Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, Southeast Texas. So glad that you're joining us today
on this beautiful day, a little warm, but super nice outside.
Hope you're getting to enjoy some family time, some fun time,
and just some chill time on this beautiful Saturday. I
have a wonderful list of guests with us today. We
have Alisa Villefano. She is with First Financial Bank and
(00:23):
she's the retail supervisor over in the Mid County branch,
and she's going to share a little bit about what
is retail, what does that mean? Have you thought about
getting a credit card? What does that look like? And
how can she help guide you through that. Also with
this is Bo Hanson. He is with the City of Beaumont,
the deputy building official, officially the official and Bo has
(00:47):
lots of great information. Actually, before we even started on
the show, my husband Ken is grilling him on all
kinds of questions about what is required for a permit?
When do you not have to do a permit? So
let me just say there's going to be lots of
great conversation today. Bo has so much depth of knowledge
in what you may need to have and what you
(01:08):
can do and how the city of Belmont is really
looking after homeowners and why what they're doing is to
impact a positive outcome for all homeowners in Southeast Texas.
But before we do that, I want to give you
a little bit of a snapshot of what's going on
in the market. Well, we've seen again it's a little
bit of a softer market with the interest rate not changing.
(01:29):
The FED introduced that we're going to kind of hold
where we are, but we've talked about this over and
over again. The interest rate where we are today is
lower than the thirty year average. Average over thirty years
is almost eight percent, but our interest rate right now
is a little under seven percent in most situations. So
(01:51):
if you're thinking about home ownership, let me tell you
why now is a great time. The market is filled
with lots of inventory, and with that inventory, it creates
an opportunity for buyers to ask for things that they
have not been able to ask for over the last
several years. Many houses are not selling for asking price
(02:12):
like they were two and three years ago when we
were seeing multiple, multiple offers over asking price, and it
was very challenging for a new homeowner to get into
the market because they were competing with cash and they
were competing with people who could go over the asking price.
But right now we are seeing that in most situations,
(02:33):
sellers are negotiating some Now. Just yesterday I got a
full price offer on a property. It's happening still, but
in most situations we are seeing where sellers are negotiating
some and enabling that buyer to get some closing costs assistance,
or enabling that buyer to be able to move forward
(02:54):
at a price that's affordable for them. So, if you're
thinking about is now the right time for you, give
my office call four oh nine eight six six eight
three two six and we can get you scheduled for
a consultation to just sit down and visit. We want
to talk about what are your goals, what are you
trying to achieve? Is now the right time for you?
(03:16):
Or or are there some things we need to do
to move you in the right direction for it to
be the right time. We want to make sure that
we guide you through the process in such a way
that looks out for your best interest in what is
your goal, not what we're trying to do. So for us,
we love doing that. We love being able to give
buyers information, but we also love working with sellers. So
(03:37):
if you're thinking about is now the right time for me?
I know mark the market is softer, our houses in
my neighborhoods selling for what they need to in order
for me to think about selling. Let us help you
with that. We will give you a free market analysis
and be able to give you an idea of what
we can sell your house for. If you aren't ready
at that point, if you'll know not quite where I
(03:57):
need to be, then no problem. At least you have
the information you need to move forward. If you'd like
to get an estimate on our website, you can do
that for free. But let me tell you it's just that,
just an estimate. It is an AI tool that gathers
information and then creates a number for you. But I
will let you know it's not going to be one
hundred percent accurate unless you get someone who has their
(04:19):
eyes on your house and is able to go through
all of the data to be able to give you
the more accurate number. That's what we'd really love to do,
So again, call our office or go to our website
Dana Simmons real estate dot com, and we'd love to
help you. Let's go ahead and introduce our guests today
and I'd love for you to learn a little bit
about them. So, Alisa, you have grown up in Southeast Texas,
(04:42):
talk a little bit about that.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Yes, Miam, I have. I born in Belmont, I live
currently inviter, have lived there almost my whole life, attended
byder High School, graduated in twenty twelve. I have three
beautiful boys about to be eight, three and two, so
that they're himful. I'm currently working at First Financial Bank.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
So yeah, And you have been in Southeast Texas your
whole life, so you're familiar with everything that goes around. Now,
quick question. I didn't even ask you this before, but
you said you're invited. I know some of the houses
invited flooded during Hurricane Harvey. Were you a part of
that or were you Okay.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
I wasn't actually here at the time that Harvey hit,
but I actually currently live in my grandmother's house that
she doesn't live in. Huh, And it was a part
of a grant that she got rebuilt from her house flooding.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
So yeah, that's one of the areas I know that
had some challenges and was hit hard, just like we're
you know, we were in Finet at the time, and
our house there also had that challenge. Now we're praying
that's not happening again, and we're past all of that,
and Greg keeps telling us things are looking good right
now for the Tropics. I love when he says, don't
worry about anything for the next seven to ten days,
(05:59):
and I'm like, yes, I cannot worry about it for
the next seven ten days. So love when I see
that on all of his Facebook posts. Also with this
is bo Hanson. Thank you, Bou for joining us again.
And listen, I've known Beau for a little while. Your
parents have been longtime customers, clients, friends of mine, and
(06:20):
then as you grew up, I got to know you
personally from all kinds of things, for things that you
were involved in. You've been in the building business, You've
been in a lot of things, So talk a little
bit about your time. You're a lifelong resident.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Too, Yeah, born and raised here sour Lake specifically specifically,
but called Beaumont home for a while and now have
the privilege to work for the City of Beaumont. You
described your three boys as beautiful little boys. I've never
described my two boys as that. They're just chaotic, crazy,
but I have two little ones and my wife Brenda
and I and life is very fun right now. We're
(06:53):
in a fun season and nine and a seven year old.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Oh yeah, we.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Are just keeping up. Oh yeah, chasing them summertimes here,
so a lot of time at the beach and spending
time together as a family.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
But yeah, yeah, juggling a lot. We were talking to
the break about at the current age that they are
just their excitement about things like baseball cards, and that's
so fun to be able to connect with them on
things that we loved growing up.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
They're trying to distinguish. So you talk about baseball cards, I'm,
of course trying to get them all the older ones,
you know, Bo Jackson, King Griffy Junr, the all the
no longer playing guys, and so I'm giving them these
cards and we're talking about these these pros. And so
now we watch the Astros or we watch whoever, and
they're wondering when King Griffy Junior is going to show up,
you know, and so having to talk through that, Yeah,
(07:38):
that's introducing some challenges, but it's still fun.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
One of the other things that you've had in your
past is you did a podcast as well. You're a
part of First Baptist Church, and you guys have done
a lot of things, and you even have a children's book,
So talk a little bit about that.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Oh, the children's book. That was a fun project. Yes,
wrote a it's the Gospel of John called the One
Whom Jesus Loved and it's just a fun Soussian style
version of the Gospel of John so that kids can
grasp it and hopefully memorize it and walk away with
(08:13):
chunks of scripture in their heart. But beyond that, yes,
I got to work on a podcast with First Baptist
and that was fun, called Further where we took sermons
and just applied it further in our daily life. And
still getting to work on a podcast with the International
Code Council, So I'm hosting their show and geting talk
about nerdy code stuff all day. But yeah, I've drank
the kool aid and I enjoy nerding out. That is
(08:36):
truly what I do as a hobby now, So I am.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Yeah, Well, now I bought your book on Amazon. Is
it still available?
Speaker 3 (08:43):
It is?
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Okay, So if someone wants to go to Amazon and search.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Should I say The One who Jesus it's not title that.
I don't know why.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
I just had a John is the one who Jesus loved?
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Was that the title of the book. It's no the Way,
No the Way? Okay, I apologize for that.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
I did buy a couple of those.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
Search Know the Way on Amazon and you can find
the book. Yeah, it's been a while since I've promoted
that book, so thanks for thanks for that.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Yeah, no problem. I did get it a couple of years,
a year, year and a half or so, I can't
remember how long. Go for my grands and gave them
to them. I think it was last Christmas. So love that.
So it's so nice to be able to give your
children and your grandchildren truths through a little book and
a book that they can understand that's at their level. So,
(09:25):
Bo Hanson, if you need to search the author, you
can search it that way too. So well, when we
come back, I know you heard it, Bo said. He
geeks out on all this code stuff, and let me
tell you he was spewing it during the break earlier.
So you're going to love hearing from him. But if
you have a question about code, give us a call.
Four oh nine eight nine six five five eight four.
(09:47):
We'd love to be able to answer your questions, but
when we come back you'll get to talk to Bo directly.
This is Dana Simmons with the Dana Simmons Show. Welcome back.
This is Dana Simmons and I am joined today by
Alisa Villa. I know who is the retail supervisor with
First Financial Bank and also Bo Hanson, City of Beaumont
Deputy Building Official. Well, Bo, we've been chatting about a
(10:09):
lot of stuff in the breaks, and Ken's been grilling you,
but wanted to start here with a simple question. If
you're going to hire a contractor, or if you know
a contractor, or there is a contractor, what is the
situation with a contractor needing to be registered with you guys?
What does that sound like look like? What do we
(10:31):
need to know about that?
