SmartHomes & EVs with Rock Realty

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Eight thirty six thirteen ten WIBA and ask the experts.
Hanging out this morning with Matt Heyman. Of course, Matt
comes to us from Rockrealty online, Rock Wisconsin dot com.
That's r O c K Wisconsin dot com at telling
number six O eight six seven three fifty four hundred.
That's six seven three fifty four hundred. If you've got smartphone,
and who doesn't these days, whether it's an Android or

(00:22):
an Apple, they've got an app for that. Just head
on over to the website MLS dot rocks Slash app
at a link there to the app store and you
can download their fantastic app at Rock real Team. Matt,
how you doing this morning? Doing well? Doing well? Good
to see you. And we were just talking about the
convenience of billing online these days. It's like between everybody

(00:43):
wanting you to pay something. Anytime you open up, open
up your phone, or anytime you do anything, they spin
the little thing around and want to tip for this.
I'm pretty sure that my gas pump is asking for
tips these days. There are things out there that are
that are free, and of course the app for Rock
Realty that is free and it is fun, a lot

(01:03):
of joy is brought by looking at some of those houses.
I always like I mentioned this because I like to
peruse your site. I don't think I'm in the market
for a new home, but you never know. But it's
always so cool to see what's out there. And people
really like what you guys have done on your website
Rock Wisconsin dot com. It's very interactive, a lot of

(01:23):
really cool photos, and very powerful too when it comes
to like different search features on the website.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
Yeah, and you mentioned the app, and we've got some
really good feedback on that. People are liking that better
than some of the major sites. They like the ability,
the ability to search via map and things like that.
We also, i mean, speaking of free, we also have
a free home estimate option on our site and that's
the short link to that is just MLS dot rock
Slash Home Value. So if you wanted to take a

(01:52):
look and see what maybe your house is currently worth
in the crazy real estate market over the past five years,
you can do that.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
That is pretty cool. It's MLS dot rock Slash Home Value.
If you want to get that, get that free estimate,
or of course you can download the app as well.
MLS dot Rock Slash App for the Rock Real t
app again the website Rock Wisconsin dot com. That's rock
Wisconsin dot com. Speaking of perusing houses this week's featured listing.
You and I were talking about Indian for just before

(02:20):
came on the air this morning. It's my wife would
used the word cute, and I don't know as a guy,
I'm allowed to use that use that term, but I'm
going to use it. It's a cute area of the state.
You got the Rock River there, you got a beautiful dam,
you got some really cool little shops and some other things,
and you've got a house here that is right there,

(02:41):
like you can see the river from the house, and
it's at a really nice I have to repeat that part,
a really nice price point two hundred five thousand dollars.
Let's talk about this house.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
Yeah, the address is a eight nine four to two
Main Street and technically Edgerton, but yeah, that Indian Vert
it's like this little tucked away gem just because it
just feels so far away from everything, but you're just
in Edgerton, You're not You're not far away, close to Janesville,

(03:14):
close to Madison, and it's just such a cute, little
damn cute little waterway right going through there, the river,
and it's just very scenic scene. It's a good word.

Speaker 1 (03:23):
Yeah, that's that is out that I'm gonna put scenic
over cute because that I know, last summer there were
and I get you that, bet you they're still out there.
Some eagles built the nest. Yeah, So I mean just
imagine sit on your sit on your front or back
patio looking up in the sky, watched the eagles fly by,
and Brittany has this listing Brittany Doyle. You can give
her a call this morning if you want to take

(03:43):
a look at it. Set up a showing six oh
eight four nine eight seventy seven ninety seven. That's four nine,
eight seventy seven ninety seven, and talking about kind of
that area as well. Highway fifty one is right there,
so you can get to get anywhere a.

Speaker 2 (03:57):
Couple of miles from Dane County.

Speaker 1 (03:59):
Yeah. Yeah, you're no, not at all, and you're and
you're getting the advantages of Rock County taxes and you're
also getting a beautiful view of the water, but you're
not paying five thousand. It's crazy, so three better. Yeah, Yeah,
we've been doing the show. Ja Yeah, we've been doing
the show nearly half an acre. That is a big lot.

(04:21):
It's got a two cargo I mean, this just has
what you're looking for. Definitely check that out again. You
learn more online rock Wisconsin dot com and check it
out there again. As Matt mentioned, it's right on Main
Street at eighty nine forty two Main Street and Adjuret
I believe again that's Indian Ferda. That's weird too. It's
like this building. We are in Fitchburg, but our address
is Madison, which you know it's but you know what

(04:42):
we're talking about. Check that out and keep things simple. Yeah,
why are we beyond that? No, we are like that. Yeah,
Brittany a call this morning six so eight, four nine,
eight and seventy seven ninety seven. That's four nine, eight
seventy seven ninety seven. We'll talk a little bit more
about some of the features of this house. It's got
a really cool front porch. I when I I don't
know if that was technically a porch or a sunroom.

