June 11, 2025 • 29 mins
Dean advices a caller who is asking about putting an offer on a house that he has been renting for 10 years, but needs a lot of work. Is it worth it? Dean also discusses ways to save money from capital gains taxes on a townhouse. And Dean advises another caller on making a house fireproof friendly.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp, the
house Whisper on demand on the iHeartRadio app, talking about
anything and everything that you want to talk about regarding
your home. I want to talk to James. James, welcome home.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Hey, thank you so much and I appreciate you taking
my call, sir.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
You are welcome, sir. How can I help you?
Speaker 4 (00:24):
So?
Speaker 5 (00:25):
I've been running this home for the past ten years.
Speaker 6 (00:27):
It's three bedroom, two and a half bats.
Speaker 7 (00:30):
Approximately eleven hundred square feet. The owner decides he wants
to sell because he's going back to his country and
he hasn't put it out in the market yet.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
On red Fend the house is approximately between eight lower
eight to eight twenty.
Speaker 5 (00:48):
He wants to give me.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
First DIBs at the at the house.
Speaker 8 (00:52):
And there is some.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Fixes that the house's meets with the plumbing. There's termite,
the chimney has cracks, and then there's like multiple cracks
throughout the home.
Speaker 8 (01:05):
I did get an inspector to come out yesterday. Unfortunately
he didn't inspect the foundation. Just by ayyballing it. He said,
you know, you're going to need someone to come check
out the foundation. There's going to be some.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Fixes that the house is going to have to be addressed.
Speaker 5 (01:18):
My question to you is.
Speaker 6 (01:21):
It was build in nineteen thirty six, that's about ninety
years old. Is it going to be a good investment,
is it going to be a headache in the long run?
And what would be a fair offer, because that's the
owner said, I'm not gonna fix anything that the house needs.
I'd rather give you credit on it. So what what's
your opinion being?
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Okay, all right, really really good question, James. Okay, So
first of all, just so as not to disappoint you,
at the end of my answer, I can't give you
a number on it. I can't give you a number okay,
but because you know, there's just too many there are
too many variables. We don't know what's going on. But
it sounds like you're in a good position to make
the decision. Okay. It sounds like he's being fair with you,
(02:00):
he's being honest, he's being straight up front. He says, listen,
I'm not fixing anything, but I'd rather give you credit. Okay. Well,
so here are the layers that go into this layer.
Number One, you got to know from a realtor or two,
what the fair market value of the house is as
is as it sits right there. What are the comps?
What's fair and you get a sense of that. Number one.
(02:23):
Number two, you've had the home inspection done. Now home
inspection start is. The whole purpose of a home inspection
is to find any potential things that could be an issue. Plumbing, foundation,
you know where why you know, a house built in
the nineteen thirties, you know, may have cracks, cracks in
(02:43):
the plaster, cracks in the ceiling. Does not necessarily mean
that the ceiling is failing. It just means that, you know,
it's almost one hundred year old house at this point,
and maybe those things have been neglected for a while,
so he wants to give you first DIBs all. What
you need to do, if you're seriously thinking about it,
is to do your due diligence. In other words, if
(03:05):
you know that if the home inspector has said somebody
should look at the foundation, then you got to get
a foundation company out there to take a look at
the foundation. Uh, one who's going to give you a
thorough inspection and a price. That's what the home inspector
isn't doing. His job is to simply alert you to
issues that he finds. He's not giving you an estimate
(03:26):
of value. You need to get a couple of foundation companies.
And this is how I would support my justification for
the credit. I would have more than one contractor, a
reputable contractor in every category of concern come out to
the house. So if there's a potential foundation issue, I'd
(03:47):
get two bids, two estimates from them, number one, so
that you can show them, Hey, you know all the
guys who look at the house, are they all have
a consensus? You know, they all agree it should be this,
this and this and this is the ballpark price for
getting this done. Somebody to take a look at the framing,
somebody to look at the plumbing, and so on. A
(04:09):
lot of stuff when it comes to an older home
may be superficial. But when you mentioned plumbing and foundation work,
that's not superficial stuff. That stuff that needs to be
seriously addressed. And what you do is you simply compile
together the costs to you of realistically bringing the house,
not making it brand spanking new in terms of every finish,
(04:33):
because that's that's not you know, we're not crediting, we're
not asking for a credit to make a house that's
been you know, a little old, it has a dingy
paint job to get it all bright and shiny. Because
that's not the point. Okay, the house gets evaluated at
the price that it's in given the condition, and then
you say, listen, you know there's sixty thousand dollars worth
(04:56):
of things here that have to be done to the house.
So if you willing to take sixty off the price,
then you know, maybe we're talking about me buying this
house from.
Speaker 5 (05:07):
Okay, perfect, great advice and neither more so peace of mind. Soel, definitely,
I do have plumber coming out tomorrow, and I do
have someone that's gonna look at the foundation. But to
get a second opinion, I think that would also ease
the homeowner and say, well, it's just one person's opinion.
(05:27):
I suppose to there's.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Two, yeah, exactly. And that's the thing is that it's
not See, it's really easy to argue down from a
negotiating standpoint. It's really easy to argue down the idea like,
oh so you had Joe blow come out and they
gave you a crazy price. It's completely different to say, listen,
I had three builders look at this specific prom I
(05:50):
had three plumbers look at this, and I'm here. Let
me show you they're written estimates. You see consensus between
them all. This is at least a fifteen thousand dollars
plumbing job. That's what I'm saying, between three different licensed
plumbers and a couple of different foundation You see how
that takes the argument to a completely different level. Plus
(06:12):
it gives you peace of mind that you're not missing
anything along the way. So, James, I think you're headed
in the right direction. Just my opinion would be double up,
at least double up on the estimates so that you
really are standing on solid ground when it comes to
the house. Good luck, my friend, and thanks for your call,
Thanks for listening, thanks for your confidence in asking me
(06:35):
the question.
