How to Spruce Up Your Home Without Breaking the Bank: Tips from a Realtor and Renovation Expert

Mike Mills (00:00:13) - Hello. Hello, hello, everybody. Um, my name is Mike Mills and I am a mortgage maker here at dfw. And my team and I focus on helping local agents grow their business by providing insights into all aspects of real estate. We can show you how to better market yourself, provide referrals to great real estate related vendors in the area that will take amazing care of your clients, and provide some simple tips and tricks to streamline your business so you can help more buyers and sellers. So, if you would like to have a conversation about your business or want any help, uh, please do not hesitate to reach out. And of course, if you have any buyers needing to get pre-approved to purchase a home, we would love to take care of them as well. All right, there's my, uh, daily commercial. So today, um, is a very, uh, special episode of the Texas Real Estate and Finance Podcast. Um, not only because it is, uh, number 40, so it's a little bit of a milestone, but, um, I figured for this very special Valentine's Day, um, I would bring in my favorite realtor slash Valentine, um, my beautiful, intelligent and feisty fireball of a wife, uh, Susan Mills.

Mike Mills (00:01:23) - Thank

Susan Mills (00:01:23) - You.

Mike Mills (00:01:25) - I've got a little, a little, uh, that, that was my, um, my, uh, production value for you right there. So there's how it goes. So how you doing today, Milo? Wonderful. Are you, uh, are you excited to be here? Or how are you feeling about doing this whole thing with me today? Yeah,

Susan Mills (00:01:39) - I mean, well, it, it kind of stinks because you have like a ton of experience and I'm a little nervous and feeling a little dorky, but it's gonna be fine.

Mike Mills (00:01:46) - So why don't you tell everybody about your sweater there? Um, so, so they know how good of a job I did today, ,

Susan Mills (00:01:53) - Uh, I bought myself my Valentine's Day gift, which was my sweater and my earring, so I would be dressed appropriately, right? For Valentine's Day. Right. And then, but although you did come in, you know, there with my favorite thing in the world, which

Mike Mills (00:02:05) - Is food. Food, yes.

Susan Mills (00:02:07) - Shul, champagne and snacks.

Mike Mills (00:02:08) - Champagne and snacks. The idea was, is if I can get you a little liquored up before we do this thing, we'll, uh, we'll have a little bit better chit chat, I guess, cuz uh, you know, I don't know if many people realize, but we don't really talk very much.

Susan Mills (00:02:19) - Oh, yeah. Well, that, yeah, that's kind of surprising because you talk a lot and I do feel like I'm a decent communicator mm-hmm. , but we don't communicate at all during the day. No. Like, if I call you will immediately answer or call me immediately back, because that means that there's something of urgent importance, uhhuh or an emergency or something big. Right? Because yeah, we don't talk, somebody's will be like, oh, the other day they were like, um, you know, I, I don't know if Mike told you this, but we talked and I was like, no, he didn't tell me because , we don't talk, we don't text at all through the day. Now we do download like, at the, in the evening time with the highlights. Yes. But yeah, no, we, we really don't talk very much. Yes,

Mike Mills (00:03:04) - Yes. No, there's not a lot of communication that happens during the day. It does happen at night, but during the day, um, we're usually busy doing our own things. Um, I'm doing stuff like this and you are out, uh, trying to sell some houses and, uh, taking care of our house in particular. So that's great. So Christy says hello. Hey,

Susan Mills (00:03:19) - Mama.

Mike Mills (00:03:21) - All right. So, um, I'm curious, what are your thoughts on, uh, where this is Valentine's Day, uh, which is why we're doing this, but, um, you're a woman and Valentine's Day is a holiday that, uh, I tend to think is geared more towards the ladies. So what are your personal opinions on Valentine's Day yourself?

Susan Mills (00:03:37) - I mean, I guess personally, I, I mean we've been together, married 19 years, next month together for 22 or 23. Uhhuh . I mean, I'm fortunate because I have a great husband and you love me and show me that you love me throughout the year. I don't need like that one day where you're like, oh, I feel like you're cool, and then the other 364 days, you're a jerk. Um, but I do think it's fun to get gifts for the kids and to kind of celebrate together. But overall, I mean, I don't think it has a lot of importance. Importance. I think at the beginning of our marriage or the beginning of our dating, it was important to me, but not anymore. Yeah.

Mike Mills (00:04:12) - You're not putting balloons on my car anymore.

Susan Mills (00:04:14) - Oh my God. . No.

Mike Mills (00:04:16) - You wanna tell that story?

Susan Mills (00:04:18) - Well, I mean, it's weird because I feel like people tend to show their show love and their love language until you really get to know somebody. Right. And, um, I think my love language is acts of service for sure. Like, I appreciate when you get me coffee in the morning and do nice things, you know, throughout the day. But, um, when were, we like our very fir, was it Valentine's Day? I can't even remember. This was a long

Mike Mills (00:04:42) - Time ago. I dunno. It might've been my birthday. I don't recall. I

Susan Mills (00:04:44) - Don't know. But I got balloons and put 'em on your car and you were not super happy

Mike Mills (00:04:48) - . It was at work. You put 'em on my car at work.

Susan Mills (00:04:50) - Yeah. That was cute.

Mike Mills (00:04:51) - Right. And I was like a 20 year old guy, and I walk outside and I've got balloons on my car. I wasn't mad. I was just like, you know, it's not really my jam. So, uh, it wasn't really my thing, but that's okay. I mean, you do things differently, but that what's makes this work so well because we're very different people. So, um, it tends to balance itself out. Um, alright, so today, uh, we're gonna chat a little bit about us, um, kind of give a little backstory as to how the Mills family kind of came about. Um, we also are gonna talk a little bit about, uh, we did a renovation show recently, um, on, uh, the Magnolia Network, uh, that we had broadcast a couple months back. And so we're gonna chat just a little bit about that. Um, and then we're also gonna go into, um, some stuff that's a little bit more in your expertise realm, which is, um, you know, one of the things that you, o of your many, many talents that you have, uh, one of those particularly is obviously selling, helping people buy real estate. But, um, you love to buy things, uh, or shop or whatever. I know it's a cliche, it's a, it's a female cliche that we're all really good at shop or that you're all really good at shopping. However, this is something that you actually do on online. I

Susan Mills (00:05:54) - Am really good at it. Yes. That's why I do

Mike Mills (00:05:56) - It all the time. Yeah. On, on quite the regular basis. Um, always telling me about, uh, you know, all kinds of wonderful things that you purchased that we basically, in your opinion got for free essentially, but whatever. Um, so we're gonna go through that a little bit, especially related to real estate in particular, so that way if you guys are looking to list your house, or if you're tr if you just bought a home and you wanna spruce it up a little bit, um, she does have some ninja shopping tricks that she could probably help you out with a little bit. So that'll be good. Um, but before we get into all of that, um, why don't you, I, I would like to hear you tell the story of, um, how we met and then also, uh, what you did before real estate and then kind of how you got into real estate, uh, today.

Susan Mills (00:06:35) - Yeah. Okay. So, um, first of all, I kind of credit the fact that we are together with Lindsay Rainey. Lindsay Rainey. Okay. So Lindsay is one of my best childhood friends from the beginning of time. And her sister worked, Jennifer worked at Outback Steakhouse and, um, we were college roommates, so we were besties all through high school and then college roommates. And she was like, Hey, I wanna start waiting tables. And I was like, oh, okay, well if you're gonna do it, I'm gonna do it. And, um, so we both got a job at Outback Steakhouse mm-hmm. , and I was in the Houston market, which is where I was, where I grew up. Right. And you started waiting tables at Outback in Lubbock when you were at Tech. Mm-hmm. and just kismet, God's timing. We ended up in Arlington at the same time, and it was crazy because there was an, uh, all the, the Arlington natives, there was one by the Parks Mall and one over like North Collins. And I had interviewed at both and got the opportunity to choose and ended up going with the Park Mall. And that's where you were? Yes. So you were the cutest bartender that I had ever seen. Of course.

Mike Mills (00:07:42) - Of course.

Susan Mills (00:07:42) - And I had been waiting tables. Yeah. And that's how we met. And we didn't like each other at first. What,

Mike Mills (00:07:47) - What do you mean? I, well, I liked you a lot. You didn't like me. Why didn't you like me? I

Susan Mills (00:07:52) - Mean, you're kind of a lot .

Mike Mills (00:07:54) - I'm kind of a lot. Okay. Okay. Um, what did you , why didn't you like me?

Susan Mills (00:07:58) - Well, I mean, not that I didn't like you, but, well, I had that boyfriend too. I was

Mike Mills (00:08:02) - Dating call back quite well. Yes.

Susan Mills (00:08:04) - So I guess we just were kind of like in a friend. We were a year old

Mike Mills (00:08:06) - Guy. That guy. We, we

Susan Mills (00:08:07) - Were we were, we were in a, in the friend in the friend group, Uhhuh friend zone. And then, yeah. So that's how we met. Waiting tables bartending.

Mike Mills (00:08:15) - Yeah. But would you like to elaborate on the, how we initially started dating? Because, um, if you remember, I wanted to go out with you and you did not wanna go out with me at the time because you were dating that other dude. Oh,

Susan Mills (00:08:26) - Yeah, because I was dating him.

