Home ownership can feel like a rollercoaster ride—thrilling, full of unexpected twists, and occasionally, a little nauseating! Eric G and John Dudley dive into this wild journey by unpacking the top 10 truths about being a homeowner. They kick things off with a straightforward truth: the mortgage is only the tip of the iceberg! The sticker price may look good, but as they reveal, the real costs come from property taxes, insurance, HOAs, and maintenance. It’s like buying a fancy new car and realizing you need to fill it with premium gas, pay for insurance, and, oh yeah, keep up with the oil changes. These costs can sneak up on first-time buyers, leading to some hefty monthly surprises that could put a dent in your budget. Next, we get into the nitty-gritty of deferred maintenance—the silent killer of home equity. Ignoring those leaky faucets or squeaky doors might seem harmless at first, but as Eric and John illustrate, putting off minor repairs can lead to catastrophic failures down the line. It’s like ignoring a tickle in your throat until it turns into a full-blown flu—no one wants to be stuck with a $20,000 HVAC replacement when a $300 annual service would have done the trick! The duo shares anecdotes and practical advice about the importance of regular maintenance to keep your home in tip-top shape and your finances intact. Finally, the conversation takes a humorous turn as they discuss the pitfalls of using cheap products in expensive homes. You wouldn’t wear flip-flops with a tuxedo, right? So why would you put cheap vinyl flooring in a million-dollar house? Eric passionately argues that this faux pas can severely impact resale value. The episode wraps up with some sage advice: don’t just renovate for the sake of it—know your neighborhood and don’t over-improve beyond what’s normal for your area. It’s a blend of practical wisdom and witty banter that makes this episode a must-listen for anyone navigating the choppy waters of home ownership.

Takeaways:

• Owning a home isn't just about the mortgage; it's a wild ride of hidden costs and surprises lurking around every corner, like your last pair of socks in the dryer that mysteriously vanished!
• Deferred maintenance is the sneaky thief of your home's value, so keeping up with repairs is like feeding your pet; neglect it, and you'll pay the price later—trust me, I've seen it happen too many times!
• When it comes to homeownership, location matters until it doesn't; neighborhood changes can turn your cozy abode into a questionable investment faster than you can say, 'What happened to my peaceful street?','If you think renovations will always pay off, think again; over-improving your home can lead to a budgetary disaster that makes your wallet cry, so be smart about your upgrades!
• HOA fees are the new hidden tax that can sneak up on you, and they can balloon faster than a hot air balloon at a festival, so keep an eye on those rising costs!
• Every dollar saved from ignoring maintenance can cost you three later on; it's like trying to save on gym memberships while eating cake—good luck with that strategy!

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Red Wing
• Home Depot
• Lowe's

Thanks for listening to Around the house if you want to hear more please subscribe so you get notified of the latest episode as it posts at https://around-the-house-with-e.captivate.fm/listen

If you want to join the Around the House Insider for access to the back catalog, Exclusive Content and a direct email to Eric G and access to the show early https://around-the-house-with-e.captivate.fm/support

We love comments and we would love reviews on how this information has helped you on your house! Thanks for listening! For more information about the show head to https://aroundthehouseonline.com/

Information given on the Around the House Show should not be considered construction or design advice for your specific project, nor is it intended to replace consulting at your home or jobsite by a building professional. The views and opinions expressed by those interviewed on the podcast are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the Around the House Show.

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Coast to coast, it's the nation's number one home improvement radio show and podcast with certified kitchen designer Eric G. And co host John Dudley, a former contractor and online technology expert.

Delivering real fixes, smart tech, and trusted advice.

Remodels, repairs, energy savings, smart homes, diy.

We've got your answers.

It's around the house.

Dive in and get inspired.

Welcome to the around the House show, your trusted source for everything about your home.

Thanks for joining us today.

I'm Eric G. John Dudley.

Good to see you, my friend.

What's happening, brother?

Another day, another hour day, another show.

Yes, sir.

I'm excited for this one.

We.

We kind of went off the rails last week, and that was a ton of fun.

This one here in the first hour is going to be a lot of fun.

We could talk about the top 10 truths of home ownership.

This is the stuff that people don't really talk about.

Those hidden things that we all.

You say it's gonna be fun.

I wanna.

I don't wanna.

Yeah, okay.

