Records & Real Estate Podcast
Preserving Memories in Music and Mortgages with Josh Jones
Join the conversation as Josh Jones, a mortgage maestro with a penchant for vinyl, spins tales from his collection and the loan industry. The nostalgia of a well-loved Sam Cooke record meets the stark realities of navigating mortgage complexities. We connect through melodies and memories, celebrating the art of preserving historical pieces that define our personal journeys, all while unraveling the threads of real estate investing and the altruistic efforts of the JM Foundation during the economic turmoil of 2009.
If you've ever pondered the delicate dance between finance and philanthropy, this episode waltzes you through our hands-on approach to helping local families in need. Discover the pitfalls to avoid when seeking a home loan and the human stories that accompany the bricks and mortar of property management. As we reflect on the nuances of building a mortgage career and the unpredictable nature of real estate investing, you'll find wisdom peppered with personal anecdotes from my early days as an investor to the lessons learned along the way.
Our storytelling journey doesn't shy away from the oddities and charms of Riverside Brookfield, where the love for record collecting and vibrant suburban life unite. Take a stroll down memory lane with us, discussing the influential chords of Neil Sedaka and Wes Montgomery, and wrap up with heartfelt reflections on the community spirit that weaves itself into the fabric of our lives, whether through music, mortgage, or the simple joy of local events and cuisine.
Have someone you think should be a guest on this podcast? Let us know! Email your suggestions over to: karen.sandvoss@berealtygroup.com, andrew.wendt@berealtygroup.com
Connect with Karen and Andrew at Be Realty: Be Realty Group
Email the Show: karen.sandvoss@berealtygroup.com
Guest: Josh Jones, Loan Depot
Link: The JM Foundation
Link: Sam Cooke’s career began in Pine Bluff | The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Link: Sam Cooke - Wikipedia
Link: Riverside, IL
Link: Wes Montgomery
Join the conversation as Josh Jones, a mortgage maestro with a penchant for vinyl, spins tales from his collection and the loan industry. The nostalgia of a well-loved Sam Cooke record meets the stark realities of navigating mortgage complexities. We connect through melodies and memories, celebrating the art of preserving historical pieces that define our personal journeys, all while unraveling the threads of real estate investing and the altruistic efforts of the JM Foundation during the economic turmoil of 2009.
If you've ever pondered the delicate dance between finance and philanthropy, this episode waltzes you through our hands-on approach to helping local families in need. Discover the pitfalls to avoid when seeking a home loan and the human stories that accompany the bricks and mortar of property management. As we reflect on the nuances of building a mortgage career and the unpredictable nature of real estate investing, you'll find wisdom peppered with personal anecdotes from my early days as an investor to the lessons learned along the way.
Our storytelling journey doesn't shy away from the oddities and charms of Riverside Brookfield, where the love for record collecting and vibrant suburban life unite. Take a stroll down memory lane with us, discussing the influential chords of Neil Sedaka and Wes Montgomery, and wrap up with heartfelt reflections on the community spirit that weaves itself into the fabric of our lives, whether through music, mortgage, or the simple joy of local events and cuisine.
Have someone you think should be a guest on this podcast? Let us know! Email your suggestions over to: karen.sandvoss@berealtygroup.com, andrew.wendt@berealtygroup.com
Connect with Karen and Andrew at Be Realty: Be Realty Group
Email the Show: karen.sandvoss@berealtygroup.com
Guest: Josh Jones, Loan Depot
Link: The JM Foundation
Link: Sam Cooke’s career began in Pine Bluff | The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Link: Sam Cooke - Wikipedia
Link: Riverside, IL
Link: Wes Montgomery
Welcome to Records and Real Estate, a podcast about well, records and real estate. You'll be entertained and informed as we explore the intersection of these two worlds through interviews with Chicago's most interesting and successful people from both industries.
Speaker 2:That was Andrew Wendt and I'm Karen Sanvas. We are Chicago real estate brokers, property managers, avid music lovers and your hosts of Records and Real Estate. Hi, karen, hi Andrew.
Speaker 1:We just chatted with Josh Jones. Yes, we did. Yeah, it's just a veritable encyclopedia of knowledge about the mortgage industry.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's one of those things that you know. I've done a little bit of the buying and selling from the broker standpoint, you know, real estate broker, and then there's this guy that does the loans and it's just sort of the guy that you call on the phone and they do all this stuff in the background. You have no idea really what's going on and they just call you like okay, we're ready to close. Great, great, what just happened? Yeah, and to hear sort of the. You know, pull the curtain back and see how the sausage is made. It was fun. I would love to have him back and talk even more about this process.
Speaker 1:We go on and on stories and learn about the process.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and some pitfalls. So if you're looking to buy a house, he'll show you some tips and tricks.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, it was a really good educational episode. We actually focused mostly on real estate this time around, which is nice and refreshing.
Speaker 2:That's right, so we're going to call this episode Real Estate and Records.
Speaker 1:So we redo the logo too.
Speaker 2:I think so Just flip it around, just flip it 180. Photoshop.
Speaker 1:Anyway.
Speaker 2:I'd say want to start.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's get into it. Okay. Well, we're here with Josh Jones today. Thanks for joining us, Josh. Appreciate it.
Speaker 3:I love that I'm here today, yeah yeah, we're happy to have you.
Speaker 1:Josh and I are good buddies. Our wives know each other well. Well, you also know my wife Well. You went to college with her.
Speaker 3:Yes, I mean, we're talking 20 years ago. She was an Elf Fee, I was a Theta Chi and I was the house sweetheart of the alpha fees. Okay, I got to know everyone. I got to eat over there. That was huge. They had a really nice air-conditioned house. Frat houses were sweat boxes at U of I. So, yeah, better food over there, much better food, much better food, much better cook.
Speaker 2:Why did they have air conditioning and you didn't? You know?
Speaker 3:they just had a really nice house. Their cook a lot less cigarettes in their food than it was ours, wow. So they had a really good taco Tuesday. So I enjoyed that and I spent a lot of time over there and I got to see people. I had one of the privileges where I was allowed to at least be upstairs. I'd still have to be gone by like 10 at night where non-house sweethearts had to leave by nine. So it was like I got an extra hour out there to hang out with now my wife Michelle, so it was really nice.
Speaker 3:But yeah, a lot of us became lifelong friends.
Speaker 2:That's really sweet.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a good group of people that we get to hang out with a lot. Well, now that we have that introduction out of the way, we're here at Records and Real Estate and Josh, we recently had a guest that stated that the Sam Cooke Live at Harlem Square Club was one of the best concert albums ever. And I know you're a Sam Cooke friend or a fan. I should say You're not a friend.
Speaker 3:I would be pretty old, but the way Sam Cooke passed, we will talk about that. So that is an interesting story.
Speaker 2:I don't know that story.
Speaker 3:I was not there, but You've heard.
Speaker 1:Yes, Do you have that live concert in your in your album collection?
