Stuff They Don’t Tell You | HTH 019

Aaron:

Welcome
back to another episode of the How To Home podcast. My name is Aaron Massey.
Joining me is Tracy Pendergast, as always.

Nikki:

He’s
the Beyonce, clearly.

Aaron:

Oh,
he’s the Beyonce. We’ve got Steve Greene and Nikki Limo Greene joining us
today.

Steve:

Hello.

Nikki:

Hi.

Nikki:

Thanks
for having us.

Aaron:

Thank
you guys so much for being here.

Steve:

Thank
you for having us.

Nikki:

Thank
you for having us.

Aaron:

The
reason why I wanted to bring you in, in addition to being longtime friends of
mine …

Nikki:

Here
it comes.

Aaron:

…
is you guys have gone through the ringer to get your first home.

Nikki:

We
did.

Steve:

We
just got a home.

Nikki:

Well,
we didn’t just … We’re coming up on a year.

Aaron:

It’s
been a year already?

Nikki:

We
put the offer in on April 4th of 2018. I remember because I didn’t think we were
going to do it.

Steve:

It
was a stressful day.

Nikki:

Then
we closed on April 26th, 2018, so it was a really short close. Short escrow
period but leading up to that, it was about a two year search for a condo.
Well, it ended up being a condo. We originally were looking at houses and then
that was impossible to find with the amount of rooms that we wanted, and bathrooms
that we wanted, in the area that we wanted and all the specifics like that.
Then, we were like, “Okay, a condo,” even though we hate HOA fees,
but yeah.

Steve:

Oh,
I hate HOA fees, man. Oh my God and we went to an HOA meeting because they were
raising our rate. I went in there, and I was like, “Hell no, we won’t pay! Hell
no, we won’t pay!” But then they were like, “Hey, we actually have really good
reasons because the roof is damaged, and it’s like pretty bad shape, and
there’s been a lot of rain.” And we’re like, “Okay, we’re very sorry.”
[crosstalk 00:01:38]

Nikki:

And
you won’t be able to resell your condo if we don’t fix the roof, and we’re
like, “Oh, okay maybe we should.” [crosstalk 00:01:42]

Tracy:

Yeah.
Oh, you’re here to help us?

Aaron:

I’m
going to sit down. I think I’m going to sit down.

Steve:

We’re
like “We should raise it. We’re sorry.”

Nikki:

Yeah,
yeah.

Steve:

But
the whole neighborhood came. It was dope. It was like we were going to do
something.

Nikki:

Yeah.
They were like, “This is the first time we’ve ever seen any homeowners at the
homeowners’ meeting.”

Steve:

It
was like Mr. Smith goes to Washington and they were all like, “This just isn’t
right.” I’m like, it was great.

Tracy:

I
love it.

Aaron:

Well,
we’re going to dive into all the things that you guys have learned in your
first year of home ownership.

Nikki:

Hell
yeah.

Tracy:

Yeah.

Aaron:

And
all the headaches that go along with it. We talk about that on the show a lot,
that people don’t realize.

Tracy:

Because
misery loves company.

Nikki:

Oh,
yeah. Yeah.

Aaron:

That’s
right. It’s nice to join and to welcome people into the club.

Nikki:

Commiserate.

Aaron:

You
can now feel the pain.

Nikki:

Mm-hmm
(affirmative).

Tracy:

Yep.

Steve:

Well,
I don’t own desert property like you, my man. Freaking highest location in the
desert, on the hottest slab of granite possible.

Aaron:

Yeah,
well. You know.

Tracy:

With
a horse.

Steve:

Yeah.
Right.

Aaron:

Hey.
Live and learn, man, you know?

Nikki:

The
horse is sweating.

Steve:

Clearly.

Tracy:

Actually,
we were just talking about composting, too; and his main issue was he couldn’t
keep it wet enough.

Nikki:

Moist?

Aaron:

Couldn’t
keep it wet enough. Too hot and dry.

Tracy:

That’s
a lot of men’s issues.

Aaron:

Alright,
before we dive into this whole thing, because we’re just going to go off crazy,
want to say quick thank you to our founding sponsor of the How To Home podcast,
which is FilterBuy. FilterBuy is an HVAC filter provider, which you guys …

Tracy:

You
guys should get on.

Aaron:

Should
get on it because I think last time I was there, I talked to you guys about
replacing your air filters.

Steve:

And
you did. It was a very professional conversation.

Aaron:

And
you need to do that, you need to sign up for that.

Nikki:

We
need to do that.

Aaron:

Make
sure that you’re changing those air filters.

Tracy:

Add
it to the list.

Aaron:

Add
it to the list.

Tracy:

It’s
a subscription service.

Aaron:

That’s
right.

Tracy:

So,
you don’t have to remember. You set it and forget it. [crosstalk 00:03:09]

Nikki:

Forget
it.

Steve:

Dude,
this is like it was in my home, only Aaron was talking to me, and I was like,
“Yeah, am I in a podcast ad in my home?”

Tracy:

You
were. We actually, we used that.

Aaron:

I
don’t even think I was. I wasn’t even a subscriber to FilterBuy at that time. I
was just telling you that it was true.

Steve:

It’s
true.

Nikki:

Yeah,
it was just starting. Yeah.

Aaron:

But
it’s so much more convenient when they just ship them to your door, and you
don’t even think about it.

Nikki:

It’s
true, I don’t think we’ve done it for a year since we moved in.

Steve:

That’s
true. Asking for problems. That’s it.

Tracy:

Get
on it.

Steve:

But,
you know, it’s just like when I take my car in and they’re like, “You got
to replace these filters,” I’m like, “I’m on to you, man.”

Aaron:

Are
you sure?

Steve:

I’m
not doing the extras, man!

Tracy:

Then
you putt-putt off.

Steve:

And
they’re like, “It’s black. It’s very black.” And I’m like,
“Yeah. Whatever, dude.”

Aaron:

I
think I could get four or five more miles out of this.

Steve:

That’s
me. That’s me to the T.

Aaron:

I
recommend it. It’s all I’m saying.

Steve:

Okay.
I heard you out.

Nikki:

You’ve
got two people recommending it.

Aaron:

Because,
otherwise, you’re going to blow out your AC units and stuff in the summertime-

Steve:

We
just blew out our heating unit.

Nikki:

Don’t
talk about it! Don’t prove their point!

Aaron:

That’s
what I’m talking about

Tracy:

Oh
man.

Aaron:

See?
That’s why.

Steve:

That’s
for sure.

Aaron:

Because
it can’t breathe. If it can’t breathe, it can’t work right.

Steve:

Well,
I wish you would have told me about this earlier.

Aaron:

I
did tell you about it.

Steve:

I
know. That’s true, you did.

Tracy:

We
have it on film.

Aaron:

Also,
make sure you follow us on social media and interact with the show. Suggest
some topics, and some guests that you’d like to see on the show.
@HowToHome_Guide on Instagram and make sure you subscribe to our email list as
well, on our website HowToHome.com.

Tracy:

Yep!
That’s it.

Aaron:

I
know you guys did a hilarious series about trying to find your home.

Nikki:

We
did.

Aaron:

Which
I loved.

Nikki:

It’s
called Condo Hunters.

Steve:

Because
of legal reasons we couldn’t call it-

Nikki:

House
Hunters.

Steve:

House
Hunters.

Nikki:

Yeah,
plus we weren’t really-

Aaron:

Turns
out there’s a show called that.

Steve:

Turns
out.

Nikki:

Yeah.
We did almost a parody of that show.

Aaron:

Which
was brilliant.

Nikki:

Because
we were- [crosstalk 00:04:35]

Aaron:

I
thought it was hilarious.

Nikki:

Thank
you!

Steve:

Aw,
thank you bud. Thank you.

Nikki:

We
were obsessed with watching that show.

Steve:

We
love that show.

Nikki:

I
think we’ve watched-

Aaron:

I
would watch that show on television.

Steve:

I’d
watch it right now!

Aaron:

Let’s
watch it.

Steve:

Let’s
watch it instead.

Nikki:

Yo,
I think we watched every single episode already.

Steve:

We
did, yeah.

Nikki:

We
like, wore it out.

Steve:

We
were like, “No. We’ve seen this one. No, we’ve seen it.”

Nikki:

Well,
because we were like, “Since we can’t find our own home, let’s watch other
people find a home.”

Steve:

Yeah.

Nikki:

We
just like, live vicariously.

Steve:

We’re
like, “Mid-century modern in Cape Cod? Oh, we saw that one.” We saw
it twice. Once you’re 30 man, you just all of sudden, something unlocks in your
brain. You’re like, “I love all this stuff. I don’t know what happened to
me.”

Aaron:

Yeah.

Nikki:

Yeah.
You have a bunch of plants around your house now.

