Real Estate and Recognition of Local Heroism in Henderson County

Step into a celebration of local valor and real estate insights with our latest discussion on the George Real Estate Group's 10th anniversary on WHKP radio. We proudly honor everyday champions with the Hometown Hero Award, unraveling the stories of those who silently weave the fabric of our community with their selfless deeds. Their impact echoes throughout Henderson County, drawing newcomers to our inviting town, charmed by its spirit and a flourishing real estate market where homes average at $535,000. Join us as we also dissect how nearly 40% of home sales are cash transactions, reflecting buyer confidence amidst ever-shifting financial landscapes.

This heartfelt episode wouldn't be complete without paying tribute to the unsung heroes of emergency services during National Telecommunicators Week. Get an exclusive look behind the scenes with Shanna Dotson and Stephanie Brackett, who share their experiences and the deep-seated dedication required to navigate the daily tide of 500 calls. Discover the intricate dance of coordination between 911 operators and field responders, where every second counts, and the voice at the end of the line is a beacon of hope and calm in the tempest of emergencies. Through their stories, we celebrate the profound commitment that helps keep our community safe and connected.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

The George Real Estate Group radio broadcast is celebrating 10 years on WHKP. The George Real Estate Group is celebrating 10 years on the radio live every Thursday morning at 10.05 on WHKP 107.7 FM and AM 1450 and streaming online at WHkpcom Each Friday morning at 845,. The George Real Estate Group presents the Hometown Hero Award to someone in our community who goes above and beyond to make our hometown a better place to live. Here's this week's Hometown Hero Show.

Speaker 2: 0:41

Don't it make my brownies, don't it make my brown eyes.

Speaker 1: 0:46

Don't it make my brown eyes Crystal Gale on Real Country, and don't it make my brown eyes blue. Brings us up to 845. And every Friday morning at 845, we do our George Real Estate Group Hometown Hero Series. And every Friday, noah joins me for it, because it's a special day, right, noah?

Speaker 3: 1:08

oh, every friday morning is a highlight of my week, and I know yours too it really, really is.

Speaker 1: 1:13

Uh, we've been doing this a long time and and uh, we've got some special guests in our studio we'll introduce to you.

Speaker 3: 1:20

But first let's talk a little real estate news well, and before we do that again, the the reason it's so important for us to sponsor the Hometown Heroes series again the people that make this community better and give back and serve the community. I mean it's amazing how contagious that is. And when you share some good news, I mean we hear that from people when they come here, visit here, they want to move here, but they are just overwhelmed with the people they meet, the kindness, the, the generosity, and then you know, you know all the things that our area has to offer. It's no surprise. I mean the people that are coming into our area it's really true.

Speaker 1: 1:52

And you, we not only do the friday, uh, george real estate group, hometown hero, but every thursday you're on the radio and other stations in the market too and you're meeting and talking about and talking with other people in our community who are really heroes oh for sure, I mean again, we do have uh so many unsung heroes among us, uh in our community.

Speaker 3: 2:14

So it's, it's a privilege to be here yeah uh, the market continues the move.

Speaker 3: 2:18

our average single family home price in henderson $535,000. Average single family home price in Henderson County $535,000. And that's in spite of these interest rates and it's because the demand, like we're talking about, people are moving here. Also, fascinatingly, almost 40% of our sales in Henderson County are purchased with cash, cash sales. I mean the demand continues. We're averaging about 120 single familyfamily homes a month selling in Henderson County. Low inventory levels, just right. About 300 active homes on the market, single-family homes. So supply and demand we are going to typically seasonally adjust that. We see in the spring even more demand than during the winter. But on the average over the last 12 months we've been averaging 122 single-family homes a month, very grateful. I mean we're located in Flat Rock. We serve all of western North Carolina and upstate South Carolina and we have an incredible group of agents. We're now at 25 agents. That's amazing, very thankful, serving the community through real estate.

Speaker 1: 3:19

That's a full house. You've got out there. Well it's that attraction of the food you have.

Speaker 3: 3:23

Oh right, it's it's a dangerous location. You have hubba hubba barbecue uh campfire grill, wrinkled egg uh flat rock bakery. So stop by, we'll get you a cup of coffee, and I'd love to visit with you well, welcome with me, if you will.

Speaker 1: 3:36

Shana dotson and stephanie bracket, national telecommunicators week and we have uh grabbed up a couple of telecommunicators to talk to you. You uh ladies are kind of representing the whole uh telecommunicator industry here in henderson county and it's a pleasure to meet and talk with you both. Stephanie, good morning, good morning, how are you?

Speaker 4: 4:01

I'm doing great, thank you. How are you?

Speaker 1: 4:02

I'm doing great. It's good to meet you both. We talk in the early morning hours. A lot of us here. Uh, that's a 24-7 job. I mean 365. There's somebody always at 911, right.

Speaker 4: 4:16

Yes, sir.

Speaker 1: 4:18

And how long have you been doing this job, Stephanie?

Speaker 4: 4:20

I was a dispatcher for 16 years and just recently moved into the public information officer for the sheriff's office. So, I've changed roles slightly, but I still work part-time as a dispatcher.

