Embark on a journey through the intricacies of home improvements and property value preservation in this informative Fix It Radio episode. On this Valentine’s Day special, experts come together to discuss the pressing issue of home value depreciation and offer practical solutions for homeowners whether they’re looking to sell or simply maintain their property value. Delve deep into advice on renovation and also hear from listeners like Marilyn who shares her experience with bathroom updates. Explore the potential pitfalls and benefits of flooring, basement, bathroom upgrades, and recognize the significance of aligning your home improvements with the general market
SPEAKER 03 :
Walter? Upstairs! Are you alright?
SPEAKER 05 :
In the floor behind the chair.
SPEAKER 03 :
This is America.
SPEAKER 01 :
Does everybody know what time it is? Fix It Radio.
SPEAKER 11 :
And it’s Fix It Radio, KLZ 560. Welcome. We appreciate it. Happy Valentine’s Day to all of you listening. Yes, if it’s a replay, I realize it’s not Valentine’s Day then, but it is today. It is the 14th of February. Steve Horvath with me today. How are you, Steve? Good. Always a joy to have you. Thank you. And a little rain yesterday. No snow. Mountains got snow, which we need it down here as well. It’s bad. It’s dry. We’ll talk a little bit about some of those things today. I mentioned winter watering and some of that a couple of weeks ago. And for some of you listening, yes, that’s something that you really need to be looking at. Yeah, we got a little moisture last night, although probably not enough for some of your trees and shrubs. We’ll talk about some of that later. In today’s program, Charlie Grimes, of course, our engineer, Larry Unger, answering phones, which means we’ve got lines open. If you want to call in with anything at all, questions, comments, feel free to do so, 303-477-5600, 303-477-5600. And don’t forget, you can send us a text as well, the text line. You can do that any time, by the way, 307. 207-282-22. That’s 307-282-22. Last time Steve was on, we ended up talking flooring and all sorts of indoor things and so on, which we can get back to that. And I do have, if we get time today, I’ve got – it’s an article out of Family Handyman talking about 10 things – That decreased property value because that’s not that far down the road where some of you may think about, you know, moving or changing or some of you even might have inherited type homes and situations that’s becoming more and more of a factor as the baby boomers start to age and. Some of those homes are now going to be passed down to heirs and or other type of situations, estates, whatever. Yeah, what are some of those things that you can do to make sure property value stays up in the case of even your own home, making sure that you’re not decreasing property value for a lot of folk? And this is not an exaggeration. For a lot of folk, Their home is their largest asset. And for some, it’s not. I get it. For some people, they have a lot of money in the bank and investments and so on. But for a lot of people, that home becomes their largest investment. And at some point, they want to try to cash out of that and then do something with it. that money. Some cases, it’s what they have to live on during retirement as a part of retirement. In some cases, when you get old enough where you need assisted living and things like that, the home then gets sold to help offset some of that assisted living cost and things along those lines. And again, some of you are probably saying, well, how do you know all of that? Because I just went through that over the past several years with my own folks. So yes, those things happen. And by the way, they happen relatively quickly.
SPEAKER 12 :
The reverse mortgages is an interesting half.
SPEAKER 11 :
All of that.
SPEAKER 12 :
You have to kind of know.
SPEAKER 11 :
That’s right. That’s right. Marilyn in Fort Collins is starting us off today, though. Marilyn, welcome. How are you?
SPEAKER 03 :
Hi, I’m well. How are you?
SPEAKER 11 :
I’m doing very well. Thanks for calling us.
SPEAKER 03 :
Thank you for your fix-up show. I live by myself and maintain my home. It’s been very helpful.
SPEAKER 11 :
Good for you. We appreciate you listening.
SPEAKER 03 :
John, what would it cost? And I know, pardon me, it could only be an estimate, but… to do a tub-to-shower conversion. I don’t need anything else done in the bathroom.
SPEAKER 12 :
I just did it for about $20,000, $125,000, something like that, roughly in that area. Of course, it all depends on fixtures and things like that. Right, how fancy you go. Yeah, but I think it was one of the better things I did. The tub is dangerous, honestly, as we get older.
SPEAKER 11 :
The trick to this, Marilyn, is, and Steve’s right in saying, What I’m going to say is it depends on how you do it. And let me explain, for everybody listening, let me explain that. There are simple, easy… John, John, I’m going to interrupt.
SPEAKER 03 :
Go ahead. You said $20,000?
SPEAKER 11 :
That’s what Steve said. That’s going to be on the upper end because you can do, for example, there are people out there that you could do a pre-made slip-in. They come out, they measure, they determine exactly what your shower enclosure is or where the tub is now. They remove that. They put in an entire slip-in. And that’s the cheaper way to do it. It’s not quite as attractive. In my opinion, it’s not quite as attractive as having somebody go in and actually lay a pan and do the tile work and really lay it out. In a lot of cases, you can design that with a bench or an inset where you can set shampoo bottles and things like that. And some of that can be done in the slip-in showers, but not quite as attractive. as clean of a look, I guess I could say, Maryland, as if you had it done on sort of a one-off basis. But you’re probably looking at a minimum, I’m going to say. Steve’s on the high end at 20, and you’re probably going to be a minimum of 5 to 7,500 on the low end.
SPEAKER 03 :
Now, the low end I could handle.
SPEAKER 11 :
And the low end, there are lots of companies, Marilyn. This is where you just need to get on the Internet and do a little bit of searching and look at reviews and so on. I don’t have any companies that I know that I can recommend, but there are people out there that literally will come out and do a measurement and do a slip-in shower, and that’s not as expensive as doing it custom.
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay, good to know. That really bored me when I heard $20,000.
SPEAKER 12 :
Well, and are you doing the sink? Are you doing the toilet? Are you just doing the shower?
SPEAKER 03 :
No, no.
