PCS Series: Installations guides, finding a real estate agent and property management assistance with the organization Millie

[00:00:00] Alison: it's Prime PCs season for a lot of military families and so I wanted to put together a series of, just resources.

[00:00:06] Alison: I've already done all the, you know, how do you pack out your house? How do you, I've done all that stuff. Go back to season one. That happened already. So it's like, what can we, how can we keep moving forward to today? We're gonna be talking to Kelly. And Kelly is the, the c o o is that Chief Oper Operations Officer?

[00:00:22] Alison: Chief? It is Operations Officer. Okay. Of Millie. So is it just, it's like Millie is kind of the thing, but the website is Go Millie. So is it just, it's really just 

[00:00:34] Kellie: Millie. Yeah, we just say Millie. Okay. And unfortunately, Millie was taken as a domain, so we're go millie.com. Okay. I 

[00:00:41] Alison: gotcha. I gotcha.

[00:00:42] Alison: Okay, so we're gonna be talking you. I feel like one, we were just talking a little bit beforehand. One of the big struggles that military families have when we are PCSing is number one what do I. I'm coming to a new place. I don't know anything about it. What are the schools, what are the places that I wanna live?

[00:00:59] Alison: Da da, da. All the, the installation breakdown you guys have that. And then the other thing is, I don't know a real estate agent. I wanna purchase a property or I need help finding a rental, or I am gonna PCs and I don't, I, I've only been here for two years, I don't really know anybody here. I need an agent.

[00:01:17] Alison: I, and you guys have all of those resources as well as including. Landlord. If you're like, Hey, I'm gonna move. We decided we wanna keep this property. I'm gonna be a landlord. I'm moving across the country. You guys can help with that because I've been in, I wish I knew 

[00:01:34] Kellie: about you. That's what everyone, yeah, that's what everyone always says.

[00:01:38] Kellie: It's like literally should be our slogan. I was at an event this weekend and people, where were you last year and where were you five years ago? And I'm like, I know. So help us get the word out so you can say your friends the same. Oh my. Seriously? 

[00:01:49] Alison: I'm. Serious, because that is, it's very, very, very stressful.

[00:01:53] Alison: And, and, and a lot of times, so our unique situation in Florida was we tried to sell our house. It didn't sell, and we gotta go. We got orders, we have the movers are coming on this date, and we gotta, so now we're like, quick right hand turn and we're gonna rent the house now and, and then who's gonna manage it for us?

[00:02:10] Alison: And, and it's like, it is. The amount of stress and on top of your PCs across the country, which was our case. We were literally going from Florida to Washington state. I mean, like, you don't get much further apart than that. Yeah, it was crazy. It would've been super helpful. So anyways, okay, so welcome to the show, Kelly.

[00:02:31] Alison: I'm so happy to have you here. So tell us a little bit about Millie. How did it start and what are the, the roots cuz it's a, it's a mill spouse company. 

[00:02:39] Kellie: Yeah. Well, Mel, spouse and veterans, so, okay. It's actually started by two veterans. And honestly, you, you nailed it. It started from a pain point.

[00:02:47] Kellie: Mm-hmm. It's, mm-hmm. It's seems to always lead to the best innovation, right? Yeah. There were my, so our ceo, Ken Robbins and another Army vet and then Ken's. Ken had some personal experience from the real estate side. Right. Okay. So everyone involved had, had painful PCSs. Yeah. Imagine. Mm-hmm. And for all kinds of reasons, but that, so there was like, oh, there should be an easier way to do this part, right?

[00:03:12] Kellie: Mm-hmm. We should have an easier way to have information at our fingertips that's like, yeah. Relevant. That's objective that. Consistent, you know? Yeah. Like, because you're looking at three different duty stations sometimes. Sure. Like, dunno where we're going. So like, yeah, there was a, there was a need for, it felt there was a need for information.

[00:03:27] Kellie: And then there was also a need on the other side for folks like Ken's wife who was a real estate agent. Mm-hmm. And having to move and PCs and pack up. And as we all know, mill spouse, unemployment underemployment is a real issue That really isn't improving. No. Not even six, seven years ago. This was a, this was still a pain point.

[00:03:47] Kellie: And she was, Essentially being punished every time she moved. Mm-hmm. Because she would have to start over at a new real estate office. Yeah. And they would throw her at the bottom of the deck, you know? Mm-hmm. Just because she's new to the area. Mm-hmm. Oh, well you don't know the area. Mm-hmm. So she really quickly was able to carve out a niche for herself serving military family.

[00:04:03] Kellie: She's like, Nope, I know how to serve these folks. And she very quickly rose the ranks and became crazy successful at what she does. So there we were like, you know what? Just because you move, just because you PCs doesn't mean you no longer know how to be a good agent, right? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So we didn't wanna penalize those folks.

[00:04:19] Kellie: Mm-hmm. So, kind of from both sides of that coin, the concept was created to almost launch like a one-stop shop for PCs and military families to come to learn, to get information to come to a calm space, right? Yeah. Where we're like, you know what? Yeah, this sucks, but we're gonna do this with some humor.

[00:04:36] Kellie: We're gonna do this. With some, you know, casual conversations about your upcoming duty station. We're gonna try to give you the information that you need and not necessarily all that stuff you don't need that you're having to filter out on your own. Right? Sure. We kind of just like paired down everything as if you were having coffee with a best friend at a new duty station.

[00:04:55] Kellie: Hey, tell me everything, right? Yeah. That's kind of the vibe we were going for. So we have the content there, and then we had our real estate agent network called Agent Hero. Mm-hmm. And so, That those sort of two were, the two pieces were the core components of what eventually became Millie.

