In this episode of the Team Lally Radio Show, our fetured guest is Fawn Dene’ Liebengood is the Assistant Director at 808 Cleanups. Fawn tells the story of how she ended up in Hawaii when her choir visited Hawaii from Los Angeles on a recruiting trip. She talks about her transition from studying Psychology to working on her passion which is the ocean and environment.
Team Lally Show with Fawn D. Liebengood
808 Cleanups
Announcer: It’s time to enter the world of real estate in Oahu with Hawaii’s only true real estate radio show, the Team Lally real estate show. Grab a pen and get ready to take notes! For the next full hour, Hawaii’s premier real estate leader, Adrienne Lally and Attilio Leonardi will bring you the latest in real estate news and real world strategies on how they can guarantee to sell your home at a price and deadline you agree to! Or they’ll buy it! Now, here are your hosts, Adrienne and Attilio!
Adrienne: Welcome to the Team Lally real estate show, home of the guaranteed sold program, or we’ll buy it. If you have any questions you can reach us at 799-9596 or check us out on the web at www.teamlally.com.
Attilio: Well hey everybody, this is Attilio, I was uh, walking along the beach, collecting pukka shells. This lady came up to me, tapped me on the shoulder, started asking me a bunch of tax and legal questions. I said those are great questions, highly recommend you seek the appropriate licensed professional and then I said, but Mom, what other questions do you have? So, if you hear anything on the show that sounds like uh, legal advice, who should they run that by, Adrienne?
Adrienne: They should run that by Myron Kamihara.
Attilio: Oh, yeah? Why?
Adrienne: Because he’s awesome! He’s an, awesome attorney.
Attilio: Oh, he’s an attorney!
Adrienne: Yes!
Attilio: And he knows about these things, called legal advice.
Adrienne: He knows about these things.
Attilio: What’s a good number?
Adrienne: And he’s, he’s a good guy.
Attilio: Does he have a legal number?
Adrienne: He does! It’s 352-6417. Or you can check him out online at www.kamiharalaw.com.
Attilio: Hey, if you don’t have a trust set up for yourself, you should! Uh, big headaches if you don’t, if you pass on without it. You’ll be leaving your kids and everybody with big headaches.
Adrienne: Okay—
Attilio: Speaking of headaches, or how to get rid of them—quotes!
Adrienne: I have some, some pearls of wisdom from the book Change by our friend, Steve Rider.
Attilio: No, don’t change.
Adrienne: Don’t, well this is about change! The things that you know, so “If you can’t do anything about it, let it go”. Just like the song. “Let it go.” “Don’t be a prisoner to things you can’t change.”
Attilio: Don’t be a prisoner!
Adrienne: Alright, “If you find something you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.”
Attilio: Wow!
Adrienne: (laughing)
Attilio: That is profound.
Adrienne: It is!
Attilio: It is, no it is! Good stuff, people should listen to this, you know, instead of being all like, cynical about it. They should really listen to what you’re saying.
Adrienne: I, I agree! So, the last one is on optimism. “Optimism is the one quality more associated with success and happiness than any other.”
Attilio: You know I’m just so sick and tired of all of this optimism stuff.
Adrienne: Oh, you’re not going to be successful or happy.
Attilio: That’s what a pessimist would say about all that! Optimistic quotes. I’m so sick and tired of this. But they need to change their mindset!
Adrienne: So, speaking of optimism, and a great mindset, we’ve got Duke from Hawaii Pacific Property Management on the line to share with us a property management tip of the week!
Attilio: Hey, Duke! Duke, are you there?
Adrienne: Are, are you there, Duke?
Duke: Because I play poker for recreation, that’s why I’m optimistic.
Attilio: It is? Okay.
Adrienne: (laughing)
Duke: Something great is going to happen on the very next hand!
Attilio: Yeah, I don’t think grumpy poker players do well, right?
Duke: (laughing) Ah, no!
Attilio: Or you don’t want to play with them because they’re so grumpy.
Duke: Yeah, but you don’t even need to be optimistic if you’re in the real estate market in Hawaii.
Attilio: Yes.
Duke: Great things happen just by being involved, so, my pearl of wisdom today is, have a property management company that will inspect your property. We will go into your property, four times, three times a year. If you have a pet, two times a year___. And pictures and a complete report on our walkthroughs. That’s a guarantee.
Adrienne: Now, Duke could you touch on why is that important, I mean I, I’ve never heard of, of this, like having all these walkthroughs. In a rental.
Duke: It’s so important for the owner to know what’s going in their $400,000 minimum investment here in Hawaii, so, I think that you, if you’re on the mainland, or you’re overseas, you want to know what’s going on in your, in your property. We have transparency in our websites, for our owners, who can see all the invoices, we don’t mark up anything, we don’t charge anything, there’s no upfront fees, just come onboard with us, and we’ll take care of everything. With your permission, we’ll pay the invoices for you up front and then we’ll take it out of your rent when they come in!
Adrienne: Now, now back to these walkthroughs, um, so do you, you think that it, maybe uh, sets the tenant up for that, you know, that expectation that hey, you know, we don’t, we’re not going to have any kind of surprises here.
Duke: Yeah, in case you have somebody or somebodies living in your unit that you don’t know about, your neighbors are calling you and saying, hey, there’s a party going on in your place every weekend, so, yeah we’ll go and check that out for you. We are your eyes and ears on the ground here. And in the absence of owner presence, we’re, uh, supposed to and we do, take it very seriously, manage and protect your property.
Attilio: Yeah, ___.
Adrienne: Well, I want to say even if you are on island, because, you know, you guys manage two of my properties and it’s great, like I don’t feel like I ever have to go check on them because you guys are doing all of the detective work and maintaining.
Attilio: Who has time—
Adrienne: No, I know. And plus, it’s kind of awkward, it would be like awkward too, I don’t want to, you know, have to go face-to-face and, like I just, let, let Hawaii Pacific Property Management, they take care of it all.
Attilio: Yeah.
Duke: That’s right!
Adrienne: Takes the stress out.
