Part 2: Flipped Home First Time Buyer Ray Rodriguez Post Inspection Interview with Rick Albert

I am joined again by 1st Time Flipped Home Buyer and Army Veteran  Sergeant First Class Ramiro Rodriguez (Aka Ray), United States Army Retired. Hires Me To Inspect His 1st House! Ray invited his realtor Rick Albert to join us for his input about his home purchase and inspection process. This podcast episode is the Post Inspection Interview!

Ray had some great questions  in the Pre-Inspection interview which helped set some realistic expectations about what i might find in his flipped home built in 1966.

Well, I inspected the house the day after the pre inspection interview, It turns out i actually found a few system defects that i pre warned ray about which was good because i preset expectations before the inspection.

Ray does have the gift of gab so we went off topic a few times and discussed muscle cars Vs electric cars, NHRA drag racing etc. Compound bows and target practice as well as Rays morning hunting routine.

Below are links that Ray wanted to share with any veterans looking to purchase a home. Ray said the VA Loan process was a good experience overall and highly recommends looking into it.

Thank You All For Your Service

https://www.veteransunited.com/va-loans/

https://www.veteransunited.com/lo/cj-bommarito/

Rick Albert is a Realtor, House Hacking Investor, and Landlord here in Los Angeles. His expertise has been published in a variety of news outlets including Apartment Therapy, BankRate.com, and The Real Estate: Los Angeles Real Estate News. He brings a wealth of knowledge from buying foreclosures at the courthouse steps to selling multimillion dollar properties.

 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0NMalPSU-gMfALyoxeNswQ

 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rickbalbert/

 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickbalbert/

If you are looking to add an ADU to your property or need to get an existing one permitted contact Rick Albert.

http://rickalbertonline.com/

Rick also has a very helpful yout

Transcript

John Laforme: 0:00

Buying a home. Don't panic. Just listen to the rest of this podcast Alright everybody, welcome back to another episode of home inspection of orders. Straight Talk podcast with me, John liforme. I'm a Korea certified home inspector from Los Angeles, California. And the topics we discuss on this podcast are about buying homes selling homes, inspecting homes. So if you're a home inspector, home buyer, real estate professional, this podcast is definitely for you. Okay, everybody, I have an announcement to make. I'm about to do my first threesome with two guys. I don't know if that's good or bad. I'm smiling. Because know that I think I should change my guest.

Ray Rodriguez: 0:55

Smile that Rick? Smells like bullshit. Like he's lying.

John Laforme: 1:03

I don't know why you're so happy. I got bad news for you.

Ray Rodriguez: 1:06

What do you mean? No, you never had bad news for me. What do you mean? Hey,

John Laforme: 1:08

well, anyway, everybody listening. This is part two of Ray's home buying experience. And of course, we have Rick Albert's back. That was quick. I just saw you last week.

Rick Albert: 1:22

I'm happy to be here.

John Laforme: 1:25

So one thing I forgot to mention to you, Ray is your lab result.

Ray Rodriguez: 1:35

Lab what my lab results?

John Laforme: 1:37

Yeah, your lab result?

Ray Rodriguez: 1:38

I thought we just disclose everything what's okay, well,

John Laforme: 1:41

I don't think you disclose everything.

Ray Rodriguez: 1:43

Okay. Oh,

John Laforme: 1:44

so your your lab results that came back. They're normal. That's good. Well done.

Ray Rodriguez: 1:58

Well, great. That's good. I thought you're gonna tell me I had something. Yeah. I

John Laforme: 2:01

thought you might have had some statue buttress sweater.

Ray Rodriguez: 2:05

Some statue. Okay. Now my first or my last.

John Laforme: 2:08

Yeah, you know some Penicillium? Stuff like that. You know?

Rick Albert: 2:12

No big deal. Sounds like a Tuesday to me. You have? Yes.

John Laforme: 2:16

You have no phone guy. I was that was great. It's awesome. So yeah, your lab results came out negative. So great. Thank you go. So you can move into your house. Now. I heard you already did though. already moved in, right. No. You haven't moved in yet? No, we haven't.

Ray Rodriguez: 2:31

Oh, no. Yeah, we're still doing like handyman stuff and updating, upgrading some stuff. And then we're gonna move in.

John Laforme: 2:37

You know, I got a photo from media that day about the fireplace key. Yes. Were you like, Would you like drilling holes and gas pipes? Is that what you were doing? No. Oh, they were rerouting stuff. Who was they? The handyman? You had a handyman play with a gas line? No.

Ray Rodriguez: 2:52

The gas guy was there too. Thank you.

John Laforme: 2:57

Yeah. Yeah, I was like, so I looked at it. And I was like, Maybe I should call him. Maybe he should call dig safe. Let's see what's going on here. Don't mess with gas lines. If I see I don't know what your background is. I don't know if you know how to swing a hammer or use a screw left hand at screwdriver. Do you have a left hand screwdriver? I have a screwdriver. Well, then your screwdriver set is not complete until you have a left hand at one. Okay.

Ray Rodriguez: 3:20

Explain the difference between a left handed and right handed screwdriver?

John Laforme: 3:25

That's a joke. I know.

Rick Albert: 3:28

Trust me, I was waiting. Yeah,

John Laforme: 3:30

that is a joke that I know my brother in law used to play on me all the time when I was when I was really young. I used to fuck me.

Ray Rodriguez: 3:38

I'm pro I'm pro at those games. here man. Can you go to the supply room and find a box a grid squares? And they're like what? Right and they go ask the supply sergeant. Hey, you know box a grid squares. And they're like, that's what you send them to private school do stuff like that's a left hand screwdriver. Yeah. Good at or air exhaust sample. So they would send a brand new private behind the tank. The tank has a 1500 horsepower turbine engine. Right right. And so they get my trash bag Hey, go go get an exhaust sample from this. Put it back like disintegrates. Oh, or they'll go to Humvee and they'll do it. And then the walk around with a bag like you know, it's all filled with air and stuff. You know, whatever. Your sample or whatever.

John Laforme: 4:23

That's great. What do you been up to Rick?

Rick Albert: 4:25

Just keep him busy helping clients doing some personal stuff. Personal real estate investing. Nice. So I've been working on that spending money. That's exactly what I'm doing in the efforts to make money.

John Laforme: 4:38

Well, just so you know, for the next two hours. You won't be spending money because you're sitting here.

Rick Albert: 4:43

Okay, perfect. So I appreciate that. That's good. My wife's not here.

Ray Rodriguez: 4:48

That's true. Lock the credit cards right? That'd

John Laforme: 4:51

be good. Credit cards. Oh, hey, we got something for you. Good lord.

Ray Rodriguez: 4:56

Yeah, here Cheers.

John Laforme: 5:02

Make a Lobo make a loop Michelob

Ray Rodriguez: 5:05

Ultra because we're all like prediabetics I figure we get precise.

John Laforme: 5:10

Hey, you know, this kind of matches my red

Ray Rodriguez: 5:12

book and I noticed that I don't want to say anything really. It's like my,

John Laforme: 5:15

which one should I drink? Well, I need to be sharp. So I'm gonna start with this one. Okay.

Ray Rodriguez: 5:22

Oh, yeah, so I'll do a Thanks, Rick for everything. You're awesome. Thank you so much. Thank you. Okay, Reg on

John Laforme: 5:28

Red Bull. If you're listening, I am looking for a sponsor.

Ray Rodriguez: 5:33

Not a sponsor, like a energy drink. Alright.

John Laforme: 5:39

About a long time since I've drank one of those. I was thinking the same thing. This takes me way back to like behind the the high hat roller rink when I was like a teenager. I was at it at a Massachusetts. Well, yeah, it was pretty crazy over there. So. So Ray, let's talk about your flipped house. Let's do it. Your flipped house was inspected by the authority.

Ray Rodriguez: 6:09

Home Inspector authority.

John Laforme: 6:10

And what do we find? Let's check it out. Well, I'm going off memory right here. But I do have the report in front of me. But the thing that jumped out at me was the heating and cooling system there. Okay, which is what we talked about. So now going back to the day we were there with like, a few weeks ago. You know, first of all, when I showed up, you seemed a little excited. You were like, you weren't you didn't seem worried to me. You seem like you're just kind of excited about the process. And and you were just more interested in what I was going to find. So Exactly. Yeah. Good or bad, right?

Ray Rodriguez: 6:49

Yeah, it was I was just I want to know what what was in the house. It's interesting. Yeah, what

John Laforme: 6:53

was in the house, so. And on our first episode, I kind of explained some things that can happen like sometimes you have to the newer systems, the main parts of their, but they kind of fudged the rest of it, like the ducting and all that stuff. And, and that's exactly what we found, yes, at your place. So that's just that's just experience doing it and running into the same thing over and over. Rick knows this, because he's probably been down that road all the time. All the time. It's the normal of what home inspections uncover. It's just normal. So once again, everybody for buying a home don't panic. Just get it looked at. And and and just let your inspector connect the dots for you and let you know, in your case. You had a upgraded furnace? Upgraded outdoor condenser. Yep. And that's the best part because those are the most expensive pieces. So they already supplied to those. But when Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck came in to install it, you know, they missed a few things. And the biggest thing was, your system was literally pulling air from the crawlspace. Yes. Which honestly, I haven't seen that one and a couple of years. It's been a few years since I've seen that that bad. So what that means everybody is underneath the furnace. That's where the air plenum is the return plenum and he had the grilles on the wall on both sides. And the floor the sub flooring, which is planks, they had these like quarter inch gaps in between each one. And that literally goes on beneath those underneath the sub floor is just a crawlspace. So every time they were turning on that system is just pulling dust moisture if it was raining outside and really like let's say we had three or four days of rain, all that moisture just getting pulled right into that system. It's just not a good thing. So believe it or not, the installers are required by the title 24 energy energy and energy code to actually seal that plenum up. Whenever a new a new piece of the unit is installed. And they did not do that on this. So did you explore that with somebody? Yes. And what happened?

Ray Rodriguez: 9:23

They sealed up all that all that area. Okay, so now there's no that there's those little quarter inch access is not there anymore.

John Laforme: 9:32

It's not That's all now Did they say anything to you like yep, you're right. This is pulling air. Did they? Did they concur? What I said they

Ray Rodriguez: 9:39

everything from the new report correlated with what he was saying. Yes. And they fixed it.

John Laforme: 9:45

I was like, thank you. Yeah, like when I get it right. You know, sometimes I report wrong. But we all you know, we all know,

Ray Rodriguez: 9:53

it was there and there was also evidence of rodent fecal

John Laforme: 9:58

matter. That's right. I forgot to mention that. Yes, that wasn't there. So not

Ray Rodriguez: 10:01

only are we breathing in, you know, outside elements and stuff like that, you know from the crawlspace. We were also breathing in rat poop.

John Laforme: 10:08

Nice. And that's always fun. Yeah, isn't it? I did come across a, I just had another podcast guest on you might have met or heard that podcast, Green Road restoration. So if you need your attic, redone or anything like that you're going to reinsulate if you have a contamination with rodents, they come in and do all that work for you. They remove all the all the saturated and just contaminated insulation. They pull it all out, clean everything up, disinfect the whole area. And then they re insulate and they actually come with a warranty. That's something

Ray Rodriguez: 10:45

that I may be interested in doing. Yeah, we have that blown in insulation. I think I have one bad idea. No, seriously, because the pictures you showed me, John, they just blew all that stuff in and it looks old.

John Laforme: 10:58

Yeah, it Yeah, that's definitely an older and older layout in there. So it's I don't know, I think everybody I think every homeowner should start there when they buy a house. Just getting your attic. Have it all cleared out. Start fresh. Yeah. And you'll know what's going on up there. Because it can hide a lot of stuff.

Rick Albert: 11:14

You know, John, and this is a good question for you is there's always things that we're supposed to be doing yearly. Right to maintain our homes. Yep. So things like you know, maybe that's a good examples like every year had the rotund guy just do a walk through the house of the attic. See, there's any evidence is there anything else that we should be doing? Question?

John Laforme: 11:33

You mean yearly maintenance?

