113 Knob and Tube Fire Hazards and Duplex Dreams

Most homeowners overlook a seismic opportunity that could transform their property—and their future—by not understanding the true power of a smart renovation budget. Are you throwing money into projects that won’t boost your home's value? Or worse—holding onto a house that wasn’t built for your biggest dreams? 

Justin and Tara Meyer expose the wild truth about what it really takes to turn a fixer into a sellable dream home. In this episode, you’ll discover how overestimating renovation budgets can sink your sale and underestimating those costs could leave you with a house that screams “not worth it.” Justin dives into the behind-the-scenes reality of a sensational home remodel—how some projects wind up costing double, and why cutting corners (like skipping electrical updates or ignoring layout flaws) can devastate your resale value. You’ll hear how the most strategic upgrades are often the simplest—and the most overlooked.

 We break down: the real cost of gutting a house, why knob-and-tube wiring is a red flag, and how to spot the hidden “clues” that reveal whether a home is a winner or a nightmare. Justin and Tara share eye-opening insights into trends in home staging, kitchen design, and the vital importance of marketing your home the right way—because in real estate, perception is everything. Why does this episode matter? 

Because in today’s market, your property’s value hinges on your knowledge—and your willingness to play the long game. Whether you're a buyer, seller, or just someone tired of leaving money on the table, this episode will shift your perspective and empower your next move. So, if you’re serious about making your home stand out, avoiding costly mistakes, or just want to see beyond the surface—this is your must-listen. It’s time to stop guessing and start winning. Hit play—your future self will thank you.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Recording.

SPEAKER_00 0:03

We are now recording. Good job, we did it. Yay!

SPEAKER_01 0:10

It's a trial every time.

SPEAKER_00 0:13

I mean it should be easier at this point, but it's just not. I think it's just me.

SPEAKER_01 0:20

Maybe.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

I'm going to get it eventually. I'm just gonna like know what to do. It'll be easy. Perfect.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

This is like right at you.

SPEAKER_00 0:29

I know. Okay. All right, are you ready? Welcome back to Loved and Listed, the podcast where we re-watch episodes of Love It or List It and talk about what's happening from a 2026 perspective and a real estate perspective.

SPEAKER_02 1:06

Yeah.

unknown 1:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:09

I'm Tara Meyer, a local realtor in Columbus, and this is my home reno husband.

SPEAKER_01 1:18

Also called Justin Meyer.

SPEAKER_00 1:20

Justin Meyer. Thanks. So each week we are going to break down the renovation drama, the house hunt, and whether the homeowners made the right decision. Today we're recapping season one, episode 13, the season finale. Ready to talk about it? Yep. Alright, let's roll. So in this episode, we see Mike and Kira, and they own a home with plenty of room. Kira bought this house when she was single, and the home is 2,200 square feet. She loved the upstairs apartment when she bought it because it helped her cover her mortgage. And at the time, that was such a great advantage for her. And it's actually a really great way to get into home buying is to buy something where there's a dual unit and have your tenant cover your mortgage essentially. So pretty cool. So it's a duplex basically. Because what does a duplex have?

SPEAKER_01 2:45

Two houses.

SPEAKER_00 2:46

Two houses. And what do two houses have?

SPEAKER_01 2:49

Two kitchens.

SPEAKER_00 2:50

Two kitchens.

SPEAKER_01 2:51

So they have two tiny kitchens.

SPEAKER_00 2:55

Two tiny kitchens. At one point, they open up the oven, and literally he has to stand to the side of it because there's no way to stand behind the oven to open it. This is not ideal. Also, who wants to clean two kitchens? No one.

SPEAKER_01 3:20

They said they used the upstairs one for basically just a wet bar.

SPEAKER_00 3:24

Yeah. I'm like, so your second fridge is a garage. Or your second kitchen is a garage fridge.

SPEAKER_01 3:30

Yeah. Or a bar.

SPEAKER_00 3:32

Or a bar, but they're a family. They don't need a wet bar upstairs.

SPEAKER_01 3:37

I mean, they only have one kid.

SPEAKER_00 3:39

I guess. I guess what they need is to take those two kitchens and make one. But this is not a very ideal family home at this point. So what do you notice right away?

SPEAKER_01 4:01

The first thing I noticed is that he got really upset about there being loud noises downstairs, but he had the door open. That was the first thing I really noticed.

SPEAKER_00 4:12

For sure. So we see this house, we see that it has again another house with two staircases. It has a front and a back staircase. In this home, they say they use the back staircase and not the front one, which he works from home because it's Canada. Everybody in Canada works from home. And she often is home and brings him lunch upstairs to his office in his bar.

SPEAKER_01 4:42

The tiniest staircase on the planet.

SPEAKER_00 4:45

Okay, she is a s here's a small woman. And she, when she walks up the stair with the tray, she has to turn sideways to walk up to bring him his lunch. Yeah, that's the one they want to keep.

SPEAKER_01 5:02

So also, can he just walk downstairs for his lunch?

SPEAKER_00 5:06

I mean, yeah. Like normal people. Kira, bring me my lunch.

SPEAKER_01 5:12

We need to buy a special tray so you can uh give bring me my lunch.

SPEAKER_00 5:17

I need a special lunch tray for my wife's servant to bring me my fancy lunch.

SPEAKER_01 5:23

Up our servant's stairwell.

SPEAKER_00 5:25

Up our servant stairwell. That's very, very uncomfortable here. So other things we notice about the house is that the front staircase, they've actually turned into like a bizarro closet. They just throw everything there. I'm like, that's a fire hazard. And unnecessary.

