Business Innovators Radio - Unveiling the HVAC World: Inside Francisco Bermudez Jr.’s Journey as an HVAC Entrepreneur in San Antonio

Starting point is 00:00:02 Welcome to the Agents Lounge podcast, where we talk all things real estate with the industry's top performers. Join us as we dive into the inspiring journeys of successful agents and uncover the secrets to their success. Whether you're a seasoned agent or just starting out, we've got the tips and tricks to help you navigate the world of real estate. Brought to you by Eritectady Comfort Solutions. So grab a seat and join us in the Agents Lounge. Welcome back to another episode of Agents Lounge podcast. I'm your host, Marco Salinas, and today we're doing something a little bit different. We are turning the tables on our usual host of the show.

Starting point is 00:00:44 Today, I am going to be interviewing the owner of Airtigrity Comfort Solutions. Today I'm going to be interviewing the owner of Aertagrity Comfort Solutions, Mr. Francisco Bermudas Jr. And if you don't mind, Francisco, I know you're a very humble guy, but I'm going to read your bio. Okay, I'm going to read it. So Francisco Bermuda's Jr. Junior is an experienced HVAC entrepreneur and the owner of Air Integrity Comfort Solutions, a thriving HVAC business based in San Antonio, Texas. With over 10 years of experience in the industry and really probably over 20 years since

Starting point is 00:01:16 he was repairing these things in his diapers, Francisco is committed to providing his clients with high-quality HVAC services and is constantly seeking out new technologies and techniques to improve his work. Through hard work and a commitment to excellence, Francisco has built a successful business that serves both residential and commercial clients throughout the city and even some of the outskirts. Francisco, welcome to your own podcast. Hello, everyone. Welcome.

Starting point is 00:01:46 We also have a guest with us here, Mr. Larry, I still don't know your last name, man. Rupples Stiltskin. That's exactly what came to my mind, dude. Larry Enman. Larry Inman, okay. So Larry is Francisco's right-hand man right now, his conigliary at the moment, and doing a whole multitude of things for the business and helping him, but also serving as a co-host on the podcast as well. That is correct, sir. So he's going to be our Ed McMahon for this episode, right?

Starting point is 00:02:21 You are correct, sir. See? I knew he had that in him as well. I was building up. So, yeah, we want. On to, like one of the things that we haven't had a chance to do was to talk with Francisco more about his business. Francisco is a whole wealth of knowledge when he comes to all of this HVAC stuff, right? He's been doing it pretty much his whole entire life. His dad pretty much threw

Starting point is 00:02:45 some wrenches at him and some tools when he was probably in what middle school? Like eighth grade or something like that? It started back in elementary, probably for the fifth grade when it was four of us. I was the oldest and my father probably just took me to not give my mother any more trouble. So you were tagging along with him because he was doing the same thing, right? Your dad, your dad has been an HVAC technician for his whole life too? Or? He started back in 1995. 95. Okay, got you. So he started and then shortly after that you started tagging along? Yeah, well, not because I wanted to, but they took me, um, with him.

Starting point is 00:03:27 Yeah. Like you said, so that your mom wouldn't lose her mind. Yeah. So every time I saw that truck driving by, I'm like, man, I knew it wasn't going to be it. We weren't going home to go play and watch the Power Rangers. We're going to go out to the field. Power Rangers. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:03:44 Okay. Well, so you've been doing this a long, long, long, long, long time. And you started officially Eritory Comfort Solutions in what year? We started in 2016 here in San Antonio. Okay. Okay. Now tell us a little bit about your background because you were not always doing this professionally. You had a different career, right? Yeah. Tell us about, like, after high school, you went to college, where?

Starting point is 00:04:07 Yeah, so I graduated from our lady of the lake. I wasn't planning on going to college because I wanted to continue the family business. But I got a soccer scholarship, and that's how I went into college. After college, moved back to Bronsfield for about four years. I worked at a, I worked at a soccer scholarship. the local utility company there. Okay. It was fun, but I still wasn't what I enjoyed doing. I hated being in the office. I hate being in front of the computers.

Starting point is 00:04:36 And it was very difficult for me. So I did that for three years. And then I thought teaching was going to be fun, engaging, building the future for the leaders. Yeah. For the next generation. The young leaders. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:04:48 And I was shocked that it wasn't what I expected. After three years, I realized that, man, I could have a bigger impact in my community and for my family by stepping out. So that's when I decided to launch integrity. But who was it that you, who did you go to, who did you talk to when you said, you know what, I'm thinking about getting out of teaching and I'm thinking about, you know, starting an AC business. Who did you tell that to and who was it that was like, yeah, do it.