Rick Albert: 11:34

Yeah. Like some say, oh, you should inspect your chimney once every couple of years?

John Laforme: 11:39

Well, first thing that comes to mind is water pressure. Checking your water pressure on your house once a year is a very good idea. How do you check that you just go to Home Depot and buy a little Rain Bird gauge. And it just screws on to the hose bib just like your hose, your hose goes on. You just unscrew your hose screw that on. Turn, turn it on, like you turn it on the water. It'll tell you what your pressure is. If it's over 75 It's time to call a plumber and have your regulator replaced. Okay? And I said replaced not adjusted. Okay? Because if it's an old regulator, you don't want to try to adjust it because chances are you make it worse. And then you have a bigger problem. So you could increase the pressure that's already high. So speaking of

Ray Rodriguez: 12:21

water pressure, now when you ever you're I was trying to find out where's my water on and off valve is on the house? Because usually where I'm from it's out in the front.

John Laforme: 12:30

I didn't show you that. No, I thought I showed you that. No. wasn't on the left side.

Ray Rodriguez: 12:36

Is that words that like read through the gases take a look with the meter is? Let me take a look. Yeah, cuz you know the case of pipe busts and like that I want to be able to know where it's at to go out there and turn the whole house off.

Rick Albert: 12:46

So you have a meter.

John Laforme: 12:48

Yeah, it's on the left exterior, right. Right next to your gas meter.

Ray Rodriguez: 12:51

Okay, cool. I know exactly what you're talking about that? Yeah,

John Laforme: 12:54

it's it's a blue handle.

Ray Rodriguez: 12:57

blue handle. Cool. Easy. Yep. Okay, so, I mean, at my, my house in Houston, we had a crush on across the sidewalk on the curb grass right there. There was a little hole in there. We had like a little user tool to turn off. That's where ours was.

John Laforme: 13:16

Yeah. You also have your water meter at the sidewalk. There's also a picture that in your report. Oh, yeah. So you do have a little box similar to what you're describing? Yeah. Yeah, that would be if that was the only place to turn off like the main if you'd like if you didn't have a shut off on the left side of your house. That would be the place to do it.

Ray Rodriguez: 13:31

Okay. Yeah, that's a little box. Um, I'll

John Laforme: 13:35

do it differently. Now, how cold does it get over there in a winter?

Ray Rodriguez: 13:40

Where Texas? Oh, it it gets pretty cold. Like it eases? Yes. Freeze. Yeah, sometimes it gets down. Well, last year in Texas, last year, two years ago in Texas in February that the whole place froze. Yep. My parents house Oh the fuck does that happen? Dude, well, what happened was, I know a part of it was they had these big windmills that that supplied electricity and they froze. So that that put a big, you know, and everyone's running the heater so that what those windmills that were frozen, they couldn't provide, you know, a turbine electricity. It messed up the power grid. It took you know, took a lot away from the power grid and it just shut down.

John Laforme: 14:19

Yeah, so there's no there was no Tesla charger to back everything out and if

Ray Rodriguez: 14:23

you did have a test

Rick Albert: 14:24

better out there.

Ray Rodriguez: 14:26

My parents had no electricity and it was like 18 degrees in their house. And they close the door and they put like a little space heater on a generator from the neighbor generator.

John Laforme: 14:36

And and you know you got to run your water a little bit to this it'll freeze your

Ray Rodriguez: 14:40

but you do like your pipes. Here's what you do. Here's the H town style of of not busting your pipes in the winter. I do this all my whole childhood. You go turn off go turn off that water in the front right? Then turn all of your your opening up all all your water all the the all the bathtubs or your shower all your faucets even though ones outside, run all those are in and before you do that, like your tubs of water, fill your toes up all the way up with water to the very top. You keep a bucket in there so you can flush toilets and stuff because not gonna have any water and you shut the water off. Then you shut the water off and then you open up all the valves that are all drained out, right because we in Houston, we had a crawlspace on our house, our pipes are underneath the house. Some people have their pipes in their ceilings, and they don't do that. The pipes busts and your whole scene will fall in. Oh, sure. Right on. And like I've had friends on. I saw their Facebook sounds

John Laforme: 15:32

like you were living off the grid in Texas. Yeah,

Ray Rodriguez: 15:35

man. No, Mister but that's how you make your state is. That's how you prepare your house for free so it does freezing question. It gets cold to where it freezes. It'll get down to I'll look it up. Hey, where's Jamie from Joe Rogan Jamie look up the Jamie look up the weather. Jamie freeze. Hi Mays. Hi, man, Ellie.

John Laforme: 15:58

That's so funny. So anyway, yeah. Yeah, you know, my mom has to do that every year because you know, she still lives in Massachusetts and stuff. And if I show up in the winter, yeah, she gets the faucet so just barely on just to let a little bit of water constantly run. So the waters flowing

Ray Rodriguez: 16:14

three degrees. Three degrees, Houston on February 9 2020. Wow,

John Laforme: 16:20

it kind of makes me think. Yeah, kind of makes me think of something else too. Because, you know, lately I've been noticing a lot of people seem to depend on you know, others to keep their life going. And I've never thought that way. I've always relied on myself to do stuff like new electrical goes out here. Dude, I got two generators downstairs. Sick. That's awesome. I got a battery. I got a flat out 3000 3000 Watt lithium battery. And I got a gas generator to the garage. Ready to go.

Ray Rodriguez: 16:51

That's a good investment. I think. I think it's probably investors on like that.

John Laforme: 16:53

It's smart, man. I mean, you gotta you gotta you gotta keep yourself alive. I mean, if everything today is electronic, we all have smartphones. We all have this stuff. Yeah, we need to keep if you're going to try to stay in touch with people things need to be charged or being able to be plugged in if there's no power. Yeah. What do you got? You know what I mean? So it's, that's just a thing that always irritates me when I listen to like a news channel or something. They're like, Oh, yeah, all these people. Yeah, they have no this I'm like, Come on, guys. You got to stop depending on your city, government, federal government to just always, always have your back. Yeah. Make believe they're not there for a minute and just go buy the right shit. And just be prepared for stuff.

Ray Rodriguez: 17:38

I need to get a generator for sure. Yeah,

John Laforme: 17:41

I got a gold zero. Lithium battery. Okay, you can get them. I got 3000 There's a 6000. Virgin. last a couple days. Wow. Yeah.

Rick Albert: 17:52

That's cool. Impressive. And

John Laforme: 17:54

I'll show you I'll show you when we're done with it look like the downstairs.

Ray Rodriguez: 17:57

Yeah, that's cool. I definitely should get one because at three degrees, they had nothing. So it was three degrees outside and probably like, like, I don't know. 1520 degrees in the house.

John Laforme: 18:06

Well, now that you're a homeowner, you can actually buy a built in generator system for your house.

Ray Rodriguez: 18:10

I saw that. The dashboard where they had that Oh, since we have solar they had those little wall battery things that store your your energy.

John Laforme: 18:19

Yeah, I don't know much about those didn't get any info on that. Like how long does it how much does it store and how long does it last?

Ray Rodriguez: 18:26

Jamie, look it up.

John Laforme: 18:29

I need to get good. Jamie. Jamie,

Ray Rodriguez: 18:31

I'll be your Jamie. Jamie. I'll be your Joe it'd

John Laforme: 18:33

be a JMS worry. I'll be Jamie. Okay. All right, Jay.

Ray Rodriguez: 18:36

I'm looking at Tesla, what's the Tesla wall was called?

Rick Albert: 18:41

You could probably just put Tesla in your

John Laforme: 18:44

bank storage bank. Yeah. Tesla storage bank. I just saw one today on the back of an adu. Yeah, this morning when I did an inspection. But, you know, I'm like, you know, I should look that up and just get some info on that. And it just get busy. And I forget powerwall Tesla power wall. Yeah. How long is it last?

Ray Rodriguez: 19:01

Okay. backup energy storage. 24/7 out is protection, energy independence.

John Laforme: 19:10

While he's looking that up, guys, I'm gonna tell you guys what I just saw on the news. Yesterday. A woman hired a solar company to put solar panels on a roof. And they put them on the wrong side.

Rick Albert: 19:26

So it's a really big deal that that is

John Laforme: 19:29

like, what the fuck would they think and so it's it's like, she's trying to let them know. Hey, you know what, this is only working part of the year. Yeah. And she's fighting with them to come fix it. And they just wouldn't budge. They just kept giving her bullshit, right? That's rough. And then what'd she do? She goes to the local news channel. That's exactly what you do. And that's what she did. And guess what? They came right out and put those solar panels on correct side of the roof

Rick Albert: 20:01

Lee and fixed her roof because all these holes

John Laforme: 20:06

Yeah, yeah, where the mounts were Yeah, yeah. So yeah, they're gonna do the whole thing. I mean that as a business owner, Dude, you just screwed up so what? Suck it up take the hit go fix it you'll have that customer for life. Oh for sure you know what I mean? It's and I don't get it and that is just like and I guarantee you that goes on all the time. Yeah. All the time.

Ray Rodriguez: 20:28

Yeah

John Laforme: 20:29

it's kind of nice lunches scumbags just it's not like selling ice to a fucking Eskimo. It's like, Come on, man. Seriously, and then you got and then you got people. I heard this before too. And it was Oh God, what state was that? Man? It was so long. I can't remember Florida? No. It was just a Florida it was a part of the country that was constantly cloudy. People need to understand solar requires the sun possibly. Solar requires the sun. Okay, your solar panels, your solar panel name don't work unless they are hit by the sun. Yeah, if you have a storage bank, great if something is storing your power, but if you don't have a storage bank, your solar panel doesn't work in the shade. Correct? Most people don't know that. You know why? Because the sales guys are not explaining it to him that way. Yeah, there's a lot of misconception on solar man.

Rick Albert: 21:29

When I was talking to a sales rep because everything about putting it on ours. He was not explaining it. Well. He's like, Oh, here's how the wattage works. Like I don't I don't understand this. Just how much money am I gonna save? Here's my electricity bill. Just tell me play words. And then when I had concerns, I emailed him my concerns and said, Hey, can you help me? Get over these concerns? never got a response, Mike, because you know, I'm right.

Ray Rodriguez: 21:54

That's a shame. Because if you work with this guy challenged, you would you would know how this guy treats business. He is all about his business. I know he's boom, boom, boom. So it sucks that you had to go to somebody that did not respond like the way you respond. I appreciate that. I'm sorry about that. That makes me mad actually. Yeah. It does. Because I worked with him. He's great. He's professional.

John Laforme: 22:15

And say head or gut, right? Yeah. had a gut

Ray Rodriguez: 22:18

had a gut. Yeah, IT professionals.

John Laforme: 22:21

You know what I mean? So anyway, it's a slug. It's said, you know, this woman buyers, this living by herself, you know, and these idiots taking advantage. I just can't stay shit like that. There's really no need for that, man. There's no need of it. Oh,

Ray Rodriguez: 22:37

I talked to Jamie right now. And he told me that he couldn't find anything on the Tesla website about how long had powers your stuff? Because you guys aren't mentioned on there for some reason. The powerwall

Rick Albert: 22:46

Alright, they may not because everyone has different usage. Yeah, some people have multiple computers going. So yeah, really do an Africa

John Laforme: 22:54

water heater. Hey, guys, my Is this gonna supply water to my family? Well, I'm

Ray Rodriguez: 22:59

gonna give you a window. Right window. That's all like, hey, a day or two day or two? No, didn't say anything. Right? Right. Right.

Rick Albert: 23:05

So they can say how much wattage they store and then you just take a look at your bill and then you can average it out that way. That's probably what they're doing.

John Laforme: 23:11

Alright, let's talk about what gets me mad.

Rick Albert: 23:14

Guys ready for this? Oh, super ready.

John Laforme: 23:17

You remember when I showed up to inspect your house? What wasn't working?

Ray Rodriguez: 23:20

The gas? Yeah, because I had off that

John Laforme: 23:23

day. Let's ask risk. Let's ask Rick a question right now. What did Rick learn from that experience?

Rick Albert: 23:30

Don't rely on the listing agent to make sure all utilities are on

John Laforme: 23:34

bad boy. That's exactly what I've been saying forever.

