Episode 70: After First Responders Leave | Home Cleanup with CSi's Christina Hester & Zac Carver

0:00 All right. When the unthinkable happens in your home, what do you do next? Something traumatic has happened. The police, the fire department, the first responders. They've all left. Now what? Hey, everyone. I'm Nate Carver, Your Favorite Mortgage Guy and host of the Between Two Doors. And today we're meeting with Christina and Zac of Clean Scene Investigators in DFW. Hey, I'm Nate Carver and welcome to Between Two Doors.

0:46 Hey, Christina. Hey, Zac. Welcome to the podcast. Hi. So we're going to jump. We're going to jump right into this. I got a host of questions for you. And, because, you know, this happens. It does happen. And people, you know, what do we do? It's not something that's front of our minds. And so we're going to put this out there and help guide people in the DFW area. All right. So now what? Christina, let's start with the situation none of us wants to experience. Let's say something traumatic has happened inside a home. Everyone's left, all the first responders have left. And, you're left with a house and, or a home.

1:27 And there's some things that need to be taken care of. So then let's say I'm standing there, I'm looking at my house. What am I supposed to do next? Who should I call first? You should call 911, obviously. Once the police, paramedics and coroners leave, It is up to the families to clean up after a traumatic incident. And I learned that when I was a crime scene investigator. And so the next step to do is to call CSI: Clean Scene Investigators, So you are not having to clean up after your own loved ones. Should I call the insurance company? We can work directly with insurance companies. It depends on the policy, what your homeowner policy covers.

2:12 Sometimes they can cover restoration for incidences like this. And if the victim has life insurance, that usually covers it as well. Okay. Let's say the what what should I do in the affected area? Should I stay clear of it? Or. I would completely avoid cleaning it yourself. Most people— all the chemicals that we use are EPA, bloodborne pathogen, OSHA approved. And so, if you come at it with typical household supplies like Lysol or bleach or anything like that, you're actually risking a contamination that could severely damage your health or your pets or anybody that is in the residency.

2:54 Okay. How quickly, is that cleanup process? I mean, I guess it can be pretty involved, but. It can be as little as, like, two hours, depending on the severity. Let's say it's like a simple cut. We don't always deal with death. And so, like, sometimes you need, like, just a bad arm cut or something like that. It could be as little as two hours, and sometimes it could be as involved as 3 to 4 days, depending on the level of restoration, that our clients are needing. We have the ability to completely remediate any situation. And so sometimes it's more involved.

3:37 So are you seeing any any mistakes that. I mean, let's be let's be, very charitable in what is obviously a hard, hard situation. Any mistakes homeowners are making that y'all see up front in that for the first few hours after everyone's left before y'all get there? Sometimes they will, you know, try to move the body. They will, attend to the area themselves. Or, they'll simply remove things and that can further cross-contaminate areas that have not already been affected.

4:22 That's that's some of the, that's general mistakes that we've seen or, they'll come at it with Lysol or think that bleach is the cure-all. And they end up prolonging the, the issues that come from that. Okay. All right. We're going to delve deeper. Yeah. We'll delve deeper into this. But, let's, let's let's step back a little bit. Christina, tell me, before we go any further, I'd like to know your journey, how you came to being a crime. You know, and, a scene cleanup investigator.

5:03 It all started when I was a crime scene investigator. So I was a real-world crime scene investigator. And when I was on the scene after the body was gone, I realized it was up to the families. And so that never sat well on my heart. And I actually made a simple joke to him. He had his own standard cleaning company called Simply Spotless, and that was operating for about 3 to 4 years. And just because of the economy, people couldn't justify hiring a house cleaner. And so I made a joke to him saying, you know what's economy resistant? Crime. You should clean up crime scenes. And three days later, he hands me a ten-page business proposal and he's like, this is your idea on paper.

5:46 Let's go. You own a business. And I was like, people don't just start businesses. That's not a thing. And this all started. The company rebranded in January of this year, 2026, and we have been running and gunning since really It's a 24-hour business, because crime doesn't stop. And so we get calls at 2:00 in the morning and we get calls at 2:00 in the afternoon, and we respond within about an hour right now. How long were you a crime scene investigator? I was a crime scene investigator for about five years in multiple departments, and I say that the good ones last about five years before the PTSD gets too much.

