Newsletter - November/December 2017

N e w s l e t t e r

NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2017 ISSUE 85

HUNT Launches Automated Digital & Social Media Ads for Every New Listing Regional News

Adwerx makes digital marketing for all of your listings brilliantly simple. Here’s how it works:

● When you enter a home into the MLS, you will receive a dynamic online advertising campaign tailored specifically to your listing, featuring a photo of the property along with your picture and contact information.

Lake George is annually voted as one of the most beautiful bodies of water in America.

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SAVE THE DATE

2017

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C ELEBR ATI ON

Beginning this month, HUNT Real Estate will revolutionize marketing and lead generation for all of your listings. We are thrilled to announce that HUNT has partnered with Adwerx to offer automated online and social media advertising for every new residential listing!

Rochester, Central & Northern NY and Capital Region TURNING STONE RESORT & CASINO

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Thursday, January 18th | 2pm - 6pm

Buffalo/Niagara SENECA NIAGARA RESORT & CASINO Tuesday, January 23rd | 2pm - 6pm

“The Easiest and Best Way to Distinguish Yourself” Every day, literally, I receive by email some solicitation to make myself better known in our industry and among my center of influence (“COI”). I assume tens of thousands of others are getting the same emails. I can also assume more than one person is replying, taking advantage of the great offer, or they would eventually stop coming. Then there are organizations like Zillow that even pit us against each other in their attempt to upsell us so that we can get our piece of the lead “pie” along with a host of other Agents.

I’m not knocking any of these systems. The key is the speed and quality of your follow up— otherwise you are just another Agent vying for the same leads.

What I am hearing over and over again within industry circles and at conferences is the importance of a well-organized center of influence supported by an efficient and multipurposed client relationship management system. While you may have competition within your COI, whatever your reputation is among that grouping is surprisingly enduring. It is hard to emphasize enough the importance of your focus on this key element of a successful real estate career, utilizing the most powerful tool in our Company tool chest—AgentAchieve.

So, if your COI is the most important network you can build on, how are you known within it? If you are only known as a real estate professional, chances are you are not alone. My belief is that your reputation is far more than just what you do—it is who you are perceived as being. Which goes to the point of this article: distinguishing yourself. This is made all the more difficult 2

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because of the evolution of communication in our society, which requires no explanation, I hope. What I’m referring to is what has been called your “presence”, a defining personal feature that is yours alone. It costs little or nothing to improve your presence, particularly in today’s increasingly casual (some might say sloppy) society. There are several aspects to personal presence. Allow me to address just three.

1) Manners. The author and philosopher Eric Hoffer said, “Rudeness [the opposite of good manners] is the weak man’s imitation of strength.”

I’m referring to good manners; all the little things: a smile; looking people in the eye; a firm handshake; standing for someone when they enter a room; holding the door for someone else; appropriately using “please”, “thank you” and “excuse me”; using someone’s name when addressing them; generally expressing warmth to someone else without inappropriateness; a demeanor always respectful of others; proper use of our native tongue. There is much more, but I hope you get the drift. Good manners are not as common as they used to be. Use them, particularly during a first contact with anyone, and you will distinguish yourself—guaranteed.

2) Dress. This is where the casual thing is almost out of control, in my opinion. That’s the opportunity. It is almost impossible to be overdressed; very easy to be underdressed. Both are noticeable. Err on the side of being overdressed and you will never be uncomfortable or make anyone else uncomfortable. You will always create a good first impression, which you have about 10 seconds to do.

3) Personal generosity. Particularly in our industry, this is not in abundance. We are known for almost the opposite—a self-centered, self-aggrandizing stance is most often what you see in social media and other media, particularly in light of the explosion of “private networks” and the instant, free dissemination of anything on anyone’s mind.

Personal generosity is not (just) about money. Certainly, our industry could be far more generous to those in need. This is about generosity of spirit. When you are speaking with others, do they have a sense that you are really listening? Is your smartphone off, silent, or where it can be ignored? Are you responsive to what the other person is trying to communicate? Do they feel like you are really helping them and understanding of their needs? Do they “feel” your service or is our service just a list of things that are (hopefully) being delivered? Are you ultimately perceived as a “giver” or “taker”?

As my father told me a long time ago, “the money will come and go, but your reputation sticks with you forever.” He was right. The easiest and best way to distinguish yourself is by determining how you want to be known in the community you serve (your COI), living the personal presence by which you want to be remembered after each encounter through your manners, dress and personal generosity, and building and staunchly defending your reputation.

