Issue 39

The official newsletter of HUNT Real Estate Corporation

January 2012

Anticipating Market Trends

A message from Peter F. Hunt, Chairman & CEO Over the last month, we have celebrated our 100th anniversary within the context of our Annual Awards and Holiday Celebrations in each of our regions. Someof you werehonored in various ways for their accomplishments in what was a very difficult market. In this issue, all of our top honorees are again named and, as I did personally, I will again offer my congratulations and thanks for the superior service provided to our clients. These living examples of excellence are what make our company what it is, the elite of the industry. Also during our celebrations, I paid tribute to Lou Izzo and his contribution to our firm over the last 23 years. Please see a reprint of my comments in this issue of our newsletter. In our last issue, I relayed some things I have learned in our Branches as I have visited sales meetings in all of our regions. I also relayed one important aspect of the careers of our most successful agents: they invest in their careers. This article will explore the fourth reason some agents simply do better than others: they anticipatemarkettrends. Over the years I have observed that if you want to make something happen any given day in real estate sales, you have a limited number of market segment options to
Continued on inside cover

Memories of the 2011 Annual Awards & Holiday Celebration

A great time was had by all at our Annual Awards Celebration events that took place in Arizona on November 30th, Syracuse/Capital District on December 8th and Buffalo/Rochester on December 13th. These events are an important part of the HUNT tradition, as they allow us to recognize those who have achieved award levels this past year and celebrate in their successes. This years events were especially important ones, given that they mark the culmination of our first 100 years of service. To honor this unprecedented achievement, we produced a tribute video that was unveiled at the Syracuse and Buffalo regional events. For those who did not get a chance to attend, our video can be viewed on HUNT Real Estates youtube page. Peter Hunt gave an inspirational speech at each event, and we recognized the agents who worked hard this year and beat the odds in this challenging market. We shared a toast to this years successes, to our 100 years of service and dedication, and to the exciting opportunities we have ahead as we enter a new century. The video asked the question: What makes HUNT so great?, and this years events provided the answer: YOU!

Continued on last page

The new HUNTREALESTATE.COM!

The new website launches! Have you checked it out yet?

Congratulations to our Industry Leaders!

Check out who the 2011 Agents & Teams of the year are!

Anticipating Market Trends

choose from: 1) FSBOs; 2) Expired listings; 3) Your Center of Influence; 4) A farm area; 5) Corporate or Wholesale opportunities (Relocation, bank-owned properties, builder accounts); or 6) Just being there (open houses, floor time). Assuming very few agents have real expertise across all of these segments, what is your area of strength? Where do you choose to concentrate your efforts for the best return on your time invested? Even within each segment, there are various options. What is your area of expertise? First-time buyers? Retirees? Move-up buyers? What price range is most active today? Which is least active and why? But where do you go to understand each of these market segments so that you can then decide how best to use your time to the greatest advantage? Without high-quality data and analysis of the market (market segments, price ranges, neighborhoods, demographic groups, industrial segments) it is very difficult to adequately advise our clients and truly represent ourselves as experts. But armed with this data, our analysis becomes expert and we bring real value to our clients and each transaction. Most agents default to MLS data only and

... continued from cover hadoccasiontospeakprivatelywith our leading agent there, Sharon Bickford. I asked her to share her secret to her success, an annoying habit of mine. She responded without hesitation with one word: Focus. When I asked on what?, she quickly told me about how she has become the leading agent in her chosen community (her farm, although she did not term it that way). She focuses almost all of her marketing on those 2,600 households and knows all market data on that community, actively promotes her expertise and maintains a high degree visibility. Through her access to and analysis of market data, she is able to accurately anticipate market trends, and prepare and present marketing presentations that focus on likely prospects and potential buyers. Through her focus, she is also building a book of business that ultimately will be her long-term equity. Well-done, Sharon.  You are an exampleforallof us. As usual, your feedback is invited. Please email me your comments, thoughts and/or questions at phunt@huntrealestate.com.

generic measures such as sale price per square foot when we are attempting to determine a propertys value. Wouldnt it be more valuable to our clients and us if we could draw accurate buyer profiles and then create marketing proposals that are geared to those potential buyers? At HUNT Real Estate ERA we subscribe exclusively to a data service (Trendgraphix) that allows us to analyze buyer activity geographically in very finite slices of the market. Conclusions can be drawn on buyer behavior, likely buyer profiles and activity within a buyer segment. Our unique Customer Service Center and ProShow system also contain data on active prospects from which we can further refine our buyer profiles. This allows our most successful agents to focus their marketing and build a business base. Working with our highly-skilled Broker Consultants to build a personal business plan is another key building block for a profitable professional career in real estate. All the toolsarehere. You can even take a HUNT Universitycourse(209) to learn how to utilize all available data. Recently at our Awards and Holiday Celebration in our Arizona Region, I

Welcome to: HUNTs On The House Rebate Program!

