Smart Money Happy Hour with Rachel Cruze and George Kamel - Rage-Baiting Ourselves With America’s Shocking Home Prices

Episode Date: May 28, 2026

🏡 Get organized to buy or sell your home with our Real Estate Home Base.   If you love an episode of House Hunters or The Price Is Right (or if you’re just nosy about other people’s property value), today’s episode is a must! Plus, Rachel’s husband Winston is here to join the fun and share his real estate expertise.   Next Steps: ·   🎙️ Catch our episode Spilling the Financial Tea With Our Better Halves. ·   🍸 Follow Smart Money Happy Hour on TikTok: @smartmoneyhappyhour ·   📱 Submit a Guilty As Charged question for Rachel and George! Leave us a voicemail with your question at 877-306-1517 or send a DM to @rachelcruze or @georgekamel on Instagram! Be sure to type “GUILTY?” at the top of your message so we don’t miss it.  ·   💵 Create a free budget and find more margin with EveryDollar.   Connect With Our Sponsors: ·   Check out the FAIRWINDS Credit Union exclusive account bundle. ·   Get 20% off when you join DeleteMe. ·   Get 20% off with code SMARTMONEY at Cozy Earth.   Today’s Happy Hour Special: 🍹 Ranch Water Recipe by: Liquor.com ·   1 1/2 ounces blanco tequila ·   1/2 ounce fresh lime juice ·   6 ounces Topo Chico   Instructions: Add all ingredients to a highball glass filled with ice, gently stir to combine. Garnish with a lime wedge.   Explore More From Ramsey Network: 💰 George Kamel 🎙️ The Ramsey Show 💸 The Ramsey Show Highlights  🧠 The Dr. John Delony Show 🪑 Front Row Seat with Ken Coleman 📈 EntreLeadership   Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you love house hunters, the price is right, or Winston Cruz, you're going to love today's episode. If you love all three, chef's kiss. I've turned a breaker off or two in my day. Have you ever been? Flip on, flip on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Flip on breaker. Would you say you like, you like big baseboards and you cannot lie?

If it matches the house. Is that something you would say? Hey guys, I'm Rachel Cruz. I'm George Camel. And I'm Winston Cruz. And this is Smart Money Happy Hour. Cheers. Cheers.

Oh, sorry, it wasn't rich. You forget? Get the cup. Have you never seen the show once? Cheers. Ah, I just, um. It's fine. Yeah, I have.

I know you consume a lot of content. No pressure. No pressure. Well, this is the show where two friends who have to be many experts talk about what you're talking about. Everything from pop culture, current events, and money. Let's talk about what we're sipping on. I believe this was a Winston Cruz request. Yes.

We let him choose the drink today. I texted you. I said, what? I did. It's a long list of sugar-frees. Sugar-free car. And we landed on one of my favorites, great taste, my friend. Oh, good.

A ranch water. It's a great cocktail, a classic, very clean. We're going to give you our rating and reveal the cost per glass at the end of the episode, so stick around for that. All right. It only made sense to have the real estate king himself join us today. This is your life, all right? Whether you wanted it to be this way or not, you've been in the real estate game for how long? 15 years.

Amazing. And for a long time, and partially now, you handle Dave Ramsey's real estate. Right. That's pretty impressive. And now you've been doing it on your own and even getting some house flipping. Is that right? Yep. Doing a little house flipping, still doing some development and property management. Do you actually swing like a sledgehammer at a drywall? Is that just for TV? Yeah, I did. Yeah, I did until I realized they could do it in a day and it would take me weeks to do the demo. With like equipment or just they're stronger than you? They're just more efficient. Just more efficient.

You're more haphazard with it. You did get a sledgehammer. Yeah, I did for Christmas, actually. That's pretty good. I got a crowbar. And then I watched them do it. Where do you buy a crowbar without them like giving you a look? There's a, do you have a Home Depot?

I do, but if I went for a crow bar, there'd be police outside. I'm like, what does this guy need a crowbar? He clearly doesn't know what to do with it other than break into a car. You'd be surprised. When you hold it, all of a sudden, you just know. You will. Try it. Try it.

The spirit takes over. Well, for those of you don't know, Winston is Rachel's husband. Yes. Cruz, same last name. Same last name. Relations. Thanks for coming, babe. No, thank y'all for being here. Thanks for doing this show.

Yeah, you're welcome. Well, honestly, every time you're on, it juices the numbers. So we're like, let's get Winston back on, baby. I know. My rage just went way up. Thanks for telling me. You got paid for this? No.

Okay, good. But we did. We talked about doing a real estate episode and knowing that you're in the market a lot, whether it's the development side, residential side. And so we were like, okay, let's have some fun with this. And we love a game. You know, I love games. Oh, yeah.

Because she's competitive and has a need to win constantly. Is that fair? Yeah, you'll see. I was going to say you'll see you. But you completely know. There's whiteboards here. We are ready for the game. Luckily, I'm just a game show host today.

It's you two against each other. And the pressure's on me because you introduced me with the title of a real estate king. Guru, is that a better term? I practice. You know your baseboards. I'll say that. I practice real estate. That's what, that's why they call it practicing. You know your crown molding. You know your baseboards, don't you? I do.

I like a man who knows his baseball boards. So, anyways, the pressure's on because, you know, Rachel, she might, she's probably going to. I'm pretty good too. Yeah, she's a good guesser. I'm not as detailed. She just goes straight from the gut. But her gut is usually right. I like it. Well, uh... It's called intuition, fellas. If you've watched Game Show Network, HGTV in the early 2000s, we're basically

doing this triple feature of prices right meets newlywed game meets house hunters this is fun you in i'm here stakes are high you're not going back now all right what's the game george how are we so our team our team found eight house listings and i have the price in the location you two do not and you two have pictures of each house that's all you are going off of is pictures of the house you got a guess where those homes are in the country and how much they're going for. Okay, I think not to be the boss of this, I think we get the state. Isn't that correct? Okay.

Can you give us a hint? You tell us the state. We do the city and the state. I'll give you the state. Yeah. I'll do that. All right. Eight rounds, you can ask for three hints and I will reveal a clue to help you build

context. Oh, that's fun. A friend. I don't want to see you struggle. They do, the audience, but I would never. No, you're so generous, George. Yeah, you're so kind. All right.

Let's get to it. first house, should we say the state, shall we, is in South Carolina. Okay, I need you to give, there's pictures, you tell me which house you're talking about. Am I giving it to you? Okay, perfect.

Is this it? You can handle the cards on your own. Okay, here we go. I don't think I need to hand you with the cards. Okay. They're in order. The team did all the work for you. This is beautiful.

You just sit there, enjoy yourself. Be the podcast princess that I am. Okay. So the audience, we've got the picture up on the screen for the audience. This home is in South Carolina. You have to guess this.

city and the price. Okay. Oh no, I'm a bad, I'm a bad speller. I did kind of want a grade on spelling, but... No, don't. Okay, and I'm gonna say... Wow. It looks renovated.

