Eric: Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to Tilson Live. It is Tuesday. It is 2:00 here, coming at you live on YouTube, live on Facebook, live on Instagram to talk about all things building a custom home on your land. So join us, jump into the chat, tell us where you're watching from, where you're building, what part of the process you are in. I'm Eric Aller, part of the fourth generation of the Tilson family, joined as I am each and every single week by the marvelous Dawn Dantzler, Tilson's vice president of marketing and customer experience. Good afternoon, Dawn.

Dawn: Hey, Eric. How's it going?

Eric: Well, it's going well. It's going great. All is good.

Dawn: You seem sure.

Eric: Well, I had to think about "all." There's a lot going on. We were told we were going to have a ton of rain today. It's rained a little. It might be wet outside, not really. Let's see. What else? Oh, it's election day.

Dawn: It's election day today.

Eric: So the texts are going to stop. I can't wait to wake up tomorrow, Wednesday, November 4th, and not be text-shamed that my neighbors have voted and I have not, which is not true. I voted a week and a half ago in Grimes County. It happened, but no one told the text guy that. He thinks I still have not done my part. So that's a problem.

Dawn: That's not nice.

Eric: Not what we're here to talk about, but the day is going well. It will be over, one way or the other, tonight. I can't wait. Honestly, I just want the text messages to stop. So welcome to Tilson Live, everyone. This is a place you can come and escape all of the ridiculousness that is the most important election in US history. Fun fact about that. I'll get to that in a minute. Anyway, folks, jump into the chat. Tell us where you're watching from, where you're building, what part of the process you are in. If only the weatherman could make election predictions. He could be wrong just like he is about the weather, like 70% of the time. That would be hilarious.

Dawn: That's a whole other profession. You don't want to be putting the pollsters out of work.

Eric: I get it, but I feel like they could add value in the space. I really do. If nothing else, they could add comedic relief. We are not brought to you by Polymarket or anybody else. We're just here to talk about building a custom home on your land. That's really what we're trying to do here. So if you're looking for a place to come and not hear about the elections, this is the space for you.

Dawn: And we're so glad that you're here.

Eric: So when you get here, jump into the chat. Tell us where you're watching from, where you're building, what part of the process you're in. We want to hear from you guys. We will talk about pretty well anything you want to. Dawn's going to tell us in a second what we're talking about today. That's what she does. That's the way it works, everybody.

Dawn: And then sometimes that's actually what we talk about.

Eric: That's right. Like a weatherman, 70% of the time she's wrong. 30% of the time, it is what we talk about. But we do want to hear from you guys. We do the whole show for y'all, so jump into the chat. We can talk about finance, construction, energy efficiency, design changes, energy code, culverts, septic systems, water wells, meters, taps, power. How does it all work? That's what we're here to talk about. I'm Eric at Tilson Homes. She's Dawn at Tilson Homes. Dawn, what are we going to talk about today?

Dawn: So everything that you just mentioned. This is one of those episodes that's all about you guys. Whatever questions y'all have, we are here to answer those. And if you don't ask us questions, we'll just make up our own.

Eric: We sure will. That's how we roll. So yes, folks, it is truly Ask Us Anything. You've got to stump Dawn, stump Eric. There's got to be a burning question out there. Maybe you own land or you're in the process of buying land. Maybe it's not paid for yet. We'll talk about that in a second. Spoiler alert: it doesn't have to be. Let's say you're thinking about building somewhere, but you have a house to sell. How does that work with Tilson, and is it different from other on-your-lot builders? Maybe you're in the subdivision, and you're tired of the kids coming home for fall break and playing basketball outside your master bedroom window till 4:00 in the morning. You're ready to move somewhere with a little more space and a little more privacy.

Eric: Maybe you've already started this process. You've done some design changes. You've sat down with one of our sales consultants. They've put the kitchen of the Canyon into the kitchen of the... I went blank.

Dawn: Angelina. Wellington. Fill in the blank.

Eric: Yeah, fill in the blank. And customized the master bath a little bit. Maybe changed the utility room so you can go into the utility from the master closet. Maybe you've already done your site evaluation. We've met you out there. Maybe you have questions like, "They said I need to extend a water line," or, "I need to make application with the power company. What do I do about that?" And the power company's saying, "I need to deed them an easement. What does that mean?" We can answer those questions and more. So jump into the chat. Tell us if it's raining where you are, if you have this cold front blowing through.

Dawn: So spooky.