Mike Mills (00:08:27) - And then what changed your mind?

Susan Mills (00:08:29) - Oh, God, , because you started dating That girl made me mad. Made me jealous actually. And so, yeah. So that when you kind of lost interest, I was like, I don't think so. Yes.

Mike Mills (00:08:42) - So that's the tip is, uh, you know, make sure, uh, if you want to chase somebody down, just pretend like you don't give a damn about 'em for a short amount of time. And then they come crawling back pretty quickly. Least I don't

Susan Mills (00:08:51) - Know that it was crawling back necessarily, but yeah,

Mike Mills (00:08:53) - That's, that's, that's how I like to remember it. So I, that's kind of what happened. I prefer to go from there, so. Okay. Yep. All right. So then, uh, we, uh, we start dating and, um, so what happens from there?

Susan Mills (00:09:05) - Yeah, so, well, we ended up, uh, dating through college, got married shortly after, or right before you graduated from school. Mm-hmm. . I'm a year behind you. What

Mike Mills (00:09:15) - Year did we meet? 2000. Is that right?

Susan Mills (00:09:18) - Yes.

Mike Mills (00:09:19) - And we started dating in oh one,

Susan Mills (00:09:20) - Probably. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then married in 2004. Right? Right. Yep. Okay. So yeah, so we married and worked together, then we kind of work now we kind of, we don't work together, but we're work in the same industry. We certainly work together.

Mike Mills (00:09:33) - Yes.

Susan Mills (00:09:35) - Back, back then. Yes.

Mike Mills (00:09:36) - Back in the day because we were both waiting tables and bartending at the time and yeah. Working at the restaurant together. So, um, we definitely, uh, enjoyed that lifestyle. Partied a lot. Um, went out to the bars, hung out, you know, hang, hung out with friends, did all that kind of fun stuff. Went to the club, um, and enjoyed ourselves there as well. Uh, and then you, uh, ended up getting a big girl job. What's up, Conrad? Conrad checking in with us today. Hey, cte. Um, you ended up, uh, I, I want you to tell the story about graduating from college and getting your first job and what that was like. Ooh.

Susan Mills (00:10:07) - That was not ideal. Okay. Okay. So what hap

Mike Mills (00:10:11) - I hit the table less. Yeah.

Susan Mills (00:10:13) - . Well, what happened was, um, I graduated school and ha I have a, a Bachelor of Arts and Business Communication. So kind of just like a general mark, not a marketing degree, but just a general communications degree. And had been applying everywhere of course, out of school and was having a really hard time finding a job, um, that would pay me what I felt my, what I was worth with zero experience in the real world. And I was a Coors Light girl at the time. Um, because after we left Outback, I ended up working in promotions for the ticket and the radio stations and all of that stuff. Right. And, um, didn't have any real world working experience except for that mm-hmm. and, um, your sweet mother, who I love, I'm so lucky. I have a wonderful mother-in-law. Um, she hired me to do HIPAA compliance and her at her job. Mm-hmm. . And, um, I was working, it was my first 40 hour a week job. I had never worked anything like that before. I was working like three to five hours a week Yes. At the other jobs. And I was so excited. It was PA and first of all Okay. It was like a nice office. And I had like a big girl situation going on and I was super, super excited and I, well, you know, worked 40 hours a week and this was her two weeks. So for 80 hours of work, I, the lady comes around, she gives everybody our paychecks. Huh?

Mike Mills (00:11:36) - What were you making at the time?

Susan Mills (00:11:38) - Oh man. I don't know. Like $11 an hour maybe. Okay.

Mike Mills (00:11:41) - Was it that much? That was pretty good, yes. At that

Susan Mills (00:11:43) - Time. Something like that. Okay. I mean, this was, I can't remember the year, uh, 2020 or 2002 maybe. Okay. Anyhow, I open up my paycheck and I'm looking at it and all of a sudden like teardrops start rolling outta my eyes and they're like dripping on the check and I'm like, I just worked 80 hours

Mike Mills (00:12:07) - And how much was it?

Susan Mills (00:12:08) - I can't remember. But I'm, first of all, shout out to my parents. I have the best parents in the entire world on Valentine's Day. They have been married for like a zillion years. I've been embarrassed myself to say for how long, cuz I don't really know. They married in 1974, whatever that math is. Mm-hmm. . And, um, they provided so well for me and paid for my college, and I had a really great start. And I did have money that they sent. And what got

Mike Mills (00:12:36) - Mailbox money on the reg, I

Susan Mills (00:12:37) - Got, I got money. I, I, they, um, they were awesome. Anyhow, I, whatever that check was, was less than what my dad sent me for

Mike Mills (00:12:47) - For once a week to help you pay your rent for

Susan Mills (00:12:50) - Whatever it was. Yeah. I would a car and rent and, and all of that. So Yeah. It wasn't

Mike Mills (00:12:54) - Ideal and it crushed your soul. And then you came home and cried about it because you didn't have a real concept of what work was like. You did have quite the charmed life right. When you were growing up. You know, your parents took great care of you, you got your college paid for, which was awesome, but you worked really hard. Yeah. And you went to school, got your degree, and got out and, and got moving. So then we go from, uh, you're working for my mom, doing all those kind of things, but then you get involved in the golf industry, right?

Susan Mills (00:13:17) - Yeah. So I got really, really lucky with that because it, this is kind of one

Mike Mills (00:13:21) - Of, is it weird that I'm like interviewing you? Is this a strange, strange conversation that we had? Yeah, it is. I'm like asking you about questions that I already know the answer to. It's kinda strange, but

Susan Mills (00:13:28) - Yeah. It is. But here, here's what happened is that we were buying our first car together. Mm-hmm.

Mike Mills (00:13:35) - And before we were married.

Susan Mills (00:13:37) - Yeah. Before, well we, yeah, because

Mike Mills (00:13:38) - You had good credit and my credit was terrible.

Susan Mills (00:13:40) - Yeah. Cuz my parents helped me so much. , that's neither here nor there. Yes. Um, so anyway, we had gone to buy a car and, um, I knew that I was looking for something professionally and fashion merchandising and all that kind of cool stuff, although it had nothing to do with my degree, was something that I was interested in. And the, the wife of our salesman, um, had worked for a company called Talbots. I don't know if many people know what that is. That's kind of, is this still

Mike Mills (00:14:05) - Around?

Susan Mills (00:14:06) - I don't even, I honestly, I don't really even know. Okay. Um, anyway, fast forward, well, I kind of lost my train of thought because I was, we were getting a job. I wa I got a job with Talbots. Right. And, um, that was a wonderful job. That company was women, women operated. I don't know if they were necessarily women owned, but they were so good to their employees. We got a lot of p t o time and any, anyhow, it was a really good company to work for. But one of the, um, the ladies that worked there came only to work once a month so that she could get her discount

Mike Mills (00:14:41) - Discounted the store. Yes. At

Susan Mills (00:14:43) - The store. Yeah. Um, because she had kind of like the fancy country club life and kind of, her children were a little bit older and wanted something to do. And it turns out that her husband was, um, one of the club managers and regional managers of a company called ClubCorp, which is one of the largest private club companies in the world. Uh, they do, they're in Golf and Country club. And, um, she just took a lot of personal, her name was Robin Zola. I still love her. Um, her husband Mickey, um, unfortunately passed away many years ago, but was super, super impactful in my life. Um, because he was one of her, Robin and Mickey both were one of the people that took the time to be like, what do you want to do? What do you want to be? Where do you see yourself going? Mm-hmm. . And I was like, I don't really know. I don't know what career that is, but what I wanna do is I wanna, I want to be a positive influence or benefit people in their life, whatever that looks like. And so we fast forward to the, to them, uh, giving me the opportunity to work as the member relations director at one of the country clubs in the Dallas Fort Worth market. And that parlay, is that

Mike Mills (00:15:48) - Las Cleans, was that the first one?

Susan Mills (00:15:49) - That was Hackberry

Mike Mills (00:15:50) - Hack. Oh,

Susan Mills (00:15:50) - That's right. Hackberry. Yeah. That was Hackberry. And then ended up, uh, selling private events, selling, getting, I'm actually a certified wedding planner. I don't know if a lot of people know that. Um, that was a little blip in time where the economy started to really, um, dip down in 2007, 2008, 2009. And my sales job required me to take on an additional role in event planning and, and wedding planning. So I ended up getting certified to do that. And that was a blast. Uh, membership sales ended up meeting some of my favorite people in the world, um, through that business. So, um, I, I would say that for the vast majority of my adult career, it was in sales in one form or fashion.

Mike Mills (00:16:30) - Well, yeah. And that's when you were my sugar mama because, uh, at that point, uh, I was, uh, I think I was running a restaurant or that might have been then, or maybe I was working at the swim school. I don't know. But, uh, Connor wants to know if you want a job at his, uh, new venue. But, uh,

Susan Mills (00:16:45) - Yeah, for sure.