6:27 Right. Oh, I can imagine. All in the DFW area? All DFW. We are licensed in the entire state of Texas. But if we're being completely honest, Dallas–Fort Worth has enough to keep us employed. Oh yeah. Now, it's not all. It's not always crime scene. It's, you know, your life. Life, the journey of life. Things happen. Right. And so, you know, there's there's other scenarios there too, where y'all would be your services would be needed. We. We, we clean anything that a standard cleaning company isn't licensed or trained to do and that any normal person can't stomach.

7:09 So we do hoarding situations, odor removals. A lot of the times we're noticing realtors are trying to sell a house and it smells like pets. And so we have a ozone scrubber that we can extract the oxygen, scrub it on a molecular level, and then put it back out there and the house will smell brand new. My mind immediately went to pet ferrets. Yup. We get those. I'm telling you, nobody, no pet owner of ferrets knows how bad their house smells. Seriously. Nose blindness is truly a thing. It is. And you know me too.

7:52 When I cook something and burn it, the house smells. That smell stays there forever. It seems like it's the. Yeah, yeah. So you have the opportunity to come in there and and get that neutralized. So that would be really, really. Well, I'll get I'm going off on a tangent here, but, with homeowners that are looking to sell their home and, you know, maybe they've collected a lot of things over the years and, or, you know, they have a lot of pets, what have you. And in getting a home in its tip-top presentation, y'all have an opportunity there to come in and help help homeowners and help realtors.

8:39 I get those conversations pretty frequently with real real estate agents. And they're like, well, I'm off to go clean a house this weekend. And, you know, you know, successful realtors, their schedule's full. And so for them to stop and do that whenever there's, some experts in the area like y'all that would be able to, partner with them and take care of that. That's that's fantastic. I will definitely I'm going to introduce you to some realtors. They'll be grateful. We would love that. We handle— There's a couple of invisible things that some people don't notice, like we do mold remediation or water damage.

9:21 Fire. Okay. It's. We say crime scene because that has the most shock factor. And— sure— really grabs everybody's attention, but there are invisible, contaminations or, you know, not necessarily problems, but, things that realtors would not want to sell their homes with. So. Yeah. Yeah. And on the transaction side, you know, you got home homeowners that have to sell for whatever that reason is, they need to sell. And and then you've got buyers, they need a place to live. And where those two intersect, there's the financial transaction.

10:02 And and I want to see everybody win. Right. As a lender, I want to see the homeowners get as much as they can for the value of their home. And I want to see the home new home buyer get as much as they can out of the value of their home. And y'all, y'all being able to do what y'all do there will certainly help that. And, in qualifying the loan, you know, if you're doing FHA, VA, conventional, they all have minimum standards that you got to comply with. And if you've got mold, or some water damage that that's going to provide some, some obstacles, to keeping from people from selling a home or buying a home.

10:47 Okay. So yeah, so there's the post clean up from an event, and then there's what y'all could do to help maximize the value of a property for someone that's selling great. Okay, so I learned something. I just learned, you know, from y'all, the police don't clean up the site. I mean, we're gonna switch back, right? That's a common misconception that most people think is that they'll call 911, and it's all handled. And it's like, well, that's not necessarily true. It's all handled until the body's gone, and then the families are left to clean up the mess. And so as a crime scene investigator myself, I have taken the duty to kind of help remediate the crime scene by picking up some chunks to where the families didn't have to see it.

11:37 But the unfortunately, most people don't handle that. And so we don't want the families to be re-traumatized because most of the time it's the families that find, next of kin. Yeah. And then. Oh yeah. And then if they were to just use bleach or household products, they're not getting the detailed clean that they need. And so your carpet may start moving in a few weeks if you don't call us. I think there's also a lot of psychology, that goes with this. Like, it's taking an emotional toll on the people, And, you know, if it's a traumatic scenario that's taking a secondary psychological toll on whoever's left behind.

12:20 But then there's, like, hoarding situations and stuff like that. They, there is a psychological, misfire in a way that's happening where we, we kind of we provide a remediation of the physical space, and then we also try to help the emotional, space as well. We offer services that can help, guide people or counsel anyone. Wow. I think. Yeah, they go get. Yeah. And it it's not I mean, it's not always homicide, right? Right. We're not I mean that that is a potential component, but it's not it's not always that I'm trying.