SPEAKER_01 5:44

Also, why do they have two staircases?

SPEAKER_00 5:48

The last house did too. Well, they have two staircases. Ugh.

SPEAKER_01 5:52

There's no reason to have two staircases in a duplex.

SPEAKER_00 5:55

Well, my guess is that kind of like your brother's old house, that his old duplex that he had.

SPEAKER_01 6:00

There's only one staircase.

SPEAKER_00 6:03

Oh, but if this house had been so take that old house that we saw last week with the dual staircases.

SPEAKER_01 6:09

Most likely whoever bought that.

SPEAKER_00 6:13

Yeah, but they haven't done that yet here.

SPEAKER_01 6:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:17

So if somebody bought this and just turned it into two apartments.

SPEAKER_01 6:19

But you think you would remove that, you would need want the extra room if you're redoing it for this purpose.

SPEAKER_00 6:27

Well, yeah. But because essentially, if you have two staircases, you would have one that had a separate entrance, probably to go into the upstairs apartment from outside. But then really the homeowner on the other side, like your landlord, can just get into your home.

SPEAKER_02 6:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:44

So that seems sketch. Sketch. That seems like something you would see on like Unsolved Mysteries. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:51

Why can't this door in the back of our apartment?

SPEAKER_00 6:54

Where's this go?

SPEAKER_01 6:56

Uh down to your owner's kitchen.

SPEAKER_00 6:59

Karipi. So anyway, now they have a family, and this is a very non-ideal home. So it's 2,200 square feet total, which means they only have 1100 square feet as their own family livable space. Because I would call the second one more of like an office, right?

SPEAKER_01 7:19

Because they're not it's I think there were some bedrooms up there.

SPEAKER_00 7:23

Okay. But it's just inconvenient.

SPEAKER_01 7:26

So they want a home that has a single family feel, larger kitchen, and we meet with Hillary and David, and do you notice something interesting about when they're sit they sit down to talk about their stuff?

SPEAKER_00 7:44

They drink martinis on the same side of the booth.

SPEAKER_01 7:47

They had martinis and the owners had wine. Like by this point in the season, even though this was not mentioned anywhere in the season in the episode that it was the finale, they were ready for the finale. So ready that they had moved on from wine and they're on to hard liquor.

SPEAKER_00 8:08

And they were sitting very close.

SPEAKER_01 8:10

It was a small table.

SPEAKER_00 8:19

Okay, okay. I understand that. But they were in a restaurant alone.

SPEAKER_01 8:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:24

They could have had any table. They could have had two tables. They could have found some other better way of sitting, but this was just uncomfortable. I thought.

SPEAKER_01 8:32

Oh, guys, we forgot our wide angle lens at home. And we're gonna have to have you guys just squeeze together.

SPEAKER_00 8:38

How close can you get without it being awkward?

SPEAKER_01 8:42

Apparently really close in this episode.

SPEAKER_00 8:46

Yeah. So what are we gonna do here? What is their must-haves in order to list their home?

SPEAKER_01 8:58

I mean they wanted to redo the whole house.

SPEAKER_00 9:01

Yeah. So in order to list, what do they want to find?

SPEAKER_01 9:04

They wanted to convert it into well, they wanted to convert it into a family home, and they wanted to redo their kitchen to open it up to their first floor living area.

SPEAKER_00 9:13

And that's their needs to stay. So in order to stay, they want to open it up to have one large kitchen.

SPEAKER_01 9:20

To move, they wanted something completely not the house they were living in. They wanted a detached, four-bedroom, two-bath, family-sized kitchen, which That was so generic. Kitchen? You want a kitchen? You want a kitchen. You want a kitchen. You can open. Yeah, normal. I want a kitchen I can open. Two-car garage in their neighborhood.

SPEAKER_00 9:42

I think it was pretty standard. Standard. They have no like crazy needs. They don't use the word charm yet. They don't say character, they don't need anything wild. They want something that they can live with their family to eat dinner forever.

SPEAKER_01 10:02

Because I'm assuming they planned on having another child because they were like, we want four bedrooms.

SPEAKER_00 10:07

Yes. And you would probably imagine they're real children, not like imaginary.

SPEAKER_01 10:13

Yeah. But they they only it's a three-person family consistently through the entire episode this time.

SPEAKER_00 10:19

Yeah, and they seemed very reasonable, honestly. I felt like they, especially as the final episode of the season, there was no drama really. They seemed realistic, they didn't have like extra crazy expectations.

SPEAKER_02 10:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:38

What they want to do to the house that they own currently, though, is a little bit like wild. They want to take two total separate kitchens, gut one, expand one, move walls, move this, move that. It's a big job.

SPEAKER_01 10:55

Yeah. I feel like they'd almost be better off just leaving it a duplex, renting it out, both of them, and buying a house.

SPEAKER_00 11:02

I know. That's kind of what I thought. But I was I wanted to look into it and I couldn't really find much about this specific unit. But I wonder if this had been because it's probably in the same neighborhood that we've been seeing all season. The same neighborhood.

SPEAKER_01 11:20

I think it was.

SPEAKER_00 11:22

Really?

SPEAKER_01 11:23

It didn't seem the same.

