Casa Grande Dispatch > Business
Pinal Briefcase 9/17/11
Realty firm has new location
Staff Reports
Preparing for a weeklong open house next month, and a ribbon cutting at a new location, doesn’t phase Elite Real Estate Pros broker and owner Neal Buckner. It’s just another part of a work week that already is in the 65- to 80-hour range.
The brokerage is settling into its new location at 502 E. Cottonwood Lane, part of the location that previously housed Azul night club.
“I sold the Azul building to a restaurateur out of California,” Buckner said. “He sat on it for a while, then decided to build this strip center.”
So the 6,000-square-foot restaurant and night club building was remodeled, another 4,000 square feet was built and the location became a strip mall at Cottonwood Lane and Casa Grande Avenue. Buckner became a tenant, leasing 1,300 square feet at the center of the complex for the brokerage he created about a year ago. He doubles as property manager for the center and has leased all but two 300-square-foot spaces.
Despite the fact that the economy has had trouble recovering from a recession, Buckner said business is good. He said real estate professionals actually do better in what most people consider down markets because many people who are in the business part time, or simply don’t have their hearts in it, either get out of real estate or stop trying when the going gets tough.
“Our market here in Casa Grande is still good,” Buckner insisted. “Our job is to put buyers and sellers together. As a professional, you try to get between the buyer and seller and put the transaction together. My best years have been 2009, 2010 and 2011.”
Elite Real Estate Pros has 12 licensed agents, and each has a specialty. Two deal strictly with seasonal rentals in 55-plus communities, one deals with commercial property, some specialize in distressed or bank-owned properties or trustee sales and others work with “normal” residential properties. One is fluent in Russian and another in Spanish.
Buckner said his father got him started in real estate as an 8-year-old in Colorado. His father would buy a house every spring, and Neal would help fix it up to sell it again.
“We’d fix it and flip it,” he said.
Now, at an age when many people retire, Buckner continues to put in long hours at the business he loves.
“My grandfather said you can either wear out or rust out,” he explained.
Elite Real Estate Pros is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and other hours and days by appointment. The phone number is 836-6325. The website is www.EliteRealEstatePros.com.
The brokerage is settling into its new location at 502 E. Cottonwood Lane, part of the location that previously housed Azul night club.
“I sold the Azul building to a restaurateur out of California,” Buckner said. “He sat on it for a while, then decided to build this strip center.”
So the 6,000-square-foot restaurant and night club building was remodeled, another 4,000 square feet was built and the location became a strip mall at Cottonwood Lane and Casa Grande Avenue. Buckner became a tenant, leasing 1,300 square feet at the center of the complex for the brokerage he created about a year ago. He doubles as property manager for the center and has leased all but two 300-square-foot spaces.
Despite the fact that the economy has had trouble recovering from a recession, Buckner said business is good. He said real estate professionals actually do better in what most people consider down markets because many people who are in the business part time, or simply don’t have their hearts in it, either get out of real estate or stop trying when the going gets tough.
“Our market here in Casa Grande is still good,” Buckner insisted. “Our job is to put buyers and sellers together. As a professional, you try to get between the buyer and seller and put the transaction together. My best years have been 2009, 2010 and 2011.”
Elite Real Estate Pros has 12 licensed agents, and each has a specialty. Two deal strictly with seasonal rentals in 55-plus communities, one deals with commercial property, some specialize in distressed or bank-owned properties or trustee sales and others work with “normal” residential properties. One is fluent in Russian and another in Spanish.
Buckner said his father got him started in real estate as an 8-year-old in Colorado. His father would buy a house every spring, and Neal would help fix it up to sell it again.
“We’d fix it and flip it,” he said.
Now, at an age when many people retire, Buckner continues to put in long hours at the business he loves.
“My grandfather said you can either wear out or rust out,” he explained.
Elite Real Estate Pros is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and other hours and days by appointment. The phone number is 836-6325. The website is www.EliteRealEstatePros.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment