#311: How To Develop Real Estate Post-Covid Era
Thu, 6/10 · 11:32 AM39:50
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
people lumber business house walmart area northwest arkansas buy thought talking pay prices warby parker podcast good interest rates big demand building college
SPEAKERS
Speaker 2 (61%), Law (37%)
Law Smith
0:00
You ready? Yes. ready now? Yes. Sure. Yeah. sweat equity podcast and streaming show number one comedy business podcast in the world. pragmatic entrepreneurial advice with real doc for 2020 best small medium enterprise business advisory podcast the United States of America. Yeah, thanks to like global excellence awards proudly hosted by flux Life magazine. We have got a really great business development or building development guest, William Henson. He's gonna drop some macro knowledge on us about development about real estate, going all the way out of the Ozarks to talk to us. This podcast is sponsored to to you like Warby Parker, I can feel you looking at me. And I don't like it. I don't like your gaze you gay. Warby Parker Warby Parker trial.com, forward slash sweat. It's five free pairs to try and Warby Parker the disruptor in the eyeglass sunglass game. Don't get ripped off by lenscrafters where you're paying 300 to $600 for they get 1000 it some of them are so absurd. Did you know that there's a monopoly owned by one Italian company called Lex Nautica that owns 97% of the eyeglass sunglass market. You think you're getting Ray Bans you're getting an exotic a baby. That's why they're so expensive. They own Oakley. They own all of the brands but not Warby Parker, Warby Parker was created by for Northwestern students, MBA students that go white. Why is it so expensive? So Warby Parker trial.com, forward slash sweat. To get five free pairs to try it at home. That link helps our show out. It helps you out. Get five free pairs. Try it at home. You can type in your prescription. You can submit it online like I did, and they will fill it out for you. You get it back. Bing bam, boom. You don't even have to leave your house. How great is that? Pretty good. Pretty good. Let's get this party started. Ah, my sweat equity.
2:12
Woody. Woody Woody. I love it. Guys. I'm ready when y'all are just rocking with it.
Law Smith
2:29
We're good all right, you Okay, I'm great. You're gonna make it Yeah. Excellent little he's got you know when? Erickson that that zone, like the Jordan flu game where everybody thought he had the flu. When he when he really Michael Jordan just partied in Vegas the night before or something like that? Basically exactly right. That's basically where Eric's at and this is a good that I hope we keep this part in
2
Speaker 2
2:56
what he dropped 43 What was it was the number. I don't know. He dropped a ridiculous amount. I
Law Smith
3:01
remember the number either. I remember being in some truly Jordan, I would have
3:05
known the number.
Law Smith
3:07
Yeah, you're the Jordan of not knowing Jordans number. Yes. That's it. William Henson, hit him with hit everybody with your plugs, where to find your stuff like your YouTube channel. And and tell us what you got going on?
2
Speaker 2
3:22
Yeah, absolutely, guys, thanks for having me. Happy to be here. And so my name is William Hudson. I've been a real estate developer for about 10 years now. You can find one of my companies that are p h. r e.com or rpH development.com. And then my youtube channel is just youtube.com slash William Hinson he and SOS
Law Smith
3:47
and anybody watching this episode, you know, Mr. Henson out Florida does eye candy.
2
Speaker 2
3:58
Well, I mean, I thought you know, I thought I put on some palm trees and some neon to come on the sweat equity podcast.
Law Smith
4:03
Well, I love it. No, I appreciate it. We appreciate any any effort, especially of an adult beverage as well. That's
4:10
Oh, absolutely. Oh, GMT.
Law Smith
4:12
So this, this might get a little off the rails today. But I would say when I was looking at your stuff, it is part of your brain and because you are in we're in Arkansas, are you?
