First-Time Homebuyer’s Emotional Rollercoaster from Panic To Potential Part 1

first-time homebuyer’s emotional rollercoaster — from panic to potential — when they see an abandoned house they just bought.

Part 1 

First time home buyer Jason Land walks out of his first showing because it was a cluttered old home with overgrown vegetation even after i told him Don't Panic! Jason shares his emotional experience and we discuss how to best use his home inspection report.

Transcript

John Laforme: 0:00

Buying a home. Don't panic, just listen to the rest of this podcast. Today, we have a very special guest, Mr. Jason land, probably the best guitarist on this side of the Rio, Grande.

Jason Land: 0:18

Wow. Very nice of you.

John Laforme: 0:22

Anyway, Jason, do you fluff all your guests like this? No, I'm just trying to get my black pick. All right, Jason as a good friend of mine, he's my guitar teacher, and he is now a homeowner, and I'm really excited for him. I feel like his big brother now, and I'm like helping him through this, you know, let's fix up my house thing where you have to buy a whole bunch of cool tools and shit, yeah, and learn how to use them, right? So did you panic?

Jason Land: 0:52

No, I didn't, because on my key chain, it's a daily reminder to never panic when I know John. So no, I didn't panic.

John Laforme: 1:01

So tell me, what was it? What was it like? You know, when you first made that? Okay, I'm going to do this. And you got your realtor, Kevin, and then you Kevin Brennan, by the way, everybody my realtor as well, very good guy. So from the beginning, just tell everybody like what your experience was when you first started looking and then pulled the trigger on this

Jason Land: 1:26

particular house. Sure. So my fiance and I started looking for a home maybe back in August last year. That'd be 2024 and you know, we were looking around. Things are expensive here in Burbank, so we're just trying to find something in our range. And then my fiance's mom said, we'll have you talk to her. It's her brother's friend about his parents house, which is on Niagara not too far from where we are, right now, right? So we went over there, and the people that were living in it had passed away several years ago, and the house was vacant. Oh, wow, yeah. So it's vacant for a couple years, at least three. Oh, wow, at least three, wow. So we walked down there, and I walked right out, basically because I was like, There's no way we're living here. There's no way they mean, the entire house was a mess. Why?

John Laforme: 2:15

Why did you walk out just because it was messy, because it was full of

Jason Land: 2:19

stuff. It was number one, full of stuff, cluttered, and then the grass and all the bushes, everything overgrown.

John Laforme: 2:27

Jason, that's what happens when no one lives there for three years. It's true.

Jason Land: 2:31

That's why I didn't want to live there.

John Laforme: 2:33

I guess they fired the gardener. Yeah,

Jason Land: 2:36

so we're looking around, and it's a big house, but I was like, there's just no way we're gonna be able to do this. This is crazy, so we keep looking, and then we found a home in Burbank. We're interested in Kevin's our realtor and also dear friend of mine. I've known him since I was two, and we were just about to put an offer on a house, and right before we did, my fiance's mom said one more time, what would it take? What would be the number if to get that house, the original one that was, that was all this, the one that scared you, yes. So I threw out a number, and she messaged the owner, and he like, let's do it. I want you guys to get it. I want to keep it in the family. It was a family friend and, wow, yeah, he's like, let's do it. So we did it. And

John Laforme: 3:19

that's an awesome story. Because, you know, getting in this neighborhood is not easy,

Jason Land: 3:23

not easy. I mean, it's the ideal neighborhood for me, like, it's two blocks from my business. Same here, I got several friends in this area, like, you know, I love this area. It's quiet, yeah, it's great. So anyhow, we, we decided to move forward. But the first thing was, as my first thought was, I'm having John come over, you know? And that's when I called you. Called the authority. Well, I was slightly panicked, and then I remembered, look at your key chain, right, right, right. Don't panic. Call John. So you came over and you gave me your blessings. And from that point on, I was all systems go. Let's do

John Laforme: 3:57

this. Oh, good. So, so my my observation of the property, my inspection, and then at the end, just saying, I think my words with something like Jason, these are typical things for this house. Yes, there's nothing catastrophic here. It's an older home. It's got some older systems in it. The same thing I tell most of my customers on a daily basis, you're buying an older home. You can't expect it to have new things.

