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to another episode of the Y ‘all Are Crazy Ranch podcast. Today we’re gonna be talking about one of our favorite topics, real estate.
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We love real estate.
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I have a funny story, I just popped in my head. I was at the coffee shop this morning doing Bible study, what should I do every Friday, and a guy that works in the coffee shop, I think he might be the manager there, he walked over to me and he said, hey, did you guys just buy the house on Blaine?
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Oh.
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And I said, yeah, we did. And he said, thank you so much for buying that. Really? He said, my first house was on that street.
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and he said, that house has just been so forsaken. He said, when it was first built, it was the model home of that neighborhood. And the lady who first bought it, it was meticulous. He said, she would trim her grass edges with scissors. Meticulous, I said, well, it’s not meticulous anymore. When did that lady move out? He said, well, she died like the eighties. And I was like, okay, well, it’s been long forgotten. He’s like, I was just so glad that you guys bought it because I know you’ll do a good job and you’ll bring it back to life and you’re bringing the value up in the neighborhood. So he said, thank you so much. He gets it. And I told my friend that I was sitting with, I was like, you don’t know how many times we hear people tell us, thank you so much for buying these houses and bringing them back to life again.
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You know, it’s pretty cool to hear those kinds of stories and people in the community thanking us because it’s a lot of hard work and it’s a lot of risk. It takes a lot of money. But…
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And then, you know, when we rent nice houses to people and give them a nice place to live. And even in the past, when we first started, I remember people in town would give us like, not all, but just some, we’re like hateful with our rent price. You remember that?
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Oh yeah, we’ve kind of learned like, be careful when you post things on the community page because a lot of people will comment that they’re like, that’s too high, I can’t believe you charge that much.
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Yeah, that property was renting for like 1 ,700 a month or something like that. This one property. Oh man, I can’t believe it. It shouldn’t be any more than 900. And I’m like, 900, what are you, you living in 1980? It’s like this house appraised for $200 ,000. Like, you know, we put granite countertops in it, completely painted, all new floors, all new fixtures, fixture roof. I mean, we spent over $60 ,000 on the remodel, you know, and it’s, and.
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But anyway, you know, we know who we want to serve and since then we’ve done several of them and now people are very thankful and they get it we’re adding value back to neighborhoods, giving people nice places to live that’s pretty cool.
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Yeah, it’s been really cool and so with our experience in real estate both in flipping rentals Airbnb’s and then of course my full time profession as a real estate agent I’ve been doing this now for almost 14 years. So we have a lot of experience in real estate and then also just our own real estate journey with buying and selling and living in and now building. We have seen a lot over the years and so we wanted to share wisdom on real estate experiences and some bonehead mistakes that we’ve seen people make so that hopefully we can help our listeners better understand what are good ideas to put in your house and what are bad ideas.
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Yeah, so we were trying to figure out a title to the Oklahoma Grassfed Beef podcast and
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you know we were talking about mistakes in real estate or things not to do. I was like how about just bonehead mistakes in real estate.
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Now we’re not saying you’re a bonehead if you did these things.
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We might be boneheads.
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We have made mistakes. Oh goodness.
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Yes but you got to think too when you’re titling Oklahoma Grassfed Beef
podcasts you know we learn this from our kids. You got to have titles that are like catchy and get people’s attention. The young kids call it now rage bait. Rage bait. Rage bait. We never heard what that means but or what that is that phrase. I didn’t know what that is. It’s pretty easy to figure out when you say it but it was like why did you’re baiting someone to create rage. I was like remember the first video I was just thinking that with TikTok.
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We’re not TikTokers but we do post our podcast videos to TikTok sometimes or like reels or whatever you call them over there. We are geriatric millennials okay.
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Well yeah and I like you know the Chinese in my phone on the TikToks you know what I’m saying.
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So, anyway, we posted a video with me and you and then each kid coming one by one.
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And it was their name.
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Yeah, from oldest to youngest.
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Yes, and maybe their age.
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So it was like, you know, one, two, three, four. And the kids just kept coming, right? We made it, you made a video.
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I think Briley actually put it together for us. Yeah, and then like, it kind of blew up. It was just like introduction, well, here’s our family, meet our family. It was super innocent, but oh my goodness. I had to learn to stay out of the comments.
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Yeah, it had like over 100 ,000 views in no time. And that’s a lot for us. We just opened the channel. We don’t have any followers or anything like that. But the amount of people hating on us because we have large kids, like – A large family. Or a large family. How do you afford all those kids? It’s not right to have that many kids. You can’t give them attention.