Steve:

I
used to sit there, while my mom was watching this stuff, with my mouth open
like, “Uh. Like, so bored.”

Nikki:

Yeah.

Steve:

And
now I just love it.

Aaron:

Life
crushes you to a degree that you’re like- those little things are like,
“Yes!”

Nikki:

Yeah!

Aaron:

I
love it now.

Tracy:

My
husband and I are deep into Naked and Afraid.

Nikki:

Oh!

Steve:

I
love Naked and Afraid. [crosstalk 00:05:17]

Tracy:

And
I think it’s because we feel like survivalists in our own life. So we like,
kind of-

Nikki:

Relate?

Tracy:

Yeah!
Yeah! We could do that.

Steve:

I
just like watching sad people get really scared.

Tracy:

While
naked.

Steve:

Yeah!
And they’re getting bit by bugs and shit. It’s like, amazing.

Tracy:

Yeah.

Nikki:

Yikes.

Steve:

Yeah.

Aaron:

That’s
hilarious.

Steve:

That’s
the best.

Aaron:

So
you guys have a podcast called-

Nikki:

Shit
They Don’t Tell You.

Steve:

Yes.

Nikki:

Yes.
And we talk about-

Aaron:

I
thought a great topic for today would be, Shit they don’t tell you in regards
to- [crosstalk 00:05:42]

Nikki:

Buying
a house.

Aaron:

-Buying
a home. Buying a home.

Nikki:

So
much they don’t tell you.

Tracy:

Yeah,
we’ve had lots of experts on the show, and they provide great information but,
it’s always nice to hear from people that have actually been through it.

Nikki:

We’re
not experts.

Steve:

We’re
not experts at literally anything.

Nikki:

And
nobody told us how to buy a house.

Steve:

No.

Nikki:

Nobody.
Not one time-

Steve:

They
still won’t.

Nikki:

Did
a person sit us down and go, “This is exactly how you buy a house.”

Tracy:

Right.

Nikki:

And
so, I felt like, yeah. I just had to figure it out on my own. Which took like,
probably longer than it would have taken if I had already known.

Aaron:

If
there was a podcast that had existed that talked about it beforehand-

Nikki:

Exactly.

Aaron:

That
I could have listened to, you know what I mean?

Steve:

True.

Tracy:

Yep.

Nikki:

Thank
you. And I’m sure a simple Google search could have done it but, I wanted
someone to tell me.

Steve:

Plus,
the fear of like, and “Now I have a mortgage payment,” is like very
interesting.

Aaron:

Yeah.
It’s debilitating. That fear is such a big hurdle. Especially in a expensive
housing market and you come from a different market, and you’re like,
“It’s so much money I don’t- I never heard of that figure.”

Nikki:

Oh,
yeah. So I’ve always lived in Southern California. So I was very used to what
it would be but, it still is a huge jump from renting to buying.

Steve:

I
find that a mortgage payment has stifled my creativity a little bit. Because I
had just, I’m not even kidding, I had just gotten through telling my lawyer
that I only wanted to be paid for projects now in Air Jordans. And I was like,
“Listen. Just figure it out. I just only want to be paid in Air
Jordans.” Because I just think that that’s so great.

Aaron:

Hilarious.

Steve:

And
I look like a guy who had a house boat. Like, why? What business do I have
getting paid in Air Jordans? But I was like, “I’ll figure it out. I’ll
have a closet full of Air Jordans or whatever and I’ll just sell them on Ebay
one at a time as I need cash.” And then, I’m not even kidding, we got a mortgage
payment within three months of that.

Tracy:

Yeah.

Steve:

And
I’m like, well. I can’t do that anymore.

Nikki:

That’s
so sad.

Tracy:

That’s
stressful when you’re freelance, too.

Nikki:

Yeah.
Basically, don’t get a home. What the-

Tracy:

Yeah.

Nikki:

Everyone
here is like, “Yo, it sucks. Everything sucks.”

Aaron:

It
doesn’t suck. It just has … I mean, it has its pros and it’s cons.

Tracy:

It’s
work.

Aaron:

We
talked about it in a previous episode about you know, how your lifestyle has to
change. But you don’t really know, you don’t get it until you’ve gotten into
it.

Nikki:

Yeah.

Aaron:

You
know?

Nikki:

I
don’t know. I dreamt about having a place for so long that I still wake up and
I’m like, “I’m so thankful that we’re here.”

Aaron:

Right.
Exactly.

Tracy:

Yeah!

Nikki:

I’m
so into the place that we live.

Aaron:

It’s
such a weird feeling that you get that you are like, “This is mine. I love
this. This is so cool.” And at the same time it’s like, “This is
awful, why did I do this?”

Steve:

Yes.

Aaron:

Like,
you have both at the same- sometimes simultaneously.

Steve:

It’s
like this is mine-

Nikki:

When
the property taxes come in? Yeah. Oh yeah. I’m like, “What the hell is
this?”

Steve:

Dude,
when it’s like, “This is mine. It feels so good.” Like, when I go down the
stairs in the morning, I’m like, “This is mine. It feels so good.” But then
when guys are carrying a couch up the stairs and they take out a chunk of your
wall-

Nikki:

Oh
yeah.

Steve:

You’re
like, “This is mine. What? This sucks.”

Tracy:

Yeah.

Steve:

Because,
back when you’re a renter it was so awesome. You were just like, “Hey. So this
happened earlier today. Why isn’t it already fixed? Are you kidding me?”

Tracy:

Yes.
And when you build stuff yourself and it gets messed up it is-

Nikki:

Yeah.
And it like, just things that used to be covered by property management, when
you’re renting, aren’t covered. Our garbage disposal broke and I was like, “Oh.
I guess we have to replace that. What, maybe $200?” It would freeze up and I
would do the thing and, we had to do that at our old apartment so I was very
aware of that.

Steve:

You
did the deep dive.

Nikki:

Yeah.

Steve:

You
did your due diligence on it.

Nikki:

And
then it just is like, “Hey. And usually this works but it’s not working anymore
with us. Me and my garbage disposal.”

Steve:

The
poor buddy tuckered out. He tuckered out, man.

Nikki:

He
tuckered out. He’s like, “It’s my time to go.”

Steve:

Yeah.
We had to say goodbye. [crosstalk 00:08:52]

Nikki:

And
I was like, “Oh! Say it ain’t so!”

Steve:

He
actually crawled away and then died so we wouldn’t have to deal with it.

Aaron:

That’s
nice.

Tracy:

That
was nice.

Aaron:

You
know, that was a nice move.

Tracy:

Did
he unplug himself first?

Steve:

Yeah,
he did. Yeah.

Nikki:

Yeah.
And then we’re like, “Oh, he’s just- it’s just gone I guess.”

Steve:

It’s
gone.

Tracy:

Yeah.

Aaron:

Guess
we got to put a new one in. [crosstalk 00:09:02] So you went to the shelter and
adopted a new one.

Nikki:

Got
a new one. Adopted a new one. Adopt, don’t shop.

Steve:

They
have a lot of dignity, those things.

Nikki:

We
also … our dryer wouldn’t work for the first few months that we were living
there. It would just not dry the clothes. It would turn on and everything, just
wouldn’t dry the clothes. And Steve was convinced, because he doesn’t know how
to properly Google things. So he was convinced that it was junk-

Steve:

We
were scammed.

Nikki:

That
we got scammed, by previous owners-

Steve:

I
jumped immediately to, “We got freaking scammed. We got scammed.”

Nikki:

Which
it was so nice that they left their previous appliances. He was like, “We just
got to buy a new dryer, we got scammed.”

Steve:

I
was like, “Ah!”

Nikki:

“They
left their junk in here.” And all this stuff.

Steve:

I
was like, “Yeah, they knew that we wouldn’t check the dryer because who checks
they dryer before you buy a house?”

Nikki:

I
did one Google search and it was like, “The vents probably need to be cleaned.”
So we got a guy-

Aaron:

That’s
a thing you have to do regularly.

Nikki:

Yeah.
Well, no one did it in the previous-

Steve:

They
don’t tell you that.

Nikki:

The
previous owners.

Tracy:

They
didn’t tell you.

Nikki:

Yeah,
they don’t tell you that. The previous owners didn’t do it. There was a whole
birds nest in the vent. And there’s no filter on the top that goes into our-

Steve:

In
the roof. Which, HOA should have taken care of.

Nikki:

Right.
There’s no screen-

Steve:

And
we raised it at the annual meeting, thank you.

Nikki:

We
did. We told them. We were like-

Aaron:

I
would love to see you guys at the HOA meeting.

Steve:

It
was very fun. I dressed like a judge.

Nikki:

It
was just us getting slammed the whole time.

Steve:

Powder
wig. Oh, the whole thing.

