Good Neighbor Podcast: Bergen
Bringing together local businesses and neighbors of Bergen County
Good Neighbor Podcast: Bergen
Ep. # 84 Transforming Spaces: The North Jersey Home Maintenance Story
Dive into the world of home maintenance with Linda Pollock from North Jersey Home Maintenance Group, a leader in providing stress-free home solutions. As homeowners face endless upkeep tasks, Linda’s insights offer peace of mind through her unique approach to service that combines efficiency with understanding. With over 35 years of experience in field, she shares how her commitment to preventative maintenance, aging-in-place renovations, and reliability sets her apart in the industry. Discover the two membership options for ongoing home care, hear stories from clients about tailored renovations to meet specific needs, and understand why choosing professional help over DIY solutions is essential. With a background rooted in family traditions, her gratitude for community connection shines through, reminding us that home is not just a place but an experience of comfort and safety. Join us for a thought-provoking conversation that emphasizes the emotional satisfaction of maintaining a home and how North Jersey Home Maintenance Group is here to help you every step of the way. Don’t forget to subscribe, share your thoughts, and connect with Linda for all your home maintenance needs!
North Jersey Home Maintenance Group
Linda Pollock
Tenafly, NJ, United States, New Jersey
(201) 638-4410
info.njhmg@gmail.com
njhmg.com
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Doug Drohan.
Speaker 2:Hey, welcome to another episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast from Bergen County, brought to you by the Bergen Neighbors Media Group. I am your host, doug Drohan. I'm coming to you from Bergen County, up in the Northern Valley area, where I believe our next guest resides. It's Linda Pollock, the owner of North Jersey Home Maintenance Group. Welcome to the show, linda.
Speaker 3:Thanks and thanks for having me today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely it's. You know North Jersey Home Maintenance Group and you know, when you think about a maintenance group having lived in a condo or a co-op you know you've got your, you know your HOA maintenance guys and the maintenance company. But that's not what you do. And I want to get into all the things that a home maintenance company does and then like why did you start a company to address all these needs? So what is home maintenance group all about? So what is Home Maintenance Group all about? North Jersey Home Maintenance Group.
Speaker 3:So we are a full service company providing preventative maintenance, handyman repairs, home renovations and aging in place solutions, whether it's fixing small issues, managing seasonal maintenance or transforming your home to meet your new needs. We take care of every detail so you don't have to do it. So, as you said, when you live in an apartment building or somewhere, you have a building super, but when you buy a home, all of a sudden, you are without that person to be able to call for every little detail. Well, that's where we come in, so we're your one-stop shop for stress-free homeownership.
Speaker 2:I mean it's funny because you know, you think I mean I know as a homeowner I always go through things like you know, having to hire a plumber, having to hire an electrician, having to get a landscape guy. And you know, you hear, like when there was this movement I don't know if it's still younger people like why own a house, I'll just rent because I don't have to deal with all that stuff. And then you also hear, like you know, when people say, well, you know I'm going to why, you know I should own, because when I, when I own that way, I'm not paying somebody else's mortgage, I'm paying my own. And but there are maintenance things that go along with your house.
Speaker 2:And one of the biggest things that I see, certainly on these Facebook groups, is who's got a guy to recommend? Right, you know I need somebody for this, I need somebody for that, and then who do you trust? So now, is it something where I just call you on a one off when I need somebody? Or do you have what kind of a membership plan where I pay an annual fee and then with that I can get access to Joe the plumber and whomever?
Speaker 3:That's a great question. So we actually have two programs. We do have a membership. Have two programs, we do have a membership. One of our greatest programs is our preventative maintenance plan, where we come to your house four times a year January, april, july and October and we do a checklist of items throughout your home that will help keep your home better maintained Things like changing HVAC filters, changing batteries and smokes, carbons, keyless entries.
Speaker 3:Annually we clean the dryer vent, but there's a long list of things. I bet nobody knew that they had to clean the coils on the back of their refrigerators. All of these little things keep all of your appliances and your systems in your house running better so that you pay less in repairs. So we don't just do the preventative maintenance, but we have every type of sub that we work with. So anything you need in your house, you just make the one phone call to us and we take care of everything, whether it could be a roofing issue, siding gutters you want your property power. Wash your house, your sidewalks. You want your property power. Wash your house, your sidewalks. You just need repairs done around the house. We do all of that. I have a full-time handyman on staff and his job is to go to house to house making the repairs that my clients need.
Speaker 2:Oh, so if I need a TV hung up on my wall, he'll do that.
Speaker 3:Exactly. Yeah, that's a good idea.
