EP #2: Windows, Doors, and Your Budget with Jeff Trapanese

Ever wondered why the daunting process of home renovation is often a double-edged sword, exciting yet overwhelming? That's what we tackle head-on in this enlightening episode with host Jeff Trapanese. We kick off by discussing the initial hurdles you may encounter when initiating window and door installation projects. We dissect the intricate aspects of budgeting and style selection that are crucial to your project's success. But that's not all. Jeff also delves into the escalating costs of materials in recent times, emphasizing the importance of having knowledge in your corner to prevent the uncomfortable surprise of unforeseen expenses.

As we journey further, we explore the labyrinth of financing options available to you and how they relate to your unique circumstances. Whether it's cash, credit cards, Keylock loans, or other lending options, we've got you covered. We highlight the importance of considering the duration of your stay in the property and the type of property in question. We also expose the long-term implications of neglecting window installations on rental properties - from increased air conditioning workload to potential mold infestations. Towards the end of our engaging chat, Jeff provides a rough estimate of project costs, offering you a realistic expectation for your budgeting needs. Brace yourself for an episode loaded with valuable insights into your looming renovation project.

For more information call us: (954)667-3JTM or

Email us: jeff@JTMwindowsanddoors.com

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to the JTM Windows podcast. Designed to impress, engineered to endure. Here's your host, jeff Trappanyese.

Speaker 2: 0:15

Oh, hello everyone, and welcome to episode number two of the JTM Windows podcast, under co-host Jeremy Wolfe, and I'm joined by none other than your host. We have Jeff Trappanyese. Jeff, good to see you again, brother.

Speaker 3: 0:28

Good to see you as well. Welcome back, everybody.

Speaker 2: 0:31

Yeah, yeah. So let's let's get into this. I know when considering to do a major home renovation project, that process can be overwhelming, so I thought it would be useful if you talked a little bit about customer preparation when considering a window door project, specifically the budget prep side and style considerations. So please enlighten us.

Speaker 3: 0:56

One of the major things that kind of occurs as we're doing meetings with customers on the initial visit, or you know, they're just not educated enough and what the process is or how much the project can actually cost. And I think what tends to happen is, once they do get estimates from their vendors that they're working with, they get a little sticker shock and they kind of make them shy away. But the situation is really, you know, the material costs have gone up tremendously over the past few years and not what they were five or six years ago. So and that goes all the way through with, you know, not only the windows and doors themselves but also the materials involved screws, caulking, that type of stuff is all kind of quite a bit. So I felt it was going to be a good service to start having some conversations about what customers need to do to educate themselves on the whole project process so that going in they can talk, you know, with some type of confidence and know what they're, you know, ready to spend or how they want to handle the project. So you know again, the first biggest thing is really determining what their budget is. You know what money you know they can put into that project. Now you know again, when we have different things going on in our home whether it be a roof, a garage door, windows, those types of things we're helping to fortify the home and add a lot of curb appeal to it as well. So which one do we do first, which one's going to have the biggest impact on the home? Windows and doors are one of the main things that I do see that once from beginning to end, and I always tell the customers hey, make sure you take your before and after pictures because you're not going to believe it's your house after you're done. So I think coming up with that budget of what's available for you to spend on that project is a major importance.

Speaker 3: 2:41

So one of the first determining factors is obviously your cash on hand. You have saved up for that project and what access do you have and liquid assets or things like that, versus credit cards. Credit cards are obviously. You know you tend to pay on average about a 3% markup fee to your vendor, plus whatever that interest rate is going on. So cash on hand is actually a much better way of doing it because, again, you're not adding more to the cost of the project. The second part of it is you know, what financing do you have available to you? There's things like Keylock loans, blue acorn or lending tree, which are different lending companies out there. There's also another program out there called my Green. Again, I've said in the past I'm not a big fan of that program, but those are different options for you to look into different financing options for that way, although I think in the market that we have right now, the rates are super high.

Speaker 2: 3:41

So what would you suggest for someone, just the average person, right as you go through all these different options and I know there are quite a few grants available and assistance programs for folks depending on income levels there's a lot of information out there. It can be very overwhelming for just a regular person that's doing this project. What would be a recommendation on how to kind of parcel this information and not get overwhelmed to the point where you're just like you know what I'll put it on a credit card because I can't, I can't, invest any more time researching this?

Speaker 3: 4:12

Right, I think that I think the biggest, the biggest thing to determine and again, if you, if you don't have cash on hand, I would look at what those interest rates are going to be and that's whatever you, you can act. I mean, obviously, with the, the housing market being where it is, you use a lot more equity in the house, so he luck loans are a great opportunity for you. I think that's kind of what I've been finding is the he luck loans do give you better interest rates, probably somewhere in the eights With regards to, as compared to, like blue acorn or lending tree, which gonna start in the eights and can go all the way up to 14, and then you know why. Green is another one, but again, that's that's. That can be in the eights to tens and that, but but if you ever do sell the house, you have to repay that whole value. All that, that one shot. So I Think again, just kind of comparing you, what your, what your credit card rate is versus a he lock loan rate, so talking to a bank or things like that nature, or again those those bigger Lending options out there, like blue acorn lending tree. So if I any of those types of things. They probably have more short term loans and sometimes a better interest rate again, depending on your, your credit rating With.

