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“Wow…. business must be good for you still!”

January 25, 2011 by Teresa Keenan

 

The sign that you have arrived at one of Kane County's top 2010 top 20 real estate offices!

 

 

This was the remark from a fellow Realtor I was with last Thursday night at a function that was sponsored by a loan officer I do a lot of business with. I shrugged my shoulders and told her my company had our best year ever, and I had my best year ever, as well,  in 2010. Then I laughed until I cried when she told me, ” you still have your diamond earrings on… everyone else has hocked theirs!” HAHA!!!

Now, let’s make clear that this is not Teresa Rockefeller authoring the post!! I have beautiful earrings that my husband purchased for me many, many moons ago. MANY moons! At a time in my life (marriage) when earrings were very valued gift. At this time in my life (marriage) a more appreciated gift is a warm dinner, prepared by said spouse, and a laundry basket full of clean and folded laundry, also prepared by said spouse!!! Now that’s my kind of gift!!!

Posted in Miscellaneous......, Stories from the trenches! | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

“I bet you hate your job right now”…..

December 7, 2010 by Teresa Keenan

 

 

Myles & Mom... photo courtesy of Roger Brown

 

That was the beginning of a conversation that I had with an acquaintance while I was attending a very fun holiday party last Saturday night. I asked her right away why she would think that?  She parroted back to me all of the media doom and gloom she has either read about or heard, and then she told me she has SEVERAL friends who are Realtors (Don’t we all???) who are miserable. We compared notes for a little while, and she moved on. (Thankfully!)  Sure, it’s been brutal for the last couple of years, but that’s probably the case for many, many industries out there, not just real-estate. The airlines, the auto industry, the finance world, health care providers, retailers and small businesses across the land, just to name a few. It didn’t take a whole lot of time for me to re-assure myself of all the reasons I am so thankful for my job…. Here are a few:

  • I love a good challenge! Marketing these homes and getting them under contract, and keeping them that way until the closing table is in clear sight, gives me a little adrenaline rush and a sense of pride!
  • I have watched colleagues and whole offices leave my market area, belly up, for the last 3 years… I am proud to still be here, leading an amazing group of Realtors in my office, doing more business than ever before. Our tiny office of 12 agents currently is 5th in volume in Geneva for 2010! The companies ahead of us have no less than 80 agents, each! I LOVE IT!
  • I guess I also like to be appreciated… the sense of accomplishment and thankfulness (from MOST of my clients) makes me feel good! I love a great “thank you” card or a new testimonial for my website….. if folks are impressed enough with your service to take a little time to put it in writing, in this busy world, it makes you feel special.
  • My reputation in the community is growing. I love to share my information and my market knowledge with anybody who asks…. it’s no secret! Those who own real-estate want to know how the market is faring, and what’s going on in their neighborhood….. I’ve seen thousands and thousands of properties in the last 22 years, and I love to compare notes about my observations!
  • I am honored, constantly, by those who choose to hire me for what will probably big one of the biggest transactions, financially, in their lives. Honored by their trust in me and their belief that I will get it done for them.
  • I love to find another way to get something done… this crazy market presents new problems to be solved CONTINUALLY! I enjoy being able to solve them, whatever they are, and move on. When I was business partners with Terra Ayres, I think I drove her nuts! There were times when the logical thing to do would be to cut my losses and move on, but I couldn’t stand walking away from a listing that was in the throes of foreclosure, or a buyer who had “analysis paralysis“! Those transactions were the most frustrating AND the most satisfying, for some weird reason.
  • I have enjoyed a career that is so flexible I can be home with the kids when I want to or need to… take a vacation when I want to…. skip work for the day to head off to a garden walk at the last minute…
  • I have had the luxury of meeting so MANY, MANY great people over the years, sheerly because of my job.
  • Every single listing is DIFFERENT… different sellers, different strategies, different marketing, different buyers, different buyer’s agents… DIFFERENT.

So I guess I don’t hate my job… occasionally, yes, it has its’ moments. Maybe it’s the time of year, or maybe it’s really thankfulness in general, but whatever it is I am still glad to be a part of it!

