What Your Topeka House Is Hiding From You | Alex Buehler

The beam runs all the way through and then you have the main support of the whole house sitting here in the center. It's cut out of all the things that you need to put there. Creepy old house and down in the basement the freezer had like a padlock.

Whoa what.

What? No dead bodies? No dead bodies Yet.

Gosh.

Today we have Alex Buehler with Buehler Inspections, home inspector here in Topeka.

Alex, thanks for being here, bro the pie guy.

The pie guy. If you don't know Alex as the inspector, you know him as the pie guy.

That's right.

Dude, alex, thanks for being here, man, thanks for having me. I'm excited. A little backstory we know Alex. He is a good friend of both of ours. Gotta get that out of the way.

get that out of the way, you know disclaimer, disclaimer, we he's actually paying us to be on the show right now.

Wouldn't that be sweet no, but for everyone who doesn't know, the pie guy alex buehler, give us a little bit about alex alex buehler is me.

Um, that's just who I am. No, I through, I, through and through, through and through. I do home inspections. I have a lovely wife. I've got five kids now.

Let's go.

We just had just had the newest one, first girl. She's fresh out and new to the family.

We are excited. The word fresh applied to babies Interesting.

So, yeah, we're. We're taking that one step at a time, but it's been, it's been good. I'm a little more tired than usual, but yeah, things about me is I love working out, I love being a dad and I love building things with my hands, like especially my house that I'm working on.

There we go. How long have you been in Topeka?

I've been in Topeka for eight, nine, nine years now, yeah.

What brought you here. I got to Topeka from my old job I was working retail. I worked with Buckle. It's a clothing store. I managed them, did a lot of traveling with them and stuff, and then I got my own store here in Topeka and stayed here is perfect for me Family's pretty close and so did that for a while. And then I actually left buckle and got the opportunity to do home inspections from a company in Tulsa, oklahoma, actually Dang. So yeah, it was a. It was a pretty cool God moment where I left my job but just felt like I was called to leave and do something different and had about a week sabbatical where I didn't do anything and I just freaked out saying where am I going to get work?

Right, yeah.

Then I had a stranger reach out to me from Tulsa, oklahoma, and was like hey, you were recommended to me by somebody that knows. You said you'd make a a great inspector and so we wanted to call you and give you the opportunity. So they had me go out there and I did all my training in Tulsa, got my license in Tulsa, worked out there for a little bit and then came back to have me start a branch out here and then I took that over and they went elsewhere. We parted ways and I have the company now, dude, so okay, time out.

I don't think I knew this about your story. You quit your job at Buckle not knowing what you were going to do, yeah, and then you got the call Wow, correct that I did not know. Jeez, that's terrifying. Yeah, I bet.

Can we call you Inspector Bueller? Yeah, absolutely, yeah, I bet. Can we call you Inspector Bueller? Yeah, absolutely Inspector. Alex, yeah, you're like a British police officer. Investigator.

Oh, I was thinking more like the gadget guy.

Yeah.

For people who don't know, we call you Pie Guy. Why is that?

So the first inspection company that I worked with before I bought the company from them it was called Parker Inspections, so Parker Inspections P-I-P-I. So their logo and everything was a big pie and it said where inspections and pies just make sense, Just makes sense. And it was great marketing because everyone would always ask how do pies and inspections make sense? Like they got a lot of people's attention.

So what do you do now that your abbreviation is by?

I put a lot of thought into that. I couldn't come up with anything quite as good. So, um yeah, I still just do the pies. I thought about doing brownies, but I myself don't like brownies, so I feel like pies are a little more loved all the way around. So I just stuck with the pies and I just say, hey, nothing says welcome home like pie.

When you were at the buckle I'm assuming you knew about this how did you feel about the game that customers would play, Were they like, try to get to the back of the store without being talked to.

So I loved it, do you guys? Know the whole like nickelback scandal no, I don't know what scandal like there's a theory out there you mean the scandal that they're actually amazing and no one wants to admit it yes, so there, there's like a theory out there that they created all the hate around their band just to get people thinking and talking about it. Okay, all right, yeah I feel like buckle started that whole.

You got to touch the back wall just to get people in the store oh, yeah, I got a ton of business from doing that because they touch the back and be like I won. What do I get? I'm like you get a free fitting and we called like a fitting where we'd get a bunch of outfits together. Make you try stuff on it. Half the time they'd buy stuff wow, that's wild.

It's like so you would you just like all right, let them get to the back of the store, like, let them think they won something you know, depending on how I was feeling that day, because it's kind of a pride thing too, like there ain't no way, you're not.

You're not beating me, is that?

like a thing across all buckles. If they make it to the back of the store, yeah, without being talked to, they win something.

No well, they don't know, like somebody somewhere. They said some somehow it got started forever ago that if you make it to the back of the store you win.

No one knows yeah, you're not necessarily get something from the store, but it was like a com, it's like a contest between the customer and the employee, because that's the mission yeah, they're trying to talk to you as the customer.

You're like, let me see if I can avoid them and get all the way and the employee, because that's part of the mission.

They're trying to talk to you as a customer. You're like let me see if I can avoid them and get all the way to the back without them initiating something.

Imagine walking through a used car lot without having anyone walk up to you.

Yeah, so it wasn't necessarily that Buckle officially owes you something. It was like I won, you didn't get to me.

I've never heard of that. I didn't know that was a thing. I think it's like an older person thing.

Wow, Thanks, Appreciate that. I'm sorry. So anyway, home inspections. You're doing home inspections now.

What's that like Dude it's a lot of fun. It can be really great days. You get to see some really cool houses, some really cool things, and then there's some really not fun days where you get to see a lot of really awful things, gross things, things that make you queasy, things that make you really sad.

