Before You Close on a Florida Waterfront Home: Inspections, Insurance, Termites & More

Shane Waterfront Wilson 00:11

It's great. Super, super busy. We're busy here in the Fort Myers office, busy in the Key's office. Lots of flying back and forth. Thank goodness I got my pilot's license so I can be there in less than an hour back and forth. I can fly right in a marathon, fly in the Key West. We just had a closing in Key West. We took the boat down there. That was really fun. Spent a couple extra days, had to And uh went to really cool places like uh Marquesas Keys. Um we actually snorkeled a uh Wreck called the Sandy Key Wreck, which is really cool. Like fifteen feet of water.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 00:45

Fi five homes last month and I think we got four more pending right now and two more contracts we're working on.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 00:51

So busy.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 00:53

Super busy.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 00:58

Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:37

The homes we sold last month, did the home inspections, and I was in the home the day before. It's near Fort Myers Beach. Beautiful home on the water. There was no evidence of termites. I went in the next day, the same day as the home inspection, to open it up, inspector get in there. I walk in the master bathroom It's full of termites, drywood termites alive. Thousands of 'em all over the bathroom. I'm like, you gotta be kidding me the day of inspection. So long story short, not a big deal to most people out there they'd freak out and think, oh my gosh, we have termites, it's the deal's not gonna close. I got my tournament guy out there, Julie Nolan, known him for a long time, does a great job. He came out the next day, looked at it, said, Yep, you got dry woods. I go, the day before they weren't here, he goes, they swarmed. So May, June, July they swarm. They can be on the house next door, the tree next door. That next morning they can be at the house. Long story short, got the house tented, no problem, everything's fine. We closed on the house. The other house on Prescott, which is under contract, actually closed on it. We had a home inspection done. They found termites. These properties as a crow flies are maybe a mile from each other. They're both near Fort Myers Beach, on the water, million dollar plus homes Found termites. I'm like, you gotta be kidding me. My termite guy came out said Shane, remember May, June, July, they swarm. They can be here. They can be at the neighbor's house. They happen to come to your house. Not a big deal. Of course, seller was freaking out. I told the seller, Don't worry, it's gonna be fine. Called my guy, had that house tented. Um, lots of little plumbing stuff, electrical stuff. Sellers don't know because they don't deal with this on a daily basis. This is what I've done for thirty three years. It's not a big deal. It's not.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 03:10

Well how do you know? I said, 'Cause I've done this for thirty-three years. Got my electrician out, my plumber out, my handyman out, made all the corrections, fixed everything, reinspected both houses, now they're sold and closed. We have a transaction now in the keys. The buyers came into town to measure two days ago. I think it was Sunday And uh the seller calls and she's really upset. First she texts me, Shane, we have a major problem. I'm thinking, all right, well we had bad weather the night before, maybe a tornado ripped the roof off or blew windows out because they had really bad weather like we had up here. Yeah. And uh I'm like, oh my gosh. So I got out of my meeting, I called her. I won't say your name, but you know who you are. It's under contract right now. Shane, we have a big problem. I go, What? Well, I went in the house to check it the day after the storm 'cause we had the buyers coming in that morning, I think at ten thirty, and there's water on the floor. I said Okay, where'd it come from? Is it you know the air handler leaking? Shoes no. Ten years ago when we had the doors put in upstairs, the new hurricane impact doors, they sealed the threshold properly. Well apparently it wasn't, 'cause two days later after it rained it leaked. So it was coming from the second level. into the downstairs, exactly where she saw the leak that morning. I said, you know, it's not a big deal, we'll take care of it. Oh, the buyer's gonna freak out. They're gonna camp. I said, they're not gonna freak out. I said We need to make full disclosure. She goes, what do you mean? I go, we need to tell the buyer agent and the buyers before they get there. No surprises. Otherwise they're gonna think we're hiding stuff. So I called the other realtor, super great realtor, you know who you are, and uh told his buyers, went there, all right, not a big deal, how you gonna fix it? So we called the guy who installed the doors ten years ago, said hey, it's leaking we think when they took out the old flooring, the vinyl Um they broke the seal on the threshold.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 04:50

I'm I know that's what happened. So he went out yester two days ago, Monday, today's Wednesday, said yeah, I found out where it's leaking, seal it done. Buyers moving forward or closing on this coming Monday the twentieth. july twentieth. So these are things that to a seller is a big deal or they really get themselves upset. I've done this for so long it's not a big deal. My perception was when she said we have a major problem. I'm thinking tornado, roof ripped off. I'm thinking windows busted. I'm thinking somehow the house flooded. Something bad or it caught on fire

Shane Waterfront Wilson 05:25

It was a little ten inch by twelve inch area water downstairs, which if you follow the wall up, that's right where the threshold is from outside inside to the hurricane doors.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 05:34

It wasn't a big deal. So she texted last night. She is tickled pink. We're closing on time. Everything's great. Buyers happy. We fully disclosed everything. You must always disclose everything to avoid lawsuits and just be honest. And if a buyer was upset about that little tiny water area, then maybe that's not the house for them. You know it's not. But always disclose. Take care of things before they become an issue. Don't hide anything. It does it doesn't work that way. You can't hide things. So anyway, yeah, that's just a few. I mean we had Six closings. Yeah, six closings and we had other issues, but it's not a big deal. I have my electrician's license, I have my plumbers, I have my roofers, I have anybody I need at my disposal because after you do this for so long You establish these relationships. Yeah. It's a big, big deal.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 06:49

Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 07:12

In the summertime.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 08:02

Oh my gosh, yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 08:06

Yeah

Shane Waterfront Wilson 08:34

That's right.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 09:17

Before it becomes an issue.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 09:26

Which I trust a hundred percent. He's awesome. He's done this 35 years, been with this company twenty-five. He goes, Shane, you already had these drywood termites in the house. I go, I never saw evidence. I never saw wings. He goes, you won't A lot of times you won't even see those little droppings that come out. But when they swarm, I don't know if that's because they're mating or moving to another area, they were already in the house. So him and I walked around the house and we looked up on the back southwest corner of the house on the fascia says, see those little holes? Those are all exit holes. I go, exit holes, yeah, when they eat the wood, they poop it out those little pellets. Well it was outside, so I guess when it rains or wind, you know, it blow the pellets away. We never saw 'em. But he said they were already in the house. And when they start to swarm, there could have been you know a million of termites in that little area Somehow they ate their way through oh I know what it was. He showed me in the bathroom little exit holes where they come out these holes. I'm like, you gotta be kidding me. But I'm thankful that it happened right the day of the inspection Not a month later, the buyers in the house, they call me and say, Really, Shane, you sold us a house full of termites. So on one hand I'm thankful for it. It was it was an interesting situation. The seller initially was like, Oh my gosh, there's another four grand we've got to spend. I said, yes, but you know what? What if they thought you were hiding it? She goes, No, no, we're paying for it, we're taking care of it, and there's a warranty We're gonna transfer the to the new buyers.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 10:45

, so that's that's a big deal. Big deal. So we turned lemons into lemonade, if you will.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 10:51

And that was on two houses w the home inspections were within a week of each other. So

Shane Waterfront Wilson 11:17

River rats

Shane Waterfront Wilson 11:25

Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 11:28

Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 11:35

I said the same.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 11:38

Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 12:04

Yeah, I mean the other transactions were smooth, normal things coming up. Behind the scenes, I don't think buyers and sellers know what we do I mean there's text, there's emails, there's phone calls talking with the title company, the lender, the survey company, the appraisal company. You have an issue with the appraisal, I gotta reach out to the appraisers, supply more comps and say, hey, I didn't see this comp on your uh re appraisal report There's so many things behind the scene that we do that most people think, oh, we put under contract. We closed in 30 days. That was easy Do you have no idea what we do behind the scenes? You ask any realtor that actually sells a lot of real estate, any appraiser, any home inspector Any lender, any title company, there's all these moving parts behind which I normally don't even call my buyer or my seller. I'm just I don't even talk about it. I just take care of it and we get to a closing. God, that was so easy, Shane. Yeah it was. They have no idea what we did. Wow. I think another point that I'm thankful and grateful to my grandpa and my dad is that I've been around the building industry my whole life. I started working for my dad building houses in the Keys when I was um me and my two brothers eleven, probably eleven years old. He didn't give us like critical jobs, but cleaning up the job site stripping forms. But I know every single aspect of the construction from the ground to the footers to the slab to the concrete walls to the tie beams to the trusses to the roof, the plumbing, the electrical. I'm not a licensed contractor, my father is, but I've built a bunch of homes with my father. I've done a gazillion remodels.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 13:29