2
Speaker 2
4:26
I'm in Northwest Arkansas and Fayetteville is Northwest Arkansas is where the Ozark Mountains are. And it's Walmart is headquartered here in Bentonville. So as Tyson Foods and JB Hunt, so it's a it's an extremely growing Metroplex. When I was in college here, there was 250,000 in the metro. There's almost 650 now. Wow. Big Metro Well, well, not compared to you gentlemen down there. But what I'm getting at is for Arkansas and you know, Mid South area, Louisiana and Mississippi, and you know, Oklahoma says it's a very thriving Metro. There's a I've been through that that's,
Law Smith
5:04
I know I know what it's about. Yeah, I've done stand up all over that area. humblebrag. Yes. Dabba with that pretty pretty. All the comedians listening this pretty jealous that I got to do Fayetteville and Little Rock. Yeah. Yeah, come back. Have a good time. Texarkana was one of my favorite shows. What played at the pro theater JK. Alright, we're not big enough for that we played at some bar, but but I really don't know at all what you're talking about. No, I think the joke really hit No. Which one's the bad one? The parole theater? ross perot. Yeah, from I know, Rob. Do you think it's a small theater? Can I get obviously? Wow. It's a theater. Let's just I thought that was enough context. Do we want to break down jokes? Pee Wee Herman got arrested in a theater buddy. All right. in Sarasota? Yeah. Well, speaking of 90 stuff, I bring up Walmart. You don't remember when there's all that Walmart hate in the 90s. I feel absolutely. There's like, you can't you shouldn't shop there. Because the prices are too low. It still kind of goes on today, a little bit. But I remember that being rampid in the late 90s, early 2000s, when like, everyone was talking shit, like, you can't go to Walmart. They're their monopoly on retail. They don't pay their they don't pay their employees. And then that kind of just went away a little bit, I think as the internet, maybe took some of their market share. But you
2
Speaker 2
6:39
know, and Amazon has pushed them. And that's part of where we'll go into development with this. Because of Walmart is the biggest driving force in this area that I'm in. There's There's 28 people a day moving to Northwest Arkansas. And there are Walmart and the foundation and the communities are paying young professionals $10,000 a month to live here are $10,000 a year to live to live here. For a duration of 12 months, you get 10,000 you get a free bike, and to explore the area because Walmart is building their $1.6 billion headquarters. They've already broken ground on it in Bentonville right now. So Walmart is doing something different than Amazon, Amazon and Oracle and all these large corporations are actually what they've done traditionally is seek talent, they will go to, you know, Silicon Valley, and they'll go down to Florida, and they'll go to Texas and they will pull towel, or they will set up offices there. More in less than half talent work for them. Globally, Walmart has done something different. Walmart's saying our cost of living is better, we can pay you the same, we're going to basically rebuild an entire area of the state and you can make as much as you do in Southern California here and live twice as good. So they're actually bringing talent in and their stick is we're going to build up this every site for example. Northwest Arkansas is the only place in America has a Top Golf. It's under a million people.
Law Smith
8:12
a tie, it's a top million people.
2
Speaker 2
8:14
Yeah, if you look at all the Top Golf during the large, Metroplex is more and less, were the first one to have one that has under a million in the Metroplex. And also the amphitheaters the size of the one they have in Dallas, or the pyramid in Memphis, or any of those areas, the new amphitheater they built. So they are building all of these attractions. And then you have Crystal Bridges museum that Allison Walton built. That was a billion dollars, and I think she built it 10 years ago, 1512 years ago, somewhere around there. I'm not exactly sure. Don't quote me on that and look it up. But it's done so well, that they're now adding 200 million to it, increasing it by 50% even further. So, Walmart is the driving force of implanting all of these people here, but giving them what they had 80% of what they had in Los Angeles as an example, with better pay, and better cost the limit?
Law Smith
9:09
Yeah, it's interesting. And you and I met, and when we're both living, and I think you've lived in LA, too, right. And so when you compare, like, just, I mean, now, now, it's even more egregious. I feel like we both moved ahead of the curve there. But it was one of the things. Like I was like, I was looking towards the future. I was like, Okay, if I made any money living in California, at some point, I would get so much less than anywhere else in the country. You know, like, you have kids that go the school systems are horrendous. The traffic is that was the biggest driving force, I think, because I was in traffic for three to four hours a day.
