Izumi: Hello, everyone. Today's guest, George Siegel, is a former broadcast professional reporter who turned into a documentary filmmaker. His film, Built to Last, Beware is a powerful testament of how vulnerable our homes can be in natural disasters and how heart-wrenching consequent process is going to be. Thank you for listening to Home Green Homes. If you found this episode useful, please subscribe and leave a review or share it with someone who cares about better homes and better future. I am Izumi Tanaka and until next time, here's to creating homes that are healthier, more resilient and truly future ready. Welcome to Home Green Homes, the podcast about affordable, resilient and sustainable homes. I am Izumi Tanaka. I am a green realtor, home advisor, and eco flipping enthusiast. On this show, I talk with green building professionals, architects, energy expert, and homeowners who are rethinking what homes can be healthier, more energy efficient, So building resilient home is becoming an increasingly critical element of sustainable home building. And he has some powerful messages for homeowners and home buyers. So let's hear from you, George. Thank you so much for your time today. and future ready. Whether you are a homeowner, homebuyer, investor, or real estate professionals, this podcast is here to help you understand how better homes can save money, reduce emission, and add real value. Let's get into our conversation.

George Siegal: Thank you so much for having me on. I think we have a lot of interesting stuff to talk about.

Izumi: Yes, we do. So I'm just curious. I always asked the basic background how you ended up being where you are today. I know you were a broadcaster for a long time. And what was the moment that you decided that you wanted to become a documentary filmmaker or you wanted to make a documentary film about building to last or resilient buildings?

George Siegal: You know, it was a moment that happened over a long period of time because I, when I got out of the news business, I had a video production company. So I was making commercials. made some TV pilots, different things, but I've always owned homes since the mid nineties. And I've always been frustrated by the way they were built. I've always been frustrated by covering stories and meeting people who lost everything in a disaster. And the story it's, keeps happening again and again. Nothing seems to get better. It's like we're living Groundhog Day with that. And so I said, why don't I try to make a film that will wake people up and let them know that we have to stop accepting mediocre houses. We have to stop buying other people's garbage and rewarding them while punishing ourselves. And so I teamed with a gentleman who has the life mission of doing this too. His name is Eris Papadopoulos. And we made this film and we're very proud of it and hope it wakes a lot of people up.

Izumi: Yeah. So what were your intended messages when you first started developing this film to home buyers and were there anything new that you discovered in the process of filming?

George Siegal: Yeah, yeah, I think there is. think that home buyers in general, and it's almost everybody that I've ever talked to, we accept the fact that we think the person building that house had to know what they were doing and that they had a plan that that house would be around for a while. And it couldn't be further from the truth in so many cases. A lot of times that house was built to the lowest code possible or not even to code years ago. And the objective was to get in, get out, make some money, go on to the next job. As the person who buys it, that's not your objective at all unless you're just a house flipper and you're looking to quickly turn it around and stick it on somebody else. That could be your forever house. And the question is, was it built to last forever? And in most cases, the answer is no, it was not.

Izumi: So your films were mostly filmed in Florida after hurricane. ⁓ And did you find that there was a theme in all the homeowners who were losing their homes in those hurricanes? And you've covered some other disasters, obviously. Did you find any common thread?

George Siegal: Yeah, well in Florida, yes, but it goes the same as, I grew up in California and so I've lived in Texas, I've lived in Michigan, I've lived in a number of different places and anytime there's a disaster, if you didn't say what the disaster was but you just played the interview with the victim, it's the same story, it's just a different way they got there. So here in Florida, it was about hurricanes but hurricanes can also be fires in California. It can be floods in Texas, it can be tornadoes in Oklahoma. When you're wiped out, you're wiped out. So the idea is in any situation, you don't want that to happen to you. You don't wanna be a victim. Once you have your house destroyed or badly damaged, so many things are out of your hands. First of all, you have to find people to rebuild it or fix it. You have to hope your insurance will pay you anywhere close to what you need to get back in there. And then you have to understand it's going to be a major disruption in the life for you and for your family. So it's not a simple, it's not like the TV commercials where they get on the phone, they call their agent, they run out and two days later they're back in their house. That is not gonna be the story. In our film, we meet a guy named Doug Quinn, who was one of the stars of the film. When his house was damaged in Hurricane Sandy, it took him seven years to get his life back. Seven agonizing years. And that was a. horrible experience for him. I would love to see that never happen to anybody again.