Yeah.

All right.

Okay.

Let's try to make that fun.

We're gonna make that fun, brother.

Now, the first one here that I want to talk about is the mortgage is just.

The COVID charge is not fun.

Yeah.

I mean, the sticker price is the cheapest part of owning a home.

Right?

Right.

You got that payment, but then you got, you know, principal is, you know, and interest is about 60% of your real monthly costs.

You got to put in there, the taxes, the insurance, the HOAs, of course.

My favorite, utilities, maintenance.

Most people, when they go buy their first house, underestimate that by five hundred to a thousand bucks a month.

Yeah.

And it's easy to do because you're excited.

Right?

You're like.

But for only 50 bucks more, we can get another a hundred thousand dollars without, you know, that's not the math.

But, you know, you're trying to.

You're trying to drain every dime you can to get the biggest, coolest house, especially your first house.

I mean, that's how I was, right?

I'm like, Absolutely.

Ow.

7 5,786.

That's what mortgage payments were back then, by the way.

Yeah, right?

No, not anymore.

Yeah, right.

Yeah.

When you bought a house for $73,000, not 730,000.

Absolutely.

But, yeah, you're trying to stretch it.

You're not thinking.

Or even if you are thinking of those things, you downplay them.

You're like, oh, I'll mow the lawn myself or I'll do that myself.

Right.

You just Downplay it.

Also, you could buy more.

Yeah.

And then all of a sudden, you start looking at the bills coming in going, how much was my water?

How much was my power?

You know, trash is going to cost me.

What.

And what?

They just increased the HOA pants.

Right.

And I still haven't fixed the leaky roof.

I said I would, right?

Oh, that's a.

That's a day two project or no one of those kind of things.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

Hey, real quick, before we get into this anymore, let's run out to Red Wing real quick.

It's time for a daily tip.

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All right.

I love those guys over at Red Wing.

They are rock stars and going to try to get them on the show here soon so we can talk about some of their new stuff because I love what they got going on over there.

So we'll talk about that more a little bit, a little bit later in the show even, maybe.

So, Johnny, here's the other one I wanted to jump into.

And this is the Achilles heel of homeownership.

Deferred maintenance is the silent equity killer.

Yeah, we all do it.

We all do it, right?

It's that, you know, it seems like every dollar you're saving by Ignoring something costs you three later.

And we see it everywhere.

There's a million.

There's a million spots where that happens, right?

My gosh, between appliance maintenance and roof leaks and everything in between.

Like.

Well, you can watch even our local state city government do that stuff where all of a sudden they don't take care of that school building, for instance, for 20 years.

And they go, oh, it's cheaper to tear it down now than it is to build, you know, to.

Here comes the new levy.

Yeah, here comes the new levy.

So, you know, it's one of those things, you know, let's say it costs you 700 bucks to have somebody come up and do that roof repair.

Little roof repair.

They come up, they fix it off, you go, yeah, if you let that go for three or four years now, that's $60,000 because you have mold.

You have, you know, plywood.

You got mold in the walls.

You got rotten studs inside the walls.

If it went too long and too deep, you got insulation replacement.

You got.

Yeah, yep.

And so that is the killer right there.

Just like I say now, skipping H vac service.

We talked about this one.

If you don't miss that, if you miss that annual service, you know, right now, to put a nice system in, you can spend $20,000 out there to put a nice system in, to replace it.

And the big thing is, is when, as we talked about, they changed all the.

All the refrigerants now.

And so you can't go get the repair parts for the old one like you could a couple of years ago.

Now they come in and go, yeah, we don't make that anymore because we can't.

So you got to whole new system in.

And so instead of getting replacement parts, you're now buying a whole new system.

And instead of being that $1,000 fix, it's a $20,000 fix over what would be a three or $400 tuneup.

Yeah, the one you brought up that.

Like that I know I always put off.

You brought up like cleaning, cleaning appliances, vacuuming out under the fridge and things like that, changing water filters, if you got water in your fridge, like, simple things like that that are so easy to put off.

You're like, ah, yeah, next Sunday.

Next Sunday, three years go by and your fridge blows up.

You're like, absolutely, you're right.

Now you're spending another two grand for a good fridge.

Yeah, you know, it's little things like that.

You think, ah, you know, they're inconsequential.

Yeah, they are.

