Off The Market with Team Somerville

#16 - AI Slop & Tourism

Team Somerville Season 1 Episode 16

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0:00 | 28:35

Where is all this AI slop coming from?! And what brings people into your city?

Hosted by: Michael Dempsey & Tim Somerville 

Produced by: Hayden McNamee

Music by: Anthony Trim

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SPEAKER_01

Those are the ones that really stood out to me. What is this slot? It's very famous. You can check out your local hardware store. Hi, I'm Tim Somerville. And I'm Michael Dempsey, and this is off the market with Team Somerville. Well, Easter's over. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_00

Are you full of chocolate? Oh, you know, it's just like anything. I like the uh bunnies with the rice crisps in it. Oh yeah, I never get that on it.

SPEAKER_01

They're so good. You know, I'll go down a limb. There's a lot of people that agree with me. Those Cadbury cream eggs. A lot of hype. They're gross. I prefer to support uh Gnong, you know.

unknown

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

Good to know. Good to know. Support local. I'll take that off your Easter Easter list for next year. That's right. So let's get right into it. Let's get into it. Okay, so uh again, Michael and I will talk about some things pertaining to real estate, some not pertaining to real estate. Let's start with real estate today. I wanted to talk about electrical. Yes, very important. Yeah, electrical. For us as realtors, we're not inspectors. But what we want you to do is know that when we are showing you homes, the biggest thing that we're looking for are items that could be of concern to you, the consumer. So when we walk through, there are many things about electrical that we can tell you, and of course, we're not opening up walls, but hopefully it's enough for you to at least have a better understanding of what to look for when buying a home. So, what kind of amperages are there?

SPEAKER_01

Well, you've got a hundred amp, you've got two hundred amp. Um, if you're looking at uh say it's an older building broken up into apartments, you may have subpanels that are only 60 amps.

SPEAKER_00

I've seen homes many times that are just 60 amps. And I've seen homes that are 400 amps. And of course, as you get into bigger buildings, of course, you could even have a 600 amp and you know, and so forth.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, 400 amp, 600 amp main, and it breaks off, like you said. Right.

SPEAKER_00

So I have an oil heated home. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. What do I need? Uh I would say bare minimum 100, but we still see a lot of 60s. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

About a hundred amp. And that is a confusion for some. But many people say I only have a hundred amp service. If you're running specific types of heating sources, that may be enough. Natural gas, propane, and oil. But if you want to convert that to uh an electric hot water system or or even change all the way to baseboard or a full electric heat pump, you're probably looking at an electrical upgrade, would you agree? Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01

And it's not as costly as you would think. So I would you know shop around, get a couple estimates, but it's just having that so much draw. If you're the type of person that can go to the house and have one appliance operating, great.

SPEAKER_00

But the moment you turn on that second appliance, you've got water heaters, you've got your heating systems, of course, you've had your dryer, you have your stove. Like these are major. Your dryer and your stove draw a lot. Most definitely. Most definitely. So so knowing that, I'll ask, what types of wiring is there?

SPEAKER_01

Well, in today's, yeah, you have copper. Right. Now, but if we go, you know, we go back in time, we're looking at aluminum, and then of course the dreaded knob and tube.

SPEAKER_00

Nob and tube. Talking to a realtor today, they're listing one uptown, beautiful property, and guess what? There's some knob and tube. Now, knob and tube, it's not that it wasn't a safe wire in its day. It's two strands of wiring that never cross. Just didn't have any ground, and it's so old now that the wiring itself can be pretty brittle. We find that many of the homes that still have knob and tube, it's limited to what it's being used for. So when we look at the knob and tube that's out there, it could be just for some lights. But the problem we've seen, and this is, you know, we've seen people take the strands, take a new copper wire, connect them to the old knob and tube, and think, oh yeah, this is great, you know, a little bit of electrical tape, and you know, we're all oh my goodness. Well, we've seen, we've seen many things. But one thing we will tell you is we as realtors with Team Somerville, we're looking for the telltale signs there are that there either is knob and tube or there was knob and tube. Because if there was knob and tube, we still want to make sure that there still isn't any strands left in your home, in your property. So we look for some telltale signs. So here's one light switch. Do you remember the infamous light switch for the knob and tube? It was the twisty. Yeah, the push or the twist. And so again, clear sign. If if we're looking at a push button knob, sorry, light switch, chances are there could be knob and two. Now, some people always say, well, no, we just kept those. Well, guess what? I don't know about that. Yeah. Um, another thing about uh telltale signs when you're looking for knob and two are the white porcelain terminals. So you'll see these white pieces of porcelain that will be where the strands will go, and a lot of times we see them in attics, a lot of times we see them in the basement. In the basement. Because most of the other areas are, of course, are all finished, so you may or may not see that. Saying that, aluminum. Talk to me about aluminum. What do you know about aluminum?