Uh when the hurricane took out my duplex. There was nobody to call. I was able to strip the roof off myself. I called a roofer buddy. He came and dried it in for me. Um Anne and I, my wife and I did all the work ourselves. Took us 14 months, but I know how to do all that Permitting wise, I had to c call a plumber, which it took like two months to get out. Uh my roofer buddy, I called him, he put the roof on properly so it's, you know, under code. Um, but we did everything. So that equates to when I'm showing properties with buyers, I'm not a licensed general contractor. I see things that most buyers don't see. And I might peek my head in a closet or look at a wall and see these strange cracks, which um that's not normal. Um the cracks on the slab are normal, but when you start seeing cracks along the ceiling, yeah. I'm talking bigger cracks tells me is a settling issue. So I say, well let's walk outside and look at the foundation. You walk outside and you've got these concrete blocks, these big lines that are like an eighth of an inch thick. That's a settling issue. And that little tiny microscopic cracks.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 14:26

there's just so much stuff that I see from building houses from the ground up for forty s forty fifty I'm fifty eight. So

Shane Waterfront Wilson 14:35

I'm beautiful. No, I'm just kidding. I'm kidding. But there's so many things that I can see I'll say You know, they always ask Shane what would you do? I wouldn't buy this house. This is a money pit. I just wouldn't do it. And again, I'm not a licensed contractor, but when you have hands on for Forty plus years. It's in your butt. It's in your beam. My grandpa was a real estate developer. He built huge neighborhoods. My dad built houses and keys over forty years. Yeah. I was the grunt kid. I got to do all the grunt stuff. I mean I worked in Port Charlotte digging footers when I was eighteen, graduated high school. I mean, I know from start to finish how it's supposed to be. Yeah, I installed my own windows, which you're allowed to do at my duplex. I couldn't get a window guy. One of my really great friends, Jeff, has installed windows. Well he has people that do it. For 35 years, that's what he does. He came over and helped me install five windows to chain. Here's the back of rod, here's this, here's that, do that, and I installed the balance of the 12 or 13 windows by myself. But having again all that knowledge and knowing about the construction process, it goes hand in hand with being a real estate broker and helping buyers and sellers make the right choice. Or if I'm at a seller's house and I'll see something We gotta fix that now. That's gonna be a problem. Well how do you know? I said I've done this forever. Um we have a house here on Prathor that we're listing. Insurance companies have become really goofy in the last four to five years, especially after the hurricanes. Her roof was only 18 years old. Probably has another functional life of three to five years. I know she's not gonna get or when the new buyer comes along, cannot get insurance. We had her go ahead and put a brand new roof on it. Number one, it's gonna help sell the house. Yeah. She'll recoup probably eighty percent of the value of what she spent on the roof.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 16:09

So when a buyer comes out, that's one big ticket item they don't have to worry about. To get insurance, the new wind mitigation inspection, the four point, brand new roof. the new nail patterns and a lot of times they'll take the shingles off in the and the um underlayment, the peeling stick, and they'll put the additional nails or additional screws into the sheathing, the plywood. to get the windmick credit. Or sometimes, like in my house and the keys, we took off an 18 inch perimeter around the roof, pulled the plywood off, had them put the third nail in it. Actually I did this here. It wasn't the keys, it was my house here I save like twenty two hundred bucks a year having that third nail in the hurricane strap which goes over the truss on the roof. A lot of people don't know that. They don't know.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 16:55

Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 17:22

Tell you something that should just came to mind. So the one we're closing in the keys on the twentieth this coming Friday, the lady who had the little water stain downstairs. the other realtor said, Hey, you know, do you have a current wind mit? I said, No, you have a current four point. No, they've been in the house forever. Yeah. They got it done when the inspector went out to see if there was a third nail in the hurricane strap which goes over the hurricane truss They couldn't see it. He goes, look, he goes, Do you mind if we cut a hole in the ceiling in the bedroom so we can access the trust to see if it has a third nail? Right now they're paying ten thousand five hundred a year just for wind insurance in the keys The new cool that they got was twelve thousand. He goes, Shane, they can save I think he said fifty four hundred dollars by having the third nail. So they cut the I got sellers permission, cut the hole out of the ceiling. Took the picture, did the new WinMet, new four point, their insurance is fifty four hundred or fifty three hundred dollars versus twelve thousand that the new policy was coming out. That's a five thousand savings.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 18:17

That's a lot of money. That's a bunch of money. Now they have no problem qualifying for the loan because before we were getting to that marginal wind, flood insurance, your hazard insurance, let's say it was fourteen hundred a year, just insurances, that's not your house payment, your principal interest. These are things we need to work. So when I called the seller, I w you know who you are, she was kinda angry, like, well, why didn't my insurance person tell me to do this? I could have saved, you know, four or five thousand a year for the last ten years I've owned my house. So she was a little irritated and I hesitated to tell her who the insurance company was. What's the same insurance company that she had? Yeah. Because the keys are smaller. You gotta know everybody. I've been in the keys fifty-five years, so fifty-four years I guess my point is this is knowledge that a real estate broker who's done this forever versus a new realtor doesn't know what to look for, what questions to ask, money savings for your buyer. money savings for the seller. What if you have a buyer that maybe doesn't quite qualify for that million dollar home or eight hundred thousand? Um but if you can get the insurances adjusted where they need to be All of a sudden they're LTV, loan to value, is where it needs to be.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 19:19

There's so many different factors. Most of our buyers and the keys over a million after two million, they're all cash. Those are easier, but again, you want to do your due diligence, your home inspections. Yeah. Make sure the home is fantastic. Make sure they have great hurricane coverage Um there's just so many variables I can't I can't even tell you to try to explain what I've learned over 33 years and plus from my grandma, my grandpa being developers, my dad's a contractor in the keys, my mom, my uncle and the keys being real estate brokers, like third generation. There's just so much information I have here I want to share with people and I think that's the benefit of using an experienced broker versus maybe a new broker. Not saying a new broker's bad, they have their brokers overlooking their shoulder.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 19:59

But would you go to brain surgery and have a brain surgeon that just got out of school a year ago or like the guy who did the surgery on my neck was a a brain surgeon for Twenty six years. Fixing me up. I have zero issues. So do you want to go to an attorney fresh out of law school or have somebody that has knowledge, wisdom, experience?

Shane Waterfront Wilson 20:18

Not that the new guys are bad, they're not. It's just you want the knowledge, wisdom, experience. Doctors, attorneys, real estate brokers, somebody with knowledge, experience. You can foresee issues that may be coming before they become a big deal. Or in the situation where she thought we had a major issue with that small water stain. It wasn't a small I mean it was a small water stain. It's not it wasn't a big deal. Buyers, oh thanks for telling us are you gonna fix it our guy will be there Monday. That was two days ago. So

Shane Waterfront Wilson 21:09

It's a lot of money.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 22:55

100%.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 23:16

just being honest, telling the truth. If it's not the right property for them or you have to ask qualifying questions like in the keys, there's some neighborhoods where The canals are shallower. Getting to the canal is shallower. Canabote want well wanna get that forty-four contender, that thirty-nine CV It's like, all right, well, that neighborhood won't work. At low tide you can't get your boat in and out. What does that mean? We don't have tides in Michigan. I'm like, yeah, you don't have tides on your lakes. We have tides here. Tide comes up, tide goes down Full moon you might get a king tide and a king tide king low tide meaning super low. Yeah like we had about two three weeks ago. There's some channels in the keys I always go through in my contender I didn't. I went around. I knew I wouldn't make it. I'd hit bottom, tear up my gear cases. So that's important too. Um same thing in Fort Myers. You know, there's some riverfront homes that we've sold where I'll ask the qualifying question, what kind of boat Do you wanna have? Well I want to have a whatever, fifty foot Viking or fifty foot birch or whatever it is, it's not gonna work. You don't have enough water there. But if you come down a mile down the river, you've got an average mean depth of eight feet All the way up to the seawall. Yeah. They don't know that. Or in my neighborhood, McGregor Isles's here. Somebody says, Hey, I want to get that fifty foot, whatever boat it is. It's not gonna work. We don't have enough water. Even though we dredged our canals to an average mean depth of five foot, when you get to the opening to the river, you're about four foot. That big boat's not gonna come here. Um, Whiskey Creek. People say, Oh, I love that home in Whiskey Creek. It's newer. Well, you know you got a 13 and a half foot bridge to go under. What? Yeah, the bridge you go over in Whiskey Creek on McGregor. Well what does that mean? I go, well you gotta get a boat of 39 foot or less or 42 foot, no second station.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 24:53

You will never make it under the bridge. These are so many things they don't think about, especially Cape Coral. We sell a lot of homes in Cape Coral There are bridges there. Average bridge height is nine, nine and a half foot, average mean tide. The guy says, Hey, I'm gonna buy a thirty-nine contender with second station. You're not gonna get under the bridge. What does that mean? I just sold some dear friends a house in Cape Coral and I took him in the boat and we went I think it was fifty-two minutes up the canal system, which is fine. They're not avid boaters, but they want a boat in their backyard. And I took my contender. We had about a 18 foot clearance, average mean tide to get under the bridge. So I know in my mind if it comes up twelve inches, I can still get through. He's not gonna get a 31-foot boat. His max will be 24, 25, 26. Yep. He'll never have an issue But the people who want to get larger boats, it's a problem. You can't get under the bridges. And people don't think about that. So

