Alexia Rodriguez shares stories of hope from Hurricanes Milton and Helene

This week on the RealTrending podcast, Tracey sits down with Alexia Rodriguez, CEO of KW Cares to discuss how their organization supports Keller Williams agents during times of crisis, and best practices for organizations interested in building their own hardship fund.

In light of recent hurricanes impacting the East Coast, Alexia talks about how their agents are helping one another through KW Cares’ program and offers valuable advice for anyone interested in creating their own relief fund.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• KW Cares has provided over $63 million in grants to associates nationwide
• The impact of hardship funds on agents who have lost everything from natural disaster or a catastrophic life event.
• How emergency grants can significantly impact agents’ lives in times of need.
• Collaboration with other aid organizations is also important for relief efforts.

Here’s a small preview of today’s interview. The transcript below has been lightly edited for length and clarity:

Tracey Velt:  Let’s go into more specifics about the hurricane response. In some parts, it was impossible to get in there right away. You also had tornadoes all through the East Coast of Florida. So give me more specifics about what you’ve done and some of the stories that you’ve heard.

Alexia Rodriguez: It was heartbreaking. Everyone in the market center that I met, if they weren’t personally affected, then they knew someone that was affected. That whole community is going to be without running water for weeks on end. In my experience in this role, we haven’t seen a disaster where the response was going to take that long to get such a basic necessity to folks.

Another thing that’s heartbreaking is that I spoke to many associates over the weekend and they were in a mandatory evacuation zone. The governor is saying you need to leave or you could die. Well, who’s gonna pay for that? The government doesn’t pay for that. Our agents and associates, they’ve been struggling through a really challenging real estate market. They’re living paycheck to paycheck.

They had to make the decision to leave, but they don’t have any way to pay for hotel or food. So when they call in for our assistance and I get to tell them, you’re gonna get a $5,000 grant, you can imagine those conversations that myself and my team are having. It’s just absolutely beautiful. And we’re just feel so honored to be able to step in when they need us the most.

The RealTrending podcast features the brightest minds in real estate. Every week, brokerage leaders, top agents, team leaders, and industry experts share their success secrets, trends, and lessons learned navigating this ever-changing industry. Hosted by Tracey Velt and produced by Elissa Branch.