SPEAKER_00 11:25

I feel like it didn't see the same because it's somewhere along the line, someone had turned it into that duplex. I think it was a single-family home that they converted at some point for rental property, which I think is why they moved it back to a single-family home, because that area probably was wanting single-family homes. Yes. It was probably less likely to have buyers for a duplex, which is it took me a little while to get there too, because I was kind of thinking, like, why would they do that? There's you know, the marketability. But if you have a neighborhood with 90% single-family homes, and all of a sudden you have this duplex, yeah. It might be less desirable for a buyer. So anyway, we know what they want to do, we know their budget. They sit down with Hillary, and their budget is 50,000 max.

SPEAKER_01 12:29

We missed the walkthrough.

SPEAKER_00 12:30

Oh, we missed the walkthrough. Go ahead and go through the walkthrough.

SPEAKER_01 12:33

So they do the walkthrough and they get close once again because they try to squeeze through the kitchen door at the same time.

unknown 12:40

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 12:41

And they both run into each other awkwardly. Like, I don't know, they've never walked through a door before.

SPEAKER_00 12:46

I know. I feel like production was like, okay, Hillary, you stand here. David, you're here. And I'm gonna say, one, two, three, go. And then just like, I'll I'll press play, I'll press record, and then go, and I want to get a great shot of you guys bumping at each other. That's my guess.

SPEAKER_01 13:06

Did you notice anything about the bathroom?

SPEAKER_00 13:12

Uh no.

SPEAKER_01 13:14

Like the towel warmer who's back.

SPEAKER_00 13:18

Oh. I made a note. And in my note, it was like, why are there so many towel warmers in this home? In this neighborhood.

SPEAKER_01 13:31

Towel warmer.

SPEAKER_00 13:33

But like there was a towel warmer, and I felt like okay, because the house had radiant heat, I noticed too. And I feel like with radiant heat, it's a lot easier to have those towel warmers all over the place because it's almost just like maybe work into the system or something. Right. So anyway, the walkthrough I thought was pretty basic besides the bump into each other.

SPEAKER_01 13:55

No. Did you notice Hillary, uh, Hillary's verbiage?

SPEAKER_00 14:01

No.

SPEAKER_01 14:02

She knew they were gonna move.

SPEAKER_00 14:05

Oh.

SPEAKER_01 14:06

She sounded very much like either she knew they were gonna move, or she was just like they should move.

SPEAKER_00 14:15

I didn't catch that. I did not get that vibe, but that makes sense actually. Because I do feel like she was less in like invested or in tune with what they really wanted, and maybe make it just more functional.

SPEAKER_01 14:34

Yeah, and I think that's narrow. We'll get into the rest, but okay.

SPEAKER_00 14:39

So, anyway, Hillary wants to change everything. This is like a total rent runo. You're taking two apartments and turning it into one home. It's a lot of work. Kitchen is so small.

SPEAKER_01 14:50

Kitchens?

SPEAKER_00 14:51

Kitchens are small. I made a note here. They don't need a remodel, they need a new home. And Hillary tells Desta what they have to do. Just like always, Dusta's like, uh, Hillary, I don't know about that. So then we go to the money and they sit down. What's your budget for your renovation? 45.

SPEAKER_01 15:17

I actually wrote, what is the budget? Question mark, question mark, question mark, because I felt like this episode delayed the budget a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 15:24

I did too. I felt like this was choppy, or maybe I don't know if it was necessarily choppy, but the flow in this was a little bit different, I think, than maybe they're starting to like, oh, we're transitioning into season two. So 45 to 50,000 renovation budget, the current value of their home is$65,000.

SPEAKER_01 15:54

$650,000.

SPEAKER_00 15:55

Oh, what did I say?$65,000.

SPEAKER_01 15:57

$65,000.

SPEAKER_00 15:58

It's a little bit more than that. So the new budget is up to$900.$900 on their new home. That's a pretty good budget. Yeah. That's a very realistic. They are living in a$650,000 home. They're not saying my budget is$675,000, which we've seen.

SPEAKER_01 16:21

Yeah, and it was bought just by her.

SPEAKER_00 16:24

Correct, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:25

So we know they can buy a dual-income property.

SPEAKER_00 16:28

Right, a forever home. So I think it's a good budget. And Hillary is back with Desta after that. And they have their little whiteboard out. This is probably becoming my favorite part of the show, is when Hillary and Desta sit down with their whiteboard. They're typically on the stairs outside. If it's poor weather, they're inside in the kitchen, and they have a hand-drawn floor plan. And Hillary's just erasing things. And they're like, ah. Great.

SPEAKER_01 17:10

Remove this wall.

unknown 17:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:13

That's my favorite. I love it because they just take this big, huge project and they just simplify it to this little whiteboard. And they're like, alright, we're just gonna take that right out of there. That's my favorite. I'm really starting to like that part a lot. And the whiteboard is so tiny, too. So anyway. We're gonna go to David's first home that he's found them. The first home they find. I'm like, oh, this is a choice. It's 1,600 square feet, already smaller than their home. But it has four bedrooms, okay. Three bathrooms, open kitchen, and a dining room. A yard, a garage, in their neighborhood, and below budget. I wrote infested with mice? Question mark?

SPEAKER_01 18:09

This was the this is what you can get and what's available in your neighborhood. Now let's move on.

SPEAKER_00 18:17

Correct. Small entry, nice closets.

SPEAKER_01 18:22

You're gonna get a very small four-bedroom house.

SPEAKER_00 18:26

Yeah, it's a new build. You can tell because there's no appliances.

SPEAKER_01 18:33

The first one wasn't a new build, was it?