13:04 I'm trying to dance around this subject gingerly. Yeah. Let's let's walk through some situations and, you know, without being too graphic, but let's say an unattended death, maybe, accidental death crime scenes. I don't know, hoarding for sure. Biohazard contaminations. I don't know, I don't know what that could be, but, I don't know, maybe, you know, a little bit more about that. Yeah, yeah. Urine and feces. Yeah. Like, there you go.

13:45 It's that, like, we work with elderly a lot. They'll have incontinence. Or just a simple, They're losing their balance. Have trip and fall situations. It's not. It's not always homicide, suicide or, you know, but we have found our source. I, you know. We're still going to get flagged on YouTube. Yeah. Surprisingly not. I have yet to be flagged talking about it because it's, Okay, so I think we'll be okay. All right. Okay. So. I. Why?

14:26 I guess you've touched on this, but why wouldn't someone just clean it up myself? A lot of people can't stomach most people, some not most. But some people can get queasy from seeing certain substances. A lot of the times the families would rather not handle it themselves because they're realizing that that was at one point their family members. And so you don't want to necessarily pick up after your loved one, especially seeing the inner parts of your loved one. And so you don't want to handle it yourself simply because of the re-traumatization of that individual.

15:08 Like, if we're being honest, if you imagine your closest loved one, you don't want to be the one to pick up after them in that severe of a case. If they left their socks on the floor, you don't mind picking up after them, but if they've left, you know something else the inside of their brains on the floor. You don't want to pick that up. So it's it's better for you to call a company, especially us, because we are the only company that is, founded and operated by a former crime scene investigator. So we have the real world experience going in versus your standard company may not be licensed or trained to do, but I think we've noticed this a lot with, unattended death situations.

15:52 Whoever shows up, to, to find their family member or whatever it is, they most of the time on that phone call, they're like, I haven't been there in six months to a year. And they they didn't realize how bad it had gotten up to that point. And so, it really is like we're just handling what most people can't stomach, I say, from. But the blood, like, that's that's true. Yeah. Do— in the cleanup, is it, is it at your level, is it complete restoration? Is that part of it or is it, I don't know, like, it'll say they got carpet in the home and you're removing that or y'all replacing carpet, is that.

16:39 Yeah. So we give the option. We work, hand-in-hand with general contractors. So we we give customers three options. And so it's, we can handle the baseline cleaning, which just basically ensures that there is no biohazard left. Now, when you do that, You can't tell that anything has happened. Our second option is a forensic level of detail. Come in with alternative light sources. We'll black out the room and make sure that we get every possible contaminant. And then the third option is full, complete restoration. Let's say they have drywall damage, their mattresses are ruined, their couches are ruined. We will not only remove the furniture and pieces of the floor, carpet, whatever.

17:23 But we tried to offer the ability to replace everything. We'll find painters and, and, and, general contractors that will do just about anything. So. Okay, so you do offer a full solution. Wonderful. Correct. Do you think there is there licensing? Is there there's there's training. There's things that you all have to do to stay certified, that give you, you know, where the knowledge base comes from to be able to come in and do take care of people like this for sure.

18:03 We are— what's it— HAZ... HAZWOPER? HAZWOPER certified. That's basically any hazardous material. And then we have OSHA bloodborne pathogen, which is anything to do with blood. And it kind of covers— HAZWOPER— between those two, that covers anything from mold to blood to dang near every type of remediation possible comes from those two certifications. But then we also have general liability insurance. We have contractors insurance, just to legalize and make to make it professionally sound. our certifications are about 3 to 4, different trainings that we've been to on top of all of your background, which gives us an edge because you can only learn so much from a textbook.

18:55 You can only train so much on paper. But then the real world experience is a completely different beast. And so that's what sets us apart, is we have the certifications and the trainings to make us, you know, legal and licensed, but we also have the real world crime scene experience where I've handled thousands of different cases, different situations. No two scenes are the same. No two houses are the same, no two people are the same. And so part of the extra training that we have is we are a trauma-informed coach on the side. And so that's where we help with the physical remediation and the mental and emotional space as well. So we have multiple certifications and trainings to be able to provide the best services for anybody handling really any sort of situation.

19:45 I gotcha. So let's say we have a scene that y'all are about, to clean up, and maybe there are some effects in that room that are valuable, important, significant, emotionally connected to, I would imagine that homeowner would be looking at some things that sentimental that they want to save. Are y'all able to work through figuring out in a in a in that space what, what you can truly save, or what has to go?

20:25 Definitely, that's a part of our initial assessment. Most customers do want to keep all their stuff. It is pretty rare that they're like, just get rid of all of it. So, that is 100% a part of our job is restoring we we've discovered that there's almost nothing that can't be restored. There are very few items that. It wouldn't matter how much we did, it's still going to be a problem or contamination in some way. But in our experience so far, we have restored every item that a customer has found sentimental other than, you know, probably a mattress or furniture that sometimes those just have to go right.

21:06 But things with intrinsic value, we have I mean, we've done like, coins. We had a coin collection, that had stuff all over it. We were able to restore all of those. We had, like, let's say just a fabric lamp. We were able to redo the shade, and if we can't, we will try to find them. The best option on online is where it's like, hey, this is exactly where you can replace it. I got you. I mean, you have obviously you're dealing with people in a very traumatic and emotional point in life in and doing a significant thing to help them, to help them move forward.

21:50 Right. Wow. Okay. I'm digging through this. I'm trying to think through it, too. What? So you did mention insurance up front and possibly, a life insurance policy or homeowner's insurance policy. You are. Are y'all coordinating with those those those, entities, third party entities to bring this together on the homeowner's behalf, or— Yes, sir. Yeah, we try to handle every bit of the heavy lifting.

22:30 Okay. So what what what does it cost? I mean, I, I can imagine there's a range here, right? Or, I mean, it could be. It could be a lot or could be, I don't know, I really haven't had to think about this, but I'm just, you know, obviously it's not a it's not a free service. So. So you're dealing with an insurance company. Let's, let's talk about what's going to cost the insurance. So not the bor— not the homeowner. Well, you know I don't want them focus on that. But I guess it is something they're going to wonder about. Definitely depending on the severity, we'll have like, let's say it's a car remediation.

23:14 Somebody had an accident car or something like that. That could be anywhere from, like, $500 to $2,500, out of pocket. With the insurance policy, it's about 50% of that. And that if we're doing like, let's say, the worst of it, but I think, probably, suicide in a basement, that will cost insurance, anywhere from 25 to 50 grand. And then. Okay, that's just the restoration. If they're wanting us to replace flooring and stuff like that, that— that comes, we try to separate it at least and give that multiple along with our three options that we offer.

23:57 We give them multiple price brackets, as well as to the level of restoration that we can do. And Texas does offer a crime compensation program to where if you realize that you are a victim of crime, Texas does have some extra finances they could throw your way depending on your different circumstances. So we try to do all the heavy lifting for the people to where they can handle their families, and we handle the cleaning and we handle the, the, the, the money. We handle all of it to where you can sit down and handle yourself. Yeah. A lot of, a lot of this job is informing customers. So most people, most of our clients so far did not know if they can claim this on their insurance.

24:39 And so we upfront we inform the customer like, hey, do you have this policy or they they're usually shocked, to know that that's even an option. Do they are they the ones that need to initiate that claim with their insurance policy, or are y'all able to do that for them? Yes. They, the client normally has to initiate policy. That's how. And then that's when the handshake starts to happen. Okay. We'll get their information or they will give their insurance company our information. And from that point forward is where we try to handle it. We come back to our client with, the options, And it's really— we don't know your insurance policy.

25:23 We don't know, you know, and so it's that initial heavy lifting for the client to say, hey, this is I've had this happen to me. They're calling their insurance company to be like, I have a company, let's talk to them. And then we start talking directly to the insurance company. We can set up the claim for that client as well. Yes. Okay. And so there's a lot of a lot of communication there. Okay. So you've completed the cleaning. What happens next? Usually just so our I actually while we're cleaning, we film everything. Okay.