Speaker 3 (10:32):
Well, that's a big question currently Beaumont, like most municipalities
around us, the process is fairly simple. In fact, I
was blown away when I first started building how simple
it was to register as a general contractor. All it
takes is getting a builder's bond and it's a twenty
five thousand dollars builders bond and you can get that
(10:53):
turn it in and you are suddenly a registered builder
capable of building any project in Beaumont. That is scared
when you think about it. Yeah, and so, and that's
not to say there's not great builders in Beaumont. There
are incredible builders in Beaumont. But the doorway into it
can be very easy. It's a very easy doorway. So
one of the things we're kicking around, and we've talked
(11:14):
with the Homebuilders Association, the association or general contractors, and
really we're just trying to get gauge interest for a
registration process. And that's not one of the things we
want to be careful of. We don't want it to
just be another money grab or anything like that. What
we truly want, what our heart is, is making sure
(11:36):
that the builders have all the answers to the test
before they go and do that project. So if you're
going to be a builder, we want you to sit
down with us for an hour. And again, this isn't
official yet. We're having these conversations. We're working towards this
and if it works, great, and if not, that's okay too.
But the heart and the intent of it is we
want people to know what the process is so they
don't get caught in the field with all these frustrations.
(11:58):
You hear people talk about red and all the frustrations
of navigating local government. I get that. I totally first
hand experience understand that. And so the intent of this
is to make sure you have all those answers before
you get going. And by the way, that is not
just one entry point, but it's multiple. You see a
lot of times, I'm sure you've worked with people like
(12:19):
this where they've had success building homes and really nice
homes at that, and they have an opportunity to step
into the commercial world and they're blindsided by oh I
got to work with the fire department now, and the
health department and quality control and all these different things
that you got to take in consideration for a commercial project.
And so navigating that is truly our heart and our
you know, what I'm passionate about, and many people at
(12:41):
the city are passionate about is coming alongside these developers,
these builders and making sure they have all the right
tools and their tool built before they get going. So
all that to say, I know, I just threw a
lot at you, but that is what we're talking about
now of developing some sort of builder registration, a more
robust version of that, and it really centers around education,
(13:02):
not just you know, asking for another fee or anything
like that.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Well, the benefit to that is to the person who
purchases the house, you know, as a homeowner or as
someone who sells new construction properties. The challenge can be
if it's a builder you've never worked with before, I
don't know. That's the part that's hard. I don't know
how good of a builder they are.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
That also allows us. You know, people all the time
come up to us and come up to the counter
at city Hall and they'll say, you know, I had
a very unfortunate experience with maybe it was a fly
by night contractor or whatever it may have been, and
that breaks our heart. Obviously we hate hearing those stories.
And they say, well, do you have anybody you can recommend?
And you know what, as you mentioned, I grew up
(13:46):
in this industry. I know a lot of the builders,
a lot of the subcontractors, and I so bad want
to recommend somebody, but I can't. And so if we
develop this, if we have this list of approved contractors,
that allows me to say yes, here there's a list, yeah,
and to be able to say that confidently for the
homeowner's sake is the end goal.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Yeah, and so there's really not other than like the
BBB or the Chamber of Commerce. Is there a place
that the city collects complaints regarding builders or people who
are violating codes? I mean, is there a place that
we can go to find that information or is that
not something that's gathered?
Speaker 3 (14:26):
We don't have anything currently. Now you mentioned the BBB
and some other great organizations. I could point somebody to
the Homeowners Association as an example and say, you know,
contact those guys. They work with a lot of great contractors.
But currently we as a building codes department, don't have
anything like that.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
But what you could have is if you continued in
this process is you could say, but here are people
who have sat down with us, We've gone through the
process with them, and they're approved. So where are you
in being able to do that? I hear you saying
it's something in the works. Is this going to take
months or a year or you know? What does that
(15:01):
look like?
Speaker 3 (15:01):
Step one was just soft interest engaging that. So I've
already sat down with both of the two main organization
being as I mentioned, homebown Association and AGC. They received
it positively. They want what we want, of course, and
then also it's it's a win for them because you know,
making sure that reputable people are getting these jobs and
(15:23):
knees aren't being cut from from under them. So, uh,
that's kind of where we're at. We've we've gauged interest.
We're having uh more internal conversations and fleshing out what
that would look like. Do we have to do we
need to attach a fee to it. If we do,
it's going to be out of necessity, not desire. And
so we're just kind of thinking through all the back
(15:45):
end internal logistics, and then I guess the next step
would be we would introduce that to counsel, and ultimately
counsel has the final say in anything like that.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Okay, well, I think it's a wonderful idea. You know,
during COVID, when things were selling very quickly, interest rates
were low, almost anyone decided they could become a builder,
and we had people who really weren't builders building houses.
And it's far less in Beaumont and more in outside
(16:16):
areas that we saw that and the quality of the
construction is not the same. And if they don't have
to go through a process. It makes it very challenging
and difficult. So in that you were talking about even
going from trying to be a residential builder and then
trying to work on commercial I know, for us, just
(16:37):
in renovation, we've always just done residential because that's what
we do. But we purchased a building and had it
renovated for our office, and let me just say, it
is very different and what the requires. So, for instance,
I wanted to put an oven in my kitchen in
(16:59):
my office because I thought it'd be fun for us
to be able to cook together. And then found out
that the code in a commercial building requires all kinds
of sprinkler system, hood requirements, all the things, and so
we went, I think we'll get a toaster of it
or microwave. We're not going to put in.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
It of it and for sure, and even yes, there's that.
And you know, I have an entrepreneurial background, and you
have all these young entrepreneurs who want to do cool
things and buildings and open up coffee shops and all
these things. And Beaumont has so many great existing buildings. Yeah,
but even something I was talking to a team of
folks yesterday about this and talking about projects and when
(17:45):
you are trying to move into a space that isn't
equipped for that type of occupancy, that may not have
a grease trap, or if it's a larger type assembly
that you're wanting to do and it doesn't have a
sprinkler system, and you're just not thinking about those things
because you're focused on your business right and want to
grow your business and see an opportunity, and then we
have to be the bad guys. And so I guess
just to you know, bring that full circle. Call us. Yeah,
(18:10):
call me directly, and I would love to have that
conversation before you get too far down the road, because again,
that's our heart, that's our intent is to try to
you know, people complain about plans and all the permitting
that goes into it.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Well.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
As a plans examiner for the city, my goal in
that seat is to get ahead of problems before they
show up in the field, to make sure that we
have that meeting before you spend that money to try
to save you some headache. So that's the heart and.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
The bottom line is it's for protection and safety of people.
And I completely get that. It made sense when I
found out because listen, somebody leaves something on and I've
got a commercial building full of people. I get it.
I do get it. But it's not something you think
about exactly if it's not something that you normally do
well in this process. We were also talking about in
(18:58):
those renovations, permits and the question about how to pull
a permit, what does it look like and when do
you need to pull a permit? And so those were
some of the questions we were talking to you about
in the break. So give us a little bit of
an idea of what that looks like.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
Well, some quick, easy lines in the sand to remember.
Take electrical as an example. If it's plug in, you
don't need a permit for that. So even you know,
one example, a dishwasher. Some dishwashers you can buy with
a plug and it just plugs into the receptacle that's
already installed in your cabinets, and that does not need
a permit. I guess the plumbing would need a permit,
(19:34):
now that I say that out loud, But for electrical
it doesn't. But if it's hardwired in, that needs a permit.
For plumbing. The basic line in the sand is if
you're cleaning out sewer lines, or just clearing drains that
doesn't need a permit, but if you're replacing those drains,
that does need a permit. So there's a lot of
simple lines in the sand. There's a few more, a
(19:55):
little bit more situational lines, but generally speaking, most things
need a permit. Now, with that in mind, I know
perhaps a lot of homeowners are listening to this. And
one of the things. We take a toilet as an example.
If you pluck a toilet and go to set a
new toilet because you had something went wrong with it,
that requires a permit. We want to make sure that
(20:15):
permanence or that toilet is set right and appropriate and
isn't going to cause you any issues. So we were
talking about that and one of the counselor I won't
say a name, but leaned up and said, so you're
telling me if I talked about the toilet and that
was an appropriate charge to us as a code department.
We took that, and we have sense responded to that,
(20:36):
and I think this is healthy interaction here. We responded
to it, and our next code adoption, which was two
years ago, we inserted in our ordinance a homestead class,
which basically says, if it's your homestead and you can
prove that to us, you were able to do those repairs.
You don't need to hire a master plumber or anything
just to change a toilet out. So that little things
(20:58):
like that, we want to approach it within reason. But yes,
generally speaking, most things need to permit. And that's a
going back to your point. That's there to protect the
renter or the homeowner, whoever it may be.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
Yeah, and and I love what you said. Just call me,
Just call us. You know, we had a question about
property and orange and you're like, here's the name of
the guy. Just call him ask him. He's going to
let you know what do you need, what don't you need,
and be able to give you that information. So, Bo,
if someone does need to call you, how do they
reach out to you at the City of Beaumont.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
Probably the best way is just to email me. Get
bombarded with a lot of calls and sometimes those can
get lost. But if you send me an email, I'll
get back to you. Bo dot Hanson at Beaumont, Texas
dot gov. Do I need to spell that?