Speaker 9 (06:35):
All right, you're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on
demand from KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
We're talking about a great architectural design being theater, and
I'm using the idea of theater or movies, movies or plays,
cinema and theater as things that your elements of artistic
endeavor that you're more familiar with than you are evaluating
(07:05):
an architectural space for improving its design. So I want
to get your head more into your home, knowing what
to look at, where to look, how to look at
a space, to try and figure out what is wrong
with this room, how can I make it better? And
we're using cinema and theater as a metaphor for that,
(07:25):
as a tool to get in your head because it's
so so very true, it's so applicable. Of course, not
everything is this equal across the board, but already, already
I think we've crossed some boundaries and opened up your
thinking in terms of how you evaluate a room. Anyway,
We're going to be going back to that in a bit.
But middle of the show right now, the ten o'clock
(07:48):
hour means we're taking calls, and that is always a
pleasure and a joy for me as well. So let's
go back to the phones. I want to talk to Sandy. Hey, Sandy,
welcome home, Thank you.
Speaker 10 (08:03):
Hi.
Speaker 11 (08:04):
I just have a quick question about an air conditioner
versus the heat pump. Sure, And we live in Marino
Valley and out closer to the desert, and we have
a single story, nineteen hundred square foot home and it
was built in two thousand and two, and the air
conditioners still running from then, but we just put a
(08:26):
capacitor in and it's still going. But wanted to kind
of get some head up about heads up about whether
heat pump. We spoke with the air conditioning gentleman, but
he wasn't really excited about the heat pump. He said,
they've had problems with them. So I just want to
get your ideas on that.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Okay, So my first idea is talk with more than
one air conditioning gentleman. Okay, when it comes to that,
you know, everybody has their experiences with things, but I
am I'm actually I'm surprised, and not surprised, you know.
I mean, I've got I got I know plumbers out
there who are still telling me that you know, putting
(09:04):
in copper piping is way better than pecks, or that
you know, everybody's got their thing. Everybody's got their thing.
But you want to educate yourself on a wider spectrum.
So as the homeowner, I want you to have two
or three I would say three at a minimum, ac
take a look at the house and evaluate it and
talk to you about it. Honestly, I have a very
(09:28):
very different opinion about that than the one that the
gentleman expressed to you, which is that heat pumps are
probably very very they're very much becoming, especially here in
California and in more temperate climates and even in more
severe cold climates. Get pumps are gaining ground like no
(09:48):
other innovation in the HVAC industry in a long, long,
long time. And it really doesn't Yeah.
Speaker 11 (09:55):
Go ahead. He was something concerned about something about the
free on issue. Yeah, there's something he was talking about.
There's things going on with the free on about new
ones and old ones and getting it and I don't know,
I guess there were some free on questions.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
Okay, So that sounds like that you may be a
little bit confused or maybe he wasn't really clear about
certain things. Free on is a kind of refrigerant that
we don't use anymore. It's out of date and older.
Twenty thirty year old AC has a free on, a
(10:36):
kind of free on in it that is not available anymore.
And so in terms of like, you know, when it
comes time to upgrade, do you just keep repairing the
old unit and keep it going. The question is, next
time you have to charge that thing up with the
refrigerant that is no longer being sold or manufactured, you're
(10:56):
going to be paying a mint for it because the
only free on that's out there right now available is
free on that has been bled off of old units
that are being removed. So it's like it's like an
antique now. And so that piece of furniture, now that
it's been labeled antique, is like ten times more expensive
(11:16):
than it normally would be. So there are new refrigerants,
better refrigerants in existing modern units that you don't have
to have that worry. That's a kind of a different conversation.
But let me just very quickly explain the heat pump.
The heat pump is really not about the AC. A
heat pump question is whether you're going to buy an
(11:37):
AC unit that is also a heat pump and that
replaces not the air conditioner, but it replaces your gas
fired furnace. A heat pump AC doesn't need the gas
fired furnace anymore because of what it is. It's like
an air conditioner that can also be turned in put
(11:58):
in reverse. So during the hot summer months, the air
conditioner is pulling hot air out of the house, pulling
heat out of the house and distributing it outside. During
the cold months. A heat pump unit, the same machinery
works in the opposite direction and it pumps warm air
into the house. And that's why I'm saying, when it
(12:19):
comes to a heat pump unit, the question is do
you want the gas furnace anymore? Do we need the
gas furnit, do we need a fossil fuel burning gas
furnace anymore? Or can the whole thing work efficiently and
effectively off of a heat pump slash AC unit that's
the biggest And it's all electric, correct, it's all electric. Yeah,
(12:40):
it's all electric, and so natural gas doesn't enter into
it anymore.
Speaker 11 (12:45):
Okay, And are they a lot more expensive?
Speaker 3 (12:48):
They are more expensive than just a standard unit. But
your unit is now, if it's twenty years old, you're
at the age where you're also going to have to
be replacing the furnace, and so the I think it's
probably cost wise going to be a wash across the board.
Either you get your less expensive air conditioner that only
does cooling, plus a new gas furnace unit to mate
(13:11):
with it, or you eliminate the new gas furnace unit
and you get an air conditioner that also can operate
as a heater, and so the cost is pretty much
a wash across the board. Sandy. So here's my advice again,
talk to two three at least vetted, well reputed, well
(13:32):
reputed HVAC contractors about your specific situation. I think you'll
find that they'll probably be inclining you toward the heat
pump and not discouraging you away from it. They don't really,
they don't have problem. I don't know what do you.
I think what he meant was problems with maintaining your
(13:53):
old unit a heat a new heat pump HVAC unit.
