🙋‍♂️ Meet Josh Hayles | Solutions Engineer @ Datadog | Real Estate Tech Enthusiast | Fair Property Tax Advocate

My greatest ability is the desire to learn.

Links

My Quick Intro

I have 16 years of experience building and running my own six-figure Real Estate business. I have significant skills regarding customer service, customer/user experience (both; online via product use, as well as in-person communication with people), and I love building systems and processes that solve problems and help people. I'm now combining my business and customer skillset with my technology skills in Javascript and Python. I'm currently building my passion project that will help homeowners reduce their property taxes, while working full time as a Solutions Engineer with Datadog.

My Real Estate Background

16 years of experience in Real Estate
- Created a six-figure business that I ran by myself
- I learned Entrepreneurship skills that taught me all aspects of business:
  - Customer Service
  - Client-Centric Approach
  - Community Involvement (Home ownership affordability, helping people lower property taxes, etc.)
  - Customer Interaction with hands-on communication methods, as well as automating systems for efficiency and accuracy
  - Developing Business Plans Customized to my Client’s needs
  - Strong Written and Verbal Communication Skills
  - Product and Technology Research that benefited my clients and business needs
  - Teamwork collaboration with a variety of parties involved in each transaction that required custom communication methods
  - Educating clients and the public about the market, technology, trends
  - Creating memorable and pleasant experiences for my clients in a variety of ways

My Software Engineer Background with Flatiron

At Flatiron, I learned a variety of technology and put in 50 to 60 hours of work per week into their program for roughly 4 months
The overall technology was focused on full stack development. I learned Javascript (in its raw form first), then React for the framework. For the backend we learned Ruby and Rails. However, I have focused on primarily a JavaScript approach for frontend and backend.

Why I love Software Engineering

I’m a tech-enthusiast, especially when it comes to Real Estate technology
- I thrive on a fast-paced environment that allows me to learn new things
- I love creativity and having the ability to constantly make improvements
- I want to combine my business skills with technology and solve problems

What I Bring to the Table

Team Player 👊
- You’ll never hear “that’s not my job” from me
- Whatever needs to be done to help the team, I’m all-in. If someone needs me to cover for them, no problem at all. Someone needs me to pick up the slack and help with additional work, no sweat. Whatever it takes
- Innovative ideas for improving / creating products and services to benefit the team’s goals
- Collaborating with the team and communicating effectively is important to me
- Loyalty. When I commit, I’m all-in
Passionate, Hard Work (with a never-ending appetite for learning and improvement) ⛑️
- Working hard is something that came natural to me in Real Estate because I loved everything about it. That same passion is now being applied to tech and entrepreneurial services that improve the user’s experience
- I’m currently studying DSA’s, Javascript, and testing software using tools like Cypress and Jest on a daily basis
- I’m not only capable of learning any technology that’s needed for the job, I’m excited to do so!
Understanding Product Features | User Benefits | User Experience (really well) 🤗
- I’m great at researching a product, getting feedback from customers, documenting that feedback, putting together a report to analyze that information, and making suggestions on what’s best for the product and customer’s experience
- I’m also great at coming up with creative and innovative ideas for new products / services (especially Real Estate, Investing, Homeownership, and Finance)
- Putting myself in the customer’s shoes and having an experience through their eyes is something I’ve done well for more than 16 years in Real Estate:
  - Example: I created a publication called “Inside the Mind of the Buyer” that taught Homeowners how to think like a buyer before they put their home on the market. When you list your home and you’re asking someone to pay a price for it you’re now in the presentation game. Your home is open to public opinion, and you have to care about every detail because that’s what the buyer is thinking as they walk through your home:
    - I had to understand everything about my client’s goals and create a custom plan that fit their needs, desires, timelines, communication preferences, their expectations, etc.
    - I anticipated (I didn’t wait for them to ask) areas of concern, objections they would likely have, and I created custom plans to make sure there weren’t any holes that needed to be plugged in my process:
      - Example: I created an estimated proceeds sheet called provides a breakdown of all the costs associated to the seller when they sell their home, and an estimated “walk away” amount to give them an idea of how much money they’ll get at the closing table. I was within $500.00 accuracy with this approach (it was reliable and predictable)
      - I presented this at our initial meeting because I knew it would help them make an informed decision about selling. I didn’t wait until the last minute

👾 Products / Services I Created

1. Tax Corrector [in-process] 💰

1. This is a website that gives homeowners in Texas the ability to print off a Protest Report that will give them the best chance at having their property taxes reduced
2. I have personally done these reports for hundreds of homeowners the last two years for $25.00 each. There are literally millions of homeowners in Texas that need help every year with this
3. The next steps for the site is to use my local MLS’s API and RETS Data feed to give homeowners access to the information they need, then to incorporate the PDF Download feature so they can download their report. It will be ready, and released to the public by early March next year (which is the next tax season)
4. Future income streams will be added to this project like:
    1. Tax Corrector Paid membership
    2. Local Realtors can sponsor the reports that are downloaded for a fee
    3. Homeowners can access our preferred Realtor Network when they’re ready to sell, and Tax Corrector will get paid a 25% referral fee from the Realtor

🎁 Conclusion

Feel free to reach out via LinkedIn if you'd like to chat!

joshhayles / joshhayles