If You Could Build Your Dream Home, What Would You Add?

Ashley (00:01.486)
that I can't see.

Steven L Burch (00:02.686)
well that's not good. about now? Better?

Ashley (00:09.871)
There you are.

Steven L Burch (00:11.268)
Okay, how are you?

Ashley (00:14.959)
and we'll see you.

Steven L Burch (00:17.688)
Great. I'm good. I didn't change.

this year.

I never changed you didn't pay attention I guess Brandon was like when did you change?

Ashley (00:40.7)
Nice and red.

Steven L Burch (00:42.264)
Yeah. Well, a sunburnt with the lights on.

Ashley (00:46.498)
I wasn't going say, but it looks like you got a little bit of sun.

Steven L Burch (00:51.768)
What you doing? What's new?

Ashley (00:57.634)
or something.

Steven L Burch (00:59.064)
Yeah. What is it today?

Ashley (01:03.146)
I just don't always know how I'm like the last person to know that an offer is falling apart. I don't understand. Like I feel like it's a broken record of, know, we can figure out what's going on. I can not give you suggestions, but nope, just doesn't click.

Steven L Burch (01:24.984)
You know, can't help the unwilling.

Ashley (01:31.914)
I don't, you know, and I appreciate that they tell Jessica, but in the time that they told Jessica, they could have walked over one more office and then gave me an update so could tell them what their options are. I'll just wait to hear from them when it's too late.

Steven L Burch (01:53.156)
So why doesn't Jess tell you?

Ashley (01:55.509)
Jessica did tell me.

Steven L Burch (01:56.782)
I shouldn't, good. Well, I guess that's a win.

Ashley (02:00.171)
That's not really how I hear it from is Jessica. I'm really good. a reason they didn't tell me or ask me? I don't want to bother you. I'm like, I can't. I'm literally I'm over that excuse. Stupid excuse I've ever heard on I'm here every day.

Steven L Burch (02:16.26)
Hmm. Is it everybody or is it just a couple of people?

Ashley (02:22.475)
I know, feel like it's everybody. I hear about them after they closed or I see that they came back on the market and I was like, what the fuck happened?

Hi everybody, feel like I'm a broken record for the last...

for years.

Ashley (02:40.523)
I think just going to ask at the meeting next week, is there a reason that we don't feel it's important to tell the broker that an offer is falling apart? Yeah, should we just write on here like I'm literally here? Fuck. I don't know, throw it back to them. like here every day. Most all day every day. Is there a reason that you don't think the broker should know when an offer is falling apart on? Well, we'll stay here until we have an answer.

Steven L Burch (03:09.988)
high vote you write or type it out on a sheet of paper, what prevents you from telling me when an offer is about to fall out? Or before it falls, gets to that point, like whatever your question is, what prevents you? Print it for everybody. Like I would have, I mean, 10 copies of just that one sentence on each sheet of paper for each person.

Ashley (03:27.144)
I can't remember that on a piece of paper.

Steven L Burch (03:40.438)
And start and say everybody has a question you have five minutes, 10 minutes. To write down your answer and then we're going to go around and share.

Ashley (03:55.882)
You know, it's like going through apparently. She said maybe they feel like they're disappointing and I'm but I can't like sometimes the frustrating part is like sometimes when it has fallen apart and then they tell me why it fell apart. I like, there was a solution to that.

Like the one time I think it was like over a rough estimate and I was like, did you get another rough estimate? Well, no.

Steven L Burch (04:26.308)
Pretty simple. Pretty simple.

Ashley (04:31.369)
My lymph nodes are swollen, so that's lymph nodes are swollen? Mm-hmm. And they were just like swollen? No. Well, I was in a dance, like in a wood and stuff, and my lymph nodes were swollen. Oh, I didn't have a... I never found a tick. Okay.

I wasn't in the woods though, feeling. Well, kind of, the cabin aspect.

Steven L Burch (04:59.684)
That's not good.

Ashley (05:00.137)
Don't Google. Don't Google that. Literally I have cancer.

