Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Company gives Realtors an edge - Business - BradentonHerald.com

When a Realtor closes a sale and breathes a sigh of relief, the next step should be working on the next deal.

That?s what Tara Gitt, a real estate agent and owner of Edge Real Estate Transaction Management, believes.

Giving Realtors the opportunity to maximize their time and profits is the philosophy behind the business, which provides support services to agents.

All the nitty gritty detail -- putting up and taking down signs, installing lockboxes, taking house photos and measurements and being there to monitor transactions during agents? vacations -- are the services provided by the company founded in April by Gitt.

?It is the hub of the real estate transaction,? Gitt said. ?We keep tract of deadlines, timelines. Realtors making $50 to $100 an hour shouldn?t have to be driving to Sarasota to put up a sign.?

Gitt, who is a Realtor with Keller Williams On the Water, owns the company but leaves the actual work to her four employees so she doesn?t get caught in a competing situation with other agents.

Edge charges a flat hourly fee for many of its services, from $20 an hour to attend home inspections and provide open house staffing to $30 an hour to measure rooms, install signs and a lock box. Other costs are a flat price -- $295 to provide contract to close services and $175 for a listing set-up.

Cody Giltner is the field representative for Edge and usually the one putting up signs, taking photos, and measuring rooms.

?Prices are down now for real estate and agents aren?t making what they use to so they need to spend their time on revenue producing things,? he said.

Joanne Owens, broker for Keller Williams on the Water, agrees. That?s why she is using the company for sign put up and removal, filling out Multiple Listing Service data sheets, lock box installations and taking photos.

?We have between 70 and 80 listings in our inventory and using them (Edge) allows my listing specialists to do what they do best,? she said. ?This allows for the more repetitive tasks to be done by someone who is really good at it.?

Another service niche Edge is providing is social media services.

?Most business people have it on a list of things to do but it stays there because they don?t know how to go about getting it done,? Gitt said.

Enter Crystal Stocker, Edge?s ?techno chick,? who is web savvy and handles everything from creating personalized mobile apps and QR codes to setting up Facebook, Twitter and blog accounts.

?If you want to reach the whole market, you need social media,? Stocker said.

Reba Rogers, owner of AAA Bookkeeping and Tax Services in Bradenton, knows that social media is important to businesses these days.

Since she isn?t as tech savvy as she would like, she hired Edge to set up and maintain her Twitter and Facebook accounts.

?I might see a good tax tip, then I?ll email it to them and they?ll post it,? Rogers said. ?This helps me touch base with my clients more often because usually they come in once a year and then I don?t see them for a year.?

Vacation coverage is growing in popularity for the company, Gitt said, because it allows real estate agents to get their time-off even if they are in the middle of a house closing.

One client was working on a short sale recently and was in the Dominican Republic without access to email or phone when the bank approval came through. Edge staff stepped in and communicated with the buyer, heading the property toward a closing when the agent returned, Gitt said.

Source: http://www.bradenton.com/2011/09/17/3502419/company-gives-realtors-an-edge.html

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