Welcome to the Real Tea Podcast brought to you by Tennessee Realtors.
I’m your host, Angela Shields.
This podcast is created for Tennessee Realtors to get the tea on all things real estate in Tennessee.
We’ll bring you engaging conversations with esteemed guests in the real estate industry, and cover a wide array of topics including current events, governmental affairs, education, and legal updates.
We’re coming to you today on the heels of two huge hurricanes, one being Hurricane Helena, which made landfall and traveled across six states, one being here in Tennessee, and the other one, Hurricane Milton, which just happened.
I’m very fortunate today, I have two guests, one being Mike McGrew from Lawrence, Kansas, who is the chairman of the Realtor Relief Fund for the National Association of Realtors, and the other is a special guest right out of Newport, Tennessee, Lisa Askew, who’s been doing a dynamic job of helping our families in the Northeast Tennessee area.
And Lisa, I’m going to jump straight to you.
You hit the ground running as soon as the hurricane was over.
No questions asked.
You just jumped into action, and we all saw it on Facebook.
I want to ask you what it’s been like, what you’ve seen, and just tell us your experience.
So I’ve lived here 47 years, and I get very emotional.
I’m still a little emotional, so if I cry, I’m sorry.
For 47 years, I’ve lived here, and I’ve sold a lot of houses to most of these people.
These were clients, and some of them are current clients, and I watched the kids grow up.
So on that Friday afternoon, I didn’t hesitate about running out and loading my truck up, and whatever I had from my own personal home, and I started taking out and meeting the needs.
And then we opened up the biggest distribution center out of my church that we could find.
You know, it’s huge.
And now we have a 45,000-square-foot warehouse that we’re working that distribution center out of.
But three or four days later, Katherine reached out to me, my CEO at Great Smoky Mountains Realtors, and she said, we’ve just been approved for the Realtor Relief Foundation.
And I said, great, what do I do?
And she goes, here’s the application, fill it out, get ID and pictures, and we’ll wing it together.
So we pretty much did that.
And I opened my office up to the community, and I was like, look, please come, come, come to my office and let’s help you.
And we did that, and then I was needed so much out on the road doing other things, because I had already obligated myself to other things that I just, I printed like a hundred copies of these applications, and I just threw them in my car with 20 Tennessee Realtor Pins, to be honest with you, that I had.
And we just started filling them out in the back end of my truck, or sometimes on a pack of drinks.
And when we started getting the IDs, I was using my phone to take pictures of IDs, and we just wanted to help as many people as we possibly can, because they’ve lost everything.
There’s so many people that’s lost their homes, their cars, their kids’ clothes, their trophies.
So many people just says, Lisa, I had the clothes on my back.
That’s all I have.
You know, so if we can help as many people as we can, that’s what it’s all about.
To me, you know, I met a farmer yesterday that said he was blessed through all the mess.
And we just want to continue to help our community as much as we possibly can.
And the Realtor Relief has been amazing.
And I can’t thank you guys enough for that.
I mean, at every convention, every meeting, I’m just going to scan my phone and just keep donating.
You know, because it goes, I can see now that it goes back to my people.
Because these are my people in my community.
These are my people.
So it feels good to be able to hand somebody a check and say, you know what?
It’s not going to buy you a house, but it’s going to help you.
And they’re so appreciative of it.
We’ve literally seen you go out and make your way through what used to be roads.
They’re not even there any longer.
And see the pictures of what you’re turning in, where it’s either foundations where houses got swept away by the river or where houses are full of mud.
And it’s just awful.
But what’s sad is you’re having to go find people that are unfindable because their house isn’t there.
And you’re being the conduit because you know how to find them.
And I think it was yesterday I was on Fugate Road and there was probably 25, 30 houses on Fugate at one time.
There’s two houses standing.
You know, yesterday we just we met several people that just didn’t have a house.
They had their blocks where the house was, but it floated down the river, you know, or, you know, I think you posted one of my pictures where it had a sign that says, you know, I want to come back home to you.
Please don’t leave.
You know, I don’t know the exact verbiage of that sign.
But, you know, that house is sitting sideways.
Nowhere close to the foundation.
But we’re seeing that everywhere.
There’s so many communities that has just massive devastation.
And we just, I think, going door to door seems to be a little bit more productive than just opening my doors at my office and saying, come to me.
I think I should come to them.
It’s more of a service to our community to be able to go to them instead of them coming to me.
And I know, Lisa, you’re one example.
We’ve seen a few others, well, many others that have been out there, whether it’s they’re bringing supplies, they’re doing what you’re doing, going door to door.
And it’s not just your community.
It’s Newport, it’s Irwin.
It’s, there’s several other communities that are suffering like this.