Mike Mills (00:16:46) - . But, um, but yes, you were, you were the breadwinner of the household at that time. Um, for a good number of years actually, because I was a merchandise buyer at Radio Shack for a little bit. Um, and then I got the, started doing the restaurant thing, which was wonderful for all of us. Um, one of your favorite times in history? Good times. Good times, yes. Good times had by all then. Um, and then, so, so yes, it was the fact that you were out there, um, you know, slogging away, especially because you had to work a lot of weekends, um, when you were doing the wedding stuff. Like you were always out there Saturdays and Sundays, cuz that's when all the weddings took place. So even when the kids came along, um, you know, there was a lot of weekends that you had to be out, you know, doing your thing. Right.

Susan Mills (00:17:26) - Yeah. That, I think that was really the, the hard part because when we were just a married couple, you know, we made our own schedule, it schedules and everything. And, and in that particular business, um, you were primarily off Sunday, Monday, right. Worked Saturdays even in membership sales, in event sales, whatever the capacity was because the club was traditionally close to members on Monday. That's where we held a lot of our, uh, golf outings and things like that. Um, and the, the, the point in time for me that I realized that I was not gonna be forever for the hospitality business, although I very much loved it, um, was my very first Mother's Day. Yeah. And we had this huge brunch at the club and all of the, the sales staff were there. And I was leaving my tiny infant daughter on my first Mother's day and was like, well,

Mike Mills (00:18:16) - Yeah, yeah, that's not, you were too, you were too happy with me at that point either.

Susan Mills (00:18:20) - Yeah. , that's, that's not gonna work. And um, so yeah, and, and, and I got the benefit. I worked for that company for 11 years and it was a wonderful experience for me. I had the benefit of working for some amazing bosses and met some amazing people, learned a lot, worked really, really hard. Um, got some training, real world training and, and sales and dealing with, you know, people and different circumstances and, and things like that. Well,

Mike Mills (00:18:44) - That's where you kind of cut your teeth on sales because you, we obviously, when you work in the restaurant, uh, industry, you're talking in front facing to people all the time. So you learn how to deal with all kinds of different folks and whatever. So that certainly helps. But then going into the club business and dealing with a different level of clientele that kind of, uh, was a little bit of a spark to kind of help you get into real estate. Only in that you learned a lot of things about dealing with people and especially, you know, you sell a lot of higher end homes. So dealing with that level of clientele and how that all works. You got a lot of experience with that, with that too. Oh

Susan Mills (00:19:13) - Yeah. Absolutely. Well, the na the, the natural course of that business is to start out at the kind of starter, beginner entry level clubs and then work your way up to the higher luxury end. And so that did give me the opportunity to interface with really successful people to kind of, um, emulate how they behaved. And I would see them as they were entertaining their clients and kind of started to just get a better, you know, view of what the opportunities were and, and how to interact with people and in all sorts of different walks of life too. Because yeah, I mean, we did have some ultra successful, um, clients and business owners that we knew. And I, and I wanted to aspire to their success, but also in the hospitality business. I mean, there's a lot of stuff that works underground, a lot of, you know, people that are not making a lot of money, um, to operate the facilities and, um, you know, the banquet servers and all of that. And to, to really get to know them and their families and, you know, to see how hard they work to, to, you know, provide a lifestyle for their family. I mean, it just was all together a really wonderful experience. Learned a lot about working with people of all walks of life.

Mike Mills (00:20:19) - So how did, uh, how did we transition for, because you're gonna have to tell me cause I don't remember . How did we, how did we go from doing that and then getting into, into selling homes, being a realtor?

Susan Mills (00:20:28) - Yeah, so that kind of, um, the situation, well, I'll tell you what happened, and I probably wouldn't share the story except that I'm talking to you, my husband. But, um, our daughter, uh, Katie Jane, she got stung by a bee Uhhuh . And we, I was working at a club that was about an hour from home on a good day with no traffic. And the school nurse called and said, Hey, Katie got stung by a bee. And I don't think it's a 9 1 1 emergency situation, but she needs medical attention, right, right now mm-hmm. , what do we do? And I couldn't get to our child. Right? Thank God. Shout out to the real M v P, Kathy and Dennis. Um, they, my parents live close to us and live close to the school and they scooped her up and were able to take care of her until we could get there.

Susan Mills (00:21:14) - But that, that particular, I know that seems really small and focused, but that was the ins the, the main impetus of me saying, you know what? I just need to be more available for our family. And I, I love what I do and I'm fortunate for, you know, being able to provide a good life for our family, but I need to be more available for them. Right. And there was a job opportunity that ended up working out at a club that is in our hometown that, I mean, it's a wonderful club and there's wonderful members there and, and everything but it, but, uh, I don't wanna say caliber of club wise, but honestly, I mean, you know, I went to a much

Mike Mills (00:21:51) - More Well you were in South Lake at Timon and then

Susan Mills (00:21:53) - Yeah. And then transitioned to, to one that is, you know, closer to home. And that was my first step to say, okay, well if I can just not commute, if I could just not commute and can be there and can run and pick the kids up for 30 minutes, drop them off at home, get back to work, that'll be the solution. Right. And it wasn't the solution because what happened was, is even though I wasn't commuting and I was close to home and close to the kids, then soccer games started popping up. Yes. Because remember I was working Tuesday through Saturday Yep. And then started missing all the soccer games and all the T-ball games and, um, that wasn't gonna sit Right , because I wasn't gonna miss anything. It is, it doesn't matter what it is. I didn't wanna miss it. Yes. And, um, we, we happened to be in a fortunate situation because you started working in the mortgage business, the restaurant thing was

Mike Mills (00:22:42) - In the rear

Susan Mills (00:22:42) - View mirror. In the rear view mirror. Yeah. And, um, with the kids both going into school full-time, we had a wonderful nanny, several great nannies actually that helped us because I was busy in my career and you were, you know, trying to, to grow the restaurant business that we needed help outside of the home and with both kids being full-time and we didn't have the expense of, of the extra childcare, that really was the opportunity where I was able to resign from the club business, go ahead and get my real estate license, which I did in six weeks mm-hmm. . Um, cuz I had procrastinated and procrastinated and procrastinated. And so really Troy going into kindergarten was the start of me getting my real estate license.

Mike Mills (00:23:21) - Yes. And then, um, so so tell me, or tell everybody about where you started with that, who you worked for, and then where you're at now and, um, you know, as far as selling real estate and what you doing.

Susan Mills (00:23:32) - Yeah. So, um, I ended up working for Remax right out of the gate, um, through Mike in your business with, uh, the mortgage company. Ended up meeting a lot of people and, um, ended up going as an independent agent at first. And that's a really hard, that's, I have a lot to say about real estate and maybe we can download another time about people coming in in the business and, and getting started. But I, I don't think that people realize that you get your license and you don't know anything about real estate. Like, you may know how many people sit on the board and the Texas legislature about this and that they come

Mike Mills (00:24:11) - In in the class. That's what they teach you in the

Susan Mills (00:24:13) - Class. Oh my gosh, yes. But in terms of actually ele, well, let me digress for just one, one quick second. Okay. I remember sitting in your office at the Remax office and I was filling out my very first, um,

Mike Mills (00:24:25) - By the way, you went to work for Conrad's team who, who,

Susan Mills (00:24:27) - Okay, well yeah, yeah, yeah. Hold on. Ok. Alright. I'm, I'm getting there. I'm I'm getting there. So I'm, I'm in your office. I'm trying to write my very first contract. I have no idea how to do that. Mm-hmm. no idea how to do that. Right. And I'm downloading the P D F from the Texas Real Estate Commission's website and I'm trying to like, fill it out and it's, it's absolutely a disaster. And at, at that point in time, I realized that being a brand new agent on your own, as an independent agent is really tough. I'm not saying that you can't do it. What I'm saying is, is that if you're lucky like me and had the opportunity to work for a team, uh, the DRIs team, David DRIs, Conrad Jackson, two of my very dear friends taught me how to realtor because you don't know.

Susan Mills (00:25:10) - You really, really don't know. And it's not just about, Hey, I have this question about this particular transaction. It's about surrounding yourself with people. And just in the peripheral of what's happening in the business, you're hearing what they're saying. You're hearing how they respond to client questions. You're hearing about what, um, is going on in the market. You're just absorbing kind of what is transpiring. And that's really how you learn in the business because man, like I said, I'm, I'm not saying that you can't do it, I just, I didn't, I wasn't equipped to go in and be a competent real estate agent without having people to surround me and to support me. And, and that's what the real estate team, the d the Dres team did for me.

Mike Mills (00:25:52) - Yeah. Well, it's hard nowadays too, especially because there's, you know, not many people go into the office anymore after Covid. So it's, you know, everybody kind of stays and works from home. So as a new agent, you don't get a lot of exposure to being around other agents that, you know, pick up, like you said, little, little tips and tricks, little things that they do here and there, how they interact with their clients, how they handle phone calls, how they deal with all that. You miss that piece unless you purposefully go out and try to get it because you, just, because you're not around everybody all the time because it is so segmented now because we stay home, you don't get the same experiences. Right.

Susan Mills (00:26:23) - No, absolutely. And so h how that had helped me and grew my business and then all of a sudden I started to be able to answer questions without having to call Conrad 487 questions a day. He's probably like, did she die? Like, I haven't heard from her today. Like, what's happening? And then I started being able to do it on my own. And the, the benefit of the team is that you learn mm-hmm. , the, the downfall of the team is that you're branded as the team leader. Right. And at some point in time, I feel like, and it's not right for everybody, but I feel like for me as an agent, I wanted to be Susan Mills and I wanted my listings to be represented as that. Right. And so then that was the natural transition once I felt like I was comfortable and capable to really advocate for my clients to move over to be an individual agent. And so now I'm at, uh, front real estate.

