Transcript
Speaker: We have main engine start.
Speaker: 4, 3, 2, 1, 0, 3.
Speaker: Roger that.
Speaker: So we've dedicated several episodes on how to choose your AC company and evaluating these AC companies and which ones are
Speaker: should you choose for your AC proposals?
Speaker: So we're going to assume that you've done all of your research on these companies and you're ready to get some prices going, right, Brian?
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: Now, up to this point, you know, we talked about homeowners wanting to compare apples to apples, right?
Speaker: Well, all you've been doing up to now, you've been looking at pictures of apples, hoping that it's going to look like this real apple right here, right?
Speaker: Well, this is your first opportunity to actually see the apple, what you're going to get.
Speaker: What you're seeing as a homeowner, as a homeowner, what you're seeing is the HVAC company showing up for an interview.
Speaker: They want your business, right?
Speaker: So you should see this HVAC company at their best.
Speaker: And that should start with setting up the appointment, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And that should be a pretty painless process too, right?
Speaker: So, I mean...
Speaker: We're going through these online reviews and there were a lot of examples where that wasn't the case.
Speaker: Either the price was emailed to the homeowner or the homeowner had to make and call the company multiple times to try and get someone to even come out to their house.
Speaker: So if an AC company is not too motivated to get out there to your house, especially for a change out, I don't think they're going to be too motivated to come out if something breaks down the road.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: And just like a job interview, if a hiring manager couldn't get you to commit to come out and couldn't get you to show up for an interview, then that's a big red flag.
Speaker: And the homeowners shouldn't be too excited to move forward with an AC company that works like that.
Speaker: And I wouldn't even bother moving forward after one instance, but maybe you really like them and you give them a second chance.
Speaker: Well, they better knock your socks off when they come out.
Speaker: But
Speaker: You know, but just a second ago, you mentioned something, though, an instance where the AC company emailed the homeowner a proposal.
Speaker: That seems like it would be so much more convenient for us and the homeowner if we just had them take a picture of the condenser outside and we emailed them, you know, a quote.
Speaker: Why do we not do that, David?
Speaker: Because there are so many factors that go into choosing the right system.
Speaker: You know, a lot of these houses nowadays, especially the ones that we're going to see, Brian, you know, they were built in the late 80s, right?
Speaker: And we use these houses so much differently than the builder ever intended back then.
Speaker: I've seen master closets turned into offices and dining room tables turned into classrooms.
Speaker: And kids have two or three computer servers in the room and they're gaming and these things are getting hot.
Speaker: But then also throughout the years, homes have been renovated, windows have been changed, insulation has altered throughout the years.
Speaker: And for us, we wanna make sure that we have the most efficient, energy efficient, the quietest and the longest lasting piece of equipment that we could put in your home
Speaker: And we can't really do that without evaluating it.
Speaker: We can give you some ballparks.
Speaker: If you want a ballpark, we'll give you a ballpark, right?
Speaker: But I mean, we see this all the time, don't we?
Speaker: We do see this all the time.
Speaker: The homeowner doesn't want us to come out.
Speaker: They just want to know what's the cost of a five ton or whatever it is they're replacing.
Speaker: And I mentioned this previously, there's a whole lot to this.
Speaker: It's not like your dishwasher, your washing machine where you just plug and play and everything works perfectly the way it used to work.
Speaker: I mean, how many times does an older home need more return air for a newer system to work properly?
Speaker: How many times do we see that?
Speaker: Most.
Speaker: In fact, on my personal proposals, when I send them out, I even have a little caveat down at the bottom that says if the homeowner has declined to add return air, Majestic AC, or whatever your AC company is called, can be held responsible for the unit not operating up to the way that it's supposed to be operating, right?
Speaker: So...
Speaker: The other thing is, you know, if the primary purpose of your air conditioning is to remove heat and remove humidity, well, shoot, those return airs are a lot more important.
Speaker: And if you go into some of these older houses in Texas and you see these return airs down on the floor, hot air and humidity rise, how much is that really doing for it?
Speaker: You know what I mean?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So probably about half the time, there's so many other things that come up from the attic entry, not being as big as it should be.
Speaker: We have to take pieces of equipment down and put them into pieces and things like that.
Speaker: So, and then you get into duck sizing, can it even handle that size system?
Speaker: And without actually seeing all that stuff, it's extremely difficult to give you anything remotely close to accurate.
