Real Estate Insights: Things to Keep in Mind When Buying or Selling a Home

Are you considering buying or selling a home? In this episode, real estate expert Jason Andersen shares valuable tips and stories to guide you through the process. From navigating real estate transactions to understanding the importance of home warranties and tax benefits, Jason covers it all.  Discover how to make informed decisions about your housing needs, regardless of your age or financial situation.

Tips:

1. Choose the Right Agent: Selecting a real estate agent who is dedicated to your needs and has a long-term relationship approach can make a significant difference in the selling process. Look for an agent who provides ongoing support, advice, and resources even after the sale is complete.
2. Consider Future Needs: When purchasing a home, think about your future needs, especially as you age. Consider factors like health, accessibility, and maintenance requirements that may become more important as you grow older.
3. Financial Planning: If you're on a fixed income and considering buying a home, it's essential to assess your financial situation carefully. Consult with a CPA and look into potential tax benefits, trust options, and programs like the circuit breaker for property tax relief to ensure you can comfortably afford the home in the long run.
4. Home Maintenance: Prioritize home maintenance and repairs before listing your property. Ensuring that your home is in good condition can increase its appeal to potential buyers and help you secure a better deal.
5. Consider Home Warranties: Evaluate the benefits of home warranties, especially if you're buying an older home with potential maintenance issues.

Whether you're a first-time homebuyer, looking to downsize, or considering a move, this episode has something for everyone. Jason's expertise and genuine passion for helping people find their dream homes shine through in every conversation.

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John & Erin

Episode Transcript

John (00:00):
Whether you're looking to buy your dream retirement home,

(00:02):
sell your family house, downsizefor convenience or tap into the
equity you've built over theyears, we've got you covered.
Join us as we sit down with aseasoned real estate agent with
a wealth of knowledge and apassion for helping you navigate
the complexities of real estateHi, I'm John.

Erin (00:29):
And I'm Erin.
You're listening to connect andpower the podcast that proves
age is no barrier to growth andenlightenment.

John (00:37):
Tune in each week as we break down complex subjects into
bite sized, enjoyable episodesthat will leave you feeling
informed, entertained, and readyto conquer the world.

Erin (00:50):
Meet Jason Andersen, your go to guy for all things real
estate in Boise, Idaho.
Imagine your friendliestneighbor.
Who's always got your back.
That's Jason.
He's not just your typicalrealtor.
He's got a story that'll grabyour attention.
All the way from Tokyo, Japan.
Jason found his way to Boise in2005 and quickly fell in love

(01:10):
with the place.
After wrapping up his degree atBoise state university in 2015,
he jumped into the thrillingworld of explosive
manufacturing.
Yep.
You heard that His journeythrough starting his own growing
his own business.
Taught him a ton aboutnegotiation, managing finances,
and getting things from point Ato point B without a hitch.

(01:34):
Once the business was up andrunning smoothly, thanks to his
wife, Sadie Lynn, taking thereins alongside him, Jason found
himself itching for a newchallenge.
And with a little nudge from hisfamily and friends, he dove
headfirst into real estate.
And guess what?
He's a natural.
Jason is married to Sadie Lynn,and they have two beautiful
children that bring them both somuch joy and love.

(01:57):
He is the fifth of sevensiblings, and if you ask him, he
will tell you his sister is hisfavorite.
Growing up in the big familymeans he knows all about the
give and take.
The chaos and the love thatturns a house into a home.
That's exactly the vibe hebrings into helping folks find
their perfect spot in Boise.

(02:18):
He's got the easygoingneighborly way about him.
That makes the whole processfeel like you're just hanging
out, making big decisions with atrusted friend.
He's not just in it to close adeal.
He's here to make sure you landexactly where you're meant to
be.
Let's warmly welcome our guests.
Jason Andersen.

John (02:38):
Welcome, welcome, welcome.

Jason (02:40):
Thank you.
Thank you for that introduction.

John (02:42):
So Jason, gosh, explosives, real estate, family,
all of this, I don't want toscare our or clients away by
talking about explosives, butwe'd love if you just share your
story.
there's so many cool things,

Jason (02:57):
starting from the beginning, I was going to say,
definitely my sister is myfavorite sibling.
That's no surprise in thefamily, but that's what happens
when you have five boys and onegirl, right?
And it's, I am more of a talkerin my family, and I think I
connect with my sister on thatlevel.
on that too,

John (03:12):
too,

Erin (03:12):
for our listeners, a.
k.
a.
That's me.

Jason (03:15):
Yeah, Erin is my big sister, and is my influence and
guide in life in a lot ofthings.
On, on the explosives, I wasjust graduating college from
Boise State and I remembertalking to my dad and just being
like, Hey, I'm going to join theservice.
One of my brothers was arecruiter in Utah.
That's the family thing.
and he just said, Hey, just bethe one son.
please just don't do it.
do something different, go makesome money.

(03:38):
the service isn't what it usedto be.
And I, and I thought about thatfor a while and I was like, what
do I do?
And my wife's family, who areall entrepreneurs, they were
just like, Hey, just start yourown business.
And they said it just socasually, Hey, just go start
your own business.
And it's something that hadnever even crossed my mind.
It's okay, I'll just start myown business.
And I was like, doing what?
And my father in law was like,what do you enjoy doing?

(03:59):
And I was like, I don't know.
Like he, he had actually boughtme a gun, my very first firearm
ever.
When, my wife and I got marriedand I said, I like shooting this
stuff that explodes.
And he said, there you go.
Great.
Get into that.
And, one thing led to another.
And a couple of years later wehad started an exploding target
business and, learned a lot oflessons real fast about just how

(04:19):
life works.
So that they don't teach you inschool and they don't teach you.
My parents didn't teach me causethey just didn't know.
Right.
Um, anyways, fast forward acouple of years and it was, it
was pretty independent on itsown.
Of course, my wife stepped inafter college and she continued
to run it and there just wasn'troom for two people.
It was a really small mom andpop business.

(04:39):
And, we had talked about megetting into real estate for
years.
I'd been on the road doing gunshows, going to different states
and doing that.
And I just wanted to be homeagain.
so I got into, I called a buddywho had just gotten into real
estate and he said, you got todo it.
It's awesome.
the next day I was actually inthe real estate class and
graduated a 30 days later,finished the class, took the
test, had my license.

(05:00):
And then after that, 30 daysafter I had my license, that was
an early June, I had put myfirst deal under contract before
the beginning of July.
So overall it was like, I was, Iwas very fortunate to get into
it quickly.
And, Make money quickly.
And that's really what you needto survive in real estate is you
start making money and youreinvest money into the business
and you can start getting infront of more people, right?

(05:20):
and I think that's what kills alot of people in the beginning
is, is it's just a veryexpensive industry, especially
if you don't know what you'redoing in the beginning.

Erin (05:27):
I would agree with that.

Jason (05:28):
yeah, just, I think that's like any business, right?
it's just where is your targetmarket audience?
How do you connect with people?
And in real estate, it's just.
So hard to connect with peopleso because everybody, you know
knows ten real estate agentsalready it's one of the most
oversaturated markets thatbarrier to entry is so low that
literally everybody Goes on awhim like I did and says I'll

(05:49):
just get my real estate license,right?
Thankfully the businessbackground had prepared me for
Google AdWords, like setting upaccounts, being able to attract
clients, re engage thoseclients.
So many times in real estate,people just reaching out one
time.
And if the sale doesn't comeimmediately, they just drop the
ball and that's it.
And so I think with ironclad,our exploding target business,
what I was able to learn isyou've got to touch people 10,

(06:11):
15, 20 times before a lot ofthem will even respond.
And that's when we're doing a 50to a hundred dollars sale,
right?
So this is a much bigger dealthan that.

