[Music] Hello everyone and Welcome to another episode of Selling Greenville your favorite real estate podcast here in Greenville, South Carolina I'm your host as always Stan McCune I am a realtor right here in the Greenville area of South Carolina the upstate of South Carolina and as always you can find all my contact information in the show notes if you need to reach out to me for any reason call text email DM however you want to do it I am available I'm accessible for you guys more or less 247 and just a reminder as always as well please if you love the show please leave a five star rating make sure you subscribe to the show so you don't miss future episodes and please leave a short little review I'd appreciate that whatever podcast app you're using you can do all of those things in every podcast app so please go ahead and do that today we are going to be talking about the biggest ripoffs when you are making updates to your house when you making modifications or or when you're doing improvements to your house what are the things that are the biggest ripoffs of them all because there's a lot of them right we all when we purchase a a home when we when we live in a home we want to update them we want to do things to help improve the our home homes and to to make them better and and to improve our lifestyle as a result but there are all sorts of scams all sorts of ripoffs and all sorts of things that are good improvements that if done the wrong way can be excessive unnecessary or even potentially harmful So today we're going to be talking about five Home Improvement we might call them five Home Improvement ripoffs and we're going to start number one I I kind of have these somewhat in order it's kind of like definitely these first few are the ones that I think are are the biggest ripoffs number one is solar panels now let me start by saying this there are some parts of the country where solar panels are very popular and for some people the idea of solar is a philosophical type of thing they're trying to to be more green they're trying to be more sustainable and I appreciate that the problem with solar panels right now is that they aren't all that sustainable at the end of the day if you do a lot of research on them there are other ways to make your home more sustainable with more really more energy efficient appliances putting in Smart Systems to ensure that you're not your lights aren't staying on unnecessarily you know the ability to be able to to remotely turn lights off or to have them on on a timer if they're on for too long or whatever the case may be there's all sorts of ways to make your home more sustainable without using solar panels the solar technology right now is extremely expensive and I'm not going to get into the details on the sustainability part of it anym than I already have but simply from the standpoint of the numbers very few people end up actually saving money when it comes to solar for starters solar panels are very very expensive and most people end up having to lease them well what a lot of people don't realize is obviously the lease is something that you have to pay every month but then the actual savings from the Sol it's not like your electricity bill goes down to zero you still have an electricity bill it's just not as high as it would be for those that purchase their solar panels outright because if you lease them then to to me that's the biggest scam of them all right the the solar companies are laughing all the way to the bank for everyone that's leasing these panels if you purchase the solar panels again they're extremely expensive and you know we're we're talking I think the last I heard I haven't personally gotten the quote but I I know some people that have spent $ 30 $40,000 on solar panels and you know it just kind of goes up from there again again you're you're not reducing your energy cost to nothing by purchasing those those solar panels I've also seen some concerns with regard to that there's actually they're actually inequitable the way they return energy back to the grid disproportionately hurts lowincome people there there's a whole again I'm not going to get into the Weeds on all of that but the bottom line is for most people they they from the numbers that I've seen that I've heard most people do not actually break even on solar panels that they purchase until around year 12 that they've owned them now I've seen some people that are like we broke even at year eight whatever the case may be it takes a while for that investment to actually produce anything for you whether it's 8 years 12 years 15 years I don't really care at the end of the day that's not a great way to typically to invest in your home cuz a lot of you don't know what's going to happen in 8 10 12 15 years and so I see this a lot of times that people will put solar panels on their roof and then two years later they're moving and so they've literally just completely wasted all of that money and didn't even get to the point where they were actually basically breaking even on on the money that they spent additionally most people that I deal with don't really like the look of solar panels on their roof not to mention that if your roof is ever damaged by hail your insurance company typically will not remove those solar panels so then it's your responsibility to remove the solar panels if you have an insurance claim on your roof and so there there are all sorts of of really negative things about solar panels and I think that solar panels are Far and Away the number one ripoff right now for for homeowners that's my personal opinion I I do think at some point that solar will that that technology which it does improve every year and it does get more cost effective every year maybe 10 12 15 years from now it will be at the point where you know you are able to buy solar panels for you know maybe $5 $10,000 and then they will have paid for themselves after a year or two something like that at that point then I think it can make more sense but the way it is right now and the way you know people are having to operate under the assumption that they're going to be in a home for a very long time it doesn't make sense for the average household to be purchasing solar panels and please please do not lease the solar panels that that's something that you will not win on that one you will end up maybe saving yourself I don't know $10 a month or something like that but then when you go to sell your house