Tuesday, 2 August 2011

My story from REM newspaper

REM is a Canadian newspaper distributed to real estate agents and brokers from coast to coast. Usually there are 3 or 4 profile stories about agents in a monthly issue. I was one of the August features.

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WOODSTOCK, Ont -- All full-time real estate agents feel their career can be an arena three-ring circus juggling act, but for Mark Schadenberg of Royal LePage Triland Realty the juggle for time really does take place in an arena.
Schadenberg is currently in the playoffs with the London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League as the Rogers TV broadcaster conducts intermission interviews and hosts the pre-game and post-games of the broadcasts of all Knights home games.
"At the end of the day, I'm certainly a full-time Realtor, but I've also worked very hard over the years in the media as a hobby," says Schadenberg, who is the longest-serving continuous sales representative for Royal LePage in Woodstock, which is a community of just under 40,000 in southern Ontario.
Schadenberg notes that his first profession was the media, working in the radio industry for five years -- both on air and selling advertising. In 1992, he then switched gears to seven years in newspaper as sports writer/editor of the daily Woodstock Sentinel-Review newspaper. By accumulating a lot of contacts, real estate just seemed like a natural transition
"The one part of real estate that I find to be extremely enjoyable is that it provides for some flexibility in hours," says Schadenberg. "I joke with friends, saying I work seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., but certainly not all those hours."
If broadcasting and real estate occupy two of the three rings at a circus, Schadenberg says the third ring is obvious: wife Nicole, and children Maeghan and Spencer.
"With the London Knights playing at home almost every Friday night through the fall and winter, it's quite a sacrifice for me to be away from family, but it's certainly an additional sacrifice and a lot of love from my wife to manage two young children when I'm away for my hobby."
Schadenberg says that Rogers TV is first and foremost community-access television, so the compensation isn't the main reason for his favourite past-time.
"Like all Canadians, I love the game of hockey, and in particular junior hockey. I've had to climb the ladder like all broadcasters. I spent five or six years doing play-by-play for Junior C hockey in Woodstock and those games for Rogers were produced often with a crew of six people in total."
Schadenberg has been on the Knights broadcast team (play-by-play is Greg Sloan, while Rick Doyle is colour analyst) for five seasons. In his first year, current NHLers Patrick Kane, Sam Gagner and Sergei Kostitsyn were all Knights. Since then, that list has grown to include Steve Mason, Nazem Kadri and John Carlson donning Knights jerseys before earning jobs in the big leagues. Also, London is owned and coached by former NHL players Dale and Mark Hunter.
Last September, London's John Labatt Centre hosted a four-team NHL prospects tournament, and at that event Schadenberg did a live TV interview with Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke.
Among his many other broadcast credits are six years commentating/interviewing at the Ontario men's curling championships, plus Western Mustangs football, London Majors baseball and Delaware Speedway racing.
"To this day I'm still not sure what the function of a carburettor is, but as play-by-play my role would be to know the drivers, car makes and models, and focusing on the events on the track and pits with the obvious importance of knowing at all times which cars were leading and on the lead lap."
As for real estate, Schadenberg says he likes to concentrate on re-sale homes -- both buyers and sellers.
He adds that the Woodstock market has been an anomaly when compared to others in southern Ontario and outside of the influences of Toronto and the Golden Horseshoe area. In 2005, it was announced that Toyota would be building a full-size manufacturing facility in Woodstock to produce the RAV4 sports utility vehicle and employ well over 2000.
"While many markets were stagnant, Woodstock and Oxford County did witness a huge increase in interest and sales then. Six years later when I look back and present my comprehensive CMA to prospect listing clients, depicting charts of the sales numbers for 2005 and 2006 it's still staggering to realize our recent market trends when compared to the past three years."
Attractive interest rates will continue to assist in finding more buyers, while the aging demographics will continue to produce home sellers, he says.
"It's a lot like junior hockey. This past season the Knights became an average club in the standings after contending for the most part for the past eight years. In real estate, you hope it's always a consistent good market, but you also must get used to the ebbs and flows just like the cycles of a junior hockey team," says Schadenberg. "I hope I have many more good years in both real estate and broadcasting."
Schadenberg adds that his marketing efforts include social media, including markroyallepage on Twitter, along with www.markroyallepage.blogspot.com

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