Erin (06:20):
Yeah, There's a lot to sales.
That's for sure.
And I think all three of usdefinitely know that

Jason (06:26):
Yes.
Absolutely.

Erin (06:28):
in the work for sure.

John (06:30):
And I think the, I think the bigger the sale, the bigger
product that you're selling orthe more value you're trying to
give, the harder it is to dosuccess in real estate isn't,
isn't achieved by everyone andneither is it in healthcare and
a lot of other things.
so we're excited to have youtalk to our listeners more about

(06:51):
the real estate world and how wenavigate that as we age.
I would say before we dive intoall the fun little Nitty gritty
questions.
Really if you could walk us, thelisteners through the process of
buying a home, because somepeople don't know it, simply
like me, I, I never bought ahome until I had bought a home
myself, right?
I didn't know the process.
So if you wouldn't mind sharingthat.

Jason (07:12):
Of course.
Yeah.
So there's, there's twodifferent ways to go about
buying a house the way that mostcommonly ends up happening in
today's day and age isoftentimes people are on Zillow
or realtor or Trulia, and thenthey find a home.
Somehow they click a button andend up either that or even
Google AdWords end up gettingconnected with whoever the agent
was that was advertising there.
And typically you meet thosepeople at a house for the first

(07:34):
time.
And then decide if you guys likeeach other and want to work
together.
If I know people personally, Ilike to have that appointment at
our office and just go over thetimeline is what I call it.
So there's basically, I have 10steps to purchasing real estate
here in Idaho.
So the first is you meet eachother and decide if you're going
to like each other.
Because it's not just about, forme personally at this point in

(07:55):
my career, if it like, I'm notgoing to grab every deal that I
can grab because there's someclients out there who you meet
with and you, you know, thatthere's going to be more
headaches than it's worth.
And likewise, on the buyingside, if you meet an agent and
you're not comfortable withthem, if your personalities
don't connect.
you, you probably shouldn'tempower them to continue the
transaction.
you should probably move on tosomebody else and find a

(08:15):
different agent who you connectbetter with.
once you guys, decide you'regoing to work together.
Then we need to talk aboutfinancing.
Okay.
So how are we purchasing thisproperty?
are you guys getting a loan?
Are you paying cash?
Is there going to be moneyinvolved from family members?
Those are the questions you gothrough.
And then in real estate, I helpdirect them to a lender if they
don't have one already.

(08:36):
And this is not a service that Iam compensated anything for what
I have is a bank of lenders whoI know are good with certain
people.
For example, if you're a 1099self employed person and you've
been employed for a short periodof time, your P and L's are a
mess.
I might send you to one person,right?
But if you, if you're a W2employee, been in the same place
for 10 years, got a sizable downpayment, stellar credit, I might

(09:00):
send you another place, right?
At the end of the day, it's theconsumer's choice to choose
whoever they want, butoftentimes I'm good at matching
personalities and loan typeswith how I think it's going to
go.
So then you get with the lenderif you need a loan.
If not, it's, and it's all cash,that's fine.
then step three is we go out andwe find the property.
So it really just depends onwhere you're at in life, but

(09:22):
what I see predominantly and Idon't even want to say 55 up
community because there's such adifference between 50, 55 year
olds and 80 year olds, like inwhat they're looking for.
55 year old might not care ifthere's an upper bonus room.
In fact, they might want onebecause where are they at in
their life?
They're starting to have theirfirst grand babies.
Their kids are getting off tocollege, right?

(09:43):
Maybe they have a kid or twoleft in the house.
So they're going to want stuffthat like, if the kids come
over, they can send themupstairs, have that play space
away.
But then when we start talkingabout ironically enough, like 55
up communities, typically thosehave a median, a mean age of 75
to 80.
So those people are going towant quieter green spaces, less

(10:03):
commotion outside of theirhomes, like truly single level
homes, no upper bonus rooms,right?
Then you start getting into thequestion a little bit of
sometimes if they think they'regoing to need like a zero
threshold barriers to get intotheir shower, right?
What does this house look likeif I have to be ADA compliant
for my wheelchair as I getolder?

(10:23):
Like those kinds of things docome up.
For sure.
but when we talk about goingthrough the process with older
people, depending on their agedepends on where I'm going to
suggest that they look, becauseif I have a 55 year old come to
me and say I want a 55 upcommunity, I'm going to say
happy to show them to you, butyou probably really don't want
that, right?
It'd pick a very specific typeof person to want that at 55

(10:46):
years old.
because I think the lifestyle isjust not conducive to the energy
that you have.
55 is still young in my, in myview, right?
I don't know about you guys, butit's still young.
So anyways, after we find thehouse, you go in, you make the
offer.
Typically in Idaho, we have a 30day escrow period.
You can shorten that up withcash.
I, I've had deals close as fastas five days with cash, four

(11:08):
days, normally people still wanta title commitment to make sure
there's clean title on theproperty at a bare minimum,
right?
but, two weeks to a month tomove into the home, close on it.
And then there's just a millionmore small things that go into
it from there, but that's theoverall general process.

John (11:25):
think that, it's so awesome that, that you have the
ability and the knowledge to beable to take all types of buyers
out, whether they're in theirtwenties, all the way up to the
later stages of life.
And you're definitely wellqualified and have enough
knowledge to have the bestunderstanding on what fits them
the best, because you're right.
taking all those.

(11:46):
Those into thought, when you'relooking to purchase a home, like
what type of space do you havefor the grandkids or are the
halls wide enough forwheelchair?
So those are all really, reallyimportant things that people
sometimes don't think aboutduring that buying process.
that's one of the things I knowabout you That I think is just
so awesome is you do the worklike a lot of people.

(12:09):
They're just about making asale, right?
When it comes to selling ahouse.
And I think that you reallydevelop this connection with
whoever you're trying torepresent, whether they're
buying or selling and make itappropriate.

Erin (12:22):
And that's important too.
People feel like, I'm just goingto pick a real estate agent and
do it.
And to Jason's point, no, youneed to find someone that
actually is going to work foryou and find what works for you.
Not just try to sell yousomething, right?

John (12:32):
Oh, for sure.

Jason (12:33):
Yep.
Yeah.
And on that, on that point too,Erin, when people are vetting
real estate agents, what I'vefound is a lot of the times,
like people will pick up thephone, call the first agent who
appears at the top of the list,and then they'll go with that
person.
Honestly, it would do you somegood to get on Google, look at
their reviews, get on Zillow,look at their reviews, right?
Because if you're, if you'rejudging someone in every other

(12:55):
facet of life, before we go to arestaurant, before we go buy a
car, we're looking at reviewsfor everything, right?
When you buy a house, it shouldbe no different.
You should go on and see whathave other people's experiences
been like for this person?
And are they recent?
do we have stuff that's not twoor three years old?
So sometimes, you get on and youlook at someone and they haven't
had a review in two years.

(13:15):
were they not selling homes fortwo years?
Do they, did they just stopposting because they thought
they had enough, enoughrelevance on, on Google, right?
And it's you want people who aregoing to stay on top of it.
the other thing too that Johnhit on was knowing the right
kind of, of house.
One thing I thought about therewas, A lot of people think older
folks just have these bundles ofcash laying around.

(13:36):
And actually, one of the thingsI run into the most is they, a
lot of them do have cash intheir current homes that they
can use as equity, but a lot ofpeople don't understand how to
tap that leverage.
And that is something that.
I think stops a lot of them fromgoing out and making a move is
because they know their house isworth more, but in their mind,
they can only access that ifthey sell their home.

(13:58):
And so then it's that justsounds like too many moving
parts, right?

Erin (14:01):
You're right.

