Westlake Ace Hardware sells for $88M

Lenexa-base home improvement retail chain Westlake Ace Hardware sold to Ace Hardware Corp. for $88 million.

Westlake Ace Hardware previously was owned by Goldner Hawn Johnson & Morrison, a Minneapolis-based private equity firm.

The acquisition closed on Monday and was announced Tuesday.
Ace Hardware Corp. owns 85 stores in 33 markets, primarily in the Midwest and the Sun Belt.

Westlake Ace Hardware for a time joined Ace Hardware Corp. after starting in 1905 as simply Westlake Hardware in Huntsville, Mo.

In 2006, Goldner Hawn bought Westlake Ace Hardware, which is in 85 communities in seven states stretching from New Mexico to Iowa, including Missouri and Kansas.

Source

Laurus Corporation Acquires Hilton Hotel in Kansas City

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 26, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Laurus Corporation, a U.S.-based private real estate investment and development firm, announced that it has acquired the Hilton Kansas City Airport hotel in Kansas City, MO. The Hilton Kansas City Airport includes 347 guest rooms and suites, and provides 21,000 square feet of meeting space options in the Kansas City airport submarket. The property is strategically located fronting the well-traveled Interstate 29 and is less than five minutes from Kansas City International Airport, the second busiest airport in the state serving approximately 10.4 million travelers annually. The hotel is surrounded by more than 6 million square feet of office space, in addition to Fortune 500 companies, including General Motors, Ford Motors, Harley-Davidson, Toyota and Sony. It is also close to a wealth of shopping, dining, golf and entertainment activities, including NASCAR at the Kansas City Speedway, The College Basketball Experience, Kansas City Zoo, Sprint Center, Power & Light District and the World War I Liberty Memorial.

"This is Laurus' second closing on a Hilton property in the past week and completes our sixth acquisition for 2012," said Andres Szita, Chairman and Co-founder of Laurus Corporation. "Both the Hiltons offer investors quality full-service hotels in markets that have experienced significant RevPar growth over the past 12 months." 

"The Kansas City market features robust demand drivers and various value-add opportunities through renovation, operating efficiencies and management," noted Jean Paul Szita, President & Chief Financial Officer of Laurus Corporation. "We will execute an $8 million property improvement plan that will greatly elevate guest experience and NOI in the coming years." 

"The recognizable strength of the Hilton Brand and its reservation system adds credibility and liquidity avenues for both properties, and implemented operational efficiencies will position the hotels for a strong and stable return for investors," commented Philip Cyburt, Chief Executive Officer of Laurus Corporation. This is our third capital allocation from Laurus' Ethika Fund, partnering with institutional capital from Lowe Enterprise Investors, through a separate account investment managed on behalf of Ohio PERS.

Hilton Kansas City Airport is located at 8801 NW 112th Street, Kansas City, Missouri, 64153. Renovations include a modernization of the lobby and surrounding restaurant and bar which will feature chic, modern fixtures and decor. Guestrooms, meeting space and common areas will be revamped to elevate the overall guest satisfaction.

Laurus Corporation is a real estate investment and development company that specializes in hotels and resorts, office buildings, multifamily and mixed-use properties. Laurus employs an entrepreneurial investment strategy designed to consistently achieve attractive risk-adjusted returns by creating capital appreciation opportunities through repositioning, restructuring, re-development and intensive post acquisition asset management. It is affiliated with Ethika Investments, LLC, a real estate investment firm. 

SOURCE Laurus Corporation

200 Years of history sits atop a hill in Gladstone

"Little did the pioneers who carved out a life on Gladstone’s eastern edge realize that nearly 200 years later their homestead would become a national historic site and a preservation project for future generations.

In 2005, with the blessing of the farm’s owner, Lena Johnson, Gladstone purchased the house, some outbuildings and two acres of land for about $100,000. Two years later, the farm was named to the National Register for Historic Places.

In 1824, William and Rachel Allen applied for a land grant for the original 240-acre parcel. Soon after, they sold 130 acres to John and Polly Hightower. No record exists pinpointing an exact date, but between 1824 and the early 1830s, a log cabin was built on the farm.

Jonathan Q. and Mary Atkins purchased the farm from the Hightowers in 1834, and between 1850 and 1860 modified the two-story cabin, building an I-frame house around it. While they owned the farm, the Atkinses raised livestock, planted crops, operated a steam sawmill and owned a blacksmith shop and stable.

