Ep 052 - I Got a Guy: The Secret to Running Your Home Like a Pro

Welcome to Be a Smarter Homeowner Podcast, where you'll discover strategies to save money, save time, and be better organized in managing your largest financial asset and biggest expense, your home. Your hosts, John Bodrozic and Beth Dodson, who are co-founders of HomeZada, have been supporting homeowners for over 20 years. They are here to share with you their tips and suggestions, as well as interviews with industry experts. With the goal of helping you become a smarter homeowner. Now here's your hosts, John and Beth.

Well, everyone needs a trusted contact list for their homes, or I got a guy for that. That's my favorite line. This is Beth Dodson with HomeZilla, aka Be a Smarter Homeowner Podcast, and also with my other host John Bedrosian. John, I love this topic. I got a guy for that. I constantly say this. I got a guy for that. A contact list. How do you know what you need to track and who do you need to track within your contact list that helps you manage this beautiful entity of your home? Why don't you start by giving us some of your suggested list of people we need to track?

Yeah, that's such a great topic because, yes, we're all homeowners, but we have so many people that either helped us buy it, help us manage it, we want to talk to, uh, all these sort of people that, that come together to help us be better stewards of our home. So maybe I'll start at the beginning part of the process, right, which is usually when you buy your home, is when you've selected an insurance agent and a lender, mortgage lender, and maybe even the real estate agent that helped you buy the house, having their contact information readily available even after the close in case you have to renew your insurance or talk about your mortgage sort of issues. Just having that contact information from the initial home inspector that did the home inspection, all those sort of people would be important people to add to your contact list for each property you have.

Yeah. So those are basically the point of contact people that get you started into homeownership, wherever that journey is.

Yes.

Now let's talk service providers and contractors. So, you know, I'm particular about service providers and contractors. I actually track— yes, I'm going to say it— the contractors I like and the contractors I don't like. Because I've got friends who always ask me, who do you know who does this? Because I like quality work and I am willing to pay for quality work.

Yeah.

And so I track people from any kind of service contractor that I work with. So I've got people who clean my gutters and windows because I've got a lot of windows on my house and there's just a tall order to make happen. People who clean my dryer vent. Even though a lot of these are all one and the same, I still have that. I've got people who carpet clean because I love my carpets cleaned. I've got painters, plumbers. Yes, gotta have a plumber. I got several plumbers on speed dial. Um, I also track my electricians because I got several of those as well because I, you know, those are plumbing and electrician— electricity are 2 jobs that I Will not do myself. I just think someone being trained to do that is better. And then I've got handyman on call in my, my list of things. And then I've got full-on contractors, like contractors that do big jobs. And we've talked about it before. We talked about water damage in our house, and this is a really good example. I have plumbers that do smaller jobs.

Mm-hmm.

Because they're aging out of their practice and they don't want big jobs. But I've got full-on plumbing contractors that do larger jobs. And then I've got contractors that can perform big work. Even one point in time we had to resurface our pool. That's a big contracting job and you've got to find the right pool contractor to get that done.

Totally.

Another thing that I track, because I just think it's amazing, I track landscape contractors. So whenever you need to enhance the landscape or make modifications, whether it's tree trimming, which in California you have to have a different tree trimmer than a landscaper.

Mm-hmm.

And then even my tree trimmers don't do landscaping work like readjust lighting or readjust some sort of irrigation. And so I have a variety of different types of service providers and contractors depending on not only the type of work, but also the level or service of work, how big or small the project is, depending on their skillset and their desire to want to perform that job.

Yep, absolutely.

What else could you think about that we need to track in terms of contacts?

So when I think of a contact, usually, yeah, all of the things that we talked about, usually it's either an individual's name or a company name. With this category, it's what I call the utility and service providers for your house.

Mm-hmm.

Who are you getting your power from? Who are you getting your gas from? Who's your water provider? Who's your sewer company and garbage company? Now, most of those contacts may not have an individual, but it is a company. And it's oftentimes important to have that company because in our contact list, oftentimes you need to know what your account number is.

Yes.

Because essentially, if something, you know, I need to call my service provider or something, my internet service, my TV service, this, that, and the other. Well, what's your account number?

Right.

And if you don't have your account number with that contact, then you get stuck in the forever loop Of being on hold for half an hour because you can't type in your account number on the automated dial-in sort of thing.