Izumi: Right. Well, as you know, we both know that there's in the last two years, since you've made this film, there has been more disasters. We have the Helene and we have we had the palaces and eaten fires in California. Right. And and and a year later, California, where we are, all the neighborhood are still not even getting close to. being rebuilt. And I was just watching some footage yesterday about Lahaina. And it's been several years. I don't know, it's like four years since the fires. They're still going through. And I spoke to a friend of mine who lived in Asheville, North Carolina yesterday. And she said that the rebuild process is still quite slow. So what do you see? as the culprit of the consequence of disasters to homeowners, what are you seeing?

George Siegal: Well, I'm seeing nothing that appears obviously to get better. know, as I think I told you, I grew up in Pacific Palisades. So, you know, that was a place that was near and dear to my heart. And I know so many people there who lost their homes. What I see is a lot of times it's a couple of things. First of all, it's how does the community decide they're going to build back? And that's one of the major problems in California.

Izumi: Mm-hmm. Yes, you did.

George Siegal: is establishing what the standard is that you're allowed to build back to. You also have the coastal commission there, where if you're within, I think it's five miles of the coast, there's certain restrictions to how you can rebuild and what that footprint has to be. So it's not a slam dunk. And then beyond that, it's insurance. Is your insurance company paying you? And are they paying you enough to get you back in the house? Where I live in Tampa, Florida, and for a lot of people in Pacific Palisades, they had older homes. So you might have had a home that your family bought. 30, 40 years ago for $50,000, now the lot is probably $2 million. So how are you rebuilding that house if you just get the insurance that that house was insured for? You have a major problem. So now you have to either sell your property for 20 cents on the dollar, I don't even know what they're going for, and then you have to start over, or you stay there and you fight with the cleanup and getting the toxic chemicals out of the ground so it's safe to rebuild. And then how are your neighbors rebuilding? Are you the first one back with all that construction around you for years? It's not an easy path to recovery. And so what I tell people is to look at situations where bad things have happened before and now imagine your life being like that. Maybe that stops you from making bad decisions. Maybe living by the beach becomes not such a good idea. Maybe living in the forest when there's one way out of your neighborhood's not such a good idea. Maybe we make more informed choices. We find out how our house was truly built and we make smarter decisions. You one of the things I want to give away to your listeners or viewers today is a document that I made about questions you should absolutely ask your builder or the seller of the house you're buying. And they're basic questions just to know how that house was built to deal with the potential hazards that could happen in your neighborhood. So if you live in Florida, what did they consider when they were building that? What code, what wind? rating does that house have? How are the windows put in? What's the flood risk where you live? In California, it could be, how would that house survive a fire? What's the defensible space around it? All the vegetation on your property, what's the roof like? Are there ways that the soffits are gonna let embers in and burn your house to the ground after the fire is gone? There's so many things you need to ask, but that's not the fun stuff. know, when you go look at a house, you wanna see the beautiful countertops and the. when you go look at a house, you wanna the beautiful countertops and the. the nice floor that they put down and maybe a master bath that you go, wow, we're gonna enjoy this. But that's all the icing on the cake stuff. What you wanna know is the ingredients and how that house was built and how it will last if something bad happens. the nice floor that they put down and maybe a master bath that you go, wow, we're gonna enjoy this. But that's all the icing on the cake stuff. What you wanna know is the ingredients and how that house was built and how it will last if something bad happens.

Izumi: Now, so your film really does convey that message of, you you should be aware of the elements of your homes and the environment and the insurance and some of the people on your film were talking about how easily we forget, you know, soon after we go through this experience of disaster and in... California too, they were backpedaling some of the building code to help expertise the rebuilding process. So what are your messages to people, not only who are trying to rebuild, but just building, many people are trying to build new homes. You know, and there are certain codes that you have to meet, especially in California, we have a little more stringent building code than some other states. But what are the most critical things that we have to think about when we are building homes? Either we're rebuilding or new construction.