Mike Mills (00:27:15) - Yes. So how did you get, or, um, how do you, tell me about your experience at front. How, uh, you obviously working with Amy and you know, the team over there. So how was that experience for you?

Susan Mills (00:27:24) - Yeah, so, you know, it's kind of weird because I actually ended up transitioning in October of 2019, just a few weeks before the entire world changed. Oh right.

Mike Mills (00:27:33) - Yeah.

Susan Mills (00:27:33) - Yeah. And so, um, what I really liked about Front and what drove me to Front was that we were kind of on the peripheral of the entertainment district in Arlington. There were several really cute bars and restaurants that were around. And I thought this would be a really good, good way for me to expand my client base. Like, Hey, come meet me for lunch at Cartel Taco or let's, you know, run over for a glass of wine at Tipsy. Yo, let me know about you. Get me introduced into your social circle. Because that's really how you grow your business in real estate is your social circle. You can do all of the Zillow marketing in the world. You can put yourself out there. And I think that, you know, that might work for a very small percentage of agents, but in, in terms of really getting that referral based business, getting yourself out in the social circle I think was, is was important.

Susan Mills (00:28:19) - And so that's really what drew me to front was just how she's, Amy Carnell, who's our broker, is very, very active in the community. Very active in the Arlington Board of Realtors. She's a freaking sharp lady if you don't know her, um, you know, she's impressive. And, um, was a mortgage banker at one point in time. So it just has a lot of just general experience. And so it ended up that being, that was a really good fit for me. Um, transitioned to the brokerage and then the holidays happened and then the world shut down. Yes.

Mike Mills (00:28:51) - Does, uh, is, uh, does Tammy, is her family the cartel taco? Cuz she's, uh, appreciating you. Shout out her. Yeah.

Susan Mills (00:28:56) - Her brother Tammy. Right. Your brother-in-law I think is the owner of Cartel Taco, Tammy Linley. Um, and I worked together for a really, really long time. Transaction coordinator. Awesome. Um, I miss you. Uh, awesome lady. And yeah, she's got family connections and, and they'd have ownership in Cartel Taco. I can't remember what that exactly is.

Mike Mills (00:29:16) - So Conrad says he needs more stories about this restaurant business. , he feels like there's something we're not saying about it.

Susan Mills (00:29:21) - Conrad, do you want us to get divorced on Air ? Because I have a lot to say about it, but none of it's good.

Mike Mills (00:29:27) - No, it's, no, it's okay. You can tell him your, your, your opinion on it. Your opinion on just the, the hours and being gone all the time and you know, that no money and all that kind of fun stuff. It's

Susan Mills (00:29:37) - Man, well first of all, let me tell you what's hard. What's hard is to start making money as a young person and feeling like that money is just there to spend. Right. Um, so I guess a little bit of a rewind. So you ended up in a partnership owning a restaurant and that ended up being a successful venture for us for a period of time. Yep. And we were taking trips to Europe and, you know, refurnishing our house. And you know, I'm not saying that we were living it up big time, but doing things. I feel like in that age, red retrospect were, you know, kind of a ahead of the curve a little bit, but now frivolous and probably beyond our means as a 43 year old kind of looking back at the 20, well first of all, we bought our first house at 23 and 24 years old. Yes. So we started home ownership very early. Um, which I super, super advocate, uh, for people.

Mike Mills (00:30:31) - Yeah. The hard part though is that right now we bought our first house for $130,000,

Susan Mills (00:30:35) - $135,000. We got our down payment from our income tax return and our seller paid a hundred percent of our closing costs.

Mike Mills (00:30:42) - Yes. And our rate I think was like six and a quarter or six and a quarter, something like that. Yeah. Um, and it was, uh, how many square foot was that house? It was

Susan Mills (00:30:48) - Like 1600 square feet. It was kudos over, uh, in like Shorewood Lake Arlington Yeah. For the locals at, you know, it was a nice neighborhood. We were really fortunate to get that house. Um, I don't know, like

Mike Mills (00:30:59) - When did that, what did that house sell for? I think you looked that up recently. Not too long ago.

Susan Mills (00:31:02) - I mean, the value of that house now is probably three and a quarter, maybe something like that. Yeah. Um, so anyway, it, you know, life changes, everything changes. But yeah,

Mike Mills (00:31:13) - The restaurant thing was just hard because I was working until two or three o'clock in the morning. And especially once we had, um, the second restaurant, cause we had one to start with and then we went to two and the second one was at a hockey arena and we had games and it was like, you know, I would be there till sometimes four or five o'clock in the morning when I'm getting home. Especially after a game cleaning everything up. So especially when you have two young kids and you were at home by yourself dealing with 'em. That was hard. Like, that was just, that was some hard shit.

Susan Mills (00:31:40) - Yeah. That, that really sucked. That was not, that was not ideal. Um, we made sacrifices hoping because our, our hope with that, that what, well what happened was the first location was successful. Yep. And then the second location opened in January of 2008 when the economy really started tanking. Yep. And we were robbing Peter to pay Paul. So all of the profits from the first location were going to subsidize the marketing and operating expenses for the second location. You were gone all the time. I was working a full-time job really steering the ship mm-hmm. and then also doing a hundred percent of the maintenance almost with the kids while you were gone. It was really, really tough. And we weren't making any money. No. I was like, well this grind is, is for the freaking birds. No. So something has to change and it's either you decide what the next career is going to be or I don't know what Yeah,

Mike Mills (00:32:33) - It was, it was bumpy there for a while, but I mean, I think everybody goes through that. I don't think that's anything that's, uh, you know, any marriage that's lasted for as long as, you know, or or longer than we have. I I don't, I don't know that there's very few people out there that go through marriage and just everything works out perfectly and we're like happy from day one. Look, we went through some shit. Like, it was, it was rough and it, it was financial related. It was being at the restaurant all hours of the night and being in that environment, you know, all of that stuff was related to it and it was hard. But, you know, those kind of things. I mean, I think we both, we both grew from it. We both matured a little bit from it because we understood that we could go through some, you know, bumpy stuff with the, when the kids were little and still come out the other side and it, you know, and, and now we are where we're at now. But, um, but I mean every, I think everybody goes through that, don't you?

Susan Mills (00:33:18) - Yeah. I mean, I, I think that you have to because marriage is work. I mean, I, I know that people come in thinking, oh well it's gonna be just all sunshine and roses. But, and I really do think that the kind of the distance and the separation and, and the whatever that we had during that time where we didn't see each other very much. Yeah. And everybody thought, thought that they were carrying the load. You thought that you were, you know, gone all the time trying to support the family carrying a hundred percent of the load. And I thought I was home, you know, doing the other stuff. Doing a hundred percent. Yeah.

Mike Mills (00:33:43) - And still working too. Like you were doing both. Yeah. And we were struggling and money was always tight and you know, it wasn't, um, you know, whenever you put the stress of money, you put the stress of young kids. Cuz I think both of our kids were under the age of five at the time. Oh

Susan Mills (00:33:56) - No, they were, they were one and three. Yeah.

Mike Mills (00:34:00) - Yeah. So I mean, they were little. So you add that to it and it just, uh, you know, it, it makes it hard. But I mean, like I said, I, I think that us going through that and dealing with those times, um, made us closer, you know, after we came out of it and got into a better spot. I, I remember when I started getting into the mortgage business, so I, you remember I came home and I was, I had gone to work at Texas Lending and I was like training or whatever. And I showed up there and I was like, Hey, you know, cause I'm, you know, if anybody that knows me, I'm a very optimistic person. Would you agree with that? Yeah, a hundred percent. Yes. I'm very optimistic. I always think things are gonna work out great. You're probably a little bit on the other side, like you're a little more pessimistic or not pessimistic, but just, um, worried. You, you ha you're filled riddled with anxiety a lot of times. Would you agree with that? Oh,

Susan Mills (00:34:42) - A hundred percent. I stress about things that aren't even on the horizon. Right. So

Mike Mills (00:34:46) - She's always having dreams of somebody dying. Like we got, we got, you know, some issues there, but Yeah. Um, but I remember I came home and I told you, I was like, Hey, I, I think I really understand this. Like I think I can really do well at this. I think I can have a good, you know, successful career at this or whatever. And, and, uh, you were just kinda like rolling your eyes cuz I, I had just spent the last six years explaining to you how the mor how the restaurant business was gonna work out so well

Susan Mills (00:35:09) - Well, I mean, that is not first of all, you know, people think people forget where you start from. Yeah. And, and I think what it takes to build a successful business in, in any walk of life. But I think the conversation was is that you had an $11 an hour draw and everything was kill what you eat. Yes.

Mike Mills (00:35:26) - Yes.

