Transcript
Irelynn Zurflueh: Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to Thoughts for Rent, Realtors Keeping It Real. I'm Max Zerflu. And I'm Ireland Zerflu. And we are blessed to be here today and present to you our podcast of Zerflu Squared. Is that what we call it? No. Yeah, a Zerflu Takeover. Zerflu Takeover. Jenny McKenna, the host of the show, is out and about today. And you've got two Zerflus.
Irelynn Zurflueh: Yes. The father and the father and the daughter. daughter right Jenny is had to go walk a property that just did a full rebuild after a leak. goge and we have a couple units in that community. so i actually just took a phone call.
Irelynn Zurflueh: off screen where she had arrived at a different unit and oh the men the resident let her in and she didn't know what she was looking at. my gosh. So she just called me and she says, ah yeah, Evan let me in. I said, the resident's name is not Evan. That's that's the first clue. Sounds like a Jenny McKenna-ism.
Irelynn Zurflueh: Yes. We would get those sometimes, but that also happens in real estate where you get the wrong address. Back in the day, 2009, 10, before you were thinking of doing real estate, or maybe you were, I don't know.
Irelynn Zurflueh: It was before. ah of a A colleague of ours in our brokerage, they were doing bank owned properties and you would get a request from a bank to go to the property, trash it out, meaning remove everything in it and get it ready to sell.
Irelynn Zurflueh: And this company got the number wrong by one. And they got into the wrong place where a person was living. weren't there, but they got trashed everything out of the house, emptied it out. a Person came home and went, where's my stuff?
Irelynn Zurflueh: So. Oh my goodness. That was ugly. That one was ugly. That's nerve wracking. I tried to do, i was doing a walkthrough for a property and everyone has ring cameras now that they talk to. And I was one street too early. And I tried to get in and then they talked to me and they were like, what do you doing? like trying to do a walkthrough and is this, you know, so-and-so street? And it wasn't. So I apologized and I left. So even now I, I didn't take out their furniture and sell all of it, but.
Irelynn Zurflueh: Our door's open. I hope that's okay. You'd be safe to say that any realtor or any property manager, anybody in this business has done that once or twice. Gone to the wrong address. I've gone to the wrong address.
Irelynn Zurflueh: Matter of fact, not only the wrong address, but I've gone to preview a house once. And this is not, this is weird because it's not a wrong address type of situation, but it was funny. Anyway, I went into the house and I said, it was just me because I was previewing from my buyers back in the day.
Irelynn Zurflueh: And I said, is anybody else in the house that I could, that I can bother or can I just look around? She goes, oh, you're fine. So then I went to the first bathroom downstairs. The door was closed. I opened it and her dad was in there taking a poop.
Irelynn Zurflueh: What part of, is there anything that I should know about before I start walking through your property? So that was kind of- Well, she probably didn't know her dad's bowel movement. She probably didn't know he was in the bathroom. Well, my dad's here. dad's And he's been known to poop. So you might want to check on him.
Irelynn Zurflueh: But yeah, and we've I've gone into houses where ah there was a what do they call them? Oh, a squatter. Sleeping. we We went upstairs and opened the master, sorry, primary bedroom closet.
Irelynn Zurflueh: And there was a blanket. And it was kind of moving up and down. This person was taking a nap in the primary bathroom a bedroom closet. Did you tell them to leave or did you, what did you do in that situation? Wake them up?
Irelynn Zurflueh: I closed the door and got the heck out of and called the listening agent and said, hey, someone's sleeping in your listing. I guess that's – so you weren't the listening. you' were just doing showing.
Irelynn Zurflueh: Okay. but That makes sense. You can come across squatters and you just never know. you know Like someone like your mother, Jenny McKenna, she would have kicked in and said, get up and get out of here. What are you doing? But I'm i'm more of a, oh, let's see what happens.
Irelynn Zurflueh: I haven't ran to – I'm sure I will in my career at some point, but I have not ran to a squatter yet. Oh, really? Yeah. I don't do a ton of – Like showings though. i and If I do any showings, they're always rentals. Yeah, yeah. But i've I've definitely had to deal with them. I just have never actually yet. Yeah, I've dealt with a few. And and and I had a client I was taking out, showing him houses, and he works in the military. And he he was carrying. He was he had concealed carry or whatever it's called.