Steven L Burch (05:03.022)
Mm-mm.

Steven L Burch (05:08.718)
Mm-hmm.

Ashley (05:10.246)
I asked my chiropractor yesterday and he's like, you'll be fine, but it is really swollen. I can see it just by looking at your neck. I'm like, that does not help me.

Ashley (05:27.099)
But it all started because Monday morning I couldn't swallow. then I thought I was going to choke.

Steven L Burch (05:36.031)
God.

Ashley (05:37.958)
And then I stayed in that hotel room Monday night. told Ben on his day, was like, well, I'm just glad I woke up. And he was like, what? It's like, well, when your throat is like, swollen, it feels like when I swallow, there's like a gumball stuck. Yeah. I don't know. I'll give it another day or two. I know. It'll be a full week. was like,

Steven L Burch (05:39.918)
Mm-hmm.

Steven L Burch (06:02.116)
You should just maybe see if you can get an appointment and then if it goes away, you can cancel the appointment.

Ashley (06:10.406)
Yeah, what Stephen said. What Stephen said.

Steven L Burch (06:14.858)
Yeah.

Ashley (06:18.265)
I have to put... I was just gonna say, can't remember if I put my do not disturb on. I think it kicks me off the call, so I'm not gonna do that.

Steven L Burch (06:18.269)
What?

Steven L Burch (06:30.596)
Wanna talk about your event?

like James's comments and stuff.

Ashley (06:39.844)
on the podcast.

Ashley (06:50.756)
I just left the meeting not feeling that motivated about real estate.

Ashley (06:59.14)
So his was more or less.

that you're gonna have to have ancillary income in order to survive. So it's either gonna have to be mortgage company, which obviously I was like, I'm not talking about that, I work here for numerous reasons, partially their fault.

So then he said that they're going to have their own title company.

that your agents can use and then get dividends.

Ashley (07:31.949)
I'd like to maybe beat that one for the punch. Somehow.

Ashley (07:39.712)
Your agents don't get dividends back,

Steven L Burch (07:42.468)
Mm-mm, not currently.

I mean, I can sell them shares if we ever wanted to do that way. And we can sell shares to competitors or make it part of a recruiting package.

But right now, it's just me. I wanna make my money back off of it before I actually, mean, which I have. mean, this month, or for this last quarter, I got 24 grand, I think, from it. So that was nice.

Ashley (08:18.603)
Bye.

feel like for the amount of injections we do, for one company, it would be beneficial. Yeah, I also talked about...

a consolidation of brokerages, which is fine. But then he just said that he thinks like the days of the single agent will be gone and then everyone's going to have to function as a team.

And I don't love that idea.

Steven L Burch (08:47.132)
I think that one, some of his stuff is a sales scare tactic, preparing people to use what he wants them to use.

Two, I do agree though that like from a brokerage standpoint, a true model brokerage, if you are not selling.

Yes, it's going to be extremely difficult because the, and especially in larger markets, because people are going to, agents are gonna wanna go to the cheapest route and get a cap and all of this stuff. You and I are not his typical brokerage. So.

Ashley (09:40.32)
Thanks

Steven L Burch (09:42.572)
I don't think that we're gonna have to operate as a team. I think that for people like...

I'm trying to think of some.

Ben and Stephanie, they don't have a ton of other agents currently, and they are trying to grow the company. is trying to step back, so I think that there's going to be some readjustments that are gonna be had there. But the average company, I think it only has like four, five agents, if that. And.

Ashley (10:21.137)
One of the, also said that he expects like a half million agents to drop out in next five years.

Steven L Burch (10:25.756)
Yeah. Oh, think it's going to be more. I think that the, think there'll be way more than that in the next year and a half, two years.

Ashley (10:31.135)
What I was like talking about it last night and I was like, just think that like, again, in like our rural committees, I think we're buffered from some of what goes on there. So, and I was like, and maybe he thinks it's five years and it's 15 or, you know, whatever. But I was just like, I'm not running the brokerage as one full team. just not doing that.