Rick Albert: 23:38

Literally, the next inspection you did. I emailed the agent or all utilities on I got there. Probably about 45 minute about 25 minutes before you arrived. I turned on all the stoves to make sure gas was on. I'm like,

John Laforme: 23:54

Yep, the first indicator is just find the gas meter, which is typically going to be on the exterior wall left or right side sometimes right in the front. You never know. Or the crawlspace if it's a light, early 1920s building and look to see if you see a big silver boot on it. You know how they boot cars that don't pay their tickets? It's similar the same thing. It's the same concept. If you see that. It's off. So you can be on the phone with that guy is a gas on? Yeah, it's on and you're standing right in front of the boot. No motherfucker. It's not.

Rick Albert: 24:27

You use those exact words. Yes.

Ray Rodriguez: 24:29

Are you gonna bleep that out?

John Laforme: 24:29

You're gonna leave it No, I'm leaving it. Wow, this is a very adult friendly show.

Ray Rodriguez: 24:33

It's cool. Oh, yeah, it is look Cheers, guys. I guess not adults to being an adult chairs buying houses

John Laforme: 24:38

and big words like words.

Ray Rodriguez: 24:42

I try to reach across.

John Laforme: 24:44

I can't man. All right. Is that gum on top of your beard? Yeah, that's nasty. Why it's my gum. That's true. Oh, so anyways, that's, that's that pisses me off for a lot of reasons. One, my customer has just already paid me to be there. Yeah. And now you're telling me I can't, I can't do my job, the way it should be done. I still inspect everything, but I can't test certain systems. So I'm still going to inspect the furnace, even though I can't fire it. I'm still going to inspect the stove and all that stuff, water heater, water heater, but you know, it's, I can't do it. So that to me is just flat out laziness. And some people do it for a reason. They just don't want you to find anything. I'm telling you.

Rick Albert: 25:40

Yeah. Because what someone could do as part of a request for repairs, just make sure turn the gas on, just make sure everything works. Some buyers might be okay with that. But then to your point, just because it's working on the surface doesn't mean there's not an underlying issue.

John Laforme: 25:54

Right? Sometimes people do that, because there's a leak and they don't want to fix it. They found out there's a leak, like maybe they had it on and someone said, Hey, there's a leak over here, turn off the gas, instead of doing the right thing by calling the gas company haven't come out and do a test or a plumber to come out and do an air test. I got a great story for you for that. I just thought of that. So I'm gonna jump into that real quick. I was on a house. Your two, three years ago in Pacific Palisades, it was huge, big, big, big house. And when I got there, the gas was off. But they knew this and they told me this said we still need you to come out but the gas is off. But we have a plumber come in the same time you're going to be there and he's going to test the gas lines to find the leak. Right. Okay, cool. So then he looked they'll fix it before I leave, and I can check my things I need to check. So I'm up on the roof. It's a big flat roof, like an ocean of just roof up there. So I'm just doing my thing, check on the roof. All of a sudden I hear sounds like what the fuck, it was loud man. And I run over. There's a couple different as like three or four different H HVAC systems on the roof. I run over and coming in right out of the gas line from the roof. I've yelled I had to run to I gotta get off my ladder run down and go turn that thing off. I found the leak. They never would have found that. They were like on the first floor. They were lucky I was up there. It would have taken them all day to find that. And that's where the leak was was on the roof right with a gas supply was going into the furnace. Wow. It was a it was leaking where the joint is. And that's typically where the leak when they get really, really rusted. That's where they can start to lose like the galvanized pipe. It was probably black steel or galvanized. Yeah,

Ray Rodriguez: 27:41

it's right there. Dang. So so it was like what did it

John Laforme: 27:46

rusted? Okay. It was just there for a long time. And the weather. It's you know, it's Pacific Palisades. A lot of moisture. It's close to water, right. Yeah, yeah. Right. You're not painting. Yeah. If you're not painting the pipe and keeping it up, maintained, it can do that. But yeah, that was I was like, what I was so loud, man. I was like, I thought something bigger was going to happen. I was like, oh shit, what is that? Then I'm remembered all those kinds of testing the gas line. So I ran over and I had a run down and tell him real quick. But that was that was a little story right there. That was interesting.

Ray Rodriguez: 28:15

I got a question. Yeah. Whenever you're, you're inspecting houses, like in that area? And inspecting houses here and say in the valley? Are they different? Do you see like different wear and tear on those types of houses that are in different types of elements? That's

John Laforme: 28:29

a good question. You know, homes or homes are built with the same materials. Every once in a while you'll find a house made out of steel, steel and glass. But most homes that just have the same concrete, same wood same sidings and stuff like that. But when you're in a high moisture area, like around the beach, anything outside the building is exposed to moisture. So it's just going to sit on there and a pipe is going to definitely rust faster over there than it is over here. You can develop a a staining on your stucco and on your roof materials. A build up. And sometimes you may have to have someone come out and clean it off. Depending like if you're in a real shaded area. That can happen anywhere though, too. Yeah. But more moisture, the more the more open you are for mixing like that. So anything metal that's not painted, right or not maintained, it's gonna start to rust. Sometimes I go on roofs and the coping flashing all the way around the edge. on a on a flat roof on the parapet walls. It's all rusted, only because no one's ever gone up there and just maintained it. Yeah, so just exposed.

Rick Albert: 29:39

It's common when you can't see it. Right like a roofs a great example people like how did he not know the roof was sharp? because there hasn't been roof leaks

John Laforme: 29:47

and nobody's partying on the roof. Right? So people just don't

Rick Albert: 29:51

know. Right? If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Yeah, it's super common.

John Laforme: 29:55

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. It's the cheapest way to go. Don't fix it.

Rick Albert: 30:00

but ignore it.

John Laforme: 30:01

Yeah, let's just ignore it. So water heater, water. He was not in service that day. Mm hmm. Yeah. And you had a little bit of translate pipe as I mentioned, you probably would and because of the age of the house. Yeah. And what was translated pipe again? Translate pipe is your I believe that was your water heater exhaust pipe? Oh, yeah. Yep. Yeah. So I've actually had trans I tested and I made a video on that. And I actually because I was so like, relying on other people. Yeah, pretty sure that has asbestos and like, oh, you never tested it? No. Next guy. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that he ever tested now. So I'm like, You know what, I'm gonna do this test myself. So like, at work, I started gathering little samples and stuff like that. And I just sent them all into the lab. And sure enough, it definitely contained a good amount of asbestos in there. And your water pressure on that house was just over 80. So your regulators are starting to go. Really? Okay. Did you not see that in the report? Yes, I did. Did you not read your report, sir? Yes, I did.

Rick Albert: 31:06

I read it, sir.

John Laforme: 31:10

So okay, let me ask you this. You're a realtor. So you'll know this. He won't know this. You saw the report? How does it differ from any other report you might have seen? Be honest, I'm sitting down, I can take a hit.

Rick Albert: 31:23

I appreciate that. So

Ray Rodriguez: 31:27

I appreciate that. Just seemed Rick's face.

Rick Albert: 31:30

No, I liked it. So what I liked about it is that was very clear on what's a major issue. What's not a major issue. And here's just FYI, right? Because a lot of buyers are first time homebuyers. They don't mean No, right? That's a great example. Yep. But even as, as a realtor, sometimes it's just easier to get through. Right? I can kind of like I read everything, but at the same time, it's like, okay, this is a maintenance item. That's not as big a concern for me, I look at the big ticket items first. And it just allows me to stay organized. And then you do have the whole like, built a bid function of the request for repair builder. Yeah. Which was nice. Because then again, that's like, almost like another version of the same report, but just broken down quickly.

Ray Rodriguez: 32:16

And so on the site, like Yeah, on the old version, okay, cool. Yeah, that's all Yeah.

John Laforme: 32:21

On the on the Yeah. Version. Yeah, that's very effective. Yeah. And I try to remind customers, relatives of that F before I leave, because a lot of them won't watch the video that comes with it. And a good time I get it, we're all busy. So check it out. You'll find it very useful. And they'll like they'll call me later, holy shit, they expand that they saved me hours. But that's why I like to check check, check, check.

Ray Rodriguez: 32:47

The report was awesome. It had a go a video and explanation and like, a why that it's like that. And the videos are helpful as well.

John Laforme: 32:56

Which video you're referring to?

Ray Rodriguez: 32:57

All of them. And then you had the you had the crawlspace video on the report. Oh, yeah. The Croft crawlspace video on the report. You had the sewer line video on the report. So

John Laforme: 33:08

oh, this the sewer line.

Ray Rodriguez: 33:12

Going out to the street and speaking of

John Laforme: 33:14

your sewer line. Did you ever had that piece captain to the house?

Ray Rodriguez: 33:18

Yes. Yeah,

John Laforme: 33:20

that's a good way to get rats in your house. Yeah, straight straight from the city sewer. sewer rats. Nasty.

Ray Rodriguez: 33:27

We saw one this morning. Oh, I freaked out. You saw rat were wild. We went out for a walk. Here. No. Well, no, no sure. That

John Laforme: 33:35

wasn't a Chihuahua. No, it

Ray Rodriguez: 33:36

was a rat. Okay, gotcha. Lucy scream sorry, baby. I know.

Rick Albert: 33:44

We see them running through our backyard. Oh wow. Start seeing those this

Ray Rodriguez: 33:49

one was taking a nap on the street. And definitely yeah, definitely. Like he was under lived. Definitely lived but she saw she screamed was when I went

John Laforme: 33:59

to I went to I went to Ralph's to get some food and some supplies and groceries and all that stuff and I pulled into the parking lot and as I pull in I see something bouncing around in front of me on the on the on the entrance to the to the suit Margaret and like the door to front door lock is that no no as I'm pulling off the street, okay. Right in Burbank got where the right next to the test. The Tesla dealer is the repair shop. Right there. I pulled in there and I see some moving like what the hell is this? I slowly roll up and other people start gathering around too and there's they're noticing it. And it was a rat and it like it was going crazy. Like maybe it got rabies or something and maybe he's just like freaking out. It was bouncing smack on its head on the ground jumping back and forth and over. And I just sat there and watched it. And I was like wow, okay,

Ray Rodriguez: 34:49

did you tip them$1 Or something? God don't be cheap, John. I'm

John Laforme: 34:55

gonna throw him a peanut.

Ray Rodriguez: 34:58

He should have put like a little tip jar in front of And Tim books.

John Laforme: 35:02

Alright, so I found type M copper in your house. How'd you handle that? Did you handle that at all that

Ray Rodriguez: 35:07

you know we left it I haven't hit that up yet.

John Laforme: 35:11

See and yet a lot of cast iron pipe in there you got to spend money eventually you get some free money I would get rid of that cast iron. Was that eventually just gonna fail on you and it may fail on you when you don't have the cash to fix it. So when you have the cash to fix it be proactive. I think it's just smart. So I think I don't know. My logic is valid but if you know if you came under hard times and all of a suddenly bad things leaking sewerage under your house. Like ah shit. I gotta fix this. Literally.

Rick Albert: 35:49

Oh shit. And you won't know until you see the water bill.

John Laforme: 35:52

Yeah. Oh, yeah. No, no, this is a this is a waste pipe. Yeah. Oh, that's way worse. waste pipe. Yeah, just a waste pipe.

Ray Rodriguez: 35:58

So when he says oh, shit. You're gonna smell it? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

John Laforme: 36:03

So there was nothing that nothing I found that freaked you out? I think we should have brought Lucy I think by Lucy got a little freaked out over stuff. Oh, yeah.

Ray Rodriguez: 36:13

Well, she freaked out about the the cross The cross The cross base, but the ACE back the furnace with the open thing? Oh, she did? Yeah. Because it was rat poop in there. So we're breathing that in. We weren't bringing it in. But it's actually it could have been right. So she freaked out about that. Because she's, uh, she likes being clean.

Rick Albert: 36:33

So I think we all do. Yeah. For the most part,

John Laforme: 36:35

but greed. Yeah.

Ray Rodriguez: 36:38

Anything else freaked me out that you found?