Starting point is 00:05:17 I support you. Yeah, it was a lot of it. I started doing some jobs in the summer during the, well, I was. the teacher. Okay. And I kind of figured out then that, man, like, I saw that there was a lot of bad work being done throughout the city or teachers were being, some of my friends were being quoted certain jobs that were super expensive. And then they would show up and do the work. And it's like they paid $5,000 for worth of work and then they didn't do what they were quoted. So yeah. And then also people, contractors not doing what they were supposed to. And then also people, contractors not

Starting point is 00:05:55 doing what they were supposed to. Some of them were ripping people off, like bad customer service, not standing by their warranty. So I kind of had an idea that, you know what, I really believe that we can build something here in San Antonio with a service industry. So you saw an opportunity. You could tell that there was some shoddy work that was being done. And you saw that people were also paying a lot of money for shoddy work, right? Yeah. And you always, you were always taught to do you know, high quality level work? Is that something you learned from your dad? Is that just a cultural thing?

Starting point is 00:06:29 What do you think? I think from what I remember is you would call me to take a look at your AC because it wasn't working and you had paid somebody $1,000 to clean your AC. And the first thing I looked, I looked underneath the AC unit, which is a closet, and you really don't have access to it. And they were like, well, it's still real dirty. Like nobody cleaned it. They probably just sprayed a little chemical out there, but it's still real dirty.

Starting point is 00:06:56 and I feel that that to me was the immediate turn on the light bulbs. Man, there's a lot of houses where people are paying for things that are not being done, right? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And so you're in what year of business right now? I think we're as of this recording. 16. We're probably like our sixth or seventh year. Oh, I think that's the iPad.

Starting point is 00:07:21 There you go. We're still running a business, folks. So the phone is still ringing and Larry is still on the clock. And so this is real deal. You're seeing a real deal of business here. Yeah. So we're on year seven because I keep track because my daughter, our daughter, our daughter was born on 2016.

Starting point is 00:07:35 Oh, okay. And we launched right after that. There you go. Perfect. So she'll always line up with their integrity. Yeah, one year. Yeah, that's very cool. Tell us a little bit about your family life.

Starting point is 00:07:52 her backgrounds in human resources, and we've known each other since probably middle school. Middle school. Wow, man. And so you're a devoted husband and a devoted father. You have one child? Yes, one child. Yes. Your daughter, who's seven, like you said. And is she going to take over the business one day, or you think she has a mind to do something else? It's up to her. It'll always be there. If it's something that wants to be passed on or if it's something that can be sold, we'll find out. Yeah. No, I think she's just more interested in saying, just send the cash flow, Daddy. Send it over. Send the cash flow down. And that's the part we're interested in. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:08:31 No, that's understandable. But, yeah, no, that's really cool. And I think I like your story. I like your story about how you were able to transition from a whole different world. And, you know, some of the previous episodes of the agents lounge, we've had a lot of realtors on who have done big career changes, right? And I think the majority of them were in education. Yeah. A lot of them were education. Let's just pause for just second and talk about Larry because Larry has a very similar story, right? So were you an educator as well?

Starting point is 00:08:59 Yes, sir. 23 years working in higher education. Wow, 23 years. And did you get a similar feeling? Like, I just need to kind of, I'm tired of being in this space. I'm burned out. I just need to change the scenery. Like, what do you think?

Starting point is 00:09:12 Well, I always enjoyed working with young adults and helping them and returning adults, helping them get to whatever goals they wanted in life. And over the summer, I took a chance and decided to try middle school teaching at something new. And props to Francisco, he lasted three years. I lasted one week. One week in middle school. I was going to say, say less. Yeah. As soon as you said middle school.

Starting point is 00:09:38 Yeah. One week. And I knew it'd be too much. I'm a single dad. And so, you know, there was a lot of variables I went into play. And I've been friends with Francisco, I don't know, 12, 13. years now and at least you guys went to college together right yeah yeah we went to college together and i said hey you what school was that our lady like got you got to put that out there yeah you got to

Starting point is 00:10:01 you guys put a lot of money in that place so we got to put that out there go saints yeah yes sir we got the pride of the west side yes sir we both got our master's degree from there and i did a lot of group work with francisco he owes me a few you know and uh i i just said hey you know i need i need to something different, you know, I got a lot of experience and here I am. Very nice, very cool. So, yeah, I mean, sometimes we get in those situations where, you know, we're just not, we're just not feeling it anymore, right? And we need to change the scenery. It's, it's never easy to take that leap into the unknown. And especially, especially when you're jumping into starting a new business because there's a whole lot that goes into that. And in the early days,

Starting point is 00:10:47 it was basically just you, right? You were the only one. Did you have any helpers at all from the I mean, it was only me and every once in a while when I needed help, installing equipment, I would get somebody to help me. Okay, yeah. And so at what point into the business did you finally, were you able to, like, bring on somebody full time? About the first year, I kind of figured that I didn't want to do doing the installs all day long or being out in the field all day long.