Steven L Burch (10:53.506)
No, but we kind of already do to be realistic about it.

Ashley (10:59.496)
Sure, but I'm not like giving up all my income to pay other agents. The other interesting, you know that Garrick?

Steven L Burch (11:02.21)
No, but I mean.

huh.

Ashley (11:07.903)
So he was there because I guess he's in four states or whatever. And James wants to have like a fireside chat with him and interesting, I don't know how we help you financially do it, but he hires all of his new agents as employees and pays them a salary for their first year.

Steven L Burch (11:32.388)
So I think that model. I mean that intrigues me way more right like but also.

Ashley (11:40.103)
because I mean, told I was trying to tell them about it last time. Like the way that I could see it work is that they don't get their listing commission. They get a they get a thousand dollars, I think, if they have the seller and like five hundred dollars, if they have the buyer or something for the first year.

Steven L Burch (11:55.588)
There's some companies that don't even like, I mean, you're on a W-2 salary hourly pay and you don't get commission at all. But they're getting paid damn well because they're closing deals and so they see the money.

Ashley (12:05.246)
Mm-hmm.

Ashley (12:12.86)
The interesting thing I thought he said, which I'd want to see the numbers to that, they have to bring 24 transactions a year and that he hasn't had any issues with that.

Steven L Burch (12:25.88)
If you also think about that too, like if you were, it's a W-2 position, they work from eight to five and they do nothing other than convert leads online.

Ashley (12:34.302)
That's true.

Steven L Burch (12:37.39)
Like that's all they are doing.

Ashley (12:41.918)
It's interesting. mean, and I think he kind of brought it up and I think that was like the broker owner dinner, but then he kind of alluded to it on Tuesday, you know, like sort of here, like my agents here that his agents were paid a salary to start with. was like, like, you don't know the whole entire story, right? Like it's not salary plus all your commissions. Like that's a very different.

Steven L Burch (13:08.28)
Yeah.

Ashley (13:08.635)
So anyway, was interesting.

Steven L Burch (13:13.368)
No, and that was kind of one of the things when we were trying to work out our stuff, James told me in the conversation, he said, in the next five to 10 years, I think that if I were you, I'd be looking at being able to turn around and sell your brokerage. So then when I wrote my email with him about like negotiations for leaving Lane and stuff, I put that in there. My God.

put that in there and he was so taken back that I said that. I James, I came to you and I's conversation. He was like, well, I think you took that out of context. Well, I don't care what it is. Like you're saying like you told me, did you not? And he was like, well, yeah, I did. Okay. So get over.

Steven L Burch (14:07.972)
Sorry, trying to find a cough drop.

Ashley (14:10.441)
Six.

Steven L Burch (14:12.034)
No? I hope not.

Ashley (14:55.737)
And then I have to call, I have a call with our lawyer today.

Ashley (15:05.337)
Don't you worry about that.

Ashley (15:10.744)
Can I make it?

Steven L Burch (15:12.224)
I think so, maybe. We'll see.

Ashley (15:15.671)
So the two other parties, I think I told you that Mylar was invited to their settlement call. Right? So anyway, he basically said that whatever for the drop fees have to pay, they're going to basically come back to me for it.

Anyway, that's what we're supposed to talk about today, but he's thinking...

be $10,000 or something like that. I was like, already paid the bitch five so I don't understand what I'm paying for like at the end of the day. I don't know if I understand what I'm paying for. She's never going to buy the property anyway. I think our, you know, claim or, you know, deductible is $5,000. So was like, what's the point? should just pay it and be done with it.

Steven L Burch (15:46.296)
Right.

Steven L Burch (16:04.804)
especially just how much more that's gonna come back to you.

Ashley (16:08.269)
I literally, I did say that to him that I was like, I'm like, I'm more than ready to be done with this. This is exhausting for two years.

Steven L Burch (16:16.58)
Yeah, get that shit over with.

Ashley (16:19.542)
So see.

Okay, we're five-point.

Steven L Burch (16:25.87)
Hmm.