George Siegal: Well, I think what people need to understand first off is if somebody's saying it's built to code, to understand that code is the minimum standard they could get away with building that house. So there should be a big sign up front that says this house was built to the absolute minimum standard that the law would allow us to do it. And if we could have built it below that, we would have gladly done it because then we could have made a little more money. So that's one thing to think about. You know, I was actually out in Malibu after the Woolsey fire in 2018. and learned how painful that was for people trying to get back on track there. And so often it's your insurance delays, delays, delays, because I really think the goal of most insurance companies, or at least a lot of them, is to find ways not to pay you. So if you think that a disaster's gonna happen, you're gonna get a check, you're gonna start to rebuild, but then it's what's the standard you're allowed to rebuild to? In Mexico Beach, where we were in my film, they actually made the building code tougher. after Hurricane Michael, but people complained so much they lowered the standard to less than it was before Michael hit. And that's insane to me. So when I see what's going on in California, I'm going, okay, what standard are they going to build back in Pacific Palisades? What are they gonna use as a standard? If they lower it to the lowest possible standard, you're just asking for it to happen again. A disaster is a chance to look at what happened and say, okay, now how could we survive this? Now maybe a wildfire like that, the problem happened way before. Why was the growth so overgrown in the hills? Why was the fire department caught off guard? Why were the reservoirs low? I mean, there's so many things you could point fingers at that sometimes it's a perfect storm of disaster. Then you have to hope you evacuated and that you have insurance because a wildfire like that, maybe nothing would have saved some houses. But it could have made a difference for some of them, maybe a lot of them. And that's why you wanna build back tougher, not easier. and people forget. You know, the mayor of Malibu told us in 2018, he goes, in three or four years, people won't even remember this fire. They'll be on with their lives. And what I find is, if you take two houses in a neighborhood, and one is yours, one is mine, my house gets wiped out. Chances are I've learned a life altering lesson, and I'm not gonna forget. Your house was fine. You might go, look at me, I'm invincible. Nothing bad's ever gonna happen to me. I survived that disaster. So you may do nothing to improve your house. And that's human nature that we all have to fight. It's like, just because you got lucky doesn't mean it's not gonna happen to you. And that false sense of confidence is why so many people after a disaster are saying, I never thought it would happen to me. I can't believe this happened to me. Well, I'm sorry, you painted a bullseye on your neck and of course it's gonna happen to you and it happens way too often.

Izumi: Yeah, I agree. I agree. when, as you know, my podcast is about so-called sustainable buildings, sustainable homes, we call it green. And now, you know, when we think about resilient, disaster resilient and future ready, when we often say future ready, it often points to energy efficiency and ⁓ building materials. but I think now we are becoming more aware that sustainable building has to be resilient. Now, can disaster ready homes can also be environmentally friendly? And I think it really goes hand by hand, you know? What is your thought? Yeah, exactly. Right.

George Siegal: Yeah, that's always a battle because I know people in your space, a lot of times they don't like concrete because they say it's not an environmentally friendly product. But you know, my partner, Aris, always says if you have to build it twice, it's not green. So building it once the right way, maybe you have to sacrifice a few things. Maybe you can't use that wood that was environmentally, however, whatever system you might have that's not good enough to survive the disaster.

Izumi: Right.

George Siegal: Maybe you have to alter that just a little bit and go, okay, I don't wanna keep rebuilding this house. I don't wanna keep having to do the whole neighborhood over again. So how can I find a compromise material? My belief in Florida is every house should be concrete block or ICFs or something that's not wood. I think wood is a huge mistake. Yet so many people are doing concrete on the first floor, wood on the second floor. And they do that for aesthetics. They do it for save a few dollars. I think that's a huge mistake. In South Florida, they have a much tougher building code than we do. They build to withstand Category 5 hurricanes. But the problem is people complain when they have to do that. They go, what are the odds that Category 5 is gonna hit Tampa? I don't wanna build to that. We were 20 miles away from a bullseye two seasons ago that would have wiped this area out. And if people don't wake up from that, I don't think they ever will. And it might take a disaster, unfortunately, to change. The thinking, but then as we're seeing in a lot of places after the disaster, people are thinking, well, how can we get our house back as quickly as possible? And let's drop the standards and just get back in there. And that's a real mistake. You're missing an opportunity.