Until it's two, three grand, you know.

Yeah.

I mean, really, if you look at it, you should be budgeting at least a couple percentage points of your home's value every year for maintenance.

Yeah, yeah, that's fair.

I mean, same thing with, you know, it's like buying a boat and people tell you that and you're like, bust out another thousand.

I can't.

That can't be right.

No way.

You know, because you want to buy the bigger boat, right?

So.

Absolutely.

And then you get the big boat and you go, wow, I can't even afford to put gas in it now because I got to take care of it.

Yeah.

You know, licensing, insurance, all those crazy things.

And, you know, you think about it here too.

Everything in your house, maybe, except for, like framing in the concrete, has its own life cycle, right?

The kitchen, the bathrooms.

You know, I was talking to a realtor buddy the other day and he goes, well, what's the lifespan of a kitchen?

I said, well, if you look across the industry, the lifespan of a kitchen is 15 years.

And that's it.

It's about 40 minutes if I'm in it.

Yeah, right before you grab the fire extinguisher because dinner's ready.

That's why I'm not allowed.

Yeah.

No, but seriously, dude, if you look at what lifetime warranties are on kitchen cabinetry, if you read the fine print, they do the industry standard, 15 years.

So when you're looking at that and you've got a lifetime warranty, they say, well, if it's 16 years, it should be done.

Because maybe not the plywood boxes are worn out, but the finish is coming off the doors, the style is out of date.

You know, you need to kind of do some upgrades.

And so when you start looking at stuff like that, wow, that gets expensive quick.

Especially if you're.

You're planning to do a six figure kitchen model, which is kind of standard these days.

It adds up freaking quick.

Well, I tell you what, if you're.

If you're disciplined, which I am, anything but I'll be the first to admit it, but you brought up a really good point point and a really good calculating factor, right?

Like, figure a couple of points in there on the value of your house and bank that, man.

Bank it.

Because in five years, if you blow the H vac system, you'll have 40 grand sitting there, 20 grand sitting there, whatever, right?

Or at least a good chunk of it, you know?

Well, hey, Johnny, let's go to break.

We come back, we're going to talk about one of the biggest controversial ones that I know we're going to get some big builders maybe mad at us a little bit on.

We'll talk about that just as soon as around the House returns.

Welcome to the around the House show.

Johnny and I have been sitting here Talking about top 10 truths of home ownership.

And by the way guys, we have a poll over on our around the House nation Facebook group.

This is our closed group over there.

So if you're not a member, just click over to that, say hey, approve me.

I will be the one that does that.

I'll take a look.

If you look like a real human, we'll let you in.

And then we've got a poll over there that you can't wait to see because can affect what's coming up in the show with that.

We've been talking about this stuff, Johnny.

And now the the my favorite one here in the top 10 truths of home ownership.

Cheap products in expensive homes is the ultimate flex fail.

You might piss off a couple of builders.

Yeah.

Do you know how many times I walk around and I'll see a $2 million house that I'm shooting that's brand new built that I'm shooting for my around the house Northwest show.

I saw this a few times.

I'm walking through that and I'm like, why do you have luxury vinyl plank flooring in this home on the first or second level?

Are you kidding me?

It's what are you doing if you've got a million dollar plus home in most areas now there are some places that you can't get a single wide for more than a million under a million bucks.

So I get that little different.

But for 95% of the United States, if you have a million dollar house and you're putting in cheap products that make it look like a bad house flip, you got a problem.

Because people expect a level of value at the price point and when you go in and put in the absolute cheapest stuff in there, people see it and where this really matters too.

As a homeowner, if you've got that one and a half million dollar house out there and you're like, hey, I'm going to sell it.

I'm going to make some money on this.

And you go put in that luxury vinyl plank because you're saving $4 a square foot under what hardwood would be,.

That's going to hurt you and it spend it because you got to serve the mortgage 90 days extra while you try to sell it right.

And you're going to have to Lower your price to get it sold after 90 days, dude.

Every time doesn't pan out.

Don't do that.

Because here's what happens.

I bought a lot of properties and sold a lot of properties.

And I.

There's a couple lessons I learned the hard way, dude.

People walk in and if they're out shopping.

So let's say we're going to use that million and a half dollar house as an example.

I mean, most people can't afford that.

I can't afford that.