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Nobody should have that many kids.
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Oh, their names. Or just hating on their names.
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Their names is what?
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It was so mean.
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That was terrible.
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I feel like I could be picked on more, but when you start picking on my kids, I was just like, I can’t read these and I’m certainly not responding to them. But I was just like, I now understand Oklahoma Grassfed Beef post and ghost. And with TikTok, here’s the thing about TikTok, you don’t know these people.
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Oh no.
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And so they can just comment whatever. I feel like Facebook, most people who comment on Facebook, you know them, know somebody that knows them. People are more cautious about what they say. But TikTok, no idea.
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You get people with a profile, some Karen with a profile picture of a cat, commenting from her couch.
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And it’s like, get out of here.
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Probably as young as kids. I was like, I can’t, I can’t do this.
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Miserable in life, not happy.
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Why did we start talking about TikTok?
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I don’t remember now.
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Where did that come from?
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We were talking about rage baiting.
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Oh, rage bait, yes, okay.
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And talking about the title of the Oklahoma Grassfed Beef podcast, you know, being Bonehead Mistakes.
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Well, you were telling one of your team members and they were like, oh, you’re rage baiting.
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Yeah, they were like, actually on TikTok, you know, if you have large families and you know, family content, stuff like that, it’s rage bait on there. They’re like, it’s actually a good thing. Just keep doing it and you’ll get more and more views. And I’m like, this is crazy.
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It is. And now we hear our kids, our teenagers talk about, you know, oh, we rage baited our sub today. And I’m like, that doesn’t sound good. And they’re like, mom, it just means that we like made them laugh or we made them start talking a lot about something. Like.
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that’s just what they call it the rage bait. So yeah anyway so that’s why we came up with the title because it’s catchy and maybe it’ll be some rage bait on a youtube line and the bonehead mistakes people will people will click on it yes okay so we’re going to start with some common things in real estate that as a homeowner perhaps you want to do to your house so we’re going to list off some things maybe you’ve done them thought about doing them maybe this think twice about doing them i don’t think you should be in a house and do nothing i think that updates are great i i don’t like when i go to a house that somebody’s lived in for 20 years and they’ve done nothing
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Yeah, that’s that’s and I don’t like that either because it’s like, oh darn it, you know Now we’re so far behind the times that this is gonna be hard to sell because buyers like updates updates are good But I will say before you make updates talk to your trusted real estate Professional about these updates and ask them. Is this a good idea? Is this adding value to my home? Or should I not do it? Definitely talk to a real estate professional.
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Yeah, I agree One of the hot topics I feel like that you keep running into lately and we’re in Oklahoma Is solar panels?
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Yeah, I have two listings right now with solar panels and solar panels are so Difficult I think in California, maybe that side of the coast that they’re much more common. It’s different
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When we’re in the middle of the country, solar panels are not common. And unfortunately, solar panels, and I’ve talked to my trusted appraiser, trusted lenders, just to make sure I’m right on this, solar panels add $0 in value to your home. And they’re very expensive to put on.
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No, they’re not. They cost $0.
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That’s the problem. When they are put on, it’s $0. It’s a monthly payment. But here’s the catch. It’s a lien that’s put against your property. So when you go to sell your home, that lien’s attached. And you can’t sell your home until that lien’s paid off. Most sellers believe that, first of all, solar panels add value to their home. They add zero unless they’re completely paid off. And at that point, they might add…
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7 ,000 to 10 ,000 if an appraiser can find comps to justify them. If? Just to be clear, on a small home, from what I can tell, they cost around 25 ,000 to put on.
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It’s a great investment.
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I have, he’s being sarcastic. I have a large listing right now that has a lot of solar panels. They still owe 40 ,000 on these. Second mistake is sellers assume that the next buyer will want to keep them because it’s cheaper electric bills. But most buyers don’t want to incur the lien that these sellers have taken on. Here’s something else I’ve learned just this week.
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A buyer cannot incur the lien. The seller’s lien has to be paid off at closing. Now a buyer can, once it’s paid off, incur costs from that, but there has to be enough equity in the home to be able to do that. And if you’re already selling your home for top dollar, there’s no room for it. It’s a bad deal.
