Ride Home Rants
Ride Home Rants
The Hidden Costs of Homeownership: Real Talk with Real Homeowners
Buying a home might be the American dream, but nobody warns you about the secret nightmares lurking beneath those picturesque front yards. In this eye-opening roundtable discussion, three seasoned homeowners pull back the curtain on what really happens after you get those keys.
Our special guest host Fiddy welcomes Wendy, a Cleveland-based realtor with dual expertise as both a property professional and homeowner; Collin, whose 1964 house has taught him the true meaning of "fixer-upper"; and Andrea, who discovered the hard way that previous owners don't always disclose raccoon infestations in the ceiling. Their combined experiences offer a masterclass in homeownership reality.
The conversation tackles the maintenance schedules nobody tells you about, with Wendy revealing how something as simple as changing furnace filters every two months can dramatically impact your home's efficiency and your health. The panel debates whether renting truly is easier than owning (it's closer than you might think), and shares war stories about the most challenging home projects they've faced—from kitchen renovations that make cooking impossible to landscaping projects that leave you fighting tree roots for days.
Perhaps most valuable are the warnings for prospective buyers: Wendy's revelation about those beautiful front yard trees potentially destroying your sewer lines might save you $21,000 in repairs, while Collin's advice to immediately check basements and attics that aren't shown in listing photos could prevent catastrophic surprises. And Andrea's passionate plea to never skip home inspections, regardless of market pressure, resonates with anyone who's ever discovered an expensive problem post-purchase.
Whether you're a current homeowner nodding along in painful recognition, a prospective buyer seeking insider knowledge, or someone content with renting who enjoys a bit of schadenfreude, this conversation delivers practical wisdom wrapped in enter
Subscribe for exclusive content: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1530455/support
Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched!Start for FREE
Buddy's Beard Care
Buddy's Beard Care provides premium men's grooming products at an affordable price.
Sweet Hands Sports
Elevate your game with Sweet Hands Sports! Our sports gloves are designed for champions,
Tactical Brotherhood
The Tactical Brotherhood is a movement to support America.
Dubby Energy
FROM GAMERS TO GYM JUNKIES TO ENTREPRENEURS, OUR PRODUCT IS FOR ANYONE WHO WANTS TO BE BETTER.
Shankitgolf
Our goal here at Shankitgolf is for everyone to have a great time on and off the golf course
Deemed Fit
Be a part of our movement to instill confidence motivation and a willingness to keep pushing forward
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.
Follow us on all social media
X: @mikebonocomedy
Instagram: @mikebonocomedy
@tiktok: @mikebono_comedian
Facebook: @mikebonocomedy
Welcome everybody to another episode of the Ride Home Rants podcast. This is your special guest, host Fitty, and today we bring you the All Things Houses show, as we talk to three phenomenal guests about all things related to home ownership. Before we jump into the show, though, and let the guests introduce themselves, make sure you peep all of our sponsors in the pre-roll and the post-roll, as they're all small business owners and they're great supporters of the show, and we can't make the show go without them, but, of course, our guests and our listeners also make the show go, so make sure you're tuning in and checking out all of season five our fifth season already here on ride home rants over 250 episodes that we've aired in these five years. So so make sure you're checking out all of season five and, of course, seasons one, two, three and four, where you can find all three of our special guests today on their appearances, not only on roundtables, but their individual shows. So we're going to jump right into the show here today and talk about all things houses, right, because why not?
Speaker 1:People own houses or people may be looking to buy a house, and I think this is a great show and a great roundtable to get three homeowners insights about buying a home, and we have a very special guest who's a realtor as well, so she'll give you a little bit more insight as well to the process of doing that. So, without further ado, I'm going to let the guests introduce themselves and then they're going to give you their name. How awful is moving on a scale of one to ten. And then is titanic a top 10 movie of all time and where they have it ranked.
Speaker 2:So we're going to start with you, wendy hi, I'm wendy kunash and I am located in cleveland, ohio. Um willoughby, ohio, usually, is what I go, and if I had to rank moving on a scale of one to 10, 10 being the worst, I'm saying 10. It's the absolute worst. It is my least favorite thing in the world and this is what I do for a living, which is moving people, so I can also come from a place of contribution and understanding there. So 10 on that Titanic is it in the top 10 for me? Yes, I will also place it as number 10 as well. Okay, yeah, okay.
