Do you need to build onto your home or maybe build an ADU in the backyard? How about preparing your home for a hurricane or to sell your home? The president of TOMCO solutions Tommy Whitehead is here to talk about all of these amazing solutions.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Business Happy Hour radio show with your host,
Frank Thebank Coodo, the owner of Lincoln Lending Group right
here in Tampa Bay for twenty three years, joined by
his incredible co host, Senia Akishna, realtor with Mahara and Associates,
Tampa's top real estate company. Together they have helped finance
and clothes nearly one billion dollars of real estate every year.
(00:23):
If you're looking for local mortgage or real estate advice,
the Business Happy Hour team has been right here on
news radio WFLA for over a decade. Listen right here,
or find us on the Business Happy Hour YouTube channel,
or follow us on Instagram at Frank Thebankkodo. Now, sit back, relax,
and get ready for some serious mortgage, real estate and
business talk with two of Tampa's top experts. Here's Frank
(00:45):
the Bank and Senia.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Hey Tampa Bay, Welcome back to the Business Happy Hour,
your number one show for all things business and entrepreneurial.
I'm your host, Frank the Bank Coodo, the owner of
Lincoln Lending Group in eight one to three mortgage four
twenty three years, right here in Tampa and we are
having a great day this morning, my in studio co
host Sinya Keisha and myself and siny I have to apologize.
I didn't even start our Instagram today. I'm having so
(01:09):
much fun in the studio.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
So that's a rarity.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
I know. It's a hell. Hello, how are you doing great?
How's your week going?
Speaker 3 (01:17):
You know what, It's going good? But man, summer's flying by,
isn't it?
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Oh you can tell you say that again. It is like,
I mean, what do we have, Like, do we even
have a month of summer life?
Speaker 1 (01:26):
No?
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Not even I don't think we have.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Mine goes back on August eleventh.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Yeah, gosh, you know, I just saw the schedule the
other day. I think ours go back like on like
the ninth or sick they start early like the week
before that. And it is it's kind of stressing me
out right now. We got a couple of vacations left
in the summer, but we we I just don't feel
like we have enough time.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
So at least you've got some vacations left.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
I do have some vacations left. I'm flying out tomorrow morning.
It's gonna be a good time. I'll tell you guys
when I get back. It's gonna be a surprise where
we're going, but I'll tell you we're going to a
tropical island that's part of America. It is the US something,
and I'm sure you guys can figure that out. We'll
come back next week and give you a full report
on how that goes. We have a great show for
you today. Matter of fact, since I'm late on the Instagram,
(02:09):
I need to make sure I get our guests on here.
I'm gonna introduce them right now. We have Tommy Whitehead.
Tommy is the president and CEO and founder of tom
Co tom coo Solutions, Inc. How you doing, Tommy, I
am doing wonderful.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
Little jealous of your vacation in twelve hours to the
undisclosed US island that we'll find out about when we
listen two weeks from now. I got to tease them
a little bit, just a little bit, a little bit.
But you know I'm not too far behind you. I
have a vacation in two weeks too where you had.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
I'm had a degrease. Nice.
Speaker 4 (02:38):
Yes, I've never been, of course. I thought, oh, we'll
cool off of the Mediterranean. I hear it's sweltering heat
over there, and they're closing stuff down. I know, right,
it would have saved me a lot of money.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
So you told me. We were chatting before we walked in.
You going, you guys are going to do grease and
then you're doing a cruise. We are. Have you ever
done the cruise over there before? Yes?
Speaker 4 (02:58):
So I left last year we went out of a
similar ship with virgin and we did a Barcelona cruise.
This stopped at a couple of different spots and the Mediterranean
is just glass.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
The water.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
It's incredible. It's not like the rocking of the boat
you get here in the goal.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Yep. It was just phenomenal.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
So we immediately booked another vacation where like, okay, we
were on this side of Italy. Let's go to the
other side of Italy and see what that body of
water feels like.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
So let's see. So you you're going to the west side. Now,
oh no, you're going to the east side of it.
The east side, east side of it. That'll be interesting.
I did the one where it went to Barcelona and France,
and that's what we did. That was so you guys
got lucky because there's some sort of pass over on
the far left of the map. Near Spain and there's
(03:40):
some like inlet they had to go through or something.
And I've cruised a ton in my life. I have
never experienced rocking like this. Like it was so and
I'm a boat guy, like I have sea legs. Nothing
bothers me. Right, I woke up at three in the morning.
This boat was rocking so hardcore and it was a
giant Norwegian epic ship, right, and I opened the balcony
(04:02):
door and about scared the piss out of me. I
the waves were like when it rocked and went to
one side, they were equivalent with like my eye level
like going down. And I'm looking at them like how
is that possible? It's because like the boats, like you know,
going one side and then the other. And I'm just like, okay,
do go Do I go back to sleep or do
I get my life jacket on? Like I didn't know
(04:22):
what to do. And then I started talking to you know,
the bartenders you become friends with, and they're like, yeah,
that was the worst that we have ever been on
in fifteen years. And I'm like, like so like things
were sliding across the deck, things were breaking in the
middle of the night. So lucky you yeah, you had that.
I don't want to scare you, but what I was
going to ask you was about, like, is it was
it an open loop ship. That's the first time I
(04:43):
ever experienced that where people get on and off at
every port. That's what happened to me last on that
last yest.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
Yeah, so every port that we stopped at, everybody got
on and off like new passengers. Oh new passenger, No,
new new passengers. No, it was a closed loop in
that respect. So yeah, you boarded and deparked dismaying fronts
from Barcelona, Right, Okay, I.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Just found that really weird. Have you ever done that?
Speaker 5 (05:02):
Sin Well, I'm about to go on my very first
cruise in a couple of weeks, so I have no
cruise experience.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
This will be the first. Hopefully it will not be
like yours.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
We got to give her some advice later in the show.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Yeah, get to know the bartender that's number one, yep, yep,
and then know the times on the buffets and dinner,
and if you can upgrade your dining package, upgrade your
dining package because those specialty restaurants are always worth it.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
He took the words Tommy took the words right out
of my mouth right there. Yeah, that's the most important thing.
Find your favorite bar first day, Find your bartender, give
him a nice big tip done yep, like the rest
of the ship. And it makes a difference, right, And
it does and service the same way.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
We had one outlet that we went to several times
and we tipped him extra each time, and he knew
our name and our order and everything when we came
back in.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
How you doing today, Tommy? What's going on is fan Disney.
Speaker 5 (05:55):
Cruise And we just talked to somebody that went on
one and he said that you actually get the same
server you do every time you dine.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
I heard the service that's pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Yeah, I heard the service is impeccable on Disney is. Yeah.
I've done one, and they are more expensive, but you
get the you get like that Disney level. You know,
everything is so clean. I mean I'm not exaggerating. The
kids could probably eat off the floor at the Disney Cruise.
It was that good. Oh wow, you go to like
a Norwegian or now Virgins probably.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
Super Virgins is super clean, super nice and you know,
love my kid, but also love vacationing without the kids.
That's why Virgin does it's adult only, and so you
can you can go to a grown up cruise without
having to worry about the little kid holding up the
buffet line.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
So you're gonna have to tell us. We'll have you
back on the show and tell us how I've never
done a Virgin cruise. I've never flown on a virgin plane.
But they're supposed to be the best.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
We've done several They even have an iPad in your
room that controls the blinds. They literally open the blinds
and close the blinds, ask for room service, control your
TV with a tablet. It's very technologically advanced. Yeah, it
is incredible. And all the dinings included, like even the
specialty restaurants. There is no major like schedule your dining reservations. No,
you can go to each one of the special restaurants
(07:01):
as many times as you want. And then they still
have their commissary area that is phenomenal. I really have
a fondness for the Ramen stations, so I just have
like three bowls of ramen a day. It's great in
between regular meals.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Of course.
Speaker 5 (07:13):
Of course, by the way we are right now, we.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Are hey, if you guys want to send us a
free cruise. Tommy and sen and I are looking for
something for next summer. Virgin give us a call. We'll
be happy. No, that's that's all fun, and it's summer.
You know kids. Do you have any kids, Tommy? I do?
I have a sixteen year old? Oh God, bless you fifteen? Yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
Yeah, we just got the insurance quote back. His license
will be in next week. He's taking his final license
exam and then it'll go up six hundred plus dollars
a month for just his insurance.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Oh my gosh, oh yeah a month.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
I'm like, I wanted to do the math. Is it
cheaper to uber him to school? It is to take
We're close, it's very close.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
It's not far off. It's not far off. Like how
do people do this? Be like, hey, bro, you could
you could have a new ride every day, Yeah, new driver.
You could sit in the back, make him wear a
little hat. Yea. That I don't have to build a
house right next to the school. I don't know what
I'm speaking of, building houses next to school. Shameless plug.
Here we are going to be talking about all kinds
of things about building houses, expanding your own property. Adu's
(08:14):
accessory dwelling units. If you've heard about that and you
didn't know what the heck it was, today is the
show for you. You're going to learn what is an ADU.
Frank the bank here has had experience in that for
about five years with the city of Saint Pete. So
I have a feeling Tommy and I are gonna have
a very dangerous conversation today because he's the one that
builds them. Maybe you want to add on to your home.
You know it's expensive out there. Right now, Sendy is
going to do the stats in just a second. We're
(08:35):
going to find out how expensive these homes are. Good news,
they're not as bad as you think. But you can
buy this home. You could knock it down, you could
build a bigger one. You could put an addition in
your backyard. You could put an addition on the home.
Speaker 4 (08:46):
Me.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
I prefer to make the mother in law have a
little separation from you in the backyard. So that's the
ADU right there. Absolutely. We'll also going to talk about hurricanes.
Believe it or not, guys, we are in hurricane season,
and yes, I'm headed to the islands, and this guy's
gonna fly right the I have a storm in a
couple of days. But we're going to tell you guys
about hurricane Solutions, and Tommy, what's that website if people
(09:07):
want to get ahead of the game.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
So our website is tomcosolutions dot com and we have
a really cool hurricane guide right out there on our
main page. But it's a little different than your prep guide, okay,
so it has your prep tips, but also has recovery tips.
So if you get hit, and we had so many
people get hit last year, you don't know what to do.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
You're paralyzed your stress.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
This gives you some basic steps to start taking right away,
before you get your insurance carrier on the phone, before
you get your contractor on the phone, so you know
what you're doing. And we can talk about those a
little bit later in the show. But there's some key
stuff out there that people have goofed up on and
it's caused them significant delays in their insurance claims. They
thought they were doing right right, but they weren't, and
carriers are pushing back and trying to deny, deny, So
(09:48):
we try to give some tips so that they aren't
denying your claims because we want you to get back
home just as much.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
As you do. That is phenomenal. I can't wait for
this part.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
I call you then before the insurance company.