2
Speaker 2
9:54
Well, I mean, it's, it's well known. I mean, just take that what I was getting Getting my MBA, they always said 70,000 75,000 to 80,000 was the number that people got comfortable with and stop kind of striving to accomplish more goals. They were able to be comfortable at that level. Let's the argument has always been 75,000 in the south, or the west coast is totally different. Right? Right. Oh,
Law Smith
10:25
you think like, Oh, well, you move down LA, or you move to a big city, they'll pay for that price of living. Because they have to, for for skilled labor. It's the opposite the market demands it. People like my first I think my first job at a mutual fund company out of college was like 26 grand, something like insane wasn't really something like, yeah, and it was, there's big company, it was like, it was worth doing it because I could I could grow within the company, but 26 grand living in LA, you can't compare. Maybe it's 36. But it was, it was still quite low. It wasn't big right there, buddy. I don't know. I can't I remember being like, oh, everything just goes out the door immediately. I'm gonna have to get a second job on the weekends. It was that?
2
Speaker 2
11:11
Well, I think they're, you know, in to add to that, I think it's different if you're 23 or even up to 25 your mindsets a little different than compared to when you get older, and you have bigger goals and accomplishments. And then if you don't have a large pay increase, you know, those palm trees don't pay for themselves in Southern California, even though they were implanted. I don't even play. That's I think about the only state that actually has real palmtree. Right,
Law Smith
11:36
right. Exactly. You're right. No that Yeah, yeah. No, they were not native to California. La is a it's a desert until you get to about west of the 405. Which should tell you everything right when, when you're doing it by it. Oh, by the ancients way, when you're doing it when you're going, Hey, this man made structure basically is the line between tropical kind of beach area and right. And then once you get east of there, which isn't like Beverly Hills, Westwood, and then go to West Hollywood, where all my gay bros live. It's all it's I mean, it's that's the desert II kind of environment that's been built on. I mean, I was driving around yesterday or two days ago. Coming over here. To Eric's place. We're in our makeshift studio. It might be a little echoey. Studio. Well, we you know, we look a little sweaty in here, because it's a little hot. I know. And I farted a lot. And I've hotbox it a bit with my own supply over here.
2
Speaker 2
12:39
There you go. What is interesting, I'll tell you is besides COVID, I don't know if y'all had seen the new census that has been updated, they actually lost a seat in the representative department, California, for the first time in history really, basically lost population and lost a seat, I think in the house. For the first time ever, I think Illinois did as well, while the South predominantly gained more seats than they actually have. So you can see the population moving. And if people vote with their feet, regardless of politics, you know, they vote with their feet. And it's part of the driving force for what we're seeing in development also. And COVID is part of an example of that. And there's, I mean, I can give you an example right now I just I just got a lumber package, sent to me not even 30 minutes ago for a new project that I'm doing. It's a single family house that I'm doing near campus, it's going to be college kids living in it. And I don't know if I said by the way, but my brother and I own the business together. rpH development, we predominantly do multifamily student housing projects. We don't like apartments we like townhome complex style. Yep. Yeah. ls LSD projects, large scale development is what that means. Yes, yeah.
2
Speaker 2
14:02
And then we also do LSD, that's it. And then we also do single family homes picked in the right area by my campus. And that is what we do. And to give you an example, we were I just got a lumber package today the normal lumber package for a 2500 square foot house two story in this market is usually around about 2022 to $26,000. Somewhere in there, depending on how many balconies you have, how many decks things like that, you know, I'm just talking about more in less a box colonial style Southern style house that's two story is usually around that price range. I just got my lumber package back today, and it's $49,210 Whoa, so the same house?
