Five Window Buying Mistakes

hi i'm jeff ludy the owner of houston window experts and i want to say thank you so much for watching this video today i'm standing here in our showroom in houston texas and as you can see we have 20 brands of windows and doors to pick from including anderson pella marvin uh windsor and many other brands you haven't heard of but they are terrific products and today i want to talk to you about the five common most common i guess i should say mistakes that i see people make when they're shopping for windows and maybe this will save you having to fall into some of those pitfalls that a lot of people fall into and later on they look back and realize oh gosh i wish i had done more due diligence or i wish i'd understood windows better because let's think about this did you know that studies show that the reason most people drop out of the window buying experience is due to confusion yeah and maybe you yourself have been confused or maybe you are confused and that's the purpose of our video channel is to help educate people about windows specifically replacement windows but also new construction windows and how you can make the best decision you can for buying windows for your home we believe at houston window experts that it's our focus to treat people with honesty dignity with respect and to be treated the way we'd want to be treated and we believe that if you have more information information is power you will make a better decision hopefully that decision includes our company but if not if we've been helpful along the way we're so glad we got a chance to meet you even if it is via the youtube channel so i'm right here in our showroom as i mentioned i'm going to take you into the conference room this is by the way i'll point this out to you this is our fleetwood multi-panel sliding door and look at that thing go i mean it's just these panels are about 400 500 pounds a piece but look how that thing just glides it's beautiful all three of the panels move gives a big expanse if you're in the market for a beautiful sliding door like this let us know maybe we can help you with that so the five things that i see most common when people are buying windows are the things that perhaps sales people kind of tend to mislead you in because after all you are being sold windows and think about this if you go to best buy and you buy a television right and you don't like it they have a 15-day return policy for that um if you buy windows and you don't like your windows and they're already in your house you're not getting your money back you're not getting your old windows back they're in a dumpster somewhere and so getting it right the first time is critical so are you ready for the top five things we hear that people make as mistakes okay number one they fall in love with a window before they fall in love with a window company i'll say it again they fall in love with a window before they fall in love with a window company now what do you mean by that jeff well here's the thing there's there's a lot of great sales people out there and a lot of them are actually people that are just manipulative and they they will get your full attention they will spend three hours at your house pushing their specific brand of window they'll bang and bash all the other window companies and then at the end of that three hour high pressure presentation you're in love with their window i mean if i if you gave me three hours to talk to you about any of these 20 brands of windows it would be the best window in the world if i if i played the game that way we don't we're like the carmax of windows we have different brands different types of windows for different budgets so our goal is to not try to convince you that we have the best window in the world but here's what happens you call company um a or company b and you get them on the phone and one of the first indicators that you're about to be high pressured sales is when they say well all the decision makers be present what they mean by that is if you're married for example or you have a significant other they want you and the other person there at the same time so they can do this high p pressure pitch and then you can't say well let me talk to my spouse about that and get back to you in a couple of days so they want to eliminate that opportunity and then what they'll do is they'll come to your house and they'll spend three hours if you let them and they will knock all the competition they'll tell you how terrible they are and then they'll tell you how wonderful their window is and at the end of the experience this high-pressure guy who now you say try to say no to he becomes nasty and me and if you've been through this you know exactly what i'm talking about they'll say things like why do you not like me what is it you don't like about me earlier mr homeowner when i said to you don't you agree that window blah blah blah blah and you said yes were you lying why did you say yes and now you're saying no and they just they have these high pressure tactics and they try to convince you to buy windows from them and then you decide i don't like this guy i'm kicking him out of my house you kick him out of the house you go online you try to find that window that someone else in town is selling that same window and you can't find anyone so you call the factory and you say hey i love your window and i but i don't like joe i'd like another window company to sell me this window and i said no i'm sorry you're gonna have to go with joe he's our dealer in that area for that window well basically now you have to go ahead and accept the the good and the bad the window you love with the person you hate and you're gonna end up with a bad relationship with that person probably because they're not doing business the way they should be doing business instead of falling in love with a window first my advice would be fall in love with a good window company especially one that has more than one window the fact that they have one window is a sign of manipulation anybody who does a great job at whatever they do should have choices and options available to you back to best buy they sell sony they sell samsung they sell lg they sell vizio why because they want have they want to have choices for different clients for different tastes for different sizes and for different budgets and so the problem would fall in love with the window first is now you're on a quest to find somebody who sells that window instead of finding a great window company first if you find a great window company first and you don't like them you're not going to like their window because i've said it many times and it's true a great window with a bad installer is a bad window now you say jeff but his window was so great he made so many great points i know and if you let him leave and you let another guy come into your house for three hours he'll make such great arguments about his window versus the one you just saw that now you're gonna say yeah i guess this guy's right too or you become so confused remember we talked about confusion that