Susan Mills (00:35:26) - So I'm like, oh wow, this sounds, this sounds great. , I feel like Taco Bell is paying $14 an hour. So

Mike Mills (00:35:33) - Yes. I you weren't exactly, uh, um, it's not like you were discouraging, but you also weren't as enthusiastic as I was. Let's certainly say that. Um, it took, it took a little, it took a little time to get you there. I mean obviously it worked out and, you know, everything's great. But, uh, but at least at the time, especially because money was tight and, you know, we were struggling and it was just like, okay, how are we gonna make this work? And yeah. And then I come home and tell you about my $11 an hour job, uh, that I'm getting straight commission on . You were not real excited about that prospect either. But, but you know, like I said, it, it ended up working out and, and we got, got to where we are. So, um, now it, I think that, uh, those times as, as hard as they were when we were going through them, I think coming out the other side of it and, um, being where we are today makes us appreciate that.

Mike Mills (00:36:18) - I mean, I learned a ton, you know, as much as, as hard as being in that restaurant business was, you know, I joke all the time. That's where, that's where I got my mba. You know, I didn't get my MBA at s smu, I got it at Zu. So, um, you know, I learned a, a bunch of stuff because I made a ton of mistakes. And when you make a bunch of mistakes, you get a real quick lesson and what not to do. Um, and so, uh, and then I also think we, we had a greater appreciation for, you know, how to take care of our, our finances and, you know, to make sure that we were Yes. Protected for later on down the road. Cause we didn't wanna go through that again. And I think we were fortunate, you know, we've both your parents were there, my parents have always been there. So, you know, we've been lucky that we've had people in our lives support us. So if we ever did run into really, really big problems we always had, and somebody there is a safety net, which most, you know, not everybody has that. So we were very lucky in that regard. But, uh, but it still was hard, you know, it was tough and, and it was stressful and it was, you know, and again, having the two kids and going through all that, you know, it just, uh, it it put a lot of strain on us.

Susan Mills (00:37:15) - Yeah, it did. But it all ended up working out. Yeah.

Mike Mills (00:37:18) - So, um, yeah, so there was a little, a little glimpse into the mill's life there, but, um, so one of the things that we did recently, uh, that we kind of talked about a little bit, and it aired and it took a long time, was, um, we did a show called, uh, lakefront Bargain Hunt Renovation. Uh, this was on the Magnolia Network, um, which used to be DIY that, uh, the Texas, uh, born and bred Miss, uh, Mr. Chip and Miss jojo, um, run that network now. Um, so why don't you tell the story about how, uh, how all of that came about basically.

Susan Mills (00:37:53) - Yeah. So, um, that was really cool how that had transpired. So we had purchased a home in, on Lake Whitney, which is kind of between the dallas Fort Worth market and Waco, where Chip and Joanna actually are doing their, their thing. And we had, I had been contacted by, um, I guess, uh,

Mike Mills (00:38:14) - Show scout talent

Susan Mills (00:38:15) - Or something, scouts or whatever you wanna call them, um, to see if, because I obviously represented Mike and purchasing the home as his real estate agent. So they reached out to me as the realtor and said, Hey, would your clients be interested in, you know, renovating this house and being on our lakefront renovation show? And I was like, well, as it turns out, that's actually my family. We purchased it as our, as a renovation. Um, and it was funny because the house was so ugly, I guess they thought, wow, there's no way these people are gonna buy this house and not renovate it. Yeah.

Mike Mills (00:38:48) - It was orange on the inside. It was pretty

Susan Mills (00:38:49) - Weird. It was, it was a, it was like a skittle actually. It had like every flavor of the rainbow and pain in that house. But anyway, uh, the short story with that is that that particular property was too, too far along in the renovation process to actually film. And, um, all the while they had kind of kept in contact with us because they knew that we were looking for another, uh, short-term rental property. And when we ended up finding the one at Cedar Creek, which is where the show was filmed, um, uh, we kind of got back into connection and you go through a, a process of I guess, casting and, and yeah. So that, that's kind of how that worked

Mike Mills (00:39:24) - Out. Yeah. So yeah, we had to go through, they had to meet with us, we had to tell 'em kind of our story and where we came from and all that kind of stuff. And then, um, and then you go through the process of looking for the house and you know, you look at other places and kind of get all that. Yeah.

Susan Mills (00:39:36) - Yeah. You can't tell you, well you first you have to sign, you can't like, say anything about it. So we can't like, saying a whole lot about it.

Mike Mills (00:39:41) - Well, I mean, at this point it's like, we want to get into too much detail, but let's not I don't think, I don't think the DIY police are coming after us, but, but basically you look at these different properties and you select one, and then once you pick that one, then you go through the renovation process of it, right? Yep. And so, um, so picking out the house that we ended up ultimately settling with, um, what was, uh, you know, what was it about that particular place that, you know, drew, drew you to it?

Susan Mills (00:40:08) - Well, first of all, I'm, I'm gonna, I'm gonna just tell you just real estate in general is that you need to purchase a home that fits your needs. So I know that a lot of people have, um, you know, different thoughts on it, but what our purpose in buying that property was not for us to family vacation there. Now we do utilize it, we go down there occasionally. We're really not in the season of life to be able to use it as much as we'd like. Yeah.

Mike Mills (00:40:36) - We have kids that have tournaments every single weekend Yeah. For the rest of our lives. So yes.

Susan Mills (00:40:39) - But we wanted to use that house as a short term rental. And the lot was big. They had a, a, a decent view of the lake and it was affordable enough to renovate it and do what we felt like needed to be done for it to be attractive, to have weak weekenders come in and, and rent the house. Right. So that, that's why, uh, also too, the, the previous homeowner did a really, really good, she actually was a real estate agent. I don't think she carries an active license now, but the updates that she had done already were very tasteful and there was a minimal amount of work that we needed to do to the main property. The majority of the work that we did was we ended up adding a, uh, a like a little casita guest suite, and then we built a big dock. But in terms of actually the, the primary part of the residence, not much needed to be done at all. She did a beautiful job with

Mike Mills (00:41:25) - It. So I'm gonna add a little clip, um, so we can get out here. Um, this is just preview of they do with us.

Susan Mills (00:41:34) - All right. You guys ready to catch some fish? Yeah. I'm Susan. This is my husband Mike.

Mike Mills (00:41:38) - I'm a mortgage banker and she's a real estate agent. Ooh, the bait. What is

Susan Mills (00:41:42) - That? We live in Mansfield, Texas with our daughter Katie Janey, who is 13, and our son Troy, who is 11. All

Mike Mills (00:41:48) - Right. Show us how it's done, dude

Speaker 4 (00:41:50) - Over, and then make sure to clip this back.

Speaker 5 (00:41:53) - That was a lot of information

Susan Mills (00:41:55) - To retain. We're out here looking for a lake house in Cedar Creek Lake. It's proximity to Dallas is just, I don't know, an hour and 20 minutes or so. It's got over 320 linear miles of shoreline.

Mike Mills (00:42:06) - There's no lack of lakes around here. So growing up we did wakeboarding, we do fishing, you know, I've been doing it since I was a kid. Nothing

Susan Mills (00:42:12) - Like the smell of catfish bait in the morning. One of the reasons why we really love Cedar Creek Lake is that the commute is really easy.

Mike Mills (00:42:19) - We live in Mansfield, it's about an hour and 20 minutes back and forth. So if we can get within an hour or two hours of where we live, it's kind of like you get a vacation home that kind of pays for itself. We both lead pretty hectic lives back home. Whenever we get a chance to kind of get away, we really just want to sit down, relax, fish

Speaker 5 (00:42:34) - Really have no interest in me.

Mike Mills (00:42:36) - You smell the same.

Speaker 6 (00:42:38) - You're so rude.

Susan Mills (00:42:39) - .

Mike Mills (00:42:41) - Okay, mommy, hang on. Come on. There's the love of your life.

Susan Mills (00:42:45) - You got it.

Mike Mills (00:42:47) - The white, my real estate agent for this, uh, wonderful journey is my beautiful bride.

Susan Mills (00:42:53) - Finding properties is kind of obviously my specialty. Um, in our, obviously

Mike Mills (00:42:59) - We are constantly kind of on the lookout for possible investments, you know, seeing houses and what they can become and their potential. So it makes

Susan Mills (00:43:06) - A lot of sense to put our investment in something that we know about and we practice what we preach. You're really

Mike Mills (00:43:13) - Mad at this

Susan Mills (00:43:13) - Dad. I am looking for something that is all in 475,000 or below. That would include of course the price of the home, and then any renovations that we would need to do. Definitely three bedroom, two bath. We've got a ton of animals. They travel with us. So a fence yard is really, really important. And really, we've gotta have a place to entertain. We've got a big family. We host a lot of events.

Speaker 7 (00:43:40) - Looks

Speaker 6 (00:43:40) - Like you gotta be your hair again, mama.

Mike Mills (00:43:42) - The water access is a big player. For me personally, it doesn't necessarily have to be on the water just as long as I could get there easily.

Susan Mills (00:43:48) - That's gonna be kind of a hard task. This is a popular lake and there's truly not a lot of inventory available. She's gonna need a bath before he gets in the car.

Mike Mills (00:43:59) - . So, oh my. Laylay . So, um, how would you, how, how did you feel like going through all that? What was the, what, what was the experience like? Would you fun? Would you do it again? Like h how'd you feel about all that?

