The Troubleshooter 4-14-25

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The Troubleshooter Show. No Tom Martino, Hello.

Tom Martino here, Welcome to the show. Three oh three seven one three talks seven one three eight two five five. We're here to help you solve problems, answer questions taking place, make your life a little easier. This hour brought to you by one of my favorite sponsors. Because it's the most important thing you can put in your body is water. The right water waterpros dot net reverse Osmosis that the kitchen sink is lower than any price you'll ever get

Fourteen years?

This market? Is it good batter in between? Or how do you explain the market in the Springs area? We have a big Springs audience, you know.

Right now it's it's really interesting and it kind of feels a little bit like a roller coaster.

I was just having this conversation with my managing broker.

And Michael with this where it's really kind of and he put it perfectly when he said, the tale of two.

Markets, so within one, yes makes it, you know, no.

Rhyme or reason as far as pricing goes or things like that. But what we're seeing is some homes are selling very quickly.

Multiple offers.

Out of the last three offers I've written for buyers, two of which were multiple offers, and thank goodness, we were able to get.

Under contract on both. But it's it's just been interesting.

And then we have additional properties and homes that we're seeing days on markets start to really extend out of the current active.

Can you give okay, can you tell which homes move and which don't or is it not just a price range.

You know, is range specific or even necessarily area.

My experience has just been it's.

Just happhazard lover. Really.

I have seen homes, you know, the homes that look more market ready.

Of course those get great activity quicker.

But your homes that should you know, look good on market, you know, would get that you would think of a strong buyer response, aren't necessarily getting that. I think town homes, condos, you know, that multi family market is still moving slower of course than single families, and.

Now a lot of people have got a lot of people they don't want to go into that multi family anymore because of the the hoas and the insurance situation they end up self insuring. I mean, it's terrible, it's a terrible thing anyway. So we have Sephanie Thomas with us, but I'm going to go to the phones, as I always do. Phone calls get priority. We have James who wants to talk about an issue with an enterprise rent a car. Hey, James, what's happening with you? Welcome to

Can you hear me?

I sure can, sir?

Okay, I can hear you.

Yeah.

Well, I just got your number from my sister because I was telling her about my shaga with the Enterprise. On January second, I rented a from Enterprise, a nice little Sunday Kona read and was going to drive to Palm Springs to meet a friend of mine who was going to share the cost of the rental because his wife came from Idaho and I was going up, which I'm from Idaho but a living in Brago Springs currently.

But when night, but you had no you had no brakes at all.

Well, when I got to this uphill straight, my brakes worked. I didn't roll back, and I went, God, that's really strange. And so I thought, I looked, but.

The brakes were not Did the brake pedal go to the floor, Yes.

But I couldn't tell that because it was in the night. I mean, it was just six o'clock in the evening. And I looked at the gas pedal and the brake pedal, and these new rental cars or new cars are real close together, unusual from what I'm used to drive two thousand and three Taho.

And the.

You know, the brake is quite a ways of way.

James James, James James. Is it possible that it did have brakes the whole time and you were hitting you were not hitting them? Or are you sure when you hit the brake pedal?

That's what I was concerned about so I crept up the hill. I had to go about another one hundred feet up the hill one hundred and twenty feet to come around the corner and come back down to my trailer, where I had some more laundry to do and it was sitting outside. I was going to stop the car when I first came out to load it in, but it never stopped, and I kept creeping up, pushing on the brakes. They worked all the way up this hill. I must have pushed ten times just to make sure

Yes, so James, let's get to the the whole point of the story. Did you get into an accident?

Yes, I did.

The brakes did not work down a hundred feet I turned, I had to turn to the right.

What did you crash into?

I crashed into a pole, a fence pole that was up three feet tall, just a medal and seamen and it took off the It's a decoration on the side of the hun day on the left side of the right.

Now, James, James, James, I don't need to know any more details. I need to know this.

Yeah, and then I hate you. I did not jammise the car other than break the headlight.

There was no.

Well, okay, okay, I understand James, James, what are you calling about today, because no matter how it happened, you're going to be responsible.

Okay. So I got the brakes worked when I go go up the hill about forty yards and the brakes stopped me. And I go back and I call call Enterprise, ran a car. They send me to their accident report, which I gave an accident report and told them that I would return the car tomorrow and get another one because I just had this incident. And I ejected from the trailer park that night by because of the accident I caused.

I was wait a minute, wait a minute, James, what do you mean you got James, do you own your trailer there?

No, I was renting a trailer from a friend for until April first, when she returned.

Okay, so they kicked you out. They kicked you out that night.

Gave me a seven day notice, and I says, well, it has to be at least thirty. I did not get out until March first, and March first, I moved to Barrego Springs into a trailer park.

Well, where are we going with this? This is this sounds like a whole a movie.

I mean they are charging me to toe charge and they charged me for the rental of the car and the damage.

All right, hold on, hold on and we'll come back. Hold on, James, hold on, we'll come back to you. I know why you're calling. Let's let's dissect this problem. Three O three seven one three eight two five five. We have more coming up on the Troubleshooter Show. Speaking of UH rental car coverage and all kinds of coverage. Compass Insurance Group will go over your insurance to make sure you're not paying too much, to make sure you're

They said there's no problem with the brakes, and that that that's why they're charging me.

Okay, Well they would charge you anyway, and you would have to go to the menu. Listen. It would be a terrible fight anyway if you had to do it. But James, really you are And I know your sister told you to call because you wanted me to help you. But I have to tell you some facts. You are responsible for a rental car. Even when somebody hits you. You can go after the other party like you can go after Hyundai. You can, but you are responsible to

Well, discharge two hundred eleven dollars for the towing, which I did not agree to.

And I well, what were you going to do with the car? If you didn't have the car towed, what were you going to do with it?

I was going to drive it back to and get a.

New car, okay, But you didn't drive it back because of the brakes.

No, because they said we don't want you driving it because of the brakes. And I said, I go, okay, if you want to.

Tow it, tow it, but I need a.

Car, okay, okay, okay, So of all hold on, So of all the charges, the only thing you're disputing is the two fifty two dollars. Yeah, okay, So but you agree that you are responsible for the damage to the car. You just don't want to pay for the towing exactly, Okay, you know what. So so when you called them, though, and you said the brakes weren't working, what were they supposed to do?

They said they sent their inspectioned games to look at the brakes and to look for budy.

No.

But what I mean is what James, You didn't want them towing the car, but they towed the car anyway.

It's the car that I could rely on.

James, you told Enterprise when you called them about the accident. You told them the brakes were not working. Right, So what were they supposed to do? They had to tow it. Oh and if they told let me explain this to you, James, if they towed the car in and the brakes were faulty, you would not have to pay for the toe. But what they're saying is that they towed it in because you told them the brakes were not working. But when they got the car in their possession, the brakes were working.

I'm both coming in in about fifteen minutes.

Deputy Doc is working at home. Maybe Doc, maybe Doc can call enterprise and see, here's the point. Look at he's not disputing the whole thing. He's just disputing the towing because he wanted to drive it in. Again. I find that weird because he's the one that said it wasn't working, and they I don't think I think they would have been negligent had they had him drive it in. But let's have Doc make a phone call to see if we can get that charge waved. Jim, you have

Good morning, Tom came in.

What's going on?

Three?

Three of our our credit card companies raised our interest rate to thirty one percent with no oh my god, and we're not late on any moment.

We've always been paying on time. Is there any way.

What the hell? Wait a minute, wait a minute. Did they all do it? Did they all do it at the same times?

Jim, Yes, yeah, they all did it at the same time.

It went from what to what?

Twenty one to thirty one?

Oh my god, thirty one percent? Thirty what?

What?

What reasons? What reason did they give you?

They're not giving us any reason at all. That's what I told the wife.

Call them up and question them about it.

But that all three they were three completely separate credit cards, and they all did it.

Right, Yes, and they were all up to date. No mispayments, no nothing. They just did it.

I don't get it either. And have you got an answer from any of them?