Speaker 4 (09:57):
Usually I say, yes, call us so we can get
your mitigation plan in place, and then yes, get to
your insurance company. But you know, it's insurance is a
challenge everywhere, especially here in Florida, and we're seeing, uh,
we're still seeing our challenges. We're still seeing declined claims
and this is eight months later. Yeah, some people haven't
even gotten their work started yet.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
That's that's insanity. So, I mean, you know, full disclosure,
We had a claim and it just got approved maybe
a month and a half, two months ago, but it
was all because of contractors and trying to find someone
to do it and get quotes and all that, and
full disclosure. We haven't even made a decision on who
the heck's gonna do it now that we've got it
figured out. So we have a lot of good stuff
with you in the business. Happy our don't forget. The
website is TOMC Solutions TMC solutions dot com to check
(10:40):
out that hurricane stuff and everything else they do. Sin.
I mean, we got a minute left. I think we
should hang hold stats for the next segment, What do
you say, sure, get started? Tell me this though? Is
it good news or bad news?
Speaker 5 (10:52):
I mean, I think it's just fine news, just fine.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
She is so honest, it's been.
Speaker 5 (10:58):
I mean, there's really there's not a whole lot going
on in terms of like news. There's no big you know,
but you know, real estate is going well, it is,
it is alright, we're.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Busy at Mahara and Associates.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Yeah, I'm hearing that from a lot of agents out there,
a lot of other brokers in town. Is it's uh.
I think people have maybe gotten used to where the
rates are, you know, gotten used to where the market
isn't seeing that. Yeah, we're going on three years of
having rates you know, between six something and seven something
and did you know the national average six point seventy
five over forty years, So we're better than that. Right now.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
Life has to go on. It has to have kids,
family members, change jobs, change. You have to buy you can't.
You can always refinance later, thank you, finance later.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
We're gonna leave the on take a break here on
the business Happy I. We're going to leave you with
our favorite phrase, which is marry the house and date
the race. That's right. Then, nailed it right there. Marry
the house and date the rate. That's what we're gonna
tell you. Own the Business Happy How. We're getting back
in just a minute with Tommy Whitehead, CEO and president
of tomcosolutions dot com. Check them out and don't forget
to call sen for your real estate stuff and Frank
(12:01):
the bank when we get back from the Business Happy Hour.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
All the best mortgage or real estate advice from Tampa
Bay's top experts. It's the Business Happy Hour with Frank, Debankkoto,
and Senia.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Hey, Timpa Baby, Welcome back to the Business Happy Hour,
your number one show for all things business. And I'm entrepreneurial.
I can't even speak today. I am in studio with
Tommy Whitehead, CEO and founder of tom Co Solutions. We're
gonna be talking about Adu's accessory dwelling units. We're gonna
be talking about adding on to your house, renovating, tearing down,
(12:35):
and what a lot of you really want to hear
about hurricanes because we are in hurricane season. Thank god,
nothing yet. I think we have like a kind of
sort of little something out in the in the Atlantic
right now that they're saying the conditions aren't right for
and it's just gonna pass through and we're gonna have
more storms. Yes, I'm flying to an island tomorrow. Yes,
Tommy's gonna fly all the way to Europe a little
(12:57):
bit later. Yes, then you're gonna get on a cruise.
Soingers crossed that we don't get hit. I think we
could use one year off. I think it'd be nice
after what happened last year. But anyway, we're gonna get
right into real estate stats. Tommy, if you does your
volume go all the way off on your inst If
it does, I don't know if anybody's picking up an
echo or not, but hopefully not. We'll have a listeners
(13:18):
or instance. Let us know if you guys are here
in an echo, and we'll get it corrected if needed.
But other than that, thank you for tuning in. And
Senia Akeishna from Mahara and Associates, my favorite real estate
agent and co host. Tell me, do we have good news?
She said, it's just news.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
It's just news, you know.
Speaker 5 (13:35):
I just I, you know, tell the stats, yeah, and I,
you know, pull them from somewhere and then I read
it off.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
I don't, you know, come up with them.
Speaker 5 (13:41):
I wish I did, But what I did today is
actually I checked out our Florida numbers. So normally we
keep it, you know, local, because real estate is hyper local. Uh.
But for Florida, sales were down about two percent year
every year. So I think this is a nationwide thing.
Sales are just down in general.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Only two percent for the entire.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Year, only two percent year every year in Florida.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Yes, so all these posts out there saying that Florida
real estate is crashing and everything is in the toilet's
not true. They take any.
Speaker 5 (14:15):
Little negative number and really, you know, exploded and oh
my gosh.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
I mean these are the real stats. Yeah, you have
to read past one hundred and forty four characters. You know,
it's the Twitter. It's the Twitter thought.
Speaker 4 (14:26):
Oh the headline says it's crashing, and then you look
at it in some small little town that nobody's ever
heard of.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
The real estate just crashed exactly.
Speaker 4 (14:34):
Okay, But Tampa's strong, and Orlando is strong, and Miami
is strong, and we have to be focusing on the
large scale, not the little teeny things.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Yeah, all have friends send me like a tidpit. Oh
you know, prices are sinking I'm like, where are you
getting this from?
Speaker 2 (14:46):
My headline?
Speaker 4 (14:47):
Yeah, headline back FMN l PQR website dot QR dot
seven five seven. It's legitimate, totally legitimate, Yeah, totally legitimate.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
But a lot of people just you know, stop there,
and that's it.
Speaker 5 (15:00):
That's what they go around, you know, spreading to their
friends and yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Is that like when your mom sends you a text
and says, hey, look, Elon Musk invented this new plug.
It was gonna watch. I'm like, don't.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
Click just about anything my mom sends me. I'm always like, mom,
where'd you get that?
Speaker 2 (15:16):
And you know it's called clickbait for bait, that's right.
Speaker 5 (15:21):
So anyway, So in Florida, the median price is four
hundred and twelve four hundred dollars and the median days
on market sixty seven days and a six month supply.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
So I know you've been listening to.
Speaker 5 (15:33):
My stats I have locally and obviously, yeah, these numbers,
that's not where we're at. So for Hillsborough County, our
medium sale price is actually four hundred and thirty thousand, okay,
and our median days on market is thirty two days.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
Oh wow, I mean that's less.
Speaker 5 (15:49):
Than half and apparently all of Florida and our month
supply is four point two.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (15:55):
I mean that says to me that, you know, we
live in a pretty popular area here, you know, so
you know, don't pick anywhere else.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
Come to you know, Hillsboro panelas over.
Speaker 5 (16:06):
Here, and yes, you know our numbers are better than
I guess the Florida WI.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Yeah, very very short. Now how many how much inventory
did you say we had here four months?
Speaker 3 (16:14):
Four point two?
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Interesting? So remember listeners, when when Senia says inventory, what
that tells you is how much those houses are going
to go up when the rates drop, and how much
competition you're going to have. Right, six months is kind
of normal. Four months is at least thirty percent low.
So all of a sudden the rates drop and all
of your neighbors decide they're going to go buy a house. Well,
guess what you're fighting over the same house.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
And I think it's a given.
Speaker 5 (16:38):
And I mean you said anything on the last show
that it's not a matter of if, it's when the
rates go down. Yeah, when they do, I guarantee you
so many buyers are going to come out of the sidelines.
I know lots of them have just been waiting for,
you know, the conditions to be just right. I mean them,
prices will go up, there will be competition, you'll end
up paying more for your home, and you might not
(16:59):
end up with the whole you love because there's going
to be other people that are trying to buy that
same house.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
So shouldn't you marry the house now and just date
the rate?
Speaker 4 (17:06):
Absolutely, you absolutely should. So we've seen some people buy
houses just to be acceptable. Then they call us and say,
this is all the things we want to do. And
we've told one person specifically, Hey, you should knock your
house down.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
What do you mean?
Speaker 4 (17:18):
We want to add a second level and we want
to do this, and we want to do this structurally.
You need to knock your house down. Oh I knew
I shouldn't have bought this house. We just thought it
could have been something else.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Oh, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (17:27):
If you want to make a drastic change on a
house that you're buying, you need to talk to a
professional first.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Well, that's very interesting and we're definitely going to dive
into this because I never knew the logistics of that. Like,
you own a house you like, can't you just add
a second story, but there's some houses you can't do
that too.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
That is that is absolutely correct. It is not just
it's not a lego block. You can't just keep piling on.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
H Yeah, does it And I'm a skip ahead, but
then we're gonna go back to stats. Does it matter
if it's concrete block or frame, if you can add on.
Speaker 4 (17:56):
It's going to be all kind have the same issue. Okay,
and that's your geotechnical engineering. Okay, can then land that's
there support any heavier weight and it probably can, but
you probably have to do reinforcements on what are called footers,
and that kind of holds your house up. And the
footers are different for wood frame versus concrete, and so
if you want to build a second level in your house,
(18:18):
the footers were only designed to handle the load for
one level. So that means to build up we have
to dig down into the foundation install new footers that
are larger. Most likely we have to do this, and
then we have to do support beams or columns inside
the house. Maybe they're hidden, maybe they're not. They have
to support that second level structure because the house was
designed that way. Okay, And yes, it's a wood frame
(18:41):
houses have the exact same problem. Even if it's not concrete,
it has that load bearing capacity and it was not
designed to hold two stories. It was designed to hold
one story. So when a wood frame house, it actually
can get a little bit more complex because you have
to install additional supports and structure. So it's just it
is a case by case basis. It's not something you
can grab off the shelf and answer that question for,
but it is something to consider. You just don't want
(19:03):
to think I'll buy this house and build up many
times after you go through the cost of engineering, because
you could be looking at four or five thousand dollars
just to have an engineer come out and say this.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Could be probates.
Speaker 4 (19:15):
Sorry, sorry four grand I need that money and then
I'll tell you the result.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Then you get the result.
Speaker 4 (19:19):
Nope, you can't do that, or it's going to be
forty grand to retrofit your house before you can start
construction to build up.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Okay, and that's when we go and marry another house
Mary House exactly. So this is a great show we
send and I had no idea what we were walking into.
But we have more on stats for you guys. When
we get back, we already have some good news. The
market is way better than what you think it is,
and the clickbait don't click on it because the truth
is two percent in the state of Florida. And by
the way, most house negotiations are larger than two percent,
(19:48):
So two percent is a tiny, tiny little figure, and
that's even less than your closing cost. So stay tuned.