Eric: Straight-line winds. Supposedly Dallas is going to get it really good. Nobody knows. At best it is a guess. We are live on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. While we're waiting for folks to jump in, Dawn, is there anything happening in the Republic of Tilson right now?

Dawn: They're probably all out voting. We have a seminar happening this weekend in our Waxahachie office. They're going to be talking all about land prep. If you want to get a little deeper into what you need to do to prepare your land for building, that is what they will be talking about. One of our land prep specialists will be there telling you all of the things that you need to do. That's really one of the most unique aspects of building on your lot. If you've built in a production subdivision before, all of that work to get the land ready was done before you even got there. So it's a great topic to learn more about, or you can ask us some of your questions now and get ready for that event.

Dawn: We've got Wendy joining us from our Spring office. She said it just finished raining, so come see them.

Eric: I hope you're okay. We will rebuild. Is the Brazoria okay?

Dawn: We have umbrellas there at the sites, guys. You can walk the models with umbrellas. Gorgeous, big umbrellas. Then we've got Adriana from Katy, building a San Antonio C in Gonzales County. They just finished clearing, the construction drive, and the final stake. Zoe took great photos. Electric and water well bids are next.

Eric: Awesome. That's very thorough. Folks, take notes. This is exactly it. Adriana, thank you so much. She understood the assignment. Who she is, where she's building, where she's from, what part of the process she's in. Shout out to Zoe. [Unclear] points to Adriana. Love it.

Dawn: And Wendy said the Brazoria survived the rain.

Eric: Awesome. That is a gorgeous model. Wendy did all of the color selections and designed that home, and it's absolutely gorgeous, guys. You should definitely go check it out if you haven't had a chance to.

Dawn: Oh, it's beautiful.

Eric: So folks, it is Ask Us Anything. If you want to talk construction drives, like Adriana just did, what does that even mean? We can go into that. What's a final stakeout? Who is responsible for clearing? What about water wells, septic systems, electric? Hold on, I want to sneeze. Just kidding, didn't happen. We want to hear from you. We have some boilerplate questions ready to go that we get asked all the time.

Dawn: Our OSC team, our online sales specialists, sent a couple of questions they've been getting recently. They were curious about why we do not build with metal siding.

Eric: Okay. Actually, we have. We've investigated some different products. The biggest part is, a lot of people get the idea that it's going to be cheaper than Hardie. It's not. It ends up being a lot more expensive. It's more expensive to work with. You can't cut it with a regular circular saw like you can Hardie. Hardie's a great product. Dollar for dollar, it's very difficult to beat the protection that Hardie provides for how little it costs. That's what ends up making steel unaffordable. It's not that we won't use steel. I've talked to Justin Ordóñez and the construction team. They're open to using it. But by the time we get the price for the actual metal, how we're going to put it on, what part of the house it goes on, and then a price from an installer, it ends up being cost-prohibitive for most customers. They just end up saying, "No, we'd just as soon do stone or Hardie and be done with it."

Dawn: Rather spend those dollars somewhere else.

Eric: It probably never has to be repainted, but it is still going to fade in the sun. It's still going to shrink and swell. Metal still does that, certainly more so than Hardie, stone, or brick. Stone and brick do shrink and swell with moisture and lack of moisture, but metal is going to expand and contract more than that. There's no functional or construction reason why we wouldn't do it. It's just the cost. Steel costs a lot of money compared to cementitious fiberboard, which is what HardiePlank is. It's concrete fiberboard. It's really hard to beat that dollar for dollar. Same thing with stone or brick. They're in much more abundance, and they cost less. It's economies of scale. We will do metal, but by the time we price it out for you, you're going to want to spend the money somewhere else, whether it's a wainscot or all the way up. We actually just went through this, pricing out a house for my brother-in-law and sister-in-law up in Iowa, Texas. We started off with metal siding, and we're not doing metal siding. We're doing Hardie.

Dawn: Fair enough. All right, we have Kirsten over on Instagram. She's had issues in the past with pests getting into custom-built homes. What part of your process would prevent this?

Eric: It's funny you say this. I own a couple of Airbnbs. Ironically, they all happen to be on crawl spaces. I don't have an Airbnb that's on a slab. It brings its own set of issues. My daughter, who manages one of our properties in a different state, was just there today meeting the pest control guy, because we have friends joining our guests. They're unpaid guests in our Airbnb. So the biggest thing is slab on grade. That helps more than anything. It's that many fewer penetrations underneath. You don't have to worry about 360 degrees. You only have to worry about the walls and the roof. You take care of, whatever, 2,500 square feet of potential penetrations just by having it on the ground on a slab. The next thing we do that helps a lot is the spray foam. We spray foam the exterior walls of the house as well as the rafters, so we completely seal in that envelope.

