The #1 Mistake South Carolina Homeowners Make with Air Quality Hilton Head Homes!

Your home might look clean… but what’s happening in the air you can’t see may be costing you thousands and putting your home — and your health — at risk.

In this episode of Real Talk Hilton Head, David & Dale sit down with Kevin Thompson from Summit Services to break open:

• Why coastal homes face hidden humidity battles
• The real reason mold grows even in “dry looking” homes
• The silent role your AC plays in protecting your house
• Why turning your thermostat OFF is the fastest way to damage your home
• What every second-home owner needs to do before leaving town
• The single best investment you can make to protect your home from mold

Plus:

• When to repair vs. replace your HVAC
• Why duct fogging beats duct cleaning
• Electrical + pool systems that sabotage home inspections
• And how the Lowcountry environment changes the rules entirely

Kevin also shares how growing up on Hilton Head shaped his passion for serving homeowners with education first, sales second.

🛠️ Sponsored By

Summit Services — Heating, Cooling, Electrical & Pool Systems Done Right
👉 Learn more at CallSummitServices.com

🏠 Hosted By

David & Dale Cross — The David Dale Team powered by eXp Realty
Local experts helping you live, breathe & thrive in the Lowcountry.

Transcript

Exactly. Yeah, they can build up. Uh, you know, and it gets real nasty. Uh, you know, when you actually blow those things out, it could be could be like a frat party in 94, right? You know, Wow. I have no idea what that is like. Yeah. Exactly. Right. So, so Kevin, almost every homeowner has that moment. Yeah. Right. The AC quits. It's a 100 degree heat wave. Their breaker pops, you know, just as their family is about to rise and arrive and suddenly they realize they're listening. That's a key point. It's like cuz most people are leaving like, "Oh, I want to keep it low, so I don't want it running cuz I'm not going to be here, so I don't care." But you're saying, "No, no, no." You, it's the opposite. You need it working. You need it working. It should always be working, no matter if you're there or not, because it's maintaining your home, right? This episode brought to you by Summit Services. Heating, cooling, electrical, and pool systems done right. Visit callsummitservices.com. Well, welcome to the show, Kevin. Excited to be here. Yeah, we're excited to have you. No doubt. No doubt. It's going to be a great episode. We got I know you're going to give us some great information for all our clients and customers and future customers out there. Absolutely. Look forward to it. There's a lot to learn. There is there's so much if you're tuning in when you hear HVAC electrical pools, you're like, "Oh my gosh." But I promise you, if you're a homeowner, there's going to be a lot of great information. Stick around to the end because I think Kevin might have a good offer for you as well if you need some help. Um, but we're going to jump right in right now. And he's a great personality, so watch out. Yeah. You never know what's coming up. You go. So Kevin, almost every homeowner has that moment. Yeah. Right. The AC quits. It's a 100 degree heat wave. The breaker pops. You know, just as their family is about to rise and arrive and suddenly they realize how much we take for granted comfort. And you've built your company around solving these problems before they happen. So what was the moment when you said that I'm going to do this differently? Like what set that in motion for you? It's really started when I created Summit. Uh you know I worked with other heating and air contractors for quite some time and uh and people always said what's the value in preventative maintenance right? Didn't really see the value in it. And so I said well I guess you're right. I don't you know if you don't see it then how do you know right? And so what summit is and we created the idea that people need to see what we do and be involved in the process of preventative maintenance. So we can try to avoid those uh moments when you have everybody together for Thanksgiving or Fourth of July parties or whatever it may be that and all of a sudden what you just said the air goes out, right? Uh and these are machines, you know, nobody has to take they're taking time bombs and know no tell them what's going to happen to them. But yeah, uh ultimately preventive maintenance is a great way to to try to avoid those things, right? And so what we do is we go in and we do a full evaluation on the systems. We check all the components, uh, the amp draws, uh, we clean out the drain lines, uh, we make sure that we take before before and after photos, uh, which a lot of our clients like, and we get them involved in the process. So, that's great. So, you're actually showing them, hey, this is before and then now this is after the maintenance done. So, something as simple as a drain line, I remember I went upstairs to get something out of the We were getting luggage to get out. We're leaving a little cubby like where it's at, right? And I look and that little pan, right? It's full of water. Yep. Yeah. And I was like, and I it was a different guy, you know, that I know. And I called him up. I said, "Hey, Matt, hold on." First of all, he comes flying down the stairs freaking out like, "Oh my god, what's going on?" But anyway, I thought I would add that. I call a guy I knew. I said, "Hey, why, you know, what do I do with all this water in my pan?" And he said, "Well, first of all, that's not supposed to be there should be there, right?" And I said, "Well, what's going on?" And I didn't even know about just blowing out those drain. That's exactly right. Cuz it's dust and Exactly. Yeah. They can build up uh you know, and it gets real nasty. Uh you know, when you actually blow those things out, it could be could be like a frat party in 94, right? Uh you know, Wow. I have no idea what that is. Yes. Exactly. Right. So So it could uh it can get nasty for sure. those drain lines. And what it does is just builds up over time inside that that drain. Uh you get a lot of sludge build up and you know we have a 3/4 inch PVC pipe that's bringing out your drains your water out of the house and and they can get backed up really easily. So we recommend that being cleaned out at least every 6 months. Uh and what we do as preventative is we put drain strips in the system that uh ultimately release a chemical down the drain line every time water goes off the coils from the primary drain. Okay? uh which is where it goes out the drain. So we shouldn't have it in the secondary pan which you were referring to. Yeah. Uh and uh so what we'll do is it kind of clean out the drain every time water goes through and kind of keep that drain sterilized and clean. Okay. Uh so that is a preventative thing that we always offer to all of our clients and we we put them in on every installation that we do. So, do you ever have any horror stories where somebody ignores that and that water fill? Because I mean, think I was thinking about I was like, "Oh my gosh, if I didn't have that pan and it fills up and over." I mean, there's like that's like a big potential for hazard right there. Like, are you kidding me? Have you ever had that happen to somebody? It's actually our number one uh number one service call is drains. No, it is. It is. That is our number one service call is drains because we don't Yeah, I was going to say, is that because most companies don't do maintenance? Preventative maintenance potentially. uh you know u you know I like to say most companies should be offering preventive maintenance okay uh you know and how that preventive maintenance gets done while the while the technicians in the home is a little bit different right so we make sure that we show that we are draining you know putting the chemical down the drain lines and offering those additional items to make sure that it continues to stay clean uh so we're seeing some differences with that sorry is that what you mean by home performance company versus an HVAC company is that a practical example of that because I know you say that you're a home performance company. Yes, absolutely. Nature. Um, you know, we do look at the home as a whole. Uh, you know, and and and heating and air conditioning inside a home is is the most expensive uh thing that that's operating your home essentially, right? It really is. Well, as real estate agents, right, that's the first question almost everybody asks is, you know, how's the HVAC system? Yeah, it is. That's their number one concern. And the roof. Probably the roof. The roof. The roof and the roof and the roof and the HBAC are the two two largest investments you'll make in your home for sure. Exactly. Yep. Absolutely. And so the roof should last longer than your HBAC equipment. We wish ours lasted longer, but we blame the manufacturers for that, you know. That's right. That's right. They don't let them last forever, I guess. But uh Yes. Yes. We try to keep them going as long as they can, though. And uh but home performance is a um is is something that we talk about because you know every home is different. Every every customer, every homeowner uh's needs are different. And we live in an area that is probably one of the hardest places to for climate inside of a home. We live on an island surrounded by water. Uh that creates a lot of humidity. We have a lot of rain. We have hot summers. Uh we have mornings that are 70 degrees and in the afternoon it's it's 105 degrees, right? And so this time of year we have windows open and uh and it's you not much is going on but we might have a morning rain shower that's creating humidity inside the house and so without the systems operating your heating and air systems we're not pulling humidity outside the outside the home. So uh and that's a your air conditioner is a natural dehumidifier while it's in operation. Uh and that's the biggest that's the biggest thing there while it's in operation. So, so when you say while it's in operation, is it because you you have like fan mode, is that considered being in operation or is or you're saying it's actually heating or it's cooling? Right. When it's heating and it's cooling. Got it. You know, and so if we aren't calling for air, then we're not pulling any humidity out of the house. Got it. It's staying in the air. So, it's staying inside your home and to where we recommend maybe some dehumidification that can operate independently uh without the air conditioners running. So, if I could park on that because I I think that's a good point because again part of the show is educating. Yeah. You get a lot of people who are looking to relocate, you know, and they're coming, you know, where they're coming from because you've lived here your whole life. Ohio, you know, all these northern states who don't deal I I think that's a good point to make and park on a little bit is is, you know, we have to look at it differently, don't we? Because of what is happening to the unit that they're not experiencing up there. So, can you park on that a little bit and kind of delve into that a little deeper so that they get, hey, this is what you need to be thinking about when you're if you're going to look in the area, you're going to buy in the area, these are things to be thinking of. And if I could add to that, there could these two aspects from a new home homeowner um perspective and from a current homeowner because there's going to be two different things. Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. So for me that's moving uh moving moving south to Hilton Head in the Low Country area, you know, a lot of times we'll get the call, you know, hey, can I have a humidifier put in my home? And we're like, what humidifier? Right. I think we may have put in two uh since I've been uh doing heating and air conditioning around here because up north it's that dry cool air. That's right. And that's what they're used to, right? Tell them just to open up the window. Yeah. Right. Why isn't there some money? Right. Actually you asked, "Why isn't one put on?" Right. I've always had one. Yeah. Okay. Uh and so, uh well, it's the kind of the opposite approach, right? We believe every home should have a dehumidifier here. All right. And so, um why is that important? It's super important because humidity inside the home uh can ruin a lot of things. I I'm actually was just at a customer's house where they have some, you know, mildew or some growth growing on the ceilings or uh what have you that haven't been here for quite some time or uh they use this as their their second home. Uh and they come back and and holy smokes, right? Because you know, we tell people to leave their thermostat at a certain temperature while they're gone because we don't really care what the temperature is, but we want it to operate so it pulls moisture out of the house. So that's a key point if you're listening. That's a key point. It's like cuz most people are leaving like, "Oh, I want to keep it low, so I don't want it running cuz I'm not going to be here, so I don't care." But you're saying, "No, no, no." Right. You It's the opposite. You need it working. You need it working. It should always be working no matter if you're there or not because it's maintaining your home, right? What's that temperature? Do you mind sharing that? Well, I always say 77 because 78 is probably the number, but I like to say 77. um you know and and leave it at 77 and forget about it while you're gone. Okay. Uh if you don't have a dehumidifier, uh now if you do have a whole home dehumidifier, you can cut your air conditioner off uh and just run your dehumidifiers. We have a lot of clients that do that because can be 100° in the house, but if our, you know, humidity levels below 55%. Doesn't matter. then it doesn't matter because that's the only reason we ask people to turn their temperature where it where it's at so it can cut on and off and kind of move that moisture out of there. That's some good information right there. I'll tell you. I didn't know that. That's really good. Yeah, absolutely. So, dehumidification is the key. Um, and you install those. We do. We do install those. We install quite a bit of them. I would say probably 354% of our customers do have those. Okay. Uh, and so, uh, it's it's a great thing to have, uh, whether you're, uh, second home or not, it's your full-time residence, it's still a great thing to have because it's going to allow your system to not have to work as hard. I was going to ask you that. Does it by having it, does it make kind of sort of prolong the life of a system because the system's not constantly working? Absolutely. So, it's not going to have to pull as much moisture out because we're pulling the moisture out before it even gets into the system. Got it. And so, the system's not going to have to work as hard. A lot of times people feel more comfortable if they're normally comfortable at 72 degrees. They might be comfortable at 75° because we lower the humidity level in the house. Gotcha. And then that saves on your energy bill. Saves on energy bills. Uh it saves on the system from having to work as hard. We need to get a dehumire. We learned something new today. There you go. You know, we're in the business, right? But you're always learning. You know, this is why you got to talk to professionals who are, you know, this is your lane. That's it. That's it. Are you thinking about making a move to the low country? Whether you're searching for the perfect home or you're exploring vibrant communities on the coast or dreaming of a new lifestyle, we're here to help. Contact the David Dale team today and let's make your dream a reality. So, would that be your tip for both a current homeowner and a new home owner? If you don't have one, we're from the builder. Get one installed. I recommend everybody have a dehumidifier. There's no reason why you shouldn't. Well, what what other um what other challenges do people face in this environment? You know, allergies is a big thing. Oh my gosh. Our whole family. Even our dog. Our poor little Jack Russell. Such a hard time. Saw my English bulldog, too. Without the same thing. I saw that. Yep. Yep. Absolutely. What's his name again? Kirby. Kirby. He's cute. Yeah, he's a good dog. He's a cute man. Yeah, he is. He is a good dog. Uh, so yeah, allergies are a big thing uh around here. Uh, you know, people have different allergies. People are allergic to different things. And we by no means say we're doctors uh and telling people what their allergies are, but uh I know we can help people. We've helped multiple people inside their homes and and uh we we especially learned that more during COVID when people were spending more time in their homes. Yeah. Uh and you know, and if we think about it, you know, your outside air is is is cleaner than what it is inside of our homes. Uh I know that's a scary thought. Isn't that scary? Yep. Yeah. Because why? Because we're recirculating our air. Yeah. And the sun the sun is is is The sun is allowing us to to live here on Earth, right? And it's it's killing germs and inside of our home, we don't have the the sunshine, right? And so, you know, our air comes from a dark damp place inside the attic out, you know, inside that furnace or air handler, right? Yeah. Uh and so inside of that air handler, we have, you know, darkness. We have dampness because it's cold. We have our coils in there. And if we're not keeping that clean, then we get pet dander, dust, uh pollen that gets up there, especially here. Now, that's a good point, too, because people coming here, I mean, I remember the first time we hit pollen season, I was like, it was like it's like a winter storm, but it's pollen, but it's yellow. It's just crazy. And and I didn't even think of that's sitting inside that system today. And that's just recycling. And that's that's the food that mold mil needs to grow. Uh, and so, you know, mold milo need darkness, dampness, and food. And so, we have a dark cabinet. We have dampness in there, and we have food if we're not filtering right. Yeah. That uh that get inside of our cabinet. That's how we create these air handlers. You're freaking me out right now. I feel like I need to send you straight. Well, you know, I tell you what, I've never seen a perfect a perfect one out there. So, you're you're one of everybody else. Yeah. Nothing special. Nothing special. Oh my god, what's our system? Right. Mhm. That's why you need maintenance every six months. That's exactly right. That's exactly right. You know, and and we can point those things out with, you know, that that maintenance to where we go in and we we look at the side the cabinet. We look to see if those things are evolving and and then we just have a conversation of what's best for for that particular homeowner, you know, uh because no home's the same and no no customer or homeowner is the same. So, yeah. Um, so what would be an example to help something somebody is watching something that's simple that they could do to help the the air quality within their home without replacing a system? Sure. Sure. Well, we have um we have a product that we like to uh recommend that basically brings sunshine into your air handler cabinet. Oh, wow. Yep. Uh so that's one thing right there to where we can kill off anything inside that's living inside the air handler cabinet and the in the duck work and the duck and the supply stream. Okay. that's going through the home. And so we bring UV uh light inside of the air handler cabinet, which lights up the air handler cabinet, kills anything off inside of there. Uh and filtration, you know, a lot of times we go into homes that uh will will be frozen up uh because the coil because the filter's not been changed out, right? So keeping the filter clean constantly recommends. Yep. Disgusting. Yeah, they get dirty quick. Yeah. How often should you replace your filter? Every home again is different. Yeah. Uh but you know, the average we would recommend every 3 months. Okay. Oh, really? I It's not because the one I get it says every six, but you're saying every three. Yep. Every 3 months. Uh you know, is what we recommend. Uh you know, some will last longer. We do have some filters. Not sure what filter you we might have, but there are some filters out there that can last 6 months to a year. It's We have a train. So, you have a thick filter cabinet. Yeah. Those those are every six months to a year. Oh, okay. On those. Um you know, and so You're doing good. Yep. You're doing just fine on that. Just checking. You're doing just fine on that. When I'm hacking up along, I'm like, "Have you changed?" Everybody, it's so funny because everybody everybody the last probably I don't know three or four weeks in our house. What? Two weeks. And Dale said to me, she's like, "Have we changed the filter?" I was like, "Oh." And I went upstairs one thing, right? I went upstairs and I looked. I was like, "Oh my gosh, the filter." I was like, "I'm so sorry." Indeed. Yeah. The filter is a big thing, you know, and which leads to to duck work as well. Uh because not every system can handle a filtration like yours, right? Uh so uh that's that's something that we we we have to take a look at when we talk about installing those thicker filters. Yeah. Because they can actually do more damage than good, right? They can be sometimes. How is that? So tell us about the duct work. Why does that impact? Well, what we've seen, you know, as as of recent, a lot of homes, as you know, were built here in the 70s, 80s, 90s, right? Well, you know, the duct systems were put in at that particular time. Well, systems have changed, right? They've evolved. Uh the motors and the blowers uh over time have evolved and and to where the duck work might not be sized appropriately uh for the correct system that's in place. And contractors over the years may have upsized the system when maybe the duck work can't handle that, right? Because it can't pull the amount of air. So, it's actually gonna wear the system out. It could because it's right designed to pull certain it's pulling air through really. It's pulling air air through the system. And a lot of times, think of it always like say a straw, right? A small straw or bigger straw, right? Uh and so a lot of times if it's suffocating, right? can't pull as much because of the thicker filter or not enough air coming back to the system. Okay? Uh it's having to work harder. So, the compressor failures are a lot quicker. Uh blower motor failures can be quicker. And really, we see most problems with heating and air systems that we see that do have problems are usually because of the duck work. Wow, that's fascially here. So, anybody who's new to the area or if you're current, I mean, that's Yeah. So, if you're buying because this is a good point, too. buying something on the island versus say something in Bluffton, right? Because we have both, right? Yeah. Bluffton's going to have probably a little newer homes even though you get some older ones, say Rose Hill, things like that, Calner, but you know, most of the newer homes out here, but on on Hilton Head, definitely. You know, now the duck work, do you do you replace duck work? We do. You do. Okay. Um, do you recommend