Blog 1: Watch your 12 - A Plea To First Responders
I am here to beg.
It’s not easy to beg - it takes swallowing an immense amount of pride for most people to plead to someone else.
But I’ll do it. For you - the local firefighter, police officer, or other first responder who might be reading this. Sometimes, swallowing pride is something that must be done for the greater good.
So I beg you first responders, please, please, please place a priority on your own mental health. There is a silent epidemic of mental health problems and suicide throughout your first responder community, but your passion for helping others in need blinds any concern about your own health. You didn’t get into this industry to help yourselves, no, you have a vision of making the world a better place, and while that’s extremely admirable, it also requires you being healthy and alive to make that vision a reality.
We need you first responders. We need you the next time a house catches on fire, or a car flips over on a freeway, or a robbery turns into a hostage situation. We need the people who put themselves in dangerous situations so everyone else can live a peaceful life. But the unfortunate reality is that those professions come at a risk much greater than what we perceive on the news every day. A person can only witness so much trauma and negative situations before it starts to take a toll on their mental health. According to B.L.U.E Help, a Police Suicide Prevention Program, three times the amount of police officers died by taking their own lives compared to gunfire in 2018.
It’s estimated that for every 1 police officer that takes their life, there are another 1,000 struggling with PTSD.
Last year, more firefighters were lost to suicide than to line-of-duty deaths.
And it’s not fair.
It’s not fair that the people who take these jobs to make a tangible, positive difference in the world are being rewarded with a life of PTSD and depression. They deserve so much more.
But I promise you, if you are reading this and struggle with mental health demons, I promise you that you are not broken, you can be helped. There are countless resources, like The 9–99 Foundation and Copline, that were created to help people just like you.
I get it, “you’re fine”, you have bigger and more important things to worry about, you’re worried that you’ll lose your job if you seek help, or that it’s just frankly “not how you were raised”.
But I am pleading with you, throw out all those excuses, because I promise you none of those things, nor your pride, are more important than your life. Your wife, husband, children, family, or coworkers would agree with me - trust me. You won’t lose your job seeking to better your mental health, but you will lose your job and everything else if you die.
I can’t stress enough — it’s OK to have suicidal thoughts or to have considered it. You are not less of a person because of it. It is, unfortunately, much more normal than you think. It’s impossibly weighing on someone to go into work every day and see the vile consequences of the evil this world can be filled with. To see the effects of a gunshot, a burning building, a rape, and countless other tragedies first responders are called to respond to - those words are hard enough to read and write, much less see each day. Mental health problems and depression for first responders are often times rooted in trauma and extremely high-stress levels. God only knows how much of both of those first responders go through.
It can get better though. The pain, the sadness, the emptiness, they can go away or at least become much more bearable. I promise you the hardest part is picking up the phone, or typing that email, or doing whatever you need to do to get the ball rolling, but after that, it gets easier, and, hopefully, life gets better.
So please, swallow your pride for your own good and #WatchYour12, we‘ve got your six. Forget how you were raised to not show your emotions, forget other people’s problems for a change, and reach out for yourself. You matter, we need you to be here, because your life is important. Your presence in the world makes an incredibly positive, tangible difference in all our lives.
Here are some links to point you in the right direction:
Police Officers: 999foundation.org, copline.org, bluehelp.org
Fire Fighters: ffbha.org
Blog 2: 5 home staging tips to make your property shine
Staging your house has become increasingly more important this year due to the lack of open houses (if your state does not allow it) and communication between potential buyers and agent. Oftentimes, people are more comfortable (or have to by law) looking at a house without other people present.
Without direction from an agent on how to explore and view the space, how the house is staged can make or break how quickly the house sells, and for how much.
Let's take a look at 5 home staging tips that will immediately give you property more shine.
1. Purge and simplify the space
Antoine de Saint-Exupery once said of design, "perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away". When staging a house, purging and simplifying the spaces of unnecessary clutter will go far in changing the overall energy of the house. This is especially true for areas like closets, garages, drawers, etc. When no one is there to guide people on where to look, you can bet they will look in every nook and cranny possible.
2. Paint with purpose
Paint, and to a deeper level, color in general, affects a person's opinion on how they feel about an area more than any other design aspect.
The first job you want to do if touch up the paint in your house - and do it right. Color match professionally or hire a professional to do it. Make sure when you color match and paint-type match to check it in the best light possible - when big patches show up on the walls at dusk or in the noon bright light, it can be an embarrassing experience.
The second paint task you want to accomplish is painting to neutral - any extreme colors (even if they may not be extreme to you) need to be neutralized. I cannot stress this enough - the cost of painting right, sets you up for the highest net on the sale. Non-neutral colors risk having a buyer's biases play a part in their opinions about the house (more on this later).
3. Dress up your property like it's on a first date
You have secondsto make an amazing first impression on people - make sure your home is up to the task. Hire professional cleaners to make the house spotless, plant some fresh flowers in the yard, hang a wreath, put a cute potted plant near the door, mow the lawn - and please, put your garbage cans away.
If you want to go the extra mile, ask your neighbors if you can spruce up their yards as well (make sure you do that nicely though).
4. De-personalize everything
We all have plenty of pieces around the house that tell the story about who we are. As much as we love them and hold them dear to us, we can't have those around when potential buyers are looking at the house.
Box it up, put it away- the goal here is to make it look like a hotel suite or a model home.
