RE/MAX Preferred Associates

By John Mangas, real estate broker with RE/MAX Preferred Toledo, Ohio

Last week I had the pleasure to be at the Ohio Association of Realtor’s 2012 inaugural in Columbus. The very talented Bob Miller was inducted as the 2012 president of OAR.

In Bob’s remarks, he spoke about “one more”. He challenged us an our industry to do one more thing each day to build our businesses.

That simple statement, ONE MORE really resonated with me. We can all create the time to do one more positive thing each day. In doing so, think what we can accomplish with…

ONE MORE:

• Post closing follow up call
• Contact with a past client
• FSBO or Expired contact
• Market update to an overpriced seller
• Follow up with a Human Resources Manager
• Call to your open house attendees
• HAND WRITTEN thank you note

The list is nearly endless, as is the potential. Honest, sincere calls and follow up is part of our job. It’s not glamorous. Sometimes it’s not much fun at all, but its what successful Realtors do.

As self starters we also must be good time managers. Creating time in your schedule for regular prospecting, plus ONE MORE can only make you more successful and set you apart as a respected professional. Take the time to make the time for ONE MORE…you won’t regret it!

By John Mangas, Real Estate Broker with RE/MAX Preferred Toledo, Ohio

Can we agree that property values in metro Toledo have fallen over the past 6 years?

Would 30% be a fair number?

Have you heard that you can obtain a 30 year fixed rate loan for around 4%?

Did you realize that the same rate would have been around 5.5 – 6% just a few years ago?

So let’s assume that a buyer bought a $150,000 home 5 years ago and did FHA financing (3% down) and that they were able to obtain a 30 year fixed interest rate of 5.75%. The monthly principal and interest payment would be about $849. per month.

In today’s market, that same $150,000 home would sell for around $110,000, Additionally, the interest rate that today’s buyer is paying is around 4%. Staying with the same FHA 30 year fixed rate (3% down) scenario, the monthly P & I payment would be around $502 per month! That represents 40% more buying power!

TALK ABOUT BANG FOR THE BUCK!

We lose site of this because the market shift happened over an extended period of time and the change was gradual. The media has talked a great deal about lower property values but has failed to point out this very important part of the equation.  Today’s buyer has an opportunity to buy more home for less…PERIOD! As real estate professionals, we need to be educating the market and talking about this tremendous opportunity.

Housing affordability has not been better during the years that I have been a Realtor.  We can’t depend on anyone to speak this message louder than we do! If we become ambassadors for the housing market, we become a meaningful voice and help to drive the recovery! NOW is a GREAT TIME TO BUY!

By John Mangas, Real Estate Broker with RE/MAX Preferred Toledo, Ohio
 
 

• Foreclosure
• Recovery
• Intelligent credit policies
• The 2^nd helping of price reductions
• Credit scoring reforms
• New construction
• Job creation
• Inflation

The Better Business Bureau announces RE/MAX^® Preferred Associates one of four finalists in Large Business category. 

Toledo, OH, November 28, 2011:  The Better Business Bureau Serving Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan, Inc. announced at their BBB Torch Awards 10^th Anniversary Celebration, held at the Hilton Garden Inn at Levis Commons, that RE/MAX^® Preferred Associates was one of four finalists in the Large Business category. In total, there were over 100 local businesses and non-profit organizations nominated this year in all categories. This was the first year RE/MAX^® Preferred Associates was nominated for a Torch Award for Market Place Ethics and the only Real Estate broker in the entire nomination field.

 “This is outstanding recognition by our community for a first time nominee. Just to be nominated is an honor,” said John Mangas, Broker/Co-Owner. “Being nominated is an honor and being selected as a finalist in our first nomination reflects RE/MAX^® Preferred Associates’ corporate philosophy of marketplace ethics,” added Broker/Co-Owner Kathy Kuyoth.