John Laforme: 36:43

And I found damage crawlspace vents screens there, too. I saw that. Yeah. Which is part of getting into Yeah,

Ray Rodriguez: 36:49

they might have done it themselves. Oh, they might have like, chewed out those things themselves. It's possible. Yeah.

John Laforme: 36:56

Or a bigger, like a raccoon or something was trying to get in there. Anything freaked me out?

Ray Rodriguez: 37:00

Um, no, because we, you know, we went over it together. So it was all explained well, so it didn't really freak me out. It wasn't really a lot of stuff. Like really bad things. You know? It was a punch list. Yeah. Yeah,

John Laforme: 37:14

it was. I mean, I think you had a good I think we had nice house there. Yeah, the roof was

Ray Rodriguez: 37:18

good. Like, it wasn't to be freaked out about really?

Rick Albert: 37:23

And we started getting bids. They were pretty reasonable. Yeah, yeah. Oh, really?

John Laforme: 37:27

Yeah. Maybe there's a turn of the market. That's why they had to come down on their prices.

Rick Albert: 37:32

Maybe or they're doing me favors, because they give him a lot of business.

Ray Rodriguez: 37:35

Okay. Has anything changed since the market in the month? In what sense prices Yeah, prices, interest rates. Interest rates

Rick Albert: 37:45

have gone up considerably. Really? Yeah, we're hitting like 7% Yeah, yeah.

Ray Rodriguez: 37:51

Are you serious? It's only been a month.

John Laforme: 37:54

Would you get about 6%? No,

Ray Rodriguez: 37:56

I got five. Point. 8.7 No, 5.875

John Laforme: 37:59

Close enough. No, it's

Ray Rodriguez: 38:01

not seven.

John Laforme: 38:01

Yeah, no, no, no, I'm just saying six. Sounds like my buddy. Oh, that's right. Hang on, man. You got ducting that was disconnected up

Ray Rodriguez: 38:08

there. Yes, we got that. All that changed out.

John Laforme: 38:11

Oh, you did? Yes. That cost.

Ray Rodriguez: 38:15

I don't know how to look it up. Okay. You don't know. It was what takes care all that stuff. Do you

Rick Albert: 38:20

change anything to the bid I sent you right? No. Okay, so it's 2500 bucks. That's what it was. Wow. To do that. And yeah, and additional work? Yeah. For the H back stuff.

Ray Rodriguez: 38:31

Yeah, right. Yeah. 2500 Oh,

John Laforme: 38:33

did he did you guys discuss moving maybe the return or just keeping that door open? What you come up with? Remember I told you that return if you close that hallway?

Ray Rodriguez: 38:41

Those two on the bottom now we haven't done anything I'll just probably just leave the door open at the door open but that side of the house is colder though. Which side to side with the furnaces? That That sounds colder?

John Laforme: 38:53

Yeah. Just not balanced right. Now.

Ray Rodriguez: 38:56

Oh, we put a new a read out in the kitchen. Yeah, so he threw that in as well.

John Laforme: 39:02

I read out what? One of those things the register

Ray Rodriguez: 39:05

register. Sorry, register. Oh, you

John Laforme: 39:06

put another one in the kitchen. Yeah. Okay. There wasn't one so that

Rick Albert: 39:09

you did that for no charge? Yep. I really owe him a bottle of tequila. Yeah. Yeah, he

Ray Rodriguez: 39:14

did that. Yeah.

Rick Albert: 39:15

I've known this guy Fred.

Ray Rodriguez: 39:16

Right. Yep. Fred.

John Laforme: 39:17

So he didn't he didn't recommend adding another return. In that living area. No. Interesting.

Rick Albert: 39:26

And you leave the door open? Yeah.

Ray Rodriguez: 39:29

I do. See what you're saying though. Well,

John Laforme: 39:30

not necessarily. I'm gonna have to push on that would push back on that a little bit. Would you put the return at up or down? I'd put the return in that hallway ceiling outside of that hallway, okay, in the main living area, so it's not such an eyesore, but it's still there, because that's a big urban area. Yeah. You had a lot of registers, but I thought you didn't have one in the kitchen. Did you know Alright, so that's good. Yeah, that helps. But it's to me. Understand, I do this every day. And that's why I think like this I've seen a lot of different scenarios and that that one there made the most sense to me would be just to add now now understand reversing that from where it is now is that a lot of work? So he wasn't there to do that for you he was there just to replace your duct and add an additional one so I'm sure he did You're right. But if I was living there I had to reverse that whole thing out of stuck that furnace up in the attic first of all, and it resolved the whole thing and only had sealing returns come on in

Unknown: 40:33

hindsight I would have done how do you even get it up there with that?

John Laforme: 40:35

How would you get the guy to cut a hole in the ceiling? Yeah, that's the only way right if the access itself isn't big enough you just cut a hole no some big enough at all easy it then just stick it up there then just repatched the ceiling drywall and lumber it's it's minimal.

Ray Rodriguez: 40:49

I was thinking I was thinking that

John Laforme: 40:50

I had done that over the weekend.

Rick Albert: 40:52

In some people do package units. Some people do package units

John Laforme: 40:57

on the roof eyesores but when you have a big attic yeah doesn't hurt when you have a big attic. Just stick it in the attic.

Ray Rodriguez: 41:04

What's it called? Package what

Rick Albert: 41:05

package unit it's where it's both AC and furnace.

John Laforme: 41:07

Inside one big box.

Ray Rodriguez: 41:09

Right that's new to me. I've never seen that before us are looking at houses. Yeah, cuz we get hurricanes in Houston. You

John Laforme: 41:16

can't put things I've seen one yet. What a hurricane package unit. Yeah.

Ray Rodriguez: 41:19

When we start looking for houses I guess those big units on the back of the house? Yeah. I've never seen I was like what is that?

Rick Albert: 41:26

I think ours is package unit. We got ours on the roof. It's weird.

Ray Rodriguez: 41:29

That's ours is usually in the attic. Because we have addicts in

John Laforme: 41:31

Houston. It's usually just it's usually just a matter of you know, some some roofs have just a really low pitch. And there's just no way to get it in there. Or it's just too difficult. It can be done. I've seen furnaces barely method and I'm like, oh my god, they must have really wanted this thing in here. Getting it in there must have been trying to assemble in in that little area. The furnace is typically this tall. Okay, going horizontal. Daily. It's not very tall.

Ray Rodriguez: 42:00

We had one ours remember ours. My my childhood home. Right? It was like this big. It was big and about as big as table piatek

Rick Albert: 42:10

All right. Yeah. How big was the house?

Ray Rodriguez: 42:14

It was a big house was pretty big. It was yeah, it's a it's older house. I don't know what the square footage of it was. But it was like three bedroom two bath. But it was a long is a

John Laforme: 42:25

longer house wishes. Where was your thermostat?

Ray Rodriguez: 42:28

I can't remember. A thermostat was in the living room. In the hallway. Yeah. In the hallway in the hallway where the furnace was? No, that's the other hallway.

Rick Albert: 42:37

No in the first hallway,

Ray Rodriguez: 42:38

right when you walk in going towards the master? On the right hand side.

John Laforme: 42:43

All the main hallway? Yes.

Ray Rodriguez: 42:45

Not not the hall with the foreigners to hallway. Where do you think the return should be?

John Laforme: 42:51

Okay, you know, I'm saying. Right. Okay. You're trying to remember it. Yeah.

Ray Rodriguez: 42:55

And it's not one of those fanciness when either I refuse to get one of those

John Laforme: 42:59

nests are actually pretty good. I like doing it. But the other led to

Rick Albert: 43:03

BP gives you a rebate.

Ray Rodriguez: 43:05

Yeah, but can't take control your your thermostat from like, other places in the United States or the world.

John Laforme: 43:10

Yeah, with Jewish based lasers.

Rick Albert: 43:12

Hey, those are all lasers. People weren't supposed to find out.

Ray Rodriguez: 43:19

Oh, man, I didn't come here to get canceled. Don't drop. All right. There's like a laser.

John Laforme: 43:27

That was a total joke because that some idiot. Name green, green. It actually says that stuff on TV. This politician

Rick Albert: 43:37

actually says, oh, yeah, that's ridiculous. And that was not her call to tell our secrets.

Ray Rodriguez: 43:43

You said that I thought about my friend Josh. Yeah, Josh.

John Laforme: 43:49

Man. So look, I overall I think you had a pretty good experience. So would you say

Ray Rodriguez: 43:53

yeah, I I. I've said this 100 times. I'll never stop saying this. I feel blessed in this process. Seriously, I had great people that worked with me. All the contractors are good. My inspector was great. My realtor best in the world. My lending and lending team CJ. On it. Everybody.

John Laforme: 44:11

Who's your who's your lender?

Rick Albert: 44:13

Well, they used Veterans United.

John Laforme: 44:15

Yeah. Well, that's right.

Ray Rodriguez: 44:16

On it on it. Yeah. Everybody was on it. And it I mean, I think Lucy and I got lucky. You know, because I'm pretty sure people don't don't get this type of type of this is not like a normal type of experience. It can't be.

John Laforme: 44:31

I'm just saying I think he's right. Yeah, I

Ray Rodriguez: 44:33

know. I'm serious. I'm not even more than me. I'm not saying

Rick Albert: 44:35

no but but there's there's validity to that. Like I just I know someone she she bought a house decades ago. And there was this like, kind of like a doll house like storage unit in the back yard and like what's in that? Oh, no, it's just whatever. I know what's in there. What's in there.

Ray Rodriguez: 44:53

Well tell us Rick was in there.

Rick Albert: 44:55

The city had like a power generator in there. Oh, wow. Yeah. And she did not realize that until after the close of Escrow because she had been getting paid from that. She tried, they wouldn't give a penny. And so when I met her and she told me about what happens, you don't have any recourse. I'm like, let's take a look at your preliminary title report. It was on her land. Yeah, it was in our backyard. And so I was like, Okay, well, let's look at this title report that shows any easements right which is basically giving someone else a right to use it and like, it's actually right here. It just wasn't explained to you.

John Laforme: 45:30

Yeah. Tips for Home Inspectors listening. If you see one on the property, make sure you make a note of it just so they don't. Why didn't you tell me because they'll try to blame the home inspector to Yeah.

Ray Rodriguez: 45:42

What am I talking about? That voltage?

Rick Albert: 45:46

Like giant green box. Okay, gotcha. Yeah.

Ray Rodriguez: 45:49

And is it is it good to have on your on your spot? No. Well, I mean, is there a negative thing? It's just

John Laforme: 45:55

had to be somewhere? Yeah, it happens to be on your luck. Yeah.

Rick Albert: 45:58

Alright, so a little tip for everyone when you're getting when you're buying a house and you see this preliminary title report, always ask for what's called plotted easements, plotted easements. And so what that does because I'm a visual person so then they'll send me a map of the property and the highlight all the easements on their shared driveways. Yeah, so driveway it can be what's really typical is you see power lines in the backyard. There's usually an easement. So you'll see like a yellow highlight along the back of your property. Yeah, but that we because like those title reports are kind of difficult to retrain.

John Laforme: 46:33

It's a transformer. Right there you go. Sorry, guys. I'm called blank here.

Rick Albert: 46:39

Well, I mean, your, your, your

John Laforme: 46:43

double fist.

Ray Rodriguez: 46:45

Getting ahead and live over there. So I'm

John Laforme: 46:47

not sure if I'm getting getting a little buzz. I'm just getting amped up from the sugar in this. It was

Rick Albert: 46:51

it was it was gonna go for a run after this and just run around the block.

Ray Rodriguez: 46:56

He's gonna cut the podcast. I'll be back. Yeah, just be mean.

John Laforme: 46:59

So I did. I did a house not too long ago, a few months back and the first thing they said to me was, hey, you know that looks seems to be a big transformer on the property like, Well, where is it? Said it's in the front yard. My gosh, they got a green box in their front yard. Oh, but I showed up my Hang on. It was underground. Okay. It was just a big big like, I guess you call it a coffin. Just a big slab of concrete. And it was right by the sidewalk Street area. But the house was definitely set way back. Oh, cool. That's not bad to me. It was uh, but they were like, Why is this on my property? I'm like, Well, you have to ask the city that. Just luck of the draw the heads or tails?