The REALTORS Relief can make such a difference in so many communities here in Tennessee.
You know, and I’m willing to go to Irwin.
That’s where I’m supposed to be.
Last weekend, setting up a huge Apple Festival.
And the place that we were setting up is no longer there.
It’s totally gone.
So, you know, I have a lot of friends in Irwin.
I would love to help Irwin.
You know, I have, I live about 45 minutes from Asheville.
And I know that’s North Carolina.
But I have a lot of friends there that is just, they’re still finding them people.
I mean, in 12 foot rubbish.
It’s very sad that, and we have a still, we still have a lot to be blessed.
Even though we’ve had two casualties.
These other places have got hundreds, thousands.
The REALTORS Relief has been a lifesaver for us and our county.
Well, we appreciate everything you’re doing.
You are just amazing.
And I hope you keep doing all that good work.
It’s nice to see some of the smiles of the children that you’ve put on Facebook and the, I know you’re brightening their day.
Yeah.
And we got about 30 percent of our students that are displaced right now.
I actually just got an email that our city schools are going to start back Tuesday.
I don’t really see our county schools going back probably for another month.
There’s a lot of roads.
It’s just not there for our buses to go down.
But, you know, I can’t do what I do without support from other people.
And my REALTORS family has just been unreal.
They’ve had my back.
And I just can’t thank them enough for that.
From the Greater Chattanooga area to the Nashville REALTORS, Sevierville REALTORS, I mean, if I blink my eye, they’re right there.
And it’s been amazing.
And I can’t be more appreciative of that.
It’s great because so often we know REALTORS sell houses, but I think you’re a great example of what REALTORS really do in the community.
And when the community needs something, the REALTORS are usually the first to jump in and help.
So again, thank you, Lisa.
Thank you.
It’s been an honor to help to help to help my community.
And I’m going to invite you to jump in and keep chiming in if you’d like.
But I’m going to turn to Mike McGrew.
Like I said, he is the chairman of the REALTORS Relief Fund.
And we keep talking about the REALTORS Relief Fund, but I want to talk about what the REALTORS Relief Fund is, how it came to be.
Let’s talk about the history and then just how does a person really gain access to the funds?
Well, thank you for the honor of speaking with you today and for being a poor follow up to Lisa.
She is a perfect example of the heart of the REALTORS family.
And Lisa, thank you for all your hard work.
You actually illustrated one of the biggest challenges that we have, which is when we make the grants, it’s kind of hard to find the folks sometimes to give them the money even though it’s right there.
But to your question, the REALTORS Relief Foundation was formed in response to 9-11 in 2001.
It granted immediately about a little over 8 million dollars to the victims, the families of the folks that were perished.
It was a perfect example of how the REALTOR family responds to crises.
And over time, we found that there were opportunities for us to help with victims of natural disaster throughout the United States and our territories.
And so that’s what we do.
That’s our lane.
We raise money and then we give it to victims of natural disaster that happened within the 50 states and four territories.
And since 9-11, the total is something north of 50 million dollars and 24,000 families that have been helped.
Just in the state of Tennessee, this year, there are two grants working, a total of $400,000, I think, that has been made available for Tennessee.
Over the years, I think we’ve had 13 disasters that we’ve helped folks with in the state of Tennessee.
So unfortunately, you’re kind of frequent flyers, but you’ve been very supportive of the foundation.
Just this year, the Tennessee Association of Realtors gave $100,000 to the Realtor Relief Foundation.
So for me, I was fortunate to be elected as NAR Treasurer back 2014 to 2016.
I will tell you, that was a wonderful job.
I really enjoyed every moment of it.
This has been more rewarding.
Being attached to the Realtors Relief Foundation, and this is now my second year as president, my last year as president, the work that this foundation enables people like Lisa to do is amazing.
And it’s the best news that NAR has to tell, and nobody knows about it until it’s a disaster.
And then those folks know about it, but the rest of the folks just don’t seem to.
So getting the word out through this podcast and every other way that we try is really important.
And sadly, it takes disasters to make people be aware of the good work that the Realtor family does, but sometimes that’s what has to happen.
Yeah, and to your point, it does come back not just to Realtors, but to anybody in the community who is in need, who has a primary home, if they need to help with their mortgage, if they need help with rental, if they need help with a hotel stay.
The main point is to help them after a disaster.
That’s exactly right.
Yeah.
And you know, it says Realtor Relief Foundation.
Some people think that means it’s just for Realtors.
It’s not.
It’s from the Realtors to our communities, to the public.
It is not just for Realtors at all.
It is, and you’re right, it is based on helping folks with their urgent housing costs, the needs for housing for their primary residence.
You know, we’re, I’m actually just last week was working down in Sarasota.