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (21:48):
Okay? BO, B E A U dot h A N
s E N not s O n at Beaumont, Texas
all spelled out, so that's two t's in the middle
dot gov.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Yeah, and if you recognize Hanson, it's because Hanson Plumbing. Uh,
it is your family business, your family's business, your dad was,
your grandfather. Was it your grandfather's first or your dad's first?
Speaker 3 (22:12):
It was Actually it's a sixth generation plumbing show, six general.
I actually just traced that lineage. Wow. And it's so
it's now in a very interesting season because Dad kind
of has semi retired. Dustin has the Dustin's my brother.
He has the new construction set of things, and uh, Dad,
I think if he's listening to this, he'll laugh at this.
(22:34):
And I think he got bored in retirement. And uh
so he has since you know, they they never did repair, right,
and so Dad has since started a repair division of
hands and plumbing. So that's been fun to watch.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
But yeah, yeah, yeah, that sounds like your dad. He
can't sit still. It's always worked, except if he's golfing.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
That's the only time he'll put it down.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
Although I think Martha's trying trying to get him.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
To back it up here and she's finally retiring to
that's good yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
Well, it's been It's great information that Bo gave us.
If you have questions I'm regarding any kind of codes
or permits, give us a call. Bo's going to be
here with us through the rest of the show four
O nine eight nine six klv I four O nine
eight ninety six five five eighty four, and I'm sure
he'll be happy to answer whatever he can. Well, when
(23:26):
we come back Alisa Villefano, we're going to visit with her,
So don't go away. This is the Dana Simmons Show.
Welcome back. This is Dana Simmons. So happy that you've
joined us today. I think we have a caller on
the phone, Will from Groves. Did you have a question
for us?
Speaker 4 (23:43):
Yes, ma'am, I'm enjoying your program, but I'm on a
different topic, if that's all right with you. Of course,
I have a son who's in the Army. He's stationed
in Virginia currently and being transferred to Maryland. He has
a house that's not selling, I guess due to the market,
and meanwhile he purchasing a house in Maryland. What strategies
(24:03):
are available to him in that situation.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
Sure, it's going to depend on what kind of loan
he has, how much equity he has so he can
do a couple of different things. One one option would
be if he's still able to purchase a house, keep
the house he has and be able to rent it
out to have someone covering that note for him. If
he has a lease in place, many times his current
(24:27):
lender on the house he's purchasing will allow that as
coverage for his debt on the property where he's leaving.
The other option would be if he is able to
have enough equity in his first house, he can pull
some of that out with a bridge loan or a
home equity loan to be able to buy the house
(24:48):
where he's moving to. Now. Often it's very difficult since
he is in the you said the army, is that right, right, Yeah,
He's probably using a V loan, and often you can't
have two separate VA loans, so he may have to
visit with his lender about.
Speaker 4 (25:07):
What already has a purchase. He's already has a purchase
in Maryland.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
He already has a purchase where he moved Yeah, okay, okay,
so it's already closed and funded and he already has
the house.
Speaker 4 (25:20):
It's on the way to doing that okay, So.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
For him, the best thing for him to do is
either to go ahead and continue with trying to sell
the house. You know, I hate to say this, but
pricing gets you to a point where it's gonna sell.
But if he's not in a position to be able
to reduce the price to a place where it can sell,
then leasing that property may be his best opportunity. He
(25:48):
may want to talk to his agent and say, you know,
what is the leasing market like. If it's in a
transient area where you have people coming and going all
the time like we have here, we don't have enough
rentals here. So the rental market here is very good,
and you can leash your property for more than what
your note is typically, so that may be an option.
(26:11):
Has he explored the option of using it as a rental.
Speaker 4 (26:13):
Property he's looking that as a default.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
Yeah, yeah, that is not a bad situation. If he
doesn't have to have the equity out of that house.
If he doesn't have to, if he doesn't have to
worry about that, then I would say, in the market
we're in, it may be best to allow someone else
to go in there and cover that note until the
market begins to improve. It's also you know, real estate's
(26:41):
a great investment. It builds long term wealth. And if
you have someone in there covering your note, it's also
reducing your I mean, it's increasing your equity, so you're
able to continue to gain equity in that property long term. Now,
I will say it's probably really import for him to
get with a property manager who is going to vet
(27:03):
the tenants to make sure that you're getting someone who's
a quality tenant. As someone who has rental property. I
love that as an option because I have someone who's
building my retirement for me. I have someone who is
needing a place to rent, they aren't in a position
to buy. I'm helping them by providing the property, and
they're helping me by covering that note. And as they
(27:26):
cover that note, that's building my equity in that property
month after month.
Speaker 4 (27:31):
Very good. Thank you, ma'am.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
You're welcome. Thanks for calling. Well, yes, ma'am with us
also today Lisa Villefono and Alisa. You know, we're talking
about all kinds of things to will about mortgages and
money and what to do and First Financial Bank. That's
one of the things that First Financial Bank does very
well that I've worked with them many times with people
(27:54):
who haven't been able to sell their house, or they
don't want to sell their house yet they want to
buy another home and then be able to do something.
So one of the things that you guys have is
a variety of different solutions in every area of banking.
And so some of the areas of banking that you
work in are retail and you have lots of different
(28:16):
solutions for people if they're looking also for that side
of the business. So talk a little bit about what
is retail and what is your job there at first
financial tell us what you do.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
Absolutely, I help oversee and assist my employees with anything
retail related, which would include anything from depositing a check,
cashing a check, withdraw cash advances, creating cashiers checks, all
the way to opening accounts, closing accounts, personal and business
related IRA CDs, they deposit boxes, fraud disputes, just pretty
(28:51):
much anything in that area.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
I help with that well. And when you're talking about
fraud disputes, you guys are seeing a lot of that absolutely,
and so what are some of the ways that you
would want to let the public know how how to
avoid some of that. I know one of the things
we had talked about is credit cards and things that
you can do with that side, or your your personal account,
(29:15):
things that you can do on that side. What are
some of the things that you recommend to avoid some of.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
That On the credit credit card side, I would recommend
those just because you know, anytime you're using your debit card,
it's directly linked to your checking account. So if there
if there is fraud on there, it's going to hit
your money that's in your account. If you get a
credit card, that's just that credit limit that's being affected,
(29:41):
and then you can follow dispute with them as well.
So in that sense, with fraud protection, you're not having
access direct access to your money.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Yeah, so people a lot of people don't realize there's
a difference a debit card and a credit card. And
what you explain, the real difference is with that debit card,
that's they have direct access to your checking account. Yes,
and so the challenges they can get it all. But
if you have a credit card and you set i
mean a limit that's lower for you, then you're able
(30:12):
to offset that by a minimal amount that they could
actually do damage to.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
Yes, And I would always recommend whether it's the credit
card or your personal account, the online banking and portals
and apps that they provide to us, and if we
utilize them and we get on there daily and they're
constantly checking that, I mean, it's going to help recognize
when something happens and it's not as vast. I always
(30:39):
recommend something like that, And we also have I know,
with First Financial we offer debit card alerts, and I'm
sure the credit cards offer that as well. So anytime
your a debit card is used, you get that notification
to your phone or wherever you set it up as
and that tells you where it was spent, how much
in your balance, and things like that.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
Yeah, I'm aware have that. My husband will call and say, hey,
is this you so can get to access every single
thing I see, which is a good thing for our safety.
But sometimes I'm like, well, pooh, I the Father's Day
gift that I was thinking about, I had to call
(31:18):
my daughter and say, Okay, I'm gonna need you to
buy this, and I'm gonna have to pay you back
because he's gonna see he sees every single thing that
goes through our account. So that is a protection. That's
a really good protection when you can see everything that
goes through there. So you also talked about the fact
that you can help with business customers and the credit
(31:39):
card side of that things. Talk a little bit about
the play on that with business.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
Absolutely, so the business side of it, we offer credit
cards small businesses, even large businesses. It helps build the
business credit side of the things. And then also my
perk to it is fraud obviously, and then second is
a lot of companies like to issue employee cards, so
(32:05):
they give their employees cards, whether it's for gas or spending,
and they can manage those directly with spending limits, how
much they're able to spend, clothes, open them, and they
can have as many as they want. So that's always
always a nice perk.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
Yeah, we have that too, where it's super nice that
if we need something, we can send an employee with
their card and they can handle anything that's needed to
be able to go ahead and get that done.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
You can even have so each employee can have their
own little portal. You can have bills paid separately or together.
It's just a really nice feature.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
Yeah, And if someone's just curious about the services that
you provide at LEASA, talk a little bit about how
they can connect with you on helping you explain all
of that to them.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Absolutely, so you can reach me through email. That's a
Villa FAUNO at f FI in dot com spelled out,
is a vias in Victor, I l l A f
as in frank A and is in Nancy O at
f FI in dot com.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Yep, just like it sounds exactly. But you're also at
the Mid County branch, right, so.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
You can stop by there. We're always willing to help
anybody that comes in. That's something that we pride ourselves
in at First Financial is being a full service bank
and going out of our comfort zone to help anybody
in need.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
YEP. So I would say that while I'm in the
Beaumont branch. I'll tell you that, and it's it's good.
