Ariel Jordan, Author at CENTURY 21 MarketLink Realty

5 Ways to Curate Retail in Mixed-Use Property

February 20, 2019 By Ariel Jordan

Savvy owners of retail properties understand the importance of achieving the perfect tenant mix. After all, the success of their shopping center may depend on it. That’s because a good tenant mix creates synergies that benefit both tenants and landlord.

Now that concept is being extended to mixed-use projects, where developers are carefully curating the tenant mix to ensure that retailers complement one another and ultimately benefit the tenants as well as themselves.

Here are five tips for curating retail at your mixed-use property:

Understand your market and your project. Remember that retail is viewed by tenants as an amenity, so be sure to select retailers that meet the needs of your tenants as well as the neighborhood. Retailers should help create a sense of community at the property. One example: a coffee shop, where residents gather.
Seek out experiential retailers—fun, hip stores that attract visitors because they provide them with experiences or entertainment. One example: Sur La Table, which not only sells cooking supplies but offers cooking classes.
Start early. The days of building a project and then leasing it up are over. Evaluate tenants during development or construction, and sign them on early.
Mix it up. People who choose to live in a mixed-use project are seeking a live/work/play lifestyle. Make sure that retail tenants provide for all needs of residents wanting convenience.
Curate tenants in offices too. Some owners of large office buildings are already adding curated retail on the ground floor as the line between work and home dissolves for many hardworking employees. Businesses may consider it a benefit to offer employees easy access to a dry cleaner or hair salon, for example.

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How to prepare your home for a winter open house

February 20, 2019 By Ariel Jordan

The winter season can be a great time to sell your house, but while your competition is reduced, success during this time can still depend on a successful open house. To help make your open house as effective as possible, follow these tips.

Take down your decorations. The holidays are over, but if you’re the type that likes to leave the decorations up for a time, taking them down before your open house is a good idea. Prospective buyers may not celebrate the same holidays as you and you don’t want to alienate them.
Clear the clutter. If you haven’t put those holiday gifts away yet, now’s the time. Prospective buyers should be able to focus on your home instead of the collection of things crowding it. Give them nice open spaces to move about and they’ll be appreciative.
Turn up the heat. Warm and cozy is more than a catch phrase during the winter. Bring the temperature up in your home slightly during your open house to keep your guests comfortable. If they are too cold in your home, they aren’t apt to stay long.
Plan for winter apparel. Be it jackets or boots, take extra steps to prepare your entryway for the added material your buyers will bring with them. A designated spot to place these items can make guests feel welcome and keep your home cleaner during the showing and beyond.

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5 winter DIY home projects

February 20, 2019 By Ariel Jordan

If you’re the type that loves to take on a good DIY project, the winter season can leave your options … lacking. Don’t despair, there’s still plenty that needs to be done around your home even when it’s cold outside. Here’s a list of indoor DIY projects you can start tackling today.

Insulate your water heater. A source of heat during the winter, you can reduce your home’s energy usage by wrapping your water heater in insulation to keep your water hot, whether you’re using it or not.
Add a programmable thermostat. This one just makes sense when considering energy conservation. Programmable thermostats allow you to control the temperature of your home from anywhere and set preprogrammed temperature guidelines to lower your home’s temp when you’re away and raise it when you return.
A fresh coat of paint. Summer is the time for painting your home’s exterior, but the winter was made for inside painting projects. This is an easy way to add vibrancy to those dreary winter months. Just try to pick a day when it isn’t raining or snowing to make your ventilation easier.
Clear the clutter. Increase your living space by clearing junk. If you haven’t used it in a year, say goodbye.

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The Formula for Creating a Luxury Bath

February 20, 2019 By Ariel Jordan

Amy Vermillion may have over 20 years of design experience, but even she knows that designing a luxury bath can be a daunting experience.

Although luxury means different things to different people, the Charlotte, N.C.-based Vermillion says that there are certain elements that need to be included in a luxury bath no matter what the definition is. Here’s what Vermillion says her clients demand in their baths:

A great bathing experience. Residents want to be pampered, whether they’re taking a bath or shower. But everyone has different needs. Do you want a soft or brisk shower spray? Multiple showerheads, body sprays, music or lighting? Vermillion always includes a hand shower on a slide bar for times clients just want to rinse off without washing their hair.
Fine fixtures. Vermillion refers to faucets as “the jewelry of the bathroom.” She looks for clean lines, interesting geometry and beautiful finishes. Nickel is one of her favorites. Vermillion recommends ROHL faucets not just because they are stylish but because they are also relatively maintenance-free.
A tankless water heater. This may not instantly spring to mind when you think of luxury in the bathroom, but a tankless water heater gives you unlimited hot water without a wait. Cold showers become a thing of the past!

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Broker Spotlight: Q&A with Christine Hansen of CENTURY 21 Hansen Realty

August 6, 2018 By Ariel Jordan

What are some of the key growth opportunities in the real estate business today?

The way I see it, the more that things change, the more they stay the same. While there have been seismic shifts in the real estate industry and the business of real estate in the last decade due to technology, demographic shifts, multi-generational living spaces, and consumer empowerment, the bottom line is still the same: exceeding the needs of your customers. For brokers and owners, it’s providing a culture of success that agents need to thrive, and for those same entrepreneurs to deliver the same to home buyers and sellers. If you look at the top companies and the very best producing agents they all have that common. We all must have a customer-centric mindset. For my team that translates to our commitment to applying our knowledge, market experience and skills, and fiduciary standards to the betterment of our clients and customers.