Starting point is 00:11:12 Yeah, hard to run the business like that. Yeah. And I enjoy doing the sales parts, but the things. things that I was really good at was building the team and making sure that all of my team was very well taken care of. So we hired somebody to manage ourselves. So he was excellent in communication. So once he started doing sales, we were able to bring in a new technician.

Starting point is 00:11:41 So bringing additional installation team. But I think I realized real quick that the most, the, the, the, the, the, the, The thing that I enjoyed the most out of the businesses, the community, building the team, building, just growing together. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. So that's been kind of that, I would say beyond helping your actual customer with a very happy experience, right? For you, it's been a lot about the team building, the relationships of you and your employees, and being able to all work together as a group to build something where you, have an impact on on the community here in San Antonio. That's right. Yeah, definitely. Let's start getting

Starting point is 00:12:26 into the nitty gritty. All right. I got some questions for you when it comes to all this HVAC stuff. It's not exactly the most exciting subject in the world. It's not exactly sexy. But you want to know what's really not sexy is when the damn thing breaks. Oh, yeah. Right? When you've got this big expensive machine and it stops working because you didn't maintain it properly, right? Or some people just are already at that point, they need to get a new machine and they need to know what's out there, what kind of options. So let's go into that. You have a lot of knowledge. You have a lot of experience in the space.

Starting point is 00:12:56 Throw your wisdom at us, share it with us. Give us some kind of short answers on these things so we can go through several questions. All right. Okay. Let's do it. This is kind of like a Q&A fire round or something, right? Okay, Francisco, briefly explain the importance of just in general regular HVAC maintenance. Why is that so important?

Starting point is 00:13:14 Yeah, so the manufacturers, when they design the systems, they have to be installed and they work at a certain capacity, right? So they know that if you keep your coils clean, if you have the right amount of electricity going into it, if you have the right amount of refrigerant, and if you keep it running like a brand new, that system will last 10, 15 years, sometimes even 20. If you don't maintain it, like, you don't put the right amount of refrigerant,

Starting point is 00:13:47 which naturally the systems they lose like maybe like 1% every year or let's say some components like your car battery you got to replace that car battery every what two years three years or change the wheels or change the oil change the oil yeah so it's very similar so you're not going to run the AC in the middle of summer without checking the refrigerant pressures without checking the the power components making sure that everything's clean that ants didn't get in there. So the same way as a car, you're not going to drive from San Antonio to California without checking the oil or checking the tires. Correct.

Starting point is 00:14:29 So if you can keep your system clean at least annually by a professional and you replace your filters at least quarterly or monthly, depending on what your AC needs, I mean, the system's going to last a long time. Sure. Absolutely. And what are the most common signs that an HVAC system needs maintenance or repair? How do you know if it's starting to give you problems? Yeah, so usually I've been around here for a while and I can be walking down the neighborhood.

Starting point is 00:15:02 And if I hear that the AC is really loud, to me that's a sign that the motor might be going out soon or that it's using already a lot of power, that the system is pretty old. also if your house feels very humid like you turn on the you set up the temperature like at seven at 75 last year and then this year you have to set the temperature at 70 or 68 or bring the lower the temperature even lower then that's probably a sign that you have too much humidity in your home and that your AC is working longer to me to keep you all comfortable

Starting point is 00:15:37 yeah um the other thing is um their utility bills if you're the ACs about 40% of your utility bill. So if you see jumps in the utilities, about 40%, 50%, that's going to be your AC that's causing so much trouble. The other thing is going to be, you said maintenance, right? Yeah. Maintenance. So, I mean, if you've had to do repairs in the past where one thing broke and then the following

Starting point is 00:16:08 year, another thing broke, then that's probably a sign that, hey, I want to get this AC looked at consistently because I don't want to wait for something bigger to bring. So you try to do the preventative maintenance ahead of time. Sure. The other thing is if you have a lot of allergies or if your home has a bad odor, the AC is the most humid place in your home. The AC and, of course, where you shower, right? Right.

Starting point is 00:16:34 So that AC is on about in the middle of summer, maybe, I don't know, five, six hours. I mean, sometimes it doesn't turn off at all. So it's, when it's on, it's pulling off all the dust, the dirt, the bacteria, the allergens, the dirt in your shoes, the cooking oils, the mopping chemicals that you use, all the sprays. I mean, it's just rotating that throughout your whole house. And sometimes it's odorless chemicals, but if you don't have a good filter or you don't have a system that's clean the air, then you're constantly going to be feeling sick. Sure. Yeah, no question.