Nikki:

We
would bring up what we thought was a really good point, and they would just
slam it down. We were like, “Oh, shit. That’s, we didn’t know that.” It’s true.

Steve:

It
was great. It was great. It was like a debate against a master, and we were
just getting wrecked every angle.

Tracy:

But
now you come back armed for next time.

Aaron:

If
you read the Article 17 point 7321 of your bi-laws, it’s all written there
clearly.

Steve:

Pretty
much, the whole time.

Nikki:

Well,
basically, also we don’t have earthquake insurance. It would only cost 20
dollars more a month to have earthquake insurance and none of the other tenants
wanted to raise it, another 20 bucks. And I’m like “We should get
earthquake insurance.”

Aaron:

There’s
a lot of research there, though. I mean, we’re not going to dive too much into
that. That may be a different topic. But, earthquake insurance is good and it’s
bad. It has its drawbacks, because at a certain level of damage, FEMA gets
involved. Which, sometimes it can be cost prohibitive to have earthquake
insurance.

Steve:

So,
you’re telling me it’s a scam. It’s a scam! [crosstalk 00:11:08]

Nikki:

So,
we don’t-

Steve:

I
knew it! I knew it!

Aaron:

Not
necessarily! Not necessarily!

Steve:

I
knew it! I told you, I told you![crosstalk 00:11:12]

Nikki:

Now
you set him off. Now you set him off.

Aaron:

It’s
not necessarily a scam, but it is not required in all cases.

Steve:

Very
dope to know, thank you, Aaron.

Aaron:

You’re
welcome.

Nikki:

So!-

Steve:

I
will be taking that and running with it.

Aaron:

Get
into the HOA meeting this time just like – “This is a scam!”

Steve:

Scam!
It’s a con job!

Aaron:

But
wait, you’re the one who- [crosstalk 00:11:25]

Nikki:

But
we’re not, yeah, we’re not-

Aaron:

You’re
the one who’s actually-

Nikki:

Yeah,
I was like “we should get this!”

Aaron:

So
you say that, and then you say “It’s a scam”, it’s a wash- [crosstalk
00:11:31]

Steve:

Always.
Always.

Aaron:

And
we’re good.

Nikki:

But
I will cancel our personal earthquake insurance because it’s pretty much
pointless, basically if the whole building [crosstalk 00:11:38]

Aaron:

Right.
Falls down around you, you’re screwed.

Nikki:

Falls
down. I can’t resell my condo because ours is fine.

Aaron:

Well,
you might have a lot of property then. You might have a big lot.

Nikki:

There
you go.

Aaron:

Because
there’s no other buildings, no other units attached to it.

Tracy:

You
could have the breeze come right in.

Nikki:

Look
at my backyard in L.A.

Tracy:

So,
what was the home buying process like?

Nikki:

Yeah.
Let’s get into that.

Tracy:

Yes,
let’s. I want to know how you arrived where you are now in these HOH meetings.

Nikki:

So,
really dumbly, because I was like, ‘oh, we’ll just go to open houses and when
we find one we like, we’ll just buy it.” That’s what I really thought he
process was. That’s what it should be, okay!

Aaron:

That’s
right!

Nikki:

Like,
you go to an open house, you’re like. “This one. Wrap it up.”

Steve:

Box
it up!

Nikki:

And
then you pay for it, but that’s not what it’s like at all. So you should
definitely be pre-approved on a loan before you go to open houses.

Steve:

Some
places-

Aaron:

Oh,
you forgot that part?

Nikki:

Well,
I didn’t know about that part. [crosstalk 00:12:22]

Tracy:

No
you were like-

Nikki:

Because
nobody told us!

Aaron:

Nobody
told you.

Steve:

Some
places basically walk you out the door if you haven’t been pre approved.
“We’re very serious!” And they’re like shoving you out the front
door.

Nikki:

They’re
just like, “Oh, and off here – are you pre-approved?” No
“Oh.”

Steve:

“Oh,
you’re a joke then. Mm-hmm (affirmative) Are you here for the three
mints?”

Tracy:

Oh
my God.

Nikki:

The
other things was is that we had a certain down payment that I thought we had
saved up, but then taxes happened and took a giant chunk of it.

Steve:

Giant.

Nikki:

I’m
talking a third of it. Where I was “Wow, we just completely moved down a
bracket of homes that we can now look for.”

Steve:

She
cried many tears.

Nikki:

Yeah.
It was because I got a huge payment from a deal that they breached the agreement
on it was a huge, massive payment-

Steve:

So
it was a windfall.

Nikki:

I
was “Oh sweet!” And I put it all into the bank and then added that to
our savings for the down payment, and I was “we have enough to put this
much down on a house.” And then taxes came and they were like, “Yeah,
we’re gonna take 50% of everything you made last year.” And I’m like-

Steve:

It
was beautiful!

Nikki:

Cool!

Aaron:

Joy.

Nikki:

Well,
that’s good!

Steve:

So
that set us back a couple of months.

Nikki:

Yeah,
it set us back a couple of months, mostly because all of my search criteria had
to change to either settling on the rooms, or settling on the location, or
settling on the size of the house we were looking at.

Steve:

We
both needed to have an office, and we both wanted to have a good size for us to
live in.

Aaron:

So
you’re not living on top of each other 24/7.

Nikki:

We
both work from home, so it’s hard to live in a two bedroom, even though there’s
just two of us living there. We definitely needed at least three bedrooms, so
that both of us could have an office. Otherwise, you just can’t think
creatively when someone is right on top of you.

Nikki:

I
also just get really sick of him. It’s really good to be away.

Aaron:

Fair!

Tracy:

Valid!

Aaron:

I
mean, I do it, and we’re just like friends. We just text each other.

Steve:

I
just [inaudible 00:14:09]

Nikki:

Yeah,
exactly. It’s very easy to get sick of him.

Nikki:

So
then we got pre-approved on a loan, and well, actually found that you had to
get pre-approved, and then I was like, “How do I do that?” Because
it’s like “Oh, you have to get pre-approved” Well, how? Nobody tells
you how to do any of these things, so we actually, at an open house, there was a
real estate agent, and he was like, “Do you guys have an agent?” And
we’re like “No.” He’s like, “Oh, I could be your agent, I do all
these houses around this area.”

Nikki:

And
I looked him up, and he was pretty good.

Tracy:

Finally,
someone with information!

Nikki:

Yeah,
yeah.

Steve:

I
was like, “This is a scam. It’s gotta be, I know this is a scam.”

Nikki:

I
really liked him, we got along really well, and he was just on-game with everything.
He referred us to his loan person, and that guy was really great, he worked
with a lot of entertainers, a lot of 10-99 contractors, which is usually the
hardest part about getting pre-approved, if you’re a 10-99.

Nikki:

It
was like the end of 2017?

Steve:

Yeah.

Nikki:

So
he was like, “Don’t do your 2017 taxes yet, until you find a house.
Because we’re going to pre-approve you on 2016 taxes, and if you find one in the
next couple of months, then we’re going to have to do the approval process all
over again.

Aaron:

Right.

Nikki:

So,
we filed an extension on our taxes. Another thing that I wouldn’t have known to
do.

Tracy:

Mm-hmm
(affirmative)-

Nikki:

And
then we were looking and looking and looking for freaking ever, forever. And
there was always either something wrong, like Steve didn’t like it, or I didn’t
like it. Or someone put down an offer for way more money than what it was –
which, they always put down way more than what’s listed, but-

Steve:

But
almost every time we both didn’t like something.

Nikki:

Yeah.
There was something that was off. It wasn’t ever “That’s the one!”

Steve:

There
was maybe two that she liked or that I liked-

Nikki:

Yeah.

Steve:

Total,
where it was like I liked this one, but she doesn’t, or she likes it, I don’t.

Nikki:

And
this was, I feel like two years of searching.

Aaron:

Mm-hmm
(affirmative)- How many do you think you saw in that long timeframe?

Nikki:

In
the timeframe?

Aaron:

How
much time?

Nikki:

At
least like 50.

Steve:

Yeah,
at least.

Aaron:

That’s
a lot.

Steve:

At
least.

Tracy:

Oh
yeah.

Nikki:

It
was – every weekend, we would say at least three a day, that Saturday and
Sunday, and then sometimes our agent would call us in the middle of the week,
like “Hey I got this place that we can look at before the open house, and
stuff.” And so we would go during the week, and it was just – a lot of
time that I did not expect.

Nikki:

At
first, it was a really cute thing. I was like “we’ll go look at open houses,
and then, like, you know, think about kind we want….”

Tracy:

Yeah.

Aaron:

And
then it becomes dominating your weekends.

Nikki:

Yeah!

Steve:

Yeah!
And now we gotta park at this place?