Please accept my very best wishes for a happy, healthy and very prosperous New Year!

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 Arthur Loran - East Aurora Margaret Healy - Bualo Metropolitan Aimee Testa - Liverpool Patrick Ogiony -Bualo Metropolitan Fen Zhu - Dewitt Marisa Borrello - Williamsville/Clarence Philip Shippers - Brighton/Pittsford Michael Deecher - Manlius Allyson Betz - Grand Island Kathleen Flinn - Lockport Jordan Dubay - Lancaster Adam Hagner - Grand Island Scott Fike - Lockport Robin Lindstrom - Perinton Jon Shingledecker - Liverpool Mark Salyer - Glendale Dion Doyle - KenTon Deanna Geist - Brighton/Pittsford Huong Nguyen - KenTon Nikki Henry - Liverpool Melissa Kiel - Hamburg Dewayne Jamison - KenTon Jennifer Kreuz - Williamsville Village Gustavo Quintana Jr. - Brighton/Pittsford

Experienced Agents Ryan Devin - KenTon Jeannine Lerose - Camillus Jackie Cocco - Rensselaer Alan Gershbein - Amherst Daniel Perez - Scottsdale Robert Amato - Glendale

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Welcome New & Experienced Agents

Eldrie Anderson - Greece Alexandra Smith - Liverpool Giovanna Spinuzza - KenTon Kenny Reid - Scottsdale Hung Nguyen - Dewitt Rachael VerHagen - Grand Island Eric Koehler - Brighton/Pittsford Lori Nguyen - Dewitt Michelle Grzesik - Oneida Rachel Soale - Scottsdale Shannon Rieger - Hamburg

News Around the Regions

Buffalo

Central & Northern NY Regions

Rochester Region

Earlier this month, the branches of Lockport, Wheatfield and Lewiston participated in the annual Lewiston Christmas walk. Santa came in on a helicopter and did a parade down Main Street.

The Old Forge office participated in the 41st Annual SNODEO Weekend event, which took place December 8th through December 10th. This is the kickoff to the snowmobile season and is the biggest winter event of the season in Old Forge each year. The event included vendors, snowmobile races, a vintage snowmobile show and swap meet, raffles, and even a visit from Santa. We had a booth with all of our listings displayed and lots of fun stuff to give away! It is heavily attended by both vendors and visitors from near and far.

This being our first year at the event, we learned a lot, and look forward to making this an annual event!

Rochester had a busy holiday season serving the community. We would like to give special recognition to Brittany Tierson from HUNT Insurance for organizing a company Salvation Army bell ringing campaign. We had 4 groups of agents participate. It was on one of the coldest days to date this winter, but the weather didn’t deter the generous nature of our HUNT agents. Thank you, Brittany, for your hard work setting up the event and getting volunteers!

We had popcorn, cookies and coffee for people passing by, and we also had Mrs. Claus outside our office, which was a big hit!

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

HUNTSince1911.com

HUNT Mortgage thanked the agents with an appreciation party and we went bowling at a retro bowling alley called Radio Social.

A great time was had by all with tons of laughter and smiles throughout the evening. It is always nice to be able to unwind and enjoy the company of fellow HUNT agents. Thank you HUNT Mortgage for a wonderful evening!

The Rochester region would like to welcome Peter Scarcello as our interim GM. Peter has been making the rounds in Rochester and meeting our agents the past couple of weeks. We are looking forward to a successful year in 2018 with Peter Scarcello as our leader.

Regional News

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Capital Region The agents of the Clifton Park office and the loan officers from HUNT Mortgage in the Capital region united to collect toys in various neighborhoods this holiday season in support of Toys for Tots. Agents circulated letters to adopted neighborhoods announcing their involvement and reaching out to their past clients and COI just before Thanksgiving. Agents, loan officers and their helper "elves" began collecting toys door-todoor on Saturday, November 25th and Saturday, December 2nd.

The agents gathered together after a sales meeting in November and decorated the office Christmas tree to give the program a festive start.

Toys for Tots is a charitable mission of the U. S. Marine Corps Reserve. The many volunteers of Toys for Tots collect new, unwrapped toys during October, November and December each year and distribute those toys as Christmas gifts to less fortunate children in the local community.