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It’s not good. The math, I don’t even think the math makes any sense. I have never done math on one, where I take what the person tells me they paid for them, but they didn’t really pay for them. That’s the other problem in America today. People don’t pay for things outright. They just put it on a monthly plan.
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So you do that, and it doesn’t – Well, like car payments.
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It’s so stupid. So the companies can charge whatever in the world they want because you’re not actually forking the money over upfront to buy the item, right? And in one of these cases, they financed them for 20 years.
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Well, whether that’s $25 ,000 to buy it or $35 ,000 when you spread that out over 20 years It doesn’t really make that much of a difference on the monthly payment But the company is is making bank on it, right and it’s like man So, you know you save 150 bucks a month on your electric bill, which sounds like a lot But even if you what’s a hundred and fifty times twelve It’s like sixteen hundred or something like that.
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You say you paid twenty five thousand How long is that gonna take to even break even on your electric bill savings years?
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And guess what by the time you do that the solar playgrounds will probably be at the end of their lifetime You know probably have to buy new ones replace hard, you know, who knows?
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It’s it’s just it’s not a good choice. And if anyone ever asked me which I love when my clients ask me before they do things I’m saying no and then I explain all this reasoning Okay, so number one don’t put solar panels on your house.
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Now if you got hey, here’s the other here’s a caveat maybe you’re a environmentalist you love to hug trees You love the environment and you have a lot of money and you want to kind of waste it Go buy solar panels with your cash and have no electric bill or cheap electric bill but if you don’t have a bunch of money laying around to pay for them and You’re behind on other payments or you’re barely getting by No way know how should you sign up and put a lien on your house and put a 20 -year note? for 20 to 40 thousand dollars worth of solar
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And remember, they don’t add any value to your house. So, I would just say pay the electric bill, skip the solar panels, okay? So, solar panels, check. I’m just gonna quickly touch on pools and shops because we get asked this a lot, a lot. Okay, pools, we’ve had a pool, we’re putting a pool in our new house, we love pools. But I will tell you the smart move if you want a pool is to buy a house that already has one.
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That’s the smartest, from a financial perspective.
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The last house we had that had a pool, it already had one. We moved in, the pool was there, we got a good deal on the house, made money when we sold the house, it was great. The only reason we’re putting a pool into our new house is that we’re gonna live here for a long time, if not the rest of our lives.
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It better be the rest of our lives.
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I mean, I hope it is.
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I hope it is. I heard something the other day that she said, I don’t call any house my forever home because heaven’s my forever home, okay?
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Okay, well, if we’re ever home on Earth, I mean, come on.
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So, well, that is the plan. So we’re justifying putting this pool in because we’re, and it’s on our ranch, like this house is gonna be in our family forever.
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Yeah.
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So we are putting the pool in, even though financially not the greatest choice, but for us, the longevity of our home, it makes sense. If you are in a house, you wanna put a pool in, I won’t discourage anyone from doing it because pools are great for kids. I love that your kids get exercise, they get sunshine. You’re outside more and pools do add value, they do. But as a general rule, whatever you spend on your pool, say you spend 100 ,000 to put a pool in, which is,
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I would say you can’t put a pool in for a whole lot less than that these days. I would say that’s pretty standard You will get back 30 to 50 percent.
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Oh, yes of what you put into that So if you spend a hundred thousand you can expect to get 30 to 50 thousand back in that Yeah, and you need to understand that because what I mean, there’s people that say they have a $250 ,000 home they spend a hundred thousand on a pool They think three years later they want to move. Well, my house should sell for 350 ,000, right?
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and it’s like no, you know and Some of them might actually owe money on that pool and be making payments and stuck in a bad spot, too And yeah, you see to think about it before you do it Yeah, you have to think about it and and I talked to several people that are like well We might this might not be our forever home, but we’re fine We know we’re not gonna make this money back
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Yes.
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And that’s fine. If you can justify that, you’re good with it. You’re like, we’re going to get a lot of enjoyment out of this pool for the next however long we live here. And you know, you’re not going to get all that money back. That’s fine.
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It is. And, you know, there’s part of that. Not everything is a just purely financial decision. Right. And I’ve learned that a lot the past few years, haven’t I, babe?
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Yeah, because I have to have fun in life as you know, I tell you a lot. You have to enjoy life.
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Yes. But I enjoy life. You just don’t see it outwardly expressed for me a lot. But I do on the inside.
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Yes.
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But anyway, the point is, is like in life, if you want a pool and stuff, yeah, you need to spend money and have fun and create memories for your family. All that stuff is worth a lot.