that like or do you do you have like is cleaning as good or is it First of all, let's preface if the duct work is the right size for the system. That's correct. Yeah. So, whenever we go in to look at a system replacement, we always look at the duct work. Okay. And because, you know, there's not a lot a lot of times people say, you know, I'm hot in my home and particular spaces of the home or not really getting air flow. Can we get a larger system? Right? That's usually what people say, right? And so, yeah, we can put as large a system as you want in your home, but you're only going to get the air the duck work is designed for, right? So, it doesn't matter how big your system is, whatever the sizing of your duck work is going to be the size of the air amount of air you're inside your house. The straw analogy. Exactly right. Exactly. You're only going to pull so much through that straw. Exactly right. So, as far as the whole home performance that we talk about, we look at the whole home performance. Hey, where where are the hot and cold spots of the home? Are there any problems there? Okay. Uh does it seem like it gets down to temperature on the hot days? Does it not get down to temperature? And so in turn when we do that, we look and measure the duck work. We do calculations on that to see, you know, exactly how much air is being distributed throughout the home. Wow. And then from there, it might be to where well, your duck work is undersized for your home or it could be oversized for your home. And so really, uh that's when we go in and we say, "Okay, well here's here's the right calculations for the home." And so we actually design and engineer that out for every every time we do an installation. Are you thinking of selling your home? With our exclusive Elevate package, we combine over 50 years of experience, cuttingedge data analytics, our unique marketing strategies, and our extensive network to help your home rise above the rest while maximizing your sales price and minimizing the time on the market. So, contact the David Dale team today to learn more. Well, can I ask a question? A personal question. Sure. So, our we have an issue with the the top of the house doesn't cool down. It we're nice and cool at the bottom, but it's hot upstairs. Is could that be duct work or is that just it needs two systems? It could be. It could be duct work. It could be that it's not balanced correctly. Right. And so a lot of times we'd ask, "Well, is there a thermostat as well upstairs or is it just one thermostat?" Just one for the whole house. So, so it only knows because it's only operating off of that thermostat, right? So, it only knows when to cut on whenever that thermostat tells it to cut on, right? Got you. So, it doesn't know the temperature upstairs. So, that's why down it might not be working because down and where it's at in the hall. So, how do you fix that? Just put another thermostat upstairs. Is that put another thermostat upstairs? But that's what we we call maybe a zone system to where we go in and we zone out with dampers, right? Uh and those that thermostat is connected to the dampers which goes back to the the system. So if the downstairs achieves temperature while the upstairs uh thermostat would say, "Hey, no, I'm still I'm still hot." Right? So it's going to continue to run, but it's going to put dampers in the duck work. So it's not going to overcool the downstairs. Got it. So it's not going to send air downstairs. It'll just send air up upstairs. That's a very smart system. That is a smart system that can be added to uh to any system, existing system uh with some uh duct you redesigning of some some duct work. Yeah. Well, we may have you may have just picked up another another job. Um so we also have people that ask us about cleaning duct work, right? Does is that helpful with allergies and with in in their I imagine I I when you're talking like a 19 we just sold a 1978 house. Yeah. And I'm thinking which is newer than my house. You got a nice house. Like I just think I imagine that duck work hasn't been changed. Like what does that duck work look like? Right. Yeah. duck work hadn't been changed. You know, cleaning cleaning duck work is one of those things where people we get a lot of calls about cleaning duck work. And we do clean duck work. We have we have we have uh we've invested in some really nice duck cleaning machines uh that we continue to to clean and and maintain to where they can go out and and do what they need to do whenever we bring them on site, you know. But the number one question is I always ask people is is why why do you want why do you feel like you need your duck ducks clean, right? And it'll be like, well, I don't know. They haven't been cleaned, right? um or I'm having allergy problems, right? And so what duck cleaning does is it's a vacuum, right? So it's just going to vacuum what's inside of your ducks. It's not going to do anything for indoor air quality, so to speak. Okay? And if it's caked on, if it's caked on and and a lot of times duck work, not all duck work can be cleaned because it's older duck work. Uh when we send our machines through there, it could tear the duck work up, right? and not what is what is most of the older duck work what are the materials used? So that's a that's a that's a great question because we do see a lot of uh fibrous duck board trunk lines in our area whereas a lot of folks from from up north might be used to metal the big metal ones. That's exactly right. And those will last a long time. Right. Well, if we send our duck cleaning machine through a fibrous duck board, right? Uh over time that duck board when it's put together with tape and mastic and seals those break down the attic with attic temperature and heat uh and uh when we send our machine through there it can make those fibrous uh inside that duck board fibrous and can make it actually worse and tear that up and then then we stirred up fibrous fiberglass essentially in the air now air stream that's going in bringing that in. So, so you got to be careful with that and it's really an educational thing of of the answering the question why. You know, if we've done uh some some recent remodel work or whatever the case is, then maybe we have some debris inside the duck work that we can get out. But for an indoor air quality standpoint, you know, not all the times duck cleaning is is the best solution. We have other solutions that could be better for that with duck fogging or duck sanitation. What is that? Do you mind sharing that? Sure. Yeah, cuz I I didn't know that there was anything other than duck cleaning and I thought that would clean. We've seen I saw one though they use like chemicals or something. Yeah. F what you think about is a fogging. So we send a fogging solution through the duct stream. Okay. Uh we turn the blower on and we have a fogging machine or we send a fogging chemical through there which is not harmful to breathe. It kind of smells like a doctor's office for a couple days. Okay. Uh, but it kills off any uh mildew or biological growth that may be inside of that duck work. Okay. Uh, and it kills it, not allow it to keep keep spreading, kills off any germs that might be inside of there. Uh, and actually it's a lot less expensive than than a whole home duck cleaning to do. And Oh, wow. Uh, we do that a lot of doctor's offices here locally where we'll go around every couple months and do that. Uh, we do it in the schools a lot as well. Uh, and so it's a good practice to do uh to keep the home sterilized and clean. So if you had a fibrous system, it would be okay with that. You could send that through there a fibrous duckboard system and and really duct systems aren't designed that way anymore. U so I was say what what are the material like how do they do it now? Because we do a lot of new construction and I see it, but I still can't tell you exactly what it is, but what are they putting in nowadays? Well, you know, every I can't speak for every company, but we use metal pipe uh for our for our trunk lines is what we use. And then we use a um a heavy uh insulated uh flex for our supplies. Okay. Uh and returns. Uh so we use that unless the customer wants all metal and we do that as well. Uh and so it just depends on again what the customer You think metal's more advantageous. Then metal is more I believe metal is is something that's going to last a little bit longer. Uh it's easier to keep clean. Uh it's easy. What about the in the humidity and the moisture? Yeah. Rust and all that. Does it? Yeah. Well, it can. You know, it it definitely can. We, you know, it depends on where your home is located. A lot of homes on the on the beach, uh, you know, they get a lot more, you know, if they're underneath the home, uh, in a crawl space environment, then it's going to not last as long as it might be in a, uh, climate controlled attic. And, what I mean by that is with with spray foam insulation. Yep. Uh, or something along those lines. Or if it's in a insulated atmosphere, uh, then it's going to lot last a lot longer because it's not going to condensate. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, it makes sense. So, you were talking about fogging and there was something else that you mentioned for cleaning the ducts with the with the UV or the filtration. Okay. The filtration. Okay. Wow. That's fascinating. Thank you. All of this is really bad. I didn't expect to go down the duct today. What's crazy is your company like you offer a wide array of services, but we're just parked right now in just this one. Sure. It is pretty deep and wide. Um, well, it's like I tell our our technicians when they're out there, you know, it's uh it's our job to stay up to date on what's what's involved in the in our industry and and uh people rely on us, you know, and uh we take it very seriously to to go out and really learn, you know, what the what the homeowner's needs are and and their, you know, what they need for their home and what's going to be best for them moving forward and and and their allergies or indoor air quality because there's no sunshine inside of our homes, you know, that's going to kill that off. So people are spending a lot more time in their homes uh as of recent or especially during the co times. Yeah. Uh and that's what really led to that education uh for us to do inside those homes. So you have a showroom too, right? We do. We do. And that's people can go there and actually you break this all down for them. Yep. We almost call it an educational center. I love that. That's my And where is it located? It's it's in Bluffton. Uh we have a uh 6,000 foot facility in Bluffton uh that we we operate out of uh and we actually can we have systems in our in our showroom or educational center, what whatever you want to call it. I like to refer to as an educational center, you know, uh but we have all those products out there and and detailed on what they do uh and and address certain needs and so we always have somebody there too to walk them through that process and I love it. they can just walk through and and spend as much time there as they want and ask as many questions as they want anytime. And we're uh we'd love to answer any of those questions. And it's funny, I almost feel like for us as real estate agents, it's almost something we should offer. It's an education just to say, "Hey, if you want to know a little more, especially because people come in, they do so much heavy research because as you know, you know, it's probably 45 to 75 is the average age." Sure. And so they're doing heavy research, you know, and they're coming from all these areas