A message from Barbara Hoy, Licensed Real Estate Salesperson, from the Lancaster Branch Every business person needs a jump start for their career. I, for one, needed help to launch my new real estate venture. At the time I started in the Real Estate business, the market was very slow. Beatrice Dunwoodies On the House presentation in our HUNT Lancaster office sent a message to me that helped push my Real Estate career in gear. The On the House clients that I have cultivated are a large percentage of my sales. Its such a painless, easy offer to buyers and sellers, friends and relatives. The repeat clients, as well as the referrals, make the On the House rebate program my safety net. My clients are equally satisfied when they receive excellent service and a rebate check in the mail from HUNT REAL ESTATE! I applaud Beatrice Dunwoodie. The businesses that we have been involved with are varied; her presentations are conducted in a very professional manner, no matter who we are dealing with or where we are conducting the presentations they are always extremely informative. Beatrice is very compassionate about what she does; she has helped to teach me how to reap the benefits of the HUNT On the House rebate program to its fullest by being persistent!

Are you in the Club?

The 100 Club program is winding down are you in the Club? Is your Branch office? Did you spend November and December focused on business-building activities, while the rest of the agent population slows down? If youve been doing open houses, or getting your listing prices reduced, or extending your listing contracts, then youre probably in the club! As of mid-December, 64 dedicated HUNT Real Estate ERA agents had qualified for the Club. Are you one of the lucky ones? Find out in January, but in the meantime stay busy, stay focused, and start the New Year with Income!

Barabara Hoy
Licensed Real Estate Salesperson

Shall I get a Droid or an iPhone? Part 2

A message from Carlos Pegado, Chief Technology Officer Continuing where I left off on my last article, where we examined Ease of Use, lets now look at: Communications Android4.0: Android integrates natively with ALL of Googles services. That means it speaks fluent Gmail, Google Contacts, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Maps, Google Search, Google+, Google Voice and so on. If you are invested in Googles services as a consumer (and who isnt), or Google Apps as a business (which we are) Android destroys iOS with respect to Google integration. Android also supports Exchange and POP3/IMAP4 email, and can import the contacts, calendar and email info from those systems. Androids Gmail far outclasses the iOS email application when it comes to supporting features, such as folders, labels, archiving and so on. iOS 5: The Apple iOS 5 supports Exchange, Gmail and most POP3/IMAP4 email systems. It too will integrate contacts, email, and calendar info via Exchange. If youre a Google services user, however, the integration requires workarounds. For example, though I use Gmail, I have it setup as an Exchange account on my iOS devices in order to sync email, calendar and contacts. Although serviceable, it doesnt offer the wide array of controls that are available via Android 4.0. SocialTools Android 4.0: Android leapfrogged iOS early on with respect to social skills. By using its own bridge interface and taking advantage of the connectors offered by Facebook and Twitter, it has built social networking into the platform itself. Facebook integration is extremely strong with Android. By integrating features and functions of Facebook throughout the operating system, Android makes it a breeze to connect to and share with social networks. iOS 5: Apple did add some respectable and appreciated support for Twitter into iOS 5, but it still falls short. It is possible to share pictures, websites, and other content to Twitter without first launching the Twitter app, but thats about it. For iOS 5 device users, 3rd-party applications are necessary to complete a social networking picture. Facebook and Twitter are great apps, but they do not offer the degree and level of integration to social networking that is commonly found in Androids. Conclusion Both the latest versions of Android and Apple include compelling new features that are sure to help sell Android smartphones and iPhones in the coming months. Is one operating system a clear winner? Well, they each have their distinct advantages, but ultimately it boils down to how you intend to use the phone. Users of Android phones have far fewer apps to choose from. The most recent iteration of iOS 5 drew positive reviews for its new voice-recognition software, faster processing speed and improved picture-taking ability. When it comes to the phone business, there is no doubt that Apple vs Google makes a great headline. After all, who doesnt like the battle of giants? But in reality it is Apple AND Google versus the others. BlackBerry is already a casualty and although Microsoft is attempting a valiant comeback with the new generation of Windows Mobile phones, I am afraid that it is a case of too little, too late. For nearly a century the phones have been a single-function device. You used them to make phone calls. In the beginning, an operator connected us. Then came automation. We got the rotary dial and then the keypad. The design changed, the back-end switching technology changed. Even the economics of the service changed. New features were added - voice mail, for example. What didnt change: functionality. Phones just made phone calls. A century later we had a certain idea of a phone imprinted in our head. Then came Steve Jobs who showed us the iPhone - and the idea of phones changed. Until next month.