Duke: I always ask the owners; can you evict your tenant on Christmas Day? And most of the owners say, ooh, no, not really, and I say, you know what? I can! That’s what you pay me to do. So, protect your property and put money into your account. That’s what we do.
Attilio: Hold people accountable. You’re like the accountability partner for tenants.
Duke: Rent is due on the first. No grace period in Hawaii.
Adrienne: Wow!
Attilio: You can’t turn that extra bedroom into a grow room, or install that dance pool in the master bedroom.
All: (laughing)
Attilio: For a jacuzzi in the living room. No jacuzzi in the living room! No emo pits! In your backyard.
Duke: We guarantee that we’ll communicate with you, we guarantee that we’ll evict your tenant for no charge if we put it in. We also guarantee that if we can’t rent your home for an agreed-upon price, we’ll pay that amount of money on the 31st day.
Attilio: Oh, wow.
Adrienne: Wow, that’s a lot of guarantees! I’m feeling better already!
Duke: (laughing)
Attilio: You know, Duke, one last one, and uh, I wanted to bring it up because a lot of the business comes your way, it’s from agents, who, the professional agents out there, you can be a part-time professional agent and how do you do that? You refer property management out to a full-time property management company and you’ve got, you guys have this return to agent guarantee. What’s that about?
Duke: We have a 100% return to agent guarantee stating we don’t do buy/sell real estate, so your clients will never leave you. if they do decide to sell, in their period when they’re with us, we’ll turn them back over to you and say hey, they want to sell! To go back to your home agent.
Adrienne: That’s awesome.
Duke: We’re just borrowing them.
Attilio: Do the right thing! Refer them out to Duke, they’ll come right back to you when it’s time to sell and uh, I’ve seen you do that. That’s awesome.
Duke: That’s right! We’re happy to do that.
Adrienne: Thanks—
Duke: Okay, thank you!
Adrienne: Thanks, Duke.
Duke: Team Lally, alright! Talk to you soon!
Attilio: Alright guys, agents out there, you’ve got properties, you need managing and you don’t want to take on all that liability, what’s a good number for them to call, Adrienne?
Adrienne: You can call them at 445-9223, that’s 445-9223. Check them out online at www.hipacificpm.com.
Attilio: You know, not only at their website, but go to Yelp! They’ve got a lot of great Yelp reviews. Now here’s the thing with Yelp reviews, there’s a spectrum. If they’re all prefect, that’s not good. If they’re all bad, obviously, that’s not good. So, if there’s a few in there, then hey, It’s almost day-to-day business.
Adrienne: I think the ones that are on the negative side there, are from tenants that were not happy with all of these, you know—
Attilio: All of these rules!
Adrienne: The accountability!
Attilio: These wacky things like not having their pets turn your toilet lids in all your bathrooms into chew toys, you know, wacky stuff like that. They’re not happy about that!
Adrienne: Okay, so we’ve got uh, speaking of, of unhappy but we’re going to move it to the happy—
Attilio: Happy!
Adrienne: Happy! We have Janice from Dream House Drafting, to share with us, some—
Attilio: A happy permit tip of the week!
Adrienne: Yes. Janice, are you there?
Janice: Good morning!
Attilio: Good morning.
Adrienne: Hello!
Janice: Yes, I am! I wanted to share with you guys uh, a little bit of clarity and updating on the difference between ADU and O’hana and how last year’s changes uh, changed the rules a little bit, just so people can understand better. There’s always been kind of a misuse of the word O’hana out here, people uh, it meant the second dwelling, it meant the mother-in-law unit for those who were listening in over on the mainland so, that word kind of got misused with reference to real estate. Whereas the original state uh, designation was for it to be a family member that is close related by blood, marriage, or adoption and that remains the same. With reference to an O’hana unit. A second dwelling on an um, property that is not limited to family is called an accessory dwelling unit. Which everybody calls an ADU. The interesting thing about ADU versus O’hana is that you do have a maximum square footage for an ADU. That’s at 800 square feet on lots that are 5,000 square feet or more. So, in other words, if you were doing an O’hana unit, the rules have changed now, where it’s no longer a function of the size of the main house, but now you can expand your construction to the full maximum buildable area for the given lot. And an ADU can only be a maximum of 800 square feet.
Attilio: Awesome.
Adrienne: So, the O’hana dwelling could be much larger if you have a very large lot.
Janice: Exactly. Because that would be following the rules for the maximum buildable area which is, according to your lot zoning.
Attilio: Alright, good stuff!
Janice: Yeah.
Adrienne: So, if, if any of our listeners are, you know, wanting to learn more about ADUs versus O’hana, do you have this information on your website, Janice?
Janice: Well, we need, we’ve been so buys and we’ve primarily me, so um, the website has not really been updated much on the uh, new differences and changes, but people can call, or email. We’re happy to help them with their O’hana and ADU pre-checks. Because remember, just because your lot meets the general criteria, you shouldn’t go running out and paying a design professional to design something and show up at the building department applying for a permit. An ADU and an O’hana pre-check are now mandatory. These confirm that there is adequate infrastructure or a new unit in that area. We’re talking about sewer capacity, ability to get water there from the Board of Water Supply. Can the fire department adequately care for your needs should that ever become necessary?
Attilio: Alright, well, thanks, Janice!
Adrienne: Thank you, Janice.
Janice: Okay, thank you!
Attilio: Alrighty.
Adrienne: Okay.
Attilio: So, you can reach Janice how?
Adrienne: Uh, you can call her at 206-7107 or check her out online at www.dreamhousedrafting.com.
Attilio: Alright, next batter up on the Team Lally baseball team is Jody!
Adrienne: The Mortgage Genius!
Attilio: Mortgage Genius!
Adrienne: From Pacific Rim Mortgage.
Jody: Good morning!
Attilio: Good morning.
Adrienne: Hello!
Attilio: What’ve you got for us today?
Jody: So, again I like to always take from little hiccups happening in real life, because we know there, they’re real life things. Um, so one of our, our buyers, who kind of had been on-again, off-again as far as communication goes, um, recently called us and said okay, I’m in escrow. And uh, he’s like here’s all my updated paperwork, like let’s get started! You know, let, please let’s order the appraisal.
