April 4, 2026 • 38 mins
- On today's show, Ryder Lognior breaks down what consumers need to know about lending, while Robert Currie shares helpful A/C tips as the weather starts to warm up.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Well, Hello Southeast Texas, Welcome to the Dana Simmons Show.
We are excited to have you join us on this
wonderful Saturday. Hope you are getting to enjoy some great
family time for Easter and planning a beautiful Easter celebration tomorrow.
I know my family is. We're having the kids all over,
going to celebrate with a service Saturday night with one
(00:21):
set and then another set tomorrow morning. So hope you
have your plans made and have a place to worship
on this beautiful weekend with me. Today I have Writer
lonyon and he is with First Financial Bank and he
is going to give us a little insight on what's
going on on the consumer side of lending here in
(00:42):
just a minute, and I'm going to introduce you to him.
You guys haven't met him yet, so super excited for
you to get to meet Writer. But I wanted to
give you a little update on what's going on in
the market. You know, with the interest rate shift, it
seems like we have had a pretty good pickup this
past week the market. I have actually had multiple offers
(01:03):
on some properties and that has not happened in a
little bit. So we are seeing bioactivity increase, and so
if you are thinking is now the right time to
either buy or to sell, we would love the opportunity
to sit down and visit with you and evaluate your
goals and if if it is right for you, so
we'd love to chat. You can give my office a
(01:24):
call at four oh nine eight six six eight three
two six, or you can always go onto my website
at Dana Simmons real estate dot com. That's Dayna Simmons
real estate dot com. It even has a little tool
on there that can give you an estimator on your
properties value. Now, of course that's AI generated and it's
(01:47):
not going to be as good as if Katie or
I come out and give you an idea of the market,
because we can look at all things and be able
to evaluate your your value to a more precise number.
But if you want to go in there and just
figure it out and look at it and enjoy playing
with the tool, you're welcome to do that. So don't
(02:07):
hesitate to give us a call. You know, for us,
it doesn't cost you anything for us to either come
out and give you a market analysis or just to
sit down and talk through what are your goals? If
you're looking to buy, what do you need to know
to get that ball rolling? We love to educate. We
have a buyer form that we like me I mean
a buyer consultation that we go through, and then we
(02:27):
have a whole little magazine that goes through the process
that we created just for you. So give us a call,
let us help you. So now I'm to introduce you
to Writer. Now, Writer, you have been with First Financial
Bank for just a year, just a year. I knew
it was about that time, So tell everyone a little
bit about you. Writer.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Sure, well to start, thanks for having me. Very excited
to be here. Yeah, I've been with First Financial Bank
for about a year. I'm at the Mid County location
and I've had an absolute ball. I've really loved it.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
You guys have a great grid group over there. I
mean so much fun.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Our group is is wonderful. I mean that leads me
to my next one. I'm from kots born and raised,
went to school in Kot's. Still living Coots, so I'm
making a little bit of a commute every single day.
You know, I got to deal with Lumberton and on
my traffic, but I wouldn't trade that team over there
for anything. I've really loved it. But a little bit
about me, and like.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
I said, le June is there.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Market president, commercial lander I've got of course, and the
mortgage size on the mortgage side.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Yeah, I mean that's a dream team.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
It really is. It really is. And you know, they
keep me busy just with their referrals and their trickle
down business. So I've I've learned a lot and just
been super busy just from from dealing with them. So
it's been great. But background on me, played a lot
of sports growing up. That's what I did in college.
I always say that's kind of what got me through
school is I played baseball. So so baseball is your sport,
(03:50):
baseball is my sport. I played a little bit of
football in high school, but baseball was always my focus.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
So what position.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
I was a pitcher. I did a little a little
bit of everything high school and in college I was
a pitcher. So I graduated from Laturno University in twenty
nineteen and got into finance and lending. Right after. I
moved around a little bit. I lived in Lake Jackson
for a little while, me and my wife moved to Lufkin.
We stayed there for almost four years. I'm a big fisherman,
outdoors guy, so it works. Coots, you gotta be right,
(04:20):
It's exactly right. You don't have much else going on
over there. But yeah, we lived at the lake for
a few years and loved it, and then we were
We found out we were pregnant last December, so we
decided baby number two. We decided, well, we better get
on home. So I've got a little girl named Treit.
She is a little bit older than two and a
half years old, and the baby is around seven months,
(04:41):
so they're about two years apart Trayton River. So I
haven't slept a lot, but you guys, hall fun We
stay busy. My wife actually kind of kind of funny
because you know, she's from Deer Park. She's from a
little bit bigger town. She played sports as well. I
played softball, and she is now the softball coach and
she teaches at Koon's. Wow, that's exciting circle moment.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
I'm telling yeah, I love that. And so your family
still lives in Koon, So that's so nice to have
family close by.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Absolutely so. My older brother, it's funny, his two kids
are almost the exact same age as my two so
they are loving. He's got a little girl that's three
and his little boys I believe three days apart from mine. Wow,
so pretty crazy.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
So that's My grandkids are the same way. And there's
just nothing better. You know. My two granddaughters are four
months apart, and then my grandson. Then they're ones just
turned five, the other ones four and a half, and
then the baby is two. And just like for this weekend,
you know, we all get to hang out together and
(05:44):
enjoy the holiday together, and so there's nothing better than that.
But we're together a lot, Like Monday night we were
together at for dinner. And while a lot of families
I know have to live apart, what a gift it
is to have.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
It's definitely a blessing.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
I know.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
At one point my mom was like, all right, like
I'm not old, but like I'm old enough to be
a grandparent. And then sure enough, in two years she
went from from zero grand babies to four really really quick.
So now she's like, all right, we can we can
slow down a little bit. No, but it definitely is
a blessing. They're so close in age unless you're around them,
and they all didn't nap on the same day, then
you start questioning your life decisions. But besides that, we
(06:20):
have a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
That's so funny. I know exactly what you're talking. Yes,
those no nap days can create quite a bit of chaos.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
And you know, the grandparents love the no nap days.
They just play, play, play and then go all right,
there you go.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
I know, why do we need a nap? Yeah, you
can deal with them when you get home. And then
it smelt down pathtime, right then, don't want to even
go to bed.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
It's exactly right.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Yeah, well, I'll tell you. In our world, life revolves
around the naps and the schedules. So my kids don't
let me get past that.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
There you go. They hold you to it. Huh. I
haven't figured out that far.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Yeah, yeah, well they've trained me. Well, I think you
so well, that's so exciting. Well, I love the fact
that you're from Southeast Texas. You did get your education
outside and then came back to Southeast Texas. For me,
I think that's one of the most incredible things about
our area is when someone can go away and go yeah,
(07:14):
but you know about what we have here is so good,
right for sure?
Speaker 2 (07:18):
And it really is, and especially because you know, my
sister has a joke. You know, my sister's from Cooent,
same deal, but she went to Lamar. Well, being right
there at Lamar, she's super close to Mid County, you know,
Port Arthur, porten Ah saw that and she always comes
home and she told mom one day, she was like,
why didn't you tell me that this place exists? And
it really is true? You know, like that Mid County
(07:38):
area is very similar to you know your Balu Mit, Lumbington,
Coach r Harden County area. It's just so tight knit,
like Southeast Texas is a super tight knit place. And
it really took me kind of moving and being away
for a couple of years to realize that, like this
community really is awesome.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Yeah, we think when we're in that twenties, we think
the brass is greener somewhere else right exactly, and then
we go there and realize it's astro turf right, and
being home is really nice. They're really nice things. Well,
you know, I grew up in Mid County, graduated in
Neterland High School, so very familiar with that Mid County area.
And I'm telling you we have such great pockets. We've
(08:13):
got that Mid County area that's a great little type pocket.
We've got that Orange County area that's a great little pocket,
and then Harden County and while in Jefferson County. Here
in Beaumont, we all kind of have our little pockets,
but we also connect so well with each other. And
I just love the way our community works together even
(08:34):
though we have individual little pockets.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Yeah, for sure, and we're all proud. We're very proud
folk and each one of the pockets. So sometimes I
am impressed by the fact that we can, you know,
still work together, and a lot of the communities do
stuff together, so it's really awesome.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Well, when we come back, we're going to have Writer
talk a little bit about what he does at First
Financial Bank, and I hope that this is something that
will help you, so don't go away. This is the
Dana Simmons Show. Well back. This is Dana Simmons. I
am joined by writer Lawnjon and he is with First
Financial Bank and Writer, let's talk a little bit about
(09:08):
exactly what do you do at First Financial Sure.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
So I'm a consumer relationship man manager excuse me. I
handle everything from you know, your first small secured credit card,
all the way up to your mortgages, home equity loans
of course everything in between, so your auto loans, you know,
personal unsecured loans, toy loans, boat ATV, so, just a
little bit of everything on the consumer side.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
So anything someone could want in a loan other than
a mortgage, which you could refer that to or that,
but on any other really type of loan, you guys
can handle that. What are you seeing most right now?