But now you're trying to race through the house without rats touching you. It's the new buckle challenge.

How many homes do you think you walk through a week, like on a busy week? How many homes are you seeing For a while?

I cut back, but for a while I was doing three a day, five days a week.

So I mean I've seen 15 homes a week. That's a lot of houses you're seeing.

Yeah, that was. It was a lot, and I was. I felt like I'd get behind just because there's so much detail you have to pay attention to, and so I wanted to slow down and make sure I just wasn't missing anything. But yeah, 15 houses in a week is a lot.

Yeah, yeah, because of all of the reports and like it's not just three quick inspections. There's all of this amount of work outside of that that has to go into it.

So what's the craziest thing you have seen in a house?

Everyone always asks me this craziest thing you have seen in a house. Man, everyone always asks me this. I mean, there's like dangerous, crazy things I've seen and then really gross, crazy things.

Give us both. What's the most dangerous thing?

you've seen. So I've seen lots of houses where you get a guy who's handy in there and he goes I need to run this plumbing line through this, or you know this main, joyce, is fine, we'll just cut through it. It's got enough support already. So there's been several where I've walked into and like the plumbing lines running through the main I-beam in the house.

Oh snap.

So it's not like it's not even there's one in downtown.

Like they cut a hole in it. Yeah, like the foundation I-beam that's holding up the house.

Even there's one in downtown, like they cut a hole in it. Yeah, like the foundation. I mean that's holding up the house. Yeah, so the one in, uh, downtown topeka I just inspected last month. The beam runs all the way through and then you have the main support of the whole house sitting here in the center and right. When it gets like three feet before that it's cut, a laundry chute goes through it and then it picks up on the other side at the main support out of all the things that you need to put there. The laundry chute was pretty funny to me. Wow, waiting for it to fall, I guess. Yeah, the floor upstairs is pretty soft yeah what's the grossest thing you've seen.

For me personally, it was the time I got roaches in my clothes in a crawl space. Oh so it was gross and hysterical because I'm in the backyard stripping down to my skivvies, shaking my clothes out. It was vacants in the woods there, but yeah, it was.

Uh, that was my least favorite experience, but you ever find any like dead animals and things? Oh yeah, there's dead bodies.

I found no dead bodies.

Dead bodies Yet.

Yeah, there's been a freezer that I didn't open because of that reason.

Oh gosh.

It's a creepy old house. Gosh Down in the basement the freezer had like a padlock.

Whoa what, what I'm not even going to.

Why would you?

possibly need to padlock your freezer. Why do you need to? Keep something in there, yeah, no kidding, I just want to make sure stuff didn't get out Right.

What's trying to get out? Yeah, it blows my mind on some of these houses that people even get inspections on them and you know some of these ones that are just like nasty or you know it's bad. It's like, I mean, you know you charge for your services. It's like what? What are you gonna tell them that they didn't already, the buyer didn't already know like it's bad?

run? Is it just because it's a part of the process that, like every house in a purchase, gets an inspection? I think that has a lot to do with it, but I also think there's a lot of times, like investors, when they get it, it's more of a a hopeful thing, like maybe this inspector will get in there and tell me it's not as bad as I think it is like they just want to know, like for sure, because you can get in there and I'll find all sorts of stuff.

But if it's just mostly cosmetic and a lot of people that are experienced and know what they're doing or bought a lot of houses in the past, they'll be like oh, that's easy stuff.

A couple, some wood rot right, it's not like the foundation, or right? Yeah?

what are the three most common things that you see on a typical house, that you almost always see?

so two that I know for sure would be gfcis, which those are those outlets that have the push buttons on them that cause them to trip. Yeah, no power to them. Those are required to be within six feet of every water source. So if you have an outlet within six feet of a water source, it's supposed to be GFCI protected.

So kitchen sink toilet? Yeah, Not toilet, but shower I mean.

Toilet, shower, bathroom sink. The one that misses a lot is behind the washer and dryer. Oh sure, ink um, the one that misses a lot is behind the washer and dryer, sure, so that's one that gets overlooked a lot. But so gfcis is one that I almost write up every single house, uh. And then the dryer or the bathroom vent vents up into the attic so all the moisture from the shower wicks up and then just disperses in your attic space. So a lot of times over time that can cause mold and stuff like that.

But it's supposed to go all the way out to the house, like outside of the house exit out through the roof or through the siding, but it's I mean that one's not as big of a deal, because it takes a long time for that to cause an issue, unless you're taking super hot showers for a long time. But yeah, yeah, so those would be the two. I think the last one probably just would rot around windows and stuff like that because people don't put the correct flashing on.

So if you're like uh, it's so. It seems like first-time home buyers, you know, because you don't know what you don't know, like you've never done it before. Um, there's a lot of anxiety around any little detail that might go wrong. Um, what, what advice would you give to like first home buyers who, maybe, even maybe on one end, are like, why do we even need to pay this guy to inspect the house? Like, why do we have to pay for all this extra random stuff, as I just want to buy the house? Uh, maybe speak to that. But also like, how could you calm some anxiety around first-time homebuyers like freaking out about every little thing on an inspection report?

So I've heard of a lot of different inspectors that freak people out and then kill deals and then people are actually upset because they didn't get the house and it wasn't as bad as they thought it was, because the inspector is just trying to do their best to relay the information and let them know hey, this is bad. This is important, you need to take care of it, but it's all about you know, having people's skills and relaying it to the clients, cause if you say, hey, this is bad, then they're like house is bad.

Oh yeah, no, no, no.

So I always try to make sure that I'm giving the information without any bias whatsoever. So whether I think it's a terrible house or not, I have no idea the knowledge of that person or what field of work they're in like if they're comfortable fixing certain things, correct right or if you know, or if their dad works for an hvac company and he get them a sweet hook up on new hvac system.