Starting point is 00:17:15 If I could echo on what Francisco was mentioned. And, you know, I talked to customers before, and one of the things I noticed is kind of pervasive in San Antonio is that customers will panic in the call when the things conked out. Like, it's no good anymore. And in talking with customers, it's, well, you know, I'll try to find out what kind of work have you done? What kind of maintenance have you done? and really lack thereof, you know. And so you don't want to wait until things kind of collapse and fall apart

Starting point is 00:17:49 because then it becomes a burden on you. Obviously, you know, you're melting financially and stuff. And, you know, I recommend the customers treat your AC like you treat your car. Right. You take it to get oil change. You rotate the tires. You do all that stuff. Your AC is just like your car except it's in one place all the time.

Starting point is 00:18:09 and you've got to give it the same level of respect and maintenance. And, you know, that's one of the things that we do exceptionally well is we'll always make sure that your system is working at peak efficiency. Yeah. Just like if you have a reputable auto mechanic. Yeah. Same principle. Right. And other things, you know, that kind of affect the wear and tear in the unit is like if you live out in the rural areas, if dusty environments, it's going to be.

Starting point is 00:18:39 going to make it work harder. Yeah. Or if you have a lot of pets, even. All the pet hair is in there. Yeah. All that pet hair in there. Uh, dog hair, cat hair. Yep.

Starting point is 00:18:48 Hamster hair. Whatever it is. Right. Whatever. Yeah. Kids hair. You know, sure. Um, you know, you don't want to be breathing in that stuff anymore than if you

Starting point is 00:18:56 were on an airplane breathing in. Right. Uh, stuff like that. So, you know, you kind of want to change the, your perspective on your AC and, and give it a little little bit more TLC like you would if your car. No, you bring up a good point, Larry. Larry, if you're the type of person that typically is not so good about maintaining things because some people are good at that and others are not. Okay. And then sometimes, you know, life just gets in

Starting point is 00:19:18 the way. You're very busy. You're working and you're paying bills and you're raising the kids and you got all these things going on, right? And you don't, you don't really think about it, right? You guys, Eritory, have an option where you'll come in and you'll be that person, right? You'll make sure that those things happen. Is that expensive? Yeah. I mean, is it expensive for you guys to come in and do that? Is that affordable? No, for us, it's the most affordable service that we offer to our customers. Okay, yeah, got it.

Starting point is 00:19:45 Is it a one-time fee? Is it a monthly fee? How does that work? Yeah, so basically, we have a BIP program. And in that BIP program, our customers get put to the front of the line, and we make sure that we replace the filters for them. We can do, we'll watch the outdoor unit at least once a year for them. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:20:08 And we make sure that they get the best service that we can offer to them. Sure. And it's only about $20 a month. Okay. So you pay $20 a month. You get two visits. And any referrals or any family members that you get, they also get unlimited service. Wow.

Starting point is 00:20:28 So if they're a AC breaks, they don't have to pay a service fee. So it kind of, it's a program that pays for itself. And if you're a member of this VIP, you get a discount. If you end up having to buy a bigger, you know, a new year. unit or there's a discount built into that as well. You get an extended warranty on our repair. So rather than having the standard 30-day repair, you get two years. Or you get, if you bought an AC with us as long as you're part of the program, you don't have to pay.

Starting point is 00:20:53 You don't, your system was to be under warranty. Wow. $20 a month for that. Yeah. Sounds like a no-brainer. Yep. Wow. That's huge.

Starting point is 00:21:01 And so what about air filters? So you're changing the air filters out. Is that important? Does that affect the efficiency of the machine? And is that something that you guys will do as part of that maintenance plan? Yeah, so basically once you're part of the program, you'll provide the filters so we can order them ahead of time. And our technicians, sometimes they're in the ceiling and they're hard to reach. And we'll replace the filter plus if they have like a fire sensor that they want to replace the batteries.

Starting point is 00:21:30 We'll also do that for them. Yeah. Or they're there. How often should those be changed, Francisco? Cool. Depending on how much you're using the machine. Yeah. How about during the summers in San Antonio, Texas, where it's 150 degrees, how often should you probably change your filter? Yeah, so inside the AC system, you have a blower.

Starting point is 00:21:49 And that blower, when the AC company designs it, they designed that blower to put up enough air for the whole house. Yeah. So what happens is you have a filter that's dirty and it hasn't been maintained. so that blower doesn't have enough air to provide comfort for the whole house so that it'll start using more electricity it can blow out because if it's if it's if it's if it's if it can't get any air from from from the from the filter it's going to last less yeah it's going to use more electricity and it's not going to cool properly yeah so I we recommend customers if they have like a one-inch filter um to replace it you're

Starting point is 00:22:33 they're going to check it at least once a month first. Yeah. So check it every month. If you pull it out and you don't see any dirt or dust in it, put it back in there and let it be there another month until the house, until you start seeing that it's getting pretty dirty. Yeah. Every house is different.