The family’s ownership ceased in 1904 when Rudolph Schroeder purchased the farm. Ownership changed again in 1920 when Mary Johnson – widow of John O. Johnson – purchased the property. Between 1932 and 1934, her oldest son, Emmett, bought the farmstead. Various Johnson family members lived and farmed the on property until 1991, making such improvements over the years as adding a kitchen, putting in natural gas and installing an indoor bathroom (though not until the early 1960s). From 1991 until 2004, tenants leased the farm.

Since Gladstone’s purchase of the farm in 2005, a new roof, porch repair and chimney stabilization have spruced up the house, security lighting and fencing have been added and brush and trees have been cleared. Plans for the farm’s makeover (which would make Ty Pennington envious) are being finalized, but highlights include restoring the house’s interior – possibly with portions of the original cabin visible – and adding parking. Officials hope to restore the property to resemble an early 1900s Missouri working farm."

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Slow but steady the forecast for real estate

New apartment projects and rebounding area home sales were the highlights of the residential real estate sector in 2012, while industrial parks and spec buildings dominated the commercial real estate sector. 

 Through November, new and existing home sales were up 9 percent from the same period a year ago, according to the South Central Kansas Multiple Listing Service. Residential rentals were on the upswing, leading the area’s biggest real estate sales company, J.P. Weigand & Sons, to create a property management division to capture the upturn in rental homes.

Meanwhile, work continued on projects such as the Lux in downtown Wichita, converting the former KG&E headquarters at First and Market into apartments.

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RE/MAX R4 Convention in 2013 will celebrate 40 years of RE/MAX! Held at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on 25-28 February 2013, next years convention will promise to be the biggest and best yet!

"It was an awesome experience and I'm already planning for the next one in 2013" Lana Mehlhopt, RE/MAX Leaders (Kilbirnie).

Do NOT miss out on your opportunity to network, engage and learn with like minded associates and truly be inspired. We at RE/MAX New Zealand want to celebrate 40 years of RE/MAX success so lets have at least 40 kiwis there to celebrate!

 

Uncle Sam keeps jobs and finances flowing to the KC area

 

More than 60 years after President Harry Truman included Kansas City as one of the original 10 regional headquarters cities for his new General Services Administration, this area continues to owe an important part of its prosperity to the federal employees based here.

The federal government, either directly or through contracts, employs 41,500 people in the metropolitan area with a combined annual payroll of more than $3 billion, making it by far the biggest employer in the region. And for every federal job, there are one to two estimated spinoff private jobs.
Just last week, that same Heartland Region GSA office established by Truman in 1949 announced it was seeking rental space in downtown Kansas City for 1,000 federal employees now at the Bannister Federal Complex. In November, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service said it would be hiring 800 employees over the next 10 months.
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And next year, the National Nuclear Security Administration is scheduled to begin moving its nuclear weapons parts operation managed by Honeywell at the Bannister facility into a new replacement plant. The massive complex cost $590 million to build and will keep 2,500 well-paid jobs in the area for many years.

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Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/12/10/3958568/no-1-employer-uncle-sam-keeps.html#storylink=cpy

Talk of south JoCo highway loop comes around again

Talk about building a new highway loop through Johnson County is revving up again in response to growing development in the area, The Kansas City Star reports.

A state study of transportation needs includes a look at the idea of a highway loop going southward from Interstate 70 near Tonganoxie to Gardner, then eastward to Missouri. Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback said he would like to see more serious discussion of the idea.
Similar plans for what was then called the 21st Century Parkway stalled out in the mid 1990s.
Renewed interest is being stirred by continued development in South Johnson County and the BNSF Intermodal Facility being build in Edgerton.

Source

Kansas City voters approve streetcar plan

A pool of 550 Kansas City voters approved tax and property assessments that could make a two-mile streetcar line in Downtown a reality as soon as 2015.
Officials at the Kansas City Board of Election Commissioners released the results of the special mail-in election Wednesday afternoon.

Voters granted the Kansas City Downtown Streetcar Transportation Development District the authority to levy a 25-year, 1-cent sales tax on all retail sales made in the district, as well as a series of property reassessments in a special tax district composed of the River Market, Downtown and the Crossroads Arts District to finance the two-mile Main Street streetcar line

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News Summary: German real estate booms

BUYING BOOM: Home prices in Germany's largest cities are booming. Building permits and home ownership rates are climbing fast. And the percentage of foreigners snapping up second homes in Germany is on the rise.