 

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Monday Morning Market…. weekly musings on Geneva real-estate!

December 1, 2010 by Teresa Keenan

 

The chief indicator that you have arrived at the best real estate firm in Geneva!

Monday Morning Market….

Happy holidays everyone! The season is on us…. Really on us! It’s my hope that all of my readers found many, many things to be thankful for last Thursday! Actually, not just for last Thursday but for every day.

I thought I would list a few of the things that I am thankful for here, just to see if any of you feel the same! I am thankful for 3 amazing children who make me laugh every single day and motivate me to do the best I can do in order to lead them by example. I am thankful for a husband who LOVES to hear about the follies of selling real estate and owning a small business! I am eternally thankful for my little group of cronies(you know who you are) who listen to my complaints/jokes/daily observations and still answer my calls every day!  I am thankful for my sister/brother in law and darling niece who live only 2 minutes from my front door. I am thankful for every single client who has given me the opportunity to be a part of their real-estate transaction. Lastly, I am thankful to own a company that is made up of an amazing team of Realtors whose company I enjoy and respect every day, in a town that I enjoy living in 365 days a year!

Now, on to the numbers…. I have been swamped with business for the last few months, so I apologize for the sabbatical! Getting back to the numbers for the last 7 days in Geneva, here goes-

Active listings= 206 in number, from $115,000 to $1,795,000

Properties under contract in last 7 days= 2, from $329,900 to $395,000

Price reductions= 5 in number, with the greatest reduction going from $499,000 to $479,000

Closings  in the last 7 days in Geneva= …… ZERO………..

  • So far, as of Monday  morning at 10 am or so, there have been 262 closings in Geneva in 2010. Closed prices ranging from $125,000 to $1,175,000. Approximately 10% of the closings reported in the MLSNI for this year were distressed sales, meaning “short sales” or “foreclosures.” This is actually an improvement from 2009, in my opinion. In 2009, there were 259 closings for single family homes, ranging in price from $84,000 to $2,708,754.

The appraisal system continues to be broken and it continually hampers our ability to do business and sell real estate. I believe that if more Americans knew how the banking/lending  system is holding the housing market hostage, there would probably be another Tea Party in the making.

There is still a great amount of opportunity for buyers! The interest rates are at an historic low, and property values are ripe for the picking. There are opportunities out there that may not appear to be the greatest “deal” in the market, but I would consider them “opportunities”  because they are available. Period.

While researching a property for a client last week, I looked at 3 properties that are currently on the market that turned down offers they received when originally on the market….Looking back, I am certain the sellers of those properties WISH they could turn back the clock!! There is too much inventory, too much risk, and not enough qualified buyers, for almost any seller in this market to turn down a buyer.

I will be making a greater effort to keep my blog up to date. It’s one of the activities that I really enjoy, but I seem to have been unable to make it a priority the last couple of months. I am trying to get back to it as best as I can.

As always, if you need assistance with anything real-estate related, please let me know. Even if it’s just a short consultation or a strategy question… I would be delighted to help you, or your neighbors/co workers/friends, in any way that I can.

If you enjoyed this blog post, and would like all posts to be delivered automatically to your “inbox,” please use the SUBSCRIBE button on my blog! Thanks for reading, and have a great week~

THINK SOLD!

Teresa Keenan

www.stonetowerproperties.com and www.thinksold.net

Posted in Monday Morning Market | 1 Comment »

Monday Morning Market… musings on Geneva real-estate statistics….

August 23, 2010 by Teresa Keenan

The Stone Tower Properties real estate office

Stone Tower Properties Real Estate in Geneva, IL

Happy Monday to all!

Yes, it’s been a crazy summer. Happy to report that all is well… kids are almost ready to go back to school, I am almost ready to drop them off, and I am definitely ready to get back to my blog.

