REALTORS® Lend Their Hands at Habitat Build Day

The RE/MAX Concepts team in Waterloo–Cedar Falls showed up ready to work during their annual Iowa Heartland Habitat for Humanity Build Day this fall. 

Lynette Sorensen, a REALTOR® with the Twin Power Real Estate Group, has been a member of the Iowa Heartland Habitat for Humanity board for several years, and spearheads the organization of the annual, and sometimes bi-annual, Build Day event for the group. 

“Our group has a lot of fun together,” she said. “It’s a lot of laughing and hard work. It’s a really fun group to have there. They know what to do and when to do it.” 

This year, the project was broken into two three-and-a-half hour shifts with more than a dozen RE/MAX Concepts agents stopping by to lend a hand as their schedule allowed. 

While some Habitat Build days have centered on lighter work - painting walls or trim - or splitting up the team to different areas of the home, this year’s project was a bit more all-encompassing. 

“This year, we actually got to frame in a garage,” Lynette said. “When our group got there, our project leader said that we were going to just try to get three walls up, but Gordie and Gerald (Sorensen) - who have built like 150 houses - were like ‘we can get it all done.’” 

“This year was so fun, we got to see it from benign to all framed, and we got to do it all together.” Lynette said. “Doing the garage was nice. We were all in one location doing one thing together.” 

In the end, the group was able to frame the entire garage. While they didn’t manage to get the trusses up, their progress was phenomenal. 

“It was just a pad of concrete when we got there,” Lynette recalls. “We took a pile of wood, put the frame up. We got it all sheeted and everything. In the past, we’ve been spread out. Some painting, some insulating, some in the basement. This year was great because we were all in one spot, doing one project together, and we could see it go from nothing to fully framed.”

The volunteer project is more than just having a good time and building camaraderie with the team, it’s about fostering a sense of community for all involved. 

“It’s really about REALTORS® getting involved,” Lynette said, of creating relationships between RELATORS®, Habitat for Humanity, and community members.. “Affordable homeownership is very key. It’s such a big deal. Buying a home creates generational wealth.” 

The RE/MAX Concepts team aims to help those in the community achieve that dream through their support of Habitat for Humanity, which covers Bremer, Butler, Black Hawk and Buchanan counties in the area. 

“It’s so impactful,” she said. “When someone owns a home, they are more likely to be independent, to have kids that go to college. It creates generational wealth. It’s such a good thing.” 

Iowa Heartland Habitat for Humanity also strives to help community members stay in their homes, Lynette notes. 

“They have started doing critical home repairs, for those who can’t afford, or that need a roof, or ramp, or ADA bathroom accessibility or windows,” she said. “If they can’t afford them, Habitat has really gone after critical home repairs, and they can touch a lot more people.” 

While the RE/MAX group hasn’t participated in Critical Repairs, they have taken time to volunteer together at the Habitat ReStore. 

“When I was asked to join Habitat, it was an ‘absolutely, without a doubt,’ answer,” Lynette recalls, noting that being able to work with her team on projects or at the store reminds her why it’s so important for REALTORS® to be involved.