I know, that fun? Is it this spelling? Hold on. No, no, it's the city. I would never have thought of that. Well, because I think it's gonna be obscure. I'm like, I could go Charleston, but I think that's like too obvious. So I'm gonna go like a little different, different route.

Interesting psychology. Okay. And I'm gonna I want to go. All right. Y'all, I know nothing about real street as I'm doing this. Okay, I got it. Can we do closest without going over?

Can I ask how many bedrooms? You may. Okay. This is one of your clues. Seven. Oh, good gosh. Don't judge a book by its cover. All right, all right.

Just erase her answer. Okay. Winston, I feel like you should get a hint since she got one. Does I have like year built? Yeah, built in the 1830s. Oh. Oh, historic. Historic.

Okay. That is a part of history. Obviously renovated. Obviously. I mean, you see the beautiful kitchen. All right. Let's do it. All right.

Let's see your guesses for this beautiful home in South Carolina. What's the cost? Okay, you went? 1.1 million. Charleston. Okay, Rachel. Wilmington, South Carolina, 600. Wow.

Seven bedrooms is big. I did change one. Do you think you can get a seven bedroom house for $600,000? In Wilmington. I do. Okay. That's true. Well, our winner for this round.

What? North Carolina. Yeah, I didn't want to say anything, but there is no Wilmington, South Carolina. This is great. This is getting better. I didn't want to kick her while she was down. She was already so far off. I don't know how this is going to get better.

This is going to be, this is going to be real. To be fair, on the Ramsey show this week, she said. All right, in Armadillo, Texas, we have Katrina on the line. And I went. This is Amarillo. Amadillo. There was no D in there. How did she get Armadillo?

So just, I want to make, it's actually a point to Rachel. She's just not good with cities. So I don't dog her for Wilmington, South Carolina. You don't get a negative point for that. Deadgummit, y'all, I thought, I'm really going big here. Deadgummit, South Carolina. Okay, stop. Okay, how about, um, are you changing your answer?

I'm changing my city. Yes, because it doesn't exist. Okay. How about this? What if I told you? Stop, stop, stop. I got it. Oh, you do.

She's got it. I got it. I thought you wanted another hint. I got it. I got it. I got it. We get three hints per house. How about this?

Three hints per house. They're making up the rules as they got. What is this? Greenville. Oh. Oh. That is in South Carolina. You're right.

Good job. Perfect. This feels right. I'm going to undiductive. I think there's an E in between the... Thank you. I didn't want to say anything. Okay, I got, really?

G-R-E-E-N-E? You know what, I don't think there's an E. I think Rachel's right on this one. That looks off, thank you. Okay, spelling E. Negative one point for Winston. Yeah, yeah, okay. Minus one.

Okay, got it. Okay. This has been the longest round. Wow. We're going to be here all day. All right, I got it. I got it. Okay.

Here we go. Okay. Still wrong, but love the effort. Okay. Is it Charleston? It is. It is. Dadgum it.

So Charleston is correct. Winston wins, he wins this round. He is way off on the price. multiply that by about four. Oh my gosh. $4 million for this beautiful historic home. Charleston, South Carolina, coming in at seven beds, seven baths,

4,400 square feet. It's got a carriage house and a pool. Oh, good night, house. Can I tell you, when I saw the red knobs on the oven, I went, this is at least a $2 million house. Oh, didn't see those. Well done. You got to focus in on the details, guys.

To be fair, we're looking at tiny, like, printed off, arch and crafts. Really well done, though. One megapixel photos. Couldn't have given them an iPad or something to zoom in around? We're low budget here. We got to pay Winston's fee. We got to save money on this episode.

It's fine. Okay, what's our next one? My show has a lot better quality. All right, next up. Oh, boy. We're headed to Kentucky. We got Kentucky. How many bedrooms?

Four beds. Okay. Can I see the picture? I like the red door. Yeah, that's accurate. Okay. I mean, like, the gutters are falling off. Well, see, details, babe.

You got it. Yeah, George has got me thinking now. Okay, I'm going to say. The doors are falling off? The gutters. Oh. See, that's the kind of detail once and brings to the show. George, stop.

How do you even see that on this tiny image? And it's got a little basement? All right. Clearly, they got some new fixtures in there. Actually, I'm going to change this. I'm going to change the location. Oh. I like this.

Let me say this. You will never guess the location. Well, maybe what's closest to it wins. Whoever is closest to the location. Sure, I'll pull up my Google Maps. Yeah, do it. We will never guess it? I don't know every single city in Kentucky memorized by proximity.

Okay. All right. You guys ready? Yep. What do you got? Oh my gosh, baby. We have the same. Lexington, Kentucky.

Rachel said 300K. Winston said 550K. Correct answer. Not in Lexington. It's in Danville, Kentucky. Okay. Coming in at 275,000. Oh, well done. I did it. Never seen someone so excited to be almost half right. This is a beautiful four-bed, two-bath home coming in at just over 2,000 square feet. Okay. Clearly renovated. I can see by the fixtures there and the kitchen. You can see it's got some newer appliances. It's like kind of renovated. Yeah, I mean, like they did some... Appliances and light fixtures.

Maybe some flooring. I can tell the basement has some new flooring. Would you agree? I don't know. I'd put it down. What kind of floor is that, I think? You think that's engineered? LVT.

Yeah, definitely. It's $200,000. 275 in Danville, which, as the crow flies... Yeah, how far is up from Lexington? Is south of Lexington. Okay. Not bad. miles? Not even.

Okay. 36 miles. So less than an hour drive. Okay, I think we could say Lexington. And that's a, I mean, that's a nice house. Like, 275 to have a four-bedroom home? Raise that family. Because people always go, well, Rachel, I mean, medium home price is over 400,000. Can't get anything for that. Not in Danville. Not in Danville. Move to Danville, guys. Or Wilmington,

South Carolina. A new city coming to you. To be fair, we don't know that there isn't to Wilmington, South Carolina. There might be. You never know. No, there isn't. There's a Massachusetts, Illinois, Delaware, Ohio, Vermont. You could have guessed any of those. I know.

Okay, next up. Up next, we're headed to Michigan. We're going to Michigan. A ways away. Okay. This is an interesting, this looks like a little hobbit home. It's giving shire. It's cute.

I had a joke. What do you call that, Winston, that kind of low slant? Like a George home. Okay. You know what? It was my idea to have you on the show And it'll be my idea next time to not have it You can cut it, cut it, cut it, I don't know, it's fine

No, it's fine I do like that it looks a little more my size It is cute, though Interesting chimney The Kebler's about to pop out It does give Keebler, you're right It's giving Keebler With the color too

The city is the hardest part I know It changes everything Yeah, again you're not going to guess the city Okay. It's one of those cities where I'm like, yeah, I remember that exists, but it would never have thought about it. Yeah, then it's probably not this one. Okay, I'm going to go.