(05:04):
We'll talk about that in just a moment. We're going
to talk this week on the program about smart homes
and electric vehicles, specifically here in Dane County. In the
Madison area. And uh, when I saw this topic, Matt,
when you sent it to me the other day, I thought, oh,
I cannot wait to talk about about electric vehicles and
smart homes because I'm a big fan of both. I

(05:25):
feel I didn't know Oh yeah, yeah, obviously Madison to
kind of a little bit more when it comes to
technologically advanced People really embrace technology in this area. And
let's let's talk about some of that demand out there,
especially things like energy efficiency and sustainability. There are things

(05:45):
that are that are universally important for a number of reasons,
aren't they.

Speaker 2 (05:49):
Yeah. I think that buyers are, you know, becoming more
accustomed to energy efficiency, smart home things, ev cars, things
that uh, you know, they're they're they start to appreciate
seeing those features in houses and or apartments and things
like that throughout Madison.

Speaker 1 (06:06):
Do things like solar panels on homes? Are those attractive
to buyers? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (06:10):
Yeah, I mean I currently have a listing in McFarland
is closing actually this Friday, but you know, they had
solar panels on there, and there was a lot of
buyers that were really attracted to that, you know, curious
about the energy savings and you know how that would
affect their utility bills. Interestingly enough, the same house had
a electric vehicle charger into that's.

Speaker 1 (06:33):
I think that that's for a lot of folks, that's
perfect pairing.

Speaker 2 (06:36):
I know.

Speaker 1 (06:36):
One of the things I run into is I have
an electric vehicle which I park outside of my home
so it's always plugged in, and I'll get the guys
and gals that are trying to sell the and not
that I one of these days I'd love to look
into solar panels. But they see my car plugged in
and like they're like, we've got to sail.

Speaker 2 (06:53):
Here, rubb in their hands and walk into the front door.

Speaker 1 (06:56):
Let's talk about those EV charging stations. Having one at
home is a massive convenience and apparently and not surprisingly,
really helps when it comes to marketing homes. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:05):
Yeah, and I think it's it's important to note that
there's kind of two different components to it. The first
is the actual plug, right and you know, that's your
two twenty volt and it goes right to your electric
panel and that can be routed up to the garage
where you have you know, your let's say three prong
or four prong outlet there, and then there's the actual

(07:28):
charger for the car that plugs into that, right, So
the charges themselves can change per car, right, whether you
have a Tesla or something else, But the plugs are
the important part. If you have that in your garage,
it's just an it's an added feature that a buyer
wouldn't have to add after the fact.

Speaker 1 (07:45):
One of the things I've noticed is, and I was
going to say on new homes, but newer homes. A
lot of times the builders, I mean we're talking like
the last ten years. There are newer homes out there,
and I know you've got a few listed with Rock
Realty that that have they're already wired up and ready
to go for whether it's in the garage or an
out external outlet that are specifically there for just this application.

Speaker 2 (08:09):
Yeah, some builders are choosing to just make that a
standard feature. I would say that most still have it
as an option. You know, in general it doesn't you know,
break the bank to have that routed, but if a
builder can do it ahead of time, it's always cheaper. Yeah,
speaking of so, yeah, the cost of those right on average,

(08:31):
i'd say about eight hundred to one thousand dollars for
costs for adding one of those plugs in your garage. However,
if you've run out of room on your panel, then
it can get a lot more expensive right at that point,
if you're adding a subpanel or something like that, then
we're talking a couple.

Speaker 1 (08:48):
Thousand and three thousand something like that. It's like it's
almost like you're looking in my looking at my panels
at that second one that's out to the side of
it's it's especially if if you and embrace technology and
embrace electrical charge and definitely something to look for in
a home or have adag to your home as well.
And Matt as we talked this morning with Matt Hetman

(09:09):
of Rock Realty Online Rock Wisconsin dot com. That's Rock
r O c K Wisconsin dot com. Smart homes have
become popular mostly because of their ease and convenience. It
used to be if you had a quote unquote smart home,
it required a lot of understanding of technology, of programming,
of you know, hitting keypads and weird things like that
with like smart speakers on our things. It's really cool

(09:31):
how that can get integrated and one of the areas
that that's really cool integration and I've got a guess
makes houses quite marketable. Is high tech security or smart
security systems. Sure? Yeah, you know, there are.