Speaker 2 (09:45):
So and just to preface that, so I actually we
do have some in house mortgage products as well, okay,
you know, so we can do some things that are
a little bit more outside of the box that you
can always do on the you know, on the secondary
mortgage side. So we did, We definitely do have some
mortgage products. We have some some cool special products and
I'll get into those with you, you know more on
(10:07):
a separate occasion. But do a little bit of everything.
And of course we have our let so I'm spoiled
to have our let you know, as the secondary side
over there on on our mortgage team. But you know what,
what it seems like one of my favorite products and
what I've spent most of my time on here lately
is our our home equities and our home equity line
of credits. And I think that's just a credit to
(10:29):
the area I'm in and just the team I have
around me. So we have a real strong commercial presence
as well as the consumer presence. So we're over there
in industry, so we have a lot of small and
large businesses as well. And I think a helock is
a relatively new product. It's been around for a little bit,
but it seems like not a lot of people understand it.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
But so specify what is a helock for those who
don't know.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Sure, So, helock is a home equity line of credit.
It's similar to just a straight home equity loan, but
it's a revolving line of credit. So the way it
works is it has the potential to be a twenty
year loan, but it's got a five year interest only
draw period, is what we would call it. So the
way I like to explain it is think of a
big credit card in the sense that you have a
line of credit approved based on the equity of your home.
(11:16):
You have a five year period where you're only required
to make the interest only payments. And where that's going
to benefit somebody is if they are getting into something
that they don't exactly know the cost up front. So
sure as you can imagine your spec home builders, your
construction loan guys, anybody that has any kind of side
business or a main business that has paid down their
home to where they have the equity in it. It's
(11:36):
a fantastic tool because you're getting essentially a lot of
money from one and two. It's at a cheaper rate,
it's similar to a mortgage rate, and you can take
a large lump sum, put it in some kind of investments,
and then pay it all down or just make interest
only payments. Now, at the end of that five year period,
you have the option to just turn it out into
a fifteen year fully admortized loan similar to just a
(11:57):
straight fixed in home equity, or if you still have
some credit available, or if you don't use it, or
if you use it and pay it down, you can
just refinance it in that five year revolving term.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
So that uh, the situation on that is anyone who
is going to need some sort of loan for whatever
they're trying to do, whether it be a small business
or some sort of endeavor, and instead of getting a
separate loan a commercial loan, they have equity in their
home that they live in, and you're able to pull
(12:29):
that equity out for interest only.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
That's exactly right. So I mean we can do you know,
on a first lean, we can do eighty percent of
the homes value. So I mean, like I said, it's
it's a quick way to get access to you know,
to a large sum of funds and have a relatively
low payment. So if it's a situation and it doesn't
have to be just for business endeavors as well, if
you know, if you want to build your dream shop
(12:53):
or if you want to build your pool and you're
just not real sure what that's going to look like,
maybe you do have some cash on the side that
you would like to use, pull out your max value
only use what you have to and then either pay
the loan down, pay the loan off, or just you know,
make it to where it's an affordable payment and then
you can just turn it out on that fifteen yearly And.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
If you don't pull on it, you don't pay anything.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
You don't pull on it, you don't pay anything. So
I think that's where you know, it scares a lot
of people because one of the most common questions I
get and I just have to laugh every single time,
is they go, what is the downside to this? Yeah,
And I'm like, well, there's I mean, you have to
pay it back. But besides that, you know, there's really
just not a lot of downsides. Now, there are fees
associated with it once you get into you know, we
have tiers, so two hundred and fifty thousand, and the
(13:34):
first tier is the first tier where there's a fee
associated with it, but it's a seven hundred and ninety
five dollars fee. So a lot of times that's going
to be your one percent origination fees and all that.
So besides just the you know, the small closing costs
associated with it, it's cheap on the fee side, and you're only,
as you said, you're only paying on what you draw.
There's no cost associated with having the line open.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Right. Well, I have a client who just recently had
the opportunity for into a business that came up, and
that was exactly what they ended up doing, was just
taking out some of the equity from their house and
being able to utilize that into this investment. Now, the
other side of that, you know, you talked about that
(14:16):
you have some things on the mortgage side that are
a little bit similar. Is that you also have that
for if someone is selling a home and then going
to buy a home, but they don't want to have
to sell to buy because maybe the seller on the
house or trying to buy won't accept a contingency. So
that's another way to use this helock.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Right right, that's exactly right. And I'm sure you could
probably tell me or tell the folks listen better than
I could, But it seemed like January and February the
trend was these content these helocks to basically get out
of a contingency. I guess people saw them, you know,
the rate drops and said, you know, hey, I want
to do this, but they weren't really planning on it,
or maybe a home came up and they just had
(14:57):
no plan to sell. So, you know, a lot of times,
I think I had just several different situations. But some
people had some cash set aside to where they could
you know, pull the equity on their home and then
include that with the cash that they had sit inside
and just essentially pay for the home. That way, they
could sell their home at their own pace and not
you know, not have to make it based on a contingency,
(15:17):
and that's January February.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
That was the theme, and that is the key that
they can sell their home at their own pace. And
the benefit to that as well is getting the house prepared.
One of the clients that I had that did this,
she had been at her home for twenty five years
and it was full of stuff, and trying to prep
it to sell and to buy at the same time
(15:41):
was just overwhelming to her. And so for her, she's like,
I'd rather just get the money out of my house,
go ahead and buy the new one, and then get
the other one ready, get out what i want, have
an estate, sell for what I'm not going to bring
with me, and be able to take my time and
then put my house on the market. And for her
(16:01):
that has been an ideal situation on working through the
cell and the buy, because it can be stressful for
someone who has a house full of stuff. That's hard
to stage.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Right for sure, and too you know, generally the home
you live in once you've been there for a little while,
it's never perfect. So just just you want to get
the max value you can out of your sale. So
just to be able to make those little improvements. And
if you're like me and you have two kids, you
never realize how many Paul Patrol toys you actually have
until you try to move out. Yeah, so a little
bit of time definitely doesn't hurt.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
It absolutely doesn't. Well, when we come back, we're going
to visit with writer about a couple of other options
that he has to offer you. So don't go away.
This is the Dana Simmons Show for you.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
And then I want you to I'm going to introduce you,
and then I want you to tell you tell a
little bit about you.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
Okay, how long you've been in Southeast Texas, Just okay,
a little about you.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
Then we'll start talking about in the final segment. You've
got to close to the mine.
Speaker 4 (17:01):
Okay, yeah, like that.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
You gotta feel like you're eating it almost. Okay, you're
ready for me? Okay, Okay, we're rolling and Robert Curry. Yes,
And the name of your company is Air.
Speaker 4 (17:16):
Solutions Innovative Heating, Cooligan Plumbing Innovative.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Sorry, that's what I'm asking. That's okay, innovative.
Speaker 4 (17:24):
Heating cooling and plumbing heating cooling. It is a mouthful.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Yeah, yeah, I have to write it all down even
though I know people, I still because in the middle
of heaven in this my brain goes.
Speaker 4 (17:40):
The amount of people that you know.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Well all of us. We live in southeast Texas.
Speaker 4 (17:46):
Yeah, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Okay, welcome back. This is Dana Simmons and I have
been visiting with Ryder Lanyon. He is the consumer relationship
managing banker over at First Financial Bank, and we have
been talking helocks. But you know, writer, you do a
lot more than helocks, and we talked about that the
helocks are the most active things for you guys. Right now,
what would you say is the next busiest loan product
(18:11):
that you work with?