[00:05:12] Kellie: Mm-hmm. The third piece was our. Scout network. And that was actually launched by two military spouses. So we kind of merged forces. And the scouts then became a part of our Millie umbrella. And so scouts are military spouses across, stationed at all the duty stations across the land. We usually have around 130 scouts you know, typically at full strength.

[00:05:36] Kellie: Mm-hmm. And they're essentially military spouse, independent contractors who are a part of our network and offer services. Across an array of you know, a variety of different types of services, all sort of centered around PCs help. So, okay. Often we find ourselves, like you said, in a position where we have a task that needs to happen in one place, and we are not in that place.

[00:05:59] Kellie: We are somewhere completely else. So we just need somebody that could just go do this thing. Right. And for me, yep. It was owning a house and being a homeowner that had a management company. We lived in Virginia, the house was in North Carolina. Mm-hmm. And I needed, well, I fired my management company cuz I got mad at them.

[00:06:18] Kellie: Yes. And then I needed somebody to just let the painter in cuz we needed to turn the house over. And I was like, I don't wanna ask my friend to do that. That's an annoying thing to have to do. And I wish someone could just go do this for me. And it was kind of before TaskRabbit was really like, okay, accessible everywhere.

[00:06:34] Kellie: I was like, yeah, I wish there was a thing. And then I found Millie and I was like, oh, there is a thing. And then I was like annoying them all. Like, hire me. I wanna be a part of this. I am obsessed and luckily they did. And so that's kind of the origin story. I was one of the first hires certainly not, not a founder, but yeah, I still consider myself to be a part of the founding team cuz yeah, we've been, we've been through several years of, of being able to help military families alleviate the stress of a PCs and just help them.

[00:07:03] Kellie: Fill at home more quickly. 

[00:07:04] Alison: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, so let's start at the beginning. So I'm gonna come in and I'm like, okay, so we're gonna go here, or we're gonna go here. Mm-hmm. And your first question is, And this is, and we talked about this beforehand, is I'm going into the spouse groups, right? Yeah. And I'm saying, okay, here's our options.

[00:07:22] Alison: We've got Fort Bliss, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Tell me all the things. Mm-hmm. And then you get the hoop laundry list, right? Or you get crickets, or you get the laundry list of people's, whatever, personal opinions on stuff. So you guys have an installation guide as part of your website, and you can literally pick this specific one.

[00:07:44] Alison: So tell us about, Yeah, what that looks like. And cuz you, so one of the things that I like to share is that When, when you're asking people what they think of a duty station, so for example, there's another military spouse podcast, and she flipping loves Florida. It's her favorite place that she's ever been stationed.

[00:08:09] Alison: Loves it. We're gonna retire here. It's fantastic. It was my least favorite TV station. Right, right. And conversely, her least favorite duty station was Washington State, which was my favorite duty station. Mm-hmm. Because it's my personal. Taste like, I don't like the heat. I like the, everybody has their own things that they like and they don't like, so my favorite duty station.

[00:08:32] Alison: Is someone else's least favorite duty station. Right. And vice versa. So you really need to get that objective lens Yeah. Of , just gimme the, the clean sheet. These are the nuts and bolts of it. And that's pretty much what you guys have. 

[00:08:43] Kellie: Yeah. It's so true. And lemme tell you.

[00:08:45] Kellie: Yeah. So part of some of the data points that we considered were those. Facebook group conversations, right? Sure. When building the content for all of these duty stations. Yeah. Actually, I pulled this out the other day. It was really impressive. Like we had this matrix of all of the places that we went to research the duty, and honestly, we, and we have these still as resources on our, on our page or on our website.

[00:09:05] Kellie: Yeah. Because we wanna encourage you to, to go out and do the research yourself. Right? Sure. But a few of the things that like. Places that we went to source information, were not only the Facebook groups, right? Yeah. We, we kind of gleaned them. Mm-hmm. I will say often you have to read between the lines.

[00:09:20] Kellie: Just like you said, people are gonna come in with their biases and their opinions. Sure. And that doesn't necessarily mean that, that that's gonna be applicable for you. Right. And here's the other thing, y'all, you can't change those orders like you're going where you're going. So true. If you're in a space or in a, in a community or a forum that is like, I look, we're at Fort Bragg.

[00:09:42] Kellie: Mm-hmm. How many people do you know, actually speak well of Fort Bragg? It's not many. I love it here. I live in Fayetteville and I love it. So there are just like you're saying, there are gems to be found everywhere. You gotta figure out how to mine those gems. Yeah. But if you come into a group and they're like, Fayette nu is awful and you're gonna get well and all this.

[00:10:01] Kellie: Great. That's how you're starting out your duty station, right? That's the tone. So we didn't want any of that. So we went to Facebook groups, we hosted in-person and virtual focus groups before virtual. Zooms were really even a thing. And we thought, oh yeah, we were pioneering back then. Hosted focus groups.

[00:10:17] Kellie: I went on Reddit, I went to Chambers of Commerce websites. What's going on in the community? What's happening? What's, what can we look forward to? You know? Right. What we're on event calendars, I mm-hmm. I scoured Instagram pages with photographers and travel like tourist sites and all kinds of things because again, we're looking for things that are gonna get people excited about the move.

[00:10:37] Kellie: Right. You know, like you're gonna live somewhere. You're gonna live somewhere, it's gonna be fine, but the quicker, the more quickly you get plugged into that community, the better. So a hundred percent we try to put all that information on the site. So yeah, you go in, you, you plug in your duty station.