Speaker 3:Colin, I'm calling Pope from Boardman, ohio. If I had to rank moving on a one to 10 scale, I would put it at like an eight. I can think it's pretty terrible, but I can think of some other things that might be a little bit worse. Um, and then, as far as Titanic goes, I would say it's definitely in the top 10. Um, for me personally, I would probably put it as like a five. Okay.
Speaker 1:All right, that's fair, andrea.
Speaker 4:All right, I am Andrea Precorado. I am from Youngstown, ohio. To scale moving, I'm going to have to give it a five because I literally moved a mile down the street from my childhood home, so I didn't even have to run a u-haul, we just kind of put everything in the car and got it there. Um, titanic it's. It's top two for me, like. I love Titanic. I've watched it so many times for being a three-hour movie. I'm obsessed.
Speaker 1:It's it's top two, so wow, okay, yeah, that that's fair. I would rank moving probably as a 10, because I've moved a lot and I was tired of moving in my Corolla like numerous times and then when we, when we moved to our house, which was like a mile and a half down the road, we hired movers because I was like I am not doing this, I am too old. My back, like no way. It was the best money I've ever spent.
Speaker 1:I I believe moving companies are worth every penny that uh that they they charge, um, and I'm gonna say titanic is definitely a top 10 movie of all time for me. I'm gonna probably say it's top five just because of the sheer amount of money they had to spend to make that, but also the sheer amount of money they made. That movie is still the third highest grossing movie of all time and I'm pretty sure, if I looked, if you add the inflation for 2025 compared to 1997, it would actually blow the top two movies out of the water of all time, and that was like avatar, and then I think that was one of the avengers movies as. But if you inflated it to the 28 years later, it would actually blow both of those movies out of the water, but we're not here to talk about Titanic, although that might be a good roundtable for the future. I'm going to keep that in mind talking about all things Titanic, but we're not here to talk about all things Titanic.
Speaker 1:We're here to talk about all things houses, People. Today, a lot of people are torn between buying a house or renting a house or having an apartment or a condo or a townhouse. But you know, our guests are going to talk about their perspectives on home ownership and a little bit behind the scenes on that for people thinking about buying a house. So we're going to go Wendy, Colin and Andrea on the answers here. Wendy, we'll start with you. So first and foremost, on the answers here.
Speaker 2:Wendy, we'll start with you. So, first and foremost, how old is your house? Great question, so this one so 25 years old?
Speaker 3:maybe 25 years old, Okay.
Speaker 1:Colin, how about yours? So my house was built in 1964, so if I do my math the right way, that is 51 years old. Yes, no, 61 years old. Yeah, 61. Okay, there we go. My math was a little bit off. Uh, andrea, how about you?
Speaker 4:um, mine was 82, so a little over 40 years almost. Yeah, 46, something like that.
Speaker 1:Okay, ours was 1992, so 33 years old, and the reason I bring that up is when we get into some of these other questions, we're going to talk about some of the behind-the-scenes things with the houses, with their ages. So, wendy, we're going to go to you and I'm kind of curious to hear this from your perspective, not only as a homeowner, but as someone who sells houses for a living as well in the real estate game.
Speaker 2:You know, what do you think the hardest thing about owning a home truly is the hardest thing about owning a home. Oh, I will say you got to be organized and you got a calendar, maintenance on your home, kind of like. Think about your dentist appointment, your eye doctor visits, those types of things. Think about all of the routine things that you can be doing in each season for your house to preserve what you actually have, but not only that, just to make sure that the mechanics of the home are just constantly being checked. And so, for example, furnace filters those should be changed believe it or not every two months. A lot of people don't do that. Air ducts should be cleaned out every two years.
Speaker 2:I know people that have never done it in their homes and their homes are like 50 plus years old, and it will increase your ability to breathe easier in the home, because our houses are so contained through the winter months and then also in the summertime when we're running central air system as well through the ducts, if that's what you have.
Speaker 2:So I use those as two examples. So for me, I think the hardest part is people, when they buy a home, they don't think about the scheduling and keeping themselves on task with maintaining the home and they think, okay, well, I just put on a brand new roof, so that's good. Our kitchen's updated, you know. We may have a brand new roof, so that's good. Our kitchen's updated, you know. We may have a brand new furnace, we may have a newer hot water tank and everyone feels like everything's operating as it should be and that's good. But there's all of those little things that help that house actually function on the day to day that need to be looked at a little bit more closely, and people just don't make the time for it because we're all busy. We're all busy enjoying whatever it may be right gotcha okay, colin, what would you say?