Irelynn Zurflueh: Open carry. I don't know. He gun on his hip every time he went anywhere. And we went into a house and we were up in the primary bedroom and there was a small closet door inside the bedroom. Like a little tiny, like ah like you almost like you can access the attic.
Irelynn Zurflueh: And somehow he thought there was someone in there. And he he pulled his gun and pointed at the hole and said, come on out there. Come out there. I'm armed. And I'm behind and my client going, what's this guy doing? There's nobody in there. And nobody came out.
Irelynn Zurflueh: But hey you got to be prepared, I guess. we ah We just came back from a long trip to Japan, which you and Jenny had spent. Oh, we went to Japan? We did. oh Yeah. I know that you guys got the fun podcast episode where you got to talk about that.
Irelynn Zurflueh: And I'm pretty sure Jenny and I talked about home warranties or repairs or something the next week. But are you talking about strange things that happened in Japan? did notice oh No, no, no, no. Not something that happened to you in Japan in particular.
Irelynn Zurflueh: No, I don't know what you're saying. Your trip from Tokyo to Tokyo. No, no, no. I was just saying that when we left, when we went on vacation, we have friends that watch our house for us. And in two different occasions when we've been out of town, the first occasion... They swore up and down that somebody was living in our attic.
Irelynn Zurflueh: yeah They just got it stuck in their head. Yeah. oh They just got it stuck in their head that somebody was living in the attic. So she had her partner come over and check the attic and make sure everything was okay. Was there mice running around or something? i wonder if there were any noises or something. Well, the house is old, so it just makes noises in general. And then we have our two dogs, so they obviously make noises too. And then this time around, and I have a hatch alarm, which goes off automatically every day. That's one of those little alarms that kind of wakes you up gently. Yeah, the like half moon circle alarm. And it was going off on one of the days that they were checking the house and they said that it scared the crap out of them. They totally thought somebody was in our house just having a conversation, but it was my alarm the whole time. You have set to go daily?
Irelynn Zurflueh: Yes, because my phone has a trouble connecting it on occasion. if you're of town for a long period of time, you don't turn it off? No, because I have a hard time connecting it. How does it turn off? Yeah, like manually. Or after a while, it just goes. So if you're not there, how long do you think it'll go? Maybe like an hour, probably. Geez. Well, imagine the electricity you could save.
Irelynn Zurflueh: Or something. Battery? I don't know. Probably. i'm I'm assuming it's not that detrimental. Well, we didn't really set a topic for our podcast. We just got started going. But I have a thought, Ireland. Okay. And that's about spring. Keep it real. bring Spring is spring. Why does spring come and we all get lethargic and slow and what's wrong?
Irelynn Zurflueh: I don't think that that's true. I think it's true. spring fever. Hello. It's a real deal. I've never heard that before. Oh, absolutely. The temperatures get up. The outdoor looks better, so you want to go outside, but still you're tired. You never heard spring fever? I don't think so, no. I've always just heard that...
Irelynn Zurflueh: People get excited. The weather gets hot and you can go outside and you can swim and barbecue and all that stuff and the flowers bloom. and Well, May is approaching, spring fever would be over. I guess as I get older, spring fever lasts longer and I'm tired of it right now.
Irelynn Zurflueh: I guess I've never thought... My friends and I have never said that it's spring fever. My friends and I have always said that you... you read You're out of hibernation. Like you're ready to exist in the world again, but you still have to be hibernating because the weather's still not ready. Interesting approach. I feel like I get antsy. I'm like, I want summer to be here. Different approach from the younger set.
Irelynn Zurflueh: Yes. For us, I think you've been kind of cooler weathers and then it gets warmer and you kind of get lethargic. that's why's That's why it's called spring fever, I think. Unless I got it all wrong. Maybe it's because people get allergies and they get the fever. I think it's just because of the pollen. Could be.
Irelynn Zurflueh: Was the pollen more in Japan? Was there more pollen? I don't think so. That was, i have been sharing many of my experiences from Japan with my friends when they've inquired. And something that I've been telling quite a few people is that the things that social media or like influencers or people on TikTok warned me about came off as very dramatic. Like I think a lot of the things that they were like The pollen in Japan. People were like, it's going to be the worst allergies you've ever had. And I thought it was fine. And then people are going to warn you about, like, you know, everyone always says, oh my gosh, it's impossible to find a public restroom in Japan you're traveling. Trash cans. Or trash cans or whatever. Yeah,
Irelynn Zurflueh: yeah you're right It didn't obviously stop us from going, but it was something I was very... prepared for. And then I got there and I was like, this is way more dramatic than yeah what is actually happening. You were always prepared with a little plastic bag garbage. Yeah. little doggy I think you used a little bit, but every 7-Eleven, Lawson's, Family Mart, train station, they all had oh yeah garbage cans. Well, and people were even like, bring your own toilet paper because...