26:03 So for us, we usually go home and start posting it. You know, there's a massive thing with true crime. Everybody wants to see the morbid curiosity of it. And so I learned that as a crime scene investigator, that I'm sitting here working a crime scene, and there's a group of people staring, and so not only do we clean the physical space, but then we can take it and post it on social media for the morbid curiosity of others, and then the general education of: I know you don't want to know that this may happen to you. You don't want to know of our company, but we do exist. And so that's a different way of getting our name out there to where people can see the real world before and afters of the ability that we can do for sure.

26:50 On the on the client side, we, as we're leaving, we would usually offer like, besides our condolences, we will offer the mental health coaching, give them kind of a little packet of things to not necessarily keep their space clean, but how to keep their mind clean, and deal with whatever trauma has happened there. And then on the business side, for us, there's a lot of, preventing cross-contamination. We have to sanitize. And, we have, like, medical grade equipment cleaners, to make sure that we're not bringing any of that home with us as well. Okay. You mentioned unattended deaths or so.

27:39 What? Can you define that a little bit briefly, and then I'll. I've got some follow ups on that one. All right. So unattended death is the nicest way of saying that somebody has unfortunately passed by themselves without other people's knowledge. And it could be anywhere from a few hours to a few weeks to a few. Right. So it really just depends on when, when we find that and the severity at which we find them. It could be something as simple as slipping in the bathtub. Yeah, it could just be old age. Just somebody died of old age, natural causes.

28:21 But the families weren't aware that they had been gone for a hot minute. Right. Well, in in the news not too long ago, I guess I'm thinking of the actor Gene Hackman and his wife. Yeah. She passed away several weeks, and then he passed away. And it was. It was a while before they were discovered. And that's. Famous. And so imagine, you know, you're a random person on the street. They may not know that their family members have passed, and famous people can pass. And nobody knows what's a common person doing. So that was really that case as traumatic and sad and heartbreaking as that was to learn.

29:04 That kind of helps show that stuff like this does happen to anyone and everyone like you. No one wants to believe our services exists. No one wants to use us. But then, yeah, like that happens to almost everyone. And so, had we been licensed in California at the time, we would have assisted in the cleanup. Right. Well, well, we're all convinced we're going to live forever. So. Yeah, I would not admit that I'm a. I know, right. You know. You know, it comes for all of us. Okay. Let's, let's shift gears a little bit. I'll.

29:45 I want to jump, into the hoarding, collecting. I call it collecting. I got. Yeah, but the hoarders, the. It's a different kind of cleanup. You walk into a property, and I imagine realtors do this all the time. Or frequently enough. They'll walk into a home and there will be a collection of newspapers and magazines to the ceiling and a little corridor right through the middle, winding to exactly their sofa, their love, their seat wherever there is and their TV and the kitchen and, Yeah, that's a lot of newspapers. And, let's just leave it at newspapers.

30:27 It can be all kinds of stuff. So, tell me, it's a health and safety issue. But I guess that at that point, realtors are looking at how do I get this on the market to sell? Yes, it's a health and safety issue, for one, but it's also a mental health issue. So we can— we are trauma-informed coaches and so we can take it one room at a time. And as you mentioned earlier, people collect things that have sentimental value. But this whole stack of newspapers, what out of all of this is the most important to you? And so we have a, a way to talk to them and be like, okay, on a scale of 1 to 10, let's say, how much do you love this?

31:16 How much do you need this? And then most of the time, we're able to talk them out of releasing a lot of it and keeping just a portion of it to where we can help with the the safety issue, as well as keeping them being able to keep their belongings, that they care about the absolute most out of all of that. So having that conversation person to person and be like, I know this means a lot to you, how like on a scale, how much? And out of all of this, what can we let go of? So having to talk to them on a personal level and realize that there's a lot of mental health that goes along with collecting items at a rapid rise, that's, and what she's describing is when the tenant is still a resident, sometimes, like, what you're probably used to is a real estate.

32:11 They've already moved. They're trying to sell the place. We will help stage items that are, disposed, like things that cannot be sold. And then we'll help stage for an estate sale. Okay. Wow. There's a lot of things that aren't necessarily ruined In those cases. Sure. And that's even things because of the collection and how it can be in this area from floor to ceiling. That spot may be a lot cleaner than the walk path that you— we normally take because the floor's been preserved. Exactly. So, but we can come in and make sure that the little path that was able to walk is just as clean as what was underneath everything.

