April May 2018 Newsletter

APRIL/MAY 2018

N e w s l e t t e r

ISSUE 87

The 2nd Annual CommUNITY Day on Thursday, July 12th Regional News We are once again teaming up with your local United Way chapters to identify the community organizations that we will partner with to offer our services. Last year, we had over 300 HREC agents and staff members volunteer and, although the weather didn’t cooperate everywhere, we were able to complete 17 community service projects throughout New York State and Phoenix, Arizona.

Read more on page 8 ≥

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The Rochester leadership hosted a cobroke Happy Hour event at The Metropolitan, a luxury high rise in downtown.

Read more on page 6≥

HUNT Relocation HUNT ERA encourages you to help all your customers receive excellent service, no matter the location.

Read more on page 12≥

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“What is ‘Productivity’?”

The real estate industry economists are predicting something around 5 million transactions in the US this year. That is up somewhat from the post-recession “norm” of closer to 4 million. Right now, there are more than 1.2 million real estate agents in the National Association of Realtors. There are other licensees who sell real estate, too. So, you can do the math.

If we define “productivity” as the number of transactions per person in our industry, productivity is low. At HUNT Real Estate, our productivity is about 9 transactions per person.

We are way ahead of the national average.

Does this tell the whole story? According to Wall Street Journal columnist, William A. Galston, “… economic productivity is determined by the number of hours worked times output per hour”.

A simple way to increase productivity, then, is to grow our sales force (more hours worked by more people). Another way is to increase “output” per hour worked (working “smarter”). For decades, our industry has tried to work smarter through technology largely aimed at improving agent workflow. The introduction of cellular and digital communication, customer relationship management (“CRM”) software, new media largely provided by third parties (like Zillow and Facebook) and even multiple listing services have contributed to an improved service delivery system and sales process. More recently, the explosion in the number of “coaches” and coaching systems along with the recognition of the division of labor in our industry where people work in teams has not only changed the way our

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A Message from the CEO

industry works, but has changed the very relationship between and among agents and companies, agents and customers and companies and customers. But has all this added to productivity in our industry? Statistically, no.

Where does that leave us at HUNT? I hope it is obvious to you that we want to continue to grow.

If you refer to our Mission, we want to develop “an ever-increasing number of successful sales professionals”. We believe that this means not only the raw number of individuals working together here, but their relative success when compared with the rest of the industry. This implies that we deliver our services more often and that we do it more efficiently on behalf of our customers.

A year and a half ago, your Leadership Team met to evaluate all the ways a real estate company could grow. One of those ways is by increasing our per person productivity. We decided on 8 “actionable items”, most of which related to our commitment to your Career Development. For the last few months a team made up of our Regional General Managers, Business Development Managers, and all other members of our Career Development Team have been meeting to break down the process of building a “sustainable” career and are now putting the pieces together to create what we believe will be the most comprehensive career-long program of its kind in real estate. I have been updating my Senior Advisors in each Region as we have progressed and in our next series of meetings we

will be reviewing our final draft of the entire program. Please keep in mind that such a program will never be totally completed or static. It is designed to be dynamic and responsive to what you say you need and what the conditions in our industry and the economy more broadly dictate. There will be at its essence these components: product knowledge; selling skills; technology; personal marketing and media; mentoring; coaching; branch-level education and team-building; agent team development; succession planning; and leadership development.

My dream is that each and every hour that you put into your career at HUNT provides maximum benefit to you, your family and our customers. I believe we are on track to deliver a system that will make this possible—that is my commitment as a living example of our “culture of learning”. Please join me in this commitment to learning and ultimately being one of the most successful and productive real estate professionals in the industry.

