The Troubleshooter 3-4-25

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Y'all ripped off you you needed, that's who you don't have.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Come running just as fast as we can. Shooter's gonna help.

Speaker 3 (00:18):
Come.

Speaker 4 (00:19):
Man Dix is the Troubleshooter Show. No Tom Martino.

Speaker 5 (00:25):
Hello, I'm Tom Martino. Welcome to this show. Three oh
three seven one three talk seven one three eight two
five five. This hour brought to you by waterpros dot Net.
If you want great water, then you call water pros.
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(00:47):
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That whole house system is drinking water, softeningetting, rid of
forever chemicals. Everything you need water posts on that. Hey,
Courtney Pierce is with me from Buy and Build. You know,

(01:07):
I jokingly said about buy and Build one time when
I went to his old warehouse. I used to call
it a big ugly warehouse. And it's not being an
ugly anymore. He moved, but it was still wonderful, And
I said, I want my ashes spread in this store.
It just it's just so much fun to get lost
to that warehouse. And a lot of people still to
this day, Courtney, even though you advertise a lot, they say,

(01:30):
what exactly do you do? They don't know if they're
going to see a warehouse a showroom contractors. If you
had to explain to somebody. Okay, so you're at a
community function, so mister Courtney Piers tell us about buy
and build. What would you say, sir, Well, we're.

Speaker 6 (01:48):
A discount kitchen and bathroom cabinet showroom. What we do
is we import directly from the manufacturer directly to our shops,
so we avoid the middleman, therefore cutting out all the
middleman costs of a distribute and we can save you
a fortune on Now, we have over twenty colors cabinets
to choose from.

Speaker 5 (02:05):
Okay, when people order cabinets, do they put them together,
install them or do.

Speaker 6 (02:12):
You Yes, they can, so they come unassembled, ready to build.

Speaker 5 (02:16):
So let's flat. Yeah, literally, people.

Speaker 6 (02:18):
Lot them up in there, pickup truck, take them home,
build them and instance.

Speaker 5 (02:21):
All cabinets come flat, A lot.

Speaker 6 (02:23):
Of them, Yeah, most of them do. Most of the
imported cabinets do.

Speaker 5 (02:26):
But you never know officier contractors put them together, right.

Speaker 6 (02:28):
And we offer an assembly service and a delivery services.

Speaker 5 (02:31):
So there's two kinds of assembly. You have the assembly
of the actual cabinets, then you have the installation the
so both.

Speaker 6 (02:37):
Are labor and we do all of those.

Speaker 5 (02:39):
Do people save money by going with the flats and
assembling and installing themselves.

Speaker 6 (02:43):
They do, But in a lot of cases it's you know,
it depends how much your time is worth. And I think, honestly,
the having us assemble them is definitely the way to go.

Speaker 5 (02:52):
All right, and then cut in the studio. If you're streaming,
you'll see some handsome dudes. You'll see Deputy Chopper over there,
and you'll see a major Mark Major in the center,
front and center, and then Deputy Dollar. We call him
that because of his financial career and he helps people
with all kinds of problems. So, any of you guys
working on anything we need to know about, Deputy das

(03:14):
here with us. Anything that we need to know about. First,
let's let's let's talk about that. Nope, okay, good, So
we can go right to the phones and Mark, what
did you say? Did you say anything? Okay, So what
we're going to do is attempt to solve your problem,

(03:35):
but sometimes we really just we can't solve it, but
we help others who are listening. So, Robert, this is
a smart meter question. I think smart meters confuse the
heck out of people. So let's talk about smart meters.
What's going on with you?

Speaker 7 (03:54):
All right?

Speaker 8 (03:54):
Tom?

Speaker 9 (03:55):
Well, I've been approached by I think a representative from
Excel Energy wanted to talk to me about signing up
for a smart meter. I have been able to avoid it,
but he's persistent, so I'm I need to educate myself
and find out what you guys know about it.

Speaker 5 (04:10):
Okay, smart meters are good for some people and not
for others. Smart meters are good for people that can
plan their loads. When I say loads, we all have
varying electric loads. Some people do a lot in the morning,
some people do a lot in the afternoon, some people
do a lot in the evenings. It depends on what

(04:30):
you do and when you do it. If you can
avoid the peak times, you get a lower rate. It's
that simple. And the smart meter can tell when you're
using the stuff and bill you accordingly, so you can
actually save money. But at the same time it can
all but at the same time, it can ding you
for the busy times, whereas your other meter won't go ahead.

(04:52):
What were you going to say?

Speaker 10 (04:53):
You can still get the smart meter and get the
flat rate billing. You do not have to get the
time of use billing through xl.

Speaker 5 (05:03):
Okay. Explain that again, Dragon.

Speaker 10 (05:05):
Getting the smart meter will save you money because they
are going to start charging people who do not have
the smart meter because they will have to send a
representative out to your house to read the meter. So
getting the smart meter will save you a little bit
of money. But once you get this smart meter, they
will automatically enroll you in time of use billing. So yes,

(05:27):
the afternoon costs are going to be a lot higher
than midday in mornings.

Speaker 5 (05:32):
Are you saying, can you opt out from the time
of day of billing.

Speaker 10 (05:35):
Yes, but you'll be billed at a flat rate, which
is higher than the lower rate billings that are in
the time of use options.

Speaker 5 (05:45):
Okay, do you like Dragon? You've seem to know a
lot about this. Do you like? I like time of
use billing because I can control it. I mean, who
can't you?

Speaker 10 (05:54):
I personally do not because I work in the mornings
and I am home in the afternoons and evenings. So
I'm going to use more electricity in the evenings, so
I get a lesser bill in the evenings than somebody
who uses the time of use billing. Say, if they
worked in the evenings, so if they had like the
reverse schedule, then I did, they would be saving money.

Speaker 6 (06:16):
I am not.

Speaker 5 (06:18):
So I want to know this is Is there going
to be a time when we don't have the choice?
Don't know? I think there is. I think eventually we're
all going to be migrated to the smart meter. Did
they say anything about that, Robert, No.

Speaker 9 (06:37):
That's what I wanted to find out if if I
could try it and then if I didn't like it,
switch back.

Speaker 10 (06:42):
Correct, Yes, you can. You're eventually going to be moved
over to the smart meter or they are going to
charge the charge of a monthly fee. You have the
option to be on the flat rate plan or the
time of use plan, and I think you can switch
back and forth, maybe every six months, most likely every

(07:02):
year if you don't, if you want to figure out
what works best for you.

Speaker 9 (07:07):
So the peak probably during the daytime and off peak
during the evening is that no?

Speaker 10 (07:12):
No, No, the peak time, no, just they're just the opposite,
just the opposite.

Speaker 5 (07:17):
Think about when people use stuff when they get up
in the morning, when they come home from work peak,
it's usually when people are.

Speaker 10 (07:25):
Then off peak times are you know, overnight clearly and
early mornings?

Speaker 6 (07:31):
Got it?

Speaker 5 (07:33):
Now, tell me what did you think of the presentation?

Speaker 9 (07:38):
Well, my wife has been able to avoid me having
to talk to him. Yet she tells him I'm gone.
So this guy's pretty persistent. So I thought, well, I
better get he's going to be coming back. I'm better
educate myself. So I've not had a face to face
discussion with him yet.

Speaker 5 (07:55):
Okay, well, but they're going I'm looking here on Excels.
On Excels website, they're actively deploying their smart meters. The
initiative aims, they say, to enhance, of course, the time
of use pricing where race will depend on when you
do it. In Colorado, the PUC has approved their plan

(08:18):
to install smart meters, and basically they're gonna but it
doesn't say here that they're going to make you do it.
If they's. Choosing to retain a non communicating meter will
involve additional costs, but you should have the choice for
a good long time. Still, So I mean, that's not

(08:39):
what Excel says. That's another source, which is Reddit. You know,
they say that people who don't do it.

Speaker 10 (08:47):
If you will spend one, they will eventually charge you
that monthly service fee.

Speaker 5 (08:56):
So I would get one, and I don't know the
the reason you've been avoiding? Is there a reason that
you is it? Do you think you can't alter your use? Robert?
Can you alter when you use? When you do your
laundry and when you do certain things.

Speaker 9 (09:16):
I just avoid anybody coming to my front door. And
so oh, I see, I see, and let myship well, sir.

Speaker 5 (09:23):
That that that could be a bad thing if someone's
trying to save your soul anyway, So okay, so Robert,
here's I want to take Mary and see what Mary
has to say. Mary, what about you? What's going on? Mary?

Speaker 7 (09:38):
Hi?

Speaker 11 (09:39):
Yes, I live in langmant.

Speaker 12 (09:41):
And we have the smart meters.

Speaker 11 (09:42):
We do not have Excel in Longmont. And if you
opted out, I believe it was like fifteen dollars a
month more because they had to, you know, come read
the meter. However, right, biggest reason a lot of people
didn't want to use it was because it wasn't safe
for your body, some type of waves, all that kind

(10:03):
of stuff.

Speaker 5 (10:05):
Now, now that sounds okay they're talking about they're talking
about the wireless technology. But I listen. I know people
are trying to avoid all of this kind of technology
in general, but we have so much going on right now.
That's smart meter. I'm sure you went to sites where

(10:26):
they said it was linked to cancer and.

Speaker 11 (10:27):
Everything, right, Well I didn't because I'm not a conspiracy theorist.

Speaker 13 (10:32):
The other thing good they.

Speaker 11 (10:33):
People didn't want it is because they were thinking that
like in California, if at four o'clock in the afternoon, oh.

Speaker 5 (10:42):
No, I get it. Yeah, the brownouts, Yeah.

Speaker 11 (10:45):
They're gonna shut it down.

Speaker 7 (10:46):
So that's why I didn't.

Speaker 5 (10:48):
You know what, I never thought of that one. That
that's a good point. People are afraid of brownout saying
wait a minute, you know they're gonna they're gonna control
what I can use, when I can use when when
push comes to shove, and that's a let's put it
this way. I'm not sure that's in the cards, but
that's definitely in the technology. We have more coming up.

(11:12):
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(11:34):
when you choose Frank durand the real estate man dot
com to list your home with Remax Alliance three oh
three nine two zero sixteen twenty two. Hi Tom Martino
here three oh three seven one three talks seven one
three eight two five five. Okay, it's Steve's turn now,

(11:56):
Hi Steve, what's going on with you?

Speaker 13 (12:00):
Well, I'm going through the Century Link nightmare trying to
get Now, how.

Speaker 5 (12:06):
Is it a nightmare? Tell me what's going on? Man?
Tell me the whole story. What's what makes it a nightmare?

Speaker 7 (12:12):
Well?

Speaker 13 (12:13):
It all started. You think just a transfer service to
be a simple thing. Back on February tenth, I did
a after hours so I did a chat and.

Speaker 7 (12:27):
With a robot.

Speaker 13 (12:28):
So I got past the robot, then got to a person,
and then finally submitted to have our service transferred. Drop
Love in Colorado down to Westminster. It was all supposed to.

Speaker 5 (12:43):
But hold on, but were you staying were you staying
with the century Link?

Speaker 13 (12:48):
Yes, yes, just move in the service.

Speaker 5 (12:53):
Okay. So on February tenth, you called CenturyLink about basically moving. Yes,
now why did you have to do that? Do you
have Do you have broadband that you were moving?

Speaker 13 (13:07):
No, just the basic phone system. And what I'm doing,
I'm trying to help up my father in laws.

Speaker 5 (13:13):
What do you mean a basic phone system? You actually
have a landline?

Speaker 13 (13:17):
Yes, well it's my father in laws. He's ninety one
years old.

Speaker 5 (13:21):
Okay, got it, got it right.

Speaker 13 (13:23):
He's moving to an assisted living facility and got it.
So we're trying to move his move everything from Loveland
down to Westminster.

Speaker 5 (13:33):
And this is okay, this all up.

Speaker 13 (13:36):
And I have all the documentations saying that they had
the new address, they issued me a new phone number,
and so on the twenty fifth, when it was supposed
to come on, I get emails and text messages and saying, yeah,
it's it's a done deal. The one in Loveland shut
off and the one in Westminster is turned on. So

(13:58):
and sure enough, they did shut off the one in Loveland,
but nothing's working at the Westminster residents.

Speaker 5 (14:09):
Does it all just come down to that?

Speaker 6 (14:11):
What's that?

Speaker 5 (14:13):
Does it all just come down to that? Right now,
you still don't have phone service at the new place.

Speaker 13 (14:17):
They'll they'll do not. I spend an hour each day
trying to communicate with them that there's no there's no service.
So they write a ticket and guess where they send
me technician? They send him to Loveland where the where
the phone shut off. They don't send him to the
new get the new address working.

Speaker 5 (14:38):
Well, now you know why Sentry Link is on its
way out.

Speaker 13 (14:42):
Oh surprise, they left this one.

Speaker 5 (14:45):
Look at uh let me let me tell you the
real story here. The real story is the landline service
is the lowest priority they have. It really is, and
so you're getting the dregs of society. They they go
out and find people who will work for food on
the corner, and when they're not cleaning windshields, they have

(15:06):
them switch phone lines. I really believe that you're not
going to get the level of service you want, and
it's going to be like this. Now we can call
and light a fire and say, look, just transfer the
stupid service. First of all, I want to ask some questions,
some very basic questions. Is their service at the new facility.

Speaker 13 (15:29):
Yes, there is. I mean, how do you know, well service.

Speaker 5 (15:34):
I meant you know what I meant? Is it available there? Oh?

Speaker 13 (15:37):
Yes it is, Yes it is. I've seen it through
their website and the previous residents they've had service there
and most Okay, that lives in the facility.

Speaker 5 (15:48):
So is there a jack in the wall for his
phone in his apartment?

Speaker 7 (15:53):
Yes?

Speaker 5 (15:53):
There is, and it's not activated.

Speaker 13 (15:57):
No, no doubt.

Speaker 5 (15:59):
Okay, I think, look, we can put someone on this.
What were you going to say, bro? What were you
going to say?

Speaker 14 (16:06):
So we do have a contact in whatever that I
don't know the new name of the phone company. It's
not it's it's not uh anymore. Yeah, it is Luminous
or something. Is that what it's called.

Speaker 5 (16:18):
Well, I know our angel is. Our angel works for
Lumen and they help with century Link issues. So do
you think you can give it to our angel? This,
of course?

Speaker 14 (16:28):
Or what I worked a previous I worked this century
case Central in case a few months ago and Sue
sent me this guy's contact information. He was good, he
was very helpful in resolving the situation. I'll be happy
to do that again. But stee, if I do have a.
I think a much better idea. You can just go
to a cellar store and open a cellular service account

(16:48):
and port that number from Century Links so that your
father in lawved won't even have to change his phone number.
And if you're concerned that maybe a cell phone is
too small for him to operate, they do sell these
giant old style phones that look exactly They're designed especially
for old elderly people who look exactly what traditional cel phone,

(17:09):
traditional house.

Speaker 5 (17:10):
Is it like that? One time's got I knew I
was gonna hear some craps, So so you know, that
way you can get Century Link out of your life
forever and the cell phone service.

Speaker 14 (17:23):
You know, he can take that with him if he
if he if he goes somewhere to the park or
to you know, to the story.

Speaker 5 (17:28):
What do you think about getting him one of those?
Do you think he would do? You think he would
reject it because it's wireless.