When we get back from the Business Happy our sin
is going to bring us more stats, and then we're
going to talk to Jason about Adu's construction. I have
a big question for him about concrete versus frame. So
stay tuned to the Business Happy Hour. Will be back
in just a minute.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
Welcome to the Business Happy Hour radio show with your host,
Frank Debank Coodo, the owner of Lincoln Lending Group right
here in Tampa Bay for twenty three years, joined by
his incredible co host, Sennia Akishna, realtor with Mahara and Associates,
Tampa's top real estate company. Together they have helped finance
and close nearly one billion dollars of real estate every year.
(20:28):
If you're looking for local mortgage or real estate advice,
the Business Happy Hour team has been right here on
news radio WFLA for over a decade. Listen right here,
or find us on the Business Happy Hour YouTube channel,
or follow us on Instagram at Frank Debankkodo. Now, sit back, relax,
and get ready for some serious mortgage, real estate and
business talk with two of Tampa's top experts. Here's Frank
(20:50):
de Bank and Senia.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Hey, Tampa Bay, Welcome to the Business Happy Hour again.
We're having a great show here with Sennia Akisha from
Mahara and associates on my favorite real estate teams and
all of Tampa Bay. And guys, they are busy. It
is not slow out there. There is competition. I'm willing
to bet Senya, you guys are seeing multiple officers offers
on some of your homes here and there. In certain
(21:12):
ways there are yes, which you know, guys, the market's real.
You got to marry house and date the rate. But
I don't want to get right into this because Senya
has prepared a lot of good stats for you, and
I love it when she does it, because she just
just debunked every piece of clickbait in the state of
Florida that our market is only down by two percent
and the entire state, and two percent is nothing on
(21:32):
a four hundred thousand dollars average price home. You're literally
talking about eight thousand dollars, that is it. So if
you're out there and you think you're gonna lose a
home for eight thousand dollars, you're not in the right market, right,
But Sin tell us more about these stats and then
we'll get back to Tommy.
Speaker 5 (21:47):
Well, I mean you kind of put me on the
spot because, like I covered the majority of them. So
these are our main numbers. They am excited to see
our you numbers which come out at the end of
this month. But overall, though, new pending sales are up
four point six percent, so I do think that that's
going to be an improved June stat for us. In
(22:07):
terms of closed sales.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
Pending sales are up four point pent so that I
mean pending. Okay. By the way, listeners, what pending means
is it's under contract, right, Yes, That means that sale
is in process and it is pending closing. Yeah, So
you're right, that could lead to a very good June
yes stats because we're looking at the May right now, right, yeah,
So what's your overall outlook right now? Where do you think.
(22:30):
I mean, we're in summer, it's the busy time. You're
about to throw out the summer stats starting the next
week or two. Do you think they're going to be good?
Speaker 5 (22:37):
I do, Yes, I'm optimistic, and I mean, like you said,
I do think that a lot of people are kind
of getting used to it. You know, I think some
of them are just sick of sitting in the sidelines.
They're like, you know what it is, what it is?
Interest rates have, you know, take down a little bit,
and you know people are out there looking for homes.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Yeah, I agree, and let's let's talk rates real quick. Actually,
Sinnia people, I probably want to call you after hearing
all this good news. What's the best way.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
To sorry us?
Speaker 5 (23:04):
Eight one, three, seven, five to five, reel. I would
love to hear from you and help you buy a
home or sell a home. It's a good time to
do both.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Or just talk about the market. Just talk about the market.
Speaker 5 (23:13):
You don't have to do either, but yeah, if we
want to, just you know, talk game plan and you know,
when is a good time, which I do think it's now,
but maybe you know next year might be better for
you and we can start preparing.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Yeah, don't feel obligated, Sorry, Tommy, don't feel obligated. Guys,
when we're giving you our numbers and stuff, you don't
have to wait until you are literally going to look
at a home. We are here to educate and form,
advice and guide you. Matter of fact, that's the Lincoln
Lending Group logo founded twenty three years ago. Educate and
form and guide. So you have to call us and
then we will help you out. So give senecal to
(23:44):
talk about the real estate market and the area you
want or what house is right for you at eight
one to three.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
Seven, five to five, reel and call Frank.
Speaker 5 (23:51):
Because I really think that when people just look at
the headlines or do the calculators that they have available,
you know on bank rate, your numbers are better. Yes,
you know, so get the real number, you know, talk
to a real professional, you know, someone that you know
does this on a day to day. Go over your
situation and you might just be surprised, you know.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Yeah, don't don't read just like we're telling you not
to read the clickbait, because we know the market is
not down by twenty percent. Florida's not going underwater. We're
not you know, falling into the ocean or anything. The
rates we are locking right now in the fives on
government rates, I mean five and a half just got
locked on Monday. That's way lower than if you google
bankrate dot com. So do your research. Go to contact
(24:33):
frankdbank dot com. Easiest way to find me. Contact Frank
thebank dot com. We'll get you an answer right away
and that goes directly to my staff. Anything else on stats,
that's great news.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
Well, you know what, not not quite a stat I mean,
I guess, but I.
Speaker 5 (24:45):
Saw a Fortune article Oh tell me the other day
which I found really interesting. But did you know that
over thirty million homeowners do not have a mortgage?
Speaker 2 (24:54):
Oh? Really?
Speaker 4 (24:55):
So I kind of did know a little bit about
that because in the investment world they talk about untapped
equity and that the traditional advice is pay your house off,
so you don't have a mortgage right now. The untraditional
life advice and the wealth building advice now is okay,
you can lock in at five point five percent if
you just give Frank a call and he can help
you with that five point five percent equity loan, then
(25:16):
you're investing that in something and making fifteen percent. So
now your mortgage, your house that you live in is
no longer overhead. It's an investment vehicle that is paying
you to do nothing every month. It's there's a ton
of investment professionals out there.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
Now.
Speaker 4 (25:31):
Don't go on your latest cryptocurrency kind of craze. Don't
don't think you're going to get rich quick. But if
you talk to an actual investment advisor, an actual business broker,
talk to professionals, they can help you take that equity
out of your house, invest it and make passive income.
Right you're paying your mortgage off and making a profit
(25:51):
on it, and you could deduct it all his business.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
It can consult your tax advisor.
Speaker 5 (25:55):
I know you've got that financial background, but no, I'm
guessing most of those people probably are, you know, over sixty.
And I mean for those like why not now go
to you and do yeah, do the reverse mortgage.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
So, to sum this up real quick, the reverse mortgage
makes you have no payment. The interest is deferred against
the principal balance. If you're over fifty five on one
program sixty two on the other. And exactly what Tommy said,
A lot of financial advisors send me their clients because
they have all this equity that you can't take with you, you
put it on a reverse mortgage. You actually lower your
monthly payment because you have none, and now you're investing
(26:27):
in making money on it.
Speaker 4 (26:29):
Yeah, and you're only if you want to correct me
if I'm wrong, but you can make an interest only
payment on those as well, so you're not accruing additional interests.
It's not growing the principal balance. Your principal balance can
stay the same every month. It can always be the
one hundred thousand you took out. Yep, you just pay
the three hundred dollars in expenses, but you're making seven
hundred dollars one thousand dollars fifteen hundred bucks by using
(26:49):
the equity in your house. Yes, and we talk to
people about that. Sometimes they're like, Hey, is this I mean,
this is the last twenty years, this is your retirement
years living in the house you're happy with.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
They can't take it with you. What do you want
to do with that? Yeah? So many people are so
rich via equity and they have no idea and they
don't know how to use it. So that's what we're
trying to do with Contact Frank Thebank dot com just
reach out. We'll find out right away what you can do. Tommy,
let's focus on you. I want to make sure we
talk about that. We've got lots of questions for you.
So you founded Tomco Solutions. How long ago? I did
(27:21):
it in twenty eighteen? Okay, Yeah, so we've been around
for a long time, a long time. You guys are
going on eight years in business.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
We're going on eight years in business. We started pretty small,
and now we have an internal team of at least thirteen.
We keep adding to those numbers. That gets crazy. Yeah,
and we're expanding drastically.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
And so tell us real quick in ten thousand foot
what services do you provide before we get granular?
Speaker 4 (27:45):
So I tell people that I build homes in a
build community, and we'll talk about the building community part later. Okay,
but for building homes, anything from your kitchen renovation. You
want to keep that rate and you just don't want
to refinance. But this is your forever home. Let's change
that nineteen eighties kitchen out for you. Let's upgrade to
EIGHTA bathrooms for grandma moving in or mom moving in,
so that there's grab bars, so there's roll in showers.
(28:06):
Let's get impact windows installed, so maybe you can get
a little break in your insurance rates and secure your
house in case of a storm. All the way up
to hey, we have a vacant piece of land and
we want to build a house, we can do that too,
And then I know you kind of touched on it,
and I waited till the last. But EIGHTYUS accessory dwelling
units are the big touching point right now, because if
(28:29):
you renovate your kitchen, it just brings you up to
the market rate. You don't add square footage, you don't
add money. But when you create an ADU in your yard,
you're creating extra square footage, which increases the value of
your property. So, unlike a renovation, which you can't necessarily
recoup right away, you could spend one hundred and fifty
thousand dollars on an EIGHTYU and your equity could theoretically
(28:52):
increase by one hundred and fifty thousand or sometimes more.
You literally can make an investment out.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Of your own property.
Speaker 4 (28:58):
And then if you're rent that out, and some people
do that, they don't want just your mother in law,
and that's a great spot. Keep the mother in law
out of the main house. But you can still get
to her if you need to. But if you want
to use it to make some passive income, and it
depends on your jurisdiction, you can have a rental unit.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
Now.
Speaker 4 (29:15):
Listen, your net cash flow might be zero after your
mortgage goes out and your your rent comes in, but
it's paying down the principle of that mortgage every time.
And then there's tax savings on all of that if
you're using it as an investment vehicle, which you talk
to your tax professional about. But you can take advantage
of depreciation, you can take advantage of reducing rates on
(29:35):
your management fees or deducting all that.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
And so what you're doing is you're.
Speaker 4 (29:39):
Taking that hunk of land in your backyard that is
not useful right now it's too hot to be outside,
and you're making it. You're making it revenue producing when
you're increasing the value of your property. And you've got
some cool programs where people can borrow on future equity,
right exactly, right, yeah, And so so you know you
call Frank and Frank says, hey, hey, yeah, we can
(29:59):
do this for you. How big of an ad you
do want? Okay, if we're going to do three hundred
square feet. Then we can build that three hundred square
feet and this is how much we can lend you.
Let's go shop for a contractor with you. Yeah, and
so we work with banking professionals to do that, and
then we bring more money to you. And it should
be paying for itself if you're renting it out.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
That's exactly right. And I'm gonna make it real easy
for you guys. It is called a renovation loan. There's
two ways to get to this money. You can either
take out a whole equity line of credit, which is
going to be a little higher interest rate. But let's
say you got a three and a half percent rate
on that first mortgage you don't want to touch. That's great.