Peter F. Hunt

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer - HUNT Real Estate Corporation

A Message from the CEO

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HUNT Welcomes New Agents Devonte Davis - Amherst Jessica Addison - Lancaster Samara Robinson - Amherst Michele Edwards - Clifton Park Sharilyn Olson - Glens Falls Cathleen Varno - Dewitt Karen McDonnell - Hamburg Wendy Kingsley - Manlius Eric Brown - Village Gail Golec - Scottsdale Kristine Mial - Scottsdale Nicole Blodgett - Brighton/Pittsford Sara Marranca - Lancaster Cassie Daguillo - Slingerlands Krysta Trunzo - Lewiston Karen Adair - Gilbert David Bradt - Old Forge Madeleine Laird - Scottsdale Rebecca Hopkins - Williamsville Village David Genovese - Lancaster Rebecca Simpson - Grand Island Julie Jesmer - Cicero Tanya Kelly - Greece Michael Hanley - West Seneca

Nathanael Budde - Williamsville Village Jonathan Balestiere - Brighton/Pittsford Nicole Stenhouse - Bualo Metropolitan Adam Dickens - Greece Meghan Stella - KenTon Sharon Volk - Clifton Park Donna Weiss - Amherst Tyler George - Lancaster Abbe Hanley - Rensselaer Michael Gonzales - Glendale Alma Ramirez - Scottsdale Ross Schroeder - Gilbert Alan Church - Scottsdale Kristina VanBuren - Cicero

Experienced Agents Lesley Carrigan - Grand Island Cheryl Samilio Meyer - Amherst Timothy Harriman - Dewitt Chris Brown - Gilbert Wendy VeRost - Wheatfield Lee Krukowski - Dewitt Robin Sendlbeck - Williamsville/Clarence Kristen Conley - Camillus Deb Fusani - Williamsville Village Gwendolyn McDonald - KenTon David Camomile - Scottsdale Jordan Sherlock - Hamburg Julia Hora - Orchard Park Kellie Fine - Scottsdale Brigid O’Brien - Hudson Robin Curtis - Manlius David Zellar - Manlius John Pease - Lewiston Dustin Arispe - Scottsdale James Brink - Scottsdale Sara Rollins - Williamsville Village Matthew Harvey - Gilbert Barbara Dodge - Greece 4

Welcome New & Experienced Agents

Kevin Caraotta - Williamsville Clarence Maureen Gancarz - Dewitt Jumana McManus - Watertown Barbara DiGiacomo - Liverpool Donna Dean - Gilbert

The Realty Club Continues to Expand We have recently added new service providers and a new attorney to the Realty Club that are now available to assist you and your clients.

Category: Chimney Sweep, Masonry

Category: Carpet Cleaning, Emergency Services Clear Choice Carpet Cleaners 716-827-8484 BuffaloCarpets.com Region: Buffalo/Niagara

Felgemacher Masonry 716-907-4914 FelgemacherMasonry.com Region: Buffalo/Niagara Company Information: Felgemacher Masonry is Western New York's premier construction company in the restoration and repair of chimneys. The list of chimney work that we are able to provide includes chimney restoration and repair, chimney sweeping, tuck pointing, installation of chimney liners, video inspections, gas and wood burning fireplace inserts, and much more.

Category: Water, Fire & Mold Remediation

Company Information: Serving all of Western New York, Clear Choice is your go-to for all of your flooring care. Clear Choice is also a master in water extraction. If you have experienced floor or water damage, call Ed and he or one of his service professionals will come immediately to your rescue!

Category: Senior Relocation, Cleanout/Trash Removal Caring Transitions 716-580-4822 CaringTransitions.com Region: Buffalo/Niagara

911 Restoration 315-800-6653 911RestorationCentralNewYork.com Region: Central New York Company Information: 911 Restoration was started with the goal of giving people a fresh start on the foundation of their dreams by rejuvenating homes and businesses to their original condition after a disaster. Our expert technicians are licensed, insured, and bonded to take on any sort of restoration challenge, and they aim to accomplish this as quickly as possible for both homes and businesses.

Category: Make Ready for Sale, Painting, Contractor, Bathroom Remodels, Handyman

Company Information: WNY's leading senior relocation and downsizing company. Giving families peace of mind by managing all the details and work that go into heloping seniors with their move into a new home!