Starting point is 00:22:51 Obviously, the older homes, there's a lot of dust coming off already. So you might have to replace those every month. Yeah. Newer homes, there's going to be still a lot of dust from all the work that was done. So that's probably going to be. see a lot of dust. If you have a lot of kids, you might have to do it every, every month. Every month or every other month. If it's only adults living there and you always take off your shoes and the house is always clean, then maybe that filter would last you three months or six months.

Starting point is 00:23:19 Gotcha. Yeah. So it's just a lot of variables there. Yeah, definitely. What about, talk to me about new units. So if my house is old and I haven't replaced it in a long time or maybe I just have to be honest and I haven't, with myself, I haven't maintained it as well as I should. And I'm thinking that it's time probably to upgrade and get a new one. Talk to me about how that works as far as what are we looking at estimated cost-wise. I know you've explained to us before that there's kind of good, better best when it comes to these machines. Can you talk a little bit about that? And then tell me about financing options. Yeah. So every house is going to be different. Every situation is going to be different and everybody has a different budget. Okay. The most important thing is,

Starting point is 00:24:02 finding out what's the right system that's for your house and and we don't want to we always want to listen to the customers first how long are you planning to be in your home do you value the noise do you want a system that makes a lot of noise the one that makes no noise or do you want a system that uses a lot of electricity but it's going to cost less up front or you want one that's going to be maybe a little bit more expensive but it does more energy efficient in a long run or you want one that has the better comfort, one that's going to be keep the humidity inside of the house at around 45% humidity, or you want one, the cheapest one that you can get is going to be the humidity around 60%. It's going to be loud. You might enjoy spending less up front,

Starting point is 00:24:50 but then it's probably going to last less than the other units. Yeah. So those are all conversations that our technicians have with our customers, and they try to listen to their, listen to them, listen to their concerns, talk to them about financing. If they need financing, right now our manufacturers are offering low monthly payments. Like you can get a new AC for $80 a month or you can get one for no interest. Or there's some AC units that have an extended labor warranty or a manufacturer warranty. So those are, there's a lot of variables. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:25:29 But the best thing is usually to find a company that's going to, that's going to educate you properly on the AIS system, and then the other thing is make sure that they're going to install it properly. Of course. Making sure that their installers have experience. Yeah, yeah. Or checking to have it, if they have any references, they have any reviews, if they have licenses.

Starting point is 00:25:50 Those are all certain things. It's not like going to Walmart and, hey, I want that TV and putting it in there. I mean, you're buying a system that's, you hope at least you're going to get 10 years. Right, yeah. And what is an average? How average cost? And it's going to depend. I mean...

Starting point is 00:26:06 What is an average for maybe a middle grade, you know, somewhere in the middle of the road? So the economy system, they start around $8,000 or $8,500, depending on... Those are probably the ones that you see, like, in apartment complexes. They're real loud. They're noisy, right? Because they're buying a bunch of them. Yeah, and it uses a lot of electricity, and they run all the time. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:26:27 They're loud. Yeah, you can't hear your... You have to turn the volume up and down. Yeah. On your show because every time it turns on. Yeah, and then you got the mid-tieres. They're around 11,000. Yeah, 11 to 13, something in that range, yeah.

Starting point is 00:26:41 And then if you want the Cadillac, is Cadillac still a good brand? I don't even know. It is, yeah. Yeah, a lot of people still like the, what's the SUV? Oh, the escalate. Yeah, people still like the escalate. You want the escalate of air conditioning? Yeah.

Starting point is 00:26:56 Yeah, those would obviously be around 20,000. Yeah, yeah. But like with anything else, you? get what you pay for? Yeah. Right? Don't let the price intimidate you either. Yeah, don't let the price intimidate you because there's financing options.

Starting point is 00:27:09 You can still turn it into something affordable, right? And then, again, if you do the math, what is the cost savings of having a lower energy bill too? Because you've got a machine that's not using nearly as much electricity, right? So the utility bill is it's a big plus. But the main reason you buy an AC and you spend the additional money is going to be for the reliability. Okay. Like, you don't want to buy something and then have to buy another one five years down the road. Like, you want to buy something that's going to last you another 10, 15 years.

Starting point is 00:27:40 Right, right. And the other thing is that you want something that is going to be, it's going to keep you comfortable. Right. Like, you want to be able to sleep at night. You don't want to be taking off your bed sheets and putting them back on and then feeling hot, feeling humid. Like, you're there, you're in your house, I don't know, four or five hours a day. Yeah. And you want to be comfortable.

Starting point is 00:28:04 You don't want, you don't want to be. Well, that's when you're awake. Yeah. Four or five hours awake and then you're asleep for hopefully about eight, you know, so, yeah. Yeah. So there's, it just depends on what the customer values. Right. What do they want?