John (14:02):
Yeah.
So Jay, another, another thingthat I'd like to talk, we've
talked a lot about buying homes,right?
But you can represent both sidesof it.
You can also represent sellers.
And I think that, With a lot ofthe people that we're working
with, and we're trying to helpfind resources, I think a big
part of it is selling, right?
Maybe, maybe their healthcondition has changed a bit or

(14:25):
they're lonely or they need tothink about transitioning in a
different type of place.
And so you can help themnavigate that as well, right?
Finding out the best optionsabout, selling their house and,
and guiding

Erin (14:39):
them Or if they're downsizing, right?
Because kids have left or,they've lost a spouse, it's only
them.

John (14:45):
or they have an upstairs that they no longer need.
That is just extra squarefootage that they're having to
maintain on a fixed income, soif you can just explain, your
thought process in representingsellers that, that maybe you're
thinking about it, a transition.

Jason (15:02):
It's interesting that you bring that up.
so far this year, I've actuallyhad two, older couples above 50
who have come back to me andhave both bought houses in the
last couple of years.
And one of them is, wants todownsize for exactly what you
just said.
So they actually, they have anupstairs.
It's half of the square footageof their house.
And they're like, we just don'tneed it anymore.
So their thing is just abouthaving open space in the

(15:24):
backyard to feel like they canbreathe.
And see some mountains, see someclouds, right?
we're actually under contract ona nice townhouse right now out
in KUNA that, has a protectedgreen space behind it.
So they're going to have a viewforever, right?
And the exterior is maintainedby the townhome HOA, basically.
it's not quite a 55 upcommunity, but it's a really

(15:44):
good fit for them becausethey're still not, they're still
not honestly getting too oldwhere they can't take care of
themselves.
They're in that part of lifewhere like they really don't
need That extra help, but theywant a community that kind of is
going to help take care of someof the stuff.
They just don't want to dealwith anymore.
there's folks like that.
And then there's another anothercouple that I'm helping.
We're going to be listing theirhouse in March.

(16:05):
And, they just bought, a nicesmall house out in Caldwell a
couple years back, in 2017,2018, and, the wife is hey,
look, I'm 80 now, and, there's,everyone in this neighborhood is
young, I don't have friends,there's no activities, and for
her, it's I, I want to go to, aretirement, Kind of community,
but I don't want it to be tooexpensive.

(16:25):
And also, the ones that are lessexpensive, she's noticed, she's
like, Hey, you know, we'vetalked about those are on lot
rents.
So it's I'm on a fixed income.
So like we need to find a happymedian.
So when they come back, we'regoing to list her house for sale
and it will be contingent uponthem finding an acceptable place
to go.
So a lot of the times likebuyers will do contingent
offers.
And in this instance, weactually.

(16:46):
Are going to do a contingency onthe selling side where
essentially they can go undercontract, but we're not going to
close on the deal until they areunder contract on something that
works for them because whatthey're looking for is that is
very specific, right?
it might take us some time tofind.

Erin (17:00):
Can I ask, what is a lot rent?

Jason (17:03):
Yeah, so a lot of 55 up communities understand that,
people are on social security ordisability and the income is
fixed.
if you go to a Brightonsubdivision, like a cadence,
you're buying the house, you'rebuying the lot, you're buying
into the community.
Those homes are like 600, 000,right?
maybe they're a little less,maybe they're a little bit more
expensive, but 600, 000 home.

(17:24):
A 600, 000 home I think in mostinstances is not what people are
thinking of when in the Boisearea when they're thinking of
like a retirement.
So you have a bunch of differentcommunities.
There's one out in Nampa wherelike all of the streets are
basically, in a gated area andall the streets are called
Burnett and essentially theyjust have numbers because the
community actually owns all ofthe lots.

(17:47):
And so like they're only payingfor the house.
So you can go find houses outthere right now for 275, 300,
340, but like a fraction of thecost of the Brighton Cadence
neighborhoods.
Because technically thecommunity owns your lot.
because they own your lot,everyone gets nervous and says,
what if they take my lot away?
And it's they can't.
When you buy a property fromthem, you sign a 99 year lease.

(18:10):
And on a 55 year lease, a 99year lease would make you 154
years old.
the odds of you having them thatrunning the course of that lease
is zero, right?
what happens though is they canraise the lot rent, but a lot of
the time they are limited orfixed to whatever the increase
is going to be in socialsecurity checks.

(18:30):
So you sign onto that knowingthat if the inflation rate and
social security goes up 2percent next year, your lot rent
might go up 2%, right?
But they are mindful that theirentire community.
Is is elderly folks on fixedincomes, right?
So the lot rent is probably onaverage anywhere from 6 to 900
bucks a month.
And that's going to help for allthe green spaces because

(18:52):
typically there's no lawnmaintenance included normally
they're mowing all the lawns.
They've got a clubhouse.
They've got a pool.
They're putting together a listof activities that you can go do
during the week.
Like, hey, we've got a busthat's going to go take you guys
and do this activity at the YMCAor you're going to drive to the
mall and, and, have yoga andthen go to this restaurant.

(19:12):
So you're paying for stuff likethat.
And that does come with a cost,right?

John (19:17):
Are those similar to like association dues

Jason (19:21):
Exactly.
They are essentially there.
That is the association dues isthe lot rent for that, that
plot.
So that's a good point.
in a normal HOA, you're going tobe paying anywhere from, you
Like 400 bucks a year upwards.
And I think the highest I'veseen around here is maybe 2, 000
a year, 3, 000 a year.
So in essence, yeah, that'sexactly what you're paying for.

(19:42):
It's just an expensive HOA feeif you will, but you get so much
more than you ever would in justa normal neighborhood.

John (19:49):
Now, one thing I'd like to, also tell listeners is when
they're looking to select a realestate professional like
yourself, time is really goodbecause relationships are built
during that time, not only withthe experience of selling
houses, but you haverelationships with movers and
you have relationships with,with electricians and people

(20:11):
that can come in.
and do modifications in the homeif needed.
And since you have years in theindustry, you can help support
that, correct?

Jason (20:22):
Exactly.
So when I step in and I come into help you guys buy or sell a
home, essentially, it's, it canbe as white glove as you want.
So if you guys want me to, call,I can either send you my movers
information, Tim with delicatetouch movers.
I can either text that to you orI can call Tim and say, Hey,
Tim, look, my people need to bemoved.
They need to be moved next week.
So some people are more budgetconscious and want to take their

(20:45):
hands off.
there's not like an extra feethat I charge to do all that for
people.
That's all included withwhatever we've negotiated
beforehand.
but it's certainly not an addon.
It's just one of those things.
if you want me to take care ofit, I will take care of it.
If you're more A type and youneed to be in charge and take
care of it, I'm happy to giveyou the information and let you
go figure it out.

Erin (21:03):
that is another great question to ask your agent.
Once I move into the house, howdo we stay connected or what
other services do you have?
cause some are like, peace out.
I got my paycheck.

John (21:13):
I'm out.
I'm out.
I'm

Erin (21:14):
out.

Jason (21:15):
Exactly.
It's, that's interesting.
You say that.
I tell a lot of people andthey're always a fair chunk of
my buyers and sellers aresurprised that when I'm, when I
say, Hey, when this transactionis done, like this is just the
start of our relationshipbecause where I make my money,
yet you're, you're one cell oryour buy and your sell.
It's appreciated.
Absolutely.
But that's not where I make mymoney, where my money comes from

(21:35):
is I'm sending you handwrittencards every 90 days.
I'm checking in with you with aphone call every 30 days for the
first little bit after you movedin.
You're getting a monthly mailerfrom me.
I'm also reaching out to youevery six months to let you know
what this, what the cost of yourhome is doing or the price of
your home and where interestrates are.
Should you refinance if you havea loan on the property?
Are there other ways to go aboututilizing your equity that could

(21:57):
be beneficial to you?
So it's not, it's, you'reabsolutely right.
It doesn't just stop with theone check.
And the problem is, is theexpectation with most people is
that agent helps me buy thehome, agent goes away, right?
If your agent is going awayafter the transaction, that's
honestly that they're doing adisservice to the client.
you should be engaged with thatperson the entire time,
especially if they're here inIdaho.