You know, I don't know what's a big deal and what's not. I just know what's a big deal and what's not. I just know what's a safety concern and what's not. So when I go in and try to do those for first-time home buyers, I try to make sure that all the things that I wrote up I try to kind of walk them through the house and show them like, hey, this is a concern, this needs to be taken care of. But in reality it's not that big of a deal. Or I let them know on my reports I said that you have a honeydew list. You know, anything in blue is just the honeydew list, anything in orange is, hey, probably needs taken care of right away. And then if it's red it's a safety hazard. So that kind of helps them a lot with that. So they're not seeing the report and just freaking out by the number of total things.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

And I think you explained it really well. I get to work with you pretty often with my job. You know house is good. This just needs to be done Correct, you know. It doesn't mean, you know, if there's some things that need to be done doesn't mean it's a bad house, it's just, you know, house is great, just do these things and it'd be awesome.

Well, and how many houses? Like for a first time home buyer who might just be seeing their first inspection report and freaking out there's 50 little check marks. Oh my gosh, this house is going to burn down any day. How many houses come back with?

a low number?

Well, yeah, how many houses that you've inspected? Come with a completely clean report where nothing needs to be done.

Man. In the last four years I've come across two Wow.

Wow.

One was legit, nothing needed. And then the other one was like one or two, like I think it was a cracked cover plate on an outlet. So it's like, oh, wow, 25 cents at the hardware store.

Those had to be new constructions. No, really.

No, a lot of times in new construction you'll have either a couple minor things that you know the general contractor just didn't walk through and catch, or you'll have. No matter how much you trust your general contractor, he's got to hire people and then those people have employees.

So there's a lot of big things that get missed too so that's.

That's why I always try to encourage people. Hey, whether it's a new build or been around the block, probably get a home inspection. Yeah, absolutely. But um, yeah, there's. I mean, there's been a time. Where do you know what a cricket is on the back of a chimney? It's basically on the roof, a peak that goes on the back of the chimney.

So that way water and rain and stuff doesn't set like leaves and then cause rot.

um, there's been one of those that just doesn't have any shingles or decking on it and all the rainwater is just dumping straight into the house, and it had already been shingled everywhere else, but it was just missing that hole in the roof, and that was a brand new build.

Dang so yeah it's tough, yeah, well, okay, so switching gears, maybe from home inspections to just owning a business in general, as we talked about in the beginning, you took a huge risk, you know, quitting your W2 job and going out. You know, I'd say it's even even bigger risk because you didn't even know what you're going to get into. But owning a business itself is just scary. What would be, you know, some encouragement to people who want to start a business but don't know where to start or what that even looks like? Because I mean, you have a wealth of experience and risk taking.

Yeah, I would say don't get discouraged. That's, that's the easiest thing to do because you're starting from scratch and you're trying so hard to get traction and it's almost impossible to get traction that quick. So unless you've got a lot of people really invested in you, and helping the traction is going to take a long time. I would say bullet marks would be like bullet points marks. Whatever it would be like. The first three months you're not going to see anything.

Then you might make a couple of connections right at that three month mark. Then after that it's probably going to be a full year before you start seeing any type of like business generated by someone reaching out to you. And then hold on for about at that three years is really when you feel, okay, I'm established, business is coming in. But I would say, plan on three years before you really give up and try something different.

Yeah, Wow, yeah, that's wild man. So what are some? Are there any bit? So I feel like you're one of the most connected people in the city that I know. Like anytime I go anywhere with you, there's like five people that know you.

I just take you to the spots that people know me. Yeah yeah, there's only three places.

I'm allowed to go with you. Makes me feel important, yeah, and so I feel like you have your bead on. You know, like, what's going on in the city of Topeka? What are some businesses that are not happening that someone should start, like what are we missing? That someone should start that business. Oh man.

Dude, I think about this a lot, man, there's so many opportunities. I would love to see like an event center type deal. I was talking to a buddy of mine about Topgolf.

I was like, dude, that would be sweet to have a Topgolf situation out here, because I feel like there's lots of bars, there's lots of golf, there's lots of other different things, but combining some type of nightlife that's not just bars, I think right really beneficial out here sure um, yeah, just because I think there's lots of young people that want to go do things, but there's, I feel like there's a real big swing on people not wanting to just go out and drink all the time right, yeah, a lot of people don't drink anymore too, and I think that's pretty cool, like give them something to do in the afternoons later at night it is interesting.

Is it just like my algorithm on social media? Or is it like the culture at large, swinging toward more of just like being healthy, like swinging what used to be, maybe like, hey, let's go get drunk. Now it's now those same people are more like let's go to the gym and eat super healthy. And know, is that a like a widespread thing? Do you think?

yeah, I think it's your algorithm it's just my algorithm yeah, which you know. That's not to say there's not a crowd of that, but I don't know, so we have different algorithms.

Yeah, absolutely yeah we prioritize everything well, and maybe it's uh, a lot of those people that are saying that still go out and drink too, though.

Well, yeah, for sure, for sure, yeah, yeah, for sure.

Interesting, interesting.

I think that would be a very beneficial added to Topeka.

Just something, some, some more nightlife that's not centered around just eating or drinking, you know yeah but it's because a tough market because you know if it's a fun thing to do, you know you get excited about going and spending an evening doing it. You're willing to drive to Kansas City to do it Right. And there's a lot of people that aren't willing to drive to Topeka because I kind of think of some of these businesses in Kansas City that it's like what percentage of their business is being filled by locals locals versus people who are commuting there to get there. You know I can think of a handful of things that we go to Kansas City to do and I don't know if we would get the same love coming back, and so I don't know if there's some things that just won't survive because we wouldn't, can't, we wouldn't get outside of local supporting it right, I mean.