Shane Waterfront Wilson 26:30

definitely flats boat, maybe a boat up to like twenty-five, twenty-six feet that's by pushing it. You wanna have a jack plate that makes your motor go up and then trim your motor up to They have a boat ramp. They have six little slips there. I think you keep your boat in the water for like seventy-two hours, something like that. But as you get further in, it's super shallow. Like my 31 contender I wouldn't take there. High tide I would take it there. But

Shane Waterfront Wilson 26:51

Now my bay boat, the boat sitting on the lift behind us here, it's a twenty four foot Islamorada Boat Works, second station, no problem at all.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 27:08

Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 27:10

So the 24 foot Islamorada boat works, the boat we have sitting right here, I can go anywhere in that boat. I have a jack plate, trim the motor up, I can run in twelve, thirteen inches of water. Wow, okay. Up on a plane, I can get into shallow water to fish If it's calm and I bring it to the keys, I can fish out in the Gulf Stream. We run along the weed lines looking for Mahi. So I'm in the second station. I can see the fish like people downstairs can't. Like cast eleven o'clock, cast one o'clock, forty feet out. I don't see anything. I go, they're there. I 'm looking at 'em. They'll cast out. So having the second station's a big deal

Shane Waterfront Wilson 27:41

In the back bay when I'm fishing, I'm up on the second station in two feet of water, I'll see a redfish tailing, I'll see a snook on the mangroves, you know, I'll see a huge fat gator trail, spotted sea trout. I can see it, they can't see it because I'm up in the second station. Yeah. So I'm like, cast twelve o'clock, cast three o'clock. They're catching like H Shane, how do you see it? I'm up here.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 27:59

So go to the big boat, the contender. It's a 31T, which is 32 feet 8 inches, 2300 Yamaha's, offshore Bahamas, Key West, Dry Tortugas. Marquesas, if you lose a motor you're crossing, you're gonna get there. I probably would not take that boat over to the Bahamas. Motor fails, you got a problem. And then we also have a family boat here, a forty-two-foot intrepid Which that boat it's more a luxury. It's it's nice because you can put thirteen, fourteen people comfortably on it. You can seat five people in the back, probably six or seven people up front, another three people here. So Big hard top, glass enclosure, air conditioning generator. So we take customers out on that to show 'em, hey, if you're buying, say, in Palmetto Point, Town and River Where you have deeper canals, that's the boat I'll bring. I need three foot of water in there. The plane off, I need four feet. I just know in my mind. Then I start asking qualifying questions. Or I actually probably would have done it What size boat do you want? What's your boating application? Do you want to run offshore? Yeah. Do you want to go we were uh two Fridays ago ran 100 miles out and my buddy's 39 Nortech. It's got three motors on it. We cruise at fifty-five miles an hour.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 29:04

Yeah, it took two hours, two hours and fifteen minutes to get out. We got to 180 foot of water and we're ninety miles out. 190 foot Fish weren't biting. I said to my buddy Craig, you know, who you are, we killed it that day. We gotta be in two hundred, two hundred and twenty foot of water. The water's warmed up a little bit, the fish are deeper. We got exactly a hundred miles out, hundred and twenty or 220, I'm sorry, two twenty. Boom, boom, boom. We limited out American Reds. I'll send you the photos and the videos. Oh. Let's

Shane Waterfront Wilson 29:35

Yes. It was so much fun. I got tons of footage on that too.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 29:44

So the bay boat, when I take off, it doesn't really Put stern down, it kinda hops up. My contender, when you take off and plane off, the stern digs in till it gets up on plane. You gotta be aware of that. The Intrepid that has triple three fifties, when I stab it, the stern digs in and pops up. When we had the 48 Cabo, I needed at least four and a half feet of water. Anything less, not a you just don't do it. And I tore up two sets of props. Whole nother story. We'll talk about it later.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 30:14

Um When I put both those motors in gear, the stern drops about six inches. They're they're 36 inch wheels props. Yeah. You put them in gear, the stern goes boom. When I plane off I needed at least I felt safe in six and a half, six, six and a half of the water to plane off because it would start down and then get up. What once I'm running, I needed four foot. Yeah, probably a four foot. And we ran shallower than that. Sometimes you didn't have a choice where we were going. But once you got to the destination plenty deep to come off a plane, took off Um

Shane Waterfront Wilson 31:02

I'll tell you right now, I'm not I don't hide anything. Those of you who know me are gonna laugh and you've been there a thousand times. I was in the 39th contender, Triple 300 Yamaha's Bought it from GTB. Gus, this is for you. Shout out. Uh GTB boat sales in the Keys, Contender Dealer. Great dude. Great family. Wonderful wife. Great kids. Just a good just a good family. Great family I'm in Tavernier Creek. Me and Craig, you were there, and uh I think Billy was with us. We had the kids with us. I had 450 gallons of fuel. You can do the math. fifty gallons of fresh water. I've got a quad boat in front of me, meaning four motors, and in front of him I see a triple. We're going out to Avenue Creek, Oceanside, and I know I've been through there a thousand times since I was that big in my thirteen foot whaler There's coral heads in certain areas. I'm like, I think I got this. The triple boat takes off. The quad boat in front of me takes off. I'm like, Craig, hang on. I got this man. Stab the throttles. Stern dug in. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Motors are shaking. Oh my gosh, you gotta be freaking kidding me. Pull the throttles back. I put 'em back here, the center motor is going bump, bump, bump, bump. I'm like, yeah, this isn't good. And then I see all this oil come to the surface. I'm like, you've got to be kidding me. And my buddy Craig He'll see this video He goes, Shane, why? I go, dum. I should have known better. But I saw the quads in front of me take off. Yeah. We just happened to hit this perfect little coral head. Which is right in the middle of the channel, which I knew was there from boating for fifty years, over fifty years. So I pull down the channel on the two outside motors.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 32:37

I get pulled off, trim it up. The gear case has a huge hole in it. Props gone, prop shaft is gone, it's destroyed. At the time I'm like semi-in shock, thinking, Shane, you're a big dum-dum. But I said worse words than that. And uh We idle back to my house, put the boat back on the lift. Craig's like, what are we gonna do? I said, Well, I got a 31 contender, let's go have fun, we're going fishing, I'm not gonna ruin my day. So long story short, gear case was $5,500. New prop was $1,400. So it was like a $7,000 mistake. Not covered by insurance. That was dumb on me. So it's a $7,000 mistake. And I knew better. So when I take people out in the boat, I'll make snail trails on the GPS. Snail trails and the lines where you've been. Yep. I won't ever take people I'm gonna address this in a minute, Craig. Areas that you can't go there at super low tide. I always take people and make snail trails through the channels. So funny story. I'm getting off track, Craig. You're gonna laugh. Well, he wasn't laughing at the time. When Craig first came down here, one of our best friends, um, we're in his go fast boat and I said, Craig, and we're out near Captive. I said, No, listen, only run this channel at high tide. Because what do you mean? He goes, We know tides up where he's in Chicago. I'm like, just listen to me Don't run this channel at low tide, we're at a high tide, we can run it. So we run through the channels and have a great day boating. Three weeks later he calls me. Craig. I'm not gonna say the potty mouth. He said he was so mad I ran through that channel that you said we could go through. I said, wait, by Redfish Pass on the north side, actually north east side. Yeah, and you told me I could go through there. I go, Craig. When did you hit?

