LF_071819

8 | July 18, 2019 | The lake forest leader COMMUNITY
LakeForestLeader.com
Millie
The Flynn family, Lake
Forest
Millie is a 1-yearold
herding dog mix
rescued from PAWS.
Millie is very curious,
energetic and loves
to please. Millie loves
people, chasing
squirrels and a car
ride. Millie’s best
friend and teacher of
all things is her dog
sister Lulu. Thank goodness these two have each
other, they are inseparable.
HELP! The Lake Forest Leader is in search of more pets.
To see your pet featured as Pet of the Week, send a photo
and information to alyssa@lakeforestleader.com or 60
Revere Drive, Suite 888, Northbrook, IL 60062.
Lake Forest resident launches new home-care business
Alyssa Groh, Editor
Fritz Hirsch, of Lake
Forest, loved being a
homeower, but hated all
the maintenance care that
came with being a homeowner.
One day, he realized
there had to be an
easier way to get preventative
care for your home,
and that is when he came
up with a business model
he now calls My Home
Expert.
“We are Baby Boomers
and we loved were we
lived, and we were just
getting tired of the hassle
of dealing with the landscapers,
the HVAC guy,
the pest control — it was
becoming a hassle,” Fritz
told The Leader. “At that
time, I was CEO of a company
and I belonged to a
CEO group, and one of the
other CEOs in the group
had us visit a company in
downtown Chicago called
SMS, which is a singlesource
maintenance company
for nation-wide retailers
such as Walgreens
and Walmart.”
When he heard about
this company in January of
2017, he came up with the
idea of launching a company
that could be a singlesource
maintenance company
for homeowners that
would act as the middle
man between homeowners
and service providers.
And as of this past May,
Fritz is now the founder and
CEO of My Home Expert.
My Home Expert takes
care of preventative maintenance
while also helping
with other household
repairs.
The staff at My Home
Expert does complete home
maintenance services and
repair services. They work
with homeowners and service
providers schedules to
select, schedule and track
service providers.
“The key is we take the
hassle out of homeownership,”
Fritz said. “The
difference between us and
home advisor is really they
just give the homeowner
options. The homeowner
still has to deal with general
contractors. My Home
Expert really takes that
hassle away.”
Fritz added that with
preventative maintenance,
home values can rise by
approximately 1 percent
every year.
“There are certain things
every homeowner should
be doing,” he said. “We
have a plan for any homeowner.
If you have a one
off repair, like if your door
needs replacing, we do
that too. Just call us and
we will contact the service
provider, schedule it and
call you back to make sure
it was done right. We will
invoice you.”
My Home Expert prides
itself on not just its relationship
with its customers,
but the service providers
too.
“One of the things that
is real important is, customers
are extremely important
to us, however, for
our service providers, we
treat our service providers
jut like customers because
they are just as important
to My Home Expert as the
customer are,” Fritz said.
“If we have good service
providers, we will have
satisfied customers.”
For more information
on My Home Expert, visit
www.myhomeexpertinc.
com.
Bernie
From Page 4
cal life skill no matter what someone decides
to do professionally in their life or
personally in their life,” she said. “I want
to see us expand our footprint across the
country because Chicagoland is not the
only geography facing this issue.”
This is something Utynek and the rest of
the team want to see as well.
“I would like to see continued growth,”
Utynek said. “We know that there’s 10 million
children that could use our services.”
Utynek said that he doesn’t know how
they will reach all of those children yet but
is encouraged by the growth of Bernie’s
Book Bank over the last ten years.
“It means that now we can grow,” he said.
In the meantime, dedicated volunteers
will continue to feel inspired by the mission
and spread the message.
“It’s hard work at times but really when
you think about the mission, it’s awesome,”
Volunteer Jose Lozada said. “It’s very impressive
and heartwarming that people are
coming to volunteer. Everyone needs books
and it’s great to keep kids involved in books
and interested.”
Jasmyne and Kyle Rody try on their junior Fire-Fighter helmets at
Bernie’s Book Bank 10th Anniversary Celebration & Volunteer-A-
Thon. David Kraus/22nd Century Media