Ashley (16:35.286)
Let's do it.

Steven L Burch (16:35.349)
something fun and upbeat.

Ashley (16:49.557)
I asked you to be.

Steven L Burch (16:54.052)
Too late.

Ashley (16:55.858)
I said should I ask GPT and then Taitlyn's like it's funny you couldn't think of anything. There's so much shit going on.

Steven L Burch (17:12.484)
Let's see.

Ashley (17:25.685)
This one says, what is the one thing a dream home absolutely has to have?

Ashley (17:39.348)
Yeah.

Ashley (17:54.356)
This one says, let's have a little fun today. Picture this, your dream home drops from the sky and you get to choose one completely unnecessarily but totally awesome feature. Are you going with a slide between floors, an indoor basketball court or a hidden bookshelf? my God, a hidden bookshelf. I did have a property that had a hidden bookcase into a wine room. my God, that's cool.

Were there any of them hidden sex rooms? Hidden sex rooms? what? Pull yourself out. Or footage. No, but don't you remember the one where I had the dungeon painting on the wall and then the feedback was that the basement was inappropriate and I was like, what? That's what I thought.

Steven L Burch (18:42.264)
Isn't that the the kid, like the son drew it many years ago or something? Yeah.

Ashley (18:45.477)
Yeah, yeah. And I was like, my mind never went that way. I haven't run across those. I have run across a shitload of dolls, which I don't need. Also, if you follow Annabelle, I'm pretty sure Annabelle killed that guy. Did you read that? Yeah. Then I like, what's that?

Steven L Burch (19:03.362)
all that.

It's out for it.

so she's out for it.

Ashley (19:11.568)
I like deep dived into the Annabelle story and I was like, she's fucking wicked. And it's not funny, but it is funny. But some people were like, it wasn't supposed to be in Pennsylvania, the state, it was supposed to be on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Ashley (19:30.547)
for the White House. People are crazy.

Steven L Burch (19:38.254)
That they are man. Let's look at.

Ashley (19:44.39)
Do you not like my dream home?

Steven L Burch (19:45.89)
No, we can do it. Dream home.

Ashley (19:50.674)
probably going to have to in the next couple weeks stack a couple too.

when we're gone.

Ashley (20:00.85)
going to try.

Steven L Burch (20:03.78)
I've just kind of been going with the flow with it.

Ashley (20:07.954)
Good

He like left the post up. It's up a sign last night and she didn't.

Uhhhh

Ashley (20:30.513)
You ready?

Steven L Burch (20:31.332)
Go for it.

Ashley (20:34.885)
Welcome back everyone to the leading at lane podcast. I think we're going to take things a little bit different today. I feel like there's a lot of negativity in the world on all social medias in general. So we're going to switch things up and try to do something fun and interesting today. So, Stephen.

Steven L Burch (20:55.396)
Bye.

Ashley (20:57.031)
Picture this. Your dream home drops out of the sky. I don't know where and what location. Maybe you can tell me where. What is one completely unnecessary, like unnecessary but awesome feature that you would want, whether it's a slide to the lower level dungeon of sorts? me what it is.

Steven L Burch (21:20.036)
Thank

Steven L Burch (21:23.428)
Careful. I think. I want an indoor outdoor shower. I want to be able to walk. To the outside. Like then be able to have that next to the hot tub in the pool, right? Thanks so I can rinse off and so. Pretty unnecessary, right? Why do you really need an outdoor shower and really let's be realistic. How often am I going to use that? I don't know. I just think it would be cool.

Ashley (21:51.089)
Okay, that's a simple one. What's a little bit more extreme?

Steven L Burch (21:53.816)
man, I don't know. think I've always wanted to, like the hidden room, you kind of said that as far as like the bookcase, right? But being able to go into like this room nobody knew was there. I was in a house before and it actually was downstairs. It was a whiskey room. And so I thought that was really cool. A cigar whiskey room that nobody knew was even there. So I don't know what else that would really want.

Ashley (22:20.174)
Yeah? Where do you want to bring them home?