ERA Real Estate 2012 International Business Conference

A perfect place to start is by attending the 2012 ERA International Business Conference in New Orleans, March 14-17. You will set the tone for the year, while having a really great time! Here are our Top Five reasons why you should attend: Youll make connections with brokers and agents from across the world The certification classes alone can pay for your registration cost Youll walk away with at least three unique ideas you can use throughout the year (can you say, results?!) Youll learn best practices in education sessions from your peers Last but not least Next year is ERAs 40th anniversary and well be celebrating in style! ToregisterforIBC2012,andtolearn morevisitERAIBC2012.com. We hope to see you there!

Give yourself a New Years Resolution that you can live up to next year, taking your career to the next level!

HUNT ERA proudly recognizes our Industry Leaders

2011 Agents, Teams and offices of the Year
Buffalo/Niagara Region

BARBARA BAKER

JOEL CALABRESE & JUDY RALABATE

BONNIE CLEMENT

GEORGE CORREA

STEPHANIE DJABALLAH &TIMOTHY DOMANSKI

SHARON FRISICARO & STEVE FRISICARO

Rochester Region

JIM HOFFMAN

AMY MAYFIELD

JOE TRIFILO

JOHN DENNISTON

RICH ORCZYK

SANDI VAN CAMP

Syracuse Region

JOAN RAYO ADAMS

MARY PAT ADAMS

ANN BAUM

MEGHAN DABULEWICZ & SARAH COLLINS

ANN HOTCHKISS

MARGARET KARIM

Arizona Region

DAVE MANZANO

AUTUMN STARR & JEAN NICHOLAS

JUDY WINSLOW

SHARON BICKFORD

MARY MONTAGUE

Capital Region

Office of the Year

JENNIFER BALL

FELICIA CERVERA

ANTHONY GUCCIARDO

WILLIAMSVILLE

FAYETTEVILLE

Congratulations to all of our Award Winners!

* Agents are listed in alphabetical order, not in order of rank.

News Around Our Regions

Arizona
Region at-a-glance:
AvgSalePrice:$192,540 SaleSideUnits:179 ListingsSold:164

Capital District
Region at-a-glance:
AvgSalePrice:$197,532 SaleSideUnits:200 ListingsSold:191

Syracuse
Region at-a-glance:
AvgSalePrice:$157,000 SaleSideUnits:1112 ListingsSold:1103

The Phoenix region leadership team congratulates Ken Mayer for being awarded the Vision Mastery Award, and Sharon Bickford for being Top Agent in both Closed Units & GCI.

The Capital region leadership team congratulates Anthony Gucciardo for being awarded Top Agent in both Closed Units and GCI for branch and company wide!

Rochester
Region at-a-glance:
AvgSalePrice:$160,000 SaleSideUnits:687 ListingsSold:709

Buffalo/Niagara
Region at-a-glance:
AvgSalePrice:$146,000 SaleSideUnits:2219 ListingsSold:2315

Recent News: The Dewitt and Fayetteville offices are merging to form one Super Branch, housed in the existing Dewitt branch location at 6849 East Genesee St. The intent of the merger is to establish a model for the present and future of HUNT Real Estate, and to further position us as the destination broker for leading industry professionals in our marketplace. This Super Branch has the highest GCI and largest per agent productivity levels in the marketplace, and is led by Tim Cassavaw, Broker Consultant. The Syracuse region leadership team congratulates the Manlius Branch for being awarded Most Improved Office, Fayetteville for Office of the Year, Jackie Carr for being awarded Branch Employee of the Year, Dave Manzano for Top Agent in Closed Units & GCI, and Meghan Dabulewicz and Sarah Collins for Top Team in Closed Units & GCI. Congratulations!

RecentNews:Buffalo region agents and staff collected an incredible four carloads of items for the Buffalo News Neediest Campaign this year, and the local Food Bank has picked up all the canned food and dry goods collected by our eve r- ch a r i t a bl e team. Great job, all!

Recent News: Each year, the Perinton branch supports local food cupboards by collecting and delivering non-perishable food items.This on-going project has provided hundreds of pounds of food over the years. Notice the picture in the collection box window! The Rochester region leadership team congratulates John Denniston for being awarded Top Agent in Closed Units and CGI.