Jason Land: 4:23

Well, this had no new things, right? This it

John Laforme: 4:27

definitely, it definitely looked bad when you want to, when you know, you first rolled up to it, there was, it was over, vegetated everywhere. And I can't stand inspecting house like that, because it's hard to get the stuff you know

Jason Land: 4:38

that was. The problem is, I couldn't see the inside, because there was so many, yeah, I couldn't even get to go into the garage until about, yeah, a week before we actually moved in or got the keys.

John Laforme: 4:48

Yeah, it's hard, it's hard to have a vision exactly when you can't see things. Okay, you being of and you being a first time home buyer that's already working against you, that alone is working against you with your. Ability to, like, envision something nice, yep, and then all the clutter on top of that, and, like, hoarding conditions, just junk everywhere, everywhere. I mean, that garage, every I could barely walk in that garage. I took so much stuff.

Jason Land: 5:13

I didn't get to go in there until, right, literally, a week before we got the keys right, there was still so much stuff

John Laforme: 5:19

and the exterior deferred maintenance needs, painting, yeah, everything you do, yeah. So what I did today is I pulled up your report. And I think, you know, I know that. I know you have a lot of questions. Oh, yeah, one, one, quite well. One type of questioning would be, I think you mentioned before, is, you know, what do I need to do next? Right now that I've bought the house and I want to remodel it, going by my report that I gave you, you know, what should you be focusing on? Right? So that's a good topic today. Yeah, to help you get to guide you through your report so you're not wasting time on cosmetic things exactly when you really should be spending time on major systems,

Jason Land: 6:03

right? Because that's the stuff that's going to cost you the most money in the long right? But to

John Laforme: 6:07

keep in mind, your major systems keep your house functional, right? That's the key, right. Here is functional. Your Plumbing has to be in good condition to keep your plumbing system functional, which means showering, using the bathroom, all that stuff has got to come into play. So a lot of people get caught up in the cosmetics of everything and the esthetics of everything. So let's just go get right into your report here. So what I'm looking at now is just everybody, oh, by the way, everybody listening. There will be a YouTube version of this. Will you be able to actually see what we're talking about right now on the audio only. You can only listen to what we're talking about. Well, I'm going to do my best to describe it. So keep that in mind when you're talking to describe things to the listeners. So right now, we're looking at just the main photos of the exterior of the house, and it looks like hell.

Jason Land: 7:00

And I said you were before we started recording that, I have not seen these photos since we started the remodel, like the demo process, because it's so hard, you know, we've been there two weeks in or two weekends in a row, like chipping away at this, and you don't feel like you're making progress. But seeing these photos of photos, I'm like, dang, we're a lot further on. I

John Laforme: 7:18

feel better. How many dumpsters Have you gone through so far? Full one,

Jason Land: 7:23

and now we're up to a half of a second one. Okay, I'm by full. I mean, to the top.

John Laforme: 7:28

Oh, that's all you can do. Otherwise, I won't take it. So, yeah, anybody showing up to this property and seeing this is gonna be very hesitant. That was me, yeah, especially a first time buyer, someone who want looking for something turnkey in this neighborhood, that's this was not the house.

Jason Land: 7:46

No, not even close.

John Laforme: 7:47

No. There's a big

Jason Land: 7:48

difference, unless you turn the key to the insane asylum. Yeah.

John Laforme: 7:54

So anyway, more photos here. Like I love this part on the on the left side of the house, there was no stairs going from the sliding door outside, period, there was no stairs. Watch your step. Yeah, watch your step. But, you know, it's a two story house. It's, it's got its own uniqueness. On the inside, you get the lower living area, which is a slab, and then you got the upper level. So it's kind of a few that was a couple steps down to get to the

Jason Land: 8:21

Yeah, one step into the first level, and then another step into the next level,

John Laforme: 8:25

yeah. And then you have that second floor, so you know it's got some character, yeah. And then let's see water utilities. Okay, so you definitely had a did the electrician ever tell you the exact size of this service. No,

Jason Land: 8:42

no, he didn't say he probably wasn't able to

John Laforme: 8:45

determine it either. Yeah, no,

Jason Land: 8:46

he so you said, let's, let's replace this. Okay, so

John Laforme: 8:50

I think you had three breakers in total, right?