Law Smith
14:55
Yeah, nothing has changed. lumber prices have gone exponentially higher. Right. I've definitely been hearing About that
2
Speaker 2
15:01
lumber prices are let me get a get an example. I read this the other day, I don't know how accurate the number actually is from the walls, you know? Yeah, yeah. But, but it is it is the truth is. So last year, April of 2021, lumber prices are up 274%. This is a national average compared to April of this year. Check those numbers. Well, and thanks, first thing la pulls up, up 323%. Already. That's why I said
15:37
the right wing website,
Law Smith
15:38
my alt right site called fortune.com. Yeah, but that's retail price. So I mean, that that definitely would affect wholesale price
2
Speaker 2
15:47
as well. And they have some bleeding averages in there as well, because not every market is the exact same, right? And but what's interesting about COVID, I'll give you I'll give you a couple bits on this. So there are 32 million Americans between the age of 27 and 33. And with that being said, that's the prime buying age as the target audience for people buying homes, really. And yes, it is. And
Law Smith
16:18
COVID Yeah, that makes a little sad of the blue,
2
Speaker 2
16:21
and COVID didn't create a new demand. That's what people don't understand the demand was already there. But what COVID did, it escalated the demand because the lumber mills actually shut down to start up COVID like many other businesses, when they came back into production, their demand was still there and even higher, because now people wanted to add on to their homes, because they wanted a personal office, they could work remotely from they wanted to redo their house because they want to spend more time in their house because of all the remote working. So you add this, these, these, the escalation of the demand. And that would be one example that has pushed the lumber prices and commodity prices higher. So it's not like that they are not working and turning out the lumber and they are the demand is even further than expected because of the 32 million people that I just said that it'll be between the ages of 27 and 33. That's prime buying. Well, what about the older people that are very worried about COVID that want to renovate that, you know, and add a home office that well they weren't accounting for things like that people then also fleeing from coastal cities. Family members
17:43
do what they thought you were gonna say family members. Oh, family members. Yeah, well, you know what some of
17:50
the house, Daddy's wing now. Okay.
2
Speaker 2
17:53
Yeah. Laser door. Well, I mean, building at you and this assisted dwelling unit in your backyard. Boom, there you go. Okay, now, you can flee from the family.
Law Smith
18:05
And D. So you're saying a lot of it's a cycle. I didn't want to wreck your your stride there. Eric already did it by now it sounds good. Go ahead. Well, I thought his breathing was going to stop you. But I want to make Oh subconscious about it. But my, my my dumb guy view of it was, what you're saying is it accelerated that group A lot, a lot. That is correct. accelerated that. My theory was everybody was stuck inside, and basically had more time on their hands to look around their house. And we're like, I gotta fix this dump up, or I'm going to be I have to do something, I need to do some kind of project because DIY projects went up through the roof, which will cascade over to more, you know, residential improvements or commercial improvements eventually.
