Empowering Homeowners Through Home Repairs with Ginger from SheFix Collective

In this episode of the LIVgreat Real Estate Podcast, Diane Crouch sits down with Ginger Neslund, founder of SheFix Collective, to talk about making home repairs less intimidating and more empowering. Ginger shares her journey from physical therapist to handywoman, why she created a business focused on supporting women and LGBTQ+ homeowners, and how building confidence is just as important as fixing what's broken. They also discuss the small repairs that can make a big impact before selling a home, practical weekend prep tips for homeowners, and how virtual estimates make getting started easier than ever. Whether you're preparing to sell, tackling a growing to-do list, or simply want to feel more confident caring for your home, this episode is full of practical advice you can put to use right away.
Takeaways

• Small repairs can make a big difference when preparing a home for sale.
• Patching drywall and tightening loose fixtures instantly improve a home's appearance.
• Home maintenance knowledge helps homeowners make confident decisions.
• Women and LGBTQ+ homeowners deserve trusted, approachable home repair resources.
• Walking through your home like a buyer is one of the best ways to spot needed repairs.
• Replacing GFCI outlets before listing can help avoid inspection negotiations.
• Deep cleaning and simple landscaping can dramatically improve first impressions.
• Virtual estimates save time for straightforward repair projects.
• Flat-rate pricing removes uncertainty for homeowners planning repairs.
• Confidence in homeownership starts with understanding how your home works.

✨ Subscribe to the LIVgreat Real Estate Podcast for more conversations that connect people, property, and possibility.

Ginger Neslund
Founder, SheFix Collective 🛠️

SheFix Collective
🌐 https://shefixco.com
📞 734-325-4404

Diane Crouch | Broker/Owner, LIVgreat Real Estate 🔑
📞 734-669-5999
🌐 https://www.livgreat.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hi, um I'm Tania Croach. Welcome to the Live Great podcast, um where we talk about all things and washed in our county, um and we talk to super interesting people um within our community. And today I am joined by Ginger, and um she's gonna talk to us all about her business, how she got to where she got to with the with the business, where she came from, and where she sees it growing in the future. So Ginger, welcome. Hi, you are very welcome. Um just give us a little quick quick little brief background about what you do, and then we'll kind of dig into it a little more.

SPEAKER_01 0:42

Yeah, absolutely. Um, so I own a handywoman business uh called SheFix Collective, um, where I help especially women and LGBTQ plus people um maintain their homes, make small to medium-sized repairs, um, yeah, and help them feel more confident in their homeownership.

SPEAKER_00 1:04

Okay, awesome. What first got you into handiwork, and then why did you decide specifically to focus on helping women and members of the LGBTQ plus community?

SPEAKER_01 1:19

Yeah, the how I got into it is a little bit of a longer story, but I'll try to keep it brief. Um I have been actually practicing as a physical therapist over the past 10 plus years. Um, I love helping people, um, and during that time I've been helping them feel better, move better, um, get back to things that they maybe weren't able to do for a period of time. And I have just been feeling a little bit of a need to shift to um to something else, uh, mostly for for my schedule, for my brain, things like that. But um I've I've been doing my own home repairs for years. Um, I even do work on my own car. Um to, you know, save a little cash here and there, as we all do, you know, there's a lot of DIY out there. Um but I I um thinking about sort of shifting to another career, it's something I really enjoy doing. Um I feel confident in. And again, I love helping people, so it's a nice natural shift over to um sort of a new industry. Um, and I specifically focus on working with women and LGBTQ plus people um because they they um the interaction between um tradespeople and those folks uh tends to be a little bit disconnected. So um tradespeople more often than not, it's not across the board, but um, more often than not are men. And um we communicate differently than men. Um, you know, our our um understanding maybe growing up, uh we live in a society where women aren't necessarily taught about how their home works um or how their car works, or um that they can just kind of tackle these types of jobs on their own, um, you know, or even how to communicate with um professionals about it. So um having somebody who's got a little bit better communication skills, um, to be able to enter into somebody's home when they've got a small project um to work on um helps with confidence, it helps um feel comfortable with who you're hiring. Um and so I want people to just feel comfortable to either be able to do the work on their own or to hire somebody to help them get it done.

SPEAKER_00 3:38

Yeah, you're just trying to empower them to make the best decision for themselves, whether that means and feel confident in that decision. Whether that means confident to do it or confident to hire you, you're just trying to get them to a point where they may feel confident in the could in the decision.

SPEAKER_01 3:56

Yeah, absolutely. It's it can be costly to take care of a home, especially when you have to hire professionals and uh it's the worst feeling when you're hiring somebody and you feel medium about them. Right.

SPEAKER_00 4:10

Yeah, I've I've had to hire people to in the past when my husband was deployed to um like install a water heater and stuff like that. And I didn't have a bad experience, but I did feel uh uneasy because I didn't feel comfortable, I didn't know it w if they were good at their job, if they were a good person, any of that kind of stuff, or what were they uh was the price could where it needed to be. I had nothing to compare it to. So to have somebody who I could have that relationship with to have the confidence and say, is this something that I could do? Or Ginger, would you take this job for for me? I think I think that's kind of what what you're uh what you're getting to, right?