Speaker 13 (17:37):
No, he wouldn't. He wouldn't reject it. He's tried it before,
and there's he just didn't have the motor skills to
do it. He's ninety one, and his fingers. For some reason,
it won't even work on a touch screen is Steve.

Speaker 14 (17:53):
Well, that's why they.

Speaker 5 (17:54):
He doesn't have the body temperature.

Speaker 14 (17:56):
You're saying, oh god, but Steve, take a look online.
Can look at these old style phones that look just
like old house phones, except their cell phones. They're made
for people like this. I mean, please consider that if
and if that doesn't work.

Speaker 5 (18:11):
Such a hassle free, then you don't have anything installed.
You don't have anything to unwind if he passes or
when he passes. It's really something that would be easy, immediate.

Speaker 14 (18:24):
And same phone number. Yeah, just poured it and the
cell phone store will.

Speaker 7 (18:29):
Be about it.

Speaker 13 (18:30):
I don't know that it would work for him.

Speaker 5 (18:32):
I just really don't because of his dexterity.

Speaker 13 (18:36):
You're saying, yeah, just because of where he's at in life.

Speaker 5 (18:40):
What kind of a phone? Let me ask you this,
what kind of a phone does he have that you're
afraid he won't be able to do the.

Speaker 7 (18:48):
Well?

Speaker 9 (18:49):
What does he have that he likes?

Speaker 13 (18:52):
What he has now and what he's familiar with is
a cordless Panasonic phone that he's had for a long time,
and he he knows his way around that and anything new.

Speaker 5 (19:04):
But but Demitria is saying that these other phones resemble
that exactly. They resemble those You should just go you
should actually.

Speaker 15 (19:12):
Go to a store and look at it. Can he
go to a store and look at it or not? No,
I've seen them online they're advertised or Walmart. Maybe maybe Walmart.
It doesn't even have to be Central Link. Who cares
what it is?

Speaker 14 (19:23):
Well, yeah, that's my point. It's not going to be
Century Link. It's going to be a typical cell phone
company like let's say Verizon or T Mobile, with a phone.

Speaker 13 (19:33):
That looks exactly like the old and they're in their
apartment they have, you know, very very well like my
AT and T service is very like one bar in
their career.

Speaker 5 (19:42):
Yeah, he just simply watched the old school guys. I
mean that's what he wants. I understand, bro. But Consumer
Cellular specifically makes a phone for seniors and they have
a plan for twenty bucks a month and they have
a phone. It's something look into he wants. He doesn't
even know what he wants. Mark, he wants a phone.

(20:04):
What he wants is the phone he can operate. And
he's afraid he can't operate one of these new smartphones.
And I understand that completely, But these are not like
little smartphones, they're different. They have regular numbers, and I said,
they just seem to be more how do we put
it more user friendly for older people? So just give

(20:28):
it a try now if you want, we can call
our friend over at this lumit that it's called right now,
we can do it.

Speaker 16 (20:39):
That's true.

Speaker 5 (20:40):
Okay, hold on a second. I'd like, okay, well, d
can you take this and send it over to the angel?

Speaker 6 (20:48):
Take it?

Speaker 14 (20:48):
And by way, Becky is on the line. She's got
another suggestion for Steven.

Speaker 5 (20:52):
Becky, what is your recommendation?

Speaker 12 (20:55):
O there?

Speaker 7 (20:55):
So I've called you before.

Speaker 12 (20:57):
I'm a nurse and I've had a lot of my
seniors get the phone. It's clear, Captain, Yeah, what is it?

Speaker 7 (21:07):
A larger phone?

Speaker 12 (21:08):
It has large numbers and they actually can pick up
the call and read what everybody is saying.

Speaker 7 (21:19):
It doesn't have to do a cell phone.

Speaker 12 (21:21):
And it's free.

Speaker 17 (21:23):
Ali has to do with fend can get online.

Speaker 5 (21:27):
So is there? Is it real time? Is it real
time that they're reading it?

Speaker 7 (21:32):
Is?

Speaker 5 (21:34):
I wonder if that's actually practical. I mean, you're actually
talking to somebody.

Speaker 12 (21:40):
A lot of my seniors use it.

Speaker 7 (21:42):
They install it, they show everybody how to use it.
It's super easy.

Speaker 14 (21:48):
I don't understand why this is a free service or
is Are you saying the console is free and then
you pay a monthly fee.

Speaker 12 (21:56):
I think it's free because they.

Speaker 5 (22:01):
Why is it? WHOA would tell me what you're looking at? D?
So what is it called? First of all? I want
to look it up too. It's called clear Captions. All right,
let's talk about it. Coming back. I got I gotta
take this break Clear Captions right after this. I'm Tom
Martinez three O three seven one three eight two five five.
Don't forget Genesis Total Exteriors for mold detection and remediation.

(22:21):
The honest people in mold really and truly Genesis Tootalexteriors
dot com. Go with a sure thing Denver's best roofer
Excel Roofing dot com. You don't pay a cent until
you're contenth time for an insurance check up free, no obligation.

(22:45):
In comparison, call Compass insurance paying too much your coverage
at dozens of insurance companies find out now three oh
three seven seven to one help. You'll think you're his
only customer when you choose Frank durand the Real Estate
Man dot com to list your home with Remax Alliance
three all three nine two zero sixteen twenty two. Hi

(23:07):
Tom Martino here three three seven one three talks seven
one three eight two five five Courtney Pierces with us
from Buy and Build. Somebody wants to know them if
they want to redo the bathroom. You sell cabinets, you
sell You changed your model from what it was before.
And I want to be very clear on this. So

(23:27):
you sell cabinets and you sell countertops and vanities and
all of that. Mirrors you sell or Nope, we don't
sell mirrors, and we don't sell light pictures either anymore.

Speaker 6 (23:38):
Right, No, we do not.

Speaker 5 (23:39):
So you're really counters in cabinets.

Speaker 6 (23:42):
Yeah, cabinets and countertops for kitchen and bathroom. We have
the best prices around and we decided, you know, that
was our specialty, so we decided to just concentrate on
it and get even better at that service.

Speaker 5 (23:53):
So how do the countertops work? Do you guys fabricate
them there?

Speaker 6 (23:55):
We do well, not on site at our shop, but
we have fabricators that we work with on of one
particular company that does all of our installs for us,
and they are fantastic. It's the first time, I can
actually say that with confidence in the last ten years. Oh,
it's hard and are really good. They're responsible, they're clean,
they're on time, and they do a very very good job.

Speaker 5 (24:14):
And so this is so if I want to have
a bathroom done, and you do the cabinet part and
the fawcett part in the countertops part, so does my
contractor go to you or do I go to you?

Speaker 6 (24:26):
Either way, if you come to us as a customer,
we can offer you the whole turnkey situation.

Speaker 5 (24:32):
Ken, that's what I want to know. What do you
mean turnkey?

Speaker 6 (24:34):
So basically from scratch we can come into your bathroom and.

Speaker 5 (24:37):
Do the whole thing. We could do the whole thing,
even the stuff that you don't sell it, buy and build.

Speaker 6 (24:40):
Well, so the stuff we don't sell it, buy and build.
My cabinet installer does occasionally do side jobs with other materials.
He can do tile, he could do stuff.

Speaker 5 (24:47):
But he can source toilets and sings.

Speaker 6 (24:49):
Yeah, well, sourcing the product is different than the installation part. Okay, right,
But the customer we obviously work with some trade partners.
We try to get people the best deals. We count
on everything.

Speaker 5 (24:58):
So so if I come to you. So you guys
can handle it all and you can arrange for me
to purchase the fixtures where I need to correct.

Speaker 6 (25:06):
And then yes, our installers will come in. They, you know,
will handle the whole installation of your cabinet, your countertop,
your sink, your faucet, all that stuff.

Speaker 5 (25:15):
How long you've been in business now.

Speaker 6 (25:16):
We've been in business over twenty years, about twenty two
years now.

Speaker 5 (25:19):
I remember when we first got together. It was really
pretty cool.

Speaker 6 (25:22):
Yeah, twenty two years of saving Denver money. A lot
of people don't stay in business for that long. We've
been competing against the big guys for a really long
time and our customers.

Speaker 5 (25:29):
I mean, at one time you had that big, muddy
parking lot. So right now you have great parking, great building.

Speaker 6 (25:34):
Yep, beautiful, beautiful showroom with tell them how to get dictions.
We're just south of Alameda and we're just west of
I twenty five. So at five sixty South Lapan Street,
you're to take Alameda to Lapan, turn south and look
for the giant orange and blue building. Very easy to find.

Speaker 5 (25:51):
So explain to us guys how this captioning thing works
for people. So if someone older gets it and they
get a phone call, they look at the screen and
they pick it up and say hello, and then the
screen will read out what the other person says. So
the other person says, hello, this is Mike. You know

(26:13):
are we still on for lunch? Right? And then they
respond verbally, okay, that's pretty cool? But why is it
free time?

Speaker 14 (26:25):
According to the to the Services website, it looks like
the government pays for it. Their authorities derived from the
American with Americans with Disabilities Act, and then FCC somehow
has this process. I didn't get into the details, but
essentially the FCC administers this program and somehow the government
ends up paying for the telephone service.

Speaker 5 (26:47):
It can't be that expensive, right, Well, everything is free
so the phone no, I meant as far as the
government providing it. So although everything the government does seems
to they seem to pay too much. Except now, like
Mark once pointed out, how many presidents do you know
they get on the phone with Boeing and negotiate Air
Force one that I don't think people are used to

(27:11):
having a business person in office and watching the negotiations
that go on. They think it doesn't have decorum, They
think it's they think he has no class. They really don't.
They don't know how to deal with them. They're used
to people and all of the past presidents. Yeah, but
you're just.

Speaker 18 (27:29):
Talking about the elite. Man, that's not most of us.
You're talking about the elite. No, I'm not talking about
I never talked about most of us. You're right, But
I'm talking about the people who criticize. Say, you know,
President Biden would have never done that, or President or
Obama or even.

Speaker 5 (27:45):
You know Bush. There was a decorum they had, and
Trump doesn't care about it. He I mean, I'm not
saying it's a bad thing. He wants people to see
how the sausage is made. I don't think the Washington
elite knows exactly how to deal with this. They don't
like the swamp being not just drained, but they don't

(28:09):
like it being exposed. I mean, these guys think about
the billions and billions and billions of dollars that have
been distributed to friends. We still don't know what happened
to that money that went to the Ukraine.

Speaker 14 (28:23):
Yeah, we don't know what happened to more than half
of it. Zelensky said, Hey, all we got was eighty
seven billion.

Speaker 6 (28:29):
I don't know what happened to the rest.

Speaker 5 (28:32):
But they must be able to trace it for God's sakes.
Well maybe anyway, I'd like to know that. And then
we want to talk about a follow up. And again,
I'm not going to get deep, deep, deep into this problem.
I promise you it's going to be okay. Well, I
promise you we're not going to dig deep. It's the

(28:53):
one you so dug in and song yosh about. Hey, Paul,
but what did Paul want want to talk about? Paul?
We got a break too, Susan starting. We'll take this break, Okay,
We'll just come back to him after this. Zero three
seven one three A two five five eight eight eight

(29:13):
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Find Out Now three oh three seven seven to one help.
You'll think you're his only customer when you choose Frank

(29:58):
durand the real estate Man dot com to list your
home with Remax Alliance three oh three nine two zero
sixteen twenty two. Tom Martino here three oh three seven
one three talks seven one three two five five. Paul's
got a comment on that senior phone.

Speaker 19 (30:17):
Go ahead, Paul, Hey, Tom, thank you checking my call?

Speaker 6 (30:21):
How are you hey?

Speaker 5 (30:23):
I'm doing good man? What's going on? Do you know
about these phones?

Speaker 19 (30:27):
I do?

Speaker 5 (30:27):
So.

Speaker 19 (30:28):
It's called the clear Captions. My grandmother is ninety nine
years old. She still lives at home and it is
doing fantastic.

Speaker 5 (30:34):
Wow.

Speaker 19 (30:35):
But you can't hear squat Wow. So we got one
of them.

Speaker 5 (30:39):
Wow. Okay.

Speaker 19 (30:40):
It's completely free, and there's a couple of catches. You
have to have a landline and you have to have internet.
But when you call and order it and then they
set up an appointment, the phone shows up at the
house and then they set up an appointment and a
guy comes out and sets it up for her. Because
they have to active, they have to call into the
very good call center and they have to activate it

(31:02):
and go through some questionnaires and stuff like that, probably
for billing purposes, which we didn't see.

Speaker 5 (31:08):
Does it sit on does it sit on a counter
or desk? And does it sit on a counter or
desk or does she.

Speaker 19 (31:16):
Yep, we set it.

Speaker 7 (31:17):
Up so that it could sit on her kitchen table
and it runs on Wi Fi.

Speaker 19 (31:20):
And then we added another jack so we'd have cords
running all over the kitchen so that it could be
at the table.

Speaker 5 (31:29):
And if she wants, can she have two of them?

Speaker 19 (31:33):
Uh So we called and asked and they said if
they approved it, they'll send one, but they never did.

Speaker 5 (31:38):
Okay. So so the way it works, how does she
know it's ringing? It's a light.

Speaker 19 (31:47):
Out and and it does have a light, but also
all the other phones in the house ring as well,
but the ringer on that okay, stupid, it's crazy.

Speaker 5 (31:57):
Loud and it's and then she goes over to that phone.

Speaker 7 (32:02):
Yep.

Speaker 5 (32:03):
When she goes over to that phone, does she press
a button or does she pick up a handset?

Speaker 19 (32:08):
Whichever she wants to do both she can do either
one okay. Just like it acts like a.

Speaker 5 (32:13):
Noise and the screen is always Does she activate the
screen or is it always activated?

Speaker 19 (32:19):
Always activated? And you can control the brightness of it.
It's a very intuitive device it has and she can
still good for some the other line and there's a
slight delay and it's just like voice to text for
your texting on your mobile phone and it shows up.

Speaker 5 (32:35):
What do you find it? Do you find it to
be very convenient? Do you think it's really viable?

Speaker 19 (32:42):
Oh, that's the only reason I'm calling in and talking
to the world man, because I think it's great if
you have somebody that is hard of you. Okay, there's
a fantastic product.

Speaker 20 (32:50):
Yes, hey, Tom, I have an addition, the go ahead,
so he knows and everyone knows. All nine one one
cent have to have that in case people call.

Speaker 5 (33:05):
What do you mean I have to have what.

Speaker 20 (33:06):
They have the same type phone that will show up
and do the PRINTO for them.

Speaker 5 (33:14):
Okay, So I want to ask something on these phones?
Are the buttons big or like if she wants to
make an outgoing call, how are the buttons?

Speaker 7 (33:26):
Uh?

Speaker 19 (33:26):
Probably almost one inch square?

Speaker 5 (33:28):
There art Oh my goodness. So it's really user friendly,
really user friendly.

Speaker 19 (33:35):
And their physical buttons on the near the headset not
a touchscreen. It's physical buttons.

Speaker 5 (33:42):
Yes, So where do we find it?

Speaker 19 (33:46):
Clearcaptions dot com. I know I sound like a commercial,
but I didn't remember what the name was, so I
just google it.

Speaker 7 (33:51):
No.

