Sometimes being a homeowner is a struggle that we and our buyers aren’t quite prepared for. In this episode we are telling the stories of issues we’ve had to tackle as homeowners. Spending thousands on grass or drainage doesn’t exactly rank in the fun expenditures column, but a homeowner’s got to do what a homeowner’s got to do. Join us for a sometimes shocking conversation about floating pools, roots in the sewer, a 5 year old leak and even a house cut in half by a tree. How did we resolve these issues and when it’s all said and done was owning a home worth it? Listen in to find out and shoot us a message with your stories of hard homeownership.

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The following is a rough transcript provided by Otter.ai.

Katy 0:01
It has the ever slightest aroma of cannabis. No clue what happened here. We’ll

Alissa 0:08
see how this episode goes. I love your countertops and he goes thank you we change them every 10 years

Katy 0:19
would you prefer to be crushed or sunken into the earth?

Alissa 0:24
Only for me to put it down and look and realize it was over an even uglier wallpaper. ducts with bonnet Hi, y’all welcome to hustle humbly. It’s Alyssa and Katie and we are two top producing realtors in the Baton Rouge market.

Katy 0:42
We work for two different companies where we should be competitors. But we have chosen community over competition.

Alissa 0:47
The goal of our podcasts is to encourage you to find your own way in business to stop

Katy 0:51
comparing yourself and start embracing your strengths. Hi, Alyssa. Hey, Katie. Grab your hot tea. And take a big swig it’s April showers

Alissa 1:05
Don’t worry. Next week we’ll talk about May flowers.

Katy 1:09
Yeah, or maybe we’ll make we wait till May.

Alissa 1:12
Oh, yeah, you’re right. We should now maybe we won’t. We’ll see. Okay, at some point we will talk about the positive vibes and benefits of owning a home

Katy 1:22
right for this week. We’re gonna give you all the negatives No, not really. But we are going to talk about houses are hard. And we’re just framing that as an April shower situation. So there are some negatives when you become a homeowner and like what do you say welcome to homeownership

Alissa 1:41
Welcome to home ownership.

Katy 1:43
Yeah, like when your old client oh, by the way, this is 243 episode. Oh, yeah. Hey, she didn’t know. That’s that right? That is right. We just did 242

Alissa 1:51
But it’s like you have close on your home. The honeymoon phase is over right on trial life now. Right all that fun dating looking at houses and all the beautiful things for It’s over now. You’re living together paying the bills. You realize they leave their clothes on the ground all the time. The house doesn’t clean itself who’s doing the dishes?

Katy 2:17
Yikes. Wakes up too early makes so much a racket when they’re going to work out at four in the morning. Nothing But Trouble homeownership nothing but trouble home owner. Ship. Okay, so we’re just gonna share some stories. But do you want to tell them about the tea we’re drinking today or no? So

Alissa 2:34
for Katie’s birthday, we are both watching suits right now. Right? We’re kind of just watching it together catching up. We’re a little behind a little slow right now. Me too.

Katy 2:44
I’m not are you in season? Still in for I think I think me too. Okay, you’re catching up to me. Great.

Alissa 2:50
But in one of the episodes.

Katy 2:53
They Louis litt. Lewis lives preparing a gift for the British fella that comes in purchases the firm. Okay.

Alissa 3:02
And Louis walks in and the British person is trying to bribe Louis and he says, Do you know what this is and Louis’s day hung pal T. Right. Louis is giving him a gift. The British got he researched Louis the fanciest,

Katy 3:17
but they researched each Oh. Yeah, you’re right. You’re right. He’s like I brought you the fanciest French patisserie, like some chocolate. For salt. I don’t remember it. Yeah. And then it was the

Alissa 3:30
he was like is that day hung pal tea day hung pouty and then he goes the most expensive tea in the world to the world. So for Katie’s birthday, since we’re both suits fans, I and she likes tea. I got her the most expensive tea in the world.

Katy 3:45
It’s delicious. Yes, it seems to be strong. And we both agree. It has the ever slightest aroma of cannabis. With no clue what happened here. We’ll

Alissa 3:58
see how this episode goes.

Katy 4:00
I didn’t know my British accents may stay for the entirety I don’t know it does smell

Alissa 4:06
does. It doesn’t taste that way. But it smells that way. It’s destroyed

Katy 4:09
as they darkest tea. I have you ever? Yeah.

Alissa 4:13
It’s pretty dark. I guess for the most expensive tea in the world. It has to be rich

Katy 4:18
concentration must be there.

Alissa 4:19
Yeah.

Katy 4:20
We’re either going to be hyped up or low down. I can’t decide. Yeah, right. Alright, let’s get started. So in the Welcome to homeownership vibe. We want to share some stories of our past clients and our personal home ownership journeys. This is not educational, on how to serve your clients. It is more simply the stories of homeownership. We’ve

Alissa 4:45
had a lot of how to episodes lately, so we thought it was time to just lighten it up a little bit.

Katy 4:50
Grab your tea or your coffee. It’s storytime. I also feel

Alissa 4:53
like whenever I call I used to be when I was a new agent I used to love for Following up with clients after closing and being like, how’s the house? Have you painted yet? And then people were like, well, the pipe burst, and we can’t afford to paint more like I was hearing. And it’s like, sometimes it was big things like that. And sometimes it was like, Yeah, we’re realizing this previous owner did a lot of DIY work around here. I don’t like do it. Now they’re living in the home learning the quirks of the home and right, so I got to where I got nervous and hesitant to call after closing calls weren’t going great. Because that

Katy 5:34
it may you just didn’t have the right response. No. Which is what now? Yeah. Do you respond now? Do you say, oh? Or do you just wait longer to call I say,

Alissa 5:45
Welcome to homeownership. Because I do though, try to remind them that the house isn’t going to be perfect. Even if it’s a brand new construction house, there’s going to be things. For example, when we bought our house, it was a newer home, it was like three years old. And my mother in law was in the process of doing some renovation on her house. And she was like, I remember when y’all were buying your house and like everything was just done. And it made me think do I just want a new house, but then we had to do a bunch of like drainage work. And that wasn’t fun. And it made a mess, and it wasn’t working. And we were having to tweak it and do it again. And we were just constantly fiddling with the drainage. And she said, it just goes to show that whether you have an old house or a new house, like there’s always stuff to be done. Houses are work houses are worth

Katy 6:43
their work, and they’re hard. And I currently instead of feeling that resistance of I’m so annoyed, I have another house project now I’m like, I’m so grateful I own a home, I love that I get to choose New, you know, maybe I want to spruce up my laundry room and paint the cabinets or add some wallpaper or do something fun.