(22:18):
I do have a harder time keepingup with people when they move
out of state for, for better orworse.
Most people when they movetypically aren't planning on
coming back, but I still do keepthem on an email list unless
they don't want me to, right?

John (22:30):
Yeah.

Erin (22:31):
you've talked about it a couple of times now and I'm
going to jump ahead just alittle but you talked about
equity and some people don'tunderstand how that works, where
it comes from, how do I knowwhat it is?
It's a scary thing.
So if you wouldn't mindexplaining.

Jason (22:42):
Yeah.
So when you buy a home,obviously markets appreciate or
depreciate and in most bigmetropolitan areas over a 10
year period, they always go up,right?
You're going to have your up anddowns, but by and large, just
like the stock market, they goup.
So most people are living intheir homes on average, seven
years.
And I find that when peoplestart getting into the seventies
and eighties, they're typicallyin their homes even longer than

(23:03):
that.
So most people are going to havehundreds of thousands of dollars
of equity that they can tap intoon their homes.
There is a whole bunch ofdifferent ways to tap into
equity.
the list is so long.
It's all just situationallydependent because what are we
tapping into it for?
Are we tapping into it to moveto a new place?
Are we tapping into it torenovate your home?

(23:24):
Are we tapping into it to giveyour grandkids a loan so they
can buy their first house?
at each of those spots, I wouldsay talk to your financial
advisors, the disclaimer, butalso you can run it by me if
you're thinking about buying orselling your home, and I can
point you in the right directionand help you get started on
that.
Because, If you are moving, forexample, like my folks who are
moving to KUNA, we were actuallyable to find them an assumable

(23:46):
VA loan.
right now our interest rates arein the 5's, 6's, right?
It just depends on the day.
they're actually purchasing ahome where the interest rate is
going to be 2.
12%, right?
Yeah.
So initially when we werelooking at the 6 percent
interest rate and we weretalking with the lender, they
were actually going to have tosell their home in order to go
purchase a new home.

(24:07):
So when, when we found thisparticular house in KUNA and we
went back to the lender, thelender's Hey, you guys actually
make enough money in retirementjust barely, but you make enough
to purchase that home with thatrate.
And then you can go back andsell your home after the fact.
So they actually have the bestof both worlds right now
because.
They, they don't even need toworry about touching the equity
on their home.
And the thing is, is theassumable loans are becoming

(24:29):
more and more frequent, but youhave to know where to look for
those.
And a lot of people don'trealize where to go for that.

Erin (24:35):
Can you share with them where they should go?
Maybe go back to their lenderand ask, do they ask their
mortgage company?

Jason (24:43):
So when you're talking about searching for assumable
loans in general, that's whenyou want to get a real estate
agent involved because a lendermight know where their own
office is assumable loans are.
But in the, in the MLS, weactually have a line where we
can put if the loan is assumableor not.
And we can do a keyword searchif it's assumable or not.
So I can go in and type in thereand pull up the list of anyone

(25:04):
who's marketed the home asassumable.
And not just that.
Once you find an assumable loan,it's, it's a very different
animal than just going through anormal real estate transaction.
You're going to want to havesomeone who understands how that
process works, right?
Because it is two to three timeslonger than a normal
transaction.
And there is paperwork thatneeds to be filled out in
advance.
And if your agent doesn't knowwhat they're doing, a lot of the

(25:26):
times, like the first time I didone, we were, we took probably
two or three weeks longer.
Because I didn't realize thatthere was paper we needed to
fill out and nobody tells you.
they don't tell you until, untilit's too late and everyone's
angry, right?

John (25:41):
Interesting.
it's funny as we've been talkingabout all this.
I used to get in discussions topeople about the forever home.
I want to purr.
I want to purchase my foreverhome.
But what a lot of people don'tthink about.
Is in the moment they'rethinking about their forever
home, it's based on their healthat that moment, right?
It's based on their family'ssize and needs.

(26:04):
There's it's based on theirjobs.
There's so many times.
I would say a huge percentageand maybe, this off the top of
your head, a huge percentage ofpeople move multiple times
during their lifetime that thereisn't any forever home anymore
because.
We have to consider all of thefactors.
And so if you could touch baseon that a little bit, maybe I'm

(26:25):
wrong, but I'm assuming thatthat's the case.

Jason (26:29):
You're right.
You would not believe the amountof people actually you would,
from what you're saying, theamount of people that come to me
and say, okay, this is the lasthome I'm ever going to buy.
If I had 100 for every time Iheard that, I'd probably have 2,
000 because there's plenty ofpeople who they buy a home and
then five years later, lifechanges, right?
Your circumstance changes.

(26:50):
and there's just so many thingsthat can be, Health, it can be,
marriage, death, divorce,children, grandchildren, moving
back in, job changes.
maybe like an inheritance youweren't expecting.
the list goes on and on and onand, and I can't tell you how
many times people have called meback and been like, Hey, I know
we said three years ago weweren't moving, but we wanna

(27:11):
move now.
And, and that happens.
That happens all the time.
I think if someone tells you,this is the home I'm gonna die
in.
9.
9 out of 10 times, that is notgoing to be the home they're
going to die in.
unless they're like on hospiceand they know, which is morbid,
but, yeah.

John (27:25):
when it comes to, when you're looking at.
purchasing a home and stuff, andyou're at a certain age and we
were, we've, I'm sorry if I'mbeating a horse here, but, there
are different factors likehealth is one thing, especially
with a lot of our clientele withour company that we have, a lot
of times people, they getenamored by the beauty of a
house or they get enamored bythe views or whatever, but maybe

(27:48):
that location isn't conducive totheir health.
So if you could just say in, inyour real estate career.
And advising people, I thinkit's, it's smart to factor those
things in, correct?
Yeah.

Erin (28:02):
Yeah.

Jason (28:03):
Yeah, I think definitely it is.
A lot of people are alwaysconcerned about resell, are we
going to be able to resell thishouse?
And it's hey, you're thinkingabout buying it right now.
So why is it crazy to think thatin 10 years, someone else is not
going to want to buy your home,right?
So all homes will sell.
That's my first, my first thingI'll say.
The second thing is when you'retalking about health and things

(28:23):
to consider, Sure.
That's another reason why youbring someone along who looks at
homes all day long, 24 7,because if you're 50 years old,
and we're buying a house, youmay not care that your driveway
is facing north, right?
But if you tell me you want tosay that for 20 years, I'm going
to say, Hey, listen, it's reallynot that big of a deal right
now.
But North Facing Driveways, it'scommonly known here, you're

(28:44):
going to get ice build up in thedriveway.
It will never go away during thewinter.
what do most people end up goingto the hospital for when they
get older?
Falls.
A lot of them fall.
They break arms, they get bloodclots, right?
It kills a lot of people.
it's essentially what I'mtelling you is, is, do you want
this driveway in 20 years to beone of the things that could
potentially kill you, right?
That's pretty extreme, but atthe same time, it's something to
consider, right?