Izumi: Yeah. Yeah. Right. I completely agree with you. Now, so, you know, your movie ends with a quote, how much longer will it wait to build better and smarter? Right. So what do you think is ⁓ going to happen or what would it take for those of us who are in this industry, including the real estate agents? like myself, you know, what would it take for in your opinion what to make our homes more resilient and sustainable? What is the what is the impetus that rather than just having these massive disasters? I don't know. I mean, I'm kind of this is my question, you know. Yeah.

George Siegal: No, it's a great question and I think about it a lot because if I said, it's hopeless, then I wouldn't have made the film. So it is frustrating because change happens very slowly. So the question is, what can you do? How can you incentivize people to build better? I don't like to rely on the government for doing things, but insurance companies should reward you for having a better built house. If my house is better built than yours, my insurance should cost me a lot less. Yours should be a lot more expensive.

Izumi: Yeah.

George Siegal: If a builder builds a house that's crummy, I love to see it sit for months and months and months and nobody buy it. You we have a house here that was built on one of those little finger waterways that it's flooded three or four times before they tore it down and put a new house there. But still, every time that thing overflows, their garage is gonna flood, their pool is gonna flood, they're going to have damage. That house sat for a long time before somebody bought it. I liked that, but then somebody ended up buying it. I wanna see people rewarded for good things and not get the benefit of them if they're bad. I think young designers and architects think for the future. How can you build something that makes a difference other than just throwing up a tract home that is going to just fall apart? And it doesn't necessarily have to always do with money. Habitat for Humanity builds some of the safest houses that there are. And why is that? Well, first of all, they care. There's a lot more caring with what they're doing for the people that they're building it for. They use more nails, they have the spacing of the two by fours differently, they do the roof differently. They build that house so the person getting it who needed a boost isn't gonna get just raked over in the next disaster. So some thought actually goes into it. And that's what we need to see. We need to see rewards for better building. And I'll give you something that I think everybody, a tip that I think everybody should take that's listening to this. We just tried to switch homeowners insurance. And when we did, my insurance agent said, hey, the county you live in has your house listed as wood on the second floor, not concrete. And I said, well, that's not true. This is concrete on both floors. And he goes, well, you need to call the county and talk to them. And I'm thinking, ⁓ great. I'm never gonna get this fixed. I got a great person at the county office that answered the phone. And they tried to tell me that when they drive by, they looked and it was a wood house on the second floor. And I said, I don't think so. I think you really need to dig on this. And she did. And she goes, oops, it was our mistake. you do have concrete on the second floor, which I knew because I'm not completely stupid. And so what happened was our insurance went down $1,000 a year because of that. And that's only because they coded it wrong. So whenever you move into a house, if you have that list that I'm giving you and you know the features you have, make sure you're getting credit for them. Make sure somewhere those things are listed. So you get a break on your insurance if that's available. And $1,000 a year is a lot of money. So that's one thing everybody can do. Another thing everybody can do is start reading or having somebody read your insurance policy or explain it to you. So you understand the coverage that you have. I don't know what all the exclusions are in California, but we have one for sinkholes here in Florida, and there's a lot of sinkholes. Your house gets eaten by a sinkhole, you're not getting anything. Also, if your house gets water in it and you don't have flood insurance, you're not getting anything. So understand what your policy covers and what it doesn't cover. I don't know if there's wildfire exclusions or earthquake. You have to have a separate earthquake insurance for sure. It's not gonna cover a lot of things. So the question is, yeah, how prepared are you? And you're only gonna do that if you take the initiative and try to make a difference yourself. And it's a person by person thing. This is a slow lift here. We're not gonna wave our arms and have the building code change because the lobbying industry for builders,

Izumi: Mm-hmm, I do. Right.

George Siegal: is very strong. want the code as low as possible. Nobody wants to have to build everybody a fortress. So the only hope here is that we stop accepting garbage and put our feet down and say we're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore. And I know I am and I wish everybody would get on board with me.

Izumi: I agree. Now, so all this information and knowledge, we are, your message is for homeowners to do their research, do their homework to learn, but I also feel responsible as a realtor. In California, we have certain disclosures that we have to get signed when there's a transaction. But do you see that is also ⁓ real estate agents? responsibility to know what they're selling and you know and and helping the homeowners to understand some of the risks that they are taking when they are buying when they're signing off those dock contracts when you know of disclosures natural disaster disclosures or ⁓ insurance information. ⁓ There is it's not only on homeowners responsibilities. I think it's it's also on the builders responsibility and the people who are selling.

