“Meet Mr. Residential – the Office is Open”

           The Kit Anstey Real Estate Team operates mainly along the Main Line, down to Wilmington, and across the Jersey Shore. Kit himself was licensed in 1987 and met with such success that he opened his own real estate company. “Even though I had success in a small office I realized I needed to go big because everything in the area was getting big and I needed to be part of a conglomerate” so in 1997 Prudential bought Kit’s company and he’s been “very happy” with them ever since. It didn’t take him long to realize that he needed to go from being a single agent with an assistant to a full fledged real estate team. Kit says “relocations in particular make it hard to have more than one client at a time as you often have to act as a tour guide to the entire area.” So in 1998 the Kit Anstey dream team was born and has been growing ever since. Today Kit has three clerical people, one full-time closing agent, a graphic artist, a webmaster and a slew of buyer’s agents who do nothing but list and sell real estate, you may have seen the names……Bobbie Surrick, Lou and Geri Calvarese, Amy Croce, Debbie West, Cleo Elkinton, Brian Nelson, Shawn Koberg and Barbara Cropper as the full time Customer Care Manager. Kit has high expectations for anyone joining the team – all must have Blackberry’s and be available 24/7 and yes, you can even text the Kit Anstey Team. As he says “we have specific job delegation for the team which leaves the agents plenty of time to do what the client needs, all of the buyer’s agents are experienced and some are specialists in certain areas.”
             Obviously all this planning ahead has worked out wonderfully; the Kit Anstey Team has been ranked in the top 100 agents in the nation (out of 62,000!) for eleven, count ‘em, eleven years in a row, making them recipients of the coveted PREAA 100 Award. Funny thing is after I congratulated him on such a consistently coveted accolade, he said they may well be even prouder of their many Customer Service Awards, “we’re not in the real estate business really, we’re in the customer business. If in fact we satisfy current and past clients the business will follow us, that’s been our motto and it’s worked out beautifully as we’re very blessed with referrals.” He also took care to point out that although Prudential Fox & Roach is the largest independently owned real estate business in the nation, it still has a “down home” feel, and that’s largely due to the three owners; Larry Flick IV President and CEO, Larry Geiser and Jim Waters. “They live around here and will call you up and go out to dinner with you.” Kit tells me, “it’s amazing the personal service they give to us agents and we pass it on to our clients.”
            Kit’s home base, the Prudential Fox & Roach West Chester Office prides themselves on being able to handle transactions from start to finish all under one roof thanks to in-house title insurance, mortgages and even homeowner’s insurance. Trident Mortgage guarantees that if you’re preapproved by them you WILL go to settlement.  How cool is that?  Especially considering all the appraisal issues buyers go through these days.  Despite the fact that most of today’s real estate news is rather grim at best there are areas still appreciating and the West Chester Office has actually beaten their sales goals for the past three months. Not too shabby for a recession.
          So how should you go about narrowing your agent choices down?  With a wry smile Kit points out that “the first thing is to hire an experienced real estate agent who knows the area in which you are looking or buy or sell. The biggest mistake I see is hiring your brother or your buddy who dabbles part time, I applaud the loyalty but please just don’t go there.  I can picture Kit fielding frantic phone calls from “hours away” agents asking for instructions, tax parcel history and a good place to go for lunch. They mean well, they just don’t know anything about the area at all and this translates over and above pricing and showing to how the actual business is done. “It’s really not a bad market, West Chester Borough makes an appearance on the Top 100 Cities to Live In list so it’s not like people aren’t looking. As far as listings go Kit rattles off stats like “If it’s under 300k it’s usually gone in less than 30 days, 450-600k range moves in about 65-75 days, but the million dollar executive homes can be on the market for a year. Kit shook his head, saying “there’s a new construction home in Chadds Ford that priced as it is – will never sell, period.” He also thinks that the region’s report on new construction is very misleading; it shows consumer confidence up with the new administration in the White House, a lot of those buyers are corporate relocations who are deciding to rent for year and see how it all pans out. They’re buyers…..just not right now. Kit has a message for you waffling first time home buyers; “it’s a free $8000, a lot of people still don’t understand that they don’t have to pay it back, that’s it….you just get $8000 dollars. Also a first time home buyer is anyone who hasn’t owned a home within the last three years.”
          So remember as a seller it pays to be reasonable. Just because you love it doesn’t mean the market will, and Kit will not hesitate to bring you back to earth if your pricing expectations are rocketing unchecked skyward. “You’re hiring us to sell the house not list the house and I don’t want to buy the listing. Price is an education not an opinion, you need to take in the full scope of comparables, what’s already settled (or not) and market conditions. If your house isn’t being shown it means the realtors don’t agree with the price, if it’s being shown but you have no offers it means the buyers don’t agree with the price. I think we’re pretty much at the bottom in West Chester.
          “When it comes to our services we tend to under promise and over deliver. $135 million in sales just their team, we invest a great deal of commission into advertising and marketing, quick-guaranteed 30 day schedule of a ridiculous amount of ads. People want to see their house advertised. Yes, people do buy houses because of advertising. The Kit Anstey Team is omnipresent, just take a drive – you can’t miss the billboards, or pick up any newspaper, real estate journal or upscale magazine, like the one you’re reading now.  
           “I know our business philosophy is one people will appreciate, it’s super stressful dealing with a large financial decision, and we educate with empathy, wisdom gained from experience and by keeping you informed. Commission is a lot of money, but people need us; there’s so much more than just selling the home, first we have to sell the buyer and secondly we have to sell the appraiser. Statistics from NAR says a great percentage of FSBOS get less than had they utilized the skill of a realtor. If people are interested in selling or buying in area we’d love the opportunity to talk, there’s so much new stuff to be aware of.”
          Barreling out the door to meet his next client, Mr. Residential has left the building.