2
Speaker 2
18:57
I think you're right there. But what I was saying the that age group of 27 to 33, the demand was already there for the buy houses, right? If you go below or above that, what you're saying is correct. Basically, yeah. That's where the people wanted to buy a home office, they wanted to fix their house, they were spending a lot more time there. All of that is true. The problem that I am worried about as a developer in the industry, I'll just tell you the truth is inflation. Because with inflation going up, the banks have to make that back. They have to raise the interest rates. And when interest rates go up, then you actually have less buyers because that age group I'm talking about they weren't around law and Eric went when we were buying houses in Los Angeles in 2009. Eight I'd never bought I bought my first house in Los Angeles in oh eight or nine I think right right before it started a really tip bat. And but the interest rate I can't remember exactly was six points. Seven or 6.5, somewhere around there. And I thought it was a great interest rate at that time. But this demographic of kids coming in, they've only ever seen interest rates at three at 2.8 and 3.2. And somewhere in that range for five to 10 years now, they've never really seen interest rates double. So when they're planning to buy that house that one house they're looking at right now at 3.1% interest, you can afford it move roommate in this not young, professional, fine. But it but when that payment doubles, and the interest rate goes up because of the inflation that we're experiencing, we could have a serious problem like we did in Oh, 807080. Not that at that time frame,
Law Smith
20:47
we really could, which was, you know, we still kind of look back at oh nine and still haven't pinpointed it. I feel like we don't have one villain in that. bailout wasn't good. Bye. Bye. Oh, are you still thinking about that? Yeah. Because you'll find the guy who did it? No, it's because I'm trying to get to historical kind of up and down. Because this isn't anything new right. Now that macroeconomics in the country, this has always been a thing that it goes up and down. And you probably know better than I do. But I'm saying probably likely, because this is not my sweet spot. But like, I'm like stay focus, influential inflation rate, all right, don't stay in the zone. Because mortgages, insurance, accounting, finance, I'm all like, Alright, you got to really focus on this. Because this is all adult stuff that I still painting. My wife might know it better. Yeah. You might
2
Speaker 2
21:42
not a lot. To be honest with you. All the best economists are Peter Peter panning their way through it as well. Nobody really knows what the hell is gonna happen? Well, that's
Law Smith
21:50
my thing is like, how do you? How do you suppress the anxiety of forthcoming kind of stuff like that?
2
Speaker 2
21:59
Well, I tell that's a really hard question to answer to be honest with you. I think it's a, you know, a personal basis, showing everybody I'm just saying, but I tell people this when they asked me questions about, oh, I want to buy this house or that. And the funny part is, when I'm especially I'm at the crap table in Vegas, or somewhere having a good time. I tell somebody, I'm a real estate developer. Sure, sure enough, not an hour goes by all they remember, I'm in real estate, right? And then they asked me, well, I would like to buy this condo, you think you could help me buy this condo? And I'm like, you just basically walked in to an orthopedic surgeons office and said, My heart hurts, right? Help me.
Law Smith
22:42
They don't get I don't
2
Speaker 2
22:43
I'm not an agent. I'm not a broker. I have nothing to do with that. I'm a developer. There's two different, you know, the different types within the same industry?
Law Smith
22:51
Well, it's, we tell people when they're hiring an attorney, they're like, Yeah, but I got my family law attorney during my personal injury, shit, you're like, No, don't do that. Why? Why is he taking that 100%.
2
Speaker 2
23:03
And I tell people, if you're going to buy a house today, we'll just break it down sort of an investment property and minute, but we'll stick to a personal person, you know, that demographic, I was talking about 27 to 33, somewhere around there. If you're going to buy your first home, because of the variables that are in play, with the market in the economy and inflation right now, I tell everybody buy that house, knowing you're probably can be in it five to 10 years. Minimum.
Law Smith
23:33
But that's my, that's my lifelong investment. That's, you
2
Speaker 2
23:36
know, and forever hit correct. But the problem is, it has changed back from our grandparents age. They used to buy a house have a first one they lived in together, they would build a house buy another one and most of them would die in it. So they have they have more or less would have two houses. They're like their lifetime. We are now up to almost four it's three points, something three and a half, almost four houses you'll actually have in your lifetime. You don't think about it but think how many people have actually bought a house and they turn around I've already sold it. They you know, they grew their kids. Usually you get married? You get your house. You and then that house you have I'm not even I'm not even there. Yeah. have kids then get divorced because the divorce rates like see 10% right. So Oh, yeah. So then I mean, you can have that. That's why I said there's four. So you're the dad first one. Yeah, you get the dad pad, you get the man kick, do all that. And then you get in you have a you know, you get married, you have a family and you outgrow that house, and then you buy or build a new one. And then you raise your kids in that. And then like you said, you can get divorced or y'all decide that it you the kids are now gone. You want to downsize and you downsize again. And then at another point, there is the where when you're older, that house that you even downsize to could be two stories or whatnot. You meet To move to a one storey house, so I'm always thinking very long term because that's what I do. And that's what people a psychology of a family or a person. That's what they're actually thinking. They just don't know it yet. That's just the trajectory of society today compared to what it was 50 to 70 years ago.