Speaker 3:uh, I'm gonna have to agree with wendy. I think general upkeep and maintenance is definitely a big part, um, for our situation specifically, um, when we bought this house, almost everything was original to the 60s, so we did a lot of modernization in our house and that took a lot of time and a lot of money. So that's definitely a factor that I think, depending on your situation, a lot of people are okay with certain things and I know a lot of styles are making their way back into style um, but that one for us was definitely something we weren't prepared for or andrea.
Speaker 1:What would you say?
Speaker 4:um, kind of along the same things. Um as that. So maintenance just being like, oh okay, like I have to cut the grass now, which I don't mind, I enjoy working on my home and like doing the upkeep. But this year with Ohio, like it's constant rain and when you get that one 24 hour window where you have the ability to go outside and do stuff, you have to do it, or your yard is the one that looks bad in the neighborhood and so, yeah, there's a lot of maintenance. And if that's something you're not up for, being a homeowner, I think would be hard of maintenance.
Speaker 1:And if that's something you're not up for being a homeowner.
Speaker 1:I think would be hard, sure, and that's going to tie into the next question, you know, but I think probably the hardest thing about being a homeowner and this is kind of kind of go off the same things, but I think it's just the lack of knowing the maintenance and certain upgrades that you need like to Wendy's point changing the air filters in your furnace, getting the air ducts cleaned, getting you know your your more energy efficient appliances, so your electric bills not through the roof.
Speaker 1:You know, it's just things like that. I think that's probably the hardest thing and if you can't do them yourself, I think it also can get into to Colin's point, dumping a lot of money into it, especially if you have to get contractors to do these upgrades. So I would go right along the lines with that. You know I'm going to kind of go into this because I am curious here, because Andrea kind of brought this up. You know, is it easier, in your opinion, to rent a home, not an apartment, a home rent a home or own a home? What do you think is easier, wendy?
Speaker 2:Easier for the actual person that's staying with inside right. Yep, I'm going to say renting a home is easier than being a homeowner.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:All right.
Speaker 1:What would you say?
Speaker 3:Uh, I'm going to have to agree that renting is easier, but just barely.
Speaker 2:I know Right, it's like a smidge. Yeah, I'm there too, yeah.
Speaker 3:I think there are aspects of owning the home that make you care more about certain things, but as far as like a baseline opinion, I think renting is just slightly easier.
Speaker 1:Andrea, what would you say?
Speaker 4:I think a big part of that would also depend on your landlord so my family's own rental properties and I think it depends on their expectation as well. So, like for a home, is the landlord going to pay for somebody to come and cut the grass? Obviously, they usually take care of the maintenance. If something breaks, that's on the landlord, but I guess it depends on the level of responsibility. But it is right there, I think. Either way, if something breaks and you don't got to fix it, then renting would be easier Cause you're like, I don't got to worry about that.
Speaker 1:Sure, you know I would say I'm going to disagree on this. I think owning a home is a little bit easier because you are in control of the home. If you don't have control of the home because you're renting from someone to Andrea's point it goes off of the home owner, quote unquote. You know who you're renting the house from and you're at the mercy of them.
Speaker 1:Because if they're out of town your hot water tank goes, you can't get ahold of them. What do you do, you know? So I didn't. It's like a 51 to 49% type of thing. But I'm going to say owning a home is just a little bit different because you're in control of the home. When you don't have control of something, it's really hard sometimes to get things done. So next one I'm actually curious to hear this, wendy what is the toughest housing project you have had to do? The toughest.
Speaker 1:Water, maybe that you personally haven't had to do, but you've maybe had to have a contract. Or, if you've done yourself, what is the most difficult project that you've run into?
Speaker 2:I honestly, I mean, I can think of a few of them, right. So it depends if you're in the house. If you don't live in the house yet or you're able to leave the house like, you're able to just go check out, go get an Airbnb or a hotel or something during a construction project, that's, I have to say, that's the best way to do it, because living through construction whether it's a kitchen remodel, which is a nightmare to deal with, if you live in the home, especially with children, it is messy, you are completely out of commission, being able to use running water from the sink and you'd be surprised how many times you need to go touch the sink when you can't touch the sink. And so kitchen remodel might be one of the top ones for me. If you live in the home, um, because that's stressful on every single person. You can't use a microwave, you can't use your oven, you can't do anything right, so you are expensing most of your food, having to eat out and rely on that.