Speaker 2:Exactly. You know, it's funny because I think, you know, years ago, when a handyman came up, when it became popular, it was really women who were hiring these guys because maybe they didn't have. You know, it sounds sexist, but it is what it is. You know, they didn't have the men around the house to do that stuff. What it is, uh, you know, I didn't have the men around the house to do that stuff, and you know, um, there's two things I'll I'll put myself in this category. Um, one is you're really busy and um, you just don't have time for all this stuff.
Speaker 2:And two, there are some men out there that just don't have the tools or the knowledge. As much as YouTube can teach me how to do some of this stuff. I botch it and there is pride in being a manly man and being like Tim the tool man, you know, and grunting like an ape when I get this stuff done. But I have to admit that I just need somebody to do it because I'm going to screw it up and and a handyman is is a great, great service, I got to say.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:So it's not just you know, I women that you know they can't hang that, uh, chandelier, it's, unfortunately, it's the man in the house that may need help doing it too, and, and I mean there were some guys that would never in a million years. You know my father-in-law is one of them. You know they built houses. My wife's family, they're Italian, I don't know. I think it comes with, you know, being Italian, you have to be. You know, do stuff with your hands. But it's great, it's great to have that, but that's not everything. That's one of the services, right? So you've got the handyman, you've got the home maintenance. What other services do you offer?
Speaker 3:Well, we do renovations, bathrooms. I've reconfigured homes so that it's more suitable for people's you know, upcoming living needs. I had a client in Frank Lakes a few years ago that wanted to move back into their home with his 96 year old mother with Alzheimer's, and the home was just not capable the way it was. They just could not move back in it. So I went in and redesigned the house and made it so that they had different living areas and then common areas and we renovated the entire house so they're all living under one roof now. It was great. It was a great project. The family and I are still very close and I do a lot of work like that. But my aging in place is a very big product right now because I'm dealing with a lot of seniors and individuals with disabilities that want to remain in their homes. So it could just be a bathroom upgrade so that they have take out the tub, put in a walk-in shower. I'm working with a new client now that also is having her 90-something-year-father-in-law uh ex-father-in-law move in with her um.
Speaker 3:So for her I had to redesign the bathroom. So he's in a wheelchair, so that it's totally kept accessible for him. Yeah, um. So I do a lot of aging in place and living in place.
Speaker 2:You know modifications so like ramps and things like that as well, if you have a wheelchair.
Speaker 3:Yes, exactly.
Speaker 2:Now do you work? You work with like we'll call them subcontractors or people that you have like a trusted, like, I guess, referral network of guys that will do the aging in place renovations. You have somebody, they want their basement renovations, or so you have different guys or different companies. I should say but then so how does it work? So the homeowner pays you and then you work out all the payments with the okay.
Speaker 3:Yeah, everybody who works for me has worked for me for years, and my, my true rule is if they have not worked at my own house, I'm not saying go client's home.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 3:So the plumber who goes to my clients is the same plumber that comes and does repairs in my own home. Uh, and I just don't send a stranger to a client. Uh it's not going to happen, because my my business, because my business is a service, and if my clients aren't happy, I'm no longer in business.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So I am a big believer in that.
Speaker 2:I say the same thing. You know, my magazines are free, and if the advertisers weren't getting anything out of it, I'd be out of business.
Speaker 3:Exactly, so yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Every business is basically a service business.
Speaker 2:Your clients be happy or they're not coming back yep luckily, my clients are, you know, happy, so they do come back yeah, yeah, I mean it's interesting because I, you know, I didn't know that you um, just based on the name of your company and also, um, you know, knowing that you do a lot of aging and place, I didn't know you did renovations, like you know, kitchen and the basement. You know it's something personally that I'm, I want to man cave my basement and I know I'm coming across as this, like you know, everything's about being a man, but uh, but no, it's good to know, like, if, and if somebody goes on your website at njhmgcom, they can see the gallery of all the different things you've done, you can see the renovations. And now is there an area like a kind of a radius of you know of where you work, like out of Bergen County, do you go as far as Manhattan? Do you go to Pennsylvania?
Speaker 3:you go as far as Manhattan? Do you go to Pennsylvania? Honestly, we are a Northern.
Speaker 2:New Jersey company.
Speaker 3:So we do all Bergen County. I do part of Essex County, part of Sussex County. You know the parts that are closer you know, the bathroom renovation I'm doing is actually an hour away from here. It's far for us.
Speaker 3:This client came through somebody that I know and she only wants us to do it because this person knows us and they trust us. And most of my work is through referrals. As you know, I do a lot of networking, especially in the senior care industry, so I meet a lot of people in different industries that deal with seniors. But I try not to spread myself too thin because you know my handyman can only drive so much in a day. I need him to get more done you know so well.