The primary goal of Toys for Tots is to deliver a message of hope to less fortunate young people through a new toy at Christmas, a message that can assist them in becoming responsible, productive and patriotic citizens.

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Regional News

The agents of the Clifton Park office plan to make this an annual event.

Lake George is annually voted as one of the most beautiful bodies of water in America. It runs a little more than 32 miles long, is 1-3 miles wide, and up to 196’ deep. There are over 170 islands within its waters and its shores touch 13 towns and communities. A recent tourism report stated that over three million people had visited the lake in the calendar year. Our Lake George Branch is in the most popular town on the lake, Bolton Landing, and sits at the entry point of the world-renowned Sagamore Resort.

The area is truly a luxury market and the numbers back that up: currently, there are 121 listings above $500,000. 58 of those listings are over $1 million and 23 of those listings range between $2 million all the way up to $14.9 million. This year to date there has been 68 sales over $500,000, with 28 of those sales being over $1 million and 6 sales ranging between $2 million through $3.4 million.

We’re ecstatic about our expansion into this market, and we can’t wait to paint the lake black and yellow!

N E WS

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

Property Taxes If I’ve been asked once, I’ve been asked a thousand times about what I believe will happen to the housing/mortgage industry as a result of the tax reform bill that recently passed.

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

From a glass half-full perspective, the bill is an improvement over original proposals.

Congress traded one point of increase in the corporate rate for numerous changes, including a better treatment of capital gains for homeowners, a mortgage interest deduction capped at $750,000 instead of $500,000, and a cap on state and local taxes of $10,000 for property, state/local income and sales taxes. A higher cap on state and local taxes would have been preferred, particularly for those of us residing in New York State, and many industry professionals expressed that they would have liked to see the mortgage interest deduction remain at $1 million and/or indexed for housing price inflation. However, most agree there is not a great impact expected. A robust economy

and a continued shortage of listings should continue to heat the market for the near future.

Both the House and Senate bills scaled back on the tax break homeowners receive when they sell their home. Taxpayers will still be able to exclude up to $500,000 (or $250,000 for single filers) from capital gains when they sell their primary home, as long as they've lived there for two of the past five years. I do not think this legislation will lead to dramatic drops in home prices that some thought could happen with the original bill.

Many will benefit from the large standard deduction and rate cuts, however, please always have your buyers and sellers speak with their own tax professional to get the most current information that affects their individual taxes.

As we begin a new year, I’d like to thank all of our wonderful HUNT Agents for their support in 2017.

In 2017, I will...

Last year when she was in the fifth grade, my daughter, Sydney Armstrong, was asked to finish the following statement: "In 2017, I will..."

Her answer was: "In 2017, I will help others in need in memory of my dad.”

Sydney did some thinking and decided that this holiday season, she would collect donations for the St. Gianna Molla Pregnancy Care Outreach Center, located in downtown Buffalo, to help children and babies in need. She wrote a letter to Gary Kenline, Branch Director of Williamsville/Clarence, to ask if the office would help her collect basic baby items to donate to the center. Her letter was presented to the branch and with the help of Barb Bonhoff, Donna Hazen, Deb Ceglia and Joanne

Mustarelli, a baby shower for St. Gianna’s Center was organized; complete with lunch, games, punch and door prizes! Sydney ended up filling two cars with donations from the shower.

On December 12th, with the help of my HUNT Insurance General Manager, Jimmy Farah, we delivered all of the items to the Center. St. Gianna's. They were beyond grateful for the donations and were touched by the gesture, compassion and willingness of both Sydney and the Williamsville/Clarence branch of HUNT to help others in need.

Danielle Armstrong, Account Manager HUNT Insurance Agency, LLC 716-748-8906 danielle.armstrong@InsureWithHUNT.com

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HUNT Launches Automated Digital & Social Media Ads for Every New Listing cont.

• Adwerx listing ads will be triggered automatically after the property is put into the MLS, so there is no need to do anything on your part to take advantage of this advertising program.

Example A

• The ads are linked directly back to the property detail page on HUNTrealestate.com - allowing potential buyers to view all of the information about your listing and contact you directly to schedule a showing. (See Example A) Adwerx listing ads are: • Displayed on Facebook and across hundreds of websites • Geo-targeted to be seen by local home buyers within a radius around your property • Behaviorally targeted to specifically reach real estate “intenders” (those who have a search history online for real estate related terms and/or have visited real estate related websites)

Example B

In addition to being hyper-local digital ads served specifically to those interested in buying a home, Adwerx offers Seller Targeting meaning your clients will see their own home being advertised as they surf the web and Facebook. All you need to do is enter your client’s email address into your Adwerx dashboard.