Rick Albert: 47:37

And yeah, he must have picked heads. It has to be somewhere. You just have to pay attention. Yeah, yeah. So

John Laforme: 47:43

first thing they asked me about something. That's something I don't comment on anyway. I just say by the way, there's a big coffin in front yard. I don't know who's in it during Halloween great for Halloween.

Ray Rodriguez: 47:53

Yeah, there you go. 365 days

Rick Albert: 47:56

away. stuff is already out. Yes,

Ray Rodriguez: 47:58

it's fighting Halloween stuff at Home Depot.

Rick Albert: 48:02

I see Matt Lowe's and like yeah, Lowe's and birthday. Yeah, I was just there before here. And it's like walls of Christmas stuff and a little corner for Halloween. I'm like give Halloween it's dude.

Ray Rodriguez: 48:11

It's like end game.

John Laforme: 48:13

I'd be driven down Chandler Park Chandler Park area. There's some of these people have 10 to 15 Standing Yeah. Fake monsters in their yard like 10 to 15 of them not like two or one. Oh my holy shit.

Ray Rodriguez: 48:29

And some have like shows like that. Like they must work for like University of some like they're like they're, you know, they do a lot of studio people. Yeah. And so they have like, all these animatronics in their front yards and had like fog machines and music and you can go and like walk by and check it on screen. I

Rick Albert: 48:45

was in Woodland Hills. Forgot the street. There's

John Laforme: 48:48

Candy Cane Lane. Yeah, been there? Yeah.

Rick Albert: 48:51

We tried to go but the lines so long. I'm like,

Ray Rodriguez: 48:54

yeah, the Berberich when you just drive through, you can get out and walk and go to the house and to have like shows every time.

John Laforme: 49:00

It's just something to do on the first date with a good new girl or something new. Or you got to get kids. Otherwise don't go.

Ray Rodriguez: 49:06

You guys like you guys like cars. love cars. Yeah, sure. They had that car hop over that Bob's big burger every Friday night. And I don't accident that was awesome. I took the family out there. Yeah, it was good. All kinds of cool cars. It smells great. You smell the gas is awesome stuff. It just smells great. So like

Rick Albert: 49:24

I drive up. It's so awesome. We drive up and they're like you can't be here. Yeah,

John Laforme: 49:30

yeah, I pull up my Tesla. You have any muscle cars? Muscle cars.

Ray Rodriguez: 49:35

I am I don't have any I've probably never

John Laforme: 49:37

had I used to own a 1970 CUDA. Uh, wow, that's what color is a 446 pack. Awesome. Pistol Grip shifter. Oh shit all numbers matching. Okay, and I bought that in 2005 and drove it for about a year just as a hot just as a side cars and as cool as my dream car was a kid. Yes, I had actually had To 73 When I was a teenager, I just got in a trade because I used to trade cars when I was younger, I had all kinds of cars, trade them. But when I got this one I didn't look good enough at it and the fucking it was a unibody construction and the rear axle where it mounts to the the sheet metal floor it was pulling away from the floor. I didn't have no money to fix that. Yeah. So I had to get rid of it. But I was like, oh, someday I'm gonna get another one of these. And then bam. I bought that one. And I drove it. Like I said, I drove for a year, took it to some car shows had fun with it. Then I started getting paranoid about driving, because if it got hit, because it was all original under that is all original. I had good insurance. And then I went to a car show and I saw a green 68 GTX. Also, from the same dodge family could have found Plymouth family. And I was like, Ooh, let me say under the hood, fiberglass hood on it. Guy built up the motor, or drag racing. And I was like, it looked like it was a drag race car right away. It was on a trailer. I'm like, Hey, can you take this off the trailer and take us for a ride? So I bought it right. story. I just bought it now I got two cars and I lost interest. I literally lost interest in the nice car and the CUDA. Yeah, I was I couldn't have fun driving. I was worried about getting wrecked or something, you know? Yeah. So it was a short lived dream car and did it though. That's cool. Yeah, that's really awesome. I guess I actually got into Motor Trend magazine too. While I while I had it

Ray Rodriguez: 51:34

here. No late motor trim. Yeah, show you a copy of it in El Segundo area. Oh, that's yeah.

John Laforme: 51:39

I got I got it in that magazine back.

Ray Rodriguez: 51:41

I need to see this car. 1006. I saw your motor over there. I gotta go some I got a copy

John Laforme: 51:45

of it. I'll give you one. I'll give you a copy of it. I would love it. So then I got the green car, the GTX. I bought it paid like 17 grand for it. A week later, the transmission falls out. Ouch. I was like, okay, so I brought it to the Hot Rod guys over here and chats over there in Chatsworth, and I was living over there. And he goes gags, like, what do you want to do with the car? I said, I want to drag race it. Alright, what kind of what kind of horsepower is the engine? I said, I'm being told it's probably 550 horse. Okay, he goes, Well, let me build you a 700 horsepower transmission, like typically a truck transmission, like okay, he put that in there. Never had a problem with it. I tried to blow up the motor, just to force myself to buy a faster motor. And it would I couldn't break it. Whoever built that motor, and I did want to beat that guy, by the way. I gotta I gotta build it. He did a fantastic job building that motor was a 400 block out of like an old fury, Plymouth Fury. And those 400 blocks were like, seriously known to just be solid. Yeah. So that guy took one of those redid the whole thing. And that thing was saying it's nice. I had a tubbed out shooting the rear end in the back for the fuel cell on the trunk. I was I was drag racing, drag racing for like four or five years.

Ray Rodriguez: 53:03

That's been to a drag racing track.

Rick Albert: 53:09

Honestly, I feel like I have but I don't

John Laforme: 53:12

know you'd remember you're gonna have to take them do January, they typically Pomona nationals is typically around January February.

Ray Rodriguez: 53:20

It's interesting you like you'll love it there especially like, like an HRA Yeah, and HRA right so these these guys they they reached down this track it's quarter mile right quarter mile. But they have these engines in these in these cars that are so loud it was check your whole body your insides is like moving even even the buildings around there

John Laforme: 53:40

just bring you right where they where they do the the Yeah, what boxes? Yeah, spin the tires. Yeah,

Ray Rodriguez: 53:46

do after whenever you're done sometimes they'll let the fans come out to the track and walk it Yeah, but your shoes stuck to the track because all the rubber that's on

John Laforme: 53:54

Yeah, I haven't seen that. I don't know if that here. They do it here.

Ray Rodriguez: 53:57

I want to address one of those nhrp races Mona. No, was in Texas. I was actually gonna do it here. It was a fun.

John Laforme: 54:03

I've never seen anybody do that. Yeah,

Ray Rodriguez: 54:05

that list. Well, let me tell you real quick story about this event. So we're, I was like, maybe like 1011 years old. And we had an RV. Right. And my dad took me my brother and my cousin, another cousin out to the drag races and stuff. We saw that we walked the track all that cool stuff. We came back. I was paying attention. My dad and everyone was drinking and stuff. And then we're outside the RV and they're barbecuing. And then Mike were next to this other like a group of guys and we're like kind of drink well, they were kind of drinking with them and my cousin knocked over their barbecue pit all the meat on it and it was horrible. And there's a big fight. And and I was like 10 years old trying to break everybody apart. And I remember I'll never forget this. I had like an autograph hat. Right that I had gotten autographed by Bernstein or Oh Okay, yeah, the Budweiser guy. Yeah. Bernstein

John Laforme: 55:02

I believe it's right. Yeah, right. remember his first name

Ray Rodriguez: 55:05

and then yeah, because we're walking around we're all the trailers were in right signed it and to break up the fight I gay this guy's like, come on, chill chill here. Take my take my hat. Everything's cool. Wow, that fucker took it from a 10 year old

John Laforme: 55:19

I could do the peacemaker

Ray Rodriguez: 55:20

took my like, a kid man. So I lost my hat but

Rick Albert: 55:25

sorry for your loss.

Ray Rodriguez: 55:27

Let's funny story drag racing.

Rick Albert: 55:29

But it was more effective than was it Kylie Jenner with the Pepsi can

Ray Rodriguez: 55:32

Yeah, that works too.

John Laforme: 55:34

Hey, here's here's a funny one for you. That's correct. Back to drag racing. When I was racing my I drove I trailered my GTX out to Vegas for their for their meet over there. They had a meet over there. So I was like, let me go do that. Let's cool. A couple other guys into there. My I get up to the line. I ran out of gas what a gas gauge failed. Oh, it was working right didn't know it just just failed probably on the way there or the time before I raced it didn't know it and was it stuck on. So my friends had a run out had a couple of friends in the stands. They ran out push me back off. And that same day, I was there for that. I wanted to go in again. I just had to guess Yeah. And I didn't have a great meet there. My best times were in promoted like 11 threes. Oh, cool. My car and that was just the way it was 11 through 11.3 seconds and quarter mile. Yeah. How fast not too bad. It's it's not super fast. Not at all. But like if you do in 10 seconds if I was probably doing was my miles per hour then

Ray Rodriguez: 56:42

there's a 44 second mile.

John Laforme: 56:45

Yeah, that's pretty bad. I'm having a time a hard time remembering things. So my numbers were just do the math. Rick, if you have a 10 second car, if you have a 10 second car. Yeah, that's fast.

Ray Rodriguez: 56:55

So 44 seconds. For a quarter mile? No. 11 seconds. Quarter Mile. 44 seconds a mile. How fast was he going?

John Laforme: 57:03

Oh, shit. Jamie.

Ray Rodriguez: 57:05

Jamie lot of answer now you know the answer a you whoever's listening put in the comments. Yeah.

John Laforme: 57:12

Yeah. But that was a lot of fun. Anyway, so that was an experience. And that same time I was there, Jamie. It was a couple guys. Couple guys racing. And one of them. The guy that was in the right lane. Of course they both took off the guy in the left lane. lost control of his car. And bam, hits the wall on the left. ricochets off. barely barely makes it past the tail end of this guy.

Ray Rodriguez: 57:40

Oh my gosh, he

John Laforme: 57:41

would have he would have wiped him out. Yeah, big time. That was

Ray Rodriguez: 57:45

like pit maneuvers. And probably

John Laforme: 57:46

it would have been like a pit. He was like a slingshot. Bing Bing. That's how quick it was. Because that would go on probably 200 miles an hour to happen. Yeah, that was really fast. Like the one we're gonna we're gonna take you to an actual drag race meet. These cars can go 325 miles an hour. For loud do you gotta bring some airpro with four seconds right? Every four seconds 4.5 out loud.

Ray Rodriguez: 58:09

The strip that was that was Houston had a big building behind it, which were kind of like sweets or like for the announcer just like that. And that building would shake and you'll see the building like the glass on the building. Just shake. That took off.

John Laforme: 58:23

Actually 150 bucks racing once at Pomona. That's dope. I had no idea. And one of the guys was like, Hey, man, they're calling you name like who's calling my name we talking about? I'm just here to race. No, you want something? I'm like, I want something. The first time doing as long as your pink

Ray Rodriguez: 58:37

slip gives you a pink slip. He goes

John Laforme: 58:39

off to the office and they gave me a check for 50 bucks.

Ray Rodriguez: 58:41

Nice. Let's gas money right there.

John Laforme: 58:43

I guess I did good on my time.

Ray Rodriguez: 58:45

Well done. Job.

John Laforme: 58:47

Not bad, right.

Rick Albert: 58:52

Guard engineers. audio engineer.

John Laforme: 58:59

That's awesome. Got a real audience here. I got my own audience sitting right over there. Thank

Ray Rodriguez: 59:03

you. Hi. Hey, John. I saw your white hat over there. Yep. Is do you do both?

John Laforme: 59:10

I do have a boat.

Ray Rodriguez: 59:11

Over here. I got a bow. Yeah, I got I gotta wait.

John Laforme: 59:15

An arrow to that's nice. I have a bow and an arrow, arrow that go very fast.