Starting point is 00:28:17 Yeah, absolutely. And all those things have to be taking into consideration. And I think the most important thing is finding a good company that's going to stand by their work. 100%. And they're going to do what they say and they're going to do a good job. 100%. Because, I mean, everybody can install an agency.

Starting point is 00:28:32 AC unit, but are they going to follow the installation process recommended by the manufacturer? Yeah. Or are they going to not charge it properly, not put the right size wire? Are they going to keep a step by not putting a water sensor in your attic? And then as a result, you have water coming out your ceilings. You can find a contractor. Yeah, because these are problems that may not manifest until three, four, five years later, right? And by that point, it's like, well, okay, where's the guy who installed it?

Starting point is 00:29:05 Oh, they're nowhere to be found because we went with the cheap guys, you know? So that's the other thing, right, is that you guys have been around for about seven years and you provide a warranty, right, on these units. They get installed brand new and you guys will service them depending on what option they agreed upon. But then again, you still have VIP programs. You have these other options that are dirt cheap, in my opinion, to come around and make sure that things are operating properly and being maintained, you know, optimally. So yeah, I think there's some great information there. What about those little,

Starting point is 00:29:36 these little small units that are real popular right now? People a lot of times will put them in their garage or in their she shed. Like window units? Well, it's not really a window unit. I see it's kind of long and narrow. It's on the side of the wall. It faces outside, you know, and it's like a mini AC unit for like adding on to an extra room or a garage. What are those called? So it's a mini split or a zone system. Those AC units are designed for to install in place where you can't put a regular... Like a whole big... Yeah. So, for example...

Starting point is 00:30:07 You guys know how to install this? During COVID, everybody was working from home. We had a lot of people that were converting their garages to their home offices because they had to have their separate displays for their office. Yeah. Or they created a studio or they created a gym and we install those ACE systems in there to... Or sometimes a lot of them converted into a room. and rather than having to spend $10,000 or $8,000 for a new AC system,

Starting point is 00:30:35 you're going to spend a couple of thousand on this AC system that's going to cool that whole area. Yeah, yeah. So those are a couple thousand dollars installed more or less, give a little bit, yeah. It's going to be a lot less. Yeah. Yeah. And they cool well, right? They cool very well for a small space.

Starting point is 00:30:52 Yeah, so the temperature difference on an AC is about 20 degrees on a standard AC. This one's you're getting 40 degrees. Wow. So they pull super fast. Man. Are they super loud? No, you can't hear them. They're very quiet.

Starting point is 00:31:05 You can't hear them. And they have like a remote too sometimes? They have a remote. Yeah. They look nice. There's ones that they look, you can't even tell that they're there. Yeah. But we heard a lot of good things from our customers.

Starting point is 00:31:21 Yeah. Or sometimes they have a room that's always really hot. Like their master bedrooms, like man, like I can't even fix the AC because then everybody's hot over there. Yeah. So we put one zone system there and they could put it as slow as they want. Yeah, for sure, man. I think those are really cool and they give people a lot of options, a lot of flexibility and they're affordable. So I can see why those are extremely popular.

Starting point is 00:31:44 If I could add on too, the same type of services we do for the residential, we can do on the commercial line too. So if you have a – Great point. Yeah. If you have a small business or a chain of businesses or anything, we can customize the units, the services. to fit your budget and your workspace and make sure your staff is working at top of peak efficiency. Heck yeah. So commercial AC is just as important as the residential.

Starting point is 00:32:13 Yeah, no, you're exactly right. And I appreciate that. Larry, you bringing that up. Have you ever installed one of those split units out of business? Most restaurants, I mean, you designed an AC system to keep you comfortable all year long here in San Antonio. but I mean this year how many days were over 100 degrees so you think people are going to be seeing at your restaurant if they're hot correct so what would you do is you install those somme systems in those restaurants kind of like a supplement to help to help keep the whole kitchen staff comfortable yeah keep your your customers comfortable yeah and and rather than buying a $20,000 system you just buy those small systems and it's going to keep that area cool and don't those also work as a heater too? They work for cooling and heating. Yeah. So you've, you know, the opposite effect, as long as we have electricity and we don't have another snow vid, you can use that to heat up

Starting point is 00:33:07 certain rooms as well that might be ordinarily too cold. Yeah. Which we don't have that problem very often, but it does happen sometimes. Well, these questions here that I have for you, Francisco, were all the type of questions that I think are in the minds of a lot of people, right? These are the things that may not really be thinking about it all the time, but it's, you know, it's something that we need to be at least conscious of and aware of, right? Because maintaining these units are very, very important. Maybe we don't give that enough thought. That's why we're talking about this today. Some people don't even know that these little small units exist to kind of help as a supplement or to cool or heat a certain room that needs an extra boost and they're very

Starting point is 00:33:45 affordable, right? Probably even add a little bit of extra value to the home knowing that if somebody else is going to buy it, hey, I love that the garage has the option to be cool or I can open the door or, you know, whatever like that. Yeah. And I think the other thing that people don't really think of is we also do duckwork and insulation. Okay. Tell us more about that. What does that look like? Um, the duck work, they last around 20 years. Okay. That's what's up in the attic, the piping that the cold air flows through. Yeah. So what happens is that after 10 years, that aluminum that's around the flexible duck in there, it starts wearing off.