I think Top, I think.

Topgolf's. You know an example. I don't know if Topgolf would ever succeed here, because we don't have the population nor the people who want to commute here, because they're already in Kansas City or even you know.

It's like aim talking about. They try to bring in David Busters, and Dave Busters was like what's your population Right?

And it was almost like a no-brainer yeah and yeah. So I mean I always struggle with all these things we want in topeka. Yeah, and then, just from a business owner perspective, it's like man, I would never start that here right because you know the capital it take to invest to get that going. I'm like maybe the city rallies behind it, but even then you might need more than just topeka order for it to be successful.

And so it is interesting too. It seems like Topeka's. It's interesting I'm just like formulating this as I'm talking but it seems like there's a certain percentage of the city that's like really invested in helping new things succeed. Yeah, but then it's like you can't keep going to the same place a million times in a row, like you need some variety, right? So, like you know, maybe there's some new restaurant. You're like I really want this new restaurant to do well and succeed, but it's a small population of the city. Let's say like. Let's say, 10% is like we're gonna do what it need to go somewhere else, but no one else is like catching on. You know what I'm saying? Like so that seems to be a challenge.

You'll see, like the new openings and it's packed for the first maybe two months, exactly, exactly, and then after that two months, it's just nobody's ever there.

Yeah, and, to be honest, the most refreshing take I've heard from a business owner on that exact thing was Aaron Zittner. I don't know if you remember when he had him on. He basically said you know soliloquy was going great, but you know, if it doesn't go good, what are you going to get mad at the city of Topeka. You can't get mad at Topeka, you know you have to take a reflection on your own product and think, OK, are we doing something that's worthy of people getting invested in?

Right.

And in his case you know they shut it down for other reasons, but he he just made the comment how he hated how people got mad, how business owners got mad at Topeka. It's like you can't get mad at someone. You know it's your own product, you got. You got to adjust, make changes and do better. And sometimes, from the beginning, it's just as a business owner assessing is this something that Topeka is going to get around?

Right as a larger body of people, not just the people that are already interested, because I think really to succeed, you have to be able to convince people that are not already invested to get off the couch and come and you know be a part of it.

You can only eat at that restaurant so many times before.

it's like all right, you know, yeah, well, yeah because, like if you were to do the math and this is just hypothetically if you were to do the math, like ideally, you know, for a restaurant to succeed, I personally would only have to visit there once every two months or something like that, right, yeah, but the current population that is invested in going out to local restaurants is small enough to where, for that to succeed, I don't have to go there like two or three times a month and you're like I'm not going there two or three times.

I don't care how much I love the restaurant, I'm not going anywhere two to three times a month. You know and it's funny what you said about going like if you like it, good enough, you know enough, you'll go to kansas city like I'm getting to the age, like I never want to go to kansas city.

Like I hate going to kansas city. Yeah, the lawrence is lawrence is too far from me.

I know I'm like I don't want to leave the city. I like man, it's too much right, which?

speaks to the other way, you know, there's people in kansas city that would never travel here. Yeah, um, because they either have an alternative option in kansas city that meets their needs or they just don't want to.

Yeah um which that's tough. I mean I the restaurant business in general. I applaud anybody who tries to get into the the restaurant business because that's just like some of those downtown restaurants I'm thinking wheelbarrow and, of course, the ames places. Right, you know, t-box, um, what else am I missing? You know everything that's going on down there iron rail, you know, it's all of those. I'm like I want to support them as much as I can, but that's tough, yeah it's a tough business to be in.

So I shout out to them who's, who are willing to dig their feet in.

And you know, try and make something happen for sure right, yeah, it is interesting because if you look at what's going on on watermaker with the like larger chain restaurants, like you know, um cracker barrel doesn't have a hard time staying in business, right, you know.

Speaking of love cracker, you know what I'm saying and it's just, I've never been to cracker barrel once in my life I think I've been to the one here once.

Yeah, yeah, but like places like that. It like, is it the brand, like the chain? You know, like people know like, okay, I know cracker barrel, I can go there and all these places. And it's not just cracker bell, it's any of those large chain restaurants. Yeah, you know chili's or whatever. Um, I mean, for goodness sake, I mean applebee's, right. You know, if youies or whatever, I mean, for goodness sake, I mean Applebee's Right. You know, if you look at quality, I would be interested to see, like quality of food and experience versus the amount of money they make a week or a month and compare restaurants, because you know there are restaurants like some of the ones you mentioned, like there are local restaurants with higher quality, like per dollar, like you're getting a better meal and better experience per dollar that you're spending, uh, but those restaurants, less people are visiting them, like they're making less money. What is it? Is it brand recognition?

I think it has a lot to do with the brand recognition as well. As, like, when you're trying to think of places to go eat, what do you do? You type in like restaurants, right, me, or whatever, and it always pulls up the most popular stuff, right? So I mean, you're gonna get applebee's on their top of the list, because applebee's has been around for forever and people eat there all the time, regardless how bad the food is or how good the food is. You know I also.

I don't know this and so I might get some hate for this, but I I also think with some of these, like franchises, these big name places, you know, I think applebee's, does applebee's stay busier than any other local restaurant in town? No, but why are they able to stay around? My guess is it's because whoever owns it owns the building. You know, owns the franchises. They don't need to make money like they. They're okay with just writing the whole thing off as a loss. You know, especially if they own the building and they start taking some commercial depreciation on the stuff, they're basically just trying to break even, right, knowing that if they end up taking a massive loss on the business or the real estate or whatever it's like, that saves them a bunch of money on taxes and so they don't really care.

