The students at St. Malachy Catholic School, 595 E. Ogden Ave., Geneseo, Ill., will learn about hot air ballooning when Geneseo real estate expert LuAnn Lavine brings the RE/MAX Hot Air Balloon to the school on Sept. 11 to present a special interactive educational program. The visit is part of an on-going balloon education program developed by RE/MAX.
The 130 students at the school will see presentations that cover various aspects of ballooning, including its history, the scientific principles involved and a demonstration on how the balloon functions. The program will be presented outdoors at 9 a.m., weather permitting, and the 75-foot-tall balloon will be fully inflated with hot air. The program will be rescheduled if the weather isn’t favorable.
LuAnn Lavine, broker/owner of RE/MAX Hometown Advantage in Geneseo is sponsoring the event.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Geneseo Real Estate Agent Brings RE/MAX Hot Air Balloon To St. Malachy Catholic School In Geneseo On Sept. 11
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
RE/MAX Names Top 10 Illinois Real Estate Buyer Agents For First Half Of 2008
Rick Davis of RE/MAX Accord, Rockford, Ill., and the Jane Lee Team of RE/MAX Top Performers, Lake Bluff, Ill., earned the No. 1 ranking for residential buyer representation in the northern Illinois real estate network during the first half of 2008. The rankings are based on the number of closed sales in which the agent or team represented the buyer.
Davis was ranked first among individual agents, helping buyers purchase 35 homes during the first six months of 2008. The Jane Lee Team assisted buyers in closing 49 Chicago real estate purchases during the same period. A team involves the combined efforts of two or more licensed agents; individual agents are the sole licensed contributors to their sales production.
“Working with buyers in the current market presents some unusual challenges because agents must help buyers find the right house among the unprecedented number of homes now for sale,” said Jim Merrion, regional director of the RE/MAX network in northern Illinois. “The agents and teams who made our Top 10 are great examples of the outstanding service that RE/MAX agents provide buyers in every community we serve.”
The RE/MAX Top 10 Buyer Agent Individuals and Teams for the first half of 2008 are:
TOP 10 INDIVIDUALS
No. 1 – Rick Davis, RE/MAX Accord, Rockford;
No. 2 – (tie) Eric Bird, RE/MAX Sauk Valley, Sterling, Ill., and Larry Leibovitz, RE/MAX Experts, Buffalo Grove, Illinois;
No. 4 – (tie) Kenneth Bieschke, RE/MAX Advisors, Lake Villa, IL; Michael Quaglia, RE/MAX Destiny, Elk Grove Village, Illinois, and Starr Zook, RE/MAX On Track, Aledo, Ill.;
No. 7 – (tie) Madonna Egan, RE/MAX 10, Homer Glen, Ill.; Linda Longmeyer, RE/MAX Suburban, Schaumburg, IL; Douglas Weber, RE/MAX of Rock Valley, Oregon, Illinois, and Tony Wiszowaty, RE/MAX Suburban, Schaumburg.
TOP 10 TEAMS
No. 1 – Jane Lee, RE/MAX Top Performers, Lake Bluff;
No. 2 – Esther Zamudio, RE/MAX Horizon, Elgin, Ill.;
No. 3 – (tie) Marco Amidei, RE/MAX Suburban, Libertyville, IL, and Rosemary West, RE/MAX Realty of Joliet, Joliet, Illinois;
No. 5 – Robert Wisdom, RE/MAX Professionals West, Elgin;
No. 6 – (tie) Lionel Bardier, RE/MAX Sauk Valley, Sterling, and Matt Hernacki, RE/MAX Unlimited Northwest, Palatine, Ill.;
No. 8 – (tie) Bruce Hackel, RE/MAX South Suburban, Flossmoor, Ill., and Alex Rullo, RE/MAX Great American North, St. Charles, IL;
No. 10 – (tie) Cindy Banks, RE/MAX Cornerstone, West Chicago, Ill., and Susan Camiliere, RE/MAX Central, Roselle, Illinois.
Chicago Real Estate Office Opens In Hermosa
RE/MAX recently added a new Chicago real estate office to its northern Illinois network with the opening of RE/MAX In Motion at 4159 W. Fullerton Ave., in Chicago’s Hermosa neighborhood.
Established in 2003 by former RE/MAX agent Joseph Pabon, the office previously operated as an independent firm under the name Nobel Realty. Teaming with Pabon, 37, as a co-owner of the office is Jose Molina, 33, an experienced real estate investor whose background includes auto and truck sales.
The office, which currently has a staff of six agents, serves the Chicago real estate neighborhoods of Logan Square and Humboldt Park, along with Hermosa.
“Joining the RE/MAX network has been on our screen for some time,” explained Molina, who entered the business in 2005.
“My partner’s experience with the RE/MAX organization convinced him that it is the best of the national real estate brands in terms of the tools it provides and the name recognition it offers. It’s just been a matter of waiting until our office was ready to make the transition. No one had to sell us on RE/MAX.”
Pabon will remain the managing broker of the office, while Molina focuses his efforts on infrastructure, accounting and related issues. Both men currently live in Bridgeport and are long-time Chicago residents.
The 2,400-square-foot office can accommodate up to 25 agents, and already has a three-person support staff. Now, plans are in the works to add more support for the agents in the form of a full-time marketing specialist, who will work with agents to maximize exposure of their listings and services at a nominal cost.
“Bringing in a specialist will allow our agents to take advantage of the full array of RE/MAX tools available to them,” Pabon said.
“Our other major goal right now is to bring more experienced real estate sales people into our office. It is a challenging market these days, especially for sellers, and only those offices with a solid core of experienced, fully committed agents are going to thrive in this environment,” he said.
RE/MAX In Motion plans a grand opening event later this year, most likely in September.
“We’re still in the transition period, but that should be completed by Labor Day, and then it will be the right time to celebrate our new RE/MAX identity and re-introduce ourselves to the community,” Molina said.