Attilio: Yes.
Jody: And it was, you know, a 30-day close, so it was a quick one, and we, since we got the information late, what we do, not all lenders do this and not all agents like the Team Lally buyers agents would do this due diligence, but what we do is we call the management company if we do know it’s a condo. And we find out about the six condo questions. Um, the, the only one I’m going to emphasize on today because it would just be too long is the owner occupancy ratio. So, owner occupancy ratio, the amount of owners that actually occupy the, the condo project versus having a tenant rented and collecting rental income. Uh, owner occupancy ratio, less than 51% matters not if you’re going to own or occupy the property, so if you’re a buyer looking to own or occupy the property, and the owner occupancy ratio is less than 51% we’re probably okay. However, if you’re an investor, looking to buy, to invest and not occupy the property and the owner occupancy rate shows less than 51%, it’s a deal killer. It’s a Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac deal killer, which most people are doing conventional financing for an investment purchase.
Attilio: Sure.
Adrienne: Jody, is there any other options for these investors that want to buy?
Attilio: Yeah, I can pay cash!
Adrienne: Well besides cash is there anything else, like what else can be done?
Jody: There are. Absolutely, so we are having to funnel this loan to a different source um, and it is, it is totally not a problem, except you know, when it’s, when we’re not, we’re a direct lender and so when we’re not able to do the underwriting in-house, and when we’re not able to do the funding in-house, we have to understand that not everyone operates at our speed, so it’s not going to be a 30-day close. So, had we have had some sort of level of communication, and, and we actually have done loans on this property before, so had we have had any sort of communication, we would have been like, FYI, this one has an owner occupancy of 31%. We know that we can’t keep this in-house, we can’t do this Fanny or Freddy conventional, it’s going to have to go portfolio, it means you need a slightly larger down payment and it means you cannot close in 30 days. And it would have been a little bit more professionally put together as far as the way that the buyer’s agent and everyone communicates to the seller’s agent.
Adrienne: So, communication is key? Keep your lender in the loop! Right?
Jody: Keep your lender in the loop!
Adrienne: Yeah!
Attilio: I think we should go with lie, cheating, and stealing, that’s easier.
Adrienne: Now, now, Jody—
Attilio: No, we’re not going to go—
Adrienne: Jody, you mention the six condo questions. Can our listeners find the rest of these questions on your website anywhere? I know you’ve got a really nice, nicely put-together website. With all of sorts of info.
Jody: We do, we have uh, um, well actually, I can send you guys, to put on your website?
Adrienne: Okay!
Attilio: Sure!
Jody: I have like a little, a little um blog on it.
Attilio: Six condo questions. Do you like long walks on the beach? Under the moonlight.
Adrienne: Well we know that the first one, the first one—the first one is the owner, owner occupancy ratio, that’s number one. I want to know the rest of these questions and I’m sure that our listener would too.
Attilio: Alright, thanks, Jody!
Jody: They are very important!
Adrienne: Thank you, Jody!
Attilio: Thank you, Jody!
Jody: You’re welcome, thank you guys.
Attilio: Alright, so Jody is the Mortgage Genius.
Adrienne: And uh, you can give her a call at 488-5510 or check her out online at www.pacrimmtg.com.
Attilio: I always want to say like “pac R-I-M-M-T-G.
Adrienne: Www.pacrimmtg.com.
Attilio: So, P-A-C-R-I-M and then M-T-G.
Adrienne: Yes. Alright, so we’re going to take a short break, but when we come back, we’ve got a very special in-studio guest.
Attilio: We’re going to talk to you about how you can take care of the ocean. We’re all interconnected by oceans all across the world and I’m sure everybody listening right now would like to know more about how we can give back to our nice, beautiful planet Earth.
Adrienne: Stay with us!
[Music fades to commercials]
Announcer: The Team Lally real estate show continues!
Adrienne: Welcome back and thanks for listening to the Team Lally real estate show, home of the guaranteed sold program, or we’ll buy it. I’m Adrienne—
Attilio: And I’m Attilio!
Adrienne: If you have any questions, just give us a call at 799-9596 or you can check us out online at www.teamlally.com!
Attilio: Alright. So, what are we doing?
Adrienne: We’re bringing our—(laughing)—we’re bringing our guest on!
Attilio: I’ve got to share with you guys, with how this thing, this microphone has a heavy cologne smell on it and it’s very distracting!
All: (laughing)
Attilio: Like it gave me a brain freeze, I was like, I want to switch microphones! It’s not even a women’s cologne, it’s s a men’s cologne. So anyway.
Adrienne: So, we have a—yes, speaking—
Attilio: Oh! Did I say that all out loud? Anyways.
Adrienne: Well first it was like you couldn’t hear yourself and we thought that you were losing your hearing—
Attilio: Yeah, Adrienne’s like what?
Adrienne: And now, now with the men’s cologne.
Attilio: So, our guest today was born in Portland, Oregon, moved to Hawaii after studying music in Los Angeles!
Adrienne: She graduated with high honors in 2010 with her Bachelor of Arts and Psychology from the University of Hawaii. In 2016, she earned an MBA in Non-profit Management Entrepreneurs Certificate and an outstanding community of service award from Chaminade University. She’s uh—
Attilio: Oh, am I supposed to, to read?
Adrienne: You’re supposed to read my handwriting.
Attilio: Your handwriting, oh! There’s a challenge! Certified pot-pilates?
Adrienne: Pot-pilates.
Attilio: P pot-pilates! Is that like a Michael Jackson version of pilates? Okay.
Adrienne: (laughing)
Attilio: Do like a moonwalk? No. And she’ s an instructor in that.
Adrienne: She’s also a certified diver and a free diver.
Attilio: Okay! She’s the Assistant Director of 808 Cleanups! Let’s welcome to the show, Fawn . . .
Adrienne: Denae.
Attilio: Denae! Liebengood?
Fawn: Yes!
Adrienne: Good job!
Attilio: Alright.
Fawn: Aloha!
Adrienne: With a little assistance.
Attilio: What kind of name is Liebengood?
Fawn: It’s German, it means good love.