[00:10:52] Kellie: We have 85% of the active duty population represented on the site. By way of main duty stations. Okay. So there may be some obscure ones that aren't there. Please don't be mad and don't email me. It just, it took a lot to produce each of the guides. Oh, I'm sure. We, we enlisted something like, 600 military spouses for the initial build.

[00:11:15] Kellie: Yeah, just everything from they photograph all the photos you see on the site were taken by a military spouse, photographer, or, you know, hobbyist who helped us out with helping people get a feel for what it actually looks like to even live there. Yeah. You know, what is what, what is the topography like, what's the climate like?

[00:11:31] Kellie: What kind of clothes do I need? Right? Like all that sort of stuff is there. Again, it was all stuff we wanted to know and it was kind of how our team. Approach to PCs. Mm-hmm. And we just applied that at scale and in mass. So we have tons of information and then, you know, obviously from there, oh, and I should also mention we focus mostly outside the installation.

[00:11:51] Kellie: There are so many great resources to include the do od resources. Mm-hmm. That we'll tell you all about the installation itself. And like base housing is. It is what that is. So we wanted to focus on the outside areas because you know, most 70 to 70 plus percent of military families are living off the installation.

[00:12:10] Kellie: Oh, yep, yep. And that's really tricky, right? That's a bit harder to figure out. So a hundred percent. I wanted to make sure. Questions like, if I am a working spouse, right? If I'm, I'm Seek gonna be seeking employment and I know that I need X, Y, Z industry. Mm-hmm. Where are the hubs? Right. Often they're not at the duty station.

[00:12:28] Kellie: Where are we? We live in kind of not, we're not typically near a big city or you know Sure. Big coastal area. Right. So what's. The, yeah, split the difference area where you could live halfway between and you both commute or mm-hmm. Where are the medical systems? If you have a, a, you know, a family member that has special considerations by the way of that?

[00:12:45] Kellie: Sure. I mean, there's all kinds of information that we tried to include, and then of course we touch on schools. And a big thing that we're, we're really emphatic about too, is teaching people, like, we don't, won't just say like, this area has good schools. This area has bad schools. That doesn't help anybody back to, right?

[00:13:01] Kellie: I hate this area, I love this area. You're coming in with your own biases, with your own sort of stereotypes and preconceived you know Wants and needs and desires, right. So, right. We try to teach people how to interpret the data coming from the sites like great schools. Yeah. 

[00:13:18] Alison: And, and school digger.

[00:13:19] Alison: School digger and all those. It's not easy, right? It's not easy. 

[00:13:22] Kellie: You're like, and you can't, what is Yeah. You, you can't compare one place to another. I mean, you can't compare Northern Virginia schools. With a eight or a six to a North Carolina school, like it's totally different. So yeah, we try to teach you how to fish yourself.

[00:13:36] Kellie: Right. Okay. And then we also try to make sure that we're connecting you with resources that can continue to help you if, especially if you need a bit more guidance. So there's a ton of great organizations out there that help with that. So yeah, all that to say, Once you get the lay of the land, right?

[00:13:51] Kellie: Yeah. You're like, I think this area is where I wanna be. Mm-hmm. Then you've gotta make a choice about renting or buying, right? Yeah. And that's where professional services come in, because we're not, okay. We're definitely not gonna, we don't even, we don't have listings on the site or anything like that.

[00:14:04] Kellie: Okay. We wanna put you in touch with the people that can help you. Kind of do a warm, we can do a warm handoff with them and make sure that you're well taken care of, but now you have information, right? Yeah. You can make informed decisions because you already kind of know you're coming in armed with all of this information.

[00:14:19] Kellie: Yeah. So not only can you make informed decisions, but you can make them efficiently. Okay. Because you're not having to start from scratch. So we, we even tell our, our professional service providers, like our real estate agents, et cetera, like, we're giving you ideal clients. Cuz they, they, they come to you from us and they're ready.

[00:14:35] Kellie: They know everything they need to know almost. Yes. Yes sir. Yeah, yeah, 

[00:14:38] Alison: yeah. Exactly. Okay. So so this is, and we talked about this beforehand cause I didn't wanna like come outta left field for you, but as I'm, I'm trying, I'm being the listener here, right? And the, and asking the questions, so I'm like, okay.

[00:14:52] Alison: I've got the information and we've decided that we wanna buy a property or we wanna at least look into buying a property. And I don't, I need an agent. So when, if I'm gonna go in and look for an agent first, I'm gonna ask my friends. If I don't know anybody in the area, then you're on Google and doing all the things right?

[00:15:11] Alison: So you can come to Millie and be assigned an agent or. Be, be connected with an agent. So the question that I would have in my head is, I, I love supporting our military community and all of your agents, our veterans or military spouses, which I think is fantastic, right? Let's keep, let's keep ourselves support each other, right?

[00:15:35] Alison: Yeah. But I also want the person that is the best. Person for, I want the best agent, right? I want the best price for my house. Yeah. If I'm selling my house, I want someone who's gonna get me the best price for my house and close quickly and all those things. Like, I wanna make sure that I'm getting the best agent that I can get.

[00:15:53] Alison: So what kind of, what kind of vetting process do you have? Like, it's not just any realtor gonna be like, Hey, I'm a Millie. You know, like that, that, that's not how it works. Like there's, there's a vetting process. So can you kind of. Walk us through the vetting process that you have for your agents so that we'll know as a user.

[00:16:10] Alison: Okay. The homework has been done. We're getting top quality here. Tell us, tell us what 

[00:16:14] Kellie: that looks like. Yeah, and I love that you came in kind of trepidatious with the question. Yes. But I absolutely adore the question because it gives us an opportunity to kind of like set ourselves apart. Yeah. So first of all, I will say like, just because you're a veteran or a military spouse doesn't make you a great agent automatically.