Susan Mills (00:44:11) - Yeah, I mean, I would a million percent do it again. That was a wonderful experience. I have nothing but good things to say about, um, everybody that we inter interacted with, um, with the network and the production company and, and the people that were there filming. And, you know, I, I really didn't even know what to expect because we had shown up for the first time at the house. Um, you know, they were in constant communication with what we needed and, and kind of, you know, what the plan was. But they come out with two vans of people. And I was kind of a little bit blown away by, you know, how much that they invested in each episode and, and all of that. I kind of, I don't really know what to expect, but I didn't think it was gonna be an entire production crew and, and, and, you know, set assistance and all of that. It was really, really fun, um, to go through. I would a million percent do it again.

Mike Mills (00:44:56) - Did you feel like that, uh, I mean, what we, what we ended up doing with the house? I mean, are you pleased with how it turned out? I mean, do you think that it's, it's, it's exactly what you wanted? Was there something that you would take back on what we did with it that you thought would be better?

Susan Mills (00:45:09) - Um, the only thing that I think that after, I don't know, I don't know how many times we're gonna over improve a property, but you know, I

Mike Mills (00:45:17) - Yes, yes. We, we definitely like, look. Okay, so, so full disclosure here. So when we did our first property at Lake Whitney, the intent was we were gonna use it as a vacation property ourselves. And then we were gonna rent it out when we weren't there. And, and, and we did, but then ultimately jumping into this one. But when we were, when you were thinking about living there yourself and going there that you want all the amenities that you want as a homeowner, so you kind of overdo it a little bit. So it's like, you gotta know what your intent with the property is before you go into it. I mean, we certainly made mistakes. I mean, there's no doubt about it. We spent too much money on both of 'em. Um, you know, hindsight being 2020, you wanna go back and make some adjustments. But I mean, I think they both turned out well, but you know, we learned a lot about over improvement in those situations.

Susan Mills (00:45:59) - Yeah. I mean, and that's the thing is that, you know, what I, what my vision was, is to go in and I wanted to feel like our home away from home was somewhere equally as comfortable. Right. Not really thinking, okay, well people are here to have like a cabin experience. What particularly that that like Whitney to have a cabin experience and, you know, just to get away from it all. And it really didn't need to be bougie, super bougie. I mean, that, that particular house is m moderately bougie. I feel like the Cedar Creek house is a little bit more, you know, has a, you know, a little bit more of a, I

Mike Mills (00:46:35) - Don't know, it's neighborhood feel. It's not quite on. Yeah,

Susan Mills (00:46:37) - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's more, um, yeah, it's more a neighborhood or like

Mike Mills (00:46:41) - A residence where you would live and

Susan Mills (00:46:43) - Yeah. I, I do think that we spent a little bit more than we probably should have. Um, especially too, because we have been to this, I haven't been to, we haven't stayed at Lake Whitney since over a year, since 2021. Yeah.

Mike Mills (00:46:57) - Two years almost.

Susan Mills (00:46:58) - And we haven't stayed at Cedar Creek since April of 2022. Yes. So, so

Mike Mills (00:47:06) - There's a lot of other people enjoying the houses . Yeah.

Mike Mills (00:47:09) - But they've been, I mean, they've been decent income generators. We get good rent from 'em, you know, uh, the short term rental thing is, uh, we're still learning how to do that a little bit better. So, you know, we're both in the industry, but at the same time, I mean, we're not experts at everything, you know, I mean, you, you kind of work your way through, you learn this stuff, you make mistakes, you fall down, you get back up, you know, you try to figure out the best method to, to handle each one of these properties, and it's all a little bit different every time.

Susan Mills (00:47:32) - Well, yeah, and, and like I said, I mean, I think the big mistake that, that I made particularly was that you need to keep in mind how you're going to be using the property. Right. And for us, we spent a lot of money on building a dock at Cedar Creek for, uh, you know, a, a boat and jet ski lifts, and we bought jet skis, and they have never been lifted in that dock. Not even once, they haven't even been unrailed on our property. Um, because some

Mike Mills (00:47:58) - Of that's timing. Some of that's timing

Susan Mills (00:48:00) - Because we don't go down there and use it. And, you know, I thought, okay, well if we're gonna be building it, we might as well go all out and do it. And that way when people are there utilizing the property, they can bring their boat and all of that and really utilize it. But the fact of the matter is, is that if you're occasionally renting a short term rental on a lake, you probably aren't gonna, even if you had the boat, I don't know that you would maybe haul it around. I don't know. It just, I think that, um, there are just now that we've learned, if I would've, if we would do it an additional time, there are some things that I, I would really scale back on. Yeah.

Mike Mills (00:48:41) - Yeah. Which I think, you know, at some point we may end up doing another one again too, when the, whenever the, the market picks back up, we're both, uh, you know, we're being both in real estate, when things go, when things are great, they're great, and when things go down, they go down. Right. So, yeah. Talk

Susan Mills (00:48:55) - About putting all your eggs in one basket. I don't know that I would necessarily recommend that as much. Yeah. But you know, it, it, it is good in a, in a sense and bad innocence. Yeah. You relate to each other a lot.

Mike Mills (00:49:05) - Yeah. It's up and down. It just depends on, you know, on the time and, and how it all plays out. But, you know, it's, it's good. So, um, alright, now, uh, so the show was fun. Uh, we had a blast doing it. Uh, she would do it again. I don't know. I'm not sure if I would, but, you know, the

Susan Mills (00:49:20) - Kids certainly wouldn't,

Mike Mills (00:49:21) - The kids most certainly would not. They didn't like that. So, but now let's get into, um, one of your other talents, which is why I wanted you hear is, um, you were able to sniff out a bargain. And that is one of the things that you revolve around your cats. Or they revolve two

Susan Mills (00:49:42) - Freaking cats

Mike Mills (00:49:43) - Or they revolve around, uh, three and a half cents soap that you got for, or, or $5 soap you got for three and a half cents and you bought 6,000 of them. And now we have soap till the end of time. Um, so tell me about what is it about finding a deal that, uh, that gives you such, you know, such adrenaline that you're just fired up and ready to go? I

Susan Mills (00:50:03) - Don't know that it, it gives me adrenaline necessarily, but I, I think that, well, first of all, my mom really taught me how to shop. Um, she was, um, and has always been a really good shopper, has always, you know, taught me how to buy things on sale and things like that and really get your most for the money and, and all of that. So I really attribute a lot of my shopping skill and negotiating skill, um, you know, from her. But I, I think too, I mean, it, it really just depends because first of all, you know, that was out of necessity when we were, you know, young and, you know, new homeowners and needing to furnish a new home. And, you know, there wasn't marketplace then, but we were going to garage sales and trying to find, um, deals to stretch the money as far as we possibly could and, you know, uh, buying nice things for the kids and all of that. So I think that the, the skill of that was at a necessity and now that things are more comfortable. Yeah, I mean, if I can get a Well, you're, what you're talking about the soap, I mean, you know, the, the semi-annual clearance sale, I mean, I would stock up for the whole year because I know that those are things that we will need throughout the season. So why not, you know, pay $3 versus seven or whatever the, whatever the case may be.

Mike Mills (00:51:19) - So how do you find these things? Like what, what is it that, like where are you looking, where you, where are you, where do the deals pop up? Is this stuff that you just see online? Are you specifically, do you know times of years when things go on sale? Like how does that work? Yeah,

Susan Mills (00:51:31) - Well, absolutely. I mean, there, there are seasonal sales. I don't necessarily,

Mike Mills (00:51:35) - I can't believe I'm encouraging your shopping by the way, , but here we go.

Susan Mills (00:51:38) - I don't necessarily follow that, but I, I think in, in relation to real estate, you know, what I think that you need to do is to decide on something that you really love and that's a splurge item. And then I think that there's opportunity to work around how to make renovations or to furnish your home in more of affordable way. So like, for example, like with our personal home, um, you know, our living room, well, first of all, our house was built in 1978 and it is very typically compartmentalized type of space for, for that timeframe. And we've done some renovations to open it up, but our living room is kind of long and narrow. And so I needed to have a specific couch that would fit that space to comfortably, you know, accommodate our family and friends. So I did make a splurge. I did find something that needed to be made that I felt like was worth the money, high quality that would last a long time because you will always get what you pay for unless you find an amazing deal when it comes to that.

Susan Mills (00:52:39) - And then what I would do is go to Home Goods or TJ Max or Marketplace and then get all of the accessory items for the room, throw pillows, you know, I'm going to get this couch. And then a million other accessory items that I could have found for a, a better price. And honestly, I think a lot of it has to do with time too. Um, I do have the time to go and really think about what I want. What I'll do is I'll, you know, have like kind of a, a, a vision board on Pinterest or something that I've seen on Instagram and be like, okay, well I generally like this theme, so then I'll go and try to replicate it over time by finding components that match that vision.

Mike Mills (00:53:24) - Right. So whenever you're out and about, that's, uh, you have, especially related to our house, you're always looking for, well it seems like you're always looking for pillows cuz we have every pillow known to man, but, uh, but you certainly have a theme and colors that are in mind when you're doing that type of stuff, right?

Susan Mills (00:53:38) - Yeah. Well, when you're on a budget, you can't rush design. Right, right.