Eric: Now, that's not to say scorpions and centipedes can't still get in, because you've got doors and windows. Usually it's doors they're getting into. Doors need to be adjusted every now and then. The thresholds are actually adjustable, because as weather changes, things shrink and swell. You can pop the little buttons off the threshold and adjust them so your house is tight. You can change that over time or with the seasons. That's typically where things get in, usually in the corner of doors. We do a blower door test on every house. That's where we measure air changes per hour. In most of the state, we're achieving less than two air changes per hour, which proves how tight the house is.

Eric: But the reality is, if you're in the country, there's going to be critters. That's all there is to it. Where there's people, there's food and waste. Critters are opportunistic. They've been on Earth a long time, and they've figured out how to survive. They're going to find a way in. But between having it on a slab, spray foaming the entire envelope, and being diligent about adjusting the thresholds, or calling us and asking about that, it can be handled pretty easily. The place you'll probably end up having them is your garage, if you have one. A garage door is not as airtight as an exterior personnel door. It's got big gaps at the bottom. You're going to have a light on in there at some point, like a little green light on the refrigerator in the garage or on the garage door sensors. Anywhere there's light in a dark place, spiders are going to build webs, and critters are going to be drawn to it. So if you can turn lights off at night inside, that helps a lot, because bugs are drawn to light. Flies, mosquitoes, mayflies. And when they show up, the next thing on the food chain shows up. Spiders say, "This seems to be a target-rich environment," and build their webs. Then the birds that build little mud nests on your porch say, "Spiders are here. That sounds delicious." That's the circle of life, folks. It's straight up the food chain.

Dawn: Makes sense.

Eric: So spray foam insulation, and if I were you, get a regular pest control service. And keep your garbage, to the degree you can, away from the house. Get a bungee cord that goes over your trash can out at the road.

Dawn: All right. We have Lisa in Hico over on Instagram. She's sharing that they closed back in June and are loving their Tilson home. "We had fun having everyone over a few weeks ago to video and take pics. What a great experience." Lisa, we're looking forward to sharing your story. They're just finishing editing that video, and it will be featured on a future Live. Thanks so much for sharing your home with us. And Adriana has a question over on YouTube: "One of our next steps is the appraisal as part of the financing. Does this value get communicated to the county in any way?"

Eric: Only if you tell them. So the answer is no. We do not do it. The mortgage company doesn't do it. Not every county does this, Adriana, but I have seen some that send you a very official-looking document with the county seal at the top. At the very bottom, there's a place for you to fill out what the house cost. And at the very bottom in fine print it says, "This is a voluntary form. You don't have to fill this out." So don't. That's not to say they can't ascertain the value. The county tax assessor is an elected position in Texas. Their job, with their staff of appraisers, is to assess value. Your job is to challenge it. Take receipts. I argue it every year. It's a pain. You have to make an appointment. They make it difficult. But it's worth doing, even if it's just a couple thousand dollars you get knocked off the value. If you never contest it, then in 5, 7, or 10 years it's ridiculously high, and when you go in, they say, "Well, it's always been this amount. You've never questioned it before." So set aside the time. If you have a small child, or one you can borrow, take that with you and let them scream and cry in the waiting room. I find that helpful. You usually get shoved to the front of the line. But no, we don't communicate with them. They may pester you for it, but you don't owe them that information. Their job is to calculate it. Sometimes they do it with drones, sometimes they drive by. But you can always contest it, and you should.

Dawn: Good to know. Then Rebecca is asking, "Are shingle roofs or metal roofs better?"

Eric: Great question, Rebecca. The answer is, it depends on your aesthetics. A lot of people like the look of a metal roof. I actually have both on my house: a shingle roof with metal accents. Dollar for dollar, value-wise, shingles. There's no question. As far as protecting the home, you can't beat an architectural dimensional composition shingle. There's a common misconception that metal roofs aren't susceptible to hail. Not true. They can still be damaged by hail. It will look like a car with hail damage, with little dents all over it. So they're no more protective against hail than a shingle roof. And there are very inexpensive upgrades to shingle roofs that get you every bit of that protection. I think Owens Corning has one they tested with two-inch steel balls on a composition shingle roof. We carry that line, and it's a tenth of what a metal roof would cost.

Dawn: And those get you a discount with your insurance.