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Just just for me in my position, your next busiest
loan products is just going to be your you know,
your auto financing, just because everybody drives one, right we
pretty much all finance them for the most part. So
that's definitely my next busiest thing. But if I had
to highlight something, Dana, it would just be the fact
that we're one stop shop bank. You know, we want
we want your business, we want to be able to
(18:33):
help you, and I just want to highlight the fact
that if you have any questions, you know, if you're
getting ready to buy, you're getting ready to build, you
just want to sit and talk you know, credit, credit repair, building,
your credit, just finance in general. You know, I'd love
to be to help you out. Once again. I'm at
the Mid County location and I do everything consumer, so
from your first credit card to your business credit card,
(18:53):
to personal line of credits, helocks, auto loans, to do
it all and I'd love to help you.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Well. One of the things I do love is that
you can walk into the bank and sit and talk
to you.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
A human, a human human who's.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Willing to just have conversation with you and be able
to educate you. That's one of the things about First
Financial that is just so impressive to me is, uh,
the people are people from Southeast Texas. They connect with
you and they want to help you get better. For
me personally, it's they tell me what I need to
(19:28):
do to get better. If it's a if it's a
loan that they have right now, and and I'm saying, hey,
can can I get this any cheaper? And they look
at it and they're like, you know, really, here are
all your options. That's what I love. Here are all
your options. And that's what you guys have more than
anyone else that I know is options.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
Yeah. Well, I've had a few people lately, you know,
to tell me that, you know, they really valued my
insight on some things, and it really made me feel
good because sometimes you know, we're all busy, right, you know,
you come in and somebody applies for a loan and
maybe they don't quite qualify for it. But I hate
to sit here and you tell somebody know without giving
them a plan to improve, you know, especially your younger
folk who just don't have credit or something like that.
(20:07):
I go out of my way to say, hey, you
need to do X, Y and z in this timeframe
and then we can get it done for you. So
to actually be here for a little bit now and
have some of those people come back and be able
to get you know, what they need, it's super gratifying
for me.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Love that. And you talk about them not having credit.
One of the things that we've talked about on the
show before is as a parent, getting your child in
high school on a credit card, absolutely and the benefit
for that and how that does begin to build their credit.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
For it absolutely builds their credit. Another popular thing I've
been doing here lately, kind of similar to what we're
talking about. I think you know, when rates go down,
people just get excited. You got spring and summer common
rates are kind of drop, and everybody's just getting excited.
And there are some people that are knowledgeable that understand
they might not be in the position they need to be.
So you've got secured loan options and secured credit card
(21:01):
options where essentially you can just do it cast secured
or secure it with a vehicle. But it's just a
very cheap option because the interest rates are going to
be super low on anything that's going to be cash
or deposit secured. So that's another great option.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
So what I'm hearing is, come sit down a visit
with you, Come see me, Let give you all of
the information, and let you say, here are your options,
and here's why.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
Yep, let's let's have a chat. I'm easy to find.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Yeah, so let's tell everyone how would they find you,
writer if they wanted to chat with you?
Speaker 2 (21:29):
So I'm everywhere. I'm on Facebook. Of course you'll be
able to look up the Mid County location, pull my
number there, and like I said, I'm on Facebook at
Riderlan and I'm not hard to find.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
Yeah, Well, and Writer, that's a pretty easy name to remember.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
That's that's that's easy, right. Yeah, my mom's a little
bit upset ever since Paul Paul Patrol came out with
Spider as the main character.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
I bet your kids love that though. Oh yeah, oh yeah. Well,
it has been a pleasure re having you on the show, Writer,
and I want to say how much y'all love the
fact that you came back, that you went away to
college and then came back to Southeast Texas to be
a part of our community, racier family here and what
a gift that is. So if you have any questions
(22:10):
and you can't find Writer, call my office. I can
tell you how to get a hold of him. I
have his information. So thank you. Writer. Also with us
today Robert Curry. Robert you are with Innovating heating, cooling,
and plumbing. So glad you're here. What a great time
to have you.
Speaker 4 (22:24):
Well great, thank you for having me this morning. If
the weather outside is warming up, I know, birds or chirping,
I know skies are blue.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
What a time I know it. And we were talking
about the fact that you know, easters this weekend, but
it's a little warm right now, it really is. Yeah,
Now we're going to cool off next week. But I
would say that making sure your AC is tuned up
and all of that is really important. But before we
talk about that, I'd love for people to just know
who you are, So tell us about you well.
Speaker 4 (22:52):
Thank you, Thank you. Dan. I'm originally from Bridge City, Texas,
so I've been here largely my whole life. I was
calculating on the way over here, how long I've been
doing what I've been doing, and we are at thirty
eight years this year. I've been involved in heating and
air conditioning business for that many years. We've started our
business after Hurricane Ike, and so we've been in business
(23:14):
for eighteen years this year, if you can believe it's
been that long since we had Hurricane Ike. And I
really cut my teeth here in Beaumont working for a
local company, and I was heavily involved in indoor quality.
If you remember the mold crisis we had in the
early two thousands, I was knee deep in into our
air quality at that point and that has just kind
(23:35):
of ushered along a career. And right now we have
a team of thirty strong and we are growing by
the day.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
So exciting. And so when you listen to your name.
It's innovative heating, cooling, and plumbing.
Speaker 4 (23:48):
So you do it all, Yes, yes, we really do.
We started the plumbing division several years back, and that
has just added another layer of ways we're able to
protect people's health, their safety inside their homes and inner businesses.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
Well, and I know that you started out in the
Orange area, right, that's correct. But you have an office
simple Mint. We do, and so you've even though you
were taking calls all throughout Southeast Texas, you officially opened
up a local Momont office as well.
Speaker 4 (24:18):
We really did. We we found that there's there's such
a tremendous need for quality services.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (24:23):
There there's there's very few companies that are able to
have the manpower at this point to be able to
provide the quality services that we all want to provide.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (24:31):
But we've just been able to attract and retain some
some really key employees. We've made some uh, very key
hires that have allowed us to expand, uh when when
many other companies are in regression mode, we are just
really surging right now.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
That's wonderful. And it's kind of a family business too, right.
Speaker 4 (24:49):
It really is. My wife, Mindy and I own this business.
Uh again, we are local folks. We've been here better
part of our lives. She grew up in Bridge City
as well, and so we kind of got together. She
was in real estate business for many years, and so
it's just been kind of a natural progression. That's just
our natural market.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
Yeah. Well, when we come back, we're going to talk
a little bit about what should you be doing if
you need to be maintaining your HVAC system. I mean,
what are some key tips that everyone should know on
what to do on maintenance of that HVAC system, Because,
let me say, in Southeast Texas, that system's pretty important.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
This system is vital this time of year.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
I'm telling you. So when we come back, we're going
to talk about that. Don't go away. This is the
Dana Simmons Show. Welcome back. This is Dana Simmons. I
am joined by Robert Curry. He is with Innovative Heating,
Cooling and Plumbing. And Robert we were just talking about
the fact that it is starting to warm up outside
(25:49):
and so that AC system is becoming more and more
important every day.
Speaker 4 (25:54):
Every single day. Walked out this morning and it was
so humid when I walked outside. It's almost the time
of a year where the mosquitoes can almost hang in
the air and not even have to flap their wings.
It's so bad out there. But that is that is
the main time of the year when we see the
most problems occur with air conditioning systems. Is one is
really really humid outside. A good air conditioning system will
(26:15):
drain a gallon of water an hour per ton. That
means in a time it takes you to go to
the store and buy some groceries, you could come back
you could have a five gallon bucket of water on
your floor. So it's a tremendous amount of water. And
that's one of the first things I would suggest if
we are looking at a system to inspect will be
the drain system on an air conditioner. It is just
(26:35):
vital that these things drain properly.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
Well, and it's so easy for them to get clogged.
Speaker 4 (26:40):
Absolutely you have, you know the inside of an air
conditioning system. A lot of folks don't realize this. It's
a breeding ground. The conditions inside of the unit. When
it's running, it's dark, it's one hundred percent humidity, so
it's really it's literally raining inside your air conditioning system
and we apply a little dirt to it. We have
the microbes that are already in the air. It is
(27:00):
a perfect breeding ground if you wanted to create an
area to grow mushrooms or something like that inside your
air conditioning system, is it. Yeah, And so it's so
vital that these things are checked and maintained.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
So how do we do that? What does that look like.
Speaker 4 (27:13):
They we come out, take the doors off the unit
on the inside, actually shut the system down, do a
visual inspection first to see how much debris and how
much growth we have inside the system. Those can be
treated with biosides that can be put in that are
that are approved to put inside your air conditioning system.
A good cleaning would be one of the first things.
(27:35):
Clear the drain lines. Obviously. We want to get every
bit of growth outside of out of the drain line
that we can because it's going to come back. It's
just it's a it's a recurring thing. It's kind of
like dishes in the sink. They just kind of automatically
reappear every time you you watch them. You've got some
more to do the same with your air conditioning system.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
So how often do you recommend that you service your
unit in this way.