Alissa 7:03
You can I love that it’s

Katy 7:05
an ongoing project. It means I’m alive. And then I’m living in this home that I want to baby and take care of and make it better and enjoy because it’s where you are every single day. I

Alissa 7:16
agree. I went on a listing appointment one time and the house was just beautiful. And they were an older couple. But the wife was very into interior design. Yeah. But I was expecting the house to just be stuffier just because I knew they had lived there for like a long time a year. That’s a very long, very long time. No, I walked in this house was so modern, the furniture everything was just beautiful. And I said I love your countertops. And he goes thank you we change them every 10 years. So

Katy 7:52
they changed him like four times. Yes, but it just it’s sort of like having a wardrobe right your closet. Yeah, there might be some staple pieces that you leave and you love forever. Like maybe you love the doors the doors are beautiful. But maybe you look at the counters like you look at your blouses from last year blouses. No I’m saying that word but you’ll get a shirt from last year in your life and yeah, just kind of tired ready for a little refresher like this isn’t the type of jeans people are wearing anymore. Like these aren’t the type of backsplashes people are putting in anymore. Or like colored bathtubs people always send me the vintage bathroom Yes, like when the toilets were purple in the bathtub was purple and the sink was purple and shaped like a shell right? That’s not really current anymore. Although I do kind of like when people are able to take a vintage bathroom and give it a couple of modern touches or like modern paint color and then it looks great again I

Alissa 8:47
had a client who after we closed the house the whole house needed so much renovation wallpaper everything everything was everywhere. He renovated the whole house to be totally like modern minimal sort of like I don’t know what that word is I’m looking for what kind of design but century modern yeah it was just very unique and I but he left the half bath original oh that guests use and so when you go in there it’s like Time Capsule yes.

Katy 9:18
He said it’s a great conversation piece that was there like where did this bathroom? Yeah, like this is what the whole house used to look like like don’t you kind of wish that people go to some part of your house and you’re like Wow, look how cool Do you know which part of my house now that is? What the pantry?

Alissa 9:35
Oh yeah. When I’ll be like go right in here for these because you think it’s just a cabinet and they’re like wow, secret room

Katy 9:42
pantry is amazing. But let’s back up to bad stuff at houses. Oh, so I have lived in a brand new home that I bought that was a starter home. Okay. Okay. It was brand new, but it was spec I didn’t have anything to do with it. I rolled up it was every bit of builders brown. It was the year 2005 And it was a tiny little three bedroom, two bath 1400 square foot one a nice size lot backed up smokes Trump’s to some woods. We loved it. I was so excited. I was so happy because I looked at some old homes so it’s about what I could afford when you see something new when I could afford a new house. I was like, I know this isn’t the neighborhood that I’m dying to be in. But man, look at this house fresh and clean. Nobody has used these toilets. Well, after a few months, or maybe pretty early on, I feel like Jay went into the attic to do something. And there was not a stitch of insulation. Oh, my worry addicts today never went in the attic before closing now interestingly and DJ and I had a pretty handy male REALTOR at the time. I wasn’t a realtor at the time. Did you have a home inspection? No. Never was recommended. One didn’t even know they existed stuff because I was a first time buyer. I didn’t know what a home inspection was. I wasn’t like, I was just like, let’s buy a house I call an agent. They’ll tell me what to do.

Alissa 10:56
Oh my god, I did not know this story. No home inspection,

Katy 11:00
not a stitch of insulation in the entire attic. None. Okay, so it’s there is the new home warranty act because it’s Louisiana. And it was within the first year for sure that we noticed this. And I called my agent who called the builder and they were like, Oh my God, you know, we built like 10 houses on that road at the same time. They just delivered your installation to the wrong house. Like they thought it was there. Yeah. Which I’m also like, don’t do any kind of QC at the end of your bill. Right. What

Alissa 11:30
else did you think was here? No doubt. So they they came

Katy 11:33
and put in the insulation. So great. Problem solved. But it just was like this moment where I was like, oh my god, like I didn’t go in the attic before I bought this house. I just didn’t even think about it. Yeah, nor would I have been like, something’s wrong.

Alissa 11:49
It’s seems very open. And I see the ceilings. Right.

Katy 11:54
And then Jay, not long after that was installing surround sound and stepped through the ceiling.

Alissa 12:02
Right next to the living room fan was insulation at this time was this afternoon because it made a

Katy 12:07
giant mess, right? Yeah. So again, you have to patch it up your the ceiling never looks the same again. Right. I would love to hear how many people listening have had a someone steps through the ceiling story. So many, because guess what, in my current home, someone has also stepped through the ceiling in the middle of the kitchen area where it’s still I can see it right now. It’s still needs to be like repainted so it actually matches. It’s mostly blending in but geez. That was a third party though. That wasn’t any of us. Oh, who stepped in there? Okay. Tell me another story.

Alissa 12:46
When I first married Tanner, he owned a home, okay. And he had never done anything to the home. prior to me coming along. So the old lady who passed away her curtains were still hanging there. And he had like Guy roommates, you know, they just didn’t care. So after we got engaged, and I’m starting to look at this house as my own, I’m like, I need to make some changes here. The bathroom had the ugliest wallpaper. So he was working one night and I thought I’m just gonna I YouTubed Oh, this looks easy, right remove wallpaper. So I reach up and grab the corners and just it comes off in a beautiful perfect sheet right like it worked just like the video only for me to put it down and look and realize it was over an even uglier wallpaper. Ducks with bonnet. Like I thought we had the ugliest wall you were like well, how do

Katy 13:55
I get it back on time?

Alissa 13:56
Yes, but I couldn’t get it back on top. So I just went on ahead and stripped the First Lady He came home it was ducks with bonnets so then I’m like I gotta get these ducks off. Stop it, but I couldn’t. It was one that’s why they papered on top. It was one with the sheetrock knowing what I know now it’s okay to paint over it. There’s a way to do paint. I didn’t know that then. So

Katy 14:19
what did you do? Did you start ripping in the light drips?

Alissa 14:22
I and then I stopped. I just was like this talk about how you didn’t have to call a professional. But Taner the next day was like, Did you hang this wallpaper in the dock? Like he couldn’t understand how it got I was like, No, it was behind. Why would I hang that? It was behind the other

Katy 14:44
told him you did? Yeah, you don’t like it?

Alissa 14:47
It’s like better so something like How to Lose a Guy in 10 days which is like it’s our love for like, you don’t like

Katy 14:55
I have to get up because you’re not going to believe what I have. Oh mine,

Alissa 14:58
but really like It’s like you proposed and now I’m hanging wallpaper. Oh, die actually are Luverne

Katy 15:10
because I’m a special person who when this burn died YouTube is loving this when this burn died, I was like, I’ll make some kind of funny content about our love for

Alissa 15:22
Well, I just gave it to you.

Katy 15:23
So I know I’ve been waiting two years I think that’s been in my closet, so it’s gonna stay here with our hot tea. Okay, Grant are dead for

Alissa 15:30
kinda looks like cannabis.

Katy 15:33
Yeah, well, a lot of stuff going on over here.

Alissa 15:36
But that first house, why did we are not handy people. I’m like, I know that we have income because we had none. Then now that we have income. I’m like Taylor’s like, do you want me to change that light bulb? I’m like, No, don’t do that. Just because he’s not very handy. And he’ll just put in a totally different color light bulb and doesn’t even see it doesn’t even see that it’s okay, man.