Eric: I think so. It depends on your insurance. In many cases they do, because they're more resilient and more resistant. That said, if you like the aesthetics of a metal roof, there's not really a composition shingle that's going to replicate that look. So you have to go with metal. But I encourage people that if you're going to go with metal, it should be simply because you want it to look that way. The warranties aren't really much longer, if at all. I've seen a metal roof with maybe a 50-year warranty. I wouldn't believe that personally. If we do a metal roof, it's going to be concealed fastener. The biggest thing is don't have any exposed fasteners, which are screws. Make sure there are none of the little rubber gasket screws exposed. The sun, especially in Texas, is going to decimate that rubber gasket in probably less than 24 months. But a concealed fastener standing seam metal roof is great quality. I recommend 24-gauge. Some builders use 26-gauge, which is a little thinner. 24-gauge is what we recommend and what we would use. If you want a particular color, then the metal roof is better. But for performance and value, dollar for dollar, you cannot beat a shingle roof. Architectural dimensional composition shingles, not wood shingles.

Dawn: Good to know.

Eric: Another thing, going back to the appraisal she asked about. It's good to put those two questions together. Appraisers don't necessarily give a metal roof the value of what it really costs. Kind of like a swimming pool. They're like, "It's got a roof. Check. We expect it to have a roof that doesn't leak." So in a lot of those cases, you spend 10 times more money on your roof. It looks awesome, but it may not fit in that appraised value. The appraiser may say, "None of your neighbors have a metal roof, so I don't really have $35,000 of value to assign to the roof." So it needs to be just, "I want one." That's my opinion. What's your opinion, though?

Dawn: Same. It's purely aesthetics. I was going to ask you about how you don't get credit for that in the appraisal. That's true of a lot of other upgrades in a home as well. They're sort of like, "We expect it to have this." So be prepared for that as you're adding things into homes. Fireplaces, pools, things like that may not have the same value in an appraisal as what they cost you. So it's how badly do you want that thing? That's what you need to think about.

Dawn: We have Liz over on Instagram saying, "We have property off Fitzhugh Road with my sister. We're wanting to build soon, and we need to sell our house first. Do y'all do percentage down while you build and pay the rest at the end?"

Eric: Great question. By the way, I think Rebecca Snow Fahey can tell us about Fitzhugh Road. She's living there. Fitzhugh is a cool spot, just north of Dripping Springs, so you're out there in Hays County. I can't put the question up, so I want to be sure I answer it correctly. They have a house they want to sell?

Dawn: Yeah. "We're wanting to build soon. We need to sell our house first." And she's asking how paying us works.

Eric: There's a couple of ways to do it. The beautiful part about working with Tilson is that you don't have to have a construction loan. You'd most likely qualify for our EasyBuy if you have 10% equity of the total value, which your land, especially up on Fitzhugh Road in Hays County, probably covers. Wagon Hill's going to be upset with me for saying it like this, but here's what you could do. I'm assuming a couple of things, which is very dangerous. My first assumption is you want to move one time. My second is that you want to use the proceeds of your existing home to either pay for or pay down the home you want to build with us. What we would probably have you do is get approved for the loan. Go through the entire underwriting process and get approved for the full amount. Remember, with Tilson, you're not closing on this loan until the house is finished. The only money out of pocket would be an application fee you pay to Wagon Hill, probably $1,500. The majority of that cost is the appraisal, which has to be done. It's basically an appraisal and a credit report you're paying for. They'll pull your credit and underwrite it as if you were going to borrow the full contract amount. Get approved for that full amount, or as much as you can, and anything you don't get approved for, you would pay us before we start.

Eric: So, your question about the percentage. Any difference or delta between the amount you're approved for by a lender and the contract amount with Tilson, we require that gap to be paid up front. But not at contract signing. It's before we start construction. After your color selections are done, after we have building permits, after property owner association approval or whatever's involved, when we're ready to start construction, we say, "Okay, we need that money down." We may not need any. It's possible. Then we build the house from zero to completely finished. Again, you're not closing on the loan, you're not making any payments, and there's no interest accruing. Then you're going to time, ideally, the sale of your house. Granted, houses are taking longer to sell than they have the last two years. Let's say your existing home is in the Travis County or Hays County area. You're probably looking at 120 to 160 days on the market. Maybe it's less. But that's an easy number to get from a realtor with a competitive market analysis. By zip code, probably by your street, how many days on the market it will be, based on how realistic you are about price. We would ask you to put the house on the market at that point. Then, when the house sells, you use that money to say, "I don't need a loan anymore. I'm just going to pay the house off." Or, "I'm putting so many thousands of dollars down from the proceeds, and I'm saving a little back to furnish the new house, do some landscaping, or take the kids to Disney World."