Speaker: You know what I mean?
Speaker: Yeah, and I had an install going just today.
Speaker: We did an install where the opening end of the attic wasn't wide enough, and I caught it on the initial consultation, and so the homeowner knew this was coming.
Speaker: She had her own guy.
Speaker: He took out the trim.
Speaker: It was wide enough.
Speaker: We could do it, but- We're doing that tomorrow.
Speaker: Tomorrow, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, the homebillers, they just don't account for replacing AC over time.
Speaker: They just- Well, more efficient is going to mean bigger.
Speaker: Because it needs more effort.
Speaker: And so all these, all these pieces of equipment are so much larger than they used to be also.
Speaker: We had another one last year, last year, the year before where the, the joists were so tight in this one attic that we had to make some major modifications to get some, to get the evaporator coil and the furnace up there in the attic.
Speaker: But you know, if I don't go out there, I'm not going to know these things.
Speaker: And yeah,
Speaker: We don't know if the hot water heater's in the way.
Speaker: We don't know.
Speaker: The list goes on and on.
Speaker: Do we have to go up 10 flight of stairs and use a crane?
Speaker: Which we've done.
Speaker: We've done plenty of rooftop crane systems and stuff like that.
Speaker: There's just a lot of different things, man.
Speaker: Well, let's move forward and let's say that you found that company and they've checked all the important boxes for you during your research and there were no issues scheduled an appointment to have a comfort advisor come out to your home to give you a proposal.
Speaker: You have a 10 a.m.
Speaker: appointment, let's say.
Speaker: What am I looking for from the AC company?
Speaker: Well, first and foremost, I better be on time.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: As a prior military guy, if you're on time,
Speaker: You're late.
Speaker: You're late.
Speaker: Early, you're on time.
Speaker: And I mean, with that being said, we do live in a pretty big city.
Speaker: And we see companies in an hour and either, or we see homeowners in an hour in any direction from downtown Houston, sometimes even farther if you take traffic into consideration.
Speaker: And most reputable companies, the people who are scheduling these calls, they're looking at this stuff.
Speaker: They know what part of town you're on, things like that.
Speaker: So we try and give you
Speaker: A range of times I can't say I've ever missed an appointment time, but I've definitely called and texted the homeowner and let them know hey, I've got caught up on this previous job, I may be 20 or 30 minutes later, if that's okay, if not, we can push this back.
Speaker: You know there's different ways to do it right.
Speaker: Yeah, and I've let them know, you know, if I know that morning that we're pretty backed up, right, that my schedule is going to be really tight, I'll let them know, hey, I really think I can be there at four, but I'm going to communicate with you during the day and let you know if things change.
Speaker: Communication, that's going to be the key.
Speaker: That's going to be the difference maker, I think.
Speaker: That's another huge thing you're looking for, right?
Speaker: You're looking for communication between you and your HVAC company.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, how tight should the homeowner schedule appointments be right in between these, these companies, let's say, I'm getting a couple of quotes, I'm getting two or three quotes, but
Speaker: How long should I plan on having somebody come out?
Speaker: How long does that usually take?
Speaker: I mean, if I'm a homeowner, I would, well, my advice to a homeowner would be at least two hours, right?
Speaker: Between appointments.
Speaker: And even then that's going to vary because I don't know if you've got a, you know, a 7,000 square foot house that, you know, doing a load calculation is going to take a long time.
Speaker: Another variable in this is the homeowner themselves.
Speaker: Sometimes they want a lot of information.
Speaker: They want a lot of things that I'm going to have to share with them, which I'm more than happy to do.
Speaker: um but uh you just don't know these things before we get there right exactly we don't know that we're gonna run into that so yeah i don't know if it's an engineer who loves to dig in or if it's just a gentleman who's like the stuff's in the attic the outdoor unit's there i got a meeting at 10 right yeah i don't know what you're gonna get
Speaker: I mean, some homes, let's say a 1600 square foot home, single story, you know, the, I can do all of my evaluation.
Speaker: I can answer a lot of questions for a homeowner.
Speaker: We can get that done in an hour.
Speaker: You know, I've had that same home take three hours.
Speaker: My world record was four hours.
Speaker: One time it took so long that the lady was making dinner and I ate dinner with them, but this wasn't that I was refusing to leave.