you just drop out of the whole buying cycle so number one mistake i see is people falling in love with the window before they fall in love with the window company the second mistake i see is focus on numbers everything becomes about numbers now maybe you're an engineer type right we've got a lot of engineers in houston because it's it's kind of what we do here um and engineer types they'll get paralyzed i mean it's called paralysis by analysis right they want more information they want more numbers they want to compare on the numbers why because they get confused about the windows so now they want to boil it down to just numbers they think it's like math right if this number's better than that number it's got to be a better window well that's not true some people say i've heard them say well jeff this window company's a bigger window company than that window company as somehow that makes it better i've heard this joke it's kind of funny it says uh if if bigger were always better miss america to weigh 400 pounds right but she doesn't so bigger is not always better don't get confused by the numbers don't get confused by the size of the company for example this machine right here this can tell me what type of glass is in the window and what the percentages of the values are so you don't have to see these numbers but you can trust me that i can put the glass here i can compare the numbers i can see the visible transmission the infrared transfer the solar heat gain etc etc i've had i've had com people tell me before jeff i i want to go with brand x because they actually have better performance data than brand y or brand z and and we've gotten those windows together before and we've held the glass up to this tester and we've tested the glass and guess what they're 100 identical because if you watch my videos about glass and there's a great video about low e coatings and glass you'll you'll learn that while we have 1800 window makers in the u.s more or less we only have about four glass companies so they're all buying their glass from someone so now it becomes about marketing it becomes about giving it their special numbers i had a guy call me the other day and he said jeff i'm so on the bubble about buying the window from you or another company he said because yours has three coats theirs has 12. the guy told me theirs has 12 and yours only has three i thought to myself if they have 12 coatings of low e oh my gosh you're not going to be able to see through that window it's going to be like a limo tint so i went to their website i researched a little bit it wasn't 12 coats it's 12 layers 12 layers on a glass and and the one that i was selling the low e366 from cardinal same thing had the same number of coats because actually services because you have this is an outside surface that's one then you have an inside surface that's two then you have three coats of low e so that's five and then you have three binder coats one over each coat of low e now you're at eight then you have the inside surface then you have the outside surface and you have the clear on the outside you add it up it's 12 there weren't lying to the guy but it was deceptive it made it sound like my window's better than that guy's window and focusing solely on numbers instead of focusing on how the window looks how the window operates what kind of warranty you're going to get and most importantly who's installing the window that's a big mistake it ends up people end up buying a window that meets all their number criteria but it doesn't do anything else for it and sometimes people can manipulate numbers to make them look better than they really are so be careful for that the third thing that i see and it also ties in the number two is because people are looking for a specific type of window and they like the numbers on the window they end up with a frame that's way too chunky i'm going to show you an example here's a vinyl window a corner of a vinyl window that's got great ratings on it but look at how wide that is i mean look at how much glass you're going to lose on this window now if this was a window that was say six feet wide by eight feet tall you probably wouldn't care you probably wouldn't notice how wide this frame is but imagine the kitchen sink window or that little skinny window by the front door or the window in the bathroom that window by the front door is only usually 12 inches wide a 12 inch wide window and nearly 4 inches of plastic you're gonna end up with like two inches of glass in the middle it's going to be hideous and ugly now the ratings are going to be great why because the heat doesn't come through the frame like it comes through the glass so when a guy says well here's my window it's got a better heat rating than the other guy well maybe so but you have a whole lot less glass on that window as well so that's something to consider people buy windows based on numbers and end up with ugly chunky frames now suppose you weren't into the numbers thing that wasn't important to you but you just wanted a good quality window this window right here is a terrific window it does everything that this window will do and it's so much narrower look at the difference between these two i'm going to put them side by side now if you're wanting to buy frame or you're wanting to buy glass which one would be the best choice for you i've got some pictures i'm going to throw up on the screen as i talk about this i want you to see some examples of people who bought windows and they didn't get to see how it was going to look in their house until it was too late and these windows were already installed and now they're regretting that they ever bought that window so chunky frames big ugly thick chunky frames are a no-no and we see people make that mistake a lot and once the windows are in they can't take them back they absolutely hate it another mistake we hear people make all the time is the tonight only price there's a company in town there's more than one but there's one in particular that they come out to your house and they do that three hour presentation and then they say and i'm gonna give you a real number here i just heard this last week from a guy who bought windows from us said jeff when they got all done with their three-hour presentation they told me here's our price this is hundred and one thousand dollars hundred and one thousand dollars and but after all the discounts we have it was seventy eight thousand dollars oh wow wasn't that great and they mentioned something about um labor day and i thought what would labor day have to do with the cost of making a window but i've seen i've seen um grandparents day discounts i've seen labor day memorial day thanksgiving sale i mean just all these reasons they have but the guy said but if you buy tonight instead of 78 000 you can get it for 64 000. 