Dawn: I hear Tokyo Disney is actually cheaper than Orlando.

Eric: So ridiculous. Take me to Tokyo. Anyway, that's how it works. I should preface all this, or I guess it's an epilogue at this point: Tilson has to be guaranteed the funds of the full contract amount. It is case by case. If you need to sell the existing home to qualify for the mortgage, because you can't carry both payments, that's a different ballgame. It's still case by case, but we are going to have some input on when that house needs to go on the market because of how long houses are taking to sell right now. What we can't have happen is the house completely finished, sitting there for months, and you can't move into it because your existing home isn't selling. You don't want that either. And it's not usually the market. Quite frankly, it's usually an unrealistic asking price. I have found, in Texas still, that if you have a reasonable asking price, your house is going to go. People are going to move. Does that answer your question?

Dawn: She says, "Thank you," and she totally gets it. She's also asking, "What is the going price total for a 1,500 to 1,700 square foot house with y'all?"

Eric: And you were saying Hays County?

Dawn: Yeah. That's where she is.

Eric: Okay. Today is November 3rd, 2026. You're probably looking at starting in the $275,000 to $295,000 range, depending on what you're doing with that house. That's going to be your starting price.

Dawn: To get a better idea, Liz, all of our prices are on our website. If you go to our floor plan search and select your county, you can look at all of our home plans, and the starting prices are right there. You can get a better idea looking at the exact home and layout you want. Or you can call one of our new home consultants, and they can answer that question for you.

Dawn: We've got Ed saying howdy from Seattle. "What's the best way to figure out where to place recessed floor outlets, especially when they'll be installed in a concrete slab? We know we'll want at least two outlets in the floor, and we have a general idea of where they should go based on where we think the furniture will go. But it's difficult to pinpoint their exact locations using a design plan on a computer monitor. Any suggestions? We'd prefer to have outlets covered by furniture rather than exposed."

Eric: I do. Well, actually, Dawn, you answer first. You're designing layout stuff.

Dawn: Honestly, Ed, I don't know that I would do floor outlets. Controversial opinion. Most things now, you can get a battery that operates them. You can get rechargeable light bulbs. You can get batteries that power recliners, because furniture changes and outlets are permanent. So I personally don't know that I would do that. That's my two cents. If you really love your furniture, you can work with a designer and figure it out, but I personally wouldn't do it.

Eric: She's right about that. We bought theater recliner seating at a garage sale, because it's for kids, so I don't care what it looks like. We hauled it up to the theater room, which is all that's upstairs in our house. My wife found a battery pack on Amazon. We charge it maybe once every six months. I'm not kidding. It powers all six chairs for six months. Now, that being said, I'm a little bit old school. I kind of like a floor outlet. I don't have them in my existing home, because I lost the battle. Rachel is Team Dawn. No floor outlets. She doesn't want to be trapped on where she can put the furniture.

Dawn: I'm that girl that rearranges the furniture all the time.

Eric: I need to know where my recliner is in the dark. That's what I need to know. Now, Ed, for a couch especially, figure a couch with an end table. That couch is probably three feet deep and seven feet long. That's a 21-square-foot margin of error to get that floor outlet somewhere underneath, plus the size of the end table, say two feet by two feet or 18 by 18 inches. So you've got seven or eight feet by three feet to work with. If you get it underneath there somewhere, it's going to be hidden. If you're measuring off a wall, I usually say no less than five feet off the wall. That gives you a walking space. I'm picturing the Woodland or the San Jacinto in my head. That model home had four outlets when I worked there in Spring. There's a traffic pattern behind the couch to get to the Master Suite from the kitchen and dining area. You come five feet off that back wall, and five feet off either of the other walls, and it's going to fall under a piece of furniture. It's not going to be in the middle of your family room. To Dawn's point, there are little tools we can play with, like eighth-inch scale sofas and things like that. But I wouldn't overthink it, Ed. Again, you've got a three-foot by seven- or eight-foot margin of error. You're only going to set the furniture up so many ways, unless you're Rachel or Dawn.

Dawn: Same.

Eric: I wouldn't get so dialed in that it needs to be within six inches. It really doesn't. As long as you get it underneath that sofa somewhere, you're never going to see it. Most lamps have a six- or eight-foot cord, so whichever end you put it on, it's going to reach. If not, put a little power strip under there and you're off to the races. Or do what Dawn said to start with.