Speaker 2:Um, I will also say and this is probably tied with this one waterproofing a basement. When you live in the home, on the exterior, because your whole entire done correctly, your whole entire landscape, concrete, anything around the house is going to be torn out shit when it's going on, you know. And then add in some rain, because somehow we get rain every day here now and it is a mud pit, and then they got to put it all back, but they can't level it yet for months until the ground actually settles. So you're living in like a messy yard, and if you don't time it perfectly with the good weather here, your yard is not going to be even usable either. So I got to say it's those two things for me.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, and when I was a lot younger, my dad had to get this house waterproofed and put French drains in the outside of the house, and man, that was one heck of a project with everything with everything. So, colin, what's that? One tough project. You know that you guys have had to do or you had to get a contractor to do you know around your house, especially being over 60 years old.
Speaker 3:So I'll just go off of what I've done personally. Um, I have redone all my own landscaping at this house and that you know, starting from tearing out all the old plants and all the old block and stone and removing mulch and digging dirt and biting roots for seven days in a row and then coming up with the new concept and what you want it to look like, and replanting and new block and everything. It's definitely very physically strenuous. So stuff inside the house hasn't been too too bad. But actually doing my own landscaping, trying to save on hiring somebody doing it definitely one of the hardest things I've done.
Speaker 1:Sure Andrea. What would you say?
Speaker 4:So I have DIY'd a lot of things. I've grown up working on houses but there's a lot of things here where, if I can do it and save the money, I will. One thing that I could not do and I had to hire somebody for was the previous homeowners didn't disclose that there was a raccoon issue, so they were like climbing up the siding and pulling the soffit down and they were living in my ceiling, above my bedroom, and so I had to have somebody come de-insulate, disinfect and re-insulate like the entire top of my home. And that was not when I was going to DIY, but it did get done.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I don't blame you on that, you know. And that's actually so funny because, uh, we bought our home last october and off the back of our house we have a sunroom and a deck off of that and the decks um, on top of stone but the sunroom is built on dirt but the rest of the house has a basement. So I noticed the hole where an old groundhog hole. So okay, so he called trapper, set a trap. Nothing there. So time passes. Notice, a groundhog one day crawled in the other side of our house, in the back, through a cement block that had a gap in it, through a cement block, went down, dug a burrow and then he occasionally was popping his head up. It looked like um caddy shack when he came out of the ground, the gopher and was dancing around.
Speaker 1:So that happened set a trap catch him in a couple hours so I have to come back. A hole's dug out. Now I'm smashing cement block, trying to crawl underneath a four foot space. You know, trying to do all this so that happens fast forward. Groundhog comes back a couple more times. So I've been fighting groundhogs underneath our back porch probably since last October. It's like the thousand year war here between me and the groundhogs and cement block and I got pickaxes and I got a mask on my face and a headlamp and goggles and I'm trying to trying to crawl in our access space underneath the porch.
Speaker 1:So I would say probably the animal thing. If you get an animal infestation or an animal's bothering a house, I mean they can do a lot of damage and we all know that. You know, wendy, I'm sure seen it to sell in the house, as Andrea spoke of it. I'm sure Colin knows as well. But Wendy, I'm sure has seen it to sell in the house. Andrea spoke of it. I'm sure Colin knows it as well. But those animals are no joke.
Speaker 1:I think the toughest thing is trying to rid animals from finding your house, because while you own the house the animal doesn't know that he's just taking claim to the house. So it's definitely like a thousand-year war when you're fighting the animals. So sometimes the groundhog gets me on the battle, but ultimately I'm going to win this war with the groundhog, so I'm hoping I don't have to get to the caddy shack and like blow up my backyard with explosives. I'm really not trying to do that. Um, so we're just going to keep plugging holes and battling him. So, uh, one of the next ones, which ties into a great segue into this uh, yard work. Now, andrea kind of hinted on this, but I'm gonna see what wendy says about this. Um, do you, do you truly enjoy yard work, wendy?
Speaker 2:no, not even a little bit. No, I've never, never, no, not once always hired somebody. Yeah, okay, being honest calling now.
Speaker 1:Besides killing yourself doing your landscaping, I mean, do you truly enjoy doing yard work?
Speaker 3:I will say, the only thing I don't enjoy is the leaves in the fall. That is about the only thing that really gets on my nerves, but everything else I'm okay with. I actually really enjoy cutting grass, so I'm one of those people.