Nikki:

And
we were canceling birthday parties, because we were like, “We can’t make
it, we already said we would look at this place, it might be the one!” And
then…

Tracy:

And
then when you find the one it doesn’t necessarily become yours.

Nikki:

Yeah.
Yeah!

Tracy:

So
you’re like “Really?”

Nikki:

That’s
another thing.

Aaron:

That’s
like heartbreak, when they yank it out from under you.

Steve:

Yeah.

Tracy:

Oh,
it’s the worst.

Nikki:

We
were so scared about that happening. I actually just gave up. So, it got to a
point, after seeing all of those places, this was after a holiday, so it was
Christmas, New Year’s time, it was all the way through all of the holidays, so
November through end of December.

Nikki:

I
thought we found this house that I really, really, really liked. It was in a
really good neighborhood, good HOA, everything was great, it had a pool, it was
3 bedrooms, it was 1600 square feet, it was in the price range that we wanted-

Steve:

You
could see Universal from the balcony.

Tracy:

Wow!

Nikki:

You
could see the fireworks show.

Steve:

See
that Harry Potter World, baby!

Tracy:

Ah.

Nikki:

And
we were able to, the agent was like, “You can negotiate down even lower,
because this has been on the market for so long, she’ll probably take a lower
price.” So, I was so ready to do it, and then she de listed the house.

Aaron:

Oh!

Nikki:

Yeah.
And it was like that situation, but not someone else getting it.

Nikki:

But,
there was something that was off about that one.

Steve:

It
was off

Nikki:

It
was kind of like we were settling.

Steve:

I
didn’t like it.

Nikki:

But,
I was still, at that point, that was my last chance. I just thought, I’m done
looking.

Steve:

And
we thought we’d have to get pre-approved again, because a certain time goes by-

Nikki:

Because
the new year-

Steve:

…renew
it.

Nikki:

Yeah,
and then, it was, “Okay, if we’re not moving, we’ll just decorate our old
apartment better.” And that was a bummer. It was really depressing
actually. I went through a depression period of having to accept that we
weren’t going to buy a house.

Nikki:

And
then, randomly, so the video that we did – Condo Hunters. The first one was a
sponsored video. They wanted to do follow up one to see where we were at in the
home-buying process. So we kind of had to go look at some open houses again.
And I was so, just like, pessimistic about it, like, “What’s the point,
we’re not going to buy one.”

Steve:

She
was really fun during this period.

Aaron:

Sounds
like it.

Nikki:

And
I was able to get. I found this one listing, and I called my agent to see if we
could go see it because there was an open house coming up and I wanted to be
able to film for the video. And he was like, “Okay I can get you a scene,
what’s called a showing before the open house.” So we go in there, it’s
perfect. It’s like everything we want. Three bedrooms, two stories, it’s got a
little backyard area. I need an outdoor area. It has three bathrooms and it has
like a bonus room. And it’s like 1620 square feet for the price we were looking
at. So we were like, “We need to,” both of us, right away, were like,
“This is it.” Like, that moment of like this is the one. SO we put an
offer in that day. They guy said he had already received another offer but they
were only putting 10% down and said, basically, “If you offer $10,000
more, he’ll accept.”

Steve:

So
it never even went to market, we snagged it.

Tracy:

Yes.

Nikki:

It
was still under our budget. It wasn’t even at the top of our budget.

Steve:

But
they had terrible taste of paint, and décor.

Nikki:

Yeah
we did have to do a lot of repainting.

Steve:

Awful,
awful.

Tracy:

But
you could see past that, that makes you guys, like, that’s awesome.

Steve:

Yeah.

Nikki:

It
was pretty turnkey too, like, the brand new wood floors. And I liked the
contrasting, the wood they picked was a nice dark wood. It looked good with
everything else.

Steve:

But
the walls were like this yellow in the living room.

Nikki:

Yeah,
they had like this pea-green, yellowish puke color in the living room. But in
our video, oh that’s another thing we made the offer. You know how a lot of
people write letters to like stand out, so that’s a thing. SO our real estate
agent was like, “Trust me guys, this works pretty much every time. We’re
going to make a video. Everyone else is doing letters, you guys, we’re going to
do a video. I’m just going to take a video with my phone. I’ll send it in with
the offer”, and that is what ended up pushing them over the edge. Because
we were like, “Hey we work from home and we’re newly weds and we love what
you did with the place and it looks so great-“

Tracy:

So
you lied about the paint color.

Steve:

We
did, we said we wouldn’t change a thing.

Nikki:

Everything
else I loved.

Nikki:

We
said we wouldn’t change a thing, but we don’t consider painting a change.

Steve:

I
was like, I would change a lot of things, actually.

Steve:

I
wouldn’t change the layout of the floor plan, you know what I mean, like, I had
to just leave it like that.

Aaron:

I’d
leave the walls where they are because-

Steve:

Right.

Nikki:

You
actually liked, the kitchen looked dope.

Steve:

I
love the kitchen.

Nikki:

Every
other place we looked at, we would have to do a full remodel of the kitchen.
But this one was like, granite countertops. It was pretty nice.

Tracy:

Who
does the cooking?

Steve:

I
mean, I don’t cook.

Nikki:

He
tries.

Steve:

I
sort of heat things up, but well.

Aaron:

But
well done.

Nikki:

He
uses the microwave really well.

Steve:

I
do a hell of a job at it.

Steve:

Yeah.
That’s great. You should come over for dinner.

Nikki:

Speaking
of that, in the kitchen, where the stove and the microwave are, that whole
wall, it goes out. Like it shorts every day.

Steve:

It
does. It shorts.

Nikki:

Like,
we have to reset it every single day. And to like, change all the, what’s it
called?

Steve:

GFCI’s.

Nikki:

GFCI’s
outlets.

Steve:

We
have to just reset those guys, if we want to use the oven.

Nikki:

We
don’t even want to know how much that costs. We just reset it everyday.

Aaron:

I
know a guy. You know a guy?

Tracy:

I
was going to say, make this dude do it!

Nikki:

Okay.

Aaron:

Yeah,
I know a guy that can sort that out for you.

Nikki:

I
would love that.

Steve:

That
would be tight because that’s a pain.

Nikki:

Yeah,
we literally, everyone thinks we are to lazy to reset the time on our stove, because
it’s always blinking.

Steve:

Yeah,
in videos.

Nikki:

But
it just resets every day.

Aaron:

Well,
it’s like one of those things, like you have to much on one circuit. That’s all
that is.

Steve:

Yes,
exactly.

Aaron:

You’ve
been in there for about a year now.

Steve:

Yeah.

Nikki:

Yeah.

Aaron:

What
types of stuff have come up during that time, that you didn’t expect or like,
what additional costs and stuff.

Nikki:

Definitely
the nest in the vent. That was like, a big one. I was like, I didn’t even know
that could happen. The garbage disposal, the wall. Right now, our heater is
broken.

Steve:

Heater
is broken.

Nikki:

Which
we didn’t even think that we needed a heater, because it’s LA.

Steve:

We’re
in the valley, too.

Nikki:

It’s
always really hot. So I was like, okay.

Steve:

It
gets cold. This year’s been nuts.

Nikki:

This
year’s been really weird. Just really weird.

Steve:

I
was like, dude, its 45 degrees inside right now.

Nikki:

It
was really odd. So our heater was working great, and then one day, it just went
out.

Aaron:

Talk
it out.

Nikki:

And
so we go a guy that fixed our AC last year.

Tracy:

It
died of a broken heart.

Steve:

Ya,
I think so. It’s true.

Tracy:

It’s
a friend of the garbage disposal.

Tracy:

You
never use me anyway and then you’re just going to leave in a day.

Nikki:

It
cost $720 to fix. We’re like, well, we don’t need a heater.

Steve:

We
don’t need a heater for what? Two weeks of heating? I’m not doing that (BEEP)

Aaron:

You
got to text me. You got to text me these things when these things pop up. You
got to ask me, what’s wrong. I know a guy, you tell me what’s wrong right now
and he’ll tell you.

Tracy:

The
smart valve.

Steve:

The
smart valve.

Tracy:

The
smart valve, Aaron.

Aaron:

Okay,
all right. Not that hard, but okay.

Nikki:

Oh,
okay. Well, at least you know we didn’t get scammed.

Steve:

Yeah,
we didn’t get scammed.

Nikki:

Yeah,
we didn’t get scammed.

Aaron:

Yeah,
at least it wasn’t something stupid.

Steve:

This
guy’s good. I like this guy. We had him do our AC during the summer time. And
he’s dope. He’s like this Russian guy who just climbs up. He basically scales
the wall. He doesn’t even use the ladder, like climbs himself up the wall.

Aaron:

Yeah,
Russian Spiderman.

Steve:

Yeah,
he’s amazing, dude. He’s incredible.