I'm giving you that. That's a free hint. That one's on me. I'll just go with the biggest city in Michigan. We went two different ones, babe. Okay, ready? You going state capital? All right.

All right. Wow. Almost the same price point. Oh, really? Rachel said Grand Rapids, 300. 300 grand. Winston said Detroit, 305 grand. Very price is right of you.

You're both wrong. It is in Saginaw, Michigan. Wow. Was that closer to Grand Rapids or... Again, you're making me do all the work. Well, why not? Just see. Where the heck is Saginaw? Yeah, see where that is. If you live in Saginaw are watching this right now, shout out. And how much is it?

The price point is $99,000. No. Less than $100,000. Stop it. And this can't... Am I looking at the right house? Five bed? One and a half bath.

Just under 2,000 square feet. Want to have bath and five beds? Can you agree with him that five bedrooms in a 2,000 square foot home is criminal? I don't see any bedrooms. It's like, unless they're sleeping in the living room. They did you dirty on that one to not show you any of the bedrooms. Well, sometimes how a bedroom is like tiny, you know what I mean? Like a 10 by 10?

Yeah, like a small little. What is it? I mean, 10 by 10 is a pretty small room. That's small. Yeah, that's like my childhood home, I think, was like 10 by 10 situation. $99,000. There you go. Apparently.

Wow. Okay. Where is it geographically? Saginaw. I missed it by $5,000. I'm losing. $500,000? $5,000.

Oh, $5,000. Yeah, it's two to one. Rachel's technically closer. Oh, because I was closer. Based on price. You went over. I wasn't keeping score. That's not my style, but I'm glad someone is.

Saginaw is about an hour, 42 minutes, about 100 miles away from Detroit. If you go north. Okay, so further. Grand Rapids is further. Yep. Okay. That's okay.

Here we go. All right, next step. That was a tough one. Number four, California. Oh, this is beautiful. All right, let's check out this. Okay, I got this one. Gosh, I'm going.

Okay. This is really, that's a nice. That's beautiful. A-frame? Yeah, we love an A-frame. We love an A-frame. My OCD is very calmed by a nice, you know, symmetrical A-frame. Oh, my gosh.

It's so pretty. All right, you ready? Yep. Again, not a city you would have guessed, but let's see how close. I'm going Redding. Redding. Yeah. Interesting choice.

And I'm going three million. Three million in Redding. Winston said Sacramento 1.8 million. Wow. All right. It's in Crestline, California. It's $669,000. Wow.

Three bed, three baths, a little over 1,800 square feet. Okay. That's a shocking one. Now, let me see where Crestline is. Is that north? Northern? Crestline, California. Let me see how far it is from Redding.

Yes, thank you. Rachel, ladies, first. Nine hours and 28 minutes from Reading. It's a big state. California's a big state. It's long. Wow. Okay, Crestline is actually pretty close to L.A.

Your Riverside area. Wait, Southern California, and it's only how much? It's $669,000. I mean, it looks like it's in the woods. I don't know how close it is to nowhere. That's shocking. And it's like really nice. Winston's at Sacramento, which again is on.

on the opposite side here. Mm-hmm. That is seven hours and two minutes. So take my Winston's closer. Okay, Winston's closer. But who had the right, you had the lower price board? Yeah, you got that one. That was a good one for you.

Crushing it. Wait, what? I don't know how this is working. You were closer on proximity and price. Price and proximity. I thought we're doing, we're grading both location and price. Sure. We're making it up.

Sure. Okay. I think we should. All right, next up. Oh, Nevada. Look at this house. Are you into it? Uh

No It kind of is freaking me out a little bit Yeah Whoever lives here Look at the bottom Look at the safe room And is this like in the safe room That whole thing

Look at that y'all Have you ever seen Y'all this is a house And a house All of that is underneath the house I don't know what's happening in this house That is sketchy You ever seen the movie Parasite?

No Okay I did see Do you remember the Who's the guy Okay, follow them, follow me, okay? Who's the guy that he was in a caveman movie when we were kids? He was a caveman, and then he gained a ton of weight for a new role

and then, like, got, and won an Oscar for it? Who's that actor? Brendan Fraser, yes. Brendan Fraser was in a movie. Was Tarzan a caveman? No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Encino Man, that's it, Encino Man.

Oh, wow. He was a caveman that they, like, brought. back from like, have y'all seen Encinemian? Oh, that was a good one. That's a 90s. But he was also in a movie that they went underground because they thought an atomic bomb had like exploded. So they lived underground and then he came back up as an adult. Have you all seen that? And he like, do what? This is that movie? Or no, no, this is like this situation. That's what I'm saying. Yeah, it's like it's like a when the world is gone, you can live. under here and you live in a whole world.

Do you think that pool is underground? I do. Look at the roof. Yes. I genuinely think it's an entire. Yeah, that makes sense. The tree like goes through the roof. For the sell of this house in Nevada.

I'm not buying it. Buying the idea or buying the house. I'm not buying the price. Like that's just a, that's like a pink elephant that you're trying to sell. That is true. Okay. Well, that's your really. It's made for a very specific person.

Very. A caveman, apparently. Very specific. I'm just shocked you in with Encino Man. I was thinking the mummy, bedazzled. Yeah, Encino Man. Do you remember that, though? No.

I never saw Encino Man. Y'all. I was more of a badzoned guy. Tyler, I mean, did you ever see it, babe? It's one of those movies you watched as a kid that I was like, I probably shouldn't watch it, but I did. He, like, went to high school and, like, yeah, it's a great night. I do think out of all, like, the acting roles, that would have been pretty easy to do.

You just like come out of the dirt and you're just like, oh, you know, you could do it. That's how it. Let's see you do it. That's how he was. Maybe she had me back. All right. We got this house in Nevada.

What's the price point? Where is it? Okay, I'm going Vegas, $1.3 million. Just because of the elaborateness of what's happening. Okay. I don't know if that's a word, but we'll take it. Winston said Las Vegas 950. Rachel said Vegas $1.3 million.

Rachel wins this round. It is Las Vegas. Yeah. But you way under us. made of the price. Is it $3 million? $5.9 million. No way.

What is this thing? So here's the deal. It looks like an average house in the first picture, but there is a full-on fallout shelter with a separate house and fake outdoor space below ground. It was built in the 70s,

which tracks, as a Cold War bunker later used up from the set of Blass from the Pass with Brendan Frazier. That's it. That's the movie I'm talking about. Shut the front door. So this is the house?

Y'all, that is the movie I was trying to figure out. Your nostalgia really helped you on this one. You should be a real estate broker. That's amazing. It is five-beds, six bath, some above ground, some below, and it is over 14,000 square feet. That's crazy. That's nuts.