They're very, very very reliable. There is really as you
are conditioning you is because they are essentially you're air
conditioning you. It's just one that has a reverse gear
to it. Essentially it's a metaphor. But that's the way
it works. Sandy. Thank you for your question. I've got
to go. We're up against a break. Good luck with that.
(14:15):
But again, again, like I harp on so often, get
two or three opinions, educate yourself. Don't just go with
the one guy who said the one thing. Okay, make
sure it all proves out.
Speaker 9 (14:27):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on Demand from
KFI AM sixty.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
Home. This is the place where every weekend we talk
about turning your ordinary house into an extraordinary home. No
better way to do that than to understand how great
architecture and great design is truly theater. And I'm using
that as a metaphor and analogy for you so you
can sink your teeth into understanding how to evaluate the
(14:55):
spaces around your house that just aren't giving you everything
you want them to give you. Get back to that
conversation just a bit. But we're in the middle hour
here of the program, which means we're taking calls, which
means you set the agenda for what we're talking about.
And let's go to one of our directors right now.
I want to talk to Beth. Hey, Beth, welcome home,
(15:16):
Thank you, Dian.
Speaker 10 (15:18):
So the question is what is the bare minimum that
we need to do to keep a property alive, if
you will, because the property is going to be closed,
has been closed for about eight months, then it will
be closed for a little while until one of the
owners passed away. They were moved to a senior living
(15:38):
assisted living, and it doesn't exist to sell the house
because they are going to pay huge capital gain taxes,
so we're going to wait until one dies. They don't
need the money. So but I'm nervous that the house
is just closed and is deteriorating.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Ah Okay, well it's a good question, the really good question, Beth.
I'm not sure anybody's asked me that in that way before. So,
first of all, where is the house as far as Okay,
so you're here in southern California. So the reason I
asked that is because there are different requirements for doing
this for different homes across the country. Obviously, when it
(16:19):
comes to areas that get severe and freezing winters, there
are things. There's additional things i'd say that have to
be added to the maintenance of an empty house, including
not just not just putting in bleeder valves so that
the pipes don't freeze, and water plumbing, but also I
(16:42):
would suggest at least running the bare minimum amount of
heat and cooling in the house to keep it a
moderate temperature. But here in southern California that's not as
as critical unless you're out in the desert area where
the temperature shifts to extremes. If you're in an extreme
temperature environment, one of the best ways to take care
(17:03):
of an unoccupied house is to keep the temperature within
a moderate mid range. And that, you know, not a
lot of people think about that. That a neglected home,
meaning a house that just doesn't have anybody living in it,
goes through more temperature extremes, and as a result, the
(17:23):
expansion of materials during hot weather, the contraction of materials
during cold weather can cause cracking in walls to start
to peel off walls. All of that kind of stuff
in Hinton Beach not so much an issue, right, very
very temperate. Your main concern there will be letting, making
(17:48):
sure that somebody's dropping by and flushing toilets and running
water in all of the sinks. Okay. And here's why.
There's this little thing underneath every sink and in every
drain in the house called the pea trap. Okay. It's
that way, not because we're peeing in it, because it's
shaped like the letter P. And that pea trap holds
(18:10):
water in it. It holds water. It's sitting there. It
traps water. Okay, it's a trap for water. That water
that's in the pea trap is what's keeping sewer gases
from coming up out of the sewer and into the
air inside the house. Okay, that's why the houses that
have been not lived in for a long time, and
(18:32):
realtors who have not been doing their due diligence as
they're showing the house to keep this going. That's why
you'll open up a door and you're like, oh, that's
an odd smell in this house. And sometimes it's bad
enough that it can start to permeate walls and things
like that. We don't want that to happen. So the
key is the reason that happens is because if those
(18:52):
sinks aren't being used, and that new water isn't being
put down into the pea trap, if the shower isn't
being used at the isn't being used, then the water
in the pea trap starts to evaporate out. And when
it evaporates out, there's a point where it drops down
and it's no longer blocking the sewer gases and those
elements are inside the house. So as something as simple
(19:17):
as getting by the house every week or so and
just spending five minutes turning on faucets, turning on the shower,
letting it run for about thirty seconds, turning them off,
and going your merry way is going to keep the
house smelling normal. And apart from that, there's not a
whole lot at eight ten months a year, not a
(19:39):
whole lot you've got to do on the inside of
a house obviously, keep things watered on the outside, and
you know, and let it be.
Speaker 10 (19:47):
How about the heater. Should I turn the heater onto
you could?
Speaker 3 (19:52):
I mean you can always, you know, run the heater
just to keep dust from building up in the ducts
and or on the heater element. Sometimes you know that
the first time you run the heater after you know,
long summer, it's you're like, smells like burning dust. Well
it kind of is, right, It can't hurt to do
that for a couple of minutes. Same with the air conditioner,
(20:13):
just to keep things limber and moving along. But again
not in the same way of trying to keep the
house at a certain temperature, just to keep everything, you know,
moving along.
Speaker 10 (20:24):
Okay, great, well that that gives me a piece of mind.
Thank you. I really appreciate the insight.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
You're very very welcome, Beth, and good luck on just
keeping that house in good maintenance while nobody's inside. All right, y'all,
more of your calls when we return.
Speaker 9 (20:42):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
I want to go back to the phones. I want
to talk to Peter. Hey, Peter, welcome home, Good morning.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
Being Dean. I have a second house up in the
mountains in a high very high risk fire area, and
I've been kind of researching the type of roof I
want to put gotta the roof has been on the
(21:18):
house now for about thirty five years. But I understand
metal roofs are the best fireproof roofs, and they come
in all sorts of types. I guess, uh, they got
metal shake roofs, metal slate roofs, commercial panels, metal shingles,
(21:40):
and I currently have a normal shingle roof on the house. Now,
I kind of want your opinion on a metal roof.