Nikki:

Oh,
I love it. That’s another thing, you’ve got to make friends with some
contractors people because I didn’t realize. I though, okay, we have to pay for
a plumber or pay for an electrician or whatever. But okay, that’s easy, like,
I’ll just go on Yelp and I’ll hire one. They do not call you back.

Steve:

No.

Nikki:

You’re
on their time. And they know it.

Steve:

And
they hate you.

Nikki:

They
know you need them more than they need you.

Tracy:

I’ve
said that to Aaron, I’m like, do people not want to work? Like trying to find
someone to paint our last house, it took like, weeks.

Nikki:

Yeah!

Tracy:

We’re
like, aren’t like, freelance people really needing work?

Aaron:

And
I told you why. What happens is, like there’s a serious shortage. Like, people
do not want to do this type of work. People our age and younger do not want to
do it because there’s not glory in it. But the work is still there. The demand
is still there. So these, people, and it pays great but the skills gap exists.
It’s a very real thing and people don’t want to do it, so the shortage is
there.

Tracy:

Yeah.

Aaron:

So
they can basically work whenever they want, how they want. They’re overloaded.
They don’t have enough help, and so stuff falls through the cracks. They can’t
keep up. It just is, what it is.

Steve:

We
called 17 plumbers.

Nikki:

Yeah.

Steve:

I
believe it.

Steve:

And
only one got back.

Tracy:

I
think a lot of it, too, is when they’re on the job, they don’t pick up their
phone.

Steve:

Yeah.

Aaron:

Right.

Tracy:

They
don’t have someone in the office, you know, fielding those calls and then it
just-

Aaron:

Only
big companies like that have a 24 hour maintenance thing and those are one’s you
hear on the radio. That type of stuff.

Tracy:

Gosh,
I wish-

Aaron:

The
average guy, is just a guy and he can only do so much in a day.

Tracy:

Yeah,
and if he has good reviews-

Aaron:

I’m
not going to sit there and go on my voicemail. I’ve already got these word of
mouth clients. I can just go from here.

Tracy:

Yeah,
it’s so true.

Steve:

But
this cat, our AC went down Memorial Day and he was there in 25 minutes.

Nikki:

Yeah.

Steve:

Like,
and he fixed it in 35 minutes. Like, he’s a legend.

Tracy:

See,
and you remember him.

Aaron:

See,
that’s a good guy.

Tracy:

That’s
good business.

Steve:

Like
dude, he’s my dude.

Nikki:

I
always feed the people that work at our house.

Tracy:

That
is so sweet.

Nikki:

I
always offer lunch and bottles of water, doughnuts.

Tracy:

That’s
so nice.

Aaron:

That’s
so cool.

Nikki:

And
they come back.

Tracy:

Yeah,
I bet.

Nikki:

They’re
like, that chick with the doughnuts.

Aaron:

And
you might go through a few, like you’ll find some people that you don’t like,
that you’re like, I’m not bringing that guy again.

Nikki:

Yeah!

Aaron:

You
know, if you go through a home warranty thing or something.

Nikki:

Yeah,
we tried that. That’s awful.

Steve:

They’re
awful.

Nikki:

What
a waste of money. It’s like 75 bucks to have them come out-

Tracy:

Diagnose
the problem.

Nikki:

And
he just, yeah to design it and then he had to come out again to like, fix it and
it was for our recess lighting. We couldn’t get the lights to work and it was
just dumb. We weren’t used to recess lighting. He just pushed the bulb in
further.

Steve:

And
then he laughed at me for 10 minutes but I deserved it. Because you had to push
them in and twist them? I didn’t know that.

Nikki:

No,
you don’t twist them.

Steve:

Yeah,
you do.

Nikki:

No,
you don’t.

Steve:

You
slightly twist it so-

Nikki:

No,
you have to wait for it to click. He still has not successfully done it. I
learned how to do it. But, you have to listen for a click.

Steve:

Yeah,
the click is how you use for them twisting.

Nikki:

No.
You don’t twist it.

Nikki:

But
good try.

Nikki:

Also,
our hot water doesn’t work in the master bedroom, in the master bathroom. So
that’s like, a fun thing.

Steve:

That’s
true.

Aaron:

Does
it work at all?

Nikki:

No,
it gets to lukewarm.

Steve:

It
doesn’t get very hot.

Nikki:

So,
we finally got a plumber, because I was like, I’m fixing this! And he comes out
and he’s like, yeah, we have to change the whole valve in there-

Aaron:

Diverter
valve.

Nikki:

Yeah,
see, you know. And then, he’s like, it’s a special part for this particular
type of shower that you have-

Aaron:

Bologna.

Nikki:

So,
I have to special order it.

Steve:

It’s
bologna?

Nikki:

Well,
he’s never called me back. He’s like, I’ll call you when its in. That was like
six months ago.

Aaron:

So,
why do that? Other than to just collect a fee, I guess and leave. Why would he-

Tracy:

He
charged you for his assessment?

Nikki:

Well,
no. That’s the guy that fixed the garbage disposal. So I was like, while you’re
here, by the way, can you check this, also?

Tracy:

Oh.

Nikki:

And
he’s like, yeah. That’s a special part. He’s like, I called them. They’re going
to order it and see if they have it, or whatever. I’ll call you back. And then
he just ghosted.

Aaron:

Why
not just change the whole, I mean, you can change the whole diverter valve out
and the whole faucet.

Nikki:

That’s
what I said.

Steve:

That’s
what I would say.

Nikki:

I
was saying that same thing.

Steve:

Why
special order all that stuff.

Nikki:

Like,
it’s just a diverter.

Aaron:

Diverter
valve.

Steve:

You
just got to do it.

Aaron:

He’s
probably not wrong. You probably do, for that specific fixture. But are you
married to that specific fixture?

Nikki:

No.

Steve:

I
love it.

Aaron:

You
love it? Okay.

Nikki:

No,
he’s kidding.

Aaron:

Yeah,
but you know what I’m saying, like-

Nikki:

That’s
my bathroom, by the way. We have our own bathrooms because we can’t deal. We
one time had to share a bathroom in our first apartment and it was a nightmare.

Tracy:

What’s
the issues? What are they?

Nikki:

Everything.
He takes a way to long shower and locks the door the entire time and then I
can’t pee. Then, like I need to my hair because-

Steve:

I’m
a thinking man and my shower is my sanctuary.

Nikki:

And
he like, he does everything. I don’t know what he does in there.

Aaron:

Do
you shave in the shower?

Steve:

No,
I don’t shave in the shower.

Aaron:

Who
shaves in the shower?

Steve:

I
shower.

Nikki:

No,
no, no. He showers for 40 minutes and then he shaves.

Steve:

Then
I shave.

Tracy:

He
want’s his pores to be open.

Steve:

I
do manly things in there, man.

Nikki:

Which
is fine, if there are two bathrooms and you don’t have a wife trying to get
ready. So, always separate bathrooms. We’ve had very little fights since we’ve-

Steve:

It’s
true and it keeps it interesting too, because there’s mystery in our
relationship because we don’t share bathrooms.

Aaron:

There
you go. I don’t know what’s going on in there.

Nikki:

He
never puts the cap on a toothpaste tube. He’s one of those.

Tracy:

Oh.

Nikki:

Doesn’t
put-

Steve:

I’m
a legend.

Nikki:

Yeah,
one of those guys.

Steve:

Well,
I’ve got a buddy who pees between his lady’s legs while she peeing and I’m
like, no.

Nikki:

I’m
not married to that guy.

Aaron:

Exactly.

Steve:

That’s
a level that I’m never going to, bro.

Aaron:

You
hang out with that person on a regular basis?

Steve:

I
do.

Aaron:

I’m
starting to reevaluate-

Steve:

I
keep him at arms length, though.

Aaron:

I’m
starting to reevaluate what we have going on here.

Steve:

I
hear you, I hear you.

Tracy:

Oh,
man.

Aaron:

I
don’t want to be by that proxy, you know what I mean?

Aaron:

He’s
an odd one.

Nikki:

Yeah,
and another thing is just the length of time of how long projects take. Like, I
was like, okay, I hate this yellow color in the living room, I’m going to paint
it. It’ll probably take, I don’t know, five hours, or whatever. And it took
three days.

Tracy:

When
we left New York, because in New York, we moved, we were in like, five
different apartments within however long range. I’m like, I am never painting
again my entire life. And I’m sticking to that.

Nikki:

That’s
a good rule.

Tracy:

It’s
the worst.

Nikki:

That’s
a great rule.

Steve:

Terrible.

Aaron:

It’s
not the worst.

Tracy:

My
husband’s really good at it. He used to paint for a living.

Steve:

It’s
not the worst. It’s not great.