SPEAKER 12 :
And so that’s why the price was quite a bit higher. So that’s why it kind of depends on what you’re looking for. Correct, correct. And I guess the other reason, what are you doing it for? Are you going to be using it every day, or is it going to be used once in a while?
SPEAKER 11 :
In safety, yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah. And in Maryland, I years ago in my own home, not because I’m aging, but just because it’s some of it’s even the style. Now, I had all of our spare bedrooms that had their own bathrooms. I took and this is years ago. I took all the tubs out and did a walk in shower, just like you’re talking about. I think it makes it more aesthetically pleasing and easier to use. And it’s kind of the trend right now, Marilyn, for a lot of you listening to there’s getting to the point where unless you’ve got little kids, having a tub is just not as big of a deal as it used to be.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes, I agree. I don’t take a bath, so a shower works for me. There you go.
SPEAKER 11 :
Maybe a couple times a year. No, and Marilyn, if you need any other help, feel free to reach out.
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 11 :
Okay, Marilyn. Thank you very much. And for some of you listening, if you’ve got anybody that you’ve used in the past, Marilyn may reach back out to me. If you’ve got anybody that does the kind of the cheaper slip-in shower end of things, you’ve got a company that you want to recommend, you know, this is how we do things here. It’s a team effort. So if some of you listening have any insight into that, please send me a text message or an email. Let me know. I’ll pass that on to Marilyn. I’m sure she’ll reach back out to us at some point and I’ll help her along those lines that way. But I personally don’t have anybody I know that does the slipping into things. And I get it. You can buy those even at, you know, Home Depot and so on. The key there is you got to make sure your opening is, you know, the same. And there’s a lot, you know, in some cases you’ve got to change the, you know, take the tub out, change the opening to fit that slip in shower and so on. And, I think personally you’d be better off to find one of the companies that can actually make one to your opening so you’re not having to change a bunch of things around as far as that goes. You might spend a tad more money doing it. Well, you know what? By the time you actually make the enclosure, fit the opening and so on, you may not spend any more money just to have a custom enclosure made.
SPEAKER 12 :
True. But a lot of them are pretty standard. Most of them. Depending on your home, too.
SPEAKER 11 :
That’s right. Speaking of the devaluing of homes, this isn’t in my notes, but this is another thing that I personally, this is a big one for me that I think devalues homes. You want to keep the construction and even the decor, tile and so on, in line with the rest of your house and its value. So what I mean by that is… If you’ve got a, you know, let’s just we’ll take a million dollar home, which in this area is some people thinks it’s really expensive home. In other cases, it’s really not because the average price in this area is probably six to seven fifty. So we’re not talking about, you know, any kind of a mansion at a million bucks. There’s a lot of homes in this in this, you know, up and down this front range area that are a million bucks. So we’ll just use a million dollars as a as kind of that that starting point. You have a million-dollar home, and it’s got some decent finishes in it. Again, it’s not a mansion. It’s not got marble everywhere and things like that, but it’s done nicely. The last thing you want to do in this particular case is… is take a tub out and put one of the cheapy vinyl slip-in showers in. You’ve now devalued things in that particular bathroom and potentially your home. I mean, if the rest of your home has some custom tile work and things like that, you’d want to go ahead and spend the extra money and do a custom shower enclosure with a regular sliding door or something along those lines and really do it up nice versus doing it, sort of that quote-unquote cheap. Some of the custom enclosures, literally, they just do a slip-in vinyl. There’s a shower rod on top. It still has a curtain like you’d have if you were doing a tub, and off you go. There’s not even any glass doors or anything along those lines.
SPEAKER 12 :
And some come even in three pieces where you have a back and glue the sides.
SPEAKER 11 :
Correct.
SPEAKER 12 :
And I think it depends on what you’re trying to do. We owned apartment complexes when I was growing up. And my stepdad always had the trouble. He wanted to fix them up too nice.
SPEAKER 11 :
You don’t want to do that either. Yeah. So the sleeping would have been perfect for him. That’s right. You can’t go overboard either. So great point, Steve. Yeah. And the opposite could be true. So you take a house that maybe is in the lower end of the spectrum, $500,000, $600,000, and you see a home that’s got this really nice shower and you love it and you want to do that in your home. Well – You can, by the way, you can do that. Just remember that down the road, you’re probably not going to get the value back out of that because you’re now going to be different than everybody else in your neighborhood. Most likely when people are comparing, it doesn’t mean that somebody is not going to buy your home because you did that, but they’re just not going to give you the value back out of that, that you think you may get. It might help you sell the home a little better, but at the end of the day, you’re not going to get the value back out of doing it. It might make it a little easier to sell, but you’re not going to see the dollar. Yeah, dollar for dollar, you’re not going to see. And that’s why I’m also a big one on those of you that look at doing basements. I’m a big one on the basement should match the rest of the house and the structure of the rest of the house. So, I mean, I’m talking if it has, you know, knockdown texturing, then it should have knockdown texturing. If it’s got the other type of wall texturing, it should match that. Does it have rounded corners, square corners? In other words, whatever the rest of the house has. including handrails and things like that, my feeling is all of that should match. The basement should match that as much as possible. The worst thing I think people do is make the basement completely different than the rest house. And I’m not saying you can’t make it different as far as rec rooms and things like that go, but when it comes to the quality of the construction, my feeling is it should match the rest of the house because then it looks like everything flows and it’s not this completely different section of the house and it doesn’t look like an oddball.
SPEAKER 12 :
especially the flooring oh absolutely the flooring is where we kind of skimped out we put the carpet on because of you know trying to keep it in you know if you’re gonna have hardwoods there you gotta have hardwoods down there Otherwise, it doesn’t feel the same.
SPEAKER 11 :
That’s exactly right. make it match the rest of the house and what I mean by that even is what kind of sink does it have what’s the toilet like what are the what are the shower fixtures and the faucets look like I mean those things should match and be fairly equal to the rest of the house I think it benefits you when you do that I again personally I’m one of those where if you walk down you’re looking at a home to buy you’re and you walk into especially a basement area and it’s just completely different from the rest of the house, to me, that’s one of your first impressions. And for me personally, that’s a turnoff.