usually what I see often is those people that have to purchase those solar panels from the company that they've been leasing them from at closing they have to pay them off at closing so there you go there's $330,000 you have to pay off at closing and you've been saving what 105 $20 a month after you factor in the lease your electrical bill all of that kind of stuff it is not you're you're not going to win on that again how many months would you have to save 10 20 $30 in order to make up the $30,000 that you're going to have to to pay back when you end up selling the home so there there's just a lot of things to consider and again that technology that you have on there there and and by the way you can look up solar lease agreements themselves are a scam there's all sorts of stuff that that typical solar lease agreements put in there that are are to me really a scam I'm not going to get into all of that but you can you can Google that you can look that one up all in all I'm not a big as you can tell I'm not a big proponent of solar panels as they currently are I hope that said I hope that solar becomes more of a thing because that would be great like in the end I I like some of the ideas that that Tesla and and some other companies have been putting out there of the possibility for solar shingles I think that there's some potential with some of that but the the technology needs to improve it's not quite there yet to make sense for the average homeowner and unfortunately most of the companies selling solar are very scammy companies and so that only makes the issue even worse all right number two on my list and this could easily be number one because this one could be I have seen some really bad instances of this mold remediation now I want to clarify again like I did with the solar that sometimes mold remediation is necessary I have seen this many times I used to be an insurance adjuster I know firsthand that mold remediation is sometimes necessary but here is the problem we live with mold everywhere mold is everywhere you cannot Escape mold and so if you want to let's say that someone puts a bug in your ear hey you might have mold I've seen this happen I've seen people be like you know I've been sick for a while while you know I've just been struggling with sickness and someone says well you might have mold in your house I knew someone that that was really struggling with sickness and and it turns out they had mold in their house they didn't even know it well guess what you can hire a mold expert a quote unquote to come out and to to test everything in your house for mold and guess what they will find it because everywhere in your house has mold everywhere if you go outside mold is everywhere outside mold is everywhere and so you you can find it if you look for it but mold is it has to reach dangerous levels and and again I'm not a medical or mold professional dangerous levels are different for different people if you have asthma if you have some specific allergies then you will have a a heightened sensitivity to mold and then that becomes a much bigger deal if I have clients that tell me that they that they have those things I make sure you know hey we definitely need to get an air quality test but you know I've I've seen some people that they want to even go beyond air quality tests and and do all these all these crazy tests and you know what that is it's totally fine if you want to do that almost all the time it's a scam and here's how the scam works you the the company that is doing the testing either they have a division of their company that does the quote unquote mold remediation or they are in cahoots with the company that does and so there is this kind of backdoor type of dealing where they again they will find mold they will test it and they will find it and then they will pass your business off to a company that they're getting a 30% cut of this unnecessary mold remediation that that company is doing here is a general rule of thumb and again you you still need to be careful if you have sensitivities and if there are indications of mold then you need to be more careful but for most people if you have normal inspections done and mold is not found and there's not high humidity levels for instance if you get humidity typically I hear above 60% is when people need to start being concerned about the the potential for for mold growth as long as your humidity level in your house below 60% by for the most part as long as your cross Bas moisture is below moisture levels is below 20% by and large you are going to to be safe are there exceptions sure there are exceptions but if you don't see mold Mo mold makes itself obvious right it it's not something that is you know dangerous mold isn't invisible now the the non-dangerous mold that I've said you can't get away from yeah it it's it's going to be invisible but mold that is dangerous that that is going to be a danger to most people you can see it by and large inside of a house and most often where mold accumulates is when there is really high moisture it doesn't just appear out of nowhere it's not like oh you know we just happen to have really dangerous levels of mold in our house just because of the way the house was built no again it has it comes from moisture it thrives in moisture and so typically again it's either cross space moisture is above 20% and that's something that we test for during the inspection process of a home indoor humidity level above 60% or there's some kind of a moisture Source somewhere that is accumulating for whatever reason for instance A Plumbing Leak but even if you have a Plumbing Leak I I personally and again I you need need to do what's best for you and your family and and consult with your homeowners insurance and and and the professionals that they recommend if you think that you might have a leak that's caused a mold problem but typically from my experience when you have a Plumbing Leak and then mold grows where that leak is usually that mold is not spreading all over the house as a result of that usually it's just confined to where that moisture is you solve the Plumbing Leak typically you have to cut that mold you know if it's sheetrock or whatever you cut that sheetrock patch it boom call it a day you're done now people are going to be worried well I mean it's been leaking Behind the Walls what what now typically typically it just at that point once the leak has been solved as long as long as it hasn't been