Steve:

For
me, it’s terrible when you are with somebody who is as anal as my wife is,
where-

Nikki:

It’s
not terrible. We have a great paint job now.

Aaron:

True.

Tracy:

I
tape off, that’s my job and I love it and I’m good at it.

Nikki:

So,
this is what this guy did, this is why he got banned from painting. He just
goes like, we start. I’m like, okay we got to lay the plastic down and stuff
and he just starts going in with the big thing. Doesn’t line the top, by the
ceiling, what’s that called? Like-

Aaron:

Tape
it off.

Tracy:

Cutting.

Nikki:

Yeah,
he doesn’t do the cutting. He didn’t watch any videos on how to paint.

Steve:

What
does that even mean?

Nikki:

Yeah.

Steve:

What
the hell does that even mean?

Aaron:

He’s
just jamming it into the ceiling.

Nikki:

Yes.

Steve:

And
you know what? And my grandfather would have done the same thing.

Nikki:

Oh,
I imagine you painting in that same powdered wig that you wore to-

Steve:

Yep.
My judge outfit.

Nikki:

He’s
just so-

Steve:

Stubborn?

Nikki:

Just
like, confidently wrong all the time. And so, I’m like, at least I did, like a
week of watching videos on how to paint, before attempting how to paint. He was
just like, not, I’ll (BEEP) wing it. And then just went with a freaking brush.

Aaron:

Learn
by doing, you know. Trial by fire.

Steve:

I
always have. I always have.

Nikki:

I
was like, you’re fired. I was like, you’re out.

Steve:

They
call me the miracle man for a reason.

Nikki:

I
was like, I don’t even want you in this place.

Nikki:

We
had a two week overlap of our apartment and moving into the house. So I was like,
you stay at the apartment. I’m going to paint this place.

Nikki:

You
stay at the apartment.

Tracy:

You
know, I think you learn a lot about your spouse during this process.

Aaron:

You
do.

Tracy:

During
the home buying process.

Nikki:

We
looked for so long that at one point, we were just so over it, that we were
like, we’re taking a break.

Tracy:

Yeah.

Nikki:

Like,
two months, we’re not talking about it, we’re not looking. And actually, we
found our place very similar, it was like a fate thing.

Tracy:

See!
It’s like dating.

Nikki:

I
was pushing a stroller, yeah, exactly.

Tracy:

Except
I’m not dating anymore. Both of us did that and that’s when we started dating.

Nikki:

You
can’t force it.

Nikki:

Yeah,
but its stressful, it’s stressful.

Aaron:

Yeah,
that’s why I do this brand. Because the type of work that you have to do as a
homeowner can suck. But you should know how to do it, otherwise you’re going to
be raked through the coals because people are going to take advantage of you.
You don’t know if you’re going to get a good contractor or not. And it’s going
to cost you a lot of money, every time.

Tracy:

Yeah!

Aaron:

That’s
why I even, that’s why I do this whole brand, you know?

Nikki:

You
know what’s so cool, though? Let’s talk about a cool thing about owning a home
that blew my mind, was that when I realized that I could do anything to it.

Tracy:

Yeah,
it’s yours.

Steve:

Within
reason.

Nikki:

Like,
if I want to change-

Nikki:

Yeah,
yeah, within reason.

Nikki:

But,
like, if I want to add a built in wall unit, like I can do that. If I want to
like, change the doors to be all like, barn doors, I can do it.

Nikki:

If
I want to like, even the faucets and stuff, I never even though about that you
could change the faucets.

Steve:

Or
doorknobs or anything.

Nikki:

like
hardware. Or any of that.

Steve:

It’s
pretty cool.

Nikki:

Because
when you rent your entire life, you’re just so used to not being able to change
anything. Like it didn’t even cross my mind that I could change the doorknobs
or I could change the, like-

Steve:

I’m
like, we could build a pizza hut in here!

Aaron:

You
could have a brick fired oven, whatever you want.

Steve:

Yep.
Yep.

Aaron:

You
see something like, at the store, or on TV. You’re like, I’m going to buy that
and put it in. I’m doing it.

Tracy:

Do
you guys have an outdoors space?

Nikki:

We
do, yeah.

Tracy:

What
do you guys go out in the yard.

Nikki:

I
put down AstroTurf. It’s this little patio. So yeah, I put down some AstroTurf
to make it look more like a backyard area. Like, just, I know, that’s that cute
LA thing that like, people were doing that to their balconies to make it look
like-

Tracy:

Yeah,
like the little Ikea tiles that you can buy.

Nikki:

Exactly,
and so I did that and I put these outdoor sofas and like the little lights, the
string lighting and stuff.

Tracy:

Yes.

Nikki:

And
it looked just super cute. I wanted it to look like when you go to one of those
events and they have this like, VIP section.

Steve:

Yeah.

Nikki:

And
then, you’re like, oh, I want to sit over there but you can’t. And there’s like
an open bar over there and stuff. I put a bar outside, like with alcohol and
like-

Steve:

Super
executive, yeah.

Nikki:

So,
when we have people over we just make drinks out there.

Aaron:

Can
you put a rope up, so people can’t go-

Nikki:

Yeah.

Steve:

That’s
next.

Aaron:

You
invite people over to be like, no, can’t go there. VIP section.

Nikki:

Do
you have a wristband?

Aaron:

Exactly.

Aaron:

Did
you get a wristband at the door?

Nikki:

Yeah,
I put plants out there, and it’s like a little back yard. We just chill. We
haven’t gotten to chill lately because it’s been raining like crazy, but-

Tracy:

It
sounds like you guys have done a lot in a year.

Nikki:

Yeah,
I’ve done a lot.

Steve:

We
have. I have, I was-

Tracy:

Yeah,
what have you done, actually?

Steve:

I
was lifting many things.

Nikki:

That
was moving day. He’s just talking about moving day.

Steve:

I
usually, she shows up and she calls me, and then she’s like, hey, come to my
car. You have to help me unload all this (BEEP). And then I have to unload
many, many plants.

Tracy:

That
sounds accurate.

Aaron:

Somebody
has to do the heavy lifting, you know what I mean.

Steve:

Yeah,
that’s right. Then I call them surprise plants, because I never expect them and
they’re always there.

Aaron:

Surprise
plants.

Nikki:

But
he loves living there.

Steve:

I
do like living there. She’s done an amazing job.

Nikki:

Steve’s
constantly like-

Steve:

It’s
strengths and weaknesses. We’re both big on strengths and weaknesses.

Nikki:

Yeah,
that’s true.

Steve:

What
she’s good at, what I’m good at.

Steve:

I’m
good at lifting stuff up. She’s good at planning stuff out.

Tracy:

Who
does the cleaning.

Steve:

I
do.

Nikki:

We
kind of split it.

Steve:

I
do all of it.

Nikki:

Oh,
did you just vacuum the entire upstairs and clean our bedroom and office area
up there? Did you just scrub out all the toilets?

Nikki:

I’m
sorry.

Aaron:

Uh,
oh. Hang on.

Tracy:

Wait,
who cleans?

Nikki:

Steve
is very specific-

Steve:

I
do a lot of dishes.

Nikki:

Specific
jobs.

Steve:

I
do laundry.

Tracy:

Lifts
things and uh-

Steve:

I
take care of messes-

Tracy:

Laundry.

Steve:

When
the kitty’s throw up, I usually take care of that.

Nikki:

So
do I.

Aaron:

Is
that a daily occurrence?

Nikki:

Yeah.

Aaron:

That’s
why I don’t have cats.

Steve:

That’s
a good call.

Tracy:

You
guys have the same decorating taste?

Nikki:

He
doesn’t really have one, so I kind of just assign it.

Tracy:

So,
yes.

Nikki:

Exactly.

Nikki:

He
tells me what he likes so, he just recently started talking about wanting to
decorate his office, which is like, the first time that I’ve actually heard him
express interest in, like decorating his office.

Tracy:

How
do you want your office to look?

Steve:

I
would like for it to look like it’s a whiskey bar.

Tracy:

Okay.

Aaron:

I
can make that happen.

Steve:

You
know what I’m saying?

Steve:

I
want a metal airplane on a shelf, for some reason.

Steve:

Not
an airplane, like a model one.

Aaron:

You
want a leather cigar chair.

Steve:

I
do, I want a leather cigar chair made out of plane rivets or whatever the
(BEEP)

Tracy:

Maroons
and wood and leather and like-

Nikki:

Yes,
he wants a globe that opens.

Steve:

Leather
bound books. I want it to smell like a freaking leather boot in there, dude. I
want a humidor. I don’t even smoke cigars. I want a freaking humidor.

Aaron:

I
can make you one.

Steve:

And
I want a cigar rack. And I don’t even smoke cigars.

Steve:

I
would like whiskey. I don’t drink.

Aaron:

You
want a Mad Men executive office.

