Success in bad times: Robin Sue Kaiserman is picky about homes

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Your Weekly Business Journal for the Tucson Metro Area
WWW.AZBIZ.COM • JUNE 16, 2008 • VOL. 18, NO. 2 • $1
JUNE 16, 2008
Success in bad times:
Robin Sue Kaiserman
Change
is picky about homes,
clients
of
‘Second Magnus’
to open this year
By Joe Pangburn
Inside Tucson Business
The demise of First Magnus Financial Corp.
last August wasn’t even two months old when
its former executives were developing plans to
start StoneWater Mortgage Corp.
And now comes word StoneWater will
start doing business in the third quarter this
year in First Magnus’ former headquarters,
By
EggerRoad.
603Ed
N. Wilmot
MuchTucson
like FirstBusiness
Magnus did, StoneWater
Inside
will start out focusing on wholesale mortgages and then envisions expanding into retail.
Ine announcement
33 years in came
the inresidential
Th
a news re- real estate
lease from Guardian
Documents in has had a
business,
RobinMortgage
Sue Kaiserman
Denver saying it had been selected to provide
lot
of goodautomated
years. But
2007preparawas the best year
StoneWater’s
document
ever.
tion system and related professional services.
But
be some differences.
In there
fact,will
Kaiserman
was Tucson’s top pro“In this vastly different market of today,
ducer
combined
new
resale homes,
we havein
decided
to take a diff
erentand
strategic
approach,
one where
we integrate
best- price of the
selling
$57.3
million.
The more
average
of-breed solutions that are established and
home
she sold was $881,832.
proven industry leaders into our technology
Kaiserman
is apresident
Longand
Realty
Company
platform,
” said Karl Young,
CEO
of StoneWater
in theof
release.
agent
who Mortgage
works out
the Young
company’s office
was chief operating officer of First Magnus.
at 5683
Swan
Road. incorporation
YoungN.
filed
StoneWater’s
documents
withshe
the do
Arizona
Corporation
How did
so well
in the down year
at the end of January. A list of diofCommission
2007?
rectors and officers was filed a month later inKaiserman
says there
a number
cluding:
Secretary Matthew
Thrasher,
former of factors.
in-house
counsel for she
First Magnus;
Treasurer
For starters
says she
won’t tell a client
Douglas Lemke, former general counsel; Disomething
just
to tryformer
to get
rector Dominick
Marchetti,
chiefthe
tech-sale. She says
nology
officer;need
Director
she
doesn’t
theGary
jobMalis,
and former
as a result clients
chief financial officer; and Director Amit Gurget
some blunt advice about what they need
jal, formerly a vice president at First Magnus.
to sell
their
property.
On the
business
social network website
www.linkedin.com,
Gurjal
he has
been
“For 35 years,
I’vesays
been
married
to a rockhead of business operations since October.
et scientist
with
a
very
good
job,”
Kaiserman
First Magnus Financial, with some 5,500
employees,
ceased
operations
said.
“I wassuddenly
fortunate.
I have
never had to put
Aug. 16, 2007, filing bankruptcy five days
food
on
the
table.
To
be
successful
at sales,
later. The company did $30 billion in home
you
to and
really
hungry.”
loanshave
in 2006
hadnot
$17.1be
billion
in the
firstAnother
half of 2007.factor in her success is special-
More call
center jobs
Afni opens a new
facility to add 200
more jobs to the 1,600
they have here.
Page 9
Host, star
duke it out
Radio personality
John Justice and the
Arizona Daily Star
don’t see anywhere
near eye to eye.when it comes
she can be adamant
sellers needPage
to12do to market their
And
She also believes it’s important to know
to what
the market and the inventory in that market.
home, from telling them they need to replace
Kaiserman said she “works in the trenches”
the carpet, buy new Zooming
bedding or put away the
every day so she’s aware of what’s happening
in real estate
knick knacks.
in her markets.
has a new
“It’s sort of likeLong
going
“The market changes every week, dependtool
to get upto
to your doctor
date
statistics
about
when he tells you what you need
to do to stay
ing on what’s going on,” she said. “I don’t work
specific regions.
healthy — you may not
like
it,
but somebody
at home — I always work in the office so I can
Page 17
has to tell you the truth,” she said.
see what the synergy is, how many agents are
Not surprisingly, Kaiserman says 90 peraround and how much the phone is ringing.”
cent of her business comes through referrals.
But Kaiserman isn’t a workaholic. She
Some of the houses she sells have been sold by
says she has created a comfortable balance
her two or three times before, and she said it’s
between her personal life and her work life.
not unusual for sellers to keep coming back
With two grown children and a grandchild,
to her.
she became the efficient multi-tasker most
But Kaiserman also believes in marketing.
moms must become.
“I spend a fortune on marketing,” she
She quotes an old saying that nobody on
said.
their death bed ever wished they’d put in more
She sends her buyers, especially those
hours of work.
from out of town, to her website - www.robBefore going into real estate, Kaiserman
insue.com. That is a time-saver, she says, bein Kaiserman Men’s
Store,
which
was continue
Realworked
estate professionals
and the
City
of Tucson
ownedtoby
her
husband’s
family
until
it
was
clash on a new proposed ordinance cause it allows buyers to narrow their choices
before it’s time to go out and look at homes.
closed in 1986.
Page
4 her 28-year- Kaiserman doesn’t offer ‘virtual tours’ online
More recently she has
helped
because they’re poor quality and only “make
old son Jeff and his partner Stephen Ochoa
the viewer dizzy.”
find locations for their retail business, Frost,
One reason Kaiserman may be doing so
a Gelato Shoppe, which opened in Casas Adoization.
Kaiserman
doesn’tat sell all kinds of
Contact
reporter Joe Pangburn
well in the down economy is that the year she
bes Plaza in 2005 and earlier this year opened
jpangburn@azbiz.com
or (520)
295-4259.
houses
in all kinds
of neighborhoods.
Her terstarted in real estate, 1986, was also a bad year
a second location at Tanque Verde Place
ritory is the Catalina Foothills, Oro Valley and
with mortgage interest rates at 18 percent.
across from Udall Park.
northwest — but only as far west as Foothills
Whatever may be happening elsewhere,
Kaiserman says she has three rules about
Mall — and the University of Arizona area in
Kaiserman
believes Tucson is more insulated.
the
houses
and
the
clients
she
works
with:
central Tucson.
She
says
the
large employers — Raytheon, the
1.
“I
have
to
like
the
house
and
its
floor
“It’s really important to know your prodUniversity of Arizona and Davis-Monthan Air
plan.”
uct intimately,” Kaiserman said.
Force Base - aren’t as vulnerable to economic
2. “The seller and I have to agree on the
For example, she said if a client is consultcycles. And the climate will continue to atprice.
If
they’re
unrealistic,
there’s
no
reason
ing her about listing a home she wants to be
tract people, especially for second homes.
to work with them.”
able to tell them on the spot what the listing
“I’ve seen Tucson grow from nothing and I
3. “The seller and I have to like each othprice should be. And she doesn’t need a map
don’t see why it won’t continue to grow,” Kaier. You’re sort of married to this person for a
to find the homes she helps her clients buy
serman said.
while. You have to be able to say, ‘I’m not here
and sell.
“If I don’t know where your house is, I
to hurt your feelings, but you need to open
Contact reporter Ed Egger at eegger@azbiz.com
shouldn’t be a Realtor,” Kaiserman said.
those blinds — it’s too dark in here!’”
or (520) 295-4238.
Plans