The Buffalo region leadership team congratulates the KenTon Branch for being awarded the Most Improved Office, and Williamsville Village for being Office of the Year and Customer Support Center for being the Administrative Employee of the Year.
Thank you to everyone for the well wishes on the Williamsville Village being named office of the year. I was so surprised that in my speech I failed to thank one person Gary Kenline, my "lifeline", my mentor, colleague and most of all my Friend. I don't think I would have been able to have accomplished this without his support. So Gary, thank you so much for always being there for me.

John Mitchell Broker Consultant - Williamsville Village

Recognizing our Top Sales Agents of the Month

October 2011
Buffalo/Niagara
Amherst / Kim Jerzewski East Aurora / Bill Larson Hamburg / Judy Occhino KenTon / Kelly Limina Lancaster / Jeanine Kacala Lewiston / Annie Smith Lockport / Pat Kennedy Metropolitan / Ellen Daly Orchard Park / Colleen Brunelle West Seneca / Cynthia Stachowski Wheatfield / Joanne Parisi Williamsville-Clarence / Sharon Frisicaro Williamsville Village / Joe Trifilo

November 2011
Syracuse / Carthage-Watertown
Cazenovia / Chary Griffin Chittenango / Russ Waldron Cicero / Donna Fellows DeWitt / Jane Maloney Fayetteville / Chip Hodgkins & Tom OHara Liverpool / Bob Joeckel Manlius / Liz & Dan Gaulin Oneida / Amanda Reinfelds

Buffalo/Niagara
Amherst / Judy Jack Lewis East Aurora / Jim Cafferty Hamburg / Lou Ann Spaulding KenTon / Kim Nemeth Lancaster / Ann & Ed Dunning Lewiston / Barb Kivi Lockport / Patricia Kennedy Metropolitan / Ellen Daly Orchard Park / Colleen Brunelle West Seneca / Janice Mroz Wheatfield / Andrea Ruzzine Williamsville-Clarence / Michelle Winer Williamsville Village / Beth Stablewski

Syracuse / Carthage-Watertown
Camillus / Dave Manzano Sr. Cazenovia / Merilyn Glass Cicero / Bruce Tibbits Fayetteville / Tom O'Hara Liverpool / Brian MacGorman Manlius / Margaret Karim Oneida / Jeanette Denney Carthage-Watertown / Erin Meyer

Rochester
Brighton-Pittsford / Vernita Fullwood Canandaigua / Sandi Van Camp Greece / Rich Battisti Perinton / John Denniston Webster / Jeff Pastorella

Rochester
Brighton-Pittsford / Mabel Chu Canandaigua / Sandi Van Camp Greece / Molly Nolan Perinton / John Denniston Webster / Jeff Pastorella

The all new HUNTREALESTATE.COM is here!

With all the new sites rich content and search functions, and the chance to search all available properties, there is NO reason for buyers and sellers to visit any other real estate website. And, with the HUNT family of services like mortgage, title, insurance and the Realty Club, there is NO other company better suited to meet their needs! The new website is here! The new website is here! Have you taken a look yet? Your clients will be, so you should really make the time to explore the new huntrealestate.com. Designed with your customers in mind, our new website allows them a more detailed and information-packed community search, and more ways to reach out to you for help.
Google Maps

To help make huntrealestate.com THE online destination for real estate information, we need your help. Make sure our sites URL is on all your marketing pieces, your business cards and your email signature. More customers today begin their searches online, before contacting an agent, and if they do not know how to find us, they wont find you!

Market Snapshot

A Tribute to Lou Izzo

A message from Peter F. Hunt, Chairman & CEO next project. One year we even created our annual theme as a project mentality because that was how we operated together cook something up; turn it into a project; and get it done. I would listen to my fathers words which still ring in my ears having to do with keeping the competition off balance. And thats what we did. So I would throw these ideas at Lou and he would grab the ball and run. His successes opened new doors for him along the way, sometimes not even here. He took his recruiting show on the road for other companies. The structure for a relocation department which we built became a model for others and he took that message out to an audience thirsty to learn more. Our adventure into management development also was something others wanted to hear about. One such speaking engagement even landed him a job offer, which ultimately got me to think about moving Lou into the highest position in our Residential Brokerage a position title that no one outside of our family had ever held President. Today Lou faces what we hope will be the resolution of a challenge he has faced for a period of years a health challenge. There is good somewhere in almost everything and as Lou faced the current and what we believe to be the last phase of his health challenge, a new door opened for him that perfectly suits a passion that has been developing in him for some time the passion to help people at a very tough time, the final phase of life. You all know by now that Lou is on medical leave as he completes his return to 100% health. Upon completion, which we hope will be a couple three months, he will begin his new role as a senior administrator with Hospice Buffalo. I recount that story because in many ways it is a story of our companys history that has been repeated many times in various ways. People from all backgrounds and with all different stories somehow arrive on our doorstep. They are stricken by our industry, excel in some niche element of our world, rise to the highest level here and sometimes jump off into something new. We offer Lou our thanks, congratulations and best wishes for the next chapter in his life and business career.