Speaker 1: 4:31

Okay, and Shanna you.

Speaker 5: 4:33

About eight years.

Speaker 1: 4:34

Eight years, wow. You've run into a lot of different situations in that time. I'm sure both of you yes, sir. Yeah, tell us about some of the most, the most that stand out in your memory of calls you've received or things that have happened while you were on your watch. What comes to mind?

Speaker 4: 4:56

one call that I had that I can talk about. Um that I've talked a couple times about. Actually, that stuck with me. Um, I had a girl who was in a fire. Her house had caught fire. She was trapped in her bedroom and couldn't get out. Um, so I had to talk her through how to find a window in the smoke and be able to get out through the window and go meet with the responders outside, and luckily she did make it out with no injuries. Unfortunately, her home was a total loss, but she was able to be saved and, like I said, no injuries. So we were very thankful for that and after that happened I was actually able to meet her in person.

Speaker 4: 5:29

And that experience was just, it was worth it all. It was great. It was an amazing experience. That experience was just, it was worth it all it was great.

Speaker 1: 5:34

It was an amazing experience, shanna. You folks are put into a situation a lot of times where, as you're awaiting the arrival of officers and medical people, you guys have got to talk some folks through some bad stuff, don't you? We do a lot of times yes, what type of situations have you run into?

Speaker 5: 5:58

A lot of times in the community we have, you know, people that have mental health problems and sometimes they just want to be able to talk to someone and so being able to just take the time to you know, keep them on the phone and you know, maybe it's talking about you know their dog or what they've done that day, or you know things like that. Just to you know. Keep them calm and talking in order to, a lot of times, de-escalate a situation.

Speaker 1: 6:26

Yeah, one of the things that and Noah pull that mic back around I visited you guys. I don't know, it's been a year ago or so. I remembered to stop and buy a dozen donuts and take them up to the telecommunicator's office and meet you guys and a lot of you guys at that time, and I guess what I learned and what I took away from that visit is that it's a team. You guys are the inside part of that team and you're working with the team that's on the outside part, and there are different teams that go, different dispatchers, different officers, but you guys are together as a team, right?

Speaker 4: 7:16

Yes, our overall goal is the same, but we do have some we split it up. One works Fire and EMS, one works the law channel, but we all answer 911 and we're all cross-trained to be able to work the radio while we're on the phone. But the overall goal of sending people to help is the same and we do work as a team together very closely how many, uh, how many different uh uh agencies do you accept calls for?

Speaker 1: 7:42

uh, when? When we call 9-1-1 and and some people may need an ambulance, some people may need a fire, somebody, police, what tell us? Straighten that out for us, well.

Speaker 5: 7:54

Well, we take all 911 calls for the county. Anything that has to do with the city police we do forward on to Hendersville City Police. They dispatch them themselves. Also they dispatch Laurel Park Police but we dispatch for all sheriff's office needs fire and medical.

Speaker 1: 8:12

Okay, I mean it's incredible.

Speaker 3: 8:14

Let's give some context. I mean you guys have a team of 22. Is that right? And this is upcoming National Public Safety Telecommunications Week and we're so honored to have you both here and again honor your incredible team. I mean, some of the information you guys gave. I mean you guys are averaging some 500 calls a day and this is 24 7 365. Uh, it's, it's absolutely incredible and what you're saying again, just being that, that calm connection to the person, to de-escalate it, but just to makes them feel assured and rest assured, you know, helps on its way and, uh, you know to, to help them and guide them and give them some hope. I mean you guys are really the front lines of you know that first interaction. You know before, uh, you know people arrive on site right absolutely incredible.

Speaker 3: 9:05

Now here's something I can. Is it only phone calls to 9-1-1, or can people?

Speaker 5: 9:11

text 9-1-1 text to 9-1-1 is available that's amazing.

Speaker 3: 9:17

I'm sure with technology or if there's self-service not not, you know, if it's spotty self-service, but someone can text. I mean, you guys can respond to that as well.

Speaker 1: 9:26

Yes, hey, no, I I gotta tell you, I walked away from there too, thinking uh that their control room is like a radio station on steroids. Man, it is. Uh. You guys have got your fingers on the pulse of everything right there and you're all in the same room. There's like, how many of you in this?

Speaker 4: 9:50

There's four to a shift and then we do have extra people that help throughout for our peak hours and things like that, and we sit at a station that has seven computer screens at it, so we have to monitor seven screens at one time, keeping up with all the units and the calls that are going on, and things like that.

Speaker 1: 10:07

Gosh, that's amazing and it was a very when I was there it was a very quiet kind of a dark atmosphere in the place and I was there in the middle of the day atmosphere in the in the place and I was there in the middle of the day. Are you able to tell us where you're located here in Hendersonville? Maybe, maybe not.

Speaker 4: 10:28

yeah, okay sure, so we're located at the Sheriff's Office. We do have a separate room per se that's. It's almost like a building within a building, but they keep us in that, in that building, to to help keep the noise down a little bit, so there's not a lot of background noise and we can concentrate on what needs to be done yeah, and of course uh, and of course uh, emergency power, and I mean that place will keep going, we'll keep going so both of you are local.