Selling real estate is an obsessive little gig…. It seems as if EVERYWHERE I go, people always want to know “what’s up with the market?” “how much do you think the market has taken a hit… 10%, 20%..more?” “what’s up with the mortgage rates, do you think I could re-fi?” “are there any REALLY good deals out there?”…. They ask at church, they ask at school, they ask when we are downtown having a drink at Bien Trucha….. everyone is obsessed with real estate!It’s the American Dream AND the American Nightmare right now. Of course, I am in it up to my eyeballs and I am passionate about it, so it’s fascinating to me to realize how many others are interested in it as well. I know for most folks that it’s the largest investment that they have, so of course they want to check on it whenever they can. Unfortunately, they can’t just look at a ticker-tape on the CNN website to see how their “investment” is doing that day. So, they ask a LOCAL professional. Which brings me to my next point…. COME ON! If you are traveling to Disney next week, you are probably going to look up the weather for Florida. Maybe, if you are really type-A, you will zoom in as far as “Orlando” to get your information. Correct??? So, it goes without saying, that if you are in the need of a Realtor, why in the world would you use a Realtor from Arlington Heights to buy real estate out here? Or worse, to SELL real estate out here??? This is no lie… about 3 months ago I had a listing in Pepper Valley in Geneva. It’s a very nice community! It has a playground, tennis courts, 2 pools and a clubhouse, and it’s really close to several elementary schools. I had a TOP PRODUCER from St. Charles, part of a famous “team” of Realtors, call me to ask me all about the pool in Pepper Valley. He has been selling real estate in our area for YEARS and knew nothing about one of the great assets of living in Pepper Valley. Didn’t know where it was, and darned sure didn’t even know it existed until he showed my listing.  Do yourself, and your family finances, a favor- use someone LOCAL when you buy real estate.

Thought I would throw a few statistics out there today!

  • A Stone Tower Properties agent either LISTED or SOLD 43% of the Geneva properties that were $550,000 or MORE since January 1, 2010!
  • 82% of all sales in Geneva (there have been 197 single family homes sold as of today) were $400,000 and UNDER!
  • There are 234 homes on the market as of right this moment… from $154,900 to $1,899,000
  • The most expensive home that has closed, through the MLS, so far in 2010, was $825,000. It was on the market for 664 days, and started out at an original list price of $1,195,000
  • The least expensive home that has closed, through the MLS, so far in 2010, was $125,000. It was on the market for 478 days and war originally listed at $219,900. This property was a distressed sale (not a foreclosure, a short-sale)

Financing continues to be a thorn in our side. Appraisals routinely present problems. The closings routinely have complications that arise. The banks are CRAZY (Not a GOOD crazy!) However, in spite of all of that, buyers continue to buy! Sellers continue to sell! Rates are amazingly low, AMAZINGLY low! So, real estate continues to be an action-packed adventure, worthy of discussing almost everywhere you go! Go ahead, leave me a question below and let’s play “try to stump the Realtor!” Or, if you have a question in general, throw it out there in the comment section and I will answer as best I can…. looking forward to seeing what all of you are interested in!

THINK SOLD!

Teresa Keenan

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The fleecing of Teresa Keenan……

August 19, 2010 by Teresa Keenan

Teresa and Myles at the Heritage Prairie Farm

Me and my boy

Not really real-estate related except for the fact that this whole incident DID occur in the Stone Tower Properties office, as follows…….

A couple of Mondays ago, I walked in the front door at about 9 am. Barely got my lap-top plugged in when I heard some sniffling and crying at the front door. When I looked up from my desk, there was a woman standing in the front of the office, crying her eyes out. Of course, I asked her if there was anything I could help her with!!! This was the reply…” My mom just died! She lived in St. Louis and I have to get down there….. I didn’t have enough money to pay my rent on Saturday, and now I only have enough money to get on the train and get to Chicago, I don’t have enough money to buy a bus ticket once I get there… can you help me????”

Well, what was I going to do? Geez… so I opened up my wallet and gave her $20, which was all I had in there! (live by the debit card, die by the debit card!) She thanked me profusely, then left, still weeping. Of course, my husband was upstairs here at the office, listening to this whole scene, and when she finally left, he yelled down the stairs something about me being a bleeding heart liberal a.k.a. SUCKER……

How shocked was I when one of my friends who lives about 2 blocks from this office told me the exact same story, but a different ending…. my friend was wise enough not to pony up the money!!! At this point I was still thinking maybe the girl really needed that dough! My convictions were dashed to shreds on Sunday morning, when I ran smack into her at the French Market here in Geneva, with a nice big  bag of fresh produce, probably purchased with my $20!!! She saw me and avoided all eye contact immediately….dead give-away that I had been ripped off!  Easy come, easy go….