CRISIS FALLOUT: The real estate fervor is a consequence of the European debt crisis. Low interest rates have pushed down homebuyers' costs and inflation fears have driven many to real estate as a safe haven for their savings.

NO BUBBLE: Experts downplay the chances of a real-estate bubble like those seen in the U.S., Ireland or Spain. Borrowing in Germany is more heavily regulated.

Source: KansasCity.com

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/12/13/3964561/news-summary-german-real-estate.html#storylink=cpy

Google’s 10 most popular KC restaurant searches

Minsky’s Pizza and barbecue places were among the area restaurants “trending” this year.

This year, Google added the 10 most searched restaurants in Kansas City to its 12th annual Year-End Zeitgeist list.

The most searched: Minsky’s Pizza followed by Fiorella’s Jack Stack Barbecue, Stroud’s, 801 Chophouse, Arthur Bryant’s Barbeque, Michael Smith, Gates Bar-B-Q, Plaza III The Steakhouse, Hereford House and Bluestem.

Source: KansasCity.com

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/12/13/3964620/googles-10-most-popular-kc-restaurant.html#storylink=cpy

Interstate 49 opens road to opportunity for trade, development in KC area

At a Dec. 12 ceremony, transportation officials celebrated the opening of a new stretch of Interstate 49.

For those along its path, I-49 is far more than a road between Kansas City and the Joplin area. They say the newly christened interstate will be a driver of commercial development and trade that enhances Kansas City’s historic role as a transportation hub.

The Missouri stretch of I-49 joins another portion in Louisiana. Once Arkansas fills the gap, drivers will be able to go from New Orleans to Kansas City, then catch Interstate 29 to Winnipeg, Canada.

Hantover is relocating from KC to Overland Park

Hantover Inc. and its subsidiary, ARY Inc., are moving from Kansas City to Overland Park, bringing 91 employees and the promise of an additional 39 jobs over the next five years.
The company, a distributor for the food processing and general manufacturing industries, is investing $3.3 million in its new offices at 5200 W. 110th St., according to an announcement Friday by the Overland Park Chamber of Commerce Economic Development Council. It had been at 10301 Hickman Mills Drive.

“We are pleased to become corporate citizens of Overland Park considering the quality of life available for our staff and economic opportunity for our company,” Bernard Huff, president of Hantover, said in a statement.

Hantover received incentives from the state of Kansas as part of its move, but state officials declined to provide details.

“We did give incentives, but until the time the contracts are signed they’re not public,” said Dan Lara, spokesman for the Kansas Department of Commerce.
The company was founded in 1939 as a distributor of production supplies to the food industry. It has 10 distribution centers across North America and works with 2,000 vendors and 40,000 customers, according to the Overland Park Chamber of Commerce Economic Development Council.

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Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/09/21/3826879/hantover-inc-relocating-from-kc.html#storylink=cpy

Wyandotte County dreaming big, accomplishing some developments

Development was a big story in Kansas City, Kan., recently, with the groundbreaking of a new apartment complex at 130th and State, a new community center at Donnelly College and an effort to draw attention to the need for more development in the northeast area.

   Just about the same time as all this happening, Dwayne Knott, who is on the board of the Friends of Kaw Point, was dreaming up a new idea for development at Kaw Point Park and the levee in Kansas City, Kan.

   “We’re working very hard to bring an interpretive center here,” Knott said during the Lewis and Clark re-enactment event at the park last weekend.

   Kaw Point Park has one of the richest histories of any place in the community, according to Knott. First at the site, at the confluence of the Missouri and Kansas rivers, was the Kanza tribe, he said. Then, Lewis and Clark stopped at the site during their expedition to explore the new territory in 1804. The Wyandots in 1843 purchased ground and formed Wyandot City in what is now Kansas City, Kan., and then sold it. The Exodusters were next at the site in 1873. In 1925, the last Exoduster building was torn down, he added. In 1942, craft built here that was later used in the Normandy landing was launched from Kaw Point.

   What’s at the site now is the Kaw Point Park, with the levee and the sea wall, a small amphitheater, a small outdoor education pavilion, the Confluence of Nations Plaza, that tells about Lewis and Clark and native tribes, along with trails, and a boat dock.

Rural KC Real Estate answers questions about moving to the country

There is a cartoon that circulates among Realtors who sell country property. It shows a couple sitting in front of a Realtor saying, “We want 20 acres of complete privacy and quiet, but still within walking distance of shopping, schools and every other convenience.”