Steven L Burch (22:24.314)
that one's tough. think another thing, a panic room. I want to be able to like shut the door and I, yeah, full concrete. I envision the door is going to be like this safe door. but I watched the movie a long time ago. think it's called panic room. I can't remember who the actress was in it, but like they came and invaded the house and had some food and whatnot in there. But all of the TVs and

Ashley (22:33.168)
concrete.

Steven L Burch (22:51.948)
everything else in there to be able to see the security system. So I just don't always feel like I need a paint-up room, I guess.

Ashley (22:58.637)
Wasn't that also like the one that was Sandra was it Sandra Bullock or Julia Roberts that one where like the ship comes in?

Steven L Burch (23:05.922)
Yeah, that's with Julia Roberts.

Ashley (23:08.651)
Yeah, I can't think what it's called, but they had like a whole thing in there. Their basement. Do you guys have houses that have full concrete basement rooms?

Steven L Burch (23:17.966)
So yes, we do have some. Like they're storm rooms, Or storm shelters. It just kind of depends on how they're built out and whatnot. a lot of people do the sealed doors that are on still like a corner of a house versus doing like in the basement still. But instead of doing a full concrete room. My brother just built his house and his butler pantry is a full concrete.

and then steal surround, Butler pantry so that they can go in there during, because it's only a, it's a ranch so they don't have a basement. Yeah. So, if there's a tornado or something, then they have a safe room to go to.

Ashley (23:55.694)
plan.

Ashley (24:02.657)
Yeah, we think that there are some homes that were built here like in the 30s, 40s that have like bomb shelters. So there's like a part of the room. So I always say that if something happens, I think I know we're like five of them in town are, but it's just funny how things people used to build that way and it was all on concrete, no windows, nothing.

Steven L Burch (24:22.062)
There's a missile silo not too far away from here that was for sale, that people converted over into like a bomb shelter. Like absolutely insane. I don't think I could do that like at all. Maybe it was on my land, that's one thing, but I think like this was still just out in middle of nowhere. You wouldn't even know what was there. So speaking of the tornado shelter, you...

came across a tornado not too long ago, yeah? Or bad weather.

Ashley (24:54.764)
called Steven and City. So I was going to a property like 40 minutes away and it was like maybe bad weather, maybe not bad weather. And my admin text messaged me that there was a tornado warning and I was like, what? So then I like looked around and the skies were a little greenish and then I looked at my phone and it was like this big red dot. And then I called my husband like seven times.

You know, normally like if someone calls you repeatedly, like you would maybe tend to think that there was something wrong. Um, so then I was thinking that something would happen to me and then he would see that he had like seven missed phone calls and then he would feel really bad. So then I was like, who else would answer their phone if I called numerous times? And I was like, Steven would plus Steven lives in Kansas. So I called him in a pure shannock panic, obviously picked up after.

Steven L Burch (25:45.283)
Mm-hmm.

Ashley (25:51.723)
One ring, cause I'm sure like Ashley never calls me why she calls me. Right? And then, um, yeah, I had a mini meltdown of what I, what do you do when you are in the middle of nowhere and there is, um, or tornado and right. There's always like the misnomer of going under a bridge, which we all know is not a safe thing to do. So he reaffirmed that for me, but more or less it was like find an open ditch and hunker down.

Steven L Burch (25:55.884)
exactly what it was. was like, shit, something's wrong.

Ashley (26:21.472)
Um, but I just kind of floored it to where I was going. And I was like, well, someone pulls me over at this point in time, got to the house and went immediately into the basement with the clients that were there waiting for me and they bought the house. So I'm in great time. We met in a tornado warning and got to stay in the basement. Um, yeah, those are the fun stories people don't tell you about real estate.

Steven L Burch (26:35.647)
Well, that was awesome.

Steven L Burch (26:44.824)
Not at all, And you know, out of, I've born and raised in Kansas and I've never seen a tornado. Ever seen a tornado. So we've had them obviously around us and we've been close, but I've never seen one before. But.

