Ridner Joins Expansion of Wilkins & Associates Property Management

Stroudsburg - Thomas R. Wilkins, CEO announced October 29th that the Company had hired Carrie Ridner for the position of Property Manager. Wilkins & Associates PROPERTY MANAGEMENT (NEPA) is contracted with dozens of condo complexes, town-home communities and property owners associations throughout Northeast, Pennsylvania. WA PROPERTY MANAGEMENT has been in the management business for over 25 years.

Ridner has been employed in the Property Management profession for over 20 years. She holds two national designations from the Community Association Institute and will be graduating from Ashford University in May of 2013 with a Bachelors degree in Accounting and Business Administration.

Before returning to college in 2010, Ridner spent 10 years as a Community Manager for Penn Estates POA. Penn Estates is a private gated community with 26 miles of roads, 1,750 homes and a number of amenities. Ridner was responsible for the day to day operations which included an in-house maintenance crew, security force, clubhouse, and more. In addition, Ridner handled the daily supervision and coordination of 15 full-time and 20 part-time employees, as well as being instrumental in arranging Board of Directors' workshops and meetings, Annual budgets, various community events and a host of committees including the Real Estate Committee, ABR Committee, Building and Grounds, Long Range Planning and Financial committees.

Prior to working at Penn Estates, Ridner was Community Manager at Masthope Mountain Community located in Lackawaxen, Pennsylvania, a four-season single family private community located in the northern tier of the Pocono Mts offering a variety of amenities such as skiing, boating, swimming, horseback riding and much more.

Said Wilkins, "Having Carrie on our team is going to give us the ability to be on the fast-track beginning the 1st of January, 2013. We already have proposals to a number of Associations, apartment buildings and condominium complexes in Scranton, Wilkes-Barre and ABE areas. Carrie is going to handle those accounts." Scranton, Wilkes-Barre and Allentown are new areas to the Wilkins Company, but are areas they have wanted to expand into for a while now.

Ridner, given the title of Property Manager, will also be responsible, along with Wilkins, for the marketing of new accounts, developing proposals and bids for accounts and making sure that the associations are then brought into the Company. Currently, the Wilkins organization has a full fledged accounting office under the direction of Rosemarie Lobe-Waller, CFO; one Senior Property Manager and two full-time Property Managers.

The Wilkins organization is involved in a number of facets in the real estate industry.

Also starting in 2013, Wilkins along with Christine Scrofano-Wilkins will integrate the real estate side of their company more into the property management area. Said Scrofano-Wilkins, "The interfacing of various parts of the real estate market together with the property management has been very successful for us as we have tried new programs in 2012. We are definitely prepared to move forward in 2013 into actually combining those departments and the services each offer so one is able to interact smoothly with the other."

Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Wilkins & Associates is also one of the Wilkins companies. Their corporate office is located at 304 Park Avenue in Stroudsburg.

Formerly known as NEPA Management Associates, Wilkins & Associates PROPERTY MANAGEMENT is one of the largest property management companies in Northeast Pennsylvania. Said Wilkins, "We may be the largest, but our services are extremely competitive. That's because we customize management accounts for each and every one of our clients. Affordability, while not compromising customer service, has been the key to our success. Because we have the real estate side of the business, we don't rely solely on Management income which is what other management companies are forced to do. This gives us an edge in bidding as well as handling the accounts."

Wilkins & Associates PROPERTY MANAGEMENTis open 6 days a week, Monday - Saturday. While their main office is located at 304 Park Avenue in Stroudsburg, payments of dues, rent and such by owners can be made at any of the Wilkins offices. Those other branch offices include Bushkill and Mount Pocono.

Better Homes and Gardens Wilkins & Assocs buys Liberty Real Estate

Pocono Summit - Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Wilkins & Assoc announced the purchase of Liberty Real Estate located in Poc Summit. Liberty Real Estate was one of the first brokers in the Mt. Poc area. Roxanne Lewis, Broker/Owner, operated the business since 1985. Originally from Wilkes-Barre, Lewis moved to the Poconos specifically to open up Liberty Real Estate. She has been a Realtor since 1974. "It was a hard decision. My Agents are like family, but the timing is right." said Lewis.

In addition to Lewis, two sales agents have joined the organization as full-time Realtors, Vincent B. Szykman from Wilkes-Barre and Christina M. Scavone. Szykman owned and operated his own engineering company for 25 years. After retiring, Szykman entered the real estate business. He will handle residential and commercial real estate for Wilkes-Barre.

Scavone, will be assigned to the West End office. Scavone has been with Liberty RE since 2004. Originally from the Ft. Lauderdale area, Scavone lives in Lehighton and will be part of the expanding of the Wilkins organization to the Jim Thorpe area. "Christina Scavone is very close to getting her Broker's license." "She has taken all the courses and only needs to take the required testing. Wilkins will sponsor her for that." "We're always looking for Assoc Brokers to train for managerial positions as they start to expand again with the changing economy." said Wilkins.

Four other agents are part-time Realtors who will also join the Wilkins organization.

Dominick Sacci, V.P./Gen Mgr. stated "The acquisition of Liberty RE does two things for us. It opens us to the Wilkes-Barre market (several of the Agents are located in the Back Mt. area of Wilkes-Barre) and we picked up a potential manager in Scavone." "We're pleased that Lewis has agreed to stay on until next year. The cultural mix between the two offices fit like a glove." said Sacci.

Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate earlier in 2009 merged the Coldwell Banker Realtors into the company making them the number 1 real estate company in listings and sales. The Coldwell Banker/Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate deal was one of the largest real estate transactions in the Poc Mts. To date, in addition to the Blue Team being a part of the organization, BHG has recruited over 20 Realtors in 2009. Said Sacci, "If you are going to get into real estate, now is definitely the time to do it and Better Homes and Gardens is the place to do it." "If anyone wants to learn more about what it is we do, take the Simulator Test to find out if the real estate field is good for you, then they should give me a call." said Sacci. You can find the Simulator Test on the career page of bhgrealestate.com.

The Wilkins organization started in Mt. Pocono with 3 people in 1988. Since that time, they have expanded the company to over 100 Realtors and cover all northeast Pennsylvania. Over the past 2 years, due to economic conditions, Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate has merged several of their offices with existing ones. Thomas R. Wilkins, CEO stated, "We hope we've hit the bottom at this point. We are in the business of opening offices, not merging them." "We have several new markets that we are looking at and after the Liberty RE purchase, the Wilkes-Barre market might be an easy one to target." said Heather D'Adamo, Exec VP-Partner. The company just recently announced the launching of a Vacation Rental Dept.

WARE, Inc. also owns NEPA Management Assoc a full-service management company that handles bookkeeping, fiscal and property management for a number of town-home communities, condominium complexes and property owner associations throughout northeast Pennsylvania. Both companies are at the 304 Park Ave office in Stroudsburg.

Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Wilkins & Assoc can be visited at www.wilkins1.com.