Speaker: This was,
Speaker: You know, he wanted his wife and his adult daughter and they were peppering me with questions and it was an interrogation, but it was it was enjoyable.
Speaker: And it's a big deal.
Speaker: You should have questions.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And we don't mind staying as long as you want us to.
Speaker: I don't mind pushing back my next client because whoever I'm sitting in front of, that's who I'm going to take care of.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And it's a big part of our job to provide educational support to the homeowner.
Speaker: An educated homeowner is going to be a better client.
Speaker: It's going to help your system last longer.
Speaker: It's going to help it be more efficient.
Speaker: And then when you one day move houses or move to a different town, you're going to remember a lot of the stuff that we went over, right?
Speaker: And if you're not satisfied with all the answers that that comfort advisor has given you, and maybe they won't leave your home, that's a different issue.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Another thing.
Speaker: There's this...
Speaker: The philosophy, though, is like the longer I stay in your home, the better the chance you're going to go with me.
Speaker: Well, I can't manufacture that.
Speaker: It has to be natural, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And another thing that's helpful to us and pretty beneficial to you as the homeowner,
Speaker: You got to let us know if you're on some kind of a time crunch.
Speaker: You know, we like to give time ranges and stuff and we understand that things can come up and maybe you don't have as much time as you planned.
Speaker: We can do things in different orders.
Speaker: We can hit the high points.
Speaker: We can take the measurements first and then maybe we have to do a FaceTime later or something.
Speaker: I've done that more times than I can count.
Speaker: Or we do everything now and then I come back whenever the missus gets home or we sit down at the table together.
Speaker: But at least we've gotten that hard work out of the way.
Speaker: Ultimately, we just don't want to show up
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: When another AC company is over there giving you a proposal.
Speaker: That's just that it's professional courtesy.
Speaker: We don't like stepping on each other's toes.
Speaker: And I've had other guys knocking on the door while I'm in the middle of doing a load calculation with a client in an attic.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: You're not going to get everything that you want because now.
Speaker: The comfort advisor that's in your house isn't going to care as much.
Speaker: The next guy who's waiting to get in isn't going to care as much.
Speaker: And every single person is going to think, this person's probably shopping for the cheapest damn thing they can find if they're getting this money.
Speaker: And guess what?
Speaker: That's what you're going to end up getting.
Speaker: You're going to get the cheapest job, the cheapest install, the cheapest company.
Speaker: Because you really didn't get to see the Apple.
Speaker: You know, you didn't get to see it.
Speaker: But yeah, I totally agree.
Speaker: And so, you know, our next step is there's got to be some dialogue between the homeowner and the AC company.
Speaker: Like I always like to give the homeowner a chance to explain any issues they've had with the AC, any home comfort issues, any plans that they have or any concerns moving forward.
Speaker: You know, that plays a role in this.
Speaker: Yeah, it plays a huge role, Brian, you know, in what we've designed for our homeowners moving forward.
Speaker: There's just so many factors and not all systems work in every home.
Speaker: I've been in plenty of homes where I wouldn't put a variable speed in there to save my life.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: You know, and you might have a homeowner that's on the fence as far as maybe replacing or repairing.
Speaker: Just maybe it's one little piece or replacing the whole system.
Speaker: So I'm going to make sure that they have all those options and discuss the pros and cons of each one of those choices.
Speaker: The next homeowner may be investing money every year and being really tired of having this unit go down.
Speaker: Their unit's 15, 18 years old.
Speaker: They know it's reached the end of its life and they know exactly what they're going to do and they're going to replace it.
Speaker: They're 100% all in.
Speaker: And I'm not going to discuss those repair options with a client like that.
Speaker: So they've come to that realization on their own.
Speaker: They know what they want and we're going to provide that for them.
Speaker: You know, and sometimes, and we hear this a lot, you know, I'm moving and I don't want to invest much into this HVAC.
Speaker: Have you heard that one before?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I don't want to get in the weeds on that one, but.
Speaker: You know, I'm a firm believer while we're touching on that, that I would rather someone give the next homeowner a credit.
Speaker: let them choose the ac that they want instead of you going and finding the cheapest thing out of pocket that you could possibly get because the next homeowner is not going to get what they deserve man they're just not you know and that we're getting in that lane right yeah i was going to take one more thing about that is uh if if you are going to be selling a house
Speaker: That issue is going to come up with a new home buyer.