(29:05):
The other thing too is like,When we're looking at homes,
it's Hey, are you the kind ofguy who's going to want to put
up their Christmas lights everyyear?
So let's look at the pitch ofthe roof then, right?
if we're sitting at a pitchversus a hip gabled roof, right?
It's maybe that makes adifference to you.
so to answer your questionshortly, there's a lot of things
to consider.
And if you're telling someonethat I want, I'm 50 years old,

(29:26):
but I want to stay there tillI'm 70, 80.
Even though you may not staythere, it's good to have these
discussions about hey.
I've noticed the master bedroomsupstairs, right?
You may not care that it'supstairs right now, but in 15
years, in 10 years, you mightcall me and say, Hey, I had, I
have to have a knee replacement.
We just realized we don't have abedroom downstairs at all.
So this house isn't going towork for me anymore.

Erin (29:45):
Yeah.
and I think that's how you knowa difference of a good agent
versus someone that's just anagent, a full time agent that
knows clients that's dealt withclients from all ages and
different experiences versus ifI were to hop in the market
right now as a brand new agent,I might not know to ask those
questions, right?

Jason (30:02):
Yep.
Yep.
And you need to get a feelingthat the person that you're
talking with and dealing withcares about you.
because we do talk a lot.
I hear about a lot in theindustry, like agents are so
focused on commissions and, andI, I would bet you that the
onesie Tuesday agents who are inand out in six months.
Yeah, that's going to be theirmain focus.
But for those of us who have.
A revolving door of business andlike my finances are secure,

(30:24):
whether or not I do businessthis month or not, it's I'm
gonna care about you as theperson because again, the
long-term client interactionrelationship is what I care
about the most, right?
So they need to be talking toyou.
They need to be bringing upthese things.
If you walk through homes andthey're not bringing up things
for you to think about andconsider, maybe it's time to ask
yourself if you're, if you'reworking with the right person,
right?

Erin (30:45):
Do you have Tips on how to keep their house up, right?
Because eventually, like we say,they're going to sell their home
down the road.
It's not going to be thereforever.
So it's important to keep thingsup, right?

Jason (30:56):
Yep.
So every six months at the startof spring and at the beginning
of fall, I'll send out an emailor I have a different, a couple
of different ways.
I like I syndicated out topeople.
So I'll start with a socialmedia post and then I will
transform that into an email forpeople who I know are not using
Instagram or Facebook and I'llsend that to them and it will be
like a reminder.
Hey.
It's time to open your vents orclose your vents, make sure that

(31:19):
you've gotten your sprinklersystem blown out.
Make sure that you fixed anydamage that looks like this, and
and I'll walk them through.
Another thing is make sureyou're covering your AC unit
during the during the fall.
So many people don't cover theirAC units here.
Like when you drive through aneighborhood, almost everybody's
AC units are uncovered this timeof year.
And Yeah.
and, and the thing is, is ifyou're only going to live there

(31:40):
for a year or two, I guess itwill be someone's problem later.
But like you go to a house infive years after it was built
and you look at AC units andyou'll notice like all the paint
is peeling off.
It's rusting.
It looks awful.
And for 20 bucks at Walmart, youcould have bought a little cover
and covered it.
You just need to make sure youshut off the kill switch right
next to the circuit breaker nextto the AC.
So in spring, someone doesn'taccidentally turn it on and try

(32:02):
and suck that into the AC.
My point is, is I will send youthese reminders, make sure you
cover it, make sure you're doingthis, make sure you're doing
that, because there, there are aton of little things you can do
that require, I think the sayingis an ounce of prevention is
worth a pound of cure, right?
Or, or a pound of remediation orsomething like that.
And that's so true.
Like just a little bit of efforton your part.

(32:23):
If you follow my steps every sixmonths is going to save you a
lot of money and headache in thefuture.

Erin (32:28):
that's what I thought with the inspector that we had come
to my house is he, we got aninspection where he would do it
twice within that one year.
And so when he came out thatsecond time, it was really nice.
He's like, you know.
When these reports come out,they're not just to tell you the
goods, the bads and everything.
It tells you how to upkeep yourhouse too, which was very
interesting.

Jason (32:49):
You know that there's a couple of inspection companies I
like here and all of them, theywill send you their contractors
lists.
They will have their hints andtips on how to maintain your
home.
And then also your real estateagent should have a list as
well.
So it's and they should havetheir own list of things you
should be doing at certain timesof the year.
So if you're using the rightpeople in the transaction, you
should be getting hit.
Multiple times on multiplefronts with that information,

(33:11):
because another thing, I forgetthis one myself is like air
filters in your house.
Like, how I know it's time tochange my air filters is when it
starts whistling when I walk byand I can hear it going.
When you've gotten to thatpoint, honestly, you've waited
too far.
And so there's several servicesout there that every quarter,
every month, however often youlike, we'll, we'll drop ship you
filters.
And that's your reminder tochange the filter at that point

(33:32):
in time.
that is a good service to, topartake in.
If, if you, if you don't mindpaying for it, I'm cheap with
the filters and I don't want topay the extra five bucks a
filter.
So I just wait till I hearwhistling and then I know

Erin (33:44):
Or you just put it on your calendar.

Jason (33:47):
I, the thing is, is I put it on my calendar and then I
walk over and I look up throughthe grates and I'm like, looks
fine, right?
It'll last.
And then I forget about it.
but yes, you're right.
That would be a good thing todo.

John (33:57):
Jason, if you could touch base a little bit for our
listeners to one of the thingsthat I know is when we're
younger and we're generating ahealthier income, we're not on a
fixed income, we can afford topay for repairs on certain
things.
However, there are companiesthat sell home insurance
policies There's other companiesthat will change out your

(34:18):
filter, come out and serviceyour furnace.
But, those home insurance

Erin (34:22):
Are you talking about the Home warranties.

John (34:23):
Home warranties.
Thank you.
Home warranty.
And so if you could touch base,really, again, when we're on a
fixed income and we're older,the importance of having one of
those plans in places Or when toget one or when to get one.
Yeah.
If you could just touch base onthat.

Jason (34:38):
The home warranty is, it can be a good option if you are
buying an old home that has alot of deferred maintenance.
or if you're a first time homebuyer that's, that doesn't have
a lot of extra income.
And I guess in this instance, ifyou are a senior and you don't
have a lot of extra income, the,my only concern with the home
warranties is yes, they can be,they can serve a purpose and be

(34:59):
good.
But a lot of the times, It is anextra layer of pulling teeth
because a home warranties, theway they like to operate is to
repair, repair, repair.
They really, really like to, tonot replace stuff, as much as
they can, because obviously thatcuts into what their profits
are.
while I do think they can be agood idea for some people.
If you were an older person andyou had access to five or ten

(35:22):
grand, I would probably say saveyour money because they do run
five, 600 bucks a year on those,those home warranties.
And a lot of the times if you'rebuying a home, that's been well
maintained, especially by anolder couple or like a 55 up
community.
Like you think about it, thosepeople are retired and they live
at home.
Like most of the time I walkinto those homes and they are
sparkling.
All these people do is go, Oh, Ibet I could, I could fix that.

(35:43):
And then they fix it.
So I don't know.
Every situation is different.
I don't know if it would be theright option for most people who
are retired because typicallyYou're going to have a little
nest egg and you're going to beable to fix that problem and
that might be different than ayounger person who really just
put all their money down on thehouse and has no money to fix a
broken AC unit a month afterclose.

(36:04):
but can they be an a goodoption?
Absolutely.
They can.
and I used to feel very stronglyabout them.
I think in the last two or threeyears, my, my view has changed a
little bit just because I havewatched clients really have a
difficult time getting expensiverepairs.
actually replaced, instead ofjust like band aided, band
aided, band aided, band aided,right?
So I used to be a huge proponentof them though.