Oh, my gosh. That's a wild one. That's amazing. Love it. Would not want to live there. Besides loving real estate, George, you know what else I'm loving? What's that? All my cozy earth products.

Perfect. They're amazing. I mean, I am in my home, aka real estate. but in the most cozy, wonderful clothes. And honestly, it's like the socks, the clothes, the sheets, the bedding. PJ sets. You know what else is crazy? The towels.

Oh, yeah. It's like these like velvety feeling. They're unbelievable. When I like run out of those and I have to go back to my other towels, I'm like, oh. I think this is so sad. Why are we commoners? You know, you know what it feels like? It's like every day is a spa day.

Yes. It feels like I'm at the nicest hotel when I use cozyers. Yes, because I wear their big robes too. The cozier's robe. I got that for Christmas. Winston got that for me. And I do. Everything about it is just, you can tell the quality.

That's what I love about Cozy Earth. That you can wash things. They keep their shape. They keep the material. And so it is. There's something just so amazing about it. So go to CozyEarth.com slash SmartMoney and use promo code SmartMoney at checkout to get up to 20% off.

You're going to love it. All right. We're headed to Vermont. This is not good. Oh. Look at those animals. I'm from New England. I've never heard of this.

this town in Vermont. So don't feel bad if you have a town maybe. Do I have a town? Uh-huh. You just want a town in Vermont. Yep. Please. What's a good town that you would like? Like a ski town. I'm trying to think where Winston would go. Where's the ski town I used to go to? We just give me a town? What's the capital? Richmond? Nope, that's not. No? No. Richmond, Virginia, right? Yeah. Gosh. Remember they taught us this stuff in school thinking like, guys, this is going to be really helpful. The capital of Vermont is. Arizona, Arkansas. Wait for it?

It's not Montpelier, is it? Boom. That's a great one. Give me one. Burlington, Vermont's. Stowe is also a big one. Stowe? Stowe in Burlington.

I like that. Stowe, like S-T-O-W. Stowe. I'm going stow. It's kind of... It has an E at the end? Yeah. Yeah.

S-T-O-W. It's what you're tricking me. It's okay. You're wrong anyway, so who cares about the spell. Okay, yeah, okay. Vermont. Okay, I'm going... I'm going

You've never heard of this town, George? No. How many square feet? Oh, you want the hint on this one. Look at you using your hints. We're struggling. It is 3,700 square feet. Oh.

Okay. I got one. Okay. Let's see where this is in proximity. It's pretty close to Canada. Ooh, that's fun. All right. Let's see what you got.

Montpel here and Stowe. Okay, Rachel said 225 in Stowe. Winston said 675. I don't know about Vermont. Who knows? This is a wild one. It is in Irisburg. I don't know if that's pronounced correctly.

I don't think it's a Rassburg. It sounds crazy. So I'm going to go with Irisburg, Vermont. How much is it? $539,900. So Winston is closer. Oh, man. I went real low. You know some of these houses? You're like,

like the 99,000? You're like, wait, what? It is an hour and eight minutes from Montpelier. Let's see how far it is from Stowe. Not that that one Is Vermont even that long? 50 minutes from Stowe. Technically Stowe's slightly closer. I think Winston takes the cake on this one.

Okay, Winston can take it. All right, ready? We're off to Missouri. Oh. Look at this. Wow. Hmm. Yeah.

You ever been to Missouri? You have. St. Louis. Can she whisper a hit? You can't cheat. But do you want a hint? Does a hint can count for a city, right? Or does that give away...

It gives away one of the answers. It's fine. You know what? The producer's giving up on you. So it is... You're right. I'll give you that hint. It is in St. Louis.

Okay, that's okay. Since you already cheated, we'll give you that. St. Louis. All right. I'm going to go. He's really studying this thing. We should be getting faster by this point. What?

In St. Louis, babe? I don't know. I mean, he does local real estate. How many bedrooms? It is seven bedrooms. Holy. Golly, babe. You're going big for St. Louis.

You don't. All right. What do you think St. Louis is? Like a little podunk? Not podong, but it's not a big, big, big, big city. All right. Rachel said St. Louis $718,000. This is our biggest guy.

St. Louis, $4.5 million. Okay, in St. Louis, babe. I don't know. Winston clearly has never been to St. Louis. Rachel wins this round. It comes in at $650,000. Oh my God, that's so close. Now it's built in the 1890s,

features original sane glass and stonework. $4 million. Seven bedrooms, three baths, 4,700 square feet. That feels like a deal, though, in St. Louis. Yeah, they shouldn't have put that much money into that bedroom. Into all the bedrooms.

What looks expensive about it to you? It's the backyard that threw me off. Well, I saw the brick coming through. Like, they're like protecting some of the historic value. Got the mosaic front porch. It does seem like that would be at least a million. I thought we were going to get... For a seven-bedroom house, that's restored.

I thought we were going to get Charleston on this one. Yeah. Charleston really wounded you at the beginning of this. But Charleston is a roller coaster guys. All right. All right. We're on to our last round. Oh, gosh.

And currently, we are at a tie? No, 4-3. 4-3? 4-3. Sure. Because this is our eighth round, so Rachel can tie it up. Okay. In which case, we do not have a tiebreaker.

Okay. So they created producers. What's a... Michigan. All right. We're back to Michigan. What's a town in Michigan on the lake? I was going to give you this hint.

It starts with lake. I don't know many of the lakes, but there's a lot of lakes. I mean, it's the land of lakes. It is. No, it's Minnesota, isn't it? Lake. I lied. But I feel like Michigan people are so proud of the lake.

But they have all the great. They've heard of this town? They've got the great lakes. Yeah, but I'm not a big lake guy, so I don't know. You've heard of it. It's a town, though. It sounds like a plausible town. Okay.

Town versus what? Michigan Lake City? I don't know. What? It starts with the word lake. That's the first. Oh, it starts with Lake. Yeah, yeah.

Okay. Is this pool underground? Let's find out. That's a four-season pool. That's an indoor pool. Yeah. Yeah, this is... They like Coke?

Oh, they got a full-on diner in there. Yeah, all right. Again, a very specific house that someone was like, who cares about resale value? Put a diner in there. Put that diner in there. All right. All right. It's about 40 minutes outside of Detroit, if that makes you feel any better. I didn't finish the...

Oh, wow. Okay, Lake Michigan for the city. I said, like minus one. I don't know. Lake negative one. Rachel said 2.3 million? I just made it up. 2.3.

2.3, Winston said 3.8, Winston. Oh. Lake Orion, $4.9 million. For the pleasure of living in this estate. In that estate. It has a 270-degree view of Lake Orion. Well, that's pretty. That's a fun.