Attilio: Good love.
Adrienne: Oooh!
Attilio: That’s a nice last name.
Fawn: Thank you.
Adrienne: Well welcome, thank you for joining us today.
Attilio: Welcome to the show.
Fawn: Of course!
Attilio: So, let’s talk about 808, well, you know what, let’s talk, we got to know a little bit about you. Local style, we like to know a little bit about the person. How did you end up uh—?
Adrienne: Coming to Hawaii?
Attilio: Yeah, how did you end up in Hawaii?
Adrienne: Tell us that story.
Fawn: Sure, so um, I was studying music and I, like you guys said, and our choir actually visited Hawaii on a recruiting trip so, I got introduced to Hawaii of course and fell in love with it and then L.A. wasn’t quite what I imagined it would be. And so, I ended up transferring to Hawaii and graduating here and I never left.
Adrienne: So, going from, from music to psychology and then to the non-profit, entrepreneurship, you really had a journey there.
Fawn: I did have a journey, so I was uh, so I graduated and I was preparing to go onto graduate school for social psychology but things weren’t quite working out. I felt like life was trying to tell me something and then in 2012 I actually got hit by a car so I had to take a few months and reevaluate everything.
Adrienne: Wait, so like, where you in your car and you got hit or like you were walking on the street and?
Fawn: I was walking in a crosswalk and I got hit by a car, yes on the way to the gym actually.
Attilio: Oh, wow!
Adrienne: Was that here?
Fawn: It was here, it was right by University, right by the PBS building.
Attilio: Oh, wow!
Adrienne: So, what was the recovery like from that?
Fawn: So, I was in the hospital for about a week um I had fractures in my uh, in my pelvis, and my right arm was fractured and um, I had about like a 2-3-month recovery period but I was very determined to get better, so I think that sped it up and then during that time I decided that you know, psychology wasn’t quite working out and I wanted to return to my true passion, which was always you know, ocean and environment.
Attilio: Alright, nice story there because it’s uh, you know, people out there are thinking, hey, life’s uh, throwing me some hiccups here but, you know, what was your big take-away from that event happening in your life?
Fawn: That if you’re not on the right path, you know, life will correct you, God will kind of point you in the right direction that you’re supposed to be on and then at the end of the day, you know, like your quote said, you know, just follow your passion. If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life and that’s how I feel, so.
Attilio: Alright, God on the next one, can you just whisper in her ear, you don’t need to hit her with a car.
Adrienne: No. (laughing) So, so how did you, how did you find 808 Cleanups?
Fawn: Sure! So, um, about the time that I was recovering from this accident, uh, my friends had started uh, cleaning up as they were hiking, so they started noticing litter on hiking trails, graffiti tags on uh, nature trails, so you know, they really recognized at that point, in 2014, that that had no place when you’re out trying to enjoy nature. And then I, same time I started seeing all of the photos of marine animals being entangled in fishing line and derelict fishing nets and then ingesting micro plastic, those tiny colorful pieces of plastic, so that was really weighing heavy on my heart, and then I approached them wanting to kind of partner up and merge, and that’s how 808 Cleanups formed in 2014.
Adrienne: Oh! Wow, I didn’t realize it’s only been around for a few years and! So, you’re part of the, the founding, one of the founders!
Attilio: You’re one of the founders?
Fawn: I’m one of the founders. So, it’s really amazing just to see how fast it’s grown just in the last three years and it’s all from the community too, our volunteers are just amazing.
Attilio: I think the key too is a lot of people, you know, this is, society in general, we see things and we complain about them, we want to be all pessimistic and, and just complain and we don’t want to do anything about it or, or we, we want to do anything about it, but we don’t take any action so you guys have provided, I like our conversation, you know, when we want to go do this, can you tell us what to do? So, talk more about that for our corporations or groups that want to participate.
Adrienne: Or even if you’re not a group!
Attilio: Yeah!
Adrienne: An individual, and you just want to help!
Attilio: Show up!
Fawn: Yes, so that’s really how 808 Cleanups got started, you know, we started seeing all these things and started to complain about them but then we realized, you know, like we have the power to change and really take responsibility with these things that we saw happening. So um, we have, on our website, www.808cleanups.org, we have a wonderful section on getting started with us, so, if you’re a business or a group, or just a somebody who wants to go out and get started, we have information on uh, if you want to do a group cleanup with us, which we have pretty much every weekend and throughout the week and then we also have a program called “Adopt a Site,” where it’s really tailored to people’s schedules, so they can go out and clean up their favorite beach or hike or reef or playground, like we even have people adopting street corners and they walk their dog in the morning, like it can really be anything, so instead of us organizing it, we give it over to them and empower them to clean up whatever and wherever they want to.
Attilio: Now, what I, what if we put uh, Adrienne’s desk on your guys’ website? Went for a once a week, get some volunteers to come up and clean her desk.
Adrienne: (laughing) I thought you were volunteering to do that!
Attilio: Oh, yeah. One person, 808 Cleanups. Every Friday, Adrienne’s desk. Anyways, so, uh, no, you can’t, we’re not taking suggestions for like hey, can you come do 808 Cleanups on my living room?
Adrienne: (laughing) No!
Attilio: Do you guys do laundry? No, it’s about Mother Earth, the planet itself. You know, I, I so resonate with what you’re saying because I, I teach my kids, you know, I’ve been in scouting and scouting is all about uh, leaving no trace, is their motto with scouting. In that when we go into these natural environments, that we leave it just the way that we found it you know, with the empty, with the tires and the car batteries, no, no, no! We don’t leave it that way! We make it better! In fact, than we found it. And I’m always about the kids about not stepping over litter. You see people, they step over, what are you stepping over the litter, pick it up!
Adrienne: Pick it up!
Attilio: We were working, walking with a contractor to this office he was going to help us renovate and he saw me pick up the trash and he made this comment, because you’d be surprised who’s noticing that. He says, you know what, you just bought me over, and all I did was bend and pick up litter. And pick it up. Because I do believe Mother Theresa says it, when everyone cleans their own porch, we’ll have a much better world.