Shane Waterfront Wilson 34:09

Yesterday. I go, Craig, that was low tide. Low tide, high tide. I don't Blah ba no I 'm not gonna say what he said He tore up both of his gear cases, both prop shelf, both props. He hit. I said, Craig, I told you, don't I don't know what low tide, high tide, all this high tide, low tide. You need to teach me. It's like $14,000 mistake.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 34:31

Greg, I felt horrible, man. I think he actually had insurance for it because he had some different type of insurance. Yeah,

Shane Waterfront Wilson 34:37

It's called uh Th Power Pro Power Pro Thrust somet something you add. It's like two hundred and fifty bucks a year. It's cheap. I didn't have it on the thirty nine contender 'cause I didn't think I needed it 'cause I don't run aground. Yeah, baloney, I hit bottom, tore it up. So it's just interesting, but that's a perfect ex example. Fast forward eighteen, nineteen years, Craig is a master. He knows where the low tide spots are, the high tide spots. He takes his friends, family out in the boat. When they come down here, he's referred Twenty people? We talked about it. Nineteen twenty people to me over nearly twenty years. Majority of them are boaters.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 35:13

And now he takes them out in the boat. He takes them out fishing. He takes them to the beaches. He takes them to the bars, restaurants by boat But when he came here nineteen, twenty years ago, he had no idea where to go, what to do. What's that? What's a sandbar? What's a sandbar? Well you just stay away from that brown. Brown, brown run aground. So It just but it's not just Craig, it's hundreds of people we've helped in the Keys, Naples, Cape Coral, navigating all the canals, the bridges, Fort Myers Beach. Um There's just so much knowledge in here I want to share with people.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 36:30

Yeah. Yeah. It's it's basically Six pounds per gallon for fuel. Okay. Six pounds. Four hundred and fifty gallons, that's twenty four hundred. Almost three thousand pounds in fuel. Wow. I was sitting two and a half three inches lower. The forty, fifty gallons of fresh water on board probably forty gallons, it not a lot. The fuel tank, I have three fuel cells on that boat. I have a center fuel cell and I have two saddle tanks. My saddle tanks are 125 gallons each. Yep. My center I think was 250? Is that math right? 250, 354. Yeah. That's a lot of weight toward the stern. So the stern sat low. I knew in my head my little voice, listen to your voice, was saying Shane, don't do it My other little voice over here, like the angel and the devil guy here, Jane, you got it. That quad boat just did it. You can do it. And then the triple boat in front of him or him, which is in front of me, just do it. You can do it. I'm thinking I got this. Craig hang on. Kids, hang on. Reminds you of another story. Just real quick, I'll tell you real fast. I had a twenty-eight foot Hydra Sport twin two fifty almahas. We're at Holiday Isle. I'm with uh Joe, Joe B, you know who you are. A couple other buddies. We've been drinking at Holiday Isle. This is when Holiday Isle tiki Bar was famous and Tiki in the sky, all you locals know what I'm talking about, the bar up in the sky, and uh there's a deep harbor right by the dock. But when you start coming out towards the sandbar is a rock ledge. It's like two and a half, three feet And uh Joe, come on Shane, you got it, man. I'm like, uh, I don't think it's a good idea. And I had 285 gallons, that's what the boat held, filled up that afternoon to fish the next day Like, not a good idea. Oh wait, my son was with us too. And I think the Johnson boys.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 38:05

Maybe TJ, I forget. And like, not a good idea. Shane, don't do this. But I think I maybe got it. So I take off in the in the basin. It's like 14 feet deep and it comes up two and a half, three foot. Whoa. Bam bam. Smack the bottom. Like, oh Come off a plane, my starboard motor is going oh trimmed it up, prop shaft was bent, prop was tore up. Again. Learn from my mistakes. If your little voice is telling you don't do it, don't do it. I mean, I got numerous stories.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 38:35

I got one more thing real fast. Sorry.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 38:38

For the people to say, I've never run aground, you're full of baloney, or you never leave the dock. I I see boats up on lifts. There's no paint off their skeg. If you have no pain off your scale, you never left the dock. If you never run aground, you've never left your dock. So I don't care who you are, and I mean this nicely, it we have all run aground. We have all run aground.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 38:58

It just part of it, even in the areas in the waters that we know. It just happens. So well

Shane Waterfront Wilson 39:08

Inboard outboard. Inboard outboard.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 39:11

Yeah

Shane Waterfront Wilson 39:40

yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 39:45

two hours.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 40:09

Yeah, so When you had your boat back then, you know, a lot of the GPSs and the chart plotters didn't talk to the satellites. They see what your tides are. All the new software they have, all the new, whether it's Garmin, Simrad, Ray Marine, whatever it is, has a info button, tides, and then whatever it says uh pull up nearest locations for tides, you hit it So I watched that before I get to the sandbar and the keys. Yeah. And I've seen this so many times. Tide's high. People pull their boats up, they're drinking, partying. Woohoo! Having a great time. About three, two and a half years ago, we had a huge king tide. The tide comes up super high, it goes super low. You guys know this in the keys.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 40:48

I'm not even exaggerating. Go on YouTube, you'll see it. There was probably forty, forty or forty-five boats high and dry on the Isle Mata Sandbar. The tide went out, literally, it came up and like in two hours it went out

Shane Waterfront Wilson 40:58

When I'm going under certain bridges, because I have outriggers on the contender and the keys. Yeah. I'll just quickly like I can look at the markers and see the tide ripping out, ripping in, but I just want to know when is my peak high? Because at peak high, I gotta lower my outriggers If average means hot or low, I can get under the bridge. Whale Harbor Bridge. Um at Tavernier Creek Bridge.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 41:16

So Everything is on your screen. So as a boater, I would definitely go in, hit the information button, hit the tides, nearest location. It'll tell you high tide, mean tide, low tide. Are we having a two-tide day? Meaning comes up high Goes low, comes up high. Do we have a slow tide day where it comes up twelve hours and then thirteen or fourteen hours? It's really important to watch all that. And a lot of people up north coming here don't know it.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 41:42

No. Like off Sanibel here.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 41:45

Off the point of Sanibel where the lighthouse is, your locals know this. At a mean high tide or high tide, I can take the big boat, the 42 Intrepid with triples. I can run right almost along the edge of the beach, about three hundred yards out, just outside the swimming area. Okay. Low tide? Uh-uh. There's a sandbar there. No. I won't say your name, but he was coming in one day. He had a 35 Boston Whaler outrage with triple 400 L6s, merc mercury fraudos. And I always told this guy, I'm not gonna say your name, at low tide, do not take the way that we normally go out. Go around that sandbar You know everything, which I'm not gonna say who yar. He came in and he's with another buddy who I've said his name earlier. ran aground. Yeah. They were stuck there for hours. Tide was just starting to come in. I mean a thirty-five foot Boston Whaler, uh, it's fifteen, eighteen thousand pounds, was sitting on its side. I'm not laughing at you, but the point is I told you watch the tide go around. Same thing in the keys. There's certain channels we go through, certain channels you don't at low tide, you just don't. That's common knowledge. That's boating in the keys are fifty years, boating here for 35 years. Yeah. You just learn this stuff. People coming here, they don't know.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 42:58

And buying a home, again, pre-qualifying, you know, not only do you ask about their finances, are you pre-qualified? Uh funds to close What is your application for boating? Um, I've got a guy buying in the keys. Twenty-five-foot boat is all he wants. And we picked out certain neighborhoods that are much more affordable because the deeper water commands a higher price because they can command a higher uh a larger boat. So there's so there's so many variables in the whole thing. It's just being an experienced broker, boater, sold thousands of homes over thirty-three years It's just second nature. It's just second nature.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 43:43

Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 44:21

Yeah. The biggest thing is always carry an extra case of water on your boat. Okay. I have an extra case in my twenty four foot boat. It always lives there. Down below, it's not in the sun, it's not getting hot. My thirty-one contender, I always keep a case of water. If I'm going out fishing, I got five or six guys, I have two cases of water. If you break down out there That's a problem. You need to hydrate. We always have snacks. Always bring snacks with you. I remember one time, I won't say your names. Off Tweenwaters, which is on Captiva Island, Fort Myers area. Um Buck Key is right out here. There's a bunch of sandbars. Yeah. And a friend of ours, this is gosh, 15 years ago, just got his new boat, him and his wife, all and butt heading to Tweenwaters, because after they fish, they're gonna go have cocktails, ran aground, high and dry ran aground. And my friend's like, what the hell? Hell are we gonna do now? So he sent me a text. Hey man, I'm stuck on da-da-da-I. I said, Oh, the sandbar in front of Buck Key, right hand side, right on the north northeast corner. He goes, Yeah, I go, I told you to watch that. I know, man. I said, Do you have it on your chart plot? I wasn't watching, I was busy looking whatever. He was stuck in that sandbar. He didn't have sea to and he wouldn't call sea-to- I don't know if you were embarrassed or what. They sat on that sandbar for seven hours. He goes, Shane, and the other person, the wife's gonna kill me. It was torture. He goes, My wife would not stop talking for like seven hours and we're stuck on this sandbar.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 45:37

I was dying when he told me the story. I'm not gonna say your name, but they have a thing called Sea Tow or BoatUS. Also have Sea Tow. It's like a hundred and sixty bucks a year. You run aground, you run out of gas. You have problems, you call them, they have a boat that'll come out, pull you off a sandbar, or tow you in. I even have it. I mean everybody I know has it. All my friends have it. Always have that. Because I remember one time I'm giving away all my secrets. I'm a really great boater, but I ran aground going to pick up Bob Wade, my father-in-law. This is uh this is off Chino Island, McKeever Keys, and you've got Sanibel and Captiva, and I know the sandbars there and Uncle Bill, Captain Bill, um Endless Summer Charters, he was with me before he was a charter captain. And Bill 's like, Shane, man, I see this bird standing. I'm like, Bill, I got it. I had a 24-foot pro line with a 225 Johnson Ocean Runner. and two stroke and I'm going to shame man I see the birds. They're standing on the same bar. Ah nah Bill, we got it, man. We got it. We gotta we gotta get Bob. We're running out of time. We told him we'd be there at whatever time it was. Getting ready to get dark too. And uh we're hauling butt all sudden I'm like, you've got to be canbilic to me because you're an idiot. He goes, you are just an idiot, Shane. thought we could make it. He goes, dude, there's birds standing on the sandbar. I said, I had it trimmed up. I mean we went back and forth in a loving way, back and forth, back and forth. I called seeto. They were there happen to be on North Cap. You know, they Sea Tow and Boat U. S. have boats scattered all over. Just sitting out there anchored out. Yeah, I just