SPEAKER_00 18:35

The one with no appliances. I thought it was a new build. I don't think they said that, but I just think I just I don't think the first one was a new build.

SPEAKER_01 18:43

The third one was a new build.

SPEAKER_00 18:45

Okay, so whatever it was, it had no appliances. Maybe it was a kitchen remodel.

SPEAKER_01 18:50

It only had a microwave.

SPEAKER_00 18:52

Just a microwave, but there was no stove.

SPEAKER_01 18:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:54

There was no refrigerator, there was no dishwasher. So maybe it was a remodel that they were allowing the homeowners to like pick out what they wanted, but it was kind of hard to when you're buying a house and your number one thing is kitchen, that can be kind of hard to see in your mind.

SPEAKER_01 19:15

And it's difficult to walk into a kitchen and look like all the appliances were stolen and be like, I need the stuff.

unknown 19:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:22

Like a a very big part of the kitchen is the appliances. Like they're really big.

SPEAKER_00 19:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:28

You just walk in, you're like, gap, gap, gap. I can't vision this.

SPEAKER_00 19:32

No, and I've gone into places like that too. It just has like a empty look.

SPEAKER_01 19:39

Empty look. Like somebody came in here and robbed the place.

SPEAKER_00 19:43

Yes. It's like I get when you build, you pick out your own.

SPEAKER_01 19:49

I was gonna say it makes sense, but like for like selling a house and like having like it's not like essential and primary part of the staging is appliances.

SPEAKER_00 20:00

The number one thing you want a buyer to feel when they walk into a home to buy as a seller is that they live there already. You want them to feel like this is theirs and I can have my family. If you have open gaps in your kitchen that looks like you were robbed, yeah. They can't see themselves there.

SPEAKER_01 20:20

Also, to be fair, there might have been a reason we didn't know of.

unknown 20:25

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 20:26

Because there are reasons for it, but it's it takes away from the feeling of when you're doing a walkthrough.

SPEAKER_00 20:32

And there's always reasons. There's always some reason that the seller either they were old, they did a kitchen renovation, they are going to put something else or let them have them, but it's just for the visualization, it's hard to feel like you live there when you don't have like it'd be like going to a bathroom and having no toilet.

SPEAKER_01 20:52

Yeah, and um, I think we can move forward on this too because I have more appliance conversations for one of the later houses.

SPEAKER_00 21:04

Oh, okay. Can't wait. So the price on this is 829,000. It is below their budget.

SPEAKER_01 21:16

It's right in the middle of their budget. Well it's like smack dab in the middle.

SPEAKER_00 21:22

Yes, yes. They can go up to 900, so it is below their max, we'll say.

SPEAKER_01 21:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:27

She doesn't like it. She says something's missing. She doesn't think it has any more than their current home has. And I'm like, well.

SPEAKER_01 21:35

Their what appliances were missing.

SPEAKER_00 21:37

It doesn't have appliances, but it's one kitchen. So I mean, there is that.

SPEAKER_01 21:44

I mean, there wasn't there's no wow to that house.

SPEAKER_00 21:48

No wow. It was again, it was drab. So they leave and they go with David. And this is also where I was like, you're right. There's a lot of foreshadowing in this that they were going to sell this home because David was going with them to their current home. And I feel like a lot of times he's not with them. They go alone. But he was probably doing a realtor walkthrough. He was going with his clients on the house he was about to list for them. So anyway, they walk up. Another golden, awesome moment in this episode that I loved. They walk up, there's a dumpster, and David says, Oh, look, your house is in there.

SPEAKER_01 22:33

They're like, uh my favorite part was that there was a dumpster, but they were just chucking stuff out the window.

SPEAKER_00 22:40

The window.

SPEAKER_01 22:41

Into the front yard. In the front yard. And I was like, you couldn't just put the dumpster in the front yard. I didn't post it right in there.

SPEAKER_00 22:50

Like out the attic window. Like, boo. That was a good one.

SPEAKER_01 22:55

Paneling. And paneling. Yep. That house was covered in paneling and they removed all of it.

SPEAKER_00 23:02

All of it. Yeah. But he goes, That's your house in there. Ugh, so we walk in and the house is well, obviously the house is in the dumpster, so when you walk in, it's just gutted. Gutted.

SPEAKER_01 23:15

The whole thing.

SPEAKER_00 23:16

I said, that is an open-ass house. They just boom.

SPEAKER_01 23:22

They gutted the upstairs completely. And they gutted the front room of the first floor. Yes. They haven't touched the kitchen yet.

SPEAKER_00 23:35

No.

SPEAKER_01 23:35

But they don't show us this.

SPEAKER_00 23:37

No.

SPEAKER_01 23:38

But you're starting to wonder, like I'm not seeing any kitchen work get done.

SPEAKER_00 23:43

Oh, I've seen lots of.

SPEAKER_01 23:45

They just removed the upstairs kitchen.

SPEAKER_00 23:48

Yeah. It was a lot. It was a big, it was just a giant room. And she's standing there. She's standing there with Hillary, and Kira just starts crying. And she's like, I'm just not sure. And I'm like, yeah. And she probably what we don't see is notice that her kitchen is untouched. And I bet that had a little bit to do with it, maybe. Or maybe I mean she was really emotionally attached to the house. She loved it. She got it when she was, you know, a single person. And now to see that your home is just like at this moment.

SPEAKER_01 24:25

I really thought they were staying.

SPEAKER_00 24:28

Me too.

SPEAKER_01 24:28

She really liked her million tiny rooms.