32:59 Yeah, I bought a I bought a, I bought a house at auction one time, like, I paid ten grand. Nobody showed up to the auction. I did my homework. I got a house for ten grand. Now you pay for what you get, right? So I get over to the house. They had converted just one car, garage. But they or carport that they converted into a room. They turned it into an add on room and, and then they filled that room up. Over decades, I hope it was decades. It was a lot, five gallon buckets, floor to ceiling, wall to wall of used cat litter, every every five gallon bucket.

33:48 And I remember when I first looked at now, the odor was horrendous for sure, but I kept thinking, there's got to be treasure in these buckets. No, no, it was it was so bad. My remediation for it was I blew out all the walls and turn it back to a carport and, that it was far cheaper to do a tear out. And, anyway, I just, anytime I think of hoarders, I think of that collection. That collection specifically, I don't know, I, I don't know, I guess I had no idea what what the train of thought was, but, We try not to sift through looking for treasure.

34:32 We'd all access. Right. Well, that's. About the homeowner. So, yeah. It became my hoarding mess and stuff. Yeah. Oh, you would think. And that's that's the crazy part is that. Yeah, I have people that were truckers for 20, 30 years. And as a trucker, you have to use the facilities a certain way. And they continue that when they came home. And so there's containers of, of incontinence and that we have we've had to deal with that. That was human. And so Mountain Dew bottles full— yes. Yeah. So we've, we've had to come across situations like that.

35:15 And so it happens a lot more than the general public would like to admit. You never really know what's going on in someone's house until you're in it. Yeah. It's about getting that property whole again, for everybody involved. Okay. So as a lender and realtors and home buyers listening to this, let's talk about history, house with the house. Let's say you've remediated a situation, even from minor to severe. Should a home buyer have any concerns about that property?

35:57 Let's say if there was a death or for whatever cause. Absolutely not. After. After we've shown up and taken care of it, we have a checklist. Everything we have completely restored. Everything from subflooring to, let's say marble, porous rock surfaces, tile, granite grout. We even do. Ventilation. There is no issues left behind other than maybe pest control. That's the only thing we really don't handle. Okay. But we we leave with a sense of confidence that anybody that is going to continue living in this home or is purchasing a home, there is.

36:41 Absolutely. We we put a guarantee. And what sets us apart is that because of the real world crime scene experience that I have, normal companies can only clean what you can see with the human eye. We've come in with alternative light sources like you see on the TV show CSI. Yeah, we're able to see below and beyond what the human naked eye can see. And so that's how that's why we can guarantee a deeper level of clean than most companies, because we have the real world crime scene technology to be able to clean on a deeper level than what the human eye can see.

37:21 So yeah, we broke. In the state of Texas. Are there any any laws that. Disclosures that if there's been a death, whether it be an unattended passing or something traumatic that, homeowners or home buyers need to be concerned with? Or is that. As far as we know, in Texas, the only laws that, would leave that kind of scar, on a home would be, an actual murder, homicide, typically suicide, unattended deaths or anything else is it's not documented, and does not need to be attached to the property.

38:07 The only time it does say is whenever it is a legitimate homicide. All right. But if you're if y'all done any kind of remediation on a property, there's documentation of that. Exactly. Okay. Gotcha. I just was curious on the disclosure piece. What? I never see I haven't seen anything like that yet. For sure, we have, like, let's say a meth lab or something like that. Okay, we do. Come in, and, that is when we have our signature on there that it has been fully remediated and the, that, I don't know necessarily the right verbiage, but the scar that that would have on the home title is removed.

38:55 Let's let's go a little deeper in that you brought up meth labs, so let's, I mean, that happens. And so you, you can remediate a home that's been used in the, in the meth production. Yes, sir. Wow. And make sure that there's nothing seeping in the vents. Anything like that. We take out all of the equipment that was used. Air filters, everything. We cover it all. Wow. I didn't know you could do anything with meth. Structures. You can do a lot with radiation. We try to do that.