Very specific amount of degrees. Yeah, yeah. They must be way out there. I thought you were going to say, like, you're not surrounded by it. They're almost on an island. That would be 360. So it's as close as you can get in 360.

What is it? What is it? 26. Would you say? There's like a driveway. 270 and that's it. Seven beds, eight baths, almost 13,000 square feet. Oh, wow, yeah.

4.9 million. That's a full-on diner and indoor pool, and it looks like a driving range. St. Louis should take notes. Not a driving range, it's a golf simulator. Oh, that's what that is. I didn't look closely enough at this one megapixel picture. Okay. Those alone are like 15 grand, aren't they?

The golf simulators? 10 grand? I don't know. 20 grand? I don't know. I think it's a big range. Yeah, you can get like a cheaper one. That one looks really.

And then fancy, yeah, that's probably a high end one. I mean, they made you think that it was a real golf course. For $5 million, it's a top of the line golf simulator. All the way. All the way. I thought they had an actual golf course. For $5 million, give me a real golf course, to be honest. At least nine holes.

Well, that was fun, guys. Thanks for playing. And it does goes to show you the range. The range of it all. From $100,000 to $5 million. Everyone thinks, like, well, where I am, that is the housing market. You know what they say in real estate, George. Location, location, location, location, location.

Well done, guys It does We learned that I don't know who taught us that It matters They drilled that into our head In school apparently It matters

Even though we don't know the capital of Vermont Would you say that's still true today Winston? Can you verify? Yeah, we can't come up with prices Because we don't know the city Like it could be Danville

Right Or it could be Where was Danville? Kentucky Kentucky or it could be Lexington Or Charleston So you move You know you got

Columbia or Nashville Yeah. You got to think about what the lifestyles like around that city, the schools. Like, there's a lot of factors that play into what makes something desirable. Yeah. But we know if it's on the water. But if you want to buy a house, you can buy a house. Yeah. You might have to move somewhere you didn't plan on. If you just, if that's your thing, you can do it. If you desperately want to be a homeowner, it can happen. I wouldn't be desperate, but yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, you can find affordable houses. Well, let's get into that. I've got some, uh, from the Well, it's not going to be in L.A. Yeah. Maybe it's in St. Louis. Go to St. Louis. So, George, I've been getting this question a lot on, especially social media. People are asking where to get a great high-yield savings account. That's probably the number one question.

We get that a lot. And I always tell them they're one's credit union. Because not only are they great to bank with, because you'll get a checking account with them, but their high-yield savings account is amazing. And the interface between the two, what's in your checking, what's in the high-yield. It's so easy. Because these are your checkings at a brick and mortar bank and then high-old savings is way over here. So I love being able to transfer in case I need to use those savings for an emergency or for a sinking fund.

Makes it super convenient. You can even have up to 10 savings accounts within it. It's amazing. They built this thing for our fans. I know. And when we actually, when Winston I signed up for fair ones, I'll be honest. I was a little bit like, oh gosh, signing up for a new bank account. It's just a lot of hassle.

It feels overwhelming. You're like... Yes. And I was on my computer. And it was so quick. I downloaded the app on my phone, put my username in. It was so fast. So it was incredible.

The team is amazing. The interface is amazing. And so Fairwin's Credit Union, check out the smart bundle. You get a no-feet checking account, high-yield savings account, and the Ramsey B-Weir debit card. Add it to the banking mix. Go check it out. Fairwins.org slash Ramsey is the place to go. Okay.

So we have some rapid-fired questions for you. Okay. You know what rapid-fire means? Yep. All right. I'll make sure. Yeah. Yeah.

What's the opposite of that? like a just, I don't know, slow winded. Slow wind. Slow wind. Yeah. Slow round. Instead of lightning round. Yeah, yeah.

Okay, so we're going to talk first time homebuyers. What question should everyone be asking before they sign on the dotted line? You're a first time home buyer. What are things you should be thinking about? If you're a first time home buyer, what I see most of the time is like what I would call the emotional positioning of the house. so what I would make sure of is that this house isn't the answer to what we were just talking about you're just like desperately trying to get a house so that you can have a family there and do all these things so if you're about to sign on the dotted line and you're expecting that house

to fix all your stuff and make all your dreams come true then it's backwards it's honestly after a year or two years it's just another house there will be spaghetti on the floor and holes in the wall and you'll have utility bills coming and it's just another thing to keep up with. So I would say it doesn't need to be like on this pedestal. If you're like signing that thing thinking like this, finally, finally we've arrived. Don't sign the bottom line. So just I would say the position it appropriately. That's good. We've talked about this, Rachel, that you go with you. Like you think the new home is going to solve all of your life problems. If I could just not be a renter and just be a homeowner, suddenly like everything's going to be so much better.

The kids are going to be well-behaved. There will be no family dysfunction. You're like, no, just in a bigger house now, we have the same problem. It's still a toilet. It's still a sink. Yeah, and you get used to it very quickly to your point. The newness wears off. It's kind of like buying a car where it's like, I've had it for six months.

Now it's got Cheerios on the floorboard like any other car. And it's just another car. Like I'm just used to it. The newness is worn off. You get used to it. That's a humanity problem is we get so used to the level we're at and then become hungry for more. Yeah.

That's right. All right. What about deal breakers? What are the things where you go, you got to walk away from this thing no matter what? Usually if the numbers don't make sense, obviously. And then there's like this intuition that if something felt off or there's things that don't, something just doesn't feel right or if the deal feels like rushed or pressured or like, we got to get this one or it'll, it's the only one.

and we'll never find it again, just walk away. Like, that is not the position you want to be in when you're making that level of commitment. Is it because the agent or seller wants to rush you so you don't think about it too hard? It could be. It could be that they're hiding stuff or they're not answering questions or just trying to whatever. But your buyer's agent should ask the right questions that meet your questions. Like, these are the things that would give me peace about moving forward with this. What about structurally?

Like when there's a foundation issue, I always go, oh boy, that feels expensive. Yeah, water issues, foundation issues, things that aren't disclosed that they thought maybe you should have. Yeah, if it's got a backyard that slopes into your porch, you know, like stuff like that and it's older and they got to give you $20,000 during contract to fix the cross space. like it's just probably not worth it. So, but you can use that to leverage the price too if you're up for it. But I would say unless you're just like at peace about it, then I would totally walk away. I like that. So that's the gut feeling.

And always inspection. Some people are like waving inspection and that's kind of one of these things that when the real estate market was hot, people were like, well, we won't even do the inspection. We'll just take it. Now, on the investment part, I would go as is, no inspection, but it's going to be an embarrassingly low offer. So it's not your primary home? Most people right now are making offers and doing an inspection in order to just have all of that fixed or get more money off of the price because it's a buyer's market. So they're going to go, hey, it needs 50 grand worth of repairs, take that off the price. Yeah.