Helene was very devastating on the barrier islands out on the west coast of Florida.
And then, of course, just last night, Hurricane Milton went right through the state of Florida.
And so we don’t know yet what we’re going to have to do to help folks going forward.
But we know that at so far, prior to Milton, we have granted $13.2 million this year for disasters in the United States.
We just on Wednesday approved $2.3 million, almost exclusively for Hurricane Helene related grant requests.
So it’s been a busy, busy year.
And unfortunately, our fundraising has not kept up with Mother Nature.
But we’re hopeful that with podcasts like this, we can get more folks to contribute.
And you do solely rely on fundraising.
It doesn’t come out of dues from the REALTORS.
It’s strictly fundraising.
Yeah, as far as NAR is concerned, it does not.
NAR is very generous and takes care of all our administrative costs, which means that 100% of every dollar that’s contributed by our members and by state and local associations is available for victims relief.
But, yes, it is not an earmark or a note from NAR.
They generously take care of the costs, but the donations are just exactly that, donations.
And that also means that 100% of the donations are tax deductible, so whatever anybody gives, they can write it off.
I know that’s one of the reasons that I personally choose it as a charity of choice, is because I 100% know that 100% of the dollars I give goes to the charity, and nothing is taken out of that.
100% of it goes to the victims, and I can count on that, and I believe in it 100%, especially when I can see it working in my own state.
And like you said, we’ve had fires, we’ve had floods, we’ve had tornadoes, we’ve had so many times I’ve been able to see it in action.
Well, we’re glad to be able to help.
You know, it’s kind of like we’re the gas in the tank, but Lisa’s the one that’s driving the car and making sure the car gets to the right place.
And so to the extent that we can continue to have the funds, we want to continue to help.
Mike, can you give the text number that anybody who’s listening, if they want to support, they could text and do that?
Absolutely.
It is TEAMRRF.
So TEAMRRF, if you would text that to 71777, you will get the opportunity to make a donation and get on the list with all the other good REALTOR family and friends that have helped us out.
Interestingly enough, you know, we all have a great culture of supporting RPAC, but we’ve also had 40 years to create that culture.
Our penetration into the REALTOR membership individually for RPAC is something in the 40 to 50 percent range.
The penetration for, unfortunately, for the REALTORS Relief Foundation is less than half of one percent.
We are, one out of every 500 REALTORS last year gave money to the REALTORS Relief Foundation, so we’re trying very hard to raise that grassroots number.
Not everybody can give, you know, $1,000 or $500 or anything, but anything they give helps and we think that when they see, like you, Angela, that everything is available to help people in their communities, we think it may become something that they will want to do on an annual basis and that’s what we’re hoping for.
Right.
And so to, when Lisa was talking about all the families that were filling out those applications, they each get $1,000 for this hurricane.
And it’s weird to think even a hurricane could come up to Tennessee and cause this much damage, but it did.
And all of those people that all of a sudden are just out, they can apply for FEMA and all of the other places they can get help, but this is additional funds that they can get quickly and get some relief.
And when you’ve had everything you’ve lost, that every dime helps.
And a lot of these people, they live in an area that wasn’t a flood zone.
They did not have insurance for flooding, and they’re not covered.
They lost everything.
I’m going to say about 90 percent of, and I may be a little high on this number, but it’s not going to be by a lot, did not have insurance.
And I’m going to say 60 to 60, 65 percent of those people did not live in a flood zone that got hit.
So they didn’t have it, and it has destroyed so much.
That it wasn’t required and they didn’t have it?
No, it wasn’t required, so they didn’t have flooded.
And so if they even if they had homeowner’s insurance, it didn’t cover it because it was a flood.
So therefore, they have a denial letter.
And we’re not talking about just going in and replacing floors.
I’ve seen home after home after home that has been taken from the studs, from the sheetrock, down the subfloor and it’s gone.
And we have these professional companies in with these huge air blowers and these massive dryers throughout the whole home.
And all their stuff is sitting by the road.
Like, the National Guard is in Newport now.
They arrived yesterday.
And of course, they’re doing the vegetation first to remove it from the roads.
But there’s so much debris up and down our roads that it’s just so disheartening for people who lost their entire life.
The $1,000 doesn’t maybe sound like a lot to some folks, but you said it, it’s money that happens quick.
One of the things that I’m personally experiencing now is even when you have a good insurance company and a good insurance policy, it takes some time to get there when it’s a mass event like this.
They finally get there, they finally do their analysis, and then it takes a while for them to even get around, you know, to get you a portion of what they owe you if you have insurance.
So, Lawrence Young last year at our breakfast that we did at the NAR convention was our speaker, and he said he’s done an analysis that says that money from the REALTORS Relief Foundation has a higher multiple in the local economy than money for two, that happens two or three or four months later, because it’s so quick.
