Declaring that the purchase of a property should not be the end of a relationship with a real estate company, but the start of a new chapter, leading broker Mario Carey announced this week that he has launched a full-fledged property management division that includes commercial property management.
The move is a four-fold expansion of a residential property management company launched in 2013 and headed by Tina Bain.
The new four-person team of experts backed by office support staff includes Bain, the managing director who holds a degree in real estate and has been managing several vacation properties, two men with property design, construction and management expertise, and an administrator who handles the accounting and financial management of the new division.
“This was the last piece of the real estate business puzzle,” said Carey. “We had been considering it for some time but I just wanted to wait until we could get it exactly right and that meant assembling a strong, solid team. I believe that we now have done so.
That team includes Bain, Holger Amman and Livingston Brown in addition to administration. “Each brings a unique talent and skill and together we are talking about well more than half a century of expertise,” Carey said.
Tina Bain, who is multi-lingual and holds a degree in real estate, developed and continues to grow the luxury vacation rental business. She maintains the properties she relies on for the ultra-luxury holiday experiences.
Amman coupled a career in the hospitality industry with construction and maintenance. He has designed two commercial and two residential buildings which he owned, working with architects, drawing up plans, organizing building materials, supervising construction from the ground up, often physically working along with others. Later, after each of the buildings was leased, he continued to maintain them. Livingston Brown has more than 10 years in the hospitality field and holds a CIPM Accreditation (Certified International Project Manager) and CPRM Accreditation (Certified Project Risk Manager). The office administrator has been tasked with related financial and accounting processes. All team members are also responsible for negotiating the best terms for clients with sub-contractors, suppliers and vendors.
“Looking toward the future, I believe professional property management with highly personalized service will be one of the most important benefits a full-services real estate firm can provide because the single most valuable resource in the world, the only resource that can never be renewed or replaced, is time. And retaining professionals to manage property relieves the homeowner or business owner of so many burdens, freeing them to do other things. It saves time, headache, and brings knowledge and expertise to the job. In a world filled with stress, having someone else manage your property is a great anti-stress measure.”
The property management division falls under the MCR Group umbrella which includes appraisals, residential, commercial and industrial leasing and short term luxury vacation rentals. Real estate listings are handled under Carey’s Better Homes & Gardens Real Estate franchise, a brand that reaches 40 million homes a week across North America.
Carey, who has handled nearly $2 billion in transactions in a 30+ year career and holds the highest certification in luxury property marketing, is among the fewer than 1% of practicing industry professionals who earned a college degree in real estate. He continues to specialize in complex appraisals. Since opening his own firm in 2008, he’s taken on numerous agents with foreign language capability, recognized the power of the Asian market early on, supported a Bahamian college student in China who now works with the firm. In 2014, Carey introduced the high-end holiday rental division. From month-long tutorials and webinars to creating an office where millennials mix with seasoned experts, there is hardly a business improvement tool Carey had not studied nor a corner of the real estate market he had not covered – except property management.
“We are excited about the introduction a professional property management division,” said Carey. “It is important for our current and future clients to appreciate that for their own happiness and well-being that someone else can look after their property so that they own their home or business premises, they do not need to let that home or business own them. We would hope that the closing of a transaction is just the start of an ongoing relationship.”
Sandra Kemp
Diane Phillips & Associates