Steve:

Exactly.

Aaron:

He
wants like, a chic, industrial style.

Steve:

I
would like it to look sick as hell.

Aaron:

I
know exactly what you’re talking about.

Tracy:

Yeah.

Aaron:

We’re
on the same page. It’s cool that you can have that, because-

Nikki:

His
office is way in the back so whatever he wants to do with it, I’m totally fine
because nobody sees it, ever.

Aaron:

She
is the overseer. And by the way, I gave her this, like we both-

Nikki:

He
gave me this power.

Aaron:

We
both agreed that she should decorate everything because I’m very poor at it.

Nikki:

Yes.

Nikki:

True.

Aaron:

Because
if it was up to me, we’d have like Reservoir Dogs posters all around the house
and (BEEP)

Tracy:

Dude,
I love Reservoir Dogs.

Nikki:

His
laugh is everything.

Steve:

Dude,
I have no class, okay. I’d have Ikea tables and you know-

Nikki:

That’s
how it was when I met him.

Aaron:

That’s
pretty standard, I feel like.

Tracy:

Yeah.

Steve:

I’d
have a Klingon bailiff on the wall.

Aaron:

There
you go.

Nikki:

Is
there a place people can go to see, like pictures of your home and what you’re
doing in it?

Tracy:

Yeah,
YouTube. We have many vlogs.

Nikki:

So,
you do like your progress?

Tracy:

I
do. I was trying to do a DIY thing. Aaron was helping out with one of them. It
still might come out, so you should subscribe over there. I was like redoing
one room at a time, so it started with the back yard. Then I redid my office,
it has a wall, shelf unit thing that I Pinterest and stuff. Then I was doing
this, our closet in our bedroom is like a walk-in closet and it’s this big
thing. I was going to redo it to look like it could be in a magazine, you know?

Nikki:

Yeah.

Tracy:

And
so, we put a vanity in there and Aaron did the mirror with the vanity lights
and it looked so cool.

Steve:

Dope.

Tracy:

It’s
like a barn wood, like classic Hollywood vanity mirror-

Nikki:

Nice.

Aaron:

But
it’s like, made out of barn wood.

Steve:

That’s
sick.

Tracy:

And
then it has a runner, that’s like this furry, it’s really glam in there. Like,
everything else is not glam in the house but-

Aaron:

It’s
super extra in there.

Tracy:

Yeah,
that closet-

Aaron:

Did
you put a chandelier? You where talking about putting in a chandelier.

Tracy:

I
have a chandelier. I have not installed it yet. That was going to be the last
steps of the video and it just never happened because we started doing that
video in September, or the end of September. Early October, and then it was
like, my birthday and the holidays and then I went on a million trips.

Aaron:

Yes,
she went to Vietnam. She went to freaking-

Tracy:

I
went to Mexico.

Aaron:

Mexico.

Tracy:

And
Costa Rica and New Zeeland, all in like a span of three months.

Aaron:

It’s
been nuts.

Nikki:

Wow.
Boring.

Aaron:

And
we just got back from Florida.

Nikki:

Well,
that’s high pressure to put your projects out there and have to do the revel at
the end.

Aaron:

Don’t
I know it.

Tracy:

Exactly.

Nikki:

Yeah,
same. I just started sharing my whole kitchen renovation and it’s actually been
over since Thursday, but I don’t even. It’s been such a process-

Tracy:

Yeah.

Nikki:

I
don’t even have the mental strength to post the after.

Tracy:

Yeah.

Nikki:

And
like, I’m just not ready to post it.

Tracy:

Normally,
you kind of like build it. Like, if you’re going to redo something, like kind
of do it a little bit at a time and you take your time with it and you feel all
cute about it. But when you’re doing it for a video, it’s like, oh, I’ve got to
do everything all at once. Because it has to be a great after. It has to be a
dramatic after. It’s like, oh, that’s really expensive to like, get all of
those things, all at once and then, what if it doesn’t work out the way you
pictured exactly.

Nikki:

Right.
Don’t want to rush it.

Tracy:

Because
sometimes when you’re going piece by piece, you know, you’re like, actually, I
changed my mind about this part. I want to do it like this. But you already
bought all the stuff.

Aaron:

Here’s
what you do. Leave all those tags on. You buy all that stuff from like, Target
or wherever you’re going to do it. You stage it, then you return everything.

Steve:

Would
you like to hear my billion dollar idea that I think you could do-

Tracy:

Billion
dollar?

Steve:

I’m
not physically capable of pulling this off.

Aaron:

Yeah.

Steve:

Okay,
so, have you ever been to Ikea before? Ofcourse you have. So, when you’re
walking around Ikea, what’s the big scam about Ikea? It’s that-

Aaron:

You
have to walk through the whole thing.

Steve:

Well,
yeah! But you can’t actually make your room look like Ikea because those are
all wall modules and it’s all built in. It’s all built in’s.

Steve:

So,
what you do, Aaron, is you do pre-designed walls, bro. And people hang them up
like pictures and it goes over your whole wall. So, you put a bunch of nails up
and then you freaking, hang up the wall.

Aaron:

Okay.

Steve:

Would
that not be so sick?

Aaron:

It’d
be hard, but okay. But then you’d lose all that square footage in your-

Steve:

Well,
I mean, you’d lose like a little, yeah, maybe it’s like a foot long or
something.

Aaron:

[crosstalk
00:39:18] Like if you had built-in’s into the wall, you’d be out like this.

Steve:

No,
no, no. You put a wall on top of a wall-

Nikki:

He’s
talking like, like so the wall, yeah.

Steve:

Like
it’s a picture.

Aaron:

I
hear you.

Steve:

Like,
okay, for example. This wall right here.

Tracy:

Yes.

Steve:

Imagine
you could just take the whole wall, have a bunch of mover people come over and
you put it on your wall.

Nikki:

They
know what you’re saying.

Aaron:

That’s
called a set. That’s called a set wall.

Nikki:

Yeah,
he wants a set wall.

Steve:

Well,
right, but-

Aaron:

You
want to live in a-[crosstalk 00:39:43]

Steve:

Imagine
behind this wall is just a white wall.

Aaron:

Yeah,
I know,

Nikki:

So,
I mean-

Steve:

I
think people will buy this. I’m going to pitch it to Shark Tank really soon. I
actually have a meeting.

Aaron:

Well,
okay.

Tracy:

Amazing.

Nikki:

He
had a similar idea when we were doing our wedding because wedding planning is
also a nightmare. Which I didn’t realize.

Tracy:

Oh,
yeah.

Nikki:

Whereas,
if you could go into a Costco type building and every isle is like a different
type of wedding. And you just go, that wedding. Party City, but for weddings.

Aaron:

So,
now we’re talking. This is nothing to do with the podcast. We’ll probably cut
this part out.

Steve:

We
shouldn’t.

Aaron:

But
we should just make a warehouse where there’s all these different wedding
venues.

Nikki:

Yeah.

Aaron:

And
you could just go in and you could just be like, this is the wedding I’m doing.

Nikki:

Yep.

Aaron:

And
it’s like Vegas but individual-

Nikki:

Yes.

Steve:

Yes,
I love that.

Tracy:

Yes,
but the venues aren’t actually in the warehouse, right?

Aaron:

No,
the venues are in the warehouse.

Tracy:

They’re
in the warehouse.

Aaron:

They
are already set up, so you just walk in and like, boom.

Tracy:

I
was thinking like-

Nikki:

And
everything’s there.

Tracy:

Have
deals with those venues and so it’s like-

Steve:

So,
it’s like one warehouse.

Aaron:

I’m
loving this.

Steve:

Staged
in. You want an Aquaman underwater wedding? We’ve got that room over there.

Aaron:

I
do.

Steve:

You
want this kind of wedding, it’s right over here.

Aaron:

That’s
really good.

Steve:

My
biggest complaint about Home Depot is that it has no imagination. I walk around
it and I get overwhelmed by all the different, like, it’s all so different. But
what I like about Ikea is that they put it together for you. So, I wish that
Home Depot and Ikea could figure something out.

Nikki:

They
do it in the bathroom section.

Tracy:

You
like the showroom aspect.

Steve:

It’s
true.

Nikki:

That
was the most overwhelming thing with our kitchen, is you go to pick the counter
tops and they show you a sample this big.

Tracy:

Yeah.

Aaron:

Well,
that’s where I think, actually, this is actually a serious thing that I think
is going to happen. I think it is happening to a degree. They have augmented
reality apps on your phones and stuff. So you can actually visualize furniture-

Tracy:

We
did that with our floors.

Aaron:

…pieces
and stuff in your home, by like, just looking at your phone.

Nikki:

Yeah,
Wayfare does that.