RE/MAX^® Preferred Associates is locally owned and managed with three locations in the greater Toledo area. Serving the community with 83 licensed Realtors^®, RE/MAX^® Preferred Associates conducts several fund raising charity events throughout the year to support local causes. Within the local Toledo Multiple Listing Service provided by the TBR, RE/MAX^® Preferred Associates is nationally one of the leading RE/MAX^® agencies and has received National recognition as 2010 BROKER/OWNERS OF THE YEAR and the 2010 RE/MAX^® EAGLE AWARD for growth of business. For additional information, go to www.MetroToledoHomes.com or www.facebook.com/MetroToledoHomes.

By John Mangas, real estate broker, Toledo, Ohio

The experts at CNBC* posted a story to their website “12 Most Overrated jobs” on November 10^th.  

  I read the story and was surprised to see that among their top 12 list was being a Real Estate Agent. They reference CareerCost.com who describes being a Realtor as overrated “due to the decrease in activity since the housing crisis began.”

            Quiet honestly, I take great offense to their assertion which tells me that they have a fundamental lack of understanding when it comes to our industry. The need and opportunity for the real estate professional has never been greater, assuming that the Realtor has changed with the times.

 There is a learning curve that successful agents in today’s market must make. Distressed property sales are a large part of the marketplace and require skill that didn’t exist 5 years ago. Short sales, bank owned properties and HUD sales represent about 1/3 of our sales in Metro Toledo and track through to our own numbers at RE/MAX Preferred.

 Specialty buyer options like 203K loans, OFHA financing and rural loan programs plus the investor and rental markets also represent opportunities for Realtors. Many real estate professionals did not historically embrace these market segments, but in today’s world, they are very important to the overall business mix.

 Realtors play a more important role in the home buying and selling process than ever. In fact, what I am seeing is that while there are fewer agents licensed today than 5 years ago, our agents are closing more sales. The agents at RE/MAX Preferred in 2010 based on the REALTrends reports, ranked #31 nationally for per agent production which translated to just over 21 closing sides per associate.

There is more opportunity than ever for Agents who understand the demographics of our industry. NAR research tells us that the average Realtor is about 20 years older than the average buyer. That is a generational difference that translates well for agents who understand how to blend technology, relationship building and on line marketing opportunities to more effectively reach today’s buyers.

 I saw a presentation at the RE/MAX convention and the presenter asked the question, “are you learning as fast as the world is changing?” That really goes to the level of success that any Realtor can expect to enjoy. The learning curve that comes with changing marketplaces translates well to creating security and even growth for progressive agents and brokers.

 My final point is very simple. As Realtors, we have the chance to succeed wildly or fail miserably. The ability to set our own schedules, exert the level of effort and creativity we choose to while building a successful practice can be a double edge sword. We are all human beings, capable of extra ordinary things and at times, guilty of poor time management skills. What I have observed is that the most successful Realtors schedule everything and manage to their schedule depending heavily on the services offered to them by their office or company. They come ready to work and expect success.

 Yes, the housing market has changed, but with change there is opportunity. Finding the opportunity in today’s market is what our jobs are, and the most successful Realtors are very good at seizing this opportunity. This is a terrific time to look into becoming a Realtor and I encourage you to check out a special web site created for this, www.JoinReMaxPreferred.net .

John Mangas is a Broker and Partner in RE/MAX Preferred in Toledo, Ohio which has 3 offices (Maumee, Toledo & Oregon Ohio) and approximately 85 associates.

It’s no surprise to anyone that the world’s economy has been hit with some hard economic problems, and we’re not doing any better in the United States. With an enormous federal deficit, record high unemployment rates, and general public unrest, it’s hard to see any end to our troubles.

One of the main contributors is a poor housing market, which affects the weak economy. The weak economy then further affects the housing market. It is a vicious cycle. In a recent article, Peter Orszag, Vice Chairman of Global Banking at Citigroup and columnist for Bloomberg View, draws a global example and considers that, even if the European banking system remains stable, the U.S. economy may still flounder because of the housing market’s current state. Orszag goes on to admit that breaking the vicious cycle will be a painful, time-consuming process.