You can't afford that.

But that's where we're at.

That million dollar, 1.5 million dollar house.

People are out shopping around that.

They've seen the beautiful hardwood floors.

Everywhere else they walk into yours and go, what's with the plastic man?

What happened here?

Yeah, no, yeah, no.

It's like going in Nordstrom's three times and walking into Kmart.

You're gonna notice.

You're gonna notice.

It's super evident.

And it can be simple things, right.

It could be small things, it could be the, oh, just throw in that 49 bath fan from Home Depot versus having a nice Panasonic in there.

Right?

Correct.

With the correct light and this, you know, the details faucet is gonna stand out.

A million dollar home.

Don't do that.

Right?

Do not do that.

Yeah, this stuff adds up.

And, and it's same kind of thing putting in the white vinyl windows in that million dollar house instead of maybe spending an extra 20 bucks a window and went black to make it look contemporary at least.

Maybe it's okay, they're vinyl.

But if everybody in the neighborhood has wood windows that are selling at the similar price, if you're going to remodel your house and you have a price point you're trying to affect, I think the smartest thing you can do is go out on a Saturday, Sunday and hit those open houses and see what else everybody's doing.

If you're walking around the neighborhood or the neighborhoods in your area and you're like, wow, everybody's got wood windows.

Guess what?

You better be putting in wood windows.

Yeah.

And talk to a realtor before you go making those decisions because they're going to tell you that they're going to go, hey, I know you think because the neighbor was a million five years is a million five.

And it's not going to be.

And here's why.

That's why we have comps.

Right?

Right.

Here's the comparables in your market and here's what they have.

And so don't do that if you do anything less, you're not going to get what you want.

That's pretty.

Oh, man.

It just, it kills that perceived value.

My house was exactly the different that I had to sell here this last year.

I had stuff in there that was way above, which means we sold it quick, did it all praise out.

If I would have spent all the money on that and paid somebody to do it, I'd have lost my ass on that.

Because totally, that's the DIY thing.

I mean, you had a unique situation, obviously with various suppliers and things like that and doing tons of the work yourself.

And that makes a big difference.

All I can picture is remember going way back.

Remember Ernst?

Yes.

Home Depot and even Home Depot and Eagle, Lowe's, whatever, they carried those things.

But those plastic rectangular shaped cabinet poles.

Oh, yes, white plastic.

And they turn yellow in about 10 weeks.

They had red.

Yep.

Yeah, they came out with all kinds of colors.

But do this.

If you got a million and a half dollar house and you're thinking about going cheap, imagine somebody going, okay, we'll do everything nice, but we're going to put these white plastic handles on all the cabinetry.

That's what it looks like when you go cheap.

Like it's that obvious.

I am convinced that the plastic in those was the exact same plastic that went into your little plastic spork that you had in lunch at school.

That white plastic is this.

It's spork plastic they made that stuff out of.

Yep, it's exactly.

That's why they all stripped and broke.

Oh, my gosh.

You'd have that heavy door, for instance, and you people would go to pull it on the pantry door and all of a sudden it just comes off.

Because it took the threads with it.

Yeah, totally bad, Totally bad.

Duct tape it.

Ah.

So basically, here, guys, here's a good rule for you here.

We've spent a lot of time on this one, but it's a pet peeve of mine.

Rule of thumb, if you're spending over 80, 800,000 bucks on a house where it's going to be of that value or bigger, you should really dial in and spend the time researching the finishes you have, because that can make or break 100 or $200,000.

I'm seeing in my area where it's a shortage of homes in my area, I'm seeing homes that have been there on the market.

Now, Johnny, there's stuff that people went on and did horrible flips.

They've been on the market for a year and they're not doing anything.

And they've lost probably 100,000 bucks in price off of it because they did it wrong.

And it's still.

The value is not there.

And other homes are up there for maybe a week and they're done and they're gone and somebody grabbed them.

There's probably a bidding war again.

That's one of those things you learned.

Because I bought a bunch of rental properties, I did a bunch of flips.

And what you learn is that you go quality or you're gonna lose the money anyway.

You think you're saving money, but like I said, you're feeding the mortgage an extra six months.

Do the math on that, right?

Financially, some of those things.

Blew 20 grand right there.

Trying to save four.

Like, just don't do that.

Financially, you're better off.