Law Smith
25:20
Yeah. My my parents, for example that I grew up in, I never moved in my house. They had it for 38 years old, it turned neighbor. And they moved on, right on down. Nope, that was part of the process. They they made the demo that baby Nope. Yeah. couldn't do it. But that's part that's part of the conditions, they could knock it down. I think what I think in a weird way for maybe one of us, one of the three kids to buy it at some point, buy it back, I don't know. I haven't asked him because I'm not a merrier, that zone of throw down a million cash for the house. But they moved into a to two bedroom condo, and they're looking around each other in the COVID era. And like, they want to kill each other. So yeah, this all plays this, I'll track it, because that's their lot of information there.
2
Speaker 2
26:05
And it's just, that's why I said, I just tell people be cautious because of the environment today, interest rates have been very low for a long time, that house that you really like now that you can afford, you might not be able to afford it. Depending on the loan that you get, hopefully you lock in a good fixed rate. 30 year mortgage loan, some people can't afford it. Because some people don't have w two income or a W nine. I'm getting backwards. You know, they have 299 income. And it's hard to get a 30 year fixed mortgage with that the banks are very against that for various reasons. Because of what happened in oh eight, no
Law Smith
26:38
nine, W nine and 1099 are the ones that are harder. W two is like your regular job.
2
Speaker 2
26:44
Yeah, yeah. W hell, that's easy. And that's why the guy at McDonald's get a better loan. And I can't write I mean, I'm sincerely mean that no, I really,
Law Smith
26:50
I I've been there. I when I had my own agency, it was that it was like, you only make this much I was like, Yeah, but a lot of stuff goes through the business or like I don't care. But I might, yeah, but the grossest, like I could put it in the company car could be back in the household stuff. And they're like, well, if you need to show that
2
Speaker 2
27:12
there's no better way I was like, my, my employees could get a better loan than I could if we were going for the same standards, US standard house for a standard price. Because they have the income that proves it, but me that they look at go well, but you own the business. So what if the business goes busted? I'm like, exactly. Well, what if? How's that any different than the employee that I have? Right, but the bank's looking at it very differently? Like, just do it yourself on the payroll? And I am done helping the business? I mean, I could but it wouldn't do any good. Yeah. Yes. I don't know.
Law Smith
27:49
So what do you what is an entrepreneur do in that situation? Because that might be out advice for anybody.
2
Speaker 2
27:57
Listen, honestly, the I will say this, it's a lot of people don't want to do it. But find yourself that w income somewhere. It is a steady income from some outside of your own business. Because that does play in Well, I mean, stocks, cash, cash is king cash has always been King. But not a lot of people, unfortunately, in the US have savings that can afford to pay cash for a house, it just is the nature of the beast, you know. And so with that being said, I would highly suggest you get some type of documented w income from somewhere to help you along the way to make that purchase price. Because if it's all 1099 income, the bank gets real iffy about it. Unless you find a really good banker that can help you finagle a few things but again, he's against the regulations, so he can only go so far. That would be the that's the advice I would have. It's not what everybody wants to hear, you know, getting another job or getting some w income but honestly, that is the best way to do it. You know, I
Law Smith
29:07
I was definitely that person that didn't want to admit to that. didn't want to do that after we went through it. And it took me a while to our power business attorney Steven fantasty frequent guests on the show was like, I've been telling you for years, you need to be doing both and I was like, that's why that's why you're telling me that
2
Speaker 2
29:28
well, it's it's more of an ego thing. And that's the one that we got, we got to suppress
Law Smith
29:33
that was an ego death mushroom trip I had to take to figure it out.
2
Speaker 2
29:37
And you know what, and the truth is, when it comes to ego, nobody wants to be seen starting at the bottom, they just want to already kind of be in the middle and then go to the top nobody wants to be seen starting at the bottom. And that is your ego talking and when you can remove that your your your self worth and power skyrockets because Then you don't care what anybody says, because you believe in yourself so much, you know where you're going.
