INSIDE HAWAII INC.
CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM
Harry Lee of Century 21 All Islands says he wants the "opportunities and programs" offered to his company's agents to be consistent throughout its 13 offices statewide. Above, he posed Thursday in front of the real estate company's new offices in Hawaii Kai.
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Lee pursues efficiency at realty firm
The Century 21 exec says he's 'a lucky guy' for getting into real estate when he did
By Star-Bulletin staff
Question: What are your plans?
Answer: We have about 419 agents and 50 staff spread throughout the state. I want to make the company more uniform.
Q: How so?
A: We have to use the 'Net a lot more than other firms in the state.
Most real estate companies have gone from a mom-and-pop to more corporate now. What we need to do is deliver the same programs that we have been on Oahu to ensure that our agents and support staff on the neighbor islands have the opportunities and programs and be consistent throughout.
Q: How are you doing that?
A: Actually, since last year, we implemented a statewide education program for agents. It doesn't matter who joins our system, they are provided with the same foundation, and that has eliminated some of the inconsistency where we had 13 offices with 13 different training programs. Maybe one office will have a better training than another office. You can see some offices are maybe doing better than others. We have developed a program where we have qualified instructors to do that.
Q: Paul Brewbaker sees the median price for Oahu single-family home resales hitting $700,000 this year, then staying there until the market cycles up again. Do you agree?
A: I tend to agree with him in the sense that we have got into a threshold where affordability, the prices of homes ... let's say the average citizen can't afford anything higher than that.
Q: Is affordability an issue?
A: We've been seeing that throughout the mainland, and we tend to follow the mainland trends after a short while. So as a result of that, our inventory has started to build up a bit, our agents are getting to help their clients as far as negotiate. It takes a while because the sellers have to start learning they have to bring their prices down to sell.
Q: One result of rising property values has been rising property taxes, prompting outcry from residents. What should be done, if anything?
A: Just by reading the paper, I know the City Council has various plans. I think more than anything else, the people who are affected more are the senior citizens. Their property values have changed but their income hasn't changed.
When the market was bad, the taxes were adjusted downwards, but the appreciation has been greater than in the past. There has to be something done. The sad part is there isn't any other way to pay their taxes, so we have to find some way to accommodate them, some relief.
It's a balancing act where you have to balance the needs with a certain amount of funds.
Q: What got you into real estate from systems engineering?
A: It was more of a career change. I left that position in 1988 and started a marketing company, Awards of Hawaii. My boys were in their teen years and I wanted to be with them.
I also spent 20 years with the American Youth Soccer Organization. And from there I progressed through various volunteer positions.
The last position I left was the national management instructor for AYSO, so I traveled extensively, training volunteers how to manage an organization.
Q: What brought you into real estate?
A: I saw that my other business was slowing down. I had a previous real estate license back in the '70s but never practiced. So I got into real estate at a time when very few people were interested in real estate.
Now that I look back, I can't believe my timing. It's been very profitable since.
I just consider myself to be a lucky guy.
Q: With more flat-fee brokers in the industry, how does Century 21 remain competitive?
A: There's a market for different models out there, for different real estate companies. It really depends on the situation or market at that time.
In the past, we didn't have to market. People would come into your office and say, "I want to buy something," or a friend would come into your office and off you go.
It's like anything. It's business. If you're going to pay a flat fee, the question the sellers are going to have to ask is what are you going to do for me for a flat fee. Many of the sellers are not educated enough to ask the question.
We train our agents to understand what our company can provide. We don't go out and say anything negative about anyone; we just put out our advantages.
Q: Last word?
A: We are going to open a new office in Waikele in late spring or late summer. That should be a 70 to 100 agent office.
We also have a company magazine called Hawaii Moves magazine. We have a distribution of 400,000.
We have a relocation program whereby we refer that work and give out $10 million in sales leads a week to our agents from the mainland company network.
HARRY LEE
Century 21 All Islands has promoted Harry Lee to chief operating officer.
He started last month and is in charge of developing and improving statewide operations of Century 21's 13 offices on Oahu, Kauai, Maui and the Big Island.
He previously served as broker-in-charge of Century 21's Waikiki office. He started his real estate career as a full-time agent with Coldwell Banker Pacific Properties in 1999.
His background is in marketing and computer systems engineering, and he held management positions with NCR Corp. and AT&T more than 20 years.
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