Take out that equity line at seven point eight seventy five.
You start giving the money to Tommy and his company
(30:32):
as they need the draws to get your ADU done.
You control your own money. That's a really neat easy
way to do it. Another way is called a renovation loan.
And what Tommy's talking about in adding equity and extra
value to your house is when you add square footage.
That's how that's the easiest way to add value you
need square footage for value. If you renovate your house,
you're only as good as the nicest house in the neighborhood. Okay,
(30:54):
But if you add five hundred square feet or eight
hundred square feet in your backyard, well, now you're being
comped to a whole other house, a whole different square
foot floor plan. That's how you get it. Now, we
do a renovation loan and we actually use the future
value of the home, so we're giving credit for this
square footage that Tommy is adding to your home. That's
how you guys get to do That's very easy through
(31:16):
a renovation loan. Contact Frank Thebank dot com for that.
But to find Tommy, we got to go to Tomco Solutions.
Tomco Solutions dot com. What else can they do, Tommy? Okay?
Speaker 4 (31:26):
So you can also do an addition, which is similar
to an a tou depending on your market or where
you're at your zoning laws. But say you want to
add on that extra suite. You know you your family's growing,
and you don't want to go out and buy something
else and you don't want to move your whole family.
We can partition off your house and build an extra
suite that's exactly.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
Right, and we're going to pick up on that when
we get back from the break. Tommy is an experienced
to radio guy. I can already tell he reads cues
very well. So we're going to come back with Tommy
from Tomco Solutions. That's Tomco Solutions dot Com in just
a minute. And don't forget if you need to talk
real estate, it's eight one to three seven five five
real I got to send on this one. We're gonna
be back in just a minute. I'm gonna ask him
that important question about frame versus block. Stay tuned.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
Let's get back to the Business Happy Hour radio show
with your host Frank the Bankkodo, owner of Lincoln Lending Group,
and his co host Senia Akishna, realtor with Mahara and Associates.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
Hey, this is Frank the Bank from Lincoln Lending Group.
We're back on the Business Happy Hour. We've got a
great show for you guys. Hopefully you've heard most of
the show already. We have great news on stats. Senia
just gave us some great news that the market is
only down two percent in the state of Florida. Quick asterisk.
We're not throwing out all the condo numbers in there
because the condo market is kind of is completely separate
right now, and if you need a condo, we're not
(32:41):
gonna waste too much time. But there are some really
really good deals on condos if you can come in
and buy them, maybe without financing. And as long as
these reserve studies go well for those condos, a lot
of them are getting redone refurbished. The beaches are being done.
Mark my words. Next year is the year of condos
in the state of Florida. All these brand new renovated condos,
all the restaurants, the beaches, everything is just kind of
(33:03):
got a clean slate. Let's put it that way, right.
It might have been Mother Nature who gave us the
clean slate. We didn't order it. But nonetheless, I'm looking
forward to a great condom market next year. So Tommy,
Tommy Whitehead, CEO and founder of tomcosolutions dot com. By
the way, I've been teasing a little bit on this.
We know you build homes, you do ADUs, you do renovations.
(33:26):
You have that awesome hurricane immediate prep guide, not just
the hey Goo put batteries and stuff in your trunk
prepan recovery recovery guide, which I'm going to check out
as soon as we get off the air. I want
to ask you this question because this always comes up
in real estate circles investor circles. It's frame versus block. Okay,
maybe we should talk specific to hurricanes first. It sure
(33:47):
is one better than the other. I've always heard frame
conflex block can't. So frame isn't as bad as people think,
do you think?
Speaker 4 (33:54):
So let's talk about Florida because this is where we're
recording the show, right, all right, So let's talk about
not hercaneanes first, and let's talk about the biggest problem
we have with stick build or frame houses here. Termites.
It's termites. I have one hundred year old house. It's beautiful,
it's gorgeous, and I just want to do some drywall work.
You open up the drywall and find out an entire
wall is destroyed and the drywall was the only thing
(34:16):
holding it up.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
And I've literally had this happen.
Speaker 4 (34:18):
We've had to reframe an entire house once because we said, hey,
we're going to stop working because your house is in
a collapse. Well you didn't tell me that. Well, we
don't want to go forward with no, no, no, we
can't just put the drawway back up. Now, this could
kill you. We can't do this. Yes, So for nothing else,
if we had the perfect weather and never had another
storm here in Florida, and I can guarantee you that
(34:39):
would still go with block. Because we are subtropical climate,
termites thrive in these large clouds and they are all
over the Tampa Bay area, all over.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
We went to do.
Speaker 4 (34:49):
An addition on one house and found out all the
trustwork on the house that was being lived in was
all destroyed.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
We had to pause that.
Speaker 4 (34:57):
That was thirty thousand dollars extra for the homeowner that
they did not expect. But they said, well, we'll just
cover it up. No, I don't cover anything up. I'm
not going to do anything that's going to harm you
or your family. Right, So they had to go through
the process of, while living in the house, trust by
trust replacing it, which is a lot more expensive than
a new build when you can just throw them up.
So for just that purpose alone, you definitely want to block.
(35:19):
The other benefits of block it is more hurricane resilient.
Now most houses you're going to see that are two
levels or block on the bottom and frame on the top,
and that's that's okay. Whenever you can have full concrete,
full block, that is your best. You're typically and I'm
not an insurance professional. We do a lot of work though,
but you're going to see slightly better rates in insurance
(35:41):
for the blocks. It's safer for your family, it's going
to have a higher impact level or window there, and
it's less maintenance as long as you paint or maintain
the outside. Is all those all those stucco problems, and
I'm sure you said you've probably seen these stucco trying
to like sheathe off the side of the house. That's
because somebody didn't want to paint every five years. You know,
a three thousand dollars paint job could have saved a
(36:01):
thirty thousand dollars stucco job.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
And so maintenance is key.
Speaker 4 (36:04):
But yeah, you definitely want to go with block. We
don't ever recommend anything wood frame here unless you already
have a wood frame house and we're doing an addition
or a change to that. We can do wood frame structures,
of course, it's still legal. We still go through the
architecture and engineer like anything else, but we always push
against it, always and now we're starting to see some
volatility and lumber prices with potential tariffs.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
You know, today there's a tariff, tomorrow there's not. Today,
there's a tariff, tomorrow.
Speaker 4 (36:28):
There's not, And so we don't know if your lumber
prices are going to be twenty percent more expensive tomorrow
or one hundred and fifty percent more expensive tomorrow with
most of our lumber coming from out of the country.
And so at least the block is regulated a little.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
Better beautiful, all right. So the rest of the show
is years. I had to get that question out there
to everybody. So we've just dispelled the rumors. Then if
you have your frame, you're good. If you've got your block,
keep your block. And if you want to build ad
some block, all right? So what else other things that
we do? The ad US, I think is huge. I
know you're doing. What are your customers looking for right now?
(37:01):
What are the most popular things?
Speaker 4 (37:02):
So we're seeing anything from moms getting older, she has
a house up in Maryland and needs to sell it
and we want to just put this on our property,
to hey, I need a studio space because a lot
of people went to work from home with COVID and
did not go back into the office. I mean even
our company's hybrid, we're on job sites all the time.
Why maintain an office space so we are not in
(37:23):
the office frequently, and then we have people looking for
that studio or office space in the back. I can
work from home. Now, those are those are key. I
think they add to the resale value. When you're trying
to say, and you can answer this, when you're trying
to sell a house and they've got this bonus studio,
this bonus room, this bonus guest room that's separate, that
really helps.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
Sure.
Speaker 5 (37:41):
I mean any yes, if it's done properly, you know,
and you got the ac and you know, defence all
properly done.
Speaker 3 (37:47):
Absolutely, that's extra square footage. So yes, more square footage,
you know, adds value. Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
Yeah, not a tough shed that you put up without
a permit and.
Speaker 3 (37:56):
Does it get that's important to do it right. I
mean we do still.
Speaker 5 (37:59):
You know, I'll have some resales and somebody did an addition,
you know, thirty years ago, and nobody knew what was done,
how it was done. So those are a little tricky,
but yes, to have you come in and do it
the right way, that would absolutely add value.
Speaker 4 (38:12):
Yeah, if we have a second, I'd love to talk
about our hurricane recovery because there's been a couple of
unique instances happening.
Speaker 2 (38:18):
Right, yeah, two minutes, it's a yes, all right.
Speaker 4 (38:20):
So, for those of you that don't know, the FEMA
fifty roll or forty nine percent means that if you
need to repair, the cost of repairs is over forty
nine percent of your structure value, not your land and structure,
just the structure value. They're requiring you to raise your house,
lift it up, or knock it down and rebuild it.
In many instances, you could spend one hundred and fifty
to two hundred thousand dollars just to raise the house.
(38:40):
It's way cheaper for our nineteen fifties to sixty house
to get knocked down because you have to upgrade your
electrical and plumbing and windows and everything else, so it
gets cheaper. So what we're seeing is is investors coming in.
And these aren't the great investors. These are the bad
guys that come in and kill all your equity because
people don't know what to deal with.
Speaker 2 (38:57):
Yep.
Speaker 4 (38:58):
But if you call us, if you all Frank, if
you call sen there's ways to work around this, and
we've started telling people, Hey, your disaster torn house could
be an investment opportunity for you. Now it's not your
house anymore, so we can knock it down. Frank can
finance it, we can rebuild it, and if it's we'll
build it to the maximum size of your lot so
that you're getting a beachfront property or a waterfront or
water adjacent property that's now flood protected. And if you
(39:21):
can't service the mortgage or you don't want to go
from fifteen hundred to three thousand dollars a month in
payments or fifte hundred scare feet to three thousand square feet,
you can call sin and she can at the very
end sell the house for you and then all the
equity you recap instead of giving it to somebody else.
It's a year, it's a pain in the butt, but
you get more money in your account at the end
of that year.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
I love it. I think you nailed everything. Jay. It's
been an amazing show between you and Seyam talking about
getting extra value. What can you do? I'll tell you
what you guys can do is you go to tomcosolutions
dot com. You get to meet Tommy, you talk to him,
then you talk to sen at eight one, three, seven,
five five reel and you create a strategy. Eventually Frank
(40:00):
will come in. We'll figure out how you got to
finance this strategy. But this is where I want you
guys to start. Tommy, it's been a great show. Thank
you for coming. This was wonderful.
Speaker 4 (40:06):
I can't wait to do it again if I if
I'm invited again, I would love to come and chat
with you guys.
Speaker 2 (40:11):
I always get a great information here. You will well.
Thanks for coming to see me, Tommy.
Speaker 3 (40:15):
Yes, so nice to meet you.