[00:16:29] Kellie: Right? Like, I totally get that. And so I don't wanna say it, but I'm saying it. 

[00:16:33] Alison: I was like, I'm, I was just thinking it. We're all thinking it. We're all thinking 

[00:16:36] Kellie: it. The reality is, is that. Some astronomical percentage of real estate agents Yeah. Flush out in the first two to three years. Like they don't, it's something you're trying, you're like, oh, this seems cool, and maybe it's just not a good fit for you.

[00:16:47] Kellie: Sure. So the reality is is that it's a hard, it's sales. It's hard. Yeah. And it's commission, like it's very hard. So it's, yeah. It's not for everyone Now. Yeah. The reason we vet for military connection is that we want people who can empathetically connect with our clients, our users mm-hmm. Our military families.

[00:17:05] Kellie: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So in order to really do that well, we think that you have to have PCs before Sure. And actually lived the experience of, of what that's like. Yeah. We can't. Stomach the idea of a military family call. Like I'm, let's say I'm moving and I call up an agent that, you know, maybe somebody's recommended, they're amazing.

[00:17:23] Kellie: Yeah. In whatever market. And I say, Hey, I'm moving in four weeks. You know, these are my parameters. No, I can't do a recon Tripp. You're gonna have to do this site unseen. Yeah. You guys pre covid. That was a really like alarming thing to say. Sure, sure. Now it's becoming a little more common and less, you know, crazy to hear.

[00:17:42] Kellie: But at one point, you know, we had, we had heard stories of people being told like, oh no, we can't work that way. Mm-hmm. Like literally just being turned down we're like, Ugh. You know? Whereas a military agent who knew that like, okay, we're gonna make this work. Right? Yeah. There's a shortcut there. There's mm-hmm.

[00:17:57] Kellie: There's cultural competency that we just feel is really important. Okay. Yes. All that to say, Also though, we wanna make sure that our people are working with the best, so right. Just a couple of the bedding criteria that we have in place. We wanna make sure that they've been in business for a little bit, like we don't take on new agents.

[00:18:11] Kellie: Okay. We encourage folks to, to reach back out once they've been in business for a few years. Mm-hmm. Have established a track record. We check reviews. We, we like to see high volume just because we, then it tells us that that's their full-time. Endeavor. It's not like a part-time hustle. Right.

[00:18:28] Kellie: Gotcha. Yeah. Yep. So again, you're, you're PCSing you only have x many days to do this, and the, the three days maybe that you're in town, your agent's on vacation. Mm-hmm. Or yeah. You know what I'm saying? Like we need, yeah. We need, we need to make sure that it's a good fit for everyone. Yeah. What happens when you on our site, if you say, Hey, I wanna connect with an agent, we actually have a concierge that will call you and do an intake interview.

[00:18:50] Kellie: It's not just a random assignment, right? Yeah, it is. Okay. You know, hey, Hey, Allison, tell me what your needs are. When are you moving? Where are you moving to? What are you looking like? All kinds of like high level information that we'll go ahead and gather. What's your timeline looking like? You know?

[00:19:07] Kellie: Okay. That sort of thing. Mm-hmm. And then concierge will then go and select a few agents, make sure that they're all available. Right. Make sure they're a good fit for you. Make sure they're not trying to go on maternity leave or something in the next, you know what I'm saying? Sure. Like all these kinds of things.

[00:19:21] Kellie: Mm-hmm. So that it's, it's, you know, everybody's ready to hit the ground running. Mm-hmm. We always, even though, even though we're connecting with you, the, you with these agents, there's no obligation to work with anyone. You haven't signed any sort of, any sort of contract or agreement. Mm-hmm. And we actually encourage folks, whether you use our network or not, to interview your agents.

[00:19:39] Kellie: Mm-hmm. Interview. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And we'll give you a list if you want to interview several. It takes an hour of your day. Mm-hmm. This is a huge commitment. It's a huge transaction. Yeah. Mm-hmm. And you do not have time to backstep and, and, you know, start over once you're already kind of midway through the process, and then you're gonna find yourself living in TLF for, you know, months on end and God knows losing how many, many dollars along the way.

[00:20:01] Kellie: So, yeah. Interview your agents. We have resources on the site as well to help guide you through that. We have questions you need to be asking your agents, you know? Yeah. Things that they should be able to answer easily and quickly. And if they don't Yeah. Then we maybe need to talk. Yeah. VA loan savvyness you would think comes with the territory, but yeah.

[00:20:20] Kellie: Not all it. Most of our, now I'll say we vet our agents because we want them to know and be really good at navigating the VA loan process. Yeah. But working with someone else or a civilian agent who maybe doesn't do a lot of military volume. You've got to work with somebody that knows the va if you're gonna plan on using that benefit, and you should definitely plan on using that benefit.

[00:20:39] Kellie: It's huge. Yeah, it's massive. It's amazing. Yeah, for sure. Anyway, all of these things to say like, can I promise you that the one individual agent that you pick out of a pot is gonna be the best? No. Of course, things happen. However, we're giving you as much information once again to make a, a very well informed decision, and we're trying to cut some of the.

[00:20:58] Kellie: Cut some of the noise out of all of that. Right? Yeah. Like and especially if you don't have a word of mouth recommendation. Referral. Yeah. This is such an easy way to just kind of shortcut that process. A hundred percent. I know. Yeah. You ask in a Facebook group, who should I work with? You're gonna get.

[00:21:14] Kellie: 85 comments, so you might as well open a phone book. Yeah. Younger listeners, a phone book is what we used to have when we didn't. 

[00:21:23] Alison: I didn't even bat eye. I'm like, Uhhuh Yellow Pages. I know what you mean. 

