Homeowner Wisdom: A Deep Dive with Craig and Kevin from The Homeowner Show Part II

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[00:00:21] Eric Goranson: So if you miss that on the radio, make sure you go back and catch it on the podcast player. And at the very end of the show, I think we'll have time to talk about some tips and tricks for first time home buyers out there. It's. If you're out there trying to get a house, I've got some ideas to help you get started.

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[00:00:56] Intro: remodeling and renovating your home, there is a lot to [00:01:00] know.

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[00:01:05] Eric Goranson: to the Round the House show, the next generation of home improvement. Thanks for joining me today. I'm Eric G. This is our second hour of the show, brought to you by our friends at Monument Grills. If you're looking for a great barbecue on a budget, these are the guys for you.

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[00:01:37] Eric Goranson: It's tough being a nice guy. You know that? No, I don't. I'm

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[00:01:47] Eric Goranson: just not worth it. No idea. That's the problem. I haven't had that problem in 10 years. Just kidding.

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[00:01:59] Eric Goranson: [00:02:00] Not yet. Everything's more expensive issue that we have here. It's really hard is because we have so many trees, like in my area, I can go on Google maps and I can't find my house because I have a hundred percent tree cover over it, which means that the insurance companies can't get a good satellite look of your house.

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[00:02:36] Craig and Kevin: but I know it's

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[00:02:36] Craig and Kevin: big issue across the country.

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[00:02:59] Craig and Kevin: Like they're taking away [00:03:00] like fire coverage. Yeah. And I think they're doing that in Colorado as well. I don't quote me on that, but I think that's happening in Colorado.

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[00:03:07] Craig and Kevin: so, but like these policies, they're not, again, the premiums aren't changing, the rates aren't changing, but you're just losing coverage.

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[00:03:34] Craig and Kevin: And we lost flood insurance around here years ago. Oh, yeah.

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[00:03:53] Eric Goranson: All of a sudden, they changed it to a 500 deductible. No conversation. They just, at one point in the [00:04:00] last year or two, changed it. Instead of raising his rate, they changed the deductible. Didn't tell him, didn't anything. It was just so many people, including me a lot, don't go back and read their policy when they say, Hey, here's your renewal stuff.

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[00:04:29] Eric Goranson: Where'd that come from? And then got into a big deal on that because he's, wait a minute, I've been paying for this. And they, he, he, he's still battling that out just because he's proved to me. I changed my policy. Yeah.

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[00:04:51] Craig and Kevin: Yeah. Because here, and here's one of the things that happened to me. I had decided to change insurance companies. [00:05:00] It was like, Hey, I'm working. Working for this insurance company. Now you want it, you want to switch over. And I was like, show me that it's worth it. He showed me and it was about the same. And I was like, you know what?

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[00:05:26] Craig and Kevin: Hey, everything's live. You can go ahead and cancel your coverage. Perfect. About a month later, I get a phone call from him and he goes, dude, I got some bad news and I've been dreading this phone call all day. I was like, all right, what's going on? He goes, they're not going to insure your roof. And I said, what?

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[00:06:06] Craig and Kevin: And he said, they're not going to insure it. Oh, I said, what are my, what are my options? And he said, the best advice that I can give you. And he said, look, this is not going to help me, but I'm going to give you my best advice. Call your old insurance back and say, I made a mistake. Can I come back? And I did, and they allowed me to come back at my same rate.

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[00:07:12] Craig and Kevin: Can you imagine, literally, can you imagine having to get a HELOC to repair your roof? Yeah, it's crazy. Here's the thing, I'll make, I'll just go ahead and make a bold prediction right now. All right, here we go. Mark it. Yeah, I think, I think within the next two years, we're going to see an absolute bloodbath.

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[00:07:47] Craig and Kevin: They rely on the storm and it's, it's all insurance based money, man. Absolutely. It's all insurance based money. And these insurance companies have gotten wise. To what's going on and they're like, look, we're making these guys rich. Yep. You can be, you [00:08:00] can be a five man operation in the state of Texas and turn 10 million.

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[00:08:20] Craig and Kevin: And they're going to have to figure some stuff out and it's going to be ugly for some of those guys. Yeah. It's probably going to be good for homeowners. I bet you, you're going to see a dramatic drop in price for the cost. We have a different out

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[00:08:35] Eric Goranson: So we don't have the losses you have. We might get a windstorm or something and they get up there and patch it, but we don't have the hail storms, the hurricanes, we have ice storms, but it's just, It's not lifting shingles

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[00:08:56] Craig and Kevin: What I, what's going to happen is you're going to have like you're talking about. You're going to have [00:09:00] shingle loss. You're going to have all kinds of damage to roofs and homeowners are going to go. I didn't leave it. Yeah, I can't. There's going to be some people that do that. I can't, I can't fix it. I can't, I don't have the money.