Speaker 2 (40:16):
Yes, we'll see you guys next week on the Business
Happy Hour.
Welcome to the Business Happy Hour radio show with your host,
Frank Thebank Coodo, the owner of Lincoln Lending Group right
here in Tampa Bay for twenty three years, joined by
his incredible co host, Senia Akishna, realtor with Mahara and Associates,
Tampa's top real estate company. Together they have helped finance
and clothes nearly one billion dollars of real estate every year.
(00:23):
If you're looking for local mortgage or real estate advice,
the Business Happy Hour team has been right here on
news radio WFLA for over a decade. Listen right here,
or find us on the Business Happy Hour YouTube channel,
or follow us on Instagram at Frank Thebankkodo. Now, sit back, relax,
and get ready for some serious mortgage, real estate and
business talk with two of Tampa's top experts. Here's Frank
(00:45):
the Bank and Senia.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Hey Tampa Bay, Welcome back to the Business Happy Hour,
your number one show for all things business and entrepreneurial.
I'm your host, Frank the Bank Coodo, the owner of
Lincoln Lending Group in eight one to three mortgage four
twenty three years, right here in Tampa and we are
having a great day this morning, my in studio co
host Sinya Keisha and myself and siny I have to apologize.
I didn't even start our Instagram today. I'm having so
(01:09):
much fun in the studio.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
So that's a rarity.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
I know. It's a hell. Hello, how are you doing great?
How's your week going?
Speaker 3 (01:17):
You know what, It's going good? But man, summer's flying by,
isn't it?
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Oh you can tell you say that again. It is like,
I mean, what do we have, Like, do we even
have a month of summer life?
Speaker 1 (01:26):
No?
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Not even I don't think we have.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Mine goes back on August eleventh.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Yeah, gosh, you know, I just saw the schedule the
other day. I think ours go back like on like
the ninth or sick they start early like the week
before that. And it is it's kind of stressing me
out right now. We got a couple of vacations left
in the summer, but we we I just don't feel
like we have enough time.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
So at least you've got some vacations left.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
I do have some vacations left. I'm flying out tomorrow morning.
It's gonna be a good time. I'll tell you guys
when I get back. It's gonna be a surprise where
we're going, but I'll tell you we're going to a
tropical island that's part of America. It is the US something,
and I'm sure you guys can figure that out. We'll
come back next week and give you a full report
on how that goes. We have a great show for
you today. Matter of fact, since I'm late on the Instagram,
(02:09):
I need to make sure I get our guests on here.
I'm gonna introduce them right now. We have Tommy Whitehead.
Tommy is the president and CEO and founder of tom
Co tom coo Solutions, Inc. How you doing, Tommy, I
am doing wonderful.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
Little jealous of your vacation in twelve hours to the
undisclosed US island that we'll find out about when we
listen two weeks from now. I got to tease them
a little bit, just a little bit, a little bit.
But you know I'm not too far behind you. I
have a vacation in two weeks too where you had.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
I'm had a degrease. Nice.
Speaker 4 (02:38):
Yes, I've never been, of course. I thought, oh, we'll
cool off of the Mediterranean. I hear it's sweltering heat
over there, and they're closing stuff down. I know, right,
it would have saved me a lot of money.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
So you told me. We were chatting before we walked in.
You going, you guys are going to do grease and
then you're doing a cruise. We are. Have you ever
done the cruise over there before? Yes?
Speaker 4 (02:58):
So I left last year we went out of a
similar ship with virgin and we did a Barcelona cruise.
This stopped at a couple of different spots and the Mediterranean
is just glass.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
The water.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
It's incredible. It's not like the rocking of the boat
you get here in the goal.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Yep. It was just phenomenal.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
So we immediately booked another vacation where like, okay, we
were on this side of Italy. Let's go to the
other side of Italy and see what that body of
water feels like.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
So let's see. So you you're going to the west side. Now,
oh no, you're going to the east side of it.
The east side, east side of it. That'll be interesting.
I did the one where it went to Barcelona and France,
and that's what we did. That was so you guys
got lucky because there's some sort of pass over on
the far left of the map. Near Spain and there's
(03:40):
some like inlet they had to go through or something.
And I've cruised a ton in my life. I have
never experienced rocking like this. Like it was so and
I'm a boat guy, like I have sea legs. Nothing
bothers me. Right, I woke up at three in the morning.
This boat was rocking so hardcore and it was a
giant Norwegian epic ship, right, and I opened the balcony
(04:02):
door and about scared the piss out of me. I
the waves were like when it rocked and went to
one side, they were equivalent with like my eye level
like going down. And I'm looking at them like how
is that possible? It's because like the boats, like you know,
going one side and then the other. And I'm just like, okay,
do go Do I go back to sleep or do
I get my life jacket on? Like I didn't know
(04:22):
what to do. And then I started talking to you know,
the bartenders you become friends with, and they're like, yeah,
that was the worst that we have ever been on
in fifteen years. And I'm like, like so like things
were sliding across the deck, things were breaking in the
middle of the night. So lucky you yeah, you had that.
I don't want to scare you, but what I was
going to ask you was about, like, is it was
it an open loop ship. That's the first time I
(04:43):
ever experienced that where people get on and off at
every port. That's what happened to me last on that
last yest.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
Yeah, so every port that we stopped at, everybody got
on and off like new passengers. Oh new passenger, No,
new new passengers. No, it was a closed loop in
that respect. So yeah, you boarded and deparked dismaying fronts
from Barcelona, Right, Okay, I.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Just found that really weird. Have you ever done that?
Speaker 5 (05:02):
Sin Well, I'm about to go on my very first
cruise in a couple of weeks, so I have no
cruise experience.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
This will be the first. Hopefully it will not be
like yours.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
We got to give her some advice later in the show.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Yeah, get to know the bartender that's number one, yep, yep,
and then know the times on the buffets and dinner,
and if you can upgrade your dining package, upgrade your
dining package because those specialty restaurants are always worth it.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
He took the words Tommy took the words right out
of my mouth right there. Yeah, that's the most important thing.
Find your favorite bar first day, Find your bartender, give
him a nice big tip done yep, like the rest
of the ship. And it makes a difference, right, And
it does and service the same way.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
We had one outlet that we went to several times
and we tipped him extra each time, and he knew
our name and our order and everything when we came
back in.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
How you doing today, Tommy? What's going on is fan Disney.
Speaker 5 (05:55):
Cruise And we just talked to somebody that went on
one and he said that you actually get the same
server you do every time you dine.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
I heard the service that's pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Yeah, I heard the service is impeccable on Disney is. Yeah.
I've done one, and they are more expensive, but you
get the you get like that Disney level. You know,
everything is so clean. I mean I'm not exaggerating. The
kids could probably eat off the floor at the Disney Cruise.
It was that good. Oh wow, you go to like
a Norwegian or now Virgins probably.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
Super Virgins is super clean, super nice and you know,
love my kid, but also love vacationing without the kids.
That's why Virgin does it's adult only, and so you
can you can go to a grown up cruise without
having to worry about the little kid holding up the
buffet line.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
So you're gonna have to tell us. We'll have you
back on the show and tell us how I've never
done a Virgin cruise. I've never flown on a virgin plane.
But they're supposed to be the best.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
We've done several They even have an iPad in your
room that controls the blinds. They literally open the blinds
and close the blinds, ask for room service, control your
TV with a tablet. It's very technologically advanced. Yeah, it
is incredible. And all the dinings included, like even the
specialty restaurants. There is no major like schedule your dining reservations. No,
you can go to each one of the special restaurants
(07:01):
as many times as you want. And then they still
have their commissary area that is phenomenal. I really have
a fondness for the Ramen stations, so I just have
like three bowls of ramen a day. It's great in
between regular meals.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Of course.
Speaker 5 (07:13):
Of course, by the way we are right now, we.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Are hey, if you guys want to send us a
free cruise. Tommy and sen and I are looking for
something for next summer. Virgin give us a call. We'll
be happy. No, that's that's all fun, and it's summer.
You know kids. Do you have any kids, Tommy? I do?
I have a sixteen year old? Oh God, bless you fifteen? Yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
Yeah, we just got the insurance quote back. His license
will be in next week. He's taking his final license
exam and then it'll go up six hundred plus dollars
a month for just his insurance.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Oh my gosh, oh yeah a month.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
I'm like, I wanted to do the math. Is it
cheaper to uber him to school? It is to take
We're close, it's very close.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
It's not far off. It's not far off. Like how
do people do this? Be like, hey, bro, you could
you could have a new ride every day, Yeah, new driver.
You could sit in the back, make him wear a
little hat. Yea. That I don't have to build a
house right next to the school. I don't know what
I'm speaking of, building houses next to school. Shameless plug.
Here we are going to be talking about all kinds
of things about building houses, expanding your own property. Adu's
(08:14):
accessory dwelling units. If you've heard about that and you
didn't know what the heck it was, today is the
show for you. You're going to learn what is an ADU.
Frank the bank here has had experience in that for
about five years with the city of Saint Pete. So
I have a feeling Tommy and I are gonna have
a very dangerous conversation today because he's the one that
builds them. Maybe you want to add on to your home.
You know it's expensive out there. Right now, Sendy is
going to do the stats in just a second. We're
(08:35):
going to find out how expensive these homes are. Good news,
they're not as bad as you think. But you can
buy this home. You could knock it down, you could
build a bigger one. You could put an addition in
your backyard. You could put an addition on the home.
Speaker 4 (08:46):
Me.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
I prefer to make the mother in law have a
little separation from you in the backyard. So that's the
ADU right there. Absolutely. We'll also going to talk about hurricanes.
Believe it or not, guys, we are in hurricane season,
and yes, I'm headed to the islands, and this guy's
gonna fly right the I have a storm in a
couple of days. But we're going to tell you guys
about hurricane Solutions, and Tommy, what's that website if people
(09:07):
want to get ahead of the game.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
So our website is tomcosolutions dot com and we have
a really cool hurricane guide right out there on our
main page. But it's a little different than your prep guide, okay,
so it has your prep tips, but also has recovery tips.
So if you get hit, and we had so many
people get hit last year, you don't know what to do.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
You're paralyzed your stress.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
This gives you some basic steps to start taking right away,
before you get your insurance carrier on the phone, before
you get your contractor on the phone, so you know
what you're doing. And we can talk about those a
little bit later in the show. But there's some key
stuff out there that people have goofed up on and
it's caused them significant delays in their insurance claims. They
thought they were doing right right, but they weren't, and
carriers are pushing back and trying to deny, deny, So
(09:48):
we try to give some tips so that they aren't
denying your claims because we want you to get back
home just as much.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
As you do. That is phenomenal. I can't wait for
this part.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
I call you then before the insurance company.