Jason Land: 8:54

There was the one on the inside that wasn't functional. Don't know where was that? It's right in that little hallway right near the kitchen.

John Laforme: 9:01

Oh, hang on. You know what? That's probably right here. Let me find that real quick. Ah, here we go. Okay, sorry, I was looking at the wrong photo. So right here we have your main panel, which is a, what's called a bulldog pushmatic brand. And that's exactly what it is. You literally push the breaker in to turn it on and push it again to turn it off. So it's called pushmatic Bulldog. Pushmatic not something you want to keep unless you own a museum.

Jason Land: 9:32

You know, I'm building one in the garage,

John Laforme: 9:36

so I suggest you do it. I'm about I still haven't done this yet. I promised people years ago, when I took my stab lock panel off, I was going to have it stuffed and hung on the wall. So I suggest you do the same thing here. I just haven't gotten around to it yet, but this is a panel you don't really want to keep. So this is just a sign of the year of the house you're buying, unless the person before you upgraded it just. It's one of your jobs now to upgrade it. Sure. So your electrical system, your circuit breaker system, your branch circuit wiring, is all safe. So, and you got a quote for this already? Oh, yeah, we're already in. They're already doing it. So what's it gonna What's it gonna cost you? If it's that's just the listeners can understand.

Jason Land: 10:15

Sure, I would have to check, because we did every we did a quote for all of the things. Oh,

John Laforme: 10:20

okay, so you don't remember the specific

Jason Land: 10:23

it may have been like for all the the rewiring somewhere in like, close to 20k I think.

John Laforme: 10:28

Okay, so the panel itself probably cost about 45 to five. Okay, that's a pretty good estimate. So that's, that's something I'm happy to see that you're getting rid of, and they're going to put a, did you mention they're going to put a another panel,

Jason Land: 10:41

yeah, in the garage, 100 100 amp. Good. That's awesome. So they're

John Laforme: 10:45

gonna upgrade to a 200 amp on the main house, correct? And then put 100 amp sub. That's exactly

Jason Land: 10:50

what we did here. Yeah? And we're replacing all of the outlets per your report, good. So they're all getting replaced. All the ones that we're not using. There's a lot of just miscellaneous outlets all over the place, yeah, taking them all out.

John Laforme: 11:02

Yeah, that's just from, you know, all the homeowners, just adding stuff, removing stuff over the years. It's just normal stuff. And let's see. So as far as when I was there, you had some lights that weren't working here and there. That's usually, typically a bulb issue. But let's talk about that living room pool hall lighting you had there. Check out this lighting in the ceiling.

Jason Land: 11:26

Yeah, first thing that when I want to go on, yeah, contractor says, What do you want to do? Remove that step one, either

John Laforme: 11:32

that or put in a pool table. You have two choices, sir.

Jason Land: 11:38

New lights are a pool table. Wow. This is crazy. I haven't seen these photos in a

John Laforme: 11:41

couple of months. Yeah, so and that paint color,

Jason Land: 11:45

oh yeah, that's gone. But anyway, that's already gone. So

John Laforme: 11:50

that, you know, this is part of, this is part of the fun, I think of buying a fixer upper, because, you know, you get to just take these things out and rethink everything. Oh, it's been great. Isn't it fun? Kind of, just like trying to envision everything, I didn't it is fun

Jason Land: 12:06

to answer your question, and I, honestly, I didn't think it would be this fun. And I'm glad that we're doing this, because it's a, I think, a more cost efficient way to making a custom home, right? You're not starting from ground up, right? You know, but you can do it however you want, and

John Laforme: 12:23

you can add on if you wanted to. Yeah, of course, that's big bucks and a lot of time and a lot of paperwork, but you can get it done. But yeah, I'm looking forward to this transformation. I mean both,

Jason Land: 12:34

yeah, it's gonna look great like, I feel like this week, they made a ton of progress, and it's already starting to come together like you saw today, with the lighting and what's in there now, yep, just much more functional, you know, like and right? And

John Laforme: 12:48

once you start getting rid of all those old paint colors, and it's gonna be brighter in there and everything else. So did you mention today of something about that window right there?