Speaker 4 (27:59):
In a lot of environments you can get away with
one time a year, but in Southeast Texas because we
never know from day to day, from winter, summer, spring,
or fall whether it's going to be hot or humid,
but it's going to be one of the two. Even
through a lot of the Christmas seasons we had an
off season winter this year or relatively mild winter. We
only had a couple of cold snaps, but more often
(28:22):
than not we're running the air conditioning system. So for
Southeast Texas, I would recommend twice a year to have
these systems serviced.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Okay, and so do you have some sort of maintenance
agreement that you can do with clients? Tell me what
that looks like at your company.
Speaker 4 (28:36):
Absolutely, we have a couple of different maintenance agreements. They
start off about sixteen dollars a month. You can have
someone come out once or twice a year, depending on
your preference level. The first thing it gets done to
the inside and outside units are cleaned with an air
conditioning system. Dirt and debris or the number one enemy
for a number of reasons, they reduce our capacity of
(28:57):
a system. So as an example, a four ton unit
is no longer a four ton operating at a four
ton capacity. It's operating something less than that. But while
a system is doing that, it's running longer, and so
it's running your utility builds up, so we have a
loss of efficiency and we have a loss of capacity
of a system. So it's vital to keep these things
as clean as possible so that they can transfer heat properly.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
So the cleaning is one way to help efficiency. Do
you have any other tips for us on efficiencies with
our AC units.
Speaker 4 (29:31):
A lot of things are because we were in a
home system. If you think about the inside of a
house as a complete system, there are things you can
do inside of a house. Number one, insulation levels are
always something that we want to look at. Attic ventilation
is another huge key component. We've been putting ridge vents
on homes for years and that probably from an air
(29:53):
conditioning and from an efficiency standpoint, is the last thing
that we should have, but there are so many homes
that have them. Those are things that can be looked
at as well during an evaluation. This is something we
can bring up and and have a discussion about. Is
the ventilation on a house as well. It's so so important.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
So when you have when someone has you come out
and take a look at their system to look at
maintaining it. You're also going to go through and look
at the efficiencies and give them tips on things that
they can do to make it more efficient. Is that
part of what you do?
Speaker 4 (30:24):
Absolutely absolutely well. We can make recommendations on different types
of filters. You know, there's there's so many various filters
out there that you can use. We'll give you recommendations
to tips on there. Again, at a instulation is one
of the one of the big things we look at
the ventilation of the home, the type of windows. Even
from an endowear quality perspective, if we have folks in
(30:44):
at homes with allergies, we can make recommendations to them
as far as that goes to really help out a
lot O.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
Wow. Yeah, well in Southeast Texas, that's a big deal.
Speaker 4 (30:52):
It's a huge deal. It's almost to the point where
when when I walk into a home, I ask who
and a home has allergies? Because someone always does. Yeah,
and some are are very mild. And as example, we
had a customer a couple of weeks ago that her
daughter had to put drops under her tongue and hold
it for five minutes to This was just her allergy medicine,
(31:16):
and it was just just blown away and how bad
it was. And so we try and make recommendations for
those type things as well to help ease it. I
don't know that there's a magic bullet that will just
fix everything, but if you can add three or four
things that makes someone's life a little bit better and
a little more comfortable for them, that's what it's all about.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
Yeah. Absolutely, So, now do you have a recommendation when
we talk about efficiency? You know, most of us go
to work during the day and we turn our ac
up a little and when we come home at night,
we turn it way down. So what do you recommend
as far as efficiency on the things we do to
(31:54):
maintain our units throughout the day and night.
Speaker 4 (31:57):
That is the question of the day. Yeah, it depends
so much. Anymore. We have systems that are variable speed systems.
And let me back up just a second on that.
When we sign as a home for air conditioning in
Southeast Texas, we size for a high outside temperature and
we use ninety seven internally with innovative is what we
use and we signed for seventy three degrees inside, and
(32:18):
this tells us how much air we need to put
in each room of the house. Takes into account the windows,
the doors, the people in the house. Everything is included
in this. And it depends on the efficiency of the system,
because not every day is ninety seven. And so if
we need four tons of cooling in the middle of summer,
we don't need four tons of cooling at night, and
(32:39):
let's say March or April, we need something less than that.
So variable speed systems operate much differently than a traditional
air conditioning system, but there are several benefits to those
type systems. They remove more humidity. We actually see folks
raising the temperature on their thermostatus is no longer at
seventy two seventy three, now it's seventy four to seventy five. See.
(33:00):
Oftentimes these systems run all the time. We put really
good filters with them, and now we're cleaning the air
from an into our air quality standpoint, making it much better.
A system like this will run forty to fifty minutes
out of the hour, and some folks may crench at that,
but we want a system that runs as much as
(33:20):
it can, we just don't want to pay a huge
light bill for it. And so these type systems run
all the time. And another benefit of that is they
tend to hide hotter cold spots. So if we have
rooms that are relatively warm or things like that, the
variable speed systems really go a long way towards helping that.
So to answer your question, a system that is a
variable system, it's best if we can just set it
(33:42):
at a temperature and just leave it, let it run
back to our four ton unit example from earlier. These
systems will turn down and use the power of a
halftn or a three quarter ton air condisuer to cool
and heat your entire home and only step up and
use the hour it's needed when it's warm outside.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
Yep. Well, the thing that you guys do is you
come out and give an assessment, and you can do that.
One of the things that we were talking about before
you came here is that you were working on a
new construction. Yes, so you not only install on a
home already existing, but you also work with those people
who are building a brand new home.
Speaker 4 (34:22):
Absolutely, we work in the commercial environment as well as
its well as industrial. Okay, so we have clients that
are industrial settings, commercial settings, residential settings. If we really
do it all.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
Yeah. So if you have an AC system, you got it.
You can cover it for them.
Speaker 4 (34:38):
Absolutely, We'll get you taken care of. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
Now the plumbing side, have you added that recently or
how long have you had the plumbing side with your business?
Speaker 4 (34:47):
Our business has had a plumbing side for three years now.
This is becoming a national trend with service companies. We're
getting into the multi, multi faceted approaches to to the
home because the home is again back to is a
complete system. The plumbing is part of the home system
and it is vital for the health and safety. One
(35:09):
of the biggest issues we're seeing here. We spent some
time talking about air quality, water quality. We have a
lot of customers we see and we see them all
over Facebook with the with the brown water coming out
of the faucets, and what we oftentimes miss on that
is that we're brushing our teeth with this water, we're
bathing in this water and our and our skin is
(35:31):
the largest organ in our body, so our skin is
absorbing all of this. And then they try and purify
the water by putting chlorine in it, and if you
will test if you have just a simple swimming pool
test kit, we will. We oftentimes find municipal water has
as much or more chlorine in it than a swimming
pool does. It's just amazing and that doesn't do much
(35:53):
for our hair as minds falling out, you can tell.
But also our skin it ages is quicker.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
Yeah, so I can blame the chlorine on this gray.
Speaker 4 (36:04):
You can blame it on the gray.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
Absolutely, I'll blame on the gray. So when but that's
a separate call. So if someone wants you to come
out and look at the plumbing side, that's a separate division.
Speaker 4 (36:15):
Yes, we actually have dedicated plumbers. We have a master
plumber on staff with us has many many years of
experience as well, and so we really try and be
that one stop shop to take care of everything from
a water heater to water filtration, water quality, to drains
and sewers.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
So what kind of water filtration do you have at
your house?
Speaker 4 (36:35):
I have what is called a Halo five. This is
a five stage filtration system. Removes all the chlorine, all
the sediments, removes the rust and the iron. And so
it's kind of comical when we see the folks in
our neighborhood posting pictures of dirty brown water. Ours is
nice and clean.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
Yeah, it's so nice. Well, it has been such a
pleasure to have you with us, Robert. If someone has
questions or needs more information about either heating, cooling plumbing,
how would they get in touch with you? Guys?
Speaker 4 (37:04):
Thank you do several different things. Can you can book
a call online at trust Innovative dot com. They can
actually schedule an appointment there. They can call our office
at four O nine eight eight three nine six one
six is another great way. They can also just go
to our website at trust Innovative dot com and there
will be a contact link there as well.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
And I'm sure you have social pages as well.
Speaker 4 (37:28):
We have social pages everywhere, had LinkedIn Facebook, Instagram, We're
all over the place.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
Yeah, so they would find that by innovative heating and cooling.
Speaker 4 (37:37):
Yes, yes, innovative heating cooling, and you'll you will find
us and pull us up perfect.
Speaker 1 (37:42):
Well. I have enjoyed having you on the show. You've
educated us a lot on our heating and cooling and information,
so we appreciate that. I hope all of you out
there are having a wonderful weekend with your family, and
I hope that you have plans to spend time somewhere
to worship for this Easter Resurrection Sunday. I want to
(38:03):
wish you all a happy Easter and I hope you
have a great week. This is The Danis Simmons Show.