Fawn: Exactly, so if somebody picked up, you know, one piece of trash that they saw every day, and if everyone did that, like it would be clean, it would be wonderful.
Attilio: Yeah! We’ve got billions of people on the planet, they’ve got to be able to make a difference if everybody just picked up some trash. Stop littering to begin with, that would be for you people throwing stuff out your windows.
Adrienne: Now we’re talking about like trash out there on the streets, and I noticed in your bio, you are a certified diver and free diver. How does that play into the 808 Cleanups?
Fawn: Sure! So um, when I, like I said earlier, you know, marine debris was really weighing heavily on my heart after seeing the impact that it was having on animals, especially here locally, too, we have a lot impact, so I really wanted to pursue free diving and then uh, get my scuba diver’s certification, just so I could be a little bit more productive, so stay down that extra little bit longer you know, when we’re collecting fishing line, lead weights, you know, because that extra breath can really make a difference when you’re out there uh, trying to remove all of this stuff and not get entangled yourself.
Attilio: Sure, especially if you go down, and I know I’ve done this, you see something, but you run out of breath and then when you go back down to get it, it’s gone because it’s moved.
Fawn: You can’t find it, yeah.
Attilio: You get all bummed, so yeah, I guess scuba diving would make sense. So, let’s talk about, I’m, I’m uh, I’m a, either an individual or an organization out there that wants to uh, make a difference and you know what, it’s got to be something that’s, folks if you’re listening, let’s do this beyond Erath Day, Earth Day’s just one day, but it’s just, it’s a reminder of what we should be doing all the time. 365 days, so uh, let’s go with an individual, I’m an individual and I don’t have a big group but I want to help. Well how, how can I help?
Fawn: Sure, so there’s 3 different things you could do. You could go to the website, um, www.808cleanups.org um, and then review that “Get Started” page that I was talking about, so what we ask is if you do plan on adopting a site, if you can do a couple cleanups on your own and just show us that initiative, that helps you get supplies, so we give out supplies for free and training for free as long as you show us that initial commitment. The other thing that you can do if you’re just trying to figure out more about 808 Cleanups is we have very active social media pages on Instagram and Facebook, so our Facebook really has turned into this volunteer O’hana, so we really want to be, not just an environmental non-profit organization, but really more a volunteer support network, so you can scroll through the Facebook group and just see all these peoples’ cleanups that they do every day and people are cleaning up about 4 times a day now. Around the islands. It’s really amazing. And then last year, we actually collected about 83,000 of trash from Hawaii.
Attilio: Wow.
Fawn: Yes. And then this year so far, it’s about 40,000 pounds, just since—
Adrienne: So, so you’re ahead of schedule!
Fawn: We are ahead of schedule yes.
Attilio: Well I like that, that you guys are making a difference with your, it feels like you guys are all younger people, you’re like putting this big millennial twist on things, because I like the way that you guys are using the websites and social media because that’s how people communicate nowadays and it’s a much more efficient way of getting the word out.
Fawn: Yes. But it’s not just uh, you know, a volunteer O’hana, it’s, everyone is helping, you know, from like our Kupuna to our ___, we’ve had toddlers help at cleanups and the moms with their babies strapped to their back to college kids and military, it’s just everyone is involved.
Attilio: You know, the cleanup we did on Earth Day for Orange Theory out at ___ Beach, there was, what, there was your guys’ regular volunteers with the really bright shirts. They were going crazy, I mean, they were like working hard and there was uh, you know when all the families and stuff and we’re going up and down the beach and then there was a van full of uh, they were students from uh, uh, Hawaii Pacific, I uh, HPU! And then they showed up, so I thought that was super cool, because I thought it was going to be an Orange Theory thing, but you guys have uh, you know, through social media and your website and the way that you guys are organizing, is it’s creating a gathering point of people to come together. I really like that, it was fun to participate in it.
Fawn: Good.
Adrienne: So, you were sharing that there was actually 4 different really big cleanups that you guys were handling on Earth Day.
Fawn: Yes, so the ___ one, that you were a part of, that was one of them and we were at ___ Beach on North Shore, and we’re there uh, once a month and it just happened to fall on Earth Day and we actually collected with about 100 volunteers that day uh, 3,108 pounds of marine debris that washed in.
Adrienne: Oh, wow!
Attilio: If anybody has been out there, it’s just past the uh, ___ golf course out on, on the North Shore and I’ve been out there, I was out there I think last summer. There’s a lot of stuff on that beach.
Fawn: So, it’s nicknamed Oahu’s dirtiest beach because that’s the most northern point of the islands and its, it’s all of that stuff from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch from the ___ all sifting in there on Oahu.
Attilio: Yeah I think it’s the on-shore breeze and the currents, they just—
Adrienne: So, that one needs the most attention, would you say out of all of our beaches?
Fawn: I would say that but like I said, I mean, every beach, every park needs a little bit of love and stewardship.
Attilio: You know the people listening and it’s really easy to get optimistic and say well, what difference are we going to make, there’s, you know, tons of that stuff out there and I want share with you a story. Adrienne, do you remember the story of the little boy walking along the beach and all the starfish were being washed up on shore and dying?
Adrienne: Yes.
Attilio: And he was throwing all the starfish back into the ocean and then coming towards him was an older man. And he walked up to him and he said, my son, what are you doing? He says, I’m throwing these starfish back into the ocean because they’re dying. And the old man said to the young, young boy, well, there’s hundreds of thousands of them out here, how are you going to make a difference? And the young boy looked at the old man and then said, well, as he threw a starfish in, I saved that one! So, we’re not expecting everybody to go out there and move the needle and you know, cure for cancer and world hunger, but if you guys go to 808 Cleanups, can’t urge you enough, go there, even if you’re an individual, just show up at one of the events.
Adrienne: Yup, they’ve got uh, a great interactive calendar on their site, it’s, makes it very simple to go and join any of the, the cleanups.
Attilio: Because what are we doing on the weekends? Watching movies, sitting around, creating more litter. How about we go pick up some on the beaches before it goes out into the oceans?
Adrienne: Alright, well I think we’re going to take a real quick break, but stay with us, we’ve got more questions for Fawn about 808 Cleanups.