They're very professional. They do a great job. You guys
over there in Midcounty have fun.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
We do well. That's something we like, you know. I
feel whenever people come into the bank and they see
everybody unified and they see each other just getting along
and having a good time, I feel like it's a lot.
It's a good atmosphere.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
Yeah. I think part of that is, of course, David
la June's over there. And when David la June's involved
in anything, it's going to be a good time because
he is so funny and just has such a great
positive attitude he does.
Speaker 2 (34:11):
And something that I really like about him, as you know,
customers come in and he takes time out of his
day to go and introduce himself to them, whether they're
opening an account or it's a teller transaction, and that's
not really in his field of what he does for
First Financial, but he shows his appreciation for customers and
he introduces himself and gets to know them. No matter
(34:33):
what he's doing, he stops.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
And Yeah, I think David for Mayor's what I think.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
Yeah, he would be a great for a very long time.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
I know he's lived in important. We call him mister
Portnacius is really what we call him because he's so
active in that community and such a light out there
as well. So if you're out in the Mid County
area and you want to stop by in the at
the branch, tell everyone where is that branch in Mid County,
the First Financial branch.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
It's at eight five three five Central Mall Drive in
Port Arthur, Texas. Seven seven sixty four to two.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
Right off three sixty five, right there by the mall.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
It's basically in the mall parking lot.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
Yep, yep. Well, thank you Alisa for being on the
show and sharing any of that with us. And when
we come back, we're going to wrap up a little bit,
finish up with bo Hanson. He's going to give us
a few more tips. So don't go away. This is
the Dana Simmons Show. This is Dana Simmons and we
were just visiting with Alisa Villafano, the retail supervisor at
(35:35):
the Mid County branch of First Financial Bank. Hop on
in there if you're over in the Mid County area,
say hello to her and ask her any questions about
some of the products that they have there at First
Financial Bank. Also with us bo Hanson, who is the
City of Beaumont Deputy building Official. And we've had so
much fun talking about permits.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
It's so fun.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
You're you're geeking out has come out in our show today, No,
and you were talking about your podcast. Tell me again
about the podcast that you have.
Speaker 3 (36:07):
So the publisher, the one behind all the codes, or
most of the codes, is the International Code Council and
So they have a show called the Pulse Podcast where
we talk all things local government and code related and
even talk about grants and it's it's a pretty interesting show.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
Where can someone find it any of.
Speaker 3 (36:29):
The streaming services if you if you search ICC Pulse podcasts.
So Pulse like a heartbeat. The last show, I'll tell
you was particularly special for me, probably a lot of folks.
He's got millions of followers. Matt Riisinger in Austin. He's
a great homebuilder, does a lot of YouTube videos and
(36:50):
kind of helps folks kind of know the building science
behind different jobs. So I got to drive up to Austin.
That was a whirlwind trip. Woke up at I pulled
out of my driveway at three o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (37:01):
And I was back in Sour Lake for my son's
closing ceremonies by six pm. So we recorded two shows
in his studio in Austin, and that was a very
fun project. But that's our latest episode, and so highly
encourage you going to listen to that, not for what
I have to say, but for what he has to say.
In all of our guests, we've got industry professionals from
all over the world, coming on. We've interviewed some guys
(37:23):
plumbers in Australia and just really fun conversations.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
Yeah, that well, really fun if that's your thing for fun. No,
it's great if you have interest in building or codes
or all that. I agree that's a great resource and
I wasn't even aware of it, BO, So thank you
for letting us know about that and sharing that. So
part of the job that you have is often helping
(37:50):
people understand the benefit of what you do and how
you guys do it. And one of the things that
we were talking about in the break is that the
benefit for are building a house to a certain code
in Beaumont can have some really good advantages for you
for affordability and insurance. So talk a little bit about that.
Speaker 3 (38:10):
Yeah, And I guess just to preface a little bit,
you know, obviously I'm not an insurance expert. I don't
want to pretend to be, but I think everyone would
agree that codes definitely impact ISO ratings and so that's
one of the things we go through as a municipality
in Beaumont and codes are a big part of that.
And not just the codes we adopt the newest standards,
(38:33):
but also the certifications we have, so my certification I'm
a certified building official, and some other certifications. All of
our inspectors are certified in their particular trades and crafts,
and so they look at the whole picture. Our fire
department is a big part of that, and they give
us a score, an ISO score. I s o oh, gosh,
(38:53):
I should have looked this up. I mean, it's insurance.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
I'll google it. It has to do with how much it's.
Speaker 3 (39:03):
A huge contributor of what premiums are. And so, being
the skeptic by nature that I am. When I first
started at the city, you know, we went through this
big elaborate ISO process and had to submit everything to
get the best score possible, and I was like, man,
how actually impactful is this? And so I wanted to
see that answer. We were talking about data in the break.
(39:24):
I'm a data geek too, and I want to see
it side by side, and so I'm not going to
throw any surrounding municipalities under the bus. But I ran
our ISO score versus one with a little bit higher score,
which lowered the score the better. And I did two properties,
two very similar houses built the same time, same square footage.
(39:46):
You know the whole nine yards as comparable as possible. Also,
same person appliance, because I know the person impacts that also,
and so we got two very different premiums back. It
was something to the tune of fifteen hundred dollars annually
in savings that we were saving people on insurance premiums.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
That stands for Insurance Service Office.
Speaker 3 (40:06):
That's what I was going to say, Thank.
Speaker 1 (40:07):
Yeah, insurance, the ISO insurance services office is fire score
is a rating that determines how well the fire department
can protect your community, and home insurance company use the
score to help set home insurance rates. Let me just say,
Google is our friend. You know what did we do
before that?
Speaker 3 (40:23):
And I'll dovetell all that even accessing the codes now,
really the classic line that we hear all the time
is where do I get these cobooks? And they, if
you do the paper copies that they're expensive and they're
proud of their books and they're it's costly. But in
today's world, they have digital codes available to you for
free where you can access all those and then you
factor in AI. Yeah, oh man, that's a game changer.
(40:46):
You can ask any question you want per that code
and get an answer in two seconds or less.
Speaker 1 (40:51):
Well, can't guarantee it's accurate.
Speaker 3 (40:53):
Always check the links and make sure it's a credible source.
But it's a great starting.
Speaker 1 (40:57):
Point and usually and typically you get great information, but
occasionally you need to check. I love that you did
that where you tried in one other county and one
other city and then in Beaumont. So the fact that
there are a little bit more challenges in what Beaumont
requires eventually saves you money long term annually every year.
Speaker 3 (41:20):
And that's that's a we're facing that nationwide again. With
the other podcast, I get to do a lot of
these conversations are coming up of Man, it's so costly
to build a code. I would challenge that conversation and
in the most respectful way I can, and would love
to if if anybody would want to come up to
our office and just put pen to paper on what
(41:41):
that actually looks like. It's it's not true. It's not
even close to being true. Yes, paying for a permit
is extra, but you know the percentage of an actual
new construction project, you're still it's the materials that are
going through the room, right, Yeah, the labors going through
the roof. So building to code, that's a myth that
I enjoy talking through with folks. So don't let somebody
(42:04):
tell you that because that's simply not true.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
Well, it's an easy topic. It's easy to just throw
that out there and say, oh, in we get code.
Speaker 3 (42:11):
Yeah, yeah, we're the local government. Somebody needs to cast blame.
I'm fine with that.
Speaker 1 (42:15):
Yeah, but you're right, it is. It is far more
costly to build today simply because of the costs of
the material. I mean, it just has since COVID, it
has gone up and we've not seen it come down
to the spot that it was pre COVID, And so
that's where a lot of the challenges lie. Okay, well,
I anything else, bo, we're about to wrap up the show.
(42:37):
Anything you want to make sure people hear before we.
Speaker 3 (42:39):
Go, We'll just merge kind of everything we talked about
with what you just said again, my heart, my goal,
and so many others at the city. Is the most
costly thing that can happen to you as a developer,
as a contractor is getting caught in the field after
you've ordered those windows, after you've ordered that material, and
you find out it's the wrong joy spam or whatever
(43:00):
it may be. And so if you get with us
beforehand and let us work with you, we want what
you want. And that starts with a conversation before you
hit the job.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
It's just about communication, and it's communication in every aspect
of all of our lives, you know, communication with the city,
communication with your contractor communication with your real estate agent.
Just like the caller will I think it's about communication
with his agent there where he's moving from to enable
him to have the exact options that will work for
(43:30):
that area of the challenges. I don't work there, so
I don't know what is their rental market like. But
communication with the person that you are dealing with is
the key. So thank you so much for being on
the show today.
Speaker 4 (43:41):
Bo.
Speaker 1 (43:42):
If you have any questions, you can reach him at
the City of Omont. Thank you, Elisa, it's been a
pleasure having you both. Hope you have a great Saturday.
This is the Danis Simmons Show.