SPEAKER 12 :
And it’s better not to have anything. Just leave it blank and let you do it.
SPEAKER 11 :
Let somebody else do it. Yeah. If you’re not going to do it the way that I’m saying, you know, I think Steve’s right. You’re better off probably just letting it not be finished and don’t worry about it and let the next person do it.
SPEAKER 12 :
And, you know, basements have changed. When we were kids, that’s where we were sent. It’s where you hung out. Yeah, they sent us down there. They didn’t really care what the fixtures were. Now it’s a living space. Yeah, and now it’s a home for some people with a kid, multi-generation.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah, there’s situations where that may be, quote-unquote, kind of a little apartment where somebody else might even be living down there. Some people can turn that into an additional dwelling unit where it’s even a rentable space and so on. My point is we’re going to talk about some of these things that devalue properties. I think that’s one of them. It’s not in my notes, but it is one of those things that I feel like can devalue a home if you’re not doing that. And by the way, this applies to we just talked about, you know, Marilyn got us started on bathrooms. It can be a bathroom remodel, could be a kitchen remodel, could be anything along those lines. You need to do it in combination of what the value of your house is and make it look accordingly. Yep, I agree. You don’t want to step down, and you don’t want to step way up because either one of those things can come back and bite you. Lines open, 303-477-5600. Maryland got us started off on the right foot today, so we’ll come right back here in a moment. Don’t go anywhere. Fix-It Radio, KLZ 560.
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SPEAKER 11 :
Okay, we are back. Fix-It Radio, KLZ 560. Thanks for joining us. We appreciate it. Steve Horvath with me today, Geno’s Auto Service. He’ll be with me for Drive Radio as well. If you’re listening on Tuesday, you can always go and listen to Drive Radio by just going to the website, drive-radio.com. And you can always go back and listen to previous episodes of Fix-It Radio as well. Again, our website there is just fixitradio.com. And it’s real easy for you to go back and find previous episodes. Now, before I jump into some of the surprising things that can decrease your property values, that’s the title of the article that I have for today. Some of the things right now, and we are temperature-wise right now. Let me look, because it’s supposed to be, I think, 50-something today. Let me double-check this for all of you listening. Yeah, it’s supposed to be up into the 50s today. And 64 tomorrow, 66 Monday, a little cooler as we get through the week this coming week. Point being, we have not had a lot of moisture and I know I said this a few weeks ago and for some of you you may even want to turn your sprinkler system back on and do some winter watering on you know different places now again I had people comment even the last time I said that you know make sure your ground isn’t you know thoroughly frozen and you can usually go walk on it or even take a screwdriver and poke it down in and see how hard the soil is because you want that water to be able to absorb not not just sit on top we don’t want to waste water and Uh, but for trees and shrubs and things like that, even if you’re not going to do your yard, you, you ought to at least get the garden hose out and go ahead and water some of your trees, some of your shrubs. Now, if you’ve got old mature trees that you can tell them, I’ve got some trees that probably were planted, meaning they’re older than this because they were probably planted and they weren’t, you know, They weren’t a sapling. They were probably a, you know, a decent, you know, not full mature tree, but, you know, probably had a few years on them. I’ve got some trees I’m sure were planted in the early 70s, meaning they’re old. Now, those are trees that have enough of a root system and are going down far enough that probably don’t have to worry too much about winter watering for those. They’re mature. They’ve got well-established roots. They’re going down into places that they can find water and so on. But your younger, immature trees, which for a lot of folks listening, if you’ve moved into a newer neighborhood especially and you’ve got some newer plants, maybe they were just planted a year or two ago or maybe even this last year, yes, you definitely need to make sure you’re getting some water on any of those types of plants or trees or shrubs. Anything that’s not fully mature, even some of the mature ones, depending upon the age, you’re going to want to make sure you do some winter watering on those because, again, we just haven’t had enough moisture this year. And if you don’t, you’re going to end up with some other problems that could potentially come up. Now, don’t overwater, but we want to make sure we’re getting enough water to those trees in the winter months because they still need it then. You don’t think about it that way, but yes, they still need that moisture.
SPEAKER 12 :
that moisture in the winter months as much not as much as they do in the summer months because they’re not in their growing season of course but we’re not that far from that what i’ve done in the past is just a tip i’ve taken like a little five gallon home depot bucket just poke a little hole in it fill it up about halfway and just go set it by the tree for the It’s a good idea. That way you’re not opening up the hose. It’s a good idea. Going through all that. Good idea. Because you’re worrying about those kind of things.
SPEAKER 11 :
Great idea. Yeah. And for some of you listening, you’ve got little tricks, I should say, things that you can do along those lines. Whatever you’ve got, whether you do it Steve’s way. Some of you have got the ability to hook a hose up where it’s not that big of a deal depending upon where it’s at in the house. And, again, that’s always an issue depending upon the home you have and so on. Again, keep in mind that we’ll have colder nights, so you still want to make sure you unhook your hose because if you don’t, you could potentially have some issues along those lines. Now, for some of you that have some of the fancier, I guess you could call it that, fancier, how do I want to explain this? I don’t know who did these in my home because I bought the home this way, but I have faucets that are self-draining, so I can leave a hose hooked up all the time. Okay. Because the faucet itself drains out as soon as you shut it off. Even anything that’s up in the hose itself will drain back out and fall out of the faucet area. It’s a very slick system, by the way, and works very, very well. But not all are that way. Most are not made that way. If you’ve got a hose hooked up and there’s water in it, you’re going to have some sort of a problem with that spigot, and you don’t want that.
SPEAKER 12 :
And most of them have the turnoff deep into the wall, so the water’s not coming, but you still have water from that point out, so at some point it’s going to freeze.