Katy 16:00
I live on the exact opposite right of the spectrum where Jay has fixed some things and our current home is just about to be 10 years old. Okay, we built it ourselves. And so things are starting to get to the age where they need some love. He has fixed some things that I’m just like floored, like the dishwasher door stop, like the spring broke. And y’all those doors are really heavy. I have a permanent bruise, I think on my leg from where it fell. But he’s like, Okay, I’ll just order the part and fix the door where most people I think would either pay a very expensive handyman, who may or may not fixed it, or they would have just been like guess we have to get a new dishwasher.

Alissa 16:36
To me. I just call the like my fridge. And now I call the appliance people I’m like, Look, I don’t want to come look at them. Yeah, just where’s my model number? Give me whatever you think is closest and best to this and swap them out my?

Katy 16:47
Well, he fixed it up. Like we have the front load washing machine people like Oh, they’re so gross. And they get mildew, we emule whatever, y’all that gasket is absolutely replaceable, and it’s less than 100 bucks. So if yours gets gross, you can just if you’re handy, like Jay can just replace it, watch the YouTube and then replace the gasket. Maybe you can, there’s so much home maintenance information in the world. Like if there’s something wrong with your home one, it can be fixed. There are very few things that are just like well, oh, well, I guess we have to burn this place down.

Alissa 17:20
Sometimes, you know, especially as we’re getting into the spring and we’re about to see all of the maintenance checklists. Sometimes they just overwhelmed me. It’s a lot is a lot. There’s always something to keep up with.

Katy 17:34
But right okay, so homeownership is hard it Yeah, not a set it and forget it. Like you need to clean your dryer vent or you might be having a fire hazard. Right? Would you rather your house to burn down? Are you to clean your dryer vent every six months? Right? Do you know what I mean? Like I think I understand the theory that you’re like, oh, this again. But it’s also like, what is the alternative? I pay someone else’s mortgage. I’m renting from them. And I don’t have anything to show for it at the end of 30 years. Yeah. There. It’s a give and take. And we’re going to talk more about the UPS up but we’re on the downs. Yeah. Okay. So we’re in April, showers went down, there is yearly maintenance. And it is absolutely crucial. Like your paint doesn’t last forever. My house is getting to the age where like we’ve already painted the outside once and my house is 10 years old. The inside needs it desperately. But that’s more cosmetic. The outside is like if you don’t paint it, yeah, you need to seal the outside of your house, your windows have to be sealed, especially depending on what climate you live in. These are really important things.

Alissa 18:35
See our second my first house that I actually bought and was on title had a drainage problem on the right side drainage problems. Follow me, you see and that house was new to wonder there’s a Fung Shui

Katy 18:51
situation here. I know but energy not letting the energy get out of you. Probably

Alissa 18:56
not. That’s what’s wrong with me.

Katy 18:58
Let the bottled up like I knew. So it comes

Alissa 19:02
out of my drainage. Right it we’ve noticed that we never went on that side of the house ever. And then when we did I noticed that the brick was starting to crack. So because of the new home warranty act we called the builder who sent someone and was like nope, not a problem here which I don’t you don’t believe I don’t believe but it was just like trying to find creative ways to make the yard work with the drainage and it’s hard. But then because of the lot I got I had these two gorgeous oak trees now and my backyard was bought that one. I loved it. And so it’s like you have to give and take I do have a slope in the yard. That helps some drainage but I got these oak trees right. I still pass those trees. Yeah, me too. For my trees.

Katy 19:55
It’s so fun like seriously almost bought that lot because we built in that neighborhood before you liked it. he buy that lot because they’ll join across the street had it was much larger. We ended up buying the biggest available lot. Okay, I guess we thought size was better than quality. Anyway. All right, while we’re on yards. Some of you may know especially if you’re on our email list that I recently ripped off my entire backyard whole thing whole thing was nothing but about a weeds. We’ve been here 10 years when we got chickens in 2020 J thought it would be fun in the winter of that year or the following year to plant rye seed like rye grass seed just right on top of grass. So here in Louisiana, the grass goes dormant, right? Yeah, we had centipede was the type of grass but we also have St. Augustine here. It all goes dormant in the winter. And then comes back in the spring. Well, you can put other this rye grass grows in the winter, you throw the seeds out green is beautiful and green and the chickens ate it all winter. And it was so lovely. Well, apparently the rye grass will actually kill the root system of your regular grass. Yeah. So after that the grass never was quite the same. There was nothing you could do to make the grass be thick and green and grass. It was mostly just weeds. And then after last year, we had a drought. Then it was just weeds and dirt. No, there was no hardly any grass left. Honestly, the

Alissa 21:15
landscaping all around right now is just in very poor condition. Like you’re having to totally really escape after the climate we’ve had. Yes.

Katy 21:24
So this year, here we are in the spring, I’m looking at this bed of weeds coming to life after the winter. And I’m like I can’t do it anymore. I can’t do it. So our back fence had rot had rotted. It’s been 10 years it needed to go the yard got ripped up the place that was removed because the kids aren’t using it anymore. We had some dead trees in the front. We removed all of our another section of landscaping the front that was just driving us crazy gone. It was a big removal.

Alissa 21:53
Well, what I think that you did, right is you did it so quickly. Like you just had it done. Yeah. What I think some people would have noticed is they buy house and they have all these ideas of things they’re going to do. And then they call you to sell it 510 years later and you walk in, they haven’t done a thing. haven’t done a thing. And then yeah, we have to get them to do those things. And they do them and they do them like Oh, I wish I would have done this. And then they’re done. And they’re like, Wow, it

Katy 22:22
looks so much better. Now. You could have been enjoying this the whole time instead of cursing at whatever problem it was and waiting until the last minute when you had to do it just to sell. Yes. Don’t let someone else enjoy it like when we do but you should enjoy it. Yeah, I know. It’s hard. And when you do something like my dad said to me, it was very profound. I felt like he was like, you know, people renovate the inside of their house all the time. Right? Those people were changing their granite every 10 years how crazy he’s like, your landscape is the same. It needs renovation it you can’t maybe it got put in the wrong spot. It grew too big it doesn’t you know the thing the plants around it aren’t happy what maybe the grass dies, maybe the fence is he’s like you have to renovate your landscape just like you have to renovate your house doesn’t last forever. And in my mind I thought mature landscape is one of those things people put on MLS listings to make it sound good which is great because it takes now as

Alissa 23:18
a homeowner I know that means I haven’t touched my landscaping. So it’s huge.

Katy 23:23
Like you do have to remove and trim and maintain its maintenance that’s the thing there’s a lot of home and lawn maintenance associated with owning a home and that’s why the people who say they have to downsize sometimes are buying a bigger house but it’s always smaller yard because they’re like I can’t just don’t want to be it’s hot here y’all we don’t want to be outside you know when we’re retired maintaining grass in a lot that we don’t ever go out on like

Alissa 23:52
it’s too much work so much work.