Well, Hello Southeast Texas, Welcome to the Dana Simmons Show.
We are excited to have you join us on this
wonderful Saturday. Hope you are getting to enjoy some great
family time for Easter and planning a beautiful Easter celebration tomorrow.
I know my family is. We're having the kids all over,
going to celebrate with a service Saturday night with one
(00:21):
set and then another set tomorrow morning. So hope you
have your plans made and have a place to worship
on this beautiful weekend with me. Today I have Writer
lonyon and he is with First Financial Bank and he
is going to give us a little insight on what's
going on on the consumer side of lending here in
(00:42):
just a minute, and I'm going to introduce you to him.
You guys haven't met him yet, so super excited for
you to get to meet Writer. But I wanted to
give you a little update on what's going on in
the market. You know, with the interest rate shift, it
seems like we have had a pretty good pickup this
past week the market. I have actually had multiple offers
(01:03):
on some properties and that has not happened in a
little bit. So we are seeing bioactivity increase, and so
if you are thinking is now the right time to
either buy or to sell, we would love the opportunity
to sit down and visit with you and evaluate your
goals and if if it is right for you, so
we'd love to chat. You can give my office a
(01:24):
call at four oh nine eight six six eight three
two six, or you can always go onto my website
at Dana Simmons real estate dot com. That's Dayna Simmons
real estate dot com. It even has a little tool
on there that can give you an estimator on your
properties value. Now, of course that's AI generated and it's
(01:47):
not going to be as good as if Katie or
I come out and give you an idea of the market,
because we can look at all things and be able
to evaluate your your value to a more precise number.
But if you want to go in there and just
figure it out and look at it and enjoy playing
with the tool, you're welcome to do that. So don't
(02:07):
hesitate to give us a call. You know, for us,
it doesn't cost you anything for us to either come
out and give you a market analysis or just to
sit down and talk through what are your goals? If
you're looking to buy, what do you need to know
to get that ball rolling? We love to educate. We
have a buyer form that we like me I mean
a buyer consultation that we go through, and then we
(02:27):
have a whole little magazine that goes through the process
that we created just for you. So give us a call,
let us help you. So now I'm to introduce you
to Writer. Now, Writer, you have been with First Financial
Bank for just a year, just a year. I knew
it was about that time, So tell everyone a little
bit about you. Writer.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Sure, well to start, thanks for having me. Very excited
to be here. Yeah, I've been with First Financial Bank
for about a year. I'm at the Mid County location
and I've had an absolute ball. I've really loved it.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
You guys have a great grid group over there. I
mean so much fun.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Our group is is wonderful. I mean that leads me
to my next one. I'm from kots born and raised,
went to school in Kot's. Still living Coots, so I'm
making a little bit of a commute every single day.
You know, I got to deal with Lumberton and on
my traffic, but I wouldn't trade that team over there
for anything. I've really loved it. But a little bit
about me, and like.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
I said, le June is there.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Market president, commercial lander I've got of course, and the
mortgage size on the mortgage side.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Yeah, I mean that's a dream team.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
It really is. It really is. And you know, they
keep me busy just with their referrals and their trickle
down business. So I've I've learned a lot and just
been super busy just from from dealing with them. So
it's been great. But background on me, played a lot
of sports growing up. That's what I did in college.
I always say that's kind of what got me through
school is I played baseball. So so baseball is your sport,
(03:50):
baseball is my sport. I played a little bit of
football in high school, but baseball was always my focus.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
So what position.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
I was a pitcher. I did a little a little
bit of everything high school and in college I was
a pitcher. So I graduated from Laturno University in twenty
nineteen and got into finance and lending. Right after. I
moved around a little bit. I lived in Lake Jackson
for a little while, me and my wife moved to Lufkin.
We stayed there for almost four years. I'm a big fisherman,
outdoors guy, so it works. Coots, you gotta be right,
(04:20):
It's exactly right. You don't have much else going on
over there. But yeah, we lived at the lake for
a few years and loved it, and then we were
We found out we were pregnant last December, so we
decided baby number two. We decided, well, we better get
on home. So I've got a little girl named Treit.
She is a little bit older than two and a
half years old, and the baby is around seven months,
(04:41):
so they're about two years apart Trayton River. So I
haven't slept a lot, but you guys, hall fun We
stay busy. My wife actually kind of kind of funny
because you know, she's from Deer Park. She's from a
little bit bigger town. She played sports as well. I
played softball, and she is now the softball coach and
she teaches at Koon's. Wow, that's exciting circle moment.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
I'm telling yeah, I love that. And so your family
still lives in Koon, So that's so nice to have
family close by.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Absolutely so. My older brother, it's funny, his two kids
are almost the exact same age as my two so
they are loving. He's got a little girl that's three
and his little boys I believe three days apart from mine. Wow,
so pretty crazy.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
So that's My grandkids are the same way. And there's
just nothing better. You know. My two granddaughters are four
months apart, and then my grandson. Then they're ones just
turned five, the other ones four and a half, and
then the baby is two. And just like for this weekend,
you know, we all get to hang out together and
(05:44):
enjoy the holiday together, and so there's nothing better than that.
But we're together a lot, Like Monday night we were
together at for dinner. And while a lot of families
I know have to live apart, what a gift it
is to have.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
It's definitely a blessing.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
I know.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
At one point my mom was like, all right, like
I'm not old, but like I'm old enough to be
a grandparent. And then sure enough, in two years she
went from from zero grand babies to four really really quick.
So now she's like, all right, we can we can
slow down a little bit. No, but it definitely is
a blessing. They're so close in age unless you're around them,
and they all didn't nap on the same day, then
you start questioning your life decisions. But besides that, we
(06:20):
have a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
That's so funny. I know exactly what you're talking. Yes,
those no nap days can create quite a bit of chaos.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
And you know, the grandparents love the no nap days.
They just play, play, play and then go all right,
there you go.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
I know, why do we need a nap? Yeah, you
can deal with them when you get home. And then
it smelt down pathtime, right then, don't want to even
go to bed.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
It's exactly right.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Yeah, well, I'll tell you. In our world, life revolves
around the naps and the schedules. So my kids don't
let me get past that.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
There you go. They hold you to it. Huh. I
haven't figured out that far.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Yeah, yeah, well they've trained me. Well, I think you
so well, that's so exciting. Well, I love the fact
that you're from Southeast Texas. You did get your education
outside and then came back to Southeast Texas. For me,
I think that's one of the most incredible things about
our area is when someone can go away and go yeah,
(07:14):
but you know about what we have here is so good,
right for sure?
Speaker 2 (07:18):
And it really is, and especially because you know, my
sister has a joke. You know, my sister's from Cooent,
same deal, but she went to Lamar. Well, being right
there at Lamar, she's super close to Mid County, you know,
Port Arthur, porten Ah saw that and she always comes
home and she told mom one day, she was like,
why didn't you tell me that this place exists? And
it really is true? You know, like that Mid County
(07:38):
area is very similar to you know your Balu Mit, Lumbington,
Coach r Harden County area. It's just so tight knit,
like Southeast Texas is a super tight knit place. And
it really took me kind of moving and being away
for a couple of years to realize that, like this
community really is awesome.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Yeah, we think when we're in that twenties, we think
the brass is greener somewhere else right exactly, and then
we go there and realize it's astro turf right, and
being home is really nice. They're really nice things. Well,
you know, I grew up in Mid County, graduated in
Neterland High School, so very familiar with that Mid County area.
And I'm telling you we have such great pockets. We've
(08:13):
got that Mid County area that's a great little type pocket.
We've got that Orange County area that's a great little pocket,
and then Harden County and while in Jefferson County. Here
in Beaumont, we all kind of have our little pockets,
but we also connect so well with each other. And
I just love the way our community works together even
(08:34):
though we have individual little pockets.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Yeah, for sure, and we're all proud. We're very proud
folk and each one of the pockets. So sometimes I
am impressed by the fact that we can, you know,
still work together, and a lot of the communities do
stuff together, so it's really awesome.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Well, when we come back, we're going to have Writer
talk a little bit about what he does at First
Financial Bank, and I hope that this is something that
will help you, so don't go away. This is the
Dana Simmons Show. Well back. This is Dana Simmons. I
am joined by writer Lawnjon and he is with First
Financial Bank and Writer, let's talk a little bit about
(09:08):
exactly what do you do at First Financial Sure.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
So I'm a consumer relationship man manager excuse me. I
handle everything from you know, your first small secured credit card,
all the way up to your mortgages, home equity loans
of course everything in between, so your auto loans, you know,
personal unsecured loans, toy loans, boat ATV, so, just a
little bit of everything on the consumer side.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
So anything someone could want in a loan other than
a mortgage, which you could refer that to or that,
but on any other really type of loan, you guys
can handle that. What are you seeing most right now?