I understand that they can rust, they they're they're they're heavier,
might have to have some some work done with the
(22:00):
uh with a wood underneath, but I don't know whether
it's you know by words you go to a shingle roof.
They have fireproof shingle roofs that go of course with
the vanguard bench also, But I just need your your
opinion on a metal metal roofs.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
Sure, uh, I say, when you say you've got normal shingles,
do you mean you've got wood shingles on the house
right now?
Speaker 4 (22:30):
No? No, not would Uh. I don't know what the
what they're made out of, but their shape.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
Some kind of Okay. So so here's the thing. I'm
gonna throw a curveball at you, but but it's a
very accurate one. I wanted to take me very seriously
when I say this, because people ask me all the time, uh, hey, Dean,
what kind of roof should we put up there to
make sure the house is as fire safe as possible?
And my answer is always this. It's like, I don't
(23:00):
any roof that you want up there, because there isn't
a single roof in the state of California that the
State of California will approve that isn't a class A
fire rated roofing material. And that means everything asphalt composition
to metal roofs, to Spanish tile, to slate roofs, to
(23:24):
stone roofs and so on. And I mean this in
all seriousness. Now, of course, you know, if you were
to take a flame thrower and shoot it down at
your roofing material. Some roofs would give way before others.
But the fact of the matter is, the fact on
the ground is that houses don't burn down. They burn up.
(23:51):
Fire burns up. Okay, And you can talk to any
of my friends at cal Fire or any of the
local fire captains. They will tell you that they don't
come onto the scene to find houses with their roofs
on fire. Okay. Now, I know when you watch local
(24:12):
news coverage of the devastating fires, you see these gigantic
holes in roofs and flames coming out of the top
of the roof of the house. That is not the
roof catching fire and burning down. Okay, unless it's like
some house that's still for some bizarre reason, has a
shake shingle, real wood roof. That is not the house
(24:34):
the roof catching on fire and burning down, because that's
not the direction that fire travels. Fire burns up. So
a class A fire rated roof is the only kind
of roof that you're going to be able to put
on your home. All of the materials that you can
choose from are going to be the same. The most
important thing that you can ask, the biggest question to
(24:55):
ask in fire rating your roof assembly is is not
should I have metal roof versus versus composite shingles versus
tile versus concrete. The most important question you can ask is,
you know I've already brought it up, and that's what
are my vents made out of? Are they ember proof
(25:16):
vents as far as allowing embers into the attic space,
because that's what catches on fire and burns a hole
in the roof from underneath. And the bigger question is,
or I should say an equal question is what kind
of material am I going to put on the eaves
(25:37):
the overhang that the the soft underbelly of the tortoise shell,
as it were, the part of the roof that is
overhanging that flame can get to from up underneath. Okay,
So I am far more prone as a designer and
a builder to advise my clients to, hey, let's spend
(25:59):
extra money on the eves. Let's box in the eves.
Or if we're gonna if the look of the house
is to be exposed wood elves, because those are wood
rafter tails that are sticking out, they're exposed to flame.
What are we going to do with those? And we
don't have to treat those like Fort Knox either. We
can simply spend extra money when it comes to paint
(26:21):
and paint the underside of the overhang of our eves
with efflorescent fireproof paint, so that a combination of any
class A fire rated roofing material, which is what you
have to put on anyway by code, plus a fireproof
painted eves. And I only say the eaves because fireproof
(26:43):
paint is very expensive, so I only want you to
put it on the overhang of the of the eves
and ember proof vents. That combination Peter. Honestly, it's all
you need to not worry about the house from the
roof perspective, and why wildfire. And I say that so
that we're not leading people astray. Metal roofs are great,
(27:06):
tile roofs are great. Shingled roofs are great. As a designer,
I look to the builder in me and I say, hey,
what's the best one. The builder in me says, doesn't matter,
pick your choice, and so that frees up the designer
to put on the kind of class A roof that
works best with the design of the house without putting
it in any way, shape or form at risk does
(27:27):
that make sense.
Speaker 4 (27:29):
That makes a lot of sense, And I really appreciate
your input. All right, Okay, thank you very very much.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
You are very very well competed. I hope that doesn't
confuse I hope it just opens up your opportunities and
your options for what to do with house. Plus, may
you know, not open your wallet as much because metal
roofs are as beautiful as they are, they're also one
of the most expensive roofs that you can put on
a house. And I'm not saying there isn't a place
for a metal roof. I would. I'm far more prone
(27:59):
directly men a metal roof in because of snow than
I am because of fire. So let me just make
that really clear. Because metal roofs, standing seam metal roofs,
not shingled metal roofs. They catch as much snow as
any shingled roof, but the standing seam metal roof it
handles snow in a way that most other roofs don't,
(28:22):
kind of the teflon effects, so you don't get a
bunch of snow load up on the roof. So we're
more prone to doing that with metal roofs than we
are worrying about metal and wildfire versus other materials. Just
want everybody to understand houses burn up, they don't burn down.
Fire ignites and it travels up right. You've never seen
(28:43):
a fireplace where the flames are going down from the log.
It's always when we light a fire wood fire in
a fireplace, we're trying to catch the bottom of the
log on fire, and then it will eventually burn up
through the rest of that material until there's nothing else
to burn fire. We could expose all sorts of flame
material to the top surface of your roof down and
(29:07):
not see anything happen. I mean, we might char the roof,
we might even melt part of it. But a class
A fire roof, rated fireroof is the only kind of
material you can buy in the state of California to
put on a roof. So you don't have to worry
about whether the roofing material itself is better or worse
for fire. You should worry about your vents and your eaves.
