As you may know, I’m one of the professionals on the new Fox Providence show The Money Pro$. My last appearance was on the episode about the real estate market, which ran in August. You can catch a replay of my segment on buying in today’s market below.
This Sunday, The Money Pro$ will debut a program on Business Succession Planning. Only 30% of small businesses survive to the second generation, so this is a very relevant issue. Maintaining the continuity of the business for stakeholders including co-owners, employees, family and customers is a major issue for large and small companies, and an important aspect in retaining employment in the state. Owning a family business, the topic is of interest to me. Estate planner Karen DelPonte, Esp. partner at Cameron & Mittleman, LLP., and CPA Greg Porcaro, partner of Otrando Porcaro & Associates, will weigh in on the matter. They will be joined by Russ Towers, Esq. of Broker Service Marketing Group, at the round table discussion.
The Money Pro$ is aired weekly on WNAC 64 at 11:30AM. Check your service provider for the channel locations. As a future programming note, I will soon be in the studio recording the December show. I’ll announce the airing date in the next few weeks.
The Money Pro$ provides Southern New England with easily available information on personal finance. If you’re interested in this subject, their website has video from all the episodes, including that of my good friend/radio co-host Steve Tetzner.
This week on my radio show, Rich and Steve are in the studio with Max Brickle, CEO and President of The Brickle Group. A third generation industrialist (and grooming a fourth generation), Max runs a consortium of companies that manufacture woolen fabric, polyester fabric, and non-woven materials used in uniforms, blankets, and berets. But on Sunday, he will be wearing his real estate hat—the company also invests in the re-development of land owned through these manufacturing operations and other investments.
Their latest real estate initiative is a residential housing project in Lincoln. Across the street from the pond and land of the same name, Handy Pond is a 55+ condominium community that they developed with a local builder to supply a housing niche that was missing in Lincoln. This adult community is in an almost rural setting, yet it is set along a good access road to major highways. In this development, they focused on high-end housing with a community feel.
The current batch of units should be available within 60 days. They feature multiple floor plans and upgrade options. More information is available on the Handy Pond website, but you can also learn more by tuning into my radio show.
I heard a story the other day that got me thinking about things irreplaceable. A family making a cross country move hired a company to transport their items. There is nothing unusual about this decision, people hire moving companies every day. However, during the transport, a wheel blew out on the truck and the driver didn’t notice. The friction of the rubber against the other wheels started a fire, and this burned the back of the vehicle. All of their possessions contained therein were destroyed—family photo albums, important documents and, of course, their furniture. A lifetime worth of belongings were lost in an instant.
This got me thinking about the approaching Hurricane Irene. We may not always know when or how disaster will strike. While we can’t control these types of events, we can assemble safeguards that will protect us in the chance of an emergency. One important defense is insurance. While mainstream in regard to homes and cars, this is often overlooked in terms of possessions. Even on something as commonplace as a move, insurance is paramount.
However, if a relocation involves an item that is especially precious to you, (or you happen to be in the path of a major hurricane) it might be a good idea to move it yourself. This does not extinguish the possibility of fiasco, but I think it might give you more control over the outcome. Insurance will reimburse you the estimated cost for what has been lost, but it can’t replace a lifetime worth of memories.
Getting your property in front of serious buyers and generating lots of interest in it is the way to sell your home. A good agent will work to get as many people to view your home as possible. And since most buyers start their search on the internet these days, standing out in the crowd will help develop traffic. Engaging video is one of those tools which can help create the buzz. That’s where the marketing and technology departments enter.
For the past two years, Residential Properties Ltd. has been making property videos and posting them online. We like the media primarily because of the flexibility and creative aspects. Combining the talent from the two departments to film, write, record, and edit, we’ve found that we can work off of each other to fine tune the product into something that will attract, inform, and make viewers want to visit the property.
Our videos have been viewed over 22,000 times on the ResProp YouTube channel, and we’d like to think this is not a fluke. We are thrilled to have some very talented individuals who make it their business to deliver an interesting and effective product to our clients. Working on other projects besides our own movies helps bring creativity to them. For instance, IT Director Tom Flanagan was recently on an award-winning 48 Hour Film Project team. Their video, entitled “The Lip Dub” had to be written, shot, edited, and scored in only a weekend. The team rose to the occasion, adjusting their “creative process” to succeed in this high pressure environment. They were awarded Best Cast Ensemble, Best Choreography, and Viewers Choice.
One of the traditions that has lasted in this era of modern travel is the distribution of wet towels to passengers who want to clean their hands. Of course, the train porter only does this in the first class car. I suspect this tradition began when travelers with newspapers needed to clean the print off of their hands. The question is, “How long will THIS last?”
I don’t often take a train for business travel. But living in New England with easy access to Amtrak, it can sometimes be a treat to hop on in Providence and three hours later, hop off in New York. I recently did this for a meeting in New Jersey, and my colleague, Tom Flanagan, director of IT at Residential Properties Ltd., brought to my attention the lack of newspapers present on the train. I looked around the car and every single passenger was either reading on an IPad, a computer, or a mobile device. There was not a newspaper in sight. People were getting up-to-date stock quotes, reading national and international news, and checking the latest information on the fallout of the Standard and Poor’s downgrade of the US government debt. Technology is addictive when you can get accurate information on demand.
This inevitably got me thinking about the real estate business. The consumer is on-line getting information on the marketplace every hour of the day. They expect instant access and demand instant answers. To be successful in today’s real estate market, professionals and companies need to adapt to this new technology, and embrace the new ways we receive and provide information.
I am extremely proud of the technology services we provide at Residential Properties Ltd. Since we are always looking for areas of innovation, we are constantly improving our methods to help you buy or sell your home. For instance, we are the only independent Real Estate company in the state to provide clients with Lifestyle Search. This new feature helps to streamline the home buying process by focusing your research on neighborhoods that are ideal for the way you live. Even more, there are website applications which allow us to track our online traffic, giving us the ability to see how many people have even evaluated the properties. In olden times, people would place an ad in the newspaper, and there was no way to tell if anyone even looked at it. Nowadays, we can even tell from what part of the country the people are viewing the listings. This helps us figure out where we can get the most bang for our buck, and how we can get the most exposure to benefit our sellers.
I am truly grateful to work with some great movers and shakers in the field of real estate technology. Sometimes, I do miss the feel and smell of that old grimy newspaper, but then you probably wouldn’t be reading this post.
Their latest real estate initiative is a residential housing project in Lincoln. Across the street from the pond and land of the same name, Handy Pond is a 55+ condominium community that they developed with a local builder to supply a housing niche that was missing in Lincoln. This adult community is in an almost rural setting, yet it is set along a good access road to major highways. In this development, they focused on high-end housing with a community feel.
For the past two years, Residential Properties Ltd. has been making property videos and posting them online. We like the media primarily because of the flexibility and creative aspects. Combining the talent from the two departments to film, write, record, and edit, we’ve found that we can work off of each other to fine tune the product into something that will attract, inform, and make viewers want to visit the property.
One of the traditions that has lasted in this era of modern travel is the distribution of wet towels to passengers who want to clean their hands. Of course, the train porter only does this in the first class car. I suspect this tradition began when travelers with newspapers needed to clean the print off of their hands. The question is, “How long will THIS last?”