Ray Rodriguez: 59:20

I didn't know. I didn't know that. You shot archery. That's awesome. Yeah. You brought you

John Laforme: 59:24

Well, seeing how we all know the same people. It's I only Oh, it's Marvy. That got us into that's what got me. That's what got me into. Yeah, so Marvy is really good. And Sarah is really good. Yes.

Ray Rodriguez: 59:37

She's very good. Yeah, they

John Laforme: 59:38

compete. I myself, would love to go hunt wild boar. Because I Texas. They're just big rats.

Ray Rodriguez: 59:45

Yeah, there you can go in Texas and do it anyway. So

John Laforme: 59:49

that's what I would like to do eventually. Yeah.

Ray Rodriguez: 59:53

What's the poundage on your on your bow? 60 MIT. Yeah. Awesome. Yeah, what do you shoot?

John Laforme: 1:00:01

meaning, like where do you go shoot? Oh, oak tree.

Ray Rodriguez: 1:00:05

That's what that's where I go.

John Laforme: 1:00:06

Of course you do. So Mari goes, well, I've never seen it. Well, I haven't gotten a good year. Yeah, I

Ray Rodriguez: 1:00:12

haven't done yet. Like, April,

John Laforme: 1:00:13

I think I haven't gotten it actually pulling the bow was really good therapy for my shoulder problem. Okay, it actually strengthened my shoulder. Yeah. But I just stopped going because it was just kind of like, too repetitive. Okay, same targets all the time.

Ray Rodriguez: 1:00:34

But do you just shoot the stationary is in the bottom? Or do you walk the trail

John Laforme: 1:00:38

with the daily did I only walk the trail once and that's when I that's when I hurt my forearm like, oh, do I get whacked? Well, it's my first time shooting down at a target. So the learning curve. I found out later. I wasn't I wasn't pre warned on that one. Yeah, what I should have done was pulled up aimed up to the sky kinda and then pulled back all the way and then slowly till hinge. And yeah, what I did was what I did was I pointed down and pulled back and I let go, everything was out of alignment. And man, I whacked my form that swelled up like a watermelon, like quickly,

Rick Albert: 1:01:14

how long did it take to recover?

John Laforme: 1:01:18

It took about a week for it to go away. But it was painful. Probably a day or two. I put a lot of ice on it right away. It wasn't really that bad. It just looked worse than it was.

Ray Rodriguez: 1:01:28

We should we should meet up at Oak Tree.

John Laforme: 1:01:31

Yeah, walk the trail. And as it gets cool. Yeah, the cool weather gets bad should be like,

Ray Rodriguez: 1:01:35

like I used to go Sundays at eight in the morning. eight in the morning. Yeah,

John Laforme: 1:01:38

I'm still counting sheep at eight in the morning. Oh, man.

Ray Rodriguez: 1:01:42

That was the prime time to Hunt.

John Laforme: 1:01:45

Hunt What targets? Okay.

Rick Albert: 1:01:48

There either way. Number 10. Ham,

Ray Rodriguez: 1:01:51

I have a little bit of philosophy for this. Hear me out. So usually I wake up kind of early on the Sunday and then I'll go and like simulate my hunt. Yeah, I live live in Los Angeles, I can't just go out and hunt animals. So I go to that range. And what it is, is they have a like a mile long or something. I don't know what it is, is like 27 targets. But they're like 3d stationary animal targets. So you have a cougar turkey.

John Laforme: 1:02:16

They're not easy to hit your there's they're concealed with camouflage or concealed. Oh, but with, you know, tree branches. It'd be like just past the tree branch and trying to focus past the branch and it's really challenging.

Ray Rodriguez: 1:02:28

And so all those 2725 2027 stations, I'm not too sure what it is. But it's an oak tree, the gun range. Yeah. And so like you're hiking through the hills and stuff, and then you stop at a station and there's like a fit. There's a book like 50 meters away, you know, and, uh, you shoot that and you go look at your target and you walk to the next one. And so it takes about what like an hour and a half, two hours so

John Laforme: 1:02:51

I only made it through halfway and then I hurt my arm. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I couldn't

Rick Albert: 1:02:54

really do much. And once you shoot the bows gone like you don't have to go retrieve the bow or any No, the arrow

John Laforme: 1:02:59

you have to go. Now you need to retrieve your arrows. You are going to lose a few you get my break one. Sure. I lost 120 bucks ahead. 20 bucks a whack.

Rick Albert: 1:03:08

Yeah, you're gonna go collect it. Yeah.

Ray Rodriguez: 1:03:11

So with that, I'll show up and I'll walk that I won't eat. I'll wake up and I go the range and I'll do the whole thing. We don't eat. No. That's my hunt. That's like my primal day.

John Laforme: 1:03:24

So you're looking for a rabbit? No,

Ray Rodriguez: 1:03:26

I mean, like he's looking for dinner. Okay, so I go and I shoot that all the targets, right? I do my hike the home and then I eat it's like I go out and I hunt. It's like my meal. You know? I mean, less than my dated to go back and

John Laforme: 1:03:40

tell you more and more. Yeah, it's fun though.

Rick Albert: 1:03:42

So you'll hunt the turkey like the fake Turkey come home and have like a turkey sandwich. Yeah.

Ray Rodriguez: 1:03:46

Or pizza or something. Yeah. All right. Yeah. Well, you know, it's it's

Rick Albert: 1:03:52

coming. I'm bringing man hot slices make me

John Laforme: 1:04:01

there. That's hilarious. Yeah,

Ray Rodriguez: 1:04:02

yeah, I do that though. I think I mean, I don't know. Works for me mentally. Yeah.

Rick Albert: 1:04:06

So whatever keeps you focused.

Ray Rodriguez: 1:04:08

That's fun. I mean, think about it. You wake up you go somewhere to hunt. You come back and you eat. It's like a reward. It's like not depending on people

John Laforme: 1:04:15

John member they Oh, I didn't know they were open that early. Yeah, eight.

Ray Rodriguez: 1:04:19

But it goes back to remember what you said the generators and not depending on people. Waking up hunting simulator hunt. Yeah,

John Laforme: 1:04:25

I can do it. I got the stuff in the garage.

Ray Rodriguez: 1:04:27

Yeah, I need to see it on check it out.

John Laforme: 1:04:29

I got the gear. The gear, the gear. I got the knives. I got the

Ray Rodriguez: 1:04:34

there's one target up there. So there's a bear on if you mean did you make it to the bear that's on the very top of the hill. There's a bear. So you shoot the bear way up there and you go up there. You get your arrows and you keep falling the ridge. You follow the ridge, right? And when you're on the very when you're on the very top of the peak and there's there's a ridge right there. There they put this deer target right in front of a little valley right there. Right and if You missed that deer, your arrow goes down, down there. And there's probably like 1000s of arrows on there.

John Laforme: 1:05:05

Right people walking by gonna err on the side of their head, but

Ray Rodriguez: 1:05:07

you can't just like go down there. It's, I kind of feel like that part of the of the track burned down, I think 2018 or so when you're hiking that man, you really kind of get to feel what those firefighters are doing. That's all I was really thinking about. And they're like, Man, I can't believe they're hoping these hills putting out this fire. But yeah, but right there that, yeah, that ridge, you're losing arrows there all day long if you don't hit that target.

John Laforme: 1:05:29

And if you hit a tree, and you pull and you hit a tree, you can't get that arrow. So you just lost another one. Yeah, though, so I can get it can get pricey quick. So if you're on a budget, you gotta really be careful what you shoot. Even if you shoot in a target, you might just miss the target. Sometimes you Oh shit, I slipped

Ray Rodriguez: 1:05:46

or, or you hit it. And you hit that piece of rebar inside the Yeah, it's on the target. Because there's a metal frame. That makes sense. Yeah. metal, metal and that thing will explode. Whatever.

John Laforme: 1:05:58

Sometimes you can see people hit the end of an arrow that's already stuck. Yeah, split that thing right down the middle. Yeah, some people do that. Knowingly. Like, I'm going to hit that. And they call it and they nail it

Ray Rodriguez: 1:06:10

about that, that that 50 meter orange tennis ball that hangs out in the top of the love that thing. That's, you know, that was my

John Laforme: 1:06:17

excitement for the day. Push it back and forth. Igor, say hit that one. That's the challenge that was more fun to me than just hitting this stationary target.

Rick Albert: 1:06:27

So would that make sense?

Ray Rodriguez: 1:06:28

So what they do is that whenever they clear the range, and we're all we all go out and get our arrows that go up there and then they'll they'll hit it and then they'll get there and come back and it's still moving. Just for full rotation and then beat all over again.

John Laforme: 1:06:40

How are we supposed to be talking about houses? Oh, well, yeah. Tree tree house. I get it you're getting set up a truck. Getting to the tree house next. Yeah. So you built a tree house is about

Ray Rodriguez: 1:06:53

I wasn't we're talking about bow because I was gonna put some stationary targets in my backyard. Shoot of my living room. Yeah. Well, I'm gonna sit where the islands at and shoot it.

Rick Albert: 1:07:06

The house that through nice. Shoot the grapefruit.

Ray Rodriguez: 1:07:09

Yeah, see the grapefruit can be a little swinging target. Yeah,

John Laforme: 1:07:13

that's cool. So yeah, I like so houses. treehouse. Treehouse is not what you asked for me. There's going to be plumbing in there.

Ray Rodriguez: 1:07:21

No, it'd be like a throw out the window.

John Laforme: 1:07:26

So, you know, like I said before, you're you. You did pretty good on your house. Man. You had some basic problems. That me and Rick already explained to you. Overall, you got a nice spot there. You got a driveway, which is great. Yep, yes. All sarkin for like four cars. I was

Rick Albert: 1:07:42

gonna say. Yeah, it's a ton of parking. Yeah, that's that's rare. It's

Ray Rodriguez: 1:07:46

crazy. That's rare. We just took my my cousin's.

John Laforme: 1:07:49

Oh, the panel. Did you ever upgrade the panel? This week? Next week? Oh, there. Yeah, that's right. Was that it? Was that a stat block? I can't remember. zinsco

Ray Rodriguez: 1:07:58

zinsco. Let me check it

Unknown: 1:08:00

zinsco zinsco. New from Zeus. This podcast brought to you by zinsco. You from K tail?

Rick Albert: 1:08:06

Back from the dead from the 90s. I mean, yeah,

Ray Rodriguez: 1:08:09

they're gonna I found some like, outlets. I need that in the Tesla charger. Yes, I drive a Tesla. My cousins always make fun of me for the test. Because yeah, cars are from Texas

John Laforme: 1:08:26

now during big gas guzzling trucks, right.

Ray Rodriguez: 1:08:28

Yeah. Well, yeah. That's one of my cousins that you probably shouldn't allow him to drive inside your truck. You know who you are. Oh, I said his name. Oh.

Rick Albert: 1:08:40

It's okay. When I got my electric car when I ordered it. My whole team was questioning me on it. Well, what did you die in the middle of the road? I'm like, why wouldn't I charge it at home beforehand and start the day with the new charge? They're still in the mindset and love my family. But even friends like they're in the mindset that I have to go to a station to charge okay, like the student because he did for gas Right? Right. No, you don't understand. I can do it holy. Well, your electricity bill is gonna go up. I'm like, Yeah, and it probably be cheaper than gas. But even if it's the same price as gas, I'm still saving time not having to go to the gas station, I'm

Ray Rodriguez: 1:09:17

sure. But don't let the color so it's always there's always a but

Rick Albert: 1:09:21

there's something and then when gas prices started going up to start as me maybe I'm thinking about getting one. I'm like,

Ray Rodriguez: 1:09:29

I do you recommend? Okay, here's what I recommend. I recommend always having a gas car though. I would never recommend going fully electric.

Rick Albert: 1:09:36

I agree with that. Oil has a yes yes. Always have something

Ray Rodriguez: 1:09:39

that you can because when the light hits the fan, I work.

Rick Albert: 1:09:45

The range isn't quite there. Yeah, so

John Laforme: 1:09:48

Exactly. What are yours or something maybe so basically, you know, I just paid off my work fan

Rick Albert: 1:09:54

and gratulations just the button press the button.

Ray Rodriguez: 1:10:01

Everybody, Jump in. I was working man.