SPEAKER_00 24:32

She's like, I want all my teeny tiny rooms back. Anyway, that was something. So now we go to our next home with David. This one's 2,500 square feet. It has five bedrooms, four bathrooms, garage, a nice yard. They go in, and the first thing we see is the patio. This patio was so cute.

SPEAKER_02 25:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:05

It was just really quaint and adorable.

SPEAKER_01 25:10

But then this whole house was a vibe.

SPEAKER_00 25:14

Yeah. We go inside and we see old hardwood floors, a fireplace that's straight from the sixties. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 25:27

But a huge room. This is a common theme.

SPEAKER_00 25:33

Yeah. Yeah. This was also a vibe. And the kitchen has bright blue and green tile backsplash. It's still pretty small. It has five bedrooms. Three on the main level. And then we go into the first bananas bathroom. And this bathroom is like a light blue with black and white tile countertops. It's real funky. Funky was a very used word here.

SPEAKER_01 26:13

Yeah. It was 60s. The whole house.

SPEAKER_00 26:16

Yeah. But it was big. It was lots of space. There was a fireplace in the bedroom. The ensuite bathroom. This is where I questioned this homeowner's everything. Because the floor was a like brownish-orange tile. The sink was a brownish-orange tile. The tub. Yeah. Just so much grout. I said, ah.

SPEAKER_01 26:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:56

Imagine, imagine all this grout. Like it's stressful.

SPEAKER_01 26:59

Even the countertops had grout.

SPEAKER_00 27:02

Even the countertops. It was just a lot.

SPEAKER_01 27:04

The tiled counters, like it's just that's tough.

SPEAKER_00 27:10

Yes, definitely.

SPEAKER_01 27:11

It's not even like level.

SPEAKER_00 27:12

I my grandma's house had tile countertops. And it was so weird. It felt weird. The grout, you're just like, ugh.

SPEAKER_01 27:20

Anyway, so imagine if you set something small on like one of those edges, you should yeah, it was it was a no. So that bronch oil could you imagine slime on one of those countertops? Slime? There'd just be slime in all the grout.

SPEAKER_03 27:37

Oh, I thought there was slime in it. No.

SPEAKER_01 27:40

I'm just saying, if it was in our house, like let's say like our like we would just have slime like stuck in those grouts from our kids.

SPEAKER_00 27:47

Yeah, our children love slime. And like they love to like wash slime.

SPEAKER_01 27:52

It's because they make the slime. They can't wait after we do our plumbing because of slime.

SPEAKER_00 27:59

I know. Uh I don't even want to think about that. Anyway, then they go upstairs and there's this huge Okay, the upstairs of this house was nice, but first thing, mustard yellow carpet.

SPEAKER_01 28:13

Yikes. I don't think the second floor was original to the house. Like I think that it was like they one day they were like, we want two more bedrooms and we want way more floor space up there. Yeah. Like we now have kids and we're gonna shove them in our attic. 100%. That was a attic.

SPEAKER_00 28:35

Yeah. That wasn't because it had your Cape Cod ceilings where they were two identical bedrooms on the ends. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 28:42

But like the lock to get to the room. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:46

But it was nice. I mean, those were great rooms. It was huge. There was a lot of potential there. I I loved the upstairs, but I didn't feel like the upstairs fit anything about the downstairs of that house. It was like they were having like a fight.

SPEAKER_02 28:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:00

So the basement. They go in the basement. There's water damage.

SPEAKER_01 29:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:08

And what is selling point?

SPEAKER_01 29:10

You know, it's negotiating. Negotiating.

SPEAKER_00 29:13

They're like, oh, water damage. And David said, Oh, you know what I see? Negotiations.

SPEAKER_02 29:18

Yeah.

unknown 29:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 29:20

They do really like it. They do say here is where we get the word character. They say it has a lot of character. Okay. So now we go back to their home. The reno is still underway. And we see that the electrical is your old knob and tube.

SPEAKER_01 29:40

Which we haven't seen since like episode three.

SPEAKER_00 29:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:46

Like when I think we saw knob and tube in like two of the first three episodes, and we didn't see much of it since then, because I think most of that most of it had been replaced previously.

SPEAKER_00 29:58

Yeah. And if because knob and tube is such a fire hazard, typically if you're doing any kind of construction or renovation or anything, the first thing they have to do per code is to remove that knob and tube. Which tells me this house that they live in, nothing has been done here for like a long time.

SPEAKER_01 30:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:18

It's gonna be a ton of money.

SPEAKER_01 30:20

I used probably turned into a duplex in like the 20s.

SPEAKER_00 30:23

Probably a very long time ago. Or they did it themselves and they just, whoever the owner was, yeah. Said, oh, we'll just put that right back in there. Which possible. But yeah, we haven't seen it for so long. It's a huge money pit. I mean, they have to redo the whole thing to be code. So that's kind of like digging into their dollars. And we see Hillary and Dusta. And I feel like anytime we see the two of them together, you're like, oh no.

SPEAKER_01 30:55

Yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_00 30:57

So what is our problem?

SPEAKER_01 31:01

Not doing the kitchen.

SPEAKER_00 31:03

Not doing the kitchen.

SPEAKER_01 31:05

Or removing the wall. We're not doing anything downstairs.

SPEAKER_00 31:09

Yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:12

And I I think this was why they hadn't really touched the first floor. Because they knew they were going to have to redo the wiring.

SPEAKER_00 31:25

Right.

SPEAKER_01 31:26

So in order to not have to redo the wiring on the first floor, they didn't touch it.