Irelynn Zurflueh: They don't have toilet paper in public restrooms. People were saying to bring your own soap and all this stuff. And so I don't, maybe I was just. you walk around town with toilet paper? No, oh no, no, no. But I did bring my own hand sanitizer and soap because I thought I was going to need it.
Irelynn Zurflueh: You may have just defined the entire internet. Yeah. People build things up to say, oh, it's this, but it's really not that bad. It's kind of, yeah. Well, my friend that I was sharing that story to, or one of them, because I've shared it with a few people, You have more than one friend? ah Yes, you do. Very good. yeah pretty nice um They were talking about how rage baiting and intense videos get more views than just normal average videos. Rage baiting, that's what it's called? Rage baiting.
Irelynn Zurflueh: Trying to get you to be angry? Yeah. Oh. Negativity sells. Yeah. Right. I've got people in the real estate industry that always post negative videos, whether they're true or not. He says, because that's what people want to watch. Those are the videos that go viral.
Irelynn Zurflueh: True. well that's sad. i know. I think. Because it might, obviously it didn't stop us from going anywhere, traveling anywhere, but it could very well stop someone... From going and getting to experience an international country like that. Based on our experience in Japan, it didn't stop anybody from going to Japan. guess that's true. There's a lot people there. That place was packed tourists.
Irelynn Zurflueh: But you're right, though. It could be a restaurant, a resort, a city, negative reviews. If you're somebody who really takes those to heart, you might go, yeah, I'm not going to go there.
Irelynn Zurflueh: Yeah. Which is sad because... the place could be amazing. That's why when I look at a restaurant and there's a negative review, I don't get too excited about it because some people have, everyone has different opinions and people just find the one thing that's crazy. Like they could be a 4.5 star review, but they'll be like, but this was wrong. Couldn't you just look past that? But the butter was not right. Yeah, something not too hard. I couldn't spread it on my bread. I get frustrated with people who review things and always have to have a negative thing.
Irelynn Zurflueh: Yeah, like the five-star is impossible to find or is impossible to achieve, even if it it was good. And it could be a five-star restaurant for me that you might find it to be a one.
Irelynn Zurflueh: Everybody has their own perspective and approach to it. So there you go. So stop reviewing. Don't look at reviews. Just go places. And that's like Japan also. got to prepare. You got to make sure you have reservations and make sure. yeah But you don't have to.
Irelynn Zurflueh: I found there to be more restaurants in Japan than people in there. There were. Restaurant every corner, and then there's a five-story building and four stories at a restaurant. It was unbelievable, in the choices, I thought.
Irelynn Zurflueh: So if you're not going to do – do you still do Google Reviews then? Like, do you still find yourself traveling with – I do. Recommendations from people, even if they're online people and not people I don't make decisions based on the recommendations, but if'll I'll decide based on a website. If I want to find, let's say i want to find a restaurant in Miami, then I'll look at what good places to eat. I'll open the website. I'll look at that and I'll go, I'm going to there.
Irelynn Zurflueh: And then after I book it, I might look at some reviews just to see what people say. Just to see. But I never go, okay, I'm not going there. What was the last... What was the last in-person recommendation that you followed? Like someone in your life, you were telling them you were going somewhere and they said, oh, you have to do this and then you did it.
Irelynn Zurflueh: You remember? I don't know. i mean, in Japan, someone said you have to go to the garlic ramen shop in Osaka, but I had been there before. it kind I guess it was more of a reminder than a suggestion. That it existed.
Irelynn Zurflueh: But we made it because that person said you got to go there. We went. And I think you and I agree it was the best ramen shop we had in Japan. so yeah So I can't think of anything else where someone, but word of mouth when I was younger, that's all you had.
Irelynn Zurflueh: Hey, I think I want to go to a steakhouse. do You guys know any good places? Yeah, you can try that place. But yeah then you didn't have the ability to Google it. You didn't have the ability to call someone and ask 100 people what they thought.
Irelynn Zurflueh: It was just, you went and tried it out. Yeah. Sebastian Maniscalco says, hey, we don't do Yelp. Our review is we just don't go back to the place. That's a good... I do have...