Welcome to HUNT!

A little less than 23 years ago, I got a call at my office from an old friend who was, at the time, a vice president at the Goldome Bank. She started by saying what I already knewthat many people at the bank were losing their jobs as the bank was being seized by the Feds, and her job was to help as many as possible find something new. Did I have any jobs to fill? I said I need a recruiter. She said she had just the right person. A couple days later, an overweight smoker who looked many years older than he was showed up at my office. In spite of my not-so-good first impression, as we talked I saw more and more in this guy someone I could work with. That was Lou Izzos first day with us. Every morning we would meet and kick names around, discuss the previous days successes and failures and otherwise stay focused on maintaining the growth momentum that I had started in a bit of recruiting frenzy a few years earlier through some fairly outrageous stunts. I could not manage the flow alone. So Lou and I massaged each lead, agreed on our calls, did some together and otherwise focused on one thing growth. We will stuffing our training program which was only one course at the time something else that needed management for its growth. So Lou took that on as well, first sharing the responsibility with me and then handling it on his own. As an aside, Lou was transforming himself he quit smoking, lost a lot of weight, began exercising regularly, became almost a vegetarian, started and raised his family. We continued our daily dialogue, constantly throwing ideas around and just running with others. I was busy trying to build various other elements of our business as well; Relocation in particular. I started dragging Lou to conferences including relo meetings. He grasped on to that, too, and soon I threw that in his lap as well. As he would take on something new, he would seek out candidates to fill his shoes so that he could devote the energy necessary to complete the

The Scottsdale Branch welcomes experienced agent Blair Ballin and his group to the team. Blair has over 10 years experience in the home buying and selling process. Welcome Blair! The Camillus Branch welcomes Donna Barclay to HUNT. Donna Barclay is an experienced agent specializing in new construction, and first time homebuyers. Welcome Donna! We would also like to recognize the following newly licensed agents from across the company: Gordon Bandelian, Fredrica Brister and Brenda Ward in Amherst; Sean Hagan in Cazenovia; Amber Brooks, Kadra DAgostino, and Patricia Terranova in Lancaster; Tessa Lynch in KenTon; Stanley Jarzabek in Orchard Park; Robert Wagner in Lockport; Carmella Campbell from the Met; Jill Brewer, Robert Donley, Anthony Dossey, Nathan Gossage, and Eric Nicks in Scottsdale. HUNT Real Estate ERA is excited to announce the appointment of Dick Baart to the position of Broker Consultant in our Greece branch. Dick Baart is formerly broker owner and manager of Century 21 Capital Realty Group that transitioned over with his team in October. Congratulations, Dick, on this new opportunity!

Memories of the 2011 Annual Awards & Holiday Celebration

(Continued from front cover)

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Training Corner
Brought to you by Career Development Bob, I am going to do a little brown-nosing right now...I followed 3 of your suggestions from the competitive edge training and incorporated them into my listing presentation last night. Guess what? I got the listing!I used the customer service buyer report, I used the pro-show report, I also used the line that everything HUNT does is to direct more buyers to the seller and by doing that we increase your chances of selling quickly and at the highest price does that sound like a compelling reason to list with HUNT... Thanks Bob!

Congratulations Customer Support Center!

Jones, Connor Lloyd, Sue Menno, Kenny Oquendo, Kelly Schifferle, Elena Velichko and Dawn Voit.

Congratulations to the Customer Support Center & ProShow Team on being awarded Administrative Employee of the Year! Please join us in congratulating the following people who make all our lives easier and more efficient: Vicky Baran, Lori Castine, Sandy Cornwell, Linda Drews, Jessica Falkner, Mary Giza, Kathleen Hunt, Gail John, Jim

Hello Sandy and everyone at Pro Show. I am so glad you all got a standing ovation. You deserve more than that . You all were very hard at making our lives easier. Its such a tough market and we need all the help we can get. You all have such wonderful professional phone skills. No one has what we have. Thanks again, Happy Holidays & Happy New Year! RosaMcCabe

CatherinePeters
Licensed Real Estate Salesperson Broker Consultant Brighton-Pittsford

Licensed Real Estate Associate Broker East Aurora Branch

Forinformationonupcomingworkshops in your area or online, visit huntuniversity.com today,andstart growing your business and skills tomorrow!

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