(36:27):
When there was another company,there's a company here called
Ibex who I really liked, butthey stopped operating on our
market.
And after they left, I justhaven't found a good replacement
that makes repairs easy orreplacements

John (36:40):
And, and, it could be the area too, because I know my
parents, they have a ranch, AndI know that companies have come
out to repair things.
And then my dad has usually beensomebody that stepped up to the
plate after like the secondrepair and said, Hey, no, no,
this is the second time we're,we're repairing it the same way
for the same reason.
It's time to, to To replace it.

(37:00):
And I think that as long aswe're advocating for ourselves
and pushing for thatreplacement, it can be
beneficial because they've,they've actually had most of
the, appliances in their homechanged out.
Yeah, replace.
so I think it depends on thelocation too.
So

Jason (37:17):
Yep, location, personality and, and your own
comfort with your finances.
if you've got like my dad oryour dad, someone who's not
afraid to push someone aroundand say, Hey, this isn't right.
But if you've got 92 year oldJanice.
Who can barely answer her owndoor, right?
those are the kind of people Iworry about are just going to
get taken advantage of ifthere's a problem.

(37:38):
but again, like you said, if youhave someone advocating, like an
agent who's there and going tohelp you, there's some clients
who I know need extra help and Iwill follow back with them a lot
more regularly.
But, but you bring up a goodpoint, John.
I think the location could makea big difference.

Erin (37:53):
another thing I was asking, about taxes when picking
a home, when moving state tostate, are there different
benefits as I'm aging that Ishould look for maybe state to
state?

Jason (38:05):
So the initial feedback on there for me is like talk to
your CPA, right?
Like I'm not a financial advisoror an accountant.
However, I will say that ifyou're moving and you're older
and you have a nice nest egg, itmay be time to look into
potentially putting that moneyin a trust when you buy your
next property.
Because like when you die, isyour will set up?
To avoid probate and a lot ofpeople don't have that in place.

(38:26):
And so if you die and there's nowill, everything you own goes to
the state and the statebasically gets to determine who
becomes in charge of it and howit gets split up.
And by the way, you're going topay money on it, right?
there definitely can be taxbenefits if you're going to buy
and sell a home anyways, andyou're going to have a chunk of
cash, it could be worthconsidering looking into
potentially putting things in atrust.
And also looking at an Idaholike what county you're going to

(38:47):
live in, because, in CanyonCounty taxes are more expensive
for single family homes thanthey are in Ada County, which
for anyone who lives here thatnever makes sense.
But it's, it's just how it goesright and I'm not sure why that
is it's just how the cities havechosen to do things.
The other thing too is.
You do get that first, 125, 000,primary property exemption on
your property here in Idaho.

(39:09):
you want to make sure you'refilling that out.
And then also, if you're over65, 62, 65, I'm not, I need to
go back and look at the exactage.
No, we have a program called thecircuit breaker.
So if you're on a fixed incomeand you're under certain income
thresholds and you're overcertain ages, you can actually
qualify to actually even payless property taxes or no
property taxes depending on howmuch you make.

John (39:30):
Wow.

Jason (39:30):
of people, yeah.
So that can be huge too.

John (39:33):
and that's called the circuit breaker for the
listeners out there that, didn'tcatch that.
Please, yeah, please in Idahoresearch that and to see if you
qualify because that can be ahuge benefit.

Jason (39:44):
Absolutely.
Yep.
And a lot of people don't knowabout it.
Because the government's notgoing to advertise to you.
Hey, pay less taxes.

Erin (39:50):
Yeah.

John (39:51):
for sure.

Erin (39:52):
Again, why you need an experience.
agent.
Yeah.

John (39:55):
No, I agree.
I agree.

Erin (39:57):
that, information for sure.

John (39:59):
Now, I was going to ask, when it comes to going back to
purchasing homes, right?
I know that you sell homes atall ages.
However, is there an age number,and I know this all depends,
right?
There's sometimes people, theygo through transition life,
whether it's divorce, whetherit's job loss, whatever, and
they're, they're starting to getolder.
And we think about.

(40:19):
The average alone for a home, itcould be 20, it could be 30
years.
So is there a, a certain agethat is I don't know, symbolic
of the cutoff point.
And if you don't have a hugedown payment, you're going to be
really limited to be able to getthe financial loan to be

Erin (40:38):
able to

John (40:39):
to

Erin (40:40):
a home.
Is there an age limit of whereyou shouldn't buy

John (40:43):
so like for instance, if, if I was.
65 70 years old, right?
And I didn't have a home and I'dgone through a divorce and I had
enough money for a down payment.
but maybe I wasn't working asteady job or making a really
good income.
I was more on a fixed income.
do I still have the ability topurchase a home or does that

(41:03):
really limit my options?

Jason (41:07):
I don't think it limits it by any stretch of the
imagination because lenders arenot allowed to discriminate for
age or health status.
So you could find out that youhave terminal cancer and you're
going to die in six months andyou could say, I want to go buy
a house, tell your lender, I'mgoing to die in six months.
They're still not allowed tosay, okay, then we won't cut you
this loan.
Same thing.
Same thing for being old.

(41:28):
It's like you could be 98 yearsold and say, I want to take out
a 30 year mortgage.
Common sense would dictatethere's a fairly high chance
that they're not going to bethere by the end of that
mortgage.
Still not allowed todiscriminate.
so the biggest, the biggestfactor for, what would the
limiting factor for that personis going to be their monthly
income.
We call it the DTI, their debtto income ratio because that.

(41:50):
It's not like a discriminatorything, but it is for older
people, because if you don't, ifyou're not making money every
month, then there, then how canthey qualify you for what you're
going to spend every month?
So to just throw a number at youto keep things simple.
The, the average DTI is, thatthey allow is 45 to 50 percent
on the high side.
So what that means is if youhave a yearly income of 100,

(42:13):
000, the government is onlygoing to allow you to take out
all alone as long as all of yourfixed income monthly expenses
are.
Less than 000 a year, right?
that includes credit cards, carpayments, any other loan
payments that are reported tocredit, and your mortgage
payment.
So now we start talking aboutsomeone who's on a fixed income

(42:33):
social security.
What would you make on averageon social security?
Do you guys, do you have anidea?
Because I

John (42:40):
Probably, high anywhere from 18 to 22, I'm

Jason (42:45):
year?

John (42:46):
A month.

Jason (42:47):
Oh, okay, so 2, 200 per month.
And, and that's, that'stypically what you make on like
fixed income.
So if, if we just say 2, 200 amonth, the government is going
to say that like on, on the highside, you can spend 1, 100 a
month on all of your fixedpayments.
So that's where we're going torun into problems.

(43:07):
is you're either going to need alarge down payment to supplement
it, or you're going to have tohave absolutely no debt and find
the least expensive home on themarket.
And in this market, 1100 stillwouldn't be enough, right?
So that's going to be yourlimiting factor.

John (43:20):
Interesting.
Great.
It's crazy, huh?

Erin (43:23):
Good Yeah.
I've

John (43:24):
so much.

Jason (43:26):
Thank you.

Erin (43:27):
How about energy efficient homes?
Are they beneficial?
is it great to have solar on myhouse, a greenhouse, where it's
efficient?

Jason (43:38):
So I, I think that, when you look at the age of the home,
if a home was built anytimeafter 2010, 2015, almost by
default, they should be somesort of green energy certified,
or at least be more energyefficient than older homes.
It's just a common sense thing.
A lot of people don't realizethis.
Your insulation does age out.
It has a period of effectivenessand that, and that efficiency

(43:58):
actually drops over the years.
So if you're in a home that has20 year old insulation and it's
still 16 inches tall becausenobody has crawled in your attic
in those 20 years.
And you have a brand new homethat has brand new insulation,
also 16 inches tall, that homethat has the new insulation is
going to be more energyefficient, right?
when we talk about, when westart getting into things that
are like green certified, energystar certified, that's, that's a

(44:20):
different ballgame.
And you can request to seepapers, but you're not going to
see that in older homes.
Typically, that's newer homes.
of course, it can help to havehomes that are Energy Star
certified or more energyefficient because you're just
going to pay less in utilities,right?
And looking for a newer home canhelp you with that for sure.
that being said, getting intosomething like solar.