39:35 Yeah. Wow. Well, that's good to know. I, you know, because, I mean, I could just. There would be a huge pause for anybody trying to get that property livable again. Good for y'all. Okay. I'm going to see if I can get some CSI bumper music tag to this podcast. You know, I think you can do, like, ten seconds or something, maybe five seconds before you have to start paying royalties, and we don't have that kind of money. So, what are the top five things not to do? The top five things not to do is one.

40:16 Don't touch it. Don't touch it. Number two is call us so we can touch it. Okay. Then most of it's just be cognizant of the cross-contamination, that you're not walking through it and then dragging it into your kitchen from your living room. Just. Yeah, that's all I can. Yeah, I've call us before it starts growing, I guess is the best thing. The human side of this, we've touched on a little bit. What is— what does the family need to know from you in that moment?

41:00 I think that they are not alone. Is usually the kind of, the tunnel vision that a lot of people get in that situation is like, what do I do next? How do I handle this? That can totally. Lead to making split decisions in the moment that aren't necessarily wise. And so reaching out doesn't necessarily have to be us, but reach out to whether it's your local law enforcement, something as simple as Google, like educate yourselves before you insert yourself into these situations. Because there is there is a risk that comes with it.

41:45 And I personally have been on the side of that family member who's heard, hey, your family member has deceased in a in a traumatic way. And so I we come with a unique experience versus other crime scene cleaning companies, that I have been that family member who's heard it, then I was the investigator and now I'm the cleaner. So we have real world experience in it. So I know firsthand what it's like to hear your family member has been killed in a traumatic way. So we bring a level of compassion that most people don't understand and don't come with that. Most people are there for the job.

42:25 They see the job, they go home. And we want to make sure that not only is the job complete, but then we're also still there for the people that are left behind. Right? So y'all have walked that journey in life and can be very empathetic, very sympathetic to people that are going and going into in that right now. Yeah. That can be very, very powerful. Okay. Let's do let's do some rapid fire questions about to wrap this up. Okay. Well, before we do the rapid fire, tell me.

43:06 So who I've obviously the the homeowner is your your your customer, your client. Are y'all do y'all reach out to, local law enforcement? EMS, is that— who— Who are y'all networking with to to make sure they know your services are available. So we do network with police departments, fire departments, funeral homes, medical examiners. The problem that we're running into is that none of them can recommend a company. The most they can do is have a resource booklet, a packet that they hand out to the families who those who were left behind.

43:53 And it's up to them to go through the packet of resources and pick what they need and for. If we're being completely honest, when you are faced with the possible worst day of your life, you're not taking the time to look at that packet. And so you are kind of throwing that over your shoulder and you're getting back to your life that's going on. And so it's getting our name out there that we are services, that we exist. And you don't know, we exist until it's 2:00 in the morning and you're asking Google, who's cleaning this up, and you're finding us. So getting our name out there before it happens, keeping us in the back of your mind in case.

44:34 And it doesn't have to be the most severe. It could be a simple nosebleed. It could be a simple fall. You know, elderly people have, you know, thinner skin and they tend to bleed easier. And so a simple call from an elderly person, and they— ultimately don't want the elderly person who's hurt to have to clean it up, or they're having to call their grandkids to come do it. So it's letting people know that our services are, in fact, a thing because law enforcement doesn't. I've heard first hand law enforcement tell people, Google it. There's a lot of preemptive networking You know, we do like with property managers, hotels, hotels and really anything that has to do with property or even car dealerships, even in car dealerships, like we do for like, let's say it's a car rental association.

45:25 Somebody smokes in that car. They. Yeah, that's, something like that. So. Yeah, I rent the, the nonsmoking cars and I guarantee someone smoked in it. And, But then that's We can come in and get rid of that smell and make it smell like a brand-new car. And so we're the people renting out cars don't have to smell that smell that somebody wasn't supposed to be doing in that type of. Oh yeah. I hope they stuck it to them on that cleaning fee. Sorry, I just— I've got no empathy on that one. All right. Rapid fire questions for both of you. All quick answers.

46:06 We're going to wrap this up morning or night. Morning. Morning. All right. Coffee or tea? Coffee, neither. Yes. Oh, no. She's weird, I am weird. That's weird. Well, I love that. I could never get coffee to taste as good as it smells. If I can get coffee that taste as good as it smells, I'd be a coffee person. Well, I can't help you. I'm gonna pray for— You. No one can. She's not keeping me. All right. You should be hard. Yeah, well, you know, strengths and weaknesses. Texas barbecue or Tex-Mex?