SPEAKER_01

Well, aluminum, there were some concerns of oxidization.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

And so basically the wiring would break down. Um what else do you tell me? Well, again, you know, a copper guy.

SPEAKER_00

No worries. Aluminum wiring was very popular in the late 60s, especially early 70s, because the cost of copper was so extravagant that they started to make house, sorry, sorry, houses would be, you know, used with electrical with aluminum wiring. Now, what happened is that you'd be surprised how many homes have aluminum wiring. So, what what's the concern? Well, the concern is is that aluminum wiring by itself with aluminum-rated devices is fine. Any electrician will tell you that. The issue is when you take the aluminum wiring and you cross it with copper wiring. And what ends up happening is the aluminum to copper does not like each other. So, what will end up happening is if if there's any overriding, the overamperage and so forth, what will end up happening is it will expand and contract and expand and contract off of the terminal and then could cause a fire. So it's very important that if you do have aluminum wiring, it's not like, oh my goodness, we have to go out and get rid of it all. No, you need to make sure that you have aluminum-rated devices so that your actual receptacles are aluminum-rated. They're more expensive, but if you have that, your wiring should be fine. Aluminum wiring, again, is very common, very prevalent in many different areas. And again, when we see it, we then have to ask have they been pigtailed? Which is known as the way that they would convert instead of aluminum to copper, but aluminum to aluminum. Okay. Pulling it all out, bloody expensive. Yeah. So if somebody tells you that's the only, no. Make sure you have a letter from the electrician stating that it meets minimum standards. And of course, most insurance companies will say has it been pigtailed. And if so, you should be good. That's great. Great advice. Yeah, so so don't be afraid so much about the aluminum, just make sure that, of course, that it is to today's standard. Now back to the amperage. One thing that's important about the amperage as well is that when we look at the amperages, if we and we said, if you're going to convert from oil to electric and you said it was affordable, yes, the you may go from an oil furnace to an electric furnace. So if you're doing that, yes, there's a cost to bring the amperage up, and then there's a cost, of course, to convert the furnace. But again, don't think that just because you have oil hot water or oil forest air, that all of a sudden you have to pull everything out and go to electric baseboard heating. Yes. Some of these older homes, heating with electric baseboard, it's almost impossible. Yeah. Right? The forest air hot water systems out there, they're there for reasons. Uh, size of home, square footage. And again, if you do convert from oil to electric, make sure that you speak to somebody that may give you more than one option. That way, hopefully it's not so hard on your wallet. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. And I would also explore the avenue of there are programs out there now for certain individuals and families that if they're going from oil to an electric furnace, uh, like I said, there's rebates available, things like that. I encourage you to look into that. And like you said, if you're going over to an electric furnace and you've got a few extra dollars, why go electric um heat pump as well, like heat pump. So you've got your heat and you've got your AC. That's right. I mean, in we've had some great summers. Well, yes. And uh, this is our first year that we've had a good winter in a while.

SPEAKER_00

So because they will not, you will not get rebates for electric baseboard heating. It is not classified as an energy efficient heat source. So getting into the heat pumps, yes. Keeping your oil or propane or natural gas furnace as the main with the heat pump as the auxiliary or the secondary is quite common right now.

SPEAKER_01

And like you said, if you have the ductwork already in place, why would you go out and put baseboards and things like that? And then what? The the the ductwork just sits there?