Speaker 2 (09:45):
So and just to preface that, so I actually we
do have some in house mortgage products as well, okay,
you know, so we can do some things that are
a little bit more outside of the box that you
can always do on the you know, on the secondary
mortgage side. So we did, We definitely do have some
mortgage products. We have some some cool special products and
I'll get into those with you, you know more on
(10:07):
a separate occasion. But do a little bit of everything.
And of course we have our let so I'm spoiled
to have our let you know, as the secondary side
over there on on our mortgage team. But you know what,
what it seems like one of my favorite products and
what I've spent most of my time on here lately
is our our home equities and our home equity line
of credits. And I think that's just a credit to
(10:29):
the area I'm in and just the team I have
around me. So we have a real strong commercial presence
as well as the consumer presence. So we're over there
in industry, so we have a lot of small and
large businesses as well. And I think a helock is
a relatively new product. It's been around for a little bit,
but it seems like not a lot of people understand it.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
But so specify what is a helock for those who
don't know.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Sure, So, helock is a home equity line of credit.
It's similar to just a straight home equity loan, but
it's a revolving line of credit. So the way it
works is it has the potential to be a twenty
year loan, but it's got a five year interest only
draw period, is what we would call it. So the
way I like to explain it is think of a
big credit card in the sense that you have a
line of credit approved based on the equity of your home.
(11:16):
You have a five year period where you're only required
to make the interest only payments. And where that's going
to benefit somebody is if they are getting into something
that they don't exactly know the cost up front. So
sure as you can imagine your spec home builders, your
construction loan guys, anybody that has any kind of side
business or a main business that has paid down their
home to where they have the equity in it. It's
(11:36):
a fantastic tool because you're getting essentially a lot of
money from one and two. It's at a cheaper rate,
it's similar to a mortgage rate, and you can take
a large lump sum, put it in some kind of investments,
and then pay it all down or just make interest
only payments. Now, at the end of that five year period,
you have the option to just turn it out into
a fifteen year fully admortized loan similar to just a
(11:57):
straight fixed in home equity, or if you still have
some credit available, or if you don't use it, or
if you use it and pay it down, you can
just refinance it in that five year revolving term.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
So that uh, the situation on that is anyone who
is going to need some sort of loan for whatever
they're trying to do, whether it be a small business
or some sort of endeavor, and instead of getting a
separate loan a commercial loan, they have equity in their
home that they live in, and you're able to pull
(12:29):
that equity out for interest only.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
That's exactly right. So I mean we can do you know,
on a first lean, we can do eighty percent of
the homes value. So I mean, like I said, it's
it's a quick way to get access to you know,
to a large sum of funds and have a relatively
low payment. So if it's a situation and it doesn't
have to be just for business endeavors as well, if
you know, if you want to build your dream shop
(12:53):
or if you want to build your pool and you're
just not real sure what that's going to look like,
maybe you do have some cash on the side that
you would like to use, pull out your max value
only use what you have to and then either pay
the loan down, pay the loan off, or just you know,
make it to where it's an affordable payment and then
you can just turn it out on that fifteen yearly And.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
If you don't pull on it, you don't pay anything.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
You don't pull on it, you don't pay anything. So
I think that's where you know, it scares a lot
of people because one of the most common questions I
get and I just have to laugh every single time,
is they go, what is the downside to this? Yeah,
And I'm like, well, there's I mean, you have to
pay it back. But besides that, you know, there's really
just not a lot of downsides. Now, there are fees
associated with it once you get into you know, we
have tiers, so two hundred and fifty thousand, and the
(13:34):
first tier is the first tier where there's a fee
associated with it, but it's a seven hundred and ninety
five dollars fee. So a lot of times that's going
to be your one percent origination fees and all that.
So besides just the you know, the small closing costs
associated with it, it's cheap on the fee side, and you're only,
as you said, you're only paying on what you draw.
There's no cost associated with having the line open.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Right. Well, I have a client who just recently had
the opportunity for into a business that came up, and
that was exactly what they ended up doing, was just
taking out some of the equity from their house and
being able to utilize that into this investment. Now, the
other side of that, you know, you talked about that
(14:16):
you have some things on the mortgage side that are
a little bit similar. Is that you also have that
for if someone is selling a home and then going
to buy a home, but they don't want to have
to sell to buy because maybe the seller on the
house or trying to buy won't accept a contingency. So
that's another way to use this helock.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Right right, that's exactly right. And I'm sure you could
probably tell me or tell the folks listen better than
I could, But it seemed like January and February the
trend was these content these helocks to basically get out
of a contingency. I guess people saw them, you know,
the rate drops and said, you know, hey, I want
to do this, but they weren't really planning on it,
or maybe a home came up and they just had
(14:57):
no plan to sell. So, you know, a lot of times,
I think I had just several different situations. But some
people had some cash set aside to where they could
you know, pull the equity on their home and then
include that with the cash that they had sit inside
and just essentially pay for the home. That way, they
could sell their home at their own pace and not
you know, not have to make it based on a contingency,
(15:17):
and that's January February.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
That was the theme, and that is the key that
they can sell their home at their own pace. And
the benefit to that as well is getting the house prepared.
One of the clients that I had that did this,
she had been at her home for twenty five years
and it was full of stuff, and trying to prep
it to sell and to buy at the same time
(15:41):
was just overwhelming to her. And so for her, she's like,
I'd rather just get the money out of my house,
go ahead and buy the new one, and then get
the other one ready, get out what i want, have
an estate, sell for what I'm not going to bring
with me, and be able to take my time and
then put my house on the market. And for her
(16:01):
that has been an ideal situation on working through the
cell and the buy, because it can be stressful for
someone who has a house full of stuff. That's hard
to stage.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Right for sure, and too you know, generally the home
you live in once you've been there for a little while,
it's never perfect. So just just you want to get
the max value you can out of your sale. So
just to be able to make those little improvements. And
if you're like me and you have two kids, you
never realize how many Paul Patrol toys you actually have
until you try to move out. Yeah, so a little
bit of time definitely doesn't hurt.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
It absolutely doesn't. Well, when we come back, we're going
to visit with writer about a couple of other options
that he has to offer you. So don't go away.
This is the Dana Simmons Show for you.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
And then I want you to I'm going to introduce you,
and then I want you to tell you tell a
little bit about you.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
Okay, how long you've been in Southeast Texas, Just okay,
a little about you.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
Then we'll start talking about in the final segment. You've
got to close to the mine.
Speaker 4 (17:01):
Okay, yeah, like that.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
You gotta feel like you're eating it almost. Okay, you're
ready for me? Okay, Okay, we're rolling and Robert Curry. Yes,
And the name of your company is Air.
Speaker 4 (17:16):
Solutions Innovative Heating, Cooligan Plumbing Innovative.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Sorry, that's what I'm asking. That's okay, innovative.
Speaker 4 (17:24):
Heating cooling and plumbing heating cooling. It is a mouthful.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Yeah, yeah, I have to write it all down even
though I know people, I still because in the middle
of heaven in this my brain goes.
Speaker 4 (17:40):
The amount of people that you know.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Well all of us. We live in southeast Texas.
Speaker 4 (17:46):
Yeah, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Okay, welcome back. This is Dana Simmons and I have
been visiting with Ryder Lanyon. He is the consumer relationship
managing banker over at First Financial Bank, and we have
been talking helocks. But you know, writer, you do a
lot more than helocks, and we talked about that the
helocks are the most active things for you guys. Right now,
what would you say is the next busiest loan product
(18:11):
that you work with?