SPEAKER 11 :
Truthfully, I’ve never looked at my type of faucet to determine what makes it to where it actually drains, but yeah, I’ve got faucets where I don’t have to worry about unhooking the hose because it’s a self-draining faucet. So for some of you, yeah, they do make those sorts of things, and plumbers that are out there listening probably know exactly what I’m talking about, and You could upgrade some of those if you ever wanted to. But point being, you’ve got some plants and shrubs. And I even heard Larry earlier before we came on air talking about how he’s got some tulips in some areas coming up. And yeah, it’s been warm enough to where our plants don’t really know what to do. And what I will also say is we’re not completely out of the woods yet. We could easily get… snow this month we could get snow in march we could have snow all the way through april i mean i’ve seen years where it’s pretty dry all the way early and then all of a sudden the switch goes off and we have little to no spring and we get all sorts of snow and rain i have no idea folks i i do not have a crystal ball i cannot predict those things i don’t have the foggiest idea what’s coming down the road weather-wise
SPEAKER 12 :
And our snowiest months are generally March and April. For the most part, it’s when we get our most moisture. And I hope we get it.
SPEAKER 11 :
We need it this year. So here’s what I will say. When it does come, I don’t hear anybody complaining. Don’t whine about it. We’ve had a super nice winter this year so far. So when that happens, yeah, don’t be complaining because we know that light switch could go off. And, again, other things you could do on the outside of the home at this time of the year when it’s this warm, any kind of cleanup projects you’ve got, things like that. Again, keep in mind, use your time wisely. We could easily have a very wet, snowy, even cooler spring where you’re thinking, man, I wish I had done some spring cleaning back in February when, you know, John and Steve were talking about it. Do that. It’s nice enough out right now. Or if you want to get some things done outside, you know, do some tree trimming and some – pruning and cleaning up of you know uh you know needles that fall off of the trees or leaves or whatever yeah now’s your chance to get a lot of those things done and do it now when it’s nice and warm you’re okay to tree trim i don’t know they always talk about different times a year you can do it this time of the year no problem at all much easier to do it now than it would be in the spring so much easier when it’s growing and all that sap is running and all that kind of stuff is when you don’t want to do it i assume Somebody said a landscaper, his landscaper rigged up a system where they can water using the drip irrigation, but it bypasses the valve boxes so they can come out and winter water the tree lines. That’s nice. That’s a really nice feature. So, yeah. So, again, some of you have different things and you know what you have. And that’s a good thing because you can actually end up getting some winter watering done, again, without… having to turn everything on to do so. Now, for some that don’t have that ability, you’ll have to know how to do that, go back through, get the system back in shape so that you don’t have any freezing and things like that.
SPEAKER 12 :
Do you have the – no, you don’t live in a neighborhood like mine, but we always have that one neighborhood that always has the best grass. I don’t know if you ever had that. I am that guy. You got that guy? Okay. Well, yeah, I’ve said a lot of bad words about you. But I do have the one neighbor. He had sprinklers on the other day. He was watering.
SPEAKER 11 :
I’m watering.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yeah, I was impressed. I am, yeah. I’m that guy. Sorry. It’s just who I am. Our guy is Ron. Hey, Ron, why are you doing this? It looks so nice. And we look so scummy next to it, near him, you know.
SPEAKER 11 :
Everybody calls me the grass farmer. So, yeah, I’m a grass farmer. And I’ve been that way for all of you listening. I’ve been that way my whole life.
SPEAKER 12 :
But isn’t it, it’s just a sense of pride, too, when you cut your grass and it looks good in the summer and, you know, it’s nicely trimmed.
SPEAKER 11 :
I think where mine started is I literally started mowing the lawn even on a riding mower for my dad when I was no more than, I don’t know, seven, six, seven years of age. I wasn’t very old. And I enjoyed mowing the lawn and taking care of things even as a young boy. And I think for me it was just one of those things that’s sort of therapeutic, I guess you could say. And I enjoy doing those things and working outside and all of that. So I’ve just sort of always kept doing it. Yeah, and hence you have a landscaping company, too. There you go. So it all fits together, though. All right, the 10 things, and it may be more than 10, but things that can devalue your home. Now, some of these things, by the way, that I’m going to mention. You may have control over, and in some cases, you have zero control over. And I’m sorry for those that have zero control because it’s frustrating when you have a situation that may devalue your home, and yet you have zero control over that. First one on here, bad neighbors. Yeah. Yeah, bad neighbors, and depending upon how they keep their home and what goes on, this is where, unfortunately, because I am not a big HOA guy at all. I hate HOAs. They do have a purpose at times, and good HOAs that serve their purpose well, I think, do a good job, and they sort of keep the neighbors and the neighborhood looking like it should. So I’m not totally against them. The problem with most HOAs is they start off with really great intentions, but And then they get a bunch of Karen and Kevin’s that serve on the board and such. And then it becomes this absolute, you know, Nazi style of dictatorship, dictatorship where you can’t do anything. And that’s not funny either. So somewhere there’s a happy median. And if you have one of those HOAs, congratulations, because most of them are not that way. Most of them are trying to dictate to you what you can and cannot do. I get it. They serve a purpose and they’re trying to keep the neighborhood and the values of the Like this article is talking about, you know, bad neighbors can really devalue your home. So, you know, junk strewn lawn, loud dogs, wild parties. I mean, things like that where, you know, if you live in an area where you just don’t have any control over that, can that devalue your property? Yes, it can. And the problem with what I just said on that one, there’s not much of a fix there. There really isn’t.
SPEAKER 12 :
I was going to say location might be on there. I’m sorry to get ahead of you, but.
