Local Food Banks get Donation from Wilkins & Associates

Bushkill - Dennis Mooney, Vice President/Sales Manager of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Wilkins & Associates, along with Marilyn R. Lesoine, Office Administrator for Wilkins & Associates-PROPERTY MANAGEMENT donated 20 spiral hams to each of two food banks in Mount Pocono, Stroudsburg and Bushkill.

Each year Supervisors, employees and Realtors of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Wilkins & Associates and Wilkins & Associates-PROPERTY MANAGEMENT offer “Casual for a Cause” where for a $5.00 donation the managers, an agent or employee is able to dress-down and wear their favorite pair of blue jeans or casual attire to work on Fridays.  The program is sponsored by the Supervisors and handled by Francine Scouten, Payroll Coordinator who faithfully and diligently each week collects and deposits the money for just these special occasions.  The Company has been hosting “Casual for a Cause” for over 10 years now.

Said Patricia Blank-Toombs, VP/Sales Manager, “For several years we sponsored needy families and purchased Christmas gifts for the entire family who had no money to buy Christmas presents for their children or for that matter themselves.  It was a moving experience each year and one that (I’m sad to say) we looked forward to in order to help those families in need.  Last year and again this year, the Supervisors elected to sponsor foods banks instead of giving gifts.”

While Mooney was delivering his 20 hams to Kate Newman, Director of the Bushkill Outreach program, in Mount Pocono, Marilyn Lesoine was delivering her donation of $200.00 in non-perishable foods to the Pocono Mountain Ecumenical Hunger Ministry located on Church Avenue.  Said Lesoine, “I don’t know who was more excited, me or the Ministry!  I felt so good about giving the food and the Ministry felt so appreciative, we both just stood there and hugged one another to show the gratification and the satisfaction we were both experiencing.”

The Bushkill Outreach Program Mission Statement is that the Outreach Program is to be spiritually lead, a community effort, offering basic material support to their neighbors at their point of need.  We, as a representative of the community believe that the program is vital to our community at large as we strive today to take practical steps to offer support and sustenance primarily in the form of food, necessary clothing and furnishings.

Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Wilkins & Associates and Wilkins & Associates—PROPERTY MANAGEMENT are owned by the Wilkins family and have been in operation for the past 25 years throughout the Poconos.  In 2013 the Company celebrates its 25^th Anniversary.

The Wilkins organization expects to expand in 2013 to the Lehigh Valley area for property management as well as offering property management in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area with an eye towards opening up the real estate portion of that business in mid to late 2013 or the first part of 2014.

All offices are open 7 days a week and you can visit them online at www.willkins1.com or "Like" their Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/BHGWilkins

JENNIFER AMANTEA REALTOR HIRED AS PART OF THE WILKINS REAL ESTATE SALES TEAM IN MT POCONO

Mount Pocono - Jennifer-Lynn Amantea, Realtor has joined the Mt. Pocono sale staff of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Wilkins & Associates. Amantea was recruited by Christine A. Scrofano, Senior V.P.

Amantea, originally from Stroudsburg, is a graduate of ESU and taught school for a number of years in the Bangor Elementary School District. In 2009 Amantea took the necessary courses and passed the required examination to be licensed by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as a Real Estate Salesperson.

In addition to her real estate career, Amantea is a joint owner in JPA Masonry, LLC a regional masonry business that she runs with her husband and partner. JPA Masonry is a leader in commercial construction throughout Northeast Pennsylvania.

Amantea will be under the supervision of Christine A. Scrofano, Senior V.P. and will work fulltime from the Mt. Pocono office. Said Scrofano, "Jen will prove to be a very big asset to the Mt. Pocono area. Because of JPA Masonry, and her being a local, she literally knows everyone in the Poconos. That's important when you're looking to build a bigger referral base--and with our marketing, Wilkins is the place."

Prior to joining Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Wilkins & Associates, Amantea was with At Your Service Realty, Inc.

Selling homes since 1988, Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Wilkins & Associates services the entire Pocono Mountains, North Pocono/Moscow area, historic Milford and all towns in between. Better Homes and Gardens Realtors handle listing, rentals and sales of primary, vacation and starter homes, as well as estate and farm properties. Buyer services include first and second home buyers, relocation buyers and transferees. They have three offices in the Pocono Mountains. All offices are open 7 days a week. Visit Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Wilkins & Associates online at http://www.wilkins1.com/

WILKINS REAL ESTATE HIRES DORIS GRANT FOR SALES POSITION

Mount Pocono - Doris Grant, Salesperson, has joined the sales team at Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Wilkins & Associates in their brand new Mt. Pocono office. BHG is located at 102 Pocono Boulevard on the main street.

Grant has lived in the Poconos for the past 18 years and is originally from St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands. She resides in Swiftwater.

Grant was recruited by Dennis Mooney, V.P./Associate Broker with the Wilkins organization.