Hello, Southeast Texas. So glad that you're joining us today
on this beautiful day, a little warm, but super nice outside.
Hope you're getting to enjoy some family time, some fun time,
and just some chill time on this beautiful Saturday. I
have a wonderful list of guests with us today. We
have Alisa Villefano. She is with First Financial Bank and
(00:23):
she's the retail supervisor over in the Mid County branch,
and she's going to share a little bit about what
is retail, what does that mean? Have you thought about
getting a credit card? What does that look like? And
how can she help guide you through that. Also with
this is Bo Hanson. He is with the City of Beaumont,
the deputy building official, officially the official and Bo has
(00:47):
lots of great information. Actually, before we even started on
the show, my husband Ken is grilling him on all
kinds of questions about what is required for a permit?
When do you not have to do a permit? So
let me just say there's going to be lots of
great conversation today. Bo has so much depth of knowledge
in what you may need to have and what you
(01:08):
can do and how the city of Belmont is really
looking after homeowners and why what they're doing is to
impact a positive outcome for all homeowners in Southeast Texas.
But before we do that, I want to give you
a little bit of a snapshot of what's going on
in the market. Well, we've seen again it's a little
bit of a softer market with the interest rate not changing.
(01:29):
The FED introduced that we're going to kind of hold
where we are, but we've talked about this over and
over again. The interest rate where we are today is
lower than the thirty year average. Average over thirty years
is almost eight percent, but our interest rate right now
is a little under seven percent in most situations. So
(01:51):
if you're thinking about home ownership, let me tell you
why now is a great time. The market is filled
with lots of inventory, and with that inventory, it creates
an opportunity for buyers to ask for things that they
have not been able to ask for over the last
several years. Many houses are not selling for asking price
(02:12):
like they were two and three years ago when we
were seeing multiple, multiple offers over asking price, and it
was very challenging for a new homeowner to get into
the market because they were competing with cash and they
were competing with people who could go over the asking price.
But right now we are seeing that in most situations,
(02:33):
sellers are negotiating some Now. Just yesterday I got a
full price offer on a property. It's happening still, but
in most situations we are seeing where sellers are negotiating
some and enabling that buyer to get some closing costs assistance,
or enabling that buyer to be able to move forward
(02:54):
at a price that's affordable for them. So, if you're
thinking about is now the right time for you, give
my office call four oh nine eight six six eight
three two six and we can get you scheduled for
a consultation to just sit down and visit. We want
to talk about what are your goals, what are you
trying to achieve? Is now the right time for you?
(03:16):
Or or are there some things we need to do
to move you in the right direction for it to
be the right time. We want to make sure that
we guide you through the process in such a way
that looks out for your best interest in what is
your goal, not what we're trying to do. So for us,
we love doing that. We love being able to give
buyers information, but we also love working with sellers. So
(03:37):
if you're thinking about is now the right time for me?
I know mark the market is softer, our houses in
my neighborhoods selling for what they need to in order
for me to think about selling. Let us help you
with that. We will give you a free market analysis
and be able to give you an idea of what
we can sell your house for. If you aren't ready
at that point, if you'll know not quite where I
(03:57):
need to be, then no problem. At least you have
the information you need to move forward. If you'd like
to get an estimate on our website, you can do
that for free. But let me tell you it's just that,
just an estimate. It is an AI tool that gathers
information and then creates a number for you. But I
will let you know it's not going to be one
hundred percent accurate unless you get someone who has their
(04:19):
eyes on your house and is able to go through
all of the data to be able to give you
the more accurate number. That's what we'd really love to do,
So again, call our office or go to our website
Dana Simmons real estate dot com, and we'd love to
help you. Let's go ahead and introduce our guests today
and I'd love for you to learn a little bit
about them. So, Alisa, you have grown up in Southeast Texas,
(04:42):
talk a little bit about that.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Yes, Miam, I have. I born in Belmont, I live
currently inviter, have lived there almost my whole life, attended
byder High School, graduated in twenty twelve. I have three
beautiful boys about to be eight, three and two, so
that they're himful. I'm currently working at First Financial Bank.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
So yeah, And you have been in Southeast Texas your
whole life, so you're familiar with everything that goes around. Now,
quick question. I didn't even ask you this before, but
you said you're invited. I know some of the houses
invited flooded during Hurricane Harvey. Were you a part of
that or were you Okay.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
I wasn't actually here at the time that Harvey hit,
but I actually currently live in my grandmother's house that
she doesn't live in. Huh, And it was a part
of a grant that she got rebuilt from her house flooding.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
So yeah, that's one of the areas I know that
had some challenges and was hit hard, just like we're
you know, we were in Finet at the time, and
our house there also had that challenge. Now we're praying
that's not happening again, and we're past all of that,
and Greg keeps telling us things are looking good right
now for the Tropics. I love when he says, don't
worry about anything for the next seven to ten days,
(05:59):
and I'm like, yes, I cannot worry about it for
the next seven ten days. So love when I see
that on all of his Facebook posts. Also with this
is bo Hanson. Thank you, Bou for joining us again.
And listen, I've known Beau for a little while. Your
parents have been longtime customers, clients, friends of mine, and
(06:20):
then as you grew up, I got to know you
personally from all kinds of things, for things that you
were involved in. You've been in the building business, You've
been in a lot of things, So talk a little
bit about your time. You're a lifelong resident.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Too, Yeah, born and raised here sour Lake specifically specifically,
but called Beaumont home for a while and now have
the privilege to work for the City of Beaumont. You
described your three boys as beautiful little boys. I've never
described my two boys as that. They're just chaotic, crazy,
but I have two little ones and my wife Brenda
and I and life is very fun right now. We're
(06:53):
in a fun season and nine and a seven year old.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Oh yeah, we.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Are just keeping up. Oh yeah, chasing them summertimes here,
so a lot of time at the beach and spending
time together as a family.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
But yeah, yeah, juggling a lot. We were talking to
the break about at the current age that they are
just their excitement about things like baseball cards, and that's
so fun to be able to connect with them on
things that we loved growing up.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
They're trying to distinguish. So you talk about baseball cards, I'm,
of course trying to get them all the older ones,
you know, Bo Jackson, King Griffy Junr, the all the
no longer playing guys, and so I'm giving them these
cards and we're talking about these these pros. And so
now we watch the Astros or we watch whoever, and
they're wondering when King Griffy Junior is going to show up,
you know, and so having to talk through that, Yeah,
(07:38):
that's introducing some challenges, but it's still fun.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
One of the other things that you've had in your
past is you did a podcast as well. You're a
part of First Baptist Church, and you guys have done
a lot of things, and you even have a children's book,
So talk a little bit about that.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Oh, the children's book. That was a fun project. Yes,
wrote a it's the Gospel of John called the One
Whom Jesus Loved and it's just a fun Soussian style
version of the Gospel of John so that kids can
grasp it and hopefully memorize it and walk away with
(08:13):
chunks of scripture in their heart. But beyond that, yes,
I got to work on a podcast with First Baptist
and that was fun, called Further where we took sermons
and just applied it further in our daily life. And
still getting to work on a podcast with the International
Code Council, So I'm hosting their show and geting talk
about nerdy code stuff all day. But yeah, I've drank
the kool aid and I enjoy nerding out. That is
(08:36):
truly what I do as a hobby now, So I am.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Yeah, Well, now I bought your book on Amazon. Is
it still available?
Speaker 3 (08:43):
It is?
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Okay, So if someone wants to go to Amazon and search.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Should I say The One who Jesus it's not title that.
I don't know why.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
I just had a John is the one who Jesus loved?
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Was that the title of the book. It's no the Way,
No the Way? Okay, I apologize for that.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
I did buy a couple of those.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
Search Know the Way on Amazon and you can find
the book. Yeah, it's been a while since I've promoted
that book, so thanks for thanks for that.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Yeah, no problem. I did get it a couple of years,
a year, year and a half or so, I can't
remember how long. Go for my grands and gave them
to them. I think it was last Christmas. So love that.
So it's so nice to be able to give your
children and your grandchildren truths through a little book and
a book that they can understand that's at their level. So,
(09:25):
Bo Hanson, if you need to search the author, you
can search it that way too. So well, when we
come back, I know you heard it, Bo said. He
geeks out on all this code stuff, and let me
tell you he was spewing it during the break earlier.
So you're going to love hearing from him. But if
you have a question about code, give us a call.
Four oh nine eight nine six five five eight four.
(09:47):
We'd love to be able to answer your questions, but
when we come back you'll get to talk to Bo directly.
This is Dana Simmons with the Dana Simmons Show. Welcome back.
This is Dana Simmons and I am joined today by
Alisa Villa. I know who is the retail supervisor with
First Financial Bank and also Bo Hanson, City of Beaumont
Deputy Building Official. Well, Bo, we've been chatting about a
(10:09):
lot of stuff in the breaks, and Ken's been grilling you,
but wanted to start here with a simple question. If
you're going to hire a contractor, or if you know
a contractor, or there is a contractor, what is the
situation with a contractor needing to be registered with you guys?
What does that sound like look like? What do we
(10:31):
need to know about that?