SPEAKER 11 :
the same kind of thing it’s a similar basically the same thing yeah and this is where it gets really you know this is where it’s upsetting to some you may have started out in the neighborhood it was a great neighborhood and you’ve lived there long enough now to where there’s been some turnover and it’s not what you moved into and and this is where this is a piece of advice for all of you listening this is where you have to be very aware of what’s going on in your neck of the woods in in your area of you know wherever you’re living your neighborhood and so on And here’s a piece of advice. When things look like they’re starting to turn, you better move because eventually it’s going to have a bigger impact on your property values than it is right then and there. The minute you start to notice something and you live there daily, other people moving in won’t quite see it that way. You can because you’re there on a regular basis, but you need to be paying attention to what’s going on around you, your home, your neighbors, and so on. And really, when it starts to look like things are starting to degrade a little bit, it’s time to leave. And I know that it’s hard because, you know, homes are, you know, homes, quote, unquote. They’re your home. Yeah, I’ve never looked at it that way, but I’m unique. I look at a house as a house, and a home is what you make of it. So a house is just a structure that you live inside of. The home is you and your family and the folks that you have near you and around you and so on. The house itself is nothing more than a structure. That’s how I view it. But not everybody is me, especially you lady folk that are out there. You look at things much differently than we men do and than I do because I’ve never looked at anything other than just a structure that has a price on it.
SPEAKER 12 :
Emotions are different. They’re not the same. We mentioned, I think we talked to this last time, how many times have you driven by your old house? And it’s not that we do it all the time, but you never do it. I occasionally do it once every few years.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah, I bet I haven’t been by my houses, my old houses, and I can drive by all of them because I’ve lived here my whole life. I could take not more than an hour and drive by every single house I’ve ever owned in our area, and I haven’t done that in a decade or more. Yeah. It’s just not.
SPEAKER 12 :
But, you know, there’s emotional attachments. But I don’t know if it triggers good memories, too.
SPEAKER 11 :
In some cases, it does, yes.
SPEAKER 12 :
But it’s not, you know, it’s an investment.
SPEAKER 11 :
It really is. This article even talks about, you know, checking the National Sex Offender website to make sure that, you know, if you’ve got some folks that are starting to sort of multiply along those lines. Yeah, these are indicators. This is my advice. This isn’t in the article. This is me talking. Those are times where you really need to look at do we need to stay here or should we be looking at moving forward?
SPEAKER 12 :
someplace else something i just thought of and maybe a great idea is is there a rating system for hoas oh wouldn’t that be a question you know so your realtor could say this is hoa is an a hoa or b or c or that’s a great question that would be a great way to go into things and that would make a difference in in price of your home yes sure maybe i’ve given somebody a good idea out there
SPEAKER 11 :
That, yeah, guys listening, that is something I don’t know anything about, and that would be definitely worth looking at. One thing, a text message just came in. One thing I hate about neighborhoods is where they put the nicer homes in the back of the neighborhood, and you have to drive through the cheaper, poor community to get to the better homes. Or they put the nicer homes in front of the neighborhood, and all the trash has to drive by the nicer homes to get to the less expensive homes. Yeah, it’s… You’re not wrong. And a lot of these builders will – and keep in mind, this is something that I want to make sure that I’m very careful of because you builders, please, I’m not against you because I know it’s not you. Keep in mind for a lot of you listening, those are the communities and cities that are usually dictating what the developer actually does. That’s typically not the developer doing that. The developer is typically trying to meet – Some sort of an expectation to get the building, you know, to get to get the building department, the zoning department, some planning departments, I’m trying to say to approve that particular project. So in a lot of cases there, there may be even deviating from their original plan to suffice somebody at City Hall. or county hall, or depending upon where you’re at, to make sure that they can get their project going. So in a lot of cases, it’s the cities that are dictating that, not the developer.
SPEAKER 12 :
The model homes, when you know when they build those model homes, because that’s always the first few. And that’s the ones that are the first, easiest to develop, quickest, and they’re going to put all the nice things in there, so you have the options. So that’s probably typical. But they’re going to have generally their four or five different homes. Well, I don’t know how many do that. Maybe it’s only three.
SPEAKER 11 :
Depends on the community. Sometimes they’ll have three, six. Depends on the community. But thank you for that text message. You’re 100% correct. That’s exactly how that works. And again, I’m not trying to be hard on developers because in most cases, not all, but in most cases, that’s coming from the city usually, the planning department of either the county or the city that make them do those things, affordability, so on and so forth. And that’s why that gets done that way in a lot of cases.
SPEAKER 12 :
And all that, the land, I think you had told me once before how much it costs per acre to develop it just to get it ready to put a house on. It’s a ton. It’s a ton. So you can’t just build a $200,000 home.
SPEAKER 11 :
No.
SPEAKER 12 :
You have to build something. That’s right. You’ve got to build it.
SPEAKER 11 :
That’s exactly right. Yeah. By the time they do the dirt cost, infrastructure costs, all of your water and sewer, curb, gutter, asphalt, and so on, oh, it’s super expensive before they ever dig a hole for a foundation for a home. And, you know, a lot of risk. Yeah.
SPEAKER 12 :
Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER 11 :
So those developers, I’m not against them because there’s a lot of risk on their part. And they take a bad rap. And I’ve learned this a long time. I learned this a long time ago, I should say. And you guys are developers. Hats off to you. And I get it. There’s just like any other industry, just like the auto industry or construction or whatever. There are good and there are bad. I understand there’s some really good developers and there’s some really bad developers. And I fully understand that. So. You guys don’t have to text me with the bad ones because I know they exist. I also know there’s a lot of good ones. And I also know that in all cases, there is a tremendous amount of risk that these developers are taking to see a project all the way through fruition because they have got a lot of money. Most people don’t know this, but they are spending in some cases. And this is not an exaggeration. It could be a very minimal expense. I mean, I’m talking you could have a 15, 10, 15-acre site, and they could spend a million bucks just getting through the city approval process before they ever do anything on the property itself. And I am not exaggerating what I just said. By the time they do traffic studies, civil engineering, all of your dirt studies, sewer and water, drainage, you get all that stuff put in front of the city, do all your city meetings, do community meetings. I mean, by the time you’re done with all of that, all of the legal expenses and so on, It doesn’t take much for these guys to get a million bucks in something really, really quickly. And that’s something that the average person out there buying a home has no idea exists.