And we have a deal. Yeah, they want doorknops replaced. I mean, like that light bulb needs to be fixed. It's a very demanding buyer's market right now. they're very spoiled. Picky. Picky. But yes, do the inspection if you are the buyer and learn what you're getting into.

Yeah. And even then, sometimes the inspection doesn't pick everything up, the things you can't just see. That's what's hard. We get the calls where it's like, well, the house is filled with black mold and inspection didn't catch it. And now we have to remediate and spend 50 grand. Those are tough. That's crazy. That's wild.

What upgrades would you say anyone can do? Like when they walk into a house, like what are things you're like, you could fix that later? don't like worry about that. On their own? Yeah. I think people take this too far because I think what they're trying to do is just make it livable

and make it like a reflection of them. And you don't have to do a whole kitchen renovation to scratch that itch. So paint goes a long way. Like go to Home Depot. I've been there. Thank you for pointing that out. You've been a lot.

You've been a lot. and do some paint. I would say curb appeal will make you feel a lot better and people don't want to mulchle their own yards. So like go do some landscaping. Like clean the place up from the front

that automatically increases your value and you can do that pretty easily. Like hardware you can replace. Yeah, you can do cabinet hardware, door hardware. What about like lighting and fans? Light fixtures. That really changes a place. Changes it.

And it's cheap. You can get on Wayfair and get endless amounts of light fixtures to change the look of the room and it categorizes it for you, filters it in way too many ways. And, you know, if you know how to turn a breaker off, you can figure it out.

Why'd you look at me like that when you said it? Well, because I'm on your show, I guess. I'll tell Rake. I've turned a breaker off or two in my day. Have you ever been. Flip on, flip on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Flip on breaker.

Sorry. I didn't mean to look at you when I said, if you know how to flip a break. Gazed into my eyes. Well, you've flipped some homes now. So what are the things that you go in when you're doing the flip to go, okay, I'm going to make these things very strategically

repair, renovate, without overdoing it? Is it flooring? Yeah. First of all, the old carpet. The trashier, the better. because you get a better deal Yeah, the more The more hoarding house

The better the deal If you see varmint, you're like, great We got the right house Yeah We've flea bombed We've exterminated We've rats Had rats in the carpet

What's the craziest thing you've seen When you step in one of those houses? Horting houses are pretty They're pretty alarming They're very disturbing It's really sad To the ceilings and Like years of fast food

Oh boy Like on the bed You asked for it On the bed? Yeah Yeah it's tough It's tough It's a lot of

What happened to those people? I didn't ask The people aren't there I didn't ask It's usually It's a transition Or an estate Or somebody's trying

So mom was a hoarder She passed away The kids go and sell the house Yeah yeah yeah They don't want anything Yeah I mean I've seen needles I've seen it all I've seen fire

I've seen rain All right Okay. That's helpful. But you get those for what? But you were asking your question. I mean... We demo the whole thing all the way to the walls.

Down to the studs, as they say in the biz. Well, we leave the drywall unless we're moving a wall. I wanted to say down to the studs. Thank you. You've never done down to the studs? Just in rooms that have like that old wooden paneling. Oh, yeah, like the shiny one. Yeah.

Nottie Pine, I think is what it's called. Nottie Pyn. Google it. You use your crowbar and you just pop it off. K-N-O-T-T-Y. Nottie. Nottie Pine. Thanks for spelling.

Because we had that in our house growing up. And popcorn on the ceiling. Yeah, popcorn ceilings, scrap them off. Those are not fun to scrape off. No. Not that I've tried. No. But you couldn't pay me enough to do it.

Yeah. You need a mask. A mask. Oh, because of all, it's all coming down. Yeah, it's bad. Hush. Rachel, we're talking about homes today. And what's crazy is that so much of people's personal information, their address, their phone numbers, their emails, are just floating around the interwebs unchecked because of these data broker sites.

And so I love delete me as sponsor. today's show because they scour hundreds of these data broker sites to remove your personal info, which helps protect you against scams, fishing, fraud, spam, you name it. Yes. Yeah, those data broker sites. It's kind of scary, actually, how much information they can collect about you. I mean, it's your kids' names, email addresses, phone numbers, like you said, your home address, like all of it.

And they live there, and I hate this part, too, that they will sell your data. They're making money off of it. They don't care. And then your data spreads even more across the, across the Internet. being able to go into these data broker sites and removing your data is everything. And real people are doing it on their team and they are amazing. So delete me as a subscription that Winston and I have and we love. Yeah.

And they'll even send you a customer report every few months showing you what they removed and how much time they saved you. So go check it out and get 20% off their annual plans at join deleteme.com slash smart money. Let's move into seasoned. Let's go seasons. Okay, for seasoned homeowners. Like zestiment. What? Very zessting.

What? What? What's worth spending and upgrades before you should just move to the next place. Oh, that's a good one. Like if you want a newer home, what are things that you're like? You're itching for that new home, but you're like, hey, before you go jumping. It would be worth just doing this and you can stay in the home. See if this transforms your home.

Oh, okay, okay. And this, again, this is going to be personal preference, intuition. You want to make the house work for you. If you feel like, you know what, I can never get around this dishwasher. when I'm loading it and somebody's trying to get to the oven or whatever. Like if it's not working for you,

then it's worth you making the upgrades because you're living there. Right? So don't think about, am I going to get my money back, this or that? The first thing is make it livable. And then if you start doing things

where you're like, I'm putting so much money into this house and you feel like you're fighting the house instead of making it work for you and it's complying with what you're trying to do with the renovations or the new siding or whatever it's if you're fighting the house,

time to go. Let somebody else fight it. You know, you are going to get frustrated and put money into it that you're probably not going to get C out of it because you're going to want to make it yours

and somebody else is going to want to do something different. Right? So it's kind of like a balance there. So would you say like make a list of all the things that frustrates you that you wish you could change about the house? And then go, okay, what would it cost to change that if it even is possible? That's right.

You could knock down this wall. I want it to be open. We can change the flooring. And then if you're like, hey, there's not enough we could even do to make this thing a place I still want to live. Yeah. My sister did this. Their house was probably 30 years old or so. And they were like, oh, we kind of wanted some updated looks to it.

But then shopping around the market, it was like it was going to cost a lot more to go buy that versus what you could put into a Renault. You know what I mean? And doing it, right? They... Yeah. Like, we have a house right now that we're trying to sell, and we've done as much as we can with it to make it marketable. But the staircase, you walk in, and the staircase is right in the middle of the whole floor plan.

So the kitchen's over here, and the whole house rotates around the stairs. You just can't do anything else with it. That's structural. It's fighting you back. So it's like, time to get rid of it. And then the primary is upstairs. Is it on the market right now? All right, let's see if we can sell this thing on the show right now.

But a Zillow? I got 100,000. I got $100,000. That's great. Oh, okay. So when you walk into a new build for you, this was my question. Oh, this was yours? Uh-huh.