Irelynn Zurflueh: I am a Google review contributor. i do get the emails that my reviews have reached. you write reviews? do. Oh. But I actually do have, and some people may disagree with me on this, I only write good reviews. Oh. So if you were to go to my specific Google review page, you'll only see five stars. so some people you have your own Google review page? Well, I have my Google account. All your reviews are?
Irelynn Zurflueh: Yeah. In one place? For different places? Yeah. Oh. because Here's a lesson for the old man. Where is he? I'm the guy? If you go to a Google review, then it'll say so-and-so rated this five stars, and you can click on so-and-so's name, and then it takes you their page, which would show you all of their reviews that they've ever written.
Irelynn Zurflueh: I did not know that. and Why would I want to know that or care what they think? Because someone i don't know some people are more important on the review pages than others because they leave more reviews or they leave more detailed reviews or they're more insightful. Their review might be more valuable.
Irelynn Zurflueh: Yes. Is what Google is trying to imply. So some people might say because I only leave five star reviews, I am not a reliable source. But if It's not a five-star restaurant. I just don't leave a review. And then I just don't review it. If you're a five-star review person and you go to a restaurant and give it five-star review and all your reviews are five-star, that means it must be a pretty good restaurant. Yeah.
Irelynn Zurflueh: Because if it was a bad one. You just wouldn't be on there. yeah I do have one singular one-star review on my Google page, though. Your whole thing. My whole thing. And it's for a. You want to say? Are you going to say? Oh, I'm going to say. It's for my.
Irelynn Zurflueh: college is ah on campus like health clinic that i went to for a shot one time and then they billed me like 300 a month later and they couldn't explain to me why they billed me 300 bucks and so i left a terrible review and you were on insurance too and i was on insurance about nothing and you're not now i'm just saying and it was for a vaccine that wasn't required to attend college it was just a recommended adult vaccine and so i was like well, is it going to cost me anything? And they said, no, you're fine. And I was like, okay, yeah, I'll do the vaccine. Then along comes the bill. Yeah, then along comes the bill. And then, fun fact of the day, oh my find out it's a three-part vaccine.
Irelynn Zurflueh: So I would have had to go back two more times. And they tried to get me to come back the two more times. And you go? So you spent $300 for nothing? For nothing. Absolutely nothing. Because to complete the medication, you had to take three shots. Yes, but they then it would have been $900. Yeah.
Irelynn Zurflueh: Yeah, that was a bad one. yeah I think that was worthy of a bad review, even for you. So feel free to look up all my reviews. And if you guys ever come to Vegas or live in Vegas, you'll know that the places I review, I genuinely really like. Speaking of Google reviews, themckeneteam.com.
Irelynn Zurflueh: You can go there and Google us and give us a five-star review. If you think we're good. And McKenna Property Management. Oh, yeah, that one too. It's separate. It's two separate accounts. And one of the only bad reviews on the McKenna team is because somebody- No, not one of the. The only bad review is one that they thought they were reviewing property management.
Irelynn Zurflueh: Thank you very much. Because we're like, we're 4.95 or something. And we can't figure out who the guy is and we can't get him off of there. What are going to do? Again, reviews, shmavoo's. That's my name. Shmavoo's. Reviews, shmavoo's.
Irelynn Zurflueh: Speaking of that, it's NHL hockey time. Are you excited? I've been missing a lot of the games, but I've heard they've been really good. There's one tonight. I'm going to watch it tonight. have no other plans. You got NBA playoffs. You got NHL playoffs.
Irelynn Zurflueh: Go Knights. Timberwolves. You got and NHL, NBA. You got Major League Baseball ramping up. You've got golf tournaments. U.S. Open is going to be here on Father's Day. Masters just happened. It's a great time of the year for sports. believe it. So that's why you have spring fever because you've been sitting on your couch watching sports. Oh, I've been sitting my duff watching sports all the time. There could be something to that. You don't watch golf, huh?
Irelynn Zurflueh: No. I watch the only things I will watch sports wise are the ones I get for free with my streaming sites. So not a ton. Well, that's lot really. And UFC is free now because it's Paramount?
Irelynn Zurflueh: Peacock, I thought. Paramount. Paramount. Yeah. So like that fight that's going to happen in front of the White House on ju July 4th is going to be free. It's going to be free. That's going to be huge. I know. i don't know if you care, but your boyfriend must be pretty excited about that.