Shane Waterfront Wilson 47:04

A hundred percent.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 47:06

180. It's one twenty.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 47:09

That's correct. So that's where I was going with this. So the guy comes out He's like, man, I'm waiting for the tide to come in. I'm not walking across this mucky sandbar to hook your boat up. I go, Bill looks at me and goes, Shane, I'm not walking out there. You're the idiot ranks to ground. Like, oh my God. So I get my anchor line and I walk it like a hundred feet to the dude's boat, to his line, snap the little shacklon. I mean the mud. It's all mud. And he pulls us off and he goes, you know, you get your CTO card, yeah. I go, curious, what would that have cost if I had to pay for it? He goes, uh, thirteen hundred and fifty dollars. But this is like 14 years, 12 years? I forget it. Over ten years ago.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 47:47

Easily. Easily. He goes, good thing you had Tito. And it's more money if they have to get out of their boat and walk the rope to you. But this guy's like, dude, I'm not getting out in that muck I mean 'cause I would sink up to my kneecaps. It was all grass and muck and sand and it was a mess. So I've spent my time on sandbars. I've run aground a million times, part of boating. I have thousands, if not tens of thousands of hours. I don't know if it's that many, but a lot. Thousands of hours on the water. I've experienced it all. One more quick story and then we'll get on real fast. So Craig was with me, his buddies from Chicago, we're in a 48 Cabo, Louis Hav, we'd sold that. And uh we wanna do a three-day fishing trip.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 48:24

out in the Pulley Ridge. In my mind I'm calculating fuel. Okay, yeah, I got that. I can burn this many hours. Three days. Okay, got that. Yep. So we're out there fishing for three days. One out at night we go into dry Tortugas, which is Fort Jefferson. It's a safe harbor for bad weather And we're heading home from Dry Tortugas. It's about a hundred and forty-six mile run. And we're running in and I'm looking at my fuel gauges. I'm like, hmm, I hold eleven hundred gallons. I'm like We ain't gonna make it. So I said, Craig, I'm in the flybridge. Okay, Craig, come up, man. Come up here. What? We're gonna run out of gas. He goes, What do you mean we're gonna run out of gas? I go, dude, I'm I'm I know my fuel burn, I've cocked it. We're gonna run out of gas. He goes You told me you calculated all this stuff. I got, you know who you were on the boat, the four of the guys. We caught a buttload of fish. Oh my gosh, best trip ever. And uh we're coming in. I go, Craig, go down, shut the generator off. Not that it's gonna make a big difference. That's like a gallon an hour. And a light bulb went off. Three days, gallon an hour, full load, probably gallon and a half an hour. That's twenty-four gallons. 48 gallons, 100 gallons. In my equation, I needed that extra hundred gallons to get back to the dock. I'd be low on fumes. I didn't calculate the generator running for three and a half days. That was my fuel. So 14 miles off the headpin on Fort Myers Beach. We call Cito, had the card, dude comes out in some little like zodiac type 24-foot zodiac with a single. 200 Merc um EFI electronic fuel injection pulling in a fifty thousand pound boat, forty eight thousand pound boat. I kid you not. So we got close enough to cell range because we called on the VHF radio and then the Coast Guard called the M and they came out. Gave my coordinates. I said, honey She goes, I've been waiting to hear from you.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 50:02

I go, Well, I ran out of gas. She goes, again? I go, ha ha I'll tell you other stories another time. Anyway, long story short, he's pulling us in. We got to the dock at three o'clock in the morning.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 50:12

On the way in, I had Bernie. Okay, I said your name, Bernie. Crank up the grill. We're eating hamburgers and hot dogs and I got the other two guys, you know who you are. Cleaning fish. You're not supposed to clean fish in the water, which we did because we had like a ten hour ride in. It was uh Hey eight hour ride in. Cleaned all of our fish. Ate like kings. They were drinking beer. I stayed not drinking beer 'cause I had to navigate a boat and just anyway. It turned out the lemons turned into lemonade. Had the best time. This is a story these guys tell from Chicago. They tell it over and over and when I run into their friends, their friends are like, dude, I heard about you. You're the run out of gas guy. I'm like, oh, seriously, come on man, you're killing me. So these are just part of the stories. But the point is we had water We had provisions. I had Flare Kit, uh Eperb, and a VHF radio, which I have two huge so I can communicate. Coast Guard I think they works at the 30 miles, 40 miles. Yeah. They heard my call, was not distressed. They were able to call Sea Tow, gave my coordinates. So my point is you y if you

Shane Waterfront Wilson 52:23

So when I was much younger you did VHF radio, ePurbs weren't even a thing in the

Shane Waterfront Wilson 52:36

food, water, your e perb back then, sat phone, any kind of ID, uh um if you have your cellphones in ziplocks and little watertight boxes, it's a ditch bag. So if your boat sinks, you got that bag, you're gonna be okay. You hit your ePurb, you push a button. Sends a signal out to the Coast Guard, it tells your coordinates, tells who you are, you have to file with um uh, what's it called? I forget. Every two years, which I do, mine's up to date. So if the boat sank, hit the button, get your life jackets on, and wait, and they will come out and pick you up.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 53:07

Fast forward now, VHFs, I won't say they're obsolete, but We know everybody got sat phones for a while, but they were super expensive to operate. But for a safety factor, it's great to have. Fast forward now I have Starlink on the boat. It's a little dish like this. And I can take it on that boat if I'm going to like dry Tortugas, um, Fort Jefferson, uh Marquesas Keys, outside of Key West. Once you get twenty miles out, eighteen miles out There's no cell service. There's like Nada. So I have that on the boat. I can talk. Yeah. I can text. I can check emails. I'm gonna let you know a little secret. When my wife and I Flew from Fort Myers to Isla Murata, hopped in the boat. We had a house we closed last week. Yep.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 53:48

took the boat from Isla Morata. We stopped at restaurants and bars on the way to Key West. Got to slip at the galleon marina. And again, guys, call me if you are going to Key West or going to Alamorata, going to Marathon for marinas, fuel, places to go, things to do, hotels, call me. I'll help you. This is what I do.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 54:06

well, let's put that in a guide. It's a big deal. So we went to Key West, got up the next day. We were gonna go to uh Sandy Key Lighthouse, which is off Key West. Beautiful diving at Snorkelink Beautiful. It's like twenty-five feet deep and these coral heads and these coral fingers, if you will, come up ten, fifteen feet off the bottom. As soon as I got in the water it was like a nine foot and I got some video I'll share with you. A nine foot blacktipped shark, probably twenty-five feet away. Just cruising along. Sharks don't want to eat you by the way. cruising along and then we saw schools of these doctor fish, these black fish with these purple, brilliant purple like outlines on their bodies and purple tails. It Nassau group are swimming up to you like, what are you doing on my reef? And you know, you get a little close and they go off and they're like this weird noise. I got that on video for you too.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 54:50

No, I got so much cool stuff. But I said, and because we have Starlink, let's shoot out to Marques ' Keys. We got a bunch of awesome footage. It's like 35 miles from Key West. We were conducting business while we're eating our lunch on the boat. I'm right, and I've got that on video too. Talking on the phone, closings, title companies, lenders, buyers, sellers, fielding calls, setting up showings from the boat, almost 40 miles away from Key West. From my Starlink, which is on the boat, and it's portable. I have these little magnetic things I stick on the hard top. I didn't even know. And Anne, my wife is like, Shane. You're so smart. I'm like, I know. I didn't say I know. But we're conducting business and then we would go snorkel for twenty minutes, thirty minutes, an hour. We'd go walk the beach for an hour, come back, the phones we'd leave on the boat, and you'd have your texts and we'd just respond to people. So we're living our best life. Staying in touch with our people, never out of touch, taking care of business that needs to be taken care of. Yes. We also have a team. I've got Rachel in the keys. She's got a real estate license. Congrats, Rachel. That's awesome. Awesome Rachel. Staying on that. Yep. She can handle anything if I'm busy showing property, listing property or in Fort Myers. Same with my wife. If she's up here not in the keys, Rachel's our our right hand person. In Fort Myers, if Anne and I are in the Keishung property or entertaining people, whatever. Yeah. We have Savannah. Savannah's on our team. Savannah, she rough. She's awesome. Savannah, congrats. She just sold two boat slips at um Hunterasa. What do you call that? Punta Rassa um oh my gosh. Punta Rassa Marina. And she just sold another condo to our same client.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 56:26