(29:30):
There you go, that's why you're here, all right. You're
listening to Dean Sharp the House Whisperer on KFI.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
This has been home with Dean Sharp the House whisper
Tune into the live broadcast on KFI Am six forty
every Saturday morning from six to eight Pacific time and
every Sunday morning from nine to noon Pacific time, or
anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app
KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp, the
house Whisper on demand on the iHeartRadio app, talking about
anything and everything that you want to talk about regarding
your home. I want to talk to James. James, welcome home.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Hey, thank you so much and I appreciate you taking
my call, sir.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
You are welcome, sir. How can I help you?
Speaker 4 (00:24):
So?
Speaker 5 (00:25):
I've been running this home for the past ten years.
Speaker 6 (00:27):
It's three bedroom, two and a half bats.
Speaker 7 (00:30):
Approximately eleven hundred square feet. The owner decides he wants
to sell because he's going back to his country and
he hasn't put it out in the market yet.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
On red Fend the house is approximately between eight lower
eight to eight twenty.
Speaker 5 (00:48):
He wants to give me.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
First DIBs at the at the house.
Speaker 8 (00:52):
And there is some.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Fixes that the house's meets with the plumbing. There's termite,
the chimney has cracks, and then there's like multiple cracks
throughout the home.
Speaker 8 (01:05):
I did get an inspector to come out yesterday. Unfortunately
he didn't inspect the foundation. Just by ayyballing it. He said,
you know, you're going to need someone to come check
out the foundation. There's going to be some.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Fixes that the house is going to have to be addressed.
Speaker 5 (01:18):
My question to you is.
Speaker 6 (01:21):
It was build in nineteen thirty six, that's about ninety
years old. Is it going to be a good investment,
is it going to be a headache in the long run?
And what would be a fair offer, because that's the
owner said, I'm not gonna fix anything that the house needs.
I'd rather give you credit on it. So what what's
your opinion being?
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Okay, all right, really really good question, James. Okay, So
first of all, just so as not to disappoint you,
at the end of my answer, I can't give you
a number on it. I can't give you a number okay,
but because you know, there's just too many there are
too many variables. We don't know what's going on. But
it sounds like you're in a good position to make
the decision. Okay. It sounds like he's being fair with you,
(02:00):
he's being honest, he's being straight up front. He says, listen,
I'm not fixing anything, but I'd rather give you credit. Okay. Well,
so here are the layers that go into this layer.
Number One, you got to know from a realtor or two,
what the fair market value of the house is as
is as it sits right there. What are the comps?
What's fair and you get a sense of that. Number one.
(02:23):
Number two, you've had the home inspection done. Now home
inspection start is. The whole purpose of a home inspection
is to find any potential things that could be an issue. Plumbing, foundation,
you know where why you know, a house built in
the nineteen thirties, you know, may have cracks, cracks in
(02:43):
the plaster, cracks in the ceiling. Does not necessarily mean
that the ceiling is failing. It just means that, you know,
it's almost one hundred year old house at this point,
and maybe those things have been neglected for a while,
so he wants to give you first DIBs all. What
you need to do, if you're seriously thinking about it,
is to do your due diligence. In other words, if
(03:05):
you know that if the home inspector has said somebody
should look at the foundation, then you got to get
a foundation company out there to take a look at
the foundation. Uh, one who's going to give you a
thorough inspection and a price. That's what the home inspector
isn't doing. His job is to simply alert you to
issues that he finds. He's not giving you an estimate
(03:26):
of value. You need to get a couple of foundation companies.
And this is how I would support my justification for
the credit. I would have more than one contractor, a
reputable contractor in every category of concern come out to
the house. So if there's a potential foundation issue, I'd
(03:47):
get two bids, two estimates from them, number one, so
that you can show them, Hey, you know all the
guys who look at the house, are they all have
a consensus? You know, they all agree it should be this,
this and this and this is the ballpark price for
getting this done. Somebody to take a look at the framing,
somebody to look at the plumbing, and so on. A
(04:09):
lot of stuff when it comes to an older home
may be superficial. But when you mentioned plumbing and foundation work,
that's not superficial stuff. That stuff that needs to be
seriously addressed. And what you do is you simply compile
together the costs to you of realistically bringing the house,
not making it brand spanking new in terms of every finish,
(04:33):
because that's that's not you know, we're not crediting, we're
not asking for a credit to make a house that's
been you know, a little old, it has a dingy
paint job to get it all bright and shiny. Because
that's not the point. Okay, the house gets evaluated at
the price that it's in given the condition, and then
you say, listen, you know there's sixty thousand dollars worth
(04:56):
of things here that have to be done to the house.
So if you willing to take sixty off the price,
then you know, maybe we're talking about me buying this
house from.
Speaker 5 (05:07):
Okay, perfect, great advice and neither more so peace of mind. Soel, definitely,
I do have plumber coming out tomorrow, and I do
have someone that's gonna look at the foundation. But to
get a second opinion, I think that would also ease
the homeowner and say, well, it's just one person's opinion.
(05:27):
I suppose to there's.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Two, yeah, exactly. And that's the thing is that it's
not See, it's really easy to argue down from a
negotiating standpoint. It's really easy to argue down the idea like,
oh so you had Joe blow come out and they
gave you a crazy price. It's completely different to say, listen,
I had three builders look at this specific prom I
(05:50):
had three plumbers look at this, and I'm here. Let
me show you they're written estimates. You see consensus between
them all. This is at least a fifteen thousand dollars
plumbing job. That's what I'm saying, between three different licensed
plumbers and a couple of different foundation You see how
that takes the argument to a completely different level. Plus
(06:12):
it gives you peace of mind that you're not missing
anything along the way. So, James, I think you're headed
in the right direction. Just my opinion would be double up,
at least double up on the estimates so that you
really are standing on solid ground when it comes to
the house. Good luck, my friend, and thanks for your call,
Thanks for listening, thanks for your confidence in asking me
(06:35):
the question.