No, she's she sent out some emails. All three of them were just waiting for something to get something back because I'm worried that I would be because they just did.

It, and they were just hoping you wouldn't question it.

Did they? So they sent you a note in the notice? Did it mention why it was being raised?

No?

It just showed up on the bills as the interest rate. No, no notice, no nothing.

But okay, when it showed up on the bill. Did it say that it was raised, did it make any mention of it, or it just showed up? Are you sure it wasn't thirty one percent all the time?

Now?

How do you know it was down?

Ahead?

Could? Sometimes interest rates on credit cards sometimes it goes with the balance on how many days of balance was outstanding? Like did your balances change? Do you pay them off? Tell me what's your credit? Like your credit usage?

Our credit's really good.

Those three we used them for model, you know, fixing the cars or something like that. They were like emergency credit cards and we haven't.

Okay, but what are your balances? What are your balances on those three cards? What are your balances on those three cards combined?

She has a couple of thousand on each one and two is asking me about should we take out another loan and pay them all off? And I told her, I said, well, I'll you pay them off, cut them up, you know, close the account.

She said, if you close the account, you're credit rating those deaths.

That's true, that's true. But what you should do, and I know this is crazy, is keep them alive, but don't use them, because what happens is your percentage of credit used also determines your interest rate. I have a feeling, Jim, that all of this probably was disclosed to your original agreement. And what they do is they monitor your credit usage and different things like that, and that's where the rate

That is what I don't know yet. She just mentioned it.

I think, Jim, Jim, I'm looking this up here, and I think credit usage is the answer. You're going to find is that your credit usage might have been unusually high that month, and when your credit usage is high, they raise the rates. How much total credit card debt do you have total?

I don't know.

The life does it.

She takes care of it. She just asked me a question. And you know, I let her pay all the bills and stuff, and I don't pay attention to it until you brought this up.

But I'm telling you, man, if you have any balances, look into it. Yeah, well, let me know, call me back. I need to know your total credit granted to you, and then the total usage you have. And Jim, if you have any money whatsoever, or maybe you get a zero percent transfer card, get rid of that thirty one percent. You know, And I tell people this all the time. Thank you for calling Jim. Here's what I tell them.

I think so Wow, if you can get fifteen hundred for the entirety of your listing, to me, that's great because I have seen some staging bills for a month or two, and fifteen hundred is in my opinion, a good value from waking and voice wise.

But here's the thing.

One of the mistakes people make is they don't prep their home for sale.

You know, they just literally leave it the way it is.

They will literally leave it like it is a lot of times when you go in homes and you know it's not depersonalized, it's not decluttered.

You want to depersonalize it. You don't want a lot of personal pictures up in order.

Absolutely, you want your buyers to walk in the property by themselves there, yes, exactly. So when they start seeing pictures of you everywhere, all of a sudden, the buyers start looking at.

Oh, who lives here?

Just natural curiosities, you know, and people tend to focus on that kind of thing. Ultimately, they're not connecting with the property. They're not identifying, Hey, that this could be my home. It feels like you're walking through some much.

Okay, so depersonalize it. Yeah, And isn't declutter a big deal?

Absolutely? Decluttering is huge because most of us don't live in our homes like they're show ready.

You know.

Most of us have to go in and do some prepping and you have to think about, you know, actually prepping it for photographs too. I go through this process with all the homes that I list, and I talk to people about. You know, we we want to make sure that when we take a photo of a space that people can actually see your home the wall. You know, we want them to see some wall. We want it to have still some personality and you know, to show well.

Okay, And I just got a text wanting to know about vacant homes. Do you like vacant homes?

You know, it depends me.

When I do vacant homes personally, I do come in and do what I call like a light stage, a soft stage. I have some personal inventory that all go through and do some of that, and it's just.

Really adding accent touches.

It's not a full house of furniture, you know, in the primary suite area.

You know, I'll put you know, a queen.

Sized bed set up, white comforter, some fluffy pillows, you know, maybe a couple pieces of artwork, you know, just some things to kind of soft stage and give people some idea of the space, you know, through the home. I always all do fluffy toowls and bathrooms, you know, greenery, things like that that give it a little bit of life, but not overwhelming.

What about interior paint do you ever do you ever recommend that people go through and just repaint it.

Absolutely depends if they have really dark colors. Absolutely, I'm going to say, and you know, if they're willing to do some things to prep it, I'm going to suggest that we go through and kind of lighten that space up, neutralize it.

You know, you may have.

A really large room and if you have really really dark walls and real heavy like curtains you know, covering your windows, all of a sudden, that space looks really dark. It's not fighting space. Yeah, so anytime we can do a few things like that to really just highlight the features of your home.

I absolutely real, But there.

Are staging companies that I mean with furniture and everything. Yes, there are and and a lot of them are worth their weight, you know, I think.

So, Like I said, I haven't experienced the fifteen hundred dollars the kind of one.

How much does it normally cost?

The last house I worked with a stager on. We we did a couple of.

The main spaces. Now mind you, this was a very large home, but we.

Still just like how much what price range?

This one was north of eight hundred?

Okay, so what was it? What did the total staging cost.

For two months? We were over four thousand, so holy crap.

Yeah, and that was honestly just doing a couple of main spaces.

It wasn't even the entire house.

So you're saying, yeah, so fifteen hundred sounds.

Fifteen hundred sounds great, But ultimately you'd have to look at what that entails. And I'm sure they've got some type of timelines that they agree to leave their.

You know, so people have to move their own stuff out obviously when you have a stage or they don't stage wing that. Yeah, do you ever have stages that work with what's there?

Ye?

So some stages will come through and do a consultation right.

If it's pretty and the good stuff.

They just have to Yeah, we'll talk about moving things a little bit. Let's take down a couple of these photos, and that's a process. Honestly, I've set through so many photo appointments at this point and listed enough properties in my career that I have, you know, a pretty good eye that I go through and do that process on Artwey.

I think people in general have too much stuff in their homes, absolutely, and John, I mean nothing wrong with that.

None of us, none of us live in our homes like they're ready to stell, you.

Know pretty much.

We would all need to do a few things to our properties to really highlight the space for sale.

I mean I've seen some play, Honest to god, I've seen a place that was listed that you went in the bathroom and the guy shaving stuff was still like he didn't wash off his razor. I mean, it's on the on the vanity and it's just I think to myself, he just got ready for work. There were some dirty clothes in a pile. I mean that's wasting money.

Yeah, or wasting sink full of dishes or with people. Sometimes people want to look inside the dishwasher. And I can't tell you how many times I've walked through homes that people use their dishwashers to like get everything off the counter and get it ready for the showing. So it's full of you know, food and different things like that.

All right, we got to.

Keep your home clean.

We we uh, we're talking about listing homes and we can talk about anything you want as well. Three all three seven one three talk seven one three eight two five five. We got more coming right up. Go with a sure thing Denver's Best roofer Excel Roofing dot com. You don't pay a cent until you're content on top of it. Time for an insurance check up free, no obligation. Compare and call Compass insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens of insurance companies. Find out now three all

Getting credit?

Using them?

Okay, all your mics are on okay, go ahead.

I think being advised to get credit cards but then using them to their full extent of their limit.

Oh yeah, I mean just credit cards.

Credit cards best, right, credit card debt, because one, they're so easy to get when they just turn eighteen, right, and they don't understand that money has to be paid back. And many of the young people look at it as a monthly payment, not as a balance. If you look at just the monthly payment, that's going to put you in debt for twenty years, I mean literally, So you have to really watch out for credit card and credit cards.

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Shooter's gonna help coming man. This is the Troubleshooter Show. No Tom Martino, Hi Tom Martino here, Welcome to the show. Three ozho three seven to one three talk seven one three eight two five five. We've been talking about all kinds of stuff today, by the way, with car rental coverage, somebody asked, why would he be responsible for lack of use? That is a loss to the rental company. And people don't realize this, but even if your insurance covers the

I actually just turned in a rental car for an accident that I had had, But my insurance company gave me some advice before I turned it back in, and they said to make sure when you turn that vehicle back in they do the walkthrough to check for damage at that point, and that you get some type of receipt right there.