SPEAKER_00

I get it. I get it. Now, some people will want to convert because by taking the ductwork out, it means that you don't have this big bulkhead going right down the middle of your basement or here or there. So so there are times where yes, you do decide to convert for aesthetic reasons. I was gonna say, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

If you want to get the um, what do you call that? The uh oh gosh, I can't think of the word, you know, in the floor or the registers. You want to get the uh the floor vents out for aesthetic reasons you don't want to see them. That's right. There's also a lot of great uh floor vents, very fancy. Check out your local hardware stores.

SPEAKER_00

That's right, that's right. So, one more thing I'll talk to you about electrical. So we've talked about type, right? And again, we can definitely have that conversation with anybody. We've talked about amperage. But there are different types of panels, right? So you have your fuse panels and you have your breaker panels. This is very important because your fuse panel, believe it or not, has some advantages. Insurance companies may disagree because they're concerned that if a fuse goes, instead of putting another 15-amp screw and cartridge fuse in, what are you gonna do? Oh, let's put a 20 in. And that's where their concerns are is that a lot of the fuse panels are actually overfused. Now, the advantage of a fuse panel, if there is one in particular, is the fact that there's no way of if if it's overrided, uh, if if it's overfused, sorry, if your um, if what you've got there's a surge, it's gonna blow. Yeah. It's gonna blow, right? With breakers, it's been known that if it trips enough times, you can actually lose some of the strength in the connectivity of that panel. I'm sorry, of that breaker. Yeah. So it's just important that if you've had to with your breaker panel, yes, it's convenient that you switched it on or switched it off because it's gone. The more times that happens, there is a chance that the strength of that panel is actually or that breaker is actually becoming weaker. Whereas in a screw cartridge fuse, listen, if it's a 15 amp and all of a sudden it's going to blow, it blows. Yeah. Okay? Now I've seen some pretty pretty unique things. I've seen what's called the penny trick. And the penny trick is they'll actually take the pan, sorry, the screw and cartridge out and they put a load of pennies in there. What? Right? Yes. Yes. I've seen where they take the metal and they shave it back onto it and screw it back on, so it just never trips.

SPEAKER_01

I've seen bolts. Oh, really? Which is probably 600. Yeah. Who is touching this? I don't know. I've seen tinfoil infuses. Okay, good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I don't recommend that. Yeah, I don't recommend that. I'm glad you don't recommend that. So the lawyer told me to say that. So the last thing we'll talk about electrical is now we've talked about those three things, is you have to remember that when you have your home inspected, or if we are walking through with you, there are some telltale signs we're looking for. And again, if it is screwing cartridge, we may take a real quick look to see are there many 15s? If not, there's a chance that again that's what somebody has done. Um we'll look at with the panels with breakers. We'll look to see if there are art faults and GFIs. GFI or GFCI is ground fault. Circuit interrupter. And the big thing about the GFCI is a lot of times when they're testing a home, they'll just go to the actual plug and they'll press test. Oh yeah, it clicked and reset. That's not how you do it. You should have a little tester that will go in and it will actually duplicate a surge to make sure that it actually trips. Many times we get into these ungrounded homes and they're putting grounded receptacles just like a GFCI, and guess what? Very dangerous, very dangerous. There are many different ways, even in an ungrounded home, to make sure that you have grounding. And so we can discuss that in in depth with you if you'd like. You can reach out to us at almost any time. Absolutely. So that's my on the market.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I would say with the ground fault, that's one of the biggest things that I'm looking for uh externally. So a lot of times we go out and we see you know the external plugs along your home and we lift up the uh the cover, which is great because you need a weather resistant uh you know trap. But we look in and it's just a regular receptacle. Oh, yeah. You know, and that's not to code.

SPEAKER_00

Oh no. And this is the important part. Team Summerville, when we're going through homes with you, we are looking for different things. We're not just looking at the color of the color of the walls. Keep in mind that again, we'd love to help you when you're looking at buying or selling so we can discuss, of course, you know, different things such as this electrical.