Category: Realty Club Attorney Courtney M. Hills, Esq. 315-937-5194 CourtneyHills.com Region: Central New York

AceTrust Solutions, LLC 315-401-0052 AceTrustSolutions.com Region: Central New York Company Information: Commercial & Residential Property Maintenance - Specializing in Make Ready for Sale and Make Ready to Rent. Handyman Services include: Clean out/Clean up, Painting, Kitchens, Bathrooms, Drywall, Minor Electrical and Plumbing Repairs, Spring Yard Cleanup, and General Yard Maintenance.

We Need Vendors!

If you have a preferred vendor that you’d like to refer to us, simply send us their contact information and we’ll reach out to them. If we are able to sign your referral to a one-year contract, we’ll send you a $25 gift card as a token of our appreciation!

We can be reached at TheRealtyClub@huntrealestate.com or 888-573-1983.

Core Businesses & Departments

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News Around the Regions

Corporate

Capital Region

All the HUNT AAs in our New York branches gathered in Liverpool on June 20th for a morning of training with Kristin Shanahan, Alicia Townsend and Peter Hunt. A variety of topics were discussed including policy and procedure, tips on working with our sales database program and handling objections in the branch. The afternoon was spent cruising on Skaneateles Lake for a sight-seeing tour and luncheon.

If you haven’t noticed, there’s been a lot of change in the Capital region over the past year.

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To have your news, events

or announcements featured

here, email them to

marketing@huntrealestate.com.

Check out our blog for photos and more News Around the Regions:

HUNTSince1911.com

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Regional News

We merged 2 offices into our brand new Clifton Park branch which is in the heart of Saratoga County, one of the fastest growing communities in all of New York State. This has resulted in a year over year (YOY) volume increase of 77%. Dave Chambers was hired as the BD for Glens Falls and to open our Bolton Landing branch in Lake George, which is nestled in the amazing Adirondack Park and is commonly known as “The Queen of American Lakes”. The two Warren County branches combined are 110% ahead YOY and 50% ahead of plan! We also moved our Rensselaer County branch to the heaviest travelled location in town, which has resulted in a 23% increase in volume YOY! Our Slingerlands (Albany County) office is also up by 21% YOY resulting in a combined Capital region increase of 29% YOY. This growth is remarkable in contrast to the entire MLS which has seen a 13% decrease in active listings and only 8% increase in volume YOY! With all the changes and nearly 110 miles between our Hudson and Bolton Landing branches, HUNT is well positioned to cover the 11 counties that make up the entire Capital region. Our most recent changes have been the addition of Paul Barrett to our Capital Leadership team and Andy Varcoe to our HUNT Mortgage team. Paul has been an agent with HUNT for the past 3 years and brings a wealth of sales and management experience, and Andy brings many years of mortgage experience.

Welcome to both Paul and Andy!

Rochester Region

Central & Northern NY Region 24 experienced agents joined HUNT’s CNY region in the 1st half of the fiscal year! These additional agents, combined with the outstanding efforts of all our agents, resulted in HUNT strongly outpacing our competitors. Through the end of May, the entire MLS showed total listings down by 6% and YTD total sales were down by 3%. But HUNT was up over 4% despite the overall market trend. To celebrate this success, there were some recent gatherings around the region. Our Cicero branch gathered to welcome new agents and show off their newly remodeled office. Our Manlius Branch held its “Welcome Aboard Happy Hour” where a great time was had welcoming our new agents Theresa Reisner, Alexandru Simionescu, Brian Tennant, Dennis Lagoe, Mary Schalk, and Wendy Kingsley. Robin Curtis and Dave Zeller were also welcomed back with open arms to the Manlius branch.

In other news, our very own Nancy Watt from the HUNT Manlius branch was recently a featured panelist at the FOCUS Greater Syracuse forum. The forum was held at the GSAR to explore how CNY puts its best foot forward to attract and retain residents through experts in the real estate and talent recruitment community. Go, Nancy!