where this is all new. You know, you're like, the way you did it in Wisconsin is not going to be the way you do it in Milwauke. And I don't know that you want me to be a heating and air conditioner contractor in Wisconsin, right? You know, it's done different there. Um, so, um, I do enjoy getting on the phone sometimes with clients and say, "Well, this is this is my guy back home, you know, and I'll talk to them on the phone and they say, "Man, you know, I think you just need to listen to him because it's different. It's different there than what it is here." Well, and it really is everything about it. I remember when we first moved here, just even doing real estate, I said the first time, first month, I said, "This is way different than Charlotte." It is. Yeah. It's only three and a half hours north, you know? I'm like, this is a very different place. It is. It is. We have a lot of people on Hilton Head sometimes they say they refer to their their indoor unit as a furnace. Yes. Well, we we don't have furnaces in Hilton Head. Oh, let's Okay. Okay. Can Can we pause that for a second because I did want to ask you like for someone who has been in the house 5 to 10 years roughly, right? Um what are some red flags that they need to know about when it's time to either upgrade or if it major repair? So, how would you know? And then we'll come back to the bonus question. Yeah, it's a great question and we try to coach that process along uh while we're there. And and it really depends. We tell people we can keep air conditioner systems going as long as you want to see us, right? Okay. How much do you want to see us? Uh how often do you want to see us? How much money do you want to keep investing into this particular system you may or may not have? I'll tell you that the average life of a heating air system in Hilton Head is about 8 to 12 years. Yeah. Okay. Right. Um, and so if we our goal is to get you to the 12 years, uh, but if we happen to come across a big repair, uh, on year seven, 8, nine, um, then, you know, that's just a decision on, hey, what's what's the long-term plans for the home, right? Do you plan on being here another 10, 12 years? Do you not? Uh, right. And so, and if they plan on selling, if they plan on selling, that's a big advantage because you say, "Hey, it's worth the investment because now when you're competing against somebody, right, y and they're looking and saying, "Well, that roof, your roof's new, your HVAC's new, theirs is 15 years old, their HVAC is 10 years old." They're going to look and go, "That's greater value over there." Right? You know what I mean? If the homes are essentially the same, right? You know, does it make sense? It makes totally sense. Yeah, we we deal with that often. And the easy rule of thumb that I would I would recommend everybody is you take the year of the the system and times it by the price of the repair. That's how we you recommend doing it. If it's a 5-year-old system and it's a $200 repair, well, that's that's $1,000. Well, that system is way more than $1,000. Do the repair, right? If it's if it's a eight-year-old system and it's, you know, $2,000, well, that's $16,000. You might want to look at just doing a replacement on that. That's a great formula. That's a really good formula. Very easy, you know, off the cuff formula that you can you can use. Yeah, I like that. Yep. All right, go to your furnus question. Well, no, I want to talk about this because I feel like when you know the term HVAC, right? It's the you know, but most people don't understand, you know, because you have many split systems, you have components of the H, you know, what's that thing outside that's blowing? What's that thing up in my attic? What's that thing sitting on the wall that's blowing that's connected? You know, and when I'm out showing houses, I'm trying to explain that, but I think it'd be good from an expert to explain what are all the components, you know, what's a heat pump versus a furnace, you know, explain to them what we have here and what are they looking at. Yeah, absolutely. Well, there's there's very few people that will actually have a furnace on Hilton Head because there's there's no natural gas in Hilton Head, right? So, and you need you need gas for for a furnace. Yep. You know, now Bluffton, is it different? Bluffton is different, but most of our area is heat pumps. You know, Sun City is all furnaces uh because they piped in uh gas lines and f and in in Sun City. Uh Rose Hill has some furnaces in there. And the way you know on just I'm sorry to interrupt, but when you go into the garage or because that's usually where they're at in Sun City, we do a ton of business in Sun City. You see the gas line in, right? That's how you know it's burning gas. That's where you're getting your heat. That's a great a great way to look at it. You also see the big flu coming out of it. Yes. Because it has to exhaust it. Yep. You see the flu coming out of it. You also will notice that the coil on a furnace is what we call a case coil and it's outside of the furnace. Right. So you have the you have basically two boxes that are kind of pushed together on a furnace essentially, right? Whereas an air handler, they're all in one. So it's it's all the coils inside the air handler cabinet. Okay. That's what you cuz you're right here in Plantation. Y. So, you just threw in a new word that I don't understand. So, heat pump, air handler, two different things. Heat pump and air handler are two different things. And those two typically go together. Okay. Yeah. So, let's let's let's Hey, stick around right now. You know what's so funny? You know, we're in the business. We've owned like multiple properties homes. This is stuff you don't really know or full track. Help us out. Just break it down for people. What do they have? So, yeah. Furnace is not here a lot here in Hilton Head. Not a lot of Well, you I've seen a few and the only way they're running in Hilton Head is if you have propane. Yes. Okay. Which is not efficient. So, very few furnaces I think over my you know, I've been doing this for over 20 years in Hilton Head, the heating air world, and I may have replaced maybe five or 10 furnaces in Hilton Head. So, they're all heat pumps. All heat pumps and air handlers. And air handlers. So, explain how the heat pump works. And it's all electric, right? So, yep. So the heat pump's outside, the air handler's inside, right? The air handler has a coil inside blower. And then you have a refrigeration line uh that's connected to the outdoor unit. Uh which would be that's what's blowing. That's what you hear. That's what you hear outside your house, the heat pump. Uh and then so you have a refrigeration line that's connected outside and you have a suction line. So you have uh two this you have a refrigeration line and suction line. They're typically right there together tie into the outdoor heat pump and then you have the compressor that pumps the refrigerant back and forth up to the air handler cap up to the air handler. And so if we need heating or cooling, we have a reversing valve in the outdoor unit that says, "Nope, I need heating." So it switches and goes the opposite way. Gotcha. Right. Okay. That's wild. So that's what happens. So, we see condensation in the indoor unit uh during the summertime when we're running air conditioning, which is that drip line we talked about earlier, right? And then when you're in heating, you see condensation at the outdoor unit. So, which is you see it under water around the outdoor unit uh around the in the winter time. Yeah. That's because the coils outside now are are condensing. You have a defrost board in there which is keeping them from getting frozen up. So the defrost kicks in and then the condensation comes off the coils on the outer unit. Wow. I did not know that's how that works. So that's how that works. Okay. Whereas if you had a furnace uh and a straight air conditioner, well the air conditioner is not doing anything. Their outdoor unit's doing nothing during the the heating season. Yeah. So a lot of times if you go up north, you see people that will put a tarp over their outdoor unit, right? Because they want covered in snow or whatever the case is. Uh because it's not not on operation. The only thing that's operation is your furnace inside which is inside the house. Which is inside the house. So which is why and this is for you who are out there, you're going to come in if you're looking in the active adult communities, especially Sun City, you'll read sometimes the air conditioner was replaced last year. That's right. Not the furnace. Well, wait a minute. Why is the And explain that because that's absolutely we we we do that because furnaces can last a little bit longer, right? because they're not in operation, you know, as as much as as what uh you know, an air handler cabinet might be. Correct. So, a lot of people will say, "Man, my furnace up north lasted 20 years. Why is this one only lasting 10?" Right? Because it's it's running every day of the year for your heating and your cooling. Y whereas your furnace is not, right? Um and so, uh one thing that I would recommend for folks if they say their air conditioner has been replaced, well, has the is the coil been replaced which is attached to the furnace, right? because that's what actually comes together for your cooling. I've heard that too where I've had we've had inspections where they're like, "Yeah, that has been replaced, but it's actually not working because it the way they did it, it wasn't efficient." Yes. And they were saying that you actually kind of need the whole system. Yep. Yep. Well, whenever the air conditioner, right? Yeah. You should I always recommend replacing the coil the evaporator coil, the case coil on the furnace. Yeah. Whenever the air conditioner is replaced because those two work together. They got to sing together in harmony. Yes. To make it work. I know. That's right. That's right. That's exactly right. You're old enough. I was going to say you're showing your ages. Young He's a little younger than I am. Appreciate I was asking my son the other day, you know, but dad, I don't know. You might shave 10 years. I was like 10 years younger than my real age. It's like I don't know, Dad. Maybe three. I'm like, I'll tell you. Okay. whatever I can get anything at this point. I'll say now also if we can jump to mini split systems because that's a very common thing down here especially if you have room additions or out here. It's coming up north too. We see actually more mini split duckless systems up north, you know. I actually think those are probably I love those. I I almost think I think they're great. Probably the most efficient thing to do. I think they're great. Absolutely. Because you talk about allergies. Well, guess what? They don't have any duck work. Yeah, right. Well, let's explain to people that don't work. What is by the way when we do this we on the video side if you're listening on the the audio go to YouTube you know the video we'll we'll try to include some overlays of this so that people as we're talking they can see it up on the screen. Yep. Absolutely. Well we've done I mean I've actually done a whole house a new construction house in se ponds with nothing but duckless units. Oh wow. It was the first one we did. Wow. I think you know in Europe that's how they do it. That's exactly right. And they do it they do it there because you know older homes you can't get duck work in there right you Oh yeah because so tiny yeah you know older homes and you know the cer blocks and everything you can't you know they weren't designed to