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[00:09:28] Craig and Kevin: Your roof has been decimated. I won't insure your house anymore.

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[00:10:09] Intro: What's up? This is sticks it in you and satchel from steel Panther. And you are listening to around the house with Eric. Yeah, we love Eric G and you should too. I'll

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[00:10:45] Eric Goranson: Now let's get back to the homeowner show. I think the

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[00:11:05] Eric Goranson: time,

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[00:11:07] Eric Goranson: So here's what happens though, is there going to be some new startup company that comes in that will say, Hey, I know you're legendary company you've been with for 30 years.

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[00:11:33] Craig and Kevin: and that's what's happened with around here with flood insurance, for example, it's a whole different product.

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[00:11:57] Craig and Kevin: Restriction on yourself to actually be [00:12:00] able to do it, the discipline. I don't know a lot of people that have that one, do you know?

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[00:12:18] Eric Goranson: Yep. We know the house it's worth this. We're going to ensure this you're ready to go to you. I'll take the max coverage. If you have a nice house that was remodeled. Or if it was built before 1970, where you could have asbestos or lead paint or something like that in it, guess what? It's not anywhere close to what should be covered.

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[00:13:02] Eric Goranson: If I paid somebody to come do it, that's a problem.

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[00:13:20] Craig and Kevin: No. And so what do you expect them to do? They're not stupid. They can look at, it's public information. They know what your house sold for. They can look at where the market's going and that it really hasn't come down that much. And so like, they have to adjust. Because they can't be left holding the bag when you've been paying a policy that you, when you, when you bought it, the house was worth 250, 000.

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[00:14:06] Craig and Kevin: Oh, there we go. And there we go. So here's another one. This is another

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[00:14:25] Eric Goranson: Beautiful cabin. He's sitting there one morning looking on his cameras that it keeps setting off and it was water coming through a light fixture in the dark. And you could see the water. So they had two half inch water lines in the house break. He's two hours from his house, so he drives up. So you can tell how long that, and who knows how long that was running

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[00:14:47] Craig and Kevin: Yeah.

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[00:15:07] Eric Goranson: They send the remediation company out and you have a 200 and something thousand dollar it's a cabin, but a 200, 000 policy remediation company that they suggested he use comes out. They send him a bill for 130, 000 for remediation. Oh my strip it down, dry it out, send him a bill for that. And he's, I can't refinish the inside for 70, 000.

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[00:15:45] Craig and Kevin: maybe ask the insurance company, do I have to use this company?

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[00:15:50] Eric Goranson: Yeah. The problem is the cabin. So it's an hour out of town. So what companies are in the area, what companies will go out there cause they're going to have to go out there every day. So there's a little bit more to that, but it was only, [00:16:00] there's still companies out there within 20, 25 minutes of it.

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[00:16:04] Craig and Kevin: Look for 130 grand. Okay. I'm sure there's something, right?

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[00:16:12] Craig and Kevin: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I think, I think again, going back to where we started in this conversation, that's one of the reasons that Craig and I do what we do.

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[00:16:44] Craig and Kevin: I'm going to have to take care of my home. I'm going to have to do the things around the house that need to be done. And it's, it's, it's a shame whenever we wind up going, Hey, one of the best investments I can ever make is owning a home. Sure. And yet I can't [00:17:00] make that investment because of how much money it's going to cost to own a home.

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[00:17:06] Eric Goranson: about earlier, and that's one of the biggest things. I think modular house housing, and I'm not talking about my grandmother's 1976 double edged yet, but I'm talking about beautiful homes. There's a company that, that is down here for me, champion homes as their parent company across, but their skyline here, that's the division.

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[00:17:41] Eric Goranson: So they placed the home and in 10 days for the time, they put up the walls, get the garage door installed in the roof on that tight end in two weeks, you got a perfectly ready to rock house.

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[00:17:59] Craig and Kevin: [00:18:00] Quality control on that. That's, that's very interesting. My mom and dad are in a, a situation where they're trying to figure out what they're gonna do as far as housing goes. You're getting older in life and Yeah. They, they need a home. And so it's an interesting situation. This might be a really, really good option.

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[00:18:37] Craig and Kevin: We'll be right back with more from the homeowner show.

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[00:19:01] Intro: Hey, this is Ron Kiel, the metal cowboy from Kiel, the Ron Kiel band and stealer. We are rocking around the house with Eric G.

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[00:19:21] Eric Goranson: com and make sure you're following us on social media and our new YouTube channel, where we'll see a lot of these things up on video in the future. Now let's get back to the homeowner show. No. They're going

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[00:19:43] Craig and Kevin: And save a bunch of money, but I think, yeah, but, but here's the thing, I love my wife.