SPEAKER_00 31:32

They didn't touch it, yeah. I mean that was smart to not just rip everything out. They could have gotten in huge financial trouble there. So they found that. Or they just knew. I mean, they probably I'm sure they knew.

SPEAKER_01 31:45

You can't not know.

SPEAKER_00 31:46

Yeah. You knew what you had.

SPEAKER_01 31:50

Yeah. It wasn't like the one in like episode three where like the paneling was replaced, but they didn't replace the Navin tube in the actual walls. Correct. And that was mentioned as a point in that episode. This episode they didn't mention that. They're like, hey, we had to replace all your Navin tube wiring. Right. Yeah. We told you that, like, when we before you even gave us, you know,$50,000. But we're gonna make it a scene in the episode.

SPEAKER_00 32:15

Right. Yeah. So they talk about money a lot. We learn all the electrical has been updated and there's no more money. So essentially at this point, they fixed that up, they ripped out those walls, they ripped out that kitchen, and now they just have to make it, they have to put it back together, but they can't do any more work. So that kitchen downstairs.

SPEAKER_01 32:41

At this point, they need to put it back together functionally so that it's still a complete home.

SPEAKER_00 32:46

Right. But the kitchen's gonna be untouched.

SPEAKER_01 32:50

Moving back into this five by five like kitchen.

SPEAKER_00 32:55

Yeah, so it was just make it able to either live or sell, but we can't do anything else. So now we have our final home that we go to.

SPEAKER_01 33:08

This house is amazing.

SPEAKER_00 33:10

Love it. It is 3,200 square feet. It's a new build, five bedrooms, four bathrooms. It's an open concept. They say ideal location. So they say ideal location. They do not say their desired location.

SPEAKER_01 33:28

Correct.

SPEAKER_00 33:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 33:29

It's a new and upcoming area, might is what I feel like. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 33:34

Yeah. It's cute. I mean, the ceilings were huge.

SPEAKER_01 33:38

And this huge.

SPEAKER_00 33:41

And this guy's a big guy. He's very tall. There were a couple of homes he walked into that he like couldn't walk into the shower.

SPEAKER_01 33:50

Yeah. He actually walked into a shower and he was like, I just need to make sure that the shower head's high enough.

SPEAKER_00 33:56

Yeah. I was like, oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:57

Things that I have never had to say why can't you? Is this shower head high enough for me?

SPEAKER_00 34:04

Same. It's like the whole um you know trend that all the cabinets and countertops and the bathroom counters are like 42 inch height. That's like what people want.

SPEAKER_01 34:18

And I'm like, can I not look like a child when I wash my hands?

SPEAKER_00 34:22

Yeah, can I not wash my hands like way up here? I'm like, I'll take standard things.

SPEAKER_01 34:28

I'm gonna need a stool for this bath.

SPEAKER_00 34:31

Yeah, I don't I mean I already need a stool to like get my laundry out of the laundry, like out of the washer.

SPEAKER_01 34:37

You don't. You just make me do it.

SPEAKER_00 34:39

I mean, because I can't reach. Yeah, I need one of those like grabbers. Anyway, I uh I totally feel the other end of the height thing. But this house has like 10 or probably 11 feet ceilings.

SPEAKER_01 34:57

There was I wasn't a fan of the kitchen countertop in the house.

SPEAKER_00 35:01

What did you not like about them?

SPEAKER_01 35:03

It's just so wild. Like the like just that marble like design. I'm just not a fan of. But it was a really nice house, and they had all Viking appliances. Did you see that?

SPEAKER_00 35:18

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:19

Industrial grade, like Viking appliances. That was nice. So it's a big cry from the no appliances to those appliances.

SPEAKER_00 35:30

Yeah. Yeah. The laundry room in this is really great. Everything is very wow. It's very stunning. It's very oh, they say it's so grand.

SPEAKER_01 35:41

She's like, I won't be able to wear sweats in the kitchen.

unknown 35:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:46

I'm like, yeah, you'll get over that.

SPEAKER_01 35:47

But I mean, there was a skylight in the stairwell that was massive.

SPEAKER_00 35:52

It was a nice house.

SPEAKER_01 35:54

It was an amazing house.

SPEAKER_00 35:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:57

The whole time I'm sitting here like that last one was$948,000. This is well over a million dollars. Which is gonna be well over like one or two hundred thousand dollars above their budget.

SPEAKER_00 36:14

Right?

SPEAKER_01 36:15

What are we doing here, David?

SPEAKER_00 36:16

I know, I know. But if you go back to like not in their, you know, maybe not in their location, whatever. So there's a sauna.

SPEAKER_01 36:30

There was a sauna.

SPEAKER_00 36:33

That was weird.

SPEAKER_01 36:35

She walked through that whole last house that was wild. And was like, eh, you know, it's kind of weird. But she saw that sauna, and the look on her face was like, What am I gonna do with this?

SPEAKER_00 36:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:50

Do I just turn this into a closet?

SPEAKER_00 36:53

Yeah. It was like, wow. Okay. There were boob lights everywhere.

SPEAKER_01 36:59

Which is wild. For in a new build. Such a nice house.

SPEAKER_00 37:05

Yeah. They're like, yeah, if they wanted any other lights, they'll change about themselves. So what was the price of this one?

SPEAKER_01 37:14

1.15.

SPEAKER_00 37:16

Yeah. 1.15. But it was a good one.