have heating and air conditioning in them you know true you go to you know the Caribbean and you see that well a lot of times it's because you don't want the duck work debris in all these islands down there and it's hard to get and it's expensive and so uh you know the the the duckless units are are very nice. they're um they don't allow for you know the stuff to get built up in the in the duck work like we were just talking about you know for for indoor air quality and that's the reason why we did this one house in C pines was they had some allergy concerns really bad in the home for the the homeowners that were there and moving here where where things can get nasty inside that duck work they didn't want it they wanted the cleanest air they could have and um and that's what we did so uh and now you can put three four five heads on one outdoor in it. Um, so we can have What does that mean? What does that mean? So means that if we have a a couple bedrooms that we want to heat and cool, then we just put a uh a head a duckless mini split head in in each of the bedrooms. And that's where it's coming in and blowing and heating and cooling is basically pulling the air from the outside, cooling it, and then pushing it in. It's taking the air whatever's in that home and inside that space. Okay. And then it's conditioning because it has coils inside of that mini split head. Right. Okay. Uh, and that's what is conditioning the air before it sends it back out. But yes, your outdoor unit is what's is what's also doing it's working together as well. Remember remember Dashley? Yeah, his room. No, no, I remember the system. I was just trying to figure out you said there's an outdoor system and then the head. So all the it all comes the same. Remember outside um next to the house by the fence there, there was two two units. Yeah. The one the smaller one. It was a smaller one, but it was that's what you're talking about. They're they're extremely uh efficient. They work on inverter technology. Most of them do, which ramp up and ramp down. So, really, if you have uh talk about temperature concerns on one room versus the other room. Yeah. Well, you you each one has its own temperature control. So, if one room if you have a guest suite that you have guests in and they want their temperature at 70° and Yeah. the the other guest wants theirs at 76 degrees, well, then both of those bedrooms are going to be operated at that temperature. Yeah. Now, as far as I'm curious, too, for new construction, especially if you're doing custom, right, and you you have this choice, is it costwise, is it exorbitantly different offset? Cuz cuz like if you were to build and say, "Hey, I like the idea of that. Is somebody going to spend 50% more, 75% more?" It's going to be very close. Okay. So, it's going to be very close because you avoid the duck work costs. Got it. That makes sense. I got it. You avoid the duck work costs. And and do those systems last longer? Are they about the same? Probably about the same amount of time as what you could probably expect. Okay. Um, you know, the nice part is, you know, if if if something goes wrong with the indoor component, a lot of times you can just replace the whole head there. Okay. There you go. Yep. And and you got a brand new brand new component right there inside. You know, you didn't have to do it all. Yeah. You're not putting a lot of different pieces and parts and components that's trying to conserve, you know, do the whole home. It's just that one room. And uh you know as far as a replacement stance they are less expensive than a whole home heat pump air handler you know combo situation. You know that's a great solution. I would never have thought of that. I'm sitting here thinking I'm like I hope somebody's enjoying this content because I really I'm sitting like I'm very fascinated by all this. Right. You know. So the cool thing is with those two we've done recently is is we actually I know you're an Ohio State fan. We've wrapped them. We actually use a wrap that we can wrap the the head the component on the wall. Uh Ohio State or or wrap it to wherever you want it to be. Georgia Bulldogs. Georgia Bulldogs is for me. You know, sometimes customers have done the color of their wall so it blends in right with the wall. Uh or any kind of design that they want to do. Uh we or real talk or real talk services or summit services. Yeah, that's exactly right. The world is your oyster. Any anything you can think of. Uh I like it. Anything you can think of, which is a really neat option, too. Uh that we've done, you know, some man caves and that sort of thing. Okay. Excuse me. He's got so excited over those. He's like he's gone. He is so excited. You're not the first one that's gotten that excited when we brought that up. I I'm literally we've had a lot of guests and I'm literally like as you're talking maybe it's just because of what we do for real estate and you know I have these conversations you know but it's like to me it's like there's this is really important stuff to know and understand and to break down because we all own these homes and there's so much stuff in it. You're just happy you got a house, right? but the components of it, what's making it and what and this is like to your point like one of the most fundamental, you know, key pieces of your house, you know, your roof, your mechanicals. I mean, it is what makes your home. There's so many homeowners that we get and they don't know there's a component in your attic. You know, they know there's a thermostat on the wall and that's it, right? They don't know to go upstairs and they don't even Right. You're exactly right. Yeah. Well, when I when I Yeah. Look, I'm with buyers all the time. We have hundreds of buyers a year that contact us. They come in. We do tours. They kind of see the furnace and it's okay. And then it's not it's not fancy, right? No, it's it's not something that they Yes. That is so key to to to keeping your home as pretty and beautiful as it is, right? Especially with it's comfortable. Comfortable where you need where you want to be. And and then you see, you know, all these beautiful hardwood floors and the is it granite or car? Yeah, exactly. But but the hardwood floors are being protected by by your heating and air or your bookcases and all the all your pictures and all your belongings. All the things that you you know, you you kept for all these years, your whole life that you you hold you hold close to your heart. Well, if you didn't have great great heating and cooling in there, those things could go to trash real quickly. That's really right. Y something to think about, you know, that a lot of people don't. Yeah. No, I love it. Well, that was good. That was good stuff. We are. Oh my god, I feel like it's been 15. Well, what's funny is, you know, listen, if you're listening, you're watching, you know, well, we have a little announcement to make here at the end of this um cuz Kevin's going to be a regular here. U but um um which I'm super excited about. I am too. We'll get there. Hold on, boys. Hold it. Hold it. We have a big announcement. Um I want to talk new smart technology. Yeah, sure. Okay. Yeah. So, I know there's like variable speed fans, communicating thermostats. How do these innovations help a homeowner with comfort? Yeah. Uh well, so we can we can talk about variable speed uh you know, and inverter technology, which is kind of where, you know, if you're anything like me, I know not much about computers, but when I go buy a new computer and say, "What's the what's the latest like new chip, right? What's the latest what's the latest, you know, what's the newest technology?" because I don't want to buy something that I'm, you know, that's outdated, right? Uh well, inverter technology is is kind of the the newer technology in our industry. It's been out for quite some time, but not as prevalent and as popular uh as it is now because that's where everything's moving forward to. Okay. Uh and and essentially what I like to refer to that is and uh variable speed uh blowers because that's your indoor unit. Okay. Uh is is always use the beach as an example. When you get off the beach and your car is 115° and you're sweating and you get in your car and you turn it on and you put 72° in there and you're driving, the air comes out full blast, but as you're driving for 20, 30 minutes, you notice that the air speed starts to calm down and it's maintained, right? Okay. Uh and that's what this technology is, right? So, you might refer to a standard blower is high, medium, and low. and it's high, it's full blast until it's off. Okay? Right? Uh whereas this will more of a comfort type situation to where you don't even realize that it's on anymore as you're driving. Okay. Uh and that's the kind of the difference with, you know, a variable speed blower versus a standard type blower. Okay. U the inverter, sorry. What's the benefit of that? Well, comfort. You just don't have to mess with it. It's just comfort. Right. Exactly. Right. And and a lot of times you don't feel this huge breeze coming across your head if you're sitting, you know, in your couch on a Sunday watching football games and you have a vent that's above you that's just blowing down on you all the time. There's one there's a one that you can just you walk right by it and you can just literally fill it. So it doesn't have a variable speed. So variable speed would would essentially once the home tease the temperature, think of your home like a refrigerator. Yeah. Right. So we don't need 100% air all the time on while we're in the home, right? So, unless we're having a a dinner party or or filling up the kitchen during the holidays, then we need it. Hey, we want you full blast. Yeah. Well, it notices that, right? So, this smart technology figures that out. Okay. Uh without you having to do anything. Your thermostat sense it. So, it will know your humidity inside of your home as well. So, it might run a longer cycle, okay, to pull more moisture out of the home. So, that's that's a cool feature. That's really neat because it's like, "Hey, I noticed our humidity is a little higher right here. So, I'm gonna I'm gonna ramp down in speed, run longer to pull more moisture out. Yeah. Versus on and off, right? Uh and so that's that technology inside. And it can run in stages with the outdoor unit being an inverter compressor. Yeah. Uh what that will do is it will run from, you know, anywhere from 20%. Uh all the way up to 100%. Versus 100% on 100% off. Right. Right. So it can ramp down. So if your home size for a certain tonnage Yeah. Well, I was going to say that's the other thing. Talk talk about that because the square footage on the tonnage I want you to talk about that. Sure. And this will kind of lead into that. Whereas not every home needs the tonnage that they they have because it might just be two of you in inside the home. Well, systems are designed for max capacity on the hottest day of the year, right? Well, we don't need that all the time. Yeah. So on a, you know, a March afternoon or if it's just the two of you sitting inside the home, we'll we don't need maybe four tons of air. Maybe we just need two tons of air. Yeah. Well, then it knows that we only need two and it can ramp down to just two tons of air. Wow. Uh run at longer cycle at a lower speed. So like an 18,800 foot home like we have a five ton unit. Yep. Okay. We have 2900 feet. So it's probably appropriate. Yep. So you get people sometimes they overkill. So they have an 15,800 foot home and they want a four or five ton unit. Right. And that goes back to the duck work. Right. Right. So the