And I think that puts a lot of these franchises at a significant advantage because they're like you know, we don't need to make money, you know, we just need to kind of stay afloat and we're taking benefits in other routes.

You know are most of those big businesses. Are they franchised?

Like is might be locally owned, but I would I would probably say this make the same argument if someone you know has the money to own a applebee's franchise and yeah, they own probably.

Yeah, it's like, yeah, they want to make money, that's it might not be their primary income it's definitely not, and that's where I think it's an unfair that is an interesting point, like if it's not your primary source of income, it's like a side gig. A lot of the like local restaurants, it's like this is people's life savings. They're trying to make it. It's an owner operator type of business.

They have to make money Right, and so you know Applebee's might be getting less traffic than I mean wheelbarrow for all intents and purposes, I'm assuming is thriving and going well. It's been around for a while but you know an Applebee's gets less traffic than a wheelbarrow but the wheelbarrow is the one that goes out of business because Applebee's doesn't need to make money.

Yeah, you know, they make their money in other forms of owning that restaurant, whether that's, you know, writing everything off on the loss at the end of the year, or they own the building and so it pays for the building Then we can bring on the owner and be like hey, bring your tax forms with you.

Can you bring your?

P&L statements. We really want to dive into that. Give me your accounting books with you. Anyways, back to home inspections. Because, that's why you're have you ever?

inspected an Applebee's before I've inspected restaurants before?

Yeah, do you inspect commercial buildings too?

I do commercial, yes, I don't do like the kitchen items items like I'm not gonna you know what are you looking for in a commercial inspection versus a residential one?

uh, really, all the same things. I think that the difference with commercial is everything's a little bit on a larger scale as far as cost, as far as if something's defective, then it can be a lot more destructive. Um, because they use a lot different material and things like that. So, um, roofings usually flat roofing there's usually not attic spaces, so whatever gets in through the roof is going right into the restaurant type of deal. So just a bunch of different stuff like that. Fire ratings, a lot different. Doors have to be a certain way. There's a lot of code that goes into it. I'm not a code inspector, but I do know a lot more about the code to help me with those inspections.

That's interesting. You bring that up because I had a client recently who had I think it was your report and they were like some of these items that he didn't call out aren't up to code or whatever, or maybe they were, and they were so angry that, you know, things weren't up to code and I kind of had to give him the rundown on like, hey, you know, he's not a code inspector. You know, right, there's a lot of things out there that aren't up to code. Walk us through what's the difference between, you know, being a code inspector or being a general home inspector?

So general home inspection is you're looking for anything that could be dangerous or anything that's not functioning the way it was designed to function. So, if it's not functioning the way it's designed to function, that's what we're putting on the report. Okay, um, if you're a code inspector inspector, then you're looking for anything that's not up to code, which are different standards.

That's changing all the time.

Yeah, my codes are always changing uh, for example, one that they just changed this year I think it was last year, maybe uh outlets can't be on the side of your island in the kitchen. It has to be on the top part of the counter what because the safety concern was kids running past.

It would hit the outlet and pull the crock pot off the island or something like that so just codes like that are more so because so many people have had this happen in the past. So we're going to make it a code. Now to where it's right having an outlet. There's not really a hazard. It's functioning the way it's supposed to right if it's next to the sink and it's gfci protected. Do I call that out right? You know, depending on how severe the electrical code starts taking it, then I'll kind of update my guidelines based on that.

Codes are more of like hey, going forward. This is the standard Correct Versus what you do is more of a. Is this a safety hazard or not?

Yeah, this is working Right. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Yeah, so like if a builder were to start building things the way they were built a long time ago, then I would write everything up. But a lot of these houses that I'm inspecting are from a hundred years ago and they're kind of grandfathered in, which is normal, because none of those things are actual issues, they're just new codes.

Right.

So there's I mean the one you see all the time is open ground. So, like the two prong outlets, is that bad? Yes, is it going to cause a fire? No. So I put it on my report as hey, this is something you should know about. You know, with it's not surge protected. If you want to upgrade that to have a ground to it, then that's something you should do, but it's not necessary.

So. So, speaking of a hundred year old houses, foundation work is like one of the biggest things a client is worried about is is this house going to fall over, right? Yeah, I mean, you know, cause there's some houses that need foundation work or some that are great. Have you ever been in a basement and been scared for your life Like I need to get out of here? Here, this looks like it is about to fall over uh, not a basement.

I've been in a crawl space where that was the case that's even worse because, you're like laying down right, yeah, you're on your, on your stomach one no uh, you're on your stomach crawling through and you notice that like none of the piers are actually touching the ground.

Um, they've like slidden off or they're tipped over. They've got like little. You'll see, all the time someone's like oh, my floor's got a low spot, so they go in there, jack it up and then wedge a brick in there or another piece of wood in there, and then by the time that pier's done sinking and settling, they've got like eight bricks, two, two, two by fours, a couple rocks and, oh my gosh, and that's all of the piers that are under there.

But it's like those pictures, people like stack rocks at the beach. Yeah, you know, that's exactly what it looks like that's the basement.

Alex is like I need to get out of here 100 well, and it's usually those are, you know, not gonna change anything soon, but you know a good shift or whatever and they'll collapse. But the one that I'm talking about specifically just didn't have anything and there's like any movement.

You see, like the floor in the middle, just like one big jump and dude, yeah, oh my gosh that's what it looked like would happen, like if someone walked in the front door while I was under there, and it's like tripped and fell and just the whole thing just wild.

So then, on the same note, with foundation repairs. From a professional standpoint, okay, is it true that spray foam and flex seal picks everything?

I feel like you overheard me talking to the structural contractor about that. I want to hear it. So I feel like that's the biggest band-aid uh recently is just people get that flex seal stuff and any cracks in their foundation that's letting in moisture or whatever they're like. Done it worked. It worked in the commercial yeah, I saw the guys stick a piece of tape on a piece of glass and no more water is coming through.