Speaker 2 (09:45):
Obviously companies that make things a bit easier where you
can just plug and play, like a ring brand or
something where you can have you know, the doorbell that
records as well as you know, the the light on
the garage that also has a camera and then integrating
all those together. So there is some inexpensive ways to
do that. So when it says smart home, you know,

(10:09):
there's there's different accessories, different applications to that. I know
that our house we have, you know, the keypad that
connects to the Wi fis and we can lock and
unlock our doors remotely. Let's say we're on vacation and
someone needs to get in. So those sort of things
are are inexpensive over the you know, the long haul,

(10:29):
and it's a it's a feature that buyers are going
to kind of prefer to your agents, by the way.

Speaker 1 (10:35):
Smart locks are are those because I know, like the
particular model we have, you can do like a one
time code or like a limited access. Are our agents
using those type of things as well? When it comes
to like showings and other things saying rather than worrying
about the old key box and other things, and we'll
just set it up and with an app.

Speaker 2 (10:50):
I'd say maybe fifteen to twenty percent of the time
instead of using the blue kind of supra boxes for access,
they'll they'll give a code that was created just you know,
during the showing period. So and that could be just
the garage code, it could be a front door code.
The only issue there is, you know, the different locks
operate differently, so sometimes agents can't figure out how to

(11:10):
get Yeah, there's one particular brand that's very difficult where
the lock just spins in place unless you do something specific.

Speaker 1 (11:16):
So oh yeah, I'll talk off the airboat which particular
brand that is. I'm talking this morning with Matt Heyman
of Rock Realty, talking this week about the rise of
smart homes and evs here in Madison. You can learn
more about Rock Realty online their website Rock Wisconsin dot com.
That's r O c K Wisconsin dot com. We'll talk
a little bit about the featured listing and some other

(11:38):
things as well this morning here on Ask the Experts
with Matt Heyman and Rock Realty Security. As we talked
about you mentioned you know, having they looked like just
standard floodlights outdoor lights, but they've got integrated cameras things
like that. Do are those type of things like included
when you guys are putting together a property listing, will
you mention include that, like, hey, it's got security cameras

(12:00):
or or smart smart locks and those type of accessories.

Speaker 2 (12:03):
Yeah, I would, you know, we'll definitely mention in the description.
I don't I don't know that the MLS has any
specific kind of values you know, dedicated to those things
as of yet, but it is something that we'll mention
in the description that you wouldn't normally see in the pictures.

Speaker 1 (12:17):
I think of somebody who's potentially selling their home. You
mentioned things like the ring doorbell. Every time we say
it here that ding ding ding. That is something that
for a homeowner is is a very affordable and and
for most people a pretty easy upgrade to do. And
I've got a guess for folks thinking of listing, that's
something that can that can add whether it's real moolah

(12:39):
value or simply add more appeal to their homes by
simply it's installing something like that.

Speaker 2 (12:44):
Correct, correct, Correct, I've actually had we've actually seen sun
sellers say they want to bring the ring doorbell with them.
I'd recommend just leaving it. There's no need to argue
over a couple.

Speaker 1 (12:56):
If you watch Amazon too, they go on they go
on special every cup at basically if you've got questions,
by the way, but think about listing your home. Maybe
you've been looking to buy and you want to work
with somebody that wants to get to know you and
of course help you find that absolutely perfect house or
list your house. Give them a call it Rock Realty
tel number six O eight six seven three fifty four hundred.

(13:17):
That's six seven three fifty four hundred. The website Rock
Wisconsin dot com. That's Rock r O c K Wisconsin
dot com. We to do our conversation with Matt next
has asked the experts with Rockreealty continues right here. I'm
thirteen ten WU I B A Hey fifty one thirteen
ten W I B A and ask the experts hanging
out with Matt Heytman of Rockrealty online Rock Wisconsin dot com.

(13:40):
That's r c K Wisconsin dot com. Telling number six
O eight six seven three fifty four hundred. That's six
O eight six seven three fifty four hundred. We're talking
about EV chargers. This a little thing to guys, and
I know it's mostly guys, but some ladies do this
as well. If you ever want to buy a nice
welder too, can plug right it plugs right into that
two twenty and you can sorry yourself a little side

(14:01):
for an additional dryer. Very true. You can never have
too many. As we talked this week with Matt Heyman
of Rock Realty talking about smart homes and evs and
of course here in Madison, these are really important stuff
and and uh we're talking to about things that may
be included in the listings. Some of these things too.

(14:25):
We talked about solar panels and other efficiencies. These are now,
these are big deals, especially if you've got a very
energy efficient home, because people right away know save some
money on this thing. All these you know, all these
conveniences are great and well, but at the end of
the day, if I can reduce my energy, my cost
of energy, that's a big deal for folks, isn't it. Yeah,

(14:45):
it absolutely is.

