KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Audio Showings - What You Need to Know About Windows

Episode Date: December 6, 2024

Welcome to another edition of the nerdy agent podcast, Business Tip of the Week. Business tip of the week. Business tip of the week. Today we're going to talk about to the window. We're not going to sing the song. To the wow. Gosh. We're talking about windows.

We're talking about windows today. And I think that we should just pass this off resident expert to start, A.J. who orders all of the windows for our rentals, unless Josh has something to add initially. He knows more than I do about windows. What do you got? I mean, I don't know where to start. You're at a showing. And you walk in.

It's a 50s house. Why should we care about windows when you walk through a showing? Yeah. There you go. So they're cheap, right? Just replace them. Yeah. They're not cheap.

The one thing that my builder, Brian, says all the time is because people always ask, if I replace these windows, I'll save a ton of money. It's going to be super energy efficient, right? And Brian always says, there's still a hole in your house. So no, they're not going to, you get the best argon gas, triple-pane window. So you're still allowing sunlight. There's still going to be some transfer of heat and cold through those windows. Will they be more efficient than a single pane?

Absolutely. The payback period on that is probably going to be really crappy. So you might want to stick your money in the money market right now if that's what you're thinking you're going to do. I often tell people that there are a couple of reasons why you would replace a window. The first one is that they are broken or leaking and they are causing your house to have problems. So if that's the case, that is when I would say these windows do need to be replaced or this window needs to be replaced. I often have the mom or dad because this happens all the time.

They walk into like, all these windows need to be replaced. And I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Why do they need to be replaced? Like, well, they look really old. And I'm like, yeah, they're 70 years old. But like 10 years ago, they were 60 years old. And 20 years ago, they were 50 years old. So they don't need to be replaced.

You just think they're old, which is a- Want them to be replaced. This is a large distinction. Which is also fair. Totally fair. So like me and Emily in our first house, we had original windows, and we had original screens and storms, and they were different, right? So, like, you know when you got like the screen, it's like a full pain screen, made these huge mid-century windows. And I remember the first two years in the spring, we would take these massive storms off.

And I would be outside and I'd be like, you know, trying to hoist them out of position. They're super heavy. The windows were painted over 50 times. You could hardly open and close any of them. and I just said, I don't want these windows anymore. We're going to get new windows. They weren't leaking. They were causing zero problems to the house.

There wasn't damage to the framing or anything like that. It was just conveniently speaking, I'd love to have new windows in here. So we replace them. But that's the big thing that I tell people is like most windows don't need to be replaced. The big thing that I do when I'm at a showing, especially if I see wood windows or super old vinyl windows, is I will open a window on all four sides of the house. The big thing to note is that the sun hits the house differently on different sides of the house. In a bathroom, it's really important to do this because some people don't operate their fans enough.

So we'll see casement windows in primary bathrooms where clearly they literally never ran a fan for 30 years and they would take 45 minute showers and had no idea what they were doing. And you open the casement window and you reach. It's a really long shower. Yeah, they're actually. Who takes long showers like that? Josh does that. 45 minutes? So you reach in and you grab the frame of the window.

So on a case window, that's a crank out for those that don't know what that is. But on a double hung, you can single hung, you can do the same thing. You open them up and you just reach into the frame. You feel the frame around the actual glass itself. If you feel any spots where you can like push your finger through, that's a need to replace type situation because clearly water's been getting in there. And you only have a little bit of gap between where that window frame sits and where the framing that's holding the window in place is.

So that's something that I do on every single house. If they're nice new vinyl windows, I'll show the client how you can open the window and usually you can pop the little fins, pull the window out, say, hey, it's cool for easy cleaning. People are like, how did you do that? And you're like, because I open a lot of windows. I don't know. I just know how to do it. And the client will never clean them again.

They will never do it. But it is nice to know how to do that because when I was removing my windows. Every new construction walk through. Yeah. When I was removing my windows in when we were moving them over, the guys were out and they were cutting the new window opening and I was like, oh, I'll help you. And I just and pop the sashes out. Because if you, if you pop them open and you get them down to level with the ground and then you tip them a little bit, they'll just come right out of the window.

So it's kind of a nifty way that you can just pull a piece of glass out. I do it often in our rentals when I have to get a tempered piece of glass for a window or for a landing around a staircase is I'll just pop the window out and bring it in. They'll replace the glass and I'll just pop it back in and slide in place. But the next thing that I think is important to discuss on windows is how much they cost. The story I always tell is I had a client, a good buddy that I played baseball with. He has an executive two-story home in Maple Grove, big home, lots of glass. And he said, I'm looking at replacing my windows.