(44:42):
Do I think solar is a goodoption in the state of Idaho?
I think if you put on solarlonger than two or three years
ago, I think it could be a greatoption.
But the way the legislation iswritten right now is there was a
cutoff date and I don't rememberthe exact year.
I think it was like 2020 or 2021where they said anybody that put

(45:02):
on solar before this day isgrandfathered into this kilowatt
hour buyback for the entirety oftheir solar life.
That's huge because right now,the thing that they're talking
about, I just put solar in myhouse a year or two ago, they
are in the process of trying topay us less per kilowatt hour
and already I've done mycalculations and I'm essentially
breaking even with my solarpayment compared to what it was

(45:24):
without my solar payment.
So I feel good knowing that, I'musing less energy from the grid.
And that's, that's basicallylike my justification for it.
I was hoping it was a little bithigher offset, but for me
personally, it hasn't been asbig of a gain as I've wanted it
to be.
That being said though, my homeis 2000 built.
It's not as energy efficient asit should be.
The windows are not asefficient.

(45:45):
is it fair for me to say that's,that's going to be the case for
everybody?
I don't think so.
Cause if you bought a brand newBrighton home in one of their
cadence neighborhoods.
And it's 1800 square feet, andit's a patio style home, and
it's got neighbors on bothsides, neighbors in the front,
neighbors in the back, so it haslike protection more from the
elements, and it's single level,and it's really energy
efficient.
There's probably a scenario inwhich the solar could make

(46:06):
sense.
but that being said, my lasthouse that I built in 2019 that
was single level, my averagelike energy bills, utility bills
in general, like 100, 120 bucksa month.
So really look into the numbersas to what you're spending
before you make that jumpbecause the big unknown factor,
even if you think it's a breakeven, it's a net zero break even
for you is, is it, what if theychange the rates?

(46:28):
And then the other thing that Ifound out is you have to have a
battery on your house for it tomatter if there's like a
blackout.
So anytime they would shut offthe power in our house because
they were widening the roads,even though I had solar, I had
no energy in my house because myhouse didn't have batteries.
And the bat, the reason I didn'thave batteries is because my
solar guy said, you don't needto put them on because they're
just as expensive as the solarpanels essentially.

(46:49):
And they only last 10 years,right?
So there's a lot of informationwhen it comes to something like
solar.
My brother in California isdoing it and his numbers make
way more sense just because hisenergy bill on a 1400 square
foot house is like 400 a monthdown there.
it's insane what he pays forpower.
So in that instance, what makesway more sense, but in Idaho

(47:10):
really do your research when youstart adding stuff like that.

John (47:13):
Yeah, it's awesome.
when it comes to, think there'sthere's scams and stuff
happening.
There's a lot of fraud that'sstarting to happen more and more
as the economy, struggles,things become more expensive.
People seem to come out of thewoodwork to try to take
advantage of people.
How does that affect, The realestate world.

(47:35):
And what have you seen as some,challenges

Erin (47:37):
and especially after you buy a home too, you get all
kinds of mail.
So if you can talk about both ofthose,

Jason (47:45):
Yeah.
when we think of scams in atraditional sense, a lot of the
times it's someone, taking a tonof money out of your bank
account.
So when we think of large scalescams, especially targeting
homebuyers, I think of wirefraud.
That's immediately where I go.
That is the biggest problem inour industry.
And I've probably known three orfour personal people who have
been affected from wire fraud.
Thankfully, none of my clients,but I know agents who have

(48:07):
clients who have lost money.
Because they are very good aboutgetting into like title
companies, emails, and likechanging routing and addresses,
routing and account numbers.
The problem with that is oncethe money's gone, once you've
wired it, it's essentially gone.
There's almost no way they canget it back, right?
So just be very aware of wiringmoney.
Don't ever send money to someoneunless you call and talk to

(48:27):
somebody on the phone.
And even then they have, AI isgetting so clever, they even
have ways that they areverifying beyond that.
Not to freak you out, but just,just be smart.
And if you're worried about it,don't wire anything.
Just bring cashier's checks tothe title company.
You can avoid the entire wirefraud problem altogether, right?
So that's, that's step one.

(48:47):
the other type of scams that wesee out there that target to
errands point people after theybuy a home.
Those are like smaller scalestuff that I think is, It's I
don't know that it's illegal,but a lot of them are just very
scammy by their nature I'll giveyou a couple examples.
One is like you'll get Emails oryou'll get mail from like the
water company water and sewagefrom your city and they'll say

(49:09):
hey you need to add on this 20 amonth blockage Blockage
protection to your sewer pipesbecause if your sewer pipe but
breaks under your your drivewayor your property You're liable
and it can cost 8, 000 to 10,000.
we'd like you to sign up forthis extra coverage, it's 20 a
month and then you're protected.
Such a waste of money.

(49:30):
If your sewer line breaks underyour property line, you're gonna
call your homeowner's insuranceand you're gonna get them
involved and say, Why the crapdid this happen?
this should not have happened tome.
Get out here, this is what I payyou for and fix this.
You don't need to pay for someextra coverage.
But unfortunately, I think a lotof people don't know any better
and are like, 20 a month, we canafford that and we'll sign up
for it, right?
Another scam that I see a lot isright after people close, people

(49:52):
will send you these things andsay, Hey, for 25, we'll send you
a copy of your title so that youhave it.
And, we'll just mail it to you.
You'll pay him 25 bucks.
They'll mail you a copy of yourtitle.
Your title is a public document.
It's a public document thatanybody can access at any point
in time.
If you want a copy of yourtitle, call your escrow company.
They'll literally email you one.
They'll print one off where youcan go pick it up and it's free.

(50:14):
But a lot of people will just belike, okay, yeah, I want one.
I'll pay 20 bucks and I'm goingto copy my title.
Odds are it was probably intheir closing documents anyways.
And it's they already have it.
but again, people don't know anybetter.
And the last one that I see allthe time on TV, this one's my
favorite.
Life lock, they, they sell titlelock.
And I think they, they, I don'twant to use the word pray, but I

(50:34):
think they pray on older peoplewhere they're like, hi, my name
is Susie.
And my house was stolen from me.
Somebody cash, said they werethe owner and sold my house out
from underneath me.
I don't know what state Susielives in that that's possible,
but here in the state of Idaho,like for somebody to remove you
from title and then sell yourhome.

(50:55):
You have to go in in person withyour driver's license.
It's notarized by the escrowofficer that John and Erin are
in fact John and Erin and theystood before me to sell the
home.
So unless the scammer on theother line is making like a,
like a, a latex print of yourfaces and ripping off your
driver's licenses and showingup.

(51:17):
that whole thing just seems likea scam to me.
hey, pay us 20 bucks a month.
And we'll ensure that no onesells your home out from
underneath you like what, what aracket.

John (51:26):
Yeah, so that, that being said, people that you represent
going back to you as arepresentation, both on the
buying and selling side.
Sometimes if they have questionswhere they might get something
like that, you can help themnavigate that.
And they could maybe contact youand just say, Hey, Jason, I just
got this from the lender.
Is this something that'saccurate?
And you can help guide themthrough that process.

Jason (51:49):
Yep, the discussion we have is anytime someone asks you
to pay for something or wantsmoney transaction's done Just
call me send me a screenshot ofit.
Send me a text.
Give me a call I can tell you infive seconds whether that's
nonsense or if that'slegitimate, right?

John (52:02):
Perfect.