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So it’s not just financially, but what we’re talking about is we see people that don’t have the financial means make these mistakes and then they get caught like two or three years later and they’re crying, they’re upset, they’re just in a really bad predicament that they can’t get out of. And that’s what we’re kind of talking about is helping you guys prevent some of those mistakes.
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Yeah. And just to throw in there real quick, shops, barns, those are the same way. You can expect 30 to 50 percent of value based on what you put in. And we are rural Oklahoma. Shops are a really big deal. A lot of men want shops. And like I said, if you can justify putting a shop in knowing you’re not going to get out of it, what you put into it, totally fine. Shops are awesome.
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We love shops. I think especially like if a man wants one and you guys can you’re like we’re gonna live here for a while It’s worth it to us. That’s great But just know 30 to 50 percent of value as a general rule as general rule Let’s talk about you know, some things inside houses.
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Yeah Like what?
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Well, I’m gonna step outside. I said inside. I’m gonna step outside real quick Landscaping does not add value landscaping is beautiful. I love landscaping. I think it adds curb appeal It helps houses sell it makes photographs look good buyers. Love it But it’s not gonna add value and landscaping can be expensive I have talked to plenty of people who are like I did 10 ,000 a landscaping and they’re just kind of bragging on it And I’m like, that’s awesome. It’s gonna help your house sell faster, but I can’t give you any value for it, right? That’s rough
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I don’t like it, and I don’t make these rules. I would do things differently if I did. But landscaping does not add value. One other quick outside things, roofs do not add value.
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Rooves.
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Rooves do not add value. They are considered a general maintenance item that as a homeowner, you are expected to repair and replace as needed.
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That’s right. So don’t put a new roof on and think that you can add 20 ,000 to the value of your house.
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I have literally heard roofers tell people this.
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Oh, they do.
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And it’s not true.
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It’s like the solar panel guys. Oh, everybody will love this and you’ll add 20 ,000 to your house value. No.
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It’s just not true. Now, let me tell you, if your house needs repairs or roof replacements.
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Yes, by all means do it because you’re going to have a hard time selling your house If it needs repairs or if it needs a replacement and you’re probably going to end up doing it anyway during the selling process so i’m not saying don’t do it i’m just saying don’t do it expecting you’re going to add value to your home by doing it right and then like if you got a house that’s worth two hundred thousand dollars and the roof is in horrible shape like visually like the house we bought on uh clay door one of the worst i’ve ever seen you just see it bubbling up like it’s terrible you’re not going to get market value for that house because of the roof condition right people are gonna if it’s worth 200 if it was if it was in normal shape
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you know they might come in and offer you 170 because the roof is bad. You go put the roof on maybe you can get 200 now but you’re not gonna get above market value because you put a new roof on.
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No that’s a good point like if you want your house to sell what you needed to sell for adding a new roof is going to get it to that point.
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Right not above it.
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Right yes yes and roofs are expensive you know roofs are very difficult during negotiation periods because they are and sellers don’t want to do them and buyers want them so talk to your trusted real estate professional or insurance professional on your roof. Okay so moving inside houses what does add value? Let’s talk about that. As if you’ve watched any HGTV you know bathrooms and kitchens is where you want to focus.
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Not painting the inside walls of your closet?
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Probably not.
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Okay
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But however paint does add value so painting your house I love when people paint their house inside or outside because it gives it a fresh coat It looks clean and painting adds value and painting is not that expensive compared to other things So I love fresh paint good idea. Yeah check Flooring adds value So if you want to put new flooring in your house Whether that be new carpet in the bedrooms or you want to do wood floors throughout Though that adds value. So please by all means put new flooring in your house What about ripping the flooring up and just sealing the concrete? Why do you? Why are you asking these weird questions?
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Well, yes, here’s the other thing you gotta think about people do these things and you might like that I’ve seen all of
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That’s by the way I bring it up because okay, you might like that you might buy a house It’s got wood floors and you peel them up Let me tell you I haven’t met one person yet who has concrete sealed floors that likes them bingo I just talked to somebody the other day that has a beautiful house and she said I have concrete floors on my house I was like I would have never known that do you like them? Not really We have lived in a house with concrete floors and they were stained and sealed We didn’t like them.