Speaker: I've mentioned this on a previous cast, and you're going to be paying for it one way or another, usually.
Speaker: But not to interrupt you.
Speaker: Go ahead.
Speaker: No, I mean, it just kind of brings us to a fork in the road, right?
Speaker: And that separates these different AC companies.
Speaker: So the next thing that I do when I'm in the home, and every homeowner should expect this,
Speaker: 90% of the comfort advisors that are going to come to your house will not do this, but it's to do a load calculation, a heat load calculation.
Speaker: So sometimes you hear the term manual J or block load.
Speaker: And these terms are frequently used interchangeably.
Speaker: And that is a heat load calculation.
Speaker: So what it is, is it's a program that calculates the correct AC, the right size for your home.
Speaker: We use a program called BrightSoft here.
Speaker: But there's a lot of them, right?
Speaker: You've got all kinds of things online.
Speaker: Basically, how it works is we just take measurements of the home.
Speaker: We're usually taking measurements of the outside.
Speaker: Here we go.
Speaker: taking measurements of all the windows, the directions that they face, and then you get to add all kinds of different details.
Speaker: You know, you can change roof color and storm doors and screens and all this stuff, the type of insulation.
Speaker: that you've got is it thick is it weak are you planning on adding two foot of insulation we could put all that information in here and see windows you could be saying you could i've had this happen one time too where the homeowner was gonna she was having double-paned windows delivered right after we did this install and i had to she had variable it didn't impact the load too much so we were okay but it'll definitely lower it
Speaker: There are so many different factors, Brian.
Speaker: And you get online, you get it on these homeowner AC signs, and I'm going to give you your favorite, man.
Speaker: Your rule of thumb.
Speaker: Your rule of thumb.
Speaker: 400 square feet per ton.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: So, oddly enough, this one that we looked at, the rule of thumb would have been fine.
Speaker: That lady, we ended up at like seven and a half tons worth of total cooling on a 3,700 square foot house.
Speaker: She had a five ton and four ton, nine tons of cooling, nine tons, right?
Speaker: That's a little high for that.
Speaker: Even the rule of thumb, you...
Speaker: I take these into consideration, the rule of thumb.
Speaker: I'll consider it, but I'm doing this and this has got to tell me something.
Speaker: And sometimes it doesn't tell you the same thing.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: But you got to think, let's say it's a, let's say it's a 1600 square foot home, three bed, two baths, standard place.
Speaker: But one has eight foot ceilings.
Speaker: One has 14 foot ceilings.
Speaker: One has single pane windows.
Speaker: One has double pane windows.
Speaker: And one has all their living room windows facing the west.
Speaker: The other has none.
Speaker: And a ton of them.
Speaker: Correct.
Speaker: There's so many.
Speaker: And I know we've talked about it before, but if you take your exact same floor plan and move it across the street, it needs a different size air conditioning system.
Speaker: All the time.
Speaker: So a lot of times the homeowner will tell you this, like, okay, I've got a 2,000 square foot house.
Speaker: I saw a calculator online or says that this, you know, region at this square footage, I should have a four ton, right?
Speaker: And again, it's just the rule of thumb.
Speaker: Maybe you do, maybe you don't.
Speaker: I don't know until I do a load calculation.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: The rule of dumb, right?
Speaker: I can take two identical houses, just like you said, and I can rotate one of them 90 degrees.
Speaker: And now let's say there was a lot of windows on the front and back and now it needs more.
Speaker: And sometimes the homeowner will say, well, my neighbor down the street has the exact same floor plan that I do.
Speaker: And he has this size.
Speaker: Well, then you go look at the neighbor's house because I'm curious.
Speaker: I want to know.
Speaker: And you'll see that, yeah, looking at his front door, he's looking east, you know, and you're looking north.
Speaker: Huge difference right there.
Speaker: You know, we did a house.
Speaker: probably three years ago, a little 1200 square foot house.
Speaker: And everybody was telling her that she needed a three ton air conditioning system.
Speaker: And she kept saying no anymore, anymore, anymore.
Speaker: And I'm looking at the duct work and the duct work was designed for a five ton system.
Speaker: And I just had me wondering, cause when I did the math, I came out to like 3.1 tons or something.
Speaker: I guess the issue that she wasn't telling anybody, she was running a daycare.
Speaker: in her living room.
Speaker: She had 22 kids in there producing all that body heat.