Speaker 3 (10:32):
Well, that's a big question currently Beaumont, like most municipalities
around us, the process is fairly simple. In fact, I
was blown away when I first started building how simple
it was to register as a general contractor. All it
takes is getting a builder's bond and it's a twenty
five thousand dollars builders bond and you can get that
(10:53):
turn it in and you are suddenly a registered builder
capable of building any project in Beaumont. That is scared
when you think about it. Yeah, and so, and that's
not to say there's not great builders in Beaumont. There
are incredible builders in Beaumont. But the doorway into it
can be very easy. It's a very easy doorway. So
one of the things we're kicking around, and we've talked
(11:14):
with the Homebuilders Association, the association or general contractors, and
really we're just trying to get gauge interest for a
registration process. And that's not one of the things we
want to be careful of. We don't want it to
just be another money grab or anything like that. What
we truly want, what our heart is, is making sure
(11:36):
that the builders have all the answers to the test
before they go and do that project. So if you're
going to be a builder, we want you to sit
down with us for an hour. And again, this isn't
official yet. We're having these conversations. We're working towards this
and if it works, great, and if not, that's okay too.
But the heart and the intent of it is we
want people to know what the process is so they
don't get caught in the field with all these frustrations.
(11:58):
You hear people talk about red and all the frustrations
of navigating local government. I get that. I totally first
hand experience understand that. And so the intent of this
is to make sure you have all those answers before
you get going. And by the way, that is not
just one entry point, but it's multiple. You see a
lot of times, I'm sure you've worked with people like
(12:19):
this where they've had success building homes and really nice
homes at that, and they have an opportunity to step
into the commercial world and they're blindsided by oh I
got to work with the fire department now, and the
health department and quality control and all these different things
that you got to take in consideration for a commercial project.
And so navigating that is truly our heart and our
you know, what I'm passionate about, and many people at
(12:41):
the city are passionate about is coming alongside these developers,
these builders and making sure they have all the right
tools and their tool built before they get going. So
all that to say, I know, I just threw a
lot at you, but that is what we're talking about
now of developing some sort of builder registration, a more
robust version of that, and it really centers around education,
(13:02):
not just you know, asking for another fee or anything
like that.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Well, the benefit to that is to the person who
purchases the house, you know, as a homeowner or as
someone who sells new construction properties. The challenge can be
if it's a builder you've never worked with before, I
don't know. That's the part that's hard. I don't know
how good of a builder they are.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
That also allows us. You know, people all the time
come up to us and come up to the counter
at city Hall and they'll say, you know, I had
a very unfortunate experience with maybe it was a fly
by night contractor or whatever it may have been, and
that breaks our heart. Obviously we hate hearing those stories.
And they say, well, do you have anybody you can recommend?
And you know what, as you mentioned, I grew up
(13:46):
in this industry. I know a lot of the builders,
a lot of the subcontractors, and I so bad want
to recommend somebody, but I can't. And so if we
develop this, if we have this list of approved contractors,
that allows me to say yes, here there's a list, yeah,
and to be able to say that confidently for the
homeowner's sake is the end goal.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Yeah, and so there's really not other than like the
BBB or the Chamber of Commerce. Is there a place
that the city collects complaints regarding builders or people who
are violating codes? I mean, is there a place that
we can go to find that information or is that
not something that's gathered?
Speaker 3 (14:26):
We don't have anything currently. Now you mentioned the BBB
and some other great organizations. I could point somebody to
the Homeowners Association as an example and say, you know,
contact those guys. They work with a lot of great contractors.
But currently we as a building codes department, don't have
anything like that.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
But what you could have is if you continued in
this process is you could say, but here are people
who have sat down with us, We've gone through the
process with them, and they're approved. So where are you
in being able to do that? I hear you saying
it's something in the works. Is this going to take
months or a year or you know? What does that
(15:01):
look like?
Speaker 3 (15:01):
Step one was just soft interest engaging that. So I've
already sat down with both of the two main organization
being as I mentioned, homebown Association and AGC. They received
it positively. They want what we want, of course, and
then also it's it's a win for them because you know,
making sure that reputable people are getting these jobs and
(15:23):
knees aren't being cut from from under them. So, uh,
that's kind of where we're at. We've we've gauged interest.
We're having uh more internal conversations and fleshing out what
that would look like. Do we have to do we
need to attach a fee to it. If we do,
it's going to be out of necessity, not desire. And
so we're just kind of thinking through all the back
(15:45):
end internal logistics, and then I guess the next step
would be we would introduce that to counsel, and ultimately
counsel has the final say in anything like that.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Okay, well, I think it's a wonderful idea. You know,
during COVID, when things were selling very quickly, interest rates
were low, almost anyone decided they could become a builder,
and we had people who really weren't builders building houses.
And it's far less in Beaumont and more in outside
(16:16):
areas that we saw that and the quality of the
construction is not the same. And if they don't have
to go through a process. It makes it very challenging
and difficult. So in that you were talking about even
going from trying to be a residential builder and then
trying to work on commercial I know, for us, just
(16:37):
in renovation, we've always just done residential because that's what
we do. But we purchased a building and had it
renovated for our office, and let me just say, it
is very different and what the requires. So, for instance,
I wanted to put an oven in my kitchen in
(16:59):
my office because I thought it'd be fun for us
to be able to cook together. And then found out
that the code in a commercial building requires all kinds
of sprinkler system, hood requirements, all the things, and so
we went, I think we'll get a toaster of it
or microwave. We're not going to put in.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
It of it and for sure, and even yes, there's that.
And you know, I have an entrepreneurial background, and you
have all these young entrepreneurs who want to do cool
things and buildings and open up coffee shops and all
these things. And Beaumont has so many great existing buildings. Yeah,
but even something I was talking to a team of
folks yesterday about this and talking about projects and when
(17:45):
you are trying to move into a space that isn't
equipped for that type of occupancy, that may not have
a grease trap, or if it's a larger type assembly
that you're wanting to do and it doesn't have a
sprinkler system, and you're just not thinking about those things
because you're focused on your business right and want to
grow your business and see an opportunity, and then we
have to be the bad guys. And so I guess
just to you know, bring that full circle. Call us. Yeah,
(18:10):
call me directly, and I would love to have that
conversation before you get too far down the road, because again,
that's our heart, that's our intent is to try to
you know, people complain about plans and all the permitting
that goes into it.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Well.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
As a plans examiner for the city, my goal in
that seat is to get ahead of problems before they
show up in the field, to make sure that we
have that meeting before you spend that money to try
to save you some headache. So that's the heart and.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
The bottom line is it's for protection and safety of people.
And I completely get that. It made sense when I
found out because listen, somebody leaves something on and I've
got a commercial building full of people. I get it.
I do get it. But it's not something you think
about exactly if it's not something that you normally do
well in this process. We were also talking about in
(18:58):
those renovations, permits and the question about how to pull
a permit, what does it look like and when do
you need to pull a permit? And so those were
some of the questions we were talking to you about
in the break. So give us a little bit of
an idea of what that looks like.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
Well, some quick, easy lines in the sand to remember.
Take electrical as an example. If it's plug in, you
don't need a permit for that. So even you know,
one example, a dishwasher. Some dishwashers you can buy with
a plug and it just plugs into the receptacle that's
already installed in your cabinets, and that does not need
a permit. I guess the plumbing would need a permit,
(19:34):
now that I say that out loud, But for electrical
it doesn't. But if it's hardwired in, that needs a permit.
For plumbing. The basic line in the sand is if
you're cleaning out sewer lines, or just clearing drains that
doesn't need a permit, but if you're replacing those drains,
that does need a permit. So there's a lot of
simple lines in the sand. There's a few more, a
(19:55):
little bit more situational lines, but generally speaking, most things
need a permit. Now, with that in mind, I know
perhaps a lot of homeowners are listening to this. And
one of the things. We take a toilet as an example.
If you pluck a toilet and go to set a
new toilet because you had something went wrong with it,
that requires a permit. We want to make sure that
(20:15):
permanence or that toilet is set right and appropriate and
isn't going to cause you any issues. So we were
talking about that and one of the counselor I won't
say a name, but leaned up and said, so you're
telling me if I talked about the toilet and that
was an appropriate charge to us as a code department.
We took that, and we have sense responded to that,
(20:36):
and I think this is healthy interaction here. We responded
to it, and our next code adoption, which was two
years ago, we inserted in our ordinance a homestead class,
which basically says, if it's your homestead and you can
prove that to us, you were able to do those repairs.
You don't need to hire a master plumber or anything
just to change a toilet out. So that little things
(20:58):
like that, we want to approach it within reason. But yes,
generally speaking, most things need to permit. And that's a
going back to your point. That's there to protect the
renter or the homeowner, whoever it may be.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
Yeah, and and I love what you said. Just call me,
Just call us. You know, we had a question about
property and orange and you're like, here's the name of
the guy. Just call him ask him. He's going to
let you know what do you need, what don't you need,
and be able to give you that information. So, Bo,
if someone does need to call you, how do they
reach out to you at the City of Beaumont.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
Probably the best way is just to email me. Get
bombarded with a lot of calls and sometimes those can
get lost. But if you send me an email, I'll
get back to you. Bo dot Hanson at Beaumont, Texas
dot gov. Do I need to spell that?