Speaker 5 (33:51):
I like it, bro I like it. I like that
clearcaptions dot Com. I mean, these are real solutions we're
talking about every day. Clearcaptions dot com. Okay, cool, thank
you very much. I mean, I I just I just
think that it really fits the need for people, and
the demonstration on the website shows it very well. All Right,

(34:15):
we have more coming up. We have Courtney Pierce at
Buy and Build Buy and Build dot net, and we
can answer your questions about any remodels or we can
talk about anything you want on the Troubleshooter Show. Three
O three seven one three eight two five five Go
with a sure thing Denver's Best roofer Excel Roofing dot com.
You don't pay a cent until you're content. Time for

(34:40):
an insurance check up free, no obligation comparison call Compass
Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens of insurance
companies find out now three all three seven seven to
one help You'll think you're his only customer when you
choose Frank durand the real Estate Man dot Com to
list your home with Remax Alliance three all three nine
two zero sixteen twenty two.

Speaker 1 (35:05):
Ripped Off.

Speaker 2 (35:07):
News need advice so you don't have come running just
as fast as you can. Shooter's gonna help come.

Speaker 4 (35:19):
Man Dix is the Troubleshooter Show.

Speaker 5 (35:23):
No Tom Martine, Tom Martino here, Welcome to the show.
Three oh three seven one three talk seven one three
eight two five five. This hour brought to you by
Frank durand the real Estate Man dot com for market
valuations of your home. So many people before they want
to sell, they they wonder what is my house worth,
what will I get, what will I net? What can

(35:44):
I buy? Frank does all of that free of charge.
It's not a gimmick. He will do it in a
full readout with all of the factors, and it's not
a contingent on any obligation on your part. Three oh
three nine to zero six twenty two. Frank Duran, the
real Estate Man dot Com. Courtney Pierces with us from

(36:06):
buying Bill. We're taking your calls as well, and your
calls are welcome at three o three Martino three oh
three six two seven eight four sixty six. You can
call us twenty four seven uh with that number and
leave a message and we will get back to You
can also call our number right here, right now three
oh three seven one three talk seven one three eight

(36:26):
two five five. And of course you can text us,
so you can text the iHeart app five seven seven
three nine. Just that's the short code. So if you
text something there, we will get it. You put Tom
in there and it comes to me and that is
five seven seven three nine. You can also text me

(36:46):
directly at the the Google voice number I have, which
comes directly to my cell phone, and it does seven
four seven nine nine nine fifty two eighty seven four
seven nine eighty. So listen, this is odd I got.
I was asking people for their opinions on movies with agendas?

(37:11):
What movies did they feel have agendas? Somebody wrote in,
and I wrote, I asked this yesterday. Somebody wrote in
and said, otto, did anyone feel an agenda with Auto?
With Tom Hanks? I did not feel any kind of
message they were trying to get across. What did I
miss there? Anyway? Another one when you ask people questions

(37:37):
on what they think is a priority for America, And
you were going over what they think about Trump's actions
and their priorities. I'll bet you a lot of these
questions are not posed properly, and they're posed by people
who want to show that Trump is doing a good thing.
But I bet there's a many people as many people

(37:59):
opposed to what doing. I'd like to know, actually, what
is there to be opposed about right now? I mean,
I don't want to hear pontification and rhetoric and you know,
stomping campaigns. Something. I want to hear something specific. What
has he done that's so terrible? Save billions of dollars

(38:19):
for the federal government, shut down crime and corruption. How
about he shut the border down?

Speaker 18 (38:26):
Remember when Biden said, oh, there's nothing we could do
without Congress.

Speaker 5 (38:30):
I mean, what a lion sack. I think poor Joe
Biden was the worst you could It's just not the
right time in his life. It really wasn't, and they
could have he was going to go for another four years,
Oh my god. And I was convinced he was going
to Now somebody said that because the tax increases are

(38:57):
so high, the state of Colorado is offering homeowners low
interest loans. Have you heard of that? What? No for
their taxes? Do not do not for.

Speaker 14 (39:08):
Their what they're offering to finance your tax?

Speaker 5 (39:10):
Build? Yeah? So your home? Yeah what that's awful? Well,
I think it can be awful, right, what if you
don't have a choice? Now they say it's coming in
a postcard anyway. Three zero three seven one three eight
two five five. So let's talk to Courtney Pierce. Buy
and build. It's a it's.

Speaker 18 (39:31):
A Colorado property tax deferral program. The programs allows eligible
homeowners to pay back property taxes with a low interest loan.
That seems like a slip. That's that's a way of
them owning your house.

Speaker 5 (39:47):
So yeah, so as far as buy and build, I
like places where you save money. I like where you
save money. So I guess I'm just gonna simply ask
how much you save Courtney. Let's just let's just name it.
How much do you save you when you say you

(40:08):
can save money, well.

Speaker 6 (40:11):
I can give it to you more of a percentage
than that.

Speaker 5 (40:14):
Yeah, probably like you to give me examples. I'm going
to give you an example that we were doing a
laundry room at Steph's house and we did a laundry room,
and we priced it at home depot and I couldn't
believe it. I think it was coming with the cabinets
and countertops and stuff. We're coming to around fourteen grand. Now, people,

(40:36):
I want you to sit down. This is the truth. Now.
That wasn't labor. That was materials. Oh there was a okay, yeah,
that wasn't That wasn't. No. Actually there was some installation
labor in that, just some minor installation because the but
but anyway, let me get right to it. I don't
even know if you remember. It was like a fourteen

(40:56):
hundred dollars purchase we made with you guys. Yeah, fourteen hundred.

Speaker 6 (40:59):
Oh yeah, we see.

Speaker 5 (41:00):
No, Dmitri, I know you think that's crazy. I'm talking
about fourteen Granted, we bought everything we needed for fourteen hundred.
Now we paid labor and all that involved. But the
total price compared to the total price, so we had
fourteen versus the total of I think it was thirty
eight hundred and four thousand.

Speaker 14 (41:16):
That's almost just the sales stacks of that's almost just
the sales tax of what you would have paid for
it at the big bub.

Speaker 5 (41:21):
You find that all the time, don't you.

Speaker 6 (41:23):
Yeah, when people come in with bids from other stores,
especially the boutique stores, we absolutely crush it. I had
a gentleman come in and gave me, you know, the
lowest bid. After he went around to a bunch of stores.
He goes, this is the lowest bid I could find.
And he said his lowest bid was like twenty six
thousand dollars. And It's like, in our whole history of
doing business, I have never one time gotten to twenty

(41:44):
thousand dollars on a kitchen installed with countertops. Ever, and
granted he had a very very big kitchen, and still
we were able to save him a fortune.

Speaker 5 (41:54):
Now, somebody says, and again this is for the HASI TOSSI.
We have everyone that listens to this show. We do
not discriminate. They have a Loach hornea carenoe a kitchen.
I guess that's high end stuff. Do you have cabinets
for the very high end?

Speaker 6 (42:09):
We have a really nice line of cabinets. We do
not have that brand.

Speaker 5 (42:13):
But no, no, that Lockhorne I believe is for the appliance.
Is I believe. I'm not sure, but it's not necessarily.
I don't know if they make cabinets, but they meant
that trim level.

Speaker 6 (42:25):
Yes, we just got in a brand new line called
the Petite Line and it is the new most modern
looking cabinet that we've got. It's very very popular in
the market right now. And we've got four colors now
in the Petit line. Soft closed doors, soft closed drawers,
finished interiors, glass doors available, all sorts of different accessories available.

(42:45):
Just you could absolutely put them in a million dollar home.

Speaker 5 (42:48):
Okay, and nowadays you know it doesn't take much to
have a million dollar home. So if you are looking
for high end fix and flip whatever, you have it all.

Speaker 6 (43:00):
Yes, we have fix and flip level cabinets as well
for your your small fix and flippers that are just
doing a smaller house and trying to get a maybe
even rental cabinets. We have construction grade lines all the
way up to the super elite lines.

Speaker 5 (43:14):
Okay, that is an appliance company, La Carnoe. It's a
it's it's apparently like this one oven. I think Mark
might be interested in this. It's a fifteen nine hundred.

Speaker 6 (43:26):
Just for the oven. I do have a cabinet would
match that color perfectly though.

Speaker 5 (43:30):
Yeah, now there are some odd colors coming out. I
suggest people go with white or with wood and you're
or with even a distressed look, I think you're you're
taking you're taking a risk when you go out on
these wild color.

Speaker 6 (43:43):
Green we play off for them, but the wood tones
are coming back in now we have six color.

Speaker 5 (43:48):
They always did.

Speaker 6 (43:49):
Options back There was a time where all we had
was whites and grays and blacks.

Speaker 5 (43:52):
Yeah, but whites are still in and solar woods, so
they never really go out. And then what about though,
the eggplant and the blues and dangers stuff.

Speaker 6 (44:01):
I do offer them as a special order product, but
I feel if you stock them, you're putting yourself in
the bund to potentially as that popularity goes away and
the you know HG's you know Home Improvement Network says
that's not popular anymore. You're out of business on that color.

Speaker 5 (44:16):
And by the way, when you're doing a bathroom, you
maybe want to consider renew Home Innovations for the shower conversion.
They do porcelain sheet walls. Wow, I mean, that is
an unbelievable product. Renew Home Innovations, They're glad to give
you a free, no obligation estimate. They can do it
in two or three days. You have several financing options
as well, low interest. That's renew Home Innovations dot com

(44:36):
three oh three nine zero four two thousand. Go with
a sure thing Denver's best roofer Excel Roofing dot com.
You don't pay a cent until you're content. Time for

(44:57):
an insurance check up free no obligation comparison call Compass
Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens of insurance
companies find out now three oh three seven seven to
one help. You'll think you're his only customer when you
choose Frank durand the real estate Man dot com to
list your home with Remax Alliance three oh three nine
two zero sixteen twenty two. Hi Tom Martinez here three

(45:23):
three seven one three talk seven one three eight two
five five. Welcome to the show. And when it comes
to a house, I've always said the two things that
make or break a house. Oh, I think there's more
than two. But kisses meths are definitely important, but so
are floor coverings. When you walk in and the floors

(45:45):
all look like crap. Now, a lot of people would
rather that they take a house and really do the
finishing touches as opposed to someone else trying to do
it but not hitting the mark. I see them mark
just a little. I actually prefer either it's done to
perfection or it's not done at all, and I don't

(46:08):
want it in between where I have to undo or
redo things. So, Cordey, I'm asking you at Buy and
Build Buy and Build dot net, do most people are
they remodeling or are they doing a new house or
are they getting a house ready to sell? So remodeling
would be they're remodeling a house, just their own house.

(46:29):
Another one is they're getting it ready to sell. Another
one would be or are they fixing up the house
they just bought.

Speaker 6 (46:35):
So I say, a pretty good mix. We have a
lot of homeowners that are looking to absolutely remodel their
kitchen so they can enjoy a new kitchen in their home.
We do have a lot of investment property owners that
come in and do the fix and flip thing with us,
because we kind of are a fix and flip supply house.

Speaker 5 (46:51):
And when you say you're a fixing, fix and flip,
why is that because it might give the impression it's
not really good stuff.

Speaker 6 (46:57):
Right, Well, really it's because the price point. Again, you
can fix and flip any level house, but the price
point on it. You're trying to make as much money
as you can when you're doing a fix and flip,
and if you can save money on materials and labor
to install those materials, your profit goes up. And so simply,
I would say a good forty percent of our customers
or investment property owners that come in regularly and buy

(47:18):
cabinets from us to put the houses on the market
and make the kitchens look great because it's one of
the best selling points of a house as a kitchen
and a bathroom. And then the homeowners that have decided
we're going to stay in our home and we want
to make our home look beautiful, then they will remodel
their own kitchens, in which case they'll buy a higher
end cabinet, have the install they'll be a little bit

(47:39):
more picky on all the details and stuff than the
contractors will that are doing fix and flips. But at
the same time we can accommodate both quite confidently.

Speaker 5 (47:49):
Okay, And that's really important because people come in with
all kinds of stuff and do you get mostly homeowners
or mostly contractors.

Speaker 6 (47:59):
I'd say gets split recently it's been mostly homeowners. We've
had a big wave of end users is what we
like to call them, the people that are going to
install it and use the product themselves.

Speaker 5 (48:08):
LJ. What is your question? Hello? LJ three zero three
seven one three talk three oh three seven one three
eight two five five Welcome. What's going on?

Speaker 21 (48:19):
Well, I have a question. My mom has a house.
It's an older house in Denver, and it's about eight
hundred and fifty square feet, two bedroom, one mass and
she is getting up an age, and I know that
it's going to come to a day where we've got
to sell that house. And I'm wondering, right now, did you.

Speaker 5 (48:39):
Say did you say the whole house? Did you say
the whole house is what size?

Speaker 21 (48:46):
Eight and fifty square feet?

Speaker 5 (48:49):
Wow?

Speaker 6 (48:50):
Okay, yeah.

Speaker 7 (48:52):
Now they have.

Speaker 21 (48:53):
A big lot. It's an older home. They have a
huge lot to where you could definitely add on another room.
But I'm considering whether I need to budget now that
if I need to, if I should consider redoing it
to try to sell it, or just, you know, when

(49:13):
the time comes, sell it as it.

Speaker 5 (49:15):
Well, let me ask you, that's a good question, and
there's a way to analyze it. First and foremost, How
does it set in the neighborhood as far as prices
or decor or condition. Is it better than most or
worse than most? Or are they all about the same there?

Speaker 21 (49:35):
I would say I wouldn't call it worse as most.
What happens in her neighborhood is there have been some
people that have done some remodeling, but those houses, you know,
I don't believe they're going to be resold for a while,
and so she's gonna look like it's a downgrade relative
to everybody else. There's probably three or four homes.

Speaker 5 (49:55):
What I'm saying is what I'm saying is when you
go into a neighborhood, you never want to buy the
most expensive house in the neighborhood. You want to buy
the least expensive house in the neighborhood, even if you
want to fix it up. Would your guy's house be
the most expensive or the least expensive or somewhere in
the middle.

Speaker 8 (50:16):
Somewhere in the.

Speaker 21 (50:16):
Middle based off of that assessment, Yeah, somewhere in the middle.

Speaker 5 (50:21):
Okay, So it's a chance for people to get into
that neighborhood. Is that neighborhood considered HATSI TATSI is that
neighborhood considered really classic? Is it desirable? Tell me about
the neighborhood, because that's going to dictate what you do.

Speaker 21 (50:38):
The neighborhood is pretty rundown, it's not. Basically, she is
Alameda and scared him and where she's at so the
old okay, so not very not very attractive, right, she's
in properly.

Speaker 5 (50:59):
Okay, here's the bottom line. You should not put a
dime into it because you're never gonna You're never gonna
predict what people want. You're probably gonna overspend, You're definitely
not gonna underspend. So no matter what, you're only putting
money into it, you're not gonna get back because people
who buy that house is most likely going to be

(51:20):
a scraper or it's going to be exactly what it is,
an eight hundred and fifty square foot rundown house that
they want to live in because they can't afford anything else.
What is the price point on that house right now?

Speaker 21 (51:34):
It's crazy. That's around three eighty five, is what the
price point is.

Speaker 5 (51:40):
Do you think you could truly sell it for that.

Speaker 21 (51:44):
No, I think we're probably going to be somewhere just
north of three hundred thousand is what I think three
fifteen to three twenty.