Dawn: Get the rechargeable light bulb.

Eric: Get the rechargeable battery pack off Amazon.

Dawn: Ed says, "Thanks. I never considered batteries." It's just certain powered furniture, like recliners and sofas. It's newer, and you don't think about it. My current reclining couch is plugged into an extension cord that's plugged into the wall.

Eric: It's a newer thing, but it does work. All right, folks, keep asking these questions. These are great questions. Live on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.

Dawn: We've got another question over on Instagram. "Just purchased two acres. We're planning to pay down as much as possible. If I'm right, we need to get the land loan down to qualify for the program Tilson offers. The Brazoria is my favorite house, by the way."

Eric: I love it, too. Okay, so it's a math problem. Problem is the wrong word. It's a math equation. Dawn will walk you through this math equation right now.

Dawn: It's not a problem. So yes, we are going to want you to have 10% equity. Like Eric was saying earlier, you need 10% equity in the final value of the home. That's going to be the home plus the land, because that's how they get that appraisal number. Whatever the difference is between 10% and what you currently owe would either need to be given to us as a down payment, like Eric was talking about, or we prefer that you go ahead and pay down that loan. But it's completely up to you. It's just whatever that difference is to get you to the 10%. Pretty simple, pretty straightforward. Exciting that you've just gotten your lot, and the Brazoria is an amazing plan, so you can't go wrong with that one.

Eric: Awesome. Keep asking your questions, guys. Drop them in the chat. We'll answer every one of them. What else is burning on people's minds?

Dawn: The OSCs were asking about walk-out basements, and whether we would consider those.

Eric: We will consider them. It's very similar to the metal siding. A lot of times, people have the misconception that it's going to cost less. It's not, because you're finishing out more living area. You're air conditioning it, painting it, sheetrocking it, putting baseboards in it. You're doing all the things, but you are gaining some living area. It's usually not as much as most people think, because you've got to have a staircase to get down there, and staircases take 150 to 200 square feet of living area. But it is something both our site evaluation team and construction team are open to, especially in the Hill Country in Central Texas. We have a number of situations where it could be feasible. We are building a home right now that has a walk-out basement. It's not really a third floor. It's a second-and-a-half floor down below that you can walk out. We had to engineer it that way. It's expensive. But it uses space you would ordinarily give up with either sandbagged beams for your foundation or dirt for a dirt pad. So it can be done, but it takes some planning, and the customer needs to be open to the additional expense.

Dawn: Makes sense. Faith is asking, "If we give the difference of what is owed to meet the 10% to you, how does that part work?"

Eric: Okay. I want to make sure I answer this right for Faith. Let's say the land was worth more than the house. You're building on 250 acres, and that land's worth a million dollars. You build a $600,000 house. Would we pay you 400 grand to build the house? No. The house costs what it costs. The 10% equity Dawn was talking about, which Tilson requires for its EasyBuy financing, works like this. Simple math. The house is $500,000. The land is worth $100,000. Total value, all in, the day we're finished, is $600,000. Tilson would require 10% of that, or $60,000, to be paid into the land one way or another. It's ultimately determined by the appraisal. The [lender] is going to order an appraisal from a licensed appraiser in the state of Texas. They're going to gather comps, or comparable sales that have closed in the area in the last six months, to justify the value. That sets the tone. Again, that's the thing we don't share with the county.

Dawn: It's our secret.

Eric: In other words, in that scenario, you could still owe $40,000 on the land and not put any money down to Tilson to build that house. You would keep making payments on that land while the house is under construction. Upon completion, after you've done your walkthrough and you have the camper ready to go, the title company would basically cut two checks. One goes to the current lender on your land for that $40,000 balance. Another goes to Tilson for the contract amount of the home, the $500,000. Then you have one mortgage for $540,000. The contract price of the home plus what you still owed on the land is rolled into one loan. That would be your permanent mortgage. But if you don't have that 10% yet, say you had $45,000 paid into the land instead of $60,000, Tilson would typically require that $15,000. You could either pay the land down more, or give it to us as a down payment. Either way, it doesn't make any difference to us. I would usually tell you to pay the land down. We don't need the money to build the house, so pay that land balance down, get to your 10% number, and we'll roll from there.

Dawn: Faith, if that didn't answer the question, feel free to ask again.

Eric: Or text me. Whatever you want to do. Great questions, guys. I've got some pre-done questions we get asked all the time. The first one is, "Can I customize your floor plans?" Dawn, do we let them do that?