Jason Land: 12:57

Yeah, we're gonna seal it up. Okay. Why are you gonna do that? Well, we discovered that the next door neighbors have a lot of porch lights, and it shines right in at nighttime, very bright. And then, you know, obviously you could put curtains up, but what's the point of having a window there if you can't keep it open and, you know, and use the airflow? So

John Laforme: 13:19

okay, well, consider this, and let me talk to you about this before you go committing to that. Okay, you can put an obscured window there to let light

Jason Land: 13:29

in, like a smaller window. You mean,

John Laforme: 13:33

you could go narrower, you know, the same I would keep it the same width because that's a good sized wall, but you can make it this, this tall, sure, so and faces the sky. You know that's going to be a dark area, and you may not like that later. So I would rethink that a little bit. Think about just putting an obscured glass that way, you just get at least light coming in, sure, and you don't have to deal with the neighbors, sure, the neighbors looking in your house, then you don't have you don't want to, if you don't have to look at them

Jason Land: 14:01

either. The obscured light is those. Obscured window is definitely, I think, an option that, because that was a thing, I didn't want people looking in. I wanted to have a sense of privacy sure, you know, and the privacy glass is basically what it Yeah. So that's where I think we definitely lean towards.

John Laforme: 14:14

When we're done, look in my bathroom, and you'll see my bathroom windows all frosted. Okay, what did I find in your attic? A mess, and

Jason Land: 14:23

rodents. Rodents, yeah. Rodents,

John Laforme: 14:26

yeah, that's my one of my most common things I find up in attics.

Jason Land: 14:32

Where do you find that they are getting in from? They are

John Laforme: 14:35

getting in from all of your vent screens when you walk around your house, like your main access entrance on the driveway side, there's a big hole there. They're just coming and going. So that's something the attic care you didn't you say you called attic care? Yeah, they're coming tomorrow and they're coming out. So if they're going to do some work for you, just they should be addressing that opening. Yeah,

Jason Land: 14:58

that was in their quote that. To they're going to remove all the debris, they're going to remove the existing insulation, disinfect, seal up all the holes, and then put new insulation. And I got tax rebate for that too, and the crawl space too, right? Yeah, crawl space too. So that's just a fun little thing for people out there that are going to get their attic done. You get a$1,200 rebate.

John Laforme: 15:24

Oh, nice, yeah,

Jason Land: 15:25

that or a tax just in Burbank or No, no, no, it's a tax credit. It's a federal tax credit. Okay,

John Laforme: 15:33

so, yeah, so yeah, right there looking at this photo, is a photo of the attic area with showing your your HVAC duct. Now, that duct isn't horribly old. It's not brand new, either, but you can see that there's been quite a bit of rodent activity on top of that duct since it's been installed. Sure. So those are things you gotta I gotta, kind of figure out for people. Well, they've said they replaced it and like, well, they replaced your units, but they didn't replace your duct recently, because that takes a long time for that to happen. That's not overnight, that's not from a rodent family coming in overnight and doing that. That's like months and months and maybe years generations, generations of rodents.

Jason Land: 16:15

So do you think that the ducts should be replaced as well?

John Laforme: 16:19

No, not necessarily, they definitely should be checked to make sure there's no holes under them. Now, when I was there, I check as much as I can to make sure there's no obvious holes inside the duct. So sometimes they'll be in the attic and they'll just chew through. So a lot of times they only make it to the outer layer, and they don't make it all the way in. Got it. So if I see any of that, I would have wrote that up for you. I don't think I saw that. So that's a good thing. But looking at your installation, it's like, minimal. It's like, oh, that's all going it's the old cellulose, yeah. And just a thing for anybody listening to understand is, when you're buying an older home, chances are the attic was never redone, like the insulation has never been updated. If it had a rodent problem, there's probably evidence of it's still there, even though they might have closed it off. So you get contaminated insulation. It's just dirty and nasty. It's a really good idea, because nowadays there's a lot of attic cleaning companies out there, and I got a couple people, and the one I referred to you at a care I had those guys come give me a quote. It was, they were pretty reasonable, but I just, I decided to do a big project first. So I haven't done that yet, sure, so I'll get around to that eventually.