Speaker 4 (09:57):
Usually I say, yes, call us so we can get
your mitigation plan in place, and then yes, get to
your insurance company. But you know, it's insurance is a
challenge everywhere, especially here in Florida, and we're seeing, uh,
we're still seeing our challenges. We're still seeing declined claims
and this is eight months later. Yeah, some people haven't
even gotten their work started yet.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
That's that's insanity. So, I mean, you know, full disclosure,
We had a claim and it just got approved maybe
a month and a half, two months ago, but it
was all because of contractors and trying to find someone
to do it and get quotes and all that, and
full disclosure. We haven't even made a decision on who
the heck's gonna do it now that we've got it
figured out. So we have a lot of good stuff
with you in the business. Happy our don't forget. The
website is TOMC Solutions TMC solutions dot com to check
(10:40):
out that hurricane stuff and everything else they do. Sin.
I mean, we got a minute left. I think we
should hang hold stats for the next segment, What do
you say, sure, get started? Tell me this though? Is
it good news or bad news?
Speaker 5 (10:52):
I mean, I think it's just fine news, just fine.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
She is so honest, it's been.
Speaker 5 (10:58):
I mean, there's really there's not a whole lot going
on in terms of like news. There's no big you know,
but you know, real estate is going well, it is,
it is alright, we're.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Busy at Mahara and Associates.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Yeah, I'm hearing that from a lot of agents out there,
a lot of other brokers in town. Is it's uh.
I think people have maybe gotten used to where the
rates are, you know, gotten used to where the market
isn't seeing that. Yeah, we're going on three years of
having rates you know, between six something and seven something
and did you know the national average six point seventy
five over forty years, So we're better than that. Right now.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
Life has to go on. It has to have kids,
family members, change jobs, change. You have to buy you can't.
You can always refinance later, thank you, finance later.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
We're gonna leave the on take a break here on
the business Happy I. We're going to leave you with
our favorite phrase, which is marry the house and date
the race. That's right. Then, nailed it right there. Marry
the house and date the rate. That's what we're gonna
tell you. Own the Business Happy How. We're getting back
in just a minute with Tommy Whitehead, CEO and president
of tomcosolutions dot com. Check them out and don't forget
to call sen for your real estate stuff and Frank
(12:01):
the bank when we get back from the Business Happy Hour.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
All the best mortgage or real estate advice from Tampa
Bay's top experts. It's the Business Happy Hour with Frank, Debankkoto,
and Senia.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Hey, Timpa Baby, Welcome back to the Business Happy Hour,
your number one show for all things business. And I'm entrepreneurial.
I can't even speak today. I am in studio with
Tommy Whitehead, CEO and founder of tom Co Solutions. We're
gonna be talking about Adu's accessory dwelling units. We're gonna
be talking about adding on to your house, renovating, tearing down,
(12:35):
and what a lot of you really want to hear
about hurricanes because we are in hurricane season. Thank god,
nothing yet. I think we have like a kind of
sort of little something out in the in the Atlantic
right now that they're saying the conditions aren't right for
and it's just gonna pass through and we're gonna have
more storms. Yes, I'm flying to an island tomorrow. Yes,
Tommy's gonna fly all the way to Europe a little
(12:57):
bit later. Yes, then you're gonna get on a cruise.
Soingers crossed that we don't get hit. I think we
could use one year off. I think it'd be nice
after what happened last year. But anyway, we're gonna get
right into real estate stats. Tommy, if you does your
volume go all the way off on your inst If
it does, I don't know if anybody's picking up an
echo or not, but hopefully not. We'll have a listeners
(13:18):
or instance. Let us know if you guys are here
in an echo, and we'll get it corrected if needed.
But other than that, thank you for tuning in. And
Senia Akeishna from Mahara and Associates, my favorite real estate
agent and co host. Tell me, do we have good news?
She said, it's just news.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
It's just news, you know.
Speaker 5 (13:35):
I just I, you know, tell the stats, yeah, and I,
you know, pull them from somewhere and then I read
it off.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
I don't, you know, come up with them.
Speaker 5 (13:41):
I wish I did, But what I did today is
actually I checked out our Florida numbers. So normally we
keep it, you know, local, because real estate is hyper local. Uh.
But for Florida, sales were down about two percent year
every year. So I think this is a nationwide thing.
Sales are just down in general.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Only two percent for the entire.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Year, only two percent year every year in Florida.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Yes, so all these posts out there saying that Florida
real estate is crashing and everything is in the toilet's
not true. They take any.
Speaker 5 (14:15):
Little negative number and really, you know, exploded and oh
my gosh.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
I mean these are the real stats. Yeah, you have
to read past one hundred and forty four characters. You know,
it's the Twitter. It's the Twitter thought.
Speaker 4 (14:26):
Oh the headline says it's crashing, and then you look
at it in some small little town that nobody's ever
heard of.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
The real estate just crashed exactly.
Speaker 4 (14:34):
Okay, But Tampa's strong, and Orlando is strong, and Miami
is strong, and we have to be focusing on the
large scale, not the little teeny things.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Yeah, all have friends send me like a tidpit. Oh
you know, prices are sinking I'm like, where are you
getting this from?
Speaker 2 (14:46):
My headline?
Speaker 4 (14:47):
Yeah, headline back FMN l PQR website dot QR dot
seven five seven. It's legitimate, totally legitimate, Yeah, totally legitimate.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
But a lot of people just you know, stop there,
and that's it.
Speaker 5 (15:00):
That's what they go around, you know, spreading to their
friends and yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Is that like when your mom sends you a text
and says, hey, look, Elon Musk invented this new plug.
It was gonna watch. I'm like, don't.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
Click just about anything my mom sends me. I'm always like, mom,
where'd you get that?
Speaker 2 (15:16):
And you know it's called clickbait for bait, that's right.
Speaker 5 (15:21):
So anyway, So in Florida, the median price is four
hundred and twelve four hundred dollars and the median days
on market sixty seven days and a six month supply.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
So I know you've been listening to.
Speaker 5 (15:33):
My stats I have locally and obviously, yeah, these numbers,
that's not where we're at. So for Hillsborough County, our
medium sale price is actually four hundred and thirty thousand, okay,
and our median days on market is thirty two days.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
Oh wow, I mean that's less.
Speaker 5 (15:49):
Than half and apparently all of Florida and our month
supply is four point two.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (15:55):
I mean that says to me that, you know, we
live in a pretty popular area here, you know, so
you know, don't pick anywhere else.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
Come to you know, Hillsboro panelas over.
Speaker 5 (16:06):
Here, and yes, you know our numbers are better than
I guess the Florida WI.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Yeah, very very short. Now how many how much inventory
did you say we had here four months?
Speaker 3 (16:14):
Four point two?
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Interesting? So remember listeners, when when Senia says inventory, what
that tells you is how much those houses are going
to go up when the rates drop, and how much
competition you're going to have. Right, six months is kind
of normal. Four months is at least thirty percent low.
So all of a sudden the rates drop and all
of your neighbors decide they're going to go buy a house. Well,
guess what you're fighting over the same house.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
And I think it's a given.
Speaker 5 (16:38):
And I mean you said anything on the last show
that it's not a matter of if, it's when the
rates go down. Yeah, when they do, I guarantee you
so many buyers are going to come out of the sidelines.
I know lots of them have just been waiting for,
you know, the conditions to be just right. I mean them,
prices will go up, there will be competition, you'll end
up paying more for your home, and you might not
(16:59):
end up with the whole you love because there's going
to be other people that are trying to buy that
same house.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
So shouldn't you marry the house now and just date
the rate?
Speaker 4 (17:06):
Absolutely, you absolutely should. So we've seen some people buy
houses just to be acceptable. Then they call us and say,
this is all the things we want to do. And
we've told one person specifically, Hey, you should knock your
house down.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
What do you mean?
Speaker 4 (17:18):
We want to add a second level and we want
to do this, and we want to do this structurally.
You need to knock your house down. Oh I knew
I shouldn't have bought this house. We just thought it
could have been something else.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Oh, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (17:27):
If you want to make a drastic change on a
house that you're buying, you need to talk to a
professional first.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Well, that's very interesting and we're definitely going to dive
into this because I never knew the logistics of that. Like,
you own a house you like, can't you just add
a second story, but there's some houses you can't do
that too.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
That is that is absolutely correct. It is not just
it's not a lego block. You can't just keep piling on.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
H Yeah, does it And I'm a skip ahead, but
then we're gonna go back to stats. Does it matter
if it's concrete block or frame, if you can add on.
Speaker 4 (17:56):
It's going to be all kind have the same issue. Okay,
and that's your geotechnical engineering. Okay, can then land that's
there support any heavier weight and it probably can, but
you probably have to do reinforcements on what are called footers,
and that kind of holds your house up. And the
footers are different for wood frame versus concrete, and so
if you want to build a second level in your house,
(18:18):
the footers were only designed to handle the load for
one level. So that means to build up we have
to dig down into the foundation install new footers that
are larger. Most likely we have to do this, and
then we have to do support beams or columns inside
the house. Maybe they're hidden, maybe they're not. They have
to support that second level structure because the house was
designed that way. Okay, And yes, it's a wood frame
(18:41):
houses have the exact same problem. Even if it's not concrete,
it has that load bearing capacity and it was not
designed to hold two stories. It was designed to hold
one story. So when a wood frame house, it actually
can get a little bit more complex because you have
to install additional supports and structure. So it's just it
is a case by case basis. It's not something you
can grab off the shelf and answer that question for,
but it is something to consider. You just don't want
(19:03):
to think I'll buy this house and build up many
times after you go through the cost of engineering, because
you could be looking at four or five thousand dollars
just to have an engineer come out and say this.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Could be probates.
Speaker 4 (19:15):
Sorry, sorry four grand I need that money and then
I'll tell you the result.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Then you get the result.
Speaker 4 (19:19):
Nope, you can't do that, or it's going to be
forty grand to retrofit your house before you can start
construction to build up.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Okay, and that's when we go and marry another house
Mary House exactly. So this is a great show we
send and I had no idea what we were walking into.
But we have more on stats for you guys. When
we get back, we already have some good news. The
market is way better than what you think it is,
and the clickbait don't click on it because the truth
is two percent in the state of Florida. And by
the way, most house negotiations are larger than two percent,
(19:48):
So two percent is a tiny, tiny little figure, and
that's even less than your closing cost. So stay tuned.
When we get back from the Business Happy our sin
is going to bring us more stats, and then we're
going to talk to Jason about Adu's construction. I have
a big question for him about concrete versus frame. So
stay tuned to the Business Happy Hour. Will be back
in just a minute.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
Welcome to the Business Happy Hour radio show with your host,
Frank Debank Coodo, the owner of Lincoln Lending Group right
here in Tampa Bay for twenty three years, joined by
his incredible co host, Sennia Akishna, realtor with Mahara and Associates,
Tampa's top real estate company. Together they have helped finance
and close nearly one billion dollars of real estate every year.