Law Smith
30:04
Yeah. And mine was masked by saying, Well, if I do this, I won't be able to do that. And I was making an inverse opportunity cost on those. And that drove you know,
2
Speaker 2
30:15
I will plug a friend of mine on, it will go a little off the rails, but it stays exactly in the same realm that we're talking about. Right now.
Law Smith
30:25
This has been the most awesome rails show we've done. throwing out stats like you got autism, Brad, it's awesome.
2
Speaker 2
30:35
Just that I need one of those guys with autism for those guys can remember everything. I mean, those guys are fantastic. Seriously, love those kids. And he was a big star wars nerd in Los Angeles, my good friend, Chandler ralco. And he's been a friend of mine for a long time has a YouTube called GQ Jedi. If you're into Star Wars, take a look at it. And he had all these Star Wars on, you know, these toys and everything else. And I kept telling him, I was like, Man, you know, this is not making any money. You can't do this. But he surprised me did something really interesting. He's like, I love this so much. I know so much about this. I'm going to start my own YouTube channel unboxing, Star Wars fakers, everything else, within six weeks of him putting a video out every week. Yeah, he grew from literally five to 10 subscribers to over 1000. And but he knew it, he's good at it. There's a market for it. And now he's plowing at it. And I couldn't be happier, more proud of him for that. But that's the example. He always was like, I don't want you know, I don't want to be seen start from the bottom. And then one day he woke up, he's like, I'm just going to start this channel, I'm gonna be at the bottom. And he did. And he progressed. And now every day he's going out and more and more subscribers, and he's blowing his channel up. That's just an example that I was using as a personal friend of mine that said, I've had enough of this, I'm gonna go do this, because I know what I'm talking about. And that's he's one of those guys that could tell you everything about Star Wars. But and I don't know anything about it. But even sometimes I'll pop on his channel and learn something about some of the characters that he knows about. And he talks about the figures and how much they're worth and this and that, and but it's interesting, because like I said, Nobody wants to be seen from starting from the bottom. No,
Law Smith
32:26
yeah, that's definitely ego aspect of it. Going back a second. That stat of savings came into my head from 2017. Six in 10. Americans don't have $500 in their savings. So when you're talking to So, but that's an older stat. It's probably worse now. But, yeah, I mean, it. We're not good savers. And that's an ego thing, too. You know,
32:58
I know there's saving. The word saving is interesting to me. Because if you
Law Smith
33:06
put it to be a juicenet for sure, but Well,
2
Speaker 2
33:08
absolutely. And I blame I mean, I've got an MBA and I think it's worthless. I'm like with Elan Musk, I think college is going to school now saying you can do your chores. I think he's 100%. right about that. I agree with that. Because I have I have guys that are plumbers, but everybody made fun of in high school. And then now those guys try to get a plumber even here. I'm sure it's the same way in Florida. The plumber comes out charging $150 does a couple of things that leaves within an hour. And he's so busy. It's two weeks to get somebody out there. Everybody wants like joe the plumber. Well, Joe, the plumber actually makes a couple you know, 100 something 1000 plus a year, has zero debt, and has his own business probably has two or three guys working for him as well. And in putting equity in the business building something but it's looked upon as low, terrible job, but it actually makes really good money. So we're electricians. So you know, h fat guys. That's where I'm going. It's
Law Smith
34:12
not great straight street style. Yeah.
2
Speaker 2
34:14
trades are where it's at right now if you're specialized in something and very good. That's why architects can make $200 an hour. If you're really good at even the young buck architects, but they're but they are specializing more just like a doctor in a specific category. That's why they make their money. I'm talking about the average person, anybody could go to trade school had little to no debt and come out way earlier than somebody that's pressed to go take 100 something 1000 loan through college, and then go get a job like you said, when you first started and you're supposed to you're making 35 six, you know 35 40,000 that's your first job even though you're educated but you have all this debt you have to pay off. Society i think is backwards in that department. I think we have pushed too hard for college. And we're ignoring how many trades that we actually need to compete in a global society. And we should be pushing kids to that.