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[00:19:52] Craig and Kevin: caused a lot of mental health issues

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[00:20:00] Eric Goranson: So

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[00:20:05] Eric Goranson: 50 on that side and you had your four 50 on that side. That could be a cool thing with a middle, with a middle ground. I get that.

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[00:20:14] Eric Goranson: while.

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[00:20:16] Craig and Kevin: between the two. Okay, I gotta tell you guys. So, my life actually changed yesterday with a tool that I discovered. Okay. And I, I don't, I know that you guys probably aren't into this, but I, I, I, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I fit the stereotype of the Texas dude. I've got horses. I love working cows. Like I grew up, I grew up Texas.

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[00:20:53] Craig and Kevin: And so I went out there and you were driving T posts and all this kind of stuff. My wife tells me the other day, hey, I need you to put up [00:21:00] a temporary barbed wire fence in this area so we can get some good grass for the horses. And so we can go out and replant and all this kind of stuff. I was like, okay, so I'm going to, I'm going to go to the store.

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[00:21:26] Craig and Kevin: I have one hanging out right there. Yeah. They're fans and they do it. They, they get the job done. Let me tell you something. Spring loaded T Post driver. It's half the weight, and it doesn't make sense until you put it on there, but like you slide the T Post driver down, and so all you're having to do is all the downward motion.

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[00:22:00] Craig and Kevin: Nice. And I was like, I'm the

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[00:22:22] Eric Goranson: If it didn't take your arm off, you were lucky, but it was sketchy as we're going to do that. I was just super sketch, but it worked.

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[00:22:46] Craig and Kevin: That thing's magical. Those things are awesome. Yeah, done.

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[00:23:24] Craig and Kevin: How much, how much does one of those run?

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[00:23:27] Craig and Kevin: a few grand. Okay. But if you're, if you're a high end price point to keep, to keep people away, but like magical enough that you still want it

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[00:23:40] Eric Goranson: And I tell you what it is money. And you can put mortar, you can put concrete, you can put all of it through there. If you're doing a fence, you can literally, it's, you're just dragging along. You could literally sit there and be driving down a fence line with the truck with a pallet of, of bags in the back of it.

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[00:24:12] Craig and Kevin: I was, I was going to ask how that thing moves around.

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[00:24:16] Eric Goranson: huge, big wheels. And then it's got like a wheelbarrow that's wider, but it's super stable. And you start cranking. That thing is awesome.

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[00:24:30] Craig and Kevin: Is that a foam concrete? Oh yeah. It's expensive. It is expensive, but it's like in it in a pinch, it gets the job done. It sure does. It sure does. It's a, it's a whole lot easier to use and you don't, you don't, you can pick it up with one hand and not even with two fingers, you can pick it up. And you're good to

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[00:24:48] Craig and Kevin: Yeah. If you read

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[00:24:54] Craig and Kevin: No, we, we, we built like a three to four foot [00:25:00] fence. It was like nothing, nothing tall, nothing load bearing. Putting posts in the ground all day long. Yeah.

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[00:25:13] Eric Goranson: Oh yeah, I see that. That is something cool that's just out. Flame detect. Watch your ears here, guys. I have a lighter. I'm gonna guard it. Watch this thing. Oh,

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[00:25:32] Eric Goranson: So it does it detects the flame in the entire room?

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[00:25:53] Eric Goranson: So how does that work? Handle companies

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[00:25:56] Eric Goranson: right? Yeah. There's a new one coming out. They have a new model coming out that [00:26:00] says if there's someone in the room, it will go for so long. Like in a, like in a kitchen, if you had a. A gas stove, for instance, right? And you're cooking in it. If you're gone for seven or 10 minutes or whatever it is, I haven't seen all the specs on it, but in 10 minutes, it's going to say flame detected in this room.

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[00:26:21] Craig and Kevin: Now, hang on. I thought they outlawed guestos.

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[00:26:35] Eric Goranson: So, used to drive me crazy. I could literally walk down the street. With a glass of wine in my hand and get cuffs on me. But if it was heroin or cocaine, they asked me how my day was going. Oh my goodness. Can we have some? Yes. Yeah. No, no, seriously. Thank you. You could do heroin on the, on the front steps of city hall.

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[00:27:03] Craig and Kevin: I've actually seen some videos recently of Americans going over to Europe and like just how shocked they are of everyone just walking down the street with alcohol consuming.

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[00:27:26] Eric Goranson: S. and you have this homeless problem on your city streets, a group of people here figured out and won and forced the city to enforce it. You know what they did? They grabbed a dozen people that were disabled in that they were ADA. Maybe they were in walkers, maybe they were in wheelchairs and they sued the city of Portland and said, You are limiting our ADA access with allowing people to sleep on the sidewalks and street corners.