The HUNT Cazenovia branch celebrated Jill Benson’s birthday and the BIG 5-0 for Tom Tait’s at the Brewster Inn. The Cazenovia branch also welcomed two new agents, Sarah Dennis and Emily Brown. Welcome to the family!

Hot Temps, Hot Market! The Rochester region had an incredible sales month in May and is looking to continue the trend all summer long! It’s not all work though - the region does like to have some downtime and socialize with peers. The Rochester leadership hosted a co-broke Happy Hour event at The Metropolitan, a luxury high rise downtown, where tours were offered of the rental units with amazing views of our city.

We would like to welcome Blake T. Webber to our list of fine legal plan attorneys. Blake has been making the rounds and introductions to the branches. He recently hosted a HUNT agent networking event at the Genesee Valley Club, one of Rochester’s fine establishments. Thank you for your generosity and welcome to the Realty Club!

Saving the best news for last, the HUNT Mortgage team had one of their BEST months ever in Rochester! Your MCs Lisa Durfee, Mike Priset and Rita McTigue would like to thank the agents for your support. It has been a pleasure for them to service your clients. Go HUNT Team Go!

Core Businesses & Departments

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The 2nd Annual CommUNITY Day Thursday, July 12th This year, our goal is to make our CommUNITY Day even more successful (and we hope for much better weather).

The HUNT Marketing Department is finalizing all of the community service projects with your United Ways. They will only take about a half-day (approximately 4 hours) to complete. Although the volunteer sign-up deadline has passed, we still have a few openings for additional help. So if you didn’t sign-up, but would still like to volunteer, please contact marketing@huntrealestate.com.

CommUNITY Day is open to all HUNT ERA agents and Core Business employees. While participation is not mandatory, we would truly appreciate your time and support for what is sure to be a very rewarding day for everybody involved.

Thank you for your support!

Dan Mirsky, Marketing Director 716-880-1514 dan@huntrealestate.com

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Core Businesses & Departments

In Memoriam Joe Scala After a courageous battle with cancer, one of our agents, Joe Scala, passed away in April.

Joe was a beloved member of our HUNT Manlius family and the husband and business partner of another one of the treasured members of our HUNT team, Patsy Scala. Our thoughts and hearts continue to be with Patsy, their family, and everyone who worked with and knew Joe. While Joe was most recently a real estate agent with us at HUNT, he was a man of many talents. He spent the majority of his career as a professor in the art school at Syracuse University. He ran the Joe and Emily Lowe Art Gallery and the University's Lubin House Gallery in New York City and also founded Collaborations in Art Science

in Technology (CAST), a non-profit organization that funded artists who used technology in their art. Joe's art is part of many collections, including the permanent collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. His work has been displayed in galleries and museums across the country, and his writings have been published in catalogues and anthologies.

He received numerous awards and accolades for his work in his lifetime.

We were among those who were lucky enough to know and to work with Joe, and we will dearly miss him.

HUNT Mortgage Offers Additional Portfolio Products

Linda Mallia, President HUNT Mortgage 1-888-433-8373 linda.mallia@huntmortgage.com

In our continuing efforts to serve the needs of our realtors and their clients, we have expanded the number of investors to whom we sell loans. One of these new investors is a portfolio lender that offers a wide variety of non-agency (portfolio) products. A brief sampling of these products includes: investor loans to a maximum loan-to-value of 85%, interest only options, and cash-out refinance loans to 90% loan-to-value.

circumstances, some reduced documentation loans. While low doc loans still carry the stigma of having fueled the mortgage crisis several years ago, they do have a place when used wisely. Self employed borrowers and/or borrowers that derive their income from multiple sources often have very complex tax returns that greatly slow down the mortgage process.

We hope to assist those deserving borrowers with these types of loans.

Our new portfolio products also offer loans that combine a first and second lien simultaneously at closing. These “combo loans,” as they are called, can eliminate the need for mortgage insurance and/or eliminate the need to pay a higher jumbo rate mortgage. In addition, these combo loans will allow us to lend to a 95% loan-tovalue. Traditional lenders often severely restrict loan-to-value limits on jumbo loans.