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

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So for those of you that buy an ad in the newspaper just so your client sees their home is being advertised, Adwerx has you covered!

Your client will also receive a daily report via email from Adwerx detailing their home’s activity online, including how many times their ad was seen (impressions) and how many times a potential buyer clicked on their home (click-throughs).

HUNT will be covering the first week of Adwerx advertising for every new residential listing you take (Single Family, Condo/Townhouse and Multi-Family). Should you choose to extend your advertising campaign, you will be able to easily do so through your Adwerx account, which will be accessed via AgentAchieve.

Additionally, Adwerx offers personal branding campaigns, which you can target either by ZIP Code or to your COI by uploading your contact list into their system. (See Example B) Training on how to use Adwerx and everything it has to offer will be coming in January. Dates and times will be sent to your HUNT email address. We will also be incorporating Adwerx into our updated Seller Select presentation, which is also coming out in January!

(See Example C).

Overall, Adwerx will result in over 30 million online impressions for HUNT Real Estate listings and HUNT Sales Professionals in 2018! No other real estate company in any of our markets offers this level of sophisticated and targeted online and social media advertising. We encourage you to attend the upcoming training sessions and your branch’s sales meetings to learn more about this exciting new marketing and lead generation tool.

Example C

HUNT Commercial 2017 has been a year of transitions, additions and so much more. I want to pass along a huge THANK YOU to everyone who referred business to our HUNT Commercial team. Our company finished strong (and up) in 2017 and we couldn’t have done it without the amazing support of the companies within HREC. Please keep those referrals coming!

Over the past year, we have added 10 new people to our team - an amazing amount of growth! Also, look for us to be back in your team meetings in 2018.

Please support HUNT Commercial Real Estate by adding or following us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter!

Alicia Wittman, Marketing & Operations Manager 716-880-1574 alicia.wittman@huntrealestate.com

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Career Development 2018 is going to be an exciting new year in training: get ready for new sales skills training, a new digital marketing curriculum with a whole spectrum of social media classes, and a brand new tool that will hold it all together!

We are so excited to announce the coming of HUNTLearning.com this January.

HUNTLearning will be our new and improved digital learning center: a mobile optimized website that will work well on every device with no updates, no downloads, and no special access codes necessary. We’ve had a lot of great successes with Schoology this past year and have received some great feedback that has helped us better understand what you need to have the best possible learning experience.

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

We hit the drawing board to create a new training tool that would be visually stimulating, easy to use and simple to access. HUNTLearning.com is being developed for the specific needs of our HUNT team based on your feedback: in fact, it is being developed completely inhouse to ensure a custom fit. Stay tuned in the next few weeks for more information about our launch of HUNTLearning.com.

Career Development - Recruiting As the real estate industry continues to evolve in all areas; from the methods homebuyers used to look for homes to expectations sellers have of their agents in marketing their homes, HUNT continues to invest in world class tools that meet and complement the changing landscape of the real estate market. Some of the resources offered exclusively to our agents are: - AgentAchieve: Our CRM solution allows agents to keep up with clients and prospects with a click of a button.

- Buyside: Tracks home values in your neighborhood and areas where you are looking to move.

- Listen360: A resource to receive feedback from clients, which is then routed to agent’s home pages.

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- ProShowSM Powered by ShowingTime: This tool was cutting edge when Peter first launched it, and today, HUNT is the only firm to offer local support in setting up showings and collecting feedback.

When our team has the opportunity to sit with a realtor from a competing firm, these resources and the investment in our agents’ success provide part of a compelling story which often piques their interest. While not everyone makes the move, over time, many have stayed in touch with us to continue a dialogue.

For fiscal year 2017 in the Buffalo/Niagara region, the team has brought on 34 experienced agents from a variety of firms, and hired 141 newly licensed agents. Our success this year and in years past is derived through the robust value proposition HUNT has created—the world class tools and leadership we have in place.

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Peter Ahrens, Business Development Manager - Buffalo/Niagara 716-994-0927 peter.ahrens@huntrealestate.com