Yeah, no, it's all rated for certain pressures, stuff like that, but it's I mean it's coming out of a can. It's not going to stop that it needs to be silicone injected at the minimum.

I feel like it would almost make it worse to fix, like if tried to fix it yourself. You know, you spray it all up and then it doesn't work.

You bring out the professional now you just stick it up this whole you know crack or area and the this the spray foam is, is even worse because that stuff it gets you spray it in and then it expands into all the crevices that you're, you know, trying to seal, so it it seals it, it's, it's a band-aid.

But then when you have the professional come out to seal, so it seals it, it's a Band-Aid, but then when you have the professional come out to try to fix it, they have to spend so much time scraping that out, like the house that I recently purchased and working through. It's over 100 years old and I had a structural contractor come out and he was helping me tuck point the foundation and it was just every area that had a crack spray foam through and it was actually just pushing everything further apart because it's expanding so we had to scrape it all out and then put in the actual mortar instead.

So I want you to tell us, tell the audience right now don't use spray foam or Flex Seal Ever Ever On your home.

If it's on something else, a project or a hobby, go for it.

If you're trying to reconnect a boat that has been sawed in half go for it Home no, if you're trying to insulate that boat, use spray foam.

That's funny, that's brutal, dang man Use the spray foam.

That's funny, that's brutal, dang man.

Okay, though I will say I've been like all my training and everything teaches me all this stuff. And I'm like, yep, and I see all these things and I go how, what are people thinking Like? How do they even get to this point?

And since what was going on inside their head right.

And then, since I've been remodeling my house, there's several times where I go yeah well, no, no, no, don't do it, don't do it spray foam would be quicker. This could save me a couple hours, yeah, so I I now. It's helpful because I'm now understanding the other side of things, not not so harsh on people that are trying to fix stuff his foundation is now completely held together by spray foam flex, the only outside spray foam on the inside.

Yeah, should people go to the inspector's house to get a good idea of what to do or what not to do?

Oh no, I'm such a hypocrite. My gutters are always full. What about your air filter?

I change my air filter. Really, how often should someone change their air filter, do they?

have pets. Sure, if you have indoor, indoor pets, I recommend once a month. Yeah, all right. Wow, honestly, because I mean if you go, look at it, go go pull your air filter out, take a look at it. If you've got indoor pets, this is going to be full of dander and hair and yeah so I'll be honest sometimes I forget mine even exists your pets no, the pets, I take the air filter.

Well, sometimes the pets say you know, it's more my wife's responsibility.

Shout out pippi yeah, but yeah, I went down yeah, when are we gonna bring your instagram famous pet on the podcast?

that would be something yeah, unfortunately the dog does not speak.

Thank, but uh, yeah, I feel like an air Bud situation. When do they make the next version of Air Bud that?

goes on podcast. Unfortunately, my dog is not that cool, Well she's, she's cool. Not that cool, wow. But yeah, I, I hardly ever switch out my air filters. That's I kind of. In every marriage there's a it's my wife's responsibility and it's my responsibility. That would fall under my wife. She is the air filter nazi. Come on, you know every however often you're supposed to be doing.

That's such a manly job, though, it's really not yeah, it's funny how easy it actually is, but how annoying it feels to have to do like yeah, I'm not replacing the air filter every month.

That takes forever, especially because it takes two seconds just to pull it out and most people I guess I would assume I'm most people most people buy, you know, four or five at a time and if they're just stacked, they're just stacked there and it's like.

I don't want to change that. That's, that sucks. And I pull the filter out and it's supposed to be white and see-through and it's like charred black.

And, like you, no matter what?

You just peel it off like dryer lint, you shake it and no dirt comes out of it because it's so caked on there. And so I'm just like, oh, just, you know, I swap it out while I'm there and I'm like I hope they're not mad at me, I'm not supposed to technically, touch anything.

High guy going above and beyond for a client, that's right. Yeah, I think it's hilarious that it's such a nerve.

People have been capitalizing on starting businesses where they will ship you every couple you get to pick and they'll ship you the air filter. Really. So on schedule, wow, so you'll get one in the mail and I'm like I mean, people are doing it, they'll pay this extra fee to have some company send you, at a certain time each year, one filter.

you go, swap it out, throw the old one away well, amazon has subscriptions now, so I'm on basically almost any item you can like, buy it as a subscription. I didn't know that, so I think you could probably do on amazon just and it's free. I mean, maybe you have to have amazon prime, I don't know, but you can like, that's it I should. I should look at that, because I never change our air filter either.

The thing is, though, when you get it in the mail, are you going to go down? And well, yeah, exactly, for me it's out of sight, out of mind.

Right, for me it's out of sight out of mind so if it like showed up like, oh, I should probably do it because it actually does take like 10 seconds, yeah, it's so easy, like a lot of times, it doesn't even have like a lid, so it's just like the filter, you know? Yeah, so it's not even like you have to take anything apart.

You know, right, that's brutal my furnace was screaming at me the other day. I'm just sitting in my room and it just starts making loud noises to go down there and I kick it a little bit, like what's going on? You know why are you yelling at me? Classic. And then I look at the filter my probably needs to go put a new one in there.

I'm like, okay, maybe that was a problem yeah, people don't realize how much damage that does to their furnace, it's just kicking it. Yeah, you need to call someone.

Have them come replace yours uh, no, what would alex do? That's what I'm gonna do yeah, it's working.

Now just take pictures of it.

yeah, that's what I'm going to do, just take pictures of it.

Yeah, that's what Alex would do Pictures and point out. I'm going to tell someone else about this problem. Yeah, no, yeah.