Speaker 3:I have a lot of Sam cook albums. I love the fifties and sixties but like Sam's music is is some of the best music you can hear like from like a chain gang, and a lot of those songs and a lot of the artists at that time would just cover and cover his stuff and when you hear it, so like the albums I have are his greatest hits albums. It's really hard to find those albums Like. You have to look hard, you got to pay a real pretty penny Right, and sometimes you get those records and they're not in good shape either. So sometimes you have to buy the reproductions Right, right, right, and they're good though, but the music is just so good Nice.
Speaker 1:Tell us a little bit about your collection, because you know, I don't remember the entire story, but you have this old, beautiful sort of vinyl and stereo cabinet that you had refurbished.
Speaker 3:I would say, right, yes, so I have this Montgomery Ward 19,. I think we had it dated it was about 1958 to 1962 range. It has a record player, an eight track, and it has this old radio in it, and so it sat in my grandfather's three flat in Berwyn where he has lived since 1955. Wow, and so it was actually my mother's too, who isn't with us anymore, but she bought it, but it was old at the time when she bought it. She bought it, but it was old at the time when she bought it. Okay, so, like he believes, he's like I think we've had this since like the mid 60s. So like they bought an older version. It was hers, and so it sat there and it was just basically like everyone would throw all this junk on it. Right, right, right, fast forward. It was 2015.
Speaker 3:He was selling his home. Okay, he was at that age. He's still alive. Now he's 97. Oh, wonderful. And he's like, hey, I'm going to sell this. And I'm like can I just have it? And he's like it doesn't work, it hasn't worked in, you know, 30 years.
Speaker 3:So I kept it in a storage unit until I moved into my new house where I'm at now, and so I had this record player and I was like I got to find a way to refinish it because it means a lot to me, it means a lot to the family. So I found this company in New York, so I took this thing, I boxed it up. It cost me $700 to ship this to New York, and so they were nine months behind though. So it sat there for nine months. I completely forgot about it. It comes back, it's restored, it's beautiful, it works.
Speaker 3:Well, I thought it worked as they were taking it off the truck. The guys like hit the side of their truck as they were taking it off, and when I plug it in, it's like this sound which you heard, that sound. I was like, andy, you got to help me with this thing. So I was like I can't ship it back to New York. They felt really, really bad, and so I managed to find a local guy here after calling all these vintage I was calling vintage computer shops, radio shops, going on all these Facebook groups and the guy came out. He came out to the house and he's like oh, you just got to put this wire back. He opened up the back and it was fixed. So now this and it is. It sounds like probably how it would have in the early 60s. It sounds, it's cool and I love playing 50s and 60s records.
Speaker 1:Nice, yeah, yeah, it's a beautiful piece of art really. I love it. It's certainly Americana, and do some of your records come from your grandpa and your mom, from your grandpa and your mom, or so I have.
Speaker 3:From my other side of my family. We I had a grandma who collected all these old records from like jim neighbors who was the andy griffith show gomer pile was his name. So you have, you have all that otis, redding, ray, charles and so I have a lot of old records like that. And then over the I just started trying to buy those older records, but it's really hard to find in good shape, right. These things are 50, 60, 70 years old. So a lot of the records I started to buy are just the reprint of them, and it helps because you don't know the quality of the records you are getting when you buy them out there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean, there's a lot of vinyl aficionados who want the originals but a lot of them just want, you know, good sounding records. Yeah, Just to hear the music. No, I love it, Do you? I mean you, you, you know from the years that we've gotten to know each other a bit. You do have like a strong connection to family. Was that part of the impetus to have this cabinet refurbished? Was, you know, sort of keeping your family history?
Speaker 3:alive a little bit. I think that when it comes to pieces of furniture and people's family right Like, to the outside world it could be worth nothing, or it could be worth a couple bucks Right, but to you it's like, oh, if this is a connection to your mother who's no longer there, or this was the centerpiece to where people ate meals and dinners, and so like, to me that piece of furniture is going to be worth, worth well more than anyone that it would ever pay me for it. Now, there's no there, there's no price. I could ever part with it, because when you hear that, you could be like, oh my god, my, you know, grandfather, my grandmother, my mother was listening to this same record player at the same time. It's like the old saying that if you're looking at the moon and someone you know across the country is, you guys are looking at the same moon, and when, when you think like that, you're like, oh my God, they heard music out of these speakers the way I'm hearing music. So it's a really cool connection, nice.
Speaker 2:What is the affiliation with you or why are you so attracted to 50s and 60s?
Speaker 3:I actually think a lot of it has to do with two things. One my father. I grew up on oldies. A lot of it has to do with two things. One my father. I grew up on oldies 104.3.
Speaker 3:If anyone ever, ever, uh, remember that Dick Biondi, dick Biondi, uh, uh, WJMK, um, and so like listening to like, uh, blueberry Hill, and like all these songs, uh, fats domino at that time and uh, the platters, and like it feels like my childhood. And the other thing is like I love the 50s where it was kind of the first birth of like it felt like the first birth of like capitalism and business and like the cadillac and all these cars. That was like just really cool and so it now it seems like we are kind of a throw, like a throwaway culture, and so back then it's like you still have all these classic cars that exist from that time period where, like it's just big, beautiful pieces of work. The music was, it was the birth of, you know, r&b and pop music. It was coming out of the 30s and 40s, which was like country folk, and now you're coming into R&B and the blending of cultures and it was just it's like a really cool time. So I've always liked that.
Speaker 2:That's cool. We have a book you should read from a previous guest, Mark Reno, who wrote a book of the history of country music in Chicago and it talks about that gap or that bridge that you're talking about of country music and how it led to kind of everything and it was put on the map with Chicago and the radio stations. That's cool.
Speaker 1:I think he's actually the guest that posited that the Sam Cooke live album was the best live album. Swinging back could be wrong about that sam cook.
Speaker 3:All right, so yeah, the story on how sam cook died. He died at the age of, I think, 33. So the story is and this actually has to do with the time that it was he was in la and he was with a uh, lady of the night in a hotel room who robbed him and he was running out of the hotel room to chase her down and the hotel manager saw and thought he was attacking her due to the timing and I think that was like 62-ish or something. But he was really young. He would have been like another ray charles, just like great music upon great great music, um, but he was murdered and then it went to trial and it was deemed that the hotel manager was a justifiable homicide at the time.
Speaker 3:So like just someone cut down in his prime for just, but at that time he still had like 30 number ones. Right, like he was, he would be our like you know, taylor swift of right, like with with that many number ones, beyonce, it's like right, it's crazy, wow I didn't know that, I had no idea.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's really sad.
Speaker 3:It's super sad and and it just wrong place, wrong time. And they thought era, yeah, wrong era. They thought he was attacking the woman and, of course, and he got killed. Yeah, right, yeah, but his music lives on for sure, that's true yeah, what.
Speaker 2:What could he have done, had he lived longer?