Speaker: She's always had the oven on because she was always cooking bagel bites or chicken nuggets and all this extra heat that was being produced.
Speaker: So we did end up putting a variable speed system in there because she didn't need five tons all the time.
Speaker: But we were the only people to even dig deep and find out that kind of information.
Speaker: And sometimes...
Speaker: You know, there's just so many different factors, right?
Speaker: If the AC is sized right and my load calculation verifies it, right?
Speaker: Sometimes it's the same.
Speaker: Most of the time, there's no issue.
Speaker: It's fairly close.
Speaker: There was a study, Brian, done by Texas A&M and LSU.
Speaker: Take that for what you will.
Speaker: I know you're a Razorback and I'm a Red Raider.
Speaker: Guns up.
Speaker: That I believe over 85% of all retrofits were oversized for the home.
Speaker: I believe it.
Speaker: We size these systems for a 95 degree day.
Speaker: Anytime it's not 95 degrees, that's oversized.
Speaker: And us, we live in Houston.
Speaker: We think, oh man, it's always 95 degrees.
Speaker: Not really.
Speaker: No.
Speaker: If you ended up every hour of every day, it'd be 1% of those hours would be 95.
Speaker: Correct, man.
Speaker: When you talk about the sun goes down and now it's 80 at night from 10 to 7 a.m.
Speaker: And it's not 95.
Speaker: And that's when you're home.
Speaker: That's when you're using this thing, right?
Speaker: So every house is going to be completely different.
Speaker: And it's going to run longer.
Speaker: It's going to dehumidify better.
Speaker: And on the flip side, just because the home wasn't as comfortable as the homeowner wants it with their previous AC system.
Speaker: doesn't mean it wasn't keeping up doesn't it could be the humidity is just other issues like ductwork design that could be playing a factor right you know ductwork i mean that brings up the next step a homeowner should expect the ac company to check out i mean if the comfort advisor whoever comes to your home if if they don't even look at the ductwork and you should be very concerned right these this goes hand in hand with the ac company and david touched on this earlier we have to make sure the ductwork can handle the airflow of these newer units
Speaker: You know, but sometimes we do get a little bit of pushback from these homeowners out in this return air.
Speaker: But it's a critical item and it doesn't really add too much to your project.
Speaker: 300, 350 bucks, something like that.
Speaker: The unit's not going to work as intended without it.
Speaker: We hear occasionally, hey, my old unit lasted 22 years without it.
Speaker: You know, if it ain't broke, don't fix it again.
Speaker: These are totally different pieces of equipment.
Speaker: There are totally new regulations on how efficient these units can be.
Speaker: not to mention the design of the house and how we're using it, right?
Speaker: So a lot of homes don't, even something as simple, Brian, as back in the day, nobody really closed their door, you know?
Speaker: And now you get your kids closing the door the second they get home in their room and then they're playing video games and stuff.
Speaker: You could do a lot for circulation in that room.
Speaker: You could do a lot to help make that room a lot more comfortable, right?
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, you're right.
Speaker: So, I mean-
Speaker: Again, the new AC was built to comply with a lot more stringent government efficiency standards and your old one wasn't, right?
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: Well, let's say that the homeowners had that initial conversation and discussed any issues they may have had with the existing system, but, you know, things they wish it would have done better.
Speaker: A load calculation was done.
Speaker: The ductwork has been evaluated.
Speaker: I mean, is there anything else the homeowners should expect before going over findings and making recommendations?
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, your comfort advisor should be looking at the copper line set size.
Speaker: A lot of these newer systems are needing totally different copper line set sizes and
Speaker: It's gonna be an issue that you don't run into immediately, but you're gonna put a lot of strain on that unit, maybe four or five, six years down the road, you're gonna start seeing compressors going out.
Speaker: Breaker sizing,
Speaker: You know, if you're going up from a three and a half to a four because you went with a two speed air conditioning, you probably need a different size breaker or who knows what the previous people did.
Speaker: You know, they're just all the little parts and pieces.
Speaker: They should be walking the copper line set in the attic, making sure that it's not broken the insulation around it.
Speaker: So you're not getting any water drippage, looking at that duct work and checking out pinch points and any hard 90 degree turns, you know,
Speaker: You don't want duck work laying on top of each other, sitting on the ground or anything like that.
Speaker: So, yeah, and this kind of goes back to what we were saying.