John Laforme: 1:10:04

All right. And I'm hoping that in the next couple of years, they'll come out with an electric version. I just saw that used van and get the electric cars. I only go so far with that. Yeah,

Ray Rodriguez: 1:10:15

I like your setup in the back. Yeah, I've

John Laforme: 1:10:17

made that myself.

Rick Albert: 1:10:18

Nice. They will have a client of mine. That's he's working for a company where they're making the semi trucks

Ray Rodriguez: 1:10:25

all. Oh, yeah. I've seen the Tesla had those two. Did they? Yeah, they have this.

Rick Albert: 1:10:30

So if they're working on that, why wouldn't they be working on?

John Laforme: 1:10:32

I'm pretty sure they already have an electric Metro span. In Europe. I'm pretty sure they have it in Europe already. Like the UK has it? They just don't have what they're not sending them here yet. For some reason. I

Rick Albert: 1:10:42

don't get that. Like higher regulations here for vehicles. That's why we don't see we have electric electric stuff here. Yeah. But what kind of range? Do you don't think you have electric? Yes. But what kind of range do you need for your line of work?

John Laforme: 1:10:55

The most I go a day is 50 to 60 miles. Oh, yeah. He's good, man. And then back. So maybe 100 miles a day.

Ray Rodriguez: 1:11:02

Do you have another gas vehicle you can have rely on too?

John Laforme: 1:11:05

Yeah, I have my jeep. Cool. That's just my personal right there. Yeah, good. Yeah. So that's the only reason why I consider getting an electric jeep. I mean, I mean, electric van, because I know, I'm just I could charge it up at night and just go to work and come back. Yeah, if you just do that I like about it. You're not like drawing power. I'm not trying to travel across country. No. Yeah. So the jeeps for yeah,

Rick Albert: 1:11:29

I've done the mini road trip. I drove about four hours. Yeah, but it wasn't the greatest experience. Because a lot of these electric vehicles they make up a lot of the charge by hitting the brakes.

Ray Rodriguez: 1:11:41

Virginia regenerate regenerative braking.

Rick Albert: 1:11:44

Exactly. Yeah. So when you're driving on open freeway, I lost like 20 miles. Oh, really? Yeah. Because it's used to be braking. If you're on the freeway, not hitting the brakes, and lose that extra mile.

Ray Rodriguez: 1:11:58

I gotcha. Yeah.

John Laforme: 1:11:59

You know, my jeep sucks on gas around town. If I'm running errands on the freeway,

Ray Rodriguez: 1:12:03

probably what? 22 on the highway 2223.

John Laforme: 1:12:07

I haven't really tracked it, but that's a lot better and better. Team city seems like the opposite. Yeah. Because once you go when you go in, yeah. And I got 37 inch tires on that day,

Ray Rodriguez: 1:12:16

especially if you keep the accelerator like on a level spot. Yeah, just

John Laforme: 1:12:21

kind of left. I drove out the Tahoe. And I was really impressed with how much I spent on gas. There wasn't much at all. I stick as I stopped maybe twice on the way back. seven hour drive. Yeah, I thought I got a 20 gallon tank.

Ray Rodriguez: 1:12:37

I took my stuff out for a GE lecture course that Yeah, I did a road trip to Tahoe it was alright. It was alright. It was good. It was it was good experience. I noticed that we're the Tesla superchargers are there's like little shops around there. And like if you if you're on a like a Tesla road trip, you can just Google what you just put the address and I'll tell you where you're stopping. So when you're in route to that wherever you're going to next charging station, have your copilot like look up the spot. And it will tell you what's around there like a Ducati or like, you know, something to eat or

John Laforme: 1:13:06

while you're talking if anybody listening has an electric car, or a van or some kind of electric vehicle and you got an experience to share. Leave a comment. Yeah, for sure. Check

Ray Rodriguez: 1:13:15

that out. That was a good trip, though. It was a good trip out there and but the elevation driving because you know, when you're driving to Tahoe, it's all appeal past a certain point. Like you're you're driving what 8000 feet or 7000 feet altitude. So you know you're doing this plateauing driving up flat times I wouldn't plateauing. So I didn't notice. Kind of a loss of power going uphill. There was no wind. It was fine. But as the colder Yeah. Was it summertime, it was summertime wasn't really cold it Yeah. But coming back, it was good. Like it was a great trip. It was pretty cool.

John Laforme: 1:13:47

I'm curious how the cold weather affects those that

Rick Albert: 1:13:50

I bet it does. When I looked into it, it was an extra like 5000 bucks to get the extended battery. And so when I started doing research on it, you're gonna

John Laforme: 1:13:58

say battery sweater. Sweater for the better

Ray Rodriguez: 1:14:02

blocky block heater. Because they do have heaters in the last Pesta

Rick Albert: 1:14:06

from when I was reading in like forums, they're saying it's only worth it if you're in cold weather, because you're right, if you like snow, things like that. It just it sucks up the battery.

Ray Rodriguez: 1:14:17

Speaking of that, when were stationed when I was stationed in South Korea, it gets below zero up there.

John Laforme: 1:14:23

Oh, that reminds me, okay, South South Korea. I got some questions. I gotta

Rick Albert: 1:14:28

clarify. By the way. Thank you for clarifying, by the way that South Korea Yes, it was North Korea a different conversation. Oh, I have someone's listen. I

Ray Rodriguez: 1:14:36

have four years of history with with dealing with with North Korea. Wow. That's that's another podcast. We'll get to that later. But cold starting vehicles and battery degradation in cold weather. Yeah, in our tanks. We had like we had to have shifts that went out to them. It was like nine. I don't know don't I've been on tanks in a couple of years. I think it's like seven. We're gonna talk more about denials. Batteries, right We will definitely, but they you have to cold start the tank middle of night because the batteries are dying and by the morning, yeah, yep, yep.

John Laforme: 1:15:09

So after our last episode together, okay, I realized man, I didn't get into the tank stuff with him. Okay, so let's do it what is so how far did you guys did you actually fire rounds like practice rounds or anything like that? No you didn't you didn't have to do any war right?

Ray Rodriguez: 1:15:26

Yeah we shot we like whenever you're whenever you're in a combat MOS, all you're doing is training Okay,

John Laforme: 1:15:34

but what is an MOS

Ray Rodriguez: 1:15:35

oh sorry, it's a combat MOS means Military Occupational occupation specialty, right so it's your job, your job, but MOS, right. So whatever job you have, if it's combat related, then you spend all of your time training. So you're shooting. If you're a mouse, that's just your job, you're shooting, you're shooting tanks, you're, you're fixing tanks, you're doing the services on tanks twice a year or after gunnery. He's like you just gunners like qualification. So yeah, you're constantly on those vehicles. And if you're not shooting the actual tank, then you're in a tank simulator shooting tanks. And then if you're not doing that, then you're in the simulator shooting with the rest of your team. So everyone's in a simulator and they're all

John Laforme: 1:16:16

combined. So then you know how to perform maintenance on a tank. Yeah.

Ray Rodriguez: 1:16:21

Level one maintenance. I'm not an army makeup.

John Laforme: 1:16:24

I bought a tank tomorrow. What would you recommend that changing wheel? What mileage?

Ray Rodriguez: 1:16:28

No, I don't know. Every six months. That's when we do

Rick Albert: 1:16:33

an inspection. And then you like I have to note that the driveway is cracked

Ray Rodriguez: 1:16:39

every six months? Every six months, man. That's what that's what about the air filter? They're called V packs. And there's three of them and they're in the back deck. You just shake them off or you blow them out. Okay, well, there's two visible I think it's three or two.

Rick Albert: 1:16:52

I don't know, either economically friendly. Yeah.

John Laforme: 1:16:55

I know that I know what questions to ask.

Ray Rodriguez: 1:16:56

But for the desert, you gotta you gotta empty those out like a bunch because it sucks in sand. Right My brother was

John Laforme: 1:17:03

in now is there is there an air conditioning system in there? No. So you just sweat your ass off? Yes.

Rick Albert: 1:17:10

I mean, you do have that makes sense. Hang on, I got that.

Ray Rodriguez: 1:17:15

There is no conditions called the the NBC unit. Right the nuclear biological content the CBRNE the the freakin you have a nuclear

John Laforme: 1:17:24

air conditioner. Okay, so what is it called?

Rick Albert: 1:17:27

Oh my god the last place Oh man. It's

Ray Rodriguez: 1:17:29

been a minute dude. All my my tager friends I do watches whatever do my freakin take anymore. Anyway, so we have an ABC system right? So what it does like if there's like a nuclear biological radiological or chemical agent in the in the air outside that's detected by our 74 Delta's which are those specials that deal with that shit, right? They'll call it up, we'll button up our hatches. And we'll turn the NBC system on right. The NBC system will purify the air that you have in your cabin and recirculate it so you're not breathing in all those contaminants. What if somebody farts Oh, that's a no fly zone. But I have I've had to shoot in front of people in in Wow. Yeah, but if you fall in there, there's I mean the turret there's two hatches okay. The tank commanders hatch and in the in the loaders? You're not supposed to fire does that mean you're an asshole Do you like if you do that like I'm gonna I'm gonna fucking kick you.

John Laforme: 1:18:25

Yeah don't ever get in a tank with me.

Ray Rodriguez: 1:18:32

You really just fucking fart in this tank and you know that smells like shit in here and you went

John Laforme: 1:18:38

What if it was accidental?

Rick Albert: 1:18:40

Outside like a glass of milk just gone wrong

John Laforme: 1:18:43

outside What does enemy fire? Just whatever hang on guys. Everybody pause I gotta shit. War stop shooting. I gotta poop. No, he's poop now big question. What comes out of the shells? fired from a tank? I was told before there's a rod Yep, inside that and that is actually harder than the material that other tanks are made of. Is that correct?

Ray Rodriguez: 1:19:09

I don't know if it's harder than I don't know. What that rod is made out of my buddy James does Sheffy he knows was made out of he's a master gunner for tanks

John Laforme: 1:19:17

he's you mean Jamie?

Ray Rodriguez: 1:19:18

No, no not not Jaime my buddy Jamie. I'm Buddy James. I don't know what that rods made out of but that what that rod does so so whenever you fire that whenever you fire the tank, the projectile goes out that's a big shell. Well, yeah, the shell bullet right. It's a big show. Yeah, gun as a primer which is electrically activated, right like a little shock. And that ignites that rather you're talking about right which ignites the little pellets, the accelerant around it, which then causes like a chemical reaction and it shoots the whatever projectile you have on it. Either it's a heat or sable or whatever it is. It will shoot it out. And all that's left is the shell the shell which is called an AV cap and and the rod and it falls out into the on the floor inside the tank

John Laforme: 1:20:09

so the actual thing that hits the tank is what that metal rod

Ray Rodriguez: 1:20:12

know that stays on the the leftovers what goes out would either be high explosive right for like a tank or or sable rod

John Laforme: 1:20:25

that's I mean they're dark like a dark yeah that's what I meant yeah

Ray Rodriguez: 1:20:28

that dark stays there but you know

John Laforme: 1:20:30

that dark supposed to be like oh that yes I that I talked to a gunner before a long time ago and he mentioned I was like yeah man we could I could nail somebody again 60 miles an hour two miles away. Yeah,

Ray Rodriguez: 1:20:41

I thought you meant like from the actual afcat How ballistic equations? So basically like Okay, say lasers lasers

John Laforme: 1:20:53

remember it remember Austin Powers? Yeah, I just wanted some stinking lasers on my shark

Ray Rodriguez: 1:20:58

on some sticking lasers on their foreheads and whatever. Sharks Yeah Oh, I thought you meant the AF cat no that rod does come out that's made out of say I wasn't sure what I was saying that she was asking special chemical thing

John Laforme: 1:21:11

Yeah, it's supposed to penetrate the shell and just of the tank that you're trying to hit? Yeah, it'll

Ray Rodriguez: 1:21:16

it'll go in and disintegrate everyone inside of it and come out the other side

John Laforme: 1:21:19

disintegrate That's crazy. That's pretty cool.