It's all clear, Yes, because later on when it shows up, it's hard to fight it exactly.

And she said that that's a problem they've seen.

So it is a problem, and I think some of them do it illegitimately. And we found a company called sixth I believe that's a new rental company. Sixth it's six T or something or maybe find it Dmitri. But we found them doing that a couple times. Now. Jay has a comment on finances. I was mentioning the I had four biggest mistakes. Stephanie gave me the fifth one. What was that when the student loans? That absolutely is? Absolutely is. But let's go for the top four that

What do you think, Oh, so third bad financial suit.

No, it's not necessarily bad. It's at they're financial. They get into trouble when they're young adults.

Yeah, so, based on my observations, with man.

Any of my friends who I went to college getting into way too much education.

Oh okay, well that's what that's what she that's what she said, And I put that on my list. That wasn't on my original list. Something completely And they get into student loan debt.

And they with a youth of graduate degree and then they find that Starbucks doesn't pay enough to pay off the right.

Yeah, they didn't become that professor, they thought, Jay, what is your comment on finances.

Tom, I'll tell you something I've seen ruin lots of lives and ruined the kind of forever is O guy gets behind on child support and the whole system is designed to destroy them back. It's not designed to help everybody get normalized. And so many people I try to hire don't have a driver's license, can't get insurance, don't have credit, can't do anything because child support payments are back due and they can't do anything.

And they can't get ahead.

They can they.

Can't dig themselves out. They can't dig themselves out. Friend of mine, Yeah, but that's not okay. That wouldn't be on my list of young people turning adults though that I don't think that would catch up to them.

Yeah, I spell eighteen. Seem to start when they're young, and then they get sued and they don't have any money. They don't have the kind of money to support a ship.

I would say that might be young the young adults in their twenties maybe or thirties. Yeah, but anyway, credit card, thank you jay, credit credit card, debt, negative equity, snowball for cars, the number three. Come on, people, Come on people, it's so easy. It's so medical bills, they get sick, they broke it arm, they break it arm, they do something, and these kids don't realize they are in trouble quickly. Medical bills and they don't make the payments, and they

Wow, is medicaid. I'm always confused. There's Medicare and Medicaid. Medicaid for strictly older people, Medicare Medicare okay, and that's not incomdependent.

Medicare is well, No.

Medicare is Medicare. You get Medicare no matter what you can pay, and you pay the premium for B, Part A, Part B, and then you get a supplement usually that comes out of your payment. But in any case, Medicare is different. Medicaid is a form of social services. It used to be for only really people that need and they extended the hell out of it during Obamacare, so almost anyone who doesn't make enough money they can qualify for Medicaid. And in fact, I've said there are people

Yeah, I looked at his listing. The house looks like a nice property. And I don't know anything about their market there.

No but but but if you looked at the listening itself.

Ricing goes as far as like location, all of that. I couldn't but the listing itself, the photos look nice.

I mean looking through it. I watched his virtual tour that he did, you know, walk through.

I liked the still photos I think better than the virtual personally, because I felt like.

It might combine a pricing for that area.

Yeah, very possibly.

What is he asking for it? Three three ninety and it's in North Carolina?

It is, Yeah, And like I said, looking at it, it looks like a nice property.

I'm looking at it on Zillo. He sent us a Zilo listing Facebook.

You know.

I looked at the little virtual tour that he had. Like I said, the.

Virtual tour from me felt like a little bit of fast through this through some of those rooms.

But that's personal preference.

I would suggest that if he shot that on his cell phone, you can definitely see a person walk through, you know, with a some type of recording device you can see the shadows in it.

I would suggest.

Maybe reshooting that and taking your time a little bit, panning the rooms a little better, because I did you know.

So many people do this for sale by owner because they think they're going to save money. Absolutely, So I looked up Valdiz, North Carolina. If you're listening, the average home price is two twenty six four. It's a three point six increase over the past year. It indicates that the median sale is two thirty five, which is a four point seven percent year over here. This has been going up this. I don't know what this guy said. It's a bad market. It's not a bad market, sir.

My question would be, uh said there were qualifications were basically just your income a lot, but you drive or money in the bank or homeownership.

Right, that's right, that's right. It's not judged on assets, only on income.

Okay.

That's my question, Gee, is if you're already on Medicare for you do lack of income with qualified for Medica, what's the what we can't have to do to combine those two?

You know what?

I believe, This is what I believe. But we're going to call Integra Insurance and find out Mark. So hang on, Kaschina, get Integra on. I believe when you're on Medicare and you're really hurting, I believe Medicaid can be a supplement for you. It takes the place of a supplement. But I want to find out for sure. So please hang on, Mark, Please excuse me? What?

Dave?

Yes?

Well, go ahead.

Could you ask the gentleman you're bringing on your specifically what those income qualifications? Rather than to verify that you the equity that you have is not a practice.

I will In fact, you can hang on when he comes on and talk to him yourself. Let's do that as soon as possible. Okay, thank you, Dave on a hello, Hi Dave. What's going on?

Sir?

I have a question. My daughter came to me and she had special.

Needs, and they has had special needs since he was two years of age, and now she's twenty six, single lady with a three year old child. The state of Colorado had given her a back pay for fifteen thousand dollars and she was going to use that for a car and getting into an apartment for her and her daughter. Somehow she got talked too, she said my friend, and I don't quite believe all of her what she told us, but he had stamped her out of her fifteen thousand dollars by asking.

Wait a minute, Wait a minute, Dave, Dave, wait a minute, wait a minute, I will So what was the fifteen thousand and four that your daughter god back.

Pay that she did not get from the stink for Medicaid?

So back wait, back disability payments? Yes, sir, what do you mean back pay? What? Well, what do you mean back pay? I don't even understand it. Go ahead? Back pay sometimes for her benefits.

For back to pay for some of her benefits she had not received.

Okay, so it's for disability payments of some kind. Well, back to me pay? What do you mean they don't get paid for.

Being The wrong term? Back pay is if you get fired for unjust reason, but that's not and then you fight it, then they reward you what's called back pay.

Dave, I understand that, David, But your daughter fired from a job.

No, sir, well, yes he was, but that wasn't I don't I use the wrong terminology.

I'm sorry, Yeah, but we understand what okay saying.

So what you're saying is your daughter should have gotten benefits earlier, and because she didn't, they gave her a settlement, yes sir, yes, okay. Now, and what that settlement was fifteen grand.

Yes, sir, you're just shy at fifteen fifty bucks. But that money was put into I thought she was capable of managing that herself, so when she put.

It in the bank, I wasn't kind of.

Involved. So how did she lose How did she lose them? How did she lose the money?

He sisted that she she needed to give him money, and the way he wanted to get the money.

Well, well, hold on, hold on, Dave. A guy called her up out of the blue.

That somebody should knows somebody.

She said it was somebody she knew from the past.

Who that was?

I wasn't gonna but did.

How did he know, Dave? How did this guy know she got money? Tom, I don't know.

I asked that same question to my wife. I do not know.

So this guy from her past calls her up and magically knows she has fifteen.

Grand somehow, I think, So I.

Wrote him.

And what did he do?

He harassed her, hounded her to go to Walmart and withdraw and buy him the scratch card thanks for a hundred bucks.

Okay, listen, this was not a friend of hers. That's what she's telling you. She didn't know this person from Adam. So a guy talked her into buying.

What these scratch cards from Walmart that are like a gift card and to turn around and take a photograph of the receipt for all the gift cards.

Yeah, this is a classic. It's a classic scam. So he basically, did she get rid of did she get scammed out of her entire fifteen grand?

Yes?

Sir, do you understand David, let me just give you the news right up front. There's nothing you can do about it.

Well, you know if I could have put the hammer, you know what I heard about it. You're the first person I thought whether.

Or not there was a chance or not.