Speaker 1:Okay okay, andrea, now you talked about this before, though but I mean, do you really enjoy doing grass? So I'm one of those people. Okay okay, andrea now you talked about this before though but I mean, do you really enjoy doing the yard work?
Speaker 4:I genuinely love it. I do I don't know why if it's like just the precision of it and like it looking nice after. But I'm like that dad, that like goes out, I'm like that's really nice, this looks good.
Speaker 1:Uh, colin, I have a leaf guy for you though and you guys are close, so it's good you know, the leaf guy can just make one thing.
Speaker 4:That's the one thing I don't do. I blow them all into the corner and he comes and picks them up nice colin, you might, you might have just found your new leaf guy.
Speaker 3:Don't have to worry about that anymore I'm just waiting for a strong breeze and then blow them all into the street I mean that's fair too.
Speaker 1:Whatever gets rid of them. You know I don't mind yard work to an extent, but the thing about our home is we had a tree taken down in the front of our house and in the back we had an old shed and some dead trees behind that and we had all that torn out and grass planted. So the bad thing is our house has no trees around it, so from literally sunup till four o'clock in the afternoon it's nothing but dead sun on our house and in the yard. And our yard does trap some water, so I can't get out there like at nine or 10 am to cut it. Usually I have to go out like around 11 or 12 or one. So I'm out there like the hottest part of the day trying to cut grass. It's like the Sahara Desert out there with the sun beating on you, especially with how hot it's been During just a funny story here During the massive heat wave that we had a couple weeks ago on that Tuesday I think that was like I don't know, maybe like the 22nd or something like that or no a little bit after mayberd 24th I was like I'm off today, I'm gonna go cut the yard.
Speaker 1:So the heat index is, I don't know, 105. I'm out there trying to cut weed, whack, chugging water, so hot. I'm in the backyard. About halfway through the backyard I was like I gotta go in the house before I before I literally pass out. So, anyways, go out there, finish it and I come in. I'm just like drenched in sweat.
Speaker 1:I counted I drank 14 bottles of water working out in the yard, which was Insane. I didn't want to drink water after that, but, um, yeah. So I was like a gluttony of punishment, I guess, for myself, trying to do the yard that day. But I will say, when I was done, I looked out from my Front window and I'm like, all right, I did that. Yeah, I was like I was like my proud, like old man, dad moment. If I would've walked down some flip-flops and like half high, like you know, knee socks, it'd have been a really interesting thing. I'd have been a real, real proud like grandpa on that.
Speaker 1:But, andrea, I do agree, when you're done it does look great. But for the most part, though, yeah, yard work is most of the time not pleasant, especially if you're tearing out tree roots, as colin alluded to earlier, with like bushes and stuff. So, uh, one of the next things, just especially talking about yard work and getting the contractors um, you know, uh, you guys mentioned that you kind of do the diy, you know projects around the house yourself to do it yourself, but do you think it's really is it harder or easier to find a truly a good contractor or good yard guy, or whatever it may be, to do work? Do you think that's a lot harder or a lot easier than what people think? Wendy, I'm curious to hear from you with this, especially being in the real estate game too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I'm going to tell you something. The people that I work with, like these contractors, these vendors that I have, they work on my own personal properties and I will vouch for them. But I have gone through so many of them in, you know, 20 years now in this business and you're going to cycle through because people get busy and they start, you know, missing things and they're not checking all of the boxes. It's not easy to find good contractors. It's not because something, something is missing in some, in some of these contractors are great at what they do. They are not great administrative people. They are not great administrative people.
Speaker 2:And so I think a lot of people get caught up in the complaint of well, they never called me back or I never got a quote and they were out here two weeks ago, and how can they be so incredibly busy? I still can't get something written up from them, or how do they not know how to schedule right? And so a lot of people get frustrated with contractors, not because of their work it's getting them to be scheduled for the work but also being able to obtain a quote or an actual date or something like that, and I I'm not sticking up for these contractors? Believe me, I'm not. But at the same time, I know a lot of them are running very thin and very small, because a lot of them are small business owners and they are trying to keep more money in their pocket as well and not pay additional employees, including administrative staff, to handle their scheduling, their books, you know, and taking care of quotes and pumping those out every single day.