Speaker 3:oh my god, I mean he would. He would have had a hundred hits. I mean you have even from the same area. Uh, neilaka, right, like his music. If you Google his name and you play his stuff, you're going to know all of his music. And he's still around today. Yeah yeah, sirius Radio 50s, gold, channel 72. That's literally always on in my car, too Nice, I love that era.
Speaker 1:So, speaking of families and connection to families, you and your wife have a foundation, jm Foundation. Yes, josh and Michelle Foundation. That is yes, josh and Michelle, and tell us a little bit about that, because you guys help out specific families each year right, yeah.
Speaker 3:So back in 2009, we started the JM Foundation. It was kind of right after the housing crash happened and you started seeing people who were losing their homes. People really started having financial problems, and so we said, hey, you know, if there's something we can do to maybe help on the local level right, we all have the Red Cross and all those other things and so I said, hey, why don't we start a foundation? We don't really know how to start a foundation, but we know we want to help, and so the premise was to help people who fell in between, who fell in between. So there's a lot of Americans who, where they they, you know, make just enough to get no benefits, but they make too much. Where they might not get their kids, might not get free lunch at school, they have rent, they have, you know, 2.2 cars, 2.2 kids and they're just barely surviving.
Speaker 3:So we adopt 10 families around the holidays and we talk to the families, we work with local agencies to make sure we're getting qualified families, but everything is local, within like a 10 mile radius of Riverside Brookfield area. And then we talk to the families. We say, hey, what do your kids need? And then we raise funds from, from people, typically private donations. We've had some grade schools who did some concerts and benefits, and we were, and they made large donations to us, which then we in turn donate out us, which then we in turn donate out.
Speaker 3:But our job is, if we can feed and clothe and give these families basic needs and goods, and we provide them for a couple months, maybe we don't see them again, maybe we get them through that hard part that they're going through. So we took the idea of the Christmas basket that people just drop off and just kind of blew it up and said we're going to give you a hundred Christmas baskets and we're going to spend, you know, a thousand dollars per family around the holidays. Get, get some kids that you know, one nice present and get a bunch of food, paper towels, toiletries, you name it. We were doing it and so you guys have been part of that, A lot of people have been a part of that, and we pack the food around the holidays, we go to these people's houses, we hug and kiss them and it's just a great thing.
Speaker 3:So yeah this is now our 14th year.
Speaker 2:14th year, 14 years, so you look to other people to find these families. Is that how you?
Speaker 3:pick them.
Speaker 3:We have some local agencies who we work with.
Speaker 3:Our biggest one is CAEL, and so it's Chicago Area Alternative Education League, and so this league is ran by one of our good friends, sarah Lorenzi, and so she works with a lot of local families and kind of I don't want to say the troubled youth, but more of the just kind of the kids who are falling in between, like they're not, they're not doing well in the regular schools.
Speaker 3:So now they're with this, with this program, and so a lot of their families need help, and so we get some of the families there. And then it started out we would work with the local town hall, but we kind of realized the local town halls and the village halls just didn't know their families the way we thought they would. So we had to go and then, and then we work with and we also work with a guidance counselor at a special needs school too, nice, and so with those two we have plenty of people to, you know, choose from. We don't do the thing like, hey, can you help my friend? You know, like we really want to make sure our money and other people's money is going to good use, right, it's very important.
Speaker 1:That's smart. I mean it's, it would it's. It's a lot of work. I'm sure in and of itself would even be more work if you had to track down the worthy recipients. You know that's the hardest thing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it used to be. We would deliver to these families and and some people would say, oh my God, did you see their flat screen TV? And I kind of used to feel like that too. And then I got to a point where where I realized if that one or two nice things make makes them feel normal or okay, right, who cares? Right, because you know you can't even buy a lousy TV anymore. If you want a TV, it's going to be a flat screen TV. It is what it is.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 3:So like that's where, just finding the good families, the people who really need it. You know, we had a lot of. We had two kids with cancer this year and so we were able to do some nice things for them. So it was really great.
Speaker 1:So you guys have, you know an event, but if people wanted to make a donation to the foundation, but if people wanted to make a donation to the foundation, they could, or yes, yes, so, um, we have the jam, the jam foundationorg, and then we also have Facebook, instagram, the jam foundation.
Speaker 3:You can go there and it has all of all of our information on there to donate. We are always accepting donations. Obviously, most of our money comes in around the holidays. And then we also have a big bingo event coming up in April where we're going to have about 250 people. We place bingo, prizes, cash bar, and that's going to be at Asciana Banquet Halls in. I want to say that's Lombard, but our good buddy owns that place, so we're going to be doing it over there.
Speaker 2:That's really cool, that's great. Do you get to follow up with the families or how? What happens after that, After you drop off the baskets?
Speaker 3:There are some families we make lifelong connections with. So, like there is, one of the families ended up, I really took a liking to one of the older sons who wanted to be in business, so I had him intern with me for a couple of years and then he went off to college at Milliken, which was really, really great the first person in his family to do that. And then we've had other families who we've stayed in touch with, where they send us progress reports and then sometimes during the year, like hey, my son wants to play this or my daughter wants to do dance it's 350 dollars, do you know anyone? And so we'll kind of come together and say like we're going to pay for that because we don't want your children missing out on on experiences just for money. Right, if it's something to enrich them.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 3:And then there's some families. We wish we knew what happened to them, but they just kind of moved out of the area.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 3:And that's it.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 3:And maybe they're okay. Yeah, and maybe they're okay. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Nice, very cool.
Speaker 1:Well, let's switch gears a little bit Not a little bit, maybe a lot of it and talk about mortgages. Do you know anything about mortgages? I might know a thing or two about mortgages.
Speaker 3:How long have you been doing mortgages? So this is my 19th year. I started when I was 22 years old. Wow, I'm 41 now. It's the only kind of real job that I've ever known anything about mortgages, except that if you wanted to start a business, you wanted to buy a house, you wanted to kind of grow wealth, you needed a loan. And so I figured, like you know real estate, I read in college like it's a big part of the economy. So, uh, you know, that's kind of how I got into it. I started out as an assistant for a couple loan officers who did some mortgages, and one was really mean but he took control of the deal, and the other one was kind of just chill, relaxing, probably enjoyed marijuana a little too much, and his clients loved him too. So I was like all right, let's try to be like the stern nice guy and let's see if that works and it did Nice.
Speaker 1:You found your way to connect, your own personal way to connect with yes.
Speaker 3:I learned from two other successful people, but I said well, why don't?
Speaker 2:we just tweak that a little bit yeah Nice. If you were going to give somebody coming up. You know another 22 year old advice about being a loan officer what would you say?
Speaker 3:You have to have the business owner spirit. If you're not self-driven in any of these positions, right? Real estate agent, mortgage lender, even a lawyer, right? Just because you became a lawyer doesn't mean all of a sudden you're a great lawyer. You just passed the bar, right? And I'm not saying that's hard or easy, okay, so I'm not saying either of that. But you have to be willing to learn and build your business. But also, nowadays, it seems like the information component is what is winning. So you know, 22 year old me, you have to say you've got to be all in. You can't be like in for the commission or trying to make some money or being, like you know, the dealer, you know making all this stuff. You have to be there to be a provider of economic advice, integrity for the long haul. You don't want to just do this one transaction, you want to do everything.