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (21:48):
Okay? BO, B E A U dot h A N
s E N not s O n at Beaumont, Texas
all spelled out, so that's two t's in the middle
dot gov.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Yeah, and if you recognize Hanson, it's because Hanson Plumbing. Uh,
it is your family business, your family's business, your dad was,
your grandfather. Was it your grandfather's first or your dad's first?
Speaker 3 (22:12):
It was Actually it's a sixth generation plumbing show, six general.
I actually just traced that lineage. Wow. And it's so
it's now in a very interesting season because Dad kind
of has semi retired. Dustin has the Dustin's my brother.
He has the new construction set of things, and uh, Dad,
I think if he's listening to this, he'll laugh at this.
(22:34):
And I think he got bored in retirement. And uh
so he has since you know, they they never did repair, right,
and so Dad has since started a repair division of
hands and plumbing. So that's been fun to watch.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
But yeah, yeah, yeah, that sounds like your dad. He
can't sit still. It's always worked, except if he's golfing.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
That's the only time he'll put it down.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
Although I think Martha's trying trying to get him.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
To back it up here and she's finally retiring to
that's good yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
Well, it's been It's great information that Bo gave us.
If you have questions I'm regarding any kind of codes
or permits, give us a call. Bo's going to be
here with us through the rest of the show four
O nine eight nine six klv I four O nine
eight ninety six five five eighty four, and I'm sure
he'll be happy to answer whatever he can. Well, when
(23:26):
we come back Alisa Villefano, we're going to visit with her,
So don't go away. This is the Dana Simmons Show.
Welcome back. This is Dana Simmons. So happy that you've
joined us today. I think we have a caller on
the phone, Will from Groves. Did you have a question
for us?
Speaker 4 (23:43):
Yes, ma'am, I'm enjoying your program, but I'm on a
different topic, if that's all right with you. Of course,
I have a son who's in the Army. He's stationed
in Virginia currently and being transferred to Maryland. He has
a house that's not selling, I guess due to the market,
and meanwhile he purchasing a house in Maryland. What strategies
(24:03):
are available to him in that situation.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
Sure, it's going to depend on what kind of loan
he has, how much equity he has so he can
do a couple of different things. One one option would
be if he's still able to purchase a house, keep
the house he has and be able to rent it
out to have someone covering that note for him. If
he has a lease in place, many times his current
(24:27):
lender on the house he's purchasing will allow that as
coverage for his debt on the property where he's leaving.
The other option would be if he is able to
have enough equity in his first house, he can pull
some of that out with a bridge loan or a
home equity loan to be able to buy the house
(24:48):
where he's moving to. Now. Often it's very difficult since
he is in the you said the army, is that right, right, Yeah,
He's probably using a V loan, and often you can't
have two separate VA loans, so he may have to
visit with his lender about.
Speaker 4 (25:07):
What already has a purchase. He's already has a purchase
in Maryland.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
He already has a purchase where he moved Yeah, okay, okay,
so it's already closed and funded and he already has
the house.
Speaker 4 (25:20):
It's on the way to doing that okay, So.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
For him, the best thing for him to do is
either to go ahead and continue with trying to sell
the house. You know, I hate to say this, but
pricing gets you to a point where it's gonna sell.
But if he's not in a position to be able
to reduce the price to a place where it can sell,
then leasing that property may be his best opportunity. He
(25:48):
may want to talk to his agent and say, you know,
what is the leasing market like. If it's in a
transient area where you have people coming and going all
the time like we have here, we don't have enough
rentals here. So the rental market here is very good,
and you can leash your property for more than what
your note is typically, so that may be an option.
(26:11):
Has he explored the option of using it as a rental.
Speaker 4 (26:13):
Property he's looking that as a default.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
Yeah, yeah, that is not a bad situation. If he
doesn't have to have the equity out of that house.
If he doesn't have to, if he doesn't have to
worry about that, then I would say, in the market
we're in, it may be best to allow someone else
to go in there and cover that note until the
market begins to improve. It's also you know, real estate's
(26:41):
a great investment. It builds long term wealth. And if
you have someone in there covering your note, it's also
reducing your I mean, it's increasing your equity, so you're
able to continue to gain equity in that property long term. Now,
I will say it's probably really import for him to
get with a property manager who is going to vet
(27:03):
the tenants to make sure that you're getting someone who's
a quality tenant. As someone who has rental property. I
love that as an option because I have someone who's
building my retirement for me. I have someone who is
needing a place to rent, they aren't in a position
to buy. I'm helping them by providing the property, and
they're helping me by covering that note. And as they
(27:26):
cover that note, that's building my equity in that property
month after month.
Speaker 4 (27:31):
Very good. Thank you, ma'am.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
You're welcome. Thanks for calling. Well, yes, ma'am with us
also today Lisa Villefono and Alisa. You know, we're talking
about all kinds of things to will about mortgages and
money and what to do and First Financial Bank. That's
one of the things that First Financial Bank does very
well that I've worked with them many times with people
(27:54):
who haven't been able to sell their house, or they
don't want to sell their house yet they want to
buy another home and then be able to do something.
So one of the things that you guys have is
a variety of different solutions in every area of banking.
And so some of the areas of banking that you
work in are retail and you have lots of different
(28:16):
solutions for people if they're looking also for that side
of the business. So talk a little bit about what
is retail and what is your job there at first
financial tell us what you do.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
Absolutely, I help oversee and assist my employees with anything
retail related, which would include anything from depositing a check,
cashing a check, withdraw cash advances, creating cashiers checks, all
the way to opening accounts, closing accounts, personal and business
related IRA CDs, they deposit boxes, fraud disputes, just pretty
(28:51):
much anything in that area.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
I help with that well. And when you're talking about
fraud disputes, you guys are seeing a lot of that absolutely,
and so what are some of the ways that you
would want to let the public know how how to
avoid some of that. I know one of the things
we had talked about is credit cards and things that
you can do with that side, or your your personal account,
(29:15):
things that you can do on that side. What are
some of the things that you recommend to avoid some of.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
That On the credit credit card side, I would recommend
those just because you know, anytime you're using your debit card,
it's directly linked to your checking account. So if there
if there is fraud on there, it's going to hit
your money that's in your account. If you get a
credit card, that's just that credit limit that's being affected,
(29:41):
and then you can follow dispute with them as well.
So in that sense, with fraud protection, you're not having
access direct access to your money.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Yeah, so people a lot of people don't realize there's
a difference a debit card and a credit card. And
what you explain, the real difference is with that debit card,
that's they have direct access to your checking account. Yes,
and so the challenges they can get it all. But
if you have a credit card and you set i
mean a limit that's lower for you, then you're able
(30:12):
to offset that by a minimal amount that they could
actually do damage to.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
Yes, And I would always recommend whether it's the credit
card or your personal account, the online banking and portals
and apps that they provide to us, and if we
utilize them and we get on there daily and they're
constantly checking that, I mean, it's going to help recognize
when something happens and it's not as vast. I always
(30:39):
recommend something like that, And we also have I know,
with First Financial we offer debit card alerts, and I'm
sure the credit cards offer that as well. So anytime
your a debit card is used, you get that notification
to your phone or wherever you set it up as
and that tells you where it was spent, how much
in your balance, and things like that.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
Yeah, I'm aware have that. My husband will call and say, hey,
is this you so can get to access every single
thing I see, which is a good thing for our safety.
But sometimes I'm like, well, pooh, I the Father's Day
gift that I was thinking about, I had to call
(31:18):
my daughter and say, Okay, I'm gonna need you to
buy this, and I'm gonna have to pay you back
because he's gonna see he sees every single thing that
goes through our account. So that is a protection. That's
a really good protection when you can see everything that
goes through there. So you also talked about the fact
that you can help with business customers and the credit
(31:39):
card side of that things. Talk a little bit about
the play on that with business.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
Absolutely, so the business side of it, we offer credit
cards small businesses, even large businesses. It helps build the
business credit side of the things. And then also my
perk to it is fraud obviously, and then second is
a lot of companies like to issue employee cards, so
(32:05):
they give their employees cards, whether it's for gas or spending,
and they can manage those directly with spending limits, how
much they're able to spend, clothes, open them, and they
can have as many as they want. So that's always
always a nice perk.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
Yeah, we have that too, where it's super nice that
if we need something, we can send an employee with
their card and they can handle anything that's needed to
be able to go ahead and get that done.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
You can even have so each employee can have their
own little portal. You can have bills paid separately or together.
It's just a really nice feature.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
Yeah, And if someone's just curious about the services that
you provide at LEASA, talk a little bit about how
they can connect with you on helping you explain all
of that to them.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Absolutely, so you can reach me through email. That's a
Villa FAUNO at f FI in dot com spelled out,
is a vias in Victor, I l l A f
as in frank A and is in Nancy O at
f FI in dot com.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Yep, just like it sounds exactly. But you're also at
the Mid County branch, right, so.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
You can stop by there. We're always willing to help
anybody that comes in. That's something that we pride ourselves
in at First Financial is being a full service bank
and going out of our comfort zone to help anybody
in need.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
YEP. So I would say that while I'm in the
Beaumont branch. I'll tell you that, and it's it's good.