Speaker 5 (51:52):
If you were there, I would have Frank durand the
real estate man dot Com. I would have Frank doing
an analysis. It's not going to cost you a dime,
and he'll run through it and he'll let you know
what it will bring you. He really will. And I
wouldn't put a dime into it except very basic stuff

(52:15):
like if the front door lock doesn't work. I'm talking
very basic. That is not a neighborhood where you can
predict what people are going to want moving into it.
Most people are just going to move in so they
can have a house. It's going to be a step
up from a mobile home.

Speaker 21 (52:33):
Okay, yeah, great point. Okay, that's that was my thought too,
because I'm like, you know, we got approached by one
realtor that said, oh, will we'll pay to have it
remodeled if it needs it, and then we'll take that
out of the price of the home. And and I
just don't see how that's.

Speaker 5 (52:49):
No, don't ever, don't ever do that. Those are high
Those are high interest charlatans. These people that come in
and want to handle everything and control everything. Remember, the
more they want to control the less. I want you
to trust him. Get franked around the real estate man
dot com. Just get him to come in and to
list it. That's it. He'll do a market analysis first,

(53:12):
then he'll tell you what he thinks it'll sell for
and you can take it to the bank. He'll get
way more for that house than you ever believe was possible.
I'll bet you. I'd love for you to do it
and let me know, all right. Three oh three nine
two zero sixteen twenty two. Thank you man, I wish
you the best. Okay. That's the way it is when

(53:33):
it comes to houses. If it's in a neighborhood that
supports it, you can spruce it up a little, but
never try to predict what a buyer will want unless
you're going to redo the whole house like a fix
and flip. You should not bother. Now, this could be
an excellent fix and flip maybe, but you don't want

(53:56):
to ever try to predict for yourself if you're selling
a house and you just want to get get rid
of it, because look at it this way, if you
proportionately make the same profit, what good is the additional investment.
It's no good. It's just additional risk, So that's why
you should not do it. Three o three seven one
three eight two five five more coming up. Go with

(54:23):
a sure thing Denver's best roofer Excel Roofing dot com.
You don't pay a cent until you're content. Time for
an insurance checkup free, no obligation. In comparison, call Compass
Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens of insurance
companies find out now three oh three seven to seven
to one help. You'll think you're his only customer when

(54:45):
you choose Frank durand the real estate Man dot com
to list your home with Remax Alliance. Three oh three
nine two zero sixteen twenty two. Hey, I'm Tom Margino,
your troubleshoe three oh three seven on three talks seven
on three two five five. Danny has a tome wants

(55:05):
to talk about selling a house. We were talking about
selling a house and what not to do or when
not to invest a lot of money. Go ahead, Danny,
what's your comment?

Speaker 7 (55:15):
Hey? Good morning? Okay, so h a good friend has
a house. Eventually it'll be for sale. It's the Abban, Denver,
a suburban of Denver neighborhood. So, sir, so the house
hasn't been touched since seventy six. It was built in
sixty three, Uh, remodeled right before they bought it, and

(55:39):
it hasn't been touched. So it's a seventy six.

Speaker 5 (55:41):
It was built in sixty three and remodeled in seventy
something seventy six.

Speaker 7 (55:48):
Yeah, and so okay, it was built and so well,
I've done a lot of construction. There's a lot of
little uh things that need to be done, some of them.

Speaker 5 (55:59):
Danny, let me ask a few questions. What size? What
size is this house?

Speaker 7 (56:04):
Oh, it's a two story, a two story. Uh, it's
a two story writer house. If you if you're familiar.

Speaker 5 (56:12):
Writers, I know what writer is. Yeah, yeah, writer.

Speaker 7 (56:15):
Yes.

Speaker 5 (56:15):
But what I want to know is about how many
square feet? Oh?

Speaker 7 (56:19):
Shoot that Oh, I don't know the square feet.

Speaker 5 (56:23):
It's got three uh how many bedrooms?

Speaker 7 (56:27):
Okay, three bathrooms, two upstairs, one downstairs. Uh and uh
it's got one two four bedrooms, one mask for three
and four bedrooms, four bedrooms, all with closet.

Speaker 5 (56:43):
Four bedrooms, four bedrooms and three baths.

Speaker 7 (56:47):
Right, and then it has a living dining room, small kitchen. Uh,
living dining.

Speaker 5 (56:53):
Room and uh, okay, so what is your question? What
is your question?

Speaker 7 (56:59):
Look, I heard what you said to the other person.
You have to be very careful about doing anything to
the house, like this house needs a lot of t LC.
But you want to be very careful about anything you do,
for example.

Speaker 5 (57:13):
How are the main how are the main mechanicals in
this house? Was ever furnaced don or water heaters or
anything like that?

Speaker 7 (57:20):
Right, It's got good furnace, good water heater. Uh. The
the UH in the three bedroom, three bathrooms. The UH
vanities are like the luck Hard Deco from the seventies
because supremo and they look great. Some people might not love.

Speaker 5 (57:39):
Well however, Yes, So so here's the deal. What are
those houses? What are those houses selling for? Roughly in
that neighborhood.

Speaker 7 (57:50):
Well, there was a redowne small ranch house with different
at all like this one. It was totally rede. It
was sold are you and a half ago? And a
guy who bought it tried to flip it. He totally
redid it, and he wanted eighty eight thousand. He did
it really a primo and he was only he wanted

(58:13):
eight hundred and eighty eight thousand it originally sold. He
bought it for six hundred and twenty six thousand. He
it was sold. They sold for seven hundred and seventy
eight thousand. It was valued. That's okay, seventy nine.

Speaker 5 (58:29):
Did they owe money on this house?

Speaker 7 (58:32):
No, No, it's okay, said, okay, perfect.

Speaker 5 (58:38):
So what I would do, I would see hold on.
I would first of all call Frank Drain, the real
estate man dot com and get an evaluation. But I
don't think I would put money into it at all.
There's no reason to put money into a home. People
like doing that, they really do. The only way I
would put money into a home is if I was

(58:58):
going to do the whole thing now. If it needs
some obvious things like carpeting or paint, stuff like that,
you could do. But I would not invest big money
in that house.

Speaker 7 (59:11):
Well, I was going to ask you about the carpets.
They were high, there were premium curpets in seventy six.
They'd least, you know, they last a long time. They
were built in seventy six. But they're worn. I don't
think they'd even look good if you are really had
them professionally done, shampooed, and they wouldn't look good. They're worn.

(59:32):
Would you replace them? It's hard to tell because that's
a lot of money.

Speaker 5 (59:36):
I'm actually I may do. I may do some carpeting,
unless the whole house has to be redone. Then I
wouldn't bother. I would sell it as a fix and flip.
You'll get good money for it. Proportionately. The money you
invest does not necessarily come out on the other end.

Speaker 7 (59:54):
Yeah, Zillo. If you look on Zillo, this house they
drove by, took a picture and said it's that's six
hundred sixty eight thousand or something. Then they haven't seen
the inside. That's what they just put on it. So
how does this suze in this area? They're asking about
eight hundred and eighty foum. They start off at eighty.

Speaker 5 (01:00:17):
I think you can. Listen. I think you can sell
to someone who wants to do a six fix and flip.
You sell it for around six hundred and fifty, and
I think you'd be fine. But I think you need
the expertise of Frank Duran. Listen. That's why I talk
about getting an expert in there. Not someone who's trying

(01:00:39):
to sell you, not someone who wants to, you know,
rip you off, but someone who has your best interest
at heart, who will give you an analysis of that home.
Three oh three nine two zero sixteen twenty two is
his number three oh three nine two zero sixteen twenty two. Okay,
Frank durand the real estate Man dot Com. Yes, sir, quick.

Speaker 7 (01:01:01):
Question of Tom Okay, okay, there's a problem. We don't
know exactly what it is. There's a problem with one
of their dreams. It might be roots. Now you have
to you have to fix something like that.

Speaker 5 (01:01:16):
Because ninety three or free pardon okay, explain it Mark,
Mark explains.

Speaker 18 (01:01:23):
A plumb line in for ninety three bucks. They're going
to come out and clear that drain ninety three dollars
and if they care, they don't charge. Yeah, or it's
going to either be free or they're going to clear it.
And then if it's something major, they'll give you an
estimate on it. Then you're gonna know what it is.

Speaker 5 (01:01:41):
But again, you don't even have to do you don't
even have to do that kind of repair unless you
want to. If it's reasonable, you can do it. But
it's okay to sell stuff with problems. I mean, that's
what when people buy a house, an older house, they
know they're going to have to fix things up and
you give people allow for it now if it doesn't

(01:02:02):
cost a lot to fix, Yeah, it should be fixed
if it's going to show up on an inspection. But Danny,
I think you're you know, at least you're asking the
right questions. I would my first call would be to
Frank drandreal Estate Man dot Com. Then I would call
plumb Line Services to check out the sewer. And again,
just because it's slow drains doesn't mean you have to

(01:02:24):
redo them all again. It's really going to be what
they find. Okay, we have more coming up. Martha wants
to talk about Excel Energy insurance, which I hate. We'll
talk about that and more coming up on the Troubleshooter Show.

(01:02:45):
Go with a sure thing Denver's best roofer Excel Roofing
dot com. You don't pay a cent until you're content.
Time for an insurance check up free, no obligation. In comparison,
call Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens
of insurance companies find out now three all three, seven
seven one help. You'll think you're his only customer when

(01:03:08):
you choose Frank durand the real Estate Man dot com
to list your home with Remax Alliance three all three
nine two zero sixteen twenty two. Hi Tom Martino here
three all three seven one three Talk Martha. So what's

(01:03:28):
going on Martha?

Speaker 3 (01:03:31):
When my good friend Tom invite me to call you.
I receive a lettered from Excel Energy Protect shown planks
from home server. A Yes insurance for exterior electrical covirash
and exterior worded service line covidrash forty full year sixty

(01:03:54):
four dollars fifty five things All right?

Speaker 5 (01:03:57):
Hold on, Martha? Was this being sold by Excel.

Speaker 3 (01:04:05):
Belettered? Be lettered has the Excel I slash protection planks
from home server And they say they don't offer it,
but they refer me to dark company HomeServe dot com.

Speaker 5 (01:04:24):
Okay, d company, And did you buy it or not?

Speaker 3 (01:04:30):
That's it. I want to know if it is worth
it or not.

Speaker 5 (01:04:33):
No, No, it's not worth it. How about I just
put it very plain, it's not worth it. Now. I
have a video on it on YouTube. I also have
one on LinkedIn. But in a nutshell, it is absolutely
not worth it, not worth it. I go through it.
I actually go through it in detail as to why

(01:04:55):
it does not work and why it's a ripoff. I'm
looking for the video right now. I can tell you.
Let me just stop the sound here, and I'm going
to tell you though it is a ripoff. You do
not want to buy it. It's that simple. They have
too many exceptions. There is just really a bad idea.
I don't know how else to how else to put it.

(01:05:16):
It's just a bad idea. I'm looking for the video.
I'll find it in a minute. Here and my videos,
let's see, okay, let's see. It's okay. If you go
on YouTube, you can search for let's see, Excel Energy
is pushing crap. In fact, it sucks. And I can
actually play this later on to talk about why you

(01:05:40):
should not buy it. But that's it in a nutshell.
Do not buy it, do not fall for it. It's
not worth the dime, let alone what they want for it. Okay,
Dimitri has an update, but I don't think we're gonna
have a chance to get to it all, so we're
just gonna have to tease it. But it has to
do with that woman, Chelsea. Chelsea who had a used car.

(01:06:04):
She bought with a used car warranty and it had
a transmission failure within one hundred and sixty days miles,
I'm sorry, within one hundred and sixty miles. And she
took it into a mechanic that she likes, she's been
going to for ten or fifteen years, and she told
the mechanic I have a warranty. The mechanic went ahead

(01:06:26):
and fixed it. The warranty company said he didn't follow
the proper procedure. So we're not paying and we don't
have to get into a long debate as to who's
responsible for what. But there is a resolution. What is it, Dimitri?
Go ahead?

Speaker 14 (01:06:41):
Well, Tom, you may recall that yesterday we had another
spirited discussion about this on the air, with you and
me and Mark all having kind of a divergence of opinions.
So during that time I emailed both parties. I sent
them a proposed settlement, and what is it, which is, Hey,
how about if Nichols Automotive charges Chelsea issues are consumer
that called in this matter just to cover their costs,

(01:07:05):
their labor costs, their power costs, and would Chelsea find
that to be an acceptable resolution to this matter? The
reason I wanted them both to, or the reason that
in my view they should both contribute something to the
resolution is that I felt like they both mismanaged. I
don't mean this critically, but they both mismanaged this process.
So they both have some their their their fault to

(01:07:26):
some degree each of the more. And so this morning
I followed up and I got an email back from
Nichols and James over there said that they discussed that
offer yesterday, they agreed on it, and they're both pretty
satisfied with, uh, you know, with what I just presented.
So they're they're currently working on getting it finalized, getting
it paid, and getting Chelsea's car back to her.

Speaker 5 (01:07:49):
How much was did we know what you find? Yeah,
we don't happen to know that.

Speaker 14 (01:07:54):
The reason I didn't try so hard to find out
is I don't want to broadcast what Nichols you know,
markup and profit margins might be.

Speaker 6 (01:08:03):
I feel like that's that's.

Speaker 5 (01:08:04):
Probably Was it a substantial saving, Well, I'm sure it is.

Speaker 14 (01:08:08):
The bill was six and a half thousand dollars, so
I would imagine that about half of that has got
to be costs and the other half has got to
be you know, a reasonable profit margin for a for
a repair facility.

Speaker 5 (01:08:19):
Okay, well, you know that's wonderful, and I'm hoping I
can give you my dinger. Hold on a second, because
it's hard to get my.

Speaker 14 (01:08:27):
Dinger so much better than Mark's idea from a few
minutes ago.

Speaker 5 (01:08:33):
There's my dinger for Dimitri.

Speaker 6 (01:08:35):
Thank you.

Speaker 5 (01:08:36):
We have Courtney Pierce with a spine Bill. We have
more coming up on The Troubleshooter Show. Stick around, go
with a sure thing Denver's Best Roofer Excel Roofing dot com.
You don't pay a cent until you're content. Time for
an insurance check up free, no obligation comparison call Compass Insurance.

(01:08:58):
Pay too much your cup bridge at dozens of insurance
companies find out now three all three seven seven to
one help. You'll think you're his only customer when you
choose Frank durand the real estate Man dot com to
list your home with Remax Alliance three all three nine
two zero sixteen twenty two.

Speaker 1 (01:09:19):
Ripped news need advice?

Speaker 2 (01:09:24):
Who you don't have? Come running as fast as we
can show Shooter's gonna help Come.

Speaker 4 (01:09:33):
MANX is the Troubleshooter Show Now, Tom Martinez.

