Santa is real. His name John and he lives here in Arizona. The man, and his wife are saints having adopted five kids out of foster care to add to the three John adopted after marriage. We talk to him about the importance of adoption… The challenges, the rewards and everything in between.
Also on the show, Steve talks about how you can tell who is and who is not qualified to work on your car (more importantly capable, creative and trustworthy). As always, Ryan gives us his lock of the week (look out New England) and PK shares a “mutual” win with Felecia.
Happy Holidays!
Episode Recap
The jets won last weekend. Felecia is the only Jets fan that is happy —happy for the players. Steve knows they lost out on the best quarterback and fears they’ll somehow win more games this year to continue falling in the draft. If Felecia was Trevor Lawrence’s mother, she wouldn’t let him sign with the Jets anyway.
How do you find a good mechanic?
Not everyone is lucky enough to come to Friendly Auto. So how do you know if you’re getting a quality mechanic?
First, ASE certification (Automotive Service Excellence) is important to look for. There are several tests you can take to get certified in different aspects of repairs like brakes, engines, or other parts. Having this certification means you have the basic theory behind you to understand how systems work. Any handy person can change brake pads but ASE means you can change them correctly or properly diagnose that they need to be changed. The handyman may not know what’s actually broken and just throw new parts at it that can add up in price and potentially not solve the problem.
But, there are some ASE mechanics who just memorize the books in order to pass the test and can’t apply them, so ASE alone isn’t a strong enough indicator. You have to talk to the mechanic personally too. Find out how much experience they have and look at the shop they work at. A younger mechanic who works in a shop with experienced mechanics can learn from their experience, but if every mechanic is young and ASE certified, they may not cut it.
John Harstick at Always Best Care
John Harstick manages Always Best Care, an organization that helps seniors with a variety of tasks from the comfort of their own homes. Is this segment Felecia’s way of deciding if Steve needs senior living assistance?
John is a dad who has adopted five children. He got married at 46 and had always wanted kids. His wife was a widow with three kids and he adopted them. When their kids got older, they decided to adopt a kid out of foster care. However, when they were matched with a kid, it was a kid with three siblings. So they adopted all four.
If you’re thinking of adopting a foster child, talk to people who have done it. It’s easy to think you’re just going to bring a kid home and they’ll love you because you take them, but it isn’t always that simple. You have to be committed to it.
A few years ago, John went into business with one of his sons seeking out ways to help seniors. A lot of people are not supportive of going to senior living facilities, and COVID has only exacerbated that. John’s organization helps these individuals stay in their homes. Caregivers bring groceries, drive to appointments, provide companion care, meal prep, laundry, and other personal care. Caregivers at Always Best Care go the extra mile to support the seniors they work with.
PK’s Win of the Week
A few weeks ago, one of Felecia’s co-workers was helping PK’s mother-in-law buy a home. The home she wanted was already under contract with someone else, but Platinum Realty figured out how to make it work based on openings in the contract. Although the first buyer already had a home inspection, PK quickly found things that the inspector had missed. She was able to write a list of what was wrong, send it to the realtors. With the list, PK got $5,000 off the listing price and get everything asked for on the list repaired by the owner. The most important thing to take away is to know who you’re working with—if the other buyers had ended up with the house, they would have struggled with the continued repairs because they put their trust in an unreliable inspector.
What’s going on with the market?
Rates are still low, so if you haven’t refinanced, call Ryan. A great story he had this week was a single mother that met Ryan through a referral from Felecia and she’s paying off all of her debt and lowering her interest rate enough to make the payments lower.
If you’re waiting for the home prices to come down, don’t. Seasonality means nothing in the current market, you’re going to be waiting for a while if you expect the prices to go down soon.
The gang wishes everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, and happy holiday season!