78 to 64 because you buy tonight if you if you let me walk across that threshold mr homeowner that price goes with me and you will not get a better price ever again i would have kicked the guy out i mean that's manipulation to me guess what that job we were at 41 000 for a comparable product with a better install a better warranty and better customer service but a lot of people fall for that i mean obviously they do or these companies wouldn't be in business they wouldn't be sending you these flyers that are this big in your mailbox every day they talk about a big 40 percent off sale and by the way i've watched their facebook page on these companies their big sale that ends at midnight on the 31st they start a new one that's the same thing with different wording that ends on the 31st of the next month so it's just this constant you've got to buy tonight now here's one of the things they'll say to you they'll say to you look this price is going to go away if you don't buy tonight why don't you go ahead and sign tonight okay give me your deposit check and you know what i'm going to give you three days to change your mind if you change your mind about these windows and you decide you don't want to move forward i'll bring you back your check we'll tear it up we'll we'll tear up the agreement and you won't have to buy any windows for me but i just hate to see you miss out on the opportunity to get this big savings that i can offer you tonight but what they didn't tell the homeowner is that by federal law that's called a three-day right to rescind period anytime you buy something in your home by federal law you're allowed three days to change your mind and they do it for this exact reason or you know grammar gets taken advantage of by a door-to-door salesman and then the kids find out later and they want to cancel so this is a federal law he's not doing any kind of favors in fact the dishonesty there it just stinks to high heaven it's like an acre of garlic walking into your house these guys stink so bad so that's the other mistake is that tonight only price don't do that don't fall for it in fact just so you know these professional window companies like this they actually have what's called a rehash rehash manager his job is that after you don't buy that night he calls you back he starts calling you back and offering a better price and a better price and a better price and a better price so the truth is buying the windows that night is actually the highest price you're going to get for those windows waiting will lower that price over a period of time believe me on that it is true so don't be in a rush sleep on it take your time think about it even if it's our window company don't be in a rush the last one is um zero percent financing it kind of goes in conjunction with some of the other things that they talk about right they they make you fall in love with the window they focus on how great their numbers are they tell you about how much you're going to love the performance and then they tell you that you got to buy it tonight and by the way you can cancel in three days if if you change your mind and and if you don't buy tonight you're not gonna also get advantage of our zero percent financing a lot of companies that do this they offer 48 months of zero percent financing have a great video we'll send a link to you i'll put a link to it in the description about the ugly truth behind zero percent financing but i'll give you a short version of it anytime someone gets a zero percent financing option it's actually costing the company that's selling the windows a percentage of the deal they have to buy your interest rate from the lender so that they can offer it to you for zero percent it's anywhere between it depends on how long the term is and how good your credit is it's anywhere between five percent all the way up to about 18 percent of the deal so if you were going if you said well jeff i've got good credit yeah that's even worse the better your credit is the more they're gonna charge the dealer for that because they know you're going to pay the bill in fact the guy who's not going to pay the bill actually costs less for a dealer to buy out his 0 because there's a chance that they're going to make interest money on that guy but somebody like you with an excellent credit score you're always going to pay your bill what's in it for the lender when you pay your bill zero so they have to make their money from the dealer up front gives you between five and eighteen as much as twenty percent for that so don't fall for that okay don't fall for that instead make your best cash price deal even that guy who was at 64 000 if if if the customer who ended up buying from me for 41 if he said i don't want the zero percent i want a better deal not the zero percent they would have come off about another 10 to 15 percent off their price to close that deal right then without the financing because they know they don't have to pay for the financing instead of houston window experts we don't play those games we do have lenders but you're actually going to pay for what you get you're getting if your credit's good you're going to have a very low credit um interest rate if your credit's bad it's going to be higher but it's going to be based totally on how credit worthy you are and the dollar amount of your purchase and your repayment terms etc so we actually we actually do kind of like lending tree if you've heard of lending tree for buying a mortgage we have 13 lenders without even pulling your credit it's a soft pull not a hard pull we can send off the dollar amount and you get to do this online by the way we don't ever see your social security number or date of birth or any of that information and you get a soft poll and it'll tell you what you qualify for without even affecting your credit they shop at the 13 different lenders so we can get you the best deal so your best deal with any window company especially mine is to negotiate your very best cash price if they didn't already give it to you in the first place like they should have and then pay with a check or pay with a wire or pay with cash because then we don't have to do the credit card processing it's going to save you money but falling for the zero percent thing is they they got you on two parts they told you you had to do it now and it told you that you don't want to pass up on a zero percent and most americans we're all kind of this way we're a little greedy we hate to pass up quote free money but in this case it's not free money okay so those are the top five things i hope you've enjoyed watching this video even if you live in another state um send me your stories about your window questions or how we can help because we do know a lot of great dealers all over the country maybe we know someone in your neck of the woods that can help you if you're in the houston area please give us a call or drop by we'd love to meet you we'd love to talk to you about your window project and hopefully we can help you avoid these five mistakes thanks for watching and have a great day you

Channel: Houston Window Experts

Views: 124,419

Rating: 4.836308 out of 5

Keywords: jeff ludy, houston window experts, replacement windows, home improvement, remodeling

Id: RaKlIYF7bnA

Length: 19min 28sec (1168 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 23 2020