Speaker 9 (06:35):
All right, you're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on
demand from KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
We're talking about a great architectural design being theater, and
I'm using the idea of theater or movies, movies or plays,
cinema and theater as things that your elements of artistic
endeavor that you're more familiar with than you are evaluating
(07:05):
an architectural space for improving its design. So I want
to get your head more into your home, knowing what
to look at, where to look, how to look at
a space, to try and figure out what is wrong
with this room, how can I make it better? And
we're using cinema and theater as a metaphor for that,
(07:25):
as a tool to get in your head because it's
so so very true, it's so applicable. Of course, not
everything is this equal across the board, but already, already
I think we've crossed some boundaries and opened up your
thinking in terms of how you evaluate a room. Anyway,
We're going to be going back to that in a bit.
But middle of the show right now, the ten o'clock
(07:48):
hour means we're taking calls, and that is always a
pleasure and a joy for me as well. So let's
go back to the phones. I want to talk to Sandy. Hey, Sandy,
welcome home, Thank you.
Speaker 10 (08:03):
Hi.
Speaker 11 (08:04):
I just have a quick question about an air conditioner
versus the heat pump. Sure, And we live in Marino
Valley and out closer to the desert, and we have
a single story, nineteen hundred square foot home and it
was built in two thousand and two, and the air
conditioners still running from then, but we just put a
(08:26):
capacitor in and it's still going. But wanted to kind
of get some head up about heads up about whether
heat pump. We spoke with the air conditioning gentleman, but
he wasn't really excited about the heat pump. He said,
they've had problems with them. So I just want to
get your ideas on that.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Okay, So my first idea is talk with more than
one air conditioning gentleman. Okay, when it comes to that,
you know, everybody has their experiences with things, but I
am I'm actually I'm surprised, and not surprised, you know.
I mean, I've got I got I know plumbers out
there who are still telling me that you know, putting
(09:04):
in copper piping is way better than pecks, or that
you know, everybody's got their thing. Everybody's got their thing.
But you want to educate yourself on a wider spectrum.
So as the homeowner, I want you to have two
or three I would say three at a minimum, ac
take a look at the house and evaluate it and
talk to you about it. Honestly, I have a very
(09:28):
very different opinion about that than the one that the
gentleman expressed to you, which is that heat pumps are
probably very very they're very much becoming, especially here in
California and in more temperate climates and even in more
severe cold climates. Get pumps are gaining ground like no
(09:48):
other innovation in the HVAC industry in a long, long,
long time. And it really doesn't Yeah.
Speaker 11 (09:55):
Go ahead. He was something concerned about something about the
free on issue. Yeah, there's something he was talking about.
There's things going on with the free on about new
ones and old ones and getting it and I don't know,
I guess there were some free on questions.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
Okay, So that sounds like that you may be a
little bit confused or maybe he wasn't really clear about
certain things. Free on is a kind of refrigerant that
we don't use anymore. It's out of date and older.
Twenty thirty year old AC has a free on, a
(10:36):
kind of free on in it that is not available anymore.
And so in terms of like, you know, when it
comes time to upgrade, do you just keep repairing the
old unit and keep it going. The question is, next
time you have to charge that thing up with the
refrigerant that is no longer being sold or manufactured, you're
(10:56):
going to be paying a mint for it because the
only free on that's out there right now available is
free on that has been bled off of old units
that are being removed. So it's like it's like an
antique now. And so that piece of furniture, now that
it's been labeled antique, is like ten times more expensive
(11:16):
than it normally would be. So there are new refrigerants,
better refrigerants in existing modern units that you don't have
to have that worry. That's a kind of a different conversation.
But let me just very quickly explain the heat pump.
The heat pump is really not about the AC. A
heat pump question is whether you're going to buy an
(11:37):
AC unit that is also a heat pump and that
replaces not the air conditioner, but it replaces your gas
fired furnace. A heat pump AC doesn't need the gas
fired furnace anymore because of what it is. It's like
an air conditioner that can also be turned in put
(11:58):
in reverse. So during the hot summer months, the air
conditioner is pulling hot air out of the house, pulling
heat out of the house and distributing it outside. During
the cold months. A heat pump unit, the same machinery
works in the opposite direction and it pumps warm air
into the house. And that's why I'm saying, when it
(12:19):
comes to a heat pump unit, the question is do
you want the gas furnace anymore? Do we need the
gas furnit, do we need a fossil fuel burning gas
furnace anymore? Or can the whole thing work efficiently and
effectively off of a heat pump slash AC unit that's
the biggest And it's all electric, correct, it's all electric. Yeah,
(12:40):
it's all electric, and so natural gas doesn't enter into
it anymore.
Speaker 11 (12:45):
Okay, And are they a lot more expensive?
Speaker 3 (12:48):
They are more expensive than just a standard unit. But
your unit is now, if it's twenty years old, you're
at the age where you're also going to have to
be replacing the furnace, and so the I think it's
probably cost wise going to be a wash across the board.
Either you get your less expensive air conditioner that only
does cooling, plus a new gas furnace unit to mate
(13:11):
with it, or you eliminate the new gas furnace unit
and you get an air conditioner that also can operate
as a heater, and so the cost is pretty much
a wash across the board. Sandy. So here's my advice again,
talk to two three at least vetted, well reputed, well
(13:32):
reputed HVAC contractors about your specific situation. I think you'll
find that they'll probably be inclining you toward the heat
pump and not discouraging you away from it. They don't really,
they don't have problem. I don't know what do you.
I think what he meant was problems with maintaining your
(13:53):
old unit a heat a new heat pump HVAC unit.
They're very, very very reliable. There is really as you
are conditioning you is because they are essentially you're air
conditioning you. It's just one that has a reverse gear
to it. Essentially it's a metaphor. But that's the way
it works. Sandy. Thank you for your question. I've got
to go. We're up against a break. Good luck with that.