(20:28):
If you're looking for local mortgage or real estate advice,
the Business Happy Hour team has been right here on
news radio WFLA for over a decade. Listen right here,
or find us on the Business Happy Hour YouTube channel,
or follow us on Instagram at Frank Debankkodo. Now, sit back, relax,
and get ready for some serious mortgage, real estate and
business talk with two of Tampa's top experts. Here's Frank
(20:50):
de Bank and Senia.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Hey, Tampa Bay, Welcome to the Business Happy Hour again.
We're having a great show here with Sennia Akisha from
Mahara and associates on my favorite real estate teams and
all of Tampa Bay. And guys, they are busy. It
is not slow out there. There is competition. I'm willing
to bet Senya, you guys are seeing multiple officers offers
on some of your homes here and there. In certain
(21:12):
ways there are yes, which you know, guys, the market's real.
You got to marry house and date the rate. But
I don't want to get right into this because Senya
has prepared a lot of good stats for you, and
I love it when she does it, because she just
just debunked every piece of clickbait in the state of
Florida that our market is only down by two percent
and the entire state, and two percent is nothing on
(21:32):
a four hundred thousand dollars average price home. You're literally
talking about eight thousand dollars, that is it. So if
you're out there and you think you're gonna lose a
home for eight thousand dollars, you're not in the right market, right,
But Sin tell us more about these stats and then
we'll get back to Tommy.
Speaker 5 (21:47):
Well, I mean you kind of put me on the
spot because, like I covered the majority of them. So
these are our main numbers. They am excited to see
our you numbers which come out at the end of
this month. But overall, though, new pending sales are up
four point six percent, so I do think that that's
going to be an improved June stat for us. In
(22:07):
terms of closed sales.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
Pending sales are up four point pent so that I
mean pending. Okay. By the way, listeners, what pending means
is it's under contract, right, Yes, That means that sale
is in process and it is pending closing. Yeah, So
you're right, that could lead to a very good June
yes stats because we're looking at the May right now, right, yeah,
So what's your overall outlook right now? Where do you think.
(22:30):
I mean, we're in summer, it's the busy time. You're
about to throw out the summer stats starting the next
week or two. Do you think they're going to be good?
Speaker 5 (22:37):
I do, Yes, I'm optimistic, and I mean, like you said,
I do think that a lot of people are kind
of getting used to it. You know, I think some
of them are just sick of sitting in the sidelines.
They're like, you know what it is, what it is?
Interest rates have, you know, take down a little bit,
and you know people are out there looking for homes.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Yeah, I agree, and let's let's talk rates real quick. Actually,
Sinnia people, I probably want to call you after hearing
all this good news. What's the best way.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
To sorry us?
Speaker 5 (23:04):
Eight one, three, seven, five to five, reel. I would
love to hear from you and help you buy a
home or sell a home. It's a good time to
do both.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Or just talk about the market. Just talk about the market.
Speaker 5 (23:13):
You don't have to do either, but yeah, if we
want to, just you know, talk game plan and you know,
when is a good time, which I do think it's now,
but maybe you know next year might be better for
you and we can start preparing.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Yeah, don't feel obligated, Sorry, Tommy, don't feel obligated. Guys,
when we're giving you our numbers and stuff, you don't
have to wait until you are literally going to look
at a home. We are here to educate and form,
advice and guide you. Matter of fact, that's the Lincoln
Lending Group logo founded twenty three years ago. Educate and
form and guide. So you have to call us and
then we will help you out. So give senecal to
(23:44):
talk about the real estate market and the area you
want or what house is right for you at eight
one to three.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
Seven, five to five, reel and call Frank.
Speaker 5 (23:51):
Because I really think that when people just look at
the headlines or do the calculators that they have available,
you know on bank rate, your numbers are better. Yes,
you know, so get the real number, you know, talk
to a real professional, you know, someone that you know
does this on a day to day. Go over your
situation and you might just be surprised, you know.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Yeah, don't don't read just like we're telling you not
to read the clickbait, because we know the market is
not down by twenty percent. Florida's not going underwater. We're
not you know, falling into the ocean or anything. The
rates we are locking right now in the fives on
government rates, I mean five and a half just got
locked on Monday. That's way lower than if you google
bankrate dot com. So do your research. Go to contact
(24:33):
frankdbank dot com. Easiest way to find me. Contact Frank
thebank dot com. We'll get you an answer right away
and that goes directly to my staff. Anything else on stats,
that's great news.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
Well, you know what, not not quite a stat I mean,
I guess, but I.
Speaker 5 (24:45):
Saw a Fortune article Oh tell me the other day
which I found really interesting. But did you know that
over thirty million homeowners do not have a mortgage?
Speaker 2 (24:54):
Oh? Really?
Speaker 4 (24:55):
So I kind of did know a little bit about
that because in the investment world they talk about untapped
equity and that the traditional advice is pay your house off,
so you don't have a mortgage right now. The untraditional
life advice and the wealth building advice now is okay,
you can lock in at five point five percent if
you just give Frank a call and he can help
you with that five point five percent equity loan, then
(25:16):
you're investing that in something and making fifteen percent. So
now your mortgage, your house that you live in is
no longer overhead. It's an investment vehicle that is paying
you to do nothing every month. It's there's a ton
of investment professionals out there.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
Now.
Speaker 4 (25:31):
Don't go on your latest cryptocurrency kind of craze. Don't
don't think you're going to get rich quick. But if
you talk to an actual investment advisor, an actual business broker,
talk to professionals, they can help you take that equity
out of your house, invest it and make passive income.
Right you're paying your mortgage off and making a profit
(25:51):
on it, and you could deduct it all his business.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
It can consult your tax advisor.
Speaker 5 (25:55):
I know you've got that financial background, but no, I'm
guessing most of those people probably are, you know, over sixty.
And I mean for those like why not now go
to you and do yeah, do the reverse mortgage.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
So, to sum this up real quick, the reverse mortgage
makes you have no payment. The interest is deferred against
the principal balance. If you're over fifty five on one
program sixty two on the other. And exactly what Tommy said,
A lot of financial advisors send me their clients because
they have all this equity that you can't take with you, you
put it on a reverse mortgage. You actually lower your
monthly payment because you have none, and now you're investing
(26:27):
in making money on it.
Speaker 4 (26:29):
Yeah, and you're only if you want to correct me
if I'm wrong, but you can make an interest only
payment on those as well, so you're not accruing additional interests.
It's not growing the principal balance. Your principal balance can
stay the same every month. It can always be the
one hundred thousand you took out. Yep, you just pay
the three hundred dollars in expenses, but you're making seven
hundred dollars one thousand dollars fifteen hundred bucks by using
(26:49):
the equity in your house. Yes, and we talk to
people about that. Sometimes they're like, Hey, is this I mean,
this is the last twenty years, this is your retirement
years living in the house you're happy with.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
They can't take it with you. What do you want
to do with that? Yeah? So many people are so
rich via equity and they have no idea and they
don't know how to use it. So that's what we're
trying to do with Contact Frank Thebank dot com just
reach out. We'll find out right away what you can do. Tommy,
let's focus on you. I want to make sure we
talk about that. We've got lots of questions for you.
So you founded Tomco Solutions. How long ago? I did
(27:21):
it in twenty eighteen? Okay, Yeah, so we've been around
for a long time, a long time. You guys are
going on eight years in business.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
We're going on eight years in business. We started pretty small,
and now we have an internal team of at least thirteen.
We keep adding to those numbers. That gets crazy. Yeah,
and we're expanding drastically.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
And so tell us real quick in ten thousand foot
what services do you provide before we get granular?
Speaker 4 (27:45):
So I tell people that I build homes in a
build community, and we'll talk about the building community part later. Okay,
but for building homes, anything from your kitchen renovation. You
want to keep that rate and you just don't want
to refinance. But this is your forever home. Let's change
that nineteen eighties kitchen out for you. Let's upgrade to
EIGHTA bathrooms for grandma moving in or mom moving in,
so that there's grab bars, so there's roll in showers.
(28:06):
Let's get impact windows installed, so maybe you can get
a little break in your insurance rates and secure your
house in case of a storm. All the way up
to hey, we have a vacant piece of land and
we want to build a house, we can do that too,
And then I know you kind of touched on it,
and I waited till the last. But EIGHTYUS accessory dwelling
units are the big touching point right now, because if
(28:29):
you renovate your kitchen, it just brings you up to
the market rate. You don't add square footage, you don't
add money. But when you create an ADU in your yard,
you're creating extra square footage, which increases the value of
your property. So, unlike a renovation, which you can't necessarily
recoup right away, you could spend one hundred and fifty
thousand dollars on an EIGHTYU and your equity could theoretically
(28:52):
increase by one hundred and fifty thousand or sometimes more.
You literally can make an investment out.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Of your own property.
Speaker 4 (28:58):
And then if you're rent that out, and some people
do that, they don't want just your mother in law,
and that's a great spot. Keep the mother in law
out of the main house. But you can still get
to her if you need to. But if you want
to use it to make some passive income, and it
depends on your jurisdiction, you can have a rental unit.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
Now.
Speaker 4 (29:15):
Listen, your net cash flow might be zero after your
mortgage goes out and your your rent comes in, but
it's paying down the principle of that mortgage every time.
And then there's tax savings on all of that if
you're using it as an investment vehicle, which you talk
to your tax professional about. But you can take advantage
of depreciation, you can take advantage of reducing rates on
(29:35):
your management fees or deducting all that.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
And so what you're doing is you're.
Speaker 4 (29:39):
Taking that hunk of land in your backyard that is
not useful right now it's too hot to be outside,
and you're making it. You're making it revenue producing when
you're increasing the value of your property. And you've got
some cool programs where people can borrow on future equity,
right exactly, right, yeah, And so so you know you
call Frank and Frank says, hey, hey, yeah, we can
(29:59):
do this for you. How big of an ad you
do want? Okay, if we're going to do three hundred
square feet. Then we can build that three hundred square
feet and this is how much we can lend you.
Let's go shop for a contractor with you. Yeah, and
so we work with banking professionals to do that, and
then we bring more money to you. And it should
be paying for itself if you're renting it out.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
That's exactly right. And I'm gonna make it real easy
for you guys. It is called a renovation loan. There's
two ways to get to this money. You can either
take out a whole equity line of credit, which is
going to be a little higher interest rate. But let's
say you got a three and a half percent rate
on that first mortgage you don't want to touch. That's great.
Take out that equity line at seven point eight seventy five.