Katy 23:55
Okay do you want to hear another story about my first house? Yeah, the one that didn’t emulation okay brand new house, no installation. Five years in. I promise you it was five years in. In fact that was the year we sold. I walked in okay the way our mat our primary bathroom was set up was double sinks, toilet, a big shower tub combo and two closets. His hers on either side of the tub. Okay, right. Well, mine was on one side Jay’s closet was on the side of the wet wall. The wet wall is where your plumbing is for the bathroom shower. Yeah. Okay. One day I go in his closet and I looked down at the baseboard and it was carpeted in there. I look at the baseboard and it’s like got the discoloration kind of warping and I’m like something is going on in this closet. So I’m like Jay something’s going on in this closet. Also, note to people look at your baseboards, especially in wet areas, bathrooms, laundry rooms, closets. The backup to bathrooms is the key quickest way to figure out if you have a leak. Don’t let. Don’t let that fester. Yeah. He pulls off the baseboard. Oh gosh, and cuts a hole in the wall. Okay, but he pulled out five gallons of standing water in the closet wall between the shower and the wall. There was not a plumbing leak. That’s what you’re thinking, right? Well, there’s a leak, no kind of the faucet. So like the actual faucet where the water comes out, attaches to the shower wall, right? It’s just set up against there. It requires one little bead of caulk around it right? Oh, man, it’s just been going behind the one drop at a time every shower or 30 dry years. Yes. Yes. Oh, it just trip was there. Hold? Actually no,

Alissa 25:56
it’s clean water.

Katy 25:58
It’s clean water. I guess there just wasn’t any mold in the I don’t know. It wasn’t moldy. Yeah, but because it wasn’t moldy because it didn’t touch dry. What will besides it had just hit that baseboard? Yeah, but it was sitting in the little there’s a kind of hole almost, if you will like a dip in the concrete slab and it kind of had just filled that up like a bowl. Yeah, so that part wasn’t gonna mold but it it just been dripping. Wow, for five years. Do you know what I needed? Just to beat a coke and do you know what I checked every time I went on new construction like punch list or walkthrough with my clients that there was caulk around all of the fixtures and up at that top edge of the shower

Alissa 26:37
the things home ownership makes you check then you know that’s why I’m like people should tile their showers all the way to the ceiling rain not stop. You don’t want drywall in there. Yeah.

Katy 26:48
Okay, what’s your next story?

Alissa 26:49
Okay, once upon a time I was helping this young couple build like with a chain builder Okay, okay. They did not have a huge budget. So we were building like in Greenwell Springs or something kind of far out there to get a good price point but they run it a new house okay rural. So we pick out their floor plan the best they could get and you know, within their budget and then it’s time for the appointment where you pick out all the things you want for the house well, it was so sad to me I wanted to just I didn’t really have any money at that time. This was early in my career but I wanted to just do everything for them because they were very like well we could always just get the standard and upgrade later as we have savings and we don’t need fans in the bedroom. We could just do it one fan at a time as we you know they’re just being very budget conscious and it just kind of broke my heart a little bit because I could tell they were looking at the upgraded features I can’t do it when I tell you they did not upgrade a single thing broke my heart because I could tell they wanted to so we the building starts and the slab is poured and you’re like okay, well everything’s happening and then like the walls start going up and we’re like okay and then the front door and we’re like this is not the house it was the wrong house it was the wrong floor plan it was not the floor plan they had chosen what happened so the builder it was actually listed how crazy this is it was a bigger house it was a little bit bigger not hugely bigger but bigger than what they chose and the builder said we have made a huge mistake we are so sorry. We will tear it down if you want us to oh my gosh all that had to take out the slab the slab yeah like there wasn’t like exterior siding or anything but it was getting there or you can just have this one and we’ll just like give you every upgrade we have I think we’re like yes yes we’ll take every upgrade you had ceiling fans in every bedroom I need to know what kind of praying they did they had can lights they upgraded records they got carpet out of their bedrooms like they went all out I

Katy 29:11
so excited. Yes.

Alissa 29:13
I should have that story for May flowers. Yeah,

Katy 29:16
good point. Oh, why did you share that with this time?

Alissa 29:21
I don’t know. J to put in the next one. Because they built the wrong house. Yeah, they built the wrong house. So it wasn’t perfect. But April showers bring me flowers tastes fine.

Katy 29:31
I love it. Let’s talk about a client I had with what’s called a parapet wall. Do you know a parapet wall? I feel like we’ve talked about this in some of our previous episodes. It’s like an exterior wall that goes straight up and down. Okay, no overhang yeah kinda has that. Like Tuscan Riki bag. I can’t it’s it’s got a certain texture

Alissa 29:52
to it. Beautiful Grecian vibe. But we’re gonna Louisiana so beautiful.

Katy 29:55
Not good for our weather at all. It’s made of stuff also not good for our weather. I don’t know why they continue to put stucco on house, but they will resume and my clients two years in are like this window keeps leaking this wall keeps being wet this this this, the entire wall almost had to be re done. The stucco was leaking. There was just it just there was nothing that could be done. Oh my gosh, it was the nature of the wall at UC the same thing in the neighborhood where I live now. People constantly having to re stucco the whole front of their house or this neighborhood required wood windows are the stupidest thing ever for Louisiana. Yes, wood framed Windows was the requirement because they’re fancy and beautiful, right? New? No, I can’t tell you how many times you drive by house. And here they are having to rip out all the windows and start again because the windows completely rot in the sun and the rain and the wind.

Alissa 30:50
So why that’s a great point. Also, because whenever I was trying to make notes for this episode, looking through all my past transactions and things I’ve been through personally, I was really trying hard not to focus on things that could have been found during the inspection. I’m just like these are these are just things that happen that you can really only find out over time. Sometimes they only happen over time. Yes, though. There’s nothing that the home inspector could have done. No.

Katy 31:19
But I find like that’s almost more common in new construction. Yeah, than in pre existing because if it’s been lived and they’ve already kind of gotten through some of those flaws,

Alissa 31:29
they know the quirks of the home and what to do and where to put drain.

Katy 31:34
Yeah. Also, here’s a story. I had sweet clients they bought a house actually I sold the house I was the listing agent, they bought the house but then they ended up becoming clients of mine later, but they call and they’re like hey, we you know we have a problem. I’m like, Well what is it? Well, these beautiful crape myrtles in the front flowerbed are so lovely. We just really were excited about having them except that we’re having some plumbing issues the roots had grown into though the plumbing pipes in the ground like the main pipes in and out of the house. Yeah, roots. There was no way anyone could have caught that before it happened. And they only caught it when the roots got big enough to like affect the way the

Alissa 32:21
and now the trees are really pretty. And

Katy 32:24
here’s the crazy thing about a tree problem if the tree is too large, like a big oak tree or even these giant crape myrtles and you cut them down to solve I’m doing my air quotes solve the problem then the roots die and the slab can move yeah so it’s almost like what’s the right answer?