Spend the money and get it done.

Yeah.

Or just don't do it.

Just don't do it.

Take.

Say I'm going to take $20,000 off because I know you need new carpets or you need new flooring or whatever.

Just say, hey, buyer's credit, so you can pick out what you want.

Otherwise, you're going to spend the $18,000 you were going to do, and they're going to come in and go, oh, man, I'd like to buy this place, but I hate the freaking floors.

But I hate that.

Yep, yep.

And so I was just giving my mom that spiel.

I'm like, they're going to come in and change it anyway.

Don't spend a dime, give allowances.

They don't like that.

You say, okay, knock 5k off it or whatever, and then just move on.

Half and move on.

It's that simple.

So it's really that simple.

That's one of those things that I think that you can really learn and save the money on.

But, yeah, talk to your realtor.

Make sure that you're balancing things out and doing it right.

That's going to be a big one.

Now when we come back here, Johnny, this is going to be a little bit of fun.

Talk about hoas.

My favorite topic.

Oh, yeah, we're gonna talk about this one and how that can really cost you.

We'll do that just as soon as around the House returns.

Don't change that dial.

Welcome back to the around the House show.

Your trusted source for everything about your home, John Dudley and I have been sitting here Talking about those 10 truths of home ownership.

And if you've got one that we missed today, make sure and send us a message over to roundthe house online.com love to see what you came up with.

Now we've been talking about the cheap products and expensive homes and deferred maintenance.

This one here is a big pet peeve of mine.

Rising HOA fees are the new hidden tax and builders may be setting you up for for some big bills out there, Johnny.

So here's what I'm seeing in newer developments right now.

HOA and condo fees are surging.

What?

And single family HOA fees rose 26%.

So all of a sudden you're seeing these big jumps.

Now there's a big trend that we've talked about on the show before, brother.

Builders are now keeping long term control or super cozy relationships with the HOA board after they turn over.

So this can now delay, hide construction defects in shared infrastructure like roofs, plumbing, foundations, roads, where when defects finally surface years later, the hoa, which means you homeowners foot the bill through massive special assessments instead of holding the builder accountable.

It's incredible to me with all the silly laws that we're able to pass, especially in your area.

Love you, Portland.

That something like this is legal, right?

That's like saying you have to use my cousin's concrete company.

Really?

Yeah, yeah.

It's going full teamster here.

What's going on, man?

Dude, it is.

And now here's the other crazy point.

Like in our area here, I hate to say it, in Oregon, I would not be a landlord here.

So the renting properties here is insane.

I would never do it.

Because you're just going to, you're going to get, you're going to get taken.

I would do it again anywhere, ever.

Yeah, here it's even worse.

You have no rights and they have all the rights.

Absolutely.

And absolutely.

So for that.

And they're just making it harder.

And here's the thing, this is why Oregon is going into such a depression right now is that, listen to this.

Five years ago, I think they had 7 or 8,000 new building permits for new construction.

Now that's including condos, apartments and everything else.

And so instead of the city of Portland goes.

Instead of them going, wow, people don't want to build here.

They went, oh, we're going to make the building department more efficient so we can get permits quicker.

Hey, Guys, I will always appreciate the city of Portland making their permit process easier.

Let's make it where people might want to build a home here first before we get the cart ahead of the horse to make the, well, permit process easier.

It's just mind blowing watching that.

Think you might have saved yourself on that one.

Easel your way out of making a bunch of friends down there at the city.

The city doesn't like me anyway, so let's put it that way.

Yeah, right.

You're on the list.

I'm on the list.

I think I told you their city building inspector came up to me.

I had, they, I, the TV station had the around the house Northwest blazers night where we had the suite upstairs.

This guy comes up to me and goes, hey, Eric, love the show.

Where do you do your work on all your projects, huh?

I'm like, huh?

That's an interesting first question.

Yeah, mostly.

Oh, they're usually around my house.

Oh, hi.

Head building inspector, city of Portland.

He was gunning for me.

Nice, dude.

He was gunning for me.

I'm like, nice try, dude.

You were trying to go for it, trying to go for it.

And it was just like, oh, stay out of my.

Get off my lawn.

You know, man, I just don't, I don't miss any of these headaches.

It just seems to get worse by the hour.

Yeah.

So anyway, every time you tell me one.