Speaker: A picture just doesn't do it justice.
Speaker: You got to dig in.
Speaker: You got to figure these things out because some of the new units won't work with what you've got right now.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And all these things mentioned, everything we've done up to this point should be communicated to the homeowner.
Speaker: If you as a homeowner don't understand something that that comfort advisor is explaining to you, tell them you don't understand.
Speaker: That's okay.
Speaker: We expect that.
Speaker: I have all kinds of diagrams.
Speaker: I have a book.
Speaker: Anything that I talk about that I think you might not understand, I've got it broken down in some way that I can present it to you so you'll understand part of the concept, so you'll understand the major concept, right?
Speaker: I mean, my favorite thing is if you are able to go up into the attic with your comfort advisor, do it.
Speaker: You're going to learn so much more being up there.
Speaker: You're going to understand the airflow and the process of what's going and actually get to see all these parts and pieces.
Speaker: I can tell you something costs this and sometimes people think, well, my AC is only an outdoor unit, right?
Speaker: No.
Speaker: So many other parts.
Speaker: And when you get up there with them and get a better explanation, sometimes it just clicks, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And if the homeowner can't go up there, I like to take pictures while I'm up there and I want to share them with them when I get down.
Speaker: But if you can get up there, great.
Speaker: If not, I'm going to take care of it for you.
Speaker: We'll do it that way.
Speaker: We can do it that way.
Speaker: Make sure that that comfort advisor is showing you the right pictures.
Speaker: I've had homeowners show me pictures.
Speaker: And I look at the equipment and I'm like, that's not even yours.
Speaker: That's not even your house.
Speaker: So for us, we like to cover our tail.
Speaker: Every one of our technicians are uploading pictures every time they're going to these homes.
Speaker: Every one of our pictures are geotagged for the location and the time, you know, things like that.
Speaker: So, I mean, when you're getting these proposals and they're being, they should be being shown to you on the spot.
Speaker: make sure you got some model numbers on there, right?
Speaker: Occasionally.
Speaker: And I've seen this.
Speaker: I've had them show me these proposals where it just says, you know, carrier system or Lennox 14 SEER system, but no model numbers.
Speaker: And they might say, hey, it'll be a carrier equivalent.
Speaker: Well, equivalent how?
Speaker: What does that mean?
Speaker: Does that mean something's not in stock?
Speaker: And when they start exchanging third-partied, let's say evaporator coils,
Speaker: These are units that are not going to meet your new CO2 ratings or the old CO rating because it's never been tested that way.
Speaker: The manufacturers don't recommend this stuff and...
Speaker: there is a chance that your warranty can be voided because it wasn't installed the proper way.
Speaker: And they should be able to tell you exactly what model numbers they are installing.
Speaker: They should be able to tell you why they recommended a certain type of air conditioning.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Why am I, because you said this and you're having this issue, I recommend doing the two speed.
Speaker: It's not just because, Hey, I'm going to make more money off of this.
Speaker: Our company doesn't make more money.
Speaker: If you're going with an entry-level single speed system or a top-of-the-line variable speed system, it's the exact same amount of money.
Speaker: So there's no real benefit to us.
Speaker: That's never really ever been my motivation when I'm in a home.
Speaker: My motivation is to match up your wants with what will deliver that to you.
Speaker: I don't care outside of that.
Speaker: I want you to be happy.
Speaker: That's what I want.
Speaker: Well, we don't make a living off of one homeowner.
Speaker: We make a living off of that homeowner three or four years down the road.
Speaker: When their coworkers and friends and family are asking, there's no doubt in their mind, they say, call Brian.
Speaker: That's how we make a living.
Speaker: So that AC company should absolutely tell you how much everything costs, right?
Speaker: Well, I'm always a little surprised when a homeowner is waiting on an HVAC company to send them a proposal, right?
Speaker: I mean, I don't think that necessarily means that the AC company is bad, but we know why we're going to your house, right?
Speaker: We know you want a price.
Speaker: I already know this.
Speaker: We know we need to provide you that price.
Speaker: It's just surprising.
Speaker: Like, why wouldn't you have a process in place to deliver what the homeowner wanted?
Speaker: Why did they call you out there to give a price?
Speaker: I don't know, ma'am.
Speaker: I don't give it to the Excel sheet or you're writing it on a piece of paper or whatever you're doing.