Speaker 3:You want to do their next 20 transactions. So that's where the business has changed. But, yeah, a 22-year-old might be like what are you even talking?
Speaker 2:about.
Speaker 3:I just want to make money, but it is a great industry. Yeah, for sure, for sure.
Speaker 1:So how has it changed a bit, I mean from when you guys started. Is it harder, is it easier? Just change it's change bit. I mean it, you know, from when you guys started, is it? Is it harder? Is it easier just change, it's change the.
Speaker 3:The market crashing of 2009, in my opinion, was a, was a cleansing of the industry, like how a lot of recessions and pullbacks are. It kind of gets out the garbage, it gets out the junk of the industry, and so before then, it was actually a lot harder to even try to get a deal or have real estate agents talking to you divorce attorneys, insurance agents, whatever it may be because they're always like I got it, I already have someone, I already have someone Fats. Like there was police officers, cab drivers, they were all mortgage lenders. You would get in a cab and the guy would be talking to me. He's like oh, if you need a loan, I'm like I just got in this industry, you know, because no one did Uber back then you hopped in the cabs, that's right. Because no one did Uber back then you hopped in the cabs, that's right.
Speaker 3:So, and then you fast forward and it like cleanses it out and the mortgage industry did a 180 where anything you knew was done and you had to relearn. Yeah, and that happened several times and then, most recently, it happened in COVID. Again, the guidelines changed again. So, like I jokingly say, you know, I've been in the industry like four or five years, right times, and then most recently it happened in covet again the guidelines changed again. So, like I jokingly say, you know I've been in the industry like four or five years right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, even though it's been 19, it's all I've ever done. There always seems to be an industry reset. Yeah, and so that, like I love tough markets because the goods survive and the people who are going to complain and whine and say, man, I remember when, yeah, I do too, but it's not there.
Speaker 3:I remember the fifties the big old cars right now they're all crazy now and so like that's just where the world is. But yeah, it's, it's been. If you're not involved in the information and the guidelines, it's really hard to do to take care of every client now.
Speaker 1:And you mean like learning the information and what goes into sort of underwriting loans and just being on top of the industry as a whole.
Speaker 3:Absolutely Like. Why? Why is there inflation? Why are interest rates higher? You can't just say rates are higher People know rates are higher.
Speaker 2:How did we get?
Speaker 3:there, and so if you can explain that, it doesn't become about, well, that person across the street has $100 lower in fees. That's gone Right. The same way like if you're having furniture delivered to your house, I don't care if the delivery fee is $100 or $200. Who's going to show up on time, not beat up my walls and deliver the furniture in the same condition that I bought it in, right, right, right, that's what's important, not, well, you know that place can deliver it for $50 cheaper, right, right, you know. That's kind of, I think, where the real estate world has now gone and mortgage world and a lot of worlds are moving towards it's service, not Are you seeing sort of a contraction after last year, with transaction volumes being down a bit?
Speaker 3:being down a bit. It's, I would say that the deals now and the transactions going on now the perfect credit, great down payment deals those are very few and far between. Now it's people coming out of a pandemic. You know what. They paid some bills late, you know, because they didn't change their spending habits. Now they might have spent all of their savings, so they don't have a large down payment anymore. How do I take their situation and get them in the lending box? I don't care if you're just in the corner, I just got to get you in there to get you a loan. And so that's where knowing of the programs has really kind of changed. Right, right, right, you have to. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So thank you for all of that really good information, which is what I expected when I invited you on. What about some stories where a client of yours maybe learned a lesson in the process of getting their loan pushed through? And I guess, like, maybe, and so like, this is an education bit right for our perspective buyers out there, where somebody went through something that, um, you know, surprised them and surprised you, so so a listener can learn from that experience.
Speaker 3:So they're having to go through it themselves. Yes, so there are two stories that I always tell when I'm asked, cause they are forever and I do like 200 loans a year. So like just know that these two stories, out of all the 19 years, stay with me the most. So the first story is I call it the furniture story, a lot of furniture here.
Speaker 2:We started with furniture.
Speaker 3:We started with furniture and so the story is it's a husband and wife and they had four kids buying the first place. So excited. So you do the whole loan stuff. You know, you get their income documents, you make sure they're good, they go put an offer on a place, they win the bid, everything's great, fast forward. We get what's called the clear to close, which just means your loan's done. Hey, you're closing in a couple of days. Everything's done, we're going to get all the final numbers together. They're so excited.
Speaker 3:It's Memorial weekend. I get a call on Tuesday. There's a final let's call it a soft credit check, make sure no new debt shows up. And my processor says, hey, josh, for that loan that's closing tomorrow, there's a new $350, let's say it was 350, maybe it was a little more loan from Darwin Furniture. I'm like, hmm, okay, that's a problem. We were barely qualifying as it is.
Speaker 3:So I called them up and I was like, hey, did you go and get a furniture loan out? And they said, yeah, you know it's Memorial Weekend. You get the Memorial Weekend sale. We wanted to buy all the furniture. We could get 10% off. I said, well, we got two options you return the furniture or you're going to have nice furniture and no home, so um the more so. So they returned the furniture right and so I'm assuming after closing they went and repurchased it under some agreement. But we had to, we had to. We couldn't meet closing because we had to get the furniture back. Prove that the note was canceled. And so the moral of that story I always tell people is that just during the loan process, no new debt, yeah, yeah, only if it's an absolute must. Like I'm driving down 294, which Laura, your wife, was, and she was driving my wife's car and the engine blew up and we get a call, she's at 295 I don't know why she took michelle.
Speaker 3:It was a very old car, by the way. Yeah, no, it was a. It was probably like a 1995 mitsubishi lancer, you know perfect.
Speaker 3:If you talk to la, she's going to remember that. Yeah, of course, and the engine blew out. So if that happens and it's an absolute must and there's no other way, talk to your lender and just say, hey, I have to do this. But if you're like at Kohl's and you want to save your 10% on your get your Kohl's cash, you might have to just wait to open that kohl's credit card till afterwards. So no new debt what's the um?
Speaker 2:what's the process on the back end for you? When it is a must, you know, the engine blows and they have to spend some money. Yeah, what do you do?
Speaker 3:so it's I I always preface them with. We're going to need a bunch of paperwork because odds are that that debt might not show up exactly how it's supposed to look, with your payment and everything on your credit report. And a lot of times we don't want to pull a brand new credit report because if the score changes all of a sudden, the whole loan changes.
Speaker 3:And that's how things happen in the 11th hour changes all of a sudden, the whole loan changes and that's how things happen in the 11th hour. So, like, if you have to do it, keep a copy of your paperwork. What your note is how much the payment is, because we're going to need all that if it's a must. And there's been people who are like well, I had to open up the credit card, okay Well, did you get the credit card agreement? No, it's online. Okay Well, you got to go find it. We got to calculate what it is. What did you charge? There might not be a payment yet. I have to auto-calculate that. Then we have to verify it. So there's all this extra paperwork, that saving your lender headache, saving you the headache, just only if it's an absolute must.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would say that the average person probably really doesn't know that I mean unless they're specifically told.