An Excess of Homes

In a normal housing market, it’s expected to have some vacant homes for sale. It’s part of the process of matching buyers with sellers. During the 90s, the average vacancy rate was about 1.5 percent. By 2008, the amount nearly doubled to 2.9 percent.

This year, the number has only come down slightly to 2.5 percent. Although that single percentage point difference from the historical average seems miniscule, it amounts to an excess of almost 1 million vacant homes. This excess of owner-occupied housing puts downward pressure on prices.

Renting Homes Out

Peter Orszag’s suggestion to ease the current housing depression: allowing tax write-offs for investors who buy empty properties and rent them out. Shifting vacant homes into the rental market would help stabilize prices.

Based on calculations by Richard Wagreigh of Citigroup’s Financial Strategy Group, the annual costs on real estate investment would be reduced by about a third when applying the tax break. The policy would also allow for more rental units, lowering the overall price, and encouraging others to move out of existing homes into their own rental units. To avoid letting the tax break outlive its purpose, the policy would be tied to the supply of vacant homes for sale.

As an example, let’s assume the tax break policy produces an extra 250,000 housing units that can be purchased and rented out each year, as well as 500,000 other units bought and rented even in the absence of the tax break. If the average price of those homes is $250,000, the 10 year total cost to the government would be less than $50 billion each year; most of this amount would return to the government in the future, based on full deductions. The cost would then be about $10 billion for each year the tax break is in place.

Arranging your home in a way that is accessible to potential buyers is a surefire way to sell your home more quickly and at a higher price. Staging is important, but staging the kitchen is crucial as it is a major selling point of a home. Your potential buyers should be able to visualize themselves in the kitchen as if it were their own home. Check out these easy tips on how to stage your kitchen for resale.

Before you even begin to stage, you need to go over the kitchen with a fine tooth comb for anything that needs to be fixed. Noisy refrigerators, scratched cabinets, or chipped floor tiles should be taken care of.  Give the walls a fresh coat of paint if they’re looking dull. You don’t need to spend thousands of dollars on a brand new kitchen to sell the place. Make sure everything looks good and is working. Stainless steel appliances and granite counter tops are great, but if your kitchen is in perfect working condition it will sell just as well.

Your kitchen should absolutely sparkle. It should be so clean that potential buyers would feel A-Okay eating things from the floor. That would be fine too because you should have had the floors mopped and baseboards scrubbed before they came over. Polish everything until it shines. Wipe down cabinets, dust the ceiling fan and make sure that the counter is free of spills, drips and crumbs.

Once your kitchen is spotless, start clearing out the clutter. Take down the magnets from the fridge and tuck countertop appliances into the cabinets. Nothing should be on the counter. Make sure that nothing is in the sink or dishwater (clean or dirty) and hide all of the cleaning products from view. If you have a cupboard that hurls Tupperware at you when you open it, this is your opportunity to clean it up! Potential buyers are going to open up doors and drawers so everything needs to be neat.

Highlighting the best parts of your kitchen and minimizing problem areas is very important when staging. For example, a custom bookshelf that you’ve left empty is a great built-in feature to highlight. Do so by borrowing a few cookbooks from your friends and setting them up. Let buyers see the potential in the space. If they see how they could use it if they lived there, they’re more likely to remember it. Set the table in an eat-in kitchen to make it look like you eat there every morning, even if you don’t. Make your potential buyers believe that this is the most functional kitchen they’ll see.

The key to great staging is to make a space look livable without looking lived-in. Fresh flowers adds to the homey appeal as does a decorative rug. Pull back the curtains and let in some sunlight to highlight all of that exhausting cleaning you’ve done. Hang some generic art, something that would be easily accessible to everybody.

Once you’ve cleaned, de-cluttered, and artfully arranged your belongings your kitchen will be ready for potential buyers to fall in love with!

This article was written by Erie Construction. Follow Erie Construction on Twitter for more updates on home improvement. 

We want to make this our Best 4th Quarter ever! Here is a great response to the question How’s the market? Watch this video and start using Tom’s response to how’s the market and see how your business can improve!