[00:21:27] Kellie: I've used reference before and I get stares and I'm like, oh, that's right. Okay. You guys 

[00:21:31] Alison: there? 

[00:21:33] Kellie: Yeah, so we're just, again, we're trying to make it easy.

[00:21:36] Kellie: The little decisions that we can help you make, we wanna do that. So yeah, be sure to be sure to reach out and let us know how we 

[00:21:42] Alison: can, that I sh I just, I feel like you're in that spot and you're like, oh my gosh. There's, there's so many moving parts and there's so many things that you have to do and so many things that you have to consider and to just be given the short list.

[00:21:54] Alison: Here's like four agents that all, we've vetted them, they've worked with military, they're, they are. Previous, you know, they're either veterans or they're military spouses. They're well aware. They have high volume, they've got really good reviews. This is your short, honey pot. Yeah. And then pick somebody out of there.

[00:22:10] Alison: Right. I think that that would just alleviate so much tension and stress. Yeah. That's fantastic. Okay, so we've got, the installation guides. This is , the breakdown. All of that's free. Yeah. You've got I need an agent cuz we're gonna move, we think we might wanna buy something.

[00:22:26] Alison: All of that's free For full disclosure, you guys are paid by, if you, if you work with an agent, they do a good job for you. You end up purchasing something. You guys get part of the commission. So that's full disclosure of how the system works. So there's no hidden stuff, like everybody's gotta do their job and work for you before anybody gets paid.

[00:22:45] Alison: Like there's no, yeah, there's no like weird, weird 

[00:22:47] Kellie: stuff behind that. Yeah. And there's nothing like baked in or put on top of the cost of the house or anything crazy like that. I mean, sometimes there's like, There's some other, there's some other formulas that are out there and that do exist, but yeah, we're, we're really transparent and our agents are happy to contribute that in order to be connected with the families that they wanna serve.

[00:23:04] Kellie: So, yeah, for 

[00:23:05] Alison: sure. Okay, so. And then the PR process is the same. So like I, like I was just saying, we're here in Denver and we're moving next summer and I don't know any agents. So it's the same thing here. You contact that concierge Sure. Service you say, Hey, I wanna sell my house. This is our ti, the same thing.

[00:23:22] Alison: And it just goes in the reverse order, helping you get out here. Okay, fantastic. Yeah. And so then let's talk about the did you say they're Agent Heroes? Is that what you called 

[00:23:31] Kellie: the, the Real Estate Agent Network? Yes. It's called Agent Network. 

[00:23:34] Alison: Okay. Agent Heroes. Yeah. And then the. The scouts, they're, they're just the scouts.

[00:23:39] Alison: Just Millie scouts'. They're milli 

[00:23:40] Kellie: scouts. They're milli scouts. They're whole heart. They're the best part of what we do. I think they're so amazing. 

[00:23:45] Alison: I, I think so. I think so too, because we were talking about this before and it's like, or, or like I said at the very beginning of the show, Is that you get put in a tough spot.

[00:23:56] Alison: Hey, we're trying to sell our house and now we've gotta make, it's not selling. We've gotta get outta here. We have to someone the mortgages do. Like someone needs to come in here, I need a landlord, I need a, or you are in the middle of a pc s and you're not gonna buy, you're gonna rent, but you just, you want someone.

[00:24:13] Alison: To put eyeballs on the property or FaceTime you as they walk through the property for you. It's just not possible for you to get there. Right. That happens all the time. Mm-hmm. This is. The service for that. So tell us about all the different things that the scouts can

[00:24:30] Kellie: do. Oh, yeah. So, all right. So first of all, the scouts are 10 99 independent contractors.

[00:24:35] Kellie: We don't hire them necessarily, but they are a part of our network and we host the marketplace. Mm-hmm. Where you can go and find a scout. Right. Okay. So often we liken them to task rabbits. It's kind of the same concept. Okay. Slept. So they can go out and most of the jobs that they offer are PCs related, but we also have some other scouts who have their own sort of bus businesses inside hustles, like homeowner home organization and mm-hmm.

[00:24:59] Kellie: Photography, things like that. And they offer those services on the platform as well. Okay. So what happens is you have a need where you need like, physical location based task support or mm-hmm. Or job support. Right. And you can go on the site. Search up a scout, figure out who's, and then, you know, you pick who you wanna work with, they'll list out what services they offer.

[00:25:19] Kellie: Yeah. Usually we say, start a conversation with them about what your needs are and then mm-hmm. Cause, you know, it's very often not like a, a standard task. Sure. It's very often like a, a yeah. A whole pile of things. Like, Hey, I need you to, you know, I've got this rental, I'm self-managing. So, one thing to point out and be very, you know, underlying underscore Emphatic about is that the scouts aren't licensed like property managers or agents or anything like that.

[00:25:46] Kellie: Okay. Occasionally that gets confused. We are in the business of facilitating copacetic relationships between landlords and tenants. Right. Okay. So we're not, we're not acting as property managers in any way, shape, or form. Okay? We can, if you are self-managing a property, right? Mm-hmm. We can. Open the door for you, just like a neighbor would, right?

[00:26:06] Kellie: Mm-hmm. We can open the door, let folks tour the house. We can lock the property back up when we leave, right? Mm-hmm. Or we can do a walkthrough and take photos to give you the homeowner mm-hmm. Information. Mm-hmm. Again, to be able to make decisions about whatever it is you need to make a decision about, like how much Yeah.

[00:26:23] Kellie: Rent to keep back from the deposit or, you know, those sorts of things, right? Yeah. We don't touch money, we don't do leases, we don't sign papers, anything like that. We're literally just there to facilitate. Something that you've got going on on your end. Okay. And often that is super helpful. Just again, back to my story about letting the painter in.