Jason Land: 17:32

It's one of those out of sight, out of mind kind of thing. It really is in your attic. But when you're when you're in the position that I am, where you're just, you know, you want to start get the systems in place, you see how important it is, because then you won't

John Laforme: 17:43

have to worry about it, that's right, and it's a big mess. So doing all this, you haven't moved in yet, right? No, no. So you're not moving in until certain things are done. Sure other people don't have that luxury. So they may have to live there while this is going on, but it's a big difference when you have them come and suck out all the old contaminated insulation, all the old debris. Then they they, they seal up all the openings in the attic, and they a rodent proof anything that that needs it up there. And then they put all new insulation, which is up to today's code, which is our 30, it's pretty thick.

Jason Land: 18:21

Yeah. And like I said, you get that? You get the tax credit. So, yeah, right,

John Laforme: 18:24

absolutely. So do you get any questions on your attic? Besides

Jason Land: 18:28

that? No, no. I just wanted to know your thoughts on well, actually, yeah, now that I think about, and this is more of a general question we could probably get to later. Let's fast forward two or three years from now, how do I make sure that there's things are sealed up without getting up in there, or do I have to go in there? And if I do have to go in there, where should I look to make sure that everything is sound and functional? Well,

John Laforme: 18:55

you can look from the ground, mostly of if things are sealed up because, like I said, rodents get in your house from the outside perimeter of your house. That's all there is to it. So you got these guys coming out tomorrow, and their job is to make sure all your vent screens for your crawl space are properly sealed up, which means the screen is intact. And I've made video, a video on how to repair those things on my YouTube channel. So if anybody listening want to check it out, go to Home Inspection authority on YouTube, because it's a great little video, and I got a lot of good response from it because made I made it simple for people to go to Home Depot and buy the right screen and just replace it themselves to avoid this rodent problem in the first place. If you have holes in your vent screens, that's how you get rodents. It's not rocket science. This is very simple common sense. You walk your property, and if there's any kind of an opening half inch, inch they're getting in, you. So they're very persistent, and if they want to move in, they're going to move in. So you got to be vigilant about this. About with your house, a lot of people have bushes right up against their outside walls. They can't even see their vents. And when I go to inspections, I pull the bush back and I can see a big hole in it, and that's where the roads are coming and going. They're just jumping in and out when they need water. They'll go out and get water or whatever, and they'll just sleep there. So you giving them free room and board. It's a free Airbnb, is

Jason Land: 20:27

what it is. I don't want it free. You're paying you're paying for so

John Laforme: 20:31

just pay attention to your house. It's really not hard. If you store stuff against your house and there's a vent screen there, chances are it could be damaged, and that's where they're getting in.

Jason Land: 20:41

How often do you recommend you check your vent screens at once every six months year.

John Laforme: 20:47

I check mine all the time, because there's a lot of there's a lot of raccoon activity, skunk activity, possum activity and rat activity in these areas. And if I like one, one time I woke up in the morning, it was about, I don't know, maybe six, eight months ago, right on my front porch, I had a screen that was, it wasn't open, but it was coming loose, and it was ripped out. Get out of here. It was pulled I'm like, holy shit. Something grabbed this and, like, yanked on it. And if you yank on a vent screen with your hand, it's not easy. Not easy, right? So I'm thinking shit. Did it go inside under the house? So I went under there and looked, didn't see anything. I think the insulation that was right there stopped it from going in. So maybe it was, it was just too big to get through the hole because it didn't rip it all the way off, but it pulled it aside. So that made me check all my vent screens. So when you get activity like that, just take a just take a look down the side of the house. Like I always have to check this side of my house, because this where all the bushes are, but they're not right up against the house, but they're enough to block. So every once in a while, just take a look. Make sure nothing's messing around out there. And that's all you got to do. When you're walking around your house, you're in your yard, we're doing whatever. Just look, just look, it's right there, right there. They're really easy to see. Your vent screens. I