And there are, you know, the economy kind of comes to a grinding halt, in places like that.
So, the infusion that we can give to folks is really helpful to them, and it’s helpful to their community in ways that we might not have imagined.
I had several people tell me straight out of their mouth that they trust us as a REALTORS Relief Foundation and counting on us more than they are FEMA, you know, and I hope I can follow through with that, you know.
And, yeah, I’m like, but, you know, I just, they have confidence in me because they know who I am.
They know that I’m a local here in town.
They know that I, that they can come to my office seven days a week and come see me, or they can stop by my house, which is three minutes from my office, and they can stop and see me at anything, you know.
And I’m not just here for their real estate needs.
I’m here to deliver their diapers.
I’m here to deliver their toothpaste or gloves or whatever they may need that day.
Which is why it’s so important for the REALTORS to be the ones that are out there face to face, being involved and helping with this project.
They’re the ones who know the individuals.
They’re the trusted advisors.
And when it comes to something like this, you all are the ones that can help walk them through the process.
You’ve done it before when it comes to their contracts, something that they trust you the most with.
And this is something that really makes a difference.
Again, we can’t do that from afar.
And it’s just great building a stronger relationship with some of these people.
And we’re building new relationships right now, but we’re also building a stronger relationship with some of those that we’ve already got relationships with.
We’ve tried to make the process simple, but it’s tough to do it as simply as maybe we would like to, because we still owe the donors that fiduciary duty to make sure that the money is going to people that deserve it.
Now, you as the local realtor, Lisa is a perfect example, you know these folks, you know where the house used to be.
You have that local knowledge that can make this process move a lot faster.
So to the extent that we get folks involved such as yourself, it works and if we don’t have folks like you, it works far less well.
And I’m just going to put a plug.
So Lisa is working in a relatively smaller town.
Imagine a town like St.
Pete, imagine a town like Tampa, imagine a town like Asheville.
How many hundreds and hundreds of families are going to need the assistance?
The REALTORS Relief Foundation is going to run out of money if we don’t have the support.
So I’m going to ask you again, Mike, give the text information.
I should have just had a tattooed on my forehead.
Yes.
In fact, some of my board members have suggested I do that.
It is Team RRF, T-E-A-M-R-R-F, and you text that to 71777, and you will be connected immediately with the ability to contribute.
And I encourage you, everyone, to give with a big heart.
This is a great cause.
Please do.
Yes.
Because when your community needs it, it’s going to be there.
A lot of folks don’t realize, don’t think it’s going to happen to them.
And yet, in the last 10 years, 90% of the counties in the United States have had some kind of weather-related disaster.
90%.
So it’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when.
And to the extent that we can all make sure there’s funds available in the RRF, we can act that much more quickly to help folks the way Lisa is helping them.
It’s not getting better.
The weather’s getting worse.
So it’s definitely, we’ve seen realtors that this has impacted them personally.
Again, the funds will, they will go to realtors if they’re in need, but it also goes to people in the community.
It’s not just about helping realtors.
It’s realtors helping anyone who needs them.
I do want to give a little shout out.
We talked about the history and one of our own was part of the beginning.
Martin Edwards.
Yes.
He’s from Memphis, Tennessee.
He was president of NAR at the time.
We’re real proud of that connection.
Martin is an emeritus member of our board.
I’ve spoken to him personally since I became a board member and then president.
We couldn’t be prouder of what he and Richard Mendenhall and Pat Kaplan all did back in the day.
Hopefully, they’re proud of what we’ve continued to try to do in their legacy.
I believe he’s very proud.
He’s always asking us about what we’re doing for the Real Tea Relief Fund so we will always be huge supporters and always think of him.
But I want to thank you both.
You both are doing great work and we hope you will keep it up.
And we are going to do our part and keep promoting the Real Tea Relief Foundation and make sure that we are keeping it front and center because again, we know how much it comes back to Tennessee.
So thank you.
And Lisa, we’re going to let you get back out there because we know you’ve got work to do today.
Thank you for having me.
Appreciate you guys.
Thank you.
All right.
And Mike, thank you so much.
Lisa, it’s been a pleasure sharing the screen with you, Lisa.
You’re doing God’s work.
Keep doing it.
Thank you.
And I appreciate everything you do for us.
And just one more shout out.
Realtor Magazine actually did an article on her today.
So everyone check that out.
Excellent.
Thank you, guys.
All right.
Thank you all.
Thank you.
Thank you all for joining us today on the Real Tea Podcast.
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Then visit tnrealtors.com to submit your questions and topics for future episodes of the Real Tea Podcast.
Thanks for listening.