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[00:28:20] Eric Goranson: So

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[00:28:25] Eric Goranson: only in Ohio.

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[00:28:28] Eric Goranson: couldn't resist. That's

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[00:28:29] Eric Goranson: Don't change that time. We'll be back with our friends from the homeowner show. Just after these important messages, I'll[00:29:00]

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[00:29:17] Eric Goranson: Now, let's get back to the homeowner show and

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[00:29:24] Eric Goranson: Ohio.

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[00:29:29] Eric Goranson: guys. We're running out of time. We're well beyond what a normal radio show is, and we could do this all evening, but always fun hanging out with you guys.

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[00:29:50] Craig and Kevin: Yeah, you can find us pretty much anywhere. You listen to podcasts.

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[00:30:09] Eric Goranson: All right, guys.

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[00:30:27] Eric Goranson: I've been on their show before and it was nice to reciprocate and let them come on here on around the house and show you guys just our conversations that we have, and I know this was an extra long one, but we hit so many subjects, I just didn't want to. Cut this one down and make it into the, into the larger specials that we do that air like this as one of our premium ones.

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[00:31:04] Eric Goranson: And I get it. It is tough. Housing is crazy, expensive. In most areas of the country, and it's hard to come up with that down payment, especially when things right now, probably not since the 1970s. When I was a kid, have we seen prices go this quickly this high? And I'm not talking about everything. I'm talking about everything from your big Mac to the gasoline at the pumps.

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[00:31:47] Eric Goranson: I get it. Here are my, my rules. If you really want to get into your own real estate portfolio of your first house, here's how you do it. So the first thing is, is when you're out [00:32:00] shopping for houses, one. First, go talk to your favorite mortgage broker, bank, or whoever you want to work with and find out what you can afford and how much you need down.

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[00:32:29] Eric Goranson: Second of all, um, Once you start looking, start thinking about the investment in itself because here's what can happen, and this is something that I want you to be careful with, with a trap, and I call it trap is something that you buy, and it's hard to get your money back out of great example, older mobile homes, like pre 2000s, mobile homes on a piece of property can be tough, older mobile homes on a rented lot can be tougher.

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[00:33:18] Eric Goranson: And those are just two different ball games and you can make those. So they're like a regular house. And it will appraise and grow like a regular house. So that is something to be considered. Condos can be really hit and miss depending on where you're located. And condo prices can go all over the place.

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[00:34:05] Eric Goranson: So all of a sudden you can go from the highest in the market to the lowest in the market. It might not be able to get all of that money back. And then the risk that you can run with townhouses and condos and things like that. Are the maintenance costs for the rest of the complex and you see this a lot when you're out looking at townhomes or any of these kind of managed communities where you're taking care of the inside like a condominium, but the building ownership and the association is managing.

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[00:34:53] Eric Goranson: And you can see that. Where there's a big litigation going on, which means you could have a very hard time either [00:35:00] selling or buying in that situation. And then the other issue that you'll run into with those is that that building costs could be huge. So if there's a bunch of rot on the outside of the building that wasn't maintained, or there are other major issues in that complex, you as a property owner within that condo complex have to pay for that In a lump sum.

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[00:35:39] Eric Goranson: So be careful with the condos new or old. And be careful with the older manufactured housing, though. There's a ways to get around that. But really what you want to look for when you're out shopping is find a neighborhood that you want to live in. And my recommendation for you, especially if you're a newer homeowner that you're, this is your first time and you probably want to buy and [00:36:00] sell, do some projects.

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[00:36:25] Eric Goranson: When prices get back around and things continue to grow now, you've got something that is going to appreciate So that is how so many people out there almost do their own house flips in a way that they can sit there Buy a house live in it for five years Enjoy it And then move to the next bigger house.

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[00:37:18] Eric Goranson: Not a professional house flipper, but something that you're living in. And every five years you're moving and on average, and boom, boom, boom. So you buy it for three, you sell it for five. You buy it for five, you turn around it for 750, buy it at 750, put a little money into it. Now it's at nine, you get the point.

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[00:37:58] Eric Goranson: That's going to put money, more money in your [00:38:00] pocket, because you'll be able to add that money quickly to this project. So take your time, find a good financial agent to work with you on this, come up with a plan and don't pay too much for the properties. Don't get yourself in a bidding war because if you pay too much, you're taking that money out of your pocket later and it's harder to flip it later.

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[00:38:50] Eric Goranson: We talk about it every year when he gets published. And this is where you can find out where the money is. Sometimes a kitsch remodel will only give you 50 percent back. So you better do it on a budget. [00:39:00] I'm Eric G. Thanks for tuning in today. This kind of experiment today with our friends over at the homeowner show, where we just had a great chat about everything going on in homeowners lives.

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[00:39:15] Intro: weekend.