Dawn: Absolutely. We do. I like to refer back to Holly Wilson, who used to be our regional construction manager in San Marcos. She had a great summary of what you can do to our home plans. As long as it meets the laws of physics, building code, and your budget, we're going to let you do pretty much whatever you want to our floor plans. There are a few things we might say no to, because of the area or the experience, or because we know it's not in our wheelhouse. But for the most part, you can do whatever you want to our plans. If you like the bathroom in the Lone Star and want to put it on a smaller plan, we can help you work that out. If you need an extra three feet in a bedroom, want to add an extra room to create a study, or add an extra island in your kitchen, you can do all of those things to all of our plans. You can even bring your own plan, and we can work with it and get you into something you like. We are truly a custom builder in that aspect.

Dawn: And Faith said that you completely answered her question. Thanks, Faith. Then someone on Instagram is asking if there are any new homes coming to the Tilson lineup. Yes, there are. I cannot give you a timeline. There are new models coming to Boerne, and we are waiting on the City of Boerne to give us permission to start that process. Then we'll move forward, and we'll be releasing two new plans that we will be building in that office. Very excited to see those come to life.

Eric: Ecstatic about them, actually. They're coming, guys. I'm withholding opinion, because we need permits. So we're going to say we love the City of Boerne. I heart the City of Boerne.

Dawn: They are amazing.

Eric: We appreciate the way they are trying to protect people from businesses that want to earn money. Anyway, we love Boerne. We've been in Boerne a long time.

Dawn: And Carolyn says, "Boerne is ready for her new models."

Eric: We've been there a long time, and we know where the water is going to go. We don't understand the hold-up, but it's okay. We've been in Boerne, Texas, for 42 years. If anyone from Boerne is listening, we're not new. 42 years in Boerne, Texas.

Dawn: Our Instagram person wants to know if the new homes will have the farmhouse-style feel, or will they be more modern?

Eric: Are you prepared to tease?

Dawn: Of those two options, I would say they lean more modern. One of them for sure leans more modern.

Eric: No question. They're more typical Hill Country-esque than your traditional board and batten farmhouse.

Dawn: They're not your traditional board and batten farmhouse. They are not really like anything else we have in our portfolio right now. It's going to be very exciting, with lots of new features. They are their own creation for sure.

Eric: They look cool.

Dawn: And one of them is going to rival the Lone Star, folks, so we're very excited. It's going to be in that class of homes. I don't want to say anything else, because drafting will get very upset with me. But it's going to be amazing. We're really excited to get started on those.

Eric: As soon as we get the permits, we're full throttle. Let's go.

Dawn: We've got Heather asking, "What are typical interest rates looking like? And do y'all have a three-bedroom, two-bath turnkey around 250 to 300?"

Eric: It depends on where you're building, Heather. Not the interest rate, but the price. I'll let Dawn pull up Hays County again. That seems pretty average to me. San Antonio can get down there pretty easily. But interest rates right now are whatever the market is. We don't set the interest rate. It's typically tied to the 10-year Treasury yield. That's what's going to drive interest rates. Builders, and really even mortgage companies, don't necessarily determine the rate. Mortgage companies can have more of an impact than a builder ever could, but it changes every day, and throughout the day. Not a bunch. It moves in what are called basis points. So right now, on November 3rd, 2026, I think you're probably looking at somewhere between 7.2% and 7.4% on a 30-year fixed mortgage. There are different rates for FHA, VA, 15-year, and jumbo loans. But you're going to be right around that 7.25% to 7.5% range. The good thing about building with Tilson is you're not closing on that loan until the house is completely finished. So you aren't locking in that rate until much later in the process than with other custom builders, where you would lock it in at your one-time close up front. With us, you lock in much later, usually about 30 days out. As volatile as things are right now, I wouldn't lock in much beyond that, honestly. You've got midterm elections today. You've got the year coming. And I promised a fun fact. It's not all doom and gloom. Historically, regardless of who wins the election, the S&P 500 has risen in the 12 months after every midterm since 1950. That's 76 years, averaging about 15%. You know what companies and people want? Stability. They don't really care who they're playing with, as long as they know who they're playing with. So every little thing is going to be all right. That's what Bob Marley said. Just ignore the hype and the noise. Don't get dragged into the ridiculousness. It's going to be okay. Great question.

Dawn: And to answer your question on price, I am looking at Hays County. If your county is different, again, you can go to our website, select your county, and look. I'm seeing about 10 or 11 plans that are three-bedroom, two-bath and fall in that $250,000 to $300,000 range. Do keep in mind when you're looking at our website, that doesn't include any of the land prep costs we were talking about earlier. So you will need to adjust for that, and one of our consultants can help you estimate those costs for your property so you can get to the right budget for you. Then we have Adriana asking, "Are rates for a 15-year loan lower than a 30-year loan?"