Jason Land: 22:10

feel like it's a it's a problem that a lot of homeowners can avoid if they just make it part of their routine, right? So look for these kind of things. You just got to pay attention. And that's one of the things I'm really excited about working with you, is pointing all this stuff out so I can catalog it all, create a checklist and just go and do it. Because why pay money when you don't have to right? It's a simple

John Laforme: 22:33

solution. Look at it this way, if you didn't have a lock on your front door your house, do you think you'd have visitors? You might, you might have visitors. You might have visitors. Look at it that way. These are front doors for them. You just leaving the door wide open, and they're just coming in. So it's just, it's really not hard. It's just something that we're not taught in school. Yeah? So All right, so moving on from the attic here, and then let's see, yeah, you smoking carbon monoxide detectors. That'll all be taken care of. Those are already ordered. Make sure you make sure you do that when you before you guys start sleeping there, dude, these will save your life. These will save your life. Yep, your exterior doors. So you've had quite a few doors that were just trash. Isn't that cute? I mean, wow, these were trashed.

Jason Land: 23:25

That was, it was pretty rough, pretty rough.

John Laforme: 23:28

You could put your finger probably through the door, you know what? I mean, they were rough. So this, this was your driveway side one, yep. And was that? Was that the garage

Jason Land: 23:38

that is the driveway side one? Okay, that is no longer in existence, right?

John Laforme: 23:43

So we, when I showed up, there was storage on the inside, so I couldn't see how bad it was on the inside. But, man, when I was there last week, it was

Jason Land: 23:50

like, Whoa, bad. But we removed it. I wanted to seal the whole wall up, yeah, because I'm gonna have my guitars there, so I wanted to seal the whole wall up. So they did. They took it out. They took the jam out, and they just put the, all the wood,

John Laforme: 24:08

yeah, the framing, the framing, frame, yeah. And they got, they put stuck over it, yeah, cool. That is no more. I was there today. I walked right by. Didn't even look, yeah, it's done a damaged door. So let's talk about that. So you had what? These were wood doors, by the way, yeah, so I need they looked very old. Now, what doesn't your house have above the doors the well, it

Jason Land: 24:33

doesn't have gutters, that's for sure. That's on, that is definitely on the

John Laforme: 24:37

agenda. No rain gutters. Wood door problem, even a wood window frame over time. Definitely a problem, definitely a problem.

Jason Land: 24:47

Why do you think just, it's just speculating here? Why do you think that the previous owners would not do that, do what? Put in gutters?

John Laforme: 24:55

Because it's California, and some people really think it doesn't rain enough here to make it cause a problem. Oh, wow, yeah, right. But when it down, pours, and nobody can drive, right? And, oh, my god, I can't drive because it's raining. You don't consider that a lot of rain. It's not sprinkling out. No, it's like, down, it downpours. It's almost like a tropical storm here sometimes, yeah, it's crazy. So all that water needs a place to go, and when it hits the ground, it's bouncing right back and hitting your wood doors. And if they're not painted right and sealed, that's what happens. They're going to absorb and they're going to swell, they're going to rot away, dry rot, whatever, not to mention termite damage, yeah. So, so the to answer your question is, you know why people don't think they need gutters. It's because we live in California. A lot of people really think that

Jason Land: 25:45

that's wild to me, like it just seems, again, like, just like the sealing up the the crawl spaces and whatnot for rodents. This is an easy solution to prevent, you know, more damage in the future. I just don't get why people won't, wouldn't do that.

John Laforme: 26:01

Yeah, watch, I push it a lot on people, yeah? Even, even Realtors like, Oh, it doesn't rain on my hair. Get out of here. Why you have an umbrella? And then stylish? Yeah, right. And then on your staircase here, what's missing?

Jason Land: 26:20

Yeah? Well, number one, a railing. Number two, style, yeah, that red paint. Ooh, thank goodness that's gone.