Selling homes since 1988, Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Wilkins & Associates services the entire Pocono Mountains, North Pocono/Moscow area, historic Milford and all towns in between. Better Homes and Gardens Realtors handle listing, rentals and sales of primary, vacation and starter homes, as well as estate and farm properties. Buyer services include first and second home buyers, relocation buyers and transferees. They have three offices in the Pocono Mountains. All offices are open 7 days a week. Visit Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Wilkins & Associates online at http://www.wilkins1.com/

FUSION2011 A BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS REAL ESTATE 1ST IN LAS VEGAS

Las Vegas - Thomas R. Wilkins, CEO of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Wilkins & Associates attended FUSION--2011, the first ever Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate® national convention held February 9 - 11, 2011 at the Aria Hotel and Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada. Of particular interest was the fact Wilkins & Associates was the first company to join Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate® when Reaoloy publicly announced the licensing agreement with Meredith Publishing in July of 2008. Wilkins also attended the formal announcement of the BHG brand in San Francisco at the 2008 Inman Convention.

The FUSION--2011 Convention featured a number of nationally recognized motivational speakers as well as industry leaders including Brad Inman, founder of Inman News, one of the most successful online Real Estate magazines in the industry. Other speakers included Alex Perriello, President and CEO of the Realogy Franchise Group; Tom Ferry, author of Life By Design and the Key to Success through a Balanced Lifestyle; "Building your Business Online" featuring Dustin Luther, Gahlord Dewald and Jeff Turner; Rapid Fire, My 10 Favorite Online Listing Tools; Stefan Swanepoel a well-known professional speaker about the 2011 market trends.

The most popular speaker was Up Close with Brad Inman a live interview by Brad Inman conducted by Sherry Chris, President and CEO of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate. There were a number of other speakers, panel discussions and videos during the two day event.

On Wednesday, February 9, by invitation only, Wilkins had the privilege of touring Zappos.com, one of today's hottest online shopping stores. Zappos was started by Tony Hsieh, who came up with the idea of starting an online shoe store because he could not find his size/color in stock. Friends and family invested $150,000 to get them started. Their unique style of business and cult-type atmosphere for their employees is something that will change the face of online retail forever. Everyone who attended received Tony Hsieh's #1 New York Times bestseller Delivering Happiness--a Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose.

Said Wilkins "One of the highpoints of the convention was the announcement that Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate® is expanding into the luxury, urban and commercial markets with the creation of three new brand tiers."

The first announcement was Elegant Properties by Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate® which is BHG's luxury offering. Properties and homes of exceptional quality that are priced at $750,000 or above or priced at the top 10 percent of residential properties in a market place will qualify.

The Elegant Properties division will have their own identity including a new logo and a full suite of sophisticated marketing and sales materials including its own micro-site hosted by the Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate® main website.

Next was Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate® Urban Properties which will offer a fresh modern expression of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate® brand design to meet the unique needs of residential listings in city center locations.

Last will be BHGRE Commercial which will enable its Brokers and Agents to represent non-residential listings in their local market. The program enables listings online to include office, vacant land, retail, farms, shopping centers, five-plus family homes, hospitality and special purpose properties to be a part of the commercial program. This will greatly expand the Agents lead generation and revenue generation opportunities. BHGRE Commercial will have its own identity and a full suite of materials for Brokers and Agents.

Wilkins owns the local Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate office with the corporate office located at 304 Park Avenue, Stroudsburg and two retail offices, the first in Stroudsburg and the second in Bushkill. Prior to the slow-down of the real estate market, the Wilkins organization had 14 real estate offices. Said Wilkins "Once the market starts to turn, you'll see us starting to expand again. Right now we only have plans to reopen in the Mount Pocono area which hopefully we should be doing over the next couple of months."

Selling homes since 1988, Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Wilkins & Associates services the entire Pocono Mountains, North Pocono/Moscow area, historic Milford and all towns in between. Better Homes and Gardens Realtors handle listing, rentals and sales of primary, vacation and starter homes, as well as estate and farm properties. Buyer services include first and second home buyers, relocation buyers and transferees. Visit Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Wilkins & Associates on line at www.wilkins1.com.

RELOCATION SERVICES--What a Broker and a Realtor need to know

Pocono Mountains - Several years ago the relocation business in the Poconos did not warrant a full-time department let alone an actual Relocation director with a support staff. Our relocation business consisted only of those referring Brokers that we may have met in our real estate career that had a buyer or seller that they wanted to send to us. At the end of the day, it didn't add up to a large percentage of our business. But all of that has changed.

About four years ago, we started a full-time Relocation Department catering to corporate moves into the Pocono region. We were astounded at the number of transactions that we generated in just one year. We found that people who were being transferred into New Jersey (to work) preferred to live in the Pocono Mountains because of the affordability and with the expansion of Sanofi Pasteur, Mount Airy Resort & Casino, Tobyhanna Army Depot, Piccatinny Arsenal and Nestle, just to mention a few, we found out there was quite a lot of corporate grade business to be had.

We became members of ERC (Employee Relocation Council) to enhance our business and when we became a Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate broker, we immediately took advantage of CARTUS® Broker Network which is the arm of Realogy that handles relocation business. Although it's very expensive to be a part of the Cartus network, it pays off in the end. We're the only Broker CARTUS® uses in the Pocono Mts.