[00:26:40] Kellie: Yeah. You know, I could have paid a scout 50 bucks mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. To hang out for a few hours, you know. Mm-hmm. Or instead, I ended up driving to Fayetteville, had to get time off work, childcare, you know, the whole thing. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So, like, when you really think about it, it's worth, its weighing gold. Yeah.

[00:26:55] Kellie: On the flip side of that, if you're looking for a rental, They can tour properties for you on FaceTime. Mm-hmm. And act as your eyes and ears. Right. Like, okay. So you're able to tell them, Hey, the, there wasn't a picture of that door, can you open it and see where it goes? Yeah. Right. And then you find out it's hiding something insane again, information for you, the renter, potential renter to make a decision.

[00:27:20] Kellie: Right, right. It's just mm-hmm. It's more than what made the listing is what we like to say, like often. Okay. You know, there may be, there's some things that are left out that are pertinent for you and your family. So yeah, those are the sorts of things that scouts can help with. If you are receiving your household goods and you are by yourself cuz your spouse is deployed.

[00:27:37] Kellie: I mean, that happens Yeah. More times than I like to even admit. Yeah. And you need someone to run and grab lunch because you need to keep eyes on the movers mm-hmm. And do the inventory bingo or whatever it is. Mm-hmm. Yeah. They can do that, right? Yeah. Like they can, they can run little errands, they can help you with the receiving the H H G.

[00:27:54] Kellie: Yeah. All kinds of really cool jobs have been created. I mean, we've had some pet sitters that are like, we've had some professional pet sitter scouts who've actually helped get puppies on flights to like, I think it was Puerto Rico oh. Couldn't figure out the flight schedule because of the temperatures and whatnot during the summer.

[00:28:10] Kellie: Oh. And she actually drove the puppies to like Miami or somewhere from like Orlando and got them safely aborted flight because the family had to leave ahead of time. So like, oh, that's what I'm saying. Just reach out and ask them again. They're all military spouses. I occasionally, we have some active duty folks sign up.

[00:28:27] Kellie: That's tricky. Just cuz they're not often free. What do we need them to be? But yeah, veteran spouses, mil, active duty spouses. We've even got some gold star amazing folks on the platform just standing by, ready to help however you need. Yeah. 

[00:28:44] Alison: That. I think that's, that's just that because seriously, you get put in a situation like that.

[00:28:49] Alison: Can you imagine like you're PCSing overseas and something happens. Now you've got your dogs, but you've gotta get on, ah, what do you do and how do you, you can find someone, yeah. That understands your situation. Right. They are a fellow all 

[00:29:03] Kellie: and truthfully can help you navigate it. Yeah. Like we, we, we grab these folks because they've PCs X many times.

[00:29:10] Kellie: Right? Sure. They know. I ask them questions all the time. Hey, I'll, yeah, I saw this in the group and I don't know the answer to it. What do y And then usually there's somebody in the group or multiple, somebodys in our scout group we're like, oh, they need to look up this regulation and call this person.

[00:29:22] Kellie: They're amazing. Yeah. Yeah. So, They're, they're definitely a resource worth tapping into. And again, you know, we, I, I have to, we had to kind of force them to take money. At one point we were like, cause often they were like underpricing their services and stuff and no one's trying to like, exploit anyone.

[00:29:40] Kellie: Right. But also, they're so great. They're just goodhearted people, you know. So we had to make, make it to where like, okay, you don't have a choice, like connect your PayPal or I'm gonna take your money. I'm kidding. Yeah. Yeah. They, cause they would, they would do these things out of the goodness of their heart anyway.

[00:29:57] Kellie: Well, because 

[00:29:57] Alison: you sympathize totally. Like you underst understand someone's situation. You're like, no, no, no, it's okay. I'll take care of your dog for you. Totally, totally. Because you know, the like, stress and the, oh God, I can't even Totally, that's one of the reasons why we've never gone overseas is really cuz of our dogs.

[00:30:12] Alison: I'm like, 

[00:30:12] Kellie: I can't. Yeah. Same. I know it's silly, but it's true. Yeah. And then one thing, one other thing that I just wanted to add, sometimes, occasionally we get kicked back about like, why are you charging for your services? And like we, Millie are not charging for those services. Sure. We take a tiny percentage just to keep the lights on essentially for the platform that the scouts operate on.

[00:30:30] Kellie: Sure. But we. Believe wholeheartedly that military spouse's time is valuable. Yes. So even though it's, you know, no, it's not free, it's not expend, it's definitely nothing compared to the cost of a trip. Right. So we kind of weigh that and we just, everything that we do, we're emphatic that everyone, that even our focus group participants we're compensated.

[00:30:52] Kellie: Cause we believe at the. Steps of our soul. The volunteerism has a place for sure, but we're a private company and we're like, Nope. Anyone that works with us is gonna be compensated for their time and talents. And 

[00:31:03] Alison: as a, I mean, like, just think about it. , I mean, someone is , they're taking time out of their day.

[00:31:07] Alison: It's you're paying for people's time. Absolutely. And for, and just think ab, I don't know. I feel like you if you've moved enough times, you get to that point in the move where you're like, I, I literally remember standing in our driveway. This was like, Nightmare move from we were PCs A from Monterey to Washington, DC mm-hmm.

[00:31:26] Alison: And I remember standing in the driveway, we had babies like nine months old, and then Savannah was , I don't know, she's like 14 months older or so, whatever that math is. Babies. Yeah. And we kept too much stuff because we didn't know how long it was gonna be till we got into housing and it wouldn't.