Speaker 2:So I think there's, you know, it depends on on that. So exactly what is the complaint and what is the actual difficulty? But as far as good contractors oh my God, there's so many great ones out there and you know, if you take care of them and you respect them and you appreciate the work that they do and you can give them referrals, then they'll continue to show up for you. You know, I have great relationships with contractors where I can literally text them on anything and they will say I can be there in 10 minutes, I can make this happen in an hour for you, or if I can't do it, then here's another person, and so it's just the matter of the relationship that I have with them to an understanding of how they actually work.
Speaker 1:Sure, no, those are all great points, colin, of the relationship that I have with them too, and understanding of how they actually work.
Speaker 3:Sure, no, those are all great points, colin, what's your opinion on this, though, with the contractors, I would say personally I can definitely see how it could be hard to find good contractors. Every contractor I've had has been a referral like that. I've had work in my house so I've had really good luck with every contractor I've had Um. But I think if you I think as long as you do your research and it, you know it could be very extensive sometimes, but I think if you put the time in and actually you know, go in and talk to these people and see and, like Wendy said, create relationships with them, I think you'll have better luck than if you're just trying to run through the phone book and find somebody.
Speaker 1:So sure that's valid, andrea. What are your thoughts?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I kind of agree with all of it. I think relationships definitely help. Growing up, we really my dad was just kind of like a jack of all trades, so we really did a lot on our own and didn't have to hire a lot of people, and I think everybody likes to support small businesses. I feel like I've had a lot better of luck from a small, family-owned business compared to a larger one, not to say that great contractors don't work for larger companies. But I've just noticed the people that drive around in the van that come with two guys those are usually your ones that are doing it the old-fashioned way. They're making sure it's done right, they're not cutting corners and you're right, yeah, you take care of them. Usually we tip our contractors, we offer them food and drinks while they're there, and those are the ones that always produce the best for us.
Speaker 1:Sure, no, I think that's valid and you know both of my parents are small business owners. They're both contractors, so I definitely get that and the contractors that you know we've had here not that it's been a lot, but I'll just give them a shout out Thomas Fence did our fence, did fantastic job. They're a very reputable company. If anyone's looking for fencing in the area, especially in the greater Cleveland area, gore Jenks has been here. They've done. They're a Cleveland based company. They've done our elect, some of our electrical on our plumbing, our HVAC, so they're really wonderful to get a hold of them and while they're not a super small company, they're still very family oriented. They got some great people there. Tom, our animal control guy, who I've hung out with a few times because of our groundhog issues. He does a fantastic job. And Sam, our landscaper from Jacobson Landscaping, a very, very young business owner, but did a fantastic job with that.
Speaker 1:And I think you're right. You know when you can take care of them and you just ask how they're doing, you leave them water, you just show a little bit of interest and talk to them. I think it does go, you know, a very long way and I think the best thing and I've experienced this with a few of our contractors when a I like working here because you are an easy customer, I think that's the best compliment you can have as a homeowner and someone that supports them. Because, to Wendy's point and Colin's point, andrea's point, it's about the relationships and if they can compliment you as being a homeowner and being nice to them, that goes a lot farther than you beating the war drums because you're really pissed off with a contractor or you're just mad about something and it's really not their fault. You're just angry because something's going wrong with your house. So those are definitely all great points there.
Speaker 1:So one of the next things I want to talk to you about is going to be interesting, because I think everyone has maybe had this battle at some point or another, or maybe not, has maybe had this battle at some point or another, or maybe not. You know we'll, we'll see. We'll see what the guests say about this. But do you think sometimes people aren't able to really enjoy their home, especially the outside of their home, uh, due to neighbors? Um, do you think that's a real thing or do you think that's really just on a case by case basis? I really just want to kind of get your thoughts here. So do people sometimes struggle to enjoy their home, especially being outside, because of their neighbors? Wendy.
Speaker 2:I would say yes. Yes, I know several instances where people feel like they are having to be a prisoner inside their own home due to the behavior of what's going on at a neighbor's house behind them or even on the sides of them. So I have seen that in circumstances, of course. So, yeah, I would say yes, and it's frustrating for everybody involved too.
Speaker 1:For sure, Colin. What would you say?
Speaker 3:for sure. Call him. What would you say? Uh, I would say yes, I personally haven't experienced anything like that. Um, I've had neighbors, not at this house but in my previous home, um, that were troublesome, I guess, um, but never anything like towards any other people. It was more so just in infighting stuff that spilled into like the driveway or the street. But I could definitely see how you know. The nightmare neighbor situation definitely could make some people feel like they can't enjoy certain parts of their home, and it's unfortunate because you know you own that, you're it's, it's yours. You should be able to enjoy it how you want.