(14:15):
But again, again, like I harp on so often, get
two or three opinions, educate yourself. Don't just go with
the one guy who said the one thing. Okay, make
sure it all proves out.
Speaker 9 (14:27):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on Demand from
KFI AM sixty.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
Home. This is the place where every weekend we talk
about turning your ordinary house into an extraordinary home. No
better way to do that than to understand how great
architecture and great design is truly theater. And I'm using
that as a metaphor and analogy for you so you
can sink your teeth into understanding how to evaluate the
(14:55):
spaces around your house that just aren't giving you everything
you want them to give you. Get back to that
conversation just a bit. But we're in the middle hour
here of the program, which means we're taking calls, which
means you set the agenda for what we're talking about.
And let's go to one of our directors right now.
I want to talk to Beth. Hey, Beth, welcome home,
(15:16):
Thank you, Dian.
Speaker 10 (15:18):
So the question is what is the bare minimum that
we need to do to keep a property alive, if
you will, because the property is going to be closed,
has been closed for about eight months, then it will
be closed for a little while until one of the
owners passed away. They were moved to a senior living
(15:38):
assisted living, and it doesn't exist to sell the house
because they are going to pay huge capital gain taxes,
so we're going to wait until one dies. They don't
need the money. So but I'm nervous that the house
is just closed and is deteriorating.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Ah Okay, well it's a good question, the really good question, Beth.
I'm not sure anybody's asked me that in that way before. So,
first of all, where is the house as far as Okay,
so you're here in southern California. So the reason I
asked that is because there are different requirements for doing
this for different homes across the country. Obviously, when it
(16:19):
comes to areas that get severe and freezing winters, there
are things. There's additional things i'd say that have to
be added to the maintenance of an empty house, including
not just not just putting in bleeder valves so that
the pipes don't freeze, and water plumbing, but also I
(16:42):
would suggest at least running the bare minimum amount of
heat and cooling in the house to keep it a
moderate temperature. But here in southern California that's not as
as critical unless you're out in the desert area where
the temperature shifts to extremes. If you're in an extreme
temperature environment, one of the best ways to take care
(17:03):
of an unoccupied house is to keep the temperature within
a moderate mid range. And that, you know, not a
lot of people think about that. That a neglected home,
meaning a house that just doesn't have anybody living in it,
goes through more temperature extremes, and as a result, the
(17:23):
expansion of materials during hot weather, the contraction of materials
during cold weather can cause cracking in walls to start
to peel off walls. All of that kind of stuff
in Hinton Beach not so much an issue, right, very
very temperate. Your main concern there will be letting, making
(17:48):
sure that somebody's dropping by and flushing toilets and running
water in all of the sinks. Okay. And here's why.
There's this little thing underneath every sink and in every
drain in the house called the pea trap. Okay. It's
that way, not because we're peeing in it, because it's
shaped like the letter P. And that pea trap holds
(18:10):
water in it. It holds water. It's sitting there. It
traps water. Okay, it's a trap for water. That water
that's in the pea trap is what's keeping sewer gases
from coming up out of the sewer and into the
air inside the house. Okay, that's why the houses that
have been not lived in for a long time, and
(18:32):
realtors who have not been doing their due diligence as
they're showing the house to keep this going. That's why
you'll open up a door and you're like, oh, that's
an odd smell in this house. And sometimes it's bad
enough that it can start to permeate walls and things
like that. We don't want that to happen. So the
key is the reason that happens is because if those
(18:52):
sinks aren't being used, and that new water isn't being
put down into the pea trap, if the shower isn't
being used at the isn't being used, then the water
in the pea trap starts to evaporate out. And when
it evaporates out, there's a point where it drops down
and it's no longer blocking the sewer gases and those
elements are inside the house. So as something as simple
(19:17):
as getting by the house every week or so and
just spending five minutes turning on faucets, turning on the shower,
letting it run for about thirty seconds, turning them off,
and going your merry way is going to keep the
house smelling normal. And apart from that, there's not a
whole lot at eight ten months a year, not a
(19:39):
whole lot you've got to do on the inside of
a house obviously, keep things watered on the outside, and
you know, and let it be.
Speaker 10 (19:47):
How about the heater. Should I turn the heater onto
you could?
Speaker 3 (19:52):
I mean you can always, you know, run the heater
just to keep dust from building up in the ducts
and or on the heater element. Sometimes you know that
the first time you run the heater after you know,
long summer, it's you're like, smells like burning dust. Well
it kind of is, right, It can't hurt to do
that for a couple of minutes. Same with the air conditioner,
(20:13):
just to keep things limber and moving along. But again
not in the same way of trying to keep the
house at a certain temperature, just to keep everything, you know,
moving along.
Speaker 10 (20:24):
Okay, great, well that that gives me a piece of mind.
Thank you. I really appreciate the insight.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
You're very very welcome, Beth, and good luck on just
keeping that house in good maintenance while nobody's inside. All right, y'all,
more of your calls when we return.
Speaker 9 (20:42):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
I want to go back to the phones. I want
to talk to Peter. Hey, Peter, welcome home, Good morning.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
Being Dean. I have a second house up in the
mountains in a high very high risk fire area, and
I've been kind of researching the type of roof I
want to put gotta the roof has been on the
(21:18):
house now for about thirty five years. But I understand
metal roofs are the best fireproof roofs, and they come
in all sorts of types. I guess, uh, they got
metal shake roofs, metal slate roofs, commercial panels, metal shingles,
(21:40):
and I currently have a normal shingle roof on the house. Now,
I kind of want your opinion on a metal roof.
I understand that they can rust, they they're they're they're heavier,
might have to have some some work done with the
(22:00):
uh with a wood underneath, but I don't know whether
it's you know by words you go to a shingle roof.
They have fireproof shingle roofs that go of course with
the vanguard bench also, But I just need your your
opinion on a metal metal roofs.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
Sure, uh, I say, when you say you've got normal shingles,
do you mean you've got wood shingles on the house
right now?