46:48 Tex-Mex? And then I move it. Tex-Mex. All right. Beach. Mountains. Beach. Yeah. Dogs or cats? Dogs. Oh. All right. Yeah. Y'all have pets, right? We do. We got two of each. Two dogs, two of each. All right, so, Zac, congratulations. You're cat person. Yeah, I his allergies. Yeah, yeah. Okay. True crime, CSI or comedy? True crime comedy. Because I lived the true crime.

47:29 I had my my fair share. All right. It's interesting because, like, nurses, nurses tend to watch all the nursing shows. Maybe that stereotype, I don't. Know, real. They do. But also, it's like asking a nurse or a doctor if Grey's Anatomy is accurate. Yeah, I can guarantee you it's not. So what I find myself doing is I will start screaming at the TV like CSI, NCIS, like a man screams at the TV during football. Oh, and I'm like, what are you doing? You're a terrible you're not even sure anything. So I'm like that with me. With war movies. There's some great ones, But there's some others. You're like, no, that's not possible.

48:09 That's not. Okay. Like nobody would ever do that in real life. And so I'll pick up on the little things. True crime irritates more than it excites me Nowadays. Errors on uniforms is a pet peeve of mine, but, it's in movies. All right, so, introverts or extroverts? Extrovert. I have to be adopted by an extrovert in order to be— but I'm so introverted. Favorite way to decompress? Meditating. All right. Yeah. Video games. Who do you love to have dinner with? Oh, Mr.

48:50 Beast. Yeah, MrBeast. MrBeast, yes. Yeah, he's doing some pretty neat things. Seriously, we love his channel. We watched all of them religiously, so. Yeah. Yeah. He does some pretty, pretty neat things with people. For people. Yeah. We love his philanthropic stuff right now. That's that's where we're hoping we get to. Something for both of y'all that people would be surprised to learn about you. I'm six foot. I, yeah, that's something. Most women aren't that tall.

49:30 So I guess until you see me, you have no idea. I'm six foot right ahead. There you go. Right now. Reformed. Criminal. So, like, it's really interesting to be, on this side of crime, is how I've been approaching strategy. From criminal to crime scene cleaner. It's great. It's honestly a beautiful story. Is his entire testimony is absolutely a beautiful testimony to not only, can can you fix your life and find God and get healthy again after facing, you know, your own worst demons? But then, yeah, because of that, we are a second opportunity employer ourselves. And so we want to be able to give people who have fixed their life and come back from the pits of their own life and, and be able to be a productive member of society and help other people.

50:22 So we because of his past, we are able to help other people get from their past dating a CSI. It's been interesting, so we've got— we've got both sides. I'm the good girl. He's the criminal. It works out. When. All right, well, one side of the same coin there, or both sides of the same coin. Good for y'all. Best advice you've ever received? Oh, don't mess up today. worrying about tomorrow. For sure. For me, life is only 10%. what happens to you. The other 90% is all attitude.

51:02 That's good. All right. Okay, so what's just been fascinating and a tough subject, and, I think we did it with some levity and, I hope I hope that, you know, this finds it's. This will find it to the people that need to hear it. The best way that people can get ahold of y'all when they need you, online, social media, phone number, whatever. Visit our website, www.cleansceneinvestigators.com. Or you can give us a call. It's probably the most direct route. 940-654-6334.

51:44 All right. I'll put the links down below. Christina. Zac, thanks for being on the Between Two Doors podcast. Everyone else, there you have it. In your time of need in that crisis or a traumatic event when it happens. If it happens, there is a, an avenue for you for help and, to help you to deal with that moment and picking up the pieces and, and moving forward. It's been I really enjoyed having you on the podcast today. Thank you. We enjoyed being here. Thanks for having us. All right, until next time.

52:24 This is Nate Carver, Your Favorite Mortgage Guy. And host of Between Two Doors podcast. As always, if you need any lending, questions answered, some guidance on a clear path to homeownership. My contact information will be down below, and I will see you on the next podcast. But.