Erin (52:03):
your agent doesn't leave you as soon as you close the
deal.
Remember that, you guys.

John (52:07):
at least this agent, at least

Jason (52:09):
Yep.

Erin (52:10):
Yeah.

John (52:11):
Yeah,

Jason (52:11):
Depending on who you talk to.

Erin (52:13):
I have another question before we get to one of my
favorite questions and wehaven't touched on it really.
We've mentioned it, is homeinsurance.

Jason (52:19):
Yep.

Erin (52:19):
How do you pick a home insurance?

Jason (52:22):
homeowners insurance.
It's that's another one of thosethings where

Erin (52:26):
Do you help us?

Jason (52:27):
Yeah, of course, I have people I direct you to.
Erin's bringing this up becausethere was a company I used here
locally for years.
All state.
I loved all state.
I had a sales rep there.
He was like number 2 in charge.
All state was a really goodcompany and I had that local
connection and they would theywould.
Give my clients really goodquotes, right?
that I'll say agency basicallysold overnight, didn't tell

(52:49):
anyone, sold a new ownership.
And the guy that I dealt withwent and opened a new agency, in
Texas.
And I was really disappointedcause I really liked that guy.
And, I, I have bounced aroundand I found another company that
I like for the moment, but Istill don't have a personal
connection, personally.
But hopefully your agent doeshave that and can put you in
touch with those people becausereally like when you get the

(53:09):
best services, when you havepersonal relationships with
people and you deal with themface to face, and a lot of the
times you can go kick their doorin and you're sending business
back and forth to each other andyou trust each other.
And what I liked about that is Icould send someone to Jeremy at
Allstate.
And I just knew he was going totake care of him.
I knew he wasn't going tooversell them on insurance.
They didn't need, I knew theirpolicies were going to have
enough coverage if somethinghappened, without taking

(53:30):
advantage and adding on thesupplemental this, that,
whatever.
So yeah, your agent should havesomeone they work with right
now.
I do have a company I work withright now where I really like
they are based out of Utah.
I am not thrilled that I can'tlet go, go into their office and
say hi to them, but it doesn'treally matter right now.

Erin (53:47):
of trust.

Jason (53:49):
Totally.

John (53:49):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Jason, I know you pretty well,gotten to know you over the
years.
And, I know there's a questionthat Erin's dying to ask you.
So I'm going to take the

Erin (53:58):
Whoa, no, no, no.

John (54:00):
no.
no.
this.

Erin (54:01):
is my question.
If you want to ask yourquestions, you should come up
with your questions.

John (54:05):
See, I think that our listeners need to see how we
structure these podcasts and howshe's very domineering
sometimes.
But I'm, I'm going to take theinitiative.

Erin (54:14):
why he took over.
I

John (54:17):
ask this.
Anyway, I know of some tripsyou've been on in your life and,
we all love adventures.
We all love discovery and, andlearning about places and
things.
And

Erin (54:26):
what is your favorite place to travel to?

John (54:28):
know, you Okay.
I guess I will support her inthat, that, questioning there.
Cause that's what I was going toask.

Jason (54:40):
So my, my favorite place that I've been by far, when my
oldest brother turned 40, hesaid, I'm going to go to Dubai
if you guys want to join.
And I thought my wife and Ireally haven't traveled too far
out of the country, like alittle bit of Mexico.
I've never been to Canada, beento Hawaii once.
And, so I thought Dubai, likethat's in the middle of nowhere
and it's probably hot.

(55:00):
It's probably dangerous and, butwe, we jumped in and said, all
right, we'll go.
Cause he had gone there beforeand said it was great.
So we went out there and,honestly, it's probably one of
the coolest places I've been.
It's what I've wanted Vegas tobe for so many years.
Like it's clean, like there'snot like smut in your face
there.
The customer service blowseverything we have in the United
States out of the water.
And it's just, it's, there's somuch to see and do people think

(55:24):
what are you going to do there?
And it's like literally anythingyou want.
They have a ski hill in themiddle of the desert.
If you want to go skiing, youcan go skiing.
if you want to drive boats, ifyou want to drive exotic cars,
if you want to go hiking, if youwant to go, if you want to go
ziplining, they have everythingthat you can possibly imagine.
And, And it was a really coolplace to visit.
The people were super opening.

(55:44):
When we think of the MiddleEast, we think everybody hates
Americans.
A lot of the times, at least Ido.
When I traveled there, what Irealized is most people have
never met Americans, and they'reactually like very excited to
meet Americans.
They're like, Oh, you're fromAmerica.
We don't get too many peoplelike that here.
So tell me about this, aboutyour country.
And they start asking questions.
I think when you travel to othercountries, especially, like the
European countries and likeMexico, they see Americans all

(56:06):
the time.
They already have these, thesepreconceived ideas as to what
you're going to be.
But what I thought was thecoolest thing about Dubai is
like, it's their first timemeeting an American.
You get to set the standard forwhat it is to be an American.
And I think what was cool is Iwas able to change a lot of
people's preconceived notionsthat like Americans are just
going to be like these pompousdouchebags basically, right?

(56:27):
Is how a lot of them thought wewere going to be.
And they're like, you're veryfriendly.
Are you from Canada?
It's no, from America.
And they're like, what?
This isn't how Americans act,and it's are you getting your
news from, XYZ, right?
we're actually pretty coolpeople, and I will tell you the
Emiratis and the people who livein Dubai are very cool people.
So go check it out.

John (56:46):
Yeah, sounds awesome.
thank you for answering ourquestion.

Jason (56:52):
are you guys wanting to travel to

John (56:53):
Oh, we have a big list.
We have a really big list.
I

Erin (56:57):
I think.
Machu Picchu.

John (56:58):
New Zealand is,

Erin (57:00):
The Maldives.
The

Jason (57:01):
you can only pick one.

Erin (57:02):
Portugal.

Jason (57:03):
You're going one place this year.
Where are you guys going?

Erin (57:05):
got the best discount?

Jason (57:06):
money is no

Erin (57:07):
much this year.

John (57:08):
Yeah, we're not.

Jason (57:09):
is no object.

John (57:10):
Money is no object.
Then, really,

Erin (57:12):
if money was no object and we could get to the moon, I
would be,

John (57:16):
yeah, I'm not, I the moon.
I'm not as interested.
I don't love the landscape orthe dust.

Erin (57:21):
Earth from a

John (57:22):
different

Erin (57:22):
perspective would be

John (57:23):
really cool.
I'm okay with looking at thatthrough pictures.

Jason (57:28):
I second John on this

John (57:29):
yeah, I'd really like to, I'd really like to go to New
Zealand.
I think the Kiwis are, it's apretty cool place.
So yeah, I'd like to go exploreNew Zealand.
for, for a month, I think amonth would be enough time for
me to get a little taste of

Jason (57:41):
I do love how adventurous you guys are, so I'm definitely
a homebody,

John (57:45):
yeah,

Erin (57:46):
Well, we have plenty of time for that later.

John (57:47):
thank you Jason for being on our podcast today

Erin (57:52):
Yeah, it was great.
All the information we had toshare with everybody.
I can't wait for them to hearand listen and learn some new
things that we didn't even know.
So that's pretty cool.
So thank you for being here andyour time.

Jason (58:04):
Appreciate it.

John (58:06):
Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Connect
Empower.
We want to express our gratitudeto you for being part of our
community, and we hope today'sepisode has provided you with
valuable insights andinspiration to enhance your life
and that of a loved one.

Erin (58:21):
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We are a community dedicated toenhancing the lives of our aging
adults and their support system.
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John (58:42):
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Erin (58:57):
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John (59:17):
I'm John.

Erin (59:18):
I'm Erin.
Until next Wednesday.