Oh, I know it.

What's happening though, with the condo and townhome projects especially is you're seeing stuff where they're coming through.

Like they did like on the town homes that my girlfriend's got here.

Her town home.

It's weird because they have these gray rules, and that's the part that gets you.

Well, they're going to mow the lawn out front.

Postage stamp.

They're going to do the lawn maintenance, the outside building maintenance, everything else.

But then they come back and say, yeah, we're going to fertilize it.

But if that doesn't help it, then you have to take care of the lawn from there.

So there's all these little kind of gray areas where it's going to do the basics, but if it doesn't grow, that's on you.

Okay, cool.

Does that mean I get half my homeowners fees back?

Yeah.

And again, it's 50 bucks.

By the way, I charge $250 an hour to work on grass, right?

Oh, yeah.

And then on top of that, they have their HOA meetings, like in the middle of the day where no one can be there.

Oh, it's going to be one o' clock a mile away over here and you can zoom in.

Guess what?

Then they put a post it backwards, it says meeting address changed.

You know how that goes.

So clever.

Clever.

Drives me insane.

Drives me insane.

The next one here and you know this one better than most.

When you're looking at the house, location is everything.

Until the neighborhood changes.

You bought the house, you're stuck with the neighbors in the city.

New apartments, school changes, commercial development can absolutely tank that value seemingly overnight.

Yeah.

It pays to be market aware.

And you're right, I do have a lot of experience and I was the guy that people looked at.

What are you doing buying there?

Dude, you're putting homes in Tacoma, Washington.

Guys, if I'm going to.

This is an infamous area.

This is like places in Oakland, California where it used to be.

It was in places that were the not so good side of town.

It was the gang infested, drug infested, gun shoot, rough neighborhood.

Yeah.

And it was like mid to late 90s.

And ATF cleared the gangs out of LA as much as they could.

And they all came to, they all went north in Tacoma.

Yeah.

And then there was fools like me that were like, oh, we should buy a bunch of these bills.

We could buy a whole block down here, but legit and that.

And again like being market aware and watching that corner turn and watching those guys filter out of there and city of Tacoma and ATF and everybody coming in and cleaning, cleaning those guys out of there, a bunch of really damaged, really beat up, really just gross buildings.

Yeah.

But beautiful old bones.

You're talking turn of the century beautiful places.

Yeah.

And slowly but surely they start restoring them.

They start saving blocks at a time.

And then you see money moving in and you're like, so yeah, it's location, but being on the cusp of that corner turning is smart.

You can also eat your hat.

Don't get me wrong.

All of a sudden you went into that up and coming neighborhood and you're like, I got this.

Oh, there's that vacant lot they're gonna put houses in next door.

And all of a sudden it's the city buys it and puts in their sex offender housing, temporary housing there.

And you're like, I'm in trouble.

I'm in trouble.

I mean it.

Be smart, be investigative.

Look at permit polls, look at planning, city planning.

Do your research or you will get burned.

Yeah, yeah, I'm watching that.

Blocks away from here, where they're going to take the county is.

And the county is going to take this little two lane road that goes right between houses and they're proposing to make that four lanes all the way through, even though it's a block away from a major thoroughfare that they could expand.

And I'm like, why are you going to blow up all these houses when you could add a.

Another lane a quarter mile away?

Not even that.

It's like a, just, it's a block, it's meant for it.

And so it's that stuff.

And then all of a sudden all those homeowners down through there have got, you know, they're losing their butt on everything.

So I feel bad for people like that because nuts.

All that research, what's going on, the road in front of your house can dictate how that house gets treated for the next 20 years.

Yeah.

And to be fair, we can't predict everything and things are going to change.

So yeah, be aware, be careful, be smart, and don't just think about the beautiful house you're looking at.

Consider Hilltop's a great example.

There was huge vacant lots full of homeless folks and trash and dear little three legged cats.

But what people didn't know, and I did know, is that UW had plans to put a campus there.

And they did.

Just above Union Station and created this beautiful campus area.

Yeah, right next to old Woodwork in the old brewery district.

Yeah, exactly.

Yep.

And then look what happened there.

Right then you got Indochine and all these restaurants came in and.

Yeah, all those.

It can be to your benefit.

Then you get a four lane highway.

With a runs right through it.

You can't, you know, you can't.