“While we laugh at the cartoon, we understand that it’s not that far off from what people are really expecting,” said Bill Gaughan founding partner of Rural KC Real Estate, a real estate team specializing in selling country property.

“If we could pick the two most popular attractions of moving to the country, privacy and seclusion would be at the top of the list,” said Alice Bilyeu, partner with Rural KC. “I would bet that 80 percent of all the buyers that contact us envision a home with a winding driveway hidden back on their property and as much privacy as possible. For that reason we search diligently to list secluded properties as they are so much in demand.”

And while homes like that are hard to find, Rural KC is currently featuring several gorgeous secluded properties, Gaughan said. These properties can be found at Rural KC’s website, RuralKC.com. They include:

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Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/09/23/3824330/rural-kc-real-estate-answers-questions.html#storylink=cpy

Will Google Fiber really increase the property value of your home?

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Google promises its new fiber will increase the speed of your Internet. It also promises that if you get the new service, it can increase your property value by thousands of dollars.
There are still a lot of questions about what Google Fiber will actually look like once it's up-and-running in homes. 

When Google Fiber launched last month, the company promoted a property value increase between $2,000 and $5,000 per home.

"As much as I would love to say that we're going to see prices skyrocket because Google Fiber is coming to these communities, I don't really see it being a factor that's going to make somebody come to this community," said Katie Yeager, CEO of Your Future Address.

Yeager understands how the added value can up the sale price, but she's skeptical of Fiber having as much of an impact as Google says it will.

But Carlos Casas, a team leader with Google Fiber, said the service is a lure for home buyers.
"I heard of a family who is moving from Colorado looking for a house that's fiber-ready now in Kansas City, just because they want to have access to that technology," Casas said at a community meeting at Trinity Community Church in Kansas City, Kan., on Monday.

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U.S. Federal Reserve Beige Book: Kansas City District (Text)

Real Estate and Construction. Residential and commercial real estate activity continued to improve in July and early August, and construction activity strengthened. Residential home sales and prices rose, and home inventories fell. Contacts reported multiple offers on homes and expected continued housing market improvements in coming months. Homes under $300,000 sold particularly well, while homes priced over $500,000 and condos were slow to sell in some markets. Several contacts reported that a large inventory of homes in foreclosure has been held back and could put downward pressure on prices when the homes come onto the market. Builders reported an increase in housing starts and a rise in new home prices as well as improvement in the traffic of potential buyers. Land prices and the cost of building materials rose during the survey period as demand improved. Commercial real estate conditions also improved. Construction and sales of commercial real estate properties rose, real estate prices and rents increased, and vacancy rates continued to fall. Several commercial real estate contacts expected uncertainty surrounding the presidential election to slow activity until late in the year. Developers reported that access to credit remained unchanged.

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KC area becomes a hub for contact centers

You’re talking to the box in a fast-food restaurant’s drive-through lane. You think you’re speaking to an employee inside.


You could be ordering from someone in a remote call center.
That’s one of the more unusual examples of how call centers are tethered to just about every business imaginable.

And it’s all good for the Kansas City area, where tens of thousands of people earn a living as customer service representatives in hundreds of contact centers.

“We’re constantly recruiting for that skill set throughout the Kansas City market,” said Bill Welty, regional director at Grafton Staffing.

Ordering from a catalog? Checking your bank balance? Asking a tax question? Refilling a prescription? Calling for a takeout delivery?

Call centers have been around for decades. But if you answer yes to any of the above questions, you’re increasingly likely to be sending an email, filling out an online form, having a web page chat or sending a tweet that involves one of these centers.

Yesterday’s “call” center is today’s “contact” center — and that means hyped-up demand for customer service representatives with broader skills.

Fortunately, providers say, it’s a demand that’s being met.
The local industry, overall, weathered the recession well and remains strong for all the reasons that it grew here in the first place.

“It’s the same reason why most broadcasters come from the Midwest,” said Shawn Hoy, who manages the OptumRx pharmacy service center in Overland Park. “Accent neutralization.”

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Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/08/28/3782182/kc-area-becomes-a-hub-for-contact.html#storylink=cpy

 

 

 

 

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Will Fed's Mortgage Buying Juice the Housing Recovery?

Home prices are stabilizing, and new construction is bouncing back, but apparently the U.S. Federal Reserve isn't buying a bullish housing recovery.
 