leaking for for instance years typically if it's only been leaking for let's say a few days maybe even a few weeks once you stop the the water from leaking further then and and resolve where where you see the mold typically it's going to be fine Behind the Walls it's going to it's just going to air out it's just going to dry out more often than not there are ways to to identify that there are ways to test that you could have inspectors if you're concerned about that that can that have little snake cameras that they can put down and check for that kind of stuff so there are things that can be done but I'm just warning you guys right now there is a time and a place for mold remediation but if you go out if you don't aren't aware of of any mold problem and there you're not noticing that that there are adverse health related things happening in your family that are just random that didn't happen until you moved into your house and then without any evidence that there is any mold and without any evidence that that your family's health has changed since you've moved in into the house then you go out looking for problems with mold you're going to find what you look for you are going to find it and you're going to spend a lot of money in the process and so be careful now if you are if your family is if you move into a house and all of a sudden your family starts have health problems that may be evidence of a mold issue and there can be hidden mold but I'm telling you 99% of the time that's going to be caught by a good home inspector and by a an inspector that does the cl00 which is the termite and moisture test and again we're assuming that humidity levels and moisture levels are where they need to be so please do not scam yourself with some of these mold remediation scams all right number three on my list roofs again as a former Insurance adjustor I know a thing or two about roofs here is what I would say Obviously you need a roof right and you should have a good roof at the end of the day I recommend architectural shingles you don't want those you know 20year three tab shingles those things are garbage those things flap up with the slightest wind gust and you know you're just there there's no reason in my opinion to get those just upgrade to the 30-year architectural shingle it's going to it's such a higher quality I've seen I've been on dozens I don't know maybe hundreds of roofs I've seen firsthand the difference in quality and it's a huge difference it is absolutely a huge difference so that is one upsell that is good if if a roofer tells you hey don't you know don't just save $1,000 to get the 20-year three tab shingle go ahead and spend the extra th000 to get the architectural shingle yes that's a good upsell unfortunately roofers will try to upsell you on everything else right they'll try to tell you oh your fascia your safit you know these you know are going to be prone to to this or that they're exposed to the elements you need to do all these things you don't need you probably don't need to do those things they're going to try to upsell you one that I saw recently was a roofing company gave a quote to to a client of mine that I looked through it and it included that they had roofing felt and Ice Water Shield all over the roof now for the average consumer they have no idea what that means in South Carolina it's very unusual for a roof to have or need ice and water Shield across the entire roof have I seen instances where in the Valley of the roof Ice Water Shield is used and is there some wisdom to that yeah there can be but roofing felt in our area is normally adequate that Ice Water Shield is typically more for Northern climates that that have ice that have a lot more ice than we have and and as a result have need an extra layer of of protection against water seeping in but in South Carolina listen if I were getting a roof repl I wouldn't have Ice Water Shield and so there's there's a lot of things like that roofers will try to upsell you on everything get a few quotes from reliable people from roofers who aren't going to scam you who you know at least if you get quotes from a few of them hopefully one of them hasn't scammed you and then you can kind of see the difference between the quote don't show them the roof and quote that you got from the other company do not do that make them give their own quote and make their own recommendations for what your roof needs here's another one that's that's not an upsell but is something that roofers will do in order to try to to get more money out of you because they're claiming that they're saving you money try to say okay so you can't the this is particularly true when there's metal metal roofing being put on a house okay you're on the border of being able to afford this or not okay here's what we'll do why don't we just put the new roof over top the old shingles it doesn't hurt anything and in fact it gives you now more protection now you've got multiple layers of shingles on here so even less likelihood of water going through here's why this is a really really bad idea first off what keeps the the water from on the outside of your house is not the shingles directly the shingles offer a layer of protection but it's really the felt the roofing felt underneath that is what really offers the most protection against the water from from coming into your house and so that that's why you'll see when when roofers are are doing their thing they will sometimes leave a part of of a house without shingles on it in rain but it it always has the felt on it because that is what needs to be protected so even if it rains it's got the felt on it it is by and large good to go if you just put shingles over top of old shingles you're not replacing the felt so what good are you doing if you put a metal roof over top of of the old of the old shingles okay so so the metal is offering an additional layer of protection however you've got a whole another issue of the weight of the roof and this is what a lot of people don't think about a roof is not made to support multiple layers of shingles that code does not require a roof to be able to support that weight what a lot of people do when they at when they have multiple layers of shingles they're actually risking their roof potentially collapsing and and I'm not even joking they are compromising the structural Integrity of that roof of the rafters of their joist all of that by by putting so much weight on it so that's another