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They look great in Pinterest photos. I guess I mean if you like that thing But the point of it is here’s a here’s a point I’m trying to make that might be something you like
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if you like that, but you gotta think if you’re gonna sell your house one day, what are the majority of people gonna like? That’s right. And you can’t get so bought in to like, well these are nice, cause I did this and I sanded them and I did this. We have people do that and they just, and it’s like, it doesn’t matter.
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And I will say, if you’re gonna do concrete floors, you do have to have a seal on them or they most likely won’t pass an appraisal. You can’t just have concrete floors. I have a listing that’s about to go active and they had done new flooring in the house but the closet still had concrete. They hadn’t put flooring in it. He’s like, do I need to put something over this? I’m like, yeah, cause when it comes to appraisal time, that’s gonna get called out if you do an FHA or a VA loan. So I’m like, go ahead and lay some flooring in there. Even if it’s just carpet in there, I think he was gonna do more of a tile. But yeah, and you have to keep in mind, whatever you do, you need to think about the buyer.
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You always have to think about the buyer, you know, if you’re having a forever home You can do whatever in the world you want to it as long as you have the expectations of if one day I need to Sell this I’m gonna have to change some things. We’ve always thought about take it so personal You know, yes people take it very personal, you know It’s like calling your baby ugly or something and it’s like don’t get so emotionally attached to your wallpaper or Your concrete floor like this is just a material item And if you need to sell it, you’ve got to make it appeal to the many buyers as you can and Don’t get your feelings hurt.
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Yeah, that’s exactly right. We’ve always tried to do that in our houses Whatever we do we try to think what will the majority of buyers like our last house we bought it was on 40 acres It was a beautiful house. But right when we looked at it, the outside was painted yellow with brown trim
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and I hated it from the beginning, but I can see past things. I’m like, if we give this a fresh coat of paint, it’s gonna help so much. You were kind of like, let’s live with it, we are fine, and I was like, babe, no, we have got to paint this house. So, you came around, and that helped so much. And when we sold it, it helped so much.
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It did. We did like a gray. Yeah, you know, grays were in at that point. They still kind of are, but I don’t know.
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But at that time, they were definitely in.
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Yeah, it was definitely in, and it made it look a whole lot better, and fresh, and up -cap, and appealed to more people.
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Yeah, and here’s the thing. As a married couple, you’re not always gonna agree on everything.
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Shocker, shocking, but you do have to talk about everything. We had one house before this one that we’re talking about that it had really dark stained cabinets in the kitchen.
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Which I liked.
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Really dark, like almost black, but it was just a heavy dark stain.
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Like a dark walnut.
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And at that time, white kitchens were really in. This was like 2020 during that farmhouse era and white kitchens were really in and I wanted a white kitchen so bad.
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And I liked the wood.
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And you liked how it was. And I was like, I really want a white kitchen. I don’t even remember how we kind of decided on this, but I found a painter.
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I think I just gave up.
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That happens a lot of times where you’re, I think you were like, if you’ll pay for it, do go ahead and do it.
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I didn’t say that, I just gave up.
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I don’t know if you paid for it.
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I think you did.
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No, I think I just gave up.
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No, no.
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Remember the water drops like on a window seal or something?
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A woodpecker.
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It just doesn’t quit.
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Sometimes that’s what you gotta do ladies.
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And it’s like.
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Just keep going.
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Sometimes you just gotta give up and make it stop.
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Anyway, so that I found a painter and I hadn’t used him before and I was like, hey Jordan, will you paint this kitchen for me? And I think he gave me a quote and it was like 6 ,000 and I was like, would you do it for three? And I said, I promise I will send you a lot of Oklahoma Grassfed Beef business over the years if you will do my kitchen for $3 ,000.
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And he agreed and he got, and at that time, he was just starting his Oklahoma Grassfed Beef business. So he was hungry and he did a lot of the work. And I chose like Snowbound, I think was the name. And it was white, white, like very transformational.
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Oh yeah.
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Very, but it looked amazing. It looked so good. And after that, I sent that guy so much Oklahoma Grassfed Beef business.
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Oh yeah, he couldn’t keep up.
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He would tell me several times after he’s like, I’m so glad I did that job for you for $3 ,000. I have made my money back so many times. And he did our kitchen at our next house too.
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That’s true.
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And more jobs. So that was great. But that added value to that home. It made the kitchen look so much bigger, brighter, beautiful. Kitchens are huge. We’ve had many houses that we’ve replaced countertops in. Our own personal and rental. We like granite, right? Or quartz.