SPEAKER 12 :
When I did the remodel on the shop, we had to come up with our idea of what we wanted and everything. And we had to make seven copies so each of the departments could then compare it. And then they changed things. Then you’ve got to go back. So it’s not just like, oh, here’s what we’re going to do. Oh, it’s a process.
SPEAKER 11 :
For those of you where a developer even buys a piece of property, and it’s called entitlements, by the time they get that piece of property entitled, and can finally actually start working on it i’m not exaggerating you can be a three to five year process and that is not an exaggeration all that time you’re paying for taxes yeah you’re paying either taxes you’re paying some carrying costs if they’ve got a little debt on it you’re paying for the entitlement investment you’re paying for all the things i mentioned a moment ago from the civil to some of the architectural things to the stuff steve just talked about going back and forth with your planning department and other departments the fire department even and on and on we go i mean the reality is it’s It’s a lot of work, and any of you that are listening that have been through that, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Those of you that have never been through that, be careful when you criticize developers because, again, they are taking on a tremendous amount of risk to get a project all the way through. And in some cases, yeah, they can hit it big and make a ton of money, and there’s a lot of them out there that don’t make much at all. maybe barely break even, and some lose money depending upon the project. So be careful when you criticize developers because they’re not all as evil as a lot of folks out there make it sound.
SPEAKER 12 :
And I don’t want to make it sound like the city is evil. Well, they can be.
SPEAKER 11 :
Some are.
SPEAKER 12 :
Some are worse than others. But, you know, like when you send somebody to the fire department, they see things that maybe you don’t see that they have to do to get out of fire or to get to somebody.
SPEAKER 11 :
Very true.
SPEAKER 12 :
And so that’s why you’re – putting it to him. So it’s not that they’re evil or bad, but they need to put their stamp on you.
SPEAKER 11 :
They do. And the other thing that you’re fighting, and I say this sincerely, fighting when it comes to the things Steve just talked about is you’ve got seven different personalities. And in some cases, some of these city folk, and I’ll be the first to say it, and I’m being critical because I can be, some of these city folks have huge egos. And they’re going to make sure that their stamp of approval means something. And you’ve earned it, I guess you could say, at the end of the day. And they are going to make sure that you as a developer are or even as a homeowner, have earned their stamp of approval. And in some cases, it takes a lot to get that. And I’m not exaggerating, folks.
SPEAKER 12 :
Well, they have a vision, I’m doing quote marks, of what they want their city to look like, and you’re going to do it that way.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah, and keep this in mind, too, for some of you listening. That’s what these developers are up against. And this is not an exaggeration. Not all. Some of you folks who work for the city that are really good, you know who you are. There are some folks, though, that work for cities and counties that have – and I’ll say it this way – never have had a real job in their entire life. They literally have worked for government their entire life. Some of these folks, by the way, are extremely young. And I’m not exaggerating when I say that. You’re going to find some folks in these planning departments that are in their 20s. And I’m not exaggerating when I say that because they can hire those folks relatively inexpensively. They put them to work. They’ve never done anything outside in the real world. And yet they’re going to tell you how to do your development and how to do this and how to do that. And I hate to say this. They’re still wet behind the ears. So – Don’t get me started on all the city nonsense you have to go through. My point is developers take on a lot of risk to handle all the things Steve and I just mentioned. So thank you for that text message, and you’re not wrong, but that’s why some of that exists the way that it does. And with great risk comes great reward. That’s exactly right. All right, let’s take a quick break. We’ll come back, take the phone calls. Lines are open, 303-477-5600. Fix-It Radio, KLZ 560.
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SPEAKER 11 :
All right, we are back. Fix It Radio, KLZ 560. A couple of you even asking, you know, how do I know so much about all of this? You know, they call it entitlement process when it comes to land and buildings. Because I’ve done it, folks. I’ve had these meetings with cities and been on that side of the aisle and have been involved in enough things where, yep, I’ve learned it the hard way, unfortunately. Steve, you’re next. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 05 :
Good afternoon, Sir John, or good morning. How are you? I’m good. You are 100% right on, as ever. And in Colorado Springs, we have a situation where all these major, major complexes that are now coming on the market started in 2020 during the scourge of COVID. But it takes that long to get these things up and running. So, as ever, for the fifth time that I’ve seen since I’ve been here, they’re running 30% vacancy rates. They’re giving three months free, and they had decimated the rental market. And these are all pretty upscale, $1,900, $2,200 a month. Yeah. And the one I was fascinated with was the nationwide outfit. They bought the old Sears building, Chapel Hills, west of the mall. And they knocked down, demoed the Sears, and they had included the deal, the ground, and the parking lot out to the west. Took them five years, but now 310 units later, they’re there.
SPEAKER 11 :
And also remember, too, Steve, this is something most people don’t know. Because of our construction defect laws in Colorado, a lot of these guys will go in and build condos that basically are an apartment. They’ll rent those out for 10 years. They’ll make it through that stretch knowing that at the end of 10 years, they can actually turn that into condos they can sell because that’s the way they get around the construction defect law.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, that construction defect law is really creating a mess. It is. Condos, a little bit less tunnels, but condos, big mess. You’re right. But anyway, continuing on that subject, you know, the big push now is for Ford Wiles. Well, there are some things you can do, and I’m sure you’ve seen this company down in Austin that for, oh, at least the last 10 years, they’ve been using 3D technology. printer technology to build houses. Right. And it’s pretty cool because they don’t take breaks. They go 24-7. It’s very cool. They have one guy feeding material.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yep.
SPEAKER 05 :
And they’re also doing commercial stuff now.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yep. It’s very cool.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, very cool.
SPEAKER 11 :
We say printing, and it is. It’s printing with concrete, basically, is what it is.