Speaker 3:It's interesting you say that because one of my uh mentors had had said to me why don't you put a map of the areas you work on your website? Um, so people know where you'll go to. So that's one of the things that we're working on right now with our new and improved website yeah, it is a very.
Speaker 2:I was actually saying to myself you have a really good website because it tells you exactly what you do, yeah, and why you do it and how you can help people.
Speaker 3:Right, well, you know, I used to have two companies and I merged them together as of January 1st.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:The new website reflects all the services that we offered in both companies, now under one roof.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:It's more seamless for our clients. Yeah, so they're aging in place clients and so if they're aging in place clients and they need help with aging in place, they can also use our home maintenance services.
Speaker 2:Right, right and vice versa. Or the handyman, yeah. Or the children that you know, right, they need that help too. So how did you get into this business, like when you know it's been 35 years, right? So what prompted you to say you know it's been 35 years, right? So what prompted you to say you know, I think there's a need for what I'm offering.
Speaker 3:So this? Actually it's more than 35 years, but I don't want to age myself. So I grew up in the construction real estate management industry. I grew up working in my father's company at a young age and I could have continued working with them after college, but I decided I wanted to chart my own path. So I started managing properties in Manhattan. I launched my own renovation and relocation company there as well and eventually combined all those years of experience into North Jersey Home Maintenance Group.
Speaker 3:Later, after my kids, you know, were a little bit older, because I was a stay-at-home mom for 10 years, I needed to be here for my kids and once they were at a certain point, it was time I wanted to get back to work. It all started with a friend in town who traveled a lot on business and needed help at his house. So he would call me for because he knew this was the industry I was in. Yeah, and I had started saying the stage years before that, and after doing all these repairs in his house, he finally turned to me and said all my friends are finding out what you're doing in my house and they want you to do this in their homes as well.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:So that's how North Jersey Home Maintenance Group got started. Nice, my friend Ed. And so it's been. Actually we're coming up. April 1st will be our 14 year anniversary. We're coming up april 1st will be our 14 year anniversary, so if you join our mailing list for our newsletter, you'll see all the specials that are coming to 14 years um, so that's exciting.
Speaker 3:It's been a lot of fun yeah along the way of having north jersey home maintenance group. Uh, some of my clients started having some aging issues. I had already gotten my certification in aging in place, but during COVID I started seeing a need for people that had disabilities. So, I got my certification in living in place, which was very interesting. The training for it really taught me what people are going through as they age and have different medical issues whether it be arthritis, vision issues or, you know, it could be a lot of other things.
Speaker 3:So I started really learning more about the needs of you know people that needed the services and started working with them to help them with their you know different challenges. So that's what sets me apart is my commitment to understanding the client's unique needs.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:You know, I love what I do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think that's evident and I was going to ask like what's the greatest satisfaction in what you do? But I think you kind of answered that and you know it's funny how you could describe a business Like when you talk about it. What is it that you do? Right? And you find sometimes people go on and on and on, you know forever. Like we've seen these networking events where somebody's supposed to stand up for 30 seconds and they're up there for five minutes.
Speaker 2:But if you think about it, what you do is when somebody has a problem in their home whether it's they need a handyman or it's something needs to be fixed or updated or upgraded you provide peace of mind, right.
Speaker 2:And there's also, like I interviewed G Freed Flooring and Design last week and they say we provide new floors and design. But I said it's more than that, because when you upgrade somebody's home, it's something that emotionally, you love coming home to, whether it's, you know, maybe it's the efficiency or not or inefficiency of your kitchen to have that redone. Like there's something that it's more than just the tangible thing that you see and touch when it comes to your home. And I mean the peace of mind like you were saying about knowing my smoke detectors and my batteries and all that have been updated, or cleaning up the dryer. I had a neighbor who had a fire because their dryer vents were clogged. You know those are things that you ignore most of the time, and it's it is. It's a peace of mind. So it's not that you're providing handyman services, you're providing peace of mind.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we like to call it stress-free homeownership.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay, but again, it goes beyond that, because if you renovate somebody's space like their bathroom or their basement, and it becomes a place that you walk downstairs and it's comfortable and it's calm and it's you know, you know you got your guitars hanging on the walls and it looks like you're a musician, because they've always wanted to do that but didn't know how and um, and that's really I'm saying that because you have a photo in your gallery of a with all the guitars and I have a bunch of guitars in my house, but um, anyway, that's really cool. Now I I love fact that you know and, to be honest, I don't see a lot of companies that do what you do and I could be. Am I wrong or is what you do a crowded space?
Speaker 3:What I do is very unique.