Not changing out your filter just makes it work so much harder.

It makes sense because it's having to push the air way harder to get through.

Yeah, it just wears it down. It makes it last half the amount of time.

Push the air way harder to get through. Yeah, it just wears it down. It makes it last half the amount of time. This makes me think like you know, think about, like you're. Obviously you're more or less rebuilding 120 year old home, more or less.

Okay, thank you for the compliment.

Yeah, I mean it's basically, you know it's wild. I mean that's not like a quick fixer upper situation, but the idea of like should people go look at your home to see a model of what to do? It reminds me of like, like people that are really passionate about their work. Do those people who do their passion for their job, do they do their passion as a hobby after work is over? Right? Like, for instance, like a five-star chef? What does a five-star chef eat for dinner when?

he gets home after work.

Like, is he making, like just a microwave meal and sitting in front of the TV, or is he making a five-star you know meal for himself because he just loves cooking, you know? Or like, uh, I don't know, like a contractor, like as a contractor who builds houses all day, does he actually fix up his own house or does he pay someone else to fix up his own house?

Yeah, yeah, I, I that's an example I hear about all the time is contractors who, for you know, eight to 12 hours a day are always working on someone else's house. They get home, something needs done. They don't want to do it, right, I don't blame him at all, right, yeah, I, my wife doesn't. She struggles to understand this about my job, but you know, my job is to be social, being out in public, seeing people, talking to people, and so, you know, for eight to 12 hours a day, that's what I am doing, whether you know it's actually intentional or I'm talking to people over the phone, talking to clients, doing things. We get home on a Friday night and she goes what are we going to do tonight? I'm like nothing, yeah, I'm done. She goes what are you talking about? You know, we just got home. You know, yeah, you know she's cooped up in a right, uh, an office all day and she wants to get out and I'm like, no, thank you, like I'm a social guy, but even I, you know, tap out.

I'm like this sucks because I do it all, yeah, no, I think I'm in this. I'm in a similar situation where my wife is a lot of times she actually she does a really good job of getting out of the house, but like basically training up our three boys all day, yeah, and then I get home, having been with people all day pastoring and counseling and things like that, and I'm I get home, I'm white, like yep, I don't need my social tank is. I don't need to mess with that, I just want to go home and chill. You know, like with my family, hang out, my family gets quality time. It's like can we go do something? Like no, I don't want to go do anything. Let me think about that.

I want to stay in the house yeah, sit down probably why I don't want to drive to kansas city anytime like heck. No, sit down and just watch some severance yeah, exactly, exactly um, okay, owning a business.

What would you say for you is the hardest part about running a business, especially being like a solopreneur. You kind of have to do a little bit of everything. What's the worst part? Taxes, taxes.

He hasn't done them in years.

Yeah, no, that's the. That's the one part that I definitely don't do myself. Uh, but yeah, I would say on the administrative side of things, because I have found how much the one-on-one with people interaction that helps so much with your business as far as growing it and things like that. Um, so I spend all my time trying to meet new people and build relationships and add value, and then all my stuff on the backend suffers like going through my emails. Uh, that's just one of the bare minimums, you know.

And then when you get to tracking things on like QuickBooks and people are like QuickBooks is so easy, I'm like, yeah, if you open the app. But, um, yeah, just, I'd say for me personally, being a solo entrepreneur is the paperwork, computer work, things like that on the back side, because I I feel like I'm not doing as much when I could be out there making new connections and meeting new people, building new relationships. I'm sitting behind my computer. I'm like I gotta get out there, I gotta get out there, yeah, oh, this is what makes it run smooth, so I can get out there, yeah so I'd say that Working on your business versus working in your business Right Super tough.

Yeah, that's wild. Well, I want to hit him with some rapid fire, yeah, man. So this should be especially appropriate as you're currently building your house. Where do you go to get building supplies? Home Depot, let's go, my man.

This is go, my man, this is a real man who actually builds stuff.

You go to home depot. No, I'm not, I'm a menards guy. Oh okay, yeah, see nothing wrong. Yeah, there's pants and groceries there yeah, that's the best part you know you can show up.

You're like I'm kind of hungry, so you would you rate menards above lows?

depending on what you're doing. If you're doing like home decor, then menards and lows are great, but if you're like actually trying to do a building project, my opinion whatever let's go.

I shouldn't have that let's go on it because I don't do a whole lot of home projects.

He hasn't been any of them in the last five years, but he has a strong opinion about it. Yeah, it's like I'm.

I asked my contractors to work on my house. Where do you shop?

gardening. Go to lows building go to home depot. Okay, cool cereal menards, absolutely right up there with walmart to be honest, I I had never seen a menards until I moved to topeka really my first time going in there I was just like mesmerized. Oh yeah, I was. I was baffled. I was like, okay, hardware store walked in and I was like and groceries, yeah, and movies and clothing and pet treats.

I go to menards to pick up something. It's like my dog's getting some treats on the way out. Yeah, all right. Um, what is something and I want you to like? Give us a specific business. What is something that a topeka is missing, that you're like I love this over here, I want it here.

Dude, I don't know, I don't go very, oh, waffle House.

Waffle House. Let's go. Waffle House, that's a nice local establishment.

That is my go-to place and I'm so bummed because I heard that there was one out here before I moved out here.

Oh really, but I meanpeka seems like a place that would have a waffle right.

I'm like this is great, come on. What is your go-to date night in topeka? You're taking your wife somewhere. What are you doing? Where are you going?

I used to we talked a lot about applebees. Are they sponsoring this?

episode. It's not the way we've been talking about them. They're going to want their money back.