duck work is not designed for a five ton system. Yeah. You're only going to get and you got two tons of duck work. You're only going to get two tons of air. So it doesn't matter. You can have a six unit. You have whatever you want. You're only going to get two tons of air. But that's what you kind of specialize in with your business. Coming in and making sure it's right sized. That's right. It's sized appropriately. Sized appropately. And I feel like, you know, and I want to just say this because we're friends with Kevin. Kevin's coach our our son baseball. We play a lot of baseball together. Absolutely. Uh so watch a lot of football together even though it's Georgia. No offense to Georgia. Hopefully we're going to watch a good game together very soon. But u you know what I appreciate about you and what I would encourage anybody who's if you're local or you're coming into town, you need somebody call Kevin to have you come out because when I first moved here, when we first moved here, and I'm going to tell a little story, we had something was not right. The house wasn't cooling off, right? Yeah. So, I just called the first company, you know, the mailer, you know, you get, right? And it's a big name. You would know who they are. I'm not going to bash them, but they came out and they sent three people out. Two people went upstairs, worked on everything. Somebody came down, was sort of, you know, doing what they do, building trust, you know, uh, communicate with me and all that, talking to me. And then they came down, they did a huddle, and then she comes over to me and she has this whole thing. And she's like, "Well, listen, you know, your system, it's it's, you know, something's wrong with it, blah, blah, blah. We need to replace it." And she gave me a quote. It was like 22 $23,000, right? Jeez, I know. Yeah. And this was like five years ago taking dinner first, you know. Well, the unit the unit was only two two and a half years old. Oh my goodness. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So, I was like, "Wow." Okay. Well, let me think about it. So, I called a friend of ours. Again, we're new here. Yeah. So, I called somebody else. I said, "Hey, listen. I just got this quote. Do you know anybody else?" He's like, "Yeah, give give my buddy a call." So, I called him up. I didn't tell him that I had somebody say, "Hey, I got something going on." He came over. It was just him, one guy. And he's just a mom and pop guy. He moved here from New Jersey. Yeah, that's what he did up there. He's doing it down there. He's a good dude. You would love him actually. You guys know what I Well, he goes upstairs. He comes downstairs. He's this great dude. He's like, "Man, I just got to tell you that's a Cadillac." What? He goes, "That's one of the nicest systems I've ever seen in a house." It's like, man, that thing is so awesome. I was like, "Really?" I was like, "Well, what's wrong?" He's like, "Oh, you need some fre on, man." Yeah. 300 bucks later. So, that was my first lesson, which was like getting to know you and getting to know people because I want to get to your backstory a little bit. Sure. Yeah. You've grown up here. Yeah. You're you're you're an islander. You tr you know, you are through and through a low country person. And one thing about low country people is you take care of people. Yes. You take care of your own. Yes. And that's your heart. That's how you built your business. And I know that had I got you that first time, Sure. I wouldn't have got that first. Hey, replace your horse. You know what I'm saying? Absolutely. And so I I want to, you know, just kind of throw that out there for people because that's it matters having somebody who's going to educate you, break it down for you, tell you the truth about what you have, what your options are. Absolutely. Yeah. Education is everything. And that's why that's why I created Summit. And it's ultimately it's it's your home. It's your decision. you know, we want to give you as many options you as you can have that we know to give you and then and then and then let you make whatever decision you want, you know, and you know, and and uh and that's one thing that, you know, led me to Summit. uh you know one it's you know I I created Summit really um I created it for a few different reasons but uh mostly was was for the employees you know um and because I I worked at a place for for a number of years that what you just said wasn't wasn't what I agreed with you know and um you know these are our neighbors these are our our family this is where we growing up this is where we're all live forever you know and um and I and I just said there's got to be a better way. And uh and I I can't I couldn't do that every day. And so uh and so that's that's what created Summit uh ultimately. And and um and I always tell, you know, everybody that comes to work at Summit is um you know, if there's ever a day that you're unhappy coming to work here is that I want to know about it immediately because we want to change it. You know, I want to be the first one. That's my door. My office is always open and uh and the conversations of the employees and making it a great environment for people want to come to work every day. because we spend a lot of time together and if we're not happy doing what we're doing every day, then what are we doing? You know, and so and you would say this to your clients as well, right? If you're not happy, come and talk to me. Come and talk to me. Yeah. I want to hear about it. How do I improve? Absolutely. Because I mean, we put we do 100% uh guarantee on everything that we do. And I I've marked that on there. Call me personally uh because holy smokes. Uh I want to make it 100% right because I always put myself in your shoes. Yes. you know, how would I want to be treated, you know, and what is right and what is wrong? And that's what I always tell our guys in the field. What is right and what is wrong? There's there's two ways we can go. Yeah. Uh and there's really nowhere in between. I saying today on somebody they said doing what is right is never wrong. Yeah. You do what's right every day and you go home and you look at yourself and then you know you did what's right every day, then then you're good. Uh and so that's what we strive for and that's what we put and and and when when things come up in homes and um you know what what should be fixed we always say hey what what's what should we have done why did this happen in the first place right let's let's look at what happened did we do it right in the beginning did we not do it right in the beginning and and we get down to it and I I put my detective mask on and I figure it out and whatever is right was right whatever's wrong is wrong and if it's wrong then guarantee we're going to fix it uh And so that is one thing that um we've always and I can tell you that we have not always done everything right. Um because nobody does. Yeah. But I can guarantee you we're going to fix it. Yeah. U you know and if and if we haven't done something right, it will be fixed and that no matter what it takes um we will make it right. I love it. I love it. Well um and I I love absolutely love it and I think that's why we're going to be great as partners and and I love Real Talk. Real talk. It's real talk at home host, right? And that's what we have, you know. So, I just wanted our audience to know you're not only doing heating and cooling, but you also have electrical and pools. We did all of that. But can we touch slightly on that? Electrical pools. So, it's heat, HVAC, electrical, pools. Yes. Yes. And I'm better at swimming in pools than I am working. I'll tell you that right off the bat. So, do you build pools or install? That's what I was going to ask. What do you do with pools? Yeah. What do you do with that? I created uh we created a pool division because we surveyed a lot of our our customers and they couldn't find anybody to clean their pools, right? Uh and we're always looking for somebody to to clean their pools and uh the guy that uh I was work that cleaned the pool at my house was was a great guy and he wanted an opportunity and um and I believe in people that want opportunities and and so um I said you know what we did a survey and we found out that you know about 30% of our customers had pools. Yep. Uh and so I said, "Well, why don't we why don't we just start add on as a division of Summit?" Uh and and that's what we did and and brought him on board uh to run that division. And uh we've done a great job with that to where uh now we're we're we're we do everything but dig the hole and build a new pool. Uh but we resurface pools. Uh we uh take care of the whole equipment pad because heat pumps are on equipment pad to keep pools warm. So we were having to go service those anyway. Y uh and uh so we we take care of the whole equipment pad. We do weekly cleanings on pools uh which has worked out very well. Uh and people kind of package that all into our our our program. And pools if you're not coming if you're researching the area, you're coming to an area where pools are like a very big part of like you know a lot of places up north especially nobody has a pool. Why would you? You know pools, boats and motorcycles. And we don't close pools you know here. pools are open year all the time. You know, we're I'm in my we're in our pool at our home in January. Y our kids are over every Saturday we come over watch football kids are in the pool, right? And he has a heater in his pool. So the electrical parts covered. Yes. So you got the pool section. Now what about And this is the other thing. Electrical is very big here. A lot of people don't realize that because you get in some of these systems, these electrical boxes have a lot of issues going on. Also, people want to have, you know, hey, I want can lights here and I want this and, you know, they want u, you know, maybe a plug up high for a television set instead of, you know, things like that. So, do you do all that too or We do. We do. Uh, we acquired Simino Electric about two years ago. Um, Pat Simino, he he had uh Simino Electric for over 30 years here locally. uh and met met Pat. I've known his family for many years, but uh on a job site a couple years ago and and knew where Summit was going and kind of where we we created. We created Summit Services for a reason at the beginning because we wanted to do more than one thing. Uh and uh you know, he he said, you know, you have a a long way still in front of you and you're going to you love what you're doing. And he wanted to spend more time on his boat and was done doing electric work. And so, uh, we we took that task on of acquiring his company there, uh, Simil Electric, and we brought over his employees and and everybody involved. And, uh, and so that's what we're doing now. We're we're basically, you know, servicing homes. We're doing anything from, uh, new construction, uh, storage facilities to installing just a can light in your home or hanging a TV or ceiling fan. That's huge because we get a lot of folks, the builders kind of limit things. They need a lot of aftermarket stuff after they move in. So like number one thing is usually putting in lights, you know, and all that stuff or uh you know um Yeah. So that's good to know. Yeah. We're changing out, you know, can lights to LED lights. Okay. That's a big thing right now, isn't it? Huge thing, you know. Uh and it saves talk about energy consumption. Oh my goodness. Yeah. Uh we see a lot of that. We see um you know, there's so many ways we can correct. We have so much to talk about uh that we can correct uh you know homes with you know