SPEAKER_01

So speaking of other things that don't look right to us, okay. Uh, you know, you and I we we love talking about you know technological advances. I know we've talked about AI a lot. Well, I want to talk about something called AI slob. Okay, so I mentioned to you earlier, remember back in the early 2000s when email was huge, you know, everyone it was exciting to get an email. We would, you know, we'd have like uh these little animations. So you get an e-card, right? So I would take little Tim Somerville face and I put it in an e-card for Christmas, and you've got like a dancing elf, and it's cute, it's funny, all that good stuff. Oh, that Tim, he's up to the you know. But when you see similar items in 2026, you're kind of like, what is this slop? As they they termed it as slop, garbage, because we're seeing a lot of AI videos, reels on the Instagram, on the Facebook, or whatever that's really taken away from people's professionalism, and uh it just looks really bad. It does. Um so I thought, okay, well, what's an example of some some horrible AI? So recently, uh the government of New Brunswick, the Tourism New Brunswick, uh they had added a chatbot to their website. And of course, this is you know uh what a chat bot is you can ask the questions, you'll get instant answers as opposed to having to wait for a real live human to to answer your questions. So when they implemented it, of course, it it did not go uh without its its pains as uh as they and I'll quote. Yeah. So some of the issues they had was they said that St. John is the biggest city in New Brunswick. What? Yeah, we're the biggest city in New Brunswick. No, it also said we're the capital.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

Wow. So as you can see as I go down the list, you'll see how you can't always believe what's out there. And I think I think your parents have taught you well enough to, you know, don't talk to strangers, don't trust strangers. Well, some of this AI, the AI bubble they call it, is not always what you think it is. Um so not only did it say that we're the biggest city, uh, it also encouraged uh tourists to visit our Cherry Brook Zoo, which has been closed for over five years now. Wow. Uh and doesn't stop there. It says, while you're checking out the Irving Nature Park, there was a photo of a pond hockey tournament in Plaster Rock.

SPEAKER_00

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01

Plaster Rock is over three hours away. Wow. So Irving Nature Park, Plaster Rock. I don't think Mr. Irving would like that very much.

SPEAKER_00

But you know, I have to tell you that we are in a day where people are putting so much into this. Yes. And you think about how many businesses are out there. And they're looking at reviews and they're looking at this and they're looking at that. Now they're looking at this AI slob. My God.

SPEAKER_01

Uh it goes on to talk about you know lake access, and it says to visit the North Lake Provincial Park, even though unfortunately, and again, we're not a political channel, but due to budget cuts, that will be closing. Um again, a few other little tidbits. Wow. Uh it suggests um visiting other provinces for better seafood.

SPEAKER_00

Really?

SPEAKER_01

Like hello, like you've got our our lobster uh fishermen, fisherwomen. That's right. Uh you've got you know the main lobster just down the road, like we there's so much and it uh they says there's better seafood elsewhere. Wow. And uh I'll finish up by saying when asked, you know, what are some winter trip ideas when you come to New Brunswick? Well, they suggested heading out to the Fundy Trail Parkway and the Hopewell Rocks Provincial Parks, all of which are closed for winter.

SPEAKER_00

They'd be closed, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So there's a few other examples, but those are the ones that really stood out to me.

SPEAKER_00

And that's just us.

SPEAKER_01

Yes. Wow. So it's it's very important to uh, you know, I wouldn't say you have to cite your, you know, look for different sources constantly, but you just have to be cautious of the information that's out there. If you are talking to a computer, um, and again, I'm not, you know, just saying it's absolutely horrible. There have been a lot of advances. Uh Tim and I were discussing like different options of uh he's got a lot of new builds that he's got coming. You know, how do we showcase them? And of course, virtually staging is the best way. So there are you know AI platforms that do a fantastic job in seconds in seconds of virtually staging these empty properties and help give people the idea of what this space can look like. So I'd say, you know, I guess with anything, there's good, there's bad, just be cautious of uh you know what you trust.

SPEAKER_00

And with that, I used to love when it first came out, everything had to be referenced on where it came from. You remember that?

SPEAKER_01

And you know, you'd have to cite your sources, crack your sources.

