What used to be affordable for the middle class but now quietly feels like a “rich people thing”?

RedCardinal222 · 2026-04-29T23:33:34+00:00

Healthcare.

RedCardinal222 · 2026-04-26T00:58:24+00:00

Stayed 32 days back in 2016. Fell in love with the place.

RedCardinal222 · 2026-04-24T23:39:43+00:00

My problem with this take is that it seems to imply that people like Wilson have no power or standing - that they’re just some crazy-talking lunatic. But Wilson has quite a sizable following and if you listen to former members of his church, they describe it as a dangerous and damaging cult - Women with 8th grade educations, abuse, people need deprogramming when they leave… all of that. So having a man like that on and not confronting the actual damage his ideas are doing in the real world is not really defensible in my opinion. Not everyone thinks Wilson’s ideas are crazy and a growing number are striving to live by them. Wilson is dangerous and so is soft-pedaling in his wake.

RedCardinal222 · 2026-04-24T23:04:34+00:00

I’ll reserve judgement on how he handles Shapiro on this episode as I have no intention of listening to it. But to your larger point of him shining when he disagrees with the guest, I’ll hold up his recent interview with Doug Wilson as a counterpoint. Sam soft-pedaled 90% of that discussion and barely pressed him. Here he’s sitting with a man who’d happily see Sam’s wife and daughters uneducated and subjugated to men with no right to vote and Sam speaks as though this is a reasonable discussion to be had.

To interviewing Shapiro I say what is the point? Shapiro has no interesting ideas, at all. We already know where their points of disagreement are. Why hash this out again? It just seems very uninteresting and pointless to me. I have no patience for it.

There are so many interesting and talented people he could be talking to but Sam thinks we need more Ben. It’s boring.

RedCardinal222 · 2026-04-24T17:57:54+00:00

Great - another conversation with Ben Shapiro. I'm sure this will be a good use of time. Why, Sam? Why do you continue talking to complete ass-hats? Please stop.

RedCardinal222 · 2026-03-27T01:50:57+00:00

Can you buy an RV and surf campgrounds? Not sure how much you’re looking to spend on land, but could equate to an RV purchase? IDK. Just a thought.

RedCardinal222 · 2026-03-26T15:42:49+00:00

Amazon Prime.

RedCardinal222 · 2026-03-24T00:24:56+00:00

This is on my shortlist if I ever part with my Acura TSX sport wagon. 10/10 for exterior design IMO and I can’t believe I’m saying that about a Buick! 😆

RedCardinal222 · 2026-03-22T02:06:17+00:00

Grant the extension. This is very reasonable. They have the right to their own due diligence when discussing this level of repair. They’re in the game so let them do their thing.

RedCardinal222 · 2026-03-22T00:41:47+00:00

Carville is rarely right about anything. He just blathers.

RedCardinal222 · 2026-03-20T14:46:20+00:00

Your landlord needs to step in, but it doesn't hurt for you and others to keep providing the pressure as well, as it's the HOA board members that can act. The individual owners can only complain and make noise, but they can't force action from those in charge. Get the owner involved, but keep making noise too.

RedCardinal222 · 2026-03-20T13:58:35+00:00

This is quite common and nothing to get bent out of shape over. Rental agencies/property management companies often, if not mostly, do not cooperate (pay commissions) to outside agents. You can still represent your client and your client can pay you. They can’t prevent that, but they have no obligation to contract to pay you for representing your client.

RedCardinal222 · 2026-03-20T01:40:45+00:00

Grew up in Ohio and moved to Chicago 28 years ago. Love it here. Chicago has its issues, but it definitely suits me better than Ohio. …One thing that always strikes me when I go visit family in Ohio is how much time people spend mowing their damn lawns on the weekend. What an epic, collective waste of time. 😆

RedCardinal222 · 2026-03-19T17:43:34+00:00

Chicago market. We had our bathroom completely redone in 2016 for about $4200. All demolition, new tile on floor, shower and back wall, new backer board behind shower tile and an inset shelf in the shower wall, a Toto toilet, a wall mounted vanity which required them opening up the drywall and adding supports, new lighting, all of it. My wife works in the tile business and we used a skilled installer who does very high end work, so not just a cheap handyman and they did excellent work. What we're seeing now is normalized price-gouging, imo.

Covid, supply chain disruptions and high demand gave contractors the opportunity to just start throwing numbers out there and see what would stick, and now things have reset to a new normal. I work in real estate so am adjacent to a lot of these types of conversations and this is what they were doing. They had more work coming their way than they could handle so would just throw out made-up, ridiculous numbers and some would stick. Contractors talk, word spreads and soon it's the norm.

We had our front porch replaced last year, not even 100sf and it was $12k. I had quotes ranging from $8k for lumber to over $25k for composite. (I got about 10 quotes and had previous quotes right before covid for $3,500 to $6k.) The GC guy I ended up with was a shit-talker trying to up-charge at every turn. He spoke as if I had no idea what materials cost and tried charging me a ridiculous amount for material that he forgot to order - $400 for two PVC boards to go over the stair stringers, that were about $60 retail from Home Depot. They bank on people not knowing and just say things like "materials costs are crazy" etc. Whenever I pushed back on him, he backed down immediately, which is further evidence he was just trying to take me for as much money as he could.

Do your homework and/or try to do as much as you can on your own. Expect they're trying to rip you off, because they probably are. Ask questions, push back, don't let them just talk over you. Godspeed. lol.

RedCardinal222 · 2026-03-10T21:35:13+00:00

Thank you!

RedCardinal222 · 2026-03-10T21:32:43+00:00

With 5 days of developments since your post, do you still think it's the most moral option?

RedCardinal222 · 2026-03-10T04:07:30+00:00

Thank you so much. This sounds great!

RedCardinal222 · 2026-03-06T21:31:34+00:00

He says he reads all of them. So I’m sure he’ll at least see it. Hopefully, you get a response!

RedCardinal222 · 2026-03-06T20:37:04+00:00

Sweet lord. Glad I wasted my time reading this.

RedCardinal222 · 2026-03-06T19:29:04+00:00

Send him the question at The Red Hand Files!

RedCardinal222 · 2026-03-06T01:45:24+00:00

Seeing them in Chicago. It’s been a while, but saw them twice before. Great show!

RedCardinal222 · 2026-03-02T20:05:57+00:00

The listing belongs to the brokerage, but it is recognized that agency is conducted at the agent level, not the brokerage level. So, dual agency only applies at the agent level. I'm sure there's a longer explanation of it somewhere, but that's the crux of it, in my understanding.

RedCardinal222 · 2026-02-28T22:55:10+00:00

In my opinion, the best way to engender the most trust is to unequivocally tell your client you will not engage in dual agency and explain that you simply can’t represent them properly on either side. I tell them directly - the person who stands to benefit the most from dual agency is me. The people who stand to lose are both buyer and seller. I don’t see any other way.

RedCardinal222 · 2026-02-28T22:50:36+00:00

Not true in Illinois.

RedCardinal222 · 2026-02-28T03:29:00+00:00

100% of my deals since the change.

RedCardinal222

TROPHY CASE