[00:31:43] Alison: Fit in the car and the manager, we're, we're trying to get outta housing and the guys there to do the walkthrough, but we haven't been able to get, we can't get everything in the car. No. And I remember being like, I would pay any amount of money for a right now, , Any amount of money.

[00:31:58] Alison: , I don't, I don't care. I'll pay whatever it takes. I feel like you, there's , yeah, there's, there's not situations like that for 

[00:32:04] Kellie: everybody where it's there's a breaking point where you're just like, you know what? And here's the thing too. We, we also say like, our scouts got a full night's sleep the night before they show up.

[00:32:12] Kellie: To help you with your adhd. There you go. You did not, you know what I mean? Like, they're gonna be more detail oriented, they're gonna be rested, calm, and again, they know what they're doing. They can, so we had one job, actually, it was really cool. The family was still overseas and they needed to schedule their delivery for their household goods coming back.

[00:32:30] Kellie: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And didn't want their stuff going. Storage, as you know, like that's, yeah. Not ideal if you can avoid it. Nope. Yep. So they had their parents somebody's parent. There, but the parent had never, PCs never moved their house. Oh. So they, they were just there and they didn't know what to do and they were like, no, I think I need a little extra help.

[00:32:46] Kellie: So the family called us and said, who can you send? And it was great. So we had the scout sort of like project managing and directing. Gotcha. But the family got to deal with like the power of attorney and all that kind of stuff. So they were able to keep all those. Ins tightened up as cleanly as they wanted, but had somebody come in and say like, this is what I do.

[00:33:03] Alison: Watch this. I know. Yeah. Put on those gloves, let's go. That's right, yeah, because that's, you know, you end up in, it's not everybody. Operates with integrity. Mm-hmm. And, you know, you get put in situations sometimes where it's just like, if you, if you can be taken advantage of, you will be taken advantage of.

[00:33:23] Alison: Mm-hmm. And so just having that knowledge is very powerful for sure. Right. Okay. , so we have the installation guide. We have agents, we have the scouts that can help you with little thi Okay. So again, just to be super clear, they're not landlords. Yeah. They can help you.

[00:33:40] Alison: So like, if you are self-managing a property mm-hmm. They can, Hey, the plumber needs to get in. They can do that. Right? Or some, Hey, the property's turning over, they've moved out. This person, the scout can go in. Yes, everything looks great. Here's a video. Takes pictures or Yeah. Yeah. Here, Hey, I'm gonna show the house.

[00:33:58] Alison: Like that kind of stuff. But they're not an active management person, right? You guys don't offer that service. Do you have anybody on your payroll that offers that service as like a landlord or a property manager? No, 

[00:34:09] Kellie: I mean, often people go with like local folks. There's not really a nationwide solution for that based on just all kinds of licensing rules and stuff.

[00:34:15] Kellie: So I would just recommend, you know, like everything else, vet your people, make sure that you're asking all the right questions. Look up reviews, find folks that are. That are, you know, happy with their management company, see who they use. Yeah. That sort of thing. Yeah. Certainly tap into our network. But you know, it's the same thing.

[00:34:30] Kellie: You're gonna get as many recommendations as you get complaints. Right. So we just, we, we found a niche of folks who are sort of serial landlords in our military community. It's kind of where the scouts started from. It's just people that are like, You know what, this is part of our investment portfolio.

[00:34:46] Kellie: We're gonna have a house everywhere we go. Mm-hmm. And those folks are really keen to self-manage. Yes. But also see the, the value in having someone sort of on the ground that can coordinate things and Yeah. You know, that sort of stuff without having to pay. The property manager, the fee that they take, so, right.

[00:35:03] Kellie: They're all these, no, and I'll also say these folks, the self-managing landlords are also comfortable handling like eviction processes and things like that. That's not something that we get involved with. Right. Again, copacetic relationships. Yeah. That's our jam. But cuz let's be real, like nobody's getting a, scout's not getting paid enough to deal with that, nor are they qualified.

[00:35:22] Kellie: You know what I'm saying? So like, no, keep that in mind. Yeah. 

[00:35:25] Alison: Yeah, yeah. I feel you. Okay. Yeah. And then, so what other resources, what other resources do you have? There's a YouTube channel, what kind of information is on the YouTube channel? Like what, what else do you guys have? 

[00:35:34] Kellie: Yeah, so that's, that's probably my favorite cuz that's my jam.

[00:35:37] Kellie: Okay. I love, love, love having conversations. So we've had two or three different livestream series that we've run for I mean several seasons of peace. We had one series called Bayside Chat. That we were in for about two years. Okay. And we actually just interviewed people at different duty stations and we essentially put them through like the, the focus group sort of questionnaire that we would ask everyone, like, tell us, tell us the dish, you know, what's it like to live there?

[00:36:00] Kellie: What's the traffic like? What's the culture shock thing? What is the thing? Sure. That's kinda, you know, how do we avoid that? What's your favorite things? Right? That sort of stuff. It's really great. So you can go. And like, search your duty station on our YouTube channel and get some, get some great nuggets there.

[00:36:14] Kellie: Okay. We also had a series called The Unpack, where we unpacked all kinds of p c s topics and had a ton of our scouts present as kind of co-host on that series. Yeah. So you could, you can meet some of them over there. And then, yeah, YouTube is fun. So we've also pared those out into content pieces across all of the other social media channels.

[00:36:33] Kellie: We have a Facebook, we have an Instagram, we have a TikTok, I think though, I'm a bit too old. I 

[00:36:40] Alison: don't do, I don't do TikTok. I, whatever you say, I'll be like, ok. I dunno. I don't do TikTok. I don't know. 

