are becoming more reasonablethan they have in the last few

(01:17:06):
years, and there's a ton ofinventory, and you can take
advantage of it for sure.
Nice.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (01:17:10):
Well, thank you for joining us for this consumer
advice.

SPEAKER_04 (01:17:15):
Public not everyone's asleep at their
wheel.

SPEAKER_02 (01:17:17):
Oh, no, no, no, no, no.
I I think I think this isactually applicable for a
tremendous amount of people.
And we also gave folks a helpfulheads up about Chili's case
though.
So now we can all collectivelyride them.
I know I love that.

SPEAKER_04 (01:17:30):
I have this public form.
I need to say something.

SPEAKER_00 (01:17:32):
Speaking of chilies and case though.

SPEAKER_04 (01:17:34):
We have the perfect complex time next time uh
Chicago Tasting Day.
So well, and what's gonna be theformat on that?
Are y'all just oh wheels off?

SPEAKER_02 (01:17:43):
Yes, taste and talk.

SPEAKER_00 (01:17:44):
We've already started.

SPEAKER_02 (01:17:46):
We did.
We we've recorded one, it hasn'tbeen released yet as of
mid-October.
Um, but it's it's been recorded,and um, we actually ended up
recording with a friend of ourswho lives over on Pamela's side
of town um named Madeline, whowe are gonna end up blending
some of those episodes umbecause Madeline's life is
hilarious all by itself.

(01:18:06):
And then you add in a littletequila, and it was hilarious.
And so that really thatorganically just kind of turned
into something on the fly.
Yeah.
Um, but I honestly think havingsome guests around for tequila
Tuesday is a great idea.
Oh, yeah.
And you know, we really kind ofgo into it with not a tremendous
amount of plan, and it we justsort of find our way.

(01:18:27):
But um, those will be coming uhonce we actually get uh our
Substack Premium stuff set up,all uh a lot of that stuff will
end up living behind thatSubstack paywall.
Um, and so yeah, we've got somerenewed motivation now to get
that get that going.
We've got a fresh bottle oftequila that's just it's not
gonna drink itself.

SPEAKER_00 (01:18:44):
Nope.

SPEAKER_02 (01:18:45):
So um, but thank you for joining us.
Uh thank you, Ashton, man.
Um so uh finally, um tell thepeople all the places they can
find you um because let's let'sembarrass this guy with how much
real estate business he getsfrom this podcast.
That would be amazing.

SPEAKER_04 (01:19:00):
I'd be glad to be embarrassed in that way.

SPEAKER_02 (01:19:02):
Yeah, so where can the people reach?

SPEAKER_04 (01:19:04):
Yeah, so we have a podcast that comes out every
week.
It's a DFW-based podcast, thereal estate heavyweights.
We do talk about uh somenational news, we talk about
flipping in general, um, but wedo talk about Dallas news, you
know, restaurants that haveopened and closed, things like
that.
So uh we talk about it.

SPEAKER_00 (01:19:21):
Restaurants who've discontinued their cases.

SPEAKER_04 (01:19:22):
Well, we talk a lot about it.
I mean, hey, look, I I loveTavis, he's a big dude, I'm a
big dude.
I boxed, I did one amateurboxing match, and so that's kind
of where the blend of theheavyweights and Tavis has been
in for a long time.
So it was just kind of like anatural name, the real estate
heavyweights.
Um, but we talk a lot about wedo talk a lot about food.
But um, that's okay.

(01:19:44):
Um but I on Instagram, I'mDallas Real Estate Guy.
I uh I'm on Facebook as well,Ashton Hines, Dallas Real Estate
Guy.
I'm with Keller Williams, DallasPreston Road.
So if you Google Ashton HinesRealtor, I I should pop up.
If I don't, I've gone horriblywrong.
But no, but I should pop up.
Uh phone number 469-442-8458.

(01:20:07):
Those are the best ways.

SPEAKER_02 (01:20:08):
Nice.
Awesome.
Well, thanks, man.
Yeah, I appreciate you hangingout and I learned some stuff.
Thank you.
Thanks for having me.
And I'm gonna have a drink inyour honor.
Perfect.

SPEAKER_00 (01:20:16):
Well, that's it for premeditated opinions, where the
thoughts were fully baked andonly mildly regrettable.
If you enjoyed today's episode,congrats on having truly
excellent taste and podcastingopinions.
Following us on YouTube andInstagram is a quick and easy
way to support us.
So if you liked literallyanything about today's episode,

(01:20:37):
please like and subscribe.

SPEAKER_02 (01:20:39):
Also, send this to someone who needs to feel seen,
dragged, or both.
We'll be back next week withmore unsolicited insight and
emotionally responsiblespiraling.
And until then, please stayhydrated and behave yourself in
the comments.
But if you don't, at least makeus laugh.

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