Alissa 32:44
I had a buyer looking at a house one time that had when I say one not a pretty oak tree but just this massive water oak tree right next to the house this thing I could not wrap my arms around it it was so big so the house and the yard was perfect. We had an inspector come we had a foundation company come and they said here’s the problem this tree was here before the house yeah, the roots are where they are why would they put the house so close? I don’t think the tree was that big cat house was like 40 years old but this tree was like you know over 100 And people think oh well the tree can’t get that much bigger like they’re just building it for the size of the tree now well as the house is gonna be here in 100 years then you need to accommodate the tree Yeah, so the foundation company was explaining that the foundation of the home is built on the root system of this house. If we remove the tree which needs to happen because it could smash like a limb, a single limb could take out that whole side of the house. Then if we take it out the roots will rot cause a sinkhole and the House will fall into it but if you leave it there mash mash from above and the roots are already starting to push it so it’s like would you prefer to be crushed or sunken into the earth? I think I’d prefer to be sunken yeah crushed stones very

Katy 34:11
painful right I would be second like seconds gonna go slower

Alissa 34:15
so my people opted out Oh totally. They’re like they gotta go they just canceled the contract they did not feel comfortable with any of the solutions the people that now the people that bought the house did do one of the suggestions that the foundation companies made which was this we remove the tree okay, we add piers shore it all up everywhere basically like the slabs floating on piers Yes, we just add piers around this whole thing, then the roots can die and then if the roots die, but he said we’re gonna have to make adjustments like over like, even if we do this huge project now. We’re going to have to make adjustments every you know, five to 10 years just to make sure the peers are out. Holding, oh my god, crazy. That’s wild. But in the same note, houses that are on pier and beam foundations, especially in Louisiana, our soil is constantly shifting, especially right now when we’re just coming out of a drought and everything is shrunk and then it rains and it gets bigger. And so when you are showing a pier and beam house and it says, Oh, the foundation was completely rebuilt 10 years ago, the foundation companies have told me before these inspections, listen, if you are on a pier and beam home, you need to have someone crawl under there every five to eight years. Okay, just to make sure nothing has shifted the earth shifts. Yeah, depending on the rain that you’ve had. Yeah. It doesn’t matter if it was done 10 years ago right to do. Yeah, this is something that you have to keep an eye on always right.

Katy 35:51
While we’re talking about the ground shifting. Do you know about what can happen? What can happen to pool Oh, I’ve heard this have you ever experienced so my mom’s dad was a pool builder and my dad worked in that field for a while with him. And my dad has done some renovations on pools and install design and whatever. And in ground pool in Louisiana, this is not just anywhere in inground pool but because we are at or below sea level in a lot of cases and our water table so the amount of water in the ground is pretty high. Yes. If you drain your pool completely and it is empty the ground can push it up out of the ground like squeezes it and then it will crack yeah so like you have to keep so my dad every you know we had like is like a plaster. It was gun night but it was painted our pool. Okay. Yeah. And every, you know, few years he would paint it but he would drain the pool down to like just some in the bottom. Like you needed to keep some buffer and do the majority of the work and then just real quick, you get out the stuff in the bottom because it also depends on the weather and what’s happening. It’s not just gonna automatically pop up right, but

Alissa 37:00
it could Yeah, and I just thought

Katy 37:03
that was while now they I think you told me actually now newer pools have a specific plug that if you’re going to drain it you can open this plug in that prevents that from happening. Very okay, but like an older pool, you couldn’t just drain it to the ground like it just it could pop out. Yeah, I was like, Oh, you don’t say okay, we’ve also had a leaky drain in our current home. Yeah, in the kids. Same thing walk in the kids bathroom. This is less than 10 year old house right? I’m like, why is that baseboard turning colors. I’m like is is a kid peeing on this baseboard? I don’t think so. They’re too old for that. Just some gasket in the drain of the shower heads had just given out like it it just gotten to its age. I guess it was like it was just leaking into the wall. But again, thankful for a handy husband because he’s like, Oh my god, he thought it was leaking. And he’s gonna have to take all the tile out of the shower when he cut into the wall to see what was happening. He

Alissa 38:00
was like, Oh, it’s just this gasket fixed in the no law. No mold. Okay, fix them fix the wall by by. So hypothetically, yes, if my dishwasher leaked earlier this week, and I noticed it coming out from under some of my cabinetry that I can’t get under there. Like I’d have to rip my cabinets out. You’d have to rip them out. But it was clean water and I call it the dishwasher if

Katy 38:29
it’s a new leak.

Alissa 38:30
I think I saw it happening. Yeah, I don’t think and then we got like a heater and you know, blower and just tried to keep it I

Katy 38:38
wouldn’t stress about it. But if you’re really worried about mold, then you can do a Mold Test of the air. If it’s if there’s mold in the cabinet, it’s all eventually start seeing right I would think so look like like your baseboard like I was seeing that is changing colors. So right now I’m just sort of monitoring just watch it the situation in Ireland but I mean, just get a whole new dishwasher as you have to monitor all the parts of your home everything all the time. Take a walk around the perimeter every so often, you know, there’s parts of your house, think about it that you never go into right certain spots in the attic. You got to sort of take stock every once in a while because things are happening. It’s just like I always feel like a vacant house dies. It’s just because no one’s putting eyes on these little things that are just happening over time. Like it’s not just cobwebs and dead bugs it’s also just like random things will finally give out and if someone had been there to change the battery in the smoke detector or replace the light bulbs or check the leaky window like it wouldn’t have been that big of a deal but because it’s vacant it kind of like builds

Alissa 39:38
Yeah, and they say if it’s vacant and pipes aren’t being used, like the leaks that occur and are so much more right like when it’s in use it kind of keeps it when things got really slow last year, one of our home inspectors was like agents, you should have your home inspected even if you’re not moving oh what a smart way like just go ahead and you know what’s going on he was Going on make sure you’re what are those roof boots that have to be changed like seven every seven days? Yeah boot the vent boot the VIP boot boot every like eight years you have to change they start cracking like who goes on their roof and checks

Katy 40:11
those no I don’t get anyone to wait until it leaks my Yeah, I don’t get anyone on my roof until there’s a hurricane or something leaks.

Alissa 40:20
So what do you do? I feel like you would handle this well better than me. Oh, let’s say after closing every time something happens or goes wrong the buyers like calling you okay,

Katy 40:31
I have a story for you. Okay. My best friend who is not going to call and sue me is gonna call and tell me what happens though. She bought this is her third transaction with me. It’s a townhome. It has an HOA that has a termite contract. We’ve talked about it on the show before. But she has this really great little courtyard behind because it’s a small little piece of property little great courtyard fenced in, but it’s all pavers so cute. Yeah, except the pavers run right up to the side of the house and the slab is not exposed. Okay. She had a home inspection. Sure they had a termite contract the HOA I didn’t think about it. The Home Inspector didn’t flag it as being anything because I would I feel like we would remember this. Well, termites were just running right underneath those pavers and straight into her wall or bedroom wall living it up eaten the wall. It didn’t show up until she was vacuuming and she ran the vacuum right into the guest slide again. baseboard and it just crumbled Oh my baseboard just crumble. She’s like what the heck her fingers is going through it. It was just paint left. Really there’s no board. Oh, she’s like, like floating paint. So she gets the you know, get someone out to look at. They’re like you got termites she calls the HoH like we have a termite contract, who’s the person bla bla. They’re like, well, that he just was this shady response? Like Basically, yes, we do have a contract, but there’s no damage waiver or like, we don’t have damage coverage. So it we can they couldn’t even prove to her when it was last treated, although they weren’t whatever contract contract. So she had to pay $3,000 To fix the wall. It’s like, sorry, I don’t go on my vacation this year. Like the homeownership is hard. It is hard. And she gained more than $3,000 in equity that year probably set, but it still sucks. Like we don’t want to deal with that. So she’s not going to sue me or make me feel uncomfortable. But even though when she calls I’m like, oh, gosh, I’m so sorry. I’ll be like, have you. I just tried to point to the direction of any resources that might help. Have you talked to the HOA? Who is the termite company? Did you take a look at the contract? And then once it was just kind of like, no, it’s just on me. I’m like, I’m so sorry. That’s all you can do. Like I’m so sorry. Yeah. Homeownership can be hard. That’s