Speaker 3:you know no, it's, it's because you do your day-to-day life. Yeah, loans, yeah, you're like, okay, I'm done with my loan or I'm getting a loan. I'm, you know, qualified. Well, I was always planning to go trade my you know leased car in for another lease car. Well, your lease payment now went up $500, right, like, so like, and those are the hardest things. It's really hard to return a lease cars. So, like, don't do that. Whenever I see someone has a lease, I'm like, oh my God Cause, you just can't ever get away from it, even with a note from your lender. Well, you can. But there's like, let's say, if you had $8,000 left on a car and you had a car payment of 500 bucks and you needed that $500 gone, you could, in theory, pay off that car. But if you have a lease, you can't pay off a lease.
Speaker 2:Really, I've never leased a car. I don't know how it works, because if you lease, a car.
Speaker 3:you're just prepaying your lease, but when that lease is up you don't own the car. You have to release another car to drive.
Speaker 3:So when people are like, oh, I'll just pay off the lease, I'm like, no, you're actually just prepaying the lease. It's like if you rent an apartment, I just prepaid for five months. When that five months is up, you're still going to have rent. Same thing. And so that's why, like, leasing is really tough in the lending world, and so it's it's, but if you own a car or you're almost on the car, then it's a little bit easier.
Speaker 3:Interesting, okay, what's the second story? Second story was 2010. And this was a. They were buying a foreclosure Great deal. It was in Naperville, so I didn't know this. Apparently, the real estate agents in this. They got in a heated fight because one of the heat, one of the real estate agents, wanted the home for themselves. Let's say, the home was like 240. The appraised value came back at like 410. My client ended up getting it and I was doing the loan for it. Well, the day before closing they're trying to do the final walkthrough and they can't get into the property because the listing agent who was trying to buy this foreclosure for themselves took all of the lockbox keys.
Speaker 3:So the buyer I don't even know why I did this, but the buyer was like hey, josh, I'm on my way to closing. Do you think you can go by the house? I remember the side garage door was opened and I was like, okay, well, what am I? He's like, just, you know, tell me, the inside looks okay. And I was like, ah, this isn't my world, like I'm a mortgage person. I was like, but I will do this for you. So I go there and you know, cell phones are relatively new. It's 2010 and he didn't have a cell phone. So I called up the closing and I said, hey, I'm not going to say his name because it's a very unique name. Did you have a pool in your house? And he's like no, and I'm like I'm not kidding, like no, and I'm like I'm not kidding, the water upstairs is running. There's water running down the stairs. And I open like as soon as you walked in the house, I smelled water. You know, like like dampness, yeah, I have never seen in this house.
Speaker 3:The basement was 2700 square feet. Picture four feet. And I know this because and I'll explain why four feet of ice, cold water, oh my god, through the whole basement. Oh, wow, just imagine what that looks like. So like you're talking all the electrical, all the hvac, the water tank, you name it. And so he was like I'm gonna call a plumber, because obviously we didn't have FaceTime back then. Like whatever we did, it didn't exist. So he called the plumber. I don't know why I did this. I waded in the water with the plumber. Now, looking back, I was like what if there was live electrical?
Speaker 1:Yeah right. We would be having a very different guest today.
Speaker 3:But the water was so cold. He still went through with the purchase because he got such a great deal on the place, because it appraised so much higher. So the moral of this story is don't get in a fight with the listing agent, did she?
Speaker 1:or he or they like sabotage.
Speaker 3:Yes, what they believe is two days, because it was probably two days before the final walkthrough. He did like the wet bandits from Home Alone and put rags in the upstairs master bath and their hallway bath and then turned on the water, took the lockbox keys and left.
Speaker 2:Oh my God, that's terrible.
Speaker 3:And so those are the two stories. I always say like hey, just in the transaction, always treat everyone with with respect you know this is the home you want to buy. You don't want someone like putting a old fish thing in the vents and like treat everyone with respect. Yeah, yeah, like, like, so, so, like that's kind of oh, you know, I'm so upset with the seller, don't say anything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Because if you make them mad, they might do something. Yeah, vice versa Most people are respectful. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Most people don't take it to that extent, so yeah.
Speaker 2:And also do a walkthrough. Do a walkthrough Before the close through.
Speaker 3:Do a lot for the clothes. Yeah, yeah, don't send your mortgage guy either. Well, I mean, thank god they did?
Speaker 1:yes, I was, I guess. I guess it didn't matter, he was still gonna close anyways.
Speaker 3:But like he felt something was off. Yeah and that's why I was like why are you asking me to go there? But he apparently knew something happened yeah he, he felt it it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, trust your gut, yeah, wow.
Speaker 1:So what recommendations do you have for, like first time home buyers when they're trying to get started?
Speaker 3:Oh, I used to tell them you know, save as much money as you can, right, but nowadays down payment has become one of the least important factors in buying a home they have. It used to be the only 100 percent financing loan out. There was a VA loan If you were a veteran. Now you have normal people, 100 percent financing loans you have one percent down.
Speaker 3:Really so yeah, so, so, so. So the best advice I could give someone is pay your bills on time, take care of your you know credit and get used to paying a higher payment than what your rent is actually going going.
Speaker 3:It makes a lot of sense because you know it's the old saying was rent like own for what you pay rent, yeah, if you were renting for you know, twenty five hundred dollars. But if your rent's a thousand, right, unless you're buying a fifty thousand dollar condo somewhere right, you got to get used to paying. Paying that higher rent, right, pay your bills on time, take care of your credit and for your like work. Work as much as you can.
Speaker 1:If your job's offering you overtime, take it, do that Same sort of advice or different advice when you're just getting into real estate investing?
Speaker 3:So real estate investing I love real estate investors, I own a handful of buildings and so, from commercial to residential, when it comes to that, down payment becomes key. There's programs out there where you could buy low down payment for four units and under, but when you get into the five unit and above world, you really need the 20, 25, 30% down payments. So, if that's the case, be diligent about saving your money Because, yeah, I mean owning a 12-unit building, owning a 20-unit building, that's where you can really do well for that cash flow for the future. But it's harder to buy them, which is why you don't see them sell as much. But yeah, I mean for commercial investors, you have to save money because the down payment is going to be king on that one.
Speaker 1:How did you get into the real estate investing world?
Speaker 3:My first piece of real estate that I owned was a six flat commercial building in Brookfield. I still own it to this day. Residential apartments six units. It was back in the day before the market crashed. I was actually still in college. Wow, I was a fifth year college student.
Speaker 1:Are you saying that this is when you could get a loan with the signature?
Speaker 3:I might be saying that. I might be saying that when you could do a 5% down commercial loan.
Speaker 1:Well, good for you for still hanging on to it.