Eric: They typically are. It's not a lot, maybe sometimes a quarter of a point to a half a point lower. So if a 30-year is seven and a quarter, a 15-year may be 6.75 to seven. It's not a ton lower. What is obviously less is the amount of interest you pay. What I can tell you is that almost no one pays on a mortgage for 30 years. Some people do, and that's cool. Most people move before that happens. If you close on a loan today, it technically won't be paid off till 2056. That's a long time from now. Statistically, the odds of you still being in that exact home are so close to zero it almost doesn't matter. Everybody says they're going to go out feet first in this house, but the statistics say otherwise.

Dawn: I think I've met like three people who did that.

Eric: Exactly. So all that to say, I'm Team 30-Year Mortgage. If you want to make an extra payment or two a year, do that. Just one extra payment per year on a 30-year mortgage gets it paid off in 19 years.

Dawn: Just make sure you tell them it has to go to principal.

Eric: Tell them it has to go to principal. Theoretically, at least for a while, your income is going to keep increasing, whether you're in your 30s, 40s, or 50s. With a 30-year fixed rate, that mortgage payment stays the same. So you'll have a larger and larger margin of income over that debt, probably to the point where one day in the next 20 years you'll buy a car with a higher payment than your mortgage.

Dawn: I don't like that. I know you're right, but that's really sad that cars have gotten that expensive.

Eric: It is, but that's the reality. I'm no Dave Ramsey. I'm not a financial advisor, I'm not a CPA, and I'm certainly not a lawyer. I'd do the 30-year loan because it's safer. It gets your payment a little lower, so if everything else fell apart, you could still make the payment. Then if you have the wherewithal, every year or two you get a bonus, an inheritance, or you sell a stock and want to put $10,000 toward your principal, do it. It'll get paid off that much faster. Again, one extra payment per year on a 30-year note gets it paid off in 19 years. So I go 30-year. And in the next 15 or 30 years, you're going to be able to refinance. So the interest rate isn't permanent.

Dawn: Well, awesome. That is the last question I see, so I'm going to do last call for questions.

Eric: Last call for questions. And the journey doesn't have to end here. You found us on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram, and Dawn's team has really cool content at every one of those places. Instagram and Facebook are where you'll run into a lot of the milestones our customers go through: contract signings, site evaluations, closings, ribbon cuttings. Her customer experience ambassadors, Alicia and her team, do an amazing job of that. There's an awesome community of people on Facebook that'll help answer questions just like these. You've got veterans out there like the McNeils and the Ed Garcias of the world, always helping answer questions and giving great advice, which we appreciate. It's invaluable. We've also got a YouTube channel with a ton of media, very well organized by Dawn and her team. You've got instructional videos for warranty items, construction videos on how and why we build the way we build, energy efficiency, customer testimonials, and customer home tours, hearing people's stories of why they built where they built and the changes they made. It has their color selections on there, too, if you're in that phase. You can binge those for hours. We have a website open 24/7. There might be a new one coming soon.

Dawn: There is. It's a work in progress. We're not rushing it, because the current one is good. The new one will be better.

Eric: It's good. Got to get it perfect. We have a new home specialist on standby there. You can text or call them. They'll answer those high-level questions and get you set up with an appointment at any of our 12 design centers, open seven days a week. They're excited to sit down with you and make those plan changes, redesign the bathroom, the utility room, or the kitchen. Anything you want done.

Dawn: We've got Isoldekaren Clarete sharing, "Hello. We are very happy now and comfortable living in our dream home. We do have some issues, especially our Kent Moore Cabinets." I'm sorry to hear that.

Eric: Good news. Reach out to our warranty team, and we'll get it buttoned up. I know that cabinet company well, and they'd want to get that squared away. Not a problem. So thank you all for coming out and hanging out with us. Don't let it end here. Reach out to us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, at one of our design centers, or through our website. It's open 24/7. Get ahold of our new home specialists. Make an appointment. Come see us at our design centers. We have free food, snacks, free drinks, cool coffee makers. They're novel, we'll say that. Anyway, come out and see us. We want to see you guys. Dawn, thank you for putting this on.

Dawn: We're glad all of you joined us. We hope you got something out of this.

Eric: And we genuinely hope to soon make you part of the Tilson family. We'll see you all later. Bye, everybody.