Alissa 42:44
hard. That was hard for me in the beginning. As a newer agent, I wanted to fix everything. I felt like it was my responsibility. But then with time realizing, you know, I’m having my own issues at my new house. Like I can’t help your issues to like this is right. homeownership, homeownership is what it is the width the parapet wall, and they call it in the house was

Katy 43:03
you know, newer, I’m like, well, your home warranty is good for a year some of the structures covered after that. I don’t know what’s really going to be covered. But here’s a copy of the home warranty. Here’s the name of an attorney. Have you need it? Here’s the you know, here’s all the builders contact info Have you already caught reached out to them, though, yes, the builder came in, fix that for the record. But you it is not your responsibility to fix it or take the blame for it or assume responsibility, it is your job to give them resources to try and solve the problem on their own. I cannot and if they’re just upset and yelling at you. I mean, you could just go back to hey, you know, this is a really unfortunate turn of events. But we did have a home inspection. It wasn’t called there because it wasn’t even happening then, you know, these things happen with homes, whether they’re brand new, or 50 years old. And I’m so sorry, you’re having to deal with this. Here’s the name of my AC person like I’m sorry, your

Alissa 43:55
that’s a great point too. I had some buyers that bought an older home that had an older AC also a good reminder that if you want a new AC maybe you should look at new homes. Okay, so we the inspector was like it’s working but it is old and this and this and so in our repair request we set licensed HVAC company to clean and service and check this this this make any repairs needed etc etc. Three months after they moved in the AC just like this. And she’s like this sellers did this how I’m like they didn’t and then so she actually like got mad at me because I wasn’t like supporting that. I wasn’t supporting the theories that the sellers did this. I’m like we have receipts showing that they did exactly what we asked and she was pretty aggravated about it and I understand she was aggravated and she because she wanted me to like call the listing agent. I said I’m not doing that because they met the contractual obligations. This isn’t a good this is a April shower story for you. Great. Four years later they listed it with another agent they did not repeat with me well, and I thought fine they were not happy all your fault her AC died three months later. Yeah, but and I feel for the home inspectors I wonder how many calls have begun like Lee this I bought this house and you were the home inspector and it was yours. I

Katy 45:25
have plenty of scripts. Yeah, I

Alissa 45:27
mean, imagine the call. We think we get calls. Imagine a man because they tell me. You’re the home inspector

Katy 45:34
100% Do you want to hear the story of the house that was crushed? Yeah, you already know it. But I will tell it very

Alissa 45:41
with a transaction that Katie and I did two together. Okay,

Katy 45:45
so this is lovely sweet couple buying their first home the cutest couple beautiful property. But it was a very large lot with age lottery tiny old house. It was only two bedrooms. It almost didn’t make sense. Why this house was like this.

Alissa 46:02
And you probably got I actually almost thought about buying it myself for the lot. Yeah, for sure. It’s like the house was so small. So

Katy 46:10
I think they ended up buying the house for right under 200,000. Crazy so low the lot. It’s and I told them when they bought it. I’m like, I mean, this lot truly is probably 150,000. Yeah. And they’re like, oh, yeah, whatever. They just cut it in one of your out the other no big deal. There were some older trees. They’re in not good shape. One clearly dead one. on its last legs. We don’t know whatever. So an arborist came during inspection seller gave some concessions. But the buyers were going to take care of the tree. This one, one tree, I think maybe one tree was very close to the house. Yeah. And this one tree very close to the house. They were like, well, and for the record, those were my eyes. They were like, Hey,

Alissa 46:48
yo, this tree now that I remember we had conversations. Yeah,

Katy 46:52
the inspector might have said the one close to the house. But there were several that were like you just need an arborist to look at the trees in this yard. There’s a lot going on here. Well, they did not they did have the arbors compost closing maybe take out a few limbs like they were still alive. You know, whatever. Okay, fine by vine, but it was right next to the primary bedroom window right there. Hurricane Ida comes and it is very windy here and the tree falls on well first of all, they did a bunch of renovations to the house, they renovated this a cute little house kitchen renovated by their own two hands, the the bathroom renovated by their own two hands, it looks so good. It’s gonna be so great. Maybe one day they’ll add one and get another bedroom, blah, blah, blah. This treat, falls and smashes the house, all the way all the way smashed. All the holy updates all of it smashed. And luckily they had left with their cat and their dog and gone to the neighbor’s house because that is the part

Alissa 47:54
that I can I would have never thought to leave the house I in that weather.

Katy 48:01
I gotta believe Well, I gotta believe that when we think about it, though, you can watch trees and a hurricane before they finally fall. Do you know it gets to be you’re like, Ooh, this is really sketchy. Yeah, not like out of nowhere. Thank God, they were friendly enough with the neighbors. They were very comfortable. So they went to the neighbor’s house, they or else they would have been killed because it happened at night, they likely could have been in no matter where they were in the house, they could have been killed because it’s a small house, right? This is when I first learned to the fact that a house could be totaled like a car. When they reached out to their insurance, the insurance comes out well, your mortgage is 200 your lot is worth 150 to rebuild the house, it’s gonna cost another 200 They’re like, Wait, this makes no sense house totaled. So they paid off their insurance writes a check to their mortgage company, mortgage paid, and you own the lump the lot outright, you’re left with what’s left here, the lots of yours. It’s all in your name. Goodbye.

Alissa 48:58
Bye. Did they get any money to rebuild? No, but they own a lot out. Right? So then they just had to go get a mortgage for I think that all

Katy 49:07
the way through if there are lots worth 150 So they call me and I’m like, what’s our lot worth? I’m like, 150 all day, every day. They’re like, are you serious? It was like they had $150,000 windfall that yes, the house the mortgage was paid off. They had this $150,000 lot, which is what they were able to use as collateral to get a construction loan in order. So then they only really needed a $200,000 loan, which is what they already had the house they built is so much better. So much bigger, so much better. worth so much more money. Yeah, I mean, it was a total way, way easier to sell one day Oh, much easier to sell. They did have to live on the property for nearly a year and a camper while they built. But otherwise, I would say and they they lived yes otherwise was all positive. Right? I mean, I’m sure they lost some stuff they really wanted but and they spent money on that renovation that they never really got to enjoy, but Uh, the house is crushed. That’s crazy. I picture all of the houses that flooded here. And like all of the things that can happen when you’re a homeowner like just all the little things and then all the really big things, and