You don't know that.

All right, well, we come back, guys.

Johnny, let's run out to break real quick, pay the bills.

We come back, we're going to wrap this up and we got some good ones.

We're saving those for last.

Stay tuned.

Around the House.

We'll be right back.

Welcome back to the around the House show, your trusted source for everything about your home.

If you want to find out more about us, head over to the website around the house online to dot com.

We've been talking about the 10 truths of homeownership.

And Johnny, we got a blast through these here quickly because we're only about halfway through the list in the last segment of the show.

So one thing I wanted to talk about.

Just keep talking, right?

It's awesome.

Every time you vote yes on a property tax levy, you're raising your own homeownership costs.

So those local ballot measures Aren't free money.

They're coming out of your paycheck because they're coming right into your house payment.

Now, I'm not saying don't vote yes for the schools.

If the kids need a new school or they need to do something there, I totally get it.

But pay attention to what they're going to give you and is it worth it?

Sometimes it is.

Sometimes it's like, man, that school is 40 years old and it's horrible.

They need to build a new one.

I get it.

Yeah, but you're paying for it.

But if it's creating more value in the neighborhood and adding value to the resale value of your home.

Right.

Sure.

Worth an extra few bucks a month on your tax if it makes sense.

If you shoes for the town hall, then no, I'm out.

Yeah, if.

If they've got some people coming in to knit sweaters for the local endangered turtle, I'm out.

Well, I don't know.

I might support turtles, but.

So that's a big one.

Now here's another one that people forget about.

The taxes and insurance that are coming out of your thing as well are not.

Set it and forget it.

Both can double in a decade when your salary doesn't.

Especially when you're talking about insurance and stuff.

When you got wildfires or hurricanes, things like that, it can really change what that is.

Now here's the biggest mistake people make with homeowners insurance.

They don't update your insurance on when things change.

Housing prices have gotten way more expensive.

When you look at it and say, wow, if I lose my house, let's say I had a catastrophic fire that burns the place down.

Well, you've got asbestos, you've got mold, you've got all these things.

So you want to make sure you're covered for the actual replacement cost of the house and where you stand for a year while they do that.

Or three years if you're in California.

There's the thing.

You know what I mean, Johnny?

It's just.

I just wish I could have faith in insurance.

Right?

I mean, like, if it functioned like it's supposed to, it'd be a fantastic idea.

But it just never seems to.

I mean, they are a business.

They are not a not for profit.

So they are trying to end up in the end of the day.

It's like betting against the casino.

The casino Always wins.

Yeah.

And I guess.

Yeah, I guess that's why I'm a little sour to it.

Right?

Yeah.

Like, I've always carried insurance on whatever, vehicles, tools, practice insurance.

Right.

Most time I've never used it.

The few times I did get ripped off, it was a few thousand dollars worth of stuff.

And you're like, I'm not up for the fight over a few thousand bucks, but spend that in a year on the insurance.

So, yeah, it's a tough one.

And you're talking about replacing all house.

And I just.

I don't know.

Absolutely.

I can't imagine that war.

But you're right to keep it up to date and.

Right.

Because otherwise you're like, hey, my house burned down.

They're like, well, you're covered for 60 grand, but it's doubled in price.

Hey, I wanted to talk real quick here, Johnny, real quick before we go here.

And I know we got a couple more to hit there, but we're going to have dude dad on the show here coming up.

If you guys haven't seen him on social media, if you're around, he is doing a dude dad live.

And I told him I'd mentioned it when I was talking to him this last week.

Nice.

And then on 425, he's at the Elsinore theater in Salem.

So you can get your tickets@dodad.com.

I told him we'd pitch that for him because they're trying to pack those places up if you haven't seen them.

Funny stuff.

Funny stuff.

Nice.

One of the other ones here, man.

I want to talk real quick before we run out of time on our last segment of this hour.

Renovations almost never pay for themselves.

If you're spending 80 grand on a kitchen, which is pretty tough, usually they're more than that.

You might get 40 back at the sale.

So we talked about putting the wrong stuff in, but it kind of fits in with that one.

Over improving for your street is the fastest way to lose money.

Yeah.

So that's a big one.

Sometimes not over improving is the fastest way to lose your wife, so you might want attention.

Just saying, guys.

There, you're up, too.