There are really three types of referral business, (1) Affinity referrals, those referrals that come from various civic, professional and other organizations whose members utilize the services of a relocation company for the savings; (2) Corporate referrals--(with the change in the economy are not that much as it stands right now) which consist of corporations that offer relocation packages to their employees for accepting a position in either the originating or destination cities and (3) Broker to Broker referrals which through a third party company can represent a good amount of business that's kept within the elite brokers that are members of those organizations. The typical fee that's charged is 25% - 35% with the average being 30%.

We actually developed a rebate program where our sellers, if they use our services to relocate, are able to earn rebates on the commission that they paid of us to sell their originating home. It was a raving success with those people that were relocating out of the area and then buying a home. It also worked very well for those people that were upgrading their homes; they were able to save some commission dollars at the same time. The rebate part of the relocation business is exclusive to Wilkins & Associates.

What started four years ago now represents 20% of our overall business and we're averaging between 12 and 18 referrals (both outgoing and incoming) on a monthly basis. We've developed an "A Team" which consists of six Brokers that are trained in relocation business as well as stand-by teams which handle the Broker to Broker referrals or the ERC directory referrals.

Relocations services--you just can't say no to that type business in today's market.

Thomas R. Wilkins is CEO of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Wilkins & Associates. He started the company in 1988 with three people in Mount Pocono and grew it to over 14 offices throughout their tenure. Now, after consolidations the company has 2 primary offices. Their Corporate address is 304 Park Avenue, Stroudsburg. Toni Jones is the Relocation Department manager and supervising her position is Jessica Miller, Director of Support Services.

Learn more about Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Wilkins & Associates at www.wilkins1.com.

"STAYCATIONS"-- a new buzz word for summer vacation

thomaMount Pocono - I don't think I need to tell everyone that we're in a recession and spending money on things that are not a necessity is something that we just don't do as easily now as we did in the past.

Even with that being said, one of the important parts (of any successful family) is the traditional family vacation. This year, though, that might be a little bit harder based on Mom and Dad being employed (or not), spending extra money to travel somewhere, the inability to vacation away with the entire family based on cost.

At Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Wilkins & Associates we've addressed that in two ways. The first way is a "stimulus week" and the second is what's called a "staycation". Understanding that it might be tough to load up the entire family for a flight to Hawaii or a trip to Disney, maybe that family would settle for a "staycation". A staycation is defined as a period of time where an individual or family stays at home and relaxes and takes day trips from their home to area attractions.

A staycation would work well for us that live in the Poconos because of the many day trips (or even afternoon trips) that are available to us. Be a local tourist. Visit the local parks; like the Delaware River, Promise Land State Park, Beltzville Dam and other great green areas that are in our own backyard.

Or enjoy a day at the Stroud Township park off Fifth Street; and don't forget to bring the dog…it's the best place to run "Fido" for an afternoon. And if you want, there are great outdoor grills where you can stay for a barbeque for dinner; a very inexpensive way to get out.

Having family fun, like cooking lessons with the kids, or even taking it up a notch and planning a block party with the neighbors and a pot luck dinner may also be a great idea. You could top that day off by planning a movie night and going out or staying in. It's all about popcorn, candy and fun.

Don't forget the local museums, and other learning attractions including Quiet Valley which is a great day's worth of entertainment for the family while it also teaches the kids a little bit about our area.

Your staycation doesn't have to be taken all at one time, you can spread it out over the summer and pre-plan these activities so while it's not like the traditional vacation where you go and come home and then go back to work, a staycation can be used for the entire summer time.

Go online to Shawnee Mountain and see the great festivals that they have planned for the summer and fall. It's an afternoon or evening that you just can't miss.

For Mom, spa days always work. A pedicure, massage or manicure can do wonders.

For those of you out there planning on visiting the Poconos, our Vacation Rental department came up with a "stimulus week". It's a popular mini getaway, but doesn't take the entire week. It's actually a 5 day/4 night stay which has been reduced in price. It's designed to be affordable while still allowing you to enjoy one of the great homes, town-home communities or condominiums that we have to offer. Ask our Reservationist more when you give us a call. The "stimulus week" is designed with families in mind. Maybe it's time for that family reunion?

Well, that's some ideas on how to save money and enjoy either a "staycation" or a "stimulus week". At Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Wilkins & Associates you are always what we think of first.


Thomas R. Wilkins is the author of this blog. Wilkins is CEO of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Wilkins & Associates and CEO of NEPA Management Associates, Inc., a sister company.

In Wilkins' capacity, he is responsible over the performance of the Vacation Rental Department which books weekend, weekly, and seasonal stays and corporate rentals throughout the greater Pocono region. They are property managers and preferred leasing agents of Northslope II, a town-home community near Shawnee Mountain in Shawnee-on-the-Delaware.

"Staycations" is a term that was used by First American Title Insurance Company in an article. The term "stimulus week" is a term used and developed by Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Wilkins & Associates Vacation Rental Department. Learn more by visiting them online at www.wilkins1.com.