Mike Mills (00:53:41) - ,

Susan Mills (00:53:41) - You just have to be patient and wait and see if you can find what you're looking for. Right. You know,

Mike Mills (00:53:47) - So, so these days, um, the market shift a little bit more towards buyers, although lately, you know, we're getting into the spring season, so that's, that's kind of changed. Some sellers are, um, are, uh, getting multiple offers again. Uh, so the market is adjusting. Yes. Okay. Um, but with that being said, if you were, um, going to, if you had somebody that came to you and wanted to sell their house and they felt like, you know, they needed to spruce it up just a little bit, like we gotta add some pieces here, we gotta make it a little bit more attractive to the buyers as they come through. What are some things that you would focus on or what would you tell them and to keep the budget, you know, the, the cost relatively low, but have the biggest impact?

Susan Mills (00:54:23) - Well, what I don't advocate for is people putting a lot of money into their house to sell it. Okay. If you wanted to improve the house, you should have done it and enjoyed it while you live there. To improve the house, to sell it to me doesn't necessarily make sense. Especially because we're in a very transitional market right now. We're not really sure what's gonna be happening, you know, next week. What I can tell you is the most impactful thing that you can do is make sure that your home is clean. And I don't mean like, make sure that there's no clutter on the cabinets. I need to make sure that if you need to hire somebody to steam clean your carpets, to clean the grout on your tiles, to make sure that you've got a handyman that's come in to make sure that there's no cuts and nicks in the screens and things like that.

Susan Mills (00:55:05) - The general aesthetics of your house, um, is a, is clean and well cared for is more important than you, you know, having your master bathroom retiled. Another thing that I think is very impactful is making sure that the exterior of your home shows well in the listing photography and their first impressions. So if I'm gonna spend money on a house, it's always gonna be to clean up the yard, to put fresh mulch down, to just get a couple of nice pots with seasonal flowers so that it's warm and welcoming and it feels well kept because I'm telling you that if you walk in and it smells like dog, that's gonna be a problem. Right.

Mike Mills (00:55:42) - So you think it's, it, I guess the, the impression somebody walks in, it's their, they're seeing the big stuff, right? The like you were talking about the mulch in the yard and that kind of thing, and then they're noticing that the house is clean, but they're not necessarily noticing little things per se. Right. It, it's more big things, right? Yeah.

Susan Mills (00:55:57) - Well here's the deal. When we bought our very first house, and we had seen a lot because when we purchased our home, it was very much a buyer's market. Yeah. And we had the opportunity to, to have a lot of inventory to choose from. And the reason that we ultimately chose our house was because it was so well maintained. Listen, it had builder's grade carpet throughout. It had hunter green laminate countertops, um, it had builder's grade everything. Yeah.

Mike Mills (00:56:22) - Laminate flooring or floor

Susan Mills (00:56:24) - Linoleum. Floor linoleum

Mike Mills (00:56:24) - Floors. Yeah. Do they even have linoleum anymore?

Susan Mills (00:56:27) - ? I haven't seen linoleum in, in a minute. Yeah. Um, but what I'm saying is, is that when I walked in, I thought, okay, well eventually we'll have the money to put in granite. Right? Eventually we'll tear out this carpet and do you know, the laminate floors? Eventually we'll be able to upgrade this, but right now it's a clean, comfortable, safe place for our family and that for representing first time buyers that are in, you know, the market for that. Now, once you start getting to the, you know, the secondary or tertiary home or whatever, I mean, you, some of the expectation is is that it's, it's done. But just generally speaking,

Mike Mills (00:57:04) - That's, yeah. And we did all those things and then we promptly sold the house right after that, which was awesome.

Susan Mills (00:57:07) - That's kind of the theme, ,

Mike Mills (00:57:10) - Every time we tend to do renovations on a house, we've turn around and sell it except for the one that we're in now, thank God. But, um, all right. So when somebody buys a house, then, right, your new home buyer, you got your home and let's just say that, you know, you've got a say a $5,000 budget. Okay? Now obviously personal preference plays a role on what you want in your house or whatever, but what I, in, in your experience, what would you suggest as far as if you're gonna, if you have that money, what's gonna have the biggest impact that you're going to be able to enjoy that's gonna give you even a little bit of, I don't wanna say resale value because you know, you're not, if you just bought your house, you're not looking to sell it immediately, but certainly something that is gonna be a little bit more long lasting. Like w what do you think the money is best spent on?

Susan Mills (00:57:48) - Well, I mean, I kind of think it depends on, on the age of the house. Um, you know, I would say that if it's an, if it's an older house, paint and texture is the number one thing. Um, updating, like if you've got popcorn ceilings and you know, uh, all sorts of weird paneling working, definitely paint and texture is the biggest cost bang for your buck. There is.

Mike Mills (00:58:11) - So we've bought a lot of paint over the years. Mm-hmm. , I know specifically cause I've painted a lot of rooms. So what is your, uh, where, where do you go get paint? Where do you, where do you think that, who has the best paint? What has the best quality? Like, what are your thoughts on that? Well,

Susan Mills (00:58:23) - I mean, I'm a Sherwin Williams girl. I kind of feel like that, like people have like different brands of things that they're, you know, I'm a Ford man or I'm a truck man, I'm Sherwin Williams all the way. Die hard to the grave. Um, that, that to me has the, the most versatile, uh, paint palette. And um, although you can get it at Sherwin Williams, you know, you can get, uh, there's a, another hardware store lows has a Sherwin Williams, uh, line that can replicate it. So, okay,

Mike Mills (00:58:50) - So paint, get the ceiling untested, popcorn ceilings. Mm-hmm. , nobody likes those, I guess. Are those ever gonna come back? I feel like they're,

Susan Mills (00:58:56) - They're never gonna come back. , god willing in the creek don't rise. Dear God, please don't put popcorn on the ceiling. Now, that really was out of convenience because that was the easiest way to to, to cover, um, crappy ceiling jobs, honestly. So now I feel like we hold everything to a higher standard and, and things like that. So, um, yeah, hopefully that, that won't come back just outta convenience for the builders. But assuming that your house is already painted, um, the next thing that I would hit up would be floors. Okay. Um, I obviously, you know, allergies and maintenance and things like that, having a hard surface floor is far more popular than, um, you know, a carpeting carpeted floor. And also too, one thing that's really, really distracting to buyers is having mismatched flooring. So every room in the house is a different pattern or, you know, this needed to be done. And so we only have the means to do that if you can get one cohesive UniFi flooring pattern through throughout the house. I know if you're saying $5,000, I guess it depends on the size of the house, the size of the house, and if you're able

Mike Mills (00:59:58) - To see you do run room at a time, yeah. Some

Susan Mills (01:00:00) - Labor yourself or, or whatever that is. But I would say having a cohesive, cohesive look when it comes to the flooring would be my next. And then the third thing would be kitchen. And I know that that's kind of an expensive upgrade, but what I would consider is the things that you actually utilize for functionality. So if you've got laminate countertops and old 1980 appliances, go for the appliances because the beautiful thing about social media is that there are thousands of accounts that will teach you how to faux finish or to epoxy or to semen or, or whatever. You don't necessarily have to pay for somebody to have high end finishes in your home if that's not something that's in the budget or if you just need to bandaid something temporarily. Um, if you're going to, if you're going to do the kitchen, I would function on or focus on functionality and then aesthetic secondary. Yeah.

Mike Mills (01:00:56) - I feel like you've brought a lot of science experiments home between everything that you've spray painted, everything that you've textured, you've recovered. Things like ,

Susan Mills (01:01:03) - What makes me mad because they're like, oh, what's your hobby? Golf, tennis, fishing. And I'm like, why is spray paint not a hobby? That's literally my favorite thing in the entire world to do is spray paint,

Mike Mills (01:01:13) - You spray painted our bathroom cuz that's the one room in the house we haven't done yet in a long or at, at all as far as renovation goes cuz nobody else sees it. Um, and, and our bathroom was one of your first experiments and that house was spray painting at least. But yes, you do spray paint everywhere.

Susan Mills (01:01:26) - I almost died three times from spray paint chemicals, but it's fine. It's fine. Looks

Mike Mills (01:01:32) - Great. Yes, of course. Um, so when you're looking for deals on stuff or when you're shopping for even large items like appliances or anything, like where are your go-tos that you're trying to get, you know, that's gonna have the best deals that necessarily isn't stuff that's outta style or outta stock or where, where are you finding that kind of stuff?

Susan Mills (01:01:49) - Warehouse, scratch and dent. Okay. All the way. Um, one thing that I, i I do try to hang up on is to have the same brand in a kitchen. You know, if you can get, you know, the same washer or, uh, dishwasher and, you know, range and, and ovens to match, I feel like that is the best bet. Um, but listen, if you can save a thousand dollars, you know, or 60% on a refrigerator that has a dent on the side that your cabinet's on, why would you, why would you, you know, waste money otherwise if, if it's tied in the budget now? You know, I think I'm kind of moving more towards when we were renovating the lake houses and rental properties and things like that. Um, I feel like, you know, if, if your house is your, is, you know, your home on your showpiece, I I don't advocate, you're like, Hey, don't get the cheapest thing that you can find.