SPEAKER_01 37:21

And after he said it, you just like see the wheels turning in his head, like, I wonder if we could afford this house.

SPEAKER_00 37:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:31

Because I mean it was nice.

SPEAKER_00 37:35

I'm sure too. There were a lot of other factors that they had to like really look at it. Because not your number isn't always the same across the board. Because like your budget is more or less a monthly note that you can afford. So depending on what the taxes are there, depending on all those other factors.

SPEAKER_01 37:54

But also they're re and they're rebuilding or remodeling their house, and he's probably like, hmm, what am I gonna get? If we could get this much out of our house now, like I wonder, like we could probably do it then, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 38:07

Yeah. So then you just want to jump into like final walkthrough, right? All right, you go ahead, go walk us through the final walkthrough.

SPEAKER_01 38:18

I mean, the painting in the kids' bedrooms was phenomenal for this one.

SPEAKER_00 38:25

Agreed.

SPEAKER_01 38:25

Like that second bedroom they went into with like the mural on the wall. It was great.

SPEAKER_00 38:31

Yeah, agreed. Agreed.

SPEAKER_01 38:35

I did like how they covered up all the radiators too.

SPEAKER_00 38:39

They hid the radiators, because I mean with radiant heat, that's the thing, is that it's unattractive, right? It's lit. So yeah, there was that. But really.

SPEAKER_01 38:48

And then they still have an old kitchen. Like that, it was fine.

SPEAKER_00 38:54

They put the home together well to sell it.

SPEAKER_01 38:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:58

Which even into hiding the radiators the way they did was a great selling point. It made it more cozy.

SPEAKER_01 39:06

It staged really well.

SPEAKER_00 39:07

Yep. So now we have a pre-renovation budget of$650,000. A renovation budget of$50, and after their post-renovation uh home price is$730. So going into this, what did you think was gonna happen?

SPEAKER_01 39:32

At this point, I thought as soon as I saw they weren't redoing the kitchen, I knew they were moving.

SPEAKER_00 39:38

Yeah, same. So they're whispering.

SPEAKER_01 39:43

And they're creepily peering from the front foyer, like almost like this is like our thing in our show now, where we creepily peer at them, and we're gonna make it very obvious that we are creepily staring and whispering right to them.

SPEAKER_00 40:00

I wrote the whispering is wild here. The creepy whispering.

SPEAKER_02 40:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:08

So of course, now what are they gonna do? And they decide to list it. Which I mean, I think was a good choice. I think they made the right decision for them. I don't think they really would have been happy there at all. That kitchen, he couldn't open, he wasn't big guy, and that kitchen was a tiny kitchen. Again, she bought that before he was even in the picture. So that home was just not built for a large man.

SPEAKER_01 40:41

No, it wasn't built to be one home. At least it wasn't set up to be just one home.

SPEAKER_00 40:47

No, she, like she said, she bought it to have the extra income to pay her mortgage. Yeah. Okay, so decided to list it. We're gonna do a new little segment here called Real to Reality Check.

unknown 41:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 41:07

And we're gonna do a professional take about what we think. Do you think this renovation budget would be realistic today to do the work that they did?$50,000 for everything.

SPEAKER_01 41:19

Complete gut job?

SPEAKER_00 41:20

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 41:21

No.

SPEAKER_00 41:22

No.

SPEAKER_01 41:22

But also, we have to classify this. How much money are we really talking about in US currency?

SPEAKER_00 41:30

Like 30% less.

SPEAKER_01 41:32

30% less. So we're talking like$37,000.

SPEAKER_00 41:37

Yes. So wow. That's you would need at least$100,000 today to do that, right?

SPEAKER_01 41:49

Yeah. I mean, I think a very basic version of what they did, if they wouldn't have had to redo all the electrical, could have been really close to$37,000. Like if they would have just ripped out all the stuff and did it. But they would have had it would have had to have taken a lot less time or a lot more time. It would have had to have been a small crew of people. Like they wouldn't have been able to have like a crew of 25 people in there. Like just shoveling it all out and gutting the entire house in a day. Like gutting alone would have taken two, three weeks.

SPEAKER_00 42:28

Oh yeah. So do you think that the upgrades increased the resale value? Do you think what they did was a good choice for reselling the film?

SPEAKER_01 42:43

I think that is determined on what the neighborhood is in its stage of. Like if it was a neighborhood that was able to have duplexes and that was a prominent thing in that neighborhood, then I think that it would have been more advantageous to maybe spend 20 and just update the two and sell it as a duplex or keep it as a duplex. Like that was all determined on what that neighborhood's like, but we really don't know that.

SPEAKER_00 43:16

Yeah. My I think that these were actually great choices because my concern is that you may, and I don't know what the rules are really, but you might not be able to do like purchase that and have it a tenant home with that knob and tube.

SPEAKER_01 43:40

True.

SPEAKER_00 43:41

So that was kind of my thought there, just from a real estate perspective. But obviously, we don't exactly know. But I was thinking it probably had something to do with the fact that they couldn't rent that out the way it was.

SPEAKER_01 43:52

Yeah, but then they did it. So, like but also if they would have done it and kept They would have had to bend in on that remodel without selling it quickly too.

SPEAKER_00 44:05

Right. Yeah. Okay. So then let's do a little love it. Or leave it. So I'm going to ask you questions about home uh like things that we're finding in homes right now, like trends, and you tell me if you love it or if you leave it. Like yes or no? We're gonna both do that, okay?

SPEAKER_01 44:39

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 44:39

First one, open shelving. Love it or leave it?