John Laforme: 26:27

So, you know, I see this a lot in houses. There's no handrail. I mean, that's a lot of stairs, yeah, yeah. You got your, you got your, maybe your parents visiting, or somebody elderly or and they just have a bad knee, and bam, they land wrong. They got nothing to grab onto, and those stairs are slippery too. Yeah, they're going down fast. They're gonna be a cleanup on aisle three when they land at the bottom of that, that's for sure. So, yeah, you got to have rail. Anything four steps or higher, should have a handrail. It's it's once a common courtesy, I think, for anyone visiting you,

Jason Land: 27:03

do you have any videos on how to install those like, like, how to measure properly? Is it's just,

John Laforme: 27:08

no, I haven't made anything like that, but I'll put that on the list here. Yeah, absolutely something like, yeah, there you go. And haven't had that request before. So by the way, is that a is that an air filter right

Jason Land: 27:21

there? I think that used to be an air filter.

John Laforme: 27:25

That thing was dirty. Yeah, we're gonna, we're gonna get to that. We get to that section. So I recommended a window upgrade. Yep, we're gonna do that. So why do I recommend a window upgrade? Well, some of your windows might have been single pane, the old double hung or single hung. It could be those sliders. I think you had some of the sliders. Definitely did, and they're all single pane glass, so they're a thing of the past. There's basically, it's basically a having a hole in your wall you don't think it stops. Is the wind?

Jason Land: 27:57

Yeah. I mean, we would close the front door and the windows would shake,

John Laforme: 28:02

yeah, yeah, because there's no R value to a single pane glass. It's just like, literally, a hole in your wall. So, so basically, you know, when I'm in someone's house inspecting it, there's something thinking about buying. I'm just recommending, hey, you know what it'd be, you got a central heating and cooling system here, it was a really good idea to upgrade your windows to help keep that, that heating and cooling inside, as opposed to letting it go out the window.

Jason Land: 28:27

Literally, I think it's been you're going through this window process right now. I could definitely see how people would delay it, because it's very expensive, right to get it, but you have to see the long term in that. Because if you, if you do your research, and you get the right kind of window, that's going to hold up, that's going to last you 15 years, right? And 1520 Yeah. And not only that, you're going to your electric bill is going to go down, right? As opposed to, if you have, you know, what's currently in our home, it's just throwing money away. Because, like you say, it's like having a window there. So why even run the air? It's a

John Laforme: 29:02

good investment. Yeah, adding new windows to your house is money well spent. If, if you buy a quality window, which we've learned a lot of, if you're just buying a junk window to replace another obsolete window, well, you're not going to get much better, right, but there, but windows can be expensive, very and I've been researching because I have a project I'm about to get embark on here at my place again, another, another. But this is a big one, a big project. So I got to get a door, a window, actually, two windows. So I've been looking at, let me refresh my memory, what's best? Vinyl clad, aluminum clad. You know, it's wood on the inside. It's sure, either aluminum or vinyl on the I don't like vinyl because vinyl, over time, will tend to discolor, sure, and maybe twist and warp a bit. I

Jason Land: 29:52

don't like at the seam. See on the vinyl the seams are like, they have, like, a little bit of gunk build up on there. That's the blue and bore. Is, like the, I think was the fiberglass. It's like, a nice, crisp cut. That's true. I forgot about that fiberglass. Yep. So, I mean, you're paying a little bit more, but what you're paying for is the quality, you know, right? And the look of it, right? And Kevin, you know, he's the one saying, like, get the ones that look are gonna look good and are gonna be high quality, because it's going to make your home value go

John Laforme: 30:18

well. And always remember, whenever you're remodeling your house, always keep in the back your mind, I might want to sell this someday, exactly. So can I do I have bragging rights? Can I tell them I bought a Marvin set of Windows, or did I buy Anderson? Or did I buy the cheapest thing on the market? You won't be talking about those if you did. No, no, but the Marvins are nice. Those are the best. Yeah, that's the that's the Rolls Royce of windows right there. So they even, they seem to be a little better than pillow windows. They roll

Jason Land: 30:49

right into your bank account and roll right out with your money. You.