Speaker 1:Sure, absolutely, andrea. What would you say?
Speaker 4:I would say absolutely, because I am currently helping my friend build a fence because her neighbors will come over if she is outside at any point, like she cannot go outside and sit down without her neighbors being like there she is, let's go talk, and they're usually drunk or like whatever. So she's like I need a fence. So yeah, absolutely, and I don't think anybody should have to do that. That's a bummer, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think you know that's the one thing, that's probably probably the one most difficult thing I'd say for anyone buying a home, because you just don't know, you just don't know what's around you. Everything can look great and the optics can look wonderful, but when you go in, those optics become can become a different type of reality, whether for good or for bad. And I mean, sometimes you get really great neighbors and you know other times that you don't and you try to do things maybe to mitigate it. Right, you put up a fence, or you only maybe go out at certain times, or you maybe you close in your back porch. But I do agree with all of you. I think sometimes neighbors can definitely create a less than savory experience for you in your own home, and that's really really unfortunate. So we have a couple more topics we're going to talk about and we're going to round out the show. So, wendy, what is one thing that you would warn anyone about when buying a home? And it can be anything excluding the neighbor situation.
Speaker 2:What is?
Speaker 1:the one thing that you would warn anyone buying a home about, and it could be financial, structural, wherever the house may be. What is that one thing you would warn them about?
Speaker 2:Oh man, just one oh.
Speaker 1:Or you can give one from the realtor perspective and one from the homeowner perspective. However you want to do this.
Speaker 2:All right, one thing that I want to warn people on. All right, one thing that I want to warn people on. I I'm going to pick the easiest one. Okay, it doesn't sound like it, it doesn't sound like it's a problem, but trees in the front yard, big trees in the front yard, okay, and the reason why is this? Because our sewer lines, unless you're out in the country, if you are in a city and there are sanitary lines exiting from the house, they're gonna run to usually to the front of the house and to the street, and if you have a storm sewer, same thing. So you have these two lines, right?
Speaker 2:The thing is is when we have these trees, which are beautiful and I love them, including in our tree lawns, which are planted by cities, those trees have roots that you can't see, right? And so whatever amount of tree that you can see on the outside, above ground, it's big, it's bigger than the house. You've got to imagine that it's two times that amount underground that you can't see because of the tree roots that are buried, and that's the reality. That a lot of people don't know is that you've got this big ass let's call it 20 foot tree in the front yard. What do you think the tree roots underneath the ground look like? All in the front yard, in front of your foundation, where your sewer lines are exiting out of the house too, right? And so the thing is is with these tree roots, is they survive on water and they don't care what kind of liquid or where it's coming from, and so they eventually make their way into our sanitary lines. And you know a lot of people have slow drains and they don't think anything of it. Or they may, you know, have a roto-rooter or somebody come out and take care of clearing out the lines and they're constantly using Drano in their pipes and things like that.
Speaker 2:You're damaging your pipes by putting the chemicals down there to clear out the tree lines, roots, and it's a constant problem that you're going to have to deal with annually, annually, and it's extremely costly. But they end up breaking those sewer lines and you won't even know it unless you ever have them cameraed. And I can't tell you how many problems we are having, especially in houses that are like Colin's age right now, anything from like the sixties and before that time period. Most of those are all clay tile and most of those all have to be replaced if they haven't done, because they're broken and it's just a matter of the age of what they are right. So those are the most costly problems that you can have.
Speaker 2:I have a sewer problem right now due to a big tree, and right now it's totaling $21,000 for the sewer lines to be fixed in the city, and so when you know I'm showing houses and talking to people and educating them about the actual trees in the yard, it's not because I'm a tree killer. If you want them in the back of the property, you can have as many as you want, just don't have them around the house because eventually they fall. But you also need your house to breathe as well. The top of your house needs to breathe from the sunlight and dry out, completely right, but in the front those can be very, very costly and damaging problems that no one's really talking about. So that's going to be my top one.
Speaker 1:Okay, no, that's a great one. I knew some of that, but I never really thought of that, and that's actually so funny because you're talking about the size of the tree, of what we see, and you don't talk about it underneath. It goes back to Titanic. You only seen the top of the iceberg. You didn't see what was underneath the water, when it was like three times the size of that. So that's actually so funny that you brought that up. Um, colin, though what would, what would you say, colin? What was that one thing you had warned somebody about when they're buying a home.