Susan Mills (01:02:39) - Um, be happy and comfortable and some things are worth the splurge, particularly some appliances, you know, that'll last a long time and yeah. And you do get what you pay for. But yeah, I, I think a really big way to save money is to, um, is to do scratch andin appliances. And another thing too is that if you are renovating and you've got a contractor, they should be able to tell you specifically how many square feet of whatever material you need. So the first thing that I'll do is if I go to say like floor and decor, if we're doing a renovation project, I will have my measurements that I know that I need and then I don't have to have 27 pallets of something in the back. If I have just enough for an accent tile that's, you know, maybe more expensive than I wanna pay per square foot, but they've got just enough of it, well then great, I'll go for that and then move along to, you know, more moderately or or low end prices for just like run-of-the-mill stuff.

Mike Mills (01:03:29) - One of the things I forgot when you were, when we were doing the show, when I was going through looking for a clip to do for this, um, you had talked about doing tile work and you had actually picked a bigger tile versus the smaller tile because even though the bigger tile was a little more expensive, you had factored in the fact that the labor to install the bigger tiles was gonna be much cheaper than the little tiles. And so that was the reason that you made that, that decision on that, right? Yeah,

Susan Mills (01:03:52) - Absolutely. So like if you get a a, a good like 12 by 8, 10 18 inch tile and you can do the majority of your shower walls with it, um, it's got to a twofold benefit. Yeah. I mean the price per square foot might be a little bit more, um, on there depending on what tile you pick. It might not be, I mean the more intricate it seems might be more expensive. Um, but the, the labor and the installation is gonna be far faster, far less, more efficient. And then also too, when you're talking about cleaning and those grout lines, I mean honestly the more intricate a tile like, you know, people say, or one thing that used to be really popular or those glass mosaic back splashes, you know, they're teeny tiny little narrow tiles everywhere, man, what a mess that is to clean anywhere because you've got grout lines and everything like that. So yeah. Um, that, that is, think about labor, think about, um, you know, cost of installation when you're picking your materials. That'll, that'll save some money occasionally.

Mike Mills (01:04:46) - So when you design a room, um, you, you alluded to this a little bit earlier, but when you're looking at putting a room together, whether it be a living room or a bedroom or anything like that, um, and you've, you know, we've had a few friends that you've helped kind of des put together their VRBO os, um, done some, you know, work in redesigning bathrooms and things like that. So how do you, you had said, you know, you picked that one thing that is your thing and then you kind of build around it. So explain kind of how that works a little bit.

Susan Mills (01:05:12) - Well, I think that un unpopular, well first of all, let me just tell you something that really aggravates me.

Mike Mills (01:05:18) - Okay.

Susan Mills (01:05:20) - I think that it's unrealistic for people to redecorate their house every three years or three, three or two years as designs change, right? And you'll see a lot, particularly on social media with TikTok, you know, these luxury design design firms come out and they're like, oh, five things that, that are out that I wouldn't do. Well, okay, first of all, if you did design your home to be in the current trend, you have to know that, that I is eventually gonna fade out, right? And usually, honestly, by the time it hits the mainstream, it's really kind of hitting the its expiration date anyway. And so, you know, shiplap or barn doors or whatever, if you're still installing that, that ha that that happened, you know, five or six or eight years ago and now you know, it's, it's dating your design. Um, but one thing I do have to say is that if you love a barn door or if you love shiplap or you love whatever, it's your house and people wanna design for other people and then they're ultimately not happy and comfortable with the way that it turns out.

Susan Mills (01:06:20) - So my number one piece of advice is to pick something that you really love. So whether that is an expensive or intricate, uh, you know, decorative tile for a bathroom or a backsplash or, or whatever that is, or an expensive appliance, you know, a a bold color choice appliance or something like that. And then build around that, um, you know, I would find something that you personally love and then it'll always be timeless to you. Yeah. So who cares? What, what's his name in New York City says about your subway tile? Apparently subway tile's out now. Oh, okay.

Mike Mills (01:06:51) - . Okay. . Well, like you did it with uh, lake House and Whitney, um, it has a really big, a big great room where there's a lot of, uh, space in there and I remember when we were kind of trying to figure out how we were gonna set it up, the very first thing that we went to go look for was a table. You were looking for a big table that would fit in that room and then everything else was gonna kind of go around that, right?

Susan Mills (01:07:14) - Yeah, absolutely. I mean, functionality first. One thing that I think that, um, that I see a lot when people make mistakes when they're decorating is scale and size and functionality, right? So you have to keep in mind what the purpose, purpose of what you're doing is. And so for us and that big space, we needed big furniture, right? And that's not cheap. The bigger, the bigger the more expensive. So I had to find a way to, what I did was we had a custom table made through a, um, a builder there that came, it was so big that they had to actually bring it in and, and put it together in the house. Yeah. So it's kind of a permanent fixture. And then I went on marketplace and bought 16 eclectic chairs that were my particular Yeah. Style and that offset the cost of having to have the, the table custom made or whatever and have a, have an expensive set was. Yeah. So I saved money on the chairs, put more money into the table and that really set the tone and the space and the separation and, and the dimensions for how we wanted the room to flow.

Mike Mills (01:08:16) - Yeah. Well I, I do think, you know, it's been, uh, I, I'm glad cuz I don't have to worry about that kind of stuff cuz I'm terrible at those things. So, you know, with the houses that we've done over the years, you've always, you know, taken the reins on that piece. And even though, um, you know, you, uh, we're always gonna spend money on that kind of stuff, but it's always a conscious thing for you. And for that, I really, really appreciate it because at least, you know, we know going into it that we're gonna have to spend money, but you do a better job of spending the money wisely, which I'm terrible about because if I just need something, I'd just go get it and pay for it. And I don't think about how much it costs. And, uh, you know, just like returning stuff, if I had to, if I bought a pair of jeans and I don't like 'em, they'll sit in my closet for six months and you eventually return those things. But you know, you, you tend to find whether it's, you know, you're finding deals or whether you're, you know, taking stuff back and going through the entire pain in the butt process of returning things and going through all that, um, you know, it it, it's something that, you know, you can find money in places and you can save money in places, but you have to put thought into it and it does take a little bit of time. It's not something that just, you know, happens overnight. Right.

Susan Mills (01:09:17) - Yeah. Well, and I'm, I'm to your point, I'm not gonna leave money laying around. So if we've over purchased in materials, like floor and decor is wonderful in terms of taking back, you know, e extra material. Now if you do do a renovation, you are gonna need extra for specific cuts, especially if you like want a specific pattern. For example, we have a very basic tile in our kitchen floor, but it was laid in a herringbone pattern and that that creates a lot of waste because of the specific cuts of the tile. So, you know, you do have to account for things like that and if a tile gets broken, you need to have some back stock if there, you know, is an issue or you need to replace a small amount. But don't, I mean, you know, there's no reason to let you know a hundred or 200 or $500 in, in spare tile lay around in your garage.

Mike Mills (01:10:00) - So, um, we're at just over an hour and, uh, we've been, we've been going at it here, so I, um, we're gonna be wrapping this thing up, but I do want to let you, is there anything, if you're talking to new buyers or new sellers or anybody in this market right now that you know, you would suggest or any, any kind of partying thoughts you wanna leave us with on, uh, on what to do on your house or what you're looking for in homes or anything related to what you wanna talk about?

Susan Mills (01:10:27) - Man, it, it's kind of tough. I think that the one thing that I tend to talk about the most is that you've got to keep an open mind when you're shopping for a house because a lot of times homeowners will have the house set set up for the way that they live. And although it could be a very functional floor plan for your family or, you know, a great location school-wise or whatever you're looking for, um, just don't be bound by the way that that particular homeowner utilizes the space. Because if you don't need a formal dining room, I, listen, I have these clients, wonderful people have a gorgeous home, uh, going through kind of touring it to get it set up to list. And they have a very large breakfast room and they have a very substantial table and they have a big family.

Susan Mills (01:11:15) - They do not need the formal dining room that they have in their home and they have it set up with like four club chairs and a little, little table and all of their, you know, wine decor and fancy wine glasses and their, their wine cooler. And that's a wonderful use for, for space. So, you know, I would say that use, think about using a home in the way that you wanna utilize it and don't be bound by the way that the previous homeowner has it set up. Just try to envision the, the, the space as a blank slate. And in, in, you know, that same thought when you're selling your house, make it a blank slate. Mm-hmm. don't over clutter and you know, try to have it because what you're using that house for may not be what a another buyer might want. Right. So minimize, minimize, minimize when you're listing the house.

Mike Mills (01:12:06) - Well I think that's great. That's a great way to end it. So, um, well thank you for everybody that stuck around with us to the end. Um, this was a lot of fun. Um, it's

Susan Mills (01:12:14) - A little walk down memory lane. That's right. I thought about some stuff I haven't thought about in a while.

Mike Mills (01:12:18) - , I appreciate you coming in babe. Um, we are gonna go do your favorite thing after this. Eat lunch, eat lunch, um, not what anybody else was thinking there, but . Uh, but uh, yes, we're gonna go eat and, uh, which is, uh, her favorite pastime aside from selling real estate and shopping. So that's probably number one actually, but we're gonna go do that. But I really appreciate you coming in and, uh, spending some time with me today because we don't get to do this very often and I'm sure maybe we'll come back around for episode 80 and we'll have you back again. Okay, dear. Sounds

Susan Mills (01:12:48) - Great. Love

Mike Mills (01:12:48) - You. All right. I love you too. All right. We'll see all you guys and uh, we'll be back next week. Bye.