Speaker 4 (22:30):
No? No, not would Uh. I don't know what the
what they're made out of, but their shape.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
Some kind of Okay. So so here's the thing. I'm
gonna throw a curveball at you, but but it's a
very accurate one. I wanted to take me very seriously
when I say this, because people ask me all the time, uh, hey, Dean,
what kind of roof should we put up there to
make sure the house is as fire safe as possible?
And my answer is always this. It's like, I don't
(23:00):
any roof that you want up there, because there isn't
a single roof in the state of California that the
State of California will approve that isn't a class A
fire rated roofing material. And that means everything asphalt composition
to metal roofs, to Spanish tile, to slate roofs, to
(23:24):
stone roofs and so on. And I mean this in
all seriousness. Now, of course, you know, if you were
to take a flame thrower and shoot it down at
your roofing material. Some roofs would give way before others.
But the fact of the matter is, the fact on
the ground is that houses don't burn down. They burn up.
(23:51):
Fire burns up. Okay, And you can talk to any
of my friends at cal Fire or any of the
local fire captains. They will tell you that they don't
come onto the scene to find houses with their roofs
on fire. Okay. Now, I know when you watch local
(24:12):
news coverage of the devastating fires, you see these gigantic
holes in roofs and flames coming out of the top
of the roof of the house. That is not the
roof catching fire and burning down. Okay, unless it's like
some house that's still for some bizarre reason, has a
shake shingle, real wood roof. That is not the house
(24:34):
the roof catching on fire and burning down, because that's
not the direction that fire travels. Fire burns up. So
a class A fire rated roof is the only kind
of roof that you're going to be able to put
on your home. All of the materials that you can
choose from are going to be the same. The most
important thing that you can ask, the biggest question to
(24:55):
ask in fire rating your roof assembly is is not
should I have metal roof versus versus composite shingles versus
tile versus concrete. The most important question you can ask is,
you know I've already brought it up, and that's what
are my vents made out of? Are they ember proof
(25:16):
vents as far as allowing embers into the attic space,
because that's what catches on fire and burns a hole
in the roof from underneath. And the bigger question is,
or I should say an equal question is what kind
of material am I going to put on the eaves
(25:37):
the overhang that the the soft underbelly of the tortoise shell,
as it were, the part of the roof that is
overhanging that flame can get to from up underneath. Okay,
So I am far more prone as a designer and
a builder to advise my clients to, hey, let's spend
(25:59):
extra money on the eves. Let's box in the eves.
Or if we're gonna if the look of the house
is to be exposed wood elves, because those are wood
rafter tails that are sticking out, they're exposed to flame.
What are we going to do with those? And we
don't have to treat those like Fort Knox either. We
can simply spend extra money when it comes to paint
(26:21):
and paint the underside of the overhang of our eves
with efflorescent fireproof paint, so that a combination of any
class A fire rated roofing material, which is what you
have to put on anyway by code, plus a fireproof
painted eves. And I only say the eaves because fireproof
(26:43):
paint is very expensive, so I only want you to
put it on the overhang of the of the eves
and ember proof vents. That combination Peter. Honestly, it's all
you need to not worry about the house from the
roof perspective, and why wildfire. And I say that so
that we're not leading people astray. Metal roofs are great,
(27:06):
tile roofs are great. Shingled roofs are great. As a designer,
I look to the builder in me and I say, hey,
what's the best one. The builder in me says, doesn't matter,
pick your choice, and so that frees up the designer
to put on the kind of class A roof that
works best with the design of the house without putting
it in any way, shape or form at risk does
(27:27):
that make sense.
Speaker 4 (27:29):
That makes a lot of sense, And I really appreciate
your input. All right, Okay, thank you very very much.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
You are very very well competed. I hope that doesn't
confuse I hope it just opens up your opportunities and
your options for what to do with house. Plus, may
you know, not open your wallet as much because metal
roofs are as beautiful as they are, they're also one
of the most expensive roofs that you can put on
a house. And I'm not saying there isn't a place
for a metal roof. I would. I'm far more prone
(27:59):
directly men a metal roof in because of snow than
I am because of fire. So let me just make
that really clear. Because metal roofs, standing seam metal roofs,
not shingled metal roofs. They catch as much snow as
any shingled roof, but the standing seam metal roof it
handles snow in a way that most other roofs don't,
(28:22):
kind of the teflon effects, so you don't get a
bunch of snow load up on the roof. So we're
more prone to doing that with metal roofs than we
are worrying about metal and wildfire versus other materials. Just
want everybody to understand houses burn up, they don't burn down.
Fire ignites and it travels up right. You've never seen
(28:43):
a fireplace where the flames are going down from the log.
It's always when we light a fire wood fire in
a fireplace, we're trying to catch the bottom of the
log on fire, and then it will eventually burn up
through the rest of that material until there's nothing else
to burn fire. We could expose all sorts of flame
material to the top surface of your roof down and
(29:07):
not see anything happen. I mean, we might char the roof,
we might even melt part of it. But a class
A fire roof, rated fireroof is the only kind of
material you can buy in the state of California to
put on a roof. So you don't have to worry
about whether the roofing material itself is better or worse
for fire. You should worry about your vents and your eaves.
(29:30):
There you go, that's why you're here, all right. You're
listening to Dean Sharp the House Whisperer on KFI.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
This has been home with Dean Sharp the House whisper
Tune into the live broadcast on KFI Am six forty
every Saturday morning from six to eight Pacific time and
every Sunday morning from nine to noon Pacific time, or
anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app
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I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
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Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Ridiculous History
History is beautiful, brutal and, often, ridiculous. Join Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown as they dive into some of the weirdest stories from across the span of human civilization in Ridiculous History, a podcast by iHeartRadio.