Speaker 5 (01:09:40):
Hey, welcome to the show. Three O three seven one
three talks seven one three A two five five. Entering
our third hour of the show, solving problems, answering questions,
taking complaints, and we are truly making progress for people.
If you call with a problem. Now, we don't solve

(01:10:02):
all your problems, but here's what we have done. I
look back at my call sheet here and my database,
and according to our database, about eighty percent of the
time we have a positive impact. That doesn't mean a
complete solving, but somewhere people have places to go and
things to try they didn't have before. Twenty percent are hopeless,

(01:10:28):
eighty percent we can make suggestions and in positive impacts.
Now of the entire amount, about twenty percent get everything
back they wanted. Twenty percent total success, eighty percent positive impact,

(01:10:52):
twenty percent nothing. But that's okay. But I think even
on the twenty percent where we don't do anything, maybe
tell someone where they went wrong, it does help others.
Some people are helpless, Tom people want to be Have

(01:11:13):
you noticed the syndrome I call it when people call
us and they already have the solution they want in
their head, and they try to paint us into a
corner where we can do where they will take no
other suggestion except the one they feel is the one

(01:11:34):
that they should do they just want to be right
or Tom they just want to be right? Yeah, but
we still I think we still feel a really important purpose. Then.
I think when people can just unload it and get
it off their chest, I think they feel good about it.
I really do. And I am sure that people listening.

(01:11:57):
And I know they are because they tell me what
they do. They listen and they are saying to themselves,
this is what I would do, or you totally mishandled that,
or you handled that perfectly, because everyone has a different
way of how they would handle something. But I think
for the most part, we get it right. So Courtney

(01:12:18):
Pierce is our guests today at Buy and Build. Now,
Buy and Build has changed its focus over the years.
They used to have everything up there. You walked around
like in a flea market, and it was all good stuff.
Now they've narrowed it down to counters and cabinets and
plumbing fixtures, not fixtures like toilets and sinks. But what

(01:12:41):
do you call faucets and all that? Okay, now let's
talk Courtney about So you do have sinks.

Speaker 6 (01:12:51):
We have sinks. We have lots of different types of sinks.
We have vessel sinks under mount kitchen sinks. We have bathrooms.
Are they a deal? Yeah, they're a great deal.

Speaker 5 (01:12:59):
Unbelievable actually, But you don't have tubs or showers. No,
And toilets you don't have We got out of those
as well, okay. And no light fixtures nope, okay. So
you do have references for those things though, if people want.

Speaker 6 (01:13:13):
To well, what we try to do is we try
to keep you the customer, out of the big box
stores and try to keep you in the secondary market,
into the small businesses. So when we find other businesses
that are smaller, local companies, we try to keep customers
one saving money and two out of the big box
stores because the corporations don't need the money as much
as the little man does.

Speaker 5 (01:13:35):
Now, I remember one time telling this story, and I
told the one about my of course, I told the
one about my laundry room, and it was true. But
I think that the other part is this story. I
once had somebody walk in my garage. It was in

(01:13:56):
a house I owned in Littleton. It was in what
I called my load up phase. People go through different
times of their lives where they load up on houses
and cars and you know, things to make them feel whole,
and this house was beautiful in and of itself, but
in the I wanted to buy some workbenches. So I
went and looked at what do you call those? Those

(01:14:20):
they're not stainless, but they're steel cabinets, you know. They
they sell them at a lot of the big boxes.
What do they call those again? And their diamond plate?

Speaker 6 (01:14:28):
Yeah, you know what I mean.

Speaker 5 (01:14:32):
No, no, no, we're talking about the actual cabinets, and
the actual it comes in like kits and configurations.

Speaker 6 (01:14:39):
We had a line of those for a while.

Speaker 5 (01:14:40):
We sold it auction and then they come usually with
you compare them with butcher block workbenches. So I remember
pricing this out, and I had a pretty bad, big
damn garage, and I wanted to make a certain section
of it an l section. I wanted to make a workshop.
Twenty four thousand dollars for ironclad Is that what they

(01:15:03):
called it?

Speaker 6 (01:15:03):
Yeah? I think that is correct.

Speaker 5 (01:15:05):
Anyway, twenty four thousand dollars for this diamond plate stuff,
along with some butcher block twenty four grand. So Courtney
was there doing other cabinets for us in the launder
rooms and stuff, and he said, why don't we just
price out your garage, and I said that would be
pretty ostentatious, having a Quaker line of cabinets in the garage.
He said, look, if you get it cheaper than the

(01:15:26):
iron Clad, what difference is it? A God, I forget,
but I swear to you that garage and we did
have it installed by them, that garage with granted workbench
and all of the cabinets and upper cabinets where it
was like twenty four hundred to twenty eight hundred bucks.

(01:15:46):
Now listen, I compare that to the iron Clad at
fourteen grand or more.

Speaker 6 (01:15:51):
Yeah, it was a long time or.

Speaker 5 (01:15:52):
Twenty four grand twenty so anyway, this was about I
don't know, twenty five years ago anyway. So I had
them put it in. People would walk in and be stunned.
They'd say, oh my god, and they're thinking, you know,
how ostentatious. And I'm thinking, you don't understand. I saved
money over the big box for this. I wasn't ostentatious

(01:16:15):
at all. I saved money. Sounds like, oh my god,
But you see, these things are still happening now. Maybe
not that the total prices are differ, like the higher
ones are higher and the savings are higher. But they're
all proportionately still savings, right, yeah, don't you still have
big savings?

Speaker 6 (01:16:31):
I mean absolutely. The prices of cabinets have gone up
exponentially since COVID and shipping and all that other stuff.
But compared to other people, why can you do that?
Why can you be so much lower?

Speaker 5 (01:16:43):
Profortunately?

Speaker 6 (01:16:44):
It's because I don't use distributors. I buy directly from
the manufacturers.

Speaker 5 (01:16:48):
So what does that mean? Is it a second?

Speaker 6 (01:16:50):
It's not. It's a brand new material. We order, you know,
eight hundred to eight hundred and fifty pieces at once.
It comes in an ocean container overseas from Vietnam Lands
and California. We have it delivered directly to our dock
and we unloaded ourselves. So in most cases, what people
are doing they're buying from a distribution facility in Denver
somewhere where it's being you know, middlemanned and marked up

(01:17:11):
about twenty to thirty percent before. The wholesale price is
what the distas.

Speaker 5 (01:17:14):
And then the contractors mark it up again.

Speaker 6 (01:17:16):
Correct, And so wholesale is basically what a distributor sells
it for to a store. And since we don't use
a distributor, we can sell our product at under wholesale
to the public without any memberships or anything like that.

Speaker 5 (01:17:30):
Pretty cool, man, It's way cool. So these are true
stories of how I was able to outfit a house
and save money. But people thought I was extravagant. And
I'll bet you he hears that all the time. Now,
when is your next auction?

Speaker 6 (01:17:48):
We're trying to plan an auction for late May or
early June. We don't have it on the calendar.

Speaker 5 (01:17:51):
You decide what's going on the auction, so.

Speaker 6 (01:17:54):
It really kind of depends. It's kind of funny, but
when customers build a kitchen themselves and they measure it themselves,
we'll get home and they'll realize, oh man, this twenty
one inch cabinet's not going to fit. I need to
get an eighteen. So they'll come back, they'll return the
twenty one built, and they'll buy an eighteen and build
it themselves. And then I have a built twenty one
inch cabinet sitting in our showroom that occasionally we can

(01:18:14):
work into somebody else's kitchen. But in a lot of cases,
after you know, six months, we'll have a surplus of
cabinets that have been returned, and then we we'll take
brand new cabinets and build them next to it and
configure a kitchen around the pieces that we have built
that are all still brand new and perfect shape.

Speaker 5 (01:18:29):
So are you doing a fix and flip or maybe
you're fixing up your dream home or something in between.
If you want to talk to Courtney about anything he
does or has, you can call three h three seven
to one three talk seven one three eight two five five,
or give us a call with any problem, question or complaint.
Remember that's our purpose here is to answer your questions.
And one of the purposes of one clear Choice Garage

(01:18:51):
Doors is to do your wonderful garage doors. One clear
Choice doors dot Com the best garage door company I've
ever met. They come out and make sure your garage
is running perfectly with an inspection around eighty or ninety
bucks if you're moving into a house, or they can
simply come out for any kind of repair. All of
their prices are on their website. One clear Choice doors

(01:19:13):
dot Com. Go with a sure thing Denver's best roofer
Excel Roofing dot com. You don't pay a cent until
you're content, wait time for an insurance check up free,
no obligation in comparison, call Compass insurance paying too much

(01:19:35):
your coverage at dozens of insurance companies find out now
three all three seven to seven to one. Help. You'll
think you're his only customer when you choose Frank durand
the real estate man dot com to list your home
with Remax Alliance three all three nine two zero sixteen
twenty two. Hi, I'm Tom Martino. You're a troubleshooter three
all three seven one three talk three all three seven

(01:19:59):
one three eight two four. Okay, I have something I
want you to hear about the I posted about the
public service or the Excel Energy thing. Hold on. You
may have recently gotten noticed with your utility bill that
Excel Energy is offering some kind of warranty for a
few bucks a month for all the systems in your house.

(01:20:20):
I've looked into them. I don't think they're a good deal,
and Excel is not the only company offering them. Now,
let me explain it. They say waterline coverage, sewer line coverage, appliances,
et cetera. But there are so many conditions. For example,
if your property is used for commercial purposes, Hey, what

(01:20:41):
does that mean? That excludes this house? You have a
home office. It could disqualify me, or it does if
things were not installed according to manufacturers spell how many times?
How do you even know they're things until you make
the claim and they look for a reason not to pay.
Probably most of the next thing, it's only for things

(01:21:01):
damage due to normal wear and tear, not an accident,
not a negligence claim. What's negligence? You didn't take care
of it? What do you have to do to take
care of it? They don't tell you. There are all
kinds of conditions though, trust me. The next thing, coverage
provides for repairs or replacement of parts. Only your systems

(01:21:22):
will not be replaced. That goes for HVAC damage from accidents, negligence,
or otherwise caused by you. Listen, wildlife, others or unusual
circumstances are not covered. What the hell? What's an unusual circumstance?
They don't tell you. That mean damage caused by you, wildlife, others,

(01:21:46):
or unusual circumstances. Who defines that? And when? Yeah, after
you have a claim they define it. What about this?
There are things that are not covered, but all it
says is additional exclusions apply. So when you look at

(01:22:08):
these Please notice they're not doing it to be your friend.
They're doing it to make a profit. Nothing wrong with that,
but you've got to be aware of it. Now. It
says full terms and conditions, costs on covered repairs may
exceed the benefit limit, in which case you pay the

(01:22:29):
difference between the cost and the benefit limit. But listen,
what are those to be defined at a later date?
You see, what you're doing is you're buying a pig
in a blanket and you don't get to peek under
the blanket, but it's still a pig. I'm Tom Martine.

(01:22:54):
There you go. That's what I think of the Excel
Home warned. Jeez, they are terrible. They're terrible. And I
don't think we've ever had people call pleased with a
warranty on a house. Now. They're not the only bad ones.
Every single home warranty is bad. Why do I say it, Mark?

(01:23:17):
Why are they bad? Why are they bad?

Speaker 18 (01:23:20):
Well, basically because a lot of times they don't pay,
I mean that's what it all comes down to.

Speaker 5 (01:23:25):
Yeah, But and you don't get to know until you
put in a claim. So you pay a premium based
on how many systems you have and how many appliances
you have. So let's say they base your claim on
ten systems and appliances ten. Let's just take that number.

(01:23:46):
But three years down the road, one of those systems
was not installed according to manufacturers specifications. They won't cover
the damage. Yet you've been paying for the past three
years on that item. Will they refund the money, nope?
Will they discount it going forward? Nope. So now another

(01:24:08):
year down the road, something else goes bad and they
figured you didn't treat it right or some other reason.
An unusual circumstance, you get to find out what is
covered after something breaks down. Think of that. Think of
a contract where you sign a contract and ask what's covered,

(01:24:30):
and they say, don't worry about it. Whatever we say
is covered, whenever we say is covered, and we'll decide
at the time it breaks down. So how do you
know you're paying a fair premium? You don't. You absolutely
have no idea what kind of coverage you have. I
have been preaching this for years and years and years.

(01:24:54):
That goes for Blue Ribbon, that goes for Excel Energy,
that goes for any kind of warranty, and there's something
very easy people can do to make it right. Very easy.
All you have to do is have an inspection of
the home. How about that? And when you have an
inspection of the home, they can zero out everything that's covered.

(01:25:18):
If something isn't properly installed at that time, it's excluded,
so you're not falsely paying a premium on that item.
See but that would be too honest, that would be
too straightforward, and they wouldn't make enough money. The way
they make their money is charging you for things they

(01:25:39):
will never cover, but they give you the illusion they
are covered. Now, you should copy and paste this whole
segment to people, because I swear to God, there are
so many people buying these useless warranties. What are they
charging these things? Twelve bucks a month, nineteen bucks a month, different.

(01:26:00):
It doesn't matter what they charge, they're useless. The best
thing for you to do is inspect your appliances when
you buy your place, and then just keep track of
your have maintenance done and have it done properly. Don't
depend on some company who says I'll take your money
now and tell you what's covered later on. Oh, just

(01:26:25):
trust me, don't worry about it. Excel, you know what
you are a travesy? What a terrible company. I'll bet
you when people finally have choice, they're gonna flock away
from you because you suck. Excel Energy has to be
the worst company for customer service, the worst company for

(01:26:46):
a steady power, the worst company for response to emergencies,
the worst company I have ever encountered, and we're stuck
with them. But someday these franchises won't be so protected
and people will flock away. I'm Tom Martino. We have
more coming up on The Troubleshooter Show. Three oh three
seven one three talk seven one three eight two five five.

(01:27:13):
Go with a sure thing Denver's best roofer Excel Roofing
dot com. You don't pay a cent until you're content.
Time for an insurance check up free, no obligation. In comparison,
call Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens
of insurance companies find out now three oh three seven
seven to one help. You'll think you're his only customer

(01:27:35):
when you choose Frank durand the real estate Man dot
com to list your home with Remax Alliance three oh
three nine two zero sixteen twenty two. I don't know, Hi,
Tom Martino, You're trouble shooter three oh three seven one
three talk. Let's go to the phones and uh find
out what's going on with Tom? Tom? Go ahead, what's
going on?

Speaker 7 (01:27:56):
Hey Tom?

Speaker 8 (01:27:56):
How are you doing?

Speaker 5 (01:27:59):
I'm doing good? What what's going on?

Speaker 8 (01:28:01):
So I had of question. You had a gentleman I
believe his name was Barry, and the thing was called
Vestera Turnkey.

Speaker 5 (01:28:09):
Yes he advertises with us, Yes he advertises with us.
It's called Vestera Turnkey.

Speaker 8 (01:28:17):
Have you I mean, honestly, the claims that they make,
because I'm starting to look more into it, but their
claims that, you know, a fifty percent return or forty something?
Did you were you able to verify any of these claims,
because yes, that sounds well.

Speaker 5 (01:28:33):
Let me let me let me clarify that I didn't
see it on paper. But when you said verified, I
talked to clients who've gotten those returns. I can't tell
you I did an audit or anything. You know what
I'm saying. But I've known Barry for so long and
these clients are all telling the same story. And it's,
by the way, thirty to eighty percent. And the average

(01:28:57):
whole time is anywhere from a year and a half
to three and a half, and it's not difficult to
understand how they do it. Like, for example, I'm going
through one right now, I'm buying a house, okay, and
I'm doing it through my company through where I'm taking
people who don't want to do the minimum investment and
they want to break it up and be partners with
other people. I suggest, if you're going to do it,

(01:29:19):
is always better to buy the house and own it
on your own through vest Era. But there are people
we're offering slices of a home if they don't want
to do the whole thing, So you have choices. But
let's say you have the average seventy five grand investment.
He hooks you up with a house, usually from a
builder or a relatively new home, and they close on

(01:29:42):
it quickly. They get a great deal. They do it
for low commissions, and then they get a management company
to rent it out and they really babysit this and
sell it when things are starting to sell, usually in
a subdivision. When you buy from a builder like we're doing,

(01:30:02):
what happens is the subdivision hasn't picking up traction yet.
So Barry looks for these key opportunities and then once
a few homes are sold and people start living in there.
The rest of the homes starts selling for more money,
which gives you more money for your resale. So it's

(01:30:22):
really a game of buying and selling. You don't make
a lot of money on your rent I think on
my one rental, I might make one hundred bucks for
the year, literally pays for everything. But the appreciation is
where you make the money. Now, obviously market appreciation is
not guaranteed, but he's not failed so far.