George Siegal: Well, I agree, but as you'll know, and you'd probably know a lot more realtors than I do, but the ones that I've talked to are always concerned about being sued and how active do they really need to be in talking about everything. And so my feeling is, yeah, in a perfect world, they would draw the line and say, look, I'm not showing you this house because this neighborhood floods. I'm not showing you this builder because he builds crap. I'm not showing you X, Y, and Z, but there are also people that are making a living and they need to make a living.

Izumi: Mm-hmm.

George Siegal: Am I gonna draw the line there? I think it starts with the builders. I think they're far worse than realtors. I don't like to blame people for problems that I could have found out the information myself or asked the questions. So when I hire a realtor to do something for me, I ask them how much information they're gonna give me. I try to understand the relationship going in, but I know they're not gonna, they're doing it to make a living and I understand that. I don't expect them to be the safe gap. What I'd like to see is realtor.com. Zillow, all those websites and they're starting to do it, put safety ratings in for houses, talk about the fire risk, the water risk, the wind risk, and a house that's good maybe gets five stars and the others get two or three and sure somebody's eating it on that, but why should we keep passing a problem along to the next guy? So I think realtors could help, but I don't think they're the core problem. I think it's builders, I think it's building code, and then I think it's insurance and I think that.

Izumi: Yes, ⁓

George Siegal: you know, why aren't our legislators looking after us more and making building codes tougher? Because, you know, those guys all get into office not making a lot of money and they leave doing pretty well. And there's a reason for that. They're getting rewarded by lobbyists and they all, you know, they find their pet things that they can get donations for. They're always trying to get reelected. So I don't rely on them for anything. I think once we rely on politicians to accomplish anything, we're completely screwed. So I think we have to take it on ourselves.

Izumi: Right.

George Siegal: to do a lot of the

Izumi: Thanks so much. what would be the, I know you already shared some of the points that you have on your ⁓ PDF, downloadable PDF that I am going to put a link on my show note. ⁓ What would be the most top important questions that homeowners, home buyers need to ask?

George Siegal: I would first, well first I would have the answer before I ask them the question. I wouldn't rely on them telling me the truth. I would say, what hazards did you, what are the hazards that could happen in this neighborhood and how did you build this house to deal with those hazards? So if you're in a neighborhood that floods and the house is at ground level slab on grade, the answer is they did nothing. It's gonna flood every time. You know, is the flood level 10 feet? Is that house truly above 10 feet? So you can even get flood insurance that's not gonna cost you an arm and a leg. I would understand, how are the walls bracketed? How is the roof put on? What wind can this withstand? What fire precautions did you build it with? So I would ask those questions based on how was this house built to handle hazards? I know in California, earthquakes are a major thing. So there's probably a special, certain things they have to do to make the house earthquake ready. Ask those questions, make sure that they did. Is everything permitted properly? If it's a house that's not brand new. You you could get a house that somebody else did some work on and they just kind of pushed it down the road and now it's gonna be your problem. Cause maybe the county comes out and inspects it and finds out you didn't do it and now you're stuck. So that's the main thing is understanding how that house was built to handle problems that might come its way. Very important thing to find out.

Izumi: Okay, I ⁓ have three questions I wanna ask you. So it's more personal. ⁓ So on a level, George, what are you most proud of ⁓ in that you like you have made some difference other than making this film ⁓ as an individual? okay. ⁓ wow.

George Siegal: Okay. My children, maybe my children. I have five children and I think they all have potential to go out in the world and do good things. Three of them are older and are doing really good things in the world. ⁓ And so that's something that I feel pretty good about. ⁓ Outside of that, I'm very competitive. So I try to judge things by whether or not they're successful. you know, to me, people can say, hey, you made a great film, but if it doesn't do anything,

Izumi: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. haha

George Siegal: And if it doesn't change anything, I don't get the same warm and fuzzy out of it that somebody might get. Because when you make a film and you look back and you go, wow, that was a lot of work. A lot of things had to come together to make that happen. To me, it's like, well, yeah, but if nobody sees it, it's like having a painting in my house. I may enjoy it, but who else is benefiting from it? So that's how I judge that. know, they're two separate, completely different things, but that would be the difference. But on a professional level, I'm too competitive to accept.

