|
Neighborhood Safety Net was founded by Brett and Hilde Oliver in 2004. Brett and Hilde had been volunteers with the Thousand Oaks Police departments' DART (Disaster Assistance Response Team) and, alongside 50 other volunteers and police and fire services had drilled on emergancy procedures. However, it became obvious that this small group could not save 127,000 people (Thousand Oaks).
Thus Brett and Hilde decided to create a safety team in each neighborhood. The challange was to knock on all the doors. When neighbors were presented with the program developed by Brett and Hilde they consistently signed on board at the 80-90% participation level. Brett signed up 70 out of 71 neighbors. Calculations were made. It would cost about $50 per home to bring the whole safety program, including implementing drills such as "Evacuate to a park for a picnic, using walkie-talkies to coordinate" to 100 million homes. Multiply that by $50 equals $5 billion.
The first solution was to recruit an army of real estate agents, who could use the door knocking opportunity to build relationships within the neighborhood, leading to creating trust and more business.
Five years of working with real estate agents disasbused us completely of this model. Seven percent of real estate agents make 90% of the money. What are the other 93% doing? Well it turns out most of them are flakes. How do you build a house with rubber nails? How do you herd cats? How do you get a flaky real estate agent to knock on 200 doors in a timely manner?
What was worse, if they did half a job, it would mess up acceptance in that neighborhood for any follow on program.
Fortunately their were a few real estate agents (part of the 7%) who actually followed our instructions, leading to successful deployments with the real estate agent establishing trust and gaining considerable business while creating a safer, friendlier neighborhood.
So we knew that it was feasable. However, the small fee we were charging the real estate agents, and also depending on them to do the work was not viable as a business model.
So how can we make it work?
The answer is to demand 50% of the commission from the sale of homes in the neighborhood directly from the real estate agent (actually only real estate brokers, as they can attach their license to a corporation, allowing us to track sales).
By then splitting this commission with someone in the neighborhood who actually builds the safety clubs and keeps the program operational, we then have someone being paid to create safer, friendlier neighborhoods.
Thus, instead of an army of flakey real estate agents, we are now working with professional real estate brokers who sponsor particular neighborhoods and support the program. By "donating" half their commissions to the ongoing safety and preparedness of the neighborhood, they are showing they care. This, in turn, will endear them to the neighbors, who would be more willing to list with that real estate broker.
This symbiotic relationship means that we can deploy nationally, without having to charge the neighbors a penny.
If you are a real estate broker or a mortgage broker and would like to sponsor 100+ homes, please give us a call. We will show you how this program will replace most existing lead generation programs as 43% of all real estate business comes from friends, family, neighbors and referrals.
You do not need to knock on doors. But you will be able to attend neighborhood meetings as the official sponsor of the safety program.
Call us at 858-652-0753 or email us at support@neighborhoodsafety.net
|