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Yeah, either one.
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And that’s what people like right now. So again, that’s what the majority of people like. If the majority of people liked Butcher Block, I like Butcher Block.
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I’d put Butcher Block. And Butcher Block’s a lot cheaper. And if you are remodeling a lower price point home, that might be a good option.
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It might be.
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Yeah.
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For Micah?
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No. No. No one likes for Micah anymore.
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No, no. Nobody buys a house and then goes, I’m gonna take these granite out and put for Micah.
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Never.
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Ever.
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Granite is a really good investment, actually. It adds a lot of value to your home. You’re gonna get your money back and then some. Granite is expensive. I get that. Like most houses with a standard kitchen, you’ll spend $5 ,000 to put granite in. I get that. We had a, the house with the concrete floors also had concrete countertops that matched the floors.
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I did. Do you remember that? Big old thick hunk of concrete.
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And from the time we moved in, I was like, I wanna put granite in here. And you didn’t want me to.
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No.
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Cause you didn’t want to spend the money.
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But you gave in on that, and we did, we put granite in and we put new appliances. Another great investment, new appliances, and most people like stainless steel. Stainless steel appliances, that might change over the years, I don’t know. But we did granite countertops. That house, we didn’t even have to put that house on the market, like it sold like that.
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Yeah, it did.
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So countertops, great investment. Same thing in bathrooms. New countertops in bathrooms, great idea. Remodeling bathtubs, showers, great ideas. Do that in your bathrooms and kitchen.
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Yeah, and in like bedrooms, like if they need fresh coats of paint or they’re a weird color, something like that.
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Definitely, we’ll talk about that.
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That stuff’s easy, put some paint on the wall.
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And paint can be very triggering for people. I had a house and more that I were closing next week. It had red paint in the kitchen.
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I don’t love red, but I’m not like turned off by it. Now let me tell you, some people it’s an offensive color. It is, it’s just you either love it or you hate it for most of the point. So we, they had to put a new roof on. So during that time, I had them paint over the red. I said, let’s just give this a neutral color. They painted over the red. And then some of the bedroom walls were a weird green and they painted over the green, neutral color. We put that house back on the market and it sold very quickly after. So you got to eliminate objections. And sometimes people are like, well, I like this purple bedroom. Well, that’s fine, but most buyers are not. So go ahead and put a new coat of paint. Something else in bedrooms are light fixtures.
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Yeah, and those are super easy to replace. I mean, they’re plug and play, you know.
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Yeah, take some screws out and undo some wires and put them back.
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I mean, I couldn’t do it.
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No, but I mean, you can hire an electrician to do it.
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Hire someone to do it.
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It’s not hard. Unless you’re handy. You’re not having to knock walls down, repair sheetrock.
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Absolutely. I mean, it’s just. And a fan might cost two to 300.
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Or a light fixture. Yeah, you can get a little cheaper than that too. And it makes a big difference in the way the room looks and stuff like that, so.
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Light fixtures, great. So our designer now told me years ago, when she was my stager, Micah said light fixtures are like the biggest difference maker in your house. And I was at that time, I was like, no way. But now it’s huge. Lighting is huge in your house. So take the time and replace the light fixtures.
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Yep.
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light fixtures are a big deal and we do that in all of our rentals that we fix up. Every room gets a brand new ceiling fan and all the light fixtures are replaced. It doesn’t matter. They’re all new bulbs and man it looks like a million bucks when you get done.
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That’s not a costly item and it makes a huge difference. On that same vein, faucets, fixtures, those add value. Now let me tell you those are kind of annoyingly expensive faucets.
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They are.
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They’re just kind of annoying because they are expensive for what they are, but they add value. They freshen up the space. They look good and buyers like them.
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Yeah and they’re for the most part, unless you’re changing the sink and stuff, they’re pretty easy to swap out.
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They are. I already mentioned appliances. Those add value. Great choice. Buyers love new appliances. I was just thinking about pools and knobs on cabinets and doors. Those are a good idea. They’re not obviously going to give you a ton of value add, but they are going to freshen up spaces. They’re pretty inexpensive, and they just add that newness, that updating.
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Now there’s some things like that that might not add quote unquote value, but help your house sell faster. Help your house kind of bring the top market dollar, if that makes sense.
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I’ve got another bonehead one. Now this is not necessarily always a bonehead, but updating, replacing windows throughout the house.
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Oh, yes.