Speaker 3:And I was kind of just learning as I was going. And then, you know, the market crashed a little bit, but then interest rates came down. I refinanced into a normal loan. I took a building that at the time was getting maybe 3,500 a month rent and over a five-year period I was able to get it up to about 5,500. And now it's about it's about as high as it's going to be, maybe like 6,200, 6,300. And in like in seven years now it's finally paid off. So, but that that was a different time. But that was my first place. And then my parents, when I graduated college, they gave me like two months at home. They're like you own a six flat and you live in a 10 by 10 bedroom with your parents. You're out, you know what you're doing. So I had to. By then I was working.
Speaker 3:So you know, then I had to buy my house, which I bought in 2005, which real estate was only going to go one way from there. There wasn't a crash going to happen. Real estate was going to go up and up, and I still own that house to this day that I do rent out as well, good, any fun stories?
Speaker 1:Is there a landlord story?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I do, the one that comes to mind, just call him, mr Ray. It was November 15th. I'll never forget the day. It was a eight flat that I recently acquired in 2008. Okay, eight, okay. And I owned a building for maybe two or three months at that time.
Speaker 3:And so I get a call on a Thursday and it was one of the tenants who said hey, you know, apartment unit I think it was four apartment unit for the TV is really really loud. I'm like okay, so I call up Mr A. Hey, I talked to him. Can you just keep the like? I don't. I don up MrA. Hey, I talked to him. Can you just keep the like? I don't, I don't like those calls. I just like I like normal calls, plumbing right, stuff like that, not like someone's being loud, like, oh my god, what did I get into. And then I get a call the next day hey, the TV's loud, right. I'm like I call up Mr A. He doesn't answer. And I'm like well, I called them. I left the message Fast forward.
Speaker 3:A couple days, days later, it's November 15th, all that happened before it's November 15th and I get a call from the same tenant. Hey, like, the TV has been blaring all weekend. I'm like okay, whatever. So I go over there. I'm banging on the door like super upset, right, like I'm go over there I'm banging on the door like super upset, right, like I'm just, you know, I just want to relax, right?
Speaker 3:you know it's in the evening and I open up the door and he smoked. It's okay, I walk in there. I'm like ray, you in here. Mr ray I don't even know if that was his real name, but that's what I said in my mind. It was because I inherited all these tenants.
Speaker 3:So I, you know, haven't done anything, smoked, you know. So I'm walking. I walk into the kitchen, I look out of the corner of my eye and Mr Ray is dead wedged between the couch and his coffee table. Mr Ray and again, his name is not Mr Ray, but that's what I call him he was in his birthday suit With the TV blaring, the TV blaring, and so from when I first talked to him to that time, he had a heart attack. So I call up 911. Yikes.
Speaker 3:And I tell them, I say, hey, I found a deceased person. And they were like super, like, how do you know he's deceased? I was like, well, I'm not a doctor, but his feet are blue and certain things happen when you pass and body parts just let go. And I said so and they're like, well, can you feel for a pulse? I'm like he's no longer with us. But I understand that a coroner has to make that determination, as I am not one either. So the police come and as soon as they walk in, they're like, oh yeah, and so, as I'm sitting in the hallway and all this is going on, all the tenants are coming out. And I was like, oh, you know, he passed. Going on, all the tenants are coming out and I was like, oh you know, he passed, but you know, and so, um, it was. And then you see the body bag and you see all this stuff and you're like, what did I get myself into?
Speaker 3:this building yeah uh, fast forward. I turned that building into a condo conversion and made after doing everything, risking everything, yeah like $42,000. I sold my last unit in 2008 and then like kind of everything fell apart. But I priced them really because I felt there was bad vibes with that building so I didn't want to own it anymore. So I was like I'm going to convert this to condos Again, trusting your gut.
Speaker 2:Yeah, wow, I kind of wish I still owned anymore.
Speaker 3:So I was like I'm going to convert this to condos Again, trusting your gut. Yeah, Wow, I kind of wish I still owned that. That was a good building, but at the time I just felt there was a cloud Too much. Yeah, when you find someone passed and then it was just like I just couldn't recover from that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:While the police and the coroners were there Did? Did somebody ask you to change a light bulb, or something like that?
Speaker 3:Hey, since you're here, thankfully not, but when they, when they brought Mr Ray out and he was in one position and they had to get him flat and I never saw that before and you see, like grown men, like, oh, straightening legs out and I'm like oh, I've never seen that it was it was because we're not used to seeing that when we see someone who's passed, it's in a nice yeah, presentation, yeah, you don't see anything.
Speaker 3:And so I'm and you know, at the time I was, I don't know 24 and I'm seeing this like, oh, my god, you'll never unsee that. It's like 24, 25 and, and I learned and I did learn a lot with that building, though.
Speaker 3:But you know, mr ray, whoever he, whoever he was, I didn't have any documentation, because landlords never really kept any records before that. They're like, this is so, and so I just call him mr ray, because, right, because that was what he was, but I'm pretty sure that wasn't his name right, it was like bill or something. I've never even called him ray, that was just like street name or something, I don't know wow wow, yeah, that's a good story.
Speaker 1:We uh, you know, we manage properties we had yeah, what do you guys got?
Speaker 1:uh, there was one time where, um, a tenant of ours, had been dead for a long time, to the point where, you know, he bloated and ruptured, oh Lord. And that's when we found out. And this was our previous property manager's last day. Yeah, I think I got the call. This was our previous property manager's last day. Yeah, I think I got the call. You know, and I do feel bad for this, but it was a weekend and you know, I was younger then and probably went out with Laura, my wife, and so I did not hear the phone ring at 2 in the morning. Unfortunately, lauren, our good friend Lo, who was a property manager for the time, did hear the phone ring at two in the morning. Unfortunately, lauren, our good friend Lo, who was a property manager for the time, did hear the phone ring and had to go to the unit at two in the morning to, I guess, identify the body. But, like similar to you, you know, you don't know all of your tenants, but yeah, he quit the next day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think we're still dealing with structural issues that happened from the leakage.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there we could be. Yeah, that's true, yeah.
Speaker 3:It is because you have to think about it. You have the carpet, the pad underneath the flooring.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this was a joist issue, that it deteriorated the structural joist underneath the flooring and we had to move out all the tenants below.
Speaker 3:Wow, this was a rupture.
Speaker 2:Yeah, something yeah. So, similar stories. Property management is super fun. Yeah, and on that note, let's take a break. Why don't we take a break?
Speaker 1:Hello, hello, hello, just staying. Hello, hello, hello.
Speaker 2:Just staying in. You've got good tone. Man, You've got a good ear.
Speaker 1:Thanks. There was a, I don't know why. I mean, I guess my sister just thought I didn't have any tone, and so one time we were, because we were both working downtown. Anyway, there was a famous scene it's not a movie but it's in our minds where we were driving downtown and she was convinced that I wouldn't be able to. But she was like putting out tones and I was matching her pitch. She was floored.