Speaker: You got to give them a price.
Speaker: Put it on a napkin.
Speaker: Text them a picture.
Speaker: Do something, you know.
Speaker: And during all this time, 90% of the time, you're going to be sitting in a very hot house, dripping wet with sweat while your wife is at the Marriott or wherever she's at spending money because, no, I wouldn't want my family staying in my house when it's 95 degrees in here.
Speaker: Nope.
Speaker: Nope.
Speaker: And you have no idea what's going on because they're probably not communicating with you during this time also.
Speaker: But well, let me ask you a question.
Speaker: Have you ever had a homeowner tell you stories about other AC companies offering them special pricing if they sign today, like right now?
Speaker: Like if you wait 24 hours, it's going to be $1,000 more.
Speaker: If I walk out that door, it's going to cost you $1,000.
Speaker: Have you ever seen that?
Speaker: Yeah, if someone told me that, I'm done.
Speaker: One, they're overcharging me by $1,000.
Speaker: But two, I'm not going to be bullied into making that decision.
Speaker: Why would it cost more?
Speaker: You know, I highly doubt their pricing is going to go up tomorrow.
Speaker: Most proposals are good for at least 30 days.
Speaker: And they should say this stuff on the proposal.
Speaker: Ask.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Sometimes they're good for up to 90.
Speaker: In most cases, they're afraid that you're going to actually see what else is out there.
Speaker: And you're actually shopping and you're going to find a better company.
Speaker: Somebody is going to be more thorough and take better care of you and do it at a more competitive price.
Speaker: You know, Mattress Mac, when he first started out selling mattresses at Houston,
Speaker: he would deliver it on the spot to your house because he said, I couldn't afford for you to return it or change your mind.
Speaker: And neither can these people.
Speaker: So keep that in mind.
Speaker: You know that you're going to find somebody else who's going to do better at a more competitive price.
Speaker: I agree with you.
Speaker: We would like you to make a commitment when we're at the house.
Speaker: We would like that as well.
Speaker: Oh, I'd love that.
Speaker: That'd be great.
Speaker: We want it, right?
Speaker: It does get the homeowner in the install rotation faster.
Speaker: It's a little less taxing on us.
Speaker: If I'm right there, I can get all the information and send it in.
Speaker: That's why I'm kind of thorough on the front end because that doesn't always happen.
Speaker: And I want to be able to roll with it as soon as you tell me to go.
Speaker: And I'm going to ask for your business, but I'll absolutely respect your desire to have some time to mull things over.
Speaker: This is a big purchase.
Speaker: And I understand that.
Speaker: Maybe you need to discuss this with your spouse.
Speaker: I know I would.
Speaker: But there's always that concern that someone else is going to come in behind us and make promises that exceed what's reasonable.
Speaker: I've had a company, I was just about three weeks ago, and he told the homeowner that if he had any issues in the next 10 years, that they would be on site within 24 hours to take care of it.
Speaker: Now, we're pretty fast and we're pretty responsive when we have issues with our customers as well.
Speaker: But I don't have a crystal ball and I can't predict tomorrow.
Speaker: I don't know when someone's going to call in sick.
Speaker: I can't predict a worldwide pandemic.
Speaker: I don't know these things.
Speaker: And I refused to make it.
Speaker: And I told him that, too.
Speaker: I said, I'm pretty sure most of the time we can meet that tomorrow.
Speaker: But I can't promise you that.
Speaker: And if that's going to get the sale, I'm not going to lie to someone or tell them something that I'm not 100% sure to get it.
Speaker: I'm worried that guy's coming in behind me, the one that makes the outrageous claims.
Speaker: Yeah, you know, and if we weren't the first appointment that you scheduled, but.
Speaker: You've seen how much better this comfort advisor was and how much more thorough and how much they dug in.
Speaker: And it's a fair price.
Speaker: And you've already done your research on these companies.
Speaker: You know, why not jump in?
Speaker: I've told clients plenty of times, would you like me to call the next company and go ahead and cancel for you?
Speaker: I promise you, your comfort advisor will do that because nobody wants to make that phone call, right?
Speaker: Because, you know, they're going to try and sell you on the phone.
Speaker: Well, hey, no, we got this new special, you know, and I think sometimes people suffer from analysis paralysis when they overthink these things.
Speaker: This is, yes, it's a big decision in your home, but it's not
Speaker: for you to do the work.
