Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Eight oh five thirteen ten wib A and ask the experts.
Brought to you by Larson Home Services Online Larsen HomeServices
dot com. That's Larson L A R. S O N
Home Services dot Com. Delpho number six oh eight five
three five forty three forty three. That's five three five
forty three forty three. Andrew, how you doing this morning?
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Well, it's a little gloomy, but I never am.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
No.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
So you doing fantastic, my friend.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
It's great to talk to you. And uh, it's funny.
We were just off the air going through I was
looking at some old pictures of back when, back when
we were expecting my son, Madson, and we were living
in this little townhouse here in Oregon, and I'm looking
at the picture and I'm seeing in the background some
of the stuff we had, and it reminded me of
like like before you own a home, and like when
(00:50):
you're living like an apartment or a town home, you
go to that like that big box store down in
Schomberg with the big blue sign that spends all day
and you buy a bunch.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Of first Square for the next three hours together. I
know what you're talking about. Yes, Oh, I know what
you're talking about.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
And that stuff it looks nice for a year or
two and then it does what you might expect, which,
by the way, when you're when you're in your twenties,
it's it's perfect furniture for everything. As you get older, wiser,
start to learn a little bit more, you start to
realize that there's a reason why, uh, that stuff is
so much less, so affordable. I was going to say
(01:30):
other things, but I'm.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Gonna yeah, that's a great that's a great word choice
of words. Yeah, it is affordable. Yes, it looks great
and it really really yes.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
And it had me thinking about about when you become
a homeowner and kind of some of the trends that
we're seeing now as people. I think, like two thousand two,
two thousand and five, people were staying in their house
on averages like five to six years, and now it's
like ten to ten plus years, twelve years, folks are
on average. I'm thinking, you know what, just like that
(02:02):
that Ikia stuff. It oh I mentioned them, just like
that brand their stuff. It's it's good and well for
what it is, but it's not going to last a
long term. Same thing with your house. You get kind
of get what you paid for, and I thought it'd
be interesting to talk about with people staying andrew in
their houses longer than ever, the importance of really, you know,
(02:23):
it's your biggest investment, really making sure you're you're doing
the care and taking that diligence that that house deserves.
When it comes to working with somebody, regardless of what
the project is, it's really important to know who you're
working with, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
It's it's extremely important, and you know, so yesterday we
did we shot up. We shot a couple of podcasts
and one of the question, you know, this doesn't have
to be a secret. Sometimes we talk off the air
and I'm like, what do you want to talk about?
You know, like, we talk about all the things that
I'm passionate about, but do we want to get out
here and talk about gutters roving installation every single week
(02:59):
and we try to educate, but we get a lot
of questions from our podcasts from people who watch it.
For some reason, people watch it. I haven't figured that
out yet, but maybe it's my good jokes. I'm not sure.
But one of the questions was, as a new home buyer,
what should we be looking for what should we be
looking out for? And then honestly, like this kind of
(03:20):
plays into it. And you said, since you know, in
two thousand and two, two thousand and five, like the
length of time people are staying in their homes has
gotten longer. And I think that there's just there's just
been a lot of if you look in the past
twenty years, less than twenty years, eighteen years, look at
all the I would say, volatility in the real estate market. Right,
we had a big market crash, right, so homes that
(03:42):
you might have paid three hundred thousand dollars for in
a year became worth one hundred and fifty. And then
it's been up, up, up, up, up up, and COVID
hit and then there was like a mad dash to
buy houses, but not necessarily sell simply because if you
were going to going to buy a house, well it
was going to be double what you paid for your
last one, but the interest rates were really good. Well
(04:05):
now we're at a point where the houses are still
really expensive, but the interest rates aren't very good. So
staying in your home longer makes sense, and putting money
into your home makes sense. And I've been through quite
a few home purchases and sales. And when you talk
(04:26):
to a home inspector, listen, they come and inspect your
entire home, but they're not inspecting the things that you
can see necessarily, They're trying to inspect the things that
you can't see. So when it comes to quality products
being put on your home, it's very important. So when
you're staying in your home, at some point, you're most
(04:46):
likely going to go to sell. And I always tell
people do when you're fixing your home or updating your
home or remodeling, do what makes you happy. Do what's
going to be best for you and your family. But
I would always keep in mind the day that comes
that you might possibly sell the home. You know, don't
(05:09):
do things that are extremely specific to you. Don't paint
your walls pink, you know, or red or black or
you know stuff. You know what I'm saying, Yes, yeah,
I know exactly, unless you plan on redoing it when
you go to sell, because that's what your reader is
(05:29):
going to tell you. But when one of the first
things that inspector takes a look at is your roofp
I mean, they just do because it is There's I
always say, there's almost nothing more important. You can drive
around the countryside look at all these old, beautiful barns
that are falling apart, and if they just would have
had a good roof on them, they'd still be in
(05:50):
great shape. But once that water starts to leak in,
it spreads and it starts to rot everything. So making
sure that you have a good quality roof put on
by a good contractor that tells you what they're putting
on your roof and where they're putting it. We get
it every single day Sean, where people are like, well,
(06:11):
you're my third estimate, and nobody has showed me an
inspection of my roof, what's actually going on and what
they were actually going to use. All they talked about
is what color shingle I wanted. Why I say it
all the time, it doesn't really matter what shingle you want.