I get well, there would be a chance. Hold on, if this is truly a guy from her past and she has a phone number, does find out does she have contact information for this guy? I think she's lying to you when she says she knew him. She didn't know him. It was some kind of online scam. I don't know how they knew she had money, or even if they did know, but she got lured in by some scam. When you say she has special needs? What kind of special needs?

Lower intelligence intelligence?

Well when you say lower intelligence, I know a lot of people who are lower intelligence and they don't have special needs. So do you mean like a mental di say? I mean tell me, I mean what is her IQ? What is her what is her level? What age?

She's twenty six? Does she her she's twenty six years of age and her IQ lessons in the sixty mark lower sixties.

Oh, well, she's is mentally retarded? Is mentally retarded? Still a term or am I going to get in trouble for that term?

IQ in the sixties is a severe what's the term?

I mean? This woman should be doing business on her own.

I don't have an answer for you, Tom.

Dave, but I have a question for you, why why don't you have guardianship of her?

Because social services?

I feel like she's high functioning and she comes off that way, but when it comes down to the fact of it, to be fair and honest, she doesn't have that capability of sustaining for herself or taking care of.

So she got rid of So wait did she go through Did she go through her entire fifteen grand?

Yes?

Sir?

Wait what was she supposed to? Wait?

Wait?

Wait?

When he was asking Dave, Dave, when he was asking for this money, what did he say it was for? Did he say she would make money on it? Or what was what was in it for her?

Tom, I was lucky enough to get that much information.

Out of her. Was okay?

Keep for being truthful.

And if I dug into her too far, I know I would she would go the other way on me.

So I was just trying to Yeah, I get it, well, I got some bad news. I got some bad news for you. I got some bad news for you. Unless she can contact this guy and we can get the authorities on him. Find out and let me know, really find out and let me know if she can get Call her and see if she has contact information for this guy and call us back. I'm Tom Martinez. We have more coming up on the Troubleshooter Show three O three seven to one three talk. Go with a sure

Again, I mean you can have both. You can be eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid and they coordinate. So there's also other options for you that open up when you become or if you are eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid, And so we explore those.

Arts like what like there are like what other options there there? Yeah?

There there are plans that are designed specifically for those who are Medicare Medicaid eligible that that that are out there. So but yeah, no, absolutely, you can have both and be eligible for both.

Okay, okay, and it's all based on income, right, yes, sir, yes, because a lot of people wonder and that would be yeah, a lot of people. No, it's okay. A lot of people say, why should someone be on medicaid if they live in a million dollar house?

Well, they they may take into account assets. But that's that gets more specifically into the medicaid side of things.

That the only time John, they take into consideration assets. The only time they take assets into consideration is for assisted living or nursing homes or stuff like that. For regular medicaid for doctors. Right, yes, yeah, So it's important to know that the regular Medicaid, for regular daily medicaid, it's income dependent and a lot of people are eligible

It can go retroactive. I believe three months. I believe three months now two years, certainly, but it can go when you when you do the application that ask about medical bills for the last three months.

Now you said to apply for Medicaid. You can do it online or you can do it by phone. I was helping someone the other day and we made a phone call to that number and it says your wait time is three point five hours. Three point five hours, so they expect people to wait on the phone.

If you can put it on hold and do some other things because our experience is the Yeah, the wait time is certainly longer than just doing it online, but there's a at least based on our experience or the higher percentage of that application being approved immediately versus having to wait for approval.

If if you were to do it.

Online, you can take up to ivery think forty two days to be approved.

Oh and if you do it by phone, it can be almost immediate, but you have to just wait on those waight times.

Yeah, and it can a still be approved almost immediately if you do it electronicity, if you do it online. It's just our experience has always been it's been a lot higher percentage that has approved immediately, much more of okay, yeah, by.

Calling the number now now Mark Mark was the one with the original question about Medicare slash Medicaid, Mark, do you have any questions for John Jones?

Well, I just want to make just more understand that.

There are no.

Values established in terms of property owned, or vehicles owned or money in the No no, no no, because I went on the site of Medicaid Connect for Colorado and there was a stipulation regarding to the value of your car and I've not that a change or you couldn't have a house.

Okay, Mark, Mark knows, Mark having helped numerous people, Let me explain this to you. They may want to know about your house, they may want to know about your car, but they do not use it to disqualify you from regular medicaid. The only time Medicaid seeks your equity and assets is when you are looking for assisted living or nursing homes. Okay, Now it's called medicaid. I mean, there aren't two kinds of Medicaid. There's one. But I assure you when it comes to regular Medicaid, they don't care

I mean there's the clawback, and there's certainly information about that. When we give our clients information about how First Colorado, that's included in there, and so I recommend that you research that sum. As far as calling back assets, they.

Don't clawback except for living. John, I went through this time and time again. They do not clawback for normal medical expenses. The only time they do that is when you need either in resident residential rehabilitation, nursing homes or assisted living. Then they go in and want to be reimbursed regular doctors' visits and surgeries and regular procedures. I have never heard of them ever once, not once going

Possibly?

Okay? What is your income? What is your income right now?

It's it's nonimal.

Normal. Well, I think, hey, John, what is the what is what is the qualification for someone uh to get on medicaid? What is the income?

Are you a single tax filer?

Sir?

Yes?

Okay.

Then if the income is at or below one thousand or below five dollars a month?

Okay?

Okay? Is that net or gross?

That's modified?

Okay? Okay, So it's modified adjusted gross income under seventeen hundred a month? Is that right?

Okay?

Yeah? Approximately one?

And how is it adjustified? Yes, what that's the bottom line.

How has it adjusted?

John?

Well, when it comes so modified, a justic gross income can take into account types of income that are not part of your adjustice gross. But this gets into the CPA side where I have to say I'm not certified on that. Okay, things you're gonna want to talk to your CPA to make sure that you're modified. That you understand you're modified astic gross income.

Okay, all right, thank you very much. Now, by the way, Integra Insurance, if you're looking for any kind of health insurance three zho three four six six fifty five hundred. That's zero three four sixty six fifty five hundred more coming up. Go with a sure thing Denver's best roofer Excel Roofing dot com. You don't pay a cent. Oh you're content, wait top of it. Time for an insurance

So I pulled a few numbers from Colorado Springs that I wanted to share because with our elevated days on market and average days on market being higher, I guess I just wanted to kind of give everyone some hope that.

We're starting to see things pick up. We are starting to see that.

So in the last ninety days, we've had one thousand, six hundred and seventy four homes that have sold in the Colorado Springs market.

This is a single family and also a multi family combined.

So I'm just looking at current numbers currently under contract, though in Colorado springs. I've got one and forty six, so that is telling us that's more than the last three months of solts combined. So the great news there is we are seeing things pick up. So that means it is still a strong time if you want to list your home. It's still a great time to buy. You know, with elevated days on market, we are still able to negotiate strong.

Deals current actives.

I've got two eight hundred and forty nine, so we have a fair amount of inventory, but we are still technically on this historical life.

Is there a hot price range?

You know, I was kind of looking, I don't have a lot of inventory under four hundred thousand in this single family homes. Wow, So I would say anything you know there that's still a helping You imagine.

Not being able to find a home under four hundred.

You know you can, It's just I don't have a ton.

So if I go ahead, are they usually fix your uppers or what when they're under four hundred?

You know, I'm seeing the mix. I've got a buyer shopping that right now.

And we've seen a really strong mix of some really nice renovated homes and then some that need some love. But I just pulled single families under four hundred thousand in Colorado Springs and I have two hundred and twenty seven.

So it's not that they're not out there, there's just.

Not a ton. What are some of the lowest price homes? Tell me what a starter? The lowest price you can think of that you've seen recently?

Oh goodness.

I mean there's some neighborhoods that I've seen, some in the two hundreds, But every neighborhood like that's going to have a gotcha.

So we have and I'm actually listing a home.

You know, what do you mean a gotcha?

In this neighborhood?

These homes look really, I would say, very nice compared for the price point you know, two hundred to you know, two fifty two sixty five. This particular neighborhood, though, is what's called a leasehold, so you're purchasing the improvements on the property, you're not purchasing the property itself, so you have a large monthly leasehold payment on top of that purchase price. The current leasehold payment for that particular neighborhood is seven hundred and fifty dollars a month.