Aaron:

Yeah.
You will start to see a lot more of that type of technology. You know, you walk
around your house with an Ipad. You’re like, I don’t like that couch. I don’t
like that couch. Oh, that’s the couch. It’s really cool.

Tracy:

It’s
not perfected yet because it’s hard to angel them towards your-

Aaron:

I
think it will get there. It’s going to eventually be like, oh you don’t, I’m
not even going to buy this real couch. I’m just going to walk around with my
Ipad and look at it.

Steve:

Yeah.
Pretty much. It will get there.

Aaron:

Now
that you’re in it, obviously, we’ve talked about some of the drawbacks but you
love being able to change things. What else do you love.

Steve:

I
love the value. I love knowing that the money’s not going to a renter person.

Nikki:

Exactly
what I was going to say.

Steve:

It’s
going to us, in the future.

Nikki:

Well,
the first year is pretty much all gone to interest.

Steve:

So,
it’s going to the banks, mostly, but it’s also going to us later.

Nikki:

But
some of it is going to us.

Steve:

So
I like that a lot.

Aaron:

It’s
an investment in your future. It’s like a little bit of a retirement type
thing.

Nikki:

What
else do we love about owning? I just love that, I feel that it’s awakened my
imagination at like all the things that I could do. Whereas, you are so limited
in an apartment. I can redo the pictures, I guess. I can’t really do much else.

Aaron:

A
good friend was just on that just went through this, where she, they rent. They
lived there for so long that she wanted to change it up.

Tracy:

Yeah,
I’ve been watching her stuff.

Aaron:

Yeah,
and all she can really do is just-

Steve:

Change
out the furniture, dress it up.

Aaron:

…decor
and stuff. But she did an amazing job. But there is a frustrating limitation.

Nikki:

There’s
a limitation. There’s a ceiling there.

Aaron:

Is
that what really drove you to, like, was that one of the driving factors of
getting out of the apartment, the rental.

Nikki:

Yeah,
yeah, it really is. I don’t know if it’s because of nesting or whatever,
because biologically I needed to make my home a home and stuff. Yeah, I was
getting really depressed not being able to like, really transform our living
space into a home. And then, living in a place that we own, it totally changed
my whole energy, my whole mood. Like I’m so much happier.

Tracy:

You’re
grounded. Like you feel settled, I feel like.

Nikki:

Yeah,
I feel like this is, there’s and ownership, like literately and legally but
also, like mentally, there was like, oh, this is mine. And I’m creating and I’m
like making it like this.

Nikki:

This
was earned.

Tracy:

We
earned this. We worked for this. And that’s pretty amazing. Like, every once in
a while, Josh and I will be in our house and kind of looking around and we’re
like, we did this, dude.

Nikki:

Yeah

Tracy:

We
worked our butts off and like, this is ours.

Nikki:

Its
like, it’s such a good feeling.

Steve:

Do
you ever look around your home and go, this isn’t enough and I want more.

Nikki:

Sometimes.

Steve:

That’s
all I do, that’s all I do.

Nikki:

Shut
up.

Steve:

That’s
all I do. Its true.

Aaron:

Do
you want that Las Vegas penthouse, like the Luxor.

Steve:

Like
a sultan.

Nikki:

If
you didn’t even know about those places, then you wouldn’t even want one.

Steve:

I
want a movie theater in my home.

Aaron:

I
can make a movie theater in your home.

Nikki:

Guys.

Steve:

Which
room?

Aaron:

I’m
thinking, bigger.

Steve:

That’s
what it’s all about, man.

Aaron:

Yes.
You do you.

Steve:

You
have that drive.

Nikki:

Maybe
make your wallet bigger and then we can do that.

Steve:

Working
on it. Selling movies baby, selling movies. Making moves. That’s what I do.

Nikki:

He
said to talk about things you like about the house.

Steve:

Well,
I know, but I’m also-

Nikki:

You
said I wish I had more.

Steve:

No,
he said do you ever look around wish you had more and think about having more.

Nikki:

Well,
what do you like about it.

Steve:

I
like the high ceilings.

Aaron:

I
like that it’s the starting point, is what he’s saying.

Steve:

Exactly.
[crosstalk 00:44:31]

Steve:

Nikki
made me love it because she decorated it so well that it’s really cool inside.
Like I like that. And i love the high ceilings, like that’s my (BEEP) because
I’m a big dude.

Tracy:

So,
what would you tell people that are just starting out on their journey to get
their first place.

Nikki:

I
would say there’s always something you’re going to settle on, always. Like, I
would say, make a list of all your dream things, like your dream.

Steve:

I
settle too.

Nikki:

What
did you settle on?

Steve:

Oh,
nothing.

Nikki:

Yeah,
so make a list of everything that you want and then just highlight you’re can’t
live without’s. You know, the one’s that like, you need to have. And he’ll have
some and I’ll have some and as long as those things are all included in the
house, at the budget that we have, then that should be fine, you know?

Nikki:

I
think we lucked out because like, we hit most of the things on our list. The
only thing that we didn’t hit was that it’s a condo instead of a house. Like
that’s pretty much the only one.

Steve:

Yeah,
pretty much.

Nikki:

Everything
else that got checked off. Whereas, all the places that we looked at, out of
all the 50, there was always something off the list.

Steve:

Or
HOA fees that were just nuts.

Nikki:

Nuts.

Steve:

It’s
like $600 bucks? I’m like what the hell? There’s no pool.

Nikki:

There’s
no pool or anything.]

Steve:

Nothing
to justify it. Just planters.

Nikki:

Yeah,
we really needed the three bedrooms, really needed at least two bathrooms. And
then the outdoor space. Those were like the main three that I really wanted.
And in an area that wasn’t like dangerous.

Tracy:

And
it also sounds like things go easier when you found someone that you trusted to
kind of-

Nikki:

Yeah.

Steve:

Yeah.
Our guy Raff is cool, man. He’s like a buddy now.

Nikki:

Rafael
Gevorkian check him out, if you’re in the valley, he’s great. He’s amazing.

Steve:

He’s
dope.

Tracy:

Yeah,
we’ve had real estate agents on. We talk about, they really become a part of
your family because they are there for one of your biggest life events and they
help you though it.

Nikki:

He
just sent us a Starbucks gift card because he’s like, hey!

Aaron:

Thinking
of you. That’s cool. So find somebody that you, to help coach you through the
process a little bit. Like find an agent, find a lender whatever and-

Tracy:

Find
an expert.

Aaron:

Be
willing to comprise a little it on what you want, right?

Nikki:

Exactly.
It’s just like planning a wedding. Where you’re like, there’s something that’s
going to go wrong. I don’t know what it’s going to be. It could be like the
cake. It could be anything. But no one will notice except for you. And that’s
kind of like how the house is.

Aaron:

Well,
thank you guys.

Steve:

Yeah,
thank you Aaron.

Nikki:

Thank
you, Aaron.

Aaron:

You’re
welcome. Where can people find you guys, when they want to watch all your funny
hilarious stuff?

Steve:

They
should check out our podcast. It’s called The (BEEP) They Don’t Tell You
Podcast.

Nikki:

It’s
not called The (BEEP) They Don’t Tell You Podcast. It’s called (BEEP) They
Don’t Tell You Podcast.

Steve:

That’s
what it’s called and you should go check it out. It’s on everything. You can
get it on Itunes, you can get it on android, you can get it on CastBox.

Nikki:

CastBox.
Yes. Spotify.

Steve:

Please
subscribe to it.

Nikki:

Rate
it.

Steve:

Rate
it.

Nikki:

All
that stuff. You can also find us on YouTube, YouTube.com/NikkiLimo.

Nikki:

You
can find Steve’s channel but he doesn’t really post on it. And we’re both on my
channel.

Steve:

I
got, what some people would say, massively demonetized. I view it as a setback.

Aaron:

Temporary
hurdle.

Steve:

Yeah,
a little hurdle, we’re going to get over it. We’ll be fine.

Tracy:

I
think that they should come over and build something with us.

Steve:

Yeah!

Nikki:

Yeah,
that would be fun.

Aaron:

Yeah,
we should make something. We’ll make something for your place. You’ll love it.

Aaron:

Well,
after you guys are doing listening to their podcast, make sure you subscribe to
our podcast. You can find us on howtohome.com, obviously, you’re listening to
it right now. Make sure you hit that subscribe button so you don’t miss out on
any of our future episodes.

Aaron:

Thank
you to FilterBuy for making this episode and this series possible. We can’t
thank them enough and they are a great partner of ours. So, make sure you guys
visit filterbuy.com. Sign up for their service. You guys too.

Nikki:

We
will.

Steve:

We
did.

Aaron:

There’s
still time, there’s still time.

Aaron:

All
right, thank you guys so much for watching. See you next time.

Tracy:

Bye.

Aaron:

Bye.