SPEAKER_01 4:53

Uh yeah, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 4:55

Uh uh and we're kind of like that's the kind of the same with uh relationship that we want in real estate is to be able to have like the open conversation and real conversations of whatever needs to be said um with our clients. So I I think what that there's a lot of similarities between our businesses. Uh yeah. Um did you always um when you grew up, did you always like do all the different things or figure it out yourself, do do the the repairs yourself, or did you actually did your family end up calling people?

SPEAKER_01 5:32

Um so um I was I was thinking about this the other day. I I actually grew up my grandfather was a carpenter, not by trade, as a hobbyist. Um so actually one of my coffee tables is something that he built that um we've kept in the family, um, albeit it's a little tippy, but um he's a hobbyist. Um but um he was also one of those like duct tape is supreme. We use duct tape on everything, right? That was one of his philosophies. You just tape it back together and keep moving. Um, and I I think that that mindset got passed down to my dad. Not that he uses duct tape on everything, he does a much nicer job of repairing things um or calling professionals when needed. Um but he's he's very much like a go-getter. Both of the sheds on his property were built by him and his dad. And um and and growing up, um, so my dad is a taxidermist. That that was the majority of his career. He was a taxidermist. Um, and I did little odd jobs for him. I stole tools from him to go make little repairs around the house or to my ultimate goal was to build a tree fort in the backyard. Um, but I I don't think I was ever discouraged from any of it. And my my dad has always been very um supportive and uh wanting to educate me on how to use tools, um, you know, how how to use screwdrivers, the difference between a Phillips head and a flathead, um, how to use a drill. Those are things that um even when I moved to an apartment, didn't even have a house yet, that he was like, you have to have a drill, here's your drill. Um, and made sure that I that I had all of that stuff um so that I could take care of things myself. Now, as I've gotten older and purchased a home and um have larger repairs to do sometimes, um, he tends to also step in and say, Well, let me come help you with that. And I say, Absolutely not, I'm in charge, I will take care of it. Um, so for instance, I I um installed a garbage disposal. There was not one previously. So I had to install the garbage disposal and reroute a little bit of the plumbing underneath the sink. And he was very concerned that I it was gonna be really difficult to reroute that plumbing. Totally get it. It ended up being very simple. Um and uh yeah, he they live about four and a half hours north, so he kept saying, wait till I'm down next and then we'll do it. And I said, I'm not waiting for you, I'm just gonna do it and it'll be fine. And it was fine. So good for you.

SPEAKER_00 8:15

Yes. Yeah. Very good. So if you were speaking to um somebody um getting ready to sell their house right now or in the near future, what small repairs, let's say like just a three or four small repairs would you recommend that they would do that you think would make a big difference?

SPEAKER_01 8:39

Yeah, I think the first thing um, especially if the house is already cleared out of all of your personal belongings, is to make sure that you patch any holes in the drywall. Um, when you have that blank slate, those things stand out so strongly. If you've still got stuff in the house, some of it can be a little hidden. But if you've got nothing left in the house to patch the drywall and give it a you know paint touch-up, that is the number one thing I would do. Um beyond doorknobs and um fixtures as needed, if if they look in disrepair or if they're loose, so things like towel bars, if things are loose, it's not as appealing. Um, and when I mentioned swapping out faucets, um, they might still look okay, but sometimes they do affect the water pressure. And homeowners should be kind of testing the water pressure when they're looking for a house, because that is super annoying to have to live in a house with poor water pressure for years. Um, and so if you've got a fixture that is damaged for some reason, um or there's there's this other little like filter thing that goes into the shower system, um, if that is causing water pressure issues, that's something that homeowners um or uh potential buyers will be looking at as well. So yeah, number one is patching the drywall, number two is all of the like loose things and maybe new fixtures, doorknobs, etc. That's that's the stuff I would hit.

SPEAKER_00 10:12

That's really good. I'm just thinking about all those things as I as uh as I'm helping my uh sellers get ready. I'm like, oh yeah, I should tell them to check that because I don't I just don't think. But but you're right, like it wobbly, wobbly fixtures and all of that kind of stuff, it just makes buyers think that the home is not as loved uh as if as if everything was like locanolan ship shape. So yeah. Thank you. That's very helpful.

SPEAKER_01 10:40

Yeah, I was like flush the toilets, run all of the and run it for a couple minutes, run all the faucets for a couple minutes. That's um important to do.

SPEAKER_00 10:49

Yeah, yeah, that's really good. Um let's see. What other questions do I have for you? Do you have a go-to weekend prep list for a seller who wants their home to show well without a big budget? So kind of like what we just said. Um, but if they had a little more time, what would what would they do? What would you recommend they do?