It's the critical details. It's everything you can't see that's important.
Now a home inspector, they're not gonna show you what's
(06:33):
underneath your shingles either, they're gonna look at your roof,
go I don't see any leaks and it looks good.
So reputable contractor what you get put on something else
that's extremely important is making sure that your HVAC mechanicals
are done properly. So if looking to update that, make
(06:54):
sure someone comes over and actually talks to you about
the size, the square footage and how it not just okay, yeah,
we'll just replace this with what you have. Well, is
what you have sized properly? Is it right for your home?
There are very there's there's a lot of very scientific
calculations that tell us what size heating and AC units
(07:17):
are needed in a home. So make sure that's done properly.
If you're going to do upgrades, say your kitchen, I
mean there's some nice, quick, easy upgrades you can do
in your kitchen with appliances and just fixtures, faucets, stuff
like that. Don't buy the cheapest fauce that you can.
I know that sounds so silly. They almost all look
(07:41):
the same, but they don't last the same, they don't
work the same. There's a reason why one faucet is
fifty nine ninety nine and another one is three hundred
and fifty nine. It's made to last, it's high quality.
Don't put the cheap Now there's all there's all stuff
that's right in the middle that's probably really really good.
(08:02):
I when I do stuff like that, I don't even
usually buy the most expensive simply because I just don't
so looking at stuff like that. Garages nobody really thinks
about garages. If you're if you're looking to update your garage,
something super simple and that will allow your garage to
(08:25):
retain a little heat, like in the winter, so vehicles
can thoff even if even if your garage isn't completely finished.
Having insulated garage doors is a huge upgrade. People don't
think of something like that. You put a garage, put
your car in the garage in the winter, and it's
freezing cold outside. Your vehicle retains heat after you pull
(08:47):
it in. If you've got a little insulation in the
garage and you're in the attic of your garage and
an insulated garage door, you're gonna wake up in the
morning and most likely your car is gonna be nice
and thought off. If it's not, that means you have
no insulation, and that's actually not a super expensive upgrade
but goes a long ways if you're going to sell
that home or stay in that home you sell that home,
(09:09):
Insulated finished garage is huge, at least for me and
I know most people where we've got temperature extremes like
we have here. Gutters. I mean, we talk about gutters
all the time, and I'm not going to sit here
and push gutter shutter, gutter shut or gutter shutter, although
I did to say it three times. Quality gutters, A
properly working gutter system is huge. If somebody comes over
(09:34):
and says, yeah, I can throw new gutters up for
you for six bucks a foot, because there's people that
will do that, You're going to get something that's probably
not going to work very well for very long. You're
also going to have to clean it all the time.
And when stuff is that cheap, it's not made to
last through our weather extremes, through our ice, our snow,
(09:57):
all of the stuff we throw at it. So a
quality working gutters. Something else we talked about on the
podcast was when buying that home, looking at the landscaping.
Landscaping doesn't have to be expensive. It's beautiful, but it's functional.
And when I say landscaping, I'm specifically talking about water management.
(10:20):
Water management is one of the biggest issues I see
in people's homes. They end up having negative grade around
their house, so they think, oh, my gutters don't work right,
I'm gonna throw new gutters up. All this guy said
he'll do them for six bucks a foot. Great, you
throw the gutters up and you're still getting water in
your basement. That's because you might have a landscaping issue.