Alissa 50:13
the worst two is the people that closed and then we flooded. Yes, we had a big flood here in 2016 and again in 2021 Yeah, really? Not quite as big but and there were a handful of people that I had just they had just bought their house. Yeah. And it flooded. Yeah. How awful

Katy 50:36
it’s really rough. Do you have any other stories of homeownership was personally or not? So

Alissa 50:42
I had a client who bought an new construction well, it the people had lived in it for two years and he built it himself. He was a contractor he built the house lived in it two years sold. Okay. Really pretty house great lot. Huge shot just pretty, huh? I’m like that wife text me is like you’re never gonna believe this. I’m like, what she’s like if you go in the water closet in the master in the master bathroom, okay? And you sit on the toilet, you cannot close the door. It wasn’t measured right? And you can’t be in there and close the door at all. You would have to like stand on the toilet to close the door. And then you’re gonna have to like put your feet to the side. Oh my word so it just there’s nothing you can do about it except take the door off but they you know appreciated that the toilet had its own little room. But but that’s not something we checked during the inspection. No. Gonna need you to sit on all the toilets. Yeah, in my personal house.

Katy 51:54
I had bats. Oh right. And you have to rehome them Yeah,

Alissa 51:57
you can’t so in Louisiana bats are protected species because they eat mosquitoes. So we you can’t get rid of the bats you have to rehome the bats and if you’re caught touching a bat because I looked into this not that I was going to touch it but I’m like what happens if I just get rid of these bats? It was like a $5,000 fine hole

Katy 52:16
were that what’s How would they know how many you tied? Because they removed

Alissa 52:20
that’s what’s funny is like if you were like dumb enough to do it yourself and posted on Facebook, don’t do that. They could find you per bat in the video shot. Yeah, how crazy things you learned that you don’t want to learn 5000

Katy 52:32
You don’t learn that.

Alissa 52:33
So what we had to do was there’s a bad you know, termite companies. There’s a bad guy. Bad exterminators except they don’t exterminate they rehome. And they, they do this huge inspection of your whole house to look for any gaps. Because bats are like roaches and they can fit in the smallest hole. One of them because I actually watched it happen one night I sat down at my back patio at dusk. It looked like it was flying out from under one of my shingles that was laying flat. Oh, like I was like, Look at them all at dusk. It was like At Dawn We fly except it was like a dusk and they came out in a soup line. Like it was insane. So what they do is the bat company is there at dusk. And when they all leave vacate, I’m sorry. I said that incorrectly. The Bat company comes during the day while the bats are sleeping safely and soundly in your attic. Kay they put these funnels into every tiny little hole they can possibly find on your house you just told them where they were coming from Yeah, I get but they did a whole house inspection because they said they will come back to the house. So I were they like to come back to where they came so they will find another way. If there’s another way of creeping me out so much. It was so creepy. So he said and if they can’t get in, they’ll just go to the neighbor’s house. Sorry neighbors. So they put all these funnels in every time even if it was just a precautionary hold. The bats can get out but this however this funnel works they can’t get back in and then when they take them to the woods. Oh, they they fly out into the night sky. But when they come back at night they can’t get back in your house so they go to the neighbor’s wherever bats go the trees or wherever the bats Cove, but they come back to your house and they’re like wait a minute, we can’t get back in here. And so you leave the funnel on for like three days to make sure all the bats flew out because apparently you’ll get like a lazy bat that’s like I’m not flying and I bring me back some food. So You have to leave the funnel there to make sure they all vacated. And then the pest control company came and removed all the funnels and had to seal all the holes. And then they’re gone. So the other problem is that after they seal the holes, like they seal the holes, like a pest company would like they like. You’re like, well, that’s been out of a mess. Yeah, it was just a big mess.

Katy 55:23
Do you ever hear a bad story? Yeah. My only bad story. When I lived in Colorado briefly, I was in a rental. So not technically a homeownership problem. But somebody owned that place. Yeah. I am laying in the bed on on a Saturday morning. And I’m just like, I don’t know if I heard a noise but I’m like starting to stir a little. And near the closet. There was a flush mount light fixture that was round, like your standard old boob light. If Okay, yeah, round fixture in a square hole, like the old fixture must have been square, okay, whatever. So there were quarter size holes on four sides of this light fixture. And I heard a sound or what but I opened my eyes and I watched this bad fall out of the light fixture while I am laying in my bed. And I am like, I like throw the blanket over my head and like crawl out of the room, because I’m like, this thing is flying around my room. I was home alone. I had a roommate at the time, but I was home alone. No. I am like, I don’t know. I’ve never had a bad experience before I am in my early 20s. I don’t have like a plan here. That looks scary.

Alissa 56:44
Every bat looks scary to me. They’re rats with wings. Yeah, it’s so scary. Oh,

Katy 56:50
they are they are rodents that fly. Yeah. So I’m like, Oh, my God, do I do what I do. So I’m like hiding on the balcony. So I’m on the second floor. And I’m looking in and the bat flies out of my room. And it’s flying around the living room. And then it’ll like and I’ve got my phone and I’m like, who do I call? So I call like the landlord people and they’re like, management company. And they’re like, yeah, just like get a newspaper and like shoe it out? Absolutely not. No, shoe it out. Also, how long ago was that? When they told me to get a newspaper? I will tell y’all, it was 2001. Anyway, so I’m like,

Alissa 57:30
Oh my gosh, what

Katy 57:30
am I gonna do? I’ll catch you it out. Like get a broom or something. No, no, it’s landing on like the curtain rods and hanging upside down. Oh, no. And I’m what it flew to the kitchen and it landed upside down on the cabinet. I’m like, oh my god, what am I going to do now? And how many? It was the only one I saw at that time. And it was in the morning. So I don’t know what it was doing stirring. So I call this guy I work with and I’m like, you know, in retail, and I’m like, hey, what am I supposed to do about this? And he’s like, Well, that’s like fruit just make like a fruit tray. This of course, 20 year olds, 20 year olds helping other 20 year olds. Just make like a little fruit trail and that

Alissa 58:11
charcuterie board.

Katy 58:16
Like, why it’s so like, run into the house? Well, it’s in one room and grab like an apple and a knife and I run back to the balcony. And I’m like slicing apple and like tossing it back in to make a trail air quotes, because I’m like, going back in there. I’m gonna be attacked by that. Yeah. And I’m just throwing these apples in there. And I’m like, out here, just like, I don’t know, I don’t know what to do. And I have the balcony door, like all the way up and I’m like, I don’t know. And then eventually you just flew right out the balcony to the apples. I would never touch those damn apples.

Alissa 58:46
was like a fool. Like, why did you do that I put the holes around my light fixture. Oh my gosh. That’s crazy. It’s like Meredith Blake with the sticks. Remember the sticks? And oh, yeah. Exactly. The mountain lions the male line.

Katy 59:08
So there are no mountain lions are there? Yeah, well, there was a bat. It was realized.