growth on the ceilings that we see because of the hot like air and the hot bulbs that are producing a huge some of the bulbs are 120 140° whereas an LED you can put your hand on right and so we're not producing that extra heat load inside the home. these lights in our studio here. I I used to have they called them cowboy lights and they were the old incandescent and if we were sitting in here this long we'd all be sweating right now and these are all having sun right so can I ask one question one tip because I know we've given our um viewers a lot of tips but just an electrical red flag a homeowner homeowners often ignore you know u maybe something that's small that could be that could be danger dangerous. Could you name any of those just quickly? Well, you know, the breaker breaker panel, right? A lot of the homes are built like my home was built in 72. Uh, you know, a lot of the breaker panels never been upgraded. Okay. Right. Uh, so, you know, one of the biggest causes of of home fires is through your electrical panel there, right? Um, we can so we can go in and do a u, you know, a safety inspection on your electrical panel. We can see how much uh amperage a lot of these breakers are pulling in and out. Uh and so sometimes we we can uh also eliminate failures. We notice one's getting weak, right? We can go ahead and take care of that. Especially folks that leave their homes for a long period of time don't realize that a panel is a breaker is going bad. Cut out a refrigerator or what have you. Uh to where a lot of these uh panels now even become smart panels. I know you mentioned that earlier. Smart panels. What is that? They can see on their phone what panel what each breaker is doing. One of them goes out. Oh my gosh. On the phone. On their phone. So, some are calling wine sellers. Yeah. Uh or whatever it may be. They're have, you know, thousands of dollars in wine. They got to make sure that thing's up and going at all times. They can see if a breaker is going bad. Uh so we'll actually tell if it's green, yellow, uh or red on there. so they can say, "Okay, well, I need to get that taken care of." So, the electrical upgrades, uh, as far as an electrical panel is always nice, depending on how old it may be. Um, you know, uh, LED lighting is something that we can reduce as well as far as an electrical power load for for your electrical bill. Wow. Um, another thing too to keep in mind, especially as as as as realtors, a lot of these systems now that are being installed require a different type of breaker than what maybe an older breaker may have, right? So, they're pulling different energy consumption. So, the older ones pulled a lot more. So, it's a it's a high heavier breaker. Yeah. And so, that's one of the biggest things that we see on a uh inspection uh report that comes across my desk. Well, it doesn't match up with what's on the panel of the HVAC unit, which is on the breaker panel. Um, because a lot of heating and air contractors may or may not look at that when they're putting a new system in. So, it's very important that these are things I want to I I'm glad that you mentioned that. Yeah. Because if you're out there, if you're especially if you're a homeowner locally and you're thinking about selling, because usually when people are thinking about selling, Yeah. they're five, six, seven months before they actually list their house, right? And I would say to you, these are things you need to call Kevin and Summit Services to come out and take a look at everything because maybe you don't want to spend the money, but you have options for them to where they could do these upgrades which position them in the marketplace because most homeowners don't think about competition, right? Sure. They just like, I want to list my house. My house is worth. But you got to realize you're going to the dance. Yeah. And there's other dance partners. Sure. That you're competing against. So, what are the things that you can do now to we call it be offer ready, right? You don't want to get the home inspection, say, "Oh, I need to fix this." You want to get the home inspection now and have somebody catch, "Oh, the breaker's not matching up. You know what? I need to call Kevin. Hey, something's up. My pool needs refinished. Oh, the HVAC, you know, something's going on there. We need to do these lines now." And you have a way to do it to where they may not even have to make a first payment that by the time they get it to market, get it under contract, get it sold, that's all going to get taken care of. Correct. Yeah, absolutely. And whether it's Summit or not, I would recommend just any kind of heating and air electrical contractor uh you know to have them come in uh because you know, somebody that's coming in doing your inspection, they aren't looking at all these things on time. They don't they don't know the size of the duck work that we talked about earlier. Yeah, they don't know some of the indoor air quality concerns that they may or may not have had or what's going on there. If the system is sized appropriately, they just check the box, right? And so, u I would say, you know, bring in your your trusted, you know, contractor, whether you live up north and you're thinking about selling to move down here, make sure you're having that done there as well. Yeah. Uh and so bringing in the trade uh for for that particular thing that we may be looking for. So bring in your electrical contractor, your HVAC contractor, your contractor, the deal. Uh cuz during the inspection period, the due diligence period, that could be enough to trigger somebody to say, "No, that's exactly right. I'm going to walk away. This is another reason to walk away, right?" So if we can get that A+ on the on their report, that's what we want, right? And so so we offer that uh we offer that to come through and every any of our customers that are homeowners that are on our 247 club, uh we offer that as a as a free service. the 247 club. 247 club is our is our membership. That's a membership of Summit uh to where we come out to your home uh a couple times a year uh to do uh preventative maintenance work on your home. Okay. Uh and so sometimes people say, "Well, what's different about your claw versus the others?" What I've heard so many years, right? And you know, one thing that we do that's different is that um during the uh when our with our with our homeowners that are part of our club, any repair that we do, we we do a threeyear labor warranty on every repair that we do. Okay. Uh whereas most companies do not, right? Oh, wow. Uh so for three years, if you have any repair, you're part of our club for three years, anything that goes wrong with it, we fix it. We give you a three-year labor warranty that goes along with it 100%. The other part is, hold on, repeat that because that is a very big deal. Tell them exactly what you do. That's awesome. I don't want to glaze over that because that's a pretty big deal. Most contractors do zero, maybe 90 days. Uh we do three years. Uh so any any repair that we do, we guarantee for three years when you're part of our club. Uh so if that if your system breaks down the next three years after we do that repair and if it was the repair that was, you know, caused that, we fix it, no charge to you for three years. Wow, that's awesome. Uh, which is great. And really, there's no the investment for our club is like a bank. Uh, because anything you spend for our club, if it's $200 a year, well, in 10 years, you got two you got to replace your system. You have $2,000 to apply to your system. Oh, no way. You get that money back to you whenever you need to do a replacement credit. As a credit. Wow. I love it. Exactly. Right. So, uh, it comes back to you as a credit. So, there's really, uh, we hold on to it. We give it back to you. whatever the system is that cost whatever you've invested if it's three years whatever you spent for three years goes back towards you as a credit on your uh on a new system if you need that and I will continue moving forward uh after that this is just one of the very many reasons you're going to make this announcement well I'm I don't want to do the announcement yet I do want to do just because I know it's longer what do we got 810 what or 110 okay that's fine so hey folks stick with us because I want to do a quick pivot I want to talk about, you know, if you're ever watching this or you find this, typically you found it because you're looking at Hilton Head, you know, or Bluton, you're looking to move here, you're looking to relocate or you're here and you're looking for something, you know, to connect you to the island of life. So, we always like talking about the history, the people. You have a deep history, you and your family. Talk about growing up here. You left, you came back. You have a family. You brought them here. You're raising them here. So, yes, you're a business owner. We've gone through over that. Let's talk about Kevin and the Low Country. What do you love about it? You know, just Yeah. Well, it's home, right? You know, the smell whenever you go over the bridge after gone for a week, you're like, "Wow, it's home. I'm back home." Right. And and now my kids, I love hearing my kids say that, too. Like, oh, we're home. You know, and that's a great feeling, right? Um, but yes, I I grew up here. Um, it was Hilton Head Plantation. Hilton Head Plantation. Yep. Uh, went to Hilton Head High School. Wow. uh here, graduated from there and and it was it was much different than what it is now. You seen the new one? Uh I have seen this amazing building that they're doing and it's like a wave. It is unbelievable. It is unbelievable. We're truly blessed for sure. U so um but yes uh love it. Uh and it's funny that you still see people around this island that live and work here that you went to that you went to elementary school with or middle school with or high school with, right? They they leave and come back. You usually see people leave and come back, right? Uh and you know, because everybody, you know, I have a lot of people that leave for that go on if they want to go on to college or whatever the case may be and maybe start a job somewhere and then they realize how much they miss this beautiful place we live. Did did you when you left, was it your intention to come back or were you like I can't wait to get out of here and go see or you know you know you know I think when I left it was one of those things I was so I went to the University of Georgia so I was so excited to go there. Yes. I was I was ready to go to to college at that point. But, you know, I think it's one of those things you when you start thinking about, you know, where you want to raise your family and and where you want those roots to be tied into and and how special those are because nobody really understands it until you're a part of it. Amen. You know, what is it? So, because there's going to be people who find this sure who are who who are on a quest. They're like looking. They've they've spent all these years waiting for the place and they're like, "Where do I go? Do I go to Florida? Do I go to Gulf Shores, Alabama? Do I go to Wilmington? Yeah. What would you say to them about hair that that when you say you don't know it until you know it? Yeah. And I and I think that, you know, really it's it's about the person, the individual, what you want out of it, you know, uh, and the appreciation you may or may not have for it. I would say that it's probably not for everybody. um you know um I can't imagine that but you know there there might be some that they're not part because really anywhere you go if it's a restaurant the grocery store you're going to see somebody that's going to say hello to you you know um and um you know open the door for you or or ask you how your day is doing you know and and um you usually tend to you know kind of know people that kind of conser you know that's here will you always know somebody that does something that you may need that can help you out a thousand% % on that. I think it's a necessity because we don't have a big job base. Well, and if if they if you if your friend doesn't know it, somebody knows. Exactly. It's a community that that makes and everyone keeps it within the community and they show up like I you know, one time I was trying to change out my faucet and oh lord, I busted a pipe. Oh lord. I had water and you know, you make a phone call and the guy's there. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Let me tell the story. Well, we don't have to tell the whole story. Hold up. That's part of the internet. Our contract forever. And we made a phone call. I'm on the phone with him. Like, what do we do? Our neighbor comes running out with the key that we needed to shut off. I mean, that's what I wanted to We had no key. We didn't know we needed a key, but he came running out. He saw us and he came to help us. But that's that's difficult. Will came over 20 minutes later. Thank God for Will on the But you're right. It is so like there's it's it's something different. It's different than where we've ever lived. Yeah. You know, it was, you know, even during Hurricane Matthew when that came through, it was, you know, my driveway was cleared before I even got back. Were you at your spot in Seine? I I sure was. You know, but I knew somebody knew that was my house was on uh you know, Bobcat today and call me and said, "Hey, I got got your driveway looking good for whenever you come out." You know, and so nice. Um it's it's things like that that um you know you just show appreciation for. It's a small small town feel, but you know we we get the luxury of looking at beautiful water and the surroundings around us and you're you're constantly can be in in nature every day if you want. You can be on the golf course every day you want. You can you can do what you want. Uh and whatever makes you happy is Do do your parents still live here? Um my parents live out out in Bluffton now. Okay. So they're local though. Local. And your brother's here? He is. Yeah. plantation. Yeah. Yep. So, did you guys always plan on living in the same area together or we we you know, it's it's uh it's it's it's it's fate, I guess. You know, God brings you back to where that is where we should be. But, uh Brian actually lives on the same street we grew up on. Plantation. Yeah. Yeah. That's my brother Brian. So, I love it cuz you got the kids, the cousins, you know, like to me it's the when I look at it, I'm like that's what I long for for these guys. I hope that absolutely I get to see that with our boys and you see I mean I've already gotten calls from friends I hadn't seen in 10 years that you know are coming back to Hilton Head for for Thanksgiving or or Christmas to catch up. They have their families and you know that you went to high school with and and um so it's neat you know people always want to come back here even if they've left uh and you get to you get to catch up and and experience what they're doing the other day. So it's fun. That's awesome. So, what's your favorite? Let's do a couple favorites. Favorite beach to go to? Um, well, my depends on depends on the day, I guess, but sometimes I like a non-crowded beach, you know, and I try to go find my own little space on on a unbeaten path, you know, or or take the boat and go sit on a sandbar somewhere. Amen. Yes. Sometimes we want to we want to be like we're at a resort and on vacation and we go to the we go to the Cine Beach Club a lot, which is a cool beach club, which is fantastic. beach. Absolutely. It's fantastic. So, uh it really depends on the day. If we're going to throw football or swing whiffle ball bats, how much room on the beach do we want? Or we going for a few hours or whatever the may be, but it's always out there. You can always find whatever one you want. But, um I just enjoy being out in the water and on the beach guy. Yes. Where's your favorite place to go on the boat? We usually do laps as long as the kids will make let us do laps. We usually we usually go wherever the kids tell us to go. you know, we don't really get to make those decisions nowadays. Uh, but you know, we enjoy the we enjoy going over to Fusky and around there. We enjoy going through Bull Creek and the May River. Uh, you know, you know, taking those routes and getting some cool turns on the boats and seeing the beautiful water and do you guys a tube as well? Tubes. We are getting into the tubing. Not so much the water skiing, but um the tubing. Yes, we're we're getting into that, too. Yeah. What about favorite restaurants? Well, um well, I always I always do have a favorite restaurant, but uh we we we love we love Santa Fe. Um Santa Fe. I haven't had anyone say that. We go to Santa Fe. We love Santa Fe, which is really nice. You go upstairs to the top. That's always good. We get a little B stops, which is fun. Um we enjoy um enjoy ombra for some Italian. Okay. We enjoy that. U B has been a great steakhouse as well. Um but but you know, as you know, we don't have a lot of time for that with baseball. So I should say my wife Valerie's kitchen is is usually our favorite place to go. Kitchen Shiloh's favorite place to go. Is your house inside? There you go. He ask me every week. He's like, "Are we It's It's We're not We're not baseball. Are we going to go to Mr. Kevin's house?" I assume the place. Yes. Yes. Valerie Valerie loves to entertain and loves we a lot lot of kids call it Valerie's pantry you know so she tries to keep that stocked really well for the kids it's so good we love just being at home so last question on that so if you were to take Val on a date where would you go what would you recommend for people well put you on the spot right well you know when Val and I get the time to go somewhere it's usually somewhere we want go just to really have a conversation and chat, you know. Um, you know, and that could be that could be ordering a ordering a pizza or just going to get, you know, quick sitting at the bar somewhere or a local place and and having a conversation and some appetizers, you know. Um, you know, so um, whenever we go out to eat, it's really not so much about the food, it's about the time, you know, together and hanging out. So, you guys meet in college? We did we did meet in college. I um a scope val out and you know sitting in the college a classroom there and then turned out we needed a somebody needed to partner up for the semester and sure enough she was sitting right next to him and we were able to partner up you know I look at guys like us and I look at our wives we're really fortunate that's what I keep telling all the time like you keep getting better looking all these years I'm going opposite rock you know but uh you are correct yes we're we're every day we need to be thanking God. You're right. Put up with our crazy entrepreneics. Yeah. And the conversations and yeah and I will say Val's been a huge part of summit for me and allowing me to to do that. And yeah, man. Um you know couldn't couldn't have done you know open summit without her. And and you know when I said hey she's like you're going to do what? You're going to start this company by yourself with no money and this and that and we're going to kiddos were baby babies. My kiddos are babies and well, I love it because you have a you have a you have a you're a visionary and you have a heart and to go to be a visionary with a heart going into business, you know, likeough it is and because there's so many challenges, but to have a strong partner, it is I can attest that it's like, you know, you you're so fortunate that you know, God knew what he was doing. That's exactly right. You know, and a lot of the things we implement every day is those those conversations that Val and I get to have at night and get a good sounding board and great advice that I would have never thought of. Different different perspective. Well, that's again one of the many things that we love about you. Yes. Amen. Well, I know it's been a long time. I If you've stuck this far, thank you. Number one. Number two, we have a very exciting announcement to make. You've probably already seen the announcement because we'll release it, but we're going to go ahead and say it here right now. Um, so Kevin isn't just here today because obviously all the great information about um, you know, the the services this company provides to our clients, to homeowners, to everybody locally, people coming in. But we are now officially Kevin is a part of the real talk team and he is our primary sponsor summit services. So excited. Kevin, we're so excited. This is going to be so we're very excited to have him. We're super excited. We have no other sponsors and we're and when Dale and I talked about this, we were like we wanted to align with somebody that truly fit our heart for what we want to provide and and we're all about providing value and and um you know, trustworthiness. Yeah. and and giving you um the the buyer, the seller, the consumer what you want and what you value. And so when we were looking for a partner and we reached out to Kevin and he said, "Yeah, we were thrilled." So, you know, we just want to say, "Look, if you're if you like Real Talk Hilton Head and you love the content we're putting out, we just say support Kevin." Uh because Kevin is a part of this community. He's building something that is supporting to he talked about earlier the his I don't even think I would call them employees. Y they're your That's what they That's what they say all the time. Yep. Yeah. But Kevin is so much deeper. But he's going to make sure you get what you need in these services. So please, please, please support him. It's callsummitservices.com. Uh we're going to have all of his information here should pop up on the screen. Uh but again, if you're listening to this, it's callsummitservices.com. That's the website. And uh but make sure you support him because he's supporting us and he's helping us bring this content to you. So it's easy to do with you guys, too. You guys do a great job. And thank you. I couldn't be more thrilled to be part of you guys and your team and what you're doing here. I'm just blown away what you guys have done. You guys should be very proud of yourselves. Thank you. We're just This is all about the island. Like our heart is to We want It's easy to do when you love it that much, right? It's not. Yeah. It's just fun and it's easy to do. Yeah, we're super fan. So, great to have you on board and thank you for coming. Thank you for all the information. Also, Kevin's going to be a regular guest. I can't wait to come back and keep talking. Yeah, I feel like we just we're just at the start here. Yeah, we have a lot more to talk about. Scratching the surface. It'll be the Summit Services podcast. I'm sure some get there. Oh, you guys are great. Well, thank you again. We appreciate you. Thank you guys very much. I appreciate it. And thanks for watching, guys. Like, share, and subscribe, please. This episode brought to you by Summit Services. Heating, cooling, electrical, and pool systems done right. Visit callsummitservices.com. Don't forget to follow, like, share, and subscribe to Real Talk Hilton Head, and leave us a review to help others discover the Low Country lifestyle. out.