What are you critiquing? User submitted. Because we have walked through new houses and I'm like, it's so pretty. Great. And we leave and you start rattling off things. And I'm like, never would I have ever. What are your eyes drawn to? You have to get past all the pretty finishes.

I know that's what I always did. Like. So pretty. Rachel looks at the lipstick And lipstick is cheap Structure is everything Oh that's good It's fine

Like okay you're you know A contractor of course is going to put the glitzy Whatever's in that makes it look Pinteresty Like a water like a waterfall edge Did they build it? I do love a waterfall edge So pretty So pretty

So pretty And Rachel's like done I love it And I would take But look it's all crooked I would take a 1970s rancher That's built like a ship And make a waterfall edge rather than buy a waterfall edge

and the insulation is half done the HVAC is cheap with fiberboard and structurally it's like it was poorly put together with nice finishes as fast as possible not quality so the builder has to be focused on quality that rancher is going to outlast

would you say because I've heard Dave Ramsey talk about this people think well those old homes are built different they are but then I've heard also that some of old homes, you're like, gosh, the electrical work was a nightmare. Like, it's not always the case. I agree.

And some of these new homes are up to code and standards and all that will come a long way with materials. Totally. But it's, it's, the costs for builders are, they are trying to keep it as cheap as possible. Builder grade. And go as fast as possible. I hear building grade. I have to upgrade that. So you really got to beat around on it.

Go in the crawl space. Look at how they did it. Are the cock lines straight? Are the doors closing or are they like, have they done a punch list? So you want me to go in the crawl space, check out the cock line. That's what you're asking me to do. There's probably no cock in the, there's probably no cock in the cross space. That's what you said.

You said, you head in the crawl space, check the cock line. Yeah, well, is it like, is it encapsulated? Is it not? Is it clean? Yeah. Or did they just like leaves junk everywhere? I want the inspector to send them the photo. Oh, okay.

You got to recock this thing. You can just read it from your desk. I do like to go through the PDF days because I pay good money. You know, you pay $7. $100. I'm reading this thing like a novel. Slowly. And just because it's new doesn't mean you don't need to look at the inspection.

That is like... Because we have a new build and the inspection report was... I mean, tons of stuff. Yeah, and you go back to that builder why you still have them and say, you could fix these things. And they will. That's the nice thing about a new build, I will say, is number one, you have time to save because you don't have to have the full amount until the house is done at closing. And you have a one-year warranty generally with a new build.

Yeah. So that's nice. Use it. And so, yeah, the stuff they found was... wasn't like anything major. It's just those like, hey, we got to recock this, fix this. This door isn't, you know, swinging the right way. Do that make sense? Sure, yeah.

All your pretty finishes. Yeah, yes. But you also, you know where people go cheap. Yeah, if you've got a waterfall edge, but then the house doesn't cool, I don't want to live there. Doesn't have good air conditioning. Yeah. But you make comments about baseballs, though, babe. You've said that. Yeah.

We've walked out. You're like, why do they put small baseboards in that large? Yeah, yeah. Would you say you like big baseboards and you cannot lie? If it matches the house. Is that something you would say? Absolutely. Bigger the better.

How thick are we talking? It depends on the house. Okay, it's got to be tall ceilings if you have bigger baseboard. If it's a 12-foot ceiling, you need at least like 10 inches on the first floor. Oh, wow. Second floor, it doesn't matter as much. 10 inches of baseball? You know, but if you have an 8-foot 19-70s rancher, then just go with your 4 or 5

inch normal stuff. What about crown molding? You think that's overlooked? But if you take your cabinets in the kitchen and you don't run them all the way to the ceiling, then you're missing out on this whole mind-blowing experience that a buyer has and they don't know why. But we built a house in Columbia and the contractor just put 36 uppers and then like a 12-inch on top and then there was this gap to the ceiling.

Where people put like random artwork from T.J. Max. Yeah, like a rooster. He put a Roosters And I told him Okay, just put a fake piece of wood up there And a piece of crown

To like tie it all in So it goes all the way It takes your eyes up Makes the ceiling look bigger Makes the kitchen look bigger So that's why I'm like Yeah you gotta The trim is a big deal

Trim is a big deal Focus on the trim People skimp out on the trim Because they go I'd rather have these features But then the trim Makes the Man That's kind of cool

It's the subconsciousness That you never know All right paid off home To the studs To the studs. Is that a new show? That should be whenever you have time. Paid off homeowners, ready?

Last section. If you want to invest in real estate, what must first be true? So your primary home's paid off. I mean, I'm talking to y'all. Baby step seven. What's the next? Yeah. Y'all already know the answer.

What must be true? You have the money for it. No consumer debt. But my thought is like, if you're looking for your first investment property, take a look at your net worth first in retirement. And I would not want that first property to be more than 25 to 50% of your net worth. So if you're worth a million bucks,

don't go any more than 250 on an investment property, obviously paying cash. Yeah, and I wouldn't include, but I would not include your personal residence in that net worth. Oh, okay. It's true investment. So your investment net worth, I guess. Your investable assets outside of your home equity.

So if you're, if you have five, 500,000 in retirement, then you're looking at $100,000 house in Danville, up to like... No offense to Danville. The good people of Danville. Up to 250 in cash, as is, close next Friday, 70% under market. Okay. And if you're going to rent it out, do you have a percentage in mind of like, hey, if you want to go at least 1% of this in rent?

It doesn't work like that anymore? I used to, but if you get a house at 70% of market value, then it's... it's going to take care of itself. I'm not as worried about the ROI. Honestly, the best deals are the most boring deals. Oh, that's a good line. We'll quote that. Put that in the show notes. Of just like, it's not that side. Yeah, they're just like. Well, Dave Ramsey's always said that the deal, you make the money on the buy. At the table. That's true. And then most people overpay, they get full market price for that investment property. And then they put a renter in there. It doesn't, yeah, it doesn't, your rent usually isn't going to make that, what is it?

like 10% of your rent should be 10% of the total cost of the house. That's a tough rule. I like the make money at the beginning because you're going as is. You're not doing inspections. You need room for problems, unexpected things. It's really on resale is when you realize the money. Yeah. Can you buy and hold?

Yeah. The equity is already built in when you buy it. And then you start cash flow in it. And it cash flow sweetly when there's no payment. on it. So it's the That's the beauty of it. As long as you're in a good location. More peace. Location, location, location. Make sure you can rent it.

All right. So good. Yeah. All the real estate knowledge we needed for the episode. It was fun and helpful. Good, good. I hope so. All right. Well, before we spill the tea on our guiltiest charge segment, let's talk about the drink details, George. Yeah, this is a ranch water cocktail. I would say I'm about done with the drink. How did Winston do?