Yes.

So having all of those what I call utility service providers as contact list along with the account number is hugely important to add to your contact list for your property.

Um, yeah. And then one of the other things I was thinking about is. 2 other categories, property protection contacts. So people, going back to what you were saying earlier, your insurance company, because you never know when you may have to file a claim. Your security company, if you've got a security system.

Sure.

Understanding that. And then, um, as it relates to property protection, it may also be some sort of legal counsel or something that you may have. Maybe you've got a set of lawyers that you may need to connect with, to reach out to. And so, I'm not saying everyone needs a lawyer, but you just never know. You just may need somebody on standby. And I've got a guy for that too. Yeah.

I mean, for people who own multiple homes, if they have rental properties or vacation homes, oftentimes it is a property manager. Maybe you even want the contact person of if it's a long-term renter, you know, having all that in sort of one.

Yeah.

And I think that we've talked about a lot of different categories of contacts, but also the dynamic of a lot of people will use their current, you know, phone or email system to store all those contacts. But then it's a personal preference. Some people love it because it's embedded with all their family and friends and people they went to high school with and people they love to travel with. Other people want to separate your property contact list from your rest of your life. So you just need to develop that segmentation process either in some sort of contact system that you use today, or that's what a lot of customers tell us why they love Homesota is because you can track all that contact information for each one of your properties inside of our system.

Yeah. And before we get to it, just A couple other things I want to indicate that I track, because I think it's fabulous. I track other financial and legal people in my system, from my estate attorneys to my accountants and everything else. But one of the other things I track, which I find interesting, is our properties sometimes come with HOAs. So I track the HOA company and contact information. Because oftentimes they have online portals, and I constantly don't can't remember that online portal. So I'll add it into my HomeZada account and say, "Okay, here's the link. Here's what I need to go to." Usually my system, my computer system remembers my password and my login, but I'll track that information in HomeZada to remember how do I pay my bill, contact my HOA should I have any. Updates or anything else going on. And then what type of information they're providing. Their website generally provides updates if it's not being mailed to you or emailed to you. And what does that look like so that I can stay on top of things? All HOA, correct?

I mean, you could even add to your contact list in terms of like emergency service providers. Oh yeah, local fire department, local police department, Building inspector, if you're doing a lot of remodel type stuff where you need to call for inspections. You know, there's even that sort of category of whatever local jurisdiction your house is in. You could build those contact lists because again, it's just one central place that you basically say, okay, I need to find something regarding my house and everybody is all there. Again, it makes it so much easier for the brain when everything is sort of located in one Yeah.

And one of the final things I want to talk about that I track, because I think it's super fun, I track my gate codes for my community.

Yep.

Because yes, I have one of those. And then in one of my other communities, I have a laundry code. Like if I need to use the big laundry room, I have that. I think it's brilliant. Like I think it's so brilliant. All these little codes that you may need that you don't need a passkey or something else, you just need a code. It's like brilliant.

What if you have a storage unit?

Same thing. Like, if you've got that or you work in an office building that you need a code to get in, all of that is worth it. Or an electronic key code to your own home. Like, all of that is in a central location. It just becomes really simple. And with— let's just talk about HomeZada, for instance. What are the types of information in a contact that we are tracking and that other homeowners can track. It doesn't mean they have to, means what they can track.

Yeah, I think the biggest thing is it's not just the contact list, but it's the ability to attach documents to that contact. So, right, when you sign up for a pool service company, maybe you signed an agreement with them. Well, you want to save that agreement with the contact for the pool service company. So you upload those, those, those contracts. You hired the pool service. I mean, sorry, you hired the company that does the pruning of your trees. Part of that vetting process is you may have wanted to get a copy of their insurance.

Yeah.

Because you don't want to deal with the sort of liability of somebody getting hurt on your property. So you want to make sure that the people that are coming to your property have the proper insurance coverage. That's another document that you could put up on there. Some people will even do research on some of the contractors for the bigger project of show me your current contractor's license, making sure that you still have a license to operate in the state or county that you're in and storing that information as a document. You could take that to the, I want to store the invoices and the proposals and all those other kinds of things.

Totally.

So having not only just the contact list of I need to call somebody to do something, But here are all the documents that I've saved as it relates to my relationship with that contact or business is probably the biggest benefit because these things are combined together.