Speaker 3:So this is just from my own personal experience, and Wendy might have a better insight in this than I do. But if you're looking whenever you're getting ready to buy a home and you're looking through listings, if there's no pictures of the basement and the attic, those are the first two places you need to go check if you do a viewing, because if they're not showing you those, then there's probably a reason that they're not showing. Ran into that a lot looking at houses in the Northeast Ohio with wet basements. That's a big problem. So definitely, if I had to give one piece of advice, it would be that Okay, no, that's a great piece of advice, andrea.
Speaker 1:What would you say?
Speaker 4:So it's great that Wendy's on here because she's a realtor and you're going to connect with this because my brother's a realtor, but I would say, not foregoing an inspection, so obviously I learned that from him through the home buying process. But I have so many friends now that are foregoing inspections because of how the market is and then they're like, oh my gosh, all these things are wrong and I'm like, well that I mean the extra $500 is so worth it. Like, yeah, if you get something bad back then you lose the $500, but that's better than losing maybe 20,000, depending on what the issue is that they end up finding out later.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, that's valid. What I would say is, when you're looking at a home you're getting ready to buy a home and I call these infrastructure things Look at the infrastructure and that is like your furnace, your hot water tank and your electric panel. And that is like your furnace, your hot water tank and your electric panel. If those things are old and beat up and they need replaced, you're going to have to spend some money because you just need those things to work efficiently and not everyone's a licensed electrician or can do that. Not everyone can do HVAC, not everyone can do a hot water tank, especially if your house is run by gas. So gas hot water tank, furnace, things like that, especially if your paneling is old.
Speaker 1:With the electrical aspect of things, I would tell people be cautious because, as all of us know, when you need electrical work done and your house is not up to I think it's to 2023 or 2024 code, especially in the state of Ohio they can't touch your house electrically until they replace your panel and put the second panel outside on the house. So I would say, be very, very cautious of that. Look at those three things the main infrastructure things HVAC, hot water tank and electrical because they can be the most costly if you have to do updates with that. So that would be my tidbit. But we're going to round out the show with this one really interesting question. I'm really curious to hear everyone's perspective on this. What is the one best thing about your home, wendy?
Speaker 2:The one best thing about my home.
Speaker 1:And it could be anything.
Speaker 2:I do like the height of the ceiling, so we have like a great room, it's 18 foot ceilings. So we have a great um like a great room, it's 18 foot ceilings and um it's housing our golf simulator, if I'm being honest.
Speaker 1:So I'm just going to say it's, it's that, yeah, okay, all right, colin, what would you say?
Speaker 3:Um, I'm probably going to have to go with the. The layout of my house is one of the good things. It's not. So I'm an open floor plan guy. Um, obviously, a lot of your older homes, anything that's basically not a new build. It's not going to have an open floor plan, um, but the way that our house is is organized. It's a buy level. So bedrooms up top, uh, living space down below, and it just flows really nice for me. So that's probably what I would say is one of the best qualities.
Speaker 1:Okay, what about you, andrea?
Speaker 4:So I love my house, but I'm going to say that I would say my neighbors. I moved in here and probably got some of the best neighbors front, back, side to side and, um, I'm very grateful for that for the time being that we're going to be here, cause this isn't forever home, but I probably looked out. They set a really high expectation for wherever I move next.
Speaker 1:Hey, you know what that ties back into, that whole neighbor thing, but I'm glad you got.
Speaker 1:You got great neighbors, um, you, you know, for us, I would say the best thing about our house even though I really don't like yard work is the size of our backyard and the fact that we have it fenced in. It allows us a lot of privacy. It allows us to host we hosted 4th of July here, with plenty of space out there, our dog's able to run and go have fun as well. So I'll say our yards probably the best thing, because we have a decent size yard and it sits a little bit off the road and we have a. We have a pretty nice size backyard with um, with a fence that goes the whole way around. So I'd probably say that's probably the best thing that I would say that we have with our house.
Speaker 1:So, but that's going to do it for this episode about all things houses. I hope everyone enjoyed listening and hearing perspectives from not just our three guests but also you know, myself as well, so giving you different perspectives on home ownership. So a big thank you to Wendy, colin and Andrea for coming on and sharing a little bit more about their homes and their experiences with home ownership. So, as always, if you enjoyed the show, be a friend and tell a friend, and if you didn't enjoy it, tell them anyways, because I bet they like it, just because you didn't. Mrs Fitty signing off and we'll see you next week.