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Just just for me in my position, your next busiest
loan products is just going to be your you know,
your auto financing, just because everybody drives one, right we
pretty much all finance them for the most part. So
that's definitely my next busiest thing. But if I had
to highlight something, Dana, it would just be the fact
that we're one stop shop bank. You know, we want
we want your business, we want to be able to
(18:33):
help you, and I just want to highlight the fact
that if you have any questions, you know, if you're
getting ready to buy, you're getting ready to build, you
just want to sit and talk you know, credit, credit repair, building,
your credit, just finance in general. You know, I'd love
to be to help you out. Once again. I'm at
the Mid County location and I do everything consumer, so
from your first credit card to your business credit card,
(18:53):
to personal line of credits, helocks, auto loans, to do
it all and I'd love to help you.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Well. One of the things I do love is that
you can walk into the bank and sit and talk
to you.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
A human, a human human who's.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Willing to just have conversation with you and be able
to educate you. That's one of the things about First
Financial that is just so impressive to me is, uh,
the people are people from Southeast Texas. They connect with
you and they want to help you get better. For
me personally, it's they tell me what I need to
(19:28):
do to get better. If it's a if it's a
loan that they have right now, and and I'm saying, hey,
can can I get this any cheaper? And they look
at it and they're like, you know, really, here are
all your options. That's what I love. Here are all
your options. And that's what you guys have more than
anyone else that I know is options.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
Yeah. Well, I've had a few people lately, you know,
to tell me that, you know, they really valued my
insight on some things, and it really made me feel
good because sometimes you know, we're all busy, right, you know,
you come in and somebody applies for a loan and
maybe they don't quite qualify for it. But I hate
to sit here and you tell somebody know without giving
them a plan to improve, you know, especially your younger
folk who just don't have credit or something like that.
(20:07):
I go out of my way to say, hey, you
need to do X, Y and z in this timeframe
and then we can get it done for you. So
to actually be here for a little bit now and
have some of those people come back and be able
to get you know, what they need, it's super gratifying
for me.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Love that. And you talk about them not having credit.
One of the things that we've talked about on the
show before is as a parent, getting your child in
high school on a credit card, absolutely and the benefit
for that and how that does begin to build their credit.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
For it absolutely builds their credit. Another popular thing I've
been doing here lately, kind of similar to what we're
talking about. I think you know, when rates go down,
people just get excited. You got spring and summer common
rates are kind of drop, and everybody's just getting excited.
And there are some people that are knowledgeable that understand
they might not be in the position they need to be.
So you've got secured loan options and secured credit card
(21:01):
options where essentially you can just do it cast secured
or secure it with a vehicle. But it's just a
very cheap option because the interest rates are going to
be super low on anything that's going to be cash
or deposit secured. So that's another great option.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
So what I'm hearing is, come sit down a visit
with you, Come see me, Let give you all of
the information, and let you say, here are your options,
and here's why.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
Yep, let's let's have a chat. I'm easy to find.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Yeah, so let's tell everyone how would they find you,
writer if they wanted to chat with you?
Speaker 2 (21:29):
So I'm everywhere. I'm on Facebook. Of course you'll be
able to look up the Mid County location, pull my
number there, and like I said, I'm on Facebook at
Riderlan and I'm not hard to find.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
Yeah, Well, and Writer, that's a pretty easy name to remember.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
That's that's that's easy, right. Yeah, my mom's a little
bit upset ever since Paul Paul Patrol came out with
Spider as the main character.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
I bet your kids love that though. Oh yeah, oh yeah. Well,
it has been a pleasure re having you on the show, Writer,
and I want to say how much y'all love the
fact that you came back, that you went away to
college and then came back to Southeast Texas to be
a part of our community, racier family here and what
a gift that is. So if you have any questions
(22:10):
and you can't find Writer, call my office. I can
tell you how to get a hold of him. I
have his information. So thank you. Writer. Also with us
today Robert Curry. Robert you are with Innovating heating, cooling,
and plumbing. So glad you're here. What a great time
to have you.
Speaker 4 (22:24):
Well great, thank you for having me this morning. If
the weather outside is warming up, I know, birds or chirping,
I know skies are blue.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
What a time I know it. And we were talking
about the fact that you know, easters this weekend, but
it's a little warm right now, it really is. Yeah,
Now we're going to cool off next week. But I
would say that making sure your AC is tuned up
and all of that is really important. But before we
talk about that, I'd love for people to just know
who you are, So tell us about you well.
Speaker 4 (22:52):
Thank you, Thank you. Dan. I'm originally from Bridge City, Texas,
so I've been here largely my whole life. I was
calculating on the way over here, how long I've been
doing what I've been doing, and we are at thirty
eight years this year. I've been involved in heating and
air conditioning business for that many years. We've started our
business after Hurricane Ike, and so we've been in business
(23:14):
for eighteen years this year, if you can believe it's
been that long since we had Hurricane Ike. And I
really cut my teeth here in Beaumont working for a
local company, and I was heavily involved in indoor quality.
If you remember the mold crisis we had in the
early two thousands, I was knee deep in into our
air quality at that point and that has just kind
(23:35):
of ushered along a career. And right now we have
a team of thirty strong and we are growing by
the day.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
So exciting. And so when you listen to your name.
It's innovative heating, cooling, and plumbing.
Speaker 4 (23:48):
So you do it all, Yes, yes, we really do.
We started the plumbing division several years back, and that
has just added another layer of ways we're able to
protect people's health, their safety inside their homes and inner businesses.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
Well, and I know that you started out in the
Orange area, right, that's correct. But you have an office
simple Mint. We do, and so you've even though you
were taking calls all throughout Southeast Texas, you officially opened
up a local Momont office as well.
Speaker 4 (24:18):
We really did. We we found that there's there's such
a tremendous need for quality services.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (24:23):
There there's there's very few companies that are able to
have the manpower at this point to be able to
provide the quality services that we all want to provide.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (24:31):
But we've just been able to attract and retain some
some really key employees. We've made some uh, very key
hires that have allowed us to expand, uh when when
many other companies are in regression mode, we are just
really surging right now.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
That's wonderful. And it's kind of a family business too, right.
Speaker 4 (24:49):
It really is. My wife, Mindy and I own this business.
Uh again, we are local folks. We've been here better
part of our lives. She grew up in Bridge City
as well, and so we kind of got together. She
was in real estate business for many years, and so
it's just been kind of a natural progression. That's just
our natural market.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
Yeah. Well, when we come back, we're going to talk
a little bit about what should you be doing if
you need to be maintaining your HVAC system. I mean,
what are some key tips that everyone should know on
what to do on maintenance of that HVAC system, Because,
let me say, in Southeast Texas, that system's pretty important.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
This system is vital this time of year.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
I'm telling you. So when we come back, we're going
to talk about that. Don't go away. This is the
Dana Simmons Show. Welcome back. This is Dana Simmons. I
am joined by Robert Curry. He is with Innovative Heating,
Cooling and Plumbing. And Robert we were just talking about
the fact that it is starting to warm up outside
(25:49):
and so that AC system is becoming more and more
important every day.
Speaker 4 (25:54):
Every single day. Walked out this morning and it was
so humid when I walked outside. It's almost the time
of a year where the mosquitoes can almost hang in
the air and not even have to flap their wings.
It's so bad out there. But that is that is
the main time of the year when we see the
most problems occur with air conditioning systems. Is one is
really really humid outside. A good air conditioning system will
(26:15):
drain a gallon of water an hour per ton. That
means in a time it takes you to go to
the store and buy some groceries, you could come back
you could have a five gallon bucket of water on
your floor. So it's a tremendous amount of water. And
that's one of the first things I would suggest if
we are looking at a system to inspect will be
the drain system on an air conditioner. It is just
(26:35):
vital that these things drain properly.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
Well, and it's so easy for them to get clogged.
Speaker 4 (26:40):
Absolutely you have, you know the inside of an air
conditioning system. A lot of folks don't realize this. It's
a breeding ground. The conditions inside of the unit. When
it's running, it's dark, it's one hundred percent humidity, so
it's really it's literally raining inside your air conditioning system
and we apply a little dirt to it. We have
the microbes that are already in the air. It is
(27:00):
a perfect breeding ground if you wanted to create an
area to grow mushrooms or something like that inside your
air conditioning system, is it. Yeah, And so it's so
vital that these things are checked and maintained.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
So how do we do that? What does that look like.
Speaker 4 (27:13):
They we come out, take the doors off the unit
on the inside, actually shut the system down, do a
visual inspection first to see how much debris and how
much growth we have inside the system. Those can be
treated with biosides that can be put in that are
that are approved to put inside your air conditioning system.
A good cleaning would be one of the first things.
(27:35):
Clear the drain lines. Obviously. We want to get every
bit of growth outside of out of the drain line
that we can because it's going to come back. It's
just it's a it's a recurring thing. It's kind of
like dishes in the sink. They just kind of automatically
reappear every time you you watch them. You've got some
more to do the same with your air conditioning system.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
So how often do you recommend that you service your
unit in this way.
Speaker 4 (27:59):
In a lot of environments you can get away with
one time a year, but in Southeast Texas because we
never know from day to day, from winter, summer, spring,
or fall whether it's going to be hot or humid,
but it's going to be one of the two. Even
through a lot of the Christmas seasons we had an
off season winter this year or relatively mild winter. We
only had a couple of cold snaps, but more often
(28:22):
than not we're running the air conditioning system. So for
Southeast Texas, I would recommend twice a year to have
these systems serviced.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Okay, and so do you have some sort of maintenance
agreement that you can do with clients? Tell me what
that looks like at your company.