So wow, wow, that's weird.

The price is great. You have this additional payment, the.

Additional payment for what though for the land.

For the land rental of the land.

It's you're renting the land. Is it a mobile homemans, It's not a mobile.

It's a modular so they're permanently affixed to the property.

So you have to have this lease.

But for home ownership it might be a way to get into home ownership.

It can, but that seven point fifty is tacked on top monthly great payment, so you're qualifying.

It's going to be a lot higher.

We got more coming up on the Troubleshooter Show. Go with a sure Thing Denver's Best Roofer Excel Roofing dot com. You don't pay a cent until you're content. Time for an insurance check up, free no obligation comparison call Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens of insurance companies find out now three oh three seven to seven

Run anxious ass as you can show Shooter's gonna help.

Come man, This is the Troubleshooter Show. No Tom Martino, Hi.

Tom Martino here, Welcome to the show. Three all three seven one three talkers our number seven one three A two five five, Or you can call three oh three Martino twenty four to seven and leave a message and we will get back to you. Now. Do you know, speaking of let's say real estate, we have Stephanie with us today, Stephanie Thomas Stephanieri dot com. She's with Cold Oil Bankers in Colorado springs By So friendly cities? Do you know that a survey was done by America, but

I can't read that far. I have no idea.

Okay, Dragon, one hundred bucks, friendliest city and you wait, Dragon, are you looking at it? Dragging? You lie?

Oh?

No, Dragon? Go ahead?

Uh.

Friendliest City Boulder, Oh Katchina Calori, the friendliest city, Salt Lake City. Okay, Okay, I didn't not Yeah you looked it up, you little creep. Now, and I didn't include you, bo, so shut up. It's San Diego, Bo, you little you googled it. I didn't do it.

I don't have a kampruit here.

Number two. Go get number two, and it's a trifecta, not a trifectaymore anyway, Yeah, number two? Go ahead? What's the number two? You say, San Diego is the friendliest city? Number two? Raleigh, North Carolina? Yep. Number three Phoenix, Arizona, number four, Miami Fort Lottery of my ass, Miami Fort Lauderdale. I've been down there. That ain't friendly. I think Raleigh is. I don't know about San Diego, Houston, number five, number six, Honolulu.

Please?

Number ten? Ready? Denver really the tenth most friendly city. But I think Denver's way friendlier than Boston, way friendlier. But anyway, that's for real estate. Actually, what do people ask about when they ask for real estate? Sephanie?

Really?

What are they concerned about? Coming from another state? What do they ask about? Because I mean they can pick Denver or Color Roder Springs, Let's say they can pick anywhere. What are they looking for? You know, a lot of.

Times people are shopping things like school.

Districts, Yeah, they have kids.

Absolutely.

We look at a lot of times vicinity to their employment and that tends to be a huge determining factor for people. Another thing, though, people will shop based on their activities that they enjoy, so their hobbies. Some people are going to shop based on you know, if they like to mountain bike ride, they're going to be they want to be close to some trail access.

So there's some things like that that you know, people definitely shop for.

Do you know that Denver did not even make the America's twenty Most Livable Cities America's top twenty.

Colorado Springs tends to fare pretty well on some of those independent studies, you know where it's a lot of times voted one of the you know, top places to go. And I think a lot of that is there's a lot of amenity in Colorado Springs.

You've got a lot of you know, the outdoors, the beauty of like Garden of the Gods. You're so close to Pike's people. Okay, now, people there.

Okay, let's talk about this. This this one consumer group again advising real estate people and rent people who are looking to rent their homes out and also something called the visual capitalists. They have come up with a chart on the twenty most livable cities. Denver's not on that. Denver's not on that, but Colorado Springs is.

It doesn't surprise me.

Yeah, Now Colorado Springs comes in comes in fourteen of the top twenty. Number one they say is Portland. Number two is Lincoln. I just don't understand. So anyway, Colorado Springs is fourteen, but all been in New York beats Colorado Springs. I don't get it. So this is most livable and it's judged on seventeen matrix which include weather and community and quality of life and all of that.

You know, I think the Springs has a lot of turnover, really big part to the military bases that we have around there, So we do get a lot of people moving in and moving.

Out for those reasons.

For sure, we have a pretty you know, strong military population in town.

But I think people, you know, move in in general.

It really just depends most I would say a lot of times when I've got people who are moving out, you know, some people are moving for political reasons.

That's been fairly common the last real years. I've had people that have moved for things like that.

But a lot of times you've got people that are moving because they're being PCSD somewhere, So that's not uncommon.

Bruce, you have a problem with your Chevy. What's going on? Bruce?

Hey, Tom, can hear me?

Yes, sir, what's going on? Okay?

My daughter's twenty fourteen Chevy Equinox. We got about one hundred and thirty nine thousand miles on it, two point four liter four cylinder. A couple of weeks ago, Buddy and I we went ahead, replaced the balance chain, the timing chain. We put a kid in, but it was a balanced chain, the timing chain, the variable valve, timing sensors, solenoids, a lot of pump We did the whole thing while we're in there, and the car ran fine, ran real good, no shaking, no nothing, And here lately.

It's weird.

It seems like it's a Monday morning problem. But it sits over the weekend and she ticks out on the interstate and it will shut her and die.

It's like it's like it's losing fuel.

But I don't know, Well, that sounds like a timing issue to me, does it? So it runs okay when you start it up.

For the most part, Yeah, now here, the last couple of days we've got like a miss, like a shake, and we just put in new coils and plugs and all that stuff right before we did all this timing chain and balance chain. So I don't think it's a coil pack. I'm not getting an injury code either. That's the other problem. So to me, you're right, it leads me to think that it's a DVT solnoid. But I don't know if anybody else had the same issue. It's like it's starving for gas. But I think it's a

All right, I want to get Kevin on. I want to get one of our car experts on to talk about this. So let me get it straight. Then it's got one hundred and forty thousand miles correct, and it's a twenty.

Fourteen twenty thirteen equinus?

Is it a thirteen thirteen?

Okay, well, I'm so sorry I misfread that.

It's a twenty fourteen with one hundred and forty thousand miles. And the stuff that you changed all had to do with timing.

Yes, it all had to do with timing.

It was a whole kit that we put in.

And when you put this timing kit in and it ran, it ran perfectly for a few days.

Yeah, actually it ran perfect for probably a week, ten days. It just starts showing up, probably a week ago.

I don't get it. Why it would look so good for a week and then and then stop. I agree, And it started to shudder. So if you started it up right now, how far can you drive it before it starts acting up?

Well, like now, it probably won't even happen at all, but I will have a rough wow and uh okay.

Here hold on, we definitely, we definitely got to get our expert on, So hang on. I'm Tom Martino three O three seven one three A two five five. By the way, Frank durand the Realestateman dot com will do a free market evaluation of your home if you want to know what it will sell for but you don't want to list quite yet. Don't worry, Frank will do it, no obligation ever. Three oh three nine to zero sixteen

What you put in, Tay, Kevin.

So I went ahead and put a complete kit in. I did the water pump, oil pump, front cover, I did this, all thisprockets, all the guides, the whole complete kit. I put it in and that came up the new VVT sensors and VVT sprockets and boulders and everything so complete.

And the timing belt right, tell me a belt it's a chain, yeah, timing chain yeah, okay, I never know whether it's a chain or belt.

Yeah.

And the balance chase okay.

Now it ran perfectly for a week, then started to shudder. What the hell's going on, Kevin. And now, so Bruce, if you went out and started it right now, would it be smooth?

No, it it runs like it's got a miss.

And right before I did this, I just put in new spark, plugs, coils all that.

I redid all that.

So it's just got a slight miss. And I thought, well, maybe.

It's because the air conditioner is running. So I heard the air conditioner. I still have this slight miss. It's a rough idol.

Are you getting any codes it up in the zerial codes?

Well, Kevin, it sounds like timing to me, right.