They're very professional. They do a great job. You guys
over there in Midcounty have fun.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
We do well. That's something we like, you know. I
feel whenever people come into the bank and they see
everybody unified and they see each other just getting along
and having a good time, I feel like it's a lot.
It's a good atmosphere.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
Yeah. I think part of that is, of course, David
la June's over there. And when David la June's involved
in anything, it's going to be a good time because
he is so funny and just has such a great
positive attitude he does.
Speaker 2 (34:11):
And something that I really like about him, as you know,
customers come in and he takes time out of his
day to go and introduce himself to them, whether they're
opening an account or it's a teller transaction, and that's
not really in his field of what he does for
First Financial, but he shows his appreciation for customers and
he introduces himself and gets to know them. No matter
(34:33):
what he's doing, he stops.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
And Yeah, I think David for Mayor's what I think.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
Yeah, he would be a great for a very long time.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
I know he's lived in important. We call him mister
Portnacius is really what we call him because he's so
active in that community and such a light out there
as well. So if you're out in the Mid County
area and you want to stop by in the at
the branch, tell everyone where is that branch in Mid County,
the First Financial branch.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
It's at eight five three five Central Mall Drive in
Port Arthur, Texas. Seven seven sixty four to two.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
Right off three sixty five, right there by the mall.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
It's basically in the mall parking lot.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
Yep, yep. Well, thank you Alisa for being on the
show and sharing any of that with us. And when
we come back, we're going to wrap up a little bit,
finish up with bo Hanson. He's going to give us
a few more tips. So don't go away. This is
the Dana Simmons Show. This is Dana Simmons and we
were just visiting with Alisa Villafano, the retail supervisor at
(35:35):
the Mid County branch of First Financial Bank. Hop on
in there if you're over in the Mid County area,
say hello to her and ask her any questions about
some of the products that they have there at First
Financial Bank. Also with us bo Hanson, who is the
City of Beaumont Deputy building Official. And we've had so
much fun talking about permits.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
It's so fun.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
You're you're geeking out has come out in our show today, No,
and you were talking about your podcast. Tell me again
about the podcast that you have.
Speaker 3 (36:07):
So the publisher, the one behind all the codes, or
most of the codes, is the International Code Council and
So they have a show called the Pulse Podcast where
we talk all things local government and code related and
even talk about grants and it's it's a pretty interesting show.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
Where can someone find it any of.
Speaker 3 (36:29):
The streaming services if you if you search ICC Pulse podcasts.
So Pulse like a heartbeat. The last show, I'll tell
you was particularly special for me, probably a lot of folks.
He's got millions of followers. Matt Riisinger in Austin. He's
a great homebuilder, does a lot of YouTube videos and
(36:50):
kind of helps folks kind of know the building science
behind different jobs. So I got to drive up to Austin.
That was a whirlwind trip. Woke up at I pulled
out of my driveway at three o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (37:01):
And I was back in Sour Lake for my son's
closing ceremonies by six pm. So we recorded two shows
in his studio in Austin, and that was a very
fun project. But that's our latest episode, and so highly
encourage you going to listen to that, not for what
I have to say, but for what he has to say.
In all of our guests, we've got industry professionals from
all over the world, coming on. We've interviewed some guys
(37:23):
plumbers in Australia and just really fun conversations.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
Yeah, that well, really fun if that's your thing for fun. No,
it's great if you have interest in building or codes
or all that. I agree that's a great resource and
I wasn't even aware of it, BO, So thank you
for letting us know about that and sharing that. So
part of the job that you have is often helping
(37:50):
people understand the benefit of what you do and how
you guys do it. And one of the things that
we were talking about in the break is that the
benefit for are building a house to a certain code
in Beaumont can have some really good advantages for you
for affordability and insurance. So talk a little bit about that.
Speaker 3 (38:10):
Yeah, And I guess just to preface a little bit,
you know, obviously I'm not an insurance expert. I don't
want to pretend to be, but I think everyone would
agree that codes definitely impact ISO ratings and so that's
one of the things we go through as a municipality
in Beaumont and codes are a big part of that.
And not just the codes we adopt the newest standards,
(38:33):
but also the certifications we have, so my certification I'm
a certified building official, and some other certifications. All of
our inspectors are certified in their particular trades and crafts,
and so they look at the whole picture. Our fire
department is a big part of that, and they give
us a score, an ISO score. I s o oh, gosh,
(38:53):
I should have looked this up. I mean, it's insurance.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
I'll google it. It has to do with how much it's.
Speaker 3 (39:03):
A huge contributor of what premiums are. And so, being
the skeptic by nature that I am. When I first
started at the city, you know, we went through this
big elaborate ISO process and had to submit everything to
get the best score possible, and I was like, man,
how actually impactful is this? And so I wanted to
see that answer. We were talking about data in the break.
(39:24):
I'm a data geek too, and I want to see
it side by side, and so I'm not going to
throw any surrounding municipalities under the bus. But I ran
our ISO score versus one with a little bit higher score,
which lowered the score the better. And I did two properties,
two very similar houses built the same time, same square footage.
(39:46):
You know the whole nine yards as comparable as possible. Also,
same person appliance, because I know the person impacts that also,
and so we got two very different premiums back. It
was something to the tune of fifteen hundred dollars annually
in savings that we were saving people on insurance premiums.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
That stands for Insurance Service Office.
Speaker 3 (40:06):
That's what I was going to say, Thank.
Speaker 1 (40:07):
Yeah, insurance, the ISO insurance services office is fire score
is a rating that determines how well the fire department
can protect your community, and home insurance company use the
score to help set home insurance rates. Let me just say,
Google is our friend. You know what did we do
before that?
Speaker 3 (40:23):
And I'll dovetell all that even accessing the codes now,
really the classic line that we hear all the time
is where do I get these cobooks? And they, if
you do the paper copies that they're expensive and they're
proud of their books and they're it's costly. But in
today's world, they have digital codes available to you for
free where you can access all those and then you
factor in AI. Yeah, oh man, that's a game changer.
(40:46):
You can ask any question you want per that code
and get an answer in two seconds or less.
Speaker 1 (40:51):
Well, can't guarantee it's accurate.
Speaker 3 (40:53):
Always check the links and make sure it's a credible source.
But it's a great starting.
Speaker 1 (40:57):
Point and usually and typically you get great information, but
occasionally you need to check. I love that you did
that where you tried in one other county and one
other city and then in Beaumont. So the fact that
there are a little bit more challenges in what Beaumont
requires eventually saves you money long term annually every year.
Speaker 3 (41:20):
And that's that's a we're facing that nationwide again. With
the other podcast, I get to do a lot of
these conversations are coming up of Man, it's so costly
to build a code. I would challenge that conversation and
in the most respectful way I can, and would love
to if if anybody would want to come up to
our office and just put pen to paper on what
(41:41):
that actually looks like. It's it's not true. It's not
even close to being true. Yes, paying for a permit
is extra, but you know the percentage of an actual
new construction project, you're still it's the materials that are
going through the room, right, Yeah, the labors going through
the roof. So building to code, that's a myth that
I enjoy talking through with folks. So don't let somebody
(42:04):
tell you that because that's simply not true.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
Well, it's an easy topic. It's easy to just throw
that out there and say, oh, in we get code.
Speaker 3 (42:11):
Yeah, yeah, we're the local government. Somebody needs to cast blame.
I'm fine with that.
Speaker 1 (42:15):
Yeah, but you're right, it is. It is far more
costly to build today simply because of the costs of
the material. I mean, it just has since COVID, it
has gone up and we've not seen it come down
to the spot that it was pre COVID, And so
that's where a lot of the challenges lie. Okay, well,
I anything else, bo, we're about to wrap up the show.
(42:37):
Anything you want to make sure people hear before we.
Speaker 3 (42:39):
Go, We'll just merge kind of everything we talked about
with what you just said again, my heart, my goal,
and so many others at the city. Is the most
costly thing that can happen to you as a developer,
as a contractor is getting caught in the field after
you've ordered those windows, after you've ordered that material, and
you find out it's the wrong joy spam or whatever
(43:00):
it may be. And so if you get with us
beforehand and let us work with you, we want what
you want. And that starts with a conversation before you
hit the job.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
It's just about communication, and it's communication in every aspect
of all of our lives, you know, communication with the city,
communication with your contractor communication with your real estate agent.
Just like the caller will I think it's about communication
with his agent there where he's moving from to enable
him to have the exact options that will work for
(43:30):
that area of the challenges. I don't work there, so
I don't know what is their rental market like. But
communication with the person that you are dealing with is
the key. So thank you so much for being on
the show today.
Speaker 4 (43:41):
Bo.
Speaker 1 (43:42):
If you have any questions, you can reach him at
the City of Omont. Thank you, Elisa, it's been a
pleasure having you both. Hope you have a great Saturday.
This is the Danis Simmons Show.
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