SPEAKER_01 44:45

No. Open shelving like in a kitchen?

SPEAKER_00 44:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:48

No. Leave it.

SPEAKER_00 44:50

Leave it.

SPEAKER_01 44:51

It's messy. Messy, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:54

It looks great for photos. It's great for staging, but it is so unpractical. So let's leave it.

SPEAKER_01 45:00

It's dusty. Just saying.

SPEAKER_00 45:03

Butcher block countertops. Love it or leave it. In the kitchen.

SPEAKER_01 45:11

I'd leave it.

SPEAKER_00 45:12

Same. Same. Leave it.

SPEAKER_01 45:18

Depends on your budget, too. But I would leave it. And I would I think that it could fall into a budget if you were looking to add an island. Maybe you could do like butcher block island and then have like the rest. It would all depend on the design and the decor of your house, too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:33

I'm just talking for a trend standard. Let's just leave that butcher block back.

SPEAKER_02 45:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 45:39

Bye. White kitchens. Love it or leave it. White kitchen.

SPEAKER_01 45:50

Everything white?

SPEAKER_00 45:51

Like white. Let's do first all white kitchen where you walk in and your cabinets are white and your countertops are white. You've got a white farmhouse thing.

SPEAKER_01 46:01

Sounds dirty to me.

SPEAKER_00 46:03

So love it or leave it.

SPEAKER_01 46:04

I would leave it.

SPEAKER_00 46:06

Leave it. This is a dated trend. It leaves a very specific moment in time, I think, in your home. That white kitchen, it says I was built in 2020. It's like millennial gray.

SPEAKER_01 46:19

It says I want to buy so much Lysol and just be constantly scrubbing the countertops like it's 2020.

SPEAKER_00 46:28

It gives Mormon Mom. Mormon mom.

SPEAKER_01 46:35

I don't even know what that means.

SPEAKER_00 46:41

Bold kitchen cabinets. Love it? Or leave it.

SPEAKER_01 46:47

And what do you mean by old kitchen cabinets?

SPEAKER_00 46:49

Bold.

SPEAKER_01 46:50

Bold.

SPEAKER_00 46:51

Like orange. Or purple.

SPEAKER_01 46:54

No.

SPEAKER_00 46:55

Peace. Leave it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:01

You know.

SPEAKER_00 47:02

You know. Right? Alright. So that's all I had. It was kind of kitchen. Love it or leave it. Kind of fun.

SPEAKER_03 47:13

It was kind of fun. Right? Yeah.

unknown 47:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:16

Next time we'll make sure we're kind of just it we'll leave, we'll take off our construction hats. And we'll just put on our trend hat.

SPEAKER_01 47:27

And I assume next time you'll warn me that you're gonna have a little quiz at the end, or you just I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 47:32

I don't know yet.

SPEAKER_01 47:34

Sounds good.

SPEAKER_00 47:35

Alright. I think we'll kind of have that next time too. So yeah. So just to wrap up here.

SPEAKER_01 47:44

Season two.

SPEAKER_00 47:45

Season two. Anything can happen. All right. So now let's just talk about the market. Let's do a little market minute and talk about what's happening in our market right now. So right now we're seeing that buyers have a little bit more time to make decisions. They're taking a little bit more time to make good choices, think about what they really want, and they're not just jumping in and putting offers in in 30 minutes. So we just don't have quite a frantic market. Sellers, the biggest takeaway right now is homes need to be priced correctly. If you are thinking you're gonna list your home at the top possible price, and you're gonna have buyers running through because everyone needs a home, that's just not happening. You need to be priced correctly and get those buyers in, or your home is going to sit for quite a long time. So, in order to kind of get rid of price reductions, just price your home correctly. And for buyers again.

SPEAKER_01 49:07

I'd say in stage. Like price it correctly and stage your house, and you'll get people to fight over your house and boost the actual end sale of the price. You need to get interest into it, and you're not gonna get interest into it unless you stage it well. You have good pictures and you actually put time into the actual marketing of your home. If you want to sell something, you need to market it. And if you have bad marketing, you have a bad product.

SPEAKER_00 49:41

Yeah, just leave that to the professionals. So, yeah, anyway. This was great. That's it for Love It or List It Today.

SPEAKER_01 49:56

Season one down.

SPEAKER_00 49:57

Season one down. So if you enjoy this episode, make sure you follow our podcast, share it with a friend who loves real estate, tell them that we're gonna jump into season two and who knows what we're gonna see. Maybe we'll leave Canada, maybe we'll stay in Canada. I'm not quite sure, but we're gonna find out. And comment maybe whether or not you think they made the right choice. So would you have loved it? Would you have listed it? Let us know in the comments. Yeah. All right. Thanks for tuning in. We'll talk next week. I know. Season one.

SPEAKER_03 51:30

Season one.

SPEAKER_00 51:37

Why did we have to the one earlier was so weird? The weirdest high five I've ever done.

SPEAKER_03 51:49

Uh-huh. Yes, I did.

SPEAKER_00 51:58

All right. Are those leaves? Leaves. Leaves.

SPEAKER_01 52:11

What about leaves?

SPEAKER_00 52:12

Oh, those leaves. Yeah. Okay. Oh, oh yeah, that's what's his name? Ouse?

SPEAKER_01 52:19

Peggy.

SPEAKER_00 52:20

Peggy the pecker. Maybe.

SPEAKER_01 52:25

Klaus.

SPEAKER_00 52:26

Klaus the Aus?