Any suggestions? And I said, you should bid it out with several different people. You're going to find that you're probably going to get bids anywhere from around $40,000 for your house, $40,000 to $100,000. And he laughed. He started laughing. He's like, that's not going to happen. There's no way. There's no way the bids are going to that far apart.

I'm like, dude, do it. And then call me once you're done. and I guarantee you that's what's going to happen. So he gets bids from five different people. He gets like Home Depot, local Maple Grove window installer, Anderson, Marvin, Pella, whatever. And they all come back. Local window installer and Home Depot are in the 40 to 60 range.

I think the one he picked actually was in there. It was like $50,000 for a pretty nice window. Anderson was $110,000 for an Anderson 400 window. And on the topic of, will I get my money back out of this? absolutely not. Now, if you're building a $5 million house on a lake, maybe that's the route that you decide to go. But keep in mind with everything that you're doing on upgrades, whether it be countertops or appliances or windows or siding or whatever, it should match the value of your house.

So my house, for instance, we're doing a big addition. The previous G.C. that did our house wasn't very good. And he put in some crappy windows, which I hate, which I would never buy again. But the Anderson 100, 200s, some of these like name brand. and even local companies that build a very similar type window that are built in a very similar way with similar products. We ended up going with a Hayfield window. It saved us a ton of money versus doing a Marvin or an Anderson 400. I would imagine we probably saved $10,000 to $15,000 going that route. And we get a great product either way. So that's the stuff that you, I mean, again, that's a lot of things about windows. But notably, you should know, like, hey, it's two to 300 bucks to install.

a window, the cost of a window can be anywhere from $400 to $1,200. Maybe if they're way bigger, they're a lot more expensive or whatever. But you should know, like, if a window needs to be your place as the agent, honestly, I think an expectation should be that's $800 to fix that window. And if you can't do that, take a picture of the window, get a general size, send it to a guy that can install a window so that you can give that client an actual number right there on the spot. The couple things.

So unlike the old original windows, AJ's right, right? they don't always have to be replaced, but they could impact your quality of life living there. So if you walk through a house and has old original windows, make sure you call out, like, these will be really sticky. They're kind of hard to open. Like, you may find that if you're someone who likes opening your windows a lot, your options are a little bit limited, right, in terms of what you can or can't do with those. Secondarily, I think making sure people understand the cost thing is really important, right? We talk about mechanicals a lot and like, you know, furnace, AC, water heater, you know, water softener.

you might spend 18 grand doing all that for a whole house. People don't often think about that. Windows are the same where it's like that $40,000 number is a big number. So if you're comparing House A to House B and one's got new windows and one doesn't, there's a difference in the value of those two houses, whether or not you're assigning that value to those properties or not. But making sure that you call these things out so that clients are like, oh, yeah, it says old windows.

Like, well, if you're satisfied with the old windows, that's fine. But know that if you're going to replace them, it's $800 to $1,000 to $1,000 a window to do it. So put that number in your head somewhere to make sure that you're thinking about this properly. Because oftentimes they don't get paid the attention they deserve. In 95 to 99% of cases, vinyl is better. At least here in Minnesota, people across the country might have different opinions. I've only ever told one client, make sure you don't put vinyl when you replace these windows. It was a character thing.

And it was on Highland Parkway in St. Paul. And it was an old classic hole. with beautiful woodwork and I'm like please don't put vinyl windows in here even if you get the matching looking wood look it's just going to be a travesty and they did replace them with all Anderson I think 400 wood windows and it looks phenomenal now they're not going to last as long they're going to be maintained but to maintain the look and historical feel of that house I thought that was the right choice we're going long here so I only I should have one piece on one window specifically so you look at the whole house you go these are old these are new what have you the window the window in the bathrooms in the shower surrounds are extremely important to look at because there's going to be water in there. So the biggest thing I look at there is are they wood windows because if it's a wood window in your shower, that one probably at some point will need to be replaced regardless because it's going to get rotted out. The other thing I like to look at is if they have retiled the bathroom and they left instead of glass blocking that window, they left that super old window.

I just find it helpful to point out that they maybe were trying to see. save some money here or there on this house. It could have impacted other parts of the house. That's what I'm saying. Because they really did. You should be replacing the window with a glass block or a vinyl when you're redoing your bathroom. It's just a it's a must-had because of how much more your window. Absolutely.

That's all we have this week for the nerdy agent podcast, business tip of the week. Business tip of the window. To the window. To the wow. Josh. See you later.