Now, this one is the ultimate Murphy's law bigot.

Ticket systems always fail at the worst possible time.

Your roof, H vac, plumbing, foundation.

The roof always goes after the windstorm, right after you spend a bunch of money on maybe fixing the car.

Well, yeah.

Or Christmas.

Right.

You're like it's Christmas.

Let's just really blow it out this year.

And then your roof blows off in January.

Oh, it's like my Murphy's lost.

Same kind of thing.

House I was in.

When did the control board on my H VAC system go out?

Yeah, it fries the night before Thanksgiving and I got 20 people come over the house.

And so you say, oh no, it did, trust me, it was cold out.

I wanted to have heat.

So it was so.

And of course you can't get the parts.

So luckily on that one I had my friends over.

Pyramid heating came over and they hot wired in a, a generic board to get me going through the holidays.

But nice.

That's that stuff that always happens that you just go, oh, you're killing me.

So really guys, that's our top 10 on this.

Just a couple notes that I wanted to hit on here just as a good thing.

You and I talked about it, Johnny.

Having that little account to the side for those major repairs, putting it away.

You know, if some people will say, hey, I want to have a. I'm going to buy a home maintenance warranty.

You know where you buy the home warranty insurance for your house.

That's awesome.

But it doesn't replace maintenance.

Yeah, yeah, it doesn't replace it.

Keeping things in shape, taking care of them.

Like you do your car, like you do your kid, like you do.

Right.

Your dogs, whatever.

Yourself even.

I mean, yeah, I mean is you.

And I'm not one to preach because I'm bad at that kind of stuff.

I'll admit it, right.

When I hear the lifters, when I hear the lifters in my car go, I'm like, oh, I knew I should have put oil in three weeks ago.

Yep, dude.

Like I'm, I am not a maintenance guy.

But no, it will save you money, it will preserve the value of your home.

And it's just, it's a good habit to get in.

Yeah, you have to.

You just have to.

And one thing I wanted to talk about here before we go out, Johnny too, is today's interest rates, if you look at the time I've been alive, are pretty reasonable because that 3% loan is probably never coming back.

My last house, I had a 3% interest rate on it.

And with the current 30 year mixed rates, about 6, 3, 6, 4%.

Pretty reasonable compared to history.

Still pretty good, dude.

Yeah, first house I bought was like, I want to say it was around 10.

Yeah, we think about it in the 70s, 90s.

That sound.

Yeah, I think it was like 10, 7 and a half to 10 somewhere in there.

But yeah, well, in the 70s here in the United States it averaged 7 and a half to 11.2.

In the 80s it averaged 12.7%.

Oh gosh.

So when you look at it, insanity, when you look at it, it's not so bad right now when we look at the historical average.

And I think, well, I want to say two things actually.

I was going to bring this up earlier, like if you're a new homeowner or even a younger homeowner, and I'm not trying to sound like an old grandpa or anything like, all right grandpa, we're not preaching this stuff just to preach it like it really is important and it.

But to be fair, it's stuff you don't think about unless you've had the experience of owning a few homes, right?

Yes.

So that's just word to the wise, err on the side of caution.

The other thing, I think just because of the generation we grew up in, to me like anything under 10% seems like reasonable and cheap.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, absolutely.

And one more thing out there too, guys.

And this is just, just another one out there.

That's been our thing that we've done in the past.

If you look at back when people go, oh, housing was so much more affordable, you're right.

Because we had entry level homes for people that were small and good enough.

Yeah, they were housing, they weren't mansion.

That just doesn't exist in so many markets now, including the Northwest.

The Northwest is insanity.

My mom was looking down in Florida.

She's showing me these gorgeous homes for 250k.

Oh, I know.

Like, man, you can't buy it.

You can't buy a rehab in something like that in the Northwest.

What?

Yeah, and we're talking like St. Augustine, like beautiful parts of Florida.

I've been doing this, like amazing homes.

I'm like, holy catch.

Fully remodeled.

Yeah, yeah.

But ready to go.

Very few places like, and you're in Florida.

So now you're like, okay, hurricane insurance.

Well, absolutely.

It's cheaper even with the insurance.

Right.

Still cheaper.

All right, Johnny, let's wrap this one up.

We got a next hour ahead.

I'm Eric G. And for John Dudley, you've been listening to around the House.