Izumi: Yeah.

George Siegal: Just doing something, I want it to make a difference.

Izumi: Well, I'm kind of with you on that. Wanted to make a difference. So where is a build to last can be seen?

George Siegal: Well, I'm gonna ask you to put a link in the show notes where people can rent the film and they can watch it immediately. It's also rolled out on PBS stations around the country, but they get it out of a catalog, so maybe they run it, maybe they don't. It ran here in Tampa, it ran in a bunch of markets, and it kind of slowed down, and hopefully it'll pick up as we get into hurricane season. But the number one way to see it right away is to go online and rent the film. And I hope people do, and you can tell me your thoughts about it and whether it changed anything with.

Izumi: ⁓ huh. Okay. Okay. Nice. Mm. ⁓ Yeah. Yes, yes.

George Siegal: how you look at things because then you'll give me something to feel good about.

Izumi: I will, I am, I'm already sharing the link to people. So I would definitely put the link in the show note So anyway, so it's the second question. So what do you find it most challenging in your life? Like in order to help the homeowners that you're doing to, to learn how to, to really protect themselves, but In your life to say, for instance, you're protecting your home, is there anything that you find most challenging that you have a hard time dealing?

George Siegal: I think it's communicating with people because personally, I think I'm a very good communicator. Yet I start with those kids again. If anybody with children will know, you could sit there and say something to your kid 100 times and you know they're not getting it. It's like talking to a wall. And a lot of times I feel that's the way it is talking to homeowners. I can tell you something 100 times. I've told so many of my neighbors you should have a generator. I've told so many of my neighbors you should understand your flood risk and have an evac. They look at me like.

Izumi: Mmm. Yeah. Yeah.

George Siegal: ⁓ okay, I'm not worried about it. so it's communication. Although you think you're a good communicator, if the message isn't getting through, sometimes maybe you need to find other people to communicate with and maybe your batting average will go up. But that's a frustration, is people not getting it. And that's tough, that's hard to accept when you know you're telling somebody something that can make a difference in their life, but it doesn't relate to them, it's not connecting.

Izumi: Right. Yeah. Yeah. Unfortunately, I find the same in the just in the green home ideas, you know, just to make your home more comfortable and energy efficient and people are still not quite there yet. So I appreciate you. Yeah.

George Siegal: Yeah, you're in a tough situation because a lot of times people go, yeah, but I don't want to put the time in. I don't want to spend the money. I'm not really worried about the environment. So you have to ignite that passion and show them why they need to do it. And it's very challenging.

Izumi: Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Right. Right. Right. So what if you had a magic wand that you can change things like that? What would you what would you change?

George Siegal: I think I would change the way things are built in this country. But that's hard to do. I don't even know if a magic wand will help that. It's hard to make people that are servicing you care. And I don't know what the answer is. I saw a great video recently on YouTube. It was a nine minute video about why houses aren't built well in this country anymore. And it talked about all the problems that houses have. And one of the main ones was builders are now paying the different subs that come in. and they're paying them by the job instead of by the hour. And you think, okay, why does that make a difference? Well, if I'm working on something and I find a problem, my supervisor might say, no, no, no, just leave it. We gotta go on to the next job. We're gonna lose money if we're here longer. So I think quality goes down and we see that in, you probably know this about appliances and different things we get that they're now made cheaper and they're just not as good as they used to be. And that's frustrating. to see that, how do you turn the clock back on that? How do you make that stop? And I think that's a real frustration because I think it's hard to make people care. So I believe the only way to do that is to not reward them when they don't care. So if you're gonna, if I ever buy a house again, I'm gonna ask the builder, I wanna trace who the subs are that are working on that house. I wanna know who the teams of people were that came in. Who was watching when the drywall went up so there's not garbage inside my walls? Who made sure that all the inspections were done? Do they have a dumpster on site or are they just throwing the garbage on the ground every day? I mean, there's so many things that just bugged the heck out of me that I wanna know that the attention to detail was there, but truly the only way that people start caring is when it affects them. And if I know you don't care and I just don't do business with you anymore, I hope it catches on and nobody does business with you until you start to care. You know, when I read reviews, sometimes people go, well, that place has a lot of bad reviews. I like to see how the owner of that business responds to those bad reviews because there could be a reason. You know, there could be somebody was sick, somebody didn't show up, did they come out and fix the problem? So you can, people can learn and get better, but I wanna know that they're at least trying.