Well, that's my first inclination. Yes, but I mean that was they're pretty sensitive. But what a throne of correlation code for the cam and the crank if the timing?

So there's absolutely no code at all being thrown. You you actually put something on that's on the on the port to check the codes.

Bruce, Yeah, absolutely I did, and I was not thrown any codes. I do have one code right now. It's for the catalytic converter. It's a downstream I think bank two sensor one or something like that.

And would that cause these problems? Kevin? No, I don't think so I don't think so, uh, you don't even so you don't have a good guess.

Well, I mean I need to get a scanner hooked up to it and look at data see if it's it may not be counting enough misfires, but the scanner can pick up on misfires. You know that the check engine light won't set, you know, things like that. So we need to look a little deeper into it. But it's yeah, that's interesting because it's I would have thought a timing code would have pumped.

Well, we want to bring it by.

We can plug in and see what it shows.

That's not a big deal.

That might be killing you ought to do that. Where are you located, Bruce.

San Antonio?

You're in San Antonio? Oh my gosh, well welcome, by the way. That's too bad, man. So if you start out now, you'll get here tomorrow or the next day.

Well here's here's the weird thing, Kevin. So this morning I drove it to work just to seat. As she said, I was acting up.

And I left the house. I went, probably, I don't know, a mile and.

A half to get to the interstate.

Car seemed run fine, still had that little rough idol.

I got on the Interstate on the on ramp, I started going down the Interstate, picking up speed once I got up.

To around and this is why I think it's a timing issue.

Once I got up around forty five fifty, getting up to you know, speed sixty five seventy, it just stuttered, stutter, stuttered, and started dying. I could start from fuel and to the point where I rolled off to the rcase, I thought I was going to stall out, and uh, I picked my foot off the gas, put my foot back into it, and then it worked itself out of it and brand the rest of it work.

Not a problem.

Well, I can't believe, Kevin, I don't know, man like you need to find someone that will. Yeah. I have a suggestion for Kevin and Bruce.

Is it possible that the electric fuel pump could be losing rpm to deliver the fuel once you reach high speeds?

Entirely possible?

Yes, I think it's a field nothing to do with any of it.

Sure, but didn't he replace the fuel pump or was it you? No, the oil pump and the water pump, right, yep, yep, right, okay, but about yeah, you ought to look at maybe look at the fuel pump. As both suggested, I gotta do I have to take a break to dragging it or did I do the fifteen? I did? Good? So let me I have a couple of minutes here, all right, So thank you. Kevin Caulkins shared an autotech dot com three oh three four.

Two.

Hey David, what is your issue with telemarketers? David, Welcome to the show.

Yes, I'm getting about fifteen a day, one an hour whatever, and I block every night.

What are you kidding me? Did this just start?

It started like last year before that I was getting nothing, and then it's just over and over every I don't know, every day.

So I'm blocking now.

This is on your cell phone, right And.

I would say eighty percent of them are like Medicare, and it's like I'm not even old enough for that. I don't know, but they just I say, do not call list everything I try. So I don't know if anyone else has any ideas to get rid of them or block them, or I don't know. I don't know what to do.

Well, you're you're doing everything you went on the no call list, right, Well, I tell.

Them individually when they call no call list and.

No no, no, no, no, no, no no. You've got to actually go to a no call list and put your number on it. Go ahead, So hey David, go ahead.

But there are actually two lists that you need to get on, and most telemarketers really do scrub their database against these two lists. One of them is the Federal Do Not Call Registry and the second one is the Colorado Do Not Call List, And once you enter your phone numbers into both of those databases, it takes thirty days to become effective. But I can tell you that most telemarketers it really does work.

They do scrub.

It's not going to get rid of all of the spam you're getting, but it will get rid of a lot of that spam. Because the penalties, the civil penalties are so severe for violations of these lists that most s tele marketers really do use the scrubbing feature that the FCC offers.

Okay, why even too, because half of them are just at the beginning of computer anyway, but they will still follow that.

It would still apply.

Yeah, it's the phone number. It's your phone number that's going to get scrubbed. Is your number? Are you using it for a business? Is it on a website? Or anything. Are you advertising?

In other words, how are people getting your number?

I don't know, Yeah, I don't you know.

Listen, I'll tell you what we do all kinds of stuff. We download apps, we go to other sites, we get cookies, and there's so many different ways people can get your number and then start harassing you, so many different ways. But do the actual no call list and that should help you. I'm Tom Martine. We have more coming up on the Troubleshooter show. Kinage Home Solutions now with k and Age Painter Pros as well so windows, siding, doors and more including painting. Kang has what you're looking for

So?

What are the commission structures right now that you normally see the market unfortually?

There's not a normal. There's not a normal. There's not anything set in stone, right.

Is there a conventional?

No?

IM?

And I think that's a subject way.

So when you go to list a home, or you go to buy a home for someone, you negotiate it right there.

You can negotiate with that individual agent.

I think I have to be fairly careful here in giving any type of industry average anything like that, because of those you know, past lowsuits.

Those lawsuits said you're not allowed to all do something together.

We can't.

But I don't even think we're allowed to publicly talk about numbers or averages or I think that's so.

Really, but but well, let's put it this way, because I'm just curious. Is it safe to say they're going to pay at least five percent when they sell their house.

It really depends, honestly, they really need to talk with an individual.

Everything's negotiable.

Everything's negotiable.

So I can have someone list my home. I can have someone list my home and say I'm not going to pay a penny more than four percent, and then that broker and say, well, then find someone else.

Absolutely they can. And here's the thing. We all have our own individual.

Marketing that we do. We have those costs that we account for. Of course, the commission structure that we agree

Now it's like you've got one percentage and you have another percentage.

Really now it is defined so it's differently. And then negotiation.

Absolutely, so your listing percentage, of course would be between the listing agent and the seller.

That's could the listing agents say I'm not paying I'm not paying the buyer broker you absolutely they can, really, yes, that's always been something that's been you know, the goal. If the listing agent says we're not going to pay a buying broker, then the buying broker would have to get that money from their clients.

Absolutely, and that happens that That's always been in our contract as well, the buyer's agency contract. There is a section in there that defines out and you say, if I can't get a share, and how that how that gets paid?

It either gets paid by the seller, of the seller refuses, then you agree to pay it.

Correct.

Yes, this is all very interesting.

That's been in our contract as long as I've been an agent.

So what was the lawsuit about?

Really?

The lawsuit actually started in a different state, you know, and it became a national lawsuit and everyone kind of got in there together.

Was what was the main of it?

Actually commissions.

You can't have a fixed commission.

There was some accusations of that.

I believe it started in another state where an individual was told they couldn't change commissions.

I you know, I was just kind of going back on some of the reports that we've got.

Commissions basically now are totally negotiable.

That's just it.

Really.

Then, I don't understand that there's always.

An industry average, you know, with any industry, not just real estate commissions. But with any industry, you've got an averaging an average pricing to be competitive to the market. So that's I don't know that that's necessarily gone away. I think there's still averages. But what this did is not all states had buyers agency contracts, so that has now come into play. Colorado's had buyers agency contracts, like I said, as long as I've been an agent.

So now that did not have buyer's agencies.

They didn't have the contracts. They had buyers agents, but the contract was a little bit different. So we have the buyer's agency contracts in Colorado's, so we've kind of been a little bit ahead of the game. The other piece of that is here, Yeah, we no longer are advertising any type of buyer's compensation commission on the MLS.

All, right, Well, that's very very interesting how that's all changed. But you're saying it's always been negotiable. I just think that there needed to be clarification because I always assumed it's a certain amount period and you pay it or you don't, or you don't get somebody to work for you. Ernie, what's going on with you? You had a question about taxes? Hello, Ernie, I'm here, go ahead, Ernie.

All right, I'm considered blind right now and my taxes are going to be fouled. Do I have to pay? Is there any exclusions? Are blind people? As far as there.