SPEAKER 05 :
It’s printed with concrete, and it’s just like a computerized milling machine. Once you program it, let it go. As long as you’ve got some of the poor material in there, you’re ready to go.
SPEAKER 11 :
The only downside I’ve heard of those that folks have brought up even to my attention is down the road, if you ever want to change anything internally, you’re not going to. Basically, that layout of that home is always going to be that layout. So no blowing out room. Correct. Exactly.
SPEAKER 05 :
The strength is in the wall.
SPEAKER 11 :
That’s right. That’s right.
SPEAKER 05 :
It’s not like you can drill in drywall and pull wires through. Correct.
SPEAKER 11 :
But the technology and the way that works, Steve, yeah, it’s awesome.
SPEAKER 05 :
It is awesome. And on the other side of that coin, on the affordable housing issue, if you can get municipalities to restrict all the restrictions on building codes, lighten up, do the important ones, you know, gas, water, heat, but you’ve got these bumbling bureaucrats, as ever, that have come in and piled all kinds of other extraneous Regulations on there, in most places, depending on where it is, you’ll run costs up right below by 30%, 35%. So you save 30%, 35% on construction versus stick and frame. Another 30%, 35% on regulations. Now we’ve got some affordable housing.
SPEAKER 12 :
Good point. Taking a million-dollar home, making $650,000. Good point. Yep, you’re right, Steve.
SPEAKER 05 :
As you mentioned, we have developed a culture of all these people wanting to do feel-good stuff, as in NIMBYs. So don’t want it in my backyard.
SPEAKER 11 :
Right. Yeah.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s right. And they come out in hordes right now. The Poor Empathy, which is a state-of-the-art facility in the north part of town. Right. It has been voted the best single entertainment venue clear out to the west coast.
SPEAKER 11 :
Wow.
SPEAKER 05 :
But they have a huge number of complaints from people. Oh, yeah, they do.
SPEAKER 11 :
I see those all the time. Yeah, they do.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, they put up sound walls and all that. That’s right.
SPEAKER 11 :
Loud, this, that, and the other. Exactly.
SPEAKER 05 :
Eventually, they’re going to have to have a bubble.
SPEAKER 11 :
Probably. Probably. Yeah, you’re right. Enjoy your show.
SPEAKER 05 :
Talk to you on the car show.
SPEAKER 11 :
Appreciate you, Steve, very much. Thank you very much. Jeff, you’re next. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 04 :
Hey, good morning, gents.
SPEAKER 11 :
Good morning.
SPEAKER 04 :
Sounds like we have pretty much the same weather going on. Tomorrow or Monday we should get some rain, but not now. As a matter of fact, we have a what we call FLIC, Flathead Lake International Cinema Fest going on. Oh, nice. Filmmakers from all over the world come in and and do their films. So yeah, who would think that some tuck way in the northwest corner of rural Montana that you could have art films and stuff. But we do, and it’s really cool. Yeah, I’ve never understood the building the homes in the foothills up above everybody else because in Colorado Springs there, that means you don’t ever get to see the mountains. You’re looking at Kansas. And so the best views are out of ways. You know, the hoi polloi and feel like they need to be above everybody else, I guess, is probably an unconscious… Yeah, a different view.
SPEAKER 11 :
I mean, I think you bring up a great point. And it’s just a different viewpoint. Some people like that city view. They like being up on the hill and then looking out or everything and the expanse of things and so on. And they like living kind of in that ruralness of the foothills itself, I guess, as well, Jeff. Yeah, it’s just to each his own. Some would rather have a nice view of the mountains themselves, of the Front Range. Some would rather live up in the hills and have a view of the city. And personally, I think a lot of it has to do with where have you lived most of your life? You know, for me personally, I’ve looked at the mountains so much, I take them for granted. I know I do. I know if I didn’t live here, I’d miss them. But on a daily basis, Jeff, I rarely just sit and look and stare like a lot of people that have never seen them do. So for me to look out at the city versus the mountains, I don’t know that I would care one way or the other. Yeah.
SPEAKER 1 :
Hmm.
SPEAKER 04 :
It’s just interesting. And then when we had the fires in Colorado Springs a while back, you know, the Mountain Shadows Estates, they had one road in and out. And there were some folks who were wondering if they were going to be able to get out. Yeah. Speaking of Colorado Springs, sorry for that. You were talking about the frostproof faucets earlier.
SPEAKER 11 :
Right.
SPEAKER 04 :
There’s a company that actually in Colorado Springs, Woodford, that makes them. We have them on our house here in Montana. And one of the things folks don’t think about with those faucets is that they have internal stuff, washers and different things, springs, that can go bad. And so after a while, you need to replace the gut. It’s not a difficult job. I’ve done it on all our faucets because the house was 27 years old when we moved in And I just wanted to make sure we took care of it. So that’s something for folks to, when you’re dealing with your faucets, make sure that you do that. You know, if they’re older and they leak or you don’t know if they’re draining down properly or whatever. And you were talking about bureaucracies being evil. I think Steve was saying bureaucracies being evil. Excuse me.
SPEAKER 11 :
I’m trying to say not evil, but yeah. I think they are. Well, you can repeat me out there. I think for the most part they are. They’re very controlling. Let’s just say it that way.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, I would take a different tact on it. Bureaucracies don’t have souls. People have souls. People can show compassion. Bureaucracies cannot show compassion because they have no souls. So a soulless entity can do a lot of evil simply because they’re not looking at good, bad, or anything. They’re just following the checklist. And I’ve said it before here, but I’ll say it again, that when we rebuilt the Shine Mountain Command Center, before we could begin our project, there were 54 different signatures we needed to get and each one of them could say no, but no one could say yes. So, um, and that’s the nature of bureaucracies is just to say no. And, uh, and it was, uh, it was an eyeopening experiences to, uh, I mean, I’d lived in government bureaucracy all my life, but 54 signatures. Come on guys. That’s a bit ridiculous. Uh, and then lastly, um, For folks who may not know, Colorado has the snowiest months are March and April. So just because there’s no snow in February doesn’t mean it’s not going to get any. Very true. You can be concerned, but I don’t think the time for worrying is here yet.