Leave me a comment and let me know…. would you have given the money, or showed her the door?

THINK SOLD!

Teresa Keenan

Posted in Stories from the trenches!, Teresa's tips, rants and raves.... | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments »

Back to the blog……

August 18, 2010 by Teresa Keenan

Hello everyone-Well, a busy summer it has been…… in every single way. Busy at work, busy at home, busy everywhere I go.

What do you think of my new “look” for the THINK SOLD blog?? I put a lot of thought into how it should be presented and how I wanted it to ultimately look, and after MUCH monkeying around, we got it right! I am interested in your feedback, as always, so leave a comment below and let me know your opinion of my new look.

The real estate market continues to amaze us. There are great values everywhere around us, interest rates are WAY BELOW 5%, and we have sold 20% more properties so far this year than we did in all of last year…. with almost 5 full months left to go in 2010. I have included a link on our market trends here in Geneva, from January through today. I thought some of you junkies out there might be missing my statistics, so this would be a good way for you to get a “fix”!

market trend report Teresa Keenan

I’m looking forward to hearing back from all of you. For all of you who are busy gathering pencils, gym clothes and backpacks, find a little time to enjoy the last week of  ”summer.” See you soon,

THINK SOLD!
Teresa Keenan, Broker/Owner of Stone Tower Properties

325 South Street, Geneva, IL 60134

Teresa@stonetowerproperties.com

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Monday Morning Market…. Musings on Geneva real-estate…..

June 15, 2010 by Teresa Keenan

Monday Morning Market….

Happy Tuesday everyone-

Sorry to be a day late with my weekly report! We are going every which way right now at the office…. Buyers/listings/crazy traffic by the Stone Tower Properties headquarters. Our agents are coming and going like wild. For the last week or so, we have been preparing ourselves for the arrival of our state-of-the-art listing display board. We have purchased a TouchPoint system, which will digitally display our listings in our front window with interactive capability! There will be a

32 inch monitor which will give info on all of our listings, 24/7!! Our sellers will be blown away as this will be the icing on the cake for the ultimate exposure for their properties!! The system is being installed right now and will be complete tomorrow…. Stop by and give it a whirl! We can’t wait for the feedback. If you are considering selling your home, you better come for a visit and see if you would like your property featured out front!!!

Here are the stats from everything related to the MLS in Geneva, for the past 7 days…for single-family homes:

  • Active listings
    • 240, with list prices from $144,900 to $1,999,000
  • Under contract in last 7 days=
    • 9 listings! From $239,000 to $749,900 in list prices
  • Price changes=
    • 9 in number, with the greatest reduction going from $925,000 to $899,500
  • Closed=
    • 5 in number, from $235,000 to $550,000! We like to see these kinds of end numbers, because it means a few folks are moving up, which really loosens up our market a little!

I have to take this opportunity to give a little “shout-out” to my friend Juliene Guffey, who owns Interiors by Juliene in Geneva! She is an interior decorator by trade, but she does all of my staging for my listings as well. She did the best job on the cutest little listing I have over in the Fields of Geneva and we got a contract on it in less than 7 days!! The feedback from the showings was amazing, so THANK YOU Juliene for helping my business to thrive!!

In our ever expanding quest for market domination, we are asking our clients/friends/followers to check out our Facebook pages:

“Stone Tower Properties”

&

“365 things to do in Geneva, IL”

With over 400 million users, we thought it appropriate to extol the virtues of living in Geneva, to the locals and to perhaps a few interested folks who do not live here…. Yet!

If you like our pages, please hit the “LIKE” button and become one of our fans! And don’t forget to invite a few friends to do the same…..We promise you won’t be disappointed!


THINK SOLD!

Teresa Keenan

www.stonetowerproperties.com and www.thinksold.net

Posted in Monday Morning Market | 1 Comment »

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