Attilio: Www.808Cleanups.org, check it out during the break!
[Music fades to commercials]
Announcer: Here’s Adrienne and Attilio!
Adrienne: Welcome back and thanks for listening to the Team Lally real estate show, home of the guaranteed sold program, or we’ll buy it! I’m Adrienne-
Attilio: And I’m Attilio.
Adrienne: If you have any questions just give us a call at799-9596 or check us out on the web at www.teamlally.com.
Attilio: Alright, so we’re talking with uh, Fawn here from www.808Cleanups.org. Is it with an ‘s’ on the end?
Fawn: It is with an ‘s’ because we don’t do just one cleanup, it’s all the cleanups.
All: (laughing)
Attilio: Yeah! So, uh, take us back again for those listeners who are just tuning in. How did, what, what was the, give us that little short story on how you guys started this.
Fawn: Sure, so um, in 2014, um, a couple of our friends had started cleaning up hiking trails mostly, um, cleaning up litter and then started seeing graffiti tags and started removing that and then it was heavy on my heart really seeing marine debris’ impact on our beaches and our oceans so then we kind of combined all of that into 808 Cleanups, which is what it is today. So, we’re an environmental non-profit organization but really more of a volunteer support network.
Attilio: Yeah, great!
Adrienne: And then you guys have done something interesting, we were talking about it on the break. About incorporating exercise into your, your movement here. Why don’t you share with our listeners about that?
Fawn: Sure! So uh, at a lot of our cleanups actually you get a pretty good workout, like bending over and picking up trash and lifting heavy things but uh, we started, after seeing you know, um, funding, especially outside support shrinking um, we wanted to be more sustainable so one of the things that I did personally is I got my pot-pilates certification, so pot-pilates is made famous by YouTuber Cassie Ho and she has uh, several million YouTube subscribers and uh, so we started doing this donation base pot-pilates class on Tuesdays and what it is, is basically we have like a 15-minute park cleanup in the beginning and then an hour long pilates class and it’s a win-win-win, so you get uh, to cleanup you know, get that service in, then you get like a really good ab-chiseling workout, we like to describe pot-pilates as a dance on the mat because that’s what it feels like and then in the end, your donation goes, you can write it off on your taxes, supporting 808 Cleanups!
Adrienne: And then, so—
Attilio: So, what park—what park are you guys doing this at?
Fawn: So, we’re doing it at Magic Island on Tuesdays at 5 p.m. and then we’re probably also going to add a class on the Windward side for the ___ folks over there too.
Attilio: Nice!
Adrienne: I think eventually you should add one on the west side.
Fawn: Yes. So, we’re open to doing more classes, especially for businesses too I um, taught a class for uh, Foodland employees and they were very smart, what they did, they actually cleared out their conference room at the end of the day and turned it into a pilates studio!
Adrienne: Nice!
Attilio: Oh, nice!
Fawn: So, they brought the gym to them, which I thought was very smart!
Attilio: Yeah, that’s important too, especially nowadays with our Americans. Being uh, what is it? I heard an interesting story, I don’t know if it was true, but they had to redo the uh, “It’s a Small World” ride because the average Americans, the floats are bottoming out! I think that’s true.
Adrienne: (laughing) That’s horrible if it is true.
Attilio: Yeah. It’s like ironic because they’re listening to “It’s a Small World,” but the Americans are not small! Who are riding in those boats. So anyways, so you can work out, get some exercise, clean up the litter, and by the way, if you guys think about it, we live on an island and if you, if you see litter, there is a high probability it’s going to end up in the ocean, so stop, drop and roll and pick up the trash.
Adrienne: So, so we’re doing a cleanup on, on, on May 11th, over at Sand Islands for our Keller Williams Red Day.
Attilio: And Red Day, what does it stand for?
Adrienne: It stands for Renew, Energize, and Donate. So, once a year, uh, usually I think it’s the second Thursday of May, in honor of Mo Anderson—
Attilio: One of the founders.
Adrienne: Yes, for her birthday, she was very big into the culture—
Attilio: Giving back.
Adrienne: Giving back to the community, so we like to do activities that we’re able to give back to the community. So, we, we chose to partner up here with 808 Cleanups.
Attilio: One of the phrases we always uh, or part of our mission statement is to come from contribution and uh, that’s what we like, that’s what we teach! It’s part of our mission statement with Keller Williams and uh, that’s our, that’s our, we do more than just this event, but that’s our biggest one. And it’s going to be open to the public, anybody who wants to come down to Sand Island on what is it? Thursday, May 11th?
Adrienne: Yes.
Attilio: Starting at 8:30.
Adrienne: Yup! And I think we’re going to be cleaning from 9 to about 11, uh, you can go to our website, or to the 808 Cleanups and it’s on the calendar there as well. But if you go to www.teamlally.com/kw, you can RSVP there so we know to expect you!
Attilio: Www.teamlally.com/kw! And come on down, help us uh, give back.
Adrienne: That’s right! Uh, oh! I had another question for you on the graffiti removal, this is something new that you guys are bringing onto your, your service. How does, how does that work?
Attilio: Tell us more about that.
Adrienne: Yes.
Fawn: Sure, so like I said, you know, we started 808 Cleanups with graffiti removal and over the years, the products that we use have always been environmentally friendly but we’ve really honed it down and uh, we’ve seen like businesses get tagged unfortunately even like sometimes people’s properties and we wanted to offer that as a service to the community you know, like we will come and like clean up this graffiti tag for you and hopefully help the city as well instead of just painting over those graffiti tags with like mismatching paint and everything uh, so we’re offering that as a service to the community so we can come through and remove graffiti tags off of uh, usually unpainted surfaces and make it look like there was never even a tag there in the first place.
Attilio: I have this idea, when I retire, I was going to be like this uh, anti-graffiti superhero. And I was going to set up like infrared cameras in these places that get tagged, and then I, and then the camera would automatically notify me and then I would go out there and I would be dressed like a ninja!
All: (laughing)
Attilio: All this black with a paint gun! And I would tag the taggers! And then, then it would be like, you’ve been—
Adrienne: Their lesson will be learned!