Izumi: Good point, good point. As you were talking, another kind of question came up for me. Do you have anything you can share with ⁓ people who are ⁓ thinking about buying homes, who are looking at homes that are built some years ago? Like, you know, in California, for instance, mid-century, ⁓ homes built in 50s, they have no insulation, you know, It's really, it's really, you know, there are certain characteristics of those homes back from back then that is like, really, what were you thinking? You know, so do you have any, do you have any thing that you can share for them to protect themselves? You know, now that you don't know who built the house, you know, if it's 50, 70 years old, any, any particular questions?

George Siegal: Yeah! Yeah, you know, you. Well, as from the real estate business, you have to know that what were the pipes, what was the material that was used on the pipes? Is there asbestos that was used in the ceiling and on the on different materials in the house? What about the electrical wiring? How was that done? How up to code and how safe is that stuff? Because what I've learned is because I tried flipping a house once and it was a disaster. ⁓ It ended up really good. But once you start tearing open walls, you start finding things that.

Izumi: Mm-hmm. Right. haha

George Siegal: Sometimes it's easier to start over than it is to start finding problems and cobbling them together. Because if the pipes are in the foundation versus a pier and beam house where you can actually get underneath it, how much do you have access to the things that you have to fix? That to me is crucial. So if you're looking at a house and it's an older house, understand what your reserves are to pay for those things as you find them if you can't catch them in an inspection. And now I know how easy are those things to get to.

Izumi: Right.

George Siegal: if you have to fix them. It could be something as simple as when they built that house, did they run from the sink to the refrigerator a water line so you could have an ice maker there? That's a very easy thing to do when the house is being built, but it's a pain in the neck to do that after the fact. You have to tear up the concrete slab. It's just not a simple fix. So I like to find out if I had to do this, how would I do it? And a great example in my house is they put a smoke detector in this raised ceiling area when you walk in an entryway of the house. It's probably 36, 38 feet up to the ceiling. And they put that where the only way you could change that is to get a 36 foot ladder and go up there and change it. Now to me, that is moronic. Because when that thing starts chirping in the middle of the night because the battery is dead, nobody has a 36 foot ladder that's easily accessible in the middle of the night. So why would you put it there? If you move it over two feet, it's on the landing and anybody could change it. So it's look at things around the house and think how did they build this and how would I fix it if it's a problem? And if you can't answer that, don't buy the house.

Izumi: Yeah. Sounds like it's calling for a qualified inspection.

George Siegal: Yeah, but you know, inspection, it's how much stuff do they really look for like that? They're not gonna tell you practicality things. You know, a lot of times they're gonna tell you the voltage and you know, does the sink leak and does the dishwasher work? But do they have access to get up into the crawl space? Does that ceiling fan actually vent outside or does it just go in the crawl space above the bathroom? You know, there's some, the air conditioning ducts, you almost wanna get an expert in to look at it and go, was this house even zoned properly and were they done right?

Izumi: Mmm.

George Siegal: before it becomes your problem because it's hard to rip open walls and put in new ducts. What's the access to doing that? So if you don't know that it works before you buy it, it's a big problem to figure it out after you're stuck with that house.

Izumi: Yes, yes, yes. Very, very good point, George. Thank you so much. Well, ⁓ wanna keep talking to you, but my time is up. ⁓ really appreciate you reaching out to me. And I think this is a really valuable message that ⁓ are sending us. And I appreciate that. And ⁓ definitely I putting a link to your ⁓ movie so people can watch it and share. and your link to your free

George Siegal: Well, thank you so much for having me on. You know, I cold called you and said I wanted to be on your podcast and I appreciate you responding. And I hope we gave the people listening or watching some great information because I really hope it can make a difference for people.

Izumi: Thank you. I think we did. Thank you so much, George. And I might reach out to you again for further, you know, new, new information that you may discover. Okay. ⁓ Thank so much, George. ⁓ This Izumi Tanaka with Home Green Homes until the next episode.

George Siegal: I'm always here, anytime.