We've sold three so far, a Punta Rassa condo. Yay. You're killing it. And Savannah. And hopefully we can post it. This is a big deal Savannah is like the best. She's a mini-me, 30 years younger, 20 years younger. Energy, energy, energy. We have a listing on Fort Myers Beach. Got a call from a lady. And it didn't work out. The lady wanted covered parking. So Savannah called, said it's not gonna work for her. I said, Savannah, get back to her, tell her you're gonna find a condo on Fort Myers Beach with covered parking. It's a big deal to some people to leave a car here year round, not out in the hot sun She's closing on that deal. She was able to get that buyer, showed her, I think, nine or ten condos on Fort Myers Beach, and sold her a condo covered parking on the beach, like 700 grand. Woo! Savannah you rock. But without Savannah, we couldn't have done it because the time the schedule that lady was coming into town, cash fire We had to be in the keys for an event for a function, I forget what it was. Yeah. I couldn't

Shane Waterfront Wilson 57:21

So a lot of people say Shane, how do you how do you do both markets? Well there's a lot of law firms, doctors' offices, they have branch offices everywhere. They have key people in place to take care of it. Moving forward. Yeah. When you need the person responsible or the go to guy, which is me. I answer well it's over there. I answer my cell phone twenty-four-seven. Yeah. I return texts, emails, I have everything in my phone. Immediately or as fast as I can. Now I can't because we're doing our podcast. But the point is, I'm able to refer to Savannah, refer to Rachel. Nothing falls through the cracks. We have systems in place. After 33 years of doing this, Charlie, I have systems in place. And thank goodness for you, this guy is like really super smart. So if you want good information I have so much information I want to share with all these people. I just I guess we will. It'll come. It'll come. It'll come, yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 59:38

Yes.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:00:38

That is huge. This

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:00:41

Yeah, that's huge. So when you texted me this morning said, hey Shane at seven o'clock, I'm running early. Well where was I? Where was I?

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:00:52

Yeah. So one of our listings, the AC was leaking from the ceiling. Luckily I checked the house because they're back in Alaska. This is the second home. We have it listed for sale I'm showing out somebody, ooh, we got a water spot on the ceiling. That's a problem. So I call my AC guy. I'll be there tomorrow morning at 7 30. I went there at seven this morning, get the house open, pull the car out so we could drop the staircase to get to the attic. Guess who's sitting in the driveway at seven o'clock and I'm meeting him at seven thirty? My AC guy. You need a AC guy. I have an amazing guy. This is Fort Myers This guy calls me. Hey man, I'm running 15 minutes early. You home? Nope. What do you mean you're not home? I'm over at my listing meeting my AC guy.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:01:26

Well, yeah. I mean most realtors, they're not even out of bed at 7 o'clock. No offense. They're not. I'm up at 4:30, 5 o'clock every day. God has blessed me with this amazing energy, and I listen to my body. If I need rest, then maybe I'll try to get Five hours, six hours one night. If I don't need rest, I don't need it. So

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:01:49

My wife doesn't need it.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:01:52

eight to nine. She needs it. So we got Greg, the air conditioned guy, going. He's there at the house. Well he was this morning. Him and I are setting up here. We're multitasking getting things done. This goes back to if I didn't have connections with air conditioning, electricians, plumbers, roofers, attorneys, title companies. people I know and trust, that probably would still be leaking and that's a problem because eventually the drywall gets so wet it'll fall in.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:02:19

So It's already taken care of. I mean it's ten o'clock in the morning and we've been talking for a while. It's already taken care of by seven thirty-eight o'clock issue resolved.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:02:28

So

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:03:47

A ton.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:03:50

Good.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:08:03

Yeah, something that comes to mind. It's important. I've got people coming down in November. And met him one time, showed him around, took him out my boat, and they're coming down November through February. November, December, January, February, 26, 27. And he goes, Shane, we're gonna be there for four months. They're gonna try it out in the keys, rent a place. I'm like, okay. What kind of boat do we need? I said, well, what kind of boating do you want to do? We're not sure, we're from Texas. Like, okay I said, Do you want to run off shore? Well, maybe in a calm day we go offshore, but mostly like going to restaurants, maybe bars, back bay fishing, staying in close near the reef, the reef lined yellowtail fishing. I said, um, I'd say a twenty five contender. He goes, What's that? I go You know, look it up online. He looked it up, he goes, Well those are like new, like two hundred and thirty grand. I'm like, Yeah, I go, buy a used one. Yeah. Buy one that's one year old. You'll pay, you know, 40% less for it, low hours. You still have warranty on the motors, so warranty on the boat. Everything's new. Odds are things aren't going to break in a one-year-old boat. So called Gus, GTB boat sales and the keys. Great guy, great family. Say hey man. Got people come down budget like 150. He goes, guess what? I go what? He goes, I just got a trade-in on a 2024, 24 foot contender. Bells and whistles, power poles, three hundred Yamaha, hard top, garments, stereo system, cushions decked out. I think the people paid over two hundred and something thousand for it. Yeah. I go, hold on. So I called my guy. I don't want to say his name 'cause I didn't get his permission. Said, hey man, I got a uh 2024, 24 foot contender. My buddy Gus has it.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:09:37

You know, he's getting it on trade. He goes, Yep. Should I get it? He goes, what would you do, Shane? He said, what would I do? I said, I'd buy the boat. Why spend over 200 grand for a brand new boat when you're only gonna use it for four months? Yeah. I know they're gonna love it in the keys. I know they're gonna love it. He already got a dry storage place for it. So when he's not here this is even better. So long story short, just buy it He bought it sight and seen, wired the money to Gus, got the insurance. Gus did an incredible walkthrough on the boat. Then I went there with my camera, took uh videos of it, sent it to these people.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:10:07

Love the boat. I go, you need to have a cover made. Where do I go? I got a guy in the keys who makes boat covers. No, full boat cover. You don't want sitting in the sun baking. Absolutely. Boat covers put on Him and his wife flew into Palm Beach, drove to the keys, saw the boat for the first time, came down, saw us. He's got his boat, he's ready to go, got him a place to stay for that four months.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:10:27

He comes on November 1st. I have it on my calendar. I'm gonna hop in his brand new boat with him and make snail trails throughout the keys, like snail trails. Then I've got him hooked up, you mentioned this, with a captain for the next two days to expand. I don't have time to take everybody out for three days in the boat. I just I've got so many people to help. So I have a good captain buddy, know who you are He's gonna take him out, I think, the second and the fourth or fourth and fifth, I forget the exact days, and make additional snail trails. These are little lines that on a chart plotter where you go through the channels So he can become familiar with it. And I told these people when I come down and have time, because I love to go boating. I still love it. He said, Shame, we'll take you to work. Oh my gosh. We'll take you to whatever restaurant, whatever bar you want, we'll pay. Take us and make more snail trails. I'm like Done. So over the next four months when I'm in the keys, I could be there a week, ten days, I could be there two days. I just fly back and forth. Yeah. I'm gonna take him out in the boat. They are so thankful and they have told so many friends who are thinking of coming to the keys, whether they're trying to rent a place or buy a place, call Shane, here's what he's done for us. Yeah. Who is this dude? How did you meet him? Well I met it through Captain Matt and the Keys. You know, he's a fishing guy down there, a dear friend, him and his wife. Rachel's his wife, our realtor that works on our team.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:11:37

If it wasn't for Matt, I wouldn't have met these folks. Yeah. Super nice people. But when they tell their friends like why is this guy doing this? I don't know, he's just so nice and he's just doing this and actually we took delivery in an ice machine yesterday that he shipped down for the place they're gonna be staying at and he sent down a bunch of flares Life jackets, cushions, all kinds of stuff, which I'm gonna pick up for 'em when I go down there. But it's just the th the little extra things we do for people to help people. When I have time, I'll do it. If I'm too busy showing property, I would have told them I don't have time.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:12:22

Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:12:23

Okay, so Southwest Florida, it's mostly mud. you know, sand, it's not hard bottom. The keys is coral rock. When you hit in the keys like I did in the contender, you're doing damage. You run aground here, you'll be in the mud, sometimes in the grass, which you don't want to tear up the grass beds. Um Having snail trails is a chart plotter. It's kind of like a map in your car. Yeah. Wherever you take your boat, there's a little trail. And all you have to do when you get in the boat after that, somebody who doesn't know the waters zoom in and follow that little trail and as you're looking at your trail on your chart plotter you can see the green marker, red marker. No wake zone, no motor zone. You can see that and follow your snail trail. You're making snail trails you're not out running randomly running ground. tearing up your boat. Or even if you run aground here in the mud and sand you don't shut your motor off, your motor overheats, blows up, you got a problem In the keys, if you goof up and go out of the channel in some areas, it's rock bottom like I did. Yeah. That 's the

