Page 1 MEMBERSHIP NEWS April 2013 Volume 11, Issue 4 Independent Real Estate Professionals Monthly Newsletter Sandy Jones 2013 IREP President President s Message Hi, fellow IREP members! Hope the Easter Bunny hopped by your place and left you baskets filled with?? In my quest to find interesting articles about the real estate industry in the news, I saw the article that was in the Tampa Bay Times March 24. It talks about the new American dream: renting. The number of homeowners under 35 has plummeted since 2004 according to census data. They don t want to tie themselves to a home that would hurt their mobility and chances for a job. They also have lived through the recent housing crisis and find it hard to forget the past. According to the article, In 2006 Tampa Bay renters signed about 2000 leases for single-family homes and condos, multiple-listing data shows. Last year that stack grew past 16,000. There are a lot of investors out there that are buying up potential rental property. The most coveted homes are concrete-block three-bedroom-two bath homes priced around $150,000 and newly built in suburbia. The families and first-time home buyers are not having an easy time finding some of the choice properties. The investors are going in and cleaning up the properties, spending about 10% of the sale price fixing them up. Also, they hope to sell the property in several years, gaining profits from cost recovery. The next problem that the investors face is the property management. As a lot of us know it is not the easiest thing to do in the rental industry. The repairs that need to be done usually happen on the week-ends; the renters don t have the rent this month; you need a good real-estate attorney to get people who don t think they should have to pay you rent ever. The new generation may have something. We live in a rental and it is our home. We raise our family and make memories. If the opportunity arises and we need a bigger or smaller home we can usually make the move with a lot less trouble than having to sell. I m glad to see the Real Estate market come back whatever the reason. Be Good to each other. 2013 Officers President: Sandy Jones All Stars Realty 727-548-0908 SandyJones73@aol.com President-Elect: Debra Gregory Clearwater Harbor Realty, Inc. 727-210-1464 DebraSGregory@msn.com Treasurer: Denise Drews Fiduciary Funding, LLC 727-209-1020 Denise@FiduciaryFunding.com Secretary: Joyce Smith Somers Title 727-441-1088 jsmith@somerstitle.com Membership VP: Tracy Baer North Shore Allstate Insurance 727-896-5195 tracybaer@ northshoreinsurancegroup.com Past President: Tim Snelgrove Checkerboard Realty 727-244-7498 tsnelgrove@earthlink.net Find IREP on the Web! www.pinellasirep.org
2012 Committee Chairs Education & Programs (3): Ben Friedlander Big Ben Realty, Inc. 727-381-6683 Ben@BigBenRealty.com Page 2 Next Meeting Tuesday April 9, 2013 8:30 a.m. Meeting Date: 2nd Tuesday of every month (except July) Meeting Time: 8:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. Meeting Charge: $2.00 Location: Pinellas Realtor Organization 4590 Ulmerton Road, Clearwater FL 33762 Directions: PRO is located on Ulmerton Road (688) west of the Interstate and US 19 where it intersects with Automobile Boulevard and east of 49th Street. Click here for map to PRO Tammi Hagedorn Seminole Title 727-392-5906 Tammi@dhstc.com Greg Burton Watts Realty Group 727-510-2591 gregburtonrealtor@gmail.com Hospitality Committee Chair: Pauline Callaghan Sun Title Insurance Agency, Inc. 727-409-2079 paulinecallaghan@suntitleins.com Newsletter Editor: Eva Aldrich Clearwater Harbor Realty (727)424-6682 EvaAldrich1@gmail.com Currently we have 71 members: 37 Realtors and 34 Affiliate Business Partners Tracy Baer Membership VP Don t forget the membership drive, please be sure to spread the word and all the benefits about our Group! Keep in mind, there is a prize at the end of the year for the member who sponsors the most new members! Hospital stays Promotions Good times Bad times May 14, 2013: Upcoming Programs: We are fortunate to have Alexis Muellner, Editor of the Tampa Bay Business Journal for our upcoming meeting. You may have caught one of his many interviews on Bay News 9 or a recent one on our local ABC Action News. Alexis is interesting and engaging and will want to learn from us while we learn from him about our market in the Tampa Bay area. Pauline Callaghan, Chairperson of the Hospitality Committee, is ready to recognize any event in a member s life. If you know of someone who needs a greeting or recognition from IREP, contact Pauline with the information and she ll make it happen: 727-822-2505 or email to Paulinecallaghan@suntitleins.com
Page 3 Find us on Facebook! Click Like SEARCH: IREP Independent Real Estate Professionals April 9, 2013 Michelle Powell "Realtors Property Resource " get their feedback on programs and services to help improve the organization. She also trains offices on RPR and helps PRO organize large events. April 11 Phyllis Apone If your birthday is in April and your name is not here, please advise Our sympathy to Pauline Callaghan on the loss of her Mother Michelle Powell began in the real estate industry working for a local title company in 2005. She s had 8 years of experience within the industry and recently made the change to work for the Pinellas Realtor Organization as the Broker Relations Manager. Her job at PRO is to reach out to the Broker members to let them know of offerings at PRO and to Her life-long passion has been horses and she uses her spare time to ride and train children and adults to ride. Michelle will be training the IREP group on the following: Realtor Property Resource, which is a National Association of Realtors product that allows members to create comprehensive branded reports. My MLS App which is the new app replacing Kurio from MFR MLS for Andriods and iphones to search on the go.
Page 4 Scenes from the March Meeting Traci Baer, Vice-President of Membership, inducts Darien Goodloe of Ever- Bank as our newest Member! Jay Kauffman, CPA, educates our Members on the latest IRS changes. IREP MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS Please keep in mind all of the benefits available through IREP including staying current on changes in our industry and discounts on advertising and promotional materials. Our biggest benefit is having a forum to share knowledge, camaraderie and to learn from one another. As you meet other Independent Realtors, please invite the to the next monthly meeting. They will thank you for it! BrightHouse Networks Realtor Program: Brighthouse will give you gift certificates to give to your customers that are good for either a $75 or $100 credit on their bill, depending on services ordered ie: cable TV, high speed Internet, telephone. Brokers must sign up first and then Associates may also participate. Also, just for giving the certificate, you earn points toward many great rewards for participating. Contact Lisa Kiddon for more information on how to get started and be sure to tell her you are an IREP member : 352-848- 2567 or lisa.kiddon@mybrighthouse.com HH Gregg: HH Gregg has a Commercial Sales Division dedicated to Realtors and their customers. When a client buys a home from you, a certificate can be presented to them as a thank you, giving builder pricing for any products they need. There is no cost to you to take part in this program and the builder pricing also applies to you for your personal needs. Contact Mike Morrison, Builder Commercial Representative at the HH Gregg Clearwater store. His cell is 727-643-4117 and email: Mike.Morrison@hhgregg.com
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