Ashley (26:51.666)
Really?

Ashley (27:00.998)
Yeah, we had a lot near us. When I was little, I don't really remember it, but one took the neighbor's house, neighbor's garage off. But I did see it one time in Mexico, like a tornado in the water. So it was like hurricane season.

Steven L Burch (27:13.832)
I that's like a water funnel, water cyclone. Yeah. Yeah. Well, there we go. Way off topic. So back to you on if you were to drop a house and wild, crazy, unnecessary thing, what would it be?

Ashley (27:19.214)
Yeah, something like that. But was crazy to see.

Ashley (27:38.799)
a golf simulator.

Steven L Burch (27:42.116)
But I can feel like you guys would have that already.

Ashley (27:46.573)
Well, we don't, but we've gotten to some I'm sure we could we'd have that would be that'd be an excuse for Ben to build again since he would love to build again. We've gotten some of the parade at homes in Madison, which is a much larger city than us. And they basically like build the basements so that they're like that's like a two foot step down. So doesn't affect the rest of it. It's like a funkin living room. You have to have such tall ceilings to able to swing your club and everything. So I think that that would be great for the winter.

I would see us probably doing that like nightly, but we would improve my golf game. Cause when I start in like April, it takes me until about June to be warmed up for my golf season. then, yeah, that's super unnecessary, but I would like that. And if I could rebuild again, I would build like that extra pantry, like behind the kitchen, like the whole length of the kitchen, just to have more room and hide stuff that you use so infrequently.

Steven L Burch (28:45.188)
I feel like those are pretty, I mean maybe the golf simulator. What would be one other thing? A boiler pantry. I feel like that's kind of common.

Ashley (28:54.714)
I'll send them a letter. See like pools don't do anything for me like I wouldn't use that would be a given for you. If I was in a tropical location I would have to have one outside but like some people that have like the pools in their house.

Steven L Burch (29:01.732)
That's what you've given for me.

Ashley (29:12.869)
Not for me. Um, what else? Maybe like, uh, a true, like theater room. So Ben loves movies. Ben could watch a movie every single night of his life. Um, so I think like we had originally thought that, but like when the plans all came together, it just didn't work. But like the actual, you know, staggered steps down and the huge chairs. And I think that that would be.

for the long winters as well.

Steven L Burch (29:45.412)
Well, I'll tell you, we don't use it very often at all. We have a theater in our house and I think like two times a year, if that, and really it's when kids come over and like we're watching football or something and we can put them in the theater and turn something on. there's like...

Ashley (30:01.636)
Do you know what Ben would tell you his unnecessary item is that I didn't let him build, but now I'm thinking I should have?

Steven L Burch (30:07.64)
What is it?

Ashley (30:09.474)
He wanted a tunnel from the house to the shop.

Steven L Burch (30:13.11)
Okay, that's cool. I would, I would be here for that.

Ashley (30:14.478)
What?

Okay. Well, when we built that we were slim budget and he wanted like the, like the culvert type, huge circle type of concrete. And so his thing was, you know, then he wouldn't have to go outside in the winter to get to his tools and man cave or whatever. But now I think that it would be ideal for the state of the world that we're living in, that we would have a little, you know, concrete dome that would have food lined on it. So now he says I should have listened to him.

Steven L Burch (30:24.11)
Mm-hmm.

Steven L Burch (30:47.086)
Yeah, you know, I always say that, if, you know, when we when we make it big and have all this money, we can have multiple homes like being tropical. But also, I will tell you, I don't want to live in a huge city with a single family home. Like I would live in a huge city with a condo. No, no issue there. But like being right next to people all the time. Hell no.

I don't want to do that. need some acreage. I need some space. want to be able to. Growing up, had four wheelers and motorcycles and all the fun things. Not that we wouldn't have all of those all the time, but being able to get on a razor and just mess around and just goof off, right? Having a pool, not people. Up at my parents' house, I think they're three acres away from their

Ashley (31:34.626)
Do your thing.