Attilio: And then their lesson, then I would report them to the police!
Fawn: See, we’re going, we were going to do that with a drone and an airhorn and a spot light and do an automated version of that.
Attilio: You’d be surprised—
Adrienne: But, maybe it could be like a combination effort! Because there, you can go, you guys have your drone—
Attilio: And I’m just like (whirring noises). “Tag this!”
Adrienne: Taggers beware!
Fawn: Yes.
Adrienne: Look out!
Fawn: And we usually get, if people report graffiti tags to us on Facebook or Instagram, whatnot, we usually remove them within 24 hours.
Attilio: I think it’s, it’s staying on top of it and removing it, it kind of takes the wind out of the sails of the people that are motivated to do that.
Fawn: Exactly, so it’s that broken windows mindset, so if you keep seeing litter and you keep seeing graffiti tagging and you just leave it be, over time there’s going to be more and more of that, but if you stop it right away, there’s going to be less.
Attilio: Yeah, I heard that concept came up in like a mayor’s conference because they said if they start with the major cities and issues, instituted that type of mindset that uh, it would start cleaning up all the different parts of the nation.
Adrienne: So, so if any of our listeners see graffiti or have been graffitied, how do they, you know, get ahold of you guys, like how do they book that graffiti removal?
Fawn: Sure, so they can uh, fi it’s just an individual reporting it, uh, usually the Facebook group, so it’s just 808 Cleanups uh, on Facebook, you can Google it and then also um, www.808Cleanups.org, and then our email address is 808Cleanups@gmail.com.
Attilio: And you’d be surprised, the power of social media. We had somebody, took a camera from our lobby of our office and we got it on video. We posted it on social media and we told them we wouldn’t press charges fi the camera was returned within 24 hours. Guess what happened? All these people were like, oh, that’s so and so, he went to high school with me!
Adrienne: It got shared, probably 2-300 times!
Fawn: Wow.
Adrienne: In less than 24 hours.
Attilio: So, I think that, and the social pressure of it was so great, that he actually, it uh, we didn’t, he didn’t come back in, but he put the camera equipment in a, in a, in a paper bag and returned it in front of one of the businesses that was one of our neighbors and so the camera came back within 24 hours. Power of social media! Anyway, good stuff, um, hey uh, what’s uh, Earth Day, now Earth Day is uh, come and gone but uh, you guys have on-going cleaning up events, just go to the website. Does it fluctuate? Does, I, is that what happens during Earth Day? Everybody wants to get on board and then it kind of wanes?
Fawn: So, we usually have set cleanup dates uh, and it’s all on the website, on our calendar so, like we’re at ___ Beach uh, once a month, so we have set dates for each thing, and if you uh, kind of look at the calendar, you can see a pattern, but then it’s also good to be on the Facebook Group too because we have some last-minute cleanups pop up there too. Someone sees like a net wash up or there’s graffiti tagging reported, or a beach is just really, really dirty because there was a storm, so that’s also where we have events coming on.
Attilio: Do you have any fun or interesting stories you want to share with us?
Fawn: Uh, I would say, uh, at ___ on Earth Day was pretty interesting, so just seeing uh, you know, with our 100 people that was probably our largest cleanup to date there and just the impact that they had. We had a lot of stuff washing in from Japan, with lots of uh, writing on it. We’ve also found things there from New Zealand, Australia, so it’s just all you know, coming back to Hawaii, which is kind of the comb for this north Pacific gyre.
Attilio: Wow. You know I started looking it up because we were going to do some public service announcements regarding cleaning up and that, that uh, you know, you always hear them talking about it where they uh, the, the, all the plastic that’s in the Pacific Ocean and it’s all, congregating in one area and I, I, I think I went to National Geographic or something and it isn’t an island it’s just—
Adrienne: The shape, the size of an island.
Attilio: They said they wished it was—
Adrienne: Trash islands.
Attilio: Well, they said they wish it was the size of an island and people said the size of Texas because then it could go to one place and scoop it up, but it’s not, it’s like clumps and pieces and then you talked about it earlier, why, why is it important, what do we need to know about that, that grocery bag that we take that we let blow away from us? And talk more about, you call it the micro—
Fawn: Micro-plastic.
Attilio: Yeah.
Fawn: Yeah, so the Great Pacific, Pacific garbage patch, it’s really unfortunately not larger pieces of plastic but small tiny pieces of plastic. Uh, usually less than an inch in diameter, so you have all of that floating on the surface and then eventually it does sink, but some of it is washing ashore, so that’s why there’s this big problem trying to figure out how to clean all of that up and then just for plastic bags, you know, different things that we use even styrofoam, the plastic bags um, looks a lot like jelly fish to turtles and other animals so they’ll try to eat that—
Attilio: Ingest them, yeah.
Fawn: The micro-plastic uh, it’s estimated that now 90% of all seabirds have plastic in their system. Yes. So, and I’m sure, it’s not just sea birds too um, according to the EPA there’s about 100,000 marine mammals that die every year of being, after being entangled in fishing line or ingesting that micro-plastic.
Attilio: Okay. Well it’s good stuff to know and, and the big thing too is a lot of this stuff, isn’t it coming from land? It’s starting, plastic bags, right? It’s not like the sailors are out there, popping into Safeway and then throwing their used bags into the oceans, it’s coming from land.
Fawn: Yes, exactly, so one of the main things that people can do just to kind of help alleviate this problem is just to choose more reusable products. You know, buy that hydro-flask instead of a bottled water that you have to take uh, bring your own grocery bags to the store with you, it’s really easy to do that. And then styrofoam containers, too, are just plastic silver, you know, all of that adds up and makes a difference so just choosing reusable products and we don’t realize the power that we have as consumers as well to really vote with our wallets and that’s going to make a big difference.
Attilio: Alright, Adrienne, any last questions?
Adrienne: No, I think that we, we’ve covered a lot here today with Fawn and thank you so much!
Fawn: No, thank you!
Adrienne: For joining us on the show.
Attilio: Alright, so again if people want to get more information on uh, making a difference, if you want to go clean up some beaches, what do they go to?