Speaker 2:You grew up together and she had never heard you sing, were you.
Speaker 1:Well, I wrote that newsletter recently where she just like kind of threw out there one time that she thought I did have a good voice, and that's when I became convinced that I did, even though she like had no basis for throwing out that comment. So no, I didn't, I was not this.
Speaker 2:You know, singer, she was the singer yeah, I feel like that happens a lot in families siblings, you know one person's known for something and then the other person kind of shrinks back because I don't know. For whatever reason they think that they can't, and that's.
Speaker 1:That's not true. Yeah, I wish, I wish my musical potential had been nurtured more, but I didn't really demonstrate any. But there was this one time in seventh grade music class where we were meant to, you know, compose a song using the components of a Casio keyboard. And I made a good one. My teacher was blown away.
Speaker 2:Interesting, but you never took it past that.
Speaker 1:Never took it past that I was not very good at trumpet.
Speaker 2:But you also got into sports.
Speaker 1:I was big into sports. Yeah, I mean, baseball was my one true love at that time, for most of my life there's not a lot of coolness, a cool factor when you're that young, at least for me.
Speaker 2:You know being in band and orchestra.
Speaker 1:You know it was kind of a geeky thing to do yeah, I mean, it probably would have served me better, though I didn't. I probably should have been a little bit more geeky and less concerned about my coolness factor yeah, everyone probably could have done that, really wasn't that? Cool when it came down to it, no well, you're cool now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, look at me now and I will just put it out there. It is never too late to learn music yeah, no, I, I uh.
Speaker 1:I took piano lessons for like a hot second. It was really rewarding. Maybe I'll do it again, but I don't have that much time.
Speaker 2:Maybe you and Axel could take piano lessons together or some guitar lessons or something. Yes, because he shows a lot of interest. He's very interested.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:He's a little rock star in the making. Oh my gosh Just his poses.
Speaker 1:He takes his little ukulele, which he calls his guitar, and just leans into it like rocking, or he'll get up on the little table and say, yeah. I'm on stage and then I took a video. Lennon was up there watching him sing Wheels on the Bus.
Speaker 2:The biggest fan.
Speaker 1:His biggest fan, for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean he was I don't know one and a half years old and he knew how to hold and kind of strum and mock a guitar with the correct fingering, like it was kind of incredible.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. And I've taught him over the years this like this in quotes big finish, which you know. Before he didn't really get, but now he totally gets and he goes big finish and he strums harder and like it's amazing so good, so you know, okay, um do you have a record of the? Week record of the week. Record record of the week.
Speaker 2:I do. Okay, it's not a really record of the week. It's an artist that is very well known to some people. I never heard of him. It was actually probably mentioned many times on this podcast and I just kind of wrote it down. Have you guys heard of Elvis? I know he's good. He's old, though Probably very similar. This guy is Wes Montgomery. Sure, okay, I bring him up today because he was born in Indianapolis. You guys were talking about Indiana going to school.
Speaker 2:So you know a little tie back. I have been learning, struggling to learn some jazz on piano, Okay, and I don't know, just stumbled upon him and love it Is that what we were listening to before, right before I press record no, no, no no that was just a random piano instrumental. Okay, pop.
Speaker 1:Because correct me if I'm wrong I mean I know West Montgomery is is somebody that covers a lot of pop, is that?
Speaker 2:He does. One of the top songs on Spotify that he did is a cover of tequila. Huh, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da, that's funny. Yeah, I always think of Pee Wee Herman when I think of that song. I'm not a huge fan of that. It's just like when jazz people they love to do a jazz version of Raindrops on Roses, like no, don't ever cover. If you're a jazz person out there, don't cover that song. Again, it's done. It's just, it's a wonderful song but it belonged in the movie and then it's done. I don't know Whatever, but anyway it's for somebody who doesn't really love jazz. For somebody who doesn't really love jazz, it's a really nice entryway because it's got a lot of rhythm, it's almost danceable and he's a guitar player, jazz guitar. But it's not noodley, masturbatory jazz, it's actually fun jazz. So that's my record of the week.
Speaker 1:Nice, yeah, I love it. Thanks for sharing. Well, we're back with Josh Jones. Hello Hi, how's it going? Wonderful.
Speaker 3:So, if I put you on the spot, what new music are you listening to these days? Of any new music, when I'm not listening to the 90s music, which I would consider the most newest music that I like? Um, it's 30 years old, I know, okay, I know, I know, I mean the late 90s with bsb and nsync and otown and lfo and all those bands, and then you have Blink-182. I mean, you had Sum 41.
Speaker 3:Those were the great. You know a lot of great music, but today I feel like I liked old Taylor Swift. I don't like new Taylor Swift. There's not a lot of music where I'm like this is real good stuff. Some of the hip hop artists I like, but I try to stay off the regular radio because every hour it's the same six songs and they're just okay.
Speaker 1:Do you did you? I know your, your. Your wife went to Taylor Swift and Madonna. Do you? Do you have to go with her or no? I so when it comes to concerts, I know your wife went to Taylor Swift and Madonna, do you?
Speaker 3:have to go with her. No, so when it comes to concerts, I get a little upset with concerts. If the concert starts at 8, why aren't they starting at 8? Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 1:I have to work the next day. You want to get on that class action lawsuit from those New Yorkers that sued Madonna for starting late, is that right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was pretty late though.
Speaker 3:I think she started like an hour late, even later, oh wow. When I went to Jay-Z and Kanye when they came here, you know, 10 years ago, they didn't come on until like 11. I fell asleep in a seat yeah. And there's pictures of me. I was like, well, it's very disrespectful that they're late. The only recent concert that I've been to was Blink-182, which I really really like that one, but the kind of pop ones it's. You know, I'm going to be that old guy I also don't want a 30-minute encore.
Speaker 2:Come out and play a song, a last final song, and then wrap it up. I hate standing there like, like you know, like a silly monkey, clapping my hands, knowing that they're back there smoking pot right, taking their time, and then they got a whole another set and I'm ready for bed wow, yeah, there's uh, today's.
Speaker 3:Today's music is just, it's just a different vibe. I did like a lot of the techno stuff. I liked it. But if you're noticing some of the music is they're redoing Diddy's song, who redid a song already, and if you go back, it's done from Otis Redding, like Otis Redding or Sam Cooke originally did it, or like Elvis.
Speaker 2:It's meta's right goes back to the 50s. Yeah, all right.
Speaker 1:So so we'll stick with the 50s and the 90s. You have old records. Is there a riverside you know, or thereabouts record?
Speaker 3:shop that you like. There are some local ones. There's one in bro Brookfield that I like, there's one in Maywood that I like as well, and so if I'm just literally driving down an area and I see something, I will just stop in and see if there's anything cool. Nice, there's just something about an old record. When you open it it smells a little different, it smells old. And to think this music was burned into that vinyl, printed on that vinyl, yeah, you know 50, 60, 70 years ago. And you're listening to, to how it was supposed to be listened to.