We will also be offering, in limited

So as not to overwhelm our already very busy agents, we are going to be sending out weekly email updates introducing these new products. If you have any questions regarding of the new products (or the old ones for that matter!), please reach out to your HUNT Mortgage Consultant. Your consultant can review the mortgage products in greater detail and provide assistance in prequalifying your clients.

Core Businesses & Departments

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Staying Competitive in 2018: How Do I Get In Front Of My Ideal Customer?

Let’s start out with some facts from NAR: 1. 92-96% of buyers and sellers start online.

2. 72% go with the first person they had a conversation with.

3. It takes a consumer 3-18 months of prep-time before they are ready to officially begin a real estate transaction.

So what does this mean?

We now need to get in front of people when they are ready to learn and not wait until they say they are ready to buy and sell. If we snooze, we lose in this marketplace!

At the end of the day, your ideal customer cannot possibly choose you to be their real estate guru unless they know two things: 1.

That you exist!

2. That you are ready to help them solve their unique problems!

So how do you get out in front of potential clients to become that first point of contact? You create your very own, customized, personal marketing plan using all of the latest and greatest tips, techniques, and specialized tools offered at HUNT to help you grow your business.

Rachel DiNunzio, Director of Education and Agent Development 716-880-1513 rachel.dinunzio@huntrealestate.com

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Core Businesses & Departments

Don’t worry! You don’t have to figure this out on your own. Join me on Wednesdays at 3 PM for a six week course that will help you start up your personalized marketing plan.

We will discuss: 1. How to become visible on Google and how to build a value proposition 2. The 2018 consumer mindset and identifying your target audience 3. Touch-point strategy hyperlocal marketing

and

4. Writing statement

Me’

your

‘About

5. Creating a social media credo and keeping your brand safe 6.

Budgeting and goal setting

Details can be found on HUNTLearning.com under the Personal Marketing and Media Tab, and under Wednesday Classes.

Corporate Challenge 2018

Thank You Team Sponsors Bechakas & Bechakas, LLP

Shaw & Shaw, PC

HoganWillig, PLLC

Cheryl Stein Law Firm, PLLC

Kevin Hourihan, Esq.

Vallone Law

Carolyn E. Leed, Esq.

HUNT Mortgage

Duggan Pawlowski & Cooke, LLP

HUNT Insurance

Ramos & Ramos

HUNT Commercial

Redding & Weir

Network Title Agency of NY

Thank you to everyone who attended this year and made this the biggest turnout for the Corporate Challenge yet!

Core Businesses & Departments

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Be the Expert and a Winner HUNT ERA encourages you to help all your customers receive excellent service, no matter the location.

Whether they are buying or selling property from you locally or from a comparable professional anywhere in the United States, we want you to be recognized as the real estate expert for your clients. Belonging to our broker network aords us that opportunity.

The network provides an additional pool of agents to our HUNT family.

These agents are not only skilled, but also held accountable to you and your customer. They are an extension of us.

It also provides you an opportunity to earn additional income. There are ePostcards available in AgentAchieve to help you get this message to your client base.

Our network also provides us the opportunity for us to participate in a cash back program that honors those who are currently serving or have served in the military. As a way to show our appreciation for their service, we want to make sure they are aware of their benefit and receive what is due to them.

Mary Croglio, Director of Relocation 716-880-1303 mary.croglio@huntrealestate.com 12

Core Businesses & Departments

To encourage you to benefit from both programs, we have Consumer Home Connect (outgoing) and Agent Generated Referral (military) contests running from March 1 through August 31st, giving you the ability to win a variety of prizes in addition to earning a commission. We have already given away Fitbits, dinner gift certificates and Starbucks gift cards. At the end of each month, Grace Bindemann and I spin the prize wheel and pull 3 winners from those that have qualified by either placing an Outgoing or Agent Generated referral that month.

We appreciate all the support and hope your placements evolve to closings!