Its announcement Thursday that it would buy up to $40 billion in agency mortgage-backed securities every month, with no clear finish line, says loud and clear that the Fed thinks housing needs more stimulus. (Read More: Fed Pulls Trigger, to Buy Mortgages in Effort to Lower Rates.)

Mortgage rates are already hovering near record lows, but mortgage applications, especially to purchase a home, have been weak. So many have refinanced already at low rates, and so many more are unable to refinance because of lack of home equity or high fees. 

As for home buying, the real growth in that area this year has been among investors on the low end, largely using all cash.

Supplies of foreclosed properties have been shrinking dramatically, as those investors swarm auctions and bid on bulk deals. (Read More: How Investors Are Skewing Home Price Recovery.)

The hot and still heating rental market offers potentially more rewards than the volatile stock market.

In turn, all that activity on the distressed end is pushing up home prices. While overall foreclosure activity is falling, we could see volumes of bank-owned properties for sale rising over the next few months, as banks look to take advantage of rising demand and prices.

We are already seeing spikes in foreclosures activity in states where these cases had been backed up in the courts.

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Riverside ‘Open for Business’ with 260-Acre Office and Industrial Innovation Project City Names Briarcliff Development Co. to Lead Horizons

Riverside on Tuesday named a unit of Briarcliff Development Co. to develop Horizons, a 260-acre site at Interstate 635 and Missouri 9, and unveiled a plan calling for a park-like setting to be home for a projected 5,900 jobs over the next generation.

Briarcliff Development said construction would begin this year on an estimated $12 million plan, including 25 acres of lakes, three miles of tree-lined canals and land set aside for public use and recreational purposes that is projected to connect to the Missouri River Trail.

“Riverside is open for business,” declared Mayor Kathleen Rose. “In the years since the state-of-the-art Missouri River levee was built to protect hundreds of acres in our community, we focused on creating the best possible economic development initiative for land the city owns. We have that today.”

US home prices rise in July by most in 6 years

WASHINGTON -- U.S. home prices jumped 3.8 percent in the 12 months ending in July, according to a private real estate data provider. The year-over-year increase was the biggest in six years, further evidence that the housing market is steadily recovering.

CoreLogic said Tuesday that home prices also rose 1.3 percent in July from June. That's the fifth straight increase in both the monthly and year-over-year price indexes.

The index is the third national measure to show steady increases. The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index posted its first annual increase in nearly two years last week. And a federal government housing agency has also reported annual increases.

The states with the biggest gains according to CoreLogic over the past 12 months were Arizona, Idaho, Utah, South Dakota and Colorado. In Arizona, prices have risen 16.6 percent since July 2011. Idaho has posted a 10-percent gain in that time.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/09/04/3795518/us-home-prices-rise-in-july-by.html#storylink=cpy

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Realtors: US homes selling at faster pace

 
LOS ANGELES -- U.S. homes are taking less time to sell than a year ago, reflecting more homebuyer demand and fewer bank-owned homes and other properties available for sale in some markets.

The National Association of Realtors said Wednesday that the median time a previously occupied home was listed for sale shrank in July to 69 days. That's down from 98 days in the same month last year.

One-third of the homes purchased in July were on the market for less than a month, while one in five was on the market for at least six months. A home's median time on the market has been declining steadily since January, the trade group said.

Between 2004 and 2005, the high-flying years of the housing boom, the median selling time of previously occupied homes was four weeks, NA

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AMC’s new Chinese owner announces a $1.3 million donation to local high schools

Wang Jianlin, chairman and president of the Beijing-based Dalian Wanda Group, told an audience of educators and reporters invited to a news conference at the AMC Town Center 20 in Leawood that his real estate conglomerate has contributed more than $460 million to charities in China since its founding in 1988.

“As a new participant in the Kansas City area business community through our acquisition of AMC Entertainment, we would like to mark the occasion with a contribution aimed at supporting the future,” Wang said in his prepared remarks.

“Nothing is more important to communities anywhere in the world than the development and well-being of our children.”

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/09/06/3799754/amcs-new-chinese-owner-announces.html#storylink=cpy

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Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/09/06/3799754/amcs-new-chinese-owner-announces.html#storylink=cpy

Kansas City housing market builds momentum: Sales, prices, construction pick up

Steve Banks, president of the Kansas City
Regional Association of Realtors

The Kansas City housing market is showing signs of renewed strength after a woeful few years.