Speaker 8 (01:30:47):
Okay, So here's returns based on market appreciation, not more
of a rental cash on ken.

Speaker 6 (01:30:54):
That's right.

Speaker 5 (01:30:55):
Okay, that's right. That makes me more exactly.

Speaker 8 (01:30:57):
Right, that makes more sense.

Speaker 7 (01:30:59):
Okay, makes more sense.

Speaker 5 (01:31:01):
Okay, So what you're paying for, you're paying for their
expertise and their management, and you kind of sit back.
I'm doing one right now, I really am. I'm doing
one right now, and I'm sitting back, and I'm doing
the payments through my LLC. My LLC is called Vesteria
one LLC. I'm going to be doing Vesera two, Vesara three,

(01:31:25):
Vesara four. And the only difference between me and you,
if you were an investor with Vesteria is I'm going
in with three or four owners, and you'd be going
in on yourself with yourself. But I just offer that
alternative for people that want to get their taste of it,
but they don't want to do the whole thing. But
you're asking me if it works. So far, everything I

(01:31:47):
found shows me that it works and people are happy.
In fact, I have not talked to one person unhappy,
and I'll welcome the call. I will never turn down
a call if someone said I did that and it
was nothing like I was promised, but it just doesn't happen.

Speaker 8 (01:32:05):
Yeah, Because you know, I owned about eleven properties here
in Denver, and I was doing my math, you know
my rentals, like I get about six six and a
half percent. Half for HOA and taxes and everything, it's
about four percent. So when I started listening about these things,
I was like, oh, wait a minute.

Speaker 7 (01:32:21):
That doesn't make any sense. How could it be ten
x of that?

Speaker 8 (01:32:24):
But okay, now I get it.

Speaker 5 (01:32:25):
That's well, Tom, I want to ask you something. I
want to ask you something. I bought a two story
home that is phenomenal, a brand new home, beautiful home
on a big lot. And I could go on and
on and on about the amenities. But I'm buying it
for three h nine. Well that's that is a home

(01:32:49):
that would go here for four fifty to five hundred easily,
easily correct. Now, I want to ask you something though,
For you to be a success in the rental business
right now, you had to have bought these years ago, right, yes,
because people who try to get rentals now in Denver,

(01:33:11):
they have rocks in their head.

Speaker 7 (01:33:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:33:16):
And then and like I said, the six percent is
based on today's market value, based on my cash. Yeah,
that I purchased them about eight years ago.

Speaker 5 (01:33:24):
A bike. Give me an idea, Give me an idea.
I want to give me an idea of your best purchase.

Speaker 8 (01:33:33):
There is there's one single family that I bought for
two hundred and eleven when five about ten years ago?
And okay, about five fifty five sixty single family?

Speaker 5 (01:33:51):
Good? What is your endgame, Tom? What? What is your endgame?

Speaker 8 (01:33:56):
Retirement?

Speaker 5 (01:33:59):
Okay? So Tom, well, who manages these houses? Who manages
his house?

Speaker 8 (01:34:06):
I have a property manager that handles all of these
for me.

Speaker 5 (01:34:11):
I always say, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
So if you're getting good returns and you have good management,
and you have a good system, we'll just milk it
and sell it. But people always wait too long to sell.
They think, oh, it's so high, it's going to go
up higher. And one thing, you have you done ten

(01:34:35):
thirty one exchanges?

Speaker 8 (01:34:37):
I haven't done. No, haven't sold any of the units yet. No.

Speaker 5 (01:34:42):
Okay, well there's a ten thirty one exchange. You can
sell a unit and exchange it for another one if
you ever want to do that, And then you defer
the taxes. You're not going to get out of pay
in the taxes, but you'll defer them. But it sounds
to me like you're pretty smart and you have a
under control. This is for people who don't want to

(01:35:04):
manage a house. They don't want to think about it.
They just want to invest their money and let someone
else worry about it.

Speaker 8 (01:35:14):
I kind of figured that I just wanted to play it.
I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't missing anything,
just so I'm like, man, I really know a little
bit of the game. But I was like, I cannot
be missing that much off the game.

Speaker 7 (01:35:25):
But apparently no, no, no.

Speaker 5 (01:35:27):
In fact, in fact, I'm only going to make like
one hundred bucks in positive cash flow of the first year,
the second year and third year look better. But you know, rent,
at least for these houses, rent is not the game.
It's equity appreciation. Three three seven to one three Talk

(01:35:48):
is our number. Thank you for calling Tom. If you
have any questions, go to my Biggest Return dot com.
We're going to be doing a seminar on the fifth.
Barry and I will be talking about it. Okay, so
go and sign up my Biggest Return dot com. I'll
be there, Barry'll be there. We'll be talking about investing
in these homes My Biggest Return dot Com. Go with

(01:36:19):
a sure thing Denver's Best roofer Excel Roofing dot com.
You don't pay a cent until you're content. Time for
an insurance check up free no obligation comparison call Compass
Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens of insurance
companies find out now three oh three seven to seven
to one. Help. You'll think you're his only customer when

(01:36:41):
you choose Frank durand the Real Estate Man dot com
to list your home with Remax Alliance three oh three
nine two zero sixteen twenty two. Hi Tom Martino, You're
troubleshooter Trio three seven on three Talk seven one three,
two five five. Hey Phil, what's going on with you?

Speaker 16 (01:37:04):
Welcome Dom, I've called you before, you know me?

Speaker 5 (01:37:10):
Yeah, I've heard of you before because you call a lot. Yes, sir, Yeah,
I'm a radio guy. Remember yep, you had low low
powered radio.

Speaker 16 (01:37:19):
Stations, gees and everything.

Speaker 5 (01:37:21):
But didn't you have low power? Didn't you market low
power radio stations at one time?

Speaker 6 (01:37:27):
No?

Speaker 16 (01:37:28):
I don't think so.

Speaker 5 (01:37:29):
No, that's I don't know why. I don't know why.
I remember like how he doesn't think so? But maybe nod?
So what's going on? Had?

Speaker 16 (01:37:37):
I had four TV shops. I worked with Pistols TV
if you remember them. Fresh met all those guys. But anyways,
what I'm calling for Tom Torontosaurus Rex.

Speaker 5 (01:37:53):
Yeah, Tom.

Speaker 16 (01:37:54):
What I'm calling for is, I had my show broke
the other day in my pickup. This's a ninety three
Chevy pickup poor will drive Z's seventy one. She got
forty seven thousand actual miles on it. Now, I took

(01:38:17):
it into I called and they came out to put
a windshield in and I found out that it was
an aftermarket I want the original windshield. We're in the hell.

Speaker 5 (01:38:32):
I don't think I don't know if they sell them anymore. Phil,
I don't know if they sell them anymore.

Speaker 16 (01:38:37):
Well, come on, no on.

Speaker 5 (01:38:40):
A nineteen listen on a nineteen seventy three Chevy pickup.
What do you expect the world to stop to stock in?
Definitely OEM parts original manufacturer only makes parks for about
ten years if you're lucky.

Speaker 16 (01:38:57):
Yeah, I understand that. I went through that all right, Eddy,
So I had the windshield put him by safe light.
So I drove over to safe light and he looked
at it. He said, well, the guy that put it
in put it in crooked. We're going to have to
take it back and dress it up. And I said, no,

(01:39:19):
I want the original. I don't care what it costs,
six eight hundred thousand dollars. I want an original windshield
in Phil, he's only got forty thousand miles on this truck.

Speaker 5 (01:39:34):
Phil. They're not they're not putting it in there, not
because they're giving you a hard time. It's not available.
It doesn't matter what you want to pay, it's not available.

Speaker 22 (01:39:46):
So you got a thirty two Ford coup, you got
a Tesla like Mark Scott, his windshield breaks or something
like that.

Speaker 16 (01:39:57):
They're going to put a.

Speaker 5 (01:39:59):
A I want an Oh yeah, no on newer I
want an OEL on newer cars, Phil, on newer cars,
you're more likely to get an OEM.

Speaker 18 (01:40:10):
Yeah, but he's only gotten older. He's only got forty
five thousand miles. That's like new.

Speaker 16 (01:40:16):
Yeah, Mark, Chevy Silver roddel Z seventy one four World Drive.

Speaker 5 (01:40:22):
Did you say ninety every one?

Speaker 16 (01:40:25):
It's a ninety three?

Speaker 5 (01:40:26):
Did you say a ninety three? Yes, not a second seventy.
He still thirty plus years.

Speaker 18 (01:40:34):
Yeah, but there's only forty five thousand miles on it.

Speaker 5 (01:40:38):
Shut up, Mark, God, he's such a pain in the ass.

Speaker 22 (01:40:42):
Mark.

Speaker 5 (01:40:42):
Listen. Why don't you Phil toat chat? Let Mark take
care of this for you. He seems to agree with you.

Speaker 22 (01:40:49):
Hey, Mark, Yeah, forty seven thousand on this.

Speaker 18 (01:40:54):
But I'm trying to explain to Tom it's like.

Speaker 16 (01:40:57):
A baby showroom.

Speaker 5 (01:40:59):
It's not been a toddler yet.

Speaker 16 (01:41:02):
Huh.

Speaker 18 (01:41:03):
It's not even a toddler yet. It's a baby. It's
in the breaking period.

Speaker 16 (01:41:08):
Yeah, the motor's just getting ready to break in. But
I don't drive it that much.

Speaker 18 (01:41:13):
I keep it in the why'd you break the windshield
in the first place?

Speaker 16 (01:41:18):
Well, I don't know if it was between the cold.
I drove it that day and I put it in
and it snowed and got cold. Then there was a
big crack along side of.

Speaker 5 (01:41:30):
It, and now it's crooked.

Speaker 16 (01:41:32):
Right, yes's got two big cracks. But Mark, where could ill?
Where do you think I could probably get?

Speaker 5 (01:41:40):
Hey?

Speaker 18 (01:41:40):
Tom, who do you know that would have an OEM
windshield for his nineteen ninety three Z seventy one with
only forty seven?

Speaker 5 (01:41:48):
Has a mile to me?

Speaker 7 (01:41:52):
No? Wait?

Speaker 5 (01:41:53):
Wait, wait, what's the guy's name? And back to the future. Marty, Yes,
Marty McFly, he would have it.

Speaker 16 (01:42:00):
Do they got flex capacitors to.

Speaker 5 (01:42:04):
Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 18 (01:42:05):
You know you're not gonna passion you buy, brother, You're
not gonna find one, man, that's the bottom line.

Speaker 5 (01:42:12):
You're not gonna find one.

Speaker 16 (01:42:13):
I went to Classic Chevy out of Lando, Florida. I'm sorry,
go ahead to a few, Phil. They don't even make
the rubber for it.

Speaker 7 (01:42:25):
Phil.

Speaker 14 (01:42:26):
You do understand that General Motors doesn't manufacture windshields, right,
They buy them from a manufacturer like PPG, for example.
So whatever after market windshield you buy is going to
be the same thing that GM used to buy way
back in nineteen ninety three.

Speaker 16 (01:42:40):
Well, why ruin a truck that has only forty seven
thousand miles?

Speaker 5 (01:42:46):
Dmitri.

Speaker 18 (01:42:46):
You're not listening, brother, Dmitri. It's only got forty seven
thousand miles.

Speaker 14 (01:42:53):
That sounds brand new. I'll bet it's still covered under Winshield.

Speaker 16 (01:42:56):
Warranty to a room quality.

Speaker 5 (01:42:59):
Sweet.

Speaker 6 (01:43:00):
No, it isn't.

Speaker 5 (01:43:03):
No, it isn't. It's not that new.

Speaker 6 (01:43:05):
Come on, bro, he says, it's showroom quality.

Speaker 14 (01:43:08):
Phil, what color is.

Speaker 5 (01:43:09):
That TRUCKLU, send us a picture of us? Yeah, send
us a picture of it. Do you want to sell
the truck?

Speaker 3 (01:43:19):
No?

Speaker 5 (01:43:19):
Why not?

Speaker 16 (01:43:20):
I shold one similar to it a while back, and
I got forty four thousand dollars for it.

Speaker 14 (01:43:28):
And hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, I'll
bet you that one.

Speaker 5 (01:43:34):
Wait a minute, you call it.

Speaker 6 (01:43:37):
Wait a minute.

Speaker 5 (01:43:38):
I found an original OEM part.

Speaker 6 (01:43:41):
Hold on.

Speaker 5 (01:43:41):
I found it more coming up on the troubleshooter. So
I found it, Phil, I did go with a sure
thing Denver's Best roofer Excel roofing dot com. You don't
pay a cent until you're content. Time for an insurance
check up free, no obligation comparison call Compass Insurance pay

(01:44:04):
too much your coverage at dozens of insurance companies. Find
out now three oh three seven seven to one help.
You'll think you're his only customer when you choose Frank
durand the real estate man dot com to list your
home with Remax Alliance three oh three nine two zero
sixteen twenty two.

Speaker 1 (01:44:25):
Ridd you need so you don't have.

Speaker 3 (01:44:32):
You'll come run in sious as fast as we can.

Speaker 2 (01:44:35):
Show Shooter's gonna help.

Speaker 3 (01:44:37):
Come man, This is.

Speaker 4 (01:44:40):
The Troubleshooter Show. No Tom Martinez.

Speaker 5 (01:44:45):
Hey, welcome to the show. Three O three seven one
three talk three oh three seven one three eight two
five five. So we have a guy asking about original
equipment winshields, and I didn't think they were available, and
I'm hearing from artificial intelligence that they could be available.

(01:45:07):
They make the same kind of windshields but for other vehicles,
but I'm not sure if that's true. Kevin says he
owns a glass company and wants to weigh in on this.
Go ahead.

Speaker 16 (01:45:22):
Because all I know.

Speaker 5 (01:45:24):
Hello, yep, right here, go ahead, sir.

Speaker 23 (01:45:28):
Yeah. The first thing, you don't want to go to
Safelight because they use their own windshields and they come
from China and Mexico. They don't fit right. Plus they're
thinner than No. What you do is you go to
a regular glass auto glass place, ask for a PPG
windshield or a LOF windshield, which is factory for and

(01:45:52):
they're made here in the United States.

Speaker 16 (01:45:54):
You get them all day.

Speaker 23 (01:45:55):
Long one hundred and fifty bucks.

Speaker 5 (01:45:58):
Nice.

Speaker 18 (01:46:00):
Do you think it wouldn't but correct me if I'm wrong.
It wouldn't show like I don't know. I'd just use
Tesla for example. It literally has a Tesla emblem on
the glass if you bought directly. I understand you're saying
it's the exact same windshield, But I think this guy
wants that little Chevy on there because it's a Chevy.