SPEAKER_00

No, and and and that still should be what we need to do. AI has come to the point where it almost becomes the gospel for many people. Yeah. You know, so so just I agree with you. A good word for that is slob. Slop. Yeah, okay. So not my word, but I've adopted it. Well, you were talking about New Brunswick, so so let me go off topic as well. One of the things I wanted to mention is that New Brunswick does have some great things, but one thing it does have is it has more covered bridges than literally anywhere. And knowing that, I love covered bridges. So just a couple tidbit information, a little bit of information on them. Kings County, where Mike and I live, Kings County, we have an area there that of course has a few, but Kings County is actually known as the capital for the province of New Brunswick when it comes to these covered bridges, because just in Kings County there are 15. Currently, there are approximately 56 covered bridges in New Brunswick. You know the longest one. Of course, that's good old Heartland. Heartland Bridge. How old is it? It's uh it's just under 1,300 feet, so about 1,282 feet. Now, saying that, many of the covered bridges out there, of course, you cannot drive on, but they there are quite a few that are still roadworthy. A lot of them are single lanes.

SPEAKER_01

Yes.

SPEAKER_00

A lot of them you're driving through, and there are boards missing off the sides, and you're like, okay, how safe is this? Right? Rickety. Yeah, low rickety. Back in 1940, there were 340 covered bridges in New Brunswick. So you think about it, we've gone from three, four, he's really done his homework on this house. I did, I did. Now, the one thing is near where we live, there is a bridge, and it actually says it's a kissing bridge. What I noticed about that was when I went on and I did a little bit of research on this, many of the covered bridges are referenced as kissing bridges. And that's back from the horse and wagon era. Now, I don't know if that means that they would go in there and kiss. I try that with my wife. I don't know if it's gonna work, but I don't have a horse or a wagon. You gotta shoot your shot. That's right. Get the Mustang out, see if see if the Mustang helps. So slick your hair back. Yeah. A little bit of bro cream. Yes, right. A little bit of bro cream. So, covered bridges. If you have a chance and you come to New Brunswick, if you're not from here, it will be one of the items that you'll probably want to visit a few of them. They are all throughout New Brunswick. And again, just really nice. Yesterday, I was uh I was going to Darling's Island to uh pick up friends to go to volleyball, and we were there a little early. So, Tracy and I, that's what we did. We drove down to the covered bridge that was there, and and it was just one of those nostalgic things that again New Brunswick still has quite a few to enjoy. Yes, and I'd love to get some pictures with my family around a few of them.

SPEAKER_01

So the bridges in Madison County. You'd be good. I hate that I know that. You'd be good. But yeah, no, last night was a nice evening. Yeah. Uh I know I've been certainly looking forward to this spring weather, and it's been on again, off again, but uh hang in there, folks.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. So again, covered bridges, if if you by any chance have a favorite. Maybe let us know. We'd love to get more people to subscribe to our podcast here. So let us know which cover bridge you like and maybe subscribe at the same time. Now, let's go back on the topic here.

SPEAKER_01

What do these cover bridges do? Well, they protect you as you cross this, you know, this gap or the river or whatever it is, right? So speaking of you know protecting you from the elements, uh, it is spring, so we need to discuss uh I would say proper drainage. Okay. And there's there's a whole slew of things we can discuss, but I want to focus on everything, yeah. So I really want to focus on your roof drainage. Okay. So, you know, with the rain, like as of today, it's you know, it's raining pretty good. Uh, we've seen a lot of new builds that have kind of cut back on gutter systems. We don't see, you know, and again, uh it's only the few that are out there, but when you see a new build with no gutters and you see the rain coming down and it's coming straight down, what's happening is it's cutting into the earth and it's just eroding the whole outer perimeter of that house. So, what happens is the water eventually just gets in there and then it starts going in. So if you don't have proper sloping, and what sloping is is you know, you look at the basement of your foundation, you need good sloping that goes away from uh the foundation. So you you know, a new foundation is gonna be you know waterproof, all that good stuff, but just like anything, it wears down over the years.

SPEAKER_00

Is there a foundation out there without a crack?

SPEAKER_01

No, right? Every foundation has a crack. Absolutely, you just haven't found it, and water is uh a horrible, fickle, yeah, you know, blank word. Uh it's gonna find a way to get in, regardless. Um, so it tips that you can do to help prevent water, you know, constantly coming in and maybe sitting up against your foundation, constantly eroding it, and things like that over the years, it's gonna take a little time. Sure. Um, you know, like I said, proper sloping to have the water drain away, spending some money on getting a gutter system. For the most part, you know, you just if if you have a nice simple 412 pitch or whatever, you just have your gutter systems along the sides. Um and again, we need to- Why do you say that?