Steven L Burch (31:44.716)
next house and then so you can't hear him, can't see him, you can't do anything, but like it's so secluded. That's exactly what I'm wanting if we're building here locally.

Ashley (31:54.402)
Or do you ever live on an island?

Steven L Burch (31:57.944)
the scribe said island. Do we have running water? Do we have... Okay.

Ashley (32:03.007)
Yes, you could have running amenities, but you'd more than likely have to take a ferry to get there.

Steven L Burch (32:11.716)
I think I could do that. I, but I mean like. I mean water and flushing a toilet. Right, like. Yes, Costa Rica is probably a stretch to my my limits. It was great, but that was definitely just a tad bit. Maybe you could cross the line, but honestly, I think Costa Rica is freaking beautiful. I think that's still one. I mean that is the top.

Ashley (32:21.695)
We've learned that.

Steven L Burch (32:39.832)
vacation that I've ever been on of location, house, all of it. So just was not expecting the non-flushing toilet paper that that one threw me through through and then maybe the the scorpion coming through. There's just, you know, minor things, nothing crazy. electricity. What was it? There is a. How did she say there's a bang on the island or bang on the mountain or explosion on the mountain?

Ashley (32:58.241)
No.

Steven L Burch (33:09.314)
Nothing to worry about.

Ashley (33:09.664)
nothing to worry about but that the lines are down so you're not going to be go down the hill.

Steven L Burch (33:16.228)
Yeah, and we did. We were not going to go down.

Ashley (33:22.068)
Yes. And thankfully I was near the end of our vacation. So our food didn't spoil, et cetera. but I mean, it makes you like, right. Like realize, but I had a, I had a tour this week with a, candidate and they were originally from Wisconsin, but they lived in New York for their degree and just talking about like the sheer difference of just that. like, you know, you come here and there's greenery everywhere. And like, when you and I visited like New York, like

The green you see is Central Park and then it's just all, so we, I feel like we've become very spoiled with land and nature and whatnot. think that I would still have to have a good portion of that, but I had a call with Robin this morning. She was talking about how cold it was and she said it was 71. And then I was like, well, guess what it was this morning. It was 51 here. So I would say that wherever we were.

Steven L Burch (33:56.558)
Yes.

Ashley (34:16.256)
drop a dream home that would be a second home or whatnot, would have to be warm 90 % of the time.

Steven L Burch (34:21.23)
Yes, but also like it's supposed to be a hundred and two, three, something like that next week. But the humidity, ugh, that's what gets me. So I want tropical. get it. But maybe, maybe I'm fine with the humidity if we're next to the ocean pool. Like I'm cool with that too, but the humidity freaking kills me. So I can't do it. And I have a friend that works in concrete. He texts me.

Ashley (34:26.204)
I would be in heaven.

Ashley (34:39.1)
or yeah, the ocean.

Steven L Burch (34:51.14)
He was like, oh my God, it was hot today. This was issue the day before. And I was like, oh my God, I know. And then a little bit later, I was like, let me not lie. I was inside all day at my desk. So I feel for you. I'm sorry. Thank you for what you do. No, I cannot do manual labor like that.

Ashley (35:07.868)
I think he like 88 on like Monday or something and Ben was working outside the whole day, yes. And he came home and he was like, I have to take a cold shower. This is miserable. And I was like, man, if that had been me, I'd just been basking the whole day.

Steven L Burch (35:20.952)
here for him. So, alright, so perfect place. Like if you could throw the dart on the map, where would it land? Where would you want that second home to be at?

Ashley (35:36.271)
Yeah, you know, it would have to be probably. Arabian ish type area because you know, which will be spending some time there, but like Scottsdale is a beautiful area, but they still have cold. It's a little cold. You know, even like when we've been in Mexico over Christmas, like it was a little cold for me. So probably need to go a little bit more South, but like a Saint Lucia or a.

Aruba or something like I'm sure that there would be a nice little place I could plop a house down and then for me always to have a second home I say that I would want to be able to BRBO it that's the only way it makes sense for me.