Used to be, there actually used to be. And I'm not sure if that's still that way. I don't know if there's a special exclusion for the blind. We can look that up though for you and find out. Hold On, let me just ask ai here, Okay, hold on, all right, hold on, I'm asking it right now, right now. Let's see what they what says I said? Is there a special concerting of tax Let's see. Yes, individuals who are legally blind are eligible for specific tax benefits on federal

No, No, I don't. I just wondered sex increase quite a bit when let's start taking that minimum retirement.

I mean, oh, how old are you right now? How old are you right now?

May eight?

Well, that minimum that minimum distribution happened way back when you were seventy two.

Yeah, it continues right or right through you know. True, I don't know how.

So you're saying your tax rate. You're saying your tax rate went up.

Yeah, well I guess I ain't coming up because they're taken four dollars a month they send to me, and that's considered income.

No, of course, that's your minimum distribution. I got it. So you must have some retirement put away.

I have.

Yeah, I had a couple of dollars put in plan.

Okay, okay, wow right, so Ernie, so Ernie, okay, So basically it is you know, all I can say is it is what it is when it comes to that, and you do get an extra federal deduction and some other deductions, but go to an act tax expert, uh and find out more. Okay, because we can't give you specific tax. If you had a specific question, we can get it for you. We have more coming up on the Troubleshooter Show three O three seven to one three

I think it's just more clear.

Hi, Tom Martinez here at three zero three seven to one to three talk seven one three eight two five five. All right. I have a text here that says, Tom, what is your motive? Are you subliminally suggesting a lot of medicaid fraud by people who are living in expensive homes? I don't think that's the case. I don't think anyone with any means is going to choose to be covered under Medicaid versus some other health insurance, including Medicare. Care

You have to.

Apply on income alone. Is it true that Medicaid has pretty sucky service, Absolutely positively.

No.

In fact, Medicaid offers some of the best providers and some of the best healthcare in the system period. And I know that because I know people who do Medicaid and they say that the service and the quality of care is better than they've ever had in their entire life. So that is truly truly misunderstood Medicaid does not mean substandard, absolutely positively does not. I am not suggesting medicare fraud or medicaid fraud. It is not medicaid fraud. If you qualify,

It's it's the rule of thumb is it's always hard to be the most expensive home in the area because ultimately it's harder to find comparable sales when determining value.

So it's better to low price in the neighborhood.

You know.

Yeah, I if maybe he's justify did he make a mistake by fixing up that house too much?

He may have over improved it. That's the possibility.

What will happen is they the appraiser, may be able to extend the area a little bit as long as they stay in a like neighborhood. You know, they do have things they won't go outside of, you know, crossing major roads or you know, things like that, changing neighborhood type to find a home to justify it. But if they can't find something that justifies that comprey, yeah, they

What is it worth, what is it worth? What they do you might have over improved it, sir. So here's the bottom line. If you're going into a neighborhood and you want to improve your house to sell it, don't improve it too much. Because some people would rather have the affordability of a home than new windows. They might think, I can buy this house and live in it at least, and I'll get new windows someday. Sure, And there are certain and you can always make a concession after you

You're in inspections and things like that. But you know, one thing, you just want to be cautious not to do that. Or I had a you know, a transaction where the property was so overimproved and we had that were renovated comps and this one, you know, was just so much higher improved that they came in, you know.

Really over the top in pricing and there was no justification for it.

So they pulled comps from different towns in the same uh, in the same county, And.

That's not really going to work.

I think you need to hyper focus on your location and make sure you're good to the location.

All right three oh three seven one three talk seven one three eight two five five. This is the Troubleshooter Show where solving problems, answering questions, taking complace. Sketch your calls in for anything you need, or you can text me at seven four seven nine nine nine fifty two eighty seven four seven nine nine nine fifty two eighty or on the iHeart short code five seven seven three nine put Tom there, go with a sure thing Denver's best roofer Excel Roofing dot com. You don't pay a

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All right, bo, Okay, you know what I'm gonna do. Ah, that's a good open, good open. Thank you so much. That's a hard act to follow. So what we're doing today is uh trying to solve your problems. And I have some texts I want to get to I told you you could text me at three zero three excuse me, seven four seven nine nine nine fifty two eighty And I got this link and I'm not sure what it said. It says realtor something something, and it is about the

Don't you know.

I use social media to get a good audience for my listings, to you know, give buzz for open houses things like that, But I don't do all the little videos and you know, things that you see some of the agents doing on TikTok.

Yeah, there's so many ages on TikTok or on Instagram or on YouTube trying to give advice. Okay, So somebody wants to know what's the hardest kind of house to sell? Okay, I don't even know what that means. What do they mean by that? What's the hardest? What would like like a single family, one bedroom? There are no bunvit.

I think the hardest home to sell something that's really informing to the area. So, for instance, if you have, you know, a home that is eight thousand square feet overbuilt for the area, surrounded by homes that are typical, you know, say twenty five hundred square foot, you know, just giving some examples.

That home is overbuilt for that area, so it's going to stick out.

I do think that's going to be a harder sell because most of the homes in that area, you know, and just giving random offhands, it might be four hundred thousand when you look at this other home being so much larger, so much more substantial, you know, potentially valued it, say over a million, and then you've got a million.

Surrounded by homes that just are completely different.

So you don't want to have the most expensive home. Also, you want to be conforming. I know a woman one time who built a log cabin in Denver. In Denver, she couldn't sell it. She wondered, why who's going to buy a log cabin in Denver in a regular neighborhood.

Yeah.

I think that's what gets really hard because areas, you know, in neighborhoods and things, you know, your buyers are looking in those areas for amenities. So unless you have that one off buyer that just happens to fall in love with it right and has the means to facilitate that purchase. You know, it kind of goes into what we were talking about with you know, the gentleman that potentially overimproved that property, that has a home that's going to be

Of course. Now there's another one, find the value too. There's another one. I think people severely limit themselves when they do Frank Lloyd wrong or Frank Lloyd right. You know these modern looking boxes with steel and grays and glass. H I mean, now there might be people listening, but we call them modern, which is funny because they look the same. In nineteen sixty we used to call a modern. We still call a modern because no one's ever caught up with it. But there was always a concept by

And I think a really good rule of thumb is whenever you are doing any type of improvement to your home you want and you're doing it with the intent to sell, you know, you want to do it so that you are going to appeal to the masses and not just a specific amount, you know, a smaller amount of potential buyers. You know, anytime you overly specific do something like that, whether it's super ultra modern or you know, maybe you take out all your bedrooms and create one

And that goes for like neighborhoods on golf courses and everything. Golf courses might be the most beautiful thing in the world, but there are some people won't pay for it.

Absolutely, you've got that specific buyer looking for that that's going to go in and of course.

Justine and then like in Florida, you have communities with docks with swimming pools, you have airport communities in Florida, a lot. You have a couple here in Colorado, which is the most dumb thing you could ever do. As much as I love aircraft, I mean, to buy an airport property, do you know you have to not only find a guy who wants to buy that, but a wife that will go along with it. I mean, I mean, if you think about it, how severely limiting is that market?

Yeah.

Somebody who just wants some space, right right, So that's something that it becomes a feature when they go to market.

Lives on a horse property. Yeah, but he doesn't have horses. But see, they just wanted the space. So really, by the way, I got this text which is very interesting saying, look at this instagram concerning realtors and commissions. Take a look at this guy from Boulder who thinks the real estate industry is a cartel and his goal is to disrupt the industry with an AI assisted company called for sale by owners and sellers that don't want to pay

A few months ago, I decided that I wanted to sell my house in Colorado without an agent, and that process opened my eyes to just how broken the system of buying and selling homes is in the United States, and it prompted me to start a new company called Ridley.

Our mission with Ridley is very seat of this guy.

If you want to help consumers save tens of thousands of dollars unnecessary commissions by building a platform that leverages AI to automate much.

See, I don't believe they are unnecessary commissions, except now there are scenes of giving people the ability to bring intuity support only when they need it.

So I incorporated this company. Like twenty seven days ago, I raised a preced investment. I've hired two engineers, a data scientist and a product designer, and we are probably two weeks away from having our MVP complete. An MVP is basically your minimally viable product, or like the first product that you can take to market to begin to test with.