SPEAKER_01 11:13

Yeah, my recommendation is um day one sort of do a walk around the house and literally just make a list of everything that that you notice um as if you were the home buyer, right? So things that need to be again, drywall areas that need to be patched. Um, and that might mean moving furniture if there's still furniture in the home to see what needs to be patched. Um, especially if you've got animals, you just never know what's going on behind the couch. Um, yeah, so looking for areas like that, um, looking for anything that's loose, checking for cobwebs, things like that, just writing it all down, making a big list of it, and then sort of starting to attack all of that. Um if you've got all of that completed, then looking more at things like deep cleaning and um landscaping stuff. So giving it a fresh mow, taking care of you know the bushes out front or whatever needs to be done there. Um, but definitely starting with some of those things that I mentioned earlier. The looking, just looking at all of the little details. If you've got to replace a plate on a light switch or the GFCI outlets, for those who don't know what a GFCI outlet is, it's the one that when you're running your hairdryer, it cuts out. And you have to push that extra little button to get it to turn back on. That's a GFCI outlet. Um, and it's something that so when I was purchasing my house, um it came up on our inspection that we did not have GFCI outlets where they needed to be. Um, and that wasn't the only thing that came up on our inspection, but we were actually able to use our inspection to basically wipe out our closing costs. Um which really helps, you know, when it came to um closing time, that we had much less money to have to pay. Um, but it's something really simple that you can do is to have uh where needed GFCI outlets put in if they're not already there, especially if you've got an older home. So that's anywhere near like a water source external to the home in your garage, things like that, that you have to have a GFCI outlet.

SPEAKER_00 13:21

Yeah, and they do that does come up often on inspections. Um, especially like you say, older homes. Not a big deal, but it's always off it's always flagged. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:32

And they're super simple. It's not expensive whatsoever to have those swapped out, and it would save you potentially in some of those negotiating costs.

SPEAKER_00 13:43

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Um tell us about if if somebody wants to hire you, how would they go about doing that right now? And then about your kind of your setup with the half day in the day. How does that work?

SPEAKER_01 13:59

Yeah, so my pricing currently, um, I do actually tweaking my website last night. Um I do offer virtual quotes for simple projects. So if you've got something like a light fixture that needs replacing, um, a faucet that needs replacing, really simple stuff like that, you can actually just go to my website. I've got a handful of questions that I ask related to each of those different types of projects so that I have a little bit better understanding. You upload a photo or two, um, and then I'm able to give virtual quotes on that. And I like to offer a flat rate for projects so that people aren't guessing at like how many hours is that gonna take. Um, honestly, if it takes me way too long, it's either on me that I need to be better, or um, or we need to discuss if if I run into an issue that's causing me to take a little bit longer, then we have to discuss, you know, maybe getting an extra part or things like that. Um, beyond that, then I also offer the half day or full day um repair jobs. So that means if you've got a bunch of little things around your house that need to be taken care of, that you can book either a half day or a full day um appointment with me. So I'm either there for three hours or I'm there for six hours, and whatever I can get done in that time on your to-do list is what gets done. Um, and then you can always hire me additionally if you've got a couple things left over.

SPEAKER_00 15:20

Okay. All right, that's great. Um, so if people want to get a hold of you, how do they do that?

SPEAKER_01 15:27

Yeah, great. Um, number one, I would start on the website if it's something really simple, that way you can get that virtual quote. And I know people nowadays, like some of us are down for the phone call, and some of us just want to type it into a into a uh form, which is fine, which is why I developed the form that I did, so that people could just enter stuff for for simple um fixes. So you can start on my website. Um, it's shefixco.com. Um beyond that, if it's something more complex um or if it's multiple jobs that you want to have some eyes on, you can still go to my website and book an appointment there, or you can call me. Um my phone number is 734-325-4404, um, and you can contact me and we'll get an estimate scheduled. My estimates are complimentary. Um, it's just for me to get a better understanding of what's going on so that I can price things appropriately.

SPEAKER_00 16:24

Love that. And I love the idea of you having the virtual um estimate too. Because it yeah, it and that just is so convenient, saves so much time.

SPEAKER_01 16:33

So yeah, it's it's um it was something I was thinking about going, yeah, I would like to be able to see everybody's home ahead of time, but if it's one light fixture in somebody's house, that's simple and it should just be a flat rate.

SPEAKER_00 16:46

Yeah, it makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 16:48

Yeah, and I I've I've run into some um you know, some light fixtures that take a little bit longer, but again, that's either on me or we need some additional equipment. Um but beyond that, they should be a flat rate, simple fix, done and done. And if um people want to just fill out the form online, you know.

SPEAKER_00 17:10

Easy peasy.

SPEAKER_01 17:11

Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 17:12

Love it. Well, thank you so much for chatting with me today. I'm gonna make sure that all of your contact information will be in the show notes so everybody will be able to get find out your website, your phone number, every way to get in touch with you. Um I really appreciate you chatting with me. I know that we'll be working together closely on some projects in the future, and I'm looking forward to seeing where that goes. So thank you so much, and thanks to our listeners for tuning in to the Live Great podcast. Um, and have a great, wonderful, sunny Wednesday. Take care. Bye.

SPEAKER_01 17:47

Yeah, thanks, Diane. Thanks, bye.