Havsies. Oh, no, he went havesies. Well, he was honestly busy carrying this episode on his broad shoulders. Talking. Whatever. Talking through it all. I feel like that's fair. My rating is a 10 out of 10 on this drink.

I know. I think I'm going 9 out of 10. I'm going 10 for fun because it's so good. It's like really well balanced. It's hard to beat for how little is in it. I know. You got a what, Topo Chico, lime and tequila. That's it.

That's a rainwater. I mean, I like a blanco. But the lime is like perfect, though. Yes. It's a good amount of lime. You want a good amount of lime where it punches through, but it's not super overpowering. The Topo Chico to me is a must, but if you have to use a club soda, that's your business. So we got two 10 out of tens and a 9 out of 10 from Rachel.

I don't know why I went 9 out of 10. Hard to impress. Well, you know what? It's not that complex. You may have wanted more going on. Okay. You know what I mean? Yeah.

But it's a great one to try. It comes out to $3.25. I assume because Topo Chico is hard to find right now. There's an outage as they redo their plant, so I'm told. But I think it's worth it. every penny, every penny worth it and a very low calorie, low sugar drink too. So if you're like, you don't want to be

drinking your calories, this is a great one to make at home if you're of age, get the recipe in the show notes, give it a try this weekend, especially if you're keto. I didn't know this was a keto drink. Is that true? What makes something keto? No sugar, no carbs. No sugar, no carbs. I don't know what kind of tequila it is, but added it free, clean.

I'm sure it's great. We only do top shelf around here. Only top shelf. Classy. That's how we roll. That's how we roll. Nine out of ten. All right, so good. Well, now it's time for Guilty as charged. Are you judging us? No, he's going to laugh. This is where we ask each other a guilty

as charged question every week, and for guilty, we take a sip. Oh, George is out. The question is. I'll eat the lime whole. Have you ever thought you were getting a major discount on something, but it turned out too good to be true? Yeah, I'll go I'll go

I'll bite I you know there's a list with Southwest This was back when Southwest was a great airline Oh Wow They're not a sponsor

It's fine I was boarding group 5 Last time I flew So you know what No you just Yeah Get out of here Give a pinky

Just give a pinky So annoying They caved Why give me a seat But then I have to go All the way to the back To store my carry on George you know

what? I'm with you. And then fight my way upstream at the end of the flight to go get my carry on. I'm like, sir, sir, could you get my, yeah, it's that one. And they're all like, get out of here. Yeah, why even fly anymore? Zone 5. I'm with you. But there was like, I saw a thing someone posted in a Facebook group in my neighborhood.

That was like, hey, you can get A-list by just like doing this little hack where you pay like 40 bucks and you basically can redeem it for A-list. So I did it thinking like this is going to be easy. I'll pay the 40 bucks. That's worth it because I fly a lot. to get A-List for the whole year. Turns out you had to, like, fly three times within three months or something stupid in order to actually get it.

And that was buried in the fine print. Oh, that's hurtful. And 40 bucks gone. 40 bucks gone. And so I think I maybe had A-List for three months, but then it runs out. And then it disappears if you don't fly within the- It basically renews for a whole year. That's fair.

That's fair. If you fly. You know, mine's a Southwest one. What? Yes. I was booking with points. of our trips. This airline, man.

I know, I know. But I was booking with points, and I was short, and I can't remember, say 5,000 points or something, right? Like, but you can go buy points, but you can, but the points I needed, I had to buy more points than what I needed to make it work. Because they group them, you know, you can't just, like, buy a specific number. It's like 50,000 points. You need 52,000.

Yes, yeah. And you can't just buy 2,000. You got to buy 5,000, like the way they group it. So I go ahead and just buy those. and then I go back to book it and the price went up. So I buy the points. And now you don't have enough points.

Then I don't have enough points. Then I'm like, oh my gosh, am I going to go buy more? And it's the price can continue. It just stressed me out. And I just said, okay, we'll eventually get a flight with this points, but I'm going to just pay for it now.

Wow. So I totally... They just kept gouging you every turn. It was tough. No, but go ahead. Defend Southwest. I know. I just love them, but it is different.

I have a flight, guilty of charge. Oh. I booked this trip to Montana. for my 40th birthday. I went on chat GPT to run the numbers on all the flights that can get direct from Nashville to Bozeman. I clicked through on the links

that chat gave me and I was like, great, there's a deal. On Allegiant. Hey, it's Allegiant. It was cheap, but it's... It'll get you there. That's their tagline. And then it took me to a third-party website

that I didn't realize I was on to book the tickets. Have you ever booked a flight on a third-party website? Yes. It's called Flight Network. Nope, that sounds sketchy. But you didn't even know you were on it.

You thought you were on Allegiant.com. Yeah, I wasn't paying attention. Yeah. But I booked it, and then I'm trying to have it show up on Allegiance app, and they're not, they don't communicate. So I'm like, I think I just got screwed. So I call a flight network, and they're like, he's definitely not in the United States. Yeah. And he's like, yeah, we can't do anything for you.

We were not allowed to do any Allegiant stuff for you. So I had to call Allegiant, and I booked a flight for one of my friends, and I tried to get that one canceled. Because when I clicked like buy the tickets, it didn't work. So I went through and bought it again.

So I bought three tickets. For what? That ended up charging me three times. Yeah. It like timed out. It timed out three times, but it actually charged me three times. So was Flight Network a true scam?

Always buy flights on the actual website. Yeah, find the deal, but then book it directly through the airline. That's the trick. Through the airline. Yes. Wow.

So flight network is a scam? It charged you. It's scammy. It's scammy. It's not scammy. It charges you like an extra $100 for their fee when you could just go direct to Allegiant. Wow. Okay.

I was thinking about your D.C. How you're about to... Yeah, I thought about that one too. Y'all went southwest on me, so... So you went, yeah. Double guilty. Went airline. Thank you for sharing.

Oh, so good. I'll cheers to that. Well, if you have a fun, guilty-starched question for us, make sure to DM us at Rachel Cruz and at George Camel. We love them. We get them and appreciate it. And if you enjoyed this episode, stay tuned because the next episode

you're going to love and that is spilling the financial tea with our better halves. Which includes Winston. Winston's on that one. And sweet Whitney, we love Whitney. My wife. Yes.

So that is coming up next. Oh. Yeah. And thanks for being on, babe. Appreciate it. Yeah. I guess I'm coming back too. It's fun.

Thank you. No, it was an episode you already recorded. Oh, okay. You already did it. It's not going up. It's coming back. It's like Whitney had a.

said anything. Yeah, no, no, yeah, yeah. It's more of a rerun situation. Yeah. Okay. Well, thanks for having me. Thanks for coming. Appreciate your knowledge. Appreciate it. And yeah, make sure to subscribe and we'll see you guys next Thursday on an all new episode of Smart Money Happy Hour.