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:13:27

A hundred percent. So creating snail trails going with somebody who knows the waters, high tide, low tide, average mean tide, people don't understand that. This one guy say, Shane, I don't get it. I went over at Whale Harbor Bridge, second station, everything was fine. I go, what time of day was it? Two, three days ago, whatever it was. But I tried to go back under and if I would have gone I would have hit. I go, tides. We had extreme low tide. I mean he's watching him and his wife and his kids run on the boat. He just barely made it under. But trying to go back in the other day of the next day, 'cause you can go through like Tavernier Creek around the Bayside, Oceanside, or vice versa.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:14:05

Tides play a big role. Yeah. I've seen people at Tavernier Creek not paying attention. They're downstairs, second station, idling along. Top rips off. I mean it's I've seen it a thousand times. I've seen people run aground a thousand times. My wife and I will be out in the boat. I go, honey, see that boat? He's gonna run aground. That's not very nice, Shane. I go, honey, I'm not making him go that route, but that's not the channel. He's gonna run again. Watch. Well, that's not very nice. I go, just keep watching Mud spitting out sand spitting out the back and the people and you see the dude on the boat like can't hear what he's saying, his arms are flying.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:14:40

And then typically the wives on the boat are Like you dum-dum, you dum-dum. I can't believe you did this.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:14:48

Yeah, that's the way watering it down. So it's just really important.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:14:53

Going to a new location I have boat captains that you pay them, they'll take you out and keep you safe and not damage your boat and show you where the fishing spots are. I have people in Fort Meyer, same thing. If you're going behind um Sanibel, Captiva, North Captiva, Keocosta, there's certain little channels you can run through Yeah. At high tide or mean tide, at low tide you can't make it. There's other channels on the Gulf side that you can get into these beautiful little bays, but at low tide you'll never get out. So you have to know all that.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:16:12

I'll tell you something important, yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:16:17

Yeah. Red right return doesn't always hold true. Typically going into a home port, red right return meaning red should be on your right going into a channel. It doesn't always hold true. Why? I don't know. I've been in some places where the red's on the left.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:16:28

When you're going down the Caloosahatchie River, we're back in Fort Myers, Southwest Florida, you go through the slow zone, Little Shaw Island. You have the red markers will be on your right side, the greens on your left. As soon as you come out of the mouth of the Kalusahatchie River, you could go straight to Pine Island. You can take a left to Fort Myers Beach or go right to uh Mount Lachey. That's really tricky back up in there. When you round marker 101, it's green. The marker switch. The next marker you come to, red's on your left. So listen, you're going out of the channel, you're round the green, marker 101. They all have numbers on it. So you can look at your chart or chart or chart plot. Oh, oh that's where we are. Marker 101. It switches. So 101 is green. When you make that turn, you go down a half a mile, on the left hand side is a red. It switched. Now the green's got to be on your right, red's on your left I've seen so many big boats when they come out of 101, they make that turn thinking that it needs to be on that side, they've run aground. It's real shallow up in there, super shallow.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:17:27

But you have to watch your chart plotter and if you're not sure look forward a little bit. You're gonna see wait the reds aren't on the right anymore. The greens are on the right Oh, it must have switched.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:17:44

ditch bag.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:18:13

No man.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:18:21

probably wouldn't be lakes. This is the intro to the waterway, mu much of it.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:18:52

Yeah. Uh

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:19:25

Yeah, I have it. I've used it a lot. Absolutely. Yeah. And something too that maybe he did not tell you is that the boat that Charlie had was an inboard outboard. In this area, Southwest Florida, get outboards. Outboards you can trim all the way out. Those are the motors that bolt to the back of the boat. They trim up. Inboard outboard comes out of the stern. Like this. So you run a ground, you got problems. Even when you trim it up, it's still gonna be stuck in the dirt, stuck in the mud, stuck in the grass. Um

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:19:51

A jack plate. So you have a jack plate that the motor The jack plate bolts to the boat, motor bolts to that. It brings the engine up six inches, seven inches. A porter bracket brings it up like 17 inches. It brings it up super high. Like on my Lake and Bay, my flats boat. Um at a porter bracket. Okay. I could jack the motor all the way up and the keel would hit before the motor did.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:20:10

My boat right here, maybe that much of my skeg is below the keel of the boat. So if I did hit bottom, it might take out a little bit of the skeg, but the point is I don't want to run around. So

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:20:35

I've been there, yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:20:39

Oh, is the oil slick everywhere. That's not

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:20:45

I know, I know. That was That was bad. So

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:21:06

Right.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:21:37

I just don't reambling have all this knowledge I want to share with everybody.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:21:48

Good, good. I feel good about that. I feel good about that. Thank you. It's just I have all this knowledge I want to share with people and in for the thirty-three years I've done this in helping people achieve the waterfront lifestyle just to see them on Instagram or Facebook or TikTok, they're out in the boats with their family, their kids. They have friends coming down, taking their friends out. Their friends are like, this is amazing. This is like really cool. Like, how did you learn? Well Shane, my realtor Shane, yeah, Waterfront Wilson. You know Waterfront. We don't know Waterfront. It's just become a household brand name. I'm not trying to be conceited or anything. It's just when I go out in that boat, the side of the boat says Shane Waterfront Wilson. com I go out in the 31 contender, which is in the keys now. We alternate them. It's a great big W down the side. I'll be going down a canal. Waterfront, what's up? Hey man. My wife will be like, who is that? I don't know I don't know who that was. Yeah. I'll be in that boat going down Little Shell Creek. My wife and I are going fishing there. Snook, redfish. Hey, what's up waterfront? Hey, how you doing? My wife's like, who's that? I'm like, I don't know. And then on the 42 contender, you can't miss it. I was actually coming, I had a 14 people on the boat. Annie, I'm not gonna say your last name, Annie. We had your family from Winter Haven and the ones from Tampa. And we had four little kids on the boat. This is the best story ever. This was um Six weeks ago, we're in the 42 Intrepid and we're going down miserable mile, picnic islands off on the left, and I'm always looking for dolphin.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:23:10

And I'm looking and I see I'm kinda going along coming up and I see some babies and I hmm like I slow down say kids You want to see Flipper? They go, What's Flipper? And these kids are like three, five, seven, nine, ten years old. And Annie, when you see this podcast, you're gonna be like, oh my God, best day ever. Yeah. So I go, kids, you want to see Flipper Well yeah Cap oh they called me Captain Shane. I'm not a captain but they called me Captain Shane. I said watch this. So I get up where the dolphins are. We slow down, trim your motors up, so it digs the stern in. About 1500 1800 RPM making a huge wake. I go kids Walk to the back of the boat with your mom and dad and watch. What are we watching for, Captain Shane? I go, flipper. And the dolphin then come up here. I go, do this, kids. Flipper. Flipper! Flipper jump! I mean nine times out of ten the dolphin do it. I had a feeling they'd do it. All of a sudden, mama jumps up. Two little babies come up. The daddy dolphin. We've got like Seven or eight dolphin, but jumping in the wake. The kids are going crazy like Captain Chain, you're amazing. You called in Flipper It was like the best thing. Then their moms and dads are like so happy 'cause then these kids are so happy and then Annie, one of my best friends since we were little kids and uh her husband was there. I mean i it was the Best time. So that lasted maybe two and a half, three minutes, and the dolphin get tired and they swam away. So I slow back down and get everybody situated, get drinks for the kids and that. And the little girl up front, she's probably five. I just got a thank you note in the mail yesterday She was Captain Shane. This is the best day ever. We have it on video. I'm gonna post that actually. They were so excited. There was Five little kids, four of them wrote me little notes. I got two more notes yesterday.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:24:44

Captain Shane, it's so much fun. My favorite part in the boat was going fast. My favorite part was driving the boat. I let him drive the boat. My favorite part was seeing flipper Yeah. They don't forget a thing, man. So that's I get off on that. I think it's just so awesome to see what a great time they had and they were saying at um South Seas Plantation, a big resort on Captiva Island, we took the boat, the 42 Intrepid out, picked them all up, did the dolphin thing. And then we uh went to Cabbage Key, had lunch. They thought that was so cool. Yes. Seeing the turtles, the land turtles on the island, walking around, feeding them the little red flowers and Those are things I kind of live for.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:25:41

100%. Is it cheesy to pull my phone up and took a picture of that little card and read what they wrote, or is that cheesy? We don't need to do that, probably.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:25:49

I mean, I have so many great stories and some of you thinking, Shane, you gotta be making this up. You're full of baloney. No, this is real. Authentic. No. And these just came in yesterday. Hold on, I'm gonna lose my cord here. I just I wanna I mean I love what I do. I just happen to make great money doing it. I love what I do. It is like the best. So last night I texted this to Annie One of my dear friends, good friends from the keys who grew up together. So there's two little notes here. Oops. Oh goodness. Let me make it bigger. Dear Captain Shane and Anne, my wife Anne, everybody knows Anne. Thank you for taking me on your boat. My favorite part was driving. I like going fast. I had a great time. Love Mackie. I'll say the first name I can say that. I think she's five or six. her brother. Dear Captain Shane and Anne, my wife, thank you for taking us out on your boat. My favorite part was seeing Flipper. I had so much fun. Love Bo These are two

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:26:50

And then I've got the other two cards from the other two kids, but

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:26:53

That warms my heart, man. It makes me so happy they get to experience it. Oh. And when I talk to Annie, my dear friend from the Keys, she said The best part of their four-day trip was going out in the boat with Captain Shane and Anne that day and going to Cabbage Key, seeing the flipper. Oh, and we took him to the beach afterwards, getting shark's teeth. The kids are running up and down the beach and It was like the best day and I got that video girl. Captain Shane, this is the best day ever. Is that not warm?