Speaker 3: 5:23

With regards to those grants, the my safe Florida home We've talked about in the past is a great program, although they have put a pause on any new new Applications right now until they kind of get through. They've kind of maxed out the funding that they've got for the pool now. But the Florida state legislature is supposed to be looking at re-upping it again and so Well, if your application's in, you know, but if not, keep checking back in the next couple weeks. So so that's, that's part of it is figuring out again what cash on hand do I have or what, what financing do I have available to me? So, let's say, starbitory number I've got, I've looked for some applications for what I can finance for and I can do up to a $25,000 project, just for a round number. What we want to look at at that point is is this going to be a short-term investment or a long-term investment? Are you gonna be staying in the home for a long period of time or are you going to be moving in five years? Also, is this a rental property for you?

Speaker 3: 6:25

To me that's a major question why people don't feel it's necessary to put money into windows on a rental property. But it's just the opposite. I think what we find is on older windows you get, number one, a lot of air going out of the house through old caulking seals. So the air condition is working much harder than it is. But more importantly is, as time persists, that caulking on the outside of the house dries out and stucco cracks and then you start getting water penetration into the house which leads to mold and those types of things. So between the roof and the windows, I think those are two major, important things to make sure you're upkeeping on your rental property so as to prevent more significant damage and costs later down the road. Absolutely. And then again, how do we calculate? So, now that we've kind of figured out what money we have available to me, how much is the project going to cost? That's the big question.

Speaker 3: 7:20

And going into it, people have no idea and it can be a poker game. It really really can be a poker game. I'm one, for when I ask a customer what your budget is, I want to make sure I'm kind of directing them the right path of the right product that's going to work for that budget? What scope of work is going to work for that budget, whereas other guys out there may be, oh wow, if they tell me they can do it for $60,000, then I'm going to make sure I get my quote to $60,000 when I can really do it for $40,000. That type of nonsense. I don't think that's true. That's fair or a good way of talking to the customer about those types of things. But again, at the end of the day it's a poker game. So educating the customer so that they've got some cards in their hand that they can work with is more important to me.

Speaker 3: 8:06

On average, the window and door material itself again the windows with the glass and the frames and all that stuff tends to be about 70% of the total cost of the project. On average, if you're doing calculations in your home, an average window opening is probably going to run you about $1,500 for material and labor. So when you're starting counting how many openings you have and then you're about $4,500 for an average two panel siding glass door and again that's material and labor to install it. So those are some good entry-level numbers to get a rough idea of what budget you can work up for your own home and then how to figure out. Ok, well, I have. This is what the amount of the total project is.

Speaker 3: 8:53

Can I do it in phases, can I break it up or do I want to do it all at one time? Doing it all at one time is much nicer because again you're protecting the whole house. You're only having to make sure you do a cleaning after all the structural work is done once, versus having to do it twice. But again, a good contractor should take some steps to minimize dust going throughout the house. So that's minimal. And it also has to do with any touch up painting. If you're not comfortable in doing the painting, touch up painting yourself and you have to hire a painting contractor. Sometimes you don't want to pay that twice after the fact as well. So those are all things taken into consideration. And then the last part of it is obviously the permit cost. Depending on the municipality, a permit cost can be as much as 3% of the total project. So if you're dealing with a bigger project, a $60,000 project, the permit's probably going to be somewhere around that $1,000 to $1,250 permit cost Interesting.

Speaker 2: 9:49

I didn't realize the permit was a percentage of the project. I thought it was just a flat fee. Is that very per municipality? No, it's a percentage.

Speaker 3: 9:57

No, it's a very spy municipality.

Speaker 3: 9:59

So some of them are in Cooper City, cooper City runs about like one there's certain fees and it's a total percentage of the cost of the construction. So they have some arbitrary numbers $10 here or $5 there but on average, yeah, it's a percentage of the total cost of construction of the contract. So that's the way it usually works. So again, I think, davies, solid 3%. Sunrise can be higher, certain areas can get higher, but that's all things that. You can look on the city's website and kind of see what those permit costs are going to be. But it's always fair for budget, just to say the straight 3%, and if it's lower than that then that's a bonus. At that point, exactly, exactly.

Speaker 3: 10:44

So, like I said, so once you've kind of gone around and said, ok, well, this is what this, this opens, going to cost me, this is what's going to cost me. Is that going to fit into what, what I have available? And then we start talking about, well, if it's not, what's the most important part to get done first? Do I want to do the sliding glass doors first? Do I want to get all the windows done first? Do I want to do the upstairs versus the downstairs or the east wing versus the west wing of the house? And those types of things start to come into play, and that's kind of, I think, the main important topics for figuring out that budgetary part. Before you even sort to think about reaching out to contractors to start finding out what their pricing is going to be, no one you're in your mind. Ok, this is what the project should cost me. This is what I have available. This is what I want to start to tackle.

Speaker 2: 11:30

Yeah, very useful stuff makes a lot of sense. Let's, let's do this. Let's get into some style considerations in another segment. I think that was good for for this. That was a lot of useful information and a lot of people don't realize they should be doing all of that. They just jump, jump the gun and call a contractor and start start that conversation before analyzing what they're even doing. So very, very good stuff, man. Yeah, we'll get into the style considerations, the next segment. Like I said, everyone, thank you for tuning in and we will catch you next time, take care, thank you, bye.

Speaker 1: 12:03

Thank you for listening to the JTM Windows podcast. For more information, contact 954-667-3JTM that's 954-667-3586 or email us at Jeff at JTMwindowsAndDoorscom.