Alissa 59:12
It didn’t eat apples. Wow. Home ownership man. That was times I mean, it’s really good times

Katy 59:20
should buy a house right? You should go to Jolie buy a house? You haven’t yet. You should. It’s a real joy. Yeah, I wish I had more animal stories. I did have a cat get into my apartment once and I’m very afraid of cats and my sister and I are just cat yo yes my sister and I are screaming like little girls because of a cat Oh yeah. Oh a random I didn’t know this about you. Oh, there’s I hate scare me.

Alissa 59:47
Well, whenever I had a client buy a house in Zachary. There was an old dog on the back porch or whatever. So we he was there for when we sell the house. He was there for the home inspection. Then well, he’s there after they move away. And I called the listing agent was like, hey, they left their dog. And they were like, Oh, that’s not their dog. He just lives there. He just lives there. That’s why they’re moving. He’s like the neighborhood dog. He just goes around to all the houses. I’m like, well, he seems to only be at this house. What did your buyers do? They just, he just lives on the back porch. Oh, my God. Do they feed him? Yeah. They said sometimes he does go to the other houses. But who takes him to the vet? Nobody?

Katy 1:00:31
Oh, my word. Oh, my word. One more

Alissa 1:00:36
story. Okay, let’s you’re had a lady moving here from California. Were very different. Clearly, she was like, asking me all these questions about alligators. And I’m like, listen, ma’am, I know. You’ve never been to Louisiana. Have I seen alligators before? Yes. Are they walking down the street? No, definitely not, you know. So she’s just asking me all these questions. And I’m like, Did you Google? What questions to ask about Louisiana? Because they were just very like, if you had to stereotype estates. Yeah. These were the questions that you would ask so anywho she was actually a delight, but I just thought it was funny. I’m like, Why are you moving here? If these are all the things that hurt Okay, she moves in? Oh, gosh, first night in the home calls me screaming. There’s a snake in my closet. I’m like, what? Sure enough, a real Oh, real snake in her closet. And I was like, welcome to Louisiana.

Katy 1:01:33
Though it’s a reptile. It’s not an alligator, not an

Alissa 1:01:36
alligator, but it is a snake. So and I thought I’m over here thinking man, this lady is really paranoid. She just

Katy 1:01:43
she brought that on brasa Yeah, she brought that energy with her the scary reptile in our house. I know I don’t I just Oh yeah, here’s a funny one and then we can go because it kind of wraps us right back around to the beginning and our tea. Right now there’s this is not a meme because it’s a freaking news story. But the did you see this? The New Orleans Police Department is having issues with the rats are eating their cannabis. And they’re like, like, running wild and the police department. Oh, the

Alissa 1:02:19
rats are happy just allotted.

Katy 1:02:23
Wow, that was the headline was like, actually let’s find the exact headline and then we’ll be done. So have you done all of your stories? Okay, I’ll

Alissa 1:02:32
give you the recap of what I have left. Okay. Oh, good. Let’s okay, my client bought a townhome loved the pool couldn’t wait for her grandkids to use the pool. We went and visited the pool every time we were there. Pool was beautiful pool was blue. She moved in pool is green. Well, yeah. has to deal with the HOA now. Welcome to homeownership. Homeownership sometimes comes with HOAs. And they’re not fun, fair. I had a client buy a house only to find out that 90% of the house was like rentals. And so like street parking was insane. Oh, right. Right, right. Um, ah, oh HOAs do HOA dues went up significantly. That’s not fun. Don’t forget, you have to pay property taxes and insurance. That’s fun. And then I had one that moved in and was like, this house is so perfect. Like, you know, we inspected everything, everything only to find out from the neighbor that he had hurt himself in the garage and the previous owner. And that’s how he died. So she was upset about that, because she’s already moved in. She found out like months later. And then there was one where we had been in a drought, right, so we had a home inspection on the house, they were buying and then after the first heavy rain that we had these mold spots appeared on the ceiling. Wow. And there was like a lot of mold in this bedroom. And there was a leak up there. But it wasn’t caught during the home inspection because the area wasn’t really accessible from the attic and the spots weren’t visible. Really, unless wet. Like it had been there for some time. But everything had totally dried up and so you just couldn’t see it until it right.

Katy 1:04:11
Yes, I have one more. Okay. Tell us the story of I think it’s you and you kept having I feel like a leak in a wall in your bedroom.

Alissa 1:04:24
My house. Yes.

Katy 1:04:25
Do you know what I’m talking about? I do. Please tell us what happened. I

Alissa 1:04:29
have been wanting an accent wall in my bedroom forever. So I finally decided to bite the bullet and get an accent wall. Well, three days after I got this beautiful like herringbone wood put on my wall. I love it. I still love it. Every time I go in my bedroom, I’m like, oh, it’s perfect. Three days after this happens, my AC won’t work. They come out. They are there for like two hours. They can not figure out what’s wrong with it. So they just they’re like it must be the coil. You know, they replace it. I pay like $2,700 was for new coil. Only two days later they come back, it’s not working, it wasn’t the coil at all. At some point when doing this accent wall and nail, hit some sort of line to the AC that runs behind my master bedroom wall. And so we would either a have to remove my new wall to cut it open to get in there to make the repair. Or B, we could reroute the lines to where now it runs along the exterior of my home. But it doesn’t, that’s what we opted to do. Because that’s the side where all the equipment is. It doesn’t really matter. We don’t see it, but it cost me a lot of frickin money to get that XML to get that access. And I told him I told him, I told Tanner, this is why I don’t do anything so why we don’t have nice things. Yes, that’s how I felt like I never do anything and then I finally do and look what happened one night.

Katy 1:06:00
I mean like that had to be a real specific, man.

Alissa 1:06:02
Yeah. Okay, good.

Katy 1:06:05
So

Alissa 1:06:08
there you have it. Now I’m all bitter homeownership is hard so are Don’t worry. We’ll come back and tell you why it’s worth it next time. Yeah. Or in a few weeks we’ll stay tuned for May flowers. Okay,

Katy 1:06:20
and here comes a toast. Oh, is it in your It’s over there. Here comes the toast from nor next. Yeah, nor not our next tennis Willis is gonna get us a name depends on how fast she can roll over to ask it. Uh huh. Thank you, ma’am. I this just in the toast is from. Oh, no. Oh, yes. Okay, great. Valerie Gonzalez is toasting to Jennifer Clark. And they are in Oh, okay. Valerie is in Bryan, Texas. And Jennifer’s. Iowa Tech’s Oh, awesome. Here we go. Goodbye, everyone. Bye, guys.

Speaker 1 1:06:56
Hi, I’m Valerie Gonzalez. And I’m from Bryan, Texas. And I’m toasting Jennifer Clark, my bestie my teammate, and I’m here with her hustle family crew love you.

Alissa 1:07:08
Thank you so much for tuning in to the hustle humbly podcast.

Katy 1:07:12
If you enjoy this episode, please go to rate this podcast.com/hustle humbly and leave us a review or drop a comment if you’re listening on Spotify. If you

Alissa 1:07:20
have an episode topic or someone you’d like to toast on the show, please email us at team at hustle humbly podcast.com

Katy 1:07:27
Find us on social media at hustle humbly podcast. Don’t forget to find all of the free resources at hustle humbly podcast.com/resources See you next week.