Oh, man, man, I think we try to find. You know, there's always really I think Topeka does a good job of having like pop-up things that happen and they'll do like special events and venues and things like that. So when I hear about something I try to make a special effort to take my wife out on a date there. Special effort to take my wife out on a date there. But typically we'll, you know, if we've got a little bit of time in between. You know, when the mother-in-law comes up to watch the boys, we'll uh run over to, uh, what's the Mexican restaurant right there in the Dylan's parking lot? Uh, elmez, elmez, dude, that's. Oh yeah, elmez is good. That's my go-to, first and foremost because they get you your food so fast.

They do you walk in, sit down, you look at the menu, you go. I want this. Within three minutes the food's at your table. It's basically a fast food place. Oh, it's awesome. I think I would argue it's faster than fast food. Yeah, you sit down, you get a meal on a plate, versus sitting in the drive-thru waiting Right sitting in the drive-thru waiting Right.

Then you get the 99 cent margaritas. Dude, they, yeah, no, they don't do that anymore.

They used to. I think it was 50 cents and then just in the last two years they bumped it up.

But oh yeah, I will give a quick shout out to that, elmez, when my wife and I go there. We probably go there once, or twice a month. Like it's a for us, the one of the waiters, her name's danny. He knows our names, he knows our orders, he knows what we drink.

He knows we get a small queso dude every time we walk in he he even like if it's a busy night, you know we're waiting in line. We get up, he ushers off his other people and he's like I'll take care of him and he knows us. He always hugs my wife, knuckles me and he goes, brings us our drinks, small queso, and he basically is like are we getting what we're normally getting?

and like yep, I would say that's the majority of the staff there yeah, yeah we've got two different servers that work with us almost every time and they're, they remember our names. They're like oh, it's so excited to see you, dude. Customer service, customer service there is unreal. You guys should have them on the cat on the pod we really need to.

We yeah, since jongs turned us down. Yeah, oh, we don't want to get into that jongs turned us down the other day.

you're the only person who hasn't really mentioned jongs as a go-to date night spot, and so we reached out to them. To be on the podcast, naturally, and what they say?

Just no thanks, yeah, they basically said no, thanks All right, I would reach back out to them and let them know that, because they weren't on the podcast, I don't even know who they are. So we're we're thinking about, just like we're seeing.

we're thinking about like making a reservation for a table and just bringing our stuff and then, anytime the waiter comes by, like, hey, do you have 30 seconds for some questions? That's genius.

No, for real. Is that what is? Is it a restaurant? It's a Thai place.

It's a Thai place. I've never been.

I'm not a Thai guy, but it makes me want to go. How many people literally sat where you sat? Everyone, without fail, said Jong's.

Oh, 90% of our guests said Jong's their favorite restaurant in Tupi. Oh my gosh, I mean, it's very good we reached out and we're like this is a home run. We're going to make an awesome clip, Everyone hyping it up A compilation of all the times people have said Jong's is awesome, and then they're like no thanks. They're literally. Just to be clear, they're the only people I've reached out to who have turned us down.

The only ones Like dang Okay, but okay, how many potholes did you hit on your way over here today? I didn't hit any. Look at that there we go.

I did not hit any on the way over here today. Let's go Perfect. I just swerved around them.

Okay, there it is, there it is.

You knew exactly where they were.

Favorite coffee shop Circle, circle, yeah you sounded so disappointed when you said well, I feel like that's everybody's favorite.

It's the standard answer. Now, yeah, I feel like that's, but I can't go there all the time because I usually go to coffee shops to work. Yeah, if you're going into circle, coffee man yeah, you know, everybody right because everybody's there. Yeah, you're not getting anything done you don't get anything.

You could have said like uh, pizzagles, I feel like that's a place I I do go to pizzagles aegos a lot.

Yeah, For a while I was going. Every Saturday morning I'd meet with a bunch of guys and we'd hang out.

I remember the first time, when I first moved to Topeka, you were like hey, come to Pizegos. I was like what the heck is the word you just said?

I think I like it so much because that was my first reaction when I moved out here is I got invited and I the little mini things you buy in the freezer aisle, the pizza, bagels, bagel bites Is that a physique? Yeah, uh, any others for him? Uh, where can people find you at? Are you on social media? How, if someone wanted to get home inspection, how could they reach out to you?

Yeah, reach out to me, um, through my Facebook, through my business Facebook Beeler inspectionscom, uh or Beler inspections cocom, uh. You can schedule straight through the website or you have my phone number, email on there. Reach out however you want. Oh, and what uh?

what's your gym routine right now?

Gym routine. Okay, do you guys know who Chris Bumstead is?

No, come on. I mean, you told me about him, but I didn't know about him until you told me Okay.

So he's Mr Olympia, I think six times or close to that. I don't know much about his record, but he's jacked and so I'm just doing his gym routine.

Nice.

And you know, I'm hoping I can get to his level without the steroids.

but and for the viewers. I think it's an appropriate way to end this episode. I would like to take Alex on on an arm wrestling match live on camera.

Oh, yes, I forgot.

We talked about that let's go.

Let's do it. Okay, he has been taking steroids.

I've been on every steroid in the books. Bring it here. Are we taking this seriously?

Should I narrate?

Oh yeah, Commentate. Can we hold on to the table?

or no.

No, here I'll get out of the way, get out of the way, john, okay. All right, here, let's get away. Get that out of here Okay. John Okay, I want a nice clean fight. Fellas, I want a nice clean fight.

Oh, you got like interesting hand wrapping going on over there. I don't like what's going on here he's On three.

You can go on three. Ready One, two, three. He started on two. Let's go. Poor guy, it's because you stopped working out with me, that's true.

It's because you're not doing the Mr Olympian Alex Bueller with Bueller Inspections. Thanks for being here, buddy, I appreciate it.