[00:36:47] Kellie: So quick shout out to Janna Revello, who's our content or social media content manager. She's amazing. I'm pretty sure she has her teenage daughter.

[00:36:56] Kellie: Helping as well. 

[00:36:57] Alison: So I'm serious. Perfect. Like, I can't even, I don't, I do Instagram barely. Like I am not, I just, I'm not a fan of social 

[00:37:06] Kellie: media, honestly. I just, you know, Ugh. Unfortunately, it's the way of the world, right? So yeah, we, we try to be where people are. We are on Facebook. We are also, we have a space on, I don't know if you know about this.

[00:37:17] Kellie: Group yet, or this initiative, but Instant Teams has created Okay. A social media platform called 12 million Plus. And it actually, I've heard 

[00:37:26] Alison: that. Yeah, you're not the first person that said that. But then I was like, I don't know what that is. Oh, should check it out. So it's who is Instant Teams? What 

[00:37:33] Kellie: is that?

[00:37:33] Kellie: They, they actually started, well it was at one point called Mad Skills but they started Mad Skills around the same time we started Millie. Okay. Lizza. Rodewald and Erica McManus. Okay. And now it is Instant Teams, which is essentially, ah, I'm not a spokesperson so I may get this wrong, but they they have staffing solutions and team solutions.

[00:37:55] Kellie: Oh, 

[00:37:55] Alison: like, like a virtual assistant firm kind of 

[00:37:57] Kellie: thing. Oh. Bigger than that. They have all kinds of positions available for, for Okay. You know, administrative teams essentially, but they staff primarily military spouses. That's one of their huge tenants is, okay, we're gonna employ as many military spouses as we can.

[00:38:11] Kellie: Love it. And they're bringing that to all of these huge comp I'm huge companies, great cl, they're just, they're killing it. They're crushing it. Mm-hmm. So they've decided to launch this community app which is sort of their way to give back. And it's amazing. And we have a space. Sort of a corner of that app over there where we're trying to push some traffic just to get us off the hamster wheel of Facebook, you know, and the Yeah, I know 

[00:38:35] Alison: we're trying it off.

[00:38:36] Alison: It's like the algorithm changed again, and now no one's seeing you stuff again. And it's just like, ugh. Like, I don't, I, 

[00:38:42] Kellie: what's really great about 12 million Pluses is that they've got it verified through id me, so only verified active duty folks military spouses, veteran spouses. You have to have an account.

[00:38:54] Kellie: Through ID Dome, which is like a third party verification system. So it's pretty restricted as far as who they allow on, which is nice. Yeah. You know? Yeah. You just, you know, your people are there, 

[00:39:03] Alison: so. Right, and that's like, it's just like a connection, like as you said, it's just like a community kind of, for 

[00:39:08] Kellie: so much.

[00:39:09] Kellie: No, they're so much, you really, you gotta check it out. They've got courses, they have like Googles in there promoting stuff and like offering certifications. There's like, you know. Okay. Upskilling opportunities. There's working op co-working opportunities. Okay. Oh, cool. There's tons of really cool stuff.

[00:39:23] Kellie: We need to chat with them then some of their, yeah. Yeah. We have some of our PCs courses, we have a few e-courses that you can, if you're that kind of learner you can, we've taken our toolkits and essentially broken them down into like a video, like a multimedia course space where you can learn about how to PCs and how to do an OCONUS PCs and how to file a claim and how can be a landlord.

[00:39:45] Kellie: Like all of these things are mm-hmm. Are kind of broken down in that way, so, yeah. And the toolkits are free. They're like eBooks on the site. You can go and grab those. 

[00:39:53] Alison: Yeah. 

[00:39:54] Kellie: So Awesome. Yeah, we have lots. We've just kinda, it accumulated this library, so hopefully it's amazing. Amazing. 

[00:40:00] Alison: Yeah. Yeah. Oh my gosh.

[00:40:02] Alison: I think, I think it's fantastic. And, and I connected with you initially through Instagram because I follow a couple of Millie scouts and they post about, like, all kinds of different stuff, and I'm like, okay, what is this? Like, I need to find out more. So I, I love it. I think and again, like I said at the beginning, Part of the goal of this show is share, right?

[00:40:24] Alison: Yeah. There's all of these resources, there's all of this stuff. Like, there's things to lighten our load, right? Yeah. And to make it just a little bit easier. And this is one of those things cuz it's a huge deal when you're moving, you know? And then again, you don't have the opportunity to build that community a lot of times because it's so, you're in and out so quick that it's like, Hey, I need some extra help.

[00:40:43] Alison: Give me like the short list 

[00:40:45] Kellie: and you know. Yeah. Truthfully, Alison, I mean, that's. That's the whole point. We want people to be able to approach their PCs with a cool and level head with the information they need to make a confident decision. Yeah. And then what they get to then spend the time that they have saved themselves by doing it well and right to begin with.

[00:41:05] Kellie: They've saved all that time and they can allocate that time to be able to plug in and create the community that they now need, you know? Yeah. So it's all sort of this like complete ecosystem of, of feeding all of the. All of the needs that we have. First one being shelter, right? But then, right. Once you get that figured out, then you have more time to focus on, you know, yourself.

[00:41:23] Kellie: Yeah. The family, et cetera. So 

[00:41:25] Alison: yeah, for sure. Okay. All right, Kelly, I really appreciate your time. Thanks for being here and sharing Millie, and I'll make sure that we link all the things, the website and then your, the YouTube channel and all the different things. And yeah. Thank you for your time. I appreciate you.

[00:41:40] Alison: Thank 

[00:41:40] Kellie: you.