Speaker 4 (28:36):
Absolutely, we have a couple of different maintenance agreements. They
start off about sixteen dollars a month. You can have
someone come out once or twice a year, depending on
your preference level. The first thing it gets done to
the inside and outside units are cleaned with an air
conditioning system. Dirt and debris or the number one enemy
for a number of reasons, they reduce our capacity of
(28:57):
a system. So as an example, a four ton unit
is no longer a four ton operating at a four
ton capacity. It's operating something less than that. But while
a system is doing that, it's running longer, and so
it's running your utility builds up, so we have a
loss of efficiency and we have a loss of capacity
of a system. So it's vital to keep these things
as clean as possible so that they can transfer heat properly.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
So the cleaning is one way to help efficiency. Do
you have any other tips for us on efficiencies with
our AC units.
Speaker 4 (29:31):
A lot of things are because we were in a
home system. If you think about the inside of a
house as a complete system, there are things you can
do inside of a house. Number one, insulation levels are
always something that we want to look at. Attic ventilation
is another huge key component. We've been putting ridge vents
on homes for years and that probably from an air
(29:53):
conditioning and from an efficiency standpoint, is the last thing
that we should have, but there are so many homes
that have them. Those are things that can be looked
at as well during an evaluation. This is something we
can bring up and and have a discussion about. Is
the ventilation on a house as well. It's so so important.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
So when you have when someone has you come out
and take a look at their system to look at
maintaining it. You're also going to go through and look
at the efficiencies and give them tips on things that
they can do to make it more efficient. Is that
part of what you do?
Speaker 4 (30:24):
Absolutely absolutely well. We can make recommendations on different types
of filters. You know, there's there's so many various filters
out there that you can use. We'll give you recommendations
to tips on there. Again, at a instulation is one
of the one of the big things we look at
the ventilation of the home, the type of windows. Even
from an endowear quality perspective, if we have folks in
(30:44):
at homes with allergies, we can make recommendations to them
as far as that goes to really help out a
lot O.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
Wow. Yeah, well in Southeast Texas, that's a big deal.
Speaker 4 (30:52):
It's a huge deal. It's almost to the point where
when when I walk into a home, I ask who
and a home has allergies? Because someone always does. Yeah,
and some are are very mild. And as example, we
had a customer a couple of weeks ago that her
daughter had to put drops under her tongue and hold
it for five minutes to This was just her allergy medicine,
(31:16):
and it was just just blown away and how bad
it was. And so we try and make recommendations for
those type things as well to help ease it. I
don't know that there's a magic bullet that will just
fix everything, but if you can add three or four
things that makes someone's life a little bit better and
a little more comfortable for them, that's what it's all about.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
Yeah. Absolutely, So, now do you have a recommendation when
we talk about efficiency? You know, most of us go
to work during the day and we turn our ac
up a little and when we come home at night,
we turn it way down. So what do you recommend
as far as efficiency on the things we do to
(31:54):
maintain our units throughout the day and night.
Speaker 4 (31:57):
That is the question of the day. Yeah, it depends
so much. Anymore. We have systems that are variable speed systems.
And let me back up just a second on that.
When we sign as a home for air conditioning in
Southeast Texas, we size for a high outside temperature and
we use ninety seven internally with innovative is what we
use and we signed for seventy three degrees inside, and
(32:18):
this tells us how much air we need to put
in each room of the house. Takes into account the windows,
the doors, the people in the house. Everything is included
in this. And it depends on the efficiency of the system,
because not every day is ninety seven. And so if
we need four tons of cooling in the middle of summer,
we don't need four tons of cooling at night, and
(32:39):
let's say March or April, we need something less than that.
So variable speed systems operate much differently than a traditional
air conditioning system, but there are several benefits to those
type systems. They remove more humidity. We actually see folks
raising the temperature on their thermostatus is no longer at
seventy two seventy three, now it's seventy four to seventy five. See.
(33:00):
Oftentimes these systems run all the time. We put really
good filters with them, and now we're cleaning the air
from an into our air quality standpoint, making it much better.
A system like this will run forty to fifty minutes
out of the hour, and some folks may crench at that,
but we want a system that runs as much as
(33:20):
it can, we just don't want to pay a huge
light bill for it. And so these type systems run
all the time. And another benefit of that is they
tend to hide hotter cold spots. So if we have
rooms that are relatively warm or things like that, the
variable speed systems really go a long way towards helping that.
So to answer your question, a system that is a
variable system, it's best if we can just set it
(33:42):
at a temperature and just leave it, let it run
back to our four ton unit example from earlier. These
systems will turn down and use the power of a
halftn or a three quarter ton air condisuer to cool
and heat your entire home and only step up and
use the hour it's needed when it's warm outside.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
Yep. Well, the thing that you guys do is you
come out and give an assessment, and you can do that.
One of the things that we were talking about before
you came here is that you were working on a
new construction. Yes, so you not only install on a
home already existing, but you also work with those people
who are building a brand new home.
Speaker 4 (34:22):
Absolutely, we work in the commercial environment as well as
its well as industrial. Okay, so we have clients that
are industrial settings, commercial settings, residential settings. If we really
do it all.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
Yeah. So if you have an AC system, you got it.
You can cover it for them.
Speaker 4 (34:38):
Absolutely, We'll get you taken care of. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
Now the plumbing side, have you added that recently or
how long have you had the plumbing side with your business?
Speaker 4 (34:47):
Our business has had a plumbing side for three years now.
This is becoming a national trend with service companies. We're
getting into the multi, multi faceted approaches to to the
home because the home is again back to is a
complete system. The plumbing is part of the home system
and it is vital for the health and safety. One
(35:09):
of the biggest issues we're seeing here. We spent some
time talking about air quality, water quality. We have a
lot of customers we see and we see them all
over Facebook with the with the brown water coming out
of the faucets, and what we oftentimes miss on that
is that we're brushing our teeth with this water, we're
bathing in this water and our and our skin is
(35:31):
the largest organ in our body, so our skin is
absorbing all of this. And then they try and purify
the water by putting chlorine in it, and if you
will test if you have just a simple swimming pool
test kit, we will. We oftentimes find municipal water has
as much or more chlorine in it than a swimming
pool does. It's just amazing and that doesn't do much
(35:53):
for our hair as minds falling out, you can tell.
But also our skin it ages is quicker.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
Yeah, so I can blame the chlorine on this gray.
Speaker 4 (36:04):
You can blame it on the gray.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
Absolutely, I'll blame on the gray. So when but that's
a separate call. So if someone wants you to come
out and look at the plumbing side, that's a separate division.
Speaker 4 (36:15):
Yes, we actually have dedicated plumbers. We have a master
plumber on staff with us has many many years of
experience as well, and so we really try and be
that one stop shop to take care of everything from
a water heater to water filtration, water quality, to drains
and sewers.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
So what kind of water filtration do you have at
your house?
Speaker 4 (36:35):
I have what is called a Halo five. This is
a five stage filtration system. Removes all the chlorine, all
the sediments, removes the rust and the iron. And so
it's kind of comical when we see the folks in
our neighborhood posting pictures of dirty brown water. Ours is
nice and clean.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
Yeah, it's so nice. Well, it has been such a
pleasure to have you with us, Robert. If someone has
questions or needs more information about either heating, cooling plumbing,
how would they get in touch with you? Guys?
Speaker 4 (37:04):
Thank you do several different things. Can you can book
a call online at trust Innovative dot com. They can
actually schedule an appointment there. They can call our office
at four O nine eight eight three nine six one
six is another great way. They can also just go
to our website at trust Innovative dot com and there
will be a contact link there as well.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
And I'm sure you have social pages as well.
Speaker 4 (37:28):
We have social pages everywhere, had LinkedIn Facebook, Instagram, We're
all over the place.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
Yeah, so they would find that by innovative heating and cooling.
Speaker 4 (37:37):
Yes, yes, innovative heating cooling, and you'll you will find
us and pull us up perfect.
Speaker 1 (37:42):
Well. I have enjoyed having you on the show. You've
educated us a lot on our heating and cooling and information,
so we appreciate that. I hope all of you out
there are having a wonderful weekend with your family, and
I hope that you have plans to spend time somewhere
to worship for this Easter Resurrection Sunday. I want to
(38:03):
wish you all a happy Easter and I hope you
have a great week. This is The Danis Simmons Show.
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