New home construction is at its highest level since 2008. The overall number of homes sold is up 20 percent since last year, and the inventory of homes for sale is down 17 percent — a situation real estate agents say is starting to create a shortage of inventory.

Since the beginning of the year, the average number of days a home is on the market has decreased from 100 to 82; the average sale price has increased from $150,000 to $173,000.

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Applebee’s, hardware, pizza and joe — the latest in Kansas City retail

Applebee’s International Inc. has invested more than $4.5 million in its Kansas City-area restaurants during the past two years.

The latest in that line is a Kansas City, Kan., location, which will get a remodeled interior and exterior, service improvements and new menu items. It also will add 10 hourly employees.
The restaurant, 3404 Rainbow Boulevard, will be closed from 10 p.m. Sunday until 4 p.m Aug. 16 to accommodate the work.

Applebee’s has revitalized 22 local restaurants during the past couple of years.
"The Kansas City market is now, and always will be, where we test new ideas," Bob Rentfro, Applebee's director of operations for Kansas City, said in an emailed statement. "We consider Kansas City to be a trailblazing market for us and at the forefront of our brand."

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Sandi Schmude Named a VIP Member of Worldwide Who's Who for Excellence in Residential Real Estate

   KANSAS CITY, MO, August 23, 2012 /Worldwide Who's Who/ -- Sandi Schmude, Realtor for RE/MAX Innovations, was recently named a VIP Member of Worldwide Who's Who. This special distinction honors individuals who have shown exceptional commitment to achieving personal and professional success.

Sandi has enjoyed a 20-year career in the real estate industry. She has seen how the industry and economy cycles and understands the ups and downs of the business and the changes in her clients' lives. She has gained expertise in residential real estate and is currently working with RE/MAX Innovations where she works with clients to address their needs. In addition to working as a Realtor, Ms. Schmude lives on a farm and loves gardening and dogs.

Sandi is a Certified Real Estate Specialist (CRS), a Certified International Property Specialist (CIPS), an Accredited Buyer's Representative (ABR), and a Certified Distressed Property Expert (CDPE). She is affiliated with the Kansas City Regional Association of Realtors, the Missouri Association of Realtors, and the National Association of Realtors. Attributing her success to her truthfulness and experience in the industry, as the years progress she plans to experience continued growth.

For more information about ReMax Innovations, visit http://www.homeinkc.com.

About Worldwide Who's Who
With over 500,000 members representing every major industry, Worldwide Who's Who is a powerful networking resource that enables professionals to outshine their competition, in part through effective branding and marketing. Worldwide Who's Who employs similar public relations techniques to those utilized by Fortune 500 companies, making them cost-effective for members who seek to take advantage of its career enhancement and business advancement services.

Worldwide Who's Who membership provides individuals with a valuable third-party endorsement of their accomplishments, and gives them the tools needed to brand themselves and their businesses effectively. In addition to publishing biographies in print and electronic form, it offers an online networking platform where members can establish new professional relationships.

For more information, please visit http://www.worldwidewhoswho.com.

Contact:
Ellen Campbell
Director, Media Relations
mediarelations@wwregistry.com

Sandi Schmude, Five Star Professional

Why was I chosen as a Five Star Professional?
Five Star Professional conducts research to help consumers with the important decision of selecting a service professional. The Five Star award is presented to service professionals, such as wealth managers and real estate agents, in more than 45 markets in the U.S., and now in Canada. The Five Star award goes to service professionals who provide quality services to clients.
  
Five Star Professional:
• Conducts comprehensive research
• Recognizes service professionals
• Works with media partners, including leading city/regional magazines
• Helps award winners gain recognition
   
We make the market-specific research results available in city/regional magazines and on fivestarprofessional.com.
Five Star Professional also provides award winners with the opportunity to expand their presence in the magazine and celebrate their award with customized marketing tools.

Homeowners More Optimistic on Housing Market, Prices

The economy is still struggling to make a full recovery and the unemployment rate is still sitting above 8%, but when it comes to the housing market, consumers are optimistic about the future, according to a semi-annual survey by real estate website Trulia.

The American Dream survey was conducted in May, and shows consumers are optimistic about the health of the housing market and that home prices will rise in the near future.

The survey was commissioned Harris Interactive and polled 2,205 homeowners and renters in May to get a sense of their attitude toward home ownership in light of the housing crash that led to the recession. Surprisingly, the results also showed more people are seriously considering buying a new home now compared to the last survey.

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