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:27:41

Yes.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:27:45

Yeah

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:27:50

Teaching them.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:28:18

So many things.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:28:38

So Cabbage Key is an island. This is Southwest Florida, uh up in Pine Island. It's about twenty -three miles from here. And it's a restaurant built on top of an old Indian mound. It's the highest point in Lee County. I think it's a twenty two foot elevation. Yeah. And there's a restaurant there. And they say that's where Jimmy Buffett was there years ago and wrote Cheeseburger in Paradise. That song Cheeseburger in Paradise. That's what they say. There's a thing on the wall with the record, gold record, saying, Yeah, Jimmy wrote that song here. Um they have a bar there, fantastic restaurant. They have a water tower. You can crawl up into the water tower and see all the surrounding island in the water. Plenty of dockage They have a dock master there, so I know what some of you are thinking. I'm a crappy boat driver. I can't dock the boat. I don't want to dock the boat when I have a hundred people watching me. They have a dockmaster there. His name's Joe. Captain Joe. He's a real captain. When you come in on your VHF radio, he'll call you, hey Captain, in the 25-foot Grady, 40-foot Nortec, whatever boat it is, hey, come around to this side of the dock. He'll tell you where to go. He'll make you look good. He'll tell you, put this motor in forward. Do your bow thruster for people who aren't sure. He'll get you to the dock. He helps tie you up. Give him a good tip. Don't not tip him. Tip him good. He'll remember you. We always tip really good and when we come in with customers, they're like our personal docker people. It's really cool. But Cabbage Key's amazing. And then they have these little trails you can take like through the mangroves, through the woods. Yeah. It is just An amazing place. It's on an island. It's on an island right across from Yisapa. Um

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:30:28

Uh

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:30:58

taught you and

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:31:08

Did we

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:31:37

So I had

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:31:43

jogged my brain. So about three years ago we were at our key's house out in the boat and we took Gary, my father-in-law, Ann's father and mother, um, and his buddy out in the boat. They want to go snorkeling. And at that time I think Gary was 79 And him and his buddy got in the water snorkeling, hens and chickens, took him to Chica Rocks, Alligator Light. These are amazing places to snorkel. Not scuba dive. You don't need the tank on your back. Just snorkel. Easy.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:32:06

They were in the water for hours, it seemed like, at least an hour, him and his buddy. Um Anne's mom stayed back at the house, she loves to read, and sat by the pool in the water. And he got out of the water, he looked at me. I'm probably gonna tear up now, and he goes, Thank you. I go, Gary, w what? He goes, Thank you. And that time he's seventy-nine he goes, I never thought I would do this again. And he got teary-eyed and I got teary-eyed. I'm like right now I'm getting teary-eyed. Thank God I have glasses on He says I never thought I would have snorkeled again on a reef in the keys in my lifetime, I he that would be his last time Holy cow, you talking about emotional hit your heart. I what got home later that day and I don't know Anne was with us at the time. Yes, she was with us, but I didn't tell her that communication Gary and I had. She was on the bow of the boat untying the rope from the buoy.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:32:58

And fast forward to Father's Day, Gary and Sue came down, aunt's mom and dad. I said Gary Let's go snorkeling, oh I'm eighty-two years old now or eighty-one years old. I said, Gary, come on man, let's go. Well I won't be able to get out of the water because When you're in the water in a boat, you have a little ladder folds over. It's challenging to get out. You gotta grab the cleat, grab the motor, pull yourself up to get out of the water. Yeah. Shane, I don't think I can do it. I said, Anne, talk to your dad. He has to go, because this will probably be his last time He went out snorkeling with us. Took him, got him in the water. We were at uh Little Rough that day. We went to um Chica Rocks. He snorkeled for about ten, fifteen minutes and that was good for him. He's 82 years old. Um

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:33:37

And he did it. And he I looked at him cause Ann was snorkeling off and I'm watching him I'm in the water too. And I can just tell by his body movements. He was ready. He said, Gary What? He's got a snorkel in.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:33:48

He gets to the boat. I help take his fins off. And I said, Gary, easy, man. I said, put your foot on the step. Grab the cleat, grab the edge of the motor, and pull yourself up. And he looks at me like you gotta be kidding me. I got Gary smelling the way to get out of the water. This is like he's 230, 240 pounds, he's big dude, 6'3 He grabbed that man, pulled himself up, got in the boat. He goes, Shane, thank you. He goes, this is probably my last time, which I think will be his last time. To go snorkeling at 82 years old. Yeah, see, you're getting all emotional too, man. It's like that's what it's all about, man That's what it was all about. Ann got out of the water and she's like, Dad, you did it, you did it. And we got home, told Sue, his wife, You did it, Gary, that's great, that's great. And he just said, Shane, thank you.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:34:31

so many stories.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:35:00

A hundred percent. I gotta add one more thing that's really important. I know we ramble and gamble and ramble. So about six weeks ago, I had our daughter, Sierra, her husband Tony, and our four grandkids come down. We took him out in the boat. Riley's nine. Chesska's six, Jane is five, and the baby's thir thirteen months old. So she really couldn't she gets in a floaty, but we took them out snorkeling. We practiced in the pool, mask, fins. They were snorkeling in the salt water. Most little kids like, oh, salt's getting my eyes, it burns my eyes. They were snorkeling. Riley and grandma, and my wife who's grandma. snorkeled for like an hour along these rocks. I took them on the back side, the base side. Chesska snorkeled for a long time. Jane did well. She's still younger. She did well. She did it not as long.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:35:45

But we went to s um Alligator Light and we floated around with the lighthouse behind us, went to uh Hens and Chickens, we went to uh Robbie's hand fed the tarpon, had lunch there. We have these amazing videos and pictures Then we went to this calm place on the backside of a like in the large island on the bayside. Yeah. And I put my grandbaby Sophia in this little floaty. She's the thirteen months old. She just sat there and I put a little hat on her, so her mom's in the boat, her dad, you know, he's swimming around the rocks with Anne and, you know, Riley and I'm just talking to her. She's looking at me and she was so relaxed. She wasn't like fighting it, just had her head on the edge. And I've got this on video too and photos. We were in the water for like 45 minutes. She was just chilling.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:36:25

And then we got these amazing pictures of grandma And my wife, Grandpa, and our grandbabies in the boat. That is like the best. And then Riley's like, grandpa, go faster, go faster. Jane's like, no, go slower, go slower. Jessica's like, you're going too fast. I mean Th my point is families, if you come to live on the water and your grandkids come, you're creating these memories and photos and videos you'll have forever. So when those kids grow up My kids today, Wade just turned twenty-eight, Sears twenty-nine. Dad, remember we were little kids, we went snook fishing. Remember we had red fishing? Dad, remember we went to the Bahamas? Dad, remember we went offshore and caught all this Mahi. Dad, remember we were snorkeling, we speared that grouper

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:37:02

They remember all this stuff and these are things that Sierra's wanting grandma and grandpa to do with her kids that they want to do with their kids. Wade doesn't have kids yet. Him and Courtney, it'll come when it comes. And we'll be doing the same thing.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:37:14

It's just

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:37:47

Say big deal.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:38:18

Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:38:23

I have so much information I want to share with you people, so much knowledge in my head of being in Florida my whole life, of boating for fifty years. Had my first boat, uh what I say seven years old, eight years old, whatever it was. And having numerous boats. I've driven hundreds and hundreds of boats, big boats, little boats, just to be have the knowledge I can share with people so they can enjoy the lifestyle I've had. Yeah. And I were going through old pictures a couple months ago Bahamas, Tortugas, the Florida Keys. We have done so much boating with friends, family, customers. In some of our podcasts, a lot of our customers have become our really great friends. We met 'em through real estate. It's just I just want to share all this information with people who don't know what they don't know. Yeah. If that makes sense. Exactly. There's so many things in the world I don't know about, but I don't know because I don't know. I want to share that with everybody out there and just change their life, man. It just That's kinda like a goal. And I sell real estate, making money, doing what I love. Yeah who wouldn't want to do that.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:40:10

Have a great day. Thank you. Appreciate it. Later. Dude here 's a smart