Speaker: It's for somebody that you trust to take care of this for you.
Speaker: And sometimes like with our company in particular, it's not other companies that we're concerned about.
Speaker: It's homeowners that won't take any action.
Speaker: You know, they're in a good position to make a planned retirement out of an old system.
Speaker: You know, planned retirement's a lot easier than an emergency replacement.
Speaker: All day, every day is also going to be more affordable for you.
Speaker: But you held off, right?
Speaker: You got things that come up in life that gets put on the back burner.
Speaker: It happens all the time where someone calls a six, nine, 12 months down the road and now prices have gone up.
Speaker: Or last summer there was outrageous equipment shortages.
Speaker: And now the unit that they wanted wasn't even available anymore.
Speaker: Things like this.
Speaker: And if a homeowner had two systems, it could easily be a couple grand more.
Speaker: Even just what it was the last season, let alone the last year.
Speaker: Now, I know in the last three years, the average price increase, and this is a real number from every brand across the board, was 42%.
Speaker: So if you got a quote three years ago at 42%, that's going to be an average of what you can expect to pay this.
Speaker: The last few years have been crazy when it comes to AC pricing, and it's not normal.
Speaker: But it always goes up, man.
Speaker: I've never seen these prices go down.
Speaker: I don't want to see anybody overpay.
Speaker: That's why when we have certain specials going on.
Speaker: Yeah, I may bug you because I know that in a week after that, when you were thinking about doing it, you're going to spend a lot more.
Speaker: And we really do have your best interest at hand.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: I feel that moral obligation to step in and say, this is right for you and your family.
Speaker: Any any inactivity on your part is going to possibly cost you more money.
Speaker: So let's just do this.
Speaker: But that's it.
Speaker: I do respect you.
Speaker: If you want to sit back and wait it out, that's fine, too.
Speaker: Well, I think that covers most of Brian.
Speaker: I think you would agree with this, that sometimes we're not the right fit.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: Whatever it is, the person says I smell funny or I had a dog and it died and I can't do this or whatever the situation it is.
Speaker: I tell homeowners all the time, even if it's not us, you can still call me and ask me for advice.
Speaker: I have plenty of homeowners that for whatever reason did not go with us.
Speaker: They couldn't afford to, or timing wasn't right, which we've had clients spend $5,000 more to get it done the next day, but they still recommend us, you know, they still are telling their friends and family, Hey, I wasn't able to go with these guys, but you should.
Speaker: So, you know, if it's an honest, you know, local neighborhood kind of guy, they're going to want to help you.
Speaker: Maybe they probably even know someone they could recommend, which I've done before too.
Speaker: So, I mean, every, every homeowner is going to be different.
Speaker: Every comfort advisor is going to be different, but we try to tailor this to you and make it as individualized as we possibly can.
Speaker: And, you know, if you have follow-up questions after the consultation, you know, see how responsive that person is.
Speaker: Understand also the comfort advisor is in other people's homes and their phone is probably on vibrate.
Speaker: but they should be responding to you, getting back with you.
Speaker: And if they're not, it's probably not going to be a good fit for you, right?
Speaker: Being responsive to follow a question is one of the most.
Speaker: I have like a one hour, like timeframe.
Speaker: Like I should, you should definitely hear back from me within an hour.
Speaker: If you reach out to me, that's my deal.
Speaker: But just remember, like we talked earlier, this is all you've seen up to this point.
Speaker: You saw a bunch of pictures of apples.
Speaker: This is an opportunity for you to see the real McCoy.
Speaker: Take advantage of it.
Speaker: Interview these HVAC companies.
Speaker: You want to make sure it's a good fit for you.
Speaker: Well, David, you got anything?
Speaker: Please don't overthink it.
Speaker: especially if you're getting a few quotes, two, three, four, don't get any more than three quotes.
Speaker: There's no reason to do that.
Speaker: You've already done your research.
Speaker: You found three local companies that have been around for 15, 20 years.
Speaker: You like the guys who's taking care of you.
Speaker: You trust that person to take care of you.
Speaker: You like the brand.
Speaker: They were recommended.
Speaker: Bite the bullet.
Speaker: Do it.
Speaker: And just know that it's going to be done right.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Well, guys, thanks.
Speaker: I appreciate your time today.
Speaker: Thanks, David.
Speaker: Godspeed, Brian.