Speaker 3: 10:58

You went to school here, grew up here. I I'm just curious, where was the influence in either of your lives to do this? Had you been exposed to this? Or like, did you have other family members in law enforcement or or ems, or firefighters? I mean, I'm just curious each of yours story as to how you went into this path of serving the community through the telecommunications department.

Speaker 4: 11:22

I actually got into this because I'm married to one of the firemen here, my husband Matt Brackett. He works full-time at Dana Fire Department. He's the one that got me introduced to this. Once I met another fellow telecommunicator and sat with her for a couple hours. I fell in love with it, never looked back, and it's been the best job since. I absolutely love it.

Speaker 1: 11:41

Shanna, how did you get introduced to it?

Speaker 5: 11:43

I actually was introduced to it by our director now, johnny Duncan. He influenced me to apply. I had no background in emergency services. I had family members that worked in law enforcement. But he just one day he thought you know, I think you'd be great at this. Come apply. And I did, and I fell in love then Been doing it eight years now.

Speaker 1: 12:07

Right yeah, johnny Duncan is sitting over in the corner quietly this morning being well-behaved, nodding approval or whatever, but Noah, I mean, is there a?

Speaker 3: 12:18

need for more tele telecommunicators. I mean how? Or is it in high demand, or you guys are got people beating down your doors to get into this job. I mean, I'm just curious how this I mean what environment that is. I mean like, is there a need for more?

Speaker 5: 12:31

there's always a need. Um, we are hiring. Uh, you know we have people that come in that see this as, like you know, a starting place. You know that they want to be on patrol or somewhere else within the sheriff's office. So we do have people kind of moving in and moving out, but we are currently looking for people.

Speaker 1: 12:50

How do you train for? Is there a course you can take, or is it like throw you in the fire?

Speaker 5: 12:57

We have about a six-month training program.

Speaker 1: 12:59

Yeah, throw you in the fire.

Speaker 5: 13:00

We have about a six-month training program, yeah, when you know we start out, you know just kind of being oriented into the sheriff's office, learning all the different avenues, and then we kind of break it down into fire and EMS training, law training, 911 call taking.

Speaker 4: 13:18

Most of our training is hands-on training. Yeah, and one of the neat things about our console is we have the ability to plug in the trainers at the same position as someone who is new, so they're not just put on their own and expected to do it by themselves right off the bat. They can sit with their trainers and see what's going on and have that safety there until they get more comfortable with how to do the job and all the aspects of it.

Speaker 1: 13:43

Well, it's amazing the amount of calmness that you guys. You're trained to diffuse the situation. I know you've run into dangerous situations before where people are in danger, so we want to thank you so much. Noah, we've got some certificates and some goodies over there for these folks. We got a certificate that proclaims you the hometown hero. It's suitable for framing, and there's some Hot Dog World certificates in there too. Noah, tell us, as we've got about a minute left here.

Speaker 3: 14:23

Well, it's a minute, yeah, about a minute. I actually had an experience where a friend of mine got hurt hiking and the cell coverage was so bad but we got enough through where we could act. The person on the other end said text us and we did the entire 911 interaction over-1 interaction over text and that was out of the area here. But I was just curious if it was a nationwide thing or if it was just here. I mean again, different areas have that capacity or not?

Speaker 5: 14:49

we actually do get a lot of calls like that just being in this area with a lot of you know, biking or hiking, that things people can do and so we have some capabilities where we're able to make contact or get locations on folks that are Cell phones, yes, but again, it never crossed my mind that you could text 911 in an emergency.

Speaker 3: 15:08

It was amazing.

Speaker 1: 15:09

Thank you all so much for what you do to make our hometown a better place. We are so grateful for what you do. Just a small token of our appreciation Join us next Friday again for Hometown Hero.

Speaker 3: 15:22

Absolutely and again, for all your real estate needs, give us a call.

Speaker 2: 15:25

Hey guys, it's Lucy Miller George, your favorite 9-year-old and I'm here to talk about the George Real Estate Group. Are you ready to sell your home and move on to bigger and better things? Well, let me tell you my family knows a thing or two about selling houses. We have the experience of helping over 1,300 families and, let's be real, selling your home is a big deal, but with our expert guidance and our terrible dad jokes and Lucy jokes we will make the process as easy and painless as possible. Want to hear a joke? Why did the real estate agent cross the road To get to the other listing? Okay, maybe our jokes aren't the best, but our selling skills are definitely are. Give us a call today 828-393-0134. Have a nice day.

Speaker 1: 16:24

The George Real Estate Group is located in Flat Rock, north Carolina, near Hendersonville in Henderson County. You can find them online at realestatebygregcom. The George Real Estate Group can be reached at 828-393-0134 or stop by their office at 2720 Greenville Highway, flat Rock, north Carolina. Tune in live each week on Thursdays at 10.05 am on WHKP 107.7 FM and 1450 am, or stream online at whkpcom or download these podcasts wherever you get your podcasts. The george real estate group brings you the whkp hometown hero series every friday morning at 8 45.