Starting point is 00:34:26 And rather than sending cold air to your room, like all that heat is being transferred from the sun into the duckwork, and it's hitting the airflow. Also, animals will tear it up during the winter. Like if you have any rats or anything that will get inside your attic, they'll tear up their duct. And then the energy standards back then, you could install a leaking duck and you would pass the inspection.

Starting point is 00:34:55 Wow. So you're losing like 20 or 30% of the airflow. Yep. So some of the things that we do is we seal the duck work. We make sure that everything sealed, that there's no energy escaping. Yep. Or we will do a duck design where the previous contractor did a design and some of the rooms weren't balanced properly or some rooms were hotter than others.

Starting point is 00:35:17 So what we do is we'll balance the whole house for you. And that's a simple fix because we take the temperature out of each room. Yeah. And then we try to figure out, okay, what's the difference in each room? Right. And then we adjust the dampers on it. Yeah. And then also doing brand new duck work.

Starting point is 00:35:37 During the fall, from fall through spring, it's the best time because those are one day, two day, sometimes three-day jobs where you're removing all the old duck, installing you so you're going to be you might be without AC for a couple of days so you want to make sure we don't want to do that in August yeah yeah we don't want to do it in August exactly yeah um and then the other thing is everybody's always looking for air fresheners or they're looking for um liso to clean their home and you go to um target and target sells you like a little purifier that's like yeah it cleans the air but those things cost, they're very expensive.

Starting point is 00:36:19 Yeah. You're going to spend about $800, $1,000, and it's only going to do like a 400 square foot space, and you have to replace the filter every month. Yeah. So the AC, one of its main job is to clean your system. Yep. So one of the things that we can do is we can install the better filter qualities, something that's going to filter a lot of the allergens, a lot of the bacteria, viruses, things that are causing you sick.

Starting point is 00:36:47 So if you have a sick home where everybody's always sick all the time, we can upgrade your filters. Okay. Or we can install UB lights wherever there's some bacterial growth. We can install those as well as an ionizer to help stabilize the ear and sterilize the viruses. Wow. So those are all the solutions that we have for our customers. I would imagine that's really good for people with asthma or really bad allergy suffers like you said, right? Yeah.

Starting point is 00:37:15 Yeah. So your body is always fighting. all the bacteria when you're a school teacher if you're in the office like I'm pretty sure those carpets in the office aren't being clean and everybody walks in them or kids are always sneezing they don't clean their hands and you're always your body's always fighting right so you want to come home work to a place to an environment that's clean yeah that's sanitized that you don't have to worry about the air quality of the air you want everything to be clean so you could get a better rest for your body yeah so

Starting point is 00:37:47 That's just some of the things that... Great info, man. Absolutely great information. Well, Francisco, thank you for answering all these questions. I think this is super important. Again, these are things that we need to bring more attention to, you know, bring to light more. And so I'm glad that we had this opportunity to kind of turn the tables a little bit and interview you for once and talk a little bit about what you do, what you guys are doing every single day. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:38:14 Right? To help people here in San Antonio. So thank you. very much. Thank you, Larry, for joining us. Thank you, sir. Larry is our new co-host of the podcast, right? That's right. And so he's off to a great start. You are correct, sir. And you are kicking some butt,

Starting point is 00:38:29 and you'll be seeing a lot more of Larry going and hearing a lot more of Larry going forward. And so things are really moving along for airtegrity. And as you guys mentioned, you can help residential, you can help commercial, you can do maintenance, you can do duck work, you can install big giant, huge machines

Starting point is 00:38:45 in your whole house, or you can install little small machines and little rooms that might need that. So you guys pretty much cover the whole entire gambit, everything from top to bottom, and you have the knowledge, you have the experience, and you have a high quality team. Yeah, and one of the biggest things that we do with realtors is we do the inspections. Okay. A lot of people, a lot of times they're buying and selling homes. And last thing you want is to buy a new home and, oh, man, the ACs doesn't work.

Starting point is 00:39:14 Right. And you've got to spend $5,000 or $10,000 on this. repairs. Yep. So we kind of, what on things we do is we do the inspections for the realtors. We could do it the same day or the next day service. Yep. And they get an inspection report.