Irelynn Zurflueh: Yes. I'm pretty excited. don't even watch UFC. I don't know about... It's going to depend on the lineup. I don't think he cares so much about the venue. and the he It's just who's going to be good fights there. But we've watched the last two that have been released on Paramount. There there might have been more, but we've done two watch parties. At the free one? Paramount. At the free one. okay The commercial to fight ratio has now gotten very out of hand. lot of commercials? Lots of commercials. And when it was pay-per-view before, it was...
Irelynn Zurflueh: that they would also show when they were taking the breaks, they would show what the coaches were saying in between the rounds and all of that. And do not. Trainers. Straight to commercial. The bell rings straight to commercial. there you And then you're pretty much done with commercial. So, do you rather pay-per-view or the commercials?
Irelynn Zurflueh: I personally think pay-per-view is worth it because if you do a watch party and you're not like a solo watcher, then everyone agrees to chip in five bucks. Then you can talk about what's happening on the screen between rounds and stuff.
Irelynn Zurflueh: But if you're trying to watch it by yourself or if you don't have a whole crew that can go $5 in every time, then yeah, 70 bucks to watch fights is probably pretty tough. That's why you should go to a bar that is playing it.
Irelynn Zurflueh: I'm trying to find a cool place for Father's Day where my kids can take me so I can watch baseball and golf all day. I was thinking Circa. i don't know. It gets a little crazy there, I think. I saw some photos. It's a lot of people.
Irelynn Zurflueh: Max and I have been trying to get into a very exclusive brunch for... Do we call exclusive? Well, we haven't been able to get in. Rare. It's rare. They only do it on Easter and on Mother's Day, and they don't do any other brunches.
Irelynn Zurflueh: It's a seafood and steakhouse brunch, so I was able to convince Giant to do it, even though it's mainly seafood brunch. She was glad that we couldn't. They were sold out. I think in the end. I think so. It's Nico's at. The Durango. Yeah, you can say it.
Irelynn Zurflueh: I know. I haven't been in the brunch yet, so I don't know if it's good. But I've seen it looks really good. And they only do it twice a year. And I asked her how early I can book, and she said maybe 60 to 90 days out. So hopefully we're in town for Mother's Day Easter next year because we have to wait another year. Speaking of the Durango, that's where we watched the Kentucky Derby last year.
Irelynn Zurflueh: The Kentucky Derby is coming up. Yeah. <unk> just It's tomorrow. Oh, my gosh. That's crazy. That's right. First Saturday in May, which happens to be May 2nd. So you got your horse picked out for the Derby? No. Oh, I don't either.
Irelynn Zurflueh: We're almost halfway through the year. That's crazy. We're two months shy of being halfway through the year. Does that count as halfway through the year? almost We're almost halfway through the year. Yeah.
Irelynn Zurflueh: I mean, we're four twelfths through the year. so That's a lot. We're a third. You got to go with a third. No, that's a lot. I got to cut you off. We're a third through the year. No, because a third would be three months.
Irelynn Zurflueh: So we're almost halfway through the year. Should want quarter? but Think about this now, Ted. oh you're right. Four months is a third the year. right. So I'm not going to allow your half, but it's going quick. She's going quick. There's no question about it. 2026, 10 years ago, I graduated high school. Isn't that kind of crazy? Wow.
Irelynn Zurflueh: I graduated in high school 40-some years ago. oh my goodness. We've talked about a lot of stuff. We haven't touched on anything real estate, which I think is okay. We talked about squatters. and Oh, that's right. And some showing issues, yeah. but And how Jenny apparently got tea at some random person's house. They gave her tea?
Irelynn Zurflueh: No. oh They asked her if she wanted lunch since it was lunchtime. Oh, my gosh. Oh, Jenny, she'll tell you. She's got her thoughts for rent, like a penny for those thoughts. and Get inside of that head. But hey, Ireland and I, we're happy to be here for the Zerflu takeover today. Talked about a few things going in the world. Apparently, spring fever is not real. That's just me. I'm just tired. and Google review, schmuggle review. Yeah, Google schmuggle review, schmurview.
Irelynn Zurflueh: But hey, if you get know a good place, let us know. If you're here of a good restaurant, let us know. Share this podcast. Subscribe to it. Give us feedback because we always want that.
Irelynn Zurflueh: Always. And I would have to close with Go Knights Go. Knights Go. Talk to you soon.