Speaker 1:it was pretty cool, well you know, other people have listened to it. Yeah, you put stories around it. That's fun. It went through a lot speaking Riverside. You grew up in Riverside.
Speaker 3:So I was born in Berwyn, moved to Riverside when I was four and then was in Riverside until I was 21, until I was told to leave because I owned a six-foot.
Speaker 3:No, no, no, 22. And then I went to Brookfield for 14 years and then Riverside sucked me back in. But you know, riverside is one of those towns. It's kind of, you know, a diamond in between a whole bunch of other towns, like the roads are curvy, it's a Frederick Law Olmstead town and before GPS, if you didn't know, you would just, you know, go around Harlem or Ogden, or you'd go around Riverside and no one knows the real story. But supposedly all the curved roads was to keep outsiders out Interesting.
Speaker 3:And so you know, riverside to this day doesn't have a lot of business within the town because it doesn't get a lot of traffic from outside. So it's got like two restaurants you can eat at, it's got a beautiful river and you can go along the riverside. It's got a great library and a really cool water tower, which is the staple of Riverside. And then why is it cool? It's the water tower is like over of Riverside. Why is it cool?
Speaker 3:The Water Tower is like over 100 years old and it's been in a handful of movies. The most notable movie and the train station was the Lake House with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, and so if you look at that the main house that Keanu Reeves lived in is in Riverside, and then the water tower, as well as the train station, is also in Riverside, too Cool. So it's a cool little piece, and the town hasn't changed much of how it has looked. The water tower and the library and a couple of the main buildings have been the same. I mean, if you look at pictures from the early 1900s, it's the same Amazing.
Speaker 1:Everything else has changed around there. Nice, great place to raise a family.
Speaker 3:Yeah, schools are really good, community is good, a lot of summer events, art fests, food events, and then we live close to the center town, so we just take the two little boys in there and just hop, you know, toss them in the wagon.
Speaker 1:We go to center which is nice, nice yeah and then a lot of good restaurants and stuff like that around riverside. I mean, you got also got brookfield zoo nearby yes, yes, I mean brookfield.
Speaker 3:I love, love Brookfield. Michelle and I were there for 14 years. Tons of good restaurants. You have the zoo, you have pubs. I love that area Like Berwyn amazing restaurants, lagrange, lagrange Park, amazing restaurants over there. So it's really changed and you get a lot of city transplants now coming into the Burbs over there.
Speaker 1:Oh, it's so close. I mean it's so close to the city. So if you still need to get down to the city, you know which has also changed.
Speaker 3:Yeah, just hop on 55 or 290 and you're there. Yeah, that's it.
Speaker 1:Well, josh, thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you, really fun to talk to you, andy. Thank you, karen. Thank you, I appreciate it.
Speaker 3:Good to have you Andrew.
Speaker 2:Yes, karen, why big finishes?
Speaker 1:That's an interesting question for the ending segments of our podcast.
Speaker 2:Let's finish, big Andy, let's finish big Andy.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, I think it helps the audience understand that this is the end. Okay, it also kind of leaves them with something a little bit more elevated than the normal course of the concert, or you know the song or whatever. You're finishing big. I think that it's. You know, it's nice to go out with a bang.
Speaker 2:Yeah, have you ever been to a show that has not done that? Like almost to the complete opposite, where they just end real real quiet, real quietly.
Speaker 1:You know, I mean I'm going to get a little fishy here, forgive me, I smell it. But I mean, you know, certainly when you're a Phish fan, the choice of song in the encore can either leave you fulfilled or leave you with something to be desired. I don't think it's their intention to finish small. They just play what they want to play and sometimes it doesn't hit you personally for that particular concert correctly, but other times you might be sitting next to a stranger that loves it. So, but I, you know, conversely, I think just sort of fading out and walking off stage is also kind of nice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I kind of like that, depending on, because sometimes if I'm so amped after a show and, like we were talking before, sometimes shows can go on forever, and then you're coming home at you know one in the morning and you're buzzing and you don't get to sleep yeah, yeah, I mean I, I definitely get that, I I'm with you, like I mean you know, I don't need a four song encore, I'm ready to be done and sort of file this experience away Like, okay, check that box, I've done that.
Speaker 1:Yep, I like it in plays when you know sort of the stage just stage lights just go black.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:Kind of fade away. I mean it's a satisfying end usually. Yeah, it's a weighty play.
Speaker 2:Yep Leaves you with your thoughts let's see.
Speaker 1:Does that answer your question? I mean, we were talking about my, my son, and how I taught him a big finish, and I just think it's cute, uh, when he, when he does a big finish, yeah, um, and I also I don't know why, I guess I don't know why I him. I guess I was just like trying to teach him some theatrics.
Speaker 2:I love it. He's naturally a front man, yeah, rockstar, so yeah.
Speaker 1:Probably will serve him well.
Speaker 2:I hope someday. In the back room, you know, in the green room he's got all the ladies around, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Thinking he's the shit.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And you're like yeah, my dad taught me that.
Speaker 1:Your endings are so big. Yeah, yeah, I mean I think, depending on the context, I'll take some pride in that. Yeah, do it. I could also think where that, like it, just gets him into trouble just because he gets old. Could you just tone it down just a little bit? Teach him how to do the other thing the quiet ending yeah, yeah, just go out with a whisper, read the room. Maybe Read the room. He needs to read the room a little bit. But yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 2:You know who also needs to read your room. Who who also needs to read your room? Who? Your dog Pearl? She definitely needs to read the room she does. She's always doing a big ending.
Speaker 1:She's always yeah. Well, she doesn't want anything to end, she just wants to be petted, and petted, and petted, and won't take no for an answer.
Speaker 2:Well, they're both adorable, so good job, thanks.
Speaker 1:That's why Big Finish is Okay. How about we do a Big Finish? What should we say? Should we? You know who does Big Finish as well, who Smartless?
Speaker 2:Oh, right yeah.
Speaker 1:Which we can't do.
Speaker 2:We can't do that, we can't steal that, we'll get sued or something like that.
Speaker 1:But good for them. They just signed a big new deal, did they? Yeah, they just signed a big, big new deal, did they?
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, that's great. If you haven't checked out smart list, it's also a really fun podcast, fun podcast.
Speaker 1:I actually wanted to mention a podcast that we like. There's another podcast that our friend, jason Taylor turned us onto. It's the rock and roll and 500 songs.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah yeah, that's a good podcast I listened to. I think it was the episode with the monkeys.
Speaker 1:Nice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you didn't go in order, no, you just picked a random Of course, because I wanted to go with something I cared about A song that I knew, or like a band that I knew really well, or that I was just intrigued about.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, there's some podcasts you should check out. And how about this big finish? We haven't really asked this of our listeners before, but if you enjoyed this episode, smash that like button. Spotify.
Speaker 2:Bye, bye.
Speaker 1:This has been an episode of Records and Real Estate. Thanks for listening. We hope you enjoyed it. Today's episode was brought to you by Be Realty. Be where you want to be. Be Realty.