There are good reasons for this, and some unfortunate realities that we still have to face.
Reason 1:Providing a blank slate when they walk in allows people to experience the home with their own imagination - picturing themselves and their life story unfolding there.
Reason 2:This is the unfortunate part of working with strangers. You have no idea the bias that they carry, and how they may interpret or judge any item they see. This is prevalent in appraisals as well, and as much as we wish this wasn't the case, it does happen.
If it's not their own story they are imagining, it's yours.
Even refrigerator magnets can tell a story - keeping things clean and clear from the beginning keeps a more powerful negotiating platform later, because ultimately the person who buys the home will want to negotiate everything.
5. Light, light, and more light
Light is one of the biggest indicators of a person's health and happiness. Countless studies have been conducted showing that more light leads to better sleep, a happier mood, and more energy. Use light to create an atmosphere within the house that lifts up people. No one wants to live in a dark, depressing box.
Turn on every light your house has built-in, and if there are any areas that could use more light, invest in fixtures that brighten them up. Open all the windows and let those sweet sweet sunshine rays glimmer across the house.
Blog 3: Expert Voice: Michelle Taylor on How RedDoor is Merging the Human / Tech Connection
In the last episode of RedDoor Presents, we had the pleasure of interviewing Michelle Taylor - a top-producing Sacramento realtor. She spoke about all things Sacramento real estate, the advent of technology as an integral cog in an agent's toolbox, and the importance of the human connection.
"What I find to be one of the most challenging things [for an agent] is to build rapport with people who found you via their device. They see you as a swipe, or a click, and not necessarily as a human being.I'm really excited that we are going to get a chance to talk about it, because I think thats one of the unique things about RedDoor - how you're merging the technology and human experience in such a way that people can understand it almost immediately." - Michelle Taylor
Buying a home is one of the most emotional and biggest financial decisions people make in life. Buyers are currently dropped into a broken mortgage process where information, transparency, and solutions are hard to come by. We are breaking down those walls for people by offering an ecosystem of products that provides a transparent, simple, fast, and knowledgable home buying experience for everyone involved.
At RedDoor, we always say that we believe in the power of human connection. We know technology can be intimidating for both agents and clients, and in a world that is trying to desperately push humans out of every process possible, we are building our tech to strengthen and empower the relationship between buyer and agent - not to replace it.
"What ends up being the differentiator is the human experience - someone coming in and meeting you, but also realizing you do have the tech that will give them the leading edge when it comes time to make an offer, to have a pre-approval in a timely fashion, having real time updates. [Those] end up being the differentiators in this dog-eat-dog space of real estate." - Michelle Taylor
"What ends up making an experience for a client much more enjoyable, much more valuable, is they're able to have at their fingertips the resources they need, but they're always able to have a human element that help will them oversee those next steps.This is a very vulnerable experience for a lot [of people], especially new buyers. "You want what from me? You want to know my credit score? My income? What my purchase power is?". I love the anonymity [for buyers] of being able to go on their phone and deal with that as much as they want, but then when they have questions because they don't understand what a debt-to-income ratio is, someone can help them understand that." - Michelle Taylor
It is staggering to see the lack of change in the mortgage process over the past few decades, when technology is advancing the capabilities of every other industry on earth. First-time home buyers are looking at the same process their parents went through when buying theirfirst house.
We have technology that can transform your living room into a custom world with VR, cars that can drive themselves better than you can, and apps that can automate everything in your home.
So why are we faxing things in 2020? Consumers don't want the process their parents and grandparents had to go through when buying a home. They want to be able to find a house, get pre-approved for it, and close all from the comfort and flexibility of their phone (which is to say, anywhere in the world that has internet).
"I think they expect it almost, in a certain sense, because we are a society that has automated so much of our daily lives. So there is some expectation of "this should be simpler, why is it so hard to get a pre-approval, why do I have to push paper literally across a table for it to occur". Where as, once it's in this digital format, it's much quicker and much simpler. For certain clients, such as millennials, its much more natural than having to dig up a W-2 and what not in a paper format. I've even heard people ask for faxes at one point." - Michelle Taylor
So there is this disconnect in the home buying process that is increasingly making its mark on our country by driving people to rent instead of buy. Renting is inherently easier - there is no bidding, no confusion; this is the price you pay, then you pay it every month.
"We were looking at an article earlier this week that our nation is becoming a nation of renters and we find that so interesting because the demographic of most of these people is that they do have affordability to actually buy, but they're renting. The question is why? The answer is documented as being the process is too painful or they just don't know where to start or are overwhelmed." - Heather Harmon
This, at its core, is the value RedDoor offers to agents: the opportunity to help people understand, simplify, and deliver the home buying process in a way that is convenient, secure, and familiar to them.
Ultimately, the people, your clients, are the backbone of an agent's business. So being able to offer them an experience that is so far beyond their expectations (which the data says is very low), will help grow and sustain your business innumerably.
And yes, we make the experience for you just as great as it is for them. We know the frustrations of being an agent and we created an ecosystem that looks to solve them.
Give us a shot - we don't sell or share data, there is no cost, and never a catch.
We are here for you every step of the way, like you are with your clients. Download our agent facing app, HERO, and also app for your buyers called home,to experience a home buying process like never before.
If you have 15 minutes, we would love to chat (virtually, of course) to give you a quick understanding our tools and how they will empower you.
HERO: app.reddoor.com/hero
HOME: app.reddoor.com/home