Adrienne: Www.808Cleanups.org or check them out on Facebook, they’ve got an awesome volunteer page. And then if they wanted, they want to join us on Red Day, they can go to www.teamlally.com/kw.
Attilio: Alright, are we going to take a break or are we going to Ray?
Adrienne: We’re going to Ray.
Attilio: Ray, are you there?
Ray: I’m here! Aloha!
Attilio: Alright, what have you got for us?
Ray: I’ve got a coming soon listing that’s either going to be this week or early next week. Uh, in ___, single-family home, uh, it’s a nice family neighborhood, six bedrooms, over 1700 square feet of living area, uh, two levels, with a huge, beautiful view of the mountains, coming on the market uh, later this week or actually taking pictures this week. It’ll be live at the beginning of next week at the latest.
Attilio: Okay, awesome.
Adrienne: Nice!
Ray: Nice.
Attilio: Alright, thanks, Ray.
Adrienne: Thanks, Ray!
Ray: Thank you.
Attilio: Hey, so, listen up folks, its important to know of a real estate team that’s got a lot of coming soon inventory, a lot of listings to begin with, especially in a seller’s market. Adrienne, why is that important?
Adrienne: Well because in the seller’s, seller’s market, as a buyer, a lot of times you’re going to be competing with multiple offers. So, why not get a sneak peek or a head-start because we are, have usually between 10-15 coming soon listings at any given time.
Attilio: So, if you don’t want your home-buying experience to be like being at a mosh-pit with a bunch of Vikings, with metal maces, hey! Come give us a call, because we kind of, kind of break up all of that and uh, create uh, opportunities for you to not be competing so much with other buyers.
Adrienne: So, speaking of uh, listings.
Attilio: Yes.
Adrienne: We are in a seller’s market and if you’re thinking about selling your home, we want to let you know that we sell a lot of homes for more money in a shorter period of time—
Attilio: No way!
Adrienne: Than the average realtor.
Attilio: Yes, way! So, call us. Set up a free, no-obligation consultation. What’s the number, Adrienne?
Adrienne: You can give us a call at 799-9596 or on the web at www.teamlally.com.
Attilio: Hey, we’re not going to put a gun to your head and tell us to go do business with us but we will put a gun to your head and tell us to at least interview us. No, we won’t do a gun either way.
Adrienne: Yes, but we also, we have some new technology that we’re adding too, for our sellers.
Attilio: Yes!
Adrienne: A uh, 3-D, 3-D rendering, so ask us about that.
Attilio: 3-D rendering uh, virtual staging. So, these are things that are unique in the marketplace. We know! Because most agents are part-timers and this stuff cost us a lot of money to invest to get started and, but we’re taking, we’re making the commitment to our sellers to get you more money in a shorter period of time.
Adrienne: That’s right, so give us a call!
Attilio: Hey, now thinking about working with a real estate team that’s always cutting edge? How can they check that out?
Adrienne: Well, you can go to our website, www.jointeamlally.com. We have an $80K guarantee.
Attilio: No way! What is that all about?
Adrienne: So basically, if you do everything that we train you to do and you don’t make $80,000 in your first full year, we’ll write you a check for the difference.
Attilio: Alright. And we have a proven track record of success that works. The question is, will you work it?
Adrienne: Yeah. So, find out!
Attilio: So, we have Career Night coming up, did you say, what is it? May 1st?
Adrienne: It’s past already.
Attilio: It’s past already? Okay.
Adrienne: Because the show is airing May 6th.
Attilio: Oh, thank you! But you know what, we always have Career Nights coming up! If you ever want to book a time or RSVP, even with the one that just passed, the next one will be up there and you can RSVP for it, because we do it, what every two months?
Adrienne: Every other month.
Attilio: Every other month.
Adrienne: Every other month.
Attilio: Is that the same thing as every two months?
Adrienne: No. Because that could be—
Attilio: I think it is.
Adrienne: You have like two months and then, so it could be like, every other month I think is less confusing.
Attilio: Okay. We’ll continue this debate on next week’s show. Is every other month the same as every two months?
All: (laughing)
Attilio: Alright. Anything else we want, you know what I want to talk to people about? This is more coming from contribution from Team Lally. There are five topics that we can come into your workplace, do a ten-minute talk. And we call it the stranger-effect, Adrienne, what is that?
Adrienne: So, basically you might be saying these same things to your family, to your staff, and then uh, when a stranger comes in and says it, they’re like, oh! That makes sense!
Attilio: Yeah, so we call this uh, the ten-minute talk and the different topics that we can come in and talk to your groups about: mindset, recruiting—
Adrienne: Time blocking.
Attilio: Time blocking, and two more others. But you’d have to give us a call to find out what they are.
Adrienne: Okay, well thanks for listening and thank you to our sponsors. Jody Tonga and Derek Tonga of Pacific Rim Mortgage!
Attilio: Bradley Maruyama with Allstate Insurance!
Adrienne: Nathan Baker of Pillar to Post Home Inspections!
Attilio: Ben and Tony Mamoon with Triple A Roofers!
Adrienne: Janice Myrland of Dream House Drafting!
Attilio: John Speed with Kilauea Pest Control!
Adrienne: Duke Kimhan of Hawaii Pacific Property Management!
Attilio: Mike Metts with ___ Plumbing!
Adrienne: Thomas Patterson of Patterson Land Surveying!
Attilio: And Myron Kamihara with Kamihara Law! If you want to get ahold of any of our sponsors, just go to www.teamlally.com!
Adrienne: We also want to give a big thank you to Lea, our producer here in the studio.
Attilio: And our guest, Fawn, from www.808Cleanups.org! Chi-hoo!
Adrienne: Make sure to tune in next week, we’ll have an awesome guest talking about something that’ll change your life—
Attilio: Forever! This is the Team Lally real estate show, home of the guaranteed—
Adrienne and Attilio: SOLD PROGRAM!
Adrienne: If we can’t sell your home at the agreed-upon price and your time-frame we’ll have it bought for cash!
Adrienne and Attilio: THANKS, AND ALOHA!