SPEAKER 11 :
Very true. No, you’re very right. I mean, I keep, you know, there’s even been some things that have been canceled already this summer in certain areas of the state because their fear of, you know, lack of water. And I’m like, boy, you guys are a bunch of naysayers. You don’t have you must have not lived in Colorado much because we can catch up at the end of the season very easily.
SPEAKER 12 :
We have a lot of catching up to do, but it can happen.
SPEAKER 11 :
Oh, absolutely. It can. Yeah. i’ve seen it yep and it goes back to that we can say no but nobody can say yes it’s easier to say no that’s right and really for those of you listening where earlier you know some of you may be asking and jeff gave me the idea to actually tell you this so the type of faucet that is totally self-draining meaning you could leave the hose hooked on it if you want to is the woodford model 30 it’s a special model it’s not like a regular outdoor faucet where it shuts off way inside and has a little bit of a self-draining feature. This one, literally, you can leave the hose on, and it’s got little holes around the… It’s got exit holes whereby there’s a valve system in it, to your point, Jeff, where if you shut everything off, it self-drains, and the hose will self-drain, and off you go.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yep. And for those of us who are a bit OCD like you, I have the Woodford, but I also have the little foam boxes that I put around them just in case because it’s a It’s an entry point into the house. It can bring cold into the house.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah, good point.
SPEAKER 04 :
Nothing is foolproof.
SPEAKER 11 :
Now, for all of you listening, these are not cheap. Each one of those is $125. So this isn’t your $15 faucet from Home Depot. Are the handles removable? I mean, do they have the key-type handles?
SPEAKER 12 :
No, they’re turned on. I had somebody walk by my shop.
SPEAKER 11 :
and in the middle of the night turn on the water yeah you want to commercial buildings and you that have anybody that can access it yeah use the key type yeah by all means yep i had some people are just malicious i guess yeah well i went and i took the handle off so yeah they are you’re right they are absolutely
SPEAKER 04 :
All right, Jeff, have a great day.
SPEAKER 11 :
Appreciate it, Jeff. No, thank you very much. And, yeah, I know sometimes I sound like I’m hard on City Hall, but I am because typically most of City Hall is run by a bunch of bureaucrats, like what Jeff was even saying a moment ago. And I know there are some where they’re really good and they’re solid and they want to see things done correctly in a town or a community. But I can tell you there’s a lot of folks out there where they’re extolling their political belief system. upon communities and they do that in planning zoning and some of the building approvals and so on and they think literally they think they’re a little god and they want to make sure that they’re extolling all of their beliefs upon anybody that’s there trying to build anything and yeah i’ll be hard on them because i can be because i know this is exactly how it works i’ve been through as i said earlier i’ve been through the process on a personal basis and i can attest To what I just said, and I won’t say what city that is in particular here along the front range, but I can tell you that the majority of them are very, very similar. They’re not that far apart. The way they do things is no. By the way, it’s no different than the federal government. Just miniaturize it. Its inefficiencies are huge. What they think they’re doing for good is not. Do I believe that we need to have, you know, a master plan and zoning and so on to make cities work and function correctly? Absolutely, I do. I think in years past, zoning was kind of put to the side and things were developed where, you know, commercial interlaid with residential and it’s weird and so on. And, yes, I do like where we put commercial where commercial is and residential where residential is. And you might blend those two a little bit on some of the edges, and that’s where some of your cheaper – Less expensive homes might come into play, and that can be a buffer for the rest of your neighborhoods and so on. So I’m not against proper planning. That’s not what I’m saying. But I am against when they start throwing all of their political beliefs into things, green energy and no natural gas and all this nonsense that a lot of the cities up and down the front range and even up into Wyoming are now starting to do. That’s where I draw a line in there. They’re extolling political beliefs upon people. They’re not really doing factual work that really takes to build a community. They’re doing what they think is best for, quote-unquote, the world and the environment, and the rest of us be damned in the process. And that’s the part of City Hall and that that I do not like. I’ll be straight up honest. I fight it. I hate it. I can’t stand it. I think these are people that are little minions. We’re the minions, and they’re the grand poobahs, and they’re just trying to get all of us to conform to whatever they want. you see it all the time when you start doing building projects and those of you that have been involved in any kind of a building project even something simple in your home you will realize what i’m talking about the amount of red tape to get some simple things done is absolutely astronomical and it’s overbearing and frankly it shouldn’t be that way yes i believe we should have building departments yes we should have inspections yes we should do things properly to where people don’t get injured and harmed and so on But do we go overboard on lots of things? That’s an understatement.
SPEAKER 12 :
How many homes don’t have permits to do things because it’s too hard?
SPEAKER 11 :
Because the owner finally said, screw this, I’m just going to go build it anyways. And now we’ve got situations up in Wyoming, Cheyenne, whereby the city itself wants to walk in and do audits to see whether or not you’ve permitted certain things or not, and that’s in Cheyenne. Right. Coming to a town near you, by the way, if it happens in Cheyenne is all I’m going to say along those lines. That’s more of my daily show that you guys can listen to from 3 to 6 daily where we talk about some of those things. But again, any questions you’ve got for anything around the house, I’ll probably continue this topic in the future again when it comes to those items that will devalue your home. If you have a question, please let us know. Text line 307-282-22. This has been another episode of Fix It Radio. Myself, Steve Horvath. Thank you guys very much. Fix It Radio, KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 07 :
The views and opinions expressed on KLZ 560 are those of the speaker, commentators, hosts, their guests, and callers. They are not necessarily the views and opinions of Crawford Broadcasting or KLZ management, employees, associates, or advertisers. KLZ 560 is a Crawford Broadcasting God and country station.