Steven L Burch (36:17.284)
I mean, I'm right there with you. went Caribbean. I beautiful all the time, right? I mean, we've been to a lot of places in the Caribbean, but I think that there's so many other little islands. Like, Carousel, like we went there this last year and that was beautiful. I don't know if that's necessarily the place for me, but still beautiful. But I think it's also to one of the things that, yes, about a home, get it, but...

the lifestyle of island life truly is something that we say that we're ready for, or I say, I'm not speaking for you, but I say that I'm ready for, and then I'm like, what is going on? Why are we moving so slow? Like, where is everybody? Like, why is it taking so long? And I had to constantly remind myself like, island life, chill.

Ashley (36:56.761)
Alright.

Ashley (37:07.649)
I remember we were in Hawaii and I wanted to go to this little boutique and there was a thing on the door that said like be back later island time and I was like, well, I don't know when they're going to open. They'll be back at some point in time. So yeah, I think even when we were in Costa Rica, I think it was like a culture change for in America, right? Like you, you eat, you pay your bill and you're out, right? So we had eight and then like nobody came, nobody came, nobody came. And then like we realized that's cause

They could carol us if you stayed there the whole entire evening. They'll come back, they'll fill your drinks. So yeah, it was just very different than what we're used to.

Steven L Burch (37:46.66)
But maybe that helped us have another espresso martini or two after dinner. So, and that was the best espresso martini of our entire lives. And I think now every time that we get together, we're like, we need to try an espresso martini to see how it relates. Nothing has touched it. But yeah, no, I'm here for the Caribbean. Let's make it happen.

Ashley (37:51.213)
Yeah. Right.

Ashley (38:03.316)
matched yet.

Ashley (38:10.521)
I was just going to say let's do it.

Steven L Burch (38:12.344)
Yeah. And then and then we can turn into is that third home, right? Is the the that's what we're going to do in Scottsdale is it's called third home and you're able to enter your property into this exchange with other property owners. So then now you can trade out times for people to be able to stay at your home and then you have keys to be able to access other properties around the world. And I think it's just another addition to what Airbnb VRBO

those types of exchanges are on top of. So it can be a great investment.

Ashley (38:46.039)
Well, the thing with that is it takes away the middleman. Like it's truly like, like owner to whoever is renting. And I think that that opens itself to like some possibilities down the road to meeting other people. I think like oddest thing for you, like when you went to book it and it ended up being someone from our franchise, like what are the odds of that?

Steven L Burch (39:06.104)
It was actually, I think, a spouse of one of another franchise owner. And it's just totally random that that happened, but wild that worked that way. So yeah, I'm here for it. It's still on my list. We're getting to it. We're chunking away slowly but surely. So cool.

Ashley (39:16.183)
way.

Ashley (39:26.903)
And I think it's just, you know, that's one reason to travel. Like that's why I always tell people I encourage people to travel is one, like you never know who you're going to meet. Secondly, like it's just nice to see how other people live. And sometimes I think you can appreciate where you live more or it gives you better ideas, but it makes you a more rounded person, I think, to be able to travel and to be able to see things, try new foods, just to see like how beautiful the earth actually is. so.

You know, we're always in this like hustle to work, work, work. But I think as I've gotten older, I've realized that that's only, it's only worth so much, but like time with family and friends and with new experiences is definitely worth it because it can all be taken away in a day.

Steven L Burch (40:09.796)
The only thing I have in my head right now is Brianna's song, Work, Work, Work. When you did that, that's all I could think about. So anything you said afterwards, I did not pay attention, I'm sorry.

Ashley (40:13.647)
Work, work, work, work.

Ashley (40:19.54)
That's okay. Travel the world. That's my advice.

Steven L Burch (40:22.86)
I'm here for it. Let's go some. Cool. Well, great change of pace and my challenge to everybody today is get out there and do something kind for another person. Just do some one random act of kindness and start being the difference that this world needs. Cool. Tune in next time. Alright, tune in next time. Thanks for listening. You know the drill. See you then.

Ashley (40:45.438)
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