Law Smith
35:12
Put to me with plumbers, especially, what are you going to plumbing infrastructure is not going to change. Right? There's gonna be a new technology that's going to move your Duke from one place to the next Lanka, stop open. Right? And it's one of those things where never stops. It's not Yeah, we're not going to figure in the next 50 years that the technology's not going to change figured how to close the butthole right. She's not different because we're gonna get on her because we're getting softer, too, right? I mean, we're, you're, you're now getting probably as hot as we are over here.
2
Speaker 2
35:50
Oh, my God. It's it's what's hilarious is I'm wearing this. I've got the AC on 68 because it's 86. outside and humid as hell right now.
Law Smith
36:00
Yeah. In the 90s already
36:03
already. Yeah, it's 86 right here right now. And it's huge. I mean, I walked outside walk the dog around. Right there. Yeah, he's on the cold floor right now. So
Law Smith
36:14
yeah, it's one of those. Here's a little fun fact. Oh, here we go. tamp has never had a temperature of over 100 degrees. 100 or more. And no kidding. Really? Never. Yeah. And y'all get it occasionally. But not us. It's the what? And you know, what,
2
Speaker 2
36:32
Eric? Or was it Erica? Or was it long? What are y'all brought up something about the plumbing. Eric's very high. So that was me. I love it. I love it. Well, on the plumbing part, you guys brought up something, it just, I've got a note here that I looked at I looked at the other day to make sure it was right. The PVC pipe, drywall, copper piping wire, all of those commodities in general. Those are I should say trades. All of those increased by 25 to 40%. From material alone. So that goes back to COVID. The same deal, not just as the lumber prices were out of whack everybody wants to talk about because it's the hot topic, you know, it's global. The material that you need that goes inside of the home is up 25 to 40%, not 250 or 300%. But that is an added cost that a lot of people can't afford to do when they're building a medium size home at 2500 square feet at any depending on your market anywhere from 300 to half a million across the country. I mean, that's it adds in 1000s of 1000s of dollars that are not budgeted that makes it almost impossible to finish the project. Well,
Law Smith
37:51
we got to close this out. I want to get you back on in a month because I think we only got you know tip of the iceberg of a lot of your pull out like Ken Jennings amount of facts. stuff all day. The one one thing we got to ask you because it's the first time you've been on, what advice would you give your 13 year old self, you can go back bill and Ted style in a phone booth. And you can find yourself at 13 grab yourself by suspenders. I'm just guessing because this is the south and didn't say something.
2
Speaker 2
38:26
You know what? That's a really good question. I haven't thought about that a long time. And honestly, if I had to say something I would probably say fine. Multiple try multiple things to find passion sooner. And then also worry about partying later in life. Not earlier. Yeah, just think because then you would put more emphasis more drive into some passion. And then if you're really good at something, the money always comes because you truly love it. You're not doing it for a paycheck. You're doing it because you love it. And when you do that, the money is going to come find you. And then after that you have all the time and fun and you're more secure with yourself later in life. Yeah, that's what I would probably tell myself I like
Law Smith
39:15
it. Yeah, I there's probably something I'd say to myself as well. Probably a little too. I mean, we you and I met really fucked up at our friend's party. So yeah, we're having a good time. I'm talking about all about sec sports, ACC sports. I mean, we la that knows anything about sec football. You're like, Oh, just talk to this person. No. 100% Yeah, no, we had a few cocktails here. All right, man. Thanks for coming on. Well, rebook Yeah.
2
Speaker 2
39:41
Yeah, absolutely. Gentlemen, I really appreciate y'all inviting me over the podcast. I had a really good time. Thank you. Thanks, Joe. Yeah, go
Rate transcript quality
00:0039:50
1x
55
help_outline