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Okay, windows are expensive, windows are tough because, gosh, sometimes if your house is 50 years old, you probably need new windows for efficiency.
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But nobody wants to pay for them.
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Nobody wants to put the new windows in because they’re expensive.
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The seller does it and the buyer doesn’t. I get it. It’s kind of a tough thing. It’s like, man, I can see outside right now.
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I would just say if you’re going to put windows in, make sure you’re going to live there for a while. Don’t buy a house and replace the windows and expect to get money out of that. Do they add value? They do. Yes. And if your windows look terrible or they’re like terribly inefficient.
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Yeah, you may have to bite the bullet and put them in, but don’t do it with the expectation that you’re gonna get full value or a buyer’s going to appreciate the money that you spent.
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Yeah, because the buyers come along and like, well, yeah, it should have new windows.
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They expect it.
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They expect things, but it’s just funny how that part works, but it’s the way it works.
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Yeah, windows are tough, so yeah, that’s what you should know about windows. Those, I think, are the main areas. One kind of more thing is outdoor backyard spaces. You just have to be careful about. Talk to your trusted real estate professional. If you wanna put a pergola on, a fire pit, yes, those do add value, but you may not get all your money from what you spent. I had a…
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Client yes, not recently that I went on their listing appointment before I went. He said we have a backyard. Oh aces I’m like, oh, I can’t wait to see this. He said we spent two hundred fifty thousand on our backyard That’s a lot. They live in a bout of five hundred thousand dollar home in Yukon, which is a nice nice community The problem is they live in a neighborhood that has cut and dry comps Okay, what I mean by that is There are a lot of houses to compare it to Have sold Yes, yes of like kind. So I Unfortunately had to tell them your backyard is great. You guys did a pergola. You did a pool outdoor Bathroom kitchenette all the things and thankfully they were expecting it so it was okay But I said I’m sorry, but I know you spent 250 But you’re not gonna get the value that you put into it and they knew it But it was kind of like oh like that stinks
[00:34:29.000]
but we knew it when we did it. So outdoor features can make a difference, yes, and you can enjoy them while you’re there. And if that’s worth it to you, you know, great, but just know you will get value, but it may not be what you put in.
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Well, at least like people like that, they had the right expectations. They said, hey, we’re gonna spend this money, but we’re gonna enjoy it while we live here, and we know we’re not gonna get it all back. Having the right expectations is everything, and that’s what we’re trying to tell y ‘all to help you guys understand. So you don’t get your hopes up and spend money and then think you’re gonna get it back or make money on what you spend because it’s just not a reality.
[00:35:09.100]
That’s right. So we love it when people do great updates, when they make the right updates, and when they have the right expectations of what they’re gonna get back.
[00:35:19.200]
Yeah, very true.
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Anything else you can think of?
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No. I mean, I think we covered most all of it.
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There’s a lot more like things pop in my head like fencing, things like that. Yes, it adds value. May not get out of it what you put into it depending on the type you do. There are a lot of other things. I would just say as a common rule, the things that buyers are going to expect focus on those. Is a buyer going to expect a pool? No, unless you’re in like Florida where everyone has a pool. So don’t make that something you have to do. Are buyers going to expect granite countertops in a home that’s 200 ,000 plus? Probably.
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So that’s a good investment right so things that you know buyers are gonna want and expect in a house focus on those Yeah, I think that’s all good advice and if you have lived in your house like my parents. They built their house in 91 I think they knew they were gonna live in that house forever. They can do whatever they want Oh, yeah, make it like you want make it like you want it Yeah, you can do you’re not they’re not building their house thinking what’s a buyer gonna like right? They’re thinking we want it to be what we want it to be because we’re gonna live here forever Yes, and and maybe it’ll pass down to our kids or our grandkids and my parents have because of my mom Made a lot of updates to their house throughout the years And when you do updates, my mom just remodeled her bathroom She got a really good guy to do her shower and it’s awesome. So use good Professionals to do your updates not cheap ones
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Very true.
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Don’t hire someone just because they’re cheap.
[00:37:01.900]
That’s true. You’ll hate your life.
[00:37:04.100]
Yeah, and like we said, a lot of life, you have to balance of enjoying your life and making smart decisions.
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Well, hopefully that was helpful.
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Hopefully that was helpful. Hopefully it can help you avoid some common real estate mistakes and help you make good choices moving forward.
[00:37:19.900]
Yep, all right. Till next time.
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Talk to you next time.