How does the CENTURY 21® brand help you and your agents leverage these opportunities?

I haven’t been this excited about the growth of my company and the
CENTURY 21 brand, well, since I started my brokerage 41 years ago. To maximize current market opportunities, my team will leverage the bold moves made by the brand in overhauling one of real estate’s most recognizable icons and delivering to market a new visual identity and mission–Defy Mediocrity and Deliver Extraordinary Experiences. Together, my team here in Florida, and the CENTURY 21 brand worldwide, will tackle head-on what home buyers and sellers should no longer have to endure from their agent and real estate company of choice: mediocre performances, poor experiences and frustration during the overall transaction. Collectively, we are creating a market differentiator that reinforces the industry-leading quality and trust the C21® professional delivers to market and one that truly portrays the CENTURY 21 brand as ‘the gold standard’ in real estate.

What advice can you offer a new agent? A new broker?

One word: culture. For both agents and brokers alike, you need to find people who share the same values, beliefs, and career aspirations. From there, the ‘table stakes’ will likely follow – the platform, support and resources that you need to be productive—and profitable. If you are fortunate, like I have been over my many years in this business, you’ll find yourself working with people who are smarter than you, and more importantly, inspire you to always elevate.

What do you look for when recruiting new agents?

You must be relentless. I look for the self-starters. The midnight-oil burners. I want entrepreneurs who think “complacency” is a strange and foreign word. In today’s digital, always-on world we operate in, I need professionals who always give 121% and don’t understand why others don’t. That’s exactly who we want to join us. My team all think this way, and we must. That’s the best way today to secure the repeat and referral business we all rely on. Otherwise, when a real estate need arises, consumers will choose another agent and or another company.

How is technology driving your business?

It’s all about being innovative and relevant. Consumers are more engaged with technology today than ever, and along with that, come soaring home buyer and seller expectations as well as relationship opportunities. Technology, and the data derived from consumer interactions, together with a comprehensive, state-of-the-art transaction management system, helps us improve efficiency and convenience by better understanding upfront home buyer and seller preferences. That way, we can offer home buyers and sellers a personalized, digital experience that keeps them abreast of where they (we) are in the transaction and to make potentially critical decisions no matter where they are.

About Century 21 Real Estate LLC

The approximately 119,000 independent sales professionals in approximately 8,300 offices spanning 81 countries and territories in the CENTURY 21 System live their mission everyday: to defy mediocrity and deliver extraordinary experiences. By consistently chasing excellence, and giving 121%, the CENTURY 21 brand is helping its affiliated brokers/agents to be the first choice for real estate consumers and industry professionals worldwide. ©2018 Century 21 Real Estate LLC. All Rights Reserved. CENTURY 21^® and the CENTURY 21 Logo are registered service marks owned by Century 21 Real Estate LLC. Century 21 Real Estate LLC fully supports the principles of the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Opportunity Act. Each office is independently owned and operated.

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Build Your Brand By Being A Better Person

July 3, 2018 By Ariel Jordan

In the following interview, Mark Fields, president of CENTURY 21 Mark Fields and Associates in Asheville, N.C., discusses branding, culture, luxury marketing, and more.

Region Served: Asheville, N.C., and surrounding areas
Years in Real Estate: 40+
Number of Offices: 1
Number of Agents: 10

Favorite Way to Communicate With Clients: Face-to-face. A lot of communication is nonverbal, so when you text, email or speak on the phone, a great deal of nuance can be lost. It’s the expression on someone’s face that can identify best how a person is feeling, and it could also lead to solutions to challenges and overcoming objections.

What is your top tip for real estate newbies?
Affiliate with a company that represents your values and provides the culture of learning and support you will need to get started—one that ensures its people provide the highest possible level of service to your buyers and sellers. Second, learn the real estate contract. Know all the legal ‘ins and outs,’ but remember that more than 50 percent of being a great real estate professional isn’t what you learn in real estate school. Third, learn how to be a good communicator, which starts with being a good listener.

How do you build yourself as a luxury brand?
Marketing. I have a background in marketing, not through formal education, but through experience. I’ve watched the best people market themselves, and so I learn from the best. Early on, I asked myself who was doing great luxury marketing. I take inspiration from the “greats.” I built my company reputation by becoming the best I could be.

Please describe your company culture.
We are a family. When I hire, I make sure the person’s heart is in the right place. They’re not going to be competing with our family or undercutting the people we work with, and for. We are here for each other. We support each other. No matter how big we become, we care about each other.

What sets your team apart from other brokerages?
When I bring people in, I make sure they’re committing to my company for the right reason—not just to make money, although that’s an important motivator, but to provide the very best service they can. I can’t have mediocrity. I need people who strive to be the best they can be—to provide the best service they can, no matter what. As high-end real estate professionals, we make a lot of money. If you’re going to play the game, you have to truly earn it. You have to offer equal value for what you’re earning. My goal is to never get to a closing table without feeling 100 percent sure that I earned that money.

How are you staying abreast of industry and market shifts?
We’re in it. We’re living it, so we feel it. Every time there’s even a small ripple here, we feel it.

This article was originally posted on RisMedia.com.

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