kind of scammy suggestion that some roofers will make in order to just get a job do not take that suggestion if you can't afford for them to rip off the old shingles and the old felt and all of that then you need to save up some money before you replace your roof here's another one number four on the list of of ripoffs as you're doing home improvements crawl space encapsulation so as most people realize here in South Carolina we have a home is supposed to have if it has a crawl space what we call a vapor barrier that's a a piece of thick plastic that goes on the ground it's almost like a tarp it goes on the ground and it just keeps moisture low to the ground rather than elevating up and getting into the wood substructure of the house that's how you keep the moisture level where it needs to be partially how you do it down in your crawl space now are you still having issues with moisture in your crawl space well there there are usually very simple fixes for this but there are companies out there that will tell you you need to do a full cross space encapsulation do you need to do a full cross space encapsulation I defer to the experts but I will say this most of the time and most and I've read a lot of others and talked to a lot of others that experts in the field that agree with me most of the time it is a complete ripoff there are cheaper ways to lower the cross space moisture than to fully encapsulate that's going to cost you thousands of dollars thousands of dollars to do a full encapsulation down there it's not necessary I mean maybe maybe 1% of Coss spaces would benefit from a full encapsulation but I doubt I think the number is lower than 1% I think it's like hardly any cross spaces anywhere need to address moisture by means of encapsulation that's there are just so many simpler options than that but that is a common ripoff that you will that you will get from companies that specialize in cross space type of work and moisture remediation they will try to convince you and and some of these mold companies that we already talked about the mold remediation companies oftentimes they will recommend encapsulation as part of their way of addressing the the the mold issue that doesn't actually exist and so now you're just adding up the dollars they're they're compounding on each other don't do that make sure if someone recommends a crawl space encapsulation my recommendation get a second opinion from someone else and and have them take a look at it and see if there are other options sump pump dehumidifier things like that that can reduce the the moisture levels down there number five and last on my list chimney repairs this one hits close to home for me because I had a a wood burning fireplace at my old house that I used to live at and eventually I came around to think you know what I think I I want to try to get this wood burning fireplace functional I had a Chimney Sweep come out and give me a quote I I just thought you know this is going to be simple that we just need need them to to sweep the chimney and repair a few basic brick related things it'll be simple we'll get it knocked out and then we can use the fireplace they ended up giving me a $5,000 quote I mean they they might as well have just ripped the chimney off you know the side of my house and just built a new one for the quote because they ripped me a new one for the quote that they gave me on on trying to fix that chimney and guess what I've found out since then that was years ago that is what they always do they are constantly their whole business model depends on convincing you that that you need to be upsold on more than just sweeping your chimney more than just basic obvious repairs that need to be done and they can get away with it because most people are not fireplace or chimney experts it's similar that's a common theme through this right the the mold thing people aren't experts on mold so they're able to get ripped off people aren't experts on roof so they're able to get ripped off people aren't experts on crawl spaces and moisture so they're able to get ripped off here again with chimneys because people tend to not be experts when it comes to chimneys and fireplaces they are prone to getting ripped off and so that is something that you just need to be aware of now again I I think that the best idea is to try to get quotes from from a few different companies and I certainly out of all of these things I am the least knowledgeable about chimneys out out of all of these things that we've discussed here but get a few quotes from a few different com from a few different companies and then talk to people that actively use wood bur a wood burning fireplace to say hey what do you think this company is saying we need to do all of these things what are your thoughts that is your best bet talk to someone that is knowledgeable about their own fireplace and their own chimney and have them give you some advice particularly if they've been been burning wood for a long time they can that I have found those people to be by far the most knowledgeable now it's really important if you're going to burn wood in your fireplace you got to make sure that that fireplace is functioning properly and you don't want to set your house on fire you don't want to set smoke through your house so it's really important that you get it right and and it's possible that the chimney sweep gives you a list of things that need to be done that genuinely need to be done but just be aware that there are a lot of ripoff artists out there in the chimney sweep and chimney repair industry and they're good at what they do they're good at ripping people off hope that was helpful for you guys let me know if you have any questions any feedback hopefully you're not angry about anything that I said if you if you sell solar I have a I have a friend on Facebook that sells solar that gets angry whenever I say something negative about solar hopefully you're not one of the people listening right now well actually I do hope that you're listening and I hope that that you're willing to put a review on there and say I disagree with his take on solar but here's five stars anyway right so leave me a rating leave me a review go ahead and and not just me the show go ahead and subscribe to selling Greenville on whatever podcast app you prefer again my contact information is in the show notes if you need to reach out to me for any reason and I hope you guys have a wonderful rest of the week [Music]