Speaker 5 (01:46:18):
Would that be on there?

Speaker 19 (01:46:20):
No, it would say PPG got it, YEPG is who made?

Speaker 5 (01:46:25):
But is it the same? Is it the same windshield?

Speaker 23 (01:46:29):
Yeah, it's the factory windshield nineteen ninety three Silverado. You
asked for a PPG windshield?

Speaker 5 (01:46:37):
Phil? Did you say, Phil? What do you think of that? Phil?
What do you think of that?

Speaker 16 (01:46:42):
Yeah? Sounds good. Tell them to give me a call.

Speaker 5 (01:46:46):
Okay, No, I I don't think you. Kevin gives Susann
your number. Okay, No, I think Phil can call him,
right Phil, I don't think you can, Beckham call these
business owners to call you, but you can. You can
feel free to call him.

Speaker 13 (01:47:02):
Okay, Hey, what's the number three or three?

Speaker 6 (01:47:08):
There you go?

Speaker 23 (01:47:09):
Threeal three eight eight oh eight one nine six.

Speaker 18 (01:47:11):
Hey, Kevin, will that one you're talking about? That PPG though?
Will that work with the one with forty seven thousand
miles on it?

Speaker 5 (01:47:20):
Oh? Shut up? Mark? Hey Kevin, what what's the name
of your company? Kevin, Kevin, what's the name of your company?
What's the name of your company?

Speaker 23 (01:47:29):
Euro Glass E, euro Glass, R O G L A S.

Speaker 5 (01:47:33):
Cool? Yep, thank you, There you go, Phil. We solved
the problem there and they get my dinger. I use
my dinger what three times twice today? That's pretty cool?
Thank you, Kevin. Three oh three seven one three talk
seven one three eight two five five. I have a

(01:47:53):
weird question, and it was brought up by this Are
there replacement part for cabinets you can't get because you
get these cabinets And what do you do about that? Courtney?

Speaker 6 (01:48:07):
Well, so if it's a cabinet that you bought from us,
we absolutely have the parts available to if you have
a bad hinge or a bad glide on your jewel.

Speaker 5 (01:48:15):
Are they mostly general stuff that people use, Yeah, it's
cross the company line.

Speaker 6 (01:48:22):
But sometimes, you know, somebody will you know, scratch their
door with a screwdriver accidentally when they're doing something else
in their kitchen, in which case we can order replacement
parts for the cabinets in the exact same colors and styles.

Speaker 5 (01:48:35):
Okay, And so do you have problems with older cabinets
or can you get pretty much anything?

Speaker 6 (01:48:42):
We can get pretty much anything. Now if I have
a cabinet line that's been discontinued, like you know, Buy
and Build has been in business for over twenty years,
so we've gone through a lot of different colors of cabinets.
So for instance, what we put in your garage that
time was a rustic Tuscany cabinet. If you had a
problem with that, we could probably help you with hinges
and drawer glides, but we can't get your replacement doors
because it's a discontinued color.

Speaker 5 (01:49:02):
Okay, all right, So replacement parts, I think with everything
runs the challenge. I do know though with hardware, and
with common things like hinges and hardware, aren't a lot
of these common hardware items, quality ones used across quality
brands and cabinets.

Speaker 6 (01:49:22):
Yes, and and a lot of them will fit multiple it's.

Speaker 5 (01:49:24):
True hardware one I'm thinking about or true or is that?
Am I thinking about? Windows?

Speaker 6 (01:49:29):
Said where Resources is one of the companies that sells
a lot of aftermarket products.

Speaker 5 (01:49:32):
Okay, and so pretty much you can you can repair
a cabinet, yes, okay, somebody wants to know does it
pay to cover a cabinet? You know, you don't hear
them advertising that much anymore, right now, I know that
Done Right did that, and they you know, they're a
good company, they've been around for years. But they also

(01:49:53):
do replacement. Of course, total replacement. When does it make
sense not to replace but to.

Speaker 6 (01:50:00):
So very rarely if you have a situation where your
cabinets are installed and you just the thought of pulling
out the boxes and replacing them is going to be
a domino effect and you're going to need to redo
your flooring and redo your walls and your backsplash and
all that because of it. Sometimes you can save a
little money by doing a reface. But honestly, Sears used
to sell a ton of refacing that used to be

(01:50:21):
their thing, and to reface the normal kitchens about twenty
thousand dollars.

Speaker 5 (01:50:26):
Well, you can buy all new one.

Speaker 6 (01:50:27):
The kitchen at Buy and Build costs you about seven
thousand dollars.

Speaker 5 (01:50:30):
Say, that's ridiculous. So it's just more of an and
it's not even so much more of an inconvenience. Really,
it's still a lot of big mess if you reface.

Speaker 6 (01:50:37):
Yeah, and a lot of them look the same. You
go into kitchens and you can tell like, oh, look
those are reface cabinets because they're the same as everybody
else is in America. You know, there's two or three
choices for new doors, and then they'll go in and
sometimes paint the interiors. But really replacing them is going
to be cheaper and a much better product in the
long run.

Speaker 5 (01:50:54):
Three zero three seven to one three talks seven one
three eight two five five. Another question here is about countertops.
Do you install the cabinets first? Obviously yes, and then
you install the count the counters Okay? Do you template
after the cabinets are installed or do you have a

(01:51:15):
diagram you go buy? Yes.

Speaker 6 (01:51:16):
So when we do our estimates in the shop, we
do it by square footage and the cabinet layout, and
we say it's going to cross approximately this sphere countertop.
And then when the cabinets are installed.

Speaker 5 (01:51:26):
That's when you actually plant it out.

Speaker 6 (01:51:28):
Yeah, we'll go out, we'll template it so you never
start cutting. We might see that there's an electrical fixture
that's in the way that we need to cut around
or something like that. So your price could potentially go
up when we measure, but we're pretty good about estimating
it the first time. And then yeah, we go out
after they're installed in template, so it's perfect.

Speaker 5 (01:51:46):
So let's go over the steps. First they call you
for this, and then do you send someone out or
do they come to the showroom.

Speaker 6 (01:51:53):
Typically they'll come to the showroom to pick out what
color they want and what kind and what type of Yeah,
if they want quartz or granted or mar and cabinets yep,
and then what what snabinets and so then we'll help
them dry out and design their kitchens.

Speaker 5 (01:52:05):
On a graph paper right yep.

Speaker 6 (01:52:07):
And if you want, yeah, for kitchen cabinets, for instance,
if you want a drawer base next to your dishwasher,
which most people do, we kind of go through all that.
You know your sink's going to be here. Then your
dishwasher than a drawer base, and we'll line it out
to where you're happy with the kitchen. And then once
we have that we know the square footage your granted approximately,
we'll ask.

Speaker 5 (01:52:24):
You and you'll also know the number of base cabinets
you need exactly, and then we'll ask you if you
want a four inch backsplash or if you want backsplash
all the way up to the bottom of your wall cabinets.

Speaker 6 (01:52:32):
It's going to change your footage of granite. But then
once we have the approximate footage, we can show you
the different colors available for the price that you're looking at,
and then we can very easily give you the installation cast.

Speaker 5 (01:52:43):
Someone wants to know are they still going I see
a lot of models that had extra tall cabinets on top.
Do they still do those?

Speaker 6 (01:52:50):
So we have a forty two inch cabinet, it's our
tallest cabinet. But we do now have stackables so we
can go up to a ten foot profile.

Speaker 5 (01:52:56):
But why do people do that just for looks? I
mean get up there unless they have a library ladder exactly.

Speaker 6 (01:53:02):
Without a ladder, you can't access that. So maybe if
it's stuff for like Easter or holiday that you use
once a year.

Speaker 5 (01:53:08):
You can put it up there, but it is wasted space.
I think those tall cabinets, I think they really serve
a purpose.

Speaker 23 (01:53:14):
Well.

Speaker 6 (01:53:15):
Nowadays houses have such tall ceilings that there's a lot
of airspace, and some people like to vary the heights
of their cabinet so it looks like a cityscape, or
they'll take it all the way to the ceiling just
for esthetics and do glass doors up at the top
and maybe light them up.

Speaker 5 (01:53:27):
Oh really, but they don't. They usually use a soffet,
I mean a space from the top of the cabin
into the ceiling.

Speaker 6 (01:53:34):
Sometimes and sometimes they'll put a piece of crown molding
there to cover it all the way up.

Speaker 5 (01:53:38):
Oh that's nice.

Speaker 6 (01:53:39):
So your cabinets attached to the ceiling basically.

Speaker 5 (01:53:42):
And door styles are most of them going flat.

Speaker 6 (01:53:45):
It seems to be the trend right now. They're going
to a shaker style cabinet, which is a flat panel
with a border around it, which is.

Speaker 5 (01:53:51):
But it does have a border. Some of them are
flat flat flat.

Speaker 6 (01:53:53):
Yeah, and so that's popular in certain applications as well.
Like I said, the newest thing right now seems to
be this pit heat line which is a shaker cabinet,
but the border of the cabinet is only about one inch,
so you're getting mostly flat panel with a one inch
border around. It is a very clean look. I think
the only problem with that is attaching the door handles.
You have to be very careful not to mess that up.

Speaker 5 (01:54:16):
Three oh three seven one three talks seven one three
eight two five five. We have more right after this,
go with a sure thing Denver's Best roofer Excel Roofing
dot com. You don't pay a cent until you're content.

(01:54:37):
Time for an insurance check up free no obligation comparison
call Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens
of insurance companies find out now three oh three seven
to seven to one help. You'll think you're his only
customer when you choose Frank durand the real estate Man
dot com to list your home with Remax Alliance three
oh three nine two zero sixteen twenty two their pieces

(01:55:00):
of junk Day. Hey, I'm Tom Martino. Frank, do you
want to make a clarification about auto glass? Did we
get something wrong? Frank? Do you need a clarification? Tom
oh okay, go ahead, Frank, what do you need?

Speaker 8 (01:55:18):
Oh, this is Mike. Anyway, that autoglass.

Speaker 9 (01:55:21):
Did that guy.

Speaker 8 (01:55:22):
Say to get a winch, you'll go to an autoglass
shop or any glass shop.

Speaker 18 (01:55:28):
Oh, he said go to he said auto shoe.

Speaker 5 (01:55:34):
I mean, I mean that was pretty straightforward.

Speaker 18 (01:55:39):
But he was talking about one that we believe is
now called PGW. It used to be PGG or something.

Speaker 6 (01:55:49):
He used to be PPG.

Speaker 5 (01:55:50):
Yeah, that's right, that was PGW PGW PPG from two PGW. Yes, okay,
are they the same company?

Speaker 7 (01:55:58):
Yeah?

Speaker 14 (01:55:59):
They were bunt it off EPG mm hm okay, but
I standalone company.

Speaker 5 (01:56:04):
So how does that affect us? I mean the BAKS doesn't. Yeah,
it doesn't. We don't care.

Speaker 18 (01:56:09):
Well, hold on, I do want to check. I do
want to check one thing though, I'm asking AI here.
Oh you know, you know who actually owns them now
is LKQ, which is crazy. No, l KQ sold them
O E P. Whoever that is now owns them? Have

(01:56:30):
you heard of them? Dimitri OEP?

Speaker 6 (01:56:34):
No?

Speaker 14 (01:56:36):
Why can't they all just have a regular name? Why
do they all have a the expert on?

Speaker 5 (01:56:41):
If you want to talk to him again, guys, yo
put him on.

Speaker 18 (01:56:44):
Ahead, Maybe he knows about l O L. Hello, go ahead,
Hey Kevin.

Speaker 5 (01:56:52):
Who who? What company were you talking about? We're all
confused now.

Speaker 23 (01:56:57):
Okay, PPG makes GM products.

Speaker 5 (01:57:00):
Yeah, but they're not around anymore. They're gone.

Speaker 18 (01:57:02):
It says that they were sold to a company named PGW.

Speaker 23 (01:57:06):
Okay, it's the same company.

Speaker 5 (01:57:08):
Okay, got it made?

Speaker 23 (01:57:09):
Same deal? Yeah, same deal okay, Like in my like
in my ford, I tell them I want an l
O F or a car light that's a factory windshield.

Speaker 5 (01:57:19):
I got it.

Speaker 23 (01:57:20):
Everything else comes out of China or Mexico. They're thinner,
they don't. They're warped, they don't. They don't seal upright,
They're just you know, they're kind of jug But I
mean to get the real deal. It's a couple bucks more.
I mean with my Audi's or Mercedes, and I've got
full replacement, you know, through my insurance. I make them

(01:57:42):
put in a factory windshield because I know it's gonna
fit other ones, don't.

Speaker 18 (01:57:49):
It actually says that some PGW auto glass is made
in China, so they must have like a cheap version,
and then the American version, because it says there's North
American and European plants as well.

Speaker 23 (01:58:04):
Yep, yep, that's the deal.

Speaker 5 (01:58:06):
Okay.

Speaker 23 (01:58:06):
But the worst ones I've always had a headache with totally.
I mean there's there's there are junkie ones too safe
light makes their own stuff, and they do not last
and they do not fit right.

Speaker 5 (01:58:20):
I've had horrible lecture with autographs in the state.

Speaker 23 (01:58:23):
Yeah, I just I've just dealt with too many. Anytime
I get a chip and a winshield, that's one thing
that bugs me, I just replace it. I could be
driving a piece of junk but have a brand new
winshield in it.

Speaker 5 (01:58:38):
Got it all right? Thanks bro, Yes, sir, thank you.
Trio three seven one, three eight two five five. Okay,
So Cornelia, what about your student loan? What's going on?
Cornelia the show?

Speaker 17 (01:58:57):
I have nine student loans service by mail net.

Speaker 5 (01:59:03):
Wait wait, did you say you have how many? How
many student loans?

Speaker 17 (01:59:08):
Nine?

Speaker 5 (01:59:10):
Okay? And how many institutions? Is that for? Do you
have a doctorate?

Speaker 17 (01:59:16):
No, No, it's for my apparent plus loan. It's for
two of my sons to the.

Speaker 5 (01:59:21):
Loans, okay, for two of your kids. Okay, And what
is your question?

Speaker 17 (01:59:30):
Well, my question is they're vot services. All of them
are serviced by nail Net. And on my statement mid February,
the terms were different, terms like seventy nine one hundred
and eighty two and now something changed my payments amount?

(01:59:52):
Did that change? But I added twenty more payments than
one of my loans and several others.

Speaker 5 (02:00:00):
So is this league Wait a minute, Well, I don't
know it's legal. I don't know if it was a
mistake to begin with that they're correcting or what happened.
So you're basically saying on some of your loans where
you had paid them down, they absolutely, they just added arbitrarily.
They added payments back.

Speaker 17 (02:00:20):
Yeah, they are are the length of the time.

Speaker 5 (02:00:24):
So your balance is your balance has changed from one
month to another.

Speaker 17 (02:00:29):
Yeah, the balance did not change. So I sign up
for an autodibit.

Speaker 5 (02:00:35):
They have a Okay, your your balance didn't change, just
the payments.

Speaker 17 (02:00:41):
Interesting the payment lengths on several accounts, Yes, but.

Speaker 5 (02:00:46):
Did the did you call them about it? Well, hold on,
did the payment go down?

Speaker 14 (02:00:51):
No?

