No. 1 home seller finds being
'picky' pays; R. Kaiserman succeeds with quality listings
February
12, 1995 - No. 1 home seller
finds being 'picky' pays; R. Kaiserman succeeds with quality
listings
by Ernie Heltsley
Robin Sue Kaiserman has the luxury of demanding "quality,
not quantity'' and still coming out as the No. 1 home seller
in Tucson.
She says she's not a hard driving businesswoman, but she
persuades a lot of people to make the investments of their
lives with her.
Kaiserman grossed $14.5 million in house sales last year
to claim the crown as the No. 1 seller of Tucson houses the
third consecutive year.
It is an honor for which most of the 3,800 real estate sales
people in Tucson would gladly trade their idle hours.
"One of the reasons I've been successful is my ability
to turn business down. That way I'm able to make fewer people
happy and keep them happy,'' she said in a recent interview.
The $14.5 million came on sales of just 60 homes last year
for Coldwell Banker Success Realty's Foothills office. She
had sales totaling $15 million in 1993.
Executives for the largest real estate companies in Tucson
don't dispute her success.
"Robin is a very hard worker. She gets great respect
in the industry,'' concedes Mike Deir, vice president and
designated broker of a competing company, Realty Executives.
Kaiserman also ranks as Coldwell Banker Success' top seller
five years in a row and she is among the top 20 of Coldwell
Banker's 53,000 agents nationwide.
And for the past three years she's been invited to speak
before the Coldwell Banker national convention because of
her high production volume and professional approach to marketing
properties, says Judy Lowe, managing broker of the Tucson
office.
Kaiserman said she'll be the convention speaker with the
fewest listings - she handles only 10 to 13 properties at
any time.
Foothills homes only
She's admittedly "picky'' about the number and quality
of properties, preferring houses in the $130,000 to $400,000
range.
She will accept them only in the Catalina Foothills area
where she has had her own home for 18 years. That area is
bounded by East River Road north to the Santa Catalinas, Shannon
Road on the west and Sabino Canyon on the east.
Of the houses Kaiserman sold last year there was "not
one piece'' of commercial property or one new house.
"I'm not interested in empty buildings. I look at houses
as art works,'' she said.
"I don't push buyers, but I'm hard on sellers,'' she
said, explaining that a listing not only has to be priced
right, but well-maintained, repairable and have a functional
floor plan.
But she likes ``quaint'' old homes too, and those sometimes
don't have ideal floor plans.
"If it's not a house I like I'll just tell them I'm
not the right person for them,'' she said.
She says 95 percent of her business comes from referrals.
Kaiserman attributes the recent upswing in the residential
market as "a little false mini-boom, with Hughes moving
here , coinciding with a time when we had the lowest interest
rates in 25 years.''
Hughes Missile Systems Co. brought about 4,000 employees
to Tucson from California to consolidate its operations.
But regardless of all her high sales numbers, Kaiserman doesn't
``want to come across as a hard business woman. I'm a mom.
I'm a real person,'' she said.
Works seven days a week
Although she works seven days a week, she still has found
time over the last 10 years in the business to help her husband,
Michael, raise their son, Jeffrey, 14, and daughter, Melissa,
20.
"I work seven days a week, but I don't consider it work.
I meet different types of people from all over the world,''
she said.
But because she works by appointment, she's able to find
time for the personal things she needs to do at home.
"If there's a basketball game, I make sure I don't have
an appointment,'' she said.
"I don't have a big social life because I don't have
time. I become friends with my clients and help them make
new friends,'' she said.
She believes that women are successful selling houses, to
a large degree, because women usually make the buying decisions.
Kaiserman also thinks her own success comes from her small-town
values, nurtured in her hometown of Minot, N.D., where her
parents had a store.
She also worked for 10 years in her in-laws' store, Kaiserman's
Men's and Boy's Wear on West Prince Road, before it closed
in 1986.
Kaiserman, who specializes in foothills homes, grossed $14.5
million in 1994
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Copyright 1995, 1999 The Arizona Daily Star
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