Well.

Okay, so meanwhile, we already have a handful of sellers that are in our manual beta who are combined on track to save well.

Right, so his host stick is doing away with brokers and be able to do it yourself. There's nothing wrong with you yourself. But I'm going to tell you something. There's way more to it, way more to it than putting up a sign. And I will tell you this. That guy was talking about a lot of realtors that I and I agree with him on it, that there are. I used to have this expression. Somebody said, oh, it's vulgar, don't use it listing whores. Okay, now I know it's.

That's not how I operate, well, of course not.

Of course, you wouldn't be here if you know, no, no, no, no.

But one thing that I always do, and kind of a mantra of myself, is you know, it's service over sales. So rather than that numbers game, I'm looking to put my clients in the best possible position that I can, and I guide them throughout that entire position, besides my marketing plan, besides the reach that I have, you know, with the company I have backing me because we've got some fabulous marketing tools, which is ultimately why I'm at Cold World Banker.

No, no, look at well. I think guys that list a home and do nothing, the hell with them. And you know, but I've seen what a good broker can do, and they almost always get way more money. But not only that, they know how to negotiate. I have a buyer broker right now in North Carolina. I shouldn't say that, but it's in North Carolina. And the reason I say that is I agreed to keep quiet on my areas

Want Yeah, well I do have a question for Stephanie. If this is an appropriate time, yeah, let's.

Do it right after the break. Give the question and we'll come back to it.

Well, you'll take me a minute to even first, Okay.

Then here's what we'll do. We'll come back to that more. Get your calls in three oh three seven on three eight, two five five A spirited discussion on real estate. And I want to look into more of that guy in Boulder who wants to disrupt the industry. I'm gonna listen to some of his social and see if I can play one or two of them on the air. We got more coming right up. Go with a sure thing Denver's best rufer exceling dot com. You don't pay a

There are some, and there are you know, but there also are some very amazing advocates.

No, now, I want to play this one thing right here is little secret for you.

Real estate agents are not lawyers, even though many like to pretend like they are. One of the biggest fears that I've heard from this community as to why they choose No.

Now, I want to say something about that. Actually, in Colorado, in the statute where that deals with licensing of real estate brokers, it actually says that real estate brokers in the state of Colorado have a limited practice of law having to do with the transaction at hand. They literally are licensed to practice limited law for the negotiation and process and consultation of the contract. Did you ever read that? Did you ever read that? Yes, and people don't understand that.

Yes, we can write contracts right within those states and negotiate them and rewrite them, and do get and advise them on the contract.

We can.

Our contract also does stipulate and say that it is a legal document and that we are not an actual attorney.

Right.

They can have them.

Reviewed, right of course, and they should, in my opinion, ought to represent themselves in a real estate transaction is a.

Legal risk, and I get it.

Contracts, disclosures, contingencies, it all sounds like a total minefield.

But here's the reality.

Most real estate contracts are just standardized templates. Agents are not drafting big legal agreements.

That's true.

Yes, we do have a standard contract that we fill out.

And then you have additional provisions, provisions we write things.

Okay, so by the way, let me just turn them off. I like people who want to improve industries and stuff, but I don't see, really the real estate industry is being broken right now. I just feel like there's a lot of people that don't do their job. But what can you do about that? You weed them out. A lot of people go with friends and friends. They don't actually investigate a real estate broker. They don't investigate the track record. So the question is how do you do that?

Don't know that I would give out names without my client situation.

How about days on market? What did you sell it for what was the asking price?

Things like that, Yeah, you know, and for me personally in that arena, I take on such a diverse I guess property types and special circumstances. So sometimes like just you know, my statistics and things are not always you know, I take.

They're not always at they're not always sale because.

I'm taking on homes that are going to be more difficult, right.

But one thing that I do, even in.

That type of an instance is I am keeping my client fully in fold. I'm giving them, you know, updates on views. I mean, it's a process in working with me. I'm not the agent that disappears.

And you hear you see me put a sign up and I show up at clothes. It's not how it works.

Now, somebody asks, really, if you don't have a real estate broker and you do it for sale by owner, how do you deal with other agents? And that's a good question. So you would have to when you advertise probably say what something about a co op or not? I mean like like do you shy away from for sale by owners? Now, if you are a buyer broker and you see somebody selling a house, do you think to yourself, I want to stay away from that.

Not at all.

If it's the house that fits my client's needs, then I would have.

How does that work? You negotiate with the owner then.

Directly, I would so keep in mind, I've already negotiated with my buyer what my commission is going to look like in my contract, right and I have that's between my buyer and myself.

So then I would go to this owner of this home.

I would disclose my position as my client's agent, because we have to make a formula.

I'm representing this person who's interested in your house? Now do you ask the seller?

Would ask them, you know, are you willing to pay to cover any commissions? Because I do, you know, depending on the agreement, I have to get my agent or my buyer.

I don't have to inform them, So okay, Dmitri Deputy d had a question he wanted to give to Stephanie.

Go ahead, Stephanie, it's so nice to have a real estate professional to ask all these questions. Go ahead here, Hey, Not long ago, I went looked at some five acre properties kind of like around the Sedalia area much to build a home. And I drove past a property that was neighboring one that I was looking at, and it was a beautiful home built on like a modern, very stately home. And I was surprised to see a couple of cows hanging around in the back of the house.

How does this work?

That's going to be something. Honestly, you're going to have to talk with the county directory.

I can't what were you. I wasn't paying attention. I was reading a text. You're you're asking, how do you change the nature of the zoning?

Well, no, I was.

So I saw a couple of cows hanging out behind a three million dollar home, and I was told that it was probably because they added the cows in order for that property to qualify first.

Now ag land, No, that's not true. No, here that works. Let me explain this to you. You don't ever have to have a cattle, any cattle to be agg if it's zone at its own act, you go on there, you don't have to do anything. You don't have to buy cows, you don't have to do that's a misnomer or a misunderstanding. So how do you can go from residential to agricultural? If you are big enough and fit all the criteria, and then you have to go or criteria, you have to go around to the neighbors and get

Oh and then would I have to go out and buy some animals. No, oh no, you can just if you're adjacent.

If you're adjacent to agricultural property, you can have grazing land. You don't have to have the you don't have to have cattle to have grazing land. And because of the fence out provisions in the state, which says if you want to keep cattle from great, you got to fence him out. Then you just tell your neighbors, by the way.

Have at it.

Oh what if my neighbors don't have any cows, Well.

Then it doesn't matter. They very seldom get into the weeds, no pun intended. It's just about the actual use of the property. Now sometimes they can. They might be getting more straight because they don't want to lose uh the test revenue. Yes, go with a sure thing Denver's best roofer Excel Roofing dot com. You don't pay a cent until you're content. Time for an insurance checkup free, no obligation.

Yeah?

Can you hear me?

Ton? Hello? Yes?

I can.

So do you have any follow up questions?

Who my brother does ostel ostel biflex?

And I'm sure it's the same same answer.

Well, it is what what what condition does he have? What condition it does he have? I'm not a doctor. I mean, I'm just asking.

I know, I don't want to hear you're talking.

Everything is everything you mentioned.

I told him the best plant, the best thing is exercise.

But that's that's all I can say.

Well, you know again, I'm not I'm not going to pretend I know medical and medicine and health, but I will say this movement lotion. Motion is lotion. If you don't move it, and if you start catering to it, you compound your problems. Now, that doesn't mean you know if somebody has a crack or something in their hip. I don't want to tell people to work out if they shouldn't be working out, But in most cases you're right. For osteoporosis, for arthritis, for any of that movement. It

I'm seventy six, going to be seventy seven here shortly?

Okay, we're in the same group. I'm seventy one. So here's the bottom line. At our age, you atrophy. If you don't do anything, your muscles are going to deteriorate two to four percent a year just sitting there. So you want to do anything it takes. And you know here there are two exercises that are the best exercises in the entire world. One is walking, yep, and one