Speaker 2:There are.
Speaker 3:As far as I know, there are no companies that do exactly what I do. I know that there are companies that are trying to do something similar to what I do.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:But I think it's all about relationships with the clients. Yeah, anybody could say that they're doing what they're doing, but it's the unique way that we do it that I think our clients feel very secure with.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Because I'm constantly, you know, reaching out to them for things that I know that they need in their home. We do all the scheduling for everybody that's going to be working in the home. One of the things that's great about our program is that every time we go to someone's home, we create a service ticket. There's an entire history in our client's folder and it's all you know online where we can look back to see exactly when we were there for any particular thing, and it makes it a lot easier for the clients, you know, to know that we can go back and look, especially if they're going to sell a house. If the person who's buying it says have you ever done this? Have you ever done that? We can actually print them out the service tickets of work that we've done in their home over the years.
Speaker 2:That's great that we've done. Well, it's funny you say that because I was looking at I recently had my floors refinished and I'll plug Hoffmanman Foreign Homes because they've done a lot of my flooring and I was trying to remember what I paid to do my kitchen floors. But I don't remember because I couldn't find I should have a folder somewhere of all my improvement jobs you know, but yeah, I don't really keep great records of that stuff.
Speaker 3:So we do that for you, so you don't have to do it.
Speaker 2:Nice, nice, and I guess you know. The alternative is that I'm going to go find a plumber, I'm going to go find my own handyman, I'm going to find my own electrician or find my own you know kitchen or basement renovation company. But you know your people that you have. I don't have to worry if they're trustworthy or if they're talented or if they're going to take a deposit and never come back.
Speaker 3:You don't have to worry about that at all, because we take care of everything.
Speaker 2:Is there anything in the home that you don't do?
Speaker 3:Yes, pools and landscaping, those are the only two things I don't touch, because everybody has their own personal. You know things that you know it's just too difficult to control, okay, and the liability on them are just too great, and you know.
Speaker 2:But you know, there's a I've interviewed landscapers too, or landscape design companies, and there's a big difference between being a landscaper and being somebody who mows your lawn. Yes, because we I was mentioning, on any given week in my neighborhood in the spring and summer, every single house, I have a different guy doing their lawn right, and all the years that I've, you know, I was cutting my own lawn for a while because I actually like to do it, um, but then after a while it becomes a time thing. But just doing the actual landscaping and knowing what plants work, you know I failed at that a few times and then finally. But the maintenance part is, um, you know, they're kind of like a dime a dozen, but it has has to get done. It saves you time. They might call themselves landscapers. They're really not. They're just mowing you on and maybe doing the nice trim work. So that's something I would think, you know, I would look to, because I'm going to be in the market again this spring for another guy.
Speaker 3:Landscapers are hard. I had somebody that took care of my properties for like 20 something years.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Then you know he was kind of getting semi retired and his guys weren't showing up and I don't want to have to get those phone calls every week.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Or or the guys that, uh, yeah, I guess so. Or the guys that, um, they mow your lawn but they didn't bother to get off the tractor and and take out the weed whacker and do the edging, or you have to get up and show them. Oh, by the way, you know my lawn was a little wet today and now there's tire tracks in my lawn, could you not?
Speaker 3:do that you know that kind of stuff yeah, I just don't want those phone calls every day I get it it's not worth it to be perfect yeah, yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:So no pools, no landscaping, but everything else changed.
Speaker 3:Like you know, every week there's a different company showing up yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, so yeah I mean it's uh, it's great.
Speaker 2:I'm glad we we had this talk, because it's important that people know who you are and what you do. Um, you know you're. You're in North. The name of your company is North Jersey, so you serve the North Jersey, north Burton County area and I'm going to go through how people contact you. But if I get anything or I miss anything, please let me know. It's North Jersey Home Maintenance Group. It's njhmg. com. Phone number is 201-638-4410. Should they email you as well, or are those the best ways to reach you?
Speaker 3:They can email me if they like. You know, they can go through my website and submit a form Even on my website there's a little chat box, you know. They can send me a message and I'll get right back to them, and we're pretty quick about returning phone calls. You know, it's just the part of doing business.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, that separates you from a lot of contractors is returning phone calls.
Speaker 3:And I live here. I'm in Tenafly. I've been here for 33 years almost. So, you know I love this area. I do a lot of work around here and always looking to meet new clients.
Speaker 2:That's great. That's great. Well, Linda, thank you very much for being on the show. We're going to have Chuck close us out and you and I'll be right back.
Speaker 3:Okay, sounds good. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:Thank you. Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpbergen. com. That's gnpbergen. com, or call 201-298-8325.