Yeah, and so when it comes to benefits, we talk about the documents we can track with it, with all the other contact details. We talk about email, emails and websites that allow you to access that information really quickly. But when it comes to benefits, one, it takes the element of putting everything in your memory. I feel like that that's the biggest, one of the biggest benefits is to free that up because you don't have to memorize numbers anymore. Remember when we were kids, we had to memorize numbers, but nobody does that anymore. So you can, you don't have to worry about the memory retaining it. And you also don't have to hunt and peck to find who is that guy Or gal that I dealt with. You got a gal, right? And I've got it in my system. I know I got a guy, I got a guy, I got a gal, I got everybody for everything. And then tracking all those documents is also important because you can work with them to get updates and say, I've got this, I need the updates. But also one of the other benefits I also see and I also hear about from our customers and even friends and family is one person tends to deal with one section of the property either all of it or parts of it singularly, and then the other spouse or parties within the property do not have a clue what the other one is doing.

Right.

And so if anything should happen to that person, then that information isn't stuck in some system somewhere else. It's in a centralized location where everyone can access it, and then the smooth transition continues to move Easily, rather than people, family and friends trying to figure out what do we need to do. Do you see any other benefits to storing contacts in a central location to help people manage their property the easiest way they can?

Yeah, I think it kind of dovetails to a previous podcast that we talked about, which is calendaring, because oftentimes if you have a contact list And a home calendar, now you can combine the two. You can assign these contacts that are responsible for this task. So it's not just the list and the documents, but now it's like, well, the pool service guy's going to show up twice a month. So I want to make sure I calendar that, or the pruning guy's going to show up every fall, right? I'm calendaring that. So you're essentially tying the contact list to a calendaring system. over when and on what month and what day things— people are showing up to your house, that just becomes again very important in terms of that day-to-day management of your house, especially when you think about it over the course of, you know, a full year.

Yeah, I think that homeowners are— they own this home, but they're actually managing a network of people to help them actually manage and Keep the home operating properly and efficiently. So when it comes to contacts, what, what practical tip could we give people? We're going to give them a little task. What could they do over the next several months, next month, 30 days, that could get them to starting to gather their contacts in one central location?

I have tip 1.

Okay.

Basically, it's a little bit of a repeat over what you just said, right? Get the adults who own the home to sit with each other for 5 minutes to share their contact list that they each have a subset of for the house.

Oh, brilliant.

And combine it into one.

Oh, that's brilliant.

Because like you said, One person's got on their iPhone, like, these are the people, the pruner, trimmer, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. That person's on some sort of work trip and all of a sudden something happens at the house and the other person's like, I don't have the contact person. I can't get ahold of my other spouse.

Oh yeah.

So literally just getting the adults who are responsible for managing the home to spend 10 minutes together and figure out someplace to put one consolidated contact list for the house.

Yeah. And I think one of my tips is just put 5 of your contacts for recent maintenance tasks that you're going to need done in spring in one central location. Just 5. Just start somewhere and maybe do 5 a quarter or 5 a month.

Yeah.

Because there's probably a lot of people that most people work with and they don't think about it. And if they don't have a person, maybe that's the time where it's preventative. Sounds really weird because most of us are reactive when it comes to the house. It's preventative.

Yes.

You call your friends and you ask, hey, do you have a guy or a gal that does this? And this task may be plumbing, maybe landscaping, maybe lighting, whatever the case may be. And do they work in my area? And would you recommend them?

Right. Yeah.

Because the best, the best contractors are still getting their business from word of mouth. Correct. I mean, we have a painter, literally his entire business has been on word of mouth. Yeah. And he is busy all the time. All the time.

Yep.

And then, so anything else you'd like to add?

Hmm, no, I think we've covered it from what I thought was a good idea.

Yeah. So just to close out, every home has a team behind it. The smartest homeowners keep them organized. Like that. So we hope this podcast brings you more organization around the contacts and the people that help you run your home. And your network, and if you think anyone else needs to hear about this, please send this off to someone else. As ever, we ask you if you find this valuable, please subscribe and or like. And if you have more more want to know more information about HomeZada, please visit us at homezada.com. That's H O M E Z A D A dot com. And by all means, thank you so much for being here at Be a Smarter Homeowner Podcast, and we want to make you. Smarter Homeowner possible. Thank you.

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