And the people that put the gutters up for six
(10:41):
dollars a foot aren't actually looking at the slope around
your house. They're just gonna throw them up and go
here you go. Not my problem. A good quality contractor
is gonna take a look at the landscaping, gonna take
a look at the grade around your home, gonna use
materials that are made to last. And when that water
hits the dom hit, it's the garters goes down the
(11:01):
down spout, it goes away from the house. It doesn't
come back to the house. Sometimes we can actually create
bigger problems. Again, I'm gonna have to talk about insulation, Sean,
because it is so important if you're going to upgrade
your insulation. I'm gonna plug us again here, but our
ultimate addict solution. It is the best way you can
(11:24):
do your attic. There's not a better way to do it.
It's years and years of experience it's years and honestly
years of trial and error to where we know this
is how it has to be done, this is the
best way to do it. To insulate your home for
winter and summer, you can't can do You can insulate
(11:44):
and make it better for the summer, but not do
other things properly, and you're not helping it in the winter.
So that's a huge upgrade. Again, but that's something you
can't see. Nobody can see that, but you will know
that it's done proper and you'll see your energy build.
I mean, that's right that I don't like to sit
(12:06):
in and harp on energy bills because look, it's so
it's tough because subconsciously I hear it from people who
have solder all the time. They're upset. All my energy
bills is not what they said it was gonna be.
But here's the thing. If you go and you have
your addic done properly, and you have an ultimate addic
solution put in, or you have solar put in, I'm
(12:27):
telling you, subconsciously people start to be a little bit
more free with their energy usage. They might turn they
change the thermostat a little bit, they don't shut the
lights off maybe as much because well, I've got solar,
so now we're actually using more energy and we're saving energy,
but we're using more. And listen, we get it all
(12:47):
the time after we do an ultimate addic solution that
people are like, my home is so much more warmer,
so much more warm, it's so much more comfortable, and
our energy bills were lowered. That that is an awesome
benefit of it. I don't like to harp on it.
Us is more comfortability, but yes, you save energy and
there's great tax credit still too, so it's all all good.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
And when we talk about all this this stuff too,
Andrew and I know one of the big things, and
having worked with you and and I tell everybody all
about the great work that you guys do, I think
it's important is to understand that you mentioned you know,
they're going to tell you what color shingle and that
type of thing or whatever the whatever, the type of
work that that you're looking to have done in your home.
One of the things that that is so impressive about
(13:32):
Larsen Home Services is your guys and gals they're in
the attic, they're looking on the roof, they are like,
it's not just like yeah, we'll get this stuff done.
No big deal. Here is here's what we can do
for you. There's literally like that. And we talk about
that home inspection, there's literally it's it's a it's a
very involved process. And you mentioned even things as much
as looking at the looking at the landscaping and to
(13:54):
make sure that it's sloping away and those like those
little things. And you're like, well, Andrew's not if he
tells you that, hey, you know, just your problem with
your flooded basement has something to do with your gutters.
It has to do with the fact that you've got
negative grade. Most people are like, why would Andrew do that?
But that's that comes with what you guys are doing
out there and obviously develop that relationship. When folks are
actually looking for gutters, roofing, insulation, those type of things,
(14:16):
they work with you. But it's it's such a cool
thing and such a covering all the bases and really
getting that inspection. That's why I think, you know, as
we talked this morning about about homes and taking care
of your home and some of the things you can do.
Definitely pick up phone, give them a call six to eight,
five three five forty three forty three. That's five three
five forty three forty three. That information also available online
at larsenome Services dot Com. Mentioned too the videos you
(14:39):
post up on your social media Facebook, YouTube. I hope
folks get a chance to check that stuff out, like
Larsenome Services online. It's really great stuff that you and
and your buddy Keeny. You guys have those great chats
as well, so folks can check that out online. Andrew,
it's always great chatting with you. You have a great
(15:00):
and we'll do it all again really soon. And yeah,
we'll talk more about all the cool things you guys
can do for folks homes and we'll do it in
short order.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Yeah, how about I put it in my calendar for
next Wednesday at the same time.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Sounds like a plan, my friends. Awesome Andrew Larson, next week,
take care, buddy, Andrew Larson, larsen Home Services again. That
website Larsenhomeservices dot com. More of Madison Morning comes your
way next right here thirteen ten WYB I