Speaker 2 (14:47):
You know, where smart items are something that a buyer
might choose one listing over another. Right, solar panels can
actually result in maybe a higher sale price even because
there is that added value and there's a cost there.
You know, in general, what we see nationwide as homes

(15:09):
with solar panels installed they sell, they sell for about
four point one percent more than comparable homes.

Speaker 1 (15:15):
Is that and that is something I've got to guess
where like sometimes people will be I think of like
when we the house I bought, we bought it, we
loved it, loved neighborhood, We also loved there. There was
a little bit of acreage, a little bit of land.
I've got to guess for some people, is having that
the option of having a comparing two houses, one has panels,

(15:36):
one doesn't. Folks are going to go with that, go
with that paneled one just because of the benefits. Yeah, yeah,
I mean, especially if it's comparable in price. You know.

Speaker 2 (15:45):
The one caveat there is that sometimes there can still
be money owed on those solar panels, So before making
an offer, you'll want to double check to see that
those panels have already been paid off or if it's
something that's going to transfer to the new owner. So
you'll want to factor that in when you make an offer.

Speaker 1 (16:03):
Do you ever meet with people or any of the
agents at Rock Realty when you're talking with somebody saying,
you know, we're we we would like it to be
maybe have solar panels or have an EV charger, but
if it doesn't, we'd like to have the knowledge of
is that is. And I'm assuming for most homes it's
it's something that's that can be done, but like say,
like I want something with better better sunlight exposure because

(16:25):
of that. Is that part of that getting to know
your agent conversation of like, hey, this is something that's
important to us and to our family, or we drive evs,
we want to make sure if it doesn't have any charger,
it's at least wired modern enough that we could that
we could include something like that.

Speaker 2 (16:41):
Yeah, yeah, it's definitely something could factor in. You know,
I you know, there aren't a ton of houses with
solar panels in the area, but I would say it's
it's growing pretty exponentially because you know, especially seeing all
the sales guys that go to my front door, but
I know lot of a lot of neighbors recently I've
gotten solar panels, and it's, uh, it's definitely a growing trend.

(17:05):
And it's obviously it's working out cost wise?

Speaker 1 (17:08):
Are we seeing are there certain parts of the area
of the county and I'm gonna I'm gonna pick on
the Isthmus here, Like are some of these things more
popular in the like almost I don't say an expectation,
but to a degree in expectation, like if if I'm
going to be in one of these neighborhoods on the
Isthmus that it's going to have either solar panels or
some type of high tech, Like is some of that

(17:28):
come with the territory? Are there? Are there some people
that down and say either way, I'm fine or well
I would say, yeah, okay.

Speaker 2 (17:34):
The closer you get to downtown, the more it becomes
just uh, you know, something people are trying to do,
to do the right thing versus just the numbers.

Speaker 1 (17:42):
Right.

Speaker 2 (17:43):
But yeah, it's it's surprisingly popular, you know in places
like California and that's what the great sun. Yeah here
it still does well, you know, it still does enough
to make it worth the cost.

Speaker 1 (17:57):
So talking this morning with Matt Heytman of Rock Realty,
if you think it think it's smart home, just thinking, Oh,
EV's looking for a house that's got a good charger.
Only'd love to talk of that Rock realty. I'll get
just pick a phone game A call six So wait,
six seven three fifty four hundred. That's six seven three
fifty four hundred. Learn more online Rock Wisconsin dot com.
That's r O c K Wisconsin dot com. While you're there,
check out our featured listing this week, which is at

(18:19):
right at eighty nine to forty two Main Street in Edgerton.
And the price is not going to be two hundred
five thousand dollars. You are right near the Rock River.
You got a view of the Rock River two car garage. Matt,
this is a this is a very very nice home
for somebody, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (18:33):
Yeah, I think it's a It's a great home for
the price. Definitely can put in a little bit of
sweat equity and build on this. It's got the basics
everybody's looking for a large lot. It's got three bedrooms
and then the two car garage. It looks like it
even has you know, an extra extra tall garage door
for maybe some of your taller vehicles. So yeah, it's

(18:54):
a perfect opportunity to kind of be set away but
still close to everything.

Speaker 1 (18:57):
And it raised porch as well, which is a very
very neat feature as well. Check that out again. You
can learn more online Rock Wisconsin dot com. That's Rock
roc k Wisconsin dot com. Britney Doyle is the featured
agent on this listing. You wanted to get set up
a tour or a showing, I got just give her
call six so eight four nine eight seventy seven ninety seven.
That's four nine eight seventy seven ninety seven, Matt. It's

(19:17):
always fun hanging out with you. You enjoy this beautiful
day do as well.

Speaker 2 (19:20):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (19:20):
Vicky McKenna has your chance to win one thousand dollars.
Next right here, I'm thirteen ten Wivy.

Speaker 2 (19:26):
I