Ray Rodriguez: 1:21:21

Hey guys, yeah, you can think could be in a tank moving and and having the gunner like lazed on the target and staying on the target and then as you're doing that, the tank is simultaneously computing a ballistic equation there how fast you're going to wind the wind direction the cancer of your vehicle, the direction that vehicle is moving, how fast they're going all that stuff and then you fire own and you shoot to the gut and you move to the dust. And you see if you hit it you hit it you're good to go.

Rick Albert: 1:21:50

How can you test drive a tank? Um join the army

John Laforme: 1:21:55

I joined the Army not to work Hey girl.

Ray Rodriguez: 1:21:58

I was never really I was wanting to take Jabra for like two days wasn't your thing? I mean I got moved up to a loader which was I think with the probably the best position on the tank like the right hand man you can get out of the tank and get back in it you know you get to everyone's pretty much pretty much stuck in their positions that drivers down in the hole and like a little lazy boy like he's like yeah like leaning back a little bit further and you are yeah like a little bit you know? Yeah here he's got a little like little like a little handlebars yeah oh so he's turned on like this like this this is this is the GAD was the gas right here okay, this is going to my right your left is going to model he ran a push and you got to break and in on that little on the T handle you have like on the on the the steering wheel whatever you have this the gears neutral traverse reverse

John Laforme: 1:22:52

and which country has the most durable tank right now? Do we do we do naturally

Ray Rodriguez: 1:22:57

Yeah, I think it's awesome I mean it's it's proven are US and Israel

John Laforme: 1:23:03

how that thing does 60 miles an hour was it getting 15 gas stations that a mile

Rick Albert: 1:23:08

it's meant to be

Ray Rodriguez: 1:23:09

at ease a lot of us a lot of a lot of fuel stations RASSMAN No it's JP JP JP JD basically GPA military jet a

John Laforme: 1:23:20

civilian how often you get to fill up if you'd like

Ray Rodriguez: 1:23:23

answered annoying as fuck tougher thing up dude. It sucks. So you're about you're like you're you're always pulling up to the to the fuel point. And there's probably a big ass line of tanks getting filled in front of you in this three gas tanks. Two in the front one in the back. But in order to get to the ones in the front you got to put the gun tube over the gas tank and raise the gun to get down there and open it up and then fill it and trying to hear you can't hear shit and then oh fuck gas coming out. Whatever. You know, I mean, am I good? Almost there you know whatever. But then it's raining on you and shit and in the middle Korean hot his balls and you're getting rained on lucky rash. Love your back and diarrhea.

John Laforme: 1:24:03

I'm gonna sign up tomorrow. What about you? Yeah,

Ray Rodriguez: 1:24:05

that's fun. Man. I had a great watch from afar. No, it was fun. That was like that was everyone's like, I'll take yours like best I've ever had. And the most low paying job ever had, but it was great. It was awesome. All right, it was cool.

John Laforme: 1:24:18

Yeah, well, I always wanted to ask that because that stuff always was intriguing intriguing to me. And all that machinery and stuff.

Ray Rodriguez: 1:24:25

So all those all those combat related jobs are like lifestyles. If you go infantry, that's your lifestyle. So it's not a job. It's a career. It's a it's a career. It's a lifestyle. Yeah, like you're living like that. Yeah, no. Yeah. So but I mean, in Korea was cool. It was it was that's probably like the best place to start your tank career to go to Korea because it's, you know, extreme summer extreme winter, beautiful spring and fall. But you're not going out to the field in the spring or fall. You're going out in the summer in the winter. It's good. You get to learn your job really well. They're all combat arms jobs at is a good place to go to really get into your job and to learn to become a leader. And

John Laforme: 1:25:04

is that where you met your wife? Cool.

Ray Rodriguez: 1:25:06

Korean brides.com

Rick Albert: 1:25:11

was your first date she picked her up in a tank? No, that'd be super impressive.

Ray Rodriguez: 1:25:15

I'm not gonna get into it. I'll probably get cancelled for this. I didn't mean we met. Well, actually, we met online when it was freaking weird to meet online. We met on Facebook. We met on this teacher, gathering group. And then we became friends and then she just couldn't keep her hands off me. So

John Laforme: 1:25:35

Mr. Irresistible Don't forget that.

Ray Rodriguez: 1:25:42

guy's gonna stay here forever, please.

John Laforme: 1:25:44

So you got anything else you want to talk about there, Rick?

Rick Albert: 1:25:49

Um, related to what we've covered so much.

John Laforme: 1:25:52

I know. We went from bow and arrows to tank tanks and

Ray Rodriguez: 1:25:56

electric cars and a little bit of house. It wasn't there somewhere. Yeah, he just

Rick Albert: 1:26:01

likes to talk. That's usually what I

John Laforme: 1:26:03

he's gonna be my new Jamie. I think we're thinking about having him on once a week. Just to get him out of the house.

Rick Albert: 1:26:09

Yeah, especially after those comments.

John Laforme: 1:26:11

Yeah. Yeah, they'll get mad at me. Yeah. So overall, what's your message for other homebuyers out there that are, you know, panicking, which they shouldn't be. But what advice you got for home buyers out there that were listening?

Ray Rodriguez: 1:26:26

Get you a good team? You know, do your research, do your research and get you a good team? It's free to ask. It's free to ask. I learned from this guy. It is free to it's free to ask.

John Laforme: 1:26:38

It's also free to say no, yeah,

Ray Rodriguez: 1:26:40

it's free to ask you and that's

Rick Albert: 1:26:41

okay. That's okay. Because at least

Ray Rodriguez: 1:26:42

you asked Yeah. And I mean, do you have a 5050? chance to either yes or no? So just ask for a counter or a counter? Yeah. So ask questions, do your research, get you a good team, prepare, if you know you're gonna buy a house, start saving a couple years from that moment, like, get yourself financially in a position to where you think you can handle a mortgage.

John Laforme: 1:27:06

Yeah, stuff like that. And be prepared to have a little extra cash to burn in case you get in a bidding war. Depends how bad you want to have.

Ray Rodriguez: 1:27:13

Yes, that is that is huge out here in Los Angeles, the brick and brick.

John Laforme: 1:27:17

You know, though, that I see that all the time. It's crazy.

Rick Albert: 1:27:20

It's interesting, because even with the rising rates, like for example, I have a client in escrow we're one of nine offers. I'm like, these interest rates are so high, but when I'm talking to buyers, they just don't care anymore.

John Laforme: 1:27:32

I don't care about a high interest rate, because I know I can refi later. That's that's exactly

Rick Albert: 1:27:35

what it is. Doesn't bother me. But it's still better than the alternative, which is renting. Yep. Right. So that's all that really matters. And then it's like, okay, don't sell in the next year to maybe it's a longer term house.

John Laforme: 1:27:47

And am I wrong by saying that your property interest? Mortgage Interest is right off?

Rick Albert: 1:27:53

Correct. So you have tax advantages, you have mortgage pay down, if the market tanks which there's no substantial evidence that suggests that it's like you just don't sell?

John Laforme: 1:28:06

Well. You got to the thing is you got to keep your credit up to because if you want to refi you have to keep the credit up so don't buy the house and then go buy that Lamborghini. Right. I had a client do that if you're gonna a Their goal

Ray Rodriguez: 1:28:16

is read and I wanted it. Yeah, I mean, I remember getting

John Laforme: 1:28:21

if you get if you're if you go if you're going to run into a high interest rate, you gotta keep your your plate empty, because you don't want to jam up yourself. And that interest rate drops with right where you want it all I want this for the banks. Like I'm sorry, man, you get to your extended you get too many cars. Yeah. Oh, that'll that'll screw up, then you stuck with that rate?

Rick Albert: 1:28:41

Yeah. That's great. That's great. No, and there's other. There's other avenues to go right. You can do with an adjustable rate mortgage, but it's fixed for five years, seven years. 10 years. So you get that lower interest rate.

John Laforme: 1:28:54

I have one right now on my my Vegas Property. I've had it for 17 years. It's worked out great. My favorite trust me. When it drops down to 2.75. I decided to double my principal. Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. Nice. And I'm actually trying to I'm gonna actually list that right now. It's about to be listed. I know an agent.

Ray Rodriguez: 1:29:11

I know an agent. Yeah. No. I'm pretty sure. Yes, connections.

Rick Albert: 1:29:17

I have a couple. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's real estate over the long run has proven to be very successful. For a lot of people. There's a reason why What is it 99.99% of wealthy people on property? Right. Right.

John Laforme: 1:29:30

One last question for you. Well, how much money do you think you're going to drop on your new house in the next year? I don't know. Um, all right. Next month,

Unknown: 1:29:44

just mortgage. Now you

John Laforme: 1:29:46

didn't you have some repairs done. Did you say yeah, we

Ray Rodriguez: 1:29:47

weren't it's already paid for.

John Laforme: 1:29:49

That's up saying how much was it? How much do you think he's had to spend? Oh,

Ray Rodriguez: 1:29:52

I don't know. So far, probably like 10,000. Okay, now much, you know, but we we set the buy appliances and gotta buy a lawnmower. barbecue grill. Hey, Trey triggers don't

John Laforme: 1:30:02

count a trigger. I'm

Ray Rodriguez: 1:30:03

looking for a sponsor to say, I might want to grow pellet when? Looking for sponsors. Yeah, you know, it's like that. So but I mean, we got to a point where it's comfortable, and we're good to move in, except for the panel, obviously. But, you know, we'll get that maybe the chimney done and then everything's fine. And then we'll just fill it out for a year. And then what we'll do is like, we'll start marking down things that we want to change and and get a list and find out the level of importance and knock those out. Yeah, you know, but I estimate probably, like, in how much we're gonna spend a year probably like 20,000 I think. Maybe not bad. It's not bad. I mean, you know, to get it to where we were you feel comfortable, you know, because I can have a handyman there for

John Laforme: 1:30:47

most of your houses. Yeah, but most of your house is done. That's done. You got brand new bathroom. Yeah, the roof is good. It's good. Yeah, you fixed your H back issue. You're about to do your panel. What's the panel gonna cost for the upgrade? 25 was it

Ray Rodriguez: 1:31:02

I have it here? I gotta find it. It's not It's not much. It's not that I'm gonna 100 amp. Yeah, that was my charger. And I'm gonna put a bunch of outlets in the garage because only one outlet and garage. Plus, we're planning on putting like a, an industrial refrigerator out in the garage for our business. So I have a car for that. Yeah. Right in this little little spot in there. And we'll put it but yeah, so definitely upgrade that panel. And that's it. Yeah. That's ridiculous.

John Laforme: 1:31:33

All right, Ray, say by Ray.

Rick Albert: 1:31:35

Ray. Hi, Rick.

John Laforme: 1:31:39

Hi, John. hope everybody enjoyed the show. See you next time. We got an hour and a half of footage here guys. Great. Know he could stay here all night. But now I know you want to play guitar. Next. You're going to play now. So signing out. Like I said, everybody if you if you like some of our topics, hopefully it did not leave, you know, leave a comment. We'll we will respond. I'll make these guys respond. And that's on YouTube, though. When the YouTube version comes out, do some response comments and stuff like that? I remember buying a home don't panic. Oh, Home Inspection authority, inspection. Authority problems.

Unknown: 1:32:16

We will right right. Yes, sir.

John Laforme: 1:32:18

And I just did your friend's house. Yes, you did. Well, yeah. William Charles. Is a Charles Charles.

Ray Rodriguez: 1:32:25

William Prince Charles.

John Laforme: 1:32:30

Oh, my bad. Sorry, Charles. Charles. Sorry, William.

Ray Rodriguez: 1:32:34

I guess I do Brent. Hey, well, I'm sorry, ma'am. Called.

John Laforme: 1:32:37

My bad. Yeah, he had a bad sewer problem. Yeah, he did.

Ray Rodriguez: 1:32:42

Really? Yeah, I

John Laforme: 1:32:44

found about 80 feet underwater. From the adu because of the ad was too low compared to the front of the property.

Ray Rodriguez: 1:32:54

Ah, so the water just sat there. No, water was

John Laforme: 1:32:57

just filling up. Shoot. So I thought that'd be another episode. All right later, everybody. Bye bye. Bye.