You start giving the money to Tommy and his company
(30:32):
as they need the draws to get your ADU done.
You control your own money. That's a really neat easy
way to do it. Another way is called a renovation loan.
And what Tommy's talking about in adding equity and extra
value to your house is when you add square footage.
That's how that's the easiest way to add value you
need square footage for value. If you renovate your house,
you're only as good as the nicest house in the neighborhood. Okay,
(30:54):
But if you add five hundred square feet or eight
hundred square feet in your backyard, well, now you're being
comped to a whole other house, a whole different square
foot floor plan. That's how you get it. Now, we
do a renovation loan and we actually use the future
value of the home, so we're giving credit for this
square footage that Tommy is adding to your home. That's
how you guys get to do That's very easy through
(31:16):
a renovation loan. Contact Frank Thebank dot com for that.
But to find Tommy, we got to go to Tomco Solutions.
Tomco Solutions dot com. What else can they do, Tommy? Okay?
Speaker 4 (31:26):
So you can also do an addition, which is similar
to an a tou depending on your market or where
you're at your zoning laws. But say you want to
add on that extra suite. You know you your family's growing,
and you don't want to go out and buy something
else and you don't want to move your whole family.
We can partition off your house and build an extra
suite that's exactly.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
Right, and we're going to pick up on that when
we get back from the break. Tommy is an experienced
to radio guy. I can already tell he reads cues
very well. So we're going to come back with Tommy
from Tomco Solutions. That's Tomco Solutions dot Com in just
a minute. And don't forget if you need to talk
real estate, it's eight one to three seven five five
real I got to send on this one. We're gonna
be back in just a minute. I'm gonna ask him
that important question about frame versus block. Stay tuned.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
Let's get back to the Business Happy Hour radio show
with your host Frank the Bankkodo, owner of Lincoln Lending Group,
and his co host Senia Akishna, realtor with Mahara and Associates.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
Hey, this is Frank the Bank from Lincoln Lending Group.
We're back on the Business Happy Hour. We've got a
great show for you guys. Hopefully you've heard most of
the show already. We have great news on stats. Senia
just gave us some great news that the market is
only down two percent in the state of Florida. Quick asterisk.
We're not throwing out all the condo numbers in there
because the condo market is kind of is completely separate
right now, and if you need a condo, we're not
(32:41):
gonna waste too much time. But there are some really
really good deals on condos if you can come in
and buy them, maybe without financing. And as long as
these reserve studies go well for those condos, a lot
of them are getting redone refurbished. The beaches are being done.
Mark my words. Next year is the year of condos
in the state of Florida. All these brand new renovated condos,
all the restaurants, the beaches, everything is just kind of
(33:03):
got a clean slate. Let's put it that way, right.
It might have been Mother Nature who gave us the
clean slate. We didn't order it. But nonetheless, I'm looking
forward to a great condom market next year. So Tommy,
Tommy Whitehead, CEO and founder of tomcosolutions dot com. By
the way, I've been teasing a little bit on this.
We know you build homes, you do ADUs, you do renovations.
(33:26):
You have that awesome hurricane immediate prep guide, not just
the hey Goo put batteries and stuff in your trunk
prepan recovery recovery guide, which I'm going to check out
as soon as we get off the air. I want
to ask you this question because this always comes up
in real estate circles investor circles. It's frame versus block. Okay,
maybe we should talk specific to hurricanes first. It sure
(33:47):
is one better than the other. I've always heard frame
conflex block can't. So frame isn't as bad as people think,
do you think?
Speaker 4 (33:54):
So let's talk about Florida because this is where we're
recording the show, right, all right, So let's talk about
not hercaneanes first, and let's talk about the biggest problem
we have with stick build or frame houses here. Termites.
It's termites. I have one hundred year old house. It's beautiful,
it's gorgeous, and I just want to do some drywall work.
You open up the drywall and find out an entire
wall is destroyed and the drywall was the only thing
(34:16):
holding it up.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
And I've literally had this happen.
Speaker 4 (34:18):
We've had to reframe an entire house once because we said, hey,
we're going to stop working because your house is in
a collapse. Well you didn't tell me that. Well, we
don't want to go forward with no, no, no, we
can't just put the drawway back up. Now, this could
kill you. We can't do this. Yes, So for nothing else,
if we had the perfect weather and never had another
storm here in Florida, and I can guarantee you that
(34:39):
would still go with block. Because we are subtropical climate,
termites thrive in these large clouds and they are all
over the Tampa Bay area, all over.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
We went to do.
Speaker 4 (34:49):
An addition on one house and found out all the
trustwork on the house that was being lived in was
all destroyed.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
We had to pause that.
Speaker 4 (34:57):
That was thirty thousand dollars extra for the homeowner that
they did not expect. But they said, well, we'll just
cover it up. No, I don't cover anything up. I'm
not going to do anything that's going to harm you
or your family. Right, So they had to go through
the process of, while living in the house, trust by
trust replacing it, which is a lot more expensive than
a new build when you can just throw them up.
So for just that purpose alone, you definitely want to block.
(35:19):
The other benefits of block it is more hurricane resilient.
Now most houses you're going to see that are two
levels or block on the bottom and frame on the top,
and that's that's okay. Whenever you can have full concrete,
full block, that is your best. You're typically and I'm
not an insurance professional. We do a lot of work though,
but you're going to see slightly better rates in insurance
(35:41):
for the blocks. It's safer for your family, it's going
to have a higher impact level or window there, and
it's less maintenance as long as you paint or maintain
the outside. Is all those all those stucco problems, and
I'm sure you said you've probably seen these stucco trying
to like sheathe off the side of the house. That's
because somebody didn't want to paint every five years. You know,
a three thousand dollars paint job could have saved a
(36:01):
thirty thousand dollars stucco job.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
And so maintenance is key.
Speaker 4 (36:04):
But yeah, you definitely want to go with block. We
don't ever recommend anything wood frame here unless you already
have a wood frame house and we're doing an addition
or a change to that. We can do wood frame structures,
of course, it's still legal. We still go through the
architecture and engineer like anything else, but we always push
against it, always and now we're starting to see some
volatility and lumber prices with potential tariffs.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
You know, today there's a tariff, tomorrow there's not. Today,
there's a tariff, tomorrow.
Speaker 4 (36:28):
There's not, And so we don't know if your lumber
prices are going to be twenty percent more expensive tomorrow
or one hundred and fifty percent more expensive tomorrow with
most of our lumber coming from out of the country.
And so at least the block is regulated a little.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
Better beautiful, all right. So the rest of the show
is years. I had to get that question out there
to everybody. So we've just dispelled the rumors. Then if
you have your frame, you're good. If you've got your block,
keep your block. And if you want to build ad
some block, all right? So what else other things that
we do? The ad US, I think is huge. I
know you're doing. What are your customers looking for right now?
(37:01):
What are the most popular things?
Speaker 4 (37:02):
So we're seeing anything from moms getting older, she has
a house up in Maryland and needs to sell it
and we want to just put this on our property,
to hey, I need a studio space because a lot
of people went to work from home with COVID and
did not go back into the office. I mean even
our company's hybrid, we're on job sites all the time.
Why maintain an office space so we are not in
(37:23):
the office frequently, and then we have people looking for
that studio or office space in the back. I can
work from home. Now, those are those are key. I
think they add to the resale value. When you're trying
to say, and you can answer this, when you're trying
to sell a house and they've got this bonus studio,
this bonus room, this bonus guest room that's separate, that
really helps.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
Sure.
Speaker 5 (37:41):
I mean any yes, if it's done properly, you know,
and you got the ac and you know, defence all
properly done.
Speaker 3 (37:47):
Absolutely, that's extra square footage. So yes, more square footage,
you know, adds value. Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
Yeah, not a tough shed that you put up without
a permit and.
Speaker 3 (37:56):
Does it get that's important to do it right. I
mean we do still.
Speaker 5 (37:59):
You know, I'll have some resales and somebody did an addition,
you know, thirty years ago, and nobody knew what was done,
how it was done. So those are a little tricky,
but yes, to have you come in and do it
the right way, that would absolutely add value.
Speaker 4 (38:12):
Yeah, if we have a second, I'd love to talk
about our hurricane recovery because there's been a couple of
unique instances happening.
Speaker 2 (38:18):
Right, yeah, two minutes, it's a yes, all right.
Speaker 4 (38:20):
So, for those of you that don't know, the FEMA
fifty roll or forty nine percent means that if you
need to repair, the cost of repairs is over forty
nine percent of your structure value, not your land and structure,
just the structure value. They're requiring you to raise your house,
lift it up, or knock it down and rebuild it.
In many instances, you could spend one hundred and fifty
to two hundred thousand dollars just to raise the house.
(38:40):
It's way cheaper for our nineteen fifties to sixty house
to get knocked down because you have to upgrade your
electrical and plumbing and windows and everything else, so it
gets cheaper. So what we're seeing is is investors coming in.
And these aren't the great investors. These are the bad
guys that come in and kill all your equity because
people don't know what to deal with.
Speaker 2 (38:57):
Yep.
Speaker 4 (38:58):
But if you call us, if you all Frank, if
you call sen there's ways to work around this, and
we've started telling people, Hey, your disaster torn house could
be an investment opportunity for you. Now it's not your
house anymore, so we can knock it down. Frank can
finance it, we can rebuild it, and if it's we'll
build it to the maximum size of your lot so
that you're getting a beachfront property or a waterfront or
water adjacent property that's now flood protected. And if you
(39:21):
can't service the mortgage or you don't want to go
from fifteen hundred to three thousand dollars a month in
payments or fifte hundred scare feet to three thousand square feet,
you can call sin and she can at the very
end sell the house for you and then all the
equity you recap instead of giving it to somebody else.
It's a year, it's a pain in the butt, but
you get more money in your account at the end
of that year.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
I love it. I think you nailed everything. Jay. It's
been an amazing show between you and Seyam talking about
getting extra value. What can you do? I'll tell you
what you guys can do is you go to tomcosolutions
dot com. You get to meet Tommy, you talk to him,
then you talk to sen at eight one, three, seven,
five five reel and you create a strategy. Eventually Frank
(40:00):
will come in. We'll figure out how you got to
finance this strategy. But this is where I want you
guys to start. Tommy, it's been a great show. Thank
you for coming. This was wonderful.
Speaker 4 (40:06):
I can't wait to do it again if I if
I'm invited again, I would love to come and chat
with you guys.
Speaker 2 (40:11):
I always get a great information here. You will well.
Thanks for coming to see me, Tommy.
Speaker 3 (40:15):
Yes, so nice to meet you.
Speaker 2 (40:16):
Yes, we'll see you guys next week on the Business
Happy Hour.
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