Mary Stetson has always been privy to the art of the deal.
As an industrial engineer in her 20s, she negotiated $20-million semiconductor purchase agreements for IBM Corp.
Today, she still brokers multimillion-dollar deals ”“ but she”™s traded the high technology for waterfront properties in Westchester County.
Like most realty firms”™ owners, Stetson, the founder and president of Stetson Real Estate in Mamaroneck, had to rethink her business strategy when the mortgage meltdown hit. She either had to re-adjust or close shop.
“Once you got toward the end of 2009, those deals that would always normally materialize just evaporated,” Stetson said. “They just evaporated. We went to work rebuilding, stripping the business down to the bottom and building it right back up with the right people”¦ sometimes what a business needs is a crucible like 2009 to make you make hard decisions.”
Year 2012 in residential real estate should remain essentially flat in price and volume of transactions, a trend that could last for several years, she said.
“I also see an increase in the number of renters and rental rates will rise as demand increases,” Stetson said. “Now is a great time for investors to buy properties because of the rental demand on the horizon.”
Stetson, who serves as co-chairperson of the Zone 5 board of directors of the Empire Access Multiple Listing Service, has launched a rental division of Stetson Real Estate dedicated to safe housing.
She is quick to credit Realtor Anthony DeCioccio for connecting with community organization Westhab to help place women in affordable rentals.
“Even though there”™s no money to be made on studios at $800 to $1,000 a month, we”™re trying to work with landlords to be more open to accept people with government assistance,” Stetson said. “We”™ve tried to make it financially beneficial for the landlord ”¦ and offer a bit of a discount on their rental commission.”
Stetson has also launched a neighborhood tours and briefings apparatus to connect prospective homeowners and commercial businesses with guided tours of areas of interest in Westchester County.
The division is fatefully reminiscent of Stetson”™s early years in real estate, when she launched private home rental company Home Suite Home Brokers at the time of the 1996 U.S. Olympic Games.
“I got to know the area (through work with MetLife) and I knew the hotel accommodations were very tight,” Stetson said.
Home Suite Home began consulting work for Private Housing 1996 Inc., a division sanctioned by the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games.
“We ended up bringing in the inventory for the games and then turned it over to Private Housing to do all the registration, the housekeeping,” Stetson said. “That was good because I was pregnant, that sort of wrapped up and I thought, ”˜How can I continue flying?”™ You could basically say I took a mommy track to real estate.”
Visit Stetson online at stetsonrealestate.com.
The Insider: Tips of the Trade
If you”™re in residential real estate and want to better yourself professionally, grow your leads and rack up closings, read Stetson”™s key pointers and take heed:
- Have integrity: “It means you know every single rule and regulation from the New York state licensing law, code of ethics, MLS rules and regulations and apply them in everything you do. The people who make the money can go right to the edge but never, ever cross over that line, like telling someone you have another offer on a place when you don”™t. You never set an impression that is not true.”
- Use technology to your advantage: “We chose to use Salesforce here because it”™s used by most Fortune 500 companies. There”™s still some older-time Realtors out there who still use just a notebook, but it won”™t take them into the future.”
- Be client oriented: “In 2003 and 2004, there were people who taught courses in, ”˜Find somebody who”™s looking to buy or sell a house, see if they”™ll buy or sell within the next few weeks, but if not, discard them to the side and find another lead.”™ It was totally transaction based”¦ People are realizing they can”™t sing and people who can sing are making a good living at it.”