Speaker 17 (02:00:52):
The payments stay the same. So I had two separate dates.
One was eleven twenty fifte a month, and I agree
to have everything paid by on the eleventh, all of
it to be done one month and in need.

Speaker 5 (02:01:09):
Were you were you ever laid Were you ever laid
before on these student payments?

Speaker 16 (02:01:15):
No?

Speaker 5 (02:01:16):
Okay, they were never import So what's the problem now?

Speaker 17 (02:01:21):
The problem is I'm trying to understand how can they
when they have access and I agree to do standard payments,
nothing else talent payments, how can they by allowing them
to take the money at the beginning of the month
for all the loans or three days separate days, how

(02:01:42):
can they add twenty months to the loans.

Speaker 5 (02:01:47):
That I don't know. That's that's I don't know the
answer to that. Did you Did they answer it when
you ask.

Speaker 17 (02:01:55):
Them, Well, they try to give me the COVID then something,
and I said, that's not right because I have made money.

Speaker 5 (02:02:03):
Okay, here, here's what I'm going to do. I think
there's something we're not understanding. What I'd like you to do?
Do you have statements for your account?

Speaker 7 (02:02:13):
Yes?

Speaker 5 (02:02:17):
I would like Deputy Dollar. I know Deputy Dollar is
going to be pissed a Deputy Dollar. Since you're a
money man, I want you seriously to I want you
to kind of look at this one and maybe do
a conference call with you and her so you can

(02:02:39):
understand what they're trying to tell you. I mean, they
can't just arbitrarily add payments on to the end unless
she was late or something and they're restructuring it. But
I don't understand any of it.

Speaker 6 (02:02:54):
What's going on?

Speaker 5 (02:02:55):
Hold on? Hold on? What do you think is going on?

Speaker 14 (02:02:58):
D What do you think was there any interruption and
payments due either to the forbearance from the pandemic or
from one of those many loan for them forgiveness pro
I think she said no, was there a period when
no payments were due?

Speaker 6 (02:03:15):
Cornelia?

Speaker 17 (02:03:17):
I don't think that's the case, because.

Speaker 14 (02:03:24):
There a period when no payments were due.

Speaker 17 (02:03:27):
Ever, I don't know.

Speaker 5 (02:03:32):
Now here's what we're asking. Have you ever, in the
life of this loan had a forbearance agreement where you
skipped payments? No?

Speaker 18 (02:03:40):
So during COVID you made all the payments, never skipped
a payment.

Speaker 17 (02:03:46):
Never skipped the payment they weren't due, and I paid
as much as I could each funt.

Speaker 5 (02:03:53):
No, that's not what I'm asking. No, no, no, no, no,
that's what's going on. No no, no, no, we're not
asking if you paid as much as you could. What
I'm asking is did you make the full payment every
single month on every single.

Speaker 17 (02:04:07):
Loan since they became payable.

Speaker 18 (02:04:12):
Yes, I understand what she's saying while the kids in school,
I can't.

Speaker 5 (02:04:18):
She said she paid, she said she paid as much
as she could time.

Speaker 18 (02:04:22):
No, what she's saying is she's saying when the kids
were in school, they didn't have to make any payments.
The second the payments became due, she has been making
the full payment ever since.

Speaker 5 (02:04:33):
She's never missed a month. Yes, is that what you're saying. Yes,
So what did you mean when you said on some
months you paid as much as you could? What did
that mean? I'm just curious.

Speaker 17 (02:04:49):
So during COVID, there was no payments due and I
kept making payments. There was no amounts due, and I
kept making payment.

Speaker 5 (02:04:58):
How do you know? How do you know there were
no payments due?

Speaker 17 (02:05:02):
I have?

Speaker 23 (02:05:04):
Well, okay, you why did you keep everybody's payment?

Speaker 5 (02:05:09):
Why did you keep Why did you keep making payments
if no payments were due?

Speaker 17 (02:05:15):
Because you had the options to pay off some of
the tax or towards the principle, and I chose to
do so.

Speaker 5 (02:05:24):
You chose to go against the principle.

Speaker 17 (02:05:27):
I chose to pay interest off.

Speaker 18 (02:05:31):
No, No, No, that would be insane. Why, well, you
would pay principle off? Why would you pay the interest off?

Speaker 5 (02:05:39):
See, I don't think she understands. I have another question.
I have another question. How many payments did you make
in its full amount during COVID?

Speaker 17 (02:05:53):
I cannot tell it's a different service or as I'll
need to look at something else. It was under the great.

Speaker 5 (02:05:58):
Leg Okay, here's what I think happened. And I think
they're making up for anything that was not paid, because
even when you got a forbearance, even when you got
a legitimate forbearance, all they did was added them to
the end of the loan. They didn't forgive anything. It
was just a big ripoff when they said they they
gave you a forbearance. No one got a forbearance. And

(02:06:19):
I remember Mark talking about this. He said, if you
think you're going to miss six, eight, ten, twelve payments,
they're all going to come back at the end. I
remember you saying that, Mark. Yeah, she's saying she paid
those that's what's that. No she didn't, No, she didn't.
She's saying she paid as much as she could when
she could. That's what she said. Well, okay, I mean,

(02:06:41):
if that's where it's at, then I mean she we
need we need, we need deputy, We need deputy Dollar
to get on the phone call with the lender or
the servicer and find out what the hell is going on.
I'm Tom Martinez. Dan McKenzie is an estate planning attorney,
and it's why is to get him involved in your

(02:07:01):
life for a simple trust, maybe an LLC to put
property in that actually passes through death as well, or
you may want a simple will. He is very creative
in what he does. You can call him and get
a consultation. Eight three three COO Plans. That's Stan McKenzie
Live and Local. Are expert here on the show about

(02:07:23):
all things wills, trusts, probate and the like. Eight three
three co plans. Go with a sure thing Denver's Best
Roofer Excel roofing dot com. You don't pay a cent
until you're content. Please time for an insurance checkup free

(02:07:46):
no obligation comparison call Compass Insurance paying too much your
coverage at dozens of insurance companies find out now three
oh three, seven to seven to one help. You'll think
you're his only customer when you choose Frank durand the
real estate man dot com to list your home with
Remax Alliance three oh three nine two zero sixteen twenty two.

(02:08:11):
Hi Tom Martino, you're a troubleshooter. Welcome to the show. Okay,
let's keep going here. And wow, we're getting uh, we're
getting through the calls. But if you have any we
still have time for calls at three oh three seven
one three talk three oh three seven one three eight
two five five. So we've covered a lot of the

(02:08:37):
a lot of the situation when it comes to kitchens
and baths in the process and buy and Bill dot net.
You can go right there. You can go visit them
at five sixty South Lapan. They're not a high pressure place.
They're not a and I'm not gonna say hatsi, tatsi,
they're not well let me have another word. Come on,
help me sus. They're not pretentious. How about that one.

(02:09:00):
They're not tweety hoity toity. They're good people. Although they
have hoity toity stuff, they're not hoity toity people. So
I just think that it's a great way to go.
And I'll bet you you have people that come there
and browse and end up buying way more than they thought.
I mean, if you think about it, it's just really

(02:09:20):
an extraordinary place.

Speaker 6 (02:09:22):
Yeah, Like I said, if people have done any pre
shopping and done their due diligence on researching pricing, when
they come into our shop, you know, they sometimes think, well,
all we can afford is cabinets right now, and we're
gonna do like for Micah countertops. And then they see
our pricing and they're like, we can do brand new cabinets,
we can do installation. We can also do granted with
installation and have money left over at the end.

Speaker 5 (02:09:44):
Okay, So here's the bottom line. You go there for
counters and you go there for cabinets, and you go
there for some of the fixtures and some of the
faucets and all that, and then they'll tell you what
they can and can't do. They'll help you design it
and then fill in the blanks and that design I think.

(02:10:05):
I think that graph paper. Do you know what I
like about that paper, Courtney, is you don't have to
disappoint people because when they actually it's really shocking. When
you look at your piece of graph paper, you want
to do a million things. Then you realize, wait, a minute,
there's no room right because graph paper doesn't lie. What
is it one square for each foot, yes, or whatever.

Speaker 6 (02:10:26):
The other thing I've noticed about the programs that like
Home Depot uses a program to help you design the kitchens,
and they'll say your walls one hundred and twenty two inches,
and you want your sink right here, and you want
your dishwasher right here. It puts in like ten to
three inch filler strips sometimes on a wall when you
could have a thirty inch cabinet somewhere instead of a
bunch of filler strips just because they wanted it to

(02:10:48):
be spaced properly. They really do waste a lot of space,
and you get more storage if you do it.

Speaker 5 (02:10:53):
Right, for sure. And I think that what you get
is you get a lot, a lot of choice, a
lot of selection. And I think contractors they don't mind
going there, right, I mean they truly don't mind, because well,
I don't know. They might they want to mark it

(02:11:13):
up more. I don't know. Do contractors ever resist.

Speaker 6 (02:11:16):
Sometimes contractors will not bring their customers in so they
can mark up our prices to their customers and still
save them money. But we publish our prices and We
have price lists, so if they ever bring their customer in,
or a customer ever knows where they bought them, they
can come in and see what the pricing is. So
it doesn't happen a lot.

Speaker 5 (02:11:34):
And so most of the time they really want to
help you. I mean contractors really want to get the
job done right.

Speaker 6 (02:11:43):
Yeah, absolutely they do, and they love coming in and
buying from us because we're no nonsense. Will help them
load their truck up, they get out of their fast
or turnaround times on cabinet colors is two weeks or less,
not eight to twelve to sixteen weeks like some of
the other people.

Speaker 5 (02:11:59):
Yeah. Yeah, and uh, let's see three h three seven
one three talk seven one three eight two five. I
let me just see. We have people coming here to
the to the to the callers. Okay, so somebody asks
about recover your hair. They want to know do the

(02:12:20):
people actually do the work that you deal with here
or is he just a facilitator. He's a facilitator, but
he's a doctor and he knows the area very well,
and he's researched the clinic and he oversees everything. But no,
he doesn't go over there and perform the procedures. There

(02:12:43):
are people over there that do those procedures every single day, Okay,
and uh so that's really what you have to know.
And it's a good clinic, and the clinic does thousands
of procedures a year from people all over the world.
It's in Istanbul, Turkey. People have had you. You ought

(02:13:04):
to go on the website and you'll see a lot
of really cool reviews of their experience. Okay, And if
you want to go on that website, it's very easy.
Recover your hair dot com. Let's recover your hair dot com.
Go with a sure thing Denver's best roofer Excel Roofing

(02:13:26):
dot com. You don't pay a cent until you're content.
Time for an insurance checkup free, no obligation. In comparison,
call Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens
of insurance companies find out now three all three seven
seven to one help. You'll think you're his only customer
when you choose Frank durand the real estate Man dot

(02:13:47):
com to list your home with Remax Alliance three all
three nine two zero sixteen twenty two. Hi Tom Martino,
your troubleshooter three O three seven one three talk seven

(02:14:09):
one three eight two five five. All right, let's talk
to Maggie. Wake up, Maggie. I think I have something
to say to you. Go ahead, Hi.

Speaker 12 (02:14:22):
So I bought the twenty twenty two Volkswagon Tiguan from
should I say the name of the dealership? Mx Ubuary seven?

Speaker 5 (02:14:33):
Yeah, okay, where'd you buy it?

Speaker 12 (02:14:36):
It was from Emic Volkswagon and okay, with warranty left
on it thirty five thousand miles okay over the week.

Speaker 5 (02:14:47):
Now.

Speaker 12 (02:14:47):
The reason I bought it is because I'm moving to
Maryland for my job. I was supposed to go yesterday
with my family and I didn't.

Speaker 5 (02:14:53):
Want When did you buy it? When did you actually
buy it?

Speaker 3 (02:14:56):
On February.

Speaker 12 (02:14:58):
February seventeenth was the day I bought and I paid cash.

Speaker 5 (02:15:01):
I got it okay, and.

Speaker 12 (02:15:04):
Over the weekend I had an internal oil leak, which
now I brought it back to Emic yesterday. They know
the situation. They're telling me they're not exactly sure what's
wrong with it, but that's I don't believe that to
be true. But it could take up to two weeks
to finish. My family is now living in a hotel.
I have a moving truck that I can't move.

Speaker 5 (02:15:26):
Yeah, but that's I know, I know this is a problem.
I want to I want to explain this to you
because you're reasonable, and and again I don't I understand
you're sure, but that has nothing to do with the
warranty or with them. In other words, the fact that
you're in a heart in a bad way doesn't mean
they have to work extra fast.

Speaker 2 (02:15:47):
Now.

Speaker 5 (02:15:47):
It would be nice if they did, but we but
we can't say to them, hey, listen, you better step on.
What I'd be more concerned about is that they try
to get out of it some way.

Speaker 12 (02:15:59):
Right, So I have a question, Well, because I only
had the car for like such a short period of
time and it was certified, is there any way to
try and get them to undo this deal so I
can purchase.

Speaker 5 (02:16:11):
A Yeah, you can. You can negotiate. Okay, you can
negotiate anything.

Speaker 12 (02:16:18):
But I mean, I can't even get the sales manager
to call me back.

Speaker 5 (02:16:21):
So, well, here's the deal they give me, here's the deal. Well,
let me let me explain a few things to you.
You don't have a special right, but we could ask
them to be nice and let you out of the deal.
But they won't because they once they latch onto a dime,
they're not going to let it go unless you pay
a penalty of some kind. Let me let me ask
you something. Are they making any noise or any kind

(02:16:43):
of indication that they're not going to fix it?

Speaker 4 (02:16:47):
No?

Speaker 12 (02:16:47):
I know that they I know that their intent is
to fix it.

Speaker 5 (02:16:50):
Sounds like so, okay, let me ask you another question.
Let me ask you another question. It's under warranty, is
that right? Is it is a factory warranty? Yeah, she
said it's certified. Well, if it's a factory warranty, you
don't have.

Speaker 12 (02:17:08):
A certified warranty on top of that. I have both.

Speaker 5 (02:17:11):
But Maggie, you don't have to have the work done
here in Denver. You can move the car to where
you're going.

Speaker 12 (02:17:19):
That's true. But how my problem is that we were
going to be driving the car to Maryland. That's why
I bought.

Speaker 5 (02:17:25):
An How bad is how bad is it? How bad
is that leak?

Speaker 12 (02:17:29):
They have to they have to tear the whole engine apart.

Speaker 5 (02:17:33):
I hate to say it. It could be a lot
longer than two weeks. Yeah, it's going to be. Yeah,
but can you take the loaner? How do you know
it is.

Speaker 12 (02:17:47):
Because when I said I need a loaner, they said,
not to Maryland. We can't do that.

Speaker 5 (02:17:53):
Okay, man, I'll call Okay, so Dollar, I mean, excuse me, Chopper.
Why don't we see if they'll do something. I don't
know if they will. We will call though and ask them.
But I just need you to know going in, you

(02:18:14):
don't have any special rights. I know you said you
only had it a few days and it happened, and therefore,
you know you know what I'm saying. They should do something.

Speaker 12 (02:18:22):
All the work was done on the vehicles at at Emic.
It was like they bought the previous owner, bought it
from them, had its service there. That's I believe why.

Speaker 5 (02:18:33):
It No, that's good, So I understand, So we will talk.
We will talk to them. Okay, hold on, I'm Tom Martine.
Hey buy and Bill dot Net. Don't forget them. We're
out of time. Save all your problems for me.