Starting point is 00:39:28 And, hey, this unit is this you're sold. This is working property or it's not. And we'll give them a report on the AC unit. At least when the homeowner buys the home, like they're not going back to the realtor. It's like, hey, oh, how come you sold me this old? That's right. That's right.

Starting point is 00:39:44 Like you help the customer by educating them. and giving them everything they need to make a good decision. Now, that's great. And yeah, you guys have really developed a lot of realtor relationships here in San Antonio as well. And a lot of realtors, you know, trust you guys with their clients, which is super important to them because they do not want to just turn, you know, anybody over to their client. Yeah, and we know that we have realtors on our BAP list as well. So anytime that those realtors call, our technicians know that, hey, they got to be there on time

Starting point is 00:40:14 and they already know what to provide. Yeah. Well, you guys are on time. non-VIP, right? Yes, sir. Yeah, absolutely. You know it, and you know. But VIP lets you skip to kind of the front of the line.

Starting point is 00:40:24 Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and one of the things that I do is I kind of help with managing the schedule and dispatches and all that stuff. So, you know, we can definitely help you with that. And this weekend, the first cool front of the season, cool front, quote unquote, is coming in. Folks might be actually switching on a heater at nighttime. And so don't forget to get your heaters and furnaces checked out to. before winter. Absolutely.

Starting point is 00:40:49 When we had that big ice, you know, dilemma in 2021, we were hit hard too by people who just ignored their heaters. Right. Yeah. So you want to treat that with the same respect as your AC. 100%. Yeah. Thank you, Larry. And are you running any specials right now?

Starting point is 00:41:05 Eritory comfort solutions? Any new customer? Yeah. So anybody hasn't tried us. Usually from October 15th to November 30th, we're using a has. off on all the the the the AC inspections yeah it's usually 99 dollars and we're doing it for $50 wow um during and it's only for new customers um a lot of it is to build that relationship with them get to know us get to meet us and what is that inspection intel yeah so we're going to inspect

Starting point is 00:41:34 the whole AC unit um if you have a furnace we're going to make sure that the burners are burning properly we don't want to make sure that you had any rats inside inside it or any any rodents in there we're going to make sure that you're breathing the good air. We're going to open up the ducks, make sure that there's some bacterial growth. So you get all that. And what happens is that we'll educate the customer on their AC and then they can decide what they want to do with that information. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:41:59 And I'm just going to go ahead and release this cool little secret, but aren't you working on a special project for like a book or something right now? Isn't Francisco Bermudis in the process of finishing his book about this very subject? Yes, yeah, we're working on a book to educate commercial clients and new clients on how residential too. Residential AC services. About these common things, right? Things to be aware of. I don't remember the last time I saw an HVAC company with a book, so I think that's kind of cool.

Starting point is 00:42:32 And these are the kind of things that you'll probably give away right when you guys do these maintenance calls and things to the homeowners. Yeah, whenever we're done with it. Yeah, no, it's going to be done real soon. And trust me, because we got Mr. Larry on the assignment. The book tour is coming up. We'll be at your local bookseller. Right, yeah. I think we're going to have Francisco at Barnes & Noble signing the books.

Starting point is 00:42:54 And then in the little gift card for a free inspection. Yes, sir. We'll see if we finish that project. Yeah, no, it's coming. I'm trying to keep him on the straight and narrow. Yes, absolutely. He's having a hard time finishing it because he's so busy. But this is a priority because,

Starting point is 00:43:12 You know, we got to differentiate. We got to stand out. And that's, you guys are all about giving educational value, information first, and what better than a book, right? What better than a book? So, yeah. All right. Any parting words?

Starting point is 00:43:25 Any final words, guys? Before we wrap up. Yeah. Thank you for tuning into our podcast. All the agents that we bring, they're the top of the line agents. They're the best in the city. We've worked for them for a long time. Yep.

Starting point is 00:43:37 And they have a very good reputation. So we highly recommend them. and the tips that they share for their customers or their life stories are just great. Yeah, exactly. That's one of the coolest things about the show is just hearing the background story, how these people got in the business and how they're doing their thing. That's what makes the agents lounge podcast so great. So I think that's about it, guys.

Starting point is 00:44:02 I think it's some good information and I really appreciate you again, Francisco, for all you do. And you've got a great business. You got some great employees. and you guys are doing a lot of really good things for San Antonio, so we really appreciate you. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right, that does it, guys,

Starting point is 00:44:18 for another episode of the Agents Lounge Podcast. We'll catch you here next time. You've been listening to the Agents Lounge Podcast, brought to you by Eritory Comfort Solutions. To learn more about the resources mentioned on today's show or to listen to past episodes, please visitagentsloungepodcast.com.

Business Innovators Radio - Unveiling the HVAC World: Inside Francisco Bermudez Jr.’s Journey as an HVAC Entrepreneur in San Antonio

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