SPEAKER_00

Even if you're just having your roof done, make sure that if you're getting your roof replaced with shingles or whatever, that somewhere in that cost of doing it is for the eaves troughing. Because if they're taking that off, they may not be putting it back on. So when you're getting your roof reshingled, make sure that part of that is knowing that the eavesstroughing is being done as well.

SPEAKER_01

That's a fantastic tip because sometimes we focus so much on you know, here are the you know, here's uh cost of labor and the cost of supplies. Yeah. Um, so we uh I know from personal experience, it's been a couple years, but the last time that I put a gutter system in place, you know, you're looking at at least 1,500, maybe more than that. Now, now almost double. You know, yeah, it could be it could be double, and that's if uh you've got some know-how and you're doing it yourself.

SPEAKER_00

But there's more to that. Yeah. There's more than just the eavesdropping. You need your six-foot extenders, is what most inspectors will tell you they'll want. Many people actually bury the drainage and make sure if you do, you have proper drainage, but you have to go deep enough because if not, if you're not below the frost line, the frost level, all you're asking for is for a pool of water.

SPEAKER_01

That's right. And what does ice do? You know, it expands and it pushes. And another uh tip that we see is a lot of people that say you're do-it-yourself, or you put your gutter system in place, and what do we always do? We put things, you hang a picture, you make it plum, right? You don't put gutters at a hundred, you know, at zero percent angle or zero angle. It has to be a little bit of a decline to go to your drainage spouts. That's right. And so, what happens if you don't do that? Of course, you're just gonna get leaves and things like that that get stuck in there, or the water just sits in there, and then what happens when you like you get so much water in your gutter system, it's heavy, isn't it? Oh, I agree. So then that's pulling on the side of your house. Then you're looking at possible water intrusion. Again, I think you get the oh, the gist of it. The gist.

SPEAKER_00

Make sure that if if if you do own your home, and even if you're renting a house, that from time to time you need to get on a ladder. Make sure that the eavesdroffing is all clear of debris. Because just like what you said, if not, you're just asking the water to pool, it will come across, and and you're just gonna have the same issue.

SPEAKER_01

In the perfect world, you have the the weather that we can do our maintenance in the spring and do our maintenance in late fall before we get into uh the winter months.

SPEAKER_00

Yes. And there's different types of eavesdroffing, there's seamless eavesprofing, which is great, there's different sizes. The most important part though is not just that you have it, that you know that it's being drained away from the property. Because if not, we'll go to them and there's a pipe that goes right down, and now you have all of that water coming to one specific area of the foundation. So, yes, you may think, oh, yeah, no, that's better. No, it's not. It's almost better that it's coming right off the roof. At least, well the cornerstone. Of course. That's not important. No, not at all. But what you have to do is again understand that in any perfect world you could have it, you could still have issues. One of the main reasons is because every home has what's called a water table. When they have the land ready for your home, your your foundation, it's understood that water will be somewhere below. If you dig far enough down, you're hitting water. So knowing that, you have to make sure that again, you're trying your best to make sure that that water table isn't rising for things that you can actually take care of. So great point. Yeah, no great point. Appreciate it. Yeah, so knowing that, uh, there are many different companies that are out there, and a lot of them, believe it or not, are not your roofing companies. It is a specific company.

SPEAKER_01

And I I would say uh I think I'll just throw it out there. I thought I've heard of names that have like funny, you know, names like you know, instead of you know, Gitterdun or Gutterdon or whatever it's like. Yeah, yeah. But there are people like you said that specify just in that one area. Okay. Um, give you a great quote, come out, boom, they can probably pop it out in a couple hours. Right.

SPEAKER_00

So well, listen, uh, I know it's been a a great episode, lots to discuss, looking forward to the next one. Absolutely. Again, I thank you again for joining us. Uh if you haven't been paying attention, I'm Michael Dempsey. I'm Tim Somerville, and this is Off the Market with Team Somerville.